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THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



custom to accumulate the remains of the dead. Hydrogen gas is often combined with 

 phosphorus ; this mixture is not fit for respiration ; it quickly suffocates. There is 

 also a circumstance which seems to have given rise to many histories of spirits and 

 apparitions, namely, the luminous appearance of the inflammable air disengaged from 

 marshes, and composed of hydrogen gas mixed with azotic. The air which inflames 

 on the surface of certain springs, known by the name of burning fountains, arises 

 from the presence of hydro-phosphoric gas, or, as it is otherwise termed, phosphoretted 

 hydrogen. One of these springs is met with in the parish of St Bartholomew, in 

 the department of the Isere. The disengagement of inflammable gas during the 

 summer is so considerable, that we frequently see a flame seven feet high; and when 

 travellers first behold it, they imagine that the whole village is on fire. — (Bouvier, 

 Journal de la Medecine Eclairees par les Sciences Physiques, torn. iii. No. 8.) 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



NO. in ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 



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 Imagination. 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. 



The Commissioners had recourse now to a M. Jumelin, who magnetised in the 

 same way with MM. Mesmer and Deslon, except that he made no distinction of the 

 magnetic poles. Eight men and two women were operated on by M. Jumelin ; but 

 none of them experienced any effect. At length a female servant of Dr Le Roy, who 

 was magnetised in the forehead, but without being touched, said she perceived a sense 

 of heat there. When M. Jumelin moved his hand about, and presented the extremi- 

 ties of his five fingers to her face, she said that she felt as it were a flame moving 

 about ; when magnetised at the stomach, she declared that the heat was there ; at 

 the hack, and the same heat was there : She then affirmed she was hot all over the 

 body, and suffered a headache. Seeing that only one person, out of eleven, had been 

 sensible to the Magnetism, the Commissioners thought that this person was probably 

 possessed of the most mobile imagination. They, therefore, tied a bandage over her 

 eyes, and she was magnetised again ; but the effects no longer accorded with the 

 parts to which the Magnetism was directed ! 



When it was directed successively to the stomach and to the back, the woman only 

 perceived the heat in her head, and a pain in her eyes, and in the left ear I The band- 

 age was removed, and M. JumeUn applied his hands to the hypoehondres ; she im- 

 mediately perceived a sense of heat in those parts ; and, at the end of a few minutes, 

 said that she was faint, and actually swooned. When she was sufficiently recovered, 

 her eyes were again bandaged. M. Jumelin was then removed to a distance, silence 

 was commanded, and they made the woman beUeve that she was again magnetised. 

 Tlie effects were now precisely the same, although no one operated, either near her or 

 at a distance ; she felt the same heat, particularly in the back and loins, and the same 

 pain in the eyes and ears ! At the end of a quarter of an hour, a sign was made to M. 

 JuraeUn to magnetise her at the Stomach ; he did so, but she felt nothing ; he magne- 

 tised her back, but without effect ; in fact, the heat of the back and loins gradually 

 ceased, wid the pains in the head remained ! Here, then, was demonstrative evidence 

 of the operation of the Imagination. When the woman saw what was done, the sen- 

 sations were placed in the parts magnetised ; but when she could no longer see, they 

 were referred to the most distant parts, where no Magnetism was directed ; and, above 

 all, they were equally felt when she was not magnetised at all, and not felt when she 

 was magnetised, after a little repose, but unknown to herself. The fainting of a ner- 

 vous woman, when made the subject of a mysterious experiment, and continued in 

 a posture of restraint for a considerable time, is exphcable upon natural causes. 

 This experiment also showed, that the distinction of poles was purely chimerical. 

 It was repeated the following day upon a man and a woman, with the same results. 

 Sensations felt when they were not magnetised, could only be the effect of the 

 Imagination : and it was found only necessary to excite and direct the Imagination, 

 "fay questions, to the parts where the sensations were to be felt, instead of directing the 

 magnetism upon those parts, in order to produce all the effects. A child of five years 

 old was then magnetised ; but it felt nothing, except the heat which it had previously 

 contracted hi playing. 



These experiments were repeated by the Commissioners in various ways, upon many 

 different persons, of all classes, and with the same results, differing only according to the 

 difference of susceptibility in the imaginations of the individuals. They found effects 

 constantly experienced, when no Magnetism was used, and vice versa (when the eyes 

 were covered), according to the direction of the patient's attention by questions put to 

 him with address. Ndw this practice could not lead to any error ; since it only de- 

 ceived their Imagination. For, in truth, when they were not magnetised, their only 

 answer ought to be that they felt nothing. 



Some facts communicated to the Commissioners by M. Sigault, an eminent phy- 

 sician at Paris, place the power of the Imagination in a strong light. *' Having an- 

 nounced," he says, *'in a great house, that I was an adept in the art of Mesmer, I 

 produced considerable effects upon a lady who was there. The voice and serious air 

 which I affected made an impression upon her, which she at first attempted to conceal, 

 but having carried my hand to the region of the heart, 1 found it palpitating. Her 

 state of oppression indicated also a tightness in the chest, and several other symptoms 

 speedily ensued : The muscles of the face were affected with convulsive twitches, and 

 the eyes rolled ; she fell down in a fainting fit, vomited her dinner, and felt herself 

 in a state of incredible weakness and languor. A celebrated artist, who gives lessons 

 in drawing to the children of one of our Princes, complained during several days of a 

 severe headache, which he mentioned to me when we met accidentally on the Pont- 

 Royal. Having persuaded him that I was initiated in the mysteries of Mesmer, al- 

 most immediately, by means of a few gestures, I removed his pain to his great aston- 



ishment." Dr Sigault justly remarks, that it is probably by such an impression on 

 the mind, that the sight of the dentist removes the toothache when the patient has 

 gone to him for the purpose of having his tooth drawn. He adds, that being one 

 day in the parlour at a convent, a young lady said to him, ** You go to M. Mesmer's, 

 I hear." " Yes," he replied, "and I can magnetise you through the grate ;" present- 

 ing his finger towards her at the same time. She was alarmed, grew faint, and beg- 

 ged him to desist ; and, in fact, her emotion was so great, that, had he persisted, be 

 had no doubt that she would have been seized with a fit. 



But although the Commissioners were convinced by their experiments, that the 

 Imagination was capable of producing different sensations, of occasioning pain, and 

 a sense of heat, and even actual heat in all parts of the body; and therefore that it 

 contributed much to the effects which were ascribed to Animal Magnetism ; yet the 

 effects of the latter had been much more considerable, and the derangements of the 

 animal economy, whieh it excited, much more severe. It was now, therefore, to be 

 ascertained, whether, by influencing the Imagination, convulsions, or the complete 

 Crisis witnessed at the public treatment, could be produced. In proof of this point, 

 their experim-ents were not less conclusive, as the following relation of one or two of 

 them will evince. As M. Deslon acknowledged that the complete success of the 

 experiments would depend upon the subjects of them being endowed with sufficient 

 sensibiUty, he was requested to select some of his patients, who had aheady proved 

 their susceptibility of the magnetic influence, upon whom the trials might be made. 



According to the principles of the Magnetisers, when a tree had been touched by 

 them, and charged with Magnetism, every person who stopped near the tree would 

 feel the effects of this agent, and either fall into a swoon or into convulsions. Ac- 

 cordingly, in Dr Franklin's garden at Passy, an apricot tree was selected, whieh stood 

 sufficiently distant from the others, and was well adapted for retaining the Magnetism 

 communicated to it. M. Deslon, having brought thither a young patient of twelve years 

 of age, was shown the tree, which he magnetised, while the patient remained in the 

 house under the observation of another person. It was wished that M. Deslon should 

 be absent during the experiment; but he affirmed that it might fail, if he did not 

 direct his looks and his cane towards the tree. The young man was then brought 

 out, with a bandage over his eyes, and successively led to four trees, which were not 

 viagnetised, and was directed to embrace each during two minutes; — M. Deslon at 

 the same time standing at a considerable distance, and pointing his cane to the tree 

 actually magnetised. At the first tree the young patient, on being questioned, de- 

 clared that he perspired profusely; he coughed, and expectorated, and said that he felt 

 a pain in the head: he was still about twenty-seven feet from the tree magnetised. 

 At the second tree he foimd himself giddy, with the headache as before: he was 

 now thirty feet from the magnetised tree. At the third, the headache and giddi- 

 ness were much increased; he said he believed he was approaching the magnetised 

 tree ; but he was still twenty-eight feet from it. At length, when brought to the fourth 

 tree, not magnetisedy and at a distance of twenty-four feet from that which was, the 

 crisis came on; the young man fell down in a state of insensibihty, his limbs became 

 rigid, he was carried to a grass plot, where M. Deslon went to his assistance, and 

 recovered him. 



This experiment, then, was altogether adverse to the principle of Magnetism, not 

 negatively, but positively and directly. If the patient, said the Commissioners, had ex- 

 perienced no effects under the tree actually magnetised, it might have been supposed 

 that he was not in a state of sufficient susceptibility ; but he fell into the crisis under 

 one which was not magnetised; therefore, not irom any external physical cause, but 

 solely from the influence of the Imagination. He knew that he was to be carried to 

 the magnetised tree; his imagination was roused, and successively exalted, until, at the 

 fourth tree, it had risen to the pitch necessary to bring on the crisis. 



The Fire of Saint Elmo is generally considered as an accumulation of electric 

 matter round a point which moves in the air. This fire, then, may be expected to 

 appear frequently at the top of the masts of a vessel sailing along with rapidity. The 

 ancients observed this phenomenon. These fires, when seen in pairs, were called 

 Castor and Pollux ; when the flame was single, it bore the name of Helen. The 

 spears of an army often appeared ornamented with these electrical plumes. (Pliny, 

 Hist, Nat. II. cap. 37). A Swedish naturalist, travelling on horseback in snowy 

 weather, saw his fingers, his switch, and the ears of his horse, covered with a fire of 

 this description. — (Forskael, in Bergmann, Geogr. Phys. § 130). 



The Glow-worm. — Mr John Murray, in a communication made to the Royal 

 Society, on the luminous matter of the Glow-worm, states some curious facts as the 

 result of his own observation and experiments. His observations tend to show that 

 this light is not connected wdth the respiration, nor derived from the solar light; that 

 it is not affected by cold, nor by magnetism, nor by submersion in water. Trials 

 of submersion in water, in various temperatures, and in oxygen, are detailed. When 

 a Glow-worm was immersed in carbonic acid gas, it died shining brilliantly ; in hy- 

 drogen it continued to shine, and did not seem to suffer. Mr Murray infers, that the 

 luminousness is independent, not only of the respiration, but of the vohtion and vital 

 principle. Some of the luminous matter, obtained in a detached state, was also sub- 

 jected to various experiments, from which it appears to be a gummo- albuminous sub- 

 stance, mixed with muriate of soda, and sulphate of alumina and potash, and to be 

 composed of spherides. The light is considered to be permanent, its eclipses being 

 caused by the interposition of an opaque medium. 



ERRATt7M.>^In a part of o\ir first impression — 



Journal, page 46, col. 2, Unes 49 and 54, for Bore read Bove. 



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