The early decades of the present century witnessed a revival of
interest in animal magnetism. Those whom the Revolution had turned
away from their favorite studies returned to them; new societies were
organized; journals in the interest of the science were founded; it
was recognized by various governments and scientific associations;
the Berlin Academy in 1818 offered a prize of 3000 marks for the best
memoir on the subject; Mesmer was brought forth from his obscurity,
and many of the distinctive traits of his system were reintroduced
and amplified. The movement was no longer confined to France, but
spread all over Europe, and even reached America. Its most continuous
connection was, however, still with Paris, and mainly with the
learned societies to which Mesmer had appealed in vain.
In contrast to the dominant belief in the miraculous endowment of
"somnambulic" subjects, there were a few who presented the subjective
nature of the phenomena. The career of Faria, a priest of Portuguese
extraction, who resided long in India, is regarded by some as
occupying an important place in the history of hypnotism. The Abbé
Faria came to Paris in 1814 and gave public exhibitions, in which
he produced many of the typical hypnotic phenomena, and explained
them as dependent not at all on his own powers, but entirely upon
the susceptibility and the faith of his subjects. He rejected alike
any belief in a personal influence or in a magnetic or other fluid.
He simply asked his subjects to think determinedly of sleep, or to
look at the back of his hand; and then in an authoritative voice
he would call out "_dormez_," emphasizing the command by pressing
his hand on the subject's forehead. By such simple means he put to
sleep three or four of every five subjects, and that within a minute
or two. He demonstrated the production of forced movements, the
deprivation of control of simple movements, the false perceptions of
sense, etc., all as products of suggestion, and indeed anticipated
many of the typical phenomena of modern hypnotism. Faria's career was
prematurely curtailed by an unfortunate incident; an actor succeeded
in feigning sleep in one of his performances, and forthwith branded
him as an impostor. If we may credit certain accounts, his position
practically anticipated that of Braid; but, according to others,
while impressed with the value of verbal suggestion, he was not free
from the prevailing mysteries and dogmas of somnambulism. In 1819
Bertrand delivered a course of public lectures on animal magnetism,
notable for their appreciation of the rôle of suggestion in their
production. For example, he sent a magnetized letter to his patient
which, when applied to the body, produced the desired symptoms; but
a second letter, not magnetized, but supposed to be so, and a third
letter, written by a friend in imitation of Bertrand's handwriting,
were equally efficacious. These are, however, some of the exceptional
exponents of the doctrines, which in the main were concerned with the
miraculous element of somnambulism introduced by Puységur and his
followers.
It is to be noted that in the revival of hypnotism the scene of
operation was transferred from the baquet and _salle des crises_ to
the hospital; the subjects are no longer persons of fashion seeking
release from ennui, but patients of the poorer classes, suffering
mainly from one or other of the protean forms of nervous derangement.
Some very remarkable subjects were discovered at the Salpêtrière by
Georget and Rostan, and the former inserted a chapter on somnambulism
in his textbook of physiology. In 1820 Husson authorized magnetism at
the Hôtel Dieu; and within a brief time somnambules were to be found
at almost all the hospitals of Paris. The phenomena presented were
those introduced by Puységur; patients became somnambulic, prescribed
for themselves and others, perceived by an internal sense the details
of their own anatomy, foresaw the future, and developed a variety of
abnormal sensibilities. Baron Du Potet, who experimented extensively
at the Hôtel Dieu, was convinced that his subjects could perceive his
silent wish and obey his unexpressed command. In Germany appeared
eccentric systems of "Tellurism" and "Siderism," and the occult was
rampant. The mysterious and extreme phenomena were accentuated, and
the value and genuineness of the entire somnambulic condition were
made to rest upon the demonstrability of miracles. Here and there a
few of the simpler phenomena, such as insensibility to pain, were
produced, but in the main these were neglected.
Of this type were the observations that, through the zeal of Dr.
Foissac, the Academy of Medicine was called upon to consider in
1825. He offered to exhibit his subjects, claiming for them all
the supernormal powers above indicated--that, indeed, "they were
possessed of the genius that had inspired Hippocrates." The work
of this commission was not free from dissensions; and five years
elapsed before they were able to submit a report. The report was
extremely favorable to the magnetists, and urged that, while some
of the effects produced were too trivial to serve as evidence of a
new system, and while others could be explained as due to the action
of the imagination, "some results depend solely upon magnetism and
cannot be produced without it." The commission corroborated the
physiological and other effects that had been already recorded,--such
as quickening of respiration and circulation, the induction of
tremors and convulsive movements, insensibility to pain and to
ordinary stimuli, the rapport between subject and operator, the
continuity of memory in successive magnetic states; but the chief
stress was laid upon the more wonderful operations. Of these they
certified as genuine, reading with closed eyes, the prediction of
the course of disease, clairvoyance, and general mental exaltation.
They also testified to the value of the therapeutic effects, and
conclude that the "academy should recognize and encourage researches
into magnetism as an interesting branch of psychology and natural
history." The report was read, but met with such decided disapproval
that it was withheld from the public. Its fundamental error was the
supposition that the demonstration of so unaccountable a phenomenon
as reading without the use of the eyes was necessary to or could
establish the existence of animal magnetism; they also erred through
ignorance of the extreme rigidity of conditions necessary to exclude
the endless possibilities of deception, conscious and unconscious,
and of the remarkable subtlety and hyperæsthesia of hysterical and
hypnotic subjects.
The next scene upon the stage of the Academy of Medicine was enacted
in 1837. At this time, the painless extraction of a tooth from a
patient in a somnambulic condition aroused considerable attention,
especially as the operator, Dr. Oudet, was a member of the Academy.
Other painless surgical operations upon magnetized patients were
reported. At about this time, Dr. Berna directed the attention of
the Academy to his subjects, for whom he claimed such powers as
reading with closed eyes. To test these claims a commission of nine
was appointed, and reported promptly, July 17, 1837. This report was
negative in the extreme. It raised the objection that everything
was made to rest upon the testimony of these somnambulists; it
declared that even the proofs of insensibility were defective, and
flatly denied the existence of the condition of somnambulism. The
alleged interpretation of the will of the operator was referred to
unconscious suggestion; the attempt at reading with the eyes closed
and the recognition of objects applied to the occiput was either a
total failure, or depended for its small measure of success upon the
shrewd guesses of the subjects, whose honesty was regarded as not
above suspicion. "We are at a loss what to think of a somnambulist
who described the knave of clubs on a blank card, who transformed the
ticket of an academician into a gold watch with a white dial plate
inscribed with black figures, and who, if she had been pressed, would
perhaps have gone on to tell us the hour marked by this watch." The
commission of 1837, even more specifically than that of 1825, was
called upon to consider alleged marvels; and this circumstance should
be taken into account in applying to them, as may properly be done,
the same criticism as was directed against former commissions. They,
too, have mistaken the real issue, and their justifiable skepticism
regarding such facts as reading without the use of the eyes unduly
biased their judgment in regard to the simpler and readily verifiable
phenomena.
The next step was certainly a practicable one; Burdin, a member of
the Academy, offered a prize of three thousand francs to any one
who could read without the use of the eyes. The offer was open for
two years, and subsequently the time was extended. Considering the
large number who had claimed this power, few offered themselves
for examination; and these either clearly failed to meet the test
(being detected in the manipulation of the bandage, and the like),
or those who had the somnambulists in charge refused to conform to
the conditions required by the examiners; and so the prize was never
awarded. The Academy then voted, October 1, 1840, to refuse from that
time on to give any consideration to questions relating to animal
magnetism.