REPORT
OF
DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,
AND OTHER
COMMISSIONERS,
CHARGED BY THE
KING OF FRANCE,
WITH THE EXAMINATION OF THE
ANIMAL MAGNETISM,
AS NOW PRACTISED AT PARIS.
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH.
WITH AN
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, (NO. 72) ST. PAUL’S CHURCH-YARD. 1785.
INTRODUCTION.
The subject of the following pamphlet has excited the extremest
attention in France, has for years filled their Journals and Mercures,
and has employed some of their best pens and their brightest wits.
By some it has been applauded as the greatest of philosophical
discoveries, and by others decried as the juggle of an unprincipled
impostor. The English nation has too much curiosity for every thing
that occupies the neighbour kingdom, from whom we have long since been
used to receive the laws of politeness and etiquette, and who have
lately seemed to take the lead of us in philosophical discovery, for
the present translation not to prove an acceptable present to a large
and respectable class of our countrymen. It has been thought proper,
in order that the most uninformed reader may find in this little
compilation, every species of information upon the subject, to prefix
to it a brief account of the progress of this system.
M. Mesmer, the inventor of the animal magnetism, is a German physician.
The first thing by which he distinguished himself, appears to have
been the publication of a Dissertation upon the Influence of the Stars
on the Human Body, printed at Vienna 1766, and publicly defended by
him as a thesis in that university. In 1774 father Hehl, a German
philosopher, strongly recommended the use of the loadstone in the art
of medicine. M. Mesmer became very early a convert to the principles of
this writer, and actually carried them into practice with distinguished
success. In the midst however of his attention to the utility of the
loadstone, he was led to the adoption of a new set of principles,
which he conceived to be much more general in their application and
importance. In conformity to these principles he laid aside the use
of the loadstone, and proceeded with his cures in the method which he
afterwards published to the world. This apostacy involved him in a
quarrel with father Hehl and the celebrated Ingenhouz, by whom he had
formerly been patronized; and as their credit in Vienna was extremely
high, and their exertions against him indefatigable, his system almost
immediately sunk into general disrepute. To parry their opposition he
appealed in 1776 to the academy of sciences at Berlin. Here however
his principles were rejected as “destitute of foundation and unworthy
the smallest attention.” Undismayed by these important miscarriages,
he made a progress through several towns of Germany, still practising
the methods of the animal magnetism, and from time to time publishing
an account of the cures he effected, which did not fail to be followed
by a detection from his enemies. In the mean time, resolved, as it
should seem, if possible not to deprive his country of the benefits of
so valuable a discovery, he returned a second time to Vienna, and made
another essay with no greater success than the former.
Decided in his conduit by these uninterrupted defeats, he left Germany
and arrived at Paris in the beginning of the year 1778. Here one of
the first connexions he formed was with M. A. J. S. D., author of the
Dictionnaire des Merveilles de la Nature, from which work many of the
following particulars are extracted. It is observed by this Writer,
that “in spite of the apparent cautiousness and reserve of M. Mesmer,
and even in spite of the little success of his first experiments,
he could not refuse him credit for sincerity in his conduct, and
solidity in his reasonings; and he was convinced, that the failure
did not originate in the fault of his agent, but the indisposition of
the subjects upon which it was employed.” In April 1778, M. Mesmer
retired to Creteil with the patients he had collected, and in a few
months almost all of them returned to Paris perfectly restored. One of
them in particular was a paralytic, deprived of the use of her limbs,
and who now walked with all the ease and firmness in the world. In
November M. A. J. S. D. introduced M. Mesmer to the house of a family
of distinction, and who were actuated with the extremest curiosity
respecting all discoveries which had the benefit of humanity for their
object. Here he made an experiment so remarkable that it is necessary
to extract it somewhat at length.
“There being a pretty numerous company in the saloon, M. Mesmer touched
successively several persons, some of whom had nerves extremely
irritable, without producing any effect sufficiently considerable to
deserve to be ascribed to the animal magnetism. The operation was
repeated; the success was the same.
“The governor of the children of the family, a man of a very robust
and muscular constitution, little inclined to credulity, and fortified
in his scepticism by what he had just seen, had complained for some
time of a pain in his shoulders. As he was beyond dispute the least
susceptible person in the company, he proposed himself by way of
gasconade for the subject of a last experiment.
“M. Mesmer refused to touch this gentleman, but consented to direct
upon him the magnetism from a small distance. In compliance with the
doctor’s inclinations, the governor turned his back, and M. Mesmer,
seven or eight feet from his subject, presented his finger. This
continued for two minutes, the governor replying to the repeated
questions of the doctor with much humour and irony, M. Mesmer then
nodded his head significantly to the company, and in the mean time
guided his finger upwards, downwards, and a little circularly. The
patient said that he felt a kind of shuddering in the superior part of
the back; he however ascribed it to the action of the fire near which
he stood, and accordingly removed to another part of the room. The
experiment was resumed, the sensation augmented, and the patient said
he could compare it to nothing better, than a stream of boiling water,
circulating in the veins of his back and shoulders. The impression
became so strong that he refused to submit to the experiment any
longer. He was persuaded however; the master of the house held one of
his arms, and myself the other. In the process of the experiment the
heat became so insupportable, that he violently broke away from our
grasp. It was succeeded by a profuse perspiration in the part affected.
“M. Mesmer then placed the forefinger of each hand upon the chest
of the patient. The same sensation, but less violent, was produced
in this part; it ascended gradually to the face, and was succeeded
by a perspiration of the forehead. The patient then presented his
forefingers and thumbs, the rest of his hand being clenched; M. Mesmer
did the same very near to the patient, but without touching him. He
complained successively of a shuddering, itching and stiffness in the
palms of his hands; these were again succeeded by a local perspiration.”
To this remarkable experiment we will beg leave to add the following
from the Journal de Paris, No. 44, 1784.
“M. Mesmer being one day with messieurs Camp---- and d’E---- near the
great canal at Meudon, proposed to them to go alternately to the other
side of the canal, while he remained where he was. He then directed
them to thrust their cane into the water, in the mean time doing the
same himself. At this distance M. Camp---- was seized with a fit of
the asthma, and M. d’E---- with a pain in the liver to which he was
subject. Many persons have been unable to submit to this experiment
without fainting away.”
“One evening M. Mesmer walked with six persons in the gardens of the
prince de Soubise. He performed the magnetical operation upon a tree,
and a little time after three ladies of the company fainted away. The
duchess de C----, the only remaining lady, supported herself upon the
tree, without being able to quit it. The count de Mons----, unable to
stand, was obliged to throw himself upon a bench. The effects upon M.
Ang----, a gentleman of a very muscular frame, were more terrible. M.
Mesmer’s servant, who was summoned to remove the bodies, and who was
inured to these scenes, found himself unable to move. The whole company
were obliged to remain in this situation for a considerable time.”
These instances are cited by M. Thouret, Recherches & Doutes, p. 65.
M. Mesmer was from the first desirous of submitting his system to
the examination of the faculty of medicine; but he would not submit
to a regular and authentic committee appointed for that purpose,
apprehensive as he said of the baleful effects of the spirit of
society. This exception occasioned a misunderstanding between him and
the faculty, and the examination was never made.
In France the success of M. Mesmer was the reverse of what it had
been in Germany. His patients increased rapidly. His cures were
numerous and of the most astonishing nature. He was obliged to form
a number of pupils under his inspection to administer his process.
In 1779 he published a Memoir respecting the Discovery of the Animal
Magnetism, and promised a complete system upon the subject, which
should make as great a revolution in philosophy, as it had already
done in medicine. Struck with the clearness and accuracy of his
reasonings, the magnificence of his pretensions, and the extraordinary
and unquestionable cures he performed, some of the greatest physicians
and most enlightened philosophers of France became his converts.
Among these M. Court de Gebelin particularly distinguished himself, a
writer, who had attained the highest reputation by his researches into
antiquity, and who was, if possible, still more distinguished for the
elegance of his taste, the beauty of his conceptions and the richness
of his fancy. The house of M. Mesmer at Creteil was crowded with
patients. A numerous company was daily assembled at his house at Paris,
where the operation was publicly performed; and M. Deslon, one of his
pupils, is said to have cleared £100,000. He was patronised by people
of the first rank, and, as M. Thouret observes, the animal magnetism
became a mode, an affair of bon ton, an interest, extremely precious
and warmly espoused by the fashionable world.
In the mean time the new system was by no means destitute of enemies.
Some of the first pens in France were drawn to oppose it, and among
others that of M. Thouret, regent-physician of the faculty. The faculty
indeed had all along beheld its progress with the extremest jealousy.
At length it was thought to deserve the attention of government,
and a committee, partly physicians, and partly members of the royal
academy of sciences, with doctor Benjamin Franklin at their head, were
appointed to examine it. M. Mesmer refused to have any communication
with these gentlemen; but M. Deslon, the most considerable of his
pupils, consented to disclose to them his principles, and assist them
in their enquiries. Their Report forms the principal piece in the
ensuing pamphlet. M. Mesmer however has appealed from their decision to
the parliament of Paris.
In the mean time it can no longer be concealed that the system of
the animal magnetism is to be regarded as an imposture, and it may
therefore be asked, why it should be thought necessary to give to the
public a translation of papers, which may be thought interesting only
to persons who have been witnesses of the imposture. To this enquiry
several good answers may be given.
One at which we have already hinted is the universal attention it
has excited at Paris, where it seems to have divided the public
speculations with the celebrated and incomparable discovery of the
aerostatic globe. There are surely few people of a literary turn among
us, who will confess themselves void of curiosity respecting what
engages all the faculties of our neighbours, or who will not confess
that their literary pursuits are commonly at least as interesting and
instructive a subject of enquiry, as their politics.
Secondly, the Report of the commissioners and the enquiries respecting
the animal magnetism in general may be considered as relating not
merely to a temporary and unfounded hypothesis, but to the general and
most important question respecting the influence of the imagination
upon the animal frame, a question peculiarly interesting to the
metaphysician, and of the last consequence in medicine. Upon this
subject the Report seems to throw new light, and to have a tendency to
add precision and accuracy to our notions in regard to it.
But the argument upon which we would place the principal stress is the
essential importance of this fact in the history of the human mind.
Perhaps the history of the errors of mankind, all things considered, is
more valuable and interesting than that of their discoveries. Truth is
uniform and narrow; it constantly exists, and does not seem to require
so much an active energy, as a passive aptitude of soul in order to
encounter it. But error is endlessly diversified; it has no reality,
but is the pure and simple creation of the mind that invents it. In
this field the soul has room enough to expand herself, to display
all her boundless faculties, and all her beautiful and interesting
extravagancies and absurdities. It is observed of civil history, that
it is properly the record of human calamities; the same thing may be
observed of ecclesiastical history, it is the record of our errors.
For this reason a well written ecclesiastical history, a species of
composition that we suspect does not yet exist, would perhaps be the
most instructive study in the world.
But there is an additional reason, which gives the error of the
animal magnetism a particular claim to our attention. The same error
was started, if M. Thouret be in the right, two centuries ago. It is
therefore worth our curiosity to enquire, what different instruments
were necessary to deceive mankind in an ignorant and an enlightened
age, in the commencement of the seventeenth and the close of the
eighteenth century; in a word to run a parallel between the borrowed
system of Mesmer, and the original one of Paracelsus, Maxwel and sir
Kenelm Digby. And as every publication ought to be as complete as
possible within itself, we have destined to assist the reader in this
enquiry, the ensuing paper of the society of medicine respecting M.
Thouret’s performance.
P. S. The following extract of a letter from the best authority from
Paris, has been received while these papers are in the press. It
relates to the particulars of a fact alluded to at the bottom of page
xiv.
“Mesmer has complained to the parliament of the report of the
royal commissioners, and requested that they would appoint a
new commission, to examine--not his theory and practice, but--a
_plan_, which shall exhibit the only possible means of infallibly
demonstrating the existence and utility of his discovery. The
petition was printed: many thought the parliament would do nothing in
it. But they have laid hold of it to clinch Mesmer, and oblige him to
expose all directly; so that it must soon be seen whether there is
any difference between his method and Deslon’s.--I give you their
“Arret, of the 6 Sept. 1784.
“The parliament ordains that Mesmer _shall be obliged_ to expose,
before four doctors of the faculty of medicine, two surgeons and
two masters in pharmacy, the doctrine, which he professes to have
discovered, and the methods which he pretends must be adopted for the
application of his principles: they likewise ordain that a report of
his communications shall then be delivered to the attorney general,
to be laid before parliament for their sentence.”
REPORT
Of a Committee of the Royal Society of Medicine, appointed to
examine a Work, entitled, ENQUIRIES AND DOUBTS RESPECTING THE ANIMAL
MAGNETISM, BY M. THOURET, _Regent Physician of the Faculty of
Paris, and Member of the Society_. To which are subjoined, by the
Translator, Notes, chiefly extracted from M. Thouret’s Performance.
The underwritten were charged by the royal society of medicine, with
the examination of a work of M. Thouret, member of the society,
entitled, Enquiries and Doubts respecting the Animal Magnetism.
In the attentive perusal of this work, it is obvious to remark, that
it has two very distinct objects; one of them, which is in a manner
historical, is to explain the coincidences of the animal magnetism,
as it was known to the ancients, with that which is admitted by the
moderns: the other contains critical reflections and doubts in regard
to the evidences upon which the doctrine is founded, the uncertainty
of which M. Thouret undertakes to display. We will endeavour to lay
before the society an idea of his performance.
The animal magnetism held a principal rank among the systems, which
were embraced in that period of literary history, when suppositions
were admitted to hold the place of facts; and this hypothesis vanished,
together with many others, when experimental philosophy began to
dissipate the impostures of the imagination, and to afford an accurate
measure of the value of arts and sciences.
The object of this system was a fluid extremely subtle, upon which were
bestowed the magnificent titles of soul of the world, spirit of the
universe, and universal magnetic fluid; and which was pretended to be
diffused through the whole space occupied by the material creation, to
animate the system of nature, to penetrate all substances, and to be
the vehicle to animated bodies in general, and their several regions in
particular, of certain forces of attraction and repulsion, by means of
which they explained the phenomena of nature.
Nor were they contented to admit, or rather to imagine, the fluid we
have described; they flattered themselves that they were able, in
certain methods, to render themselves masters of this fluid, and to
direct its operations. Even this did not terminate their chimerical
pretensions: they affirmed that this fluid, in which they admitted a
species of flux and reflux, exerted an important degree of action upon
the nerves, and had a grand analogy with the vital principle; that its
effects, under the guidance of skill and illumination, extended to very
great distances, without the intervention of any foreign substances;
that it was possible to impregnate with it, either certain powders, in
the manner of sir Kenelm Digby, who asserted that he had done this, or
fluids, or different parts of the bodies of animals; that this agent
was like light reflected by mirrors, and that sound and music augmented
its intensity.
The partisans of the animal magnetism, who wrote in the seventeenth
century, did not yet confine their hopes within these limits: the art
of directing the fluid, which they had brought down from heaven, and
which, according to them, acted in so distinguished a manner upon
the human body, might be expected to have a considerable share in
the medical science, or rather to supersede that science, as it had
hitherto existed; they did not fail to assert, that in causing it to
circulate in a proper manner, the restoration of diseased organs was
infallible, as well the preservation of the health of those who were
yet unattacked with any disease[1].
Such was the origin of an external and universal medicine, of a species
entirely new, and which boasted of having the advantage of curing
diseases, without obliging any drugs to be swallowed by the diseased.
Soon after poles were discovered in the human body, that is, points,
towards which it appeared that the action of this imaginary fluid
ought to be directed, cures and evacuations were operated without the
assistance of pharmacy, sensations of various kinds were excited in the
patients; and notwithstanding the distinguished effects ascribed to
this agent, it was asserted, that persons the most feeble and delicate
might submit to its process without danger. The process had yet another
use, that of discovering the seat of the distemper; a thing frequently
so difficult to be ascertained, but which was pointed out by the fluid
by a sort of instinctive intelligence, and with absolute demonstration.
It perfected the concoction of the humours; nervous distempers
in particular, rarely resisted its influence; it was favourable
to transpiration. In fine, and this last remark is of particular
importance, it had a powerful action upon the moral principles of our
frame. A propensity, that could scarcely be resisted, was the basis of
the attachment and gratitude, which were vowed by the patients to those
who had employed upon them this method of cure. Several, and in this
number was Maxwel, even gave us to understand, that it was possible, in
certain circumstances of human life, to make an improper use of this
vehicle of influence[2].
This picture of the animal magnetism, as it was invented and applauded
by the ancients, is faithfully extracted from the performance of
M. Thouret. The principal authors, to which he has recourse in the
progress of his enquiry, are Paracelsus, Van Helmont, Goclenius,
Burgravius, Libavius, Wirdig, Maxwel, Santanelli, Tentzel, Kircher
and Borel[3]. The entire passages are extracted, and M. Thouret has
displayed in this performance, as he had already done in so many
others, an erudition, the most various, the most precise, and the most
extensive.
It is easy to see, how analogous is the system we have described
to that of M. Mesmer. To demonstrate this analogy, M. Thouret has
considered separately each of the propositions published and avowed
by the latter. They amount to twenty-seven, and the result of this
examination is, that they are all positively announced in some of the
authors whose names have been recited.
Every part of Mesmer’s system, even down to the experiments of the ring
and the sword, have been found by M. Thouret in the works of these
writers[4]. It is therefore certain, that the assertions of M. Mesmer,
which are represented by him as principles of his own, do not belong to
him; and that this theory, in the room of being an attractive novelty,
is an ancient system, abandoned by the learned near a century ago.
In ascending indeed to the original systems which were formed upon
the subject, we are unable to discover any thing but suppositions
destitute of proof, and for that reason devoted to oblivion. The parts
of this hypothesis were not connected together by any other tie, than
that of the imagination. The steps that were proposed in order to its
establishment, were the very same that had been employed in favour of
the art of cure, now by enchantments, and now by exorcisms. It has been
always by sensations that they have pretended to prove the existence
of these different agents; and if this kind of proof were sufficient,
there is not one of them which would not have been demonstrated. Sound
philosophy has therefore refused credit, as well to this species
of proof, as to the magnetism, such as it was proposed by Maxwel,
Goclenius and Santanelli, and such as we have described it in the
opening of this report.
Has the animal magnetism of M. Mesmer any better claim to our
confidence? M. Thouret, without replying to this question in a positive
manner, has permitted to himself, in the second part of his work,
certain reflections respecting it, which he has proposed simply as
doubts, and which relate entirely to what M. Mesmer has published, or
authentically advanced. It may be objected to him, says M. Thouret,
1. That the touch frequently employed in his method for a considerable
time, and on regions extremely sensible, such as those of the stomach,
is of itself capable of producing effects, by communicating a vivid
impulse to the nerves of the plexuses which are there situated, and
which have an intimate connection with the whole nervous system; that
authentic records present us with a great number of facts of this
kind, and that in consequence, the sensations, which originate in the
application of the touch, do not prove the existence of a separate
fluid or agent.
2. That the heat produced by the hand, and the motion communicated to
the air, may occasion very strong impressions upon a person extremely
sensible, and whose fibres are in a state of convulsion, without these
impressions being calculated to prove a new agent.
3. That in subduing the imagination by solemn preparations, by
extraordinary proceedings, by the confidence and enthusiasm inspired
by magnificent promises, it is possible to exalt the tone of sensible
and nervous fibres, and afterwards to direct, by the application of
the hands, their impulse towards certain organs, and to excite in them
evacuations or excretions, without there resulting any addition to the
sciences, either of philosophy or medicine.
4. That the partisans of the animal magnetism do not produce what
they call crises, that is, a state of convulsions, but in subjects
extremely irritable, extremely nervous, and above all, in women, whose
sensibility has been already excited by the means we have described.
5. That among these disposing causes, particular stress is to be laid
upon the presence of a person already in a state of convulsion, or
ready to fall into that state; that just as an organ attacked with
spasmodic affections, easily propagates these affections to the other
organs, in like manner are they transmitted from one man to another;
that we have therefore no reason to be surprised, if in the halls,
where the pretended magnetical operations are performed, spasms, and
even convulsions are diffused with extreme alacrity; and that history
furnishes a great number of facts, of convulsions propagated through
whole villages or towns, in a manner still more astonishing than that
of which the animal magnetism presents us with an example.
6. That history has also transmitted to us a great number of cures
operated by fear, by joy, or the commotion of any violent passion;
which proves beyond controversy, the power of nervous influences over
diseases.
7. That in different ages, two famous empirics, Valentine Greatrakes
of the kingdom of Ireland, and Gassner of Ratisbon, produced upon
different persons effects which appeared surprising, and have had
their admirers; that they employed only the instrumentality of the
touch, either upon the nape of the neck, or the limb affected; and that
it has been universally acknowledged, that they acted only upon the
imagination[5].
8. That in many instances, the partisans of the magnetism seem to
bestow a greater attention to excite surprise in the spectators, than
salutary effects in their patients; the spasms and convulsions which
they produce being the source of undoubted evil, were it only by the
habitude of that state which they are calculated to induce, while the
advantages of this method are not equally demonstrated.
9. That certain local diseases not being of the number of those upon
which the animal magnetism acts, and certain persons, by the confession
of M. Mesmer, not being susceptible of its action, it may be suspected,
that the partisans of this system have contrived for themselves this
resource, in order to account for their failure of success in certain
cases.
10. That to pretend to the discovery of a means which shall extend
to every kind of disease, that is, to an universal medicine, is an
illusion which cannot be excused in an enlightened age.
11. That the known effects of sensibility are sufficient to explain,
without any new agent, the phenomena which M. Mesmer produces by a
method which he has not yet imparted to the public.
12. That M. Mesmer, in supposing a particular agent, has adopted a rout
contrary to the interests of his discovery, in following the example of
those who have exerted their efforts to give credit to a system, worthy
upon every account of the oblivion into which it has fallen.
The society may judge of the performance from this extract: it is
proper here to call to mind, that the royal society, acquainted with
the zeal of M. Thouret, and his indefatigable enquiries into every
thing that concerned the magnetism, charged him in their session of
the twelfth of March 1784, with the collection from the authors, as
well ancient as modern, of all that had been written respecting the
animal magnetism. This collection, which is sufficiently complete to
satisfy every reasonable desire, and of which M. Thouret communicated
the plan to the society, composes the first part of his work, and is to
be considered as his report to the society upon that subject. We are of
opinion, that the society is extremely indebted to him in that respect.
The second part contains judicious reflections and sagacious doubts.
We think both of them worthy of being printed with the approbation and
privilege of the society.
The society, charged by the king with the examination of all new
inventions and secret methods of healing diseases, has not beheld
without inquietude, the species of vogue acquired by the animal
magnetism; whose procedures, whatever be their merit, have been and
are administered to the diseased, and paid for by the public, without
having previously, in obedience to the express provisions of the laws
of the kingdom, undergone the examination of the physical profession;
an abuse, against which the society, as in duty bound, has exclaimed
ever since its introduction. They have a right to take much pride
to themselves, that one of their members is publishing so learned
enquiries upon a subject, which has not been hitherto treated but in
anonymous compositions, which are, for the greater part, destined more
for the amusement than the instruction of their readers. The work of
M. Thouret, full of depth and sagacity, will enlighten those who are
impartial in their enquiries, and will greatly tend to the solution
of a question, upon which the public interest requires that sentence
should be pronounced as soon as possible.
Louvre, July the 9th, 1784.
(Signed) GEOFFROY,
DESPERRIERES,
JEANROI,
DEFOURCROY,
CHAMBON,
VICQ D’AZYR.
REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS, &c.
The king named, on the twelfth of March 1784, four physicians of the
faculty of Paris, messieurs Borie, Sallin, d’Arcet, Guillotin, to
enter into the examination, and to lay before him an account of the
animal magnetism practised by M. Deslon: and upon the petition of these
physicians, his majesty joined with them, for the purpose of this
inquisition, five members of the royal academy of sciences, messieurs
Franklin, le Roy, Bailly, de Borie, Lavoisier. M. Borie having died in
the commencement of the business, his majesty appointed M. Majault,
doctor of the faculty, to replace him.
M. Mesmer has described the agent he professes to have discovered,
and to which he has given the appellation of animal magnetism, in the
following manner. “It is a fluid universally diffused; the vehicle
of a mutual influence between the celestial bodies, the earth and
the bodies of animated beings; it is so continued as to admit of no
vacuum; its subtlety does not admit of illustration; it is capable
of receiving, propagating and communicating all the impressions that
are incident to motion; it is susceptible of flux and reflux. The
animal body is subject to the effects of this agent; and these effects
are immediately produced by the agent insinuating itself into the
substance of the nerves. We particularly discover in the human body
qualities analogous to those of the loadstone; we distinguish in it
poles different and opposite. The action and the virtue of the animal
magnetism are capable of being communicated from one body to another,
animated or inanimate; they exert themselves to considerable distances,
and without the least assistance from any intermediate bodies: this
action is increased and reflected by mirrors; it is communicated,
propagated and augmented by sound; and the virtue itself is capable of
being accumulated, concentrated and transferred. Though the fluid be
universal all animal bodies are not equally susceptible of it; there
even are some, though very few, of so opposite a nature, as by their
mere presence to supersede its effects upon any other contiguous bodies.
“The animal magnetism is capable of curing immediately diseases of
the nerves, and mediately other distempers; it improves the action
of medicines; it forwards and directs the salutary crises so as to
subject them totally to the government of the judgment; by means of
it the physician becomes acquainted with the state of health of each
individual, and decides with certainty upon the causes, the nature and
the progress of the most complicated distempers; it prevents their
increase, and effects their extirpation, without at any time exposing
the patient, whatever be his age, sex or constitution, to alarming
incidents, or unpleasing consequences[6].” “In the influence of the
magnetism, nature holds out to us a sovereign instrument for securing
the health and lengthening the existence of mankind[7].”
Such is the agent, with the examination of which the commissioners
have been charged, and whose properties are avowed by M. Deslon, who
admits all the principles of M. Mesmer. This theory forms the basis of
a memoir, which was read at the house of M. Deslon, on the ninth day
of May, in the presence of M. the lieutenant general of the police,
and the commissioners. It is asserted in this memoir, that there is
but one nature, one distemper and one remedy; and this remedy is the
animal magnetism. This physician, at the same time that he acquainted
the commissioners with the doctrine and process of the magnetism,
instructed them in its practice by discovering to them the poles, and
shewing them the manner of touching the diseased, and directing in
regard to them the magnetic fluid.
M. Deslon undertook to the commissioners, in the first place, to evince
the existence of the animal magnetism; secondly, to communicate to them
his knowledge respecting this discovery; and thirdly, to prove the
utility of this discovery and of the animal magnetism in the cure of
diseases.
After having thus made themselves acquainted with the theory and
practice of the animal magnetism, it was necessary to observe its
effects. For this purpose the commissioners adjourned themselves, and
each of them repeatedly witnessed the public method of M. Deslon.
They saw in the centre of a large apartment a circular box, made of
oak, and about a foot or a foot and an half deep, which is called the
bucket;[8] the lid of this box is pierced with a number of holes, in
which are inserted branches of iron, elbowed and moveable. The patients
are arranged in ranks about this bucket, and each has his branch of
iron, which by means of the elbow may be applied immediately to the
part affected; a cord passed round their bodies connects them one with
the other: sometimes a second means of communication is introduced, by
the insertion of the thumb of each patient between the forefinger and
thumb of the patient next him; the thumb thus inserted is pressed by
the person holding it; the impression received by the left hand of the
patient, communicates through his right, and thus passes through the
whole circle.
A piano forté is placed in one corner of the apartment, and different
airs are played with various degrees of rapidity; vocal music is
sometimes added to the instrumental.
The persons who superintend the process, have each of them an iron rod
in his hand, from ten to twelve inches in length.
M. Deslon made to the commissioners the following declarations. 1st.
That this rod is a conductor of the magnetism, has the power of
concentring it at its point, and of rendering its emanations more
considerable. 2dly. That sound, conformably to the theory of M. Mesmer,
is also a conductor of the magnetism, and that to communicate the fluid
to the piano forté, nothing more is necessary than to approach to it
the iron rod; that the person who plays upon the instrument furnishes
also a portion of the fluid, and that the magnetism is transmitted by
the sounds to the surrounding patients. 3dly. That the cord which is
passed round the bodies of the patients is destined, as well as the
union of their fingers, to augment the effects by communication. 4thly.
That the interior part of the bucket is so constructed as to concentre
the magnetism, and is a grand reservoir, from which the fluid is
diffused through the branches of iron that are inserted in its lid.
The commissioners in the progress of their examination discovered, by
means of an electrometer and a needle of iron not touched with the
loadstone, that the bucket contained no substance either electric
or magnetical; and from the detail that M. Deslon has made to them
respecting the interior construction of the bucket, they cannot infer
any physical agent, capable of contributing to the imputed effects of
the magnetism.
The patients then, arranged in considerable number and in successive
ranks round the bucket, derive the magnetic virtue at once from all
these conveyances: from the branches of iron, which transmit to them
that of the bucket; from the cord which is passed round their bodies,
and the union of their fingers, which communicate to them that of their
neighbours; and from the sound of the piano forté, or of a musical
voice, which diffuses it through the air. The patients are beside
magnetised directly, by means of a finger or a bar of iron, guided
before the face, above or behind the head, and over the surface of the
parts affected, the distinction of the poles still observed; they are
also acted upon by a look, and by having their attention excited. But
especially they are magnetised by the application of the hands, and by
the pressure of the fingers upon the hypochonders and the regions of
the lower belly; an application frequently continued for a long time,
sometimes for several hours.
In this situation the patients offer a spectacle extremely varied in
proportion to their different habits of body. Some of them are calm,
tranquil and unconscious to any sensation; others cough, spit, are
affected with a slight degree of pain, a partial or an universal
burning, and perspirations; a third class are agitated and tormented
with convulsions. These convulsions are rendered extraordinary by
their frequency, their violence and their duration. As soon as one
person is convulsed, others presently are affected by that symptom.
The commissioners saw accesses of this kind, which lasted upwards of
three hours; they were accompanied with expectorations of a thick and
viscous water, brought away by the violence of the efforts. Sometimes
these expectorations were accompanied with small quantities of blood;
and there is among others a lad, a patient, who has frequently brought
up blood in considerable abundance. These convulsions are characterised
by precipitate and involuntary motions of all the limbs or of the whole
body, by a contraction of the throat, by sudden affections of the
hypochonders and the epigastrium, by a distraction and wildness in the
eyes, by shrieks, tears, hiccuppings, and immoderate laughter. They
are either preceded or followed by a state of languor and reverie, by
a species of dejection and even drowsiness. The least unforeseen noise
occasions starting; and it has been observed, that the changing of
the key and the time, in the airs played upon the piano forté, had an
effect upon the patients; so that a quicker motion agitates them more,
and renews the vivacity of their convulsions.
There is an apartment lined with quilting, which was originally
destined for the patients in whom the magnetism produced convulsions,
and is denominated the apartment of crises; but M. Deslon has not
judged proper to make any use of it; and all the patients, whatever be
the accidents of their situation, are placed together in the apartment
of public proceeding.
Nothing can be more astonishing than the sight of these convulsions;
he that has not had it, can have no idea of it: and in beholding it,
a man is not less struck with the profound repose of one class of
patients, than with the violence which agitates another; he observes
with admiration the various accidents that are repeated, and the
sympathies that are developed. He sees some patients seek each other
with eagerness; and in approaching smile, converse with all the
demonstrations of attachment, and soothe their mutual crises. They
are entirely under the government of the person who distributes the
magnetic virtue: in vain they may appear to be in a state of the
extremest drowsiness, his voice, a look, a sign from him rouses
them. It is impossible not to recognise in these regular effects an
extraordinary influence, acting upon the patients, making itself master
of them, and of which he who superintends the process, appears to be
the depository.
These convulsive affections are improperly stiled crises in the theory
of the animal magnetism: according to this doctrine indeed they are
regarded as a salutary crisis, of the same kind as those which nature
produces, or which a skilful physician has the art to excite to
facilitate the cure of diseases. The commissioners will adopt this
expression in the following report; and, wherever they employ the word
crisis, they will always understand the convulsive, drowsy or lethargic
affections, produced by the means of the animal magnetism.
The commissioners observed, that in the number of patients in the state
of crisis, there were always many women and few men: that it was one
or two hours before these crises took place; and that, when one had
taken place, all the others commenced successively, and without any
considerable interval. But after having made these general remarks,
the commissioners were speedily of opinion, that the public process
could not be made the scene of their experiments. The multiplicity
of the effects is one obstacle; too many things are seen at once
for any one of them to be seen well. Beside, the patients of rank,
who repair hither upon account of their health, might be displeased
with the enquiries of the commissioners; the very act of watching
them might appear a nuisance; and the recollection of this might be
burdensome, and impede the commissioners in their turn. They therefore
resolved, that as their frequent attendance at the public process was
unnecessary, it would be sufficient for a few of them to go from time
to time, to confirm the former general observations, to make new ones
in case an opportunity should occur for that purpose, and to report
them to the commission assembled.
After having observed these effects at the public process, it behoved
them, in the next place, to endeavour to discover their causes, and
enquire into the proofs of the existence and utility of the magnetism.
The question of its existence is first in order; that of its utility it
were idle to examine, till the other shall have been fully resolved.
The animal magnetism may indeed exist without being useful, but it
cannot be useful if it do not exist.
Of consequence the first object of attention with the commissioners,
and the direct tendency of their first experiments, ought to be
the ascertaining this existence. Again, this was itself an object
of considerable comprehension, and had need of being simplified.
The animal magnetism embraces the whole compass of nature; it is
the vehicle, we are told, of the influence exerted upon us by the
celestial bodies; the commissioners were of opinion, that they ought,
in the first place, to leave this more extensive influence out of the
question, and to consider only that part of the fluid which is diffused
over the earth, without troubling themselves with whence it comes; in a
word, to evince the action it exercises upon us, around us, and within
the sphere of our inspection, before they undertook to examine its
relation to the universe.
The most certain method of determining the existence of the animal
magnetic fluid, would have been, to have rendered its presence capable
of being perceived by the senses; but much time was not necessary
to convince the commissioners that this fluid is too subtle to be
subjected to their observation. It is not, like the electrical fluid,
luminous and visible; its action is not, like the attraction of the
loadstone, the object of our sight; it has neither taste nor smell;
its process is silent, and it surrounds you or penetrates your frame,
without your being informed of its presence by the sense of touch. If
therefore it exist in us and around us, it is after a manner perfectly
insensible. There are persons among those who profess the magnetism,
who pretend that it may sometimes be seen passing from the extremity
of the fingers, which serve it for conductors, or who believe that
they feel its passage when you guide your finger before their face, or
along their hand. In the first of these cases, the emanation perceived
is merely that of transpiration, which becomes completely visible when
viewed through a solar microscope; in the second, the impression of
cold or freshness which is felt, an impression by so much the more
perceptible the warmer one is, results from the motion of the air which
follows the finger, and the degree of whose temperature is always below
that of animal heat. When, on the other hand, the finger is approached
to the surface of the face, which is colder than the finger, and it is
held at rest, the consequence is a sensation of heat, which is no other
than the communication of the animal heat.
It is also pretended that this fluid has a smell, and that it is
perceived when either the finger or an iron conductor is brought into
contiguity with the nostrils; it is even said, that the sensation is
different, according as the finger or the rod of iron is directed
parallel with, or opposite to the poles. M. Deslon made the experiment
upon several of the commissioners; the commissioners themselves have
repeated it upon different subjects; not one has experienced this
difference of sensation: and if, by giving a close attention, any
scent has been perceived, it has been that of the iron, when the rod
has been presented rubbed and heated; or that of the emanation of the
transpiration, when the finger has been presented, a scent frequently
combined with that of the iron with which the finger itself has been
impressed. These effects have been erroneously attributed to the
magnetism, but they may be traced in reality to natural and definite
causes.
Indeed M. Deslon has never insisted upon these transient impressions,
he did not think they were to be offered in evidence; on the contrary
he expressly assured the commissioners, that he could not demonstrate
to them the existence of the magnetism, otherwise than by the action
of this fluid, producing certain changes in animated bodies. This
existence is so much the more difficult to be demonstrated by effects,
which shall be incontrovertible, and whose causes shall be unequivocal;
by authentic facts, in cases where moral circumstances cannot exert
their influence: in a word, by proofs calculated to convince and compel
the understanding, the only ones which can yield any solid satisfaction
to persons really proficient in the study of nature.
The action of the magnetism upon animated bodies may be observed in two
different ways; either as it consists in that action continued for a
long time, and in its salutary effects in the treatment of diseases, or
in its momentary effects upon the animal œconomy and the perceptible
changes there produced. M. Deslon insisted that the former of these
methods should be employed principally, and nearly exclusively; the
commissioners have been of a different opinion, and their reasons are
as follow.