314 



stuff, a coat of wax, or interposed any other non-conductor. Finally, 

 to put to proof the wfcole power of faith in his readers, M. Petetin ex- 

 claims, Oh prodigy beyond conception ! was a thought formed in the 

 brain without any sign of it in words, the patient was instantly acquaint- 

 ed with it"*. Further details of so incredible a story would be altoge- 

 ther superfluous. 



I should not have disturbed the book of M. Petetin, from its peaceful 

 slumber, among the innumerable pamphlets which Mesmerism has 

 brought into the world, if a writer on physiology had not been the dupe 

 of this mystification, and had not proceeded from it, to write a long chap- 

 ter on the metastases of sensibility. 



If we should be so unfortunate as to be reproached by the lovers of the 

 marvellous, with pushing scepticism too far, we must make answer, that 

 M. Petetin is the sole witness of his miracle ; that it is impossible, from 

 his relation, to know when or on whom the prodigy took place 5 and that 

 this zealot of magnetism might have invented this story to confound the 

 unbelievers who ventured to turn into ridicule, his system of electricity 

 and of the human bodv. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



OF MOTION. 



CLXII. THIS Chapter will treat only of the motions performed by the 

 muscles under the influence of the will ; they are called muscles of loco- 

 motion, as it is by means of them, that the body changes its situation, 

 moves from one spot to another, a\oicls or seeks surrounding objects, 

 draws them towards itself, grasps them, or repels them. The internal, 

 involuntary, and organic motions, by means of which each function is per- 

 formed, have already been investigated separately. 



The organs of motion may be distinguished into active and fiassajj& the 

 former are the muscles, the latter the bones, and all the parts by which 

 they are articulated. In fact, when in consequence of an impression re- 

 ceived by the organs of sense, we wish to approach towards the object 

 that produced it, or to withdraw from it, the muscular organs, called in- 

 to action by the brain, contract $ while the bones, which obey this action, 

 perform only a secondary part, are passive, and may be looked upon as 

 levers absolutely inert. 



The muscles consist of bundles of fibres, always, to a certain degree, 

 red in man : ihis colour, however, is not essential to them, since it may 

 be removed, and the muscular tissue blanched by maceration, or by re- 

 peated washing. 



Whatever may be the situation, the length, the breadth, the thickness, 

 the form, or the direction of a muscle, it is formed of a collection of se- 



* Electricite animate, 1 vol. 8vo. Lyon, 81 



