SECOND-SIGHT. 687 
different parts of their body. Many women, but very few men, had 
convulsions, which Deslon called their crisis, &c. 
The commissioners, at last, finding they could come to no satisfac- 
tory conclusion while they attended in this public way, determined 
to try the experiments themselves privately. Accordingly, they, 1. 
tried the effects of animal magnetism upon themselves, and felt nothing : 
2. seven of Deslon’s patients were magnetized at Dr. Franklin’s 
house, four of whom felt nothing ; three felt, or affected to feel, some- 
thing : 3. several persons in a higher sphere of life were magnetized, 
and felt nothing. 4. The commissioners now, determined to discover 
what share imagination had in this business, blindfolded several of the 
commpn people, and made them sometimes think that they were mag- 
netized ; at other times they magnetized them without letting them know 
that they did so ; the consequence was, that when they supposed them- 
selves magnetized, they likewise thought they felt something, and vice 
versa. 5. A magnetized tree was said to produce convulsions; a young 
man, blindfolded, fell into convulsions when he thought himself near 
the tree, though he was at a great distance from it. Deslon accounted 
for this on the principle of all trees being magnetic ; but in this case, 
every one susceptible of magnetism would be seized with convulsions 
when he approached a tree. The same influence of imagination was 
observed in a woman, who was accustomed to have convulsions when 
magnetized : they came on when nothing w'as done to her, on being 
told, when blindfolded, that she was magnetized. Other instances 
were given, from w'hich it was evident, either that the patients were 
impostors, or in such a wretched state of debility, both of mind and 
body, that the most trifling effects of the former had the most power- 
ful effects on the latter. The commissioners, therefore, entirely 
disapproved of the whole. The touch, imitation, and imagination, 
they concluded, were the great causes of the effects produced by 
Mr. Deslon’s operations ; and by means of these, they supposed that 
convulsions, which in themselves are a very violent disorder, might 
be spread much farther than could be wished, even through a whole 
city. It was observed that the operator sometimes pressed closely, 
and for a long time, upon the hypochondria and pit of the stomach ; 
and it is well known that a strong pressure on these parts will pro- 
duce disagreeable sensations in those who enjoy perfect health. 
Mestner complained of the report of the commissioners, petitioned 
parliament, and was by them commanded to discover the mysteries 
of his doctrine ; which is now' universally exploded. — The conclusion 
of the academicians concerning it was, that it is not only entirely 
useless to philosophy, but that it affords one fact more to be added 
to the history of the errors and illusions of the human mind, and a 
signal instance of the power of imagination. 
Second Sight. 
This is the power of seeing things future, or things distant ; which 
has been supposed inherent in some of the Scottish islanders. It is 
described as an impression made either by the mind upon the eye, or 
by the eye upon the mind, by which things distant or future are per- 
