Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/etherologyphrenoOOgrim ETHEROLOGY, PHRENO-PHILOSOPHY MESMERISM AND MAGIC ELOQUENCE: INCLUDING A. NEW PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP AND OF CONSCIOUSNESS, WITH A EETIEW OP THE PRETENSIONS OF FHRENO-MAGNETISM, ELECTRO-BIOLOGY, .4c. BY J. STANLEY GRIMES, COUNSELLOR AT LAW, FORMERLY PRESIDENT OP THE WESTERN PHRENOLOGICAL SOCIETY, PROFESSOR OF MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE IN THE CASTLETON MEDICAL COLLEGE, AND AUTHOR OF "i NEW SYSTEM OF PHRENOLOGY." All the known phenomena of the universe may be referred to three general principles, viz., Mattf, Mption, and Consciousness. REVISED A1>D EDITED BY W. G. Le DUG. BOSTON AND CAMBRIDGE: JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY. LONDON: EDWARD T. WHITFIELD. 1850. <3^ Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by J. STANLEY GRIMES, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. STEREOTYPED AT THE BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY. CONTENTS SECTION I. Pago. Synopsis of Etherology, 17 SECTION II. History op Etheropathy, 89 Ignorance of the Ancients concerning the Causes of Ethe- rean Phenomena — Witchcraft — Divination — Magic — Discoveries which led to a Scientific Knowledge of Ether- opathy — Van Helmont — Mesmer — His Career — D'Es- lon — Adverse Report of the French Commissioners — Foissac and the Academy of Medicine — Their favorable Report — Gall — "La Place. section m. Nature of Etherium, 62 Theory of Light — Of Heat — Of Electricity — Of Magnet- ism — Of Gravitation — Newton's Conjecture — Rev. Mr. Townshend on the Mesmeric Medium — Animal Electrici- ty — Electric Fishes. 4 CONTENTS. SECTION rv\ Oxygen, 89 SECTION V. Sleep, 93 Liebig's Error. SECTION VI. Organ of Consciousness, 100 Infusoria — Immortality — Rationalism. SECTION VH. Inter-fhreno Senses, 118 External Senses — Internal Corporeal Senses — Cousin's Criticism upon Locke. section vm. Motion, 126 All Motion communicated — Nothing originates Motion but God — Sympathy is same Motion. SECTION IX. Etherean System of Phrenology, 132 Summary of the Philosophy of the Etherean System of Phre- nology. CONTENTS. 5 SECTION X. Etheropathy, 136 Credencive Induction — Imitativeness — Credenciveness. SECTION XI. Etheropathy, continued, 165 Clairvoyance. SECTION xn. Etheropathy, continued 176 Abnormal Sleep — Manifestations of uncommon Strength — Conferring Power on Medicine, Water, &c. — Reading Character — Discoveries in Phrenology and Physiology by Fowler and Buchanan. SECTION XIII. Etheropathy, continued, 200 Neurology — Buchanan's Discoveries. SECTION XTV. Etheropathy, continued, 205 Phreno-Magnetism, Pathetism, and Hypnotism. SECTION XV. Communion with Spirits, 227 1* O CONTENTS. SECTION XVI. Abuses of Etheropathy, . 233 Immoral Induction — Local Induction. SECTION xvn. Rules fob Experiments, 239 Credencive Experiments — Experiments during Somnambu- lism — Upon Diseased Persons. PREFACE. While hundreds, and perhaps thousands, are en- gaged in repeating old experiments, and trying new ones in Mesmerism and Clairvoyance, no successful attempt has hitherto been made to explain the phe- nomena upon scientific principles, and to show their consistency with previously known truth. In philosophy, facts are useful only as far as they lead to a true theory ; and a theory is only a method of showing the true relation which exists among the facts. When a theory is, or seems to be, well established, any fact which appears to militate against it is apt to be disputed, or received with caution and incredulity. For this reason, mankind have been disposed to oppose new discoveries and innovations, which render a change necessary in their theories, creeds, opinions, or habits. It is not because they are unfriendly to improvement, but because they doubt the reality of the discovery, or the real practical importance and utility of the proposed change. It rather demon- strates their love of truth, for they, like St. Paul, verily believe that they are doing their duty by resisting the introduction of error. But if the new truth can be made to harmonize with the old opin- ions, it is then cordially received into the family of 8 PREFACE. admitted facts, which go to constitute our favorite theories. The facts of a science may be compared to the scattered and broken bones of a skeleton, while a theory is the method by which they can be put together, and proved to belong all of them to one animal. The facts in Mesmerism call to mind a collection of strange bones once found in England, which apparently belonged to animals of a different kind from any that had ever been known to exist on earth. Some very learned and sagacious men at first denied the existence of the bones ; but when they were dragged to light, and protruded before them, so that they could no longer avoid acknowledging their existence, they declared that such enormous limbs must have a supernatural origin, and that they were undoubtedly the bones of fallen angels ! Upon fur- ther examination by scientific men, it was found that they were bones of whales and other marine animals, that had been ages ago " in the deep bosom of the ocean buried," and that the place had been afterwards raised to eminence, like classic Delos, upon the shoulders of an ambitious and aspiring volcano. The facts in Mesmerism are exceedingly numer- ous, and some of them of a most wonderful and monstrous character. They have been denied again and again, even by those who have witnessed them ; and when admitted to be true, they have also been ac- counted for by referring them to a supernatural origin ; but the time has come when these facts should, like the facts in Geology, Chemistry, and Astronomy, be PREFACE. 9 wrested from the hands of superstition, mystery, and quackery, and moulded into symmetrical forms of scientific beauty. This is a most difficult and labori- ous task, and any one who undertakes it may fairly claim some indulgence for the imperfections of his performance. I am desirous to do for Mesmerism what my friends claim that I have done for Phrenolo- gy — to reduce it to a scientific system. When the doctrines of Phreno-Magnetism and Neurology were announced, and were making con- verts by thousands, and multitudes of new organs were daily discovered by these means, so that my favorite science was threatened with an overwhelming inun- dation, I was forced to take up this subject in earnest. Almost every friend I met asked my opinion of the new doctrines and new organs, and seemed surprised at my scepticism. This has led me to the deter- mination of publishing this volume, that I may thus at once justify myself, and vindicate what seem to me the true principles of Phrenology. If I am mis- taken in any of the positions which I have assumed, there will doubtless be enough to correct me, and I shall acknowledge the correction with gratitude. I have several times given the substance of this work in public lectures, and the approbation with which it has been received, especially at West Point and at Union College,* far surpassed my most sanguine hopes. The plan which I have adopted for this work is, to present first a brief outline or summary of the whole, # See Appendix to Phreno-Philosophy. 10 PREFACE. comprised in a few pages, and then to take up each important topic, and treat it separately. It appears to me that this method will assist both the understand- ing and the memory of the reader. In regard to other authors, I have made use of their language wherever I adopted their ideas, provided I found them suitably expressed ; and in such cases I have given all due credit. Wherever I differ from others, I have quoted their expressions sufficiently to do justice to their real meaning, and then freely and frankly given my own opinion, and exposed what appeared to me to be their errors. There have been so many new doctrines advanced within a short time, both on the subject of Phrenology and Mesmerism, that I must necessarily assume the office of a critic in speaking of the performances of others. I am aware that I shall be liable to the charge of arrogance ; but at the present time, scarcely two Phrenologians, or Mesmerologists, can be found who agree ; any one, therefore, who treats upon both these subjects at once, with the design of producing an harmonious system, must seem to assume that he is wiser than all others, and capable of filling the chair of grand master of the fraternity. No modesty of expression, nor respectfulness of style, can shield him from this imputation. Under these circumstances, I have deemed it best to " speak right straight on," regard- less of the apparent egotism, and to " utter my thoughts " with entire independence of every thing but truth and justice. J. STANLEY GRIMES. INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION. The lively excitement awakened in all the principal cities of the United States, during the past winter, by lectures upon Mesmerism, and its offshoots, Pathetism and Electro- Biology, renders necessary the republication of a book the very existence of which is unknown to most persons ; and yet it seems to be the only philosophic explanation of that series of wonderful facts which have been accumulating in the world's history, since the Pythian priestess raved upon her tripod. Physical and mental phenomena have been pre- sented, which have astonished thousands of intelligent wit- nesses, and even staggered their confidence in the evidence of their own senses. These phenomena are so out of the course of our ordinary experiences, that scepticism is not only to be expected, but is allowable; especially when we know that the deceptive jugglery practised by many public lecturers, who are more desirous to amuse an audience than to establish the truth, has led the public to regard with sus- picion and contempt both the science and its advocates. But, apart from Mesmerism in its different phases, we have a record of facts, observed by physicians and recorded by his- torians, which come fairly under the title of Etheropathic 12 INTHODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION. phenomena. Salem witchcraft can scarcely be mentioned without a pitying smile at what we think the absurd folly of our ancestors ; and yet there was a truth in Salem witchcraft, and of fearful import to the pious and devil-hating Puritans. But with a susceptible subject, every wonder of Salem witch- craft can be actually reproduced ; and what is better, under- stood by any one who admits Professor Grimes's system of the Phreno organs. Phrenologists familiar with the facts of Mesmerism will be likely to have their faith in the old Phreno systems weakened when they find that their phenomena can be explained by his system, and by no other. I think that every attentive reader must rise from the perusal of this book feeling, that, even if Professor Grimes has not explored all the minutiae of his subject, he has at least done for the Philosophy of Mesmerism what Columbus did for America ; he has shown where the land lies. Critics may be disposed to object to the nomenclature introduced by the author. His object was to obtain the most comprehensive term possible. Mesmerism is, by far, the most generally used and understood, but is objected to, by nearly every writer on the subject, as insignificant and inappropriate. Every word in the Greek lexicon that could be dragged into service, has been altered, amended, and compounded, but without as yet arriving at any all-embracing term. Every experimenter who deviates somewhat from the common method, or observes some new results, forthwith invents a new name for what is in reality to be attributed to the same general influence. Hence we have the Neurology of Buchanan, the Pathetism of Sunderland, the Electro- INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION. 13 Biology and Electro-Psychology of Dodd and Fiske. Mental Influence, if it could be condensed into a single euphonious word, would seem to be a more appropriate and genuine term than any yet suggested ; but the author, in consideration of the universality of the Etherium by which he explains these phenomena, includes all classes of these effects under the general term Etherology ; though he is by no means tenacious of names — new names do not constitute new things. Claims to new discoveries have been preferred by those who have only relabelled old experiments. All that is now claimed under the name of Electro-Biology was prac- tised years ago, and its principles explained in this very book. Coins and other substances were placed in the hands of subjects, but it was found that the very same effects could be produced without as with them, and they were abandoned as useless. It is evident to any one at all acquainted with electricity, that the zinc and copper coins now used cannot have the least appreciable effect, except as they may serve to delude the ignorant, by throwing an air of mystery around the process. The object of the author in writing this book was primarily to defend the peculiar system of Phrenology which he had discovered, from the implied attacks of Neurology and Phreno-Magnetism, as practised by Buchanan, Fowler, and others. For if the new organs which they claimed to have discovered with such ease and certainty had real existence, the system of Phrenology, which, in opposition to others, he maintained to be the true one, was unfounded. An examina- tion of Neurology and Phreno-Magnetism not only showed 2 14 INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION. him the errors into which their supporters had fallen, but afforded strong evidence of the truth of his own system. Hence the book was in many respects of a controversial character. The publishers of the first edition had issued only 1,500 copies, when they failed, and the work, which was not stereotyped, was abandoned. During the past winter, the book has been industriously sought after with but little suc- cess. Copies are so rarely to be met with, that one in this city was sold for $5.00, and one in Philadelphia for $ 10.00. These considerations have induced the author to issue an- other edition ; but having his time wholly occupied in deliver- ing an extended course of lectures in this city, he has been obliged to intrust the necessary revisions and corrections to another, which, without doubt, would have been much better performed by himself. I have accepted this task, with per- mission to alter and amend as I might think proper, and the request to omit all controversial matter not necessary to a full understanding of the subject. The alterations made are mostly verbal corrections, and, in some few cases, changes in the structure of sentences. The omissions have been numerous, and have abridged the origi- nal volume more than 150 pages. The absence of this con- troversial matter, which had an interest when first published that does not attach to it now, is more than compensated by binding up with the Philosophy of Mesmerism the author's recent work entitled the Compend of Phreno-Philosophy. The reader will perceive, as he progresses through the work, that Professor Grimes has introduced several important and original views, by means of which he is able to explain INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION. 15 some phenomena which had hitherto been considered utterly inexplicable. The idea that Mesmeric phenomena depended upon the presence of a universal Etberium was advanced by Mesmer himself, and adopted by all his followers. This is, in fact, a favorite notion with most philosophers at the present day. Our author has made free use of it in explain- ing mental and physiological phenomena. I cannot but think, however, that, in many instances, effects, which he considers as referable to the motions of Etherium, would be more philo- sophically explained by attributing them to the disturbance of the molecular forces of the nerve itself. In the same man- ner, Electricity passes along a wire, not by the motion of Etherium in the wire, but by the disturbance of the polar forces which Faraday has proved to exist in the molecules of matter which compose the wire.* The insulation of the nerves is an idea obscurely suggested by Cuvier in his lecture on Physiology ; but no use was made of it, until the author, in his investigations, found that it afforded means of explaining the fact that some persons were very susceptible, while others were wholly unaffected. He shows that this difference may be accounted for by the perfection or imperfection of the nervous insulation. By the introduction of this new principle, the reader will observe that he is enabled to explain Salem witchcraft, clairvoyance, and trance with great plausibility. Next, he introduces a * In justice to the learned Professor of Chemistry of Kenyon College, Dr. Thrall, I will take the liberty to state, that the theory of molecular forces, as now generally understood, was advanced and taught by him some time previous to the publications of Faraday and others upon this subject. 16 INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION. new philosophy of sleep, attributing it to the overpowering influence of the ganglionic system inducting the brain, But there is no part of this work which will be read with more interest than his explanation of Credencive Induction and Magic Eloquence, in which he shows the necessity of a correct philosophy of mind and an understanding of the structure of the brain — its converging fibres and conscious centre — and the stimuli by which one organ is enabled to overmaster all others. That this volume may be the means of solving the doubts of some and awakening the attention of others to this impor- tant subject, is the earnest expectation of the editor. W. G. LE DUC. Boston, February 25, 1850. ETHEROLOGY; THE PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM SECTION I. SYNOPSIS OF ETHEROLOGY. 1. All the known phenomena of the universe may be referred to three general principles, viz. : matter, motion, and consciousness. Every thing that we know is a modification of one or all of these three. 2. One portion of matter cannot influence another, nor can one mind influence another, but through the instrumentality of motion. 3. One thing cannot influence another with which it is not in contact, unless there is some material sub- stance existing or passing between every portion of the space which separates them ; — that is, no motion can be communicated from one body, nor from one mind to another, unless there is a material connec- tion ; — therefore, when one does influence another, there is necessarily a material connection, through the medium of which motion is communicated. 4. Fact. The planets influence each other and the earth. 2* 18 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. Fact. Philosophers agree that the (so called) pon- derable matter of the atmosphere does not extend more than eighty miles above the earth's surface. Fact. Heat, light, electricity, magnetism, and gravitation, operate in an exhausted receiver, as well as elsewhere. Fact. One mind sometimes influences another independently of ordinary sensation or muscular motion, without contact or perceptible connection. Inference. There is a material substance occupy- ing space, which connects the planets and the earth, and which communicates light, heat, electricity, gravitation, and mental emotion, from one body to another, and from one mind to another. Name. I shall denominate this substance Etherium. 5. Motion has but two attributes, viz : quantity and direction. The origin of motion, like the origin of matter, is beyond the sphere of human knowl- edge. We see motion communicated from one thing to another, but we know not " whence it cometh nor whither it goeth; " and we can never know, unless we can " by searching find out God." We can only know motion by its effects upon matter ; and, from observ- ing these effects, philosophers have discovered cer- tain general rules which they denominate the laws of motion. 6. There are two equal and antagonistic forces in nature, the origin of both of which is unknown. They are sometimes denominated centripetal and centrifugal forces, sometimes attraction and repulsion, SYNOPSIS OF ETHEROLOGT. 19 and sometimes positive and negative forces. These two forces being equal, balance each other contin- ually, except when other forces interfere to destroy the balance ; — then both these forces move, though in opposite directions, until both are again antago- nized and balanced. These two forces are communicated by means of etherium, and all the positive and negative phenom- ena are produced by the disturbance of the balance of antagonistic forces. There are many reasons for concluding that even muscular motion and sensation are referable to this cause. 7. The phenomena of sensation and muscular motion, both voluntary and involuntary, are produced by. the motions of etherium, communicated from certain external objects to certain internal organs or points in the nervous system, and from these points back again to the external objects. 8. There are two distinct classes of functions in man and all other animals, viz. : Voluntary and In- voluntary. The involuntary are produced by mo- tions of etherium communicated from the surfaces of the heart, stomach, and other involuntary muscular organs, to certain different points in the nervous sys- tem, denominated ganglions, and from these gangli- onic points back again to the heart, stomach, etc. ; thus completing a circuit which exactly resembles that of a galvanic apparatus. 9. The voluntary motions are produced by mo- tions of etherium communicated from different exter- 20 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. nal objects to one point in the medulla oblongata, which point may be denominated the organ of Con- sciousness ; and, from that conscious point, back again, through the nerves, to external objects, com- pleting another circuit, which, in every essential, is precisely like those of the involuntary system, with this exception, that the central point of the voluntary system is endowed with consciousness, but the cen- tral points of the involuntary system are not so en- dowed. 10. The external senses are avenues through which motions of etherium are permitted,* constitutional- ly, to pass to the phreno-organs of the brain j and the phreno-organs are avenues through which the mo- tions of the etherium from the senses and from the blood are modified and transmitted to the organ of consciousness, and from thence through the motor nerves to the muscles. *In the first edition of. this work there was some ambiguity in the use of the terms " etherium " and " currents of etherium," which may have led to a misunderstanding of the author's ideas. I have endeavored to render his meaning more accurately in many places, by the substitution of motions of etherium for etherium, and the word force when he refers to the influence which is communi- cated by means of etherium. Lest I should have overlooked some expressions which may not be understood by the unscientific read- er, I will say that the author holds (in common with philosophers generally) that there is a universal etherium, or elastic fluid, per- vading all space and permeating all things ; by means of which motion is communicated. Not that the etherium is itself active, flowing in currents, but that currents, or, more properly, lines, of force are transmitted by means of this fluid. — Ed. SYNOPSIS OF ETHEROLOGY. 21 11. The organ of consciousness is thus the central head-quarters, where all external impressions termi- nate, and whence all voluntary movements emanate. It is the starting point and termination of the circuit. 12. In performing this circuit, the motions of the etherium are peculiarly modified in each successive avenue or stage through which they are obliged to pass, and this modification is undoubtedly regulated by the laws of motion already mentioned. First. Ethereal force is modified by each external object from which it emanates. Second. Ethereal force is modified again by the intervening medium through which it passes from external objects to the external organs of sense ; thus, light is refracted and otherwise modified, in passing through air, vapor, water, glass, &c. ; so also is sound modified by the varying density, rarity, or elasticity of the medium through which it is propagated ; and the same is true of odors and savors. Third. It is modified also by the structure and condition of the external organs of the senses through which it enters, — as the external eye, ear, and nose. Fourth. It is modified by the structure, size, and condition of the nerves through which it passes from the external organs of sense to the phreno-organs, — as the optic, the auditory, the gustatory, etc. Fifth. It is modified by the phreno-organs ; Sixth. By the organ of consciousness ; Seventh. By the nerves of motion through which it passes from consciousness to the muscles j 22 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. Eighth. By the muscles ; Ninth. By the surrounding objects to which it passes after it has been expended upon the muscles. All these different and successive avenues constitute the circuit. 13. The modification of motion, which each phreno-organ produces, is peculiar to itself, and dif- ferent, in each one from that of every other. This is proved by the fact that the consciousness produced by each organ is peculiar to itself, so that we can distinguish between the consciousness produced by any one organ, and that produced by any other. Thus, Destructiveness and Cautiousness, and Kind- ness and Color, produce greatly different states of consciousness, and such as are easily distinguished from each other. 14. Consciousness is produced in the same manner, in all other animals, as in man. All animals have a central organ of consciousness, but some classes of animals have a greater number of modifying avenues ; that is, they have a greater number of senses and phreno-organs, through which consciousness is af- fected. Some classes of animals, also, have a greater number of avenues, (nerves of motion,) through which ethereal motion passes from the central organ of con- sciousness. It is this difference, in the number and kind of avenues to and from consciousness, which is at the foundation of the difference between men and other animals. 15. In animals of the same class, — in man, for SYNOPSIS OF ETHEROLOGY. 23 instance, — the number and kind of avenues to and from consciousness are the same in every individual, except in cases of deformity. But even in the same class, whether we compare different men, or different avenues in the same man, there is an essential differ- ence in the size, the capacity, the calibre, the con- dition, the strength, and perfection, of the avenues to and from consciousness. It is the difference in these respects, which is the basis of Practical Phrenology, as applied to mankind. 17. There is a class of organs or fibres, which may be denominated inter-phreno senses; the office of 'Which is to convey motions of etherium from the organ of consciousness to the several phreno-organs ; so that each phreno-organ may act or not, in any given case, according to the condition of consciousness. When any phreno-organ acts, it necessarily pro- duces consciousness, before it produces muscular motion ; and, as every phreno-organ is in communi- cation with consciousness, by means of the inter- phreno senses, each organ will, of course, be excited according to the impression it receives from con- sciousness. The idea may be expressed thus : When- ever consciousness is impressed by one phreno-organ, it radiates the impression to all the other phreno- organs. 18. The quantity of force evolved from the blood to carry on the operations of the constitution, is in proportion to the quantity of oxygen which combines in the lungs with the food from the stomach. The 24 PHILOSOPHY OP MESMERISM. quantity of the action of any animal is in proportion to the amount of oxygen consumed. 19. As a general proposition, the larger the lungs, compared with the stomach, in man, or any animal, ccBteris paribus, the more concentrated is the food chosen, and the more rapid is the digestion and secretion. On the contrary, the smaller the lungs, compared with the stomach, the coarser and less con- centrated is the food, and the slower it is digested. The reason is this : the oxygen unites with the food in definite proportions, so that when the lungs are small and the stomach large, the lungs must work rapidly to supply oxygen to the food, or else the digestion will be slow. When the lungs are large and the stomach small, the stomach must work rapid- ly to supply food to the oxygen. 20. If an ordinary sized stomach and lungs be supplied with a moderate quantity of rather coarse and unconcentrated food, the ethereal force* will be generated slowly, and the operations of mind and body will be moderate. But if, with the same lungs and stomach, a concentrated and stimulating kind of food be used which saturates all the oxygen which the lungs can supply, the quantity of ethereal force f generated in a given time will be much greater, and * I do not understand the author to mean properly an ethereal force, viz., a force residing in the etherium, but a force transmitted through the etherium. t A force by which all the functions of our bodies are per- formed. — Ed. SYNOPSIS OF ETHEROLOGY. 25 the operations of body and mind will be proportion- ably vigorous and energetic. 21. The blood goes from the lungs to the heart charged with oxygen, and from the heart to the in-, numerable arterial extremities or capillaries ; and it is in passing through these minute capillary tubes that the chemical process takes place, which produces the motions on which life and thought depend. 22. The perfection and energy with which ethereal force is evolved from the blood in the capillaries, and imparted to the nerves, depend upon the health and condition of the minute structure of the capillaries in. which the operation is performed. This again de- pends upon the climate, habits, food, health, and appetite of the individual. These are circumstances difficult to define, and still more difficult to estimate. 23. All the ethereal force evolved by the blood is divided between the voluntary and involuntary organs ; or, in other words, it is divided between the brain and its dependencies, and the ganglions and their dependencies. The share allotted to each is in pro- portion to their relative quantities of muscular motion and functional action. 24. The involuntary motions are continued with- out interruption from the commencement of life until its termination ; in fact, they constitute life. But the voluntary motions are suspended in man about one third of the time ; in Some classes of animals more, in others less. During this regular suspension of voluntary motion, we are said to sleep. 3 26 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. 25. The reason of this suspension, or sleep, is founded upon economy. It is not necessary for us to keep awake twenty-four hours, for we can perforin all our duties in less time ; accordingly, there is not sufficient force evolved during twenty-four hours to supply both the voluntary and involuntary systems during the whole of that time. 26. If the involuntary motions are suspended, we die ; if the voluntary, we sleep. If both continue till the ethereal force is exhausted, we die ; as there is not sufficient generated to supply both systems continually. 27. The material (carbon and hydrogen) which combines with oxygen to produce motions, is all generated and secreted by the involuntary organs, and as much is used by them as they need ; the surplus is expended through the voluntary organs, the intercommunication which exists between the voluntary and involuntary systems allowing of this arrangement. 28. The predominant influence of the involuntary system, which enables it thus to monopolize all the ethereal force during sleep, doubtless depends upon the superior energy of the impressions upon the in- voluntary senses, compared with those of the volun- tary senses ; or, in other words, upon the superior force which the involuntary senses send to the gan- glions, to excite them to send motions in return. For if the voluntary senses are impressed in an extraordi- nary manner, sleep is delayed and the voluntary system gains a temporary triumph. SYNOPSIS OF ETHEEOLOGY. 27 29. There is an accumulation of nutritious sub- stance in certain reservoirs during sleep, which is ready to combine with oxygen, and evolve force when we wake. This surplus, accumulated during sleep, is generally equal to the deficit produced while awake. 30. The knowledge of etherium, in all its mani- festations, I shall venture to denominate Et hero logy. The doctrines concerning the agency of etherium in transmitting the motions of body and mind, in the healthful and normal state, I shall denominate Et hero- physiology. Etheropathy is a term which I shall use to include all the phenomena whioh are known to the public under the various names of Mesmerism, Animal Magnetism, Neurology, Pathetism, Hypnotism, Catalepsy, Somnambulism,* Clairvoyance. 31. The organs of man may be in a normal or in an abnormal condition. When their operations are healthful and regular, they are said to be normal; when deranged or irregular, they are said to be ab- normal. This is more precise and correct than to use the words natural and unnatural, or healthful and diseased, to express the same ideas. 32. Etheropathy is the result of an abnormal con- dition of the constitution, a degenerated or morbid state which is inconsistent with a constitution sound * And in the same category may be included Electro-Biology and Electro-Psychology, which are but new modes of manifesting the same influence, all of which were explained by the author, years ago, under the name of Etheropathy. 28 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. and perfect in all it's parts. Any rational explanation of Etheropathy or Mesmerism must be based upon this principle, that it is in every case a departure from, and violation of, the ordinary laws of man and the designs of the Creator. In this explanation, the distinction between the normal and abnormal con- ditions must be borne in mind continually ; the two states must not be confounded ; for to explain any extraordinary pathological phenomena, we must first know what is the normal or physiological operation, the derangement of which constitutes the abnormal operation. 33. The diversion of ethereal force from its normal and constitutional avenues, is the cause of all the phenomena of Etheropathy, or Mesmerism ; in ex- plaining each case, therefore, we may consider, — First. From what point is this force normally evolved ? Seco?id. Through what avenues does it normally pass, and what is the state of their insulation ? Third. To what point does it normally tend ? Fourth. With what force is it normally evolved? Fifth. With what counter force does it normally contend? Sixth. When diverted from its legitimate avenues by abnormal forces, what other avenues does it find ? Seventh. What extraordinary effects are produced by the derangement ? 34. Etheropathy may be divided into Spontaneous and Artificial. SYNOPSIS OP ETHEROLOGY. 29 Spontaneous Etheropathy is of frequent occur- rence in medical practice, and many interesting cases of this kind are recorded in medical books, in which somnambulism, trance, clairvoyance, and, in short, all the mesmeric phenomena, have been produced by disease, and without the design of any human operator. The case of Jane C. Rider, of Springfield, in Mas- sachusetts, occurred while I was a temporary resident in that place. She spontaneously manifested all the powers of clairvoyance, in a community where no such thing had ever been witnessed before, and where mesmerism was unknown. There are many other similar cases, which establish the fact that no human operator is necessary, but that the subject contains within himself all the essential elements required to produce the result. Those, therefore, who attribute so much potency to the will of the operator, or to sympathy with him, are obviously mistaken, since the same effects may be produced without any human operator. All that is necessary is, that currents of ethereal force should enter and pass through abnormal avenues ; but whether those currents proceed from a human operator, or from inanimate objects, is evident- ly immaterial. 35. There are many instances of spontaneous Ether- opathy, in which the peculiar condition of the sub- ject predisposed him to be thus affected, in such a way that he became inducted when in the company of some person who was utterly ignorant of his own 3* 30 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. power and agency in the operation. The extraordi- nary cases of witchcraft which occurred in Salem were undoubtedly of this character. 36. Many of the phenomena of Etheropathy have been produced by design, after the spontaneous pre- disposition had been discovered and manifested acci- dentally, though neither the operator nor the subject was aware of the real agency used. This was the case of some of the Salem witches, and the priestesses of some of the ancient oracles ; it was true, also, of some of the ancient modes of healing the sick ; and perhaps we may, under this enumeration, include the cases (if they may be believed) of one animal charm- ing another by this agency. 37. Since the time of Van Helmont and Mesmer, the operator and subject have both generally under- stood that a natural and controllable agent was em- ployed, though they have not been able to explain its nature. It is from these modern operators that it has received the names of Mesmerism, Animal Magnetism, Neurology, and Pathetism. There are many of these persons at present in this country, who believe, though I think without reason, that there is something super- natural in many of the phenomena. 38. Artificial Etheropathy is caused by the ethereal force being artificially and intentionally brought by the operator to act in opposition to the normal forces of the subject : this process has been called Mesmerizing, Magnetizing, Willing, Charming, &c. I call it inducting. SYNOPSIS OF ETHEROLOGY. 31 39. The constitution of the organs of man is such as to insulate them from the influence of external currents of etherium, and to prevent impressions being made upon them, excepting through certain avenues denominated senses; and even through these avenues the ethereal force can pass normally only in a pre- scribed manner, which is different and peculiar in each of the different senses. This is somewhat anal- ogous to the insulation which is necessary in electric machinery. Etheropathy is always in opposition to this organic insulation, and can only be produced by an induction sufficiently powerful to break through the barrier which was intended by the Creator to protect the internal organs and functions from improper external influences. 40. Susceptibility to mesmeric induction depends upon three causes. First. The imperfect condition of that peculiar structure of the organs which constitutes their insu- lation and protection from the influence of external motions of etherium. Second. The imperfect manner in which the ethe- rean force is evolved from the organs of the subject, especially from the capillaries of minute blood-vessels. Third. The conformity of the subject, and the development of the conforming social organs of the brain, particularly the organ of Credenciveness. 41. One of the causes of susceptibility may exist in a subject when the others do not, and some of the 32 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. numberless organs in the constitution may be in a susceptible condition, and others not. This enables us to understand why there is such a variety among subjects that scarcely two can be found who are affected alike. And when we consider that the organs are, from various causes, in a different condi- tion at different times, we can perceive why subjects are more susceptible at one time than at another, and why they exhibit different results at different times. 42. The inducting power of the operator depends upon a sound and vigorous body and mind, with a good development of the governing organs, and good judgment. Some have asserted that a full develop- ment of the organ of Concentrativeness is necessary ; but although concentrated attention is useful, it is not necessary ; and, besides, I deny that there is any especial organ of concentration. This notion is exploded. It requires no more exertion of the "will nor con- centrated attention to induct a subject, than it does to do any thing else ; and it is questionable whether it is more exhausting than any other labor in which continued attention is required. 43. Sometimes one organ of man breaks through the insulating barriers, inducts other organs, and sub- jects them unduly to its influence. Monomania is generally produced in this manner, by one phreno- organ being excited to such a degree as to overcome the insulating boundaries, and inducting and modify- ing the functions of the other organs in an abnormal SYNOPSIS OF ETHEKOLOGY. 33 degree. Just as one man may induct another, so may one organ induct another organ in the same man ; but in order to do this, it must first overcome the insulation by the intensity of its own operations. 44. An operator, when he attempts to induct a subject, will, of course, be likely to induct first those organs which are most susceptible ; that is, those organs that are least insulated ; and as he proceeds, he will induct others ; but it seldom or never happens that he succeeds in inducting all the voluntary organs, and he never succeeds in inducting the involuntary. 45. The involuntary organs are so perfectly insu- lated as to be very little affected ; though, in some extraordinary cases, the motion of the heart has been temporarily suspended. In most cases, the circulation is accelerated or retarded ; but it is doubtful whether this is not an indirect effect, produced in consequence of the induction of the voluntary organs. 46. The insulation being overcome by the operator, and the subject being inducted, the effects produced are various. The normal currents are accelerated or retarded ; the functions excited to a wonderful de- gree, producing astonishing and incredible effects ; or else are depressed, and almost, or even quite, suspend- ed- The motions of the operator's etherium unite with those of the subject, and add to their intensity, power, and energy ; (and if the currents of the opera- tor are uncommonly vigorous, while those of the sub- ject are weak, the effect of the induction may be such as to greatly invigorate the powers of the subject, and 34 rniLosoPHY of mesmerism. rouse his nearly dormant energies to a high degree ;) or, on the other hand, the motion of etherium from the operator may oppose the currents in the organs of the subject, and neutralize their effects, so as to cause sleep, paralysis, and insensibility. 47. There are certain organs of man which natu- rally tend, and were designed, to make him conform to others, and submit to their influence. As a general fact, the first effects of induction are upon those con- forming social organs, to accelerate their action, and to cause them to act as auxiliaries in inducting the other susceptible organs. The conforming, social impulsives (Submissiveness, Kindness, Imitativeness, and Credenciveness) perform a part in producing Etheropathic phenomena, which has never heretofore been understood, even by phrenologians themselves. In truth, they do not seem to have understood the real nature of these important organs. 48. Among the conforming socials, Credenciveness is the one which is most concerned and involved in producing Etheropathic effects. It is because this organ has been so little under- stood, that experimenters have made so many ridicu- lous errors, while they asserted, and believed, that they were making important discoveries. 49. Not only has man certain organs which cause him to be influenced by others, but there is a kind of influence, or stimulus, by which those organs are specifically affected. Every man has in his posses- sion this stimulating influence, by means of which to SYNOPSIS OF ETHEKOLOGY. 35 excite the conforming socials. The specific stimulus which naturally" influences Credenciveness, is asser- tion ; and accordingly, when a subject is inducted, an assertion has an influence upon him which is almost incredible. He is generally disposed to oblige, to submit, to imitate, and sympathize ; and to believe any thing, however absurd, even against the evidence of his senses. Tell him that he cannot move or speak, and he cannot ; tell him that ice will burn him, and it will do so. The assertion will excite the organ of Credenciveness, and that will induct, or aid in inducting, the other organs. These experiments may be performed when the subject is inducted in the lowest degree. 50. Sympathy is when an active organ in the op- erator communicates its own motions to the corre- sponding organ in the subject, so as to make it act in a similar manner. 51. Will, in this science, is the voluntary effort of the operator, which causes a motion of the etherium, and thus produces an effect upon the subject. 52. Normal or natural sleep is caused by the motions of etherium between the brain and the muscles being stopped by the involuntary ganglionic influence from the body. 53. Dreaming, or partial sleep, is caused by motions of etherium passing in the usual way from some of the phreno-organs to Consciousness, while in others it is prevented by sleep. 54. Somnambulism, or sleep walking, is the same 36 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. as dreaming, with this addition — that the ethereal motion which passes to Consciousness continues onward to the muscles, (particularly those of locomo- tion,) with force sufficient to cause them to contract, and produce walking. This is often the result of disease, and is sometimes (as in the case of Jane Rider) accompanied with clairvoyance. 55. Etheropathic or mesmeric sleep is caused by the normal motion of etherium on its way from ex- ternal objects to Consciousness, being obstructed by the counter motion originating with the operator ; and thus consciousness is prevented, except at the pleasure of the operator. 56. Paj'alysis may be partial or general. It is caused by normal motions of etherium from Con- sciousness to the muscles being diverted or obstructed. 57. Trance is paralysis accompanied with sensa- tion, and sometimes with clairvoyance. It is a sus- pension of the powers of voluntary motion, without a suspension of sensation. 58. Clairvoyance, or vicarious sensation, is caused by impressions forcing their way from external objects to Consciousness, through extraordinary and vicarious avenues, in opposition to the insulating preventives. 59. Sympathetic clairvoyance is a perception, by the subject, of the state of the operator's mind, caused by impressions communicated from the Consciousness of the operator to the Consciousness of the subject. 60. The transfer of communication, and of power, from one operator to another, is accomplished at the SYNOPSIS OF ETHEROLOGY. 37 pleasure of the first operator, and afterwards at the pleasure of any other person who has been put into communication with the subject. If the subject is sympathetically clairvoyant, the transfer can be made by the mere will of the operator; if not, then it must be done by his language, or some sign which the sub- ject would understand in his ordinary condition. In the latter case, the will of the subject aids the will of the operator, and the conforming organs of the subject act as auxiliaries to the will of the operator. 61. Induction is the communication of motion, or influence, from one thing to another by means of etherium. 62. Self-induction is the induction of organs, which is produced by other organs, in the same individual. It is when one organ inducts another in the self-same person. This happens spontaneously in many cases of monomania ; but it is easily produced artificially, thus : Let the operator, by will, overcome the insula- tion, and then, by assertion, excite Credenciveness to an abnormal degree, and Credenciveness will induct any part which the operator pleases, or even any part which the subject believes or suspects that the opera- tor desires to induct. This principle of self-induction has never before, to my knowledge, been announced. 63. Most of the pretended wonderful discoveries, published under the names of Neurology, Phreno- Mesmerism, and Biology, have originated in the igno- rance of the operators concerning this important prin- ciple of self-induction, or rather of Credencive induc- 4 .38 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. tion ; and while they have supposed that the fingers of the operators communicated excitement to the phreno-organs, it was in reality the organ of Creden- civeness,* in the subject himself, which communicated the excitement to the other phreno-organs of his own brain, and thus produced any effect, however ludi- crous, which the honest but misguided operator expected, and supposed to proceed from his fingers. * The same is true of the coins or metallic substances used by some operators at present. — Ed. SECTION II. HISTORY OF ETHEROPATHY. Van Helmont, a German philosopher, born in 1577,* was the first to advance distinctly the ideas, * The following extract is from the History of Mesmerism in the Mesmeric Magazine. " Among the Oriental Asiatics, mesmerism seems never to have been totally forgotten, and even yet there lingers among them a faint and dubious perception of its existence and use. " The Jesuit missionaries relate that in the empire of China, mes- merism has been practised for many centuries ; but they communi- cate no particulars of the mode or of the extent of its employment. " It is a fact, long and well known in India, that many of the fanatic devotees with whom that country abounds, are accustomed to obtain what they consider an ecstatic communion with the Deity, by fixing themselves in a particular position, and steadfastly gazing at the end of the nose. They assert that if they persevere for a considerable time in this singular practice, they will suddenly per- ceive a beatific light, and be favored with direct and colloquial intercourse with God, though their conversation is tacit and inaudi- ble to any but themselves. Mesmerizees, when clairvoyant, almost invariably mention a bright light, which they perceive before their foreheads, just above the eyebrows ; and a very singular discovery made in the year 1841 by a surgeon named Braid, of Manchester, England, affords convincing proof of the possibility of somnambu- lism being voluntarily induced, even in the manner of the Hindoo fakirs. " This man found that by making a person in a sitting posture gaze steadfastly upon an object situated at an angle of forty-five degrees above the common axis of vision, congestion of the nerves and vessels of the eye was produced, which extended to the brain, 40 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. and introduce the practice, the discovery of which has since been attributed to Mesmer. He taught that there is a universal fluid which pervades all bodies, and threw the subject into the mesmeric condition, so far at least that total insensibility to external impressions was induced. We have repeatedly tried this experiment with perfect success, but could never cause clairvoyance in this manner, except in our habit- ual mesmerizees. " In Europe, however, after the overthrow of the Western Em- pire, we perceive but few traces of mesmerism, until the dawn of the new civilization in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Two or three remarkable cases seem nevertheless to have occurred during the dark ages, some of which fell under the observation of the learned and pious St. Augustine, who, in his ' City of God, ' mentions a man who could perspire when he wished, and also a priest who, whenever he pleased, could throw himself into a pecu- liar kind of trance, during which he was as insensible as a corpse. " The famous Arabian philosopher and physician, Ebn-Sina, or Avi-cenna, who lived in the tenth and eleventh centuries, relates the case of a man who could at pleasure, by an exertion of his will, paralyze his whole frame, or throw it into what we should now term a mesmeric condition. " Jerome Cardan, of the sixteenth century, a man of genius and discrimination, and one of the first scholars of his day, states of himself that he possessed a capacity of abandoning his body in a sort of ecstasy whenever he pleased. He felt, in these cases, a sort of splitting of the heart, as if his soul was about to withdraw, the sensation spreading over his whole frame, like the opening of a door for the dismissal of its guest. His apprehension was that he was out of his body, and that, by an energetic exertion, he still retained a small hold of his corporeal figure. He also could see, when he pleased, whatever he desired to see, not through the force of imagination, hut with his material organs: he saw groves, ani- mals, and orbs, as he willed. When he was a child, he saw these things as they occurred, without any previous volition or anticipa- HIST0EY OF ETHEROPATHY. 41 and by means of which certain effects can be pro- duced by the will of one person upon the organization and mind of another ; but he combined this doctrine with others relating to magic, alchemy, and astrology, tion that such a thing was about to happen. But after he had arrived at years of maturity, he saw them only when he desired, and such things as he desired. These images were in perpetual succes- sion, one after another. " It is, however, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, that we find the existence of mesmerism first acknowledged and dis- tinctly announced. Many writers, the most eminent of whom were Kircher, Pomponatius, Van Hehnont, and Sir Kenelm Digby, as- sumed the existence of a universal magnetic power, by which they attempted to explain the dependence and reciprocal action of bodies, in general, upon each other, and, in particular, the phe- nomena of the vital organization. They also broadly and dis- tinctly maintained the proposition that the will or imagination of man, when energetically called into action, is capable of producing certain perceptible effects upon the organism of other living beings, even at a considerable distance. " Pomponatius, a native of Mantua, and professor of philosophy at the celebrated university of Padua, assumes it as a fact gen- erally acknowledged, that there are men endowed with the faculty of curing certain diseases, by means of an effluence or emanation, which the force of their imagination directs towards the patient. ( When those,' says he, ' who are endowed with this faculty, operate by employing the force of the imagination and the will, this force affects their blood and their spirits, which, produce the intended effects by means of an evaporation thrown outwards.' He after- wards observes, that it is by no means inconceivable, that health may be communicated to a sick person, by the force of the imagi- nation and the will so directed ; and he compares this susceptibili- ty of health to the opposite susceptibility of the infection of disease. " In another passage, he enumerates the conditions of the exer- cise of this faculty, in nearly the same terms as are employed by 4* 42 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. which had the effect to bring both himself and his opinions, on this subject, into discredit with philos- ophers. The following brief glance at the history of mes- the modern mesmerizers ; and he adds, that the confidence of the patient contributes to the efficacy of the remedy. ' It is necessa- ry,' says he, ' that he who exercises this sort of enchantment should have great faith, a strong imagination, and a firm desire to cure the sickness. But these dispositions are not to be found equally in all men.' " Henry Cornelius Agrippa, the famous astrologer, chemist, and magician, asserted that it is possible for a man to communicate his thoughts to another, even at a great distance, and appeals to his own experience, as well as to that of others, for the truth of the fact. " But there is no author of that age, observes Colquhoun, in treating of this subject, who appears to have so fully anticipated the modern discovery of mesmerism, as Van Helmont. " He defines mesmerism, or, as he styles it, magnetism, to be 'that occult influence, which bodies exert over each other at a dis- tance, whether by attraction or by impulsion.' The medium or ve- hicle of this influence he designates by the name of the magnale magnum, which he seems to consider as a universal fluid per- vading all nature. It is not, he continues, a corporeal substance, capable of being condensed, measured, or weighed ; but an ethe- real, pure, vital spirit, or essence, which penetrates all bodies, and acts upon the mass of the universe. With regard to the human frame, he conceives that the seat of the magnetic force is in the blood, and that it is called forth and directed by the will. Van Helmont occasionally gives to this influence the epithets of ec- static and magical, using the latter word in its more favorable signification. " In the same treatise, the author proceeds to say that there resides in man a peculiar energy, which enables him, by the mere force of his will and imagination, to act at a distance, and to HISTORY OF ETHEROPATHY. 43 merism is principally derived from the recent work of Lang. About the middle of the seventeenth century, there ppeared in England a certain gardener of the name impress a virtue, to exercise an influence upon a very remote object This power, he admits, is incomprehensible ; but there are other powers and agents in nature, which we are equally incapable of comprehending — such as the power of volition over the corporeal organs. The union of the soul and the body, too, and their recip- rocal influence upon each other, depend upon causes which we are unable to discover. " But one of the most remarkable passages in this treatise is that in which the author explains the conditions necessary to the suc- cess of the magnetic treatment. ' We have already observed,' says he, ' that all magical power lies dormant in man, and that it requires to be excited. This is invariably the case, if the subject upon whom we wish to operate is not in the most favorable disposition ; if his internal imagination does not abandon itself entirely to the impression which we wish to produce upon him ; or if he, towards whom the action is directed, possesses more energy than he who operates. But when the patient is well disposed, or weak, he read- ily yields to the magnetic influence of him who operates upon him through the medium of his imagination. In order to operate pow- erfully, it is necessary to employ some medium ; but this medium is nothing, unless accompanied by the internal action.' All this — at least in its essential points — is quite coincident with the mod- ern doctrine of animal magnetism, introduced by Mesmer, and established by the numerous experiments and observations of his successors. " Van Helmont, and indeed most of the early writers on the sub- ject of magnetism, ascribed a vast and mysterious influence to the power of energetic and concentrated volition. " The will, according to Van Helmont, is the first of powers. It was by the will of the Almighty that the universe was created ; it was by volition that motion was originally impressed upon all 44 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. of Levret, an Irish gentleman, Valentine Greatrakes and a Dr. Streper, who professed to cure various di eases by stroking with the hand. The cures per formed in this manner by Greatrakes are authenticate I objects ; it is the will existing in man which is the principle of all his actions. Volition belongs to all spiritual beings ; it is the more active and powerful in them in proportion as they are disengaged from matter; and the energy with which it operates without the assistance of organs, is the essential characteristic of pure spirits. He also remarks, that those who exert the magnetic influence op- erate more or less powerfully, according to the energy of the will ; and that the effects of their operation may be impeded by the resistance of that which is operated upon. " It is quite evident, indeed, from the whole works of Van Hel- mont, that he was not only perfectly well acquainted with the mag- netic influence, but that he made use of it professionally, and placed great confidence in its effects. He himself, indeed, informs us, that when the plague was raging in the town of Brussels, he thought it his duty to seize the opportunity of instructing himself, and of being useful to others. He accordingly offered his services tc attend the sick ; neither the fatigue, nor the fear of infection, could abate his zeal, or extinguish his charity. ' Perceiving,' says h€ ' that most of the physicians deserted the sick, I devoted myself their service, and God preserved me from the contagion. All, wher they saiv me, seemed to be refreshed with hope and joy ; whilst supported by faith and confidence, persuaded myself that God would at length confer upon me the science of an adept.' " There appeared in England, about the middle of the seven- teenth century, three persons, who seem to have possessed consid- erable mesmeric power, which they employed, however, only for the cure of diseases. These were a gardener named Levret, an Irish gentleman, Valentine Greatrakes, and a Dr. Streper. Their meth- od of cure was altogether by manipulations, and their success was wonderful, and indeed almost incredible. " In the course of the next century, there appeared, in Germany, HISTORY OF ETHEROPATHY. 45 by the Lord Bishop of Derry, and many other highly respectable individuals. The Royal Society account- ed for them by the supposition, that there existed a " sanative contagion in Mr. Greatrakes's body, which had an antipathy to some particular diseases, and not to others." At a still later period, Gassner, a Catholic minister, a native of Suabia, having taken up a notion khat many diseases arose from demoniacal possession, and could be cured by exorcism, performed a number of astonishing cures, especially among patients affect- ed with spasmodic and epileptic complaints. Many other instances of a like character might be adduced, exhibiting traces of this curious agency ; but we come, without further preface, to the individual who, in modern times, was the reviver of the science to which his name has been given. Frederic Anthony Mesmer was born in Switzer- land, on the 23d day of. May, 1734. He studied medicine at Vienna, where he obtained the degree of a still more extraordinary character than either of the three who performed such wonders in England. This was John Joseph Gass- ner, who was -born at Bratz, in Suabia, in 1727, and who became a Catholic priest. His curative powers were most amazing, especial- ly in spasmodic and epileptic complaints, and were authenticated ! in the most ample and irrefragable manner, by persons of high rank and irreproachable character. " But it was reserved for Mesmer, one of the most remarkable i men on record, to deduce and form from these scattered facts and instances, and from his own personal experience, the rudiments of that mighty and marvellous science which now bears his name, and will perpetuate his remembrance to the latest ages." 46 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. doctor, and settled as a physician. A marriage with a lady of fortune soon afterwards raised him above some of the cares which attach to the young medica' practitioner. From an early age, Mesmer is said to have mani- fested a love of the marvellous ; and, in the year 1776, he published a dissertation, On the Influence of the Planets upon the Human Body. Pie assumec that the influence operated by electricity ; but find- ing that agent inadequate to the solution of all the phenomena, he afterwards abandoned it for magnet- ism. In 1773, upon the suggestion of Maximilian Hell, professor of astronomy at Vienna, he resorted to the use of the magnet, which he applied in the cure of various diseases. Ultimately he discovered that the magnetic rods employed by him were powerless, and that the healing power, whatever it might be, was resident in himself. The rods were accordingly abandoned, the effects being produced by certain passes. Mesmer now began to assume a mysterious de- meanor ; and, in no small degree through his own folly, so great a prejudice was created against him, that in 1777 he departed from Vienna, and early in the following year made his appearance in Paris. There, besides making a convert of Dr. D'Eslon, he performed many remarkable cures in the class of dis- tinguished persons ; and his fame accordingly spread with great rapidity throughout the gay circles of that city. The members of the medical profession, how- HISTORY OF ETHEROPATHY. 47 ever, set themselves in resolute opposition to Mesmer, and for a time he retired to Spa, but afterwards, upon the persuasion of his friends, returned to Paris. A negotiation was attempted for the purchase of Mesmer's secret by the French government ; but this having failed, the sale was carried on to private indi- viduals at the rate of one hundred louis a head. It was a condition of each sale that secrecy should be maintained ; but this was broken through, and the knowledge of the facts propagated by Mesmer was Isoon widely diffused, with the disadvantage of having many corruptions grafted upon them, according to the fancies of various individuals. The practice of Mes- mer savored in itself sufficiently of quackery, and some of his disciples seem to have followed it up in a still more foolish manner. In 1784, the French government issued a royal mandate to the medical faculty of Paris, requiring them to investigate the facts and the petensions of the new doctrine. The bulk of the members of this famous commission had prejudged the question, and, like too many of the medical men of our own time, were resolved that they would not be convinced. The name of the celebrated Franklin is attached to the unfavorable report that was issued, although it should not have been there, as he is said to have been indisposed at the time, and to have given little atten- tion to what took place. There was one commissioner who refused to con- cur in the report adopted by his brethren. Jussieu, 48 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. a physician of the highest eminence, who devoted great attention to the investigation, published a special report of his own, presenting an entirely different view, and conveying an infinitely more favorable im- pression of the subject. The blow struck by the French commissioners did not entirely answer the expected purpose. The ques tion still continued to excite a high degree of interest in that country ; but the breaking out of the revolu- tion, and the wars which followed that event, turned the public attention in other directions. The Marquis de Puysegur, one of the most intel- ligent of Mesmer's disciples, to whom the science is under deep obligations, was the first to describe the state of somnambulism.* The marquis, both at Paris and on his estate in the country, devoted him- self with the utmost zeal to the propagation of the science ; and the system, as improved by him, was introduced into Germany in 1787, through the instru- mentality of the celebrated physiognomist Lavater. Journals devoted to animal magnetism were estab lished in France and Germany ; and in those coun tries, as well as in Switzerland, the magnetic treat- ment has prevailed, more or less, for the last fifty years. Meanwhile, Mesmer had retired to his native coun- try, Switzerland, and his death took place on the 5th of March, 1815, at Meersburg, on the Lake of Con- * I believe that he was the first who discovered clairvoyance. HISTORY OF ETHEROPATHY. 49 stance. His last years were devoted to the practice of the magnetic treatment for the benefit of the poor, and he exhibited his own belief in its efficacy as a remedy, by submitting to the treatment in his last ill- ness, and is said to have derived from it great relief. Many men of the highest eminence on the conti- nent of Europe, despite the din of war around them, devoted a considerable degree of attention to mesmer- ism ; and in progress of time it began to be heard of in the works of the great German physiologists, Sprengel, Reil, Authenrieth, and others — names as well known on the continent as those of Harvey or Hunter in Britain. In 1817, the practice of mesmer- ism was by law ordered to be confined to the medical profession in the Prussian dominions; and in 1818, the Academy of Sciences at Berlin offered a prize of 3340 francs for the best treatise on mesmerism. In Denmark, and even in Russia, about the same period, the subject was brought under investigation, and in the latter country a committee, appointed by the emperor, declared it to be a most important agent. Those things could not go on without challenging investigation in France, from whence the first report of a commission had emanated. In 1825, M. Foissac proposed to the Academie de Medicine, to produce a somnambulist, in whom the members of that body might witness the extraordi- nary phenomena caused by animal magnetism. The proposition gave rise to violent debates, which ter- minated in the appointment of a committee, to deter- 5 50 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. mine as to whether the Academie ought or ought not to take cognizance in the subject. The committee decided in the affirmative, upon the following grounds: First, that the judgment pronounced by the Academie, in 1784, was not founded upon reasons sufficiently conclusive ; and secondly, that the magnetism now proposed for examination, differed from the mesmerian magnetism, inasmuch as its effects were producible without actual contact between the magnetizer and the magnetized, and without the employment of me- tallic rods, magnetic chairs, and other similar means. After strong opposition, a commission was appointed, composed of twelve members, to examine into and report upon the experiments about to be made. The commission pursued its investigations till 1831, when it presented a report to the Academie, containing an exposition of its labors, with the inferences deduced from them, arranged under the following heads : — 1. The effects ascribed to magnetism are null in most healthy individuals, and in some invalids. 2. They are but little apparent in others. 3. They are often produced by ennui, monotony, and the power of the imagination. 4. Lastly, they are developed, independently of these causes, very probably by the influence of mag- netism alone. I omit the report itself, but give their " conclu- sions " in their own language. " 1. Contact of the thumbs or the hands, frictions HISTORY OF ETHEROPATHY. 51 or certain gestures, termed passes, made at a little distance from the body, are the means employed to place in relation, or, in other words, to transmit the action from the magnetizer to the magnetized. " 2. The actions, which are external and visible, are not always necessary, since on many occasions the will, the fixed look of the magnetizer, have suf- ficed to produce magnetic phenomena, even when unknown to the magnetized. " 3. Magnetism has acted on persons of different sex and age. ' " 4. Magnetism does not generally act upon healthy persons, nor does it act upon all invalids. " 5. Whilst persons are being magnetized, insig- nificant and transient effects sometimes occur, which we do not ascribe to magnetism alone, but which may be accounted for without the intervention of a particular agent, viz., by hope or fear, expectation from a something new and unknown, the ennui re- sulting from the monotony of the gestures, the silence and repose observed in the experiments ; lastly, by the imagination, which exercises so powerful an influence over some minds. " 6. A certain number of the effects observed have appeared to us to result from magnetism alone, and were not reproduced without it. These are well- authenticated physiological and therapeutical phe- nomena. " 7. The real effects produced by magnetism are very varied ; it agitates some, calms others ; it usually 52 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. accelerates the respiration and circulation, causes transient convulsive movements similar to electric shocks, a lassitude and torpor more or less profound, somnolency, and, in a small number of instances, what the magnetizers term somnambulism. " 8. The existence of a special character proper to make known in all cases the reality of the state of somnambulism, has not been proved. " 9. It may, however, be inferred with certainty, that this state exists, when it gives rise to the devel- opment of new faculties, which have been designated by the name of Clairvoyance, Intuition, Internal Pre- vision ; or when it produces great changes in the physiological state, as insensibility, a sudden and considerable increase of strength, and when this state cannot be referred to another cause. " 10. As among the effects ascribed to somnam- bulism there are some which may be simulated, so may somnambulism itself be simulated, and furnish charlatanism with means of deception. " 11. Sleep, produced more or less speedily, and established in a degree more or less profound, is a real, but not a constant, effect of magnetism. " 12. It has been demonstrated to us, that sleep may be produced under circumstances in which the magnetized have not been able to perceive, and have been ignorant of, the means employed to occasion it. " 13. When a person has been already magnetized, it is not always necessary to have recourse to con- tact, or to the passes, in order to magnetize afresh. HISTORY OF ETHEROPATHY. 53 The look of the magnetizer, his will alone, has often the same influence. In this case, one cannot only ■ act upon the magnetized, but throw him completely into somnambulism, and awaken him from this state without his being aware of it, out of his sight, at a certain distance, and through closed doors. " 14. There usually take place changes more or less remarkable in the perceptions and the faculties of individuals in whom somnambulism is produced by magnetism. "15. We have not seen any person fall into som- nambulism on being magnetized for the first time. Tt has sometimes been not until the eighth or tenth sitting that somnambulism has become manifest. " 16. We have constantly seen ordinary sleep, which is the repose of the organs of the senses, of the intellectual faculties and voluntary movements, precede and terminate the state of somnambulism. " 17. When awakened, somnambulists declare that they do not recollect any of the circumstances of the state of somnambulism.* " 18. We have seen two somnambulists distin- guish with closed eyes the objects placed before them ; they have designated, without touching them, the color and name of cards ; they have read words written, or lines from a book. This phenomenon has occurred even when the eyelids were kept closed by the fingers. * They will recollect, if requested to do so before they are awakened. 5* 54 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. " 19. We have met with two somnambulists, with the faculty of foreseeing acts of the organism, more or less distinct, more or less complicated. " 20. We have only met with one somnambulist who could indicate the symptoms of the disease of three persons with whom she was placed in relation. We had, however, made researches on a considerable number. " 21. In order to determine with justness the re- lation of magnetism with therapeutics,* the effects must have been observed on a great number of in- dividuals, and experiments should have been made for a long period, and daily, on the same diseases. This not having been done, the commission must restrict itself to saying that it has seen too few cases to be able to pronounce an opinion on this point. " 22. Some of the patients magnetized have de- rived no advantage, others have experienced more or less marked benefit ; viz. : one patient, the relief of habitual pains ; another, the return of strength ; a third, a suspension of several months of epileptic attacks ; and a fourth, the complete cure of serious and long-standing paralysis. " 23. Considered as an agent of physiological phe- nomena, or as a therapeutical means, magnetism ought to find a place within the sphere of medical knowledge, and consequently only medical practi- tioners ought to employ it, or to superintend its em- * The cure of diseases. HISTORY OF ETHEROPATHY. 55 ployment, as is practised in the countries of the north. " 24. The commission could not verify, because it had no opportunity, the other faculties which mag- netism had stated to exist in somnambulists. But it has collected, and communicates to the Academie, facts sufficiently important to induce it to think that the Academie ought to encourage researches on mag- netism as a very curious branch of psychology and natural history. " Certainly we dare not flatter ourselves that we shall make you share entirely our conviction of the reality of the phenomena which we have observed, and which you have neither seen, nor followed, nor studied with or in opposition to us. We do not, therefore, exact from you a blind belief in all which we have reported. We conceive that a great part of the facts are so extraordinary, that you cannot grant it to us : perhaps we ourselves should have refused you our belief, if, changing places, you had come to announce them before this tribunal to us, who, like you at present, had seen nothing, observed nothing, studied nothing, followed nothing of them. " We only require that you judge us as we should have judged you ; that is to say, that you remain perfectly convinced that neither the love of the won- derful, nor the desire of celebrity, nor any interest whatever, has influenced us in our labors. We were animated by motives more elevated, more worthy of you — by the love of science, and by the wish 56 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. to justify the hopes which the Academie had con- ceived of our zeal and devotedness. "(Signed) Bourdois de la Motte, President ; FoUQUIER, GUENEAU DE MlJSSY, GUERSENT ItARD, LiEROUX, MaRC, Thillaye, Husson, Reporter," Various theories have been from time to time promulgated in explanation of the extraordinary phe- nomena of mesmerism. It was assumed by Mesmer that there was a reciprocal influence continually subsisting between the heavenly bodies, the earth and animated nature, through the medium of a cer- tain very subtile fluid pervading the whole universe, and capable of receiving, propagating, and communi- cating every impulse of motion. " The properties of matter, and of organized bodies," says Mesmer, " depend upon this operative principle. The animal body experiences the alter- native effects of this agent, which, by insinuating itself into the substance of the nerves, affects them immediately. The human body exhibits properties analogous to those of the magnet, such as polarity and inclination. The property of the animal body, which renders it susceptible of this influence, occa- sioned its denomination of Animal Magnetism." Mr. Colquhoun, after remarking that the profound and interesting researches of those eminent physi- ologists, Reil, Authenreith, and Humboldt, have gone far, not only to demonstrate the existence of a HISTORY OF ETHEROPATHY. 57 nervous circulation, but even to render probable the external expansion of this circulating fluid, goes on to say, — " Were we, then, to admit the existence of this nervous fluid, of its sensible atmosphere, and its anal- ogy in other respects to electricity, it does not seem to be a very violent or unphilosophical hypothesis to presume that, in certain circumstances, and under certain conditions, it may be capable of being direct- ed outwards, by the volition of one individual, with such energy as to produce a peculiar effect upon the or- ganization of another. This hypothesis, too, appears to be supported by the fact, that individuals possess- ing sound health and great nervous energy operate, in general, most effectually in the magnetic treat- ment ; and that weak and diseased persons are most susceptible of the magnetic influence, and manifest the most extraordinary phenomena.* Almost all the practitioners of Animal Magnetism, indeed, seem to agree in this, that the magnetic treatment operates principally, if not entirely, upon the nervous system, and particularly upon those nerves which are situated in the abdominal region." The decision of the French commissioners of 1784, which is generally supposed to have been ut- terly hostile to mesmerism, was, in reality, principally directed against Mesmer's theory of a fluid. The facts, or at least a numerous portion of them, were * I have frequently succeeded with persons of great strength and vigor. 58 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. admitted, the theory being the main point of attack. The commissioners tell ns, — " That which we have learned, or at least that which has been proved to us, in a clear and satisfac- tory manner, by our inquiry into the phenomena of mesmerism, is, that man can act upon man at all times, and almost at will, by striking his imagina- tion ; that signs and gestures the most simple may produce the most powerful effects ; that the action of man upon the imagination may be reduced to an art, and conducted after a certain method, when exercised upon patients who have faith in the proceedings." The French commissioners explained the whole phenomena by attributing them to the power of im- agination.* The celebrated Cuvier, who fully ad- mits the truth of mesmerism, writes on this point, as quoted by Dr. Elliotson in his Human Physiology, — " We must confess that it is very difficult, in the experiments which have for their object the action which the nervous systems of two different individu- als can exercise one upon another, to distinguish the effects of the imagination of the individual upon whom the experiment is tried, from the physical result produced by the person who acts for him. The effects, however, on persons ignorant of the agency, and upon individuals whom the operation itself has deprived of consciousness, and those which animals present, do not permit us to doubt that the * In another part of this work I have shown that even creden- cive imagination is the result of physical causes. HISTORY OF ETHEROPATHY. 59 proximity of two animated bodies in certain posi- tions, combined with certain movements, have a real effect, independently of all participation of the fan- cy. It appears also clearly, that these effects arise from some nervous communication which is estab- lished between their nervous systems." Dr. Gall admits this power, and even does not re- ject the hypothesis of its connection with a fluid. "How often," says he, "in intoxication, hysterical and hypochondriacal attacks, convulsions, fever, and insanity, under violent emotions, after long fasting, through the effect of such poisons as opium, hemlock, or belladonna, are we not, in some measure, trans- ferred into perfectly different beings, — for instance, into poets, actors, etc., — just as, in dreaming, the thoughts frequently have more delicacy, and the sen- sations are more acute, and we can hear and answer ; just as, in ordinary somnambulism, we can rise, walk, see, touch with the hands, etc. ; so we allow that similar phenomena may take place in artificial somnambulism, and even in a higher degree. We acknowledge a fluid which has an especial affinity with the nervous system, which can emanate from an individual, pass into another, and accumulate, in virtue of particular affinities, more in certain parts than in others. We admit the existence of a fluid, the subtraction of which lessens, and the accumula- tion augments, the power of the nerves ; which places one part of the nervous system in repose, and heightens the activity of another ; which, therefore, may produce an artificial somnambulism." 60 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. A rigid mathematician, La Place, observes, that, "Of all the instruments which we can employ, in order to enable us to discover the imperceptible agents of nature, the nerves are the most sensible, especially when their sensibility is exalted by particular causes. It is by means of them that we have discovered the slight electricity which is devel- oped by the contact of two heterogeneous metals. The singular phenomena which result from the ex- ternal sensibility of the nerves in particular individu- als, have given birth to various opinions relative to the existence of a new agent, which has been denom- inated animal magnetism — to the action of the com- mon magnetism ; to the influence of the sun and moon in some nervous affections ; and, lastly, to the impressions which may be experienced from the proximity of the metals, or of a running water. It is natural to suppose that the action of these causes is very feeble, and that it may be easily disturbed by accidental circumstances ; but because, in some cases, it has not been manifested at all, we are not to con- clude it has no existence. We are so far from being acquainted with all the agents of nature, and their different modes of action, that it would be quite un- philosophical to deny the existence of the phenome- na, merely because they are inexplicable in the pres- ent state of our knowledge." Dr. Elliotson gives his own opinion in these words : — " I have no hesitation in declaring my conviction HISTORY OF ETHEROPATHY. 61 that the facts of mesmerism which I admit, because they are not contrary to established morbid phenom- ena, result from a specific power. Even they are sometimes unreal and feigned, and, when real, are sometimes the result of emotion, — of imagination, to use common language ; but that they may be real and independent of all imagination, I have seen quite sufficient to convince me." And after giving the particulars of some cases, he thus proceeds : — " These are the phenomena which I have wit- nessed. To ascribe them to emotion and fancy, to suppose collusion and deception, would be absurd. They must be ascribed to a peculiar power ; to a power acting, as I have no doubt, constantly in all living things, vegetable and animal, but shown in a peculiar manner by the processes of mesmerism." The history of mesmerism in this country is essen- tially similar to that in Europe, the principal differ- ence being in the names of the persons concerned. There has been the same enthusiasm, credulity, and superstition in its favor, and the same haughty con- tempt or sneering scepticism opposed to its preten- sions ; while those best qualified for its investigation have deemed it unworthy of their serious and con- tinued attention. 6 SECTION III. NATUHE OF ETHERIUM. Having given a general and brief view of the his- tory of Etherium, as manifested in the form of mesmerism, it will be perceived that the doctrine of a universal fluid, as the agent concerned in pro- ducing the effects, is supported by every distinguished operator and author from the time of Van Helmont to the present. The received Theory of Light is, that it depends upon the undulations of a universal fluid : it is found impossible otherwise to account for the facts which are known upon the subject. The theory of New- ton, that " light is an emanation of particles moving in straight lines with incredible velocity," is now exploded ; and the undulatory theory of Huygens receives the sanction of modern philosophers with very few exceptions. Light is not, by the greatest philosophers, now considered a material substance in itself, but the vibration — the pulsation — the un- dulation— - the peculiar wave-like motion of a mate- rial ocean of universal etherium, just as sound is a motion of the air. If you suspend a ball in the centre of a pool of water, and then cause the ball to revolve so as to disturb the surface, there will be a regular succession of waves, which will, one after the other, reach the shore, and each make an impression NATTJEE OF ETHEEIUM. 63 upon the various objects which constitute the bounds of the pool. In a similar manner, the sun, and every other body from which light emanates, disturbs the ocean of etherium, and produces a regular succession of waves, which, on striking the optic nerve, com- municates or inducts its own peculiar motions, which motions are continued along the nerve to the phreno- organ of Color, and from that organ to the organ of Consciousness, thus producing the consciousness which we acquire of the color of different objects. The different colors of objects are owing to the different degrees of rapidity with which the waves of etherium are propagated. To prevent my unscientific readers from suspect- ing the accuracy of these statements in regard to the received theory of light, I will take the liberty to quote, from the Lectures of Dr. Lardner, a few extracts relating to this subject : — " The sun, or a lamp, acting on this ether, as it is called, puts it into a state of pulsation ; the vibra- tions passing through it as those of sound through the air. This pulsation is propagated to the eye, reaches the retina, and puts that delicate membrane into a state of tremulous motion, which is the proxi- mate cause of the impression of light produced in the mind. It has been, moreover, discovered by modern science, that the varying rapidity of these vibrations is the cause of the difference in the colors of the spectrum ; and what is still more remarkable, these vibrations have been subjected to admeasurement. 64 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. The various colors, blue, green, etc., are nothing more than the effects of the different rates of pulsa- tion imparted to the retina at the back of the eye- ball. A ray of vibration enters the chamber of the eye through the pupil, — a small black spot in the centre of every eye, which is merely an aperture through which a rod might be thrust, — and causes the retina to vibrate at different rates. Science has discovered a method of computing the rate at which this membrane pulsates ; and the number of vibra- tions per second, when the sensation of redness is produced, and so for the other colors. There would be nothing extraordinary in this if this was any ordinary rate, as, for instance, fifty times in a second. But when I tell you that the number of vibrations for one color is six hundred millions per second, seven hundred millions each second for another, and that it is never less than six nor more than nine hun- dred millions, — when I tell you that modern science has estimated this with close accuracy, — you will admit that it has accomplished what approaches very near to the miraculous. " These observations have been suggested by ref- erence to the fallacies into which we are led by the senses ; and this is especially applicable to the "im- pressions of the different colors, for the truth is, that probably no two persons receive precisely the same impression from the same color. There are number- less instances of different impressions made upon different individuals, and nothing is more common NATURE OF ETHERR7M. 65 than an inability to distinguish between green and blue. There are hundreds of persons who are never able to distinguish by their colors the cherries upon a tree from its leaves. The celebrated Dugald Stew- art, the well-known chemist Dalton, and many other names, probably familiar to you all, might be mentioned of persons who were unable to distinguish the different colors. " By a little management we may be able to see bodies that do not exist ; and if we take the evidence of the senses on these points, we should be led to believe in all sorts of spectres — the effect of factitious vibrations produced by various causes. It would require weeks to enumerate all the exhibitions of this deception; but I will mention one or two which may amuse, and at the same time be instructive. Take a stick of red sealing-wax and place it between the eye and a sheet of white paper; after keeping the eye steadily fixed upon the wax for a short time, look beside it, and you will see a stick of blue wax as distinctly as you perceive the real wax. In this way a succession of spectra may be produced. Thus, by looking steadily at a red wafer for a short time, you will be able to see beside it the ghost of a blue wafer ; and conversely a blue wafer will give birth to the ghost of a red one — these two colors being correlative to each other ; the retina, by the action of the one, is put into a state of morbid vibration, by which the effect is produced. It is explicable by supposing that when the retina is put into a state of 6* 66 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. pulsation, its motions continue for a short time, just as a bell continues to ring for some seconds after it is struck. " A wish has been expressed that I should explain more fully a circumstance to which I alluded, briefly, in a former lecture ; namely, the effect produced on the retina of the eye by light. I explained the principle of light, as established by modern physics, and the impression of the different colors upon the retina. The physical principle on which light de- pends, was, for a long while, and is still, in dispute among philosophers. One sect maintains that light is a physical emanation from a luminous body, which passes through space at the rate of 200,000 miles in a second, reaches the eye, affects the retina, and produces an impression in the mind. They hold that the white light of the sun is composed of par- ticles of different kinds, each producing the notion of a different color. This theory has been in dispute, and is found to be insufficient for the explanation of certain phenomena, discovered by modern science. This theory, however, was maintained by Newton. " Another theory, which is now generally received, is this : It supposes that the whole universe is filled with a fluid called ether, extremely subtile and elas- tic • and that the luminous body produces the effect, by imparting to this ether a certain pulsation, pre- cisely similar to that of sound, to which I have already referred. These vibrations are supposed to be transmitted to the eye, with the velocity already NATURE OF ETHERIUM. 67 mentioned. Having entered the eye, it causes the retina to vibrate, just as does the ear-drum in hearing, only these pulsations are infinitely more rapid and delicate than those of sound. This theory maintains that the colors of the spectrum — as red, orange, blue, etc. — are nothing more than the effects of greater or less rapidity of vibration. If the retina pulsates at one rate, red will be seen ; if at another, blue, etc. This is the general outline of the theory now generally received, in reference to the Corpuscu- lar theory, which was held by Newton, but which is insufficient to explain many of the phenomena observed, which the undulating theory perfectly accounts for. What all these phenomena are, I can- not explain in full ; I will, however, mention one of them, which is among the most remarkable. " If two beams of light be admitted through small apertures in a screen, and be made to cross each other, under certain circumstances, so that they fall upon the same point, you would naturally expect that that point would be twice as light as if but one beam fell upon it. According to the Corpuscular theory, which holds light to be a material substance, the more of it there was accumulated upon any point, the greater would be its illumination. But it g has been shown by modern science, that, instead of this result, the two beams destroy each other, and a black spot is observed at the point of intersection. If either of the beams be intercepted, the spot becomes lumi- nous j but if both be allowed to fall upon it together, 68 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. it becomes black : either of the two will illuminate it — both together produce darkness. Now, the Cor- puscular theory fails to account for this phenomenon ; but it is clearly explained by the theory of an undu- lating medium. I can only give the explanation in a general way, as thus : It is necessary to show that it is possible for two systems of waves to obliterate each other, in order to the explanation ; for if the presence of waves is essential to illumination, any thing which destroys them must produce darkness. Now, if we suppose two systems of waves propagated along the surface of a pond, we may easily imagine that the crests of one system shall fall directly in the hollows of the other ; and we should thus have a surface perfectly smooth. This is what happens in this case. The two beams, every time they come together, cause two systems of waves, of which the crests of one fall into the hollows of the other, and the ether is in the same state as if there were no waves at all. Of course, according to this theory, there can be no light. But if we make the slightest change in the beams, so that the crests of one system of waves shall be out of the hollows, the spot will be instantly illuminated. " Now, it is known that light moves at the rate of 200,000 miles in a second of time. During every second, then, a beam of light 200,000 miles in length enters the eye. And, as has just been shown, for every inch of that beam there are 40,000 waves, or pulsations, for red light, and a certain known number NATURE OF ETHERIUM. 69 for the other colors. And now can you not see how we are able to determine the number of vibrations on the retina ? All that is necessary is, to find how many inches there are in the beam which enters the eye in a single second; multiply that number by the number of waves in a single inch for each color, and you have at once the number of vibrations." Heat. The received theory of heat is, that it is ;but another peculiar motion of the same ethereal ocean, the undulations of which produce light. Electricity is also explained, by philosophers, on the hypothesis of a universal fluid, which, when in equilibrium, produces no phenomena ; but when the equilibrium is disturbed, by friction of the glass cylin- der of an electric machine, or by other means, cer- tain electric phenomena follow. Galvanic Electricity is that which is produced by chemical action, and the apparatus commonly used is called a Galvanic Battery. It is supposed that every chemical change is accompanied with a move- ment of electricity ; and a Galvanic Battery is so con- trived, as to cause the electro-chemical motion of etherium to take place in a circuit, thus : Put into a glass vessel a piece of zinc and a piece of copper, so placed as not to touch each other ; pour some water containing acid into the glass, so that the two metals Will be corroded, and there will immediately be a cur- rent of electricity passing through the liquid from the zinc to the copper. Now, connect the copper with the zinc by means of wire, and thus constitute a 70 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. circuit, and there will be a continual current from the zinc to the copper through the water, and from the copper to the zinc through the wire. This is a Gal- vanic Battery in its simplest form. Any metals may be used, provided one corrodes more rapidly than the other ; even two pieces of the same metal will answer, provided one piece is hammered, and the other porous, so that one shall be corroded more rapidly than the other. There is an important distinction between the quantity of electricity obtained, and its intensity. That which is obtained from one pair of metallic plates, however large, is of very low intensity, so that it is easily insulated ; and, however great the quantity may be, any number of wires may lie side by side, with nothing but a coating of varnish between them, and each wire may convey a separate current, while its nearest neighbor conveys an opposite current, with- out any apparent interference. But when there is a great number of plates, even if they are small ones, the force acquires such inten- sity that it becomes difficult to insulate it, so as to prevent it from being communicated to surrounding bodies. I am inclined to think, that the forces of human etherium are deficient, both in quantity and intensity, when compared with that produced by the artificial apparatuses ; and this is one reason why it does not overcome its insulation more frequently. Thebmo-Electricity is that which is brought into NATURE OF ETHERIUM. 71 action through the agency of heat. This mode of producing electric currents was discovered by Profes- sor Seebeck, of Berlin, in 1822. He discovered that if two different kinds of metal are joined, and heated at the place of junction, a current of electricity will flow from one to the other ; and if the ends of the metals which are not joined are connected by a wire, so as to constitute a circuit, a current of electricity will pass around the circuit, just as it does around the Galvanic Battery. The conclusion is, that any thing which can disturb the equilibrium of the great mass Df etherium, produces phenomena ; and these pheno- mena have received different names, according to the nodes in which the equilibrium has been disturbed. Magnetism is but another mode in which currents )f electricity are produced. Terrestrial Magnetism, which causes the compass leedle to point nearly north and south, is found to be :aused by Thermo-Electric currents, produced by the leat of the sun upon the continually revolving earth, rhe most powerful magnets are made by causing a urrent of electricity to pass along a wire which is vound spirally around a piece of iron. All the phe- lomena of magnetism are but modes in which elec- ricity is manifested j and all the phenomena of elec- ricity can be produced by heat, and also by chemical ction. Gravitation has never been satisfactorily explained W any hypothesis ; but the only attempts that have »een made to give even a conjectural explanation of 72 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. it, have been based upon the assumption of a univer- sal fluid or etherium. The following is Newton's language upon the subject : — " Is not this medium (ether) much rarer within the dense bodies of the sun, stars, planets, and comets, than in the empty celestial spaces between them? And in passing from them to greater distances, does it not grow denser and denser perpetually, and thereby cause the gravity of those great bodies towards one another, and of their parts towards the bodies ; every body endeavoring to recede from the denser parts of the medium towards the rarer? " For if this medium be supposed to be rarer within the sun's body than at its surface, and rarer there than at the hundredth part of an inch from his body, and rarer there than at the fiftieth part of an inch from his body, and rarer there than at the orb of Saturn, I see no reason why the increase of density should stop any where, and not rather be continued through all distances from the Sun to Saturn and beyond. " And though this increase of density may at great distances be exceeding slow, yet, if the elastic force of this medium be exceeding great, it may suffice to impel bodies from the denser parts of the medium towards the rarer with all that power which we call gravity. " And that the elastic force of this medium is ex- ceeding great, may be gathered from the swiftness of its vibrations. " Light moves from the sun to us in about seven NATURE OF ETHEEIUM. 73 or eight minutes of time, which distance is about 70,000,000 of miles. " As magnetism is stronger in small loadstones than in great ones, in proportion to their bulk ; and gravity is stronger on the surface of small planets than those of great ones, in proportion to their bulk ; and small bodies are agitated more by electric attraction than great ones ; so the smallness of the rays of light may contribute very much to the power of the object by which they are refracted ; and if any one should sup- pose that ether (like our air) may contain particles which endeavor to recede from one another, (for I do not know what ether is, ) and that its particles are ex- ceedingly smaller than those of air, or even than those of light, the exceeding smallness of such particles may contribute to the greatness of the force by which they recede from one another, and thereby make that medium exceedingly more rare and elastic than air, and of consequence exceedingly less able to resist the motions of projectiles, and exceedingly more able to press upon gross bodies by endeavoring to expand therein." Admitting the doctrine of a universal Etherium to explain gravitation, (and I cannot see how it can be avoided, whatever hypothesis be adopted,) we are fur- nished with a powerful argument in favor of the most marvellous pretensions of clairvoyance at a distance, and by this admission we are estopped from denying the possibility of clairvoyance from any want of a medium sufficiently potent, or subtile, or extensive,' or 7 74 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. rapid in its movements ; for the force of gravity is transmitted from planet to planet with a degree of rapidity which far surpasses all other motions with which we are acquainted. In 1773, La Place " de- monstrated that the attractive force of gravity must be transmitted fifty million times faster than light, which travels at the rate of two hundred thousand miles in a second." If, in addition to this fact, we consider that all bodies, however distant, or however solid, are reached and penetrated by gravitation — that no force can impede it, no insulation can exclude it, and no other velocity can rival it, since it has been de- monstrated, by the greatest mathematicians, to move as much faster than lightning, as lightning moves faster than a snail, — I say, considering all this, the marvels of clairvoyance sink into a comparatively common and insignificant affair. It seems to me much more reasonable to suppose that there is but one universal Etherium, the different motions and combinations of which, with other and grosser matter, produce all the different phenomena of gravitation, heat, electricity, light, animal motions, etc., than that there are several independent and dis- tinct universal fluids operating through the same space, at the same time, upon the same bodies. It may be, that, although there is but one Etherium, this one is compounded of different kinds of matter or elements, each element possessing different properties peculiar to itself, and that when the compound Ethe- rium comes into combination with some kinds of NATURE OF ETHERITJM. 75 ponderable matter, it becomes decomposed, one ele- ment producing one class of effects, and another pro- ducing very different effects. Again, it may be that the universal Etherium is simple and uncompounded, but that, when it comes into contact with the ponderable materials of the earth, or other planets, it enters into combination with atoms of ponderable matter, so exceedingly minute, that it is impossible, with our finite powers of per- ception and invention, to detect them. By entering into these combinations, it may produce different classes of effects, which seem to proceed from differ- ent fluids. By adopting this hypothesis, we can under- stand why one modification of Ethereal motion (light) will readily pass through transparent substances, but not through those which are opaque ; while another modification of Ethereal motion (magnetism) will pass with equal facility through both ; and yet, by a certain process, electricity may be changed into magnetism, or magnetism into electricity ; and both may be made to produce light. We can also understand why elec- tricity, which will not pass through glass, can be changed to magnetism, or made to produce light, either of which will pass through without difficulty. Again, light may be made to produce magnetism, and heat to produce electricity and magnetism, while they both in turn produce heat ; and, finally, chemical com- binations produce heat, light, electricity, magnetism, galvanism, attraction, vegetation, digestion, respira- tion, muscular motion and sensation, and numberless other phenomena. 76 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. It is evident, from a review of all these facts, and many others, with which we are furnished by natural science, that we are at no loss for analogical proof of the reality of an etherean agent in nature, the mo- tions of which are capable of producing all the effects ascribed to etheropathy or mesmerism. Animal Electricity. — In order still further to exhibit the analogy between electricity and the agent which produces animal motions and etheropathic phe- nomena, I will give a few instances of the applica- tion of electricity to the bodies of animals and men. I do not wish to be understood as insisting that ani- mal and human motions are produced by electricity, but that they are produced by a power which bears a very close resemblance to it in every essential quality. I consider the effects of human Etherium, magnetic Etherium, and caloric Etherium, as but modified mo- tions of one and the same substance, just as the dif- ferent colors of light are but modified motions of one substance ; and as the different kinds of heat, recog- nized by Prof. Faraday, are but modifications of one general principle of caloric. I have no doubt that there are many different motions or modifications of human Etherium ; indeed, rea- soning from analogy, there must be. It would also seem that those ponderable substances which are con- ductors of one kind of etherean motion are non-con- ductors, or insulators, of some other kinds. The whole subject is rich in material for philosophical in- quiry and reflection. The following extracts will serve to illustrate these views : — NATURE OF ETHERIUM. 77 The Rev. Mr. Townsend, in his Facts in Mes- merism, p. 330, says, — " I think, then, at present, that the most striking fact of which I have heard, relative to the identity of the nervous and electric agencies, is the discovery of Desmoulins, that the transmission of sensation and motion is made by the surface of the spinal marrow, and not by its central parts. This is exactly parallel to the action of electricity, which is developed only, and transmitted, along the surfaces of bodies. That nerves really do conduct a matter, similar, at least, to the electric, has been also proved by the fact, that a magnet, held between the two sections of a recently divided nerve, was observed to be deflected, as by an electric current. " But the kind of electricity which is in the hu- man frame, is, probably, a modification of the origi- nal principle. In many particulars it bears more resemblance to galvanism, and it is really ascertained, by experiments on dead animals, that the nervous fibre has a property of being galvanically affected which (though varying, of course, like other proper- ties, with the condition of the substance in which it resides) may be called inherent. Some most inter- esting specimens, by Dr. Elliotson, in which patients, by a reenforcement of mesmeric power, were shown capable of swinging round large weights, impossible to be even lifted by them in their ordinary condition, prove again the intimate connection between the mes- meric medium and the muscular force, which, as every 7# 78 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. one knows, is dependent on the state of the nerves, and by them conducted from the brain. If personal evidence may be allowed to have importance, I may add, that I am of an electric temperament ; so much so, that long ago, when a child, I used to amaze and even alarm my young companions, by combing my hair before them in the dark, and exhibiting to them the electric coruscations. Of course, also, this phe- nomenon takes place most remarkably in a dry, and, therefore, non-conducting atmosphere. Now, be- tween this electric endowment and whatever mesmeric properties I may possess, there is a perfect relation- ship and parallelism. Whatever state of the atmos- phere tends to carry off electricity from the body, hinders in so far my capacity for mesmerizing ; and whatever state of the atmosphere tends to accumu- late and insulate electricity in the body, promotes greatly the power and facility with which I influence others mesmerically. " My feelings of bodily health also vary with the plus or minus of electricity ; and, perhaps, did per- sons oftener attend to such things, a similar phenom- enon might not uncommonly be remarked. This, at least, we may admit, that the welfare of the human body depends on the equilibrium or proper distribu- tion of its forces, and that the electric is one of these, just as much as heat or oxygen. The mesmeric force has, more than any other, been shown to be inherent in man ; and, taking all the above facts into consid- eration, it is by no means a strained conclusion, that HATTJUE OF ETHERIUM. 79 it actually is that particular modification of electricity which is appropriate to the human constitution. When, then, after having mesmerized a person, I have a peculiar feeling of loss of strength and gen- eral uneasiness, which can by no means be traced to the usual causes, I am compelled to consider this as a proof that I have suffered by a temporary destruction of equilibrium in that medium wherewith I have charged another person ; that medium, namely, which we have agreed to call mesmeric. That which greatly adds to the presumption is the fact, that there is gain in the patient as there is loss in the mesmer- izer. The tendency of mesmeric influence to restore equilibrium to the bodily forces is manifest. Under its beneficial action, I have seen headaches cured, fa- tigue dissipated, and trifling bodily ailments removed in a short time." Muller, the celebrated physiologist, says, — " The stimulus of galvanism excites, in all the organs of sense, different sensations in each organ, namely, the sensation proper to it. In the eye, a fee- ble galvanic current excites the special sensation of the optic nerve, namely, that of light. In the audi- tory nerve, electricity produces the sensation of sound. It has not, at present, been much observed, whether peculiar smells are produced by the application of galvanism to the organs of smell. Ritter, however, has perceived them ; and it is a known fact, that the electricity excited by friction gives rise to the smell of phosphorus. 80 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMREISM. "A steel needle, plunged into a nerve, becomes magnetic; and on being withdrawn, it is found to have the power of attracting light substances. " The rapidity with which sensation and volition are communicated along the nerves, could not fail to suggest a resemblance to the mode in which the elec- tric and galvanic fluids fly along conducting wires. Yet the great support of the opinion was in the ex- periments instituted by Dr. Wilson Philip and others, from which it appeared, that if the nerve proceeding to a part be destroyed, and the secretion, whicl ordinarily takes place in the part be thus arrested, the secretion may be restored by causing the galvanic fluid to pass from one divided extremity of the nerve to the other. "The experiments connected with secretion will be noticed more at length hereafter. It will likewise be shown, that in the effect of galvanism upon the muscles there is the same analogy ; that the muscles may be made to contract for a length of time after the death of the animal, even when a limb has been removed from the body, on the application of the galvanic stimulus ; and comparative anatomy exhibits to us great development of nervous structure in those electrical animals, which surprise us by the intensity of the electric shocks they are capable of communi- cating. " Physiologists of the present day generally, we think, accord with the electrical hypothesis. The late Dr. Young, so celebrated for his knowledge in NATURE OF ETHERIUM. 81 numerous departments of science, adopted it prior to the interesting experiments of Dr. Philip ; and Mr. Abernethy, whilst he is strongly opposing the doc- trines of materialism, goes so far as to consider some subtile fluid, not merely as the agent of nervous transmission, but as forming the essence of life itself. Dr. Bostock, however, has remarked, that before the electric hypothesis can be considered proved, two points must be demonstrated ; first, that every func- tion of the nervous system may be performed by the substitution of electricity for the action of the nerves ; and secondly, that all the nerves admit of this sub- stitution. This is true, as concerns the belief in the identity of the nervous and electrical fluids ; but we have, even now, evidence sufficient to show their similarity, and that we are justified in considering the nervous fluid as electroid or galvanoid in its na- ture, emanating from the brain by some action un- known to us, and distributed to the different parts of the system to supply the expenditure, which must be con- stantly going on." — Dunglison' ! s Physiology, p. 87. The idea that the will of man can direct ethereal force, or electricity, in such a manner as to produce etheropathy, or mesmerism, has been considered as inconsistent with the nature of electricity, and also of the will; but in the case of the electric eel, we have an instance of the will discharging the electric fluid with such force as to paralyze the limbs of an- imals at a great distance, and even of their producing death by this power. Some very honest persons 82 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMEKISM. argue that the Deity would never bestow upon man such a wonderful power as that which some exper- iments in etheropathy indicate ; but the power pos- sessed by the gymnotus is far greater than that pos- sessed by man. The most wonderful feats that any mesmerizer ever pretended to perform, are unequal to those which are habitually and instinctively per- formed by one of the very lowest and least intellec- tual of the vertebrated animals. Many objections that are urged against the doctrines which I am advancing, are entirely put to rest by the simple facts connected with the natural history of these interest- ing animals. Here we see electricity actually gen- erated in the animal body, accumulated in an insulat- ed reservoir, the outlet of which is perfectly under the control of the will, so that the fluid can be reserved or expended at pleasure. We see the intel- lect directing the electric bolt with all the precision of an accomplished engineer, and projecting it with the most fatal effect upon its adversary. Like a skil- ful etherean operator or mesmerizer, he ascertains the degree of susceptibility which is possessed by differ- ent bodies with which he comes in contact, so as not to exhaust his energies upon non-conductors. In short, you see in one of the most stupid and insig- nificant animals a realization of all the fabled pow- ers of Olympian Jove. The exploits of Mesmer, Peysegur, or Elliotson, sink into mere trifles com- pared with those of the electric eel ; and yet you will hear gentlemen who are renowned throughout the NATURE OF ETHERIUM. 83 wide world for "learned ignorance," talk in the most oracular style of the utter improbability that the Deity would give one of his creatures such power over another. The following is from Rees's Encyclopae- dia : — " From the observations of Condamine, and others engaged about the same time in a series of experi- ments on the electric properties of the electricus gymnotus, it is clearly demonstrated that the power of this animal consists in a kind of genuine electricity, being equally capable of being conducted or inter- cepted by the same means as electricity. Thus, on touching the fish with the fingers, the same sensation is perceived as on touching the charged vial. M This electric faculty of the gymnotus is appar- ently designed by nature to assist in the support of its existence ; the smaller fishes, and other animals which happen to approach it, being instantly struck motionless, and, dropping to the bottom of the water, become an easy prey. The shock this fish is ca- pable of exerting, is so great as to deprive almost of sense and motion those who are exposed to its influence, and is therefore much dreaded by those who bathe in the rivers it inhabits. Some writers affirm, even, that the violence of the shock given by those of a larger size, is so great as to occasion instant death. Their average length is about three feet, but they are sometimes found in the River Surinam up- wards of twenty feet in length ; and the shock of one of these is said to prove instant death to the person who 84 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. receives it. Electrical fishes are capable of repeating the shocks very frequently in a short space of time. " Mr. Jno. Wash, in a letter to Dr. Franklin, says, that he reckoned fifty shocks in a minute and a half, given by a torpedo ; and upon another occasion, he calculated that one hundred were delivered in about five minutes. Much of the force of the shock de- pends upon the natural strength and vigor of the animal at the moment of the experiment. It is said to have very little electric power in the winter. It is much diminished if the fish remain for any time out of water. The shocks do not appear to be lessened in strength by repetition, unless the animal be other- wise exhausted. When the torpedo administers a shock, it is always observed to depress the eyes, and to make some movements of the lateral fins. The other electric fishes do not accompany these shocks by any visible muscular effort. However strong the shock of fishes may be, it has never been seen to produce the least noise, nor luminous appearance, and it will not pass through the smallest portion of air ; it must, therefore, be greatly deficient in in- tensity. The electricity of fishes has not the power of attracting floating substances. When a person is insulated, and touches the fish, he receives a shock as at other times, but gives no appearance of excess of electricity, however long he may keep up his communication with the animal. A Leyden phial, also, being put into contact with an electric eel, never becomes charged. It would appear that the electric NATURE OF ETHEEIUM. 85 phenomena of fishes are produced in a manner differ- ent from every species of physical electricity.* All * From the Penny Cyclopaedia : — "When the battery is applied to the nerve of a person recently dead, and the circuit is completed, several violent motions ensue, dependent on the relative position of the nerve and muscle ; thus, when the wire communicates with the phrenic nerve, the muscles of respiration are set in motion ; when from the ulnar nerve to the spinal marrow is included in the circuit, the fingers are set in quick motion, and so on. Fishes are still more susceptible of this electric action than animals, and strong convulsive motions will be exhibited by a live flounder placed on a zinc dish and having a piece of cop- per or silver on its back, as soon as the two metals come in contact : similar effects take place with leeches, worms, and amphibious animals. "It was thought by Volta, that the involuntary muscles, such as the heart, could not be thus excited ; but experiment has decided against him. " When the secretion was suspended by cutting the eighth pair of nerves, Dr. Philip and several French anatomists have restored it by establishing a galvanic current through the divided part of the nerves next the stomach. " Intermittent currents have been employed in the experiments of Masson, Peltier, and Delarive. To effect this, M. Masson used a toothed wheel rotating by a cord round it ; its axis, supporter, and itself being all metallic ; a communication is formed between this wheel and a battery in the form of a helix : the object of the teeth of the wheel is occasionally to suspend the action of the current by making the connecting rod of too great a length; hence, when the wheel is made to revolve, the galvanic current acts and is suspended alternately. By a series of intermitted discharges produced in this manner, M. Masson had the cruel pleasure of killing a cat. "P. Santi Linari drew the electric spark from the gymnotus in the following manner : he took a glass tube of the shape of a capital U, which he partly filled with mercury ; at each end was 8 86 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. experimentalists agree that they regulate the strength and frequency of the shocks at pleasure. fixed an iron wire through a wooden button, and which reached very near the mercury. The apparatus being fixed with mastic on varnished wood, the end of the wires were made to touch short platina wires terminated by laminoe of the same metal, intended to make a good communication with the different parts of the electric fish. When the circuit was formed, a spark, visible even in the daylight, appeared at the place where the conductors were inter- rupted. This experiment he has repeated in different forms." — Biblioth. Univ. de Geneve. "Galvanism, in its action on the human system, resembles electricity ; yet it is distinguished by certain peculiarities. In its application it can be rendered more continuous and uniform, and may, like electricity, be administered either in shocks or in a regu- lar flow of galvanic influence through the body. It possesses more power over the chemical actions of the body than electricity, and promotes more completely those processes of decomposition and recomposition which take place in the living frame, as well as the functions of organic life, than common electricity. But the chief distinction consists in the difference of action of the two poles. Each pole excites a peculiar phenomenon in the organs to which it is applied. This difference is less perceptible when mere shocks are administered, than when a continuous stream of galvanic influ- ence is transmitted from one point to another of the body. The positive pole more particularly influences the muscular and vascu- lar system, while the negative pole more especially affects the nervous system. At the positive pole there is felt the shock, strong movements, a feeling of concentration and contraction, increased warmth and mobility of the part, with gradual diminution of the secretion and sensibility. At the negative pole, the pain and sensibility are stronger and more acute, the organ expands, is more irritable, while the muscular action and mobility are lessened. The difference of their action on the secreting powers is best seen by applying the respective poles to a surface which has been recently NATURE OF ETHERITTM. 87 "Dr. Williamson relates, that some small fishes, being thrown into the same water where an electric eel was swimming, it immediately killed and swallowed them ; but a larger fish being thrown in, it was also killed, although it was too large for the eel to swallow. Another fish was thrown into the water, at some dis- tance from the eel ; it swam up to the fish, but pres- deprived of its cuticle, such as where a blister has been. The positive pole changes the serous secretion into that of lymph, which at last becomes thready ; the part dries and is inflamed. The negative pole causes an abundant secretion of a dark-colored, highly acrid fluid, which excoriates the skin over which it flows ; the part also experiences an enduring irritation. Atonic swellings are rendered harder, should they not become inflamed by the posi- tive pole, while frequently by the negative pole they are dispersed and resolved. Notwithstanding the possession of such powerful properties, galvanism has not produced so valuable results in medi- cine as might have been anticipated. This comparative failure is, no doubt, to be attributed to errors in the mode of applying it. It may be proper, however, to remark, that it was urgently recom- mended during the prevalence of the Asiatic cholera; but the results were not satisfactory. Like many other powerful agents, it was not used till a very late stage in the complaint, when recovery was almost impossible. It is also to be doubted whether galvanism be at all applicable to cholera, since it appears that the continued application of it causes death, by inducing inflammation of the lungs, in cases of animals where the eighth pair of nerves have been divided, more speedily than where the same nerves have been divided in animals to which the galvanic power was not applied as a substitute for the nervous. Inflammation is the invariable conse- quence of the application of the positive pole ; while the negative pole would cause a flow of acrid secretion which could not benefit the patient. The identity of electricity, whether common or galvanic, with the nervous power, is much to be questioned." 88 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. ently turned away without offering it any violence ; after some time, it returned, when, seeming to view it for a few seconds, it gave the fish a shock, upon which it instantly turned up its belly and continued motion- less. A third fish was thrown into the water, to which the eel gave such a shock, that it turned on its side, but continued to give signs of life ; the eel, seeming to observe this, as it was turning away, im- mediately returned and struck it quite motionless." SECTION IV. OXYGEN. Having shown the nature of Etherium, I proceed to inquire how its motion is generated in the human constitution, through the agency of oxygen. In 1774, Dr. Priestley discovered that the atmos- pheric air is composed of two different suhstances — one of which has since received the name of oxygen; and it has been found to perform a more important part in chemical combinations than any other pon- derable substance with which we are acquainted. The burning of fuel and other substances is caused by the combination of oxygen with some of their component elements. The rusting and tarnishing of metals is caused by their surfaces forming a chemical union with oxygen. Most of the substances which are commonly called earths, are, in reality, but a combination of oxygen with some metal ; this is true of soda, potash, lime, magnesia, etc. Water is a combination of oxygen with hydrogen. Paints are all composed of some metal combined with oxygen. The common galvanic battery derives its power from the union of oxygen with its metallic plates. The blood of all animals is stimulating and nourishing in proportion to the amount of oxygen which it contains — no animal can live a moment without oxygen : and, finally, the number and force — that is, the 8* 90 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. quantity — of animal motions is in proportion to the amount of oxygen which they require. The motions of animals are undoubtedly produced by the agency of Etherium ; this is the settled opinion of those physiologists who are most capable, from their knowl- edge and experience, of forming a correct judgment upon this subject. It is also admitted, that oxygen is directly related to animal motions. Now, the ques- tion to be determined is, what relation has oxygen to Etherium ? and what relation has it to the animal motions which Etherium propagates? The following seems to me the most reasonable explanation, and one which will receive the approba- tion of philosophic minds : — Every chemical change or combination is accom- panied with a motion of Etherium, whether we perceive it or not. Some motions, thus produced, are more powerful than others ; and the more power- ful neutralize the weaker, or cause them to conform. The motions of animals are produced in a manner so very analogous to those produced by galvanism, as to excite a suspicion in the minds of all scientific men, that they are produced in a similar manner in both cases. We examine to see what there is in common, and the first and most striking fact that arrests our attention, in both operations, is, the agency of oxygen. In both instances we find oxygen drawn from the atmosphere to combine with a liquid ; in both instances the liquid comes in contact with a substance which has a greater affinity for oxygen ; OXYGEN. 91 this substance, whatever it may be, unites with the oxygen and forms an oxide ; instantly a motion of Etherium is produced, which in one case is adapted to move an iron machine, and in the other, a muscu- lar machine. The conclusion is irresistible, that oxygen, by its chemical combinations, produces the motions of Etherium in both machines. It is the office of the stomach to furnish the ma- terials of nourishment, (carbon and hydrogen,) and of the lungs to furnish oxygen, the material of mo- tion. This is the reason why vegetables, which have little or no occasion to move, use so little oxy- gen ; and why animals use an amount of oxygen exactly in proportion to their motions. It is the reason why the predominance of the digestive func- tions causes fat (which is composed of carbon and hydrogen) to accumulate ; while the preponderance of the lungs and brain is generally accompanied with leanness ; as the fat (carbon and hydrogen) is used up in combining with oxygen to produce motion. This explains why sleep is useful, as it enables fat to accumulate for the supply of the oxygen needed to sustain motion when awake. During sleep there is just oxygen enough furnished to supply motion to the involuntary organs ; during waking, enough to supply both voluntary and invol- untary. Oxygen is used immediately after it is re- ceived ; carbon and hydrogen may (in the form of fat) be reserved until needed. There is generally 92 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. more carbon and hydrogen secreted, than used, during sleep, and the surplus is reserved to be used while awake. The conclusion is, that the quantity of motion of Etherium generated in a man, is in proportion to the quantity of oxygen which combines with his food ; and the quantity of oxygen which combines with food in a given time, depends upon the size and per- fection of the lungs and stomach, the proportion which they bear to each other, and the expenditure of material made in producing voluntary and invol- untary motion. There are many other modes by which Etherium may be set in motion, without the agency of oxygen but I contend that this is the use to which respired oxygen is put in the animal system. • SECTION V. SLEEP. NEW PHILOSOPHY OF ORDINAEY SLEEP. "Vegetables sleep incessantly, all their actions be- ing involuntary. The motions of animals are divid- ed into voluntary and involuntary. When the animal is performing involuntary motions only, he is said to be asleep. When he is performing voluntary motions, he is awake. There is a very great difference among animals in regard to the time which they spend in sleep ; there is also a difference in this respect among men ; and a difference in the same individual at dif- ferent periods of life, and in different states of health. The only theories of sleep which have ever been proposed, that I know of, are founded upon the idea that sleep is necessary to restore to the body the sub- stance which it loses by its operations during the waking period, and to give the organs an opportunity to rest. It is spoken of as " Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep." This is the view supported, or rather assumed, by Mr. McNish, in his " Philosophy of Sleep ; " and it is maintained by Prof. Liebig in his excellent work on " Animal Chemistry." After making an accurate calculation of the amount of force which an adult man expends in a day, he says, — 94 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. " This supply of force is furnished in a seven hours' sleep." Again he says, — " The adult man sleeps seven hours, and wakes seventeen hours ; consequently, if the equilibrium be restored in twenty-four hours, the mechanical effects (muscular motions) produced in seventeen hours must be equal to the effects produced during seven hours in the formation of new parts. If, in the adult man, the consumption of force for mechanical pur- poses, in twenty-four hours, be augmented beyond the amount restorable in seven hours of sleep, then, if the equilibrium is to be restored, less force, in the same proportion, must be expended in mechanical effects in the next twenty-four hours. If this be not done, the mass of the body decreases, and the state charac- teristic of old age more or less decidedly super- venes." Having thus fairly stated the received doctrine on this subject, I will now briefly give my own views, which are essentially different. I consider the cause of sleep to be the predominant influence of the involuntary system over the volun- tary, which enables the involuntary system to monop- olize all the available force, and appropriate it to its own purposes ; leaving the voluntary system with- out the means of sustaining its operations, it pauses of course : this is sleep, and its cause. The force which continues both systems in action, is generated by the combination of carbon and hydrogen with SLEEP. 95 oxygen. Oxygen is continually furnished in a suf- ficient quantity, but the carbon and hydrogen are not produced in a proper state and proper place to com- bine with oxygen, and produce force with sufficient rapidity to supply the constant demands which vol- untary and involuntary systems would both make upon it, if they should both keep active incessantly. This deficiency is compensated by sleep ; not as McNish and Liebig suppose, because sleep is necessa- ry to restore the equilibrium of substance ; for sleep is not necessary for this purpose. There is a restora- tion continually going on when we are awake, but it does not go on fast enough to keep pace with the waste ; and when the reservoir is exhausted to a cer- tain point, the struggle commences between the two systems ; a struggle > in which the involuntary system always triumphs sooner or later. If the brain is greatly excited, it maintains the contest longer ; but if all is quiet, monotonous, and peaceful, while the stomach is excited by food easy of digestion, the in- voluntary system easily prevails over its antagonist, the brain, inducts it, and puts it to sleep. In harmony with this theory, we find that (caiteris paribus) those who digest their food with great rapidity, and whose secretions are rapid, of course sleep but little ; while those who digest and secrete very slowly, sleep much. This proposition must be understood with the proper qualifications of caiteris paribus, or all else equal ; for there are other facts which must be taken into the account, and some of 96 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. them of much importance. One is, the size of the brain compared with the body. When the brain is large in proportion to the rest of the body, all else equal, there is a greater tendency to keep awake ; and when the brain is small, there is a greater tendency to sleep. Another modifying circumstance is, the number of different powers of mind possessed by the individual ; for some animals possess a greater num- ber of mental organs than others. Another circum- stance is, the relative size of the higher organs of the brain compared with the lower, as the higher or- gans prevent sleep by producing reflection. Now, take an instance for illustration, where all the con- ditions are favorable to wakefulness : 1. When the food is such (meat) as to be rapidly and easily digest- ed ; 2. When the lungs are very large, so as to de- mand rapid digestion ; 3. Where the brain is large compared with the rest of the body ; 4. Where the number of the mental organs, as in man, is greater than in other animals; and, 5. Where the higher organs are much larger in proportion than the lower. If my theory is correct, such a person will sleep but little. On the contrary, let all the conditions just stated be reversed, and the individual will sleep much from unavoidable necessity. The basis of Mr. Liebig's error (if I may venture respectfully to speak of the error of a very justly distinguished man) con- sists, as I apprehend, in assuming that, to use his own language, — " A living part cannot increase in volume at the SLEEP. 97 same moment in which a portion of it loses the vital condition, and is expelled from the organ in the form of a lifeless compound ; on the contrary, it must di- minish. . . . And only from the period at which the cause of waste ceases to operate, can the capacity of growth be manifested. . . . And, if the original equilibri- um is to be restored, we must suppose that, during sleep, an amount of force is accumulated in the form of living tissue, exactly equal to that which was consumed in voluntary and involuntary motion dur- ing the preceding waking period." To annihilate this doctrine, it is only necessary to carry it out to its consequences ; for, if it is true that a part cannot grow until the cause of waste ceases to operate, then the heart and all the involuntary or- gans are unable to manifest their capacity of growth at any time during life. But we know that they do grow, and we know that they continually waste; and yet they do " increase in volume at the same moment in which a 'portion of them loses the vital condition" etc. What we know of the involuntary organs in this respect, we have a right to assume of the voluntary ; that is, that they are capable of grow- ing while they are in operation, and that sleep is not therefore necessary to the continuation of life, ex- cepting so far as it economizes force. Again, Mr. Liebig's assumption is not true, that, all else equal, — " The mechanical force available for work is di- rectly proportional to the number of hours' sleep." 9 98 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. It would, doubtless, be true, if the restoration of substance and the acquisition of force could only take place during sleep ; but I have already shown that this is not true, and consequently, the assump- tion of a regular proportion of force to sleep is also without basis. It is at war with facts. Birds, that sleep less than any other animals, surpass all animals in the amount and velocity of their motions. In pro- portion to their size they certainly expend more force in voluntary motions than any other animals ; and yet, according to Mr. Liebig, they accumulate less, because they sleep less. It cannot be said that they sleep so much sounder than other animals, that they are therefore enabled to accumulate enough in their brief sleep to support their long-continued and vigor- ous motions ; for their sleep is not only brief, but very light and imperfect. They are so easily waked that it seems doubtful whether they are ever entirely asleep. According to my theory, it is easy to under- stand that an animal of this kind could entirely dis- pense with sleep : I do not doubt that some birds might be kept awake continually. It is said, indeed, that fishes never sleep, and I can readily believe it ; for with their rapid digestion and little expenditure of force, balanced as they are in the water, and sus- tained by the gravity of their native element so as to need but little exertion to propel themselves about, there is little occasion for sleep, if my views are cor- rect; but, according to Mr. Liebig, they ought to sleep during the whole time that they are growing ; SLEEP. 99 and the amount of their sleep ought to be proportional to the amount of growth added to the amount of substance expended in all their motions : this is cer- tainly not true, and therefore Mr. Liebig is certainly and obviously wrong on this point, notwithstanding the genius which he has exhibited in so many other departments of inquiry. As I propose to illustrate this interesting subject more in detail on some future oc- casion, I will not pursue it further in this work. It seems, then, that the immediate cause of sleep is, that the involuntary system actually inducts or mesmerizes the brain ; at certain regularly returning periods, monopolizes, for its own use, all the force then on hand, and proceeds to accumulate substance until the stimulus of the external world prevails, and inducts the external senses and brain sufficiently to produce waking. The reason why sleep is necessary, is, because we do not digest and secrete fast enough to supply car- bon and hydrogen for the oxygen which it would require to move voluntary and involuntary organs twenty-four hours. The apparent design of the Creator, in ordaining sleep, is to prevent the unnecessary expenditure of force. Accordingly, those animals, or those parts of animals, whose circumstances require continual action, never sleep. To illustrate : horses sleep standing, rabbits with their eyes open : it is said that fishes never sleep, and we know that the heart never sleeps. SECTION VI. THE ORGAN OF CONSCIOUSNESS.* It is impossible to avoid the conclusion, that there is a central organ of Consciousness in the brain, where all the other organs of mind concentrate their forces, where their relative influence is appreciated, and their relative claims to superiority weighed and allowed — an organ of Consciousness, to which all the other organs of the brain, and all the various external organs of sensation, are merely auxiliaries. All the organs of the brain which are concerned in thought and feel- ing, converge to this grand centre, and all the nerves of voluntary motion diverge from it. The organ of Consciousness is located in the me- dulla oblongata : this is the point where sensation terminates, and volition commences ; this is the seat of Consciousness. The proof is derived from experi- ment ; for, if the brain above, and the spinal cord below, are both destroyed, consciousness still con- tinues, provided the medulla oblongata and its nerves are uninjured ; but if the oblongata is destroyed, con- sciousness is also destroyed. This is conclusive and unanswerable proof. The precise minute point where * The attention of the reader is particularly called to this and the succeeding section, as they are necessary to a complete under- standing of clairvoyance, and of magic eloquence. — Ed. THE ORGAN OF CONSCIOUSNESS. 101 The engraving represents a brain as dissected by Spnrzheim, to show the fibres of the phreno organs converging to the point c in the medulla oblongata. "Where alone, according to Prof. Grimes's theory, Consciousness is experienced. We are indebted to the courtesy of Dr. Bronson for the above engraving, and also for one on page 119. — Ed. 9* 102 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. Consciousness holds its mysterious throne, whether it is exactly at the place where the pneumogastric nerve is inserted, or the twentieth or the third part of an inch above it, is not yet ascertained ; nor is it material : it is certain that it is not below the place where that nerve is inserted ; it is certain that it is not an inch above. This is what we know, and all we know, of the location of Consciousness — the sanctum of the mind. There is other evidence which con- firms this, but none which so decidedly settles the question. Thus we find that the principal fibres of the brain converge to this point, and we find all the nerves of sensation and of voluntary motion in direct communication with it. Its intermediate position between the brain and spinal cord, the fact that it is possessed by all animals of the vertebrated class, the fact that some animals have more and others less phreno-organs superadded to the oblongata, but none are without this important part, — all conspire to sustain and illustrate the decisive experiments by which this is proved to be the location of the organ of Consciousness. " The spinal marrow is sensible along the whole of its posterior column ; but it also acts only as a conductor of the impression. Flourens destroyed the spinal cord from below, by slicing it away ; and he found that sensibility was gradually extinguished in the parts corresponding to the destroyed medulla, but that the parts situated above evidently continued to feel. Perception therefore occurs in the encephalon ; and not in the whole but in some of its parts. Many physiologists, amongst whom may be mentioned THE ORGAN OF CONSCIOUSNESS. 103 Haller, Lorry, Rolando, and Flourens, have sliced away the brain, and found that the sensations continued until the knife reached the level of the corpora quadrigemina ; and again it has been found that if the spinal cord be sliced away from below upwards, the sensa- tions persist until we reach the medulla oblongata. It is, then, in the medulla oblongata that we must place the cerebral organs of the senses, and it is with this part of the cephalo-spinal axis that the nerves of the senses are found to communicate. " Mr. Lawrence saw a child with no more encephalon than a bulb, which was a continuation for about an inch above the foramen magnum of the medulla spinalis, and with which all the nerves from the fifth to the ninth pair were connected. The child's breathing and temperature were natural ; it took food, and at first moved very briskly. It lived four days." — Dunglinsorfs Physiology, p. 83. The location of Consciousness is not, in itself, a very important or essential circumstance, provided it be admitted that there is such an organ, and that it has a location somewhere in the brain ; the philosophy founded upon Consciousness would be the same if its location were utterly unknown. Dr. Reid, the great- est of the Scotch philosophers, advocated the doctrine that Consciousness is a distinct power of the mind, but did not attempt to give it a local habitation. Aristotle and the ancient philosophers considered the brain as the sensorium, but did not designate any particular portion as especially entitled to that name. Descartes considered the pineal gland as the seat of the soul. Darwin and many modern physiologists use the term sensorium to signify the seat of the mind, wherever it may be. The researches and experiments of the anatomists of France and Italy, which have been made within the last hundred years 104 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. upon living animals, with a design of ascertaining the offices which are performed by different portions of the brain, have been very numerous, and have cost much labor, and excited much discussion. Those experiments have, however, been of but little use, except so far as relates to the seat of Consciousness. They demonstrated that life is independent of the brain ; that respiration and volition are dependent upon the brain ; that the medulla oblongata is the centre of volition and sensation ; and that the brain, all ex- cepting the medulla oblongata, may be taken away, and respiration, and volition, and the signs of Con- sciousness, remain. These experiments seemed to be at war with the doctrines of Gall and Spurzheim, and their fairness was consequently denied by the advo- cates of phrenology ; none of them have considered the experiments as affording evidence of the truth of phrenology, though in reality they do so, if the doc- trines which I have advanced respecting Conscious- ness are admitted to be correct. All the phrenological writers seem to have enter- tained the most vague notions concerning Conscious- ness. Both Spurzheim and Combe, and indeed all other phrenologians, deny the existence of Conscious- ness as a separate power of the mind. They seemed to have a notion that each mental power has a Con- sciousness of its own, in some way, which they did not attempt to define, and probably did not them- selves clearly comprehend. The opponents of phre- nology have not failed to avail themselves of this THE ORGAN OF CONSCIOUSNESS. 105 weak point in the science. They have triumphantly demanded, "What constitutes the unity of mind — the unity of Consciousness in our system of phreno- philosophy ? " They have justly characterized the science as a federal republic without a common execu- tive — a circumference without a centre ; and though they were inclined to admit that phrenology has added some useful facts to our stock of knowledge on this subject, it is .not itself entitled, in their opinion, to the claims which its friends set up for it, to be considered as a systematic science. There was, indeed, but too much truth in this criticism, and I hope that this introduction of the organ of Conscious- ness will in a great measure obviate not only this difficulty, but many others which previously lay in the way of the metaphysicians. The error of Spurz- heim on this point, which was adopted by Combe and other followers of that illustrious man, may be traced in all his works, and in the works of all his disciples. Sptirzheim divided the powers of the mind into feelings and intellectual faculties. He reckoned twenty different organs of feelings, besides fifteen thinking faculties. He and Combe also speak repeatedly of these different powers, as operating sometimes in harmony, and sometimes in antagonism ; but did not seem to think it necessary to point out the common ground upon which their harmony or antagonism is displayed, and without which it is im- possible that it can be displayed at all. If we say that Consciousness is dependent upon a 106 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. material organ, it may be objected, that it is then com pound in its material constitution, and consequently- liable, after death, to be decomposed, and, of course, its identity annihilated. I answer, that the organ of Consciousness is not necessarily compound. The essential element of the organ may, for aught we know, be an ultimate and indivisible, atom of matter, which has the inherent property of being conscious, when placed in proper relations to the senses and other organs, so as to have this property excited. An indi- visible, indestructible atom of matter is immortal in its existence and its identity ; and if it is capable of Con- sciousness, when placed in proper circumstances, then Consciousness is immortal, though it may remain dor- mant for ages for want of the proper circumstances t( excite it. There are some reasons for suspecting tha every atom of matter in existence is capable of Con- sciousness, when placed in the circumstances an 1 conditions favorable to its development. It is quite certain that Consciousness can exist, i all its power of thought and feeling, in a particle of matter so exceedingly minute, that the most perfec* microscope cannot perceive it. This is demonstrate< by the phenomena presented by that wonderful order of animals, the infusoria, some of which, according to an accurate and mathematical measurement by Ehren- berg and Dr. Prichard, are so diminutive that twenty- five thousand of them can stand in a row upon a line which is less than an inch in length, and eight mil- lions can occupy less space than a mustard seed, THE OKGAN OF CONSCIOUSNESS. 107 Now, when we reflect that each of these animals has limbs, mouth, organs of digestion, an involuntary and voluntary system, with a central Consciousness. — how large a space can we suppose the central Conscious- ness occupies ? That it exists in them, as in us, no one will deny : it is also plain that it does not occupy the whole of the body in them, any more than it does in us ; for in their case, as in ours, a limb may be destroyed, and yet Consciousness remain. In them, as in us and all animals, it occupies a central position, distinct in. its nature and function from, yet in con- nection with, all the voluntary organs. Now, it can be easily demonstrated that Consciousness cannot pos- sibly occupy this central position in relation to the other organs of the animal, without being limited to a space more than two hundred times smaller than that which the rest of the animal occupies. As eight millions of the animals occupy less space than a mus- tard seed, therefore sixteen hundred millions of or- gans of Consciousness may exist in a space smaller than that filled by a mustard seed.* Surely, after this, * Infusoria. This term has been applied to the numerous minute animals found in water, which are commonly called animalcules. The invention of the microscope by Hooke, revealed the exist- ence of myriads of living - creatures, whose presence was before unknown ; and this instrument has shown that a drop of water, though it may appear to the naked eye to be perfectly clear, is per- haps swarming with living beings. Ehrenberg (whose labors have principally contributed to the knowledge of the true nature and structure of the infusory animalcules) has described species which are not larger than from one thousandth to one two-thousandth of a 108 philosophy of mfismEBiSLt. no one will cavil about the organ of Consciousness being supposed to exist in the smallest possible atom of matter, indivisible and indestructible. This course of reasoning is useful in teaching us that the nature of Consciousness is beyond our grasp ; that we cannot investigate it by the observation of material bodies ; line (a line is one twelfth of an inch) in diameter, and which are separated from one another hy intervals not greater than their own size. A cubic inch of water may thus contain more than eight hundred thousand millions of these beings, estimating them only to occupy one fourth of its space ; and a single drop (measuring not more than a line in diameter) placed under the microscope, will be seen to hold five hundred millions — an amount perhaps nearly equal to the whole number of human beings on the surface of the globe. Distinct organs of digestion may be demonstrated in all the species. Ehrenberg says, " All true infusoria, even the smallest monads, are organized animal bodies, and distinctly provided with at least a mouth and internal nutritive apparatus." Speaking of the wonderful power of the infusorial animals to multiply by the mysterious process of self-division, Prof. Ehrenberg says, — " The possibility of the multiplying of an individual to a million, in less than forty-eight hours, was exhibited in them by the mere process that each single animalcule can divide itself, within one hour, completely lengthwise or across, and after the lapse of one hour's rest, can repeat the same thing. The vast effect of this activity is, that a single animalcule, perfectly invisible to the naked eye, can possibly be increased in four days to 140 billions of inde- pendent animalcules. In the polishing slate of Berlin, about 41,000 millions of these creatures form one cubic inch of stone, as may easily and pretty accurately be determined, etc." — Transactions of the Royal Academy of Berlin, 1840. In contrast with these views, it will be interesting to read the fol- lowing brief extract from Dr. Lardner's Lectures : — THE ORGAN OF CONSCIOUSNESS. 109 that we can only know its existence in a general man- ner from experience, and its location by experiments which can only approximate to exactness. Nor does this investigation shed any light upon the subject of immortality. If man is necessarily im- mortal because he is endowed with an indestructible organ of Consciousness, then so is every insect and reptile, and all the infinite variety of vermin that have ever infested the earth ; and science offers as power- " A star of the seventh magnitude can easily be compared with one of the first, in point of splendor, by the photometer — just as the light of a sperm candle can be compared with that of a lamp. Sir John Herschel has compared the splendor of a star of the sixteenth magnitude with that of one of the first, and has found that the light of the latter is equal to three hundred and sixty-two times that of the former. From this it may be inferred that the distance of a star of the sixteenth magnitude is such that it would require thousands of years for its light to reach our system. These con- siderations present to our minds most comprehensive views of the economy of the universe. For if light requires a thousand years to come from any of these plainly distinguishable stars, there can be no doubt that it takes twenty times as long to come from others ; and what are we to infer from this but that there are visible objects in the universe which 20,000 years ago existed as they are now seen ? Light left these stars 20,000 years ago, and has just reached the earth upon which we live. For twenty thousand years past, then, these stars, for aught we know, may not have existed. The objects we see to-day are not the objects of to-day : the Sirius that we see to-day is not the Sirius of to-day. The light by which we see it left that star three years ago ; and from that day to this we have known nothing of it. Into what a singular historical state does this view throw creation ! Our system, then, exists at an enor- mous distance from the nearest of the fixed stars ; and look in what direction we may, the same chasm yawns between us and it." 10 110 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. ful an argument in favor of their immortality as that of man. Of all the investigations of scientific men, none has excited the jealousy of sectarians as much as the one we have now under consideration ; almost every philosopher who has manifested a disposition to approach the subject fearlessly, and speak of it with independence, has had the mad-dog cry raised against him of fatalism, materialism, or heresy. Many of our modern authors have been so far influenced by this outcry, that they have evidently suppressed their true sentiments, and smothered their conscien- tious convictions, to avoid the relentless persecutions which arise from bigotry and superstition. The only road to the favor of this potent and numerous class of tyrants, is to make a profound mystery of every thing relating to mind ; all explanation, or even demonstra- tion, is condemned by them as unpardonable heresy, dangerous to religion, and inconsistent with their own narrow views of the Holy Scriptures. Nothing has had so injurious an effect upon the fair and successful inves- tigation of this subject, as even the well-meant inter- ference of these self-appointed theological critics, and nothing can be more injudicious and misplaced than their animadversions. The truth is, the subject is not fairly within their jurisdiction, and therefore they have no right to meddle with it. The immortality of the soul can neither be proved nor disproved by the demonstrations of natural science. We may examine the nerves and the brain as much as we please ; we may prove to a certainty that Conscious- THE ORGAN OF CONSCIOUSNESS. Ill ness maintains its seat in the very centre of the oblon- gata ; we may determine the precise, individual, ulti- mate atom in which it resides with all its preroga- tives, where it receives its impressions through the senses, and sends forth its mandates through the motor nerves ; we may prove that it is dependent upon the various phreno-organs, the currents of Etherium, and their modifications in, the different avenues ; and yet the subject is as far beyond our comprehension as before ; we can discover nothing that illustrates or illuminates immortality. If all was doubt and obscu- rity when we began the search by the light of nature, reason, and science, it is equally obscure now ; and from the nature of the subject it could not possibly be otherwise. We have come to the wrong place to learn the nature of the immortal principle of the hu- man soul, or to find evidence for or against this im- portant doctrine. Suppose it proved that Conscious- ness in this temporal life does actually depend upon a compound material organ, which at death is decom- posed so as to render Consciousness by that organ impossible ; suppose this demonstrated, beyond all question ; would this be admitted as decisive proof that the soul is not immortal ? Again, suppose it demonstrated that Consciousness is dependent upon a single indestructible atom ; would this be sufficient to satisfy us concerning the immortality of man ? We may conjecture what we will, and speculate until we have exhausted all the resources of our ingenuity, without solving the question of our future destiny. 112 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMEPJSM. Consciousness certainly does exist in man and every other living animal, and has its seat at the point where sensation terminates and volition commences ; this is all that we can know. The condition of human Consciousness after death is a matter of re- ligious faith, but not of scientific knowledge. Immortality is like one of those fixed and beautiful stars, that cannot be perceived by the unaided natural eye ; but divine revelation is like a powerful telescope, which brings that star clearly to our view. Be it, then, hereafter remembered, that "eternal life and immortality is brought to light through the gospel of Jesus Christ," and not through anatomy and physi- ology, nor any other department of scientific investi- gation. The subject is infinitely beyond the reach and above the comprehension of finite intellect and human reason. If any one wishes to find evidence of the immortality of the soul, let him go to the Bible. If he rejects this testimony, I can assure him that he will find it proved nowhere else. He will look to human science in vain — it can only lead him to the grave, and there leave him. History may reveal to him, that man has, in all ages, and under all circum- stances, savage and civilized, manifested " This pleasing- hope, this fond desire, This longing after immortality ; " but this affords him no assurance that his longing will be satisfied. In vain, then, do we send out science in search of immortality for the soul ; like Noah's dove, it returns again, unable to find a resting- THE ORGAN OF CONSCIOUSNESS. 113 place even for itself; but divine revelation, like the second dove which Noah sent out, comes to the believer with its beautiful wings illuminated by reflections from the rainbow of eternal hope, bearing the olive branch, the emblem and assurance of rest and peace from all the storms of a troubled world. In whatever direction we turn our eyes to the works of nature's God, we find evidences of design ; and whenever we are able to understand his designs, we are forced to acknowledge their wisdom. Let us, then, inquire, What was the design of the Creator in bestowing Consciousness upon animals and man ? Why could not all their actions have been involun- tary, as one class of them actually is ; and as all the actions of vegetables, in all probability, are ? Why was it necessary — when organized beings advanced from the condition of vegetables one degree upwards in the scale — why was Consciousness added ? This has been answered by saying that Conscious- ness was given that the animal might be capable of enjoying its existence. Why, then, was not Con- sciousness given to vegetables and minerals? Besides, Consciousness is often attended with suffering ; andj in some instances, animals seem to suffer much more than they enjoy. This cannot, then, be the answer. When the question is applied exclusively to man, it may be answered, that Consciousness was bestowed because he could not otherwise have been made an accountable being ; but this will not be given as the 10* 114 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. reason why Consciousness was bestowed upon the low- est animals ; nor will it enable us to explain all the instances of human Consciousness. I will venture to propose another reason. It is this : Consciousness be- came necessary, to enable the animal to act with refer- ence to external objects, which are not in contact with his organs. Involuntary and unconscious actions are always performed upon objects which are in contact with the organs. When the earth first emerged from its primitive condition, so that organized beings began to live upon it, their first actions were probably alto- gether involuntary ; and when the condition of the earth so far improved as to render the introduction of animals possible, those animals were but a single step in advance — but one degree superior to vegeta- bles. Accordingly, the lowest animals differ from vegetables only in this, that they act upon objects which it requires a movement of their extremities to bring into contact. This is the reason why vegeta- bles, having no Consciousness, have no muscular motion ; nor do they need any, since all the objects which require their action are in contact with their extremities. Vegetables have propensities to breathe, to eat, to enjoy the light, etc. ; if Consciousness were added, and nothing more, we should have a vegetable conscious of its wants, but unable to move to get into contact with the objects which it needed — unable even to perceive them. Now, add perceptive organs and contractile muscles, and it would be a conscious animal, with the same wants, and consciousness of THE ORGAN OF CONSCIOUSNESS. 115 those wants ; and, in addition to these, it would have a Consciousness of the existence, location, form, color, flavor, and weight of the objects which it needed, and the means of moving its extremities, and directing them so as to come into contact with those objects. The animal may still, be destitute of reflective organs, and, therefore, unable to perceive the consequences of his actions. He has the very lowest animal pro- pensities, and the very lowest perceptive organs, super- added to Consciousness. He is urged irresistibly by his propensities to aim at certain objects, without reflection, without fear, and without hesitation or forethought ; danger and death will be unseen and undreaded. He will be incapable of acting with reference to any objects which are beyond the limits of present perception, direct and immediate. He has no memory, for that can only exist with reflection. Memory is a power which connects the past and present, and depends, in some degree, upon the reflec- tive powers, of which we have assumed the animal to be destitute. As he cannot avail himself of past experience without memory and reflection, he is a mere conscious machine, moved by external stimulus. Now, add reflection and the higher propensities, and he is a different being ; he remembers past experience, and profits by it, to avoid danger, wounds, and death. He repress'es his present active lower propensities, because reflection stimulates cautiousness, and other restraining powers. He is no longer urged irresisti- bly to act from the immediate present external stimu- 116 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. lus, but he is operated upon by the treasured stimulus of the past, furnished by memory and applied by reflection, concerning the future effect of present conduct. Thus we conclude that Consciousness is necessary to produce contact with that which is with- in the range of perception at the present. Reflection and memory, and the high propensities, are necessary to enable us to act with reference to that which is absent from perception at present, but will be likely to be present to us hereafter. This analysis gives a very different character to memory from that which phrenological writers generally have bestowed upon it. They have made it depend altogether upon the perceptive organs ; but I have made them mere vehicles, modifiers, and repeaters of impressions which are acted upon by other and higher powers of mind. 1 * The philosophical reader will perceive that the fore- going explanation of Consciousness has an important bearing upon the subject of clairvoyance, as it enables us to understand clearly how any motion of Etherium, which is made to penetrate the external coverings and * Prof. Grimes was the first to suggest that there was a single and distinct organ of Consciousness. In 1844 he undertook to show that Consciousness is located in the medulla oblongata, and that the phreno-organs concentrate there, and act upon it. Mr. Fowler has recently discovered an organ of Consciousness, " where the fibres go criss cross ; " and charity would lead us to suppose that he had never seen or heard of Mr. Grimes's discovery, did we not know the contrary. — Ed. THE ORGAN OF CONSCIOUSNESS. 117 isolation, the "outside guardians" of the brain, can easily afterwards reach the central seat of Conscious- ness, and make an impression ; but this is all explained in detail in the article on clairvoyance, in another part of this work. SECTION VII. INTER-PHRENO SENSES. There are three kinds of senses, viz. : the external, the internal-corporeal, and the inter-phreno. 1. The external senses are those which convey impressions from the external world to the perceptive organs, and give the ideas of flavor, sound, color, form, etc. «» 2. The internal-corporeal senses are those which convey impressions from the different organs of the body to appropriate organs of the brain, and produce the feelings of hunger, thirst, suffocation, pain, and various other bodily feelings. These senses, or nerves, are in connection with certain appropriate cerebral organs of the propensities which are depend- ent upon them. Thus the organ of Alimentiveness is connected with the stomach by means of a nerve, (a part of the Pneumogastric,) which conveys from the stomach impressions to Alimentiveness ; another branch of the same nerve conveys to the organ of Pneumativeness impressions from the lungs producing the feeling of suffocation. There is an infinite num- ber of nerves which convey impressions to the organ of Sanativeness, and through its means produce the feeling of bodily pain in all its varieties. These senses have never been properly investigated and explained by any writer upon physiology, and the organ of INTER-PHRENO SENSES. 119 In the annexed engraving, the fibres of the brain are represented as proceeding from the convolutions at the surface of the brain, and all converging to a point at c, where consciousness is presumed to be located. The numbers from 1 to 14 designate the convolutions ; m, n, and o are parts which it is not necessary to describe in this work : the only- important point to which I wish to call the attention of the reader is, that the fibres do actually proceed from the convolutions to the medulla oblongata, and there converge to a common centre ; and thus anatomy sustains the Phreno-Conscious theory which our author was the first to advance. — Ed. 120 PHILOSOrHY OF MESMERISM. Sanativeness was unknown until I called attention to it in 1839. 3. The inter-phreno senses are those which con- vey impressions to the phreno-organs from the organ of Consciousness, and from the phreno-organs to the organ of Consciousness. They produce a communi- cation between Consciousness and all the phreno- organs. No writer upon Phrenology has, prior to this time, suggested that this class of senses must exist ; indeed, they could not do so before an organ of Conscious- ness was introduced. But when we admit an organ of Consciousness, to which every phreno-organ sends impressions, we are forced also to admit the existence of fibres which connect Consciousness with the phre- no-organs in such a manner as to allow of intercom- munication. Let us illustrate by an example. A man is hungry, and eats food. Now, there are several links in the chain of causes and effects, which resulted in the act of eating, and we shall find it impossible to con- stitute a perfect chain without introducing the inter- phreno senses as connecting links. 1. The stomach, being in a condition to need food, produces an im- pression upon the end of the nerve, viz., one of the internal-corporeal senses. 2. This impression is con- veyed (as in the electric telegraph) to the other ex- tremity of the nerve, where it is connected with the organ of Alimentiveness. 3. The organ of Alimen- tiveness, receiving the impression, is excited, and INTER-PHRENO SENSES. 121 sends an impression to the central organ of Con- sciousness, thus producing a state of Consciousness which we call hunger. 4. The organ of Conscious- ness is excited by the impression, and immediately from its central position radiates, and transmits the impression to the phreno-organs through the inter- phreno senses. 5. Each phreno-organ, being thus excited, sends, in return to Consciousness, an impres- sion peculiar to itself. Now, as Consciousness cannot fully recognize more than one impression at a time, the most powerful impression forces itself upon Con- sciousness first, and the next impression follows, and so on, in the order of their relative force ; this suc- cession of impressions constitutes what is commonly denominated a train of ideas, or a tram of thought and feeling. The impressions upon Consciousness, pro- duced by the intellectual organs, are called thoughts ; and the impressions from the propensities are called feelings. When, in the above example, the impres- sion from Alimentiveness produced the state of Con- sciousness which we all recognize as hunger, the im- pression was radiated through the inter-phreno senses, and the perceptive organs were thus aroused, partic- ularly the perceptive organ of Flavor. These per- ceptive organs, being thus excited, not by impressions from external objects, but by an impression from the central Consciousness, could only send in return an impression which was but an imperfect repetition of a former impression : this kind of impression is the foundation of memory. 6. In the case supposed of 11 122 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. the hungry man, those impressions from the percep- tive organs which constitute memory, only serve (when transmitted through the inter-phreno senses and Consciousness to a propensity like Alimentive- ness) to excite it to a still greater degree, and cause it to send to Consciousness a still more powerful im- pression. At length the propensity pours upon con- sciousness such a powerful current of impressions, that Consciousness can no longer be relieved by transmitting them through the inter-phreno senses to the phreno-organs : another outlet is therefore resort- ed to. 7. Under these circumstances, the motor nerves receive impressions or currents, through Con- sciousness, from the phreno-organs. The motor nerves convey impressions from the organ of Con- sciousness to the muscles. 8. This produces those contractions of the muscles which we call voluntary motions, and in the example of the hungry man, those motions were directed to food; taking it, put- ting it into his mouth, tasting it, chewing and swal- lowing it, and continuing this operation until the stomach ceased to send impressions along the nerve to Alimentiveness. It will be perceived, that, according to this view, there are two modes in which phreno-organs may be excited : one is directly through the senses, and the other is through Consciousness. Thus Alimentiveness was excited, first by an impression from the stomach ; and secondly, by an impression through Conscious- ness from the external senses. INTER-PHRENO SENSES. 123 It would seem, however, that all the phreno-organs are not capable of being excited in these two ways ; some phreno-organs receive no impressions, except through consciousness ; this is the case with the re- flective organs, and most of the higher propensities. The reflective organs do not receive -any impressions directly from the external world, but the perceptives receive them and convey them to consciousness, and from consciousness the reflectives receive the impres- sions and respond to them. It may be a question whether all trains of thought originate through the external and the internal corporeal senses, or whether the brain may not be sometimes spontaneously ex- cited by operations of its own, which are only de- pendent upon the circulation of the blood. It may be, in this respect, analogous to the liver and other glands, which are spontaneously excited merely by the circulation. I am decidedly of this opinion : it is certain that trains of thought which originate in bodily condi- tions, and which are excited through the internal-cor- poreal senses, are continued, and, by the aid of the principle of causality and comparison, lead to other thoughts, which seem to have no immediate relation to the things that first started the train of thought. Thus a slight toothache may remind one of a friend who once had a similar toothache, and this may lead us to think of his wife, and then of her sister, and so on, until our pain is forgotten. This theory enables us to explain the faculty 124 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. which we have of using all the powers of the mind in reverie, when neither our senses nor our muscles are active — when we are at rest, every muscle re- laxed, our eyes shut, and our external senses inactive, though we are perfectly awake and the mind active upon subjects which are far distant and events that are long past. For after one phreno-organ has been excited so as to impress consciousness, this may cause a long train of spontaneous thought through the means of the inter-phreno senses.* It also enables * M. Victor Cousin, in his strictures upon Locke, (See Professor Henry's translation of Cousin, entitled " Cousin's Elements of Psychology") claims much credit for having exposed the deficiency of Locke's system in relation to spontaneous operations of mind, independently of external sensation. Locke makes all ideas pro- ceed from sensation ; and his system has, therefore, been somewhat reproachfully denominated the sensual or sensuous system. He denies the existence of innate ideas. Cousin acknowledges that ideas are not innate, but insists that the mind has the inherent power of producing ideas which do not come through sensation. He contends that sensation occasions the mind to evolve ideas which sensation itself could never have pro- duced. Cousin charges, that the doctrine of Locke leads to mate- rialism and fatalism, and claims that his own doctrine is free from this fault; but it would be easy to show that Cousin's doctrine is more directly opposed to revelation than that of Locke ; for Locke candidly acknowledges that his philosophy is imperfect, without faith in divine revelation ; whereas Cousin vainly supposes that he avoids this necessity, by showing that the mind posseses powers and receives ideas which are independent of sensation. Cousin does not seem to suspect that there may be internal material organs ■which are capable of being spontaneously active, or of being called into action " by occasion " of sensation. I have shown this to be the case, and, of course, Cousin, Locke, and myself, are in the same dilemma, — which forces us to admit, that the tendency of INTER-PHRENO SENSES. 125 us to understand how it is that thinking on some absent object sometimes produces a movement of the muscles : thus, thinking of a beloved child, and imagining it falling over a precipice, causes an invol- untary start, as if to prevent it ; thinking of delicious food causes the mouth to water, and move as if in the act of enjoyment ; and so of other corporeal enjoy- ments. The explanation is, that consciousness first received an impression from some phreno-organ, which, when transmitted to Alimentiveness, was adapted to excite it, and to cause it to send an impression to Con- sciousness with a force which, increasing in energy, at last forced its way through the motor nerves to the muscles, and produced the movement of the mouth. This theory enables us to explain the manner in which dreams are produced when the brain is partial- ly asleep. It also shows, that even supposing it true that touching a certain part of the head excites the phreno-organ touched, yet through the inter-phreno senses the excitement may be so complicated with other parts of the brain as to render it impossible to draw any correct inference in regard to the nature of the organ touched. The relation of the inter-phreno senses to the organ of consciousness must be under- stood in order to fully explain the philosophy of clair- voyance and of credencive induction, as the reader will perceive when he comes to my remarks on those subjects. all human philosophy is to materialism and fatalism. The only way of escape is, to admit, with Locke, that divine revelation is above all philosophy. 11* SECTION VIII. MOTION. It may be said, with truth, that all motion, of which we know, is communicated, and that nothing can be said to originate motion but God. When a cannon ball is set in motion, where did the motion originate ? Certainly not in the ball, nor yet in the powder. Philosophers say that the motion is caused by the sudden and forcible expansion of the powder. Granted. Bnt what caused the powder to expand in this wonderful manner ? It is said that it expands in consequence of its sudden change from a solid to a gaseous form. Granted. But what caused the sudden change from solid to gas ? I am told the ap- plication of heat caused the change. But why ? how ? in what way ? On what principle does the application of heat to a grain of powder cause it to change from a solid to a gas, and occupy a million of times more space than it did before ? Again, it is not true that the powder occupies more space than it did before ; that is impossible. Every thing, every atom in existence, requires a certain amount of space, and has always, and always must have it. It is absurd, then, to say that the powder, in the gaseous form, occupies more space than it did in its solid form. The space which it occupies is the same. The constituent atoms of each grain of the MOTION. 127 powder may be widely separated from each other ; but they do not, on that account, occupy more space than when they were associated together in one aggregated lump. Now, what separated, in such a forcible and sudden manner, the constituent atoms of the powder ? What agency had heat in the operation ? Why could not the separation take place as well without heat as with it ? If the motion in this case was communicated, from whence was it communicated ? What was its source ? I solve the enigma thus : The atoms of the powder were separated from each other by the introduction of Etherium or caloric between them. The Etherium was in motion before, and only communicated its motion to the atoms of powder. The fire which was applied to the powder was the entering wedge of Etherium, and then the surrounding Etherium, which (although human faculties could not perceive it) was already in motion, and which previously was unable to separate the atoms of powder, now, since the fire commenced it, instantly took this direction, and thus communicated its motion and force to the atoms. The motions of Etherium are, therefore, the ne plus ultra of human knowledge. It moves and communi- cates its motions to other things ; this is certain ; but what is the origin of its motions we cannot know. We see the motions of the water of the river, and we say that it is caused by gravitation ; that gravita- tion is a tendency of things to move towards the centre 128 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. of the earth ; that this is related to the motion of the earth upon its axis ; and this again is caused by the influence of the sun communicated to the earth. Now, what communicates this power to the sun we know not ; yet the tides, the winds, the waterfalls, the vegetable and animal motions, are communicated by the sun, moon, and other planets, to this world. Nothing originates motion within human knowledge, and nothing within human knowledge can arrest it. We see it passing, but we never see it commencing nor ending. Coming and passing away is written upon the whole universe, and upon every atom it contains. The animal life of one generation is com- municated to the next. But where did it begin ? Where will it end ? Is not this, too, communicated motion? Where was it before the earth was habit- able ? The materials of the first organized beings existed in the fiery elements of chaos ; and the motions also existed, but not on earth in animated forms. It must, then, have been first communicated from inanimated forms of this earth, or animate forms of some other planet. Which was it ? The existence must be admitted of a medium which communicates motion ; different from any material substance which we can see or know by our senses. This is proved by the effect of a mag- net upon iron, when partitions of the most solid substances intervene, — bricks, boards, glass, stone, water, etc., — which prevent the passage of all other substances, solid, liquid, or gaseous ; yet through all MOTION. 129 these it moves with perfect ease, and without any apparent diminution of its power. Light passes through glass, water, air, and other transparent substances with scarcely any obstruction, and produces all its effects almost as if no obstacle whatever had interposed. The planets influence each other and the earth. This could not be, as they are not in contact, unless there were some connecting medium. The inevita- ble conclusion, therefore, is, that there is a connecting medium. The influence of the planets upon each other is exactly in proportion to their size. This proves that the influence, whatever it is, proceeds from the con- stituent atoms of each, to the constituent atoms of the other ; and therefore that the power by which one planet influences another must be almost infinitely divisible. The influence of planets upon each other is dimin- ished by distance. This proves that a part of the force is communicated to other particles on its pas- sage ; also that there is a limit to the extent of the influence. A magnet may reproduce itself upon another piece of iron, by communicating its own motions to it, and afterwards, by a blow or stroke of lightning, lose its own peculiar power, and die. A crystal will reproduce forms like its own ; and, under proper circumstances, a vegetable will do the same, and so will an animal. All motions, wherever 130 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. they emanate,- have a tendency to communicate and propagate themselves. When two bodies come in contact, one or both being in motion, the superior will impart and the inferior will receive motion ; and so far as the inferior receives motion, it sympathizes. In this sense, it may be said that every thing in ex- istence sympathizes with every other, since they all derive their motions from the same source, though so modified by the medium that they can scarcely be said to be the same. In this sense every thing in existence may be said to sympathize with the First Cause and prime Mover of all things. Sympathy means same motion, same feeling, same condition ; and when one thing produces sympathy in another, it is because it is superior, and therefore capable of communicating its own motions to the substance of an inferior, which cannot resist it. In this sense, when a magnet attracts iron filings, and makes a temporary magnet of each separate piece of iron, is not this sympathy ? When a magnet points north and south, is it not because the motions of the earth's magnetism are communicated to it, and produce sympathy or same motion ? When a magnet which is pointing north and south is brought within the sphere of action of a galvanic battery, and changes its direction to con- form to the battery, is it not because the motions are communicated from the battery to the magnet ? — the same motions, the sympathy ? When the same motions — the same kind of mo- MOTION. • 131 tions, whether simultaneous or not, are performed by two bodies, one of two things may be inferred — either that they are both set in motion by a third body, or else that one contains within itself the cause of its own motion, and that it communicates motion also to the other. When one thing communicates motion to another, there must be either contact or connection. If con- tact, then the motion must be communicated first to the part in immediate contact, and from that to the other parts more remote afterwards. If connection is the means, then there must be a connecting me- dium, a connecting substance, a connecting mate- rial, which is capable of being itself set in motion by the superior, and of communicating motion to the inferior. The effects of the motion communicated will gen- erally be less powerful in proportion to the resistance which it encounters ; and the resistance will depend upon several circumstances, such as distance, mate- rial, counter-motions, etc. SECTION IX. GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ETHEREAN SYSTEM OF PHRENOLOGY. 1. The Nervous System may be divided into the Ganglionic and the Phrenic. The principal distinc- tion in the modus operandi of the two systems, de- pends upon the fact that the Phrenic system (or, in other words, the voluntary system) has a central organ of Consciousness, while the ganglionic sys- tem has not. Phreno-organs are merely ganglions connected with Consciousness, and ganglions are merely propensities to produce muscular action. Vol- untary and involuntary actions are both produced by similar apparatuses, except that one has a common centre, through which each organ of that system is compelled to operate ; while the organs of the other system (the involuntary or ganglionic) are not un- der the necessity of preserving unity of action, nor of producing Consciousness. 2. Ordinary sleep is caused by the temporary pre- dominance of the ganglionic system over the phrenic. 3. The organ of Consciousness is located in the medulla oblongata, where it receives impressions from phreno-organs, and transmits or radiates the impres- sions which it receives to other phreno-organs, or else to the motor nerves, or to both, according to circumstances. When it transmits impressions to ETHEREAN SYSTEM OF PHRENOLOGY. 133 phreno-organs, it receives other impressions in return, and thus trains of thought are produced. But when it transmits impressions to the motor nerves, volun- tary muscular motion is produced, such as tends to gratify those phreno-organs in which the movements originated. 4. Each phreno-organ has fibres, (inter-phreno senses,) which convey or conduct impressions from Consciousness, as well as fibres which conduct im- pressions to Consciousness. 5. Consciousness, and the lowest intellectual or- gans, were superadded to the ganglionic system, by the Creator, to enable animals (when in the scale of created beings they were elevated above mere vege- tables) to act with reference to objects which are not in contact with their organs, though the objects de- sired may be within reach, so as to be obtained by muscular movements. 6. Memory depends upon the reflective organs, in an important degree, because they combine, connect, class, and associate, ideas and feelings ; but the ma- terials remembered are furnished to Consciousness and reflection by the other organs of the brain. 7. Ideas, thoughts, emotions, or feelings, are only so many states or conditions of Consciousness, which are designed to prepare and qualify the conscious being to act with propriety. 8. When one phreno-organ, from any cause, sends to Consciousness a more powerful current of Etheri- um than any other, it produces an effect which is in 12 134 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. accordance with the established laws of mechanics as applied to other forces ; that is, it causes every oppos- ing current to conform, or be neutralized. 9. The phreno-organs may be divided into Intel- lectuals, or those that direct actions ; and Impulsives that originate actions. The Impulsives may be divided into Ipseal, or those that were designed for the benefit of self ; and Social, or those that were designed for the benefit of others. The brain is thus constituted of three classes of organs ; viz., Ipseal, Social, and Intellectual. By the connecting and concentrating nature of the organ of Consciousness, these three classes of organs act in harmony, and pre- serve their unity ; I therefore call this the Triune system, or Three-one system, to distinguish it from the system of Spurzheim, which all other phrenolo- gians follow. 10. The lowest range of Ipseals, and the two low- est Socials, have this peculiarity, that they receive stimuli from the body, directly through the internal- corporeal senses, while all the other and higher Im- pulsives receive all their stimuli indirectly through Consciousness. The perceptives receive stimuli directly through the external senses, but the reflectives receive all their stimuli indirectly through Consciousness. 11. The Ipseal impulsives are subdivided into five ranges, which correspond with different classes of animals ; this subdivision is not very important, nor very exact, but it is convenient and useful ; and, to a naturalist, must be highly interesting. ETHEREAN SYSTEM OF PHRENOLOGY. 135 12. The Socials are subdivided into the organs that establish society — the organs that govern socie- ty — and the organs that conform to society. This subdivision is extremely useful and important in its bearing upon the experiments and phenomena of Etheropathy. SECTION X. ETHEROPATHY. The spontaneous phenomena and the experiments in Mesmerism, Electro-Biology, Electro-Psychology, and Etheropathy, including all those performed by Drs. Elliotson, Buchanan, and others, may all be explained by the application of the following prin- ciples : — 1. Imperfect insulation of the subject, exposing him to abnormal induction, both spontaneous and artificial. 2. Will of operator producing induction. 3. Credencive induction, or self-induction. 4. Sympathy produced by induction. 5. Clairvoyance, or un-insulated and unrestricted per- ception, produced by induction. 6. Deranged function produced by abnormal induc- tion ; this principle, combined with the principles above mentioned of will, sympathy, credence, and clairvoyance, account for all the phenomena, and explain all the experiments. 1. Imperfect insulation, exposing the subject to induction. The terms insulation and induction are borrowed from the science of Electricity. The word insulation is used in this work to signify the peculiar structure or condition of the organs of man and ani- mals, which is designed to protect them from the influence of surrounding and external currents of ETHEROPATHY. 137 * Etheriura. This principle of insulation is absolutely- necessary to protect the organs from the undue influ- ence of abnormal currents, by which we are continu- ally surrounded. (See Cuvier's Lectures on Physi- ology.) The numberless nerves are continually con- veying impressions in all directions throughout the whole constitution. Sometimes we find different functions performed by nerves which are so near to each other that no anatomical skill can point out the precise line of separation ; and yet it can be proved, by the most decisive experiments, that one of the nerves conveys a motion of Etherium in one direction, while another conveys motion in the opposite direction, and notwithstanding their contiguity, there is no inter- ference. Just as two contiguous railroad tracks admit of the passage of cars in opposite directions without jostling or collision, so do these nerves convey the motions of Etherium in opposite directions. In common electric experiments, the wires can be made to convey electricity in opposite directions, even though the wires are in contact, provided they are coated with glass, resin, varnish, or shellac ; but if the insulating varnish is removed, the currents interfere with each other, and the weaker currents become neutralized or modified by the induction of the more powerful currents. Induction is a term which signifies the communica- tion of motion from one body to another, or from one organ to another ; thus, when a current of electricity is 12* 138 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. > communicated from a body which possesses it, to one which does not, the motion or current in the latter is said to be induced or inducted, and the process is called induction. If a large magnet, or a galvanic battery, is brought near a small manner's compass, the compass needle is immediately affected by induction ; that is, the cur- rent of electricity is communicated from the large magnet to the needle. Thus we have seen that the object of insulation is to prevent induction ; and what we do in an imper- fect manner by human skill in a galvanic apparatus, nature does with wonderful perfection in organized bodies. The Susceptibility of the subject depends upon two conditions; first, the weakness of the forces of Etherium evolved in the capillaries ; second, the im- perfection or weakness of the insulation. Some organs are susceptible, while others are not : the reason is, that some organs are more perfectly insulated, or else they evolve more powerful motion of Etherium. Some organs are susceptible to one opera- tor, but not to another. There seems to be a natural tendency of the organs of the operator to induct the corresponding organs of the subject — Combativeness in operator to induce its own current in Combative- ness of the subject; Sanativeness of operator to induct Sanativennss of the subject ; and so of all the othei organs, both of mind and body : this kind of inductior is denominated sympathy, or same condition. ETHEROPATHY. 139 If, therefore, Sanativeness is large in the subject, .nd small in the operator, it would be difficult for that iperator to induct that organ, though he might suc- eed in inducting many others in the same subject : nother operator may, if his Sanativeness be large, suc- eed in affecting the Sanativeness of this same subject. The subject may be inducted by his own organs ; lat is, one organ may induct all the others, and pro- uce paralysis or monomania. Again, the subject lay be inducted by external inanimate objects, as in le cases of spontaneous somnambulism, such as that f Jane C. Rider. I have long since given up all pretensions to skill i determining, by the appearance of a person, whether : not he is susceptible, since I am satisfied that it spends upon two or more causes, one of which is mcealed from the senses. The susceptibility of the subject is greatly in- reased by his passiveness, and the consent and sub- : ission of his mind, while the powers of the operator ie in their most active condition. It is also increased i/ the absence of all exciting stimuli, such as noise, I anxiety, or hunger, or pain. All these facts go to (tablish the opinion that susceptibility is, in some ogree, related to the weakness with which the cur- ints are evolved from the organs of the subject. 2. Will of operator producing induction. By the Irm will, I mean the effort which we are conscious I making to accomplish an end : for instance, when Idetermine to raise my arm, I immediately make 1 effort, which is called willing, and instantly my J40 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. arm rises. In this case, the nerves of the arm were inducted by the brain. Now, when a person sits before me with his eyes closed, and I will his arm to rise, I make the same effort that I did when I raised my own arm ; and if his arm actually rises at my will, I con- ceive that the effect was produced in the same way in both cases ; that is, by the induction of a current of Etherium from my brain to the nerves connected with the arm, causing the arm to perform its function. If I will the arm to feel sore, as if burnt, and the subject instantly moves his arm, and complains of its being hurt, the principle is the same ; I induct the requisite nerves of sensation by my will, so that a: force passes to Sanativeness from the arm, and pro- duces a painful state of Consciousness. Why cannot I cause a sensation in the subject as well as a motion r i In both cases, there is merely a force of Etheriuir from the brain of the operator ; but in one case the | current moves down to the arm of the subject, in th( | other it moves up to the brain; of course, in on<' case it produces motion, in the other sensation. There has been much discussion among metaphy sicians concerning Identity and Consciousness. Th question is often asked, What phreno-organ is it tha says "I" ? and what is it that says " I am " ? am'' what says-" / will " ? What is will ? I answer these questions, simply and plainly, thus — The notions of / and i" am are the result of th operation of the reflective organs. Many anima never have such an idea, i" am, and i" was, and shall be, are notions which are related inseparably 1 : ETHEROPATHY. 141 ich other, and to the comparing and connecting ower. Many beings are conscious that never have ;ason enough to raise the idea of 7" am. An infant conscious, but does not think of I am, or / was ; and is not until they learn to compare themselves with ;her beings, that they distinguish I from other !;ings in their reasoning. Doubtless the first efforts r the infant mind in reasoning, teaches them the otion of I and I am, and a little more of the same ind of reasoning teaches them the notion of/ was lid I shall be. Identity is an idea that I am the same person that Iwas, and this is certainly a notion which can only lise upon Comparison and connection, or Causality. I icill is an expression which is used in two senses : [.e signifies / desire, and the other / am determined. I desire is a notion excited in Consciousness by any stive phreno-organ, when stimulated by some object. i" am determined is a notion produced in Conscious- tss, principally by Combativeness, Firmness, Imper- sveness and Hopefulness, under circumstances of Bposition and difficulty. The idea of / can is generally produced by Hope jd reflection ; the idea of / myself am superior, I >m Imperativeness and reflection ; the idea of I he, from Adhesiveness, Comparison, and Causality ; t.j idea of / hate, from Destructiveness and reflec- f:,n. In short, it is reflection that says /, and im- plse says will. In operating, when we will that 1 1 subject shall be in a certain state, that which 142 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. wills is Imperativeness, Firmness, and Hopefulness, and any other impulses may add their influence, if they are interested in the result. When one impulse desires one thing, and another the contrary, the will is the predominant impulse. 3. Credencive Induction. While engaged in performing various experiments., I made a very important discovery, which I have never before communicated to the public in writing; though I have frequently mentioned it privately tc I my friends, and publicly in my lectures. It is this: that when a subject is but slightly affected, and wher any of the operators in Mesmerism, or Neurology, || Pathetism, would send him away as unprofitable,— merely by the application of a very simple stimulus which every one has always at hand, the subject maj be brought perfectly under your control. Do yoi ask me what this simple and powerful stimulus is ? answer, that it is an assertion. Assert to the subject, in a decided tone, for instance « You cannot open your eyes," and if his eyes wer shut when you made the assertion, he cannot ope them afterwards until you again say, " Now you ca open them," or something to that effect. Again, sa to the subject, " Put your hands together, and yo cannot separate them." If, now, he puts his haue together, he will try in vain to separate them unt you reverse your assertion. Say, " The floor is hot. and instantly to him it seems hot. Assert tha ETHEROPATHY. 143 " Yonder is a lion," and he immediately believes it and sees it ; or tell him that he is himself a lion, and he instantly assumes the character, and begins to roar and show his teeth and claws^ It has long been known that very susceptible sub- jects may be deluded and willed into almost any state )f mind ; but it has not before been known that it •equires less susceptibility to perform these experi- nents than any other. It has not been known that it s on this principle that most of the successful experi- ments in Neurology, Pathetism, and Hypnotism are •erformed * The gentlemen who have conducted hese experiments were evidently ignorant of the real :gent that produced the phenomena. It is a fact, capable of being easily demonstrated, lat nearly all subjects can be made to believe any fling, or to assume any character, or to conform to le wishes, expressed or implied, of the operator ; and iiis can be done when they are affected in the very :ast degree, while they are wide awake, and appear ) know what they are about. They cannot resist an ssertion. Put your words in the form of an inquiry, id they are powerless ; for instance, ask the subject, Can you raise your hand?" and he will raise it j 1 assert, " You cannot raise your hand," and he knot do it. The same is true of any other asser- lon, as, « You cannot speak," "You cannot speak ithout lisping," " You cannot speak without stutter- * Also in Electro-Biology and Electro-Psychology. 144 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. in * » « You cannot stop," << You cannot rise," « Your finder is wounded and bleeding," « Your hair is wool, « Your hands are iron," or « fish " or « fire," « You are a child " or " an old man." Any of these assertions produce an instantaneous effect. Let the subject suppose that you are going to excite the organs of his brain- let him believe that you expect' when you touch a certain part of his head, that he will be affected in a particular way, and he will generally use all his ingenuity to learn your wishes, and make his utmost endeavors to oblige you and accomplish your expectations. This is a fact which is undeniable, though it has not hitherto been explained. Say to the subject, "I am going to excite your Combativeness, and you will be very angry. No| touch his Combativeness, and he will be angry; touch his Tune, and, if he knows what organ you intended to touch, he will begin to make music If he even suspects what you wish, he will oftentime. act accordingly. But if he has no idea what yoi expect, he will do nothing. If the subject does no know the location of any organ, and you say nothm and give him no clew to your designs, you can* excite his organs by merely touching them. It yo succeed in exciting his organs when he is ignoran of your intention, it is done by Will, by Sympathy or by Clairvoyance. In order to explain these experiments, we must fin understand the nature of the organ of Credencivenes ETHEROPATHY. 145 the impulsives to act upon testimony or assertion. It is a conforming social impulse, and its natural stimulus is an assertion. 1. It is an Impulse, and operates like every other impulse. We must, in order to understand Cre- denciveness, therefore, acquire a clear notion of the manner in which an impulsive operates. It produces a tendency to act in a peculiar manner. It sends an Etherean force through the motor nerves to the muscles, and either originates a motion or modifies a motion which other impulsives originate. It antag- onizes other impulsives which are opposed to it, and neutralizes them or combines with them. When greatly excited by any extraordinary stimu- lus, it governs the individual, and produces such uncontrollable tendencies to gratify itself, as to con- stitute a peculiar species of monomania. This is a general definition and description of an impulse such as Credenciveness is. It produces a state of Consciousness peculiar to itself ; and when predominant, it causes other impul- sives and the intellectual faculties to conform to it, and act as its auxiliaries. 2. It is a social impulse, and every social im- pulse gives a tendency to act with reference to others, and for the benefit directly or indirectly ot others. Social beings are the objects from which its stimulus proceeds. 3. It is a conforming social propensity. The whole group to which it belongs have this peculiar 146 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. character, that they all tend to conform to the wishes, feelings, actions, commands, and assertions of others. The conforming socials, when predominant in an individual, give him a yielding, obliging, credulous character, and render him highly susceptible to the influence of persuasion, conimand, example, or asser- tion. These organs include Submissiveness, the im- pulse to obey — Kindness, the impulse to oblige — Imitativeness, the impulse to sympathize and to imitate — and Credenciveness, the impulse to believe and to act upon testimony. 4. The appropriate stimulus of Credenciveness is assei*tion. It is the highest organ of the social class, and distinguishes man from the lower animals as much as any other impulse, and perhaps more. — Were it not for this, human society would be reduced to an equally degraded condition with that of the brutes. The child believes and acts upon the assertion of his parent, instinctively, and thus avails himself of his experience and knowledge. Courts of justice are founded upon the principle of belief; they act altogether upon the testimony and assertions of others, and not from their own experience and knowledge. History and tradition is based upon it ; indeed, all literature, and all the modes in which we record or communicate the acts, the experience, or the thoughts of others, are dependent upon Credenciveness. Any expression of others excites it ; but an assei'tion made by one who is supposed to be of superior authority, ETHEROFATHY. 147 power, or knowledge — this is its highest stimulus, and excites it to its highest degree of activity — even to monomania. When Credenciveness is uncommon- ly large, and Firmness and the Reflectives small, an assertion, however extraordinary, is received with confidence. It requires but little aid from abnormal induction to render some men mere machines in the hands of those whose assertions they believe. Now, we must consider that the tendency of in- ducting a subject, is to bring him under the influence of the operator ; to make him submit and sympathize, conform and confide in the operator. Its first and most powerful effect is upon the conforming socials, to excite them, and to exalt them to monomania. The conforming socials were designed to be stimulated by the words and examples, the actions and commands, of others. Their very nature is such as to cause their possessor to be influenced. They are peculiarly open and susceptible to all kinds of stimuli which tend to give others an influence over us ; and, of course, they are peculiary susceptible to the influence of the currents of Etherium, which proceed from the operator. If they are more affected by his attempts to influence the subject, than any other organs are, it is because it is their function — their nature — their vocation. Let us now consider, that when a subject is per- fectly inducted, the mere silently expressed will of the operator can influence him, and cause him to move or feel in any desired way. No assertion in 118 THILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. this case is necessary — no sound — no sign — no external muscular motion. There is nothing but the operation of the silent but potent will. On the other hand, let us consider, that when the subject is not inducted, but is in his ordinary and normal condition, the will of the operator has no effect unless expressed in a certain way, by voice or other sign, which the subject perceives by the aid of his senses. Here we have two opposite conditions ; one in which the subject is insulated from the influ- ence of the operator, except in a certain way which the Creator has prescribed ; the other a condition in which the insulation is entirely overcome, so that every motion of the operator is a cause of motion in the subject. Now, between these two extreme conditions of perfect induction and non-induction, there are, of course, many intermediate states or degrees of induc- tion. What is the first degree ? What organs (in most cases) first feel the effects of the inducting process ? I answer, the conforming socials, and especially Cre- denciveness ; for, if an assertion produced a certain degree of influence upon the mind of the subject be- fore the induction commenced, it produces more and more as you proceed. At first your assertion that he cannot open his eyes or raise his hand, merely ren- ders the movement difficult ; next, it is more diffi- cult ; next, it can only be done by a vigorous effort ; then it cannot be done at all. ETHEROPATHY. 149 You can generally affect his eyes first, then his mouth slightly, then his hands. His hands will at first be so slightly affected, that when you assert that he cannot separate them, you must hold them to- gether lightly by pressing upon them ; next they will adhere without pressure ; and, finally, proceeding from one step to another, with a degree of rapidity very different in different subjects, we acquire control over every power of mind and body, so that he will frown, or smile, or weep, at our command or assertion merely. If we proceed still farther, we gradually, in many subjects, acquire a power of moving their or- gans by merely willing, and without expressing our will by any sign ; but, in these cases, though neither assertion nor sign is necessary to influence the sub- ject, yet an assertion, if made, is wonderfully potent. The influence of assertions, and the disposition to conform, is in proportion to the degree of induction of the conforming socials. It is generally supposed, by those who see experiments of this kind performed, that the operator accompanies his assertion by an effort of his will. This, however, is not the case. If the operator makes an assertion, it will have nearly as much effect, though he wills that it shall have no effect whatever.* This proves that it is the assertion * This fact directly controverts the commonly received opinion up- on this subject, and cannot well be explained except by the original theory of Prof. Grimes, viz., the induction of the organ of Creden- civeness. This also furnishes strong corroborative evidence of the truth of his phrenological theory. 13* 150 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. and not the will. We are so constituted, that we take the assertion of our fellow-beings as the true expres- sion of their will, and we sometimes believe them in spite of all our efforts to resist the belief. In order to understand these experiments, another peculiarity of the mind must be taken into account, with which keepers of the insane are familiar ; and that is, that the nature of delusion is such that the patient or subject is positive that he is not deluded. To him it seems like reality and truth ; his Conscious- ness does not inform him that one of his propensities has obtained a mastery over the rest, and is mislead- ing him. It is common to see insane persons believ- ing themselves to be animals, plants, or glass vessels ; and the most positive and palpable proof of their error has no convincing effect upon their minds. Indeed, we see many persons, who are generally supposed to be sane, who, being possessed with a favorite idea, seem incapable of appreciating the most conclusive arguments which show its erroneousness. In these cases I presume that there is a slight degree of mono- mania. We also find many insane persons who are rational on every subject but one, and the instant that is men- tioned they betray the highest degree of monomania. The antagonism of the organs must also be under- stood, in order to explain the hesitation, doubt, and wavering, which subjects often exhibit when but slightly affected. It is common for them to deny that they believe the assertion of the operator, and ETHEROPATHY. 151 yet they will act as if they do believe it. For in- stance, say to the subject, " That piece of silver is red hot, and will burn you if you touch it." He will perhaps answer that he does not believe it, and will advance towards it, and put forth his hand to touch it ; but the very way in which he moves, shows that he suspects, at least, that it may be true. He first holds his fingers very near, then cautiously touches it, and perhaps expresses his surprise that it is actual- ly hot. Sometimes, though rarely, he will say, " I know it is not so, though it seems so." Ask him how he knows that it is not really so, and he will answer, that former experience, and the testimony of all around, that he is deluded by the inductive operation, make him think that it must be so, though his senses assure him that they are all mistaken. This contra- diction arises, in a great measure, from the opposing effects of the Ipseals and the governing socials, espe- cially Imperativeness and Firmness. They are the natural antagonists of the conforming socials ; they give a tendency to act independently of the influence of others ; and it is from them that the suggestions arise in opposition to the assertions of the operator, when those assertions contradict our own experience. If the process of induction did not operate as a stimulus to the conforming socials in particular, if it stimulated the governing equally with the conform- ing socials, the experiments which depend upon the influence of assertion could not be performed at all. Strange as it may seem, however, it is a fact, that a 152 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. person of intelligence and education, with whom I am acquainted, although I have explained to him the nature of the influence which I have obtained over him — although he knows as well as I do that it is his own Credenciveness that paralyzes his muscles, yet when I assert that he cannot open his eyes, he instantly loses all control over them.* Such is the nature of Credenciveness, that it responds to its appropriate stimulus involuntarily and irresisti- bly. In this respect it is like Sanativeness or Pneu- mativeness, or any other impulsive. When Sana- tiveness receives its appropriate stimulus, it instantly acts, and with uncontrollable power. For instance, when we are wounded or burned, we cannot help feel- ing pain, for Sanativeness is instantly roused, and pro- duces pain, and a kind of action calculated to relieve the pain. This affection of Sanativeness is irresistible and involuntary ; precisely so it is with Credencive- ness when excited by an assertion. But there is another and more complicated process to be explained. When the operator asserts that a piece of silver will burn the subject's finger if he touches it, the assertion, being the natural stimulus of Credenciveness, of course, excites it ; the subject touches the piece of silver, and instantly feels pain. Now, pain is a state of Consciousness produced by Sanativeness, and not by Credenciveness ; and an * There are numbers of persons belonging to the classes Prof. G has taught in this city, to whom this remark will apply. — Ed. ETHEROPATHY. 153 assertion is not the appropriate stimulus of Sanative- ness. The question is, What roused Sanativeness ? If the assertion did not excite it, what did ? I answer, that the assertion excited Credenciveness : and Cre- denciveness, through Consciousness, excited Sanative- ness ; according to the principle which I have ex- plained in the article upon the inter-phreno senses. It must, however, be constantly borne in mind, that the brain of the etherized or inducted subject is in a condition which renders it liable to be affected in an extreme and morbid degree. The principle that one highly stimulated organ may etherize or induct the rest of the brain, or that it may at least act as auxil- iary to the operator, is of very great importance in explaining the fact that a subject can be put to sleep without the will of the operator. I say, for instance, to a subject, " Sit down, close your eyes, and let me put you to sleep." He sits down, and I put my hand upon him, or stand and look at him, or pretend to look at him, and pretend to be willing him to sleep ; though, in fact, I am thinking all the time of something else ; perhaps I am actually willing that he shall not go to sleep ; yet he does go to sleep just as usual. Now, in this case his own Credenciveness was the principal operator, and inducted all the other organs — neutralized some and made others auxiliaries. Again. I say to the sub- ject, "To-morrow at one o'clock you will go to sleep." When the time arrives, he actually goes to sleep, unless he forgets my assertion. \ have known 154 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. them to forget, and, in that case, not be affected at all when the time arrived. Does not this prove that the power that affects them is within themselves ? Credenciveness may be excited to a peculiar and morbid action by the process of the operator, or by disease ; but, when thus excited, it produces the phenomena without any other aid from external in- fluences. This explanation of the nature of Cre- denciveness, is a key to most of the wonderful experi- ments and discoveries of Buchanan and Sunderland ; of Braid, Hall, and Elliotson. It explains, also, the apparent contradictions and absurdities which embar- rassed the celebrated French committee of which Dr. Franklin was a member.* 4. Sympathy produced by Induction. When the inductive process has been completely successful — when many of the organs of the opera- tor have communicated their motions to the corre- sponding organs of the subject, and have established cuch a connection that a movement of the operator is immediately followed by a similar movement of the subject, and a feeling of the operator's mind is fol- lowed by a similar feeling in the mind of the subject * And the same explanation applies to the newly-invented doc- trines of Electro-Biology and Electro-Psychology. Their advocates claim for them the merit of novelty, but the novelty consists only in name. The reader will see that Prof. G. has anticipated these "ologies " by some years, and that the true explanation of all this class of phenomena is -r-Credencive Induction. — Ed. ETHEROPATHY. 155 — this is sympathy; and by the word sympathy I mean a condition of the subject induced by the oper- ator in consequence of a connection and communi- cation between them ; — I mean a condition which is the effect of a similar condition of the operator. The condition of the operator is the cause, and the condi- tion of the subject is the effect. The currents of force from the organs of the operator to the organs of the subject are the means by which the effect is pro- duced. The insulation of the organs of the subject was an obstacle to the currents of the operator ; the process of etherean induction removed or overcame the obstacle ; the etherean force of the operator, after having first moved the organs of the operator himself, proceeded to the corresponding organs of the subject, and moved them in a similar manner, though in a slighter degree. This is sympathy in a strictly philo- sophical sense. Sometimes it is so perfect that the very same ideas, thoughts, images, colors, forms, and sounds, which occupy the mind of the operator, are made to occupy the mind of the subject by sympathy. The operator can put another person into commu- nication with the subject, and then the subject will sympathize with him also in the same manner, and upon the same principle. The only difficulty is in first overcoming the insulation. When this is done, any person who is put into communication, may be- come the cause or object of the subject's sympathy. The subject may read his thoughts and feelings by sympathy. 156 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. In my "New System of Phrenology," I pointed out the fact, for the first time, that normal sympathy depends upon the organ of Imitativeness ; that being a conforming social propensity, it gives a tendency to do as others do, and feel as others feel ; and that, by giving a disposition to observe and think upon what others do, in order to imitate them and sympathize with them, it becomes an essential element in the faculty of learning human nature. On page 292, I stated that this organ contributes to give elevation to the forehead, and added. "This explains why authors, and painters ', and orators, who have been most felici- tous in their descriptions of human nature, have high foreheads." Now, it may seem almost incredible to the candid and honest reader, yet it is but too true, that after I and my pupils had publicly taught this doctrine for years, and published it in thousands of volumes all over the country, an individual had the effrontery to pretend that he had discovered the organ of Human Nature in the front part of Imitativeness. The truth is, every organ of man is an organ of human nature, and must be possessed by self in order to be under- stood in others ; but the social organs all give a ten- dency to learn the minds of others. The conform- ing socials, and particularly Imitativeness, give this tendency more than any others : it is in this sense only that there is any organ in man relating to a knowledge of human nature. etheropathy. 157 Imitativeness. It should be mentioned that subjects are apt to be seized with a most ludicrous disposition to imitate every one whom they see, or with whom they are in communication. I do not now refer to the sympathy which I have been describing ; but they imitate just as they do in the normal state, by looking at a thing, or feeling its motions, and then repeating or imitating. It would seem that all the conforming socials are ex- cited by induction, and their activity explains many curious phenomena. It accounts most satisfactorily for their disposition to conform to the wishes of the operator, and to endeavor to make all his plans and experiments succeed ; so that it almost always seems as if there is collusion between the operator and the subject, while, in fact, they are both perfectly honest and innocent in their intentions. The subject de- ceives by endeavoring to gratify what he believes to be the wishes of the operator. Credencive.ness, or Marvellousness. " This is the propensity to act upon the testimony of others, — to give credence to the assertions, and conform to the opinions, of those with whom we as- sociate, and whom we reverence. It is intimately related to Submissiveness ; and usually acts in combi- nation with it. The convolution of the brain which constitutes this organ, originates at Submissiveness, forms a kind of elbow against Hopefulness, and runs 14 158 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. forward to Causality. This arrangement is not with- out an important and obvious purpose. Although it is true that every organ in the brain is in some degree related to every other organ, yet there is a more inti- mate relation between some than others ; and those which associate most in action will be found to be associated and arranged together in the brain. These remarks apply with peculiar force to Submissiveness, Credenciveness, and Hopefulness. We give most cre- dence to those whom most we reverence, and our hopes are greatly modified by our belief, while both hope and faith are very dependent upon Causality. I consider this impulsive as designed, like all the others, to produce actions, or to modify actions which other impulsives originate. Marvellousness and won- der are feelings, which, under some circumstances, precede the actions, just as pity precedes the actions produced by kindness. In order to determine the kind of actions which Credenciveness produces, we must consider the relation which it bears to Submis- siveness, and to the other impulsives ; and endeavor to ascertain its utility in promoting the harmonious operations of society. It is my opinion, that belief, in testimony of all kinds, depends upon this impul- sive. Faith, belief, conviction, are its ordinary affec- tions, when acting, in combination with the intellect, upon a subject that can be understood. Wonder and Marvellousness are caused by its operation when the subject is extraordinary, and not fully understood. Combined with Submissiveness, it disposes to faith ETHEROPATHY. 159 in the testimony of others, on account of our respect for their characters. This principle is recognized in all courts, that the more exalted and honorable the character of the witness, the more credit is due to his testimony. The organ is much larger in children than adults, and enables them to rely with perfect confidence in the statements of their parents. Such is the constitution of their minds, that they believe the most extraordinary thing upon the bare assertion of their parents or guardians. And this is necessary in order to govern and guide them, in cases where they have no experience of their own. When explaining Hopefulness, the highest of the Ipseals, I stated that it is related to futurity through the medium of Causality. The same is true of Cre- denciveness. That which is present, and subject to the test of the senses and lower Perceptives, cannot be a subject of belief, — it is positive knowledge. But when any thing is absent, or contingent, or to come, it is then a legitimate subject for the exercise of this impulsive. It is more dependent upon Causality than any of the other Socials ; and is much more directly related to it. In the brain, the convolution of Credenciveness seems to go forward on purpose to join Causality. Indeed, the Reflec- tives can hardly be said to guide the Socials, except through the medium of this important impulsive. Firmness, Submissiveness, and Conscientiousness are greatly affected by a change in belief. Every proposition, the truth of which we cannot 160 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. test by the evidence of our own senses, if it is prob- able, or even possible, is calculated to excite and gratify Credencivenes. But its most natural stimu- lus is the testimony of intelligent beings. I consider i't as specially designed to make us act upon the tes- timony of others, and particularly of our superiors, in cases where we cannot have the evidence of our senses. Inpressions enter through the senses to the Perceptives, and are analyzed, classed, and connected by the Reflectives. Causality performs the last and highest process of intellect ; and if the proposition is not perfectly self-evident, it becomes a matter of be- lief or of scepticism ; that is, it becomes an appropri- ate stimulus for Credenciveness. This propensity is, of course, modified in its action according to the na- ture of the subject, the amount of evidence, the pro- portion of Credenciveness to intellect, and the effect which it is to have upon our interests, or our hopes. Whether an individual will be sceptical or credulous, depends upon the proportion which his intellect bears to Credenciveness and Submissiveness. Those who have very high but shallow foreheads, are apt to be foolishly credulous, and those who have low and prominent foreheads are inclined to scepticism. They wish to investigate much and believe but little. There is a third class who have foreheads wide, high, and prominent : they love to believe when they can, but they cannot without proper investigation. They examine thoroughly, and be- lieve sincerelyj many controverted doctrines ; they ETHEROPATHY. 161 seem to take pleasure in revolving in their minds doubtful subjects, even if they cannot quite believe them. If it- is something which challenges belief, if it has probability or even possibility in its favor, it is a proper subject to stimulate and delight this im- pulse, and produce the feeling of marvellousness. This enables us to understand the character of novel- ists and romancers, and dramatic authors, such as Scott, "Voltaire, Shakspeare, and Tasso, who all had very high foreheads, particularly in the region of this organ and Imitativeness. Those who have been re- markable for faith upon religious subjects, have the same development, combined with Submissiveness. Such are Bunyan, Baxter, Swedenborg, Irving, Wes- ley, and hundreds with whom I am acquainted. I consider this as one of the most important ele- ments of a love of knowledge. The ability or the talent of knowing depends upon the intellect ; but the desire, the love, the proneness to learn, depends upon the impulsives. Each impulsive produces a desire to know that which will be gratifying to itself. The highest gratification of Credenciveness consists in knowing what people have said or written. It is easy, therefore, to understand why those who have it large should be very fond of reading or hearing the extraordinary assertions of others, and of inquiring into their truth. If the intellect is large, they will be commonly successful in their inquiries ; but if it is small, they may be induced to give credence to the most absurd statements. It is this impulsive that 14* 162 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. makes us love to hear or read extraordinary things, even if we do not believe them. It seems as if some love to stretch their faith to its utmost, just to give it exercise ; the more marvellous the story, the better it suits them ; and if Submissiveness is large, and the statement is made upon high authority, it becomes perfectly charming. This organ is larger in youth than adults, in women than men. It accounts for the love of the marvellous manifested by children ; for the pernicious novel-reading habits of girls ; and for the ease with which impostors of all descriptions succeed with the generality of females. I have no- ticed that those women, who in youth read the most novels, and the least science, in maturer years are the most prone to superstition and fanaticism. They are much greater sticklers for matters of mere faith and form, than for moral and Christian practice. The exposition which I have made of this impul- sive, shows that it is one of very great importance in society. It is the grand lever, by means of which the few can govern the many, more despotically than by any other. It is for this reason that the union of church and state is a desirable object with all despots, and adds immensely to their power. This is plainly, then, a conforming Social propen- sity ; since it is the means by which children and all ignorant persons are guided. Nothing renders a man more ungovernable, or unamiable, than a disposition to doubt every thing he hears ; and to rely entirely upon his own judgment and observation, instead of giving due weight to the testimony of others. ETHEROPATHY. 163 In regard to the lower animals, it is more difficult to show that they possess Credenciveness, than any }f the other Socials. It is certain that they have it ! in a less degree than any of the others, which alone is sufficient to prove its exalted nature. It is worthy of remark, that Hopefulness, the high- est Ipseal ; Credenciveness, the highest Social ; and Causality, the highest Intellectual, are connected to- gether at the top of the brain ; and it is curious to study the relation in which these three important powers stand to each other, and to the Perceptives. The Lower and Middle Perceptives are related to that which is perceptible, present, and certain ; the Re- flectives, to that which is certain, but which is not present to the senses, and which is known only by deduction ; Credenciveness to that which is proba- ble ; and Hopefulness, to that which is possible. We may hope for that which we do not believe ; we may believe what we cannot prove by reasoning ; and we may prove by reasoning what we cannot test by the senses and Perceptives. The region of perception is at the base of the brain ; of reflection, a little higher ; (see phrenolo- gical bust ;) of credence, in the upper part of the fore- head ; and hope, a little farther back. In a well bal- anced mind, these will bear a just proportion to each other ; and in making an examination, it is of the very highest importance that the relative development of the lower and upper parts of the forehead should be compared with each other, since they have an im- 164 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. . portant mutual influence. Those who have excelle in practical science, have the lower predominant; and those who have excelled in fiction, the upper ; while those who have avoided both extremes are balanced. SECTION XL ETHEROPATHY — CONTINUED. I 5. Clairvoyance, or uninsulated perception, pro- duced by the process of induction overcoming insulation. When the subject, without the aid of his senses, by ;is connection with the operator, perceives the same lings which are perceived by the operator, it is per- eption by sympathy ; but when the subject, without le aid of his senses, perceives that which is not per- eived by the operator, it is Clairvoyance. The difference in principle between sympathy and ilairvoyance is very slight. The only difference is i the objects from which the forces of Etherium are volved. When the organ of Consciousness and its ependent organs, in the operator, are the generating oints, from which proceeds that force which influ- :ices the organ of Consciousness, and other organs of le subject, the result is sympathy ; but when the dis- irbing force proceeds from any other point, through le abnormal avenues to the subject's organ of Con- uousness, it is Clairvoyance. A little reflection pon the principles now under discussion will enable 3 to perceive that the same cause which produces /rnpathy in the mind, produces also the muscular lovements which we call imitation. Sympathy is a :petition in the mind of the subject of the ideas of 166 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. the operator ; imitation is a repetition in the muscles of the subject of the movements of the operator. The term Clairvoyance is from two French words, and strictly signifies clear-seeing: although some word which is more precisely significant of non-insu- lated perception would be preferred, yet as there is no such word, I shall adopt this, which has the ad- vantage of being in common use ; and in our lan- guage it has no other meaning. In order to understand Clairvoyance, we must con- sider 1st. The emanations of force peculiar to the ob- jects perceived. 2d. The insulation and induction of the brain. 3d. The modus operandi of Consciousness. 1st. Emanation of Motion from the Objects per- ceived. — We never perceive any thing unless when there is an emanation of ethereal motion from the object perceived. When ordinarily we see a thing, there is always an emanation (reflection) of light from it to the eye. When we hear any thing, there is an emanation of aerial vibrations from the object hearc to the ear. When we smell any thing, there is ar emanation of odorous particles from the odorous body- When we taste any thing, there is an emanation fron the substance tasted, caused by the chemical actioi of the saliva upon the substance. When we perceivt any thing by touch, there is a motion emanating fron the substance touched, and passing to the brain. Whei we feel pain, there is an emanation from the painfu ETHEROPATHY. 167 and injured part to the nerve which is connected with it, passing along the nerve to the organ of Sanative- ness, from the organ of Sanativeness to Consciousness, producing there the feeling or consciousness of pain. The same reasoning applies to hunger ; it is pro- duced by an emanation from the stomach to Alimen- iiveness, and from Alimentiveness to Consciousness. Suffocation is produced by an emanation from the ungs to Pneumativeness, and from this organ to Con- sciousness. In Clairvoyance, the same principle is in operation. There is an emanation from the object perceived to he central organ of Consciousness in the subject. There cannot possibly be any perception of any kind, mless there is such emanation. 2d. The Insulation and Induction of the Brain. — This I have already explained as far as it relates to he communication of thought and motion from the perator to the subject — as far as relates, in truth, to ne branch of Clairvoyance, viz., Sympathetic Clair- voyance. The same insulating contrivance which pre- ents the motions of different persons, and different rgans of the same person, from interfering with each ther — the very same contrivance has been instituted hr the all-wise Creator to restrict and limit our per- eptions. When we consider that motions transmit- ?d from the circumference of the brain to the centre roduce different states of Consciousness ; when we iso consider that every surrounding object in nature continually receiving and evolving motions ; we, of t al LS. 1G8 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. course, must acknowledge that some contrivance is necessary to prevent the brain from being continually- agitated, and our Consciousness from being continu- ally excited and confused by the innumerable motions of Etherium which are constantly evolved from th infinite number of objects around us. This contri vanceis Insulation — a peculiarity of the structure of organized bodies, which prevents nearly all external influences from interfering with their operations, while it admits external influences which are useful to them. In what the insulation consists, we know not ; we are certain of the fact that by some con- trivance the insulation is effected; but we are, as yet, entirely ignorant of the mode in which it is ef- fected. The eyes are not influenced by sounds, nor the ears by light ; but Consciousness is indirectly affected by both. The reason is, that the eyes are insulated from all other influences except the stimulus of the light, and the ears are insulated from all other influences except the stimulus of sound. If we had no eyes, we should be entirely ignorant of the existence of light, because all our other organs are insulated from its influence. A blind man, who never heard of light until the age of thirty, would be perfectly sceptical concerning its existence. It would be incomprehen- sible to him that things could be perceived by eyes at such great distances, while by ears they could not be perceived at all. Not having any experience of his own on the subject, he would necessarily be depend- ETHEROPATHY. 169 ent upon the testimony of those about him who pro- fessed to have this wonderful faculty. Very much the same is it with us in reference to clairvoyant sub- jects. We cannot see without our eyes, nor hear without our ears, nor feel without contact ; but the inducted subject can do all this ; he, with his eyes closed and carefully bandaged, can see, or rather can perceive, through walls impervious to light and sound, and at immense distances — can perceive, indeed, in a way as incomprehensible to us as the perceiving with eyes was to the blind man. Light cannot penetrate boards and stone walls, but magnetic force can do so ; for a magnet affects iron filings through such obstacles, almost as if there was nothing in the way ; and so also does gravitation. It is plain that if we could perceive through the medium of this magnetic force instead of light, we could see through boards and walls as easily as the magnet operates through them ; for the magnet operates in the dark just as well as in the light. We must con- clude, therefore, from the great number of facts which we have upon this subject, that there is a motion of Etherium, different from light, by means of which the force of gravitation is communicated ; and another modification of etherean motion, by means of which magnetism penetrates through opaque bodies. It, therefore, requires no stretch of the imagination to admit a modification of ethereal force which affects the brain and its organs, and produces Consciousness and Clairvoyance in a subject who is, by the process 15 170 FHILOSOFHY OF MESMERISM. of etherean induction, brought into communication with it. If we analyze a sunbeam, we can demonstrate that besides light and heat it contains another kind or motion of Etherium, different from light and heat, which produces powerful chemical effects; and yet we have no senses given to us by which to enable us to perceive by its means, though it may sometimes abnormally induct us, and produce clairvoyant per- ception. It seems to me, that there cannot be a doubt in the mind of a philosopher who examines this subject carefully, that there is a peculiar form or modification of ethereal force, which has, with some propriety, been denominated Animal Magnetism, and which is concerned in producing all the phenomena of animal life, and all the wonders of Etheropathy and Mesmer- ism. We seem forced to this conclusion as the only one which will account for facts which we are not able to controvert. If we take a magnet and bring it near to a piece of iron, and make a number of passes across the iron, the peculiar motions of the magnet are communicated to the iron, so that it becomes a magnet itself. This is Induction. A piece of iron cannot be placed near a magnet for any considerable time without becoming in some degree inducted, losing its own independent motions, and submitting to the influence of the neigh- boring magnet. Precisely so it is with the inducted subject ; the cases are as nearly parallel as the differ- ent natures of the two bodies will admit. i ETHEROPATHY. 171 3d. The mode in which the organs normally produce Consciousness, after they are impressed by emanations from external objects, must be understood in order to enable us to understand Clairvoyance. They produce Consciousness precisely in the same way in Clairvoyance as they do in ordinary normal perception. The difference between Clairvoyant perception and common normal perception is in the manner in which the Phreno-organs are excited by the emanation ; or rather it depends upon the differ- ent modes by which emanations reach the Phreno- organs to excite them to action. In common percep- tion the motion of Etherium is restricted to pass in certain prescibed avenues, which we denominate the senses ; but in Clairvoyance, in consequence of the insulation being overcome, the emanation passes directly to the brain through the skull, or through the feet, or hands, or sides, or through any other part where the insulation is especially weakened. In common perception, the emanation is permitted to reach the brain only through certain limited, de- fined, and restricted avenues or senses ; and even through these passages the pure and unencumbered motions of Etherium do not seem to be allowed to pass. In the sense of taste, the motion of Etherium is conveyed to the external organ by a liquid which dissolves the substance tasted. In the sense of smell, the motions are conveyed by currents of air, which are adulterated, or mingled with atoms of the odorous substance perceived. In the sense of hearing, the 172 'PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. emanation is conveyed in pulsations or vibrations of air. In the sense of sight, the emanation is conveyed or moved by currents, pulsations, or rays of light. But in Clairvoyance, the brain seems to be excited by Etherium in a different state — by emanations which are ordinarily excluded by insulation — and which are introduced in opposition to the insulating guards. When this more pure emanation is fairly introduced, and a current of it caused to proceed from a distant object to the subject, it passes directly through the skull, or some other abnormal passages, and reaches the organs of Form and Color, etc., and excites them so as to cause them to produce a state of Consciousness, the same as if the subject had seen the distant object with his eyes. I wish the idea to be distinctly understood, that Consciousness and per- ception of every kind is, in all cases, produced by the Phreno-organs of the brain ; that in common percep- tion and in Clairvoyance, the brain operates in the same manner. In both cases the Phreno-organs must be excited, and must perform their functions, before perception can take place. It is a great error to suppose that in Clairvoyance a person can perceive without his brain, because he perceives without his senses. It is absurd to suppose that a person perceives color without the organ of Color, because he perceives without his eyes. In order, then, to explain Clairvoyance, it is only necessary to admit that the Phreno-organs of percep- tion may be excited through other avenues than th( external senses. ETHEROPATHY. 173 According to this explanation, Clairvoyance is no more mysterious than any other phenomenon of Ether- opathy or Mesmerism. Many persons are willing to admit that sleep may be produced by the inducting process, but deny Clairvoyance as impossible ; but it will now be perceived that it requires no new principle to explain Clairvoyance after the etherean or mesmeric sleep is admitted ; for sleep, and sympathy, and Clair- voyance are produced in the same way, by the same agent and the same process applied to different objects. The inquiry will naturally arise, "Why did not the Creator endow us all with the powers of Clairvoy- ance ? Why should such a wonderful power be with- held from the most perfect and healthy men, and yet be occasionally bestowed upon some weak and debili- tated individual." To my mind, the reason is obvious. The Creator has placed us in a situation where a certain amount of knowledge is necessary to enable us to perform our duties, and he has bestowed upon us organs so contrived as to enable us to acquire this knowledge with ease, provided we make a proper use of the means which he has placed within our reach, and the powers which he has bestowed upon us. A greater amount of knowledge, instead of being a bless- ing, would be injurious, and it is withheld from us i in mercy: every animal in existence will be found to have the means of acquiring knowledge enough to harmonize with his condition, and to enable him to satisfy his wants. More knowledge would be an embarrassment. 15* 174 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. Suppose that a man could hear every movement which takes place not only on the earth, but in the most distant of the innumerable planets ; and suppose he could see every thing in existence ; would it not be a source of inconceivable annoyance ? Would it not render his life a burden ? I do not doubt that an omniscient man would be utterly miserable. It is enough for us, then, that we are so organized, that by making an industrious use of our powers, we can learn all that is necessary for us to know in order to enable us to fulfil our destiny according to the de- signs of the Supreme Creator. But still you will ask, why the power of Clairvoy- ance is bestowed upon some persons. I answer, that Clairvoyance is the result of weakness. It is in itself a species of disease, and, like all other diseases, it is a violation of the natural laws of the constitution. It was never intended by the Creator, so far as his in- tention is indicated in the organization of man, that such a power should be possessed by man ; for, in- stead of making any provision for it, (as he would, doubtless, have done, if he had designed it.) the Creator has ordained a most wonderful series of regu- lations to prevent it. By insulating the organs, and giving them limits and restrictions, he has virtually said to each of them, Thus far shalt thou go with pro- priety, and produce happiness, but no farther. Clair- voyance is an overleaping of the bounds to reach the forbidden fruit of the tree of prohibited knowledge. My object in making these remarks is not to prevent ETHEROPATHY. 175 any one from making use of this means of acquiring knowledge, but to convey a clear expression of the view which I take of the real nature of Clairvoyance, and to rebut the absurd doctrine, which has lately been advanced, that Clairvoyance depends upon a peculiar organ, which was bestowed upon man for that very purpose. SECTION XII. ETHEROPATHY — CONTINUED. 6. Deranged Function produced by Induction. — This principle, combined with the principles of Will, Sympathy, Credence, and Clairvoyance, accounts for all the phenomena, and explain all the experiments, whether they are known under the name of Neurolo- gy, Pathetism, Hypnotism, or Mesmerism ; for they are in reality but so many instances of peculiar de- rangement — of abnormal condition — of departure from proper and healthful operations. This is true of the Sympathy, Clairvoyance, and Credencive delusion which I have already explained ; and by applying these principles, we may unravel any case, however difficult, and reduce it to such simple terms that any person of common intelligence can understand it. Bearing in mind the principles which I have al- ready advanced, and the explanations which I have made, let us apply them to analyze the different phe- nomena which have been the subject of discussion and experiment by those who have most attracted public attention. The subject may be discussed under the following heads : — 1. Etheropathic, or mesmeric sleep. 2. Manifestations of uncommon strength. ETHEROPATHY. 177 3. Conferring extraordinary power upon medicine, water-motion, and other substances. 4. Discovering diseases, their location, cause, and cure. 5. Reading the characters of persons with whom the subjects are in communication. 6. Discoveries in phrenology and physiology. 7. Communing with departed spirits. 8. Abuses and dangers attending Etheropathic ex- periments. 1. Mesmeric Sleep. — This is generally one of the very first effects of Etheropathic Induction. The subject feels a sensation similar to that experienced when going into ordinary sleep ; and his nodding, and the relaxation of his muscles, often imitate com- mon sleep perfectly. Now, mark the difference : a third person speaks, but the subject does not hear him. The operator speaks, and the subject hears him and answers, or attempts to answer, and finds his tongue paralyzed. A third person takes hold of the subject, and pinches him, burns him, pricks him, and tries every way to excite his attention, but the sub- ject remains totally unconscious of all his attempts. The operator gently touches him, and he shrinks with the strongest signs of sensitiveness. The opera- tor commands him to perceive when a third person touches him ; and now he shows Consciousness in re- turn to the slightest touch from the very person who could not rouse him before by the most cruel experi- ments. In order to explain this, we must recollect J78 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. that the insulation of the organs of the subject is overcome, so that the motions of Etherium from the operator's brain interfere with the motions of Etherium from the brain of the subject. The currents from the subject's brain are either neutralized or conformed to the currents of the operator, so that now no current of ethereal force can enter the brain of the sub- ject through the external senses ; but currents are passing through the organs of the subject from the brain of the operator with great vigor. The senses of the subject can be affected by the operator, or by any object which the operator permits to be in com- munication. These currents are cut off which nor- mally pass to and from the subject's brain, and con- nect it with surrounding objects. Sometimes the external senses, the voluntary mus- cles, and the organs of mind, seem to be all, or nearly all, inducted ; so that the subject is almost as entirely under the control of the operator, as if the subject was but a part of the operator himself. But much oftener it happens, that all the efforts of the operator fail to induct the subject except in a few organs. At first the current from the brain of the subject to his eyes may be interrupted, so that the subject can- not open them without the consent of the operator ; perhaps also the lips become immovable from a simi- lar cause ; but the hearing is not yet much affected, and by an uncommon effort he can move his limbs; the mind is but little affected, and the subject knows what he is about, and has the power, and perhaps the ETHEROFATHY. 179 disposition, to oppose the operator, and endeavor to thwart his plans and wishes. The explanation of this is, that only a few bodily organs are cut off from their natural etherean connection with the brain. The other organs are too securely insulated, or else too powerful to be overcome. When the external senses and the perceptive organs which are dependent upon them are thorough- ly inducted, the subject is asleep ; that is, he is in such a condition, that if the operator asks him if he is asleep, he will say " yes." I take it that the whole brain is not asleep at this time, for the subject will sometimes complain of thirst, weariness, or suffoca- tion ; showing that the internal-corporeal senses are active, and that those organs of the brain are awake, which preside over the wants of the body, though the perceptive organs are undoubtedly asleep, except so far as their activity depends upon the operator ; they are certainly in that condition, whatever it may be, which gives the subject a consciousness that he is asleep, for he will generally answer positively that ho is asleep. This leads me to inquire concerning an Organ of Sleep. Is there an organ of mind located in the brain, the function of which is to give a disposition to sleep? If so, in what part of the brain is it located ? and what is its nature, its utility, and the design of the Creator in bestowing it ? To what class of organs does it belong, Ipseal, Social, or Intellectual ? If Ipseal, to what range of Ipseals? 180 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. I have reflected much upon this subject, as I deem it one of much interest in a phrenological point of view ; and I have at length come to the conclusion that there is no organ of Sleep per se. There is a state of Consciousness which we call drowsiness, or sleepiness, and this is accompanied with an inability to keep the voluntary muscles, especially those of the eyes, in a state of contraction. Now, it must be ad- mitted, that this consciousness of drowsiness is pro- duced by a particular Phreno-organ, and so also is the contraction of the muscles, which constitute wake- fulness, dependent upon an especial Phreno-organ. The tendency to sleep is indicated by an inability to contract the voluntary muscles, and to keep the senses active. Sleep is a negative power. A man asleep is a man doing nothing. Surely an organ for doing nothing is unnecessary. I have shown in another place, that sleep is produced by the predomi- nance of the involuntary ganglia. These are the only organs of sleep, but they are not Phreno-organs ; they give no tendency to do any thing voluntarily, but on the contrary, they tend to prevent all volunta- ry action. The consciousness of drowsiness, which we experience, is produced by the organ of Sanative- ness, in consequence of a peculiar weariness of those parts, whose function it is to keep the senses active, and the muscles connected with them in a state of contraction. The function of the organ of Sanativeness is, to produce consciousness and action when any part is ETHEROPATHY. 181 exhausted, injured, diseased, wearied, or needs our care and attention. If any part of the constitution is exhausted in a certain slight degree, Sanativeness is affected accordingly, and produces a consciousness of weariness ; if to a greater degree, a conscious- ness of pain ; so that weariness would seem to be but a slight degree of pain, — it differs from pain only in degree. The pain produced by the injury of one part of the body, is different from that pro- duced by another part ; and the weariness produced by the too prolonged activity of one organ is different from that produced by another. Now, it would seem that drowsiness is the peculiar weariness of the senses and their auxiliary muscles, and it affects the organ of Sanativeness accordingly. It may be that the organ of Sanativeness is constituted of a great number of de- partments, to correspond with the different parts of the body which are liable to exhaustion and disease ; and if so, then there may be one department which presides over the sanatory condition of the senses and their dependent muscles. Such a department, if it does exist, produces the consciousness of drowsiness, or the exhaustion of the muscles. In this sense., Sanativeness may be called the organ of Sleep ; but an organ of Sleep, such as Buchanan and others admit, does not exist beyond their own imaginations. If there were such a propensity, it would, of course, be an Ipseal of the corporeal range, — it would be one of the very lowest organs in location and func- tion, since the very lowest class of organized be- 16 182 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. ings possess it in perfection, and sleep all, or nearly all, the time of their lives. Dr. Buchanan claims to have discovered an organ of Sleep, and another of Somnolence ! I have repeated his experiments upon hundreds of susceptible subjects, and failed to verify his "wonderful discoveries," by the very method by which he himself proposes to establish their truth, and that is, by experiment. Dr. Buchanan locates his "organ of Sleep " hetween Combativenessand Cau- tiousness, and his organ of " Somnolence " near the organ of Tune. His location of the organ of " Sleep " is a violation of a perfectly established principle of phrenology — which is, that the powers that are the most essentially animal and corporeal in their nature have their organs in the lowest portions of the brain. But I am told, perhaps, by some very innocent wit- ness of Dr. B.'s experiments, that he certainly does put his subjects to sleep with no other ceremony than merely holding his finger upon that part of the head where he has located the organ of sleep. I answer, that I have no doubt of it ; and neither do I doubt that he could put them to sleep, just as well, by put- ting his finger on the nose, or any other part, especially if the subject expected to be put to sleep, and was susceptible. I have often put them to sleep, by simply telling them to go to sleep, and without touching them at all. If touching certain parts of a fresh sub- ject sometimes aids and facilitates the sleep, it is, doubtless, because it facilitates the induction, and stops the action of several organs, and not because it excites a particular one. ETHEROPATHT. 188 A person who has been once inducted, can be in- ducted again with much more ease than before. There. are two reasons for this : one is, that the insu- lation is Aveakened and rendered pervious ; the other is, that the conforming organs are excited by the recollection that once before he has been overcome, and this leads him to expect and believe that he will be overcome again. There is a very great difference in subjects, in re- gard to the length of time that the influence will con- tinue to affect them. Some will for weeks after they have been inducted be highly susceptible to induction, so that the slightest effort made by the operator, with their knowledge, is sufficient to render them power- less. I know a young lady of Syracuse, who is so susceptible, that if any one converses upon the subject of Mesmerism in her presence, she will become rigid and unable to move ; the consequence is, that the family are obliged to abstain from mentioning the subject in her presence. In this case. I have no doubt that the power that paralyzes her is within her own brain, though the conversation of others may call it into action. It is my opinion that any organ of the brain may paralyze the whole system under some circumstances ; fear often does this, and so do joy and sorrow. Subjects are often extremely fanciful, capricious, and unmanageable, in consequence of the self-inducting power of their own organs foiling the attempts of the operator to influence them. Such sub- jects are apt to acquire eccentricities, and apparently 184 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. unaccountable peculiarities in relation to their suscep- tibility. The explanation of their cases may be found in the idle and foolish notions which they have im- bibed. I know a lady in Cooperstown, for instance, who becomes instantly paralyzed if any one inducts or attempts to induct her for a moment, and nothing will relieve her but touching a certain part of her head. Her sister, whom she has much reason to love, fills her with horror if she approaches her. The medical gentleman, whose patient she is, was greatly puzzled with these things until I explained to him the nature of Credenciveness, and showed him, by a variety of experiments, that the brain of the subject manufactured all the difficulty, on the principle of insane Credenciveness, and that no other subject would present a case perfectly parallel unless there was an opportunity afforded for a communication or imitation of symptoms. It is not unusual for a whole community to be inducted by imitation and Creden- cive Induction, so as to be subject to delusions, panics, and diseases ; and the most extraordinary physical and moral effects are produced through the agency of the physical organs of Imitativeness and Creden- civeness. A full and sufficient explanation of the causes of the Salem witchcraft delusion is furnished by applying these principles. Manifestations of uncommon Strength. The inducted subject sometimes manifests a de- gree of strength which he cannot possibly manifest ETHEROPATHY. 185 in his normal state. The explanation is, that the currents of force from the Drain of the operator unite their power with those of the subject, and both brains are actually moving one set of muscles through one set of nerves ; there is increased intensity, analogous to that produced in the galvanic battery by increasing the number of plates, so that those muscles can mani- fest a corresponding strength. Insane persons some- times manifest a most wonderful amount of personal strength in consequence of great excitement of the brain ; but in their cases, the excitement is succeeded by a reaction, accompanied with uncommon prostra- tion and weakness. Not so the externally inducted subject ; he often makes the most powerful efforts, and being thoroughly replenished and sustained by the operator, awakes without any sense of fatigue or ex- haustion. I have observed, on such occasions, that the operator is exhausted, though the subject is not ; owing, as I suppose, to the drain which the subject makes upon the operator. Sometimes the subject complains of exhaustion ; but this is because he is not supplied and sustained by the operator, but by his own organs, and they begin to feel the effect of his exertions ; or the uneasiness of the subject may be from sympathy with an exhausted operator. The correctness of this reasoning is confirmed by the fact, that, when a subject is put to sleep and aroused agaitv after a reasonable time, without being made to exert himself while asleep, he almost always awakes re. 16* 186 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. freshed, and with a feeling similar to that experienced on awakening from a common sleep. Conferring extraordinary Power upon Water, Medicine, Food, etc. The only way in which food, medicine, or any thing else has any effect upon organized beings, is by evolving motions of Etherium, which act upon the organs. The reason why different articles of food or medicine have different effects upon our organs is. because they evolve different etherean motions : that this is so, can easily be shown by experiment. Take a highly susceptible subject, one who is capable of Sympathy and Clairvoyance, and take any article of medicine, put it into a glass vessel carefully corked, and hold it in your hand, or let the subject hold it, and the medicine will have precisely the same effect as if the subject swallowed it in the ordinary way. It seems to me impossible to explain this, except on the principle, that the medicine evolves motions of Etherium in a peculiar manner, which communicates with the organs of the subject and affects them, although the glass intervened. This can be done upon some subjects, even if the operator does not know what medicine is in the phial. Again, the operator can produce, by his will alone, the same effects which are produced by any medicine ; this fact proves that the will and the medicine have one power in common. What can it be but the power of giving peculiar motions to the organs? Again, ETHEROPATHY. 187 the operator can do the same without either medicine or will, but merely by assertion. I can produce a hundred subjects in the valley of the Hudson River, including some of the most respectable persons in this state, who will make oath that ice burns their fingers when I assert that "it is hot;" and they will do this when perfectly awake, and apparently in posses- sion of all their faculties — being rational on every other subject but this. I can give the subject in this condition a glass of water, and assert that it is brandy, and it produces the same effects upon his taste and feelings as if it really were brandy. This will happen, even if I will that it shall have no effect at all. These are facts which cannot be denied, nor even doubted. The number and character of the subjects render this impossible. I can do this to one person in twenty throughout the United States, and can teach any one else to do it. The facts must therefore be disposed of in some other way than by denying them. I have already explained them by showing that an assertion excites one of the largest organs of the brain, and with the aid of Induc- tion this one produces a peculiar kind of monomania, in which the same effects are produced and imitated in the brain by the Credencive imagination, which are ordinarily produced by the brandy or the fire. Since all sensations are immediately produced by motions in the nerves and brain, any means which can cause those motions can produce corresponding sen- sations. An assertion produces motions in Creden- 188 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. civeness, and Credenciveness modifies and communi- cates them to all the other organs as far as is requisite to cause the result asserted. In short, the whole brain be- comes the slave of Credenciveness, and Credenciveness is the slave of an assertion. In these Credencive experi- ments it should be understood that the motions do not emanate from the substance, — -medicine, water, &c, — but from the deranged organs of the subject him- self. He is in the same condition as many insane persons, who live for years in the belief that their own limbs are glass, or that they themselves are birds, or plants, or monarchs, or departed spirits. Discovering the Diseases op Patients, or of themselves, and prescribing modes of cure. Subjects can often discover the diseases, injuries, or pains of persons with whom they are in communi- cation, on the principle of Sympathy, which I have explained, or on the principle of Clairvoyance, or on both combined. By Sympathy, they know the feel- ings and motions which the patient experiences at the time* when they are in communication. By Clairvoy- ance, they know the appearance of the injured parts ; and from these data they sometimes are able to pre- scribe medical treatment which is well calculated to effect a cure. Medicine, as I have already had occa- sion to explain, produces its effects by modifying the motions in the organs of the patient. There are doubtless hundreds of substances which possess the most powerful medical virtues, though they are not ETHEROPATHY. 189 known to scientific men ; for we have had no means of learning the qualities of medicines except by accidental observations and by experiments. It is not unlikely that the clairvoyant subject per- ceives operations in diseased organs, and virtues in medical substances, which to one in the normal state are imperceptible. Perhaps the reasoning powers of the subjects, as well as his other powers, sometimes become morbidly active, and enable him to judge and predict, with a degree of correctness which seems almost miraculous, the result of disease or the effect of medicine. I have thus admitted fully on this point the just claims of operators as far as regards the philo- sophical principles involved, and I refer to Sympathy and Clairvoyance for their explanation ; but I must now confess, that although true in principle, Clair- voyance is uncertain in practice.* It is a fact that experiments in Clairvoyance, are, in a majority of attempts, entire failures. It is a fact that experiments in Sympathy are successful much oftener than those in Clairvoyance. Yet it is also a fact that the clairvoyant subject is sometimes so per- fectly correct, and under such circumstances, as to entirely exclude the possibility of deception, collusion, or mistake. This has been the great stumbling-block * The majority of experiments in Clairvoyance performed in public are undoubtedly by collusion. The only true way of detecting the fraud, is to let some candid person take the place of the operator, be placed in connection with the subject, and undertake to perform the experiments. — Ed. 190 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. of sceptics. Having perhaps heard or read of some astonishing feat of Clairvoyance, they protest that it is impossible, and accuse the narrator of falsehood or weakness ; and, when challenged to witness the experiment for themselves, they accept promptly the invitation. Preparations are made, expectations are raised, a triumph is anticipated, when, alas ! the experiment fails. The operator cannot tell why ; accuses the weather, the presence of sceptics, the noise in the room, his own want of health or concen- tration ; offers to try it again, and then proceeds to give the most wonderful accounts of feats which he has performed on other occasions ; so he declares upon his honor. During all this time the sceptics, too polite, perhaps, to express their sentiments verbally, answer with '■' O ! " " Indeed ! " and shrugs and looks of sup- pressed contempt ; and finally, take their leave fully confirmed in their scepticism, and afterwards refuse to listen candidly or look fairly upon the subject. Do you ask me why there need be so many failures ? why, if Clairvoyance succeeded yesterday, it should fail to-day ? I answer frankly, that I do not know ; I know the fact only, and I say that a thousand failures do not disprove one instance of success. The wonder to me is, not that there should be failures, but that there should ever be success. When I reflect that every successful experiment in Clairvoy- ance is a triumph over the laws of the constitution, and that creative wisdom has been displayed in pre- venting the success of such operations, I am by no ETHEROPATHY. 191 means astonished that success is an exception and failure the general result. I am rather astonished that a single phenomenon of this charefcter can be pro- duced at all; and were it not that I am forced to yield to irresistible evidence, I should be disposed to deny the truth of Clairvoyance altogether ; and, in- deed, of all other Etheropathic phenomena. All the different kinds of experiments are more suc- cessful at one time than another, though performed upon the same subject, without our being able to assign any sufficient reason. But when we reflect that the electric and magnetic states of the atmos- phere are continually varying, without our being able to assign the reasons, we ought not to be surprised ±at similar variations are found in Etheropathy. I advise no one to rely upon clairvoyant subjects in jases of disease ; but I would respectfully recommend :o physicians to weigh their testimony candidly, and live it all the attention which it really deserves. Let t be borne in mind, that though sometimes astonish- ngly correct, they are oftener insanely romantic. Reading the Characters of those with whom the Subject is in Communication. This is but a species of clairvoyant sympathy, for f the motions of the operator, or any one else in com- nunication, are made to affect the subject, and he is conscious of the affection, he can, of course, judge of ts character. A subject who is ignorant of phre- lology will sometimes examine the head of a person, 192 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. and tell the character with tolerable accuracy. I take it that this is done by the subject being slightly affected by each^ organ, and that he judges of the relative influence of the mental powers by their rela- tive effect upon himself at the time of his sympathetic communication. Subjects can sometimes read the character and disease of a person by merely feeling of a handker- chief, or a lock of hair which belonged to that person. Such subjects are rare, but they are sometimes found. This seems incredible, and, when admitted to b( true, is exceedingly wonderful ; but our wonder doubtless principally caused by the novelty, rathei than the impossibility, of the thing; for is it no equally incomprehensible that a dog can tell by put- ting his nose within a few inches of a stone upoi which twenty persons and animals of different kinds have trodden, and if his master, or a fox, or any favorite game, has for an instant been standing upor the stone, the dog perceives it as he runs rapidly along over the stone ? How can we explain this but by saying that there is an emanation of some kind from the animal which impregnated the stone. I once tried an experiment with a kitten about three months old, which I was certain had never seen a mouse. I brought a covered tub into the room, in which was a mouse, intending to let it out and see whether the kitten would catch it ; but before I opened the tub, the kitten gave the strongest evidences that she already knew its inhabitant. She evidently per- ETHEROPATHY. 193 ceived it without sight or hearing, through the covered tub. Was this not reading character in a manner quite as wonderful as that of the clairvoyant subject ? If you say that she smelt it, I might ask how by that means she knew that it was her natural prey. Take a carrier pigeon a thousand miles blindfolded, by a circuitous route, and it will return by the most direct line that can be drawn. Did the pigeon smell home? How, then, if not by smell, does the bird know the way home ? I have seen a company of about twelve persons, nearly all strangers to each other and to the subject, take their handkerchiefs and mix them together in a box, and then present it to the blindfolded subject, who took the handkerchiefs all out, and as each owner presented his hand, the sub- ject selected and returned his property. I have seen the same subject tell correctly, by feeling the hands of persons, whether they were of the same family I have seen a ring handed to a subject, and the owner of the ring, who lived at a distance, described — the sex, health, residence, and state of mind, and many other circumstances, with great accuracy, in most par- ticulars ; though I never saw an instance in which there were no mistakes made in the description, if many questions were asked. I can understand as well how a clairvoyant subject can tell the character of the person by the emanations from the handkerchief, as I can how the dog can tell the character by a foot- step, or a pigeon his home, without, even one sign or circumstance to afford a hint in any way that we know of. u 194 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. There are several ways in which the subject may get his information ; one is by sympathy with the per- son or persons present, who have in their own minds a knowledge of the person inquired about. Another way is by emanations from the ring or handkerchief. The ring, being inducted by the etherean influence of the owner, partially retains and communicates the motions which it has received, just as a magnet does, or a scented handkerchief. The difficulty of conceiving such minute operations as those of the motions of Etherium in a ring, which can be communicated to a subject, and followed a hundred miles to connect with the owner — this diffi- culty is not greater than that of conceiving how eight millions of conscious beings can live and move in a space smaller than a mustard seed, or how the force of gravity can be propagated fifty millions of times faster than light. The minute is doubtless as infinite as the grand ; and we commit as great an error by limiting nature to our capacities, as a microscopic insect would, who should suppose that the north side of the grain of earth on which he lives is the paradise and most important part of the universe. It is with us as it is with the insect, — *what seem to be the limits of nature are in truth but the limits of our own powers. The chain of causes and effects is infinite in length, but with our limited, powers we can only perceive a few intermediate links. Both extremities of this chain are mysteriously continued far beyond the limits of human conception. Human ETHEROPATHY. 195 knowledge, in its greatest extent, is necessarily cut short at both extremities. In all human reasoning we are forced, through ignorance and weakness, to begin by assuming first links or principles, and con- clude by again confessing that we are at our wit's end. What we call first principles are merely the first links that we can perceive; and what we call a conclusion, is merely the last link which we can trace. All human knowledge begins and ends in ignorance. Discoveries in Phrenology and Physiology by Means of Etheropathy. Clairvoyance is the only instrumentality by which we may hope to make discoveries through the agency of inducted subjects. But I must confess, that even this method is exceedingly discouraging, since I find that in those cases where I have had an opportunity to know whether the subject was right or wrong in his pretensions to Clairvoyance, the actual result has been, that he was wrong more than half of the time. They are correct in examining the diseases of patients much of tener than in any other kind of Clairvoyance ; but in this they are perhaps aided in a considerable degree by sympathy. It may be, that there is some- thing in the nature of the human body which is con- genial to another human organization, and this may render it easier to establish a communication with them, so as to produce Sympathetic Clairvoyance, than any other kind. On this subject there is much need of carefully observed and connected facts ; but it is 196 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. unfortunate that most of those who are engaged in making experiments, are such visionary and credulous persons, that they lead us to error oftener than to truth. I shall never complain that people are scepti- cal on this subject, so long as they do not refuse obstinately to examine it. Let. us continue to observe, to examine, to theorize, to criticize, and scepticize, and turn, and overturn, until the truth, whose right it is, shall reign. Public attention has been directed to this subject, especially by the operations of Dr. Buchanan, as re- ported by himself, and those who acted as committees appointed by audiences to examine and scrutinize his experiments in New York, Albany, and Boston. Dr. Buchanan came with letters of introduction from gentlemen of high standing to some of the first citi- zens of this region, and as he professed to have made very great discoveries in science, he was received cordially, and his subject taken in hand by gentlemen of such character as to command the confidence of the public. These gentlemen published long and detailed reports, which sanctioned all, or nearly all, that Dr. Buchanan had advanced. The committees professed to merely report the facts which they knew, and the experiments which they had witnessed, with- out expressing any opinion concerning them ; but the tenor and complimentary style of the reports were such as to amount to an official endorsement of the whole concern. The editor of the Democratic Re- view, the editor of the New York Evening Post, Dr. ETHEROPATHY. 197 Forry, Rev. Mr. Pierpont, and others of the same high character, publicly expressed their conviction of the general truth of Dr. Buchanan's doctrines ; and hundreds of others were, and indeed are still, of the opinion, that, being founded upon experiment, they could not be erroneous. What greatly added to their confidence, was the fact that they could repeat the experiments themselves, and with the most perfect success. How, then, could they be mistaken, when they were themselves the operators, and the subjects were their most devoted friends ? In the case of Dr. Buchanan, and the reports of his committees, the mischief is the greater from the fact that they tend to destroy confidence in the science of phrenology. He professed to produce an entire revolution in this science — to add thousands of new organs — to change in a moment the location of organs which had already been established by years of patient observation. Some idea can be formed of the extent to which this mischievous delusion pro- ceeded, from the fact that Mr. Fowler, in a new edition of his work on phrenology, introduced a lcng catalogue of new organs, which he pretends to' have discovered by this means ; and, furthermore, he pro- fesses to have verified them by observation and exam- ination of crania ! Mr. Fowler has made such an immense number of examinations of heads, and is supposed by the multi- tude to understand the subject of phrenology so well, that it was thought he must certainly be capable of 17* l98 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. judging whether Dr. Buchanan was right or not ; and, therefore, when he declares that he has tested the experiments fully, made important discoveries by means of them, and then proved and verified the dis- coveries by observing the developments of the head, he gives his highest testimony in favor of their truth, pledges his own professional character for skill and accuracy, and must stand or fall by the result. But in reality the experiments do not confirm these organs ; their claim is based upon observation of ex- ternal development and phrenological harmony. The experiments would have confirmed any other organ, or any doctrine, however absurd or visionary, as the records of their pretended discoveries abundantly prove. In regard to the poles of the stomach, and the mag- netic connection of Alimentiveness with the stomach, etc., which Mr. Fowler claims to have first observed, I beg leave to refer you to my work on Phrenology, p. 162, in which, in 1839, 1 announced this same doc- trine in my explanation of the internal senses. The following is the language I then used : — " These are the nerves that convey impressions from the internal bodily organs to their appropriate impulsives in the brain. Thus Pneumativeuess, Ali- mentiveness, and Sanativeness, of the Ipseals ; and Amativeness and Parentiveness of the Socials, are each capable of being excited to the highest degree, when the bodily organs to which they are severally related, are in want of their peculiar enjoyments. ETHEROPATHY. 199 The secretion of milk in the breast irritates certain nerves which convey the impressions to Parentiveness, and rouse it to action. The secretion of the gastric juice irritates certain nerves of the stomach, which convey impressions to Alimentiveness ; in the same manner, every organ, when irritated in a peculiar manner, communicates an impression to the brain by means of some nerve, and rouses the appropriate im- pulsive, to relieve disagreeable sensations, or to continue agreeable ones. The nerves of the internal senses are so concealed from observation, that the most skil- ful anatomist cannot trace them with certainty ; this accounts for the fact, that so very few, besides pro- fessional men, are acquainted even with the existence of such senses." SECTION XIII. ETHEROPATHY — CONTINUED. [With the exception of a few paragraphs, I have omitted this entire section, as it is of a controversial character, and not necessary to an understanding of the subject under consideration. It is a discussion of the pretensions of Neurology as advocated by Dr. Buchanan, and, at the time of the publication of the first edition, had an importance which does not attach to it now. Dr. B.'s "discoveries were at that time electrifying phrenologists every where, and the fame of Neurology was world wide: the most distinguished phrenologists both in England and America adopted his opinions and repeated his experiments with en- thusiasm. Dr. Caldwell, of Kentucky, Dr. Elliotson, of London, Dr. Dodds, Dr. Forrey, Rev. Mr. Pierpont, and Mr. Fowler, were all disciples and advocates of Neurology. They could without difficulty rehearse Dr. Buchanan's experiments themselves, and they seem to have admitted his explanation of the phe- nomena almost without question. Neurology proved the truth of Phrenology, and promised to reveal all the hidden mysteries of the brain. But to the mind of our author it proved too much ; its discoveries were too numerous ; the head of the subject, like the lamp of Aladdin, answered your wishes each time it was touched ; and new organs were located with such rapidity and arbitrary inaccuracy that the preemption rights of the old ones were not in the least respected, and they were forced to narrow their limits to a mini- ETHEROFATHY. 201 mum of space. Besides, if Neurology was right, Prof. Grimes's classification of the Phreno-organs was wrong, and to this circumstance we probably owe the production of this book, in which he shows that Neu- rology was wrong; and that this as well as every other phase of Mesmerism can be explained in no other way so well as by credencive induction, which, if admitted to be the true explanation, admits also his system of Phrenology. In this and the succeeding section, which are direct expositions of the fallacious pretensions of Neurology and Phreno-Magnetism, the author seems to have used the satirical pen of Junius, and to have dipped it in the caustic ink of its owner. In order that the reader may have some idea of the points at variance in this controversy, I will insert a few paragraphs from this section. Ed.] I have before me a " Diagram" published by Dr. Buchanan, in 1843, in explanation of which he says, — " Any one, who has the ambition of discover} 7- , can easily, by experimenting on an impressible constitu- tion, discover hundreds of new organs, or modes of manifestation, by making additional subdivisions. Had the author published all the distinct functions which he has observed, they would have amounted to more than a thousand ! " I doubt whether any man can be found who has sufficient genius to write a sentence which shall sur- pass the above in foolishness. If there is any thing on earth more supremely ridiculous, it is the position of those who have recommended such doctrines to the public. 202 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. Yet there is truth in Dr. Buchanan's promise, that " any one can, by experimenting on an impressible constitution, discover hundreds of new organs ; " and I " will undertake to execute " an order for any num- ber or any kind of new organs which shall be wanted for the gratification of the public credulity. If any one else will " undertake " to furnish names, I will manufacture the organs according to " the laws of antagonism and cooperation " which are practised by Dr. Buchanan and Dr. Caldwell. Again, Dr. B. says, — " Every function, or organ, is associated, for its balance and control, with an antagonist function or organ ; and by means of these laws of antagonism, the whole mass of Cerebral Physiology assumes a wonderful and beautiful simplicity." This doctrine of " antagonism " is taught by others besides Dr. Buchanan. It is taught by all those who excite (as they suppose) the organs by touching the head. In the preface of my "New System of Phre- nology," I remarked that " I cannot countenance the idea that some organs were int ended as antagonists to others; they all act in harmony; and though some are more intimately related than others, no one, unless abused, counteracts the proper effects of another." The true doctrine upon this subject, I conceive, is, that any organ is an antagonist to every other which opposes its operation and gratification. Two organs may be antagonists on one oocasion and cooperators upon another ; but I repeat what I stated in the preface ETHEROPATHY. 203 of my " New System of Phrenology." " No organ was intended to counteract the proper effects of another." Conscientiousness, for instance, may cooperate . with Kindness to oppose Destructiveness, where its aim is unjust ; but the same Conscientiousness may coop- erate with Destructiveness to oppose Kindness, when justice demands the sacrifice. When two organs tend to opposite results, and the stimulating circumstances are equal, the largest organ will prevail. If the organs are equally large, and the stimulus of each equal, the result will be an intermediate course, in which both powers will be gratified in a medium degree only ; but if the size or the stimulus of one surpasses that of the other, the gratification will equally surpass, if opportunity is equally favorable to both. There is, then, no such thing as an organ for an antagonist function, per se. By adopting a different doctrine, Dr. Buchanan has involved himself in a labyrinth from which nothing but retraction can extricate him. Some of the new organs which he proposes, are doubtless intended to supply the demand for antago- nist organs. Thus the organ of Suicide is introduced to antagonize the organ of Vitality — Ignorance versus Knowledge — Mortality versus Immortality — Sanity versus Insanity ; and so on to the end of the chapter. [Dr. Buchanan says Clairvoyance depends upon certain organs. Also, that he can excite what organ he pleases. Hence he can produce Clairvoyance, in any suscepti- ble subject, at any time. But he and every other operator knows this cannot be done. 204 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. Therefore Dr. B. should revise his premises, or abandon his conclusion. Our author, after giving, in substance, the preceding clinching syllogism, concludes as follows: — Ed.] It should be particularly remarked that no two of the professional Head Touchers agree. Sunderland and Fowler locate Secretiveness and Acquisitiveness in the temple where Spurzheim does, but Buchanan and others place them in the occiput, near Combative- ness ; and each rival " toucher " accuses the other of having the organs of " Ignorance and Stupidity " in a state of too great activity for the " antagonist organs." SECTION XIY. ETHEROPATHY — CONTINUED. [The remarks upon the preceding section are also applicable to this. Neurology and Phreno-Magnetism are essentially the same, and Electro-Biology and Electro-Psychology are in the same category. What- ever their advocates may assert, there is nothing new advanced either in principle or practice. They are all offshoots from the old-fashioned Mesmerism, and are all comprehended under the name of Etheropathy. I insert such parts of this section as I think will be interesting to the reader. — Ed.] The following, from the London "Phalanx," will give an excellent idea of the reception which these discoveries in Phreno-Magnetism, etc., met from the very learned gentlemen who compose the Phrenologi- cal Society of London : — "Phrenological. Society. — On Monday evening there was a full attendance of the members of this society, at their chambers in Exeter Hall. " The President, Dr. Elliotson, delivered a lecture upon the connection between Phrenology and Mes- merism. He said, — " In the course of last month, I have received a series of newspapers from America containing accounts of Mesmerism, from which it seemed that when an operator had reduced a patient to a state of stupor, he could excite the phrenological organs at will ; that 18 206 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. parts of the brain could be awakened and excited, and afterwards be put to sleep again. " Dr. Elliotson then read from a New York paper an account of numerous Mesmero-Phrenological ex- periments, which related a vast number of public experiments of similar nature, and with similar results. In each case, it is represented that the organs, as named by the phrenologists, invariably manifested, under mesmeric influence, the functions attributed to them. The relations excited the greatest surprise in the meeting, and were listened to with deep attention. He then stated that whilst these things were proceed- ing in America, experiments precisely of the same character and effect were carried on in different parts of England, by gentlemen who knew nothing of the operations of each other, or of those going on in America. He had sent down copies of the American papers to Hampshire, to Dr. Engledue, with a request that he would hand them to Mr. Gardiner, a gentle- man of the highest respectability and learning, the son of Sir James Gardiner, an old member of this society. It happened, curiously enough, that when Dr. Engledue went over to Southampton, to give the packet of papers (which he himself had not opened) to Mr. Gardiner, he found that gentleman, Mr. Mans- field, and others, actually engaged in a series of ex- periments, which, on afterwards looking into the packet, they found to correspond exactly with those described iu the American papers. Dr. Elliotson then read from the Hampshire Telegraph, a long account ETHEROPATHY. 207 of experiments by Mr. Gardiner, from which we can only make room for the following : — " ' I asked the patient referred to, (a young lady ignorant of phrenology,) when in the trance, with what part of the brain she kept a secret ? She replied, " On the side of my brain." Upon asking her to point out the spot, she placed her finger exactly on the organ of Secretiveness in my head. I placed my finger on her organ of Secretiveness, when she said, " Yes, just where I am touching my head." In the trance she fancies the two movements are identi- cal. Having asked her where she felt anger, she placed her finger upon my organ of Destructiveness. I inquired where she felt hunger ; her finger rested on my organ of Alimentiveness. I interrogated her as to the time ; she was wholly unable to tell me.. The idea then struck me that I might possibly enable her to estimate the hour by exciting the organ of Time. With this view I rubbed the forehead gently at the required spot, exerting my volition to the utmost, of course. " O! that makes me feel so odd." I asked her why. She replied, " It makes me know what time it is." She then told me the time with almost perfect accuracy. She would afterwards always esti- mate the lapse of time — intervals — with astonish- ing accuracy, upon my exciting the organ of time on her forehead. Her finger rubbed on my forehead produced invariably the same results : (this is true of all the organs.) '" Not one of those who have adopted this doctrine 208 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. concerning the excitement of the Phreno-organs has yet retracted, or even expressed a doubt concerning the truthfulness of their conclusions. I do not know of a phrenologist in this country who does not admit them to be true. I believe that I am the first who has attempted to show their fallacy. [Since the above was written, nearly all have abandoned the idea. Mr. Sunderland, in his book entitled Pathetism, published in 1848, has the follow- ing : — " When I first excited the separate cerebral organs, in August, 1841, I thought I had made an important discovery, one by which I could demonstrate the truth of phrenology, and the precise location of each of the mental organs. But 1 very soon found that those excitements could not be depended upon, as I at first supposed ; and becoming satisfied that what I thought was a discovery was of no very great impor- tance, and, as I found A, B, C, D, etc., throughout the country, claiming the same discoveries, I long ago relinquished my claims, being perfectly willing that those who wished the credit of priority in those ex- periments of exciting the mental organs, should enjoy it without any rivalship from me." Ed.] The following is a concise summary of the reasons why I reject the doctrine : — 1. When the subject is Clairvoyant, he knows the intention of the operator, or of any third person who instructs the operator how to proceed, so that no con- trivance can deceive him, and therefore, in Clairvoy- ant subjects, touching is a mere farce. 2. When the subject is influenced by the will of ETHEROPATHY. 209 the operator, this alone will explain all the phenome- na, even though the subject is not Clairvoyant. In this case, also, touching the head is a mere farce. 3. When the subject knows, or even suspects, that the touching of a certain spot is expected to produce certain results, he is generally desirous to oblige the operator, and will act accordingly. In this case touching the head is also a farce ; for under these cir- cumstances the same results can be produced by touching any where else. 4. When neither Clairvoyance, Will, nor the sub- ject's previous knowledge can be brought to bear, the result cannot be produced. 5. When the subject, the operator, and all con- cerned, believe in any peculiar notion, the experiments will not contradict that notion, but will confirm it, however absurd it may be. 6. Subjects are often clairvoyant enough to know the intentions of others, when the operator does not suspect it, and the operator often influences the sub- ject when he does not intend to do so. 7. Admitting that emanations of Etherium stream from the extremities of the fingers, would they not be conducted away in all directions by the innumer- able nerves and blood-vessels — the skull and mem- branes, which intervene between the external spot touched, and the Phreno-organs which are supposed to be excited ? This objection acquires additional force from the fact that the brain is especially insulat- ed from external influences. 18* 210 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. 8. The poles or sympathetic points which the touch- ers pretend to find, afford a most conclusive argument against the notion that touching proves the location of an organ, for it is impossible to know whether you are touching a "pole" or an organ. How do you know that there is not a " pole " of Acquisitiveness in the integuments of the head just over Combative- ness ? 9. A great parade and flourish of trumpets have been made about the beautiful manner in which the different traits of character have been manifested by subjects, when the organs were excited by touching ; but all this amounts to nothing, when it is known that the very same experiments, the same results, with the same beauty and style of manner, are produced, by simply saying to the subject, " You are Macbeth ;" or, " You are Queen Victoria ; " or, " You are a saw- mill." The subjects will generally assume the char- acter, and act the part according to their conceptions of it, much more perfectly than they could enact the same when in the ordinary state ; by this method you can make them angry or merry, reverential or profane, at your pleasure. My attention has just been drawn to an account of some experiments of Dr. Elliotson, of London, a well- written account of which I find in the recently published work of Mr. Lang, of Edinburgh. Dr. Elliotson is one of the most distinguished physicians at present in Europe, and as far as mere authority can give influence, his name will have, probably, ETHEROPATHY. 211 more weight on this subject than that of any other man living. I do not understand that he admits any new organs, or new phrenological doctrines, as proved, or even rendered probable by the experiments ; but he seems to succeed in exciting the very organs which he previously believed in, and no others ; — this being the case, even his experiments afford an unanswerable argument against the pretensions of Buchanan, Fowler, and all the other discoverers of new organs. If the brain really could be excited in the way Dr. Elliotson supposes that it can, it is no more than reasonable to suppose that some new organs would be excited and discovered, and by no one more readily than him, since no man in Europe understands phrenology better, or advocates it with more courage and ability than he does. According to the following account, it seems that, when Dr. Elliotson accidental- ly touched with his finger one half of the organ of Self-Esteem, (called Imperativeness in my nomen- clature,) the organ was instantly excited. Now, this being the case, what is to prevent the function of any minute spot on the head from being known ? And how can there be such an irreconcilable differ- ence between the results produced by different opera- tors? Do not the very results which Dr. Elliotson produced, indicate that his own mind is the origin of them, and that they are the mere echo of his ideas ? I have repeatedly seen subjects whose organs were so easily excited by touching the head, that I could not touch ever so slightly, without something going 212 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. off ; and yet, under the pretence of curing or prevent- ing headache, I have put my fingers on every part of the head, without producing any effect ; and I have no doubt such would be the case with any of Dr. Elliotson's subjects. Why is this? I very lately had a subject in Manchester, N. H., a gentleman whose name I have forgotten, but who is the principal of an academy in that place. This gentleman, when apparently awake, was so far under the influence of my mind, that by my volition — by my merely thinking of his ear being burnt — he acted as if it was actually burnt. I could do the same to his finger or any part I willed. If I stood behind him, and put my finger near his ear, or neck, or his hands, (they being held behind him,) he immediately shrunk, and said that it hurt ; yet I did not touch him, but merely pointed within six inches of the flesh. He did not pretend that he could see what I was doing, but said that he experienced a sensation in the part, without knowing the cause : the same happened if any one else pointed. I also lately found a similar subject in Cooperstown, Otsego county, N. Y., named Bates. Mr. Braid, of Manchester, England, seems to have noticed similar cases, and he attempts to account for them by supposing that the ordinary function of "feeling is abnormally exalted." It is certain that sometimes the senses are abnormally exalted in the subjects to a wonderful degree, and this exaltation is generally the incipient stage of Clairvoyance. When the galvanic force becomes exceedingly intense in ETHEROPATHY. 213 consequence of an additional number of plates being brought to bear upon one wire, or avenue, it will always overcome ordinary insulation, and, spurning its former bounds, overleaping its constitutional limits, it tends to enter into communication with other bodies to induct them — to make impressions upon them and, by their reaction, to receive impressions in return. If the intensity is increased still more, the parallel wires or avenues are inducted, and their cur- rents neutralized, or conformed in such a way that they become vicarious in their function — that is, they perform an office and convey a current, which, of right, belongs only to the avenue which has exceeded its limits. From this analogy it is easy to understand abnormal sensation and Clairvoyance, for this also is produced by bringing an additional number of cerebral plates to bear upon the same avenue or nerve of the subject ; and when the forces of both operator and subject take the same direction through the same nerve, there is of course greater intensity, and when there is greater intensity there is a tendency to pass the insulating bounds. Hence we have uncommon manifestations of muscular strength, which are, in fact, but modes in which our phrenic force manifests itself. Hence, also, we have abnormal manifestations of sensation or Clairvoyance — which are but the reactions that fol- low the intensity in the nerves of motion — which reaction is aided by the induction of currents from the operator, and from other surrounding bodies — and let 214 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. us remember that action and reaction are equal. Hence, again, we have vicarious function — that is, we have the nerves or avenues of one kind of sensa- tion transposed so as to become the avenues of other kinds of sensation ; we have the nerves of touch changed to nerves of sight, or to nerves of smell ; we have instances of subjects who could smell with the fingers and see with the toes. If any one finds it difficult to conceive the possibility of this, let me remind him that the different sensations are but differ- ent motions of the same Etherium ; and that nothing is necessary to produce this apparent miracle but to change the motion which is passing through one nerve so as to make it like the motion which is pass- ing through another nerve ; — the motion through the nerves of touch like that through the nerves of sight. Hence, too, we have utter insensibility and paralysis produced by the currents of the operator counteract- ing, neutralizing, reversing, and conforming the cur- rents to and from the brain of the subject. Mr. Lang says, — " The position which Dr. Elliotson holds as a man of science, places him far above being benefited by any mere casual notice of his labors ; and it is indeed gratifying to reflect, that although the illiberal and bigoted of his own profession have attempted to im- pair his means of usefulness, there are many others who, while they have been benefited by him, have had the gratitude to acknowledge his services. " Dr. Elliotson, and others, who believe in both ETHEKOPATHY. 215 mesmerism and phrenology, maintain that the mani- festations are so many proofs of the truth of phrenol- iogy; while Mr. Colquhoun, who rejects phrenology, accounts for them by the supposition that they are produced by the will of the operator ; that the latter, in putting his hand upon a particular organ, naturally looks for a certain result, and that it is produced accordingly, through the community of feeling exist- ing between him and the patient. In his letter -appended to Dr. Engledue's address already referred to, Dr. Elliotson says, in reference to the question here started, — " ' If it should be urged, that these experiments prove nothing for Phrenology, because the excitement of certain ideas in the brain of the patient resulted from the mere will of the operator, and not from his manipulations over particular cerebral organs, the answer is easy. The will of the operator certainly must be influential in producing mesmeric sleep, if it is 'true that patients may be mesmerized to sleep when the mesmerizer is far away from them ; and I presume it is. But this can be only one source of power. I have made experiments in mesmerism daily, except the two months when I travel in every year, for five years, carefully, with no other desire than that of truth, and in the utmost variety of cases, and have never once discovered the influence of my will. 1 have never produced any effect by merely willing. I have never seen reason to believe (and I have made innumerable comparative experiments upon the point) 216 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. that I have heightened the effect of my processes by- exerting the strongest will, or lessened them by think- ing intentionally of other things, and endeavoring to bestow no more attention upon what I was abou than was just necessary to carry on the process.' I do not understand that Dr. Elliotson means to deny that the will of the operator does sometimes produce movements in the subject, but only that he has not himself observed it ; yet the subject's minute imitation of his fingers can only be referred to his own will moving his own fingers, and thus by sympathy indi- rectly moving the fingers of the subject'. I confess that I have myself found the effects which I hav produced were not in proportion to my consciou, efforts. I have found that by my will I could produc certain effects ; but I have not found those effects increased by increasing the energy of my efforts, though I have found them increase by the continuity of the efforts, and by repetitions of them at different times. But it is easy to convince any one. that his will does produce certain effects which are independ- ent of the imagination of the subject. I have satisfied hundreds in the following manner, which I will take the liberty to recommend to the attention of Dr. Elliotson : Take almost any person who is unac- quainted with the subject, or with the object of the experiment — ask him to sit down, and close his eyes, and keep them closed — take hold of his hands, as if you are going to induct him in the usual manner, and, after you have held them about five or ten ' ETHEROPATHY. 217 minutes, let go carefully of one hand ; and will the thumb to move ; and in five cases out of six it will do so, even though the subject is not in the least asleep, and though he is so slightly affected that he stoutly denies that he is affected at all. I have gen- erally found, indeed, in this experiment, that, if there are not witnesses present, the subject is apt to attribute the whole to accident or fancy, because he feels nothing and experiences no novel sensations. I succeeded perfectly in performing this experiment, a few days ago, upon the Hon. Judge Baker, of the Washington Common Pleas. This case is peculiar. I could slightly move any finger by my will, when his eyes were closed, and he was unconscious of the operation. I performed the same afterwards, when he was aware of it ; and what is still more curious, I could cause the muscles on the back of his hand to move and quiver by my mere will or volition, though he could not produce the same movement with his voli- tion. Judge Howe and Mr. Attorney Baily were present, and witnessed the operation. In Cooperstown, Mr. Bates, when quite awake, in the presence of several citizens — if he closed his eyes, and I stood behind him and told him that I was going to will one of his feet or hands to move, with- out telling him which it was to be, and requested him to remain merely passive — the experiment succeeded to the satisfaction of all present. When I merely wanted to satisfy myself, I willed, and he moved accordingly ; but when I wished to satisfy others, I 19 218 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. stood behind Bates and made a sign to let them know which limb I intended to move. The doctor says, — " So far from willing, I have at first had no idea of what would be the effect of my processes, — one set of phenomena have come unexpectedly in one case, and one in another, without my being able to explain the diversity of effect : nay, the same process, con- ducted ivith the same object, turns out to produce opposite results in different cases. For instance, I can powerfully excite the individual cerebral organs in the young gentleman by breathing over them ; but when I breathe over those of the young lady, desiring and expecting the same effects, no excitement is produced : on the contrary, if they are already excited, they at once become inactive. The same effect requires dif- ferent processes in different persons ; point to the epigastrium of some persons, and. will with all your might, and no result comes ; but point to their eyes, and they drop asleep ; make passes, or point at the back of the head, and will with all your might, and either no effect will ensue, or sleep will not take place before far longer time has elapsed than if you operate before the face : you may make passes in vain with all your might before the face of some persons, who drop senseless presently if you merely point; and hence is apparent the error of those who gratuitously assert, that the processes merely heighten the will of the operator. As to the influence of the operator's will in exciting the cerebral organs, the effect ensues as well in my female patient, though the manipulator ETHEROPATHY. 219 be a sceptic, and may therefore be presumed not to wish the proper result to ensue, and though I stand aside, and do not know what organ he has in view : I have never excited them by the mere will : I have excited them with my fingers just as well when think- ing of other matters with my friends, and momen- tarily forgetting what I was about : I have always failed, however much I willed, when I have directed the finger to another organ than that which I willed to excite intentionally, or have accidentally misdirect- ed my finger." The true explanation of these cases, and of many similar puzzling phenomena is, in my opinion, to be found in the caprice and Credencive imagination of the subjects. I have found that where a subject gets any unfounded notion into his head, either from the suggestion of any one else, from his own reasoning, or from the practice of the operator, this notion will have tb.e effect to prevent the success of every experi- ment which does not accord with it. This is the reason why different processes succeed with different subjects. There is a love of forms and ceremonies in superstitious minds, (and the best subjects are often- times predisposed to superstition,) a disposition to con- nect effects with certain peculiar mysterious processes ; so that I think it important, in performing experiments, not to neglect any ceremony or movement which is calculated to produce an effect upon the Credencive- ness and Submissiveness of the subject. This is especially important when the object is to improve 220 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. the health of the subject, and I commend it to the serious consideration of physicians as a valuable auxil- iary to their forces medicatrix. Again, the doctor says, — " I was taken quite by surprise when I found that I mesmerized an organ — self-esteem, for instance — in the half only to which my finger happened to be pointed." After subjects have learned that touching or point- ing at a certain part is to be followed by certain move- ments, — that is, as soon as they have learned to know the sign, and to interpret it, — they will always after- wards act in accordance with their "first lessons." A subject, therefore, who, by sympathy and by Clairvoy- ance, has learned what the sign is, and what it means, does not afterwards need to know any thing, but that the sign is made; and I have already shown that subjects such as this which Dr. Elliotson has, can tell when a finger is held or pointed near them. ^Vhat I mean is, that they use Clairvoyance to learn the inten- tion of the operator the first time the experiment succeeds, (provided that they previously did not know any thing of phrenology,) and afterwards they know by an exaltation of the senses, when and where the finger is pointing at them, after the manner of my subject at Manchester, N. H., and Bates at Coopers- town. How would Dr. Elliotson himself explain it ? Would he say that his fingers and the fingers of any person evolve a stimulus which excites Phreno-organs against the will of the operator ? He has left us no other alternative, and we know that this is not true, ETHEROPATHY. 221 since we can put our fingers upon the heads of any of these subjects to cure their headache, and under other pretences, without exciting their organs at all until we excite their suspicions. Mr. James Braid, of Manchester, England, pub- lished a work during the year 1844, entitled "Neuryp- nology, or Hypnotism, or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep considered in Relation to Animal Magnetism." There is nothing novel in the principles advanced by this gentleman, nor in the facts which he brings for- ward in support of them ; but he has a singular way of viewing the subject, and has attracted attention by professing to have made a discovery by which he can put a majority of persons to sleep in a few minutes, by causing them to look upwardly and inwardly in such a way as to tire the eye and the mind. His discovery, however, amounts to nothing, that I can perceive, more than we knew before. He labors throughout his work with the zeal of a young con- vert, but he also betrays the inexperience of a ne- ophyte. Yet there is an evident candor and honesty in his style which wins our good opinion ; and besides, he has interwoven much interesting matter into his treatise. He rejects the idea of a fluid or Etherium of any kind being the agent by which the phenomena are produced ; but at the same time candidly admits that he is puzzled to account for them. He has never had an opportunity to witness any cases of Clairvoy- ance which were of so extreme and decided a charac- ter as to satisfy him that it is more than an abnormal 19* 222 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. exaltation of the senses ; it. is therefore plain that his observations have been quite limited. Some of his experiments seem to puzzle him exceedingly, which are easily explained by the principle of Oedencive induction ; a principle, in truth, which explains many of the most mysterious of the cases which Etherop- athy presents. On page 4, he says, — " There were certain phenomena, which I could readily induce by particular manipulations, whilst I candidly confessed myself unable to explain the mo- dus operandi by which they were induced. I referred particularly to the extraordinary rapidity with which dormant functions, and a state of cataleptiform rigidity, may be changed to the extreme opposite condition, by a simple waft of wind, either from the lips, a pair of bellows, or by any other mechanical means. I solicited information on these points, both privately and publicly, from all the eminently scientific gentle- men who honored me with their company during the meetings of the British Association in this town ; but no one ventured to express a decided opinion as to the causes of these remarkable phenomena. I now beg to assure every reader of this treatise, that I shall esteem it a great favor to be enlightened on points which I confess are, at present, still above my com- prehension." This experiment is well calculated at first view to excite surprise ; but when it is known that not only a " simple waft of wind," but a simple ceremony of any other kind, such as whistling, or snapping of the ETHEROPATHY. 223 fingers, or any thing else, will produce the same ef- fect, we shall begin to look to that power of the mind which believes in and submits to ceremonies and processes, in full confidence that they are potent in themselves. In this particular case, I take it that Credenciveness was the agent which produced the rigidity, and which so readily changed it to a natural condition. Mr. Braid himself says, in his preface, that the fact that some patients operated upon them- selves, " and produced results precisely the same as when done by any one else, seems the most decisive proof possible, that the whole results from the mind and body of the patient's acting and reacting on each other, and that it has no dependence on any special influence emanating from another." Now, this is the same conclusion to which many others have arrived, from an imperfect view of the subject ; but none of these have attempted to explain the mo- dus operandi, in which it is possible that the mind or the imagination produces the effects. I believe that I am the first to attempt to give an explanation, and on this ground I claim some indulgence. I think that I have shown that those gentlemen are mistaken who attribute all the effects produced to the imagina- tion of the subject ; and on the other hand I have ex- plained how it is that the mind of the subject is ca- pable of producing those phenomena which have hitherto seemed so very mysterious. Mr. B. says, — " I have also had the state of the patient tested before, during and after being hypnotized, [mesmer- 224 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. ized,] to ascertain if there was any alteration in the magnetic or electric condition ; but although tested by excellent instruments, and with great care, no appre- ciable difference could be detected. Patients have been hypnotized whilst positively, and also whilst negatively, electrified, without any appreciable dif- ference in the phenomena; so that they appear to be exqited independently of electric or magnetic change. I have also repeatedly made two patients hypnotize each other, at the same time, by personal contact. How could this be reconciled with the theory of a special influence transmitted being the cause of the phenomena, plus and minus being equally efficient ? " Many seem to stumble over this difficulty. They think that because, in applying common electricity, or magnetism, they can perceive no effect from it, either one way or the other, therefore there can be no " special influence transmitted." * But this reasoning is not in harmony with the well-known facts in phi- losophy. Light and heat are, by modern philoso- phers, considered as the motions of the same sub- * I have made many experiments which lead me to expect that electricity will yet be used, in connection with some kinds of medi- cine, to excite or increase susceptibility to induction ; but none of the attempts which have been made to excite susceptibility by gal- vanic means have hitherto been successful. I have often used an instrument so contrived as to send a large quantity of electricity through the patient, without his knowledge, with the hope thus to overcome the insulation ; but the result has not fully answered my expectations, and it is difficult to determine whether the effects would not have been the same if no instrument or apparatus had been used. ETHEROPATHY. 225 stance ; both are referred to a " special influence transmitted ; " yet a room warms when light or dark, and it is lighted when cold or warm, " without any- appreciable difference " in the phenomena. So, also, magnetic electricity operates through glass, without any apparent diminution of power ; but electricity which is evolved by the friction of a common electic machine, will not produce any effect whatever through glass, nor shellac, nor resin ; yet there is no doubt, in the minds of our most eminent chemists, that the electric machine and the magnet both depend upon modifications of the same " special influence transmitted." A common bar magnet will attract iron and produce all its phenomena, " whilst positively, and also whilst negatively, electrified, without any appreciable differ- ence;" but it by no means follows that they are independent of any electric or magnetic change. As for the fact which seems to puzzle Mr. Braid, that "two patients" induct, or "hypnotize each other at the same time, by personal contact," it is explained by Credencive induction. The truth is, per- sonal contact is not necessary in such cases ; nothing is necessary but signs, ceremonies, and assertions, by which to excite the conforming socials, especially Credenciveness. Page 65, Mr. Braid says, — " There is another most remarkable circumstance, that whilst the patient is in the state of torpor and rigidity, we may pass powerful shocks of the galvanic 226 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. battery through the arms, so as to cause violent con- tortions of them, without his evincing the slightest symptom of perceiving the shocks, either by move- ment of the head or neck, or expression of the coun- tenance. On partially arousing the head and neck, as by gentle pressure on the eyes, or passing a current of air against the face, the same shocks will be felt, as evinced by the movements of the head and neck, the contortions of the face, and the whine, moan, or scream of the patient. All this may happen, as I have witnessed innumerable times, and the patient be alto- gether unconscious of it when roused from the hyp- notic condition." All this is no more remarkable than that pinching, cutting, or burning will not be felt by a subject in the same condition. As for his " current of air " to rouse the subject, any other ceremony will do as well. To prove that currents of air are without effect, unless through the Credenciveness of the subject, I have only to say that I have put them into this condition when the wind was blowing freely upon them, and it made no difference. I have many subjects who, when perfectly awake, if I tell them that an electric shock will have no effect upon them unless they whistle or sing, such will be the case ; and, on the other hand, if I tell them that a grindstone or a coffee-mill is an electric machine, and will give them severe shocks when they touch it, they will be shocked accordingly, and seem to experience the same sensations as if it was really an electric machine. Will Mr. Braid try this? SECTION XV. COMMUNION WITH SPIRITS. The belief of many excellent persons, in the com- munion of subjects with the spirits of the departed dead, is undoubtedly a delusion into which they have been led by their own credulity, and the peculiar condition and superstition of the subjects. When a subject is under Etheropathic influence to a certain extent, he can .be easily made to believe that he sees or hears the supernatural inhabitants of heaven or hell. He can be inspired, and generally is, with the notions of the operator, especially if he is Clairvoyant enough to perceive the state of the operator's mind. Under these circumstances, if the subject is questioned, he will sometimes surprise, delight, or horrify the operator, by merely echoing back to him his own superstitions. I am acquainted with a most respect- able gentlemen, who was a Universalist, but became converted to a belief in the existence of perdition by a subject who described to him the exact appearance of his mother, and several other dear relatives who were dead, and who had never in life been seen by the subject. It did not occur to the credulous gentle- man that his own mind was like a mirror to the mind of the subject, and that his own thoughts reflected the images of his departed friends. But he really sup- 228 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. posed that by Clairvoyance the subject actually looked into the eternal world, and from its countless myriads selected his relatives, and described them with per- fect accuracy. He therefore proceeded to question the subject as to what his mother said, and whether she had any communication to make to him. He was informed by the subject, in reply, that his mother was in heaven, and was desirous to warn her son of his errors, and to assure him of his imminent danger of falling into eternal perdition. Overwhelmed with awe, and terrified with these solemn revelations, he sunk on his knees, and in an agony of conviction sur- rendered his former faith, and from that day to this has acted consistently with the resolves of reformation which he then made. There is at this moment a large number of very re- spectable persons in this state, who sincerely believe in the reality of communion with spirits by means of Etheropathy. To ridicule it will only make their belief stronger, by exciting the principle of stubborn opposition ; but I think they will become convinced of their error when they find that subjects can be made to believe or to see any thing which whim or caprice may suggest, provided they have not been previously committed for or against it. Many per- sons have become convinced of the existence of super- natural spirits, from the evidence afforded by mesmer- ism, who were previously sceptical ; and on the other hand, many have become convinced of the reality of mesmerism, from the supposition that it proved the COMMUNION WITH SPIRITS. 229 existence of spirits, and was therefore favorable to religious belief. The truth, however, is, that mes- merism or Etheropathy sheds no light whatever on this subject. It leaves it where it finds it. Emanuel Swedenborg was Certainly one of the greatest men that ever lived, and possessed the extra- ordinary power of exercising Clairvoyance when- ever he pleased. He was literally a "Seer." I suspect that he obtained some of his wonderful scien- tific knowledge of nature by the exercise of this power; but his supposed communion with spirits and many of his other peculiar ideas probably originated in his own Credencive fancy. It was perfectly natu- ral for one who had been educated in the popular belief concerning supernatural beings, to imagine, when he found himself possessed of Clairvoyant per- ception, that he was indebted to these beings for his peculiar advantages over his fellow-men. A good and virtuous man, such as the Baron Swedenborg was, would imagine that his inspirations proceeded from good and happy spirits, who condescended to sympa- thize with him. But if he was conscious of his own moral depravity, he would be likely to clothe the spirits — whom his creative fancy called "from the vasty deep " of superstition — with characters like his own. He would conceive them to be selfish, malig- nant, and revengeful, like himself. I have little doubt that the ancient witches, spoken of in the Bible, were persons who ignorantly made use of induction and Clairvoyance for wicked and 20 230 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. malicious purposes ; and this is the reason of the com- mand, " Thou shall not suffer a witch to live." It is also evident that the witches themselves attributed their success to their alliance with infernal beings. Some of the Salem "witches confessed that they had been aided by the devil, and admitted the justice of the sentence of death which followed the confession. The bewitched were unquestionably insane in mind, and peculiarly diseased in body, while the innocent witches who inducted them accidentally and unconsci- ously were regarded as allies of the prince of darkness. Some modern fortune-tellers have been supposed to be in league with Satan, on account not only of their successful impostures, but from their actual perform- ances and revelations. Some have the power, when looking into a particular stone or piece of semi- transparent glass, to perceive in a Clairvoyant manner, which is well calculated to excite astonishment in a superstitious and ignorant mind ; some, again have a faculty of talking to sores, felons, and burns, in such a way as to " take the soreness out ;" they actually perform this apparent miracle whenever the patient is in any degree susceptible to Etheropathic induction, but not otherwise. It is my opinion that there are peculiar kinds of susceptibility which have not yet been noticed by scientific men, and which will explain many strange things that now are deemed as mere idle dreams or striking coincidences. I suspect that some persons are Clairvoyant when asleep and dream- ing, who are not so when awake ; and that, therefore, COMMUNION WITH SPIRITS. 231 in their dreams they perceive things which seem like communications from spirits of another world, warn- ing them of the death, or sickness, or treachery of friends, or of any thing else which concerns them : this would account for the truthfulness of some remarkable dreams. I also suspect that some persons are Clairvoyant in a peculiar and singular manner, and at certain times, while at other times and in other modes they are not so. I know a lady who is not considered susceptible, and yet she has repeatedly foretold the coming of friends at a certain hour, and declared in the most positive manner that she felt certain (she knew not why) that they would arrive at a certain time, although letters had just been received stating that they would not come under several weeks ; yet she was right, and they actually arrived at the time she predicted. Once she arose in the morning, and told a friend, to his astonishment, what he had been thinking about. It was a subject upon which he had never uttered a word, and it was impossible for any one to conjecture that such a thing occupied his mind. This same lady frequently has an impression concerning the character or designs of her acquaintances which is perfectly correct, but which can only be accounted for by a kind of peculiar and imperfect Clair- voyance. The impressions which some persons have had that they were to die at a certain time, may also be sometimes derived from a species of Clairvoyant or 232 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. abnormal perception, producing what is called a pre- sentiment. This subject is full of interest, and well deserves the attention of scientific and inquiring minds ; but I cannot pursue it further at present. SECTION XYI. ABUSES OF ETHEROPATHY. The abuses of Etheropathy have been few as yet, but I feel bound to warn the unwary of the dangers to which they may be exposed. I have had many subjects, who, when to all appear- ance perfectly awake, would believe that a piece of blank paper was a bank note of any denomination which I asserted it to be. At Saratoga Spa, in the pres- ence of Judge Marvin and many other gentlemen. I made a young man of excellent character take worth- less waste paper for bank notes, and give me a written obligation for a large amount of money, which he supposed he had received. Suppose him to be the cashier of a bank — would not this be a dangerous power in the hands of a dishonest man ? Or suppose him to be worth a large amount of property in real estate — he might be made to transfer it by deed in the presence of witnesses, while he was under this influence, and the witnesses not suspect that he was in a state different from usual. The witnesses would go into court and swear that he seemed perfectly rational and master of himself, and yet he would be in such a condition that he could not perceive any thing to be different from what it was asserted to be by the operator. Black would look white, if the operator declared it to be so. Copper would look, and 20* 234 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. feel, and sound like gold, if the operator affirmed it. In a word, the subject, and all his property, and other legal rights, would be at the mercy of the operator. He could be made to sign any thing — a deed, or marriage contract — a confession of murder, or any thing else. Others can judge as well as I how far this power will in future be abused; but I perform my duty in giving a warning to susceptible subjects. Let them not lightly disregard it. They should know that when once thoroughly inducted by one person, they can easily be inducted by any person who is 'per- mitted to attempt it. They should know that they may be made to perform very improper actions with- out being aware of it, and without afterwards recol- lecting it. They should know that they may be made to commit actions which in the eye of the law are criminal, without really intending to do any wrong whatever. A woman may be made to believe that the operator is her father, or brother, or sister, or husband, and she will act accordingly ; and afterwards she will have no recollection excepting such as the operator pleases. It is my opinion, founded upon experiment, that one person in ten is susceptible of this peculiar influence. It may be said, that this is dangerous knowledge, and had better uot be communicated publicly. I confess that it would be safer if it could be confined to the medical profession ; but this is impossible. It will necessarily be known to a sufficient number to ABUSES OF ETHEROPATHY. 235 render the knowledge dangerous. Nothing can pre- vent unprincipled and dishonest persons from gradu- ally learning to avail themselves of this power to the injury of the unsuspecting. The only remedy is, to let the public know at once the real nature of the power which the operator wields, and then every one will be upon his guard. In some European countries laws have been enacted forbidding any person to practise Etheropathy, ex- cepting regular medical professors or physicians ; and I would respectfully recommend some such enact- ment in this country, to protect the innocent from the consequences of their own ignorance and the arts of accomplished knaves. I would also suggest the propriety of a law render- ing any contract voidable which is made by an operator with a subject, except when sanctioned by a physician in the presence of a magistrate. Immoral Induction. There is another abuse of Etheropathy to which I deem it my duty to allude. I refer to the influence of immoral associates upon susceptible persons. I have in several instances seen persons whose organi- zation indicated honesty, sobriety, and virtue, but who were, notwithstanding, reputed to be the very reverse. These persons were highly susceptible to Etheropathic influence, and, having fallen into vicious society, were unfortunately inducted and vitiated so as to conform to the will of their vicious companions. 236 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. It is true that neither the subject nor the companions intended to produce this result, nor even suspected the nature of the agent which was active between them ; perhaps neither of them ever heard of mes- merism, nor Etheropathy, nor animal magnetism, yet they unconsciously employed it, and the subject was innocently inducted and seduced by its agency. I would therefore advise those who are aware of their susceptibility, or that of their friends, especially the young, to avoid the society of those whose examples or conversation are of an immoral character. Vice and virtue are capable of being imbibed with wonder- ful facility by persons susceptible of etherean induc- tion, and this fact, being known, may be of infinite service to some who would otherwise be ruined. Some observations which I have made incline me to the opinion that many persons are susceptible to abnormal induction of a peculiar kind, which has not hitherto been suspected to exist — an induction which is gradual and insidious, and the process of which is complicated. I would denominate it gradual social induction. Many persons acquire the habits of their associates with a degree of facility which cannot be accounted for by their phreno-organic developments, the organs of Imitativeness and Approbativeness, etc., being below medium ; yet on trial they are not readily in- ducted in the ordinary manner, and are therefore not supposed to be susceptible persons. The fact is, that they are susceptible to gradual and continued ABUSES OF ETHEROPATHY. 237 induction, but not to sudden induction. They be- come inducted by long continuance in the society of persons of superior energy, and if they are young, a bias is thus given to their characters, which becomes incorporated into their constitutions, never to be effaced. A thousand reflections naturally arise in the mind of any one who feels an interest in the cause of education and of good morals, from the above consid- erations. We are more than ever impressed with the importance of selecting proper teachers and compan- ions for the young, and of securing them from im- proper influences. Local Induction. I suspect that there is in some localities a greater tendency to susceptibility than in others, and I have endeavored, though without much success, to ascer- tain the local causes of susceptibility. I have found blacksmiths, iron-workers, and printers, more suscep- tible, as a class, than soldiers, and farmers. Is it because those who work among metals become, in some degree, inducted by them ? I found that of thirty U. S. officers at West Point, not one was susceptible. Is it on account of their habits of self- control, and of controlling others ? their manly exer- cises ? their sceptical, mathematical, unimaginative education ? or is it all these causes combined ? I have often found persons susceptible in a high degree, who had injured their constitutions by habits of intemperance. Why is this so ? On this point, as 238 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. well as many others in Etherology, we need statisti- cal information, derived from long continued and extended observations carefully made and recorded by a society of Ethereans. Was not the Salem witchcraft caused in some measure by the food, or the state of the atmosphere ? Was it not an endemic disease ? May not local causes, or diet, or occupation, or medicine, have an important agency in producing susceptibility by weakening the insulation ? May not certain kinds of medicine be discovered, which may produce sus- ceptibility ? May not some diseases (especially those of the mind) have their origin in Etheropathic sus- ceptibility and induction produced spontaneously, and may they not be cured by the same means ? These things deserve investigation. SECTION XVII. INSTRUCTION AND RULES FOR EXPERIMENTS. 1. Many persons suppose they have explained the whole matter, and accounted for the mesmeric suscep- tibility by saying that it is owing to the imagination of the subject ; but, if this were so, the most imagina- tive persons ought to be found most susceptible, whereas the very reverse is generally the case. Others attribute the susceptibility to the excessive credulity of the subject ; but the same objection holds good against this notion, namely, that if it were true, the most credulous persons ought to be found most sus- ceptible ; but every operator knows that this is not the case. I can show thousands of susceptible per- sons, whom no one deems either credulous or imagina- tive, and again, an equal number can be produced of the most weak-bodied, weak-minded, credulous, shal- low people on earth, who are not susceptible in any perceptible degree. Another class suppose that susceptibility depends upon the fact that they are very nervous ; but they also are mistaken, for it is found that nervous and excitable persons are not as often susceptible as those who are calm and quiet. Some operators pretend that they can easily tell whether any one is susceptible or not by his appear- ance, his temperament, the form of his head, his com- 240 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. plexion, or some external signs ; but all this is mere pretence : the fact is, no one can possibly tell, by any known signs, who is susceptible and who is not ; for susceptibility evidently depends upon some peculiarity in the constitution which is concealed from obser- vation. The nerves themselves cannot be seen with- out dissection ; and even if they could be, it is not likely that any thing in their appearance would in- dicate their insulation or non-insulation. All our reasoning on the subject is founded upon the analogy of the nervous system to a galvanic or an electric apparatus ; and even this analogy must not lead us to infer that the nervous influence and the galvanic influ- ence is identical ; for there is no proof, as yet, that there is any thing more than a striking analogy be- tween the two influences. If any person asks you whether you think him sus- ceptible, your only proper answer is, that you can only ascertain by tidying the experiment. When you proceed to ascertain by experiment the degree of any one's susceptibility to your abnormal influences, you must bear in mind the important fact, that the operation which you are about to per- form is one in which two minds are concerned, and your success and usefulness will depend in a great degree upon your knowledge of the true philosophy of mind. 2. You must consider that the force which is to pro- duce the result is guided by your own mind. Your own phrenic force is generated by your blood acting RULES FOR EXPERIMENTS. 241 upon your brain, and you will be more powerful if your digestion and respiration are vigorous and health- ful. You should summon your own energies, and arrange your thoughts and feelings, so as to be ready to seize upon every favorable circumstance. Do not attempt to deceive your subject, nor pretend that you possess a mysterious power — nor go through any cere- monies to impose upon his credulity, such as insisting upon his holding coins in his hand, or looking at any particular object, for if he is a shrewd man, he will sus- pect your object, and rouse his mind to resistance, and thus defeat you. If you really think that any par- ticular ceremony is useful or important, try it ; but let your manner, your words, and even your very thoughts, be pure, sincere, earnest, and benevolent ; do not flatter yourself that deception or hypocrisy will aid you : it may in some instances, but it will oftener embarrass you, and prevent your success. "Corruption wins not more than honesty." Let me assure you that most persons will submit, and con- form themselves, and give you a fair chance to induct them, provided that they perceive that you are worthy of their confidence, that you have knowledge, sin- cerity, purity, and energy. If they are susceptible and conformable, and you are honest and powerful, and they feel sure of it, you will certainly succeed — every word which you utter will have an irresistible influence. Your language will seem like magic elo- quence. Your tones, your gestures, your slightest wishes, expressed or implied, will be sufficient to excite >r paralyze any power of body or mind. 21 242 PHILOSOPHY OP MESMERISM. 3. You should never lose sight of the fact that there are two modes of influencing a subject. One is the ordinary or normal mode, by speaking to him, and thus affecting his Credenciveness ; and the other by your silent will, aided by contact of your hands with the part of the subject's body or head which you desire to affect. Some operators make a great number of passes, which do more harm than good. The only useful rules for making passes are included in the single rule, that all passes should be made in a direction from the top of the head towards the extremities ; and when any part is diseased, the hand of the operator should be laid upon it and passed over it until an equilibrium of temperature is produced ; he should silently will, and in addition to this, he should express in words to the subject his will that the disease abate, etc. I have often observed with regret that some opera- tors, when I have taught them the power of " magic eloquence " or " credencive induction," are apt to fancy that " willing,'" and making passes and contact of the hands, are all useless ; but this is a very great mistake, as experience would soon show them. They will find that silent will is a distinct and real power; that it is greatly aided by contact of hands, and by passes over the part which is to be affected ; and that eloquence —words, language, and gesture — are modes of reaching the mind of the subject and producing magical effects ; but they are not the only modes, and in order to succeed in a great number of cases, you RULES FOR EXPERIMENTS. 243 must avail yourself of all the modes of affecting the mind of the subject; that is, by will, passes, contact, and eloquence also. No one will suspect me of undervaluing the power of eloquence, since I was the first to discover that many of the phenomena of mesmerism are performed by means of language, and that great orators and advocates delude their subjects by the same means that mesmerizers do ; but I protest against including all mesmeric phenomena under the name of creden- cive induction. * 4. Be serious, firm, and kind, and assume a man- ner which prevents trifling, either on the part of the subject, or the persons who may be present. 5. If the subject has any reluctance to submit to the operation, excuse him at once ; do not persuade him, as if it is to do you a favor. Say but little to him, except what is useful to the success of the opera- tion. 6. If the subject has a guardian, you had better not operate unless the guardian or loco parentis requests it ; and during the operation, if any friends are alarmed, or begin to dictate, it is better to restore the subject and decline to operate upon him more ; but while you do operate, allow of no superior. A commanding imperativeness and firmness is as important in the operator, as conformity is in the subject. The opera- * The preceding part of this section has been rewritten by the author. — Ed. 244 PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. tor should for the time be perfectly " master of his subject " and of every one else who is present, so far as to require order, and a conformity to regulations ; but the operator should in no case lose his temper or manifest any irritability ; his motto should be, "Mildly but firmly." 7. Let the subject sit down in a common chair, without resting his head. Let him incline his head slightly forward, close his eyes, and keep them gently closed. Let him not speak, nor move, unless it is necessary to his comfort. Let him not cross his legs, as it will interrupt the circulation. 8. Sit down before him, and take hold of his hands in any way you please, provided it conveys to the subject the impression that you are making an effort to affect him, and that your taking hold is a useful part of the operation. 9. You may sit thus before some persons an hour, without perceiving any effect whatever, and after- wards succeed ; but, as a general rule, more than fifteen minutes is a waste of time. The first symp- toms which subjects exhibit, are various, and often depend upon their fancy, their previous knowledge or reading, or what they have heard is the first effect. But there are some symptoms which are evidently involuntary — one is a slight tremor, which some- times, though rarely, is increased to convulsive twitchings. If the convulsions become alarming, the operator should never lose his coolness and self- command under any circumstances, but rouse the RULES FOR EXPERIMENTS. 245 subject and restore him. I have never had but two such cases, and both were caused by previous nervous disease. Another common and favorable symptom is the breaking out of perspiration, which is of course involuntary. Another symptom is, that when the operator places his hands upon the top of the head and passes them down to the shoulders, the subject breathes louder every time you do so. In some cases none of these symptoms are exhibited, and yet the subject is perfectly inducted in five minutes. 10. When you wish to ascertain whether you have succeeded in inducting the subject, press your fore- finger on the forehead where it joins the nose, or press one finger on one eyebrow and another finger on the other brow, and, in a low voice, say to the subject, " You cannot open your eyes;" and if he is sufficiently affected, he cannot open them : he is not asleep, and, perhaps, he had no idea till this moment that he was in any degree affected. Now tell him to open his eyes and to put his hands together ; lay your finger across them, and say, " You cannot get your hands apart," and he cannot ; or, perhaps, he can with a great effort. Now tell him to extend his arm, and when he has done so, tell him that he cannot put it down, and he cannot. If he is well inducted, you may tell him that he cannot step, or speak, or see, or hear, or taste, and he cannot do it. Tell him that water is rum, or ink, or hot, or cold. Tell him that black is white, that he cannot lift a feather, or a penny, and it will seem so to him. Tell him that a cent is gold, 21* '