passages of the hand over the bodies of patients known to the public,
sought originally to explain them by the agency of electricity; but as
early as 1773 he ascribed them to magnetism. From that day he employed
magnets, and by passing them over the affected parts of his patients, he
performed remarkable cures for many years in the city of Vienna. He
looked upon the magnet as the physician, which cured the patient in the
same way in which it attracted iron. Soon after, however, he became
acquainted with the famous Father Gassner, of Ratisbon, who had obtained
precisely the same results, without a magnet, by simple manipulations,
and, henceforth, he also treated his patients with the hand only; but he
retained the old name, looking now upon himself, and others who were
endowed in the same manner, as possessing the powers of a strong magnet.
In the meantime one of his pupils, the Marquis de Puysegur, had quite
accidentally discovered the peculiar nature of somnambulism, and with
rare foresight profited by the moments of clear consciousness which at
times interrupted the trance, in order to learn from his patients
themselves the means of curing their diseases. He had from that moment
devoted all the leisure of his life to the study of these singular but
most beneficial phenomena, employing only the simplest manipulations in
place of the more exciting means used by Mesmer, and doing an immense
amount of good by his judicious cures.
Mesmer, in the course of time, adopted the better method of his former
pupil, and now his system was complete. He used magnetism for purely
practical purposes: he cured diseases by throwing well-qualified persons
into the peculiar sleep produced by magnetizing them, and availed
himself of the effects of this half-sleep upon their varied
constitutions, for his curative purposes. At the same time, however, he
ascribed the influence which he claimed to have over persons whom he had
thus magnetized, to a most delicate, all-pervading medium; this, he
maintained, was the sole cause of motion, light, heat, and life itself
in the universe, and this he stated he was communicating by his process
of magnetizing in a sufficient degree to his patients to produce
startling but invariably beneficial results. It is well known how his
removal from Vienna, where he had begun his remarkable career, to Paris,
increased in almost equal proportions the number of enthusiastic
admirers, and of bitter adversaries. In spite of an unfavorable judgment
rendered by a committee of the Academy in 1784, his new doctrines
spread rapidly through all the provinces; so-called Harmonic Societies
were formed in almost every town, and numerous institutions sprang up
founded upon the new system of magnetizing patients. It is curious that
of the nine members of that committee, among whom Franklin was not the
least renowned, only one, the great savant Jussieu, refused to sign the
report "because it was founded upon a few isolated facts," and sent in a
separate memoir, in which he described animal heat as the universal
agent of life. Equally curious objections were made by others; thus in
another report of the Academy, the king was requested to prohibit the
practice of magnetism, because it was "dangerous to the morals of the
people," and in the great hospital of the Charite, magnetic treatment
was forbidden, because "the new system had caused for a long time warm
discussions between the best informed men of science!" Urged by repeated
petitions, the Academy appointed, in 1825, a second committee to
investigate the matter, which finally reported a firm conviction of the
genuineness and efficacy of magnetism, and recommended a further
examination of this important branch of psychology and natural science.
A permanent committee was thereupon directed to take charge of the
matter, before which a very large number of important facts were
authenticated; but in 1840, and subsequently, once more, unfavorable
reports were laid before the august body and adopted by small
majorities.
In England magnetism met with fierce and violent opposition, the faculty
being no little incensed by this new and unexpected competitor for fees
and reputation. Dr. Elliotson, a professor in the University of London,
and director of a large hospital, had actually to give up his place,
because of the hostility engendered by his advocacy of the new doctrine.
Afterwards the controversy, though by no means less bitter, was carried
on with more courtesy, and the subject received, on the whole, all the
attention it deserved. Germany alone has legally sanctioned magnetism as
a scientific method within the range of the healing art, and the leading
powers, like Prussia, Austria, and Saxony, have admitted its practice in
public hospitals. Unfortunately, much deception and imposture appeared
from the beginning in company with the numerous genuine cases, and led
many eminent men to become skeptics. The Russian government has limited
the permission to practice by magnetic cure to "well-informed"
physicians; but the Holy Curia, the pope's authority, after admitting
magnetism, first as a well-established fact, has subsequently prohibited
it by a decree of the Inquisition (21st April, 1841) as conducive to
"infidelity and immorality." In spite of all these obstacles, magnetism,
in its various branches of somnambulism and clairvoyance, of mesmerism
and hypnotism, is universally acknowledged as a valuable doctrine, and
has led to the publication of a copious literature.
Magnetizers claim--and not without some show of reason--that their art
was not unknown to antiquity, and is especially referred to in Holy
Writ. They rest their claim upon the importance which has from time
immemorial been ascribed to the action of the hand as producing visions
and imparting the gift of prophecy. When Elisha was called upon to
predict the issue of the war against Moab, he sent for a minstrel, "and
it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the _hand_ of the Lord
came upon him." (2 Kings iii. 15.) In like manner "the _hand_ of the
Lord was upon Ezekiel" among the captives by the river of Cheber and he
prophesied (Ezekiel i. 3); years after he says again: "The _hand_ of the
Lord was upon me in the evening" (xxxiii. 22), and once more: "the
_hand_ of the Lord was upon me" (xl. 1). It is evident that according to
biblical usage in these cases the manner of acting attributed to God is
described after the usage prevailing among men, and that the "hand upon
men" represented the usual method of causing them to fall into a trance.
But this placing the hand upon a person was by no means confined to
cases of visions; it was employed also in blessings and in sacrifices,
in consecrations and miraculous cures. Daniel felt a hand touching him,
which "set me upon my knees and the palms of my hands" (Dan. x. 10),
while soon after the same hand "strengthened him" (17); and even in the
New Testament a high privilege is expressed by the words: "The _hand_ of
the Lord was with him." (Luke i. 66.) In other cases a finger is
substituted for the hand, as when the magicians of Pharaoh said: "This
is the finger of God" (Exodus viii. 19), and the two tables of testimony
are said to have been "written with the finger of God" (Exodus xxxi.
18); in the same manner Christ said: "If I with the finger of God cast
out devils." (Luke xi. 20.) What makes this reference to finger and hand
in Eastern magic and in biblical language peculiarly interesting is the
fact that neither Greeks nor Romans ever referred in like manner to such
an agency. It is evident that these nations, possessing the ancient
wisdom of the East and the revealed knowledge of the chosen people, were
alone fully acquainted with the power which the hand of man can exercise
under peculiar circumstances, and hence looked upon it in God also, as
the instrument by which visions were caused and miracles performed.
Hence, no doubt, also the mysterious hand, which from time immemorial
has been used as one of the emblems of supreme power, often called the
hand of justice, but evidently emblematic of the "hand of God," which
rests upon the monarch who rules "by the grace of God." Magnetizers
connect all these uses made of the hand with their own method, which
consists almost invariably in certain passes made with the whole hand or
with one or more fingers.
Whatever may be thought of this connection between the meaning of the
"hand" in biblical language, and the magnetism of our day, there can be
no doubt as to the fact that the ancients were already quite familiar
with the phenomena which have startled our century as something
entirely new. The so-called temple-sleep of the Greeks was almost
identical with modern somnambulism; the only essential difference being
that then the gods of Olympus were seen, and lent their assistance, in
the place of the saints of the Middle Ages, and the mediums of our own
day. Incense, mineral waters, narcotic herbs, and decoctions of
Strychnos or Halicacabum, were, according to Pliny, employed to produce
the peculiar sleep. ("Hist. Nat." l. xxi. ch. 31.) The patients fell
asleep while lying on the skins of recently killed animals in the
Temples of AEsculapius, and other beneficent deities, and in their sleep
had dreams with revelations prescribing the proper remedies. The priests
also, sometimes, dreamt for their visitors--for a consideration--or, at
least, interpreted the dreams of others. Even magnetism by touch was
perfectly familiar to the ancients, as appears from words of Plautus:
"_Quid, si ego illum tractim tangam, ut dormiat?_" (What if I were to
touch him at intervals so that he should fall asleep?) Plutarch even
speaks of magnetizing by touching with the feet, as practised by
Pyrrhus. Other writers discovered that the Sibyls of Rome, as well as
the Druids of the Celts, had been nothing more than well-trained
somnambulists, and ere long distinct traces of similar practices were
found in the annals of the Egyptians also.
One of the earliest cases, which was thoroughly investigated, and
carefully watched, is reported by Dr. Petetin, of Lyon, in his famous
"Memoir on Catalepsy and Somnambulism." (Lyon, 1787.) His patient was a
lady who had nursed her child with such utter disregard of her own
health that her whole system was undermined. After an attack of most
violent convulsions, accompanied with apparent madness, she suddenly
began to laugh, to utter a number of clever and witty sayings, and
finally broke out into beautiful songs; but a terrible cough with
hemorrhages ended the crisis. Similar attacks occurred with increasing
frequency, during which she could read, with closed eyes, what was
placed in her hand, state hour and minute on a watch by merely touching
the crystal, and mention the contents of the pockets of bystanders. She
stated that she saw these things with varied distinctness; some clearly,
others as through a mist, and still others only by a great effort. The
reporter expresses his belief that the stomach in this case performed
all the functions of the senses, and that the epidermis, with its
network of fine nerves, acted in place of the usual organs. Petetin was
also the first to enter into direct relations with his somnambulist; he
could induce her at will to become clairvoyant, and make himself
understood by her whenever he directed his voice toward the only
sensitive part. Gradually, however, it was discovered that the degree of
close communication (_rapport_) between the two parties depended as
largely on the correspondence of character between them as on the energy
of will in the magnetizer and the power of imagination possessed by the
patient. Deleuse, one of the professors of the _Jardin des Plantes_, in
Paris, gave much attention to the subject, and in his numerous
publications maintained the existence of a magnetic fluid by the side of
the superior power with which some men are endowed, and that both were
employed in influencing others. He was frequently, and violently,
attacked on the score of his convictions, especially after several cases
of cunning deception had become known. For very soon the innate desire
for notoriety led many persons to pretend somnambulism, and skillfully
to imitate the phenomena of clairvoyance, displaying, as is not
unfrequently the case, in these efforts a skill and a perseverance which
would have secured them great success in any legitimate enterprise. A
number of volumes appeared, mostly in Germany, professing to contain
accounts of marvelous cures achieved by magnetism, which upon
examination proved to be altogether fictitious. France, however,
abounded more than any other country with impostors, and every kind of
deception and cheating was carried on there, at the beginning of this
century, under the cloak of mesmerism. Young girls, stimulated by large
rewards, and well trained by hospital surgeons, would submit to brutal
treatment, and profess to reveal, during well-simulated trances,
infallible remedies for grievous diseases. The followers of Mesmer
degraded his art by making it a merry pastime or a lucrative exhibition,
without regard to truthfulness, and without reverence for science. Even
political intriguers, and financial speculators, availed themselves of
the new discovery; precisely as in our day spirit-rapping and kindred
tricks are used. In England, and in the Union, mesmerism fared little
better; especially with us, it soon fell into the hands of quacks and
charlatans who made it a source of profit; at the same time it assumed
various new names, as, electro-biology, hypnotism, and others.
The idea that somnambulism was the effect of angelic or demoniac
influences was once largely entertained, but has long since given way to
more scientific views. But it cannot be said that the true nature of the
active principle has yet been fully ascertained, and so far the results
of mesmerism must be classed among magic phenomena. What is alone
clearly established is the power which the strong will of the magnetizer
evidently exercises over the patient, and the fact that this energy acts
through the hands as its organs. The patient, on his side, undergoes by
such an exercise of a foreign will a complete change of his
individuality; the action of his brain is modified and he falls into
magnetic sleep. Many intelligent somnambulists have distinctly stated
that they obey the will of their master and not his hands; that
manipulation, in fact, merely serves to communicate this will to their
inner sense. Whether the connection which evidently exists between the
two parties is established merely for moral agencies or by an infinitely
subtle fluid, which may possibly be the Od of Baron Reichenbach--this
question remains as yet undecided. So much only is quite certain that
neither the will alone suffices to produce the magic phenomena of
magnetism, nor heat and electricity, as the physicist Parrot maintained;
as little can electro-magnetism, unaided, be the cause of such results,
though the great Robiano stoutly asserted its power; man is a dualism of
spirit and body, and both must be influenced alike and together, in
order to obtain perfect mastery. The most plausible explanation yet
offered by men of science is, that by the will of the magnetizer his own
nervous and mental system assumes a certain condition which changes that
of the subject into one of opposite polarity, paralyzes some of his
cerebral functions and causes him to fall into a state resembling sleep.
The stronger and healthier man affects the nervous system of a feeble
and less healthy man according to his own more or less strongly marked
individuality, and the spiritual influence naturally develops itself in
the same proportions as the material influence. Hence the thoughts and
feelings, the convictions and the faith of the magnetizer are reflected
upon the mind of his subject. Even Mesmer himself had not yet reached
this point; he was, up to his death, content to ascribe the power of the
magnetizer to the waves of an universal fluid set in motion by the
superior energy of specially endowed persons. According to his doctrine
thoughts were conveyed by means of this mysterious fluid in precisely
the same manner in which light and sound are borne onward on the waves
of the air that surrounds us. They proceed from the brain and the nerves
of one person and reach those of another person in this imperceptible
manner; to dispatch them on their errand, volition is required; to
receive them, willingness and a certain natural predisposition, since
there are men incapable of being reached in this way, as there are
others who are deprived of sight or hearing. As the conveying fluid is
far more subtle than the thinnest air, permeates the whole universe and
bears a close resemblance to the fluid which sets our nerves in motion,
there is no other limit to the effects of volition on the part of the
so-called magnetizer than the strength of his will. If he possesses this
in a sufficiently high degree, he can affect those who are subject to
his superiority even at the greatest distance. Moreover, if his
influence is sufficiently effective the somnambulist acquires new and
heretofore unknown powers; he sees the interior of his own body,
recognizes its defects and diseases, and by a newly-awakened instinct,
perceives what is necessary to restore its perfect order. Such were the
views of Mesmer.
Besides this theory a number of others have been published from time to
time, by men of science of almost all countries--even modern
philosophers, like the German Schopenhauer, having entered the lists in
defense of their favorite ideas. The most striking view published in
recent times, is found in the works of Count Robiano, a learned abbe and
a brilliantly successful magnetizer. He ascribes all the phenomena of
somnambulism to the purely physical activity of the nerves, and proposes
to call his new physical science neururgy. He identifies the nervous
fluid with galvanism and voltaic electricity, and asserts that by a
galvanic battery all the results can be obtained which mesmerism claims
as its own. He also states that galvanic rings, bracelets, belts and
necklaces cause immediately somnambulism in well-qualified persons,
while carbon held before the nostrils of somnambulists in deep sleep,
awakes them instantly, and at the same time releases limbs held in
cataleptic rigidity. Alabaster, soda, and wax have similar effects, but
less promptly, and the wind from a pair of bellows has equal
power. According to his theory, currents of what he calls the
galvanic-neururgic fluid, are capable of producing all the well-known
symptoms and phenomena of thought from idiocy to genius, and from
unconscious sleep to the highest excitement; the process by which these
results can be obtained is a suspension of the vital equilibrium by
disease, intoxication, abstinence, long-continued fasting and prayer and
the like. If the marvelous fluid is unequally distributed through the
system, catalepsy ensues. The novelty and force of Robiano's doctrines
attracted much attention, but a series of experiments conducted by
eminent men soon proved that galvanism alone produced in no instance
somnambulism, but invariably required the aid of volition, which the
learned Italian in his modesty had probably underrated, if not
altogether overlooked.
It is a matter more of curiosity than of real interest that the Chinese
have--now for nearly eleven hundred years--believed in an inherent
power possessed by every human being, called yu-yang, which is identical
with an universal yu-yang. According to this view, every person endowed
with the proper ability can dispose of his own yu-yang and diffuse a
portion of it over others, so as to cure their infirmities. The French
missionary Amyot communicated this to Puysegur (_Du Magnetisme Animal_,
Paris, 1807, p. 387), and looked upon the yu-yang as the universal vital
power which produces everything.
Before we dismiss any such theory--in China or nearer home--with a
supercilious smile, it is well to recall the reception which the first
revelation of electricity in the human body met among our savants. The
doctrine had to pass through the usual three stages of contempt,
controversy and final adoption. John Wesley, more than a hundred years
ago, said of it: "With what vehemence has it been opposed! Sometimes, by
treating it with contempt, as if it were of little or no use; sometimes
by arguments such as they were, and sometimes by such cautions against
its ill effects, as made thousands afraid to meddle with it." Now, every
elementary text-book teaches that all created living bodies are
electric, and that some persons, animals, and plants are so in a very
high degree. To establish this truth poor puss has had to suffer much in
order to give out electric sparks, and the sensitive plant has had to
show how its leaves
"With quick horror fly the neighboring hand,"
which draws from them the electricity of which it contains more than
other plants. Physicians have learnt that a person who has the small-pox
cannot be electrified, the body being fully charged and refusing to
receive more electricity, while sparks may be drawn from the body of a
patient dying with cholera. Now this once despised power, in the shape
of voltaic electricity, adorns our tables with electro-plate works of
art, carries our thoughts around the globe, blasts rocks, fires cannons
and torpedoes, and even rings the bells of our houses. Now little chain
batteries, that can be carried in the waistcoat pockets, produce
powerful shocks and cure grievous diseases, while tiny bands, which yet
can decompose water in a test-tube, are worn by thousands as a
protection against intense suffering and utter prostration. What in this
case happened to electricity may very well be the fate of the new power
also, which is the true agent in all that we carelessly call magnetism.
Somnambulism and clairvoyance, by whatever means they may have been
caused, differ in this from dreams and feverish fancies, that the outer
senses are rendered inactive and in their place peculiar inner life
begins to act, while the subject is perfectly conscious. The magic
phenomena differ naturally infinitely according to the varying natures
of the patients. In the majority of cases sleep is the only result of
magnetizing; a few persons become genuine somnambulists and begin to
speak, first very indistinctly, because the organs of speech are
partially locked and the consciousness is not fully aroused. As the
spasms cease, speech becomes freer, and as the mind clears up, the
thoughts also reveal themselves more distinctly. These symptoms are
ordinarily accompanied by others of varying character, from simple heat
in the extremities and painful sobbing to actual syncope. In almost all
such cases, however, the nervous system is suffering from a violent
shock, and this produces spasms of more or less appalling violence. The
temper of the sufferers--for such they are all to some degree--varies
from deep despondency to exulting blissfulness, but is as changeable as
that of children, and resembles but too frequently the capricious and
unintelligible mental condition of insane persons.