the efficacy both of the touch and the imagination. In proof of the
contagion of convulsive affections, he cites the convulsions of Saint
Medard, and the possessions of Loudun. “The former of these took place
in 1732, and made their appearance as soon as any of the religious
were approached to the tomb of their patron saint. They were exposed
in the most triumphant manner, and covered with ridicule by Hecquet,
in his Natural History of Convulsions. The pretended possessions of
Loudun (1740) originated in an infamous scheme of avarice and revenge
against the unfortunate Urbain Grandier, rector of Loudun, who became
the victim of the machinations of his enemies. The physicians of
Montpelier, charged with the examination of the affair, discovered the
whole secret of the possessions to consist in factitious and pretended
convulsions.” _Thouret._
[6] Memoir by M. Mesmer, upon the Discovery of the Animal Magnetism,
1779, pages 74 and following.
[7] Ibid. Advertisement, page vi.
[8] _Baquet._ The diameter of this box is usually large enough to admit
of fifty persons standing round its circumference. _Translator._
[9] The observation of this fact was laid in detail before the faculty
of medicine at Paris, in an assembly de prima mensis, by M. Bourdois de
la Mothe, physician of the charity of Saint-Sulpice, who visited the
sick person regularly every day.
[10] M. Mesmer, Historical Abridgement, pages 35, 37.
[11] M. Sigault, doctor of the faculty of Paris, well known for his
invention of the operation of the symphysis of the ossa pubis, made a
number of experiments, tending to prove that the magnetism is merely an
imaginary power. The following is the detail which he made in a letter,
dated July the 30th, 1784, and addressed to one of the commissioners.
“Having given the persons who inhabited a large house in the Marais, to
understand that I was a pupil of M. Mesmer, I produced various effects
upon the woman of the house. The magisterial tone and the serious
air I affected, together with certain gestures, made a very great
impression upon her, which she at first was desirous to conceal from
me; but having guided my hand upon the region of the heart, I felt that
it palpitated. The state of oppression in which she appeared likewise
indicated a contraction of the chest. Other symptoms were connected
with these; her face became convulsed, her eyes wandered, she at length
fell into a swoon, then threw up her dinner, had several stools, and
was reduced to a state of weakness and sinking, perfectly incredible.
I repeated the same trick upon several persons, and succeeded more or
less, according to their different degrees of sensibility and credulity.
“A celebrated artist, master of design to the children of one of
our princes, complained for several days of an extreme head-ach; he
acquainted me with it upon the Pont-royal; having persuaded him that I
was initiated in the mysteries of M. Mesmer, I expelled his head-ach
almost instantaneously by the means of a few gestures, to his great
astonishment.
“I produced the same effects upon the apprentice of a hatter in the
same distemper. The lad felt nothing in consequence of my first
gestures; I then laid my hand upon his false ribs, bidding him at the
same time look in my face. He immediately felt a contraction of the
chest, palpitations of the heart, yawnings, and an extreme dejection.
He doubted no longer of the power I possessed over him. I then guided
my finger over the part affected, and asked him what he felt. He
replied that his pain dislodged itself and descended. I assured him
that I would guide it towards his arm, and make it come out at his
thumb, at the same time squeezing it with considerable force. He took
me at my word, and was perfectly well for two hours. At that period he
stopped me in the street to tell me that his pain was returned. This
effect seems to be the same with that produced by certain dentists upon
the mental faculties of those, who go to them to have a tooth drawn.
“Further lastly, being in the parlour of a convent, rue du Colombier,
fauxbourg Saint Germains, a young lady said to me: I understand,
sir, that you are a pupil of M. Mesmer. I am so, replied I; and I
can perform the magnetical operation upon you, notwithstanding the
intervention of the grate. At the same time I presented my finger; she
was terrified, trembled extremely, and besought me for God’s sake to
proceed no farther. Her emotion was such, that, if I had persevered in
my experiment, she would infallibly have fallen into convulsions.”
M. Sigault relates that he had himself felt the power of imagination.
One day, the operator having undertaken to perform upon him the
magnetical operation to convince him of its reality, at the moment he
had determined to touch him, he felt a contraction of the chest, and a
palpitation of the heart. But having immediately composed himself, the
gestures and the process of the magnetism were employed in vain, and
made no impression upon him.
[12] Marshal Villars, who was employed in appeasing the troubles of the
Cevennes, says: “I saw things in this kind, which I should not have
believed, if they had not passed before my eyes; I saw a considerable
town, of which the whole female part without exception appeared to
be possessed by the devil. They trembled and prophesied publicly in
the streets. One had the rashness to tremble and prophesy for an
hour together in my presence. But of all these absurdities the most
surprising was that, which was related to me by the bishop of Alais,
and which I wrote to M. de Chamillard in the following terms.
“‘A M. de Mandagors, lord of the manor of that name, mayor of Alais,
possessing the first appointments in the town and county, and having
even been for some time subdelegate to M. de Bàville, was the subject
of this relation. He was sixty years of age, temperate in his manners,
possessed of a fine understanding, and had written and published many
performances. Some of them I have read, and, before I knew what I have
just learned respecting him, I considered them as distinguished by a
very vigorous imagination.
“‘A prophetess, aged twenty seven or twenty eight years, was taken up
about eighteen months ago and carried before the bishop of Alais. He
interrogated her before several ecclesiastics. The creature, after
having heard what he said, replied with a modest air, exhorted him no
longer to torment the true children of God, and then addressed him for
an entire hour in an uncouth language of which he could not understand
a word: just as we have formerly seen the duke de la Ferté, when he
had drank a few glasses, talk English before the inhabitants of that
country. I have heard them say, I understand very well that he speaks
English, but I cannot comprehend a word that he says. It would have
been somewhat difficult that they should have done so, for he never
knew a word of English in his life. This girl talked Greek and Hebrew
in the style of the duke de la Ferté.
“‘You will take it for granted that M. d’Alais sent the girl to prison.
After several months, the girl appearing to be entirely ridded of her
absurdities by the attention and advice of the sieur de Mandagors, who
frequently visited her in her confinement, she was set at liberty, and
the consequence of that liberty, and of the liberties that the sieur
Mandagors had taken with her, was an immediate pregnancy.
“‘But the fact which I was about to relate is the resignation made by
the sieur Mandagors of all his employments in favour of his son, at
the same time saying to several individuals, and among others to the
bishop, that it was by express commission from God that he had had
carnal knowledge of the prophetess, and that the child which should
be born would be the true saviour of the world. The consequence of
all this in any other country than France, would have been merely the
sending M. the mayor and his fair patroness to bedlam. The bishop
suggested to me to have him arrested. I proposed previously to confer
with M. de Bàville, intendant of the province, ordering in the mean
time that he and the prophetess should be closely watched, so that
they might not be able to escape. My opinion was, that, in the midst
of a country of madmen, what relates to a madman of such importance
ought to make as little noise as possible; and that it was therefore
necessary to endeavour to get him out of the country by gentle means,
and then to take him into custody. Your lordship will easily conceive
that to declare publicly for a prophet a mayor of Alais, the lord
of an extensive manor, an ancient subdelegate of the intendant, an
author, and a man hitherto esteemed for his penetration and sagacity,
in the midst of a country accustomed to venerate and respect him, was a
measure better calculated to revolt the minds of the inhabitants than
to correct them. It would the rather have had this tendency, that,
except the folly of believing that God had commanded him to have carnal
knowledge of this young woman, his conversation is as full of reason
and good sense, as was that of Don Quixote upon all other subjects but
that of knight-errantry. M. de Bàville was of my opinion. The children
of M. Mandagors conducted him without noise to one of his châteaux,
where he was confined, and the prophetess taken from him and sent
to prison.’” Vie du Maréchal Duc de Villars, tome I., pages 325 and
following.
[13] On the day of the ceremony of the first communion, celebrated
in the parish church of Saint Roch a few years ago (1780), after the
evening service they made according to custom the procession through
the streets. Scarcely were the children returned to the church,
and had resumed their seats, before a young girl fell ill and had
convulsions. This affection propagated itself with so much rapidity,
that in the space of half an hour fifty or sixty girls from twelve
to nineteen years of age were seized with the same convulsions; that
is, with a contraction of the throat, an inflation of the stomach,
suffocation, hiccups and spasms more or less considerable. These
accidents reappeared in some instances in the course of the week; but
the following Sunday, being assembled with the dames of Sainte Anne,
whose business it is to teach the young ladies, twelve of them were
seized with the same convulsions, and more would have followed, if
they had not had the precaution to send away each child upon the spot
to her relations. The whole were obliged to be divided into several
schools. By thus separating the children, and not keeping them together
but in small numbers, three weeks sufficed to dissipate entirely this
epidemical convulsive affection. See for other instances of the same
kind the Natural History of Convulsions by M. Hecquet.
[14] M. Deslon had already said in 1780. “Granting for a moment that M.
Mesmer possesses no other secret than that of employing the imagination
in the extensive production of the most salutary effects, will it not
still be true, that his invention is an extremely valuable one? For in
reality, if the physic of the imagination be more salutary than the
other kinds of medicine, what good reason can be alledged, why the
physic of the imagination should not be brought into general use?”
Observations on the Animal Magnetism, pages 46 and 47.
[15] If it be objected to the commissioners that this decision
concludes respecting the magnetism in general, instead of relating
singly to the magnetism practised by M. Deslon, the commissioners
reply that the intention of the king was to have their opinion upon
the animal magnetism, and that in consequence they have not exceeded
the bounds of their commission. Again they reply that M. Deslon has
appeared to them acquainted with what are called the principles of the
magnetism, and that he certainly possesses the means of producing the
effects and exciting the crises which are ascribed to it.
The principles of M. Deslon are the very same with those included
in the twenty seven propositions disseminated from the press by M.
Mesmer in 1779. If M. Mesmer now announces a more extensive theory,
it was not necessary for the commissioners to be acquainted with the
theory to decide upon the existence and utility of the magnetism, it
was sufficient to estimate the effects. It is by the effects that
the existence of a cause is established, it is by the effects also
that its utility must be demonstrated. The phenomena are learned from
observation long before we can arrive at the theory which connects and
explains them. The theory of the loadstone does not yet exist, and its
phenomena are ascertained by the experience of successive ages. The
theory of M. Mesmer is in this case indifferent and superfluous; the
methods employed, the effects produced, this is what it was necessary
to examine. Now it is easy to prove that the essential practice of the
magnetism is known to M. Deslon.
M. Deslon was for many years the pupil of M. Mesmer. Constantly during
that time he saw the process of the animal magnetism, and the means
employed in exciting and directing it. M. Deslon himself administered
the magnetism in the presence of M. Mesmer; separated from him he
operated the same effects. Being afterwards reconciled they united
their patients; the one and the other without distinction undertook the
management of them, and of consequence the methods were the same. The
method which is followed at this day by M. Deslon can be no other than
the method of M. Mesmer.
The effects are not less correspondent. There are crises equally
frequent, and accompanied by similar symptoms, at the house of M.
Deslon and at the house of M. Mesmer; the effects do not therefore
belong to the method of an individual, but to the practice of the
magnetism in general. The experiments of the commissioners demonstrate
that the effects obtained by M. Deslon are due to compression, to
imagination and to imitation. These are therefore the causes of the
magnetism in general. The observations of the commissioners have
convinced them that these convulsive crises and these violent means
cannot be useful in medicine any otherwise than as poisons, and they
have judged independent of all theory that wherever it shall be the
object to excite convulsions they may become habitual and pernicious,
they may be epidemically diffused, and even extend to future
generations.
The commissioners were of consequence obliged to conclude that not only
the measures in a particular mode of proceeding, but the measures of
the magnetism in general, might in the end produce the most pernicious
effects.
Transcriber’s Note
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Small caps have been converted to ALL CAPS.
Erroneously placed or missing punctuation has been silently corrected.
Footnotes have been renumbered and moved to the end of the book.
The following typographical errors have been changed:
p. 16: “administred” changed to “administered” (have been and are
administered to the diseased)
p. 30: “seness” changed to “senses” (capable of being perceived by
the senses)
p. 33: “difrent” changed to “different” (may be observed in two
different ways)
p. 39: “account account” changed to “account” (giving an exact and
faithful account of their sensations)
p. 84: “hiccuphings” changed to “hiccuppings” (hiccuppings, qualms of
the stomach and purgings)
Footnote 12: “chàteaux” changed to “châteaux” (conducted him without
noise to one of his châteaux)