MESMERISM. 685 



to have epilepsy ; but fell into fits of ecstacy, which I described 

 at p. 629., perfectly insensible, though with her eyes open, 

 chattering, mimicking, relating stories, &c. This state could be 

 put an end to by mesmerising her. Generally she was restored in 

 less than a quarter of an hour, even after this state had continued 

 many hours, or even for a day or a week ; once or twice it resisted 

 long manipulations, but they continued, excepting once, till put 

 an end to by the process, and that once, I understood, she fell back 

 very soon into the state again. These attacks, I have already said, 

 changed to ecstatic delirium ; in the fits of which she was in pos- 

 session of all her external senses, and these attacks were terminated 

 by mesmerism, just like those of simple ecstacy or sleep-waking. 

 They ended with momentary sleep. While sitting before the 

 magnetiser, looking attentively at him, and saying all sorts of 

 ridiculous and witty spiteful things, pale, with the countenance of 

 a maniac, she suddenly seemed lost, her eyes rapidly closed for 

 a moment, then opened, she looked astonished, and was in her 

 perfect senses, smiling amiably, behaving in the most proper 

 manner, in short, in full possession of her intellect and feelings. 

 This phenomenon was, if possible, more striking than the sudden 

 awaking of those who were in a state of coma. It occurred again 

 and again and again for weeks, and the young gentleman under 

 whose care the patient was in my absence from the hospital, 

 succeeded like Baron Dupotet in bringing her to herself, and 

 even two or three times when the latter had not been able through 

 the state of exhaustion in which he was from having magnetised 

 very often and long in the course of the day. 



These are the phenomena which I have witnessed. To ascribe 

 them to emotion and fancy, to suppose collusion and deception, 

 would be absurd. They must be ascribed to a peculiar power ; 

 to a power acting, I have no doubt, constantly in all living things, 

 vegetable and animal, but shown in a peculiar manner by the pro- 

 cesses of mesmerism. I have witnessed its power at least three 

 times a week for two months : and should despise myself if 

 I hesitated to declare my decided conviction of the truth of mes- 

 merism. I am willing to believe that a sleep-waker may pro- 

 phesy morbid changes in himself with accuracy, as the boy men- 

 tioned by Gall predicted the termination of his fit if his friends 

 would lead him into the garden, and the girl mentioned by 

 Lord Monboddo predicted the cessation of her disease with 



