The system of animal magnetism Mesmer summed up in a series of
twenty-seven propositions presented entirely without proof, asserting
the existence of an "universally diffused subtle fluid, appearing
in all portions of the celestial system, and affecting the animal
economy by insinuating itself into the nerves; it has properties
analogous to that of the magnet, may be reflected like light,
propagated like sound, and may be increased, opposed, accumulated,
transmitted to another object, and transported; furthermore this
principle, which is, in a way, a sixth sense artificially acquired,
will cure nervous disease directly, and others indirectly by
provoking salutary crises, thus bringing the art of healing to
perfection." Mesmer's methods varied at different stages of his
career. The use of magnets as the main or exclusive factor in his
cures, he seems to have abandoned before going to Paris; at first
he made the passes with his hands, or with an iron rod, directing
his fingers toward his patient, and emphasizing these movements by
strokings and rubbings. The object of these manipulations was to
concentrate and send out the magnetism with which his body was
saturated. This magnetism he could transfer to others or to inanimate
objects. "I have magnetized paper, bread, wool, silk, leather,
stone, glass, water, different metals, wood, men, dogs,--in one
word, all that I have touched, so that these substances produced the
same effects on the patients as the magnets." When his increasing
success no longer allowed him to attend personally to all his
patients, he employed a valet toucher, or imparted the curative
properties to water, to a tree, etc. At the height of his career he
devised the "baquet," which he describes as a "small open vessel
on a three-legged support, from which emerged some bent iron rods,
the points of which could be easily applied to the outer parts of
the body, such as the head, breast, stomach, etc." The baquet and
other paraphernalia served to concentrate and impart the fluid that
issued abundantly from Mesmer's person. An eyewitness thus describes
the results of the treatment: "Some patients experienced pains and
fever; others fell into unusual and severe convulsions, frequently
lasting for three hours; others became faint and dazed, and but
few remained unaffected. There were manifested the most violent
involuntary distortions of the limbs; partial suffocation, heaving of
the abdomen, wild glances, were observed; one patient utters piercing
cries, another has fits of laughter, while a third bursts into tears.
Nothing can break this spell save the command of the magnetizer,
and whether the patients be in the wildest frenzy or in the deepest
stupor, a word, look, or nod of the master is sufficient to bring
them to consciousness. This violent condition was technically termed
a crisis, and deprived the patients of all consciousness so that
none could at all remember what had been felt, heard, or done while
in this condition; and yet they were so sensitive that one could not
come in contact with them, not even touch the chair on which they
sat, without causing fright and convulsions which only the master
could pacify." As the cures progressed, the patients lost their
sensitiveness to the magnetic fluid. The scenes about the baquet have
come to be the most usual association with the name of Mesmer. The
dimly lit room, the odor of incense, the mellow tones of the organ,
the hushed silence and anxious expectancy; the entrance of Mesmer,
wand in hand, clad in striking robes, to initiate the crises that
then spread by the contagion of nervous disorder; all these reflect
the intellectual and social conditions of the time, and are most
naturally interpreted as the adaptation of a shrewd adventurer to his
environment.
In the light of this account it becomes clear that while an
altered condition of the nervous system and a state of increased
suggestibility were constantly manifested in Mesmer's _salle des
crises_, yet Mesmer did not at all appreciate the nature of the
process by which the effects were produced, nor the condition which
he brought about in his patients. In brief, Mesmerism in the hands
of Mesmer was clearly only an antecedent of hypnotism. Yet certain
of the more detailed descriptions of the scenes about the baquet
unmistakably indicate that some of Mesmer's subjects went into a true
hypnotic condition; that as many or more were the victims of more or
less complex hysterical attacks is equally clear. But to this aspect
of the phenomena, Mesmer was entirely inattentive. His attention was
devoted to the elaboration of the physical agencies which in his
view were the cause of the phenomena, and to the production of the
rather violent symptoms of the crisis which he always regarded as an
essential part of the curative procedure. He elaborated the baquet,
filled it with bottles and glass and iron filings and water arranged
in fanciful ways, and in some mystical sense suggestive of magnetic
influences. Mesmerism thus consisted of the induction of crises by
animal magnetism, as concentrated in Mesmer's person and assisted by
the baquet, by passes and physical manipulations. Farther than this
Mesmer never went in his comprehension of the phenomena that we now
know as hypnotism. Indeed, when he was confronted with Puységur's
subjects in the somnambulic state, he regarded the production of this
true hypnotic condition as foolish, and considered it to be only a
subordinate phase of the magnetic crisis. Towards the close of his
life, and when the turmoil and the glory of his Parisian career
were memories of the past, when he had had abundant opportunity for
reflection and for the observation of the altered condition which the
status of Mesmerism had assumed, Mesmer still maintained unaltered
the dogmas of animal magnetism.
In criticism of the attitude of the commission, it may certainly be
held that they underestimated the significance of what they saw and
used the term "imagination" in a sense both vague and uncritical;
and yet the tenor of their conclusions was as wholesome as it was
justifiable. They were primarily concerned with the correctness of
the proposed explanation of the phenomena, and with the value of the
curative procedures; and on these points their verdict is logically
reached and forcibly stated. The psychic element in the guidance
of conduct as in the treatment of diseases they were prepared
to acknowledge, but not as an indorsement of animal magnetism.
"In searching for an imaginary cause for animal magnetism, the
actual power which man exercises over his fellow-beings without
the immediate and evident intervention of a physical agent, is
recognized." Their tests evidence their appreciation of the efficacy
of suggestion, a power which they admit "can be elaborated to an
art." While it may properly be urged that the report contributed to
the postponement of the scientific study of this class of phenomena,
its admirable logical qualities entitle its authors to the gratitude
and honorable remembrance of mankind. Indeed, in deference to
the excited state of public opinion of the time, they subjected
themselves and others to most painstaking tests, assuming the burden
of disproof, and treating Mesmer's arbitrary attitude with more
than scientific fairness. Their verdict not only destroyed Mesmer's
pretensions, but held out a rational, though in our present lights an
inadequate, interpretation of the phenomena, then so sensationally
presented to an excited and distraction-loving public.
V
Before the commissioners had completed their examination, the
aspect of animal magnetism was, in the hands of a French nobleman,
undergoing an entire change. The Marquis A. M. J. Chastenet de
Puységur, born in 1752, came of a distinguished family, and himself
took an important part in the Revolution; his death was the result
of a romantic but imprudent act of devotion to the royalist cause,
on the occasion of the coronation of Charles X. in 1825. He was one
of Mesmer's select pupils, and himself a good subject at the baquet;
and likewise remained a firm supporter of the doctrines of animal
magnetism. He had constructed a baquet at his estate at Buzancy,
and was applying the "Mesmeric" practices among his dependents. It
happened on the fourth of May, 1784, that he had magnetized his
subject, Victor, in the usual way, when (to continue with his own
words) "what was my surprise to see at the end of a quarter of an
hour this man sleeping peaceably in my arms without convulsion or
pain.... He spoke and seemed occupied with his own thoughts.... I
perceived that these were affecting him unpleasantly, and I stopped
them and suggested pleasanter ones, which indeed was not difficult.
Soon I saw that he was happy, imagining that he had drawn a prize or
was dancing at a fête, etc.; these ideas I fostered, and thus forced
him to move about on his chair as if dancing to a melody, which I
made him repeat aloud, by humming it myself." Upon awakening, Victor
remembered nothing of what had happened. In this observation there
are clearly recognizable an altered mental condition, a sleep-like
unconscious state, loss of memory upon awakening, and suggestibility
of sensations, ideas, and movements,--all important characteristics
of a true hypnosis. Indeed, this may be considered as the first
clearly recorded and uncomplicated production of the condition which
made possible the study of hypnotism.
The phenomena thus presented might readily have been the
starting-point of a scientific investigation of this peculiar
state, had not a subsequent observation unfortunately directed the
experiments into a different channel. When Victor was again thrown
into this "magnetic crisis" or sleep,--as Puységur at first termed
it,--he began to speak, describing his ailments, directing what
should be done to effect his cure, and giving similar prescriptions,
when questioned in regard to the treatment of others. This strange
condition, which by its analogy to sleep-walking came to be termed
"artificial somnambulism," was destined to mark a turning-point in
the history of the topic. It was evident, almost from the outset,
that the baquet and the other paraphernalia, the crises, pain,
and contortions were rendered quite unnecessary. The patients had
become their own physicians, prescribing such simple remedies as
were familiar to them by use or hearsay, and predicting the time of
appearance and the nature of the symptoms, such as they had witnessed
about the baquet or in everyday life. Within two months of the first
observation, 62 cures had been effected under Puységur's direction,
300 patients were in attendance, and 10 somnambulists had been
discovered; before the close of the year (1784) Puységur published
a volume detailing his cures, his correspondence, and his theory of
animal magnetism.
From the point of view of modern hypnotism, Puységur's position is
a most important one, more important, indeed, than that of Mesmer.
His literary productions and his personal activity in the formation
of the Loges d'Harmonie (organizations devoted to the study of
animal magnetism) were the most influential factors in keeping alive
the study of these phenomena after Mesmer's downfall, and in their
revival after the long interruption of the Revolution. Puységur's
views were at first identical with those of Mesmer; he believed in
the magnetic fluid and the baquet and the crises; but his practices
gradually dispensed with all these manipulations and regarded
the action of the will upon the somnambules as the essential and
sufficient method of effecting a cure. His conceptions were extremely
fanciful, and the point of view of his later writings is considerably
at variance with that of his earlier compositions. "Some day," he
predicts, "after five or six thousand years of existence upon earth,
mankind will admit that there is a fluid, or rather a conserving
agent of their existence and their health, which they can utilize ...
and direct for the benefit of their fellow-men by the simple action
of their wills." This universal magnetism is regarded as acting
directly through the human will; "croyez et veuillez" is his motto.
The tree likewise acts upon the patients connected with it, through
the magnetic action imparted to it by the will of the magnetizer.
Puységur regarded what he termed the instinctive electro-magnetism
of man as analogous to the force by which the chick imparts movement
and life to the germ upon which she broods. It was, however, his
practical influence, and not that of his decidedly fantastic views,
which guided the progress of the antecedents of hypnotism. The
contributions of his successors, as of his predecessors, cannot
deprive him of the credit of discovery of the hypnotic condition and
of the first clear appreciation of its importance. But the progress
which Puységur's discovery had brought about was almost at once lost
by the extravagant claims which were soon made for the somnambules
in their prediction and direction of the course of disease. They
came to be regarded as possessed of supernormal powers by which they
could perceive the anatomical conditions of their patients; they
predicted the future, or rather they were impressed in advance with
a sensation of what was to happen--"_presentiment_" or "_optique
preliminaire_"; they traveled in spirit to distant times and places;
they were _en rapport_ with the magnetizer, hearing and obeying him
alone, and interpreting his unexpressed thoughts and wishes; their
remedies were declared infallible, and Puységur himself, after thirty
years of experience, records that he had met with no case of a
wrong prediction. The valuable discovery of an artificially induced
condition, recognizable by definite physiological and psychological
changes, was at once engulfed in a senseless search for the wonderful
and the pursuit of fantastic theories.
Next in importance to the discoveries of Puységur were those of
Dr. Pétetin, of Lyons. His general position is much the same as
that of Puységur; for "animal magnetism," he substituted an "animal
electricity," (such was the title of his posthumous volume, 1808);
and he claimed to have found that the intervention of poor electric
conductors opposed the appearance of certain of the phenomena of the
somnambulic state. In a work published in 1787, he described a new
condition characterized by a fixed rigidity of the limbs, to which
he gave the name (still applied to it) of "catalepsy," and which
continues to be one of the characteristic modifications artificially
produced by hypnotization. Dr. Pétetin describes how his subject,
when magnetized, became insensible to external stimuli, how her pulse
slackened, her muscles became fixed, and how she would maintain
any position in which she was placed with statue-like rigidity.
Dr. Pétetin was also the first to record the automatic repetition
by the subject of the movements of the operator; the recollection
when re-magnetized of what had happened in a previous somnambulic
condition, but had been forgotten in the normal interval; and he
also recorded the production of what is now known as a negative
hallucination. When he had suggested to his subject that whoever
would touch a certain candlestick would disappear from her sight,
the subject no longer saw the individual thus spirited away. But as
in the case of Puységur, so also in that of Pétetin, he became known
not for his most careful and significant observations, but for those
which administered to the love of the marvelous, and which were in
essence totally erroneous. Pétetin's contribution to the aggregate
of error in which this study was to be merged was the memorable
"transposition of the senses." The same subject who brought to his
notice the cataleptic condition led him into this extravagance. This
subject while magnetized began to sing vociferously; while engaged in
changing her position during her catalepsy, his chair slipped, and he
fell toward her, exclaiming, "Oh, how unfortunate that I cannot stop
this singing." "Oh, doctor," she replied, "do not worry, I won't
sing any more;" and she stopped at once. Presently the singing was
resumed, and no words of the doctor could stop it, until he spoke
to her in the attitude previously assumed by the accidental fall,
with his head near her stomach. In this position she heard him and
obeyed, but gave no heed to his commands when he shouted them into
her ear. And thus was originated the transposition of the senses;
for Pétetin at once concluded, in accordance with the remarkable
sensibilities attributed to somnambules, that his subject heard
through her stomach. By further experiments he became convinced
that tastes and odors could be similarly perceived, and that his
subject could read what was written on a card applied to her stomach.
He also credited the various other exalted and marvelous mental
faculties of his subjects, and added to the prevailing mystery and
supernatural tendency of the period. His historical influence was but
slight; he was regarded as a mesmerist, and was chiefly remembered
by his introduction of the transposition of the senses into the
traditional system of artificial somnambulism. It is interesting to
note that the detection of error in another's work does not protect
against a similar error in one's own; Puységur, while accepting with
implicit faith the extravagances of his own subjects, was able to
recognize that unconscious suggestion lay at the basis of Pétetin's
observations. If at first, he remarks, Pétetin had happened to
suppose that his cataleptics could speak only during the wane of the
moon in May, they would have been dumb for eleven and a half months.