MODERN EMPIRICISM.
In one respect we have but very little occasion to extol our own
enlightened age at the expence of those ages which are so frequently and
justly termed _dark_. We allude to the bold and artful designs of
imposture, and particularly _medical imposture_. Daily are seen
illiterate and audacious empirics sporting with the lives of a credulous
public, that seem obstinately resolved to shut their ears against all
the suggestions of reason and experience. The host of empirics,
mountebanks, and self-dubbed hygeists, which infest the metropolis, and
the tinctures, cordials, pills, balms, and essences, so much extolled by
their retailers, and swallowed by the public, are indeed so many proofs
of the credulity of the age, that to say the least, the march of
intellect has evidently made a _faux-pas_ in this direction.
The celestial beds, the enchanting magnetic powers introduced into this
country by Messmer, a German quack, and his numerous disciples, the
prevailing indifference to all dietetic precepts, the singular
imposition practised on many females, in persuading them to wear the
inert acromatic belts, the strange infatuation of the opulent in paying
five guineas for a pair of _metallic tractors_, not worth sixpence, the
tables for blood-letting, and other absurdities still inserted in
popular almanacs, (against all the rules of common sense)--all these
yield in nothing to the absurdities and superstitious notions conveyed
through the medium of astrology, dreams, and other ludicrous though by
far more imposing and interesting channels. The temple of the gulls is
now thronged with votaries as much as that of superstition formerly was;
human reason is still a slave to the most tyrannical prejudices; and
certainly, there is no ready way to excite general attention and
admiration, than to deal in the mysterious and the marvellous. The
visionary system of Jacob Böhman has latterly been revived in some parts
of Germany. The ghosts and apparitions which had disappeared from the
times of Thomasius and Swedenborg, have again left their graves, to the
great terror of fanaticism. New prophets announce their divine mission,
and, what is worse, find implicit believers! The _inventors_ of _secret_
medicines are rewarded by patents, and obtain no small celebrity; while
some of the more conscientious, but less fortunate adepts, endeavour to
amuse the public with popular systems of medicine.
One of the most dazzling and successful inventors in modern times, was
Messmer, who commenced his career of medical knight-errantry at Vienna.
His house was the focus of high life, the rendezvous of the gay, where
the young and opulent were enlivened and entertained with continual
concerts, routs, and illuminations. At a great expence, he imported into
Germany the first _Harmonica_ from this country: he established cabinets
of natural curiosities, and laboured constantly and secretly in his
chemical laboratory; so that he acquired the reputation of being a great
alchemist, a philosopher studiously employed in the most useful and
important researches. In 1766, he first publicly announced the object
and nature of his secret labours:--all his discoveries centered in the
_magnet_, which, according to his hypothesis, was the best and safest
remedy hitherto proposed against all diseases incident to the human
body.
This declaration of Messmer excited very general attention; the more so
as about the same time he established a hospital in his own house, into
which he admitted a number of patients _gratis_. Such disinterestedness
procured, as might be expected, no small addition to his fame. He was,
besides, fortunate in gaining over many celebrated physicians to his
opinions, who lavished the greatest encomiums on his new art, and were
instrumental in communicating to the public a number of successful
experiments. This seems to have surpassed the expectations of Messmer,
and induced him to extend his original plan further than it is likely he
first intended. We find him soon after assuming a more dogmatical and
mysterious air, when, for the purpose of shining exclusively, he
appeared in the character of a _magician_:--his pride and egotism would
brook neither equal nor competitor.
The common loadstone, or mineral magnet, which is so well known, did
not appear to him sufficiently important and mysterious--he contrived an
unusual one, to the effect of which he gave the name of '_animal
magnetism_'. After this, he proceeded to a still holder assumption,
everywhere giving it out, that the inconceivable powers of this subtile
fluid were centered in his own person. Now, the mona-drama began; and
Messmer, at once the hero and chorus of the piece, performed his part in
a masterly manner. He placed the most nervous, hysteric, and
hypocondriac patients opposite to him; and by the sole act of stretching
forth his finger, he made them feel the most violent shocks. The effects
of this wonderful power excited universal astonishment; its activity and
penetration being confirmed by unquestionable testimonies, from which it
appeared, that blows similar to those given by a blunt iron, could be
imparted by the operator, while he himself was separated by two doors,
nay, even by thick walls. The very looks of this prince of jugglers had
the power to excite painful cramps and twitches in his credulous and
predisposed patients.
This wonderful tide of success instigated his indefatigable genius to
bolder attempts, especially as he had no severe criticism to apprehend
from the superstitious multitude. He roundly asserted things of which he
offered not the least shadow of proof; and for the truth of which he had
no other pledge to offer but his own high reputation. At one time he
could communicate his magnetic power to paper, wool, silk, bread,
leather, stones, water, etc., at another he asserted that certain
individuals possessed a greater degree of susceptibility for this power
than others. It must be owned, however, that many of his contemporaries
made it their business to encounter his extravagant pretensions, and
refute his dogmatical assertions with the most convincing arguments.
Yet, he long enjoyed the triumph of being supported by blind followers,
and their increasing number completely overpowered the suffrages of
reason.
Messmer, at length perceived that in his native country, he should never
be able to reach the point which he had fixed upon, as the termination
of his magnetical career. The Germans began to discredit his pompous
claims; but it was only after repeated failures in some promised cures,
that he found himself under the necessity of seeking protection in
Paris. There he met with a most flattering reception, being caressed,
and in a manner adored by a nation which has always been extravagantly
fond of every new thing, whimsical and mysterious. Messmer well knew how
to turn this natural propensity to the best advantage. He addressed
himself particularly to the weak; to such as wished to be considered men
of profound knowledge, but who, when they were compelled to be silent
from real ignorance, took refuge behind the impenetrable shield of
mystery. The fashionable levity, the irresistible curiosity, and the
peculiar turn of the Parisians, ever solicitous to have something
interesting for conversation, to keep their active imagination in play,
were exactly suited to the genius and talents of the inventor of animal
magnetism. We need not wonder, therefore, if he availed himself of their
moral and physical character, to ensure a ready faith in his doctrines,
and success to his pretended experiments: in fact, he found friends and
admirers wherever he made his appearance. His first advertisement was
couched in the following high-sounding terms:
"Behold a discovery which promises unspeakable advantages to the human
race, and immortal fame to its author! Behold the dawn of an universal
revolution! A new race of men shall arise, shall overspread the earth,
to embellish it by their virtues, and render it fertile by their
industry. Neither vice nor ignorance, shall stop their active career;
they will know our calamities only from the records of history. The
prolonged duration of their life will enable them to plan and accomplish
the most laudable undertakings. The tranquil, the innocent
gratifications of that primeval age will be restored, wherein man
laboured without toil, lived without sorrow, and expired without a
groan! Mothers will no longer be subject to pain and danger during their
pregnancy and child-birth: their progeny will be more robust and brave;
the now rugged and difficult path of education will be rendered smooth
and easy; and hereditary complaints and diseases will be for ever
banished from the future auspicious race. Fathers rejoicing to see their
posterity of the fourth and fifth generations, will only drop like fruit
fully ripe, at the extreme point of age! Animals and plants, no less
susceptible of the magnetic power than man, will be exempt from the
reproach of barrenness and the ravages of distemper. The flocks in the
fields, and the plants in the gardens, will be more vigorous and
nourishing, and the trees will bear more beautiful and grateful fruits.
The human race, once endowed with this elementary power, will probably
rise to still more sublime and astonishing effects of nature: who indeed
is able to pronounce, with certainty, how far this salutary influence
may extend?"
"What splendid promises! What rich prospects! Messmer, the greatest of
philosophers, the most virtuous of men, the physician of mankind,
charitably opens his arms to all his fellow-mortals, who stand in need
of comfort and assistance. No wonder that the cause of magnetism, under
such a zealous apostle, rapidly gained ground, and obtained every day
large additions to the number of its converts. To the gay, the nervous,
and the dissipated of all ranks and ages, it held out the most
flattering promises. Men of the first respectability interested
themselves in behalf of this new philosophy; they anticipated in idea,
the more happy and more vigorous race which would proceed, as it were,
by enchantment, from the wonderful impulsive powers of animal magnetism.
The French were so far seduced by these flattering appearances, as to
offer the German adventurer _thirty thousand livres_ for the
communication of his secret art. He appears, however, to have understood
his own interest better than thus to dispose of his hypothetical
property, which, upon a more accurate investigation might be objected
to, as consisting of unfair articles of purchase. He consequently
returned the following answer to the credulous French ministers:
"That Dr. M. considered his art of too great importance, and the abuses
it might lead to, too dangerous for him at present to make it public;
that he must therefore reserve to himself the time of its publication,
and mode of introducing it to general use and observation--that he would
first take proper measures to initiate or prepare the minds of men, by
exciting in them a susceptibility of this great power; and that he would
then undertake to communicate his secret gradually, which he meant to do
without hope of reward."
Messmer, too politic to part with his secret for so small a premium, had
a better prospect in view; and his apparent disinterestedness and
hesitation served only to sound an over-curious public, to allure more
victims to his delusive practices, and to retain them more firmly in
their implicit belief. Soon after this he was easily prevailed upon to
institute a private society, into which none were admitted, but such as
bound themselves by a vow to perpetual secrecy. These pupils he agreed
to instruct in his important mysteries, on condition of each paying him
_one hundred louis_. In the course of six months, having had not less
than three hundred such pupils, he realized a fortune of _thirty
thousand louis_.
It appears, however, that the disciples of Messmer did not adhere to
their engagement: we find them separating gradually from their
professor, and establishing schools for the propagation of his system,
with a view, no doubt, to reimburse themselves for the expenses of their
own initiation into the magnetising art. But few of them having
understood the terms and mysterious doctrines of their foreign master,
every new adept exerted himself to excel his fellow-labourers, in
additional explanations and inventions: others, who did not possess, or
could not spare the sum of one hundred louis, were industriously
employed in attempts to discover the secret, by their own ingenuity; and
thus arose a great variety of magnetical sects. At length, however,
Messmer's authority became suspected; his pecuniary acquisitions were
now notorious, and our _humane and disinterested philosopher_ was
assailed with critical and satirical animadversions from every quarter.
The fertility of his process for medical purposes, as well as the bad
consequences it might procure in a moral point of view, soon became
topics of common conversation, and ultimately even excited the
apprehensions of government. One dangerous effect of magnetical
associations was, that young voluptuaries began to employ this art, to
promote their libidinous and destructive designs.
Matters having assumed this serious aspect, the French government, much
to its credit, deputed four respectable and unprejudiced men, to whom
were afterwards added four others of great learning and abilities, to
inquire into, and appreciate the merits of the new discovery of animal
magnetism. These philosophers, among whom we find the illustrious names
of Franklin and Lavoisier, recognised, indeed, very surprising and
unexpected phenomena in the physical state of magnetized individuals;
but they gave it as their opinion, that the powers of imagination, and
not animal magnetism, had produced these effects. Sensible of the
superior influence, which the imagination can exert on the human body,
when it is effectually wrought upon, they perceived, after a number of
experiments and facts frequently repeated, that _contact_, or touch,
_imagination, imitation_, and _excited sensibility_, were the real and
sole causes of these phenomena, which had so much confounded the
illiterate, the credulous, and the enthusiastic; that this boasted
magnetic element had no real existence in nature, consequently that
Messmer himself was either an arrant impostor, or a deluded fanatic.
Meantime, this magnetic mystery had made no small progress in Germany. A
number of periodical and other publications vindicated its claims to
public favour and attention; and some literary men, who had rendered
themselves justly celebrated by their former writings, now stepped
forward as bold and eager champions in support of this mystical
doctrine. The ingenious Lavater undertook long journies for the
propagation of magnetism and somnambulism:[144] and what, manipulations
and other absurdities were not practised on hysterical young ladies in
the city of Bremen? It is farther worthy of notice, that an eminent
physician of that place, in a recent publication, does not scruple to
rank magnetism among medical remedies! It must, nevertheless, be
confessed, that the great body of the learned, throughout Germany, have
endeavoured, by strong and impartial criticism, to oppose and refute
animal magnetism, considered as a medical system. And how should it be
otherwise, since it is highly ridiculous to imagine that violent
agitations, spasms, convulsions, etc. which are obviously symptoms of a
diseased state of body, and which must increase rather than diminish the
disposition to nervous diseases, can be the means of improving the
constitution and ultimately of prolonging human life? Every attentive
person must have observed, that too frequent intercourse between nervous
and hypochondriac patients is infectious; and if this be the case,
public assemblies, for exhibiting magnetised individuals, can neither be
safe nor proper. It is no small proof of the good sense of the people of
this country, though they have at different times fallen into nearly
similar delusions, that the professors of animal magnetism did not long
maintain their ground; they were soon exposed to public ridicule on the
stage, and shortly became annihilated in their own absurdities.
Other plans for the prolongation of life, little less absurd than
animal magnetism, which have, like every other imposture, "fretted their
hour," deserve to be noticed. The French and Germans have long stood
pre-eminent in the empirical world, though the merit of ingenious and
more plausible emanations of genius may fairly be attributed to the
latter. Animal magnetism; physiognomy, a rational though fallacious
science; phrenology, a doctrine abounding with many singular
manifestions, and possessing claims not to be put down by mere force of
prejudice, are all of German origin.
The Count St. Germain, a Frenchman, realized large sums, by vending an
artificial tea, chiefly composed of yellow saunders, senna leaves, and
fennel seed, which was puffed off under the specious appellation of _Tea
for prolonging life_; which, at that time, was swallowed with such
voracity all over the continent, that few could subsist without it. Its
celebrity was of short duration, and none ever lived long enough to
realize its effects.
The Chevalier d'Ailhoud, another brazen-faced adventurer, presented the
world with a powder, which met with so large and rapid a sale, that he
soon accumulated money enough to purchase a whole county. This famous
powder, however, instead of adding to the means of securing a long and
healthy life, is well known to produce constant indisposition, and at
length to cause a most miserable death; being composed of certain drugs
of a poisonous nature, though slow in their operation.
Count Cagliostro, styled the luminary of modern impostors and
debauchees, prepared a very common stomach elixir, which was sold at a
most exorbitant price under the name of "_balm of life_" It was
pretended, with the most unparalleled effrontery, that, by the use of
this medicine, the count had lived above 200 years, and that he was
rendered invulnerable against every species of poison. These bold
assertions could not fail to excite very general attention. During his
residence at Strasburg, while descanting, in a large and respectable
company, on the virtues of his antidote, his pride met with a very
mortifying check. A physician who was present, and who had taken part in
the conversation, quitting the room privately, went to an apothecary's
shop, and ordering two pills of equal size to be made, agreeably to his
directions, suddenly appeared again before the count, and thus addressed
him:--"Here, my worthy count, are two pills; the one contains a mortal
poison, the other is perfectly innocent; choose one of these and swallow
it, and I engage to take that which you leave. This will be considered
as a decisive proof of your medical skill, and enable the public to
ascertain the efficacy of your extolled elixir." The count took the
alarm, made a number of apologies, but could not be prevailed upon to
touch the pills. The physician swallowed both immediately, and proved by
his apothecary, that they might be taken with perfect safety, being only
made of common bread. Notwithstanding the shame of this detection,
Cagliostro still retained numerous advocates by circulating unfounded
reports, and concealing his real character by a variety of tricks.
The inspired father Gassner, of Bavaria, ascribed all diseases,
lameness, palsy, etc, to diabolical agency, contending from the history
of Job, Saul, and others recorded in sacred writ, that Satan, as the
grand enemy of mankind, has a power to embitter and shorten our lives by
diseases. Vast numbers of credulous and weak-minded people flocked to
this fanatic, with a view of obtaining relief which he never had the
means to administer. Multitudes of patients, afflicted with nervous and
hypochondriacal complaints, besieged him daily; being all stimulated by
a wild imagination, eager to view and acknowledge the works of Satan!
Men eminent for their literary attainments, even the natural
philosophers of Bavaria, were hurried away by the stream, and completely
blinded by sanctified imposture.
It is no less astonishing than true, that so late as 1794, a Count Thun,
at Leipzig, pretended to perform miraculous cures on gouty,
hypochondriacal, and hysterical patients, merely by the imposition of
his sacred hands. He could not however raise a great number of disciples
in a place that abounds with so many sceptics and unbelievers.
The commencement of the nineteenth century has been equally pregnant
with imposture. The delusions of Joanna Southcoat are too fresh in the
recollections of our readers to require notice here; yet, strange to
say, this fanatical old woman had her adherents and disciples; many of
them, in other respects, were keen and sensible men; nor has the
delusion altogether evaporated, though the sect is by no means powerful
or strong; the first impressions are still retained by her half frantic
and ridiculous devotees, who are only to be met with among the very
lowest and illiterate orders of society.
The farce of the convert of Newhall, near Chelmsford, is of still more
recent date. Here we have a miracle performed by the holy Prince
Hohenlohe, at a distance of at least three hundred miles from the
presence of his patient. Hearing of the wonderful cures performed by
this prince, one of the nuns in the above convent, who had been
afflicted for a considerable length of time with a swelling and
inflammation extending from the ball of the thumb along the fore arm,
and up as high as the armpit, wrote to Prince Hohenlohe--having
previously been attended by the most eminent practitioners in London
without any apparent benefit--to relieve her from her sufferings. This
he willingly undertook to do, but accompanied his consent with an
injunction that she should offer up her prayers on a certain day (May 3,
1824,) held in reverence by the catholics, and at a certain hour,
promising that he would be at his devotions at the same time. All this,
the afflicted nun attended to; immediately after her prayers, she
experienced a tingling sensation along the arm, and from that instant
the cure rapidly advanced until the diseased limb became as sound as the
other.
The days of priestcraft and superstition, it was hoped, had been fast
fleeting away before the luminous rays of science, even in those
countries where religious juggling had been most fostered and practised.
But for any man in this country to believe that such a miracle can be
wrought by human agency, is of itself an awfully convincing proof that
he is ignorant of the Scriptures, and that his own mind is likely to
become a prey to the wildest chimeras. Prince Hohenlohe's notoriety
however as a worker of miracles was not confined to Newhall. His mighty
prowess extended to the emerald isle; and several cures were performed
at as great, or even at a greater distance, than that wrought at
Newhall, and merely at the sound of his orisons. We hear of no miracles
being wrought by, or upon protestants; consequently we leave them to the
gloom of the cloister, whence they emanated, and where only they can be
of use in a cause which requires the aid of stratagem to support it.
A taste for the marvellous seems to be natural to man in every stage of
society, and at almost every period of life; it cannot, therefore, be
much a matter of astonishment, that, from the earliest ages of the
world, persons have been found, who, more idle and more ingenious than
others, have availed themselves of this propensity, to obtain an easy
livelihood by levying contributions on the curiosity of the public.
Whether this taste is to be considered as a proof of the weakness of our
judgment, or of innate inquisitiveness, which stimulates us to enlarge
the sphere of our knowledge, must be left to the decision of
metaphysicians; it is sufficient for our present purpose to know that it
gave rise to a numerous class of impostors in the shape of quacks,
mountebanks, poison-swallowers, fire-eaters, and pill-mongers.
There is another class of adepts, such as sleight of hand performers,
slack rope dancers, teachers of animals to perform extraordinary tricks;
in short, those persons who delude the senses, and practise harmless
deceptions on spectators, included under the common appellation of
jugglers. If these arts served no other purpose than that of mere
amusement, they yet merit a certain degree of encouragement, as
affording at once a cheap and innocent diversion; jugglers of this class
frequently exhibit instructive experiments in natural philosophy,
chemistry, and mechanics: thus the solar microscope was invented from an
instrument to reflect shadows, with which a savoyard amused a German
populace; and the celebrated Sir Richard Arkwright is said to have
conceived the idea of the spinning machines, which have so largely
contributed to the prosperity of the cotton manufactories in this
country, from a toy which he purchased for his child from an itinerant
showman. These deceptions have, besides, acted as an agreeable and most
powerful antidote to superstition, and to that popular belief in
miracles, conjuration, sorcery, and witchcraft, which preyed upon the
minds of our ancestors; and the effects of shadows, electricity,
mirrors, and the magnet, once formidable instruments in the hands of
interested persons, for keeping the vulgar in awe, have been stripped of
their terrors, and are no longer frightful in their most terrific forms.
ON THE TRANSFUSION OP BLOOD FROM ONE ANIMAL TO ANOTHER.
At a time when the shortness of human life was imputed to a distempered
state of the blood; when all diseases were ascribed to this cause,
without attending to the whole of what relates to the moral and physical
nature of man, a conclusion was easily formed, that a radical removal of
the corrupted blood, and a complete renovation of the entire mass by
substitution was both practicable and effectual. The speculative mind
of man was not at a loss to devise expedients, to effect this desirable
purpose; and undoubtedly one of the boldest, most extraordinary, and
most ingenious attempts ever made to lengthen the period of human life
was made at this time. We allude here to the famous scheme of
_transfusion_, or of introducing the blood of one animal into that of
another. This curious discovery is attributed to Andreas Libavius,
professor of medicine and chemistry in the university of Halle, who, in
the year 1615, publicly recommended experimental essays to ascertain the
fact.
Libavius was an honest and spirited opposer of the Theosophic system,
founded by the bombastic Paracelsus, and supported by a numerous tribe
of credulous and frantic followers. Although he was not totally exempt
from the follies of that age, since he believed in the transmutation of
metals, and suggested to his pupils the wonderful power of potable gold,
yet he distinguished rational alchemy from the fanatical systems then in
repute, and zealously defended the former against the disciples of
Galen, as well as those of Paracelsus. He made a number of important
discoveries in chemistry, and was unquestionably the first professor in
Germany who gave chemical lectures, upon pure principles of affinity,
unconnected with the extravagant notions of the theosophists.
The first experiments relative to the transfusion of the blood, appear
to have been made, and that with great propriety, on the lower animals.
The blood of the young, healthy and vigorous, was transferred into the
old and infirm, by means of a delicate tube, placed in a vein opened for
that purpose. The effect of this operation was surprising and important:
aged and decrepit animals were soon observed to become more lively, and
to move with greater ease and rapidity. By the indefatigable exertions
of Lower, in England, of Dennis in France, and of Moulz, Hoffman, and
others in Germany, this artificial mode of renovating the life and
spirits was successfully continued, and even brought to some degree of
perfection.
The vein usually opened in the arm of a patient was resorted to for the
purpose of transfusion; into this a small tube was placed in a
perpendicular direction; the same vein was then opened in a healthy
individual, but more frequently in an animal, into which another tube
was forced in a reclining direction; both small tubes were then slid
into one another, and in that position the delicate art of transfusion
was safely performed. When the operation was completed, the vein was
tied up in the same manner as on blood-letting. Sometimes a quantity of
blood was drawn from the patient, previously to the experiment taking
place. As few persons, however, were to be found, that would agree to
part with their blood to others, recourse was generally had to animals,
and most frequently to the calf, the lamb, and the stag. These being
laid upon a table, and tied so as to be unable to move, the operation
was performed in the manner before described. In some instances, the
good effects of these experiments were evident and promising, while they
excited the greatest hopes of the future improvement and progress of
this new art. But the unceasing abuses practised by bold and inexpert
adventurers, together with the great number of cases, which proved
unsuccessful, induced the different governments of Europe to put an
entire stop to the practice, by the strictest prohibitions. And, indeed,
while the constitutions and mode of living among men differ so
materially as they now do, this is, and ever must remain, an extremely
hazardous and equivocal, if not a desperate remedy. The blood of every
individual is of a peculiar nature, and congenial with that of the body
only to which it belongs, and in which it is generated. Hence our hope
of prolonging human life, by artificial evacuations and injections, must
necessarily be disappointed. It must not, however, be supposed, that
these, and similar pursuits during the ages of which we treat, as well
as those which succeeded, were solely or chiefly followed by mere
adventurers and fanatics. The greatest geniuses of those times employed
their wits with the most learned and eminent men, who deemed it an
object by no means below their consideration.
The method of supplying good for unsound teeth, though long laid aside,
in consequence of the danger with which the practice was attended, by
the communication of disease from an unhealthy to a healthy person, was
at one time as much the rage as the transfusion of blood. This practice,
notwithstanding the objections which stand opposed to it, might,
nevertheless, be adopted with success on many occasions, could persons
enjoying a sound and wholesome state of body be found to answer the
demand, however unnatural it may appear. A few untoward cases soon
raised the hue and cry against the continuance of the practice, as in
the transfusion of blood, though the latter has recently been attempted
in the case of an individual exhausted by excessive hermorrage with a
success which answered the expectation. There is little doubt that both
the transfusion of blood, and engrafting or transplanting of teeth, are
capable, with judgment and discrimination, of being made subservient in
a variety of cases; though the chances of general success militate
against these experiments; for it is the unalterable plan of nature to
proceed gradually in her operations; all outrage and extravagance being
at variance with her established laws.
FOOTNOTES:
[144] The art of exciting sleep in persons under the influence of animal
magnetism, with a view to obtain or rather extort during this artificial
sleep, their verbal declarations and directions for curing the diseases
of both body and mind. Such, indeed, was the rage for propagating this
mystical nonsense, that even the pulpit was occasionally resorted to, in
order to make, not fair penitents, but fair proselytes.