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 I 
 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM; 
 
 OR 
 
 PSYCODUIAM Y 
 
 THEODORE^EGER. 
 
 DOCTOR OF THE MEDICAL FACULTY OF PARIS ; LATE PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY 
 
 AT THE PRACTICAL SCHOOL | FELLOW OF THE SOCIETY OF SCIENCES 
 
 AND ARTS OF THE DEP. DE LA MARNE J LATE PROFESSOR 
 
 OF THE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF MEXICO. ETC. 
 
 " Truth— absolute Truth, shall never die. It is eternal, like the infinitely wise and gracious God. 
 Men may disregard it for a time, until the period arrives when its rays, according- to the determi- 
 nation of Heaven, shall irresistibly break through the mists of prejudice, and like Aurora, and the 
 opening day, shed a beneficent light, clear and inextinguishable, over the generations of meu." 
 
 Rev. Mr. Barrett's Lectures, I. p. 4. 
 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 D. APPLETON & CO., 200 BROADWAY 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 G. S. APPLETON, 148 CHESNUT STREET. 
 
 CINCINNATI :-— DERBY, BRADLEY, & COMPANY, 113 MAIN-STREET. 
 M DCCC XLVI. 
 
 I 
 

 Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1846, 
 
 By THEODORE LEGER, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 
 
 District of New York. 
 
 I 
 
t/7f 
 
 9^ 
 
 TO THE MEMORY OF THE 
 
 MOST INDEFATIGABLE DEFENDER OF PSYCODUNAMY 
 
 OF THE MAN, WHO 
 
 TO THE HIGHEST DEGREE OF SCIENTIFIC ACQUIREMENT, 
 
 UNITED MODESTY AND UNBOUNDED KINDNESS 
 
 OF 
 
 JOSEPH PHILIPPE FRANCOIS DELEUZE, 
 
 THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 
 
 BY HIS ADMIRING AND EVER-GRATEFUL PUPIL, 
 
 T. LEGER. 
 
 M. D. PARISIENSIS. 
 
 I 
 

 I 
 
HISTORY 
 
 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 jTtrst Section. 
 
 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS AND ACADEMICAL 
 HISTORY. 
 
 " Those who at once deny the possibility of the facts of Magnetism, and refuse 
 it an investigation, seem to us to reason most illogically : they admit precisely 
 that which is questioned ; for to dare to say, 'This is possible, and that is not,' 
 implies necessarily the pretension of having been initiated into all the mysteries 
 of creation. 
 
 " Therefore, in all cases, before we pronounce, we must examine. And even 
 that is insufficient : we must, in our examination, preserve our mind free from 
 prejudice." — Report made to the Royal Jlcademy of Medicine, Paris, on the 25tA of 
 March, 1838, by Drs. Gueneau and Bousquet. 
 
 
 ( 
 
 

 
 
 I 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The subject of "Psycodunamy" or " Animal Magnetism," 
 embraces two distinct parts : 1st. The history of the science. 
 2d. The rationale of its practice. 
 
 The historical part, which constitutes the matter of the pres- 
 ent volume, is, in reference to " Psycodunamy" much more 
 important than History in general in regard to any other sci- 
 ence ; for in it is involved the question of its very exist- 
 ence ; and accordingly, it is in this instance the first point to 
 be treated. 
 
 In any historical narrative, the chief requisite is a correct 
 statement of facts, in which the pro and con should be fairly 
 presented, in order to enable the public to form a just estimate 
 of the true merits of the question. I hope that in this particu- 
 lar my readers will acknowledge that I have faithfully dis- 
 charged the duties of a candid historian ; and if I have advo- 
 cated one side of the question, it is because sound criticism, far 
 from being opposed to, is, on the contrary, the best ally of Im- 
 partiality and Justice. 
 
 The rationale of the Psycodunamic practice is the matter of 
 a second volume, the publication of which will shortly follow the 
 present. 
 
 The discrimination of those different parts will explain how 
 " Psycodunamy" is at once very old and very novel. If, un- 
 der that name, we comprehend the whole of the phenomena 
 which belong to it, the thing is necessarily as old as the world ; 
 for they consist in the manifestation of some peculiar human 
 faculties, which are of course as ancient as mankind. But, if 
 by the same expression we mean a satisfactory, rational, and 
 scientific system, embracing all the phenomena, and accounting 
 for them in the way that Chemistry embraces and accounts for 
 the different metamorphoses of matter, then indeed the thing is 
 
 i 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I 
 
 new, and even so new that perhaps it cannot yet be said that it 
 does actually exist. 
 
 This remark, however, is applicable not to " Psycodunamy" 
 alone, but to the whole " science of life" including Physiology, 
 Psychology, Hygiene, and Medicine. Who has not been struck 
 at the slowness of the progress, if any, which each of those ele- 
 ments of a single science has made, while tj^e so-called " exact 
 sciences" have proved long since, and are cfeftl daily proving, so 
 fruitful in satisfactory results 1 It cannot be because the " sci- 
 ence of life" either is or even appears to be less interesting, less 
 important, and has consequently less deserved and less attracted 
 the attention of philosophers. History shows that the reverse 
 has been the case ; and it was natural that it should be so. For, 
 if the " exact sciences" greatly contribute to our comfort, the 
 " science of life" the object of which is to cause us to enjoy the 
 benefits conferred by the others more fully, and for a longer pe- 
 riod, could not have failed to command, at all times, the prece- 
 dence. What then can be the cause of this slowness of true 
 progress in the acquirement of the most important knowledge 1 
 This is undoubtedly well worthy of investigation. 
 
 If we reflect on the nature of the " exact sciences" we find 
 that they are all grounded on the study of the different proper- 
 ties of mere matter. Their basis consequently is more or less 
 easily handled for examination. The objects that they embrace, 
 always ready to enter into action under the influence of the phy- 
 sico-chemical laws, may be incessantly and indifferently compo- 
 sed or decomposed, divided or dissolved, be made to form new 
 compounds, be reduced to their elements, or restored to their 
 original complexity. 
 
 On the other hand, the principal distinguishing feature of the 
 objects which constitute the basis of the " science of life" is 
 the impossibility of applying to them, during their limited ex- 
 istence under the influence of an unknown agent, any of the 
 means of those unerring sources of correct information, Analy- 
 sis and Synthesis. 
 
 The philosophers who have studied the phenomena of life 
 have generally fallen into either the one or the other of two ex- 
 tremes. Some of them, because mathematical evidence is the 
 best, became convinced that it was absolutely necessary on all 
 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 points, and that without it there could be no true science. And 
 as it can be obtained in case of matter only, they considered 
 matter as every thing. 
 
 Others, on the contrary, perfectly aware that the powers or 
 principles of life are entirely hidden from us in our present state 
 of being, and are evidently immaterial, lost sight of their inti- 
 mate connection with matter, and disregarding the latter entire- 
 ly, adopted the frivolous speculations of obscure metaphysics ; — 
 in their endeavors to explain realities beyond their reach, they 
 grasped at shadows, and involved themselves in error, perplexi- 
 ty, and darkness. 
 
 Hence the scanty results to be called sound knowledge in the 
 " science of life" and the necessary sequence — slowness of pro- 
 gress. 
 
 But does impossibility of material Analysis and Synthesis, 
 and want of absolute mathematical evidence, constitute an insu- 
 perable barrier between our intelligence and truth 1 Are the 
 paths of philosophical inquiry absolutely limited to them ? Will 
 not a careful observation of the facts, an attentive investigation 
 of the phenomena, enable us to trace their relations to each 
 other, and to form an harmonious whole well worthy of the 
 name of true science 1 And even granting that in all cases 
 where life is concerned, Synthesis, that is to say, the recon- 
 struction of the same being, is an impossibility, after death, at 
 least, Analysis is practicable ; and thus it is that Anatomy, and 
 especially recent researches in organic Chemistry, have enriched 
 with precious discoveries our knowledge of those admirable 
 faculties which the Deity has conceded to living beings. 
 
 The errors of the Materialists on the one hand, and those of 
 the Metaphysicians on the other, must be carefully avoided in 
 the inquiry after truth in the " science of life." The abstract 
 division of soul and body, instead of affording help in this re- 
 search, is only calculated to lead to error ; for soul and 
 body are so intimately interwoven and identified, that all the 
 phenomena which characterize our present existence, cease 
 at once to be possible from the very moment that this di- 
 vision takes place. And as Psycodunamy bears precisely on 
 that connection between the Psychal principle and matter, it 
 proves to be not only an important branch of the " science of 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 life" but even the very key which will unravel many of its 
 heretofore unexplained mysteries. But, in its study, we must 
 never lose sight of the physico-chemical laws which govern 
 matter, since it is in them only that we can find the basis which 
 will elevate it from its present deplorable condition to that of 
 a true science ; and such is the object w T hich prompted me to 
 write. 
 
 Heretofore the relations which connect the Psycodunamic 
 phenomena have been obscurely and imperfectly set forth. It 
 is natural for the human mind, when it emerges from the dark- 
 ness of ignorance into the dazzling light of truth, not to perceive 
 at once the proper place and mutual relation of the objects be- 
 fore it. Time and future discovery are necessary to teach us 
 what facts are misunderstood, misplaced, or misapplied. I 
 have tried to remedy that evil, and the reader will judge how 
 far I have succeeded. But if it should happen that any thing 
 contained herein shall aid in fastening the attention of men of 
 science to the fundamental idea which my works are designed to 
 impart, the author will have received his reward, and the la- 
 bors of twenty-four years will not have been entirely thrown 
 away. 
 
 I 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 FIRST SECTION— ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Page. 
 
 Introduction 
 
 . 
 
 7 
 
 CHAPTER L- 
 
 -The Name 
 
 13 
 
 CHAPTER II.- 
 
 — Psycodunamy versus Prejudices . 
 
 17 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 — First Academical Report on Psycodu 
 
 
 
 namy in 
 
 1825 . 
 
 . 28 
 
 chapt: 
 
 — Academical Discussion of the Firs 
 
 t 
 
 
 Report 
 
 
 49 
 
 § 
 
 1. — Opinion of Dr. Desgenettes. — Con. 
 
 49 
 
 § 
 
 2.— " 
 
 
 ' Virey. — Pro. 
 
 50 
 
 $ 
 
 3.— " 
 
 
 1 Bally. — Con. 
 
 . 50 
 
 $ 
 
 4.— " 
 
 
 ' Orfila. — Pro. 
 
 . 52 
 
 § 
 
 5.— " 
 
 
 ' Double. — Con. 
 
 53 
 
 § 
 
 6.— " 
 
 
 1 Laennec. — Con. 
 
 55 
 
 § 
 
 7.— « 
 
 
 ' Chardel.— Pro. . 
 
 56 
 
 § 
 
 8.— " 
 
 
 ' Rochoux. — Con. 
 
 57 
 
 § 
 
 9.— " 
 
 
 ' Marc. — Pro. 
 
 58 
 
 i 
 
 10.— " 
 
 
 ' Nacquart. — Con. . 
 
 59 
 
 § 
 
 11.— " 
 
 
 ' Itard. — Pro. 
 
 60 
 
 § 
 
 12.— " 
 
 
 1 Recamier. — Con. . 
 
 61 
 
 § 
 
 13.— " 
 
 
 1 Georget. — Con. 
 
 63 
 
 * 
 
 14.— " 
 
 
 ' Magendie. — Con. . 
 
 65 
 
 § 
 
 15.— " 
 
 
 ' Guersent. — Pro. . 
 
 65 
 
 § 
 
 16.— " 
 
 
 ' Gasc. — Con. 
 
 66 
 
 § 
 
 17.— " 
 
 
 ' Lerminier. — Pro. . 
 
 67 
 
 CHAPTER V.- 
 
 -Answer of the Committee to the Objec- 
 
 
 
 tions made against their Report, and results oi 
 
 r 
 
 
 the Secret Vo 
 
 ting on the Question . 
 
 68 
 
12 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. — Report upon the Psycodunamic Ex- 
 periments by the Committee of the Royal Acade- 
 my of Paris— 1831 
 
 CHAPTER VII.— Dr. Berna's Experiments and Report 
 on them by M. Dubois d' Amiens — 1837 . 
 
 CHAPTER VIII.— Opinion of Dr. Husson on the Re- 
 port of M. Dubois d' Amiens .... 
 
 CHAPTER IX. — Academical Report on the Communi- 
 cation of Dr. Pigeaire (of Montpellier) on Psy- 
 codunamic Facts, and its Consequences . 
 
 Page. 
 
 98 
 170 
 179 
 
 200 
 
 SECOND SECTION— GENERAL HISTORY. 
 CHAPTER I. — History of Psycodunamy in the Ages of 
 
 Antiquity 
 
 
 211 
 
 $ 1. — Psycodunamy 
 
 among the Indians and Persians 
 
 212 
 
 * 2.- 
 
 " Egyptians 
 
 213 
 
 » 3.- 
 
 " Hebrews 
 
 217 
 
 $ 4.- 
 
 " Greeks . 
 
 222 
 
 * 5.- 
 
 " Romans . 
 
 230 
 
 $ 6.- 
 
 " Gauls 
 
 236 
 
 CHAPTER II.— Psycod 
 
 unamy through the Middle Ages 
 
 
 till the days of Mesmer 239 
 
 CHAPTER III.— Mesmer 264 
 
 CHAPTER IV. — Discovery of Psycodunamic Somnam- 
 bulism 306 
 
 CHAPTER V. — Psycodunamic Experiments in the Pub- 
 lic Hospitals of Paris 330 
 
 CHAPTER VI.— Psycodunamy in England . . .350 
 
 CHAPTER VII.— Psycodunamy in the United States . 366 
 
 t 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY 
 
 PSYCODUNAMY, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE NAME. 
 
 The word Psycodunamy, which I have adopted instead 
 of Animal Magnetism, is derived from the Greek " ■^"X^*" 
 the soul, and " Swa^is" power. It means, accordingly, 
 Power of the soul, or of the intelligent principle of life.X I 7S^ 
 have also substituted the verb to dunamise in lieu of to 
 magnetize or mesmerize; dunamiser for magnetizer, &c. &c. : 
 dropping the first radical, " psyco" by way of abbreviation. 
 
 My reasons for making these changes are the following : 
 The old denomination of Animal Magnetism has been 
 found improper, and in my opinion with good reason, by 
 many persons, who, convinced of the necessity of substi- 
 tuting another name for it, have proposed successively 
 those of Mental or Animal Electricty, (Dr. Pigeaire, Pete- 
 tin, &c. ;) Mesmerism, (Dr. Elliotson, Rev. Hare Town- 
 shend, &c. ;) Neurology, (Dr. Buchanan ;) Patketism, (Rev. 
 Laroy Sunderland ;) Etherology, (Professor Grimes, &c.) 
 
 But none of these are better, and some are worse than 
 the old names : 
 
 1 . Mental or Animal Electricity is liable to the same ob- 
 jection made to Animal Magnetism ; not only because it is 
 now proved that the magnetic and the electric fluid are 
 identically the same ; but because such a name refers the 
 
 2 
 
14 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 production of the phenomena to a fluid, the existence of 
 which is still questioned, for it has not been, and perhaps 
 cannot be, materially demonstrated. Is it, therefore, advi- 
 sable to build an edifice on questionable ground ? 
 
 2. Mesmerism, of all the names proposed, is decidedly 
 the most improper ; for, in the first place, no true science* 
 has ever been designated by the name of a man, whatever 
 be the claims he could urge in his favor ; and secondly, 
 what are the claims of Mesmer to such an honor ? He is 
 not the inventor of the practical part of the science, since 
 we can trace the practice of it through the most remote 
 ages ; and in that respect, the part which he introduced 
 has been completely abandoned. He proposed for it a 
 theory which was not exactly his own, which is now ex- 
 ploded, and which, on account of its errors, has been fatal 
 to our progress. He never spoke of the phenomena which 
 have rehabilitated our cause among scientific men ; and 
 since nothing remains to be attributed to Mesmer, either in 
 the practice and theory, or the discoveries that constitute 
 our science, why should it be called Mesmerism 1 
 
 3. Neurology has always been the name of that part of 
 anatomy which treats of the nerves and describes them. 
 To apply it to our science is a usurpation calculated to 
 induce error, and that nothing can justify. 
 
 4. Pathetism is a name, to say the least, too indefinite. 
 Its Greek radical, " tfa$o£," which means disease or suffer- 
 ing, appears to me to convey a very different idea from 
 that which it is intended to represent. 
 
 5. Etherology means a treatise on the most refined part 
 of the air, according to its Latino-Greek etymology ; con- 
 sequently it affords no meaning connected with our sub- 
 ject. 
 
 * Galvanism is nothing but " Electricity," and is entirely replaced 
 by the latter expression in modern treatises of natural philosophy. 
 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 15 
 
 There are in the science data so incontestable as to be 
 conceded by our most hostile opponents. Is it not prefer- 
 able, then, instead of resorting to more or less disputable 
 hypotheses, to find in those data a name less liable to 
 criticism ? 
 
 The word Psycodunamy defines, as exactly as possible, 
 the power that man possesses of materially acting upon 
 man, independently of touch. It signifies the influence of 
 mind upon the organization, without prejudging or pretend- 
 ing to unravel the secret means of nature to effect the ac- 
 tion, — let it be through the agency of a fluid more or less 
 analogous to electricity — let it be through the undulations 
 of a particular medium — let it be through sympathy — 
 through the imagination — or even through a combination 
 more or less complicated of those different ways — the 
 name in itself designates only that special faculty of the 
 living man, which the u , commissioners of 1784 have been 
 themselves compelled to acknowledge ; and to prove it, I 
 will quote here the very words in which they summed up 
 their report : 
 
 " That which we learned, or at least ascertained in a 
 clear and satisfactory manner, by our examination of the 
 phenomena of Magnetism, is, that ' man can act upon man 1 
 at all times, and almost at will, by striking his imagination ; 
 that signs and gestures the most simple, are then sufficient 
 to produce the most powerful effects ; that this action of 
 man upon his fellow may be reduced to an art, and suc- 
 cessfully conducted after a certain method, when exer- 
 cised upon patients who have faith in the proceedings." 
 
 This passage of a report, which has been considered 
 by many as a death-blow to our cause, shows, nevertheless, 
 that the commissioners of 1784 did admit, in terms the 
 most explicit, the powerful influence of man upon man, 
 and even its successful results w T hen conducted with 
 method. Therefore, if instead of having been called 
 
16 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 "Animal Magnetism" with reference to the supposed 
 cause of the phenomena, the science had received a name 
 which would have meant only the vital power of acting 
 on our fellows, as Psycodunamy does, that same report, 
 far from being unfavorable, would have decidedly confirm- 
 ed the sole important point, viz : " the production of very 
 remarkable and beneficial organic phenomena, in some known 
 circumstances, where man is the agent." It is only respecting 
 the theoretical and primary cause of those phenomena that 
 Mesmer and the commissioners were at variance, the one 
 asserting that it is a fluid, the others that it is imagination. 
 But, does the faculty of creating the phenomena exist 
 more or less by being referred to the imagination or to a 
 fluid ? and, be it as it may, are the phenomena themselves 
 less momentous and less true in any case ? 
 
 The mania of hastily building up a theory,, which has 
 been at all times so fatal to the progress of the sciences 
 in general, and especially of medicine, exerted here again 
 its baneful influence. " Animal Magnetism" on account 
 of its theoretical name, has been declared a chimera, while 
 Psycodunamy would have been welcomed as an important 
 truth. And this was unavoidable ; for so long as man, 
 when studying nature, instead of a careful and attentive 
 observation of facts, will resort to hypotheses about pri- 
 mary causes, he will necessarily lose himself in useless 
 and erroneous speculations, and call on them the just cen- 
 sure of more reflective minds. In his endeavors to lift up a 
 corner of the veil that covers the mysteries of creation, it 
 is folly in man to pretend to ascertain the essence of pri- 
 mary causes. In vain would he to-day pursue that which 
 escaped his yesterday's researches ; for before the un- 
 fathomable wisdom of Him from whom primary causes 
 emanate, all the pretensions and vanity of our philosophers 
 sink under admiration and respect. 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PSYCODUNAMY VS. PREJUDICES. 
 
 To expose all the errors and prejudices of mankind, 
 would be to write the complete history of the whole world. 
 Religion, politics, law, morals, education, literature, arts, 
 sciences, and among the latter, medicine, in particular, 
 have always been, and still are, fraught with so many er- 
 rors and prejudices, that the true and enlightened philan- 
 thropist cannot but wonder, in deep sorrow, how little, in 
 that respect, experience has taught the human family. It 
 would indeed be a task much more difficult to perform 
 than the far-famed labors of Hercules, to unmask all the 
 hypocrites, politicasters, pettifoggers, sophists, pedants, 
 poetasters, quacks, and charlatans of every description, 
 that are everywhere encumbering our path; and more- 
 over, in confining myself to the narrow circle that I am 
 about to enter, I shall encounter opposition enough with- 
 out arraying against me an innumerable, intolerant, and 
 unrelenting army, which would mercilessly have crushed 
 me into atoms before I could find one ear willing to listen 
 to my reasons. 
 
 However, there exist many timorous persons, who, with- 
 out examination, recede from any thing that is pointed out 
 to them as possessing even the remotest affinity to impious 
 doctrines. It is important to cure them of their scruples, 
 by demonstrating that the psycodunamic principles and 
 practice are the very reverse of that which they have 
 been represented to them. 
 
 It is against Christian faith to believe that evil spirits 
 are operating works of charity ; and since Psycodunamy 
 
 2* 
 
18 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 has no other end but the relief of sufferers, does it not 
 evidently proceed from God, and not from Satan 1 Psyco- 
 dunamic practice, founded on benevolence and compas- 
 sion, bears thus the very sign which, according to Saint 
 Augustin, characterizes the sons of God, and distinguishes 
 them from the sons of the spirit of darkness. 
 
 Far from militating against religion, Psycodunamy dis- 
 poses to cherish it, to respect its forms, and to follow its 
 precepts. Many eminent men have been recalled from 
 materialism to Christian faith by the practice of this sci- 
 ence. It is certain that prayer renders the psycodunamic 
 action more powerful, for it elevates man above earthly 
 interests, it excites his charity, it strengthens his confi- 
 dence, and, giving him the hope of being blessed by the 
 Deity, preserves him in the path of righteousness. 
 
 It is no less important to remark, that the study of 
 Psycodunamy not only disposes the mind to adopt reli- 
 gious principles, but that it tends also to free us from 
 the errors of superstition, by reducing to natural causes 
 many phenomena which in the dark ages were attributed 
 to Satan. 
 
 It has been said that the psycodunamic cures may in- 
 duce some persons to deny the miracles of Christ and 
 of his apostles. But has such an argument been se- 
 riously brought forward ? Do not the miracles, as re- 
 lated in the gospel, by their instantaneousness, and the 
 different circumstances which accompanied them, carry 
 along, forcibly, the evidence of the divine power ? Un- 
 believers may deny them, but those who admit them will 
 never try to refer them to natural causes. Did ever any 
 fanatical partisan of Psycodunamy pretend that he could 
 instantly cure a person born blind, restore corpses to life, 
 command the tempest, &c. ? 
 
 I have seen many somnambulists, and I have not found 
 one who does not bear precisely the same testimony to 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 19 
 
 the truths revealed to them in that state, viz : The exist- 
 ence, the omnipotence, the bounty of the Creator; the 
 immortality of the soul ; the certainty of another life ; 
 the recompense of the good, and the punishment of the 
 evil, which we have done in this ; the necessity and 
 efficacy of prayer ; the pre-eminence of charity over 
 the other virtues : to which is joined the consoling idea 
 that those who have preceded us on earth, and mer- 
 ited the enjoyment of eternal happiness, hear our wishes, 
 take an interest in us, and may be our intercessors be- 
 fore God ; the profound conviction that God never refuses 
 to enlighten us in what we ought to know, when, submissive 
 to his will, we ask aid of him ; the firm persuasion of the 
 utility of worship, which, by uniting men to render homage 
 to God, prescribes rules and practice to all, by which they 
 pray in concert to obtain the blessings of Heaven. Can 
 such precepts be dictated by the evil one ? 
 
 When the Pharisees and the Gentiles reproached Jesus 
 Christ, the divine model of all perfections, with performing 
 his prodigies by the arts and enchantments of the Egyp- 
 tians, and the power of Beelzebub, he replied in those re- 
 markable words : " Every kingdom divided against itself 
 is brought to desolation ; and every city or house divided 
 against itself, shall not stand. And if Satan cast out Satan, 
 he is divided against himself ; how shall then his king- 
 dom stand ? And if I, by Beelzebub, cast out devils, by 
 whom do your children cast them out ? therefore they shall 
 be your judges." (St. Matt. xii. 25-27.) 
 
 "We read in St. Matthew, xii., in St. Mark, iii., in St. 
 Luke, vi.,that the Doctors and the Pharisees watched Je- 
 sus whether he would heal patients on the Sabbath-day, 
 that they might accuse him. And he said to them : " Is 
 it lawful to do good on the sabbath-days ?" Thus, he 
 considered the act of healing a patient a good deed ; 
 and hence it would evidently be against the spirit of the 
 
20 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 gospel to condemn the psycodunamic practice, since it is 
 used as a means of relieving and curing the diseased. 
 
 I could have drawn from the gospel many more proofs 
 that Psycodunamy is no Satanic agency, but the foregoing 
 instances appear to me sufficiently conclusive. 
 
 The objections which I have just confuted, can arise 
 only from want of correct information. But, are per- 
 sons eminent in learning and science more free from preju- 
 dices ? 
 
 It is asserted, that diffusion of knowledge is one of the 
 best means of rooting out the germs of errors, revolutions, 
 fanaticism, and intolerance. But, if J. J. Rousseau, who 
 was at first systematically opposed to physicians in gene- 
 ral, was right in changing his opinion— if it is true, as he 
 asserts, that in all countries, and at all times, it is among 
 the members of the medical profession that the greatest 
 amount of scientific acquirement and learning is to be 
 found, the spirit of intolerance and blind fanaticism in fa- 
 vor of erroneous theories, that has stamped each of the 
 continual revolutions of their science, is rather a sad illus- 
 tration of the alleged results of knowledge. However, it 
 is among physicians that we find, at the present day, 
 the most numerous, and most violent opponents of Psyco- 
 dunamy. They cavil particularly at the unsoundness and 
 uncertainty of our theory. But, in doing so, do they not 
 fairly resemble the man who sees the mote in the eye of 
 his neighbor without noticing the beam in his own % 
 
 To elucidate such a question, let us cast a rapid glance 
 at the history of medical science. Let us mention only 
 the most important of the successive theories that have 
 ruled her dominion — for, to notice all of them would re- 
 quire the combined patience of all the saints of the calen- 
 dar — and then we shall be able to judge how well it be- 
 comes physicians to reproach us with errors. 
 
 For nearly fifteen centuries the works of Galen made 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 21 
 
 law in medicine. During that long period not one dared 
 to doubt the word of the master ; his theories were held 
 sacred. Still, Galen, ignorant of anatomy, describes in 
 the human body organs and humors which are not to be 
 found there ; and to the disordered action of those sup- 
 posed humors and organs, he alleges the causes of dis- 
 
 Why such gross errors should have lasted so long, 
 among men who boast of their wisdom and knowledge, is 
 a matter of no small wonder : but, if any one should sup- 
 pose that the light of truth eventually shone upon phy- 
 sicians, and pointed out to them a better path — if any one 
 should believe that experience came, at length, to unde- 
 ceive them, and teach a theory more correct, more ration- 
 al, and founded on the accurate observation of facts, he 
 would be egregiously mistaken. It was to pass from error 
 to folly, that they abandoned Galenism. It was to adopt 
 with enthusiasm the mad reveries of Paracelsus, who pre- 
 tended to have discovered the philosopher's stone, and to 
 keep it on the hilt of his dagger. But, as nations which 
 have just cast off the yoke of an ancient and degrading 
 tyranny remain wavering, and fearful of conceding too 
 great or too lasting a power to the chiefs that lead them, 
 so physicians raised successively to the worm-eaten throne 
 of Galen a crowd of rulers, without allowing them to 
 enjoy long the medical sceptre. Paracelsus, who, thanks 
 to his wonderful arcana, was to conquer death, died, never- 
 theless, in the prime of life ; and his fame, secrets, and 
 glory, are buried with him in the sad night of contempt 
 and oblivion. 
 
 Sylvius, taking advantage of the ardor with which 
 chemistry was studied, explained by its laws all the phe- 
 nomena of life. According to his theory, our organs are 
 nothing but alembics and crucibles, where humors are dis- 
 tilled, concocted, and undergo a process of fermentation, 
 
22 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 which gives rise to health or disease, agreeably to its de- 
 gree of activity or slowness, perfection or imperfection. 
 Physicians did not fail to embrace the new system laid 
 out by a man of genius, and the dhemico-medical school 
 obtained a celebrity which the dreadful consequences of the 
 application of the principles to the practice were not able 
 to check ; for, as we have said before, experience, with 
 physicians, when its results are at variance with favorite 
 theoretical views, has always been disregarded. 
 
 But soon a rival sect made its appearance, and finally 
 overthrew the Sylvian theories. Like the preceding 
 school, it was in the sciences accessory to medicine that 
 its principles originated. Natural Philosophy was the 
 basis, and the laws of mechanics accounted for all the 
 laws of life. Physicians saw then in the human body 
 nothing but wheels, levers, ropes, and pulleys, the en- 
 tanglement of which explained all diseases. Frederick 
 Hoffman and Herman Boerhaave were not the founders of 
 this school, but they caused it to shine with unprecedented 
 splendor ; and it may be said of them, for the sake of 
 truth, that, less fanatical in their practice than the follow- 
 ers of Sylvius, they knew how to depart wisely from 
 mere theoretical views whenever the case required it ; but, 
 again, for the sake of truth it must be also acknowledged, 
 that no physician can read to-day the theories of Boerhaave 
 and Hoffman without a smile of wonder and pity, — although 
 these very theories alone gave them, in their days, their 
 high fame and renown. 
 
 Stahl, struck with the importance of the principle of 
 life in the production of the phenomena that characterize 
 it — a principle which the theories of the two preceding 
 schools had utterly disregarded, created a new medical 
 system, in which the state of the soul accounts for all 
 physical disorders. Fever, according to his ideas, is the 
 result of the struggle of the soul to expel from the human 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 23 
 
 body the causes of disease. To follow him in all his 
 metaphysical explications requires a very uncommon de- 
 gree of acuteness, perspicacity, and patience : still, phy- 
 sicians, with an incredible ardor, espoused his theories, 
 and lost themselves in the wild dreams of fancy and ab- 
 struse hypotheses. 
 
 To Stahl succeeded Cullen. This Professor sees in a 
 local or general weakness of our organs or humors, the 
 cause of all maladies. Docile to the voice of a new 
 master, physicians descended from the high regions of 
 metaphysics to behold on earth nothing but prostration 
 and debility. 
 
 Then appeared the famous Brown. According to him, 
 all our ailments are either " Sthenick," or " Asthenick :" 
 " Sthenick" when proceeding from an increase of the natu- 
 ral activity of our organs, and " Asthenick" when due to a 
 decrease of that natural activity. The adepts of this 
 school pretended that their master had at length establish- 
 ed medical science on a firm and immutable basis ; and, 
 lavishing on past theories the most bitter sarcasms, they 
 claimed for themselves, and relied confidently on, the 
 unqualified approval of ages to come : yet, before twenty 
 years had passed, hardly one physician out of a hundred 
 could tell in what consisted the system of the Scotch 
 professor. 
 
 Brownism had already faded when Pinel wrote his 
 " Nosographie Philosophique." New nomenclatures, new 
 classifications in chemistry and botany, were at that time 
 the order of the day. Medicine was of course to submit 
 to the yoke of fashion. The new names, and the new 
 views of the French Novator, were unreservedly adopted, 
 and, accordingly, when a physician was called to attend 
 a patient, he thought that he had performed his whole 
 duty when he had ascertained and pronounced, as a botan- 
 ist does with a flower, or a chemist with a salt, to what 
 
24 PSYCODTJNAMY. 
 
 class, family, genus, and variety, the disease under his ex- 
 amination belonged. The relief of the sufferer, if not en- 
 tirely out of the question, was deemed at least of so sec- 
 ondary an importance, that " Hippocratic Medicine," as 
 the followers of Pinel used to style his system, was mere- 
 ly, according to its detractors, " the art of seeing patients 
 die." 
 
 Broussais, however, indignant at the insignificance to 
 which Pinel had reduced the physician's part, vigorously 
 attacked and pulled down, with great eclat, the already 
 vacillating and tottering edifice, so laboriously built by his 
 predecessor. Broussais began to teach Physiological 
 Medicine, and to demonstrate how inflammation, either 
 acute or chronic, was the sole cause of all our ailments, 
 and that consequently the sole object of attention, in all 
 cases, was to subdue and overcome the aforesaid inflam- 
 mation, not only by the lowest possible diet, but by the 
 repeated application of scores of leeches, no matter how 
 weak the patient might be. Crowds of physicians flocked 
 round to hear the thundering eloquence of the new Pro- 
 fessor ; at no time was the zeal of new adepts more fer- 
 vent, at no time was the practice more murderous : and it 
 may be said, without exaggeration, that Napoleon, in his 
 days of glory, spilled less blood, and killed fewer men to 
 conquer Europe, than the disciples of Broussais in their 
 attempts to conquer diseases, both in private practice and 
 public hospitals. 
 
 In the mean while, from behind the mountains of Saxony 
 rose a new star to enlighten, in its turn, the medical 
 world. Hahneman reveals Homeopathy to the admiring 
 physicians, and they abandon Broussais to applaud with 
 eagerness the framer of another doctrine. " Similia si~ 
 milibus curantur" becomes their motto, and they learn how 
 disorders disappear under the influence of small doses of 
 remedies which cause in the human body symptoms simi- 
 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 25 
 
 lar to those exhibited during the disease. The Allopath- 
 ists illustrate this system by saying that it amounts to pre- 
 cisely this : " If you are drunk with brandy, you will sober 
 yourself by taking a little drop more." 
 
 But already the Homeopathic star grows pale. Hy- 
 dropathy is now in the field, and people are taught by 
 Vincent Priessnitz, of Graefenberg, how to get rid of their 
 bodily infirmities by drowning the outward and the inward 
 man in cold water. Success to them ! 
 
 If we direct our attention to the various remedies that 
 have been in vogue — if we enter into the " sanctum sanc- 
 torum" of the " Materia Medica," we shall perceive that 
 from the smallest animalcule up to the whale — from the 
 imperceptible moss that creeps over the barren rock, up to 
 the oak, proud colossus of our forests — from mire to gold, 
 there is no substance in the three natural kingdoms that 
 has not been praised as a specific — there is nothing, how- 
 ever absurd, disgusting, or even poisonous, that has not 
 been enthusiastically recommended by some physician. 
 
 And now, gentlemen of the medical garb, you who are 
 so fond of bestowing upon us the most injurious epithets — 
 you, who call Psycodunamy absurd charlatanism — you, 
 who indulge so profusely in expressions of contempt when 
 speaking of Dunamisers or believers in our doctrine, 
 styling them ignorant, credulous, and fanatical — what could 
 we not justly say of you and yours, if we were fond of 
 retaliating? Is not this brief historical sketch of your 
 science true in every respect 1 Do we not constantly find 
 error succeeding error, each time adopted, by you, with 
 the same enthusiasm, the same blindness, the same spirit 
 of intolerance towards the opinions of those who refused 
 to worship the idol of the day ? Is not that a " beam" — a 
 " sad beam" in your eyes, gentlemen ? 
 
 The only thing you can say for yourselves, is that in 
 this expos!, I have not mentioned the most important 
 
 3 
 
26 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 school ; the one to which, of course, you will pretend to 
 belong — I mean the " Eclectic School" But stop here, 
 gentlemen ; the " Eclectic School" is no more yours than 
 ours. Perhaps I ought to say it is exclusively ours ; for, 
 what are the fundamental principles admitted by its dis- 
 ciples ? 
 
 They profess to seek for truth among the wrecks of past 
 doctrines, separating carefully the wheat from the chaff, 
 and preserving only what is of a decidedly practical use- 
 fulness — and so do we. They adhere to facts, observing 
 and describing them attentively without any regard to 
 theoretical views — and so do we. They consider experi- 
 ence as every thing in science in general, and in medicine 
 in particular, and avoid speculative theories, not only as 
 useless, but even as dangerous, since they are liable to 
 mislead in the impartial examination and record of facts— 
 and so do we. They know that a single weil-authentica 
 ted fact, however ridiculous it may appear at first sight, 
 and however at variance with admitted opinions, is enough, 
 nevertheless, to overthrow the most scientific edifice — and 
 so do we. They never forget that scientific bodies once 
 denounced the system of Galileo, as absurd and impious ; 
 the falling of Aerolithes, as an impossibility ; the steam- 
 boat of Fulton, a folly ; the existence of the American 
 continent, a visionary dream, &c. — neither do we forget 
 these facts. 
 
 But, gentlemen, if you persist in your pretensions to 
 " Eclecticism" let me ask if you practise the principles of 
 this school in regard to Psycodunamy ? Do you consult 
 experience ? Do you investigate facts with candor ? On 
 the contrary, because investigation is laborious, and mili- 
 tates against your received notions, do you not take refuge 
 in a flat denial, in order to free yourselves from the respon- 
 sibility of inquiry, or to escape the vexation of having your 
 preconceived opinions disturbed or annihilated ? 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 27 
 
 Finally, the greater number of the most eminent physi- 
 cians of this school, not only in France but all over Eu- 
 rope, have openly and publicly declared themselves in 
 favor of our doctrine, and consequently belong to us. 
 
 In proof of this assertion I will, in the following chap- 
 ters, relate facts which, although they were recorded in 
 the valuable book of Dr. Foissac more than twelve years 
 ago, are not sufficiently known in this country — facts of 
 which any physician, " Eclectic or not" is hardly excusa- 
 ble for remaining in ignorance. 
 
 
28 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FIRST ACADEMICAL REPORT ON PSYCODUNAMY, IN 1825. 
 
 As far back as the 11th of October, 1825, Dr. Foissac, 
 of the Medical Faculty of Paris, wrote the following let- 
 ter to the members of the Royal Academy of Medicine. 
 
 " Gentlemen : — You are all acquainted with the report 
 made forty years ago, on ' Animal Magnetism,' 1 by the com- 
 missioners chosen from the Royal Society of Medicine. 
 That report was unfavorable ; but one of the members, M. 
 de Jussieu, refused to sign it, and drew up a counter report. 
 Since that time, in spite of the opprobrium that was cast 
 upon it, ' Animal Magnetism 1 has been the subject of many 
 inquiries and laborious investigations. Lately, some mem- 
 bers of the actual Academy of Medicine made it the ob- 
 ject of their special studies, and the result of their ex- 
 periments is such, as to cause a general desire for further 
 trials and observations, conducted with the same spirit of 
 prudence and impartiality. 
 
 " Should the Royal Academy, which with so laudable a 
 perseverance devote their time to any thing calculated to 
 promote science in general, and particularly to relieve the 
 sufferings of mankind, deem proper to investigate the mat- 
 ter again, I have the honor to inform them that I have now 
 an opportunity of showing them a somnambulist, with 
 whom I am willing to try such experiments as they may 
 direct. 
 
 "I am, very respectfully, &c. 
 
 "Foissac, M. D." 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 29 
 
 After the reading of this letter, Dr. Marc insisted on the 
 necessity of proceeding to a close examination of Animal 
 Magnetism, in^rder to ascertain and proclaim its impor- 
 tance or worthlessness. " It is so much the more proper," 
 said he, " as Magnetism is now chiefly in the hands of 
 persons ignorant of medicine, and who make of it an un- 
 lawful means of speculation." He proposed, accordingly, 
 to appoint a committee whose duty it should be to make a 
 special report on the subject to the Academy. 
 
 Dr. Renauldin opposed the proposition of Dr. Marc, and 
 exclaimed : " Don't let us devote our time to stupidities ; 
 Animal Magnetism is dead and buried long ago, and it 
 does not become the Royal Academy to take it out of its 
 grave !" 
 
 This sally having excited reclamations in the assembly, 
 the annual President, Dr. Double, made the remark, that as 
 the Academy was not prepared for the proposition made to 
 them, it would perhaps be more a. propos to appoint a com- 
 mittee that should examine if it would or would not be- 
 come the Royal Academy to pay attention to Animal Mag- 
 netism. 
 
 This proposition was adopted by an immense majority, 
 and the President appointed Messrs. Adelon, Pariset, 
 Marc, Husson, and Burdin, senior, to be members of this 
 committee. Dr. Renauldin was at first designated as 
 one of the members of the committee, but he indignantly 
 refused to act, protesting against the impropriety of the 
 measure. 
 
 On the 13th of December, 1825, the committee made 
 the following report to the Royal Academy of Medicine, 
 through Dr. Husson, a reporter, who by his talents, up- 
 rightness, zeal, and acuteness of observation, made him- 
 self conspicuous twenty-five years before, when the study 
 and naturalization of vaccination in France was the ques- 
 tion of the day : — 
 
 »3* 
 
30 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 " Gentlemen :■ — At your session of the 11th of Octobei 
 last you deputed a committee, composed of Messrs. Marc, 
 Adelon, Pariset, Burdin, and myself, to report to you on the 
 subject of a letter, which M. Foissac, M. D., of the Fac- 
 ulty of Paris, had addressed to the department with the 
 view of inducing them to repeat the experiments made in 
 1784 on Animal Magnetism, and placing at their disposal, 
 in the event of their complying with his request, a somnam- 
 bulist, to aid the researches upon which certain commis- 
 sioners chosen from among you should think proper to enter. 
 
 " Before coming to a decision on the object of this let- 
 ter, you desired such information as might establish the 
 propriety, or impropriety, of the Academy's submitting to 
 a new investigation a scientific question which was ad- 
 judged and reprobated forty years ago by the Royal Acad- 
 emy of Sciences, the Royal Society of Medicine, and the 
 Faculty of Medicine, and which has subsequently furnish- 
 ed matter for ridicule, and been at length abandoned, or 
 rather thrown up by many of its advocates. 
 
 " In order to qualify the Academy for pronouncing judg- 
 ment in this case, the committee have thought it their duty 
 to compare all the information they could obtain in refer- 
 ence to the experiments made by order of the king, in 
 1784, with the most recent publications on Magnetism, 
 and with the experiments of which several of its members, 
 together with several of you have been witnesses. They 
 have, in the first place, established as matter of fact, that 
 although modern works should be but a repetition of those 
 which received sentence from the learned bodies invested 
 with the royal confidence in 1784, a new investigation 
 might still be of use, since, on the subject of Animal Mag- 
 netism, as on all which are submitted to the judgments of 
 t frail humanity, we are allowed to appeal from the decisions 
 
 of our predecessors, and demand a fresh and more rigor- 
 ous scrutiny. 
 
 - 
 
 ■ 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 31 
 
 " Alas ! what science has been more subject than medi- 
 cine to these variations, which have so frequently reversed 
 its doctrines ! We cannot glance at the annals of our 
 art, without being struck, not only by the diversity of the 
 opinions which have prevailed within its province, but, 
 still more, by the weakness of the positions which were 
 regarded as unassailable at the time of their being taken 
 up, and which subsequent decisions have completely al- 
 tered. Thus it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that we 
 ourselves can remember when the circulation of the blood 
 was declared to be impossible ; inoculation for the small- 
 pox considered as a crime ; and those enormous periwigs, 
 under which many of our heads have sweat, proclaimed as 
 infinitely more healthful than the natural hair : and yet it 
 has been well ascertained and admitted, since, that the 
 blood does circulate ; we hear of no lawsuits against 
 those who practise inoculation, and we are all thoroughly 
 convinced of the possibility of enjoying very good health, 
 without burdening our heads with the grotesque encum- 
 brance which engrosses at least a third of the surface of 
 the portraits that remain to us of the old masters. 
 
 " Passing from mere opinions to judicial sentences, who 
 has yet forgotten the proscription issued against every 
 preparation of antimony, at the instance of the famous 
 Dean Guy Patin ? Who 'does not remember, that a decree 
 of parliament, brought about by the Medical Faculty of 
 Paris, prohibited the use of the emetic, and that some 
 years afterwards, Louis XIV., having fallen sick and been 
 restored to health by this medicine, the act of parliament 
 was repealed in consequence of a decision on the part of 
 this very Faculty, and the emetic reinstated in the rank it 
 now holds in the Materia Medica ? Lastly, did not this 
 same parliament, in 1763, prohibit the practice of inocu- 
 lation for the small-pox in the cities and suburbs within 
 its jurisdiction ? And, eleven years afterwards, in 1774, 
 
32 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 at the distance of four leagues from the place of its sittings 
 were not Louis XVI., and his two brothers, Louis XVI11 
 and Charles X., inoculated at Versailles, within the juris- 
 diction of the parliament of Paris ? 
 
 " You see then, gentlemen, that the principle deduced 
 from the authority by which judgment is pronounced in a 
 different sphere from ours, however worthy of respect, 
 may be abrogated ; and consequently, that when a fresh 
 investigation of Magnetism is proposed, your solicitude in 
 behalf of science ought not to be fettered by a judgment 
 already passed, admitting even that, as in the two instan- 
 ces just alluded to, the objects to be judged of were iden- 
 tically the same as those on which a committee of inquiry 
 had before decided. 
 
 " But Magnetism is now presented to your investigation 
 under a different aspect from that which it wore when its 
 merits were settled by those learned bodies ; and, without 
 inquiring by what amount of impartial examination of facts 
 their sentence was preceded, or if they conducted this ex- 
 amination conformably with the principles of wise and en- 
 lightened observation, the committee leave it to you, gen- 
 tlemen, to decide whether we ought to place exclusive and 
 irrevocable confidence in the conclusions contained in a 
 report in which we read the following singular notice, or 
 strange development of the plan of operation which the 
 commissioners intend to adopt : 
 
 " ' The distinguished patients who come to be treated for 
 their health, say the royal commissioners, might find it 
 irksome to be questioned : observation might induce a feel- 
 ing of restraint, or displease them ; and the commissioners 
 themselves would be deterred by a sense of propriety. 
 They have therefore resolved, that, as their constant at- 
 tendance was not essential to this mode of treatment, 
 nothing further was required than that some of them should 
 come occasionally, for the purpose of confirming the first 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 33 
 
 general observations, make new ones, should the opportu- 
 nity present itself, and give an account of them to the as- 
 sembled commission.' (V. Bailly's report, in 4to., p. 8.) 
 
 " It was thus established as a principle, that in the inves- 
 tigation of so important a matter, the commissioners would 
 ask no questions of the persons to be experimented on ; 
 that they would take no care to watch them ; that they 
 would not be constant in their attendance at the meetings 
 held for the purpose of making the experiments ; that 
 they would go thither, from time to time, and report what 
 they had individually seen to the assembled commission. 
 Your«committee, gentlemen, cannot help confessing that 
 experiments are not thus conducted at the present day ; 
 that new facts are elicited and observed, and that, how- 
 ever great the lustre which the reputation of Franklin, 
 Bailly, Darcet, and Lavoisier reflects on a generation be- 
 yond their own, in spite of the respect in which their 
 memory is enshrined, and the general assent accorded to 
 their report for forty years, it is certain that the judgment 
 they passed has error for its very basis, by reason of their 
 superficial mode of studying the subject they were called 
 upon to investigate. 
 
 " And if we follow them into the presence of those they 
 magnetized, or caused to be magnetized, particularly the 
 commissioners of the Royal Society of Medicine, we see 
 them exhibiting any thing but courtesy ; we see them, in 
 spite of all remonstrances, making attempts and trying ex- 
 periments in which they omit the moral conditions re- 
 quired, and announced as indispensable to success ; we 
 see, in short, one of the latter gentlemen who has been 
 the most constant eyewitness of the experiments, and with 
 whose honesty, candor, and precision we are all acquaint- 
 ed, we see M. de Jussieu withdraw from his colleagues, 
 and publish an individual and counter report, which 
 he concludes by declaring, ' that the experiments he has 
 
34 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 made and witnessed, prove that man produces a sensible 
 action on his fellow by friction, contact, and sometimes, 
 although more rarely, by mere approach from some dis- 
 tance ; that this action, attributed to a universal fluid, the 
 nature of which is not understood, seems to him to be analo- 
 gous to the animal heat existing in bodies ; that this heat 
 emanates from them continually, extends its influence to a 
 considerable distance, and may pass from one body into 
 another ; that it is elicited, increased, or diminished in a 
 body, by moral as well as physical causes ; that, judged 
 of by its effects, it participates of the property of tonic 
 remedies, and, like them, produces salutary or injurious 
 effects, according to the quantity of heat communicated, 
 and the circumstances under which it is employed ; in a 
 word, that a more extended and considerate use of this 
 agent will give a clearer insight into its real action and 
 amount of usefulness.' (See p. 50.) 
 
 " Such being your position, gentlemen, which of these 
 two reports ought to terminate your indecision 1 That in 
 which it is announced that the patients will not be ques- 
 tioned — that there is no necessity for closely watching 
 them — that it is impossible to be regular in attendance at 
 the experiments ; or that of an industrious, attentive, scru- 
 pulous, and exact man, who has the courage to withdraw 
 from his colleagues — to despise the ridicule which he is 
 certain of drawing upon himself — to set at naught the in- 
 fluence of power, and publish an individual report, dia- 
 metrically opposite in its conclusions to that of the other 
 commissioners ? Your committee were not appointed for 
 the purpose of expressing their sentiments on this point, 
 but they find in this contrariety of opinion an additional 
 motive for taking into consideration the proposition of M. 
 Foissac. 
 
 " Here, then, gentlemen, are already two reasons for 
 submitting Magnetism to a new investigation; one of 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 35 
 
 which, you are aware, is founded on this truth, that any 
 decision whatever in relation to science, is but a transitory 
 thing ; the other, that the commissioners appointed by the 
 king to inquire into the merits of Animal Magnetism, did 
 not, it seems to us, scrupulously obey the mandate, and 
 that one of their number drew up a counter report. Let 
 us next see whether we cannot find a third, in the dif- 
 ference which exists between the Magnetism of 1784, and 
 that upon which an attempt is now made to fix the atten- 
 tion of the Academy. 
 
 " It is not our province to enter into details upon the 
 history of this discovery ; upon the manner in which it 
 was hailed in Germany and France ; we have only to 
 make good the assertion that the theory, the processes, 
 and results which were condemned in 1784, are not the 
 same as those which modern magnetizers announce to us, 
 and of which they court your examination. In the first 
 place, the theory of Mesmer, faithfully laid down by the 
 commissioners, and copied by them from the text in his 
 first work, is as follows : 
 
 " ' Animal Magnetism is a fluid universally diffused. It 
 is the medium of a mutual influence between the celestial 
 bodies, the earth, and animated bodies. Its continuity is 
 such as to suffer no void. Its subtilty admits of no com- 
 parison. It is capable of receiving, propagating, and com- 
 municating all the impressions of motion. It is suscepti- 
 ble of flux and reflux. The animal body feels the effects 
 of this agent, and it is by insinuating itself into the sub- 
 stance of the nerves that it instantaneously affects them. 
 The human body, in particular, exhibits qualities which 
 may be recognised as analogous to those of the loadstone ; 
 different and opposite poles may be distinguished in both. 
 The action and virtue of Animal Magnetism may be com- 
 municated by one body to other bodies, animate and inani- 
 mate ; its action takes place at a great distance, without 
 
36 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 the aid of any intermediate body ; it is augmented, re- 
 flected by glasses, communicated, propagated, and in- 
 creased by sound ; and its virtue may be accumulated, 
 concentrated, and transported. Although this fluid is uni- 
 versal, all animated bodies are not equally susceptible of 
 it. There are even some, although very few, which are 
 possessed of so opposite a property, that their mere pres- 
 ence destroys all the effect of this fluid on other bodies. 
 
 " ' Animal Magnetism cures nervous disorders directly, 
 and others indirectly ; it perfects the operation of medi- 
 cine ; it brings on and directs salutary crises in a manner 
 that enables us to master them : by its means the physi- 
 cian ascertains each individual's state of health, and judges 
 with the utmost accuracy of the origin, nature, and pro- 
 gress of the most complicated diseases ; it prevents their 
 growth, and effects their cure, without ever exposing 
 patients to any dangerous effects, or injurious results, 
 whatever may be tHeir age, temperament, or sex : nature 
 presents to man, in Magnetism, a universal cure and 
 means of preserving life.' (See page 1.) 
 
 " Thus, gentlemen, this theory was connected with a 
 general system of the universe. In this system all bodies 
 had a reciprocal influence on each other : the medium of 
 this influence was a universal fluid, pervading alike the 
 stars, animated bodies, and the earth ; admitting, too, of no 
 vacuum. All bodies had their opposite poles, and the 
 ebbing and flowing currents took a different direction in 
 accordance with these poles, which Mesmer compared 
 with those of the magnet. 
 
 " At the present day the existence and action of this all- 
 pervading fluid, this mutual influence between the heaven- 
 ly bodies, the earth, and animated beings, these poles and 
 conflicting currents, are each and all rejected by those who 
 write upon or practise Magnetism. Some deny the exist- 
 ence of any fluid ; others maintain that the magnetic agent 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 37 
 
 which produces all the phenomena in question is a fluid 
 which exists in all individuals, but which is secreted, and 
 emanates at will, from him only who desires to impreg- 
 nate, as it were, another individual ; that, by an act of his 
 volition, he puts this fluid in motion, directs, fixes it at dis- 
 cretion, and enshrouds it with this atmosphere ; that if he 
 finds in this individual moral dispositions analogous with 
 those which animate him, the same fluid develops itself 
 in the individual magnetized ; that their two atmospheres 
 become blended, and thence arise those relations which 
 identify them with each other ; relations by which the 
 sensations of the former are communicated to the latter, 
 and which, according to modern magnetizers, are sufficient 
 to account for that clairvoyance, which, we are assured by 
 many observers, has been witnessed in those who have 
 been put into a somnambulic state by means of Mag- 
 netism. 
 
 " Here, then, is a first difference established, (between 
 Magnetism as it is, and as it was ;) and this distinction has 
 seemed to your committee the more worthy of examination, 
 because of late the structure and functions of the nervous 
 system have become the study of physiologists, and the 
 opinions of Reil, and D'Autenreith, and M. de Humboldt, 
 as well as the recent works of M. Bogros, seem to place 
 beyond a doubt, not only the existence of a nervous circu- 
 lation, but also the exterior expansion of this circulating 
 fluid ; an expansion which takes place with such force 
 and energy as to create a sphere of action that may be 
 likened to that in which we observe the action of electri- 
 fied bodies. 
 
 " If from the theory of Magnetism we pass to the pro- 
 cesses, we shall remark another total difference between 
 those employed by Mesmer and Deslon, and those in 
 vogue at the present day. We will again draw upon the 
 royal commissioners for information as to the modus ope- 
 
 4 
 

 38 PSYCODUNAMY. > 
 
 randi which they saw practised. ' There appeared in the 
 midst of a large hall, a circular case made of oak, and 
 raised a foot, or a foot and a half, from the floor, which is 
 called the baquet, or tub. The lid of this case is perfora- 
 ted by a number of holes, from which issue rods of iron, 
 jointed and moveable. The patients are placed in several 
 circles round this tub, and each has his rod of iron, which 
 by means of the joint may be directly applied to the dis- 
 eased part. A cord passed round their bodies connects 
 them all ; sometimes an additional chain is formed by the 
 joining of hands, that is to say, by each one's placing his 
 thumb between the thumb and forefinger of his neighbor, 
 and leaving it thus compressed. The impression received 
 from the left, is communicated to the right, and thus goes 
 the round of the circle. A piano is placed in a corner of 
 the hall, and airs are performed thereon, varying in meas- 
 ure and expression ; to which, occasionally, the voice lends 
 its assistance. All the magnetizers hold in their hand an 
 iron rod, from ten to twelve inches in length. This rod, 
 which is the magnetic conductor, concentrates the fluid at 
 its point, and renders its emanations more powerful. The 
 sound of the piano is likewise a conductor of Magnetism ; 
 the patients, who are numerous, and arranged in several 
 circles round the tub, receive the magnetic influence by 
 all these means and appliances at once, namely — the rods 
 of iron branching from the tub and conveying the fluid 
 thence, the cord entwined around their bodies, the union 
 of the thumbs, and the sound of the piano. The patients 
 are also directly magnetized by means of the finger, or the 
 iron rod passed before their faces, above or behind their 
 heads, and over the diseased parts ; but, above all, they 
 are magnetized by the application of hands, and pressure 
 on the lungs, and the abdominal regions ; an application 
 which is often continued for a long time, sometimes for 
 several hours.' (See page 3.) 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 39 
 
 " Thus, gentlemen, the experiments then consisted of a 
 mechanical pressure exerted, and that repeatedly, on the 
 loins and abdomen, and from the appendice sternale to the 
 pubis. These experiments were made, too, in presence of 
 a large assembly, on a great number of persons at once, 
 and before a crowd of witnesses ; and it was impossible 
 that the imagination should not be greatly excited by the 
 sight of the apparatus, the sound of the music, and the 
 spectacle of the crises, or rather convulsions, which could 
 not fail to be elicited, and repeated by the power of imita- 
 tion ; and often assumed so frightful an aspect, that these 
 magnetizing rooms received abroad the name of ' Hell of 
 convulsions.' 
 
 " At the present time, on the contrary, our magnetizers 
 desire no witnesses of their experiments ; they invoke to 
 their aid neither the influence of music, nor the imitative 
 propensity of man ; the magnetized are alone, or accom- 
 panied by one or two relatives ; they are no longer en- 
 circled with cords : the tub with its iron branches, jointed 
 and moveable, has been abandoned. Instead of the pres- 
 sure employed on the lungs and abdomen, the operators 
 confine themselves to passes, which at first sight appear 
 insignificant, and produce no mechanical effect ; they draw 
 their hands lightly along the arms, thighs, and legs ; they 
 touch gently the forehead, and epigastrium, and emit to- 
 wards these parts their magnetic atmosphere, as they term 
 it. In this kind of touch there is nothing to offend de- 
 cency, since it takes place over the clothes, and indeed it 
 is sometimes unnecessary that there should be any contact 
 at all ; for the magnetic influence has been, and that fre- 
 quently, procured by manual passes made at the distance 
 of several inches from the body of the person magnetized — 
 nay, several feet, and even without his knowledge, by the 
 sole power of volition, and consequently without contact. 
 
 " Thus, with regard to the processes essential to the 
 
40 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 production of magnetic effects, you see that there exists a 
 great difference between the former mode, and that adopt- 
 ed in our day. 
 
 " But it is in a comparison of the results obtained in 
 1784, with those which modern magnetizers profess to be 
 constantly observing, more than in any thing else, that 
 your committee thinks it has found a most powerful motive 
 for determining you to subject Magnetism to another scru- 
 tiny. The commissioners, whose expressions we will 
 again borrow, tell us, ' that in the experiments they have 
 witnessed, the patients present a picture extremely varied 
 by their different states: some are calm, tranquil, and feel 
 no effect ; some cough, spit, experience a slight pain, a 
 local or general heat, and perspire in consequence ; others 
 are tormented and agitated by convulsions. These con- 
 vulsions are of extraordinary duration and violence ; one' 
 convulsion no sooner commences, than several others mani- 
 fest themselves. The commissioners have seen them last 
 for more than three hours : they are accompanied by an 
 expectoration of watery, impure, and slimy phlegm, forced 
 up by their violent efforts ; this has sometimes been seen 
 mixed with fibres, or small veins of blood. They are 
 characterized by precipitate and involuntary movements 
 of the limbs, and of the w T hole body ; by the contraction 
 of the throat, twitchings of the lungs and epigastrium ; by 
 the troubled and wild expression of the eyes, piercing 
 cries, tears, hiccough, and immoderate laughter ; they are 
 preceded, or followed, by a state of languor and revery, a 
 kind of dejection, and even drowsiness. The least unex- 
 pected noise startles them ; and it has been remarked that 
 the patients were affected by a change of key, or meas- 
 ure, in the airs played on the piano, that a bolder move- 
 ment agitated them still more, and added to the violence of 
 their convulsions. Nothing can be more astonishing than 
 the spectacle of these spasmodic affections. Without hav- 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 41 
 
 ing seen, one can form no idea of them ; and while wit- 
 nessing them, one is alike surprised at the deep repose of 
 a portion of the patients, and the excited state of the rest ; 
 at the various incidents that repeatedly occur, and the 
 sympathies that are established. Patients are seen sing- 
 ling out others in the crowd, rushing towards them, smi- 
 ling mutually, conversing affectionately, and reciprocally 
 soothing each other's crises. All are submissive to the 
 magnetizer ; however drowsy they appear, his voice, his 
 look, nay, a mere gesture, rouses them. No one can help 
 acknowledging, in these constant results, the manifestation 
 of a great power, which agitates the patients, nay, com- 
 pletely subjugates them, and of which the magnetizer is 
 apparently the depositary. This convulsive state is im- 
 properly called " crisis" in the theory of Animal Magnet- 
 ism.' (See Bailly's Report, page 5, 4to.) 
 
 " At the present day no convulsions are elicited. If any 
 nervous movement shows itself, attempts are made to check 
 it ; all possible precautions are taken that the persons sub- 
 jected to the action of Animal Magnetism may not be dis- 
 turbed ; and they are no longer made an object of exhibi- 
 tion. But, although these crises, these shrieks, these 
 lamentations, this spectacle of convulsions, which the 
 commissioners con%ss to be so extraordinary, no longer 
 strike the beholder, there has been observed, since the 
 publication of their report, a phenomenon which, say the 
 magnetizers, borders on the miraculous ; your committee 
 allude to the somnambulic state produced by the action 
 of Magnetism. 
 
 " M. de Puysegur was the first to observe it on his es- 
 tate, at Busancy, and made it public towards the end of 
 1784, four months after the publication of the report of the 
 royal commissioners. 
 
 "Twenty-nine years afterwards, in 1813, the respecta- 
 ble M. Deleuze, to whose veracity, probity, and honor, 
 4* 
 
42 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 your committee gladly render homage, devoted an entire 
 chapter to it in his ' Critical History of Animal Magnet- 
 ism ;' a work in which the author has set forth, with as 
 much sagacity as talent and method, all that the reader 
 could have gleaned by dint of hard labor from the many 
 writings published on the subject at the close of the last 
 century. 
 
 " More recently, in the month of May, 1819, an old and 
 distinguished student of the Polytechnic School, who had 
 just received his degree of doctor from the Medical Fac- 
 ulty of Paris, M. Bertrand, delivered with great eclat, and 
 before a numerous audience, a public course of lectures 
 on Magnetism and somnambulism. He resumed it, with 
 the same success, at the close of the same year, in 
 1820-21, when the state of his health no longer permitting 
 him to devote himself to public lecturing, he published, in 
 1822, his ' Treatise on Somnambulism,' the first work ex- 
 professo on the subject ; a work, in which, besides the ex- 
 periments peculiar to the author, is found embodied a great 
 collection of facts but little known, and relating to persons 
 of various religious sects, said to be possessed, inspired, 
 or enlightened. Before M. Bertrand, our estimable, indus- 
 trious, and modest colleague, M. Georget, had analyzed this 
 astounding phenomenon, in a truly philosophical and medi- 
 cal manner, in his important work entitled, s The Physi- 
 ology of the Nervous System ;' and it is from this work, as 
 well as the treatise of Dr. Bertrand, and the publication 
 of M. Deleuze, that your committee have derived the fol- 
 lowing notions of somnambulism. 
 
 " If we may believe modern magnetizers, (and on this 
 point they are unanimous,) when magnetism has induced 
 somnambulism, the individual who is in this state acquires 
 a prodigious extension of the faculty of sense. Several of 
 his external organs, commonly those of sight and hearing, 
 are lulled to rest, and all the sensations dependent thereon 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 43 
 
 are produced internally. The somnambulist has his eyes 
 closed, and he sees not with his eyes, nor hears with his 
 ears ; and yet he sees and hears better than a man awake. 
 He sees and hears those only with whom he is in commu- 
 nication, and usually looks only at those objects to which 
 his attention is directed. He submits to the will of the 
 magnetizer in all that cannot hurt him, and that does not 
 run counter to his ideas of justice and truth. He feels 
 the will of his magnetizer ; perceives the magnetic fluid ; 
 sees, or rather is sensible of the internal state of his own 
 body, and that of others ; but his observations therein are 
 generally confined to such parts as are not in their natural 
 state, the harmony of w T hich has been disturbed. He re- 
 covers the recollection of things forgotten when he was 
 awake. He has previsions and presentiments, which may 
 in many cases prove erroneous, and are limited in their 
 extent.. He enjoys a surprising facility of enunciation, and 
 is by no means exempt from the vanity arising from the 
 conscious development of this singular faculty. He im- 
 proves himself, for a certain time, if wisely directed ; but if 
 otherwise, he goes astray. When he returns to a natural 
 state, he loses entirely the recollection of all the sensations 
 and ideas which he had in the somnambulic state ; so that 
 these two states are as foreign to each other as if the 
 somnambulist and the awakened man were two distinct 
 beings. Frequently, in this singular state, the operator 
 has succeeded in paralyzing — in absolutely closing the 
 senses to all impressions from without, to such a degree, 
 that a flask containing several ounces of concentrated am- 
 moniac has been applied to the nose for five, ten, or fifteen 
 minutes, and even longer, without producing the least ef- 
 fect, without at all impeding respiration, or even producing 
 sneezing. The skin has likewise been rendered completely 
 insensible, although pinched till it became black ; although 
 pricked, and, what is more, exposed to the heat of burning 
 
44 PSYCODTJNAMY. 
 
 moxa, to the extreme irritation produced by hot water sat- 
 urated with mustard — a heat and irritation which were se- 
 verely felt, and excessively painful, when the skin resumed 
 its normal sensibility. 
 
 " Surely, gentlemen, all these phenomena, if real, are 
 well worthy of attentive study; and it is precisely because 
 your committee consider them quite extraordinary, and 
 hitherto unexplained — we will add, even incredible until 
 seen — that they have not hesitated to lay them before you; 
 fully persuaded that you will, in like manner, see fit to 
 submit them to a serious and thoughtful investigation. We 
 would add, that the royal commissioners not having been 
 able to become acquainted with them, as somnambulism 
 was not observed till after the publication of their report, 
 it becomes urgent to study this astonishing phenomenon, 
 and to elucidate a fact, which unites in so intimate a man- 
 ner psychology with physiology ; a fact which, in a word, 
 if once established, is capable of throwing such light on 
 the therapeutic art. 
 
 " And if it is proved, as modern observers assure us, 
 that in this somnambulic state, the principal phenomena of 
 which we have just set before you analytically, the mag- 
 netized enjoy a lucidity of perception which gives them 
 positive ideas of the nature of their own diseases, the af- 
 fections under which others who are put in communication 
 with them labor, and of the mode of treatment proper to be 
 adopted in both cases ; if it is unquestionably true, as per- 
 sons affirm from actual observations made in 1820. at the 
 Hotel Dieu of Paris, that during this singular state sensi- 
 bility is deadened to such a degree as to admit of a som- 
 nambulist's being cauterized without pain ; if it is equally 
 true, as is stated by eye-witnesses to have occurred at the 
 Salpetriere, in 1821, that somnambulists are endowed with 
 such a degree of foresight, that females well known as epi- 
 leptic subjects, and who had been treated as such for a long 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 45 
 
 time, have been enabled to predict, twenty days before- 
 hand, the day, hour, nay, the minute, at which they would 
 experience an epileptic fit, and did so ; if, in short, it is 
 also ascertained by the same magnetizers, that this singu- 
 lar faculty may be advantageously employed in the practice 
 of medicine, there can be no kind of doubt that this point 
 of itself merits the attention and investigation of the 
 Academy. 
 
 " To these considerations, all founded on the interest we 
 feel in behalf of science, permit us to add another, the off- 
 spring of national pride. Ought the French faculty to re- 
 main unacquainted with the researches which the physi- 
 cians of northern Europe are making on the subject of 
 Magnetism ? Your committee think not. In almost all 
 those kingdoms, Magnetism is studied and practised by 
 very skilful men, and men by no means prone to credulity; 
 and if its utility is not generally acknowledged, we are at 
 least assured, that its reality is not there called in question. 
 It is no longer a subject upon which enthusiastic writers 
 merely build theories and report facts, it has its advocates 
 among physicians and savans of a high order of talent. 
 
 " In Prussia, M. Hufeland, after having protested against 
 Magnetism, yielded to what he calls the force of evidence, 
 and declared himself its partisan. A considerable hospital 
 has been established at Berlin, in which patients are suc- 
 cessfully treated by this method ; and several physicians 
 have adopted it in their practice, by authority of the gov- 
 ernment ; for none but physicians of established reputation 
 are permitted to practise Magnetism publicly. 
 
 " At Frankfort, Dr. Passavant has given to the world a 
 very remarkable work, not only for its exposition of facts, 
 but, still more so, for the moral and psychological infer- 
 ences which he draws from them. 
 
 " At Groningen, Dr. Bosker, a man of high reputation, 
 has translated into Dutch the ' Critical History of Magnet- 
 
46 
 
 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 ism,' by our honorable countryman, M. Deleuze, and added 
 thereto a volume of observations, made on the treatment 
 adopted in conjunction with his brother physicians. 
 
 " At Stockholm, the degree-of Doctor of Medicine is at- 
 tained by theses on Magnetism, as in all universities by 
 disputations on the various branches of science. 
 
 " At. Petersburg, Dr. Stoffreghen, first physician to the 
 emperor of Russia, and several other members of the Fac- 
 ulty, have given an opinion in favor of the utility, as well 
 as the existence of Animal Magnetism. Some abuses re- 
 sulting from the incautious exercise of it, caused its sus- 
 pension in the public institutions ; but the physicians still 
 have recourse to it in their individual practice, when they 
 deem it useful. 
 
 " Near Moscow, Count de Panin, once minister from 
 Russia, has established on his estate, and under the direc- 
 tion of a physician, a course of magnetic treatment, by 
 which, it is said, many important cures have been effected. 
 
 " Shall we remain behind the people of the north, gen- 
 tlemen ? Shall we devote no attention to an ensemble of 
 phenomena which has attracted that of nations we are 
 justly proud in believing to be behind us in civilization 
 and the paths of science 1 Your committee, gentlemen, 
 know you too well to entertain such a fear. 
 
 " Lastly, is it not deplorable that Magnetism should be 
 practised under your very eyes, as it were, by persons 
 totally ignorant of medicine ; by women escorted clan- 
 destinely through Paris, by individuals who seem to make 
 a mystery of their existence ? And has not the time ar- 
 rived, when, according to the wish expressed years ago 
 by honest men, and physicians who have incessantly 
 studied and observed in silence the phenomena of Mag- 
 netism, the Faculty of France, shaking off the restraint 
 which the judgments of their predecessors seem to have 
 imposed, ought at length to examine, and decide for them- 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 47 
 
 selves on facts attested by persons to whose morality, 
 veracity, independence, and talent, the world at large pay 
 ready homage 1 Let us add, gentlemen, that it is one of 
 the objects of your institution to become acquainted with 
 every thing having reference to the inquiry into extraor- 
 dinary and secret remedies ; and that were all you have 
 heard of Magnetism mere jugglery, invented by quacks 
 for the purpose of imposing on public credulity, your sur- 
 veillance needs but a hint to procure the unhesitating per- 
 formance of one of your chief duties, the exercise of one 
 of your most honorable prerogatives, that which is con- 
 ferred on you by the royal ordinance for your incorporation, 
 the examination of this means, or agency, which is an- 
 nounced to you as an agency of healing. 
 
 " The following summary, therefore, gentlemen, em- 
 bodies the sentiments of your committee : 
 
 " 1. That the judgment passed in 1784 by the commis- 
 sioners appointed by the king to inquire into Animal Mag- 
 netism, by no means dispenses with the obligation to in- 
 vestigate the subject anew, because, in the sciences, no 
 decision whatever is absolute or irrevocable. 
 
 " 2. Because the experiments on which this judgment 
 was based seem to have been made in a desultory man- 
 ner, without the simultaneous and necessary assembling 
 of all the commissioners, and in such a spirit, as accord- 
 ing to the principles of the subject they were called on 
 to examine, could not but cause their complete failure. 
 
 " 3. That the Magnetism thus denounced in 1784, differs 
 entirely in theory, modus operandi, and results, from that 
 which exact, honest, attentive observers, enlightened, in- 
 dustrious, and persevering physicians, have studied for 
 some years past. 
 
 " 4. That it concerns the honor of the French Faculty 
 not to remain behind German physicians in the study of 
 phenomena which are announced by enlightened and im- 
 
48 
 
 PSYCODTJNAMY. 
 
 partial advocates of Magnetism, as having been produced 
 by this new agent. 
 
 " 5. That, considering Magnetism as an occult remedy, 
 it is the duty of the Academy to study and experiment upon 
 it, in order to wrest the use and practice thereof from per- 
 sons altogether ignorant of the art, who abuse this means, 
 and make it an object of lucre and speculation. 
 
 " Upon all these considerations, your committee are of 
 opinion that the section ought to adopt the proposition of 
 Dr. Foissac, and appoint a special committee to devote 
 itself to the study and examination of Animal Magnetism." 
 
 (Signed,) 
 
 " Adelon, 
 Pariset, 
 Marc, 
 
 burdin-aine. 
 " Husson, Reporter, 11 
 
 . 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 49 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ACADEMICAL DISCUSSION OF THE FIRST REPORT. 
 
 The report of the committee made a deep impression 
 upon the Academy ; but the discussion was postponed to 
 the next session. 
 
 Sessien of the 10th of January, 1826. 
 
 § i. " M. Desgenettes, the first speaker, whose name ap- 
 pears on the list of those opposed to the conclusions of the 
 report, admits, however, that the judgment passed on Ani- 
 mal Magnetism in 1784, does not absolutely interdict a 
 fresh investigation ; but he regrets the instances given by 
 the Reporter of the revocation of judgments in matters of 
 science, and particularly that of the proscription of the 
 emetic, and inoculation for the small-pox, by the parlia- 
 ment of Paris. He then endeavors to exonerate the com- 
 missioners of 1784 from the reproach cast upon them by 
 the Reporter, of not having conducted their examination 
 with becoming care. He thinks that a regard for pro- 
 priety, and a commendable discretion, forbade a more rig- 
 orous scrutiny. He cites the opinion of Thouret, that Mag- 
 netism is from beginning to end mere jugglery. 
 
 " It is a false pretension, adds M. Desgenettes, that the 
 Magnetism of to-day differs from that of 1784 ; it has 
 changed its form merely, and the somnambulists of the 
 present age are the authors of as many miracles as were 
 wrought in olden times, by means of magnetized trees. 
 M. Desgenettes eschews, as liable to suspicion, the mag- 
 netic labors undertaken in Germany, a country which gave 
 birth to the theories of Boerhaave and Kant, and the cures 
 of Prince Hohenlohe, &c. ' The report,' says he, ' has 
 
 5 
 
 
50 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 done much harm, by reviving the hopes of Magnetism, and 
 turned the heads of the rising generation, who are thereby 
 led to believe, that it is useless henceforth to read and 
 make researches. We shall soon have to suspend our 
 courses of lectures, and close our schools before they are 
 demolished.' 
 
 • § 2. " M. Virey approves of the proposition to institute 
 fresh inquiries into Animal Magnetism. Already, in a letter 
 addressed to the President of the Department, he has desig- 
 nated some of the experiments which it would be of use 
 to make, in order to arrive at a more enlightened opinion 
 as to the real phenomena of Magnetism ; but he regrets 
 that the Reporter should only have spoken of the labors of 
 the Commissioners of the Academy of Sciences, and the 
 Royal Society of Medicine, and passed over in silence 
 those of numerous literati who have occupied themselves 
 with this question. He would have had the committee 
 furnish observations on the analogy that might exist be- 
 tween the effects of Magnetism, and those observed in 
 certain electric animals ; in those, too, whose gaze has the 
 singular property of fascinating and attracting their prey. 
 He would have wished, above all, that it had protested 
 against the ridiculous practices and shameful mummeries 
 which disgrace the cause of Magnetism, and that it had an- 
 nounced that its intention would be directed to the psycho- 
 logical or physiological research into the influence which 
 Magnetism really appears to exercise on the nervous system ; 
 for the rest, he does not think the Academy can shrink from 
 the question submitted to its examination, and he votes for 
 the formation of a committee, to which opponents of the 
 cause shall be admitted. 
 
 § 3. " M. Bally begins by expressing his regret at being 
 obliged to take sides against the very remarkable report 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 51 
 
 of M. Husson, and confesses that his mind was for a time 
 almost shaken into a belief of animal, or organic Magnet- 
 ism, by an experiment made by Messrs. Ampere and 
 Arago. He is surprised that magnetizers have not more 
 amply availed themselves of it. This experiment consists 
 in placing a circular plate of metal under a bar that has 
 been touched with the loadstone, and giving a rotary motion 
 to the former ; the bar is then seen to turn of itself, and it 
 is not by means of the air that the movement is communi- 
 cated to the bar, for the same thing happens when it is 
 placed on an isolated stand. Can it be, then, that there 
 exists in nature some imponderable fluid besides those 
 with which natural philosophy is familiar? However that 
 may be, he does not see what service a committee, such 
 as the report proposes to elect, could render. It would 
 lop off all the supernatural excrescences of Magnetism, and 
 apply itself only to the physical phenomena : now the lat- 
 ter have been amply demonstrated, and it is impossible to 
 add either to their number or legitimacy. The Academy, 
 before taking up the subject of Magnetism, ought to await 
 the presentation of memorials on a point of science beset 
 with so many difficulties. Committees, moreover, hardly 
 ever facilitate the progress of the sciences, and the one 
 proposed would have to guard itself against the snares of 
 jugglery, or its own credulity. Are there not, adds M. 
 Bally, many points of comparison between the phenomena 
 experienced by persons who are now magnetized, and 
 those attributed of old to the initiated in the mysteries of 
 Ceres and Eleusis 1 Ought prudent minds to regard with 
 less suspicion the oracles of somnambulists, than those is 
 which were heard the Sybils and Pythias of antiquity 1 
 He alludes to the dangers and ridicule that follow the 
 mystic practices of Magnetism, and fears that through the 
 agency of Magnetism at a distance, some great operator or 
 other may, from his garret in Paris, continue to shake the 
 
52 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 thrones of China and Japan. M. Bally votes against the 
 conclusions of the report. 
 
 § 4. " M. Orfila thinks to promote the interests of society 
 at large, as well as those of the Academy, by voting for the 
 adoption of the report. Those who oppose it, he says, can 
 rest their objections only on the three following reasons : 
 
 " 1. The Department has not been called upon to take 
 into consideration the proposed scrutiny, and ought not to 
 involve itself, unadvisedly, in a question admitting of so 
 much controversy. 
 
 " 2- Animal Magnetism is mere jugglery. 
 
 " 3. Committees do not exert themselves. 
 
 " Now, the first fact assumed is incorrect. A physician 
 of Paris, M. Foissac, has called upon the department to 
 take up the subject of Magnetism, in offering to submit to 
 an examination, by its commissioners, a magnetic somnam- 
 bulist ; and other physicians, members of this Academy — 
 M. Rostan in particular — have in their writings invited the 
 attention of the learned to this question. 
 
 " In the second place, if there is a great deal of jugglery 
 and charlatanism in Animal Magnetism, is it not the part of 
 rashness to reject as false all that is told us of the effects 
 produced by this agency 1 The testimony of enlightened 
 physicians ought to be admitted as proof in this matter. 
 If the magnetic phenomena appear extraordinary, did those 
 of electricity at first appear less marvellous 1 Would it have 
 been rational to treat Franklin as a juggler, when he announc- 
 ed that with a metallic-pointed instrument he would control 
 the lightning of heaven ? Whether Magnetism is capable 
 of being employed for good or evil, it is a therapeutic 
 agent ; and it concerns the honor of the Academy — nay, 
 it is their duty, to search into it. 
 
 " As to the third objection, M. Orfila is of opinion that 
 committees do effect little when they act simultaneously ; 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 
 
 53 
 
 but that this is not the case when the members pursue 
 their researches individually, and then make common 
 stock of the fruit of their observations. He votes for the 
 formation of a committee composed of ten members. 
 
 § 5. " M. Double complains that the reportof the committee 
 being, from beginning to end, nothing but an apology for Mag- 
 netism, they have not discharged the duty confided to them 
 by the Academy. Is it possible to believe, as the Reporter 
 affirms, that the commissioners of 1784 conducted their 
 examination carelessly, and under the influence of preju- 
 dice ? The names of Lavoisier, Bally, and Franklin, 
 forbid such a suspicion. 
 
 " It is futile to assert that the Magnetism of the present 
 day differs from that whose merits were decided on in 
 1784. The language of its partisans, not the face of the 
 question itself, has undergone a change ; in 1784, Mag- 
 netism was clothed a la francaise, now it wears a plain 
 frock-coat. 
 
 " And since the committee have evinced a disposition to 
 hunt up precedents and models out of France, instead of 
 importing them from Germany and the northern countries, 
 so fertile in extravagant systems, and whence all sorts of 
 errors have reached us, both in medicine and philosophy, 
 why was not England cited, the birthplace of the immortal 
 Newton, which in the pursuit of science, confining itself 
 scrupulously to the paths of experience and observation, 
 has hitherto disdained to bestow any attention on Magnet- 
 ism ? Moreover, the committee has no right to urge in 
 support of the conclusions contained in its report, the at- 
 tribute with which the Academy is invested, of examining 
 occult remedies. If Magnetism comes under this head, the 
 Academy ought to wait, as it is in the habit of doing in other 
 matters, until the investigation is urged upon it by authority. 
 
 " Having thus inveighed against the arguments of the 
 5* 
 
 
54 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 report, M. Double proceeds to an examination of the ques- 
 tion itself. He has made Magnetism his private study for 
 eighteen or twenty years ; has magnetized, and been 
 magnetized ; but having never elicited or experienced 
 any phenomena, he remains fully persuaded, that from the 
 time of Mesmer down to the present day, every result said 
 to have been produced is mere illusion or deception. 
 Consequently, he divides magnetizers into two classes — 
 the dupers and the duped. Viewing the question in refer- 
 ence to the art of healing, what an absurd pretension is 
 that of managing, or directing at will an agent of which 
 nothing is known, no definite idea formed, and which the 
 mind can in nowise grasp or appreciate ! Regarding it ir. 
 a scientific point of view only, the theory of Magnetism, 
 as promulgated, presents a motley and incongruous mass 
 of facts. The nomination of a committee for the examin- 
 ation of these facts, cannot but impede the progress of 
 science, and compromise the Academy. Committees and 
 delegated bodies are generally ill-qualified for the collect- 
 ing of facts ; this is the province of individual labor : the 
 office of academies, is rather to judge of, and reduce them 
 to a system when collected ; and in the present question, 
 in what danger is a committee of being deceived! and of 
 how much graver import are mystifications to a body of 
 men than to individuals ! 
 
 " M. Double then wishes the department to observe, 
 that the principles of magnetizers themselves are opposed 
 to the examination they solicit. He quotes a passage from 
 M. Deleuze, upon the difficulty which the learned expe- 
 rience in inducing a frame of mind calculated to elicit the 
 magnetic phenomena. Good-will, confidence, and faith, 
 are requisite, both on the part of the magnetizers and 
 magnetized. Can commissioners ever comply with the 
 conditions exacted ? In conclusion, M. Double cites a 
 passage from M. Rostan, who gives a picture of the dangers 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 05 
 
 of Magnetism in certain cases, and like M. Bally, he urges 
 its prejudicial influence on public morality. In voting 
 against the nomination of a committee, M. Double entreats 
 the Academy to wait till scientific memorials on Animal 
 Magnetism shall be presented to its notice. 
 
 § 6. " M. Laennec votes against the conclusions of the 
 report, because the result of twenty years' study, which he 
 has devoted to Animal Magnetism, has demonstrated to 
 him, that it is almost wholly a system of jugglery and de- 
 ception. He, however, commenced the study with pre- 
 possessions in its favor ; but he quickly perceived that he 
 possessed but little magnetic power, and that to magnetize 
 one's self was a very poor method of getting at the truth ; 
 that a man always ends by becoming the dupe of his own 
 vanity, or the interest he cannot but feel in behalf of the 
 person he magnetizes. It is much better to be contented 
 to look on without taking any active part in the experi- 
 ments. By pursuing this course, he has ascertained that 
 the sagacity of the magnetic senses was often led astray 
 by appearances, and he has seen pretended somnambulists 
 fall into gross errors of this description. All his observa- 
 tions have taught him that nine-tenths of these facts are 
 forged. Thus the phenomena produced by magnetizers, 
 and the oracles uttered by somnambulists, differ according 
 to the physical and moral temperaments of the parties. 
 Mesmer, by his magnetic operations, excited convulsions. 
 Deslon elicited real crises such as are observed in dis- 
 eases. In like manner the somnambulist of M. Deleuze, 
 a highly-educated man, displays much more intelligence 
 than those of M. de Puysegur, who was unversed in the 
 sciences. Lastly, he has lately seen a somnambulist, un- 
 der the direction of an apothecary, evince remarkable skill 
 in apportioning the ingredients of the prescriptions he 
 recommended." 
 
56 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 On motion of M. Itard, the discussion was adjourned to 
 the next session. 
 
 Session of the 24th of January. 
 
 § 7. " M. Chardel supports the conclusions of the report. 
 Nothing proves more satisfactorily to him the necessity of 
 a fresh investigation of Magnetism, than the diversity of 
 opinions expressed within the walls of the Academy it- 
 self. Can those who oppose it do so from real conviction? 
 and have they the right to assert, that there is room to call 
 in question, on the part of the learned, a disposition to com- 
 ply with the conditions to which experimentalists are 
 liable, at the very moment when this investigation is sub- 
 mitted to the Academy 1 It is thought, that to admit the 
 existence of this agent acknowledged by magnetizers is 
 repugnant to reason ; now what can there be so strange in 
 the action of one living being on another to him who has 
 witnessed the wonders of Galvanism 1 It has been de- 
 cided that Magnetism is a chimera, because the magnetic 
 fluid does not come within the range of any of our senses, 
 and the laws by which it operates have not yet been de- 
 fined : on this ground, the same parties might deny the 
 cerebral influence, of the mechanical operation of which 
 we are quite as ignorant. It is made a subject of reproach 
 against the partisans of Magnetism, that they insist on the 
 necessity of faith and volition, in order to magnetize suc- 
 cessfully ; now which of our faculties can we exert with- 
 out these two conditions ? Some will have it that Mag- 
 netism is simply the influence which one sex has over the 
 other ; whereas we have seen even children become mag- 
 netic somnambulists. Magnetism, they will tell us, may 
 be dangerous : if so, there is an additional motive for in- 
 vestigating it. Moreover, in making this objection, those 
 who deny the reality of the magnetic phenomena fall into 
 a strange contradiction. 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 57 
 
 " Besides all this, M. Chardel testifies to the reality 
 of these phenomena from having been an eye-witness 
 thereof himself, and especially that which is termed 
 somnambulism. In the number of those which are most 
 uniformly produced by the magnetic action he places — 
 l. A deep and prolonged sleep, which is often accom- 
 panied by somnambulism. 2. The expansion of the in- 
 tellectual faculties. 3. An extension of sight, which 
 enables the somnambulist to see the magnetic fluid. 4. 
 The faculty of acquiring perceptions of the state of the in- 
 ternal organs. He does not presume to express an opi- 
 nion of Magnetism considered as a therapeutic agent ; but 
 he is inclined to believe that it ought not to be employed 
 without the greatest caution ; in short, whether it consists 
 in nervous phenomena determined by a peculiar agent, or 
 by the mere effect of imagination, it is equally worthy of 
 being studied. A previous decision furnishes no argument 
 against it, since, in spite of the imposing names of the 
 literati who denounced it, Magnetism has since that period 
 never ceased to spread, and now rests upon a mass of 
 facts which it is impossible to call in question. How 
 otherwise can we account for this uninterrupted succession 
 of the deceiving or deceived ? There can be no pretext 
 for refusing to investigate anew a doctrine which for fifty 
 years has successfully resisted all attacks upon it. 
 
 § 8. " M. Rochoux votes against the conclusions of the 
 report, on the ground that the dogma admitted by magneti- 
 zers, that the presence of - one unbeliever is sufficient to 
 neutralize every species of operation, must inevitably dis- 
 qualify a committee formed of men who doubt, or disbe- 
 lieve, from entering upon the proposed examination. Ani- 
 mal Magnetism, reduced to its simple form, offers nothing 
 worthy of investigation ; all the reality connected with it 
 consists in the appearance of a few phenomena which 
 
58 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 Dr. Bertrand refers to the ecstatic state, but which might 
 with greater propriety be placed on the list of hallucinations. 
 
 § 9. " M. Marc leaves to M. Husson the defence of the con- 
 clusions contained in the report, and entertains the Acade- 
 my with an account of the labors undertaken in Germany 
 in the cause of Magnetism. He is sorry to see geograph- 
 ical lines of demarcation laid down in reference to the 
 sciences, and thinks that Hermstaedt, Mekel, Klaproth, 
 Hufeland, and Shiglits, were, or are not dealers in mira- 
 cles, any more than Lavoisier, Fourcroy, and Thouret ; 
 and yet, he observes, we see the most enlightened minds 
 of Germany, among others those I have just mentioned, 
 devoting themselves to inquiries into Magnetism, and de- 
 monstrating its reality. 
 
 " The Academy of Sciences at Berlin, one of the most 
 eminently learned bodies in Europe, did not think it de- 
 rogatory to its dignity to offer, in 1818, a premium of 
 3300 francs for the best essay on Animal Magnetism. Al- 
 low me to read to you the following passage from the pro- 
 gramme published on this subject : 
 
 " ' It is desirable that the information acquired in respect 
 to Animal Magnetism be presented in such a form as to 
 divest it of all that is marvellous, by demonstrating that, 
 like other physical phenomena, it follows certain rules, and 
 that its effects are by no means isolated, individual, and 
 without analogy in the range of organic nature.' 
 
 "Was this condition, I ask, gentlemen, dictated by en- 
 thusiasts and dealers in miracles ? 
 
 " In Prussia, by a royal ordinance issued on the 7th of 
 February, 1817, none but physicians legally admitted, are 
 allowed to practise Magnetism ; and all who devote their 
 attention to it, are enjoined to render an account every 
 three months to a superior delegation, of the results of 
 their operations, 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 59 
 
 "In 1815, the emperor of Russia appointed a board of 
 physicians to investigate Magnetism. This board having 
 announced that the result of its researches was a convic- 
 tion that Magnetism is a very important agent, and one that 
 ought to be employed by none but well-qualified physi- 
 cians ; it was ordained that those physicians who wished 
 to undertake magnetic cures, should render an account to 
 the board every three months of their experiments, and 
 that the board should report the same at like intervals to 
 the emperor. 
 
 " A resolution of the College of Health at Denmark, 
 passed on the 21st of December, 1816, and afterwards a 
 royal enactment on the 14th of January, 1817, impose the 
 same obligations on physicians, and enjoin the local au- 
 thorities to see that physicians alone practise Magnetism, 
 and to prosecute and punish as empirics all such as might 
 make use of it without medical superintendence. 
 
 " From the foregoing facts, can it be supposed that men 
 of eminent merit — that a learned body of the highest grade 
 — that governments known to have assembled about them 
 the &ite of the medical profession, have, possibly, in dif- 
 ferent places, and at different periods, become the dupes 
 of jugglers or enthusiasts, and executed, promulgated, or- 
 dered, and patronized, labors having for their object a mere 
 chimera 1 
 
 " M. Marc votes for the formation of a permanent com- 
 mittee, chosen in ' trios' from the partisans and adversaries 
 of Magnetism, and from the members of the Academy who 
 are still skeptical. He believes that a committee thus or- 
 ganized, cannot but arrive at conclusions beneficial to sci- 
 ence, and reflecting honor on the Academy. 
 
 § 10. " M. Nacquart endeavors to prove that Magnetism 
 ought not to be investigated, because the human mind, 
 with all its present attainments in knowledge, cannot grasp 
 
60 PSYCOBUNAMY. 
 
 the subject : he views it in its relation both to physical 
 and organic sciences. As to the former, he says, the last 
 century did justice to the attempt made by magnetizers to 
 assimilate its laws with those of the loadstone ; and as to 
 the latter, it is evident to all who have heard somnambu- 
 lism spoken of, that its marvels are beyond the pale of the 
 known laws of organic nature. In somnambulism, in fact, 
 the senses have no need of organs ; time, space, (interve- 
 ning) bodies disappear, &c. The Academy then would 
 have no line, rule, or criterion for passing judgment on 
 such phenomena ; the discussion, therefore, must at all 
 events be adjourned. 
 
 § 11. " M. Itard commences by replying to the objec- 
 tions of the adversaries of the committee. Pleasantries, 
 he says, are here out of place, for they can only reach the 
 abuses and extravagances of Magnetism ; and it is not 
 proposed to adopt these abuses, but to separate whatever 
 of truth there may be in it from its exaggerations. It 
 cannot be inferred from the examination of 1784 that 
 Magnetism is a thing condemned, for what kind of con- 
 demnation can that be which falls innoxious on its object? 
 Now Magnetism has continued since 1784 to strengthen 
 and spread, and at the present day many physicians make 
 no mystery of their faith in Magnetism. It is impossible 
 to imagine that all the facts w T hich have been accumulated 
 in its favor for half a century are mere illusions and con- 
 jurations. The dignity of the Academy is talked of; but 
 there is nothing more compatible with the dignity of a 
 learned man than a willingness to be taught what he does 
 not know. Fears are entertained lest it should expose it- 
 self to ridicule. But what matters ridicule when one en- 
 joys the consciousness of acting with a view to the inter- 
 ests of science and humanity 1 
 
 " M. Itard then explains the advantages that are to be 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 61 
 
 expected from the investigation. The practice of medi- 
 cine will be freed from a secret competition, of which the 
 physician is always kept in ignorance, and by which he 
 sees his dignity compromised. The public will be deliv- 
 ered from a charlatanism, the more easily practised, inas- 
 much as it requires neither address nor audacity, but 
 which is capable of making dupes and victims. In fact, 
 the Academy cannot refuse the investigation without pla- 
 cing themselves in a most embarrassing position. What 
 will -they do, indeed, if memorials and observations of 
 Magnetism are sent to them ? Will they appoint a com- 
 mittee each time ? If so, this committee, whether com- 
 posed of believers, unbelievers, or skeptics, will prove in- 
 dividually and collectively incompetent to the task. Chance 
 will determine every thing ; one committee would approve 
 to-day what another would disapprove to-morrow. Will 
 the Academy, on the other hand, slight these memorials 1 
 How can they presume to do so after the eclat of this dis- 
 cussion, after the result of the ballot shall have exhibited 
 at least a third of its members voting for the investigation 1 
 By not declining on the plea of incompetency to judge of 
 phenomena of this description, they will preserve the right 
 of authoritatively denouncing the clandestine practice of 
 Magnetism, which is so much to be deplored. Whether 
 Magnetism be a real or imaginary agent, it must be in- 
 quired into ; to refuse this, is to decline treading the ex- 
 perimental path which alone leads to truth. It is to give 
 currency to the belief that we turn from it with motives 
 which will be interpreted in a manner very unfavorable to 
 the Academy, and very favorable, on the contrary, to 
 Magnetism. 
 
 § 12. " M. Recamier can add nothing to what has been 
 said by Messrs. Desgenettes, Bally, and Double ; but he 
 wishes to make known what he has observed relative to 
 6 
 
62 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 the magnetic phenomena. He has seen the celebrated 
 somnambulist of M. de Puysegur, called ' the Marechale,' 
 and he has some reason to suspect a fraud, for he was re- 
 fused the means of dissipating his doubts by an experi- 
 ment, and heard this woman repeat things which he him- 
 self had previously told the patients. How ridiculous, too, 
 to see a drachm of Glauber salts prescribed as a transcen- 
 dent remedy for pulmonary consumption ! He has been 
 present when experiments were made at the Hotel Dieu 
 upon two women and a man. He saw one of the women 
 fall asleep, as it was said, under the mere influence of the 
 volition of the magnetizer, who for that purpose had con- 
 cealed himself in an armoire ; but the only proofs by 
 which he sought to establish the reality of the sleep were 
 confined to slight pinchings, and a sudden, but not loud 
 noise made near her ears ; and yet, in the exaggerated ac- 
 counts of this affair, the above feeble attempts to arouse 
 her were converted into painful tortures. It is true he 
 employed a more powerful means on a man who had been 
 put into the somnambulic state by an inmate of the estab- 
 lishment, M. Robouam. He dipped him, (an operation 
 which by the by the disease called for,) and it is a fact, 
 that the man neither awoke, nor showed any signs of sen- 
 sibility. 
 
 " M. Recamier has never dreamed of denying these 
 facts. He believes in some action or other; but he does 
 not think it possible to render it serviceable in medicine. 
 
 " In Germany, where Magnetism is so much in vogue, are 
 the cures effected more numerous or remarkable than else- 
 where ? Has Magnetism led to any therapeutic discovery 
 in that country ? Nothing, then, is less certain than its 
 healing efficacy. At the very time when the cure of a girl 
 who had been magnetized at the Hotel Dieu was noised 
 abroad, she was requesting to be readmitted to the hospital, 
 where she died of a disease pronounced incurable by every 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 63 
 
 member of the profession. As for somnambulism, it is a 
 mere (morbid) excitement of sensibility, and not a display 
 of greater power, or extension of that faculty. The pretend- 
 ed clairvoyance of somnambulists has no existence ; and 
 he has twice seen the most glaring moral abuses result 
 from the practice of Magnetism. M. Recamier does not 
 see the necessity of appointing a permanent committee for 
 this object; unbelievers could not be enrolled therein, 
 since, according to the magnetic doctrine, these would 
 paralyze the efforts of the believers. He adds, that were 
 the government to require of the Academy a judgment on 
 Magnetism, the latter would have a right to refuse it on 
 the score of not having at its disposal a magnetizing ma- 
 chine to facilitate its researches. He therefore votes 
 against the report ; but he does not oppose a gracious re- 
 ception of any observations that may be presented to the 
 Academy upon Animal Magnetism. 
 
 § 13. " M. Georget proposes the two following ques- 
 tions, namely : Is the existence of Magnetism at least 
 probable ? Does it behoove the Academy to investigate 
 Animal Magnetism 1 The affirmative solution of the first 
 question does not involve that of the other. 
 
 " For forty years, he says, Magnetism has been studied, 
 practised, and promulgated in France, and a great portion 
 of Europe, by a great multitude of well-informed and dis- 
 interested men, who proclaim its truth, in spite of the shafts 
 of ridicule vainly showered upon it with a view to its anni- 
 hilation. It is an astonishing fact, that Magnetism is not 
 even known by name among the ignorant class ; it is 
 from the enlightened class that it derives support. Those 
 who are enlisted in its cause, are men who have at least 
 received a tolerable education ; and in the number of those 
 who have composed the many volumes in which are accu- 
 mulated the facts, that at the present day may be cited in 
 
 
64 PSYCODIINAMY. 
 
 its favor, are to be found literati, naturalists, physicians, 
 and philosophers. And yet, magnetizers are represented 
 as ignoramuses and imbeciles, whose testimony is beneath 
 notice. How comes it, then, that these ignoramuses are 
 daily making converts of distinguished men, and that the 
 latter, when they have witnessed certain effects, become 
 in the end the most zealous partisans of so contemptible 
 an opinion ? It must be confessed, that a fallacy which is 
 thus propagated, contrary to the usual course of things, 
 supposes the existence of a new species of hallucination, 
 of which it is at least very important to trace the cause. 
 
 " M. Georget cites the names of several physicians, 
 members of the Academy, who have witnessed magnetic 
 facts, and publicly evinced their devotion to truth. He 
 refers to the experiments made at the Hotel Dieu, by M. 
 Dupotet, in presence of Messrs. Husson, GeofFroy, Reca- 
 mier, Delens, Patissier, Martin Solon, Bricheteau de Ker- 
 garadec, and others, who affixed their signatures to the 
 statement of results. 
 
 " The phenomena of Magnetism, says M. Georget, are 
 found to be inexplicable ; but since when has it become al- 
 lowable to deny a fact on the score of our inability to account 
 for it 1 First doubt, then investigation, mark the progress 
 of every well-ordered mind — of every man who is not 
 blinded by prejudice, and believes that nature has yet 
 secrets to reveal to him. 
 
 " The cry of charlatanism is raised ; but does the con- 
 duct of magnetizers desen'e this reproach ? A charlatan 
 conceals himself, and makes a mystery of the means he 
 employs ; magnetizers, on the contrary, call for an investi- 
 gation. ' Do as we do, and you will obtain the same re- 
 sults,' is what they incessantly urge upon others. Among 
 those who believe in Magnetism, we find none that have 
 not seen, examined, and made experiments. Among its 
 adversaries, we find men who, for the most part, deny 
 

 ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 65 
 
 what they have neither seen nor wish to see. To the 
 second question, as to whether the Academy ought to in- 
 quire into Magnetism, M. Georget answers in the nega- 
 tive. 
 
 " The phenomena of Magnetism, he continues, demand, 
 in order that the mind may grasp them, an unflagging at- 
 tention, a zeal — nay, a devotion that cannot be looked for 
 in a committee. It is a notorious fact that there is great 
 difficulty in procuring a single convention of the members 
 who compose the committees daily nominated. Will the 
 numerous delegation which it is now proposed to appoint, 
 assemble punctually every day for several months ? be- 
 sides, it is a fact that somnambulists harassed and tor- 
 mented by observers, or ill-disposed persons, are confused, 
 and even completely disconcerted. 
 
 " The Academy ought to encourage the examination of 
 Animal Magnetism, but not undertake the task itself. 
 
 § 14. "M. Magendie admits the expediency of an inves- 
 tigation, and will not decline being nominated to serve on 
 the committee : he even proposes himself as a member ; 
 but thinks the Academy has taken a wrong course, in an- 
 ticipating the question by the present discussion. Upon 
 M. Foissac's presenting his proposition, they ought merely 
 to have appointed delegates to inquire into the phenomena 
 which he might have to offer. He therefore votes against 
 the formation of a standing committee, and for the nomina- 
 tion of a committee of three. 
 
 § 15. " M. Guersent regrets the introduction of written 
 discourses into the Academy: it will tend, he says, to pro- 
 tract all its discussions. Proceeding tjien to the question, 
 he declares himself in favor of the views of the commit- 
 tee. In his opinion, Magnetism is not a settled question ; 
 it is really requisite that the facts of which it is composed 
 
66 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 should undergo a fresh examination. The report of the 
 commissioners of 1784, proves of itself that Magnetism is 
 not, in toto, an affair of jugglery, since the authors of that 
 report acknowledge the reality of important phenomena, 
 such as convulsions, hiccough, vomitings, &c. M. Guer- 
 sent can add thereto his personal experience. He has 
 seen and produced, by means of Magnetism, phenomena 
 as to the reality of which he could not be mistaken, and 
 of which nature offers frequent examples. Can the pos- 
 sibility of artificial somnambulism be disputed, considering 
 what we know of natural somnambulism ? The investiga- 
 tion is the more expedient, because sooner or later it must 
 be undertaken, in order to deprive charlatanism of a tool 
 easily handled, and which has this pernicious tendency, 
 that it affects only the enlightened class of society. In 
 reply to the objection on the score of ridicule, medicine, says 
 M. Guersent, has always been the butt of satire, and yet 
 what injury has it sustained therefrom ? Has the Purgon 
 of Moliere, or the Sangrado of Lesage, swept away a sin- 
 gle fact 1 It will be no more ridiculous in you to investi- 
 gate Magnetism, than it was in Lavoisier and Franklin, at 
 the time of the first examination. He votes in favor of 
 the report." 
 
 The discussion is again adjourned to the next session. 
 
 Session of the 14th of February, 1826. 
 
 § 16. " M. Gasc, whose name appears against the re- 
 port, maintains that to appoint a committee would be to 
 give up the ground of doubt ; that an investigation con- 
 sented to, would be at once a presumption in favor of the 
 doctrine of magnetizers ; moreover, that an investigation 
 would settle nothing, and there would be constant appeals 
 from whatever decisions might be passed. For the rest, 
 what has Magnetism to show ? Convulsions, hysterical at- 
 tacks, and epilepsy in women. Now we know that a thou- 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 67 
 
 sand different causes may produce these accidental affec- 
 tions. M. Gasc is convinced, that in all cases where 
 somnambulism is not feigned, the phenomena are only 
 such as he has seen presented by an hysterical peasant 
 girl, who talked during her fits, and forgot afterwards what 
 she had said. He exposes the singular illusions of som- 
 nambulists, and the impostures of certain women, who 
 make a trade of their consultations. He saw at Charen- 
 ton a pretended somnambulist, who took her specifics from 
 a dispensatory, which she consulted at her leisure. At 
 Paris, too, a child who, being transported to Paradise by 
 his magnetizer, said that he saw there two great prophets 
 at the right hand of God, and these two great prophets 
 were Voltaire and Rousseau. (M. Francois, from his seat, 
 ' Yes, yes, that occurred at M. Chambellan's.') 
 
 § 17. " M. Lerminier votes in favor of the report of the 
 committee. ' In my youth,' he says, f when I wished to 
 form an idea of Animal Magnetism, my teachers referred 
 me to the decision of Bailly and Thouret. The opinion 
 of these great men had then a preponderating influence, 
 and I adopted it ; but subsequently, new phenomena have 
 appeared, in relation to which we cannot invoke judgments 
 passed of old ; and when young people ask me what they 
 ought to think of Magnetism, I know not how to answer 
 them. I call for the formation of a committee for the en- 
 lightenment of the Academy and myself. Let us beware, 
 in refusing the investigation, of giving a fresh proof of the 
 blindness of party spirit." 
 
 
68 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ANSWER OF THE COMMITTEE TO THE OBJECTIONS MADE 
 AGAINST THEIR REPORT, AND RESULTS OF THE SECRET 
 VOTING ON THE QUESTION. 
 
 Several members of the Academy, Messrs. Adelon, 
 Gueneau de Mussy, Ferrus, Capuron, Honore, Briche- 
 teau, and others, had recorded their names as supporters or 
 adversaries of the report of the committee ; but M. Sal- 
 made having moved the termination of the debate, his 
 proposition was adopted, after a warm discussion. 
 
 M. Husson, the committee's reporter, has the floor. 
 
 " Gentlemen : — Your committee has procured a faith- 
 ful copy of the objections made against the report which 
 it had the honor of presenting to you, on the 13th of De- 
 cember last, upon the question, as to whether the Depart- 
 ment should devote itself to the study and investigation of 
 Animal Magnetism. All these objections have been re- 
 produced at two special meetings, and each of them has 
 been made the subject of a searching discussion, of which 
 it is right to present you a summary. 
 
 "As, in the fulfilment of the mission you had confided 
 to us, we were actuated solely by the desire of being use- 
 ful to science and humanity, we first inquired of each 
 other whether this laudable motive had not led us astray 
 in the direction we had given to our labor : if such were 
 the case, gentlemen, we were unanimously of opinion, that 
 our only course was to make an honest avowal of our er- 
 ror, to apologize for our intentions, and deplore a want of 
 address, which would have led us into a path so directly 
 opposite to our own views. 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 
 
 " But we must confess, that after the most rigid attention 
 to the subject, we have not been able to detect in the pro- 
 position we have made to you, the impropriety and danger 
 urged against it. Consequently, your committee have 
 deputed me to make known to you that, deeming none of 
 these objections sufficiently powerful to make them re 
 nounce the conclusions contained in their report, they 
 would again sue for the kind attention with which you re- 
 garded their former labors, in listening to their answers to 
 the objections, of which that report has been the object. 
 
 " We slight none of these objections, gentlemen ; we 
 accept them all as such ; and we will take care to impart 
 to our answers a seriousness which we regret not having 
 found in the attacks of certain parties. 
 
 " We will therefore make no attempt to dissipate the 
 fears expressed by one of our colleagues, lest by the ope- 
 ration of Magnetism at a distance, some powerful magnet- 
 izer, from his garret in Paris, should contrive to shake the 
 thrones of China and Japan ; he will permit us also to de- 
 cline following him to Eleusis into the temple of Ceres, or 
 even into the cave of Trophonius in Bceotia. We will not 
 animadvert upon the comparison he draws between the 
 phenomena of the magnetized and those exhibited by the 
 initiated in the mysteries of the Bona Dea. In fine, we 
 will refrain from giving our opinion as to the identity he 
 established between the conversations of somnambulists 
 and the oracles of Pythia. We will likewise pass by un- 
 noticed, the trees in the forest of Dodona and the Abbts 
 de Cour, of which another of our colleagues reminded us. 
 W T e will also say nothing of the Magnetism in bottles, for 
 which one of our opponents expressed a wish. 
 
 " All these fictions, all these exaggerations, have not to 
 us any semblance of argument ; it is not, we think, with 
 such light weapons that the motives upon which a serious 
 delegation has rested an important proposition, ought to be 
 
70 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 attacked. These weapons, moreover, may easily change 
 hands ; and in that case, the controversy, instead of being 
 dignified and severe, becomes an encounter of wits, agree- 
 able enough, perhaps, but certainly futile and out of place. 
 
 " You have doubtless remarked, gentlemen, that all these 
 objections may be divided into two classes: 1st. Those 
 which relate to the substance, the spirit of the report ; and 
 2d. Those which attack its conclusion, that is to say, the 
 proposal for an examination into Magnetism. "We will 
 consider them in succession. 
 
 " Our colleague, who took the lead in the discussion, 
 has not made a fortunate choice in the objections he has 
 directed against the compilation of the report. He told us, 
 in the first place, that the parliament of Paris did not pro- 
 hibit inoculation for the small-pox. Although this state- 
 ment is of little importance in itself, we will answer it 
 from the text, in the very words of the act of parliament, 
 dated June 8th, 1763. 
 
 " ' The Faculties of Theology and Medicine are hereby 
 ordered to assemble, to give their precise opinions on the 
 subject of inoculation ; if it be expedient to permit, pro- 
 hibit, or tolerate it. However, in the mean time, a pro- 
 hibition is laid upon the practice of this operation in the 
 towns and faubourgs within the jurisdiction of the Court.' 
 Our colleague was, therefore, in the wrong. 
 
 " He next told you, in reference to the question of the 
 emetic, that this medicament was at first denounced, but 
 subsequently admitted by the Faculty ; and he came to 
 the conclusion that we ought always to abide by the last 
 decision. 
 
 " But a last decision implies that there must have been 
 a first : this last may be just as well followed by another 
 as it was itself preceded by one previously rendered. 
 Our adversary, then, has himself given support to our posi- 
 tion ; and by the illustration he has selected, involuntarily 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 71 
 
 acknowledged that another trial of Magnetism might be 
 granted. 
 
 " He added, too, that the opinions expressed in theses, 
 and the verdicts we cited, can by no means be presented 
 as arguments to be yielded to. We were so precisely of 
 his opinion before we knew it, that we cited all these pro- 
 positions and verdicts, only as proofs of that instability 
 which always permits a fresh investigation. Lastly, he 
 admitted that the examination of Magnetism, by the com- 
 missioners of the king in 1784, was not what it ought to 
 have been, but that a regard to propriety prevented the 
 commissioners from strictly examining the persons experi- 
 mented on. Your committee asserted nothing to the con- 
 trary, and claims the benefit of this admission. 
 
 " You will agree with us, gentlemen, that these are not 
 objections, but rather our own arguments under another 
 form ; you must, therefore, have shared our astonishment 
 at the fact, that our colleague should have proposed the 
 order of the day in regard to our report. According to 
 the principles of sound logic, we ought to have looked for 
 quite an opposite conclusion. 
 
 " M. Virey, who, although not connected with the De- 
 partment, came to take a part in the discussion, has, 
 together with M. Bally, reproached your committee with 
 having deduced from facts irrelevant to the question, mo- 
 tives to the study of Magnetism. These gentlemen blame 
 us for not having based the necessity for this study upon 
 the affinity that may possibly exist between the magnetic 
 action and the electric fluid ; between this same agent, or 
 magnetic fluid, and the action of electrical animals, such, 
 for instance, as the gymnotus electricus, and animals of 
 prey, whose gaze seems to paralyze the weaker animals, 
 and make them fall helplessly into their jaws. 
 
 " Now, had we followed this course, we should have 
 supposed the question altogether set at rest ; we should 
 
72 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 have made a report on science already acquired, and not 
 on the necessity of acquiring it : for to prove the relations 
 of one object to another, is first to ascertain the existence 
 of these objects, then to compare their essence, and lastly 
 to pass a verdict on the characteristics common to both. 
 This is precisely what ought to be avoided by a committee 
 that is totally ignorant of the nature of Magnetism, and 
 which is appointed for the sole purpose of judging wheth- 
 er it is necessary to study it. Therefore we did not, and 
 ought not to base our inferences upon arguments furnished 
 by the subject itself, since by seeking for arguments in the 
 problem to be solved, we should have prejudged the ques- 
 tion. It was desirable to know whether Magnetism ought 
 or ought not to be studied by the Department, and it was 
 on this point only that we had to deliver an opinion. We 
 should have transgressed the limits of our province, had 
 we pronounced our verdict on the nature of this agent ; we 
 should have entered upon the field of Magnetism, where, 
 with greater hardihood than we possess, you declare that 
 all is litigation, controversy, contradiction, and charlatan- 
 ism. The facts to be verified being wholly scientific ones, 
 and these alone constituting the foundation of the problem, 
 it was impossible for us to avail ourselves of any sucb, 
 without prejudging the question ; and wishing to prove to. 
 you that a judgment in reference to science is never bind- 
 ing on posterity, it became us to look beyond the subject 
 itself, for instances of the possibility of a new investiga- 
 tion, and even the motives for undertaking it. We have, in 
 a word, sought to solve a previous question — the true 
 ground of the pending question — from which all those en- 
 listed against the report have stepped aside. 
 
 " Lastly, M. Virey would have had the committee pro- 
 test against the juggleries, and ridiculous practice, which, 
 to use his own expression, sully and dishonor Magnetism. 
 Now, if the committee have found fault with no proceed- 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 
 
 73 
 
 ing, it is because they could not censure certain ones 
 without approving others : if they had done so, they would 
 again have entered upon an investigation of Magnetism, 
 which could not, and ought not to be. For the rest, gen- 
 tlemen, we have no need to remind you that we expressed 
 strongly our wishes on this subject, and that this very 
 consideration of the juggleries and charlatanism of certain 
 inagnetizers, was one of our chief motives for urging upon 
 you the adoption of our conclusions. M. Virey's desire 
 will infallibly be gratified, if the Department, as he pro- 
 poses, decide to inquire into Animal Magnetism. 
 
 " It has been found, and made a subject of reproach 
 against us, that the report of the committee was an apol- 
 ogy for Magnetism, and consequently that we went beyond 
 our instructions. It does not become us to tell you, gen- 
 tlemen, how circumspect and well-considered this produc- 
 tion of ours was deemed by a great portion of this assem- 
 bly ; but we have reperused it ourselves, and also submit- 
 ted it to the perusal of persons to whom the question of 
 Magnetism and its investigation is a matter of perfect 
 indifference, and they have completely reassured us as to 
 the importance to be attached to such a reproach. 
 
 " In fact, we have faithfully copied from the report of 
 the royal commissioners, first, the passages which show 
 the manner in which they thought it their duty to proceed 
 to the investigation of Magnetism ; secondly, the descrip- 
 tion of the processes employed ; and thirdly, that of the 
 effects which they themselves observed, and which, to use 
 their own expression, seemed to them incredible. We 
 compared the theory admitted in 1784, with that which is 
 propounded by modern magnetizers. We compared the 
 magnetizing processes of 1784 with those adopted at the 
 present day. We compared the results obtained forty years 
 since with those which are now proclaimed. In our state- 
 ment of these results, we uniformly employed the doubtful 
 
 7 
 
74 PSYCODUJSAMY. 
 
 form ; the experiments of which some of our number had 
 been witnesses, and those also which have been published 
 by members of the Academy, were presented in our report 
 as merely conditional facts. We admitted none as true ; 
 we did not even speak of Magnetism as a diagnostic me- 
 dium, or a therapeutic agent ; and yet, we are reproached 
 with having made a report in favor of Magnetism, rather 
 than on the necessity of studying it anew ! The brief 
 analysis which we have thus given of our report should 
 suffice to assure us that you have rightly estimated a re- 
 proach which a simple statement of facts — a mere hint to 
 refresh your memory — must have completely wiped away. 
 " Reference is next made to the verdict of the commis- 
 sioners of 1784, and you are told that you ought not rashly 
 to accuse men of genius like Franklin, Lavoisier, and 
 Bailly, of having passed an imperfect and inconsiderate 
 judgment. Gentlemen, with the rare exception of such 
 characters as Leibnitz, Newton, Descartes, and Lavoisier, 
 men are no longer cited as authorities in scientific matters, 
 when the sciences have continued to progress for forty 
 years afterwards. What has now become of the reputa- 
 tion of Boerhaave, Macquer, and Rouelle, considered as 
 chemists 1 What has become of that of Nollet, Sigaud, 
 Lafond, and Brisson, as natural philosophers ? What of 
 the whole system of optics, as set forth even by Newton ? 
 With the exception of his theory of colors, all this depart- 
 ment of natural philosophy has been made anew within 
 twenty years. He admitted the emission of light, whereas 
 the received doctrine of undulations, as suggested by Des- 
 cartes, is that which now prevails. With a view of rec- 
 tifying the errors which he pretended had been committed 
 by Huygens, in the theory of double refraction, he sub- 
 stituted error for truth, and our celebrated contemporary, 
 M. Malus, has proved that all the results obtained by 
 Huygens were extremely exact. In a word, what has 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 75 
 
 Decome of the reputation of the masters who instructed 
 ours ? All have followed the immutable order of things ; 
 all have yielded to the imperious law imposed by the 
 march of intellect, which, proportionably to the march 
 of time, will always render generations to come more 
 rich in facts previously observed, and consequently more 
 enlightened and better informed than those which have 
 preceded them. No, we have not been wanting in the 
 respect due to the great men who passed sentence on 
 Magnetism in 1784 ; and having repeated here the expres- 
 sions we made use of, we demand your appreciation of 
 the reproach cast upon us. ' However great the lustre,' 
 said we, ' which the reputation of Franklin, Bailly, Darcet, 
 and Lavoisier, reflects on a generation beyond their own ; 
 however profound the respect in which their memory is 
 enshrined ; in spite of the general assent accorded to their 
 report for forty years, it is certain that the judgment they 
 passed has error for its very basis, by reason of their su- 
 perficial mode of proceeding in the study of the question 
 they were deputed to investigate.' 
 
 " This is what we asserted, gentlemen, and this has 
 even been conceded to us by one of our opponents. Ac- 
 cuse, if you think proper, but, at all events, make a better 
 selection of your grounds of complaint. 
 
 " It is a matter of surprise to some, that we should have 
 made no mention of Messrs. Laplace and Thouret, whose 
 opinions and writings ought to counterbalance those of the 
 persons we cited. 
 
 "To this objection we reply, that, for reasons already 
 stated, not wishing to launch into the question of Magnet- 
 ism in itself, it behooved us to disregard all works publish- 
 ed by different individuals, either for or against it ; our pro- 
 duction is indebted to the labors of none but academical 
 bodies ; and if we did* allude to some phenomena of som- 
 nambulism, borrowed from modern authors, it was, we re- 
 
76 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 peat, because these phenomena were unknown to the for- 
 mer judges, and it was absolutely necessary to state them 
 in order to engage you to verify them yourselves. 
 
 " But, it may be urged, you cited M. de Jussieu. We 
 did so : but M. de Jussieu was one of the commissioners, 
 and Messrs. Laplace and Thouret were not. 
 
 " Since we have alighted on this topic again, we must 
 say, that the illustrations of our opponents were badly 
 chosen ; and we hope to prove it to you. You will judge, 
 gentlemen, how far these reproaches are merited. 
 
 " M. Laplace, who is brought as an authority against 
 us, thus expresses himself, page 358 of his work, entitled, 
 ' An Analytical Treatise on the Calculation of Probabili- 
 ties :' — ' The singular phenomena resulting from an extreme 
 sensibility of the nerves in some individuals, have given 
 rise to divers opinions on the existence of a new agent, 
 which has been called Animal Magnetism. The operation 
 of these causes is of course very feeble, and may easily be 
 interrupted by a great number of accidental circumstances. 
 The fact, therefore, that it has not in several instances 
 manifested itself, ought not to lead to the inference that it 
 does not exist at all. We are so far from being acquainted 
 with all the agents in nature, and their various modes of 
 operation, that it would be unphilosophical to deny the ex- 
 istence of phenomena, simply because they are inexplica- 
 ble in the present state of human knowledge.' This, gen- 
 tlemen, is the language of M. Laplace. 
 
 " For the good of the cause which our adversaries are 
 defending, ought they to have incurred the risk of our 
 availing ourselves, to their prejudice, of a testimony which 
 we had too much discretion to introduce into our report ? 
 and ought they to have given us an opportunity of convert- 
 ing to our own profit the very testimony by which they 
 thought to overwhelm us ? 
 
 " Let us pass on to M. Thouret. 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 77 
 
 " Two of our colleagues seem to have directed a per- 
 sonal reproach against the Reporter, for having made no 
 mention of the work of M. Thouret. No one here, gen- 
 tlemen, has more reason to honor the memory of that cele- 
 brated man than the Reporter ; and it gives him pain to be 
 obliged to repel this reproach, by reminding you that on an 
 occasion which cannot have been forgotten,* he alone, al- 
 though unconnected with his family, made an urgent ap- 
 peal to the justice of the Academy in behalf of the mem- 
 ory of M. Thouret and the Honorable Duke de Laroche- 
 foucauld. And it required some courage too, in those days, 
 to raise the voice of gratitude and friendship within these 
 walls. Although that voice was then heard in vain, it 
 should have been raised anew, in honor of the friend and 
 protector of his youth, had any injustice been committed, 
 or any fresh slight seemed to stigmatize with reprobation 
 a name so dear. But the Reporter thought it right to 
 forego the pleasure of mentioning this name, for reasons 
 he has already explained ; but since this pleasure is pro- 
 cured for him, since the work on Magnetism, published by 
 M. Thouret in 1784, is cited against us, we will say, that 
 the title of this work alone proves that M. Thouret had no 
 internal conviction that all which was then reported of 
 Magnetism was error or deception. He knew too well 
 
 * When the Academy of Medicine presented to the Minister of the 
 Interior their first report on vaccination, (1823,) all mention of Messrs. 
 de Larochefoucauld and Thouret was avoided, although the former had 
 introduced into France this inestimable discovery, and the latter had 
 most powerfully contributed to its propagation ; but M. de Larochefou- 
 cauld had just fallen into disgrace, and M. Thouret was the brother of 
 one of the partisans, and one of the most honorable victims of the Revo- 
 lution. M. Husson alone had the courage to protest against this unjust 
 omission ; but his efforts were unsuccessful. And yet several members 
 of the Academy were under personal obligations to M. Thouret, and he 
 was brother-in-law to M. Desgenettes. (See The Mercury, a journal 
 of Psycodunamv, vol. 1, p. 93.) 
 
 7* 
 
78 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 the import of words not to give to his work an appropriate 
 title ; and in entitling it, ' Researches and Doubts upon 
 Animal Magnetism,' he doubtless made choice of these 
 two terms, as conveying a combined allusion to the ana- 
 lytical study he had made of Magnetism, and the uncer- 
 tainty in which he remained as to his conclusions : his 
 doubt was the result of his researches. And let it not be 
 said that this is a mere dispute of words. Did M. Double — 
 (whom we have great pleasure in quoting, because he has 
 shown himself the most redoubtable of our adversaries,) 
 did M. Double, we ask, in publishing his excellent and 
 classical work on Semeiosis, give it the title of ' Researches 
 and Doubts on Semeiosis,' seeing that Baglivi had ex- 
 claimed, ' Quamfallacia sunt morborum signa V No : he en- 
 titled it, ' General Semeiosis, or a Treatise on Symptoms 
 and their Import in Diseases,' and he did so, consistently 
 with the tenor of the arrangement, the substance of the 
 doctrine, and the ensemble of the precepts which consti- 
 tute this remarkable work. M. Thouret, on the contrary, 
 headed his, ' Researches and Doubts,' because he therein 
 states his doubts, knowing that the subject had need of 
 further study ; and he who deems it an honor to have en- 
 joyed his intimacy, whose heart still throbs with gratitude 
 to him, who had ample opportunities of estimating the 
 acuteness and accuracy of his judgment, may be allowed 
 to believe, and also observe to you, that M. Thouret, in ac- 
 cordance with the title of his work, must have made re- 
 searches with a view to clear up his doubts. 
 
 " We think we have satisfactorily replied to the re- 
 proaches in question ; let us pass on to the real objections 
 — those which attack the conclusions of the report. 
 
 " You have been told, that Magnetism in its present 
 state, is identically the same as that which received sen- 
 tence in 1784 ; that the sole difference consisted in this, 
 namely, that at the above epoch it was ' dressed a la fran- 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 79 
 
 caise,' a.r\& that in 1825 it made its reappearance 'clad in a 
 plain frock-coat,' (M. Double, see p. 53 ;) and the inference 
 thence drawn was, that it would be useless to investigate 
 it anew. 
 
 " The tone of this assertion may have appeared face- 
 tious ; but, we ask, On what proofs was it founded ? what 
 points of resemblance have been shown ? what arguments 
 used to enable you to judge of this identity ? To all the 
 evidence embodied in our report, no counter testimony has 
 been brought to bear. We have, therefore, some reason to 
 be astonished that our opponent should so soon have lost 
 sight of the proofs by means of which we made it known 
 that neither the theory, the processes, nor the results were 
 the same. We could not be otherwise than surprised that 
 all these proofs should have been passed over in silence ; 
 that no pains should have been taken to refute them by op- 
 posing facts, and that none of our gainsayers should have 
 dared even to touch upon one of them. They have con- 
 tented themselves with telling us that Magnetism had 
 undergone no change, and seem to think their own assu- 
 rance sufficient proof of the assertion — a singular and easy 
 mode of procedure ! Magnetism, they go on to say, is 
 wholly made up of error or deception, and all who profess 
 to believe therein, may be ranked either among the dupers 
 or the duped ; hence the inutility of an investigation. 
 
 " It seems to us, gentlemen, that these harsh denuncia- 
 tions not only prejudge the question entirely, but are, to 
 use the mildest expression, passed inconsiderately. Our 
 colleague, M. Itard, has already replied in a manner at 
 once logical and gentlemanly to this rather uncourteous 
 objection, and I should fear to weaken the force of his 
 reasoning, by repeating to you that it needs but a division 
 of this assembly, to impart immediately to the question an 
 imposing character; to ensure its being discussed with the 
 delicacy we all owe to each other, and which physicians, 
 
80 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 divided in opinion upon any scientific topic, ought never to 
 forget. What ! gentlemen ; because our limited intelli- 
 gence cannot yet furnish an explanation of the cause of 
 phenomena, which, we are assured, really exist — because 
 these phenomena do not always present themselves when 
 we seek to elicit them — because they deviate from the 
 usual course of things which we daily witness, are those 
 who observe them deceived — are they dupes ? and do 
 those who produce them, and those in whom they are 
 elicited, deceive — are they the dupers 1 Reflect, that 
 among the persons you thus stigmatize, are men seated at 
 your side, making part with yourselves, of the elite of the 
 French Faculty of Medicine, enjoying with you the respect 
 of the community, and, in fine, having an equal right with 
 you to the deference which those who admit the existence 
 of Magnetism do not fail to evince when warding off your 
 attacks. To what should we be reduced, gentlemen, if a 
 diversity of opinion afforded ground for insults ! 
 
 " In order to deter you from the investigation of Mag- 
 netism, an imposing description has been given of magnetic 
 juggleries. Now who among us ever thought Magnetism 
 exempt from them. And because a monstrous abuse has 
 been made of any power, ought we to refrain from inquiring 
 into whatever truth and utility it may possess 1 Upon this 
 principle, how many objects would be excluded from your 
 researches? for there is hardly any thing in medicine with 
 which charlatanism has not tampered and juggled. By this 
 rule you would make no inquiries into the state of the urinary 
 secretion, because there are urinal doctors. You would no 
 longer study fractures, because there are medical cobblers 
 and joiners who profess to set nerves ; and you ought to 
 lock up your medicine-chests because quack remedies 
 furnish you with a thousand panaceas. And yet all these 
 known abuses arrest you neither in your clinical researches, 
 nor medical prescriptions. For the rest, gentlemen, in or- 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 81 
 
 der to give any validity to this objection, founded on the 
 juggleries of Magnetism, it must be shown that Magnetism 
 is wholly false. But let our adversaries demonstrate this, 
 for it rests with them to furnish proofs. The demand can- 
 not be made of us, who affirm nothing, dispute nothing, 
 and who call for an investigation above all things. And 
 if, as one of our colleagues (M. Laennec) has asserted, 
 nine-tenths of the facts related of Magnetism are mere 
 jugglery, why should not the remaining tenth, which he 
 seems to have had the generosity to leave us, and in con- 
 nection with which there are consequently no dupes nor 
 dupers — why should not this portion be the object of inves- 
 tigation? Be upon your guard, gentlemen, if you altogether 
 reject the question, you must of necessity prove that all is 
 false in Magnetism ; for a single phenomenon gives it a 
 foundation, and the remaining tenth that has been left us, 
 will always, in the eyes of the sober-minded, be an im- 
 portant object of meditation for physiological physicians, 
 and therefore a subject worthy of your examination. 
 
 " You have been told that Magnetism had often done 
 more hurt than good, — that it was of no utility in the thera- 
 peutic art, — and that it was superfluous to accord thereto a 
 fresh investigation. 
 
 " This is at once a prejudication of the question, and a 
 very illogical one. For if it has done more harm than 
 good, it has some action or other. Moreover, this action 
 being susceptible of modification by the enlightened prac- 
 tice of physicians, it must necessarily follow, as in the use 
 of other bold remedies, that more or less advantage will be 
 derived from it, and that it ought to be inquired into. What 
 would have been said of him, who having first seen an ani- 
 mal perish by the application of a vial of prussic acid to 
 its nose, should refuse to examine the properties of this 
 acid, for no other reason than that the animal had died from 
 having been made to inhale its aroma ? There is not one 
 
82 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 of you that would not have betaken himself to the study of 
 the operation of this terrible acid, the means of modifying 
 its use, and thence applying it to the therapeutic art. By 
 a parity of argument, gentlemen, the very announcement 
 that Animal Magnetism is dangerous, ought to induce you 
 to examine into it. 
 
 " What if the same colleague, to whose objection we 
 have just replied, tells us directly that Animal Magnetism 
 is useless as a therapeutic agent ? Many more will tell 
 you that they have used it several times, with success, in 
 the treatment of various diseases. The authority of these 
 is at least as credible as that of our opponent, and in this 
 alternative what ought you to do ? what but examine into 
 it again ? 
 
 " But, it is urged, we cannot study the operations of an 
 agent which has no relation either to the physical sciences 
 or to what we know of organic nature, and in which there 
 is nothing within the reach of the instruments furnished 
 by the sciences of the day. 
 
 " In that case, gentlemen, the royal commissioners, of 
 whose celebrity you justly put us in mind, and whose 
 decision you say we ought to respect, ought not to have 
 passed this verdict : for most assuredly they had not in 
 1784 reached the acme of science, any more than we in 
 1826 ; and the experimental processes of that age were 
 even less perfect than in our own. Besides, gentlemen, 
 what matters it that our acquired knowledge is of another 
 order from that which you were so unnecessarily reminded 
 is essential in order to appreciate the wonders of Magnet- 
 ism ? It is enough that facts have been observed through 
 the medium of our senses, that they are elicited anew 
 where there is a will to do it, and where the conditions 
 necessary for their production are complied with ; nor can 
 there be any need of searching the regions of imaginary 
 space for the means of investigating them. 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 83 
 
 " We are likewise attacked on the score of having 
 engaged you to follow the example of the physicians of 
 Germany, a country that has given birth to sects of illu- 
 minati ; and on the other hand, a eulogium has been 
 passed on what is called the wise circumspection of the 
 English, who have kept aloof from all discussions on 
 Magnetism. 
 
 " Strange reasoning this ! And so you seriously pro- 
 pose to us to imitate the disdain or carelessness of English 
 physicians! You reject our proposition because, you say, 
 some fanatical minds in Germany have published mystic 
 doctrines ! But our colleague, M. Marc, deeply versed in 
 all that appertains to German literature, has given you a 
 long and faithful enumeration of all the labors undertaken 
 in behalf of Magnetism in the universities of Germany. 
 He has told you the names of celebrated physicians who 
 make it their study : several of these belong to your body 
 by your having made choice of them as your associates. 
 Is such language uttered in good faith ? Do they in sincer- 
 ity propose to a learned body to remain behind a reflective, 
 patient, and industrious people, and follow in the wake of 
 another whom they extol for their haughty indifference to- 
 wards the study of a subject which, as many of your own 
 body, the literati of the north, and even the commissioners 
 of 1784, confess, presents astonishing peculiarities ? And 
 because in one nation a few enthusiasts have gone beyond 
 the bounds of reason, is this a motive for believing all the 
 literati of that nation to be fanatics, and that nothing can 
 proceed from that part of the world that does not partake 
 more or less of this contagious exaltation 1 Gentlemen, if 
 Germany has produced men whose philosophical ideas are 
 beyond the comprehension of other men, do not forget that 
 it likewise gave birth to Leibnitz, Stahl, Euler, Reil, Blu- 
 menbach, Stoll, Van Svvieten, and a thousand others, before 
 whom none of us should be ashamed to bend. Above all, 
 
84 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 do not search among exceptions for your rule of conduct : 
 it were as reasonable to produce the face of a monster to 
 prove to us that the human face has no regularity of form. 
 
 " A citation is made, in order to divert you from the study 
 of Magnetism, to the conditions recommended by M. Puy- 
 segur for the production of magnetic effects, and you are 
 asked what benefit can be derived from an unknown and 
 incomprehensible agent — one which, in order to be sub- 
 servient, demands from faith a determined will, and an ar- 
 dent desire to do good. 
 
 " How then, it is urged, can the members of a commit- 
 tee, who of course include distrust in the number of their 
 duties, ever present a combination of the requisite condi- 
 tions 1 The magnetic phenomena, it was added, are so 
 subtile, and so delicate, that the distraction caused by the 
 presence of one incredulous observer is sufficient to prevent 
 their being elicited ; how is it possible, then, to submit 
 phenomena so fugitive to the investigation of a committee? 
 
 " We answer, first, that these conditions are not so ab- 
 solutely essential as they are supposed to be ; for the first 
 time these phenomena presented themselves to him who 
 made the experiment, he certainly did not possess these 
 conditions. Being ignorant of the phenomena he had pro- 
 duced, it is evident that he had neither belief, will, nor 
 faith in regard to them. It is equally evident, that among 
 modern observers, all those whose experiments have been 
 cited here, Messrs. Georget, Rostan, and Recamier, far 
 from having these conditions, were, on the contrary, alto- 
 gether prejudiced against these phenomena — that they be- 
 gan their experiments with distrust, rather than skepticism ; 
 and yet they produced effects similar to those developed 
 by operators whose moral dispositions were diametrically 
 opposite to their own. What you have been told of the 
 influence exerted by the presence of one unbeliever in 
 Magnetism, is therefore not true ; so that this considera- 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 
 
 85 
 
 tion ought by no means to be presented to you as a motive 
 for refusing the examination, since you yourselves have 
 reported to us examples which defeat the objection found- 
 ed on this pretended influence. An attempt has been 
 made to persuade you, that according to the principles of 
 magnetizers, the learned were less qualified than others to 
 produce magnetic effects ; and consequently, that it was 
 useless to propose, or expect from them an examination. 
 But it is not required that the learned themselves make the 
 experiments. It is not proposed to constrain your com- 
 mittee, if you appoint one, to undertake the magnetic 
 manipulations. It will suffice that they take place in their 
 presence, that they direct them in what they may deem a 
 proper course, that they remain the passive witnesses, in 
 order to be the judges of them ; in a word, it is not re- 
 quired that they should produce the effects, but investigate 
 those which may be produced in their presence. 
 
 " These effects, we are told, are only to be obtained by 
 firm faith and blind confidence. 
 
 " Let us open the ' Critical History of Magnetism,' by 
 M. Deleuze, whence these precepts are said to have been 
 taken. We read, page 56 and 57 of the first volume, ' The 
 faith, of which so much has been said, is not in itself es- 
 sential, for it is not the principle of magnetic action. This 
 principle requires a will to do good, a firm belief that we 
 possess this power, and entire confidence in its exercise.' 
 By way of final analysis, this faith, which is rendered so 
 alarming to you, is nothing but the will to produce effects, 
 with the conviction that we can produce them ; in a word, 
 the sui fiducia of the ancients. This interpretation, gen- 
 tlemen, is by no means arbitrary. It agrees with the views 
 entertained by the majority of the philosophers of antiqui- 
 ty ; it was the opinion of Pythagoras, Plato, and Confucius. 
 It is only required, that the experiment be made in good 
 faith, and with a desire that it may succeed. And are not 
 
 8 
 
86 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 these the first qualifications that every experimentalist ought 
 to possess ? This objection, then, ought not to deter you 
 any more than the rest. 
 
 " You have been told, gentlemen, of the moral dangers 
 of Magnetism ; the very remarkable article from the new- 
 Dictionary of Medicine has been read to you. M. Re- 
 camier has quoted facts, which prove that during the mag- 
 netic sleep libertines have taken a criminal advantage of 
 the stupor of the senses in young magnetized females ; 
 and he has, perhaps, justly alarmed you as to the dangers 
 resulting from the absolute power of the magnetizer over 
 the magnetized — a power which, according to the same 
 observer, can place at his disposal their movements and 
 will, and, consequently, their honor and life. This con- 
 sideration alone, we have been told, ought to suffice to 
 render Magnetism an object of reprobation, as giving cause 
 of alarm for the public morality, and being, therefore, un- 
 worthy of investigation. 
 
 ' In reply to this objection, we propose the following 
 dilemma. The fact is either false or true. In the former 
 case it will be an advantage to assure yourselves of its 
 falsehood, in order to denounce it before the world with 
 all the authority your characters give you ; it is even 
 urgently requisite that you examine it in order to silence 
 the scandal that may result from the credit of such an 
 opinion. In the latter case, without previously judging of 
 the dangers that would result from it to public morals, or 
 of the means to be employed for warding off these dan- 
 gers, who will presume to tell us that this fact is not wor- 
 thy of serious investigation, that it is not one of the most 
 astounding that the economy of human nature can present, 
 and that it is not of a nature to rivet the attention of phy- 
 sicians and physiologists ? The examination of it, there- 
 fore, is not to be refused. 
 
 " We admit, that it was with a view to prevent abuses 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 87 
 
 so revolting, that M. Bally has attacked the directions 
 given for the choice of a magnetizer, by authors who have 
 written on Magnetism. We conceive that he fears the re- 
 ciprocal influence of the sexes. But why, with intentions 
 so pure, does he misconstrue facts ? Why pretend, for 
 instance, that an operator who is to magnetize females 
 must always be young, healthy, and vigorous ; and then 
 demand, for the sake of morality, the appointment of sworn 
 magnetizers ? 
 
 " Your committee, in reply to this objection, would quote 
 the following passages from the ' Practical Instructions on 
 Magnetism,' published at Paris in 1825, by M. Deleuze, 
 to whose morality every one here, even those who charge 
 him with extreme credulity, pay just homage. He says, 
 pages 168, 169, and 172, 'There will always be a great 
 advantage in finding a magnetizer in one's own family. 
 The ties of blood tend to strengthen the relation by a 
 natural sympathy. The confidence and love existing be- 
 tween husband and wife, between mother and daughter, 
 and between near relatives, have already produced that 
 affection and abandonment of self, which ought to unite 
 the magnetizer and somnambulist, and which authorize the 
 continuation of these sentiments when the treatment has 
 ceased. I have said that females ought to be magnetized 
 by females. I would add, that except in cases in which 
 common sense demonstrates that it is a matter of indiffer- 
 ence, they alone ought to be intrusted with the operation. 
 Moreover, ceteris paribus, the best magnetizer for a wife 
 is her husband ; for a husband, his wife ; and for a girl, her 
 sister or mother. ' This quotation alone, gentlemen, proves, 
 in a positive manner, what are the precepts which ought 
 to regulate our choice of a magnetizer. A year has not 
 elapsed since the author published them ; and however 
 scrupulous your consciences may be, they ought to be 
 perfectly reassured by the candor with which this essen- 
 
88 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 tially virtuous man expounds and submits them to the test 
 of physicians. To us it appears that the impression they 
 must have made upon your minds is not that which can 
 tend to corrupt, nor even such as would accrue from an 
 expose of precautions absolutely ridiculous, and hence all 
 the point of the objection is lost. 
 
 " The proposition of your committee is rejected, from 
 an apprehension lest the Department should expose itself 
 to ridicule, and forfeit its respectability by devoting itself 
 to the study of Magnetism. 
 
 " The question, gentlemen, now assumes a graver as- 
 pect, not intrinsically, but because some distinguished 
 members of the Academy are fearful of compromising its 
 dignity by the investigation we urge upon you. This feel- 
 ing, honorable as it really is, and founded on the dignity 
 of our corporation, doubtless deserves the greatest respect, 
 the most delicate treatment. But we must agree about 
 words in order to agree about things. The term ridicu- 
 lous, is generally applied to that which justly excites 
 laughter or raillery ; such, at least, is the definition given 
 in the Dictionary of the Academy, a definition founded on 
 the etymology of the radical word rider e. 
 
 I 1 It follows, from this definition, that any thing which is 
 calculated to provoke laughter or raillery, is ridiculous. 
 Well, in our present position, divided in opinion as we ap- 
 pear to be with regard to the expediency of submitting 
 Magnetism to a fresh investigation, it is evident, that those 
 who desire this investigation will appear ridiculous to those 
 who oppose it, and the latter will appear so to those who 
 desire it. It is impossible for you to escape from this in- 
 evitable alternative, which from one direction or the other 
 points the laughter or raillery against a portion of this as- 
 sembly. You must yield to this necessity in all its force ; 
 and in the alternative to which you are reduced, being no 
 longer able to direct public opinion, enlightened as it is, on 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 89 
 
 the question submitted to you, it remains for you to decide 
 whether the laughter, raillery, or ridicule, ought to fasten 
 upon those who shall declare themselves in favor of the 
 examination of a question which has been a constant 
 object of study with many of us, or whether it ought to 
 alight on those who, having not yet studied, reject it. This, 
 gentlemen, is the whole point at issue. It is here that 
 matter for ridicule will be sought : for, at the present day, 
 it is to be found no longer in Magnetism itself, as M. Guer- 
 sent judiciously observed. It claims exemption from it 
 now that enlightened and impartial observers, whose dis- 
 tinguished talents no one here denies, have taken part in 
 this long and important discussion. And do you think that 
 no one will ridicule the indecision which seems to prevail 
 here as to the propriety of granting a new trial to Magnet- 
 ism ? Can you, gentlemen, consistently with the interests 
 of the Academy, of which you are the self-constituted 
 champions, can you hesitate as to what choice you should 
 make ? Can you expose yourselves to the reproach of 
 running counter to the spirit of the age, which everywhere 
 proclaims the power of observation and experiment, and 
 examines anew the best-analyzed phenomena 1 
 
 " But this examination, they say, ought not to be made 
 by learned bodies ; it is their office to appreciate and sys- 
 tematize facts, and not to study them in the first instance. 
 When memorials have been sent to you upon Magnetism, 
 when the. government has called for a special study of this 
 subject on our part, then you can and ought to take it up. 
 Till then, beware of attending to a subject upon which it 
 is so easy to be deceived ; and remember, that you ought 
 not to expose the Department to the risk of compromising 
 itself. These objections, gentlemen, are rather specious 
 than solid. A learned body ought not to take up this inves- 
 tigation ! On whom then will it devolve ? on individuals ! 
 But what guarantee will they offer for their decisions ? On 
 
 8* 
 
90 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 what authority will they rest 1 Besides, in what particular 
 is the proposed investigation inconsistent with the respect 
 which a learned body owes to itself, and how does it incur 
 any risk of violating propriety ? Were not the Royal 
 Academy of Sciences, the Faculty of Medicine, the Royal 
 Society of Medicine, whose commissioners passed sen- 
 tence on Magnetism in 1784, were not these learned bod- 
 ies ? and is it not to their decision that you appeal to- 
 day ? Make your choice, gentlemen, or allow us to re- 
 peat to you, that no scientific authority as a learned body, 
 is more competent than your own to judge this question. 
 
 " The investigation was next held out as fraught with 
 dangerous consequences. Fears were apparently enter- 
 tained, lest the commissioners should be led into error, and 
 having become the dupes of arrant juggleries, should in- 
 volve the rest of the Academy as victims of the same. 
 Mystification, you were told, is a matter of much more se- 
 rious import for incorporated bodies than for individuals. 
 
 " We do not think, gentlemen, that Messrs. Franklin, 
 Lavoisier, Bailly, Leroi, and Bory, commissioners from 
 the Academy of Sciences ; Messrs. D'Arcet, Majault, Sal- 
 lin, and Guillotin, from the Faculty of Medicine ; or Messrs. 
 Poissonnier Despecieres, Caille, Mauduit, Andry, and Jus- 
 sieu, from the Royal Society of Medicine, saw any impro- 
 priety in undertaking, in 1784, an examination, which the 
 progress of science and new facts engage us to resume in 
 1826. None of them incurred disgrace for having signed 
 the reports they published. The learned bodies to which 
 they belonged, have lost on that account none of their 
 former celebrity, and we do not see why an investigation 
 made at the present time should deprive a learned body of 
 the respect which they preserved during an investigation 
 of the same subject forty years ago. 
 
 " We allow that an association ought to be more cau- 
 tious than a private individual, as to the objects of its re- 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 91 
 
 searches, because its mystification is a more serious mat- 
 ter. But it will be granted us in return, that tricks are 
 not so easily played on bodies of men as on individuals. 
 Let us add, that it argues a very indifferent opinion of the 
 sagacity of your commissioners, to suppose that they will 
 not be able to distinguish real from pretended phenomena. 
 If those of our colleagues who oppose us have escaped 
 from fraud, why should not your commissioners have equal 
 penetration ? Are our adversaries alone and exclusively 
 possessed of a proper degree of distrust, circumspection, 
 and talent, for observation ? Be assured, gentlemen, that 
 those whom you may select will not forget that they are 
 exploring in' the name of the first medical body in the king- 
 dom, and will neither compromise their own reputation nor 
 yours by too precipitate a decision. It is an insult to those 
 whom you honor with your confidence, to suppose that 
 they will not fully appreciate and justify it. 
 
 " It is added, that the government not having consulted 
 the Academy on this topic, you ought to wait till its inten- 
 tions are communicated to you. 
 
 " How long is it, gentlemen, since you commenced the 
 practice of bestirring yourselves only by order of the gov- 
 ernment ? Except with regard to occult remedies, mineral 
 waters, contagious diseases, vaccination — on which you are 
 professionally consulted by the ministry — what department 
 of science do you not study independently, and even re- 
 ject memorials thereupon ? The higher powers, gentle- 
 men, ask your advice, and often profit by your intelligence ; 
 but they do not impose upon you such and such labors. 
 Their omnipotence is not waited for to sanction the study 
 of Magnetism any more than that of the absorption of 
 poisons, the contagious nature of hydrophobia, or the re- 
 searches of comparative anatomy. 
 
 " You engage us not to take the lead in the study of 
 Animal Magnetism : you wish not to turn your attention 
 
92 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 thereto until memorials have been presented, and the labors 
 of others communicated to you. 
 
 "Now, since the day on which you appointed your com- 
 mittee, you have received, even from foreign countries, a 
 great number of letters on this subject, and the proposition 
 of M. Foissac, which gave rise to all this discussion. Have 
 you forgotten that already ? And what is this somnambu- 
 list he places at your disposal, but a living memorial, a 
 complete fund for experiment, that he places in your hands, 
 begs you to examine, and which calls for your opinion ? 
 Will you treat him differently from the rest of our brethren 
 who send us memorials ? Is not that which he presents, on 
 account of its singularity, at least as worthy of a gracious 
 reception as those which you daily refer to committees ? 
 Can you — ought you to answer his request otherwise than 
 by occupying yourselves with the examination of his som- 
 nambulist ? 
 
 " It has been complained that a wrong course was 
 adopted in this affair ; and it has been urged that the exam- 
 ination of this somnambulist ought to have been confided to 
 a committee of three, and that this isolated case ought not 
 to have furnished ground for the demand of a special com- 
 mittee to be formed for a general inquiry into Magnetism. 
 
 "This objection, gentlemen, is easily answered. In the 
 first place, it was not with the committee of which I am the 
 organ that the idea of submitting Animal Magnetism to a 
 fresh investigation originated. It is the idea of a physician 
 unconnected with the Academy. This idea, expressed in 
 a letter addressed by him to you, and in which he proposed 
 that you yourselves should make experiments on a somnam- 
 bulist that he had at his disposal, seemed so important that 
 you considered it your duty to adopt it, and it thus became, 
 so to speak, your own idea. 
 
 " Remember, gentlemen, that as soon as this letter was 
 read to you, M. Marc made you sensible of the necessity 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 93 
 
 of turning your attention to the investigation of Magnetism, 
 in order either to prove its existence or proclaim its false- 
 hood. It was, in his opinion, the more incumbent on you 
 to take this course, because the practice of Magnetism had 
 for a long time been given over to charlatans, and persons 
 for the most part ignorant of medicine ; and he proposes to 
 you to appoint a committee to draw up a report on this sub- 
 ject. 
 
 " Remember, too, that the President remarked that the 
 Department being totally unprepared for the proposition 
 that had just been made, it would be more a propos to ap- 
 point only a committee for the purpose of reporting upon 
 the question, as to whether it was expedient that the Acad- 
 emy should direct its attention to Animal Magnetism. This 
 proposition was adopted by a large majority ; and the Pres- 
 ident then called the names of the members he deputed, in 
 the name of the Department, to report upon the previous 
 question of the propriety of studying and examining Ani- 
 mal Magnetism. It was in these express terms that, on 
 the 11th of October last, you formed the committee which 
 on the 13th of the following December, returned an affirm- 
 ative answer to the question you had deputed them to ex- 
 amine. 
 
 " If, then, a wrong course has been pursued, you must 
 blame yourselves for it, since it was you who proposed the 
 question upon which we decided. As to ourselves, we 
 faithfully obeyed your special order. We drew up the re- 
 port which the Department required of us ; and all five of 
 us enjoy the consciousness of having faithfully confined 
 ourselves to the limits which you yourselves prescribed 
 to us. 
 
 " What if it is proposed now to divide the question — 
 what if it is said that you ought to submit this somnambu- 
 list to examination, by three commissioners who shall make 
 you a separate report, and thereupon reject the proposal to 
 
94 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 form a special committee for the investigation of Animal 
 Magnetism 1 
 
 " Our answer will be, that when this committee of three 
 presents you its separate report on this individual topic, one 
 of the following results will inevitably follow : it will de- 
 clare the fact to be either true or false. Let us consider, 
 gentlemen, what will be your position in each of these 
 supposed cases. 
 
 " In the first case, the fact being acknowledged as true, 
 those among us who do not believe in Magnetism will tell 
 me that the commissioners have been deceived — that they 
 have not been attentive observers. They will adduce 
 analogous facts, in which they will affirm that there has 
 been imposture practised, and will not fail to declare that 
 there has also been some trickery in that which has just 
 been announced as true. Such of our colleagues as have 
 already witnessed similar facts, will contradict the others, 
 support the commissioners, and you will then have discus- 
 sions without end. It will be impossible for you to found 
 any opinion whatever on the conclusion of these three 
 commissioners. 
 
 " In the second case, the fact being declared false, the 
 three commissioners will assert that this woman is not a 
 somnambulist — that they have foiled and detected her. 
 You will then see that those with whose works and ex- 
 periments on Magnetism you are acquainted, will affirm, 
 with more apparent truth than the former, that your com- 
 missioners have not taken proper precautions — that if the 
 experiments had been made as they will tell you they 
 themselves have performed hundreds, the same results 
 would have been obtained. In this inevitable position, 
 gentlemen, how can you expect the question to advance? 
 
 " It were well if the mischief ended here, but the in- 
 evitable result of the report of these three commissioners, 
 and the discussion to which it will undoubtedly give rise, 
 
^ ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 95 
 
 will be, that corroborative and contradictory facts will be 
 communicated in the memorials that will be poured in 
 among you. You will certainly be obliged to make them 
 known to the Department — to attend the reading of some 
 of them — to submit all to the examination of commission- 
 ers — to receive the reports of the latter upon them — and 
 to listen to frequent and fatiguing discussions. 
 
 " If, instead of these committees, small and easy of at- 
 tack as they must be, you refer to one imposing and special 
 committee the examination of this somnambulist, and all 
 the memorials that may be addressed to you on Magnetism, 
 you will place the Department in the only attitude that be- 
 fits it — you will prevent its being eternally beset by these 
 preachers of magnetic miracles — deprive the latter of that 
 kind of celebrity which they expect to derive from the pub- 
 licity of your discussions — put an end to these same discus- 
 sions, of which many of you dread the effects — and econo- 
 mize your time ; and the judgment of this committee, far 
 more imposing than that of the three commissioners, mul- 
 tiplied as they must be by the number of memorials pre- 
 sented, will afford you, when they shall think proper to 
 pronounce it, an indisputable guarantee, and a unity of 
 views, such as you will never obtain from isolated com- 
 missioners. 
 
 " Thus vanishes by analysis all the apparent force of this 
 objection ; thus crumbles, piece by piece, the cunningly- 
 raised edifice of considerations, which appeared to make 
 so deep an impression on your minds. 
 
 " By way of final analysis, gentlemen, are you called 
 upon to admit all that is related of Magnetism ? No. 
 
 " Are you called upon to admit as demonstrated, all the 
 concessions which our adversaries have made us, the re- 
 maining tenth of M. Laennec, the experiments of which 
 M. Recamier has told you he was the witness and per- 
 former ? No. 
 
96 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 " Are you called upon to admit as positive, or even 
 probable, the facts published by those of our colleagues 
 who have made a special study of this branch of science, 
 phenomena which they tell you they have seen produced 
 twenty or a hundred times, for weeks, months — ay, and 
 for whole years, on different individuals ? No. 
 
 " We only call upon you to examine these facts ; and 
 would you refuse to comply with what demands neither an 
 abandonment of your belief, nor a renunciation of precon- 
 ceived opinion, nor even a sacrifice to your reason ? Are 
 you not aware, gentlemen, that a refusal to examine in the 
 ordinary affairs of life is an incipient denial of justice ? 
 and that in a matter of science it is neither more nor less 
 than the expression of a blind and culpable obstinacy ? 
 
 " The investigation which we ask should be confided 
 only to men well known for their wisdom and prudence. 
 Let the committee which is to conduct it, be composed of 
 those among us whose age, gravity, experience, and the 
 rank they have held, and still hold, in the medical world, 
 afford a guarantee for the impartiality of their judgment. 
 
 " Include in this committee those who have thrown out 
 the strongest objections to our report ; associate with them 
 those who, without entering deeply into the subject of 
 Magnetism, have, from a conviction of the necessity of in- 
 vestigating it, expressed no other idea on the question at 
 issue. 
 
 " Complete the committee by summoning to it those who 
 are known to have made a special study of physiology and 
 natural philosophy. 
 
 " With such elements as these you may rest satisfied 
 that you will not be deceived ; your apprehensions with 
 regard to the dignity and reputation of the Academy will 
 vanish, and you may await with confidence the result of 
 their researches. 
 
 " Let this committee, so scrupulously organized, collect 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 97 
 
 all the memorials that may be presented to you — all the 
 facts communicated in reference to Magnetism ; let it 
 cause former experiments to be varied, and invent new 
 ones ; let it act alike independently of the proscription 
 which has weighed upon Magnetism for forty years, and 
 of the high importance which some are inclined to attach 
 to it at the present day ; let the verdict which it may pro- 
 nounce, not be made known to you until it has been justi- 
 fied by long and repeated tests, invested with the ma- 
 jesty of time ; — then, whatever it be, let us not doubt that it 
 will at length settle the opinion of the learned, and point 
 out to you, in a positive manner, what you have to fear, 
 and what to hope, from this extraordinary agent, 
 u The committee persists in its conclusions. 
 (Signed) 
 
 •" Adelon, 
 Pariset, 
 Marc, 
 
 Bdrdin-aine, 
 ** Husson, Reporter? 
 
 This eloquent reply was listened to with the most unin- 
 terrupted attention, and greeted with almost universal ap- 
 plause. The votes upon the conclusions of the commit- 
 tee's report were forthwith given in by secret ballot ; of 
 which the following is the result ; 
 
 Number of votes „.„.,. 60 
 For the proposition . , . . , 35 
 Against it . . . . . . . .25 
 
 Accordingly, the Royal Academy of Medicine adopts 
 the proposition for appointing a permanent committee to 
 devote itself to the study and investigation of Animal Mag- 
 netism , 
 
 9 
 
98 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 REPORT UPON THE PSYCODUNAMIC EXPERIMENTS By THE 
 COMMITTEE OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF PARIS, 1831. 
 
 " Gentlemen :— More than five years have elapsed since 
 M. Foissac, a young physician, of whose zeal and power 
 of observation we have had frequent opportunities of judg- 
 ing, thought proper to direct the attention of the Academy 
 of Medicine to the phenomena of Animal Magnetism. He 
 reminded it, that among the commissioners appointed in 
 1784 by the Royal Society of Medicine for the purpose of 
 making experiments and reporting thereupon, there was 
 one conscientious and enlightened man, who had pub- 
 lished a report contradictory to that of his colleagues ; that 
 since that time Magnetism had been the object of new ex- 
 periments and new researches ; and if the Academy should 
 see fit, he proposed submitting to its examination a som- 
 nambulist, whom he thought calculated to elucidate a ques- 
 tion which many talented men in France and Germany 
 regarded as far from being solved, although in 1784 the 
 Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Society of Medicine, 
 had given their opinions against Magnetism. 
 
 " A committee, consisting of Messrs. Adelon, Burdin- 
 aine, Marc, Pariset, and myself, was deputed to report to 
 you on the proposition of M. Foissac. 
 
 " This report, presented to the Department of Medicine 
 at its sitting of the 13th of December, 1825, concluded 
 that Magnetism ought to be submitted to a fresh investiga- 
 tion ; this conclusion gave rise to an animated discussion, 
 which was protracted throughout the sessions of the 10th 
 and 24th of January, and the 14th of February, 1826. On 
 the latter occasion, the committee replied to all the objec- 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 
 
 99 
 
 tions that had been levelled at its report ; and on the same 
 day, after mature deliberation, after an individual vote by 
 ballot, (a method which had never before been adopted in 
 matters of science,) the Department decided that a special 
 committee should be directed to make fresh inquiries into 
 the phenomena of Animal Magnetism. 
 
 " This second committee, composed of Messrs. Bour- 
 dois, Double, Fouquier, Itard, Gueneau de Mussy, Guersent, 
 Laennec, Leroux, Magendie, Marc, and Thillaye, was nom- 
 inated at the session of the 28th of February, 1826. Some 
 time after, M. Laennec being obliged to leave Paris on ac- 
 count of ill health, I was appointed to take his place, and 
 the committee, thus constituted, addressed themselves to 
 the performance of the duties intrusted to them. Its first 
 care was, before the withdrawal of M. Laennec, to exam- 
 ine the somnambulist (Mile. Cceline) who had been offered 
 by M. Foissac. 
 
 " Various experiments were made upon her within the 
 walls of the Academy ; but, w T e must confess, our inexpe- 
 rience, impatience, and distrust, which we perhaps mani- 
 fested too plainly, only permitted us to observe certain 
 physiological phenomena, rather singular, it is true, and 
 which w r e will make known to you in the course of our 
 report, although we saw therein none of the faculties of 
 which she gave proofs on another occasion. This som- 
 nambulist, harassed doubtless by our exactions, ceased at 
 that period to be at our disposal, and we had to search the 
 hospitals for the means of prosecuting our experiments. 
 
 " M. Pariset, a physician connected with the Salpe- 
 triere, might, more than any one else, have assisted us in 
 our researches ; and he lent himself to this object with an 
 earnestness which unfortunately produced no result that 
 answered our expectations. The committee, whose hopes 
 were in a great measure founded on the resources which 
 this hospital might furnish, either on account of the indi- 
 
100 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 viduals on whom its experiments would have been made, 
 or the presence of M. Magendie, who had requested per- 
 mission to follow them as one of their body ; — the commit- 
 tee, we say, finding itself deprived of the means of infor- 
 mation which it had hoped to find there, had recourse to 
 the individual zeal of its members. 
 
 " M. Guersent promised to exert his influence in the 
 Hospital for Children ; M. Fouquier, in the Charity Hos- 
 pital ; Messrs. Gueneau and the Reporter, in the Hotel- 
 Dieu ; M. Itard, in the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb ; 
 and, thenceforth, each prepared to make essays, of which 
 he would invite the o*her members of the committee to be 
 witnesses. Soon, other and more formidable obstacles 
 arose to thwart our labors. The causes which may have 
 given rise to these obstacles are unknown to us ; but by 
 virtue of a decree of the general council of the hospitals, 
 dated the 19th of October, 1825, prohibiting the use of 
 any new remedy which had not been approved by a com- 
 mittee nominated by the council, the magnetic experiments 
 could not be continued at the Charity Hospital. 
 
 " Reduced to their own resources- — to such as the par- 
 ticular relations of each member could supply — the com- 
 mittee made an appeal to all physicians known to be 
 making, or to have made Animal Magnetism the object of 
 their researches. They begged to be allowed to witness 
 their experiments, to trace their progress with them, and 
 establish their results. We declare that we have been 
 fully gratified in our wishes by several of our fellow- 
 physicians— especially by him who originated the question 
 of an examination into Magnetism ; w T e mean M. Foissac. 
 We have no hesitation in asserting that it is to his constant 
 and persevering intervention, and the active zeal of M. 
 Dupotet, we are indebted for the greater portion of the 
 materials which we have collected for the report now pre- 
 sented to you. 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 
 
 101 
 
 " Do not, however, think, gentlemen, that your commit- 
 tee has, in any instance, confided to others the task of di- 
 recting the experiments they have witnessed, or that any 
 but the Reporter has taken up the pen, minute after minute, 
 for the compilation of the verbal process vouching for the 
 succession of phenomena which presented themselves — 
 and that, too, as soon as they made their appearance. The 
 committee have brought to the performance of all their du- 
 ties, the most scrupulous exactness ; and at the same time 
 that they do justice to those who have assisted them with 
 their obliging co-operation, they feel bound to remove from 
 your minds the slightest doubts that may have arisen, as to 
 any participation whatever in the examination of this ques- 
 tion by others besides themselves. Your committee have 
 uniformly suggested the various modes of experimenting — 
 traced the plans thereof — constantly directed their course 
 — watched and recorded their progress ;— in fine, while 
 availing themselves of assistance more or less zealous and 
 enlightened, they have always been present, and always 
 given a proper direction to all that has been done. 
 
 " You will, therefore, understand that they exclude all 
 experiments performed without the supervision of the com- 
 mittee — even by members of the Academy. 
 
 " Whatever confidence may be established among us by 
 the spirit of brotherhood, and the reciprocal esteem by 
 which we are all animated, we have felt that, in the inves- 
 tigation of a question the solution of which is so delicate, 
 we ought to rely on none but ourselves ; and that you could 
 rely on our guarantee only. We considered, however, that 
 this rigorous exclusion ought not to extend to a very curious 
 fact, observed by M. Cloquet. We have admitted it, be- 
 cause it was already, in a manner, the property of the 
 Academy ; the Surgical Department having turned their 
 attention to it at two different sittings. This restriction, 
 which the committee have imposed on themselves, as to the 
 
 9* 
 
102 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 use of the various facts bearing upon the question which 
 they have studied with so much care and impartiality, 
 should entitle us to demand a return of the same, if any 
 persons who have not witnessed our experiments should 
 be inclined to raise discussions upon the authenticity there- 
 of. For the very reason that we call upon you to give credit 
 to that only which we have seen and performed, we cannot 
 allow those who have neither seen nor performed any thing 
 at the same time, and in concert with us, to attack or throw 
 doubt on what we shall adduce as having come under our 
 own observation. And as, in fact, we were always skep- 
 tical as to the wonders which we were told would be de- 
 veloped ; and as this feeling has uniformly been predomi- 
 nant within us, during all our researches, we think we have 
 some right to expect, even if we fail to enlist your belief, 
 that you will express no doubt of the moral and physical 
 dispositions with which we have invariably proceeded to 
 the observation of the different phenomena which we have 
 witnessed. 
 
 " Thus, gentlemen, this, our report, which we are far 
 from presenting you as one that is to settle your opinion 
 on the question of Magnetism, cannot — ought not to be 
 viewed in an}'- other light than that of an assemblage and 
 classification of the facts which we have observed up to the 
 present time. We offer it as a proof that we have tried to 
 justify your confidence in us ; and while we regret that it 
 does not rest on a greater number of experiments, we still 
 hope that you will receive it with indulgence, and listen to 
 the reading of it with some degree of interest. We think 
 proper, however, to inform you that what we have seen in 
 our experiments, bears no resemblance whatever to any thing 
 that the report of 1784 adduces concerning the magnetizers 
 of that epoch. We neither reject nor admit the existence 
 of a fluid, because we have not proved it. We have noth- 
 ing to say of the baquet or tub, the wand, the chain by 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 103 
 
 which a communication of the hands of all the magnetized 
 was effected — the pressure continued sometimes for several 
 hours upon the lungs and abdomen — the vocal and instrumen- 
 tal music with which the magnetic operations were accom- 
 panied — or of the concourse of people who were magnet- 
 ized before a crowd of witnesses ; because all our experi- 
 ments have been performed in a perfect calm, as it were — 
 in absolute silence, without any accessory means — never 
 by immediate contact, and always upon a single individual 
 at a time. 
 
 " We have nothing to tell you of what, in the days of 
 Mesmer, was so improperly called a crisis, and which con- 
 sisted of convulsions — laughter, that was sometimes irre- 
 sistible — immoderate weeping, and piercing shrieks, — 
 because we have never met with these various phe- 
 nomena. 
 
 " We do not hesitate to declare that, in every respect, 
 there is a great dissimilarity between the facts observed 
 and pronounced upon in 1784, and those which we have 
 collected in the production we have the honor of present- 
 ing to you — that this dissimilarity constitutes a distinct line 
 of demarcation between them — and if reason has done jus- 
 tice to a great portion of the former, the spirit of research 
 and observation ought to be exerted to increase and multi- 
 ply the latter. 
 
 "In Magnetism, gentlemen, as in many other operations 
 of nature, it is essential that certain conditions should unite 
 for the production of such and such effects. This is an 
 indisputable truth, for the confirmation of which, were it 
 necessary, proofs might be found in what takes place in 
 several natural phenomena. Thus, without a dryness in 
 the atmosphere, you can procure but a feeble development 
 of the electric fluid — -without heat, you can never obtain an 
 amalgamation of pewter and lead, which constitutes the com- 
 mon solder of plumbers — without the light of the sun, you 
 
104 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 cannot see the spontaneous ignition of a mixture of equal 
 parts in volume of chlore and hydrogen, &c. 
 
 " Whether these conditions be external or physical, 
 like those we have just mentioned — whether they be in- 
 ternal or moral, like those which Messrs. de Puysegur, 
 Deleuze, and others assert, are indispensable to the devel- 
 opment of magnetic phenomena — the fact that they exist, 
 and are essential to them, made it necessary for the com- 
 mittee to endeavor to bring them together, and a point of 
 duty to comply with them. And yet we ought not, nor 
 did we wish to rid ourselves of that lively curiosity which 
 led us at the same time to vary our experiments, and baf- 
 le, if possible, the practices and promises of certain mag- 
 aetizers. 
 
 " Nor was it our duty, either, to seek to explain these 
 conditions ; that would have been a question of mere con- 
 troversy, for the? solution of which we should have been 
 no more prepared, than if called on to explain the condi- 
 tions by virtue of which the phenomena of physiology 
 take place, and how medicines operate as they do : these 
 are questions of the same nature, and upon which science 
 has, as yet, come to no decision. 
 
 " In all the experiments we have made, the most pro- 
 found silence has been observed, because we thought that 
 in the development of phenomena so delicate, the attention 
 of the magnetizer and magnetized ought not to be diverted 
 by any thing extraneous ; besides, we were unwilling to 
 incur the reproach of having endangered, by conversation 
 and interruptions, the success of the experiment ; and we 
 have always been careful, that the expression of our coun- 
 tenances should neither produce embarrassment on the 
 part of the magnetizer, nor doubt on that of the mag- 
 netized. Our position, we are proud to repeat, has con- 
 stantly been that of curious and impartial observers. 
 These several conditions, which had in part been recom- 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 105 
 
 mended in the works of the respected M. Deleuze, having 
 been well considered, the following is a statement of what 
 we have seen, beginning with the modus operandi : — 
 
 " The person to be magnetized seats himself on a con- 
 venient arm-chair, or divan, sometimes even on a common 
 chair. 
 
 " The magnetizer. on a seat somewhat higher, in front, 
 and at the distance of a foot from the former, seems for a 
 few moments to be collecting himself, during which time 
 he takes hold of the thumbs of the person to be magnet- 
 ized, and remains in this attitude until he feels that he has 
 produced an equal degree of heat in the thumbs of the 
 person and his own. He then withdraws his hands, turn- 
 ing them outward, places them on the shoulders of the 
 other for about a minute, and slowly brings them down, 
 with a kind of light friction, along the arms to the ends of 
 the fingers. This movement, which magnetizers term a 
 pass, is repeated five or six times. He next raises his 
 hands over the head, keeps them there for a moment, 
 draws them downward before the face, at the distance of 
 an inch or two, as far as the epigastrium, over which he 
 sometimes leaves them suspended for a while, sometimes 
 presses the part with his fingers, and lowers them along 
 the remaining part of the body and limbs, until he reaches 
 the feet. These passes are repeated during the greater 
 part of the sitting, which when he wishes to terminate, he 
 extends them beyond the extremities of the hands and 
 feet, shaking his fingers at each pass ; finally, he makes 
 horizontal passes across the face and breast, at the dis- 
 tance of three or four inches, by presenting his hands 
 brought closely together, and then suddenly separating 
 them. 
 
 " At other times, he joins the fingers of each hand, and 
 presents them at the distance of three or four inches from 
 the head or stomach, leaving them in this position for a 
 
106 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 minute or two ; then withdrawing them, and again bringing 
 them near these parts alternately, with more or less 
 promptitude, he imitates the movement a person would 
 very naturally execute when wishing to shake off any 
 liquid from his fingers' ends. 
 
 " These several modes have been adopted in all our 
 experiments, without attaching ourselves to one more than 
 another, often employing but one, sometimes two ; and we 
 have never been directed in our choice by the idea that 
 one mode would produce a more prompt and marked effect 
 than the other. 
 
 " The committee will not follow, in the enumeration of 
 the facts observed, the order in which they have been col- 
 lected as to time ; it has seemed more proper, and, above 
 all, more rational, to present them to you, classed accord- 
 ing to the degree of magnetic action more or less strongly 
 indicated by each. 
 
 " We have therefore laid down the four following divis- 
 ions : 
 
 " 1st, — The effects of Magnetism are null and void on 
 persons in good health, and, in some cases, on the sick ; 
 
 " 2d, — They are but feebly indicated on others ; 
 
 " 3d, — They are often the offspring of ennui, monotony, 
 and imagination ; 
 
 "4th, and lastly, — They have been seen to develop 
 themselves independently of the above causes, very proba- 
 bly by the effect of magnetism alone. 
 
 " 1 . Effects null and void. 
 
 " The committee's Reporter has on several occasions 
 submitted himself to magnetic experiments. On one of 
 these, being at the time in perfect health, he had the per- 
 severance to remain seated for three quarters of an hour 
 in the same position, with his eyes closed, completely 
 motionless, and he declares, that this trial produced no 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 107 
 
 kind of effect on him, although, the wearisomeness of the 
 position, and the absolute silence which he had enjoined 
 on all present, were quite calculated to induce sleep. M. 
 Gueneau de Mussy underwent the same trial, with the 
 like result. On another occasion, when the Reporter was 
 tormented with very violent and obstinate rheumatic pains, 
 he several times made trial of magnetism, but never ob- 
 tained by its means the slightest relief, although most 
 assuredly the intensity of his sufferings made him anx- 
 iously desire to be rid of them, or at least to have them 
 alleviated. 
 
 " On the 11th Nov., 1826, our respected colleague, M. 
 Bourdois, had been laboring for two months under an in- 
 disposition which demanded particular attention on his 
 part as to his daily manner of living. This indisposition, 
 he told us, was not his normal state ; he knew the cause 
 of it, and could note the moment of its departure. Under 
 these circumstances, which, according to the assertion of 
 M. Dupotet, were favorable to the development of mag- 
 netic phenomena, M. Bourdois was magnetized by the 
 same M. Dupotet, in presence of Messrs. Itard, Marc, 
 Double, Gueneau, and the reporter. The experiment 
 commenced at 23 minutes past 3 ; his pulse was then at 
 84, a number which, by the statement of M. Double and 
 M. Bourdois, is that of the normal state. At 41 minutes 
 past 3, the experiment ceased, and M. Bourdois felt abso- 
 lutely no effect from it. We only remarked, that his pulse 
 had fallen to 72 beats, that is to say, to 12 less than before 
 the experiment. 
 
 " At the same sitting, our colleague, M. Itard, who has 
 been affected for eight years with a chronic rheumatism, 
 the seat of which was then in the stomach, and who was 
 suffering at the moment from an accustomed fit connected 
 with his disease, (we use his own expressions,) was mag- 
 netized by M. Dupotet. At ten minutes before four his 
 
108 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 pulse was at 60 ; at three minutes before four he closed 
 his eyes ; at three minutes past four the experiment was 
 terminated. He told us that while he had his eyes open, 
 he thought he felt impression of the passing of fingers over 
 his organs, as if they had received a gust of heated air ; 
 but that after having closed them, and the experiment con- 
 tinuing, he no longer felt that sensation. He added, that 
 at the expiration of five minutes, he became sensible of a 
 headache, occupying the whole forehead and the back 
 of his eyeballs, together with a feeling of dryness on the 
 tongue, although we ourselves observed that this organ was 
 very moist. Lastly, he said that the pain he experienced 
 before the experiment, and which he announced as being 
 dependent on the affection of which he complained, had 
 left him, but that it was generally very transient. We 
 remarked that his pulse had risen to 74 ; that is to say, to 
 fourteen pulsations more than before the experiment. 
 
 " It is very true, we could have reported to you other 
 observations in which Magnetism has manifested no kind 
 of action ; but besides the trouble of citing facts that have 
 resulted in nothing, we deemed it sufficient to let you know 
 that three members of the committee had made experiments 
 on themselves, in order to give you a more complete assu- 
 rance of the sincerity of our researches. 
 
 "2. Effects feebly indicated. 
 
 " It cannot have escaped your notice, gentlemen, that 
 the last fact of the foregoing series, presented a com- 
 mencement of magnetic action : we have placed it at the 
 end of the section, to serve as a connecting link with those 
 that follow. 
 
 " M. Magnien, M. D., aged 54 years, residing in the 
 Rue Saint Denis, No. 202, walking with much difficulty, in 
 consequence of a fall upon his left knee several years ago — 
 and probably, too, of an aneurism of the heart, under which 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 109 
 
 he sank in the month of September last, (1831 ,) — was mag- 
 netized by the Reporter on the 1 8th, 1 9th, 20th, 21st, 22d, and 
 23d August, 1826. The number of his pulsations was less 
 at the close of five sittings than at the commencement : — ■ 
 thus it fell from 96 to 90, from 96 to 80, from 77 to 71, from 
 82 to 79, from 80 to 78 ; and at the sixth, the number was 
 the same at the commencement as at the end, namely, 83. 
 The inspirations were regular, except in one instance in 
 which they numbered twenty at the commencement, and 
 twenty-six at the close. M. Magnien constantly experi- 
 enced a sensation of coolness in all the parts over which 
 the fingers of the magnetizer were directed, and passed 
 for a considerable length of time in the same direction. 
 This phenomenon never once failed to develop itself. 
 
 " Our colleague, M. Roux, who complained of a chronic 
 affection of the stomach, was magnetized six times by M. 
 Foissac, on the 27th and 29th of September — the 1st, 3d, 
 5th, and 7th of October, 1827. He experienced first a 
 sensible diminution in the number of inspirations, and beat- 
 ings of the pulse — then a gentle heat at the stomach — an 
 uncommon coldness about the face, (the sensation produced 
 by the evaporation of ether,) — even when no passes were 
 made before him — and lastly, a marked inclination to sleep. 
 
 " Anne Bourdin, 25 years of age, residing at No. 15, 
 Rue du Paon, was magnetized on the 17th, 20th, and 21st 
 of July, 1826, at the Hotel Dieu, by M. Foissac, in pres- 
 ence of the Reporter. This woman was suffering from a 
 cephalalgia, and a neuralgia, which had its seat in the left 
 eye. In the course of the three magnetic sittings devoted 
 to her, we observed her inspirations increase from 16 to 
 39, from 14 to 20 ; — and her pulsations from 69 to 79, from 
 60 to 68, and from 76 to 95. Her head became heavy — 
 she had a few minutes sleep — a diminution of the pain in 
 her head ; but no effect was produced on the neuralgia. 
 
 " Theresa Tierlin was magnetized on the 22d, 23d, 24th, 
 10 
 
110 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 29th, and 30th of July, 1 826. She had come to the Hotel 
 Dieu, complaining of pains in the abdomen, and in the re- 
 gion of the loins. During five magnetic sittings, we saw her 
 inspirations increase from 15 to 17, from 18 to 19, from 20 
 to 25, and decrease from 27 to 24 ; and her pulse rise from 
 118 to 125, from 100 to 120, from 100 to 113, from 95 to 98, 
 and from 1 17 to 120. We remarked that this woman was ap- 
 parently afraid of the movements of the magnetizer's fingers 
 and hands — that she shrank from them by drawing back her 
 head — that her eyes followed so as to keep them in sight, 
 as though she dreaded some harm from them. She was 
 evidently rendered very uneasy during the five sittings. 
 We noted other effects in her, such as frequent and long 
 sighs, at times interrupted by sobs — a snapping and lower- 
 ing of the eyelids — a rubbing of the eyes — a frequent swal- 
 lowing of saliva, (a symptom which, in other magnetized 
 persons, uniformly preceded sleep,) — and lastly, a cessa- 
 tion of the pain in her loins. 
 
 " The committee, in connecting these facts, have only 
 had it in view to fix your attention upon the series of physi- 
 ological phenomena developed in the last two. They can- 
 not attach any importance to the partial amelioration which 
 took place in the symptoms of the very insignificant dis- 
 eases of these two women. If the diseases really existed, 
 time and repose may have overcome them. If not, as is 
 too often the case, the feint must have ceased without the 
 operation of Magnetism. Therefore, gentlemen, we have 
 presented them to you only as the first elements, so to 
 speak, of magnetic action, which you will see more and 
 more clearly evinced, as we proceed with the other divi- 
 sions we have established. 
 
 "3. Effects produced by ennui, monotony, and imagination. 
 
 " The committee have had frequent occasion to remark 
 that the monotonous uniformity of the gestures, the almost 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. Ill 
 
 religious silence maintained during the experiments, the 
 ennui occasioned by remaining constantly in the same po- 
 sition, have put to sleep several individuals who were not 
 however submitted to the magnetic influence, but Avhose 
 sensations, physical as well as moral, were the same as 
 when previously put to sleep by it ; in such cases, we 
 could not but recognise the power of imagination, a power 
 in virtue of which these persons, believing themselves 
 magnetized, were affected as if they really had been 
 so. We will mention particularly the following observa- 
 tions : — 
 
 " Miss Lemaitre, of the age of twenty-five, had been affect- 
 ed with the ' gutta serend for three years, when she entered 
 the Hotel Dieu. She was magnetized on the 7th, 13th, 
 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, and 22d of 
 July, 1826. We will not now repeat the various phenom- 
 ena which marked the commencement of the magnetic 
 action, having detailed them in the preceding section, such 
 as the winking and drooping of the eyelids, the rubbing 
 of the eyes as if to rid herself of a disagreeable sensation, 
 the sudden lowering of the head, and swallowing of the 
 saliva. These are, as has been said, signs which we 
 have constantly observed, and to which we shall not again 
 allude. We will merely state, that we remarked an in- 
 cipient drowsiness at the close of the third sitting, which 
 continued to increase until the eleventh ; that on and after 
 the fourth, convulsive movements of the muscles of the 
 neck and face, the hands and shoulders, became apparent ; 
 and that at the termination of each sitting, we detected a 
 quicker pulse than at the beginning. But what ought most 
 to fix your attention, is, that after having been magnetized 
 ten times, and having appeared during the last eight more 
 and more sensible of the action of magnetism, M. Dupotet, 
 her magnetizer, took his seat behind her, by request of the 
 Reporter, (at the eleventh sitting, viz., on the 20th of July,) 
 
112 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 without making the slightest gesture, without any inten- 
 tion of magnetizing her, and yet she felt a greater inclina- 
 tion to sleep than on the preceding days, but less agitation 
 and fewer convulsive movements. However, no sensible 
 improvement in her sight took place from the first to the 
 last experiment, and she left the Hotel-Dieu in no better 
 state than when she entered it, 
 
 " Louise Ganot, a servant, living at No. 19 Rue du Bat- 
 toir, and admitted into the Hotel-Dieu on the 18th of 
 July, 1826, to .be treated in the Salle St. Roch, No. 17, 
 for a white swelling, was magnetized daily by M. Dupotet, 
 from the 21st to the 28th of July, 1826. She was said to 
 be subject to nervous attacks : and, in fact, convulsive 
 movements of the nature of those which characterize hys- 
 terics were uniformly developed in her at each magnetic 
 sitting, such as plaintive cries, a stiffness and wringing of 
 the upper limbs, an inclination of the hand towards the 
 epigastrium, a bending of the whole body so as to form an 
 arch the concavity of which was the back ; and lastly, sev- 
 eral minutes of sleep closed the scene. 
 
 " At the sixth sitting, (on the 26th of July,) M. Dupotet 
 placed himself in front of her, at the distance of two feet, 
 without touching her, or making any gesture whatever, but 
 Avith a decided intention of magnetizing her : the excite- 
 ment, the convulsive movements, the stiffening of the arms 
 became quickly manifest, as at the previous sittings. On 
 the following day, the patient being seated in the large 
 arm-chair which had been made use of during the previous 
 experiments, we stationed M. Dupotet behind her ; conse- 
 quently the back of the chair w r as interposed between the 
 magnetized and the magnetizer. He did no more than 
 point with his fingers towards the middle of her back, and 
 soon the convulsive movements of the days previous were 
 manifested still more violently, and she frequently turned 
 back her head. She told us, when awake, that she did 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 113 
 
 so, because it seemed to her that something operating be- 
 hind her chair annoyed her. 
 
 " Lastly, having on the 26th and 27th of July observed 
 the development of the magnetic phenomena, produced in 
 one instance simply by intention, and in the other by very 
 slight gestures, (the pointing of the fingers,) executed be- 
 hind the said female, and without her knowledge, we de- 
 sired to try whether the same phenomena would be elicited 
 in the absence of the magnetizer, and by the mere effect 
 of imagination. This actually took place on the 28th of 
 July. Madame Ganot exhibited symptoms precisely simi- 
 lar to those which attended the former experiments, the hour 
 of the day was the same, (half-past five, a. m.,) the place 
 the same, there was the same silence, the same arm-chair, 
 the same persons present, the same preparations ; every 
 thing, in short, was as on the six previous days, the mag- 
 netizer alone was wanting — he had remained at home. 
 The same convulsive movements appeared, with a little 
 less promptitude and violence perhaps, but having the 
 same characteristics. 
 
 " A man of twenty-seven, subject ever since the age of 
 fifteen to epileptic fits, was magnetized fifteen times at the 
 Hotel-Dieu, from the 27th of June to the 17th of July, 
 1826, by the committee's Reporter. Sleep began to be in- 
 duced at the fourth sitting, on the 1st of July ; it was 
 sounder at the fifth, on the 2d of the same month ; but du- 
 ring the subsequent ones, it was rather light, and easily 
 interrupted either by noise or questioning. The Reporter 
 magnetized him at the 13th and 14th, placing himself be- 
 hind the arm-chair in which the man was seated. At the 
 fifteenth sitting, which took place on the 17th of July, he 
 continued, like Madame Ganot, to make the same mani- 
 festations as from the commencement of the experiments : 
 the Reporter in like manner took his place behind the arm- 
 chair, and the same phenomena of sleepiness were man- 
 10* 
 
114 PSYCODTTNAMY. 
 
 ifested, although, he had not magnetized him. We have 
 necessarily concluded, from this series of experiments, that 
 this epileptic and these two females experienced the same 
 effects when they were magnetized, and when they thought 
 they were so ; consequently, that the imagination sufficed 
 to elicit in them phenomena which, through inattention or 
 preoccupation of mind, might have been attributed to mag- 
 netism. 
 
 " But we readily acknowledge that there are several other 
 cases as cautiously observed as the rest, and in which it 
 would have been difficult for us not to admit Magnetism 
 as the cause of these phenomena. We place them in our 
 fourth class. 
 
 4. Effects resulting very probably from Magnetism alone. 
 
 " A child 28 months old, subject, like his father, of 
 whom mention will be made hereafter, to epileptic fits, 
 was magnetized at the residence of M. Bourdois, by M. 
 Foissac, on the 6th of October, 1827. Almost imme- 
 diately after the commencement of the passes, the child 
 rubbed his eyes, leaned his head on one side, rested it on 
 one of the cushions of the settee on which he had been 
 placed, yawned, shook himself, scratched his head and 
 ears, seemed to struggle against the drowsiness that came 
 over him, and soon got up, grunting, if we maybe allowed 
 the expression. He expressed a desire to urinate, which 
 having done, he was again magnetized for a few mo- 
 ments ; but as the inclination to sleep was not so marked 
 as before, the experiment was terminated. 
 
 " In connection with the above-cited fact we place that 
 of a deaf and dumb person, 18 years of age, and for a 
 long time past subject to very frequent attacks of epilepsy, 
 on whom M. Itard desired to try the operation of Magnet- 
 ism. This young man was magnetized fifteen times by 
 M. Foissac. We have not only to say in this case that the 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY 
 
 115 
 
 epileptic fits were suspended during the sittings, and did 
 not return till the expiration of eight months, (an unprece- 
 dented respite in the history of his disease.) but also that 
 the phenomena which this young man experienced, and 
 to which the greatest importance is to be attached, were 
 a heaviness of the eyelids, a general numbness, an incli- 
 nation to sleep, and at times a swimming in the head. 
 
 " A still stronger action was observed upon a member 
 of the committee, M. Itard, who on the 11th of November, 
 1826, had suffered himself to be experimented on, as we 
 have said, without feeling any effect. When magnetized 
 by M. Dupotet, on the 27th October, 1827, he experienced 
 a sensation of drowsiness without sleep, a marked irrita- 
 tion of the nerves of his face, convulsive twitchings about 
 the nostrils, the muscles of his face and jaws, an afflux of 
 saliva into his mouth of a metallic taste, a sensation simi- 
 lar to that which had been produced in him by galvanism. 
 The first two sittings brought on a headache, which lasted 
 several hours ; and at the same time his usual pains were 
 greatly diminished. A year afterwards, M. Itard, who 
 suffered from pains in the head, was magnetized eighteen 
 times by M. Foissac. The operation almost invariably 
 produced a flow of saliva, which on two occasions had a 
 metallic taste ; there were but few muscular movements 
 and contractions observed, with the exception of now and 
 then a twitching in the tendons of the muscles of the fore- 
 arms and legs. M. Itard informed us, that his headache 
 had ceased each time after a sitting of from 12 to 15 
 minutes ; that it had entirely left him at the ninth, when 
 it was brought on again by an interruption of the magnetic 
 treatment for three days, and again driven away by its 
 means. He experienced during the experiment a comfort- 
 able sensation throughout the whole system, an inclination 
 to agreeable sleep, a drowsiness accompanied by vague 
 yet pleasant reveries ; his disease underwent, as before, a 
 
116 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 marked amelioration, which was not of long duration after 
 the cessation of the magnetic treatment. 
 
 " These three observations have appeared to your com- 
 mittee well worthy of remark. The two individuals who 
 are the subjects of the first two, — namely, the child 28 
 months old, and the deaf and dumb man, — are ignorant of 
 what is done to them : the first is not of an age to know 
 it, and the second has never had the least idea concerning 
 Magnetism. Both, however, are sensible of its operation ; 
 and most assuredly, this sensibility can in neither of them 
 be attributed to the imagination. Can it with any more 
 reason be traced to this source in the observation we 
 have reported in reference to M. Itard ? 
 
 " It is not upon men of our own age, and, like us, al- 
 ways on our guard against the errors of mind, and of the 
 senses, that the imagination, in the light in which we are 
 now considering it, has any hold. It is, at our time of 
 life, enlightened by reason, and stripped of those fascina- 
 tions which lead youth astray ; it is ever on the alert, and 
 distrust rather than confidence presides over the operations 
 of our minds. These characteristics are happily united 
 in our colleague ; and the Academy knows him too well 
 to deny his having felt what he says he has felt. His 
 veracity was the same both on the 11th of November, 
 1826, when he declared that he experienced no effect, 
 and on the 27th of October, 1827, when he asserts be- 
 fore you his having been sensible of the action of Mag- 
 netism. 
 
 " The sleepiness observed in the three cases just re- 
 ported, has appeared to us to be the passage from the 
 waking state to that which is called the magnetic sleep, or 
 somnambulism, terms which your committee have judged 
 inappropriate, as calculated to convey wrong ideas ; but 
 which, being unable to change, they have been compelled 
 to adopt. 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 117 
 
 " When the individual submitted to the magnetic action 
 is in a somnambulic state, magnetizers assure us, that he 
 usually hears only the person who magnetizes him, and 
 those who are put in communication with him by the join- 
 ing of hands, or some other immediate contact. Accord- 
 ing to their theory, the somnambulist's external organs of 
 sense are all, or nearly all, deadened, and yet he has sen- 
 sations. They add, that there is awakened in him what 
 may be termed an internal sense, a kind of instinct, which 
 enlightens him, either in reference to his own well-being, 
 or that of the persons w T ith whom he is in communica- 
 tion. As long as the somnambulism lasts, he is, they say, 
 subjected to the influence of the one who magnetizes him, 
 and seems to obey him with unreserved docility, without 
 any manifestation, either by word or gesture, of his will, 
 which is expressed strongly, but internally. 
 
 " This singular phenomenon, gentlemen, has been 
 deemed by your committee the more worthy of attention 
 and research, inasmuch as it was unknown (although 
 Bailly seemed to have had a faint glimpse of it) when 
 magnetism was submitted to the examination of the king's 
 commissioners in 1784; and as it was, moreover, for the 
 sake of studying this very point that M. Foissac disinter- 
 red, as it were, the question of magnetism. 
 
 " In reference to a subject of which charlatanism might 
 so easily avail itself, and which appeared to us to deviate 
 so far from the previous range of human knowledge, your 
 committee have felt obliged to be extremely severe as to 
 the kind of proofs to be admitted as evidence of this phe- 
 nomenon ; and, at the same time, to be continually on 
 their guard against the fallacy and imposture of which 
 they had reason to fear being made the dupes. 
 
 " The committee claim your aitention to the following 
 observations, arranged in such a manner as to present you 
 with a constantly increasing progression of somnambulic 
 
118 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 phenomena ; this being the proper method of rendering 
 them more and more evident to you. 
 
 " Mile. Louise Delaplane, sixteen years of age, living 
 at No. 9 Rue Tirechape, was suffering from a menstrual 
 suppression, accompanied by pains, a tension, and swell- 
 ing of the abodmen, when she entered the Hotel-Dieu, 
 June 13th, 1826. The application of leeches to the vulva, 
 baths, and a usually appropriate treatment, having failed 
 to give relief, she was magnetized by M. Foissac, daily, 
 from the 22d to the 28th of June, 1826; she fell asleep at 
 the first sitting, at the end of eight minutes. She was 
 spoken to but did not answer ; a tin screen was thrown 
 down near her, she remained perfectly motionless ; a glass 
 vial was forcibly broken, she started and awoke. At the 
 second sitting, she replied by affirmative and negative mo- 
 tions of the head to the questions addressed to her. At 
 the third, she gave us to understand that in two days she 
 would speak, and point out the nature and seat of her dis- 
 ease. Although pinched so hard as to raise an ecchymo- 
 sis, she gave no sign of sensibility. A vial of sal-ammo- 
 niac was unstopped under her nose. She was insensible 
 at the first inspiration. At the second she raised her 
 hand to her nose. Upon awaking, she complained of pain 
 in the part that had been pinched and bruised. The same 
 vial of sal-ammoniac was presented to her, and at the 
 first inspiration she hastily drew back her head. The 
 parents of the girl determined to withdraw her from the 
 HOtel-Dieu, when they heard that she was under magnetic 
 treatment. She was, however, magnetized three or four 
 times more. During all these experiments she never 
 spoke, replying merely by signs to the various questions 
 addressed to her. Let us add, that although insensible to 
 the tickling of a feather thrust into her nostrils, passed 
 over her lips and the wings of her nose, as well as to the 
 noise of a plank thrown heavily upon a table, she yet 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 119 
 
 awoke at the sound of a copper basin thrown upon the 
 floor, and at that of a purse of silver coin, which, on an- 
 other occasion, was emptied from a considerable height 
 into the same basin. 
 
 " At another time, December 9th, 1826, M. Dupotet, in 
 presence of the committee, magnetized a man named Bap- 
 tiste Chamet, a carman of Charonne, whom he had mag- 
 netized for the last time two or three years before. In 
 eight minutes, being asked repeatedly if he were asleep, 
 he gave an abrupt and affirmative nod ; to several ques- 
 tions he made no reply. As he appeared to be suffering, 
 he was asked what it was that pained him — he laid his 
 hand on his chest. Being again asked what part it was, 
 he then answered, " the liver," and still pointed to his 
 breast. M. Guersent pinched him very severely on the 
 left wrist, and he evinced no pain. Some one unclosed 
 his eyelid, which with difficulty gave way, and the globe 
 of the eye appeared to be turned as if convulsively towards 
 the top of the orbit, and the pupil remarkably contracted. 
 
 " The committee have observed in the two observations 
 thus consecutively reported, the first outline of somnambu- 
 lism ; of that faculty, by means of which magnetizers as- 
 sert that in this sleep of the external organs of sense, there 
 is developed in the magnetized an internal sense, and a 
 kind of instincts, capable of manifesting themselves by 
 external and rational acts. In each of the cases reported 
 above, the committee have, in fact, seen either signs or 
 words returned in answer to questions asked ; or promises, 
 which, it is true, have always lacked fulfilment, but which 
 bear traces of the expression of an incipient intelligence. 
 The three following observations will prove to you with 
 what distrust we ought to regard the promises of certain 
 pretended somnambulists. 
 
 " Mile. Josephine Martineau, nineteen years of age, 
 living at No. 37 Rue Saint Nicholas, had been affected 
 
120 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 with a chronic gastritis for three months when she entered 
 the Hdtel-Dieu, August 5th, 1826. She was magnetized 
 by M. Dupotet, in the Reporter's presence, for fifteen days 
 in succession, from the 7th to the 21st of the same month, 
 twice between the hours of four and five in the afternoon, 
 and thirteen times between six and seven in the morning. 
 She was put to sleep for the first time at the second sit- 
 ting, and at the fourth she answered the questions put to 
 her. We will not repeat to you, that at the close of each 
 sitting, her pulse was quicker than at the commencement ; 
 that she retained no recollection of what happened during 
 the sleep. These are common phenomena, which have 
 already been well established in the cases of other mag- 
 netized persons. We have now to do with somnambulism, 
 and it is this phenomenon we sought to observe in Mile. 
 Martineau. In her sleep she said she did not see the 
 persons present but heard them, and yet no one spoke. 
 Upon being questioned on this point, she replied that she 
 heard them when they made any noise ; she said she 
 should never be cured until she took purgative medicine. 
 She prescribed, to this end, three ounces of manna, and 
 some English pills to be taken two hours after the manna. 
 On the morrow and the day after, the Reporter gave her 
 no manna, but administered four pills made of the crumb 
 of bread ; during these two days she had four stools. She 
 said she should awake once in five minutes, and again in 
 ten, and she did not till after the expiration of seventeen 
 and sixteen. She announced that on a certain day she 
 would furnish us the details of the nature of her disease. 
 The day arrived, and she told us nothing. In short, she 
 was constantly at fault. 
 
 " M. de Geslin, residing at No. 37 Rue de Grenelle-Saint 
 Honore, wrote to the committee on the 8th of July, 1826, 
 fhat he had at his disposal a somnambulist, a lodger in 
 the same house with him — Madame Couturier, aged 30, 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 
 
 121 
 
 a worker in lace, who, among other faculties, possessed 
 that of reading the thoughts of her magnetizer, and exe- 
 cuting the orders he transmitted to her mentally. The 
 proposal of M. de Geslin was too important not to be ac- 
 cepted with eagerness. M. Gueneau and the Reporter 
 availed themselves of his invitation. M. de Geslin re- 
 peated the assurances he had given us in his letter as to 
 the surprising faculties of his somnambulist ; and having 
 put her to sleep by the usual process, invited us to make 
 known to him what we desired her to do. 
 
 " One of us, the Reporter, stationed himself at a bureau, 
 to make correct notes of all that might happen ; and the 
 other, M. Gueneau, undertook to write the orders we 
 wished to have transmitted to the magnetized person. M. 
 Gueneau wrote on a piece of paper the following words : 
 * Go and seat yourself upon that stool in front of the 
 piano.' M. de Geslin penetrating himself with this wish, 
 told the somnambulist to perform what he mentally re- 
 quested her. She rose from her seat, and placing herself 
 before the clock, said : • 'Tis twenty minutes past nine.' 
 M. de Geslin informed her that that was not what he 
 asked — she then went into the adjoining room. She was 
 made to understand that she was again mistaken — she re- 
 sumed her seat. She was requested to scratch her fore- 
 head — she stretched out her right hand, but did not execute 
 the required movement. She was desired to seat herself 
 at the piano — she went to a window six feet distant from 
 the instrument. The magnetizer complained that she did 
 not perform what he in thought requested — -she rose, and 
 took another chair. We required that when M. de Geslin 
 raised his hand, the somnambulist should do the same, and 
 keep it in that position until the magnetizer should let his 
 fall again — she lifted her hand, but held it motionless, an4 
 did not lower it until five minutes after that of M. de 
 Geslin fell. The back of a watch was shown to her— she 
 11 
 
122 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 said it was 35 minutes past nine, whereas the hand pointed 
 to seven. She said it had three hands, and it had but two. 
 A watch with three hands was substituted for it, and she 
 said there were but two — that it wanted 20 minutes of 
 nine, and by the watch it was 25 minutes past nine. She 
 was put in communication with M. Gueneau, and in respect 
 to his health, made statements altogether erroneous, and in 
 glaring contradiction to what our colleague had written on 
 the subject before he made the experiment. In fine, this 
 Madame Couturier kept none of the promises she had made 
 us ; and we are warranted in the belief that M. de Geslin 
 had not taken all the proper precautions against being led 
 into error, and that this was the cause of his faith in the 
 extraordinary faculties attributed to her. 
 
 " M. Chapelain, M. D., residing at the Cour Batave, No. 
 3, informed the committee, on the 14th of March, 1828, 
 that a woman living in his house, and who had been re- 
 ferred to him by our colleague, M. Caille, had announced, 
 when in a state of magnetic somnambulism, that on the 
 morrow, at 11 o'clock at night, she should pass a tsenia 
 (tape-worm) of an arm's length. The committee had too 
 strong a desire to witness the result of this announcement 
 to slight the opportunity offered. Messrs. Itard, Thillaye, 
 and the Reporter, accompanied by two members of the 
 Academy, Messrs. Caille and Virey, together with Dr. 
 Dance, the present physician to the Cochin Hospital, re- 
 paired on the morrow, (the 15th,) at three minutes before 
 11, to this woman's dwelling. She was instantly mag- 
 netized by M. Chapelain, and put to sleep at 11 o'clock. 
 She then declared that she saw within her four pieces of 
 worm, the first of which was enveloped in a skin — that in 
 order to void them, she would have to take an emetic, and 
 some worm-powder. It was objected, that she had said 
 she should pass the first piece at 11 o'clock. This objec- 
 tion fretted her — -she rose abruptly. The Reporter seized 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 123 
 
 her, assured himself that she had hidden nothing under her 
 clothes, and placed heron a close-stool, having first exam- 
 ined it closely. In ten minutes, she said she felt a tickling 
 about the anus ; she again rose abruptly — a movement of 
 which advantage was taken to ascertain that nothing came 
 from the anus. At 42 minutes after 11 she was awakened, 
 made an effort to go to stool, and passed nothing. M. 
 Chapelain magnetized her again, put her to sleep, and 
 gave her at half-past two o'clock in the morning an emetic, 
 which brought on vomiting, but no pieces of worms ap- 
 peared. On the 16th, at 10 in the morning, she passed 
 some lumpy excrement in which there was no appearance 
 of worms. 
 
 " Here are then three well-established facts, and we 
 could adduce others, in which error or intended imposture 
 on the part of the somnambulists, was very evident ; either 
 as to what they pretended to hear, or promised to do, or 
 announced as a thing to happen. 
 
 " In this position, and ardently desiring to throw light 
 upon the question, we deemed it essential for the benefit 
 of the researches to which we were devoting ourselves, 
 and for our own protection against the deceptions of char- 
 latanism, to ascertain if there were any sign that would 
 indicate the somnambulism to be real — that is to say, if the 
 sleeping magnetic patient were, so to speak, more than 
 asleep when he had reached the somnambulic state. 
 
 " M. Dupotet, who has already been spoken of repeat- 
 edly, proposed to the members of the committee, on the 
 4th of November, 1826, that they should witness some 
 experiments in which he would place the reality of mag- 
 netic somnambulism in all its clearest light of evidence. 
 He pledged himself, and we have his promise signed by 
 himself, to produce at will, and out of the sight of the indi- 
 vidual put by him into the somnambulic state, convulsive 
 movements in any part of their body, by the mere direction 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
124 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 of his finger towards that part. He regarded these convul- 
 sions as a certain sign of the existence of somnambu- 
 lism. The committee availed themselves of the presence 
 of Baptiste Chamet, by making upon him the neces- 
 sary experiments for enlightening and solving this ques- 
 tion. 
 
 " Accordingly, M. Dupotet having put him into the 
 somnambulic state, pointed with one finger towards his. 
 He also applied a metallic rod near them : no convulsive 
 effect was produced. One of the magnetizer's fingers 
 was again directed towards those of the magnetized per- 
 son ; there was observed in the middle and forefinger of 
 both hands a slight movement, like the convulsion occa- 
 sioned by the galvanic battery. Six minutes afterwards, 
 the magnetizer's finger being directed towards the left 
 wrist, caused a complete convulsive movement in this part ; 
 and the magnetizer then announced, that in five minutes 
 ' he would do any thing he pleased with the man.' M. 
 Marc, who was behind the latter, observed that the mag- 
 netizer ought to try to act upon the forefinger of the right 
 hand ; he directed his own towards that part, and it was 
 the left, and the thigh of the same side, that became con- 
 vulsed. His fingers were next pointed towards the pa- 
 tient's toes ; no effect was produced. Passes in front 
 were executed. Messrs. Bourdois, Guersent, and Gue- 
 neau de Mussy pointed their fingers successively towards 
 those of the patient, which contracted at their approach. 
 Movements in the left hand were afterwards perceived, 
 although no finger was directed towards it. At last, all 
 experiments were suspended, in order to ascertain whether 
 the convulsive movements would take place when he was 
 not magnetized ; and these movements were repeated, but 
 more feebly. The committee inferred from this, that there 
 was no need of the approach of the magnetizer's fingers 
 in order to produce convulsions ; although M. Dupotet 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 125 
 
 added, that when these had once commenced, they would 
 continue without it. 
 
 " Mile. Lemaitre also, of whom we before spoke, when 
 considering the influence of the imagination in the pro- 
 duction of magnetic phenomena, presented an instance of 
 this convulsive mobility ; but sometimes these movements, 
 which in their rapidity resembled those produced by an 
 electric shock, took place in one part, in consequence of 
 the approach of fingers, — at others, without the applica- 
 tion of the latter means. We have seen them manifested 
 in more or less time after the attempt had been made to 
 develop them. In several instances this phenomenon made 
 its appearance at a first sitting, and no more. Lastly, the 
 approximation of the fingers towards one part, was some- 
 times followed by convulsions in another. Another illus- 
 tration of this phenomenon is that furnished by M. Charlet, 
 French Consul at Odessa. M. Dupotet magnetized him 
 in our presence, November 17th, 1826. He directed his 
 ringer towards the left ear, and there was instantly per- 
 ceived in the hair behind the ear, a movement which was 
 attributed to contraction of the muscles in that region. 
 The passes were repeated with one hand, without direct- 
 ing the finger as before, and a general and sudden rising 
 of the ear became apparent. One finger was then pointed 
 to the same ear, and produced no effect. 
 
 " It is in particular upon M. Petit, aged 32, and a teacher 
 at Athis, that the convulsive movements have been proved 
 with the greatest precision, by the approximation of the 
 magnetizer's fingers. M. Dupotet presented him to the 
 committee, August 10th, 1826, with the announcement 
 that this gentleman was very susceptible to somnambulic 
 influence, and that when in that state, he (M. Dupotet) 
 could at will, and without the utterance of a word, elicit 
 in such parts as the committee should designate, evident 
 convulsive movements, by the mere approach of his fin- 
 
 11* 
 
 
126 
 
 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 gers. He was very readily put to sleep, — when the com- 
 mittee, to prevent any suspicion of intelligence, handed to 
 M. Dupotet a note, written in silence, and at the very 
 moment, designating the parts which he was requested to 
 affect convulsively. Furnished with this instruction, he 
 first directed his hand towards the right wrist, which be- 
 came convulsed. He next placed himself behind the 
 magnetized person, and inclined his finger first towards 
 the left thigh, then the left elbow, and lastly the head. 
 These three parts were almost instantly seized with con- 
 vulsions. M. Dupotet directed his left leg towards that 
 of the magnetized person, which shook as if it were on 
 the point of falling. M. Dupotet then brought his foot in 
 the direction of M. Petit's right elbow, which shook ac- 
 cordingly. He directed his foot towards the left elbow 
 and hand, and violent convulsive movements were devel- 
 oped in all the upper limbs. One of the members of the 
 committee, M. Marc, with a further intention of preventing 
 any kind of trickery, placed a bandage over his eyes, 
 when the foregoing experiments were repeated with but a 
 slight difference as to the result. In accordance with a 
 mimic and instantaneous gesture from several of us, M. 
 Dupotet directed his finger towards the left hand. At its 
 approach, both hands shook. It was requested that the 
 action should be communicated to the two lower limbs at 
 once. The approximation of the fingers was first tried, 
 without effect. Soon the somnambulist shook his hands, 
 then shrank back, then shook his feet. Some moments 
 after, the finger directed towards the hand caused it to be 
 drawn back, and produced a general shaking. Messrs. 
 Thillaye and Marc directed their fingers over various parts 
 of the body, and provoked several convulsive movements. 
 M. Petit has been always thus affected by means of the 
 pointing of fingers, whether he were blindfolded or not ; 
 and these movements have always been more marked 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 127 
 
 when a piece of metal, such as a key, or the shank of a 
 pair of spectacles, has been directed towards the parts 
 experimented on. The committee have concluded that, 
 notwithstanding their having witnessed several cases in 
 which this faculty of contraction has been brought into 
 play by the approximation of the fingers, or metallic sub- 
 stances, it requires new facts in order to appreciate this 
 phenomenon, upon the importance and stability of which 
 they do not consider themselves sufficiently enlightened 
 to decide. 
 
 " Forced, therefore, to have recourse to our own untiring 
 surveillance, we have prosecuted our researches, and 
 multiplied our observations, with increasing care, atten- 
 tion, and wariness. 
 
 " You recollect, gentlemen, the experiments made in 
 1820, at the Hotel-Dieu, in presence of a great number 
 of physicians, some of whom are members of this Acade- 
 my, and before the eyes of the Reporter, who alone de- 
 vised the plan of them, directed the details, and recorded 
 them each minute in a verbal process signed by all pres- 
 ent. We should probably have refrained from mentioning 
 them, were it not for a particular circumstance which 
 makes it our duty to refer to them. In the course of the 
 discussions elicited in the Academy by the proposition of 
 submitting Animal Magnetism to a new investigation, a 
 certain member, (M. Recamier,) who by the by did not 
 deny the reality of the magnetic phenomena, had asserted 
 that while the magnetizers were proclaiming the cure of 
 Mile. Samson, she was demanding re-admittance to the 
 HCtel-Dieu, where, he added, she had died of an organic 
 disease, judged incurable by the Faculty. And yet this 
 same Mile. Samson reappeared, six years after this pre- 
 tended death ; and your committee, convoked on the 29th 
 of December, 1826, for the purpose of experimenting upon 
 her, determined, before any thing else was done, to assure 
 
128 
 
 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 themselves that the person presented by M. Dupotet, of 
 whose good faith however they had no doubt, was indeed 
 the same who had been magnetized six years before at the 
 Hotel-Dieu. Messrs. Bricheteau and Patissier, who had 
 been present at the former experiments, were kind enough 
 to come at the invitation of the committee ; and conjointly 
 with the Reporter, proved, and signed a certificate, to the 
 effect that this was indeed the same person who had been 
 the subject of the experiments at the Hotel-Dieu in 1820, 
 and that they perceived no other change in her than such 
 as announced a remarkable improvement in health. The 
 identity being established, Mile. Samson was magnetized by 
 M. Dupotet in presence of the committee. The passes 
 had scarcely commenced when Mile. S. moved herself to 
 and fro upon her chair, rubbed her eyes, gave signs of im- 
 patience, complained, and coughed, with a hoarseness of 
 voice which Messrs. Bricheteau, Patissier, and the Re- 
 porter recognised as the same tone that had struck them 
 in 1820, and was then, as on the present occasion, an in- 
 dication to them of the commencement of magnetic opera- 
 tion. Soon she tapped the floor with her foot, leaned her 
 head upon her right hand and her chair, and appeared to 
 sleep. They unclosed her eyelid, and saw, as in 1820, 
 the ball of the eye turned convulsively upward. Several 
 questions were put to her which remained unanswered ; 
 when more were addressed to her she made gestures of 
 impatience, and told them peevishly not to torment her. 
 Lastly, the Reporter, without warning to any one what- 
 ever, threw r down at the same time upon the floor a table 
 and log of wood, which he had placed on the table. Some 
 of the bystanders uttered a cry of alarm : the somnambulist 
 heard it not, nor made any kind of movement, continuing 
 to sleep soundly. She was aroused four minutes after by 
 rubbing her eyes in a circular direction with the thumbs. 
 The same log was then suddenly thrown upon the floor ; 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 
 
 129 
 
 the noise startled Mile. Samson, and she complained 
 much of the fright they had given her, whereas, six minutes 
 before, she had been insensible of a much louder noise. 
 
 " You have all likewise heard of a fact which at the time 
 arrested the attention of the Surgical Department, having 
 been communicated to them at the sitting of the 16th of 
 April, 1829, by M. Jules Cloquet. The committee have 
 thought it their duty to record it here as one of the most 
 unequivocal proofs of the depth of the magnetic sleep. 
 The case is this. Mde. Plantin, aged 64, residing at No. 
 151 Rue St. Denis, who consulted M. Cloquet on the 8th 
 of April, 1829, for an ulcerated cancer, which she had had 
 on her right breast for several years, and was the more 
 complicated from being considerably obstructed by gan- 
 glions in the corresponding arm-pit. M. Chapelain, the 
 lady's physician, had magnetized her for several months 
 with the view, he said, of reducing the obstruction of the 
 breast, but had obtained no other result than a very deep 
 sleep, during which sensibility appeared to be destroyed, 
 her ideas retaining all their lucidity. He proposed to M. 
 Cloquet to operate upon her while she was thus buried in 
 magnetic sleep. The latter, judging the operation indis- 
 pensable, consented ; and it was decided that it should be 
 performed the following Sunday, April 12th. For two 
 days previous, the lady was magnetized several times by 
 M. Chapelain, who prepared her while in the somnambulic 
 state to submit fearlessly to the operation, and even brought 
 her to speak of it with confidence, whereas upon awaking 
 she rejected the idea of it with horror. 
 
 " Upon the day appointed for the operation, M. Cloquet, 
 arriving at half-past ten in the morning, found the patient 
 dressed and seated in an arm-chair, in the attitude of one 
 enjoying a tranquil and natural sleep. She had returned 
 about an hour before from mass, which she was in the 
 habit of attending at a regular hour. M. Chapelain had 
 
130 
 
 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 thrown her into the magnetic sleep since her return. The 
 patient spoke with much composure of the operation she 
 was about to undergo. All the preparations having been 
 made for this purpose, she undressed herself and sat down 
 upon a chair. 
 
 " M. Chapelain supported her right arm ; the left rested 
 upon her side. M. Pailloux, a resident student of the St. 
 Louis Hospital, was instructed to hand the instruments 
 and make the ligatures. The first incision, commencing 
 from the middle of the arm-pit, was directed above the 
 tumor to the inner side of the nipple. The second, begin- 
 ning at the same point, bounded the tumor below, and was 
 continued so as to meet the first. M. Cloquet cautiously 
 dissected the obstructing ganglions on account of their 
 proximity to the axillary artery, and extirpated the tumor. 
 The operation occupied from ten to twelve minutes. 
 
 " During all this time the patient continued in calm con- 
 versation with the operator, and did not give the slightest 
 symptom of sensibility : no movement of limb, or even 
 feature, no change of respiration or voice, no excitement 
 even of the pulse was manifested. The patient remained 
 without interruption in the state of ease and statue-like 
 tranquillity in which she was placed some minutes before 
 the operation. There was no necessity of holding her so 
 as to prevent her moving ; she only required to be sup- 
 ported. A ligature was applied to the lateral thoracic ar- 
 tery, opened during the extraction of the ganglions. The 
 wound was closed with sticking plaster and dressed ; the 
 patient placed in bed, still in the somnambulic state, and 
 left thus for 48 hours. An hour after the operation a 
 slight hemorrhage became apparent, but had no bad con- 
 sequences. The first dressing was taken ofT on the fol- 
 lowing Tuesday, the 14th ; the wound was cleansed and 
 dressed afresh ; the patient manifested neither pain nor 
 sensibility ; her pulse maintained its usual rate. After 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 
 
 131 
 
 this dressing M. Chapelain roused the patient, whose som- 
 nambulic sleep had lasted ever since an hour before the 
 operation, that is to say, for two days. The lady appeared 
 to have no idea, no sensation as to what had happened ; 
 but, upon being informed that she had undergone the ope- 
 ration, and seeing her children around her, she experienced 
 a very lively emotion, which the magnetizer checked im- 
 mediately by putting her to sleep again. 
 
 " The committee have regarded these two observations 
 as furnishing the most evident proof of the annihilation of 
 sensibility during somnambulism ; and declare, that al- 
 though they did not witness the latter, they find it stamped 
 with such an air of truth, witnessed and communicated by 
 so strict an observer to the Surgical Department, that they 
 have fearlessly presented it to you, as the most incontest- 
 able evidence of the state of torpor and numbness produced 
 by Magnetism. 
 
 " In the course of experiments in which the committee 
 had sought an opportunity of understanding the faculty of 
 exciting the contractile power of the muscles in M. Petit, 
 of Athis, other essays were made upon him, to detect a 
 peculiar kind of clairvoyance, viz. sight through the 
 closed eyelids, with which he was said to be endowed 
 when in the somnambulic state. 
 
 " The magnetizer had announced to us, that this som- 
 nambulist would distinguish among twelve pieces of money, 
 that which M. Dupotet had held in his hand. The Re- 
 porter placed therein a five-franc piece, dated 1813, and 
 then shuffled it among twelve others which he arranged 
 m a circle on the table. M. Petit designated one of the 
 coins, but it bore the date of 1812. Presently they show- 
 ed him a watch, the hands of which had been purposely 
 put out of place, so as not to point to the real time, and 
 twice in succession M. Petit was at fault as to the hour 
 they indicated. An attempt was made to explain these 
 
132 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 mistakes by telling us, that M. Petit lost a portion of his 
 lucidity when not frequently magnetized ; nevertheless, at 
 the same sitting, the Reporter played a game of piquet 
 "with him, and tried several times to deceive him by mis- 
 calling a card or color, and yet the Reporter's false play 
 did not prevent M. Petit from playing right, or knowing 
 the color of his adversary's point. We ought to add, that 
 whenever a body, such as a sheet of paper or card, was 
 placed between his eyes and the object to be discerned, 
 M. Petit could distinguish nothing. 
 
 " Had these been the only essays made by us to recog- 
 nise clairvoyance, we should have concluded that it formed 
 no part of somnambulism ; but in the following experiment, 
 this faculty appeared in its broadest light, and its success 
 fully bore out the announcement of M. Dupotet. 
 
 " M. Petit was magnetized by him on the 1 5th of March, 
 1826, at half-past eight in the evening, and put to sleep 
 almost in a mimite. The chairman of the committee, M. 
 Bourdois, assured himself that the number of pulsations 
 had diminished twenty-two per minute since he had beea 
 put to sleep, and that the pulse also was somewhat irregu- 
 lar. M. Dupotet, having blindfolded the somnambulist, 
 joined two of his fingers, and pointed to him repeatedly a* 
 the distance of about two feet. A violent contraction of 
 the hands and arms, towards which the action was direct- 
 ed, became immediately visible. M. Dupotet having like- 
 wise brought his feet near those of M. Petit, but without 
 touching them, the latter drew his forcibly back. He 
 complained of feeling acute pain and a burning heat in the 
 limbs to which the action was directed. M. Bourdois 
 tried to produce the same effects ; he did so, but with 
 less promptitude, and in a less degree. 
 
 " This point being well established, we proceeded to as- 
 certain the clairvoyance of the somnambulist. The latter 
 having declared that he could not see with the bandage, it 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 133 
 
 was taken off; but every care was taken to ascertain that 
 the eyelids were firmly closed. To this end. during the 
 experiment, a light was almost constantly kept before M. 
 Petit's eyes, at the distance of an inch or two ; and several 
 persons had their eyes continually fixed on his. Xo one 
 could perceive the slightest parting of the lids. M. Ribes 
 even showed them that their edges were overlapped so that 
 the lashes crossed each other. 
 
 ' : The state of the eyes was also examined. They 
 were forced open without awaking the somnambulist ; and 
 it was remarked that the ball was turned downward, and 
 directed towards the wide corner of the eye. 
 
 ° After these preliminaries we proceeded to verify the 
 phenomena of seeing with the eyes shut. M. Ribes, a 
 member of the Academy, presented a catalogue which he 
 drew from his pocket. The somnambulist, after some ef- 
 forts which seemed to fatigue him, read very distinctly these 
 words : : Lavater. It is very difficult to know men.' These 
 words were printed in very small type. A passport was 
 placed before his eyes — he recognised it, and called it a 
 pass-man. A few moments after, a license to carry arms 
 was substituted for the passport, being, as it is known, al- 
 most exactly similar, and the blank side presented to him. 
 M. Petit could only recognise that it was a document with 
 a border, and nearly like the other. It was turned — then, 
 after a few moments' examination, he told what it was, and 
 distinctly read these words : ' By authority of the king ;' 
 and on the left, { To wear arms.' An opened letter was 
 shown him. He said he could not read, as he did not un- 
 derstand English. It was, in fact, an English letter. 
 
 " M. Bourdois took from his pocket a snuff-box, on which 
 was a cameo set in gold. The somnambulist could not 
 see it distinctly at first ; the gold rim dazzled him, he said. 
 The rim being covered with the fingers, he told us he saw 
 the emblem of fidelity. When pressed to say what this em- 
 12 
 
 
134 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 blem was, he added : ' I see a dog : he looks as if he were 
 standing up before an altar.' This was, indeed, what was 
 represented. A folded letter was shown him. He could 
 tell none of the contents. He merely traced with his fin- 
 gers the direction of the lines ; but he read the address 
 very well, although it bore a pretty difficult name : ■ To 
 M. de Rockenstrok.' 
 
 " All these experiments fatigued M. Petit extremely. 
 He was allowed to rest himself awhile. Then, as he was 
 fond of play, a game of cards was proposed, as a relaxation 
 to him. Whatever vexation and fatigue he manifested 
 during the experiments of mere curiosity, he performed 
 with equal ease and dexterity that which was pleasing to 
 him, and to which he betook himself of his own accord. 
 
 " One of the company, M. Raynal, formerly inspector 
 of the University, played with M. Petit to a hundred at 
 piquet, and lost. The latter handled the cards with the 
 greatest agility, and without once making a mistake. Sev- 
 eral attempts were made in vain to put him out, by keeping 
 back, or changing cards. He counted, with astonishing 
 facility, the number of points marked on his adversary's 
 scoring-card. During all this time his eyes were inces- 
 santly watched, and a light kept near them. They were 
 found to be firmly closed the whole time. Nevertheless, it 
 was observed that the ball of the eye seemed to move be- 
 neath the lid, and follow the movements of the hands. In 
 fine, M. Bourdois declared that, in all human probability, 
 and as far as could be judged by the senses, the eyelids 
 were entirely shut. 
 
 " While M. Petit was playing a second game of piquet, 
 M. Dupotet, at the suggestion of M. Ribes, directed his 
 hand from behind, towards the elbow of the former. The 
 contraction previously noticed again took place. Then, 
 upon the proposition of M. Bourdois, he magnetized him 
 from behind, and still at the distance of a foot, with the 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 135 
 
 intention of awaking him. The ardor for play on the part 
 of the somnambulist, struggled against this operation, so 
 that it embarrassed and vexed, without awaking him. He 
 several times raised his hand to the back of his head, as 
 if he suffered pain there. He fell at last into a slumber, 
 which seemed like a light natural sleep ; and some one 
 having spoken to him in this state, he suddenly awoke. 
 A few moments after, M. Dupotet, still stationed at a slight 
 distance from him, plunged him again into the magnetic 
 sleep, and the experiments were resumed. M. Dupotet, 
 desirous that not a shadow of doubt should rest upon the 
 nature of a physical action exercised at will upon the 
 somnambulist, proposed to put as many bandages as might 
 be requested over M. Petit's eyes, and to act upon him in 
 that state. Upon this his face, and even nostrils, were 
 muffled with several cravats; the cavity formed by the 
 projection of the nose was padded, and the whole covered 
 with a black neckerchief reaching down to the neck after 
 the manner of a veil. 
 
 " Fresh attempts of every kind were then made to op- 
 erate at a distance, and the same movements were con- 
 stantly elicited in the parts towards which a hand or a foot 
 was directed. 
 
 " After these essays, M. Dupotet having removed the 
 bandages from M. Petit, played a game of " ecarte" with 
 him, for his diversion. He played with the same facility 
 as before, and was again the winner. He pursued his 
 game with such ardor, as to remain insensible to the influ- 
 ence of M. Bourdois, who tried in vain, meanwhile, to 
 operate upon him from behind, and to make him execute a 
 mental order. 
 
 " At the conclusion of the game, the somnambulist rose, 
 walked across the parlor, removing the chairs which stood 
 in his way, and went and sat for a while apart from the 
 rest, as if to repose from the curiosity and experiments 
 
136 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 that had fatigued him. When there, M. Dupotet awoke 
 him at the distance of two feet ; but did not rouse him 
 altogether, as it seemed, for in a few moments after he 
 fell asleep again, and it required a fresh effort to bring him 
 to a complete state of consciousness. 
 
 " When awake, he declared that he had no recollection 
 of what had occurred during his sleep. 
 
 " Assuredly, if, as M. Bourdois wrote upon the proces- 
 verbal of this sitting, ' the constant immobility of the eye- 
 lids, and their edges overlapping each other so that the 
 lashes seemed to cross, are sufficient guarantees of the 
 clairvoyance of this somnambulist through the eyelids, it 
 is impossible to withhold, if not belief, at least astonish- 
 ment at what has taken place at this sitting, and not de- 
 sire to witness further experiments, so as to be able to 
 arrive at a settled opinion upon the existence and value of 
 Animal Magnetism.' 
 
 " The wish expressed on this point by our President was 
 quickly gratified, in experimenting upon three somnambu- 
 lists, who, besides the clairvoyance observed in the pre- 
 ceding case, displayed proofs of an intuition and foresight, 
 which seemed as remarkable to themselves as to others. 
 
 " A wider field now lies apparently before us. The busi- 
 ness is no longer to gratify mere curiosity, to seek assu- 
 rance of there being a sign by which to distinguish real 
 somnambulism from that which is feigned. Of the fact of 
 a somnambulist's being able to read with his eyes shut, to 
 apply himself during his sleep to the more or less intricate 
 combinations of a game at cards, — these, to be sure, are 
 curious and interesting questions, the solution of which, 
 particularly that of the last, is a very extraordinary phe- 
 nomenon ; but they are questions which, in point of real in- 
 terest, and above all, in view of the hopes of advantage to 
 be derived therefrom by the science of medicine, are infi- 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 137 
 
 nitely beneath those which the committee are about to 
 make known to you. 
 
 " There is not one of you, gentlemen, who in all that 
 has been told him of Magnetism, has not heard of that 
 faculty which certain somnambulists possess, not only of 
 indicating the kind of disease with which they are affect- 
 ed, together with its duration and issue, but also the kind, 
 duration, and issue of the diseases of those with whom 
 they are put in communication. The three following ob- 
 servations seemed to us of such importance that we have 
 thought it our duty to make them known to you in detail, 
 as presenting very remarkable instances of this intuition 
 and foresight ; you will find therein, at the same time, a 
 combination of phenomena not observed in other magnet- 
 ized persons. 
 
 " Paul Villagrand, a law-student, born at Magnac-Laval, 
 (Upper Vienna,) on the 18th of May, 1803, had, on the 
 25th of December, 1825, an attack of apoplexy, together 
 with paralysis, affecting the whole of the left side of his 
 body. After 17 months of varied treatment, by acupunctu- 
 ration, a seton in the nape of the neck, and 12 moxas along 
 the vertebral column, which treatment he underwent either 
 at his own house, at the Maison de Sante, or at the Hos- 
 pice de Perfectionnement, and in the course of which he 
 had two attacks more, he was admitted, on the 8th of 
 April, 1827, into the Charity Hospital. Although he ex- 
 perienced considerable relief from the means employed 
 before his entrance into that hospital, he walked on crutch- 
 es, not being able to rest upon his left foot. The arm of 
 the same side performed indeed some of its functions ; 
 but Paul could not raise it to his head. He was nearly 
 blind of the right eye, and was very deaf in both ears. 
 Such was his condition when confided to the care of our 
 colleague, M. Fouquier, who, besides the paralysis, which 
 
 12* 
 
 
138 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 was evident enough, recognised in him symptoms of hyper- 
 trophy of the heart. 
 
 " For five months he administered to him the alcoholic 
 extract of mix vomica, bled him occasionally, purged him, 
 and applied blisters. His left arm recovered a portion of 
 its strength, the headaches to which he had been subject 
 left him, and his condition remained stationary until the 
 29th of August, 1827, at which date he was magnetized 
 for the first time by M. Foissac, by the order and under 
 the direction of M. Fouquier. At this first sitting he had 
 a general sensation of heat, then a twitching of the ten- 
 dons. He was astonished at being overmastered, so to 
 speak, by an inclination to sleep — rubbed his eyes in order 
 to get rid of it — made visible, but useless efforts to keep 
 them open ; at length his head drooped upon his breast 
 and he fell asleep. From this moment his deafness and 
 headache left him. It was not till the ninth sitting that 
 his sleep became profound ; and at the tenth he replied in 
 inarticulate sounds to the questions addressed to him. He 
 afterwards declared that he could only be cured by the aid 
 of Magnetism, and prescribed for himself mustard plasters, 
 mineral baths, and a continuation of the nux vomica pills. 
 On the 25th of September the committee repaired to the 
 Charity Hospital, caused the patient to be undressed, and 
 satisfied themselves that the left leg was evidently more 
 meager than the right, that the grip of the right hand was 
 much stronger than that of the left, that the tongue when 
 put out inclined towards the right corner of the mouth, 
 and that in coughing the right cheek was more distended 
 than the left. 
 
 " Paul was then magnetized, and quickly fell into the 
 somnambulic state. He repeated what related to his 
 treatment, and directed that a mustard plaster should be 
 applied, that day, to each leg for an hour and a half; that 
 on the morrow, he should be made to take a mineral bath, 
 

 ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 139 
 
 and, upon leaving the bath, mustard plasters should be ap- 
 plied for two hours without interruption, sometimes to one 
 part, sometimes to another ; that on the third day, after 
 having taken a second mineral bath, a palette and a half 
 of blood should be taken from his right arm. He added, 
 that if this treatment were adopted, on the 28th, that 
 is to say, three days after, he should walk from the room 
 without crutches, provided, he said, they again magnetized 
 him. 
 
 " The treatment which he prescribed was adopted, and 
 on the day pointed out by him, the 28th of September, 
 the committee revisited the Charity Hospital. Paul en- 
 tered the hall of conference, supported on his crutches, 
 where he was magnetized as usual, and put into the som- 
 nambulic state, in which he affirmed that he would return 
 to his bed without crutches or other support. Upon 
 awakening, he called for his crutches. He was told he 
 had no longer need of them. He rose, in fact, stood upon 
 his paralyzed leg, pierced the crowd that followed him, 
 walked down the stairs leading from the experimenting 
 room, crossed the second court of the hospital, ascended 
 two steps, and having reached the bottom of the staircase, 
 sat down. After resting himself for two minutes, he as- 
 cended, with the assistance of one arm and the handrail, 
 the twenty-four steps which led to his bedroom ; he went 
 to his bed without support, sat down again for a moment, 
 and took a second walk round the room, to the great sur- 
 prise of all the patients, who, up to that time, had always 
 seen him confined to his bed. From that day Paul never 
 resumed his crutches. The committee again met, on the 
 11th of October, at the Charity Hospital. He was mag- 
 netized, and announced that he would be completely cured 
 at the end of the year, if a seton were made two inches 
 below the region of the heart. At this sitting he was re- 
 peatedly pinched, and a pin was stuck the eighth of an 
 
140 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 inch deep into his eyebrow and wrist, without eliciting 
 any signs of sensibility. 
 
 " On the sixteenth of October, M. Fouquier received, 
 from the General Council of the Hospitals, a letter re- 
 questing him to suspend the magnetic experiments he had 
 commenced at the Charity Hospital. The treatment by 
 Magnetism therefore necessarily ceased, although the pa- 
 tient declared that he could not commend the efficacy 
 thereof in adequate terms. M. Foissac then caused him 
 to leave the hospital, and take up his abode at No. 18 Rue 
 des Petits-Augustins, in a private room, where he contin- 
 ued his treatment. On the 29th of the same month, the 
 committee visited the patient at his lodging, for the pur- 
 pose of inquiring into the progress of his cure ; but before 
 magnetizing him, it was ascertained that he still walked 
 without crutches, and that his gait was steadier than at the 
 previous sittings. His strength was then tested by means 
 of a dynamometer, ^hen pressed with his right hand, 
 the instrument stood at thirty kilogrammes, and with the 
 left at twelve. The two hands together made it rise to 
 thirty-one. 
 
 " He was magnetized. In four minutes somnambulism 
 became apparent, and Paul declared that he should be 
 perfectly cured by the 1st of January. 
 
 " His strength was again tried. The pressure of the 
 right hand caused the needle to rise to 29 kilogrammes, 
 — one less than before his sleep ; the left hand, (the para- 
 lyzed one,) to 26, — fourteen more than before his sleep ; 
 and the two hands united, to 45, — fourteen more than 
 before. 
 
 " While yet in the somnambulic state, he got up and 
 walked with great activity, hopped upon the left foot, 
 rested upon his right knee, got up again, supporting him- 
 self with his left hand upon a bystander, and bearing the 
 entire weight of his body upon his left knee. He caught 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 141 
 
 hold of, and lifted M. Thillaye, turned him completely 
 round himself, and sat down with M. Thillaye upon his 
 lap. He drew the dynamometer with all his strength, and 
 raised the needle to 16 myriagrammes . Being asked to 
 go down stairs, he abruptly quitted his arm-chair, took M. 
 Foissac's arm, and leaving him at the door, went down 
 and up again, taking two or three stairs at once, with an 
 unnatural rapidity, which, however, he moderated when 
 told to take them one by one. As soon as he was awa- 
 kened, he lost this astonishing increase of strength. Then, 
 indeed, the dynamometer stood at 3| myriagrammes only, 
 — that is to say, 12| less than before he was awake. His 
 gait was slow, but firm. He could not bear the weight of 
 his body on the left leg, (the paralyzed one,) and he tried 
 in vain to lift M. Foissac. 
 
 " We ought to remark here, gentlemen, that a few days 
 before the last experiment the patient had lost 2\ pounds 
 of blood ; that he had still two blisters on his legs, a seton 
 on the nape of his neck, and another on his chest. You 
 cannot, therefore, but acknowledge, with us, what a pro- 
 digious increase of strength Magnetism had developed in 
 the diseased organs, that of the sound ones remaining the 
 same, — since, as long as the somnambulism lasted, the 
 whole force of the body had been more than quadrupled. 
 Paul thereafter renounced all medical treatment. He de- 
 sired to be magnetized only ; and towards the end of the 
 year, as he expressed a wish to be put into the somnam- 
 bulic state, and kept therein for a week, in order to com- 
 plete his cure by the 1st of January, he was magnetized 
 on the 25th of December, and from that day remained in 
 a state of somnambulism until the 1st of January. Of 
 this time (he being roused at unequal intervals) about 
 twelve hours were passed awake ; and during these mo- 
 ments of natural consciousness, he was made to believe 
 that he had only slept for a few hours. Throughout his 
 
142 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 sleep his digestive functions went on with increased ac- 
 tivity. 
 
 " He had been asleep for three days, when, accompa- 
 nied by M. Foissac, he set out on foot, December 28th, 
 from Rue Mondovi, and went in search of M. Fouquier, 
 at the Charity Hospital, which he reached at 9 o'clock. 
 He there recognised the patients near whom he had lain 
 in bed before his departure, the students who officiated in 
 the hall, — and he read with his eyes closed, (a finger being 
 pressed on each lid,) some words presented to him by M. 
 Fouquier. 
 
 " All we witnessed appeared so astonishing, that the 
 committee, desirous of tracing throughout the history of 
 this somnambulist, met on the 1st of January at M. Fois- 
 sac 's, where Paul was found in a sleep that had lasted 
 since the 25th of December. He had dispensed, two 
 weeks before, with the seton on his neck and breast, and 
 had had a cautery made on his left arm, which he was to 
 retain for life. He declared, moreover, that he was cured ; 
 that if he committed no imprudence, he would attain to an 
 advanced age, and die of an apoplectic fit. When awa- 
 kened, he left M. Foissac's house, walked and ran' through 
 the street with a firm and fearless step. On his return, 
 he carried with the utmost facility a person present, whom 
 he had not, without effort, been able to lift before his 
 sleep. 
 
 " On the 12th of January, the committee again met at 
 M. Foissac's, together with M. Em. de las Cases, 
 deputy, M. le Comte de Rumigny, first aid-de-camp to 
 the king, and M. Segalas, member of the Academy. M. 
 Foissac announced to us, that he was about to put Paul to 
 sleep ; that while in the somnambulic state, a finger should 
 be laid on each of his closed eyes ; and that, in spite of 
 this complete exclusion of light, he would distinguish the 
 colors of cards, read the title of a work, and some words 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 143 
 
 of the lines pointed out to him, at random, even in the 
 body of any work. Magnetic passes having been exe- 
 cuted for two minutes, Paul fell asleep. His eyelids 
 being kept constantly closed by Messrs. Fouquier, Itard, 
 Marc, and the Reporter, in turns, a new pack of cards was 
 exhibited to him. The paper envelope, bearing the gov- 
 ernment stamp, was torn ; the cards were shuffled ; and 
 Paul recognised successively and easily the king of 
 spades, ace of clubs, queen of hearts, nine of clubs, seven 
 of diamonds, queen of diamonds, and the eight of dia- 
 monds. 
 
 " His eyelids being still kept closed by M. Segalas, a 
 volume with which the Reporter had provided himself, was 
 presented to him. He read the title, viz.: 'History of 
 France.'' He could not read the two intermediate lines, 
 but read upon the fifth the single word ' Anquetil,' which 
 was preceded by the preposition ' by.' The book was 
 opened at the 89th page, and he read in the first line : 
 ' the number of his' — omitted the word ' troops,' £,nd con- 
 tinued — ' at the moment when he was thought to be the 
 most engrossed in the pleasures of the carnival — ' He 
 likewise read the title at the head of each page of the 
 reign, viz. : ' Louis,'' but could not decipher the Roman 
 figures which followed it. A paper was handed to him, 
 on which the words ' agglutination and Animal Magnetism' 
 were written. He spelt the first, and pronounced the other 
 two. Lastly, the minutes of the proceedings at that sit- 
 ting were shown to him ; he read pretty distinctly the 
 date, and some words more legibly written than the rest. 
 During all these experiments fingers were placed over the 
 entire opening of each eye, pressing the upper lid upon 
 the lower, and we remarked that the orb constantly per- 
 formed a rotary movement, and appeared to be directed to- 
 wards the object submitted to its vision. 
 
 " On the 2d of February Paul was put into the som- 
 
144 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 nambulic state at the residence of Messrs. Scribe and Bre- 
 mard, merchants, No. 290 Rue St. Honore. The com- 
 mittee's Reporter was the only member present at this ex- 
 periment. Paul's eyelids were closed as before, and he 
 read in the work entitled ' The Thousand and one Nights,' 
 the title, the word ' Preface,' and the first line of the Pre- 
 face except the word ' little.' They also presented him a 
 volume entitled ' Letters from Two Friends,' by Mine. 
 Campan. He distinguished in an engraving the figure of 
 Napoleon ; he pointed out his boots, and said he saw two 
 women there. He then read fluently the first four lines 
 of the 3d page, with the exception of the word ' revive.' 
 Lastly, he recognised, without touching them, four cards 
 that were presented to him two by two — namely, the king 
 of spades and the eight of hearts, the queen and king of 
 clubs. 
 
 "At another sitting, held on the 13th of March follow- 
 ing, Paul tried in vain to distinguish different cards which 
 were laid upon his epigastrium ; but he again read with 
 his eyes closed from a book opened at random, and on 
 this occasion M. Jules Cloquet secured his eyelids. The 
 Reporter likewise wrote on a slip of paper the two proper 
 names, Maximilien Robespierre, which he read equally 
 well. 
 
 " The inferences to be drawn from this long and curious 
 observation are evident. They follow naturally from the 
 simple narrative of the facts we haye reported, and we 
 arrange them as follows : 1st. A patient, whom a rational 
 medicine prepared by one of the most distinguished practi- 
 tioners of the capital has failed to cure of paralysis, owes 
 his restoration to health and strength to the employment of 
 Magnetism, and the precision with which the treatment 
 prescribed by himself when in the somnambulic state was 
 followed up. 2d. While in this state his strength was re- 
 markably increased. 3d. He furnishes indisputable proof 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 145 
 
 that he reads with his eyes closed. 4th and lastly, He 
 foresees the epoch of his cure, and this cure takes place. 
 
 "The following observation will illustrate this foresight, 
 still more clearly developed in an humble and altogether 
 ignorant map., and who certainly had never heard of Mag- 
 netism. 
 
 " Peter Cazot, aged 20, a journeyman hatter, born of an 
 epileptic mother, had been subject for ten years to epileptic 
 fits, occurring five or six times a week, when he was ad- 
 mitted to the Charity Hospital, in the early part of the 
 month of August, 1827. He was immediately magnetized 
 by M. Foissac. He fell asleep at the third sitting, and into 
 a state of somnambulism at the 10th, which was held on the 
 19th of August. He then, at nine o'clock in the morning, 
 announced that at four in the afternoon of that day he should 
 have an attack of epilepsy ; but that it could be prevented 
 by magnetizing him a short time beforehand. It was 
 deemed preferable to prove the accuracy of his prevision, 
 and no precautions were taken to avert it. iTo keep watch 
 over him without his being aware of it, was thought all- 
 sufficient. At one o'clock he was seized with a violent 
 headache ; at three he was obliged to go to bed; and at 
 four, precisely, the fit commenced. It lasted five minutes. 
 Two days afterwards, Cazot being in the somnambulic 
 state, M. Fouquier suddenly thrust a pin an inch long be- 
 tween the thumb and forefinger of his right hand — with 
 the same pin pierced the lobe of his ear — opened his eye- 
 lid, and struck repeatedly the conjunctiva (white of the 
 eye) with the head of the pin, without calling forth the 
 least sign of sensibility. 
 
 "The committee assembled at the Charity Hospital on 
 the 24th of August, at nine in the morning, to follow up the 
 experiments which M. Fouquier, one of the members, in- 
 tended to resume on this patient. 
 
 " At this sitting, M. Foissac stationed himself in front of 
 13 
 
146 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 Cazot, at the distance of six feet. He looked steadily al 
 him, made no gesture with his hand, maintained a profound 
 silence, and Cazot fell asleep in eight minutes. A vial of 
 hartshorn was applied three times to his nose. His face 
 flushed, his respiration was accelerated, but he did not 
 awake. M. Fouquier thrust into his forearm a pin an inch 
 long ; a second was pricked to the depth of a quarter of 
 an inch obliquely into the sternum ; a third obliquely also 
 into the epigastrium ; and a fourth perpendicularly into the 
 sole of his foot. M. Guersent pinched him on the forearm 
 so as to leave an ecchymosis, (stagnant blood.) M. Itard 
 leaned with the entire weight of his body upon the thigh. 
 They tried to tickle him with a small piece of paper under 
 the nose, on the lips, eyebrows, eyelashes, neck, and sole 
 of the foot. Nothing could rouse him. We urged him 
 with questions such as — ' How many more fits are you to 
 have V — ' For a year.' — ' Do you know whether they will 
 follow closely one after the other V — ' No.' — ' Will you 
 have one this month V — ' I shall have one on Monday, the 
 27th, at 20 minutes before three.' — ' Will it be violent V — 
 1 Not half so violent as that I lately had.' — ' On what other 
 day will you have a fresh attack?' — After a gesture of im- 
 patience, he answered : * In two weeks from to-day, that 
 is, on the 7th of September.' — ' At what hour ?'— ' At ten 
 minutes before six in the morning.' — The sickness of one 
 of Cazot's children obliged him to leave the Charity Hos- 
 pital the same day, (August 24th ;) but it was agreed to 
 have him there again on Monday, the 27th, in the morn- 
 ing, for the purpose of witnessing the fit which he had 
 said would come upon him that day, at 20 minutes before 
 three. The porter having refused him admittance when 
 he presented himself, Cazot went to M. Foissac's to com- 
 plain of this refusal. The latter preferred, as he told us, 
 averting this fit by Magnetism to being the sole witness of 
 it. We were, therefore, unable to establish the accuracy 
 

 ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 147 
 
 of this prevision. But it still was left us to observe the 
 attack announced for the 7th of September. M. Fouquier 
 having procured Cazot's admission into the hospital on the 
 6th, under pretence of showing him the attentions which he 
 could not receive elsewhere, caused him to be magnetized 
 in the course of the day (the 6th) by M. Foissac, who put 
 him to sleep by the mere force of his volition, and the steadi- 
 ness of his gaze. During his sleep Cazot repeated that he 
 should have an attack on the morrow, at ten minutes before 
 six, and that it could be prevented by magnetizing him a 
 little beforehand. At a signal agreed upon, and given by 
 M. Fouquier, M. Foissac, of whose presence Cazot was 
 ignorant, awoke him as he had put him to sleep, by an act 
 of volition, in spite of the questions put to the somnambu- 
 list, with no other view than to make him unconscious of 
 the moment at which he was to be awakened. 
 
 " In order to witness the second fit, the committee met, 
 on the 7th. of September, at a quarter before six in the 
 morning, in St. Michael's Hall, at the Charity Hospital. 
 It was there ascertained that Cazot had, the evening be- 
 fore, been seized with a headache, which had tortured 
 him all night ; that this had brought on a ringing in the 
 ears, together with shooting pains. At ten minutes before 
 six, we witnessed the epileptic fit, characterized by the 
 stiffening and contraction of the limbs, violent and repeated 
 jerking of the head backward, convulsive closing of the 
 eyelids, retraction of the eyeball towards the top of the 
 socket, sighs, exclamations, insensibility to pinching, and 
 biting the tongue. All this assemblage of symptoms lasted 
 five minutes, during which he had twice a few moments' 
 respite, and a painful shuddering of the limbs, and a gen- 
 eral lassitude. 
 
 " On the 10th of September, at seven in the evening, 
 the committee met again at M. Itard's, to resume their ex- 
 periments upon Cazot. The latter was in the cabinet, in 
 
148 
 
 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 : 
 
 F 
 
 which a conversation was carried on with him until half- 
 past seven, at which time M. Foissac, who had arrived 
 after him, and remained in the antechamber, separated 
 from the cabinet by two closed doors, and at the distance 
 of twelve feet, began to magnetize him. Three minutes 
 afterwards, Cazot said, ' I believe M. Foissac is there, for 
 I feel stupid.' At the expiration of eight minutes, he was 
 sound asleep. He was questioned, and he again affirmed 
 that in three weeks from that day, the 1st of October, he 
 should have an epileptic fit at two minutes before noon. 
 
 " It became our business to observe, with as much care 
 as we had on the 7th of September, the attack which he 
 had said would take place on the 1st of October. To this 
 end, the committee assembled that day, at half-past eleven, 
 at the house of M. Georges, hatter, No. 17 Rue des Me- 
 netriers, where Cazot lived and worked. We were in- 
 formed by M. Georges, that Cazot was a very steady . 
 workman, of exemplary conduct, and of too unsophisticated 
 a mind, or too moral, to lend himself to any trickery what- 
 ever ; that he had had no epileptic fit since that which the 
 committee had witnessed at the Charity Hospital ; that 
 not feeling well, he had remained in his room, and 
 was not at work ; that there was at that moment with him 
 an intelligent man, whose veracity and discretion might 
 be relied on ; that this man had not told him of his having 
 predicted that he was to have an attack that day ; that al- 
 though it was evident enough that M. Foissac had com- 
 municated with Cazot since the 10th of September, it 
 could not be inferred thence that he had reminded him of 
 his prediction ; on the contrary, that M. Foissac attached too 
 much importance to the condition that no one should speak 
 to the patient of what he had announced, &c. M. Georges 
 went up at five minutes before noon into a room under that 
 occupied by Cazot, and in a minute afterwards came to in- 
 form us that the fit was on him. We all hastily ascended 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 
 
 149 
 
 Messrs. Guersent, Thillaye, Marc, Gueneau, De Mussy, 
 Itard, and the Reporter, to the sixth story, which when 
 we reached, the watch of one of the commissioners point- 
 ed to noon, all but one minute by the true time. When 
 assembled round Cazot's bed, we found the epileptic at- 
 tack characterized by the following symptoms : a tetanic 
 stiffness of the body and members, throwing back of the 
 head and at times of the body itself, spasmodic retraction 
 of the eyeballs upward, leaving only the white visible, a 
 marked infusion of blood into the face and neck, contrac- 
 tion of the jaws, partial febrillary convulsions in the mus- 
 cles of the fore-arm and the right arm, ophisthotonos so 
 strongly developed as to raise the trunk in form of an arc 
 of a circle, leaving the body with no other support than 
 that of the head and feet, which movements terminated in 
 a sudden relaxation. Shortly after this attack, that is to 
 say, after a minute's respite, a fresh attack similar to the 
 foregoing one came over him, signalized also by inarticu- 
 late sounds, a respiration which by fits and starts amount- 
 ed to panting, a rapid rising and sinking of the larynx, and 
 a pulse beating from 132 to 160. There was no foaming 
 at the mouth, nor contraction of the thumb towards the 
 palm. At the expiration of six minutes, the fit ended in 
 sighs, a sinking of the limbs and opening of the eyelids. 
 The patient gazed at the bystanders with an air of aston- 
 ishment, and complained of a general soreness, especially 
 in the right arm. 
 
 " Although the committee could not doubt the reality of 
 the action of Magnetism upon Cazot, he being even uncon- 
 scious thereof, and at a certain distance, they were still de- 
 sirous of adding another proof. And as it had been proved 
 during the last sitting that M. Foissac had had intercourse 
 with him, during which he might have told him that he 
 (Cazot) had predicted that he was to have an attack on the 
 1st of October, the committee wished also, by makm<* 
 13* 
 
150 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 fresh experiments on Cazot, to lead M. Foissac wrong as 
 to the day on which his epileptic patient would be attacked, 
 and which he should announce beforehand. By this means 
 we guarded ourselves against any sort of connivance, un- 
 less it be supposed that a man whom we have always 
 found honest and honorable, would be willing to have an 
 understanding with one without education or intelligence, 
 for the purpose of deceiving us. We confess that we have 
 done neither party such wrong, and we would not withhold 
 the same credit from Messrs. Dupol^t and Chapelain, of 
 whom we have had frequent occasion to make mention to 
 you. 
 
 " The committee met therefore in the office of M. Bour- 
 dois, on the 6th of October, at noon, when Cazot arrived 
 with his child. M. Foissac had been invited to attend at 
 half-past 12 ; he was punctual to the time, and remained 
 in the parlor without Cazot's knowledge or any communi- 
 cation with us. However, some one was dispatched by 
 a private door to tell him that Cazot was sitting on a sofa 
 ten feet from a closed door, and that the committee desired 
 him to put him to sleep and wake him again at this dis- 
 tance, he remaining in the parlor and Cazot in the office. 
 
 " At 23 minutes before one, while Cazot was engaged 
 in conversation with us, or examining the pictures with 
 which the office was decorated, M. Foissac, stationed in 
 the adjoining room, began magnetizing him. We observed 
 that at the end of four minutes Cazot winked a little, 
 looked uneasy, and fell asleep in nine minutes. M. 
 Guersent, who had attended him at the Children's Hos- 
 pital for his epileptic fits, asked him whether he recog- 
 nised him ; he replied in the affirmative. M. Itard in- 
 quired of him when he expected another attack ; he an- 
 swered, ' in four weeks from that day, (on the 3d of No- 
 vember,) at five minutes past four in the afternoon.' He 
 was then asked when he should have a second ; he an- 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 151 
 
 swered after collecting himself, and with some hesitation, 
 that it would be in five weeks after the one he had just pre- 
 dicted, that is to say, on the 9th of December, at half-past 
 nine in the morning. 
 
 " The minutes of this sitting having been read in pres- 
 ence of M. Foissac, that he might sign them with us, we 
 had determined, as has been said before, to lead him 
 wrong ; and in reading it to him before it was signed by 
 the members of the committee, the Reporter read that Ca- 
 zot's first fit would occur on Sunday, the 4th of November, 
 whereas the patient had fixed on Saturday, the 3d. He 
 deceived him also in reference to the second ; and M. 
 Foissac made a note of these false indications, as if they 
 had been correct ; but, having some days after put Cazot 
 into the somnambulic state, as he was in the habit of doing 
 for the relief of his headaches, he learned from him that it 
 was on the 3d and not the 4th that he was to have his fit, 
 and he informed M. Itard thereof on the 1st of November, 
 thinking that there must have been a mistake in the min- 
 utes of their late proceedings, of which however M. Itard 
 upheld the pretended veracity. 
 
 " The committee again took all the proper precautions 
 for observing the fit of the 3d of November. They met 
 at four in the afternoon at M. Georges' house,- — were in- 
 formed by him, by his wife, and one of his workmen, that 
 Cazot had wrought as usual all the morning, until two 
 o'clock, and that at dinner, he had a headache, but had 
 gone down to resume his work ; however, as the pain in- 
 creased, and a giddiness had likewise come upon him, he 
 had gone up to his own room again, lain down, and fallen 
 asleep. Thereupon Messrs. Bourdois, Fouquier, and the 
 Reporter ascended, ushered by M. Georges, to Cazot's 
 chamber. M. Georges entered alone, and found him fast 
 asleep, a fact which he enabled us to ascertain by means 
 of a half-opened door on the landing. M. Georges spoke 
 
152 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 to him in a loud tone, moved him in his bed, and shook 
 him by the arm, but could not rouse him ; and at six min- 
 utes past four, in the midst of the efforts made by M. 
 Georges to awake him, Cazot was seized with the symp- 
 toms which chiefly characterize an epileptic fit, and exactly 
 similar to those we observed in him on former occasions. 
 
 " The second attack, announced, at the sitting of the 6th 
 of October, as to take place on the 9th of December, (that 
 is to say, two months previously,) occurred at half-past 
 nine — a quarter of an hour later than he had predicted — 
 and was characterized by the same precursory phenomena 
 and symptoms, as those of the 7th of September, 1st of 
 October, and 3d of November. 
 
 " Lastly, on the 11th of February, 1828, Cazot indi- 
 cated the 22d of April following as the date of a new 
 attack, at five minutes after noon ; and this prediction was 
 verified, like the preceding ones, with an inaccuracy of no 
 more than five minutes — that is to say, at ten minutes 
 after noon. This fit, which was remarkable for its vio- 
 lence — for the kind of fury with which Cazot bit his 
 hand and fore-arm — the sudden and repeated shocks 
 which lifted him from his bed — had lasted 35 minutes, 
 when M. Foissac, who was present, magnetized him. 
 Soon the spasms ceased, and gave place to the state of 
 magnetic somnambulism, during which Cazot arose, seated 
 himself on a chair, and said he was very much fatigued ; 
 that he should yet have two fits more — one in nine weeks 
 from the morrow, at three minutes past six, on the 25th of 
 June. He would not think of the second attack, because 
 he had to look to what would happen first ; (at that mo- 
 ment he requested his wife, who was present, to retire ;) 
 and he added, that in about three weeks after the fit of 
 the 25th of June, he should run mad ; that his insanity 
 would last for three days, during which, he should be so 
 spiteful as to fight with everybody ; th$t he should ill- 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 153 
 
 treat his wife and child ; that he must not be left alone 
 with them ; and that, for aught he knew, he should kill 
 some one, whom he did not name. It would, therefore, 
 be necessary to bleed him immediately in both feet. He 
 finished by saying, * I shall be cured in the month of 
 August ; and being once cured, the disease will never 
 trouble me again, whatever circumstances may occur.' 
 
 " It was on the 22d of April that these predictions were 
 uttered \ and two days afterwards, Cazot, in attempting to 
 stop a fiery horse that had run away, was dashed against 
 the wheel of a cabriolet, which shattered the orbit {arcade 
 orbitaire) of his left eye, and bruised him terribly. <ft He was 
 carried to the Beaujon Hospital, and died on the 15th of 
 May. Upon opening the skull, there was found a meningite 
 of recent formation, purulent gatherings under the integu- 
 ments of the cranium, and at the extremity of the 'plexus 
 choroide, a substance yellowish within, white externally, and 
 containing small hydatides. 
 
 We see, in the above observation, a young man, 
 subject for ten years to epileptic fits, for which he 
 has been successively treated at the Children's Hos- 
 pital, at St. Louis, and exempted from military duty. 
 Magnetism acts upon him, although he is totally ignorant 
 of what is done to him. He becomes somnambulic. The 
 symptoms of his malady wear a milder aspect ; the fits be- 
 come less frequent ; his headaches and oppression disap- 
 pear by the influence of Magnetism ; he prescribes for 
 himself a mode of treatment suited to his complaint, and 
 promises himself a cure. Magnetized without his own 
 knowledge, and from a distance, he yet falls into the som- 
 nambulic state, and is roused from it with the same prompt- 
 ness as when magnetized by an operator near him. In 
 fine, he indicates with uncommon precision, a month or 
 two in advance, the day and hour at which he is to have 
 a fit of epilepsy. And yet, although endowed with this 
 
154 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 prophetic power in reference to attacks so distant, and 
 what, is more, to those which are never to occur, he does 
 not foresee that in two days he will be the victim of a fa- 
 tal accident. 
 
 " Without endeavoring to reconcile all the discrepancies 
 which such an observation may offer at first sight, the com- 
 mittee would remind you that Cazot's previsions have refer- 
 ence to his fits only — that they amount to no more than the 
 consciousness of organic modifications which are in an in- 
 cipient state, and take place in him as a necessary result 
 of the internal functions — that these previsions, although 
 more extended, are altogether similar to those of certain 
 epileptics, who know by various premonitory symptoms, 
 such as headache, giddiness, ill-humor, and the aura epi- 
 leptica, that they will shortly have an attack. Ought it to 
 astonish us, then, that somnambulists, whose sensations, as 
 you have seen, are extremely acute, should be enabled to fore- 
 see their attacks long beforehand, by some internal symptoms 
 or impressions which escape the notice of a waking man ? 
 This, gentlemen, would serve to explain to us the prevision 
 attested by Areteus, in two passages of his immortal works 
 by Sauvage, who records an instance of it, and by Cabanis. 
 We would add, that Cazot's foresight is not positive or ab- 
 solute, but conditional, since, in predicting an attack, he 
 announces that it will not take place if he is magnetized, 
 and in fact does not. It is altogether organic — internal. 
 We can conceive, therefore, why he did not foresee an 
 event wholly external, namely, that chance would bring 
 him in contact with a fiery horse — that he would be so im- 
 prudent as to attempt to stop him, and receive a mortal 
 wound. If he foresaw an attack that was never to take 
 place, it was but as the hand of a watch, which in a given 
 time would pass over a certain portion of the dial-plate, 
 but does not because the watch happens to be broken. 
 
 " We have presented you in the two foregoing observa- 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 155 
 
 tions, two remarkable instances of internal sight, that 
 singular faculty developed during somnambulism, and by 
 means of which two magnetized individuals ascertained 
 the malady under which they labored, pointed out the 
 mode of treatment by which it might be arrested, an- 
 nounced its termination, and foresaw its attacks. The 
 fact of which we are about to offer you an analysis, has 
 presented to us a new point of interest. Here the mag- 
 netized, when shown into the somnambulic state, judges 
 of the disease of persons put into communication with him, 
 determines the nature of it, and prescribes the remedy. 
 
 " Mile. Celine was put into the somnambulic state in 
 presence of the committee on the 18th and 21st of April, 
 17th of June, 9th of August, 23d of December, 1826, 13th 
 and 17th of January, and 21st of February, 1827. 
 
 " On her passing from the waking state to that of som- 
 nambulism she experienced a chill, amounting to several 
 degrees by the thermometer ; her tongue became dry and 
 wrinkled, whereas it was supple and moist before ; her 
 breath, previously sweet, became fetid and offensive. 
 
 " Sensibility was almost annihilated as long as her sleep 
 lasted, for she made six inspirations with a vial of hydro- 
 chloric acid applied to her nostrils, and evinced no emo- 
 tion. M. Marc pinched her wrist ; an acupuncturing nee- 
 dle was thrust three-eighths of an inch into her left thigh, 
 another a quarter of an inch into her left wrist. The two 
 needles being united by a galvanic conductor, eonvulsive 
 movements of the hands were strongly developed, and 
 Mile. Celine appeared unconscious of all that was done 
 to her. She heard those who spoke to her if they stood 
 close to and touched her, but did not hear the noise occa- 
 sioned by the sudden breaking of two plates close beside 
 her. 
 
 " While sunk in the somnambulic state, the committee 
 three times ascertained that she possessed the faculty of 
 
156 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 discovering the diseases of persons whom she touched, 
 and pointing out the remedy calculated to arrest them. 
 
 " The committee found among its members some one 
 who was quite willing to be examined by this somnambu- 
 list ; this was M. Marc. Mile. Celine was requested to 
 look attentively into our colleague's state of health. She 
 applied her hand to her forehead, and to the region of her 
 heart, and after three minutes, replied that there was a de- 
 termination of blood to the head ; that M. Marc had even 
 then a pain in the left side of that cavity ; that he often 
 labored under an oppression, particularly after eating ; that 
 he must often have a slight cough ; that the lower part of 
 the chest was surcharged with blood y that something ob- 
 structed the passage of food ; that this part, pointing to the 
 region of the ' appendice xiphoide,' was contracted ; that 
 in order to cure M. Marc it would be necessary to bleed 
 him copiously, apply hemlock poultices, and rub with laud- 
 anum the lower part of the chest ; that he must drink 
 lemonade thickened with gum, eat little and often, and not 
 walk immediately after a meal. We were anxious to hear 
 from M. Marc whether he felt all the somnambulist an- 
 nounced. He told us he did in fact experience an oppres- 
 sion when he walked directly after leaving the table ; that 
 he had often a cough, and before the experiment he had a 
 pain in the left side of the head, but felt no obstruction in> 
 the alimentary passage. We were struck with the simi- 
 larity of what M. Marc felt and the somnambulist de- 
 scribed ; we carefully noted it down, and waited for an- 
 other opportunity of realizing this singular faculty. This 
 opportunity was granted to the Reporter without his solici- 
 tation, by the mother of a young lady to whom his profes- 
 sional services had been devoted for a very short time 
 
 Mile, de N * * *, of from twenty-three to twenty-five 
 years of age. daughter of the Marquis de N * * *, a pee? 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 157 
 
 of France, had been affected for about two years with as- 
 citic dropsy, accompanied by numerous obstructions, some 
 of the size of an egg, others as large as the fist, and others 
 again as large as an infant's head ; the chief of which 
 were situated in the left side of the abdomen. The exterior 
 surface of the abdomen was uneven and crimpled, and the 
 inequalities thereof corresponded with the obstructions 
 seated within it. M. Dupuytren had already tapped 
 this patient ten or twelve times, and on every occasion 
 drawn a large quantity of clear, limpid, scentless, and un- 
 mixed ' albumine. 1 The operation always afforded relief. 
 
 " The Reporter was three times present when the tap- 
 ping was performed ; and it was easy for M. Dupuytren 
 to ascertain the size and hardness of these tumors, and 
 consequently see their inability to cure the patient. They 
 however prescribed different remedies, and thought it 
 somewhat important that Mile, de N * * * should drink the 
 milk of a goat on which mercurial frictions should be per- 
 formed. 
 
 "On the 21st of February, 1827, the Reporter called 
 for M. Foissac and Mile. Celine, and escorted them to a 
 house in Rue du Faubourg-du-Roule, without mentioning 
 to them either the name, place of residence, or nature of 
 the disease of the person whom he desired the somnambu- 
 list to examine. The patient, did not appear in the room 
 in which the experiment was made until M. Foissac had 
 put Mile. Celine to sleep ; and then, after placing one of 
 her hands within her own, she scrutinized her for eight 
 minutes, not as a physician would have done by pressing 
 upon the abdomen, striking it and examining it in every 
 way, but merely by a light and repeated application of her 
 hand to the abdomen, chest, back, and head. 
 
 " Being asked what she had observed in Mile, de 
 N * * *, she replied, that the whole abdomen was diseased, 
 that there was a schirrus and a large quantity of water 
 14 
 
158 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 about the spleen ; that the intestines were much swollen, 
 that there were abscesses containing worms — tumors as 
 large as an egg filled with purulent matter, and that these 
 tumors must be painful ; that there was at the bottom of 
 the stomach an obstructed gland, as large as three of her 
 ringers ; that this gland was in the interior of the stomach, 
 and must impede the process of digestion ; that the disease 
 was of long standing ; and lastly, that Mile, de N * * * must 
 be subject to headaches. She advised an infusion of bo- 
 rage and dog-grass with nitre, and five ounces of the juice 
 of pellitory, to be taken every morning, with a very small 
 quantity of mercury in milk. She added, that the milk of 
 a goat, rubbed about half an hour before milking with mer- 
 curial ointment, would be better ; she, moreover, prescribed 
 the constant application of elder-flower poultices to the ab- 
 domen, frictions upon the same part with laurel oil, and, in 
 case this could not be procured, with the juice of that 
 shrub mixed with the oil of sweet almonds, an enema of 
 the decoction of Peruvian bark mixed with some emollient 
 decoction. Her diet should consist of white meat, milk 
 food, farinaceous substances, and no lemon. She would 
 allow her but little wine, a little orange-flower rum, or so- 
 lution of peppermint. This treatment was not adopted ; 
 and if it had been it could not have saved the patient. She 
 died a twelvemonth after, and the body not having been 
 opened, it was impossible to verify all the particulars of 
 the somnambulist's description. 
 
 " In a delicate case, in which very skilful physicians, 
 several of them members of the Academy, had prescribed 
 a course of mercury for an obstruction of the cervical 
 glands, which they attributed to a venereal infection, the 
 family of the patient, who was submitted to this treatment, 
 seeing that serious consequences had arisen, wished to 
 have the advice of a somnambulist. The Reporter was 
 called upon to be present at this consultation, and he avail- 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 159 
 
 ed himself in every respect of the fresh opportunity thus 
 offered for adding to the committee's previous observations. 
 He found a young lady, the Countess de L. F., the entire 
 right side of whose neck was obstructed to a great depth 
 by a large quantity of glands close to each other. Some 
 of them were open, and discharged a purulent yellowish 
 matter, 
 
 " Mile. Celine, having been magnetized by M. Foissac 
 in the Reporter's presence, and put into communication 
 with the patient, said that the stomach had been attacked 
 by a substance like poison ; that the intestines were slightly 
 inflamed ; that there was a scrofulous affection in the 
 upper portion of the right side of the neck, which must 
 have been worse than it then appeared ; that by adopting 
 the mode of treatment she was going to prescribe, there 
 would be an improvement in a fortnight, or three weeks. 
 This treatment consisted of eight leeches applied to the 
 pit of the stomach, a few grains of magnesia, oatmeal 
 gruel, a saline purgative weekly, two enemata per day, 
 (one of the decoction of Peruvian bark, and the other, 
 immediately after, of the roots of marsh-mallow,) frictions 
 of ether on the limbs, a weekly bath, and, for diet, milk 
 food, light meats, and an abstinence from wine. This 
 prescription was followed for some time, and a remarkable 
 amelioration produced. But the impatience of the young 
 lady, who did not deem her return to health sufficiently 
 rapid, induced the family to call another consultation of 
 physicians. It was thereupon decided to resume the mer- 
 curial treatment. 
 
 " The Reporter then saw her no more, but heard that 
 the administering of mercury had brought on serious con- 
 sequences, affecting the side of the stomach, and that she 
 died thereof after two months of extreme suffering. A 
 description of her case, derived from ocular demonstra- 
 tion, and signed by Messrs. Fouquier, Marjolin, Curveil- 
 
160 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 hier, and Foissac, testified, that there existed a scrofulous 
 or tuberculous obstruction in the glands of the neck ; two 
 small cavities rilled with pus, from the liquefaction of the 
 tubercles at the top of the lungs. The mucous membrane 
 of the grand reservoir (cul-de-sac) of the stomach was 
 entirely destroyed. The above gentlemen, moreover, as- 
 certained, that there was nothing to indicate the presence 
 of a recent or old venereal taint. 
 
 " It appears from these observations, 1st, That Mile. 
 Celine, while in the somnambulic state, pointed out the 
 diseases of three persons with whom she was put into 
 communication ; 2d, That the declaration of one, the ex- 
 amination of the other after three tappings, and of the 
 third after death, agreed with what the somnambulist had 
 advanced ; 3d, That the several modes of treatment 
 prescribed by her, are within the range of remedies 
 with which she might be acquainted, and of an order 
 of things which she might reasonably recommend ; and, 
 4th, That she applied them with some degree of discern- 
 ment. 
 
 " To this list of facts, which it has cost us so much 
 trouble to collect — which we have noticed with as much 
 distrust as attention — which, we have endeavored to clas- 
 sify in such a manner as might best enable you to trace 
 the development of the phenomena we have witnessed — ■ 
 and which we have, above all, sought to present to you 
 unencumbered by any such extraneous circumstances as 
 would have rendered their explanation more difficult and 
 confused — we might add those which ancient and even 
 modern history record concerning previsions that have 
 been often realized, cures effected by the imposition of 
 hands, oracles, ecstasies, convulsions, hallucinations — in 
 short, concerning all that, aside from natural phenomena, 
 whose explanation is to be found in the action of one body 
 on another, attaches itself to the province of psychology, 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 161 
 
 and may be considered as an effect depending on a moral 
 influence not to be appreciated by our senses. But the 
 committee was instituted to investigate somnambulism — 
 to make experiments on this phenomenon, which had not 
 been studied by the commissioners of 1784 — and to ren- 
 der an account thereof to you. They would, therefore, 
 have transgressed the circle you prescribed to their opera- 
 tions, if, in seeking to support what they have seen on the 
 authority of those who had observed similar facts, they 
 had swelled their report with foreign matter. They have 
 related with impartiality what they saw with distrust — 
 stated in order the observations made under various cir- 
 cumstances, with minute, as well as long-protracted atten- 
 tion. They can conscientiously offer their report, as a 
 faithful description of all they have observed. The ob- 
 stacles they have had to encounter are known to you. 
 They are in part the cause of the delay attending the pre- 
 sentation of the report, the materials for which have been 
 long in hand. And yet, we are far from wishing to ex- 
 cuse ourselves, or being sorry for this delay, since it gives 
 to our observations a character of maturity and reserve, 
 which ought, to invite your confidence in the facts we 
 relate, and save us from the reproach of enthusiasm and 
 prepossession that you might have brought against us had 
 we collected them sooner. We would add, that we are 
 far from presuming that we have seen all. We therefore 
 do not pretend to force upon you as an axiom, that there 
 is nothing positive in Magnetism beyond what is mentioned 
 in our report. Instead of assigning limits to this depart- 
 ment of physiological science, we, on the contrary, enter- 
 tain the hope that a new field is open thereto ; and being 
 the vouchers for our own observations — presenting them 
 with confidence to those who, after us, may wish to oc- 
 cupy themselves with the subject of Magnetism, we will 
 content ourselves with drawing the following conclusions, 
 14* 
 
162 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 which necessarily result from the facts embodied in our 
 report : 
 
 Conclusions. 
 
 "1. Contact of the thumbs or hands, frictions or certain 
 gestures made at a short distance from the body, and called 
 passes, are the means used for putting parties in commu- 
 nication, or in other terms, of transmitting the influence of 
 the magnetizer to the magnetized. 
 
 "2. Exterior and visible means are not always neces- 
 sary, since on several occasions, the power of volition and 
 a fixed gaze have sufficed for the development of the mag- 
 netic phenomena, even without the knowledge of the 
 magnetized. 
 
 " 3. Magnetism has acted on persons of both sexes and 
 different ages. 
 
 " 4. The time necessary for transmitting and causing the 
 magnetic action to be felt, has varied from half an hour to 
 a minute. 
 
 " 5. Magnetism does not usually act upon persons in 
 good health. 
 
 " 6. Neither does it appear to act upon all who are sick. 
 
 " 7. At times, when a person is magnetized effects are 
 manifested, which being insignificant and fleeting we do 
 not attribute to Magnetism alone — such as a slight oppres- 
 sion, a little heat or cold, and other nervous phenomena, 
 which can be accounted for without the intervention of a 
 particular agency, namely, by hope or fear — the anticipa- 
 tion and waiting for an unknown and strange result — the 
 weariness resulting from the sameness of the gestures — 
 the silence and inaction persisted in during the experi- 
 ments — and lastly, by the imagination, whose power is so 
 great over certain minds and certain organizations. 
 
 " 8. A certain number of effects observed have seemed 
 to us to depend on Magnetism alone, and have not been 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 163 
 
 reproduced without it. These are well-attested physio- 
 logical and therapeutic phenomena. 
 
 " 9. The real effects produced by Magnetism are very 
 various — it excites some, tranquillizes others. It most 
 commonly gives rise to a momentary acceleration of cir- 
 culation and breathing — convulsive movements of the fibres 
 of short duration, resembling electric shocks — a greater or 
 less degree of numbness — drowsiness — somnolency — and 
 in a few cases, that state which magnetizers call somnam- 
 bulism. 
 
 " 10. The existence of a peculiar characteristic, by 
 which to recognise in all cases the reality of the somnam- 
 bulic state, has not been proved. 
 
 "11. It may, however, be confidently inferred that this 
 state exists, when it gives rise to the development of new 
 faculties, which have been designated by the terms ' clair- 
 voyance,' ' intuition,' and ' internal prevision,' or produces 
 great changes in the physiological state, as for instance, 
 insensibility, a sudden and considerable accession of 
 strength, and when this effect cannot be referred to any 
 other cause. 
 
 "12. Since among the effects attributed to somnambu- 
 lism there are some that may be feigned, somnambulism 
 itself may sometimes be feigned, and thus afford charlatan- 
 ism the means of deception. 
 
 " Accordingly, in observing these phenomena, which as 
 yet present themselves only as insulated facts that cannot 
 be reduced to any theory, there is no other means of es- 
 caping delusion than by the most attentive examination, 
 the strictest precautions, and numerous and varied proofs. 
 
 "13. Sleep, induced more or less promptly, and made 
 more or less profound, is a real, but not constant effect of 
 Magnetism. 
 
 " 14. It has been demonstrated to us, that it was induced 
 under circumstances which rendered it impossible for the 
 
164 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 magnetized to see, or know the means employed for bring- 
 ing it on. 
 
 " 15. When a person has been once thrown into the mag- 
 netic sleep, it is not always necessary to have recourse to 
 contact or passes in order to magnetize him again. The 
 look and the will of the magnetizer have the same influence. 
 In such a case, it is possible not only to act upon the mag- 
 netized, but also to put him into a complete state of som- 
 nambulism, and rouse him from it when out of his sight, and 
 at a certain distance through closed doors. 
 
 " 16. Changes more or less remarkable are generally ef- 
 fected in the perceptions and faculties of individuals who fall 
 into the somnambulic state, by the operation of Magnetism : 
 
 " (a.) Some, in the midst of the noise of promiscuous 
 conversation, hear only the voice of the magnetizer — 
 several reply with great precision to the questions put 
 to them by the latter, or by the persons with whom they 
 are in communication — others keep up a conversation with 
 all around them : however, they seldom hear what is going 
 on in their presence. For the greater part of the time, 
 they are perfectly unconscious of external and unlooked- 
 for noises made in their ears, such as the violent concus- 
 sion of copper vessels, or the fall of an article of furniture 
 near them, &c. 
 
 " (b.) The eyes are closed, and the lids yield with dif- 
 ficulty to the efforts made to open them with the hand. 
 This operation, which is not unattended with pain, shows 
 the eyeball to be convulsed, and turned sometimes towards 
 the upper, at others towards the lower part of the socket. 
 
 "(c.) In some cases the sense of smelling appears to be 
 annihilated. They may be made to respire muriatic acid, 
 or hartshorn, without being unpleasantly affected by, or 
 even conscious of it. The contrary takes place in other 
 cases, and they are sensible of odors. 
 
 " (d.) The majority of the somnambulists seen by us 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 
 
 165 
 
 were totally insensible ; so that attempts were made to 
 tickle their feet, nostrils, and the corners of their eyes, 
 with a feather — their skin was pinched so as to leave stag- 
 nant blood — pins were thrust beneath the nail suddenly, 
 and to a considerable depth, without their evincing the 
 slightest pain, or being conscious of what was done. 
 Lastly, we have seen one who was insensible to one of 
 the most painful of surgical operations, and whose counte- 
 nance, pulse, or respiration, betrayed not the least emotion. 
 
 " 17. Magnetism is equally intense, and as promptly felt, 
 at the distance of six feet as at that of six inches ; and the 
 phenomena developed by it are the same in both cases. 
 
 " 18. Influence at a distance can only, it appears, be 
 exerted with success on such individuals as have already 
 been wrought upon by Magnetism. 
 
 " 19. We have never seen a person, when magnetized 
 for the first time, fall into the somnambulic state. It has 
 not, in some instances, manifested itself till the eighth or 
 tenth sitting. 
 
 " 20. We have uniformly seen an ordinary sleep, which 
 is the repose of the organs of sense, the intellectual facul- 
 ties, and cessation of voluntary movements, precede and 
 terminate the somnambulic state. 
 
 "21. The magnetized who have come under our obser- 
 vation, retain, while in somnambulism, the exercise of all 
 their waking faculties. Even their memory appears more 
 faithful and comprehensive, since they recollect all that 
 has happened during their somnambulism, however often 
 they may have been in that state. 
 
 " 22. When awake, they declare that they have entirely 
 forgotten every circumstance attending their somnambu- 
 lism, and can never recall them. We can have no other 
 guarantee for this, than their own assertions. 
 
 " 23. The muscular powers of somnambulists are some- 
 times benumbed and paralyzed. At others, their move- 
 
166 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 ments are cramped only, and the patients walk or stagger 
 like drunken men, without turning aside from the obstacles 
 they meet with in their path ; occasionally, however, the 
 reverse of this takes place. There are somnambulists 
 who retain in full the power of directing their movements ; 
 nay, we have seen some stronger and more active than 
 when awake. 
 
 " 24. We have seen two somnambulists distinguish, 
 with their eyes closed, objects placed before them ; point 
 out, without touching the cards, their color, and value in 
 the game ; read words written by hand, or several lines 
 from books opened at random. This phenomenon has ta- 
 ken place even when the eyelids were firmly closed by 
 the pressure of fingers upon them. 
 
 "25. In two somnambulists, we have met with the fac- 
 ulty of foreseeing organic changes, more or less remote. 
 One of them announced several days, nay months, before- 
 hand, the day, hour, and minute of an epileptic fit, and of 
 the recurrence of the same ; the other foretold the epoch 
 of his cure. Their previsions were realized wilh remark- 
 able exactness. They seem to us to extend only to or- 
 ganic accidents, either good or bad. 
 
 " 26. We have met with one somnambulist, (and no 
 more,) who could designate the symptoms of disease in 
 three persons put into communication with her. However, 
 our researches were not directed to a sufficient number. 
 
 " 27. In order to establish with accuracy the points of 
 affinity between Magnetism and the Art of Healing, it 
 would have been needful to observe its effects on a great 
 number of individuals, and to make daily experiments for 
 a length of time upon the same patients. This not having 
 been done, the committee have had to confine themselves 
 to a description of what they have seen, and that in too 
 limited a number of cases, to presume to offer an opinion 
 on this head. 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 167 
 
 " 28. Some of the magnetized patients have derived no 
 relief. Others have been more or less benefited ; one, for 
 instance, in the suspension of habitual pains ; a second, 
 in the recovery of his strength ; a third, in a respite of 
 several months from epileptic attacks ; and a fourth, in the 
 complete cure of a severe paralysis of long standing. 
 
 " 29. Considered as the agent of physiological phenom- 
 ena, or a therapeutic medium, Magnetism deserves a place 
 on the list of medical acquirements ; and, consequently, 
 physicians alone should practise, or direct the practice of 
 it, as is the case in the countries of the north. 
 
 " 30. The committee, for want of opportunity, have not 
 been able to verify other faculties which somnambulists are 
 said by magnetizers to possess. But they have brought 
 together, and now communicate, facts of sufficient import- 
 ance, in their opinion, to authorize the ' encouragement of 
 magnetic researches by the Academy, as a very curious 
 branch of psychology and natural history.'' 
 
 " Having reached the termination of their labors, the 
 committee, before bringing this Report to a close, asked 
 themselves whether — in the numerous precautions against 
 surprise with which they have been armed, the feeling of 
 distrust with which they have uniformly conducted their 
 proceedings, and the examination of the phenomena ob- 
 served — whether they have scrupulously fulfilled the duties 
 intrusted to them. ' What other course,' said we to each 
 other, ' could we have adopted ? What surer means could 
 we have employed ? How could we have made our dis- 
 trust more pointed, and at the same time more discreet 
 than we did?' Our consciences, gentlemen, answered 
 boldly, that you could expect nothing from us that we have 
 not done. Lastly, have we acted the part of honest, exact, 
 and faithful observers ? It is for yon, who have known 
 us for so many years ; for you, who meet us in society 
 and in our frequent assemblies, to answer this question. 
 
168 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 We await your reply, gentlemen, in the spirit of old 
 friends, as we are to a portion of you, and on the con- 
 sciousness of possessing the esteem of all of you. It is 
 true, we do not presume to flatter ourselves that you will 
 fully participate in our conviction of the reality of the phe- 
 nomena observed by us, but which you have neither seen, 
 followed up, nor studied as we have. 
 
 " We do not, therefore, claim of you a blind belief in all 
 the particulars of our report. We conceive that a large 
 portion of these facts are so extraordinary that you cannot 
 yield us that : perhaps we ourselves should refuse you 
 ours, if, changing positions, you should come and announce 
 them to us, who, as is the case with you to-day, had seen 
 nothing, observed nothing, studied nothing, traced nothing 
 to its source. We only ask you to judge us as we would 
 you — that is to say, under a conviction that neither a love 
 for the marvellous, a desire for celebrity, nor any interest- 
 ed feeling whatever, has actuated us throughout our labors. 
 We have been animated by higher motives — by motives 
 more worthy of you — the love of science, and an earnest 
 desire to justify the hopes conceived by the Academy, 
 touching our zeal and devotion. 
 
 (Signed) 
 
 " Bourdois de la Motte, Pres. 
 
 FOUQUIER, 
 
 GUENEAU DE MuSSY, 
 
 GlJERSENT, 
 
 Itard, 
 
 J. J. Leroux, 
 Marc, 
 Thillaye. 
 " Husson, Reporter." 
 
 N. B. Messrs. Double and Magendie, not having been 
 present at the experiments, have not thought proper to sign 
 the report. 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 169 
 
 This report was listened to by the Royal Academy with 
 the greatest attention and interest. In vain did some vio- 
 lent opponents of Magnetism endeavor to disturb the deep 
 silence of the assembly ; an immense majority repressed 
 indignantly the attempt, and loud and general applause re- 
 paid Dr. Husson's courage and ability 
 
 15 
 
 
170 rSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 DR. BERNa's EXPERIMENTS, AND REPORT ON THEM BY X. 
 DUBOIS d'amiens, 1837. 
 
 Nevertheless, it could not be expected that such a 
 great and glorious victory should be borne patiently by 
 men who had previously spoken so openly and publicly 
 with utter contempt of Psycodunamy ; too much vanity, 
 too many interests, prejudices, and false notions, hereto- 
 fore cherished and blindly defended, were hurt and set at 
 naught, to let it pass without a struggle. An opportunity 
 of revenge did not fail to present itself, and eagerly did the 
 adverse party avail themselves of it. Dr. Berna, full of 
 the most honorable zeal, but perhaps too confiding, was in- 
 duced to solicit another investigation of Magnetism, in a 
 letter that he wrote to the Royal Academy on the 21st of 
 February, 1837, stating that he had two somnambulists 
 who could exhibit facts so conclusive, as to satisfy by per- 
 sonal experience the most skeptical members of the 
 Academy. 
 
 Messrs. Roux, as president of a new commission, Bouil- 
 laud, Cloquet, Emery, Pelletier, Caventou, Cornac, Oudet, 
 as members, and Dubois d'Amiens as a Reporter, were 
 appointed to inquire into the facts spoken of by Dr. Berna. 
 Their report was read in the session of the 7th of August, 
 1837. M. Dubois, after some rather prolix and satirical 
 considerations, which he styled Academical History of 
 Magnetism, came at length to the experiments of Dr. Ber- 
 na, and expressed himself in the following terms : 
 
 " Gentlemen : — Let us say, in the first place, that it re- 
 sults from all the facts and circumstances we witnessed, 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 171 
 
 that no special proof, no satisfactory evidence has ever 
 been given to us as to the existence of that peculiar state, 
 yclept ' magnetic somnambulism.' It was only by way of 
 assertion, and not of demonstration, that the magnetizer 
 proceeded, declaring on each occasion, and before making 
 any experiment, that his subjects were in the somnambulic 
 state. 
 
 " In the programme presented to us by the magnetizer, 
 it is true it was stated that previous to somnambulization 
 we should ascertain that the subject enjoyed in full the 
 natural sensibility, and that we could prick her in order to 
 satisfy ourselves as to the truth of it, and then the subject 
 should be put to sleep in our presence. 
 
 " But from the trials we made on the third of March ul- 
 timo, it results that the subject of the experiments did not 
 feel our pricking any more before than after the magnetic 
 operation. The countenance and answers were nearly the 
 same previous to the pretended sleep as when it was said 
 to be produced. 
 
 " Was it done by error on her part ? Was it the result 
 of an impassibility, natural or acquired by practice ? Was 
 it to appear more interesting to us, and so more surely 
 conciliating our feelings towards her ? We are unable to 
 decide. It is equally true that each time we have been 
 told she was asleep ; but it was a mere ' saying,' and no 
 more. 
 
 " Yet, if further evidence of somnambulism is to be af- 
 forded by our subsequent experiments on subjects pretending 
 to be in that state, the worth of such evidence will be clearly 
 set forth in the following conclusions : 
 
 " According to the programme, the second experiment 
 was to ascertain the insensibility of the subject. 
 
 " But restrictions were imposed on us. The face was 
 not to be experimented upon, nor any other part usually 
 covered with clothes. So we had only the hands and neck 
 
172 PSYCOBUNAMY. 
 
 left to us, and even on them we were not allowed to tear, 
 burn, or cut the flesh, but merely to prick with needles to 
 the depth of about the twelfth part of an inch. Moreover, 
 the face was partially covered with a veil, in such a way 
 as to prevent us from perceiving the full expression of the 
 features while we tried to cause pain. 
 
 11 Hence it follows that — 
 
 " 1. The painful sensations to be produced were of a 
 very moderate character. 
 
 " 2. These moderate sensations were to be produced on 
 parts used perhaps to experience them. 
 
 " 3. These sensations amounted to nothing more than a 
 slight tattooing. 
 
 " 4. The eyes, and that part of the face where pain is 
 particularly expressed, were hidden to us. 
 
 " 5. In such circumstances, complete and absolute im- 
 passibility could not have been considered by us as a satis- 
 factory evidence of the abolition of sensibility on the afore- 
 said subject. 
 
 "Asa third experiment, the magnetizer was to prove to 
 us that, by the sole intervention of his will, he had the 
 power to restore, either partially or totally, the sensibility 
 of his somnambulist. 
 
 " But as it was impossible for him to satisfy us that he 
 had abolished the sensibility of his subject, of course it 
 was equally impossible to demonstrate to us the restoration 
 of the said sensibility ; and moreover, all the trials in that 
 respect proved a complete failure — the somnambulist sta- 
 ting things altogether different from what the magnetizer 
 expected. You are aware, gentlemen, that our only means 
 of acquiring such knowledge were the assertions of the 
 somnambulist ; and, although she declared to us that she 
 was unable to move her left limb for instance, we could 
 not take her word for it as an evidence that her limb was 
 actually paralyzed by the magnetic action. But even 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 173 
 
 granting the truth of her declarations, what she declared 
 was not in accordance with the pretensions of her mag- 
 netizer ; so that the whole of it amounted only to asser- 
 tions without proofs, contradicting other assertions equally 
 void of proofs. 
 
 " What we have just related in regard to the pretended 
 abolition and restitution of sensibility, may be applied, in 
 every respect, to the pretended abolition and restoration of 
 the power of motion, which were to be the fourth and fifth 
 orders of experiments. No satisfactory evidence has been 
 given to us. 
 
 " One of the paragraphs of the programme, in the latter 
 line of experiments, reads thus : 
 
 " ' Obeying the mental command of stopping to speak 
 and move in the middle of a conversation with any chosen 
 person.' 
 
 " The magnetizer, on the 13th of May last, endeavored 
 to prove to us that the silent power of his will could go so 
 far as to produce this result. 
 
 " But the facts that transpired this time, demonstrated 
 that the somnambulist appeared already deaf before the 
 magnetizer began to will her to be so, and the deafness 
 was gone when positively the magnetizer was willing her 
 to be deaf. So, according to the assertions of the somnam- 
 bulist, her faculty of hearing had been, this time, in open 
 revolt with the will of her magnetizer. Yet, in drawing 
 our conclusions from a candid appreciation of those facts, 
 we acknowledge neither a revolt nor a passive obedience, 
 but a complete and natural independence, and no more. 
 
 " Yielding to the solicitations of the members of your 
 committee, the magnetizer consented to give up his aboli- 
 tions and restitutions of sensibility and motion, and to pro- 
 ceed to the examination of facts of greater importance, — 
 namely, the faculty of seeing without using the eyes, 
 which was to constitute the sixth class of experiments. 
 
 15* 
 
174 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 " Dr. Berna was to show to your committee a woman 
 who, by the power of his magnetic manoeuvrings, could 
 decipher words, discern playing-cards, and follow the 
 hands of a watch, through the instrumentality of her occi- 
 put instead of her eyes, — facts that would demonstrate 
 either the transposition, or the uselessness and superfluity 
 of the organs of vision in the somnambulic state. These 
 experiments took place on the 5th of April, and failed in 
 toto.* 
 
 " All that the somnambulist knew beforehand — all that 
 she could infer from what was going on around her — all 
 that she could naturally guess at, she told readily enough ; 
 and we accordingly concluded that she was not deficient 
 in skill. So, for instance, when the magnetizer audibly 
 invited one of us to write a word on a card and present it 
 to the occiput of the woman, she said she could see a 
 card, and even some writing on it. When asked how 
 many persons were present, she answered approximately 
 as to the number of them, as she had seen or heard them 
 coming in. When required to tell if she could see one of 
 the members of your committee near her, who was engaged 
 in writing, and whose pen made a noise as it travelled 
 upon the paper, she raised her head and tried to see under 
 her bandage, remarking that this gentleman had something 
 white in his hand. When further invited to tell if she 
 saw the mouth of the same gentleman, who, having done 
 writing, was standing behind her, she said he had some- 
 thing white in his mouth. All these circumstances in- 
 duced us to conclude that this somnambulist, better trained 
 
 * M. Dubois d' Amiens is guilty here of a rather gross oversight 
 How could Dr. Berna, or any body else, " give up" any thing " on the 
 13iA of May" as previously stated, " to proceed" to something more 
 important " on the 5th of April," as he now says ? Did the month of 
 May, in the year 1837, come before the month of April 1 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 175 
 
 and more acute than the other, knew better how to make 
 probable suppositions. 
 
 " But as to positive facts, that would clearly demon- 
 strate the seeing of objects by the occiput, we not only- 
 failed in eliciting any, but the developments were of such 
 a nature as to cause strange suspicions of the morality of 
 this woman, as we soon will prove. 
 
 " The seventh class of experiments was on Clair- 
 voyance. 
 
 " Despairing of satisfying us about the transposition or 
 the uselessness and superfluity of the eyes in the ' som- 
 nambulic state,' the magnetizer took refuge in facts of 
 ' Clairvoyance,' or the ability of seeing through opaque 
 bodies. 
 
 " Here facts carry along with them a self-evident con- 
 clusion — viz., that the subject could not see through her 
 bandage what a person held before her. But here a con*- 
 sideration of higher importance presented itself to our 
 minds. Even if we were willing to admit the rather con- 
 venient hypothesis of the magnetizers, that, in many cir- 
 cumstances, the best of somnambulists are apt to be sud- 
 denly deprived of their lucidity, and that then, like the 
 vulgar, they no longer see through their occiput or their 
 stomach — nay, not even with their eyes when blindfolded, 
 — conceding all this, I say, since they claim it so urgently 
 — but what will you think of a woman who gave an accu- 
 rate description of objects different from those shown to 
 her ? What will you think of a somnambulist who de- 
 scribes a jack of spades on a blank card — who in an aca- 
 demical medal sees a gold watch, white dial, black figures 
 — who, perhaps, would have told us the time on it, had 
 we but insisted 1 
 
 " And now, gentlemen, if you ask us what general and 
 last conclusion we draw from all the experiments we wit- 
 nessed, we will declare that there can be not even the 
 
176 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 shadow of a doubt as to M. Berna having-, to say the least, 
 deceived himself, when, on the 21st of February last, he 
 wrote to the Academy that he could give us the personal 
 experience we were in need of, (these are his own ex- 
 pressions) — when he promised to furnish us with conclu- 
 sive facts — when he boasted that those facts would en- 
 lighten both Physiology and Therapeutics. These facts 
 are now all known to you, and you are convinced, like 
 ourselves, that they prove nothing in favor of the magnetic 
 doctrine, and have nothing to do with either Physiology 
 or Therapeutics. 
 
 " Should we have found any thing else in other facts, 
 more numerous, more varied, and presented by other mag- 
 netizers ? Without venturing to decide the question, this, 
 at least, is certain — that rf there are at present other 
 magnetizers, they did not dare to come to us in the open 
 day — they did not dare to seek any longer either the sanc- 
 tion or the reprobation of the Academy. 
 (Signed,) 
 
 " Messrs. Roux, President, 
 Bouillaud, 
 Cloquet, 
 Emery, 
 Pelletier, 
 Caventou, 
 
 CORNAC, 
 OUDET, 
 
 " Dubois d'Amiens, Reporter." 
 
 In consequence of the foregoing report, Dr. Berna wrote 
 to the President of the Royal Academy of Medicine the 
 following letter : — 
 
 " Mr. President : — I do solemnly protest before the 
 Academy against the report lately made to them by M. 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 177 
 
 Dubois d'Amiens, on some experiments on Animal Mag- 
 netism, in which I am concerned. I do impugn the re- 
 port in toto. 
 
 " 1st. For purposely and sedulously omitting the most 
 important and conclusive facts. 
 
 " 2d. For misrepresenting all those which it mentions, 
 and giving a false coloring to the whole proceeding. 
 
 " 3d. For having disguised the conduct of the commit- 
 tee ; representing them as imagining, and me as rejecting, 
 the very conditions that I, on the contrary, first and fore- 
 most required as essential. 
 
 " In a word, I openly denounce this work as a string 
 of shameful artifices, designedly calculated to deceive and 
 mislead the Royal Academy. 
 
 " I do declare, that the experiments the committee wit- 
 nessed were but the beginning of what I proposed to 
 show them. I do declare, on my honor, that I never 
 ' gave up,' and would not have stopped making experi- 
 ments, if the members of the committee had not constantly 
 violated, not only the conditions agreed upon between us 
 as necessary to the success of the experiments, but spe- 
 cially the positive promise of writing and reading the min- 
 utes of each experiment on the spot and in my presence, 
 which, every time, they slyly avoided under one pretext 
 or another, in spite of my earnest reclamations. 
 
 " The necessity of making without delay the present 
 protestation, does not allow me to enter into other particu- 
 lars ; but I will shortly furnish the Academy with a com- 
 plete refutation, supported on irrefragable evidences, and 
 on the very words of the report, to substantiate my unre- 
 served charges of falsehood and dishonesty against the 
 work of the Reporter. 
 
 " Very respectfully, &c. 
 
 " Berna, M. D. Parisiensis." 
 
178 PSYCOBUNAMY. 
 
 The refutation announced by Dr. Berna appeared in 
 print about two months after his letter. In order not to 
 swell beyond measure this part of my work, I leave it out, 
 and will say only that nothing can be more satisfactory 
 than the evidences it affords of the partiality and bad faith 
 of the Reporter. It at once shows the wilful omission of 
 thirty-three experiments perfectly conclusive, and how, at 
 that rate, the sum of those purposely left out would amount 
 to over a hundred for the three subsequent instances. It 
 restores to the disfigured facts their true character. It 
 points out the attempt to impose upon the public, by giving 
 the name of Cloquet among the members of the committee, 
 without mentioning the first name, Hyppolite, in order to 
 induce the people at large to believe that it was Jules 
 Cloquet, under the sanction of whose great name the Re- 
 porter was aware he should make a better case — a little 
 artifice, which, in an unguarded hour, M. Dubois confessed 
 to some friends he had resorted to, as an innocent ruse de 
 guerre, calculated to give more importance and weight to 
 his work ; finally, he challenges the Reporter to clear 
 himself from all these charges. Of course they remained 
 undenied, because undeniable. 
 
 But even before the reading of the protest of Dr. Berna, 
 M. Husson (on the 22d of August, 1837) delivered his 
 opinion on the report of M. Dubois d'Amiens, in the fol- 
 
 lowing manner :- 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 179 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 OPINION OF DR. HUSSON ON Tlffe REPORT OF M. DUBOIS 
 
 d'amiens. 
 
 " Gentlemen : — You may have been surprised, that 
 on the occasion of experiments made on two somnambu- 
 lists, whom Dr. Berna had proposed to be examined by a 
 committee of the Academy, M. Dubois d'Amiens came 
 forward and read to you a work which he styled, ' A Re- 
 port on Magnetism.' Under a title so general, you very 
 likely expected to see all the questions connected with 
 Magnetism thoroughly investigated ; you were at last to 
 know what to think of somnambulism, insensibility, the 
 internal sense, prevision, sight without the use of the eyes, 
 or through some other organ — in a word, of all the facts 
 which Magnetism claims and records. We have been all 
 disappointed. For, instead of a solution of those different 
 questions, the work read to us was nothing but a fancy 
 sketch, which the author styled, ' An Academical History 
 of Magnetism in France, from, the year 1784 to the pres- 
 ent time ;' containing the expose of some experiments on 
 two individuals who pretended to be somnambulists, fol- 
 lowed by conclusions drawn in a general form as neces- 
 sary consequences of those two single facts, as if nothing 
 more had been or ever could be seen. 
 
 " I was compelled to point out this first want of exact- 
 ness, for it shows a pretension far beyond the mandate of 
 the committee. They were to report on the experiments 
 made on the two subjects of Dr. Berna, and not on Mag- 
 netism in general ; their duty was limited, but the report 
 extends ad infinitum. It was merely to be called, and to 
 
ISO PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 be in fact, ■ a report on experiments made on two somnam- 
 bulists.' 
 
 " However, the report is made up of the three parts I 
 have stated, and so the field for discussion is more con- 
 fined and easy. I would enter it immediately had I not 
 two prefatory observations to submit to the Academy. 
 
 " 1st. It is neither the precautions taken in making the 
 experiments, nor the results, that I intend to attack. I de- 
 clare, even in advance, that I believe all the committee 
 have done and seen. But, as a committee are answerable 
 only for the exactness and actuality of the facts they in- 
 vestigate — as they remain complete strangers to the wri- 
 ting of the minutes, with which they intrust one of their 
 number — I attack the faithfulness, the mode of writing — ■ 
 in a word, the work solely of the Reporter. 
 
 " 2d. According to M. Dubois d'Amiens, the Academy, 
 in designating the members of the committee, acted very 
 wisely in selecting persons known as entertaining different 
 opinions — some in favor, some against Magnetism ; for, 
 says he, the Academy, well aware of their uprightness, 
 had in this a guarantee that the facts would be fairly in- 
 vestigated and faithfully recorded. For my part, I respect 
 infinitely the decision of the Academy ; but I do feel at 
 liberty to take a different view of the subject, and not to 
 judge the conduct of the Academy with the same compla- 
 cency as the Reporter. In looking over the formation of 
 the committee I see five of the members, w T ho, by their 
 writings or the public and unreserved manifestation of 
 their convictions, are openly enlisted among those who 
 refuse to admit the existence of Magnetism. It is their 
 own faith, their own creed. I respect it ; and above all, 
 I profess no contempt for it, nor do I seek to persecute 
 them on that account — a treatment so common towards 
 those who hold opinions that differ from our own. Asso- 
 ciated with them, I see four other gentlemen, whom I 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 181 
 
 know to be perfectly indifferent on the subject, two of 
 whom have made a public avowal of their indifference. 
 You cannot, then, invalidate so positive a declaration, 
 without pretending to know better the conviction of those 
 members than they do themselves. This committee, then, 
 is not composed, as the Reporter pretends, of persons of 
 different opinions, since, without a single partisan, there 
 are four indifferent and five opponent members. I do not 
 think, as the Reporter does, that such a committee were 
 preferable to members who would have no preconceived 
 opinions on the subject. Every one will easily grant, 1 
 suppose, that if the members had been, like those of the 
 committee appointed in 1826, known neither by the publi- 
 cation of writings or a public manifestation of hostile or 
 favorable opinions, they would have been more free from 
 prejudices, and less trammelled by that propensity which 
 prevents human weakness from readily acknowledging the 
 erroneousness of our opinions. They would then have 
 been truly independent, truly impartial, and their assertion 
 would thus have had more weight, if a guarantee, superior 
 to the evidence of the facts, had been required. 
 
 " But, instead of this important and even necessary 
 condition to any equitable judgment, I see in the organ 
 himself, in the very interpreter of the committee, the au- 
 thor of a pamphlet published in 1S33, styled ' An Histori- 
 cal and Rational Examination of the pretended Magnetic 
 Experiments, made by the Committee of the Royal Acade- 
 my of Medicine' — a writing in which (page 5) he declares 
 * to have sworn an eternal war against the magnetizersj and 
 has accumulated irony, ridicule, and sarcasms, not only on 
 the report, but also on the members of the committee, for 
 the minute and extreme precautions used in their experi- 
 ments. 
 
 " You will confess, gentlemen, that it would have been 
 exceedingly improbable that such a prepossession should 
 16 
 
182 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 not have governed M. Dubois d' Amiens, in spite of himself 
 most likely, when writing the minutes of the facts he read 
 to you ; for, situated as he was, between the satirical 
 spirit that dictated his first small book, and the shame of 
 now acknowledging that his previous judgment had been 
 formed in haste, who could have escaped the dilemma of 
 his position, and resisted the temptation of making to us a 
 report that might be considered as an appendix or a sup- 
 plement of his former work ? Yet, would he not have 
 deserved more credit in acting only the simple part of a 
 mere observer 1 Are we wrong in doubting if any other 
 member of this assembly, after thus committing himself, 
 would have consented to take the responsibility of making 
 the report 1 
 
 " However, as no dissension can arise between us as to 
 the judgment that the committee have passed on the facts 
 observed by them, and as it is only with the work of the 
 Reporter that I find fault, I come now to the examination 
 of it ; and, in order to omit nothing, I will follow the re- 
 port in each of the parts that compose it. 
 
 " The first part, dedicated to the Academical History of 
 Magnetism in France, begins with the enumeration of the 
 circumstances which induced the Academy to reconsider 
 the question of Magnetism. The Reporter relates the 
 communication made on the 24th of January last by M. 
 Oudet, in regard to the extraction of a tooth from a woman 
 during the magnetic sleep ; and then, without speaking of 
 another communication made eight days later, on the 31st 
 of the same month, by M. Jules Cloquet, he passes to the 
 letter written by Dr. Berna, on the 12th of February — a 
 letter, in which that gentleman flatters himself with being 
 able to give to those who consider testimony as nothing, 
 personal experience as means of conviction. The Re- 
 porter then proceeds by a statement of the manner in 
 which, on the 14th of the same month, the Academy ap- 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY 
 
 183 
 
 pointed a committee to witness the experiments of Dr. 
 Berna. 
 
 " But why, and for what purpose, does the Reporter omit 
 to tell you that, eight days after the communication of Mr. 
 Oudet, M. J. Cloquet made another communication of 
 far more importance 1 The subject of it was, the extir- 
 pation of a cancerous breast during the magnetic sleep. 
 It was undoubtedly an operation more remarkable, more 
 painful, of a longer duration, and much more dangerous, 
 than the extraction of a tooth. It was a fact that might 
 have appeared to the Royal Academy sufficiently striking 
 and wonderful to authorize them, even before the receipt 
 of the letter of Dr. Berna, in devoting some attention to 
 the study of that singular power which deadens the sensi- 
 bility, during one of the greatest surgical operations, to 
 such a degree as to induce the operator to tell you that, 
 seeing how complete was the insensibility, and being anx- 
 ious to know how long it would last, he was in no haste 
 in performing the extirpation. The chronological order 
 required, assuredly, that such a fact should have been 
 mentioned as one of the motives for the decision of the 
 Academy. But had it been done, it would have again, 
 and more forcibly, called the public attention to those 
 amazing instances of insensibility witnessed by two mem- 
 bers of this body, and attested by one of them, a master in 
 that branch of the science, since he is a professor of clinical 
 surgery ; and in a report that was only to admit negative 
 facts, this would have been out of place. Yet, since you 
 coveted the reputation of having written a complete and 
 faithful Academical History of Magnetism, you ought to 
 have known that history does not allow such omissions ; 
 and that, if they are not positively a fraud, they most 
 shamefully border on it ! 
 
 " The Reporter then summarily relates the experiments 
 made in 1784, by the commissioners appointed by the king, 
 
184 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 and selected by him from among the members of the Royal 
 Academy of Sciences, the Faculty of Medicine of Paris, 
 and the Royal Society of Medicine. He reminds you of 
 the conclusions drawn by those commissioners, and quotes 
 with emphasis the celebrated names of Franklin, Bailly, 
 Lavoisier, Darcet, &c. But he is very careful not to say 
 how, at that period, (fifty-five years ago,) those illustrious 
 men conducted their experiments. I will fill up that other 
 omission of the report. The Academy will decide if it was 
 truly impartial to overlook these particulars ; and if a judg- 
 ment, after so careless and superficial an examination, must 
 be admitted as irrevocable, and is calculated to inspire un- 
 bounded confidence." 
 
 Here M. Husson quoted the very words of his first report 
 on Psycodunamy, (page 33 of this work,) then he resumed : 
 
 " But, if those experiments had even been made with 
 all the accuracy that characterizes modern investigations, 
 we should still say that they have not and could not have 
 resolved this question ! Does not time, in its march, ad- 
 vance with a daily progress every science ? and is not what 
 is one day considered as true, often on the very next 
 stamped as erroneous ? Who, it might have been said 
 twelve years ago, would have dared, at the beginning of 
 this century, to oppose Newton's theory of light ? It was 
 then a law in natural philosophy, and remained so till 
 Malus discovered the phenomena of polarization, and 
 Newton's theory was at once overthrown." 
 
 Here again M. Husson forcibly repeated what he had 
 said on the necessary changes that time has always pro- 
 duced, not only in medical tenets, but even in judicial deci- 
 sions: (See page 31 of this work.) He then proceeded anew: 
 
 " The present judgments of scientific bodies, like the 
 present judicial decisions, can be no law for the future. 
 They never could bind the ages to come. The works of 
 our predecessors have no more power — they are mere land- 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 185 
 
 marks that serve to point the way in the field of science — 
 ignorance alone can consider them as limits not to be tres- 
 passed upon ! Who could build indestructible barriers to 
 arrest the progress of the human mind ? The onward 
 march of progress is stronger than those pitiful trammels ; 
 it necessarily overthrows them in its slow, but irresistible 
 movement. The authority of old names, to which the 
 Reporter appeals so confidently, is now powerless, and can 
 seduce nobody. It vanishes before new names, and above 
 all, before new facts. I rely a thousand-fold more on the 
 experiments you have made to-day, than on all the doings 
 and sayings of the royal commissioners of 1784. 
 
 " Yet, gentlemen, do not believe that those commissioners 
 of 1784 were deputed by the bodies to which they belonged. 
 Let me undeceive you on that score. The Academy of 
 Sciences had constantly disregarded the endeavors of Mes- 
 mer to induce them to witness his experiments. The fame 
 — the high position of M. Leroi, who was then the presi- 
 dent of that body, and had himself seen some magnetic 
 experiments, proved to be of no avail to change their reso- 
 lution. The Royal Society of Medicine could never agree 
 with Mesmer, because he refused to submit to certain con- 
 ditions which they wished to dictate previously to their ap- 
 pointing a committee. The Faculty of Medicine equally 
 refused their attention to Magnetism, because they were 
 fearful to give more celebrity, not only to Mesmer, but to 
 one of the members of the Faculty whom M. Dubois 
 d' Amiens calls a certain M. Deslon ; who was, neverthe- 
 less, one of the most celebrated doctors, a regent of the 
 Faculty, a man of the highest standing and character, and 
 physician to the Count d'Artois, brother of the king. 
 
 " It was after those successive refusals that Louis XVI., 
 
 yielding to the solicitations of the queen-— the unfortunate 
 
 Marie- Antoinette, to whom Mesmer had been recommended 
 
 by her kindred and friends from Vienna, and to those of 
 
 10* 
 
186 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 his brother, according to the wishes of his own physician, 
 Dr. Deslon ; — it was then, I say, that the king appointed, 
 by an act of his all-powerful authority, some commission- 
 ers, whom he had, of course, to choose from among the 
 members of the institutions which had refused to examine 
 the new doctrine ; because, among them were to be found 
 the persons most likely to enlighten the public on the worth 
 of Magnetism. They were then the king's commissioners, 
 and it was to him, and not to the scientific bodies to which 
 they belonged, that they were to report, and actually did 
 so. The first page of their report is an evidence of this 
 fact, and I will read it to you : 
 
 " ' On the 12th of March, 1784, the king appointed some 
 physicians, selected from among the Faculty of Paris — 
 Messrs. Borie, Sallin, Darcet, and Guillotin — to examine 
 Animal Magnetism as practised by M. Deslon, and report 
 to him on the subject ; and, granting the request of those 
 four physicians, he designated, to join them in their exam- 
 ination, five members of the Royal Academy of Science, 
 namely, Messrs. Franklin, Leroi, Bailly, De Bory, and 
 Lavoisier.' 
 
 " On the other hand, I will read a similar paragraph in 
 the report of the Royal Society of Medicine. Here it is — 
 
 " ' We have been chosen by the Baron de Breteuil, 
 agreeably to the orders of the king, to witness the practice 
 of Dr. Deslon, who applies Animal Magnetism to the cure 
 of diseases ; and to make on the subject a detailed report, 
 that he will himself put into the hands of the king.' 
 
 " Those commissioners were — Messrs. Poissonnier- 
 Desperieres, Mauduit, Andry, Caille, and De Jussieu. 
 
 " Those two commissions made their reports to the king, 
 namely, those from the Academy of Sciences and the 
 Faculty of Medicine on the 11th of August, 1784, and 
 those of the Royal Society of Medicine on the 17th of 
 the same month. 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 
 
 187 
 
 " The commissioners chosen from among the members 
 of the Faculty read, on the 24th of August, to their asso- 
 ciates, as a matter of mere favor, the report they had made ; 
 and, without any discussion on the subject, received the 
 thanks of the members present for their polite attention. 
 The commissioners of the Royal Society of Medicine did 
 exactly the same, and, without any other comment, received 
 similar thanks from their associates. From that time, it has 
 been bruited far and wide, that the question of Animal Mag- 
 netism was irrevocably and most fairly settled. 
 
 " Such, gentlemen, is the faithful history of those two 
 reports, which M. Dubois d'Amiens represents as having 
 been minutely discussed by each society, and adopted by 
 academical majorities. I should feel indebted to him if he 
 would let us know where and when took place those wise 
 and luminous discussions — those long and mature delib- 
 erations which he wishes you still to consider as binding 
 laws ; for my accurate researches prove to me that there 
 has been none — none whatever ! Nay, although these so- 
 cieties were known to be hostile to the cause of Magnetism, 
 to construe their thanks for an officious reading of the work 
 of the commissioners into an unqualified approval of their 
 having made an unfavorable report, cannot but be consid- 
 ered, even by the most indulgent critic, as a rather discred- 
 itable use of the rhetorical figure known among scholars 
 by the name of hyperbole. 
 
 " A fourth serious omission, which I do not know how to 
 qualify, is that of passing by the works of the two commit- 
 tees appointed by the Academy in 1825 and 1826, and the 
 report read to you in 1831. M. Dubois d'Amiens pretends 
 to write the history of Magnetism in the scientific societies 
 of France, and yet forgets the labors of the Academy which 
 have just opened their door to him, and before whom he 
 speaks ! Since he was so anxious to refresh your memory 
 about the conclusions of the commissioners of 1784, it ap- 
 
188 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 pears to me that it would have been but just — nay, I should 
 say honest, to mention the prudent and considerate meas- 
 ures resorted to by the Academy for the solution of the 
 simple question, ' Is it proper that the Academy should re- 
 consider the question of Animal Magnetism V Was it not 
 his duty, if he wished to be a faithful historian, to say that 
 this question, brought up by Dr. Foissac, had been referred, 
 for examination, to a special committee composed of Messrs. 
 Adelon, Pariset, Marc, Burdin-Aine, and Husson; and that 
 on the 13th of December, 1831, this committee had made 
 a report, the final conclusion of which was, ' to adopt the 
 proposition of Dr. Foissac, and intrust a special committee 
 with the mandate of making a study and examination of 
 Animal Magnetism?' He ought also to have said that the 
 discussion of the -report lasted during three different ses- 
 sions, namely, the 10th and 24th of January, and the 26th 
 of February, 1826 ; and that, on this last day, the committee 
 answered all the objections made to them ; and lastly, that 
 after those three sessions, exclusively devoted to discussions 
 on the subject, the report and conclusions were — a circum- 
 stance unprecedented in a matter of science, and which has 
 never since occurred — adopted, after the secret voting of 
 the sixty members present, comprising the whole Academy, 
 by a majority of thirty -five votes against twenty-five. This 
 is an historical fact which ought to have been recorded in 
 his work, and I loudly accuse him, as Reporter of his 
 committee, for his culpable silence upon so remarkable an 
 event. 
 
 " I proceed. After his retrograde march of fifty-five 
 years, to disinter the opinions of men that are no more, 
 was it not the duty of M. Dubois d'A miens to men- 
 tion the works accomplished in his own days by the com- 
 mittee of 1826? Ought he not to have reminded you, 
 how, after six years of trouble, vexations, and perseverance, 
 this committee, composed of as large a number of members 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 
 
 189 
 
 as the rules of the Academy authorize — viz., Messrs. Bour- 
 dois, Leroux, Itard, Marc, Fouquier, Gueneau de Mussy, 
 Thillaye, Guersent, Magendie, Double, and Husson- — 
 made their report, on the 21st and 28th of June, 1831, in 
 which they demonstrated that the Magnetism they studied 
 and examined, was not the same which some persons pre- 
 tend to have been judged in 1784 ; that the question was 
 no longer about tubs, wands, conductors, crises, music, 
 and numerous meetings of persons to be magnetized, nor 
 chains, nor convulsions, nor magnetized trees, &c, &c. ; 
 but that ' somnambulism,' a new phenomenon, unknown to 
 the commissioners of 1784, had been since observed, and 
 had specially called the attention of the members of said 
 committee. All this is nothing but history, the true and 
 impartial history of Magnetism. But, no ! indefatigable 
 in his ' eternal war against the magnetizersj M. Dubois 
 d'Amiens has preserved an absolute silence on this new 
 position, on this new fact, heretofore inexplicable. He 
 has accumulated the declarations opposed to Magnetism, 
 collecting those declarations from works buried fifty-five 
 years ago, and sedulously avoided mentioning any circum- 
 stance favorable to that cause — any opinions of living men, 
 who could have defended themselves if they had been at- 
 tacked. Should we rightly characterize such conduct, did 
 we call it honest ? Do you call this impartiality ? Is 
 it thus that history ought to be written 1 
 
 " This historical part of the report occupies two hundred 
 and fourteen lines of the political newspaper in which M. 
 Dubois d'Amiens had it inserted the very next day after 
 its delivery in this assembly. The one only sentence, in 
 which he speaks of the committee of 1826, occupies but 
 four lines and a half — that is to say, the forty-second part. 
 Here is the sentence : ' We will not relate the history of 
 the wonderful experiments made by a committee of the 
 Academy, in 1826. We respect their convictions; but 
 
I 
 
 190 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 their report is not the expression of the opinion of the 
 whole Academy.' 
 
 " I will answer each and every part of this sen- 
 tence : — 
 
 " What prevented you from relating that history? You 
 did so for the commissioners of 1784, and you refuse to do 
 it for the committee of 1826! — a committee who alone 
 emanated from an academical election, and, consequently, 
 whom alone you ought to have mentioned — a committee, 
 the most numerous ever appointed on any subject, the 
 members of which are still present in this assembly, and 
 whose chairs I see next to yours. Would you, if you 
 had mentioned the experiments — would you have denied 
 the facts that we have seen ; facts that you have not wit- 
 nessed, and of which, consequently, you cannot consider 
 yourself a competent judge 1 Is your belief to be gained 
 only by facts opposed to Magnetism ? Do you reject in- 
 discriminately all the facts which substantiate an opinion 
 contrary to your own — all the facts that are attested by 
 men just as careful, just as wise, just as clear-sighted, just 
 as judicious as yourself? Those facts, I know, go against 
 your printed and widely-circulated opinion ; still, they are 
 facts as authentic, as positive, as true, and as well-observ- 
 ed, as any of those which you told us transpired before 
 you. You say they are wonderful, but ought you, on that 
 account, to conclude that they did not take place ? Is the 
 compass of your mind — nay, of the human mind in gen- 
 eral — to be the measure of the actuality of all the vjonder- 
 Jul facts that surround us 1 We ourselves believe in your 
 experiments, although we did not witness them ; yet you 
 — you refuse to speak of ours, solely because they contra- 
 dict your preconceived notions. But, be well persuaded 
 that, although they disagree with you, they do, neverthe- 
 less, exist in their entire and stubborn reality. You say, you 
 respect our convictions. Must we thank you for so kind 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 
 
 191 
 
 and generous a concession ? Must we be grateful that 
 you vouchsafe to let fall on us the pity that lunatics in- 
 spire ? 
 
 " Lastly, you concluded that our report cannot be con- 
 sidered as the expression of the opinion of the whole 
 Academy. Did we ever pretend that it was ? The evi- 
 dence that we did not is to be found in the last sentences 
 of the report which your pamphlet has so earnestly en- 
 deavored to vilify by all kinds of injurious epithets. 
 
 " Here are our very words : 
 
 " ' We do not, therefore, claim of you a blind belief in all 
 the particulars of our report. We conceive that a large 
 portion of these facts are so extraordinary that you cannot 
 yield us that : perhaps we ourselves should refuse you 
 ours, if, changing positions, you should come and announce 
 them to us, who, as is the case with you to-day, had seen 
 nothing, observed nothing, studied nothing, traced nothing 
 to its source. We only ask you to judge us as we would 
 you — that is to say, under a conviction that neither a love 
 for the marvellous, a desire for celebrity, nor any interest- 
 ed feeling whatever, has actuated us throughout our labors, 
 We have been animated by higher motives — by motives 
 more worthy of you — the love of science, and an earnest 
 desire to justify the hopes conceived by the Academy, 
 touching our zeal and devotion.' 
 
 " We had not then the pretension yon appear anxious to 
 oppose. If you yourself should have such a one for your 
 own work, the Academy, whose judgment I expect with 
 confidence, is too equitable not to prove how wrong it 
 would be for you to cherish such a hope. 
 
 " Gentlemen, having pointed out to you the capital 
 omissions that abound in the first part of the report of M. 
 Dubois d'Amiens, 1 cannot, in examining the second part 
 of it, refrain from expressing how far it appears to me to 
 trespass on the limits of decency and self-respect, which 
 
192 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 previously to this had uniformly characterized the works 
 of all reporters in this assembly. 
 
 M M. Dubois d' Amiens, from the beginning to the end of 
 this second part, seeks incessantly to ridicule a young 
 doctor of the Faculty, whose experiments did not succeed 
 as he expected, and who appears to have been deceived 
 by two women pretending to be somnambulists. But 
 there is nothing extraordinary in his disappointment or in 
 such deception. It is known that there is nothing more 
 variable or more inconstant than the magnetic phenomena ; 
 and it is that very mobility, and that very inconstancy, 
 which prevent so many persons from studying Magnetism. 
 Yet, we would ask, what are the facts of practical medi- 
 cine, of therapeutics, and physiology, that are constant 
 and immutable ? Those which the Reporter has been so 
 prolix in relating are every-day occurrences. In 1831 we 
 witnessed three instances of similar nature, and although, 
 in the three cases, the results were opposed to what the 
 magnetizers expected, and called us to witness, we were 
 very careful not to lessen in any degree the consideration 
 to which a gentleman, convinced by previous experiments, 
 is entitled, even when those experiments fail in an attempt 
 to reproduce them. He may have been deceived himself, 
 but it does not hence follow that he intended to deceive 
 others. 
 
 " Dr. Berna, whom I do not know, whom I have never 
 seen, with whom I am not acquainted directly or indirect- 
 ly, but whose talents and learning are not questioned, was 
 wrong in making promises so positive as those contained 
 in his letter. He evidenced in this that he did not yet 
 know how uncertain and variable are the phenomena 
 which he studies, and how strong is the propensity of 
 some somnambulists to impose on the credulity of the pub- 
 lic. But is this error, which after all proves nothing but a 
 conviction founded on other experiments, serious enough 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 
 
 193 
 
 to subject him to public derision ? Be indulgent, gentle- 
 men, towards young men, who follow with ardor the path 
 of science. They meet in their way with injustice, op- 
 position, and disappointments, numerous and bitter enough, 
 without your increasing the burdens that already oppress 
 them — without your aid in the effort to bring them into 
 contempt, for the reason only that they entertain an opinion 
 different from your own. 
 
 " I will add, moreover, since the Reporter has been so 
 particularly anxious to impress on our minds the conclu- 
 sions formed by the commissioners of 1784, that he him- 
 self would have done well had he been impressed with 
 the style of their writing. He would have there found a 
 model of decency that, without wounding any one, points 
 out the result of the facts; he would have found a severe 
 decorum, which is the first condition in the investigation 
 of truth, and for which 1 look in vain through all his work. 
 Do you believe that the commissioners of 1784 could find 
 no laughable matter in the tubs, the wands, the conductors, 
 the ropes, the chains, the magnetized trees, the convul- 
 sions — in a word, in the whole apparatus adopted by Mes- 
 mer ? They were extremely circumspect, because they 
 knew that their character and position required them to be 
 dignified even in the midst of ludicrous circumstances. 
 
 " And now what were the results of the experiments of 
 Dr. Berna 1 Nothing more than a failure of what he ex- 
 pected. Is that a sufficient cause for the bursts of laughter 
 that the report elicited in this assembly ? No. It is not 
 the failure that caused them ; it is the coloring given to 
 the proceedings ; it is the causticity spread over the par- 
 ticulars ; in a word, the laughable matter was the grotesque 
 performance of the picture, and not the subject of it. 
 
 " Setting aside the manner — amusing perhaps, but in my 
 opinion highly improper — in which you detailed the ex- 
 periments, my former associates and myself have too much 
 17 
 
194 PSYCODUNAMY, 
 
 faith not to admit as true the results you reported; 1st, 
 Because they are attested by men whose acuteness of ob- 
 servation is known to us ; 2d. Because we find in their 
 precautions the exact repetition of those resorted to by our- 
 selves for each of the thirty-three experiments which com- 
 pose our report ; 3d, and last, because in the number of 
 the thirty-three persons upon whom we experimented, we 
 did find three subjects, whose magnetizers expected and 
 had promised as much as Dr. Berna, and whom, by using 
 the same caution that you did, we detected in fault, and 
 upon whom we passed the same judgment that your com- 
 mittee did on their two cases. 
 
 " But, gentlemen, since those experiments were identi- 
 cal — that is to say, negative, and exactly similar to those 
 we had already reported, the question naturally arises, if 
 it were necessary, if it were in any way important for the 
 Academy to revive, on that occasion, discussions that can- 
 not but be violent ; for they wound, on both sides, convic- 
 tions that are sincere. We will insist upon it, of what use 
 to the Academy can experiments be that bring forth noth- 
 ing new — that are a mere repetition of ours — and which, 
 in the end, prove nothing at all ? Will they adopt the re- 
 port 1 Will they approve of the conclusions ? Before 
 they decide on the subject, it is necessary that the Acade- 
 my should be fully aware that they do not possess the 
 moral power of judging the question of Magnetism, any 
 more than they had or could have the power of judging of 
 the treatment of the typhus fever, of the numeric method, 
 of lithotrity, &c. They cannot assign the limits of the 
 unknown — they cannot confine within bounds the spirit of 
 researches that proceed, and always will proceed, in defi- 
 ance of all the academies of the world ! Let all of them 
 unite to declare any one fact a chimera ; if experiments, 
 repeated in silence and in every quarter, by unprejudiced, 
 enlightened, and independent men* reproduce it, they will 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 
 
 195 
 
 irresistibly overthrow such declaration ; nay, a single fact 
 will invalidate it. The time is past when opinion was 
 blindly submissive to the judgments of scientific bodies, or 
 even to judicial determinations. Science does not any 
 longer bow her head before the transient and ephemeral 
 authority of men. Do not then, gentlemen, venture in a 
 path so hazardous — do not disgrace your dignity. Let the 
 magnetizers alone. If they are supported only by fraud 
 and ignorance, they will themselves work their own ruin ; 
 if they have on their side experience and truth, they can 
 laugh at your decision. They will triumph in spite of 
 your powerless resistance, and nullify to-morrow the judg- 
 ment you may pass upon them to-day. 
 
 " If I examine the third part of the report, namely, the 
 conclusions, I find them quite deficient in sound logic, 
 for they draw general inferences from two particular pre- 
 mises, and that is a radical and irremissible fault. I will 
 not, however, stop to debate them, but will reserve to my- 
 self the liberty of hereafter presenting such conclusions 
 as I shall consider proper to the report which I oppose. 
 
 " I will not leave the floor without asking the members 
 of the committee to allow me to make, with regard to them- 
 selves, some reflections on a fact that came to my know- 
 ledge upon the day of our last meeting, and which forces 
 me out of the position I had at first taken towards them. 
 I allude to the appeal they thought proper to make to all 
 magnetizers to come forward and show them conclusive 
 facts. 'None of them,' says the Reporter, 'dared to come!' 
 He concludes, from their silence, that they have given up 
 their cause in despair, and appears confident that thero 
 exist no longer either Magnetism or magnetizers. 
 
 " In the first place, the committee had not the right to 
 make such an appeal. Their sole mandate was to wit- 
 ness the experiments of Dr. Berna, and on them only you 
 were to report. You were not allowed to call for other 
 
196 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 experiments, and could not,, without having received a 
 new attribute from the Academy, enlarge the circle of 
 your powers. I am not aware that the magnetizers re- 
 fused, on that account, to appear before you, since I am 
 not acquainted with any ; but this much is certain, that 
 if I myself had been a magnetizer, knowing as I do 
 your dispositions and proceedings, I would by no means 
 have consented to answer your appeal. Where is the 
 man — I refer the case to yourselves — where is even the 
 most innocent of men, who, of his own accord, would ap- 
 pear before a tribunal, when he is confident that the judges 
 are not only partial, but decidedly hostile, and that the at- 
 torney-general is a publicly sworn enemy to him 1 
 
 " Secondly, those who have experience in Magnetism 
 are fully aware that the irregularities and inconstancy of 
 the phenomena are such as to prevent them from consid- 
 ering the repetition of a fact fifteen days in succession, as 
 a sure guarantee that the same fact will occur on the six- 
 teenth trial ; they know how a somnambulist, very lucid 
 at present, will, perhaps, within a few hours lose his fac- 
 ulties. Therefore I think they acted very wisely in con- 
 sidering your challenge as nugatory ; for they knew that 
 while they might fail in proving what they would have 
 tried to prove, you, although physicians — nay, Academi- 
 cians — are not free from the passions and weakness of 
 frail human nature, and would not, for their sake, discard 
 your animosity. Thus, there is no reason to be so sur- 
 prised at their silence, and far less to exult in it as a de- 
 cisive victory ; but to do so, as the reporter did, is to add 
 another to the catalogue of wrong conclusions. 
 
 " I sum up, gentlemen, by giving you an abridged sy- 
 nopsis of the reflections I have submitted to you. 
 
 " I criticised the general title of the report, which ought 
 to be, ' A Report on experiments on two Somnambulists ;' 
 and not, ' A Report on Magnetism.' 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 197 
 
 " I pointed out the evidently partial omission of the op- 
 eration made by M. J. Cloquet, in the recapitulation of the 
 motives which induced the Academy to appoint a new- 
 committee. 
 
 " I said that the experiments of the commissioners of 
 1784, were essentially defective on account of the man- 
 ner in which they were made. I added, that the Report- 
 er, who professed to make a faithful history of Magnetism, 
 ought not to have omitted so important a circumstance, 
 since the carelessness of their experimenting led them 
 necessarily to wrong conclusions. 
 
 " I demonstrated that the Academy of Sciences, the 
 Faculty and the Royal Society of Medicine, never made 
 any examination whatever of Magnetism ; that they re- 
 fused to do so; and that the king, Louis XVI., himself 
 appointed all the commissioners, who were not mem- 
 bers of a special committee deputed by the different socie- 
 ties to which they belonged ; that the report was made to 
 the king, and read only officiously to the different societies, 
 who expressed their thanks to the commissioners for that 
 favor, as you could yourselves, if you thought it proper, 
 thank M. Dubois d'Amiens for his kindness in reading to 
 you a laughable work for which you gave him no mandate. 
 
 " I loudly blamed the silence of the Reporter respecting 
 the labors of the two committees deputed by the Royal 
 Academy of Medicine — the only scientific body of France 
 who had ever scientifically considered Magnetism, through 
 the agency of members appointed by them for that purpose. 
 
 " Lastly, I pointed out, without any difficulty, the par- 
 tiality with which the Reporter pretended to judge the 
 general question of Magnetism, while relating negative ex- 
 periments only, omitting the positive and conclusive facts 
 observed and related by your first committee with as much 
 care as was taken by your second committee in their 
 examination. 
 
 17* 
 
* 
 
 198 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 " I said thus much on the pretendedly historical part. 
 I found, in passing to the second part, which, by its na- 
 ture, was to be a simple description of facts, that its main 
 object was to ridicule, as much as possible, an estimable, 
 intelligent, and learned physician, whose experiments did 
 not have the results he expected. 
 
 " I said, and say it over again, that the experiments ap- 
 pear to have been conducted with the same precautions 
 observed by us, and deserve accordingly the same credit. 
 But I remarked that they were not new, that we had re- 
 lated three similar instances, and I concluded that it was 
 useless to revive, on their account, discussions which will 
 only trouble the Academy without any benefit. 
 
 " I said that your two negative experiments cannot de- 
 stroy the thirty positive ones related by the first committee, 
 since one single positive fact is enough to destroy any 
 number of negative ones. 
 
 " I said that you had not the power to constitute your- 
 selves judges of Magnetism, since your own judgments 
 are under the jurisdiction of the progress in science, and 
 that many of the truths of one year have been falsified by 
 the discoveries of the next. 
 
 " Lastly, I reminded you, when I arrived at the third 
 part — the conclusions — that general inferences cannot be 
 drawn from a few particular premises, and that the only 
 possible conclusion of your negative experiments, which 
 present nothing new, is, that they prove nothing. 
 
 " So the whole report amounts to this : gross historical 
 omissions — numerous and culpable concealments — experi- 
 ments already known, and which prove nothing — errone- 
 ous conclusions — a style, the levity of which is highly 
 indecorous, even in the opinion of the friends of the Re- 
 porter. 
 
 " Such being the case, gentlemen, you cannot adopt 
 this .work, because you cannot approve of historical un- 
 

 ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 
 
 199 
 
 faithfulness. You cannot approve of ridiculing a doctor of 
 our faculty, known as an honorable and talented man, 
 solely on the ground that his experiments have proved 
 nothing, except that a magnetizer either failed or was de- 
 ceived, which in itself is nothing new. You cannot ap- 
 prove of a laughable and sarcastic style in a performance 
 which heretofore has been, and always ought to be, the 
 most severe — I mean experimental proceedings in the in- 
 vestigation of scientific truth. You cannot approve of the 
 report, because you are anxious to avoid useless discus- 
 sions, and prevent interminable replies and endless re- 
 criminations, that would unavoidably lessen your consid- 
 eration and dignity. 
 
 " The only conclusion to be drawn from the report, is, 
 that in the experiments made by Dr. Berna, the commit- 
 tee did not see the phenomena which he expected them 
 to witness. 
 
 " This is the only one that I propose to the Academy 
 to adopt, and pass on the balance of the report to the order 
 of the day. 
 
 (Signed) 
 
 " Husson." 
 
 The success of this speech was complete. The report 
 of M. Dubois d'Amiens was overruled and annihilated ; 
 and his confusion during the eloquent, dignified, and se- 
 vere lecture of his adversary, may be more easily imagin- 
 ed than described. He did not venture even a word in 
 reply, and our cause, instead of losing, gained ground 
 among scientific men. 
 
4 
 
 200 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ACADEMICAL REPORT ON THE COMMUNICATION OF DR. PIG E- 
 AIRE (OF MONTPELLIER) ON PSYCODUNAMIC FACTS, AND 
 ITS CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 It would be an error to believe that it was only in Pa- 
 lis that physicians began, after this, to acknowledge and 
 study the power which creates such wonderful phenom- 
 ena. The Medical Faculty of Montpellier, subsequently to 
 this period, in 1837 and 1838, was called to pay attention 
 to and witness the experiments of Dr. Pigeaire, one of the 
 most talented and respectable physicians of that city. 
 His own daughter was the subject. A voluminous com- 
 munication, relating those experiments, was sent to the 
 Royal Academy of Paris, and referred for examination to 
 Messrs. Gueneau de Mussy and Bousquet. The following 
 brief extract from their report is sufficient to show what 
 were the experiments, how the medical faculty of Mont- 
 pellier judged them, and what were the conclusions of the 
 committee. 
 
 " The facts related in the communication of Dr. Pi- 
 geaire are of a nature so extraordinary, that your commit- 
 tee thought proper to request the secretary of the Acade- 
 my to write a letter on the subject to Professor Lordat. 
 Before giving our conclusions, we ask the permission of 
 reading to the Academy the answer of our celebrated cor- 
 respondent : 
 
 " ' On Sunday, the 1st of October, 1837, at three o'clock 
 in the afternoon, I went to the house of Dr. Pigeaire to 
 witness the magnetic experiments of the sitting appointed 
 for Professor d' Amador and myself. 
 
 " ' I saw there two young ladies* the younger of whom 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 201 
 
 is the subject of the following observations. She might be 
 from ten to eleven years of age. She has a delicate con- 
 stitution, and is but just recovering from a slight illness 
 that had caused the suspension of any magnetic experi- 
 ments upon her during a fortnight. 
 
 " ' They submitted to our examination a four folded black 
 silk apparatus, intended to cover the eyes so as to prevent 
 any ray of light from penetrating the orbit. We tried it, 
 each of us, upon ourselves, and we were perfectly con- 
 vinced that it completely answered the purpose. This 
 apparatus rilled up the furrows between the nose and the 
 cheeks : it was there considerably thicker, and coated 
 with sticking plaster in order to intercept every ray. 
 
 " ' As soon as she was requested, the little lady placed 
 herself in an arm-chair, and Dr. Pigeaire commenced the 
 magnetic operation. Not more than two minutes elapsed 
 before she said she was asleep. Her mamma asked her 
 if she wished to be magnetized longer. She replied af- 
 firmatively, and after a few more passes she said, ' c'est 
 assezj (that is enough.) An instant afterwards Madame 
 applied the apparatus with the greatest possible exactitude. 
 
 "'After thirty-five minutes of rest, she took our book. 
 She could not read the first line \ Biographief printed in 
 ornamental letters, and lost in the numerous flourishes and 
 shades of the clare-obscure of the back-ground ; yet she 
 read { des Medecins FrancaisJ but hesitatingly, as if spell- 
 ing to herself. Each incorrect trial displeased her. She 
 returned to her examinations, and appeared much delight- 
 ed when she was right and her reading was approved. I 
 remarked that the finger always rubbed only the beginning 
 of each word, and that the rest was completed without 
 touching the remaining letters. She continued, reading 
 * vivanf and the remainder rather fluently. But, on ar- 
 riving at the words l Officiers de sante? written in italics, 
 she stopped and said, ' voila une ecriture couchee,' (here is 
 
202 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 some oblique writing.) She applied herself to the study 
 of those letters, rubbing them with her finger, and pro- 
 nounced the words correctly. 
 
 " ' After this trial we gave to the little girl a printed leaf 
 which had formed a part of a scientific journal devoted to 
 physical geography ; the print was a little superior to that 
 which is called Cicero. A transparent pane of glass was 
 placed above it, and the little somnambulist appeared to be 
 more at her ease. She read through the glass several 
 lines without any difficulty. She had some trouble in 
 spelling the words geologie and fossiles. As all this an- 
 noyed her, we were compelled to tell her that she should 
 not go beyond a line that we pointed out. She was much 
 pleased when she had performed her task. She said that 
 she perspired ; and as she perceived that her mamma was 
 a little dissatisfied with her, she covered her with kisses. 
 The apparatus was removed. She requested to sleep a 
 little longer : the eyes were half open. There was some 
 trouble in awaking her, and she appeared much fatigued 
 and surprised. Somnambulism gave to this little girl a 
 countenance and manner very different from that which 
 we noticed when she was awake. 
 
 " ' After the trial of the second reading, she exclaimed 
 exultingly, ' Novo, will they still say that there is any hum- 
 bug and collusion about it /' 
 
 " £ On the third of October I paid a visit of thanks. I 
 asked the mother if her little girl needed light. She re- 
 plied in the affirmative. She can read in a degree of 
 light which would not be sufficient for everybody, but still 
 this degree at least is indispensable to her. 
 
 " ' On the 9th of October, at three o'clock in the after- 
 noon, I witnessed again a similar experiment. Several 
 doctors were present, and among others, Messrs. Vailher, 
 Lafosse, Fourche, Bertrand, Quissac, also Colonel du Bar- 
 ret, &c. Every thing went on as before, except the fol- 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 203 
 
 lowing circumstances : 1st. The little girl used several 
 times the index finger of the right hand. 2d. She read 
 immediately after she was in the somnambulic state. The 
 greater number of the persons present were strangers to 
 the facts as well as to the proceedings of Magnetism. 
 Some of them were not convinced. Their objection was 
 that the bandage, which was constructed for a child ten 
 years of age, did not adapt itself exactly to their noses and 
 eyes. For myself, I saw only that which I had seen pre- 
 viously. 
 
 " ' On Sunday, the 17th of December, I wished to see 
 again the experiments, in order to justify the confidence 
 of the secretary of the Royal Academy of Paris, (Dr. 
 Pariset.) Some ladies, friends of Madame Pigeaire, and 
 a young officer were present, as well as Dr. Jean-Jean, 
 who had corneas a skeptic. I found him near the little 
 somnambulist, who was already in her magnetic sleep. 
 He had brought his book, and was in the greatest astonish- 
 ment because the little girl had read in it fluently. The 
 young officer was writing. The bandage for the eyes had 
 been tightened ; the lower edge was furnished with a 
 border covered with sticking-plaster, which was applied 
 to the nose and the prominences and inequalities of the 
 cheeks ; so that when the bandage was removed, an un- 
 broken line of plaster remained on the above-mentioned 
 parts. The little somnambulist could not read the writing 
 of the officer, because, as she said, the ink was too pale ; 
 but she read with ease the same sentence written with a 
 pencil of a much darker color. She stopped only on ac- 
 count of some letters with whose form she was not fa- 
 miliar. 
 
 " ' A. little while afterwards she wished to be awakened, 
 and her mamma yielded to her request. 
 
 " ' I asked if the young child could read through an 
 opaque body, which should be placed between the hands 
 
I 
 
 204 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 and the eyes. Madame Pigeaire replied in the negative. 
 I asked again if she could read with her hands behind her 
 back : here also the reply was in the negative. 
 (Signed,) 
 
 " ' L.ORDAT. 
 
 " ' Montpellier, 23d of December, 1837.' 
 
 " Besides the fact of reading without using the eyes, 
 the communication of Dr. Pigeaire mentions the seeing 
 at a distance, and the correct description of that which 
 was transpiring at remote places. In a case considered 
 doubtful by two physicians, his little somnambulist pro- 
 nounced that a certain Madame Bonnard was not preg- 
 nant ; she named the persons who were ringing the door- 
 bell, she described minutely the articles that were enclosed 
 in a box, &c, &c. 
 
 " The witnesses are numerous, and they are persons 
 of the highest standing and character. Indeed we may 
 say that never, perhaps, has Magnetism enlisted in its favor 
 a more powerful array of respectable names. Not Messrs. 
 Lordat and D'Amador only, but the other professors of 
 the medical faculty of Montpellier, Messrs. Lallemand, 
 Delmas, Kuhnholtz, Eustache, &c, offer their guarantee as 
 to the exactitude of the assertions of Dr. Pigeaire. Is not 
 the testimony of such men of sufficient importance, in 
 your opinion, to give credit to a fact, however improbable 
 it may appear 1 
 
 " Those who at once deny the possibility of the facts of 
 Magnetism, and refuse it an investigation, seem to us to 
 reason most illogically : they admit precisely that which is 
 questioned ; for to dare to say, ' This is possible and that 
 is not,' implies necessarily the pretension of having been 
 initiated in all the mysteries of creation. 
 
 " Therefore, in all cases, before we pronounce, we must 
 examine, And even that is insufficient : we must, in our 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 
 
 205 
 
 examination, preserve our minds free from prejudices. 
 The learned Euler admitted three orders of truths — name- 
 ly, truths of the senses, truths of the understanding, and 
 truths of testimony. To see, without using the eyes, is 
 not a truth of the understanding, for it cannot be demon- 
 strated by reasoning : it is a truth of the senses to those 
 who can witness it ; and, like all historical facts, it is a 
 truth of testimony to those who have not witnessed it. 
 According to that rule, we were to number and weigh the 
 testimonies in favor of Dr. Pigeaire. You know them: 
 could we hesitate ? 
 
 "M. Pigeaire invites two of our colleagues to go to 
 Montpellier : if his somnambulist does not read with her 
 eyes perfectly closed, and covered with the thickest kind 
 of black silk doubled, he pledges himself to pay their ex- 
 penses. Or he is willing to come to Paris, and should his 
 experiments prove successful, he will receive a compen- 
 sation adequate to his trouble. 
 
 " We conclude that the Academy ought to accept the 
 proposition of Dr. Pigeaire. 
 (Signed,) 
 
 GUENEAU DE MlJSSY, 
 BOUSQUET, 
 
 " Paris, March, 1838. 
 
 Before I proceed any farther, my readers, perhaps, 
 would like to know the results of this last report. I feel 
 it to be due to them, and here it is : 
 
 Dr. Burdin, one of the members of the Royal Academy, 
 deposited in the hands of a notary public the sum of 3,000 
 francs, to be given as a premium in case of the success 
 of the experiments ; and Dr. Pigeaire complied with the 
 invitation of coming to Paris to submit his young daughter 
 to the proposed trial. In order to ascertain if the lucidity 
 
 18 
 
206 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 of his somnambulist had been impaired by her long and 
 tedious travelling, he made some preparatory experiments 
 in presence of many scientific men and distinguished per- 
 sons, the greater number of whom, and among them 
 Messrs. Orfila, Bousquet, Ribes, Reveille-Parise, &c, gave 
 their written testimony, purporting that Miss Pigeaire read 
 admirably well in any proffered book, without touching it, 
 while she was in the somnambulic state, and had her eyes 
 covered with a thick and doubled velvet bandage, of which 
 the inferior border was exactly fixed on the nose and 
 cheeks with sticking-plaster. 
 
 In the mean time a committee was appointed. After 
 much delay and tergiversation they met at last at Dr. 
 Pigeaire's, who, before introducing to them his daughter, 
 submitted to their examination her ocular apparatus. Here 
 the wise men, worthy friends of M. Dubois d' Amiens, 
 found an objection, capital in their eyes. It is this : silk, 
 velvet, or any tissue whatever, though it be thick, and as 
 often doubled as you please, contains, nevertheless, holes 
 which can be detected by using the microscope. Ac- 
 cordingly, a peculiar conformation of the eye, strengthened 
 by habit, could account for the fact of reading through 
 them, without any ' somnambulism.' Therefore, unless 
 M. Pigeaire would consent to have the head of his young 
 daughter locked up in a kind of box prepared for the pur- 
 pose, the experiment could not be satisfactory. 
 
 Need I say that Dr. Pigeaire, disgusted at the bad 
 faith of the would-be judges, withdrew his daughter from 
 the trial without even allowing them to see her ? But, at 
 the same time, his friends and himself publicly offered a 
 prize of thirty thousand francs to any one, who, not being 
 himself in the somnambulic state, could read through Miss 
 Pigeaire's bandage. Need I say again, that every person 
 who tried the bandage declared that it put them in perfect 
 darkness, notwithstanding the holes so scientifically dis- 
 
ACADEMICAL HISTORY. 207 
 
 covered by the members of the committee of the Royal 
 Academy ? 
 
 Incredible, however, as it may seem, although no at- 
 tempt at experimenting before the committee was ever 
 made, and though, as I have stated, no member of said 
 committee had ever seen Miss Pigeaire, still our adver- 
 saries found the means of having it inserted in the public 
 periodicals that the experiments failed in their presence. 
 
 . . . . " Tantcene animis coslestihus ires ! .'" 
 
 The different documents which I have presented in 
 this part of my book are sufficient to establish the degree 
 of estimation gained among scientific men by the cause I 
 advocate. Assuredly, there still exist among them, and 
 likely forever will exist, unbelievers in it, although their 
 number is daily diminishing. But why should we won- 
 der ? Do we not also see among them men who do not 
 believe in the being of God ? 
 
HISTORY 
 
 PS YCODUNAMY 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY. 
 
 " Whence but from heaven, could men unskill'd in arts, 
 In various ages born, in various parts, 
 Weave such agreeing tales 1 Or how, or why 
 Should all conspire to cheat us with a lie 1 
 Unask'd their pains, ungrateful their advice ; 
 Starving their gain, and martyrdom their price." 
 
 Dryden. 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HISTORY OF PSYCODUNAMY IN THE AGES OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 Whatever be the name given to Psycodunamy, what- 
 ever be the occult cause of its phenomena, the study of 
 History shows that the proceedings which constitute its 
 practical part, namely, slight frictions, gestures, glances, 
 the laying on of hands, blowing, massage, and prayer in 
 connection with them, have been, at all times and in all 
 countries, resorted to, and have produced the same results 
 that the modern dunamisers describe ; that is to say, the 
 cure of diseases, and somnambulism, with all its essential 
 characters of insulation, insensibility, increase of the in- 
 tellectual power, intuition, instinctive knowledge of reme- 
 dies, sight at a distance and without the use of the eyes, 
 communication of thoughts, and prevision. 
 
 An immense number of Psycodunamic facts are to be 
 found in the works of Josephus, Homer, Plato, Pytha- 
 goras, Plutarch, Pliny, Lucianus, Cato, Tacitus, Apulei- 
 us, Heliodorus, Serenus Sammoniacus, Coelius Aurelia- 
 nus, Aul. Gellius, Jul. Firmicus, CElianus, Vindicianus, 
 Alex. Trallianus, Ant. Beniveni, Bartholinus, the learned 
 Mead, Alberti, Paracelsus, Wirdig, Kircher, Santanelli, 
 Van Helmont, and particularly Maxwell. These wonder- 
 ful facts did not fail to attract the attention and cause 
 amazement in those celebrated writers, of whom the great- 
 
212 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 er number, unable to explain them by natural laws, refer- 
 red them to the beneficence of the gods — Isis, Osiris, 
 Serapis, Apollo, iEsculapius, etc. The Fathers of the 
 Church, and even some modern scientific men, among 
 whom I will name the physician Derfaen, led astray by 
 vulgar prejudices and the spirit of their age, attributed 
 such results to the interference of the devil. This igno- 
 rance of the true cause of the Psycodunamic phenomena 
 blinded some minds, even those of a superior order ; it 
 kindled the pyres of the middle ages, and became the 
 source of many and most deplorable cruelties. Let us 
 unfold the records of antiquity, and by carefully separating 
 the principal fact from mere accessory circumstances, with 
 which the scientific notions and religious creeds of the 
 times necessarily surrounded it, we shall ascertain that the 
 Psycodunamic practice and its results were known among 
 the Indians and Persians, the Egyptians, the Jews, the 
 Greeks, the Romans, the Gauls, and, at a later period, 
 throughout all the nations of Europe. 
 
 § 1. Psycodunamy among the Indians and Persians. 
 
 Long before the era of Jesus Christ, the wise men, or 
 " Magi" of India, were in great renown for their medical 
 skill. It was among them that the physicians of Persia 
 used to learn medicine before the schools of Greece or 
 Egypt had any celebrity. Their practice consisted chief- 
 ly in gestures and secret manipulations, which have been 
 described by Philostratus. In the Life of Apollonius, as 
 related by this writer, (b. iii. c. 2,) several instances of re- 
 markable cures are to be found, viz : 
 
 " A young man, who had become lame in consequence 
 of a wound inflicted on his knee by a lion, went to the 
 wise men of India, seeking relief for his sufferings. They 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 213 
 
 rubbed him gently with their hands, and with such success 
 as to enable him to return home, after a few days, without 
 any remaining pain or lameness. By using the same 
 means towards a man who had lost the sight of one eye, 
 they restored the power of vision. Another, whose arms 
 were paralyzed, found likewise a perfect cure at their 
 hands." 
 
 Philostratus also says, that the art of divination pos- 
 sessed by the " Magi," confers upon man the most impor- 
 tant benefits, the greatest of which, however, is the finding 
 out of remedies. 
 
 In India the statues and images of the gods are repre- 
 sented in Psycodunamic situations. They knew that the 
 power is great and penetrating in the first three fingers 
 united and extended, the remaining two being bent in the 
 inside of the hand. They also knew that when the hand 
 is entirely opened and the fingers slightly bent the force is 
 moderate. Now the gods Vichenow, Chiven, Parachiven, 
 Ravanna, and Parachati, are represented with four, and 
 sometimes even a greater number of arms ; and they all 
 present the hands, either opened, with the palm down- 
 wards and the fingers slightly bent, or with three fingers 
 only extended, the other two being bent, with an intention 
 that cannot be mistaken. 
 
 $ 2d. Psycodunamy among the Egyptians. 
 
 Priests were the only physicians in Egypt. They 
 practised the art of curing diseases in the temples as a 
 divine art. They made a mystery of their means, for it 
 was the source of their authority under the name of their 
 gods. Very few persons, and those only after a long proba- 
 tion, were initiated into them ; and it was forbidden, under 
 the severest penalties, to divulge the secrets. 
 
214 
 
 PSYCODTJNAMY. 
 
 In the beginning of the Christian era, Celsus opposed to 
 the cures performed by Jesus those effected in the public 
 squares, for a few oboles, by the Egyptian charlatans 5 
 who, with their mysterious ways of touching and blowing, 
 there healed the sick. (See Origenus cont. Celsus, b. 
 
 i.; p. 54.) 
 
 Arnobius confirms the same fact, and relates the re- 
 proaches cast upon Jesus by the Heathen : " Magus fuit ; 
 clandestinis artibus omnia ilia perfecit, Egyptiorum ex adytis 
 angelorum potentium nomina et remotas furatus est discipli- 
 nas." " He was a magician ; he made all those things 
 by clandestine means ; he stole from the sanctuary of 
 the Egyptian priests the names of the powerful angels, 
 and their occult disciplines." (See Arnobius, b. i., adv. 
 gentes.) 
 
 Prosper Alpinus, in his " Treatise on the Medicine of the 
 Egyptians" says, that some mysterious frictions and a 
 certain manner of blowing on the affected parts, were the 
 secret means employed by the priests in hopeless cases. 
 They resorted to all that can promote firm confidence — 
 long fastings, bathing, purification, sacrifices, sitting up at 
 night, and fervent prayers — to obtain the divine inspira- 
 tions. After these preliminaries, the patients, lying on 
 the skins of goats, near the sanctuary, awaited for sleep 
 and prophetic visions. It is easy to conceive that in those 
 days, as now, somnambulism was not a general result. 
 Then some special priests, named Oneiropoles, delivered 
 themselves up to dreams, and gave the revelations. 
 
 It was customary to engrave in the temple the names of 
 the persons cured, the disease, and the remedy. These 
 inscriptions, for a long while, were the sole record of prac- 
 tical medicine. The Asclepiades, and Hippocrates him- 
 self, compiled a great number of them, from the temples 
 of Memphis and Heliopolis. Some escaped the injuries 
 of time, five of which have been translated and comment- 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 215 
 
 ed oil by Sprengel in his " Pragmatic History of Medi- 
 cine." I will quote two of them, in order to give to my 
 readers an idea of what they were : 
 
 " The god, in a nocturnal apparition, ordered the son 
 of Lucius, who was attacked with a hopeless pleurisy, to 
 take from the altar some cinders, and, mixing them with 
 wine, apply them to the affected side. He was saved ; he 
 thanked the god, and the people wished him happiness." 
 
 " A blind soldier, named Valerius, after consulting the 
 god, received for answer, ' Go in the temple, mix the 
 blood of a white fowl with honey, and wash your eyes 
 with it during three days.' He recovered his sight, and 
 thanked the god before the people." 
 
 Although the impulsive principle which procured the 
 beneficial dreams was not revealed, as were the remedies 
 — although it was concealed with the greatest care from 
 the vulgar — there is no doubt that Psycodunamy was 
 the basis of all these mysteries. Montfatjcon, in his 
 " Antiquite expliquce," has collected several pictures and 
 Egyptian monuments, which prove our assertion. Among 
 the latter are hands of bronze, covered with mysterious 
 figures, and having three fingers extended, the others bent. 
 One of them has, besides other hieroglyphics, a kind of 
 ring towards the wrist, On which is seen a woman with a 
 child, in a recumbent posture ; they are all right hands, 
 and were found in the temples of Isis, Serapis, and iEscu- 
 lapius, where the cures of which I have spoken were daily 
 performed. 
 
 The pictures to which I have alluded are four in num- 
 ber, and were taken from the wrappers enveloping a mum- 
 my. The figures on the.se are no less significant. The first 
 represents a bed, the extremities of which are in the form 
 of a lion ; on this bed is a man lying down, wrapped in a 
 kind of blue drapery, which covers his shoulders and 
 breast ; another brown garment extends to the fe§t ; the 
 
216 
 
 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 face is bare and the eyes are closed. At his side is an- 
 other man, dressed in the same manner, with the addition 
 of a cowl and a mask ; his face is turned towards the sick ; 
 he has his left hand on the breast of the patient and the 
 right on his head, in the attitude of a person who duna- 
 mises. At the end of the bed are two women, with bare 
 arms and feet. Their heads are covered with the Egyp- 
 tian Camail. One has her right hand raised, the other the 
 left. The other three pictures are exactly similar, with 
 only a difference in the situation of the hands of the per- 
 son acting and that of the patient. In the second, one of 
 the hands of the operator is on the head, the other on the 
 feet ; in the third, the hands are on both sides ; in the 
 fourth, on the thighs. The patient, stretched at full length 
 in the first, seems to move in the second, to sit up in the 
 third, and to rise in the fourth. The operator, who is an 
 Egyptian priest, wearing the mask of Anubis, keeps his 
 face constantly turned towards the patient, and his looks 
 fixed upon him. This is not equivocal ; it would be diffi- 
 cult to represent more exactly the Psycodunamic process, 
 offering in each of the pictures a different manner of duna- 
 mising, in accordance with the different stages of the cure. 
 
 Diodorus of Sicily (b. i.) says, " The priests of Egypt 
 pretend that Isis is pleased with the adoration of men, and 
 that from the glory of her immortality she vouchsafes to 
 appear to them in their dreams, and manifests her benevo- 
 lence by pointing out remedies to sufferers ; and that, to 
 the admiration of everybody, the faithful observation of 
 her advice saved a great number of patients whose diseases 
 were considered hopeless by the best physicians." 
 
 Macrobius relates that the Emperor Trajan, wishing to 
 try the oracle of Heliopolis, sent there a blank letter which 
 was sealed ; and that the priest, without opening it, sent 
 back, for answer, to the emperor, a piece of blank paper. 
 (See Saturnal., b. i. c. 33.) 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 
 
 217 
 
 $ 3. P sycodunamy among the Hebrews. 
 
 We see in the book of Exodus (vii. and viii.) that 
 Aa*on having performed many wonderful prodigies in 
 presence of Pharaoh, the magicians of Egypt, called by 
 the king, did the same with their enchantments. But, 
 unable to imitate the last, they exclaimed, " This is the 
 finger of God !" 
 
 " The Lord said to Aaron and Miriam, If there be a 
 prophet among you, I, the Lord, will make myself known 
 unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a 
 dream." (Numbers, chap. xii. 6.) 
 
 " If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of 
 dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign 
 or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, 
 saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not 
 known, and let us serve them ; thou shalt not hearken un- 
 to the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, 
 .... and that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall 
 be put tQ death." (Deuteronomy, chap, xiii.) 
 
 There was among the Hebrews a great number of pro- 
 phets of Baal ; Elijah slew four hundred and fifty of them, 
 and four hundred of the prophets of the groves. (1 Kings, 
 chap, xviii.) 
 
 " Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to inquire of 
 God, thus he spake, Come, let us go to the seer ; for he 
 that is now called a prophet, was beforetime called a seer" 
 (1 Samuel, chap. ix. 9.) 
 
 Saul having searched in vain for the asses of his father, 
 bis servant said to him, " Behold now, there is in this city 
 i man of God, and he is an honorable man. All that he 
 saith cometh surely to pass ; now let us go thither, per- 
 adventure he can show us our way that we should ^o. 
 Then said Saul to his servant, But, behold, if we go, what 
 19 
 
218 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 shall we bring the man ? for the bread is spent in our ves- 
 sels, and there is not a present to bring to the man of 
 God : what have we 1 And the servant answered Saul 
 again, and said, Behold, I have here at hand the fourth 
 part of a shekel of silver ; that will I give to the man of 
 God to tell us our way." They accordingly went to Sam- 
 uel, who said to Saul, " I will tell thee all that is in thine 
 heart ; and as for thine asses, that were lost three days ago, 
 set not thy mind on them, for they are found." (1 Sarri.ix.) 
 
 The people of king Balak, when they consulted the 
 prophet Balaam, used to bring him also the price of divi- 
 nation. 
 
 Saul, being afraid of the Philistines, inquired of the 
 Lord ; but the Lord answered him neither by dreams, nor 
 by Urim, nor by prophets. He then consulted a woman 
 at Endor, who had a familiar spirit. (1 Samuel, chap, 
 xxviii.) During her vision she knew the king, although 
 he had disguised himself, and she had never seen him be- 
 fore. 
 
 Ahab, a king of Israel, gathered the prophets together, 
 about four hundred men, and said unto them, " Shall I go 
 against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I forbear?" (1 
 Kings, xxii.) The prophet Micaiah foretold to him that 
 he would be slain at Ramoth-gilead, and the event verified 
 the prophet's prediction. [Ibid.) 
 
 Under king Zedekiah, the Israelites abandoned them- 
 selves to all the abominations of the Gentiles ; and often 
 did the Lord speak to them by his prophets, through vis- 
 ions and dreams, to bring them to repentance. (2 Chron. 
 xxxvi.) 
 
 " God speaketh in a dream, in a vision of the night, 
 when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon 
 the bed ; then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth 
 their instruction." (Job, xxxiii.) 
 
 We certainly find in these different passages, which I 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 
 
 219 
 
 could multiply ad infinitum, several of the characters of 
 modern somnambulism. I will now quote some instances 
 of the cure of diseases, in which the Psycodunamic action 
 is evident, although, in most cases, it is united with a 
 force both supernatural and divine. 
 
 The son of the widow of Zarephath fell sick, and his 
 sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him. 
 Elijah took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into 
 a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed, 
 and he stretched himself upon the child three times, and 
 cried to the Lord and said : " O Lord, my God ! let this 
 child's soul come into him again : and the soul of the child 
 came into him again, and he revived." (1 Kings, xvii.) 
 
 When Elisha was come to the house of the Shunam- 
 mite, her child was dead, and laid upon his bed. " He 
 went in, therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and 
 prayed unto the Lord. And he went up, and lay upon 
 the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes 
 upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands : and he 
 stretched himself upon the child ; and the flesh of the 
 child waxed warm. Then he returned, and walked in the 
 house to and fro ; and went up, and stretched himself upon 
 him : and the child sneezed seven times, and the child 
 opened his eyes." (2 Kings, iv.) 
 
 Naaman, a captain of the host of the king of Syria, was 
 a leper. " And the Syrians had gone out by companies, 
 and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a 
 little maid, and she waited on Naaman's wife : and she 
 said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the 
 prophet that is in Samaria ! for he would recover him of 
 his leprosy." So Naaman came and stood at the door of 
 Elisha, who sent a messenger to him, saying ; " Go and 
 wash in Jordan seven times, and thou shalt be clean. But 
 Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said : Behold, I 
 thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and 
 
220 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand 
 over the place, and recover the leper," &c. (2 Kings, 
 chap, v.) 
 
 The laying on of hands was a practice much in use 
 among the Jews. It is by this visible sign that the Scrip- 
 tures represent the moment of inspiration: " Et facta est 
 super eum manus Domini" — and the hand of the Lord has 
 touched him. This was then, and is yet, a usual form 
 of expression. " And Joshua the son of Nun was full of 
 the spirit of wisdom ; for Moses had laid his hands upon 
 him," (Deut. xxxiv.) 
 
 Jesus used to cast out evil spirits and to cure diseases 
 by the laying on of his hands. " They bring unto him one 
 that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech ; and 
 they beseech him to put his hand upon him. And he took 
 him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his 
 ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue ; and looking up 
 to heaven, he sighed and said, Be opened ; and straight- 
 way his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue 
 was loosed, and he spake plain." (Mark, vii.) 
 
 When Jesus came to Bethsaida, they brought a blind 
 man to him, and besought him to touch him. " And he 
 took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the 
 town ; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his 
 hands upon him, he asked him if he saw aught. And he 
 looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. After 
 that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him 
 look up ; and he was restored, and saw every man clear- 
 ly." (Mark, viii.) 
 
 Jesus possessed so eminently the curative virtue, that 
 in order to be cured it was sufficient to touch him, or even 
 any thing that belonged to him : " Et quicumque tangebant 
 eum, salvi jiebanty — " Simon's wife's mother was taken 
 with a great fever, and they besought him for her. And 
 he stood over her, and rebuked the fever ; and it left her. 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 221 
 
 Now, when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick 
 with divers diseases brought them unto him, and he laid 
 his hands on every one of them, and healed them." (Luke 
 iv.) " A woman having an issue of blood twelve years, 
 which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither 
 could be healed of any, came behind him, and touched the 
 border of his garment : and immediately her issue of blood 
 stanched : and Jesus said, Who touched me 1 When all 
 denied, Peter and they that were with him said ; Master, 
 the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, 
 Who touched me ? And Jesus said, Somebody hath 
 touched me, for I perceive that virtue* is gone out of me." 
 (Luke, viii. ; Matt., ix.) 
 
 After the patients were cured, Jesus usually charged 
 them that they should tell no man. (Matt., vii. ; Luke, 
 viii.) This recommendation, which he made so often, 
 proves that it was by miracles of a superior order that he 
 wished to establish his divinity. He cured, because he 
 pitied the patients. It even happened that while he was 
 at Nazareth, he could perform no miracle, except that he 
 cured a few sufferers by the imposition of his hands. He 
 wondered at their incredulity, and said ; " A prophet is 
 not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own 
 house." Accordingly, faith was one of the conditions for 
 success ; and this affords ground for the belief that Jesus 
 resorted to Psycodunamy in order to cure, as he resorted 
 to speech in order to teach, although in both instances he 
 manifested a power far superior to that of man. 
 
 * The original Greek, translated here by " Virtue" is Swa/xiv, the 
 very word that I have adopted, as radical, to mean the power of curing 
 diseases. The feeling of Jesus, in perceiving that virtue was gone out 
 of him, will be perfectly understood by all dunamisers. Whenever 
 they operate successfully they experience a very peculiar and distinct 
 sensation of emanation, so much the more strongly felt as the patient 
 is more effectually benefited. 
 
 19* 
 
if 
 
 222 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 The cures performed afterwards by the Apostles, are also 
 of a supernatural order ; yet it is to be remarked that the 
 laying on of hands was always resorted to by them, if not 
 as the cause, at least as the means of success. 
 
 § 4. Psycodunamy among the Greeks. 
 
 All the practices used in the temple of Epidaurus, Del- 
 phi, and Ephesus, were borrowed from India and Egypt. 
 The cure of diseases was performed in those temples with 
 the same mysterious ceremonies. Among the Greeks, 
 however, the evidences of a knowledge of the Psycoduna- 
 mic science and its wonderful results are much more nu- 
 merous and satisfactory. 
 
 Strabo speaks of a cave dedicated to Pluto and Juno, 
 situated between Nepe and Fralees, where the priests used 
 to sleep, and answer, in that state, the questions of the 
 patients who came to consult them. Whenever the pa- 
 tients preferred it, they were themselves introduced into 
 the cave, where they waited until the gods sent them bene- 
 ficial dreams, which the priests would interpret, if neces- 
 sary. 
 
 A very curious work, containing details of the treat- 
 ment in the temple of Esculapius, has escaped destruction. 
 It is composed of several discourses by the orator Aristi- 
 des : 1st. In honor of Esculapius ; 2d. Of Asclepiades ; 
 and six under the name of " Sacred discourses.'" The 
 cures effected in the temple are related day by day, and 
 their description is exactly similar to the Psycodunamic 
 cures performed in modern times. We see in them the 
 same periodical sleep ; the same dreams, in which the pa- 
 tient prescribes regularly what he must take or avoid ; the 
 same inward view of his disorder ; and lastly, the same 
 foresight of the crises or accidents he must experience. 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 223 
 
 Origen affirms that the cures effected during the sleep 
 of the patients in the temple of Esculapius'were in full 
 force in his days ; and that the temple was incessantly 
 filled with Greeks and Barbarians, who came there to be 
 relieved from their infirmities. 
 
 Whenever the magistrates of Lacedemon were embar- 
 rassed in the administration of public affairs, they went 
 to the temple of Pasiphae, and followed with confidence 
 the advice they received there during their sleep. (Cicero 
 de Divin., lib. i. c. 43.) 
 
 Diodorus, of Sicily, relates how the oracle of Delphi 
 was discovered. Some goats, coming near a natural aper- 
 ture that extended deeply into the ground, began to dance 
 and jump in a most extraordinary manner. A shepherd, 
 amazed at the spectacle, and approaching to look into the 
 aperture, was suddenly gifted with divine inspiration, or 
 an ability to foretell future events. It happened after- 
 wards that some men died on the spot, in consequence of 
 their imprudence in making too frequent trials of the ef- 
 fects of the prophetic vapor. A college of priests at length 
 took possession of the place, had a temple built on the 
 ground, and intrusted a female with the care of the oracle. 
 
 " We derive immense advantages from the favor the 
 gods have conceded to the sibyls. The one at Delphi, 
 and the priestess of Dodona, confer on mankind the great- 
 est benefits, both public and private. It would be impossi- 
 ble to enumerate all the instances in which the sibyl 
 proved the importance of her power of foretelling events ; 
 and the facts themselves are so well and so generally 
 known, that it would be useless to bring forth new evi- 
 dences." (Plutarch in Pheedro.) 
 
 " The Pythia," says the same author, " is second to no 
 one in purity of morals and chastity of conduct. Brought 
 up by her poor parents in the country, she brings with her 
 neither art, nor experience, nor any talent whatever, when 
 
224 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 she arrives at Delphi to be the interpreter of the gods. 
 She is consulted on any event — marriage, travels, harvest, 
 diseases, &c. Her answers, although they -have been 
 submitted to the severest scrutiny, have never proved false 
 or incorrect. On the contrary, the verification of them 
 has filled the temple with gifts from all parts of Greece 
 and foreign countries." {Ibid.) 
 
 When the priests wished to consult the oracle, they 
 caused the Pythia to sit on the tripod of Apollo. So soon 
 as the vapor struck her, she experienced violent convul- 
 sions, her face changed color, her hair would stand erect, 
 her breast heaved, her mouth foamed, her voice was alter- 
 ed, she struggled as if to disengage herself from a superior 
 power, which pressed, fatigued, and subdued her. 
 
 According to the same writer, she predicted the famous 
 eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which swallowed up the 
 cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and caused the death 
 of the celebrated Pliny. The simplicity of the Pythia, 
 her state of celibacy, so apt to produce hysterics, her ha- 
 bitual paleness, the extraordinary development of her in- 
 tellectual faculties during the time of inspiration, her ex- 
 haustion, and particularly her perfect unconsciousness of 
 all that had transpired, after the crisis was over, do not 
 allow us to doubt that her state was exactly similar to that 
 which characterizes modern somnambulism ; and where 
 we find the same effects, is it not natural that we should 
 suppose the same cause 1 
 
 Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, Plutarch, Diogenes Laer- 
 tius, Cicero, and several other philosophers, not only speak 
 with admiration of the wisdom and pure morality of Soc- 
 rates, and of his wonderful influence over the mind and 
 heart of his pupils ; but they are pleased in mentioning 
 the correctness of his previsions, which were revealed to 
 him during a peculiar state or crisis of natural somnam- 
 bulism. Socrates used to say, that there was in man 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 225 
 
 something divine, which, as regarded himself, he called 
 his Demon or Genius, who never induced him to do any- 
 thing, but, on the contrary, prevented him, and whom he 
 never failed to obey. 
 
 We read in Cicero, (de Divin., lib. i. § 54, No. 12,) 
 that Socrates meeting, one day, his friend Crito, whose 
 eye was bandaged, inquired of him what was the matter. 
 Crito answered that when in the country a twig struck 
 him in the eye. Socrates then reminded him how he op- 
 posed his going to the country-*- " You would not believe 
 me." " It is a remarkable thing," continues Cicero, " that 
 after the battle lost by the Athenians at Delium, Socrates, 
 who was flying with the rest, having arrived at a cross- 
 way, would not take the same way as the others. When 
 they asked him the cause, 'It is,' said he, Sthat my de- 
 mon deters me from it.' And it happened that those who 
 did not go with him fell into the power of the cavalry of 
 the enemy." 
 
 Plato relates that Socrates, in his apology to the Athe- 
 nians, expressed himself in the following terms ; " That 
 which prevented me, Athenians, from coming into your 
 assemblies, is my familiar Demon, that divine voice of 
 which I have so often spoken, and which also has been 
 so often ridiculed by Miletus. This Genius has attached 
 himself to me from my infancy, and whenever one of my 
 friends is going to engage in some unfortunate enterprise, 
 this voice obliges me to dissuade him. Timarchus, be- 
 fore leaving Athens, asked me, ' What is your opinion, 
 Socrates V I then heard the voice, and told him, ' Do not 
 go.' Timarchus could not resist, and went. This is the 
 reason why he said to his brother, ' I am about to die, be- 
 cause I would not listen to Socrates.' " Reading a little 
 further, we find these words, " You may yet be informed 
 by many of our fellow-citizens, that I foretold, before the 
 expedition to Sicily, the complete destruction of our army." 
 
226 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 We see also in Plato, that Alcibiades advanced in the 
 study of wisdom by merely' being in the same house with 
 Socrates, but that he advanced still farther if he were in 
 the same room. Alcibiades perceived that he profited 
 most by the words of Socrates, when the eyes of the phi- 
 losopher rested on him ; and lastly, the progress was most 
 evident whenever Alcibiades was near and could take 
 hold of his teacher. 
 
 Socrates had predicted all the important events of his 
 life. When he was summoned before the tribunal of the 
 five hundred, he knew that he would be condemned to 
 death, although the penalty of the offence with which he 
 had been accused was but a trifling fine. They expected 
 at Athens the shipthat was gone to Crete in commemora- 
 tion of the victory of Theseus over the Minotaurus ; and so 
 long as the voyage lasted, it was forbidden to put any one 
 to death. His disconsolate disciples anticipated the ar- 
 rival of the ship on the day ensuing ; but Socrates told 
 them that she had been detained at sea, and would be 
 back only on the third day. The event proved the cor- 
 rectness of his prevision. 
 
 Apollonius Tyaneus had been initiated into the sacred 
 mysteries by the priests of the temple of Epidaurus, dedi- 
 cated to Esculapius ; from thence he went to Ephesus, 
 Smyrna, Athens, Corinth, Nineveh, and even to Persia and 
 India, where he learned from the Magi their marvellous 
 secrets in the curing of diseases. He performed such prod- 
 igies, and made cures so surprising, that he was consider- 
 ed by some as a magician, and by others as a god. 
 
 Philostratus narrates among many other instances of 
 the curative power of Apollonius, that he restored to life 
 a young girl who was believed to be dead, and whom they 
 were already carrying to the grave. He stopped the funeral 
 procession, laid his hands on the supposed corpse, and 
 approached his mouth to hers as if to whisper something ; 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 227 
 
 the young girl opens her eyes, comes to herself, rises, 
 speaks, and returns home perfectly restored. 
 
 Apollonius predicted future events as correctly as Soc- 
 rates, and he was conscious of what was transpiring in re- 
 mote places. While he was at Ephesus, and surrounded 
 by a crowd of people, he saw and actually described the 
 murder of the emperor Domitian at Rome. His prediction 
 was established several days after, when intelligence of 
 the event was received ; the whole had taken place upon 
 the day, and at the very hour and moment indicated by 
 Apollonius. 
 
 Ptolemeus, one of the principal captains of Alexander 
 the Great, had been dangerously wounded by a poisoned 
 arrow, which caused excruciating pains. Alexander, 
 while sitting at the head of his bed, fell asleep. The 
 dragon which his mother Olympias nourished appeared to 
 him in a dream ; he had a root in his mouth, and indicated 
 to him the place where it was to be found, assuring him 
 that Ptolemeus would be immediately cured by it. Alex- 
 ander awoke, narrated his dream, and sent for the root at 
 the place designated by the dragon. It was found, and 
 not only Ptolemeus was cured, but many other soldiers, 
 who had been wounded by the same kind of arrows. (Cic. 
 de Divin., lib. ii. No. 133.) 
 
 The daughter of Hermotimus, the celebrated Aspasia, 
 whose superior mind as well as remarkable beauty caused 
 her to ascend the throne of Persia, had, during her infan- 
 cy, a very ugly tumor extending from the cheek to the in- 
 ferior part of the chin. Her father consulted a physician, 
 who asked so considerable a sum to cure her, that he 
 could not afford to pay it. Aspasia went away suffused 
 with tears. But a sweet slumber soon came oyer her ; she 
 saw in a dream a female, who told her to take one of the 
 dry crowns of the roses which adorned the statue of Ve- 
 nus, to pound it, and apply the powder on the swelling. 
 
/ 
 
 228 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 The young Aspasia did not fail to do as directed, and the 
 tumor actually disappeared. (^Elian, Variae histor.) 
 
 JambJctjs relates that the army of Alexander was rava- 
 ged by an epidemical disorder, which was removed by the 
 remedies revealed in dreams by the god Bacchus. 
 
 The art of curing diseases by the laying on of hands 
 and by gestures was known in Greece, as were also the 
 results of somnambulism. 
 
 Pythagoras, who used to dress in the garb of an 
 Egyptian priest, had among them learned their secret 
 arts ; he knew how to charm any pain by his conjurations 
 and enchantments, which consisted in the laying on of 
 hands, first on the head, then passing them slowly all over 
 the body, and finally keeping them at a short distance from 
 the suffering part, reciting all the while magic verses. 
 (Cic. de Natur. D. 1, c. 5 ; Tusc. 4, c. 1.) 
 
 Asclepias recommended frictions in order to induce 
 sleep in cases of phrensy ; he advises not. to press with the 
 hands while operating, but to touch slightly, and to resume 
 the same operation several days successively. He re- 
 marks that those frictions, if too long continued at one 
 time, are liable to cause a kind of lethargie insensibility. 
 (See Celsus, b. iii.) 
 
 Hippocrates, the father of medicine, divides the prac- 
 tice into two distinct parts — the common remedies, and 
 the secret means. He recommends not to divulge the lat- 
 ter, or to reveal them only to persons of high moral princi- 
 ples, who are particularly deserving the favor of the gods 
 and the regards of men. We find in his works the two 
 following aphorisms : 
 
 IsL "When the eyes are closed, the soul (4^%'*]) per- 
 ceives very well the affections of the body." (De Regim. 
 lib. iii.) 
 
 2d. " The intelligence of dreams is a great step towards 
 wisdom." (De Somn., lib. ii., in fine.) 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 229 
 
 Plutarch relates that Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, had the 
 gift of curing persons whose spleen was disordered, by- 
 touching gently, slowly, and for a long while, the affected 
 side. 
 
 We read in Herodotus, (b. iv. c. 173,) and in Pausanias, 
 (b. ix. c. 28) that the Psylles, a people of Lybia, near the 
 Syrthes, were renowned for their ability in curing the bite 
 of venomous serpents. They used to rub gently the part 
 with their saliva, and when the pain was violent, they gave 
 for drink some water which they had previously kept in 
 their own mouth ; finally, if the sufferings grew to be in- 
 tolerable, they lay upon the patient, and succeeded, in this 
 manner, in allaying his pain. JElian says that the 
 presence of a Psylle caused, in their patients, a kind of 
 stupor, as if they had taken a soporific beverage, and that 
 the loss of consciousness continued so long as the Psylle 
 chose to remain near them. (Histor. anim. b. xvi. c. 28.) 
 
 The works of Alexander Trallianus have been just- 
 ly compared, in importance and style, to those of Hippo- 
 crates himself. Of all the Greek authors, his writings af- 
 ford the best evidence of their knowledge of Psycoduna- 
 my. When speaking of phrensy, he recommends to pass 
 the hands gently over the inferior limbs ; he says that by 
 this process the morbific matter is attracted downwards, 
 which results in calming the convulsions. After enumer- 
 ating the general remedies proper in cases of epilepsy, he 
 adds, that " the occult means, the natural remedies" ought to 
 be tried also ; and he teaches, on this subject, that during 
 the crisis, longitudinal "passes" over the limbs, and a slight 
 touching of the eyes with the ends of the fingers, must be 
 employed. He points out this way of operating to those 
 only who have a great desire of success, with confidence 
 in the use of the secret proceedings ; " with a strong and 
 persevering intention they will accomplish their purpose." 
 He believes it to be his duty to give those precepts to hon- 
 
 20 
 
230 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 est and candid men, who feel anxious to attack and over- 
 come long and stubborn cases by all possible means. He 
 concludes with these remarkable words : " As for myself, 
 I acknowledge that I have resorted to both practices : but, 
 in our days, as the ignorant accuse persons who use the 
 secret means, I always endeavor to use common remedies, 
 although I consider them as less efficacious. But I must 
 recommend not to reveal the occult means except to per- 
 sons of high virtue, and who know how to keep a secret. 
 This is the meaning of the precept of Hippocrates — ' Pre- 
 serve holy means to be used by holy men ; for it is a crime 
 to reveal them to the vulgar.' " 
 
 § 5. Psycodunamy among the Romans. 
 
 At Rome, Psycodunamy was in no less honor than 
 among the Greeks : we here again find the wonders of 
 somnambulism and the cure of diseases, by revelations 
 during sleep, by the application of the hands, by gestures 
 and conjurations. 
 
 The sibyl of Cumas, described in so picturesque a man- 
 ner by Virgil, (iEneid, lib. vi. v. 45,) is the first somnam- 
 bulist whom history records. She appears to have been 
 already in renown 700 years before iEneas came to Italy. 
 She was consulted as the Pythia of Delphi, and in similar 
 circumstances. Cicero remarks, that while the latter was 
 inspired by subterraneous vapors, the former received her 
 revelations from nature alone. (Cic. de Divin. lib. i.) 
 
 Pliny speaks of three different sibyls ; ^Elian of 
 four ; and Varro of ten, which is the number generally 
 adopted by the learned. 
 
 " I will allow no one," says the last writer, " to pretend, 
 in my presence, that the sibyl of Cumas did not give to 
 men very beneficial advice during her life, and that she 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 231 
 
 did not leave, when she died, most wonderful predictions, 
 which are even now eagerly consulted in difficult circum- 
 stances." (Varro, de Re rustica.) 
 
 For three years Rome had been desolated by the plague. 
 The sibylline books were consulted, and they prescribed 
 that Esculapius should be brought from Epidaurus. Jle 
 was accordingly conveyed to Rome, under the form of a 
 serpent. They built for him, on the island of Tiber, a 
 splendid temple, where patients called to obtain, during 
 their sleep, the knowledge of the remedies that would cure 
 them. (Val. Max. lib. i.) 
 
 Many instances of the miraculous cures performed in 
 this temple are to be found in the works of Cicero, Titus 
 Livius, Tibullu.s, and Strabo. The author whom I 
 have already quoted narrates that he himself went to con- 
 sult Esculapius, who appeared to him during his sleep, and 
 prescribed onions and sesame, which actually did restore 
 his health. (De Re rustica.) 
 
 Cicero mentions the circumstance of the necessity of 
 some one being present during the revelation, to preserve 
 it ; " for," says he, " those sleepers do not retain any re- 
 collection of it." (Cic. lib. iii. de Divin.) 
 
 The emperor Marcus Aurelius, in the third chapter of 
 his " Immortal Thoughts" enumerating the favors that the 
 gods conferred upon him, expresses particularly his thanks 
 for their having revealed to him, during his sleep, the reme- 
 dies which cured his spitting of blood and dizziness. 
 
 " Esculapius heals our bodies," says the emperor Ju- 
 lian. " I call Jupiter to witness that I have myself 
 very often been cured by his pointing out remedies to me 
 during my sleep in his temple." 
 
 We read in Herodian, that the emperor Caracalla 
 went to Pergamus to consult Esculapius in the celebrated 
 temple of this god in that city. He slept there several 
 nights in succession, till he received in dreams the re vela- 
 
232 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 tions which made him acquainted with the nature of his 
 disease and the proper remedies. 
 
 Plautus, in his play of " Amphytrio," represents 
 Mercury standing at the door of Alcmena, when Sosias 
 comes to gain admittance. The god, in order to get rid 
 of him, speaks at first of knocking him down. Sosias ex- 
 claims, " My master keeps me awake, but this will put me 
 to sleep forever. I am a dead man !" Mercury replies, 
 " Yesterday I put four individuals to sleep in that manner." 
 " I am much afraid," answers Sosias, " that my name shall 
 be Quintus." But the god, condescending to behave more 
 humanely, says, "Quid, si ego ilium tractim tangam, ut dor- 
 miat? — What, if I should touch him, with long passes, 
 to put him to sleep ?" " Scrvavcris," answers Sosias, 
 " nam continuas has tres nodes pervigilavi. — You would 
 save my life, for during the last three nights I had no rest." 
 " Tractim tangere," means, according to the explanations 
 of the commentators, " to caress gently, with the hand open, 
 from head to foot, as we caress a cat^ It is impossible to 
 express more clearly the Psycodunamic proceedings, and 
 their most frequent result. 
 
 During the stay of the emperor Vespasian in Alexan- 
 dria, one of the people, who was well known as blind, 
 came to him, and earnestly begged the emperor to cure 
 him. Another man, whose hand was paralyzed, also 
 came to him, making the same request. They both said 
 that the god Serapis had appeared to them in their sleep, 
 directing them to call on Vespasian, in order to be deliv- 
 ered from their infirmities. The emperor at first laughed 
 at, and tried to dismiss them ; but they threw themselves 
 at his feet, and insisted with the greatest perseverance. 
 Finally, Vespasian, yielding to their supplications, asked 
 his physicians if they thought that the recovery of such 
 blindness and paralysis was beyond the reach of human 
 power. The answer was, that they eventually might re- 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. %33 
 
 cover, if a sufficient curative force were applied to them : 
 " Si vis salutaris adhibeatur" The emperor then resolved 
 to try if the gods had really designated him to accomplish 
 such a prodigy. Therefore, in presence of a large con- 
 course of people, he passed his hands over the eyes of 
 the blind, wetting them with his saliva, and touched the 
 hand of the paralytic. To the general wonder, they both 
 recovered ; and Tacitus, who relates this fact, adds that 
 he himself knew several witnesses of it, whose veracity 
 could not be doubted, and who could have no interest what- 
 ever in telling a lie. Suetonius confirms all the partic- 
 ulars of this narrative. 
 
 Pliny says : " There exist some men whose bodies are 
 eminently curative. There may be some doubt about the 
 virtue of enchantments and magic verses, but I positively 
 believe that the will of the operator, and his intention of 
 relieving the patient, impart to the emanation which comes 
 from him, a beneficial and remarkable power." (Natur. 
 Histor. lib. vi. c. 34.) 
 
 The same author says, also, that the soul of the cele- 
 brated Hermotimus of Clazomenae, during the time of in- 
 spiration, separated itself from his body, and wandered in 
 every part of the earth, relating events which were at 
 the time transpiring in distant sections of the world, 
 and which were known only by the persons pres- 
 ent. During this emigration of the soul, the body was in- 
 sensible. His wife, who was acquainted with this cir- 
 cumstance, took advantage of it and burnt his body as if 
 totally dead, and deprived the soul of its natural recepta- 
 cle. Hermotimus received divine honors in a temple at 
 Clazomenae, into which it was unlawful for women to en- 
 ter. (Pliny, Hist. Nat., lib. vii. c. 52.) 
 
 The day of the battle of Pharsalia, Cornelius, a priest 
 celebrated for his piety, described, in the city of Padua, 
 all the particulars of the fight as if he were himself pres- 
 20 
 
23^ PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 ent, exclaiming at last, " Ceesar is the conqueror!" (Aul. 
 Gell., lib. xv. c. 18.) 
 
 Nicephorus, an historian of the West Roman empire, 
 relates that when the unfortunate Valens took refuge in a 
 barn which was burnt by the Goths, a hermit named Paul 
 had a fit of ecstasy, and in the midst of the prisoners who 
 were with him at Constantinople he exclaimed, " It is now 
 that Valens burns." 
 
 At the beginning of the works of Galen, in an edition 
 published at Basle, in folio, in 1538, a very curious en- 
 graving is to be seen. A man is kneeling down with 
 his arms folded on his breast, and before him stands an- 
 other man with both arms stretched over the head of 
 the former, each hand presenting the first three fingers 
 extended, and the others bent. Galen had visited the 
 most learned seminaries of Greece and Egypt, before 
 coming to Rome, where he rendered himself famous by 
 his profession. Many, astonished at his cures, attributed 
 them to magic, and pretended that he had received all 
 his knowledge from enchantments. He himself confes- 
 ses that he had made a special study of the secret means 
 of Hippocrates, and derived great advantages from them 
 in his practice. 
 
 Ccelius-Aurelianus prescribes frictions in pleurisy, 
 lethargy, paralysis, dropsy, headaches, rheumatism, etc. 
 The character of those frictions cannot be mistaken : " It 
 is necessary," says he, " to put at first the hands on the 
 head, and then to come down slowly, and gently, along the 
 limbs from the superior parts to the inferior in succession. 
 Against epilepsy, local friction is preferable ; sometimes it 
 is the front and the head, sometimes the neck and the 
 throat, over which the fingers must pass with the slightest 
 possible touch, while the hands are warm. At other times 
 it is eligible to act upon the hands and feet of the patient; 
 and in cases of pain in the stomach, the taking of the ar 
 

 GENERAL HISTORY. 235 
 
 ticulations between the hands, keeping these very warm, 
 will prove highly beneficial. Many cures are performed 
 in the same manner by the sole action of holding," etc. 
 (De tardis pass. lib. i. c. i. and iv.) 
 
 The celebrated Tertullian, in his treatise " De An- 
 ima" gives the following definition of the state of ecstasy : 
 " It is not sleeping, for during sleep the whole system is 
 at rest ; during ecstasy, on the contrary, while the body 
 rests the soul is all action. It is a peculiar mixture of 
 sleep and ecstasy, which characterizes the prophetic state ; 
 during that state not only every thing which concerns our 
 honor and riches is revealed to us, but also all that belongs 
 to remedies and the cure of diseases." The same writer 
 speaks of two celebrated females, Priscilla and Maximilla, 
 who were favored with the gift of revelations. " They re- 
 ceive it in the church, in the midst of our mysteries ; 
 being ravished into ecstasy, they see, they hear celestial 
 secrets, know that which is most hidden in the hearts of 
 many persons, and furnish salutary remedies to those de- 
 sirous of obtaining them." Tertullian was originally a 
 Pagan ; but, on account of facts and evidences derived 
 from witnessing the truth and correctness of the previsions 
 of Priscilla and Maximilla, he embraced Christianity, of 
 which he became, by his writings, an able and powerful 
 advocate. 
 
 St. Jerome says that prophecy was a gift of God, made 
 to some females and to the sibyls in particular, on account 
 of their chastity. St. Hilary, on the contrary, considers 
 such a gift as coming from the evil one. 
 
 St. Justin affirms that the sibyls foretold with truth and 
 exactness many important events, and that as soon as the 
 moment of inspiration was past, they lost all recollection 
 of their prophecies. He quotes the opinion of Plato, 
 which coincides with his own. 
 
 St. Athanagoras is of the same mind : "As to the 
 
236 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 faculty of foretelling events, and curing diseases, it is en- 
 tirely independent of the evil one. It is proper to the soul. 
 The soul, on account of its immortality, can of itself, and 
 its own virtue, penetrate the night, of futurity, and heal in- 
 firmities and maladies. Why then should the devil reap 
 the glory of it ?" 
 
 § 6. P ' sycodunamy among the Gauls. 
 
 If we pass from Italy into Gaul we find that the Gauls 
 had also their sibyls. The functions of the sacerdoce, 
 such as divination and prophecy, were exercised by female 
 Druids, or at least by their race. Their gift of prevision 
 was the same as that of the Pythia of Delphi, or the sibyls 
 of Cumse. Among the Germans they were known by the 
 name of " Alironies" and latterly " Fairies" 
 
 The Druids attached great importance to their sibyls, 
 and took particular care of their education. The young 
 girls designated to hold this holy office, were collected in 
 the island of Sain, not far from Brest ; their natural dis- 
 position of falling into fits or ecstasy, which was the cause 
 of their having been selected, was cultivated there by all 
 the means that experience proved most successful to im- 
 prove it. So soon as their ability had been sufficiently 
 tested, they received with great ceremonies the name and 
 enjoyed the prerogatives of a sibyl. They were nine in 
 number, and were intrusted with the care of the temple. 
 (Caesar. Bello. Gallic, vi. c. 13; Pliny, xvi. c. 44; 
 Diod. lib. v.) 
 
 " Endowed with extraordinary talents, they knew how to 
 cure the most hopeless diseases ; they had foresight of 
 futurity, and predicted events with remarkable correct- 
 ness." (Pomp. Mela, iii. c. 6.) 
 
 Tacitus, Lampridius, and Vopiscus take pleasure in 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 237 
 
 praising the accuracy and precision of Druidic predic- 
 tions. 
 
 " I have known among the Druids," says Quintus to 
 Cicero, " your former guest and particular friend, Diviti- 
 acus, the iEduus, who is celebrated for his knowledge of 
 the occult means of the Greek philosophy. He told me 
 that, thanks to his secret science and his natural foresight, 
 he could with certainty predict future events." 
 
 Pliny, in speaking of the Druids, designates them by 
 the following appellation : " Hoc genus vatum, medicorum- 
 que — That kind of prophets and physicians." 
 
 Tacitus mentions a certain Velleda, who had predicted 
 a great victory to the Germans, and the destruction of the 
 Roman legions : " Prosper as res Germanis, et excidium le- 
 gionum prcediocerat" (Hist., lib. iv. No. 6.) 
 
 Another Druid, being consulted by Alexander Sev- 
 erus, exclaimed, " Do not expect victory, and do not rely 
 on thy soldiers." In fact, this emperor was killed in a 
 riot by a band of Germans who composed a part of his 
 army. 
 
 Aurelian asked the Druids, if the power would re- 
 main in the hands of his family ; they answered, " No 
 name, in the Roman republic, will be more glorious than 
 that of the sons of Claudius." 
 
 The Druid of Tongres, who predicted the empire to 
 Diocletian, is the last sibyl of whom history has preserved 
 the memory. Vopiscus relates that she said to Diocle- 
 tian, " You will be emperor when you have killed the 
 boar — Imperator eris, cum aprum occiderisP It must be 
 observed, that the word aper, which in Latin means a boar, 
 is also a man's name. Diocletian laughed ; but, though 
 he hunted and killed boars, seeing, nevertheless, that Au- 
 relianus, Probus, and others ascended the throne, he said, 
 " I kill boars, but others eat them." Finally, it happen- 
 ed that Arius Aper stabbed the emperor Numerian. Dio- 
 
238 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 cletian plunged his sword into the bosom of Aper, ex- 
 claiming, " This time I think I have killed the true Boar /" 
 and he actually succeeded him as emperor. (Hist. August., 
 scrip, iv. c. 39.) 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 230 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PSYCODUNAMY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES, TILL THE DAYS 
 OF MESMER. 
 
 Christianity having dethroned the gods of paganism, 
 the old oracles became mute : beneficial dreams were no 
 longer to be had in the temple of Escnlapius, who had 
 ceased to perform cures. Psycodunamy took refuge in the 
 monasteries, to be practised by holy personages, and near 
 the tombs and relics of the saints. Thus we see the art of 
 healing chiefly in the hands of the clergy. It is from among 
 them that the kings of France, Dagobert, Louis VI, Phil- 
 ippe II, St. Louis, <fec, chose their physicians. To the 
 ancient temples in which the proceedings of Psycodunamy 
 were so efficacious, succeeded the churches. In these 
 we find again the same habit of remaining during the 
 night in prayer, with a view to obtain relief from infirmi- 
 ties — the same dreams, the same revelations, the same 
 cures. Jambicus, Eunapius, Godfrey, and .many other 
 writers, relate that those innocent practices and pretended 
 enchantments, " with the firm intention of doing good" sub- 
 sisted yet for a long while among the Christians. From 
 the list of the miracles which, according to old legends, 
 have been performed by many saints, we must erase a 
 large number of surprising cures in which faith and re- 
 ligion intervene only as eminently favorable accessories to 
 the natural Psycodunamic action. I could support this 
 opinion with the authority of St. Augustin, and that of 
 Melchior Cano, one of the most enlightened fathers of 
 the Council of Trent. 
 
 St. Gregory, bishop of Tours, in speaking of St. 
 Cosme and St. Damien, says, " They were physicians 
 
240 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 during their lives, and after their death they continued to 
 be of great assistance to those who invoked them, Any 
 patient, who, full of faith, comes near their tombs and 
 prays, is sure to find a speedy cure for his disorder. 
 Many persons affirm that they appear there in the night, 
 during the dreams of the patients, and reveal to them the 
 proper remedies." (Greg, de Glor. Mart., c. xcviii.) 
 
 Sulpicius, in the Life of St. Martin, says, that a woman 
 who had a loss of blood was cured by the mere touching 
 of the garment of the saint. 
 
 The priest Protegene used to heal his patients by the 
 laying on of hands and by prayers. The monk Benjamin 
 relieved all sorts of pains by gently touching the suffering 
 parts. The bishop Parthenius, Moses of Lysbia, Juli- 
 anus of Edessa, and many other holy clergymen, had 
 the gift of curing diseases in the same manner. (Thiers, 
 b. vi.) 
 
 We read in the Collection of the Bollandists : " A 
 paralytic went to the tomb of St. Litard, bishop of Sen- 
 lis, to implore his assistance. There sleep soon over- 
 came him, and in a dream he saw the saint, who com- 
 plained to him of the ungratefulness of men, who forget the 
 favors of God immediately on obtaining them. He told 
 him that only one of his legs should be cured, that he 
 might remember the goodness of God: that the other 
 should remain paralyzed, on account of the common un- 
 gratefulness of men. The patient then awoke, half cured, 
 with ability to stand on one foot, but unable to move the 
 other." 
 
 " A poor woman from the country of Urbain, was in a 
 deplorable state of paralysis, which affected half of her 
 body ; her fingers adhered to the arms, and the contrac- 
 tion of one of the inferior limbs caused a corresponding 
 elevation of the foot. She had a nocturnal vision, and 
 went, as directed by it, to the tomb of St. Fortunatus. 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 241 
 
 ** There, while praying, a kind of stupor suddenly crept 
 over her, and under its influence she was stretched at full 
 length, in a state of insensibility, on the pavement. Although 
 her eyes were open, she could see nothing. While in this 
 condition, her distorted bones were heard to crack in a 
 very strange manner. Her emaciated nerves resume 
 their vigor, and the poor woman, coming to herself, gets 
 up trembling ; moving her feet, she is filled with wonder 
 at her ability of walking without a cane. Some remains 
 of her lameness are, however, still perceptible ; for, as 
 our author says, God dispenses favors in the way and to 
 the extent he pleases." (Bolland.) 
 
 George Fabricius, in his Commentary on Poets, says 
 that he saw, in Padua, country-people who were going to 
 the church of St. Anthony for the purpose of obtaining 
 salutary visions during their sleep. " This," says he, 
 "resembles exactly the ancient pagan worship." The 
 habit of sleeping in the churches, in order to receive bene- 
 ficial revelations in dreams, subsisted still in Italy towards 
 the end of the seventeenth century. (Daniel Vine, 
 Amoenitates Philologico-Medicse, 1720, p. 73.) 
 
 From the origin of the monarchy, the kings ©f France 
 enjoyed the privilege of curing scrofula by touching the 
 patients. 
 
 Andrew Laurent relates in the following manner on 
 what occasion this power was conceded to them : " Lani- 
 cetus, one of the officers of Clovis, was afflicted with this 
 dreadful disorder, and had resorted without effect to all the 
 means of medicine, when the king had a dream, during 
 which he thought he was touching the throat of Lanicetus, 
 who appeared to recover, undisfigured by any trace of the 
 dangerous sores with which he was afflicted. As soon as 
 the day dawned, Clovis, full of hope, went to see the pa- 
 tient, and experimented upon him as directed in his vision. 
 To the great joy and astonishment of the bystanders, the 
 
 21 
 
242 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 sufferer was perfectly cured. This privilege, adds our 
 author, ever after remained as an inheritance to the chil- 
 dren and successors of Clovis to the throne of France." 
 
 T. H. Guibert, abbot of Nogent, attests that Philippe 
 the First, who ascended the throne in 1060, possessed the 
 gift of curing scrofula by the touch ; but that he lost this 
 privilege on account of some crime. 
 
 Stephen of Conti describes, in his History of France, 
 the ceremonies observed by Charles VI. when touching 
 for scrofula, (1380.) After hearing mass they brought 
 him a vessel full of water. He prayed by the altar, 
 touched the diseased part with his right hand, and washed 
 it with the water. 
 
 Andrew Laurent, in his Treatise on Scrofula, relates 
 the words that the king pronounced on such occasions : 
 " The king toucheth thee, but God cureth thee" This wri- 
 ter, first physician of Henry the Fourth, has an engraving 
 at the end of his book, which represents the ceremony as 
 practised in his days. The first physician introduces the 
 patients to the king, who, with the particularly benevolent 
 appearance that characterized him, touches them succes- 
 sively, by the laying on of his hands. Henry IV. used 
 to touch yearly over fifteen hundred of them. 
 
 The other monarchs of Europe could not see, without 
 envy, this privilege of the kings of France. It was not 
 long before the kings of Spain, of England, the dukes of 
 Hapsburg, and several other princes of Germany, imita- 
 ted the practice with the same success. According to 
 some English historians, this favor, with the privilege of 
 transmitting it to his successors, was conceded to Edward 
 the Confessor on account of his virtue and piety; and 
 scrofula, they remark, from that circumstance, received the 
 name of king's evil, as a disease the cure of which be- 
 longed only to the king. This was the cause of the sin- 
 gular spectacle presented by James the Pretender, when he 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 243 
 
 took refuge in France, engaging himself in touching for 
 scrofula in the public hospitals. 
 
 Elizabeth, queen of England, although declared by the 
 pope to be a heretic, enjoyed eminently the gift of cu- 
 ring scrofula. Guillaume Tockerus has written a spe- 
 cial treatise on the cures she performed. 
 
 Besides scrofula, some kings had the power of curing 
 many other diseases by the laying on of hands. It is 
 worthy of remark, that those who possessed it more emi- 
 nently, were also celebrated for their virtue and talents. 
 Among them we will mention Charles the First, generally 
 known by the name of Charlemagne, (a. d. 800.) Patients 
 came even from Syria and Egypt to be relieved by him. 
 (Pralard. Hist, of France.) Robert, the son of Hugh 
 Capet, who is justly renowned for his learning and piety, 
 was at times followed by more than a thousand of the in- 
 firm, who came to receive from him the beneficial emana- 
 tion which followed the laying on of his hands. (Stephen 
 of Conti, Hist, of France.) Louis IX., better known 
 under the appellation of St. Louis, divided his time be- 
 tween the dispensation of justice and the cure of sufferers. 
 (Froissart, Hist, of France.) 
 
 During the reign of ignorance which characterized the 
 middle ages, superstition exercised the greatest influence, 
 and belief in magic became a popular creed. It was to- 
 wards the fourth century that they began to speak of the 
 nocturnal meeting of witches and sorcerers, under the 
 name of the assembly of Diana or Herodias, an absurd 
 and pitiable folly, which was afterwards punished with 
 death by burning. But sorcerers were no other than natu- 
 ral somnambulists, whose crisis was the result either 
 of disease or art. When their disordered minds, or the 
 perversity of their inclinations, induced them to wish to 
 be acquainted with Beelzebub, they rubbed themselves 
 with a kind of narcotic ointment, which promptly caused 
 
244 
 
 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 the natural crisis of somnambulism. While in tnat state, 
 they would stand to be pricked, wounded, and even burned, 
 without giving any sign of consciousness. The judges, 
 imbued with the prejudices of the time, concluded, from 
 _their insensibility, that the evil one had substituted phan- 
 toms for the true bodies while the latter were gone to 
 their unholy meeting. On awaking, they found their 
 poor bodies unmercifully mutilated, and accused the devil 
 of inflicting their wounds and sufferings. During these 
 disordered ecstasies, the sorcerers believed themselves to 
 be under the charm of the diabolical power. They were, 
 in fact, in communication by thoughts with other somnam- 
 bulists, more or less distant, and in many instances they de- 
 scribed events which were transpiring in remote places. 
 Brought before the tribunals, they confessed, with sim- 
 plicity and candor, their belief in the truth of their revela- 
 tions, and on this declaration they were condemned to 
 death. Thus, ignorance of the natural laws of Psycodu- 
 namy was the cause, during many ages, of atrocious mur- 
 ders, the imagination of which excites, even now, a thrill 
 of horror in the humane bosom. 
 
 At no time was the belief in the possession of persons 
 by evil spirits so prevalent, as during the darkness of the 
 middle ages ; and, whatever be the sense attached to such 
 an expression, it is certain that, in general, the pretended 
 possession was merely a disease of the body — seldom of 
 the mind. In the latter case, this disorder is known among 
 physicians by the name of Theomanteia ; and M. Virey, of 
 the Royal Academy of Medicine, of Paris, although op- 
 posed to Psycodunamy in general, confesses that its prac- 
 tice alone can cure this mental malady, and that the exor- 
 cisms resorted to by the ancient Jews and the first Chris- 
 tians, by people in the middle ages, and even in more 
 modern times, are nothing but Psycodunamic operations. 
 (Diction, des Scien. Med., art. Magnetism, torn. xxix. p. 510.) 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 245 
 
 John Weir, who has written several histories of per- 
 sons possessed, relates the following fact : u A young 
 girl, in a fall, had a pocket-knife so deeply plunged into 
 her side, that it disappeared and could not be found, even 
 after the closest examination. Her parents doubted her 
 declaration of the fact ; but the child grew worse, and 
 during several days refused to eat and drink. DifFerent 
 nervous symptoms manifested themselves, and in her pa- 
 roxysms she uttered several predictions, which were veri- 
 fied by the events. She foretold, three months in ad- 
 vance, that on Lady-day the knife would become visible. 
 "She was believed to be haunted, because by mildness or 
 threats they could not succeed in calming her. But the 
 prevision having been accomplished, she was cured." 
 
 The same writer also says, that a very ignorant woman, 
 who was subject to violent nervous fits, lost her conscious- 
 ness during the crisis, and while in this state exhibited an 
 extraordinary degree of learning, which was considered as 
 an evidence of her being possessed. Being asked one 
 day, during her insensibility, what was the best verse in 
 Virgil, she immediately replied : 
 
 " Discite justitiam moniti et non temnere divos." (iEneid, lib. vi.) 
 (Learn how to be just, and not to brave the gods.) 
 
 Every one will confess that the choice was admirable, 
 and that in this instance, at least, the devil spoke as a good 
 Christian. 
 
 Do you wish to ascertain what was the nature of the 
 possessions by the evil spirit ? Father Brognoli, in 
 his " Alexicacon" (p. 241,) will give you specimens of it. 
 A young man had been for fifteen days suffering from a 
 violent headache ; he experienced some fever, great lassi- 
 tude, and an inability to walk. He had been bleeding 
 from his nose nearly every day since he was first attacked. 
 21* 
 
246 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 " I soon recognised the presence of an evil spirit. I re- 
 peatedly laid my hands on his head, ordering each time 
 the evil one to leave him ; and he actually did so, passing 
 through the ear of the patient, who heard a kind of whist- 
 ling at the moment the spirit left him : from that time the 
 patient has enjoyed good health." 
 
 " A young girl had been sick for three years ; she could 
 hardly move her limbs. She complained of a sensation 
 as if a ball were moving up and down from her stomach 
 to her throat ; her skin was yellowish. I imposed my 
 hand, and ordered the evil spirit to retire : the girl was 
 cured without the use of other means." 
 
 The same Father, as an evidence of the arts of the 
 evil one, quotes the instance of a patient, who during her 
 crisis would speak and prescribe remedies for herself. He 
 calls on the patient, who declares to him that before any 
 exorcism, she will resort to some remedies which she 
 mentions. The Father asks the opinion of a physician, 
 who approves of the drugs, and the patient is cured. Our 
 author concludes, from this fact, that the patient herself 
 did not speak when in her crisis, but that it was evidently 
 the devil. (Ibid. p. 119.) 
 
 The visions, predictions, and deplorable death of the 
 Maid of Orleans, have rendered her an eminent character. 
 Delaverdy has given an extract of her trial, in which he 
 declares that he preserved the very words of Joan. I 
 will quote only the beginning, and give a summary of the 
 rest : — 
 
 " At the age of thirteen I heard a voice in my father's 
 garden, and saw a great light. I was afraid at first ; but I 
 soon knew it was the voice of St. Michael, who has since 
 accompanied and protected me. From that time I did every 
 thing according to the revelations I received and the ap- 
 paritions I have seen ; even as in this trial I speak but 
 that which is revealed to me." 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 247 
 
 Guided by these voices, Joan told the king of France, 
 Charles VII., that she would cause the siege of Orleans to 
 be raised ; and it was raised. She foretold that the Eng- 
 lish would be driven from France in seven years ; and so 
 they were, in fact. She announced that Charles would be 
 crowned in Rheims, and he was crowned in Rheims. 
 
 At the siege of Orleans she asserted that it would be 
 taken, and that she would enter the city during the night 
 by the bridge ; she added, " Blood will run from my 
 breast." 
 
 The next day they attacked the fort, and Joan was 
 wounded by an arrow. The French General, Dunois, see- 
 ing his troops fatigued and dispirited, resolved to sound a 
 retreat. Joan's wounds being bandaged, she besought him 
 to wait. She went into a vineyard, where she prayed for 
 a quarter of an hour. On her return she seized her flag 
 and waved it, calling on the French soldiers. They re- 
 sumed the battle — the English lost courage — the city was 
 no longer defended — and Joan entered Orleans at night, by 
 the bridge, as she had predicted. 
 
 I will not dwell any longer on the deeds of Joan ; they 
 are all of the same nature, and would add nothing to our 
 information respecting her somnambulic faculties. She 
 was a simple and ignorant girl, brought up in the country, 
 without even knowing how to read. Her temper was live- 
 ly and impatient. All the actions of her life prove that she 
 was virtuous and full of benevolence. But the English 
 saw in her, or at at least pretended to see, an agent of Sa- 
 tan ; and the French heroine, who had predicted her own 
 fall and dreadful end, after having accomplished her mis- 
 sion, was condemned to death as a sorceress, by a tribunal 
 over which the Duke of Bedford presided, and where the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury was a judge ; she was burnt 
 alive on the great square of Rouen, in 1430, the victim of 
 ignorance, fanaticism, and revenge. 
 
248 
 
 PSYCODUNAMY 
 
 The deplorable belief in the Satanic possession of those 
 who exhibited the phenomena of somnambulism, and the 
 idea that those who knew how to cause that crisis were 
 the agents of the Spirit of Darkness, maintained their hold 
 upon the minds of men until the beginning of the last cen- 
 tury. The unfortunate Urbain Grandier was accused of 
 having bewitched the nuns of Loudun, who were thrown 
 into the state of ecstasy, and he was burnt alive the 18th 
 of April, 1634. 
 
 A similar accusation was brought, in 1700, by the tri- 
 bunal of Normandy, against Mary Bucaille, a natural som- 
 nambulist, whose state of ecstasy would last three or four 
 hours consecutively. It appears by the evidence of the 
 most respectable witnesses that Mary had cured, by her 
 prayers, a great number of sufferers ; that she obeyed the 
 mental orders given to her; that she could discern the 
 thoughts, and that she actually knew the state of the con- 
 science of any person, present or distant. During one of 
 her crises, the Rev. Pastor of Golleville put in the hands 
 of Mary a letter folded and sealed, and she answered with 
 the utmost accuracy the questions put to her in it, without 
 opening the paper ; and notwithstanding she had never 
 seen the person who wrote it, she minutely described that 
 person's appearance, features, age, and profession. The 
 same fact occurred several times, with circumstances more 
 or less extraordinary. 
 
 But although Mary used her marvellous faculties for the 
 relief of the diseased, and the advancement of Christianity, 
 she was nevertheless condemned, by the tribunal of Va- 
 logne, as a sorceress, to be burnt alive. The Parlia- 
 ment of Rouen, however, changed the sentence, and con- 
 demned Mary to be whipped and marked. But this did 
 not prevent her from again exhibiting wonderful phe- 
 nomena, and performing surprising cures. 
 
 The same characteristics of somnambulism— the same 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 249 
 
 benevolent exertions for the relief of human suffering, are 
 to be found in all those who were accused of sorcery ; 
 and it is surprising that men, celebrated as writers, did not 
 sooner enlighten their age on the true nature of the occult 
 faculties of man. 
 
 The celebrated physician Avicenna, who flourished in 
 the latter part of the ninth century, says, in his treatise 
 " de Natural that " the imagination of man can act not 
 only on his own body, but even on other and very distant 
 bodies. It can fascinate and modify them, make them ill, 
 or restore them to health." 
 
 Marcillus Ficinus, born at Florence in 1433, professes 
 the same doctrine ; he says, " A vapor, or a certain spirit, 
 emitted by the rays of the eyes, or in any other manner, 
 can take effect on a person near you ; but you may be sure 
 that the action produced will be so much the more con- 
 siderable, as the spirit emitted is more abundant and more 
 animated by the imagination and the heart. It is not 
 to be wondered, that diseases of the mind and of the 
 body should be either communicated or cured in that man- 
 ner." 
 
 Pomponacius, born at Mantua in 1462, devoted his at- 
 tention to the study of phenomena attributed to magic in- 
 cantations. He supported with logic and great eloquence 
 the opinion, that they all spring from natural causes here- 
 tofore unknown, or misunderstood, but that in no instance 
 whatever ought they to be attributed to evil spirits. 
 
 " The cures daily performed by certain relics of saints," 
 says he, " are the effects of the confidence and imagina- 
 tion of the patient alone, for physicians and philosophers 
 know very well that if instead of the true bones of the 
 saint, the bones of any animal were substituted, the cures 
 would be as readily obtained in the latter case as in the 
 former. But the facts recorded in the history of past 
 ages, as well as those we witness at the present time, de- 
 
250 
 
 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 monstrate the actual and independent influence of a be- 
 nevolent soul upon the health of the diseased : some men 
 being specially endowed with eminently curative faculties, 
 the effects produced by their touch are wonderful ; but 
 even touch is not always necessary, their glances, their 
 mere intention of doing good, are efficient to the restora- 
 tion of health. It will be readily granted, then, that their 
 curative power is increased by so favorable a circumstance 
 as confidence and imagination. Should this confidence 
 be reciprocal between the patient and the person acting 
 upon him, the results will be even more astounding : they 
 still continue, however, to be the result of natural causes." 
 (Pompon., de Incantat., p. 51 et seq.) 
 
 The boldness of the philosophical opinions of Pompon a- 
 cius was the cause of violent persecutions, and his book 
 was declared impious. 
 
 Agrippa, born at Cologne in 1486, says, " When the 
 soul is gifted with a powerful imagination, it acquires 
 strength effectual to the causing of health or of disease, 
 not only in its proper body, but also in the bodies of oth- 
 ers." (De Occulta Philosophia, lib. iv.) 
 
 Paracelsus, born in 1493, studied with ardor the oc- 
 cult means of medicine, and succeeded in effecting cures 
 considered as impossible. He rejects, as useless, the 
 magical ceremonies and conjurations, and affirms that faith 
 and imagination are the only source of the superior power 
 acquired by certain persons. " Any doubt whatever de- 
 stroys the work," says Paracelsus, " and leaves it imper- 
 fect in the hands of nature. It is from faith that imagina- 
 tion draws its power ; faith completes and realizes it. 
 Any one who believes in the secret resources of nature, 
 receives from nature according to his own faith ; let the 
 object of your faith be real or imaginary, you will in an 
 equal degree obtain the same results ; and hence the origin 
 of superstition." 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 251 
 
 " Imagination and faith," says he again, " can cause or 
 remove diseases. Confidence in the virtue of amulets is 
 the whole secret of their efficiency ; take away that con- 
 fidence, and you will obtain from them nothing, absolutely 
 nothing." 
 
 Cardanus, born at Pavia in 1501, performed very ex- 
 traordinary cures by unknown means, which drew upon 
 him the suspicion of sorcery, and caused him to be incar- 
 cerated at Bologna. It was said at first that, like Socrates, 
 he had a familiar demon ; but he declared that nature alone 
 had endowed him with his marvellous faculties. He 
 could rouse at will his own somnambulism, and exhibited, 
 in a wonderful degree, all the characteristics peculiar to 
 that state. Means of cure, intuition, sight at a distance, and 
 correct predictions of future events, were at all times at his 
 disposal. During his voluntary crisis, which occurred when- 
 ever, and lasted as long as he pleased, he was in a state 
 of complete bodily insensibility, and could, at such time, 
 by acting on himself, instantly dissipate the pains arising 
 from the gout, with which he was occasionally affected. 
 
 The opinion of the celebrated Chancellor Bacon, born 
 in 1561, is entirely favorable to the Psycodunamic doc- 
 trine. He acknowledges that prevision, and sight at a 
 distance, are faculties proper to human nature, and relates 
 several instances in corroboration of his judgment. " Ma- 
 gic," says he, " is nothing but the power of the imagina- 
 tion of one person acting on the body of another." 
 
 Van Helmont, born at Brussels in 1597, performed 
 so many surprising cures by Psycodunamic means, that 
 in spite of his excellent character for morality and reli- 
 gion, he was accused of magic, denounced to the Inquisi- 
 tion, and thrown into a dungeon, and would very likely 
 have suffered death, if his friends had not succeeded in 
 securing his escape. He is the first writer who gave the 
 name of Magnetism to Psycodunamy. He wrote two 
 

 252 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 special treatises upon it — " De Medicind Magnetic^" and 
 " De Magneticd vulnerum curatione." 
 
 " Magnetism" says Van Helmont, " acts every where, 
 and has nothing new but its name. It is a paradox to 
 those only who laugh at, or doubt, what they cannot ex- 
 plain ; or, on the other hand, attribute it to the agency of 
 
 Satan We designate by the name of Magnetism, 
 
 that occult influence which bodies exert at a distance over 
 other bodies, either by attraction or repulsion. The me- 
 dium of conveyance of this influence is a subtile and vital 
 essence, (magnale magnum,) which penetrates all bodies, 
 and pervades the universe. It is the moderator of the 
 world, for it establishes a correspondence between all its 
 different parts, and regulates the forces that each of them 
 possesses." 
 
 " We can attach to another body a virtue we ourselves 
 enjoy, communicate to it certain properties, and then use it 
 as a means of producing salutary effects*" 
 
 " I have delayed to the present time," continues Van 
 Helmont, " to unravel a great mystery ; it is, that there 
 exists in man such an energy, that by the sole effect of his 
 will and imagination he can act out of himself — he can 
 give a virtue to, and exert a lasting influence on, a very 
 remote object." 
 
 " Will is the first of powers." 
 
 Van Helmont was acquainted with several of the phe- 
 nomena of somnambulism ; he had himself experienced 
 the transfer of the senses, and their concentration at the 
 epigastrium, and concludes, from this fact, that the soul is 
 not essentially compelled to use such or such an organ, 
 but that, distinct from the senses and from all matter, she, 
 like the penetrating light, expands and exerts her faculties 
 independently and by her own power, without being under 
 the necessity of borrowing the help of any instrument. 
 " The contrary doctrine/' says he, " is disgraceful, and 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 253 
 
 subversive of all principles of morality, and of the noblest 
 hopes of man. What, in fact, would the soul be after the 
 dissolution of the body, if she had not the faculty of feel- 
 ing and knowing independently of the senses ?" 
 
 Often during his sleep Van Helmont found the solution 
 of important questions of science, sometimes in direct an- 
 swers, at other times in emblematic images ; and assured- 
 ly this kind of sleep may justly be considered as somnam- 
 bulism. He used to prepare himself to it by prayer, medi- 
 tation, an entire abnegation of self, and a great desire of 
 proving useful to his fellow-men ; and as his piety was 
 excessive, he referred to divine inspiration all credit for 
 the fruit of his researches while in that state. 
 
 Beniveni, a physician of Florence, relates in a treatise, 
 De abditis Morborum Causis, that a young man named 
 Gaspard was wounded in the chest by an arrow, the iron 
 of which remained in the wound. While suffering excru- 
 ciating pain, he began suddenly to make predictions, 
 named in advance all the persons who were coming to see 
 him, foretold the day and the precise hour of his cure, and 
 his departure for Rome, where he was to die. His lucid- 
 ity was still further manifested in his prediction of the ex- 
 ile and flight of Peter of Medicis, the calamities which 
 would befall Florence, the subjugation of the whole of 
 Italy, and many other things of the greatest interest. 
 
 Beniveni saw the fulfilment of all those predictions : 
 the iron of the arrow issued from the wound the day and 
 hour predicted by Gaspard ; and with the iron, the faculty 
 of prevision also left him. A short time after he went to 
 Rome, where he died as he had foretold he should. 
 
 When the queen of Navarre was at Metz, dangerously 
 ill with fever, she described the battle of Jarnac as if she 
 were witnessing it. " See how they run away," said she : 
 " my son is victorious. Gracious Heaven ! help my son ! 
 he falls to the ground ! Do you not see along that hedge 
 22 
 
254 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 the prince of Conde lying dead ?" The bystanders deem- 
 ed her delirious ; but on the next night the news of the 
 victory won by Henry IV., with all the particulars men- 
 tioned by the queen of Navarre, struck everybody with 
 amazement. (JSlemoires de la Heine de Navarre, p. 84.) 
 
 Henry of Her, physician to the archbishop of Cologne, 
 gives an account of a somnambulist, forty-five years of age, 
 who predicted, in his dreams, successively, the death of 
 his father-in-law, his wife, his eldest son, and several 
 other persons, with the utmost exactness. 
 
 Alexander ab Alexandro relates a fact very similar, 
 which happened to his pupil Marius. 
 
 Wirdig, a German physician, born at Einsiedeln in 1648, 
 published, at Hamburg, in 1673, his "Nova Medicina Spi- 
 rituum" which spread his principles over all Germany. 
 He sought to explain the phenomena of Psycodunamy 
 by the supposition of the existence of a vital spirit which 
 pervades the whole universe, reminding us of the "Mag- 
 nate Magnum" of Van Helmont. Endowed with a lively 
 and brilliant imagination, he pretends that this spirit sus- 
 tains life, not only in the animal, but even m the vegeta- 
 ble kingdom. His ingenious theory represents this spirit 
 as now penetrating, now receding from bodies ; now 
 expanding, now concentrating ; now circulating, now ra- 
 diating ; assuming, in a word, a thousand various modifi- 
 cations, by which he explains health and diseases, the 
 power of curing or causing maladies, the faculties of in- 
 tuition, of sight at a distance, of presentiments, of sympa- 
 thy, &c. 
 
 Maxwell, physician to the king of England, lived at 
 the same epoch ; he published, in his work " De re Mag- 
 netica" in 1679, a theory in which the principal proposi- 
 tions adopted by Mesmer are to be found. I will quote 
 a few of his principles, with the view of enabling my read- 
 ers to judge of them : 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 255 
 
 " The vital spirit, or the soul, is not only inside, but also 
 extends outside of the body." 
 
 " There emanate from all bodies, rays of subtile matter, 
 which are so many means that the vital spirit sets in mo- 
 tion, and to which it imparts its own energy and power of 
 action." 
 
 " In all kinds of diseases, the chief point to achieve, is 
 to fortify, multiply, and regenerate the vital spirit : in so 
 doing, you will be able to cure all kinds of disorders." 
 
 He sums up the whole of his medical philosophy in the 
 following proposition : 
 
 " That there exists a universal remedy, no one can 
 doubt. For, in strengthening the particular vital spirit of 
 any affected organ, you will restore its natural functions, 
 which disease had altered. There is no disorder which 
 has not sometimes disappeared by the natural action of this 
 spirit alone, without any medical help. Universal medi- 
 cine is nothing else but the action diminished or increased 
 of the vital spirit in a just proportion." 
 
 The principles of Maxwell were adopted by the cele- 
 brated Robt. Boyle, the founder of the Royal Society of 
 London ; after a careful examination of the facts, fully 
 convinced of their importance, he relied upon them in con- 
 futing the speculative subtleties of the philosophy of Aris- 
 totle, and in demonstrating the emptiness of Galenism. 
 He even refused to read the works of Descartes, which 
 were, at the time, held in great esteem, alleging his fear 
 of rinding in them more brilliant imagination than correct 
 observation, and seductive hypotheses instead of positive 
 facts. He was never accused of being a dreamer or a 
 visionary ; his fame as a man of sound judgment, a pro- 
 found mathematician, and an accurate observer, render his 
 assertions, how strange soever they may at first appear, 
 deserving of attention and investigation. In his treatise, 
 " De mird corporum subiilitate" he admits as undeniable 
 
t 
 
 256 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 principles — 1st, A universal fluid ; 2d, A reciprocal action 
 at a distance between all organized bodies. 
 
 Robt. Boyle, was of the family of the counts of Cork and 
 Orrery, and was born at Lismore, in Ireland, the 25th of 
 January, 1626 : he died at London the 30th of December, 
 1691. 
 
 The Psycological theory of medicine taught by Stahl 
 contains, among its many metaphysical hypotheses, some 
 important Psycodunamic truths. The actual power of 
 the soul, in the production and cure of diseases, he per- 
 fectly understood, and has described ; he was only igno- 
 rant of the full extent of that power over other bodies, al- 
 though his frequent recommendation that a physician 
 should, by all possible means, act favorably on the imagi- 
 nation of his patient, and secure his confidence, proves 
 that he knew that the presence and actions of the physi- 
 cian have an effect no less salutary and positive than the 
 drugs administered. 
 
 I could have quoted many more instances of Psycodu- 
 namic theories, phenomena, and cures ; but I will refer 
 my readers to the medical work, entitled " Denarius Jiledi- 
 cus ;" and the writings of Porta, Crollius, Goclenius, Mohy, 
 Papirius, Digby, Rattray, Laurent Strauss, Rob. Fludd, 
 Beccker, Borel, Bartholin, Servius de Spolette, Kirker, Fras- 
 cator, Tenzel, Santanelli, Burgravius, Libavius, &c. &c. 
 
 I cannot, however, omit speaking of a few celebrated 
 characters, whose Psycodunamic faculties were exceed- 
 ingly remarkable. 
 
 Valextixe Greatrakes, an unpretending and pious 
 man, who was never accused of knavery or deception, 
 went throughout England, from 1662 to 1666, and per- 
 formed- the most extraordinary cures. Joseph Glanville, 
 the celebrated author of " Scepsis Scientifica" and chap- 
 lain to Charles II., has preserved testimonies of him, 
 which have never been gainsaid. 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 257 
 
 " By the application of his hands," says the learned 
 George Rust, lord bishop of Derry, " he caused pain to 
 disappear, attracting it towards the extremities. The re- 
 sult was, at times, very rapid, and I have seen persons 
 cured as if it were by magic. If the pain did not cease, 
 after a few trials, he would protract his operations during 
 several days. I do affirm that I saw him cure dizziness, 
 ophthalmia, ear-ache, epileptic, fits, scrofula, and cancerous 
 tumors of the breast. In five days he brought to maturity 
 tumors which had lasted several years. 
 
 " I am not induced by these cures to believe that there 
 was something superhuman in them. He himself did not 
 think there was, and his way of operating proves that 
 there was neither miracle nor divine interference. It 
 would seem that some beneficial and salutary emanation 
 issued from him. Some diseases required long and re- 
 peated operations, while others altogether refused to yield 
 to his exertions." 
 
 " Greatrakes believes," says the same writer, " that the 
 faculty of curing diseases is a special gift of God. He 
 sometimes would wonder at his own power, and doubted, 
 at first, whether he was not deceiving himself on its ex- 
 tent. But he was finally convinced that it was a particu- 
 lar favor which he had received, and hence he devoted 
 himself entirely to the cure of patients." 
 
 Greatrakes' mode of practice attracted the attention of 
 many physicians. Faireclow, Astelius, and Pecklin fol- 
 lowed him, and carefully investigated the facts related of 
 him. 
 
 " I was struck," says Faireclow, " with his mildness to- 
 wards his patients, and kind attendance upon them. The 
 effects produced by his hands are truly wonderful. He 
 uses no particular preparation. Whenever he has cured 
 anybody, he merely says, ' God be praised, and may his 
 will preserve your health.' If any one speaks of remu- 
 
 22* 
 
258 
 
 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 iterating him, he refuses, saying, ' Your thanks are due to 
 God alone.' " 
 
 Astelius speaks of him in a like manner. " I have seen 
 Greatrakes relieve instantly the most excruciating pains, 
 by the mere application of his hand. I have known him 
 cause a pain to go from the shoulder to the foot, and from 
 this out through the ends of the toes. A remarkable thing 
 is, that whenever he was compelled to leave off before he 
 had effected a complete cure, the pain would remain where 
 he left it, and resume its downward march so soon as he 
 would himself resume his operation. He used to cure 
 wounds by touching them, and sometimes wetting them 
 with his saliva. In a few cases, however, he did not 
 succeed." 
 
 " The diseases which have been cured by Greatrakes," 
 says Pecklin, " are very numerous : paralysis, blindness, 
 deafness, dropsy, pleurisy, all kinds of fevers, neuralgia, 
 tumors, cancer, scrofula, &c. &c, have been cured by 
 his merely touching." (Observ. Medic, liv. iii.) 
 
 The Royal Society of London, during the presidency 
 of the celebrated Robert Boyle, investigated the matter, 
 and paid to Greatrakes a well-deserved tribute of praise. 
 But in this case, as in other instances of singular success, 
 envy and calumny were at work to revile his merits. St. 
 Evremont published against him a pamphlet, entitled " The 
 Irish Prophet" in which he endeavored to ridicule Great- 
 rakes, by pretending that he boasted of his knowledge of 
 the intrigues of evil spirits, and by other absurdities and 
 evident fabrications. But the work of St. Evremont is 
 forgotten, while the memory of Greatrakes is preserved 
 with honor. 
 
 Emanuel Swedenborg was born at Stockholm in 
 1688. I will quote from his writings what he says of 
 himself. " From my youth to my tenth year, my thoughts 
 were constantly engrossed by reflecting upon God, on sal- 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 259 
 
 vation, and on the spiritual passions of man. 7" often re- 
 vealed things in my discourse which filled my parents with 
 astonishment, and made them declare, at times, that certainly 
 the angels spoke through my mouth. From my sixth to my 
 twelfth year, it was my greatest delight to converse with 
 the clergy concerning faith, to whom I often observed 
 that charity or love was the life of faith, and that this vi- 
 vifying charity or love was no other than the love of one's 
 neighbor ; that God vouchsafes this faith to every one, 
 but that it is adopted by those only who practise that 
 charity." 
 
 We read in another place : " I have been called to a 
 holy office by the Lord himself, who most graciously 
 manifested himself in person to me, his servant, in the 
 year 1743, when he opened my sight to the view of the 
 spiritual world, and granted me the privilege of conver- 
 sing with spirits and angels, which I have enjoyed to this 
 day. From that time I began to print and publish various 
 arcana that, have been seen by me, or revealed to me ; 
 as respecting heaven and hell, the state of man after 
 death, the true worship of God, the spiritual sense of 
 the Word, with many other most important matters con- 
 ducive to salvation and true wisdom." (Life of Sweden- 
 borg, p. 12.) 
 
 The celebrated Professor Kant, the German philoso- 
 pher, narrates of Swedenborg the two following occur- 
 rences : 
 
 " Madame Harteville, the widow of a Dutch envoy at 
 Stockholm, was, some time after the death of her husband, 
 asked by Croon, the goldsmith, for the payment of a set 
 of silver plate, which the husband had ordered to be made 
 by him. The widow was indeed convinced that her de- 
 ceased husband was too orderly and particular in his af- 
 fairs not to have settled and paid the account ; however, 
 she could find no receipt to testify the payment. In her 
 
260 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 trouble, as the value was considerable, she entreated Mr. 
 Swedenborg to pay her a visit. After some apologies, 
 she besought him, if he possessed the gift of being able 
 to speak with departed souls, as everybody said he did, 
 to have the kindness to inquire of her departed husband, 
 respecting the demand of payment for the set of silver 
 plate. Swedenborg was very affable, and promised to 
 serve her in this affair. Three days afterwards, the same 
 lady had company, when Mr. Swedenborg came and told 
 her, in his cool manner, that he had spoken with her hus- 
 band. The debt had been paid seven months before his 
 death, and the receipt had been put in a bureau which 
 was in an upper apartment. The lady replied that this 
 bureau had been cleared out, and that the receipt could 
 not be found among any of the papers. Swedenborg re- 
 plied, that her husband had told him, that if a drawer on 
 the left side of the bureau were pulled out, a board would 
 be observed, which must be pushed away, and then a se- 
 cret drawer would be discovered, in which he used to 
 keep his secret Dutch correspondence, and in which also 
 he had put the receipt. At this indication, the lady, ac- 
 companied by all her friends, went to the upper apart- 
 ment. They opened the bureau, and proceeded accord- 
 ing to Swedenborg's instruction ; they found the drawer, 
 of which the lady had not known, and in it the papers 
 and receipt were met with, to the very great astonishment 
 of all." 
 
 " But the following occurrence appears to me to have 
 the greatest weight of proof, and to set the assertion re- 
 specting Swedenborg's extraordinary gift out of all possi- 
 bility of doubt. In the year 1756, when Swedenborg, to- 
 wards the end of September, on Saturday, at four o'clock 
 P. M., arrived at Gothenburg, from England, Mr. William 
 Castel invited him to his house, together with a party of 
 fifteen persons. About six o'clock Swedenborg went out, 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 261 
 
 and after a short interval returned to the company, quite 
 pale and alarmed. He said that a dangerous fire had just 
 broken out in Stockholm, at the Sundermalm, (Gothenburg 
 is about three hundred English miles from Stockholm,) 
 and that it was spreading very fast. He was restless, and 
 went out very often. He said that the house of one of his 
 friends, whom he named, was already in ashes, and that 
 his own was in danger. At eight o'clock, after he had 
 been out again, he joyfully exclaimed : ' Thank God ! the 
 fire is extinguished the third door from my house.' This 
 news occasioned great commotion through the whole city, 
 and particularly among the company in which he was. It 
 was announced the same evening to the governor. On 
 Sunday morning Swedenborg was sent for by the governor, 
 who questioned him concerning the disaster. Sweden- 
 borg described the fire precisely, how it had begun, in 
 what manner it ceased, and how long it had continued. 
 On the same day the news spread through the city, for the 
 governor had thought it worthy of attention. On Monday 
 evening a messenger arrived at Gothenburg, who was dis- 
 patched during the time of the fire. In the letters brought 
 by him, the fire was described precisely in the manner 
 stated by Swedenborg. On Tuesday morning the royal 
 courier arrived at the governor's with the sad intelligence 
 of the fire, confirming all the particulars given by Sweden- 
 borg immediately after it had ceased, for the fire was ex- 
 tinguished at eight o'clock." 
 
 " What can be brought forward against the authority of 
 this occurrence ? adds Emmanuel Kant. The inhabitants 
 of a whole city, of w T hom the greater portion are still alive, 
 [August, 1758,] were witnesses of the fact, and concur in 
 bearing testimony to the memorable occurrence." 
 
 John Joseph Gassner, born at Braz, in the circle of 
 Suabia, 1727, having been delivered by exorcism from a 
 long-continued disease, which had resisted all the resour- 
 
262 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 ces of the medical art, persuaded himself that human in- 
 firmities were, for the most part, attributable to no other 
 cause than demoniacal possession, and that they should 
 be treated with exorcism. He began by curing the sick 
 of his own parish ; but very soon Switzerland, the Tyrol, 
 and Suabia, sent him theirs, and he cured four or five hun- 
 dred a year. After having gone over different provinces, 
 he established himself at Ratisbon, under the protection of 
 the lord bishop, (prince-eveque.) The number of persons 
 resorting to him was so considerable, that he often had ten 
 thousand of them encamped in the neighborhood of the 
 city. Gassner regarded faith as an essential condition in 
 obtaining a cure. His patients were seldom delivered 
 from their afflictions at the first exorcism. He devoted 
 several hours to them, and often many days. When he 
 wished to act upon a patient, he made him place him- 
 self on his knees before him. He usually touched the 
 affected part : he also rubbed his hands upon the waist 
 or the neck of the sufferer ; but this was not always his 
 practice. 
 
 Gassner could, by his will, make the pulse of his pa- 
 tients vary ; he made it small, great, strong, feeble, slow, 
 quick, irregular, or intermittent ; in a word, just as the 
 physicians who were present requested him. He para- 
 lyzed their limbs ; caused them to weep, to laugh ; and 
 soothed or agitated them by expressing simply his order 
 mentally. 
 
 He thus effected the most extraordinary cures. By 
 a small number of persons the facts were discredited or 
 denied ; but, strange to tell, the celebrated De Haen, one 
 of the first physicians of his age, not conceiving how 
 Gassner had been able to perform such cures, concluded 
 that his power was derived from the devil. He question- 
 ed with himself, however, whether they might not have 
 been performed by sympathy, or by occult philosophy ; 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 263 
 
 but he declared he knew of no one sufficiently versed in 
 it to perform things so wonderful. It was reserved to 
 Mesmer to unravel the mystery, which he did at his first 
 stay in Munich, as will be seen in the succeeding chapter. 
 
264 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 MESMER. 
 
 The latter part of the eighteenth century is no less re- 
 markable as the aurora of political freedom, than as the 
 dawn of Psycodunamy as a science. If it was then that the 
 emancipation of thought from the thraldom of tyranny gave 
 birth to the liberty of America and the revolution of France ; 
 it was then, also, that Psycodunamy began, under the 
 name of Animal Magnetism, to struggle for admission 
 among her sister sciences ; but, less fortunate than Liberty 
 in her war to overcome old prejudices, she could not so 
 soon compel scientific despotism to acknowledge her rights 
 to the regards of men. However, like Liberty, her sister 
 in birth, in the war that she had to wage against oppres- 
 sion, she met with hatred, injustice, and violence, yet 
 without being extinguished : had she, however, been 
 crushed for a time, the triumph of error and prejudice 
 would have been but of brief duration. Like Liberty, she 
 is essential to the highest good of man ; and, as has so 
 often happened with expiring Liberty, she would eventual- 
 ly have risen again, Phoenix-like, from her own moulder- 
 ing ashes. 
 
 The most cursory inspection of the majority of historical 
 works written at this period, will convince us that their 
 authors very unanimously stigmatize as a charlatan the 
 person who first attempted publicly to demonstrate the ex- 
 istence in man of natural faculties heretofore generally un- 
 known or misunderstood, and more or less cautiously hint- 
 ed at by the philosophers who had observed them. But, 
 whatever the private character of Mesmer may have been, 
 it would have been a fact much more remarkable than any 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 265 
 
 to which he called public attention, if, surrounded as he 
 was by numerous and bitter enemies, calumny had not as- 
 sailed it. True, however, as we know it to be, that his 
 imposing theory could not resist the test of time and expe- 
 rience, and that modern improvements in the practice have 
 caused his apparatus to be abandoned ; yet, the tongue of 
 candor will confess that he succeeded in drawing from 
 darkness a most important truth ; and that from the year 
 1774 to 1784 he constantly gave the most satisfactory evi- 
 dences of his own Psycodunamic power, both by instanta- 
 neous effects and very extraordinary cures. 
 
 Believing that an exact and full account of Mesmer will 
 not appear to my readers devoid of interest, I will here re- 
 late his history. 
 
 Frederick Anthony Mesmer was born in 1734, at 
 Weiler, near the city of Stein, on the Rhine. He studied 
 medicine under Yan Swieten and De Haen, and succeed- 
 ed by his proficiency and learning, in securing their par- 
 ticular regard. His reflections on human knowledge in 
 general, and especially on the doctrine of the influence of 
 the celestial bodies, induced him to sift the rubbish of that 
 pretended science, in order to ascertain if it actually did con- 
 tain any thing truly useful and worth preserving. " Fully 
 aware," says he himself, " that among the vulgar opinions 
 and creeds of all times, which did not draw their origin 
 from mere feelings of the human heart, there exist but 
 few which are not the remains of an actual and primitive- 
 ly acknowledged truth, I published, in 1766, in Vienna, 
 my dissertation, ' De planet-arum influxu] in which I proved 
 .hat the celestial bodies, in virtue of the same law which 
 causes their mutual attraction, exert an influence on ani- 
 mated bodies, and particularly on the nervous system, 
 through the agency of a universal fluid," etc. He noticed 
 that diseases grow worse, or are cured, with or without 
 the help of common drugs, and independently of the vari- 
 
 23 
 
266 PSYCOBUNAMY, 
 
 ous medical theories and the most opposite methods of 
 treatment. He hence concluded, that "there exists in 
 nature a universally acting principle, which alone, and by 
 its own virtue, effects that which is indiscriminately re- 
 ferred to medical science." 
 
 In 1773 he undertook in his own house the cure of Miss 
 (Esterline, twenty-nine years of age, who was affected 
 with a convulsive disease, extremely complicated. He 
 noticed that natural crises would sometimes alleviate the 
 sufferings of the patient, and succeeded in ascertaining the 
 time and foretelling the moment of those changes. En- 
 couraged by this first success, he tried to produce artifi- 
 cially those salutary crises by using magnetic steel bars, 
 prepared by Father Hell, a Jesuit, Professor of Astronomy 
 at the University of Yienna . 
 
 Miss (Esterline having had a crisis on the 28th of July, 
 1774, Mesmer applied those bars to the stomach and legs. 
 She felt, internally, painful currents of subtile matter, which, 
 after an evident struggle to take a determined course, 
 finally passed downward to the extremities, and suspended, 
 during six hours, all the symptoms of the disease. The 
 next day the same effect took place, and Mesmer then 
 began to perceive that li another principle besides the gene- 
 ral laws of matter, viz. the will of the operator, was in- 
 creasing the power of the magnet, which, by itself, was 
 unable to produce such an action on the nerves." 
 
 A few days afterwards Mesmer communicated to Father 
 Hell the success which he obtained, without mentioning, 
 however, the important observation connected with it. 
 Never discretion proved to be more judicious ; for the 
 Jesuit hurried himself in publishing that, " through the 
 agency of magnetic steel bars," to which he attributed a 
 special virtue on account of their form, "he had discover- 
 ed the means of curing the severest kinds of nervous dis- 
 orders." He sent patterns of these bars to several scien- 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 267 
 
 title academies, with the necessary instructions, stating 
 that " he had disclosed his discoveries to many physicians, 
 and particularly to Mesmer, who continued to make ex- 
 periments for him and under his directions." 
 
 What could a young man, still unknown and unprotect- 
 ed, do against a celebrated Professor, whose influence and 
 power, from his position as a member of the Society of 
 Jesuits, was so extensive and formidable ? Incredible as 
 it may appear, it is nevertheless on account of Mesmer's 
 public demonstrations against Father Hell, that the secret 
 and unrelenting revenge of the Society of Jesus has ever 
 since followed Mesmer — his doctrine and his pupils ! 
 
 To the Baron de Stoerck, President of the Medical 
 Faculty of Vienna, and first physician to the emperor of 
 Austria, Mesmer offered to disclose, without any reserva- 
 tion, his observations and the means he employed ; but the 
 Baron rejected the offer, and advised him not to disgrace 
 the Faculty by giving publicity to his innovations. 
 
 The Professor of Natural Philosophy, Ingenhoulze, 
 united with M. de Stoerck to engage Mesmer not to ex- 
 pose Father Hell, and to preserve a prudent silence. He 
 went even farther ; he attempted to convince Mesmer that 
 he was deceiving himself with regard to the importance 
 of his researches. But, instead of answering the objec- 
 tions, Mesmer, in presence of the Professor, tried his ex- 
 periments on Miss (Esterline, who was then in the middle 
 of one of her crises, and perfectly unconscious. During 
 that state Mesmer occasioned in her, at will, convulsive 
 motions by merely pointing his finger towards her ; or by 
 causing M. Ingenhoulze to touch her with a china cup, 
 which, out of a dozen of the kind, had been prepared for the 
 purpose, — while a trial with the others produced no effect. 
 Ingenhoulze confessed that he was convinced; yet he had 
 hardly left the house ere he pretended that he had found 
 
268 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 out that the whole affair was nothing but a contemptible 
 deception. 
 
 It was to clear himself from so gross an imputation that 
 Mesmer, on the 5th of January, 1775, published his " Let- 
 ter to a Foreign Physician" in which he reveals the nature 
 and the action of a new principle, and the analogy of its 
 properties to those of the magnet and electricity. He be- 
 gan his experiments in the Hospital of the Spaniards, in 
 the presence of M. Rienlien, physician of this establish- 
 ment ; but, in spite of his evident successes, when he had 
 been there eight days, he received from a superior autho- 
 rity a peremptory order to discontinue his experiments. 
 
 This unfavorable reception determined Mesmer to leave 
 Vienna and travel through Swabia and Switzerland. He 
 performed several remarkable cures in presence of many 
 physicians. It was in the latter part of the year 1775, 
 during Mesmer's stay at Munich, that the Elector of Ba- 
 varia consulted him on the cures performed by the cele- 
 brated Father Gassner, of Ratisbon. Mesmer satisfied 
 him that they were the result of a principle very differ- 
 ent from that to which the good priest attributed them. 
 
 A short time after, the Academy of Sciences of that 
 capital admitted him as one of their members ; and in 1776 
 he succeeded in curing the president of this academy, the 
 Baron d'Osterval, who was affected with amaurosis and a 
 paralysis of the limbs. At that time he had already re- 
 jected the magnet and electricity from his practice. 
 
 Soon afterwards Mesmer returned to Vienna, and here 
 he undertook, on the 20th of January, 1777, the treatment 
 of Miss Paradis, a young lady eighteen years of age, af- 
 fected from her infancy with a complete amaurosis, and 
 subject at times to nervous fits, which caused the eyeballs 
 not only to protrude, but even to fall from their sockets ; 
 she was also characterized by a kind of phrensy, so violent 
 as to render her, during its paroxysms, a perfect maniac. 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 269 
 
 The great improvement in her condition, which followed 
 the practice of Mesmer, attracted crowds of people to wit- 
 ness his success. The two presidents of the Medical 
 Faculty, yielding to the urgent request of the patient's fa- 
 ther, came themselves, at the head of a committee appoint- 
 ed by the Faculty, and after a thorough examination of the 
 state of Miss Paradis, expressed explicitly their admira- 
 tion and astonishment. M. de Stoerk, who during ten 
 years had attended her without any success, expressed in 
 a particular manner to Mesmer his complete satisfaction 
 from witnessing so interesting a cure, and his sincere re- 
 grets for not having previously supported, by his avowed 
 approval, the importance of such a discovery. 
 
 Induced by such unreserved and gratifying testimonies, 
 Mr. Paradis thought proper to publish in the newspapers 
 the complete narrative of the cure of his daughter. Every 
 thing appeared to presage to Mesmer a complete triumph. 
 But, little did he dream of the implacable and gigantic 
 power which he had offended in the person of Father 
 Hell ! His adversaries were too attentive and too much 
 interested in his downfall, not to throw in his way all pos- 
 sible obstacles. In this instance, it was the father of the 
 patient whom they circumvented. They represented to 
 him that, should it be known that Miss Paradis was cured, 
 the Empress would no longer pay the pension she had 
 granted to the young lady on account of her infirmities. 
 
 The father, on this intelligence, immediately claimed 
 his daughter, who was boarding in the physician's family. 
 The latter refused to comply with the request before he 
 had rendered the cure a permanent one. M. Paradis, ex- 
 asperated at this unexpected resistance, resorted to ex- 
 treme means. M. de Stoerk, who had already forgotten 
 what he had seen and even written in favor of Mesmer, or 
 at least who thought it prudent to appear so, gave, on the 
 9d of May, 1777, an order to send back to her family the 
 23* 
 
270 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 most unwilling patient. The very next day the parents 
 pretended that their daughter was as bad as ever ; and, in- 
 credible as it may seem, they compelled her to feign in 
 public her former convulsions and blindness. The secret 
 enemies of Mesmer circulated the news most industriously* 
 and, in spite of many respectable witnesses to the con- 
 trary, the falsehood, as too often happens, gained a more 
 ready credence than the truth. 
 
 It is easy to conceive how Mesmer was affected by such 
 ingratitude : yet, he devoted the last six months of the 
 same year in completing the cures of three other young 
 ladies whom he had received into his house at the same 
 time with Miss Paradis. Resolving, at length, to leave 
 Vienna, he announced through the newspapers his depar- 
 ture, saying, that notwithstanding his absence, his three 
 patients would remain with his wife and family ; that ev- 
 erybody could see them, and satisfy themselves of their 
 entire recovery. But, by virtue of an order of a superior 
 authority, they were compelled to quit the house, a short 
 time after Mesmer had left the city. 
 
 Mesmer arrived at Paris in February, 1778. He at first 
 intended to remain there incognito, and to make the ac- 
 quaintance of only a few scientific men, who would after- 
 wards correspond with him, and help him in the diffusion 
 of what he himself called " his discovery" However, his 
 name had already obtained some celebrity, and scarcely 
 had he taken his lodgings, when patients from many quar- 
 ters came to him, asking to be relieved from their diseases. 
 He could not long resist their entreaties ; and this first 
 change in his determination caused him to seek from the 
 learned bodies the approval of his system and mode of 
 practice. He imagined that in France he would meet 
 with less persecution than had been his portion in his own 
 country, but his hopes were again to be frustrated. He 
 had letters of introduction to the most eminent persons, 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 271 
 
 and even to the queen of France. He had no sooner ar- 
 rived, however, than his enemies circulated a most odious 
 calumny — that he had been compelled to leave Vienna on 
 account of some misdemeanor. 
 
 In Paris he became acquainted with M. Leroi, President 
 of the Academy of Sciences. This gentleman, having 
 witnessed several Psycodunamic experiments, expressed 
 his desire to contribute to the progress of a science the 
 reality of which he no longer questioned. He offered to 
 Mesmer his support and influence in the Academy. The 
 Novator put in his hands a summary of his system, and 
 they agreed about the day on which he would himself be 
 present at a meeting of the Academy to witness the effect 
 of the report. The conduct of the Academy in this cir- 
 cumstance was so singular, that I will let Mesmer himself 
 expose it, in order to shield myself from the charge of ex- 
 aggeration : 
 
 " I was punctual ; I arrived early enough to see every 
 member as he came in. They formed between them 
 several irregular groups, where, very likely, some scien- 
 tific matter was the subject of discussion. I supposed that 
 so soon as the members had assembled, the attention, 
 which so far had remained divided, would become gene- 
 ral, and called upon one particular subject. I was in er- 
 ror. They all went on with their private conversation, 
 and when M. Leroi began to speak, he called in vain for 
 attention and silence ; and even his perseverance in that 
 request was tartly rebuked by one of his colleagues, who, 
 out of humor, told him that he would obtain neither the 
 one nor the other, and that, if he chose it, he was welcome 
 to leave his papers on the table, where any one who should 
 like it, could go and take cognizance of them. M. Leroi 
 was no more lucky in announcing a second subject. An- 
 other member told him cavalierly to pass to another point, 
 this one being overdone and over-tedious. Lastly, a third 
 
272 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 attempt to call attention in favor of another matter was 
 most rudely repulsed by the cry, ' Imposture? from the 
 mouth of a third learned academician, who just interrupted 
 his private babbling to pronounce this mature decision. 
 
 " Fortunately, mention of me had not yet been made ; I 
 lost the object of the meeting, and made profound reflec- 
 tions on the kind of awe and veneration which heretofore 
 I had entertained for the Academy of Sciences of Paris, 
 and I came to the conclusion that there are things which 
 must be seen only at a proper distance ; for if you come 
 too near, how ugly they are ! 
 
 " M. Leroi interrupted my revery by coming and telling 
 me that he was about to speak in my behalf. I objected 
 earnestly, and urged him to choose a better time. ' Their 
 minds are too ill-disposed to-day,' said I. ' They have no 
 respect for yourself; is it not evident, then, that they 
 would have still less for a stranger like me ? And by all 
 means I decline to be present at the reading of my manu- 
 script.' I would have gone away if M. Leroi had per- 
 sisted. 
 
 " The assembly ended as it began ; the members went 
 out successively, without any general discussion having 
 taken place. There remained at last about a dozen mem- 
 bers, whose curiosity was sufficiently excited by M. Leroi 
 to induce them to request me to try some experiment. 
 
 " The childishness of asking for experiments before 
 knowing any thing on the question, would have prevented 
 me from making any, even if I had had the idea of it. I 
 awkwardly refused, on the ground that the place for ex- 
 perimenting was not a convenient one ; and, more awk- 
 wardly still, I suffered myself to be led to M. Leroi's, 
 where Mr. A***, subject to attacks of asthma, consented to 
 be experimented upon. 
 
 " Mr. A*** was sitting in an easy-chair ; I was stand- 
 ing before him, and taking hold of his hands. At some 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 273 
 
 distance, and behind me, scornfully tittering, was grouped 
 the rest of the company. 
 
 " I asked Mr. A***, what were the sensations that I 
 caused in him. He readily answered, that he felt some 
 twitching in his wrists, and a kind of current of subtile 
 matter in his arms. But when his colleagues ironically 
 put to him the same question, he dared not answer plainly; 
 he hesitated and stammered. I thought I would go farther, 
 and I caused him to feel instantly one of his attacks of 
 asthma ; the cough was dreadful. ' What is the matter ?' 
 asked again, sneeringly, the other academicians. ' It is 
 nothing, no, nothing at all,' replied Mr. A*** ; ' it is only 
 my cough. My asthma causes such an accident every 
 day.' ' Does it come every day at the same hour V asked 
 I aloud. ' No, not exactly. The paroxysm began a little 
 sooner ; but it is nothing.' ' I do not doubt it,' said I, 
 coolly ; and I left him alone to put an end to this ridicu- 
 lous scene. 
 
 " I thought I could perceive that Mr. A*** was more 
 free after the departure of some of the persons present ; 
 we were only five, including M. Leroi, Mr. A***, and 
 myself. I offered to those gentlemen to make some other 
 experiments. They consented, and accordingly I ban- 
 daged the eyes of Mr. A***. I made several passes 
 under his nose, and at my will he smelt the odor of sul- 
 phur, or ceased to smell it. What I did for the sense of 
 smell, I did also for the sense of taste with a cup of water, 
 which at my will assumed different flavors. 
 
 " These experiments having been thoroughly tested, and 
 Mr. A*** having confessed plainly and repeatedly what 
 his sensations had been, I retired, very dissatisfied with 
 myself for having, to so little purpose, lost my time and 
 the brightness of my anticipations. 
 
 " A few days after, I called on M. de Merci, ambassa- 
 dor of Austria. He had been told by the Abbe Fontana, 
 
274 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 a Jesuit, particularly acquainted with M. Leroi, that the 
 aforesaid experiments had proved a complete failure ; and, 
 to say the least of it, the circumstance was rather singular. 
 
 " I had an opportunity of showing a manuscript to the 
 Count de Maillebois, general in the army of the king of 
 France, and a member of the Academy of Sciences ; it 
 was part of a work in which I had developed the theory 
 of my system, and where I expressed how deeply I re- 
 gretted that so illustrious a body had not yet thought prop- 
 er to devote any attention to the subject. 
 
 " I met at M. de Maillebois's, M. Leroi, to whom I 
 bluntly complained of his having taken advantage of my 
 being a foreigner, without friends, to expose me to the im- 
 pertinent laugh of his colleagues. In my just indignation, 
 I went so far as to say, that I could not think much of a 
 man, who, after having himself espoused the cause of 
 truth, would shamefully back out on the first occasion. 
 
 " French urbanity smoothed the bitterness of this con- 
 versation ; from the result of this reproof, M. de Maillebois 
 led us by degrees to devote our attention only to the cause. 
 Sensible questions on the nature, effects, and consequen- 
 ces of my discovery, were successively examined and 
 satisfactorily answered by me. He expressed his regrets 
 for not having himself been so situated as to have spared 
 me the grievances of which I complained, and to have 
 witnessed the experiments which his colleagues had 
 slighted. I told him I would give him, at any time, an 
 opportunity of satisfying himself on that score. 
 
 " The day was taken ; and Messrs. de Maillebois and 
 Leroi, his lady, and one of their friends, came to my 
 lodgings, where several of my patients had arrived. One 
 of the latter would swell or grow thin at will, under my 
 influence ; this fact is enough to prove how conclusive 
 were my experiments. 
 
 f M. de Maillebois made no use of subterfuges ; he 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 275 
 
 candidly confessed his utter astonishment ; but at the same 
 time he said, that he would not dare to give a full account 
 of that which he had seen, for fear of being laughed at. 
 M. Leroi expressed himself in like manner, and advised 
 me to show the importance of my discovery by evidences 
 of its usefulness, such as the cure of several patients. 
 
 " I positively rejected this means of conviction, for ex- 
 perience had taught me how little the most remarkable 
 cures had proved in favor of my cause at Vienna. I add- 
 ed, that actual testimony of their own senses ought to en- 
 able all persons, and more so scientific men, who are less 
 liable to be deceived, to appreciate the worth of such ex- 
 periments as mine. ' My principal object,' said I, ' is to 
 demonstrate the existence of a physical agent heretofore 
 unobserved, and not to array against my discoveries med- 
 ical men, whose personal interests would necessarily in- 
 duce them to injure my cause, and even my person. It is 
 as a natural philosopher myself, and not as a physician, 
 that I call on you, men of science, requesting you to exam- 
 ine natural phenomena, and to pronounce on my system.' 
 
 " I had on previous occasions heard the opinion ex- 
 pressed, in a vague manner, that imagination was the 
 cause of some of those effects — which could not be denied. 
 But it was a new thing to me, to refer to it phenomena of 
 the character of those which I had just elicited. This 
 pitiful objection came from the mouth of M. Leroi. 
 
 " I was prepared against the specious arguments of or- 
 dinary prudence. The pathos of a preacher in favor of 
 humanity would have lost its effect on me ; I could have 
 resisted even the supplications of a friend; so fully con- 
 vinced was I that considerations independent of any per- 
 sonal interest ought evidently to be my sole motive in or- 
 der to secure the fate of my discovery, and leave no 
 ground to the disgusting imputation of being a vender of 
 quack remedies ; and yet I could not stand this childish 
 
276 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 objection : I was taken by surprise — I felt excited — I lost 
 sight of my resolutions — I accepted the challenge, and, 
 against all the dictates of ray experience, I undertook the 
 cure of patients. 
 
 " This kind of test may appear to some persons the very 
 best ; but let me undeceive them. There is no possibility 
 of giving an actual and palpable demonstration that a phy- 
 sician, or a remedy, has cured a disease ; chance, nature, 
 and imagination will account for any success. It will be 
 seen, in the sequel, on how large a scale, and with what 
 constant advantage, such an explanation has been used 
 against me. 
 
 " But, for instance, if under my hand a pain is drawn 
 from one place to another ; if, at will, I carry it from the 
 head to the chest, from the chest to the abdomen, and back 
 again from the abdomen to the chest, and from the chest 
 to the head, nothing but complete madness, or the most 
 shameful malice, can refuse to acknowledge who produces 
 similar sensations. Accordingly, I set forth an incontes- 
 table axiom when I say, that a man of science can in one 
 hour be as convinced of the truth of my discovery, as a 
 country boor of Switzerland could be after a treatment of 
 several months. * 
 
 " However, I had accepted the challenge of curing pa- 
 tients to convince learned men. It was agreed that they 
 should be examined by physicians of the faculty of Paris, 
 who, after a written statement of each case before begin- 
 ning, should make the inspection of the same persons 
 when I should declare their treatment at an end, so as to 
 render my success unquestionable. 
 
 " I faithfully kept my engagements : in the month of 
 May, 1778, I retired with several patients, whose diseases 
 had been duly certified, to the village of Creteil, six miles 
 from Paris, and on the 22d of the next August I wrote to 
 M. Lcroi the following letter : — 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 277 
 
 " ' To M. Leroi, President of the Academy of Sciences of Paris. 
 
 Creteil, 22d of August, 1778. 
 
 " ' Sir — I had the honor of repeatedly calling your at- 
 tention, as President of the Academy, to the importance 
 of Animal Magnetism. Several members of your learned 
 body had also made inquiries on this principle. Its exist- 
 ence has appeared evident to you, on account of several 
 experiments that I made in their presence, and which you 
 yourself witnessed. I have drawn a few summary propo- 
 sitions to be submitted to the Academy, and I intrusted 
 M. de Maillebois with a manuscript on the subject. Ac- 
 cording to the wish that both of you had expressed, of my 
 uniting to the proofs of its existence the evidence of the 
 usefulness of my discovery, I have undertaken the treat- 
 ment of several patients, whose previous condition has 
 been certified by physicians of your Faculty, as it was 
 agreed upon, and they consented to follow me at Creteil, 
 where I have resided for the last four months. 
 
 " ' Although I am ignorant as yet of the Academy's 
 opinion on my propositions, I take this early opportunity 
 of inviting them through your mediation, and yourself 
 personally, to come and ascertain the success of Magnet- 
 ism applied to the most desperate cases of disease. The 
 treatment will be perfect at the end of this month. I flat- 
 ter myself that you will be kind enough to answer my let- 
 ter, and to let me know the day and hour when your dep- 
 uties will come, in order that I maybe prepared to receive 
 them. I am, with profound respect, yours, &c, 
 
 " ' Mesmer.' " 
 
 This long quotation was necessary to show in its true 
 light the conduct of the Academy towards the novator ; all 
 his sacrifices of self, fortune, rest, and comfort — all his 
 concessions, troubles, and cares, availed him nothing; 
 they did not even condescend to answer his letter ! 
 24 
 
278 PSYCODUNAMY, 
 
 His having failed in finding support in one of the scien- 
 tific bodies of Paris, should perhaps have prevented Mes- 
 mer from seeking the approval of any other ; but the con- 
 sciousness of the importance of his pursuits prevailed over 
 every other consideration. Discarding all pride, he again 
 asked the Royal Society of Medicine of Paris to appoint a 
 committee to investigate the matter. They consented to 
 devote some time to an examination of his system, provi- 
 ded they themselves were allowed to examine the patients 
 previously to their treatment. 
 
 This having been agreed upon, Mesmer presented Miss 
 L*** to Messrs. Maudruit and Andry, deputed by the So- 
 ciety to examine the patients. This young lady was sub- 
 ject to epileptic fits, which succeeded each other so fre- 
 quently that tw r o of them took place in the presence of the 
 committee. Nevertheless, they declined to make any 
 statement, on the ground that epilepsy may be feigned with 
 such skill as to deceive even the best physician, and that 
 the persons and medical men whose attestations were 
 presented, might have done so by mere complaisance. 
 Three subjects, one a paralytic, another blind, the third 
 deaf, were rejected on the same ground. Mesmer, con- 
 vinced at last that men who thus doubted their own 
 ability of ascertaining the truth of a disease, would doubt 
 still more when requested to pronounce on the restoration 
 of health, thought it would be better to submit at once the 
 certificates of physicians and the testimony of witnesses 
 to the judgment of the whole Academy. He acted ac- 
 cordingly, and received from M. Yicq d'Azyr, the secretary 
 of the Royal Society of Medicine, the following letter in 
 return : — 
 
 " Paris, May 6th, 1778. 
 " Sir, — The Royal Society of Medicine required from 
 me, in their yesterday's meeting, to send you back the cer- 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 279 
 
 tificates which had been transmitted to them by you, un- 
 der the same seal, which they have been careful not to 
 have broken. The committee which had been appointed, 
 according to your request, to follow your experiments, can- 
 not and will not make any report without having them- 
 selves made a thorough examination of the patients. Your 
 letter states that you believe that certificates from other 
 quarters may seem to us a sufficient evidence. But the 
 company, as their only answer, send back these pieces, 
 and request me to announce to you that they have dis- 
 charged the committee they had granted at first. They 
 feel that it is their duty to be very cautious before pro- 
 nouncing on new assertions, and they will never consent 
 to pass any judgment on facts that appear to them wrapped 
 up in mystery, and where restrictions are imposed on the 
 way in which they think proper to conduct their investiga- 
 tion. They owe to themselves this circumspection, and 
 they consider it a law from which they cannot depart. 
 " Very respectfully, yours, 
 
 " Vicq, d'Azyr." 
 
 Any man less persevering than Mesmer, and less con- 
 fident in his hopes of surmounting all obstacles, would 
 have been satisfied, after such a letter, that it was useless 
 to persist ; but he persisted, and wrote again as follows : 
 
 " To M. Vicq, d'Azyr, Secretary of the Royal Society of Medicine. 
 
 " Creteil, May 12th, 1778. 
 
 " Sir, — My sole intention at all times has been to demon- 
 strate the existence and usefulness of the principle on 
 which I had the honor of speaking to the Royal Society 
 of Medicine ; and I would have been the first in request- 
 ing the examination of the committee, if the diseases of 
 the patients, whose certificates were sent to the Academy, 
 could have been ascertained in any other manner. Messrs, 
 
280 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 Mauduit and Andry, members of the committee, thought, 
 like me, when they rejected an epileptic, a paralytic, a blind 
 and a deaf person, that there are cases in which apparent 
 signs are not sufficient to enable us to state beyond doubt 
 all the particulars of a disease. I have accordingly been 
 compelled to choose, among all means, those which ap- 
 peared to me most likely to meet the views and approval 
 of the Royal Society, in requesting from the patients who 
 consented to put their confidence in me, that they should 
 furnish me with certificates from and attestations signed 
 by physicians of the Faculty of Paris, in order to enable 
 the Royal Society to judge the worth of my means so soon 
 as time and circumstances would permit me to call for the 
 examination of the results. 
 
 " According to those reflections which I expect from 
 your kindness that you will submit to the Society, I hope 
 the committee will not refuse their examination in proper 
 time, and that the Society will confer on me the same fa- 
 vors as they did during my stay at Paris. I will always 
 be ready to defer to the superiority of their knowledge, 
 and request you to present them with the sincere expres- 
 sions of my highest regard. 
 
 " Very respectfully, yours, 
 
 "Mesmer." 
 
 Every one will confess that moderation and respect are 
 the characteristics of this answer. The two following 
 letters will show the result. 
 
 " To M. Vicq d'Azyr, Secretary of the Royal Society of Medicine 
 of Paris. 
 
 " Creteil, August 20th, 1778. 
 " Sir, — Confident that the members of your learned So- 
 ciety have received, through your mediation, my commu- 
 nication of the 12th of last May, I take this early oppor- 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 281 
 
 tunity to invite your committee to come and examine for 
 themselves the results of my treatment. I will feel par- 
 ticularly indebted to you, if you deign to let me know the 
 day and hour they will choose, so as to find me ready to 
 receive them with due regard. 
 
 "Very respectfully, yours, 
 
 " Mesmer." 
 
 " To Mr. Mesmer. 
 
 "Paris, August Ttth, 1778. 
 " I have submitted to the Society your letter of the 20th 
 instant. This body, who have not taken cognizance of 
 the cases treated by you, cannot give an opinion on the 
 matter. 
 
 "Very respectfully, etc., 
 
 " Vicq d'Azyr." 
 
 This put an end to the attempt of Mesmer to secure the 
 good-will of the Royal Society of Medicine. However, 
 if the committee had consented to visit his establishment 
 at Creteil, they would have ascertained that positive cures 
 had been performed on persons whose veracity, high stand- 
 ing, and character could not be questioned ; such were 
 those of M. le Chevalier du Haussay, Madame de Berny, 
 and Madame de la Malmaison. I will quote them, and let 
 my readers judge for themselves. 
 
 This is M. du Haussay's own statement : — 
 
 " Justice demands that I should give to the public the 
 particulars of my disease, and of the effects produced on 
 me by the proceedings of Dr. Mesmer. 
 
 " On the night of the 24th of December, 1757, I was 
 
 with the rest of the army in the encampment before the 
 
 town of Zell, in Hanover ; fatigue and want of rest for 
 
 several days overcame me, and I slept on the snow, during 
 
 24* 
 
282 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 an exceedingly cold night. When the drum beat to arms, 
 two grenadiers raised me up, for at first I was unable to 
 move, much less to stand on my feet. But soon the ex- 
 citement of the action, and the natural energy of health 
 and youth, overcame the consequences of my imprudence. 
 The war ended without much perceptible injury to my 
 system, but two years after the peace was concluded I 
 experienced a very severe disease in the chest, which the 
 constant use of milk succeeded in removing. 
 
 " Some time after, a kind of humor appeared on my 
 face ; it rapidly increased and covered the whole front, 
 the eyes, the nose, and the cheeks. Physicians tried 
 uselessly to remedy this disorder. I perceived that it not 
 only grew worse, but my legs began to refuse me their 
 support. However, I went in 1772 to Martinique, where 
 the typhus fever reduced me to the last extremity. It 
 ended in a general paralysis, which compelled me to go 
 back to France, in hope of finding there some relief from 
 my infirmities. After 'four years of useless experiments 
 and the constant attendance of eminent physicians, among 
 whom I can name several members of the Royal Society 
 of Medicine of Paris, who personally know me and my 
 case, I consented, as a last resort, to accept the proposi- 
 tion of Dr. Mesmer to try the proceedings of a method 
 heretofore unknown. When I arrived at his establish- 
 ment, my head was constantly shaking — my neck was bent 
 forward — my eyes were protruding from their sockets and 
 greatly inflamed — my tongue was paralyzed, and it was 
 with the utmost difficulty that I could speak — a perpetual 
 and involuntary laugh distorted my mouth — my cheeks and 
 nose were of a red purple — my respiration was very much 
 embarrassed, and I suffered a constant pain between my 
 shoulders ; all my body trembled, and my legs tottered 
 most awkwardly. In a word, my gait was that of an old 
 drunkard, rather than that of a man of forty. 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 283 
 
 " I know nothing about the nature of the means resorted 
 to by Dr. Mesmer ; but that which I can say with the 
 greatest truth, is, that without using any kind of drugs, or 
 other remedy than ' Animal Magnetism? as he styles it, 
 he made me feel the most extraordinary sensations from 
 head to foot. I experienced a crisis characterized by a 
 cold so intense that it seemed to me that ice was coming 
 out from my limbs ; this was followed by a great heat, and 
 a perspiration of a very fetid nature, and so abundant at 
 times as to cause my mattresses to be wet through. This 
 crisis lasted over a month : since that time I have rapidly 
 recovered, and now, after about four months, I stand erect 
 and easy — my head is firm and upright — my tongue moves 
 very well, and I speak as plainly as anybody — my nose, 
 eyes, and cheeks are natural — my color announces my 
 age and good health — my respiration is free — my chest has 
 expanded — I feel no pain whatever — my limbs are steady 
 and vigorous — I walk very quick, without any care, and 
 with ease — my digestion and appetite are excellent — in a 
 word, I am perfectly free from all infirmities. 
 
 " I certify that this statement is in every particular con- 
 formable to truth. Given under my hand and seal, at 
 Paris, the 28th of August, 1778. 
 
 (Signed,) 
 
 "Ch. du Haussay, 
 " Major of infantry, and Knight of the royal and 
 
 military order of St. Louis." 
 
 The following is the narrative of Madame de Berny, as 
 given by herself : — 
 
 " Madame de Berny, fifty-five years of age, while at 
 Bareges, in July, 1776, suddenly lost her sight, as if a 
 cloud had spread itself between the external world and 
 herself. She went to the city of Auch, where the cloud 
 
284 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 appeared to grow darker, and where the physicians resort- 
 ed to bleeding, purging, fumigating, bathing, &c, to no 
 purpose. 
 
 " She returned to Paris towards the end of the ensuing 
 August, and consulted four celebrated physicians, who 
 prescribed successively the use of the vapor of karabe, 
 of coffee, blisters, ipecac, and Vichy waters. The disease 
 still grew worse. In April, 1778, she was totally blind — 
 she felt a constant fatigue and weakness of her limbs — her 
 sleep was very often broken by violent headaches — her ears 
 were dry, and experienced a constant buzzing — no percep- 
 tible perspiration in any circumstances — a permanent and 
 painful costivenessof the bowels — a frequent and distressing 
 spasmodic contraction of the throat and stomach, which 
 would several times during the day cause violent vomiting 
 — extreme emaciation, and lowness of spirits. 
 
 " Such was her situation when she consulted Mr. Mes- 
 mer, who thought that the general disorder was the conse- 
 quence of some obstruction in the organs of the abdomen, 
 which obstruction he considered as susceptible of being 
 removed. 
 
 " This opinion was also expressed by Dr. Petit, mem- 
 ber of the Royal Society of Medicine, who, as far as two 
 years previous, had detected the principle of this obstruc- 
 tion. Madame de Berny accordingly went to Creteil to 
 try the method of Dr. Mesmer. 
 
 " This account of my situation, which I declare true and 
 faithfully drawn, will show what benefit I derived from the 
 attendance of Mr. Mesmer. From the 28th of April to 
 the present day, I have made use of no remedy of any 
 kind, but the application of the new principle of ' Animal 
 Magnetism.'' My eyes are so well, that not only am I able 
 to go alone everywhere, and perceive objects near or re- 
 mote, but I read and write without any trouble or difficulty. 
 Sleep and appetite are restored. I feel no pain whatever. 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 285 
 
 I walk with ease and without fatigue — my bowels are free 
 and regular — my ears are natural, and without buzzing — - 
 the spasms of the throat and stomach have disappeared — 
 the obstructions are gone, and my flow of spirits is re- 
 markably good. 
 
 " A proper sense of justice and gratitude has prompted, 
 this certificate, without, on that account, having induced 
 me to depart in the slightest degree from the simple and 
 naked truth. 
 
 " Given under my hand and seal, at Creteil, the 28th 
 day of August, 1778. 
 
 (Signed) " C. Menjot de Berny." 
 
 The disease of Madame de la Malmaison was described 
 by herself as follows : 
 
 " I am thirty-eight years of age. My health, till I was 
 married, was very good. But several miscarriages began 
 to impair it. I experienced frequent vomiting and swoons ; 
 aversion to food, headaches, fits of violent cough, and ex- 
 pectoration of blood. My legs refused to me, after a while, 
 their natural support; and till 1777, I had uselessly tried 
 to alleviate my sufferings. At that time, a fall from a car- 
 riage tore my legs so dreadfully as to leave the tendons 
 open ; the spells of vomiting increased violently — my legs 
 grew thinner, exceedingly cold, contracted, and a com- 
 plete paralysis extended itself as far as the hips. 
 
 " M. Leroi, the President of the Academy of Sciences, 
 attended me, and succeeded to a certain degree in allevi- 
 ating the trouble of my stomach, but the paralysis re- 
 mained unaltered, and my nervous spasms did not diminish. 
 
 " Such was my situation when I accepted the attend- 
 ance of Dr. Mesmer. From the first of May till the pres- 
 ent day, I have remained in his establishment at Creteil ; 
 and without having used any other remedy than ' Animal 
 
 :i 
 
286 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 Magnetism, 1 my health has been completely restored. I 
 enjoy the ability of walking without any support, and of 
 mounting and descending the stairs with great ease ; my 
 legs are as fleshy as before the beginning of my disease, 
 and my spasms* have entirely left me. 
 
 " Given under my hand, at Creteil, the 30th of August, 
 1778. 
 
 (Signed) 
 " Douet de Vichy, Countess de la Malmaison." 
 
 Facts so positive and evident as the foregoing need no 
 comment. Mesmer, in proving by them the reality and 
 excellence of his method, was, at the same time, over- 
 throwing the old practice, which, in spite of its insuffi- 
 ciency, was looked upon with reverence and respect; He 
 had demonstrated that a new field was open in the most 
 important science, the art of healing ; he had created phe- 
 nomena unknown to the learned, and which were destined 
 to show the emptiness of many of their scientific explana- 
 tions. This was too much, not to draw upon him the 
 combined hatred and persecution of the physicians and 
 philosophers of his age. It was in consequence of these 
 achievements that he was publicly pronounced by them an 
 impostor and a charlatan ! 
 
 Nevertheless, he had gained the friendship of some 
 eminent men, and particularly of M. d'Eslon, member of 
 the Royal Society of Medicine, and Dr. Regent, of the 
 Faculty of Paris, and first physician of the Count d'Artois, 
 brother of the king of France. The interest that Dr. 
 d'Eslon showed for Mesmer ; the constancy with which 
 he supported Magnetism whenever it was attacked in his 
 presence ; the courage he exhibited in speaking in favor 
 of it before the assembly of the members of the Faculty ; 
 and lastly, his earnest entreaties to Mesmer to submit his 
 discovery to the latter body, induced the Novator to make 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 287 
 
 another effort to obtain the approval of men whom experi- 
 ence should have warned him to avoid. Accordingly, on 
 the 30th of March, 1779, he wrote to Dr. d'Eslon the fol- 
 lowing letter : 
 
 " Dear Sir — You appeared, after having read the man- 
 uscript which I communicated to you, to wish to know 
 what would be my subsequent intentions. I will briefly 
 explain them in this letter. 
 
 " I will publish this manuscript in Paris, and all places 
 where error and prejudice may have worked against my 
 doctrine and myself ; but before I take this step, I wish 
 to present it in particular to the Faculty of Paris, as a to- 
 ken of respect. The learned members who compose your 
 society will readily perceive that my principles have 
 nothing in common with ordinary specifics and the pro- 
 ductions of quackery ; and if' they are as anxious to see 
 the developments of my theory as you appeared to be 
 yourself, and to propagate it, I will wait with deference 
 till they consent to point out to me the means of securing 
 this important result, and shall show them my readiness 
 to promote their views. 
 
 " Very respectfully, yours, 
 
 "Mesmer." 
 
 Here is a translation of the manuscript of Mesmer : — - 
 
 " It is natural in man to make observations ; from his 
 infancy, his constant occupation is to observe, in order to 
 make a proper use of his organs. The eye, for instance, 
 would prove useless, if nature had not directed man to no- 
 tice the different appearances in the objects which it re- 
 veals. It is through the alternate effects caused by its 
 enjoyment and privation, that he knows light and dark- 
 ness, and appreciates the gradations of colors and shade ; 
 yet he would remain in ignorance as to the distance, size 
 
288 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 and form of objects in general, if by comparing and com- 
 bining the impressions perceived through other organs, he 
 should not, learn how to rectify the one by the other. Ac- 
 cordingly, the sensations of man are the result of his hav- 
 ing observed and reflected on the impressions made upon 
 his organs. 
 
 " Thus our first years pass away in acquiring the just 
 and prompt use of our senses. Our disposition to observe, 
 enables us to improve ourselves ; and perfection in our 
 faculties is the consequence of their constant application. 
 
 " In the infinite number of objects which present them- 
 selves successively to us, our attention is particularly at- 
 tracted by those which make the most vivid impression 
 on the senses. 
 
 " Observation of natural effects, universally produced, 
 and perceived by everybody, is not the business alone 
 of philosophers. Personal interest makes good observers 
 in all classes of society ; these observations, multiplied 
 and collected at all times and in all countries by every- 
 body, leave in our minds no more, perhaps less, doubt of 
 their truth, than when made by philosophers only ; for 
 the activity of their minds, and their thirst for knowledge, 
 are never satisfied. In their endeavors to perfect their 
 acquirements, they abandon observation, and replace it by 
 speculations vague and at times frivolous ; they form and 
 accumulate systems, the sole merit of which lies in their 
 mysterious abstraction ; they gradually abandon truth, lose 
 sight of it, and substitute for its pure light, the tinsel of 
 ignorance and superstition.* 
 
 " Human sciences, when thus adulterated, preserve noth 
 ing of the reality which characterized their origin. 
 
 * Is it not strange that Mesmer, immediately after having made so 
 sensible a remark, should himself lose sight of observation and truth, to 
 substitute for them a mysterious theory ? 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 289 
 
 " Philosophy has sometimes labored to disengage itself 
 from error and prejudices ; but in pulling down scientific 
 edifices, she has devoted the ruins to contempt and obliv- 
 ion, without stopping to save from the wreck the primitive 
 and valuable truth. 
 
 " We find among all nations opinions which present 
 themselves to-day under a form so little beneficial and 
 honorable to mankind, that it is not probable that they 
 have preserved their original features. 
 
 " Imposture on one hand, and ignorance on the other, 
 are insufficient to account for the unanimous adoption of 
 systems so evidently absurd and ridiculous as some of 
 those which we notice at the present time. Truth alone, 
 and general interest, must have secured their universality. 
 
 " According to the foregoing considerations, I made a 
 particular study of the old doctrine of Astrology ; and I 
 published in 1766, at Vienna, a dissertation on the influence 
 of the planets on the human body. Conformably to the 
 principles of universal attraction, which show how planets 
 act upon each other in their orbits, and how the sun and 
 moon cause and direct on our globe the ebbing and flow- 
 ing of the tide, and influence the atmosphere, I demon- 
 strated that they exert also a direct action on all the parts 
 of animated bodies, and particularly on the nervous sys- 
 tem, through a fluid which pervades the whole universe. 
 
 " I explained this action by the intention and the remis- 
 sion of the general properties of matter and organic bodies, 
 such as gravity, cohesion, affinity, elasticity, porosity, and 
 electricity. 
 
 " I remarked that in the same manner as alternate ef- 
 fects of gravity produce in the ocean the phenomena of 
 the tide, intention and remission of the aforesaid proper- 
 ties are subjected to the action of the same principle, and 
 occasion, in like manner, alternate effects in animals. In 
 consequence of these considerations, I designated as 
 25 
 
290 PSYCODU^AMY. 
 
 1 Animal Magnetism? the fluid that emanates from the ce- 
 lestial spheres, and which affects animated bodies ; and 
 by this ' Magnetism? I accounted for the periodical revolu- 
 tions observable in females, and all those that physicians 
 of all ages and countries have noticed in diseases. 
 
 " My object was only to call the attention of physicians 
 to the subject ; but instead of having succeeded, I was 
 considered as a man who covets singularity — a systematic 
 man, who affected to scorn the trodden path of ordinary 
 medicine. 
 
 " I never dissembled my conviction that we have not 
 made, in the art of healing, the progress that physicians 
 boast of ; and any candid observer will confess that the 
 more we advance in the knowledge of the machinery and 
 economy of the human system, the more we are compelled 
 to acknowledge how inadequate and unsuitable are the or- 
 dinary medical resources. The last discoveries made on 
 the nature and particular action of the nerves, remove all 
 doubts on that point. We know they are the agents of 
 sensations and motions, yet we do not know how to re- 
 store their natural functions, when they are destroyed or 
 perverted. The ignorance of preceding ages may be ad- 
 mitted as an excuse for physicians of days gone by, but 
 we can no longer entertain the superstitious confidence 
 they themselves possessed, which rendered them des- 
 potic and presumptuous by inspiring the public mind with 
 equal confidence in their formulas. 
 
 " I have too high a regard for Nature, to believe that 
 the preservation of man depends only on the uncertain 
 virtue of drugs which vague observations and chance alone 
 have caused to be admitted in the ' Materia medica, 1 and to 
 become there the exclusive patrimony of a (ew individuals. 
 
 " Nature has abundantly provided for the means of ex- 
 istence. Reproduction is effected without system or art ; 
 why should our preservation be deprived of the same ad- 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 291 
 
 vantage ? Do we find among inferior animals any neces- 
 sity for drugs ? 
 
 " A needle which is not magnetic will not, if set in mo- 
 tion, take a constant direction, while the magnetic needle, 
 after oscillating for a while, will resume its former place. 
 Thus, whenever the harmony of animated bodies is dis- 
 turbed, chance alone will answer for the consequences, 
 unless it is restored and determined by the general agent, 
 the existence of which I have admitted. That agent alone 
 can account for the preservation of harmony, as well as 
 for its re-establishment. This accounts for the fact that 
 diseases grow worse or are cured with or without the use 
 of drugs, and independently of different medical theories 
 and the most opposite methods of treatment. From these 
 considerations it follows as an axiom, ' that there exists in 
 nature a universally acting principle, which alone and by 
 its own virtue effects that which is indiscriminately refer- 
 red to medical science.' 
 
 " These reflections caused me to leave the beaten path. 
 I have submitted my ideas to the test of twelve years' de- 
 votion to experiments conducted with the utmost diffidence 
 and prudence ; and I have at last obtained the satisfaction 
 of establishing the truth of my principles, which at first I 
 had but conjectured. 
 
 " My successive attempts to establish their reality and 
 importance have failed heretofore ; but I am determined to 
 make another effort to give to my assertions an extent and 
 evidence in which formerly they were, perhaps, deficient. 
 
 Propositions. 
 
 1. " There exists a natural influence between celestial 
 bodies, the earth, and living beings. 
 
 2. " A fluid universally diffused and filling every void, 
 
292 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 rare beyond all comparison, and in its nature fitted to re- 
 ceive, propagate, and communicate, all the impulses of 
 motion, is the medium of that influence. 
 
 3. " This reciprocal action is obedient to certain me- 
 chanical laws, at present unknown. 
 
 4. " There result from this action certain alternate ef- 
 fects, which may be considered as a flux and reflux. 
 
 5. " This flux and reflux are more or less general, more 
 or less particular, more or less compound, according to the 
 nature of the causes which determine them. 
 
 6. "It is by this operation (the most universal that we 
 see in nature) that the celestial bodies, the earth, and their 
 constituent parts, mutually affect each other. 
 
 7. " The properties of matter and of organized bodies 
 depend upon this operation. 
 
 8. " The animal body experiences the alternate effects 
 of this agent, and it is by insinuating itself into the sub- 
 stance of the nerves that it immediately affects them. 
 
 9. " There are manifested, particularly in the human 
 body, certain properties analogous to those of the magnet ; 
 there may be distinguished certain poles, equally different 
 and opposite, which may be connected together, destroyed, 
 and reinforced. The phenomenon of inclination is to be 
 observed. 
 
 10. " That property of the animal body which renders 
 it susceptible of the influence of celestial bodies, and of a 
 reciprocal action with those which surround it, manifesting 
 its analogy to the magnet, was the reason for naming it 
 Animal Magnetism. 
 
 11. "The action and the virtue of Animal Magnetism 
 thus characterized, may be communicated to other animate 
 and inanimate bodies ; the one and the other, however, 
 being more or less susceptible. 
 
 12. " This action and this virtue can be reinforced and 
 propagated by the same body. 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 293 
 
 13. " We observe, by experience, the efflux of a matter, 
 of which the subtilty penetrates all bodies, apparently 
 without loss of its activity. 
 
 14. " Its action extends to a great distance, without as- 
 sistance from any intermediate object. 
 
 15. " It is augmented and reflected by mirrors, like 
 light. 
 
 16. "It is communicated, propagated, and augmented 
 by sound. 
 
 17. " This magnetic virtue can be accumulated, con- 
 centrated, and transported. 
 
 18. " Animated bodies are not equally susceptible ; and 
 there are some, though rare, which have a property so op- 
 posite, that their presence destroys all the effects of Mag- 
 netism in other bodies. 
 
 19. " This opposite virtue likewise penetrates all bodies ; 
 it can equally be communicated, propagated, accumulated, 
 concentrated, transported, reflected by mirrors, and propa- 
 gated by sound. This constitutes not merely a negative, 
 but a positive and opposite power. 
 
 20. " The magnet, whether natural or artificial, is like- 
 wise, with other bodies, susceptible of Animal Magnetism, 
 and also of the opposite power ; without, in either case, 
 undergoing any alteration in its action upon iron or the 
 needle ; which proves that the principle of Animal, is es- 
 sentially different from that of Mineral Magnetism. 
 
 21. " This system will furnish new elucidations of the 
 nature of fire and of light, of the theory of attraction, of 
 the flux and reflux of the magnet, and of electricity. 
 
 22. " It will explain that the magnet and electricity 
 only have, with respect to disease, properties common to 
 many other agents in nature, and if some useful effects 
 have resulted from their employment, these are due to 
 Animal Magnetism. 
 
 23. " We see from facts that this principle, employed 
 
 25* 
 
294 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 according to certain established practical rules, can cure 
 diseases of the nerves immediately, and others mediately. 
 
 24. " With its aid the physician is enlightened as to the 
 use of remedies ; he assists their action, and excites and 
 directs salutary crises, so as to render them subject to his 
 command. 
 
 25. " In communicating my method, I will show, by a" 
 new theory of diseases, the universal utility of the princi- 
 ple which I oppose to them. 
 
 26. " With this knowledge, the physician will judge 
 with certainty as to the origin, the nature, and the progress 
 of diseases, even the most complicated ; he will prevent 
 their increase, and arrive at a cure without ever exposing 
 the patient to dangerous or disagreeable consequences ; 
 such as occur from age, temperament, and sex. Females, 
 even when pregnant, and at the time of delivery, will enjoy 
 the same advantages. 
 
 27. " Finally, this doctrine places the physician in a 
 state to judge correctly of the degree of health of each in- 
 dividual, and to preserve him from the diseases to which 
 he may be exposed ; the art of healing will thus arrive at 
 its utmost perfection. 
 
 " Although my constant observation during twelve years 
 gives me the assurance that all these twenty-seven propo- 
 sitions are correct in every particular, I easily conceive 
 that my system will at first appear more like illusion than 
 reality ; for it opposes admitted principles, and rejects, as 
 useless, notions considered as highly important. But I 
 beg enlightened persons to set aside for awhile all preju- 
 dices, and to defer their judgment till circumstances shall 
 permit me to give to my principles the evidence of which 
 they are susceptible. The consideration of the number 
 of men who languish in distress, from the sole insufficien- 
 cy of the common remedies, is calculated to inspire the 
 desire and hope that some better means may be found. 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 295 
 
 " Physicians, as natural trustees of public confidence 
 for those things which are most conducive to the preser- 
 vation and happiness of mankind, are alone capable of 
 fully appreciating the importance of my discovery and fore- 
 seeing all its consequences, as they alone can practise it. 
 
 " If this short summary still presents some difficulties or 
 obscurities, it will be easily understood that they are of a 
 nature not to be removed by mere arguments, but by expe- 
 rience alone. Experience will cause all clouds to disap- 
 pear, and surround with clear light this important truth — 
 That Nature offers a sure and universal remedy for the 
 physical sufferings of mankind." 
 
 Such are the celebrated propositions of Mesmer. By 
 comparing them with the extracts that I have quoted from 
 Paracelsus, Van Helmont, Wirdig, and Maxwell, my read- 
 ers will ascertain that his theory was not a new one. It 
 is merely a compound of the ideas of those writers, and 
 of which he gave only a more full development. 
 
 However, to resume our historical sketch : of the many 
 physicians invited by Dr. d'Eslon, only three members of 
 the Faculty of Paris consented to follow the experiments 
 of Mesmer. They were Messrs. Bertrand, Malloet, and 
 Sollier de la Rominais. 
 
 The first subject presented to them was a paralytic, 
 who had lost, besides the power of motion, all appreciable 
 heat and sensibility of the inferior limbs. After eight days' 
 treatment, natural heat and sensibility, but only imperfect 
 motion, were already obtained. — The production of heat and 
 sensibility, so long as motion remains imperfect, cannot be 
 called a cure — was the scientific verdict of the candid ob- 
 servers ; and because circumstances independent of the 
 will of Mesmer, prevented him from showing what would 
 have been the ultimate result, if the experiment had been 
 protracted during a longer period, they declared that this 
 first trial proved nothing in favor of his method. 
 
296 PSYCODUNAMY 
 
 The second subject was another paralytic, who had lost 
 entirely the use of his right side. He was brought to 
 Mesmer upon a handbarrow, on the 20th of January, and 
 on the 20th of the ensuing March he was able to walk 
 about and use his hand without help, although there still 
 remained some comparatively trifling difficulty. This case 
 made considerable impression on the public, but none on 
 Messrs. Bertrand, Malloet, and Sollier, who would not 
 change their verdict ; — they confessed, nevertheless, that 
 the progress in the motion of the hand was particularly 
 remarkable ; — but, so far, the results obtained could not be 
 called a perfect cure. 
 
 The third subject was a young lady, who had lost her 
 sight in consequence of an obstruction in the glands of the 
 breast having suddenly disappeared. After six weeks' 
 treatment the sight and general health were completely 
 restored. — It was admitted that she could see perfectly ; — 
 but, at the same time, the observers declared that they were 
 not satisfied about her having lost her sight at all, alleging 
 that her blindness was, perhaps, only feigned. 
 
 A fourth patient was an officer in the French army, 
 who was afflicted with constipation of very long standing, 
 and which had resisted all known remedies. It had 
 plunged him into a melancholy so deplorable, that for a 
 year previous the thought of suicide had haunted his mind. 
 In a month his cure was perfected ; the bowels had be- 
 come very regular, and the natural gayety of the officer 
 had replaced his habitual dejection. — It was true that a 
 real change in the digestive functions and in the spirits 
 had taken place ; — -but why should the treatment of Mesmer 
 reap the honor of the cure, since, very often, nature alone 
 produces similar results ? 
 
 A fifth case was a young lady, whose scrofulous dis- 
 position was evident — obstruction of the glands — the sight 
 of one eye completely lost — ulcerations on the other eye — 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 297 
 
 and continual discharge of purulent matter from the eye- 
 lids. After two months the sight of both eyes was re- 
 stored, and no scrofulous symptoms could any longer be 
 detected. — The cure was evident. — But where is the proof 
 that is was due to Animal Magnetism ? Does not experi- 
 ence demonstrate that at the age of this young lady, na- 
 ture alone has in some instances restored health without 
 the aid of any remedies whatever 1 
 
 A sixth case was one of deafness. The patient had 
 been dismissed from the military service on account of his 
 infirmity. After three months he could hear as well as 
 anybody. — That the patient could hear, no one would de- 
 ny ; — but that he was deaf previously, they had no evidence. 
 For it is certain, that to be dismissed from the military 
 service, many persons have successfully feigned deafness ; 
 and, perhaps, such was the case with the latter patient. 
 
 I could relate many more facts, but these are suf- 
 ficient to show the intention of the observers. At last, 
 after seven months of unremitted exertions, and of constant 
 and wonderful success, on the part of Mesmer, the exam- 
 iners came to the following conclusion : " It is very diffi- 
 cult in all cases, if not impossible, to pronounce whether 
 a cure is the result of art or of nature alone. According- 
 ly, we would prefer to see experiments made without any 
 previous preparation, in order to establish that Magnetism 
 produces undeniable and immediate effects." His inde- 
 fatigable perseverance induced Mesmer not to abandon the 
 field ; and in order to secure his triumph, in spite of every 
 obstacle, he agreed that Messrs. Bertrand, Malloet, and 
 Sollier, should themselves select some patients, and bring 
 them to him, to be submitted to the magnetic treatment. 
 On the appointed day, the three examiners were punctual ; 
 but they declared that they had been unable to find such 
 patients as they wished, so Mesmer experimented that day 
 on those only that Dr. d'Eslon had brought with him. 
 
298 PSYCGDUNAMY. 
 
 This is the narrative of the sitting, as related by Mes- 
 mer himself: 
 
 " 1st Experiment. — The subject was the Baron d'Ande- 
 lau, colonel of the regiment of Nassau-Sarbruck ; his dis- 
 ease, asthma. 
 
 " I said I would not touch the patient, in order to show 
 that immediate touching was not necessary to produce ef- 
 fects. At a distance of four or five steps, I directed to- 
 wards the chest the rod of iron that I held in my hand. 
 The faculty of breathing was soon suspended, and he 
 would have fainted if I had not, at his own request, 
 stopped my action. He declared that he felt so distinctly 
 the different currents that. I caused in him, that he could 
 with his eyes closed tell the direction of my rod. The 
 experiment took place, and he described in the most cor- 
 rect maimer all my motions. 
 
 " 2d Experiment. The subject was M. Verdun, attorney, 
 living in Richelieu-street, near the Palais Royal ; his dis- 
 ease, neuralgia. 
 
 " The directing my rod of iron towards him, caused him 
 to tremble violently ; the face was red ; the suffocation 
 grew imminent ; the perspiration became profuse ; he 
 fainted, and fell senseless on a sofa. 
 
 " 3d Experiment. The subject was Miss de Belancourt 
 de Beauvais, twenty-two years of age ; her disease, paral- 
 ysis. 
 
 " I directed my rod towards the head ; the pain caused 
 by it was sudden and violent. I gave her some respite. 
 I offered to give evidence that the seat of the disease was 
 not in the head, but in both sides ; and accordingly I di- 
 rected the rod to the right. The pain was more violent 
 and more instantaneous than on the first trial. I let the 
 patient alone for awhile, in order to calm her ; but as I 
 had the conviction that the left side and the spleen itself 
 was the place most affected, I remarked, before making 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 299 
 
 the experiment, that a difference in the results would this 
 time be perceptible. As soon as the point of my rod was 
 directed to the left side, Miss Belancourt staggered and 
 fell in a fit of violent convulsions. I had her removed, 
 and devoted my attention to restore her, without protract- 
 ing experiments which my readers, perhaps, will consider 
 as already too barbarous. 
 
 " 4th Experiment. The subject of it was M. de Crussol, 
 who had come only as a spectator, and who, during the 
 interval of the first and second trial on Miss Belancourt, 
 asked me if I thought I could affect him. I inquired of 
 him if he had any disease. He answered, ' Yes ; but I 
 would prefer to leave you in ignorance of what it is, in 
 order to know if you could cause a return of the parox- 
 ysm.' I consented. 
 
 " I directed the iron towards his side, and caused there 
 a heat so considerable, that he requested several persons 
 to try if it could not be felt. When I pointed my rod to- 
 wards his head, he exclaimed that what he experienced was 
 the exact nervous pain to which he was subject. He was 
 very uneasy, being fearful lest the paroxysm I had caused 
 should last fifteen days as usual, and he again anxiously 
 asked me if I could remove the mischief I had occasioned. 
 I answered affirmatively, and in a few minutes my success 
 was complete." 
 
 The suddenness and violence of the effects produced, 
 were evident enough to convince the most skeptical of the 
 power that Mesmer possessed. But, incredible as it may 
 appear, Messrs. Bertrand, Malloet, and Sollier, said only 
 that the facts were certainly astonishing, but not con- 
 clusive. 
 
 It was at this period that Dr. d'Eslon published his 
 *' Observations on Magnetism" (July, 1780,) in which he 
 comes openly forward in its favor, and relates very accu- 
 rately the facts on which his entire conviction was found- 
 
300 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 ed. He did not stop there ; on the 18th of September, in 
 the same year, he caused a general meeting of the mem- 
 bers of the Faculty to be held expressly for the reading 
 and discussion of the " Propositions of Mesmer" He read 
 them, and concluded by asking authority to make, in the 
 public hospitals, comparative experiments on twenty-four 
 patients ; one half of the number to be treated by Magnet- 
 ism, the other by ordinary medicine. 
 
 A general and contemptuous laugh, and expressions of 
 undisguised indignation, was the only reception that Dr. 
 d'Eslon's proposition met with. M. de Vauzesmes, a very 
 young doctor, made himself particularly conspicuous by 
 the violence of his attack against the friend of Mesmer. 
 The Dean of the Faculty pronounced the following and 
 immediate decision of the assembly : — 
 
 " 1st. Injunction, requiring M. d'Eslon to be, in future, 
 more circumspect. 
 
 " 2d. Suspension, during one year, of the right of voting 
 in the assembly of the members of the Medical Faculty. 
 
 "3d. Erasement from the list of the members of the 
 Faculty, if after one year he has not made a public dis- 
 avowal of his work, ' Observations on Magnetism.' 
 
 "4th. Rejection, in full, of the Propositions of M. 
 Mesmer." 
 
 Mesmer, unprepared for such an event, despairing a? 
 length, resolved to quit France, after he should have com- 
 pleted the cure of some patients whom, without inhuman- 
 ity, he could not abandon. This news spread through 
 Paris, and even reached the ears of the royal family. The 
 queen, whose opinion was in favor of the Novator, made 
 some efforts to determine him to remain. On the 28th of 
 March, 1781, M. de Maurepas, prime minister, was com- 
 missioned to offer to Mesmer, in the name of the govern- 
 ment, an annual pension of twenty thousand francs, and 
 another annual sura of ten thousand for the rent of a suit-: 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 301 
 
 able residence, where he should, as the only condition for 
 so great a favor, admit a limited number of patients, when 
 officially requested, and form pupils for the propagation of 
 his doctrine. 
 
 If Mesmer's only purpose had been that of filling his 
 own coffers, as his enemies pretended, assuredly he had a 
 rare and excellent opportunity of doing so by accepting 
 this splendid offer. But he refused, positively refused, 
 and on the following day, 29th of March, he wrote to the 
 queen of France a letter, in which, among his respectful 
 expressions of devotion and heartfelt gratitude for the fa- 
 vors intended him, he states the true motives of his refu- 
 sal : " My intentions," says he, " when I came to France, 
 were not to make my fortune, but to secure for my discov- 
 ery the unqualified approval of the most scientific men of 
 this age. And I will accept of no reward, so long as I 
 have not obtained this approval ; for fame, and the glory 
 of having discovered the most important truth for the bene- 
 fit of humanity, are to me much dearer than riches." 
 
 A short time after, Mesmer left Paris and went to Spa, 
 where some patients of distinction, whose cure was not 
 yet perfected, followed the Novator. However, the an- 
 tagonists of his principles inveighed against the new doc- 
 trine with more animosity than ever. The discussion be- 
 tween Dr. d'Eslon and the Faculty went on with the same 
 violence till the month of August, 1782. He had been 
 condemned to lose the title and prerogatives of Dr. Re- 
 gent ; but this sentence, in order to be valid, required to be 
 confirmed by three successive meetings of the assembly. 
 After long delay the third meeting took place, and not only 
 did Dr. d'Eslon not retract, but he declared that as he had 
 performed the most evident and remarkable cures by Mag- 
 netism, he insisted more earnestly than ever for a fair and 
 impartial examination of the facts ; and that accordingly 
 he had taken the necessary steps to induce the proper 
 
 26 
 
302 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 authority to compel them to investigate the matter. The 
 power of Dr. d'EsIon, as physician to the brother of the 
 king, and the avowed protection of the queen, awed some 
 of the members, who retired without confirming the sen- 
 tence against Dr. d'Eslon. 
 
 Mesmer was still at Spa ; he heard there the news that 
 the king was to appoint, by his own authority, a committee 
 of scientific men to examine and report to him on the mat- 
 ter of Animal Magnetism as practised by Dr. d'Eslon. He 
 exclaimed, that all its bright prospects were hereafter lost 
 for him ; that his disciple, by imprudence and ignorance, 
 would certainly injure the discovery he alone knew how to 
 demonstrate ; that he never had revealed the most impor- 
 tant part of it ; that he was a ruined man, etc. This in- 
 cident, which might in fact have proved very injurious to 
 him, was, on the contrary, the very cause of his fortune. 
 
 The celebrated attorney, Bergasse, who was one of his 
 patients, according to the suggestion of Kornmann, the 
 banker, suggested, in 1783, the plan of a subscription, by 
 which at least a hundred persons were each of them to pay 
 a hundred louis, in order to secure the independence of 
 Mesmer and enable him to publish his doctrine. This 
 subscription found so much sympathy in the highest so- 
 ciety, that in the space of three months Mesmer received 
 over 340,000 francs. 
 
 However, it was not before the 12th of March, 1781, 
 that the king appointed a committee, composed of mem- 
 bers of the Medical Faculty of Paris, the Academy of 
 Sciences, and the Royal Society of Medicine, to investi- 
 gate the matter. 
 
 Mesmer came back to Paris, and endeavored to induce 
 the committee appointed by the king to witness his own 
 experiments, instead of those of Dr. d'Eslon ; his efforts, 
 however, proved unavailing. 
 
 It is so much more to be regretted that the commitieo 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 303 
 
 did not go to Mesmer, as by doing so they would not only 
 have avoided the just imputation brought against them, of 
 having been guilty of a flagrant injustice towards him, 
 but also because there is good ground to believe that the 
 experiments made by him would have proved much more 
 satisfactory. In fact, he not only knew better the means 
 of operating, but he also possessed certain intuitive fac- 
 ulties which long practice alone develop in good du- 
 namisers. He perceived, or rather internally felt, who 
 were the persons more likely to be affected ; and in seve- 
 ral instances he foretold to his patients what they would 
 experience during their treatment, the kind of crisis that 
 would take place, and when their health would be fully 
 restored. Moreover, his psycodunamic power was much 
 more remarkable than that of Dr. d'Eslon. To show its 
 extent, I will relate here what the celebrated Thouret, 
 his antagonist, but candid in his opposition, says himself 
 in his work entitled Researches and Doubts on Magnetism. 
 
 " When Mr. Mesmer touches a patient for the first time, 
 he lays his hand on the most important points where the 
 nerves unite. In general, the patient experiences a kind 
 of electric commotion. After which the operator recedes, 
 and extending his finger, he conceives between himself 
 and his subject a kind of fluid by which the established 
 communication is preserved. 
 
 " The influence of Mr. Mesmer lasts several days ; and 
 during that time, if the person is susceptible, he can pro- 
 duce, at will, perceptible effects on him, not only without 
 resorting again to touch, but at a considerable distance, 
 and even through a wall. 
 
 " One day Mr. Mesmer being with Messrs. de Camp*** 
 and d'E***, near the great basin of Meudon, proposed to 
 them to pass alternately to the other side of the basin, 
 while he would himself remain at his place ; he told them 
 then to plunge the end of their canes into the water, he 
 
304 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 also doing so with his own. At that distance M. de 
 Camp*** experienced an attack of asthma, and M. d'E*** 
 felt in his liver the pain to which he was subject. Other 
 persons tried the same experiment, and some of them were 
 so violently affected as to faint in a very short time. 
 
 " Another day, as Mr. Mesmer was walking in a wood 
 of a country-seat near Orleans, two young ladies, taking 
 advantage of the freedom that a country life authorizes, ran 
 merrily after Mesmer in the presence of a large company. 
 Mesmer feigned at first to fly, but stopping suddenly, and 
 turning round, he presented the butt-end of his cane to his 
 pursuers, and forbade them to advance ; their knees, trem- 
 bling, refused to support them, and they could not move 
 until he told them to do so. 
 
 " One evening Mr. Mesmer went down with six persons 
 into the garden of the Prince of Soubise, where he ope- 
 rated upon a tree. A short time after, the Marchioness of 
 N***, Miss de R***, and Miss D*** fainted. The Duch- 
 ess of C*** took hold of the tree without being able to 
 leave it. The Count of Ma*** was compelled to sit on a 
 bencb, being unable to stand up any longer. I do not 
 recollect what M. Aug***, a remarkably strong man, felt ; 
 but I remember that the effect was awful. Mesmer then 
 called for his own servant to carry away the persons ; but 
 this man, although well used to similar scenes, found him- 
 self entirely disabled. Mesmer had to work for a while 
 before he could restore everybody to their natural con- 
 dition." 
 
 However, after a superficial examination, the two re- 
 porters of the Academy of Sciences and of the Royal 
 Society of Medicine, decided that the effects pretended to 
 be Magnetic were only the workings of the imagination of 
 the persons acted upon : that Magnetism itself, as a spe- 
 cial agent, was a " chimera" the practice of which was 
 nevertheless attended with real dangers. 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 305 
 
 The absurdity of " the practice of a chimera being attend- 
 ed with real dangers" did not strike the learned members of 
 the committee till after the publication of the reports. 
 
 I must state here that Dr. Franklin, on account of ill- 
 ness, was detained in his bed, and did not witness the ex- 
 periments. He signed the report as a matter of mere def- 
 erence to the opinions of the other members of the com- 
 mittee. M. de Jussieu, who alone had followed the ex- 
 periments with considerable attention, courageously refu- 
 sed to sign the report, in spite of the solicitations of his 
 colleagues, and even the threats of M. de Breteml, who 
 was minister of the king. He made a particular report, 
 in which he acknowledges the existence of an external 
 agent independent of imagination. 
 
 Against the authority of the learned bodies, and against 
 the ill-will of the minister and the machinations of the 
 clergy, facts supported our cause. The pupils of Mesmer 
 diffused the knowledge of his beneficial proceedings. Men, 
 prominent from their birth, fortune, talents, and virtues, 
 worked with ardor, from no other motive than the propa- 
 gation of truth. Societies known under the name of Har- 
 mony were organized, not only in France, but all over 
 Europe, and Mesmer relied on their exertions to secure 
 the triumph of the new science. He himself travelled in 
 England, Germany, and again in France, where, in 1799, 
 he published a second work on his discoveries. Lastly, 
 he retired to Switzerland, where, on the borders of the 
 lake of Constance, he passed the remainder of his life. 
 He died at Mespurg, on the 15th of March, 1815, at the 
 age of eighty-one, leaving a considerable work on Mag- 
 netism, which Dr. Wolfart, his pupil and particular friend, 
 published at Berlin in 1816. 
 
 26* 
 
306 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DISCOVERY OF PSYCODUNAMIC SOMNAMBULISM. 
 
 Among the pupils of Mesmqr, the most celebrated is the 
 Marquis de Puysegur, a nobleman whose birth, mental ac- 
 quirements, extreme benevolence, as well as large fortune, 
 had secured him the highest rank in society. For the first 
 time, in 1782, he saw a few Psycodunamic experiments 
 made by his two brothers, the Counts Chastenet and Max- 
 ime de Puysegur ; he was such an unbeliever at that time, 
 that, half jokingly, half seriously, he reproached them with 
 being the associates of a charlatan. But in 1784, when 
 he came from the army, in which he held the rank of ma- 
 jor, he found the first class of society in Paris divided, as 
 it were, into two camps ; the one in favor of, the other 
 opposed to the new doctrine. He resolved to examine 
 for himself, and consented to give to Mesmer the hundred 
 louis to become one of his pupils. But at the' end of the 
 lectures of the German professor, his conviction was not 
 complete, and he confessed candidly that he was by no 
 means more enlightened on the subject than before. 
 However, having gone to his estate of Busancy, near 
 Soissons, to pass the summer, he one day, by way of 
 pleasantry, dunamized one of his servants, who was suf- 
 fering with a violent toothache. After ten minutes' ope- 
 ration, the pain had left him, and it never returned. The 
 next day, the wife of one of the guards of his hunting grounds 
 was similarly cured by him, in about the same length of 
 time. 
 
 These results, trifling as they were, induced him to try 
 his power on a young peasant, named Victor, who had for 
 four days been suffering from an attack of pleurisy. The 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 307 
 
 operator was exceedingly surprised to see the boy, after 
 fifteen minutes, lost in a quiet sleep, without crisis or con- 
 vulsions. During this sleep, he could speak, and made 
 sensible answers to the questions put to him by the won- 
 dering Marquis. The next night Victor slept much better 
 than before, and on the following morning his health had 
 evidently improved. 
 
 Such is the first correctly recorded observation of Psy- 
 codunamic Somnambulism. It is true that some writers 
 pretend that, previously to this event, Mesmer knew this 
 phenomenon, and was by no means surprised when its 
 wonders were related to him ; but the fact of his never 
 having spoken of this most remarkable state, while he 
 was so anxious to exhibit all the results of his proceed- 
 ings, proves, in my opinion, that his extraordinary power, 
 although more considerable than that which causes som- 
 nambulism, was nevertheless of a different nature. Any 
 person who has devoted his attention to the practice, will 
 readily understand my remark; for the difference between 
 dunamisers is very distinctly drawn, as will be seen in 
 the chapter devoted to the examination of this subject in 
 my forthcoming work on the Philosophy ofPsycodunamy. 
 
 The rapid improvement and speedy cure of Victor, in 
 consequence of the practice of M. de Puysegur, induced 
 many villagers to call on him to be similarly relieved. 
 But as their number daily increased, he resolved, in order 
 to lessen his labor and fatigue, to prepare a tree according 
 to the directions given by Mesmer. He tried the effect 
 of it on the 7th of May, 1784. So soon as Victor put 
 round his body the rope by which the patients were to es- 
 tablish a communication between themselves and the tree, 
 he fell into the same singular state of somnambulism the 
 Marquis had noticed before. A large number of patients, 
 Bitting round this natural Psycodunamic agent, experienced 
 the most salutary effects. In a very short while, their 
 
308 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 number nad increased so considerably, as at one time to 
 amount to one hundred and thirty. " I had but one re- 
 gret," wrote M. de Puysegur to his brother ; " it was, that 
 I was not able to act, myself, upon each of them in par- 
 ticular ; but my guide and excellent teacher in somnambu- 
 lism, Victor, affirms that these exertions of mine are not 
 necessary ; that a glance, a gesture, a mere act of my 
 will, are the sole requisites." Thus it is that a mere boy, 
 the most ignorant in that country, destroyed in a few 
 words the brilliant theory of Mesmer, with his elaborate 
 edifice of poles, his astronomical, or rather astrological in- 
 fluences, his strange and minute processes ; unpresuming 
 and even unconscious Victor, more plainly, more intelligi- 
 bly, and, above all, more truly, revealed the cause and the 
 secret of the power of Psycodunamy. 
 
 Fame very soon widely spread the news of the prodi- 
 gies worked at Busancy. Not only patients, but many 
 curious persons came to witness the facts which trans- 
 pired there. One of the" latter, M. C. Cloquet, receiver 
 of public moneys at Soissons, spent several days at Bu- 
 sancy, and published on the 13th of June, 1784, a letter 
 which is the first publication in which the somnambulic 
 phenomena have been detailed. I will give here a short 
 extract from it. 
 
 " The persons who experience that crisis appear en- 
 dowed with supernatural gifts. In touching any patient 
 who is presented to them, they feel internally themselves 
 and know what is the matter with him ; they describe the 
 disorder, name the suffering part and the affected organs. 
 In many instances they prescribe remedies, which prove 
 very useful. 
 
 " I was myself examined by a woman of about fifty 
 years of age. I declare, on my honor, that I had spoken 
 to no one of my ailment. After having for some length of 
 time touched my head, she said that I was subject to fre- 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 309 
 
 quent and violent headaches, and troubled with a constant 
 buzzing in my ears. Her statement could not have been 
 more correct. 
 
 " A young man, spectator to this scene, laughed sneer- 
 ingly, and expressed his unchanged disbelief. However, 
 he asked her to examine him. She told him that he suf- 
 fered from his stomach, and had several obstructions in his 
 bowels, which he confessed to be true. But, still doubt- 
 ing, he went immediately about twenty steps further to be 
 examined by another somnambulist, who told him exactly 
 the same thing. I never saw a more complete confusion 
 than that exhibited by this young man, who had come 
 with the avowed intention of contradicting and ridiculing, 
 and of not being convinced. 
 
 " A most striking singularity, no less remarkable, in my 
 opinion, than the facts which I have just related, is that 
 those sleepers who during four hours have touched pa- 
 tients and conversed with them, have forgotten every 
 thing, absolutely every thing, as soon as their master had 
 broken the spell and willed them to return to their natural 
 state. The time that passes away during their crisis is, 
 as it were, lost to them. Their master not only has the 
 power, as I have already stated, of making himself under- 
 stood by his somnambulists, but I have seen him, several 
 times and with my eyes wide open, — I have seen him, I 
 say, point his finger to any of them, and cause them to 
 follow him in any direction he pleased, — send them far 
 from him, either to their own houses or to any other place, 
 which he designated without speaking to them. I ascer- 
 tained that during all the time, these singular creatures 
 kept their eyes completely closed. 
 
 " I must mention also that the intelligence of these som- 
 nambulists is truly wonderful. If, even at a distance too 
 considerable to be overheard, persons use improper lan- 
 guage, or by their conduct offend the laws of strict moral- 
 
310 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 ity, they perceive it internally ; their soul is affected ; they 
 complain of it to their master ; a circumstance which on 
 several occasions has rendered very disagreeable and mor- 
 tifying the situation of some would-be wits, who had indul- 
 ged too freely their shameful propensities at M. de Puy- 
 segur's." 
 
 In about six weeks M. de Puysegur effected sixty-two 
 cures on persons of different ages and of both sexes, and 
 he observed ten cases of somnambulism. At the end of 
 the month of June, three hundred patients were enrolled 
 to be cured, but he was compelled to join his regiment at 
 Strasburg, and the treatment at Busancy was suspended. 
 During his stay in that city, although his military duties 
 left him very little leisure, circumstances induced him, 
 against his wishes, to brave the sarcasms of ignorance, in 
 order to alleviate the afflictions of several sufferers. One 
 of these was a woman, fifty-two years of age, attacked, 
 twenty years before, with fits and violent convulsions, 
 which took place several times a week. Another was a 
 young man of sixteen, who, when only seven months of 
 age, had had one leg broken, and ever since experienced 
 an intermittent paroxsym of paralysis, which returned ev- 
 ery day at half-past seven p. m. 
 
 M. de Puysegur returned to Busancy in October, and 
 resumed his observations and experiments. He was him- 
 self cured of a severe illness by the attendance of his as- 
 sistant dunamisers, Clement and Ribault, and the advice 
 of a somnambulist named Vielet. 
 
 He about this time sent to press the first part of his 
 " Memoirs to serve for the History and Establishment of 
 Animal Magnetism" which he presented to the different 
 pupils of Mesmer on the 4th of February, 1785, with the 
 express injunction that they should not be communicated 
 to anybody : " I do not believe," says he, in his letter to 
 them, " that the time has come to make publicly known 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 311 
 
 the facts that I have witnessed. They would not be gen- 
 erally admitted, in spite of the numerous testimonies an- 
 nexed to them. Until at least fifty dunamisers shall have 
 successfully repeated the experiments, it cannot be expect- 
 ed that any reasonable and candid person will credit them, 
 still less the unreflecting and prejudiced multitude. To 
 my interest for the science, is also added my personal in- 
 terest. I would not like to give a premature publicity to 
 my experiments ; for I could not without pain see people 
 doubting my word and questioning my veracity," etc. 
 
 After having collected many more observations, and fre- 
 quently reproduced the phenomena of somnambulism, he 
 completed the second part of his " Memoirs :" this work, 
 published in one volume, bears for epigraph, " Croyez et 
 Veuillez" (believe and will,) and concludes with the fol- 
 lowing precepts, of which, since that time, every day has 
 brought additional confirmation — Active will to do good 
 — Firm belief in one's own power — Entire confi- 
 dence IN ITS USE. 
 
 "TrTMay, 1785, M. de Puysegur went back to Sirasburg, 
 and consented, at the request of the Count of Lutzelbourg, 
 to deliver lectures on Psycodunamy to a select society 
 who wished to be instructed in that science. But, confi- 
 dent that lectures on any point, the existence of which is 
 yet questionable, can create but little interest, he refused 
 to communicate the theory and explications of Mesmer 
 before having proved, by actual evidences, the reality of 
 his discovery. Accordingly, he agreed that during six 
 weeks he would remain every morning at his lodgings, in 
 order to operate there on any patients they should bring to 
 him. Before a week had elapsed, several cases of som- 
 nambulism had already occurred. The bystanders, hav- 
 ing observed with candor and attention, unanimously 
 and unreservedly declared, after the lapse of a month, 
 their conviction of the existence of the phenomena, and 
 
 
312 
 
 FSYCOBUNAMY. 
 
 
 more earnestly than ever expressed their anxiety to learn 
 the philosophy of them. That very day M. de Puysegur 
 began his course of lectures by reading the propositions 
 of Mesmer, and giving to them the scientific explications 
 and developments of the German Professor. That is to 
 say, he spoke successively of the formation of the uni- 
 verse — the celestial spheres — the earth — inert matter — 
 organized bodies — cohesion — elasticity — gravity — inten- 
 tion and remission in the properties of all substances — the 
 ebbing and flowing of the tide — fire — electricity — mag- 
 netic currents — sensations — instinct — disease — the natu- 
 ral mechanism of the cure of maladies, etc. " Such," 
 said he to his audience, " is the succinct explication giv- 
 en by Mesmer ; I will make no comment on them, in or- 
 der not to influence your opinion." 
 
 The gentlemen looked at each other inquiringly, and 
 asked at last, what actual and positive knowledge they 
 ■would gather from this theory. " This system of material- 
 ism may be perhaps very deep and beautiful. But do you 
 think of all those abstractions when you operate 1 Cer- 
 tainly your footman Ribault is perfectly ignorant of the in- 
 tention and remission of the properties of inert and organ- 
 ized matter. What was he doing — what was his principle 
 of action, when at Busancy he obtained as many somnam- 
 bulists as yourself? We ask only to know as much as he 
 does, and to be able to produce the same results." M. de 
 Puysegur deferred for a day or two the simple explanation 
 that he was to give them. He delivered another lecture 
 on the system of M. le Che v. de Barbarin and other spir- 
 itualists, and concluded by saying that will alone was the 
 principle of all the effects they had seen. " Why !" they 
 exclaimed, " Is that all ?" — "I know of no other theory, and 
 even for this I am indebted to Victor, Joly, and Vielet." — 
 " Is it possible that it is sufficient to put one's hand on a 
 patient, and wish him to be well, to obtain results as won- 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 313 
 
 derful as those we have witnessed ? Is that truly all the 
 secret ?" — " That is truly all the secret. The whole science 
 is contained in the two words, Croyez et Veuillez, that 
 I have chosen as an epigraph for my work." 
 
 The course of lectures ended with this short but satis- 
 factory instruction. The pupils and master now thought 
 of establishing at Strasburg a society for the propagation 
 of Psycodunamy. M. de Puysegur drew up the laws for 
 regulating the operations of the society and the conditions 
 of admission ; every article was discussed and voted 
 unanimously, and on the 25th of August the society was 
 organized under the name of Society of United Friends, 
 and after having selected a proper room, they began faith- 
 fully to discharge their charitable duties. Twenty was 
 the number of the members at the time of the formation, 
 but they increased so rapidly, that the first annual re- 
 port was signed by over two hundred members, all men 
 of fortune, talents, and excellent character, which were 
 indispensable requisites for admission. They published 
 three volumes of observations, from the year 1786 to 1789, 
 under the title of " Annals of Strasburg ;" these contain 
 highly interesting facts and most important instructions. 
 This society was still in existence in 1791. The benefits 
 conferred on humanity by the gratuitous exertions of the 
 members are incalculable ; but in 1792, the dispersion, 
 and even the incarceration, of the greater number of them, 
 put an end to this commendable institution. 
 
 Similar societies were formed at Metz, Nancy, Bayonne, 
 Bordeaux, Lyons, and several other cities of France and 
 Germany, and even in the "West Indies, as much by the 
 care of M. de Puysegur and his brothers, as by the other 
 pupils of Mesmer, who had themselves made innumerable 
 proselytes. Evidences of the reality, power, and useful- 
 ness of Psycodunamy were collected from every quarter, 
 and all bearing, as witnesses of the facts, the names of 
 27 
 
314 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 men of rank and respectability. Thus, in spite of the scorn 
 and scoffs of the pretended freethinkers, who, coveting the 
 fame of possessing superior minds, were in fact but too 
 weak to acknowledge their error, or too proud to investi- 
 gate the matter, the triumph of truth was rapidly progress- 
 ing, when the revolution in France broke out, and, like an 
 overflowing torrent, carried away, in its irresistible course, 
 philosophers and sciences, artists and fine arts. At this 
 period the different Societies of Harmony were dissolved ; 
 their members scattered ; the public treatment of patients 
 was suspended ; private ones, if any, were unobserved. 
 Many of the most ardent advocates of the Psycodunamic 
 doctrine were lost in the revolutionary vortex, and it was. 
 not before the greatest captain of the world had compelled 
 Europe to submit to his mighty genius, that from its ap- 
 parent defection Psycodunamy sprang up again, and se- 
 cured to its cause more partisans than ever. Time and 
 political interest had quelled the passions and hatred of the 
 majority of the learned. The practice had been followed 
 in silence, and its effects observed with less partiality and 
 a more philosophical eye. The indefatigable De Puyse- 
 gur, who had retired to Busancy, far from the political 
 strife, had again devoted there all his fortune and time to 
 the relief of the sick and poor. He came forward in 
 1807, 1809, and 1811, with three volumes of his personal 
 observations. These works had then a great influence ; 
 many scientific men, physicians, and naturalists, devoted 
 their time to an investigation of the matter. More than thirty 
 volumes rapidly succeeded his publications, and confirmed 
 by the most honorable testimonies the correctness and im- 
 portance of his principles, which they could only develop 
 by bringing forth new and confirmatory results. 
 
 Thus it is that we are indebted to M. de Puysegur for 
 the first precise observation and description of the true 
 characters of somnambulism. He also was the first to 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 315 
 
 point out all the resources that it affords, whether for the 
 benefit of the subject himself, or for that of other patients ; 
 and the first to acknowledge that the state of convulsions 
 and violent crises of which the treatment of Mesmer and 
 D'Eslon presented so many instances, was not only use- 
 less, but actually dangerous. Far from attempting to pro- 
 duce this state, he devoted all his exertions to prevent its 
 development in the course of his practice, and to sooth 
 and calm the patients whenever the slightest symptom of 
 it manifested itself. What he said about the dangers at- 
 tending experiments of mere curiosity, is particularly de- 
 serving the attention of all dunamisers ; and never should 
 they forget the striking instance of it which he relates, 
 and of which his poor and interesting Victor was the vic- 
 tim, at the house of the Marchioness of Montesson in 
 Paris. (See Memoirs, part i. p. 199.) In a word, it may 
 be truly said of him, that he was the first to establish the 
 doctrine on a solid foundation. 
 
 In 1815, a society of the friends of Psycodunamy was 
 established at Paris. M. de Puysegur was elected pres- 
 ident of it for life. At a later period, in 1817, his zeal for 
 the cause engaged him to take the direction of the journal 
 published by this society under the title of Library of 
 Magnetism. In an article " On the Power of Will,'' 1 in- 
 serted in the first number, he relates that, induced by for- 
 mer success, he proposed in 1812, to the Abbe Sicard, 
 director of the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, to de- 
 vote all his time to dunamising the pupils of his institution, 
 in order to develop among them the somnambulic faculties, 
 an event which would not only afford the best evidence of 
 the existence and extent of those faculties, but at the same 
 time cure many of the pupils, and practically demonstrate 
 the importance of this new means as a remedy for that 
 particular affection. It is hardly necessary to say that 
 the government refused the proper authorization. In 1817, 
 
316 
 
 PSYCODUNAMY, 
 
 he made again the same request, although he had no more 
 hope of seeing it granted. " But," says he, " in inserting 
 this fact in the archives of our society, it will give to it a 
 fixed date ; and when the newspapers shall tell France 
 that an experiment so simple and so decisive has been 
 successfully made in other countries, we shall at least 
 have preserved for us the glory of priority." 
 
 M. de Puysegur died in August, 1824, at the age of 74. 
 Few men have led a life offering an example more worthy 
 of imitation. Placed on the road to honorable distinction, 
 he could have filled the most important offices of the 
 state ; but he preferred the more true and quiet happiness 
 of alleviating and enlightening his fellow-creatures. All 
 who had the honor of knowing him personally, united in 
 acknowledging that he was characterized by the purest 
 and most unbounded charity, in which, despite the sar- 
 casms of ignorance, he persevered till the last day of his 
 life ; and all will confess, after studying his works, that 
 for exactness of facts, truth of observation, impartiality of 
 judgment, and soundness of precepts, he has not been sur- 
 passed, .and will always stand as an excellent model. 
 
 Not to mention immediately after the Marquis de Puy- 
 segur, the venerable Deleuze, who divides with him the 
 honor of having propagated and defended the truth and 
 usefulness of Psycodunamy, would be an omission doubly 
 unpardonable — first, because his constant exertions and 
 high character as a scientific and religious man have, 
 perhaps, done more in favor of our cause, than any thing 
 else ; and secondly, because I am proud to declare here 
 that I consider myself as a pupil of Deleuze, for during 
 nearly ten years I enjoyed the advantage of receiving from 
 his own mouth extremely valuable information ; and in 
 that capacity, I beg leave to pay him the tribute of respect 
 and regret that his memory deserves. The best praise 
 that can be bestowed upon him, however, is simply to nar- 
 
GENERAL HISTORY 317 
 
 rate what he has done ; for deeds like his carry with them 
 their own commendation, and are sure to win the suffrages 
 of mankind at large. 
 
 To narrate how he became a partisan of Psycodunamy, 
 is to give the personal experience of all who practise the 
 science. An unbeliever at first, he rejected the facts as 
 fabulous, till, on more mature examination, and after a per- 
 sonal trial, to his great surprise, he found them veritable. 
 He then boldly declared, " I consider it a sacred duty for 
 me to defend that which I know to be the truth, without 
 allowing myself to be deterred from it by the judgment of 
 unbelievers." This task he faithfully discharged, during 
 his long and honorable career ; and his recent death is a 
 loss of the greatest moment, not only to Psycodunamy, but 
 to the sciences in general. 
 
 Deleuze was born in March, 1753, at Sisteron, and re- 
 sided at a short distance from it, in the country, when for 
 the first time, in 1785, he heard of the cures performed at 
 Busancy. The letter of M. Cloquet fell into his hands, 
 and he laughed heartily at that which he considered as 
 mere fabrications designed to bring ridicule on dunamisers '*-<» 
 and their patients. However, he heard that one of his 
 friends, M. D***, of Aix, a man of cool reason and supe- 
 rior mind, had been to see Mesmer at M. Servan's, and 
 had since practised with success the art of the German 
 physician. To his utter astonishment, the prodigies of 
 Busancy were said to be produced by him, and he resolved 
 to go and ascertain the truth. The following extract from 
 his own works, gives an account of his visit and its re- 
 sults : 
 
 " I performed the journey on foot, botanizing as I went. 
 On the second day, at noon, I arrived at Aix, having 
 walked.since four o'clock in the morning. I stopped at 
 my friend's, and told him immediately the motive of my 
 journey. £ What must I think of the prodigies of which I 
 
 27* 
 
318 PSYCODTJNAMY. 
 
 have heard V He smiled, and only said, ' Wait, and you 
 will see what they are. My patient will be here at three 
 o'clock.' She arrived, as expected, and with her several 
 persons who were to form a chain. I joined this chain, 
 and saw, in a few minutes, the patient asleep. I looked 
 on with astonishment, but did not long continue looking, 
 for in less than fifteen minutes I was asleep myself. In 
 this state I began to talk and move so much as to trouble 
 the chain. I was told this on awaking, when I also found 
 them all laughing around me. As for myself, I had no 
 recollection of it. The next day I did not join the chain : 
 I observed in silence, and desired my friend to teach me 
 the processes. 
 
 " On my return home, I tried my skill on the sick on 
 the farms of the neighborhood of my country-seat. I was 
 careful not to excite their imagination : I touched them 
 under various pretexts, telling them that gentle frictions 
 could not fail to be beneficial, and obtained very curious 
 and salutary effects, which strengthened my faith. 
 
 " Towards the end of autumn I returned to the city. I 
 met there a young physician, a man of much merit, whose 
 prudence still held him in doubt, while his desire for 
 knowledge made him anxious to fix his opinion by actual 
 experience. I requested him to obtain for me a patient, 
 whose disease might be severe enough to test the efficien- 
 cy of my processes, without the case being, nevertheless, 
 so desperate as to leave me the fear of seeing him die at 
 the very beginning of the treatment. He introduced me to a 
 young woman who had been sick seven years. She suffered 
 constantly with excruciating pains, and was much bloated. 
 Her spleen was the seat of a considerable obstruction, per- 
 ceptible externally. She could neither walk nor lie down. 
 I produced crises of abundant perspiration and urinary se- 
 cretion ; the blood resumed its proper course ; the swell- 
 ing and obstruction disappeared ; and I enabled her to go 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 319 
 
 about and resume her customary duties. When I touched 
 her, she slept, but did not become a somnambulist. 
 
 " Soon after, my intimate friend, M. D***, began the 
 treatment of a young lady of sixteen, who became a som- 
 nambulist. She was the daughter of very respectable pa- 
 rents. I assisted in the treatment. She prescribed reme- 
 dies for other sick persons, and gave us general directions 
 for the management of diseases. I myself put such ques- 
 tions as she could not have expected, and I never have 
 known a more perfect somnambulist. She presented to us 
 most of the phenomena observed by M. de Puysegur, M. 
 Tard)^ de Montravel, and the members of the Society of 
 Strasburg. Among those phenomena there are many, the 
 mere possibility of which I can neither explain nor under- 
 stand. I can only affirm that I saw them ; and the par- 
 ticulars satisfy me completely that there was no ground 
 left for the least illusion or practicability of fraud." 
 
 From this time Deleuze neglected no opportunity of 
 multiplying his experiments and making accurate observa- 
 tions. The number of patients he relieved or completely 
 cured is very considerable, and the most disinterested 
 charity always prompted his attendance. 
 
 To relate here how he made his name eminent in the 
 sciences and in literature, to quote his valuable translations 
 of " Darwin's Loves of the Plants," and " Thomson's 
 Seasons ;" or to insist on the merits of his " Eudoxus, or 
 Conversations on the Study of the Sciences, Letters, 
 and Philosophy," and many, other highly creditable wri- 
 tings, would be foreign to the plan of this work. If I state 
 here that his scientific acquirements secured him the situ- 
 ations of assistant naturalist of the Garden of Plants, in 
 Paris — of secretary of the Association of the Professors, 
 who published the " Annals of the Museum of Natural 
 History"— of librarian of the same Museum ; — that he was 
 secretary of the Philanthropic Society, the annual reports 
 
f 
 
 320 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 of which he had drawn during fifteen years ; — member of 
 the Philomathic Society, and of several other learned 
 bodies, both in France and foreign countries, — it is only to 
 give to my readers an evidence of the character of De- 
 leuze. The fact that Cuvier, De Humboldt, Gay-Lussac, 
 Thenard, Ampere, Arago, Duperron, Le Vaillant, etc., were 
 his intimate friends, proves, on the other hand, that his rare 
 qualities had been duly appreciated by the most illustrious 
 men of our age. Thus it is that during the discussions 
 which took place in the Royal Academy of Medicine, 
 even the opponents of Psycodunamy never mentioned his 
 name without the most honorable epithets, and the com- 
 mittee have always quoted his opinion as authority. 
 
 But his works on our subject should properly, at this 
 time, alone call our attention. His " Critical History of 
 Animal Magnetism" which appeared in 1813, is the result 
 of twenty-five years of reflection and experience. 
 
 The first volume, after a general sketch of the history 
 of the discovery and the obstacles opposed to it, contains 
 the examination of the proofs on which the new doctrine 
 is founded ; he treats afterwards of the means of acting, 
 of their efficacy and dangers. 
 
 The second volume is an analysis, made with the great- 
 est accuracy and discernment, of over three hundred wri- 
 tings on the subject, both pro and con. The candor and 
 impartiality of the historian, by no means weakens the 
 strength of his irresistible argumentation ; and whoever 
 reads it will, in spite of former prejudices, exclaim with 
 admiration, This cannot be false ! This must be true ! 
 This is true ! 
 
 In 1819 he published his Letter to the author of " Su- 
 perstitions and Impostures of Philosophers" (the Rev. 
 Abbot Wurtz of Lyons.) This pamphlet, remarkable fox 
 its powerful reasoning, confutes a ranting production, 
 which, from its absurdity and spirit of intolerance, would 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 
 
 321 
 
 have done no discredit to the thirteenth century. The 
 Rev. Abbot, for instance, among many other evidences of 
 deplorable prejudice and blindness, pretends that Psyco- 
 dunamy is the work of the devil, and he loudly calls for 
 the execration of men upon both dunamisers and patients, 
 as people necessarily devoted to eternal damnation. 
 
 At the same epoch, he wrote also the Defence of Mag- 
 netism against the attacks made upon it in the " Dictionary 
 of Medical Science.'''' This defence is a model of persua- 
 sive eloquence. It constantly opposes dignity, politeness, 
 and reason, to declamation characterized by contempt, 
 irony, and sarcasm. It skilfully refutes the assertions of 
 the author, (M. Virey,) by the concessions that he is him- 
 self forced to admit. It shows, for instance, the inconsis- 
 tency of a man who says, (p. 528,) " It is folly to believe 
 that with mere gestures, words, or will, you can act at a 
 distance, and cure diseases ;" and then again, (p. 551,) 
 " It is with good reason that the celebrated Hufeland and 
 many other skilful physicians resort to Magnetism, when 
 common remedies have failed ; for its practice has a re- 
 markable efficacy against many disorders, such as chronic 
 affections of the abdominal organs, dyspepsia, obstructions 
 of the glands, dysmenorrhea, scrofula, neuralgia, rheuma- 
 tism, gout, certain diseases of the eyes, deafness, &c." 
 
 In 1825 appeared his celebrated Practical Instruction 
 on Animal Magnetism; an admirable system of rules, 
 which places the subject within the reach of all minds. 
 This work, which has been translated into all the langua- 
 ges of Europe, has received in this country an excellent 
 English dress at the hands of Th. C. Hartshorn, Esq., of 
 Providence, R. I., who has annexed to it a very valuable 
 description of cases in the United States. 
 
 It would be useless to dwell on the merit of this work. 
 The sound principles, the excellent precepts, and the ex- 
 tensiveness of the development given to them, render it 
 
322 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 the indispensable manual of all persons who want a good 
 guide. I cannot refrain from quoting the following ex- 
 ample of the kindness and modesty which are the principal 
 characteristics of its author: "Among the men who have 
 devoted themselves to the practice of Magnetism, there is 
 a great number who have more intelligence and more 
 knowledge than myself. I have a lively desire that the 
 reading of this work may determine them to execute the 
 plan I proposed to myself, better than I have been able to 
 do it. I invite them to take from my instructions all that 
 appears to them worthy of being preserved, and not to 
 quote me except to rectify the errors which may have es- 
 caped my diligence. Our wish is to do good. This wish 
 unites us ; it identifies us, so to speak, one with another. 
 When success is obtained, let us enjoy it equally, whoever 
 may be the author of it. It is possible for self-love to be 
 gratified in the discovery of a truth, but never in having 
 done good deeds." 
 
 In 1826, the Letter to the members of the Academy of 
 Medicine made a great sensation, and was frequently quo- 
 ted by M. Husson. 
 
 From 1814 to 1829, he published several essays, which 
 appeared successively in three periodicals devoted to 
 Psycodunamy : 1st. Annals of Magnetism, 8 vols. 8vo., from 
 1814 to 1816; 2d. Library of Magnetism, 8 vols. 8vo.,from 
 1813 to 1819; 3d. Hermes, 4 vols. 8 vo., from 1826 to 1829. 
 
 The last work of Deleuze is A Treatise on the faculty 
 of Prevision, published in 1836 ; all who have read this 
 work agree in their expressions of a most unqualified ap- 
 proval. The recent writers on Psycodunamy have all 
 largely extracted from it, when treating of this faculty. 
 
 The writings of Deleuze cannot be too highly praised ; 
 and those who wish to devote attention to the most impor- 
 tant truth of the age, cannot do better than resort to the 
 works of the man who, by the superiority of his intelli- 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 323 
 
 gence, the sagacity of his conclusions, and the example of 
 his whole life, has compelled the most envenomed calum- 
 ny to respect in him the veracity of the savant, and the 
 honesty of the dunamiser. 
 
 However, besides De Puysegur and Deleuze, many men 
 of high character appeared in the field, and contributed to 
 the propagation of Psycodunamy. 
 
 The great Cuvier, in his Comparative Anatomy, when 
 speaking of the nervous system, admits the reality of the 
 Psycodunamic faculties, and expresses himself in the fol- 
 lowing terms : " The effects produced upon persons un- 
 aware of the will of the operator, and during the natural 
 sleep of some patients ; those which have taken place 
 upon other persons, so as to reduce them to a state of in- 
 sensibility ; and also the effects obtained on brutes, no 
 longer permit it to be doubted, that the proximity of two 
 animated bodies, in a certain position, and the help of cer- 
 tain motions, do produce a real effect, wholly independent 
 of the imagination of either. It is also evident that these 
 effects are owing to a communication which takes place 
 between the nervous systems of the two parties." (Cuvier, 
 Anat. Comp., torn, ii.) 
 
 The learned Laplace, in his celebrated work, Traite 
 analytique du Calcul des probahilites, expresses himself in 
 the same manner, (p. 41 ;) he says : " The extraordinary 
 phenomena which result from the extreme sensibility of 
 the nervous system in some persons, have given birth to 
 a variety of opinions on the existence of a newly discov- 
 ered agent denominated Animal Magnetism. It is natural 
 to suppose that the influence of the cause is very subtile, 
 and that it can be easily disturbed by accidental circum- 
 stances ; but it would be unfair to conclude that it never 
 exists, merely because, in some cases, it does not manifest 
 itself. We are so far from being acquainted with all the 
 agencies of nature, ai}d with their different modes of ac- 
 
824 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 tion, that it would be unphilosophical to deny their exist- 
 ence, because, in the present state of our knowledge, they 
 are inexplicable." 
 
 The celebrated professor of natural philosophy, Am- 
 pere, went much farther than either Cuvier or Laplace in 
 the expression of his acknowledgment of the Psycodu- 
 namic phenomena. In the sittings of the Academy of 
 Sciences, he never allowed any occasion to pass, without 
 speaking of the necessity and importance of proper experi- 
 ments, and of an investigation of the subject. 
 
 Francceur, whose name is so dear to all scientific men, 
 made a report to the Philomathic Society on the facts that 
 transpired in the Department of the Ardeche ; and pro- 
 claimed, as a personal witness, the truth of the power of 
 seeing without the use of the eyes, and the correctness of 
 somnambulic prevision. 
 
 In 1819, Dr. Bertrand, one of the most distinguished 
 pupils of the Polytechnic School, and a disciple of De- 
 leuze, began a course of lectures on Psycodunamy, which 
 created the greatest excitement in Paris. Encouraged by 
 his first success, he delivered a second course, and this 
 time the crowd was so considerable, that two hours pre- 
 vious to the time of the appearance of the professor not a 
 single seat could be found in the large room of the Aca- 
 demical Society of Science, at the Oratoire, Rue St. Ho- 
 nore. He published afterwards his celebrated Treatise 
 on Somnambulism, which is the first work, " ex jprofesso" 
 on the subject. 
 
 Dr. Rostan, professor of medicine at the Medical Fac- 
 ulty of Paris, wrote the article Magnetism in the Diction- 
 ary of Medicine, vol. xviii., 1825. When Dr. Rostan 
 heard, for the first time, of the Psycodunamic wonders, he 
 thought that those who related them were under the in- 
 fluence of a new kind of monomania, and he could not 
 conceive the possibility of any sensible person having 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 325 
 
 faith in such nonsense. He went further ; he not only- 
 said that this pretended doctrine was disgusting charla- 
 tanry, but during ten years he expressed most explicitly 
 in his writings the opinion that all dunamisers were but 
 "contemptible knaves" and all their patients, "pitiful 
 dupes." 
 
 However, one day, from mere curiosity, he himself tried 
 to dunamise a person who had never before heard even 
 the name of the science ; he was amazed at his producing, 
 after a few minutes of action, effects so wonderful, that he 
 dared not to speak of them for fear of being ridiculed. He 
 silently acknowledged that incredulity is the offspring of 
 ignorance, and that the opinions of men, however eminent, 
 are not. to be depended on when they contradict the testi- 
 mony of one's own senses and personal experience. 
 
 In speaking of the faculty of prevision, he says, (p. 439,) 
 " Can it be possible that some somnambulists possess the 
 inconceivable faculty of knowing future events 1 I have 
 seen facts of that kind which are assuredly most astonish- 
 ing ; but, although I have seen them, even repeatedly, I still 
 remain doubting." 
 
 Dr. Rostan possessed, in a remarkable degree, the pow- 
 er of paralyzing a limb, and of causing complete insensi- 
 bility. " Fraud and deception are in cases like these ab- 
 solute impossibilities ; for," says he, " my will alone, with- 
 out my having expressed it in any other way than mental- 
 ly, has proved sufficient to produce not only the numbness, 
 but a complete paralysis on one limb, the tongue — one 
 sense only — or a general insensibility, which sometimes I 
 found rather difficult to dissipate. If you ask the patient 
 what he feels, he says that a death-like cold creeps over 
 the paralyzed part, and that an insuperable power prevents 
 him from moving it." 
 
 After having faithfully described the various Psycoduna- 
 mic phenomena, Dr. Rostan indicates, with the same ac- 
 
 28 
 
326 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 curacy, the processes necessary to produce tnem ; and he 
 is the first among the savans who proposed to account for 
 them by a physiological theory in accordance with the 
 study of the other natural sciences. He thinks that those 
 phenomena are dependent on the nervous system, the func- 
 tions of which are not yet sufficiently known ; that the 
 nervous agent, whatever be its nature, is the cause of 
 them ; that this agent is either active or passive ; that it 
 appears to be exhaled and to spread to a certain distance, 
 as Reil and many other physiologists assert ; that the ner- 
 vous atmosphere of the dunamiser mingles with that of the 
 person dunamised, and that through this kind of communi- 
 cation are established those remarkable connections of 
 thoughts, wishes, and feelings, between the one and the 
 other ; that this agent is exceedingly subtile, and possesses, 
 more than any known fluid, the power of penetrating 
 opaque and solid bodies ; and that, lastly, it has some an- 
 alogy to electricity. 
 
 In speaking of the therapeutical results of Psycoduna- 
 my, he says : " They who deny the cures must be indeed 
 poor physicians, poor physiologists, and poor philosophers ! 
 To conclude with certainty that it must possess a power 
 useful when properly applied, is it not sufficient that the 
 proceedings determine changes in the organization ? This 
 truth, that reason alone suggests, is demonstrated most 
 satisfactorily by experience. The direct influence of the 
 nervous agent will of course appear more evidently in ner- 
 vous disorders — such as hysterics, hypochondria, melan- 
 choly, mania, epilepsy, catalepsy, cramps, convulsions, 
 general or local pains, rheumatism, amaurosis, deafness, 
 paralysis, neuralgias, etc. ; but will its power be limited to 
 the disorders of the nervous system alone ? Will not the 
 brain, by being powerfully modified through this agent, 
 operate some advantageous changes in any diseased or- 
 gan ? In causing the suspension of pain, will it not con- 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 
 
 327 
 
 fer a first and immediate benefit ? What, then, if experi- 
 ence demonstrate that this same agent makes the intersti- 
 tial absorption more active ? if it increase or diminish at 
 will the general circulation of the blood ? will it not establish 
 unquestionably why general therapeutics possess no means 
 better calculated to alleviate immediately, and ultimately 
 cure, both acute and chronic diseases ?" 
 
 It would occupy too much time and space to point out 
 all the valuable and important things to be found in the ar- 
 ticle of Professor Rostan. I will, nevertheless, add to the 
 above quotations the instance that he relates of sight with- 
 out the use of the eyes, (p. 433.) 
 
 " I have repeatedly and successfully tried the following 
 experiment ; but I have been at last compelled to interrupt 
 its exhibition, from its causing excessive fatigue in my 
 somnambulist, who told me that if I should persist it 
 would make her a perfect lunatic. My intimate friend 
 and fellow-professor, Ferrus, was my witness, and I think 
 proper to mention his name here because his testimony is 
 calculated to give to my assertions the most unquestionable 
 character of truth. He took my watch, and put it at a dis- 
 tance of four or five inches from the occiput. He asked 
 the somnambulist if she could see any thing ? ' Yes, I do 
 see something that shines ; but it hurts me.' Her features 
 were expressive of pain, and ours of astonishment. We 
 looked upon each other, and Mr. Ferrus said, ' Since she 
 sees something that shines, she will probably say what it 
 is.' — ' What do you see that shines V — ' I do not know ; it 
 fatigues me to look at it.' — ' Look again.' — ' Well, wait a 
 moment,' (and after a moment of profound attention,) ' it is 
 a watch.' New surprise. — ' But if she sees that it is a 
 watch, she will probably tell the time by it,' again said Mr. 
 Ferrus. ' Can you tell the time V — ' Oh, no ! it is too dif- 
 ficult !' — Do try !' — ' Well, I will.' — She remains very at- 
 tentive for a while, and says, ' It is ten minutes past eight.' 
 
328 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 This was correct. Mr. Ferrus was anxious to try trie 
 same experiment himself. He changed the direction of 
 the hands, and asked the time, without ascertaining pre- 
 viously what it was ; he did so repeatedly, and at each 
 trial she told him the time without the slightest error. It 
 would occupy too much time to relate all the extraordinary 
 things that this somnambulist told us, and which proved 
 correct ; it is enough to have demonstrated the faculty of 
 seeing through other organs than those ordinarily used. 
 This fact I have seen, and caused others to see." 
 
 It was a short time after the publication of the article of 
 Dr. Rostan, that Dr. Foissac wrote to the Royal Academy 
 of Medicine the letter that I have mentioned in the first 
 part of this work, (see p. 28.) He had previously publish- 
 ed a pamphlet on the subject, and addressed it to the 
 Academy of Sciences. His zeal in seconding the views 
 of the committee that he caused to be appointed to inves- 
 tigate the matter, is worthy of the greatest praise ; and 
 the work which he published in 1833, is unquestionably 
 the most important that has ever appeared on Psycoduna- 
 my. I have largely extracted from it, and that part of my 
 own work which relates the first academical discussions 
 on the subject is a mere translation of his. 
 
 After Dr. Foissac, the man whose constant and inde- 
 fatigable exertions have most advanced the cause of Psy- 
 codunamy is Baron Dupotet. He not only made the first 
 successful experiments ever tried in public hospitals in 
 Paris _; but in order to propagate the doctrine he travelled 
 all over France, and even in England, delivering public 
 lectures, that were well attended. The persecutions he 
 experienced in Montpellier, and the cures he performed in 
 that city, have secured to his name a lasting renown. 
 He published, in 1836, his course of seven Lectures on Mag- 
 netism, and in 1840 his Magnetism opposed to Medicine. 
 Those valuable works afford numerous evidences of the 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 
 
 329 
 
 great power he possesses as a dunamiser ; they manifest 
 also a noble and enthusiastic mind, well calculated to pro- 
 duce instantaneous and striking phenomena. 
 
 Dr. Filassier, in 1832, presented to the Faculty of 
 Medicine his probatory thesis, the subject of which was 
 Psycodunamy. 
 
 Professor Andral, in his course of lectures on Internal 
 Pathology, devotes several to the examination of the Psy- 
 codunamic doctrine ; and if he does not admit all our 
 opinions, he acknowledges at least the truth of the funda- 
 mental principle — viz. the action of man on his fellow- 
 creature by the power of will, independently of the imagi- 
 nation of either, — and the truth of the somnambulic phe- 
 nomena. 
 
 Several important works of modern philosophy, particu- 
 larly those of Count de Redern, of Baron Massias, and 
 M. Chardel, have attracted considerable attention to the 
 new faculties discovered in man, the existence of which 
 Psycodunamy has demonstrated by producing somnambu- 
 lism. I ought to mention also the works of Messrs. 
 Frappart, Teste, Despine, Aubin Gauthier, and Ricard, as 
 deserving of particular attention, and containing precious 
 materials for the erection of the scientific edifice of Psy- 
 codunamy. But none of them is to be compared, in point 
 of importance, with the work of M. Mialle, whom grati- 
 tude induced to publish a Narrative of the most Remarkable 
 Cures performed by Magnetism in France from the days of 
 Mesmer to the present time, (1774-1826.) Over three thou- 
 sand well-authenticated cases are to be found there ; and 
 without exaggeration, it may be said that the records of 
 the whole medical science contain less numerous and less 
 interesting facts to prove the excellency of any means of 
 treatment. 
 
 28* 
 
 
330 PSYCODTJNAMY. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PSYCODUNAMIC EXPERIMENTS IN THE PUBLIC HOSPITALS OF 
 
 PARIS. 
 
 On the 20th of October, 1820, at a lecture of Prof. Hus- 
 son, at the Hotel-Dieu, Dr. Rossen announced a remarka- 
 ble cure performed on M. Pihan de la Forest, a celebrated 
 printer, who had been suffering exceedingly from sciatic 
 neuralgia, and of a case of chronic cholera, both of which 
 had been successfully treated by the Psycodunamic pro- 
 cess. Dr. Desprez, the operator, was already known by 
 a most unexpected result in a very trying circumstance : 
 his own wife, after confinement, had experienced acci- 
 dents of so serious a nature that all common remedies had 
 failed ; the patient had lost her strength, and, conscious of 
 the imminence of her danger, had uttered the last farewell 
 to her husband, after which she remained senseless, cold, 
 and without the least perceptible breathing. Several of 
 the physicians and friends who were present tried to draw 
 Dr. Desprez away from that which was, to all appear- 
 ance, a mere corpse. But he obstinately refused, and 
 begged them to leave him alone with her. So soon as 
 they retired, he undressed, lay down by her, took her into 
 his arms, and tried to reanimate her with his own life. 
 After twenty minutes, he could perceive no difference in 
 the supposed dead ; but, instead of being discouraged, he 
 redoubled his energetic exertions, and before ten minutes 
 more had elapsed, she uttered a deep sigh, opened her 
 eyes, acknowledged him, and began to speak. A week 
 after, she had completely recovered. 
 
 Of the physicians who attended the lectures that during 
 ten years Professor Husson had delivered with the great- 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 331 
 
 est eclat at the Hdtel-Dieu, a great number, feeling deeply- 
 interested, begged of him to permit this new means to be 
 tried on some patients of the hospital. He consented, 
 and, on the 26th of the same month, Baron Dupotet, whose 
 Psycodunamic power had rendered him very conspicuous, 
 began his experiments. It was agreed that Dr. Husson 
 should himself choose the patients ; that the witnesses 
 should be such persons as Dr. Husson should think pro- 
 per ; and lastly, that no questions but those which he 
 should direct himself should be put to the patients opera- 
 ted upon. M. Dupotet raised no objections, and the room 
 of the Sister of Charity was designated as the proper 
 place in which to dunamise. Dr. Husson held a watch 
 in one hand, and with the other recorded all the particu- 
 lars as they transpired ; the minutes were signed by all 
 the persons present. 
 
 The first patient was Miss Samson, seventeen years old, 
 who, after a suppression occasioned by a sudden fright 
 and exposure to a rain-storm, had experienced great pain 
 in her stomach, vomiting, and fever. All kinds of food, 
 and even the simplest drinks, were immediately rejected, 
 and frequently mixed with a large quantity of blood. Her 
 heart beat violently, its palpitations increasing at night. 
 During two months and a half, Dr. Recamier had resorted 
 to bleeding, cupping, and leeching. To applications of 
 ice, which caused hysterical crises two or three times a 
 day, he had added blisters, the potion of Riviere, compres- 
 sion of the abdomen, opium, and an absolute diet during 
 ten days. 
 
 Eight months' duration of the symptoms proved Jhow little 
 common medicine could do to relieve the patient. The first 
 trial of the Psycodunamic proceedings caused only a feeble 
 prickling sensation in the eyelids, and general uneasiness. 
 The second time the effects were more evident, and at 
 the third trial the sleep was so deep that it was in vain 
 
332 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 they tried to awake her. She was carried back to her 
 bed, where she slept nine hours in succession. The fol- 
 lowing day she answered the questions put to her by M. 
 Dupotet, hearing his voice alone, and remaining perfectly 
 unconscious of any noise made near her ears. They 
 shook her violently, pinched her severely, without being 
 able to elicit the smallest sign of sensibility ; but, upon 
 every repetition of these experiments, she had convulsions 
 on awaking. 
 
 It was not long before Miss Samson began to give, du- 
 ring her somnambulic state, some account of her disorder. 
 She said that her stomach was full of little pimples — some 
 whitish, some red, and grouped near each other as they 
 appear in chicken-pox ; she described also near the heart 
 a kind of bag, as big as a walnut, and full of blood ; she 
 spoke of a kind of thin thread that caused her heart to 
 beat. She thought at first that the disease of the stomach 
 was past recovery ; as to the other, she pretended that 
 she would soon be better. However, after a few more trials 
 of the Psycodunamic operations, she said that she would 
 be cured by it, without using any other remedy. The 
 fact is, that her situation had considerably improved. The 
 vomiting had ceased from the first day of the trial ; the 
 palpitations of the heart and the fever had disappeared, 
 and she began to eat. 
 
 At the tenth trial, Dr. Husson desired the dunamiser to 
 induce sleep without Miss Samson knowing it. In con- 
 sequence of this, M. Dupotet consented to be locked up in 
 a dark closet, which opened into the same room. The 
 patient was introduced and requested to take a seat, which 
 was only two feet from the closet where the dunamiser 
 was hidden. They expressed in her presence their aston- 
 ishment not to see M. Dupotet corning, and they concluded 
 that probably he was detained and would not come that 
 day. Dr. Husson let a pair of scissors that he had in his 
 
GENERAL HISTORY 
 
 333 
 
 hand fall on the floor, which was the signal agreed upon 
 with M. Dupotet to begin the operation. In less than 
 three minutes she was in a profound sleep. M. Dupotet 
 came out of the closet and spoke to her as usual. Before 
 awaking her he again went into the closet, and awoke her 
 without either seeing her or being seen by her. The next 
 day they repeated the experiment with the same success. 
 
 On the thirteenth sitting, Dr. Recamier, who had asked 
 to be admitted as a witness, agreed with M. Dupotet that 
 he should begin his operation so soon as he should ask 
 the patient if she could eat meat. The same precautions 
 were resorted to, and M. Dupotet not making his appear- 
 ance, Miss Samson begged leave to withdraw. Dr. Re- 
 camier then put his question to her, and in about three 
 minutes she was in the state of somnambulism. Dr. Re- 
 camier pinched her with great force, shook her, opened 
 her eyes, raised her from her seat, without her giving any 
 sign of consciousness. At a given signal M. Dupotet 
 awoke her, operating from the same hiding-place. 
 
 Dr. Bertrand, who had witnessed the experiments, pre- 
 tended that the presence of the operator was not neces- 
 sary, and that Miss Samson would go into her somnam- 
 bulic crisis by the sole effect of her imagination. To as- 
 certain if this assertion was correct, M. Dupotet was re- 
 quested to arrive the next day half an hour later. Miss 
 Samson was sitting in the same arm-chair, at the same 
 place, the usual questions were put to her, the same sig- 
 nals were given, but no sleep was produced. M. Dupotet 
 came in five minutes after ten, and in a few seconds pro- 
 duced somnambulism. 
 
 Nothing could be argued against this experiment ; it 
 was absolutely conclusive. Still, M. Bertrand desired the 
 trial of another, which in his opinion would render unques- 
 tionable the existence of this occult power, independent 
 of the patient and without the help of her imagination. It 
 
334 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 was, that M. Dnpotet should come to the hospital at an 
 hour of the night when every thing is quiet, and silently 
 hide himself at the distance of one bed from the patient, 
 and thence to operate without the possibility of her being 
 aware of his presence. On the 10th of November this 
 experiment was tried, with every possible precaution. M. 
 Husson passed, without stopping at the bed of Miss Sam- 
 son, and said to another patient farther on, " I came ex- 
 pressly for you to-night ; you did not look well this morn- 
 ing, and I wanted to know how you were ; you look much 
 better, and I am much pleased to see it." He passed again 
 before the bed of Miss Samson, and asked her negligently, 
 " Are you asleep V — " Oh, no ! sir," said she, " I never 
 sleep so soon." M. Husson added not a word, and went 
 to another bed, from which he could perceive every thing 
 without being seen himself. At precisely seven o'clock, 
 M. Dupotet dunamised Miss Samson. After eight minutes 
 she exclaimed, " Why ! how strange I feel ! I cannot keep 
 my eyes open !" Two minutes later, M. Husson came to 
 her, and asked her what was the matter ; she was already 
 asleep, and did not answer. M. Dupotet also came and 
 asked her, " When would you wake up if you were left 
 alone in your actual sleep ?" She answered, " I would 
 not awake before to-morrow at seven ; but it would hurt 
 me." However, it was agreed that she should be left in 
 that state. 
 
 At eleven at night M. Husson called again. Miss Sam- 
 son was in the same situation, not having moved. Dr. 
 Robouam, the assistant physician of the room, visited her 
 twice during the night ; and she was watched attentively 
 all the time. She did not stir ; her respiration was long 
 and deep, as during her somnambulic sleep ; the pulse was 
 much accelerated. They pulled her hair; they pinched 
 her ; they passed feathers under her nose and on her lips ; 
 they tickled the soles of her feet ; but all without effect. 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 335 
 
 She awoke at seven o'clock as she had said, and without 
 the slightest idea of what had transpired. 
 
 The health of Miss Samson had improved very remark- 
 ably, when Dr. Husson was removed from the Hdtel-Dieu 
 to attend at the hospital La Piti€, and was succeeded in his 
 former situation by Dr. GeorTroy. This gentleman con- 
 sented at first to let M. Dupotet continue his experiments ; 
 but the next day, the 18th of November, he let him know 
 that he had received an injunction disallowing of any fur- 
 ther Psycodunamic experiments. 
 
 The suspension of this treatment proved very injurious 
 to Miss Samson : that very day she again vomited her 
 food, and in a short time her situation was as bad as ever. 
 This poor unfortunate, who was nearly restored to health, 
 seeing that she was again devoted to her old sufferings, 
 cried bitterly ; when Dr. GeofFroy, moved with compas- 
 sion, invited Dr. Robouam to resume the treatment with- 
 out speaking about it, and as secretly as possible. On the 
 29th of November, Dr. Robouam performed the operation, 
 and succeeded as well as Baron Dupotet. The patient 
 exhibited again the same phenomena — the vomiting stop- 
 ped — the alarming symptoms vanished successively ; and 
 on the 20th of January, 1821, she left the hospital in good 
 health and spirits. 
 
 Here is a list of the names of the doctors who witnessed 
 the experiments and signed the minutes. Messrs. Bar- 
 renton, Barrat, Bergeret, Bertrand, Boissat, Bourgery, 
 Bouvier, Breschet, Bricheteau, Carquet, Crequi, Delens, 
 Druet, Fomart, Gibert, Hubert, Husson, Jacquemin, Ker- 
 garadec, Lapert, Leroux, Margue, Patissier, Robouam, 
 Rossen, Rougier, Sabatier, Sanson, Solon, (Martin,) Tex- 
 ier. 
 
 Dr. Robouam, induced by his success with Miss Sam- 
 son, tried some other experiments in the rooms attended 
 by Dr. Recamier. Two patients proved to be somnambu- 
 
336 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 lists. One of them was a man of thirty-six, named Starin,, 
 who had a violent neuralgia. The other was a young girl 
 named Lise Le Roy ; she had been affected with spasmo- 
 dic vomitings for about a year. Dr. Recamier, anxious to 
 ascertain the reality of their sleep, submitted both of them 
 to the painful experiment of burning them with moxas. I 
 will let M. Robouam report the case himself : 
 
 " I do, by the present, certify that on the 6th of Janu- 
 ary, 1821, Dr. Recamier, at the time of his daily visit to 
 the patients of the room St. Magdalene, requested me to 
 throw into somnambulism the patient named Starin, who 
 occupied the bed No. 8. Dr. Recamier, previous to the 
 request he made of me, had threatened the patient with 
 burning him with a moxa, if he would pretend that he 
 slept. Against the will of the patient, I, Robouam, indu- 
 ced the sleep, during which Dr. Recamier himself, on the 
 external and superior part of the right thigh, applied a moxa, 
 which caused a burning one inch and a half in length by 
 one inch in breadth. That Starin manifested no con- 
 sciousness or sensibility, and his pulse presented no varia- 
 tion. He began to feel the pain of the burning only after 
 I had awoke him. 
 
 (Signed) " Robouam. 
 
 " Witnesses. — Rev. Mother St. Monique, nurse of the 
 room ; Drs. Gibert, La Peyre, Bergeret, Carquet, and 
 Truche." 
 
 Two days after, Dr. Robouam consented to the trial of 
 a similar experiment ; he relates it in the following terms : 
 
 " I do, by the present, certify that on the 8th of January, 
 1821, at the same request of Dr. Recamier, I produced the 
 somnambulic sleep on Lise Le Roy, a patient who occu- 
 pies the bed No. 23, in the room St. Agnes. She had 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 337 
 
 been threatened with being burned if she should pretend 
 to sleep. Against the will of the patient, I caused her to 
 sleep ; and during that state Dr. Gibert burnt under the 
 nostrils a piece of agaric, the pungent smell of which did 
 not affect the patient. Then Dr. Recamier himself ap- 
 plied a moxa, which produced a burning three quarters of 
 an inch by one inch and a quarter long. She remained 
 perfectly unconscious, and exhibited not the slightest sign 
 of sensibility. — That I then asked Dr. Recamier if he was 
 convinced, and his answer was, ' No : but my skepticism 
 is not so complete /' That she felt violently the pain so 
 soon as I awoke her ; that I ceased then to operate on her, 
 as requested by Dr. Recamier, and the consequence was, 
 the immediate return of her constant vomitings, which for 
 the last six weeks, as soon as I had begun the treatment, 
 had stopped entirely. They could not be arrested by any 
 of the means resorted to by Dr. Recamier, who, seeing 
 that the patient was sinking rapidly, begged me at last, 
 himself, to resume my proceedings, which were again fol- 
 lowed by success. 
 
 (Signed) " Robouam. 
 
 " Witnesses. — The Rev. Mothers St. Sauveur and St. 
 Eloy, nurses of the room ; Drs. Gibert, Grandieu, Cre- 
 qui, &c." 
 
 These two certificates, and the minutes of the experi- 
 ments made in the presence of Dr. Husson, are deposited 
 in the hands of M. Dubois, a notary public, Rue St. Marc- 
 feydeau, at Paris, where everybody can ascertain their 
 contents. 
 
 The experiments at the Hotel-Dieu had proved the re- 
 ality of a particular agent, entirely independent of the pa- 
 tient's imagination. Those of La Salpetriire afford in- 
 stances of the extraordinary phenomena of somnambulism, 
 produced and tested by men who are an ornament to the 
 29 
 
338 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 
 medical science, and whose talents and integrity no per- 
 son has yet dared to dispute. 
 
 Dr. Margue was the first who, in the hospital La Sal- 
 petriere, undertook Psycodunamic experiments ; he suc- 
 ceeded in producing somnambulism on more than ten pa- 
 tients. 
 
 Dr. Georget, of the same hospital, had inserted in his 
 work on madness the following passage : " So long as 
 these magnetizers perform their experiments in the dark, 
 with the aid of their abettors ; so long as they do not work 
 their miracles before the Academy of Sciences, or the 
 Faculty of Medicine, they will permit us to forego the 
 trouble of refuting their reveries or their faith." But 
 Georget's incredulity having been shaken by the experi- 
 ments of the Hotel-Dieu, and by those of Dr. Margue, he 
 examined with distrust what he at first rejected with dis- 
 dain ; and six months after having written the preceding 
 lines, he added, in a note, while his work was in the 
 press, that he had since witnessed several phenomena, 
 and that he had himself put to sleep several of his con- 
 valescent patients, and caused them to speak, of which I 
 shall present a very succinct analysis. 
 
 When he put his somnambulists in communication with 
 a sick person, they immediately experienced a pain, an 
 uneasiness, and sometimes a sharp affection in the corre- 
 sponding organs. It often happened that they were im- 
 mediately attacked with epilepsy and hysterical fits, when 
 they touched persons afflicted with these maladies just 
 before the attacks came on. 
 
 The first patient whom he dunamised, was a woman 
 who became somnambulous, and in the midst of great 
 agitation told him, that at a certain period she would be 
 attacked by a serious disease, and die of it at such a day 
 and such an hour. Georget, not then knowing any works 
 in which facts of this kind were mentioned, and ignorant 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 339 
 
 that somnambulists could themselves dictate the means for 
 counteracting previsions, believed it must of necessity be 
 accomplished. Full of terror and grief, he hastened to 
 awake her ; and, at the time indicated, she fell a victim to 
 the disease she had foreseen. 
 
 A somnambulist, who had an inflammation of the left 
 lobe of the lungs, said she saw very well, and as if with 
 her eyes, the organs of her chest ; and, in fact, gave a 
 very remarkable description of them. The heart, said 
 she, is enveloped by a membrane to which it does not ad- 
 here ; it receives seven vessels, two of which, apparently 
 the largest, are agitated by a peculiar movement. The 
 disordered lobe appeared very red, resembling the liver in 
 some parts, and presenting grayish spots in several others. 
 The healthy lobe had a rosy appearance. In proportion 
 as the inflammation diminished, she saw less and less 
 clearly, and finally could not see at all. There was a re- 
 lapse, and lucidity returned ; but it was limited to the dis- 
 eased lobe, the other organs being no more seen. Georget 
 observed several facts of the same kind. 
 
 The therapeutic resources of his somnambulists pre- 
 sented nothing very remarkable. They rarely employed 
 any but those remedies which were daily made use of in 
 their presence ; bleeding, leeches, baths, moxas, blisters, 
 and a few potions. He always administered every thing 
 they prescribed for themselves, and never had reason to repent 
 of doing it. " It was curious," says he, " to see them, 
 when awake, exclaim against their own prescriptions, 
 while blisters or moxas were in preparation." One of 
 them, however, caused eighteen or twenty moxas to be 
 applied to herself, several setons or issues, and a great 
 number of blisters, in the space of eighteen months. 
 
 Georget could, at pleasure, deprive his somnambulists 
 of sensation. The skin was totally insensible to the lively 
 irritation of hot water deeply charged with ground mus- 
 
340 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 tard-seed, and even to the burning of the moxa, — a burning 
 and irritation which was extremely painful, when, by his 
 will, the skin resumed its sensibility. 
 
 He suspended the muscular power of his somnambulists 
 with the same success, sometimes in one part, and some- 
 times in another, and occasionally in all. One day he 
 tried this power upon the respiratory muscles, and he pro- 
 duced such an immobility of the thorax, and such danger 
 of suffocation, as very much to alarm himself, and make 
 him determine to attempt nothing of the kind again. He 
 says that if one were to recall a patient from the somnam- 
 bulic state, without having restored motion to the muscles, 
 and their proper faculties to the senses, a paralysis of the 
 muscles and sensation would continue. Nothing could 
 equal the surprise and fright which such a phenomenon 
 caused to a person who experienced it for the first time, 
 whether it were the loss of hearing, of speech, or of mo- 
 tion. " The most singular phenomenon, and the most 
 worthy of attention," continues Georget, " relates to the 
 foreknowledge of organic action, more or less distant in 
 point of time. I have seen, positively seen, a great many 
 times, somnambulists announce, several hours, several 
 days, twenty days beforehand, the hour, the minute even, 
 of the attack of epileptic and hysteric fits, and of the men- 
 strual eruptions, indicating the duration and the intensity 
 of the attacks ; things which were exactly verified." 
 
 Six months after writing this article, he had observed 
 many more new and extraordinary facts. He promised, 
 in a note, to report an instance in the chapter on epilepsy ; 
 but when, in his second volume, he traced the history of 
 that disease, he added, that the reason which had made 
 him defer the publication of these phenomena to the article 
 on Psycodunamy, induced him to put it off to another pe- 
 riod. He says, nevertheless, the person to whom he re- 
 ferred, had displayed to him instances of prevision and 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 341 
 
 clairvoyance so astonishing, that he had never read any- 
 thing so extraordinary in any work on Psycodunamy, not 
 even in those of Petetin. 
 
 This somnambulist, Petronilla, declared that a great 
 fright would cure her. After she had been thrown into 
 one, she assured her friends, while in somnambulism, that 
 she was radically cured. In fact, she experienced no new 
 attack during three months, while before she used to have 
 two every day. 
 
 The author of the " Cures Effected in France" M. Mi- 
 alle, furnishes us with interesting particulars of Petronilla, 
 (see vol. i. p. 259.) She had become an epileptic after a 
 fright occasioned by her falling into the Canal de VOurcq. 
 She prescribed for herself that she ought to be thrown 
 into the water during the time of her catamenia ; and she 
 indicated to Dr. Georget and the two other physicians, 
 Drs. Londe and Metivie, who were to help him, how they 
 were to act, and what they had to say previous to their 
 doing so. A little before the operation was performed she 
 was put into the somnambulic state ; and when every 
 thing was prepared, at the very moment of awaking her, 
 and before she could be completely restored to conscious- 
 ness, Dr. Londe exclaimed, " Now, gentlemen, let us throw 
 her into the water" And immediately, in spite of her re- 
 sistance, she was plunged into a large bathing tub full of 
 cold water. They kept her head forcibly under, till the 
 time that she had herself prescribed had gone by. A 
 nearly complete asphyxia was the consequence, and she 
 was restored to life only by resorting to the ordinary means 
 used in such cases. It was into the Canal de VOurcq that 
 Petronilla had at first prescribed that she should be thrown ; 
 but on account of the difficulties of this scheme, it had been 
 abandoned. 
 
 The same author relates that this patient one day said 
 to Dr. Londe, one of the French physicians sent into Po- 
 
 29* 
 
342 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 land to observe the cholera, that in fifteen days he would 
 have an affair of honor, and would be wounded. M. 
 Londe consigned this fact to his memorandum, without at- 
 taching importance to it, and he appeared to have forgot- 
 ten it, when, fifteen days afterwards, he received a sword 
 cut from the hand of one of his associates. 
 
 Georget proposed to publish, at some future day, more 
 in detail, if his time should permit him, the result of his 
 observations ; he wished to recommence his experiments 
 and give himself up wholly to new researches ; — " For I 
 am persuaded," said he, " that great truths have escaped 
 observers ; but, far from accusing them of exaggeration, I 
 rather believe they have in their recitals kept below the 
 reality. I believe, for example, that there is no perfect 
 mode of treatment but that which somnambulists prescribe 
 for themselves ; and that it is possible to render their ad- 
 mirable instinct serviceable to others. In pleurisy every 
 physician knows that bleeding is necessary, but he does 
 not know the precise moment of the operation ; at what 
 vein it ought to be done, and the exact quantity of blood it 
 is necessary to draw, etc." 
 
 Georget died at the commencement of a career so bril- 
 liantly begun, in the midst of the labors he had sketched 
 out for himself, and of his dreams of the future. All the 
 physiological facts which he had observed with so much 
 care, are probably lost to science ; for, since his death, no 
 person has spoken of publishing the notes which he left. 
 But he himself rendered, at last, a striking homage to the 
 principles of Psycodunamy, by these words inserted in 
 his will : " I will not finish this document without adding 
 to it an important declaration. In 1821, in my work on 
 the ' Physiology of the Nervous System,' I proudly pro- 
 fessed materialism. The preceding year I had published 
 a treatise on madness, in which are laid down principles 
 contrary to, or at least ideas not in agreement with the 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 343 
 
 general belief, (pp. 48, 51, 52, 114;) and hardly had I 
 published the ' Physiology of the Nervous System,' when 
 new meditations upon a very extraordinary phenomenon, 
 Somnambulism, would permit me no longer to doubt of the 
 existence, in us and out of us, of an intelligent principle, 
 altogether different from material existences. It is, if you 
 please, the soul, and God. In regard to this matter, I have 
 a profound conviction, founded upon facts which are not 
 to be controverted. This declaration will not see the light, 
 until no one can doubt its sincerity, or suspect my inten- 
 tions. If I cannot publish it myself, I urgently entreat 
 the persons who may take notice of it, at the opening of 
 the present testament — that is to say, after my death — to 
 give it all the publicity possible. March 1st, 1826." 
 
 The celebrated Professor Broussais, principal physician 
 of the hospital Le Vol de Grace, was little disposed to be- 
 lieve the wonders of Psycodunamy, when his pupil, Dr. 
 Frappart, induced him to call on Dr. Foissac, in order to 
 ascertain some of the faculties that somnambulism devel- 
 oped in the patient, Paul Villagrand ; mention of whom 
 has been made in the report of the committee of the Royal 
 Academy of Medicine, read by Dr. Husson on the 28th 
 of June, 1831. (See p. 29.) Paul having been put to 
 sleep, Dr. Frappart pressed down his eyelids, and Dr. 
 Broussais took from his pocket a letter, which he gave to 
 the somnambulist. Paul immediately read, " War De- 
 partment — Sir," and the whole of the first line, without 
 any embarrassment. Dr. Broussais was astonished ; he 
 asked for pen and ink, and wrote three lines on a piece 
 of paper. Paul read them instantly, although the eyelids 
 continued to be kept shut by the application upon them of 
 the fingers of Dr. Frappart. Dr. Foissac proposed to try 
 some more experiments, but the skeptic avowed that he 
 was perfectly satisfied and convinced ; that he could not 
 any longer entertain even a shadow of doubt, and he asked 
 
344 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 permission to preserve the lines he had written, as a 
 monument of the victory won by P sycodunamy over his incre- 
 dulity. 
 
 Dr. Broussais immediately resolved to try experiments 
 in his own hospital. Dr. Frappart had received from Dr. 
 Foissac the proper instructions to operate successfully, 
 and at the request of the professor he dunamised two pa- 
 tients. One of them was an epileptic, who at the very 
 first trial exhibited some remarkable phenomena. In a 
 few days his lucidity increased, and the faculty of previ- 
 sion, already noticed in several patients of the hospital La 
 Salpetriere, became one of the principal features of his 
 somnambulism. We will remark, that his disorder being 
 the same as that of the somnambulist of Dr. Georget, he 
 prescribed for himself nearly the same remedy that Petro- 
 nilla had prescribed in her case. He foretold the return 
 at a certain hour of an extremely violent attack, and said 
 that five able-bodied men ought then to take hold of him, 
 plunge him completely into a bath of ice-water, and keep 
 his head under till the convulsions should cease, when 
 they should apply to the calf of his leg a red-hot iron, and 
 burn him fearlessly till he should scream. 
 
 This prediction spread widely, and caused a number of 
 persons to call to witness its fulfilment, and the result of 
 the means prescribed. Every thing went on as the patient 
 had foretold, and since that time no attack of his former 
 disorder has ever troubled him, according to the testimony 
 of Drs. Broussais and Frappart, who felt a lively interest 
 in ascertaining the reality of the cure. Fifty persons, in- 
 cluding all the physicians, the students in medicine, and 
 the officers attached to the hospital of Vol de Grace, at- 
 tested this event. 
 
 To conclude the history of the experiments made in the 
 public hospitals of Paris, I must now refer my readers to 
 the report of M. Husson, (see p. 29,) in which are rela- 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 345 
 
 ted those that took place in the hospital La Charite, on 
 Paul Villagrand and Pierre Cazot. To complete the in- 
 struction to be derived from those experiments, I must 
 mention the trial made by Professor Fouquier and Dr. 
 Bertrand to ascertain the efficacy of dunamised water. 
 Rose Touchard, one of the patients of the hospital in the 
 rooms attended by Professor Fouquier, was dunamised by 
 Dr. Bertrand. Her disorder was characterized by spas- 
 modic vomitings, which the water prepared by her duna- 
 miser could alone stop ; any other drink was immediately 
 rejected. They substituted, without any possibility of her 
 knowing it, ordinary water for that which had been duna- 
 mised, and the vomitings reappeared immediately. To 
 know if the imagination of the patient had any effect on 
 the results, they gave her common water, which they pre- 
 tended to have prepared, and again the vomitings were re- 
 newed. Finally, they gave her dunamised water, without 
 letting her know whether it was prepared or not, and the 
 digestive functions resumed their regularity. 
 
 In connection with the history of the Psycodunamic ex- 
 periments made in the public hospitals of Paris, it will not 
 be amiss to relate here the intolerant conduct of the ene- 
 mies of our science. The public hospitals of Paris are 
 under the general control of a board of directors, men un- 
 doubtedly honorable in many respects, but absolutely 
 strangers to medical science, and members of the religious 
 Society of Jesus. It was the Duke de la Rochefoucault, 
 president of this board, who forbade, in January, 1821, 
 the continuation of the experiments on Miss Samson at 
 the Hotel-Dieu. 
 
 It may be seen in the " Physiology of the Nervous Sys- 
 tem" that its author, Dr. Georget, makes no mention of 
 the names of his somnambulists, nor of the place where he 
 made his experiments, nor of the numerous witnesses, 
 physicians and others, who were convinced like himself. 
 
346 PSYCODTJNAMY. 
 
 " It is because," says he, " we live in an age when it is 
 not permitted to avow our belief on this point," The true 
 reason of his reserve and silence was the fear of displeas- 
 ing those who had the administration of the hospitals, and 
 had severely interdicted all essays of that nature. 
 
 In November, 1826, the committee appointed by the 
 Royal Academy of Medicine resolved to try experiments 
 at the hospital La Salpetriere, where epileptics and maniacs 
 are generally treated. Experience had proved that among 
 those patients, not only the most remarkable cases of som- 
 nambulism are to be found, but also the most unexpected 
 cures are to be effected ; thus the members of the com- 
 mittee were very sanguine in their expectations of satis- 
 factory results from their researches in that quarter. But 
 Dr. Magendie, one of the members, and physician of that 
 hospital, refused to allow them to try any experiments be- 
 fore asking the consent of the board of directors. It prov- 
 ed of no avail to represent to him how ridiculous it was 
 for physicians, whom public confidence had invested with 
 the most important offices, to beg from persons ignorant 
 of medicine, leave to adopt in their practice such or such 
 medical doctrine, and to use such or such remedy ; that 
 the true motives of the directors in passing the by-law 
 which opposes the use of unknown remedies, was to pre- 
 vent the mania of experimenting with dangerous substances ; 
 and that, in that respect, he (Dr. Magendie) had himself 
 in many cases slighted the injunction, more so perhaps than 
 any other physician, — when, without leave, he made use 
 of the most violent poisons, and when the benefits con- 
 ferred on mankind by such trials had proved much more 
 questionable than those of Psycodunamy, which, after all, 
 was not an unknown remedy, and consequently could not 
 be included in the general prohibition ; and consisting only 
 in the use of slight frictions, made by a benevolent hand, 
 could offer no dangers to be compared to those of strych- 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 347 
 
 nine, morphine, prussic acid, etc. Dr. Magendie felt of- 
 fended ; he persisted in his determination, and has never 
 since consented to witness any thing like Psycodunamic 
 experiments. 
 
 Dr. Fouquier, principal physician of the hospital La 
 Charite, took the responsibility, and resolved to run the 
 risk of displeasing the Board of Directors. Accordingly 
 the patients, Paul Villagrand and Pierre Cazot, were ex- 
 perimented upon as related in the report ; but, on the 13th 
 of October, Dr. Fouquier received the following letter : 
 
 " Sir, — The Board of Directors of the public hospitals 
 of Paris have received information concerning the experi- 
 ments on Magnetism, which take place in the hospital La 
 Charite, under your superintendence. 
 
 " They have caused their decision of the 19th of Octo- 
 ber, 1825, to be read again. It is as follows : * It is for- 
 bidden to all physicians and surgeons attached to the hos- 
 pitals of Paris to try any experiment without a special au- 
 thorization of the Board of Directors.' 
 
 " I have been desired to send to you a copy of this de- 
 cision, and the Board signifies to you their injunction of 
 discontinuing immediately the experiments which you have 
 improperly permitted. 
 
 " I am, respectfully, etc. 
 
 " Breton, Vice-President of the Board." 
 
 The members of the Committee of the Royal Academy 
 of Medicine resented this conduct, and protested loudly 
 against the impropriety of this letter. They assembled at 
 the house of their President, Dr. Bourdois de la Motte, on 
 the 3d of December, and decided that a letter, in the name 
 of the Royal Academy of Medicine, should be sent to the 
 Board of Directors of the public hospitals, requesting them 
 to grant the authorization, stating that so far, the results 
 
348 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 obtained had proved decidedly beneficial, and that the in- 
 terest of mankind at large, as well as the advancement of 
 science, required the continuation of those experiments. 
 
 They had no idea of the possibility of a refusal ; but, to 
 their extreme surprise, on the 10th of December, they re- 
 ceived the following letter : 
 
 " To Dr. Bourdois de la Motte, Member of the Royal Academy 
 of Medicine, and President of the Committee on Magnetism. 
 
 " Sir, — The Board of Directors of the public hospitals 
 of Paris took cognizance, at their last meeting, of the let- 
 ter written by the members of the committee of which you 
 are the President, and concerning some experiments on 
 Magnetism undertaken without authorization in the hospital 
 La Charite. 
 
 " They carefully weighed the motives which dictated 
 your letter, but they persisted in their determination not to 
 allow experiments in the establishments under their con- 
 trol, on a kind of treatment which long since has been the 
 cause of discussions among scientific men. 
 
 " In requesting me to transmit to you this decision, the 
 Board of Directors invited me to express their regret for 
 refusing to second the views of the enlightened physicians 
 who compose your committee. 
 
 " Very respectfully, etc. 
 
 (Signed) "Valdruche." 
 
 In America, — the land emphatically denominated the 
 " patria" of Liberty, — instead of finding support against an 
 odious despotism, will scientific liberty alone meet with 
 oppression ? Will the trustees of the public institutions 
 of this country imitate the deplorable fanaticism which 
 blinded the members of the Board of Directors of the hos- 
 pitals of Paris 1 At Rome, in the land where a short time 
 ago it was not permitted to teach publicly that it is the 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 349 
 
 earth which revolves , and not the sun, we can easily conceive 
 how a cardinal Oppizoni prohibited the practice of Psyco- 
 dunamy ; but here, — where many important and useful 
 discoveries have received in their practical application a 
 development so creditable to American enterprise and ge- 
 nius, — will Psycodunamy alone be an exception, and be 
 allowed still to remain in the hands of the despicable tribe 
 of wonder-mongers -? Will not persons distinguished for 
 their rank in life, for their literary attainments, and for 
 their reputation as medical men, divesting themselves of 
 absurd prejudices, take it under their protection ? Will 
 they not form among themselves a society, whose transac- 
 tions shall be conducted upon a plan that will avoid every 
 chance of fraud, and set forth in all its splendor the 
 truth which will one day confer on mankind at large the 
 most valuable benefits ? 
 
 Such is my ardent wish ; such is my most sanguine 
 expectation. It is the hope of seeing the dawn of the day 
 when the rays of that light shall begin to shine, that in- 
 duces me to remain in this my adopted country, where, 
 perhaps, I shall reap the glory of having contributed my 
 mite towards so fortunate an event. 
 
 30 
 
350 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PSYCODUNAMY IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Towards the end of 1785, Mesmer visited England ; 
 but he met there with rather a cold reception. Except 
 Lord Stanhope, whom he convinced of the importance of 
 his doctrine, and who very hospitably received the Ger- 
 man doctor, it may be truly said that he was considered 
 there, by everybody, as a mere charlatan. Hence he 
 made but a short stay among the English. 
 
 One of the pupils of Mesmer, or rather of Dr. d'Eslon, 
 Dr. de Maineduc, had been in England before Mesmer 
 himself. He lectured there, and practised according to 
 the principles of his masters, with enough success to re- 
 alize £100,000 at Bristol, from the year 1778 to 1798, 
 when he published a work in a quarto volume, in which 
 he modified the doctrine of Mesmer, and made it still more 
 obscure and incomprehensible. He found many opposers, 
 particularly among the members of the clergy, who accu- 
 sed him of blasphemy for asserting that his practice had 
 been taught by our Saviour. 
 
 At the same time, Perkins, a surgeon practising in Lon- 
 don, invented and obtained a patent for his metallic trac- 
 tors ; these were strong pieces of steel strongly magneti- 
 zed, which were applied over the affected part, and gently 
 moved about, touching the skin. Gout, rheumatism, palsy, 
 and many other diseases, were cured by these tractors. 
 Among the persons who publicly vouched for the truth of 
 the wonderful cures, were eight university professors, four 
 being professors of medicine ; twenty clergymen, ten be- 
 ing doctors in divinity ; thirty-six medical men, nineteen 
 being M. D.'s. The tractors, however, cost five guineas 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 351 
 
 a pair, and consequently were beyond the means of the 
 poor ; and as Perkins was a Quaker, this sect subscribed a 
 large sum and built the Perkinean Institute, in which all 
 comers were operated upon free of cost. But the correct- 
 ness of the remark of Mesmer, that the magnet was not 
 the cause of the success, was soon demonstrated by Dr. 
 Hajgarth, of Bath, and his friend, Mr. Richard Smith, of 
 Brfstol. They tried publicly upon five hospital patients, 
 some tractors made of wood, painted and shaped so as 
 exactly to resemble the real ones. Four of those patients 
 were affected with chronic rheumatism in the ankle, knee, 
 wrists, and hip. The fifth had chronic gout. All were 
 considerably and instantly relieved : one of them, who was 
 previously unable to stir, felt his knee much warmer, and 
 immediately walked across the room. The following day 
 the real metallic tractors were applied with results pre- 
 cisely similar. 
 
 Since De Maineduc, the only work published on the 
 same subject is by Mr. Baldwin, ex-consul of England at 
 Alexandria, in Egypt. 
 
 " When I returned to England," says he, in his preface, " I 
 spoke to some friends of my resolution to publish the effects 
 I had produced by using the means taught by Mesmer and 
 D'Eslon. But all of them endeavored to deter me from it. 
 ' You will expose yourself,' said they, ' to public derision. 
 There is in England a prejudice so strongly pronounced 
 against this doctrine, that you will jind it impossible to over- 
 come it? I feigned to yield to that advice, and remained, to 
 all appearances, as indifferent or incredulous on this im- 
 portant discovery as any of the learned men of my coun- 
 try. But, in fact, I sought for the secret reason of not only 
 their repugnance, but even the sort of fear that they enter- 
 tained of that practice. I think I found it out, and this 
 gives me the courage of submitting to the whole world 
 the examination of this great truth." He speaks no more 
 
 
352 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 on the subject, and leaves to the sagacity of his jeaders to 
 guess at the cause. His endeavors to reconcile Psycodu- 
 namy with the Holy Scriptures, prove that he was afraid 
 to give offence to the Church of England. 
 
 From 1801 to 1825, I have been unable to follow the 
 progress of our subject in the three kingdoms. It is cer- 
 tain, however, that some persons were devoting their time 
 to the Psycodunamic practice, for, in the first volume of 
 the "Hermes" (p. 358,) I find the following fact, which, 
 on account of its being an instance of a somnambulist 
 curing another person, I think proper to relate in full. 
 
 " In 1825, Mr. Grandchamp, a dunamiser of some renown 
 in London, was attending on Miss G** # , who, during her 
 long Psycodunamic treatment, exhibited the most striking- 
 phenomena of somnambulism. One day, being in that 
 state, she rose suddenly from her seat, and ran into the 
 next room, where several patients were assembled. She 
 *went to a young girl who had just arrived in a distressing 
 situation : she touched in succession the parts where the 
 pains were more acute ; excited a considerable perspira- 
 tion ; and advised the patient to go to bed, and not to fail 
 to come again on the next day, warning her that indeed 
 she would suffer much for thirty-six hours, but at the end 
 of that time she would be perfectly cured. 
 
 " The next day, at twelve o'clock, Miss G***, being in 
 somnambulism, manifested great uneasiness, agitation, and 
 impatience. ' What is the matter, Miss V inquired her 
 dunamiser. — ' This girl of yesterday feels now excrucia- 
 ting pains ; she cannot come, I must go there ; my action 
 will save her.' — ■ How can we, Miss ? we know neither 
 her name nor her residence.' — \ O, sir ! I will go ; I shall 
 find her out.' The astonishment of the bystanders, among 
 whom was his Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester, 
 was greatly excited ; they were all of opinion that it was 
 best to let Miss G*** do as she pleased. 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 
 
 353 
 
 11 She took her bonnet and veil, and went out ; being fol- 
 lowed by many persons, whose curiosity and interest are 
 easily conceived. She walked through several streets 
 and stopped at a crossway, where she waited a moment, 
 like a hound (if I may be allowed to use the expression) 
 who tries to catch in the air the emanations that lead him 
 to his game. She soon resumed her journey, and at last 
 stopped, exclaiming, ' It is here.' She ascends to the 
 second story, pushes abruptly a small door, and actually 
 finds the girl lying on her bed. During half an hour she 
 repeated her passes, which considerably eased the sufferer. 
 She then dunamised a pitcher of water, and said, giving 
 her a kiss and taking leave of her, ' Drink this, keep your 
 bed, and to-morrow all will be over.' The prediction 
 proved perfectly correct." 
 
 In 1828 and 1829 the public and numerous experiments 
 made by Mr. Chenevix in the Dublin and London hospitals, 
 before some of the most eminent men in the medical pro- 
 fession, excited no general interest, notwithstanding the 
 astonishing results and conclusive evidence they afforded 
 of the power of the agent. Dr. C. R. Hall, who has writ- 
 ten a book against Psycodunamy, gives in the following 
 manner the summary of those experiments. 
 
 " Of one hundred and sixty-four patients, ninety-eight 
 manifested undeniable effects, some in one minute, some 
 not until the operation had been repeated several times. 
 Relief was almost always obtained. He operated by passes 
 — or by will alone, if he had acted on previous occasions on 
 the patient in the more ordinary way. In one instance he 
 elicited remarkable phenomena through a door, his pres- 
 ence being unknown to the patient. His success in cu- 
 ring epilepsy, palsy — in restoring a man pronounced by 
 Dr. Cotter to be l far ***swo phy n consumption' — in cases 
 of neuralgia, scrofula, that wjiir\vas witnessed by Sir B. 
 Brodie, and Drs. Milligan, Prout, Holland, and Babington. 
 30* 
 
354 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 " In a trial made upon some privates in the Coldstream 
 Guards, the first was not affected. The second was put 
 to sleep ; his arm was raised as high as his head, then 
 let suddenly fall, and yet he slept on. A bystander one 
 day begged him to resist to the utmost his inclination to 
 sleep. He did so, and succeeded ; but his eyes and nose 
 watered much, and the inclination to sleep was so great, 
 that he said, ' Had I but shut my eyes for one moment, I 
 must have slept.' 
 
 " One of the band, (Garrand,) after thirty minutes' opera- 
 tion was sensible of no particular effect ; yet Mr. Chenevix 
 touched his hand with his pencil-case, with the intention 
 of producing, according to his own will, the sensation of 
 heat or cold. The results of the first six experiments 
 were perfectly satisfactory. Dr. Whimper tried the same 
 experiment, with a similar result. Mr. Chenevix remarks, 
 that if you repeat the experiment too often in the same 
 sitting, and in rapid succession, the sensations become less 
 and less distinct, and consequently the influence of the 
 will less manifest, and finally null. 
 
 " One day, when Garrand's eyes were most strictly blind- 
 ed, he was desired to raise both his arms, and being ask- 
 ed whether he felt any thing on either of them, he said, 
 ' No.' A piece of paper, weighing perhaps from one to 
 two grains, was placed upon his right sleeve in such a 
 manner, that it was impossible that he should feel it. He 
 was again desired to raise both his arms, and was asked, 
 'Do you feel any thing?' — ' Yes.'— ' What ?'— ' A stiff- 
 ness and weight in my right arm.' The same experiment 
 was tried upon his feet with similar success ; but with the 
 same remark as in the previous circumstance, that is to 
 say, that at each successive time, the stiffness and weight 
 were less considerable, a^iVhness , 4, to be felt after six or 
 
 to 
 
 seven consecutive trials.' -r w fi re 3I 1 
 
 The above narrative, coming from the source I have 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 355 
 
 mentioned, cannot be suspected of having received a favor- 
 able coloring. 
 
 I will ask any man who has devoted some attention to 
 the study of physiology, if he knows any thing in the 
 whole science more remarkable and more interesting than 
 those phenomena, related and admitted as true by our op- 
 ponents ? How could English physicians look upon them 
 with indifference ? How could they refuse to devote some 
 attention to the curative power of an agent which produced 
 such evident results, while in their daily practice they 
 constantly resort to means, the efficacy of which is far 
 more questionable ? Could they, with such facts before 
 their eyes, still persist in their national pride, which made 
 them look upon the philosophers of all Europe who inves- 
 tigated the matter as upon a set of fools, with the excep- 
 tion of the English? Inconceivable as it may appear, 
 they did ; and their stoical indifference towards Psycodu- 
 namy has been highly praised by its opponents in the 
 Royal Academy of Paris. 
 
 In 1833, a learned barrister, Mr. Colquhoun, published 
 the " Isis revelatay This is, by far, the best English 
 work written on Psycodunamy. It would undoubtedly 
 have carried more weight with it, if its author had been a 
 medical man ; and this accounts, in a measure, for the 
 fact that its first impression has been almost powerless ; 
 yet when general attention had been drawn to the subject, 
 his work was called for, and three editions of it have since 
 appeared. I think it necessary to give some idea of the 
 opinions of its author on Psycodunamy. 
 
 Mr. Colquhoun seems to adopt the new theory of phys- 
 ics taught by M. Chardel. According to this, the cause 
 of life and motion is the same as that of light, heat, and 
 electricity. There are two physical elements, matter and 
 motion. " Matter is that which constitutes* the consist- 
 ence of bodies. The rays of the sun unite with matter, 
 
 % 
 
356 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 and are the sole and ever active principle of motion. It 
 is they which constitute the life of beings ; for life is the 
 cause of organic motion in vegetables and animals. The 
 motion of light is not the result of an impulsion, but of the 
 mobility inherent in itself; for it is the elementary motion, 
 and all impulsions depend upon it, more or less immedi- 
 ately. Let any one examine the nature of the solar rays, 
 and he will be convinced that they are motion in them- 
 selves, and that heat is nothing else but the agitation they 
 produce in bodies. The solar rays are the elementary 
 motion. Light, heat, magnetism, electricity, galvanism, 
 electro-magnetism, &c, result from the combination of the 
 elementary motion with matter. Muscular contractility 
 and excitability are phenomena of elasticity produced by 
 the vital element in animals, which form it by individual- 
 izing motion. It is always an internal power, generated 
 by the union of the solar rays with matter ; for life is noth- 
 ing else than this ; everywhere, by combining, they con- 
 fer upon compound bodies their appropriate action. This 
 is the secret of nature, &c." 
 
 However, in 1837, Baron Dupotet made a visit to Lon- 
 don, with the intention of propagating the Psycodunamic 
 doctrine. His exertions at first proved unavailing. Yet 
 he succeeded, after a while, in securing the patronage of 
 Dr. Elliotson, who in conjunction with him performed a 
 series of experiments upon patients in University College 
 Hospital. M. Dupotet attracted then considerable public 
 attention. At times his parlor was filled with the highest 
 nobility of England. 
 
 To give my readers an idea of the remarkable Psy- 
 codunamic power of Baron Dupotet, I will relate one in- 
 stance of it, that was witnessed by more than a hundred 
 of the most respectable persons of London. In the month 
 of May, 1838, Mr. Barke was present at a lecture deliv- 
 ered by Baron Dupotet. He sneeringly provoked the 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 357 
 
 professor, openly expressing his complete disbelief of his 
 power. Turning to his opponent, Baron Dupotet, at a 
 distance of five paces, extended his hand towards him, and 
 rooted him to the floor, stammering and vainly trying to 
 speak or move. The face became flushed, the eyes bril- 
 liant, and at a sudden change in the direction of the hand 
 of the operator, Mr. Barke appeared to be violently at- 
 tracted, and he fell prostrate, obeying a last motion of his 
 dunamiser. It will not be amiss to remark that Baron 
 Dupotet is a middle-sized man, rather slender ; while Mr. 
 Barke is a tall, stout, and strongly-built man. 
 
 Baron Dupotet, after relating the foregoing instance, 
 makes the following remarks : " And how should the phe- 
 nomena elicited under such circumstances be of a mild 
 character ? You provoke by expressions of contempt a 
 man who, conscious of his power, tells you that calmness 
 of mind is necessary for a regular and salutary action ; 
 you question his honesty and truthfulness. To conquer, 
 becomes thus the only aim of the operator ; and to secure 
 a victory more striking, he loses sight of a proper measure 
 to confound his adversary." [Magnetisme oppose^ a la Mede- 
 cine, p. 233.) 
 
 In the year 1838, Dr. Elliotson witnessed very ex- 
 traordinary effects in two young females, Jane and Eliz- 
 abeth O'Key. Those effects were produced at first by 
 ordinary passes, in the usual way ; but their susceptibility 
 afterwards became extreme. Any object acted upon by 
 the dunamiser would cause immediate results. Two dif- 
 ferent states were induced by those means — first a species 
 of coma, during which the patient was perfectly devoid of 
 sensibility and consciousness ; and ecstatic delirium, when 
 they became loquacious, obedient to the will of the opera- 
 tor, and manifested the most wonderful phenomena. While 
 in that state, the coma might be induced instantaneously, 
 and thus the patients be rendered fixed and perfectly mo- 
 
358 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 tionless, in whatever posture they happened to be at the 
 instant. During the existence of the ecstatic delirium, 
 which lasted for an indefinite time — once for twelve days 
 — one of the O'Keys was an admirable mimic ; gave 
 shrewd and witty, but sometimes extravagant answers to 
 questions ; she could see with the back of her hand, pre- 
 dicted the course of her own ailment, the means of cure, 
 the death or recovery of other patients. Her predictions 
 
 PROVED TO BE REMARKABLY CORRECT. 
 
 However, one day, at the house of Mr. Wakeley, the 
 experiments tried by Dr. Elliotson on the two O'Keys 
 proved a complete failure. 
 
 There was a great ado about it. The opponents of 
 Psycodunamy lost sight at once of the many times in 
 which the experiments were completely conclusive and 
 satisfactory. They pretended that they were but skilful 
 impostors, who had deceived Dr. Elliotson, whom they 
 represented as a weak and credulous man, and abused 
 without measure. His resignation as physician of the 
 University College Hospital was the consequence of the 
 sarcasms of his enemies. 
 
 Nevertheless, Dr. Elliotson continued his investigations, 
 and has since published, (in 1840,) in the appendix to his 
 Physiology, a further account of the O'Keys. This ac- 
 count demonstrates how illogical is a general conclusion 
 drawn from one single instance ; and that a failure — even 
 admitting one from an attempt on the part of somnambu- 
 lists to deceive — is not a reason to pronounce that in all 
 cases they are impostors ; it gives, on the contrary, a sal- 
 utary warning to be careful and circumspect in the exami- 
 nation of the phenomena. 
 
 In 1841, a Frenchman, M. Lafontaine, made a tour 
 through Great Britain, lecturing and exhibiting his som- 
 nambulists in every town sufficiently large to remunerate 
 him. The facts which he produced were so conclusive, 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 359 
 
 that even the most violent opponents could find no fault 
 with him. He succeeded in directing very general atten- 
 tion to the subject. Several scientific men, physicians, 
 and reverend gentlemen, published successively the re- 
 sults of their observations. We notice in particular : — 
 
 Trials of Animal Magnetism on the brute Creation, 
 by John Wilson, M. D. This work is certainly curious 
 and interesting. It is to be desired that the experi- 
 ments of Dr. Wilson should be repeated by other careful 
 observers. The Psycodunamic power of man over the 
 brute creation has long ago been admitted by philosophers, 
 and its effects are sufficiently known and constant to have 
 induced me to devote a chapter to this subject in my work 
 on the Philosophy of Psycodunamy. 
 
 In 1842, Lectures, by T. P. Catlow, Esq., reported at 
 length in the " Manchester Guardian ;" and a paper, by 
 the same, on the fallacy of Mesmero-Phrenology, in the 
 " North of England Magazine." 
 
 In 1843, Dr. Braid, a surgeon of Manchester, published 
 his work on Hypnotism. Philosophical views and impor- 
 tant facts are the characteristics of the work of Dr. Braid ; 
 but although its author pretends that his discovery has no 
 connection with Psycodunamy as previously known, it is 
 evident that the means of inducing the phenomena consti- 
 tute the only difference ; for the results, both physiological 
 and curative, are identically the same. 
 
 The Zoist, containing Dr. Elliotson's papers ; the 
 Phreno-Magnet, edited by Spencer T. Hall, Esq. ; Animal 
 Magnetism, by Edward Lee, Esq. ; Mesmerism, with re- 
 ports of cases developed in Scotland, by Wm. Laney, Esq., 
 appeared at the same time. 
 
 The Facts in Mesmerism, by Rev. C. H. Townshend ; 
 the Rationale of Magnetism, Animal and Mental, by Samuel 
 Spurrel ; and Mesmerism and its Opponents, by Rev. Geo. 
 Sandby, appeared in 1844. 
 
 ■ 
 
360 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 Of these works, the most remarkable is that of Mr. 
 Townshend ; the correctness of the principles and the 
 philosophy laid down, announce a sound, intelligent, and 
 truly superior mind. The following propositions are a 
 summary of the inferences drawn by him from his experi- 
 ments : — 
 
 1. There exists throughout nature a pervading medium, 
 elastic and vibratory, which may or may not be, under 
 different modifications, the source of the phenomena of the 
 imponderable agents generally ; and possibly is, in reality, 
 electricity. 
 
 2. This ether permeates the brain in common with all 
 other matter. 
 
 3. Every thought moves the brain in its own appropri- 
 ate manner ; or, to suit the phrenologist, every thought 
 proceeds from a certain special movement of cerebral mat- 
 ter. 
 
 4. This mental motion gives an impulse to the mes- 
 meric ether within the brain, which is communicated to 
 the mesmeric ether external to the body of the person 
 originating it. 
 
 5. Mesmerised persons, having their susceptibility ex- 
 tremely exalted, are cognizant of the motions of this mes- 
 meric medium, though in their ordinary state they would 
 not be affected by them. 
 
 6. Every thought having its special cerebral movement, 
 the motions created by the thoughts of other persons be- 
 ing transferred through the brain and through the mes- 
 meric medium to the sensorium of a mesmerised person, 
 are to him intelligible signs of thought ; a language which, 
 though new to him at first, he, by a gradual process of as- 
 sociation, gives meaning to and learns to comprehend. 
 
 7. The nervous agency, or medium of sensation and 
 motion, is identical with this mesmeric medium. 
 
 8. Sensation is fundamentally an internal process of the 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 361 
 
 mind, to the production of which the organs of the senses 
 are not essential ; similar ultimate motions of the nerves, 
 however produced, being alone requisite to excite similar 
 sensations. 
 
 9. The mind can obtain information in two ways, — pas- 
 sively, as when it receives notice of what is going on 
 through the senses in the ordinary way ; actively, where 
 it takes notice through any of the nerves, in the mesmeric 
 way. In the latter case " the common process of sensa- 
 tion seems reversed ; for the nerve appears to conduct the 
 sentient power to the superficies, where it takes, as it 
 were, the information it seeks, instead of, as usual, con- 
 ducting the impulsion to the brain." 
 
 In 1845, we notice the work of Dr. Newnham, Human 
 Magnetism ; the Letters of Miss Martineau on Mesmerism ; 
 and lastly, the production of Charles RadclyfTe Hall, M. D., 
 yclept, " Mesmerism, its rise, progress, and mysteries, in 
 all ages and countries, being a critical (satirical ?) inquiry 
 into its assumed merits, and history of its mock marvels, 
 hallucinations, and frauds. " 
 
 It is curious to remark how this last author, after show- 
 ing himself at the very outset so prodigal of injurious 
 epithets towards the dunamisers, admits nevertheless as 
 results : 1st, Incontestable — some cures ; 2d, Proved — ■ 
 quietude, composure, sleep ; 3d, Probable — attraction, 
 muscular rigidity, convulsions, heightened sensibility, di- 
 minished sensibility, double consciousness ; 4th, Possible 
 —insensibility to severe pain ; 5th, Impossible as far us 
 any thing can be so — clairvoyance, intuition, prevision, etc. 
 And lastly, immediately after such concessions, (p. 166,) 
 he says, " I believe that there is not a shadow of evidence 
 in support of the existence of any such influence or agen- 
 cy, whether designated mesmeric, magnetic, occult, or 
 by any other name." May we be allowed to ask Mr. 
 Charles Radclyflfe Hall, M« D., how a nonentity can pro* 
 
 31 
 
362 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 duce any of the results that he confesses himself compelled 
 to admit 1 
 
 Before we leave the history of Psyeodimamy in Eng- 
 land, it will not be amiss to relate here two instances of 
 great surgical operations performed in that country during 
 the Psycodunamic insensibility. The first case was read 
 to the Royal Medical and Surgical Society of London on 
 the 25th of October, 1842. The following is an extract 
 from it : — 
 
 " James Wombell, aged 42, a laboring man, of a calm 
 and quiet temperament, had suffered for a period of about 
 five years from a painful affection of the left knee, occa- 
 sioned by ulceration arising from neglected inflammation, 
 On the 21st of June he was admitted into the district hos- 
 pital at Wellow, near Ollerton, no longer able to work, and 
 suffering much pain. It was found that amputation of the 
 leg above the knee joint was inevitable, and it was even- 
 tually proposed that it should be performed, if possible, 
 during the Psycodunamic sleep. 
 
 " The patient was accordingly dunamised from the 9th of 
 September to the 1st of October, when the insensibility 
 appeared sufficiently induced to operate. Dr. S. Ward 
 was then informed by Mr. Topham that he might perform 
 the operation. The sleep being produced, Dr. Ward, -af- 
 ter one earnest look at the man, slowly plunged his knife 
 into the centre of the outer side of the patient's thigh, di- 
 rectly to the bone, and then made a clear incision round 
 the bone to the opposite point on the inside of the thigh. 
 The stillness at this moment was something awful ; the 
 calm respiration of the sleeping man alone was heard, for 
 that of the spectators seemed suspended. In making the 
 second incision, the position of the leg was found more 
 inconvenient than it had appeared to be, and the operator 
 could not proceed with his former facility. Soon after the 
 second incision, a moaning was heard from the "patient, 
 

 GENERAL HISTORY. 363 
 
 which was repeated at intervals until the conclusion. Nev- 
 ertheless, the sleep continued as profound as ever. The 
 placid look of his countenance never changed for an in- 
 stant — his whole frame rested uncontrolled, in perfect 
 stillness and repose — not a muscle or nerve was seen to 
 twitch. To the end of the operation, including the saw- 
 ing of the bone, securing the arteries, and applying the 
 bandages — occupying a period of twenty-five minutes — he 
 lay like a statue. Soon after the limb was removed, his 
 pulse becoming low from loss of blood, some brandy and 
 water was poured into his throat, which he swallowed un- 
 consciously. 
 
 " Finally, when all was completed, and Wombell was 
 about to be removed, his pulse being still found very low, 
 some sal-volatile and water was administered to him ; it 
 proved too strong and pungent, and he gradually and 
 calmly arose. At first he uttered no exclamation, and for 
 some moments seemed lost and bewildered ; but after 
 looking around, he exclaimed, ( I bless the Lord, to find 
 that it is all over !' Being asked to describe all he felt or 
 knew during his sleep, he said, ' I never knew any thing 
 or felt any pain at all ; I once felt as if I heard a kind of 
 crunching, but would have still slept comfortably had I 
 not been awakened by that strong stuff.' " 
 
 Dr. Ward, in his statement three weeks after the op- 
 eration, declares that the success had been complete ; the 
 patient had not had a single bad symptom, none even of 
 the nervous excitement so frequently observed after pain- 
 ful operations. 
 
 " Previously to this," says he, " I was a skeptic ; but 
 now who can deny the effects and advantages of this mys- 
 terious power, which deadens the sensibility to such an 
 extent as to allow a surgical operation of the greatest 
 magnitude to be performed on a live body as readily as 
 upon a 'corpse?" - 
 
 
364 PSYCODTJNAMY. 
 
 The second case was an amputation of the thigh, per- 
 formed on Mary Ann Lakin, at Leicester, and published 
 in the Leicester Mercury. " During the operation," says 
 the correspondent, " as far as could be judged, there was 
 an entire absence of pain. This was evinced by the 
 countenance preserving throughout the greatest placidity, 
 not a single motion of a muscle indicating sensation. On 
 being awakened, the patient was not aware of what had 
 taken place till informed by those in attendance." 
 
 I will conclude this chapter with a few words upon a 
 Psycodunamic faculty observed in Scotland, and known 
 in that country by the name of " Second Sight." Johnson 
 will not be a suspected authority. 
 
 " The Second Sight," says the author of the Voyage to 
 the Hebrides, " is either an impression given by the eyes 
 on the mind, or by the mind on the eyes, by means of 
 which distant or future objects are perceived and seen as 
 if they were present. 
 
 " This faculty is passive ; it is neither voluntary nor 
 constant. These apparitions cannot be commanded, de- 
 tained, or recalled ; the impression is sudden." 
 
 The writer adds this very sensible reflection : " The 
 faculty of Second Sight is wonderful, only because it is 
 uncommon; for, considered in itself, it does not imply 
 more difficulty than dreams, perhaps even no more than 
 the regular exercise of our faculty of thinking." 
 
 In speaking of the Second Sight in the Highlands of 
 Scotland, the author of Human Magnetism (Dr. Newnham) 
 says, " That it is a fact so well attested by so many au- 
 thors worthy of credit, that notwithstanding its marvellous- 
 ness, it is impossible to doubt it. With regard to this at- 
 tribute of marvellousness, it is to be considered that it is 
 contemporaneous and co-extensive with ignorance ; that 
 it is to be found largely developed in men of limited un- 
 derstanding, with whom every thing beyond their acquisi* 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 
 
 365 
 
 tions is to them marvellous — that its power and influence 
 are circumscribed by the extension of knowledge — that 
 Jhe light of science dispels every day the mists of wonder 
 — that that which is marvellous to-day, may cease to be so 
 to-morrow ; and that therefore its indication is the igno- 
 rance of inquirers, and not the want of stability or truth- 
 fulness in the facts." 
 
 31' 
 
366 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PSYCODUNAMY IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 It is not long since public attention in the United States 
 was first called to Psycodunamy and the facts connected 
 with it. Still it was known, or at least it had been heard 
 of, even in the days of Washington. In the " Memoirs, 
 Correspondence, and Manuscripts of Gen. Lafayette" pub- 
 lished by his family, we read the following curious pas- 
 sage in the broken English of the French warrior to the 
 American hero : " A German doctor, named Mesmer, hav- 
 ing made the greatest discovery upon Animal Magnetism, 
 he has instructed scholars, among whom your humble ser- 
 vant is called one of the most enthusiastic. I know as 
 much as any conjurer ever did, which reminds me of our 
 friend's, at Fishkill, interview with the devil, that made us 
 laugh so much at his house ; and before I go, I will get 
 leave to let you into the secret of Mesmer, which, you 
 may depend upon, is a grand philosophical discovery." 
 
 It is generally reported that the first public lectures on 
 Psycodunamy delivered in the United States were at 
 Pawtucket, R. I., in the fall and winter of 1836, by Charles 
 Poyen de St. Sauveur, a French gentleman. But this is 
 an error. x\nother French dunamiser, much more known as 
 such in France than M. Poyen ever was, viz. M. Joseph Du 
 Commun, now a teacher of the French language at the U. 
 S. Military Academy of West Point, delivered lectures at 
 New York, in July and August, 1829. He stated in those 
 lectures, that on his arrival in the United States in 1815, 
 he called upon two other persons whom he had known in 
 Europe as having practised the new science ; they united 
 in a society of which he was appointed president. But 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 367 
 
 slowly did the number of members increase, and they nev- 
 er were over a dozen. Yet, small as was this society, 
 they nevertheless diffused among the public some know- 
 ledge of the object and importance of Psycodunamy, and 
 remarkable cures were performed, often without even 
 mentioning the name of the agency put in use. 
 
 However, M. Poyen found in Miss Gleason, of Paw- 
 tucket, a young lady of respectable family, a remarkable 
 somnambulic subject, with whom he visited Boston and 
 Lowell, and gave a series of practical lectures, which 
 gained from among the most scientific and eminent per- 
 sons in this country many converts to the doctrine. He 
 likewise enabled many gentlemen, by his instructions, to 
 become professional dunamisers. 
 
 The city of Providence has afforded, perhaps more than 
 any other place in the Union, evidences of the importance 
 of Psycodunamy. The newspapers have been nearly a 
 year making known the phenomena which transpired there ; 
 and Thomas C. Hartshorn, a gentleman eminent for his 
 learning, has collected, in his appendix to the translation 
 of the work of Deleuze, several of those well-authenticated 
 facts. The following are from his book : — 
 
 " A child, about nine years of age, attending the school 
 of Miss Snow in this city, (Providence,) was about a 
 month ago, during an intermission, found to be asleep in 
 the school-room. One of the young scholars came and 
 gave information. Miss Snow and others tried to rouse 
 her, but not succeeding, they became alarmed. A young 
 medical student, a son of Commodore John Orde Creigh- 
 ton, being called in, soon perceived that she was in a 
 Psycodunamic sleep. A little girl about ten years old 
 immediately burst into tears. It was evident that she 
 (Jane Ball) had done it ; but she was so much terrified at 
 the result of the mischief, that Miss Snow called her into 
 another room, soothed her distress, and told her she need 
 
 
368 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 not be frightened ; she had only to go to Anne, and ask 
 her to wake up. This was done. She merely spoke to 
 her, and she came out of the Psycodunamic state, with 
 that smile upon her visage which is peculiar to those who 
 are gently roused from it. The child had been, once be* 
 fore, and only once, put into the somnambulic state. It 
 was effected in about five minutes, by a lady Avho had 
 never before tried her hand at this business. 
 
 " An instance of the power of dunamising without ma- 
 nipulation, and causing sleep at the first trial, is afforded in 
 the case of a woman, who, being in a nervous state, was 
 put to sleep for the first time by her husband, in the course 
 of fifteen minutes, without her knowing his intention ; she 
 sitting at one part of the room, and he in another. When 
 she was asleep, he went into an adjoining room, out of her 
 direct vision, and taking down a book, began to read it, 
 After being some time in the Psycodunamic state, she was 
 awakened. She related correctly what he had done, and 
 evineed the usual proofs of clairvoyance. The gentleman 
 is a resident of this city, a friend of mine, on whose ve- 
 racity I can depend. 
 
 " I learn these particulars from Mr. Benjamin Cozzens 
 and Mr. Joseph 'Balch, Jr. 
 
 " Dr. ***, of this city, informed me that one of his 
 daughters, seven years of age, put her little sister, between 
 two and three years of age, into a deep Psycodunamic 
 sleep, so that her mother could not rouse her. Some time 
 afterwards she was very eager to experience the effect 
 again, and cried because she was not permitted to be du- 
 namised. 
 
 " An instance occurred of one boy's putting another into 
 the same state, which was related to me by an eyewitness 
 of the fact. It took place in this city." 
 
 A very interesting case of clairvoyance was evinced by 
 Miss Parker, who was one day dunamised by Dr. Brow- 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 369 
 
 nell, a very eminent physician, at Providence ; the de- 
 scription of this case has appeared in many of the news- 
 papers, and excited much interest. The particulars below 
 are furnished by Dr. Brownell to Mr. Hartshorn. 
 
 " The patient lived more than a quarter of a mile from 
 my house. I requested a somnambulist, then at my house, 
 to see if she could find such a man, at the same time 
 pointing out to her the situation of the house, which was 
 not in sight from the room where we continued all the 
 time. She saw him. On being asked in what room, she 
 replied, in the third room back from the street. She was 
 then requested to describe the situation of the furniture in 
 it, in order to discover whether she had got into the right 
 place, and whether her clairvoyance might be trusted at 
 that time ; she described it very exactly. 
 
 " I then told her my patient had been sick a long time, 
 and desired her to examine him and tell what the disease 
 was. 
 
 " She said, ' He looks so bad, I do not like to do it.' I 
 replied, ' Never mind that ; it looks bad to you, because 
 you have not been accustomed to looking at the interior 
 of a body.' As I supposed him to be affected with a dis- 
 eased liver, and with indigestion arising from a diseased 
 state of the stomach, I asked her to look at the stomach, 
 to see if that was diseased. She answered, ' No.' — ' Is 
 the liver diseased V — ' No.' — ' Well, examine the whole in- 
 testinal canal, and see if there is any disease there.' — ' I do 
 not see any,' said she. ' Examine the kidneys.' — ' Nothing 
 is the matter with them.' Not knowing what other part to 
 call her attention to, I requested her to look at every part 
 of him. After some little time, she says, ' His spleen is 
 swelled ; it is enlarged.' — ' His spleen !' said I ; ' when 
 we speak of a person who is spleeny, we suppose that he 
 has an imaginary complaint. What do you mean V She 
 said, ' The part called the spleen is enlarged.' — ' How do 
 
370 PSYCODTJNAMY. 
 
 you know it is enlarged ?'-— ' It is a great deal larger than 
 yours.' — ' Do you see mine V — ' Yes.' — ' How large is his 
 spleen V — ' It is a great deal longer and thicker than your 
 hand.' 
 
 " I asked her to put her hand where the spleen is 
 situated. She immediately placed her hand over the re- 
 gion of the spleen. 
 
 " I then conversed with her in relation to the other vis- 
 cera ; and she gave a very correct description of them. I 
 asked her if she had conversed upon the subject, or seen 
 any plates of the internal organs. She declared she never 
 had. 
 
 " Seven days after this, the patient was taken more se- 
 riously ill, and died on Saturday, the third day following. 
 On Monday a post mortem examination took place. Eigh- 
 teen persons were present, of whom sixteen were phy- 
 sicians. 
 
 " I then stated all the particulars of the examination by 
 the somnambulic patient ; and requested the physicians to 
 examine the body to see if they could discover the dis- 
 eased spleen from external examination. They with one 
 voice declared they could not. 
 
 " I then opened the body, and, to the utter astonishment 
 of the physicians present, found the spleen so enlarged as 
 to weigh fifty-seven ounces. Its usual weight is from four 
 to six ounces. No Other disease was perceptible." 
 
 Two remarkable cases of clairvoyance were related 
 by Col. Stone, in the N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, of 
 the 4th of September, 1837 ; the Colonel was previously an 
 unbeliever in the science, and how far he became a convert 
 to the faith I leave the reader to judge from reading the 
 following narrative from his pen : 
 
 " Animal Magnetism. — We have had our time and times 
 of laughing at Animal Magnetism. We shall laugh at it 
 no more. There is something awfully mysterious in the 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 371 
 
 principle, beyond the power of man to fathom or explain. 
 Being in Providence on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, 
 the 26th, 27th, and 28th of August, an opportunity was af- 
 forded us of seeing and taking part in a series of experi- 
 ments, with a young blind lady, while under the magnetic 
 influence, the results of which were not only marvellous 
 in our eyes, but absolutely astounding. The exhibition 
 was not public, and the parties were all people of the first 
 respectability, professional and otherwise. Having heard 
 much upon the subject, and disbelieved all, the experi- 
 ments were made before a private circle of ladies and gen- 
 tlemen, at our own urgent solicitation. 
 
 " We have written a narrative of the circumstances, 
 comprising some fifty or sixty pages of foolscap ; and we 
 venture to say, that nothing hitherto published upon that 
 subject is so wonderful, by far, as the facts of which we 
 were witness — all of which we saw, and part of which we 
 were. We shall publish our narrative, on taking it to 
 Providence for examination, provided we can obtain per- 
 mission of the parties — who have hitherto avoided publica- 
 tions or public exhibitions. 
 
 " One surprising incident we will mention. On Sunday, 
 while we were in Providence, a small package was re- 
 ceived from Mr. Stephen Covill, of Troy, containing, as 
 he wrote to his friend, a note, which he wished Miss B. 
 to read, while under the magnetic influence, without break- 
 ing the seal, if she could. Mr. C. had been induced to try 
 this experiment in consequence of having heard extraor- 
 dinary performances of this kind — which, of course, he 
 doubted. The package, or letter, was evidently composed 
 of several envelopes. The outer one was composed of 
 thick blue paper. On Sunday evening, Miss B., who it 
 must be borne in mind, when awake, is blind, was put into 
 a magnetic slumber, and the letter given to her with in- 
 structions to read it. She said she would take it to bed 
 
372 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 with her, and read it before morning. On Monday morn- 
 ing, she gave the reading as follows : — 
 
 " ' No other than the eye of Omnipotence can read this, 
 in this envelopment — 1837.' " 
 
 " We made a memorandum of this reading, and examined 
 the package containing, as she said, the sentence. She 
 said, then, on Monday morning, that there were one or 
 two words between the word ' envelopment' and the date, 
 as we understood her, which she could not make out. We 
 examined the seal with the closest scrutiny. The seal of 
 Mr. Covill was unbroken, and to turn the letter, or to read 
 it without opening, with human eyes, was impossible. 
 
 " After our return to the city, viz.. on Wednesday last, 
 we addressed a letter to Mr. Covill, to ascertain whether 
 the reading of the blind somnambulist was correct. The 
 following is his reply :— 
 
 " ' Troy, Sept. 1, 1837. 
 " ' Dear Sir, — -Yours of yesterday I received by this 
 morning's mail, and as to your inquiry relative to the pack- 
 age submitted to Miss B. while under the magnetic influ- 
 ence, I have to say, the package came to hand yesterday. 
 The sentence had been written by a friend, and sealed by 
 him at my request, and in such a manner as was supposed 
 could not have been read by any human device, without 
 breaking the seal. We think the seals have not been bro- 
 ken until returned. The sentence as read by Miss B. is : 
 1 No other than the eye of Omnipotence can read this, in 
 this envelopment — 1837 ;' and as written in the original, 
 on a card, and another card placed on the face of the wri- 
 ting, and enclosed in a thick blue paper envelope, was : 
 1 No other than the eyes of Omnipotence can read this sen- 
 tence, in this envelope.' — Troy, N. York, August, 1837. 
 " ' Respectfully, yours, etc. 
 „ , " * Stephen Covill.' 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 373 
 
 " P. S. — We have just received a note from Providence, 
 with permission to publish our own narrative. But as it 
 is very long, and equally complex and wonderful, we shall 
 first take it to Providence, for the examination of those 
 who were present on the occasion, our aim being scrupu- 
 lous exactness. We also left a note for the blind lady to 
 read, sealed with seven seals. We have received it this 
 morning, the seals unbroken, with the answer written on 
 the outside. This answer is correct, as far as it goes. 
 We were in great haste at the time of preparing the note, 
 and having the odd title of a queer old book in our pocket, 
 printed in small italic letter, we wrote a part of the note 
 with a pencil, and stuck on two and a half lines of the 
 small italic printing, with a wafer. The note, written and 
 printed, as we left it, was in these words : — 
 
 " ' The following is the title, equally quaint and amu- 
 sing, of a book which was published in England, in the 
 time of Oliver Cromwell : — Eggs of Charity layed by the 
 Chickens of the Covenant, and boiled by the waters of Divine 
 love. Take ye and eat.'' 
 
 " The following is the answer sent by Miss B., through 
 an intimate friend : — 
 
 " ' The following is a title, equally amazing (or amusing) 
 and quaint, of a book published in England in the time of 
 Oliver Cromwell :' 
 
 " ' Eggs of Charity.' — ' Miss B. does not know whether 
 the word is amazing or amusing. Something is written 
 after the ' Eggs of Charity? which she cannot make out.' 
 
 " Thus much for the present. We make no comments. 
 What we know to be true, we fear not to declare. Facts 
 sustained by the evidence of our own senses, we trust we 
 ever shall have the boldness to publish. In regard to our 
 narration, it is alike wonderful and inexplicable. As 
 Paulding's black witch in Konigsmarke says — ' I've seen 
 what Fve seen — / know what I know.'' " 
 
 32 
 
374 PSYCODUNAMT. 
 
 This statement of Col. Stone drew upon him most vio- 
 lent abuse from some persons. It excited in particular the 
 satirical pen of Mr. C. F. Durant, who wrote a book on 
 the subject,* in which the friends of scandalous reports 
 and waggery have found a rich treat ; yet to pay him 
 the justice due to everybody, even to our opponents, I will 
 say that his work contains excellent precepts for detecting 
 the imposition of would-be-somnambulists. But as Air. 
 Durant represents all the persons who affirmed to have 
 witnessed true Psycodunamic facts in Providence as so 
 many fools and dupes, it will not be amiss to quote here 
 on the subject part of a letter published in Air. Hartshorn's 
 appendix, and directed to him by Rev. E. B. Hall, of 
 Providence. 
 
 " Dear Sir, — You wish me to write you something 
 about my experience and opinions on the subject of Animal 
 Magnetism. I have been unwilling to say any thing pub- 
 licly about that of which I know so little ; and I should 
 decline now, if my name had not already appeared in sev- 
 eral journals without my permission, and in support of 
 facts not correctly given. It was so in the reference to 
 me which the appendix to your first number contained, 
 afterwards quoted by Colonel Stone, although there was 
 no exaggeration. A man's own opinion may be of little 
 importance, but truth is of great importance on all sub- 
 jects, and especially as to matters of observation and fact. 
 I feel willing, therefore, and feel it to be due to others, to 
 say in brief what I have seen and what I believe. 
 
 * Exposition, or a new Theory of Animal Magnetism, with a key to 
 the mysteries demonstrated by experiments with the most celebrated 
 somnambulists in America : also strictures on Col. W. F. Stone's letter 
 to Dr. A. Bingham : by C. F. Durant. New York, 1837 : ATjley and 
 Putnam. 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 375 
 
 " The reality of that which is called x^nimal Magnetism 
 is purely a question of fact. As such I view it, as such 
 alone do I attach any importance to that which is said or 
 done about it. Whether it be new or old — whether it 
 agree with preconceived opinions, or oppose them all — 
 whether the wise men in France of the last century, or 
 those of the present, believe or disbelieve — whether the 
 marvellous powers here supposed, if real, would do most 
 good or evil — whether the ' possessed nuns,' the ' Salem 
 witches,' and the ' old wives,' of all ages and both sexes, 
 have not wrought as great wonders as the modern som- 
 nambulists — are all questions of lively interest, it is true, 
 and proper inquiry ; but utterly impotent, if not irrelevant, 
 in settling a question of fact. Then, as to fears or hopes 
 in regard to the truth of Animal Magnetism, I have neither. 
 I have not the least solicitude that it should prove either 
 true or false. I know it is either true or false, whether 
 proved so or not — whether I believe or reject, or any man, 
 or all men. If it be false, it will do no great harm — if 
 true, it will do good ; for all truth is good, and does good. 
 Its interference with any other truth, is an impossibility. 
 It is not in the power of Animal Magnetism, or any thing 
 else, known or unknown, to destroy one particle of truth 
 in religion, or nature, or man. Truths are never destroyed. 
 They are not of man — he can neither create nor annihilate 
 the smallest of them. They are of God, and they are im- 
 perishable. There is but one question and one investiga- 
 tion, in this or any subject, that should awaken great 
 anxiety or be deemed essential — What is truth ? 
 
 " Now, in seeking the truth, in regard to Animal Mag- 
 netism, there seems to me to have been too much credulity, 
 a too easy faith, with many. The public at large are in- 
 credulous, and they ought to be. Some of them, to be 
 sure, are very weakly incredulous, from self-conceit, or 
 obstinacy, or timidity, or blank ignorance. But many are 
 
376 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 wisely incredulous. A healthy mind will never, as it can- 
 not, believe that which is wholly strange, intrinsically im- 
 probable, and not yet supported by evidence adapted to its 
 nature, or proportioned to its magnitude. And much of 
 the evidence offered in this case and relied on, is neither 
 of the kind or degree that the case demands. I have seen 
 many trials, where the truth of every thing was almost 
 taken for granted ; and the men and women merely looked 
 on with open mouths. Supposing the ' subject' was of 
 course asleep, and insensible to all sounds and sights, 
 they have openly said and done every thing, and then 
 wondered that she knew it. This is singular folly. It is 
 child's play. The true principle in testing such supposed 
 wonders, is to take nothing for granted ; no, nothing. I 
 go to the examinations without assuming a single fact in 
 the case, but rather distrusting every thing until it is prov- 
 ed. The whole matter is improbable ; that is to say, is 
 opposed by all we have ever seen and all we know. I have 
 a right, therefore, to institute the most rigid and suspicious 
 scrutiny on every point. I will not believe, because the 
 operator is an honest man, and the subject pure and true. 
 That I do not dispute, and it is to be taken into the ac- 
 count. But it does not of itself prove much in a case like 
 this. The best men in the world may be deceived, and so 
 may the wisest. Nay, such is human nature, that in cer- 
 tain circumstances, the best and wisest may deceive others, 
 however unintentionally. I will not believe even my own 
 senses, in matters so unaccountable, until I have had fre- 
 quent opportunities of examining. I hold that any thing 
 w T hich is possible, is more probable than that a person 
 should see without eyes, and travel without moving. I 
 demand, therefore, for such facts, such evidence as it is 
 not possible to evade or resist. So long as there can be 
 any evasion or other explanation, my own mind will not 
 receive the appearances as facts, whether others re- 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 377 
 
 ceive them or not, whether I wish to receive them or not. 
 I distrust all appearances that may be feigned, or in 
 which imagination may be the sole agent ; and the power 
 of imagination is almost indefinite. I distrust all answers 
 given to leading questions. A very great portion of the 
 questions which I have heard put to supposed somnambu- 
 lists, have been suggestive. I distrust all information giv- 
 en, when that information could have been obtained, either 
 from hints carelessly dropped in the room, or from person- 
 al intercourse and previous knowledge of objects and 
 places. To make out a case of actual clairvoyance, or of 
 mental locomotion, there must be not only no probability, 
 but no possibility of any of the above helps or explana- 
 tions. Nor can I conceive of but one kind of proof of this 
 particular power, so inconceivable and inexplicable. That 
 proof is the consciousness of holding in one's mind a fact 
 unknown to all others, proposing the inquiry ourselves in 
 the most guarded manner, without any suggestion, or hint, 
 or help of any kind, and then hearing a true and unequivo- 
 cal answer. It is little to hear others ask questions, when 
 you know not what communication there may have been 
 previously. It is insufficient to be told even that letters 
 were read through bandages and envelopes many, if you 
 know nothing of the -actors, even if you believe their as- 
 sertions. For letters have been read, by peculiar proces- 
 ses, without being opened ; and letters have been opened 
 and returned so well sealed, that the writer himself could 
 not detect any appearance of change. So that while I 
 disclaim all suspicion of foul play in the cases of this kind 
 occurring here, I insist that they are not positive proof of 
 the power of seeing through opaque substances, except 
 where the letter is not for a moment lost sight of by the 
 writer or operator. If it is not lost sight of, but openly 
 read, and its contents correctly told, then is this also evi- 
 dence of the highest kind ; supposing, as before, that the 
 32* 
 
378 
 
 writer is sure no one but himself knows what 
 contains. 
 
 " These things are said, not for their peculiar value, but 
 in explanation of the kind of feeling and principles of evi- 
 dence which many, in this place, have brought to this sub- 
 ject. They show, that, so far at least, there has been no 
 very great credulity or liability to be deceived. 
 
 " If there are those who know not the difference be- 
 tween inquirers and believers, or who think that the only 
 wise ones are the scoffers, we must be excused from go- 
 ing into any argument with them or about them. It is 
 violating all probability and all common sense, to suppose 
 that hundreds of men and women, of every profession and 
 station, of unimpeachable veracity, and at least respect- 
 able information, without any concert, compensation, or 
 assignable motive, should engage in the same childish at- 
 tempts at imposition, produce the same strange results, and 
 in different places become operators or subjects on a large 
 scale, for no earthly end but the pleasure of being duped. 
 Then to crown the wisdom of such a supposition, it is only 
 necessary to take a single case ; for instance, that of a 
 young woman of good sense and character, feigning total 
 blindness for a year or two before she hears of Animal 
 Magnetism in order to be prepared for it, subjecting her- 
 self to all manner of privations, denying herself the agree- 
 able privilege of seeing, working, eating, walking, or doing 
 any thing with comfort ; falling repeatedly, in this pre- 
 tended blindness, so as to receive serious injury and re- 
 main for weeks in severe pain and dangerous illness ; then 
 all at once contriving, her eyes still closed and covered, 
 to walk about easily and to see correctly ; not for her own 
 comfort or gain, but only for the public entertainment or 
 public suspicion ; her family, physicians, and friends at 
 home, all the while asserting her actual blindness, and all 
 with whom she lives being unable to detect in her a single 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 379 
 
 appearance of insincerity or even power of management ; 
 yet all an imposition ! Believe it, who will. Find its 
 parallel or explanation, if possible, in any case of witch- 
 craft or delusion — or rather, imposition ; for it is important 
 to distinguish. Delusion there may be, of some kind, in 
 this very case, and every other ; but imposition there is 
 not, if any evidence can be trusted, or any fact proved by 
 testimony or observation. 
 
 " This is the first result to which I am brought, viz., that 
 there is no intentional deception in this matter. I do not 
 say, that none who have ever engaged in Animal Magnet- 
 ism have been deceivers, or that there has been no wilful 
 deception in a single instance here. I mean simply that 
 as a general, if not a universal fact, the circumstances of 
 the case forbid a suspicion of fraud. Self-delusion there 
 may be. But an attempt to delude others, any kind of 
 collusion or imposition, artifice, management, humbug, 
 there is no reason to suspect. Those only who exhibit 
 themselves for money, give room for any such suspicion ; 
 and they may not have been guilty. In the most remark- 
 able cases we have had, in almost every case that I have 
 seen or heard, there has been an utter absence of all 
 ground for suspicion of motives. Nor have I known of 
 more than one observer (Mr. Durant) who has imputed 
 bad motives ; and he has given more evidence in his book 
 of having practised, than of having detected, fraud. 
 
 " A second conclusion to which I have come, in com- 
 mon with most inquirers, is in favor of the reality of the 
 magnetic sleep. This follows indeed from a belief in the 
 honesty of those concerned. But it deserves notice as a 
 conviction almost universal now, in the minds of those 
 who have given any attention to the subject. There is no 
 reason for the least doubt, that a peculiar sleep is produ- 
 ced by certain manipulations, differing widely from com- 
 mon sleep, accompanied often by a suspension of sensibil- 
 
380 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 ity, and sometimes by a remarkable activity of mind and 
 power of communication. So far as this constitutes Ani- 
 mal Magnetism, I doubt if there are many informed minds, 
 in this or any city, or any country, who doubt its reality. 
 
 " I have seen evidence, at times, which in itself was ir- 
 resistible ; facts which I defy any man to account for, on 
 any known principles. But the powers themselves which 
 these facts tend to prove, are so amazing, so utterly incom- 
 prehensible and tremendous, that my mind demands more 
 evidence, repeated in every variety of circumstance, and 
 tested by all orders of men, before it will or can fully be- 
 lieve. Then, too, there are so many failures made by eve- 
 ry somnambulist, so many inequalities, inconsistencies, and 
 perplexities, that it becomes the part of wisdom, if not of 
 necessity, to suspend judgment, and wait for greater reve- 
 lations. Inequalities, it is true, and failures, are no proof 
 of the absence of the power. They belong to all states 
 of mind, and occur often even in the natural sciences. 
 They weigh something in favor of the honesty of the par- 
 ties. And at all events, until we know what the power is, 
 we have no right to prescribe laws or conditions, to say 
 that it must always do this or never do that. We ought 
 only to examine the more closely and widely on this ac- 
 count, and draw inferences and pronounce judgments with 
 extreme caution. 
 
 " But there are the facts, you say — what will you do 
 with them ? I can only say, I know not what to do with 
 them. Facts they are, so far as I can discover. I have 
 witnessed them, I have tried them severely, I have been 
 compelled to admit them in some cases. The evidence 
 has sometimes, in some few instances of my own observ- 
 ing, been as high and complete as I can conceive. But 
 the cases have not been sufficiently numerous and varied, 
 the evidence not sufficiently tested, to sustain belief in 
 such monstrous capacities. I will believe any thing, or, 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 381 
 
 more properly, I must believe any and every thing that is 
 proved — whether I understand its nature or not, whether I 
 can reconcile it or not with my preconceived notions. Its 
 relations, its purpose, its uses, and consequences, I leave 
 with Him who gives all power and ordains all truth. But 
 it must be proved ; and the proof must be proportioned to 
 the nature and magnitude of the thing to be established. 
 
 " You may wish me to refer to some facts. It cannot 
 be necessary, and I have already been too long. In the 
 particular case with which my name has been connected, 
 I had Miss B. wholly under my own control. I question- 
 ed her about places and objects which she had never seen, 
 and some of which, as they then existed, no creature but 
 myself could have known. I proposed the questions in 
 the most guarded manner. I had never been satisfied be- 
 fore, and I did not expect to be then. But, if not satisfied, 
 I was confounded. She described distant objects, whose 
 position in some cases I had just changed, whose exist- 
 ence in other cases I did not then know or believe, so 
 truly, so wonderfully, that I could only marvel. At other 
 times, she has done the same in regard to my own house, 
 and houses in other towns and states. Then as to her 
 power of seeing, (not taking her blindness for granted, 
 though unquestionable,) I have tried it in various ways, 
 and am convinced that she sees either by some other organ 
 than the eye, or with such rays of light only as can pene- 
 trate all substances, if there are any such. I have seen a 
 sealed letter, containing a passage enclosed in lead, which 
 letter she held at the side of her head not more than a 
 moment, all in sight, then gave it back to the writer, and 
 afterwards wrote what she had read in it — the letter was 
 opened in my presence, and the two writings agreed in 
 every word, there being two differences in spelling only. 
 Of her power, or that of any somnambulist, to examine 
 bodies and describe diseases in others, I have seen no 
 
382 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 satisfactory proof. But one of our first physicians, who 
 has published nothing on the subject, has recently told me 
 of a case of his own, which is enough to silence, if not 
 convince most skeptics, etc. 
 
 " With great regard, 
 
 "E. B. Hall." 
 
 The " Facts on Mesmerism" published by Charles 
 Caldwell, M. D., of Louisville, Ky., in 1842, is the only 
 work on Psycodunamy written by a medical man in Ame- 
 rica, so far as I have been able to ascertain. His pam- 
 phlet, which contains many interesting and important nar- 
 ratives, proves that he is an attentive and careful observer. 
 I regret only that the usefulness of the practice, in a medi- 
 cal point of view, has not more exclusively engaged his 
 attention, and that his " Life of Mesmer" gives credit to 
 the many errors and calumnies which his detractors have 
 so industriously circulated to his prejudice. 
 
 The most important publication, after the foregoing, is 
 the " Magnet" a periodical devoted to Psycodunamy, and 
 long under the direction of Rev. Mr. Laroy Sunderland. 
 In it he gives the following propositions as the result of his 
 investigations in the science of human life : 
 
 1 . " That animal life is nothing more nor less than Mag- 
 netism in an organized or modified form. The magnetic 
 forces produce the conception and growth of the human 
 system ; and their decay and separation from the body, re- 
 sults in death. 
 
 2. " That this life is generated between the brain and 
 the semilunar plexus, or perhaps the solar plexus. 
 
 3. " That from the brain vitality is distributed over the 
 system, and different parts of that organ supply it for dif- 
 ferent portions of the body ; so that every vital or physical 
 organ and muscle is animated and controlled by a sepa- 
 rate portion of the brain. , . 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 383 
 
 4. "The temperaments are fixed and determined by the 
 predominance of the different magnetic forces. A pre- 
 dominance of the negative forces makes one temperament, 
 and the positive forces another ; and the combination of 
 the different forces in the same person, and proportions of 
 the forces in certain parts of the system, make a combina- 
 tion of the different temperaments in the same person. 
 
 5. " Derangement of the magnetic forces in the natural 
 organs produces monomania, insanity, and madness. 
 
 6. " Derangement of the cerebral organs which control 
 the physical organs, produces disease ; and the derange- 
 ment of the sympathetic points or poles in any other parts 
 of the system, produces the same results, and affects the 
 brain, more or less, in all cases. 
 
 7. " All diseases may be controlled, more or less, by 
 magnetizing the cerebral organs corresponding with the 
 parts affected. Hence, as far as we have ascertained the 
 location of the different cerebral organs which control the 
 vital organs, we have found Magnetism to be a specific for 
 recent diseases of every kind. 
 
 8. " For nervous complaints, and diseases of the brain, 
 such as monomania, insanity, and madness, Magnetism is 
 a perfect cure, in recent cases where we can ascertain, 
 with certainty, the different parts which have been affect- 
 ed, and where there is no malformation or destruction of 
 the organs. 
 
 9. " Medicines have no effect in removing disease, ex- 
 cept in so far as they produce the right kind of action upon 
 the magnetic forces of the parts diseased. 
 
 10. " Health, therefore, is that state of the system in 
 which all its organs perform all their natural functions un- 
 restrained, by a due proportion of the magnetic forces." 
 
 Dr. Buchanan's lectures and experiments on what he 
 calls Neurology, have created a great sensation in New 
 York, Boston, and other places where he developed the 
 
384 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 principles of his system. _ I give here his theory in his 
 own words : 
 
 " The science of Neurology is the whole science of 
 man,. It expounds the functions of the brain, and proves 
 that in these functions we may learn all his mental pow- 
 ers, and all the laws of his physiology. It proves that the 
 mind of man is a microcosm, in which we may discover 
 indications of the laws and facts of external nature. 
 
 " This science owes its origin to the discovery which I 
 first publicly announced in the month of April, 1841. that 
 the human brain could be excited and compelled to mani- 
 fest the functions of its different convolutions. By pursu- 
 ing this discovery, and exciting each convolution, so as to 
 make its functions predominate over all others, (as, for in- 
 stance, by exciting alimentiveness until hunger became 
 uncontrollable,) I have succeeded in demonstrating the 
 mental functions of the different organs, which in most 
 respects are in harmony with the theory of Gall and 
 Spurzheim, and in establishing the controlling power of 
 the brain over the physiological phenomena of the body. 
 
 " An intricate system of phrenology and physiology has 
 been developed by my experiments, which might very 
 properly be called Anthropology. But as this system has 
 been developed by experiments upon the brain, and as the 
 nervous substance of the body is the seat of its vital pow- 
 ers, that science which expounds the human vital functions 
 is merely the science of the nervous substance, and should 
 therefore be called Neurology. 
 
 " By the term nervous substance, I have especial refer- 
 ence to the encephalon, which is the most important mass 
 of nervous substance in the body. The study of its in- 
 fluence gives us the whole science of man. The mind 
 holds its communication with the physical world through 
 the brain, which forms its connecting link with the body, 
 and which transmits its volitions and its continual influ* 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 385 
 
 ence to the body. The body receives an infinite diversity 
 of physiological powers or impulses from the brain, con- 
 tinually modifying its circulation, secretions, respiration, 
 colorifications, nutrition, health, disease, &c, as well as 
 its muscular movements. 
 
 " The brain, therefore, being the common theatre of 
 physiology and psychology, is the place in which to study 
 both. Take each of the convolutions and parts of convo- 
 lutions — excite them to a manifestation of their functions, 
 and we may learn the source of each faculty. Thus one 
 portion of the brain, when excited, makes us benevolent, 
 another selfish j another makes us laugh, another makes 
 us weep ; another makes us violently angry, another 
 makes us love the whole human race. Again, the physio- 
 logical phenomena are equally distinct; one part of the 
 brain makes us strong, another makes us weak; one 
 makes us go to sleep, another makes us wide awake as 
 soon as it is excited ; one makes us hot, another makes 
 us cold ; one accelerates, and another retards the action 
 of the bowels ; one accelerates, and another suppresses 
 the respiration ; one developes, and another suppresses 
 perspiration, &c, &c. Thus every physiological act of 
 the system may be excited, arrested, or modified, by ex- 
 citing the controlling organs in the brain. 
 
 " The phenomena developed in the processes of Animal 
 Magnetism, are thus traced to their physiological causes : 
 somnolence, sleep, strength, paralysis, clairvoyance, sym- 
 pathy, the volitionary power of the operator over the sub- 
 ject, &c, are merely the display of certain faculties be- 
 longing in various degrees to different individuals, accord- 
 ing to their endowment of the organs whence these fac- 
 ulties or tendencies arise. 
 
 u All the Mesmeric conditions may be produced or con- 
 trolled by direct operations upon the organs of the brain. 
 These operations are not made by means of will or sym- 
 33 
 
 
386 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 pathy. They are as simple as possible ; too simple, in- 
 deed, for that love of display and wonder which belongs 
 to the unreflecting. No apparatus is necessary — no par- 
 ticular state of body or mind-— no formal process or prepa- 
 ration of any kind whatever. 
 
 " It is only necessary that you find a person of impres- 
 sible temperament, which is indicated generally by the 
 largeness of the pupils of the eyes, and by a general deli- 
 cacy or softness of the organization. 
 
 " When you find such an individual, if you hold your 
 hand near to his without touching, as by bringing the tips 
 of your fingers near the palm of his hand, he will feel s 
 slight sensation of coldness in less than one minute, which 
 will be quite distinct as you move your fingers along to- 
 wards the extremities of his without touching. He will 
 also feel very peculiar effects if you touch each of your 
 fingers to the corresponding finger of his hand. Each 
 finger will give him a different impression. 
 
 " Having thus ascertained his impressibility, place your 
 fingers gently in contact with his temples, about one inch 
 or one inch and a half horizontally behind the external 
 angle of the brow on the temples, upon the spot marked 
 in the Neurological diagram, Somnolence, and you will in 
 a few minutes (five or ten) perceive a winking of the eye- 
 lids, and a drowsy influence, which gradually increases 
 until he cannot keep his eyes open. 
 
 " By brushing off the excitement from the spot which 
 you have touched, and placing your hand upon the upper 
 part of the occiput, he will be restored. If he has fallen 
 soundly asleep, it may be necessary to touch the organ of 
 consciousness, which is exactly in the centre of the fore- 
 head ; or the organ of vision, which is just at the lower 
 part of the phrenological organ of color. 
 
 " In this experiment you may on some persons produce 
 unpleasant effects, from the excitement of the neighboring 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 387 
 
 organ of disease. These may be removed by dispersive 
 frictions, touching the head very lightly. 
 
 " If successful in this experiment you may then excite 
 the other organs of the brain, and bring out all their func- 
 tions in the same manner. Thus you may take the neuro- 
 logical diagram, and verify every function which is located 
 upon it, if you find a constitution sufficiently impressible 
 to give striking manifestations. 
 
 " The art of operating in this manner is extremely sim- 
 ple. Any one may acquire it, and may use it to relieve pain 
 or disease, by learning the principles of Neurology, which 
 point out the proper organs to be excited for any specific 
 result. This process, however, is not the principal aim 
 of the science. It is applicable to a comparatively small 
 number of persons. The experiments upon the human 
 brain answer their great purpose by revealing the nature 
 of man — the laws of physiology. 
 
 " They furnish us a science competent to guide our 
 moral, mental, and physical education. They give clear- 
 ness to physiology — they make pathology and therapeutics 
 intelligible, and they give us a new basis and a new phi- 
 losophy for the science of medicine." 
 
 Among the pamphlets published on the subject of Psy- 
 codunamy, we must notice the " Treatise on Animal Mag- 
 netism" by C. P. Johnson, Esq., in 1844. The constant 
 exertions of this gentleman to propagate this science have 
 proved very successful. His lectures and experiments in 
 the principal cities of the Union have done much for the 
 diffusion of the knowledge of it, and he succeeded in call- 
 ing a general attention to the matter : the well-authentica- 
 ted facts that are related in his work are particularly im- 
 portant as affording evidence of the progress of Psycodu- 
 namy in America. 
 
 The following extract from Watson's " Annals of Phila- 
 delphia" (p. 235, edition of 1830,) is connected too close- 
 
388 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 ly with the history of Psycodunamy in the Tlnited States 
 not to find a place here. 
 
 " The good people of Caledonia have so long and exclu- 
 sively engrossed the faculty of second sights that it may 
 justly surprise many to learn that we also have been fa- 
 vored with at least one case, as well attested as their own. 
 I refer to the instance of Eli Yarnall, of Frankford. What- 
 ever were his first peculiarities, he in time lost them. He 
 fell into intemperate habits, became a wanderer, and died 
 in Virginia, a young man. He was born in Bucks county, 
 and, with his family, emigrated to the neighborhood of 
 Pittsburg. There, when a child seven years old, he sud- 
 denly burst into a fit of laughter in the house, saying he 
 saw his father (then at a distance) running down the 
 mountain side, trying to catch a jug of whiskey which he 
 had let fall. He saw him overtake it. When the father 
 came home, he confirmed the whole story, to the great 
 surprise of all. The boy, after this, excited much wonder 
 and talk in the neighborhood. Two or three years after 
 this, the family was visited by Robert Verree, a public 
 Friend, with other visiting Friends from Bucks county. 
 I have heard, in a very direct manner, from those who 
 heard Verree's narrative, that he, to try the lad, asked him 
 various questions about circumstances then occurring at 
 his own house, in Bucks county ; all of which he ascer- 
 tained to have been really so at that precise time. Some 
 of the things mentioned were these, viz. : ' I see your 
 house is made partly of logs and partly of stone ; before 
 the house is a pond, which is now let out ; in the porch 
 sits a woman and a man with gray hairs ; in the house are 
 several men,' etc. 
 
 " When Verree returned home, he ascertained that his 
 mill-pond before his house had been just let out, to catch 
 muskrats ; that the man in the porch was his wife's bro- 
 ther, Jonathan ; that the men in his house were the mow- 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 359 
 
 ers. who had all come in because of a shower of rain. In 
 short, he said every iota was exactly realized. 
 
 •• The habit of the boy, when he sought for such facts, 
 was to sit down and hold his head downwards, his eyes 
 often shut ; and after some waiting, he declared what he 
 saw in his visions. He has been found abroad in the fields, 
 sitting on a stump aud crying; on being asked the reason, 
 he said he saw great destruction of human life by men in 
 mutual combat. His descriptions answered exactly to sea 
 fights and army battles, although he had never seen the 
 sea, nor ships, nor cannon ; all of which he fully described 
 as an actual looker-on. 
 
 ; - Some of the Friends who saw him became anxious 
 for his future welfare, and. deeming him possessed of a 
 peculiar gift and a good spirit, desired to have the bring- 
 ing of him up. He was therefore committed to the mas- 
 tery of Nathan Harper, engaged in the business of tan- 
 ning, in Frankford. There he excited considerable con- 
 versation ; and so many came to visit him as to be trouble- 
 some to his master, who did what he could to discourage 
 the calls. Questions, on his part, were therefore shun- 
 ned as much as he could. He lost his faculty by degrees, 
 and fell into loose company, which of itself prevented 
 serious people from having any further wish to interrogate 
 him. 
 
 " To instance the kind of inquiries which were usually 
 presented to him. it may be stated that wives, who had 
 missed their husbands long, suppose by shipwreck, for 
 instance, would go to him and inquire. He would tell 
 them, it is said, of some still alive, what they were about, 
 &c. Another case was — a man. for banter, went to him 
 to inquire who stole his pocket-book ; and he was answer- 
 ed, ' Xo one ; but you stole one out of a man's pocket 
 when at the vendue' — and it was so. 
 
 •' His mother would not allow him 'to divine for money,' 
 33* 
 
390 
 
 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 lest he should thereby lose the gift, which she deemed 
 heavenly-derived. 
 
 " These are strange things. I give these facts as I 
 heard them." 
 
 In America, as well as in England, surgical operations 
 have, by Psycodunamic proceedings, been divested of the 
 pain with which they are usually attended. Among the 
 many instances recorded we find venesection, extraction 
 of teeth, insertion of setons and issues, removal of tumors, 
 and amputation of a limb. 
 
 The editor of the " Bangor Courier" relates that this 
 last operation was performed on Luther Carey, whose 
 leg from infancy had been deformed, causing him much 
 pain and inconvenience. Dr. Deare is the person who 
 put the patient to sleep, and Dr. Hosea Rich, assisted by 
 several other gentlemen, amputated the leg. 
 
 " During the operation," says the Courier, " the patient 
 complained of a sensation in the bottom of his foot as 
 though some one was pricking it ; and at one time, for a 
 brief period, he appeared to be rousing from the state of 
 insensibility, and half conscious that the operation had 
 commenced ; but he was soon thrown more fully into that 
 state, and seemed quite unconscious of what was going 
 on ; entering into conversation respecting the operation, 
 and proposing that it be postponed until the next week, 
 &c, and insisting, even after the leg was amputated, that 
 he would not have it done until it was fully paralyzed, at 
 the same time expressing some doubt whether the Doctor 
 would be able to accomplish this. After the operation 
 had been performed, and the limb dressed, Mr. Carey was 
 put in his bed, being still in the somnambulic state ; and 
 his surprise, when roused from it, to hear that the opera- 
 tion was done, caused him to ascertain the fact rapidly, 
 and then he cried out in great glee, i Good ! I am glad 
 the old leg is off!'" 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 391 
 
 Dr. Robertson, a physician of Augusta, Georgia, makes 
 the following statement : — 
 
 " I was called to visit a son of Mr. Spears of this city, 
 who, I was informed, had received a severe injury of the 
 elbow joint from falling. It was supposed to be a fracture 
 or dislocation. The lad was between twelve and thirteen 
 years of age. When I saw him he was suffering excru- 
 ciating pain ; the joint was very much swollen, particularly 
 about the internal condyle of the humerus. He could not 
 suffer the slightest motion without crying out with pain, 
 and the arm could only be moved by being supported in 
 the uninjured hand. I made several attempts to make the 
 necessary examination to ascertain the state of the injured 
 joint, but all efforts were fruitless, so intense and insup- 
 portable was the agony whenever I touched or handled, 
 the extremity. I finally told the boy, in a jocular manner, 
 if he did not hold still and let me examine his arm, I 
 would have him Mesmerized. His father replied, that he 
 had done it on the previous evening. I then requested 
 him to do it again. After considerable hesitation he com- 
 menced, and in thirty minutes the magnetic sleep was 
 completed. I then took hold of the injured arm, and ex- 
 amined it in every way, to satisfy myself that it was nei- 
 ther a fracture, nor a dislocation, but a severe contusion 
 of the whole joint, with considerable extravasation of blood. 
 A satisfactory examination in such cases, as every surgeon 
 well knows, must require the arm to be turned and twisted 
 in various directions, before the diagnosis can be relied 
 upon ; but during the whole examination he exhibited no 
 symptoms of pain, or consciousness whatever. I then, 
 placed the usual bandage upon the injured joint, without 
 disturbing the patient in the slightest degree. When, 
 aroused, he was perfectly astonished that his arm was 
 bandaged, and immediately placed the limb in the uninjur- 
 ed hand as before." 
 
39£ PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 Since the above took place, a surgical operation of 
 greater importance has been performed in the same city ; 
 it is the successful extirpation of a cancerous breast during 
 the Psycodunamic sleep, in which no sign of consciousness 
 was exhibited by the patient ; Mr. W. Kendrick being the 
 dunamiser, and Dr. F. Dugass the operating surgeon. 
 
 The extirpation of a tumor on the neck was performed 
 in this city in 1844, during the Psycodunamic sleep, by a 
 doctor of the faculty of Paris, M. Boudinier, who was at 
 the same time the dnnamiser and the operating surgeon. 
 This operation, witnessed by the most eminent physicians 
 of this place, proved that the sensibility had been so com- 
 pletely abolished, as to compel the most skeptical to con- 
 fess that the slightest indication of it could not be detected 
 in the patient. 
 
 The New York Herald, of the 11th of April, 184©, 
 contains the following relation of a case similar to the op* 
 eration performed by Dr. Boudinier : — 
 
 " Surgical Operation on a Mesmeric Patient. — We, in 
 company with a number of other persons, among whom 
 were several medical gentlemen, yesterday were witness 
 to a surgical operation performed on a patient while in the 
 mesmeric state, which, to say the least, entirely puzzled 
 us. The patient was a colored servant-girl, named Em» 
 eline Brown, about 33 years of age, who has been living 
 in the family of Rev. Dr. Higbee. She has been, for 
 some time past, afflicted with a large tumor upon her back, 
 immediately under the left shoulder blade, and has tried 
 various remedies to cure it. She at last concluded to 
 have it cut out, and for that purpose called on Dr. Ho- 
 mer Bostwick, of this city. Dr. Bostwiek, who has 
 always been skeptical upon the subject of Magnetism, 
 thought this might be a good case to test it, and called 
 upon Mr. Oltz, a magnetic practitioner, living near him, 
 Mr. Oltz, after seeing the girl, expressed perfect conii- 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 393 
 
 dence in his power to place her in the magnetic state, so 
 that the operation could be performed without the patient's 
 experiencing any pain. Mr. Oltz commenced magnetizing 
 her ; and succeeded in putting her asleep, the first time, 
 in half an hour. Between that time, which was last 
 Wednesday, and yesterday, when the operation was per- 
 formed, he had magnetized her five times. The operation 
 was performed at No. 142 Church-street, about four o'clock. 
 Mr. Oltz, assisted by Mr. E. J. Pike, commenced in the 
 usual manner to magnetize her about half-past three, and 
 by four o'clock the girl was sound asleep, and apparently 
 insensible. There were, at this time, about a dozen per- 
 sons in the room. Mr. Oltz now said the patient was 
 ready, and left the room, leaving Mr. Pike holding the 
 hand of the girl, with one hand upon her forehead. The 
 girl, before being magnetized, was sitting in a chair with 
 her head lying forward upon a pillow on a table. The 
 upper part of the dress was removed, and Dr. Bostwick, 
 putting on his apron, and taking his instruments, prepared 
 to commence. He first made a longitudinal incision, eight 
 inches in length, through the flesh over the tumor, and 
 then commenced cutting round it. When the knife was 
 first put in, we were watching the face of the girl closely, 
 expecting to see her start, and hear her scream ; but there 
 was not the slightest motion. She lay as still and motion- 
 less as a marble statue. Not a quivering of the lip or of 
 the eye-lid could we observe. Dr. Bostwick, assisted by 
 Dr. Childs and Dr. Stearns, continued cutting away upon 
 the tumor, and in three minutes it was taken out ; there 
 being, during the whole time, no motion on the part of the 
 girl. During the whole operation, Mr. Pike sat near the 
 patient with his hand upon her head. Several physicians 
 examined the pulse, and said it was apparently in a natu- 
 ral state. Dr. Bostwick then, with a large darning needle, 
 sewed up the incision, there still being no motion of mus- 
 
394 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 cle or nerve on the part of the patient. After placing ad- 
 hesive plaster upon the incision, and bandaging it, Mr. 
 Oltz was called in to wake up the girl. This he did by 
 making passes over her face ; and upon waking, she was 
 told that the operation had not been performed, and that 
 she must now have it done. This was done to see wheth- 
 er she would know any thing about it. ' Well,' she said, 
 ' she was sorry, but she wanted it taken out.' ' Do you feel 
 no pain V asked Dr. Bostwick. ' None,' said the girl. 
 'Have you felt none?' 'None,' was the answer again. 
 She was then shown the tumor, and seemed to be very 
 glad to see it out. It was an adipose tumor, and weighed 
 ten ounces. We then left the house extremely puzzled. 
 The persons present who witnessed the operation, were 
 Dr. Homer Bostwick, Dr. John Stearns, Dr. Samuel R. 
 Childs, Dr. Eleazer Parmly, Dr. Sherwood, E. J. Pike, 
 W. H. Stinemets, E. L. Fancher, M. G. Hart, Oliver 
 Johnson, John R. S. Van Yleit, and Edward Gould Buf- 
 fum. The time from which the operation was first com- 
 menced, till she was awakened, was just thirty minutes." 
 It was in March, 1844, that I began my course of lec- 
 tures, on Psycodunamy, in New York. A correspondent 
 of the Tribune gives the following account of what tran- 
 spired at one of my experimental sittings. (See Tribune, 
 9th of April, 1844.) 
 
 " Psycodunamy. — Wonderful Facts. 
 
 " To the Editor of the Tribune :— 
 
 " The facts that I am about to relate are so extraordi- 
 nary, that few persons, perhaps, will credit them ; but as I 
 swear to them as an eye-witness, I do not hesitate to pro- 
 claim their truth, and if you judge them worthy of public 
 attention, I authorize you, in publishing them, to give my 
 name if necessary. 
 
 f I have always been more than skeptical on what is 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 395 
 
 called Mesmerism or Animal Magnetism. I had, hereto- 
 fore, suspected deception, when the parties interested 
 were unknown to me ; or illusion and credulity, if the 
 veracity of the persons could not be questioned. But, in 
 spite of myself, I must confess that conviction has been 
 forced upon me, after what took place on Thursday last, 
 the 4th instant, at Dr. T. Leger's rooms. 
 
 " A week previous I was, with several friends, present 
 at a private lecture which that gentleman delivered on the 
 science that he calls Psycodunamy. I was indeed not a 
 little puzzled to witness experiments which prove the 
 sight without the use of the eyes, and particularly to hear 
 a somnambulist giving a correct description of the diseases 
 of persons who were present, and could neither be expect- 
 ed to have called, or their maladies be known in advance. 
 Still, these singular phenomena of clairvoyance and in- 
 tuition have been recorded already in many books written 
 on the matter, while the experiments of Thursday last ex- 
 ceeded any thing I ever heard, and I do not believe that 
 similar facts have been related before. 
 
 " The Doctor had announced that he would try to im- 
 part, by the sole power of his will, to a person in the Psy- 
 codunamic sleep, any thought, sentiment, or passion that 
 the audience would write on a piece of paper, and elicit 
 the mimical, spoken, and musical expression of it, although 
 preserving himself the most profound silence, and without 
 touching, or communicating in any physical way with the 
 somnambulist. 
 
 " About forty highly respectable persons of this city 
 met at the appointed time, in the rooms of the Doctor, No. 
 74 Broadway, to witness the experiments that I will now 
 succinctly relate without farther comment. 
 
 " As soon as the Psycodunamic sleep was produced, the 
 audience agreed to write on a slip of paper, ' Love of chil- 
 dren? and to give it to the Doctor. He appeared to com- 
 
396 PSYCoDUNAinr. 
 
 pose himself for a short while ; then, extending his hands 
 towards his patient, keeping them at a distance, in a com- 
 manding manner, without uttering any word or sound. 
 Several minutes elapsed without any perceivable effect, 
 when slowly and by degrees the somnambulist began to 
 raise her arms ; she crossed them over her breast, as if 
 pressing fondly to her bosom a fancied babe, and imitating 
 all the motions of a nurse who caresses her infant. The 
 features of the Doctor assumed a sterner aspect, and a 
 short while after she opened her mouth, and said, in a low 
 but perfectly audible voice, 'Don't speak! he wants to 
 sleep V and she rocked gently her imagined child, singing 
 in an under-tone, ' Bayou babe, babe, baye] &c. 
 
 " You can easily suppose the general astonishment. 
 But it was nothing in comparison to what happened" imme- 
 diately after. Scarcely had the Doctor, by a few motions 
 of his hands, at a distance, calmed his subject, than 
 s Love of God — Veneration? had been written on another 
 slip of paper and handed to the Doctor. This time his si- 
 lent exertions remained longer without effect. Neverthe- 
 less, a kind of electric commotion appeared to shake the 
 patient ; she joined her hands, bent down her head, and 
 seemed lost in a profound and pious meditation. A few 
 minutes after, she turned her head upwards, and her lips 
 moved as if uttering a fervent prayer ; then again, as if 
 yielding to a superior force, she opened her mouth and 
 pronounced in a very emphatic manner a piece of poetry, 
 the first line of which, if I am correct, was : — 
 
 ' The Church assumes her weeds of mourning now? &c. 
 
 She remained a while as if lost in deep thought, during 
 which the Doctor's mental energy was evidently increas- 
 ing. Though he preserved the same distance, he seemed 
 by a peculiar motion of his hands to compel her to kneel 
 down, and when in that situation he kept them above her 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 397 
 
 head. Then she sang, with a voice remarkably sweet and 
 impressive, the hymn, 
 
 1 O thou to whom all creatures bow,'' &c. 
 
 " Shortly after, at a new motion of the Doctor, she rose 
 and sat down, her head fell on her breast, and she appear- 
 ed to sleep again, soundly and quietly ; while the Doctor, 
 evidently exhausted, and wet all over with perspiration, 
 fell himself on his seat, but in a few seconds resumed his 
 self-possession. 
 
 " Not a word had been uttered ; the audience was struck 
 with a kind of stupor. In the same silent way we then 
 desired the Doctor to excite ' Sorrow.' 
 
 11 He renewed his exertions, which for a still longer 
 time remained unanswered. At last the patient became 
 agitated ; she sighed, she appeared despondent ; she 
 clasped her hands, sobbed, and tears fell along her evi- 
 dently suffering features. The Doctor always mentally 
 willed her to speak, and she exclaimed in great anguish, 
 1 O my dear mother ! why have I lost you ! I am now 
 alone ! yes, alone in the world !' and her cries and sobs 
 smothered her voice. 
 
 " The emotion and sympathy of the audience was ex- 
 treme. 
 
 " But soon the Doctor, by a gentle motion of his hand, 
 always at a distance and without uttering a sound, suc- 
 ceeded in calming her ; then, as if he wished her to open 
 her mouth, he moved his hand before her lips, and shortly 
 after, with an expression of feeling that I could not 
 describe, she sang the song entitled, ' The Old Arm- 
 chair.' 
 
 " Some persons will believe, perhaps, that the patient 
 could see the motions and gestures of the Doctor, and be 
 guided by them ; but, alas ! this last entrenchment is not 
 even left to the skeptic ; the patient is a stone-blind or- 
 
 34 
 
398 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 phan, well known as bom blind, and educated at the Insti- 
 tution for the Blind of this very city. 
 
 " If Dr. L. could affect only one person, — if his won- 
 derful power could take effect on this subject alone, we 
 would, perhaps, refuse to believe our own senses, and sus- 
 pect, although we could not detect it, that we have been, 
 nevertheless, deceived by some skilful delusion. But sev- 
 eral other persons have obeyed in the same manner, and 
 nearly as fully as the blind orphan, the mental commands 
 of the Doctor. I have, myself, been compelled to move 
 my limbs as he wished in spite of my exertions to the con- 
 trary. 
 
 " Should this extraordinary power be used by him only 
 to elicit those singular results, it would indeed deserve al- 
 ready the attention of the scientific and the philosopher, 
 as illustrative of some of the most interesting points of 
 Psychology. But the importance of it increases consider- 
 ably when we ascertain its influence as a means of curing 
 diseases. The fact is, that many persons of high and very 
 respectable standing in this city have been either com- 
 pletely cured or greatly relieved from affections of the 
 
 most desperate character. So Miss B P , the 
 
 sister of one of our best writers of the day, was laboring 
 under a malady of the spine for the last ten years ; she is 
 now cured, after about nine weeks of Psycodunamic treat- 
 ment. Miss E H , whose mind was deranged for 
 
 the last seven years, is now completely restored to society. 
 
 Miss El T , who had been declared by eminent 
 
 physicians to be hopelessly consumptive, found the resto- 
 ration of her health under the influence of five weeks of 
 
 Psycodunamic process. Mr. T N , who had a 
 
 liver complaint that had baffled the skill of some of our 
 best practitioners, found a perfect relief after three weeks 
 of Psj^codunamic attendance. In a word, many other pa- 
 tients, present at the lectures of the Doctor, gave the most 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 399 
 
 satisfactory account of the relief that they have experi- 
 enced under his astonishing means of practice. This is 
 unquestionably the most useful part of Psycodunamy, and 
 the one which ought to call the attention of physicians, as 
 well as that of the public at large. 
 
 " I am, very respectfully, yours, 
 
 " F G B****** " 
 
 Since the time mentioned in the above letter I have ex- 
 clusively devoted my attention, in the city of New York, 
 to the treatment of diseases by Psycodunamic process. In 
 the period of thirty-two months, four hundred and forty-five 
 patients have been examined for their maladies by my blind 
 somnambulist : twenty-five persons only were previously 
 known either to me or to her. All the others were perfect 
 strangers to both. In three hundred and ninety-seven in- 
 stances she completely described the anatomical disorders 
 and pathological symptoms of the patient submitted to her 
 examination. In each of the latter cases, the accuracy 
 and correctness of her statements elicited the amazement 
 of not only the patients themselves, but the physicians, 
 who in many instances accompanied them. In sixteen 
 cases only, her description, although correct in what she 
 stated, appeared incomplete and insufficient to fully satisfy 
 the persons examined ; and lastly, in seven cases she de- 
 clared herself unable to ascertain the disorder, and conse- 
 quently refused to make any examination. 
 
 Examination of persons previously known ... 25 
 
 Complete and satisfactory examinations of strangers 397 
 
 Incomplete or insufficient examinations .... 16 
 
 Refusals to examine 7 
 
 Total 445 
 
 Out of that number three hundred and forty patients 
 have followed a regular course of Psycodunamic treat- 
 
400 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 merit. Their cases, with hardly a single exception, had 
 been considered hopeless ; for among such persons alone 
 are to be found those willing to leave the trodden path of 
 common routine. The results were nevertheless very- 
 satisfactory and conclusive, viz. : 
 
 Cures complete and without relapse 231 
 
 Evident relief more or less durable 81 
 
 No perceptible change 27 
 
 Death during the treatment 1 
 
 Total 340 
 
 The most remarkable and satisfactory cures proved to 
 be in cases of scrofulous affections, diseases and curva- 
 tures of the spine, first and second stages of consumption, 
 scrofulous ulcers and tumors, white swellings, dyspepsia 
 and diseases of the liver, rheumatism and neuralgia, para- 
 lysis, deafness, amaurosis, epilepsy, monomania, &c. 
 
 A complete history of the particulars of each case will 
 be found in my work on the Philosophy of the Psycodu- 
 namic Practice. 
 
 
GENERAL HISTORY. 401 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 When we reflect on the various Psycodunamic phenom- 
 ena which, at all times and in all countries, have manifest- 
 ed themselves in some known circumstances, we are struck 
 at the importance and singularity, as well as the uniformi- 
 ty, of the principal features of the results. But, in the 
 present time, the facts themselves appear to me less won- 
 derful than the blind obstinacy of those who persist in de- 
 nying them. 
 
 However, to dwell here on their characteristics, classi- 
 fication, and differences, would be to exceed the end which 
 I had in view in writing this volume. On those points, I 
 must refer my reader to my other work on Psycodunamy, 
 in which the study of the circumstances necessary to the 
 production of the phenomena, and a philosophical inquiry 
 into their nature and cause, will prove to have been the 
 special objects of my researches. 
 
 But, setting aside entirely the part which may seem the 
 most miraculous, and is consequently the most contested, 
 and considering the subject under a medical point of view 
 only, we are compelled to admit, by the number and im- 
 portance of the cures performed, that the Psycodunamic 
 proceedings, as a therapeutical agent, possess a power far 
 superior to that of any other remedy ; for, while specialty 
 in results or in functional action is the assumed qualifica- 
 tion of the latter, generality of action and diversity in func- 
 tional results evidently belong to the former. 
 
 As a summary explanation of the grounds upon which 
 stands the pre-eminence of the Psycodunamic treatment, 
 I will merely remark that all physicians, from the remotest 
 antiquity down to the present time, have acknowledged the 
 
 34* 
 
402 PSYCODUNAMY. 
 
 existence, in the human economy, of a special force, 
 which, during life, is always at work to preserve us against 
 the causes of destruction, and which contrives to expel 
 from the system all morbific principles. Hippocrates, Tan 
 Helmont, Stahl, and Sydenham admitted that this force is 
 intelligent ; while others, such as Hoffmann, Robert Boyle, 
 &c, pretended that it is only mechanical and blind. But, 
 be that as it may, this force does actually exist, and prac- 
 tice proves that Psycodunamic proceedings restore and in- 
 crease the languid or dormant energy of this preserva- 
 tive force ; and in the art of regulating this action lies 
 all the secret of our success. 
 
 Let any candid physician compare the results of his 
 practice with those that I have just related, and which are 
 by no means more favorable than the results obtained by 
 Mesmer, D'Eslon, De Puysegur, Deleuze, &c, and agree 
 particularly with those of Dr. Wolfart in the large hospital 
 conducted at Berlin on the Psycodunamic doctrine ; let 
 him weigh conscientiously the reasons which had induced 
 him to adopt such or such method, and consider with im- 
 partiality the merits of the new path which we invite him 
 to follow : and I venture the assertion, that such an inves- 
 tigation will not fail to make him a convert to our cause ; 
 he will discard his prejudices — proclaim the truth we ad- 
 vocate — practise on the same principles— mankind will 
 be benefited, and God will prepare his reward. 
 
 the end. 
 


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