Take of the chymical oil of Fear, Dread,
and Terror, each 4 ounces;
of the rectified Spirits of Imagination 2 pounds;
Put all these ingredients into the bottle of fancy,
digest for several days, and take forty drops at about
nine in the morning, or a few minutes before you
receive a portion of the Magnetic Effluvia. They will
make the effluvia have a surprising effect, etc., etc.
In 1785 there appeared a mock funeral oration upon Mesmer,
travestying with endless extravagance his pretensions and methods.
Caricature was a favorite mode of attack; and the examples that have
escaped destruction vividly preserve the spirit and the local color
of the times. Yet both learned and unlearned opinion was divided,
and the press was the medium of eulogy as well as of denunciation.
Of still greater importance were the discoveries of the Marquis de
Puységur, one of Mesmer's disciples, which diverted the interest in
animal magnetism into a new channel; and, finally, the turmoil of
the French Revolution drove Mesmerism into obscurity, and Mesmer to
a retreat in the town of Frauenfeld, near the lake of Constance.
Our last picture of Mesmer shows him living in simple seclusion,
complaining of the world's treatment of him, performing cures among
those about him, and cherishing to the end his belief in animal
magnetism. He died March 5, 1815, at Meersburg, where he lies buried.