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 Mesmerism and its opponents. 
 
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MESMERISM 
 
 ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 GEORGE SANDBY, M.A. 
 
 VICAR OP rMXTON, SUPFOLK. 
 
 ** AU things are marked and stamped with this triple character; —of 
 the power qf God, — the difference o/wa/wre,— and the use qfman" 
 
 Bacon, Advancement of Learnings book ii. 
 " Gratia docet de omni re, et in orani scientta utilitatis fructum, atque- 
 Dei landem et konorem quserere." 
 
 Thomas A Kempis, De Imitatione Christi, lib. iii. 54.. 
 
 ^ttaviti Haitian, 
 
 CONSIDERABLY ENLARGED, WITH AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 LONDON: 
 LONGMAN, BKOWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, 
 
 FATEBNOSTSB-BOW. 
 1848. 
 
London : 
 
 Spottiswoode RTiil Shaw, 
 
 New-strefjt-Squnre. 
 
To 
 
 CAPTAIN JOHN JAMES, 
 
 ETC. ETC. ETC. 
 
 I CANNOT dedicate this little Work more appro- 
 priately than to you, through whom I became first 
 acquainted with the great truths of which it 
 treats, and to whose kindness and cordial sym- 
 pathy I am so deeply indebted. 
 
 Believe me to remain. 
 My dear rriencl, 
 
 Yours most sincerely, 
 
 GEORGE SANDBY, Jun. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 In presenting a fresh edition of my little work to the 
 Public, perhaps I shall be pardoned if I submit a few pre- 
 liminary observations as to its nature and origin ; for the 
 earnest part that I take in the promotion of the somewhat 
 unpopular subject of which it treats has probably excited 
 surprise. With many, I appear to be stepping aside from 
 my own vocation, in a cause where far abler men have 
 failed before me, with little other prospect than that of 
 losing the good opinion of the judicious, and of incurring 
 an unnecessary amount of ill-will and misrepresentation. 
 With others, the move is. regarded as one, that profes- 
 sionally pursues a wrong, or at least, an unusual direction ; 
 and the conventionalist and the fastidious give me, there- 
 fore, their cold contempt. For all this, and more I am 
 .prepared. My object is to do good, great and essential 
 good to the many and to the miserable ; and a little odium 
 and ridicule can be easily overborne. And yet (as is the 
 case most commonly in the world) my motives have been 
 rather of a mixed nature ; and neither is the matter of the 
 volume so very unprofessional. To treat of the real 
 bearing of Mesmerism on religion and on religious minds ; 
 to disabuse the pious but prejudiced Christian of his 
 scruples as to its use * ; and to justify my friends and 
 
 * A letter from Mr. Symes, surgeon, of Grosvenor Street, published in 
 the 18th No. of the Zoist, shows a melancholy instance of conscientious 
 delusion, arising from ignorance.^p. 171. 
 
 A 3 
 
VI PREFACE TO THE 
 
 myself for our own practice — this was my original design : 
 other branches of the subject presented themselves inci- 
 dentally by the way ; experience and opportunity enabled 
 me to give information where much was wanted; one 
 thing led to another, till, at last, a little tract, that was 
 commenced with the sole purpose of dealing with a mis- 
 applied doctrine of Scripture, swelled into the present 
 heterogeneous table of contents ; and the whole aspect or 
 the question passed under review. 
 
 Providential circumstances had led me to an acquaint*, 
 ance with Mesmerism, for which I have still the greatest 
 reason to bless God. Superstition, however, has its slaves 
 in every spot; and I was soon pelted with pamphlets 
 through the post, and made the mark for grave and evil-> 
 natured censure. Satan and his emissaries were said to 
 have " crept into my house unawares ; " and the anathema® 
 of Mr. M'Neile were called arguments in proof. Some 
 slight notice seemed desirable ; and I therefore purposed 
 to examine the melancholy bigotry that prompted these 
 reproaches, and show how the very same ignorance had 
 equally assailed, even in recent times, remedies and dis- 
 coveries, the innocency of which could now be no longer 
 Called in question. It was explained to the well-meaning 
 opponent, that phenomena, which shocked his faith and 
 distracted his devotions, were the harmless result of a 
 simple process in nature, and were merely remarkable 
 because they were new. 
 
 I was immediately met by the very opposite argument. 
 "If," it was replied, "Mesmerism be neither preternatural 
 nor Satanic, your faith as a Christian is not the less 
 placed in jeopardy ; for wonders and cures similar in 
 degree to those which your own science boasts of, are 
 recorded in the Old and New Testaments, and form, in fact, 
 the basis on which all belief in them is grounded : if the 
 one be only of nature, so also must be the other. ^' These 
 
SECOND EDITION. Vli 
 
 views are more prevalent than it may be at first suspected, 
 and their birthplace will be found in Germany, Eichter *, 
 rector of the principal ducal school at Dessau, when pub- 
 lishing some years back " Considerations on Animal Mag- 
 netism," stated that magnetism "solves those enigmas 
 which appertain especially to Christianity;" and added, 
 that all the miracles of the New Testament were performed 
 by this extraordinary agency. The rector declared 
 further, that St. Paul, Luther, and the Saviour were all 
 magnetists. Eichorn and Professor Paulus, with their 
 rationalistic interpretations, may be considered as the 
 originators of a doctrine, which the deistical mesmerists of 
 Germany caught hold of and improved, " It is character- 
 istic of this theory," says a writer of a congenial though 
 different school (that of Strauss) and whose Lectures in 
 London obtained recently some notoriety, — " to regard 
 Christ as a wise man, healing disease by felicitous accident, 
 by medical skill, or by the natural action of his faith ; — 
 and in every narrative of miracle to cast about for some 
 supposable germ of fact, out of which the mistake or 
 exaggeration might have innocently grown." f Speaking 
 of Eichorn, the same lecturer observes, " While men were 
 ignorant oj nature and her laws, they made every thing 
 supernatural and divine. Useful inventions were deemed 
 special workings of the mind of God. Eichorn considers 
 that there was no fraud in the matter of miracles, only the 
 colouring which fact receives from the opinions of the 
 narrator," and that " the miracles were natural occurrences, 
 misunderstood and misreported."f Mr. Justice Coleridge, 
 in his Kecollections of his great kinsman, says, " Returning 
 to the Germans, he (Coleridge) said the state of their 
 
 * Not the famous Jean Paul, nor any relation. He was a man of pro- 
 found erudition, and a great mathematician and critic, and was well known 
 in Germany. He died about three years back. 
 
 •[■ Harwood's Anti-supernatuialism, p. 2. \ Ibid. p. 7, 8. 
 
 A 4 
 
Vm PREFACE TO THE 
 
 religion, when he was in Grermany, was really shocking. 
 He found professors in the universities lecturing against 
 material points in the Gospel. He instanced Paulus, whose 
 lectures he attended : the object was to resolve the miracles, 
 into natural operations."* German rationalism, as may- 
 be seen, therefore, was the school which first applied the 
 wonders of Mesmerism in support of a deistical theory,? 
 It was easy for the rationalist to say, that the miracles of 
 our Divine Master were "natural occurrences," but it 
 Was not so easy to find a key by which their hypothesis; 
 could be explained ; and magnetism seemed to ofier a ready: 
 solution for the difficulty. The suggestion was adoptedi 
 in all haste by the warm German mind, which so loves 
 the marvellous ; the idea spread quickly into France, and 
 took deep root in its infidel soil, as is seen by many of 
 their publications on the subjectf; and soon crossed over 
 into this country with other continental importations. As 
 a knowledge of Mesmerism gained ground in England, so 
 did this persuasion advance also, and, forming in the 
 Mesmeric world a distinct school, gave serious uneasiness 
 to many pious friends of the cause. Of this it is as idle 
 to pretend an ignorance, as it would be to be blind to the 
 approach of an enemy, and then hope that that enemy had 
 no existence. Neither would it be reasonable to blame 
 Mesmerism for the tenet, and exclaim against its practice 
 as the source of such unhallowed opinions. Which of 
 God's gifts have not been turned against the Giver ?± It 
 
 * Coleridge's Table Talk, vol. ii. p. 346. 
 
 f See particularly the writings of MM. Mialle, and Foissac and Theodore 
 Bouys. 
 
 ^ Mr. Cummlng, the eloquent minister of the Scottish Church in Loudon 
 
 says beautifully in a charming little tract, called " Infant Salvation " "A 
 
 repugnance to a truth may invent innumerable objections. . . . Evil men can 
 turn any mercy into means of evil. ... To object to a doctrine because it 
 may be abused, or to reject itibecause it may be perverted, is just to imitate 
 the man who would cut down a beautiful fruit-tree, because caterpillars 
 
 find food from its leaves, and spiders weave their webs amid its branches " 
 
 p. 34. 
 
SKCOND EDITION. IX 
 
 was far better to meet the evil at once, — to point out the 
 broad line of separation that runs between the two princi- 
 ples, — and to show with what unexamining haste the 
 theory had been adopted. And this I determined, with 
 God's help, to attempt, and to clear away the cloud of 
 mysticism that hung over the subject. Thus there were 
 two most adverse antagonists to deal with, — those who 
 elevated a newly-found physical influence into the magic 
 of Satan ; and those who strove to " retranslate the super- 
 natural back into the ■ natural." * I combated both in 
 succession; and have some reason to hope that my labours 
 have not been altogether fruitless, f 
 
 Again was I met from a fresh quarter with a not unfre- 
 quent objection, — an objection, also, more plausible than 
 real. "Mesmerism was immoral; why, then, incur an 
 odium from the advocacy of a< system that was liable to 
 grave abuses, and whence painful results had : actually 
 arisen?" Here, also, it was requisite to show that the 
 alleged evils were not essential to the practice ; that if 
 they existed, they did not counterbalance the far greater 
 advantages; that they need not exist at all, nf the conditions 
 and rules which the leading Mesmerists had established 
 were carefully observed ; and if not observed, that the 
 opportunities for wrong-doing were scarcely greater than 
 those which accompanied several parts of medical treat- 
 ment. The use of opiates had its evils ; to this might 
 now be added the intoxicating effects from the inhalation 
 
 * Expression in Harwood's Anti-supernaturalism. See also on this subi 
 ject a recent and popular French work, Salverte's " Philosophy of Apparent 
 Miracles," or Les Sciences Oceultes, 
 
 f The late " Charlotte Elizabeth," the editress of the " Christian Lady's 
 Magazine," J in her Ijetter to Miss Martineau on Mesmerism, also places 
 some magnetic wonders on a level with the miracles, though on different 
 principles to those mentioned above. She considers them as diabolical 
 ** imitations," " devised by Satan to throw soul-destroying doubts on the 
 miracles" of the Saviour. — p. 13. Hence the increased necessity for dis- 
 tinguishing between them. 
 
X PKEEACB TO THl 
 
 of ether, on wMch, morally, I have never yet heard even the 
 hint of an objection, though every one may see to what 
 vile purposes it might be rendered subservient. But so it 
 is in this world; — give an adversary an evil name, and 
 there is no crime of which he will not be deemed capable. 
 Opium and ether may, according to the proverb, walk 
 within the stable-door, and place their hands on the neck 
 of the animal, and no harm is feared or suspected ; 
 while poor Mesmerism cannot even cast a glance within 
 the precincts, but an outcry is straightway raised by these 
 drug-admiring purists, as to all our morals being im- 
 perilled by a strange and anomalous remedy ! 
 
 Thus far, then, the argument of my little work might 
 be regarded as steictly defensive. I had to show, in self- 
 justification alone, that a discovery, from which I had 
 largely profited, was neither satanic, nor immoral, nor 
 subversive of Gospel evidence, nor one which a Christian, 
 need fear to encourage ; and here the demonstration might 
 have stopped ; but, having once adventured into the field, 
 I felt that it was idle to withdraw till the best results of 
 my own practice and observation were offered to the 
 service of the sick room. This, of course, was to pass the 
 professional barrier, and to expose myself to the usual 
 charge of ignorance and interference. But it was a good 
 cause and a righteous, I was able show to the medical 
 sceptic, from my own experience only, that most of the 
 reasons on which he grounded his disbelief were based on 
 mistaken and hastily adopted views, in direct contradiction 
 to the actual workings of nature, I was anxious, also, to 
 encourage the relatives of many a sufferer in their employ- 
 ment of a healing and merciful art, by the relation of 
 what I had myself seen, and done, and studied. For 
 oftentimes, indeed, has some sad invalid been presented to 
 my notice, — the racking agony of his pains, — the wasted 
 helplessness of his form, — the despairing misery of his 
 
SECOND EDITION. xi 
 
 ^ySj — or the fever of his brain have, as the case may have 
 been, given fearful indications of the past and of the 
 future; — hope and relief had in vain been sought through 
 the ordinary appliances : — 
 
 " Soft, gentlest, friendly sleep ! 
 Sweet holiday I Of all earth's good the help, 
 Or origin!"* 
 
 had for hours and nights been absent from the chamber ! 
 But at length the soothing hand of the Mesmerist is sum- 
 moned; his gentle, patient, persevering treatment is 
 adopted and pursued ; and then, after a time, what a 
 change ! what a healthful happy transformation comes 
 over the whole system of one so lately and so fearfully 
 afflicted ! 
 
 " A new life 
 Flows through his renovated frame ; 
 His limbs, that late were sore and stiff, 
 Feel all the freshness of repose ; 
 His dizzy brain is calm'd ; 
 The heavy aching of his lids is gone ; 
 For Laila, from the bowers of paradise, 
 Has borne the healing fruit !"f 
 
 That, too, which was the most wanted, — the most 
 courted, the most ardently prayed for, and the most diffi- 
 cult to obtain, is now the first to reappear, and the easiest 
 to be secured. " Great nature's second course, balm of 
 hurt minds, chief nourisher in life's feast," follows readily 
 and peacefully from the composing hand. The magnetist 
 returns, and in a little moment — 
 
 " Day is over, night is here ; 
 Closed are the eye and ear 
 In sleep, in sleep I 
 Fain is silent : toil reposes : 
 * * * * 
 
 Neither moan nor weep : 
 Dreams and all the race of Fear 
 Fade away and disappear 
 In the deepest deep l"| 
 
 * Barry Cornwall, Fragments, 239. f Thalaba, book ii. p. 9, 
 
 J Barry Cornwall, Fragments, 239. 
 
XU PREFACE TO THE 
 
 Thishave I seen over and over again, and with all the 
 attendant blessings of oonvalespence ; and therefore is it, 
 that I am so earnestly, and, perchance, so unwisely en- 
 thusiastic in pressing the merits of this marvellous power 
 upon the notice of a numerous and benevolent profession. 
 
 The present edition (which I have endeavoured to make 
 a little Handbook of Mesmerism, from its replies to our 
 very opposite " opponents," and from its information 
 tinder various heads for different inquirers,) contains a 
 large amount of new matter. 
 
 An introductory chapter on the opposition of scientific 
 and medical men to the claims of Mesmerism is first 
 given, with tables of surgical operations that have been 
 performed during mesmeric insensibility. Their number 
 will be found to be greater than is generally supposed. 
 
 Several recent paniphlets, that have reasserted the 
 charge of irreligion and satanie agency, are examined ; 
 and some curious quotations from sermons and tracts, in 
 which the very same accusations against inoculation were 
 published about a century back, are laid before the reader 
 for his instruction and amusement. 
 
 The conduct of the Church of Rome in regard to Mes- 
 merism is given in the first chapter. The statement is 
 both interesting and important. 
 
 In the seventh chapter, a large variety of fresh instances 
 of natural ecstatics and sleepwalkers will be found. The 
 close relation, or rather identity, of the singular phenomena 
 that they have manifested with phenomena that have since 
 been developed in mesmeric patients, prove the truthfulness 
 and genuine character of the latter. It will be seen, 
 moreover, that the former are not "isolated" cases (as it 
 is asserted in the British and Foreign Medical Review for 
 April, 1845), but extremely numerous; for many more 
 than I have given could be added. The argument, then. 
 
SECOND EDITION. XIU 
 
 that they furnish is a useful one, and is pressed on the 
 reader's attention. Facts of this description, whieli arise 
 in the order of nature, and agree in the main, and vary 
 only with the accidents of climate, creed, and constitution, 
 show the " conformity of Mesmerism with general expe- 
 rience." They strengthen the reasoning that Mr. Towns- 
 hend brings forward in his third book, to prove that the 
 magnetic condition is not " an insulated phenomenon,'nor an 
 interruption to the universal order, but a link in the 
 eternal chain of things." (p. 184.) And the more that 
 the student of nature shall examine the history of the 
 cataleptic and ecstatic state, as recorded by different 
 religious writers, towards the confirmation of their respec- 
 tive faiths, the more will he perceive a good ground for 
 understanding that Mesmerism is nothing else than a 
 simple reproduction by artificial means of real phenomena 
 and facts that are as old as the creation. 
 
 An additional chapter will be also given, embracing 
 practical information for the use of the learner. Instruc- 
 tions in the art of mesmerising did not fair within the 
 original purposes with which this work was commenced, 
 and the subject was omitted in the first edition. But I 
 have been so frequently appealed to by letter for guidance 
 in the management of a patient ; and parties, living at a 
 distance, and deprived of the opportunity of personal 
 observation, (the best school after all,) have so often 
 expressed the opinion that information on that head was a 
 desideratum in the book, that I have endeavoured to 
 supply the omission. My own experience, which is now 
 neither slight nor superficial, will form the basis of the 
 instruction. But copious information from Deleuze, 
 EUiotson, Gauthier, Townshend, Teste, and other writers 
 and authorities on the subject will be introduced. 
 
 If the student wishes to pursue the subject more in 
 detail, the Instruction Pratique of the excellent and sober- 
 
2ilV PREFACE TO THE SECUHU JiuixiujN. 
 
 minded Deleuze is the first book that I should recommend. 
 There is an English translation, of the merits of which I 
 know nothing. 
 
 Gauthier's Traite Pratique abounds with information 
 and knowledge of the subject, but it has the besetting sin 
 of many French treatises, being too voluminous and prolix. 
 
 Mr. Bailli^re of Regent Street has published a transla- 
 tion of. Teste's " Practical Manual ; " in fact, every book 
 On Mesmerism will be found in his excellent shop. 
 
 Last of all, Dr. EUiotson's Letters in the Zoist, con- 
 taining the narrative of his principal cases, should form an 
 indispensable portion of the medical inquirer's reading. 
 In those valuable papers, nothing is taken for granted, 
 and neither theories nor fancies appear, but facts, care- 
 fully observed and well-recorded facts alone, proceed from 
 the pen of one who is the most cautious of men in first 
 entertaining an opinion, but the most conscientious and 
 courageous in maintaining it, when once he is certified 
 of its reality. For, 
 
 '' The Truth is feeilocjs never to the True, 
 Nor Knowledge to the Wise : but to the fool, 
 And to the false, error and truth alike." * 
 
 So says Mr. Bailey, in his strange but strikingly power- 
 ful poem of Festus ; with whose appropriate words I now 
 commend the following pages to the consideration of the 
 reader. 
 
 * Festus, p. 41. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 The following pages have grown out of a little pampUetj 
 that was published last summer, called " Mesmerism, the 
 Gift of God." 
 
 The favourable reception of that letter by the public, 
 and the demand for a second impression, have induced the 
 Author, at the suggestion of several friends, to enter more 
 fully into the subject, and to meet the various and contra- 
 dictory objections that are popularly advanced. 
 
 This work, therefore, professes, not only to treat of the 
 religious scruples that have been raised in the minds of 
 some Christians, but to discuss with the philosopher the 
 previous question as to the truth of Mesmerism, for a due 
 inquiry into which, circumstances have greatly favoured 
 the writer. 
 
 The First Chapter is little more than a reprint of the 
 original pamphlet, in answer to the charge of Satanic 
 agency. 
 
 The Second Chapter enters more at large into the same 
 topic ; and showing the tendency of the human mind to see 
 the mysterious in the inexplicable, proves, by example, 
 the periodical re-appearance of this absurd accusation. 
 The Author also examines the unfortunate mistake, which 
 too many of his own profession are disposed to commit, be 
 their religious creed what it may, of thinking that they do 
 God service by depreciating his gifts ; because the parties 
 that employ them hold opposite tenets to their own. — 
 
XVI PREFACE TO THJi 
 
 This feeling is shown to arise, sometimes from a zeal with- 
 out knowledge, and often from that love of spiritual 
 power, which has disfigured the brightest pages in the 
 history of the Church. 
 
 The Third and Fourth Chapters contain an analysis of 
 the common objections against the truth of Mesmerism. 
 Some remarkable cases are adduced from the writer's own 
 experience. An accumulation of other facts is given from 
 the testimony of parties whose standing in society is a 
 pledge for the correctness of what they state. The curative 
 power of Mesmerism in disease is proved by induction and 
 observation. And the medical profession is invited to a 
 reconsideration of tlieir unfavourable verdict. 
 
 The rifth Chapter discusses a common opinion as to the 
 dangers of Mesmerism ; — and its fallacy is in great measure 
 exposed. 
 
 At the request of a friend, the Sixth Chapter has exa- 
 tained, at some length, the bearing of the wonders of 
 Mesmerism on the miracles of the New Testament. It is 
 notorious, that a feeling is gaining ground that these 
 several facts exhibit an equality of power ; and that the 
 divine 'nature of the one is impaired by the extraordinary 
 character of the other. The consideration of this part of 
 the subject necessarily led to a detailed analysis of the 
 Scriptural events : of course the unbeliever in the pheno- 
 mena will deem such an inquiry preposterous and laugh- 
 able ; the Christian, however, who knows that Mesmerism 
 is an existing fact in nature, will not regard the examina!- 
 tion as superfluous ; and even to the philosopher such an 
 investigation ought to be interesting. 
 
 The concluding Chapter compares the phenomena of 
 natural somnambulism and of Mesmerism with certain 
 modern miracles among the Wesleyans and the B-oman 
 Catholics. The latter -facts are stripped of the marvellous 
 by a narrative of what occurred in the house of a friend. 
 
FIRST EDITION. XVII 
 
 Particular allusion is made to those wonders in the Tyrol, 
 •with the account of which the Earl of Shrewsbury, in a 
 recent letter addressed to Mr. Ambrose Phillips, perplexed 
 or pleased the Protestant or Romish Churches. 
 
 In the Appendix are given a few facts, taken from the 
 history of several uatural sleepwalkers, by which it will be 
 seen that the " miracles of Mesmerism " are nothing else 
 than certain phenomena, which have been often developed 
 by nature in the spontaneous action of disease. 
 
 The author cannot conclude without acknowledging 
 the vast obligations that he owes to the " Isis Revelata " 
 of Mr. Colquhoun, and to " Facts in Mesmerism " by the 
 Rev. Chauncy H. Townshend. Those who are disposed 
 to follow up the subject, cannot but turn with profit to the 
 varied information that those able works aiford. 
 
 1844. 
 
.CONTENTS. 
 
 Preface to the Secokd Edition ] - . - . Page v 
 
 Preface to the First Edition ----- xv 
 
 Introductory Chapter on Hostility of Scientific and Medical Men to Mes- 
 merism -....---1 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Progress of Mesmer ism. — Oppositio n ^ij 1V^B.■!mprisn1 — Charge of Satanic ' 
 
 Agency. — Sermon preached at Liverpool. — Rev. Hugh M'Neile. 
 
 Mesmerism and El ectricity. — Mesmerism not super natural. — Why 
 General Laws of Mesmerism not stated. - — Why Mesmeric Phenomena 
 not uniform in all Patients. — Sermon unworthy of Mr. M'Neile's Re- 
 putation. — Mesmerism and the Court of R ome. — Mesmerism and ■ 
 Charlotte Elizabeth. — " Mesmerism tested by the word of God." — 
 " Dialogue between a Mesmerist and a Christian," — Mr. Bickersteth and 
 Mr. Close on Mesmerism - - . - ■, -60 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 Mes meric Agent invisible. — GravitatiflP. — Anecdote from West Indies. 
 
 — New System of Remedies marvellous. — Power of Clergy, and Spiritual 
 
 Tyranny Witchcraft. — Bark introduced by Jesuits. — Inocujatiou.. — 
 
 Vaccination. — Sin of arraigning God's Bounties. — What Scripture 
 
 Doctrine of Evil Spirits. Chaygp hrni,ight agninst^lVTp^prispr^. 
 
 Lines " On hearing Mesmerism called Impious " - - - 94 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 XTptlpl'*''^'"''' '" Mpsmg"*'"^ — Author's own Experience. — Remarkable 
 Cases. — MesmerLsers in England. — Cures and Operations in England. 
 
 — Progress in, Scotland — In Germany-^ In France— Ir!_UnitgaLStates. 
 — 'Mesmerism proved to he a po werful RpmpHy in Pain anH DUoagg 119 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Arguments against Truth of Mesmerism. — Monotony. — I^^SUUi'' — 
 Imitation. — Faith. — Imagination. — " Mesmerise me, and I will 
 believe you." — First French Report, — Second French Report of 
 Medical Men alone, — Mr. Wakley. — London University. — Roval 
 Medical and Chirurgical Society. — British Association and Mr. Braid. 
 
 — British Associations and Phrenology. — British Association and Et her 
 and Mesmerism. — Great Names among Believers in Mesmerism -167 
 
XX CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Dangers of Mesmerism, physical and moral. — Danger of Mesmerising the 
 
 Healthy for Amusement Calmness, ?» Qnalifinatinn for aJVlesmeriser. 
 
 .^ Danger from Imperfect Waking. — Cross- Mesmerism. — Objections 
 on the Ground of Morality answered. — Rules fijy Mesmerising. — At- 
 ta chment to ^^aaeriser. — What it is. — " Horror " of Mesmerism. 
 
 — Ujtlieulties of Mesmerism. — Hint for Younger Members of the 
 Faculty ....... Page 215 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Opposition to Mesmerism from its presumed Miraculous Aspect. — Secret 
 Apprehension of the Christian. — German Rationalism. — New School 
 of Infidelity on the Doctrine of Nature. — Salverte's " Occult Sciences." 
 
 — American " Revelations." — "Charlotte Elizabeth" and Mr. Close on 
 Miracles and Mesmerism. — Dr. Arnold's Opinion. — The Mesmeric 
 Cures and the Miracles of the New Testament compared. — Touch of the 
 Mesmeriser. — Why did Miracles, if Mesmeric, cease ? — Argument from 
 Archbishop of Dublin. — Mesmeric Predictions. — Clairvoyance not 
 Miraculous ....--. 234 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Explanation of Marvels and fancied Miracles. — Ecstatic Dreamers and 
 Revelations. — The Maid of Kent, the Prophetess of the Catholics. — 
 Margaret Michelson, the Prophetess of the Covenanters. — The Shep- 
 herdess of Cret. — The Bohemian Prophetess. — Sister Germaine of 
 Brazil. — Martha Brossier, the Witch of Paris. — The entranced Female, 
 or Wesleyan Prophetess. — John Evans and the Demon of Plymouth 
 Dock. — Lord Shrewsbury's Tyrolese Ecstatics. — Revelations of the 
 " Seeress of Prevorst." — "Remarkable Sermons "of Rachel Baker,— 
 " Divine Revelations of Nature," by an American Clairvoyant. — The 
 Mesmeric Prophetess. — The Sleeping Haymaker. .^ — The Sleeping Sol- 
 dier. — Mesmeric Action contagious. — MaxurelLand-Bacon. oiuMsgnetic 
 Sympathy and Virtue . . . . . - 267 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 General Rules for Mesmerising. — Domestic Mesmerism. — Sleep not 
 
 necessary DifFerenee-oLJEftects. — Ca n any one Me smerise ? — Modes 
 
 of Mesmerising. — Patient not to be awakened. — Lengthened Sleep not 
 dangerous. — Methods of Demesmerising. — Exertion of th e Wil l. — 
 Warmth. — Benefit from Experiments. — Good Sleep at Night. — 
 Absence of Mesmeriser and Contact of Third Party. — Class of Diseases 
 
 affected by Mesmerism. — Epilepsy Organic Disease. — Paralysis 
 
 Different Stages of Mesmeric Condition. — Freedom of Manner. — | 
 Clairvoyance. — Conclusion - - - - .319 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 No. I. Instances of Clairvoyance unconnected with Mesmerism - 347 
 No. II. Ecstasy and Sleep-waking, and Insensibility to Pain, independenf 
 of Mesmerism ---... 35 ' 
 No. III. Lightness of Bodyi &c. - . . . . 354 
 
 No. IV. Speaking strange Languages, &c. - . . . sgg 
 
MESMERISM 
 
 AKD 
 
 ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 INTEODUCTORY CHAPTER, 
 
 It was one of Fontenelle's sayings, that " if he held every 
 truth in his hand, he would take good care and not open it ;" 
 a prudential maxim, indicative of that " calculating 
 reserve " with which cotemporaries taxed him ; and 
 though its adoption in practice may, doubtless, have 
 contributed to his own ease and interests, such a feeling, 
 if generally acted on, would be fatal to the well-being of 
 human kind.* 
 
 With so cautious a spirit was the academician afflicted, 
 such a coward was he in his own esteem, that it was 
 observed respecting him, that he always .found a pretext 
 for " strangling discussion ; " a strange character this for 
 a philosopher ! yet Fontenelle was wise in his generation. 
 This indifference for onward investigations, this con- 
 tentment with admitted truisms, were favourable to his 
 health and popularity. Voltaire called him a universal 
 genius ; and his life was prolonged to the exact term of a 
 centuiy.f 
 
 * ** Le caractSre de Fontenelle est * * * une reserve calculee. * * * H 
 disait souvent que s'il tenait toutes les verites dans sa main, il se garderait 
 bien de I'ouvrir.". — Biographie Universelle, ^it. Fontenelle. 
 
 f " La Motte, dans une lettre a la Duchesse du Maine, I'accusait, en 
 plaisantant, d'user de pretextes pour Itrangler lea diaeussions." Fontenelle 
 was born in 1657, and died \T5T.-~Ibid. 
 
 B 
 
2 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONBJNTIS. 
 
 But timidity like this is a sorry counsellor; and a 
 favourite as our author still is for the charm and variety of 
 his writings, this dread of encountering opposition, this 
 slavish suppression of inquiry, lessens, in large measure, our 
 respect for his memory ; and it suffers, in the estimation 
 of all generous minds, what Southey calls " an abatement 
 in heraldry."* 
 
 Now in this reluctance for the liberation of truth, 
 which Fontenelle expressed in the above often quoted 
 sentiment, there is a something which may remind the 
 reader of the medical profession in regard to their present 
 atj;itude on the study of Mesmerism. They too seem 
 /followers in the same cautious, unrisking, uninvestigating 
 school ; they too seem wanting in their usual independence 
 and frank-hearted sincerity ; they too seem unwilling;, 
 like the philosophic centenarian, to unclasp their hands, 
 and give truth its freest circulation : and yet, while they 
 resemble him in these several points, there is a distinction 
 between them, which is somewhat in favour of the aca- 
 demical secretary. 
 
 When Fontenelle said, that though his hand were full 
 of truths, he would not open it for any consideration, his 
 motives were rather selfish than unphilosophical. He 
 had, in fact, no turn for being a martyr in a good cause ; 
 he had no wish to be the victim of any fashionable outcry, 
 or held forth as the referee for every doctrine under 
 discussion. If a truth could only be maintained under 
 his championship, the truth must go to the wall. If the 
 public could only be benefited at his inconvenience, the 
 public must forego the advantage. Not that he objected 
 to the knowledge of truth for himself and his own private 
 investigations; it was its escape into the world that he 
 dreaded; he might study it, and examine it in his closet 
 
 * See Southey's Letter to William Smith, where he speaks of the present 
 Loid Jeffrey and the Edinburgh Eeyiew, , 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. " 3 
 
 at home; only let him be spared the dangers of a dis- 
 coverer, and the responsibility of letting too much light 
 upon mankind. 
 
 Now in all this reserve and holding back from free 
 investigation, there is much, as we before said, that re- 
 sembles our medical friends on the Mesmeric question; 
 they are, indeed, all this, and " something more." Fonte- 
 nelle would not " open his hands" to communicate know- 
 ledge; but they will not open theirs to receive it; 
 Fontenelle would not risk his ease for the instruction of 
 society, but they wiU not pass from professional routine 
 even for their own. Fontenelle was selfish, timid, and 
 shrinking from consequences ; but they are rather il-^ 
 liberal, unphilosophic, and retrogressive. Truth, even for 
 its own sake, or for its benefit on others, seems to have 
 neither charm nor recommendation with them. They 
 close their eyes, they stop their ears, they harden their' 
 hearts, they desire not to be informed or set right on this' 
 subject, be the advantages or the gratification what they 
 may ! * 
 
 It may not be without its use to ask, what can be the 
 unexpressed motives on the part of medical m^n for this 
 Strange disinclination for the study of Mesmerism? for 
 that some secret reasons are at the bottom of their 
 conduct, is a point that no longer admits of a doubt« 
 Whilst almost every other educated person is beginning to 
 allow, that there is much more of probability and reality 
 in the representations of the Inesmerists, than originally 
 
 ' * Every experienced mesmerist could bring forward some story or other,- 
 similar to the following statement mentioned by Mr. Spencer Hall : " It is 
 worth recording, as a feature of the age, that a physician of fashionable 
 practice in the town (Halifax), on being invited to assist in an investigation, 
 protested against it altogether in the most contemptuous terms, on the 
 ground that the fallacy of mesmerism was too apparent to permit him to 
 entertain the thought that it needed inquiry at all ; in short, that any such 
 inquiry would be disgraceful to the profesaion." See Mr. S., Hall's very inte- 
 resting Mesmeric Experiences, p. 35. 
 
 E 2 
 
4 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 men were prepared to expect, the "profession" still 
 withholds its adhesion. They may, perhaps, not be so 
 loud and offensive in their vituperations and ridicule as 
 they were a few years back ; they may have altered their 
 tack, and become more silent and self-distrusting ; still, as 
 a body, they openly proclaim an unyielding scepticism ; 
 they dislike, if they do not actually reject, inquiry ; and 
 seldom voluntarily or with a good grace, either start or 
 pursue the subject in conversation.* In stating this, it is 
 of course remembered with pleasure, that very many have 
 co-operated in our investigations with a most candid and 
 honourable spirit ; that the number of those that have 
 openly joined our ranks is increasing every day, and 
 already forms a highly respectable minority ; and that the 
 younger men, and more especially the students in the 
 hospitals, are not undesirous of acknowledging the claims 
 of the science to its place among their physiological re- 
 searches ; still it must with regret be confessed that 
 the large majority of experienced practitioners, i. e. those 
 who have secured an advanced standing in their pro- 
 fession, do hold aloof from all serious investigations upon 
 the question, and if they do not give utterance to their 
 feelings by an open expression of contempt, are at 
 least mysteriously dumb or politely evasive on the 
 .topic ; and it is, therefore, my wish, in a temperate and 
 -friendly spirit, to consider closely, what can he the 
 .:vunexpressed reasons for so lingular a violation of their 
 -general usages. 
 
 Of course, they would themselves say, that the 
 Tcason was a simple one, — that the facts alleged, 
 were so monstrous in themselves, and so opposed to 
 the laws of nature, that no inquiry was needed ; for that 
 their mere statement carried with them to the medical mind 
 
 * In saying this, I am not so much giving utterance to my own cxpfi- 
 rierice, as recording the observations of almost all mcsmerisers with whom I 
 have spoken on the pojnt in question. 
 
INTEODUCTORY CHAPTEE. 5 
 
 their own refutation.* But this, any one may see, is an 
 assumption of the whole question. It has been over and 
 over again shown, that what are called the " laws of^ature '* 
 are, strictly speaking, but the results of our present amount 
 of scientific information, which do not preclude, with the 
 progress of knowledge, a further development of hitherto 
 latent principles.! No parties are more aware of this truth 
 than medical men themselves. And for them, therefore, to 
 offer such a plea, is not merely a begging the very point at 
 issue, but a proceeding directly at variance with their own 
 philosophic pretensions; and again, therefore, I respect- 
 fiilly demand, what is the probable motive for this anomaly 
 in their conduct ? | 
 
 The vulgar explanation usually advanced, strange as it 
 may sound to the medical ear, is altogether of a pecuniary 
 nature, and affecting their very character for disinterested' 
 ness and integrity. This is mentioned, not for the purpose 
 of expressing my own utter disbelief in its- probability, but 
 of pointing out to the public the unreasonableness of such 
 an opinion, and of directing the attention of the profession 
 itself to their position, on this point, in popular estimation. 
 
 Though here and there, the jest may goodnaturedly be 
 uttered by one of themselves, that if the claims of Mes- 
 merism were established, their vocation would be perilled 
 and their " occupation o'er," they little suspect how much 
 
 * " There is no use in discussing the matter," said an able surgeon to a 
 friend of mine ; " the thing is impossible ; we know at once that it is im- 
 possibk." And so it has ever been ! It was impossible to prevent the small- 
 pox by vaccination! It was impossible to light the streets with gas I It 
 was impossible to cross the Atlantic by steam I Verily " a little science" 
 is as dangerous as a little anything else. 
 
 t Mr. Townshend well remarks, that " such an objection would make 
 our own imperfect observation the measure of Nature's regularity. Are we 
 entitled to conclude, in any case, that, because we have not hitherto been 
 able to assign a law to certain operations, they are, therefore, without law ? 
 Is it not wiser to believe that our own knowledge is in fault, whenever 
 Nature appears inconsistent with herself? — Townsliend^s Facts, y. 14. 
 
 1 Why, for instance, has no detailed notice been yet given, in any single 
 Medical Journal, of the cases recorded in the Zoist ? 
 
 B 3 
 
6 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 of serious earnestness is supposed to be lurking at the 
 bottom. They little dream, that their cautious retreat 
 from a participation in the practice is rather attributed to a 
 €ZaeV«oyawi apprehension of a future loss of income, than to 
 a philosophic conviction of scientific superiority. True it 
 is, that the " love of money is the root of aU evil : " and 
 that medical men, like other mortals, are not to be regarded 
 as independent of its influence ; but the tenor of their 
 general conduct makes a charge of this nature ridiculous 
 and unmerited. My own experience (and I have had but 
 too many painful opportimities of forming an opinion)^ 
 TTOuld lead to the conclusion, that no one profession is so 
 little under the bias of mercenary motives.- No men give 
 so much of a gratuitous unbought assistance, or sacrifice so 
 tauch time and labour without a prospect of remuneration) 
 as do they. And to suppose that a liberal and educated 
 profession like this would oppose themselves to the progress 
 of a great scientific discovery from an ungenerous appre- 
 hension of its proving detrimental to their interest, is 
 monstrous in the extreme.* They themselves must feel, 
 that a mere defence from such an imputation is almost 
 as insulting as it is unnecessary. But it is necessary, — 
 more necessary than they imagine. If I have heard the 
 opinion once, I have heard it hundreds of times, and not 
 uttered casually or in badinage, but gravely maintained and 
 insisted upon, as a matter of certainty. It is, in fact, the 
 all but universal inference ; and it would really seem de- 
 sirable, that the parties thus misunderstood should be made 
 aware of the construction to which their reserved dealing 
 
 * Dr. Elliotson has well observed, " Some have been hostile from fancy 
 that their pockets would suffer : — but many with abundant means, and more 
 practice than they could get through, — nay, some retired from practice, have 
 manifested the same spirit." — Zoist, No. xv. p. .S77. Dr. E. agrees, there- 
 fore, with me in tracing the hostility to a different cause than the question 
 of income. 
 
INTEODUCTOEY CHAPTEE. 7 
 
 has thus rendered them liable. But, in truth, the opinion 
 is itself also founded on a mistake. 
 
 Mesmerism must partake much more of the miraculous 
 character*, before the sanguine anticipations of some ardent 
 partisans can thus be realised. Its effects are indeed great 
 and various, and often most unexpected, triumphing over 
 many of the evils of life in a way delightful for the 
 Christian to witness, — but yet must they be regarded 
 rather as auxiliary to the practitioner, than superseding his 
 attendance, rather as adding a fresh item to the former 
 resources of his art, than dispensing with his kind and ne- 
 cessary care. That Mesmerism is now exercised by non- 
 professional parties, is indeed a fact, but one rather re- 
 sulting from its present unfixed position, than desirable in 
 itself, or likely to continue. It is because they who ought 
 to be its champions and directors stand coldly aloof, and 
 reject all aid through its influence. But let its claims, as 
 those of an important branch of therapeutic practice, be 
 once fuUy recognised (and that such a day is steadily ap- 
 proaching, very many indications give certain proof)j and 
 a different state of things would then ensue. No longer 
 would a few " incurable " cases, where the despairing phy- 
 sician had taken his leave, be transferred, sometimes at 
 almost the agonies of death, to a mesmerising acquaintance 
 to try if he could procure relief; but the disease would, be 
 grappled with at the earlier stages of its development with 
 a more certain assurance of success. No longer would \ 
 the hesitating patient, through the fear of offending the / 
 medical friend, surreptitiously admit into the sick room some /■ 
 amateur magnetist, with a distressing responsibility for all (^ 
 parties ; but the treatment would be adopted, openly and 
 more agreeably, by the express direction of professional 
 •advice. As it is. Mesmerism is generally employed as the 
 
 * See the chapter on a Comparison between Mesmeric Cures and the 
 Miracles of the New Testament. 
 
 B 4 
 
mesmerism: and its opponents. 
 
 last resource, when every other remedy has been tried and 
 failed ; it is employed too, with an unpleasant feeling of 
 risk and uncertainty, if without the sanction of a re- 
 gular practitioner. And this is a jiosition most painful to 
 the sick person, and one from which he would gladly 
 escape. They know but little of the real invalid, who 
 imagine that he ever desires to rid himself of the visits, or 
 shake oif the authority, of the medical man. The sons of 
 Esculapius are, in essentials, as supreme in the sick cham- 
 ber, as the Belgian priest in his confessional, or the Wes- 
 leyan minister in a Welsh conventicle. It is only when 
 repeated failures have followed the prescription, that their 
 power ceases, or the charm is broken. It is only when the 
 more orthodox systems have lost their effect, that the aid 
 of the heterodox mesmerist is called in. But let the 
 faculty themselves once include magnetic treatment within 
 the legitimate means of relief, and in no very serious case 
 would it be resorted to without their approval. Of course 
 medical men, with large or increasing practice, would not 
 themselves enjoy sufficient leisure to mesmerise extensively; 
 they could but give directions for its use, and supervise its 
 application ; still, the treatment Itself would In the main 
 be subject to their pleasure, whilst, most probably, here 
 and there,^ some of the younger members, with peculiar 
 physical and moral qualifications, would devote themselves 
 almost exclusively to the practice : but to suppose that, 
 when once established. Mesmerism would be widely em- 
 ployed without the sanction of the practitioner, or that it 
 would banish the physician from the sick house. Is an 
 erroneous view arising from an ignorance of human nature, 
 Jt is repeated, that the patients themselves would neither 
 wish nor agree to it ; nor in very serious diseases would 
 the magnetiser himself be covetous of such anxious respon- 
 sibility. The druggist, indeed, might suffer from the 
 change ; and a large amount of his poisonous doses might 
 
INTEODUCTOEY CHAPTEE. 9 
 
 remain unshaken on his shelves ; but the power, the influ-r 
 ence, and, to come to the point, the income, of the real 
 physiologist and physician would be extended and im- 
 proved ; Mesmerism would take its natural place amidst 
 the other " appliances " of the healing art ; and the 
 lecturer and ii-responsible manipulator would in great mea- 
 sure disappear.* 
 
 But, whilst it were almost an impertinence to vindicate 
 the character of professional men from the above illiberal 
 imputation, it cannot be said that a dread of the subject 
 has not in some measure guided their conduct. They have 
 had their fears of Mesmerism, though in a different sense 
 to that intended by the public. For the science is un- 
 popular. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that 
 it was unpopular, since a more favourable estimation of its 
 value has for some little time been gaining ground. Still, 
 it were idle to deny that Mesmerism has laboured under 
 many an unfortunate and odious appellation. The notion 
 of its unreality and falsehood,— r the accusation of impos- 
 ture, — the potent cry of " Satanic agency," so captivating(' 
 with weak and excitable women, ignorant as they are that 
 the very same clamour has been raised on points wherein 
 such an opinion would be now scouted, — an erroneous 
 idea of the impropriety of the practice, — and, more than 
 all, the novelty of the thing, and the unpleasantness 
 attendant on unestablished theories : all these causes con- 
 tributed to render the science unpopular, and to attach an 
 
 * Most mesmerisers with whom I am acquainted rather seek the coun- 
 tenance of medical men, than set themselves up as their rivals. One of the 
 most laborious and benevolent mesmerists has often said, that he only 
 practises the art because the regular practitioner refuses to employ it. The 
 language of Gauthier is the most usual : — " Je pose toujours comme uri 
 fait acquis qu'il ne doit point y avoir de traitemeut, s'il n'est ordonne ou 
 eonseille par un medecin, dont le magnetiseur est le prepos^," — Trait& 
 J^atique, p. 29. See also the language of Mesmer, quoted by Gauthier, 
 p. 697., stating that the physician is alone capable of putting his system into 
 practice." See also Gauthier's own language to the medical world, p. 698. 
 See also some excellent remarks of Dr. EUiotson, in Zoist, vol. iv. p. 377. 
 
10 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 undesirable reputation to its premature advocacy. The 
 day is not so distant, when it would have been as much 
 a mark of ill-breeding to name the name of Mesmerism to 
 " ears polite " and scientific, as to start the topic of parlia- 
 mentary reform at the table of a boroughmonger, or to 
 insist on the justice of an increased grant to Maynooth to 
 an Irish Orangeman. Animal magnetism was, in shorty 
 tabooed in fashionable circles. And this is what medical 
 men both felt and knew. They felt thait, true or false, it 
 was an unwelcome topic ; and that to inquire into it 
 would be as unwise, as to practise it would be unsafe. 
 Added to which, there was the dread of ridicule from 
 professional brethren, — the apprehension of being singled 
 out, sneered down, and pointed at, if they meddledj how- 
 ever disereetly, with the " unclean thing." Thus, many 
 causes concurred to render Mesmerism distasteful to the 
 practitioner : a beacon to avoid, — -not a light to lead men 
 on; and not many, therefore, ventured on the study. 
 That fine and manly philosophy which shrinks not from 
 following out a fact, let it carry you where it may ; that 
 love of truth at all price ; that high conscientiousness of 
 principle, which would be ashamed to disown the convic' 
 tions of the understanding, be the consequences howevel? 
 inconvenient; all these qualifications belong, apparently, 
 but to few. ; . 
 
 " To show the world what long experience gains, 
 Requires not courage, tho' it calls for pains ; 
 But at life's outset to inform mankind, 
 Is a. bold effort of a valiant mind."* 
 
 These, then, are the reasons, which sufficiently explain 
 the shyness of medical men for embarking in the practice ; 
 the shyness, we mean, of those who had not yet established 
 a firm footing in their vocation, and whose risks would be 
 so far greater than any advantage acquired; and he must 
 
 • Crabbe's Borough, Letter VII. 
 
INTEODUCTOKY CHAPTER. U 
 
 frst be well assured of his own moral courage and inde- 
 pendence, who would pronounce a sweeping condemnation 
 on such prudential regard to worldly prospects. All this 
 applies, however, exclusively to the rising and younger 
 members of the profession. The question yet remains, 
 what is it that has hindered the leaders of the body, those 
 whose names are too firmly fixed to be damaged by an 
 unpopular novelty, — -what is it that has hindered them 
 irom giving an honest, earnest, impartial investigation to a 
 subject, with such large claims to inquiry, as the science 
 of mesmerism ? 
 
 My own impression is, that their resistance has arisen, 
 partly from their being committed to a positive and adverse 
 opinion, and partly from tha,t pride of intellect which 
 belongs so remarkably to scientific men, indisposing them 
 as it does to receive any statements as true which are in 
 contradiction of their own pre-arranged and pre-conceived 
 notions. 
 
 That they have committed themselves is certain. In an 
 evil and hasty hour they decided with senatorial authority, 
 that the mesmerical representations were an absurdity, 
 and in the nature of things could not be true. To pass 
 over the declarations of Continental physicians, and the 
 old story of the French academies, it is sufficient to say 
 that the leaders in English practice at once pronounced, 
 ex cathedra, against the science. Without study, without 
 inquiry, without making a natural comparison between the 
 snagnetic appearances and certain analogous facts which 
 had presented themselves spontaneously in several sickly 
 persons, and, being recorded by men of their own pro- 
 fession, might have thrown some light on the question ; 
 with only here and there an occasional and supercilious 
 attendance at an experiment, the most eminent physicians 
 that the metropolis could produce, with one splendid 
 exception, committed themselves at once to an adverse 
 
12 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 opinion ; and all their provincial brethren followed in their 
 train. This was unfortunate for Mesmerism ; but in the 
 end has been still more unfortunate and awkward for 
 themselves. To retrace their ground after so false a step, 
 to own themselves in the wrong, to admit that if greater 
 care had been bestowed, a modified, if not indeed an 
 opposite, opinion might perchance have followed, would of 
 course be painful to men of professional eminence. It 
 would be tantamount to saying that they, the anatomists, 
 the physiologists par excellence, had been mistaken in their 
 own vocation, and that ignorant and unprofessional parties 
 had conducted them to the truth. The natural heart kicks 
 against such condescension. Pride, mortified vanity, a 
 dread of reproach, a dread of ridicule, would all be creating 
 an 'uproar in the mind, and forbidding the retractation, 
 however desirable. A younger man might attempt it, 
 but not the advanced and dignified leader. To " stand 
 by his order," however overbearing; to stick by his 
 opinions, however perverse ; to look any way but the way 
 that would place him in the right ; to appear deaf, blind, 
 absent, or overthoughtful ; to be too busy and too absorbed 
 in immediate occupations to find leisure for the study ; 
 anything, in short, would better suit his views than a 
 reconsideration of the subject, or a deviation from his 
 positive and primary assertions. A philosopher (says the 
 witty Frenchman) must part with everything sooner than 
 his opinions.* His mind may misgive him as to their 
 truth ; he may feel the ground crumbling beneath his feetj 
 and observe signs of an approaching change gathering fast 
 around ; no matter for the result ; like an angry politician, 
 he must only cry out " no surrender " all the louder for 
 
 * " Panglos avouait qu'il avait toujours horriblement souffert ; mais ayant 
 soutenu une fols que tout allait a merveille, il le soutenait toujours, et n'en 
 croyait rien.".^ — Candide, cap. 30, The same great authority says elsewhere,. , 
 " Je suis toujours de mon premier sentiment: car je suis philosoplie ; il ne me 
 convient pas de me dedire." — Cap. 28, 
 
INTKODUCTOEY CHAPTER. 13 
 
 the sight, and with a dogged determination that embraces 
 only one side of the question, postpone the inevitable hour 
 of concession to the latest possible moment, with the worst 
 
 In that illustrious chronicle which records the doings of 
 the famous doctor of Valladolid, we are told, that the hero 
 of Santillana, troubled in his mind at the frightful havoc 
 which was following their labours, just hinted to his 
 master, in the most delicate way imaginable, the bare pos- 
 sibility as to his being mistaken in his theory. " Let us 
 change," said he, " our practice. Let us, from the idlest 
 curiosity, just give our patients some different preparations, 
 and see their effect. The worst]] that could happen would 
 be that they could only suffer, as they do at present, and 
 die in the end." Sangrado was staggered for a moment ; 
 for something of the same feeling had been passing in his 
 own mind. " My dear friend," he, however, replied, " I 
 would make the trial willingly ; but unfortunately it would 
 be attended by an untoward consequence ; my opinions are 
 pubhshed, and surely you would not have riie stultify my 
 own statements ? " " Oh, vous avez raison" replied Gil 
 Bias, " by no means give a triumph to your enemies ; 
 they would say you had found out your error : and sooner 
 than your reputation should suffer by such a step, let 
 patients, people, clergy, and nobility perish in our 
 hands!"* 
 
 And even so is it with our medical friends. Their 
 dogmata were given forth hastily to the world ; they 
 asserted peremptorily, that mesmerism was an " unreal 
 mockery," and its followers but simple dupes ; and 
 although we often most humbly suggest, that perad- 
 venture, they wight be mistaken ; that, perhaps, they who 
 have studied the question may be right, and that they 
 
 * Gil Bias, livre 2. cap. 5. 
 
14 MESMEEISM AND TTS OPPONENTS. 
 
 who have not studiea u, may uc «// uit,y , a.^.-^, »*-. J San- 
 grado's pupil, we delicately propose to them, from sheer, 
 curiosity, to re-examine the subject — the appeal is idle,, 
 — they shake their heads with an imposing gravity for-^ 
 bidding all reply, for, like their prototype in Spain, their 
 patients may suffer, but they cannot abandon — an 
 opinion! 
 
 It may, however, be asked, how is it that we speak so 
 positively as to the feelings of certain members of the 
 profession, and to their being influenced by an opinion, tO; 
 which they stand thus committed? The answer is one. 
 which carries its own proof as soon as it is heard. 
 
 Mesmerism professes to be a powerful auxiliary to the 
 healing art. It professes, right or wrong, to lessen the 
 amount of bodily pain, to induce sleep where sleep is 
 otherwise unattainable, to cure disease where disease is 
 often irremediable. Supposing, for the sake of argument,, 
 that the pretensions ' of the clairvoyant were altogether 
 erroneous, and that considerable abatement must be made 
 for the exaggerated expectations of over sanguine mes- 
 merists — still, with these deductions, the claims of this 
 discovery to the possession of a large amount of beneficial 
 properties would yet remain considerable. What then, 
 it might be asked, would be the line of conduct, whioh^ 
 a priori, we might anticipate from the friends of human 
 kind on a question of this nature ? What would be the 
 language which a philanthropic profession might be ex- 
 pected to employ, to judge them by the test of their usual, 
 demeanour? We should say, that, sceptical as they might, 
 be as to the establishment of the fact, their uppermost 
 feelings would be those of a hope that it were true. On 
 presenting to their notice so unexpected a discovery, of 
 course hesitation and incredulity would be not only 
 natural but proper ; still, if they were men — if no sinister 
 influences were biassing their views or warping their 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER, IS 
 
 hearts, — ^ their desire' ■would be, that what promised to 
 convey so vast a boon to sufFering humanity might not- 
 prove a mistake.* Their fears of its failure might be 
 greater than their hopes of its success : they might appre- 
 hend that the anxious wishes of the discoverer had been 
 the " father to his thoughts," and bade him arrive too 
 rapidly at a conclusion ; stiU they would listen with inte- 
 rest, they would examine with care, they would them- 
 selves experimentalise, and do all they could to sift the 
 question, and establish how much of benefit there might 
 be obtained from the treatment ; and if the presumed dis- 
 covery resolved itself unhappily into an error, they would 
 sympathise in the disappointment of the suffering patients, 
 and feel a sincere regret for the sad frustration of their 
 hopes. These, do I boldly assert, would be the feelings 
 of benevolent men, if uninfluenced by any counter or in- 
 terested motives. There would be one remedy less for 
 the ills of human life than men's fond expectations had 
 been led to anticipate! Mesmerism would, indeed, be 
 overthrown, but the contemplated relief of thousands 
 would be overthrown also ! 
 
 Has this, then, or any thing like this, been the conduct 
 of our opponents, medical or scientific? alas for human 
 nature, the very reverse ! Their aim has ever been, not to 
 discover the uses, but to detect any fallacies, of the art ; 
 not to avail themselves of its resources towards the miti- 
 gation of disease, but to exercise their inventive faculties 
 in starting far-fetched solutions for each result ; to fasten 
 on each imagined failure with the most unmitigated glee/, 
 to magnify the slightest miscarriage into a defeat of the 
 system itself, to neglect the most important conditions re- 
 quired, and then assume that these conditions were of no 
 moment in the trial : to tax their ingenuity in suggesting 
 
 * See,j>ar exemple, their conduct about ether, and their instant experiment 
 of its valoe ' ' 
 
16 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 explanations that a child could refute ; to assert, and re- 
 assert, and assert over again, after their assertions had been 
 contradicted by experiments without number; — this has 
 been, more or less, their line of bearing from the very 
 beginning ; and to this, though in a more guarded way, 
 do they still adhere. The maintenance of an opinion 
 would seem to be of greater value than the lessening of 
 human ills ; and to show that their first conjecture was 
 correct, a nobler triumph in the fields of science than the 
 chance of relieving one aching throb ! If really anxious 
 for truth, and not committed to one party-sided notion, 
 why is it that they do not occasionally venture on a trial? 
 On the contrary, is it not notorious that numbers who have 
 never witnessed a single experiment, who have never at- 
 tempted even half a manipulation, who know nothing on 
 the subject more than what they have read or heard from 
 their fellow-opponents, pertinaciously cling to their original 
 asseverations, without even the apparent wish of being dis- 
 abused of their error ? While the sounds of victory, with 
 which they hail an accidental disappointment on the part 
 of the mesmerists, are little consistent with the character 
 of benevolent men, who, if not blinded by their own de- 
 termined views, would readily perceive that the cause of 
 humanity had encountered a temporary discomfiture, and 
 that what was a source of exultation to themselves might 
 prove the death-blow to the hopes of myriads of sufferers ! 
 
 The above observations apply to one class of opponents ; 
 with a second, and, it is believed, a far larger portion, this 
 indisposition for the inquiry may be rather traced to that 
 overweening confidence in their own attainments, which 
 bids men often reject what they cannot explain, and as 
 often qualifies them, in their own judgment, for arriving at 
 a conclusion without incurring the labour of a preliminary 
 investigation. 
 
 It might be presumed, in the first instance, that the very 
 
rNTRODTJCTORY CHAPTER. 17 
 
 last persons to be influenced by this species of intellectual 
 conceit would be scientific men. "We might infer that 
 they whose knowledge is built upon induction and ex- 
 periment, whose every discovery but only carried with it 
 a proof of man's circumscribed acquirements, and that if 
 much had been learnt, far, far more remained behind ; 
 that these would be the humblest and most modest of 
 mortals, and the least disposed to fulminate their dogmata, 
 as though they were the omniscient high priests of nature 
 and her secrets. We can well understand, on the contrary, 
 the self-sufficient arrogance of some one-idea'd student of 
 theology. This branch of learning, with all its extensive 
 departments, has its limits ; one mind may travel over its 
 main points in a lifetime; and the polemic, who is half 
 blind with poring over tomes of patristic divinity, and has 
 mastered every controversy from the dawning of Luther to 
 the defection of Newman, might well be pardoned for in- 
 dulging in a sneer at the presumed discovery of some un- 
 suspected doctrine in Scripture. But with nature's mys- 
 teries the thing is widely difierent ; here a va,st illimitable 
 expanse lies before, here the profoundest knowledge is yet 
 but a " little learning ; " and with all that has been dis- 
 closed to the deepest researches, we are, as has been beau- 
 tifully observed, but picking up a few shells beside the 
 ocean of truth. No men are more alive to this fabt thaii 
 the scientific; none would more readily acknowledge it; 
 yet, in practice, few have more frequently forgotten it. 
 Experience has shown, in numerous instances, that they 
 have carried their opposition to novelties in science, not 
 only to an intolerance of the fact discovered*, but to a 
 
 * The Abbe J. B. L., in his curious work called, " Magnetisme deVant 
 la Cour de Rome," says truly, " Toujours la science ancienne a pers&utfi la 
 ■science nouvelk; et jamais ceux qu'on appelle savans dans le monde, et qui 
 se plaisent a rep^ter les mots d'intoUrance et de fanatisme lorsqu'il a'agit 
 de religion, n'ont et^ tol^rants que pour des opinions qui rie heurtaient pas 
 celles qu'ils avaient adoptees." p. 47. , 
 
 C 
 
18 MESMERISM AlO) ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 bitter persecution of the discoverer. Pride, a wounded 
 and angry pride, is, in great measure, the source of this ; 
 but there are other causes also at work. Our accurate ac- 
 quaintance with the details of one department, does not 
 necessarily qualify for a broader insight into general nature. 
 The mind may be full and well stored with matter, and 
 yet rendered only narrower in the process. As Alfred 
 Tennyson remarks, in the finest of his poems, 
 
 " Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers." * 
 
 Knowledge may be poured in upon the mind in an unin- 
 terrupted flow ; facts from every province in philosophy- 
 may be accumulated without end, one on the other ; but 
 that large wisdom which generalises from the mighty whole, 
 which can detect a principle where a fact is but partially de- 
 veloped, and travel beyond habitual studies into the 
 analogous and the cognate ; this higher wisdom does not 
 necessarily belong to the accredited leaders of the most 
 erudite academy. On the contrary, they are often liberal 
 but in one line, — and philosophers but in one direction. 
 Out of their particular pale, or set, or pursuit, or theory, 
 they can be as bigoted, or as ignorant as the merest tyro 
 in their schools. As our incomparable Arnold most cha- 
 ritably expresses it, speaking of Johnson's fondness for 
 biography, at the expence of a different department in 
 literature : " We cannot comprehend what we have never 
 studied; and history (read, mesmerism) must be content 
 to share in the common portion of every thing great and 
 good; it must be undervalued by a hasty observer." \ In 
 
 * Locksley Hall. There are parts of this noble poem, that one reads, as 
 Johnson said of Dryden's Ode, " with turbulent delight." 
 
 t Arnold's Inaugural Lecture. See also a very beautiful sermon by the 
 Bishop of Oxford, " Pride a Hindrance to true Knowledge." Amono- other 
 admirable remarks the Bishop observes, " And as he (the self-satisfied phi- 
 losophist) will not learn from others, so not even by Nature herself will he be 
 taught. He thinks he knows so much, that his estimate of what is to he 
 knowH is lowered.- * * * He has a theory to maintain, — a solution which 
 
 n 
 
INTKODtrCTOET CHAPTER* 19 
 
 short, this Is a contradiction in the scientific character : 
 masters in one branch of learning, they estimate at an in- 
 ferior value a knowledge in that of which they are ignorant 
 • — they pass it over as of minor moment in attaching an 
 exaggerated importance to their own especial acquirements ;• 
 and thus it is, that mesmerism has been refused its " place 
 within the circle of medical Sciences," from the usual 
 alliance between ignorance and pride, an ignorance that 
 disbelieves what it has never examined, and a pride that 
 ■will not stoop to rnake the needful inquiry.* 
 
 As the accomplished author of the " Vestiges of the 
 Natural History of Creation " remarks, " There is a 
 measure of incredulity from our ignorance as well as 
 from our knowledge ; and if the most distinguished philo- 
 sopher three hundred years ago had ventured to develop 
 any striking new fact which only could harmonise with the 
 as yet unknown Copernican solar system, we cannot doubt 
 that it would have been universally scoffed at in the scien- 
 tific world, such as it then was, or at the best interpreted in 
 a thousand wrong ways, in conformity with ideas already 
 familiar." f 
 
 Medical men have another cause in their own minds for 
 this dislike of mesmerism, viz.. the consciousness that it 
 -would upset a large amount of their present presumed ac- 
 quirements. Foissac tells us in his report, that when it 
 ■was proposed in the academy to pubhsh the result of the 
 Committee's labours, M. Castel opposed it with energy, ex- 
 claiming that if the facts narrated were true, they would 
 
 must not be disproved.—a generalisation which shall not be disturbed; — 
 and once possessed of this false cipher, he reads amiss all the golden letters 
 
 around him." p. 19. „ . , ., rt^ . ,. ^^ j 
 
 * " Pride is but a fool," said a man of wit : " but," says Teste, all proud 
 
 persons are not incorrigible. * * * Formerly, I had t\x^ pride of incred,dHy, 
 
 now I have the pride of faith. Let our adversaries recollect that mcredulitg 
 
 is often mere ignorance."— Teste, Cap. 10. p. 192. 
 + Vestiges of Creation, p. 187. 
 ' c 2 
 
20 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 destroy one half of their physiological knowledge* And 
 M. Castel's alarms are not confined to himself, neither 
 is the feeling peculiar to his own profession. At the He- 
 formation, a distaste for the "new learning," as it was 
 tailed in contradistinction to the antiquated theology of 
 the schoolmen, whose supremacy it threatened to displace, 
 was a powerful reason with the priesthood for their oppo- 
 sition to Luther's revived doctrines from Scripture. At a 
 certain time of life, men have small relish for returning to 
 school, and passing through a fresh curriculum of elementary 
 instruction. And so is it at the present day in Westminster 
 Hall. The leaders at the bar are the natural enemies of 
 any extensive change in matters of jurisprudence. With a 
 new code, old books must be burnt, and practice and pre- 
 cedents sponged from the memory. And mesmerism also 
 would produce so much of a revolution in certain depart- 
 ments of physiology, and so many received theories might 
 have to be overthrown, that the man who has gained a po- 
 sition with his present stock of knowledge hardly cares to 
 begin over again. And so, to release himself from the an- 
 noyance, he pronounces authoritatively, that mesmerism 
 cannot be true, and that practitioners and their patients are 
 to remain " as they were." 
 
 • In alliance with much that has been stated above, is the 
 displeasure that medical men entertain at non-professional 
 interference. On this point they are always sensitive. 
 Gauthier tells us, that it was a common remark in Paris at 
 one time, " What can we learn from the writings of men 
 that are not physicians ? " f In a notice of the first edition 
 of this little, work in the Medico-Chlrurgical Review, it is 
 suggested to the author to " mind his own business," and the 
 
 * " Mais, dit M. Castel, si la plupart des faits mentionries dans le Rap- 
 port ^taient reels, ils detruiraient la moitiS de nos connaissances physio- 
 }iegiqueis."-^Foi$sac's Bapport de V Academic. 
 
 t " Que peut-on apprendre dans les ecrits d'hommfis jai ne eont pas 
 mSdecins? — Gauthier, Traite Pratique, j>. 356. 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 91 
 
 inevitable quotation of ne sufor ultra crepidam is instruc- 
 tively introduced. "When the benevolent Mr. Hollings took 
 an active part in the first painless amputation at Leicester^ 
 by acting as mesmeriser to the patient, there forthwith 
 appeared in a provincial journal a letter from a surgeon 
 conveying " an indirect but not ungentle censure for inter* 
 ference with a subject in which he was in no ways 
 professionally concerned."* Nay, Mr. Newman, in his 
 " Human Magnetism," suffers the same prepossession to 
 escape from his pen also. Speaking of Mr. Colquhoun's 
 admirable book, which he very properly terms " the best 
 work " on the subject, he says, it is, however, " written 
 by a barrister, and that before this question can carry 
 weight, it must originate from a medical person." \. 
 Mr. Townshend's philosophical book, he says, is " liable 
 to the same objection," the facts " being collected by a 
 clergyman who might easily be deceived by the de- 
 signing." My own far inferior attempt he more naturally 
 considers as open to the same remark. How far Mr. 
 Newman's own publication, assisted by all the adjuncts 
 of professional experience, will supersede the older 
 works of Colquhoun and Townshend, physiologists must; 
 determine. But this is from the purpose. The point 
 under consideration is that, of which we have just 
 been giving a few indications, viz. the disposition of 
 the faculty, if not always to denounce, in an open way,. 
 what they consider an officious intermeddling with a. 
 province exclusively medical, at least to hint, and that not 
 obscurely, at the incompetency of non-professional parties^ 
 
 * See the masterly Letter of Mr. Hollings in the 2d volume of Zoist, 
 
 t). 423. 
 
 + « Human Magnetism," by W. Newman, M. R. S. L., p. 6. The reader, 
 however, should go on to page 11., and see the very curious character given 
 of medical men, whom he at one time considers as the only fitting persons 
 to write on the subject. The contrast is singular. Mr. N. ought to know 
 them. I dare not quote his language, lest I should be supposed to adopt 
 bis views. 
 
 c S 
 
22 MESMEEISM Am) ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 both for forming an opinion, and for instructing the public. 
 Now, of course, it cannot be denied, that on the great 
 body of facts in any profession, those who have mainly 
 devoted themselves to the study, would be far the best 
 qualified to pronounce a judgment. Common sense 
 teaches it. It is for this that we so highly value the divi- 
 sion of labour. And for almost all that is technical, or in 
 detail, it is to the student of his particular department, be 
 he an artist, a lawyer, a theologian, a surgeon, a soldier, or 
 sailor, that we should principally look for information and 
 guidance. But, in admitting this most fully, it may still 
 be a question, how far an indifierent spectator, or one un- 
 trammelled by a peculiar routine, may be as well, or even 
 better suited, for taking the more correct observation of a 
 perfectly new object. For he might regard it from a fresh 
 and different point. He might be free from conventional 
 usages. He might not have the prejudices of a particular 
 school. He might be less likely to commence with a 
 ^' foregone conclusion." He might have a calmer and more 
 philosophic spirit. He might look at it more in connexion 
 with general nature. At any rate we have high authority 
 for disregarding this contemptuous sneer at our incompe- 
 tency. The lamented Arnold, whose opinions can never 
 be too often quoted, says in his Lectures, " Consider, that 
 no one man in the common course of things has more than 
 one profession ; is he then to be silent, or to feel himself 
 incapable of passing a judgment upon the subjects of all 
 professions except that one ? And consider farther, that 
 professional men may labour under some disadvantages of 
 their own, looking at their calling from within always, and 
 never from without. * * * Clearly, then, there is a distinct- 
 tion to be drawn somewhere, — there must be a point up 
 to which an unprofessional judgment of a professional sub- 
 ject may be not only competent, but of high authority ; 
 although beyond that point it cannot venture without pre- 
 
INTEODUCTORY CHAPTER, 23 
 
 sumption and folly." * Burke, too, says almost the same 
 thing in his own forcible way: " While I revere men in the 
 functions that belong to them, I cannot, to flatter them, 
 give the lie to nature. Their very excellence in their pecu-> 
 liar functions may be far from a qualification for others. 
 It cannot escape observation, that when men are too much 
 confined to professional and faculty habits, they are rather 
 disabled, than qualified, for whatever depends on the 
 knowledge of mankind, on experience in mixed aflfairs, on a 
 comprehensive view,^'' &c.t Here, then, is our answer to the 
 medical sceptic, who tauntingly rejects our testimony as 
 non-professional. We cannot, to please him, give the lie to 
 nature. We cannot, to serve his views, suppress our own 
 facts and convictions. Nay, with all deference be it added, 
 it seems a question, according to Burke and Arnold, 
 whether we, perchance, may not be as well qualified as 
 himself for coming to an opinion. At any rate, as we have 
 studied the subject, and he has not, some little respect 
 might surely be felt for our experience, backed as it is by 
 the strong corroborative proof afforded by some of the 
 ablest in his own vocation. 
 
 Apropos of non-professional experience ! The medical 
 sceptic, perchance, may have his excuse for thus cheaply 
 estimating our poor untaught judgment ; but why does he 
 equally slight the testimony of his well-trained and talented 
 brethren ? Turn to the pages of the " Zoist." See who 
 are its main and best contributors ? Hospital physicians, 
 one especially whose writings are standard works of refer- 
 ence, and surgeons of large and general practice, giving 
 their cases in detail, with professional, physiological, and 
 scientific commentaries. Now, why is it that none of 
 these cases have been brought forward and examined in 
 any lecture from a professor's chair ? Why is it that in 
 
 * Arnold's Lectures, p. 194. 
 f Burke's Reflections on French Revolution, 
 c 4 
 
24 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPOIJENTS. 
 
 no journal or review, medical or chirur^cal, any notice 
 has yet been taken of any one cure of a marked and 
 striking character ? We mean not generally, and with 
 some sweeping dashing, sentence of contemptuous discredit, 
 hut in detail, and with each fact and passage analysed 
 and discussed in a critical and candid spirit ? Why are 
 not the statements denied, if they can, the symptoms 
 explained away, and the cures contradicted ? ; Are the 
 patients unreal imaginary beings ? Are the diseases and 
 pains apocryphal inventions? Are the narrators weak, 
 uneducated sciolists? Why is it that this silence, so 
 speaking and significant, reigns throughout the pages and 
 the lectures of the opponent ? The answer is self-evident.* 
 Many of. us, who are non-professional, might indeed 
 offer a different apology for our obnoxious appearance in 
 the arena. Like Malvolio, "our greatness has been 
 thrust " upon us. We have taken up the inquiry because 
 no one else would. We have been caHed intruders, but 
 our intrusion has been into an unoccupied room. We are 
 carped at for meddling, but our interference arose from 
 regret at observing a secret of nature continue unexplored. 
 Our scientific opponents bear a certain resemblance to the 
 ungracious animal in the fable. They neither investigate 
 themselves, nor suffer any one else. But, -again we say, 
 the prominency has been none of our own seeking. Most 
 of. us would be willing to retire from the responsibilities of 
 the superintendence, and leave the trained physiologist to 
 enjoy his due precedence and prerogatives. To be admi- 
 nistrators, not advisers, is what we rather aim at. Only 
 let the faculty not neglect the study themselves, and the 
 non-professiorial advocate would cease to be consulted, 
 and fall back into his natural and more consistent position.. 
 
 * I am told that not a single notice or examination has yet appeared in 
 any medical gazette or journal of the striking cures recorded by Dr. EUiotson 
 in the Zoist. 
 
INTEODXJCTORY CHAPTEE. 23 
 
 One of the strangest reasons in the world for profes- 
 sional disbelief of our Mesmeric cures, was once given me 
 in an off-hand way by a London physician. As he is a 
 man of a certain mark, and seemed to be expressing the 
 conventional views of his brethren, perhaps his speech may 
 be worth a notice. " You," said hcj " are not aware of 
 the vis medicatrix naturm. We, however, who are behind 
 the curtain, and know how very generally cures, for which 
 we receive the credit, are altogether owing to the power of 
 Nature, have our reasons for being sceptical as to the 
 presumed efficacy of Mesmerism." The reader will, I 
 hope, give me credit for being too well-bred to receive 
 the gpntleman's observation with any thing else but a polite 
 smile. But I thought his speech funny at the time, and I 
 think so still. Without commenting, however, upon what 
 first presents itself to the mind after such a remark, let us 
 observe to what an argumentum ad ahsurdum his reasoning 
 arrives. Supposing that unassisted nature had been the 
 sole agent in several of his own cures, would he assert that 
 nature, and nature alone, had been the agent in all ? If 
 so, to what good purpose was his attendance ? Cui Bono ? 
 Supposing, for instance, that three or four aguish patients 
 out of ten had thrown off their disease without the aid of 
 quinine, would he deny that quinine had been the main 
 remedy with the remainder ? And so is it in fevers, and 
 so in other diseases ; nature and a vigorous constitution, of 
 course, have often done the work, while the doctor had 
 been receiving the fame and the fee; still, neither the 
 doctor nor his doses are exploded or expelled. For. 
 though our friends are " behind the curtain " as to the true 
 cause of many of their most successful results, they are 
 still actively alive to the great importance of judicious 
 treatment, and of well-applied remedies in the sick room. 
 
2C MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 And tlie very same reasoning, in like manner, applies to 
 Mesmerism. If, indeed, our cause only rested upon a 
 handful of cases, the subtle sceptic might talk of the coin- 
 cident operation of nature, and pause before he gave in his 
 adhesion to our science. But again we say, what has been 
 said over and over again, that our argument is not built 
 upon one, or two, or twenty successful cures, but upon an 
 accumulation of them, — upon cases without number occur- 
 ring in England, in France, in Germany, in the United 
 States, and elsewhere ; and therefore it is that we reply 
 to the incredulous practitioner, Afho would refer our 
 success in Mesmerism to the vis medieatrix of Nature's 
 simultaneous action, that as neither he would allow, in his 
 own treatment, that all his cures were to be placed to a 
 lucky coincidence, the same argument holds good in 
 Magnetism, and that our cures are too numerous to be dis- 
 posed of by such an off-hand assertion.* 
 
 Doubtless our medical friends have very reasonable 
 grounds for suspense and caution, before they lend an 
 over-credulous ear to the first marvels that are told them 
 of Mesmerism. For, in their own practice, they meet 
 with so much that is counterfeit, — so much that can be 
 traced to imagination, or is exaggerated, or laid to a wrong 
 cause, that, not unnaturally, they expect to find in every 
 startling novelty but an old acquaintance under a new 
 face. It is but Proteus, they think, appearing again with 
 a fresh trick and a varying form. And distrust of this 
 kind is not so irrational. Human nature is always the 
 same ; and he who would delude in one case, is not likely 
 to be a pattern of simple dealing in another, and Mes- 
 merism is, of course, not exempt from its own temptations 
 
 * See Mr. Kiste's Letter " Facts against Fallacies" (Bailliere), giving aa 
 account of the interesting case of the late Hon. Mrs. Hare, where, at p. 43., 
 another favourite explanation, the post hoc non propter hoc, as it regards 
 
 Mesmerism, is fully met As Mr. Kiste says, " It is not an isolated case 
 
 that proves the power ; it is not the publication of one or two narratives that 
 settles the question ; it is the number that gives avthority." — P. 44, 
 
INTEODTJCTORY CHAPTER. 27 
 
 and its own deceits. All this is but self-evident ; and we 
 can afford to allow that all our patients may not be free 
 from the suspicion of over-acting, and that many cases, 
 true in their commencement, have had somewhat of the 
 unreal and of the doubtful superadded in their progress ; 
 and therefore can we grant to the slowly-judging prac^ 
 titioner a large indulgence for circumspection and delay. 
 But circumspection is one thing, and uninquiring scep- 
 ticism another; and to confound the natural with the 
 artificial, — the simple untaught villager* with some well'^ 
 exercised somnambule, whose object is gain and not 
 instruction, is equally unphilosophical and uncharitable. 
 Enough can be spared, from our long list of cases, for the 
 pleasant charge of imposture, enough for imagination, and 
 enough for nature and its simultaneous action, and a large 
 residuum of curious phenomena wiU yet remain for the 
 consideration of the student ; or, to employ the often- 
 quoted language of Coleridge, after ample deductions for 
 " Collusion, Illusion, and Delusion," animal magnetism 
 must yet continue a puzzle for the wisest. 
 
 These are the reasons that we venture to suggest, as ex-' 
 planatory in some degree of that strange reluctance for 
 the recognition of Mesmerism, which the leaiders of the 
 medical profession exhibit, f And to examine their motives, 
 
 • " Persons, who have been frequently mesmerised, may be charged 
 with having been well practised in their parts : but they who exhibit for the 
 first time the mesmeric characteristics, without even having heard them 
 previously described, stand aloof from all suspicions of the kind. There is 
 neither habit, nor imitation, nor duplicity to be charged upon them, and* 
 therefore, the phenomena they display may be regarded as eminently genuine. 
 But, on the other hand, it should be considered that such phenomena, if 
 more to be relied on, are also humbler in degree than those belonging to a 
 more advanced stage of sleep waking, l(c." — Townshend, p. 92. _ 
 
 t I have purposely omitted another reason, which is sometimes advanced 
 
 in explanation, viz. a fear of the trouble that jlesmerism would occasion, — ■ 
 
 because I do not believe that such a motive would actuate inen. The same 
 reason is also given for the diminished application of ether in the hospitals. 
 The notion is idle. Mesmerism would scarcely give more trouble thai! 
 many of the present medical arrangements; but even if it did, the labour 
 would fall on the nurse or assistant,— not on the medical man, whose duty 
 would be simply to advise and superintend the treatment 
 
28 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 in the manner that has been attempted, has, for the cause 
 pf truth, become expedient. For so small a fraction of the 
 public ever actually judge for themselves, and it is, more- 
 over, so much men's habit to receive their opinions on 
 medical subjects from the favourite family physician, 
 whom they elevate into a species of Esculapian Pope, that 
 it is needful to show when he is pronouncing with con- 
 temptuous sneer against the virtues of Mesmerism, that, his 
 own claims to infallibility are not so conclusive. The 
 oracle, after all, may not be oracular, the judge may incur 
 the suspicion of partiality. This, I say, it had at length 
 become desirable to point out, and having thus explained 
 the feelings which we suppose to have hitherto biassed the 
 heads of the profession, we will now proceed to a more 
 pleasing task, and observe what is the present attitude of 
 the body at large, more especially that of the younger and 
 rising members. 
 
 - To use a modern and fashionable phrase, I should say 
 that they are in a state of transition. Their tone is no 
 longer what it was a short time back. With the exception 
 of one or two noisy writers, who placed themselves pro- 
 minently forward at first, and now, for the sake of con- 
 eistency, feel compelled to keep up a clamour, the lan^ 
 guage of scientific and professional opponents has, in 
 general, assumed an altered character. While very many 
 (far more, indeed, than the public generally suspect,) are 
 directing an active attention to the science, the larger 
 number are silently marking its progress, offering but a 
 passive spiritless resistance, or, at the utmost, venting their 
 feelings of annoyance with a subdued smile of cautious con- 
 sideration. The loud laugh, the open, assured, triumphant 
 sneer, the scornful charge of ignorance and credulity, the 
 attempt to put the thing down at once by an overbearing 
 system of insolence and ridicule, all this has, in great 
 measure, passed away; and now we are condescendingly 
 
INTRODTTCTOEY CHAPTER. 29 ' 
 
 informed, if any thing at all be said on the subject, that 
 "perhaps there is a something in Mesmerism, thvA, perhaps 
 this asserted ponrer is not altogether a pretence, and that 
 though, unhappily, they themselves have not the leisure to 
 prosecute the study fully, they begin to suspect that we 
 have a portion of truth for our foundation," or, in othei? 
 words, are not the dupes and knaves that they so recently 
 represented us. This, or something like this, is now the 
 usual admission, if circumstances extract an opinion, and 
 so far there is a material change ; but, left to themselves, 
 left to their own willing and more agreeable choice, the 
 course that opponents now take is that of silence on the 
 subject, a guarded, calculating, timid, embarrassed silence.* 
 The above, then, it may be stated, is the present and all 
 but universal course of the opponent. It seems tacitly 
 understood to be the order of the ■ day, and thus marks 
 what may be called a state of " transition." Silence fur- 
 nishes a convenient escape from untoward admissions, 
 prevents an awkward commitment to a premature opinion, 
 and enables the cautious follower of undisputed truisms 
 to bide his time, and wait the upshot of events. But 
 silence, however desirable, is not always practicable, and 
 circumstances will occasionally occur, compelling the ad- 
 versary to speak ; and then what inevitable concessions 
 ooze out ! what faint denials ! what shiftings of argument ! 
 what a* change of language to that which would have been 
 held but six years back? The deep sleep, the cataleptic 
 
 * Many persons have noticed to me this signiBcant silence which sundry 
 stories could be brought to prove. A friend wag lately tiarrating some 
 striking mesmeric cases he had performed, in cases that had hitherto been 
 treated as hopeless. " And what do the medical men say to all this ? " was 
 the reply. " Say, — wJiy say nothing at all!" Another acquaintance from a 
 different part of the kingdom was giving much the same statements : " and 
 what do the doctors say?" was the question. " Oh, they say it is most 
 fextraordinary ; but the moment that they quit the room, they drive the 
 matter from their head, and take no farther notice than if the most ordinary 
 occurrence had just transpired." The experience of all mesmerisers confirms 
 this observation. 
 
30 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 Condition, the alteration in the sensibility, and Tarious 
 other phenomena, which lately would have been rejected 
 with scornful hardihood, are now feebly contradicted, and 
 oftentimes half confessed to be real ; while the whole force 
 of the antagonist is directed against clairvoyance, and clair-* 
 voyance alone, as if that were now the sole remaining point 
 for discussion ! Sometimes, too, a restless feeling, created 
 by the " pressure from without," (as was lately hinted by 
 Dr. Engledue to a learned professor,) will not allow the 
 uneasy semi-believer to sit still, but sends him, like an un- 
 happy moth, to flutter wantonly against the light, to 
 retreat with singed wings and a damaged reputation. See, 
 ■par exemple, the flounderings about the truth which Mr. 
 Kiste, in his pamphlet, lately brought before the public 
 notice.* A medical gentleman at Lymington, in an un- 
 quiet state of mind at an interesting case of relief which 
 occurred in his neighbourhood, writes, in a hasty moment, 
 a letter to the Hampshire Advertiser, with the earnest 
 desire of turning the science into ridicule. He there 
 pronounces Mesmerism to be an " absurd innovation ; " he 
 is " gratified to find distinguished members of the profession 
 entertaining the same ideas as his own on the subject." 
 He ofiers to wager 500Z. at Tattersal's, that clairvoyance 
 and community of sensation are not proved. Still, with 
 all his jestings and carpings, our anti-mesmerist knows not 
 how to avoid making very important admissions : — 
 
 He allows that " it is true " that some persons " are 
 capable of being put into a kind of sleep or stupor through 
 the medium of the nervous system." 
 
 He allows that in this state persons can hold a con- 
 versation. 
 
 And he allows, that " in this state, which can be occa- 
 sionally in certain individuals produced, persons appear to 
 
 * " Facts against Fallacies," by Adolphe Kiste,— (BailUere). 
 
INTEODUCTORY CHAPTER. 31 
 
 be much less susceptible of acute pains, and perhaps in some 
 instances miffht undergo a surgical operation without being 
 conscious of it." 
 
 Here are brave admissions from a professed opponent ! 
 here are curious proofs of the " absurdity " of the " inno- 
 vation ! " "A man might undergo an operation without 
 being conscious of it," and this, too, before the late splendid 
 discovery of the uses of ether ! Think of such a confession 
 emanating from a provincial surgeon, in the year that 
 Dnpotet concluded his lectures in the metropolis! Why^ 
 our practitioner, after such a letter, would have been placed 
 Tinder the ban of the College. His patients would have 
 fled, like the thanes from Macbeth ! he would have been 
 an excommunicated man ! one of the martyrs of science ! 
 the jest and bye-word of every Hampshire apothecary ! 
 
 Mr. Kiste's opponent would have acted more wisely had 
 he practised the conventional reserve. But his admissions 
 prove the progress of the cause, and are only re-stated for 
 the purpose of instructing the reader as to the marked ad- 
 vancement that has been made. 
 
 Look again to the undisguised acknowledgments, which 
 the leading quarterly journal of medicine and surgery has 
 lately felt itself compelled to utter. The British and 
 Foreign Medical Review comes forth under the auspices of 
 Dr. Forbes.* Our learned .editor is well known, among 
 other things, for certain enterprising attempts to "put 
 down" clairvoyance — quite an Alderman Cute in his 
 way, — one who is hasting about the town to any spot 
 where a fresh somnambulist offers himself, and ever and 
 anon publishing the results of his visit in a small pamphlet 
 for the edification of the curious. This uneasy activity^ 
 however, is useful in its way, and looks plausibly to the 
 spectator, but is often attended by embarrassing incidents. 
 
 * It is said, whether truly or not, that Dr. Forbes is about to retire from 
 the management of the Review. , 
 
32 MESMBEISM M!D ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 Truth, in the place of falsehood, will provokingly present 
 itself; in the midst of the assumed imposture, strange 
 puzzling phenomena appear and disturb the convictions 5 
 an uncomfortable consciousness creeps in, that all is not 
 delusion and trick. The bold knight that had armed 
 himself for certain victory over a wicked sorceress, finds a 
 virtue and strength in his enemy that he little expected, 
 and his weapons of attack recoil upon liimself. And to do 
 the Doctor justice on an occasion of this kind, he is honest 
 enough " as this world goes." " An honest soul, i'faith, sir, 
 by my troth he is, as ever broke bread ; as honest as any man 
 living, that is no honester." That is, in the pursuits of 
 science, he loves truth after a way of his own, and will not 
 suppress it when he encounters it, but he does not, like a 
 genuine philosopher, love it with all his heart and all his 
 soul. He loves truth, much as a man might love some 
 poor relation, who is apt to involve him in responsibility 
 and expenee, not as an idolised mistress, whom he could 
 follow with devotion over half the globe. He will not 
 disown her when he meets with her, and can even give her 
 a respectful shake of the hand, and an encouraging pat on 
 the shoulder ; but he will not of his own accord go to the 
 house where she is known to dwell, nor to the company 
 where he is most likely to find her. His mission seems to 
 be to hunt down the first mesmeric adventurer, French or 
 German, that may land upon our shores — to resolve 
 himself, for the protection of the public, into a general su- 
 pervisor of each advertising somnambule, — and then mag- 
 nifying clairvoyance into the " be-all, and end-all " of the 
 whole inquiry, to lead the unreflecting into a mistaken 
 estimate of the value of the science, in proportion to any 
 blunders he detects, or any failures of the fatigued and 
 over-worked performer. But does he make experiment of 
 the art in his own practice ? Does he try its uses in private 
 families ? does he watch its effect* among simple, ignorant 
 
INTEODirCTORY CHAPTEE. 33 
 
 patients? Does he study the cases of scientific and pro- 
 fessional magnetists, and mark the progress of a cure, and 
 the phenomena that develop themselves ? This, it would 
 appear, he does not do, and therefore he is but a one-sided 
 and most inefficient investigator. Clairvoyance is not 
 Mesmerism, but only a part of it. Still what he does, he 
 does in good faith. I have myself met him at a mesmeric 
 examination, and can vouch for his candid straightforward 
 dealing, and therefore it is that his admissions are of some 
 value. He is a prosecutor, as it were, that pleads the 
 cause of the defendant, a witness who gives evidence against 
 himself; and more than all, his statements prove the 
 growing influence of our facts upon the rising medical 
 generation, and the successive phases, if we may so speak, 
 in which the science has appeared, and still advances in its 
 orbit. It is to this point that the attention of the reader 
 is now requested. 
 
 In 1839, the British and Foreign Medical Review, of 
 which Dr. Forbes was the editor, contained the following 
 statements and expressions in an article intended to put 
 down Mesmerism at once and for ever: — 
 
 " The empire of medicine has just passed through one 
 of those unaccountable paroxysms of credulity, to which, 
 from time to time, it seems ever to have been subject." 
 * * * " Considering the high sanction, which even a 
 temporary belief in the powers of animal magnetism has 
 obtained in this country, we look upon its recent rise and 
 progress, and its abrupt and shameful fall, as calculated to 
 degrade the profession." We then read of " the great de- 
 lusion," — " the last complete and melancholy csxplosion," — 
 " dreamingphysicians," and " diverting and degrading scenes." 
 And to crown all, comes this decisive sentence, " to elevate 
 an article to the consideration of animal magnetism, now 
 that the English practitioners are one and all ashamed of 
 
34 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 its very name, would be a work of supererogation, if the 
 delusion," &c. &c. 
 
 These and similar phrases are to be found in the Review, 
 and so triumphant was deemed the article for the confu- 
 tation of the science, that it was afterwards published in a 
 cheap and separate form, and extensively circulated among 
 the medical fraternity. 
 
 Time now brings us on to the second period of our 
 history ; and we are to suppose that, in the interim, " aU 
 went merry as a marriage bell " with the anti-mesmerists 
 and laughers, and that their ignorant ridicule carried all 
 before it. 
 
 In 1845, however, exactly six years after the British 
 and Foreign Medical Review had placed this final ex- 
 tinguisher on the subject, the defunct science is seen 
 walking and stalking abroad, and to all appearance in a 
 healthier and stouter condition than ever ; and now what 
 is the language of the lately crowing periodical ? 
 
 In the April number of that year, these are some of the- 
 paragraphs : — 
 
 " Animal Magnetism, however encompassed with error, is 
 the abuse of a truth rather than an absolute fiction."* 
 " Mesmerism has hardly received fair play at the hands of 
 many of our professional brethren. * * * Its pretensions 
 are too well supported to justify an opposition made up 
 almost exclusively of ridicule and contempt. " " We 
 think it is proved, or to say the least, we think it to be 
 made in the highest degree probable, that ihete is a reality 
 in the simple pAcMomena of Mesmerism, meaning hereby, 
 the sleep, the coma, altered sensibility, &c., as provoked 
 in certain constitutions by the manipulations, &c."t And 
 after a long and detailed examination of several points, 
 the article closes with again asserting, " that there is a 
 
 * P. 430. t p. 440. The italics are so in the Revieir. 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 35 
 
 reality in some of the facts, " * * and that the writer " has 
 not dreaded the ridicule of his brethren, in declaring his 
 full belief in the reality of some of the facts, which have 
 been often set down as sheer delusion or imposture."* 
 
 Behold a mighty revolution in the editor's appre- 
 hension ! What a Avondrous " change has come o'er the 
 spirit of his dream ! " Six years, six little years ! and the 
 " great delusion" contains a "reality in some of its facts," 
 and " has not received fair play at the hands of our 
 brethren ! " 
 
 " Quantum mutatus ab illo 
 Hectore!" 
 
 The Hector that in 1839 was ready to break a lance 
 with " dreaming physicians," and who triumphed so 
 joyously over the " abrupt and shameful fall " of the 
 " exploded " science ! 
 
 Again " the magic car moves on ; " again, with its 
 revolving wheels, time brings forward fresh admissions and 
 fresh views. In October, 1846, after an interval of only 
 eighteen months, the steady progress of our science once 
 more demands the notice of the Journal. In a review of 
 Dr. Esdaile's interesting work, " Mesmerism in India," 
 and in an article written in a fair and impartial spirit, 
 are the following passages amongst others of a similar 
 character. 
 
 " In the volume before us, we have a well-informed 
 surgeon telling us that, within a period of eight months, 
 no less than 73 surgical operations were performed 
 by himself, without there being any indications of 
 suffering on the part of the patients ; * * * and for our 
 own part we feel confident, that, in the instances adduced, 
 there exists, at the very lowest estimate, a basis of facff 
 
 " On every sound canon of, evidence, we must admit 
 
 * P. 485. 
 
 f British and Foreign Medical Review, October, 1846, p. 479, 
 D 2 
 
se jiesmeeism: and its opponents. 
 
 the existence of some reality in Dr. Esdaile's facts. Let 
 us remember that the statements involve nothing that we 
 should deem to be impossible, even as natural occur- 
 rences." * 
 
 This is the language that Mesmeric writers have always 
 used. But formerly we were laughed at, now our very 
 expressions are adopted. 
 
 And then comes this crowning and atoning passage : — 
 
 " "We conceive, that the evidence attesting the fact of 
 certain abnormal states being induced by Mesmerism, is 
 now of such a character that it can no longer be philo- 
 sophically disregarded by the members of our profession, 
 but that they are bound to meet it. * * * Indeed, we 
 hesitate not to assert that the testimony is now of so 
 varied and extensive a kind, so strong, and in a certain 
 proportion of cases so seemingly unexceptionable, as to 
 authorise us, nay, in honesty, to compel us to recommend 
 that an immediate and complete trial of the practice be 
 made in surgical cases." f 
 
 Such are the strong and weighty admissions which the 
 onward movement of Mesmerism has extracted from our 
 •editor in his third notice of the subject, and in the teeth 
 of his first unqualified denouncement. And these con- 
 tradictory passages are adduced, not with the paltry 
 purpose of earning a cheap triumph over the writer, but 
 to furnish the non-medical world, who seldom procure 
 professional journals, with an insight as to the present 
 - posture of our science, and the threatened divisions in the 
 -.surgical camp. As for Dr. Forbes himself, so far from 
 tlDeing taunted with this modification of opinions, his 
 change of language entitles him to the highest credit. 
 Away with the old cuckoo cry about consistency and ties 
 of party. Honour, all honour be to any and every man, 
 
 * P. 480. * p. 485. 
 
INTEODUCTOEY CHAPTEE. 37 
 
 whoj questioning the soundness of first impressions, gives 
 a subject fresh consideration in his mind, and manfully 
 expresses his altered views before a legion of scoffers. Be 
 it on politics or trade, medicine or Mesmerism, 'he who 
 freely thinks for himself, and acts on his convictions, is 
 worth fifty poor pretenders to wisdom, who cling to their 
 party for no other reason but because it is their party, 
 and whose narrow foreheads are incapable of estimating at 
 its real value a generous assertion of truth and of new 
 intentions. 
 
 " The slowly judging eye, — the doubting ear,— 
 The holy love of truth, — Ithe reverent fear. 
 The philosophic brain, that loves to scan. 
 May make a Sage, — hut spoil a Fartizan.* 
 
 But the above is. not the only recantation that marks 
 our progress. The Medico- Chirurgical Quarterly Re- 
 view, — that Journal which has been so systematically 
 coarse and offensive in -its language and matter, shows 
 signs of a preparation for striking its colours, and of admit- 
 ting the folly of the contest. These are its own words. 
 " Without agreeing with our author (Esdaile) in the 
 general favourable estimate he gives of Mesmerism, we 
 may state that we believe the cases we have alluded to 
 are entitled to our belief, and that the subject is one of 
 such vast importance as to call for a searching investi- 
 gation ! " The perusal of this startling paragraph nearly 
 took away my breath, Those only that are acquainted 
 with the unworthy expressions that have sullied the pages 
 of this Kevlew on the subject of Mesmerism, can fully 
 estimate the force of that evidence, which could wring 
 such admissions from the writer.f 
 
 Mr. Allison, late a surgeon in the East India Com- 
 
 * " Rhymed Plea for Tolerance," by John Kenyon (Moxon), p. 114., a 
 work which breathes the best spirit of real religious liberty in a fine poetic 
 flow of masculine sense. 
 
 I Medico- Chirurgical Eeview, Ootobeir, 1846, p. 559. 
 
 D 3 
 
■38 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 pany's service, has also written certain strictures against 
 the science, in a small pamphlet, called " Mesmerism and 
 its Pretensions physiologically considered." With the 
 exception of one or two unimportant passages, his remarks 
 are expressed in a liberal spirit, and therefore mark that 
 change in the language of the opponent, that the reader 
 should notice as one of the signs of our progress. He 
 admits, for instance, the deep sleep or coma, and only 
 differs with the magnetist as to the cause which induces 
 it. He admits the cataleptic condition, of which, however, 
 he would have spoken with greater accuracy had he 
 termed it " rigidity " instead, between which and cata- 
 lepsy there is an essential distinction. And then he 
 comes to the " curative effects of the system," of which he 
 appears to doubt, " because Mesmerism,'* he says " is in- 
 adequate to restore an altered composition and a structural 
 derangement, and the consequent loss of power, of which 
 they are the antecedents." * The fallacy of this reasoning 
 it is scarcely necessary to point 6ut. It will be noticed in 
 its proper place. Mr. AUison may, however, be mentioned 
 as an honourable opponent, whom a little more inquiry 
 and practical experience would, in all probability, soon 
 range on our side. 
 
 With the above exceptions, then, and that of Mr. 
 Estlin, a surgeon at Bristol, who delivered to the Medical 
 Association " an address on Mesmerism ; " and that of 
 some occasional letters in provincial newspapers, princi- 
 pally anonymous, and often vulgar and coarse in the 
 extreme ; and with that of the usual tirades of the Lancet 
 and of certain medical and chirurgical journals, whose 
 character for consistency is at stake, it may be repeated 
 that the present tactics of the profession have led them to 
 a wary and general silence. It is not the silence of in- 
 difference, nor the silence of contempt, as they might 
 
 * P. so. 
 
INTEODUCTORT CHAPTEB. 39 
 
 pretend. in reply, (for their anxious, angry manner, -when 
 the subject is forced upon their attention, proves that our 
 facts have established a hold upon their memory,) but the 
 silence of a discreet and worldly wisdom. They are, in 
 short, biding their time, and watching at a distance, what 
 course their leaders may take, or what conduct public 
 opinion may compel. This, we need scarcely remark, is 
 not very magnanimous; and the philanthropist might 
 arraign this want of sympathy for a study that promises 
 so much relief to their suffering patients, while any 
 lawyer would demonstrate that sufficient evidence had 
 been adduced to constitute much more than a ■prima facie 
 case: still we must concede a large indulgence to their 
 position. It is poor human nature, and nothing else. 
 Those who are most hasty in condemning their caution, 
 should pause, and ask themselves, what might be their 
 own bearing, if placed in the position of many a hard- 
 working practitioner, with prospects in life altogether 
 dependent on the measured opinion of a neighbourhood? 
 It is not every one that feels himself born with an im- 
 pulse for advocating great and unpopular truths, or for 
 risking the sacrifice of himself and family at the shrine' of 
 what he deems an unwelcome novelty. Some clever lines 
 in Douglas Jerrold's admirable magazine but too faithfully 
 paint the common feelings of the far greater majority of 
 our species. 
 
 " Opinions current in the world 
 Adopt with deep respect : 
 New-fangled thoughts and things at onee. 
 My prudent son, reject."* 
 
 Or to apply the language of Brougham, when speaking of 
 a favourite literary hero, " his brave contempt of received 
 
 • " The Last Words of a Eespectable Man," vol. ii. p. S9S. The whole 
 of the little poem is worth reading, as a pleasant expose of that wary but 
 contemptible wisdom, which regards success in life as the first object of 
 exertion. 
 
 D 4 
 
40 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 opinions, and his deep-rooted habit of judging every proposition 
 hy its own merits " * is the fortunate characteristic of a 
 select few. And so much for the present disposition of 
 the great bulk of the profession. 
 
 But a more gratifying statement remains to be told. 
 Human nature has its bright and noble aspects on every 
 question. Though the magnates of the College thus cling 
 to their original and perverse assertions, — though the 
 major part of their brethren hold bach in reserve or 
 aiFected indifference, an increasing number is passing over 
 from their ranks every day. Each year, each month, has 
 been adding fresh converts to our views, and augmented 
 strength to our division. The minority keeps swelling, 
 and advancing and spreading around ; and let it only 
 proceed for a short period longer in an equal ratio, and it 
 will soon threaten to disturb the present disparity of forces. 
 That love of truth, and that fearless disinterested contempt 
 of consequences which so proudly distinguished Elliotson 
 and the other first champions of the cause, have not been 
 without their effect, or without their reward. Society is 
 not so hopelessly corrupt, or so slavishly submissive to 
 established views, that high-minded examples are utterly 
 thrown away. The same independence of action, the 
 same conscientious expression of opinion, the same ad- 
 herence to nature, her laws and her developments, 
 
 " Nature — deep and mystic word ! 
 MigVity mother — still unknowu,"t 
 
 are re-appearing at different localities and on divers occa- 
 sions, and commanding observation and respect from those 
 around. My mesmeric friends report the names of several 
 recent and firm adherents. Mesmeric publications give 
 evidence to the same fact. Miss Martineau, in the Preface 
 
 • Brougham's '■' Men of Science," &e., p. 63. 
 •f Barry Cornwall, p. 194. 
 
INTRODUCTOEY CHAPTER. 41 
 
 to her Letters, saj's that she " was not prepared for what 
 she now knows of the spread of Mesmerism." Letters 
 from medical men, " from various parts of the country, 
 each believing himself almost the only one who has 
 ventured upon the practice," had poured in upon her, and 
 given what she calls " hard work " in the answering. And 
 she adds that she is " persuaded that if these, and the many 
 more who must exist, could find some means of greeting 
 each other, in order to put their facts together, they are 
 strong enough to take possession of high and safe ground, 
 and bring the profession, — at least the rising medical 
 generation, — up to their own standing." * 
 
 I am myself, also, constantly receiving letters from 
 strangers, and from the most opposite quarters, narrating 
 some interesting case, and its satisfactory effect on a 
 medical friend. The pages of the Zoist confirm the same 
 fact ; and it, at length, may be confidently said, that an 
 impression has been made, — that the leaven is fermenting 
 and working into the mass ; or, to use Cobbett's homely 
 but expressive illustration on political subjects, " the straw 
 is moving," and gives evident indication of a "coming 
 event." 
 
 Among other favourable signs may be mentioned the 
 recent progress of Mesmeric literature. 
 
 For instance, the increased sale of the Zoist, a Quarterly 
 Journal of Mesmerism, gives indisputable evidence. Some 
 of the later numbers have been crowded with interesting 
 matter. 
 
 Dr. Esdaile's "Mesmerism in India," has come down 
 upon the sceptic with an embarrassing impetus. " The 
 experience, which he has given to the world in this 
 book," says the critical Forbes, "is assuredly not a little 
 startling."! 
 
 * Preface, p. viii. 
 
 f I observe that it is stated in some of the Indian Papers, that the govern- 
 ment in India is so impressed with the value of the new agent, as to have 
 
42 MESMERISM AKD ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 Dr. Storer's "Mesmerism in Disease," with "its few 
 plain facts," is found on the table of many a sick-room. 
 
 The immense demand for Miss Martineau's delightful 
 "Letters," is in the memory of every one. Her ap- 
 pearance in the field marked an era in our history. 
 
 Mr. Newman's "Human Magnetism," is another im- 
 portant contribution. As a professional man, with ex- 
 tensive provincial practice, he demands a hearing from the 
 most incredulous. 
 
 " Vital Magnetism, a Eemedy," by the Eev. T. Pyne, 
 is a little work that may be read with profit by the 
 Christian and the philosopher. 
 
 Mr. Spencer Hall's " Mesmeric Experiences " is full of 
 information. As a lecturer and philanthropist, this 
 gentleman has attained a deserved celebrity. He has, 
 perhaps, succeeded in producing converts to the science 
 almost as much as any man in existence. 
 
 " Animal. Magnetism," by Mr. Edwin Lee, another 
 medical advocate, furnished additional evidence of progress 
 among the profession. 
 
 Mr. Kiste's " Letter," containing the striking case of 
 the Hon. Mrs. Hare, narrated by herself, should not be 
 omitted in our list. 
 
 Mr. Colquhoun's " Isis Kevelata, or History of Animal 
 Magnetism," and Mr. Townshend's " Facts in Mesmerism," 
 still retain their deserved pre-eminence. The former gen- 
 tleman has lately added to his many claims on our respect 
 by a translation of Wienholt's "Lectures on Somnam- 
 bulism," a book full of curious matter. 
 
 Mr. Lang's " Mesmerism in Scotland," &c. is well 
 known, and has been before noticed. 
 
 issued an order, that "all passed students of the Medical College should 
 study practical mesmerism for two months under Dr. Esdaile before re- 
 ceiving any appointment in the public service." What a lesson for those at 
 home ! and what an awkward contrast with the interdict, enforced at the 
 London University ! 
 
INTRODTJCTORT CHAPTER, 43 
 
 Some smaller Tracts could be mentioned, such as 
 "Animal Magnetism," by a surgeon; — "The Curative 
 Power of Vital Magnetism," by Mrs. Jones, of Salisbury ; 
 and several lectures and pamphlets, all indicating the 
 direction in which the wind begins to blow. 
 
 Several little pamphlets on the Satanic and Anti- 
 Satanic question have also appeared. These prove the 
 progress of the science. People do not cry out about the 
 diabolic and supernatural, unless they are previously 
 persuaded of the reality of the system. 
 
 The German and French press teems with volumes on 
 the subject. They would alone constitute a considerable 
 library. 
 
 The publication of Reich enbach's , " Researches on 
 Magnetism and certain allied Subjects," by Professor 
 Gregory of Edinburgh, is so pregnant with weighty con- 
 sequences, that it is impossible to foretel the results of his 
 experiments. 
 
 The dehvery of the Harveian Oration, by Dr. Elliotson, 
 before the College of Physicians, in June, 1846, notes 
 another epoch. While his nomination to the office reflects 
 credit on Dr. Paris, the distinguished and talented Presi- 
 dent, — the full attendance of Fellows, and the enthusiastic 
 reception of the orator at the close of the speech, and as I 
 hear also, at the dinner, all foreshadow most significantly 
 the coming change. It was my good fortune to be present; 
 and I shall not soon forget the manly and dignified way in 
 which this successor of Harvey, speaking of certain 
 mesmeric phenomena, asserted their reality before his 
 distinguished brethren. " Vera esse affirmo" was the 
 proud language of the orator. To hear this uttered on 
 such an occasion, and before such an audience, was no 
 small or immaterial advance. 
 
 These, then, it may be said with confidence, are 
 symptoms of progression. They prove that our facts 
 
44 MESMERISM AJTD ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 have made no small lodgment in public opinion; they 
 prove tha't a large array of intelligence and education is 
 enlisted on our side. And what, therefore, can be thought 
 of those, who, without a moment's examination, reject a 
 subject thus advocated, and turn aside from so copious a 
 body of evidence with but a smile or a sneer? How 
 different, indeed, has been the conduct of two most 
 remarkable men of our day, in whose footsteps every one 
 might, in turn, be proud to tread ! Coleridge, for instance, 
 said in 1830, that his " mind was in a state of philosophical 
 doubt as to animal magnetism." * He had declared else- 
 where that " nine years the subject of Zoo-magnetism 
 had been before him ; " that he had " traced it historically," 
 — had "collected a mass of documents "on the subject, — 
 had " never neglected an opportunity of questioning eye- 
 witnesses," — arid "without having moved an inch back- 
 ward or forward," his conclusion was, that the evidence 
 was "too strong and consentaneous for a candid mind to be 
 satisfied of its falsehood or its solvibility on the supposition 
 of imposture or casual coincidence." f These, then, were 
 Coleridge's opinions on this disputed question ; and are we 
 all alive to the high value that attaches itself to the views 
 and statements of that deep-thinking man ? Southey says 
 in a letter to William Taylor, "I am grieved that you 
 never met Coleridge : all other men, whom I have ever 
 known, are mere children to him." Again, " It grieves 
 me to the heart, that when he (Coleridge) is gone, nobody 
 will believe what a mind goes with him." % And yet this 
 giant in intellect was occupied during nine years in ex- 
 ploring a subject, which does not take our sciolists and 
 sceptics as many seconds to dispose of! Oh, how per- 
 petually are we reminded of the presumptuous ignorance 
 
 • Table Talk, vol. i. p. 106. 
 
 t Note in Table Talk, vol. i. p. 108. 
 
 \ Life of W. Taylor, vol. i. pp. 455. 462. 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTEE. 45 
 
 of small and second-rate men! Sixteen years ago, the 
 mind of Coleridge was in a " state of philosophical doubt;" 
 — he then thought that the " evidence was too strong for 
 a candid mind " to reject upon the usual solutions of im- 
 posture and delusion ; what would he have said now, had 
 he lived to be an eye-witness of phenomena that have 
 since developed themselves, and observed the mighty ad- 
 vancement of the science, in its mitigation of disease, and 
 the extinction of pain in surgical operations ? 
 
 The incomparable Arnold was, also, warmly interested 
 in the question. In the most charming of modern booksj 
 he says in a letter to Dr. Greenhill, " I shall like to hear 
 any thing fresh about animal magnetism, which has always 
 excited my curiosity." * And in another letter he adds, 
 " "What our fathers have done, still leaves an enormous 
 deal for us to do. The philosophy of medicine, I imagine, 
 is almost at zero : our practice is empirical, and seems 
 hardly more than a course of guessing, more or less happy. 
 The theory of life itself lies, probably, beyond our know- 
 ledge. * * * We talk of nerves, and we perceive their 
 connexion with operations of the mind; — but we cannot 
 understand a thinking, or a seeing, or a hearing nerve. * * * 
 Here, and ia a thousand other points, there is room for 
 infinite discoveries ; to say nothing of the wonderful 
 phenomena of animal magnetism, which only Englishmen 
 with their accustomed ignorance venture to laugh at, but 
 which no one yet has either thoroughly ascertained or 
 explained." f 
 
 In addition to inquirers like Arnold and Coleridgej 
 several living names could be mentioned, men high in in- 
 tellect as in station, whose adherence would shed a lustre 
 on any cause. It would be invidious and unwarrantable 
 to drag their testimony before the public ; but those that 
 
 * Arnold's Life, vol. ii. p. 90. \ Ibid. p. 37. 
 
46 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 are enjoying a silent sneer at our credulity, might blush, 
 were they but conscious whom they included in their 
 ridicule. 
 
 What chapters, indeed, could history unfold on the 
 blunders of scepticism. Barron mentions, in his life of 
 Dr. Jenner, that "on Monday, the 28th of March, 1808, 
 the following question was discussed at the British Forum," 
 (a literary and scientific debating society,) ' which has 
 proved a more Striking instance of the public credulity, the 
 gasJights of Mr. Winsor, or the cow-pox inoculation?' 
 The result of the discussions was as usual announced, and 
 both vaccination and gas-lights were handed over to scorn 
 and ignominy." * What a pleasant resemblance have we 
 here to the discussion by the Eoyal Medical and Chi- 
 rurgical Society, on the 22d of Kovember, 1842 ! 
 
 Let the subject, then, be viewed how it may. Mesmerism 
 presents certain difficulties to the philosopher. 
 
 If it be false, its reception among so many able, cool- 
 judging, close-reasoning inquirers, is a moral phenomenon, 
 almost as marvellous as the statements that are narrated. 
 
 If it be true, its rejection by so large a proportion of the 
 learned and the scientific, appears, at first eight, a phe- 
 nomenon also. 
 
 There is, however, one solution to the latter puzzle. 
 The vast majority of disbelievers have never personally, or 
 with adequate perseverance, pursued the inquiry. 
 
 As men, therefore, will so rarely investigate for them- 
 selves, it is to the evidence of others that we must continue 
 to appeal. We repeat, then, that testimony in favour of 
 the uses of Mesmerism towards the alleviation of disease is 
 increasing in importance every year. Facts upon Tacts, 
 cures upon cures, from all quarters and all classes, are 
 being received and recorded without cessation.! I pass 
 
 * Jenner's Life, vol. ii. p. Ill, 
 j- See tlie Zoist, passim. 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 47 
 
 by, for the present, the consideration of clairvoyance and 
 of the higher phenomena, as points that have less im- 
 mediate bearing on the exigencies of a sick-room. For the 
 same reason, the strange connexion between mesmeric 
 action and the organisation of the brain, may be referred 
 to the studies of the cerebral physiologist. The part of 
 the inquiry that interests myself as a minister of the 
 gospel, whose calling so often brings him into acquaintance 
 with the numerous ills that flesh is heir toj is the unques- 
 tionably vast remedial power of the art. And viewing it 
 in this light only, I cannot but regard mesmeric influence 
 as a rich provision of nature, or, to speak more meetly, as 
 a bounteous gift of the all-merciful Creator, for the relief 
 and preservation of suffering man. 
 
 Tirabosehi, in speaking of Andrea Vesalio, that " great 
 light of modem anatomy," who flourished at Padua in the 
 middle of the sixteenth century, describes him as one who, 
 like another Columbus, discovered a "new and till then 
 unknown world in the human body." * Surely, in calling 
 to mind the mighty influences on our nervous system that 
 the magnetic discovery has produced, and may be made 
 still more capable of producing, we should rather say, that 
 the appellation " Columbus of the human frame," would, 
 with far greater propriety, be applied to Anthony 
 Mesmer ! 
 
 In truth, what r^ions of fresh health and unsuspected 
 blessings may not this bounteous gift of Providence be 
 destined to disclose for the succour of the miserable ! By 
 what boundary shall we narrow our hopes about its uses or 
 their consequences ? For the extinction, indeed, of sensi- 
 bility in surgical operations, in the case of a healthy subject. 
 Mesmerism may probably be superseded by the more active 
 
 • E quasi un altro Colombo scoperse un nuovo ed finallora incognito 
 mondo nel corpo umanb." Tirabosehi, torn. 7. p. 918. Vesalio was a 
 native of Brussels, though he resided at Padua. ; 
 
48 MESMEEISM AST) ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 properties of ether. I say, in the case of a healthy subject, 
 because with patients liable to affections of the heart, of the 
 brain, or of the lungs, or with a constitution impaired by 
 long-continued illness, the deleterious and depressing effects 
 of ether render its inhalation extremely hazardous. Doubt- 
 less, it acts far more rapidly and readily than Mesmerism ; 
 still the latter, I suspect, will be found, with a large 
 number, the safer remedy in the end. And even were it 
 not so, the inestimable powers of that science for the cure 
 and alleviation of disease, yet remain unapproached ; while 
 I still believe, that in the production of insensibility for 
 lengthened operations, especially where there is a sickly 
 and enfeebled frame, the mesmeric treatment will retain 
 its old pre-eminence.* 
 
 Apropos of the inhalation of this potent drug ! there Is 
 one use to which that splendid discovery may also be con- 
 verted, even if it be not so extensive a boon as we all san- 
 guinely anticipated.! It supplies a singular and unexpected 
 argument towards the confirmation of Mesmerism. Perhaps 
 few readers, except those that closely study the subject, are 
 aware of the extent to which painless operations under the 
 
 * It is now observed, that ether is not so much used in some hospitals as 
 it was. Mr. South, the well-known and able operator, in his " System of 
 Surgery," says, that he has " great doubt of the propriety " of employing it, 
 and " has not made up his mind to try it at all." Dr. Pickford has published 
 a solemn warning against its use, stating that it tends to produce tubercular 
 consumption, and recording some of its fatal efifects in the Dublin hospitals. 
 In spite of all this, I cannot but believe, that for lithotomy, amputations, and 
 severe, cases of midwifery, where the patient is in other respects sound and 
 healthy, etherisation must prove an inestimable boon. To my thinking, 
 mesmerism and ether will not clash, but rather be applied respectively to a 
 different class both of operations and patients. 
 
 f In the Lancet for October 16th, it is now said, in a review of Dr. Snow's 
 work on the inhalation of ether, when speaking of its " idtimate success " 
 where the operation itself has 'prospered, " we think it is still questionable 
 whether etherisation tends to induce favourable terminations J " Cautious lan- 
 guage this;, especially when the editor in the same article speaks of the 
 *' high hopes, enkindled by the novelty and brilliancy of the discovery, having 
 vanished." — P. 410. Mesmerism, therefore, is not so much " superseded," as 
 proved by etherisation. 
 
INTEODUCTOBY CHAPTER. 49 
 
 Influence of Mesmerism have been carried. Mesmerists 
 and mesmeric publications, record about three hundred well- 
 authenticated instances. Some of these operations have 
 been of a most formidable kind, amputations, removal of 
 enormous tumours, cancerous excisions, &c., and all claim- 
 ing equal unconsciousness of suffering, and equal success 
 with those performed under the newer system of inhalation. 
 The characteristics of both conditions are the same, and the 
 proofs common to each. Both under mesmerism and under 
 ether, the patients " during the operation show no sign of 
 resolution, neither grasp any thing, clench their hands, 
 close their mouths, bite their lips, nor hold their breath; 
 neither talk, laugh, nor sing, make no muscular effort or 
 any other kind of effort to prevent themselves from at- 
 tending to their pain, nor display the physiognomy of 
 determination, but lie placidly sleeping arid breathing, per- 
 fectly relaxed and motionless from head to foot."* In a 
 mesmeric operation that I have related, the operator said 
 that " there was no more movement in the patient than 
 there would have been in a corpse." In a proces-verhal, 
 which records an operation at Cherbourg for the removal 
 of a tumour, it is said, speaking of the mesmerised patient, 
 "she showed no emotion, no muscular con tractionv and 
 even when the knife penetrated deeply into the flesh, she 
 was like a statue.^^ The circumstances, then, in both 
 systems, are identical, with this important distinction : 
 whilst the inhalation of ether, it is said, alters the vital 
 constituents of the blood, or acts injuriously upon the 
 brain and lungs, and impairs the power of rallying with the 
 debilitated when the operation is over — serious results, 
 which are but poorly compensated by a temporary cessation 
 from pain ; the mesmeric coma actually produces a healthy 
 influence, greatly supports the nervous energy of the 
 
 * Zoist, No. 17. p. 44. 
 E 
 
so MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 patient both before and after the operation, is capable of 
 repetition again and again when the wound requires 
 dressing, or when ease and sleep are desirable, and has 
 never yet been charged with causing death, or raising a fear 
 through any dangerous symptom ! 
 
 This, then, was the state of the question before the new 
 mode of preventing pain by the inhalation of gases had 
 been introduced into the hospitals.* Three hundred sur- 
 gical operations, performed when the patient was equally 
 insensible under the influence of Mesmerism, had actually 
 taken place ! Three hundred well-authenticated facts, with 
 competent and trustworthy testimony ! And what, it may 
 be asked in reply, was the notice taken of these startling 
 occurrences by the surgical world ? Either, according ta 
 usage, there was no notice taken at all, or, if men con- 
 descended to make a remark, it was said that the patients 
 were three hundred impostors, who, to please their Mes- 
 meric patrons, pretended to feel no suffering, when oftentimes 
 -their sufferings must have been acute ; or that they were 
 three hundred cases of peculiarity of constitution, under 
 which, through the vagaries of nature, but a small amount 
 of pain or sensation were known ; or that our represent- 
 ation of a painless condition was childish nonsense, op- 
 posing common sense and the laws of physiology ; or, 
 lastly, that it was a melancholy delusion, for that the three 
 hundred tricksters did not stand alone, but had given birth 
 to many more than three hundred dupes ! 
 
 Sometimes, moreover, the actual existence of the 
 patients was denied. A list, therefore, of such operations 
 as have fallen under my own inquiries, and have taken 
 place since the year 1841 is herewith appended, f 
 
 * Etherisation is extensively used at the George's and St. Bartholomew's : 
 but I understand not at the London or University college, unless demanded 
 by the patient. Neither is it much used in the two Borough Hospitals ; at 
 least it was quite discarded there a short time back. 
 
 ■j- I have not gone back to the well-known operation on Madame Plantin, 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 51 
 
 The_first operation, however, that took place in England, 
 was the introduction of a seton into the back of Elizabeth 
 Okey, under the direction of Dr. Elliotson, in the spring 
 of 1838. 
 
 The second operation of the same kind in England, was 
 the division of the tendons at the back of the knee-joint in 
 a young lady of the age of 17, by Dr. Engledue, of South- 
 sea, August, 1842. 
 
 Then followed the famous Nottinghamshire amputation, 
 under the management of Mr. Topham, of the Temple, 
 that case which wUl be the grand opprobrium of the B.oyal 
 Medical and Chirurgical Society for some years to come. 
 
 Eight Amputations in the Mesmeric State. 
 The leg of James "Wombell, by Mr. Ward, at Wellow, Netting- 
 
 hamsHre, October, 1842. 
 The finger of Jolin Marrien, by Mr. Dunn, of Wolverhampton, 
 
 1844. 
 Leg of Mary Ann Lakin, by Mr. Tosswill, at Leicester, August, 
 
 1844. 
 Leg of Elizabeth , by Mr. Paget, at Leicester, November, 
 
 1844. 
 Arm of Mrs. Northway, at Torquay, by Mr. Jolly, May 15. 
 
 1845. 
 Leg of Thomas Dysart, by Dr. Fenton, at Alyth, Perthshire, 
 
 June, 1845. 
 Leg of Mademoiselle DAlbanet, at Cherbourg, France, Oetober^^ 
 
 1845, by Dr. Loysel. 
 Leg of John Pepperal, at Bridgewater, by Mx. King, Augustj, 
 
 1846. 
 
 Miscellaneous Operations. 
 Removal of large excrescence from eyebrow, by Dr. Arnold, of 
 
 Jamaica, August, 1842. 
 
 for cancer in the breast, at Paris, in 1829, as it is reported in so many 
 mesmeric publications; nor to an operation in the tipper part of the thigh, 
 near the crural artery, of a farmer, which is mentioned in Chardel's Fsyelw 
 logie Physiologigue. 
 
 I 2 
 
52 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 Severe operation on tlie jaw of E. Gregory, at Chatham, by Dr. 
 ;, Charlton, June, 1842. 
 Opening of large abscess, by Mr- Carstairs, ShefS.eld, IjTovem- 
 
 ber, 1842. 
 .Venesection, by Dr. EUiotson, 1844. 
 Venesection, by Mr. Symes, Grosvenor Street, 1844. 
 Introduction of a seton by Mr. Symes, 1844. 
 Establishment of issue by Mr. Tubbs, of Up well, 1844. 
 Excision of wen, at Upper Alton, U. S., 1843. 
 Eemoval of tumour, at Lowell, U. S., 1843. 
 Seton introduced, by Mr. CuUedge, of Chatteris, 1844. 
 Incision under a nail, by Mr. Smith, of Portsea, 1844. 
 Incision into an abscess, by Dr. Mason, of Dumfries. 
 Operation for squinting, by Mr. TosswUl, Leicester. 
 Removal of tumour, at New York, by Dr. Bodinier, January, 
 • 1845. 
 Eemoval of tumour, by Professor Ackley, May, 1844, at the 
 
 Cleveland Medical College, America. 
 Removal of breast from Mrs. Clarke, by Dr. Ducas, Professor, 
 . &c., Georgia, U. S., January, 1845. 
 Eemoval of polypus from nose, at Boston, U. S., by Dr. 
 
 Wheelock, July, 1843. 
 Removal of tiancer from breast, 1845, by Dr. Ducas, Professor, 
 
 &c., Georgia, U. S. 
 Incision into tendon Achillis of Mademoiselle A. S., at Cher- 
 bourg, France, December, 1845, in presence of M. Delente, 
 
 Director of M. Hospital, &c. 
 Application of caustic to eye, by Mr. Parker, Exeter, March, 
 
 1846. 
 Removal, of large tumour, Dr. Loysel, at Cherbourg, May, 
 
 1846. 
 Removal of large tumour, at New York, by Dr. Bostwick, May, 
 
 1846.. 
 Removal of tumour, at Bermuda, by Dr. Cotes, March, 1846. 
 Removal of tumour from neck of Mademoiselle Le Marchand, 
 
 at Cherbourg, by Dr. Loysel, 19th September, 1846. 
 Removal of a tonsil by Mr. Aston Key, October, 1846. 
 
INTEODUCTOEY CHAPTEE. 53 
 
 Three operations by Dr. Loysel, June, 1847, at Cherbourg*, 
 with one man and two women, being incisions into the neck, 
 and extirpations of a bulky mass of glands, &c. 
 
 Extractions of Teeth. 
 
 5 by Mr. NichoUs, of Bruton Street. 
 
 1 1841, in Paris, by M. Talbot. 
 
 2 1841, by Mr. Martin, dentist, of Portsmouth. 
 25 by Mr. Prideaux, of Southampton, in 1842. 
 
 1 by Mr. Bias, dentist, of Jamaica, 1842. 
 
 2 by Mr. Carstairs, Sheffield, 1842. 
 
 3 by Mr. Webb, Bungay, 1844. 
 
 2 by Mr. Tubbs, of Upwell, Cambridgeshire, 1844. 
 
 1 in Hinckley, Leicestershire, June, 1843, from James 
 
 Paul. 
 1 by Dr. Tuthill, Jamaica, February, 1843. 
 
 1 by Mr. Nasmyth, Edinburgh, May, 1843. 
 
 2 by Mr. Grattan, dentist, Newry, January, 1843. 
 
 10 at Middlesex Hospital, by Mr. Tomes, dentist, March, 
 1844. 
 1 by Mr. Case, Fareham, 1844. 
 
 1 by Mr. Shew, Cheltenham, 1844. 
 
 2 by Mr. Heath, of 123. Edgeware Eoad, 1844. 
 
 4 at Barnstaple, by Mr. Weekes, ditto, 1844. 
 1 by Mr.Lintot, of Welbeck Street, 1844. 
 
 1 by Mr. O'Connor, March, 1844. 
 
 1 by Dr. Arnott, of Edinburgh, June, 1844. 
 
 1 by Mr. Curtis, Surgeon, of Alton, July, 1845. 
 
 2 by Mr. H. S. Thompson, of Fairfield House, York, 1845. 
 1 at Plymouth, by Mr.Brendon, S.D., March, 1846. 
 
 8 by Professor Bell, of King's College, London, June, 1846. 
 
 1 by Mr. Fox, of Plymouth, April, 1846. 
 
 2 by Mr. Edwards, Bath, June, 1846. 
 
 1 at the London Hospital, by a senior student, August, 
 1846. 
 
 • Tliese operations complete the twelfth performed at Cherbourg, by 
 means of Mesmerism, since October, 1845. 
 
 B 3 
 
54 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 1 by Mr. Bell, December, 1846; and, lastly, 
 94 by Mr. Purland, surgeon- dentist, of Mortimer Street, 
 Cavendish Square, whose zeal and experience in the 
 good cause of humanity are so great and unremitting.* 
 Total of extractions of teeth in the Mesmeric state, 178. 
 
 To this catalogue must be added 95 operations per- 
 formed by Dr. Esdaile in India, of which cases Dr. Forbes 
 (as before quoted) has said, that " the evidence is of such a 
 character, that the question can no longer be disregarded 
 by the profession." t 
 
 Many more extractions of teeth, and minor operations 
 could, doubtless, have been given, had I applied to different 
 Mesmerisers for their returns ; but, with the above facts, 
 thus stands the question : — 
 
 Operation by Dr. EUiotson - - 1 
 Operation by Dr. Engledue - - 1 
 Amputations - - - - 8 
 Miscellaneous operations - - 29 
 Extractions of teeth - - - 178 
 Operations in India by Dr. Esdaile, princi- 
 pally of a most formidable character - 95 
 
 Total of surgical operations without pain 
 
 under Mesmeric influence - - 312:j:. 
 
 * Mr. Purland, who has been so successful in mesmeric operations, is no 
 bigot to one method, but has also employed Etherisation in upwards of ISO 
 cases of teeth-extraction, without accident.. From his experience we should 
 infer that ether, by its greater readiness of application, would supersede Mes- 
 merism for minor operations, were there no secondary effects to dread. 
 
 f Seventy-three of these operations are recorded by Dr. Esdaile in his 
 work ; the rest are to be found in subsequent reports sent by him to 
 England. 
 
 \ Yet it is of a science that has produced all this benefit to man, that a 
 London physician lately uttered the following Mzaiseric. — In the Minutes 
 of Evidence taking before a select committee of the House of Commons on 
 Medical Registration, Dr. Seymour pronounced, that in patronising the 
 Mesmeric Hospital (where operations of the kind reported above are to take 
 place), " a person of great rank in the state showed a great disregard to the 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 55 
 
 Here, then, is at least a respectable collection of facts, 
 — respectable from their number, from their bearing on 
 physiology, and from the testimony of the reporters ; — 
 and yet Sir Benjamin Brodie, the great authority in 
 surgery, in a recent lecture which is given in the Medical 
 Gazette, spoke with a sneer about this " new principle in 
 pathology" for the adoption of which he added that the 
 mesmerists had not yet furnished the '• requisite data ;" 
 and then this experienced surgeon presumed to tell his 
 auditors, " that it seems to be in the power of almost any 
 one under the influence of excitement or a strong moral 
 determination to sustain bodily suffering without any outward 
 expression of what he suffeis." * 
 
 If this monstrous dogma of Sir Benjamin Brodie were 
 true, our three hundred painless operations might have 
 reached to three thousand, and still the " requisite data " to 
 satisfy an anti-mesmeric mind would have been wanting, 
 for every one of the three thousand sufferers might only 
 have been " under the influence of excitement or a strong 
 moral determination to sustain" pain, for the sake of giving 
 pleasure to the magnetist. The Zoist might thus have 
 gone on piling operation upon operation, like Pelion upon 
 Ossa, and yet the proof of our " new principle in pathology " 
 would have been as far off as ever ! But suddenly and 
 happily, the merciful discovery respecting ether startles 
 the world with a joyful intelligence, and our loudly-con- 
 tradicted assertions stand forth verified to the letter. 
 
 acouirements of the College of Physicians, to common sense, and to everj/ 
 thing else." — P. 115. Qua;re, what is here meant by every thing else? It 
 may mean a disregard to electric telegraphs, to Jenny Lind, or to the Bank 
 Restriction Act, but surely not a disregard to humanity? It is to be 
 hoped, for the sake of his patients, that our Doctor knows more of medicine 
 than of logic. 
 
 * N. B. Sir B. Brodie had unfortunately committed himself to an 
 opinion, in an article against " Animal Magnetism" in the 61st vol. of the 
 Quarterly Review, p. 273., which appeared in the year 1838. Sed revocare 
 gradum! 
 
 E 4 
 
56 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 From the Land's End to John O'Groat's House, one loud 
 shout of congratulation is heard, proclaiming the truth, that 
 insensibility in operations is procurable for the sufferer. 
 Almost every hospital in the land gives some proof of the 
 fact. The surgical world, and certain surgical periodicals 
 are in a delirium of delight.* Every leading operator in 
 town and country fastens on the report with avidity, sends 
 for the apparatus forthwith, at railway speed, and reaHzes 
 the truthfulness of the representations within but a few 
 days after his first notice of the plan. Whether this 
 consentaneous rapidity of action arose (as some maliciously 
 assert) from the hope of passing Mesmerism by with a 
 side-wind f ; or whether (as others more slyly suspect) 
 from an eager anxiety of demonstrating to the world that 
 the faculty can yield a fair trial to a new system, especially 
 when that new system happens to be so accessible of proof 
 to the meanest capacity ;^-or whether (as it would be far 
 
 * A writer in the Lancet (March, 1847, p. 265.), who had passed over in 
 silent neglect the three hundred mesmeric operations, suggests that " public 
 acts of thanksgiving " should be oflf'ered up to the Almighty for the discovery 
 of etherisation. I agree with the writer that this great boon should, indeed, 
 call forth our deepest gratitude to the Giver of all good : but why this one- 
 sided piety ? Was there no other gift which might equally have excited our 
 thanlifulness ? Mr. Liston, too, the facild princes of modern surgeons, 
 writes a letter (which appears in the Lancet, January, 1847, p. 8.) " thanking 
 for the early information," and adding " it is a very great matter to be able 
 thus to destroy sensibility ;^' yet Mr. Liston had been present when some 
 earlier information had been given, but there was no thankfulness then ! 
 In No. 13. of the North British Review for May, 1847, there appears a 
 letter from Mr. Liston to Professor Miller of the University of Edinburgh, 
 beginning as follows : — 
 
 « Hurrah ! 
 " Rejoice ! Mesinerism and its professors have met with a heavy blow and 
 great discouragement !" Rejoice, not because humanity has received a signal 
 servioe,^but because Mesmerism has suffered a heavy downfall And he 
 concludes with a second " Rejoice ! and thine always, R. L." Can this 
 letter be really genuine ? 
 
 f The editor of the Lancet says, in January, 1847, -p. 16., " We suppose 
 we shall now hear no more of Mesmerism and its absurdities as preparatives 
 for surgical -operations. The destruction of one limb of the mesmeric 
 quackery will be one not inconsiderable merit of this most valuable dis- 
 covery." Unluckily, Ijowever, for the Lancet, Etherisation has rather con- 
 firmed the truthfulness of the mesmerisers. 
 
INTEODUCTOEY CHAPTEE, 57 
 
 more agreeable to believe) from a noble professional desire 
 of diminishing the amount of human misery; what was 
 the cause of this electric and quasi masonic movement in 
 favour of ether is foreign to our argument : the point to 
 be noticed is this, — that in spite of the philosophising 
 explanations of Sir Benjamin Brodie, — in spite of the 
 scientific argumentations of Dr. Marshall Hall*, — in spite 
 of the learned reasonings of one part of the College, and 
 the sneers and silence of the other, insensibility to 
 PAIN in surgical operations, as originally maintained iy the 
 mesmeric minority, is now a confessed fact in nature, and 
 admitted and proved by the chirurgical sceptics themselves. 
 
 This, then, is the argument to which the attention of the 
 medical world is now requested with every deference and 
 respect. They are entreated to place their adverse feelings 
 for one little moment in abeyance. They are reminded 
 that this asserted condition of insensibility to pain was but 
 lately flouted _^by| themselves with scorn, — that it was 
 denied to be possible, — or that it was explained away by 
 reference to strong mental volition or peculiarities of 
 physique. Whether mesmerism were or were not the 
 medium, was not the question with them; — the in- 
 sensibility itself was the fact called in doubt, the point 
 previously to be proved. Now, however, this disputed 
 condition of nature is found to be easily procured through 
 a different agent, the vapour of sulphuric ether, and that 
 controversy is at once closed ; may we not, therefore, ask 
 with some little confidence, whether an unexpected argu- 
 ment has not presented itself in corroboration of Mesmerism, 
 and whether the assumptions of the magnetists may not be 
 felt to be true? 
 
 Be it remembered, then, that these now successful and 
 observing students of nature, who thus maintained before 
 
 • See Elliotson's Pamphlet on " Surgical Operations without Pain," and 
 Dr. M. Hall's " Physiological Proofs against their Truth," p. 19. 
 
58 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 a scoffing majority tliis fact of insensibility to pain — are 
 the same men, who equally maintain the curative powers 
 of mesmeric treatment, and its marvellous efficacy in, 
 disease. 
 
 These same men equally maintain) from observation and 
 experiment, the truth of clairvoyance, of intro-vision, of 
 community of taste and sensation, and of sundry other 
 phenomena. 
 
 These same men equally maintain the frequent con- 
 nexion between Mesmerism and Phrenology, and the 
 strange action of the focmer on the cerebral organisation. 
 
 It is contended that their assertions now merit the 
 amplest credit and consideration. The data on which they 
 build their conclusions are the same, or similar, in quality 
 and character to those on which they founded their belief 
 in that " new principle of pathology," which, discredited as 
 it was by the first operators of the day, is now as notorious 
 and common as any fact in physics- 
 
 For the sake of humanity, for the sake of a large pro-t 
 portion of their own suffering patients, the evils of whose 
 condition might possibly be lessened by the auxiliary hand 
 of Mesmerism, the medical profession is once more urged 
 to cast behind them their unworthy slanders and suspicions, 
 and to give nature and nature's votaries the benefit of a 
 fresh trial. One of our most startling phenomena, insen- 
 sibility to pain, has been verified by themselves ; why 
 must the remainder be still regarded as impossible ? * If 
 
 * Dr. RadclyfFe Hall, in 1 845, wrote a series of elaborate but temperate 
 papers in the Lancet against Mesmerism, in which he seemed to ground his 
 disbelief of the science on the contradictions between mesmeric writers, — not 
 understanding that those apparent contradictions related to different stages 
 of the mesmeric condition, — or arose from the different effects on opposite 
 constitutions. However, in 1845, he was an unbeliever. In March, 1847, he 
 writes a paper in the Lancet, narrating some curious effects on a patient 
 from the inhalation of ether, effects corresponding in character with what I 
 have seen repeatedly in Mesmerism, such as freedom of manner, smartness 
 of repartee, increased intellectuality, &c., which in mesmeric patients have 
 been considered false or " assumed from some craving for effect," but of 
 
INTEODUCTOEY CHAPTER. 59 
 
 one fact be established, surely a fair inference is formed in 
 favour of others. The remembrance of this should, in good 
 truth, render the sceptic more humble in himself, and less 
 disposed to question the experience of his brethren. 
 " The secrets of Nature," says the profound Pascal, 
 " are hidden : although she be always at work, we do not 
 always perceive the results: time reveals them from 
 age to age, and though always equal in herself, she is not 
 always equally known."* Emerson, the accomplished 
 American essayist, has a passage, which the most 
 advanced student might read and remember with profit :. 
 " Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth, that around 
 every circle another can be drawn ; that there is no end in 
 nature, but every end is a beginning ; that there is always 
 another dawn risen on raidnoon, and under every deep a 
 lower deep opens. * * * New arts destroy the old. See the in- 
 vestment of capital in aqueducts made useless by hydraulics; 
 fortifications by gunpowder ; roads and canals by railways ; 
 sails by steam ; steam by electricity. * * * There is not a 
 piece of science, but its Jlank may be turned to-morrow." f 
 
 ■which, in his ether-patient, Dr. Hall is "perfectly satisfied that nothing is 
 feigned." This is 07ie move in advance. The Doctor then adds, " I was 
 formerly led to conclude, after examining the statements of the mesmerists, 
 that insensibility to pain, as the result of influence on the nervous system, 
 was possible, but not very probable. The discovery of the effects of ether has 
 furnished additional data ; and we are now warranted in acknowledging that 
 sensibility may be entirely suspended for a time by artificial means." Here is 
 then, a second move towards Mesmerism. Wliy, then, does this candid 
 opponent conclude his letter with talking of his " incredulity in the sublime 
 absurdities of clairvoyance?" Perhaps, ere long, we shall read of an etherised 
 clairvoyant. ^ ^ 
 
 * " Quoique toujours egale en clle-meme, elle n'est pas toujours egale- 
 ment connue." — Pensees de Pascal, P. Partie, art. 1. 
 
 + Emerson's Essays, Circles, 53, 54. 
 
60 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPOMINTS. 
 
 ^CHAPTER I. 
 
 PKOGRESS OF KESMERISM. — OPPOSITION TO MESMERISM. — CHAEOE OF 
 
 SATANIC AGENCY. SERMON PREACHED AT LIVERPOOL. REV. HUGH 
 
 M'NEILE. MESMERISM AND ELECTRICITY. MESMERISM NOT SUPER- 
 
 NATtTRAL. WHY GENERAL LAWS OF MESMERISM NOT STATED WHY 
 
 MESMERIC PHENOMENA NOT UNIFORM IN ALL PATIENTS. SERMON 
 
 UNWORTHY OF MR. M'NEIL's REPUTATION. MESMERISM AND THE 
 
 COURT OF ROME MESMERISM AND CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH. "MES- 
 MERISM TESTED BY THE WORD OF GOD." — "DIALOGUE BETWEEN A 
 
 I MESMERIST AND A CHRISTIAN." MR. BICKEBSTETH AND MB. CLOSE 
 
 ON MESMERISM. 
 
 The decided advance that Mesmerism has made* in this country 
 within the last two years, — the number of cautious and practical 
 men that maintain its reality and utility, — the variety of dis- 
 eases to v^hich it has been successfully applied, — all lead the 
 friends of truth to hope, that the public mind has taken a turn 
 on the subject. In spite of the discredit under which it is often 
 compelled to labour, through the vanity or ignorance of 
 itinerant lecturers f, the good cause is making a steady and 
 certain progress. For it is not by public exhibitions at a 
 theatre, that delicate experiments on the human frame can be 
 conducted in due compliance with the conditions, which are 
 
 * Miss Martincau, in the preface to her Letters, says, " Of the knowledge 
 gained since these Letters were written, no part is more striking to me 
 than that of the great extant of the belief and practice of Mesmerism. " 
 
 f Of course, such experienced and excellent lecturers as Mr. Spencer Hall 
 form exceptions to this observation. Still, my opinion is, that even with so 
 able a man as he is, a public exhibition is the last place for studying Mes- 
 merism. And the same reason applies to a lecture in an hospital. " Lors- 
 qu'on r^flechit aux conditions necessaires aux succes de ces experiences, on 
 ne peut assez s'etonner qu'il se soit rencontr^ quelqu'un pour les tenter dans 
 cette occasion. En effect, tous les promoteurs de la doctrine recommandent 
 la tranquillity, I'ordre, la patience, la confiance, &c. et les salles de I'hopital 
 ne pr^sentaient ici qu'uoe foule inquiete, turbulente, defiante outre mesure," 
 
 &c Rapport Confidentiel, p. 44. See also L' Abb^ J. B. L., in his " Magne- 
 
 tisme devant la Cour de Rome," p. 286., in his remarks on the attacks 
 against Mesmerism. 
 
PROGEESS OP MESMERISM. 61 
 
 essential to their success. Those conditions can only be fully 
 appreciated by men, that are accustomed to the niceties, which 
 the demonstration of the simplest phenomena in chemistry and 
 electricity requires. The failures, therefore, that arise from 
 the disturbing influences of a crowded audience on the nervous 
 system of the patient, — the disgust occasioned by the disputes 
 between the lecturer and the spectators, — the suspicion, and 
 perhaps occasionally the detection, of imposture, are constantly 
 checking, in different quarters, that tide of public opinion that 
 is gradually rising in favour of this science.* 
 
 Still, in defiance of these drawbacks, it keeps advancing. Men 
 almost universally begin to think that " there is something in if," 
 and on further investigation they find that that small " some- 
 thing " is a very powerful reality. No one, not even those who 
 make inquiries on the subject, are aware of the great extent to 
 which the practice of Mesmerism is carried on, quietly and 
 imobtrusively, in private families. Having corresponded much 
 on the subject, I have been astonished at finding the numbers 
 who apply to it for relief. Men's minds are evidently ripening 
 for its reception. They have clearly reached that state, in 
 which an impression can be tnade. Till that state has, to a 
 certain degree, arrived, it matters not what may be the subject- 
 matter, no new truth can be successfully established. Be it in 
 religion, or politics, or natural philosophy, or medicine, all the 
 books and arguments in its favour fall unheeded on the public, 
 till the facts and statements have been for some time well 
 shaken together in men's minds, and other and external circum- 
 stances predisposed them towards its acceptance. ' No undue 
 exertions can force this period forward, nor bring it pre- 
 maturely into being. Prejudice, ignorance, bad education, and 
 self-interest will have their triumph and their day. But when 
 
 • " S'abstenir de faire des experiences publiques a iti un des grands prin- 
 cipesde M. Deleuze, parce qu'elles comprpmettent souvent la santede malades; 
 mais cette raison n'a pas et& la seule, et il n'est pas douteux que M. Deleuze 
 connaissalt parfaitement les causes du trouble dans lequel se trouve habi- 
 tuellement un somnambule en presence de medecins opposes au magn^tisme." — 
 Gauthier, Traite Pratique, p. 543. The whole of Gauthier's 7th book, from 
 p. 543. to 561., deserves to be read, for its full exposition of the effects of 
 the presence of anti-mesmerists. 
 
■62 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 once the signs of vitality have shown themselves, we may 
 accelerate the growth. We may then hasten the progress very 
 materially. It is my conviction that Mesmerism has at length 
 reached this critical point ; — that it has obtained a considerable 
 lodgment among reasoning people; — and that from opportunities 
 with which I have been eminently favoured, it is in my power 
 to promote its establishment very essentially. It is then the 
 purpose of this work to combat those arguments which are 
 most generally advanced against Mesmerism^ to strip the 
 subject of those marvels with which popular ignorance has sur- 
 rounded it, and to show that animal magnetism is nothing else 
 •than the employment of a common and simple agent, which t)i.e 
 Supreme Intelligence has provided in mercy for his creatures, 
 and of which nothing but prejudice or superstition can decline 
 to make use. 
 
 I shall begin with that view of the question to which acci- 
 dental circumstances more strongly, in the first instance, directed 
 my attention, — I mean the opinion that Mesmerism is a mys- 
 terious and unholy power, from the exercise of which good men 
 and Christians ought to keep aloof. It is needful to make our 
 commencement hence : for the class of readers to whom I more 
 particularly address myself, must be first assured that the 
 practice is neither presumptuous nor sinful, before we can 
 expect them to study its phenomena, or be witnesses of its 
 effect as a sanative process. 
 
 .The opinion, then, of the irreligious character of this science 
 has been mainly promoted by a Sermon, that appeared in one 
 of the numbers of the Penny Pulpit, and has been actively 
 circulated through the country, entitled " Satanic Agency and 
 Mesmerism," and which is alleged to have been preached in 
 Liverpool by the Rev. Hugh M'Neile. 
 
 This sermon, however, was not published with the sanction 
 of the preacher, and so far he is not responsible : but inasmuch 
 as its sale is a matter of notoriety in the town wherein he 
 resides; — and as no steps have been taken by him for a dis- 
 avowal of its contents, though an opening for that very purpose 
 was good-naturedly afforded him; — and as the short-hand[ 
 writer, from whose notes the sermon was printed, is ready, we 
 
CHARGE OF SATANIC AGENCr. 63 
 
 are informed, to make affidavit of the accuracy of his report, 
 — it may fairly be inferred, how incredible soever it may sound, 
 that that sermon, with perhaps some little variation of language, 
 was actually preached by Mr. M'Neile. 
 
 Now a sermon put forth, even in this unauthorised manner, 
 ■with the prestige of so popular a name, certainly deserves every 
 respectful consideration. The number, moreover, of Mr. 
 M' Neile's admirers, and the zeal * with which they distribute 
 this publication among the thoughtful and the religious, give 
 additional importance to its pages ; — and it having come to my 
 own knowledge, that several parties had been prevented from 
 adopting or witnessing the curative effects of Mesmerism, 
 through scruples of conscience raised by this very discourse, I 
 was prepared to bestow upon it a much more careful perusal 
 than intrinsically it requires. 
 
 Believing, then, as I do most firmly, that Mesmerism is a 
 mighty remedial agent, mercifully vouchsafed by the beneficent 
 Creator for the mitigation of human misery — a remedy to be 
 employed, like every other remedy, prayerfully, thankfully, and 
 with a humble dependence on the will of Him who sent the 
 chastisement, and can alone remove it, — having daily reason, 
 too, to bless God for the introduction of this very remedy 
 within the circle of my own family, it is difficult for me to 
 express the amazement, the regret, the feelings akin to some- 
 thing like shame, with which I first read this most deplorable 
 publication. And knowing the delusion under which so many 
 labour on this question — a delusion which the unfortunate 
 language of this sermon has tended so greatly to strengthen 
 amongst the ignorant and the superstitious, I feel it to be 
 nothing short of a sacred Christian duty laid upon me to use 
 
 * My readers may judge of the activity with which anti-mesmerists and 
 their emissaries circulate this sermon, when they learn that some thousand 
 copies have been sold, and a reprint called for. It was sent, for instance, to 
 my own house by some anonymous neighbours, with the intention, it is pre- 
 sumed, of deterring us in our course at the very moment we were receiving 
 the most providential benefit; and it was in answer to this well-meant 
 impertinence, and to the weak or wicked nonsense that was elsewhere 
 muttered about a minister of the gospel permitting diabolical practices 
 under his roof, that I was originally induced, somewhat in self-defence, to 
 take up the subject. 
 
64 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 my endeayours to lessen the error. And if these pages should 
 be the means of removing the prejudices of but one family, or 
 of alleviating the pains of but one afflicted sufferer, through 
 his adoption of Mesmeric aid, the knowledge of it would give 
 me a gratification which I would not exchange for many of the 
 most coveted distinctions of eloquence and power. 
 
 To much, however, of the earlier passages of this sermon no 
 Scriptural reader can offer any objection. Where it presents 
 from the Bible a digest of the evidence for Satanic agency, and 
 of the condition of the fallen angels, and of their power over 
 the race of man; where their fearful spiritual influence on our 
 depraved nature and deceitful hearts is laid bare in all its 
 deformity ; to all this the well-instructed Christian tremblingly 
 subscribes. When, therefore, Mr. M'Neile is alleged to state 
 " not only that there did exist such a thing as Satanic agency, 
 but that it continued to exist after the incarnation of Christ ; 
 that it continued to exist amongst men after the resurrection 
 of Christ ; that it is predicted to exist until the second coming 
 of Christ ; " to all these and similar positions I am not pre- 
 pared to express any dissent. But when, from these premises 
 he goes on to assert that certain peculiar facts, recorded in 
 Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, and of the reality of which he 
 does not appear to doubt, are*, "beyond all questiouj beyond 
 the course of nature," or, in other words, supernatural and the 
 result of some miraculous or diabolical agency, what thinking 
 mind does not see that such a conclusion is most illogical and 
 absurd? Is there no other alternative? Is nothing else 
 possible? Is nothing else probable? Before so strong and 
 momentous a decision were thus peremptorily pronounced, 
 should not a fair and candid man at least stoop to inquire, to 
 
 * Merio Casaubon, son of the learned critic Isaac, says well in a work 
 called " A Treatise eoneerning Enthusiasm, as it is an Effect of Nature, but is 
 mistaken by many for either Divine Inspiration or Diabolical Possession," 
 " When in matter of diseases, we oppose natural causes to supernatural, 
 whether divine or diabolical, as we do not exclude the general will of God, 
 without which nothing can be, so neither the general ministerie and inter- 
 vention of the Devil who, for ought I know, may have a hand in all or most 
 diseases." — Cap. 3. p. 61. This whole treatise should be read by the 
 reli^ous opponents of Mesmerism. Meric Casaubon died 1670. 
 
CHAEGE 01" SATANIC AGENCY. 65 
 
 investigate, to consider calmly, whether some better explanation 
 were not admissible ? Should a lover of truth — should a friend 
 to whatever might alleviate sufifering humanity, thus hastily, 
 and, ex cathedra, deliver an adverse opinion upon a science 
 which, to say the least, is at present only in its infancy ? If 
 we cannot admire the reasoning faculty that this sermon 
 evinces, can we on the other hand, praise its charity? "In 
 forming a judgment of this," says Mr. M'lTeile, "I go, of 
 course, on what I have read. / have seen nothing of it*, nor do 
 I think it right to tempt God by going to see it. I have not faith 
 to go in the name of the Lord Jesus, and to command the Devil 
 to depart." Really, any one would suppose that he were 
 reading the ignorant ebullition of some dark monk in the 
 middle ages, rather than the sentiments of an educated Pro- 
 testant of the nineteenth ceiitury. What is this but a revival 
 of the same spirit that called forth a papal anathema against 
 the "starry" Galileo? "What, but an imitation of the same 
 objections which pronounced the doctrine of Antipodes as 
 incompatible with the faith, and maintained that the theory 
 of Columbus threw discredit on the Bible ? Verily the Uni- 
 versity of Salamanca, which opposed the dogged resistance of 
 theological objections to the obscure Genoese, and the Inqui- 
 sition at Rome, that condemned the philosopher of Pisa, might 
 claim a kindred associate in the minister of St. Jude's ! For, 
 according to Mr. M'Neile, Mesmerism must be " nothing but 
 human fraud for gain sake," or something "beyond the power of 
 unassisted man to accomplish." Is my brother-divine, then, 
 80 intimately versed in all the mighty secrets of Nature ? Has 
 he so thoroughly fathomed her vast and various recesses, 
 
 * In the time of Elizabeth, there was a strong feeling and prejudice 
 against the use of forks. One divine preached against the use of them as 
 " an insult on Providence, not to touch one's meat with one's fingers." Probably 
 the eloquent preacher would not enter a room where a fork was laid for 
 dinner in order to'boast that " he had seen nothing of one." The " Illustrated 
 London News," for May 24. 1845, from which the anecdote is taken, 
 unfortunately does not give the text, on which this sermon was preached. 
 The text for one of the famous sermons against inoculation was Job, ii. 7. : 
 « So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with 
 sore boils." Mr. M'Neile's text against Mesmerism was, 2 Thess. ii. 9, 10. 
 Forty years after the sermon against forks, they were still a novelty. 
 
66 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 that he ventures to pronounce everything that may be contrary 
 to, or beyond^his own knowledge and experience, as the invention 
 of evil spirits, or the contrivance of evil men? Is there 
 nothing new to be discovered ? Are the regions of light and 
 life exhausted and laid bare ? Have we at last reached the 
 ultima Thule of art and science ? "It is not in nature for any 
 one to bear to be so treated," says Mr. M'Neile authoritatively j 
 introducing at the same time and in the midst of the same sentence 
 fhis evasive and contradictory exception, "so far as we have 
 yet learned" And having previously assumed the sinfulness 
 of Mesmerism, and rather regretted that he had not " the faith 
 to bid the Demi to depart," he again goes on, and says " there 
 
 may he some power in nature some secret operation 
 
 some latent power in nature, which is now being discovered 
 
 something like the power of compressed steam .... or like 
 
 electricity." Why, this is the very point in question. This is 
 fhe very subject of the controversy. This is the very fact 
 which the large and increasing body of believers in Mesmerism 
 confidently assert. And " if there may be such a power in 
 nature," why does he prematurely denounce it as diabolical, 
 and the act of Satan, before the truth has been fairly and fully 
 established ? Why not wait, and examine, and patiently and 
 prayerfully study the statements, the experiments, and the 
 results that present themselves, and with a serious thinking 
 spirit revolve the evidence of the whole matter, and say whether 
 perchance it may not be "the gift of God?" (Eccl. iii. 13.) 
 " Be not rash with thy mouth (says the royal preacher), and 
 let not thine heart be hasty to titter any thing before God ; for 
 God is in heaven and thou upon earth ; therefore let thy words 
 be few." (Eccl. v. 2.) Surely it were the part of a wise and 
 sober Christian, who remembereth that "nothing is impossible 
 with God," to weigh a great and curious question like this in a 
 humble posture of mind, and,Tiot rashly to pronounce of his 
 fellow -men, who, for their faith and their attainments in grace, 
 may, for aught he knows, be as acceptable with the Saviour as 
 himself, that they are agents and instruments of the evil one. 
 Washington Irving* tells us, that when Petro Gonzales de 
 
 * Life of Columbus, vol. i. book 2. 
 
CHAEGE OF SATANIC AGENCY. 67 
 
 Mendoza, Archbishop of Toledo and Grand Cardinal of Spain, 
 became first acquainted with the views of Columbus, he feared 
 that they were tainted with heterodoxy, and incompatible with 
 the form of earth described in sacred Scripture.* But we read 
 that " farther explanations had their force," and " he perceived 
 that there could be nothing irreligious in attempting to extend 
 the bounds of human knowledge, and to ascertain the works of 
 creation ; " and the great cardinal therefore gave the obscure 
 navigator a "courteous and attentive hearing." Even Mr. 
 M'Neile, with all his Scriptural attainments, might find a 
 wholesome lesson for instruction in the example of this great 
 Roman Catholic prelate, when listening to the novel theories of 
 the unknown Columbus. For^ with one breath to say, that 
 there may " be such a power in nature," and with another to 
 describe men, who simply make use of that power, as those 
 who deal with " familiar spirits," does appear the most mon- 
 strous instance of inconsistent condemnation we ever met with : 
 it is a begging the whole question with a vengeance ; it is a 
 summary judgment without appeal ; it is a decision affecting 
 papal infallibility. And yet this competent juryman says, " I 
 have seen nothing of it, nor do I think it right to tempt God 
 by going to see it." 
 
 After certain criticising observations, however, as to the 
 scientific character of some Mesmeric proceedings, on which we 
 will speak presently, he refers to the well-known "magnetic ex- 
 periment " of the operation for a cancer in France, which a 
 
 * How sad It is thus to see religious minds shrinking from the exposition 
 of facts, and placing all the stress on a theological interpretation I The 
 same feeling still lives. We must all remember the late explosion on 
 geology by the Dean of York, before the British Association, and the 
 admirable rebuke from Mr. Professor Sedgwick. In the memorial of the 
 Koman Catholic Bishops of Ireland, of May, 1 845, presented to the Lord 
 Lieutenant upon the subject of the Government Bill for Colleges and 
 Education, they professed a willingness to co-operate with the Legislature, 
 provided " certain means for protecting the faith of the students were 
 secured ; " and they state that " pupils could not attend lectures on logic, 
 geology, or anatomy, without exposing their faith or morals to imminent 
 danger, unless a Roman Catholic professor be appointed for each of those 
 chairs." Thus it is that men do not so much seek facU, as conclusions from 
 
 those facts, conclusions, as in Mesmerism, to which they had arrived by 
 
 preconceived notions. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 lady underwent without feeling any pain in its progress, and 
 mentions it as " recorded in a report made by the Committee 
 of the Royal Academy at Paris." And so determined is he to 
 discover the evil spirit at work in the business, that he says — 
 " If this be a falsehood, there is something almost supernatural 
 in the fact, that we have a whole academy joining to tell the 
 public this lie. If it be a truth, if the fact, be so, then here, 
 beyond all question, is something out of the range of nature — 
 out of the present power of man, unless this is a new science." 
 In this age of discoveries and marvels, surely a thinking mind 
 need not deem it so very incredible*, that some large addition 
 to scientific knowledge, or even a " new science," as he calls it, 
 should be brought to light. We have of late seen so many of 
 the wonders of God's providence made manifest to our view — 
 wonders, of whose existence our forefathers had not the shadow 
 of a suspicion, that the Christian, while he contemplates them 
 all with thankfulness and awe, might rather be expected to 
 adopt the apostolic language, and say, " we know but in part," 
 and we "see but through a glass darkly." "Lo!" (said the 
 patient Job, while he was acknowledging the power of God to 
 be infinite and unsearchable) — " lo, these Aie. parts of his ways ; 
 but how little a portion is heard of him ? but the thunder of his 
 power who can understand ? " (xxvi. 14.) But, says Sir. 
 M'Neile, on the contrary, "we know what sleep is, and we 
 know what pain is ! " Does he, indeed, " know " what sleep is ? 
 Is he so accurate a physiologist that he is acquainted with aU 
 its varieties f, its appearances, its modifications and actions, ac- 
 
 * This was written before the recent discovery of the merciful properties 
 of ether. By Mr. M'Neile's logic this must he satanic also, — " something 
 out of the range of nature, or the power of man I " As Miss Martineau 
 observes, " while we have hardly recovered from the surprise of the new 
 lights thrown upon the functions and texture of the human frame by 
 Barvey, Bell, and others, it is too soon to decide that there shall be no 
 more as wonderful, and presumptuous in the extreme to predetermine what 
 ithey shall or shall not be." — Letters, p. 2. 
 
 \ Does Mr. M'Neile, for instance, who ' so well " knows what sleep is," 
 know and understand the nature of somnambulism? Can he explain its 
 Ijeculiarities or its causes? Yet this is sleep under one of its variations; — 
 i)ut how strange, and with what singular diversity of effect 1 Still it is not 
 CO uncommon but that most persons, at some period of their lives, have 
 known an example or two of it amongst their neighbours; and we con- 
 
CHARGE OF SATANIC AGENCY. . 69 
 
 cording to the changes and conditions of the human frame ? 
 Does he too " know " what pain is ? Is he so deeply read in 
 pathology that he is prepared to state unerringly its effect upon 
 the body of man under every possible contingency ? Why, he 
 himself says — "We do not know all the properties of matter 
 certainly, and there mai/ be some occult property in matter which 
 these men have discovered, and which may have the effect, when 
 applied to the human frame, of rendering it insensible to pain." 
 Again, I say, this is the point at issue. Why may there not be 
 such an " occult property in matter," the beneficent " gift of 
 God" for the use of his creature man, without calling up a dia- 
 bolical machinery to explain the difficulty ? In an admonition, 
 that /le gives to the medical profession, he quotes Shakspeare,, 
 and begs respectfully to suggest to them, that there are " more- 
 things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in their philo-- 
 sophy." They might, with a beautiful propriety, fling back upon^, 
 him his own quotation, and request him to apply it to this very 
 question. A Christian minister, however, would rather go to- 
 
 stantly meet with a paragraph in a newspaper, headed " Somnanibidism,'" 
 giving a tale of wonder for the curious. As Mr. Townshend says in his- 
 *' Facts," " there are many who remember to have beard tell of some sleep- 
 walker, who has been known to rise from his bed, and to display in slumber 
 even more than his ordinary activity, balancing himself where the waking 
 eve would sicken. Who does not believe in the existence of such a state ? 
 Doctors have descanted upon it with the precision of medical lore ; metaphy- 
 sicians have examined it as a curious feature of humanity ; and the light and 
 gay, regarding it as a mere matter of amusement, have flocked to see its 
 mimicry in dramatic representation, enhanced by all the charms of music, 
 and the fascinations of genius." — (P. 190.) Now, can Mr. M'Neile explain 
 this state of natural somnambulism? Can he doubt its occasional existence? 
 Has he studied its very singular phenomena ? And if he have studied them, 
 will he deny that they bear a close, nay, the very closest resemblance to the 
 phenomena of Mesmerism, — so much so, that they appear to arise from 
 THE SAME STATE OF THE HUMAN ORGANISM, — with this difference, that the 
 former arises spontaneously, and that the latter is produced artificially by 
 the magnetic process ? 
 
 Tlie reader is referred to that most philosophical, yet strictly practical 
 work, the " Isis Rcvelata" of Mr. Colquhoun. The student, who wishes to 
 investigate this very peculiar state, should also consult the " Trait^ du 
 Somnambulisme et des differentes Modifications qu'il presente," par A. Ber- 
 trand, Docteur de la Faculte de M^decine de Paris ; — a curious work, full 
 of singular and well-authenticated facts. See also the " Instruction Pra- 
 tique " of Deleuze, cap. 5. ; and see also an account of a very striking case 
 in the " Eneyclopa;dia Britannica," art. Steep - Walker. 
 
 p 3. 
 
70 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 the inspired Volume, and say — " Who is this that darkeneth 
 counsel by words without knowledge ? Gird up now thy loins 
 like a man, for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. 
 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ? 
 
 Declare, if thou hast understanding Have the gates 
 
 of death been opened nnto thee ? or hast thou seen the doors 
 of the shadow of death ? Hast thou perceived the breadth of 
 the earth ? Declare if thou knowest it all. Where is the way 
 where light dwelleth? — and as for darkness, where is the 
 ■place thereof? That thou shouldest take it to the bound 
 thereof, and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house 
 thereof?" (Job, xxxviii. 3, &c.) The Almighty Father, 
 whose judgments are unsearchable, and whose ways past 
 finding out, hath hidden from the curious eyes of man the 
 reasons and explanations of many of his gifts, and left ns to 
 _grope ignorantly in the dark upon subjects the most familiar, 
 and which are for ever present around us. But is this outside 
 -and superficial acquaintance with the works of nature* to shut 
 -out from our remembrance the ever-present agency of the hand 
 of God ? To condemn Mesmerism as an abomination of the 
 devil, because little or nothing is yet known respecting it, is a 
 line of argument which, if pressed to its absurd conclusion, 
 would ascribe half the wonders of creation to the care and con- 
 trivance of the spirit of evil. What, for instance, is our life — 
 the bodily life of man ? In what does it consist ? What is its 
 immediate and secondary cause ? What produces it — what 
 terminates it — what gives it vitality and continuance? I 
 believe that the best physiologists are not prepared with any 
 .positive opinion on the matter. Some consider (and with great 
 show of probability) Electricity to be analogous to the principle 
 
 * The eloquent author of the " Vestiges of the Natural History of 
 Creation" says truly, " How does this reflection comport with that timid 
 philosophy which would have us to draw back from the investigation of 
 God's works, lest the knowledge of them should make us undervalue his 
 greatness and forget his paternal love ? Does it not rather appear that our 
 ideas of the Deity can only be worthy of him in the ratio in which we 
 advance in a .knowledge of his works and ways ; and that the acquisition 
 of this knowledge is consequently an available means of our growing in 
 a genuine reverence for Him ? " p. 233. 
 
MESMERISM AND ELECTRICITY, 71 
 
 of life. Some consider Electricity to be the principle of life. 
 We are aware that all nature abounds with electric matter — it 
 is here and everywhere ; perchance, under God, in it we " live 
 and move and have our being." "We hear of Galvanism and 
 and Magnetic-electricity, or Electro-magnetism, and its eflScacy 
 through machines, iipon the human body, in relieving paralysis 
 and rheumatism, and different neuralgic disorders. Why inight 
 not Mesmerism, or Animal-magnetism, as it would appeair to be 
 appropriately called, be Electricity under a different character ? * 
 Its results are often the same, or rather very similar. Why might 
 not the electric fluid of the operator unite itself under various 
 modifications with the electric fluid of the patient, and thus 
 act with a curative influence upon the principle of life within 
 us ? It is Mr. M'Neile himself, who in this' very sermon has 
 referred to Electricity, and to the shock of the Galvanic battery ; 
 and I would, therefore, just remind him, that in the study of 
 
 * la our present imperfect l^nowledge of Mesmerism, and before its facts 
 are generally admitted, it may be premature to adopt a theory: still I cannot 
 help expressing an opinion that electricity, under some modification or otiier, 
 is the immediate agent to which the Mesmeric action must be referred. ' The 
 Germans are so satisfied of this fact, that they have given to Mesmerism 
 the new and appropriate name of " Electro- Physiology." Kant, it is well 
 known, in one of his earlier works, gave it as his opinion, that the causes of 
 common magnetism, of electricity, of galvanism, of heat, &c., were all the 
 product of one common principle, differently modified. To these, of course, 
 might now be added the immediate cause of Mesmerism. And thus we 
 should have one simple and single principle uniting animated and inanimate 
 nature in one common and connected operation, it communi vinculo* There 
 are several fects which show this strong analogy between Electricity and 
 Mesmerism. Here is one: the electric fluid escapes most readily from a 
 point. Dr. Lardncr, in his treatise, introduces several illustrations to prove 
 this fact. He says, " the increase of electrical density, at the angular edge 
 of a conductor produces still more augmented effects at its corners : . . . . 
 this effect is still further increased if any part of a conductor have the form 
 of a point." (Lardner's " Cabinet Cyc." Electricity, p. 329.) Now all 
 mesmerisers have found by experience that the mesmeric medium is most 
 powerfully conducted by the tips of the fingers, analogously to Lardner's 
 illustrations. In regard to the resemblance between animal magnetism and 
 mineral magnetism, I have seen, over and over again, the hand and head of 
 the sleeper following the hand of the mesmeriser, in the same way as the 
 needle follows the loadstone. This subject is treated most ably in the Rev. 
 Chauncy Townshend's admirable work, " Facts in Mesmerism," in the 
 chapter on the Mesmeric medium. See also Colquhoun's " Isis Revelata." 
 See also a clever letter in No. li. p. 169. of " The People's Phrenological 
 Journal," by Mr. F. S. Merryweather. 
 
 F 4 
 
72 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 this very subject there is yet much darkness ; that there is yet 
 much to learn ; that we do not yet know how far its action is 
 connected with the principle of life — and certainly we would 
 defy him to prove that Mesmerism or Animal-magnetism is not 
 an essential portion of the system.* 
 
 And this brings us to Mr. M'Neile's main argument, upon 
 which he appears to plume himself most confidently, for he re- 
 peats it over and over again under various phases : — "I would 
 wish (says he) that the professors of this science should state 
 the laws of nature by the uniform action of which this thing is 
 
 done Let them put forward the elements of the science in 
 
 a scientific manner It belongs to philosophers, who are 
 
 honest men, and who make any discovery of this kind, to state 
 
 the uniform action We hear of these experiments — but 
 
 hear nothing of a scientific statement of the laws Let us 
 
 have the laws of the science I consider that no Christian 
 
 person ought to go near any of these meetings, or hear any of 
 these lectures, until a statement shall be made, grounded on *a 
 scientific assertion of the laws by which this thing is said to 
 act." And so on passim to the end of the sermon. 
 
 Now this argument, perseveringly as it is repeated, may be 
 disposed of very easily. 
 
 First, in regard to his demand, that " the laws of this science 
 be stated " clearly and " in a scientific manner." To this there 
 can be no objection. This is a just and legitimate challenge. 
 Nay, we would say in his own words, " Science is open and 
 above-board to all who will examine it — it courts examination; 
 let us not listen to it, so long as they keep it secret, and hide the 
 nature of it." True, most true. But who keeps it a secret ? 
 Who hides the nature of it ? The believers in Mesmerism are 
 earnestly solicitous that the most open, public, free, and full 
 examination of the subject and its details should be constantly 
 
 * See in 12th cap. of " Magn^tisrae devant la Cour de Rome," a good 
 deal of information collected on the analogy between the two systems, from 
 the experiments and " Etiides Physiques " of M. Charpignon. Baron Von 
 Kelchenbach's important treatise on " a supposed New Imponderable," and 
 the most recent researches of Professor Faraday, relating to electricity and 
 magnetism, introduce us to a new class of facts, and show, as Professor 
 Gregory observes, how " much remains to be discovered " on these subjects. 
 
WHY LAWS OF MESMERISM NOT STATED. 73 
 
 taking place. They invite its enemies and impugners to be 
 present. They call upon the most prejudiced and the most 
 partial to come with their prejudices and partialities, and witness 
 facts. All they require, on the other hand, is an honest and 
 candid conclusion out of an " honest and good heart." But are 
 Mesmerists to be blamed for not stating the laws and principles 
 of this system, when they do not know them themselves ? Does 
 Mr. M'Neile remember, that Mesmerism is yet but in its cradle? 
 That, practically, it has been but little known except within a 
 few short years ? In saying this, we are of course aware, that 
 those who have looked farthest into the question, maintain that 
 for centuries back, the Egyptians *, and, perhaps, the Chinese, 
 have been acquainted with it ; and that, at intervals, it has been 
 always more or less known. To me the great wonder is, that 
 an art within the reach of everybody, should have remained so 
 long a secret : however, the fact is, that publicly and philo- 
 sophically the system has only been recently studied.t At this 
 very moment, numbers of cautious, observant men are noting 
 down facts as they arise, with a view to a safe and surer con- 
 clusion. On the great Baconian system of induction, they are 
 recording the experiments, the variations, the modifications, as 
 they present themselves ; and when these shall be well es- 
 tablished, they will come to the theory. Would Mr. M'Neile 
 have the theory first declared, and the facts collected afterwards 
 to prove it ? This might be convenient, but hardly philosophical. 
 Our opponent must be content to wait patiently a few years, be- 
 fore his demand of having the general laws of the science scien- 
 tifically stated, can be properly complied with. Mesmerism is 
 yet in its infancy. We cannot yet state " how a pass of the 
 
 * In Mr. Warburton's interesting work, " the Crescent and the Cross," 
 it is said, " Magnetism appears to have been well understood by the 
 Egyptian Hierarchy ; not only from some of the effects we find recorded, 
 but in one of the chambers, whose hieroglyphics are devoted to medical 
 subjects, we find a priest in the act of mesmerising. * * * The patient is 
 seated in a chair, while the operator describes the mesmeric passes, and an 
 attendant waits behind to support the head, when it has bowed in the 
 mysterious sleep." 
 
 f Only recently in this country ; but in Germany there have been many 
 admirable and philosophical works published some time , for example, 
 Wienkolt's, who died in 1804. 
 
74 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 thumb *, or a movement of the fingers, acts on human flesh"-— 
 we cannot yet state " how it stops the circulation of the blood 
 so as to resist the strengthfulness of the human frame" — we 
 cannot yet state " how it prevents the delicate touch being felt 
 in the cutaneous veins." But because we cannot yet give a 
 scientific statement of the matter, are we to forbear its use as a 
 remedial agent, or to ascribe these unknown properties to the 
 " devices of the devil ? " In the cognate or analogous science 
 of mineral magnetism, the peculiar cause of union between 
 magnetic pyrites and iron had been for years altogether inex- 
 plicable — and perhaps, with all our knowledge of electricity, is 
 not even yet satisfactorily explained. But was the mariner to 
 deny himself the use of the compass in the stormy and trackless 
 ocean, or to attribute the influence of the loadstone to the con- 
 trivance of Satan, because the " how," and the " why" and the 
 '' wherefore " had not bteen philosophically accounted for ? All 
 he could say was, that the needle was guided by the finger of 
 that Divine Being, whose ways were in the great deep, and 
 whose footsteps are unknown. And all we can say is, that 
 Mesmerism is the good "gift of God" for the use of his creature 
 man, though its immediate and secondary causes are at present 
 inexplicable— ^ the good gift of that merciful and Almighty 
 Father, who is " always, everywhere, and all in all." 
 
 And, secondly, as to his expectation that the laws of this 
 
 science should act " uniformly'' *' It is a part (says he) of 
 
 all nature's laws that they shall act uniformly. . i .If it be in 
 nature, it will operate unifoimly, and not capriciously. If it 
 acts capriciously, then there is some mwcAJecoMS agent at work." 
 Of course in this implied charge of capriciousness, or want of 
 uniformity, he refers to a variation of the sjrmptoms or pheno>^ 
 mena exhibited respectively by different patients. And in 
 consequence of this variation, which must be admitted, his 
 hearers are -taught that the "sin of witchcraft " has ensnared 
 the operators, and that some mocking, juggling fiend has taken 
 possession of the patient. Now in regard to nature's laws, we 
 at once agree that they are fixed, consistent, and unalterable. 
 
 * See the Sermon, p. 1 52. 
 
WHT ITS PHENOMENA' NOT UNIFOEM. 75 
 
 The physical world abhors " capriciousness." "Comets are 
 regular," and nature "plain." It is for this reason that 
 sciences are caUed " exact." To take an instance or two at 
 random, we know that in the process of crystallization, certain 
 bodies invariably assume certain specific forms ; and that in 
 electro-magnetism, the mutual attraction or repulsion of electri- 
 fied substances is directly proportional to the quantity of 
 electricity conjointly in each of them. All these facts fall 
 under the category of general laws. And does Mr. M^Neile 
 imagine that the laws which govern Mesmerism are not equally 
 fixed, consistent, and uniform, though phenomena vary when 
 the accidents differ? Does he imagine that a seeming "capri- 
 ciousness," or eccentricity, is not in reality a sure unalterable 
 result of some unknown or inexpUeable cause? We would lay 
 it down as an unequivocal position, admitting of no exception^ 
 that where the accidents are the same, where the relative 
 circumstances of the operator and the patient are precisely 
 similar, the effects or phenomena would be as certain and 
 regular as in any of those sciences termed exact. But the 
 difiSculty is to find this precise undeviating resemblance- — this 
 absence of all difference, and hence the apparent want o£ 
 uniformity. In so sensitive, delicate, varying a frame as the 
 human body, so subject to "skyey influences" — so affected by 
 diet, clothing, lodging, and climate — so changed by a thousand 
 minor incidents, could the same uniformity of action be ex- 
 pected as in inert matter or mechanical substance ? Is it proba<* 
 He, that a patient, wasted by years of depletion and violent 
 medicines, and with whom blisterings, and cuppings, and 
 leechings had gone their round, would exhibit the same symp- 
 toms as some robust and hearty sportsman, whose constitution 
 lad been tried by nothing of the same order ? Would not a 
 diet of port wine or porter produce a very different habit of 
 body from that created by blue pill and Abernethy's biscuits? 
 We are taking certain extreme and opposite conditions ; but 
 when we reflect that the circumstances of constitution, of 
 custom, of food, of disease, admit of as many varieties as the 
 human face divine ; that these varieties form the habit of body ; 
 and that it is upon our bodies so modified, that Mesmerism acts, 
 
76 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 common sense must see that perfect uniformity of result is 
 hardly probable.* For instancCj with one party, the mesmeric 
 sleep is obtained at the first sitting; with another, not for 
 several days or weeks. One patient recognises the hand of the 
 operator, and cannot endure the touch even of a relative ; with 
 another, to be touched by either is a thing indifferent. One 
 only hears the voice of the operator ; another, without pre- 
 ference, answers any speaker. Nay, with the same patient the 
 symptoms vary at various sittings.| Still, in spite of all this, 
 we say, that in main essential points, the resemblance or 
 uniformity is very remarkable ; that the properties, as thus 
 developed, have an evident affinity ; but if Mesmerisers are not 
 able to lay down broad general rules, predictive of positive 
 results, the fault is to be found in our imperfect acquaintance 
 with a new study, in the difficulty of the science and the 
 delicacy of the human frame, which is its subject. But is there 
 any thing strange in this? Surely we might find something 
 very analogous in our favourite illustration from natural philo- 
 sophy. The nature of electricity, for instance, is not so 
 perfectly known, that a law could be laid down by general 
 reasoning, so as to foretel of a certainty the manner in which 
 electrified bodies would act, in any position, in which they 
 might be respectively placed. Do we, therefore, say that there 
 is no uniformity ; or, as Mr. M'Neile might say, that therelis 
 no electricity, or rather, that the whole is determined by the 
 accidental caprices of Satan? No : we answer, that the distance 
 
 * The pages of the " Zoist" confirm this observation. See some remarks 
 in vol. lii. p. 52. by Dr. Elliotson in a " Cure of Hysterical Epilepsy." 
 The Report of tlie French Commissioners, signed by Bailly, Lavoisier, and 
 Franklin, says, " Les malades offrent un tableau tris-varii par les differetUs 
 etats oil ils se trouvent. Quelques-uns sont calmes, tranquilles, et n'eprou- 
 vent rien ; d'autres toussent, erachent, sentent quelque leg^re douleur, une 
 cbaleur locale, ou une chaleur universelle et ont des sueurs ; d'autres sont 
 agites, et tourmentes par des convulsions." (P. 5.) 
 
 •f The effects of Mesmerism, however, are not more various than are the 
 effects of etherization. The Lancet says that the latter " varies considerably 
 in different individuals" (January, 1847, p. 75.); and a lengthened de- 
 scription is there given of the very great difference in the results on different 
 parties. The passage in question should be consulted by those medical men 
 who reject Mesmerism on account of " its want of uniformity in its action ou 
 the patient." 
 
UNWOETHINESS OP ME. M'NEILB's SERMON. 77 
 
 of the positive and negative bodies being known, and no 
 derangement arising from other or accidental causes, their 
 uniformity of action is certain ; ?.but we add, that as philo- 
 sophers could not determine a just theory of all this from the 
 physical principles of electricity, it was necessary to proceed by 
 observation and comparison of phenomena before the law of 
 variation could be fully established. And so it is in Animal- 
 magnetism ; it wiU be by observation, by induction of various 
 and numerous particulars, as exhibited in individuals of various 
 constitutions and habits, that any approach to a consistent theory 
 of action can be established. All this will require much time, 
 and many and tedious experiments ; and my own opinion 
 certainly is, that in the operation of this system on so sensitive 
 a subject as the human frame, it will be almost impossible to 
 lay down specific and positive rules of its efiects, in all cases, 
 and under every modification of temperament. * 
 
 And this, forsooth, is the foundation on which the weighty 
 charge of Satanic agency is attempted to be built! These the 
 reasons on which Christian men are warned against going near 
 Mesmeric meetings, or hearing any Mesmeric lectures! I would 
 not speak with harshness of any language or conduct that 
 appeared to take its rise from motives of piety, however mis- 
 directed ; but where so mischievous a delusion has taken root, 
 both justice and humanity require us to say, that never in the 
 history of the human mind has an idle and miserable bugbear 
 been created from more weak and worthless materials. If there 
 be any thing supernatural in the matter, it is that a man of 
 Mr. M'Neile's acknowledged abilities could have given utter- 
 ance to such puerilities ; and that when they were published, 
 any parties could care to distribute them to their neighbours ; 
 and that when read, any single mind could have been in- 
 fluenced by the perusal. I have felt sometimes ashamed at 
 encountering this solemn trifling with earnest argument — but 
 even since this work has been commenced, I have met with 
 
 * Mr. Townshend says, admirably, " The reader surmises that the new 
 science is not in unity with itself, confounding diversity with discrepancy. 
 While there is much that is different in our facts, there is nothing whatever 
 that is contradictory," — Introductory Epistle, p. 9, 
 
78 MESMEKISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 several additional instances, in whicli a superstitious awe on 
 the subject of Mesmerism, produced exclusively by this sermon, 
 had seized the minds of the unhappy sufferers, and deterred 
 them from employing a remedy peculiarly adapted to relieve 
 them. It seems incredible — yet such were the facts; truth is 
 stranger than fiction; and so I resumed my pen with an increased 
 desire of doing some little good in abating the foUy. I hoped 
 to remind the admirers of Mr. M'Neile, that powerful as he is, 
 his power rather lies in the command of language than in the 
 strength of argument — that he carries more' sail than ballast; 
 and, certainly, that when he scattered around him such words 
 as " witchcraft " and "necromancy," and called down, as it 
 were, a fire from heaven on the heads of benevolent lecturers, 
 the minister of St. Jude's had altogether forgotten " what spirit 
 he was of. " * 
 
 But there are ignorance and bigotry with men of every 
 creed ; and a few heated fanatics are able by their noise and 
 gesticulation to raise the seniblance of a serious resistance, and 
 thus rouse the scruples of a numerous following. We have 
 seen what occurred at Liverpool, with the leader of a section in 
 the Church of England. The Church of Eome can also pre- 
 sent its alarmists ; and thus show, for the hundredth time, how 
 extremes and opponents are constantly uniting. 
 
 As the Heads of the Romish Church have acted with much 
 prudence and reserve respecting Mesmerism, and as much miS' 
 apprehension stUl exists in the minds of many Roman Catholics 
 as to what their duty may forbid or permit, the real history of 
 what has occurred shall be briefly unfolded. 
 
 * Mr. Close of Cheltenham, who is a rival authority with Mr. M'Neile 
 in thf same theological school, and whose words, therefore, will obtain a 
 hearing from the admirers and auditors of the other, says in his Lecture on 
 Miracles, " he was certain that there was no interference of the evil spirit in 
 Mesmerism. Satan had nothing more to do with Mesmerism, than he had to 
 do with us in every thing else. Never would he grant this vantage ground 
 to the prince of darkness, or suppose that he had exercised mesmeric power. 
 True, we could not explain the phenomena ; but therefore to conclude that 
 they are diabolical, appeared to him the most inconclusive argument," &c. 
 — Lecture, p. 25. 
 
 This language is very straightforward and manly on the part of Mr. Close, 
 and, we hope, will obtain the attention that his character deserves. 
 
MESMERISM AND THE COURT OP ROME. 79 
 
 Mesmerism, it is -well known, has taken extensive hold in 
 diflferent parts of the Continent. At first, it only occasioned 
 disputes between the faculty and the believer, as to the truth of 
 certain phenomena; but when those points were, in great 
 measure, determined, the religious consideration, as usual, 
 stepped in. In different places, one or two over-anxious mem- 
 bers of the hierarchy addressed a petition to the Court of Rome 
 to learn what their conduct should be, in the direction of soulsj 
 in reference to magnetism. It would appear that one of those 
 applications emanated from Belgium, imd another from Pied- 
 mont ; though this is uncertain : but that which is certain is, 
 that the answers from the General Congregation of the Roman 
 Inquisition were cautious documents, carefully eschewing an 
 opinion as to the nature of a remedy, on which their Emi- 
 nences, the Referees, knew little or nothing, — dealing princi- 
 pally with hypothetical conditions, and stating expressly in one, 
 that the "simple act of employing physical means, provided 
 that there was nothing wrong in the intention or in the manner, 
 and that no evil spirit, &c. were called in with its influence, — 
 was not morally prohibited^ 
 
 Either these two answers were not generally known, — or, if 
 known, were not deemed satisfactory, for in the course of a few 
 months a third application followed, and as the answer to that 
 application is supposed to settle the question definitively, as far 
 as Roman Catholics are concerned, it is desirable, for their 
 satisfaction, to explain the real meaning of the letter. 
 
 It appears, then, that in Switzerland a young ecclesiastic 
 raises the cry of "magic," or "satanic agency," in consequence 
 of certain mesmeric benefits that had occurred in his neighbour- 
 hood. He communicates his feelings to his diocesan, the Bishop 
 of Lausanne and Geneva, desiring to learn whether a confessor 
 or curate might safely permit his penitents and parishioners to 
 exercise the art as supplementary to medicine. The Bishop, 
 instructed by the cure as to all the marvellous details, directs 
 his Chancellor, M. Xavier Fontana, to apply to the Sacred Pe- 
 nitentiary at Rome for information. A long missive, therefore, 
 is sent forth from the Episcopal palace at Fribourg, on the 19th 
 of May, 1841, in relation to this " new witchcraft," as the Tablet 
 
80 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 terms it. This epistle contains a lengthened enumeration of 
 mesmeric effects. And the Bishop, having given it as his 
 opinion, that he " saw valid reasons for doubting, whether such 
 effects, the cause of which is shown to be so little proportioned 
 to them, could be simply natural," * — prays to know whether, 
 " assuming the truth of his statement," he might permit animal 
 magnetism thus characterised (iUis caracteribus aliisque si- 
 milibus prseditam) to be practised in his diocese ? 
 
 Among the facts, on which the Bishop grounds his argument 
 that the agency seemed supernatural, was the insensibility to 
 pain in the patients, their sleep being so deep that " a violent 
 application of fire or the knife was unable to arouse them." 
 This also is a Liverpool argument : " w:ho has power over the 
 flesh of man's body, to place it in such a condition as that the 
 ordinary applications which cause pain, produce no pain ? " 
 (Sermon, p. 149.) Mr. M'Neile and his coadjutor, the Catholic 
 Bishop, must now direct their attention to the diablerie of 
 Etherization : but this is by the way. 
 
 The Sacred Penitentiary, assuming Mesmerism to be what the 
 Bishop describes it {"thus characterised"), retur?is the fol- 
 lowing cautious and brief reply through his Eminence, the 
 Cardinal Castraeane : — 
 
 " The Sacred Penitentiary, having maturely weighed the 
 above statement, considers that the answer should be as it now 
 answers : 
 
 " The use of Magnetism, as set forth in the case (prout in casu 
 exponitur), is not permissible.f 
 
 "Given at Rome, 1st of July, 1841." 
 
 Nothing could be more temperate and guarded than this 
 response. No violence of language, no ignorant vituperation, 
 no pandering to vicious prejudices. The decision amounts 
 simply to this. " We know nothing more of Mesmerism than 
 such as you describe it, and we come to no general conclusion 
 
 *J";Validas cernens rationes dubitandi an simpUciter naturales sint tales 
 e£Pectus, quorum occasionalis causa tarn parum cum eis proportionata demon- 
 stratur." 
 
 t " Sacra Poenitentiaria mature perpensis expositis respondendum censet 
 prout respendet : usum magnetismi, prout in casu exponitur, non licere." 
 
MESMEEISM AND THE COURT OE ROME. 81 
 
 on its merits. But if it be, what your exposition represents it, 
 i. e., if the apparent cause be not proportioned to the effect, and 
 that something out of nature be at work in the action, — why, 
 then, in that case, the nse of the remedy, ' so characterized,' is 
 not permissible." In other words, if Mesmerism be Satanic and 
 preternatural, it is a treatment which every Catholic Christian 
 is forbidden to employ: — if it be simply a newly-discovered 
 action in nature, the court offers no opinion whatever as to its 
 use. 
 
 The Roman Catholic reader, therefore, who may have been 
 misled by certain statements in the Tablet newspaper *, and 
 elsewhere fv in reference to this decision from Eoine, may per- 
 ceive on examination that the general question of Mesmerism 
 is still left open, and that the Holy See has only pronounced 
 hypotheticaUy, and as to a particular case. 
 
 But there is much more for the guidance of the obedient 
 Catholic, than the negative evidence which the above corre- 
 spondence offers. In July, 1842, the Archbishop of Eheims 
 also consulted the Holy See, forwarding several explanatory 
 
 * About the time that Miss Majtineau was publishing her " Letters on 
 Mesmerism," the " Tablet " newspaper came otit with two articles on the 
 subject, the one contradicting and upsetting the other. Gn December 14* 
 1844, the " Tablet" hastily said that " so much of Mesmerism as is not 
 positive deceit or the work of an excited imagination, is really and truly oi 
 a diabolical nature." " No person, who was not mad, would have anV 
 connexion with it." * * * " But this is not all; the Archbishop of Lausanne 
 applied to Rome for information whether Mesmerisni was allowable ujider 
 any circumstances, and received for answer, a most emphatid negative. " As' 
 this was rather a strong way of interpreting the circumspect reply of the 
 Grand Penitentiary (prout exponitur), on the following week, the editor 
 showed himself better informed. " That there is any thing diabolic in 
 Mesmerism, that we know what it is, or what it is not, we are very far from 
 affirming." * * "We do not positively say that this Mesmerism is an 
 unholy act; we do not say that this response of the Sacred Penitentiary as 
 actuallv binding in England; we are not competent to speak on these 
 points," &c. In fact, the retractation in the number for December 21. is as 
 complete as could be fairly expected after the startling assertion of the week 
 before ■ and the " emphatic negative " of Rome dwindles down to a re^ 
 commendation from the editor to consult a spiritual director before the 
 remedy be adopted. _ _ ' 
 
 t Mfes Martineau has unintentionally added to the misconception, for 
 she says, " the Pope has issued an edict against the study and practice of 
 Mesmerism in his dominions," p. 59. It will be seen that the Pope has 
 done nothing of the kind. T 
 
 <J 
 
82 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 documents, and desiring. to know whether, without reference to 
 any abuses with which it might be charged, the use of the 
 system itself was a thing permissible ? 
 
 No official judgment was returned to the Archbishop : but 
 the Cardinal Castracane answered by letter in 1844, saying that 
 " the general question had not been decided yet, if ever it 
 would be : that an opinion" had only been given as to par- 
 ticular cases (a quelques cas particuliers) : and that a pre- 
 mature decision on the whole bearing of such a subject could 
 only compromise the honour of the Holy See." 
 
 The Archbishop placed this letter in the hands of the Vicar 
 General of the diocese, that those interested in ^e question 
 might know how to proceed. 
 
 Here, then, is a complete refutation of the erroneous opinion 
 entertained by many members of the Church of Rome, that the 
 practice of Mesmerism has been forbidden by the Supreme 
 Pontiff, on account of its satanic character. The Pope has not 
 been guilty of any such absurdity. He has been too wise to fulf 
 minate oracular sentences on a physical question of which he 
 knew but little ; and too charitable to censure his fellow-men 
 for the study of an art, which they exercise in the humble hope 
 of being serviceable to their brethren. All that has occurred 
 comes simply to this: certain questions are raised by young 
 and officious zealots ; and an imperfect representation is for- 
 warded to Eome, and the very point at issue assumed in thp 
 statement. On that statement and those representations a con- 
 ditional judgment is given ; but beyond that, the answers neither 
 advance nor decide. Abuses in this, as in every other science, 
 are naturally forbidden, — ^but the use itself remains free for the 
 conscience of the individual. Satan is to be expelled in any 
 shape that he presents himself; but that Mesmerism is satanie 
 is a point not yet concluded. 
 
 The Catholic, therefore, who feels anxious to introduce the 
 healing powers of Mesmerism within his household, may venture 
 on the practice with an assured conscience. For if such were 
 the wise and benevolent decisions of his Church under the 
 presidency of the late Pope, who can doubt what judgments 
 would be given by his enlightened and admirable successor? 
 
MESMERISM AND CHAKLOTTE ELIZABETH. 83 
 
 for Italy is, indeed, breatliing the air of life and regeneration ; 
 and science, and truth, and freedom are hoping to meet once 
 more, in harmonious strength, on its classic and delightful soil ! * 
 
 But the Bishop of Lausanne and the eloquent preacher at 
 Liverpool are not the only parties who have seen something 
 preternatural in this useful science. A lady has mingled in 
 the melee, and added to the confusion. The late Mrs. Tonna, 
 better known under the appellation of " Charlotte Elizabeth," 
 the authoress of some religious works, and the editress of the 
 " Christian Lady's Magazine," stepped forth as an opponent in 
 1845, and addressed a letter to Miss Martineau. Several 
 papers, also, on the topic have appeared from her hand in the 
 Magazine. And her opinions have, unfortunately, carried 
 considerable weight with a numerous section in the religious 
 world, especially with her own timid and excitable sex. • 
 
 This letter has been so completely answered, in a cheap 
 pamphlet, by a gentleman resident at Brighton, that it is scarcely 
 needful to analyse its contents.']" It is assertion and assump- 
 tion from beginning to end, without a pretence at an argument 
 or a proof. She says, in the first page, that " her business" is 
 not " with the medicinal effects," but " with the supernatural 
 manifestations." And she adds, that she caEs them " super- 
 natural," because " the effects produced are beyond the scope of 
 any existing agencies in nature, unless operated upon by some 
 power altogether superhuman." For this assertion she offers 
 not the remotest reason : she gives no evidence why such 
 " agencies " cannot exist in nature — all this is taken for 
 granted ; and having thus settled the very point at issue to her 
 heart's satisfaction, she uses this assumption as a convenient 
 peg,' whereon she may hang up the remainder of her observ- 
 ations. 
 
 * Most of the above facts are derived from a recent wort, " Le Magne- 
 tisme devant la Cour de Rome," &c., by L'Abb^ J. B. L. Copious 
 information on other mesmeric points is also to be found in the book. As 
 the French works on this subject contain too often a substratum of irreligion, 
 it is pleasant to be able to recommend this volume for its piety and right 
 feeling. 
 
 •f " Mesmerism, — A Reply to a Letter addressed by Charlotte Elizabeth." 
 (Sampson Low.) 
 
 G 2 
 
84 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS, 
 
 There is, however, such a strange and self-refuting incon- 
 sistency in the following passage, that it merits consideration : 
 " / am ready to admit, that so far as the simple phenomenon is 
 concerned, of alleviating bodUy pain, and of so lulling into 
 ^,repose the nervous system as to induce a torpid state, there may 
 be nothing supernatural ; influences not yet fully discovered by 
 the investigations of philgsophy may exist, and be communicable 
 from one individual to another, operating perhaps by elec- 
 tricity, to an extent hitherto unsuspected. The marvellous 
 conformation, the surprising power, acting by deliberate 
 -volition, in the electric eel, confirm this theory ; but I beseech 
 you to mark the limit of my admission, — it is strictly confined 
 within the boundaries of physical and mental operation." (p. 8.) 
 And why this admission? And why stop here, and go thus ikr, 
 and no farther "i It is a merely arbitrary line, drawn by her own 
 will and fancy, wiihovt rule or reason. 
 
 What ground has she for terming one phenomenon " simple " 
 and not another? What does she know more about the one than' 
 about the remainder? If the writer " admits that influences 
 not yet fully discovered by philosophy may exist, and be com- 
 municable from one individual to another," it is no more than 
 what the staunchest Mesmerist advances. Her admissions, she 
 says, are "confined within the boundaries of physical and 
 mental operation." Good : — but Mrs. Tonna forgets to tell us 
 what those boundaries are ; she forgets that this is the point 
 •under discussion ; she forgets that the " simple phenomenon of 
 lulling pain " was regarded as supernatural and beyond the 
 boundary but a year or two back ; and she forgets that " the 
 unsuspected influences " of which she here speaks may also be, 
 in the most natural way, the causes of those " superhuman and 
 diabolical " manifestations which frighten her readers now. No 
 boundary line can be drawn by her on the subject. For, to 
 apply her own language, the whole action of Mesmerism is, at 
 present, " utterly inexplicable," one part as much as another. 
 
 Phrenology tells us truly, that it would be a waste of time to 
 attempt to reason with a brain that could be influenced by the 
 unproved and unsupported assertions of this letter. The hapless 
 man or woman must be so organized as to suffer from a cerebral 
 
" MESMERISM TESTED BY THE WORD OF GOD." 85 
 
 disqualification for apprehending an argument. Facts alone 
 could produce an impression : and with a fact, and that a very 
 curious one, shall the asseverations of Charlotte Elizabeth be 
 now met. 
 
 Lord Mahon, in his agreeable History of England, mentions 
 in a note, that " a project to connect Madrid and Lisbon by 
 water-carriage had been formed under Charles the Second ; but 
 the council of Castile, after full deliberation, answered, that if 
 God had chosen to make these rivers navigable, he could have 
 done so, without the aid of man, and that therefore such a 
 project would be a daring violation of the Divine decrees, and 
 an impious attempt to improve the works of Providence." In 
 the opinion, therefore, of the Castilian council, to make an uut 
 navigable river navigable was to pass the " boundaries " of a 
 becoming " physical operation." Change the date aiid the 
 scene, and the people and the subject; and what is mesmeric 
 treatment to similar minds but an "impious attempt to improve 
 the works of Providence," — not a pious and humble accept- 
 ance of a merciful gift ! * 
 
 Of a somewhat diffetent character to this last " letter " is a 
 small pamphlet called " Mesmerism, examined and tested by 
 the Word of Grod." This-tsact is published at Sidmouth, has 
 circulated f largely in the South-west of England, and is sup-. 
 posed to be written by one of the Plymouth brethren. Its reli- 
 gious effect in some parts of Devonshire is stated to be con-^ 
 siderable. 
 
 In regard to its tone and spirit, there is not much to condemn ; 
 and it also possesses a better claim to be considered argumenta^ 
 tive, than all the other productions which have appeared on that 
 side of the question; still, on a close inspection, it follows the 
 fate of its predecessors, and its more formidable objections fade 
 away into nothing. 
 
 It takes Mesmerism as it is described by some eager, ill- 
 
 * Vol. i. p. 466. Lord Mahon refers for this fact to " Letters " by Kev.. 
 E. Clarke, 1763, p. 284. 
 
 f It has reached to a fonrth edition. This at least shows that the 
 belie-vers in Mesmerism must be numerous in that district. 
 
 G 3 
 
86 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 judging enthusiasts, raises up an imaginary and unscriptural 
 monster, and then demolishes by a copious collection of texts 
 this creation of its own brain, or of the brain of some wild and 
 unrecognised advocates. 
 
 For instance, its main and longest argument is taken to prove 
 that- Mesmerism does not bring man to a knowledge of God, 
 nor restore him to that image of his Maker, which he had lost 
 by sin, as it would appear, that some ardent " practitioners " 
 pretend that it does. 
 
 In answer to this, I would first say, that " the high standing 
 here assumed, and the exalted place thus given to Mesmerism" 
 (p. 4.) is a position that I have never yet heard advanced, nor 
 remember to have seen put forth in any mesmeric publication 
 whatsoever. The doctrine is a chimera, and one not generally, 
 if at all entertained. 
 
 Secondly, the passage which is quoted in proof (p. 4.) does 
 not, to my apprehension, assert the above doctrine very clearly. 
 " God in his goodness has given man Mesmerism, to help him 
 the better to discern himself (God)." At the best, this sentence 
 is very vaguely expressed : and, perhaps, is not intended to 
 mean more than that the Almighty Being has purposed by 
 this gift, in common with his other gifts, to bring man to a 
 fuller knowledge of his goodness and love. But if it do go the 
 length of upholding an anti-scriptural knowledge of the great 
 Creator, who is the writer ? "Where is the context ? Is the 
 writer or lecturer a fair saniple of the mesmeric public, that 
 such serious importance should attach itself to his notions, and 
 that a page or two of arguments and quotations from Scripture 
 should be drawn together to refute them ? 
 
 That some Mesmerists believe in the doctrine of man's ad- 
 vancing perfectibility, and that Mesmerism is considered one of 
 the signs of its approach, is probable ; but this it shares in 
 common with the other marvellous discoveries of the day. 
 Steam, railways, etherisation, electric telegraphs, and other 
 modern wonders in nature and art are all named by a particular 
 school as evidences of progression on the part of man towards 
 some Utopian existence of complete knowledge and power ; bvit 
 who rejects the assistance and application of those other gifts 
 to the purposes of life, from disbelief in the day-dreams of a 
 
"mesmerism tested by the woed of god." 87 
 
 handful of visionaries ? And why is Mesmerism to be repro- 
 bated any more than those other discoveries on account of the 
 idle fancies of a few imaginative "practitioners ? " 
 
 If, then, it be said, as this writer assumes, that any number 
 of Mesmerists entertain the opinion that their science is capable 
 of superseding the " one only way," whereby a guilty world may 
 be brought to a « knowledge " of the great God and Father of 
 all (p. 5.), it can only be stated in reply, that the thing is not 
 true, that such an opinion is not generally held, and that a long 
 array of texts to controvert it, is a fighting with an unreal ideal 
 enemy, and an uncandid attempt to load Mesmerism with an 
 obloquy that ought not to belong to it. 
 
 The more serious charge, therefore, of this pamphlet, that 
 the science is " directly contrary to the Word of God" (p. 1.), 
 falls to the ground : the science has not been elevated on the 
 unchristian pinnacle which this writer imagines. 
 
 Of a similar character is the charge, that it must be by 
 " some superior intelligence," i. e, supernatural and diabolical, 
 that the "mesmerised person becomes so gifted in his sleep, 
 that with precision and promptness he answ6rs learned and,' 
 scientific questions : " that " untaught persons in the trance ex- 
 plain the causes of earthquakes and volcanoes — say what elec- 
 tricity is, and its efiects on the sun and planets," travel in 
 thought " many billions of miles to the stars Sirius, and Alde- 
 baran," and state " with confidence what God did in this globe 
 many thousands of years ago." (pp. 1, 2. and 11.) 
 
 Is this a fair description of Mesmerism ? Supposing that 
 a narrative were to be published of the improvement and efiects 
 of modem gunnery, could Captain Warner's " Long Eange " 
 be correctly set forth as a leading instance of what has been 
 accomplished ? Could the historian build up his tale of artillery 
 achievements from the promised result of that invention ? And 
 so in Mesmerism ; that certain patients led on by a growing 
 love of creating wonder have, in their excited state, pretended 
 to "dream mighty dreams, and see marvellous visions," is 
 perfectly true, and much to be lamented : but are their non- 
 sense, or impostures, or hysteric credulity just specimens of the 
 efiects of magnetic influence ? 
 
 a 4 
 
88 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 Would the writer of this Pamphlet deem the visions of 
 Svvedenbqrg and his "actual observation^ of what was oc- 
 curring in Heaven and Hell " any argument against that pure 
 creed of the Gospel^ which walks "by. faith and not by sight ?" 
 or that the monstrous worship of the bones of dead men 
 militated against a worship " in ^ spirit and in truth " of : the 
 Father of light and love ? 
 
 The real point is, how does Mesmerism appear, as delineated 
 by the best authorities and its sober-minded advocates, — ^not 
 jvhat is its character^ if estimated from some extreme and 
 isolated cases ? . 
 
 That there is, in certain peculiar constitutioas, a very re-^ 
 vsiaxkabli transference of thought from the Mesmeriser to his 
 'patient, (out of which the extravagant pretensions, narrated 
 above, have taken their birth,) is true, and is also one of the 
 most striking things in the science. But there is a limit to 
 this action. That which is in the mind of the Mesmeriser, or 
 may be latent in his brain, is communicated by some connecting 
 and sympathetic medium, most probably of an electric cha- 
 racter*, to the mind, of the sleeper, and developes itself by out-: 
 ward manifestations, more or less perfect. Sometimes thi^ 
 commjunicated knowledge mingles with some older information 
 that is lying dormg^nt in the mesmerized brain, and Jirings out 
 a result that partakes still more of the seemingly miraculous, 
 
 * In expressing my belief in the electric theory, or in that of some 
 cognate " imponderable," I am aware that I am somewhat contradicting i 
 previous observation as to the imprudence of a premature hypothesis. But 
 Dr. Jenner says truly in one of his letters, " If there werp no theorists in 
 the world, how slow would be the advance of science ! * * » Such is the 
 nature of the animal economy, that there are a thousand processes going 
 &)fmatA, which can never be stared full in the face ; but there is no harm in 
 a plausible guess." Baron's life of Jenner, vol. ii. p. 369. The most 
 learned Bishop of St. David's says kindly, when speaking of the earliest 
 philosophers, in language that may apply to mesmerising theorists ; " It is 
 scarcely possible to refrain from smiling at the boldness with which these 
 first adventurers in the field of speculation, unconscious of the scantiness of 
 their resources, or of the difficulty of the enterprise, rushed at once to the 
 solution of the highest problems of philosophy. But, to temper any 
 disdainful feeling, which their temerity may excite, it should he remembered 
 that without the spirit which prompted this hardihood, philosophy/ would pro- 
 hably never have risen from its cradled* — Thirlwall's History of Greece, vol. ii. 
 p. 133. 
 
" MESMERISM TESTED BY THE WOBD OE" GOD." 89 
 
 Still nature is at work, and nothing more. Not rarely too, the 
 wonder-loving somnambule superadds , certain marvellous 
 creations of his own to the former reflected images, and thus 
 exhibits in the end a sad mixture of falsehood and reality. 
 But there is a line to be drawn, to which the actual power 
 extends, though that line is established with difficulty: — but 
 it is confined, in my judgment, to the active or latent know- 
 ledge, that is possessed by the Mesmeriser, or the patient, or 
 some parties present or in connexion. All this is wonderful 
 enough, and proves the strange influence of the mesmeric fluid 
 "on the chambers of the brain;" but there is a wide difference 
 between the possession of this rare and circumscribed actioji and 
 "an intuitive discernment " about volcanoes and earthquakes, 
 and as to what is now taking place " in Jupiter and the sun." * 
 But, argues our opponent next, " Now let us suppose, that by 
 some sudden transition, an ignorant man is thrown into a 
 position, where he instantly becomes learned : he is ever after- 
 wards leavTied. This must be so : it would be absurd to 
 conclude otherwise. We may as well assert that nature has a, 
 retrograde tendency, &c. But this is not the case with those 
 who have undergone the mesmeric influence : all their wonderful 
 knowledge departs with all their wonderful sleep ; therefore/ 
 the learning cannot be the unlettered individual's own ac-~ 
 quired learning," but the whisperings of some " superior in- 
 telligence " (p. 3.). The argument is, that because the know- 
 ledge exhibited by the sleeper in his sleep is forgotten by him 
 when he wakes up, the knowledge so conveyed is not " accord- 
 ing to nature," and " cannot be supported by sound philosophy," 
 but must be communicated by some extra-natural agent, ^-or,. 
 in other words, by an evil spirit. " When the sleep is over, he 
 ifl precisely the same man as before." What he once knows, 
 " he never loses." Now it so happens that our friend is wrong 
 as to the " soundness of his philosophy," and in his knowledge. 
 of nature, setting Mesmerism and Mesmerisers altogether aside. 
 
 * To show that the above is the confined and practical view entertained 
 by Mesmerists in general, respecting this power, it may be as well to add, 
 that it is commonly called " thought-reading," and by the French penetration 
 delapensee. 
 
90 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 Analogy and observation lead to a very opposite opinion. The 
 natural Sleep-walker, who in his trance has been performing 
 some marvellous feats, and frightening or amusing his relatives 
 and friends, knows nothing of all that he has said or done on 
 returning to his waking state. He had passed into a new and 
 different world, and is oblivious of all that had occurred whilst 
 he was there. This is invariable : and so also very constantly 
 under etherisation. Medical men report, that their patients, 
 on restoration from the intoxicating or benumbing effect of 
 ether, have^ often shown themselves utterly unconscious of what 
 had taken place under its influence. Now the mesmeric con- 
 dition is an abnormal one, the same, or very similar to that, 
 into which the natural somnambulist spontaneously falls. And 
 therefore, oblivion or ignorance of what occurs in the magnetic 
 sleep, is precisely a state of things which we should be led to 
 expect from comparing it with its kindred condition, and so 
 far from being a proof of the extraordinary influence of a 
 diabolic spirit, is rather a satisfactory and conclusive argument 
 as to the natural action of the whole proceeding. 
 
 The condition, indeed, oi.double consciousness, as it is termed, 
 with instances of which medical and physiological works abound, 
 is a complete refutation of this writer's argument. Dr. Dyce, 
 of Aberdeen, has detailed a remarkable case in the Edinburgh 
 Philosophical Transactions. Dr. Abercrombie, in one of his 
 admirable works, mentions a similar instance, where a young 
 girl, in a state of somnambulism, " showed astonishing acute- 
 ness;"but was, " when awake, a dull awkward girl, and did 
 not appear to have any recollection of what had passed during 
 her sleep." * Mesmerism had nothing to do in producing these 
 cases. And the author of this pamphlet, if he enter more 
 deeply into the inquiry, will find that his views on this point 
 are based on an error, — for that this cessation of "the per- 
 ceptive or reflective faculties " is strictly " according to 
 nature," and agreeable to " sound philosophy and good common 
 sense." f 
 
 • * Abercrombie " On the Intellectual Powers," p. 296. 
 
 •f Dr. Moore, in his " Power of the Soul over the Body," mentions a Dr. 
 HajcoclE, professor of medicine in Oxford, who would give out a text, and 
 
MESMERISM AKD CHEISTIANITY, 91 
 
 _ The only other argument in the Tract requiring notice, is 
 the assumption of the satanio character of Mesmerism from 
 the perversion of its use (p. 9.). When the writer, shall have 
 specified which of God's gifts are not perverted to evil pur- 
 poses by evil agents of some kind, we will enter on the objection. 
 Our health, our strength, the best faculties of our understanding 
 are often so employed, that " the result is only evil " (p. 10.) : 
 would the writer have us therefore infer, to use his own 
 language, that " it must be evil to practise " or employ them ? 
 (p. 11.) In a certain sense, indeed, Satan may be said to be 
 the " secondary cause " of much that exists in the world, by 
 his permitted use of divinely-created materials to his own 
 malicious ends : and Mesmerism, of course, forms no exception ; 
 for I agree with a writer in the British Magazine, that " whether 
 this power originally be satanic or not, Satan has often learned 
 to turn it against men." * 
 
 The writer of " Mesmerism tested by the Word of God," 
 has not written in an unfair or illiberal spirit ; and with very 
 many of his observations I cordially concur: but he has not 
 shaken me in my firm faith, that this power, against which he 
 contends, is yet "of God:" — and in spite of the earnest and 
 important nature of his arguments, his Pamphlet will be found, 
 on close examination, to be in the words of the poet, — 
 
 " Like a tale of little meaning 
 Though the words are strong."^ 
 
 Another specimen of these "paper bullets of the brain," 
 under the charitable title of " A Dialogue between a Mesmerist 
 and a Christian %, " has also been forwarded to me by some 
 anonymous opponent. 
 
 The writer of this diatribe, "founded on actual conversa- 
 tion" has taken care to have the lion's share of the argument, 
 and to put his adversary at all convenient disadvantage. 
 
 The tirade is founded on the old unproven affirmation, which 
 
 deliver a good sermon on it, in his sleep, but was incapable of such discourse 
 when awake." 
 
 • See a short but sensible Letter on Mesmerism, in « British Magazine " I 
 for September 1844, p. 301. 
 
 t Tennyson, " Lotos Eaters," vol. i. p. 184. 
 
 \ Published by Nisbet and Co., Berner Street. , 
 
92 MESMEEISM AKD ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 is here affirmed over and over again, that " Mesmerism is super- 
 natural because it must be supernatural ; " a short and easy way 
 of disposing of a question. 
 
 - It is penned in such an illogical style, and proceeds so 
 benevolently on the assumption implied in the title-page, that 
 a Mesmerist cannot be a Christian, that an examination of such 
 melancholy bigotry would be an abuse of reason. 
 
 For instance, to apply his own weapons of offence, what 
 would the writer say of a " Dialogue between a Vaccinator aad 
 a Christian ? " — " A Dialogue between a Student of Scripture 
 and a Student of Astronomy?" — "A Dialogue between a 
 Disciple of the Lord Jesus and a Practiser of the Devilish Art 
 of .'Inoculation ? " as if the two things were incompatible. Tet 
 we know what feelings have once existed against these different 
 subjects. 
 
 I have a pamphlet by me, published in 1754, of 195 pages 
 in length, — which speaks of inoculation as a " practice incon- 
 sistent with the duty to the Creator," — as "an audacious 
 attempt to take ourselves out of the hands of the Almighty," 
 —as "an unnatural practice," — "insulting our Maker," — and 
 as "a human invention," — "throwing" the party inoculated 
 "into a State full of presumption and rebellion against God." * 
 
 The language of this ignorant pamphlet against inoculation 
 
 so completely the language of this present writer against 
 Mesmerism (the date of its publication being taken into con- 
 sideration), that, mutatis mutandis, its arguments might be 
 borrowed by our very original opponent for the next edition of 
 his "Dialogue." 
 
 Mr, Bickersteth, the truly admirable and pious Rector of 
 W^atton, has been represented as one of the opponents. In his 
 " Signs of the Times from the East " he. had hastily observed, 
 that he was "compelled to view it as possible that a super- 
 natural, and therefore diabolical, power may be engaged in 
 producing some of the wonders of Mesmerism, and that he 
 would not for any supposed benefit have any thing to do with 
 
 I * " A Vindication of a Sermon, entitled ' Inoculation an Indefensible 
 Practice, &c.' " by the Rector of St. Mildred's, Canterbury. 
 
BICKEESTETH AND CLOSE ON MESMEEISM. 98 
 
 it." In a most honourable and Christian-like letter, however, 
 to the editor of the Zoist *, he " frankly admits that his language 
 was unguarded and improper ;" — that his "words conveyed an 
 idea far from his mind," — and that, he "has seen enough to 
 make him think that though Mesmerism may be fearfully 
 abused, it may yet be one of those powers which God gives for 
 the benefit of the human race." Similar, too, is the language 
 of Mr. Close of Cheltenham in his "Lecture on Miracles," 
 before referred to. When, therefore, the scrupulous Christian 
 perceives two such able and evangelical exponents passing 
 over to the other side, his conscience may surely feel more at 
 ease respecting a remedy, from which he once turned away in 
 superstitious dislike under the teaching of those that ought to 
 have known better. A division of opinion, at least, exists in 
 one influential section of the Church. And if tbe authority o^ 
 Mr. M'NeUe and "Charlotte Elizabeth" are relied upon by 
 one side, the honoured names of Mr. Bickersteth and Mr. 
 Close may be quoted as far more than a counterpoise on the 
 other. 
 
 After all, the whole controversy lies in a nutshell. Omnia 
 immundis immunda: "unto the''pure all things are pure" — as 
 the Apostle teaches ; " but unto them that are defiled and un- 
 believing "is nothing pure :" ■\-^2iadi Mesmerism is Satanic or 
 otherwise, according as we receive it or use it. 
 
 * " Zoist, No. 17. p. 71. t Titus, i. IS. 
 
94' MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 MESMEBIC AGENT INVISIBLE ORATITATION. — ANECDOTE FROM WEST 
 
 INDIES. NEW SYSTEM OF REMEDIES MARVELLOUS. POWER OF CLERGT, 
 
 AND SPIRITUAL TYRANNY. — WITCHCRAFT. — BARK INTRODUCED BY 
 JESUITS. — INOCULATION. — VACCINATION. — BIN OF ARRAIGNING GOD's 
 
 BOUNTIES. WHAT SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE OF EVIL SPIRITS CHARGE 
 
 BROUGHT AGAINST MESMERISERS LINES "ON HEARING MESMERISM 
 
 CALLED IMPIOUS." 
 
 Deplorable as are the rhapsodies which the last chapter ex- 
 amined, there is nothing new in the state of feeling, of which 
 they are but the index. There is a tendency in the human 
 mind to refer every thing that cannot be explained to the in- 
 fluence of Satan ; and though this idea of the supernatural has 
 been refuted over and over again by subsequent discoveries, 
 men still continue haunted with the same restless fears of the 
 mysterious, and suppose the man of science to have signed a con- 
 tract with the spirit of evil. But the one thing in Mesmerism 
 that so especially disturbs the imagination of the timid, and 
 produces so much of painful feeling, is the fact, that the im- 
 mediate agent is invisible. It is this that throws so mystical a 
 character over the subject. Superstition then comes to the aid 
 of ignorance ; for when men cannot perceive all that exists, it 
 is an easy way of solving the difficulty, by assuming that the 
 whole transaction is beyond the boundary of nature. " If I 
 could but see what causes all this," said a fair disciple of 
 M'Neile's one day, " I should be easier.'* " The devil," ob- 
 serves the sermon, " works here unseen." * These reasoners 
 
 * Maxwell, a Scotchman, and the famous predecessor of Mesmer, in his 
 treatise " De Medidna Magnetica," published in 1679 at Frankfort, asks, 
 " how men can refer the best gifts of God to the worst of creaturfts, the devil, 
 because the secret nature of them is not perceived?" " Anne maxima Summi 
 Boni dona, in pessimura creaturarum diabolum, tanquam auctorem referre 
 %quum putatis ? Verum hoc humani errantis ingenii proprium est, ut la- 
 tentis naturee secreta ntm perspecta condemnet." — Preface. This remarkable 
 treatise will be noticed again : it is in the British Museum.]) 
 
GRAVITATION. 95 
 
 require a visible patent fluid to pass before their eyes to clear 
 the practice of its sinfulness. In demanding this, they forget 
 that there are other agents in nature which are outwardly im- 
 perceptible. For in accordance with this argument the evil 
 spirit must be at work in the air we breathe, and in the wind 
 by which our navies are wafted, for it is only through their 
 effects that we discern them; — and the Christian passenger 
 should refuse to embark on any vessel but a steam-ship ; and 
 enter a solemn protest to the captain, if he presume to consult 
 his compass as a guide to the destined haven. 
 
 But the power that thus directs one of the extremities of the 
 magnetic needle to the north, is not the only invisible influence 
 in nature. " We may suspect," says an able French writer *, 
 " that there are in the world several subtle fluids, and certain 
 concealed properties, of which we have yet no notion ; and this 
 is the reason why we find many phenomena inexplicable." But 
 I cannot do better than give the words of a friend on this sub- 
 ject, in one of his powerfully written letters : — " How senseless 
 (says he) is the objection of those who demand the explanation 
 of a cause, as though there were one power of any description 
 that ever was or ever can be explained. We register effects, 
 and the course of these effects ; of the nature of a cause we 
 know nothing. Gravitation is perhaps of all powers the most 
 universal and the best understood, but who can explain this ? 
 We see the stone fall to the ground, and smoke rise up aloft, 
 the storm rushes by, and the mountain torrent dashes over the 
 precipice into the gulf below — but of the cause of all these 
 various and apparently opposite effects, we know nothing — but 
 that the power is simple and uniform ; it is attraction, a sym- 
 pathy between bodies, but which is no explanation. We cannot 
 see it, for power is an action beyond the sphere of our per- 
 ceptions ; we know it in the effect of matter on matter, and can 
 trace the course of these effects through all material nature, but 
 nothing more — we observe the conditions under which e^ch 
 effect is made manifest, but beyond which all is mystery ; of the 
 cause we know nothing. It is the same with the phenomena of 
 animal life which we perceive through the action of Mesmerism, 
 • M. Virey, in " L'Art de perfectionner rHomrae." 
 
96 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 the results of which are uniform under similar conditions, but 
 vary with all the changes observable in the living body ; and so 
 far as we are acquainted with these changes, can we calculate 
 upon the result of Mesmeric action ; and it is the same with the 
 effects which follow in the course of every other power by which 
 the living body is influenced ; the laws of action are but the 
 recognised material conditions under which any effects take 
 place, and nothing more. Could we even perceive a medium of 
 communication between acting bodies, as the wire which con- 
 veys electricity, or the air which communicates all the exquisite 
 harmonies of sound to the sensitive nerve, or really witness a 
 Visible tangible fluid passing out from one body into another, 
 the'difficulty and the mystery would be the same ; for a fluid is 
 not a power, nor a medium of communication a cause of the 
 influence which it communicates ; these are but the different 
 chains in the links of material appearances, which for con- 
 venience we call causation ; but which in truth explain nothing; 
 they are but means to an end, the filling up of the links in the 
 chain. Gunpowder explodes by the near approach of flame, — 
 but which the circumstance of the slightest damp will prevent. 
 Now, who can the least explain these phenomena ; or tell us 
 what is light, or heat, or the nature of this repulsive power, — 
 which is the explosion? In all matters on which we are ig- 
 norant, we should suspend our judgment; for experience alone 
 can lead to knowledge, and the wisest of men have ever been 
 the most humble before truth, and the most careful in giving 
 judgment; for their experience has shown the folly of human 
 wisdom in giving judgment without knowledge ; that knowledge 
 which is power : for the ignorance of the indolent is not bUss : 
 ' for though all knowledge,' says Lord Bacon, ' is valuable and 
 connected; the knowledge of man to man is the most important, 
 and ought to be the foundation of every system of education.' 
 Let us then, with pure humility and an earnest spirit, seek to 
 know ours'elves, that we may be wise unto salvation, — praising 
 God for all that he may reveal to us, and not in the pride of 
 intellect, without inquiry, presumptuously reject the light which 
 is from Heaven, and ascribe the ways of God to the agency of 
 Satan." 
 
ANECDOTE EEOM WEST INDIES. 97 
 
 After all, this dread of the mysterious depends altogether 
 upon the accident of our experience. Habit reconciles us to 
 every thing.* What is as a miracle in one century, is a matter 
 of course in another. And if our eyes be but accustomed to a 
 particular result, though the cause may transcend our senses, 
 it never enters into the thoughts of the large majority of men 
 to ask whether the actual agent be unseen or visible. There 
 is a curious story mentioned in that amusing little vrork, 
 " Six Months in the West Indies," which strikingly illustrates 
 this remark. When a steamer was first started at Trinidad, 
 Sir Ealph Woodford took a trip of pleasure in her through 
 some of the Bocas into the main ocean. " When they were in 
 the middle of the passage, a small privateer was seen making 
 all sail for the shore of the island. Her course seemed un- 
 accountable ; but what was their surprise when they observed 
 that, on nearing the coast, she ran herself directly on shore, 
 her crew at the same time leaping out over the sides of the 
 vessel, and scampering up the mountains ! " This was so strange 
 a sight, that, to discover the cause, Sir Ealph went on board of 
 the privateer, and found only one man there with a broken 
 limb, in a posture of supplication. " He was pale as ashes, 
 his teeth chattered, and his hair stood on end, and ' Misericordia, 
 llisericordia,' was his only reply." The explanation at last 
 was, that "they saw a vessel steering without a single sail, 
 directly in the teeth of the wind, current, and tide ; that they 
 knew no ship could move in such a course by human means; 
 that they concluded it to be a supernatural appearance," — " and 
 that when he himself heard Sir Ealph's footsteps, he verily 
 and indeed believed that he was fallen into the hands of the 
 evil spirit." Here, now, was a state of terror, as in Mesmerism, 
 the result of novelty alone. This Spaniard had been accustomed 
 
 * Meric Casaobon, whose " Treatise conoerninf]; Enthusiasm " has been 
 already quoted, says in another work, " On Credulity and Incredulity" 
 " Another great cause of wondering is the power of use and custom, which 
 they, who by the report of others, or by their own experience, have not been 
 acquainted with, must needs ascribe to magic and supernatural causes many 
 things which are merely natural." — p. 14. This was written about two cen- 
 turies back ; strange, that with all our discoveries, we should have yet ad- 
 vanced so little ! 
 
 H 
 
98> MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 all Hs life to steer hia little vessel through the aid of an unsieen 
 magnetic power, and by the invisible action of the wind ; and 
 there was nothing wonderful to him in these ordinary properties 
 of nature; — but when a ship was propelled by the means of 
 human machinery, by paddles, and boilers, and steam that 
 were open to the eye, this unusual spectacle filled the poor 
 sailors with a dread of approaching evil, — they " concluded it 
 to be a supernatural appearance," — while the real, object of 
 mystery remained unheeded in the cabin through the simple 
 effect of daily habit.* 
 
 The turn, however, which the fears of the superstitious so 
 frequently take, is in an uneasiness on the subject of medical 
 treatment, and at the application of some new and unwonted 
 remedy. This fact can be corroborated by writers without 
 number. It is not the disease that so much alarms, as the 
 cure that subdues it. It is hence that the populace takes 
 affright ; on this that preachers preach, and the learned bestow 
 their wisdom. Old Burton, in his well-known work, the 
 " Anatomy of Melancholy," has a whole chapter on the " rejec' 
 Hon of unlawful cures." He gives us a catalogue of writers, 
 who afiirm that cures are perfected by diabolical agency. 
 " Many doubt, saith Nicholas Taurellus, whether the divell can 
 cure such diseases he hath not made, and some flatly deny it, 
 howsoever common experience confirms to our astonishment, 
 that magicians can worke such feats, and that the divell 
 without impediment can penetrate through all parts of our 
 bodies, and cure such maladies by meanes to us unknown.'' 
 " Nothing so familiar," adds Burton, " as to hear of such 
 
 * Sir Joshua Reynolds, in one of his charming " Discourses," says, " It is 
 very natural for those, who are unacquainted with the cause of any thing ex- 
 traordinary, to he astonished at the effect, and to consider it as a kind of 
 magic. * * * The travellers in the East tell us, that when the ignorant in- 
 habitants of those countries are asked concerning the ruins of stately edifices 
 yet remaining amongst them, the melancholy monuments of their former 
 grandeur and long-lost science, they always answer, that they were built by 
 magicians. The untaught mind finds a vast gulph between its own powers; 
 and those works of complicated art, which it is vtterlg unable to fathom, and it 
 supposes that such a void can be passed only by supernatural powers." — 
 Disc. 6., p. 147. How completely this applies to Mesmerism, which the un- 
 taught mind, in its routine practice, finds itself " unable to fathom," and 
 therefore calls it, in one moment, impossible, and, in the next, preternatural ! 
 
NEW SYSTEM OF REMEDIES MAKVELLOUS. 99 
 
 cures:" — "we see the effects only, but not the causes of 
 them :" — " sorcerers are too common, who in every village wiU 
 help almost all infirmities of body." " Many famous cures are 
 daily done in this kind," he adds again, " and the divell is an ex- 
 pert physiHan." And after a little farther discussion of the ques- 
 tion, he decides, that it is " better to die than be so cured." * 
 
 Galen, who has been termed the Prince of physicians, and 
 whose name is as a proverb in the profession, was accused of 
 sorcery by his cotemporaries in reward for his unequalled 
 success. "They turned against him even the credit of his 
 cures, by the charge of having procured them through magical 
 means." ^ Paracelsus, his distinguished successor, was subject 
 to the same imputation. A physician named Sennert, born at 
 Breslaw in 1572, suspected that Paracelsus, had tampered in 
 the black art, and seriously asserts that extraordinary cures 
 can only be performed by a compact with Satan. For he says, 
 that " the devil has a competent knowledge of physic, but as aU 
 his favours and promises are deceitful and destructive to souj 
 and body, no benefit, but much evil was to be expected." He 
 then admonishes physicians rather to acquiesce with resignation 
 in the death of their patients, than preserve them by impious 
 means." J And the part that " enlightened" Europe has acted 
 in regard to witchcraft is only too notorious ; thousands of un- 
 happy wretches have suffered at the stake on this accusation, 
 not always as a punishment for a presumed injury, or to gratify 
 revengeful feelings, but in consequence of cures effected by the 
 simplest herbs and through the aid of nature, after repeated 
 failures of the faculty. 
 
 AU this is melancholy enough ; and a sad answer to those 
 who talk of the dignity of human nature. But bad as it is, 
 something worse remains behind, viz., that the clergy § of aU 
 
 * Burton, " Anatomy Mel.," part ii. p. 220. edit. 1632. 
 
 + " lis toumerent meme centre lui I'eclat de certaines cures, en I'accusant 
 de fe« obtenir par des moyens magiques." — Biographic Univer., art. " Galien." 
 
 ^ " Quanquam vero negari non possit Diabolum rerum medicarum satis 
 
 esse peritum." Sennert, torn. i. p. 234. De Paracelso. — See Moore's 
 
 " History of Small Pox," p. 184. 
 
 § In making this statement, I seek not the worthless distinction of libe- 
 rality at the expence of my wiser and far superior brethren. But there are 
 
 H 2 
 
100 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 persuasions have too generally led the van in these abomihahle 
 persecutions. 
 
 Eeligion has been well termed, by one of our best living 
 writers, "the medicine of the soul ;" — "it is," he says, " the 
 designed and appropriate remedy for the evils of our nature ;"* 
 — but this medicine, unhappily is not only easily polluted by 
 the poison of superstition ; but the dregs of human passion and 
 human vanity too readily and too often mingle with the cup. 
 The object, which the ministers of the gospel have in view, is 
 of so momentous a nature, of an importance so above and 
 beyond every other consideration, that it may seem, to zealous 
 minds, almost to justify the adoption of any means towards its 
 attainment. If the soul be but saved, what matter the process, 
 -says the carnal reasoning" of the sophist. But, happily, we are 
 •forbidden by the highest authority to " do evil that good may 
 tXiome : " and even the salvation of sinners is not to be accom- 
 -plished by unrighteous ways. Still, this golden rule of Scrip- 
 '■ture is too frequently forgotten by the young and by the ardent. 
 Anxious to carry on the great work that is before him, — eager 
 to enlarge the number of his proselytes, our enthusiastic teacher 
 is not always sufficiently careful as to the quality of the argu- 
 ment he adopts in his persuasions. A little "pious fraud" he 
 trusts may be very excusable. Not content with denouncing in 
 words of gravest censure the ungodly and the vicious, — not 
 satisfied with "reasoning on righteousness, and temperance, 
 and judgment to come," he must needs travel a little aside into 
 the region of the doubtful and the imaginative. And if he be 
 a man of talent as well as of energy, he soon perceives the 
 
 points on which a well-known proverb must be brought to memory. Truth, 
 especially gospel truth, ought to be dearer than factitious claims. And when 
 religion is exposed to the scoffs of the unbeliever, through the injudicious 
 advocacy of its own supporters, it is necessary to show that the conduct which 
 dees the mischief is no part of the system, but the reprobated superaddings 
 of a mistaken friend. This is essentially a scientific age ; and the more 
 needful is it to be understood that there is no other hostility between re- 
 ligion and science than what arises out of the grossest ignorance. God's 
 works and words speak but the same language. 
 
 * Archbishop Whately, " Errors of Romanism traced to Human Nature," 
 cap. i. p. 75., a book which every one that feels disposed to cast a stone at 
 his brother-religionist, should read, not once, but once a year. 
 
POWER OF THE CLEEGY. 101 
 
 result. He sees his congregation perplexed, alarmed, and 
 anxious. He finds out that fatal secret, — fatal I mean to the 
 happiness of others, — the pleasure of wielding power. He 
 learns the power of the strong mind over the weak, — of the 
 crafty over the credulous, — of the fanatic leader over the 
 bigoted follower. And this power, once tasted, is far too 
 delicious to be laid down : it must now be maintained at any 
 cost. One preacher promotes it by enforcing jthe most puerile 
 and superstitious ceremonies ; another by confounding things in 
 themselves innocent and indifferent, and only blameable in their 
 excess, with things positively sinful and forbidden in Scripture ; 
 — a third thunders forth his anathemas against the philosophic 
 inquirer, and places on a level the man, who humbly searches 
 into the wonders of Providence with one who is living without 
 God in the world. And the more supple and complying that 
 they find their people, the more exacting and progressive are 
 they in their demands. This then is Priestcraft*, be it exer- 
 cised by what persuasion it may. It is that intolerable spiritual 
 tyranny, that lording it over men's minds and consciences, 
 which has done more injury to the pure evangelical faith, — 
 which has more retarded the course of the everlasting Gospel^ 
 than all the writings of all the deists from Bolingbroke to Vol- 
 taire. It is in fact one of the very evils that have created 
 deism. It belongs not in particular to one body of Christians 
 more than jto another, though the church of Rome has been 
 taxed unjustly with an exclusive attachment to its use. Those, 
 however, who look into the annals of the church, and analyse 
 the springs of human action, will find it a feeling all but 
 universal. Pope and Presbyter, Wesleyan and Baptist, have 
 Jike displayed it. The High Church movement at Oxford, and 
 the Free Church schism at Edinburgh, are equally emanations 
 of the same principle, though the accidents of their two systems 
 may be widely opposite. Our evangelical party have, in their 
 
 * " Under the name prieit," says Hartley Coleridge, " we comprehend all 
 creatures, whether Catholic or Protestant, clerks or laymen, who either 
 pretend to have discovered a bye-way to heaven, or give tickets to free the 
 legal toll-gates, or set up toll gates of their own." — Biographia Borealis, 
 p. 241. 
 
 H 3 
 
102 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 own peculiar way, shown the warmest predilections for this 
 power ; no men have more domineered over the weak and 
 ignorant than have they; — and the ministers of dissenting 
 congregations, in spite of their loud professions to the contrary, 
 have, where the occasion has been offered them, been as little 
 free as any from the same hateful practice. And thus have 
 fhey all succeeded in spoiling the simplicity of the Gospel 
 through "vain deceit after the rudiments of the world, and not 
 after Christ," and rendered its pure and blessed morality of none 
 effect through their additions. But the strangest thing in the 
 matter is the fondness of the people for wearing the yoke. Be 
 the doctrine or discipline what it may, the laity seem always 
 ready to receive the most monstrous statements, and to uphold 
 the pretensions of the most ambitious, if the teachers themselves 
 appear but in earnest. Affection for priestcraft would almost 
 seem an inherent principle in the human heart. Populus vult 
 deeipi : ' or as the Prophet said of old, " the people love to have 
 it so, and the priests bear rule by these means." Moderation 
 never was and never will be popular. Bitterness, bigotry, 
 extreme and extravagant opinions, these are the things that are 
 palatable with the vulgar. And hence it has been that in all 
 ages of Christianity, those who by their education and position 
 ought to have taken the lead in promoting the claims of science, 
 were the very parties that sought a reputation for sanctity by 
 heading the outcry against it : and hence it is, that in the case 
 of Mesmerism, in other towns of England besides that of Liver- 
 pool, some of the clergy have succeeded in tightening the 
 chains with which they have enthralled the weakest members of 
 their flock, by second-hand denunciations on the wickedness of 
 the system, and by mourning over some of the most virtuous 
 practisers of the art as the hopeless victims of satanic cruelty!* 
 
 ■ * This is not asserted from a loose assumption. Those who disbelieve in 
 Mesmerism, and have not given attention to its claims, have no conception 
 of the strong language used on the subject, for the sanction of which appeal 
 is made to the authority of Mr. M'Neile. Not many months since, I was 
 Staying a few days in one of our midland counties, — and on spending an 
 evening with a friend, part of the family remained absent. I afterwards dis- 
 covered that they refused to make their appearance, as a mesmeriser was in 
 the room, and the conversation might turn on the practice. A short time 
 
"WITCHCRAFT. 103 
 
 These things are matter of history ; and it may be a useful, 
 though humbling lesson to bring forward, a few instances in 
 proof. It may encourage a spirit of caution in those who 
 teach ; it may check the leaning towards credulity in those who 
 hear. And without alluding to the well-known examples in the 
 study of astronomy, of geology, and other branches of natural 
 philosophy, I shall confine myself to a few remarkable cases 
 taken from the practice of medicine, as bearing an affinity to 
 the curative power of the mesmerist. 
 
 I begin, therefore, with witchcraft, for the charge of witch* 
 craft, as was before stated, too commonly arose out of the 
 medical success of the offender; and on this point, what a tale 
 of horror has the conduct of the clergy to call up. 
 
 The persecutions for witchcraft did not commence in Europe 
 tUl towards the close of the fifteenth century ; that is, when 
 what are called the dark or middle ages were rapidly passing 
 away. In 1484, at the time of our Eichard the Third, Pope 
 Innocent "VlU.., in hia conclave of cardinals, denounced deatl}, 
 to all who should be con's'ieted of witchcraft. The succeeding 
 popes, Alexander VI., and even Pope Leo X., the polished 'and 
 enlightened Leo, lent their aid in this fearful persecution. About 
 1515, just before Luther commenced his career, 500 witches 
 were executed in, Geneva : 1000 were executed in the Diocese 
 of Como. In Lorraine 900 were burnt. In France the multi- 
 tude of executions is called " incredible." In Germany, after 
 the publication of the Pope's bull, the number of victims stated 
 is so portentous, as to lead to the hope that there must be some 
 xnistake in the calculation ; and we are told that the clergy went 
 about preaching what were called " Witch Sermons," and in- 
 spiring the people with a fanatic ardour in the pursuit* 
 
 previously to this visit, the clergyman of their parish had collected the ino*t 
 obedient members of his congregation together, and, addressing them in 
 awful language, entreated their prayers for some lost brethren and sisters. 
 These lost brethren were some benevolent and Christian people who had been 
 devoting their days and nights to the relief of their suffering neighbours. 
 And this in the 19th century 1 
 
 * I have abridged the above facts and figures from Combe's admirable 
 work on the " Constitution of Man," and rely on his accuracy for their cor- 
 rectness. 
 
 H 4 
 
104 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 In England the executions were frightfully numerous, espe- 
 cially at the period when the Presbyterian and Independent 
 clergy were in the ascendant. During the puritanic supremacy 
 of the famous Long Parliament, 3000 victims suffered. 
 
 But it was in Scotland, after the Reformation, and more es- 
 pecially after the triumphant establishment of the Presbyterian 
 Kirk, that some of the darkest scenes were enacted. The 
 General Assembly passed an act for aU ministers to take 
 note of witches and charms, and over and over again pressed 
 upon parliament a consideration of the subject. In following up 
 the accusations, the clergy exhibited the most rancorous zeal, 
 and were themselves often the parties who practised the worst 
 cruelties. We may rail against Torquemada and his Dominicans, 
 but it may be a question whether the Inquisition of Spain in- 
 flicted more real domestic misery than was endured under the 
 galling bondage of John Knox and his platform. True, there 
 was no auto-da-fe ; but, in its stead, there was a system of es- 
 pionage, of informations and visitations, which carried dismay 
 and unhappiness to every household hearth. In fact, the spiri- 
 tual tyranny of the Kirk of Scotland was often intolerable. 
 Documents show that no habits of private life were left un- 
 touched by its meddling jurisdiction. And those in the present 
 day, who are abetting the recent Free Church measures, should 
 well consider what they are bringing upon themselves ; for 
 there can be little doubt, that the leaders of the secession, in 
 spite of the apparently popular character of their proceedings, 
 are aiming at a return to the old ecclesiastical domination, and 
 to the prostration of the purses and persons of their people, 
 under the iron rule of an ambitious presbytery. 
 
 Some curious books have been lately published which throw 
 a valuable light on the old conduct of the Kirk. I allude to the 
 Miscellanies of the Spalding Club. They ought to be well 
 studied by the present admirers of spiritual discipline. In the 
 first volume, there is a document published, called " Trials for 
 Witchcraft," which contains no less than fifty papers relating to 
 different trials before the kirk sessions for that offence. A se- 
 cond volume is called " Extracts from the Presbytery Book of 
 Strathbogie," in which we may read how the clergy took fearful 
 
WITCHCRAFT. 105 
 
 cognizance of each action of private life, and accused and pun- 
 ished the " suspected " for their magical skill. A few samples 
 may be instructive. There is a trial of poor Helen Fraser, who 
 was convicted before the " presbeterie of Foverne," among other 
 charges, for promising one " Johne Ramsay, who was sick of a 
 consuming disease, to do quhat in hir lay for the recoverie of his 
 health ; " but it was to be kept secret, for the " world was evil, 
 and spake na gude of sic medicines." Janet Ingram had also 
 sent for Helen to cure her. 
 
 There is a narrative of a meeting held at the kirk of Cald- 
 stane, and a poor victim is brought forward, who was accused 
 of calling on George Rychie's mother, and promising to take off 
 Lis sickness. 
 
 Mr. John Ross, the minister at Lumphanon, and the parson 
 of Kincardine, O'Neil, send in documents to the sessions, 
 accusing of witchcraft nine or ten persons. 
 
 At Belhelvie, one Janet Ross is accused of witchcraft, and 
 denies it, but she confesses to prescribing to a patient, sick of 
 fever, an egg with a little aqua-vitse and pepper ; she had used 
 the same for herself in her own disease. 
 
 One George Seifright is summoned before the kirk, and re- 
 buked for consulting about his wife's sickness, and bringing 
 some poor woman to cure her. 
 
 Issobel Malcolme is accused of charming and curing a child's 
 sore eye. 
 
 Isabel Haldone, of Perth, confesses upon accusation to having 
 given drinks to cure bairns. 
 
 Three poor women are executed in 1623 at Perth for doctor- 
 ing ; and the kirk session called up and censured the parties 
 who had sought cures at their hands. 
 
 In short, as the editor says in the preface, these charges were 
 " generally connected with cures wrought or attempted for some 
 severe disease." The ignorant prosecutors could not explain 
 what they saw : it was a paradox to them, how an old woman 
 by the administration of simples could cure diseases, which had 
 resisted the wisdom of the professor ; and so cutting the knot, 
 which they could not untie, they trumped up a charge of sorcery 
 as a salvo and excuse for their own folly. 
 
106 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 "William Perkins, a learned and pious divine of Marton, in 
 Warwickshire, who died in 1602, wrote, amongst a number of 
 other works, a "Discourseof the Damned Art of Witchcraft; "in 
 which he says, that the healing or " good witch is the worser 
 of the two." 
 
 " Of witches there are two sorts," he adds, " the had witch, 
 and the good witch. . . . The good witch is he or she that by con- 
 sent in a league with the devil, doth use his help for doing good 
 only. This cannot hurt, but only- heal and cure. . . . Nowj 
 howsoever both these be evil, yet of the two, the most horrible 
 and detestable monster is the good witch. . . . For in healing 
 him, the good witch hath done him a thousand times more harm 
 than the former. For the one did only hurt the body, but the 
 devil by means of the other, hath laid fast of the soul, and by 
 curing the body, hath killed the spirit." * 
 
 If the learned Mr. Perkins had been living in these days, 
 what powerful " Discourses " he might have put forth against 
 Ether and Mesmerism under a horror of their healing and pain- 
 subduing virtues ! " 
 
 Let us come to another instance. When, in 1649, the Jesuits 
 imported into Europe the Peruvian bark, and for this act and 
 for their philanthropic exertions in Paraguay made atonement 
 to society for much of that conduct which has rendered their 
 name a proverb, the most wonderful effects were produced in 
 Rome by its use. Geoffrey, in his Materia Medica, states, that 
 Cardinal de Lugo and his brethren distributed gratis a great 
 quantity among the "religious," and the poor of the city. 
 Agnes and intermittent fevers were cured as if by enchantment. 
 Geoffroy says that the cures were thought too rapid (trop 
 prompt). And hence, as we learn elsewhere, not only did phy- 
 sicians interfere, but " ecclesiastics prohibited sick persons from 
 using it, alleging that it possessed no virtue but what it derived 
 from a compact made by the Indians with the devil." \ And 
 thus this useful, this invaluable drug was, on its first introduc- 
 tion, treated as Mesmerism is now, and ascribed to the invention 
 of the father of all evil. And of course the spiritual guides of 
 
 * Perkins, W., Fol. vol. iii. p. 637. 
 I See Colquhoun's " Isis Revelata." 
 
INOGULATION. . 107 
 
 those days thought, with ol* Burton, that it was " better for 
 the patient to die," than be cured of his ague hj such a 
 remedy ! 
 
 When, in 1718, inoculation for small-pox was adopted in this 
 country, the greatest uproar was stirred up against it. Not 
 only was the whole medical world opposed to it, but farther, 
 as Moore tells us in his amusing work on Inoculation, "' some 
 zealous churchmen, conceiving that it was repugnant to re- 
 ligion, thought it their duty to interfere. * * * They wrote 
 and preached that Inoculation was a daring attempt to interrupt 
 the infernal decrees of Providence." (p. 237.) Lord Wharncliffe, 
 in his life of Lady Wortley Montagu, says, that the " clergy 
 descanted from their pulpits on its impiety." Oh ! if Mr. Paul 
 and his Penny-Pulpit reporters had but been living in those 
 days, what gems of reasoning and rhetoric might have been 
 preserved to us ! Fortunately a few Folia SybiUina are yet 
 extant. A Mr. Massey preached in 1722 in St. Andrew's 
 Church, Holborn, that " all who infused the variolous ferment 
 were hellish sorcerers, and that inoculation was the diabolical 
 invention of Satan." * And one of the rectors of Canterbury, 
 the Reverend Theodore de la Fayef, perhaps exceeded this in a 
 sermon, preached in 1751, for he denounced with horror inocula- 
 tion as the offspring of atheism, and drew a touching parallel be- 
 tween the virtue of resignation to the Divine will and its practice. 
 Similar roinds see similar obj ects under a similar view. And it is 
 hardly necessary to observe the strong resemblance that exists 
 between the arguments delivered in Holborn and Canterbxuy 
 at the beginning of the last century to the expressidns so 
 recently uttered in the pulpit of St. Jude's at Liverpool. 
 
 But the zeal of Mr. De la Faye was not content with one 
 explosion. In 1753, two years only after his first discourse, 
 he published a second sermon, called, " Inoculation an In- 
 defensible Practice," — in which, if possible, he out-Heroded 
 
 * See a sermon by the Kev. Mr. Massey, against the sinful practice of 
 Inoculation. July 8th, 1722. 
 
 ■f A Discourse against Inoculating ; with a Parallel between the Scripture 
 Notion of Divine Resignation and the Practice of Inoculation. 1751. 
 
108 ^ MESMEEISM A^X> ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 Herod, leaving all former declamations completely in the 
 
 . The effect on the public mind | was so mischievously great, 
 that, to counteract the evil, the sermon was answered by Mr. 
 Bolaine, a surgeon at Canterbury, in a short and judicious 
 "Letter." 
 
 This summoned our hero for a third time into the field ; and 
 in a long Pamphlet, called " A Vindication of the Sermon," 
 (which I have already referred to in the last Chapter,) he 
 ransacked the regions of folly and intolerance in search of 
 arguments to maintain his doctrine. The consideration of this 
 melancholy invective is thus far useful, that it unfolds an in- 
 structive page in the history of the human mind, by the curious 
 parallel it presents between the former horror of inoculation, 
 and, many of the present notions respecting Mesmerism. It is 
 impossible not to smile at the strange coincidence between the 
 respective reasonings. A few instances shall be given. 
 
 Mesmerism, we know, is constantly described as a quackery. 
 Inoculation is here termed " an unsocial quackery," — " an 
 irregular practice, made to promise more than it can perform." 
 (Pamphlet, p. 5.) 
 
 Mesmerism is called immoral. Inoculation is here repre- 
 sented as a " complicated immorality, exposing the soul to more 
 important peril than' what men dread from the disease," (p. 85.); 
 — "a device so immoral," as to be utterly " inconsistent with 
 the duty we owe our fellow creatures." (p. 61.) 
 
 Mesmerism is laughed at as ridiculous. Inoculation is here 
 called " a practice extremely absurd in a physical view," — 
 " irrational" (p. 81.), and directly contrary to the nature of all 
 physical means (192.). 
 
 Those who employ Mesmerism as a remedial agent, are said 
 to exercise unlawful means for the benefit of their health. The 
 
 P * Inoculation an Indefensible Practice, a Sermon preached at the United 
 Parish Churches of St. Mildred's and All Saints, in the City of Canterbury, 
 on the 3d and 24th of June, 1753. Second Edition. 
 
 t Mr. Cradock, in his gossiping « Memoirs," says, " At a very early age I 
 was inoculated. At that time the prejudice ran so strong against such an 
 innovation (^presumption it was called) that my father could scarce in safety 
 venture from his house for fear of the mob." — p. 6. 
 
INOCXJLATIOIT. 109 
 
 sermon calls inoculation " doing evil that good may come," 
 (p. 3.). 
 
 Mesmerism is called satanic. Inoculation is described as' 
 "irreligious" — "a daring presumption against the Almighty," 
 — " an impious machination," " which nature recoils at, reason 
 opposes, and religion condemns," (p. 191.) — " a presumptuous 
 exaltation of oneself into the high dignity of the supreme, all- 
 knowing Creator," (p. 15.). * 
 
 On reading these monstrous paragraphs, and remembering 
 that within a few years after their publication the practice of 
 inoculation became generally prevalent, and prized indeed as a 
 a divine " gift" most conducive to the welfare of man, one feels 
 humiliated and shocked at the grovelling superstition of the 
 Canterbury controversialist. 
 
 And yet our preacher might have been better instructed, had 
 Tie condescended to look beyond the pale of his own miserable 
 prejudices ; for good and pious men had not feared to lift up 
 their voices on the other side, and to attempt to lessen, in some 
 degree, the fanatical follies of their benighted people. Dr. 
 Doddridge, the excellent and learned Doddridge, a short time 
 before his death, took up his pen on the subject. A friend of 
 his early years, the Eev. David Some, a Nonconformist divine 
 of Harborough, had written in 1725 a tract called, " The Case 
 of receiving the Small Pox hy Inoculation im.partially con- 
 sidered, and especially in a Religious View." This pamphlet 
 Dr. Doddridge published in 1750, with a Preface by himself. 
 In this Preface he says, that " the chief objections against the 
 practice were of a religious nature ;" — and that it was to con- 
 fute the mistaken application of Scripture to the remedy that 
 the treatise was written. 
 
 The author mentions the usual objections, such as, that 
 Inoculation "usurps the sacred prerogative of God, who 
 wounds and heals as He pleases" (p. 18.) ; — that there "is a 
 great deal of danger in it" (p. 20.) ; that it "came from the 
 
 * I have given these several quotations at length, from the feeling, that 
 unless they were plainly placed before the eyes, the reader would not believe 
 the lengths to which the anti-inoculation frenzy had reached. And what a 
 lesson they also furnish to the anti-mesmeric crusader I 
 
no MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 Turks," — men "of a different religion" to ourselves (p. 37.); 
 that " some learned divines are of opinion that the practice 
 comes from the devil " (p. 37.) ; and that others consider the 
 assaults of the evil spirit upon Job as an instance of sataniC 
 inoculation! 
 
 These objections Mr. Some answers successively, taking high 
 and religious ground in defence of the practice.* 
 
 When vaccination made its appearance, the same hubbub 
 iarose. Again was the medical profession up in arms ; again 
 did the pulpits resound with denunciations. Some of the 
 clergy discovered vaccination to be antichrist. Moore, in his 
 History of Vaccination, says, that " the opposition to vaccination 
 was much more violent in England than in other countries," 
 (p. 1 15.). He says again, " the imaginations of many females 
 were so much disturbed with tales of horror concerning it, that 
 they could not even listen to any proofs of their falsehood" 
 (p. 122.). The learned author of the "Principles and Practice 
 of Medicine " says, that when vaccination was introduced, " it 
 was said, that it was taking the power out of God's hand ; that 
 God gave us the small-pox, and that it was impious to interrupt 
 it by the cow-pock. When I was a boy, I heard people say that 
 it was an irreligious practice, and that it was taking the power 
 out of God's hand, forgetting that it is merely using that power 
 • which God has given us. Sermotis were preached against it ; 
 and handbills were stuck about the streets. I recollect seeing 
 it stated in a handbill, that a person who was inoculated for the 
 cow-pock had horns growing in consequence of it," (p. 479.). 
 These now are the annals of small-pox : and thus in a few 
 years hence, when Mesmerism shall be firmly established, — 
 and when it will be as much a matter of course for a neuralgic 
 patient to apply to its influence for a cure, as it is now for a 
 mother to have her infant vaccinated, the future historian will 
 relate, among the curiosities of the subject, that two sermons 
 were actually preached one Sunday in Liverpool, denouncing as 
 impious and satanic the practice of so simple, so common, and 
 so natural an act as the exercise of the mesmeric manipulations. 
 
 * This pamphlet is now scarce, I found it in the library of the Norwich 
 Literary Institution, 
 
SIN OF ABEAIGNING GOD's BOUNTIES. Ill 
 
 Truly this satanic agency is a clever actor of all work ! Num- 
 berless are the difficulties that are removed by it. " All the 
 world's a stage ; " and one and the same interpretation " plays 
 in its time many parts." For, 
 
 Satanic agency first comes forward in the character of an old 
 woman, curing the sore eyes of a boy by an infusion of dock- 
 weed. 
 
 Satanic agency next appears in the character of a Jesuit, 
 scowling darkly around, and curing a tertian ague by the Pe- 
 ruvian cinchona. 
 
 Satanic agency again appears in the character of Lady Wort- 
 ley Montagu, importing inoculation from Turkey, and arresting 
 the fearful ravages of small-pox ! 
 
 Satanic agency again appears in the character of Doctor 
 Jenner, convulsing the College of Physicians with his novelties, 
 and saving myriads of infants by the process of vaccination ! 
 
 Satanic agency lastly appears in the character of a modern 
 Mesmerizer, healing, by his soothing power, some of the most 
 distressing diseases, and expelling a whole train of neuralgic 
 pains, which had defied the skill of the faculty ! 
 
 And they, who utter these denunciations, think that they are 
 doing God service ! 
 
 Bather do they throw a serious discredit on religion ; rather 
 do they inflict on it material disservice. They make the infidel 
 and barren spectator laugh, and the judicious and thinking 
 Christian grieve. They overload the Gospel with a weight that 
 does not belong to it. They affect the mind in the same way 
 as the legends and false miracles of the church of Rome, " in 
 leading captive " the silliest of women through a grovelling su- 
 perstition, but disgusting men of sense "by their absurdity, and 
 converting the philosopher into half an infidel. Enjoined to 
 believe all these statements, men end in believing none. * In 
 this respect, then, these pious frauds are a mistake, if we may 
 BO speak. They do not accomplish the object aimed at. They 
 do not increase, but rather lessen, the amount of real Chris- 
 tianity. But they are not merely a mistake, — they are far 
 
 * See the Life &c. of Mr. Blanco White, which strikingly confirms this 
 observation. 
 
112 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 worse,— they are positively immoral and sinful. In asserting 
 this, we are far from singling out Mr. M'Neile as the object of 
 cur remarks. His views are but an indication of opinions that 
 are afloat. He is but one out of many. We rather regret to 
 see a man of his abilities lending the sanction of his name to 
 such absurdities. He is a person of weight in the religious 
 world; and therefore do we appeal to him, and ask, — if, in 
 giving currency to these dogmata, he has well considered his 
 responsibilities as a teacher. To speak of the bounties of 
 Providence as the temptings of the evil one, — to treat a 
 blessing as if it were a curse, — to condemn a benefit before it 
 be examined, — as is the wont of the religious opponents of 
 Mesmerism, — seems to me the conduct of a thoughtless unthank- 
 ful spirit.* " If the Lord would make windows in heaven, 
 might this thing be ? " was the speech of the unbelieving Lord 
 at the promised plenty to Samaria. (2 Kings, vii. 2.) " He 
 doeth these wonders through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils," 
 — ^was the answer of the hardened Jews to the works of oiu: 
 Divine Master ; and what are the marvels of Mesmerism, — but 
 equally the works of God, — equally flowing from the same 
 heavenly fount as the miracles of the blessed Jesus, — the one 
 indeed effected immediately at His word, — the other through 
 those secondary agents of which He is the first and only source. 
 We therefore say, that it is our ddty as Christians to see 
 THE Hand op God in the work, — that it is our duty to recog- 
 nise so good, so merciful, so healing an influence, as a proof of 
 the Almighty's care for his people. To do less than this argues 
 a want of faith, and a lowering and an undervaluing of the Di- 
 vine attributes. Our bodily frame may indeed be fuU of com- 
 plicated and mysterious movements ; but what is that to faith ? 
 a mystery is no mystery to the eye of faith. The Psalmist hath 
 told us, that " we are fearfully and wonderfully made ; " that it 
 is God "who hath fashioned us behind and before," — that it is 
 " God who laid his hand upon us," — and that " in his book all 
 
 * " Such notions are mere emanations of fiilse pride and ignorant pre- 
 judice. He wlio conceives them, little reflects that they, in reality, involve 
 the principle of a contempt for the works and ways of God." — Vestiges of 
 Natural History of Creation, p. 235. 
 
CHARGE AGAINST MESMEEISERS. 113 
 
 our members are written." To say therefore, that " the flesh 
 of man's body cannot be placed in a Mesmeric state, except by 
 supernatural means," is to show a forgetfulness of God. " B6 
 ye sure that the Lord He is God ; it is He that hath made us, 
 and not we ourselves ; " — we are but clay in the hands of the 
 potter. The Divine Creator forms one vessel to honour, and 
 another to dishonour ; — he divides severally to each of us our 
 separate qualities, — to some he gives spiritual gifts,' — to others 
 physical, — to others a union of both : " He will have mercy oa 
 whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth," 
 — but whether they be gifts of grace, or gifts of nature, they 
 all flow from Him, — for " of Him, and through Him, and to 
 Him are all things," and " by Him do all things consist." 
 
 Let not, then, the Christian misunderstand me. In thus 
 opposing the main tenets of these anti-mesmeric pamphlets, do 
 I make void the doctrine of satanic influence ? Do I deny its 
 truth ? Grod forbid ! yea, rather would I establish it. My own 
 painful experience tells me, that in our religious warfare, we 
 wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with the unseen powers 
 and principalities of hell, with spiritual wickedness in high 
 places. Firmly do I believe, with Holy Scripture, that th^ 
 " devil goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may 
 devour." Wherever is seduction or wickedness, there is Satan 
 in the midst of us ; — wherever is falsehood, imposture, and 
 deceit, his kingdom reaches also ; — wherever are unjust and 
 railing accusations against the brethren, — wherever are " lying 
 wonders," and claims to a false and pretended power, his pre- 
 sence may be known ; and my daily prayer is, after the 
 teaching of pur blessed Master, to be delivered not only from 
 evU, — but also from "the Evil One." This is a creed of which 
 all the wisdom of this world will never make me ashamed ; — I 
 am only anxious to place this doctrine on a scriptural and 
 legitimate footing. With the apostolic Heber, I believe that 
 " no slavish fears, no trifling superstition can follow from these 
 views, when regulated ^by reason and by Scripture." And 
 while, with that lamented Bishop, I think that the " notions 
 which God's word has taught us to entertain of evil spirits, are 
 sufficient to discredit the ordinary tales of witchcraft," with 
 
 I 
 
114 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 him also do I believe, that our tempters to sin are " mighty 
 and numerous," and that the name of the great adversary i8 
 "Legion."* 
 
 But if no satisfactory reason can, after all, be advanced in 
 maintenance of this charge of satanic agency, and if that 
 position be abandoned as forlorn, our fanatical opponents shift 
 ■their ground, in the next place, to an uncharitable imputation 
 against the men themselves. The slavery of mind must be 
 secured at any cost ; and so the world is instructed, that the 
 thing itself must be wrong, because the creed of its supporters 
 is dangerous and unsound. The leading Mesmerists, they say, 
 are deists, sceptics, materialists ; and what good fruit, it is 
 demanded, can grow or be gathered from such a stock ? And 
 who are they that thus join in the accusation against the 
 persons and principles of the Mesmeric school ? Many, who in 
 their daily habits of domestic life are visited by practitioners, 
 entertaining and avowing the very same views on religion to 
 which they object. And to be consistent, therefore, they who 
 make the charge should be careful that the rule applied to 
 every other therapeutic novelty and invention in surgery. But 
 granted, that their sweeping denunciation be correct, it were 
 surely a new ordeal, wherewith to test the merits of a medical 
 discovery. For, after all, the real question is, how can such a 
 charge affect the truth of the science itself ? If all geologists 
 were atheists, the fact would still remain, that the imbedment 
 of certain fossils in certain strata does determine the relative 
 succession of the latter, and throw considerable light on the 
 structure of our globe. If all phrenologists were materialists, 
 the fact would still remain, that an habitual train of thought, of 
 feeling, or of conduct does act through the brain on the external 
 conformation of the skull, and furnish a faithful manifestation of 
 the moral character. And so if all Mesmerisers were deists, 
 the fact would still remain, that that Supreme Being, who 
 formed man out of the dust of the earth, and breathed into his 
 soul the breath of life, did impart in his organization a sym- 
 
 * See Heber's Sermon on the Existence and Influence of Evil Spirits ; 
 and a Sermon by Bishop Hurd on James iv. 7. : " Resist the devil, and he 
 will flee from you. " 
 
CHAEGE AGAINST MESMEEISEES. 115 
 
 pathetic susceptibility to magnetic action, and that through 
 this process a curative influence may be evolved of the highest 
 value to suffering humanity. And is it, then, the fact, that this 
 healing, this merciful power- is alone exercised or adopted by 
 the scriptural unbeliever? Shame, then, on Christians who 
 can so neglect it ! Shame, then, on men who can thus arraign 
 the bounties of Providence, and extract from the very gifts of 
 creation the poisoned materials for their own uncharitable 
 assumptions ! But that the disciples of Mesmer belong so 
 exclusively to the school of materialism, if we must not call it 
 a libel, is at least a strange exaggeration of facts. That there 
 may be some among them, is probable ; for in what department 
 of knowledge, where a consciousness of intellectual power leads 
 men on, has not the light of revelation been too often overlooked 
 and forgotten ? "Whether it be, as Bacon says in his Advance- 
 ment of Learning, that " in the entrance of philosophy, when 
 the second causes, which are next unto the senses, do offer 
 themselves to the mind of man, if it dwell and stay there, it 
 may induce some oblivion of the Highest Cause;" whether 
 this be correct, I know not ; but it is a common remark, that 
 they, who by the habitual course of their studies, have been 
 more accustomed than other men to look into the immediate 
 causation of things, have been too generally found amongst the 
 followers of Pyrrho and Epicurus ; — but I have yet to learn, 
 that the observation applies with greater force to the students 
 of Mesmerism than to those of any other science. Many there 
 are amongst them, whom no Christian community need blush 
 to own ; many, who by their faith and practice adorn the doc- 
 trine they profess ; — some, with whom I have walked to the 
 house of God in company ; and all of them with whom I am 
 acquainted, are less deficient in that most excellent gift of 
 charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, than those of 
 their impugners, by whom the wanton cry is raised of in- 
 fidelity and materialism. 
 
 "What, then, is the state of mind with which " wise, prudent, 
 and Christian men should meet the present state of the ques- 
 tion?"* I would not have them, from a disgust at the 
 
 * See M'Neile's sermon towards the close. 
 I 2 
 
116 MESMEMSM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 tendencies of this sermon, join the ranks of the infidel, and 
 laugh to scorn the doctrine of Satanic agency, as the invention of 
 men * — holy Scripture teaches it ; experimental religion con- 
 firms it : but I would have them be cautious not to confound 
 the ways of Providence f with the works of the Evil One ; I 
 would have them remember " how little a part " of God's 
 wonders are yet laid bare to his creatures ; I would have them 
 look into the subject with a devotional spirit, anxious for truth, 
 not rashly condemning that of which they are ignorant, lest 
 haply, in their presumption, " they be found to be fighting 
 against God." :f " Christian men " need not fear to be present 
 at scientific lectures or physiological experiments, if they go in a 
 Christian spirit. Hard words are no argument. Accusations 
 of " morbid curiosity," and " foolish novelties," and " devilish 
 devices," carry no proofs of their truth to the thinking pious 
 believer. If he goes, he goes with prayer — he goes with the 
 Bible, if not in his hand, yet in his heart ; he goes to study the 
 book of God's works by the book of God's word ; he goes with 
 the full reroembrance that " no science can save a soul," no 
 natural knowledge bring us nearer to God. But if, on the 
 other hand, it be sickness or bodily pain that hath entered into 
 the Christian's dwelling, and that his knowledge of the healing 
 properties of Mesmerism should lead him to make experiment 
 of its power, what are the feelings with which he would com- 
 mence a trial of this unknown and unseen remedy ? He would 
 
 * " "Whilst we endeavour to reduce divers ecstacies to natural causes, the 
 ignorance of which causes, we shall show to have been the cause of many 
 evils, we would not be suspected to question the truth and reality of things 
 supernatural, for which having the authority of the Holy Scriptures, no man 
 can deny them, except he first deny the. truth and reality of these as divine." 
 Meric Casaubon, Treatise on Enthusiasm, cap. 3. p. 60. 
 
 •f Since the above was written, I have met with a clever paper, full 'of 
 curious matter, called " Witchcraft and Mesmerism," in the London Poly- 
 technic Magazine, No. 2, by Dr. T. Stone. The facts therein stated are very 
 instructive. 
 
 ± " Science, it is said, fills the soul with uneasiness and curiosity, and re- 
 moves us from God. As if there were any science without him, as if the 
 divine effulgence, reflected in science, had not a serene virtue, a power 
 diffusing tranquillity in the human heart, and imparting that peace of eternal 
 •truths and imperishable laws, which will exist in all their purity when worlds 
 will be no more." — Michelet, Priests, Wbmen,iand Families, p. 19.^ 
 
LINES ON MESMERISM. 117 
 
 " walk by faith and not by sight." He would regard it as only 
 one out of many thousand gifts, bountifully bestowed upon us 
 in this life by a merciful Creator ; he would value it as a 
 blessing sent to cheer and comfort him, when other and more 
 customary means were failing to relieve him. He would turn 
 to its use with prayer, with humble hope, with pious confidence ; 
 he would feel that the issue was yet with God, and the divine 
 will would be his own. He would not, like the impious king 
 recorded in Scripture, forget the Lord, and seek only phy- 
 sicians. No : the great Physician of the cross, the healer of 
 our leprosies, bodily and spiritual, would, after all, be his main 
 and only refuge. To Him would he look at morning, at noon- 
 tide, and at the evening hour. Yea, he would feel that it was 
 good to be afflicted, if his afflictions and their earthly remedies 
 made him better acquainted with his own heart, and brought 
 him to a closer and more abiding communion with his Saviour 
 and his God ! 
 
 All, however, that I have been saying in the above pages, 
 has been so much more happily expressed in the following 
 charming lines by that gifted poetess, Miss Anna Savage, that 
 my readers cannot but thank me for introducing them to their 
 notice. 
 
 ON HEARING MESMERISM CALLED IMPIOUS. 
 
 Call not the gift unholy ; 'tis a fair — a precious thing, 
 
 That God hath granted to our hands for gentlest minist'ring. 
 
 Did Mercy ever stoop to bless with dark unearthly spell ? 
 
 Could impious power whisper peace the soul's deep throes to quell 2 
 
 Would Evil seek to work but good, — to lull the burning brain. 
 
 And linger in some scene of woe, beside the bed of pain, — 
 
 To throw upon the o'erfraught heart the blessing of repose, — 
 
 Untiring watch the eye of care in healing slumber close, — 
 
 And as the agony of grief fell 'neath the Spirit's will. 
 
 O'er the wild billows of despair breathe tenderly — Be still ? 
 
 Speak gently of the new-born gift, restrain the scoff and sneer, 
 
 And think how much we may not learn is yet around us here ; 
 
 What paths there are where Faith must lead, that Knowledge cannot share. 
 
 Though still we tread the devious way, and feel that Truth is there. 
 
 Say, is the world so full of joy, — hath each so fair a lot, 
 That we should scorn one bounteous gift, and scorning, use it not. 
 Because the finite thought of man grasps not its hidden source ? 
 Do we reject the stream, because we cannot track its course ? 
 
 I 3 
 
118 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 Hath Nature, then, no mystic law we seek in vain to scan ? 
 
 Can man, the master-piece of God, trace the unerring plan 
 
 Th&t places' o^er the restless sea the bounds it cannot pass ; 
 
 That gives the fragrance to the flower, the "glory to the grass ?"^ 
 
 Oh ! Life with all its fitful gleams hath sorrow for its dower, 
 
 And with the wrung heart dwell the pang and many a weary hour : 
 
 Hail, then, with gladness what may soothe the aching brain to rest ; 
 
 And call not impious that which brings a blessing and is blest. 
 
 The gladden'd soul re-echoes praise where'er this power hath been ; 
 
 And what in mercy God doth give, O " call not thou unclean ! " * 
 
 * " God bath shewed me that I should not call any man common or un- 
 clean." Acts, X. 28. 
 
 These lines have since appeared in a pleasing volume of poems by the 
 same authoress, called Angels' Visits, (Longman & Co.) 
 
UNBELIEVERS IN MESMERISM. 119 
 
 CHAP. in. 
 
 nNBEUEVERS IN MESMERISM AtTTHOIl's OWN EXPERIENCE. — REMARK- 
 ABLE CASES MESMERISERS IN ENGLAND CURES AND OPERATIONS 
 
 IN ENGLAND PROGRESS IN SCOTLAND — IN GERMANY — IN PRANCE 
 
 IN UNITED STATES MESMERISM PROVED TO BE A POWERFUL BEMEDT 
 
 IN PAIN AND DISEASE. 
 
 But all this train of argument appears childish in the extreme 
 to a second class of opponents. It seems like fighting with the 
 wind. A medical friend, who for his ability and various at- 
 tainments in science stands by common consent among the heads 
 of his profession, says in a letter, " It amuses me much to see 
 two grave clergymen making a serious debate on the subject of 
 Mesmerism." The editor of the Lancet says much the same 
 thing ; " We cannot but smile at each theologian for seriously 
 attacking and seriously defending the practice." And a religious 
 periodical has made a few observations on the subject which re- 
 quire some little notice. 
 
 The Christian Observer * says, that they agree neither with 
 Mr. M'Neile nor with his opponent, for they believe Mesmerism 
 to be nothing else than the result of credulity or imposture. But 
 we will put the charge in their own language. " We believe 
 that the work is strictly human, — being in part imposture for 
 morbid vanity or sordid gain, and in part the irregular action 
 of an excited imagination, &c." Dr. EUiotson was " duped by 
 some artful patients, who pretended to respond to his magical 
 control. We calmly say, duped." He " exhibited his deluded 
 or deluding patients, suffering or affecting to suffer." * * * * 
 "In some instances the patients and exhibitors may be con- 
 federates ; in others they may deceive the exhibitor ; but that 
 there is deception upon the part of one or of both, we make no 
 question." Hard words these, — if not somewhat coarse and 
 
 * Christian Observer for September, 1843, in notice of " Mesmerism, the 
 gift of God." 
 
 I 4 
 
120 MESJ/LEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 unbecoming ! It might have been expected that the editor of 
 a religious publication would have known more of that evan- 
 \gelical virtue, which "believeth all things, and hopeth all 
 /things " favourably. " Charity never faileth." Charity always 
 adopts the best interpretation. Such words as "dupe" and 
 f imposture " are easily written, and save the writers unfortu- 
 nately much laborious investigation. My original purpose was 
 to treat of the religious aspect of Mesmerism,— or rather to 
 show, that its practice was not so unhallowed as the timid 
 Christian might deem. But in the position in which I have 
 been placed, — and with the facts in my possession of which I 
 have been a witness, such a narrow view of the subject appears 
 to be inconsistent. And when a periodical of such deserved 
 reputation as the Christian Observer can thus encourage its 
 readers in their error by the most unjust aspersions ; when the 
 leaders of the medical profession (for the larger part of the 
 junior members are happily an exception) can obstinately per- 
 severe in terming this valuable discovery a delusion and an- ab- 
 surdity ; I should be wanting in my duty towards God, if I did 
 not thankfully announce that which I have experienced ; nay, 
 I should be even wanting to my own character among my fel- 
 low-men, if I did not show that in thus advocating Mesmerism 
 I had reasonable grounds for my conviction, and spo£e but the 
 words of truth and soberness. 
 
 It may be then desirable to state that I was an unbeliever in 
 Mesmerism : perhaps it would be more correct to say, that I 
 scarcely thought on the subject. A few years back I went to 
 the Mesmeric exhibitions of the Baron Dupotet in Wigmore 
 Street, and returned from them disgusted and incredulous ; and 
 from conversations that I subs,equently held with medical men, 
 I was led to resolve the whole appearances into " monotony, " 
 " imagination,'' and '' nervousness." All this is stated, to show 
 my previous state of mind. The change, then, that was wrought 
 in me, — the change from scepticism or indifference to earnest 
 conscientious conviction, was no sudden hasty impulse, but the 
 result of cautious observation, and slow and gradual in its 
 growth. I was placed in such circumstances, that in my own 
 despite, I was compelled to be present and witness facts. I 
 
author's own experience. 121 
 
 watched them, however, with the most anxious jealousy. I 
 trusted to my own eye-sight alone, and took nothing for granted. 
 I have gone from case to case, and from one patient to another, 
 and seen them all under different states of mind and body, and 
 studied all the effects with the most unwearied diligence for 
 months.* And if plain common sense, untrammelled by the 
 jargon of science, may be allowed to give an opinion, my con- 
 clusion from the whole is, that there is no one fact in nature 
 more unquestionable, than that in certain conditions, hitherto 
 unascertained, of the human body, one person is capable of , 
 producing a powerful action on the physical system of another, 
 and that through some medium perfectly independent of the 
 imagination of the recipient : and this position I propose to 
 prove in the following statements. 
 
 The patient, to whom I shall first refer, had been for many 
 years in an anxious state of health. Palpitation of the heart, 
 severe neuralgic pains, intense continuous headaches, had been 
 a few of the more urgent symptoms ; and though she had en- 
 joyed the benefits of the very first advice both in London and 
 the country, and often with advantage, yet still the constitution 
 had at length become so enfeebled as to be little equal to meet an 
 additional shock upon the system. Let it be sufiicient to state, 
 that the worst symptoms of her case were at length fearfully ex- 
 asperated. The most agonizing pains succeeded. For seven long 
 and tedious weeks, sleep, which is " often the last to come when 
 wanted most," literally came not at all. Opiates not only failed 
 to ease, but even tended to aggravate. Till at last, when a 
 crisis was rapidly approaching ; when the hopes of the patient's 
 family were almost gone; — at that moment, when it was least 
 expected, were their prayers heard ; — a change was happily 
 obtained ; a new system of treatment was adopted ; — and from 
 that hour they saw the hand of G-od leading them on to health 
 and to hope ; they saw a gradual steady progressive improve- 
 ment setting in, attended by circumstances of relief, which 
 no language can express. 
 
 Mesmerism was that fresh treatment : but as a few facts 
 
 * I may now add, "for years." 
 
122 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 will thro-w stronger light upon the action of this newlj-dis- 
 covered power, we will proceed to relate certain incidents in 
 the case. 
 
 First let it he stated that this was not a case of confidence, 
 or where faith in a fresh remedy brings about a realization of 
 its own wishes. The very opposite was the fact. The 
 patient's disbelief in Mesmerism amounted even to dislike : and 
 when the medical friend, but too much alive to the necessity of 
 a few minutes' sleep after such a fearful duration of wakefulness, 
 caught at the idea of the Mesmeric action, and suggested its 
 adoption, the proposition met with a peremptory repulse. And 
 it was only through the firmness and intelligent explanations of 
 the excellent friend that undertook the treatment, that this 
 strong reluctance was at last overborne. 
 
 At the first seance, which lasted an hour, small apparent 
 effect was produced ; but on going to rest, the patient who had 
 been in the habit of requiring the nightly aid of fomentations 
 to lull the intolerable severity of her sufierings, lay perfectly 
 still, and said that "the pain had been endurable." Sleep, 
 indeed, did not visit the pillow : but much was thus far gained. 
 
 At the few next sittings sleep was obtained, — deeper too on 
 each occasion, — and the effect of which continued after the 
 patient retired to bed. And though this sleep was very short 
 and much disturbed, still there was sleep ; an effect, which for 
 weeks " all the drowsy syrups of the world " had failed to 
 procure. The patient soon declared that she had passed a 
 refreshing night. All this was very encouraging, and called 
 forth many expressions of gratitude ; still nothing had hitherto 
 occurred to convince me that the monotony of the passes was 
 not the producing cause, — nothing, that is, of an extraordinary 
 or unusual character ; sleep with a gradual mitigation of pain 
 were the blessed results; and we "thanked God and took 
 courage," — and only trusted that this simple treatment would 
 not lose its efiect, as we went on. 
 
 It was about the fourth evening, as I was sitting at a distant 
 part of the room, silently watching the patient in her slumbers, 
 that my attention was suddenly arrested, by observing _her 
 hand following the hand of the Mesmeriser, as by the force of 
 
REMARKABLE CASES. 123 
 
 attraction. * Never shall I forget the feeling with which I 
 started from my chair, ejaculating to myself, "there is then 
 something in Mesmerism." A new light burst upon me. Here 
 was a fact which no imagination could explain; — here was a 
 case where no collusion was possible. The act was marked, 
 clear, decisive. In what way, the unbeliever can account for 
 this sympathetic movement, or into what solution it may be 
 tortured, I know not. Common sense simply replies, that here 
 is a plain evident action, in which the eye could not be de- 
 ceived. This effect too, it may be as well to add, was not 
 temporary, but was produced daily for weeks and weeks. The 
 hand and the head invariably moved with the hand of the 
 Mesmeriser; and certainly in witnessing this magnetic action, 
 we could not avoid adopting the conclusion, that the term 
 "Animal Magnetism" was not so inappropriate. 
 1 It is unnecessary to enter further into this case, though other 
 phenomena might be mentioned, except to add, that the most 
 essential benefits continued to be obtained ; and that although 
 with a patient of such an impaired constitution, a complete 
 restoration to health was not to be expected, the action of 
 Mesmerism has never on any occasion been employed on her 
 behalf (and this is said after the experience of twelve months) 
 without producing a relief and salutary effect, such as medicine 
 fails in any measure to accomplish. 
 
 But my experience can give attestation to a very affecting 
 case, — some of the events of which occurred under my own 
 roof. 
 
 Anne Vials is the daughter of Samuel Vials, of the Abbey 
 parish in St. Alban's, who formerly drove the mail cart from 
 thence to Watford. For a short time this poor girl gained her 
 livelihood by working in a silk factory ; from the scrofulous habit 
 of her constitution she was not always equal to full employment ; 
 but, in 1837, when she was only sixteen years of age, she was 
 compelled to give up work altogether. For her mother fell 
 sick, with a long and pining illness, under which, after much 
 suffering, she finally sank ; and during which she was confined 
 
 ♦ See how this fact is confirmed in Keichenbach's " Researches," p. 12. 
 
124 MESMERISM AM> ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 to her bed, and required the constant presence of a nurse. 
 Poor Anne, therefore, left her calling at the factory, — took 
 her place by her mother's couch, and was her unwearied attend- 
 ant night and day. So feeble indeed was the patient, that she 
 could scarcely be quitted for a moment ; and for a long year, 
 therefore, did this anxious and affectionate child sit by her 
 parent's bed the whole night through. When death at length 
 released the sufferer, a fatal discovery was made. The mother's 
 disease had taken strong hold of the daughter, for the over- 
 wrought exertions of a twelvemonth had now too clearly 
 brought out the hereditary taint. Anne Vials in fact required 
 a nurse herself; for not only was the general state of her 
 health broken down, but the left arm, which for three or four 
 years had been giving her much pain and uneasiness, became 
 now in so diseased a condition, as totally to deprive her of its 
 use. She was placed under the care of several medical men in 
 succession ; the best attendance in St. Alban's was provided 
 for her ; but the arm every day grew more and more painful. 
 Through the kindness of some charitable friends, she was now 
 admitted into different hospitals one after the other. She was 
 first removed to Hemel Hempstead Infirmary, — thence to St. 
 Bartholomew's Hospital in London, where she remained nine 
 months, — ^thence to St. Thomas's in the Borough, and thence 
 to Hemel Hempstead again, in none of which places did she 
 obtain any effectual benefit. The state of her health at length 
 became so serious, that to save her life some decisive measures 
 were necessary; and she was taken up to London again to 
 Guy's Hospital, where her arm was amputated by Mr. Morgan 
 the 22d of March, 1841. 
 
 At the end of three months, when the wound was healed, she 
 returned back to St. Alban's. After she had been at home 
 some little time, a violent convulsive action commenced in the 
 stump. This movement grew rapidly worse and worse. In 
 fact, the stump moved up and down, night and day, unceasingly, 
 — and much quicker, to use her own expression, than she her- 
 self could_|move the other arm. Her sufferings became intense, 
 and her general health was affected in proportion. She was 
 now removed backwards and forwards, as before, to the ^if- 
 
EEMAEKABLE CASES. 125 
 
 ferent hospitals, but without any relief. At the infirmary in 
 Hemel Hempstead, they actually strapped the arm down with 
 the hope of lessening the movement ; but the confinement made 
 it, if possible, worse, and they were compelled to unloose it. 
 She was at length carried to St. George's Hospital ; here she 
 remained three months ; her health gradually getting worse and 
 worse, and the epileptic fits, from which she had been suffer- 
 ing for a twelvemonth, increasing in violence and: duration,; 
 — when, with the only hope of saving her life, a proposition was 
 mooted of taking the stump out of the socket. My readers may 
 judge by this simple fact of the desperate state, to which this 
 poor girl had now arrived ; for with her shattered health, it 
 could hardly be expected that she should survive even for a 
 short time so serious an operation. 
 
 Fortunately for poor Anne, she had several benevolent 
 friends, who, knowing all the circumstances of her history, had 
 watched the fearful progress of her sufferings from the first ; 
 and by subscriptions and various little Christian kindnesses had 
 done much towards lessening her load of sorrow : Mr. Basil 
 Montagu, in particular, — that excellent man, whose long and 
 useful life has been devoted to the benefit of his fellow-creatures, 
 took the warmest interest in her fate; — she often went to his 
 house ; and there •she received from Mrs. Montagu, that 
 sympathy and consideration which woman alone is able to 
 bestow. One day the thought struck both these kind friends, 
 that if any thing could be of service to Anne in this extremity 
 of misery, it might be Mesmerism. It was but the faintest hope, 
 for they had but slight knowledge or belief of its power ; — still 
 they mentioned the case to their friend Mr. Atkinson, and 
 suggested to him the idea of making a trial of what could be 
 done. 
 
 Mr. Atkinson is not a member of the medical profession, but 
 has devoted himself to philosophy and science. His acquire- 
 ments are of the very highest order. He is weU known among 
 the advocates of Phrenology and Mesmerism; in the former 
 science he has added much to our stock of knowledge ; and in 
 Mesmerism he is eminently successful. Whether in relieving 
 deeply-seated pain, in arresting disease, or in subduing morbid 
 
126 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 excitement, his power ia equally strange and wondrous.* He is 
 so calm, so gentle, and yet so firm, that it is a perfect study to 
 watch him in the management of a case. — Hour after hour have 
 I seen him with the most unwearied patience, devoting the 
 whole energies of his powerful mind to the amelioration of 
 suffering, watching the various symptoms as they arose, and 
 undisturbed by any change that might occur. Never were phi- 
 losophy and humanity more beautifully united. And in the 
 instance before us, those who have the happiness of being 
 ranked among his friends, require not to be told his answer to 
 Mr. Montagu's suggestion. In spite of the feeling against 
 Mesmerism, and the almost hopeless state of the patient, he at 
 once on his own responsibility undertook the case ; and seeing 
 that it would require for months the most unremitting attention, 
 he procured a nurse from St. George's Hospital, and had the 
 poor girl removed to his own house. 
 
 It was in May, 1842, about fourteen months after the 
 amputation, that Anne Vials quitted the hospital to make trial 
 of Mesmerism ; and this is Mr. Atkinson's description of the 
 state in which he found her. " She had sometimes three or 
 four fits in a day, of a most violent nature, which continued for 
 more than an hour ; the stump moved up and down without 
 cessation, not a merely nervous twitching; — but violently up 
 and down ; she suffered continuous excruciating pain in the head 
 and back, — and at the end of the stump too the pain was most 
 excruciating ; — she had pain too in all her limbs and joints, 
 particularly in the elbow of the remaining arm, just as she 
 had before amputation in the other. Masses of sores were con- 
 stantly breaking out in different parts of the body ; palpitations 
 at the heart, pains in the chest, suspensions of the functions of 
 nature, and a spitting of large quantities of blood accompanied 
 by solid matter, were some of the other symptoms." In short, 
 
 * Among his other qualifications for the practice, Mr. A. possesses a 
 peculiar sense of feeling, by which he detects the existence and locality of 
 pain in the patient. This is occasionally the case with Mesmerisers. M. 
 de Bruno, one of the earliest French Magnetizers, speaks of himself possess- 
 ing this susceptibility. The passage will be found in Gauthler, " Traite 
 Pratique," p. 235. 
 
EEMAEKABLE CASES. 12?' 
 
 a more terrible complication of evils have seldom been united 
 in one sufferer. 
 
 I shall leave it to jVIr Atkinson at some future period to give 
 to the public the interesting details of his success. Let it be 
 sufficient to state, that the process was most painfully laborious, 
 and occupying a large portion of his time, and that she re- 
 mained in his house more than twelve months. At the first 
 few sittings the epileptic fits were brought on, as if by the 
 Mesmeric effect*; — but this prevented their recurrence in her 
 ordinary state. At the fourth or fifth seance, the deep sleep or 
 trance was superinduced, — when the action of the stump 
 suddenly stopped, — and from that moment it never moved 
 in that way again; — the fits too ceased; the pains in the 
 back of her head were almost immediately relieved ; — and 
 a gradual improvement ^in her general health set in. Upon 
 the wonderful results of the Mesmeric treatment in this case, 
 I shall make little comment ; my readers can think for them- 
 selves ; — they will see here a poor girl, carried to and fro from 
 hospital to hospital, enduring the most exquisite torture, and 
 her life placed in such a state of jeopardy, that the only hope 
 of preserving it was recourse to a second and horrible opera- 
 tion. The arm was to be taken out of the socket ! an effectual 
 mode, in truth, for a prevention of its movement ! But from 
 this operation was she spared by the action of Mesmerism ; and 
 by its continued and regular application was a relapse pre- 
 vented, and an improvement in her health obtained. Who 
 does not see the goodness of Providence in vouchsafing such an 
 agent ? Wha can deny that Mesmerism to her was the precious 
 gift of God? The facts of her case, — of her sufferings, — of 
 
 * When a patient is treated by Mesmerism for epileptic fits, it is con- 
 sidered a favourable sign, if the manipulations bring on a paroxysm ; and, 
 from what I have seen, I am of that opinion. But to the inexperienced 
 magnetizer, it has a formidable effect ; he appears to be inducing the very 
 disease which he wishes to cure. The case of Anne Vials is one in point ; 
 and Teste, in his practical treatise, having described a remarkable cure of 
 epilepsy, says, " this case characterises the ordinary mode of action of 
 magnetism in epilepsy. An increase in the number and severity of the fits 
 constitutes almost always the first effect of the treatment. But these crises 
 soon diminish in frequency and severity, and ultimately disappear altogether." 
 — SpiBan's Translation of Teste, p. 267. _ We shall recur to this subject in 
 the last chapter. 
 
128 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 the amputation, — of the movement of the stump, and of the 
 other attendant evils, are known to numbers, — to medical men 
 in St. Alban's, — and to the surgeons and nurses at the hos- 
 pitals ; and it is also known, that all the remedies suggested for 
 her benefit were fruitless ; — the best surgical advice was of no 
 avail :— but the fifth day, after the application of Mesmerism, 
 the stump ceased to move, and the other fearful symptoms of 
 the case began to disappear ! 
 
 But these are not all the marvels that accompanied the 
 treatment. With the improvement of her- health the most 
 beautiful phenomena step by step developed themselves, — so 
 beautiful indeed as to attract the admiration of a large number 
 of inquiring spectators, who came to watch and study the case. 
 She became what is called an ecstatic dreamer. Her nervous 
 system had fallen into so peculiar and extremely excited a 
 state, from the effects of this long and painful disease, that the 
 Mesmeric action brought out an exaltation, and a great spiritual 
 activity of the higher organs of the brain. And all these effects 
 appeared spontaneously and unlooked for. Not only did she 
 become a somnambulist, — i. e. not only were the common 
 results of the sZeep-waAiwg' state produced, — but an ecstasy,— 
 a spirituality, — a rapt devotional feeling, such as appeared to 
 draw a veil over the scenes of this lower world, regularly came 
 on.* To make myself understood, I will describe the effects as 
 they occurred on my first visit. A few minutes sufficed to 
 throw her into the trance by the simple application of the hand 
 held over the head without contact. First, would there come a 
 slight nervous action of the stump, which was suddenly 
 arrested, — a peculiar movement of the eyelids followed, — the 
 eyes closed, — and she fell back in a deep stupor. From this 
 state she could not be aroused by any application whatsoever ; 
 she appeared insensible to pain, and to the action of ammonia, 
 or of lucifer matches burning under her nose. After the lapse 
 of some minutes, she began to move uneasily, — when, on being 
 
 • " Not only have mesmerised persons been shown to reason with a 
 perspicuity of which they were incapable at other times, but to display a 
 grace and freedom of gesture wholly different from the constraint of their 
 habitual deportment." — Townshehd's Facts, p. 208. second edit. 
 
REMARKABLE CASES. 129 
 
 addressed by her Mesmeriser, she answered, and sat up in a 
 sort of sleep-waking state, conversing freely, though unaware 
 of the presence of strangers. Suddenly she fell back again 
 into the stupor. In this she remained a short time ; — when 
 slowly rising from the recumbent position, and gradually lifting 
 up her arm, and pointing as it were to heaven, she opened her 
 eyes, looking upwards with the most intense expression of 
 adoration. The effect was truly sublime. It approached the 
 character of what we may conceive of the devotional rapture 
 of the seraph. Prayer, — veneration, — an admiration of the 
 unseen world, — a contemplation of the divine and the celestial, 
 seemed to absorb every faculty of her soul. Her features, 
 which in her natural state are most homely, were lighted up 
 with a spirituality almost angelic. Though she is nothing but 
 an ignorant factory girl, and accustomed to the most menial 
 occupations, her gestures in this state were beautiful in the 
 extreme. In short, so striking, — so extraordinary was the 
 whole appearance of this poor one-armed girl in her dream, ^ 
 such a combination was it of the graceful and of the sublime, 
 — that even a Siddons might have made her attitudes a study 
 for the Drama, and Kaphael himself not disdained to borrow 
 many a hint for the highest flights of his pencil. Domenichino's 
 Sybille in the Palazzo Borghese at Eome may give some idea 
 of the elevated beauty of her devotions. In fact, I cannot 
 describe the effect better than by adding, that one of the 
 spectators, whose name on matters of taste is of the very 
 highest authority, after witnessing the scene walked from the 
 house down several streets preserving the most profound 
 silence; — and upon his companion at length inquiring of what 
 he was thinking, — " Thinking," he answered, " of what could 
 I be thinking, than of what grovelling creatures we are, — 
 while that poor girl seemed a being of another world ! " 
 
 Of certain important conclusions *, to which this case gives 
 confirmation, I shall speak by and by : at present my readers 
 may doubt how far two or three visits to Mr. Atkinson's house 
 entitle me to the character of a competent witness as to the 
 
 * See Seventh Chapter, with history of several ecstatic cases, and of 
 presumed miraculous appearances. 
 
130 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 reality of what I saw ; I shall proceed, therefore, to describe 
 some future circumstances in this history, in which I myself 
 took part. 
 
 After a patience, an expense, and a labour of no small du- 
 ration, and such as few men would be willing to bestow, 
 Mr. Atkinson brought this suffering girl to a state of com- , 
 parative health and comfort ; all the formidable symptoms had 
 completely disappeared ; the nervous movement of the arm 
 was cured ; and there only remained at times a good deal of 
 pain at the end of the stump, the effect probably of something 
 that took place during the amputation. Anne Vials therefore 
 returned home to her native town ; and here we might have 
 lost sight of her altogether. It so happened, however, thait I 
 passed last summer in Hertfordshire.* And so vivid was the 
 impression that the touching scene I had witnessed left upon 
 my mind, that in one of our earliest drives into St. Alban's we 
 determined to find out our ecstatic dreamer. What, however, 
 were our feelings on being directed to her dwelling ! When last 
 we had seen poor Anne, — she was the observed of all observers ; 
 — surrounded by the scientific and the curious, there she was 
 secure from want and toil ; and with all the freshness of re- 
 stored health' in daily communion with the seraphic beings of 
 her ideal world ! What a contrast met our eyes ! We found 
 her in a miserable lodging in a back lane, with all the usual 
 accompaniments of poverty. Distress was marked on her coun- 
 tenance. She was neatly and cleanly dressed, — but everything 
 else looked bare and miserable. Toil had done its usual work. 
 A few weeks' necessary employment in seeking her daily food 
 iiad brought back some old and forgotten symptoms. The 
 stump was causing her great suffering, particularly at the ex- 
 tremity : the right arm was again beginning to be painful above 
 the elbow ; her health was giving way ; and the expression of 
 !her features was indicative either of bodily or mental anxiety. 
 For her father had lost his situation, and was unable to con- 
 tribute to her support ; her Union, which piques itself upon the 
 strictness of its rules, refused any out-door relief; and desirous 
 
 * This was written in January, 1844. 
 
EBMAEKABLE CASES. 131 
 
 of doing all that she could, and of keeping out of the workhouse, 
 she strained her powers of exertion beyond what nature would 
 allow. With but one arm, her choice of employment was 
 limited ; and so she carried about the town a basket with goods 
 for sale, the weight of which pressed too heavily on her nerves, 
 and was bringing back her pains in the diseased parts. Had it 
 not been for the assistance of some charitable friends, her case 
 would have been pitiable in the extreme. We took her at once 
 to the house I was occupying; for I determined to try how far 
 Mesmerism, with my inferior powers and experience, would be 
 able to check the relapse with which she was threatened. My 
 pleasure, then, was great on perceiving all the usual phenomena 
 successively presenting themselves. There was the fluttering 
 of the eyelids, — the stupor, the insensibility to pain, the strange- 
 and fanciful colloquy, the manifestations of the phrenological 
 organism, and, lastly, the ecstatic dream, with all its varying- 
 appearances, — the rapture, the prayer, the uplifted eye, the 
 extended arm, the bended knee, and aU the usual signs of the- 
 profoundest adoration. The difference that existed between 
 the effects produced by Mr. Atkinson and myself was this, that 
 with him the dream was of a far more elevated and beatific- 
 character; -with myself the cerebral responses to the touch 
 were more pronounced and striking. However, the main thing 
 to be noticed is, that the health of the patient improved under 
 our management ; — of course her freedom from daily toil was of 
 no slight assistance ; still she was benefited by her Mesmeric 
 sleep ; the pains in the head were removed, and those in the 
 stump greatly lessened, and a countenance of health and sere- 
 nity reappeared. She stayed with us, backwards and forwards^ 
 several weeks : we had the best opportunity of judging her 
 character ; and we found her an honest, well-conducted, right- 
 principled girl; and this opinion was confirmed by many in 
 the neighbourhood who had known her long. But we did more 
 than this : — we determined to sift the case to the bottom ; we 
 determined to find out how much of truth there was in these 
 startling phenomena. Undeniable as was the benefit to her 
 bodily health by the action of Mesmerism, there were many who 
 thought that the subsequent manifestations of the dream were 
 
 K 2 
 
132 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 all assumed from some interested motive ; and I will not con- 
 ceal that some such suspicions did occasionally lurk in my own 
 mind. But as Bacon says in one of his undying Essays, " There 
 is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to hnow little ; 
 and therefore men should remedy suspicion by procuring to 
 know more, and not to keep their suspicions in smother." We 
 resolved, therefore, to probe the matter thoroughly. "We had 
 every facility for the work ; leisure and retirement were not 
 wanting ; and we had no interest, moreover, in the decision one 
 way or other. Fortunately our circle had been joined by a 
 friend whose varied talents and acquirements rendered him a 
 competent judge on any philosophic question. Mr. Mitford's* 
 inquiring mind was determined to be satisfied as to the truth of 
 our so-called science. He assisted us, therefore, daily at each 
 seance. In fact, he often took the principal part. In con- 
 junction with my wife and myself, he tested the case in every 
 possible way. Experiments of the most opposite kinds were 
 adopted by him. It would be tedious to relate them ; it is 
 enough to say, that we repeated them over and over again, and 
 were satisfied at the conclusion as to the only inference to be 
 drawn. And what then was that result ? That not a shadow 
 oif a suspicion even for a moment could remain as to the reality 
 and truthfulness of what we saw ; that the poor girl was an 
 honest unpretending person ; that the phenomena produced 
 "were far beyond her powers of acting either to assume or to 
 .sustain ; that the force of imagination could not explain them ; 
 — .that the supposition of hysteria or nervousness was only 
 .solving one diflSculty by another; — and that, in short, the 
 -whole scene, strange and pregnant with mighty truths as it 
 ^appeared, was nothing else than the simple effect of this 
 newly discovered agent, the effect of the nervous system of one 
 thuman being acting on another. It is impossible to say how 
 ;£trong was the .satisfaction we all felt at the close of our in- 
 
 '* My accomplished friena, the Rev. John Mitford, the learned editor of 
 <5ray, and the author of many delightful and popular works, is the last man 
 to sacrifice his judgment to the love of a new and startling theory. Let it 
 he sufficient to say, that, originally a sceptic in Mesmerism, he is now a 
 firm believer. 
 
REMAEKABLE CASES. 133 
 
 quiries into this most curious case. It was an opportunity for 
 searching into truth that never might be offered to us a second 
 time. And when the morning of our departure from the neigh- 
 bourhood arrived, and poor Anne with tears in her eyes attended 
 us to the carriage, we took leave of her with feelings of real 
 regret, and drove away with many an anxious foreboding about 
 her future fate. * 
 
 But I was also witness to a third case of Mesmerism, that 
 occurred in my house during the summer we passed in Hert- 
 fordshire, — which is interesting, not only from the benefits that 
 resulted to the party mesmerised, but also from the corroboration 
 which it gives to the truth of a similar event, of which the 
 newspapers have been lately full. I allude to the case of the 
 sleeping boy at Deptford. James Cook f was there thrown 
 
 * It ought to be mentioned in explanation of the circumstances of distress 
 under which we found Anne Vials, that her kind friends in London had 
 gone to great expense on her behalf, as she was supported for some time, 
 through the benevolence of Mr. and Mrs. Basil Blontagu, and subsequently 
 by Mr. Atkinson, during her residence under his roof; and when she 
 returned to St. Alban's, they entertained the hope that her former charitable 
 neighbours in that place would not omit to renew their benevolent aid. 
 But such was the strong opinion maintained by several in regard to the 
 Satanic character of Mesmerism, that it produced an adverse feeling against ■■ 
 the poor helpless girl. Others, too, disbelieving the powers of Mesmerism^ 
 were disposed to consider her in some measure an impostor, and assumed 
 that her health, which had defied the skill of the ablest practitioners, had 
 eome round of itself. It was, therefore, to postpone to as late a day as 
 possible her final reception into the workhouse, that the poor girl economised 
 the alms which she had brought with her from London in as chary a way as 
 possible. Among the friends, however, who remained firm to her, there is 
 one who ought especially to be named. Mrs. Wilkins, of the Verulam Arms 
 Hotel, has acted towards her with all the kindness of the good Samaritan. 
 When staying in that neighbourhood, too, Mr. Mitford kindly set on foot a 
 little subscription, which was most charitably responded to by some of the 
 most influential families in the vicinity. I lately had a letter from Mrs. 
 Wilkins (Feb. 22d, 1844), saying that the poor girl had been very ill again, 
 but was now something better. 
 
 It ought to be added, however, that though she has often been subject to 
 attacks of illness, and to great pain in her arm, the convulsive movement of 
 the stump, and the violent epileptic fits, have never returned. 
 
 Since the above was written, Anne Vials has occasionally been seen in 
 London at several private houses. Her health has varied, but she has 
 always derived the greatest relief and benefit from Mesmerism. (1847.) 
 
 + This boy slept about three days. See a very interesting letter in 
 No. xvii. of the " Zoist,' from Mr. Smith of Deptford, giving an account 
 
 K 3 
 
134 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 into the mesmeric trance by his master's son, and remained in 
 that state for so long a period, that one party collected round 
 the house with fearful apprehensions at the dangerous condition 
 into which he was plunged ; — while a surgeon, from his 
 apparent ignorance of physiology, deems the thing impossible, 
 and writes a letter to the newspapers, pronouncing the whole a 
 ■delusion. The sleep, as we have since learnt from the best 
 authority, was neither assumed nor alarming ; and I am able to 
 confirm the probability of the narrative, from the almost similar 
 circumstances that took place in my own household. A maid- 
 servant of the age of eighteen, of a pallid complexion, and in 
 delicate health, came to live with us in Hertfordshire, her 
 mother being in hopes that country air might have a bracing 
 effect on her constitution. But no such result was produced : 
 she remained weak and languid, and unequal to any exertion. 
 One day Anne Vials mesmerised her ; and the next morning 
 she expressed herself as much benefited by its effect. This in- 
 duced a friend, who was staying with us, to repeat the experi- 
 ment. And the result was so deep and prolonged a sleep*, 
 that his endeavours to awaken her were for many hours un- 
 successful ; we tried every plan we had seen adopted in similar 
 cases, and referred to different works on the subject, — but in 
 vain. This state of somnambulism lasted for nineteen hours, 
 at the end of which she awoke, and was perfectly ignorant of all 
 that occurred during her sleep. It may be as well to state for 
 the benefit of the sceptic, that this young girl was artless and 
 inexperienced, and perfectly unequal to acting any part, or to 
 resist the various plans pursued by ourselves and her feUow- 
 servants to rouse her from her slumbers. It was an interesting 
 
 of this case, called, " Mesmerism not to he trifled with, though it Mils nobody ; 
 or, James Cook alive and hearty.'*^ 
 
 * This prolongation Of sleep is not so very uncommon, and is only 
 alarming to the inexperienced. I was present when Martha Price, a 
 patient of Mr. D. Hand's, awoke after a sleep of more than 48 hours. Dr. 
 Sigmond published in the " Lancet " for 1837, a very curious case of 
 lengthened Mesmeric sleep (nearly 24 hours), when much unnecessary fear 
 was experienced. The " Popular Record " contains a spontaneous case of 
 prolonged coma, No. Ivii. p. 280. I shall return to this subject in the last 
 chapter. 
 
REMARKABLE CASES. 135 
 
 Sight, with which, some anxiety was mingled, owing to her 
 delicate constitution. But I have the satisfaction of stating 
 that within a few days afterwards the beneficial results sur- 
 passed all our expectations ; the bloom of health returned to 
 her cheeks, — the blood seemed to be circulating through her 
 veins, her whole system was renovated, and she became lively 
 and active. In short, so great was the alteration in her ap- 
 pearance, that on her return to London a few weeks after- 
 wards, her mother, surprised and delighted, exclaimed, "Ma- 
 tilda, you are changed indeed, — I should not have known 
 you ! " ' 
 
 Since the above occurred (in 1843), my experience, of course, 
 has very greatly increased. I have employed the treatment 
 successfully with several of my parishioners, have often re- 
 lieved severe pain, and made the science the subject of con- 
 tinued practical study. Among the different cases, however, in 
 which I have assisted, there are none that have given me more 
 pleasure than two, which happened in 1844, from the remark- 
 able refutation they afford to the favourite anti-mesmeric 
 theory of imagination. I sent the account to Dr. EUiotson, who 
 published it in the Zoist*, from the pages of which the following 
 is extracted, and the reader, it is hoped, will not find the nar^ 
 rative uninteresting. 
 
 " H. B., aged 20 years, the daughter of a labourer in Flixton, 
 was obliged to return from service last year on account of ill 
 health, and early this spring was attacked with rheumatic in- 
 flammation and swelling in one of the knee-joints. She is of a 
 scrofulous habit, and the family are constitutionally subject to 
 rheumatism. Her sufferings were intense, and the inflammation 
 and the pain increased almost daily. The usual remedies, 
 leeches, cupping, blisters, were in vain applied. Opiates were 
 administered, but with no effect. I often went to read and 
 pray with her ; and in my whole ministerial experience, have 
 never seen a human being enduring such frightful and con- 
 tinued agony. The neighbours in the adjoining cottage were 
 unable to sleep at night from the screams and cries of the poor 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 380. for 1844. 
 K 4 
 
136 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 girl. When she was moved in bed, her shrieks were as if she 
 were stretched on the rack. Her miseries had now lasted for 
 three or four weeks : she slept neither night nor day : and at 
 last the able and kind surgeon who attended her began to think 
 that amputation of the limb would be inevitable, to lessen the 
 torture and save her life. 
 
 " One morning in April, I went to pay her my usual visit, 
 As I drew near the garden gate I heard the fearful cries of the 
 poor sufferer most audibly. A lodger who lived next door, 
 ^aid to me as I was walking in, ' Sir, this has been going on all 
 night, and we have not been able to close our eyes.' I walked 
 Tip stairs to the bed-side, and what a sight was before me ! The 
 miserable creature was writhing about under the intolerably 
 agony, screaming and almost shrieking out, her face frightfully 
 ;flushed by fever and distorted by the pain ; and this, the mother 
 said, had continued for several hours. Her daughter, she said, 
 had not slept for a week ; and the paroxysms of pain had been 
 often as excruciating as what I was then witnessing. I at- 
 tempted to address and comfort her, but of course fruitlessly. 
 She was in too excruciating agony to heed what was said. I 
 sat down by the bed-side in silent horror. The spectacle was 
 oppressive. Here was a fellow-creature in a hopeless extremity 
 of torture, and not a prospect of alleviation ! 
 
 " Suddenly the thought struck me that I would try Mesme- 
 jrism, I had never attempted it as yet beyond the walls of my 
 own house, partly from having no great faith in my own power, 
 partly from an unwillingness to perplex my parishioners with an 
 unpopular novelty ; but as I had known some cases of great 
 success in its alleviation of severe pain, I thought I would make 
 a quiet experiment. I said nothing, therefore, to the mother 
 or the sufferer on the subject (they had never even heard of 
 such a thing before) ; but standing up by the bed-side, and 
 addressing and comforting the afflicted parent all the time, I 
 moved my right-hand gently before the patient's face, I con- 
 tinued to speak to Mrs. B. during the process, for this reason, 
 that as I had no great hopes of success, my wish was, that 
 if I failed, they should not remark the action, but simply think 
 that I was a little more emphatic and earnest than usual. This 
 
EEMAEKABLE CASES, 137 
 
 is the noticeable point in the story ; because the parties have 
 both stated since, that wlien I began they were quite un- 
 conscious of any thing uncommon in what I was doing. 
 
 " At the end of about four minutes I was almost certain that 
 there was an effect. The writhing on the bed seemed less 
 violent, the cries had settled into groans, and there was some- 
 what more of composure in the face. I left off speaking, — 
 begged the mother to be still, — and pointed the fingers of both 
 hands steadily before the face. In less than ten minutes from 
 the time that I first commenced, the poor suffering girl was in a 
 deep sleep ! 
 
 "Here, then, was a sudden change from the late horrible 
 exhibition ! Here was, indeed, a present mercy for which we 
 had to bless God ! The room was now silent ; the groans had 
 ceased, only an occasional moan being slightly heard ; the limbs 
 so lately tossed to and fro in anguish lay perfectly still ; the 
 face was gradually becoming less flushed and looking more 
 tranquil, and the distracted mother, who had been wiping her 
 tears and wringing her hands, stood looking at me speechless 
 and amazed. I was thunderstruck at my own success. Much 
 as I had known, and seen, and read of the healing virtues of 
 Mesmerism, here was an actual living fact which appeared to 
 equal them all. 
 
 " Where was imagination here ? The poor ignorant mother 
 and daughter, in their humble cottage, had never heard of Mes-r 
 
 merism It was in consequence of a sudden thought that I 
 
 commenced the manipulations ; and while I was proceeding 
 with them, they did not even know what I was doing, or, in fact, 
 that I was doing any thing ; and in less than four minutes there 
 was a decided effect. 
 
 " I continued the passes for about an hour. She now and 
 then started, and cried out from a sudden pain, but she did not 
 awake ; the face had gradually become tranquil ; the whole 
 frame seemed comfortable, and I left her asleep. In about a 
 quarter of an hour after my departure she awoke ; and though 
 the pain soon became again extremely severe and the fever 
 high, yet there was a decided mitigation of suffering as com- 
 
138 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 pared to what it had been ; she no longer screamed out from the 
 agony ; her night was better, and she had a little sleep. 
 
 " The next day I put her into a deep sleep in five minutes : 
 in less than a week, by the surgeon's own admission, she went 
 to sleep in two minutes and a half; for he occasionally attended 
 with me to watch the process (of which he had hitherto seen 
 and known nothing) ; the severity of the pains also greatly 
 abated, and she began to enjoy a refreshing night's rest. In 
 fact, from the time of the first mesmeric visit, there commenced 
 a gradual, though slow, amelioration ; after each seance she was 
 the stronger and better, and the idea of amputation was aban- 
 doned ; but inasmuch as medical treatment was going on con- 
 temporaneously, I must not attribute the whole benefit to the 
 magnetic power. But this fact is undeniable, that as I was 
 often called from home at th^t period, at each interval of my 
 absence the poor girl, relapsed, and gave me great additional 
 labour on my return. However, be the present far happier 
 state of the patient owing to what it may, my medical friend 
 most candidly admits that a great amount of suffering has been, 
 spared to her by this sleep, — that Mesmerism was so far an 
 auxiliary to him, and that probably the improvement in her 
 health has been greatly accelerated by its means. This is 
 taking very low and inadequate ground; but even with this 
 admission, what a blessing has Mesmerism proved to the un- 
 happy sufierer ! 
 
 " Though her general health has since very greatly advanced, 
 and she is able to walk about on crutches, it is doubtful if she 
 will ever recover the complete use of the limb, for it is feared 
 that anchylosis, or union of the upper and lower surfaces of the 
 bones forming the knee-joint may have supervened.* 
 
 " One point in the treatment is deserving of notice. She 
 was generally mesmerised for half an hour, and would then 
 continue to sleep about an hour longer. Occasionally, however, 
 my time would be so limited, that I was only able to put her 
 into the sleep and continue the passes for a short period, and 
 
 * The knee, as was feared, has become stiff-jointed j but she is able to 
 walk without a stick ; and though not equal to hard labour, is in the 
 enjoyment of tolerable health. 
 
REMARKABLE CASES. 139 
 
 she then awoke in about ten minutes after my departure. One 
 might infer from this that the merely putting into a deep sleep 
 in the first instance was not enough — that the battery required 
 to be well charged — and that without a sufficient amount o£ 
 power communicated, the efiect would be but transitory. If 
 this fact be observed in other cases, it would go far to confirm 
 the theory of a fluid. 
 
 " I shall not weary you with the phenomena that were mani- 
 fested in the case ; such as the touch of gold causing a strong 
 rigidity in the arms, the application of a sovereign on either 
 side of the knee acting, like a galvanic battery, by moving the 
 limb, and relaxing apparently the sinews and muscles : all these 
 results are familiar to you. The important point in this case is, 
 the utter absence of all aid from the imagination, as the party 
 was not only in an extremity of agony, but absolutely unaware 
 that any process was going on. 
 
 " And now, what do you suppose that our would-be philo- 
 sophers reply to these facts ? What is the class of objections 
 with which the Suffi)lk sceptics meet this plain statement ? 
 They say that the patient is a woman ! A poor, nervous, hys- 
 terical woman ! And instead of praising Providence for placing 
 within the reach of the sufferer such a merciful gift, they magis- 
 terially pronounce, that 'These girls are always up to such 
 tricks, that there is no trusting them;' and then dismiss the 
 subject as unworthy of enquiry! Come we, therefore, to the 
 other sex ; and let us learn how the everlasting ' hysteria ' of 
 the opponents is to explain the following fact : 
 
 "It was on Monday, the 26th of last August (1844), that I 
 rode to inquire after the health of an old couple, whom I had 
 missed the day before at their accustomed place in church. 
 This is merely mentioned to show, that what occurred afterwards 
 happened without design. On reaching the cottage I found the 
 old people well, but one of their sons was very ill in bed, and 
 had been suffering dreadfully for more than a week. I pro- 
 ceeded at once to the bed-side. 
 
 "James P., the patient, is a strong stout man, of the age of 
 thirty -three, partly a fisherman and partly a farm labourer, and 
 as little likely to be a subject for the imagination to play with, 
 
140 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 as a president of the College of Surgeons himself. About 
 twenty years ago, he had a sharp attack of rheumatic fevel*, 
 which lasted more than four weeks and confined him to his bed 
 still longer. About thirteen years back he had a second attack 
 of similar duration ; but his health since that period has been 
 robust and vigorous, and he is a good specimen of a hardy 
 English peasant. He was engaged in the mackarel fishery in 
 the summer, and had returned to his village for the harvest ; 
 but during the first days of reaping had caught cold from the 
 heavy rains that set in, and had returned to his father's cottage 
 seriously ill. 
 
 " The poor fellow was now stretched on his pallet, in a severe 
 state of suflPering. It was an attack of his old complaint, acute 
 rheumatic fever with a swelling of the joints. Large drops of 
 perspiration were standing upon his face. He was evidently 
 enduring great agony, hardly bearing the bed-clothes to touch 
 him ; and though he did his utmost to suppress what he suffered, 
 the enemy was too strong for him, and he groaned out occasion- 
 ally from the intolerable anguish. His mother said, that all the 
 sleep that he had had for the last week, put together, scarcely 
 amounted to an hour's length. He himself said, that the sleeping 
 draughts that he had taken had done him more harm than good ; 
 for if he went to sleep for ten minutes from the effect, he awoke 
 lip afterwards feeling worse than before. It was a distressing 
 scene ; and had I not made a successful trial of my mesmeric 
 powers with the other patient, I should have taken leave of poor 
 P. after the usual conversation was over. 
 
 " As it was, I determined to make another experiment, and 
 Saying nothing whatever to the patient, I held my hand before 
 his face, and in less than five minutes he was fast asleep ! you 
 shall not be wearied with an account of the mother's astonish- 
 ment, or of my own gratification. Here was a sturdy unim- 
 aginative labourer, who a few minutes back had been in too 
 great agony to converse, cast into a deep composing slumber, 
 through the simple agency of our vituperated art ! as the poet 
 ■^o beautifully expresses it, " that sweet sleep which medicines 
 all pain," had steeped his senses in forgetfulness of this world's 
 miseries. He was, comparatively speaking, in elysium, — and 
 
REMARKABLE CASES. 141 
 
 all the work of a few minutes. I continued to make passes 
 down his limbs for half an hour. Once he woke up suddenly, 
 from pain ; but instantly fell off to sleep again. After I left 
 him, he slept the greater part of the afternoon, waking at times 
 from a sudden pain, and then again dropping off; and he had 
 the best night since his attack. 
 
 " When I called to see him the next day, he told me that 
 though he was still very fuU of pain, the violent intolerable 
 agony had quite subsided since that first sleep ; and it may be 
 as well to mention, that it has never returned since. He has 
 had a good deal of suffering, of course, but different altogether 
 in degree. In fact, the acute anguish of the rheumatic fever 
 seemed to be cut short at once. I asked him now how he felt, 
 as I was beginning, he said, ' It fared (seemed) as if something 
 cold was walking over his brain.' He has described the same 
 sensation several times in almost the same words. I then put 
 him to sleep in three minutes, and when I pressed his forehead 
 with my fingers, he snored out I have since generally put 
 Lim to sleep in a minute and a half ; the last time he went off 
 in half a minute. He says that when I begin, 'he cannot 
 possibly keep awake.' It is unnecessary to add, that he 
 never heard of Mesmerism. 
 
 " The touch of gold or silver seemed to give him pain, and 
 he instantly awoke. The movement of my fingers near his 
 hand would set his own fingers in a slight magnetic move- 
 ment, causing a sort of twitching. 
 
 " As medical treatment has been going on at the same time, 
 I do not place the whole abatement of the fever to Mes- 
 merism. P. was greatly benefited by bleeding. But the 
 surgeon, hitherto an unbeliever, in spite of what he had wit- 
 nessed with our former patient, was astonished at the result, 
 and admits that the way in which sleep was induced and pain 
 overpowered, is something quite beyond the customary means 
 of the Esculapean art. To which of the two systems, the mes- 
 meric or the medical, the main improvement be owing, I do 
 not decide, though I have my opinion. I rather wish Mes- 
 merism to be regarded, not as an isolated panacea, that holds 
 no communion with other remedies, — but an adjunct, an 
 
142 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 auxiliary ; one out of many means, only simpler and less in- 
 jurious than the usual narcotics. But the point in this case, 
 as in that of H. B., is this, that imagination could have no 
 part in the matter : the patients were both ignorant of what 
 was taking place, and their faith or fancy gave no assistance 
 whatsoever. 
 
 " How the learned of your profession will explain the above, 
 I pretend not to guess. They must find some other theory 
 than that of imagination. They have ridden that horse to 
 death, and it will carry them no longer. Neither does the 
 system of Mr. Braid meet the difficulty. The patients did not 
 stare at me. They did not fix their eyes stedfastly at my 
 fingers, and so drop off to sleep : they did not even look at me, 
 — or know that anything was going on. I therefore send these 
 two cases up to you, not as proofs of the curative influence of 
 Mesmerism, (for of that there is already abundant evidence,) 
 but as an unequivocal, undeniable illustration of the wondrous 
 sympathy that exists between man and man. They prove that 
 a sympathetic union does exist, — be the connecting chain 
 either a fluid, or electricity, or any other undiscovered agent : 
 and again I call upon our antagonist in your profession to 
 enter upon the subject in a calm philosophic tone. Let them 
 discard their vulgar jokes, and their affected silence, and meet 
 the question openly like men. It is really sad to see the shifts 
 and the interpretations that they employ ; to see the rapture 
 with which they pounce on a failure, and the smooth plausi- 
 bility with which they forget a fact. It is melancholy to see 
 this, and remember, that the inquiry is not about some unreal 
 point in abstract science, — but whether there be a provision 
 in nature's storehouse, — the soothing gift of a merciful 
 Creator, — by which a vast amount of human suffering may be 
 spared, and even the duration of human life occasionally 
 prolonged." 
 
 Here then are a few remarkable cases. And what is the 
 reply of the unbeliever ? That the writer is a prejudiced, in- 
 credible witness ? For I pass by as unworthy of notice the 
 common charge of deception and " morbid vanity," with simply 
 demanding, what reason I could have for upholding Mesmerism 
 
REMARKABLE CASES. 143 
 
 except conviction of its truth? But I am an incompetent 
 testimony, — it is meant ; I have received no diploma from the 
 College of Surgeons, and know nothing of the action of hysteria 
 and of nervousness. There is a homely proverb which will 
 admirably apply to these reasoners, — " An ounce of mother- 
 wit is worth a pound of clergy." A little practical common sense 
 is all that is necessary ; and it is possible for an educated man, 
 — even though he may not have received a medical degree, — 
 to form a legitimate opinion of the appearances of Mesmerism, 
 after a daily observation for several months. But setting all this 
 aside, — and for the sake of argument admitting myself to be 
 in error and the above a delusion, are these cases isolated ones ? 
 Is my experience a rare instance ? Is nothing else producible ? 
 At this moment, hundreds and hundreds of cases, out of England 
 alone, can be brought forward. A mass of evidence quite 
 astonishing is in my possession. Cures and relief effected in 
 an infinite diversity of diseases can be named. Not that it is 
 pretended that Mesmerism is a universal specific. There are 
 many disorders, which it does not seem to touch. There are 
 many patients to whom it does not seem to be of use. Still a 
 host of cases can be produced, in which a service, beyond aU 
 expression valuable, has been wrought ; in which pain of the 
 most intense agony has been removed ; in which long chronic 
 diseases have been subdued ; in which sudden attacks have been 
 mastered ; — cases, too, in which medical men have been at 
 fault, or which they had pronounced incurable and hopeless. 
 In the metropolis alone a considerable number of Mesmerisers 
 can be named. There is hardly a county in England, where 
 it is not now practised. From York to the Isle of Wight, — 
 from Dover to Plymouth, there can be produced a chain of 
 evidence and a list of cures. Our Mesmerisers are not ignorant 
 practitioners ; — not hot-headed cracked-brained enthusiasts, but 
 men whose standing in society is a guarantee for the correctness 
 of their information, — temperate, slow-judging, careful thinkers, 
 and as little likely to be led astray by a false light as their op- 
 ponents themselves. Clergymen, military men, barristers, 
 physicians, surgeons, ladies high in rank, and men of a dis- 
 tinguished position in the world could all be named : their 
 
144 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 practice of the art is well known in their respective circles ; and 
 by many I have been favoured with information that is sur- 
 prising and interesting in the highest degree. The details of 
 their respective success are so copious that they would fill a, 
 thick volume. Of course, I am precluded by the brief nature 
 of this little work from doing more than glancing at the lead- 
 ing points. If I selected a few cases for insertion, the choice 
 would be most perplexing ; and if I began, I should not know 
 where to stop. They can only, therefore, be noticed in the 
 most cursory manner. But even with this limited allusion, 
 and with the addition of the names of some who have previously 
 appeared before the public, but of whom many of my readers 
 may not have heard, I shall be able to produce, what the 
 lawyers would call such a mass of cumulative evidence, as nothing 
 but the scepticism of science could prevent men from admitting 
 to be at least a startling and important phenomenon. 
 
 Mr. Atkinson, then, of whom mention has been made before, 
 has been eminently successful in his treatment of numerous 
 diseases, some of which too generally defy all human skill. He 
 has accomplished three cures in that most fearful of maladies, 
 tic doloreux : one case was of ten years' standing; and the 
 other two of several years' duration. He has cured several 
 ■cases of fits, of hysteria and want of sleep, and of those deter- 
 mined nervous and sick headaches, which seldom yield to 
 remedial action. He has been successful in various acute 
 nervous pains and contractions of the limbs, in asthma, fever, 
 long-standing cough, affections of the heart and spine, injured 
 sight, and deafness, in melancholia, rheumatism, toothache, 
 indigestion, and different functional obstructions. He has 
 found Mesmerism efficacious to a most valuable extent in sub- 
 duing cerebral excitement. He had a patient under his treat- 
 ment, whose irritability of brain was becoming a source of 
 much anxiety. By the application of Mesmerism every day for 
 a fortnight all the formidable symptoms disappeared ; the head 
 became cool ; the paroxysms ceased ; and the functions of the 
 brain were restored to a calm and healthy state. The efficacy 
 of Mesmerism in maladies of this description is almost incre- 
 dible. Its soothing influence has so speedy an effect. Mr. 
 
REMARKABLE CASES. 145 
 
 Atkinson lias indeed such copious and invaluable information 
 to communicate, that the public have reason to hope that one 
 day he may place the results of his experience before them. 
 
 Captain John James, of Dover, has great experience in the 
 practice, and has contributed much towards its full appreci- 
 ation. His patients have been numerous. He has found Mes- 
 merism most efficacious in nervous disorders ; — and in several 
 other complaints, he has greatly alleviated the sufferings of his 
 patients. 
 
 The late Mr. Chenevix, a well-known name in 'the literary 
 world, the author of a beautiful article in the Edinburgh Re- 
 view on " France and England," and a man of considerable 
 scientific attainments, as his communications in the Philoso- 
 phical Transactions show, was preparing a work to demonstrate 
 the results of his experiments and observations on 442 persons, 
 when an acute disease suddenly terminated his own existence. 
 In the course of six months he once mesmerised 164 persons, 
 of " whom 98 manifested undeniable effects. There was hardly 
 one instance where disease existed, that relief was not pro- 
 cured." His efforts were immense ; and his success propor- 
 tionate. To mention a few instances, — he cured a case of 
 epilepsy and spasmodic pain of six years' standing in twenty- 
 one sittings. He succeeded completely in three other cases of 
 the same disease, and procured immense relief in eight. He 
 cured a man far advanced in a rapid consumption. He cured 
 seven cases of worms ; and produced a most powerful effect on 
 some men in the Coldstream Guards. He was of service, also, 
 to several inmates in Wakefield Lunatic Asylum. The reader 
 is referred for further information respecting this lamented 
 man to the first number of the Zoist. 
 
 The cases reported by the Eeverend Chauncy Townshend in 
 his philosophical work, called " Facts in Mesmerism," are 
 remarkable from the answer they afford to the common opinion, 
 that the effects of Mesmerism are limited to a few nervous and 
 fanciful persons, chiefly of the weaker sex. While he has 
 adopted Mesmerism extensively in cases of sickness, he men- 
 tions that when he first took it up, " out of twenty-three indi- 
 viduals, in whom he induced sleepwaking, more or less perfectly, 
 
146 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 six only were women, one only a decided invalid." He gives 
 the account of seven or eight young men " in perfect health,"— 
 " in good and robust health," who were mesmerised by him. 
 His description of his power over some sceptics at Cambridge 
 is so curious and convincing, that it should be read by every 
 candid inquirer. In respect to Mesmerism as a curative agent, 
 he says himself, after much experience, " its capacity to serve, 
 either as a calmant or a stimulant, according to the exigencies 
 of the complaint, would alone give it the highest rank as a 
 temedy. In this point of view, how valuable appear its offices, 
 how unmatched by those of any substance in the Materia 
 Medica." " Of all remedies, this alone pours its benefits direct 
 upon the very springs of sensation." " In cases of deafness and 
 blindness, which depend on nervous weakness, we possess a 
 subtle means of acting efficiently upon the fountain-head of the 
 calamity." Though "insulated cases of benefit," he adds, 
 " might seem suspicious, benefits on so large a scale must 
 finally vanquish distrust." And he concludes his notice to the 
 second edition of his work, " with a deep regret that prejudice 
 should yet stand in the way of so much alleviation of human 
 sufiering as it is calculated to affisrd, and with a humble hope 
 that truth and time will lead to a discreet and grateful use of 
 this wonderful gift to man." 
 
 Colonel Sir Thomas Willshire, commanding at Chatham, has 
 ^iractised Mesmerism extensively, and with great success. It 
 is no new thing to see the gallant profession of arms lending 
 the warmest aid to the cause of humanity -. and many military 
 men, with a zeal and benevolence that reflect the highest 
 honour upon them, have taken up our science. To Sir Thomas 
 Willshire, in particular, occupying as he does so distinguished 
 a position, the highest admiration is due ; — and while very 
 many interesting particulars could be related by him, one is so 
 striking that it cannot be too often laid before the public. 
 
 A nursery servant, who had been for a long time sufferino- 
 pain in her upper jaw, of a most excruciating kind, was com- 
 pelled to undergo a severe operation on its account. The pain 
 was so intense, that she could scarcely bear a touch on the part 
 affected. Sir T. Willshire put her into the Mesmeric trance, 
 
REMAEKABLB CASES. 147 
 
 and the surgeon commenced the Operation. It lasted more than 
 five minutes. She did not feel it the least. Not a muscle oi 
 nerve either twitched or moved. "When Sir Thomas awoke 
 her, she was not conscious of having gone through the ope-* 
 ration. 
 
 It should be added that the sympathy of taste was developed 
 in this case. When Sir Thomas took wine, the patient said 
 she tasted it. The same experiment was tried with biscuit^ 
 and she " tasted biscuit." And though she felt not the pain of the 
 operation, when Captain Valiant pinched Sir Thomas's hand, 
 she immediately felt it, and said she did not like it. 
 
 Among other cases, Sir Thomas Willshire has cured a 
 servantj named Catharine Cocks, of a pulmonary complaint, 
 with which she had been very ill and affected for years. She 
 is now perfectly restored to health and strength, and is " robust 
 and well;" "though the medical gentleman, who had attended 
 her for some years, had, previously to the Mesmeric operation^ 
 assured her parents that she could not survive the ensuing 
 winter." 
 
 Earl Stanhope, whose philanthropy and Christian kindness 
 are so universally known and admired, is a practiser of the 
 science. This excellent nobleman is not deterred by popular 
 prejudice, or by the ridicule which some newspapers have en- 
 deavoured to cast upon him for his zeal in the cause, from 
 appearing as the advocate of truth. In a letter, of which he 
 has permitted me to make use, the noble lord mentions several 
 cases, in which he had been of signal service to some of his 
 sick and poorer neighbours. In particular, he mentions the 
 case of a young man, aged twenty-seven, who had been obliged 
 to give up his place on account of a nervous affection, which 
 produced syncope upon every trifling excitement. After being 
 mesmerised a few times, he was perfectly cured. Another was 
 the case of a young woman, aged twenty-two, the daughter of 
 a day-labourer, who was afflicted with such violent epileptic 
 fits that she also was obliged to retire from service. After a 
 treatment of a short duration, she was pronounced quite well, 
 and returned to her situation with her former master. Other 
 
 L 2 
 
148 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 very interesting particulars could be added, if the limits of this 
 work allowed it.* 
 
 Miss Wallace, a most benevolent lady in Cheltenham, whose 
 •exertions are unremitting in everything that can be of service 
 to the cause of humanity, can give the strongest attestation to 
 the truth of the Mesmeric power. She has had several most 
 extraordinary cases under her management. She has cured 
 two cases of decline, — the only two of the kind that she has 
 attempted. She has cured sciatica, — the most violent cramps, 
 epilepsy, head-aches, tooth-aches, ear-aches, — and some without 
 sleep being induced. Several of her other cases are very 
 remarkable ; and I hardly know any one more able to give 
 valuable evidence and information connected with the science, 
 than this amiable and active-minded friend of truth.f ' 
 
 Several other ladies and gentlemen in Cheltenham and the 
 neighbourhood have been for some time practising the art ; and 
 could speak in the strongest way of its beneficial effect with 
 their patients. 
 
 Captain Valiant, of Chatham, who a short time ago was a 
 " thorough sceptic," as he called himself, is now a most powerful 
 and successful Mesmeriser. Numerous cases could be related 
 in which he has relieved pain, reduced swellings, and obtained 
 a complete cure. His power seems unusually great. He 
 writes, "I have myself mesmerised many persons of both sexes, 
 and have seen others succeed with a great many more. I have 
 also, in many cases, without putting the patient to sleep, re- 
 moved head-aches, tooth-aches, sore-throats, and several other 
 pains, not only in women, but strong men, merely by manipu- 
 lating the parts affected." Space is wanting for an insertion 
 of some interesting facts connected with a few of his patients ; 
 but the attention of the reader is invited to the following : " In 
 my practice of Mesmerism, I have met two curious cases which 
 perhaps may be worth mentioning. In both of these my 
 subjects were powerful men, brother captains in the army, 
 
 * The details of these cases have been since published in the " Zoist," 
 yol. ii. 
 
 t See also " Zoist," vol. iv. p. 458., for report of many more cures by this 
 excellent and kind friend. 
 
REMARKABLE CASES. 14^ 
 
 whom I had repeatedly tried to mesmerise, but could only 
 succeed in closing their eyes, without being able to put them to- 
 sleep, so that they could not possibly open them, till I de- 
 mesmerised them. I could close their eyes in about two- 
 minutes, even by giving them a glass of magnetised water.. 
 I had also the power of catalepsing the limbs of one of them by 
 making passes over them." Captain Valiant's testimony, like 
 that of Mr. Townshend's, is a most valuable answer to those 
 who think that Mesmerism applies only to patients that are 
 " highly nervous and hysterical." * 
 
 Mr. Baldook of Chatham can bear most useful testimony to 
 the curative powers of Mesmerism. " Several cases," he says, 
 " have presented themselves to him, in which relief has been 
 given to the parties." In palpitations of the heart and severe 
 head-aches, he has been very successful. One of his cures is 
 so remarkable, that I shall give the particulars. It is that of 
 Eobert Flood, now residing at Caistor in Lincolnshire. Mr. 
 Flood had for several years suffered most severely from disease 
 in one of his kidneys. He had been under the care of different 
 medical men, — and had been placed in a London hospital. His 
 pains were so acute, that he could not leave his bed until the 
 day was advanced ; — and even then it was necessary for him 
 to recline several times before retiring for the night. He had 
 been in this state for several years. Mr. Baldock was the 
 happy instrument of restoring him to health, after a Mesmeric 
 treatment of three months. This poor feUow, great part of 
 whose time was spent in bed from pain and weakness, " is now 
 in such robust health that he can throw a quoit." Mr. Baldock 
 has several other most valuable instances of cure and relief: 
 and as he keeps a journal of his Mesmeric proceedings, we may 
 hope that these interesting particulars will be placed more fully 
 before us.f 
 
 Mr. Majendie, of Hedingham Castle, Essex, has practised 
 Mesmerism with great advantage to the health of several 
 
 * Captain Valiant's statement is given more fully in " Zoist." vol. ii. 
 p. 241. 
 
 t Since the above was written, Mr. Baldock has furnished several other 
 cases to the Zoist, 
 
 L 3 
 
150 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 persons, He says in a letter, " I have seen much of the 
 curative effects of Mesmerism." Several of his cases are most 
 instructive. Invalids, who had been incapable of any exertion 
 or labour, through a deranged system, have been cured or 
 restored to comparative health. ' One of the facts that he 
 mentions, is so corroborative of the electrical theory of Animal- 
 Magnetism, that it deserves to be recorded. "Without the 
 slightest suggestion or prompting, the patient said she saw the 
 sparks of fire pass from the points of my fingers into the water 
 which I magnetised for her." This same phenomenon has been 
 /Observed by other somnambulist patients. Mr. Mnjendie has 
 given great attention to the subject of Mesmerism; and his 
 opinion on all matters connected with it is of much value, 
 
 Mr, Topham, of the Temple, whose services in the wellr 
 known case of poor Wombell were so invaluable, and of whom, 
 therefore, the Chirurgical Society seem to entertain a pro- 
 fessional jealousy, has much experience in the practice. It 
 may be useful to record one of his cases ; that of a young man, 
 aged 18, who, for four years and a half, had been subject to 
 epileptic fits, — at least three a week, and each of two hours' 
 duration. He suffered also from incessant pains in his head. 
 Upon being mesmerised, tha pains immediately ceased altogether ; 
 his natural sleep became sound and regular ; and he had two 
 fits only in the space of three months. The Mesmeric treat- 
 ment was unavoidably discontinued in this case — before the 
 cure became perfected; but the change in the young man's 
 health is something quite remarkable. 
 
 Mr. Thompson, of Fairfield House, near York, is a very 
 successful Mesmeriser. After much experience, he speaks in 
 the strongest way of the utility of the science, and of the 
 benefit that may be derived from it. He is often able to re- 
 move acute pain without producing sleep. He says, that he 
 has tested this repeatedly *' with almost invariable success ; 
 mitigating, and very often altogether removing, toothache, 
 headache, rheumatic pains, and pains occasioned by contusions, 
 burns, and any inflammation;" — and in some few cases, of a 
 severe or acute character, he has been able to afford great relief. 
 
 One of his cases is such a beautiful illustration of the power 
 
REMARKABLE CASES. 151 
 
 of Mesmerism, that I regret my inability, from want of space, 
 to give the full particulars. It is that of John Bradley, a boy 
 near York, — aged nine years, who had suffered for fifteen 
 months from a diseased knee, — evidently of a scrofulous cha- 
 racter. "When Mr. Thompson first saw him, " the child had 
 been suffering intense agony, — was unable to rest day or 
 night, had a total want of appetite ; there was great inflam- 
 mation extending above the knee, — the knee was enormously 
 enlarged, and it was evident that extensive suppuration had 
 taken place in the inside of the knee." " The child was in a 
 high state of fever, a deep hectic flush was on his cheeksj 
 attended with quickness of breathing and a short cough." Mr. 
 Thompson determined to try the " experiment of making 
 passes over the knee for half an hour. Before the time had 
 nearly expired, the child became calm and still, then began to 
 smile, and said he felt a warm heat come out of Mr. ThompsorCs 
 fingers, which had taken away the pain. He seemed a little 
 drowsy, but no sleep was produced." After a certain period 
 of treatment, the child's health rapidly improved, — the in- 
 flammation of the knee subsided, absorption of the matter took 
 place, and in a month he was able to put his toe to the ground. 
 After many other particulars, Mr. Thompson adds, " that ii 
 was in May that I commenced mesmerising him ; by the latter 
 end of August the recovery was as complete, as I thought it 
 possible for a knee, so deformed from long-standing disease, 
 could be." He has great use of the limb ; is able to walk 
 about very well, — suffers not the slightest pain or incon- 
 venience, — and his health is very good. One fact is too 
 curious to be omitted. " During the process of recovery, he 
 never but once went to sleep under the operation q/" Mesmerism." 
 Here is another valuable proof of the remedial power of 
 Mesmerism in Mr. Thompson's hands. A gentleman who had 
 been suffering for nine consecutive days from severe rheumatic 
 fever, with acute pain in the shoulders, arms, hands, loins, 
 legs, and knees ; with the fever excessive ; profuse night sweats 
 caused by the agony of pain, — and loss of sleep and of appetite, 
 placed himself under the management of Mr. Thompson. These 
 are his own words : " In less than twenty minutes you had 
 
 L 4 
 
152 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 nearly charmed away all the pain and restored warmtli and 
 feeling to my feet. You then put me to sleep : the delightful 
 sensation of that sleep, after such extreme pain, I can scarcely 
 describe. When you awakened me, I felt like another person. 
 The fever was reduced : and the pain was gone. In^four days 
 I was down stairs : every time you mesmerised me, I felt as it 
 were new life." 
 
 Mr. Thompson gives a description of three cures of severe 
 and long-standing neuralgic pains of the head. One of the 
 parties had been under the first medical advice in London; 
 " had a great horror of Mesmerism without any faith in its 
 curing her." One day, when much worse than usual, she asked 
 for its application : in less than ten minutes she was relieved ; 
 and awoke up entirely free from pain ; and her general health 
 has been very good ever since.* 
 
 Captain Anderson, of the Royal Marines, who is resident in 
 Chelmsford, is another very powerful Mesmeriser. His last 
 case is so very striking an instance of the merciful power of 
 Mesmerism that I shall give it somewhat in detail. Mrs. 
 Raymond, a lady residing at Chelmsford, had suffered for nine 
 years from a spinal complaint, heing confined to her sofa, and un- 
 able to be moved day and night ; she had also lost the use of her 
 voice. Her sufferings-were dreadful. Blisters, caustic plasters, 
 leeches, setons, medicines of all descriptions, were tried in 
 succession, without any substantial good. These are her own 
 words: "During the nine years I was unable to be moved 
 from my sofa night Or day ; I was never free from pain ; some- 
 times the agony was indescribable : the three last years I have 
 been entirely speechless. I had given up all hope of recovery, 
 and almost prayed for death." " At the very time that I had 
 resigned myself to my fate, and begged that my sufferings 
 might soon be ended, God in his great mercy made me ac- 
 quainted with Captain Anderson, who offered to try the effect 
 of Mesmerism." " I latighed at the idea ; but from his account 
 of the cures he had performed, I complied, — being anxious to 
 
 • Mr. Thompson, who is one of the most successful of Mesmerisers, has 
 sent a large number of cases to the Zoist. His power in wiUitiff, without 
 the manipulations, is most striking. 
 
EEMAEKA.BLE CASES. 153 
 
 grasp at any thing which would do me good." Without fol- 
 lowing out the details, this is the result. " I am now able to 
 walk out daily, alone' and unassisted. I am regaining my 
 speech; — and I am free from pain, sleep soundly, and take no 
 medicine, and am now seldom mesmerised." Well may this 
 excellent lady, when comparing " her past sufferings with her 
 present happiness," say, that she " feels thankful to God and 
 grateful to Captain Anderson." For here is a case, which 
 alone would be able to substantiate the healing virtues of this 
 blessed gift.* 
 
 Dr. Engledue of Southsea practises Mesmerism in his pro- 
 fession, and is a warm advocate in its cause. Whoever has 
 studied the fine intellectual forehead of Dr. Engledue, and 
 watched his clear eye, and calm, thoughtful countenance, must 
 acknowledge, that there stands a philosopher in the truest 
 acceptation of the word, and one little likely to be led astray 
 by the unreal fancies of a heated imagination. 
 
 Dr Sigmond, whose position in the scientific and literary 
 world gives the greatest value to his testimony, published in 
 the Lancet, for December, 1837, a most remarkable Mesmeric 
 case of his own. 
 
 Mr. Weekes, a surgeon ' at Sandwich,' has " for two years 
 devoted a large portion of his time and attention to the great 
 remedial powers proceeding from the judicious application of 
 Mesmerism;" — and for this independent and noble-minded 
 conduct, he has been, of course, traduced by the ignorant and 
 the malevolent. He has, however, the satisfaction of knowing, 
 that the alleviation of pain, and the removal of disease, under 
 the Mesmeric treatment, and through his management, has 
 been considerable. His professional success has been great. 
 With him, Mesmerism has proved of use, "after the usual 
 modes of treatment, and, in some instances, abundance of 
 quackery to boot, had utterly failed, and rendered the case 
 more inveterate and distressing." Among the cases that he 
 mentions, are some of " dyspepsia, habitual and obstinate con- 
 stipation, paralysis, sluggish condition of the hepatic system, 
 
 * This case has been since published in the Zoist, vol, ii. p. S3. , 
 
154 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 and hypochondriasis, muscular contractions,' stubborn and other- 
 wise hopeless cases of chronic rheumatism, local pains, and 
 several severe forms of neuralgia, cases of general languor and 
 debility without manifest cause, as also a case of deafness, — ^ 
 the removal of two teeth without the knowledge of the patient, 
 besides several affections of an anomalous character." Mr. 
 Weekes is proceeding firmly and actively: his name ranks 
 high with aU parties ; and he is reaping an abundant reward. 
 
 Mr. Gardiner of Portsmouth is a powerful supporter of the 
 truth of Mesmerism. He gives a valuable account of the ex- 
 traction of two teeth, attended by most painful circumstances, 
 without the consciousness of the party. " During the whole of 
 this trying operation not a groan or complaint escaped the 
 patient." Other severe operations have been performed by 
 him " without any manifestation of feeling " on the part of the 
 patient. 
 
 Mr. Prideaux, of Southampton, is another great practical 
 Mesmeriser. He repoi-ts three remarkable cases of the cure 
 of St. Vitus's dance, — in which the "twitchings" diminished 
 perceptibly from day to day, under Mesmeric treatment, Fronj 
 five diflferent patients he has extracted teeth without their con-i 
 sciousness. His description of their demeanour under this 
 usually painful operation is most curious. " The patient sat 
 with the hands quietly folded in the lap, — the countenance 
 was placid and serene,-^ and the whole attitude that of repose." 
 " The insensibility was perfect " of the three other patients. 
 The fifth " allowed me to operate for two hours with the most 
 passive indifference." Mr. Prideaux, himself a medical man, 
 says of one of his patients, " a case more conclusive of the 
 power of Mesmerism as a remedial agent in the cure of disease, 
 it would be difiicult to conceive." " If imagination," says he 
 again, " can work such wonders, she should be placed at the 
 head of the Materia Medica." "With many such enlightened 
 practitioners as Mr. Prideaux, the well-attested facts of Mesr 
 merism wiU soon force their way on the mind of the public. 
 
 Mr. Janson, of Pennsylvania Park, near Exeter, the President 
 of the Exeter Literary and Philosophical Society, and a gentle- 
 man well known ia that part of the world among scientific 
 
EEMAEKABLE CASES. 155 
 
 men, is also a Mesmeriser, and can bear his valuable testimony 
 to tbe therapeutic virtues of the science. He has been par-» 
 ticularly successful in the treatment of tic-doloreux.* 
 
 Mr. Kiste, a most intelligent gentleman from Germany, and 
 who has been resident some little time in Plymouth, has de- 
 voted much of his attention to the science. Among the caseg 
 in whicli he has found it efficacious, one alone can be par^ 
 ticularly mentioned, which by itself would confirm the unt 
 speakable value of Mesmerism. It was a severe case of 
 spasmodic asthma. The patient had been subject to it for 
 twelve years. She says herself, that such were her sufferings, 
 that for " many days she was obliged to sit with a pillow on 
 Ler lap to support her stomach." " The paroxysms were so 
 violent that she was obliged to sit on the floor for fpur-andt 
 twenty hours at a time." " To describe half my sufferings 
 when the spasmodic breathing came on, is impossible." She 
 had been attended by eight or nine medical men in succession. 
 Cupping, blistering, hot baths, were tried, but without any 
 important effect. In short, her own description of the periodical 
 pains which returned every fortnight — of their severity, and 
 of other attendant evils, is painful to read. A clergyman, well 
 acquainted with the family, now writes to the Mesmeriser, and 
 says, " It is now at this moment (Jan. 29.) nine weeks since 
 she was subjected to the Mesmeric influence, and she has heen 
 entirely free from asthma, her general health is improved, and 
 she is gaining flesh." I shall not enter into the further details 
 of this very striking and interesting case ; as we have reason 
 to hope that Mr. Kiste will himself shortly bring them before 
 the public, f 
 
 Mr. Holm, of Highgate, who, in a most philanthropic manner, 
 devotes much of his time to the benefit of his fellow-creatures^ 
 has found Mesmerism a most efficacious remedy. He ha? 
 obtained some very remarkable cures. He generally has a 
 large number of Mesmeric patients under his management, 
 He teEs me that he has proved Mesmerism to be most valuable 
 
 * Zoist, vol.iv. p. 341. 
 
 f This case has since appeared in the Zoist, vol. ii. p. 465, 
 
156 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 in epilepsy, rheumatism, brain ferer, diarrhsea, headaches, and 
 many neuralgic disorders. Mr. Holm has large experience in 
 phrenology, and has tested with great success its connection 
 with vital magnetism. 
 
 Mr. Charles Childs of Bungay " was very much indisposed 
 to receive the phenomena of Mesmerism as facts," — " but he 
 was constrained to admit their reality, unless he would deny 
 the evidence of his own senses." He says, " I have practised 
 Mesmerism above 'four years ; in this period, I have proved its 
 unquestionably beneficial results on several of the most afflictive 
 maladies." In corroboration of the above, I can state, that I 
 called on the mother of one of Mr. Childs's patients, and heard 
 from her own mouth the details of a very remarkable cure of a 
 child that had been frightened in a fearful manner. Every 
 other remedy, but Mesmerism, seemed to fail in this case. 
 Mr. Childs generally has about four patients at a time Under 
 his hands. Much attention has been awakened in his aeigh- 
 bourhood by the following operations. I quote from the very 
 able letter which Mr. Webb, the operating surgeon, addressed 
 to the editor of " The Medical Times." Mr. Webb says, that 
 he does " not come forward to support the theory of any man. 
 He desires only, as an unprejudiced observer, to record facts 
 which he had himself tested." The cases are these : " Two 
 young women. Mesmeric patients of Mr. Childs, who had suf- 
 fered from toothache for some time past, consented to have 
 their teeth extracted while in Mesmeric somnolency, but were 
 not apprised of the time at which this was to be done. That 
 they might have no reason to suspect what was about to take 
 place, I was not sent for until Mr. Childs had put them into 
 the Mesmeric condition, when I went and extracted for one a 
 very troublesome stump, and for the other, a double tooth in 
 the upper jaw. I am morally certain that no means were 
 employed to produce this state of unconsciousness except the 
 Mesmeric." * * * * « After a short time they were awakened, 
 and were both wholly unconscious of all that had taken 
 place." 
 
 " Nor was this all ; for neither at the time when they were 
 awakened, nor on the following day, did they experience either 
 
EEMAEKABLE CASES. 157 
 
 pain in the jaw or tenderness in tte gum."* Evidence, like 
 this, coming from the surgeon himself, has a twofold strength. 
 
 A similar operation took place at Hinckley in Leicestershire, 
 last June, upon a young man, named Paul. The tooth was 
 extracted during the Mesmeric sleep, without consciousness. 
 Paul told a correspondent of mine, that " he did not feel any 
 pain whatever." 
 
 Mr. NichoUes, of Bruton Street, has extracted two or three 
 teeth from patients in 'the Mesmeric sleep, without their know- 
 ledge. In this last case, he says, " The pulse was 108 under 
 the Mesmeric influence, and rose a little during the operation. 
 On being awakened, she expressed the most lively gratitude 
 and delighl; at having lost her troublesome companion." 
 
 Another striking case of this kind was the extraction of a 
 tooth from W. Gill, at Edinburgh, without pain, on May 1. 
 1843, by Mr. Nasmyth, Surgeon-Dentist to the Queen. Several 
 medical gentlemen were present. Mr. Craig was the Mes- 
 meriser. Gill had no feeling, when the tooth was being 
 extracted, — but after he was awakened, he felt a soreness and 
 pain in the gums.f 
 
 Mr. Carstairs, of Sheffield, who practises Mesmerism, has 
 extracted teeth from parties who were not aware of the opera- 
 tion. He has also performed several minor operations, such as 
 opening an abscess and dressing the wound ; cutting a large 
 wart from a patient's hand ; — inserting a seton, without the 
 parties feeling the slightest pain or suffering any inconvenience. 
 — Other medical men in Sheffield have employed Mesmerism 
 as a medical auxiliary, and could bear testimony to its useful- 
 ness. 
 
 Mr. Chandler, a surgeon of Eotherhithe, has much experience 
 of the beneficial effects of Mesmerism. Among other cases, he 
 has had one of insanity, in which his Mesmeric power was in- 
 valuable. He " produced a cure, rapid and perfect, when 
 
 * Mr. Charles Cbilds has had some still more interesting cases, which I 
 have enjoyed the opportunity of witnessing, the account of which is published 
 in the Zoist, vol. iii. p. 36. 
 
 f See Introductory Chapter, for the report of extraction of teeth by diflfer- 
 ent dentists. 
 
153 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPOJTENTS. 
 
 bleeding and powerful medicines, and medicines given ijower- 
 fully and perseveringly, had all been unavailing." * 
 
 Mr. Purland, of Mortimer Street, Cavendish Square, offers 
 an honourable instance of the triumph of truth over prejudice 
 and preconceived opinions. I met Mr. Purland last July at 
 the house of a friend : his opinions against the existence of 
 Mesmerism as a fact were most decisive ; I had much conver»' 
 sation with him, — but did not shake him in the least. He 
 consented, however, to witness some Mesmeric experiments ;^ 
 and after giving them a due and patient investigation, he 
 became a convert, and is now a valuable ally, — and has prac 
 tised the art with great success. He has cured his fiither in a 
 dreadful and most distressing malady, in a case where no relief 
 Was procured from medicine. He has cured cases of asthma, 
 hysteria, lameness, and deafness. At various times he has 
 relieved patients of headache, toothache, pains in the' chest, &c. 
 He calls Mesmerism, in a letter I lately received from him, " a 
 science of much importance;" and this from a gentleman, who 
 a few months back was a determined sceptic ! Such, however, 
 is the force of truth, where straightforward and honourable in* 
 tentions go hand in hand with the inquiry. •(■ 
 
 Mr. Boyton, a surgeon of Watlington, in Oxfordshire, is 
 another honourable example of a manly independence of mind. 
 His acknowledged reputation in his profession gives value to 
 what he states. He has cured a severe case of fits ; and an- 
 other serious case of injury, accompanied by much pain, and 
 general ill health. He says, " I do not mean to recommend 
 the indiscrimate use of this agent in every case, nor substitute 
 it for acknowledged remedies. But in some cases I should not 
 hesitate to employ it ; it strengthens the nervous system, im- 
 proves the digestion, and tranquillises the mind." This is most 
 important testimony. 
 
 Dr. Wilson, of the Middlesex Hospital, is so well known by 
 
 * A large number of most interesting cases, under the treatment of this 
 able and inde&tigable Mesmeriser, has appeared in the later numbers of the 
 Zoist. 
 
 f The preface has already recorded the large number of teeth which JMr. 
 Furland has extracted in the Mesmeric state. 
 
EEMAEKABLE CASES. 159 
 
 his publications on the subject, to be a firm supporter of the 
 truths of Mesmerism, that it is only needful to allude to his 
 name. Some readers may, however, be interested in learning 
 that Dr. "Wilson has cured a case of insanity, or intense melan- 
 choly, by the aid of Mesmerism. 
 
 Dr. Ashburner, of Grosvenor Street, and lately physician to 
 the Middlesex Hospital, is a most energetic friend to Mes- 
 merism. As was also the lamented Dr. Buxton, of Brownlow 
 Street. 
 
 Dr. Storer, of Bristol, has published a valuable little treatise, 
 recommending the practice. 
 
 Dr. Simpson, of York, has been one of the earliest friends to 
 the science. 
 
 Dr. Arnott, of Edinburgh, is another advocate. 
 
 The names of several other medical men can be added. Mr* 
 Symes, of Grrosvenor Street. Mr. J. Hands, of Duke Street, 
 Grosvenor Square. Mr. Decimus Hands, of Thayer Street, 
 Manchester Square, a most successful and benevolent promoter 
 of the good cause. Mr. Morgan, of Bedford Eow. Mr. Flin- 
 toff, of Great Tichfield Street. Mr. Clarke, of Kingsland Road. 
 Mr. Case, of Fareham. Mr. Adams, of Lymington. Mr. Chater, 
 of Norwich, Mr. Weddel, of Scarborough. Mr. Nixon, of Wig- 
 ton, Cumberland. Mr. J. B. Parker, of Exeter. Mr. Sargent, 
 of Keigate, Surrey, &c. Most of these gentleman have sent 
 papers to the Zoist. 
 
 Mr. Johnston, Surgeon, 22 Saville Row, bears honourable 
 testimony to the efficacy of Mesmerism in a remarkable case, 
 recorded in the second volume of the Zoist, p. 42. 
 
 Mr. Newnham, Surgeon, of Farnham, the well-known author 
 
 of " Human Magnetism," has proved himself a valuable and 
 
 unexpected ally. He was requested to " write a paper against 
 
 Mesmerism, and furnished with materials " for the purpose : 
 
 but the very inquiry convinced him of its truth. The result 
 
 has been as honourable to Mr. Newnham, as it must have been 
 
 mortifying to his sceptical prompter : — 
 
 " For 'tis the sport, to have the engineer 
 Hoist with his own petard." 
 
 Mr. Luxmore, of Alphington, Exeter ; and Mr. Hollings of 
 
160 MBSMEEISM AKD ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 Leicester, are amongst our most unwearied friends- Mr. Vivian, 
 of Woodfield, Torquay, is another supporter. 
 
 The readers of the Zoist must also have noticed the benevo- 
 lent exertions of Mr. Briggs, of Nottingham Place. (No. 14. 
 p. 226.) 
 
 Mr. MulhoUand, of Walsall, is a most earnest and successful 
 Mesmerist. He has reduced a wen of eleven years' standing, 
 and of the size of a goose's egg, so completelyj that it requires 
 acute observation to detect it. 
 
 Mr. Stenson, of Northampton, is another valuable supporter 
 of the cause. He has cured cases of fits, melancholia, &c. &c. 
 He says that he looks forward with well-grounded hope to 
 Mesmerism being more generally applied as a curative means. 
 
 Mr. Summers, of Chatham, has acted successfully upon a case 
 of obstinate hernia by Mesmerism. 
 
 Dr. Cryer, of Bradford, states a case where a young girl, 
 named Louisa Taylor, who had lost the use of her arm and leg 
 by paralysis, was materially benefited by the Mesmeric treat- 
 ment of Mr. Prest of that town, 
 
 Mr. Brindley, of Stourbridge, has cured various diseases by 
 this power : an affection of the heart, of seven years' standing ; 
 a case of general debility of the nervous system ; and several 
 cases of fits and rheumatic pains, &c. &c. 
 
 Mr. Tubbs, of Upwell Isle, in Cambridgeshire, has proved 
 the reality and efficacy of Mesmerism in the treatment of many 
 diseases. Delirium from grief, muscular pain, chronic rheu- 
 matism, and several other cases could be named, where he 
 found the Mesmeric treatment most successful. This earnest 
 friend to the cause of humanity has found Mesmerism most 
 eificacious in several operations, — in the extraction of teeth, 
 &c. : — Mr. Tubbs has had some most interesting patients under 
 his care.* 
 
 Mr. Donovan, the able phrenologist, can give very valuable 
 testimony as to the powers and virtues of our science. 
 
 In Wolverhampton, Mesmerism is making vast strides in 
 popular estimation. Dr. Owens, of Stourbridge, a medical 
 
 * A number of other cases, by Mr. Tubbs, have since appeared in the 
 Zoist. He is a most steady and able practitioner. 
 
EEIi'IAEICABLE CASES. 161 
 
 gentleman, lately made many converts, by the following ope- 
 ration : " A young woman, suffering dreadfully from toothache, 
 was thrown into the Mesmeric sleep, for the purpose of having 
 the tooth extracted. A sceptical dentist happened to he 
 present and undertook the operation. There was much diffi- 
 culty in the case. The key slipped from the tooth twice ; and a 
 splinter, nearly an inch and a half in length, was broken from 
 the alveolar portion of the jaw. Still . there \yas not the 
 slightest manifestation of pain ; and the patient, on being 
 brought to herself, had not the slightest idea that the operation 
 had been performed." The dentist said, that " there was no 
 more movement than there would have been in a corpse" 
 About eighty persons were present. 
 
 Mr. Gibbon Wakefield, who is so weU known in the political 
 world, and was such a staunch unbeliever in the science, is 
 now " satisfied of its truth, and has since mesmerised many 
 hundred persons." 
 
 The names of several clergymen could be given ; in fact, 
 they would furnish a long list. Mr. Pyne, incumbent of Hook, 
 Surrey, has published a most useful little book (Vital Mag- 
 netism), in which he has communicated the results of his 
 experience. The Rev. John Edwards, of Prestbury, Chel- 
 tenham ; and the Eev. L. Lewis, of Gateacre, Liverpool, have 
 both sent papers to the Zoist. 
 
 Mr. Spencer Hall, the original magnetiser in Miss Martineau's 
 case, and the author of " Mesmeric Experiences," is a most 
 successful practiser of the art, and well entitled to the con- 
 fidence lie has so invariably received. Some of his patients 
 have exhibited very interesting phenomena. 
 
 A long catalogue of non-professional advocates yet remains to 
 be mentioned. Among them are Mr. Fradelle, of Percy Street ; 
 Mr. Holland, of New Cross ; Mrs. Jones, of Salisbury ; 
 Mr. Davey, of Devonshire ; Mr. Edmund Fry, of Plymouth ; 
 Mr. Parsons, Marine Library, Brighton ; Mr. Reynoldsonj 
 Eenshaw Street, Liverpool ; Mr. Brown, Low Leyton, Essex ; 
 Mr. S. Selfe, Bridgwater ; Mr. Hayman, of Sidmouth ; Mr. 
 Vernon, the promoter of the Mesmeric Institute; Mr. C. 
 Caillard, of Leicester; Mr. Hicks, the well-known and able 
 
 M 
 
162 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 Lecturer; Mr. Saunders, of Ivy Cottage, Bath; Mr. W. 
 Warenne, of Hull ; Mr. H. Hudson, of Liverpool ; Mr. Alex- 
 ander Walker, Bainsford, N. B. ; Mr. Bailey, &c. 
 
 In Scotland Mesmerism has taken a firm root. Its remedial 
 power has been tested over and over again. And Mr. Lang's 
 useful little work on " Mesmerism, with a Report of Cases . 
 developed in Scotland," should be read by every person 
 solicitous of the trrith. 
 
 Dr. Elliotson's eminent success in the practice is too well 
 known to requirei notice. All, who really seek for valuable 
 information on this head, should consult his Papers in the 
 Zoist. They wiU there see the cases reported in detail, — and 
 enriched by medical observations of the highest value. Let it 
 be sufiicient to state that he has cured cases of insanity, — 
 cases of St. Vitus's dance, of palsy, of loss of voice, — of 
 deafness and dumbness, of epileptic and other fits ; cases where 
 every other medical treatment had utterly failed. The in- 
 creasing circulation of the Zoist has placed these wonderful 
 facts so completely within the reach of the medical student, 
 that this brief allusion to them is no otherwise necessary than 
 to make our list of leading Mesmerisers complete. 
 
 Here, then, is a train of witnesses in favour of our science ! 
 Here is a succession of evidence from men of ability, of 
 education, of honourable standing in society, from whose report- 
 alone, the existence of Mesmerism as a fact in nature might be 
 confidently predicated!* And this list might have been, 
 swelled to any extent ! What an amount, moreover, have we 
 here of happiness conferred ! What a mass of pain, of sickness, 
 of sorrow, lightened or removed ! Here at length are a few 
 pleasing pages in the long sad chapter of human life ! Here, 
 at last, is a delightful study for the philanthropist and the 
 Christian ! And all these blessings communicated by means of 
 a power that is derided, or dreaded, or disbelieved ! We have 
 confined our testimony to what has occurred in this country 
 alone and within the last few years, — but what a pile of 
 narratives could have been added to it, if the limits of a 
 
 * See Miss Martineau's Preface on this point, p. 8. 
 
ITS PROGRESS ON THE CONTINENT. 16* 
 
 huinble work like this would have allowed it. It might have- 
 been added, that on the Continent Mesmerism has been 
 received as a fact (un fait accompli ) for years : that in 
 Germany it is studied and practised to a considerable extent* ;. 
 that in Prussia many physicians make use of it under the 
 authority of government ; and that in Berlin in particular the 
 greatest success has attended its use; — that in Stockholm 
 degrees are granted in the university by an examination on its 
 laws ; that in Russia, the Emperor appointed a commission of 
 medical men to inquire into it, and that this commission 
 pronounced it " a very important agent," — that the first phy- 
 sician of the emperor, and many others at Petersburgh, speak 
 in favour of its utility ; and that at Moscow a systematic 
 course of treatment under the highest auspices has been em- 
 ployed for years. In Denmark, physicians practise it under a 
 royal ordinance, and by a decree of the College of Health. In 
 Holland, some of the first men take it up. In France, the 
 extent to which it is practised is considerable indeed.f A 
 commission of the Royal Academy of Medicine there recom- 
 mended that Mesmerism should be allowed a place within the 
 circle of the medical sciences (comme moyen therapeutique 
 devrait trouver sa place dans le cadre des connaissances medi- 
 cales). Some of the first physicians in Paris, affixed their 
 signatures to this report. I might mention the cases related 
 by Foissac in his report |: I might give extracts without 
 number on the subject from difierent French and German 
 works. I might quote frojn De Leuze, Puysegur, Wienholt, 
 Treviranus, Brandis of Copenhagen, &c. usque ad nauseam. 
 The great name of Hufeland, of Berlin, is a host in itself. 
 
 I have a curious little French work by me, called " La 
 Verite du Magnetisme prouvee par les Faits," in which the 
 list of cures effected by a lady in Paris is quite marvellous. 
 
 * The famous Jean Paul Richter practised Mesmerism for the sake of his 
 friends, when they were ill. — See his Life, vol. ii. p. ISO. 
 
 f See " ExposSdes Cures operees en France depuis Mesmer jusqu'cLnos Jours" 
 1826), with attestations by more than two hundred medical men, 
 
 ± Rapports sur les Magnetisme Animal, par M. P. Foissac, Docteur en 
 Medecine. 
 
 M 2 
 
164 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 In the United States the same mighty progress has been made. 
 Mr. Buckingham, the distinguished traveller, told me, that it 
 is there practised to a very great extent. In his amusing 
 work on that country he mentions several curious Mesmeric 
 cases and phenomena that he witnessed in Philadelphia, at the 
 Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, tried upon children in the 
 presence of several physicians and legal gentlemen, when it 
 appeared proved beyond suspicion, to the satisfaction of all 
 present, that " there was a complete suspension of the suscep- 
 tibility of pain during the state " of Mesmerism. Dr. Mitchell, 
 an eminent physician of Philadelphia, mentioned an operation 
 performed by him in the extraction of a tooth under most 
 painful circumstances, when no feeling was experienced, — and 
 no recollection of the fact existed afterwards.* And who and 
 what are the men that have thus advocated Mesmerism ? I 
 shall answer in the words of the celebrated French physiologist, 
 Dr. Georget, — who says, — " It is a very astonishing thing 
 that animal magnetism is not even known by name among the 
 ignorant classes : it is among the enlightened ranks that it 
 finds support. It is men who have received some education 
 who have taken its cause in hand : it is partly learned men, 
 naturalists, physicians, philosophers, who have composed the 
 numerous volumes in its favour." f And what is the reply of 
 our opponents to this pyramid of facts ? That they are all 
 cases of delusion? Granted, for tlie sake of argument, that 
 very many might be so, — that in several instances the ablest 
 men might be deceived : what then ? still, even with the 
 largest deduction under this head, what an accumulation of 
 evidence would yet remain ! As Mr. Colquhoun observes, 
 " Upon what evidence are we permitted to believe any series 
 of facts ? What amount of proof is required ? " The host of 
 competent and highly qualified men who have narrated their 
 experience, forbid the supposition of a universal delusion. 
 Some other theory must be adopted. Mesmerism is a science 
 of facts. To facts we appeal : and we do not believe, as has 
 
 * Buckingham's " America," vol. ii. p. 119 — 125. 
 f Apud " Isis Revelata," vol. il. p. 45. 
 
BELIEF IN CLAIKVOYANCJi:. 165 
 
 been well observed, that " any science rests upon experiments ; 
 more numerous, more positive, or more easily ascertained." * 
 
 To facts, then, it is repeated, do we appeal. What the 
 nature of those facts is, it is superfluous to mention. I presume 
 that most of my readers have a general notion respecting them; . 
 that they are aware, how that after certain manipulations a 
 deep sleep comes on ; — how that this is followed by the phe- 
 nomena of attraction, of sympathy, of insensibility, of phreno- 
 magnetism, and other singular manifestations, aU varying 
 with various sleepers; and how, that when the patient is 
 awakened, a sanative or soothing effect is generally experienced. 
 To the higher order of phenomena, such as clairvoyance, 
 internal vision, and so forth, I have made little allusion. Not 
 that I disbelieve, or have not witnessed something of them. 
 But this work aims strictly at a practical character. I have - 
 no wish to astonish or amuse. Those wondrous facts of 
 clairvoyance ^j which cause the faith of so many to. hesitate, 
 have no necessary bearing on the therapeutic qualities of 
 Mesmerism. They might all be false, and yet the healing 
 virtues of the magnetic slumber remain unquestioned. , At the 
 same time, it may not be useless to mention, that there is . not 
 one single phenomenon of the higher order of Mesmerism, 
 which has not been found to exist in a natural state, and 
 spontaneously, in some recorded cases of extremely-diseased 
 individuals. The annals of natural somnambulism are fuU ,of 
 them. Mesmerism simply brings out in the process of cure, 
 and by artificial means, what nature throws forth in the action 
 
 * " II a ete etabli en France, et dans presque tous les pays du nord, des 
 traitemens magnetiques, oii des milliers des malades ont trouve la sant^. La 
 relation detaillee d'un grand nombre de guerisons a ete publiee, soit par les 
 particuliers, soit par les societes de I'barmonie." — FoissAC, Rapports, p. 500. 
 
 This was said by Foissac, a medical man himself, more than ten years ago, 
 
 in 1833, before the practice of Mesmerism was much known in England. 
 
 If Foissac could say in 1833 that there were thousands of sick persons who 
 had received benefit from the art, what might he not state now? This, let 
 it be remembered, is the main question ; that the number of successful cases 
 proves the power. 
 
 f One of the most successful cases of clairvoyance occurred at Plymouth, 
 in the house of Mr. E. Fry, with a patient of Mr. Lundie, the well-known 
 lecturer. — See the report in Zoist, vol. iv. p. 82. 
 
 M 3 
 
166 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 of disease. Take the staggering fact of reading with the eyes 
 closed, through, what I believe, an electric communication. 
 This has occurred in a natural state.* The report is to be 
 found in the 38th volume of the French Encyclopaedia, on the 
 authority of the then Archbishop of Bordeaux. It was the 
 case of a young ecclesiastic, who walked in his sleep, took pen, 
 ink, and paper, and composed and wrote his sermons, and read, 
 with his eyes closed. To test him, the archbishop held a piece 
 of pasteboard before his face to prevent his seeing, — but he 
 appeared to see equally well. Now, we repeat, that this case 
 had no connection with Mesmerism, — that it is quite inde- 
 pendent of it, — that it occurred spontaneously and in a natural 
 state, and is established on as high authority as any single fact 
 in science. It was simply the effect of a morbid action on the 
 nervous system of the young man. And so of all the other 
 strange phenomena of Mesmerism ; there is not one of them 
 but has its parallel in some instance of common somnambulism : 
 and- 1 know no study that would so well prepare the mind of 
 the student for a due apprehension of this question, as a perusal 
 of the marvellous facts that have been recorded in the histories 
 of many natural sleepwalkers. However, a further allusion to 
 these singular manifestations is foreign to our purpose. My 
 object is wholly utilitarian. And my endeavour has been to 
 prove by a copious body of statistics, that there is a state into 
 which the human frame can be placed, from whence the most 
 powerfully remedial results may be obtained, even in cases of 
 extremest suffering. 
 
 * See Appendix for several instances. 
 
AEGUMENTS AGAINST MESMEEISM. 167 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 AaCUMENTS AGAINST TRUTH OP MESMERISM. MONOTONY. — HYSTERIA. 
 
 — IMITATION. — FAITH. — IMAGINATION. — "MESMERISE ME, AND I 
 "Win, BELIEVE YOU." — FIRST FRENCH REPORT. — SECOND FREMCH RE- 
 PORT OF MEDICAIi MEN ALONE. — MR. WAKLEY LONDON UNIVERSITT. 
 
 ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY. BRITISH ASSOCIATION 
 
 AND MR. BRAID. — BRITISH ASSOCIATION AND PHRENOLOGY. — BRITISH 
 
 ASSOCIATION AND ETHER AND MESMERISM. GREAT NAMES AMONG 
 
 BELIEVERS IN MESMERISM. 
 
 And wliat is tie reply of certain medical men, who presume 
 ex cathedra to give an opinion on the subject without con- 
 descending to look into it, — what, we demand, is their reply to 
 the representation of this state ? Simply, that it is impossible; 
 the thing, they say, is in itself impossible ; — and consequently 
 that no farther investigation is requisite for the student. To 
 say that facts are extraordinary, — are difficult to conceive,— 
 are contrary to previous experience, is but the duty of a philo- 
 sopher, who should suspend his belief till every reasonable 
 doubt be done away.* But to begin with asserting, that a thing 
 is impossible, — and that it is contrary to the laws of nature, 
 because it differs from our early opinions, is irrational in the 
 extreme, and eminently absurd in days like our own, when 
 every year we see things accomplished, which in our youth 
 were deemed impracticable. The real question is, — what are 
 the laws of nature ? Are they all known and established ? But 
 inasmuch as to set limits in this way to the operations of nature, 
 and call a thing which is occurring every hour "impossible," 
 
 * Wienholt in his Lectures says, " Philosophers, when they have oncfe 
 deduced a number of general principles from a certain range of experience, 
 are not easily brought to admit of exceptions from these general laws, when 
 once established to their satisfaction. They endeavour to reduce all subse- 
 quently supervening facts, however anomalous, •under subjection to these laws. 
 They twist them in all directions, until they get them — nolentes volentes — 
 accommodated to their theory ; and if they do not succeed, they consider 
 this circumstance as a perfectly good ground for throwing them aside; and, 
 accordingly, they are at once struck out of the category of facts." — Colqu- 
 Jioun'a Wienholt, p. 41. 
 
 M 4 
 
168 MESMERISM AITO ITS OPPOMINTS. 
 
 is not quite satisfactory to the philosophic inquirer, a few in- 
 genious theories are propounded by the faculty to silence the 
 unreasonable questionings of the " impertinently curious." 
 
 One gentleman will tell you, that "Monotony " is the secret. 
 The constant movement of the hands before the face *, •— a con- 
 tinued friction by passes down the arm, has, they say, such a 
 dull, deadening effect, that the mere monotony of the action 
 induces somnolency. All this is granted : many a restless 
 invalid has been lulled into slumber by some such soothing 
 process. The tickling of a feather, or the reading of a dull 
 book in a drowsy tone for a prolonged period, will often per- 
 suade to sleep. But this explanation will not meet the difficulty. 
 It applies but to a few isolated instances. And first we ask, 
 how many times would this experiment answer in the case of a 
 feverish patient ? For days ? for weeks ? for months ? A 
 daily repetition of the trial would, I fear, soon break the charm. 
 Not so with Mesmerism. The mesmeric sleep is obtained only 
 the more easily and more quickly at each renewal of the process. 
 But with some patients, these monotonous movements, made by 
 parties unskilled in Mesmerism, not only do not soothe, but 
 have even an irritating effect ; — to whom, however, the mes- 
 meric action, applied in a judicious way, succeeds at once. I 
 can speak to this point from my own experience. But this is 
 not all. Many Mesmerisers scarcely use monotonous movements 
 at all. The mutual contact of the thumbs, the application of 
 the points of the fingers near the eyes, the pressure of the hand 
 upon the crown of the head, are the plans that I have seen most 
 u^ally adopted, and which I have found most successful myself. 
 Often and often have I seen patients in a state of cerebral ex- 
 citement put 'to sleep in two, in three, in four minutes, by the 
 contact of the balls of the thumbs. A lady has told me that 
 oftimes from the moment her thumb touched the thumb of the 
 Mesmeriser, a leaden weight has settled on her eyelids, making 
 resistance to sleep impossible, — and this in a case where every 
 other soporific method had been worse than idle. No : mono- 
 
 * " To the waving motion of the hands, in what are termed the "passes," I 
 attribute all the phenomena which animal magnetism is said to induce in 
 patients who submit to this mummery." — Chiiy o/Dtseasc, by Dr. Dickson, 
 p. 91. 
 
WHAT IS HYSTERIA? 169 
 
 tony will not explain the difficulty. In fact, so little has mo- 
 notony to do with the effect, that none but those who have seen 
 little or nothing of mesmeric action could invent this theory for 
 its solution. 
 
 Driven from this post, our opponents next establish them- 
 selves behind the entrenchments of " Hysteria^ This is the 
 explanation, that is for ever being advanced in anti-mesmeric 
 works and lectures at the hospitals ; and I think it more es- 
 pecially worthy of answer, as I have heard it made by some 
 able and enlightened friends. The patient, they say, is *' highly 
 nervous and excitable ; it is simply an hysteric action, — nothing 
 else." Now there is much plausibility in this representation. 
 Its vagueness catches the ear. The undefined character of the 
 word " nervousness " includes almost every thing in common 
 parlance. Merely say that a patient is nervous, and aU diffi- 
 culties are removed. But we must pin our philosophic friends 
 down to something more specific. These loose generalities carry 
 no meaning in them. And first we would observe, that it is 
 not nervous patients who are always the most susceptible to 
 mesmeric action. The idea is convenient ; but the fact is often 
 the reverse. Stout, strong-minded men have been mesmerised; 
 and I have seen patients who were termed " highly nervous " 
 resist the influence altogether.* But let us analyse this ex- 
 planation more closely. What is hysteria ? Ls it hysteria, 
 when a pin is forced into a delicate female's hand, far enough 
 to draw blood, and she feels no pain, and exhibits no change of 
 expression ? Is it hysteria, when a brute strikes a sleeping 
 boy a violent blow with a walking-stick, and no movement or 
 consciousness results from it? Is it hysteria, ;where excite- 
 ment and strong cerebral irritation are soothed and calmed 
 down into tranquillity and repose ? Is it hysteria, when intole- 
 rable heat and throbbing in the head are carried off and leave 
 not a vestige ? Is it hysteria, when racking, torturing pain is 
 relieved or completely taken away ? And all these eifects not 
 happening once and accidentally, but over and over, and over 
 
 * Teste says, " I would almost venture to say there might exist an obstacle 
 to SomnamJivlism in excessive seritiMlity." (_-p. 41.) My experiettce quite confirms 
 this view, in opposition to what is vulgarly entertained. 
 
170 MESMERISM AMi ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 again? According to common experience, these effects would 
 rather result from hysteric action than be removed by it ; and 
 certainly it is a novel doctrine, when we are taught, that ai^ 
 abatement in feverish or cerebral irritability is the product of 
 hysteria. However, — it is now said, that aU these states are 
 the effect of hysteria. Hysteria includes every thing. What- 
 ever may be the condition of the human body,' — be it unusual 
 depose or unusual excitement, — be it exquisite sensibility to 
 p&iii, or an utter unconsciousness of its presence, hysteria is the 
 cause. Be it so. And how much nearer are we now towards 
 resolving the difficulty? For again I ask, what is hysteria? 
 ■Do the medical men know themselves ? Can they explain it ? 
 ■Can they say what are its causes, proximate oi* remote ? Are 
 •they not confessedly in the dark on the subject? To explain 
 Mesmerism, therefore, by hysteria, is but to exchange one diffi- 
 "culty for another. It is but a shifting of position, not an ap- 
 ■Jjroximation towards the truth. It is a moving of the feet, not 
 a marching forwards. "With far greater judgment did one of 
 "the most superior and rising members of the profession observe 
 to me, that " Mesmerism, if true, rather threw a light on hys- 
 teria, than hysteria on Mesmerism." It would rather lead them, 
 lie said, to a solution of their very difficulties on that questioti. 
 But be this as it may, to explain one difficulty by another is a 
 most unphilosophical proceeding, — and one through which no 
 approach whatever is made to an illustration of the truth. But 
 on the other hand, if Mesmeric action be nothing but hysteria*, 
 — ^as perhaps it is, — then we assert, that hysteria, when pro- 
 duced artificially and intentionally, ceases to be a disease, ^^ but 
 becomes a. condition full of medicinal and healing virtue; as 
 the inexhaustible caltalogue of cures accomplished by its power 
 incontrovertibly proves. 
 
 " Imitation " f is a favourite explanation with others ; — 
 and certainly imitation is a key which interprets many facts 
 
 * See a cure of Hysteria, by Mr. Spencer Hall, and some very judicious 
 observations. — " Mesmeric Experiences" p. 33. 
 
 \ Imitation is one of the explanations given in the Dictionnaire des Science 
 rfe Medicales, t. vi., p. 394. ; and also by M. Virey in his article on Animal 
 Magnetismi 
 
IMITATION. iri 
 
 in the science. Imitation is one of the most powerful agents 
 for working on the human mind ; — much that is good oi- 
 wicked in human conduct is the result of imitation alone ; — 
 and it may be a curious study for the physiologist to trace the 
 secret springs of imitation to their native source. But thougt 
 imitation may explain many parts in the conduct of a Mesmeric 
 patient, — it goes but a small way. How can we explain this 
 fact, that young and artless girls, — the deaf, — the dumb, — 
 the blind, — patients who had never heard of Mesmerism *, — 
 who knew not what process was going to take place, have all 
 «qually exhibited the same class of phenomena ? Imitation is 
 often used, tpo, for a synonym of Imposture. But when em- 
 ployed in this sense, it assumes that the capabilities of the 
 human mind are great indeed, and that the histrionic talent is 
 far more common than is suspected. The lovers of the drama 
 complain that the days of tragic and comic excellence are 
 departed, and that not an actor remains to tread the stage. 
 ;Unfounded regret ! If the charges of our opponents be correct, 
 and imitation (or imposture) be the clue to Mesmerism, then 
 indeed actors and actresses of the highest talent abound in 
 every district, — artists, before whom the genius of a Garrick 
 would grow pale, are making the circuit of the country in every 
 direction, — and the art of Eoscius is now at its zenith. I have 
 seen ignorant, uneducated, simple persons transformed by the 
 touch of the Mesmeriser into the most finished performers. 
 Yes, — if imitation (or imposture) be the solution, then is a 
 greater wonder established -than ' the supposed discoveries of 
 3Iesmer,- — and the histrionic powers of the human mind proved 
 to be something beyond the range of old experience. Either 
 way, " the laws of nature " must be remodelled ; — old systems 
 are not sufiicient ; for mentally or physically, a new and won- 
 drous power has been detected, which henceforward must find 
 a place amidst the schemes and divisions of the philosopher and 
 metaphysician.f 
 
 * See Spencer Hall, p. 6. 
 
 t See Wienholt, 1. ii. p. 57., on the fact of the somnambulist, "conducting 
 himself as perfectly in his first sleep as in his tenth." Practice does not f 
 make more perfect. 
 
172 MESMERISM AND ITS OPrONENTS. 
 
 Faith or confidence in the power, and a desire to he healed 
 by the process of Mesmerism, are again suggested bj others as 
 a cause to which we may ascribe some of the cures of which 
 we have spoken. On this theory, how are we to explain those 
 instances, where the patient had a positive aversion to the 
 practice; where, so far from the existence of faith, disgust and 
 disbelief were the strong predominant feelings ; — and where 
 the remedy was adopted almost by compulsion, and yet the 
 cure and the benefits have been most marked and unequivocal ? 
 Here I can again come forward with my testimony.* 
 
 Again, therefore, is a fresh interpretation needed, and all is : 
 resolved by another party into the large, the comprehensive 
 phrase of " Imagination." Truly has it been observed, that 
 this reference of all these difficulties to the influence of imagi- 
 nation is but " a cloak to cover ignorance." That imagination 
 has a most powerful effect on the habit of the body, we all 
 know. Numerous striking events can be clearly traced to it. 
 Several wonderful cures have been produced by it. It is a 
 valuable, a useful auxiliary. None but an idiot would deny its 
 power. Still, imagination, with all its vehement effects, has a 
 limit. There is a time when its influence wears off. An in- 
 va;lid often " imagines " that a new medical adviser has been of 
 service, — that a change of medicine has done good, — that a 
 different treatment has been beneficial; and repeatedly has a 
 healthier action been brought about by this power of the mind 
 upon the nervous system. But much too generally the spell is 
 dissolved at an early day. Before the tedious week shall have 
 run its round, a relapse has occurred, and the benefit is for- 
 gotten. Not so, again we say, with Mesmerism. The longer 
 itis tried, the more powerful is the hold. A patient may be 
 sent to sleep by imagination two or three days in succession ; 
 but would the same method ■ succeed day after day for several 
 months ? Here is a :point on which I can speak with confidence. 
 
 * So far from " Faith " being an active cause, it sometimes has worked 
 prejudicially by over-exciting the patient through the expectation of benefit. 
 " From tny excessive nervousness, and being fall of faith, X expected soon to 
 find myself spell-bound, and subject to its sleepy influence," writes a patient 
 in Zoist, No. 19, p. 327. But days and weeks passed over without an apparent 
 effect. " It seemed to banish sleep," he says. 
 
■ IMAGINATION. ' 173 
 
 The process, -which was comparatively feeble in its effect upon 
 a patient in my family during the first week is now, at nearly 
 the expiration of a year, more eflicacious than ever. Look 
 again to its influence on pain. "We hear at times of pain dis- 
 appearing suddenly through some operation of the mind. An 
 individual, suffering from a raging toothache, has been known 
 to walk to a dentist's door, when the simple ringing of the bell 
 has so wrought on his system as to stop the pain and change 
 the condition of his body. But who believes that this power of 
 the mind would be continuous ? Who supposes that the daily 
 experiment of a walk to the operator's house would suspend the 
 agony, if the pain recurred every morning ? The unlucky 
 tooth would in the end require extraction. Not so with Mes- 
 merism. Pain is removed only the more speedily by a repe- 
 tition of the manipulations. The oftener they are tried, the 
 quicker are their effects. This notion of " imagination " will 
 not therefore get rid of the difficulty. It is a convenient mode 
 of explanation, and a courteous ; when, in reality, the insolent 
 charge of fraud is really meant, and is the only alternative. 
 Either certain facts are true, or they are false ; for the mind 
 has nothing to do with them.* Is it imagination, when the 
 hand of the sleeper follows the hand of the mesmeriser ? Is it 
 imagination, when the touch of any one but the mesmeriser 
 throws the sleeper into extreme and convulsive agitation ? Is 
 it imagination, when the sleeper hears no other voice but that 
 of the mesmeriser ? Is it imagination, when what the mes- 
 meriser tastes is recognised by the sleeper, be it bitter or sweet, 
 or water or wine ? These questions might be multiplied in- 
 definitely ; but here are sufficient : and what is the answer ? 
 "We reply, that there is a physical impossibility that the mind, 
 according to what we understand by that term, should have 
 any thing to do with such effects. The sleeper is fast asleep, 
 and knows nothing of them. Either they are the result of some 
 newly discovered power op the nervous system, or patients, as 
 honourable and virtuous as the opponents themselves, are as- 
 
 • See two Mesmeric cases of my own, recorded in 3d cap. p. 135. 139., 
 where the theories of " monotony," and of " imagination," are at once upset 
 by the facts. 
 
174 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 suming an appearance for which they have no earthly induce- 
 ment. "Imagination," in the usual acceptation of the word, 
 can afford no explanation to these phenomena in any way 
 whatever. 
 
 A few other facts may be stated on this point. Children 
 are often easily magnetised. Foissac mentions the case of a 
 child, aged twenty-eight months, that he placed in somnam- 
 bulism. Deaf and dumb persons, and some that were blind*, 
 have been thrown into this sleep, without being aware at the 
 time of what was intended or what was going on. Animals 
 have been powerfully affected. Dr. Wilson's experiments on 
 the brute creation are most conclusive.! Several sceptics, and 
 those men of powerful intellect, have been mesmerised. Mr. 
 Townshend, in his " Facts," gives some remarkable instances 
 of what took place at Cambridge with some unbelieving ad- 
 versaries.f Professor Agassiz, of Neufchatel, in Switzerland, 
 was put to sleep by Mr. Townshend, according to his own 
 statement, after he had done every thing in his power to resist 
 the influence. But there is one point more decisive than any 
 which we have just mentioned, — and which, as Colquhoun 
 states, is well known to aH practical mesmerisers, — viz. "that 
 if we attempt to manipulate in contrary directions, the usual 
 effects will not be produced, whilst others of a totally different 
 nature will be manifested." § In short, of all the explanations 
 that have been offered, the least tenable is that of " imagination." 
 Still, what is in a name? If the phrase be more acceptable 
 than that of Mesmerism, let it be adopted. All we ask and 
 want is, that the system itself be not neglected. " If imagi- 
 nation," says Mr. Chenevix, " can cure diseases, then cm-e by 
 
 * See the very interesting case of Captain Peach, " a gentleman perfectly 
 blind for eleven years," recorded in 5th volume of Zoist. 
 
 ■f- See "Wilson's Trials of Animal Magnetism on the Brute Creation," (Bail- 
 hiere.) Dr. Wilson is physician to the Middlesex Hospital. 
 
 I See Townshend's " Facts," book ii. sec. 2., for these interesting cases. 
 
 § Teste, p. 156. mentions the bad effects of magnetising upwards. Gau- 
 thier, p. 13. of his " Traite Pratique," gives a strong caution against it, and 
 quotes D'Eslon, who says, " la tete du malade s'embarrasserait, et on pour- 
 rait lui donner une commotion funeste au cerveau ; peut-etre une apo'plexie." 
 But if it be nothing but imagination, how could there be a disturbing 
 effect by ascending passes ? 
 
IMAGINATION. 175 
 
 imagination, and the sick will bless you."* We have no wish 
 to supersede the labours of the faculty in their important de- 
 partment : what is rather desired is, that the treatment of the 
 mesmeric process should be under their direction and control, 
 -r-as is the case in many countries on the Continent. In, 
 Russia, in Denmark, in Prussia, none but medical men, or those 
 under their superintendence, are permitted ' to exercise the art.' 
 Let, then, the profession take the practice up, and we wiE 
 sacrifice the name. Let " Lnagination " be placed on the phar- 
 macopoeia ; let " Lnagination " be written on their prescriptions ;, 
 let the students at the hospitals be instructed how to exert 
 the ideal faculty : only, as Dugald" Stewart so sensibly observes, 
 let them not " scruple to copy whatever processes are necessary. 
 for subjecting diseases to their command." Let them not culpa- 
 bly refuse to increase the resources of their art ; and I, for one, 
 would gladly consent that the management of this mighty 
 agent should be left mainly in their hands, and that the name 
 of Mesmerism should be discarded and forgotten ! f 
 
 But our concessions and explanations fall unheeded on the 
 ear. The grand coup de theatre yet remains ; " Mesmerise 
 me, and I wiU believe you." Often have I heard the most 
 conclusive answers presented to these objectors; every mis- 
 conception has been disposed of by argument, by facts, by 
 analogy, when the unbeliever suddenly escapes from the con- 
 troversy by a demand that the experiment be tried, upon him- 
 self. And if, as is almost certain, the experiment fail, the 
 question he considers as finally settled. I was attending a mes- 
 
 * Mesmer said from the beginning, that medical men were alone com- 
 petent to superintend the treatment. (See Gauthier, Traite, p. 697. See 
 Elliotson, Zoist, vol. iv. p. 377.) We have entered on this point in the 
 Introductory Chapter. 
 
 + Let us note what M. Bertrand, a physician himself, says : — "II est de 
 toute evidence que si les savans et les m^decins veulent guider et faire tourner 
 au profit de I'humanite et des sciences la nouvelle d^couverte qu'on leur 
 annonce, il faut qu'ils commencent par s'en emparer. A quel titre voudront- 
 ils la juger, s'ils sont convaincus de ne pas la connaitre ? Et n'est-oe pas 
 Tine chose honteuse pour oeux qui s'occupent de lart de guerir, de voir ks 
 magnetiseurs le plus ignorans se montrer plus insiruits qu'eux sur un grand 
 nombre de ph^nomenes qui appartlent a la connaissance de Thomme malade? " 
 Behteand, Traite du Somnambulisme, p. i3l. 
 
176 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONEKTS. 
 
 meric lecture one day, when a gentleman present saf down on 
 the chair, and requested the lecturer to try his skill upon him. 
 The usual manipulations went on for a certain period ; much 
 interest was felt by the spectators ; when after a given time 
 our unsusceptible gentleman rose up, —looked round the room 
 with a triumphant smirk of self-satisfaction, declaring that he 
 " felt nothing," and then left the company with the air of a 
 philosopher who had refuted the claims of Mesmerism once 
 and for ever ! * and this is called experiment ! as if certain 
 conditions were not indispensable. "What all those conditions 
 are, we are not prepared to show ; but common sense might 
 teach us, that some conditions were at least required. In 
 chemical experiments on impassive material substances certain 
 conditions are demanded ; how much more so, on the delicate 
 human frame, where the mind can in addition offer a resistance, 
 and the party himself strain his utmost to reject the sleep? 
 Those who have been present at lectures on Galvanism or 
 Chemistry must have observed how slight a cause will disturb 
 the simplest experiment. A change of atmosphere will affect 
 the machinery and spoil the electric action in a moment. • If 
 a conductor be overcharged, a result different from the one 
 expected will be evolved. If a body be saturated with any 
 ingredient that it holds in solution, the effect will not be the 
 same, as when the substances are united in more congenial 
 proportions. In some experiments, the presence of- a small 
 quantity of water appears always necessary to develop certain 
 acid properties. And thus we might go on ad infinitum. 
 And why are not similar laws equally applicable in the practice 
 of Mesmerism? And why is it that the parties, who, more 
 than any others, know the necessity of such conditions in re- 
 gard to natural philosophy, are the very men who dispense with 
 their presence in the analogous experiments on the human 
 frame. My own opinion on the subject, after much observation, 
 is, that sick and delicate persons are more susceptible of the 
 
 * Dr. Esdaile says truly, " a person in health resisting the influence is no 
 proof that he will remain insensible to it in an altered state of the body, when 
 there may be a craving from the nervous system for this sustenance from 
 without." — Mesmerism in India, p. 13. 
 
EFFECT OF THE MESMERIC INFLUENCE. 177 
 
 magnetic influence than those in robust health. Not but what 
 cases can be produced, where the healthiest individuals have 
 been readily mesmerised, and the delicate invalid remained un- 
 affected : but these are the exceptions rather than the rule.* 
 Where there is any unequal action, — any irregularity in the 
 system, any improper or feeble circulation, — any extreme or 
 overwrought activity of the cerebral or nervous temperament, 
 there the Mesmeric influence seems to produce an effect. Its 
 tendency appears to be to restore the equilibrium of a disturbed 
 or irregular distribution of the nervous power.f Such an 
 irregularity may exist, unknown and unsuspected, in the system 
 of a robust man, and explain his readier susceptibility to the 
 equalising power; while a more delicate patient, from the 
 absence of some other condition, which is equally necessary, 
 may resist the influence altogether, although the general state 
 of his organisation and temperament might, but for this one 
 and unknown circumstance, have rendered him peculiarly alive 
 to the magnetic force. However, all this is but conjecture — and 
 touches not the truthfulness of the facts recorded — It ought^ 
 moreover, to be added, that sleep is not the only or a necessary 
 symptom. Great effects may result, — and no sleep take place. 
 
 * If mesmeric influence be, as I believe, a means of eoinmunicating 
 energy, or of equalising the circulation in an impaired system, one must 
 expect, prima facie, that a person in health could not be affected. It seems, 
 therefore, absurd to make the attempt. Yet occasionally it succeeds. Mr. 
 Townshend has mesmerised eight young men in robust health. Mr. Atkin- 
 son has mesmerised several. Mr. Kiste has done the same. I saw a lady 
 put a gentleman in the full vigour of manhood into a deep sleep in less than 
 ten minutes. Captain James " found a stout recruit in his late regiment 
 more susceptible than any female that he had ever seen." / never make the 
 trial myself, believing it to be a foolish and improper waste of time and strength. 
 Reichenbach, speaking of his experiments with crystals, says that the " sen. 
 sitiveness of healthy subjects is so limited as not to be sufficient for the 
 investigation." p. 20. 
 
 + Mr. Newnham says, " It may be remarked as a general rule, that the 
 constitution with the highest order of intelligence and in the best health, is 
 the least susceptible of magnetic influence, — while the feebler nervous systems, 
 and those in inferior health, are the most susceptible ; and that is perfectly 
 consistent with our supposition, that magnetism is the medicine of nature, and 
 consists in imparting the exuberant life of the healthy to relieve the feeble 
 life of the disordered : — while the strong and healthy, not requiring the 
 agency of such medicine, are not susceptible to its impresston," — Human 
 Magnetism, p. 82. 
 
 N 
 
178 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 Sleep is only one out of many symptoms, though of course the 
 most general and intelligible. Among the other conditions, a 
 physical sympathy between the parties seems the first requisite ; 
 what that sympathy may be is a difficult question ; but it is a 
 known fact, that a patient yields to the influence of one Mes- 
 meriser rather than another.* A superior state of health, or 
 of muscular energy, or of mental power, on the part of the 
 Mesmeriser over the patient, seems another condition; — and 
 yet this is by no means invariable or without exceptions. 
 Again, it should be borne in mind, that an apparent external 
 effect is not always to be expected at the first sitting. Sleep 
 may not be produced for a week, for a month, — for three 
 months ; but it may come at last, and a cure be effected. In 
 the case of individuals in good health it is especially less 
 probable that somnolency should come on at the first trial ; and 
 in fact, few things are more ridiculous or misplaced than the, 
 exhibition of a vigorous muscular man offering himself to the 
 manipulations of the Mesmeriser. Would the loss of the same 
 quantity of blood, — or the administration of the same amount 
 of medicine, — have the same or equal effect on two opposite 
 constitutions or habits of body ? The abstraction of ten ounces 
 
 * The best practical writer on this subject is Deleuze : his experience has 
 been great. I refer my readers to what he says on this point — as to a safe 
 authority : -^" Tous les homines ne sont pas sensibles a Taction magn^tique, 
 et les memes le sont plus ou moins, selon les dispositions momentan^es c^ns 
 lesquelles il se trouvent. Ordinairement le magnetisme n'exerce aucune 
 action sur les personnes qui jouissent d'une sante parfaite. Le meme homme 
 qui etait insensible au magnetisme dans Wtat de sant6, en eprouvera des efifets 
 lorsqu'il sera malade. II est telle maladie dans laquelle Taction du magne- 
 tisme ne se fait point apercevoir ; telle autre sur laquelle oette action est 
 ^vidente. On iCen sait pas encore assez pour determiner la cause de ces ano- 
 malies, ni pour prononcer a Tavance si le, magnetisme agira ou n'agira pas ; 
 on a seulement quelques probabilites a cet egard j mais cela ne saurait 
 motiver une objection centre la reality du magnetisme, attendu que les 
 trois quarts des malades au moins en resentent les effets. 
 
 " La nature a etabli un rapport ou une sympathie physique entre quelques 
 individus ; c'est par cette raison que plusieurs magn^tiseurs agissent beau- 
 coup plus promptement et plus efficacement sur certains malades que sur 
 d'autres, et que le meme magn^tiseur ne convient pas egalement a tous les 
 malades. II y a meme des magnetiseurs qui sont plus propres a guerir cer- 
 taines maladies. Plusieurs personnes se croient insensibles a Taction du 
 magnetisme, parce qu'elles n'ont pas rencontre le magnetiseur qui leur con- 
 vient." — Deleuze, Instruction Pratique, cap. i. sect. 21, 22. 
 
DIFFERENT EFFECTS OF MESMERISM. 179 
 
 of blood might hardly be felt by a strong athletic yeoman, 
 while the depletion would be far too reducing for his feeble 
 attenuated daughter. One man has been known to swallow 
 with impunity more than twenty of Morison's drastic pills; 
 while two of the same precious preparation have induced a 
 distressing and painful result upon his apparently healthier and 
 more enduring brother. And why is there this difference? 
 simply, — because men's constitutions are different. And is 
 Mesmerism to be an exception to this general rule ? Be the 
 party mesmerised delicate or robust, the same Mesmeriser only 
 throws off a certain amount of Mesmeric influence (whether 
 through the medium of some electric fluid we know not), — and 
 why therefore should the same effect be expected in these 
 opposite conditions within the same period of time ? However, 
 upon this point we are as yet in the dark. The above observ- 
 ations are rather meant as suggestions for consideration, than 
 the exposition of actual knowledge. And though the question 
 is not one quarter exhausted, enough has been said to show 
 the unreasonableness and absurdity of those who demand an 
 immediate effect on themselves as a test of this power.* What 
 I always reply to medical men, who request to be placed under 
 the process, — is, — "Do not ask to be mesmerised yourself; 
 go and mesmerise your patients, — and depend upon it, that 
 you will not only accomplish much benefit, but you will soon 
 have a proof of the truth of my words." But far better would 
 it be to quote the language of Bacon in his Essay on Seeming 
 Wise. " It is a ridiculous thing," says he, " and fit for a 
 
 satire of judgment, to see what shifts men have. 
 
 Some think to bear it by speaking a great word, and being 
 peremptory, and go on and take by admittance that which they 
 cannot make good. Some, whatever is beyond their reach will 
 seem to despise, or make light of it, as impertinent or curious, 
 and so would have their ignorance seem judgment." 
 
 Here, then, is the position on which I take my stand, and to 
 which I respectfully invite the consideration of the scientific 
 
 * Teste thinks that " all men may become by turns, and according to the 
 physical or moral conditions in which they may be placed, magnetisers and 
 "--i." — Cap. iii. p. 35. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 world, — that be the exci'ting or immediate cause, imitation^ 
 monotony, hysteria, imagination, or so forth, this accumulation 
 of evidence, out of Germany, out of France, out of England, 
 and many other countries, proves, beyond a doubt, that a strong 
 curative effect in a certain class of diseases can be produced by 
 what is called Mesmerism, — so strong, indeed, that the 
 physician and the philanthropist are alike bound, for the sake 
 of humanity alone, to give the subject the fullest and fairest 
 trial. 
 
 But, says the " Christian Observer," all farther investigation 
 is needless, — for the French commissioners have long ago 
 decided the question. " Their report," it adds, " was full, 
 candid, elaborate, and satisfactory." And the " commissioners 
 proved that no magnetic influence was evolved," — and that 
 " Mesmer stood convicted of being a conscious impostor." 
 
 Often as this statement has been rebutted, it is stiU necessary 
 to go over the ground again. For not only must such a repre- 
 sentation have its effect, but there is, moreover, a general 
 impression afloat, that the decision of the French savans has 
 been adverse to our system. 
 
 The Reviewer says, — " We are not aware whether the 
 report of the commissioners has been reprinted, since the 
 revival of these follies."* And from the manner in which he 
 treats the question, it may be doubted, whether he has read the 
 report himself, and has not taken his opinion, second-hand, 
 from some "careless or prejudiced writers. At any rate, I have 
 read the report, or rather reports. Before I ventured to 
 express an opinion, I went to the British Museum, and read 
 them carefully and analytically through. And the attention of 
 my readers is requested, not only to the real representation as 
 to how far the reports go, — but also to the important resolu- 
 tions of a second and far more valuable Commission. 
 
 It may, perhaps, be desirable that this statement be preceded 
 by a slight sketch of Mesmer and of the proceedings of his 
 opponents. 
 
 Animal magnetism, it is generally supposed, has been always 
 
 * The report is reprinted in Bertrand's " Magnltisme Animal." 
 
MESMERS THEORY. 181 
 
 more or less practised by a select class, who, through some 
 means or other, had arrived at the discovery. Many names 
 could be mentioned under this head. But be this as it may, it 
 ■was about 1776, that, Anthony Mesmer, a native of Switzer- 
 land, and a physician and resident of Vienna, who had been 
 for some time making use of the common magnet in his medical 
 practice *, perceived that he was able to produce a variety of 
 phenomena of a vei-y peculiar character without the magnet at 
 all, and by the influence of some power proceeding from his 
 own body. Repeated experiments confirmed him in this 
 opinion : he applied this new treatment extensively among the 
 sick ; great success attended him ; and his name became noto- 
 rious. He now removed to Paris, as to a wider theatre for his 
 labours. After a time considerable progress was made by him 
 there in the dissemination of his views ; patients of all ranks 
 flocked to his house ; he began to accumulate a large fortune ; 
 and the French government even offered a very handsome 
 pecuniary remuneration for the communication of his secret. 
 
 Not satisfied with his success, Mesmer must needs put forth 
 a [theory. f He contended that there was a subtle fluid per- 
 vading the whole upiverse, which was capable of being put 
 into motion, and through which the most powerful effects could 
 be obtained. He went at great length into an examination of 
 this theory, on which it is now needless to dwell. But it is 
 important to add that this theory was an essential part of his 
 system, — that he pressed it strongly upon the attention of the 
 learned ; — and that this assumed subtle matter he designated 
 by the name of the magnetic fluid, and his treatment of his 
 patients he called animal magnetism. 
 
 But this was not all. His enemies say that Mesmer was not 
 
 * Reichenbach's Researches go far to prove the use of the magnet, and, 
 as Professor Gregory observes, to " restore to the statements of the early 
 magnetisers the credit of which they had been unjustly deprived." — Preface. 
 
 t Colquhoun, in his introduction to Wienholt, Says, " Whether the theories, 
 by means of which Mesmer and others attempted to explain the fact, be 
 accounted satisfactory or not, is a matter altogether of inferior importance ; 
 the fact itself remains, and stands quite independent of our theory," p. 13. 
 I have already quoted Dr. Jenner and Bishop Thirlwall in justification of 
 those who prematurely put forth their theories. 
 
 M 3 
 
182 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 a really philosophic inquirer. Truth, for its own sake, and fbr 
 the good of his species, was not his single aim. According to 
 their statement, he invested his practice with a dramatic and 
 unreal character; — he assumed a mysterious demeanour, — 
 clothed his experiments with a magical obscurity, — assumed a 
 masquerading costume, and was as much of the charlatan as of 
 the scientific discoverer. All this, however, is as strongly 
 denied by his partisans and followers.* 
 
 These proceedings, however, attracted the attention of the 
 wits at Paris. His medical brethren were in an uproar ; the 
 public journals attacked him ; the philosophers were disgusted ; 
 and few besides the sick were on his side. Yet Mesmer gr^w 
 bolder and bolder : he asserted that " there is but one health, 
 one disease, and one remedy ; " and this remedy, he said, was 
 alone to be obtained through his magnetic subtle fluid. 
 
 Government at length took the subject up. The amiable 
 and unfortunate Louis the Sixteenth issued a mandate in 1784, 
 requiring a commission to investigate the matter. The com- 
 missioners appointed were some of them members of the 
 Academy of Sciences, some of the medical faculty, and others 
 of the Society of Physicians, and contained in their number a 
 feW remarkable names. Among them were Lavoisier, who 
 might almost be called the father of modern chemistry ; Bailly, 
 whose subsequent fate in the French Revolution was so memo- 
 rable and melancholy; Guillotin, who in the same revolution 
 obtained such an unfortunate distinction from his recommen- 
 dation of that slaughterous engine which was called after his 
 name; Jussieu, the illustrious botanist ; and, lastly, that great 
 statesman-philosopher of the other hemisphere, to whom has 
 been so happily applied the line of the poet, — 
 
 " Eripnit coelo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis." 
 
 * The cautious and conscientious Deleuze said of Mesmer^ " that it is 
 impossible not to recognise in him.a distinguished metaphysician and a 
 profound observer." (Histoire Critique, torn. ii. p. 20.) Bruno spoke of 
 him as " a genius entitled to the gratitude of the human race, as one to 
 whose memory every honest and virtuous man owed a tribute of veneration 
 and respect." (Discours Pr^liminaire, p. 2.) Those who wish to see a 
 candid statement respecting the character and conduct of Mesmer may turn 
 to the Abb^ J. H. L., chapters 6. and 7. See also the his Sevelata. 
 
FIRST FEENCH EEPOET. 183 
 
 Of course, to men like these, to say nothing of the other able 
 names that were included '_in the commission, the profoundest 
 deference is due. Though authority cannot overthrow facts, 
 yet still authority is to be heard with grave attention in a re- 
 port on those facts ; — and here the question is, how far these 
 commissioners have decided, or intended to decide, against the 
 facts of Mesmerism, — and how far their opinion goes in 
 subverting the reality of the cures effected by its power. 
 
 The answer is, that they decided nothing on the subject : the 
 facts they have left untouched ; the cures in great measure 
 undenied ; their main drift and aim was against the theory. 
 
 It has been said, — in opposition to one of the statements of 
 the " Christian Observer " in regard to the " candid " manner 
 of their inquiries, — that the commissioners behaved most 
 unfairly, — that their examination was incomplete and super- 
 ficial, — and that they took but small trouble to observe. All 
 this I cannot bring myself to believe ; their names are a gua- 
 rantee against any such imputations. Men like Bailly and his 
 colleagues must have intended all that was fair and Candid. 
 But that their examination was " full or satisfactory," I deny. 
 That they entered upon the subject with strongly-formed 
 prejudices is well known. Their experiments were not con- 
 tinuous enough, — were not followed up closely by the same 
 parties, and were not conducted in compliance with the rules 
 required for their success ; and with Lavoisier, the great chemi- 
 cal philosopher at their head, their object was to detect the 
 presence of Mesmer's subtle fluid, and failing in that, they 
 considered the real labours of the commission virtually at an 
 end. 
 
 The idea of " utility " was not lost upon them ; and one 
 might have thought that such a view of the question would 
 have interested Franklin, and secured a careful investigation. 
 " Le Magnetisme Animal," says the Report, " pent bien exister 
 sans etre utile, mais il ne peut ctre utile, s'il n'existe pas." But 
 the fact is, Franklin was not in good health at the time ; and 
 from the language of the Eeport, it would appear almost 
 certain that he was not present at Paris during any of the 
 experiments. The commissioners all went one day to his house 
 
 N 4 ■ 
 
184 MESMEEISM Ain> ITS OPPOITENTS. 
 
 at Passy ; there a few experiments were made ; there he himself 
 was magnetised, and felt no sensation; and this imperfect 
 examination and personal trial seems to have satisfied him. 
 He signed the report ; and his name therefore is always quoted 
 as an authority on the subject*; but the world must judge 
 how far the opinion of a man, whose energies and bodily 
 activity were at that time in abeyance, can legitimately be 
 claimed as decisive, especially after so brief and unsatisfactory 
 an inquiry. 
 
 L But the other commissioners, though, doubtless, all in good 
 faith, omitted, in their experiments, many conditions, which 
 they were told were indispensable. They were not steady in 
 their attendance; and the experiments, moreover, were not 
 conducted in the presence or under the superintendence of 
 Mesmer himself, — but of one of his pupils (D'Eslon), who 
 afterwards protested against their reports "j" (for there was more 
 than one) as incorrect and unsatisfactory. 
 
 And what did these reports at length declare ? Did they 
 deny the facts ? Bather they established their reality. They 
 speak of "a great power influencing the sick. " J They say that, 
 having ascertained that an animal fluid cannot be perceived by 
 any of our senses (Ze« commissaires ayant reconnu que cefluide 
 piagnetique animal ne peut etre apergu par aucun de nos sens), 
 they come to the conclusion that nothing proves the existence 
 of this magnetic animal fluid ; — that, therefore, not being in 
 
 ' * I met lately at Paris in the Sibliothlque Sot/ale a characteristic billet 
 from Dr. Franklin to Madame Helvetius, which is here copied for the 
 amusement of the reader. " M. Franklin n'oublie jamais aucune partie ou 
 5VI° Helvetius doit etre. II croit meme, que s'il etait engage d'aller a 
 Faradis ce matin, 11 ferait supplication d'etre permis de Tester sur terre 
 JKsqu'a une heure et demi, pour recevoir I'embrassade qu'elle a bienvoulu 
 lui promettre en le rencontrant chez M. Turgot." 
 
 f There were four reports altogether. The first, signed by]Bailly, 
 Lavoisier, Franklin, &c. 2. The medical one, signed by Poissonnier, Coille, 
 Mauduyt, and Andry. S. Jussieu's, who had belonged to the medical sec- 
 tion, but did not sign with them. 4. The Secret Report, signed by all 
 together (excepting .Tussieu), relating to " danger as to morals" — not denying 
 facts, but doubting the utility as to medical treatment. The three first are 
 in the British Museum ; all four, however, are to be found reprinted in 
 Bertrand's " Magn^tisme Animale," which is now becoming a scarce book. 
 
 i[ " On ne peut s'empecher de reconnaitre, a ces efiets constans, une grande 
 vuissance qui agite les malades, les maitrise," &c. p. 7. , 
 
THE PEENCH MEPICAL EEPORT. 185 
 
 existence, it cannot be useful ; — {que rien ne prouve FeXisfencei 
 dufluide magnetique animal; que cefluide^ sans existence, est 
 par consequent sans utilite, &c.) ; and, consequently, they de- 
 cided that some other theory must be brought forward tos 
 account for the facts {les effets). , 
 
 The existence of many of these facts they acknowledge; they 
 describe some of the most important phenomena ; they mentioa 
 many singular convulsions, involuntary movements, and st/m- 
 pathies (rien n' est plus etonnant que le spectacle de ^esjconiiuU 
 sions . . . des sympathies qui s'etablissent. — Eapport de Bailly): 
 but Mesmer's theory they consider null and void; — and de-« 
 clare that the reality of the fluid could only be proved by its 
 curative effects; as if those curative eifects were not, after ally 
 the most essential point towards which the commissioliers could 
 look (^son existence ne peut etre demontree que par les effets 
 curatifs dans le traitement des maladies). 
 
 And what is the theory they offer in opposition ? " Ima- 
 gination," "Imitation," and "Touch;" — these they asserted 
 were the causes of all that occurred. {De ces experiences, les 
 commissaires ont conclu que Vimagination fait tout, que le 
 magnetisme est nul. Imagination, imitation, attouehement^ 
 telles sont les vraies causes des effets attribues au Magnetisme 
 Animal). 
 
 It is unnecessary to enter upon a refutation of their hypo-* 
 thesis; — all the commissioners attempted was to pull down 
 one theory, and build up another; — and this their Report,, 
 inconclusive, unsatisfactory, — and, if we may so speak of such; 
 men, unphilosophical in the extreme, — is declared by the 
 " Christian Observer," and other writers, to be decisive of the 
 question, and as having convicted Mesmer of being a conscious 
 impostor. 
 
 We next come to the Eeport of their colleagues, the medical 
 commissioners, who equally attack the existence of a fluid, and- 
 the theory of Mesmer, but scarcely utter an opinion as to the 
 unreality of the facts alleged ; and they sum up the result of 
 their labours with two resolutions. 
 
 " There exists no evidence," they say, " of the existence 
 of an agent or fluid, that is supposed to be the principle of, 
 
186 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 Animal Magnetism (p. 23);" this is their [first and graiid 
 conclusion : — " the theory is altogether wanting in proof." 
 
 Their second resolution relates to the utility of the discovery, 
 as a curative means, ■which they pronounce to be valueless, 
 except in certain very peculiar cases.* 
 
 The process, however, by which they arrived at these con- 
 clusions, is so amusing in itself, — so naively told, — and so 
 indicative of the feeling with which they entered on the inquiry, 
 that it ought not to be forgotten. • " We have not thought it 
 necessary," they say, " to fix our attention on rare, unusual, 
 or extraordinary cases which appear to contradict the laws of 
 nature!"^ Can anything equal the absurdity of this conduct 
 unless it be the sweet simplicity of the confession? As if the 
 whole subject had not been " extraordinary !" They were 
 actually appointed commissioners, because it was " extra- 
 ordinary," and yet they decline to investigate its most " ex- 
 traordinary " part ! Verily, these commissioners would have 
 been fitting associates of the Medico-Chirurgical Society on 
 that memorable night when the latter refused to examine into 
 the amputation of Wombell's leg, from the absurd pretensions 
 of the man to an " extraordinary " insensibility to pain. 
 
 As to all that the Medical Commissioners next remark about 
 the dangers of magnetism (pp. 36 — 40) ; about its action on the 
 brain, and its being the source of great evils of a physical and 
 moral nature (p. 46) ; the whole may be dismissed without 
 consideration. Their original bias peeps out in every para- 
 graph. 
 
 If a body of turnpike-trustees had been converted into 
 railway commissioners, and required to send in a report on. 
 the practicability of the new, system of transport, we should 
 naturally have expected resolutions as to the dangers anij 
 injustice of the proposed novelty: but even these gentlemen 
 would scarcely have declined to witness an experimental ex- 
 
 * " Nous pensons en consequence, ler, que la theorie est une systeme 
 absolument denue de preuves ; 2de, que ce pretendu moyen de gu^rir reduit, 
 &c. &c., — est au moins inutile pour ceux dans lesquels il ne s'ensuit," &c. 
 
 f " Sur des cas | rares, insolites, extraordinaires, qui paraissent contredire 
 toutes les loix de la physique." — p. 25. 
 
JUSSIEUS REPORT, 187 
 
 cursion of a few miles, on the grounds of the " unusual and 
 extraordinary " nature of the conveyance ! 
 
 The case is precisely in point. 
 
 Be this, however, as it may, the reader should know, that 
 the Medical Report, like the one from Bailly and Franklin, did 
 not conclude the question as to the unrealities of magnetism, — 
 but confined itself to objections against the theories of Mesmer, 
 and the assumed utilities of his system ; and it is to be hoped, 
 that, after this full exposition of their proceedings, we shall 
 hear no more of the decisive report of the French Com- 
 missioners. 
 
 But, inconclusive even as this Eeport was, there is yet a 
 more noticeable shortcoming. One great name is wanting to 
 the signatures. The virtuous and intelligent Jussieu, — he 
 who in the study of botany is an authority of the first rank, — 
 paid the closest attention to the proceedings ; and, " notwith- 
 standing the pressing solicitation of his colleagues, and the 
 menaces of the minister, the Baron de Breteuil," refused to 
 subscribe his name, and actually drew up a special Eeport of 
 his own. In that Report he states that the " experiments he 
 has himself made, and those of which he has been a witness, 
 convince him that man produces upon man a decided action by 
 friction (Jrottemerd), by contact, and, more rarely, by an 
 approximation at a little distance ; — that this action seems to 
 belong to some animal warmth existing in the body; — and 
 that judged by its effects, it occasionally /)artafte« of a tonic and 
 salutary result; — but that a more extended acquaintance with 
 this ' agent' will make us better understand its real action and 
 utility."* 
 
 • " Que les experiences qu'il a faites, et dont il a ete temoin, prouvent 
 que Thomme produit sur son semblable une action sensible par le frottement, 
 par le contact, et plus rarement par un simple rapproclieraent a quelque 
 distance ; que cette action, attribute a une fluide universelle non d^raontr^e, 
 lui semble apartenir a la chaleur animale existante dans les corps ; que cette 
 chaleur emane d'eux continuellement, se porte assez loin, et pent passer d'un 
 corps dans un autre ; qu'elle est dSvelopp^e, augmentee, ou diminude dans 
 un corps par des causes morales et par des causes physiques ; que, jug^e par 
 des effets, elle participe de la propriete des remedes toniques, et produit 
 comme eux des effets salutaires ou nuisibles, selon la quantity de chaleur 
 communiqude, et s^Ion les circonstances oCi elle est employee ; qu'eniin un 
 
188 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 Jussieu further says, " I have frequented the apartments of 
 M. Deslon; — to avoid mistakes, I have been anxious to see 
 much and operate often myself; — and I have given considerable 
 time to the experiments." (p. 10.) 
 
 ; Having thus examined very many cases himself, he divides 
 his facts into four orders ; and admits that a large proportion 
 of them may be explained away by " Imagination," &c., without 
 the assistance of any external agent. 
 
 At last he comes to his fourth section, and here he asserts, 
 that he has a different class of occurrences now to record. 
 
 " These facts," he says, " are small in number, and with 
 little variety, — because I was anxious only to enumerate those 
 that were well established, and on which I had not the smallest 
 doubt. They are, however, sufficient to make tis admit the 
 possibility or existence of a fluid or agent, which is communi- 
 cated from one man to another, — and sometimes exercises on 
 the latter a sensible action." (p. 37.) 
 
 A large part of Jussieu's Report is full of " Reflections " 
 (as he calls them), and attempted explanations and reasons of 
 his " Facts." Perhaps these " explanations" weakened the 
 effect of his statement with the public. He comes, however, 
 to the conclusion at last, that warmth (chaleur animate) is 
 the principal source of the magnetic treatment and success, 
 (p. 78.) 
 
 Jussieu blames the course adopted by Mesmer and his 
 followers, in aiming so much at the promulgation of a theory, — 
 before the facts themselves have been fully established : — but 
 he shows the utility of the system as a remedy. 
 
 Upon the whole, the Report is a very cautious, well- 
 considered document, — not asserting or predicting too much 
 — nor running wild with enthusiastic approbation. It is the 
 evident production of ?t, safe and sober man. 
 
 Here, then, is a signiflcant fact in the history of this science, 
 which ought to have arrested the conclusions of the faculty. 
 But Jussieu's counterstatements were laughed at and set aside. 
 
 usage plus £tendu et plus r6fieehi de cet agent fera mieux connaitre sa 
 veritable action et son d^gr6 d'utilite." — p. 50. 
 
EFFECT OF THE EEPORT. 189 
 
 It was everywhere reported that the commissioners had put the 
 matter to rest ; and that large body of the public who never 
 think for themselves, or care to distinguish, assumed that the 
 refutation of the theory was a refutation of the facts ; and so 
 Animal Magnetism was considered as extinguished and buried 
 for ever. "While the stirring scenes of the approaching Revo- 
 lution, and its sad and tragical horrors, and stiU more the 
 wonders of Napoleon's reign*, so diverted men's minds from 
 the subject, that to the great mass of the French people the ex- 
 istence of Mesmerism was a forgotten fact in history. 
 
 But truth is eternal, and the triumph of its enemies but short- 
 lived and inglorious. Though a passing cloud may overshadow 
 it, and appear to darken the prospect hopelessly, it is only that 
 it may shine forth with greater brightness than ever. As one 
 of our most glowing writers says of certain favourite principles, 
 " Though they fall, it is but to rebound ; — though they recede, 
 it is but to spring forward with greater elasticity ; though they 
 perish, there are the seeds of vitality in their very decay ; " • — 
 and so it is with truth and with the facts of Mesmerism. This 
 exploded science " lived on," — " brokenly," indeed, as the poet 
 says, — and " showing no visible sign " of existence ; — still it 
 "lived on," — and after a time gradually began to. increase, and 
 then to flourish, and at last to lift up its head only higher than 
 before. The " crushing report " of the commissioners had not 
 killed it.t Numbers of able and learned men stiE adhered 
 pertinaciously to its cause. Schools were formed, — societies 
 established for its promotion. The Marquis de Puysegur, a 
 gallant soldier, devoted his whole soul and time to the treatment. 
 
 » See Scobardi. — Preface, p. 2. 
 
 t Great facts in nature or art are not so easily got rid of by one slashing 
 article, though their course may be somewhat retarded. Many of us re- 
 member the appearance of the "Excursion." Tlie Ettrick Shepherd wrotp 
 to Southey : " I suppose you have heard what a crushing review in the 
 Edinburgh Jeffrey has given Wordsworth." " He crush the Excursion ! 
 Tell him he might as easily crush Skiddaw I " was the Laureate's answer to 
 Hogg. And so with Mesmerism. The article in the Quarterly, which 
 is well-known to have proceeded from the pen of Sir B. B., was reported 
 everywhere to have settled the question : but Mesmerism, it is well remarked, 
 " is like the polypus : the knife may mutilate it, but it spreads again stronger 
 than ever. " — Bapport Canfid. 4. 
 
190 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 His success was immense. The cures performed by him were 
 numerous. In Germany, in France, more especially at Stras- 
 burg and Paris, the subject was taken up with as great zeal as 
 previously ; and what is more to the purpose, with a judgment 
 and sober consideration, and an utter absence ofaWcharlatanerie 
 and mystery.* 
 
 So signal was the progress, that a decided sensation was now 
 made on the medical world. A young physician at Paris, the 
 amiable and learned Foissac, made a stirring appeal to his 
 brethren in its behalf. In 1825, he addressed a memorial to 
 the members of the Eoyal Academy of Medicine, pointing out 
 the necessity of a fresh and more satisfactory inquiry. Without 
 entering upon the details, let it be sufficient to state, that a 
 Second Commission was appointed ; that this commission con- 
 sisted exclusively of medical men, some of them of very high 
 standing in their profession ; — that a most careful and scientific 
 investigation took place ; — and that in 1831 a Eeport on their 
 Magnetic Experiments was laid before the Academy. And 
 what was the nature of this Report ? "Was it evasive, cold, 
 neutral, condemnatory? It was satisfactory and decisive in 
 the highest degree. After having given a most interesting and 
 circumstantial account of their proceedings, they finish with a 
 series of conclusions, to which they had arrived : they are thirty 
 in number, and ought to be read, as well as the Report itself, 
 by every one interested in the subject ; space can only be af- 
 forded for a few extracts, but these are decisive enough. They 
 
 * " Magnetism is a biiise that is dead and buried," said M. Renauldin, a 
 member of the Academy of Medicine, in 1825. " In one sense, our 
 honoured colleague is right," observes the preface to the Rapport Confiden. 
 tidl. " Magnetism was condemned jSrsi, fAere tried in the year 1784 by the 
 scientific and the doctors ; but it is notorious, that, since that epoch, the said 
 magnetism, far from regarding itself as dead, has not ceased to spread itself 
 in a deplorable mannei'in France, in Germany, in Prussia, &c., to the great 
 satisfaction of the sick, and the great disappointment of the faculty, who 
 know not what to make of these sort of resurrections ! " (p. 2. ) I am 
 indebted to Mr. Newnham's work for my acquaintance with this very clever 
 production, which professes to be a translation from Scobardi, an Italian 
 Jesuit, in his report to the Grand Master of the Society of Jesus. The 
 richest vein of irony runs through every page. All who love Mesmerism 
 and sarcasm should read it. 
 
SECOND FRENCH REPORT, l9jt 
 
 8. A certain number of the effects observed appeared to us 
 to depend upon Magnetism alone, and were never pro- 
 duced without its application. These are well established 
 physiological and therapeutic phenomena. 
 29. Considered as a cause of certain physiological phenomena, 
 or as a therapeutic remedy, Magnetism ought to be allowed 
 a place within the circle of the medical sciences ; and 
 consequently, physicians only should practise it, or super- 
 intend its use, as is the case in the northern countries.* 
 And they conclude with saying, — " We dare not flatter our- 
 selves with the hope of making you participate entirely in our 
 conviction of the reality of the phenomena, which we have 
 observed, and which you have neither seen, nor followed, nor 
 studied along with us. We do not, therefore, demand of you a 
 blind belief of all that we have reported. We conceive that a 
 great proportion of these facts are of a nature so extraordinary 
 that you cannot accord them such a credence. . . .We only re- 
 quest that you would judge us as we should judge you, — that is 
 to say, that you be completely convinced, that neither the love 
 of the marvellous, nor the desire of celebrity, nor any views of 
 interest whatever, influenced us during our labours." 
 
 This Report was signed by nine physicians. The two who 
 did not sign did not consider themselves entitled to do so, from 
 not having assisted at the experiments. The Report was laid 
 before the Academy, who resolved that manuscript copies 
 sliould be taken of it (Jaire autographier le Rappori), To this 
 no objection was made : and the adversaries of Mesmerism re- 
 signed themselves, as far as the Academy was concerned, to an 
 absolute silence on the subject. And from that hour. Mes- 
 merism has been gaining ground in France, with such an im- 
 
 * 8. Un certain nombre des effets observes nous ont panis dependre du 
 magnetisme seul, et ne se sont pas reproduit sans lui. Ce sont des pbeno- 
 menes physiologiques et th^rapeutiques bien constates. 
 
 29. Consid6r^ comme agent de phenomenes physiologiques, ou comme 
 moyen th^rapeutique, le magnetisme devrait trouVer sa place dans le cadre 
 des connaissances m^dicales ; et par consequent les medecins seuls devraient 
 en faire oil en surveiller I'emploi, ainsi que cela se pratique dans les pays du 
 nord. — FoissAC, Rapports, p. 206. 
 
-i92 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS, 
 
 petus, that, as I have heard, a fourth of the medical men in 
 Paris are stanch upholders of the science.* 
 
 " But," says the " Christian Observer," with a pertinacity 
 worthy of a better cause, " if the French Commissioners have 
 not decided the question, Mr. Wakley has." " Mr. Wakley 
 laid bare some of the impositions to the conviction of unpre- 
 judiced observers."! " The' wary coroner quietly slipped the 
 wonder-working talisman (a piece of nickel) into a friend's 
 hand, and substituted for it a piece of Queen Victoria's vulgar 
 eopper coin." " It was impossible that the hopeful young 
 lady," — as the writer unbecomingly terms as respectable a 
 person as himself, — " could have exhibited such characteristic 
 indications of Mesmeric influence if she had not been duly 
 nickelised." And the editor of the " Lancet" is for ever re- 
 ferring his readers to those identical proceedings, and assuming 
 that there is no appeal from his infallible tribunal. It is a new 
 sight to behold Mr. Wakley and the " Christian Observer" 
 yoked together in the same car of " compact alliance."} Misery, 
 they say, makes us acquainted with strange companions ; and a 
 bad cause appears to have much the same result. Not that 
 Mr. Wakley's opinions are undeserving of attention. Mr. 
 Wakley has " done the state some service." His first establish- 
 ment of the "Lancet" was a useful act; it emancipated the 
 minds of the junior members of his profession from a sluggish 
 deference to official authority ; and it often threw considerable 
 light on some more than questionable proceedings within the 
 different hospitals. In fact, it furnished an abundance of 
 valuable information for all classes. Mr. Wakley's conduct in 
 
 * In 1837, there was a third investigation in Paris, composed almost 
 entirely of the members of the Medical Academy, who were most hostile to 
 Magnetism, and who of course returned an unfriendly report. It -related 
 cmly to two female somnambulists who had manifested some phenomena, and 
 did not bear on the curative question. This report is notorious for its flagrant 
 dishonesty in one or two points, and for its suppressio veri. The particulars 
 win be found in the preface to the third edition of the Isis Revelata,^in 
 Mr. Newnham's Human Magnetism, — and the recent French worksj As 
 the Abbe J. B. L. observes, " though the commission only made half a dozen 
 experiments on two somnambulists, they have embraced the wliole of magnetism 
 in their conclusions." (p. 397.) This report was completely refuted by M. 
 Husson, and M. Bcrna in their replies. 
 
 ■f In the article for September, 1843. 
 
MR. WAKLEY. 193 
 
 Parliament, in spite of his political ultraism, has been often 
 marked by an honest detestation and exposure of abuse. And 
 as a coroner, though occasionally officious and meddling, he has 
 brought the reluctant authorities to a better knowledge of their 
 duty. Still Mr. Wakley is not oracular on every subject. 
 Clever as he is, he may, like other men, occasionally be mis- 
 taken, especially on points which he has little studied, and to 
 which he comes for a novel and first experiment. He has so 
 often enlightened the world with a description of what he tried 
 in the cases of two of Dr. EUiotson's patients, that it is needless 
 to repeat the story. It may be as well, however, to state, that 
 it was in a set of experiments with nickel and lead, and which, 
 he says, most egregiously failed, and proved the falsehood and 
 imposition of the pretended sleepers. Those who have read 
 Mr. Wakley's strictures should know that every charge has 
 been again and again successfully answered. Dr. EUiotson, in 
 the Letter to his Pupils on resigning his chair in University 
 College, has entered fully into every part of the subject. Those 
 who adopt the accusation should, at least, look into the reply. 
 They will there find it stated, that some part of the proceedings 
 were " entirely suppressed." They will there see how neces- 
 sary it is in an experiment with metals on the human frame to 
 proceed with the greatest caution and observation. They will 
 there learn what slight disturbing effects change the nervous 
 condition of the patient, and alter and affect the result of the 
 experiment. " He acted," says Dr. EUiotson, " as though 
 Mesmeric susceptibility is always present, and always the same ; 
 whereas the reverse is the fact ; and experiments with water 
 and metals frequently repeated so derange the susceptibility 
 that we are often obliged to desist." Many a school-boy has 
 made the trial of tasting, with his eyes bandaged, alternate 
 glasses of white and red wine, till at last his palate has become 
 so disordered, that he has been unable to detect the difference, 
 and know the one from the other. In Mesmeric experiments, 
 whether in phreno-magnetism or with metals, it is indispensable 
 with most patients that the action of the first experiment be 
 removed, or wear ofi^, before a second and different one be 
 attempted. They will otherwise clash and injure each other. 
 
 o 
 
194 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 Time and the greatest nicety are requisite. The slightest cir-- 
 cumstance may upset and disturb the patient, and so produce a 
 real failure in the eixperiment, and a seeming imposture on the 
 part of the sleeper.* With some somnambulists the trial with 
 metals is complete ; with others it is most uncertain. Thig is 
 mentioned as a caution to those who quit a public lecture with 
 their scepticism only the more strengthened, because the mes- 
 merised metals have not obtained the promised effectf But 
 waving all this for a moment, let us suppose that these two 
 most respectable patients of Dr. Elliotson, — patients with 
 whom the editor of a religious periodical might not be ashamed 
 to be acquainted, — let us suppose that these two patients were 
 " deluding," and " affecting to suffer," and, for " sordid gain," 
 ^' pretending to respond to the magical control" of the mag- 
 iietist. What then ? does the cause of Mesmerism depend upon 
 the truthfulness of one or two cases ? Granted that they were 
 false, it would be rather a strong inference to assume that 
 every thing else were a mistake. What yet becomes of the 
 thousand-and-one cases that could easily be counted up, if a 
 careful statistical body of evidence were collected from all 
 quarters ? It is to facts without number that we appeal-; to 
 facts confirmed by experiment and observation ; and a hundred 
 failures, or a hundred cases of imposture, would detract but a 
 small amount from the actual heap : 
 
 " Suave est ex magna toUere acervo." 
 
 . But we must inform these cruel and : thoughtless writers, 
 who, for the sake of a pungent sentence, care not what libels 
 they scatter against amiable and unoffending women, that these 
 two lister-patients of Dr. Elliotson were mo* impostors. One 
 
 * " People are not very, acute in distinguishing the causes of failure," says 
 i clever article in the Examiner newspaper, "and the tide of fashion runs 
 indiscriminately against a scheme,", which appears to miscarry. — July Sth 
 1845. 
 
 • t To show how necessary it is to proceed most leisurely, and with inter- 
 vals between experiments of every kind, the reader is referred to Zoist, No. 
 19, p. 244., for tlje interesting case ofMys. Snewing. I was myself present 
 on the day mentioned by Dr. E. p. 242., when the Archbishop of Dublin 
 and Mr. Scarlett asisisted in the experiments, and can bear testimony to the 
 itccuracy of the doctpr's statement. 
 
LONDON TINIVEESITT. 195 
 
 of them is most respectably married ; and both have secured 
 the good opinion of all who know them. But as one test of 
 sincerity is better than fifty assertions, let us state an actual 
 fact, and see how far it will serve as a set-off to Mr. Wakley's 
 charges. Mr. Gibbon Wakefield, " as hard-headed and little 
 credulous a man as exists," had often excused himself, when 
 invited, from going to University College Hospital to witness 
 the Mesmeric phenomena in the cases of these two sisters. At 
 last he went, and was astonished ; but still would not make up 
 his mind to believe what he saw. " When the experiments 
 were over, and he was passing through some part of the hos- 
 pital to leave it, he accidentally noticed one of the sisters with 
 her back to him, hanging over the balusters carelessly, and 
 looking down, still in the Mesmeric delirium, and therefore 
 highly susceptible. He thought this a favourable opportunity 
 to test her, because he was satisfied that she could not see any- 
 thing that he did. He made a pass behind her back at some 
 distance with his hand directed to her, and she instantly was 
 fixed and rigid, and perfectly senseless. He had sense enough 
 to believe his senses, — and was now satisfied of the reality of 
 all he had beheld."* This was a convincing fact ; and might 
 satisfy the brother-editors of the " Lancet" and of the " Chris- 
 tian Observer" of the truthfulness and honesty of the calum- 
 niated sleeper. A similar thing occurred to a friend of mine, 
 as clear-headed and strong-minded a man as any of my acquaint- 
 ance. He made a pass behind the patient's back (one of the 
 sisters Okey), at Dr. EUiotson's house, when she was occupied 
 in conversation with some one else, and was unconscious of his 
 presence and intention. In truth, he was hardly conscious of 
 the intention himself ; for it was the thought and act of a 
 moment. But the poor girl was instantly seized, and fell back 
 in a state of torpor. The gentleman who told me this is no 
 believer in Mesmerism : he merely mentioned it as a circum- 
 stance that occurred within his experience. Facts, however, 
 such as these will receive the attention of the candid and the 
 impartial ; they refute the impjitation of deception ;—t and it is by 
 
 " Zoist, No. L p. 83. 
 o 2 
 
196 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 such plain statements that we reply to the ungenerous slanders 
 of Mr. Wakley and his new ally, the " Christian Observer." 
 
 But if Mr. "Wakley did not succeed in disproving the honesty 
 of two excellent sisters, there was one thing in which he was 
 eminently fortunate. The thunders of the " Lancet " had their 
 intended effect on his medical brethren. Though anything but 
 a favourite with them before, he henceforward became their 
 pet authority. And strange to say he also became their terror. 
 Fearful of being hitched into a line of the next week's "Lancet," 
 as believers in the so-called absurdity, some gentlemen straight- 
 way swallowed their rising convictions with wry faces and 
 reluctant hearts ; — while the remainder, almost to a man, 
 refused for the future to be present at any Mesmeric demon- 
 stration whatsoever. Like Mr. M'Neile at Liverpool, they 
 carefully retreated from the evidence of their own senses, but 
 from a different reason altogether. My clerical brother judged 
 that there was something supernatural in these cases ; — he 
 regretted that he had not faith to play the part of exerciser 
 and bid the devil depart *, and from want of this faith would 
 " see nothing of it." But the fears of the liberal profession 
 were of a different order. It was not of an evil spirit that 
 fhei/ stood in awe ; it was of Mr. Wakley, — of the evil genius 
 of the " Lancet," — of the gibes and jeerings of a substantial, 
 corporeal editor, before whom they shrank rebuked. This was 
 the demon whom they dreaded : and though we might have 
 expected better things from such a body of men, it is a fact, 
 that mainly through an apprehension of having their names 
 brought forward before the public in the pages of a clever 
 periodical, very many gentlemen turned their backs on the 
 subject, and from that hour declined all invitations to visit and 
 examine the phenomena for themselves. And thus it went on 
 for a few years. The progress of Mesmerism was seemingly 
 suspended in this country. It appeared stifled in its birth, an 
 unlucky abortion, of which nothing more would be heard. 
 But silently and steadily was it making way. A change was 
 gradually coming on. Day by day fresh accessions were 
 
 * See Sermon, p. 147. 
 
PEOGRESS OF MESMEEISM. 197 
 
 counted in its train. The leaven was fermenting ; and even 
 rfrom the ranks of the faculty a few adherents occasionally 
 dropped in. I hope that I may now say confidently that a 
 better spirit has decidedly sprung up among them. In that 
 noble profession, which is alike distinguished for its humanity, 
 its ability, its love of science, its love of truth, its large and 
 comprehensive philosophy, I believe that the far greater 
 number would be ready to give, even to the hateful study of 
 Mesmerism, the benefit of a faithful and dispassionate inquiry. 
 I am sure that there are many who would cheerfully admit 
 that the field of usefulness is enlarged by it, and the means of 
 lessening human ills considerably extended. I know that there 
 are several, who, at the risk of damaging their worldly prospects, 
 do not hesitate to step forward fearlessly and manfully, as 
 believers in, and practisers of, the calumniated science. More 
 especially from among the younger members of the profession, 
 there are to be found many zealous and talented men, taking a 
 high and independent position, anxiously devoting their atten- 
 tion to the study, gathering facts as they arise, and prepared to 
 employ the aid of this new power among the means of cure at 
 their disposal. O si sic omnes ! For there are others, and 
 particularly among the leaders * in more than one metropolis, 
 who, to judge from their conduct and their language, would 
 seem to have the same horror at being witnesses of Mesmeric 
 phenomena, as the bat has at the approach of light. They 
 sneer or smile when the subject is brought forward, according 
 to their own turn of mind, or rather according to the temper 
 of those with whom they argue. But to be present, — to 
 
 • Apropos of leaders in a profession : Hume says that " Harvey is entitled 
 to the glory of having made, by reasoning alone, without any mixture of 
 accident, a capital discovery in one of the most important branches of science. 
 He had also the happiness of establishing at once his theory on the most 
 solid and convincing proofs ; and society has added little to the arguments 
 suggested by his industry and ingenuity. ... It was remarked that no 
 physician, in Europe, who had reached forty years of age, ever to the end of his 
 life, adopted Harvey's doctrine of thi circulation of the hlood, and that his prac- 
 tice in London diminished extremely, from the reproach drawn upon him 
 by that great and signal discovery. So slow is the progress of truth in every 
 science, even when not opposed by factious or superstitious prejudices 1 He 
 died in 1657, aged 79." — Hume's History of England, cap. 62; 
 
 o 3 
 
198 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 have their names bruited about as testimonies of a fact,^-^ 
 to be unable to resist their own convictions, — to be un- 
 able to remain in the bliss of ignorance, — this is a position 
 from which they fall back with a secret dread of approaching 
 danger. They can be sharp-sighted enough in detecting 
 narrowness of spirit in any other quarter, -^ advocates for 
 freedom of conscience in theology, —, ameliorators of our cri- 
 minal code'in matters of jurisprudence, •— liberal, toleran% and 
 haters of abuse ; — but the moment that Mesmeric influence is 
 proposed as an auxiliary to their practice, that instant they are 
 as sensitive, as angry, as staunch adherents of what is old, — 
 as stout opponents of what is new, — as though the charter and 
 privileges of their order were being jeopardied for ever ! • 
 Doubtless, in aU experiments of a strange and novel character, 
 the public do dxpeot from the medical profession the most 
 cautious, slow, and deliberate frame of mind. They expect 
 from their closer cognisance of subjects of this nature the most 
 searching, scrutinizing, hesitating conduct. Nay, they would 
 not even be displeased to see an inquiry carried on in a sceptical^ 
 unbelieving spirit.' But still they do expect inquiry of some 
 kind.f They dO' not expect to see a subject of this important 
 
 * Miss Martineau observes, " The systematic disingenuousness of some 
 medical journals on this subject, and the far-fetched calumnies and offen- 
 sive assumptions with which it is the regular practice of the faculty to assail 
 every case pf cure or relief by Mesmerism, looked very m-uch as if they were in 
 ebnjUct with powerful truth, and as if they knew it." — Preface, p. 7. < 
 
 f It would be unjust not to acknowledge, that many medicat men, and 
 some with whom I have the pleasure of being acquainted, have made a 
 most fair and straightforward inquiry into the subject. But we too often 
 meet with much of a contrary character. A letter was read to me from the 
 West of England, saying, " We have had a lecturer on Mesmerism here ; all 
 our medical men were present, and behaved in the mo.st brutal and outrage- 
 ous way." A lady, where I was on a visit lately, said, " We have had )l 
 
 Mesmeric lecturer in our town : Mr. ^, a surgeon, behaved in the most 
 
 bullying manner, and did all he could to intimidate the parties." In Nor- 
 wich a Mesmeriser was recently giving a- lecture. A most intelligent 
 inhabitant of that city told me that many of the medical men " were furious " 
 on the occasion. One of them, who was present, suddenly took out a lancet 
 and ran it deeply into the patient's finger under the nail into the quick ; a part 
 most exquisitely sensitive, as we all know : no expression of pain was evi- 
 dent at the time ; but the poor boy suffered a good deal after he was 
 awakened. I neither know nor wish to learn the name of the party who 
 was guilty of this unmanly outrage. A strong feeling, I understand, has 
 
LONDON UNIVERSITY. 199 
 
 nature treated with the vulgarest vituperation and ridicule ; 
 its supporters stigmatised as credulous, its operators defamed 
 as fraudulent, its patients mocked at as impostors. They do 
 not expect to see the heads of a profession which piques itself 
 pte-emdnentljr on its .liberality, exhibiting the Ijigotry of the 
 priest, and the special pleading of the lawyer. Look, for 
 instance, at what took place a few years back at the London 
 University through the instigation and promptings of certain 
 members of the faculty. Often is the world invited to sneer 
 at the blind prejudices that disfigure the banks of the Isis ; — 
 often have the venerable doctors of Oxford been satirized for 
 their love of the useless and the obsolete to the prejudice of 
 some nobler branches of knowledge ; but in spite of all the 
 faults of Alma Mater, — in spite of all her past and present 
 absurdities, I would contrast her conduct on a memorable 
 occasion in academic history^ ^ith the intolerance and hatred 
 of novelty that recently marked the more modern institution. 
 Are the circumstances, for instance, under which Locke was 
 expelled from Christ Church one whit more disgraceful in 
 themselves, than the treatment which induced Dr. Elliotson ta 
 withdraw his name from the Professorship in the University of 
 London ? "Was the temple of science more liberal than the 
 Lall of logic ? was the new foundation more friendly to 
 enlightened investigations than the old ? What, in short, 
 were the respective circumstances of the two cases? In the 
 ancient seat of learning, the timidity or servility of a dean and 
 chapter expunged the name of the philosopher from the books 
 
 been entertained respecting him. But these are the ways in which an 
 inquiry is conducted, — if conducted at all, rather than with a calm, patient, 
 philosophic temper, solicitous of truth. A most acute observer, though no 
 believer in Mesmerism, lately remarked to me : — " From what I read in 
 different provincial papers, and from what I have heard from other quarters, 
 it seems to me, that medical men attend these meetings, not with the humane 
 desire of discovering a valuable auxiliary, but solely with the hope of detect- 
 ing imposture." It is too nearly the truth. I have also read some curious 
 accounts of what took place lately at Bedford and at Exeter. The conduct 
 of certain parties to Mr. Vernon at Greenwich must be fresh in every one's 
 memory. See also in Miss Martineau's letters another " brutal assault," by 
 a surgeon, who " violently seized the sleeper's arm, and shouted out that the 
 house was on 6re," p. 35. The whole story is worth reading. 
 
 o 4 
 
200 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 of his college at the mandate of an arbitrary sovereign ; James 
 the Second was the real cause of the expulsion of Locke, 
 though the University of Oxford had long endured a most 
 unjust opprobrium on the subject, till Lord GrenviUe cleared 
 the matter up * : while in the model institution, the vacancy in 
 the Professor's chair was the result of an opposition to physio- 
 logical experiments on the part of soi-disant friends to scientific 
 inquiry, — an opposition that was set on foot by Dr. EUiotson's 
 own colleagues, and carried out to its completion by the 
 despotic members of a liberal council ! 
 
 But this subject wiU bear a little further examination. 
 
 The University of London, or, as it has since been designated, 
 University College, was originally formed on the most liberal 
 principles. No tests, — ^no subscriptions were admissible;— 
 but to promote the largest amount of knowledge amongst the 
 largest number of students, was the projected theory of its 
 friends and founders. The stare super antiquas vias, — the 
 clinging to old usages, — the rejection of new truths, — this was 
 the favourite charge against the elder Institutions ; but with 
 ^he rival establishment in Gower Street, an order of things was 
 to arise which would lead men forward to fresh fields of know- 
 ledge. Nay, so liberal were they, that the very name of Re- 
 ligion was not to pass their threshold ; each man was to do 
 what seemed right in his own eyes ; and worship his Creator 
 (or not) after the fashion he liked best. " But," says a clever 
 article in the Spectator Newspaper, " there are few, even among 
 the most liberal, who apply their liberalism to every point. 
 Some are liberal on commercial, some on theological, some on 
 political, and some on juridical questions ; — but beyond the 
 pale of their own peculiar subject, they are often as intolerant 
 as ignorance can make them"\ And thus, in the University of 
 London, though every one was to be his own theologian, the 
 same latitude was not granted in the matter of medicine. Here 
 all was by precedent and prescription ; here the conventional 
 customs of the faculty were deemed sacred as the Thirty-nine 
 
 * See " Locke and Oxford," by Lord Grenville. 
 t Spectator, Nov. 11th, 1843. 
 
BELIEVEES IN MESMEEISM. 201 
 
 Articles elsewhere ; here, whatever was not stamped with the 
 orthodox seal of the College of Surgeons, was shunned as a 
 heresy, to be burnt by the hands of the common hangman. As 
 for the spiritual state of the students, — for their immortal and 
 better part, no matter what was the result, these young men 
 might become Budhists, Mahometans, Atheists, or Muggle- 
 tonians ; — any thing they pleased, so long as their freedom of 
 choice was not interfered with ; — but for the perishing bodies 
 of the sick, all must be done selon les regies ; cure or relief was 
 unimportant, so that the prejudices of the practitioner were not 
 offended. Accordingly, when Mesmerism was introduced into 
 the Hospital by their most distinguished Physician, — though 
 the patients themselves were willing recipients, — though the 
 most signal benefits were being daily experienced, — though the 
 academies at Paris and Berlin had not thought the question 
 beneath their notice, — this new, — this liberal, — this consistent 
 University stepped forward to aim a blow at a science in its 
 birth. The free-thinking Council met and passed the following 
 Resolution : — 
 
 " Eesolved, — That the Hospital Committee be instructed to 
 take such steps as they shall deem most advisable to prevent 
 the practice of Mesmerism, or Animal Magnetism, in future 
 within the Hospital." 
 
 No sooner was this Resolution passed, than Dr. Elliotson sent 
 in his resignation. It ought, however, to be made known that 
 four Members of the Council, true to their own principles and 
 to the great cause of humanity, constituted an honourable mi- 
 nority in a vote on a proposition that Dr. Elliotson should be 
 invited back to resume his chair. These four were Lord 
 Brougham, Sir L. Goldsmith, Mr. Tooke, and Mr. Bishop. 
 But the Council rejected the proposition. 
 
 And so much for the liberal University of London ! 
 
 Turn again, for a second example, to the proceedings of the 
 Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society on a late occasion.* 
 See the alarmed and almost frantic feelings with which certain 
 
 * See " Numerous Cases of Surgical Operations without Pain," &c., by 
 Dr. Elliotson. (Bailliere.) 
 
202 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 parties discussed the remarkable report of the amputation of a 
 man's thigh during the Mesmeric state. * See how anxious 
 they were to put the matter down, and bury the fact in oblivion. 
 A Bible thrown into an old Spanish convent could not have 
 more convulsed ' its inmates, than did this unfortunte treatise 
 that learned assembly. Mr. Topham has much to answer for. 
 The conscience of Mr. "Ward must be weighed down with bitter 
 self-reproach. True, these gentlemen established a great fact 
 in physiology : true, they assisted an unhappy sufferer with un- 
 exampled relief during a formidable operation ;— but they 
 cannot be otherwise than painfully mindful of the bile and bad 
 blood they engendered amongst the members of the society on 
 that unlucky evening. Poor WombeU, indeed, enjoyed a com- 
 posing sleep during the horrors of amputation ; but contrast 
 that with the sleepless feverish nights of the angry opponents, 
 and then what has humanity gained in the matter ? The thing 
 was " irrational, "-r- was " ridiculous,"-^ was " impossible," and 
 so what need was there for the Society to discuss the subject? 
 Like a country bench of double-barrelled squires assembled to 
 convict a suspected offender against the game laws, this philo- 
 sophical audience arrived at a " foregone conclusion," before the 
 jnerits of the case had even been opened. The Mesmeriser 
 and the poacher must both be silenced : — - the one has no 
 licence to kill, nor the other to cure ; and so defence or expla- 
 nation are alike inadmissible. One gentleman declared that he 
 would not believe the facts had he witnessed them himself.f 
 Another expressed his perfect satisfaction with the condem- 
 natory reports made by others, and 'par consequent, the Heed- 
 lessness that he should be present and examine them himself! 
 Eeally, in passing through the account of this debate, — in 
 noting the anxiety of certain members to expunge all record of 
 the proceedings from their minute-book, I could have fancied 
 that I was reading the discussions of a knot of mendicant friars 
 
 * See " Account of a Case of successful Amputation of the Thigh during 
 the Mesmeric State, without the Knowledge of the Patient." Read to the 
 Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, November, 1842, by W. Topham, 
 Esq., and W. S. Ward, Esq. (Ballliere, Regent Street.) 
 
 ■f- Etherisation has since proved the truthfulness of thiese facts in Mesine- 
 rism. 
 
MEDICO-CHIRTIRGICAL SOCIETY. 203 
 
 terrified at the dawn of the Eeformation ; — I felt myself trans- 
 planted, as it were, into the Vatican, where was a letter from 
 Luther, frightening the holy conclave from its propriety. All 
 the time that I was reading the speeches of certain opponents, 
 there kept involuntarily rising up in my mind the outcry of 
 Demetrius, the Ephesian silversmith, "Our craft is in danger 
 to be set at nought : and, Sirs, ye know that by this craft we 
 have our wealth." (Acts, xix. v. 25. 27.) One would suppose 
 that these gentlemen would remember the treatment of Harvey, 
 the circulator, as he was termed ; — the averted eye that at first 
 was turned on Jenner ; and the disbelief with which many 
 great and mighty discoveries have been received,>and be more 
 cautious and circumspect for the future. Oh ! if a love of 
 ancient usages, — if a hatred of new and unpalata;ble truths is to 
 bear away the beU, Oxford may now hide her diminished head, 
 — Salamanca " pale her uneffectual fires," — the doctors of the 
 Sorbonne part with their old pre-eminence, for competitors are 
 stepping in from the " liberal professions," able and willing to 
 take the lead. And yet we are all aware of the sarcasms with 
 which "the faculty" and the "philosophers "treat the "learned 
 ignorance " of the clergy, and their presumed dislike to scien- 
 tific inquiry ; and perhaps we are too often a fair subject for 
 such animadversion, more especially if many such sermons as the 
 one preached at Liverpool are delivered by us : but I can tell 
 " the profession," in return, that I should often have more hope 
 of bringing home a new and important truth to the minds of a 
 simple ignorant peasantry than of combating successfully the 
 bigotry of the philosopher, and the prejudices of an educated 
 and scientific assembly.* Yes : save me from the credulity of 
 the sceptic, — from the intolerance of the tolerant, — from the 
 tyranny of the ultra-liberal ! Experience has shown us some of 
 the bitterest opponents of real freedom of conscience amongst 
 the stanchest sticklers for religious liberty ; we daily see men, 
 who will believe nothing, even upon the strongest testimony, in 
 contradiction to their preconceived systems, believing everything 
 
 * " Rarementun savant, qui a recueilli, compare beaucoup d'id^es trouvees 
 avant lui, pent et veut compiendve un oidie de verites nouvelies." — Magne- 
 tisme devant le Cour de Rome, 45. 
 
204 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 against the veracity and competency of the most credible wit- 
 nesses * ; — and here we have had a free-thinking council op- 
 posed to freedom of inquiry, — and a body of gentlemen, whose 
 whole professional career is based on experimental evidence, on 
 one occasion declining to witness facts, and upon another, 
 thrown into a confusion, worse than that in King Agramont's 
 camp f , from the recital of a case, which, even if attended by a 
 few erroneous conclusions, was at least deserving of a candid 
 investigation. 
 
 Look, for another instance, to what occurred not long ago 
 in Manchester. When the British Association, in one of its 
 erratic flights, was preparing to visit that city, and by aid of 
 railway excursions in the morning, and concerts and conver- 
 saziones in the evening " cram " its money-making population 
 with the arcana jof science, Mr. Braid J, a surgeon of that 
 place, who had long devoted his attention to Mesmerism, offered 
 a paper on the subject to the medical Section, and proposed 
 " to produce as many of his patients as possible in proof of 
 the curative agency" of his particular system. He thought 
 that " gentlemen of scientific attainments might thus have an 
 
 * " I would rather believe," said a surgeon to a friend of mine, " that all 
 Mesmerisers and their patients were impostors, than give credit to one of 
 their facts, however well authenticated." " You must rather believe," said 
 an anti-mesmeric lecturer, " that all your wives and sisters and children are 
 false, than think any of these cases true." 
 
 t The wild and fanciful poet describes Discord as hastening with her 
 bellows to blow up the strife :— 
 
 " La Discordia . . . 
 Corre a pigliare i mantici di botto, 
 Ed agli accesi fochi esca aggiungendo, 
 Ed accendendone altri, fa salire 
 Da moUi cori un alto incendio d'ire." 
 
 Orlando Fur., canto xxvii. 39. 
 From all accounts there were no beUows wanted that evening in Berners 
 
 Street. The fire was kindled before the match was applied Gibbon sneers 
 
 about the " Monks of Magdalen," and the "port and prejudice" they im- 
 bibed. The monks of Magdalen, with their venerable president, may now 
 
 turn the tables against their liberal, scoffers What is the favourite beverage 
 
 of the Chirurgical Society, I know not. A friend, more witty than wise 
 suggests that, to judge from the temper of the meeting, the potations that 
 night must have been gin and bitters. 
 
 t See Braid's " Neurypnology, considered in relation with Animal Mag- 
 netism : illustrated by numerous cases of relief and cure of disease." 
 
MB. BEAID. 205 
 
 opportunity of investigating the subject, unbiassed by local or 
 personal prejudice." He himself " hoped to learn something 
 from others, on points which were mysterious to him, as to the 
 cause of the phenomena." And when we know the character 
 of some of his alleged cures, — when we leaxn that many suc- 
 cessful cures in paralysis, — in tic-doloureux, and in rheumatism, 
 and of improvement in sight, where amongst them, the public 
 might naturally conclude that these savans would gladly accept 
 the offer, and bring their scientific knowledge to bear upon 
 the subject. Here was a concentration of talent and philo- 
 sophy met together ; and now was a golden time for going into 
 the question, and of putting down for ever a ridiculous pre- 
 tension, or of satisfying their own minds as to the truth of the 
 practice. But no : " The committee of the medical section 
 declined entertaining the subject." As the professor at Padua 
 refused to look through Galileo's telescope at the moon; — so 
 these gentlemen at Manchester were unwilling to look at Mr. 
 Braid's patients, for reasons that can only be known to them- 
 selves. Either they had some secret misgivings, some fears 
 touching their own conversion, some dread of having to unlearn 
 much of their former acquirements, or the rules of the Asso- 
 ciation would not permit the arrangement, or their time, per- 
 haps, at this important juncture was not quite at their disposal. 
 As a committee of the British Association for the Advancement 
 of Science could scarcely be afraid of meeting facts, — let us 
 see how the matter stood with them in respect to time. On 
 turning, then, to a record of their proceedings*, we find, that 
 the " section was thinly attended," — that several tedious papers 
 were read, most of which could have been studied more pro- 
 fitably at home, — and that out of the six days on which the 
 Sections met, there were two on which no business at all was 
 transacted before the one for medicine, some part of which 
 time might at least have been surrendered to Mr. Braid and 
 his experiments, even if the rules of the society forbade a more 
 formal lecture. These "learned Thebans" had flitted from 
 their homes and travelled many a long and weary mile, and 
 
 • See Literary Gazette and AthensEum for 1842. 
 
206 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 what was their object? Was it not the detection of error, the 
 discovery of truth, and the good of human kind ? and might 
 not Mesmerism or Neurypnology fall under one of these classes ? 
 Oh! let us not be too severely critical: — the visit to Man- 
 chester was not wholly without fruit. While one party was 
 listening to a learned treatise on the " Palpiof Spiders," hj 
 which the arachnologist " would be prevented from falling into 
 the too common error of mistaking young spiders for old ones* " 
 another Section was instructed by certain "microscopic re- 
 searches in fibre," and on the " therapeutic application of air- 
 tight fabrics." Released from these arduous duties, and this 
 strain on their cerebral functions, our professors could only 
 find repose by a promenade through the adjoining gardens; 
 here where Flora and Pomona vied with their most tempting 
 gifts, and the eyes of beauty smiled reward on the learned 
 labours of the liecturer|, who could expect even an anchorite to 
 tear himself away, and find leisure for Mesmerism vnth all its 
 cures ? And then came the banquet with its venison and its 
 wines; — and then the self-applauding speechesj where one 
 Section bepraised the other ; and then followed music and the 
 charm of song, till at length, wearied out with this train of 
 endless occupations, " Section E " could only recline their heads 
 upon the pillow, with the self-satisfied assurance that they had 
 liot, like Titus, lost a day ! To be serious, there is something 
 melancholy in the state of mind here exhibited. These papers 
 have their uses, and are valuable. But after all, the " proper 
 study of mankind is man;" — the palpi of spiders are not so 
 interesting as the nervous system of a patient; and when a 
 subject like Mesmerism professes to mitigate the maddening 
 throes of pain, — to give relief to thousands, — and to effect 
 a cure, where a cure had been pronounced impracticable, to 
 see men of education like those at Manchester pass over to the 
 other side with offended dignity rather than be spectators of 
 the fact, is a scene both. painful and humiliating. The question 
 ran counter to all their previous views, — and so with sullen 
 
 * See the reports in the Athenfeum, 
 
 f See Times Newspaper and Literary Gazette. 
 
BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 207 
 
 silence they declined to witness an art which promises to 
 multiply their remedial resources to an extent, at this moment, 
 beyond calculation. 
 
 Though Section E, howcTer, declined to countenance Mr. 
 Braid by their medical presence, a large body of visitors did 
 not think his curious experiments beneath their notice, and 
 his lectures were attended by a numerous and scientific 
 audience.* 
 
 The above, however, is not the only occasion, on which the 
 British Association has flinched from free investigation. Nitor 
 in adversum is evidently not its motto. It loves the popular 
 and the fashionable, and to run along the smooth road of ac- 
 knowledged and prevalent studies. Prima facie, one would 
 ignorantly assume that an association for the promotion of 
 science would seek truth wherever it could be found, and love 
 facts in nature at aU price, and from any source. Prima faciei 
 one would assume, that the object of such an institution would 
 be to extend the frontiers of knowledge in every direction of 
 physics, with, the feeling that the atmosphere of examination 
 and opposition was one that it must often expect to breathe, 
 But no : such assumptions argue a rustic unacquaintance with, 
 erudite corporations. The subject must first be scientifically 
 orthodox, approved of in high places and academic bowers, and 
 then the views of its promoters may be pushed to any extrava- 
 gance and any length. "The bounded reign of existence "is 
 then too narrow for our soaring 3,nd enlightened lecturer, who 
 has " exhausted old worlds " with his theories, and must now 
 " imagine new " ones for the edification of his auditory. All 
 this is legitinaate, and pleasant, enough. But why need the 
 very same man be blind to facts, in a different province of 
 nature, that lie. within his arm's length ? Why does he not 
 examine truths that are accessible to his very touch ? Why 
 
 * These searching Sectionists had a narrow escape from extinction at the 
 Cambridge meeting in 1845. Their utility was actually called in question 
 by their more active brethren ! But a mezzo termine was discovered, which 
 has saved and, it is hoped, will enlarge their services, ji new name was given 
 them I Section E is no longer the " medical " but the " physiological." 
 Macte nova virtute. Nous verrons. 
 
208 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 does he spurn the easiest of all information, the evidence of his 
 
 own senses? the 
 
 " qua sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, et quas 
 Ipse sibi tradat spectator ? " 
 
 Alas for philosophy ! The study, perchance, is full of thorns, 
 not yet admitted within the circle of inquiry, — unpalatable in 
 leading quarters, — " opposed to the philosophy of ages," and 
 apt to involve its advocate in unpopularity and rebuke. The 
 advancement of heretical truths in science might be damaging 
 and difficult ; the advancement of the views of a friendly 
 confederated majority is a far more pleasing and easy occu- 
 pation. 
 
 The respective fates of Mesmerism and of Ether, of Geology 
 and of Phrenology, within the halls of the British Association 
 for the advancement of science, may furnish a commentary on 
 the above observations. 
 
 Geology, not many years back, occupied the same position 
 in the intellectual world that Mesmerism does now. It was 
 the pursuit of an unpopular minority. Those who adopted 
 its more extreme doctrines were regarded with coldness from 
 the assumed danger of their theories, — if not frowned down 
 upon as atheists and impugners of revelation. The tables are 
 now turned. Geology is a favourite study ; and to quote 
 "Lyall" and "Murchison," and dilate on rocks "primitive" 
 and " tertiary," an indispensable part of a finished education. 
 Accordingly, when in 1844 the Association assembled at York, 
 and a " Cathedral Doctor " (to use Ben Jonson's phrase) 
 fulminated his feeble notions against certain views in the 
 science, a splendid castigation was inflicted on the spot, for, 
 in a reply that " annihilated both space and time " from the 
 extent and liberality of its opinions, the great Cambridge 
 Professor championed forth the claims of his beloved study 
 against the assaults of an Obsolete bigotry, and Geology shone 
 out, amidst an applauding crowd, enthroned upon a free and 
 fearless philosophy ! * 
 
 * Some persons thought that the reply, able as it was, showed more tart- 
 ness than was necessary, that it smacked of the wormwood that occasionally is 
 
BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT EDINBURGH. 209 
 
 " Look here upon this picture, and on this ! " 
 
 Mr. Hewett "Watson tells us in his useful work on Phreno- 
 logy*, that when "the British Association held its annual 
 meeting in Edinburgh, about a week previous to their assem- 
 bling, Mr. Combe addressed a letter to Mr. Robison, one of the 
 secretaries, offering to give a demonstration on the national 
 skulls in the collection belonging to the Phrenological Society. 
 Mr. Robison forwarded the letter of Mr. Combe to the 
 committee, and the gentlemanly courtesies of the persons 
 officially concerned will be apparent from the following notice 
 of the matter, borrowed from the ninth volume of the "Phreno- 
 logical Journal : " ' Mr. Combe was duly admitted a member of 
 the Association, and attended meetings of several of the Sec- 
 tions ; but he was not honoured with any reply whatever to 
 his communication. From Mr. Robison he received the most 
 polite attention ; and the reason of the silence of the committee 
 became apparent at the first meeting. Mr. Sedgwick, the 
 president for last year, before resigning his office, addressed 
 the Association in a speech, in which he urged most strenu- 
 ously the necessity of keeping in mind the objects of its insti- 
 tution, and of confining their researches into dead matter, 
 without entering into any speculations on the relations of 
 intellectual beings ; and he would brand as a traitor that person 
 who would dare to overstep the prescribed boundaries of the 
 Institution.'" Strong language this for a philosopher and 
 investigator, if it be rightly reported ! " Dare to overstep the 
 prescribed boundaries ! " What boldness in one science ! what 
 caution in another ! The uninitiated mind of Mr. Combe (a 
 true philosopher himself, and a genuine lover of truth), assum- 
 ing in its ignorance that a collection of crania came under the 
 category of " dead matter," offered to give a public demon- 
 stration : but he was soon disabused of his error. However, 
 
 found in articles of the great " Northern Review," when a popular author, and 
 original and inconvenient theories, are to be got rid of and silenced. Upon 
 this I am not competent to offer an opinion. 
 
 * Statistics of Phremlogy, p. 42. Mr. H. Watson has the credit, in some 
 quarters, of being the author of a recent popular and scientific work, which 
 has already passed through several editions. Is this the case ? '• Vestiges " 
 of his opinions, it is thought, may be clearly traced in it. 
 
 r 
 
210 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 as Mr. Watson remarks, " it is of small importance to any one 
 wishing to instruct others, that he should be ' branded as a 
 traitor,^ in return for his good wishes. But we apprehend 
 that a demonstration of the peculiarities of national skulls was 
 completely within the 'boundaries' of the institution. * * * Be- 
 sides, part of the time of the Association was occupied with 
 subjects of very trifling importance, when compared to this one, 
 the description of fossil fishes, the colour of chamelions, and 
 the circulation of tortoises ; and surely the anatomy of the 
 human head was a matter of as much consequence to mankind 
 as ' such questions.' " But the explanation is easy. There 
 are popes in science, as well as in theology ; and the articles 
 of "prescribed" belief are as carefully guarded in the one 
 school as in the other. Canon law rules elsewhere than at 
 Rome.* 
 
 Again, when the British Association assembled this year 
 at Oxford, the same exclusiveness and self-induced ophthalmia 
 appeared in their proceedings. " None are so bKnd as those 
 that will not see." And Sir Eobert Inglis, the president, 
 addressing our friends of Section E., rejoicing then under 
 their new appellation of the " Physiological," spoke most 
 appropriately of the great blessings of Etherisation, and of the 
 well-recorded instances of operations under its influences, " as 
 a subject eminently deserving the attention of that division " 
 of the philosophers. Nothing could be more just and becoming 
 than every syllable that fell from the lips of the amiable 
 speaker : but to read what he said, the ignorant would scarcely 
 suspect that an insensibility of the same nature had ever been 
 before attainable, or that upwards of 300 f operations under 
 the Mesmeric influence had been previously registered in chi- 
 
 * See also in Zoist, No. 16., a letter from Mr. Prideaux, with an account 
 of the proceedings of the B. A. on another occasion before the Ethnohgical 
 Section, when, on certain developments in the foreheads of some old skulls 
 being pointed out, the chairman called to order, as " Phrenology was a pro- 
 hibited study." What truth-loving philosophers! — to prohibit the study 
 of the brain in an examination of the diversities between different peoples ! 
 The omission of the " character of Hamlet," as in the Irish play-bill, seems 
 no longer an invention. 
 
 t See Summary, given in Introductory Chapter. 
 
BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT OXFORD. 211 
 
 rurgical annals. But luok is every thing in this world ; and 
 Mesmerism has not yet been fortunate enough to secure the 
 sanction of scientific magnates. In the words of the favourite 
 baUad, " Oh, no, they never mention it ; its name is never 
 heard " within their committee-rooms and dining-halls ; and so 
 they hope, that, by appearing themselves thus ignorant of its 
 influence, the knowledge of its very existence may escape the 
 recollection of their audience. But "Leviathan is not so 
 tamed," nor so readily disposed of. The absence of all allusion 
 to the topic shows the animus of those who gave the cue to the 
 discourse : for prejudice itself must admit, that when the 
 subject-matter of an oration is insensibility to pain during the 
 operations of surgery, to pass over a cognate condition of the 
 human body, under which more than three hundred cases of a 
 similar character had actually been recorded, marks an inten- 
 tional omission in the argument more significant in its silence 
 than a thousand bold allusions.* 
 
 In observing the cold-blooded indifierence to human welfare 
 with which science could thus " remember to forget " a fact in 
 nature, because it happened to contradict a preconception, I 
 am almost tempted to exclaim in the indignant language of 
 Festus, — 
 
 " Thank God ! I am a man, 
 Not a philosopher ! "f 
 
 It is, indeed, a common remark, that no great reform or 
 improvement in a profession has ever proceeded from its own 
 members. One or two may have originated' the idea; — but 
 
 * Every one knows, that on this occasion the good-natured member for 
 the University of Oxford was confessedly the mouth-piece of a learned pro- 
 fessor, an early and unforgiving opponent of Mesmerism. But surely the 
 " prescribed boundaries of the institution were overstepped " when the pro- 
 fessor " dared " to prompt an allusion, in the president's speech to the " effects 
 of ether on the nervous system " (if we decide according to the speech of a 
 former president, before quoted). The subjects for a surgical operation are 
 not yet " dead matter," the strict line for investigation drawn at Edinburgh, 
 although if ether be injudiciously applied, they would be very apt to become 
 so. We must leave the two professors to decide between them, as to who 
 ought to be " branded as a traitor to science," the man who intentionally 
 omits, or the man who interdicts, or the man who introduces, a subject for 
 investigation. 
 
 f Festus, p. 84. 
 
S12 MESMEBISM AKD ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 the adoption of the plau has generally been forced on them 
 from "without," This is eminently true in regard to eccle- 
 siastical matters. They were not the clergy but the laity that 
 led on the movement in Church reform. The same may be 
 said in regard to law. The illustrious Romilly commenced his 
 parliamentary career with propositions for an amendment of 
 our criminal code; but it is notorious how unpopular in 
 Westminster Hall were his suggestions ; and it was public 
 opinion alone that carried out his views. Again, may the 
 same remark be applied to the medical body. Men of a certain 
 standing in the profession are unwilling to depart from the old 
 routine ; they are afraid of losing caste ; they care not to 
 unlearn their early teaching, and to begin with some fresh 
 laws of nature, of which they were unaware ; and so, sooner 
 than sacrifice themselves, they sacrifice truth. It is thus in 
 the instance of Mesmerism. It was a medical man that first 
 discovered it ; but they were not medical men that took it up ; 
 — and their attention, — must we say their unwilling attention, 
 was at last obtained, only through the firm attitude that their' 
 own patients often displayed on the question. And yet, even 
 if Mesmerism had been an unreal phantom, — there were 
 reasons why they need not have felt such shame in looking it 
 impartially in the face. Great names could be numbered 
 amongst its adherents. Some of the first men of our day, — 
 the first in science and philosophy, have not blushed to express 
 their strong convictions of its truth. That can be no common 
 delusion upon a subject, on which La Place, the most profound 
 and exact of mathematicians, could state, that " on his own 
 principles he could not withhold his assent to it;" — and on 
 which he could write, that " it would be unphilosophical to 
 deny the existence of the phenomena, because, in the present 
 state of our knowledge, their operations are yet inexplicable to 
 us."* That can be no weak fancy, when Cuvier, by common 
 
 * Mr. Chenevix states, in the London Medical and Physical Journal, 
 that he had more than one conversation with La Place upon Mesmerism, 
 about 1816 and 1817, and that the expression of that great philosopher con- 
 stantly was, " that the testimony in favour of the truth of Mesmerism, 
 coming with such uniformity from enlightened men of many nations, who 
 bad no interest to deceive, and possessed no uossible means of collusion, was 
 
GREAT NAILES OF BELIEVERS IN MESMERISM. 213 
 
 consent the first of modern naturalists, could say, that " the 
 efiects produced by Mesmerism no longer permit it to be 
 doubted, that the proximity of two living bodies in certain 
 positions and with certain actions, has a real result, inde- 
 pendent of all participation of the imagination."* That can 
 be no vague notion, of which a Hufeland, — if not the first, in 
 the very first rank of German physicians, has expressed 
 himself a firm and conscientious supporter. The catalogue of 
 able and superior men that could be found among the friends 
 of the science would run on to " the crack of doom."f From 
 my own experience, I assert that those of my acquaintance 
 who are its known and confessed believers, are as clear-headed, 
 as strong-minded, as sober-thinking, as free from that wild 
 enthusiastic feeling w^hich prompts men to catch at the newest 
 fancy, as any individuals in the kingdom. All of them, I 
 think without exception, were strong unbelievers, if not op- 
 such that, applying to it his own principles and formulas respecting human 
 evidence, he could not withhold his cLssent to what was so strongly supported." 
 The following are his own words, in his Essay on Probabilities : " Les 
 phenomenes singuliers qui r^sultent de I'extreme sensibilite des nerfs dans 
 quelques individus, ont donne naissance a diverses opinions sur I'existence 
 d'un nouvel agent, que Ton a nomme magn(§tisme animal : * * * II est naturel 
 de penser que Taction de ces causes est tres-faible, et qu'elle peut etre facile- 
 ment troublee par des circonstances accidentelles ; ainsi, parceque dans quel- 
 ques cas, elle ne s'est point manifestee, on ne doit pas rejeter son existence. 
 Nous sommes si loin de connaitre tous les agens de la nature, et leurs divers 
 modes d'action, qu'il serait peu philosophique de nier les phenomenes, uni- 
 quement parcequ'ils sont inexplicable dans Tetat actuel de nos connaissances." 
 — La Place, Essai Philosophique sur les Probabilites. Paris, 4th edition, 
 p. 131. 
 
 • This is Cuvier's own language : " Cependant les effets obtenus sur des 
 personnes deja sans connaissance avant que I'operation commen9at, — ceux 
 qui ont lieu sur les autres personnes apres que I'operation meme leur a fait 
 perdre connaissance, et ceux que presentent les animaux, ne permettent 
 gu^res de douter, que la proximite de deux corps animes dans certaines 
 positions et aveo certains mouvements, n'ait un effet reel, ind^pendant de 
 toute participation^ de I'imagination d'une des deux. II paroit assez claire- 
 ment aussi que ces effets sont dus a une communication quelconque qui 
 s'etablit entre leurs systeme nerveux," — CuviEa, Anatomic Comparee, tom. ii. 
 p. 117. ** Du Systeme nerveux consid^re en action." 
 
 -(• I have already mentioned Coleridge and Arnold in the preface, and i 
 quoted some passages from the " Letters " of the latter. Here is an ad- 
 ditional extract from one of his sermons : " In our own times the phenomena 
 of animal magnetism have lately received an attestation, which, m my judgment, 
 astablishes the facts beyond queiticn." — Sermon, vol iii. p. 245. 
 
214 MESMBEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 ponents, till they practically and experimentally looked into 
 the question. Verily, if we are mistaken, we belong to a 
 goodly company ! We have plenty of comrades to keep us in 
 countenance. We can bear a laugh at the number or quality 
 of our friends. Let the wits, then, exhaust their raillery at 
 our expense ; let the prejudiced shake their heads and sneer ; 
 let the timid and the cautious hold back for a season in doubt. 
 Truth, eternal truth, must be our motto. The more we dive 
 into the subject, the more shall we have to learn ; the more 
 the science is practised and employed, the more will the 
 philanthropist have reason to rejoice at the virtues of the 
 discovery : — and the more will the humble and thankful 
 Christian be enabled to exclaim, " It is the gift of a merciful 
 and all wise God ! " 
 
DANGEES or MESMERISM. 215 
 
 CHAP V. 
 
 DANGERS OF MESMEBISM, PHYSICAL AND MORAL. — DANGER OF MESMER- 
 ISING THE HEALTHY FOR AMUSEMENT. CALMNESS, A QUALIFICATION 
 
 FOR A MESMERISER. DANGER FROM IMPERFECT WAKING. CROSS- 
 MESMERISM. OBJECTIONS ON THE GROUND OF MORALITY ANSWERED. 
 
 RULES FOR MESMERISING. ATTACHMENT TO MESMERISER, WHAT 
 
 IT IS. " HORROR " OF MESMERISM DIFFICULTIES OF MESMERISM. 
 
 HINT FOR YOUNGER MEMBERS OF THE FACULTY. 
 
 But we have another and a third class of opponents, widely 
 diflferent indeed in the quality of their objections from either of 
 the two parties with whom we have been hitherto contending, 
 whose antipathy to Mesmerism professes to arise from a con- 
 sideration of its dangers. It is not on the irreligious character 
 of Mesmerism that they dwell ; at that view of the question 
 they shrug their shoulders and sneer, as if they themselves had 
 never advanced it. It is not that they are unbelievers in 
 Mesmerism : the tacts brought home to their knowledge are so 
 staggering, that they are ashamed to remember that they ever 
 had their doubts. It is of the dangers of Mesmerism that they 
 now speak : " It is so fearful a power," they say, — " so liable 
 to be abused, — so pregnant with mischief, — no one is safe, — 
 no one can answer for what may happen, — its practice ought 
 to be prohibited : " — and all this is gravely stated by those with 
 whom, but a few weeks before, we had been fighting, totis 
 viribus, in assertion of its reality. 
 
 Deleuze, in his practical work, says, " The antagonists of 
 magnetism, after having decided that it did not exist, have 
 declaimed against the dangers that accompany it."* Every 
 Mesmeriser will confirm this statement from his own experience. 
 
 * " Les antagonistes du magn^tisme, apres avoir prononcd qu'il n'existe 
 pas, ont deelamS contre lea dangen qui raccompagnent." — Delkuze, Instruc- 
 tion P., p. 265. 
 
 I- 
 
216 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 It has happened to all of us, over and over again. I was on a visit 
 with some friends last summer, whom I in vain endeavoured to 
 convince of the truths of Mesmerism ; an incredulous but polite 
 smile settled on their faces : so perceiving that the subject was 
 unwelcome, I passed on to another topic. I met them again in 
 the course of two months. It was now their turn to begin : 
 they were full of the subject : but it was altogether of its 
 dangers that they now harangued. " Dangerous ! " I calmly 
 observed, — " you surprise me : how can a thing that does not 
 exist be dangerous ? " " Oh," was the reply, " everybody knows 
 that there is something in Mesmerism, and it is so very dan- 
 gerous." 
 
 The transition of these views on Mesmerism is as abrupt as 
 
 Napoleon described the passage to be of the sublime to the 
 
 ridiculous : " it is but a step." Extremes, in fact, are always 
 
 yfoeeting. One day there is nothing in Mesmerism : the next, 
 
 ' a great deal too much. * 
 
 The first French commissioners, whose Report is supposed 
 to prove the non-existence of Mesmerism, also speak of its 
 dangers, and decide positively that its effects may be most 
 serious. A novice in the first elements of logic would see, that 
 a thing that does not exist, can be neither useful nor dan- 
 gerous ; and hence we derive an additional corroboration, that 
 it was not the purpose of the commissioners to do more than 
 disprove the theory of the fiuid. 
 
 That Mesmerism has its dangers must be admitted: what 
 good is there in nature free from some attendant evil ? what 
 is there that folly or wickedness may not abuse ? Still I am 
 persuaded that the actual amount of these dangers is very 
 greatly exaggerated. The invisibility of the agent, our igno* 
 ranee of the true springs of man's organisation, the novelty of 
 
 * Dr. Gregory, Professor of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh, 
 ■whose strong conviction of the truth of Mesmerism is such a triumph to the 
 cause, says, in his admirable pamphlet on the Scientific Spirit in which the 
 claims of Mesmerism ought to be examined, " We cannot fear the perversion of 
 that, the existence of which we deny. If, therefore. Mesmerism be alto- 
 prether the result of fraud and imposture, these evil consequences must be 
 imaginary." p. 11. — (Neil, Edinburgh.) Every student of Mesmerism 
 should read this unanswerable paper. 
 
DANGERS or MESMERISM. 211 
 
 the remedy, and our natural timidity at the employment of a 
 new mysterious treatment, aU these circumstances would east 
 a deeper shade of colouring over that danger which may really 
 exist : — but having taken much pains to examine the subject, 
 and discussed it often with some of the mos|; experienced Mes- 
 merisers, I feel assured that the apprehensions generally enter- 
 tained are to a great degree without foundation. Still it must 
 be owned that Mesmerism has its dangers : and as a work that 
 professes to meet all the popular objections would be incom- 
 plete without some allusion to them, — we will state what they 
 are, and how they may be met. 
 
 The dangers may be divided into the physical and the moral. 
 
 I would begin, however, with the remark, that Mesmeiism 
 is not a plaything for the idle and the curious. It is not meant 
 as a pastime for a duU day in the country. Because a sharp 
 frost has set in, and the hounds cannot meet at cover, or a 
 deluge of rain has imprisoned the listless sportsmen, and the 
 young squire, to kill the dreary morning, tries his hand in the 
 new art, and mesmerises his sisters or their lady's-maid, and 
 something unpleasant occurs, is that to be laid to the door of 
 Mesmerism?* It would appear from certain anecdotes, that 
 animal magnetism is to supply the place of some of those old 
 Christmas amusements, of which our altered habits have 
 destroyed the charm; and thus "philosophy in sport" is to 
 become really a part of an evening's entertainment. How 
 absurd and monstrous all this is ! And then grave ladies very 
 naturally look solemn and forbidding, and make a few not 
 unreasonable remarks on the impropriety of Mesmeric expe- 
 riments. But who would think of vaccinating a whole family 
 for a little domestic diversion ? who dreams of insinuating the 
 lancet's point into the arm of some plethoric uncle, to see how 
 the good gentleman would feel after a little festive depletion ? 
 And why is Mesmerism to be an exception to every rule of con- 
 duct on such a subject ? As Mr. Colquhoun observes most judi- 
 ciously, " In attempting to produce the magnetic phenomena, I 
 ■would eminently caution individuals against all experiments of 
 
 • Many of my readers may have heard within tlieir own circles somewhat 
 similar stories to those referred to in the text. 
 
 Q 2 
 
218 MESMERISM AWD ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 mere curiosity. Whatever ludicrous ideas many persons may 
 have been hitherto in the habit of associating with this subject, 
 I can seriously assure them that experience has proved mag» 
 
 netism to be no trifling matter We must not recklessly 
 
 attempt to handle the thunderbolt, or to play with the lightning 
 of heaven. Like every higher gift conferred upoii us by the 
 Creator, the magnetic faculty ought to be exerted with judg- 
 ment and discretion, and only for benevolent purposes."* "We 
 do not know," says Dr. Hufeland, " either the essence or the 
 limits of this astonishing power : whoever, then, undertakes to 
 direct this power, let him enter upon the duty with the most 
 profound respect for the principle which he endeavours to set 
 in operation. Above all, let him beware of Magnetising in 
 sport. In medicine, the most indifferent remedy is injurious to 
 persons in health ; still more so an agent which is perhaps the 
 most active and energetic of all remedies." All these observa- 
 tions deserve serious attention : I would say even further, that 
 everything of a useless or jocose character connected with the 
 practice should be discountenanced in the strongest way : chil- 
 dren should be especially warned against " playing at Mes- 
 merism:" and if the above is what is meant by the opponents 
 of magnetism in their remarks upon its dangerous conse- 
 quences, I agree with them most cordially, — and have always 
 done my utmost within my own circle to discourage such im- 
 proper and discreditable trifling. 
 
 As it is, however, especially desirable to discourage in the 
 strongest way the practice of Mesmerism, for mere amusement, 
 a few more extracts from other writers are here added. 
 
 Dr. EUiotson says, "when persons inquire of me, whether 
 Mesmerism is not a dangerous thing, I always reply, that I 
 am happy to say it is. They look astonished, and I continue, 
 — because, 'if it were not dangerous, it would not be a real 
 power in nature. A nonentity, an unreal, though alleged, 
 power of nature can do no harm : but all real powers of nature 
 will work readily for evil if misapplied. The lights in our 
 houses, the fires which warm us, the heat, without which we 
 
 * Tsis Revelata, vol. ii. p. 188. 
 
DANGEE OF JIESIVIERISING THE HEALTHY. 219 
 
 could not exist and all living beings would be a dead frozen 
 mass, may burn up our bodies to a cinder, may destroy oui- 
 property, nay, whole cities, yet we take a candle to go to bed, 
 and we light fires in our rooms. The knives at our tables 
 could be plunged into our breast by the person who sits next 
 us, or by the servant behind our chair : yet our tables are 
 spread daily with knives. Mesmerism may be abused like any- 
 thing else : like medicine, used through design or ignorance, 
 as a poison, or in too violent a manner, and like the surgeon's 
 wounding instruments plunged unskilfully into parts, and, per- 
 haps, making fatal havoc." * 
 
 Dr. Elliotson then mentions three rather serious cases, which 
 had lately come to his knowledge, to " prove the danger of 
 playing with Mesmerism, and at the same time to show to those 
 who regard it as nothing, that it is something." 
 
 Dr. Esdaile also says, " Experimenting on the healthy ought 
 to be discouraged, as it is only undermining healthy consti- 
 tutions for no possible advantage. The artificial disease is not 
 so light or transitory a matter as it seems to be reckoned by 
 many Mesmerisers, who go about upsetting the nerves of every 
 one they can lay their hands on. * * * It is proper that ladies 
 and gentlemen, who beg to be mesmerised for fun, should know 
 this ; and then they will probably choose some other kind of 
 amusement." t 
 
 Upon the impropriety of mesmerising persons in health. 
 Dr. Esdaile says elsewhere, " People say to me, ' I should like 
 to ascertain if I can be mesmerised : do try.' I reply, ' you 
 very probably cannot ; and I should as soon comply with your 
 desire to feel the eflects of opium as mesmerise you without a 
 cause: when you need it, you wiU probably be benefited by 
 it.' If Mesmerism be forced upon a person in . a state of 
 health, it is very likely to do mischief; — for any attempt to be 
 better than ' well,' is pretty sure to make one ill." % 
 
 Dr. Bell, who in 1792 wrote a treatise on Magnetism, says 
 " I would never advise a trial to put people, who are in good 
 
 * Zoist, vol. iv. p. 388. Article " Mesmerism not to be trifled with." 
 I Esdaile's " Mesmerism in India," p. 24tf. 
 \ ibid., p. 13. 
 
 Q 3 
 
220 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 /health, into a crisis to please others ; for you may put them in 
 a state of catalepsy or epilepsy." * * * « Power united with 
 ignorance is like a loaded pistol in the hands of a child." * 
 
 Teste also states it as his opinion that it is " probably not 
 devoid of danger to magnetise an individual in perfect health." \ 
 
 This part of the subject, then, I at once dismiss as foreign to 
 the question. The abuse of a power is no argument against its 
 use : and because Mesmerism is not a fit game for foolish girls 
 to play with, this is no reason why it should be pre-eminently 
 hazardous, when adopted seriously as a remedial art. 
 
 Still, even in this Une, Mesmerism may have its dangers, 
 •especially when practised by the ignorant and the timid. A 
 nervous Mesmeriser is worse than a nervous patient. The 
 calm collected manner of the judicious Magnetist will soothe 
 the most agitated sleeper ; but even the tranquil repose of the 
 deepest slumber may be disturbed by a sympathy with a 
 frightened and unpractised manipulator. But what is there 
 strange or unusual in this ? why are not experience and com- 
 petency equally necessary in Mesmerism, as in everything 
 else ? who employs a raw surgeon for a formidable operation ? 
 who sends for an untried dentist to extract a difficult and de- 
 cayed eye-tooth ? Skill, practice, knowledge, are qualifications 
 that are requisite in every department ; and in no treatment 
 are coolness and presence of mind more essential than in the 
 direction of the Mesmeric power ; a fact which ought to be 
 evident to all when they reflect that this agent " penetrates the 
 depths of the organism and the internal life of the nervous sys- 
 tem, and may even affect the mind itself, and unsettle its 
 ordinary relations." This is the language of the great Dr. 
 Hufeland himself, in the cautions that he gives to the imwary 
 Magnetiser. But even with the drawback of inexperience and 
 Ignorance, I know not that Mesmerism is so dangerous as much 
 of the common medical practice of the present day. When we 
 remember that such tremendous poisons as prussic acid and 
 arsenic are among the favourite remedies of the modern school ; 
 that our lives are at the mercy of an incautious physician in 
 
 * Bell on " Animal Electricity," p. 19. This is now a scarce book, 
 f Teste, translated by Spillan, p. 228. 
 
DANGER FROM IMPERFECT WAKING. 221 
 
 ■the first act of prescribing ; that an error in weight of the 
 deadly ingredient may alter the whole character of the com- 
 pound ; that a careless chemist may convert the most judicious 
 prescription into a draught of death ; that a sleepy nurse may 
 administer the wrong medicine; — who can think of these and 
 similar contingencies, and not tremble when he sees the phy- 
 sician with the pen in his hand ? • These things are mentioned, 
 — not to prove that Mesmerism has not its dangers ; — but to 
 show the timid and unthinking opponent that the very system 
 to which from custom he steadily adheres, has its evils and its 
 hazards also, perhaps even greater than those of our ill-under- 
 stood art. 
 
 Still Mesmerism has its dangers.^ Among them I would 
 more especially mention those that may arise out of the alarm 
 of an inexperienced practitioner. If a change quite unex- 
 pected should take place in the sleeper, — if the trance should 
 be prolonged to an unusual duration, — if convulsions, or fitSj 
 or violent pain (aU |, in every probability, symptoms of the 
 desired action) should come on, — the inexpert Mesmeriser might 
 take fright; his fright would act sympathetically upon the 
 sleeper ; great excitement and agitation would be the result ; 
 this again would react on the Mesmeriser ; till, from the mutual 
 effect on each, very serious consequences might be produced. 
 The health of the patient might be affected most alarmingly : 
 but all this would be the fault, not of Mesmerism, — but of the 
 
 * Mr. Colquhoun, in his Preface to Wienholt, observes, " Opium, arsenic, 
 foxglove, mercury, prussic acid, &c., are exceedingly dangerous things ; yet 
 these are publicly sold in all our apothecaries' shops, and are daily used in 
 the ordinary medical practice. It is pait of the object of animal magnetism 
 to supersede the use of these dangerous drvgs, by introducing a milder and no 
 less efficacious mode of treatment. ' Thousands,' said Dr. Franklin, ' are 
 slaughtered in the quiet sick room.'" (p. 17.) 
 
 •f- Teste, speaking of the dangers oif Mesmerism, which he thinks are very 
 serious, oteerves, that it seems " as if the best things should have their coun- 
 terbalance in the dangers which their use brings with it." (p. 397.) 
 
 t Inexperienced Mesmerisers are apt to be alarmed, instead of encouraged, 
 by the appearance of the symptoms alluded to in the text. Gauthier, in 
 describing favourable signs of Mesmeric action, says, " it accelerates the pro- 
 gress of maladies, — brings out old pains, hastens on a crisis which is to pro- 
 duce the cure, and proves its remedial power by ceasing to produce results after 
 that the patient is restored to health." — Traite Pratique, p. 6. 
 
 a 4 
 
222 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 ignorant nervous operator, who had undertaken a duty for 
 which he was not prepared. 
 
 ■ In all these emergencies, the calm * judicious Mesmeriser 
 sees nothing to fear : he knows that the most violent hysteric 
 action is often the sign of a welcome crisis ; — he knows that 
 the most prolonged sleep — a sleep even of days — will wear 
 itself out at last ; he knows that the most threatening language 
 and aspect of the sleep-waker (like that of a person in a deranged 
 condition) can be best met by coolness and kindness: he is 
 consequently firm, collected, gentle ; his calmness and firmness 
 act healthily on the patient ; and, however great may have been 
 the excitement of the Mesmeric state, the patient is sure to 
 awake out of his slumbers refreshed and strengthened, with 
 the mind beautifully composed, and the whole system reno- 
 vated to an extraordinary degree.| 
 
 It is here not unadvisable to give a caution by the way. If 
 the sleeper cannot be awakened by the usual methods, and the 
 uneasiness of the Mesmeriser has acted with an unpleasant or 
 exciting efiect, to send for a medical man, who disbelieves in 
 the science, and would treat it as a common normal state, might 
 be followed by the most serious consequences. I cannot impress 
 my readers too strongly with the necessity of bearing this 
 caution in mind. Calmness and patience would bring all 
 round.f 
 
 * Gauthier says, " Calmness !s one of the first qualities for magnetising. 
 With a Mesmeriser, who retains his sang-froid and presence of mind, the 
 invalid will always come out of a crisis, that nature or the disease brings on, 
 successfully." (p. 22.) 
 
 ■f I was myself present on an occasion when the alarms of the Mesmeriser 
 at the prolonged sleep of a patient produced most embarrassing and pre- 
 judicial effects. Fortunately, I was able to take the case in hand, and all 
 terminated favourably. My composure composed the agitated sleeper. 
 The only cause for fear arose from the fears of the Mesmeriser. — The 
 Abbe J. B. L. mentions a case, where an incautious proceeding seriously 
 disturbed the sleeper. " I changed my action," — the Mesmeriser narrates, 
 — "I made my passes more slowly, more co^mZy, and more gently, and an 
 expression of happiness soon spread itself over the countenance of the 
 sufferer." (p. 100.) 
 
 ^ In Zoist, vol. iv. p. 404., is an instance of mischief arising from calling 
 in a medical man, who was an unbeliever. Gauthier ,says, " Whatever nvfy 
 he the crisis, be not alarmed : if you will but wait patiently and cahiity, 
 nothing evil can or will happen to the sick person." (p, 314.) 
 
CROSS-MESMEEISM. 223 
 
 Another point on which inexperience may be thrown off its 
 guard, and through which very formidable results might arisej^ 
 IS the danger of an imperfect partial waking. "With some 
 patients it is not always easy to distinguish at first the half 
 state from full and restored consciousness : the patient seems 
 perfectly awakened, and says he is so ; and the unpractised 
 operator would be apt to leave him. This is a condition'of real 
 danger: the patient has no more self-control, or manageiAent of 
 his actions, than a child or idiot, and yet for a time rill con- 
 verse most sensibly, and recognise every person present. I 
 have seen this distinctly in two patients. It happened to me 
 one time with Anne Vials, whom I could not manage thoroughly 
 to awaken : she said she was awake ; and she walked about the 
 room, and ate and talked as usual. I was on the point of 
 leaving her, being persuaded that she was awake, when the 
 sound of something peculiar in her voice caught my ear ; I re- 
 cognised it to be the tone of the sleeping, and not the waking 
 state (for the tones are often different) ; and I soon had reason 
 to discover that she was not awakened. The French call this 
 state " un somnambulisme imparfait." Townshend, in his 
 " Facts," mentions a case of the kind. It is not uncomtnon, 
 and should be watched; as the patient might commit some 
 action, serious in its consequences not only to himself but to 
 others. * 
 
 Cross-Mesmerism, which means the influence of two or more 
 Mesmerisers or persons at one and the same time, is also a con- 
 dition that the inexperienced Magnetist should be taught to 
 avoid. To some patients, indeed, the effect is only disturbing 
 and inconvenient ; but with the very sensitive it is occasionally 
 followed by serious results ; with a large number, however, 
 there is not apparently any adverse action, — and they seem 
 indifferent under the operation. 
 
 Cross-Mesmerism is of two kinds. The first occurs when 
 
 * See Townshend's " Facts," p. 73. — Deleuze says, " At the close of every 
 sitting, be careful to arouse the patient thoroughly, so that he do not remain 
 in an iniermediate state between sleeping and waking." ( Instruction Pratique, 
 p. 293.) Dr. EUiotson says, " She had not been fully awakened; and too 
 much care cannot be taken to see that patients are perfectly awake before 
 they are left."— Zoist, vol. i. p. SU. 
 
224 MESMERISM AOT) ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 the patient is actually asleep. Among Ms other excellent rules, 
 Deleuze says, "Never suffer your patient while asleep to 
 touched by any one who is not en rapport with him; 
 nefltfaer place him en rapport with another, unless it be to do 
 isome good, or that he desires it." (p. 291.) Gauthier says, 
 " Watch carefully that no stranger meddles in your treatment 
 withoftt your permission ; and never allow him to touch your 
 patients." (p. 347.) 
 
 The Mst writer gives a valuable caution to the Magnetist 
 regarding the vulgar curiosity of the impertinent sceptic ; — for, 
 on the sul^ect of Mesmerism, it must be ever borne in mind, 
 that our opponents often consider themselves as set free from 
 the usual courtesies of society, and at liberty to play what ex- 
 perimental tricks they please, — not reflecting that their tests 
 for the detection of the untrue are being tried on the sick. 
 " The brutal assault," narrated by Miss Martineau, (p. 35 of 
 her Letters), has been already quoted, where a "gentleman 
 violated the first rule of Mesmeric practice, by suddenly and 
 violently seizing the sleeper's arm, and shouting out that the 
 house was on fire." And I myself experienced something of 
 the [same kind, whilst mesmerising Anne Vials, though not 
 of quite so outrageous a nature. In both these cases, however, 
 it may be as well to add that the attacks " entirely failed" ; the 
 patients heard nothing, and saw nothing, and proved the truth- 
 fulness of their condition. But this was fortunately owing to 
 their own insensibility or indifference to foreign influence, 
 rather than to the delicacy of the gentle philosophers. 
 
 Gauthier, therefore, says, "If you absent yourself an instant, r- 
 if you turn your back even for a moment, you may be sure that 
 these men (sceptics, medical or otherwise,) will not have sufS.- 
 cient command over themselves to restrain their curiosity, 
 when they know that they are . about to impress an influence 
 on the patient. You ought never, therefore, to omit fuU cau- 
 tion with them. Human nature never changes ; and scepticism 
 and curiosity in all times produce the same fruits."* 
 
 Dr. Ashburner says, " I have repeatedly witnessed such bad 
 effects from cross-mesmerism, that I cannot too strongly warn 
 
 * Gauthier : Trait6 Pratique, p. 359. 
 
CEOSS-MESMEEISM. 225 
 
 Ignorant and rasli persons from practising it. Some foolhardy 
 Irish surgeons have, it is said, incurred an awful responsibility^ 
 by each, within a few hours, mesmerising a poor nervous girl." 
 Dr. A. mentions a patient of his own, who, on one occasion 
 ■when cross-mesmerised, slept eleven hours, and awoke with an 
 intense headache.* 
 
 Dr. Elliotson says, "We ought carefully to ascertain, not 
 only that the patient may be left by us, but that he can allow 
 the presence or proximity of another. If he cannot, and we 
 leave him asleep in the charge of some one, great ndsehief may 
 he occasioned."^ 
 
 In the People's Phrenological Journal, No. 49., a serious case 
 «f cross-mesmerism is narrated by Mr. Holmes, in which a 
 state of delirium was induced, that did not perfectly pass away 
 till after the expiration of four or five nights. 
 
 The second sort of cross-mesmerism occurs, when the patient 
 is not actually asleep, but under magnetic treatment, and the 
 original Mesmeriser, not being able to attend, sends a substitute 
 in his place, with whom the physical peculiarities of the sick 
 party do not sympathise. This is not uncommon. Experience 
 shows, that it is not every Mesmeriser that primarily suits 
 every patient ; and still less so, after that the treatment has 
 once set in. The sensitive temperament of the patient is then 
 delicately alive to a change in the influence that is imparted ; 
 much distress is exhibited ; and the progress of the cure may 
 be even retarded, and perhaps a relapse occasioned, — at any 
 rate, great disturbance caused to the whole system. Caution, 
 therefore, is requisite, if the friendly aid of a second Mesmeriser 
 be called in ; though, at the same time, I am inclined to believe, 
 that, with the majority of patients, no prejudicial effects would 
 be visible. 
 
 Several other minor points might be mentioned, such as the 
 danger of mesmerising upwards,— the danger of discontinuing 
 a treatment in certain cases, &c., for information on which I 
 
 • Letter from Dr. Ashbumer to Dr. Elliotson in Zoist, No. 14. The 
 letters of this accomplished and experienced friend to Mesmerism are full of 
 curious and suggestive matter. 
 
 t Zoist, No. 16. p. 473. 
 
226 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 would refer the reader to Gauthier*, and to the eighth chapter 
 of the "Practical Instruction" of Deleuze, a most useful book 
 for the young Mesmeriser. 
 
 Still I repeat that the physical dangers of Mesmerism ale 
 very greatly exaggerated ; and I would conclude this part of 
 the subject with a noticeable fact : that in spite of the number 
 of ignorant Mesmerisers that are taking up the subject,«-^in 
 spite of the number of most delicate patients that have been 
 placed under its influence, — in spite of the number of opponents 
 that are anxiously on the look-out for a disastrous result, — no 
 well-authenticated fact of great and serious mischief has yet 
 been named. I rather wonder that it is so ; Mesmerism must, 
 like everything else, have its drawbacks and its dangers. Still 
 nothing very formidable has yet been publicly mentioned': now 
 and then we read in the newspapers of a " fatal effect ;" but in 
 a'^few days we find a paragraph saying that the patient is better 
 than ever. Now and then we hear in our own circle of something 
 deplorable, which, on examination, proves to be a mistake. 
 I was told the other day of a gentleman who had greatly injured 
 the eyesight of one of his children by Mesmerism. I callecl 
 and asked if it were true : he had never even mesmerised one 
 of his children; and nothing had been the matter with their 
 eyes. And thus it generally is ; and several friends who have 
 taken some pains to make the inquiry have never yet been able 
 to establish one case of serious injury or evil: still my opinion 
 is, that Mesmerism has its dangers, and some, too, of rather 
 an anxious kind. I say, therefore, to the inexperienced Mes- 
 meriser, — "Be cautious, be circumspect ; you are playing with 
 a powerful and ill-understood agent ; and you are bound fdr 
 the sake of the patient's safety to adopt every precaution that 
 prudence can suggest." f 
 
 But there are certain dangers touching la morale to which 
 Mesmerism is supposed to be peculiarly open, and respecting 
 which allusion is often made in conversation. Much ignorance 
 
 * Gauthier, p. 331, &c. 
 
 I " I never heard," says Miss Martineau, "of any harm being done by it, 
 where as much prudence was employed as we apply in the use of fire, water, 
 and food."— Letters, p. 52. 
 
OBJECTIONS ON THE SCORE OF MOEALITY. 227 
 
 also exists on this point ; and here, too, it is necessary to dis- 
 tinguish clearly as to what is intended by the charge. 
 
 If it is meant, that under the pretext of mesmerising, in a 
 case where Mesmerism is not required, parties can avail them- 
 selves of the occasion to commit an offence contre les bonnes 
 ■maurs, I am not careful to enter upon the objection. Men 
 sometimes go to church from the most improper motives ; men 
 sometimes read the Scriptures with no other view than that of 
 finding food for ribaldry and unbelief; still, as has been often 
 said, who would shut up our churches or burn our Bibles on 
 that account? Again, we say the abuse of a thing proves 
 nothing against its value. If parties, in sport or in thought- 
 lessness, throw themselves into the power of an unprincipled 
 acquaintance, with them lies the fault, and they must take the 
 consequences. Still I have my doubts whether Mesmerism does 
 afford the easy opening for misconduct, with which it has been 
 taxed. The deep sleep, or torpor, which would place the sleeper 
 so completely at the mercy of the Mesmeriser, as to give an 
 opportunity for evil, does not occur every day; — and more 
 generally, if not always, the Mesmeric state produces, on the 
 part of the patients, such a high tone of spirituality, and sense 
 of right, as to make them less than ever disposed to an acquies- 
 cence in what is wrong. * 
 
 StUl, into this view of the question I do not enter. Our 
 question is, whether, in the treatment of the sick, and in regard- 
 ing Mesmerism as a serious remedy, the influence be open to 
 objections on the score of morality t and les bienseances? I 
 
 * Mr. Pyne says truly in his excellent little work : " If a magnetised 
 person is in the earlier states of coma, the mind is as sufficiently active to 
 repress evil as it is in ordinary circumstances ; — if in the higher condition 
 of sleep-waking, its impressions are withdrawn from the senses, — the 
 judgment is refined, — and, in short, the soul Is In a condition of the highest 
 mentality." — Vilal Magnetism, by Rev. T. Pyne, p. 5B. 
 
 + We must not forget that the practice of Inoculation was equally called 
 " immoral " in its earlier days. " I have shown," says the Rev. T. Dela- 
 faye, " that inoculation is absolutely inconsistent with the virtue of our 
 minds and the rights of our fellow-creatures; — * * I have shown the 
 manifold immorality, and undoubted iniquity of this device ; — * • — that it 
 exposes the soul to more important peril than what men dread from the dis- 
 ease," and so on for several pages, (p. 83. ) — Inoculation, an Indefen- 
 sible Practice ; a pamphlet published in 1 754. 
 
228 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 answer, ia the most unhesitating way, to no objections what- 
 soever. In Mesmerism, as in everything else, certain precau- 
 tions and regulations are, of course, to be adopted ; and in 
 default of those precautions, why is the science to be blamed 
 for the neglect of its own rules ? Who sends for a low petti- 
 fogging attorney to make his will, or conduct an important 
 lawsuit ? who deposits his money with a banker that oflfers ten 
 per cent, interest with no visible capital at command? who 
 admits an unprincipled physician into his house ? Only let 
 similar safeguards be employed in Mesmerism; and nothing 
 need be feared. Not only should the Mesmeriser be a person 
 of character, of known and established principle ; but even then 
 it is the rule that the process should be conducted in the pre- 
 sence of a third party. All Mesmerisers require an attention 
 to this rule where it can be observed. Patients have it in their 
 power to have any of their relations present when they like. — 
 Let this regulation be remembered and carried out ; and where 
 is the objection ? Not only is every needful security obtained 
 by this course, but "the appearance, even, of evil" is avoided; 
 and the good work cannot be ill-spoken of, or misrepresented 
 by the malicious neighbour or the candid friend. 
 
 Deleuze and Gauthier both urge the importance of th? 
 patient having a relative or friend present. Mr. Newnham 
 says, " It is a standing rule with medical men that, on certain 
 occasions, the presence of a female friend is requested, as a 
 guarantee, &c., — and therefore in the process of Magnetism, 
 the same medical men would require the presence of some 
 friend of the patient, — male or female, as might be more 
 agreeable, &c. And thus," he adds, " ends the dreaded moral 
 evil, which we have thought it necessary to combat in detail, 
 because it is one of the most favourite weapons employed by 
 the enemy."* 
 
 * Human Magnetism, p. 117. The opinion of Mr. Newnham* as an 
 experienced surgeon, is especially deserving of attention on this head. He 
 says elsewhere, " Magnetism confers no power of mischief, which was not 
 previously attainable by other means, in the hands of wicked persons, espe- 
 cially through the iiistrumentality of opium, and who ever thought of opposing 
 the exhibition of opium by medical men, for the cure of disease?" (p. 115.) 
 
OBJECTIONS TO MESMERISM. 229 
 
 Another objection is, that even in the presence of a third 
 party the process is one qui blesse les convenances ; and that 
 the treatment is what a father or brother would feel a pain in 
 witnessing. Never was there a more unfounded mistake. I 
 have seen a good deal of Mesmerism, and with different Mes- 
 merisers; and never observed anything to which the most 
 scrupulous delicacy could object. An evil-disposed chemist 
 may administer a valuable drug in an improper way, and with 
 an improper object ; — but what argument is that against the 
 drug ? Choose a Mesmeriser of character, and choose a con- 
 fidential friend or relative for a witness, and you have every 
 guarantee that the management of the case will be such as the 
 most fastidious would require.* 
 
 Another objection is, that the sleeper is placed in an un- 
 desirable state of feeling in regard to the Mesmeriser; that 
 there is an attraction towards him, something amounting to 
 affection, or even love ; and that this state of mind or feeling 
 reduces the patient to an improper dependence on the will of 
 another. That, in the Mesmeric state, the sympathy between 
 the Mesmeriser and the sleeper is powerful and extraordinary, 
 we all know ; it is one of the most curious phenomena.")" The 
 sensibility, that is then produced, is singular in the extreme. 
 But the feeling is rather that which exists between two sisters 
 than anything else ; it is a feeling whicTi has regard to the hap- 
 piness, and the state of moral being of the Mesmeriser ; which 
 is alive to injuries or pain inflicted on him ; which desires his 
 well-bdncf here and hereafter. Dr. EUiotson observes, in one 
 of his most interesting papers, that " the Mesmeric state has, 
 
 • Mr. Colquhoun observes, " To those who know and have witnessed the 
 processes, the ludicrous falsehood of the objection must be perfectly appa- 
 rent. Indeed, there is much less indecency and much more delicacy, than 
 in the ordinary medical practice." (Preface to Wienholt, p. 15.) Mr. Newn- 
 ham has also completely refuted this foolish prejudice and objection, (p. 118.) 
 
 f Professor Gregory, in the excellent pamphlet before quoted, says, " With 
 regard to the influence of the Mesmeriser over his patient, in some cases it 
 appears to be great, in others limited, in others again it is absent. The 
 abuse of this power can only be dreaded by those who admit its existence, 
 and there is no reason to suppose that it is more liable to abuse than other 
 powers or agencies, none of which are exempt from the liability to abuse. 
 The best security, in all such cases, is not ignorance but knowledge." (p. 11.) 
 
230 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 even if characterised bj affection, nothing sexual in it ; — but 
 is of the purest kind, simple friendship, and indeed exactly like 
 the love of a young child to its mother, — for it seems charac- 
 terised by a feeling of safety when with the Mesmeriser and of 
 fear of others."* In some cases, I should say that the feeling 
 rather resembled the not uncommon regard that is entertained 
 towards a successful medical friend. There is, for instance, 
 gratitude for pain removed, in accomplishing which the Mes- 
 meriser has been the humble instrument ; — there is the pleasure 
 of seeing one, who has been kind and useful; — there is ad- 
 miration for his benevolence and active virtues : — but that the 
 attachment goes beyond this, — or what Dr. EUiotson describes, 
 — is assuredly a mistake. Nay, as was before remarked, so far 
 from the Mesmeric sleep producing a state of feeling incon- 
 sistent with what is right, it is considered by the most ex- 
 perienced operators, that a great increase of the moral percep- 
 tions is created and brought out ; and that if the Mesmeriser 
 were capable of commanding an improper or reprehensible act, 
 the patient would revolt from an obedience to his will, with a 
 language and manner even more decided and peremptory than, 
 when in a waking state. Puysegur in his Memoires (p. 168.), 
 and Deleuze in his Letter to Dr. Billot (Billot's works, vol. ii. 
 p. 34.), both give some remarkable and most interesting in- 
 stances, in exemplification of this truth. Their facts are really 
 beautiful illustrations of what Mr. Townshend says, viz., that 
 ■" the state of Mesmeric sleep-waking is a rise in man's nature ; 
 —that the mind, separated then from the senses, appears to 
 gain juster notions, and to be lifted nearer to the fountain of 
 all good and of all truth." (p. 113.) Foissac states the same 
 thing. And from what I have myself seen of the increase and 
 development of the intellectual faculties during the sleep, I am 
 quite prepared to believe in the existence of that exaltation of 
 the moral being, which the best authorities have described as 
 so invariable. Be this, however, as it may, — and be the rela- 
 tion between the Mesmeriser and the patient however peculiar, 
 
 * Zoist, vol. iii. p. S5. Sec also Mr. Newnham's Magnetism, p. 115, where 
 this subject is examined. 
 
" HOEKOR" of mesmerism. 231 
 
 the whole sympathy and attraction are at an end and forgotten 
 the moment the sleeper is awakened into actual existence.* 
 
 Another objection is the facility with which unconscious 
 parties can be put to sleep against their will. It is said, that 
 " no one is safe, — no one can feel sure as to what may happen, 
 and that a powerful Mesmeriser has his whole acquaintance 
 under his command." This is a view entertained among the 
 nervous and the timid; — but one more groundless can hardly 
 be mentioned. Except in certain most rare cases of extreme 
 sensibility, the Mesmeric sleep could not be induced against the 
 will or consciousness of the party mesmerised. Certain con- 
 ditions are requisite. Silence and stillness are among the most 
 indispensable. It may often require half an hour of the most 
 profound repose, before any somnolency can be obtained ; and 
 with many patients the Mesmeric action must be renewed for 
 several days in succession before any effect be procured. The 
 whole objection, therefore, is so absurd, that no notice of it 
 would be necessary, were it not that the opinion on this point 
 is so very universal, and one that has led the superstitious to 
 their worst apprehensions against the science.f 
 
 Somewhat akin to the last objection is another class of feel- 
 ings that should not be passed over ; I mean a vague undefined 
 " horror" of Mesmerism generally, a mysterious dislike to it, — 
 an opposition which the party objecting would find difficult to 
 put into a tangible shape, but which yet fills the mind with an 
 unpleasant sensation respecting it. This is distinct from an 
 opinion of its irreligious or Satanic character : without adopting 
 that view of the subject, many persons regard Mesmerism with 
 an indistinct and painful abhorrence. Here, again, we must 
 distinguish and clearly understand what they do dislike. If 
 
 * " The remains of sleep soon went oif, and the feeling then completely 
 subsided." ( Zoist, vol. iii. p. 55. ) In respect to this feeling of affection or gra- 
 titude, whichever it be, Dr. Foissac says, that he had " never perceived any 
 difference between the patients he had been fortunate enough to cure, — , 
 whether by medicine or Mesmerism." The feeling was equal under both 
 treatments. — Rapport, ^.390. 
 
 + Even if the above charge were, in some degree, true, what compa- 
 rison would there yet be with the tremendous powers at the command of 
 chloroform? The facilities for evil, that may arise out of that otherwise 
 inestimable discovery, are most formidable to contemplate. 
 
 R 
 
232 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 they dislike the abuses to which the practice is liable, if they 
 dislike to see it made the subject for trick and foolish experi- 
 ment, — we can inform them that all right-minded Mesmerisers 
 participate strongly in their feelings, and hold such conduct as 
 most revolting and wicked. But if they dislike to see a rack- 
 ing pain removed by it, — to see the feverish sleepless invalid 
 enjoying a balmy slumber by its aid, — to see the nervous 
 excited patient restored to comfort and repose, — surely their 
 feelings can only arise from prejudice, or rather from the novelty 
 and freshness of the art. It is nothing else than what is even 
 yet experienced among the uneducated classes respecting vac- 
 cination. Large numbers entertain a " horror " of this remedy. 
 How often has the wife of a labouring-man told me that she 
 would not have her child infected with the disease of a cow ! 
 It is objectionable to her, only because it is strange. And so 
 is it with the present aversion to Mesmerism. Habit and ob- 
 servation will soon remove this feeling. The strangeness will 
 pass away. People will soon perceive what a simple, easy, and 
 natural process Mesmerism is ; and when, day after day, they 
 shall be privileged to witness some dear and beloved relative 
 relieved or comforted by its means, — or when they themselves, 
 after the agonies of pain, shall have found a respite or a cure, — 
 their horror will soon be turned into gratitude to the Author of 
 all good, and with myself they will exclaim that Mesmerism is 
 the gift of God ! 
 
 , But though the dangers of Mesmerism have been magnified 
 into an importance which they do not deserve, and which, for 
 the most part, could be avoided by prudence, still our science 
 has its difficulties. These difficulties somewhat arise from the 
 infancy of the practice, and which the experience of a few 
 years will tend to diminish ; still they are considerable. It is 
 easy to say to some unhappy sufferer, whom all the usual 
 methods of the healing art have failed to benefit, " Go and be 
 mesmerised," — the difficulty is to find a Mesmeriser.* They 
 
 • The simplest and easiest remedy for meeting the above difficulty is for 
 the healthy members of a family to mesmerise the sick ones. This plan 
 would also silence many of the previous objections. Fathers and mothers, 
 husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, should respectively employ mes- 
 merism as the domestic "medicine of nature." — And to assist them in the 
 process, instruction is given in the concluding Chapter. 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF MESMERISM. 233 
 
 are not so easily obtained. Added to which the treatment of a 
 chronic case generally demands a sacrifice of time, which, even 
 if men have the inclination, they have not always the leisure, to 
 bestow. Experience and knowledge are also indispensable : I 
 should be sorry to place a very delicate patient into the hands 
 of an unpractised Mesmeriser. Temper, patience, and presence 
 of mind, are also requisites ; and as we before stated, character 
 and right principle must not be forgotten. Here then are a 
 number of qualities desirable for the formation of a competent 
 Mesmeriser, and which are not to be procured at a moment's 
 warning. And this, for the present, throws a difficulty in the 
 work. It retards its course of more extended usefulness. Still 
 time will correct this inconvenience. What the public demands, 
 the public will always find provided ere long. . As there is 
 every certainty that Mesmerism will shortly take its - rank 
 among the established branches of the medical art, a supply of 
 qualified practitioners will be soon forthcoming; Our diffi- 
 culties are but temporary. Many junior members of the pro- 
 fession will devote themselves to the study, and obtain a 
 standing in society by their experience and success. Others, 
 whose time is less at their command, will only give a general 
 superintendence ; while the actual treatment will be conducted 
 by pupils, specially instructed for the work. Nurses will be 
 taught to mesmerise. Students in the hospitals will gradually 
 bring themselves into notice by a useful exercise of their 
 power ; and when the drag-chain, which hinders the progress 
 of the good cause, shall be removed by the retirement of the 
 present Lecturers and Managers, these invaluable public institu- 
 tions will become, at the very request of the subscribers, schools 
 for the practice of the Mesmeric science. In short, every- 
 thing looks fair and promising. Our obstacles are abating 
 every day. Prejudice is becoming more and more silent. 
 Fanaticism is retiring to a few select quarters. Eidicule is 
 losing the sharpness of its edge. The timid begin to speak. 
 The opponents display greater anger and abuse. A general 
 interest is awakened. We have evidently reached a crisis. 
 Our difficulties have been long and many : but 
 
 " Time and the hour run through the roughest day ! " 
 B 2 
 
234 MESMERISM AOT) ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 CHAP. VL 
 
 OPPOSITION TO MESMERISM FROM ITS PRESUMED MIRACULOUS ASPECT. — 
 
 SECRET APPREHENSION OF THE CHRISTIAN GERMAN RATIONALISM. 
 
 — NEW SCHOOL OF INFIDELITY ON THE DOCTRINE OF NATURE. — SAL- 
 TERTE's "occult SCIENCES." — AMERICAN "REVELATIONS." — "CHAR- 
 LOTTE ELIZABETH " AND MR. CLOSE ON MIRACLES AND MESMERISM 
 
 DR. Arnold's opinion the mesmeric cures and the miracles of 
 
 THE new testament COMPARED. TOUCH OF THE MESMERISER. 
 
 WHY DID MIRACLES, IF MESMERIC, CEASE? — ARGUMENT FROM ARCH- 
 BISHOP OF DUBLIN MESMERIC PREDICTIONS. — CLAIRVOYANCE NOT 
 
 MIRACULOUS. 
 
 But a more anxious consideration remains behind. The very 
 truthfulness of Mesmerism carries along with it a perplexing 
 apprehension. Its dangers may be proved in great measure 
 chimerical ; — its difficulties may be surmounted ; — its cura- 
 tive powers maybe admitted in all their magnitude; — the 
 charge of an evil agency may be rejected as the product of that 
 heated fancy which invades the mind at the appearance of 
 novelty ; — and yet well-regulated minds may approach the 
 discussion with a distressing reluctance. Another argument 
 presents itself. The subject appears to trench on the most 
 sacred ground. It threatens to work a revolution in the most 
 awful questions that can interest man. It unsettles the very 
 groundwork of his faith. Such extraordinary statements are 
 
 advanced, — such unexpected laws are developed in nature, 
 
 such mysterious facts are given, — that old accustomed prin- 
 ciples of belief are shaken to their centre, and the piety of the 
 Christian trembles for the result. A startling consequence is 
 
 at hand. If the facts of Mesmerism be not miraculous, if 
 
 they be no otherwise marvellous than as their strangeness 
 makes them so, and if custom will soon reduce this marvellous- 
 
APPREHENSION OF THE CHRISTIAN. 235 
 
 ness to an every-day occurrence, — how do all these positions 
 bear upon the miracles related in Scripture? Are we not 
 lowering their value ? Is not the very keystone, on which our 
 faith is built, loosened, if not removed? If the course of 
 nature be not suspended by the action of Mesmerism, how can 
 we show that the wonders of old time must not fall back to the 
 same shrunken proportions, and that the truths of Revelation do 
 not totter at their base ? * 
 
 This is no unreal charge wantonly thrust forward for con- 
 troversial display, and creating the very evil it professes to 
 deprecate ; — but the expression of an actual living opinion 
 which is beginning to assume a serious shape and being. It is 
 no longer whispered in the salons of science that the tendencies 
 of Mesmerism go to uphold the Deist in his unhappy belief, 
 the proposition is triumphantly advanced in the publications of 
 the infidel ; and the Christian himself often feels an anxious 
 misgiving which deters him from a bold investigation of the 
 fact. The position has been strongly stated to me by the two 
 opposite sects. " If," said a friend, " you really have faith in 
 the reality of the wondrous cures of which you make mention, 
 — do you not see the dangerous ground you are treading ? — 
 You cannot stop where you will. K I believe in Mesmerism, 
 I must disbelieve all that I have hitherto held as sacred and 
 divine." " Follow out your convictions," said a gentleman of 
 the other school, " and flinch not at their consequence. The 
 reputed miracles of Scripture were but the result of strong 
 Mesmeric power. Christ only raised the dead by Mesmerism." 
 And thus has it ever been in the history of the world. And 
 thus has every new discovery been dreaded or vaunted, ac- 
 cording to the respective point from which it has been viewed 
 by the friends or adversaries of religion. Thus was it with 
 astronomy, — with chemistry, — with geology, — with phre- 
 nology. — The Bible speaks of the rising of the sun ; but 
 Copernicus and Galileo were charged with upsetting the Bible, 
 for they proved that the sun was the centre of its system, and 
 
 * I here cannot help quoting an admirable remark by Jacob Bryant, 
 which I lately met with : " I never suffer what Ida not know to disturb m;/ 
 belief in what I do." — Observations on difficult Passages in Scriptwe, . . 
 
 K 8 
 
23G MESMERISM AND ITS OPPOKENTS. 
 
 consequentlydid not rise to gladden the earth. The theory of 
 another hemisphere was heretical for a season, and Columbus 
 was in his turn taxed with weakening the validity of Scripture. 
 Cuvier, in like manner, was treated as the antagonist of Moses: 
 and Gall was accused of leading his followers to a belief in the 
 coarsest materialism. And thus it went on for a season. Men 
 trembled at the truth ; and the truth itself lay hid behind the 
 mists of a partial knowledge and discovery, -Soon, however, a 
 brighter state of things came on. Profounder researches dis- 
 pelled the anxiety of the timid. • Faith and science were not 
 found incompatible. Revelation and matter had but one and 
 the same divine original. The first of philosophers were among 
 the humblest of Christians ; and the most aspiring student of 
 the laws of nature has not blushed to bow in lowliest adoration 
 before the "Word of Life. And thus will it be with Mesmerism. 
 The discovery of this mighty power will form no exception to 
 the other departments of science. He, who spake as never man 
 spake, wrought also as man has never been able to imitate : 
 and while the Scriptural reader must feel in his heart an in- 
 ternal evidence * of the truth of that book on which he places aU 
 his hopes, under the conviction that doctrines so pure, so lovely, 
 could proceed from nothing short of a heavenly source, even so 
 will he perceive in the miracles of his blessed Lord an insepa- 
 rable pledge of the divinity of His mission, for that no one 
 could do such things as Christ did, except God were with him ! 
 The question of Scripture evidence, it has been before 
 observed f, has within these few years shifted ground. The 
 charge of dishonesty, of exaggeration, or of falsehood, is now 
 but seldom advanced against the Gospel Historians. The .. 
 
 • " In truth, however," observes the lamented Arnold, " the internal 
 evidence in favour of the authenticity and genuineness of the Scriptures, is 
 that on which the mind can rest with far greater satisfaction than on any 
 external evidence, however valuable. • * • It has been wonderfully ordered 
 that the books, generally speaking, are their own witness." — Rughy 
 Sermons, p. 339. 
 
 t See Preface to second edition, p. 7. " Christiail Truth," says Dr. Haw- 
 kins, the present learned Provost of Oriel Cdllege, when speaking of the 
 examination of the Christian Evidences, *'is a subject ever new, and of 
 the deepest interest to each individual man in each successive generation." 
 — Sampton Lectures, p. 225. 
 
GERMAN RATIONALISM. 237 
 
 Apostles are no longer described as either enthusiasts or im- 
 postors. The ai-gument of Hume on the insufficiency of human 
 testimony is thrown back into the shade. A new position is 
 adopted by the adversary. The facts recorded in the New 
 Testament are at once admitted, — the narrators are allowed 
 to be truthful intelligent men, — but the wonders they relate are 
 referred to the operation of an adequate and natural cause, 
 — a cause of which the spectators at the time had not the 
 remotest suspicion, — but which is amply sufficient to explain 
 away the existence and effect of the seemingly miraculous. 
 All that is needed, it is said, is to "separate the kernel of 
 truth from the shell of opinion," and to trace in each indi- 
 vidual case, the possible or probable foundation of fact. 
 
 The modern school of German Rationalism*, no small or 
 inconsiderable sect, invented and adopted this exposition. 
 Everything that savours of the supernatural can, according to 
 their views, be explained by some "rational" elucidation. 
 Nothing needs be coarsely denied, or presumptuously dis- 
 believed. Semler, a learned divine of the University of Halle, 
 who died in 1791, and who, among other works, published an 
 "Apparatus for a liberal interpretation of the New Testament," 
 was the founder of this theory. Eichhorn, Professor of Theology 
 in the University of Gottingen, who died in 1827, and was a 
 voluminous writer, improved upon the notion, f But Paulus 
 has, in our own days, been the favourite authority on the 
 subject. He carried out the original idea with the most un- 
 expected solutions. According to his ingenious system of 
 unravelling a difficulty, some scientific, or philosophical, or 
 natural cause was at the bottom of all those wondrous facts, 
 which had hitherto confounded, the cavillings of the sceptic, or 
 compelled the obedience of the faithful. And his explanations 
 were caught at with eagerness, and gener;vUy adopted. That ■ 
 carnal heart, which is so at enmity with everything of a 
 divine character, applied the views of Paulus to the whole 
 
 • Occasionally this school of theology, i.e. those who account for all the 
 miracles on natural principles, are called Neologians. 
 
 f One of Eichhorn's works on the subject was an Introduction to the 
 New Testament, published at Leipsig, in 1S14. 
 
 K 4 
 
238 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 range of Scripture evidence^ and built up a species of semi- 
 Christianity, In the north of Germany, and in the Roman 
 Catholic no less than in the Protestant churches, this rational- 
 istic interpretation openly obtained. Disciples were soon found 
 in France, in England, and in the United States of America, — 
 as is seen by several publications on the subject.* And whilst 
 for different classes of miracles different explanations were sug- 
 gested, — for the miracles of healing and for some others of an 
 analogous and corresponding character, Mesmerism was almost 
 universally esteemed the natural and adequate solution. 
 
 As the language of other writers will bring these statements 
 more clearly home to the apprehension of the reader, a few 
 extracts from some recent works shall be now given in illus- 
 tration. 
 
 In an article in the Edinburgh Review on Christian Evi- 
 dence, — as late as October, 1847, — it is said, " in the case of 
 the Scripture miracles, some have been led to adopt the prin- 
 ciple of endeavouring, in each particular instance, to seek for 
 an explanation derived from the operation of known natural 
 causes. • * * According to his (Paulus) view of them (the 
 miracles) they were events which were regarded as miraculous 
 in that age and country ; — but which ought to be regarded in 
 a very different light by the more advanced intelligence of our 
 times. We ought, therefore, to construe them into extraordi- 
 nary natural events ; — or into results whose causes have been 
 simply omitted in the narrative ; — or into the mere effects of 
 superior skill and knowledge, which the Evangelist has de- 
 scribed, in the popular language of the day, as supernatural 
 interpositions." | 
 
 Salverte, a popular but superficial French writer, in a work 
 called the " Occult Sciences," which has reached a second 
 edition, and been also translated into English under the title of 
 the "Philosophy of apparent Miracles," asserts that "if we 
 
 • Milman's History of the Jews contains some slight indications of the 
 prevalence of this theory, in his explanation of certain of the Mosaic 
 miracles. The remarks of the lamented Hugh James Rose, on German 
 Rationalism, must be fresh in the memory of many. 
 
 •f Edinburgh Review, No. 174. for October, 1847, p. 413. 
 
SALVEETE'S "occult sciences." 239 
 
 put on one side that which belonged to jugglery, to imposturej 
 or to the delirium of the imagination, there is not one of the 
 ancient miracles which a man skilled in the modern sciences 
 could not reproduced* "It is reasonable," he adds again, "to 
 suppose that some individuals had the physical knowledge and 
 power suitable for working a miraculous act, in the time and in 
 the country where historical tradition had placed the miracle : " 
 — and then he observes again, that " it is absurd to refuse to 
 believe, or to admire as supernatural, that which can be ex- 
 plained on natural causes." 
 
 In some lectures, recently delivered at the chapel in South 
 Place, Finsbury Square, and since published under the title of 
 "German Anti-supernaturalism," Mr. Harwood, the lecturer, 
 though preaching, apparently, in favour of Strauss's views, takes 
 occasion to unfold the interpretations of rationalism. " The spirit 
 of legend," says he, " would have many and many a nucleus of 
 fact to work upon. Some miracles, miraculous-looking inci- 
 dents, there must have been in an age like that and among a 
 people like that. Nothing but one prolonged mental miracle 
 could have hindered miracles from taking place almost daily, in 
 the presence of one who was believed or imagined to be the 
 Christ of God. No doubt, many demons were cast out : pro- 
 bably paralytics not a few were wholly or partially restored, 
 as by miraculous voice or touch: possibly some few all but 
 dead may have lived again upon the divine, 'I say unto thee, 
 arise.' Perhaps Jesus himself was more than once startled by 
 the discovery of powers which he had scarcely been aware that 
 he possessed." | 
 
 These quotations sufficiently illustrate the tendencies of the 
 rationalistic school, — though it will be seen, that Mesmerism 
 is rather alluded to than named. Other writers have, however, 
 
 * " 11 n'est point de miracles ancicns gu*un homme verse ,dans les sciences 
 modernes ne put reprodmre." ( Sciences Occultes, seconde edition, p. 461. &c.) 
 In his 20th cap. Salverte makes some further observations on the miracles 
 of healing, on the raising of Jairus's daughter, and on the powers of Elisha 
 and of St. Paul. 
 
 f Harwood's German Anti-Supernaturalism, p. 68. Some extracts from 
 the same work are given in the Preface, p. 7. Other expressions might be 
 quoted, as, for instance, where in the language of modem Deism, the Saviour 
 is spoken of as " that wonderfully gifted Being Jesus of Nazareth." (p. 96.) 
 
240 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 spoken more expressly ; and the influence of this agency is 
 at once claimed as the secret source of the Divine manifesta- 
 tions. 
 
 Richter, Rector of the Ducal School at Dessau, an influential 
 German critic, and the author of " Considerations on Animal 
 Magnetism," and who died about three years back, taught that 
 " the miracles of the New Testament were performed by this 
 extraordinary power." M. Theodore Bouys, who published in 
 Paris a work on the same subject, endeavoured to prove the 
 same thing. Professor Rostan, who drew up the article on 
 Magnetism in the Medical French Dictionary, asserted therein 
 that a " mass of the miraculous facts of old find a satisfactory, 
 a physiological and natural explanation " in Mesmerism. M. 
 Mialle, a copious and popular French writer on the subject, 
 strongly declares the same opinion, and enters into reasonings 
 to prove the assertion. Other writers could be mentioned : — 
 but we will come at once to a recent and remarkable publi- 
 cation, in which the above views are expressed in explicit 
 language. 
 
 The work referred to is one that originally appeared in 
 America, and has been just reprinted in England, called " The 
 Principles of Nature and her Divine Revelations.* It is in 
 two large octavo volumes, closely printed, is written with much 
 power, and has attracted large notice in some literary circles, 
 both across the Atlantic and in this country. Professor Bush 
 of New York, and other scientific men, have shown themselves 
 greatly interested in its contents, and in the manner of its pro- 
 duction. The work professes to set forth the " Revelations " of 
 an illiterate young man, named Andrew Davis, which he dic- 
 tated in the Mesmeric sleep with a fluency and clearness most 
 extraordinary. Asa" voice to mankind," it pronounces, au- 
 thoritatively, upon the most abstruse subjects, embracing 
 theology, cosmogony, natural history, and science. Into the 
 derivation and authenticity of the work it is not necessary to 
 enter. Whether it be the combined result, in part of a trans- 
 
 * " The Principles of Nature, lier divine Revelations, and a Voice to 
 Mankind," by and through Andrew Jackson Davis, the Poughkeepsie Seer 
 and Clairvoyant. (Chapman, Strand.) 
 
AMEEICAN " EETELATIOIfS." 241 
 
 ference of thought from the Mesmeriser and others, — in part 
 of a suggestive and assistant imagination, — and in part of pre- 
 vious knowledge surreptitiously obtained, all mingled together 
 in wondrous harmony and poured forth under the condition of 
 an excessive exaltation ; whether this be a correct view of the 
 origination of the book, is not important to the argument: — 
 the point for present consideration is this, that great attention 
 has been paid to the statements of the work, — that Professor 
 Bush declares that for "grandeur of conception and sowwrfwes* 
 of principle" it is almost unrivalled, — that other critics speak 
 nearly the same language, — that .its readers and admirers are 
 numerous, — and that it reflects the opinions of an influential 
 section. Mr. Chapman, the English editor, says that it is " a 
 work of no ordinary theological pretension." To that portion, 
 therefore, of its theology let us briefly turn, where the Clairvoyant 
 speaks of the miracles of the New Testament. It is painful in 
 the extreme to be thus driven to record so many objectionable 
 and offensive passages : but nothing would be gained by conceal- 
 ment. The book is extensively read and quoted : and the more 
 plainly that such obnoxious notions are set forth, the more 
 easily are they met, — and the more quickly disposed of. 
 
 The Clairvoyant says, that "Jesus seemed to possess an 
 intuitive knowledge of the medicinal properties of plants, — of 
 mineral and animal substances, — of their use, and of the 
 proper time and manner of their application in the curing of 
 various diseases. He possessed also a great physical soothing 
 power over the disordered or disconcerted forces of the human 
 system. This was because of his superior physical endow- 
 ments. Hence it is related in various places in the New Tes- 
 tament that he laid his hands upon persons and they were 
 cured." (VoL ii. p. 562.) 
 
 And again he says, " Such deeds of charity, sympathy and 
 benevolence, {i. e. the miracles of healing,) are to be admired in 
 the character of any person who ever has lived, or who ever 
 will live on earth ; but further than this they are of no import- 
 ance, and demand no veneration nor approbation. For they 
 are simply the good and just deeds of any person who is natu- 
 
242 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 rally (which means mesmerically) qualified for their accom- 
 plishment." (p. 512.)* 
 
 Now these rationalistic views have, perhaps, not unnaturally, 
 raised up a distinct class of objections to the practice of 
 Mesmerism, — in opponents, whose inaccurate perceptions have 
 confounded misrepresentations against a study with the study 
 itself. "Is it no evil," says a hostile writer, calling himself 
 Senex, " that from the deductions of this science, the arm of 
 infidelity is so strengthened, as to induce men to assert, that the 
 miracles of our Saviour, however stupendous, were performed 
 by the same art, though, we are told, then not generally 
 known ? " f In another pamphlet, which I have already noticed, 
 called a " Dialogue between a Mesmerist and a Christian," 
 it is said, " the doctrines founded on these imitations of the 
 miracles of ovu: Lord, go to explain away the divine character 
 and end of his miracles ; and thus to undermine the truths on 
 which our faith and hope rest. * * * Some of the advocates of 
 Mesmerism have not hesitated to say that by means of a 
 <' virtucj" common to all human bodies, " the miracle of healing 
 was effected," &c. (p. 21.) Mr. Spencer Hall, in his "Mes- 
 meric Experiences," has referred to the same opinions : " so 
 striking," says he, "have been some of the effects of Mes- 
 merism in this way as to cause many to regard it as a sort of 
 scientific divinity, and to consider it the parent of all attested 
 miracles ; a view," he adds, " from which I unequivocally ex- 
 press my dissent." (p. 25.) And the late Mrs. Tonna (Charlotte 
 
 * Nothing is more marked than the change in the language of Deism, 
 since the time of Voltaire and the Philosophical Dictionary, as those 
 different quotations above prove. The divine mission of the Saviour is, 
 indeed, equally denied: but the coarse and irreverent sneers, with which he 
 was then reviled, have passed away ; and the excellency of his moral code, 
 and the beauty and soundness of his views, are the constant theme of ad- 
 miration. Christ is now spoken of, in this new and spreading school, of 
 infidelity, as the wisest and best of, men, — as a benevolent, and "highly- 
 gifted " individual. This altered phraseology is the more fatal and ensnar- 
 ing from its subtilty and respectfulness, reversing that mischievous aphorism 
 of Burke's, of *' vice losing half its evil by losing aU its grossness," Many 
 who would be shocked by the ribaldries of Paine and the French Philo- 
 sophers, are caught by the smooth plausibilities of German Rationalism. 
 
 ■f Extract from « Strictures on Fhreno-Magnetiim," by Senex. (Simpkin 
 and Marshall.) 
 
" CHAKLOTTE ELIZABETH" AND MR, CLOSE. 243 
 
 Elizabeth), and Mr. Close, of Cheltenham, and Mr. Bickers- 
 teth, of Watton, have all three deemed the argument worthy of 
 a notice, and referred to it in their writings. 
 
 The latter observes : " Infidels have ventured to say that the 
 miracles of Mesmerism are superior to those of our blessed 
 Saviour ; and yet," adds Mr. Biekersteth, " we must not, on 
 that account, deny that Mesmerism is an immense blessing from 
 God."* 
 
 " Charlotte Elizabeth," asserts that the marvels of Mes- 
 merism are, through Satanic agency, such close imitations of the 
 miracles of Christ, as to undermine the first principles of the 
 Christian faith : and she refers to some " book on Mesmerism^ 
 written by a Frenchman, who, after stating that Mesmerism 
 prevailed among the ancient Egyptians, reminds his readers 
 that Jesus was in Egypt, and there learned the Mesmeric art 
 by which he effected the miraculous cures recorded in the 
 Gospels."+ 
 
 The Rev. F. Close, in his excellent lecture on the " Nature 
 of Miracles," says, — " he might be asked what he thought of 
 the astonishing phenomena of Mesmerism. "Were they miracu- 
 lous, or were they not? This seemed, at first sight, a very hard 
 question to answer : still he thought that a solution might be 
 given." And, after discussing the point at some little length, 
 he concludes with observing, that " he felt persuaded that there 
 was nothing miraculous in Mesmerism, and no interference of 
 the evil spirit " in its wonders. Mr. Close here seems to me 
 to pass over the more general and more formidable argument. 
 It is not so much taught that Mesmerism is miraculous, — as 
 that the miracles are little else than Mesmeric phenomena. J 
 
 Dr. Arnold, too, in his Sermons, has more than once con- 
 sidered the subject deserving of a remark. " I mention this," 
 he says, — " because I am inclined to think that there exists 
 a lurking fear of these phenomena (of Mesmerism), as if they 
 
 • See explanatory Letter from Rev. Edward Biekersteth, in No. 17. of 
 
 + Letter to Miss Martineau, by '• Charlotte Elizabeth," pp. 7. and IS. 
 i See Mr. Close's Lecture on Miracles, delivered at the Cheltenham 
 Literary Institution, p. 23. 
 
244 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 might shake our faith in true miracles ; — and, therefore, men 
 are inclined to disbelieve them, in spite of testimony ; a habit 
 far more unreasonable, and far more dangerous, to our Christian 
 faith than any belief in the facts of Magnetism." * 
 
 These extracts, from such various and very adverse writers, 
 all show the prevalency of the opinion, that I now propose to 
 enter upon. They, at least, prove that the notion is not the 
 exaggerated invention of my own fancy, — nor the feeble sug- 
 gestion of a few inconsiderable enthusiasts. Churchmen of the 
 most diverse schools, rationalistic professors, unbelievers in 
 revelation, and friends and opponents of Mesmerism, have 
 alike regarded the subject as deserving of attention, and have 
 alike pressed the consequences deduced from it into the service 
 of their respective views. Nay, Dr. Arnold, as it has been 
 seen, collected from his experience, that this "lurking fear " of 
 the magnetic phenomena went so far as actually to-indispose 
 men for the investigation and admission of their truth. He 
 thought that he could perceive that they were afraid of diving 
 into the depths of nature, lest they should encounter an incon- 
 venient disclosure in their course ; — that they hung back from 
 believing in one fact, lest, as a sequence, they must disbelieve 
 in another. All this, it is repeated, shows the prevalency of 
 the opinion, — and an opinion, it may be remarked in the next 
 place, that does not at the first blush appear very unnatural. 
 
 " For some of the cures and marvels of Mesmerism have been 
 so startling, and so contrary, indeed, to the ordinary operations 
 of physics, that the bulk of mankind, who seldom are at the 
 pains of distinguishing between conflicting, though seemingly 
 homogeneous effects, are caught by the primary presentation of 
 an object, and hasten to some unphilosophic conclusion about 
 
 ijts nature. A medley of ungeneralised ideas passes through 
 the brain ; the true and the false, the same and the similar, are 
 jumbled together without precision or distinctness ; — and so 
 one man pronounces that the new phenomena are but identical 
 
 * Arnold's Sermons, vol. iii. p. 246. « These facts," he observes again, 
 " are mere wonders in our present state of knowledge : at a future period, 
 perhaps, they may become the principles of a new science ; but they neither 
 are, nor will be miracles."-— Ibid. 
 
MESMEUIC CURES AND MIRACLES. 245 
 
 with the olden miracles; — another, that they- are diabolical 
 imitations ; — while the third, and major part, shrink from the 
 very name and study of the science, lest they should stumble 
 on some untoward and distressing discovery. All this, it may 
 be again observed, does not, in the first instance, appear either 
 unnatural or inexplicable : but it is, therefore, the more neces- 
 sary to meet the question at once in all its bearings and de- 
 ductions, — and by a careful and complete analysis of the real 
 nature of our facts, settle the doubts and scruples of the per- 
 plexed Christian once and for ever. * 
 
 What, then, it may now be asked, is the resemblance that 
 exists between the miracles of the Saviour and the wonders of 
 Mesmerism ? We answer confidently, none whatever. An im- 
 passable gulf divides them. Both, indeed, proceed from the 
 same Eternal Being ; but the Mesmeric phenomena are nothing 
 else than the product of a simple power in nature ; while the 
 marvels of Scripture arose from an interruption of those laws 
 by which the government of the universe has been administered 
 from creation : and this position, with God's grace, I proceed to 
 prove. 
 
 I commence with a consideration of those miracles, to which 
 only the wildest dreams of some enthusiastic Mesmerisers pre- 
 tend to have made approach. And here, it will be observed, 
 we assume that the reader is a Christian, — that lie believes 
 that the facts recorded in the Gospels did take place and are 
 true, and that his only question is. How far the Divine origin 
 of those facts is shaken by what has occurred in these latter 
 days. Into the previous matter of evidence, therefore, we do 
 not enter. Paley's incomparable work has exhausted the sub- 
 
 * Many other writers who have referred to these deistical views could be 
 mentioned. The Rev. T. Pyne, in his work on Vital Magnetism, says, 
 we must "carefully guard against the supposition of the miracles of Scrip- 
 ture having heen performed by this art ; for among them are many cir- 
 cumstances recorded to which Magnetism could never aspire, &c.*' p. ]S, — 
 Mr. Colquhoun, in the last chapter of the Isis Revelata, observes, that " the 
 doctrine of Animal Magnetism does in no degree interfere with our belief 
 in real miracles, &c. &c." (Vol. ii. p. 184.) — And the Christian Remem- 
 brancer, in a long article in favour of the science, in the April number for 
 1847, discusses briefly the fear entertained by some, of " Magnetism rivalling 
 the miracles." (p. 388 ) 
 
246 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS- 
 
 ject, and refuted every doubt. To Paley, therefore, we refer 
 the wavering heart. But our present inquiry is, whether there 
 be any counter-claims on our attention, from facts evincing 
 equal power, and supported by evidence equally conclusive.* 
 
 The " beginning of miracles, with which Jesus manifested 
 forth his glory," was the change of water into wine. He did 
 not command the six stone water-pots to be first emptied of the 
 water, and then replenished them with wine ; — but he ordered 
 the empty vessels to be previously filled with water ; and from 
 these vessels, which were " flUed up to the brim," the servants 
 were instructed to draw forth, and bear to the governor of the 
 feast; and a quantity of water, being supposed, upon the 
 smallest computation, to be above a hogshead, was discovered 
 by the guests to be converted into wine. — Mesmerism could 
 have no agency here. The fact admits of no other explanation 
 than that of being a miraculous and supernatural work.-j- 
 
 * Those who are indisposed for the study of Paley's longer work, will 
 find an admirable compendium of the whole subject in a small volume, called 
 " Lectures on the Evidence from Miracles," by the Rev. R. C. Coxe, the 
 present learned and excellent Vicar of Newcastle. (Rivingtons.) 
 
 f And yet this is the miracle, that the welUmeaning and lamented 
 " Charlotte Elizabeth," by a confusion of the facts, singled out as the one 
 which she considered that Satan was imitating through certain powers of 
 " willing " in a Mesmeriser. ." Whether you," she says to Miss Martineau, 
 " are conscious of it or not, this last incident, (that of the sleeper imagining 
 some mesmerised water to be wine,) was devised by Satan to pour contempt, 
 or to throw a soul-destroying doubt, on the miracle of Cana in Galilee. You 
 or your companion in these perilous doings acted upon a suggestion of the 
 evil one, to will a glass of water into wine ; and though no change took place, 
 perceptible to any mortal sense, the spirit had power over the possessed girl 
 to imitate in her the effects of a draught, &c." (^Letter, p. IS.) Now a slight 
 examination of the circumstances in the two facts will explain the complete 
 difference between them. In Miss Martineau's story, the Mesmeriser willed 
 one single individual, who was fast asleep, and under strong mesmeric in- 
 fluence, to fancy that a glass of water, that she was sipping, was a glass of 
 sherry. But there was no sleep at Cana of Galilee. The governor of the 
 feast, and the guests, to say nothing of the attendants that drew the water, 
 were all wide awake, and saw the colour of what they were drinking, a fact 
 irrespective of, and in addition to, the change that they perceived in the 
 quality. If the mesmeric fact be a Satanic imitation, it is a most feeble and 
 far-fetched one. To have a parallel case, a Mesmeriser must will a room-full 
 of friends and servants, whose senses shall be in an active state of wakefulness 
 and discrimination, not only to imagine that a tumbler of what they see to 
 be water is actually wine, but wine of a very superior vintage. 
 
MIRACLES NOT MESMERIC. : 247 
 
 "We next come to the miraculous draught of fishes. This 
 occurred twice: once at the commencement of Christ's ministry, 
 and once after his resurrection. Twice. had the fishermen been 
 toiling all the night, and caught nothing.. At the command of 
 Jesus, they let down their nets, and inclose the first time so 
 extraordinary a draught, that their nets brake, and their boats 
 ■were beginning to sink. On the second occasion, they were 
 hardly able to draw the net to land for the multitude and size 
 of the fishes ; and yet it is mentioned by the Evangelist, as an 
 additional wonder, that the net was not broken. Now we can- 
 not, perhaps, strictly describe a fact like this as beyond nature, 
 for such a thing might happen ; but it is not according to 
 nature. Nothing like it has ever been seen, before or since. 
 It is, therefore, contrary to the order of nature, — contrary to 
 the general laws of nature. And when an event like this, 
 which no natural causes have produced at any other time, 
 occurred twice in the history of one man, we are justified ia 
 saying that it could be no peculiar or fortunate coincidence, — 
 but a preternatural fact, which can be classed under no other- 
 head than that of the miraculous. 
 
 The next miracle to be noticed is the instant stilling of a . 
 tempest on the Lake of Gennesareth, — a tempest so violent 
 that the waves were breaking over the ship. Dr. E. Clarke, ia. 
 his travels, mentions that when adverse winds, sweeping from 
 the mountains with the force of a hurricane, meet the strong: ■ 
 current of the waters, which is formed by the river Jordan 
 passing through the lake, a dangerous sea is at once raised. 
 Now some such a hurricane Christ and his disciples encoun- 
 tered ; and he stilled it in a moment ; for there was a " great 
 calm." The " raging of the water," and the violence of the 
 winds, subsided at once. Now this was clearly miraculous.. 
 By a singular accident the wind might have been suddenly- 
 hushed at the very same moment that Jesus spoke, but this-, 
 fortuitous calm would not also have extended to thi; waters. 
 Whoever has been to sea, or whoever has witnessed a storm at 
 sea knows full well that it requires a certain interval of time 
 for the waves to cease to swell after the winds have ceased to 
 blow. It is never a great hurricane in one moment, and a 
 
 s 
 
248 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPOXENTS. 
 
 glassy surface in the next. The fishermen, tinaecustoraed to 
 such a transition, " marvelled," as well they might, and de- 
 manded, among themselves, " what manner of man " Christ 
 was* And the only answer is, a Man from God ! Where is 
 Mesmerism here ? * 
 
 The feeding of great multitudes, on two occasions, with a few 
 loaves and fishes, surpasses all bounds of exaggeration also. 
 There could be no false perception here. The statement does 
 not admit of the supposition of a fortunate experiment. As 
 Leslie says, that " one small loaf of bread should be so multi- 
 plied in the breaking, as not only in appearance and to the eye, 
 but truly and really to satisfy the appetites of a, thousand 
 hungry persons, and that the fragments should be much more 
 than the bread was at first," is a fact which can admit of no 
 explanation. And while we do not know the precise point at 
 which the powers of nature terminate, as in the case of Mes- 
 merism, we can declare, unhesitatingly, that such a multipli- 
 cation of food is beyond the reach of a natural cause, and that 
 here we have again a manifest interposition of the power of 
 God.t 
 
 The walking upon the sea is a plain fact which adfnits of no 
 •explanation. It is a statement in which there could be neither 
 
 ^ " So, too, in the storm, not only did the awalened Saviour make at 
 once a great calm, hushing, in an instant, winds and angry waves, — but 
 immediately the ship was at the place whither they went." — Sev. T. Pt/ne's 
 Vital Magnetism, p. 22. 
 
 f Some pretend to see a satanic "imitation " of this miracle in the well- 
 Icnown mesmeric sympathies of taste, as when a mesmeriser puts bread, or 
 iginger, or sugar, &c. into his mouth, and the sleeping sympathising patient 
 tastes it. To apply the phraseology of " Charlotte Elizabeth," it is consi- 
 dered an " infernal travestie on the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, in which 
 horror gives way to a burning indignation of sou)." Now in this " satanic 
 imitation," to pass over the number of souls that partook of the food, " five 
 thousand men, besides women and children," there are one or two other 
 points wanting ; the satisfying of hunger, and the filling the baskets with 
 the remainder. 
 
 Let it be observed, once for all, that it is not I who am first suggesting 
 an odious comparison between these opposite facts. The very naming them 
 together is as revolting to myself as it is ridiculous in reality. I am simply- 
 replying to the different objections and arguments of religious and well- 
 meaning opponents of Mesmerism, who originally started them, and gave 
 great publicity to their views, 
 
RHEACLES. 249 
 
 mistake nor exaggeration. The ship was " in the midst of the 
 sea," and he walked to them. He " walked upon the sea." The 
 ship was twenty or thirty furlongs distant from the shore, i. e. 
 more than three miles, and he walked to them. St. Peter also 
 walked upon the sea to meet him, and, "beginning to sink," 
 was saved by Jesus catching him by the arm. The miracle is 
 mentioned by three Evangelists, and most fully by St. Matthew. 
 The same word in the original, which is used by St. Mark, in 
 his sixth chapter (verse 47.), for describing Jesus as being " on 
 the land," is used by him and St. John, when they speak of 
 him as walking " on the sea." * No statement in the New 
 Testament wiU admit of a closer or more critical examination 
 than will this. And what confirms the miraculous character of 
 the action is the fact, that the disciples seem to have been more 
 impressed by this than by any preceding miracle, for they 
 " worshipped " him, St. Matthew says, in consequence, and de- 
 clared that "of a truth he was the Son of God." 
 
 " The Transfiguration of the Saviour is a fact, also, which 
 admits of no softening explanation. It happened not at night, 
 but in broad day ; — not in a corner, — but on the very top of a 
 mountain. The brightness and glory were more than the 
 faculties of the spectators were able to endure. A celestial 
 voice was heard, speaking to Jesus. The disciples were so 
 overpowered with all that took place, that they flung them- 
 selves with their faces on the ground, and so remained till the 
 Saviour touched them and bade them rise. And St. Peter ex- 
 pressly refers to the wonders of this day, as a special proof that 
 the Gospel was " no cunningly devised fable." f 
 
 * This is mentioned, because some rationalislic interpreters have said that 
 Christ was walking upon the shore, by the sea, and not upon it. Their ex- 
 planation will not bear a moment's criticism. It is the suggestion of men 
 unacquainted with Greek, and who have not studied the context. 
 
 f In the " Dialogue between a Mesmerist and a Christian," containing " a 
 suitable and earnest address to all true Christians " against Mesmerism, a pro- 
 fane and fancied "imitation" of this miracle is dwelt upon and reprobated, 
 but which I shall not offend my readers by reciting. Let it be sufficient to 
 say, that there is no proper resemblance between the points compared ; 
 neither is it one which, conversant as I am with Mesmerism, I ever before 
 found referred to, till I met with it in this tract, by " Philadelphos." These 
 exclusively Christian writers in their opposition to " unchristian Mesmerism," 
 
250' MESMEKISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 The drying up of the fig-tree is a fact to which no Mesmeric 
 power makes the most distant approach. Jesus spoke, and the. 
 fig-tree withered away instantly from the roots. " How soon" 
 said the disciples, " is the tree withered ! " 
 
 The raising of the dead, on three distinct occasions, is ex- 
 plained by the modern unbeliever as the revival of a sleeping 
 person out of a trance. The different facts of each case put 
 together contradict the opinion. Jesus meets the dead son of 
 the widow of Nain, humanly speaking by accident, as he is 
 carried Out on his bier. He at once approaches and bids the 
 young man arise ; " and he that was dead sat up, and began to 
 speak." Now, on the supposition that the mother and the 
 numerous friends of this young man (for " much people " were 
 in attendance, and the body was not inclosed in a coiEn, but 
 carried openly on a litter, as is the way in the East), on the 
 supposition that all were deceived, and that the young man was 
 only entranced, can we suppose, with any degree of reason, that 
 in the two remaining instances the relations and domestics 
 were also under a delusion ? Let us take, then, the case of the- 
 ruler's daughter. Jesus is suddenly invited by Jairus to his 
 house to heal his child. In the meantime death seizes his 
 victim ; and so undeniable are the signs of dissolution, that the 
 family are anxious that Jesus should retire and be no further 
 inconvenienced. " Trouble not the Mastep, for she is dead." It- 
 would be a singular coincidence if this also were a trance. But 
 Jesus, before he has even entered the house, or seen the body, 
 pronounces that the maiden shall live and be " made whole." 
 But we have a third instance: the raising of Lazarus.* Lazarua 
 had been in his grave four days. When the stone was removed 
 
 call into being some odious phantom, put ideas into our heads, and language 
 into our mouths, such as never existed, and then charitably conclude their 
 pamphlets in teaching, as proved by themselves, that " Mesmerism is, in 
 fearful reality, the as.sertion of the will and of the power of Satan." (p. 24.) 
 
 • " Paulus of Hiedelberg says that the Bible narratives must be ao 
 knowledged as records of real occurrences, but that these occurrences, which 
 were miracles merely in appearance, always admitted of a natural ex- 
 planation. For instance, Lazarus was awakened, not from death, but only 
 from a state of asphyxia, for Christ was no worker of miracles, though he 
 may have been an excellent physician, &c." — Wolfgang MenzeFs German 
 Literature, translated by Gordon, vol. i. 1 96., " On Religion." 
 
MIRACLES NOT MESMEKIC. 251 
 
 from the cave, and as soon as Jesus spoke, that instant Lazarus 
 came forth, bound hand and foot, in grave clotheSj and his face 
 fastened over with a napkin. The restoration was instanta- 
 neous and complete. He did not merely move, and speak, and 
 die again. He did not gradually, and with further assistance, 
 come to himself; but he, whose corpse was supposed to be 
 already in an offensive state of decay, walked forth at once 
 from the tomb, returned home to his family, and lived, and was 
 seen alive a long time after. Now, upon an examination of the 
 above, this train of questions suggests itself. What probability 
 is there, that all the attendants and relatives in these three 
 cases were equally under a deception ? Is it meant that all 
 who die are only in a trance ; and if not, what reason is there 
 to show that these three persons were exclusively in a trance 
 more than any others ? How should Jesus, if only a man, know 
 before he had even seen them, that Lazarus and the ruler's 
 daughter were only entranced ? Supposing, after all, that they 
 had been dead, and did not rise forth, would not the power of 
 Jesus have been proved null and void ? The same remark ap- 
 plies to the son of the widow of Nain. Jesus, as a mere man, 
 dared not have risked the chances of a failure, unless it be said 
 that a trance is a more common occurrence than a death. The 
 unbeliever, however, says that these three persons were not 
 really dead, but only in appearance. From their own statement, 
 here then were three of the most curious coincidences, — and all 
 in the course of two years. The mere recurrence of the fact re- 
 futes the theory. This is the dilemma : if they were really dead, 
 none but a divine power could raise them, and that by a miracle; 
 1 — if they were only entranced, how could Jesus, if but a mere 
 man, know it ? and not knowing it of a certainty, how would 
 he venture on the hazardous experiment of placing his reputa- 
 tion on the issue of such a chance ? Never was an hypothesis 
 built on a more untenable position. 
 
 We will not enter upon an examination of the question that 
 naturally presents itself in the next place, as to whether the 
 Saviour was himself also in a trance. No one fact is better 
 established in the whole Gospel history, than the re-appearance 
 of Christ after- the crucifixion. If that fact be not true, there 
 
 s 3 
 
252 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 is an end of human evidence for ever. Was He also, we ask 
 then, in a trance when hanging on the cross, and when laid in 
 the tomb by Joseph of Arimathea? The question answers it- 
 self : it is too monstrous to need refutation. 
 
 Here, then, we have examined in detail a class of miracles in 
 the New Tiestament, to which the proudest results of the Mes- 
 meric power offer not the most distant resemblance. And let 
 no one say, that this examination was idle, — that it is foreign 
 to the subject, — that we " fight, as one that beateth the air." 
 Nothing is useless, by which the faith of the believer may be 
 strengthened, and the misgivings of the anxious heart be 
 quenched as they arise. The extracts that have been given 
 from anti-mesmeric writers, prove the opinions that are afloat, 
 respecting " the manifest tendency of Mesmerism to undermine 
 the first principles of the Christian faith." Many, it is added, 
 who "go to laugh at a mesmeric exhibition, may remain to 
 doubt, to disbelieve the Gospel, and to perish."* The facts, it is 
 said by others, are old, but the principle is newly discovered. 
 And knowing myself that Mesmerism is a living reality, — 
 knowing that its powers reach to an unsuspected extent, — 
 knowing that the faith of many has been disturbed by this dis- 
 covery, I have thought it essential to analyse the question 
 closely, and place the subject in its true colours. If I could 
 not say how far Mesmerism does go, I have at least shown how 
 far it does not go. The inquiry has commenced by an exami- 
 nation of facts, to which no approximation, even in the faintest 
 degree, has ever been made by the Mesmeric power. If the 
 matter stopped here, sufficient would have been said to prove 
 the Divine Mission of the Lord Jesus, and to show that He was 
 a teacher sent from God. But we now proceed to an investi- 
 gation into those miracles of a curative character, to which a 
 greater resemblance with this new power is supposed to exist. 
 
 And here it is at once asserted, that the Mesmeric cures are 
 something very extraordinary. For the convenience of the 
 present argument, we do not fall back from that position. 
 They have often been most wonderful. The treatment has 
 
 ♦ " Charlotte Elizabeth's " Letter, p. 14, IS. 
 
GREATEAKES. 253 
 
 often and often been efficacious, where no other remedy could 
 succeed. This is admitted in the fullest and most unequivocal 
 manner. Independent, moreover, of the general power, which 
 is common in a degree to most men, certain persons have been 
 physically gifted with a peculiar virtue of a very unusual 
 character. A denial of the fact cannot alter it. The evidence 
 on this point is too authentic to be questioned. Valentine 
 Greatrakes, an Irish gentleman who lived in the seventeenth 
 century, — De Loutherbourgh the well-known painter, Gassner 
 a Eoman Catholic priest in Suabia, an English gardener named 
 Levret, and several other parties could all be mentioned, whose 
 powers of cure by manipulation and magnetic action were 
 something very peculiar. * Their patients were most nume- 
 rous. AU sorts of diseases were relieved by them. The then 
 Bishop of Derry, speaking of Greatrakes, says, " There is 
 something in the power more than ordinary" ,Still with the 
 very largest allowance for the extent and variety of the effects, 
 they all fall very far short of being miraculous ; — they all fall 
 very far short of the Gospel wonders. " The cure often did 
 not succeed, but by reiterated touches ; the patients often re- 
 lapsed ; he failed frequently ; he can do nothing where there is 
 any decay in nature, and many distempers are not at all 
 obedient to his touch," j This was said of Greatrakes ; and 
 
 * Tn the Monthly Magazine, vol. xxv. and xxvi., is a reference to a Mrs. 
 Bostock, of Nantwich, Chester, who possessed "an extraordinary sanative 
 gift." She had generally hundreds of patients, and her power was regarded 
 as miraculous. A baronet applied to her to raise his wife from the dead, 
 
 -(- In the Rawdon Papers, Lord Conway says in a letter to Sir George 
 Kawdon, speaking of Greatrakes, that " some diseases he doth dispatch with 
 a great deal of ease, and others not without a great deal of pains " (p. 213.). 
 There are two letters from Greatrakes himself in the Kawdon Papers. 
 
 " Greatrakes' reputation arose to a prodigious height for some time," says 
 Granger, " hut it declined almost as fast, when the expectations of the mul- 
 titude that resorted to him were not answered," — Note in Rawdon'i 
 Papers, p. 211. 
 
 Tliere is an account of Greatrakes, by Glanvill, in his strange book on 
 witchcraft, p. S3. The Dean of C. writes to Glanvill, saying, " some take 
 him to be a conjurer, some an impostor, but others again adore him as an 
 opostle." 
 
 In the Zoist, vol. iii. p. 98., there is a further account of Greatrakes, 
 in a letter from Dr. Elliotson, with a lithographed " Portraiture of liim, 
 
 s 4 
 
254 mesmerism: AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 the same applies to every other Mesmerist of whom I have 
 ever heard. The most successful practitioner has never laid 
 claim to the possession of an infallible and universal power. 
 He has never pledged himself beforehand, in every possible 
 case, to produce a cure. If he have succeeded in ninety-nine 
 cases, he has failed in the hundredth. If he have procured a 
 lasting benefit in many patients, the relief is often but tem- 
 porary in others. Here, then, in the first 'place, is the wide 
 and immeasurable interval that separates the wonders of the 
 Mesmeriser from the marvels of the Redeemer of Israel. No 
 one ever sought His face in vain. No one ever went unto Him 
 and was cast out unrelieved. The word of promise that went 
 forth from His lips never returned unto Him void. His lan- 
 guage was decisive and with authority ; His touch was in its 
 effect certain, foreknown, invariable ; His sanative power ex- 
 tended to every pain, — to every complication of disease. No- 
 thing can be more decisive than the testimony of Scripture on 
 this point. To use Paley's happy expression, there was no- 
 thing tentative or experimental in the manner. " There is 
 nothing in the Gospel narrative," says he, " which can allow us 
 to believe, that Christ attempted cures in many instances, and 
 succeeded in a few ; or that he ever made the attempt in vain.". 
 And the Gospel history confirms this position. " He healed all 
 that were sick." (Matt. c. viii. v. 16.) St. Luke says that 
 " All they that had any sick, with divers diseases, brought 
 them unto him : and he laid his hands on every one of them and 
 healed them." (c. iv. v. 40.) St. Matthew, again, says that 
 " He went about all Galilee, — healing all manner of sickness, 
 and all -manner of disease, among the people." " And they 
 brought unto him all sick people, that were taken with divers 
 diseases and torments, and those which were lunatic, and those 
 
 curing diseases and distempers by the stroke of his hand only," after an old 
 print lately found in Cambridge. 
 
 Mr. Thoresby, in the Philosophical Transactions, 226. p. 332. A.n. 1699, 
 mentions how Greatrakes " drove the pain from place to place, bringing it 
 to the leg, and, at last out by the toes." This is by no means uncommon in 
 Mesmerism : I have done it myself with one of my parishioners who had a 
 diseased knee. 
 
 Dr. Real mentions, in the Philosophical Transactions, No. Ig. p. 206., 
 a blacksmith who cured by stroking with the hand like Greatrakes. 
 
MIEACLES. 255 
 
 that had the palsy, and he healed them." (c. iv. ver. 23, 24.) 
 Again, we read, that "great multitudes came unto him, having 
 with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and 
 many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet, and he healed 
 them" (Matt. c. xv. v. 30.) There was no exception that we 
 read of in any instance. Here then, in the first- place, is one 
 distinguishing characteristic of the Christian cures — the uni- 
 versality of the success wherever the attempt was made. 
 
 We now come,- in the next place, to a second and most 
 niaterial distinction, the class of cures effected by either party. 
 In Mesmerism, the diseases subdued have been of a very 
 remarkable character ; tic-douloureux, fearful epileptic fits, 
 brain fever, derangement, deafness, weakness in the eyes, 
 neuralgic pains of all kinds, loss of voice, paralysis, fevers, 
 and a variety of other disorders ; cures have been effected 
 where all other means have failed ; still all these fall immea- 
 surably short of the miraculous effects recorded in Scripture. — 
 Cures of a far higher order are there related ; cures, where the 
 limbs or members had been organically injured, — cures where 
 the injury had dated from the birth of the party. And here to 
 mark the difference more strongly, it is necessary to introduce a 
 third and even greater distinction, viz. the period of time in 
 which the benefit was produced. In Mesmerism the relief has 
 been often most rapid ; in a quarter of an hour pain has begun 
 to give way, and has been even expelled ; in a first sitting a 
 disorder has been removed ; yet, even rapid as has been the 
 therapeutic power of the Mesmeriser, it is idle to compare it to 
 the instantaneous — to the magical change that followed on 
 the touch and the voice of the Saviour. Christ "spake the 
 word," and quicker than thought a complete revolution took 
 place in the brain, in the blood, or in the structure of the suf- 
 ferer. What was wanting, was supplied ; what was weakened, 
 was renewed ; what was broken, was made whole ; and that, 
 too, in an instant of time. In the twinkling of an eye, a mass 
 of diseased and putrefying sores became " as the flesh of a little 
 child," in the bloom of health. The combination is very 
 noticeable, and marks the miraculous character. In Mesmerism 
 1 have heard of more than one instance, where a rheumatism 
 
256 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 of many years standing has been cured at the first seance, as 
 soon as the magnetic medium had passed into the patient's 
 system ; perhaps even greater and more expeditious efiects may 
 be named ; still, let them be compared to the miracles of the 
 New Testament in regard to the class of diseases and the 
 instantaneous character of the cure, and what resemblance ia 
 there ? * 
 
 Peter's wife's mother is confined to her bed with a fever; 
 Christ takes her by the hand ; the fever immediately leaves 
 her ; no lassitude, the usual consequence of feverish action, 
 remains ; for she arises and ministers to them at their meat. 
 
 Eleven specific cases of a cure of leprosy are recorded. The 
 leprosy is a disease beyond all description fearful ; by some it 
 is thought incurable. The skin and flesh are one mass of cor- 
 ruption. To effect a cure, therefore, a change must take place 
 in the whole current of the blood. In the first cure related, 
 the leprosy " immediately departed." In the cases of the other 
 ten lepers, they were all cured at once on their quitting Jesus, 
 and in their way to the priests. 
 
 * The instantaneousness of the Gospel- cures is a most important dis- 
 tinction. £ven Gauthier, the great French Mesmerist, points out this mark 
 of difference. " That which was accomplished by Christ in a second, will 
 take you a day, or a month, or a year." ( Traite Pratique, 700.) So marvel- 
 lous, indeed, is the distinction, that this new school of Rationalism is much 
 perplexed in finding a way to explain it. The American youth, Davis, in 
 his " Revelations," thererore, cuts the knot in the easiest manner possible. 
 He asserts that when Scripture speaks of a thing being instantaneous, that it 
 meant that it was " gradual." These are his own words. " There has 
 arisen a vast amount of misapprehension concerning these miracles, from the 
 ityle of the written word. Matthew and the other evangelists record the 
 cause and effect as occurring in rapid succession — almost simultaneously. 
 In the physical infirmities cured by Jesus, the effect is related as though it 
 followed the cause immediately. All who are acquainted with physiological 
 principles, and with the calm, gentle, and energetic movements of the human 
 organisation, are persuaded, even positively convinced, that no cause can be 
 brought to act so as to produce health as an immediate result, in case of any 
 established disease. Therefore, notwithstanding the things recorded were 
 performed, they were effected by causes agreeing with the nature of the 
 human system ; and the re-establishment of health, which actually occurred, 
 was effected gradually, and by means adapted to the temperament of the 
 individual, and the nature of the disease." Vol. ii. 512. 
 
 This is as if a philosopher in Cochin China, on hearing of the rapid trans- 
 aiission of news by an electric telegraph, should say that it was impossible, 
 and that what was meant was, that it was by degrees. 
 
MIEACULOUS CURES. 257 
 
 Many important cures of paralysis are mentioned. One in 
 particular is specified, where the sufferer was so completely 
 deprived of the use of his limbs as to be carried by four men. 
 He is cured instantly that Jesus speaks, and walks off, carrying 
 his bed. 
 
 A cripple, who had been suffering from his infirmity and loss 
 of limbs for thirty-eight years, — and a poor woman, who had 
 been bent double for eighteen years, are both cured at once. 
 The latter " was immediately made straight." The former 
 was " immediately made whole, and took up his bed and 
 walked." 
 
 What can be a more hopeless state than a dry withered 
 limb ? Nature seems dead in the part. All power is gone. 
 A man with a withered hand comes to Christ : he is ordered to 
 stretch it out, and " it is restored whole as the other." 
 
 Mesmerism has been of signal service in deafness, in blind- 
 ness, and where the voice has been injured; but the benefit 
 has been obtained by degrees ; and in no instance has a cure 
 been produced where the priration has arisen from a structural 
 defect, commencing with the birth. Several cases are men- 
 tioned in Scripture of cures of blindness, — of blindness " from 
 birth," — of deafness and dumbness united from birth, — of 
 deafness with impediment in the speech, — and so on, where 
 the cure was instantaneous, and following the touch. In one 
 case of blindness, the cure was effected more gradually ; still it 
 was cured ; and half an hour, or an hour at the most, was the 
 time occupied from the sufferer's first interview with Jesus, be- 
 fore his eyes were " restored, and that he saw every man 
 clearly." To compare any of the benefits procured by Mes- 
 merism with those marvellous cures of blindness and deafness, 
 would be an absurdity, which none but those who have not 
 studied them closely would dream of committing.* 
 
 Among other instantaneous cures, we may mention that of a 
 
 • " We have distinguished between the miracles of Scripture and Xag- 
 netisra : for the latter makes no pretensions to such power as that of render- 
 ing perfectly sound a withered arm, or of instantaneously giving sight, with 
 all the effects of experience (the greater wonder of the two) to one born 
 blind." — TJeo. T. Pyne, p, 20. 
 
258 MESMERISM AKD ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 woman with an issue of blood of twelve years' duration, whc 
 came behind, and without the (humanly speaking) knowledge 
 of Jesus,' touched his garment, and was cured directly ; that oi 
 a boy with violent epileptic fits ; and that of the servant whose 
 ear was cut off, the wound of which was at once healed by the 
 touch of Jesus. 
 
 It may be as well to add, that in the xvth of Matthew, 
 I'erse 30., where the Evangelist speaks of the " larae and 
 maimed " being brought to Jesus, and of the " lame walking," 
 and the " maimed being made whole," some of the best com- 
 mentators are of opinion, that the word, which in our trans- 
 lation is rendered " maimed," signifies those who had not 
 merely lost the use of their limbs, as the lame, — but even the 
 limbs themselves ; and that those deficient limbs were replaced, 
 and the sufferers " made whole." Be this as it may, here is a 
 succession of cures, standing out in pre-eminent majesty, both 
 in the nature of the disease and the suddenness of the relief, — 
 far — far above any that the annals of Magnetism can adduce, 
 with a line of demarcation between them so broad and in^ 
 superable, that the most trembling Christian need not dread 
 the faintest approximation. 
 
 A. fourth distinguishing mark, attendant upon the cures re- 
 lated in the Gospel, is the permanency of their effect. There 
 is no reason to suspect, from the slightest phrase that drops 
 from any of the New Testament writers, nor from any charge 
 that was advanced by the unbeliever, that the benefit was not 
 as lasting as it was complete. No one can assert the same of 
 all our Mesmeric cures. Many are indeed permanent ; but 
 with a large number the action requires to be renewed at inter- 
 vals, especially in some diseases that are of a chronic kind. 
 
 Still the unbeliever replies, that Christ performed all his 
 cures by the " touch." " They brought unto him those that 
 were sick with divers diseasejs, and he laid his hands on every 
 one of them and healed them." It was the Mesmeric " touch " 
 they assert. Though there was no manipulating process adopted, 
 ^till the Mesmeric power was possessed by him to such an un- 
 usual and excessive degree, that the mere touch was sufficient. 
 That a virtue accompanied the touch of the Saviour is admitted. 
 
THE TOUCH. 259 
 
 It is, in fact, the very thing we assert. The question is,' whether 
 that touch was divine or human, — whether the touch of any 
 other human being, not recorded in Scripture, ever wrought 
 out the same effects ? Supposing, even as some think, that the 
 touch was Mesmeric, only exerted to a supernatural degree, the 
 result would not be less of a miracle.* If God brings out a 
 latent power in nature, and exercises it to an extent of which 
 man is incapable, though the virtue itself be part of nature's 
 forces, stiU its employment to this extreme degree would be an 
 interference with our physical laws, and therefore strictly 
 prsBternatural. This is the distinction between an energy that 
 is ordinary or extraordinary. The former may be very 
 wonderful, — but the latter is miraculous. And certainly, in 
 confirmation of this view, it must be said that God works by 
 means. To judge from analogy. He does not create a frash 
 power, where sufficient in nature already exists. When the 
 Red Sea was divided by miracle, though dry land could have 
 been produced at once by the simple word of his power. He 
 rather caused the waters to go back by the effect of a strong 
 east wind, which He called into unusual action for the occasion. 
 And thus it may be with Mesmerism : Christ may have exer- 
 cised a latent Mesmeric power to an extra and miraculous 
 extent. For instance, when the poor woman with an issue of 
 blood touched him secretly, and Jesus said that he " perceived 
 that virtue was gone out of him," He may have meant that a 
 supernatural portion of that magnetic virtue, which is imparted 
 in a greater or less degree to every human being, had escaped 
 from Him, and caused the beneflt.t I mention this in defer- 
 
 * Mr. Spencer Hall, who always writes in a spirit of Christian faith and 
 humanity, says, " true, since Jesus did not disdain to use even dirt and spittle 
 as agents, and since he felt a ' virtue gone out of him,' on an occasion when 
 another was benefited by touching him, I would not deny that, as Lord of 
 all, he might use magnetism, or any other agent in creation, for the working 
 out of his compassionate designs." {Mesmeric Experiences, 26.) The 
 Christian Remembrancer, in the article before referred to, adopts the sairiie 
 view, and thinks that the Saviour might have exercised the " faculty," after 
 a miraculous way. (April, 1847, 389.) 
 
 + Gauthier says : " La vertu magnetique, qui r^sidait a un degr£ incom- 
 parabk en Jesus- Christ, existe k un degr6 inferieur chez tous les hommes, et 
 chaque fois que le magnltiseur impose les mains, il sort une vertu de lui." —. 
 T. Pratique, 46. 
 
260 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 ence to the views of others, rather than as expressing my own 
 opinion. However, in changing water into wine, or in multi- 
 plying five loaves to feed five thousand, there would appear a 
 species of divine power exerted, having no connection what- 
 ever with this quality of " touch." His touch, therefore,, may 
 not have been meant for a medium of communication. It may 
 simply have been an external action, identifying himself with 
 the cure, and attracting the attention of the party more espe- 
 cially towards him.* Moreover, Jesus did not always touch 
 the sick. In the cure of the sick of the palsy, of the cripple, of 
 the withered hand, of the boy with epileptic fits, no mention is 
 made of the " laying on of hands." And this brings us to a 
 fifth and very remarkable distinction, the cure of three sick 
 persons immediately and at a distance, whither this assumed 
 Mesmeric virtue could not possibly, except by miracle, extend. 
 Nothing in the annals of Mesmerism has a parallel to this. I 
 certainly know of some instances, where a strong sanative and 
 soothing power has been communicated at a distance by the 
 transmission of a highly Mesmerised material, such as leather 
 or cotton, and from which the benefit has also been at present 
 permanent. But this curative efiect was the work of weeks, of 
 months, — of long incessant application. Let us, on the other 
 hand, turn to the three cases recorded in Scripture. The first 
 was the cure of a nobleman's son, who was dying of a fever, at 
 the distance of more than twenty miles. The disease left him 
 at the very hour in which Jesus said, " Thy son liveth." The 
 second is the cure of the Centurion's servant, who was sick of 
 
 * On the external action of the hand, the Rev. C. Townshend makes the 
 following pleasing and appropriate remarks : — " Gifts of healing, not less 
 than of power, belong to the hand by prescriptive right. If the potency 
 of the royal toucjh, in curing the king's evil, be but a superstition, let us 
 remember that it took its origin from a holy source : Christ and his disciples 
 laid their hands upon the sick, and they were healed. The miracles of our 
 Lord were remarkably accompanied by actions of the hand, as if they were 
 in some measure connected with that external means. In restoring sight 
 and hearing, he touched the ears and eyes of the afflicted persons. Even 
 the imparting of the gift of the Holy Spirit followed the imposition of hands ; 
 and this external ensign of a spiritual agency is still retained in our church. 
 Who that has undergone or witnessed the beautiful rite of confirmation but 
 has felt its power" (p. 1 99.). 
 
MIRACLES NOT MESMERIC. 261 
 
 a palsy and " ready to die," who " was healed iu the self-same 
 hour that Jesiis spoke," — without his passing under the roof. 
 The third was the recovery of the daughter of the woman of 
 Canaan, at once and at a distance, by the mere word and com- 
 mand of Jesus. "Whatever the sickness was, whether derange- 
 ment or epileptic fits, it matters not ; the fact was, she was 
 cured, and cured without touch or even approximation of the 
 Saviour. 
 
 Here, then, are five characteristics, which especially dis- 
 tinguish the curative miracles of Christ, and separate them 
 from any resemblance to even the highest order of Mesmeric 
 power. , 
 
 1. The cure was universal. 
 
 2. The diseases were more desperate, and , in some cases 
 
 organic. 
 
 3. The cure was instantaneous. 
 
 4. The cure was permanent. 
 
 5. The cure was occasionally performed at a distance. 
 
 One other quality may be mentioned : the power was trans- 
 missive. The Apostles were invested with the same virtue to 
 an equal degree. This can in no wise be said of those who 
 possessed that peculiar healing power that we before alluded 
 to. This cannot be said of Gassner, of Greatrakes, of De 
 Loutherbourgh, or of others. The power died with them. 
 It was not imparted to followers or friends. Not so in the 
 Christian dispensation : the Disciples were empowered equally 
 " to lay hands on the sick," and the promise was, " and they 
 shall recover." We read of " many wonders and signs being 
 done by the Apostles." We read of a " multitude out of the 
 cities round about Jerusalem bringing sick folks to the Apostles, 
 and thei/ were healed every one ! " More especially, we are 
 told, of the cure by Peter and John of the impotent man in the 
 temple, that was lame from his birth, whose ankle-bones and 
 feet received strength immediately ; of the cripple at Lystra, 
 "who had never walked" from his birth, and also stood up at 
 once and leaped, at the mere word of St. Paul ; and of the 
 father of Publius, who lay sick of a fever and was healed by 
 
262 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 the same Apostle. Other wonders might be named ; but' this 
 is sufficient to enable us to ask this question, If Christ only 
 wrought his cures by the exei'cise of the same natural power 
 that Gassner and others employed, why was he able to transmit 
 the same virtue to his followers, while with Gassner and Great- 
 rakes no successor appeared ? 
 
 But here comes a fresh argument, that decides the question 
 at once. ' It is said, that this virtue was transmitted, t^ or, ia 
 other words, that the curative process, whatever it was, was 
 taught by Jesus to his disciples,' — and by them to many others : 
 if so, how came these supposed miracles of healing to cease ? 
 and would they not rather have increase^ in each successive 
 generation ? As this argument, however, is given in the most 
 clear and forcible language by the Archbishop of Dublin in 
 his tract on Christian Evidences *, I avail myself of his permis- 
 sion to render it in his own words. 
 
 "I have said that the works performed by Jesus and his 
 disciples were beyond the unassisted powers of man. And this, 
 I think, is the best description of what is meant by a miracle. 
 Superhuman would perhaps be a better word to apply to a 
 miracle, thsm. supernatural ; for if we believe that nature is 
 merely another word to signify that state of things and course 
 of events which God has appointed, nothing that occurs can be 
 strictly called ' supernatural.' Jesus himself accordingly de- 
 scribes his works, not as violations of the law of nature, but 
 as works ' which none other man did.' But what is in general 
 meant by ' supernatural ' is something out of the ordinary course 
 of nature, — something at variance with those laws of nature 
 which we are accustomed to. 
 
 " But then it may be objected that we cannot decide what does 
 violate the ordinary laws of nature, unless we can be sure that 
 we are acquainted with all those laws. For instance, an inha- 
 bitant of the tropical climates might think it contrary to the 
 laws of nature, that water should ever become hard ; since he 
 had never seen ice. And when electricity was first discovered, 
 many of its effects were contrary to the laws of nature, which 
 
 * Christian Evidences, printed for the Society for promoting Christian 
 Knowledge. 
 
AECHBISHOP OF DUBLIN. 263 
 
 had been hitherto known. But any one who visits colder 
 regions may see with his own eyes, that water does become 
 solid. And any one who will procure an electrical machine, or 
 who attends lectures on the subject, may see for himself the 
 effects of electricity. 
 
 " Now suppose Jesus had been a person who had discovered 
 some new natural agent through which any rnan might be 
 enabled to cure diseases by a touch, and perform the other won- 
 derful works which He did, and through which any one else might 
 have done the like, this would soon have become known and 
 practised by all ; just like the use of electricity or any newly- 
 discovered medicine, and from his time down to this day every 
 one would have commonly performed just the same works that He 
 did. He might, indeed, have kept it to himself as a secret, and 
 thus have induced some to believe that he wrought miracles. 
 But so far from acting thus. He imparted his power, first to 
 the twelve Apostles, and afterwards to seventy others ; and 
 after his departure, his Apostles received the power of not 
 only performing mighty works themselves, but also of bestow- 
 ing those gifts on all the disciples on whom they laid their 
 hands, as you may see from Acts, viii. 14. 23. ; Acts, xix. 6. ; 
 E,om. i. 2. &c. 
 
 " There must have been therefore, in the early church, many 
 hundreds, and probably many thousands, performing the same- 
 sort of works as Jesus and his Apostles. And if, therefore^ 
 these had been performed by means of any natural agency^ 
 such as any one else might use as well as they, the art would; 
 soon have been universally known : and the works performed 
 by the disciples of Jesus would have been commonly performed, 
 by all men ever after down to this day. 
 
 " But the Jews were convinced, with good reason, that the; 
 works of Jesus were beyond the powers of unassisted man. 
 And it may seem strange to us that they did not all come at 
 once to the same conclusion with Nicodemus, when he said, 
 ' No man can do these miracles which thou doest except God 
 
 be with him.' " 
 
 "But," says the anxious inquirer, "you have at present made 
 
 T 
 
264 MESMEKISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 no allusion to the most wondrous parts of Mesmerism. Clair- 
 voyance, internal vision, the predictive faculty, are all passed 
 over ; and these are the phenomena that more than any partake 
 of the miraculous character." 
 
 Of the predictive faculty there is some difficulty in speaking. 
 Many remarkable facts have certainly been stated, on the most 
 respectable authority ; and he vrould be a bold and hasty man, 
 who should presume to reject them, without having fully cer- 
 tified himself as to the defect in their evidence. But strange 
 as some of these predictions appear, to place them in the same 
 category with the prophetic writings of the Old Testament, — 
 to compare them with the fulfilment of facts which had been 
 predicted hundreds of years before, is preposterous. They 
 somewhat approach the character of the stories of second-sight 
 iimong the Scotch. It would be difficult to discredit all the 
 ianecdotes that are related under that head ; and many other 
 -singular predictions have occurred in the history of the human 
 ■mind, to which different medical and metaphysical works have 
 referred. How far, in certain states of disease, the mind 
 becomes more spiritual and acquires a peculiar character of 
 
 • exaltation and of subtle judgment, so as to decide more clearly 
 as to the probability of an event, I leave to physiologists to 
 
 - determine. Such, at any rate, is my own opinion. Still all 
 this, even at the best, is widely different from the prophetic 
 
 • character. The anticipation of an event, a few weeks pre- 
 ■viously, is very remote from a prediction of several centuries ; 
 and in fact, this sort of foresight bears no more relation to an- 
 cient prophecy, than do the wonderful cures of the Mesmeriser 
 to the miraculous effects recorded in the Gospel. 
 
 These predictions, then, as far as I have been able to judge, 
 ■go no further than the foretelling a result that is about to arise 
 from circumstances then in action, at the time of the somnam- 
 iDulist's vision. The increased subtlety of the clairvoyant's 
 perceptions foresees the conclusion from facts fermenting to- 
 wards their issue. In other words, the future is known through 
 its then existing cause : for a clear acquaintance with the 
 present infers what must arise in the sequel. This would 
 also appear to be Mesmer's opinion, and the opinion of many 
 
CLAIRVOYANCE. 263 
 
 other experienced Magnetists. The power is remarkable 
 enough : but infinitely distant from the nature of prophecy.* .^ 
 
 Of ClairvoyancBj or the faculty of seeing through opaque 
 bodies, of reading without the use of the eyes, and so forthj 
 wonderful as these facts appear at first, and utterly discredited 
 as they are by many who believe in the other marvels of Mes» 
 merism, it is not needful to say so much as might be expected, 
 for two reasons. 
 
 First, they bear no resemblance whatsoever to anything re- 
 corded in Scripture. Nothing of the kind is mentioned in the 
 Gospel history as one of its miracles.- Christ never appealed to 
 any such fact, as a proof of his divine legation.^ 
 
 But, secondly, however wonderful or incredible they may 
 appear, there is not one single fact of this nature, occurring in 
 the Mesmeric state, but the same or a similar fact has been found 
 to exist, spontaneously, in the condition of natural somnam- 
 bulism. Those who will study the subject, will see this asser- 
 tion unequivocally proved. I have given this statement before. 
 In certain stages of extreme or peculiar disease, nature has 
 found a vent, by throwing the patient into an abnormal condi- 
 tion. In this condition very singular phenomena have ap- 
 peared. Very many cases | could be cited of clairvoyance in 
 that particular state. In these cases, Mesmerism was unknown 
 to the parties, or was not applied artificially. These pheno- 
 mena were the result of hysteria or natural Mesmerism. At 
 any rate, they appeared spontaneously and in a state of disease ; 
 and as such they relieve the Mesmeric wonders of the character 
 of the supernatural, and bring them down to the level of or- 
 dinary occurrences ; and any comparison, therefore, between 
 
 * Mesmer says, "pr^voir I'avenir, c'est sentir I'effet par la cause." See 
 Gauthier, T. P. p. 601. See also I'Abb^ J. B. L., where he speaks of the 
 means of distinguishing between a divine revelation, and an exalted penetra- 
 tion into the future. — p. 611. 
 
 f If Mesmerism had been the agent by which Jesus and his disciples 
 ■wrought, how happened it that coma, clairvoyance, prevision, rigidity, in- 
 sensibility to pain, and other phenomena, never presented themselves in the 
 process? We read of nothing of the sort. This is an additional proof that 
 there was no Mesmeric influence in the action. 
 
 ;f See Appendix, I. 
 
666 MESMEKISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 the latter and the miracles of Scripture, would be misplaced 
 and superfluous. 
 
 I trust that the anxious and the scrupulous may now feel 
 more assured on this important subject ; and perceive the wide 
 distinction that exists in the matter. The question is capable 
 of a much more detailed analysis, and of receiving a fuller and 
 more conclusive proof. But enough, and perhaps more than 
 enough, has been stated ; — ^much, too, that is wearisome, much 
 that is old, much that is self-evident* But I seek not to please 
 a sect, or give knowledge to the well-instructed. This little 
 work is for the use of the ignorant or the timid ; and while I 
 am anxious by its publication to " do good unto all men ;" I 
 more especially write for the "household of faith." Many 
 amiable and virtuous minds have been deterred from giving- 
 Mesmerism that candid trial which its importance deserves, 
 from no other feeling than a silent unuttered fear as to its- 
 bearing on Revelation. To say that such a feeling is not rfght,. 
 
 — that a love of truth ought to be predominant at all hazards, 
 is easy of utterance, and perhaps correct in reality. Still it is 
 a feeling that deserves respect. And it is to meet this feeling, 
 and remove these scruples, that the materials of this Chapter 
 have been put together. How far they may be successful time 
 will show. That there was a necessity for the attempt, ther& 
 cannot be a question* And my hope is, that many a perplexed 
 and doubting heart, whose faith had been staggered for a little 
 season at the presumed mysteriousness of our new science, may 
 be led to a more accurate understanding of its relative merits j 
 
 — and comparing natural things with things that are really 
 superhuman, may see more clearly the transcendent superiority 
 of all that has been related of Christ, beyond any antagonistic 
 claims affecting equal power ; — and, with a belief more and 
 more strengthened by a diligent and prayerful investigation of 
 the truth, may be enabled in all sincerity with Nathaniel to 
 exclaim, " Eabbi, Thou art the son of God 1 Thou art the King 
 of Israel!"* 
 
 * In a recent address at Exeter, before the Devon Pathological Society, 
 Dr. Shapter of that city actually spoke of the " blasphemies of Mesmerism being 
 quoted as part of the medical art," meaning, as it was understood, by that 
 
BLASPHEMIES OF MESMERISM. 267 
 
 CHAP. vn. 
 
 EXPLANATION OF MARTELS AND FANCIED MIRACLES ECSTATIC DREAMERS 
 
 AND REVELATIONS. — THE MAID OF KENT, THE PROPHETESS OF THE 
 
 CATHOLICS. MARGARET MICHELSON, THE PROPHETESS OF THE 
 
 COVENANTERS. THE SHEPHERDESS OF CRET THE BOHEMIAN PRO- 
 PHETESS SISTER GERMAINE OF BRAZIL MARTHA BROSSIER, THE 
 
 WITCH OF PARIS THE ENTRANCED FEMALE, OR WESLEYAN PRO- 
 PHETESS JOHN EVANS AND THE DEMON OF PLYMOUTH DOCK. 
 
 LORD SHREWSBURY'S TYROLESE ECSTATICS. REVELATIONS OF THE 
 
 " SEERESS OF PREVOST." " REMARKABLE SERMONS " OF R.ACHEL 
 
 BAKER. "DIVINE REVELATIONS OF NATURE," BY AN AMERICAN 
 
 CLAIRVOYANT. THE MESMERIC PROPHETESS. THE SLEEPING HAY- 
 MAKER. THE SLEEPING SOLDIER. MESMERIC ACTION CONTAGIOUS; 
 
 — MAXWELL AND BACON ON MAGNETIC SYMPATHY AND VIRTUE. 
 
 But though Mesmerism do not shake, in the most distant 
 degree, the belief of the intelligent Christian in the reality of 
 
 phrase, the pretensions of the science to some miraculous cliaracter, or rather 
 its "imitations" of the divine power. 
 
 " Even the blasphemies of Mesmerism !" What can the Baconian lec- 
 turer mean ? By what process of " induction " has he landed on this notion ? 
 jMesmerism may be false, or exaggerated as to its value, but wherein is it 
 more blasphemous than any other of those adjuncts in the healing art, which 
 the doctor himself employs? Mesmerism is simply an application of a 
 i power in nature towards the mitigation of disease, and nothing else : is 
 this blasphemous ? An assumption of religious zeal and of religious language 
 when we wish to raise a prejudice against an adverse party, is an old game, 
 and a plausible, but not remarkable for its charity. ** The wrath of man 
 worketh not the righteousness of God : " in other words. Christian feelings 
 are not advanced by a lecturer stepping unnecessarily out of his path to 
 brand an adversary with the nickname of " blasphemer," under the sancti- 
 monious guise of a horror of his opinions. 
 
 Dr. S. is a soi-disant follower of Bacon : here is a quotation from his 
 favourite author, which he seems to have overlooked. 
 
 " It was a notable observation of a wise father, that those which held and 
 persuaded pressure of consciences," (a phrase, which Bacon previously ex- 
 plains as meaning, the ^making the cause of religion descend^ to some oppro- 
 bious purpose,) "were commonly interested therein themselves for thar own 
 ends." — Essays, III. 
 
 I 3 
 
268 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 Scripture miracles, — it furnishes the Philosopher with a useful 
 clue towards the understanding of much that has hitherto been 
 mysterious.* In the history of man, many facts have been 
 recorded, of which a clear explanation has yet been wanting. 
 In all ages of the world, we have had a succession of marvels, 
 at which the ignorant have been alarmed, the wise have been 
 staggered, and the superstitious excited.f False prophets, pre- 
 tended miracles, wonder-working saints, have, from time to 
 time, arisen, disturbing and deceiving the very elect. Though 
 heathenism and idolatry have had their prodigies in abundance, 
 to the authority of which their votaries have appealed in con- 
 firmation of their creed, the Church of Christ has been more 
 especially rife with pretensions of the same order. The charge 
 of trick and delusion on these occasions has been advanced in 
 every generation; — sometimes correctly, — not unfrequently, 
 however, with inconsiderate haste. :[: The unbeliever has detected 
 much that was false; — the scientific have traced much to the 
 efifect of imagination ; and so the inconsequential conclusion has 
 "been adopted through convenience, that imposture was at the 
 foundation of all the rest. And yet to those who had impartially 
 examined the various recorded statements, this summary deci'' 
 sion was not always satisfactory. A miracle, or miraculous 
 train of incidents, is, for example, announced. After a time an 
 
 * As, in a variety of curious facts to be adduced in this chapter, I am 
 constantly saying that Mesmerism will explain them, let it be understood 
 once for all, that I do not always mean that the parties had been mesmerised, 
 but that their condition was identical with the Mesmeric state. 
 
 •j- « If we look through the records of past times, we shall find many 
 extraordinary facts not to be accounted for, nor yet, therefore, to be dis- 
 believed, but still which are simply extraordinary ; wonheks not miracles ; 
 things which excite surprise, but which lead to nothing." — AmoldCs Sermons, 
 vol. iii. p. 245. 
 
 \ In Professor Gregory's " abstract " from Reichenbach, there is a curious 
 and satisfactory explanation of certain ghost-stories, or "corpse-lights in 
 churchyards." " Many nervous or hysterical females must often have been 
 alarmed by white, faintly-luminous objects in dark churchyards, to which 
 objects fear has given a defined form." Reichenbach gives a most interest- 
 ing explanation, and adds, that "it was not altogether erroneous when old 
 women declared that aU had not the gift to see the departed wandering about 
 their graves, for it must have always been the sensitive alone, &o." — The 
 reader is referred to the whole account for the elucidation. — p. 67. 
 
JXARVELS AND FANCIED jnUACLES. 269 
 
 inquiry is pursued. The sceptic and the unprejudiced take the 
 question up. A mass of falsehood and folly is discovered ; and 
 yet, after a large deduction on that head, there often " remained 
 a residuum of something strange ^and perplexing " to the most 
 philosophic. Of course, all this was, in the end, placed to the 
 account of " imagination," and so the question was disposed of 
 for a season ; — but the real analysis of the difficulty was in- 
 complete and partial.* 
 
 Most divisions of the Church have, in their turn, appealed 
 to their own especial marvel. A miracle has not been wanting 
 to prove the most opposite doctrines. Wherever there has- 
 been the coarsest ignorance, there has generally been th& 
 greatest prodigy : and the number of these " lying wonders "■ 
 has been in proportion, not so much to the quality of the faith, 
 as to the enthusiasm of the party, and the multitude and cha- 
 racter of the respective followers. As Bacon says, in his Ad- 
 vancement of Learning, " This facility of credit, and accepting 
 or admitting things weakly authorised or warranted, hath too- 
 easily registered reports and narrations of miracles wrought by 
 martyrs, hermits, and other holy men, which, though they had 
 a passage for a time by the ignorance of the people, the super-* 
 stitious simplicity of some, and the politic toleration of others, 
 — yet, after a period, when the mist began to clear up, they 
 grew to be esteemed but as old wives' fables, impostures of the 
 clergy, and illusions of spirits, to the great scandal and detrit- 
 ment of religion." f 
 
 • Dr. Arnold observes, " A man may appear ridiculous, if he expresses his: 
 belief in any particular story, .to those who know nothing 'of it but its 
 strangeness. And there is no doubt that human folly and human fraud are 
 mixed up largely with most accounts of wonders. Yet, to say that all re- 
 corded wonders are false, from those recorded by Herodotus down to the 
 latest reports of animal magnetism, would be a boldness of assertion wholly 
 unjustifiable and extravagant. * * » We should consider whether the 
 accounts are of force enough to lead us to search for some law hitherto 
 undiscovered, to which they may all be referred, and become hereafter the 
 foundation of a new science.*' — Lectures, 1^9. 
 
 -(■ " If some/oWes have been received as truths, there are probably many 
 truths, disguised by circumstances, which have been generally rejected as 
 fabulous." — Colquhoun'a preface to Wienholt, p. 13., where some instructive, 
 instances and experiments are referred to. 
 
 T 4 
 
270 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 One point, however, is deserving of notice. "Whatever ac-i 
 cumulation of falsehood has heen super-added in the progress, 
 the original fact, from which the pretended miracle has taken 
 its rise, has in general been a genuine and undoubted occurrence, 
 for which a natural or secondary cause may be discovered. 
 Most corrupt as is human nature, this statement may be adopted 
 with but occasional exceptions. Nor is it difficult to follow out 
 a transaction of the kind, till it altogether assumes the colour 
 of complete imposture. A singular fact, for instance, occurs 
 in a secluded spot, and amongst an ignorant population. It is 
 soon spoken of as supernatural. The first to visit and inquire 
 into the details is the spiritual pastor of the flock. He hears 
 much that is incomprehensible to him. But little removed in 
 intelligence above his own superstitious congregation, he adopts 
 their theory, and sees with their eyes. The fact becomes a 
 miracle with him.* God has visited his people ; and as the 
 especial minister of God he takes the management of the case 
 under his peculiar care. Nothing has thus far occurred but 
 what is fair and natural. Soon, however, a temptation assails 
 him ; for the admiration of the populace begins to flag ; the 
 wonder is ceasing to be wonderful. The good man fears 
 that the salutary check upon sin and immorality, which the 
 suddenness of the marvel had effected in his neighbourhood, is 
 losing its charm. A little excitement is necessary : a small 
 additional wonder, therefore, is ingeniously brought out. The 
 success is complete : the credit of the miracle resumes its hold ; 
 the power of religion takes deeper root : and thus the supposed 
 goodness of the object, and the real benefits of the deception, 
 warp his judgment and lead him on. The same round, how- 
 ever, must again be shortly run. And thus, step by step, the 
 pious fraud grows beneath his hand ; unintentional deceptions 
 are added in virtue's spite ; the man himself has become rather 
 "what he cannot changej than what he chooses;" — and at last 
 the original wonder has swelled into a monstrous amount of 
 
 ♦ " It is not every wonderful thing, contrary to the laws of nature, so far 
 as we know them, that becomes immediately a sign of divine power,*' — t 
 4rnolcCa Sermons, vol. iii. p. 245. 
 
MARVELS AND FANCIED MIKACLES. 271 
 
 wickedness and imposture ; and religion and the cause of truth 
 are perilled by the detection.* 
 
 Now, for many of these marvellous occurrences, Mesmerism 
 can afford a natural explanation.f From my own experience, 
 I can state that very many facts, which have been accepted as 
 miraculous, and secured the wonder of a superstitious multi- 
 tude, have been but the transcript of the same class of incidents 
 as have occurred within the walls of my own house. Natural 
 Somnambulism, or Mesmerism, (for they are both but different 
 phases of the same condition,) will explain many points of the 
 " supernatural " which were previously inexplicable to the in- 
 quirer. Nor is it necessary, on all occasions, to assume that 
 any additional prodigies have been appended to the first wonder. 
 Oftentimes the whole transaction has seemed, on Mesmeric prin- 
 ciples, nothing but a probable and natural chain of facts : good 
 faith, and honesty of purpose, have prevailed throughout ; — 
 the original marvel remained as it began ; and a charge of im- 
 position would be wanton and unphilosophical.J 
 
 More often, however, the temptation to deceive has been too 
 successful with sinful man. His unconquerable love of spiritual 
 power has acted fatally on the evil propensity within. And 
 where this power could be maintained by the encouragement, 
 or connivance, or practice of deceit, the Old Adam has too 
 generally surrendered to the seduction. This is the fact with 
 all creeds and all religionists. It is monstrous to make it an 
 
 * Southey says that " the phydohgist may peruse the legends of the saints 
 with advantage." — Vindicia Ecd. Angl. 144. 
 
 •[■ In some interesting papers in the Zoist, by Mr. Lloyd, called "Allu- 
 sions to Mesmerism in the Classics," full of varipus research, and showing 
 extensive reading, there are several passages in point. The writer well 
 remarks, "the examination leads to the result, that the new discovery of the 
 science, is, to a considerable extent, a re-discovery." The opening observations 
 will repay a perusal. — Zoist, vol. iii. p. 157. 
 
 \ Miss Martineau, in describing some of her sensations, when under the 
 influence of Mesmerism, observes ; " then, and often before and since, did it 
 occur to me that if I had been a pious and very ignorant Catholic, I could 
 not have escaped the persuasion tliat I had seen heavenly visions. Every 
 glorified object before my eyes would have been a revelation ; and my Mes- 
 merist, with the white halo round her head, and the illuminated profile, 
 would have been a saint or an angel." (Lefter, p. 1.5.) Let this striking 
 ^t be remembered and applied to some subsequent histories. 
 
272 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 exclusive charge against one particular Church. That a greater 
 variety of pious frauds has been detected among the priesthood 
 of the Eomish church is referable to the fact, that their sway- 
 has been most predominant during the darkest ages of Chris- 
 tianity. As Archbishop Whateley says in one of the most 
 useful of his works, "The Origin of Romish Errors," — " This 
 tendency to fraudulent means is not peculiar to any sect, age, 
 or country^— it is the spontaneous growth of the corrupt soil of 
 man's heart." * 
 
 In illustration of the above, a fact can be stated on the best 
 authority. I received it from a lady, whose name I am not at 
 liberty to mention, — but whose position in society is a 
 guarantee for the correctness of the story. She received it 
 from a sister of the patient, and was herself acquainted with 
 the names and residence of the parties. An invalid had for 
 seven years lost the use of his legs, it is believed, by rheu- 
 matism. A WesleyaQ minister in the neighbourhood, who had 
 discovered in himself the power of relieving pain by the Mes- 
 meric process, long, however, before Mesmerism had become 
 generally known, called upon the sufferer, — offered to do all 
 he could to heal him, and said that "he hoped to be as useful to 
 him as the Prophet Elisha." The man, of course, was but too 
 willing to place himself in his hands.f And, after a succession 
 of manipulations, a genial warmth came on, followed by a com- 
 plete restoration of the limbs. In short, the sufferer was won- 
 derfully cured. :|: The immediate cause, we know now, was 
 
 * Chapter on " Pious Frauds," p. 143. 
 
 t That truly English writer, Defoe, says, " as no cheats are so fatal as 
 those which come prefaced with introductions of religion, so no cheats are 
 so easy to prevail, or so soon make impressions on the people. " — System of 
 Magic, p. 64. 
 
 I Southey, in his Life of Wesley, vol. ii. p. 21S., refers to a cure performed 
 by a life-guardsman, which Wesley published as "plainly miraculous." 
 Southey says, "it must either have been miracle ot fraud; " and then shows 
 his own opinion, that it was the latter. To this Coleridge appended a 
 
 MS. note,. " As to the fact itself, Southey's ' must — — either or ' 
 
 is grounded on imperfect knowledge of the complaint here described. It 
 was a case of that class which have been found most often and most influenced 
 by stimulants of imagination, sudden acts of active volition, and by regulated 
 friction, touching, breathing, and the like." Coleridge, it is well known, had 
 deeply studied the question of Mesmerism, especially amongst the Germans. 
 
DEVOTIONAL ECSTASIS. 273 
 
 Mesmerism; for such results are not uncommon; but the thing 
 was inscrutable to all around, and was deemed miraculous by 
 the patient and many of his friends. The Wesleyan minister 
 was regarded by the ignorant populace as a prophet, or, as 
 Bacon expresses it, a " holy man," in consequence ; and as his 
 spiritual influence was mightily increased by the transaction, 
 our good preacher winked at the delusion, — but in reality was. 
 more of a deceiver than many a calumniated monk in the 
 church of Rome.* 
 
 De Foe, in his " System of Magic," speaks of " an artificial 
 or rational magic, in which men cured diseases by charms, by 
 herbs, — by such and such gestures, striking the Jlesh in suck 
 and such a manner, and innumerable such-like pieces of 
 mimicry ; working not upon the disease itself, but upon the 
 imagination of the distempered people, and so eflfecting the 
 cures by the power of nature." f De Foe evidently refers to 
 some facts, with which he was acquainted by tradition or ob- 
 servation : the quotation is a curious one : but our writer, in 
 his remai'k on " imagination," undervalued that " power of 
 nature," on which he was dwelling. 
 
 But it is on that class of strange appearances, which has re- 
 ceived the name of the Devotional Ecstasis, that Mesmerism 
 throws an especial light. In all ages, heathen and Christian, a 
 peculiar species of physiological effect has been observed, from 
 time to time, to present itself in young and sickly females, — ■ 
 which has assumed the character of the miraculous or the 
 divine. Sibyls, prophetesses, inspired priestesses, ecstatic 
 dreamers, magical maids, devout nuns, entranced females, have 
 all followed in succession, and received their particular appella- 
 tion from the accident of the country or religion that claimed 
 them, and of which they became the temporary boast. J All 
 
 * In the Abbe J. B. L. (Chapter 19.) some similar facts are given, espe- 
 cially in extracts from a " Traite des Superstitions," by J. B. Tliiers. The 
 accounts are curious and instructive. Gauthier, in speaking of these facts, 
 and in describing hovr Mesmerism passed from the hands of the Pagans into 
 those of the Christians, calls it a " Catholic magnetism." The Catholics, it 
 will be seen, have no exclusive claim to the title. 
 
 f Works, vol. xii. p. 48, ■ 
 
 ^ " Nevertheless certain facts, furnished by the history of sibyls, pytho- 
 
274 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 these female prodigies have invariably been regarded as 
 divinely commissioned ; and while their symptoms, language, 
 attitude, and dreams, have all partaken of one uniform character, 
 the doctrines they have upheld have been as opposite as the 
 poles. Disease was the secret of the whole matter. I do not 
 believe that one single instance of this class of ancient or 
 modern miracles can be adduced, in which the party had not 
 been originally, and often for a long time, in a most unhealthy 
 condition.* Let this fact be followed out, and it will be found 
 correct. In this diseased state, nature often relieves itself by 
 throwing the patient into an hysteric and sleeping state. This 
 somnambulistic condition is nothing else than Mesmerism spon- 
 taneously produced, — as the symptoms and phenomena clearly 
 indicate. They are but one and the same ; with this differ- 
 ence, that in artificial Mesmerism, a sympathy with the Mes- 
 meriser is superadded, and a curative action obtained. I do not 
 mean that these peculiar phenomena occur in every case of 
 Mesmerism ; on the contrary, they are very rare : but when 
 they do take place, they are so precisely similar in their cha- 
 racter and affection to what occurs in common somnambulism, 
 that no material difference exists between them. Of course, as 
 in the natural ecstasis, they are not all equally marked : some 
 are stronger in one point than in another ; some are of a very 
 short duration ; — some are very beautiful — some are very 
 painful to witness ; — still they all belong to one family ; and 
 whether resulting from a natural or artificial action, may uni- 
 versally be traced to the working of disease. The very same 
 phenomena, which I have myself witnessed in the case of Anne 
 Vials, and which have occurred with her over and over again, 
 have been brought forward as proofs of the miraculous nature 
 of several appearances in different entranced females.t Dr. 
 Elliotson, in the fourth number of the " Zoist," mentions a 
 
 nesses, convulslonaries, and ecstatics, will perhaps be more easy to be under- 
 stood, at least in their second causes, when we shall know more of the 
 phenomena of artificial somnambulism." — Abbe J. B. L., p. 106. 
 
 * Michelet, speaking of a case of this class, says, " there was nothing in 
 iliis relating to theology. It was merely a subject of physiology and 
 medicine." — Priests and Women, ^.^1. 
 
 f See Chapter III. page 128. 
 
ECSTATIC EAPTUEE. 275 
 
 similar case in one of his patients, where a beautiful ecstatic fit 
 of holy rapture was brought on in the Mesmeric trance; and 
 which, amongst an ignorant people, might have been used for 
 any superstitious purpose.* In other cases, which will be men- 
 tioned, the patient is invested with an apparently prophetic'; 
 character, and a species of divine knowledge seems to be con- 
 ferred upon her.f In all these cases, naturally or artificially ' 
 induced, there is almost always, during the period of the par- 
 oxysm, a very great exaltation of the intellectual faculties, an 
 unusual clearness of mind, — a high tone of moral feeling, — a 
 spirituality not only in appearance but in language, and occa- 
 sionally that peculiar power of foreseeing the probable result of 
 certain circumstances then in action, which, when the effect 
 corresponds with the expectation, assumes the semblance of the 
 prophetic. In fact, as has been truly observed, the crisis is so 
 strange, and the characteristic phenomena so remarkable, that 
 " the same individual, when awake, and when somnambulist, 
 appears like two entirely different persons." % It is not, there- 
 fore, at all to be wondered at, that a young and ignorant girl, 
 
 * Zoist, vol. i. p. 449. Mr. D. Hands, Surgeon, of 22. Thayer Street, 
 had also a patient, whom 1 have more than once seen in an ecstatic and 
 devotional attitude from Mesmerism. In Mr. S. Hall's " Mesmeric Ex- 
 periences " is a description, by Mr. William Howitt, the popular writer, of 
 " Little Henry," whom Mr. Hall cured of a serious affection of the brain. 
 Mr. Howitt says, " the effects produced on him by music are in particular 
 striking. They throw him into attitudes which would form the finest 
 models for the sculptor and painter." (p. SO.) Having myself seen Mr. S. 
 Hall place Henry in the Mesmeric sleep, I can bear witness to the accuracy 
 of Mr. Howitt's description. " His countenance at times acquires a pathos, 
 a sublimity, or an expression of fun, that are singularly beautiful. " 
 
 f Of a similar character are the " Divine Revelations of Nature," by the 
 American youth, Andrew Davis, the " Clairvoyant," to which I referred isL 
 the last chapter : and the Revelations of the " Seeress of Prevost," com- 
 municated by Dr. Kerner, of Weinsburg. _^ 
 
 \ I shall shortly refer to the " Remarkable Sermons " of Rachel Baker, 
 delivered during her sleep, in the State of New York, in 1814. She was 
 an ignorant girlj only fifteen years of age, by no means "endowed with a 
 sensible mind," but who, in her " nlght-talliings," showed herself most learned 
 and eloquent in the doctrinal parts of Calvinistic Christianity. 
 
 1 have already (p. 90.) quoted from Dr. Moore, the case of Dr. Haycock, 
 who preached so powerfully in his sleep, but was unequal to it when awake. 
 Dr. Moore mentions two or three other cases of similar exaltation ; and 
 refers to an opinion of Dr. Copland, that the Italian Improvisator! are in a 
 peculiar state of ecstacy at the time of their pouring forth their ideas. 
 
276 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPOKENTS. 
 
 when thrown by disease into this devotional ecstasis, — at one 
 moment looking up with heavenly smiles, and clasping her 
 hands together as if praying, ^ — at another, uttering the most 
 strange and mysterious opinions, with a degree of knowledge, 
 and freedom, and decision, of which she is perfectly incapable 
 when awake, should be regarded by the uneducated as a super- 
 natural being. And when certain phenomena, such as an ab- 
 sence of pain, lengthened sleep, vision of persons or things 
 with the eyes closed, should be superadded to these other ap- 
 pearances, it is, perhaps, to be expected that some such an 
 opinion should possess the minds even of the better informed. 
 Deceived themselves by the incomprehensible character of the 
 sleeper's condition, they end in deceiving others. And thus a 
 diseased habit of body, which a larger acquaintance with phy- 
 siology can now readily explain, became accredited as a miracle, 
 or denounced as Satanic, according to the accidental creed of 
 the parties interested in the interpretation.* 
 
 The object, therefore, of this present Chapter is twofold. 
 
 First, to show that the Mesmeric condition is not an eccen- 
 tric, anomalous state, abhorrent from all previous experience 
 and tradition, and oversetting, if true, the acknowledged laws 
 and operations of nature ; — but rather analogous to, — or, to 
 speak more correctly, actually identical, in its phenomena and 
 in its essence, with much that had been recorded by physiolo- 
 gists and divines long before Mesmer and his treatment had 
 been born or thought of.f 
 
 Secondly, to divest a variety of wonders in past, and present 
 
 * The sceptic takes a different line. Hume, in his famous Essays, rejects 
 all such statements as "impossible." Speaking of the cures performed at 
 the tomb of the Abbe Paris, he says : " What have we to oppose to such a 
 cloud of witnesses but the absolute impossibility or miraculous nature of 
 the events which they relate ? and this, surely, in the eyes of all reasonable 
 people will alone be regarded as a sufficient refutation." The modern 
 physiologist knows, however, the possibility of far more wondrous facts. 
 
 j- I am not pretending to any 'originality in offering this argument: the 
 opinion has been long established among Mesmerists. See Elliotson's Physio- 
 logy ; Colquhoun's Isis Revelata, chapters xvi. xvii. and xxii. ; and especially 
 Townshend's Facts, book iii. on " Conformity of Mesmerism with general 
 Experience." The French writers all take the same view. It is hoped that 
 the sceptic, on observing this identity of Mesmerism with antecedent 
 marvels, will be disposed to give a readier credence to our simpler tales. 
 
THE MAID OF KENT. 277 
 
 and even future times, of their seemingly superhuman character ; 
 — to relieve many innocent parties of that charge of imposture 
 with which ignorance taxes them; and to reduce the mysterious 
 and the uncommon to the Mesmeric level of every-day nature. 
 In attempting this, I must here and there rob a religious 
 visionary of some pleasing illusion, by showing how his favourite 
 prodigy has been, at times, manifested in behalf of an heretical 
 antagonist : but I have no intention of infusing into the inquiry 
 the bitterness of theological controversy. I see enough of the 
 melancholy result of polemics within the pale of my own Church, 
 to lose any temptation, that the occasion might offer, of assail- 
 ing the erroneous conclusions of those that are " without." 
 With Meric Casaubon, " I meddle not with policy, but nature ; 
 nor with evil men so much, as the evil consequence of the igno- 
 rance of natural causes. * * * My business shall be, as by ex- 
 amples of all professions in all ages, to show how men have 
 been very prone upon some grounds of nature, producing some 
 extraordinary, though not supernatural, effects, really, not 
 hypocritically, yet falsely and erroneously" to deem themselves 
 or their co-religionists inspired ; and my wish is " to dive into 
 the dark mysteries of nature, for probable confirmations of 
 natural operations, falsely deemed supernatural." * 
 
 With this object, I proceed by divers extracts and instances, 
 to show how Mesmerism, Hysteria, and natural Somnambulism, 
 reciprocally throw light the one on the other. 
 
 Without going back, however, to the olden days of Greece or 
 Rome, we may procure many an example out of the annals of 
 the Church. Take Hume's "History of the Holy Maid of 
 Kent," in the reign of Henry the Eighth. " Elizabeth Barton 
 had been subject to hysterical fits, which threw her body into 
 unusual convulsions \ ; and having procured an equal disorder 
 in her mind, made her utter strange sayings, which, as she was 
 scarcely conscious of them during the time, had soon after en- 
 
 * Treatise on Enthusiasm, 1655. chap. i. p. 4. Casaubon, in his preface, 
 speaks of religious zealots " embracing a cloud or a fog for a Deity," — " pro 
 Junone nubem." 
 
 f Strype, in his Memorials, says, " the maid was visited with sickness ; 
 and in the violence thereof would fall into fits." 
 
278 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 tirely escaped her memory. The silly people in the neighbour- 
 hood were struck with these appearances, which they imagined 
 to be supernaturaV The vicar of the parish began to " watch 
 her in her trances, and note down her sayings." Knavery soon 
 followed the first delusion. The maid was taught to assume 
 a more extraordinary language, and to counterfeit stranger 
 trances under the dictation of her spiritual director. " Miracles 
 were daily added to increase the wonder; and the pulpit every- 
 where resounded with accounts of the sanctity and inspiration 
 of the new prophetess." She was afterwards apprehended, the 
 forgery of her miracles was detected, and the public was un- 
 deceived. 
 
 Now it is clear, from the attendant circumstances, that this 
 was a case of natural Mesmerism. The poor girl had been 
 subject to hysterical fits, the effect of disease. In these fits she 
 fell into a deep trance or sleep : in this sleep the usual exalta- 
 tion of mind came on ; — she " uttered strange sayings," of 
 which strange sayings, when she awoke, she was quite uncon- 
 scious. This common occuiTence in the Mesmeric state the 
 world deemed " supernatural ; " and a designing priesthood 
 " persuaded the people and the maid herself that her ravings 
 were inspirations of the Holy Ghost." * 
 
 As the mistaken views of the multitude in this instance 
 caused the death of Elizabeth Barton, — and the imprisonment, 
 and, perhaps, ultimately the execution of Fisher, Bishop of 
 Rochester, this case has acquired an historical importance. 
 
 The above ill-used girl was a Roman Catholic prophetess : 
 our next example shall be taken from the Calvinistic fanatics 
 of Scotland, — in a case which is equally stamped with thfe 
 Mesmeric characters. 
 
 When Charles I. was endeavouring to force Episcopacy upon 
 the reluctant citizens of the northern province of his kingdom. 
 
 * Burnet says, " she forgot all she had said in her fits ; yet the crafty 
 priest would not let it go so, but persuaded her that what she had said was 
 by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost." — Vol. i. p. 275. 
 
 Lingard says, " she herself insensibly partook of the illusion, and the rector 
 of the parish advised her to enter a convent. In her new situation her 
 ecstasies and revelations were multiplied." — Henri/ VIII., p. 206. 
 
CALVINISTIC PEOPHETESS. 279 
 
 it is well known what passionate feelings were excited in the 
 fervid breasts of that determined people. The whole nation 
 was in an uproar. Hume says, " We must not omit another 
 auxiliary of the Covenanters, and no inconsiderable one ; a 
 prophetess, who was followed and admired by all ranks of 
 people. Her name was Miohelson, a woman full of whimsies, 
 partly hysterical, partly religious, and inflamed with a zealous 
 concern for the ecclesiastical discipline of the Presbyterians. 
 Thousands crowded about her house. Every word she uttered 
 was received with veneration, as the most sacred oracles. The 
 covenant was her perpetual theme. EoUo, a popular preacher, 
 and zealous Covenanter, was her great favourite ; and paid her^ 
 on his part, no less veneration. Being desired by the spec- 
 tators to pray with her, and speak to her, he answered, that 
 ' he durst not, and that it would be ill manners in him to speak 
 while his Master, Christ, was speaking in her.' " * 
 
 But the fullest description of this curious case will be found 
 in the Royal or " Large Declaration," which was put forth for 
 the purpose of traducing the Covenanters and their adherents. 
 *' There was a maid, whose name is Michelson, her father was 
 a minister, and when he died, left her young : she hath for 
 many years been distracted by Jits. Upon this young maid's 
 weaknesse, some were pleased to work, and to report her for 
 one inspired with a spirit of divination : and finding, that out 
 of her blind zeal she was "(vonderfully affected with their cove- 
 nant, and that in her raving fits her words tended all, or, for 
 the most part, to the admiration of it, — and perceiving that 
 she was well-skilled in the phrases of Scripture, and had a good 
 memory, they thought her a fit instrument to abuse the people, 
 and cried her up so, that the multitude was made believe her 
 words proceeded not from herself — but from God. All sorts 
 of people watched and stayed by her, day and night, during her 
 pretended ^ts, and did admire her raptures and inspirations, as 
 coming from heaven. She spake but at certain times, and 
 many times had intermissions of days and weeks." Opponents 
 to her said, " there was nothing supernatural, she had a good 
 
 * Hume, vol. vi. p. 337. 
 U 
 
280 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 memory, and a very good expression of herself; she knew what 
 she was speaking, and while speaking, if she were interrupted 
 by any questions, she made very pertinent answers to them. — 
 Most of all she spake tended to the Covenanters' ends : when' 
 she spoke of Christ, she called him the Covenanting Jesus." 
 
 " Many thought that the crying up of this maid did look like 
 a Romish imposture." * 
 
 Her "good expression of herself " while speaking, and the 
 " pertinency of her answers," in her fits and trances, all clearly 
 point to the condition that this poor girl was in, and to its 
 identity with Mesmeric sleep-waking. The circumstances of 
 the case are similar to those of Elizaheth Barton, except that 
 the one was a Catholic and the other a Calvinist. 
 
 Gur next instance shall be also drawn from the pages of Pro- 
 testant History, in which the Mesmeric type can be still more 
 evidently traced. When Louis the Fourteenth revoked the 
 Edict of Nantes, and withdrew the protection of the state from 
 the reformed Church, the most extraordinary excitement was 
 stirred up in the south of France, in the mountainous district 
 called the Cevennes. The whole population went mad with 
 religious zeal. They preached, — they prophesied, — they 
 quaked; — in short, the most marvellous state of things came 
 on, — so that to the eye of the ardent Protestant a divine reve- 
 lation and assistance appeared vouchsafed to the cause. All the 
 parties, however, fell asleep first, before they began to preach. 
 
 In the midst of the general excitement, one especial case of 
 miraculous illumination was singled out. Isabeau Vincent, a 
 young girl, aged seventeen, was constantly falling into a state 
 of deep sleep, from which it was at times impossible to arouse 
 her. They called to her with a loud voice, — they pushed her, 
 
 — they pinched her, — they pricked her till they drew blood, 
 
 — they burned her, — but nothing awoke her. She was soon 
 regarded by her Protestant neighbours as a prophetess. For in 
 her sleep she sang Psalms, and chanted long hymns, and made 
 
 * Large Declaration, by Charles I., London, 1639, one of those Tracts, for 
 which, like the Eikon, the royal martyr obtained the credit of authorship. 
 The " Declaration " is supposed to be written by a Divine who was after- 
 wards rewarded with the Deanery of Durham. ' 
 
THE SHEPHERDESS, 281 
 
 admirable prayers, and recited texts of Scripture, — which she 
 expounded, and from which she formed her prophetic declara- 
 tions. "When she awoke, she remembered nothing of lohat she 
 had said or prophesied during the ecstasis. And one other re- 
 markable point in her condition was, — that she rarely awoke 
 of herself, ~- but required assistance, and told those about her 
 to awaken her.* 
 
 I Jlsabeauwas called " the Shepherdess of Cret." In a "Re-j 
 lation of several that Prophesie in their Sleep," a writer, who 
 calls himself " a physician and philosopher, naturally incredu- 
 lous," states, that "he examined the eyes, pulse, the beating of 
 the heart of the shepherdess, five different nights, and sales, 
 that notwithstanding the agitation she is in all the night, she 
 has her pulse as quiet as one that is in a deep sleep, and her 
 body insensible. She has preached from the 3rd of February 
 to the 28th of May, but does not find herself the least weary, 
 rising as fresh in the morning as if she had neither said nor 
 Jone any thing (during the night). She never opens her eyes 
 in speaking : — and speaks in a shriller tone than when she 
 ordinarily talks." f 
 
 Turner in his " Providences," also speaks of this case, — 
 beginning with "reflexions upon the miracle that happened in- 
 the person of a shepherdess of Dauphine," | and then gives the 
 famous "Pastoral Letter" of Jurieu upon the subject. Peter 
 Jurieu, it is well known, was a celebrated French Protestant 
 divine, who died at the beginning of the eighteenth century. 
 His theological and polemical writings, more particularly his 
 " Preservative against Popery," were so highly valued, that he 
 was sometimes called the " Goliah of the Protestants," — and 
 we are, therefore, naturally curious to learn what this giant in • 
 controversy thought of the "reformed" wonder. Jurieu, then, ■ 
 was evidently caught by it. He considered Isabeau " in- 
 
 * " Ces extases ne paraissaient que commc un profond sommell, duquel , 
 il etait impossible de la tirer. On I'appelait a haute voix, on la poussait, on ' 
 la pinf ait, on la plquait jusqu'au sang, on la brulait, rien ne la reveillait." — 
 BEKTiiaND. T. du SomnaminUsme, ^. 568. 
 
 f Tract in the British Museum, called a " Relation of severalf Sfc, that 
 Frophesie and Preach in their Sleep, containing a Relation of the Propheti tf 
 Dauphine." 1689. p. 13. 
 
 J Turner's Providences. Folio, p. 161. 
 
 u 2 
 
282 IIESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 spired," to use his own words : he says, that " there is a great 
 character of Divinity in what she utters," when asleep. When 
 he saw her, he described her as being " in an entire and abso- 
 lute privation of all sense." " She puts her arms out of bed, 
 and with them forms certain graceful and well-ordered ges- 
 tures." " She was observed, after her waking, to return to her 
 natural simplicity, and to the ignorance of a poor shepherdess," 
 — and to forget all her inspired preachings, and the improve- 
 ment in the character of her language and ideas. 
 
 While the Protestants thus regarded her as miraculously in- 
 spired, the neighbouring priesthood endeavoured to exorcise her 
 with Holy Water. The Curate of Bordeaux came to see the 
 case, and also to examine others that were thus diabolically 
 possessed. " He pressed the finger, and sorely pricked a young 
 maid of fourteen years old, who notwithstanding felt nothing of 
 it."* Wq have, however, seen, that in the case of Elizabeth 
 Barton, the very same trances and prophecies were deemed 
 fraudulent by the Protestants, but the inspirations of the Holy 
 Spirit by her own people. 
 
 isow an experienced Mesmeriser sees the clue to the whole 
 story of Is^ibeau Vincent. There is nothing in her case, but 
 what he has occasionally met with. The deep sleep, and the 
 insensibility to pain and to noise, come first of all ; — and then 
 we have the change in her condition, when she begins to preach 
 and sing psalms, with an exaltation of the faculties, and an im- 
 provement in the language, and an alteration iti the voice, and 
 the utter absence of fiatigue after most violent exertion, — and 
 the gracefulness of her attitudes, and the forgetfulness of every 
 thing that she has said or done, when she is awakened from her 
 ecstasy. All tliese incidents in her history were purely Mes- 
 meric, except in their origin. Nature brought them out spon- 
 taneously in a simple ignorant shepherdess, but the practised 
 Mesmeriser has more than once induced them by his manipula- 
 tions and influence. 
 
 We have another remarkable prophetess in the reformed 
 church. Christian Poniatova, of Bohemia. Her convulsions, 
 trances, and visions took place in 1627, at the time that a sharp 
 * " Relation of several," &c. p. 14. 
 
SISTER GEEMAINE. 283 
 
 persecution was set on foot against the Protestant part of the 
 Bohemian community. Her visions had reference to the pros- 
 perity and fortunes of the reformed church. Her sleep was 
 most profound ; during which she fell into an ecstasis. She 
 then predicted several events ; and she seems to have had in 
 that state a certain species of prevision, such as Mesmerised 
 patients occasionally possess. Her Protestant partisans re- 
 garded the whole as a miracle^ and the girl as divinely inspired. 
 But here is the noticeable point : when she recovered her health, 
 the supernatural disappeared. The malady and the miracle 
 went away together. She afterwards married, and was no 
 longer regarded as a prophetess.* 
 
 Mr. Colquhoun, in the " Isis Revelata," gives us another 
 case that occurred in Brazil, where a girl, named Sister Ger- 
 maine, in 1808, was attacked by an hysterical affection, accom- 
 panied by serious ill health : — " She was in such a state, that 
 she was no longer able to rise from her bed, and subsisted upon 
 a regimen which could scarcely have supported the life of- a 
 new-born infant." And now comes the miraculous part. The 
 poor invalid fell into a deep trance : her arms grew stiff, and 
 were extended in the form of a cross, and in this position re- 
 mained for hours. Other circumstances, usual in this sort of 
 ecstasis, took place ; the whole was declared to be a miracle. 
 Sister Germaine was regarded as a saint ; and the concourse of 
 pilgrims to visit her was immense. And now let us notice the 
 close connection between natural and Mesmeric somnaflibulism. 
 The priest stated, that " in the midst of the most fearful con- 
 vulsions, it was always sufficient for him to touch the patient 
 to restore her to perfect tranquillity. During her periodical 
 ecstasies, when her limbs were so stiff that it would have been 
 
 ' Bertrand, Traite du SomnarabuUsme. In regard to this slmultaneousi 
 departure of the malady and the miracle, we have another proof of its con>| 
 uexion with Mesmerism. Gauthier says, " Z'/je best proof of a perfect state nfi 
 health is the cessation of somnambulism, and of the action of magnetism." 
 
 Traite Pratique, p. 599. And M. Casaubon says, " To all tliese natural 
 
 diseases and distempers enthusiastic divinatory fits are incidental. I do not 
 say that it doth happen very often : but when it doth happen, as the disease 
 is cured by natural means, so the enthusiasms go away, I will not say by the 
 same means, hut at the same time." — Treatise on Enthusiasm, cap. ii* p. S9. — 
 Casaubon was evidently a cautious and close observer of nature. 
 
 u 3 
 
284 MESMEKISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 easier to break than bend them, her confessor, according to his 
 own account, had only to touch her arm, in order to give it 
 whatever position he thought proper." Every Mesmeriser who 
 has had a patient in a rigid or cataleptic state can understand 
 and believe the above narrative.* 
 
 In the reign of Henry IV. of France, a case containing some 
 startling phenomena had its origin in the town of Eomorantin, 
 and subsequently occasioned much disturbance at Paris, from 
 its connection with religious animosities and the edict of Nantes. 
 The narrative is given by the great historian De Thou.'f 
 
 Martha Brossier, the name of the girl, was seized with fits, 
 and violently convulsive movements, and fell into a state of 
 delirium and ecstasy. Marvellous prodigies were performed by 
 her in this condition. The ultra-Catholic party, anxious to 
 trouble the king and unsettle the country, in consequence of the 
 toleration recently conceded to the Protestants, fastened upon 
 this case as a proof of divine displeasure, and a signal instance 
 ■of diabolical possession.| The girl is carried before the Bishop 
 
 * A learned writer in the " Church of England Quarterly Review," for 
 April, 1 84S, in an article on this subject, has collected the names of several 
 ■ecstatic nuns and females of the church of Rome. The reviewer mentions 
 some cases in which the imposture was clear, and admitted afterwards by 
 the parties : and hence he infers that all the other instances were " sheer 
 Imposture," in like manner. Imposition, however, will not explain all the 
 facts. It explains much that was added on in the progress of the work, 
 after the priests had found the trances profitable ; but that the original state 
 of many a " prophetess," which led to the delusion, was a natural and diseased 
 action none can doubt, who have given to the subject of Mesmerism a philo- 
 sophical study. See Appendix II. 
 
 ■f Thuanus, torn. v. liber. 123. The case is also alluded to by several 
 other writers. Bayle, in his Dictionary, has a long article upon her : his 
 sceptical mind regarded the whole as a cheat. 
 
 \ De Foe, in that strange but orthodox book, " The Political History of 
 the Devil," — written indeed with good intentions, though too often in an 
 irreverent style, — has a chapter about "the cloven foot walking about 
 without the devil," or, in other words, a dissertation to show that " Satan 
 is not guilty of all the simple things we charge him with." Much of it is 
 very germane to the uses of Blesmerisra. " How," says our author, " does 
 the devil's doing things so foreign to himself, and so out of his way, viz., 
 showing a kind of a friendly disposition to mankind, or doing beneficent 
 things, agree with the rest of his character ? " Part ii. chap. 7. De Foe 
 
 professes in the Introduction to " give the true history " of Satan, " to 
 
 show what he is, and what he is not ; where he is, and where he is not • — 
 when he is in us, and when he is not." 
 
MARTHA BEOSSIER. 285 
 
 of Angers. The good Bishop laughs at the idea of Satanic in- 
 fluence ; — but not understanding the character of the disease, 
 and believing the case to be an imposition, secretly advises the 
 father to take Martha home, and let the matter die a natural 
 death. But the father was in the hands of those who vish any 
 thing but quiet, and at their suggestion he removes his daughter 
 to Paris. There the Capuchin Monks take the matter up, and 
 ■asserting that the unhappy girl is tormented by an evil spirit, 
 try to exorcise her. The Archbishop of Paris now comes for- 
 ward, — and caUs in five of the most celebrated physicians of 
 the metropolis to advise : these difier in opinion : the majority 
 asserting the case to be one of fraud, — Duretus, an instance of 
 Satanic agency. The parliament next steps into the arena, and 
 guided by the judgment of the first four doctors, decides that 
 the girl is an impudent impostor. This adds fuel to the flame. 
 The greatest tumult is occasioned. The clergy and Archbishop, 
 indignant at the matter being thus taken out of their hands, 
 appeal to Eome ; and had it not been for the prudence and tact 
 of Henry, the affair might have had the most serious results. 
 The King, however, manages to close the matter peacefully ; 
 and the " famous imposture," as Bishop Lavington calls it, of 
 Martha Brossier ends like others of its order.* 
 
 Some of the phenomena recorded in this case require a notice. 
 
 The first is, the girl's insensibility to pain. Meric Casaubon 
 mentions that " pins and needles were thrust in at the fleshy 
 parts of her neck and arms, and that the girl never seemed to 
 feel it." De Thou records the same fact. Duretus, the physi- 
 cian, drove a needle into Martha's hand between the thumb and 
 forefinger, and not the slightest movement was made, nor any 
 blood followed. Duretus, therefore, judged it to be a case of 
 Satanic possession, in compliance with the old opinion, which 
 has always regarded the absence of sensation as an evidence of 
 witchcraft, an opinion, it may be added, that only ether and 
 chloroform have succeeded in removing.^ 
 
 • Bishop Lavington, p. 257. M. Casaubon, cap. iii. 
 
 f It is a question, supposing that the excellent Professor Simpson had 
 been living but a century or tvro back, whether the elders of the Scotch 
 Kirk, so famous for their inquisitorial intcrmeddlings, would not have 
 dragged him before their synod to answer for his discoveries. 
 
 u 4 
 
286 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPOSTENTS. 
 
 Secondly, the girl, according to De Thou's narrative, re- 
 mained, for a moment or two, suspended in the air without 
 support, from some lightness of hody peculiar to her condition. 
 Fullo, Ahbot of St. Genevieve, stated that Martha, though held 
 down by six strong men, lifted herself up four feet above their 
 heads, and remained so some short time. The priests, not so 
 unreasonably, pronounced this diabolical. Marcescotus, how- 
 ever, one of the physicians, examining into the fact, thought it- 
 ■partly fraud, and partly according to nature, or rather not 
 beyond nature *, and he gives his reasons for the opinion. In- 
 credible, or rather impossible as the above fact appears, we shall 
 find more than one instance of something of the kind occurring 
 in cases of this description. 
 
 Thirdly, the last peculiar point, is that the girl, in her sleep- 
 .waking state, spoke languages, of which, when awake, she knew 
 .nothing. She spoke Greek and English. Duretus, the physi- 
 cian, thought this a proof of diabolical possession (quod lin- 
 guam prseter naturam exercuisset). f 
 
 Martha Brossier and her father, on their return home, died 
 in great misery and want, through the popular feeling against 
 them. That there was fraud mixed up with the latter stages of 
 the proceedings, is too probable ; but that, in the first instance, 
 it was a genuine case of Mesmeric-hysteria, there can be no 
 question. 
 
 "We will now come to later days — to certain modern miracles 
 among the "Wesleyans and Eoman Catholics, which have excited 
 considerable interest and sensation in their respective churches. 
 
 Among the Wesleyans | there have been recently two or 
 three wonders, — some of which are too ridiculous to be noticed ; 
 
 * " Eam, supra eorum, qui captam tenebant, se capita efFerentetn, in vacuo 
 aliquamdiu eonatitisse, prater naturam non esse," See Appendix III. for 
 remarks on this incident, and for several other alleged facts of the same 
 :kind. 
 
 t See Appendix IV. upon this fact. 
 
 ^ See Appendix II. for earlier cases among the Wesleyans, from Wesley's 
 Journal, &c. — Coleridge in his Table- Talk observes, " The coincidence 
 throughout of all these Metliodist cases with those of the Magnetists makes me 
 wish for a solution that would apply to all," &e. Vol. i. p. 107. Tlie coin- 
 cidence is so complete, we reply, that it shows that the physical condition is 
 the same. 
 
ENTRANCED FEMALE. 287 
 
 but there is one which, from the notoriety and credit it has ob- 
 tained, — the manner with which public attention has been in- 
 vited towards it, and the effect it has produced upon the religious 
 feelings of their own body, is more especially deserving of 
 examination.* 
 
 " The History of an Entranced Female " is a narrative drawn 
 up and attested by the Rev. R. Young, Wesleyan Minister. 
 This little work was sold by the accredited organ of the Wes- 
 leyan Book Committee and of the Conference, with their con- 
 nivance, if not their permission ; and so far the story received 
 their indirect sanction. The circulation was immense. It 
 reached a twenty-seventh edition ; and the revelations of the 
 prophetess were considered so important that the faith of whole 
 Wesleyan congregations was in a state of warm excitement 
 respecting them. 
 
 It was simply a case of hysteria, or natural Mesmerism , as a 
 few words extracte'd from the narrative will show. The som- 
 nambulist " had been very ill, and was supposed to be dying." \ 
 Here is the first point to be remembered. At last she fell into ' 
 a trance. " In this state," Mr. Young says, " she appeared to 
 die. But after lying, with no signs of life, save a little froth 
 from the mouth and a slight warmth about the region of the 
 heart, for nearly a week, she opened her eyes. And now began 
 her remarkable disclosures'' It is unnecessary to examine 
 these disclosures. There is no reason to suppose either trick 
 or imagination in the transaction. It is a case of pure igno- 
 rance on the part of the writer and of his Wesleyan supporters. 
 Like the Holy Maid of Kent, and several Mesmerised patients, 
 the " Entranced Female " was simply in a state of exaltation, 
 moral and intellectual, and had clearer and more active percep- 
 tions than in her ordinary condition. ■(• 
 
 In 1820, a case occurred among the Wesleyans at Plymouth 
 Dock (now Devonport), which created immense sensation in 
 
 * Sold by Mason, Paternoster Row. 
 
 j- See a clever useful little book in refutation of several of these absurdi- 
 ties, called " Modern Miracles condemned by Reason and Scripture," by 
 Philo- Veritas. tPainter, 342. Strand.) Still the viriter has not gone to 
 the bottom of the subject, or understood the real cause of the phenomena. 
 
288 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 that neighbourhood. The phenomena were of a Mesmeric type, 
 and were ascribed, as usual, to Satanic power. A small book, 
 called " The Demon, or a case of Extraordinary Affliction, and 
 Gracious Relief, the effects of Spiritual Agency," * was pub- 
 lished by Mr. Heaton, the minister of the congregation, — in 
 which the facts were described. This book had a large sale, — 
 and was followed by a tract by the same author called, " Fur- 
 ther Observations on Demoniacal Possession," — in which the 
 " prseternatural " character of the symptoms were again urged. 
 This tract reached a second edition. Some of the circum- 
 cumstances, indeed, were most singular : and as a medical gen- 
 tleman, who attended the case, called the malady a "very 
 extraordinary, unnatural, unaccountable" thing, and as Mr. 
 Heaton, the minister, who tells the story, lived next door to the 
 patient, and had every opportunity of examining into its truth, 
 the facts may be considered well authenticated and deserving of 
 notice. 
 
 John Evans, a boy between nine or ten years old, had been 
 some time in the Plymouth Dispensary, for the treatment of 
 fits and loss of speech. Here he was blistered and bled re- 
 peatedly. One Sunday, after service at Windmill-Hill Chapel, 
 Mr. Lose, the father-in-law, came to Mr. Heaton with a mes- 
 sage, that the boy was very ill, and wished him to come and 
 pray with him. Mr. Heaton went accordingly, and was shocked 
 at the " extraordinary affliction " of the poor child. We will 
 give his own words. " The boy could not speak, but was per- 
 fectly sensible, — was violently convulsed, — fixed his eyes, 
 staring upwards, — then stood motionless, his muscles appear- 
 ing on a painful stretch, his arms close to his side, and stiff as 
 the branches of a tree, and then became relaxed." Mr. H. 
 began to pray, but the boy was agitated by prayer, and' " at 
 the name of Christ convulsions came on, — he showed antipathy 
 to every thing sacred, — and was enraged at the sight of the 
 Bible," — but could not approach nearer to Mr. H. to scratch 
 and bruise him, than within four inches, with all his efforts ! 
 Every day there came on "convulsions, — and dancing, and 
 horrible fits, and shrieking and noise, — ending with limbs 
 * Sold by Mason, Paternoster Row. 
 
THE DEMON. 289 
 
 stiffening like a tree or a corpse:" " Of epilepsy, there were 
 some very strong symptoms, nevertheless there were others 
 which distinguished his case from being merely epileptic, — 
 he would in his fits go through difficult and dangerous ma- 
 noeuvres with apparent ease, self-command, and perfect safety, 
 as he could not possibly perform when he was properly in his 
 senses." "Whatever he did, — whatever he suffered during 
 his paroxysms, he had no recollection of, when he came to 
 himself." "At one time, the spirit of hartshorn was applied 
 to his tongue, — at another, a needle was thrust deep into his 
 flesh, neither of which he appeared to regard. This was done 
 by a medical gentleman, solicitous to find out the real nature of 
 the case. Several persons tried the lad's sensibility, by suddenly 
 shaking him, beating him with a cane, &c. When he has been 
 making his aim at the door (walking towards it), a handkerchief 
 has been held before his face : still his eyes were fixed, and his 
 course was undisturbed. When he came to himself, he was as_ 
 one moaking from a profound sleep. The boy said, ' I was like 
 as though I was fast asleep, and didn't dream neither ; I don't , 
 remember anything.' " In his fits, he performed the most diflEL-/ 
 cult exploits, — things which other people could not, — ana 
 which he himself could not, when not in the fit. " He would 
 dance strangely and with ease on the surbase of the room."\ 
 " Some of his attitudes were of the most graceful and elegant 
 kind ; — then again he would become stiff and motionless as 
 a corpse, and continue in this state for an hour and twenty 
 minutes, — with his eyes fixed. His uncommon stiffness 
 (rigidity )wasth£jm£st_surpriaj^ Jhing;j__SDme_oi)e- 4)u.t- Jxis 
 h and under his Jiead to. raise it, but it could only be raised__as 
 t he body w as.iaisgd with it. We placed him upon his feet; 
 he rested his whole weight on the point of his toes ; — but even 
 this did not make him bend his joints."* "Men of science," 
 says Mr. H., " were puzzled, and medical men hesitated to give 
 an opinion ; — for to say that he was epileptic, was to give but 
 a mere scrap of the truth of the case : — good sense must de- 
 termine whether or not the supposed superhuman actions, per- 
 formed by the suspected demoniac, be physically possible to the 
 * See Appendix III. 
 
290 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 patient in disease or health : " and our author arrives at the 
 conclusion that it was a clear case of Satanic possession. 
 
 After a time, a solemn assembly of "Wesleyan ministers was 
 held at the house to offer prayers for the recovery of the boy, 
 and for the final subjugation of the power of the demon ; when, 
 suddenly, and as if in answer to their supplications, the attacks 
 ceased, ^a normal state came on, and a complete cure followed : 
 the child subsequently suffered a relapse, but recovered through 
 the same means and after the same way. 
 
 Such is, briefly, Mr. Heaton's strange story. Of the reality 
 of its facts, there is no reason why any doubt should be enter- 
 tained. The points, which the author considered as proofs of 
 demoniacal possession, and which " puzzled the men of science 
 and the medical attendants," — may be clearly traced to a con- 
 dition identical with that of Mesmerism. It is unnecessary to 
 repeat the characteristics ; the reader by this time must be 
 familiar with them. The boy's brain, too, was evidently in a 
 state, in which the imaginative faculty was capable of being 
 powerfully acted on, — as was seen by his agitation and horror, 
 at one time, of prayer ; — and at another, by his recovery after 
 its use. Epilepsy, catalepsy, Mesmerism, and imagination, will 
 explain Mr. Heaton's "Demon."* 
 
 We will now examine some recent and no less memorable 
 occurrences in the Eoman Catholic community : which have 
 produced an equal excitement, and have equally been referred 
 to as proofs of the supernatural. It has long ago been observed, 
 that in enthusiastic belief of the marvellous, the "Wesleyans 
 and Romanists are sister churches, t 
 
 "We must first return to Mr. M'Neile, and give his views on 
 the question ; for strange to say, he has in some manner alighted 
 on a certain portion of the truth, and seen the real connection 
 between the artificial and the natural ecstasy. " This pretended 
 
 * Mr. Heaton, among his arguments to prove the demoniacal character of 
 this case, gives us a, reason which is so amusing for its logic and naivety, that 
 it deserves a transcript. " A praiternatural affliction will betray itself by 
 some prsEternatural symptoms; and without much danger of error, ve may 
 conclude that prreternatural effects must have a prietematural cause." (p. 8.) 
 This reminds one of the ratiocination exposed in the first chapter. 
 
 f See Bishop Lavington's well-known and most useful work. 
 
TYROLESE ECSTATICS. 291 
 
 science," says the sermon, " is precisely the thing that my Lord 
 Shrewsbury has put forth, to prove that popery is the true 
 version of Christianity. Wliat is his Ecstatioa which he has 
 written such a book about ? You have heard of the Ecstatica 
 and Addolorata, — the two young women whom he saw on the 
 Continent : they were Mesmerised. His description of them 
 exactly corresponds with the description we have of these Mesme- 
 rised persons. He tells us of a young woman, who was in a state 
 of ecstasy, wrapt in prayer, devoted to the Virgin ; — her eyes 
 were open, but she had no natural sensibility of what was going 
 on without. He says that " a fly was seen to walk across her 
 eyeball, and she never winked ; she was totally insensible of 
 everything that was going on, except one thing : he says, that 
 she manifested consciousness at the approach of the consecrated 
 host." " Now here is a state, pleaded by a popish writer as a 
 proof of divine influence, as a proof of divine origin of his 
 creed." " Now this belongs to the mystery of iniquity." — And 
 so far the sermon. Now what Mr. M'Neile considered as 
 Satanic, and my Lord Shrewsbury as divine in the above trans- 
 actions, I must beg leave to reduce to a humbler character ; 
 and stripping the facts altogether of the marvellous, show to be 
 merely an action of nature in a state of disease. 
 
 In that most delightful province of southern Germany, where 
 the simple character of the inhabitants, and the ever-varying 
 charms of mountain, valley, and torrent, would tempt the idle 
 traveller to linger for weeks, two young girls have lately been 
 the subject of much observation from the peculiar character and 
 condition of their health. Those who have traversed that pic- 
 turesque route in the Tyrol, which leads from Brixen to Trent, 
 want not to be reminded, how every nook and turn of the road 
 swarms with the emblems of Eoman Catholic worship. Super- 
 stition puts on its most persuasive form. Images of the Virgin, 
 of the Saviour, of the crucifixion with all its attendant acci- 
 dents, stations for devotion, and hermitages, meet the eye of 
 the passenger in uninterrupted succession. , In no part of the 
 Continent have I ever remarked so many of the externals of 
 devotion as in the smiling vales of the Tyrol ; and the primi- 
 tive habits of its mountain peasantry have been strongly 
 
292 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 moulded under their influence. As Southey says in his Col- 
 loquies, " Religion may be neglected, but cannot be forgotten 
 in Roman Catholic countries ; " and the reader is requested to 
 bear this observation in mind, as throwing light on certain' 
 phenomena, of which strong religious feelings were the source.* 
 
 These two young girls, the Ecstatica of Caldaro, and the 
 Addolorata of Capriana (as they are now termed) had both 
 been subject to much ill health. The former' " had had various 
 attacks of illness during her early years." The Addolorata 
 "had been attacked with violent and complicated illness about? 
 the age of seventeen." Both at last fell into a trance. Both 
 became " Ecstatic." And in that state such singular pheno- 
 mena exhibited themselves, the effect of an excited mind upon 
 a diseased habit of body, that the appearances were pronounced 
 by the surrounding country to be miraculous. The priesthood 
 at once took the case under their protection ; but there is no 
 reason to believe that any imposture or trickery were super- 
 added by them. They were as honest as they were ignorant. 
 All they did was to magnify the importance of the facts, and 
 to give the largest currency to the intelligence. Multitudes 
 flocked from all quarters as on a pilgrimage. Amongst them 
 came my Lord Shrewsbury and suite; and several Protestant, 
 gentlemen, who were all staggered by what they saw. 
 
 Lord Shrewsbury, believing the facts to be supernatural, 
 published that account to which Mr. M'Neile referred ; and 
 from his little pamphlet, we will select the more prominent 
 points. " We found her," says the Noble Lord, speaking of the- 
 Ecstatica, "in her usual state of ecstasy, — kneeling upon her 
 
 * Sir Joshua Reynolds observes in one of his Discourses, " He might 
 have'seen it in an instance or two ; and he mistook accident for generality ; " 
 — a blunder, which Mesmerists are too prone to commit. Still, with this 
 caution before me, I cannot help recording an observation, which has struck ; 
 me, respecting the tendencies of the Reformed and of the Roman Catholic 
 religions to develop themselves, in the Somnambulistic condition, according 
 to their peculiar systems. The characteristic of Protestant churches is 
 preaching ; that of the Roman Catholic, contemplation of images, §'c., as helps 
 to prayer. Roman Catholic Somnambulists have generally fallen into the 
 ecstatic and devotional attitude ; while sermons and revelations have usually 
 proceeded from the lips of the Reformed Sleeper. Sometimes, however, the 
 very reverse has been the case : i— it may, therefore, be all " accident." 
 
TYEOLESE ECSTATICS. 293 
 
 bed, with her eyes uplifted, and her hands joined in the attitude 
 
 of prayer as motionless as a statue There was much of 
 
 grace in her attitude." " Our first feeling was that of awe at 
 finding ourselves in her presence." She appeared " motionless." 
 " When in this state, she neither sees nor hears : all her senses 
 are absorbed in the object of her contemplation ; she is en- 
 tranced; but it is neither the trance of death, nor the suspension 
 of life, but a sort of supernatural existence, — dead indeed to 
 this^world, — but most feelingly alive to the other." " She 
 had not the least perception of our presence." " Her confessor 
 by a slight touch or word caused her to fall back upon her pil- 
 low." " Her confessor proposed that he should awaken her 
 entirely from her trance." " In an instant the most perfect 
 animation was restored to her." " The circumstance which 
 struck us, was the extreme facility with which her confessor 
 transformed her from a state of perfect unconsciousness, as to 
 sensible objects, to one of ordinary life." — " She has been 
 known to remain for hours in this state," — "yet a gentle touch 
 from her confessor, or any ecclesiastic with whom she is ac- 
 quainted, is sufficient to dissolve the charm at once." 
 
 " A. M. de laBouillerie visited her on his way to Rome, and 
 found her kneeKng in a state of ecstasy, when he saw a fly walk 
 quietly across the pupil of her eye, when wide open, without 
 producing the slightest emotion." 
 
 The Addolorata was much the same. " She frequently lay 
 entranced for a considerable time." " It was under these dr- 
 cnmstances that during one night her whole head was encircled 
 by small wounds." " Fourteen days after the crown of thorns 
 she received the stigmata in the hands and feet." " As a piece 
 of deception," — says Lord Shrewsbury, " it is both morally 
 and physically impossible." These are the main points in these 
 two Eoman Catholic miracles, with the addition of what has 
 already been mentioned, " the consciousness of the approach of 
 the consecrated host," — the fact of Maria Mori being raised 
 off her knees, when physically all but incapable of motion, and 
 resting only on the tips of her feet, — and the fact of the sheets 
 never being stained by the blood, while, notwithstanding, there 
 is a strong smell of coagulated blood in the room. 
 
294 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 " Now," says Lord Shrewsbury in conclusion, " the infidel 
 may scoff at all this, but the designs of God are accomplished." 
 There is, however, no inclination to scoff at the sincere opinions 
 of any man, when it is said in reply, that these supposed mira- 
 culous appearances are the same in character, as what the 
 "Wesleyan and the Protestant maidens of the Cevennes and of 
 Bohemia exhibited in their persons, due allowance being made 
 for the differences of religion, and the various habits of mind 
 and body; nay, they are much the same as what numerous 
 spectators have witnessed in the house of Mr. Atkinson, and 
 what I have seen occurring under my own roof. 
 
 I have not a shadow of doubt, that if Mr. Atkinson had 
 wished to found a religious sect, and, secluding Anne Vials 
 from the world, had habituated her for years to conversation, 
 and objects, and persons, and books of an exclusively religious, 
 character, and never permitted mundane transactions to be 
 brought to her notice, either in her waking or sleeping state, 
 that the most extraordinary effects might have been produced, 
 and the most monstrous doctrines have been built up at his 
 suggestion. He might have retreated with his ecstatic dreamer 
 to some romantic vale, — startled the superstitious neighbour- 
 hood by her attitudes, her devotions, and her miraculous suffer- 
 ings ; and crowds would have flocked to witness the spectacle, 
 and imbibe his creed ; and gaping tourists might have perplexed 
 their readers with lucubrations on the phenomena. But Mr. 
 Atkinson is a philosopher and lover of truth : his habit is to 
 illustrate, — to compare, — to explain; — with Bacon he de- 
 lights in the " Interpretation of Nature," believing that " God 
 hath fitted much for the comprehension of man's mind, if man 
 will open and dilate the powers of his understanding as he 
 may." He knew, for instance, that Lord Shrewsbury's de- 
 scription of his Tyrolese maidens might answer word for word, 
 to much that has occurred with poor Anne. The fact of a fly 
 walking over the pupil of the eye, when wide open, which 
 seemed such a proof of the miraculous to M. de la Bouillerie, 
 has happened with her two or three times. The fly even once 
 stopped and"cleaned its wings on the eyeball. I once saw the 
 end of a pocket-handkerchief placed gently on the pupil, and 
 
ECSTASY. 295 
 
 the lid neither winked nor moved at the touch. She was per- 
 fectly unconscious of the act. 
 
 In regard to the appearance of the stigmata and the small 
 wounds on the head of the Addolorata, Dr. EUiotson and Mr. 
 Atkinson both are of opinion, that they might be the effect of 
 strong imagination and habitual contemplation upon a highly 
 diseased frame * : if that view be trop fort for some readers, I 
 can say, on the other hand, in spite of Lord Shrewsbury's as- 
 sertion, that, as '■' a piece of deception, it is physically impos- 
 sible ;" that I would have engaged repeatedly to have made the 
 very same marks upon the head and hand of Anne Vials with- 
 out any consciousness on her part.t AllMesmerisers will con- 
 firm this declaration : at the same time, I see no reason to 
 charge the Tyrolese priests with any artifice of the kind ; the 
 involuntary effect of imagination, after a preconceived idea, is 
 so strong with some sickly sleep-waking females, that through 
 the bare impression of the mind, nature might throw out the 
 external phenomenon. 
 
 In the Foreign Quarterly Review, No. LXIIL, is an example 
 taken from Lavergne's " De I'Agonie et de la Mort, sous le 
 Rapport Physiologique," &c. which strongly illustrates the pro- 
 bability of this opinion, and shows the effect of habitual thought 
 upon the state of the body : " At this moment there exists in 
 a village of the department of the Var, of which Brignoles is 
 the chief town, a woman possessed by divine love. Since her 
 earliest infancy this woman professes the most ardent love for 
 
 * See Appendix II. for extract from Ward's History of the Hindoos, for in- 
 stances of the effect of imagination upon the fasting ascetics of the East. I 
 have to thank a writer in the Medical Times for reference to this work : 
 " Practice of Hindoo Mesmerism." — July 1844. 
 
 f In Petaval's Causes CelSbres, vol. vi. p. 171., is an account of a priest, 
 Gaufridy, who seems to have possessed a magnetic power in his breath. He 
 marked Madeleine, one of his victims,' in her head, and breast, and many 
 other parts of her body, without her consciousness. These stigmata some- 
 times disappeared and came back again. 
 
 An admirable article in The Examiner also directs our attention to a 
 " parallel miracle, in the case of the novice Yetser, at Berne, 300 years ago, 
 whose side, and hands, and feet were pierced, after he was made drunk with 
 wine and opium, by the monks of his convent." See Examiner, Feb. 26. 
 
 J848 This case may be found at length in Voltaire's Easai sur lea Momrs, 
 
 &c., chap, cxxix. 
 
 Chloroform, however, may make us believe every thing. 
 
 X 
 
296 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 the Saviour; tlie Passion has always been her fixed idea, the ob- 
 ject of her aspirations and thoughts. She meditates and prays; 
 and in her moments of ecstasy may have confided some of her 
 visions to her friends. Wlien her prayer is at its height " (in 
 other words, when the ecstatic state is most fully developed) 
 "a crown is seen to surround her forehead and the rest of her 
 head, which looks as if it were opened by a regular tattooing, 
 from each point in which a pure blood issues : the palms of her 
 hands and the soles of her feet open spontaneously at the places 
 where the nails of the punishment were inserted, her side offers 
 the bleeding mark of a lance-thrust, and, finally, a true cross of 
 blood appears on her chest. Cotton cloths applied to these 
 places absorb the red mark. — This fact can be vouched for 
 by hundreds in the country." 
 
 It may be desirable to add, — that Lord Shrewsbury, speak- 
 ing of the Ecstatica, says that Gorres, in his narrative of the case, 
 relates that " so early as the autumn of the year 1833, her con- 
 fessor observed, accidentally, that the part of the hands, where 
 the wounds afterwards appeared, began to sink in, as if under 
 the pressure of some external body, and also that they became 
 painful and frequently attacked by cramps. He conjectured, 
 from these appearances, that the stigmata " (i. e. the five wounds, 
 like those of the Saviour, in the crucifixion) — "would eventu- 
 ally appear, and the result fulfilled his expectations. On the 
 Purification, on the 2nd of February, 1834, he found her holding 
 a cloth, with which, from time to time, she wiped her hands, 
 frightened like a child at what she saw there. Perceiving blood 
 upon the cloth, he asked her what it meant ? These were the 
 stigmata, which thenceforward continued upon her hands, and 
 shortly afterwards made their appearance upon her feet, and to 
 these, at the same time, was added the wound upon the heart." * 
 
 Now, when the Earl of Shrewsbury, with a piety which com- 
 mands our respect, says that he considers these stigmata, &c., 
 
 * A clever paper in the Dublin University Magazine for July, 1847, 
 quotes Glanvil's Saducismus Triumphatus, and mentions a girl, named Eliza- 
 beth Hill, whose hands and stomach swelled, and thorns were found stuck in; 
 and adds, that the Tyrolese nuns "swelled enormously" about the head, 
 previously to stigmatization. The writer evidently is of opinion, that there 
 was deception in the case : it is not my opinion. See " Evening with 
 Witchfinders." 
 
TYROLESE ECSTATICS. 297 
 
 "the most extraordinary objects in the world," — it is necessary 
 to remind him, that Gorres mentions that " it is asserted by the 
 directors of her conscience, and by her curate, that in Iter ecsta- 
 sies, during the last four years, she had been employed in con- 
 templating the life and passion of Christ. The most frequent 
 object of her contemplations is the Passion of the Eedeemer ; 
 
 — this produces the profoundest impression upon her, and is 
 most vividly expressed upon her exterior. Particularly during 
 the holy week, her whole being seems penetrated, and the 
 images in her soul act forcibly/ upon her frame." 
 
 Now, when we iind that this poor girl had from her child- 
 hood evinced an ardent love of God and a pleasure in prayer, 
 
 — that her visits to the Franciscan church had been unremit- 
 ting, that her bodily sufferings began even in her fifth year, that 
 she was often on the brink of the grave, that no remedies 
 ameliorated her health, that the root of the disorder remained 
 undiscovered, and that therefore she became in consequence 
 still more pious, meditative, and constant in prayer, — the phy- 
 siologist obtains a clue to the wonder. " In her eighteenth 
 year she again fell seriously ill, and when, after a whole year's 
 suffering, she inquired of the doctor if it were quite impossible 
 for her to recover her health, and he answered — that he could 
 only alleviate her pains, she replied that she would do for the 
 future without medical advice," — and would receive with sub- 
 mission what God would lay upon her. Here, then, we see a 
 physical preparation for what the ecstasis, or somnambulistic 
 condition, brought out. She lived for four years during her 
 ecstatic state in the contemplation of the Passion of the Saviour; 
 
 — for more than four months before the appearance of the 
 wounds, that part of the hands began to sink in, and became 
 painful, — and the stigmata on the feet and heart did not occur 
 tiU afterwards. In reading all this, — the result does not appear 
 so very extraordinary : to use Gorres's own expression, — " the 
 images in her soul were acting forcibly upon her whole frame." 
 
 The history of the Addolorata shows the same preparation of 
 mind and body for the same effect. " Domenica gave early 
 indications of extraordinary piety. She was frequently found 
 praying in the most secluded parts of the house. She received 
 
 X 2 
 
298 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 her first communion with singular devotion, — and had ex- 
 pressed an ardent desire to do so at an earlier period." " At 
 tiie age of seventeen she was attacked with violent and compU- 
 oated illness ; " — " her sufferings were so great, that her 
 screams were often heard at a great distance ; " " the holy 
 communion alone relieved her, — after which she frequently 
 lay entranced for a considerable time." 
 
 When the pamphlet mentions too, — that " under the very 
 shadow of the large crucifix, which is suspended over the head 
 of Maria Mori (the Ecstatica), the spirit of ecstasy is infused 
 into her," and that " Domenica Lazari (the Addolorata) lies 
 stretched upon her pallet in face of the representation of the 
 death of the Saviour," though Lord Shrewsbury describes them 
 as " two great and astounding miracles" — we see an additional 
 assistance to the action of the mind upon the body, — and 
 uniting with Mesmerism to explain the matter. 
 
 Lord Shrewsbury mentions in a note the case of another 
 Ecstatica, in whom the wounds appeared, — who had been 
 " very ill," and " contemplating the sufferings of the Saviour, — 
 and, moved by sympathy, had demanded to suflPer with him." * 
 From all which occurrences, it would appear that this peculiar 
 state is, after all, not so very extraordinary ; for fifty other 
 persons, similarly affected, are supposed to have existed in the 
 Koman Catholic Church. 
 
 As to the consciousness of the Ecstatica, during her trance, 
 of the approach of the consecrated host, though Mr. M'Neile 
 thinks it an additional proof of the " mystery of iniquity," it is 
 simply an instance of clairvoyance, which, though rejected at 
 present as impossible by many unbelievers, is so exceedingly 
 common an occurrence, that shortly it will occasion no wonder 
 whatsoever. While the miracle of Maria Mori being raised off 
 her knees, and resting only on the tips of her feet, when, phy- 
 sically, her strength seemed unequal to any effort, finds a pa- 
 rallel in Mr. Heaton's " Daemon ; " when John Evans, by the aid 
 of Satan, " rested his whole weight on the point of his toes ; " 
 and in Martha Brossier, who was lifted up still higher, to the 
 amazement of Duretus, and the Parisian fanatics, f 
 
 * Sec Appendix II. for this case. 
 
 t See Appendix III. for still greater wonders of this class. 
 
SEEEESS OF PREVORST. 299 
 
 After allowance, then, for the accidentals of religion, and 
 the diversities of constitutional temperament, there is nothing 
 in the Tyrolese phenomena of which the experienced Mesmerist 
 Las not seen or read indubitahle indications. Some of the 
 minor points, indeed, may be new and peculiar to these cases, 
 but there can be no mistake as to the essential character of 
 their main features ; if animal magnetism has done nothing 
 else, it has " cast," says Wolfgong Menzel, " a surprising light 
 on the whole subject of Physio-psychology." * 
 
 Of a different class to the Ecstatics of the Tyrol is the case 
 of Madame Hauffe, better known by the name of the " Seeress 
 of Prevorst," a small town in "Wirtemberg, and her native 
 place. This lady was said to " see " and converse with the 
 spirits of the dead, and to free them by her prayers from a pur*' 
 gatorial state. Upon her " Kevelations," a new belief in the 
 communications of the unseen world spread extensively ill 
 some parts of Germany. Eschenmayer, .a well-known writef 
 on Philosophy and Psychology, first attracted attention to her 
 case by his communications.']' Dr. Kerner, physician of 
 Weinsburg, published, in 1829, a detailed account of her illness 
 and visions, in a book that has recently been translated into 
 English. J And we are told that many of the " most pious, cul- 
 tivated, and enlightened men of Germany," have given much 
 consideration to the case, from admiration of its phenomena. § 
 
 Mrs. Hauffe had long been a fearful sufferer, and was at last 
 reduced to almost a skeleton. At an early period she, had been 
 remarkable for excessive sensibility, and at length became a 
 natural somnambulist, and easily influenced_by_MesDaerism. In 
 
 * Chapter on Natural Sciences. The only point in the Tyrolese 
 Ecstatics, of which I have not found something similar or analogous, is the 
 reported fact of the " blood not staining the sheets," &c. &c. Supposing 
 this to be true, it would not, by itself alone, prove the supernatural character 
 of the condition, when every thing else had a physical explanation, but 
 would rather point to the idiosyncrasy of the disease and its peculiar effects ; 
 but I have been told that this is the least well-authenticated fact in the story. 
 Has a chemist or medical man inspected the fluid ? 
 
 + Among other works, he wrote the " Conflict between Heaven and Hell, 
 as observed in the Spirit of a Possessed Girl." 
 
 ^ The " Seeress of Prevorst," from the German of Justinus Kerner, by Mrs. 
 Crowe, Authoress of " Susan Hopley," " The Night-Side of Nature," &c. 
 
 § See a Letter to Editor of Critic. — June, 1845. 
 
 X 3 
 
300 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS, 
 
 these conditions she saw sights, and poured forth revelations, 
 which, in no other respects, are deserving of notice, but from 
 the credit and importance attached to them. Her " disclosures," 
 however, enter into some of the highest questions in religion. 
 She distinguishes, with accuracy, the precise difference between 
 the soul and the spirit, and points out their separate functions : 
 she describes how infants grow in the other world : she speaks 
 of the shape of the soul, and of the forms of spirits ; instructs us 
 as to the condition of the heathen, and of virtuous Pagans 
 after death ; and gives us, in short, " a great deal of other in- 
 formation about a great number of other things." According 
 as this poor lady's revelations coincide with the views and 
 belief of her readers and followers, they are deemed semi-in- 
 spired and authoritative. Dr. Bush, Professor of Hebrew, in 
 New York, finds a confirmation of Swedenborgianism ; certain 
 German enthusiasts, the triumph of Christianity over an em- 
 pirical philosophy ; and Mrs. Crowe, a proof of her favourite 
 doctrine, the existence of ghosts, and of spiritual appearances. 
 " She was more than half a spirit,'" says Kerner, " and belonged 
 to a world of spirits ; she belonged to a world after death. She 
 was a delicate flower, and lived upon sunbeams." 
 
 The awkward part in the "revelations" of these various 
 vision-seers is the contradiction between the different doctrines 
 they respectively countenance. It is with tjbie purpose of point- 
 ing out this discrepancy, that their history is alluded to. They 
 cannot be all true, nor all of a quasi-miraculous authority ; the 
 conclusion rather is, that they are none so. The case of the 
 " Seeress of Prevorst" was, doubtless, a real one, and deserving 
 of study ; but there was nothing more in her disclosures than 
 what may be often met with in communications of the somnam- 
 bulist family. They give a lesson in physiology, and the mat- 
 ter is ended. 
 
 Eachel Baker, who preached in New York during her sleep, 
 in the year 1815, is another instance of popular delusion from 
 the same principle.* Learned Professors, Divines of divers 
 persuasions. Doctors of Medicine, Quakers and Methodists, 
 
 « " Remarkable Sermons of Rachel Baker, delivered during her Sleep, 
 taken down in Short-hand." 1815. 
 
RACHEL BAKER. 301 
 
 crowded round to catch the words that fell from her mouth, as 
 something heavenly and miraculous. Her discourses were 
 deemed so striking, that it was said generally that they could 
 only be " dictated by an extraordinary agency of the Divine 
 Spirit." Short-hand writers attended to take them down. A 
 letter from America to this country stated, " several hundreds 
 flock every evening to hear this most wonderful preacher, who 
 IS instrumental in converting more persons to Christianity, 
 when asleep, than all the other ministers together, whilst 
 awake." The tendency of her preaching was to uphold Cal- 
 vinism and the Millennium. 
 
 Eachel Baker was born in the state of Massachussets of 
 Presbyterian parents, in 1794. She was so rigidly instructed 
 in religion, that " she might be said to have known the Holy 
 Scriptures from a child. " " "When she was about nine years 
 old, the thoughts of God and eternity would make her tremble." 
 In her 17th year, some religious ordinances impressed her with 
 such ideas of her sinfulness and wretched state, that she became 
 silent and reserved, taking little food, sleeping scarcely at all, 
 bursting .out into tears and occasional ejac^ilations, and appear- 
 ing altogether on the brink of despair. Suddenly she com- 
 menced " night-talking." She was sitting in her chair, and 
 had been observed to be nodding ; when she began to sigh and 
 groan, as if in excessive pain, and her parents thought that she 
 was dying. Their alarm, however, abated, when she commenced 
 talking. There was not much regularity in her observations at 
 first, — and there was a mingling of "shrieks" and "anguish," 
 with the concomitant language and demeanour of ultra-fana- 
 ticism. After some nights, however, her manner sobered down, 
 and she became regular, and pathetic, and solemn. Her father, , 
 at length, carried her to New York. Here the greatest sensa- ' 
 tion was experienced. Multitudes crowded to hear her preach 
 and pray. An intense excitement continued. A few, indeed, 
 taxed her with being " an impostor of the first rank." But 
 that an ignorant and young girl of slight mental capacity should 
 "dream in" a course of enlightened theology, and show herself 
 "not merely orthodox, but able and copious" in expounding, 
 and " fervid and eloquent in her language," did seem to the 
 
 X 4 
 
302 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 majority a fact so "completely to defy human explarMtion" 
 that her revelations were regarded as miraculous, and the 
 " immediate effusions" of the Holy Spirit of God. 
 
 The accidentals of Rachel's birth and education being strongly 
 Calvinistic, the tendency of her preaching of course took that 
 direction. She pronounced authoritatively that "those who 
 had the true religion could never fall away," — that "the chosen 
 of the Lord could not do evil," but " must keep God's com- 
 mandments," and that grace was indefectible. She spoke con- 
 fidently of the millennium and of its establishment. And being 
 asked, how it was that she, a woman, presumed to preach in 
 opposition to the apostolic injunction, she unhesitatingly replied, 
 " Shall a woman hold her peace, because she is a woman ? 
 Methinks, the Apostle meant not so — but meant that she should 
 jlet her light shine before men. This is a mystery to you, my 
 / friends ; but God forbid that I should be silent, for I only 
 speak the truth."* These "Revelations" were considered 
 supernatural in the city of New York in the year 1815 : we 
 shall, in the next case, come to Revelations of an opposite cha- 
 racter, which have been equally regarded as supernatural in 
 the same place. 
 
 There was, however, the truthfulness peculiar to the som- 
 nambulistic condition exhibited in this case. Upon Rachel 
 being asked repeatedly in her sleep, by different ministers, 
 whether she had not " received a supernatural revelation," she 
 invariably denied it, and resisted the temptation and the honour ; 
 but her denials were only attributed to humility and meekness. 
 
 A physician of New York, Dr. Mitchill, examined the case, 
 and described its leading phenomena. They clearly indicate 
 the mesmeric condition. " This- somnium is of a devotional 
 
 * This is by no means a single instance of Scripture being made to bend 
 to a Somnambulist's interpretation. The last Chapter showed how the im- 
 mediate cures of Christ could not be immediate but were gradual, according 
 to another sleeper. These explanations remind me of something similar that 
 occurred in my own neighbourhood. An ignorant expounder was requested 
 to explain the Parable of the " Unjust Steward," and say why he was praised 
 so by his Master. Our interpreter was perplexed for a moment. At last he 
 hit upon it. " The fact is," said he, " that he was a just steward, and only 
 called unjust to attract attention." This w.'is not in sleep, it should be 
 added. 
 
EACHEL BAKEK. 303 
 
 kind, and of a very extraordinary character, and occurs once 
 a day. The paroxysms begin at early bed-time. It commences 
 with a sort of uneasiness of the spasmodic kind, anxiety in 
 respiration, and hysteric choking. There is no chill nor cold- 
 ness, — nor any febrile excitement. The transition from the 
 waking state to that of somnium is very quick. During the 
 paroxysm her pulse varies but little from the common beat. 
 She takes the recumbent posture : and her face being turned 
 toward heaven, she performs her devotions, with a fervour 
 wholly novel and unexampled. Her body and limbs are quiet 
 and motionless : they stir no more than the trunk or extremities 
 of a statue ; — the only motion the spectator perceives is that 
 of her organs of speech. Her eyelids are closed : but the 
 muscles of the eyes, on disclosing the lids, have been observed 
 to be in tremulous agitation, and the balls to be inclined up- 
 wards. Her fingers are observed to be firmly closed for a few 
 seconds : and the muscles of the back and arms to be rigid. 
 She passes into a sound and natural sleep, which continues 
 during the remainder of the night. In the morning she wakes 
 as if nothing had happened, and is entirely ignorant of the 
 memorable scenes in which she has acted. She declares that 
 she knows nothing of them. And she complains of no pain^ 
 lassitude, nor of any disorder." 
 
 It remains to be added that her language no less than her 
 ideas were greatly improved and heightened during the fit of 
 somnium. They were, in fact, " far beyond her waking state." 
 Another point was, that when awake, she maintained that she 
 was not asleep during her paroxysms, though her condition 
 was evident to the bystander. What became of Eachel Baker 
 afterwards, I know not : she probably recovered, and the super- 
 natural disappeared also. 
 
 The disclosures of Andrew Davis, " the Poughkeepsie Seer 
 and Clairvoyant," in his " Principles of Nature and Her Divine 
 Revelations," are regarded by the learned Professor Bush, of 
 New York, as an instance of " supernatural knowledge, only 
 to be explained by the influx of the minds of spirits into his 
 mind." The Professor views this case " in a higher light than 
 that pertaining to any other sample of the clairvoyant power." 
 
304 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 Moreover, "he has no scruple to avow it as his firm convietioa 
 that the phenomena of Mesmerism have been developed in this 
 age with the express design of confirming the message of 
 Swedenborg, and of testifying to the truth of the doctrines he 
 promulgated." And in publishing his own observations on the 
 subject, the Professor " regards himself as entering into direct 
 co-operation with the designs of Providence."* Now when a 
 talented and religious writer can thus express himself on a 
 particular case, and when numbers of other learned and clever 
 men are also regarding it with deep attention, our curiosity is 
 naturally stimulated to know something of the history. The 
 " Eevelations " of Davis, given in his sleep, have been pub- 
 lished in two thick volumes, and Recently reprinted in England, f 
 Some extracts from the book were given in the last Chapter. 
 A few more observations may not be without their use. 
 
 Andrew Jackson Davis, the young American in question, 
 was accidentally present at some Mesmeric lectures, that were 
 being delivered at Poughkeepsie. By chance he was selected 
 for one of the parties, whom the operator was to try to send 
 to sleep. All the manipulations, however, were unavailing. 
 Some time afterwards, when his brain or nerves were in a more 
 impressible state, a companion commenced the passes for 
 amusement. Davis soon dropped off into the slumber : — and 
 subsequently became somnambulist, clairvoyant, and an intro- 
 visionist. His power of seeing into the condition of the human 
 frame so greatly increased, that he was continually consulted 
 in disease, and his fame spread widely; and he also put forth 
 many clever opinions in philosophy. This happened in 1843. 
 
 His faculties, in his somnambulist condition, continued so to 
 advance, that in a year or two afterwards he was taken to New 
 York. Here an immense sensation was created. The learned 
 of the city flocked around him. Short-hand writers attended, 
 as in the case of Eachel Baker ; and he delivered, in his sleep, 
 lectures on Eeligion, Astronomy, Cosmology, Geology, and, in 
 
 * " Mesmer and Swedenborg," by Professor Bush. New York, 1847. . 
 See Preface tor these passages. 
 
 t " The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to 
 Slankind," by Andrew Davis. (Chapman, Strand.) 
 
ANDREW DAVIS. 305 
 
 short, upon almost every subject that the universe embraces. 
 Like Goldsmith, in fact, nihil erat quod non tetigit, and perhaps 
 almost like Goldsmith, nihil tetigit quod non ornavit, for his 
 language, ideas, power and philosophy vi^ere of the most extra- 
 ordinary kind. Viewed under whatever light they may, these 
 discourses are a most remarkable effort of the human mind, 
 and deserving of perusal ; — and the question is, how did this 
 very young man obtain all his learning ? — for in his waking 
 state, he is very ignorant and illiterate, and possessing, as it is 
 said, no knowledge of science whatsoever. His advantages 
 had also been of a limited kind ; — he had enjoyed little school- 
 ing ; and his occupation was that of a shoemaker's apprentice : 
 hoiv, then, did this lad of ttoenty obtain a knowledge as pro- 
 found, as it is extensive and minute ? 
 
 The Hebrew Professor of New York, it has been seen, con- 
 siders the Eevelations of so " astounding " a character, as to 
 prove that Davis is " in a praeternatural state," and specially 
 commissioned by God to affirm the doctrines of Swedenborg. 
 This opinion he shares with many. While the ultra-mes- 
 meric party, in their extravagant estimation of the capabilities 
 of Mesmerism, consider that the clairvoyant powers of the 
 youth have arrived at so etherialised and sublimated a condi- 
 tion, as to give him the knowledge he possesses through an 
 actual and quasi-personal inspection ; in other words, that he 
 knows all this to be true, because he sees it to be so. Under 
 this light, therefore, they regard his lectures as of authority, 
 — the authority of " nature " teaching through her own "voice." 
 These, then, are the views of the extreme sections : a little 
 examination may, perhaps, reduce the wonder to its real level. 
 
 Without denying the lectures to be very extraordinary, and 
 not to be explained upon common principles, I am not prepared 
 to say, that they are much more extraordinary, certain atten- 
 dant circumstances being taken into consideration, than many 
 of the Eevelations that have previously been examined. Davis 
 was constantly surrounded by very learned and philosophical 
 visiters, and their presence would of course have its influence. 
 Neither can I quite believe, with Professor Bush, that there 
 has been no " cramming " in the matter : though I must admit 
 
306 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 that all the cramming in the world could not so have filled the 
 lad's mind, as to enable him to pour forth, from day to day, for 
 several months, long lectures and digressions de omni seibili, 
 and to answer with readiness and aptness the perplexing ques- 
 tions that were put to him. But I am persuaded that there has 
 been a little surreptitious reading, nothing very deep nor ex- 
 tensive, but sufficient to lay a sort of basis to build upon. An 
 unusual knowledge of detail exhibited by him in some branches 
 of study leads me to this opinion. His friends, indeed, all assert 
 that there has been no accessibility to books, and on this they 
 speak very positively : but they themselves may be mistaken. 
 It would be difficult for them to prove a negative. Many a 
 young lady in our suburban seminaries has the " Mysteries 
 of Udolpho," and " the Italian " at her fingers' ends, of whose 
 ignorance in such polite branches of learning the presiding 
 genius of the establishment would speak with every confidence. 
 No quarantine can effectually shut out such intellectual smug- 
 gling. And so it may have been with young Davis.* Still 
 even a far greater amount of reading than what I am prepared 
 to tax him with, would come very short of explaining, in the 
 case of a young man under twenty, occupied as he was all day, 
 the prodigious, and indeed profound, stores of erudition which 
 he occasionally developed. The Mesmeric principle, in its very 
 highest condition, is of all solutions the only one which is able 
 to clear up the difficulty. That very peculiar exaltation of the 
 faculties f (to which I have so often referred), in an unusually 
 
 * Since the above was written, I have met with an account of Davis, 
 given by the Rev. A. Bartlett, of Poughkeepsie, who says, that " he loved 
 books, especially controversial religious works, whenever he could borrow 
 them, and obtain leisure for their reading ; and that he was fond of asking 
 questions, and possessed an inquiring mind." Mr. Armstrong, however, 
 with whom he was apprenticed, says that his reading was most limited, and 
 confined to books of juvenile or narrative description. It is clear that his 
 reading laid a substratum of information. 
 
 t Dr. Radclyffe Hall, in a letter before referred to, speaking of a case of 
 Etherisation, where the patient developed an increase of mental power, adds 
 sneeringly, " nor does it approach in wonderfulness the superhuman mani^ 
 festations of increased intellectuality, described by Mr. Sandby and others." 
 Dr. Hall implies that there has been exaggeration on our part. Here, then, 
 is a case of exaltation for him to study. — Lancet, April, 1847. 
 
 The reader is also referred to some judicious articles in the " Critic " on 
 the case of Andrew Davis. 
 
ANDREW DAVIS. 307 
 
 intense and elevated state, accompanied by a transference of 
 thought of no common force from those en rapport, may solve 
 the problem, especially if we throw in the aid of " imagination " 
 and " invention," for much that is evidently new and unbor- 
 rowed. The history of Davis is either an infamous forgery 
 from first to last, — or a miracle, — or a mesmeric marvel. 
 The number and respectability of the witnesses completely 
 forbid the first conclusion : there are sufficient reasons for our 
 rejection of the second. Mesmerism in its noblest and most 
 exalted phase can alone come in to throw light on the mystery. 
 So far from Andrew Davis being a divine instrument for the 
 diffusion of Swedenborgianism, some of his statements are 
 strongly opposed to its very doctrines. When, therefore, is 
 he inspired ? — and when not ? So much for the miracle. 
 Nay, some of his teachings are fearfully subversive of Chris- 
 tianity itself, especially in those passages which relate to the 
 miracles of the New Testament, as was shown in the last 
 chapter. He is orthodox on some points, and the veriest 
 heretic on others. That an able man, like Professor Bush, 
 should be caught by a temporary harmony of opinions, is one 
 of those illusions which it is the object of this chapter to dissi- 
 pate. Andrew Davis, in fact, in his eloquent volubility, utters 
 much that is contradictory and inconsistent, and much also 
 that is nonsensical ; unfortunately those points are alone re- 
 membered, which coincide with the special prepossessions of 
 his admirers. What, however, is true, is not new ; — and what 
 is new, I fear, is not exactly true. When the brain of Davis 
 has been impressed by a Swedenborgian, the disclosures relate 
 to the world of spirits and the glories of the New Church : 
 when the impression comes from a Germanised scholar, the 
 philosophy of the " inner life," and of Kant, and of Schelling, 
 and of Oken, takes its turn. The "Vestiges of the Natural 
 History of Creation," — the studies of Le Verrier and of 
 Adams, — disquisitions on prophets and prophecy all follow in 
 succession, like figures in a magic lantern, according as a 
 cosmologist, an astronomer, or a theologian have influenced 
 his organism. At one time, the young man is the regenerator 
 of society, and sent into the world to forward some coming 
 
308 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 reformation ; at another, lie discusses the origin and affinities 
 of languages "with the most signal ability," — in obedience to 
 some action on his brain from a disciple of Fourier, or a philo- 
 logist. Almost every thing, in short, passes under review, as 
 the accidental rapport determines the order*: the lectures 
 show, like an intellectual kaleidescope, very clever, very curious, 
 but not at all convincing; and the " Poughkeepsie Seer," 
 havin" done his work, and worn out the impulses that excite 
 this cerebral activity, will pass away as a meteor, like his pre- 
 decessors before him, to give way to fresh " Voices from Na- 
 ture," equally praeternatural, and equally to be explained on 
 some homogeneous principle. 
 
 Something similar to the " Eevelations " of Davis, though 
 greatly inferior in power, occurred a few years ago in one of 
 our midland counties. A short description of the case ap- 
 peared in Zadkiel's Almanack for the year 1845. The "Pro- 
 phetess," as the party was considered, caused at the time much 
 excitement and discussion. A clergyman, who took an interest 
 in her, actually declared that she was "The most illustriotcs 
 female visitant of this earth since the time of the Virgin Mary!" 
 An examination, however, of the case will confirm what I have 
 just said in regard to Davis, that the opinions are rather trans- 
 ferred, second-hand as it were, from the brain of another per- 
 son, than the result of original intuition through the agency of 
 clairvoyance : in other words, that the patient, in a spiritualised 
 state, is reading the mind of the Mesmeriser, and nothing else. 
 
 A young girl, who had been brought up by her parents in 
 an unbelief and great ignorance of Sci-ipture, had been Mes- 
 merised on account of her health. She had been Mesmerised 
 by four different individuals, two of whom are friends of my 
 own, without any remarkable effects of a mental character 
 resulting. At last, she is Mesmerised by a gentleman of strong 
 religious feelings, whose knowledge of Scripture is most pro- 
 found and accurate, and whose theological tenets are somewhat 
 peculiar. Eeligion is, in fact, the uppermost occupation of his 
 mind; and mark the effect at once on the patient. She 
 
 * The reader is referred back to page 88. for remarks on Transference of 
 Thought. 
 
MESMERIC PROPHETESS. 809 
 
 straightway becomes in her sleep most conversant with 
 the Bible ; — she compares one text with another ; — she 
 interprets the Old Testament by the New ; — she discovers 
 the deepest meaning in most abstruse chapters; she is 'an 
 expositor of what she declares are the real doctrines of the 
 Gospel. That a girl, almost ignorant of Scripture, should 
 accomplish all this, is regarded as supernatural ; — she is 
 considered as inspired, — called a prophetess ; — and for a 
 time no one could say what turn the delusion would take.* 
 The girl is next placed en rapport, with a gentleman whose 
 studies are of an astrological character ; and her talk is 
 straightway of the '• stars." She speaks, with accuracy, of 
 central suns, — of Jupiter and Herschel, — sees butterflies in 
 Sirius, and orange-trees in Andromeda. She is next placed 
 eti rapport with several ladies, who declare that their inner- 
 most thoughts are laid bare by the patient ; and these parties 
 know not what to think. Like Davis, our prophetess, though 
 only eighteen years of age, is ignorant of nothing. Ask her 
 any question on any subject, and she answers with rapidity. 
 Of course great hubbub is raised, and the neighbourhood all 
 stirred up ; those who have a tendency towards religious 
 novelties, look for fresh revelations from the magical maid ; 
 those who adhere to the Evangelical section of the Church, 
 raise a cry of Satanic agency ; while simple nature is forgotten, 
 and both sides overlook the fact that the patient is sympa- 
 thetically united with the mind of the Mesmerist.f 
 
 These transcendental revelations of E. A were on the 
 
 point of being published by the enthusiastic clergyman before 
 . alluded to, when the affair fortunately sobered down. Our 
 
 * Meiic Casaubon, speaking of some past wonders of an incredible cha- 
 racter, said, " Had we not seen the like in these latter days, upon the same 
 ground of divine revelations, acted and revived, it cannot be expected that 
 any man should have belief to credit such relations." — Treatise on Enthu- 
 siasm, cap. i. 
 
 + Of course, this supposed prophetess not anly reads tlie mind of the Mes- 
 ineriser, but is farther gifted with that enlargement of the spiritual faculties, 
 which is so usual in the Mesmeric state, and which gives the additional 
 marvel to the whole transaction. It is this ei(altation of soul that stamps 
 her "revelations" with the semblance of the miraculous. A description of 
 this case may be found in the " Family Herald," in a criticism on Zadkiel's 
 Almanack. 
 
310 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 prophetess, i^who in her waking state is an amiable girl, and 
 knew nothing of what she had uttered in her sleep,) had de- 
 scribed so much that was contradictory and impossible, that a 
 faith in the miracle materially abated. Her powers have been 
 
 since turned to a more practical purpose. E is a first-rate 
 
 introvisionist. Her clairvoyant faculty of investigating disease, 
 through an inspection of a patient's physical structure, is so 
 great, and has been so tested by experience, that she is much 
 consulted. A physician of large practice in her neighbourhood 
 has often called in her diagnostic aid, as it is said, with the 
 happiest results. This is one of the wisest methods of making 
 Mesmerism of service ; and if other prophets and prophetesses 
 would employ their clairvoyant talents in the same useful 
 direction, the prejudices against the art, on the score of its 
 prseternaturalism and nonsense, would in great measure pass 
 away. / 
 
 Sufficient evidence has been now adduced to identify the 
 condition of an ecstatico-prophetic somnambulist with that of a 
 mesmeric patient, and to test the truthfulness of each in turn ; 
 and a still further number of instances will be found in the 
 Appendix. Baron Feuchterleben, in his " Principles of Me- 
 dical Psycjhology," calls Mesmerism a " half-philosophical, half- 
 medical, system," * and the appropriateness of the description 
 must be acknowledged. Aided, therefore, by the light of this 
 system, the Eeligiohist and the Philosopher need no longer 
 repeat the old, but not exploded, blunder of crying out " mi- 
 racle," or " impostor," at every anomalous extravagance, when a 
 slight physiological examination will explain the mystery. The 
 sameness and spontaneity of the symptoms in all countries, in 
 all ages, and under all conditions of life, is the great argument. 
 A young and most ignorant peasant girl, in some secluded 
 hamlet, has equally, with the most practised sleepwaker, de- 
 veloped certain phenomena; and the question is, where and 
 how she learns her cunning ? There has been but one school 
 for all, the school of untaught, but misrepresented, and self- 
 acting, nature ! 
 
 * In his Chapter on the History of Psychology, p. 60. The Baron's 
 learned work is edited by Dr. Babington for the Sydenham Society. 
 
THE SLEEPING HAYMAKEE. 31 1 
 
 One or two other instances of a somewhat different character, 
 though of the same family, may be also mentioned, which will 
 assist in illustrating the philosophy of the subject. 
 
 The Sloane manuscripts, in the British Museum, give the 
 history of a man who used to work hard in his sleep, and 
 perform a number of strange antics. A few extracts will be 
 amusing.* 
 
 " Jonathan Coulston, of the county of York, in the twentieth 
 year of his age, and servant in husbandry, hath for about two 
 years and a half last past frequently fallen asleep in the per- 
 formance of his work, and then will do as much as two or three 
 men ordinarily do, and very near as well.f In this state he is 
 excellent in all parts of haymaking, as strewing, raking, cock- 
 ing, &c. One day when he was spreading hay, a lusty man 
 sat upon a haycock to try what he would do ; when he came 
 to him, Jonathan took him by the shoulders, and grumbling, 
 gave him such a toss that he tumbled two or three times over ; 
 a cur-dog being asleep on another haycock, he took him by the 
 legs and flung him as high as an ordinary house. I-Ie fodders 
 his master's cattle, binds them up in the barn in their respective 
 places, and unlooses them into the pasture. He delves in the 
 garden, digs turf on the common, runs very fast, and climbs 
 over stone walls near two yards high, without any harm. Once 
 he got up into a tree about eight yards high, and hooped and 
 hallooed as if he had been hunting a pack of dogs : his master 
 was in great concern to get him down, but shouting to him tc 
 go to his work, he nimbly came down again. He plays at Put,' 
 but often names the cards falsely, and holds the wrong side 
 towards him : he Puts every time, and takes up all the tricks : 
 he has several times stood upon his head, leaning his hinder 
 parts to the side of the room, and in this posture he always 
 whistles. 
 
 * Sloane Collection, 403, 404. 40G. The MS. has no date, and is anonymous, 
 but probably drawn up by Sir Hans Sloane, as it is like his handwriting. 
 
 f The Mesmeric reader, who possesses EUiotson's " Numerous Cases, Ifc. ," 
 will find a similar story, at p, 45., respecting Samuel Chilton, the Sleeper at 
 
 Bath, a story which Sir B. Brodie once brought forward as a proof that 
 
 Mesmerism were not a truth in nature ! Is Sir Benjamin of the same 
 opinion still ? 
 
 r 
 
812 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 - " Having been to spread dung one day last Christmas, he 
 came home, got his supper, and talked with the family over 
 the fire; all this was whilst he was awake. About eight 
 o'clock he went out of the house from among them : as he re- 
 turned not in the time expected, they imagined he might b6 
 asleep, and went to seek him, with a candle and lantern, in the 
 field, where they had wrought that day, and found him spreading 
 dung, in bis shirt, at a furious rate, and in a most profuse sweat, 
 as he always is in this case, and suffers much by catching cold. 
 At first, he might have been awaked by shouting and pulling 
 him by the ears and nose, — but now, if then if^i'e to he cut off, 
 'tis the opinion of the family he would not awake. They have 
 several strings or pieces of riband, given by his godmother, and 
 as soon as he is touched with them, he falls as if he were knocked 
 on the head, and about two or three minutes lies as if he were 
 dead ; then begins to rub his eyes, and complains of great pain 
 in them ; if he sees any stranger about him when he awakes, 
 he is troubled. He tells every thing he knows in his dream, 
 which troubles him still more. 
 
 " All his motions in sleep are quick and vigorous, and his 
 countenance is more lively. When awake he is heavy and 
 stupid, and, as to his intellect, he may be said to be betwixt one 
 of common sense and an idiot. He was brought up a Quaker 
 till ten or twelve years old, and may still seem to have the 
 light within.* I have had a relation of these things amongst 
 many others from my tenant, J. Eeston, and his mother, and 
 two of his brothers, who are all sensible, honest, cautious per- 
 sons, and twenty others, have been eye-witnesses. How these 
 things (the ribands) should produce such appearances in an 
 instant, 'tis diflElcult to account. Be these things as they wiU, 
 'tis certain there is no contrivance in the case. He answers 
 any question, if spoke to very loudly. Several other strings 
 have been tried, but to no purpose." 
 
 The Mesmeric characteristics of this case are clearly dist 
 cernible, and help us towards its unriddling. 
 
 * We see here the tendency to find something of a religious character in 
 these anomalous occurrences. 
 
THE SLEEPING SOLDIER. 313 
 
 1st. Coulston's great increase of strength in the sleep, " doing 
 as much work as two or three men ordinarily do," lifting up 
 and flinging men so easily and so high. I have seen a very 
 little girl, in the Mesmeric sleep, carry a stout man of six feet 
 high across a room with ease. 
 
 2d. The insensibility to pain, — a point at this present hour 
 not necessary to dwell upon. 
 
 3d. The touch of certain bits of riband from one person in- 
 stantly producing a deep coma, but not any other pieces. 
 
 4th. Distress at the presence of a stranger on being awakened. 
 
 5th. Coulston mentioning facts in his sleep that he did not 
 wish to have known, and would not tell when awake. 
 
 6th. The improvement and liveliness of face and intellebt : 
 at other times being nearly an idiot.* 
 
 These phenomena all show the source from where they sprang : 
 but inasmuch as the accidents of Coulston's condition did not 
 take a religious turn, nothing was said about the miraculous 
 nature of their origin ; and the sleeping Yorkshire boy was 
 simply the nine-days' wonder of his neighbourhood, — and a 
 perplexity for Sir Hans Sloane and his philosophical acquaint- 
 
 Military annals record one or two occasions, on which some 
 poor fellows have been sharply dealt with by the martinets ot 
 their regiment, for what, in the phraseology of the Horse 
 Guards, is called " Malingering," — and in commoner parlance, 
 a pretence of sickness. A knowledge of the Mesmeric symp- 
 toms may lead to more caution in future. 
 
 Dr. Hennen, in his " Principles of Military Surgery," men- 
 tions the case of a soldier, which at one time made much noise 
 in the south-western part of England. He was called in his 
 regiment the " Sleeping Man," — and was placed under Dr. 
 
 * Gautliier quotes from Dr. Choron, physician at the Hospital of the 
 Val-de- Grace, a Mesmeric fact illustrative of the text. He had mesmerised 
 a girl, aged 30, who had been an idiot from her birth. In her sleep-waking 
 state, she became so intelligent, that no one would have supposed her to be 
 the same person. Her parents were amazed, and cried with joy, " Oh, why 
 is she not always a Somnambulist I" — Gauthier, p. 379. 
 
 T 2 
 
314 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPOKENTS. 
 
 H. in Hilsea Hospital, who describes it as a case of " somno- 
 lency combined with mental hallucination," and adds that 
 "there can be no doubt that grief and terror had a share in the 
 production of his disease." Many of the officers, and other 
 parties, who came to study the symptoms, considered the con- 
 dition feigned, for this reason, — that some of the experiments 
 to test its truthfulness were successful to a certain extent ; but 
 the experiments simply proved the particular stage of the som- 
 nium, and that the sleep was not so deep as to leave the man 
 in an utter state of unconsciousness. Dr. H. himself says, that 
 " there is a difference between this maris sleep and real sleep," 
 
 — and therefore leads the reader to infer that it was all as- 
 sumed. The soldier smiled, I believe, and blushed in his 
 sleep, according as certain observations were made in his pre- 
 spnce ; — and Dr. Hennen, who knew nothing of the sleep- 
 waking state, in which far stranger incidents are constantly 
 developed, concluded from thence that it was not all genuine 
 nature. Much, however, remained inexplicable. The man 
 bore "a great many severe shocks from the electrical machine," * 
 
 — and " the injection of hartshorn into his nostrils." " He was 
 in a state of torpor : he lay without motion in bed ; his eyes 
 remained, during the day, immoveably open, unless when 
 roughly touched." Dr. Hennen closes the narrative in giving 
 one lesson to the profession ; the man gradually improved 
 through gentle treatment. 
 
 Dr. Beck, in his Medical Jurisprudence, furnishes a similar 
 case, — that of Phineus Adams, a soldier in the Somerset 
 Militia, aged 18, who was confined in gaol for desertion. This 
 man was constantly lying in a state of insensibility, resisting a 
 variety of remedies that were employed to rouse him, such as 
 thrusting snuff up the nostrils, electric shocks, powerful medi- 
 cines, &c. When any of his limbs were raised, they fell with 
 a leaden weight of total inanimation. Pins were thrust under 
 his finger-nails to excite sensation. The operation of scalping 
 
 * The shook of an electrical machine was applied to Elizabeth Okey, and 
 of the electric eel to another patient, without an evidence of sensation. See 
 Elliotson's Pamphlet, p. SO. The reader should also turn to p. 42., for the 
 explanation of the skep-wahing condition, and the rationale of the phrase. 
 
NATURAX SUPERNATURALISM. 315 
 
 (to ascertain whether there was not a depression of the brain) 
 was performed : the incisions were made, — the scalp drawn 
 up, and the head examined. During all this time Adams mani- 
 fested no audible sign of pain or sensibility, except when the 
 instrument, with which the head was scraped, was applied. He 
 then, but only once, uttered a groan.* How similar is all this 
 to the case of Wombell, which chloroform has proved to be no 
 longer alien to the laws of nature ! 
 
 There is a passage in Carlyle's Sartor Resartus, in the 
 Chapter on Natural Supernaturalism, so cleverly expressed, 
 and so pertinent to much that has been stated, that a few ex- 
 tracts must be offered. 
 
 '•But is it not the deepest law of nature that she be constant?" 
 — cries an illuminated class : " Is not the machine of the uni- 
 verse fixed to move by unalterable rules?" Probable enough, 
 good friends ; nay, I too must believe that nature, that the 
 universe, does move by the most unalterable rules. And now, 
 of you too I make the old inquiry : what those same unalterable 
 rules, forming the complete statute-book of nature, may pos- 
 sibly be ? 
 
 " They stand written in our works of science — say you : in 
 the records of man's experience. Was man, with his ex- 
 perience, present at the creation, then, to see how it all went 
 on ? Have any deepest scientific individuals yet dived down to 
 the foundations of the universe, and gauged every thing there ? 
 These scientific individuals have been nowhere but where we 
 also are; have only seen some hand-breadths deeper than we see 
 into the deep that is infinite, without bottom, as without shore» 
 
 " System of nature ! To the wisest man, all experience 
 thereof limits itself to some few computed centuries, and 
 measured square miles. 
 
 " Volume of nature ! And truly a volume it is, whose Author 
 and Writer is God. To read it ! Dost thou, does man, so much 
 as know the alphabet thereof? With its words, its sentences, 
 and grand descriptive pages ? It is a volume written in celes- 
 
 * Beck, p. 19. A similar case occurred with a soldier in the Prussian 
 army. 
 
 y 3 
 
316 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 tial hieroglyphics, of which even Prophets are happy that they, 
 can read, here and there, a line ! " ' 
 
 To return, however, to the question of mental and Mes- 
 meric sympathy, there is every probability that the modern 
 miracles in Egypt, which Lord Prudhoe witnessed, and which 
 have so perplexed the learned of this country to explain, have 
 some connection with this "transfer of thought," of which we 
 have been speaking.* Dr. CoUyer has written an able work 
 on the subject ; he supposes that a vital electricity is the 
 medium of communication from mind to mind; causing an 
 " embodiment of thought " on the brain or mind of another.f 
 By this embodiment of thought the prophetess reads the mind 
 of her Mesmeriser, and transfers his Scriptural acquirements 
 into her own brain ; and by the same embodiment the Arabian 
 boy became acquainted with the likenesses of Nelson, of Shaks- 
 peare, and of the brother of Major Felix, and so perplexed the 
 noble traveller and his numerous critics. It has been said by 
 recent travellers that this Egyptian boy has lately failed. A 
 hundred failures cannot upset one positive fact. The proba- 
 bility is, that the brain has been overfatigued by too much 
 work : this is constantly the case in clairvoyance, and then the 
 cry is raised of imposture : — for example, with Alexis. 
 
 In short, we are but in the infancy of our Mesmeric know- 
 ledge. Not only may the oracles of old, those for instance of. 
 Belphi, be explained by the responses of a magnetic somnam- 
 bulist in the highest state of lucidity, but it may even be 
 suggested to the philosophic inquirer to pursue the topic into a 
 wider field. It may be possible that the sympathy of Mes- 
 
 * " Numerous experiments seem to show," says Mr. Lloyd, " that the 
 Mesmeric influence is capable of reflection from polished surfaces, and some 
 acquaintance with this fact, or others resulting from the same general law,- 
 may probably have led to the employment of mirrors in various forms of 
 magic, from the engraved mirrors of the Etruscans, to the mirrors of the 
 middle ages, such as that in which Lord Surrey was said to have beheld a 
 vision of the fair Geraldine, and to the globule of ink in the palm of the 
 Egyptian boy at the present day." — Zoist, vol. iii. p. 313. A good deal 
 more to the same purpose will be found in the paper from which the above 
 is extracted. 
 ■ f See " Psychography, or the Embodiment of Thought," by Dr. Collyer. 
 See also " The People's Phrenological Journal," No. XLIV. 
 
MAXWELL. 317 
 
 meric action may throw a light on the hysteric excitement, by 
 which large multitudes of men are stirred up into a strange 
 contagious enthusiasm. Dr. Bertrand, in his well-known work, 
 contends strongly for this opinion. The prophets of the Ce- 
 vennes, the nuns of Loudon, the convulsionaires of St.' 
 Medard, are cited by him as instances of proof. We might add 
 to this list the strange sect of the Flagellants of Hungary and 
 Bohemia, in the fifteenth Century. L'Enfant, in the " History 
 of the Council of Constance," gives a curious account of this 
 heresy; and states that this love of self-flagellation became a 
 perfect " furor," and so contagious was it, that some contem- 
 poraries deemed it as " supernatural, and the inspiration of 
 Heaven ; " — others " regarded it as the suggestion of an evil 
 spirit." * The enthusiasm of the Quakers at their first es- 
 tablishment, — of the Methodists in their early days, — and in 
 our own time the wildness and madness of the " unknown 
 tongues," may all faU under the same class. A panic on board 
 a ship, excitement in the field of battle, applause in a crowded 
 theatre, make some approach to the same character. And when 
 in these and similar cases we add the principle of imitation to 
 the contagious influence of Mesmeric power, — we catch a 
 clue that unravels much that is mysterious in the conduct of 
 man ; we see how intimately we are all united t, physically as 
 ■well as morally ; sympathy and the force of attraction are called 
 into being where it is little suspected, 
 
 " Striking the electric chain wherewith we are darkly bound" 
 
 one with another ! Maxwell, whom we have before quoted, 
 speaks of a " vital or universal spirit," by virtue of which 
 " wonders may be performed ; " — and which was the " great 
 
 • This is so exactly a counterpart of what occurs at every other strange 
 appearance, that the words should be quoted : — 
 
 " Elle avail un air surnaturel qui faisait juger aux uns que c'etait une 
 inspiration du ciel, pendant que les autres la regardaient comme une sugges- 
 tion du mauvais Esprit."— JHiistoVc du Conale de Cmstance, liv. v. 
 
 ■if " Without being mesmerised by special manipulations, how often do we 
 think of persons who are approaching before they come in sight I How 
 often do we simultaneously write or start the same ideas in oopversation ! 
 &c. All such occurrences have been explained upon the principle of coin- 
 cidence or mere chance, — but, &c." — Spencer Hall, p. 13. 
 
 Y 4 
 
318 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 secret of witchcraft." * Our illustrious Bacon seems also to 
 have known somewhat of the Mesmeric principle, when he says 
 that it " certainly is agreeable to reason that there are some 
 light effluxions from spirit to spirit, when men are in presence 
 one with another, as well as from body to body." He adds, that 
 there is " a sympathy of individuals, so that there should remain 
 a, transmission oj" virtue from the one to the other ; " and he also 
 wrote on " experiments touching the emission of immateriat^ 
 Tirtues from the minds and spirits of men, either by affections 
 or by imaginations, or by other impressions." All this is very 
 remarkable language from the great father of instructive phi- 
 losophy : and Eacon, who considered the knowledge of man to 
 man as the most important of all knowledge, adds this useful 
 caution, as a rule for every inquirer : " "We have set it down as 
 a law to ourselves, to examine things to the bottom, and not to 
 receive upon credit, or reject upon improbabilities, until there 
 hath passed a due examination." " Much," he says again, "will 
 be left to experience and probation, whereunto indications can- 
 not fully reach." + And in accordance with these great prin- 
 ciples of instructive philosophy by experiment and observation^ 
 the statements related in this chapter are presented to the con- 
 sideration of the student. 
 
 * Maxwell, De Medidna Magneticd. Frankfort, 1679. " Spirltum uni- 
 versalem, si instrumentis hoc spiritu impregnatis ususfaeris, in auxilium vocabis : 
 magnum Magorum secretum." — Aphorismus, Ixxviii. p. 182. 
 
 f See Bacon's " Natural History." Century 10. 
 
GENERAL RULES FOR MESMERISING. 319 
 
 CHAP. vin. 
 
 GENERAL RUIES FOR MESMERISIUG DOMESTIC MESMERISM. SLEEP NOT 
 
 NECESSARY. DIFFERENCE OF EFFECTS. CAN ANY ONE MESMERISE? 
 
 MODES OF MESMERISING PATIENT NOT TO BE AWAKENED. — LENGTH- 
 ENED SLEEP NOT DANGEROUS. METHODS OF DEMESMERISINC. EXER- 
 TION OF THE ■WILL. — WARMTH. BENEFIT FROM EXPERIMENTS. GOOD 
 
 SLEEP AT NIGHT. ABSENCE OF MESMERISER AND CONTACT OF THIRD 
 
 PARTY. CLASS OF DISEASES AFFECTED BY MESMERISM. EPILEPSY 
 
 ORGANIC DISEASE. PARALYSIS. DIFFERENT STAGES OF MESMERIC 
 
 CONDITION FREEDOM OP MANNER. CLAIRVOYANCE. CONCLUSION. 
 
 Anb now, after all, what is the process by which this peculiar 
 condition of the human frame is most easily induced, or main- 
 tained or managed ? in other words, what is the right method 
 of Mesmerising ? 
 
 In giving instructions under this head, my object is to 
 encourage Domestic Mesmekism; — to enable fathers or mo- 
 thers, husbands or wives, brothers or sisters, to relieve the 
 sick members of a family through its soothing influence, and 
 assist nature in her work.* Not that, by any means, am I 
 setting up this treatment as a rival to the medical art, — as some 
 charm or specific that is to supersede every other appliance, 
 and at once to dispense with the contents of the Pharmacopoeia. 
 Such notions would only foster a disappointing quackery. It 
 is true, indeed, that on several occasions the mesmeric power 
 has so " revolutionised the whole system," and wrought with 
 such extraordinary efficacy upon a diseased habit of body, that 
 the patient has been enabled to discard every other item of 
 medical treatment, and to rely, in his progress towards recovery, 
 upon this power alone. It is true, also, that in certain con- 
 
 • I would also add Parochial Mesmerism, by a clergyman, for his 
 parishioners. I quote from a popular periodical : " It strikes us very 
 forcibly, that, on many of these occasions (a visit to a sick-bed), a minister 
 of the gospel would find the composing treatment of Mesmerism a useful 
 ally. He might, through its means and with the blessing of God, allay 
 many a sharp pain, assist a feverish and sleepless sufferer, &c." — Church of 
 England Journal, vol. ii. No. 92. See my own experience, p. 135. of this 
 work. See also Vital Magnetism, by Rev. T. Pyne. 
 
320 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPOITENTS. 
 
 stitutions there would appear to exist some repellant principle 
 between medicine and Mesmerism, through which the latter 
 will not always act harmoniously with the former. But these 
 are exceptions, on which experience can alone instruct the 
 student. My wish is rather to recommend the adoption of 
 Mesmeric practice, conjointly and in strict accordance with 
 medical advice; — to have magnetism thrown in, as it were, 
 supplementarily to every thing else. If this plan were con- 
 stantly pursued in families, by its own members, and at their 
 own time, the amount of human relief that would be afforded 
 would be incalculable. What is generally required in a sick- 
 room is either something that shall assist a feverish patient 
 in obtaining a remission of cerebral activity, — something 
 that shall tranquillise the nervous system, — something that 
 shall relieve pain or render it endurable, — something that may 
 check inflammation without weakening the constitution. For 
 all these purposes the " healing hand* " of the magnetiser acts 
 repeatedly with promptness and success. It is, indeed, my firm 
 persuasion, that if Mesmerism were extensively used by the. 
 healthy members of a household for the benefit of its sicklier 
 portion, many an illness would be cut short at its commence- 
 ment, — many a disease abated of its intensity and shortened in, 
 its duration, — many an organic and incurable malady receive 
 palliation and respite, and many a life prolonged with compara- 
 tive comfort to the sufferer. Mesmerism works no miracles, — 
 but it often effects great wonders ; it sometimes assists the action 
 of medicine when its power has become all but dormant, and 
 gives tone, sleep, and ease, when every other remedy has failed 
 or lost its virtue. 
 
 Dr. Esdaile, who has employed Mesmerism so largely for 
 surgical operations, declares that its power as a remedial agent 
 is still more efficacious and useful. ^ Dr. Elliotson has said the 
 
 * Virgil speaks of the " manu medicd Phoebique potentibus herbis." — 
 jEneid. xij. 402. 
 
 •j- " The great field for a display of its usefulness is in the treatment of 
 medical diseases, where it often comes to our aid when all other resources 
 have taMei." -^ Letter from Dr. Esdaile. Zoist, vol. v. p. 191. "The in- 
 eistimable blessings of Mesmerism in the alleviation of diseases are of greater 
 extent than its application in ppetations, &c." — Dr. Elliotson. Zoist, vol. iy,' 
 p. 580. 
 
SLEEP NOT NECESSARY. 321 
 
 same thing. And when we know that this influence is capable 
 of inducing the very same insensibility to pain that is procured 
 by such formidable agents as ether and chloroform, we may 
 well believe that its action on the human frame must be most 
 searching and transforming, so much so indeed as oftentimes to 
 bring on an actual "revolution" in the system. This is the 
 phrase, indeed, that Dr. Esdaile himself employs.* And thus 
 it is, that, in more ways than one, chloroform and ether confirm 
 the usefulness of Mesmerism. 
 
 Before, however, that we enter upon directions for its use, 
 there are two preliminary points, with which it is desirable 
 that the learner should be impressed. 
 
 1st, That sleep is by no means indispensably necessary in 
 proof of an effect. The ordinary notion on this hfead is, that 
 sleep is the secret of the whole system. " I am sure you can- 
 not send me to sleep," is the vulgar cry of the supercilious 
 opponent ; and if no somnolency be induced, his conclusion is, 
 that no influence has been imparted. Now, in the first place, 
 it is any thing but a correct inference, that because a person in 
 health may not have been rendered somnolent, the same party 
 would not be easily affected when in a different habit of body. 
 Mesmerism, as Mr. Newnham says, is the "Medicine of Nature," 
 and it is the sick and the suffering that nature has predisposed 
 and fitted for its influence, t But, secondly, even with the 
 sickliest patient, the absence' of coma is no proof of the absence 
 of action. Essential benefit may be communicated, and the 
 invalid remain as wakeful and conscious as ever. Sleep is, in 
 truth, a satisfactory symptom, from the intelligible evidence 
 that it affords that some action has commenced ; but Mesmeric 
 annals record numerous cases of alleviation and cure, where 
 
 * " Mesmeric coma revolutionises the whole system, and every other con- 
 stitutional affection is for the time suspended." — Dr. Esdaile's India, p. 170. 
 
 •f Gauthier says, " Out of a hundred persons in good health, two thirds 
 will perceive no effect, and the other third a very slight effect." — T, P. p. 19. 
 Dr. Esdaile says, " Dehility of the nervous system predisposes to the easy 
 reception of Mesmerism," p. 26. Preface. Mr. Newnham observes, that 
 " susceptibility is greatly increased in emaciated persons, who have been 
 enfeebled by chronic disease," — and he adds, that " women are more sus- 
 ceptible than men, because of the much greater mobility of their nervous 
 system." Chapter vii. 
 
323 MESMERISM AIJD ITS OPPOKENTS. 
 
 , little or no somnolency has been imparted. Miss Martineau's 
 is a striking instance. " I longed," she says, " to enjoy the 
 Mesmeric sleep : the sleep never came, and except the great 
 marvel of restored health, I have experienced less of the 
 wonders than I have observed in others." (p. 14.) Mr. Towns- 
 hend, speaking of a foreign Mesmeriser, says, " Many of his 
 patients got well under daily Mesmerising, without having 
 experienced any drowsiness or extraordinary symptom what- 
 ever." (Preface, p. 24.) Dr. EUiotson had a patient, whom he 
 Mesmerized for four months half an hour daily, before he could 
 send her to sleep for more than a minute or two, and then she 
 became extremely susceptible. (^Zoist, vol. ii. 197.) I know 
 several other instances of the same kind, and have myself 
 removed sharp local pain without inducing any somnolency 
 whatever. Let, therefore, the inexperienced Mesmeriser be not 
 disheartened at an apparent failure from the absence of sleep.* 
 2dly, In naming the different methods of Mesmerising, we 
 can only touch upon the general characteristics of the condition 
 induced. No certain effects can be predicated or depended upon. 
 Nature is infinitely various, and the various complexities of 
 the fiuman constitution, of course, give out the most various 
 operations for their result, f Exceptions and idiosyncrasies 
 must be looked for. for instance, Mr. Snewing, in his in- 
 teresting letter, says, that "- so far from the passes bringing on 
 , a sleepy influence, they seemed to banish sleep ; when, in 
 ordinary circumstances, he should have been asleep in a few 
 minutes." A curative effect was, however, equally obtained : 
 " he was better, and the pain in his head relieved."^ Medical 
 men bring this want of uniformity in Mesmerism as a 
 charge against the art, and a proof of its uselessness, as if their 
 own systems of treatment, their etherisation, and their opiates, 
 did not occasionally induce the very opposite effects to those. 
 
 ■ • In the Critic Journal for March, 1845, is a case of a severe attack of 
 gout cured by Mesmerism, though no "somnolence appeared," p. 409. 
 The reader is also referred back to Chapter III. for cures effected by Captain 
 Valiant and Mr. Thompson without the induction of sleep. Dr. Ashburner 
 and Mr. D. Hands can offer evidence on the same point. 
 
 •f See Chapter I. p. 75. on this want of uniformity in Mesmerism. 
 
 I Zoist, vol. V. p. 237. 
 
CAN ANY ONE MESMERISE? 323 
 
 intended. To mention one instance, I have seen creosote, which 
 is' repeatedly given to counteract sickness, nay, even sea- 
 sickness, actually bring on the most violent retching and nausea. 
 This would be no argument against its value for common use, 
 any more than the anomalies of Mesmerism are any evidence 
 against its more general facts : but these anomalies are now 
 alluded to by way of caution to the young Magnetiser, that he 
 may remember that in presenting these instructions for his 
 guidance, I only pretend to offer some broad and general rules, — 
 "those salient points in the practice which observation has shown 
 to be most applicable to the largest number of patients, and 
 that his own judgment and experience must assist him in 
 supplying all the rest.* 
 
 The first question that presents itself is. Can any one Mes- 
 merise ? Is it a gift appertaining to some few and favoured 
 individuals, — or a property common to the whole human race ? 
 My answer is, any one in good health can Mesmerise : nay, 
 persons of a weak and even sickly constitution can Mesmerise : 
 but it is not to be recommended either for themselves, "or for 
 their patients. Teste says that " facts have conspired to prove 
 to him that there exists in man, and probably in all organised 
 beings, a subtle agent, a cause or product of life, transferable 
 from one individual to another t;" and this I believe that ad- 
 ditional observation will affirm. The conclusion, then, is, that 
 every member of a family, who is in the enjoyment of an 
 equable state of health, and free from pain or sickness of body, 
 is qualified to Mesmerise. " The stronger and healthier a per- 
 son is," says EUiotson, " the greater, other things being equal, 
 is his Mesmeric power." He adds again, " I am inclined to 
 believe that, besides the difference of health, strength, activity, 
 and bulk, very little difference of Mesmeric power exists 
 
 » " No two constitutions are alike ; and the nervous system exhibits a 
 separate character in every separate person. It is of importance to remem- 
 ber that the variability of the recipients does by no means prove the agent 
 itself variable." — Tovmshend, p. 298. 
 
 ■f Teste's Magnetism, p. I SO. He says, in another place, " I think that 
 this influence is constantly exerted, though in a latent way, in such a manner 
 that all men, and probably all the beings of nature, are reciprocally and in- 
 cessant magnetised." (p. 35.) J 
 
324 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 amongst us ; and that the great difference of effects is referrible 
 to the person Mesmerised.* At the same time, observation 
 would seem to show that different Mesmerisers suit different 
 patients ; and that some have a peculiar power for controlling 
 and removing certain peculiar diseases, f On the other hand, 
 some Mesmerisers produce an unfavourable effect with particu- 
 rlar parties, or while they are very successful with one disorder, 
 can hardly touch another. Teste says, " There sometimes exists 
 between the Magnetiser and the individual who submits him- 
 self to him, a certain moral antipathy, which nothing can dis- 
 sipate. This circumstance is unfavourable." (p. 44.) Dr. 
 EUiotson says, " There appears to be a difference in the charac- 
 ter of the Mesmeric influence of different persons ; for some 
 patients experience comfort from one Mesmeriser, and discom- 
 fort, head-ache, &c. from another." {Zoist, iii. 52.) As a general 
 rule, however, it may be shortly stated, that any person in good 
 health is capable of Mesmerising. | 
 
 Certain moral qualifications have been referred to in a pre- 
 vious chapter : it may be desirable to repeat that patience, 
 gentleness, ^-oA. firmness, are among the most essential. § 
 
 We will now suppose that a member of a family is prepared 
 
 * Zoist, vol. iii. p. 49. This whole paper by Dr. E. is particularly 
 recommended to the Mesmeric student for its various information. 
 
 ■j- Gauthier, who considers these points very fully. — Traite Pratique, 
 p. 64. and p. 316. 
 
 ^ Deleuze says, " I ought to mention, as a condition essential to the suc- 
 cess of every treatment, that the Magnetiser should be in the enjoyment of 
 good health, &c." — Instruction Pratique, p. 289. 
 
 § " Hensler (a great German physiologist) asserts, that, in magnetising, 
 everything depends on the harmony of the original magnetic disposition in 
 the magnetiser and magnetised. Hensler divided all men into four classes : 
 those who have no magnetism, — those who have a fiery one, — those who 
 have a cold moist one, -^ and those who have a mixed one; proving, from 
 example, that when the magnetiser possesses the same magnetism as the 
 patient, the cure will follow, as certainly as it will be prevented, if the mag- 
 netism on both sides do not correspond." — Wolfgang MenzeVs German 
 Literature, vol. iii. p. 66. 
 
 How far the above description be fanciful, I pretend not to judge. The 
 Germans have deeply studied the subject, though they are sometimes more 
 visionary than practical, and their opinions deserve consideration. Speaking 
 of Mesmerism, Menzel himself says, " This discovery is certainly one of the 
 most important that has ever been made, and one which redounds to the glory 
 of our country," Vol. iii. 
 
MODES OF MESMEKISING. 325 
 
 to commence the Mesmeric treatment with a sick relative, and 
 that the latter is ahle to sit up in an easy chair. An hour 
 should be selected at which the sittings could be renewed as 
 nearly as possible, each day, at the same time ; for with many 
 patients punctuality in this respect is found to assist the in- 
 fluence. Silence of course is necessary : and it is better that 
 not more than one or two persons be present ; and the patient 
 should be particularly recommended to be passive and easy, to 
 banish all fears • and indulge every hope, and to trust in the 
 mercies of a benevolent Providence. 
 
 The Mesmeriser, being seated opposite to, and a little higher 
 than, the patient, and having concentrated his thoughts on the 
 business before him, may begin by placing his hand gently on 
 the head of the other. After a few moments, he will draw it 
 slowly down the forehead, point the fingers, slightly separated, 
 at the eyes, without touching them; and then make some 
 passes downwards, at the distance of one or two inches over 
 the face and chest to about as far as the pit of the stomach. 
 On each occasion of raising the hand to repeat the movement, 
 he must be careful to remove it by an easy sweep to the out- 
 side of the body, or at least to close the fingers up, so as not 
 to produce a counter-current in ascending. He will continue 
 these passes for some minutes, always remembering to carry 
 the action downwards, gradually to the knees, and ultimately 
 to the feet. 
 
 The above is the method that I consider most pleasant and 
 most generally efficacious : some patients, however, cannot bear 
 to have the head touched ; with them it would be necessary to 
 begin in a different way. 
 
 Deleuze, who had enjoyed more than thirty-five years' expe- 
 rience, recommends "you to take the thumbs of the patient 
 between your own fingers, so that the inside of your thumbs 
 may touch the inside of his, and to fix your eyes upon him. 
 You are to remain in this situation from two to five minutes, 
 
 * " I have always found," says Mr. Townshend, "fear to be in Mesmerism 
 a disturbing force." (p. 78.) Mr. Newnham says, " Disbelief o{ the patient 
 is always an obstacle to successful magnetisation, like want of confidence in 
 a medical man is an obstacle to medical treatment." (p. 112.) 
 
326 MESMERISM AITO ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 until you perceive that there is an equal degree of warmth 
 between your thumbs and his ; — that being done, you will 
 ■withdraw your hands, one to the right, and the other to the 
 left, moving them so that the interior surface or palm be turned 
 outwards ; you will then raise them as high as the head, place 
 them upon his shoulders, leave them there for a minute, and 
 then draw them along the arm to the extremity of the fingers, 
 touching gently. You will, then, commence the passes or down- 
 ward movements of the hands, at a little distance from the body 
 (as before described), and continue! this sort of process during 
 the greater part of the sitting.* 
 
 Dr. Elliotson, in a paper in the Zoist, has quoted some in- 
 structions of his own, which are here repeated for their clear- 
 ness and easiness of application. "I showed his wife how to 
 make veri/ slow passes from opposite his forehead to opposite 
 his stomach with one hand, held at the distance of a few 
 inches from his face, both parties looking at each other in 
 perfect silence, and all in the room being perfectly still, for at 
 least half an hour, and at least once a day. I told her she 
 might change her hand when it was tired, and that she must 
 either stand before or at one side of her husband, or sit a good 
 deal higher than he was, or her hand would soon tire ; that, if 
 he should go to sleep, she had better continue the passes till the 
 sleep was deep, and then contentedly allow it to expend itself, 
 as it was sure to do sooner or later. At the same time, I 
 begged him to omit all medicine, and live just as had always 
 been his habit. This was done ; and he obtained a complete 
 recovery." "f 
 
 I have great opinion of the efficacy of resting the hands upon 
 the patient's shoulder, at the commencement of a sitting ; and I 
 fancy that I have seen, on some occasions, still further success 
 by the Mesmeriser crossing his arms and placing his right hand 
 upon the right shoulder, and his left on the left of the patient. 
 With some parties, however, the very reverse would succeed 
 best. Polarity has probably much to do in the matter. J 
 
 * Deleuze, chap. ii. p. 25. 
 
 f Zoist, vol. V. p. 235. Cure of intense Nervous Affections, &o. 
 
 I The ^student; is particularly preferred to Reichenbach's Chapter on 
 
MODES OF MESMERISING. 327 
 
 K none of these methods seem to succeed, the points of the 
 fingers may be held steadily to the eyes, about an inch off, for 
 some little time. * The patient is not required to stare at the 
 Mesmeriser, nor even to open his eyes : though, if he do, a 
 quicker action may be anticipated ; but " staring " is an un- 
 pleasant process, and one that I am far from suggesting. It is 
 not sufficiently composing to the nervous system, is an uncom- 
 fortable exertion for an invalid, and has a tendency to distress 
 the brain ; but the pointing the fingers near to the eyelids, 
 when they are closed down, is a most efficacious method, though 
 not one with which I like to begin a sitting, especially if it be 
 a patient's first trial. It is an excellent plan for seconding the 
 introductory manipulations, after the influence has a little cir- 
 culated into the system, and especially for deepening the coma, 
 if the patient has only dropped off into a light slumber, f 
 
 After that these various methods have been pursued for a 
 little time, with some patients for only five minutes, with some 
 for fifteen or more, and with the average for about ten, the 
 first symptoms of an influence wiU probably develop them- 
 selves. The eyes will begin to wink, — the eye-lids to quiver 
 and droop, — the patient will sigh gently, — sometimes swallow 
 a little saliva, and sometimes yawn, — at last the eyes will 
 close, and the patient be asleep.' The operator should then 
 continue the passes downwards J, slowly and without contact 
 
 Dualism, p. 93. " With the cross hands (of the healthy) all action was 
 arrested ; whereas, with the sick, the author's force was overwhelming." See 
 also again, p. 105. of the same work. 
 
 • "I found," says Dr. Elliotson, speaking of a particular case, "that 
 pointing the fingers towards the eyes at the distance of an inch or two had 
 more effect than making passes." — Zoist, vol. ii. p. 49. 
 
 ■(■ " The modes of inducing the sleep are endless ; and just as an operator 
 may have accidentally met with persons more affected by a particular 
 method, or may have accustomed them to it, or may have acquired the 
 habit of operating in a particular method with more ease and energy, he 
 ■will praise this method or that. Steady perseverance day after day, be it for 
 weeks or months, for at least half an hour, is the greatest point. It is best 
 to try all ways in turn, till an efficient way is found." — Dr. EUiotsm. 
 Zoir.t, vol. i. p. 312. 
 
 \ I have mentioned, at p. 174., the evil effects of making upward passes. 
 Gauthier, at p. 102., gives quotations from Mesmer, Puysegur, D'Eslon, 
 and Deleuze to the same effect. If they do no other harm, they would pro- 
 bably awaken a sleeper. 
 
 Z 
 
328- MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS, 
 
 (unless some local Mesmerisation be needed), carrying the 
 influence towards the knees and the feet. 
 
 After a time, if the patient remain quiet, and exhibit th& 
 common indications of slumber, you may speak softly to him, 
 and ask, " if he be asleep ? " If he answer in the affirmative, 
 he is what is called " somnambulist," and you may regard his 
 condition as at once distinct from that of common sleep. Som- 
 nambulism must not be generally' expected at the first sitting : 
 Gauthier says, " in not more thaii ten cases out of a hundred ;" 
 ( T. P. p. 70.) ; other magnetists will, perhaps, scarcely allow of 
 so great a disproportion. 
 
 Do not Mesmerise the head too much : it has a tendency toi 
 produce a head-ache, which will be felt, after the patient is 
 awakened. 
 
 If the patient become hysterical, or begin to laugh or to cry, 
 stop it at once with firmness but gentleness ; take hold of his 
 hand, or place your own upon his chest, and require him to 
 be composed. A quiet and serious manner on your own part 
 will gradually induce quietness with him. 
 
 The passes may be continued for about half an hour; a 
 longer time is not necessary, as a general rule ; some even say, 
 for only a quarter of an hour ; and if at the expiration of that 
 period, the patient has not exhibited impressionability to the 
 ififluence of sleep, the operator should leave off, and renew the 
 inanipulations the next day, as nearly as possible, at the same 
 time. The absence of sleep, it has been already shown, is no 
 proof of the absence of action or of a beneficial influence. 
 
 The question, that now presents itself, is whether the patient 
 should be awakened, when the time is come for the Mesmeriser 
 to return home? As a general rule, most certainly not. There 
 are some patients, indeed, who cannot bear the 'absence of the 
 Mesmeriser, and whom, therefore, it would be imprudent for 
 him to leave asleep ; and these, of course, must be awakened : 
 but the longer that the sleep continues, the greater generally is 
 the benefit, and I would always recommend the Mesmeriser to 
 retire, if possible, without disturbing the patient. The latter 
 will probably wake up in a quarter of an hour ; but if not, the 
 longer he sleeps, the better for him. Elliotson says, " If I have 
 
METHODS OF DEMESMERISING. 329 
 
 my own way, and have no special reason for deviating from a 
 general rule, I would never toake a patient." 
 
 There is an idle notion abroad, that persons may never awake 
 again from a Mesmeric sleep, and great alarm is sometimes felt 
 at the prolongation of the slumber. A more erroneous opinion 
 never existed : they are sure to wake up one time or other ; and 
 the less that they are disturbed or troubled by efforts of awaken- 
 ing in these long trances, the sooner will the influence wear itself 
 out. The attempts at arousing a sleeper often seem to have 
 the effect of deepening the coma ; — but if we wait patiently, 
 let it be even for twenty-four hours or more, we shall be re- 
 warded by the result. In a previous chapter *, I have referred 
 to some instances of this lengthened slumber, and showed its 
 harmlessness. At any rate, we must not employ any strong 
 measures towards awakening the sleeper. Dr. EUiotson says, 
 " It is in truth highly improper to use violent means to rouse 
 persons in sleep-waking, whether spontaneous or induced by 
 Mesmerism. The mere state is free from danger, and expends 
 itself sooner or later. If the patient is still, the repose is harm- 
 less ; and if he is moving about, he will at length be still or 
 awake, and care should only be taken that he do not hurt him- 
 self. To wake persons suddenly and roughly, even from com- 
 mon sleep, is improper." t 
 
 If, however, when the half-hour or hour be expired, it be- 
 expedient to awaken the patient, a few gentle methods will 
 usually succeed. But, first, we should always give him notice- 
 that we are going to arouse him, otherwise he may awake dis- 
 tressed or startled. Sometimes, the mere telling the sleeper to 
 wake up is sufficient : it is better, however, in this case to give 
 him a little leisure for preparation, and to require him to rouse 
 up in two or three minutes. 
 
 The best methods for demesmerising are the opposite to those 
 of Mesmerising. The application of cold instead of warmth, 
 rapid transverse or upward passes across the face and eyes, — 
 blowing upon the eyes, — touching or drinking cold water, 
 raising a current of fresh air by waving a handkerchief, and 
 opening the door, — cold steel, as, for instance, the fire-ironsi, 
 * Page 134. t Zoist, vol. iii. p. 41. 
 
330 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 applied to the forehead, — are the plans most generally adopted. 
 Some succeed best with one case, and some with another. The 
 sleeper on awakening should always have time given him to 
 recover, before he be addressed. 
 
 It is a good regulation, in cases of a serious or unpleasant 
 illness, for the Mesmeriser to wash his hands immediately after 
 the seance is over, both to avoid the retaining any bad effects 
 himself, or communicating the same to others. Allusion has 
 not been made to the necessity of cleanliness, as preliminary to 
 the manipulations : it is so obvjous and indispensable, that 
 reference would appear idle. I mention it, however, because I 
 believe that ablution actually assists the transmission of the 
 influence, — that a well-washed hand •will communicate the 
 power both more readily as well as more pleasantly. 
 
 The above are those general rules, that apply to the young 
 practitioner's first essay with Mesmerism, Gauthier and other 
 T"rench writers from thence proceed to the most minute in- 
 structions, — turning a simple process into a wearisome study. 
 Without denying the correctness of their views, I shall confine 
 myself to those further points in the practice, which the most 
 experienced magnetists appear to regard as most important. 
 
 Among the first, is the exertion of the will. Many Mes- 
 merists attach the greatest value to the power of the will 
 towards effecting an impression, and some have produced 
 the greatest marvels by its means. In two small pamphlets in 
 the British Museum, published in 1790, and written by prac- 
 tical men, the greatest stress is placed on willing. " Let there 
 be a constant intention within you : keep up an idea of the 
 -complaint that you wish to remove." " Constant intention is a 
 great promoter of success, strange as it may seem." " Exert 
 the will, — determine to do good." " Exert all the volition 
 you are possessed of." This point is pressed over and over 
 again by both writers with the greatest earnestness ; and later 
 Mesmerists use the same language. In the fifth volume of the 
 Zoist, are two very striking letters from Dr. Ashburner, and 
 Mr. Thompson " On the Power of the "Will."* Deleuze says, 
 that " the first condition of magnetising is to will, — that the 
 
 * Page 253. 
 
WARMTH. 331 
 
 will is necessary to conduct the fluid, and to maintain a proper 
 action ;" and Mr. Townshend, in his chapter on the "Mesmeric 
 Medium," enters at length on the subject. " When attention 
 remits," he says, " there is a remission of Mesmeric power : " 
 and he mentions an instance of a patient, who, although he had 
 his eyes closed and his limbs paralysed in the torpor of the 
 Mesmeric slumber, was not slow to perceive the wanderings of 
 his attention, and called out to him constantly and coincidently 
 with the remission of his thoughts, — " You influence me no 
 longer — you are not exerting, youKielf."* 
 
 Another valuable adjuvant is^' Warmth. Jussieu stated in 
 his report that Warmth (chaleur animale) was a principal 
 source of magnetic success. Gauthier says that the communi- 
 cation of Warmth is one of the causes of magnetic somnam- 
 bulism. Dr. Esdaile has pointed out the great importance of 
 Warmth for the happy termination of surgical operations ia 
 the Mesmeric sleep ; and Dr. EUiotson observes, " This is an 
 opportunity for stating the greater Mesmeric susceptibility of 
 persons, and the greater power of Mesmerisers, if the respective 
 party is warm. The apartment, the two parties, and the Mes- 
 merising hand should be comfortably warm. Patients have 
 frequently assured me that the effect of my passes was muck 
 less when my hand was cold, though I felt elsewhere warm and 
 comfortable. All the susceptibilities and powers of a living 
 frame, even the power of thinking, are lessened by cold."f 
 
 Experiments are also very useful, and rather to be encou- 
 raged than otherwise. When the brain of the sleeper has be- 
 come to a degree active, and he has passed from the stupor 
 into what is called sleep-waking, the more a cheerful conversa- 
 tion is carried on the better ; some patients, indeed, do not like 
 to be spoken to, or to answer ; some, on the contrary, are 
 
 * Townshend's Facts, p. 310. 
 
 ■f Zoist, Tol. vi. p. 6. Maxwell, in the old Treatise so often referred to, 
 considers that diseases and health are communicated from man to man, and 
 mentions various ways : among them he mentions the insensible perspiration. 
 " Sudor, igitur, et insensibilis dicta a medicis perspiratio, non mere excre- 
 mentitia sunt, verum etiam resolutas corporis particulas secum vehere con- 
 vincitur. Hinc fit, ut in Medicina Magnetica maximi usus sint,"&c.— 
 Liber ii. cap. 16. 
 
 z 3 
 
832 IVfESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 annoyed if they are not addressed ; witli the majority, I should 
 say, that it were desirable to converse a little. If, however, 
 the patient has not passed into the sleep-waking state, "the 
 deeper the sleep can be made by breathing, continued passes, 
 laying the fingers over the eye-balls, or the hand upon the head, 
 or by experiments made with traction, rigidity, &c., the greater 
 the good. Not, however, always," (adds Dr. EUiotson) : " I 
 have seen a few patients who suffered if the sleep was made so 
 deep that they could not converse." * Experiments, also, with 
 metals, and with mesmerised water, are also very useful. ■ The 
 application of gold to a joint stiffened by rheumatism, or dis- 
 ease, often brings on a quasi-galvanic action, and is most ser- 
 viceable. Too deep a sleep, however, " produced by metals, or 
 water, or in any other way, may overpower the system, and 
 greatly exhaust the strength." 
 
 Experiments with crystals are useful. Several of my patients 
 tave declared that when they have held in their hands, or on 
 their lap, a piece of quartz, or of carbonate or sulphate of 
 lime, they have found the Mesmeric influence act more rapidly, 
 and their sleep rendered more deep. If traction can be induced, 
 by the application of a crystal, so much the better. 
 
 The notion with inexperienced persons is, that experiments 
 do harm, and fatigue the sleeper. The very reverse is the fact, 
 provided that they are not pushed to an extravagant length. 
 The patient, on awakening, feels rather refreshed and strength- 
 ened than otherwise.f 
 
 It may here be appropriate to allude to a fact, which is one 
 of the most convincing proofs of the truth of Mesmerism, and 
 one at which medical men seem always staggered, — I mean the 
 good sleep at night that so generally succeeds the Mesmeric 
 
 * Zoist, vol. iv. p. 472. 
 
 •|- " This is one of the most striding things in Mesmerism : that persons 
 very weak, perhaps exhausted by previous exertion, shall be thrown into the 
 Mesmeric sleep-waking, and be kept in constant muscular action, perhaps 
 extending their arms and legs, or in a state of rigid flexion, forced into and 
 retained in the most awkward, and one would think painful attitudes, such 
 as they could not support a hundredth part of the time in the natural state, 
 and on being awakened, know nothing more than that they feel much 
 
 stronger and better than before you sent them to sleep." EUiotson. Zoist, 
 
 vol. i. p. S2S. 
 
GOOD SLEEP AT NIGHT. 333 
 
 slumber. If an invalid, who is but an indifferent sleeper, doses 
 in the evening for about an hour, or obtains repose during the 
 day through the influence of narcotics, we too generally hear that 
 the sleep at night has suffered in consequence. This is so common 
 an occurrence, that many sick people exert themselves of an 
 evening to avoid sleep. It is the very opposite with Mesmerism. 
 I have very rarely known (so rarely, indeed, that it amounts to 
 an exception) a patient say that his sleep at night had not been 
 improved by the previous Mesmeric slumber. Some most 
 disturbed sleepers have often declared that they have enjoyed 
 a most refreshing night's rest after their magnetic trance ; .and 
 that the more lengthened was the Mesmeric sleep, the sounder 
 and better was the one that followed. Now, how is this re- 
 markable point to be explained, but by the fact, that Mesmerism 
 is a condition sui generis; that its sleep is distinct from common 
 sleep, and that its influence on the human frame is of a peculiar 
 and abnormal character ? 
 
 The effect of the presence or absence of the Mesmeriser is a 
 point for observation. " When a patient can be left asleep, it 
 is a happy circumstance, and we ought always to attempt it the 
 first time" * And I would add, that if you succeed the first 
 time, you wiU rarely find any diflSculty at a subsequent sitting. 
 And here it will be as well to notice by the way the importance 
 of not " humouring " a patient unnecessarily at the commence- 
 ment of a treatment. Somnambulists are very encroaching and 
 exigeant, and the more that their fancies are complied with, the 
 more will they require.f Many sleepers imagine that they 
 cannot be left, especially if they are asked about it, by whom, 
 if the Mesmeriser retires cautiously and gently, no inconveni- 
 ence is felt. " When it is found that the patient cannot be left 
 without distress, we must remain. In some instances this will 
 wear off." " I have a patient who dashes violently after me if 
 I attempt to go to another part of the room ; another holds one 
 or both of my hands all the time I am with her, and cannot be 
 
 • ElUotson. Zoist, vol. iv. p. 472. 
 
 + Deleuze says, " If your somnarabule be capricious, you must oppose 
 him, in expressing your own will, without discussion. Never suffer your- 
 self to be managed by him. If he have fancies that you disapprove, employ 
 your ascendency over him to conquer them." (p. 126.) 
 
 z4 
 
334 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 prevailed upon to let me retire." * On these occasions, the 
 Magnetiser must act with kindness and judgment. 
 
 Another point for consideration is, whether a sleeper can 
 bear the touch or pi-oximity of a third person. To some 
 sleepers, the near approach of even their dearest relatives is 
 most painful and distressing, and ought, therefore, to be avoided. 
 If, however, contact be for any reasons necessary, a rapport 
 should be gradually induced between them, by the Mesmerisei; 
 holding each party by the hand, and placing them in commu- 
 nication gently, and by degrees.f '; , '-5';fe ' 
 
 A sitting should not commence intmediately after full eating, 
 while digestion is first proceeding either with the patient or 
 the operator. Deleuze says, however, that it is sometimes 
 desirable for the Magnetiser to eat a little, to avoid exhaustion 
 or fatigue. Temperance and moderation are valuable qualifical- 
 tions in a Mesmeriser. 
 
 If Mesmerism be applied locally, and pains shift themselves 
 and descend, it is an admirable sign; .c!f The displacement of a 
 malady," says Deleuze, "proves the tfficacy of the magnetism." 
 If pains even increase, there is no cause for alarm. They often 
 do at first ; and it proves that an action has commenced in the 
 system. The Mesmeriser should endeavour to attract them 
 downwards, and out at the feet. 
 
 If the eyes of the patient be unpleasantly closed after he is 
 awakened, or his eyelids feel stiff, or his limbs or jaws rigid, 
 relaxation may be obtained by the Mesmeriser breathing upon 
 them. This is an important fact for a young Mesmeriser to 
 remember. His breath may release himself and his patient 
 from many an embarrassment. 
 
 I have already spoken, in a previous chapter, of the value of 
 firmness and patience, should any thing unusual arise. Calm- 
 ness and perseverance wiU always carry a Mesmeriser through 
 every crisis. Nothing serious has ever been known to result 
 
 * EUiotson. Zoist, vols. v. and ii. 
 
 t The meaning of being en rapport, says Deleuze, is when " one individual 
 
 acts upon another by the existence of a physical sympathy between them, 
 
 and when this sympathy is well established, they are said to be en rapport" 
 Gauthier calls it, " the communication of the vital principle, and a Uni- 
 formity of movement between two persons." 
 
DISEASES AFFECTED BY MESMEEISM. 335 
 
 from any change, when the Magnetiser has not given way to 
 the apprehensions of others. 
 
 If a sleeper be only partially awakened, or if a disturbing 
 effect remain after he is demesmerised, the patient should be 
 thrown back into a deep sleep again, and allowed to remain so 
 for some minutes ; the evil effects wiU then generally pass off, 
 and the sleeper will probably wake up again, unconscious of 
 their former existence. In aU likelihood there had been some 
 little mismanagement. 
 
 Some patients of extreme susceptibility are disturbed by the 
 touch of gold, or other metallic substances ; and many Mes- 
 merisers, on that account, take off their rings or jewellery, and 
 remove their keys or purses from their pocket. If the patient 
 moves anxiously, and exhibits pain when the Mesmeriser 
 touches or approaches him^ the latter has probably some irri- 
 tating material about his person. This, however, is a point on 
 which no rule can be given ; with my patients, the touch from 
 metals has been almost invariably eificacious. 
 
 Mesmerism, however, does not always produce sensible 
 effects ; and one of our next questions is, how long must it be 
 before we abandon the hope of experiencing real benefit from 
 the treatment ? In acute attacks, it will be soon seen whether 
 Mesmerism be likely to render service ; but, in chronic cases, 
 the time is uncertain. Gauthier says, " that generally fifteen 
 days are sufficient to show whether any real effects are likely to 
 arise *, though oftentimes an influence is not perceived till at 
 the end of several months." The pages of the Zoist corroborate 
 this latter statement. Much must depend upon the feelings of 
 the patient, as to the prolongation of the treatment ; but innu- 
 merable instances of ultimate relief obtained, could teach the 
 sufferer not to be discouraged too soon. 
 
 On the other hand. Dr. Esdaile gives a caution, which it is 
 desirable for the convalescent to bear in mind. " The fewer 
 liberties we take with nature the better, the rule being never 
 to do more than enough.-' " To practise on the system," he 
 again says, " more than is necessary for the cure of disease, 
 appears to me to be a danger to be avoided in the use of Mes- 
 » T. P. p. 315. 
 
336 MESMERISM AIJD ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 imerism." In the soundness of this advice, I fully concur. 
 When the patient is fully restored to health, it is expedient 
 that the treatment should be discontinued. Dr. Elliotson 
 eays, " I have noticed, that as recovery advanced, Mes- 
 merism required to be performed less frequently ; as in a 
 tonic medicine, patients, as they improve, require a gradual 
 diminution." * 
 
 Another question often asked, is, what is the class of diseases, 
 which Mesmerism most usually deals with ? The medical man 
 has his answer ready : " nervous cases." He will tell you, 
 " hysterical and fanciful women, these are the subjects for 
 Magnetism, and the patients on whom imaginary cures have 
 been wrought." As Miss Martineau, however, observes, " No 
 mistake about Mesmerism is more prevalent than the supposi- 
 tion that it can avail only in nervous diseases. The numerous 
 cases recorded of cure of rheumatism, dropsy, and the whole 
 class of tumours, cases as distinct, and almost as numerous, as 
 those of cure of paralysis, epilepsy, and other diseases of the 
 brain and nerves, must make an inquirer cautious of limiting 
 his experiments to the nervous system. Whether Mesmerism 
 acts through the nervous system is another question." \ The 
 index of the Zoist will confirm this statement ; and without 
 enumerating the cures there recorded, it will be sufficient to 
 repeat the language of the accomplished lady, before quoted, 
 that " Mesmerism is successful through the widest range of 
 ■diseases that are not hereditary, and have not caused disorgan- 
 isation." 
 
 Epilepsy is one of the diseases for which Mesmerism is con- 
 sidered almost a specific ; in its treatment, however, there is a 
 caution which it is desirable to give to the inexperienced Mag- 
 netist. 
 
 Teste says, " an increase in the number and severity of the 
 ■fits constitutes almost always the first effect of the treatment." 
 I think that he has stated this opinion far too strongly ; it 
 ought rather to be said, that an increase in the number and 
 severity of the fits, is a not uncommon result of the Mesmeric 
 -influence, and a most favourable prognostic of a successful issue. 
 
 * Zoist, vol. i. p. 328.^ f Letters, p. 12. 
 
EPILEPSY. 337 
 
 But this increase in the fits is a distressing commencement for 
 a young Mesmeriser; he not unnaturally apprehends that he is 
 doing harm rather than good, and would be apt to suspend his 
 operations at the very moment that he has received the best 
 promise of a cure. Teste adds, " These crises soon diminish in 
 frequency and severity, and ultimately disappear altogether ;"* 
 and he gives a case or two in illustration of the fact. One of 
 them was reported by Dr. Koreff, a physician, in which a 
 " frightful succession of fits " came on, which the patient de- 
 scribed as " a stormy explosion necessary to terminate the 
 disease," after which she was perfectly restored and enjoyed 
 excellent health. {Spillan's Teste, p. 269.) Dr. EUiotson 
 mentions a case in which "for three weeks the patient had a fit 
 almost as soon as the process was commenced ; and when the 
 fit was over, the process was recommenced, and so on several 
 times at each sitting. The process then produced only a 
 shaking for a month. She continued to be mesmerised for a 
 twelvemonth, and has not had a fit now for above six years" 
 {Zoist, voL ii. 76.) 
 
 Teste says, "These violent paroxysms do not occur constantly. 
 M. Mialle's work contains a number of cases, in which the 
 disease observed an inverted course, — i. e. began by exhibit- 
 ing an amendment from the first days of treatment." (p. 269). 
 Dr. Elliotson, says, " It occasionally happens at first that the 
 process either excites a fit instead of the Mesmeric state, or a 
 fit which passes into the Mesmeric state ; or that the Mesmeric 
 state so favours the disposition to an attack that it is interrupted 
 by one, and sometimes continues when the fit is over, some- 
 times is perfectly broken up by the fit, and sometimes the 
 process of waking a patient excites a fit. But, if the process is 
 repeated, such a result ceases. When attacks occur from the 
 Mesmeric process or state, they decline after a time, and. at 
 length cease, if the course of Mesmerism is persevered with. 
 If a continuance of the passes during the fit clearly aggravates, 
 it may be proper to desist till this is over ; but in general the fit 
 yields the sooner to a steady continuance of the passes, or to 
 
 • The reader is referred back to the case of Anne Vials, and to a note at 
 p. 127. of this work. 
 
338 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPOlfENTS. 
 
 passes down the chest and back with contact, transverse passes 
 before and behind the trunk, or to what is often better, breathing 
 very slowly and assiduously upon the eyes, nose, and mouth, or 
 the bosom, and holding the patient's hands in our own ; and the 
 Mesmeric state may manifest itself in proportion as the fit is 
 subdued."* 
 
 Another question that is often asked by medical men, and 
 too generally with a sneer, is. Can Mesmerism cure organic 
 disease ? by which is meant, such an aggravation of disease in 
 the part affected as amounts to an actual alteration of structure? 
 For instance. Can Mesmerism cure an enlarged liver, or a uterine 
 cancer ? "We might ask in return, can medical men cure it ? 
 and if not, why this sneer at the presumed impotency of 
 Mesmerism ? 
 
 Of course, on a question of this kind, I am not competent 
 to offer an opinion. Some medical Magnetists assert, that 
 Mesmerism does produce such a " revolution" in the system as 
 occasionally to bring about a cure, where actual disorganisation 
 has sat in ; and in confirmation of this view they present some 
 very startling facts. Other Mesmerists, however, say, that the 
 extent of this agency goes no farther than to palliate for a 
 season, and to suspend the progress of disease. And if this be 
 all, is this nothing ? WeU does Mr. Newnham observe, " It 
 is, however, something gained, to get time, — to arrest the 
 rapidity of the downward path, — to renovate strength for a 
 while, — to induce sleep where narcotics fail, — to tranquillise 
 the nerves, — frequently to discard pain, and generally to 
 diminish suffering ; and such effects we claim for magnetism 
 over organic lajsion." f But, (as Mr. Townshend observes,) 
 " with most persons, not to cure is equivalent to doing nothing 
 at all. Is mitigation of suffering nothing in this suffering 
 world ? Who are the persons who choose to deny the advantage 
 of a remedy because it is not entirely curative ? Certainly not 
 those who are tortured by disease, nor their friends who wit- 
 ness that torture."! Let us assume, that in the whole class 
 
 • Zoist, vol. ii. p. 1 99. Dr. Storer of Bristol has been very successful in 
 treating Epilepsy by Mesmerism. See particularly, Zoist, vol. iv. p. 447. 
 t Newnham's "Human Magnetism," p. 134. 
 j Townshend's Facts. Preface. 
 
OEGANIC DISEASE. 339 
 
 of organic maladies, in cancers, or in diseases of the lungs or of 
 the liver, no final cure can be obtained,' — still it is something 
 to mitigate symptoms, and procure a partial victory over pain, — 
 most especially when the conventional arts of established prac- 
 tice have altogether failed to produce improvement. A cure, 
 indeed, may not be obtained, — but 
 
 ..." The salutary spell 
 Shall lull the penal agony to sleep."* 
 
 But, because Mesmerism may be insufficient to restore dis- 
 organised structure, this is no argument, as some employ it, 
 gainst its application in functional disorders, or in partial de- 
 rangements of the 'system. "We scarcely ever cease to hear 
 of the curative effects of the system," says Mr. Allison, an 
 opponent. " Let the reader seriously ask himself, whether Mes- 
 merism is adequate to restore an altered composition, and a 
 structural change ? May Providence aid the afflicted, who 
 trust in means so disproportionate to the object!" "Among 
 the diseases, which are supposed to be influenced by the passes, 
 paralysis occupies a prominent place. Paralysis must have a 
 cause. That cause is a disorganisation of structure in the ner- 
 vous matter ; for every properly-conducted examination after 
 death has demonstrated the existence of a structural change." + 
 Whether paralysis be organic or functional, it is certain that 
 Mesmerism has been of essential service to many afflicted with 
 the disease ; — and with all deference to the anatomists, it would 
 scarcely seem to follow, because structural change had been 
 detected in examinations conducted after death, that disor- 
 ganisation had equally existed in the earlier stages of the 
 malady. And it is for those earlier stages that I strongly urge 
 this remedy. Like galvanism and electricity, which are con- 
 stantly recommended by the faculty for the cure. Mesmerism 
 will be found to succeed, when every thing else has failed ; 
 and even in cases of long standing, to produce essential, though 
 gradual, benefit. 
 
 Deleuze, who wrote in 1825, and who is a most safe guide 
 to follow, mentioned more than sixty cures of paralysis, that 
 
 » Thalaba, book v. 
 
 \ " Mesmerism and its Pretensions," &c., by J. Allison, Surgeoni p. 50. 
 
340 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 had occurred in France through Mesmerism, up to that time. 
 Dr. Elliotson, Dr. Esdaile, and Mr. D. Hands record some cures 
 in the Zoist. And in the seventeenth number of that periodi- 
 I cal, there is a cure reported of a case of paralysis of thirty years' 
 J standing. The Eev. L.Lewis, the Mesmeriser, says, "The para- 
 lysed leg and fool which had been in a cold and withered 
 state for thirty years, are now as warm as any part of the 
 patient's frame, much larger in size, and strong enough to bear 
 her weight. She can walk many miles." 
 
 Friction of the paralysed part is particularly recommended 
 by Deleuze and Gauthier, after the patient is asleep, and when 
 the rapport is well established. 
 
 Paralytics often begin to use - their limbs in the sleep. " I 
 have seen," says Dr. Koreff, " paralytics recover the full use of 
 their limbs in somnambulism, which they lost, when awakened. 
 Gradually, however, the cure has been completed. " * Dr. 
 Elliotson mentions a case in point, where by tractive passes he 
 made a young paralytic elevate his head and walk after him. 
 " The father and mother were petrified, and called in their 
 people from the shop to witness the strange sight of their child 
 with his head nodding in sleep, and slowly moving after me, 
 though unable to raise his head an inch or move his legs at all 
 a quarter of an hour before." Dr. E. adds afterwards, that 
 " he is in perfect health." ^ 
 
 It is unnecessary, however, to recapitulate every disease to 
 which Mesmerism is applicable. Let it be tried on every 
 occasion, when circumstances render it convenient, — not, as 
 was before remarked, in antagonism to the physician, but 
 as subsidiary to his kind and practised care. J 
 
 The student would probably be glad to know that modern 
 writers divide the Mesmeric condition " into several states or 
 stages, which are not always found to occur in the same in- 
 
 • Koreff, p. 445. • f Zoist, vol. i. 
 
 I Coleridge, in a note to Southey's Wesley, alludes to "the successful 
 application of Animal Magnetism in four or five cases of suspended anima- 
 tion ; in two of them, every known means had been used for six hours to 
 no purpose, and for which the Emperor of Russia, who was present, and the 
 King of Prussia, had a medal struck, one of which, in gold, was siven to 
 Dr. Wolfant." (p. 508.) s ' S 
 
DIFFEEENT STAGES OF MESMERIC CONDITION. 341 
 
 dividual, — sometimes one only appearing, sometimes another, 
 and sometimes two or three in succession." * Gauthier classifies 
 the condition under four heads. Some Mesmerists distinguish 
 as many as seven degrees. 
 
 Perhaps the most accurate division may be as follows. 
 
 First, — the simple sleep, without phenomena of any de- 
 scription. 
 
 Secondly, — the deep sleep or coma, in which the sleeper 
 speaks to the Mesmeriser, and exhibits attachment, or sym- 
 pathy, or attraction, according to the passes, and insensibility 
 to pain. 
 
 Thirdly, the sleep-waking state, in which the patient con- 
 verses freely, and often noisily, with the Mesmeriser, and shows 
 community of taste and sensation, &c. 
 
 It is this peculiar freedom of manner, that is exhibited by 
 the sleep-waker in this stage, which is often so perplexing to 
 the stranger and to the incredulous. The sceptic cannot un- 
 derstand it, and will not believe it to be genuine. In short, he 
 deems it the most impudent part of the whole imposture, 
 though, in truth, .it is one of the most convincing points as to 
 the reality of Mesmerism. Dr. Forbes, in a paper in the 
 Medical Gazette, on his search for clairvoyance f, speaks of a 
 sleeper " waking up in the brisk pert humour common to the 
 so-called somnambulists." This " brisk pert humour," however, 
 is what I have seen manifested in the sleep-waking state, by 
 all classes of patients, by the most ignorant and the most 
 refined, — by those whose delicacy of taste would shrink from 
 thus exhibiting themselves, and by those who had never seen 
 or heard of Mesmerism. Mr. Townshend says, " Mesmerised 
 persons speak with a freedom, instances of which being related 
 to them in their waking condition cause them surprise and 
 even vexation." | I have had patients apologise to me for 
 what I told them they had said or done during their sleep, 
 and evidently were more than half-incredulous as to its truth. 
 Dr. Elliotson observes, " The generality of this striking efiect is 
 
 * Professor Gregory, p. 7. 
 
 f " Notes of another Trial with the Mesmerists," by Dr. Forbes. 
 
 I Townshend, p. 208, 
 
342 JIESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 one proof of the reality of the Mesmeric state. This happy 
 feeling of equality depends upon the cerebral character and 
 education of the patient. Those, whose familiar conversation 
 (when awake) is marked by levity, may, in the Mesmeric state, 
 rattle and be rude, — and then, if there is a degree of delirium 
 mixed with it, the conduct begets a suspicion of imposition."* 
 Dr. Esdaile describes how the same freedom of manner de- 
 veloped itself among the Hindoos. He mentions a case, where 
 (to use his own language), " those who did not see the som- 
 nambulist, may imagine how little the poor fellow knew what 
 he was about, when they are told that he took the " longitude " 
 of the Judges of the Supreme Court with the cool impudence 
 and precision of a cabman. \ But the most striking instance is 
 that recorded by Mr. Eliot Warburton, of what occurred at 
 Damascus, with a black slave, whom he Mesmerised. The 
 sleeper, with a fearful howl, suddenly started to his feet, flung 
 wide his arms, seized a large vase of water and dashed it into 
 fragments, smashed a lantern into a thousand bits, and rushed 
 about the court-yard. All this was done by a slave in the 
 presence of his master ! When awakened, he was quite un- 
 conscious of all that he had done, but described his sensations 
 as having been delightful, that of perfect freedom, of a man 
 with all his rights, such as he had never felt before in his 
 life.t 
 
 The fourth stage is that of clairvoyance and of the ecstatico- 
 prophetic, in which the sleeper appears to acquire new senses, 
 I and obtains with the vulgar the reputation of the miraculous. 
 Clairvoyance has several degrees, and various powers. Mental 
 travelling, thought-reading, prevision, introvision, pure clair- 
 voyance, are the terms most generally employed to describe the 
 highest phenomena. Of these, introvision, by which the clair- 
 voyant is enabled to see the structure of the human frame, and 
 
 * Zoist, vol. iii. p. 356. t Esdaile's India, p. 113. 
 
 ^f See " Crescent and Cross," vol. ii. p. 320. Dr. RadclyfFe Hall, speaking 
 of a curious instance of the effects of ether on a lady, says, " Her manner of 
 expressing her opinion during her ether-dreaming, though free from the 
 slightest immodesty, was far removed from the reserve which a knowledge of 
 the presence of those around would have occasioned." — Lancet, March, 1847. 
 When this absence of reserve occurs in Mesmerism, it is called imposture. 
 
CLAIEVOYANCE. 343 
 
 report the condition of a diseased organ, would seem to be the 
 most useful. • 
 
 Clairvoyance is a fatiguing and exhausting condition. The 
 presence of sceptics has a disturbing effect f: it is not always 
 the same on all occasions, (most especially, it is said, with 
 women ;) and if the faculty be overworked, it will fail alto- 
 gether. 
 
 Clairvoyants are very vain of what they can perform, and 
 are fond of creating wonder. If the Mesmeriser encourages 
 display, their vanity will increase and their wonders also. This 
 has been the source of much imposture, and of discredit to 
 Mesmerism. 
 
 In short, — to be useful should be the first study with the 
 Mesmerist. Man does not live for himself alone. Man must 
 be reared by man ; must be taught by man ; must be comforted 
 and healed by man. We are all necessary the one to the other ; 
 we are all formed from the same clay, and are hastening to the 
 same end ; — and while our sojourn continues on this earth, 
 are all intimately identified with each other's happiness. As 
 that wild, but powerful writer, Thomas Carlyle, — in one of 
 the wildest and most powerful of his writings, — " The French 
 Revolution," — speaking on the very subject of this work, says : 
 " And so under the strangest new vesture, the old great truth 
 begins again to be revealed, — that man is what we call a 
 miraculous creature, with miraculous power over men ; and on 
 the whole, with such a life in him, and such a world round him, 
 as victorious Analysis, with her physiologies, nervous systems, 
 physic and metaphysic, wiU never completely name ; to say 
 nothing of explaining." 
 
 The task to which I have so anxiously devoted myself, is 
 now completed; and my readers must judge with what success. 
 
 " See Appendix I. for instances of Clairvoyance unconnected with Mes- 
 merism. 
 
 + Baron Feucbterleben observes, " The presence of an indifferent or in- 
 credulous spectator excites their antipathy, and they produce their most 
 astounding wonders only before believers, a fact of which I have often con- 
 vinced myself." — Medical Psychology, p. 209. 
 
 A A 
 
5544 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 I have endeavoured to show that there is in Mesmerism the 
 existence of a power which, if properly directed and controlled, 
 may be found eminently serviceable in increasing the happiness 
 of human kind. 
 
 I have endeavoured to prove this position by numerous in-i 
 stances confirmed by observation and experiment. 
 
 I have respectfully invited the attention of the medical world 
 to a philosophic consideration of the uses of this power, 
 
 I have shown that the vague charge of Satanic action is one 
 which has been renewed at every fresh and mysterious dis- 
 covery, — that it is a charge, too, which often proceeds less 
 from the grossest ignorance than the interested motives of the 
 inventor. 
 
 I have endeavoured to prove that our knowledge of Mes- 
 merism does, in no degree, affect our belief in real miracles, 
 and in the doctrines of Scripture, though it may throw light 
 upon many of those secrets respecting the relationship of mind 
 and matter, which have hitherto appeared miraculous or per- 
 plexing, according as the priest or philosopher have respectively 
 regarded them. 
 
 And, lastly, I have given a few plain rules in mesmerising, 
 for those who wish to employ the art for the benefit of their 
 family and of their sick friends. 
 
 And now nothing remains but to congratulate the friends of 
 truth, at the marked and steady progress that the great cause 
 is making. The adversaries may be numerous and influential, 
 — but their number is diminishing daily. The established 
 leaders of the medical profession, who have fixed the principles 
 of their practice, and desire no disturbance in their views from 
 the detection of a fresh and unknown law in nature ; — a de- 
 creasing proportion of the Evangelical clergy, whose unfortu- 
 nate love of popularity and power tempts them to uphold their 
 otherwise well-deserved eminence by fanatical denunciations of 
 the first object that perplexes them ; — every weak and nervous 
 woman, who deems it one of the privileges of the sex to 
 surrender her reasoning faculties into the guidance of some 
 favourite and spiritual adviser ; — and, lastly, the large portion 
 of the public that hates to think for itself, — that loathes every 
 
CONCLUSION. 343 
 
 thing which is new, — that calls reformation revolution, — and 
 prefers a vapid uniformity of existence, to the animating plea- 
 sures of knowledge and discovery ; these are the opponents of 
 Mesmerism ; and with these any controversy is worse than 
 useless. How cheering is the opposite side of the picture! 
 The friends of the art are those of whom any cause might be 
 proud. Men of science, — men of philosophy, — men whose 
 benevolence is as wide and practical as their intellects are clear 
 and commanding ; these are our guides and champions in this 
 glorious field of Christian usefulness, and under their banners a 
 day of complete success cannot be far distant. But they are 
 not merely a few select and leading minds that rank among its 
 advocates ; large bodies of men are taking up the question. It 
 is a fact that a numerous portion of the junior members of the 
 medical profession are alive to the truths of Mesmerism, and 
 only biding their time till the ripened mind of the public gives 
 them a signal for its more general adoption. It is a fact that 
 very many individuals among the younger portion of the 
 clergy, are conscious of the medicinal value of the science, and 
 are introducing its practice as one of their means of parochial 
 usefulness.* Nay, the two extremes of the great social pyramid 
 are both exerting their energies in the same direction. Me- 
 chanics' Institutes are taking the subject up ; and many of the' 
 operatives in the North, and in the manufacturing towns, have- 
 experienced a sense of its domestic benefit.f But it is among- 
 our haute nohlesse itself that the strongest division of sup- 
 porters may perhaps be found. Some of the leading members; 
 of the aristocracy are practising the art for the benefit of their 
 poorer brethren ; and very many are giving to the subject a 
 patient and anxious investigation. It is, indeed, one of the- 
 most favourable signs of the times — in spite of the fearful 
 storms that seem to cloud the social horizon — this growing 
 disposition on the part of all ranks of the community to devote 
 
 * See, for instance, an article in The Christian Jiemem^ravcer recommend- 
 ing the practice. This article, it is well known, was written by a near rela- 
 tion of one of our ablest bishops. 
 
 + In confirmation of the above, I see that Mr. Parker states, that " Mes- 
 merism is resorted to in Exeter by the industrious classes as a most extra- 
 ordinary remedial agent." — Zoist, vol. v. p. 155. 
 
 A A i! 
 
346 MESMEEISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 
 
 themselves most extensively to the useful and to the instruc- 
 tive. There is, perhaps, at this moment no single department 
 of science or general literature which cannot boast amongst its 
 followers one or two most accomplished members from out of 
 the circle of the British aristocracy. And Mesmerism is no 
 exception to the progressive character of their studies. In 
 short, as Mr. Chenevix said a few years back, Mesmerism is 
 ESTABLISHED. Nothing but a general convulsion of society — 
 a loss of the art of printing, and a return to the barbarous con- 
 dition of those of old, can, humanly speaking, roll back that 
 current of knowledge on the subject which is growing and ex- 
 panding every year. Soon, vei-y soon, will it be an acknow- 
 ledged — an admitted branch of medical practice. And when 
 that day shall at length arrive — when the mists of prejudice 
 and bigotry shajl be dispersed before the glowing splendours of 
 the Sun of truth, and men shall look back in wonder at that 
 hardened incredulity which checked its onward progress — let 
 it never be forgotten who it was that in this country first placed 
 the question on its legitimate footing, — who it was that first 
 took the practice out of the hands of the charlatan, and added 
 its multiplied and profound resources to the former stores of 
 the healing art, — who it was that, risking the loss of friends, 
 the loss of income, the loss of elevated standing in his own pro- 
 fession, stepped out manfully and truthfully from the timid 
 -crowd, and asserted the claims of this great discovery to a place 
 within the circle of the medical sciences : and when the ques- 
 tion is asked who it was that so boldly ventured on this un- 
 trodden ground, a grateful posterity will respond with the name 
 of John Elt.iotson. But it will also be added, that he lived 
 to see his calumniated art acknowledged and pursued ; that he 
 iived to see the stream of professional success flowing back to 
 him with the full tide of popular support ; that he lived to see 
 every statement which he had advanced, every treatment which 
 he had adopted, established and confirmed ; and that as one of 
 the first physicians of the age, first in practice, and first in 
 reputation, he was classed with the proudest names of that 
 honourable band, 
 
 " Qui sui memores fecere merendo." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 INSTANCES OF CLAIKVOTANCE UNCONNECTED WITH 
 MESMERISM. 
 
 The great use to which Clairvoyance may be turned, — is the 
 detection of disease through intro-vision, or, in other words, the 
 inspection of the inner and vital portions of the human frame, such 
 as the lungs, the heart, the liver, &c., and the report of their con- 
 dition for the guidance of the practitioner. 
 
 The question, however, that first presents itself is this, — does 
 such a faculty exist in nature } 
 
 Mr. E. Fry's " Report of an Examination of a case of Clair- 
 voyance at Plymouth before a Committee," as given in the fourth 
 volume of the Zoist, — is one of the most convincing statements 
 that I have ever read. 
 
 Dr. Ashburner's letter, in the twenty-first number of the Zoist, 
 narrating some experiments, made by himself and others, is startling 
 in the extreme. His high character, and his competency for an 
 examination, place the question in a strong light. 
 
 The case of Alexis Didier was genuine. Unfortunately, he was 
 so overworked on his visit to England, through the mercenary 
 activity of his employer, — that frequent failures attended the 
 exhibition, and a report spread everywhere, that " Alexis was an 
 impostor." I saw him, on four different occasions, upon his first 
 arrival in London, and am satisfied as to the realities of his power. 
 
 An ably written article in the " Critic " for February, 184<4, says, 
 
 " We have no hesitation in asserting as the result of accurate 
 
 experiment, that there is a state of human existence, in which the 
 mind perceives external objects through some, other medium than tha 
 
 A A 3 
 
348 APPENDIX. 
 
 wonted media of the senses, and that in this state the mind perceives 
 things imperceptible in its natural condition." Startling as this 
 position isj — there is no escaping from the fact. Long hefore 
 Mesmer appeared, or Mesmerism was practised, — have such facts 
 been stated on the most unquestionable authority. What is the 
 manner, by which these effects are produced, is another and difficult 
 question, — for the solution of which, in the present state of know- 
 ledge, — we are little prepared. Whether jt be, as the writer in 
 the "Critic" suggests, "by a sixth* sense of which in our or- 
 dinary condition of existence we are not conscious, and which is 
 developed only under certain circumstances ; " — or whether, " by 
 an extraordinary quickening of the senses, so that they catch 
 sights and sounds invisible and inaudible to us;" — whether, 
 " by the partial severance of tlie immaterial mind from its mate- 
 rial tenements, and its perception of things directly without the 
 intervention of those senses through which only it is usually 
 permitted to hold intercourse with the material world ; " or whe- 
 ther it be '■' by a mysterious or unexplained sympathy ; " what- 
 ever be the hypothesis, — the fact is certain, and cannot admit 
 of contradiction. The useful point, however, to be borne in mind, 
 is this, — that these phenomena have occurred without the action of 
 animal magnetism. In a useful little work by Mr. Edwin Lee on 
 Clairvoyance f, — which, all who are interested on the subject 
 should reatJ, — there is a quotation from a German work on prac- 
 tical religion, which is corroborative of the opinion. " Nevertheless, 
 it is not to be denied that we are but learners in our investigation^ 
 into the secrets of nature, and that what appears to us to be incom- 
 preheiisible, is not, on that account, to be denied altogether. We 
 row know, for instance, that the human soul, which employs for its 
 instrument as regards earthly things the nervous system more par- 
 ticularly, can also feel and perceive beyond the sphere of the nerves. 
 We know that in certain conditions of nervous disorder, man may 
 possess increased powers, may perceive distant things, which are 
 separated from him by an interval of many miles. We know that 
 in some states of the nervous system, persons can see with firmly 
 closed eyes, — can hear with closed ears. We have examples of 
 this in sormiambulists (natural sleep-walkers) — who during the com- 
 plete sleep of their bodies, perform things which in their waking state 
 they were unable to accomplish. Thus, herein shows itself very 
 
 * Wienholt, who lias written so ably on the subject, altogether rejects the 
 sixth sense. See Cokjuhoun's Translation, p. 126. 
 
 t " Report on the Phenomena of Clairvo^'ance," by Edwin Lee, Esq. 
 (Churchill, Prince's Sheet, Soho.) 
 
APPENDIX,. 349 
 
 clearly an activity of the human soul altogether independent of its 
 outward senses. But, in point of fact, it is not the eyes which see, 
 nor the ears which hear ; it is the soul which sees, hears, and per- 
 ceives by means of the nerves, which are distributed over the whole 
 surface of the body, and the powers of which are almost redoubled 
 in the apparatus of the senses, smell, feeling, &c. * 
 
 A few instances of Clairvoyance, occurring spontaneously in a 
 natural state, shall he here adduced in confirmation of the above 
 statement. The case of Somnambulism, which is reported on the 
 authority of the Archbishop of Bordeaux, was alluded to in the 
 Third Chapter. There the young ecclesiastic wrote and read with 
 his eyes closed, and when an opaque body was interposed by the 
 archbishop between them and the paper. 
 
 Here is a case of hysteria, with extraordinary acuteness of some 
 of the senses. It was communicated by Sir G. S. Mackenzie, Bart, 
 to the Editor of the Edinburgh Phrenological Journal : — 
 
 "Dear Sib, 
 " The following copy of a letter from a clergyman was sent to 
 me nearly six years ago, at a time when Mesmerism had not attracted 
 my notice. The case referred to in it was evidently one of natural 
 sleep-walking ; and it is to be regretted that so little of it is known, 
 as it appears to have been one of great interest. Now that the 
 subject is better and more generally understood, we may hope that 
 such cases, when they occur, will not be concealed. 
 
 " Youis faithfully, 
 «24th October, 1843. G. S. Mackenzie." 
 
 "'Dear Sib, "' 24th January, 1838. 
 
 " ' It is perfectly true that our poor friend, who has now been 
 some months with us, presents one of those singular and almost 
 incredible cases of hysterical or nervous affection which are at distant 
 intervals witnessed under the dispensation of the Almighty. 
 
 " ' The overthrow of the regular functions of the nervous system 
 was occasioned by the almost sudden death of her father, to whom 
 she was most fondly attached, who was seized with illness during 
 her absence from him, and died a few hours after she returned to 
 her home. 1 cannot enter into any longer details of the case, which 
 has been attended with all those varieties which have long charac- 
 terised the complaint, among medical men, as the Protean disorder. 
 The extraordinary powers communicated to the other senses by the 
 temporary suspension of one or two of them, are beyond credibility to 
 
 » Mesmer has remarked, that the " whole system of nerves becomes eye 
 and ear." — See Gauthier, p. 585. 
 
 A A 4 
 
350 APPENDIX. 
 
 all those who do not witness it ; and I really seldom enter into any 
 of the details, because it would be but reasonable that those who 
 have not seen should doubt the reality of them. All colours she 
 can distinguish with the greatest correctness by night or day, 
 whether presented to her on cloth, silk, muslin, wax, or even glass 
 
 — and this, I may safely say, as easily on any part of the body as 
 with the hands, although, of course, the ordinary routine of such an 
 exhibition of power takes place with the hands, the other being that 
 of mere curiosity. Her delicacy of mind and high tone of religious 
 feeling are such, that she has the greatest objection to make that 
 which she regards in the light of a heavy affliction from God, a matter 
 of show or curiosity to others, although to ourselves, of course, all 
 these unusual extravagances of nervous sensibility are manifest for at 
 least twelve out of every twenty -four hours. She can not only read with 
 the greatest rapidity any writing or print that is legible to us, music, 
 &c., with the mere passage of her fingers over it, whether in a dark 
 or light room (for her sight is for the most part suspended when 
 under the influence of the attack or paroxysm, although she is per- 
 fectly sensible, nay, more acute and clever than in her natural 
 state) ; but, within this month past, she has been able to collect the 
 contents of any printing or MS. by merely laying her hand on the 
 page, without tracing the lines or letters ; and I saw her, last night 
 only, declare the contents of a note just brought into the room, in 
 this way (when I could not decipher it myself without a candle), 
 ^nd with a rapidity with which I could not have read it by daylight. 
 I have seen her develop hand-writing by the application of a note 
 to the hack of her hand, neck, or foot ; and she can do it at any 
 time. There is nothing unnatural in this ; for, of course, the ner- 
 vous susceptibility extends all over the surface of the body, but use 
 and habit cause us to limit its power more to the fingers. Many, 
 even medical, men take upon themselves to declare that we are aHi 
 (her medical attendants as well) under a mere delusion. We ask 
 none to believe any thing if they prefer not to do so, and only reply 
 
 — The case is equally marvellous either way; either that this our 
 poor patient should be thus afflicted, or that eighteen or nineteen 
 persons of my family and friends, in the daily habit of seeing her, 
 should fancy she is, for every twelve hours out of twenty-four, 
 doing, at intervals, that which she is not doing. There are many 
 exhibitions of extravagant powers which she possesses, that we talk 
 of to no one ; for, finding it difficult to acquire credit for lesser 
 things, we do not venture on the greater. Her power ceases the 
 moment the attack passes off. A considerable swelling has at times 
 been visible at the back of the head, which has yielded to the treat- 
 ment. 
 
APPENDIX. 351 
 
 " ' It is certainly a case which would be an instructive one in the 
 consideration of the physiology of the human frame ; hut she, poor 
 thing ! is most averse to experiments being purposely made on her : 
 hut in her every- day life among us, we have no lack of proof for all 
 we believe and know, 
 
 " ' Between the attacks she is as perfectly in a natural state as 
 ever she was in her life. There is but one paradox in her state, 
 and that is, -that she can at such times hear some sounds and not 
 others, though very much louder, — and see some things ^d not 
 others, though placed before her. She could hear a tune whistled, 
 when she would not hear a gun fired close to her. It is certainly 
 the absorption or absence of mind that occasions this : absent to some 
 things, though present to others, like any absent man ; and thus Dr. 
 Y accounts for it. 
 
 " ' In making this communication to you, in part to vindicate the 
 
 testimony of my friend Mr. M , I have really exceeded my 
 
 usual custom and resolution ; for I do not think it fair to the poor 
 sufferer herself to make her too much the talk of others. Very few 
 believe what we tell them, and, therefore, we are in no degree anxious 
 to open our lips on the subject. All I know is, that I should not 
 have believed it myself, had I been only told of it. I must beg, 
 therefore, that you will not make any undue use of this communica- 
 tion, by handing my letter about to any one. The friend for whom 
 you ask the information is perfectly welcome to read it, or I should 
 not have written it. If the case were my own, the world should 
 be welcome to it ; but a young female of much sensibility might be 
 much embarrassed, by finding the world at large in possession of all 
 particulars on her recovery, should God so please to permit. 
 
 "'1 am, &c.' " 
 
 Mr. Colquhoun, in the " Isis Revelata," has collected several 
 similar cases. 
 
 One is the case of a boy, named Divaud, residing at Vevey. The 
 Philosophical Society of Lausanne examined into this case, and re- 
 ported the facts. The committee testify, that the boy read, when 
 his eyes were perfectly shut ; — that he wrote accurately ; " though we 
 put a thick piece of paper before his eyes, he continued to form each 
 character with the same distinctness as before." " He has told the 
 title of a book, when there was a thick plank placed between it and 
 his eyes." Many other singular circumstances are narrated of this 
 natural somnambulist. 
 
 Another instance of clairvoyance, is that of a student, who, dur- 
 ing a severe nervous complaint, experienced several attacks of som- 
 nambulism. Professor Feder of Gottingen is the authority for this 
 
352 APPENDIX, 
 
 case, Several facts are given, from which it is evident that this 
 somnamhiilist savf distinctly without the use of his eyes. 
 
 The " Transactions of the Medical Society of Breslau" mention 
 the case of a ropemaker, who was frequently overtaken by sleep, — 
 whose eyes were then firmly closed, and in this state he would coht 
 tinue his work with as great ease as when awake. But this som- 
 namhulist " could not see when his eyes were forced open." 
 
 Dr. Knoll gives the example of a gardener, who became a som- 
 nambulist, and in that state performed a variety of occupations, 
 requiring light and the use of the eyes, with which he dispensed. 
 Among other things, he put the thread through the eye of a needle, 
 and sewed his clothes. 
 
 Lord Monboddo has recorded a curious case of somnambulism, in 
 which a girl in his neighbourhood performed a variety of acts with 
 her eyes shut. 
 
 Dr. Schultz of Hamburgh mentions a patient, who wrote, and 
 distinguished colours, and recognised the numbers of cards, and cut 
 figures in paper, with her eyes fast closed. " In order to be certain, 
 that upon these occasions she made no use of her eyes, they were 
 bandaged upon the approach of the convulsions which preceded the 
 somnambulism." 
 
 Moritz's " Psychological Magazine" gives an account of ahoy, 
 who frequently fell asleep suddenly ; and although his eyes were 
 completely closed, was able to see and discriminate all objects pre- 
 sented to him. 
 
 Dr. Abercrombie in his " Intellectual Powers," and Dr. Dyce of 
 Aberdeen, in the " Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions," have 
 described cases of a very similar character ; but they have been so 
 often quoted, and are so familiar to the reader, that further reference 
 is unnecessary. 
 
 Those who are anxious to pursue the subject, should consult the 
 " Isis Revelata," (in which these cases are more fully detailed,) and 
 Dr. Wienholt's Lectures on Somnambulism. 
 
 Several other instances of Clairvoyance, independent of, and pre- 
 viously to. Mesmerism, may be adduced. 
 
 Glanviil, in his Sadducismus, mentions a boy, Richard Jones, 
 who described the clothes that people at a distance wore ; the con- 
 stable and others often tried, and " found the boy right in his de- 
 scriptions." (p. 120.) 
 
 Lebrun, in his ' ■ History of Superstitions," mentions that towards 
 the end of the fifteenth century there was a man who saw through 
 all stuffs, except those whose colour was mixed with red. (Liv. i. 
 ehap^ 6.) 
 
 In Chambers's Journal (vol. iv. N. S.) is an account of Zschokke, 
 
ArPENUIX. 353 
 
 a Swiss, who possesses this faculty, which he calls his "inward 
 sight." Some remarkable instances are given. 
 
 lu Forbes's " Oriental Memoirs " is the description of a Brah- 
 min, who possessed the Clairvoyant power in a marvellous degree. 
 {Zoist, vol. V. 130.) 
 
 In the Zoist (vol. v. p. 344. and 347.) are two other striking 
 instances of Clairvoyance, independent of Mesmerism, — one, that 
 of Goethe's grandfather ; the other, that of Swedenborg. 
 
 Teste, quoting M. Mialle, speaks of a Polish Jew, named Da;ne- 
 mark, who sees through opaque bodies in his natural sleep. " He 
 reads fluently a shut book." His son, ten years old, possesses 
 " the same faculty, but in a higher degree." (p. 404). 
 
 My friend Mr. Ashhurst Majendie tells me of a well-known 
 case of natural Clairvoyance, at St. Malo. M. Eugene Gibert, after 
 a dangerous illness, fell spontaneously into somnambulism, and 
 became Clairvoyant. He described accurately the plan of the citadel 
 of Antwerp, its being taken, &c. Several other instances of his 
 power are notorious at St. Malo. 
 
 The above facts, and others that are recorded by Petetin in his 
 Electricite Animate, and by Wienholtin his Somnambulism, — might 
 surely cause the unbeliever to hesitate, before he pronounces that 
 Clairvoyance is impossible, and not a fact in nature ! Let it be 
 again repeated, to prevent mistake, — that Mesmerism had nothing 
 to do with any of the above instances.* 
 
 No. II. 
 
 ECSTASY AND SLEEP-WAKING, AND INSENSIBILITY TO PAIN, 
 INDEPENDENT OF MESMERISM. 
 
 An accomplished writer in the Dublin University Magazine (to 
 whom I take this opportunity of confessing sundry obligations) has 
 observed that Mesmer and his disciples " have thrown light upon 
 one of the darkest chapters in the history of man ; they have 
 solved, at least partially, the riddle of those wild accusations, and 
 still wilder confessions, in virtue of which so many thousand of 
 human beings were delivered to an appalling death." * * * " It is 
 
 • In Colquhoun's Wienholt, pp. 89. 109. and 189., and in the Introduc- 
 tion, p. 17., a'l^ various observations on Clairvoyance of so philosophical a 
 nature, tliat they will well repay the student for their perusal. 
 
354 APPENDIX. 
 
 impossible to compare the appearances observable in a modern Mes- 
 meric patient with those presented by a witch or a devil-possessed 
 Nun of the period referred to, without being led to the conclusion 
 that it is one influence which affects both ; — that their states are 
 identical; that either the Mesmeric patient is a witch, or the witch 
 was nothing more than a Mesmeric patient. And this recurrence of 
 phenomena so similar, under circumstances so widely diverse, is the 
 strongest of all arguments against the supposition that the phe- 
 nomena are the result of imposture. If we find insensibility to 
 pain in the witch, or the demonopathic, we have the less reason to 
 believe the insensibility to pain, shown by the Mesmeric patient to 
 be simulated. If we find Clairvoyance, or a perception of things 
 without the ordinary range of the senses, in the witch or the demo- 
 nopathic, we have the less ground for supposing the Clairvoyance 
 of the Mesmeric patient to be a hallucination or a pretence. If we 
 observe that very strange state of things which, in the language of 
 the Mesmerists is termed rapport — a community of sensation, 
 thought, or will, between the witch and the victim of her sorceries, 
 or between the demonopathic and the exorcist, we are the less 
 warranted to assume that such rapport, as subsists between the Mes- 
 meric patient and the Mesmeriser, is a chimera, or a trick sustained 
 by collusion. And these are but a few of the points in which the 
 two classes of phenomena we speak of correspond. In the hun- 
 dreds of Mesmeric cases that have been treated, &c. * * — and in 
 the thousand cases of diabolism in its thousand forms, &c. &c. a 
 unity of character, a constant reproduction of the same leading 
 features, is to be recognised, wholly inexplicable, unless on the 
 hypothesis of a common origin, of one principle operating through- 
 out." 
 
 After narrating the most curious phenomena of the demoniacs, &c. 
 the writer asks, " Is there no where a reality corresponding to all 
 this?" 
 
 " No doubt there is such a reality : and we think that the Mes- 
 meric phenomena yield a clue, by which we may advance some one 
 or two steps, in the direction in which it lies. AVhatever the psy- 
 chic state of the witches and demonopathics of the middle ages was, 
 into the same state does the agency of Mesmerism throw the person 
 on whom it is brought to bear. It is a state sui generis, — a state 
 of great nervous disturbance, but of which no familiar form of 
 nervous disease supplies us with a definition." * 
 
 The above clearly-expressed remarks accord with much that has 
 been stated by myself in the Seventh Chapter. This writer has, 
 
 * From " An Evening with the Witch-finders." Dublin U. Magazine, 
 July, 1847. 
 
APPENDIX. 355 
 
 however, rather referred to the presumed demoniac possession of the 
 bewitched, than to imaginary miracles and divine revelations. This, 
 however, is indifferent. Accident and education determine the name. 
 What is a miracle with one people, or age, is a demoniacal visit with 
 another. 
 
 Several additional facts are herewith appended in continuation of 
 the argument of the Seventh Chapter. The points, in the respec- 
 tive cases, only are alluded to, — which will throw light upon 
 Mesmerism. 
 
 It has been shown that long and serious ill-health has been an 
 almost invariable precursor of the ecstatic condition, when the latter 
 has been induced by Mesmerism.* If we turn to the lives of those 
 Saints among the Catholics and Methodists, in whom eestasis de- 
 veloped itself spontaneously, — we shall equally trace the prepara- 
 tory stages of disease. Severe abstinence also strongly predisposes 
 for the same condition. 
 
 Ribadeneira tells us that St. Catherine of Sienna, who died in 
 1380, had been a dreadful martyr to ill health. The evil spirit 
 afflicted her, he says, with such cruel maladies and pains, that none 
 but those who witnessed them could credit the full amount. " She 
 was nothing but skin and bone, — and was a very skeleton and 
 anatomy of death." St. Catherine, it is well known, was regarded 
 as a miraculous ecstatic in her church : her dreams were most fre- 
 quent and lasting : often in her divine trances her body remained in 
 as motionless a state as if she were dead ; — she was insensible to 
 pain, and unconscious of all that was done to bring her to herself.-j- 
 
 St. Elizabeth of France, the sister of St. Louis, was another 
 ecstatic, — whose holiness " of life is celebrated in the annals of 
 French piety. This excellent but mistaken woman brought herself 
 by fastings and austerities, which were so severe as to seem to surpass 
 the power of nature, into the most fearful ill health. For six years 
 she was unceasingly attacked by fevers and other maladies. The 
 miraculous condition then came on. Sister Agnes one day called to 
 see her at the monastery, and was astonished to find her in an 
 an ecstasy. She summoned the chaplains and domestics, — who, 
 
 ♦ A patient of Mr. Charles Child's, whom he cured of neuralgia, &e., and 
 who had been long a great invalid, was a most exquisite eestatic. Her 
 countenance received an expression of devotional resignation that was 
 beautiful. Henry W. (Mr. Spencer Hall's ecstatic patient) had been an 
 invalid at an early age. His attitudes at the sound of music were extra- 
 ordinary. The severe ill health of Anne Vials, — that of a patient of Mr. 
 D. Hand's, and of another of Dr. EUiotson's, (all ecstatics,) are facts that 
 have come under my own knowledge, 
 
 t Ribadeneira, "Vies des Saints," vol. i. p. 484. 
 
336 APPENDIX. 
 
 on their arrival, seeing Elizabeth sitting up on the bed, without 
 motion, — her eyes and face fixed straight forward, — and her lips 
 only slightly stirred, from whence proceeded the words in a low 
 voice, " To him alone be honour and glory," waited some time to 
 see what would happen. At last they made a noise, and tried to 
 awaken her, but in vain : when after a time, her countenance he- 
 came "resplendent as the sun." She continued in this state, until 
 the evening, when she awoke, says Ribadeneira, like an infant in 
 a cradle. Her ecstasy was the source of religious admiration and 
 wonder. * 
 
 St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, " whose life," Bishop Lavington says, 
 "was almost one continued ecstasy," was born in 1566, in Florence, 
 and became a Religieuse of the order of our Lady of Mont Carmel. 
 In consequence of some delay and disappointment in taking the 
 " habit," or in making " profession," she fell sick and was so ex- 
 tremely ill, that her friends, supposing her to be at the point of 
 death, carried her to the altar, where she was allowed to take the 
 vows. She seems to have lain before the altar some time in a state 
 of great bodily suffering. " Upon being carried back to the in- 
 firmary," says Ribadeneira, " she became wrapt in ecstasy, and her 
 face appeared as beautiful and brilliant as the sun, and so much on 
 fire that it resembled that of the Seraphim. She kept her eyes 
 fixed on a crucifix; and this condition lasted for more than an 
 hour, and recurred every morning after the holy communion, for 
 the space of forty days. From the very commencement of her 
 ecstacies, she spoke most profoundly on divine things." Our 
 author adds, that so far from these ecstasies and raptures weakening 
 or exljausting her, they actually (like Mesmerism) gave tone and 
 strength to her system. She was able in her trances to walk from 
 one part of the convent to another, — to converse and answer ques- 
 tions, and even to work with her needle, " with as much perfection 
 as if she had been free and enjoying a perfect use of her senses." 
 Some of her needlework was exhibited and preserved, as proofs of 
 the miraculous character of her condition, f One day, she remained 
 in a state of rapture twenty hours without coming to herself. This 
 poor creature, who at times was in this state of exaltation and 
 ravissement, and consequently the admiration of all around her, 
 appears to have been a frightful sufferer. The least touch caused 
 her at times as much torture as if she had been hacked by razors 
 (hachee a coups de rasoirs), and she at last passed from this life 
 
 • Ribadeneira, vol. ii. p. 21 4. 
 
 "f My friend, Captain James, had a mesmeric patient who was quite un- 
 able to work with her needle during her natural state, but who in the sleep, 
 waking condition worked very beautifully. 
 
APPENDIX. 357 
 
 worn out by the extremity of her agony. She appears to have been 
 a patient and pious Christian, and an example of every virtue. But 
 these ecstatic dreams caused her to be considered a saint, and she 
 was beatified by Pope Urban VIII., and canonized by Pope Clement 
 IX., in 16G9.* 
 
 Lord Shrewsbury, in a second edition of his pamphlet, has re- 
 ferred to a third case of miraculous ecstacy, in which the JMesmeric 
 characteristics are not less marked than in the two that I have 
 quoted in the seventh chapter. 
 
 Domenica Barbagli, the Ecstatica of Monte San Savino, near 
 Arezzo, in Tuscany, had been as a child remarkable for her pious 
 feelings, and had suffered greatly from ill health. " She is now 
 (1842) twenty-nine years of age." "About sixteen years since, 
 she had a severe fall down stairs, which so terrified her, and other- 
 wise affected her, as to bring on convulsions and lay the foundation 
 of corporeal maladies." When Lord Shrewsbm-y saw her, she 'was 
 " confined a cripple to her bed," from whence she looked through a 
 grating into a small chapel fitted up for her especial service. " She 
 was a perfect skeleton ; — were her eyes shut, she would be like a 
 corpse." " Her reputation for piety is such that persons come from 
 a distance to consult her ; — her ecstacies only occur during, and 
 for a short time after, the mass," spontaneously ; — but " they are 
 able to be excited at the desire of her confessor, when her prayers are 
 requested on very particular occasions, for it is during her ecstacy " 
 that she performs these devotional exercises, &c., which with the 
 ignorant assume the semblance of inspiration. " When, therefore, 
 the confessor sees occasion to require it, to satisfy some urgent case, 
 she falls, at his bidding, into that state of intimate communion with 
 God which is most propitious for the purpose." The confessor, it 
 may be observed, unconsciously on his own part, exercises a Mes- 
 meric influence over the sympathies of the entranced devotee. In 
 this state, this poor bed-ridden sufferer, who is all but a corpse, 
 springs into a beautiful attitude, in which she remains for a few 
 minutes. While she was in this condition, says Lord Shrewsbury, 
 "the chaplain desired me to touch her hand, when the slightest 
 pressure of my finger npon her made her arm fall several inches, 
 and put her into a swinging motion from side to side. This move- 
 ment was considerably increased by the same person blowing at her 
 gently with his breath, so exceedingly aerial and unsubstantial is her 
 frame." This swinging motion to and fro, in her insensible state, 
 was " according to the direction from whence the breath came." 
 Meric Casaubon, in the Preface to his Treatise on Enthusiasm, 
 
 * Ribadeneira, vol. ii. p. 705. 
 
358 APPENDIX. 
 
 speaking of a " Life of Sister Katherine of Jesus," — a work which 
 was dedicated to the Queen of France, written by a Cardinal, and 
 published with the approbation of an Archbishop and the Doctors 
 of the Sorbonne, and made a sensation at the time, says, " I found 
 the book to be a long contexture of several strange ruptures and 
 enthusiasms that had happened unto a melancholic, or if you will, a 
 devout maid. In this I saw no great matter of wonder ; neither 
 could I observe much in the relation of the particulars, but what as 
 I conceived rationally probable, so I might believe charitably true. 
 I could observe, as I thought, a perpetual coherence of natural 
 causes, in every particular, which gave me good satisfaction." 
 
 Casaubon afterwards mentions the case of a baker's boy at 
 Oldenburgh in Germany, in 1581, who would fall into deep sleep or 
 ecstasies, and "prophesie many things." His prophecies seem 
 to have aflfected the people of Oldenburgh strongly. 
 
 Casaubon next mentions an entranced maid at Friburgh, in Misnia, 
 who had " ecstacies and visions, and was full of religious discourses, 
 most in the nature of sermons and godly exhortations, so that she 
 was generally apprehended to be inspired, and her speeches were 
 published under the name of divine Prophesies." On this occasion, 
 the ecstacies were in favour of Lutheranism. The popular cry was 
 loud in behalf of the maid's " inspiration," but Eberus, the clergy- 
 man, was much opposed to it, — but durst not against the public 
 ■voice, affirm that there was nothing of God's Spirit in all she said." 
 (Chapter iii. p. 72.) 
 
 The ecstatic cases among the Quakers and Methodists are of the 
 same kind. Southey, in his Life of Wesley, in speaking of the 
 " contagious convulsions " among the converts in Bedfordshire at 
 the preaching of the Methodists, says that Wesley " recorded the 
 things which occurred not as psychological — but as religious cases." 
 Numbers fell into trances : one became " stiflf" like a statue — his 
 very neck seemed made of iron," Many " began to doubt whether 
 such trances were not the work of Satan ; — with the majority, 
 however, they passed for eflfects of grace. Wesley believed and re- 
 corded them as such." * 
 
 * Southey's Life of Wesley, vol. ii. chapter xxiv. To this Coleridge 
 appended the following marginal note : — "I regret that Southey is ac- 
 quainted only with the magnetic cases of Mesraer and his immediate followers, 
 and not with the incomparably more interesting ones of Gmelin, Weinholt, 
 Eschemmeyer, Wohlfast, &c. — men whose acknowledged merits as naturalists 
 and physicians, with their rank and unimpeached integrity, raise their testi- 
 mony above suspicion, in point of veracity at least, and of any ordinary delu- 
 sion. The case Wesley saw is, in all its features, identical with that of the 
 Kharaerin, and with a dozen others in the seventh or ecstatic grade. The 
 facts it would be now quite absurd to question ; but their direct relation to 
 
APPENDIX. 359 
 
 Wesley in his Journal says, " Mr. B. came and told me Alice 
 Miller (fifteen years of age) was fallen into a trance. I went down 
 unmediately and found her sitting on a stool, and leaning against a 
 wall with her eyes open and fixed upward. 1 made a motion, as if 
 going to strike, but they continued immovable.* Her face showed 
 an unspeakable mixture of reverence and love, while silent tears 
 stole down her cheeks. Her lips were a little open, and some" 
 times moved. I do not know whether I ever saw a human face 
 look so beautiful. Sometimes it was covered with a smile, as from 
 joy mixing with love and reverence. Her pulse was quite regular. 
 In about half an hour I observed her countenance change into the 
 form of fear, pity and distress. Then she burst into a flood of tears, 
 and cried out, ' Dear Lord, they will be damned, — they will all,' 
 &c. Then again her look was composed, and full of love and joy* 
 About seven her senses returned. I asked, ' Where have you been ? ' 
 ' I have been with my Saviour, — I was in glory : I cried not for 
 myself — but for the world,' &c., with much more of the same 
 matter." 
 
 Wesley mentions several other of his disciples who fell into 
 trances. " I talked largely with Ann Thorn and two others. What 
 they aD agreed in was, — that from the moment they were entranced, 
 they were in another world, knowing nothing of what was said or 
 done by all that were round about them." 
 
 Wesley at times was cautious of committing himself : still he 
 says, that " God favoured several of his people with divine dreams, 
 others with trances and visions, to strengthen and encourage them 
 that believed, and to make his work more apparent." This is much 
 Lke what Professor Bush asserts of the lad Davis's testimony to 
 Swedenborgianism, and of Lord Shrewsbury's view respecting the 
 Tyrolese Ecstatics. The phenomena in each are of the same family : 
 all, therefore, must be supernatural, — all or none ! \ 
 
 the magnetic treatment, as effect to cause, remains as doubtful as at the 
 beginning. And these cases of the Methodists tend strongly to support the 
 negative. And yet it is singular, that of the very many well-educated men 
 who have produce(^ effects of this kind, or under whose treatment such 
 phenomena have taken place, not one should have withstood the conviction 
 of their having exerted a direct causative agency : though several have 
 earnestly recommended the suppression of the practice altogether, as rarely 
 beneficial, and often injurious, nay, calamitous." — S. T. C. 
 
 * ITiis I have seen constantly with Anne Vials in her mesmeric trances. 
 Sennert, in giving the Signa diagnostica of Catalepsis, mentions among 
 other things; " Mger apertos oculos habet, eosque fixes et immobiles, 
 palpehris veluti rigentibus, quas ne ad minas quidem claudit." Vol. iii. 
 p. 151. 
 
 f See Wesley's Journal, vol. ii. p. 464., &c. 
 
 B B 
 
360 APPENDIX. 
 
 In the Chilrch Magazine, for 1839, is a sneering account of a 
 " Methodistical servant-girl, who some thirty years back, in the 
 neighbourhood of Lynn and Wisbech, acquired the art of suspending 
 her faculties for hours together, and of lying in a state of complete 
 stupefaction, her eyes glazed as in death, and her breath every thing 
 but imperceptible. The drawing of a feather across her eye-balls, 
 and burning of feathers near her nostrils, produced no effect. She 
 pretended to see visions and receive revelations." The writer, in 
 his ignorance, charges the poor girl with having been an impostor, — 
 and takes occasion of indulging in some offensive observations on 
 Methodism. * 
 
 George Fox, the celebrated Father of Quakerism, at one period 
 of his life lay in a trance for fourteen days, — and people came to 
 stare and wonder ,at him. He had the appearance of a dead man ; 
 but his sleep was full of divine visions of glory and beauty, and 
 his followers believed that his "revelations" were the result of 
 spiritual agency working supernaturally by dreams. -f- 
 
 Job Cooper, a weaver in the state of Pennsylvania, became, in the 
 year 1774, like Rachel Baker, a sleeping preacher, and attracted the 
 usual attention. People came from considerable distances to hear 
 him. "He was insensible," — says an eye-witness, — "of all that 
 passed in his room during the paroxysm : and his articulation dur- 
 ing his preachings was remarkably distinct, and his discourses were 
 delivered with a fluency far superior to any thing he could perform 
 when awake." | 
 
 In the Gentleman's Magazine for May ] 760, is an account of 
 Joseph Payne, a lad of sixteen, who in his trances delivered a series 
 of regular theological discourses at Heading. He had formerly 
 lived servant to a farmer, who had educated him strictly in religious 
 knowledge. He attended constantly at church, — and while living 
 as post-boy with a Captain Fisher at Reading, began to preach; 
 Dr. Hooper, a medical man, ordered a candle to be lighted, and the 
 flame applied to the boy's hand while he was preaching, till a blister 
 was raised, — but no sensation was manifested. 
 
 Bishop Lavington, having quoted Bodin, a French lawyer, who, 
 in a work on Dsemonology, produced a variety of ecstatic cases that 
 had occurred before the Christian era, — observes, "Ecstacies are by 
 no means peculiar to religion, much less to the Christian." § In 
 
 * Church Magazine, June, 1839, p. 178. 
 t See " Popular Life of Fox, compiled from his Journal," &c. 
 \ " Statement of Job Cooper's Somnial Devotion," by Andrew Elicot, 
 Professor at West Point. — January, 1815. 
 § Lavington's Enthusiasm, p. 245. 
 
APPENDIX. 361 
 
 corroboration of this remark, we shall find ecstasy and sleep-waking 
 among the Hindoos. 
 
 Ward, in his history of that people, gives a description of the 
 Philosophical Sects, and of the religious austerities that they prac- 
 tised. One school was that of Patunjulu. Its leading feature was 
 " the restraining of the mind, and the confining it to internal medi- 
 tations." This was called Yogu. The effect was analogous to self- 
 induced Mesmerism. The method was this. The Yogee, in pre- 
 paring his mind for intense meditation, " first, gradually suppresses 
 the breath," — i. e. he retains his breathing for twenty-six seconds, 
 and enlarges this period till he is perfect. The ascetic then endea- 
 vours to fix his thoughts upon some act of the senses ; for instance, 
 "he places his sight and thoughts on the tip of his nose." " He must 
 practise these exercises daily, — as often and for as long a time as 
 he can. By continued action and meditation of this kind for a 
 period, the mind of the half-starved fanatic will "become truly 
 fixed," — says the treatise, — " fixed, like that of a person in a state 
 of deep sleep, who, without any union with the senses, partakes. 
 of perfect happiness." " By withholding the mind from wandering, 
 the organs are turned from their accustomed objects inwards. The 
 Yogee, who has perfected himself in all this," or in other words, 
 has induced the ecstatic or Mesmeric condition, " obtains a know- 
 ledge of the past and of the future,'' — '' discovers the thoughts and 
 hearts of others," — " becomes acquainted with the anatomy of the 
 human body," — " sees all visible objects," — " renders his body in- 
 vulnerable," — " will no longer feel the inconveniences of heat or 
 cold, but acquires a victory over pain," &c. * 
 
 The above is a very curious passage. Here are all the higher 
 phenomena of Mesmerism, Clairvoyance, Prevision, Introvision,. 
 Though tr-reading, and Insensibility to pain, said to be brought on, 
 with a sect of religious fanatics, by intense meditation acting on 
 a body emaciated with fasting. 
 
 Salverte, in his Occult Sciences, in observing upon the above fact 
 of certain among the Hindoos falling into ecstasy, adds, that it is 
 a condition " to which the Kamschatdales, the Jakoutes, and natives 
 of North and South America, are very prone. It has been observed 
 that since the persecutions exercised by Europeans in the countries 
 of Tahiti and the Sandwich Islands, the imagination of the adher- 
 ents of the old religion has been much excited," and ecstasy 
 brought on. 
 
 Volney (whom Salverte alludes to) says, that it is a " physiological 
 problem very interesting to solve, to know what was the singular 
 
 * Ward's " History of the Hindoos," vol. ii. p. 203. 
 
362 APPENDIX. 
 
 state of nerves, or what was the movement of the electrical fluid 
 in the system, through which the North American Indians were 
 brought to such a state of ecstasy as to be enabled to endure the 
 most frightful torments with the most extraordinary courage. This 
 question deserves to be considered in the schools of medicine." * 
 
 Physiological facts, indeed, decidedly show that the Mesmeric- 
 ecstatic condition is induced by many causes independent of Mes- 
 merism. 'VVe have seen that in religiously-excited minds, intense 
 contemplation of a subject may be one cause. Other influences may 
 act on other natures. I again quote from the Dublin U. Magazine, f 
 " Horst relates that a merchant of Silesia, named Liihnig, was con- 
 demned, under the government of the Emperor Paul, to receive a 
 hundred and seventy-five blows of the knout. At the same time 
 another criminal received thirty blows, and a third fifty : the former 
 of whom Lohing saw die before him, and the latter he saw kicked 
 out of the way like a lifeless log, after his punishment. At last 
 Lohnig's turn came, and from that moment he lost all conscioutness 
 and sensation, yet without falling into a swoon. He received the 
 full tale of stripes, his nostrils were slit up, and his forehead 
 branded, and of all this he afterwards declared he felt nothing." 
 Heim reports a somewhat similar case. A soldier received fifty 
 lashes, which were administered by two corporals. During the 
 punishment he gave no sign of pain, neither groaned or winced, but 
 bore the whole without a stir. When it was over, he said to the com- 
 manding officer, with a confused air, " I beg pardon for falling 
 asleep in your presence." 
 
 In the year 14)6l a noble Hussite was tortured at Prague. He 
 was so insensible under it, that the executioners believed him to be 
 dead, and threw the carcass, as they thought it, on the ground. 
 After some hours he came to himself, and wondered at the state 
 he was in, and related a pleasant dream he had had during the 
 torture. 
 
 Of a similar character to the above is a story told by T. Heywood 
 in his History of Women. Heywood said, " Of the several sorts of 
 jugglings with which the devill deludes his scholers, I will nominate 
 some few." . . , " An honest citizen in the Delphinate, calling 
 for his maid servant one day, and hearing no answer, searched the 
 rooms and found her lying all along by a fire which she had before, 
 made in a private chamber ; which seeing, he kickt her with his 
 foot, and bid her arise, and get about her businesse, but seeing her 
 not to move he took a rough wand, and belaboured her soundly ; 
 
 * Volney, torn. vii. p. 449. 
 
 f Number for June, 1846. In Miscellanea Mystica, p. 699. 
 
APPENDIX. 363 
 
 but perceiving her neither to stir or complain, and finding all the 
 parts of her body insensible, took fire and put it to such places of 
 her body as were most tender; but perceiving her to have lost all 
 feeling, vfas persuaded she vf as dead, and called in his next neigh- 
 bours, telling them in what case he found her, but concealing the 
 blows he had given her." The body was then laid out as dead. 
 In the morning, hearing somebody groan, they went in and found 
 her alive, and suffering sorely from the wounds the master had 
 inflicted. This poor woman was burnt alive, as a witch ! • Physi- 
 cal insensibility, as Salverte observes, being always considered a 
 certain sign of Sorcery. 
 
 The ecstatic condition was most strikingly developed at the tomb 
 of the Abbe Paris, through the religious excitement of the devotees. 
 A Report describes the terrific blows and weights, which the con- 
 vulsionists endured, not only without pain, but even with pleasure, 
 crying out at times, " Oh, how delightful, — what good it does me ! " 
 The details furnish a curious exemplification of what religious 
 enthusiasm can affect. 
 
 Hoffman, physician to the Elector of Brandenburg, who wrote a 
 treatise on Catalepsy, mentions the case of a young woman, who, 
 hearing at church the word of God on the nature of sin, dropped 
 down, like a statue, with her eyes open and raised to heaven, and 
 remained in that condition an hour. The attacks continued for 
 more than forty days, and always came on at the utterance of any 
 words expressive of the love of Jesus Christ for a sinful world, 
 Hoffman says, that some thought that the visitation was miraculous 
 and divine, " others referred it to the devil ; for his part, he 
 referred it to disease." f 
 
 Baker, in his " Reign of Henry VIII.," mentions one " William 
 Foxely, potmaker for the Mint of the Tower of London, who fell 
 asleep, and could not be waked with pinching and hurning for four- 
 teen days ; and when he awaked, was found, as if he had slept but 
 one night, and lived forty years after." J 
 
 Wanley, in his " Wonders," mentions several cases of long and 
 deep sleep, and of men who worked in their sleep, particularly of a 
 boy, William Withers, who remained in a (Mesmeric) sleep for 
 ten days. 
 
 In " Magnetism before the Court of Rome," and in the Chapters 
 on " the Middle Ages and on Antiquity," will be found much 
 curious matter illustrative of the subject. Teste also contains some 
 
 * T. Heywood's " Historie of Women." 1657. 
 f Dissertatio Hoffmanni de AtFectu C'alalcptico. 
 f Baker's Chronicle, 298. Folio. 
 
 BBS 
 
364 APPENDIX. 
 
 striking quotations from early writers : and the " Isis Revelata" 
 abounds with information that every Mesmerist will peruse with 
 pleasure.* 
 
 No. ni. 
 
 LIGHTNESS OF BODT, ETC. 
 
 When the sceptic shows his contempt for the wonders of Mesmerism, 
 and for the credulity of Mesmerists, we reply that no phenomenon 
 has ever yet developed itself under magnetic treatment, for which 
 we cannot find something correspondent, or similar in the spontaneous 
 workings of nature. Some things, however, are recorded of natural 
 ecstatics, and sleepwakers, for which I have not yet met with any 
 thing parallel in Mesmerism ; and of such are the statements in the 
 Seventh Chapter, relating to Martha Brossier being lifted up above 
 the heads of several strong men, who were pulling her downwards ; 
 to Maria Mori, the Tyrolese, miraculously resting on the tips of her 
 feet, when unequal to any effort; and to John Evans demcmiacallfi 
 resting the whole weight of his body on the point of his toes ; now 
 can such things he true ? Dr. Arnold gives us a useful caution, 
 before we positively reject them. 
 
 " Being wholly ignorant of the nature and object of wonders, 
 and being ignorant of a great many natural laws, by which they 
 may be produced ; the question of their credibility resolves itself 
 into little more than a question as to the credibility of the witnesses. 
 A man may appear ridiculous if he expresses his belief in any story 
 of this sort, and yet, to say that all such wonders are false, would 
 be an extravagant boldness of assertion. The accounts of wonders, 
 then, from Livy's prodigies downwards, I should receive, according 
 to Herodotus's expression when speaking of one of them, ovte 
 cnrttrreiov, ohre -ttkttcvwv ti Xiriv : sometimes considering of 
 what fact they were an exaggerated or corrupted representation, at 
 other times trying to remember whether any, and how many other 
 notices occur of the same thing, and whether they are of force 
 
 • I have made no allusion to the transcendental views of Mrs. Crowe in 
 her " Night-side of Nature," touching a Mesmeric rapport, &c., with the 
 spiritual world ; though my attention has been called to her statements by 
 more than one party. I have advanced nothing in this work relating to 
 Mesmerism, which has not been based on my own personal observation and 
 for which I have not seen something analogous, or the same, though perhaps 
 differing in degree. With Mrs. Crowe's far loftier theories I have no 
 experience whatever. 
 
APPENDIX. 365 
 
 enough to lead us to search for some law, hitherto undiscovered, 
 to which they may all be referred, and become hereafter the founda- 
 tion of a new science."* 
 
 Are there, then, according to Arnold's canon, any " other notices " 
 of such incredible facts as these related of Martha Brossier, and 
 Maria Mori, occurring in any other writer ? 
 
 Glanvill, in his " Saducismus Triumphatus," gives an account of a 
 boy, named Richard Jones, " who, more than once, was found in a 
 room by iiimself, his hands flat against a beam that traversed the 
 ceiling, and his body suspended in such a manner, that his feet were 
 about a yard from the ground. At such times, he was in a pro- 
 found stupor, and would hang there as if held on hy a magnetic 
 force, to the beam, a quarter of an hour together. Nine people at a 
 time saw the boy so strangely hanging by a beam." (125.) 
 
 This boy, says Glanvill, was bewitched by Jane Brookes, who 
 was executed for it, in Somersetshire. 
 
 In Pitaval's Causes Celebres, vol. xii., there is a report from 
 four Bishops, and four Doctors, assisted by M. Morel, a physician of 
 Chalons-sur-Saone, respecting eighteen Religieuses, of the town of 
 Auxonne, who were troubled by an evil spirit. Among the phe- 
 nomena developed, according to the report, were knowledge of the 
 thoughts of others, knowledge of languages, insensibility, rigidity, 
 &c., and that of holding their ladies almost in the air, only the ends 
 of their toes touching the ground. M. Morel and the Bishops ap- 
 peared to have examined the symptoms with attention, and to have 
 had no doubt as to the facts, only pronouncing them demoniacal. 
 
 In Mr. Heaton's " Dsemon," published in 1822, in addition to 
 the case of John Evans, is an account of a child of Mr. Kennard's, 
 of Loddeswell, near Kingsbridge (Devon), aged eleven, who " ran 
 up the side of the room to the ceiling, impossible as it may seem-, 
 where she remained immovable on her feet for several minutes, her 
 clothes being unaltered in their usual position, as if, by some super- 
 natural law, she had the power of changing the centre of gravity." 
 (p. 2i.) This was witnessed by numerous spectators. 
 
 Mr, Heaton then quotes from " a narrative of some extraordinary 
 things that happened to Mr. Lawford's children, Bristol, supposed 
 to be the effect of witchcraft," and which was published at Bristol, 
 in 1800. Among other things, " these children were pulled towards 
 the ceiling with great force, that they were all tired with holding 
 them, though above a dozen were there. Sometimes they seemed 
 suspended in the air. They were convinced that nothing but a prse- 
 ternatural power could puli with such force against so many. Four 
 stout men could scarcely hold a child from being pulled away." 
 
 • Arnold's Lectures, p. 129. 
 
366 APPENDIX. 
 
 Ward, in his "History of the Hindoos,"gpeaking of the phenomena, 
 which the half-famished ecstatic would develop in his trance, says, 
 that " the hody of the Yogee, who meditates, will become light as 
 wood, and able to walk on the fluid element, and able to ascend into 
 the air." (203.) 
 
 Salverte, in his " Occult Sciences," mentions a sorcerer who, in Aii 
 sleep, performed various movements, and struck out even as though 
 he were on the wing. 
 
 Now, as to all these facts, the question (as Arnold observes) " re- 
 solves itself into the credibility of the witnesses," though at times I 
 feel with Hume that no testimony could satisfy me as to the reality 
 of such improbable occurrences ; but the coincidence between these 
 various statements must not be thus dismissed, especially when it is 
 remembered, that the different parties are not likely to have heard of 
 the corresponding performances of their ecstatic brethren and sisters. 
 What, also, gives interest to the inquiry, is the fact that at this 
 moment, in the Tyrol, the elevation of Maria Mori on the tips of 
 her toes, is regarded as a proof of miraculous intervention. 
 
 Baron Feuchterleben, in his work on Medical Psychology, says, 
 " The obscure ideal images which exert their influence, even in ordi- 
 nary dreams, have evidently become so vivid in the somnambulist, 
 under repressed spontaneity, that they become invested with a motor 
 power, and consequently take the place of spontaneity altogether, so 
 that we might here certainly apply to the effect produced, the fa- 
 miliar expression of a " reversion of the poles." Thus the walking 
 on the roofs of houses, &c., &c., which it would be impossible for a 
 man to accomplish in a state of waking, may be, in a degree, ex- 
 plained." (p. 203.) 
 
 Do the above observations of the learned Baron go any way to- 
 wards assisting us in our belief? Perhaps we may say, with Arnold, 
 that these different statements are " an exaggerated or corrupted re- 
 presentation " of a real fact. 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 SPEAKING STRANGE LANGUAGES, ETC, 
 
 In the History of Martha Brossier, I have mentioned that one of 
 the phenomena in her case, was the power of speaking foreign lan- 
 guages (Greek and EngUsh), of which, when she was awake, she 
 knew nothing. 
 
APPENDIX. 367 
 
 This is another point, in the ecstatic condition, respecting 
 which more curious evidence can be adduced than may be generally 
 suspected. 
 
 If we analyse the different statements, the faculty would appear 
 to fall under three very different heads, though they are apt to be 
 confounded together ; viz. — 
 
 1. Imitation of the voice of another in a most surprising degree. 
 
 2. Understanding the thoughts of another when addressed in a 
 foreign tongue. 
 
 3. The actual speaking in a foreign tongue, of which the party, 
 when awake, is said to be ignorant. 
 
 I. In regard to the faculty of " Imitation," instances are very 
 numerous in the Mesmeric world : perhaps one of the most sur- 
 prising cases is that of the imitation of Jenny Lind's voice, by one 
 of Mr. Braid's patients at Manchester. The narrative will be found 
 in the " Medical Times " for September, 1847. 
 
 A patient of Mr. Braid, " though ignorant of the grammar of her 
 own language when awake, when asleep would prove herself com- 
 petent to accompany any one in the room in singing songs in any 
 language, giving both notes and words correctly : a feat which she 
 was quite incompetent to perform in the waking condition." A 
 " Mr. Schwabe played and sang a German song, in which she ac- 
 companied him correctly, giving both notes and words simul- 
 taneously." The same was done in Swedish with another gentleman. 
 The somnambulist next accompanied Jenny Lind " in the most per- 
 fect manner, both as regarded words and music. Jenny now seemed 
 resolved to test the powers of the somnambulist to the utmost by a 
 continued strain of the most difficult roulades and cadenzas, for 
 vyhich she is so famous, including some of her extraordinary soste- 
 nuto notes, with all their inflections, from pianissimo to forte cres- 
 cendo, and again diminish to thread-like jojamssimo ; but in all these 
 fantastic tricks and displays of genius, by the Swedish nightingale, 
 even to the shake, she was so closely and accurately tracked by the 
 somnambulist, that several in the room occasionally could not have 
 told, merely by hearing, that there were two individuals singing — 
 so instantaneously did she catch the notes, and so perfectly did their 
 voices blend and accord. Next, Jenny having been told by Mr. 
 Braid that she might be tested in some other language, this charm- 
 ing songstress commenced ' Casta Diva,' and the ' Alia Bella,' in 
 which the fidelity of the somnambulist's performance, both in words 
 and music, was most perfect, and fully justified all Mi-. Braid had 
 alleged regarding her powers : she was also tested by Mile. Lind in 
 merely imitating language, when she gave most exact imitations ; 
 
368 APPENDIX. 
 
 and Mr. Schwabe also tried her by some difficult combinations of 
 sound, which he said he knew no one was capable of imitating cor- 
 rectly without much practice, but the somnambulist imitated them 
 correctly at once." 
 
 In the Critic (No. 145.), is a further account from Mr. Braid 
 himself of the same patient imitating Greek and Celtic, — and of 
 another patient singing songs in Latin, Italian, and French, after 
 her mistress, with the utmost accuracy. 
 
 Mr. Howitt has also given a similar account of a patient of Mr. 
 Spencer Hall's. " His faculty of imitation being tested, he threw 
 back any sound issuing from the company as the most perfect echo 
 would do. He was addressed in various languages, and threw back 
 every sentence with the most perfect pronurlciation, and generally 
 without the omission of a single syllable."* 
 
 Dr. Esdaile has made his Hindoo patients speak Greek. An 
 East India paper says, that Dr. Esdaile uttered words and sentences 
 in the learned languages, which were repeated with wonderful 
 exactness by the poor ignorant Bengalee.t 
 
 In the third volume of the Zoist (p. 222.), is a letter from Mr. 
 Jago of Bodmin, describing a similar scene with a lady in the Mes- 
 meric state, when her organs of imitation and language were in- 
 fluenced. 
 
 Mesmeric experience could produce sundry instances of the same 
 Kind. 
 
 ■ II. We next come to a higher phenomenon, where the patient 
 not only repeats and mimics foreign languages, but even understands 
 them, and often understands them, without having the faculty of 
 repeating or imitating them. This power, I should say, was only 
 transference of thought appearing under a different guise. 
 
 Mr. Jago's patient above mentioned is one instance of this power. 
 
 Miss Martineau's patient is another. Parties spoke to her in 
 German, Italian, and French, and she understood them. Miss M. 
 observes, that, " provided the ideas conveyed to the girl were within 
 her scope, it mattered nothing in what hnguage they were uttered." 
 (Appendix.) 
 
 Some of the Ursulines of Loudun understood any orders given to 
 them in Latin, provided that they were in a state of somnambu- 
 lism. In the D^momanie de Loudun we are told that M. de Bouille, 
 who had resided in America, bore testimony that he spoke to the 
 nuns the language of certain savages of that country, and that they 
 
 * Spencer Hall's Mesmeric Experiences, p. 31. 
 
 f See also Dr. Esdaile's India, p. 113. for another case. 
 
APPENDIX. 369 
 
 answered him very readily. Sister Clara Understood Turkish, 
 Spanish, and Italian, and others understood Greek. 
 
 In the History of the eighteen nuns that I referred to from 
 Pitaval's Causes Celebres (in the last Appendix), it is mentioned in 
 the report, that among the phenomena which the Religieuses de- 
 veloped in their sleep, was a knowledge of languages, of which, 
 when they were awake, they were quite ignorant. 
 
 My friend, Mr. A. Majendie, has mentioned to me the case of 
 
 an ignorant peasant girl of Normandy, Marianne , aged 22, 
 
 who was magnetised by Mr. Marie, manager of the Gas Company at 
 Caen, on account of her health. She soon became somnambulist, 
 and readily answered questions. Mr. Marie, has spoken to her in 
 English, German, Italian and Latin : Madame Marie in Spanish : 
 the Eomnambule answered in French to the questions with perfect 
 accuracy. The Cur6 de Ranville asked her questions in Greek, to 
 which she answered pertinently, and with an occasional exaltation 
 of thought that was very remarkable. Mr. Majendie gives some 
 interesting statements on this point. 
 
 More cases under this head could be brought forward. 
 
 III. The last point to notice is that, where the ecstatic is said to 
 speak in a language of which, when awake, he is utterly ignorant. 
 Of this power I have myself seen not the most distant indication ; 
 but names of such eminence have made allusion to the assumed 
 facts, — thati cannot altogether dismiss their evidence,— -as too trifling 
 and absurd. Again, let us remember Arnold's canon of criticism, 
 and hear what they offer. 
 
 Sennertus, a name of authority, in his treatise on Madness, 
 (vol. iii. of Works), says, "There are some who deny that the 
 melancholy or the mad can speak in foreign languages. * * * But 
 of the truth of these facts we cannot doubt." 
 
 Forestus, in his tenth book, (in Schol. p. 340.), mentions the son 
 of a sailor, whom he himself saw, who having received a wound 
 in the head and become delirious, made syllogisms in " the German 
 language," which he was unable to accomplish when he was cured. 
 
 Forestus also mentions a woman that he attended, who, during 
 her illness and melancholy, sang Latin hymns, which she had never 
 learnt. Forestus adds, that she may have heard them in church and 
 remembered them. 
 
 Erasmus, in his declamation in praise of medicine, mentions a 
 case which fell under his own knowledge, — of a native of Spoletum 
 
 T^ho, during an illness, spoke the German language adjnirably 
 
 When he recovered, adds Erasmus, he neither spoke it nor under- 
 stood it. 
 
370 APPEKDIX. 
 
 Melancthon, in an epistle" to Hubert Languetus, says that, twelve 
 years before, there had been a woman in Saxony that never learnt 
 letters, and yet when she was influenced by the devil, she spake 
 Greek and Latin, respecting the Saxon war.* 
 
 Some of the ecstatic nuns at Loudun are said to have spoken in 
 Greek and German, of which, when in a normal state, they were 
 ignorant. 
 
 Dr. Brighara, in his " Remarks on Health," refers to similar 
 instances, — particularly the case of a child "twelve years of age, 
 who knew only the first rudiments of the Latin language, but 
 during a fever spoke it with fluency." 
 
 Mr. Colquhoun, (vol. ii. p. 23, 24.) refers to divers learned 
 writers, who state similar facts. 
 
 The Seeress of Prevorst, in her sleep-waking state, frequently 
 spoke in a language that had some resemblance to the Eastern 
 tongues. Mr. Jago, and other Mesmerisers, also record instances 
 of the power in question. 
 
 Now, how is the above to be explained.? Are the statements 
 pure invention.? — or were the writers misinformed.'' 
 
 Baron Feuchterleben cannot deny some of these facts : he admits 
 that somnambulists do " speak in a more refined dialect, and fre- 
 quently in a language with which they are not otherwise familiar," 
 (p. 206.) — but he explains it afterwards by adding, that "Foreign 
 languages are reproductions of dormant recollections." (p. 208.) 
 Probably this view would meet the majority of cases, — but scarcely 
 all. Would the conveyance of such a mental acquisition as the 
 knowledge of a foreign language to a brain in a high state of exal- 
 tation and impressionability be a much more incredible fact, than a 
 transfer of thought and of ideas, and the communication of theolo- 
 gical and philosophic learning ? I ofier this suggestion to ■ the 
 cerebral physiologists. " Ths History of Errors,'^ says Sir Joshua 
 Reynolds, "properly managed, often shortens the road to truth."f 
 
 * Melancthon, Epist. 1. 2. p. 550. t Second Dbcourse. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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