BOOK III.--THE MAGNETISERS.

Some deemed them wondrous wise, and some believed them mad.

--Beattie's Minstrel.

The wonderful influence of imagination in the cure of diseases is well

known. A motion of the hand, or a glance of the eye, will throw a weak

and credulous patient into a fit; and a pill made of bread, if taken

with sufficient faith, will operate a cure better than all the drugs in

the pharmacopoeia. The Prince of Orange, at the siege of Breda, in 1625,

cured all his soldiers who were dying of the scurvy, by a philanthropic

piece of quackery, which he played upon them with the knowledge of the

physicians, when all other means had failed. [See Van der Mye's account

of the siege of Breda. The garrison, being afflicted with scurvy,

the Prince of Orange sent the physicians two or three small phials,

containing a decoction of camomile, wormwood, and camphor, telling them

to pretend that it was a medicine of the greatest value and extremest

rarity, which had been procured with very much danger and difficulty

from the East; and so strong, that two or three drops would impart a

healing virtue to a gallon of water. The soldiers had faith in their

commander; they took the medicine with cheerful faces, and grew well

rapidly. They afterwards thronged about the Prince in groups of

twenty and thirty at a time, praising his skill, and loading him with

protestations of gratitude.] Many hundreds of instances, of a similar

kind, might be related, especially from the history of witchcraft. The

mummeries, strange gesticulations, and barbarous jargon of witches and

sorcerers, which frightened credulous and nervous women, brought on

all those symptoms of hysteria and other similar diseases, so well

understood now, but which were then supposed to be the work of the

devil, not only by the victims and the public in general, but by the

operators themselves.

In the age when alchymy began to fall into some disrepute, and learning

to lift up its voice against it, a new delusion, based upon this

power of imagination, suddenly arose, and found apostles among all

the alchymists. Numbers of them, forsaking their old pursuits, made

themselves magnetisers. It appeared first in the shape of mineral, and

afterwards of animal, magnetism, under which latter name it survives to

this day, and numbers its dupes by thousands.

The mineral magnetisers claim the first notice, as the worthy

predecessors of the quacks of the present day. The honour claimed for

Paracelsus of being the first of the Rosicrucians has been disputed; but

his claim to be considered the first of the magnetisers can scarcely be

challenged. It has been already mentioned of him, in the part of this

work which treats of alchymy, that, like nearly all the distinguished

adepts, he was a physician; and pretended, not only to make gold and

confer immortality, but to cure all diseases. He was the first who, with

the latter view, attributed occult and miraculous powers to the magnet.

Animated apparently by a sincere conviction that the magnet was the

philosopher's stone, which, if it could not transmute metals, could

soothe all human suffering and arrest the progress of decay, he

travelled for many years in Persia and Arabia, in search of the

mountain of adamant, so famed in oriental fables. When he practised as

a physician at Basle, he called one of his nostrums by the name

of azoth--a stone or crystal, which, he said, contained magnetic

properties, and cured epilepsy, hysteria, and spasmodic affections. He

soon found imitators. His fame spread far and near; and thus were sown

the first seeds of that error which has since taken root and flourished

so widely. In spite of the denial of modern practitioners, this must

be considered the origin of magnetism; for we find that, beginning with

Paracelsus, there was a regular succession of mineral magnetisers until

Mesmer appeared, and gave a new feature to the delusion.

Paracelsus boasted of being able to transplant diseases from the human

frame into the earth, by means of the magnet. He said there were

six ways by which this might be effected. One of them will be quite

sufficient, as a specimen. "If a person suffer from disease, either

local or general, let the following remedy be tried. Take a magnet,

impregnated with mummy [Mummies were of several kinds, and were all

of great use in magnetic medicines. Paracelsus enumerates six kinds

of mummies; the first four only differing in the composition used by

different people for preserving their dead, are the Egyptian, Arabian,

Pisasphaltos, and Lybian. The fifth mummy of peculiar power was made

from criminals that had been hanged; "for from such there is a gentle

siccation, that expungeth the watery humour, without destroying the

oil and spirituall, which is cherished by the heavenly luminaries, and

strengthened continually by the affluence and impulses of the celestial

spirits; whence it may be properly called by the name of constellated

or celestial mummie." The sixth kind of mummy was made of corpuscles,

or spiritual effluences, radiated from the living body; though we cannot

get very clear ideas on this head, or respecting the manner in which

they were caught.--"Medicina Diatastica; or, Sympathetical Mummie,

abstracted from the Works of Paracelsus, and translated out of the

Latin, by Fernando Parkhurst, Gent." London, 1653. pp. 2.7. Quoted by

the "Foreign Quarterly Review," vol. xii. p. 415.] and mixed with rich

earth. In this earth sow some seeds that have a congruity or homogeneity

with the disease: then let this earth, well sifted and mixed with mummy,

be laid in an earthen vessel; and let the seeds committed to it be

watered daily with a lotion in which the diseased limb or body has been

washed. Thus will the disease be transplanted from the human body to

the seeds which are in the earth. Having done this, transplant the

seeds from the earthen vessel to the ground, and wait till they begin to

sprout into herbs: as they increase, the disease will diminish; and when

they have arrived at their full growth, it will disappear altogether."

Kircher the Jesuit, whose quarrel with the alchymists was the means of

exposing many of their impostures, was a firm believer in the efficacy

of the magnet. Having been applied to by a patient afflicted with

hernia, he directed the man to swallow a small magnet reduced to powder,

while he applied, at the same time, to the external swelling a poultice,

made of filings of iron. He expected that by this means the magnet, when

it got to the corresponding place inside, would draw in the iron,

and with it the tumour; which would thus, he said, be safely and

expeditiously reduced.

As this new doctrine of magnetism spread, it was found that wounds

inflicted with any metallic substance could be cured by the magnet. In

process of time the delusion so increased, that it was deemed sufficient

to magnetise a sword, to cure any hurt which that sword might have

inflicted! This was the origin of the celebrated "weapon-salve," which

excited so much attention about the middle of the seventeenth century.

The following was the recipe given by Paracelsus for the cure of any

wounds inflicted by a sharp weapon, except such as had penetrated the

heart, the brain, or the arteries. "Take of moss growing on the head of

a thief who has been hanged and left in the air; of real mummy; of human

blood, still warm--of each, one ounce; of human suet, two ounces; of

linseed oil, turpentine, and Armenian bole--of each, two drachms. Mix

all well in a mortar, and keep the salve in an oblong, narrow urn." With

this salve the weapon, after being dipped in the blood from the wound,

was to be carefully anointed, and then laid by in a cool place. In

the mean time, the wound was to be duly washed with fair clean water,

covered with a clean, soft, linen rag, and opened once a day to cleanse

off purulent or other matter. Of the success of this treatment, says the

writer of the able article on Animal Magnetism, in the twelfth volume

of the "Foreign Quarterly Review," there cannot be the least doubt; "for

surgeons at this moment follow exactly the same method, except anointing

the weapon!

The weapon salve continued to be much spoken of on the Continent, and

many eager claimants appeared for the honour of the invention. Dr.

Fludd, or A Fluctibus, the Rosicrucian, who has been already mentioned

in a previous part of this volume, was very zealous in introducing it

into England. He tried it with great success in several cases; and no

wonder; for, while he kept up the spirits of his patients by boasting

of the great efficacy of the salve, he never neglected those common,

but much more important remedies, of washing, bandaging, &c. which the

experience of all ages had declared sufficient for the purpose. Fludd,

moreover, declared, that the magnet was a remedy for all diseases, if

properly applied; but that man having, like the earth, a north and

a south pole, magnetism could only take place when his body was in a

boreal position! In the midst of his popularity, an attack was made upon

him and his favourite remedy, the salve; which, however, did little

or nothing to diminish the belief in its efficacy. One "Parson Foster"

wrote a pamphlet, entitled "Hyplocrisma Spongus; or, a Spunge to wipe

away the Weapon-Salve;" in which he declared, that it was as bad as

witchcraft to use or recommend such an unguent; that it was invented by

the devil, who, at the last day, would seize upon every person who had

given it the slightest encouragement. "In fact," said Parson Foster,

"the devil himself gave it to Paracelsus; Paracelsus to the Emperor; the

Emperor to the courtier; the courtier to Baptista Porta; and Baptista

Porta to Dr. Fludd, a doctor of physic, yet living and practising in the

famous city of London, who now stands tooth and nail for it." Dr. Fludd,

thus assailed, took up the pen in defence of his unguent, in a

reply called "The Squeezing of Parson Foster's Spunge; wherein the

Spunge-Bearer's immodest Carriage and Behaviour towards his Brethren is

detected; the bitter Flames of his slanderous Reports are, by the sharp

Vinegar of Truth, corrected and quite extinguished; and, lastly, the

virtuous Validity of his Spunge in wiping away the Weapon-Salve, is

crushed out and clean abolished."

Shortly after this dispute a more distinguished believer in the

weapon-salve made his appearance, in the person of Sir Kenelm Digby, the

son of Sir Everard Digby, who was executed for his participation in

the Gunpowder Plot. This gentleman, who, in other respects, was

an accomplished scholar and an able man, was imbued with all the

extravagant notions of the alchymists. He believed in the philosopher's

stone, and wished to engage Descartes to devote his energies to the

discovery of the elixir of life, or some other means by which the

existence of man might be prolonged to an indefinite period. He gave

his wife, the beautiful Venetia Anastasia Stanley, a dish of capons, fed

upon vipers, according to the plan supposed to have been laid down by

Arnold of Villeneuve, in the hope that she might thereby preserve her

loveliness for a century. If such a man once took up the idea of the

weapon-salve, it was to be expected that he would make the most of it.

In his hands, however, it was changed from an unguent into a powder, and

was called the powder of sympathy. He pretended that he had acquired the

knowledge of it from a Carmelite friar, who had learned it in Persia or

Armenia, from an oriental philosopher of great renown. King James,

the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Buckingham, and many other noble

personages, believed in its efficacy. The following remarkable instance

of his mode of cure was read by Sir Kenelm to a society of learned

men at Montpellier. Mr. James Howell, the well-known author of the

"Dendrologia," and of various letters, coming by chance as two of his

best friends were fighting a duel, rushed between them, and endeavoured

to part them. He seized the sword of one of the combatants by the

hilt, while, at the same time, he grasped the other by the blade. Being

transported with fury one against the other, they struggled to rid

themselves of the hindrance caused by their friend; and in so doing,

the one whose sword was held by the blade by Mr. Howell, drew it away

roughly, and nearly cut his hand off, severing the nerves and muscles,

and penetrating to the bone. The other, almost at the same instant,

disengaged his sword, and aimed a blow at the head of his antagonist,

which Mr. Howell observing, raised his wounded hand with the rapidity of

thought, to prevent the blow. The sword fell on the back of his already

wounded hand, and cut it severely. "It seemed," said Sir Kenelm Digby,

"as if some unlucky star raged over them, that they should have both

shed the blood of that dear friend, for whose life they would have given

their own, if they had been in their proper mind at the time." Seeing

Mr. Howell's face all besmeared with blood from his wounded hand, they

both threw down their swords and embraced him, and bound up his hand

with a garter, to close the veins, which were cut, and bled profusely.

They then conveyed him home, and sent for a surgeon. King James, who was

much attached to Mr. Howell, afterwards sent his own surgeon to attend

him. We must continue the narrative in the words of Sir Kenelm Digby:--

"It was my chance," says he, "to be lodged hard by him: and, four or

five days after, as I was making myself ready, he came to my house, and

prayed me to view his wounds; 'for I understand,' said he, 'that you

have extraordinary remedies on such occasions; and my surgeons apprehend

some fear, that it may grow to a gangrene, and so the hand must be cut

off.' In effect, his countenance discovered that he was in much

pain, which, he said, was insupportable, in regard of the extreme

inflammation. I told him I would willingly serve him; but if, haply, he

knew the manner how I could cure him, without touching or seeing him,

it might be that he would not expose himself to my manner of curing;

because he would think it, peradventure, either ineffectual or

superstitious. He replied, 'The many wonderful things which people have

related unto me of your way of medicinement, makes me nothing doubt at

all of its efficacy; and all that I have to say unto you is comprehended

in the Spanish proverb, Hagase el milagro y hagalo Mahoma--Let the

miracle be done, though Mahomet do it.'

"I asked him then for anything that had the blood upon it: so he

presently sent for his garter, wherewith his hand was first bound; and,

as I called for a basin of water, as if I would wash my hands, I took

a handful of powder of vitriol, which I had in my study, and presently

dissolved it. As soon as the bloody garter was brought me, I put it in

the basin, observing, in the interim, what Mr. Howell did, who stood

talking with a gentleman in a corner of my chamber, not regarding at all

what I was doing. He started suddenly, as if he had found some strange

alteration in himself. I asked him what he ailed? 'I know not what ails

me; but I find that I feel no more pain. Methinks that a pleasing kind

of freshness, as it were a wet cold napkin, did spread over my hand,

which hath taken away the inflammation that tormented me before.' I

replied, 'Since, then, you feel already so much good of my medicament,

I advise you to cast away all your plasters; only keep the wound clean,

and in a moderate temper, betwixt heat and cold.' This was presently

reported to the Duke of Buckingham, and a little after, to the King, who

were both very curious to know the circumstances of the business; which

was, that after dinner, I took the garter out of the water, and put

it to dry before a great fire. It was scarce dry before Mr. Howell's

servant came running, and saying that his master felt as much burning as

ever he had done, if not more; for the heat was such as if his hand were

betwixt coals of fire. I answered, that although that had happened at

present, yet he should find ease in a short time; for I knew the reason

of this new accident, and would provide accordingly; for his master

should be free from that inflammation, it might be, before he could

possibly return to him: but, in case he found no ease, I wished him to

come presently back again; if not, he might forbear coming. Thereupon

he went; and, at the instant, I did put the garter again into the water;

thereupon he found his master without any pain at all. To be brief,

there was no sense of pain afterwards; but within five or six days, the

wounds were cicatrised and entirely healed."

Such is the marvellous story of Sir Kenelm Digby. Other practitioners of

that age were not behind him in absurdity. It was not always necessary

to use either the powder of sympathy, or the weapon-salve, to effect a

cure. It was sufficient to magnetise the sword with the hand (the first

faint dawn of the animal theory), to relieve any pain the same weapon

had caused. They pretended, that if they stroked the sword upwards with

their fingers, the wounded person would feel immediate relief; but if

they stroked it downwards, he would feel intolerable pain.[Reginald

Scott, quoted by Sir Walter Scott, in the notes to the "Lay of the Last

Minstrel," c. iii. v. xxiii.]

Another very strange notion of the power and capabilities of magnetism

was entertained at the same time. It was believed that a sympathetic

alphabet could be made on the flesh, by means of which persons could

correspond with each other, and communicate all their ideas with the

rapidity of volition, although thousands of miles apart. From the arms

of two persons a piece of flesh was cut, and mutually transplanted,

while still warm and bleeding. The piece so severed grew to the new arm

on which it was placed; but still retained so close a sympathy with its

native limb, that its old possessor was always sensible of any injury

done to it. Upon these transplanted pieces were tattooed the letters of

the alphabet; so that, when a communication was to be made, either of

the persons, though the wide Atlantic rolled between them, had only

to prick his arm with a magnetic needle, and straightway his friend

received intimation that the telegraph was at work. Whatever letter

he pricked on his own arm pained the same letter on the arm of his

correspondent. ["Foreign Quarterly Review," vol. xii. p. 417.] Who knows

but this system, if it had received proper encouragement, might not

have rendered the Post-Office unnecessary, and even obviated much of

the necessity for railroads? Let modern magnetisers try and bring it

to perfection. It is not more preposterous than many of their present

notions; and, if carried into effect, with the improvement of some

stenographical expedient for diminishing the number of punctures, would

be much more useful than their plan of causing persons to read with

their great toes, [Wirth's "Theorie des Somnambulismes," p. 79.] or

seeing, with their eyes shut, into other people's bodies, and counting

the number of arteries therein. ["Report of the Academic Royale de

Medicine,"--case of Mademoiselle Celine Sauvage, p. 186.]

Contemporary with Sir Kenelm Digby, was the no less famous Mr. Valentine

Greatraks who, without mentioning magnetism, or laying claim to any

theory, practised upon himself and others a deception much more akin to

the animal magnetism of the present day, than the mineral magnetism

it was then so much the fashion to study. He was the son of an Irish

gentleman, of good education and property, in the county of Cork. He

fell, at an early age, into a sort of melancholy derangement. After

some time, he had an impulse, or strange persuasion in his mind, which

continued to present itself, whether he were sleeping or waking, that

God had given him the power of curing the king's evil. He mentioned this

persuasion to his wife, who very candidly told him that he was a fool!

He was not quite sure of this, notwithstanding the high authority from

which it came, and determined to make trial of the power that was

in him. A few days afterwards, he went to one William Maher, of

Saltersbridge, in the parish of Lismore, who was grievously afflicted

with the king's evil in his eyes, cheek, and throat. Upon this man,

who was of abundant faith, he laid his hands, stroked him, and prayed

fervently. He had the satisfaction to see him heal considerably in the

course of a few days; and, finally, with the aid of other remedies, to

be quite cured. This success encouraged him in the belief that he had a

divine mission. Day after day he had further impulses from on high,

that he was called upon to cure the ague also. In the course of time

he extended his powers to the curing of epilepsy, ulcers, aches,

and lameness. All the county of Cork was in a commotion to see this

extraordinary physician, who certainly operated some very great benefit

in cases where the disease was heightened by hypochondria and depression

of spirits. According to his own account, [Greatraks' Account of

himself, in a letter to the Honourable Robert Boyle.] such great

multitudes resorted to him from divers places, that he had no time to

follow his own business, or enjoy the company of his family and friends.

He was obliged to set aside three days in the week, from six in the

morning till six at night, during which time only he laid hands upon

all that came. Still the crowds which thronged around him were so

great, that the neighbouring towns were not able to accommodate them. He

thereupon left his house in the country, and went to Youghal, where

the resort of sick people, not only from all parts of Ireland, but from

England, continued so great, that the magistrates were afraid they would

infect the place by their diseases. Several of these poor credulous

people no sooner saw him than they fell into fits, and he restored

them by waving his hand in their faces, and praying over them. Nay, he

affirmed, that the touch of his glove had driven pains away, and, on

one occasion, cast out from a woman several devils, or evil spirits,

who tormented her day and night. "Every one of these devils," says

Greatraks, "was like to choke her, when it came up into her throat."

It is evident, from this, that the woman's complaint was nothing but

hysteria.

The clergy of the diocese of Lismore, who seem to have had much clearer

notions of Greatraks' pretensions than their parishioners, set their

faces against the new prophet and worker of miracles. He was cited to

appear in the Dean's Court, and prohibited from laying on his hands for

the future: but he cared nothing for the church. He imagined that he

derived his powers direct from Heaven, and continued to throw people

into fits, and bring them to their senses again, as usual, almost

exactly after the fashion of modern magnetisers. His reputation

became, at last, so great, that Lord Conway sent to him from London,

begging-that he would come over immediately, to cure a grievous

head-ache which his lady had suffered for several years, and which the

principal physicians of England had been unable to relieve.

Greatraks accepted the invitation, and tried his manipulations and

prayers upon Lady Conway. He failed, however, in affording any relief.

The poor lady's head-ache was excited by causes too serious to allow her

any help, even from faith and a lively imagination. He lived for some

months in Lord Conway's house, at Ragley, in Warwickshire, operating

cures similar to those he had performed in Ireland. He afterwards

removed to London, and took a house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, which soon

became the daily resort of all the nervous and credulous women of the

metropolis. A very amusing account of Greatraks at this time (1665), is

given in the second volume of the "Miscellanies of St. Evremond," under

the title of the Irish prophet. It is the most graphic sketch ever made

of this early magnetiser. Whether his pretensions were more or less

absurd than those of some of his successors, who have lately made their

appearance among us, would be hard to say.

"When M. de Comminges," says St. Evremond, "was ambassador from his most

Christian Majesty to the King of Great Britain, there came to London

an Irish prophet, who passed himself off as a great worker of miracles.

Some persons of quality having begged M. de Comminges to invite him to

his house, that they might be witnesses of some of his miracles, the

ambassador promised to satisfy them, as much from his own curiosity as

from courtesy to his friends; and gave notice to Greatraks that he would

be glad to see him.

"A rumour of the prophet's coming soon spread all over the town, and the

hotel of M. de Comminges was crowded by sick persons, who came full

of confidence in their speedy cure. The Irishman made them wait a

considerable time for him, but came at last, in the midst of their

impatience, with a grave and simple countenance, that showed no signs

of his being a cheat. Monsieur de Comminges prepared to question him

strictly, hoping to discourse with him on the matters that he had read

of in Van Helmont and Bodinus; but he was not able to do so, much to his

regret, for the crowd became so great, and cripples and others pressed

around so impatiently to be the first cured, that the servants were

obliged to use threats, and even force, before they could establish

order among them, or place them in proper ranks.

"The prophet affirmed that all diseases were caused by evil spirits.

Every infirmity was with him a case of diabolical possession. The first

that was presented to him was a man suffering from gout and rheumatism,

and so severely that the physicians had been unable to cure him. 'Ah,'

said the miracle-worker, 'I have seen a good deal of this sort of

spirits when I was in Ireland. They are watery spirits, who bring on

cold shivering, and excite an overflow of aqueous humours in our poor

bodies.' Then addressing the man, he said, 'Evil spirit, who hast

quitted thy dwelling in the waters to come and afflict this miserable

body, I command thee to quit thy new abode, and to return to thine

ancient habitation!' This said, the sick man was ordered to withdraw,

and another was brought forward in his place. This new comer said he

was tormented by the melancholy vapours. In fact, he looked like a

hypochondriac; one of those persons diseased in imagination, and who

but too often become so in reality. 'Aerial spirit,' said the Irishman,

'return, I command thee, into the air!--exercise thy natural vocation

of raising tempests, and do not excite any more wind in this sad unlucky

body!' This man was immediately turned away to make room for a third

patient, who, in the Irishman's opinion, was only tormented by a little

bit of a sprite, who could not withstand his command for an instant.

He Pretended that he recognized this sprite by some marks which were

invisible to the company, to whom he turned with a smile, and said,

'This sort of spirit does not often do much harm, and is always very

diverting.' To hear him talk, one would have imagined that he knew all

about spirits--their names, their rank, their numbers, their employment,

and all the functions they were destined to; and he boasted of being

much better acquainted with the intrigues of demons than he was with the

affairs of men. You can hardly imagine what a reputation he gained in a

short time. Catholics and Protestants visited him from every part, all

believing that power from Heaven was in his hands."

After relating a rather equivocal adventure of a husband and wife, who

implored Greatraks to cast out the devil of dissension which had crept

in between them, St. Evremond thus sums up the effect he produced on

the popular mind:--"So great was the confidence in him, that the blind

fancied they saw the light which they did not see--the deaf imagined

that they heard--the lame that they walked straight, and the paralytic

that they had recovered the use of their limbs. An idea of health made

the sick forget for a while their maladies; and imagination, which was

not less active in those merely drawn by curiosity than in the sick,

gave a false view to the one class, from the desire of seeing, as it

operated a false cure on the other from the strong desire of being

healed. Such was the power of the Irishman over the mind, and such was

the influence of the mind upon the body. Nothing was spoken of in London

but his prodigies; and these prodigies were supported by such great

authorities, that the bewildered multitude believed them almost without

examination, while more enlightened people did not dare to reject

them from their own knowledge. The public opinion, timid and enslaved,

respected this imperious and, apparently, well-authenticated error.

Those who saw through the delusion kept their opinion to themselves,

knowing how useless it was to declare their disbelief to a people filled

with prejudice and admiration."

About the same time that Valentine Greatraks was thus magnetising the

people of London, an Italian enthusiast, named Francisco Bagnone, was

performing the same tricks in Italy, and with as great success. He had

only to touch weak women with his hands, or sometimes (for the sake of

working more effectively upon their fanaticism) with a relic, to make

them fall into fits and manifest all the symptoms of magnetism.

Besides these, several learned men, in different parts of Europe,

directed their attention to the study of the magnet, believing it might

be rendered efficacious in many diseases. Van Helmont, in particular,

published a work on the effects of magnetism on the human frame; and

Balthazar Gracian, a Spaniard, rendered himself famous for the boldness

of his views on the subject. "The magnet," said the latter, "attracts

iron; iron is found everywhere; everything, therefore, is under the

influence of magnetism. It is only a modification of the general

principle, which establishes harmony or foments divisions among men.

It is the same agent which gives rise to sympathy, antipathy, and the

passions." ["Introduction to the Study of Animal Magnetism," by Baron

Dupotet de Sennevoy, p. 315.]

Baptista Porta, who, in the whimsical genealogy of the weapon-salve,

given by Parson Foster in his attack upon Dr. a Fluctibus, is mentioned

as one of its fathers, had also great faith in the efficacy of the

magnet, and operated upon the imagination of his patients in a manner

which was then considered so extraordinary that he was accused of being

a magician, and prohibited from practising by the Court of Rome.

Among others who distinguished themselves by their faith in magnetism,

Sebastian Wirdig and William Maxwell claim especial notice. Wirdig was

professor of medicine at the University of Rostock in Mecklenburgh,

and wrote a treatise called "The New Medicine of the Spirits," which he

presented to the Royal Society of London. An edition of this work

was printed in 1673, in which the author maintained that a magnetic

influence took place, not only between the celestial and terrestrial

bodies, but between all living things. The whole world, he said, was

under the influence of magnetism: life was preserved by magnetism; death

was the consequence of magnetism!

Maxwell, the other enthusiast, was an admiring disciple of Paracelsus,

and boasted that he had irradiated the obscurity in which too many of

the wonder-working recipes of that great philosopher were enveloped.

His works were printed at Frankfort, in 1679. It would seem, from

the following passage, that he was aware of the great influence of

imagination, as well in the production as in the cure of diseases. "If

you wish to work prodigies," says he, "abstract from the materiality

of beings--increase the sum of spirituality in bodies--rouse the spirit

from its slumbers. Unless you do one or other of these things--unless

you can bind the idea, you can never perform anything good or great."

Here, in fact, lies the whole secret of magnetism, and all delusions

of a similar kind: increase the spirituality--rouse the spirit from its

slumbers, or in other words, work upon the imagination--induce belief

and blind confidence, and you may do anything. This passage, which is

quoted with approbation by M. Dupotet in a recent work ["Introduction

to the Study of Animal Magnetism," p. 318.] as strongly corroborative of

the theory now advanced by the animal-magnetists, is just the reverse.

If they believe they can work all their wonders by the means so dimly

shadowed forth by Maxwell, what becomes of the universal fluid pervading

all nature, and which they pretend to pour into weak and diseased bodies

from the tips of their fingers?

Early in the eighteenth century, the attention of Europe was directed to

a very remarkable instance of fanaticism, which has been claimed by the

animal magnetists, as a proof of their science. The convulsionaries of

St. Medard, as they were called, assembled in great numbers round the

tomb of their favourite saint, the Jansenist priest Paris, and taught

one another how to fall into convulsions. They believed that St. Paris

would cure all their infirmities; and the number of hysterical women and

weak-minded persons of all descriptions that flocked to the tomb from

far and near was so great, as daily to block up all the avenues leading

to the spot. Working themselves up to a pitch of excitement, they went

off one after the other into fits, while some of them, still in apparent

possession of all their faculties, voluntarily exposed themselves to

sufferings, which on ordinary occasions would have been sufficient

to deprive them of life. The scenes that occurred were a scandal to

civilization and to religion--a strange mixture of obscenity, absurdity,

and superstition. While some were praying on bended knees at the shrine

of St. Paris, others were shrieking and making the most hideous noises.

The women especially exerted themselves. On one side of the chapel there

might be seen a score of them, all in convulsions, while at another as

many more, excited to a sort of frenzy, yielded themselves up to gross

indecencies. Some of them took an insane delight in being beaten and

trampled upon. One in particular, according to Montegre, whose

account we quote [Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicales--Article

"Convulsionnaires," par Montegre.] was so enraptured with this ill

usage, that nothing but the hardest blows would satisfy her. While a

fellow of herculean strength was beating her with all his might with a

heavy bar of iron, she kept continually urging him to renewed exertion.

The harder he struck the better she liked it, exclaiming all the while,

"Well done, brother; well done; oh, how pleasant it is! what good you

are doing me! courage, my brother, courage; strike harder; strike harder

still!" Another of these fanatics had, if possible, a still greater love

for a beating. Carre de Montgeron, who relates the circumstance, was

unable to satisfy her with sixty blows of a large sledge hammer. He

afterwards used the same weapon, with the same degree of strength, for

the sake of experiment, and succeeded in battering a hole in a stone

wall at the twenty-fifth stroke. Another woman, named Sonnet, laid

herself down on a red-hot brazier without flinching, and acquired for

herself the nickname of the salamander; while others, desirous of a more

illustrious martyrdom, attempted to crucify themselves. M. Deleuze, in

his critical history of Animal Magnetism, attempts to prove that

this fanatical frenzy was produced by magnetism, and that these mad

enthusiasts magnetised each other without being aware of it. As well

might he insist that the fanaticism which tempts the Hindoo bigot to

keep his arms stretched in a horizontal position till the sinews wither,

or his fingers closed upon his palms till the nails grow out of the

backs of his hands, is also an effect of magnetism!

For a period of sixty or seventy years, magnetism was almost wholly

confined to Germany. Men of sense and learning devoted their attention

to the properties of the loadstone; and one Father Hell, a jesuit, and

professor of astronomy at the University of Vienna, rendered himself

famous by his magnetic cures. About the year 1771 or 1772, he invented

steel plates of a peculiar form, which he applied to the naked body,

as a cure for several diseases. In the year 1774, he communicated his

system to Anthony Mesmer. The latter improved upon the ideas of Father

Hell, constructed a new theory of his own, and became the founder of

ANIMAL MAGNETISM.

It has been the fashion among the enemies of the new delusion to decry

Mesmer as an unprincipled adventurer, while his disciples have extolled

him to the skies as a regenerator of the human race. In nearly the same

words, as the Rosicrucians applied to their founders, he has been

called the discoverer of the secret which brings man into more intimate

connexion with his Creator; the deliverer of the soul from the debasing

trammels of the flesh; the man who enables us to set time at defiance,

and conquer the obstructions of space. A careful sifting of his

pretensions--and examination of the evidence brought forward to sustain

them, will soon show which opinion is the more correct. That the

writer of these pages considers him in the light of a man, who deluding

himself, was the means of deluding others, may be inferred from his

finding a place in these volumes, and figuring among the Flamels, the

Agrippas, the Borris, the Boehmens, and the Cagliostros.

He was born in May 1734, at Mersburg, in Swabia, and studied medicine

at the University of Vienna. He took his degrees in 1766, and chose

the influence of the planets on the human body as the subject of his

inaugural dissertation. Having treated the matter quite in the style of

the old astrological physicians, he was exposed to some ridicule both

then and afterwards. Even at this early period some faint ideas of

his great theory were germinating in his mind. He maintained in his

dissertation, "that the sun, moon, and fixed stars mutually affect each

other in their orbits; that they cause and direct in our earth a flux

and reflux not only in the sea, but in the atmosphere, and affect in a

similar manner all organized bodies through the medium of a subtile

and mobile fluid, which pervades the universe and associates all things

together in mutual intercourse and harmony." This influence, he said,

was particularly exercised on the nervous system, and produced two

states which he called intension and remission, which seemed to him to

account for the different periodical revolutions observable in several

maladies. When in after-life he met with Father Hell, he was confirmed

by that person's observations in the truth of many of his own ideas.

Having caused Hell to make him some magnetic plates, he determined to

try experiments with them himself for his further satisfaction.

He tried accordingly, and was astonished at his success. The faith of

their wearers operated wonders with the metallic plates. Mesmer made due

reports to Father Hell of all he had done, and the latter published them

as the results of his own happy invention, and speaking of Mesmer as a

physician whom he had employed to work under him. Mesmer took offence

at being thus treated, considering himself a far greater personage than

Father Hell. He claimed the invention as his own, accused Hell of a

breach of confidence, and stigmatized him as a mean person, anxious to

turn the discoveries of others to his own account. Hell replied, and a

very pretty quarrel was the result, which afforded small talk for months

to the literati of Vienna. Hell ultimately gained the victory. Mesmer,

nothing daunted, continued to promulgate his views, till he stumbled at

last upon the animal theory.

One of his patients was a young lady named Oesterline, who suffered

under a convulsive malady. Her attacks were periodical, and attended

by a rush of blood to the head, followed by delirium and syncope. These

symptoms he soon succeeded in reducing under his system of planetary

influence, and imagined he could foretell the periods of accession

and remission. Having thus accounted satisfactorily to himself for

the origin of the disease, the idea struck him that he could operate

a certain cure, if he could ascertain beyond doubt what he had long

believed, that there existed between the bodies which compose our globe,

an action equally reciprocal and similar to that of the heavenly

bodies, by means of which he could imitate artificially the periodical

revolutions of the flux and reflux beforementioned. He soon convinced

himself that this action did exist. When trying the metallic plates of

Father Hell, he thought their efficacy depended on their form; but he

found afterwards that he could produce the same effects without using

them at all, merely by passing his hands downwards towards the feet of

the patient--even when at a considerable distance.

This completed the theory of Mesmer. He wrote an account of his

discovery to all the learned societies of Europe, soliciting their

investigation. The Academy of Sciences at Berlin was the only one that

answered him, and their answer was anything but favourable to his system

or flattering to himself. Still he was not discouraged. He maintained to

all who would listen to him that the magnetic matter, or fluid,

pervaded all the universe--that every human body contained it, and could

communicate the superabundance of it to another by an exertion of the

will. Writing to a friend from Vienna, he said, "I have observed that

the magnetic is almost the same thing as the electric fluid, and that it

may be propagated in the same manner, by means of intermediate bodies.

Steel is not the only substance adapted to this purpose. I have rendered

paper, bread, wool, silk, stones, leather, glass, wood, men, and

dogs--in short, everything I touched, magnetic to such a degree that

these substances produced the same effects as the loadstone on diseased

persons. I have charged jars with magnetic matter in the same way as is

done with electricity."

Mesmer did not long find his residence at Vienna as agreeable as he

wished. His pretensions were looked upon with contempt or indifference,

and the case of Mademoiselle Oesterline brought him less fame than

notoriety. He determined to change his sphere of action, and travelled

into Swabia and Switzerland. In the latter country he met with the

celebrated Father Gassner, who, like Valentine Greatraks, amused himself

by casting out devils, and healing the sick by merely laying hands

upon them. At his approach puling girls fell into convulsions, and the

hypochondriac fancied themselves cured. His house was daily besieged by

the lame, the blind, and the hysteric. Mesmer at once acknowledged the

efficacy of his cures, and declared that they were the obvious result

of his own newly-discovered power of magnetism. A few of the Father's

patients were forthwith subjected to the manipulations of Mesmer, and

the same symptoms were induced. He then tried his hand upon some paupers

in the hospitals of Berne and Zurich, and succeeded, according to his

own account, but no other person's, in curing an opththalmia and a gutta

serena. With memorials of these achievements he returned to Vienna, in

the hope of silencing his enemies, or at least forcing them to

respect his newly-acquired reputation, and to examine his system more

attentively.

His second appearance in that capital was not more auspicious than the

first. He undertook to cure a Mademoiselle Paradis, who was quite blind,

and subject to convulsions. He magnetised her several times, and then

declared that she was cured; at least, if she was not, it was her fault,

and not his. An eminent oculist of that day, named Birth, went to visit

her, and declared that she was as blind as ever; while her family said

she was as much subject to convulsions as before. Mesmer persisted that

she was cured. Like the French philosopher, he would not allow facts to

interfere with his theory. [An enthusiastic philosopher, of whose name

we are not informed, had constructed a very satisfactory theory on some

subject or other, and was not a little proud of it. "But the facts,

my dear fellow," said his friend, "the facts do not agree with

your theory."--"Don't they," replied the philosopher, shrugging his

shoulders, "then, taut pis pour les faits;"--so much the worse for the

facts.] He declared that there was a conspiracy against him; and

that Mademoiselle Paradis, at the instigation of her family, feigned

blindness in order to injure his reputation!

The consequences of this pretended cure taught Mesmer that Vienna

was not the sphere for him. Paris, the idle, the debauched, the

pleasure-hunting, the novelty-loving, was the scene for a philosopher

like him, and thither he repaired accordingly. He arrived at Paris in

1778, and began modestly, by making himself and his theory known to the

principal physicians. At first, his encouragement was but slight; he

found people more inclined to laugh at than to patronise him. But he was

a man who had great confidence in himself, and of a perseverance which

no difficulties could overcome. He hired a sumptuous apartment, which he

opened to all comers who chose to make trial of the new power of nature.

M. D'Eslon, a physician of great reputation, became a convert; and from

that time, Animal Magnetism, or, as some called it, Mesmerism, became

the fashion in Paris. The women were quite enthusiastic about it, and

their admiring tattle wafted its fame through every grade of society.

Mesmer was the rage; and high and low, rich and poor, credulous and

unbelieving, all hastened to convince themselves of the power of this

mighty magician, who made such magnificent promises. Mesmer, who knew

as well as any man living the influence of the imagination, determined

that, on that score, nothing should be wanting to heighten the effect

of the magnetic charm. In all Paris, there was not a house so charmingly

furnished as Monsieur Mesmer's. Richly-stained glass shed a dim

religious light on his spacious saloons, which were almost covered with

mirrors. Orange blossoms scented all the air of his corridors;

incense of the most expensive kinds burned in antique vases on his

chimney-pieces; aeolian harps sighed melodious music from distant

chambers; while sometimes a sweet female voice, from above or below,

stole softly upon the mysterious silence that was kept in the house,

and insisted upon from all visitors. "Was ever anything so delightful?"

cried all the Mrs. Wittitterley's of Paris, as they thronged to his

house in search of pleasant excitement; "so wonderful!" said the

pseudo-philosophers, who would believe anything if it were the fashion;

"so amusing!" said the worn-out debauchees, who had drained the cup

of sensuality to its dregs, and who longed to see lovely women in

convulsions, with the hope that they might gain some new emotions from

the sight.

The following was the mode of operation:--In the centre of the saloon

was placed an oval vessel, about four feet in its longest diameter, and

one foot deep. In this were laid a number of wine-bottles, filled with

magnetised water, well corked-up, and disposed in radii, with their

necks outwards. Water was then poured into the vessel so as just to

cover the bottles, and filings of iron were thrown in occasionally to

heighten the magnetic effect. The vessel was then covered with an iron

cover, pierced through with many holes, and was called the baquet. From

each hole issued a long moveable rod of iron, which the patients were

to apply to such parts of their bodies as were afflicted. Around this

baquet the patients were directed to sit, holding each other by the

hand, and pressing their knees together as closely as possible to

facilitate the passage of the magnetic fluid from one to the other.

Then came in the assistant magnetisers, generally strong, handsome young

men, to pour into the patient from their finger-tips fresh streams of

the wondrous fluid. They embraced the patients between the knees, rubbed

them gently down the spine and the course of the nerves, using gentle

pressure upon the breasts of the ladies, and staring them out of

countenance to magnetise them by the eye! All this time the most

rigorous silence was maintained, with the exception of a few wild notes

on the harmonica or the piano-forte, or the melodious voice of a hidden

opera-singer swelling softly at long intervals. Gradually the cheeks of

the ladies began to glow, their imaginations to become inflamed; and off

they went, one after the other, in convulsive fits. Some of them sobbed

and tore their hair, others laughed till the tears ran from their

eyes, while others shrieked and screamed and yelled till they became

insensible altogether.

This was the crisis of the delirium. In the midst of it, the chief

actor made his appearance, waving his wand, like Prospero, to work

new wonders. Dressed in a long robe of lilac-coloured silk, richly

embroidered with gold flowers, bearing in his hand a white magnetic

rod; and, with a look of dignity which would have sat well on an eastern

caliph, he marched with solemn strides into the room. He awed the still

sensible by his eye, and the violence of their symptoms diminished. He

stroked the insensible with his hands upon the eyebrows and down the

spine; traced figures upon their breast and abdomen with his long

white wand, and they were restored to consciousness. They became calm,

acknowledged his power, and said they felt streams of cold or burning

vapour passing through their frames, according as he waved his wand or

his fingers before them.

"It is impossible," says M. Dupotet, "to conceive the sensation which

Mesmer's experiments created in Paris. No theological controversy, in

the earlier ages of the Catholic Church, was ever conducted with greater

bitterness." His adversaries denied the discovery; some calling him a

quack, others a fool, and others, again, like the Abbe Fiard, a man who

had sold himself to the devil! His friends were as extravagant in their

praise, as his foes were in their censure. Paris was inundated with

pamphlets upon the subject, as many defending as attacking the doctrine.

At court, the Queen expressed herself in favour of it, and nothing else

was to be heard of in society.

By the advice of M. D'Eslon, Mesmer challenged an examination of his

doctrine by the Faculty of Medicine. He proposed to select twenty-four

patients, twelve of whom he would treat magnetically, leaving the other

twelve to be treated by the faculty according to the old and approved

methods. He also stipulated, that to prevent disputes, the government

should nominate certain persons who were not physicians, to be present

at the experiments; and that the object of the inquiry should be,

not how these effects were produced, but whether they were really

efficacious in the cure of any disease. The faculty objected to limit

the inquiry in this manner, and the proposition fell to the ground.

Mesmer now wrote to Marie Antoinette, with the view of securing her

influence in obtaining for him the protection of government. He wished

to have a chateau and its lands given to him, with a handsome yearly

income, that he might be enabled to continue his experiments at leisure,

untroubled by the persecution of his enemies. He hinted the duty of

governments to support men of science, and expressed his fear, that if

he met no more encouragement, he should be compelled to carry his great

discovery to some other land more willing to appreciate him. "In the

eyes of your Majesty," said he, "four or five hundred thousand francs,

applied to a good purpose, are of no account. The welfare and happiness

of your people are everything. My discovery ought to be received and

rewarded with a munificence worthy of the monarch to whom I shall attach

myself." The government at last offered him a pension of twenty thousand

francs, and the cross of the order of St. Michael, if he had made any

discovery in medicine, and would communicate it to physicians nominated

by the King. The latter part of the proposition was not agreeable to

Mesmer. He feared the unfavourable report of the King's physicians; and,

breaking off the negotiation, spoke of his disregard of money, and his

wish to have his discovery at once recognised by the government. He

then retired to Spa, in a fit of disgust, upon pretence of drinking the

waters for the benefit of his health.

After he had left Paris, the Faculty of Medicine called upon M.

D'Eslon, for the third and last time, to renounce the doctrine of animal

magnetism, or be expelled from their body. M. D'Eslon, so far from doing

this, declared that he had discovered new secrets, and solicited further

examination. A royal commission of the Faculty of Medicine was, in

consequence, appointed on the 12th of March 1784, seconded by another

commission of the Academie des Sciences, to investigate the phenomena

and report upon them. The first commission was composed of the principal

physicians of Paris; while, among the eminent men comprised in the

latter, were Benjamin Franklin, Lavoisier, and Bailly, the historian of

astronomy. Mesmer was formally invited to appear before this body,

but absented himself from day to day, upon one pretence or another.

M. D'Eslon was more honest, because he thoroughly believed in the

phenomena, which it is to be questioned if Mesmer ever did, and

regularly attended the sittings and performed experiments.

Bailly has thus described the scenes of which he was a witness in the

course of this investigation. "The sick persons, arranged in great

numbers and in several rows around the baquet, receive the magnetism

by all these means: by the iron rods which convey it to them from the

baquet--by the cords wound round their bodies--by the connection of the

thumb, which conveys to them the magnetism of their neighbours--and

by the sounds of a pianoforte, or of an agreeable voice, diffusing the

magnetism in the air. The patients were also directly magnetised by

means of the finger and wand of the magnetiser moved slowly before their

faces, above or behind their heads, and on the diseased parts, always

observing the direction of the holes. The magnetiser acts by fixing his

eyes on them. But above all, they are magnetised by the application of

his hands and the pressure of his fingers on the hypochondres and on

the regions of the abdomen; an application often continued for a long

time-sometimes for several hours.

"Meanwhile the patients in their different conditions present a very

varied picture. Some are calm, tranquil, and experience no effect.

Others cough, spit, feel slight pains, local or general heat, and have

sweatings. Others again are agitated and tormented with convulsions.

These convulsions are remarkable in regard to the number affected

with them, to their duration and force. As soon as one begins to be

convulsed, several others are affected. The commissioners have

observed some of these convulsions last more than three hours. They are

accompanied with expectorations of a muddy viscous water, brought away

by violent efforts. Sometimes streaks of blood have been observed in

this fluid. These convulsions are characterized by the precipitous,

involuntary motion of all the limbs, and of the whole body: by the

construction of the throat--by the leaping motions of the hypochondria

and the epigastrium--by the dimness and wandering of the eyes--by

piercing shrieks, tears, sobbing, and immoderate laughter. They are

preceded or followed by a state of languor or reverie, a kind of

depression, and sometimes drowsiness. The smallest sudden noise

occasions a shuddering; and it was remarked, that the change of measure

in the airs played on the piano-forte had a great influence on the

patients. A quicker motion, a livelier melody, agitated them more, and

renewed the vivacity of their convulsions.

"Nothing is more astonishing than the spectacle of these convulsions.

One who has not seen them can form no idea of them. The spectator is as

much astonished at the profound repose of one portion of the patients

as at the agitation of the rest--at the various accidents which are

repeated, and at the sympathies which are exhibited. Some of the

patients may be seen devoting their attention exclusively to one

another, rushing towards each other with open arms, smiling, soothing,

and manifesting every symptom of attachment and affection. All are under

the power of the magnetiser; it matters not in what state of

drowsiness they may be, the sound of his voice--a look, a motion of his

hand--brings them out of it. Among the patients in convulsions there

are always observed a great many women, and very few men." [Rapport des

Commissaires, redige par M. Bailly.--Paris, 1784.]

These experiments lasted for about five months. They had hardly

commenced, before Mesmer, alarmed at the loss both of fame and profit,

determined to return to Paris. Some patients of rank and fortune,

enthusiastic believers in his doctrine, had followed him to Spa. One

of them named Bergasse, proposed to open a subscription for him, of one

hundred shares, at one hundred louis each, on condition that he would

disclose his secret to the subscribers, who were to be permitted to make

whatever use they pleased of it. Mesmer readily embraced the proposal;

and such was the infatuation, that the subscription was not only filled

in a few days, but exceeded by no less a sum than one hundred and forty

thousand francs.

With this fortune he returned to Paris, and recommenced his experiments,

while the royal commission continued theirs. His admiring pupils, who

had paid him so handsomely for his instructions, spread the delusion

over the country, and established in all the principal towns of France,

"Societies of Harmony," for trying experiments and curing all diseases

by means of magnetism. Some of these societies were a scandal to

morality, being joined by profligate men of depraved appetites, who took

a disgusting delight in witnessing young girls in convulsions. Many

of the pretended magnetisers were notorious libertines, who took that

opportunity of gratifying their passions. An illegal increase of

the number of French citizens was anything but a rare consequence

in Strasburg, Nantes, Bourdeaux, Lyons, and other towns, where these

societies were established.

At last the Commissioners published their report, which was drawn up by

the illustrious and unfortunate Bailly. For clearness of reasoning and

strict impartiality it has never been surpassed. After detailing the

various experiments made, and their results, they came to the conclusion

that the only proof advanced in support of Animal Magnetism was the

effects it produced on the human body--that those effects could be

produced without passes or other magnetic manipulations--that all these

manipulations, and passes, and ceremonies never produce any effect at

all if employed without the patient's knowledge; and that therefore

imagination did, and animal magnetism did not, account for the

phenomena.

This report was the ruin of Mesmer's reputation in France. He quitted

Paris shortly after, with the three hundred and forty thousand francs

which had been subscribed by his admirers, and retired to his own

country, where he died in 1815, at the advanced age of eighty-one. But

the seeds he had sown fructified of themselves, nourished and brought to

maturity by the kindly warmth of popular credulity. Imitators sprang up

in France, Germany, and England, more extravagant than their master, and

claiming powers for the new science which its founder had never dreamt

of. Among others, Cagliostro made good use of the delusion in extending

his claims to be considered a master of the occult sciences. But he made

no discoveries worthy to be compared to those of the Marquis de

Puysegur and the Chevalier Barbarin, honest men, who began by deceiving

themselves before they deceived others.

The Marquis de Puysegur, the owner of a considerable estate at Busancy,

was one of those who had entered into the subscription for Mesmer.

After that individual had quitted France, he retired to Busancy with his

brother to try Animal Magnetism upon his tenants, and cure the country

people of all manner of diseases. He was a man of great simplicity and

much benevolence, and not only magnetised but fed the sick that flocked

around him. In all the neighbourhood, and indeed within a circumference

of twenty miles, he was looked upon as endowed with a power almost

Divine. His great discovery, as he called it, was made by chance. One

day he had magnetised his gardener; and observing him to fall into a

deep sleep, it occurred to him that he would address a question to him,

as he would have done to a natural somnambulist. He did so, and the man

replied with much clearness and precision. M. de Puysegur was agreeably

surprised: he continued his experiments, and found that, in this state

of magnetic somnambulism, the soul of the sleeper was enlarged,

and brought into more intimate communion with all nature, and more

especially with him, M. de Puysegur. He found that all further

manipulations were unnecessary; that, without speaking or making any

sign, he could convey his will to the patient; that he could, in fact,

converse with him, soul to soul, without the employment of any physical

operation whatever!

Simultaneously with this marvellous discovery he made another, which

reflects equal credit upon his understanding. Like Valentine Greatraks,

he found it hard work to magnetise all that came--that he had not even

time to take the repose and relaxation which were necessary for his

health. In this emergency he hit upon a clever expedient. He had heard

Mesmer say that he could magnetise bits of wood--why should he not be

able to magnetise a whole tree? It was no sooner thought than done.

There was a large elm on the village green at Busancy, under which the

peasant girls used to dance on festive occasions, and the old men to

sit, drinking their vin du pays on the fine summer evenings. M. de

Puysegur proceeded to this tree and magnetised it, by first touching

it with his hands and then retiring a few steps from it; all the while

directing streams of the magnetic fluid from the branches toward the

trunk, and from the trunk toward the root. This done, he caused circular

seats to be erected round it, and cords suspended from it in all

directions. When the patients had seated themselves, they twisted the

cords round the diseased parts of their bodies, and held one another

firmly by their thumbs to form a direct channel of communication for the

passage of the fluid.

M. de Puysegur had now two hobbies--the man with the enlarged soul, and

the magnetic elm. The infatuation of himself and his patients cannot be

better expressed than in his own words. Writing to his brother, on the

17th of May 1784, he says, "If you do not come, my dear friend, you

will not see my extraordinary man, for his health is now almost quite

restored. I continue to make use of the happy power for which I am

indebted to M. Mesmer. Every day I bless his name; for I am very

useful, and produce many salutary effects on all the sick poor in the

neighbourhood. They flock around my tree; there were more than one

hundred and thirty of them this morning. It is the best baquet possible;

not a leaf of it but communicates health! all feel, more or less, the

good effects of it. You will be delighted to see the charming picture

of humanity which this presents. I have only one regret--it is, that I

cannot touch all who come. But my magnetised man--my intelligence--sets

me at ease. He teaches me what conduct I should adopt. According to

him, it is not at all necessary that I should touch every one; a look, a

gesture, even a wish, is sufficient. And it is one of the most ignorant

peasants of the country that teaches me this! When he is in a crisis,

I know of nothing more profound, more prudent, more clearsighted

(clairvoyant) than he is."

In another letter, describing his first experiment with the magnetic

tree, he says, "Yester evening I brought my first patient to it. As soon

as I had put the cord round him he gazed at the tree; and, with an air

of astonishment which I cannot describe, exclaimed, 'What is it that I

see there?' His head then sunk down, and he fell into a perfect fit of

somnambulism. At the end of an hour, I took him home to his house again,

when I restored him to his senses. Several men and women came to tell

him what he had been doing. He maintained it was not true; that, weak as

he was, and scarcely able to walk, it would have been scarcely possible

for him to have gone down stairs and walked to the tree. To-day I have

repeated the experiment on him, and with the same success. I own to you

that my head turns round with pleasure to think of the good I do. Madame

de Puysegur, the friends she has with her, my servants, and, in fact,

all who are near me, feel an amazement, mingled with admiration,

which cannot be described; but they do not experience the half of my

sensations. Without my tree, which gives me rest, and which will give

me still more, I should be in a state of agitation, inconsistent, I

believe, with my health. I exist too much, if I may be allowed to use

the expression."

In another letter, he descants still more poetically upon his gardener

with the enlarged soul. He says, "It is from this simple man, this tall

and stout rustic, twenty-three years of age, enfeebled by disease, or

rather by sorrow, and therefore the more predisposed to be affected by

any great natural agent,--it is from this man, I repeat, that I derive

instruction and knowledge. When in the magnetic state, he is no longer

a peasant who can hardly utter a single sentence; he is a being, to

describe whom I cannot find a name. I need not speak; I have only to

think before him, when he instantly understands and answers me. Should

anybody come into the room, he sees him, if I desire it (but not else),

and addresses him, and says what I wish him to say; not indeed exactly

as I dictate to him, but as truth requires. When he wants to add more

than I deem it prudent strangers should hear, I stop the flow of his

ideas, and of his conversation in the middle of a word, and give it

quite a different turn!"

Among other persons attracted to Busancy by the report of these

extraordinary occurrences was M. Cloquet, the Receiver of Finance.

His appetite for the marvellous being somewhat insatiable, he readily

believed all that was told him by M. de Puysegur. He also has left

a record of what he saw, and what he credited, which throws a still

clearer light upon the progress of the delusion. ["Introduction to the

Study of Animal Magnetism," by Baron Dupotet, p. 73.] He says that the

patients he saw in the magnetic state had an appearance of deep sleep,

during which all the physical faculties were suspended, to the advantage

of the intellectual faculties. The eyes of the patients were closed;

the sense of hearing was abolished, and they awoke only at the voice of

their magnetiser. "If any one touched a patient during a crisis, or even

the chair on which he was seated," says M. Cloquet, "it would cause

him much pain and suffering, and throw him into convulsions. During the

crisis, they possess an extraordinary and supernatural power, by which,

on touching a patient presented to them, they can feel what part of his

body is diseased, even by merely passing their hand over the clothes."

Another singularity was, that these sleepers who could thus discover

diseases--see into the interior of other men's stomachs, and point out

remedies, remembered absolutely nothing after the magnetiser thought

proper to disenchant them. The time that elapsed between their entering

the crisis and their coming out of it was obliterated. Not only had the

magnetiser the power of making himself heard by the somnambulists, but

he could make them follow him by merely pointing his finger at them from

a distance, though they had their eyes the whole time completely closed.

Such was Animal Magnetism under the auspices of the Marquis de Puysegur.

While he was hibiting these fooleries around his elm-tree, a magnetiser

of another class appeared in Lyons, in the person of the Chevalier de

Barbarin. This person thought the effort of the will, without any of the

paraphernalia of wands or baquets, was sufficient to throw patients into

the magnetic sleep. He tried it and succeeded. By sitting at the bedside

of his patients, and praying that they might be magnetised, they went

off into a state very similar to that of the persons who fell under the

notice of M. de Puysegur. In the course of time, a very considerable

number of magnetisers, acknowledging Barbarin for their model, and

called after him Barbarinists, appeared in different parts, and were

believed to have effected some remarkable cures. In Sweden and Germany,

this sect of fanatics increased rapidly, and were called spiritualists,

to distinguish them from the followers of M. de Puysegur, who were

called experimentalists. They maintained that all the effects of Animal

Magnetism, which Mesmer believed to be producible by a magnetic fluid

dispersed through nature, were produced by the mere effort of one

human soul acting upon another; that when a connexion had once been

established between a magnetiser and his patient, the former could

communicate his influence to the latter from any distance, even hundreds

of miles, by the will! One of them thus described the blessed state of a

magnetic patient:--"In such a man animal instinct ascends to the highest

degree admissible in this world. The clairvoyant is then a pure animal,

without any admixture of matter. His observations are those of a spirit.

He is similar to God. His eye penetrates all the secrets of nature.

When his attention is fixed on any of the objects of this world--on his

disease, his death, his well-beloved, his friends, his relations, his

enemies,--in spirit he sees them acting; he penetrates into the causes

and the consequences of their actions; he becomes a physician, a

prophet, a divine!" [See "Foreign Review, Continental Miscellany," vol.

v. 113.]

Let us now see what progress these mysteries made in England. In the

year 1788, Dr. Mainauduc, who had been a pupil, first of Mesmer, and

afterwards of D'Eslon, arrived in Bristol, and gave public lectures

upon magnetism. His success was quite extraordinary. People of rank and

fortune hastened from London to Bristol to be magnetised, or to place

themselves under his tuition. Dr. George Winter, in his History of

Animal Magnetism, gives the following list of them:--"They amounted

to one hundred and twenty-seven, among whom there were one duke, one

duchess, one marchioness, two countesses, one earl, one baron, three

baronesses, one bishop, five right honourable gentlemen and ladies, two

baronets, seven members of parliament, one clergyman, two physicians,

seven surgeons, besides ninety-two gentlemen and ladies of

respectability." He afterwards established himself in London, where he

performed with equal success.

He began by publishing proposals to the ladies for the formation of a

Hygeian Society. In this paper he vaunted highly the curative effects of

Animal Magnetism, and took great credit to himself for being the first

person to introduce it into England, and thus concluded:--"As this

method of cure is not confined to sex, or college education, and the

fair sex being in general the most sympathising part of the creation,

and most immediately concerned in the health and care of its offspring,

I think myself bound in gratitude to you, ladies, for the partiality you

have shown me in midwifery, to contribute, as far as lies in my power,

to render you additionally useful and valuable to the community. With

this view, I propose forming my Hygeian Society, to be incorporated with

that of Paris. As soon as twenty ladies have given in their names, the

day shall be appointed for the first meeting at my house, when they are

to pay fifteen guineas, which will include the whole expense."

Hannah More, in a letter addressed to Horace Walpole, in September 1788,

speaks of the "demoniacal mummeries" of Dr. Mainauduc, and says he was

in a fair way of gaining a hundred thousand pounds by them, as Mesmer

had done by his exhibitions in Paris.

So much curiosity was excited by the subject that, about the same time,

a man, named Holloway, gave a course of lectures on Animal Magnetism

in London, at the rate of five guineas for each pupil, and realised a

considerable fortune. Loutherbourg, the painter, and his wife followed

the same profitable trade; and such was the infatuation of the people to

be witnesses of their strange manipulations, that, at times, upwards of

three thousand persons crowded around their house at Hammersmith, unable

to gain admission. The tickets sold at prices varying from one to three

guineas. Loutherbourg performed his cures by the touch, after the manner

of Valentine Greatraks, and finally pretended to a Divine mission. An

account of his miracles, as they were called, was published in 1789,

entitled "A List of New Cures performed by Mr. and Mrs. de Loutherbourg

of Hammersmith Terrace, without Medicine; by a Lover of the Lamb of God.

Dedicated to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury."

This "Lover of the Lamb of God" was a half-crazy old woman, named Mary

Pratt, who conceived for Mr. and Mrs. de Loutherbourg a veneration which

almost prompted her to worship them. She chose for the motto of her

pamphlet a verse in the thirteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles:

"Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish! for I will work a work in

your days which ye shall not believe though a man declare it unto you."

Attempting to give a religious character to the cures of the painter,

she thought a woman was the proper person to make them known, since

the apostle had declared that a man should not be able to conquer the

incredulity of the people. She stated that, from Christmas 1788 to

July 1789, De Loutherbourg and his wife had cured two thousand people,

"having been made proper recipients to receive Divine manuductions;

which heavenly and Divine influx, coming from the radix God, his Divine

Majesty had most graciously bestowed upon them to diffuse healing to

all, be they deaf, dumb, blind, lame, or halt."

In her dedication to the Archbishop of Canterbury, she implored him to

compose a new form of prayer to be used in all churches and chapels,

that nothing might impede this inestimable gift from having its due

course. She further entreated all the magistrates and men of authority

in the land to wait on Mr. and Mrs. de Loutherbourg, to consult with

them on the immediate erection of a large hospital, with a pool of

Bethesda attached to it. All the magnetisers were scandalised at the

preposterous jabber of this old woman, and De Loutherbourg appears to

have left London to avoid her; continuing, however, in conjunction with

his wife, the fantastic tricks which had turned the brain of this poor

fanatic, and deluded many others who pretended to more sense than she

had.

From this period until 1798, magnetism excited little or no attention in

England. An attempt to revive the doctrine was made in that year, but

it was in the shape of mineral rather than of animal magnetism. One

Benjamin Douglas Perkins, an American, practising as a surgeon in

Leicestersquare, invented and took out a patent for the celebrated

"Metallic Tractors." He pretended that these tractors, which were two

small pieces of metal strongly magnetised, something resembling the

steel plates which were first brought into notice by Father Hell, would

cure gout, rheumatism, palsy, and in fact, almost every disease the

human frame was subject to, if applied externally to the afflicted part,

and moved about gently, touching the surface only. The most wonderful

stories soon obtained general circulation, and the press groaned with

pamphlets, all vaunting the curative effects of the tractors, which

were sold at five guineas the pair. Perkins gained money rapidly. Gouty

subjects forgot their pains in the presence of this new remedy; the

rheumatism fled at its approach; and toothache, which is often cured by

the mere sight of a dentist, vanished before Perkins and his marvellous

steel plates. The benevolent Quakers, of whose body he was a member,

warmly patronised the invention. Desirous that the poor, who could not

afford to pay Mr. Perkins five guineas, or even five shillings, for his

tractors, should also share in the benefits of that sublime discovery,

they subscribed a large sum, and built an hospital, called the

"Perkinean Institution," in which all comers might be magnetised free of

cost. In the course of a few months they were in very general use, and

their lucky inventor in possession of five thousand pounds.

Dr. Haygarth, an eminent physician at Bath, recollecting the influence

of imagination in the cure of disease, hit upon an expedient to try the

real value of the tractors. Perkins's cures were too well established to

be doubted; and Dr. Haygarth, without gainsaying them, quietly, but in

the face of numerous witnesses, exposed the delusion under which people

laboured with respect to the curative medium. He suggested to Dr.

Falconer that they should make wooden tractors, paint them to resemble

the steel ones, and see if the very same effects would not be produced.

Five patients were chosen from the hospital in Bath, upon whom to

operate. Four of them suffered severely from chronic rheumatism in

the ankle, knee, wrist, and hip; and the fifth had been afflicted for

several months with the gout. On the day appointed for the experiments,

Dr. Haygarth and his friends assembled at the hospital, and with much

solemnity brought forth the fictitious tractors. Four out of the five

patients said their pains were immediately relieved; and three of them

said they were not only relieved, but very much benefited. One felt

his knee warmer, and said he could walk across the room. He tried and

succeeded, although on the previous day he had not been able to stir.

The gouty man felt his pains diminish rapidly, and was quite easy for

nine hours, until he went to bed, when the twitching began again. On the

following day the real tractors were applied to all the patients, when

they described their symptoms in nearly the same terms.

To make still more sure, the experiment was tried in the Bristol

Infirmary, a few weeks afterwards, on a man who had a rheumatic

affection in the shoulder, so severe as to incapacitate him from lifting

his hand from his knee. The fictitious tractors were brought and applied

to the afflicted part, one of the physicians, to add solemnity to

the scene, drawing a stop-watch from his pocket to calculate the time

exactly, while another, with a pen in his hand, sat down to write the

change of symptoms from minute to minute as they occurred. In less than

four minutes the man felt so much relieved, that he lifted his hand

several inches without any pain in the shoulder!

An account of these matters was published by Dr. Haygarth, in a small

volume entitled, "Of the Imagination, as a Cause and Cure of Disorders,

exemplified by fictitious Tractors." The exposure was a coup de grace to

the system of Mr. Perkins. His friends and patrons, still unwilling

to confess that they had been deceived, tried the tractors upon sheep,

cows, and horses, alleging that the animals received benefit from the

metallic plates, but none at all from the wooden ones. But they found

nobody to believe them; the Perkinean Institution fell into neglect; and

Perkins made his exit from England, carrying with him about ten thousand

pounds, to soothe his declining years in the good city of Pennsylvania.

Thus was magnetism laughed out of England for a time. In France, the

revolution left men no leisure for such puerilities. The "Societes de

l'Harmonie," of Strasburg, and other great towns, lingered for a while,

till sterner matters occupying men's attention, they were one after the

other abandoned, both by pupils and professors. The system thus driven

from the first two nations of Europe, took refuge among the dreamy

philosophers of Germany. There the wonders of the magnetic sleep grew

more and more wonderful every day; the patients acquired the gift of

prophecy--their vision extended over all the surface of the globe--they

could hear and see with their toes and fingers, and read unknown

languages, and understand them too, by merely having the book placed

on their bellies. Ignorant clodpoles, when once entranced by the grand

Mesmeric fluid, could spout philosophy diviner than Plato ever wrote,

descant upon the mysteries of the mind with more eloquence and truth

than the profoundest metaphysicians the world ever saw, and solve knotty

points of divinity with as much ease as waking men could undo their

shoe-buckles!

During the first twelve years of the present century, little was heard

of Animal Magnetism in any country of Europe. Even the Germans forgot

their airy fancies; recalled to the knowledge of this every-day world

by the roar of Napoleon's cannon and the fall or the establishment

of kingdoms. During this period, a cloud of obscurity hung over the

science, which was not dispersed until M. Deleuze published, in 1813,

his "Histoire Critique du Magnetisme Animal." This work gave a new

impulse to the half-forgotten delusion; newspapers, pamphlets, and

books again waged war upon each other on the question of its truth

or falsehood; and many eminent men in the profession of medicine

recommenced inquiry, with an earnest design to discover the truth.

The assertions made in the celebrated treatise of Deleuze are thus

summed up: [See the very calm, clear, and dispassionate article upon the

subject in the fifth volume (1830) of "The Foreign Review," page 96, et

seq.]--"There is a fluid continually escaping from the human body,"

and "forming an atmosphere around us," which, as "it has no determined

current," produces no sensible effects on surrounding individuals.

It is, however, "capable of being directed by the will;" and, when so

directed, "is sent forth in currents," with a force corresponding to

the energy we possess. Its motion is "similar to that of the rays

from burning bodies;" "it possesses different qualities in different

individuals." It is capable of a high degree of concentration, "and

exists also in trees." The will of the magnetiser, "guided by a motion

of the hand, several times repeated in the same direction," can fill a

tree with this fluid. Most persons, when this fluid is poured into them,

from the body and by the will of the magnetiser, "feel a sensation of

heat or cold" when he passes his hand before them, without even touching

them. Some persons, when sufficiently charged with this fluid, fall into

a state of somnambulism, or magnetic ecstasy; and, when in this state,

"they see the fluid encircling the magnetiser like a halo of light, and

issuing in luminous streams from his mouth and nostrils, his head, and

hands; possessing a very agreeable smell, and communicating a particular

taste to food and water."

One would think that these absurdities were quite enough to be insisted

upon by any physician who wished to be considered sane, but they only

form a small portion of the wondrous things related by M. Deleuze. He

further said, "When magnetism produces somnambulism, the person who

is in this state acquires a prodigious extension of all his faculties.

Several of his external organs, especially those of sight and hearing,

become inactive; but the sensations which depend upon them take place

internally. Seeing and hearing are carried on by the magnetic

fluid, which transmits the impressions immediately, and without the

intervention of any nerves or organs directly to the brain. Thus the

somnambulist, though his eyes and ears are closed, not only sees and

hears, but sees and hears much better than he does when awake. In all

things he feels the will of the magnetiser, although that will be not

expressed. He sees into the interior of his own body, and the most

secret organization of the bodies of all those who may be put en

rapport, or in magnetic connexion, with him. Most commonly, he only

sees those parts which are diseased and disordered, and intuitively

prescribes a remedy for them. He has prophetic visions and sensations,

which are generally true, but sometimes erroneous. He expresses himself

with astonishing eloquence and facility. He is not free from vanity. He

becomes a more perfect being of his own accord for a certain time, if

guided wisely by the magnetiser, but wanders if he is ill-directed."

According to M. Deleuze, any person could become a magnetiser and

produce these effects, by conforming to the following conditions, and

acting upon the following rules:--

Forget for a while all your knowledge of physics and metaphysics.

Remove from your mind all objections that may occur.

Imagine that it is in your power to take the malady in hand, and throw

it on one side.

Never reason for six weeks after you have commenced the study.

Have an active desire to do good; a firm belief in the power of

magnetism, and an entire confidence in employing it. In short, repel all

doubts; desire success, and act with simplicity and attention.

That is to say, "be very credulous; be very persevering; reject all past

experience, and do not listen to reason," and you are a magnetiser after

M. Deleuze's own heart.

Having brought yourself into this edifying state of fanaticism, "remove

from the patient all persons who might be troublesome to you: keep with

you only the necessary witnesses--a single person, if need be; desire

them not to occupy themselves in any way with the processes you employ

and the effects which result from them, but to join with you in the

desire of doing good to your patient. Arrange yourself so as neither to

be too hot nor too cold, and in such a manner that nothing may

obstruct the freedom of your motions; and take precautions to prevent

interruption during the sitting. Make your patient then sit as

commodiously as possible, and place yourself opposite to him, on a seat

a little more elevated, in such a manner that his knees may be betwixt

yours, and your feet at the side of his. First, request him to resign

himself; to think of nothing; not to perplex himself by examining the

effects which may be produced; to banish all fear; to surrender himself

to hope, and not to be disturbed or discouraged if the action of

magnetism should cause in him momentary pains. After having collected

yourself, take his thumbs between your fingers in such a way that the

internal part of your thumbs may be in contact with the internal part of

his, and then fix your eyes upon him! You must remain from two to five

minutes in this situation, or until you feel an equal heat between your

thumbs and his. This done, you will withdraw your hands, removing them

to the right and left; and at the same time turning them till their

internal surface be outwards, and you will raise them to the height of

the head. You will now place them upon the two shoulders, and let them

remain there about a minute; afterwards drawing them gently along the

arms to the extremities of the fingers, touching very slightly as you

go. You will renew this pass five or six times, always turning your

hands, and removing them a little from the body before you lift them.

You will then place them above the head; and, after holding them

there for an instant, lower them, passing them before the face, at the

distance of one or two inches, down to the pit of the stomach. There you

will stop them two minutes also, putting your thumbs upon the pit of

the stomach and the rest of your fingers below the ribs. You will then

descend slowly along the body to the knees, or rather, if you can do

so without deranging yourself, to the extremity of the feet. You will

repeat the same processes several times during the remainder of the

sitting. You will also occasionally approach your patient, so as to

place your hands behind his shoulders, in order to descend slowly along

the spine of the back and the thighs, down to the knees or the feet.

After the first passes, you may dispense with putting your hands upon

the head, and may make the subsequent passes upon the arms, beginning at

the shoulders, and upon the body, beginning at the stomach."