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THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



yet it lay upon the ground a fortnight before it changed colour, after which it dried 

 up and became black; but it never bred worms, nor did it prove noxious to cattle that 

 fed in the fields where it fell. During the winter of the above-mentioned year some 

 very disagreeable fogs were observed on the same places where the dcw-huttcr fell. 



Daring a great part of the year 1783, when the repeated earthquakes of Calabria 

 and Sicily destroyed almost the whole of the former, and a great part of the latter 

 place, a very large meteor was observed, in the month of September, by most Euro- 

 pean countries. At the same time the Hecla, in Iceland, made a vast eruption of ig- 

 nited matter ; and it is said that many persons observed, in Ireland, a peculiar kind of 

 clamminess upon the leaves of trees, as if a dew of a glutinous nature had been de- 

 posited from the atmosphere ; but we do not find that any particular experiments were 

 made for the purpose of ascertaining its nature. 



Snow in June. — On the morning of Tuesday the 23d June 1835, the Argyleshire 

 mountains were covered with snow, particularly a hill on the Drimsynie estate, named 

 Benevullo, the highest ridge of the mountains in Cowal, and Craigen Hill, or the Du^e 

 of Argylc's bowling green, on the western side of Loch Long. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



NO. II. ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 



On witnessing the same experiments, frequently repeated, the commissioners remanted, 

 that among the patients who fell into the crises there were always many women and very 

 few men ; that the crises were not effected iu less than the space of an hour or two, 

 and that as soon as one person was thus taken, the rest were similarly seized iu a very 

 short time. But they were unable to obtain any satisfactory results from experi- 

 ments made upon so many persons at once. They resolved therefore to endeavour, 

 by experiments on individuals, in a more private way, to ascertain the direct effects of 

 the newly-discovered agent on the animal economy, in a state of health, which, if the 

 agent existed, could of course be rendered manifest by its effects ; and they determined 

 to become themselves the subjects of the first experiments. No inquiry was ever con- 

 ducted in a more philosophical manner, or terminated in a more complete and un- 

 equivocal development of the nature of the subject. Great and extraordinary as the 

 powers of this new agent seemed to be, the phenomena were proved to be referable 

 solely to the imagination of the parties magnetised. 



The commissioners submitted to be magnetised together, excluding all strangers, 

 bv M. Deslon, once a-week, for the space of two hours and a half. They were ranged 

 round the baquet, encircled by the cord of communication, with an iron branch from 

 the baquet resting upon the left hypochondre of each, and forming from time to time 

 the communication of thumbs : they were magnetised by the fingers, or the metallic 

 rod, being moved about and presented to different parts of the body, as well as by the 

 pressure of hands on the pit of the stomach and sides of the belly. The most irrit- 

 able and delicate of the commissioners were magnetised the most frequently, and for 

 the longest time; but none of them experienced any effects or sensations, or at least 

 any that could be ascribed to magnetism. Three of them were valetudinarians, and 

 some of their usuaV uneasy feelings were excited partly by the fatigue, and partly by 

 the strong pressure made on the stomach. They submitted to the experiment on 

 three days successively ; still without any effect. The quiet and silence of the eight 

 commissioners, thus magnetised, without any uneasiness or any new sensation, formed 

 the most perfect contrast with the noise, agitation, and disorder of the public magne- 

 tism : here was the magnet without any influence, and the operator despoiled of his 

 power. They were warranted, therefore, in concluding, " that magnetism has no 

 agency in a state of health, or even in a state of slight indisposition." 



They resolved, then, to make their next trials of its influence upon persons actually 

 diseased, and seven persons, of the lower class, were magnetised by M. Deslon, in 

 the presence of the commissioners, at Dr Franklin's house. Two women, the one 

 asthmatic, the other with a swelHng on the thigh, and two children, the one six, and 

 the other nine years of age, felt nothing, and remained unaffected. One man, with 

 diseased eyes, felt a pain in the ball of one of them, which also discharged tears when 

 the finger of the magnetiser was brought near it, and moved quickly about for a con- 

 siderable time ; but when the other eye, which was most diseased, was magnetised, he 

 felt nothing. A nervous, hysterical woman, to whom the pressure of the abdomen 

 was painful, and who had a hernia^ said she felt a pain in the head when the finger 

 was pointed near the rupture, and that she lost her breath when it was brought op- 

 posite the face. When the finger of the magnetiser was repeatedly moved, up and 

 down, she experienced some catchings of the muscles of the head and shoulders, like 

 one surprised and afraid. The seventh patient, a man, suffered some effects of the 

 same sort, but much less marked. 



Four persons, two ladies and two gentlemen, of good education, and in bad health, 

 were afterwards magnetised. Three of these underwent the operation several times, 

 and felt nothing ; but the fourth, a nervous lady, being magnetised during an hour 

 and twenty minutes, generally by the application of the hands, was several times on 

 the point of falling asleep, and felt some degree of agitation and uneasiness. On a 

 subsequent occasion, a large company assembled at Dr Frankhn's (who was confined 

 by an illness) were all magnetised, including some patients of M. Deslon, who had 

 accompanied him thither. There were present several Americans, one of whom, an 

 officer, had an intermittent fever; yet no person experienced any effects except M. 

 Deslon's patients, who felt the same sensations to which they had been accustomed at 

 his pubhc magnetising. 



These experiments, then, furnished some important facts. Of fourteen invalids, 

 five experienced some effects from the operation, but nine felt none whatever. AH 

 the effects observed in the nervous lady, however, might be occasioned by the irk- 

 aomeness of the same posture for so long a time, and by her attention being strongly 

 fixed upon her feelings : for it is frequently suiEcient to think of these nervous at- 

 tacks, or to hear them mentioned, in order to reproduce them when they are habitual. 

 The three other instances occurred among persons of the lower class; and this circum- 

 stance was remarked with surprise by the commissioners, that the only effects which 

 could be ascribed to magnetism manifested themselves in the poor and ignorant, wliile 



those who were better able to observe and to describe their sensations felt nothin*'. 

 At the same time, it was observed that children^ although endowed with the pecu- 

 liar sensibility of their age, likewise experienced no effect. The notion, that these 

 effects might be explained by natural causes, therefore suggested itself to the commis- 

 sioners: "If we figure to ourselves," they observe, '* a poor, ignorant person, suffering 

 from disease, and anxious to be relieved, brought before a large company, partly con- 

 sisting of physicians, with some degree of preparation and ceremony, and subjected to 

 a novel and mysterious treatment, the wonderful effects of which he is already per- 

 suaded that he is about to experience ; and if, moreover, it is recollected that he is 

 paid for his compliance, and supposes that the experimenters will be gratified in being 

 told that he perceived certain operations, we shall have natural causes by which these 

 effects may be explained, or at least very legitimate reasons for doubting that the real 

 cause is magnetism."— (^7?a/i^ori des Commiss. p. 30.J 



Since the supposed effects of the Animal Magnetism, then, were not discoverable 

 in those who were incredulous, there was great reason to suspect that the impressions 

 which were produced were the result of a previous expectation of the mind, a mere 

 effect of the imaginaiion. The commissioners, therefore, now directed their experi- 

 ments to a new point; namely, to determine how far the imagination could influence 

 the sensations, and whether it could be the source of all the phenomena attributed to 

 magnetism. 



Greece. — M. M. Sauguy, Von Hammer, and other learned individuals, have re- 

 solved on making travels in Greece, for the purpose of geogi-aphical and historical 

 discoveries. Their intention is fully to explore Eubcea, and other parts of Asia Minor, 

 and more especially the shores of the Propontis. 



Balls of Frozen Mercury and Almond Oil. — On one occasion, durinf^ Cap- 

 tain Ross's late detention in the northern regions, some of the officers fired a ball of 

 frozen mercury through an inch plank; and at another time, they froze oil of almonds 

 in a shot mould, at a temperature of 40 degrees below zero, and discharged this new 

 species of projectile against a target, which it split, rebounding unbroken. 



The Hedgehog proof against Poisons. — It has been said that the hedgehog 

 is proof against poisons. M. Pallas states that it will eat a hundred cantharidcs or 

 Spanish flies, without receiving any injury. More recently, a- German physician, 

 who wished to dissect a hedgehog, gave it prussic acid, but the poison did not taie 

 effect; he then tried arsenic, opium, and corrosive sublimate, with the same results. 



Health.. — Without health what are we? And yet how little do we care about it 

 till, by some unexpected stroke, the vision of perpetual vigour vanishes, the blessing- 

 has fled. In vain we then wish that we had adopted some of those plain, easy and 

 agreeable precautions, wliich an acquaintance with medicine and good common sense 

 would have ensured. 



Persian Philosophy !~A meteoric stone fell near Bombay, 5th of November 

 1814, and an account of the phenomenon is given by the Persian philosopher, Syed 

 Abdulla. After enumerating the number of stones found, he observes, ** The causes 

 of this may be, that in the course of working the ground, air being extricated, may 

 have entered into combination and come near elemental fire, and from this flre had 

 received a portion of heat. It may then have united with brimstone and terrene 

 salt, as, for instance, saltpetre; when the mixture, from some cause, bein"- ignited 

 the fire bestows its own property on the mass, and the stones which have been above 

 it are blown into the air. God knows the truth." 



Extinct Race of Men. — Mr J. B. Pentland, in a paper read before the British 

 Association at Edinburgh, 1834, states the reasons which have led him to conclude 

 that there existed, at a comparatively recent period, a race of men very different from 

 any of those now inhabiting our globe, characterised principally by the anomalous 

 forms of the cranium, in which two-thirds of the entire weight of the cerebral mass is 

 placed behind the occipital foramen, and in which the bones of the face are very much 

 elongated. Mr Pentland entered into details to prove that this extraordinary form 

 cannot be attributed to pressure or any external force similar to that still employed 

 by many American tribes, and adduced, in conformation of this view, the opinion of 

 Cuvier, of Gall, and of many other celebrated naturalists and anatomists. The re- 

 mains of this race are found in ancient tombs among the mountains of Peru and 

 Bolivia, and prmcipally in the great inter-alpine valley of Titicaca, and on the 

 borders of the lake of the same name. These tombs present very remarkable archi- 

 tectural beauty, and appear not to date beyond seven or eight centuries before the 

 present period. 



The race of men to which these extraordinary remains belong, appears to Mr Pent- 

 land to have constituted the inhabitants of the elevated regions, situate between the 

 14th and 19th degrees of south latitude before the arrival of the present Indian popu- 

 lation, which, in its physical characters, its customs, &c., offers many analogies with 

 the Asiatic races of the Old "World. 



WORKS ON NATURAL HISTORY AND THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 



Two Lectures on Comets, by John Drew, 8vo, 2s.. — Animal Magnetism and Ho- 



mceopathy, by Edwin Lee, 2s. — Naturahst's Library, vol. xi.. Deer, 8vo, 6s -A 



Famihar History of Birds, by the Reverend E. Stanley, 2 vols. 8vo, 7s. — Narrative 

 of a Voyage Round the World, by T. B. Wilson, M.D., 8vo, 12s. — Minerals and 

 Bletals, ISmo, 2s. 6d. — The Little Library — Natural History of Birds, illustrated by 

 Landseer, 4s. — Recherches sur les Poissons FossiJes par L. Agassiz, Livraisons, i. 

 to iv., price, each liv., 30s. — Human Physiology, by John EUiotson, M.D., Part I., 

 10s. 6d. — Ornithological Biography, by J. J. Audubon, vol. iii, 25s. 



Edinburgh: Pubhshcd for the Proprietors, at their Office, 16^ Hanover Street. 

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THE EDiyBUKOH PRINTING COMPACT. 



