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THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



NO. I. — ANIMAL MAt;NETISM. 

 The extraordinary influence of the inir.gination over the human body is strikingly il- 

 lustrated in the History of Animal Magnetism, as well as the astonishing delusions 

 by which an ignorant and credulous mind is liable to be influenced, when in the hands 

 of a cunning and designing impostor. Wc shall, accordingly, give a few articles on 

 this interesting and comparatively little-known subject. 



In consequence of the extent to which the practice of Animal I^Iagnetism, as it was 

 called by its inventor, IM. Mesmer, w.is carried in Paris, the French king appointed 

 a coir.mittec, consisting of four physicians and five members of the Royal Academy 

 of Sciences, to investigate the matter, in the year 1784. Among the latter wore M. 

 JJ. Bailly, Lavoisier, and Dr Franklin, who was at that time the American minister 

 at Paris. This agent, which jMcsmcr pretended to have discovered, he affirmed, was 

 " a fluid universally diffused, and iilling all space, being the medium of a reciprocal 

 influence between the celestial bodies, the earth, and living beings — it insinuated 

 itself into the substance of the nerves ; upon which, therefore, it had a direct opera- 

 tion. It was capable of being communicated from one body to other bodies, both 

 animated and inanimate, and that at a considerable distance, without the assistance of 

 any intermediate substance; and it exhibited in the human body some properties ana- 

 logous to those of the loadstone, especially its two poles. This Animal Magnetism," 

 he added, " was capable of curing directly all the disorders of the nervous system, 

 and indirectly other maladies j it rendered perfect the operation of medicines, and 

 excited and directed the salutary crises of diseases, so that it placed these crises in 

 the power of the physician. Moreover, it enabled him to ascertain the state of health 

 of each individual, and to form a correct judgment as to the origin, nature, and pro- 

 gress of the most comphcated diseases," kc. In short, he said, *' La nature offre 

 dans le magnetismo un moyen universel de guerir et dc preserver les hommes.' 

 filature supplies in Magnetism one universal cure for the maladies of thehumanrace.)* 

 Slons. Deslon, a pupil of JMesmer, also practised Animal Magnetism at Pai'is, and un- 

 dertook to deraon-trate its existence and properties to the commissioners. He com- 

 menced his instructions by reading a memoir, in which he maintained, that " there is 

 but one nature, one disease, and one remedy, and that remedy is Animal Magnetism. ' 

 The first step of the commissioners was to examine the mode and instruments of 

 operation, and the effects of the agent. It was observed that M. Deslon operated upon 

 many individuals at the same time. In the middle of a large room was placed a cir- 

 cular chest of oak, raised about a foot from the floor, which was called the Baqiiet ; 

 the lid Of this chest was pierced with a number of holes, through which there issued 

 moveable and curved branches of iron. The patients were ranged in several circles 

 round the chest, each at an iron branch, which, by means of its curvature, could be 

 applied directly to the diseased pai-t. A cord, which was passed round their bodies, 

 connected them with one anotlior, and sometimes a second chain of communication 

 was formed by means of the hands, the thumb of each one's left hand being received 

 and pressed between the forefingers and thum.b of the right hand of his neighbour. 

 Moreover, a piano-forte was placed in a corner of the room, on which different airs 

 were played; sound being, according to the principles of Mesmev, a conductor of 

 Magnetism. The patients, thus ranged in great numbers round the baquet, received 

 the magnetic influence at once, by all these means of communication. By the branches 

 of iron which transmitted to them the magnetism of the baquet — by the cord entwined 

 round the body — by the union of thumbs, which conveyed to each the magnetism of 

 his neighbour — and by the sound of the music, or of an agreeable voice, which diffused 

 the principle through the air. The patients were, besides, directly magnetised by 

 means of the finger of the magnetiser, and a rod of iron which he moved about be- 

 fore the face, above or behind the head, and over the diseased pai-ts, always observing 

 the distinction of the magnetic poles, and fixing his countenance upon the indivi- 

 dual. But, above all, they were msgnetised by the appUcation of the hands, and by 

 pressure with the fingers upon the hypochondria and the abdominal regions, which was 

 often continued for a very long time, odeasionally for several hours together. 



The patients subjected to this treatment at length began to present very various 

 appearances in their condition as the operation proceeded. Some of them were calm 

 and tranquil, and felt nothing; others were afTccted with coughing and salivation; 

 others again experienced slight pains, partial or universal heats, raid considerable 

 perspirations ; and others w'erc agitated and tortured with convulsions. These 

 convulsions were extraordinary in their numbers, severity, and duration. The 

 commissioners saw them, in some instances, continue for three hours, when they 

 were accompanied with expectoration of a viscid phlegm, which was ejected 'by 

 violent efforts, and sometimes streaked with blood; .one young man often brought 

 np blood copiously. The convulsions were chai'acterized by violent involuntary 

 motions of the limbs, and of the whole body, by spasms of the throat, by agita- 

 lions of the epigastrium and hypocbondres, and wandering motions of the eyes, ac- 

 compaiiied by piercing shrieks, weeping, immoderate laughter, and hiccough. They 

 wsre generally preceded or followed by a state of languor and rambling, or a degree 

 of drowsiness, and even of coma (or profound sleep and torpitude). The least unex- 

 pected noise made the patients start ; and it was remarked that even a change of 

 measure in the air played upon the piano-forte affected them, so that a more lively 

 movement increased their agitation and renewed the violence of their convulsions. 

 Nothing can be more surprising or more inconceivable by those who have not wit- 

 nessed it. than the spectacle of these convulsions, say the commissioners; all seem to 

 be under the power of the magnetiser; a sign from him, his voice, his look, unmo- 

 diately rouses them from a state even of apparent stupor. In truth, they add, it 

 was impossible not to recognise, in these constant effects, a great power or agency, 

 ■which held the patients under its dominion, and of which the magnetiser appeai-ed to 

 be the sole depositary. t 



* Sec Blemoire sur la Decouverte du T\Ia';netisme Animal, par M. jMesmer, Doct. 

 en Med. de la Faculte de Vienne, 1779. Also his Precis KiL-torique des Faits rela- 

 tif^ aux IMag. An jusques en Avril 1781. 



t Sao Rapport des Comissaires charges par le Roi, de TExamen du iMagnetismo 

 Animal; "&. Paris, 1764. 



Such, then, were the phenomena (of the reality of which they could not doubt) 

 produced by the operation of this new agent, the nature and origin of which it was 

 the duty of the commissioners to investigate. Tliis convulsive and lethargic state, it 

 may be noticed, was considered as a crisis, such as the constitution or the art of me- 

 dicine is enabled to cfl^ect, for the purpose of curing diseases; and, for the sake of 

 brevity, we shall adopt the term to express this occurrence, regardless of the hypo- 

 thesis which led to its use. 



A PoLYPi-xESiAN War. — In those balmy regions of the South, where coral reefs 

 arise, the germs of future continents, there dwelt two Polypi, celebrated in Polvpi- 

 nesian lore, by the names of Polycrates and Polydorus. Friendship had long unite<l 

 their minds, as much as nature had united their bodies ; but chance, or a wayward 

 fate, at length produced discord. A luckless worm, roaming for pleasure through 

 the deep, became entangled in the tentacula of Polycrates, by the one extremity, 

 while Polydorus at the same instant seized the other end. Each continued his repast ; 

 until at length, near the centre of the worm, a fierce conflict of hostile tentacula 

 arose. Like some beings at the other end of the scale of creation, though hut one 

 Jlesh, they were of two minds. Polycrates being the larger and stronger, soon ob- 

 tained the ascendancy ; and, irritated by the contest, not only swallowed the worm, but 

 Polydorus also ! Polydorus, however, by no means disturbed by the novelty of his 

 situation, continued, with philosophical resignation, within the stomach of Polycrates 

 to complete the repast which had been thus strangely interrupted ; until at len"-th, 

 finding nothing further %vorth his demolishing in that quarter, and beinor unwill- 

 ing to imitate Jonas in the length of his captivity, he soon managed, by a retroo-rade 

 movement of his tentacula, to release himself and worm from this apparently critical 

 situation. Polycrates now obtains all the honour and glory of the contest ; but 

 Polydorus finds the truth of the popular adage, that " solid pudding is better than 

 empty praise." 



New Holland. — This is Ne.v Holland — where it is summer with us when it is 

 winter in Europe, and vice versa — where the barometer rises before bad weather, and 



falls before good — where the north is the hot wind, and the south the cold where 



the humblest house is fitted up with cedar (Cedrela toona) — where the fields are 

 fenced with mahogany (Eucali/ptus rohusta), and myrtle trees (Myrtacca) are burnt 

 for fire-wood — where the swans are black and the eagles white — where the kano-aroo, 

 an animal between the squirrel and the deer, has five claws on its fore-paws, and 

 three talons on its hind legs, like a bird, and yet hops on its tail — where the mole 

 fOrnithorhi/nchvs paradoxus) lays eggs, and has a duck's bill — where there is a bird 

 (Meliphaga), with a broom in its mouth instead of a tongue — where there is a fish, 



one half belonging to one genus (Raja), and the other half to another (Squalus) 



where the pears are of wood (XijJomehun pijrifcrme), with the stalk at the broader 

 end — and where the cherry (Exocarpus cupressifuymisj grows with the stone on the 

 outside. 



Astro>:o:mer Royal. — Mr Pond has retired from the situation of Astronomer 

 Royal, and Professor Airy has been appointed, with a salary of L.800 a-year. 



Dreaims. — By the kind attention of my friend Dr .Tames Gregory, I have received 

 a most interesting manuscript by his late eminent father, which contains a variety of 

 curious matter on this subject. In this paper, Dr Gregory mentions of himself, that 

 having on one occasion gone to bed with a vessel of hot water at his feet, he dreamt 

 of walking up the crater of Slount iEtna, and of feeling the ground warm under him. 

 He had, at an early period of his life, visited Mount Vesuvius, and actually felt a 

 strong sensation of warmth in his feet, when walking up the side of the crater ; but 

 it was remarkable, that the dream was not of Vesuvius, but of ^tna, of which he had 

 only read Brydon's description. This was probably from the latter impression having 

 been the more recent. On another occasion, he dreamt of spending a winter at Hud- 

 son's Bay, and of suffering much distress from the intense frost. He found that he 

 had thrown off the bed-clothes in his sleep, and, a few days before, he had been readin"- 

 a very particular account of the colonies in that country during the winter. Again, 

 when suffering from toothache?, he dreamt of undergoing the operation of tooth-draw- 

 ing, with the additional circumstance, that the operator drew a sound tooth, leaving 

 the aching one in its place. But the most striking anecdote in this interesting docu- 

 ment, is one in which similar dreams were produced in a gentleman and his wife, at 

 the same time and by the same cause. It happened at the period when there was an 

 alarm of French invasion, and almost every man in Edinbui'gh was a soldier. All 

 things had been arranged in expectation of the landing of an enemy, the first notice 

 of which was to be given by a gun from the Castle, and this was to be followed by a 

 chain of signals, calculated to alarm the country in all directions. Farther, there had 

 been recently in Edinburgh a splendid military spectacle, in which five thousand men 

 had been di-awn up in Princes' Street, fronting the Castle. The gentleman to whom 

 the dream occurred, and who had been a most zealous volunteer, was in bed, between 

 two and three o'clock in the morning, when he dreamt of hearing the sio-nal-gun. 

 He was immediately at the Castle, witnessed the proceedings for displaying the sif^- 

 nals, and saw and heard a great bustle over the town, from troops and artillery as- 

 sembling, especially in Princes' Street. At this time he was roused by his wife, 

 who awoke in a fright, in consequence of a similar dream, connected with much noise 

 and the landing of an enemy, and concluding with the death of a particular friend of 

 her husband's, who had served with him as a volunteer during the late war. The 

 origin of this remarkable concurrence, was ascertained in the morning to be the noise 

 produced in the room above by the fall of a pair of tongs, which had been left in 

 some very awkward position in support of a clothes screen. — Dr Reid relates of him- 

 self, that the dressing applied after a blister on his head having become ruffled, so as 

 to produce considerable uneasiness, he di-camt of falling into the hands of savages, and 

 being scalped by them. — Abercromhie on the Intellectual Powers. 



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