MESMER AND AFTER
"Some deemed them wondrous wise,
And some believed them mad."--BEATTIE.
"A perfect medicine for bodies that be sick
Of all infirmities to be relieved;
This heleth nature and prolongeth lyfe eke."
Probably no one would claim that the phenomena now grouped under the
head of hypnotism were unknown before the end of the sixteenth
century. They are as old as man, yes, probably older, since we know
that some of the same phenomena apply to animals. But the claim might
well be made that while isolated facts of this kind were well known,
especially in the East, no scientific collaboration and explanation
were attempted until this time.
As with all other departments of science, we may trace a gradual
development. Astrology of old taught the influence of the stars upon
men, which doctrine was accepted by the great physician Theophrastus
Paracelsus (1490-1541). This, however, was only part of his belief:
the human body was endowed with a double magnetism; one portion
attracted to itself the planets and was nourished by them, the result
of which was the mental powers; the other portion attracted and
disintegrated the elements, from which process resulted the body. He
also claimed that the magnetic virtue of healthy persons attracted the
enfeebled magnetism of the sick. With this theory of animal magnetism,
it was only natural that he should value the use of the magnet very
highly in the cure of diseases. This dual theory of magnetic cures,
that of the magnetic influence of men on men and of the magnet on man,
was prevalent for over a century, and found its latest exponent in
Mesmer.
Following Paracelsus, Glocenius, Burgrave, Helinotius, Robert Fludd,
and Kircher believed that the magnet represented the universal
principle by which all natural phenomena might be explained. This
principle, existing as it did in the human body, was an important
factor in health and disease. The great chemist Von Helmont
(1577-1644) taught more precisely that a power resided in man by which
he could magnetically affect others, and thereby cure the sick who
were most influenced by it. He published a work on the effects of
magnetism on the human frame.
About the same time Balthazar Gracian, a Spaniard, boldly proclaimed
his views. "The magnet," he said, "attracts iron; iron is found
everywhere; everything, therefore, is under the influence of
magnetism.... It is the same agent which gives rise to sympathy,
antipathy, and the passions." Baptista Porta (1543-1615), one of the
originators of the weapon-salve, had also great faith in the magnet.
So effective was his work on the imaginations of his patients that he
was considered a magician and prohibited from practising by the court
of Rome. Sebastian Wirdig, professor of medicine at the University of
Rostock, in Mecklenburg, wrote a treatise on "The New Medicine of the
Spirits" which he presented to the Royal Society of London in 1673. He
maintained that a magnetic influence took place, not only between the
celestial and terrestrial bodies, but between all living things. The
whole world was under the influence of magnetism: life was preserved
by magnetism, death was the consequence of magnetism.
Maxwell (1581-1640) propagated somewhat the same doctrine. He was a
firm believer in sympathetic cures, and assumed a vital spirit of the
universe which related all bodies. It was probably from this that
Mesmer got his idea of what he called the universal fluid. It would
seem, however, that Maxwell was aware of the great influence of
imagination and suggestion. He said: "If you wish to work prodigies,
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." About the same time, in Italy,
Santanelli propagated the theory of a universal fluid. Everything
material possessed a radiating atmosphere which operated
magnetically. He also recognized, however, the great influence of the
imagination.
[Illustration: F. A. MESMER]
About the year 1771, Father Hell, a Jesuit, and professor of astronomy
at the University of Vienna, became famous through his magnetic cures,
and invented steel plates of a peculiar form which he applied to the
naked body as a cure for several diseases. In 1774 he communicated his
system to Mesmer, the man who, more than any one else, drew the
world's attention to the investigation of mental healing. Various
estimates have been made of Mesmer's character and he frequently has
been condemned. He was fond of display, but it is doubtful if he was
more avaricious than most persons who lived before and have lived
since. He was evidently honest in his scientific investigations and
opinions, and this is our main concern.
Friederich Antony Mesmer (1733-1815) was born at Mersbury, in Swabia,
and studied medicine at the University of Vienna. He read freely the
books written by the authors already mentioned, and accepted much of
their teaching. His originality consisted principally in applying to
the sick this universal principle, by means of contact and passes,
while his predecessors infused the vital spirit through the use of
talismans and of magic boxes. He took his medical degree in 1766 and
chose as the subject of his inaugural dissertation "The Influence of
the Planets in the Cure of Diseases." In this dissertation he
maintained "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 subtle 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.
Eight years later he met Father Hell, and after trying some
experiments with his metallic plates was astonished at his success. He
continued working with Hell for some time, but they finally
quarrelled, and shortly afterward he stumbled upon his theory of
animal magnetism. After this he no longer used the magnet in healing.
The Academy of Science at Berlin examined his claims, but their report
was far from favorable or flattering. Nevertheless, writing to a
friend from Vienna, he said: "I have observed that the magnetic is
almost the same 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,
every thing 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." About this time he was nominated a member
of the Academy of Bavaria.
Leaving Vienna and travelling through Swabia and Switzerland, he met
Gassner and witnessed some of his cures. Mesmer claimed that they were
performed by his newly discovered magnetism. He arrived in Paris in
1778 and found this city more receptive to his arts. He at first
established himself in an humble quarter of the city and began to
expound his theory. The following year he published a paper in which
he summed up his claims in twenty-seven assertions to which he rigidly
held through his life. His doctrines were well received, and acquired
an impetus at the beginning by the conversion of one of the leading
physicians of the faculty of medicine, Deslon, the Comte d'Artois'
first physician.
Pupils and patients now flocked to him. The crowd was so great that
Mesmer employed a _valet toucheur_ to magnetize in his place. This was
not sufficient; he then invented the famous _baquet_, or trough,
around which thirty persons might simultaneously be magnetized. This
_baquet_ is described as follows: "A circular, oaken case, about a
foot high, was placed in the middle of a large hall, hung with thick
curtains, through which only a soft and subdued light was allowed to
penetrate; this was the _baquet_. At the bottom of the case, on a
layer of powdered glass and iron filings, there lay full bottles,
symmetrically arranged, so that the necks of all converged toward the
centre; other bottles were arranged in the opposite direction, with
their necks toward the circumference. All these objects were immersed
in water, but this condition was not absolutely necessary, and the
_baquet_ might be dry. The lid was pierced with a certain number of
holes, whence there issued jointed and moving iron branches, which
were to be held by the patients. Absolute silence was maintained. The
patients were ranged in several rows round the _baquet_, connected
with each other by cords passed round their bodies, and by a second
chain, formed by joining hands."[187]
Additional features were provided to heighten the effect of the
magnetic charm. "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."[188]
Bailly, the historian and celebrated astronomer, an eye-witness,
describes the results. "Some patients remain calm and experience
nothing; others cough, spit, feel slight pain, a local or general
heat, and fall into sweats; others are agitated and tormented by
convulsions. These convulsions are remarkable for their number,
duration, and force, and have been known to persist for more than
three hours. They are characterized by involuntary, jerking movements
in all the limbs, and in the whole body, by contraction of the throat,
by twitchings in the hypochondriac and epigastric regions, by dimness
and rolling of the eyes, by piercing cries, tears, hiccough, and
immoderate laughter. They are preceded or followed by a state of
languor or dreaminess, by a species of depression, and even by stupor.
"The slightest sudden noise causes the patient to start, and it has
been observed that he is affected by a change of time or tune in the
airs performed on the pianoforte; that his agitation is increased by a
more lively movement, and that his convulsions then become more
violent. Patients are seen to be absorbed in the search for one
another, rushing together, smiling, talking affectionately, and
endeavoring to modify their crises. They are all so submissive to the
magnetizer that even when they appear to be in a stupor, his voice, a
glance, or a sign will rouse them from it. It is impossible not to
admit, from all these results, that some great force acts upon and
masters the patients, and that this force appears to reside in the
magnetizer. This convulsive state is termed the _crisis_. It has been
observed that many women and few men are subject to such crises; that
they are only established after the lapse of two or three hours, and
that when one is established, others soon and successively begin.
"When the agitation exceeds certain limits, the patients are
transported into a padded room; the women's corsets are unlaced, and
they may then strike their heads against the padded walls without
doing themselves any injury." Notwithstanding these means, thousands
were healed of their diseases.
"It is impossible," says Baron 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." He was called a quack, a fool, and
a demon, while his friends were as extravagant in his praise as his
foes in their censure. After this great excitement, his life may
largely be summed up in his challenges to different societies, the
appointment of commissions, their examinations, and their reports.
On the advice of Deslon he challenged the Faculty of Medicine,
proposing to select twenty-four patients, of whom twelve should be
treated according to the old and approved methods and twelve
magnetically, the cures to prove the efficacy of the treatment. The
faculty declined to accept the conditions. Deslon asked his colleagues
on the faculty to summon a general meeting to examine the matter.
Through the influence of M. de Vauzesmes, the meeting was very hostile
to him, and he was condemned and threatened with having his name
removed from the list of licensed physicians if he did not reform.
Mesmer now wrote to Marie Antoinette suggesting that the government
furnish him with houses, land, and a princely fortune to enable him to
carry on his experiments untroubled. The government finally offered
him a pension of 20,000 francs, and the cross of the order of St.
Michael, if he had made any discovery in medicine, and would
communicate it to the physicians whom the king should name. Mesmer
refused the conditions and left Paris.
Deslon was then called upon to renounce animal magnetism, but instead,
invited investigation. In 1784 the government appointed a commission
to inquire into magnetism, consisting of members from the Faculty of
Medicine and the Academy of Sciences. Franklin, Lavoisier, and Bailly
were members, the last named being chosen reporter. Another
commission, composed of members of the Royal Society of Medicine, was
charged to make a distinct report on the same subject. After
experimenting for five months the first commission presented two
reports, one public and the other secret, neither of which was
favorable. The Royal Society of Medicine presented its report a few
days later, and agreed with the first commission with the exception of
one member, Laurent de Jussieu, who dissented and published a separate
report of a more favorable nature. The gist of the commissions'
reports was that imagination, not magnetism, accounted for the
results.
Soon after the commissions started their investigations, Mesmer
returned to Paris at the invitation of his friends, who proposed to
open a subscription for him for 10,000 louis. Immediately it was
over-subscribed by over 140,000 francs. He came with the
understanding that he was to give lectures and to reveal the secret of
animal magnetism. The lectures and secrets were not satisfactory.
After the commission reported he left Paris and returned to his own
country where he was little heard of during the remainder of his life
which ended in 1815.
Whatever may be said of Mesmer, there seems to be no doubt about the
honesty of his most famous pupil, the Marquis de Puysegur, and to him
we are indebted for a forward step. When Mesmer left Paris, the
marquis retired to his estate near Soissons, and employed his leisure
in magnetizing peasants. He magnetized his gardener, a young man named
Victor, and after experimenting upon him claimed that during the state
Victor exhibited marvellous telepathic and clairvoyant phenomena.
Unable to attend all the patients who applied to him, he followed
Mesmer's plan of magnetizing a tree. An elm on the village green was
chosen, and round this patients gathered on stone benches as around
Mesmer's _baquet_.
Following Mesmer's theories very closely, the contribution he made was
in the recognition of the likeness between the magnetized state and
that of somnambulism, so that he designated this state "artificial
somnambulism." He also modified the conditions of inducing this
state, and simple contact or spoken orders were substituted for the
use of the _baquet_. The effect was therefore milder, and instead of
hysteria and violent crises accompanied by sobs, cries, and
contractions, there was peaceful slumber. He recognized the rapport
between operator and subject, and amnesia on awaking, and other
phenomena now well known, but he still held to the Mesmeric theory of
the existence of a universal fluid which saturated all bodies,
especially the human body. It was electric in nature, and man could
display and diffuse this electric fluid at will.
While the Marquis de Puysegur was using the elm tree near Soissons,
the Chevalier de Barbarin was successfully magnetizing people without
paraphernalia. He sat by the bedside of the sick and prayed that they
might be magnetized; his efforts were successful. He maintained that
the effect of animal magnetism was produced by the mere effort of one
human soul acting upon another; and when the connection had once been
established the magnetizer could communicate his influence to the
subject regardless of the distance which separated them. Numerous
persons adopted this view, calling themselves Barbarinists after their
leader. In Sweden and Germany they were called _spiritualists_, to
distinguish them from the followers of de Puysegur, who were called
_experimentalists_.
About the same time a doctor of Lyons, Petetin, experimented with
magnetism. After his death a paper written by him was published
describing catalepsy and sense transference. Numerous magnetic
societies were founded in the principal cities of France. In
Strasburg, the Society of Harmony, consisting of more than one hundred
and fifty members, published for years the result of their work. The
disturbance incident to the Revolution and the wars of the Empire
which followed repressed the investigations of magnetism in France for
several years.
In England the advent of magnetism seems to have taken place about
1788. In that year one Dr. Mainandus, who had been a pupil first of
Mesmer and later of Deslon, arrived in Bristol and gave public
lectures on the subject. People of rank and fortune soon came from
different cities to be magnetized or to place themselves under his
tuition. He afterward established himself in London where he was
equally successful in attracting and curing people. 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.
Large crowds gathered to hear him at the rate of five guineas for each
pupil.
Loutherbourg, the painter, and his wife entered upon a similar work.
"Such was the infatuation of the people to be witnesses of their
strange manipulations," says Mackay, "that at times upwards of three
thousand persons crowded round their house at Hammersmith, unable to
gain admission. The tickets sold at prices ranging from one to three
guineas." Loutherbourg later became a divine healer. From 1789 to 1798
magnetism attracted little or no attention in England. At the latter
date a Connecticut Yankee, Benjamin Douglas Perkins, invented
"metallic tractors." The Society of Friends built a hospital called
the "Perkinean Institute" where all comers might be magnetized free of
cost.
About 1786 animal magnetism appeared in two different places in
Germany--on the upper Rhine and in Bremen. At this time Lavater paid a
visit to Bremen and exhibited the magnetizing process to several
doctors. Bremen was for a long time a focus of the new doctrine, and
thereby was brought into bad repute. About the same time the doctrine
spread from Strasburg over the Rhine provinces. Among those active in
experiments were Boeckmann of Carlsruhe, Gmelin of Heilbronn, and
Pezold of Dresden. Soon it spread all over Germany. In 1789 Selle of
Berlin brought forward a series of experiments made at the Charite
(Hospital), in which he confirmed some of the alleged phenomena but
excluded the supernormal.
Notwithstanding the early dislike, animal magnetism flourished in
Germany during the first twenty years of the nineteenth century. In
1812 the Prussian government sent Wolfart to Mesmer at Frauenfeld, to
acquaint himself with the subject. He returned to Berlin an ardent
adherent of Mesmer and introduced magnetism into the hospital
treatment. From this magnetism flourished so much in Berlin that, as
Wurm relates, the Berlin physicians placed a monument on the grave of
Mesmer at Moersburg, and theological candidates received instruction in
physiology, pathology, and the treatment of sickness by vital
magnetism. The well-known physician Koreff was interested in magnetism
and often made use of it for healing purposes. Magnetism was
introduced everywhere, especially in Russia and Denmark. In
Switzerland and Italy it was at first received with less sympathy, and
in 1815 the exercise of magnetism was forbidden in the whole of
Austria.
In 1813 the naturalist Deleuze published a book entitled _Histoire
critique du magnetisme animal_. Like his predecessors, he was chiefly
interested in the therapeutic value of magnetism, and insisted that
faith was necessary for effective treatment. On account of this
condition any demonstration was impossible. He still held to the idea
of a pervading fluid and maintained that the depth of the magnetic
sleep depended upon the amount of the magnetic charge. Shortly after
the appearance of Deleuze's book, interest in animal magnetism
increased, and several journals dealing exclusively with the subject
were started.
With the death of Mesmer in 1815 ended the first period in the history
of the phenomena known as animal magnetism. Up to this time the
generally accepted theory was that of a vital fluid which permeated
every thing and person and through which one person influenced
another. The second period extended from 1815-1841 when Braid
discovered and formulated the method of operation. The third period
reached from 1841-1887 during which there was careful and scientific
study of the whole subject, and hypnotism came into repute as a
healing measure. I am inclined to posit a fourth period, 1887 to the
present time, for Myers' hypothesis of a subliminal self, or the
theory of the subconsciousness, has made a great difference in the
theory of hypnotism.
The second period began when Abbe Faria in 1814-15 came from India to
Paris and gave public exhibitions, publishing the results of some of
his experiments. He seated his subjects in an armchair, with eyes
closed, and then cried out in a loud commanding voice, "Sleep." He
used no manipulations and had no _baquet_, but he boasted of having
produced five thousand somnambulists by this method. He opined that
the state was caused by no unknown force, but rested in the subject
himself. He agreed with the present generally accepted theory that all
is subjective.
Following Faria, Bertrand and Noizet paved the way for the doctrine of
suggestion notwithstanding their inclination toward animal magnetism.
Experiments were performed at the Hotel-Dieu in 1820 but later were
prohibited. Through the influence of Foissac in 1826 the Academy of
Medicine appointed a committee to examine the subject, and in 1831 a
report acknowledging the genuineness of the phenomena was made, and
therapeutic effects were frankly admitted. In 1837 the Academy
appointed another commission to examine still further, for the members
as a whole were not convinced. The report of this commission was
largely negative.
After this the younger Burdin, a member of the Academy, proposed to
award from his own purse a prize of 3,000 francs to any person who
could read a given writing without the aid of his eyes, and in the
dark. The existence of animal magnetism must stand or fall on this
test. That was the difficulty during this period: the whole dispute
was waged about, and experiments consisted in tests of, clairvoyance,
transposition of the sense of sight, and other mystical phenomena,
instead of dealing with the state as such. This, of course, made the
struggle much easier for the opponents of mesmerism, but was largely
the fault of the magnetizers. The Burdin prize was not awarded, and in
1840 Double proposed that the Academy should henceforth pay no further
attention to animal magnetism, but treat the subject as definitely
closed. This was certainly unfair and unscientific, but was the
attitude assumed.
At the beginning of this period another series of tests was being
performed in Germany, but after 1820 the belief in magnetism declined
more and more. It flourished longest in Bremen and in Hamburg where
Siemers was its advocate. From 1830-1840 Hensler and Ennemoser were
the chief exponents in Bavaria. As the scientific investigators
withdrew from the study, the charlatans and frauds entered the field,
and the marvellous and occult were emphasized, so that in 1840 little
general attention was paid to the subject.
Notwithstanding the efforts of the London physicians Elliotson and
Ashburner, magnetism could obtain little footing in England during
this period. Numerous investigations were made, however, and several
publications were sent forth. Townshend, Scoresby, and Lee are names
prominent in the study of the subject in England at this time. In the
next period, though, an Englishman gives the impetus necessary for the
successful pursuit of the study.
In 1841 the French magnetizer, La Fontaine, gave some public
exhibitions in Manchester which attracted the attention of a physician
by the name of James Braid. Through the aid rendered by Braid, animal
magnetism blossomed into a science. He directed the subject into its
proper field: he eschewed the occult and mysterious, and emphasized
observation and experiment. It was Braid who gave us the word
"hypnotism." At first a sceptic, he began experimenting and proved
that fixity of gaze had in some way such an influence on the nervous
system of the subject that he went off into a sleep. He therefore
opined that the transmission of a fluid by the operator had no part in
the matter.
He further showed that an assumed attitude changed the subject's
sentiments in harmony with the attitude, and that the degree of sleep
varied with different persons, and with the same person at different
times. He also noted the acuteness of the senses during hypnosis, and
that verbal suggestion would produce hallucinations, emotions,
paralysis, etc. Therapeutics was a subject in which he was naturally
interested, and his experiments on different diseases were frequent
and valuable. Braid made some mistakes, as was natural, but his
discoveries covered the field so well and his ideas were so sound
that too much credit cannot be ascribed to him. At first he thought
hypnotism (Braidism) was identical with animal magnetism, but later
made the mistake of considering it analogous, and the two flourished
side by side and independently.
Animal magnetism was first introduced into America in 1836 by Mr.
Charles Poyan, a French gentleman. A few years later a certain Dr.
Collyer lectured upon it in New England. New Orleans was, however, for
a long time its chief centre. In 1848 Grimes, working independently,
appears to have arrived at about the same conclusions as Braid. He
showed that most of the hypnotic phenomena could be produced in the
waking state in some subjects, by means of verbal suggestion. The
phenomena were known under the name of electro-biology. In 1850
Darling went to England and introduced electro-biology, but it was
soon identified with Braidism, and in 1853 Durand de Gros, who wrote
under the pseudonym of Philips, exhibited the phenomena of
electro-biology in several countries, but aroused little attention.
Azam of Bordeaux and Broca of Paris made some experiments following
Braid's method, and several times performed some painless operations
by this means. They were followed by numerous others in all European
countries and in America. In fact, the interest in the subject became
general, and as more was known about it, fewer objections were heard.
Societies were formed for the study of hypnotism, publications were
started devoting all their space to the exposition and discussion of
it, and as this third period advanced, its scientific value was more
and more recognized from the stand-points of psychology, pathology,
and therapeutics.
In a brief resume like this it would be impossible to name even the
chief experimenters in the different countries who contributed to this
period, but some names stand out so prominently that they should be
emphasized, for they must be reckoned in importance with Braid's.
Liebeault, whose book, _Du Sommeil_, _etc._, was published in 1866,
has been called the founder of the therapeutics of suggestion. While
suggestion in both waking and hypnotic states had been applied long
before Liebeault's day, it was he who first fully and methodically
recognized its value. We are also indebted to him for stimulating in
the study of hypnosis Bernheim and other prominent investigators.
Liebeault at the head of the School of Nancy was not less known than
Charcot at the Salpetriere.
Charcot was indefatigable in his researches, but was led away in his
conclusions by artifacts. For example: three states were produced in
the hypnotic subject which Charcot considered to be symptomatic and
characteristic. They were catalepsy, lethargy, and somnambulism.
Certain physical excitations, such as rubbing the scalp or exposing
the eyes to a bright light, were thought to be all that was necessary
to change the subject from one stage to another. It has since been
shown that not only were the states of catalepsy, lethargy, and
somnambulism produced by suggestion, but the physical stimuli were
simply suggestions and signs by which the subject knew that a
particular change was expected, and, in harmony with hypnotic action,
the expected change came about. Not only did Charcot make this
mistake, but some of his followers of the Salpetriere School continued
to be deceived for years afterward.
Hardly a conclusion of Charcot's remains to-day, and yet so earnest
was he in his investigations and so untiring in his experiments, that
many of his facts contributed much to our knowledge of the subject
even if his theories have been rejected. Binet, Fere, and other
followers of his have contributed much to the science and literature
of the subject. The latter half of this period is not unknown to us
to-day, and as the names connected with it are familiar, it remains
for me to mention but one more name, that of the one who ushered in
the fourth period, F. W. H. Myers.
From its beginning Myers was prominently connected with the Society
for Psychical Research and occupied the offices of president and
secretary. He held the latter position at the time of his death in
1901. In 1887 he formulated his theory of the subliminal self or
subliminal consciousness, a theory which has come to be more and more
accepted, and the value of which has received increasing appreciation.
It has been known as the "subconscious self" or the "subconsciousness"
probably more than by Myers's original title; and his theory has been
modified by some subtractions and additions, but it is generally
accepted to-day and its exposition has helped solve many problems in
abnormal psychology. In no department has it contributed more than in
that of hypnotism, for by it this state has been partially explained.
For a number of years Charcot and his followers put forward a
physiological theory of hypnotism which waged war with that of the
Nancy School, under Liebeault, but even before Charcot's death he
recognized the validity of the Nancy claims while still clinging to
his own. Few if any espouse Charcot's claims to-day. The general
psychological theory of Nancy, which bases the results on suggestion,
is that currently accepted, while a theory not very different from
that of animal magnetism has been held by some of those who accepted
the spiritualistic hypothesis, notably among whom was Myers.
Hypnotism to-day is recognized as the product of a long line of
erroneous theory and zigzag development, but the wheat has largely
been sifted and the chaff thrown to the winds of antiquity. Its
therapeutic and psychological value is duly recognized by science
to-day.[189]
[187] Binet and Fere, _Animal Magnetism_, p. 8.
[188] C. Mackay, _Extraordinary Popular Delusions_, I,
p. 278.
[189] Many works and encyclopedic articles on hypnotism
have been consulted in the preparation of this chapter,
all of which were valuable, and few of which stand out
prominently.