 Chapter 7 Part 1 of Memoir of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Volume 1. Memoir of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Volume 1 by Charles McKay, The Magnetizers, Part 1. Some deemed them wondrous wise, and some believed them mad. The wonderful influence of imagination in the cure of diseases is well known. A motion of the hand, or a glance of the eye, will throw a weak and credulous patient into a fit. And a pill made of bread, if taken with sufficient faith, will operate a cure better than all the drugs in the pharmacopeia. The Prince of Orange at the Siege of Breda in 1625 cured all his soldiers who were dying of the scurvy by a philanthropic piece of quackery, which he played upon them with the knowledge of the physicians, when all other means had failed. Note 64. See Vandermeij's account of the Siege of Breda. The garrison being afflicted with scurvy, the Prince of Orange sent the physicians two or three small files containing a decoction of chamomile, wormwood, and camphor, telling them to pretend that it was a medicine of the greatest value and extremist rarity, which had been procured with very much danger and difficulty from the East, and so strong that two or three drops would impart a healing virtue to a gallon of water. The soldiers had faith in their commander. They took the medicine with cheerful faces and grew well rapidly. They afterwards thronged about the Prince in groups of twenty and thirty at a time, praising his skill and loading him with protestations of gratitude. Many hundreds of oftenstances of a similar kind might be related, especially from the history of witchcraft. The mummeries, strange gesticulations, and barbarous jargon of witches and sorcerers, which frightened credulous and nervous women, brought on all those symptoms of hysteria and other similar diseases so well understood now, but which were then supposed to be the work of the devil, not only by victims and the public in general, but by the operators themselves. In the age when alchemy began to fall into some disrepute and learning to lift up its voice against it, a new delusion based upon this power of imagination suddenly arose and found apostles among all the alchemists, numbers of them forsaking their old pursuits, made themselves magnetizers. It appeared first in the shape of mineral and afterwards of animal magnetism, under which latter name it survives to this day and numbers its dupes by thousands. The mineral magnetizers claimed the first notice as the worthy predecessors of the quacks of the present day. The honor claimed for paracelsus of being the first of the rosicrucians has been disputed, but his claim to be considered the first of the magnetizers can scarcely be challenged. It has been already mentioned of him, in the part of this work which treats of alchemy, that like nearly all the distinguished adepts, he was a physician, and pretended not only to make gold and confer immortality, but to cure all diseases. He was the first who, with the latter view, attributed occult and miraculous powers to the magnet, animated apparently by a sincere conviction that the magnet was the philosopher's stone, which, if it could not transmute metals, could soothe all human suffering and arrest the progress of decay. He traveled for many years in Persia and Arabia, in search of the mountain of Adamant, so famed in Oriental fables. When he practiced as a physician at Basil, he called one of his nostrums by the name of Azoth, a stone or crystal which, he said, contained magnetic properties and cured epilepsy, hysteria, and spasmodic affections. He soon found imitators, his fame spread far near, and thus were sown the first seeds of that error, which has since taken root and flourished so widely. In spite of the denial of modern practitioners, this must be considered the origin of magnetism, for we find that beginning with Paracelsus there was a regular succession of mineral magnetizers until Messmer appeared and gave a new feature to the delusion. Paracelsus boasted of being able to transplant diseases from the human frame into the earth by means of the magnet. He said there were six ways by which this might be affected. One of them will be quite sufficient as a specimen. If a person suffer from disease, either local or general, let the following remedy be tried. Take a magnet impregnated with mummy, note 65. Mummies were of several kinds and were all of great use in magnetic medicines. Paracelsus enumerates six kinds of mummies. The first four, only differing in the composition used by different people for preserving their dead, are the Egyptian, Arabian, Pizzefaltos, and Libyan. The fifth mummy of peculiar power was made from criminals that had been hanged, for from such there is a gentle psychation that expungeth the watery humor without destroying the oil and spiritual which is cherished by the heavenly luminaries and strengthened continually by the affluence and impulses of the celestial spirits, whence it may be properly called by the name of constellated or celestial mummy. The sixth kind of mummy was made of corpuscles or spiritual effluences radiated from the living body, though we cannot get very clear idea on this head or respecting the manner in which they were caught. Medicina diatostica, or sympathetical mummy, abstracted from the works of Paracelsus and translated out of the Latin by Fernando Parkhurst, gentlemen, London, 1653, pages 2 and 7, quoted by the Foreign Quarterly Review, volume 12, page 415. Take a magnet impregnated with mummy and mixed with rich earth. In this earth sow some seeds that have a congruity or homogeneity with the disease. Then let this earth, well sifted and mixed with mummy, be laid in an earthen vessel, and let the seeds committed to it be watered daily with a lotion in which the diseased limb or body has been washed. Thus will the disease be transplanted from the human body to the seeds which are in the earth. Having done this, transplant the seeds from the earthen vessel to the ground and wait till they begin to sprout into herbs. As they increase, the disease will diminish, and when they have arrived at their full growth, it will disappear altogether. Kirche the Jesuit, whose quarrel with the alchemists was the means of exposing many of their imposters, was a firm believer in the efficacy of the magnet. Having been applied to by a patient afflicted with hernia, he directed the man to swallow a small magnet reduced to powder, while he applied at the same time to the external swelling a poultice made of filings of iron. He expected that by this means the magnet, when it got to the corresponding place inside, would draw in the iron and with it the tumor, which would thus, he said, be safely and expeditiously reduced. As this new doctrine of magnetism spread, it was found that wounds inflicted with any metallic substance could be cured by the magnet. In process of time, the delusion so increased that it was deemed sufficient to magnetize a sword to cure any hurt which that sword might have inflicted. This was the origin of the celebrated weapon-sav, which excited so much attention about the middle of the seventeenth century. The following was the recipe given by Paracelsus for the cure of any wounds inflicted by a sharp weapon, except such as had penetrated the heart, the brain, or the arteries. Take of moss growing on the head of a thief who has been hanged and left in the air, of real mummy, of human blood still warm, of each one ounce, of human suet two ounces, of linseed oil, turpentine, and Armenian bowl, of each two drams. Mix all well in a mortar and keep the salve in an oblong narrow urn. With this salve the weapon, after being dipped in the blood from the wound, was to be carefully anointed and then laid by in a cool place. In the meantime the wound was to be duly washed with fair clean water, covered with the clean soft linen rag, and opened once a day to cleanse off purulent or other matter. Of the success of this treatment, says the writer of the Able article on animal magnetism, in the twelfth volume of the Foreign Quarterly Review, there cannot be the least doubt, for surgeons at this moment follow exactly the same method except anointing the weapon. The weapons have continued to be much spoken of on the continent, and many eager claimants appeared for the honour of the invention. Dr. Flood, or A. Fluctibus, the Rosicrucian who has been already mentioned in a previous part of this volume, was very zealous in introducing it into England. He tried it with great success in several cases, and no wonder, for while he kept up the spirits of his patients by boasting of the great efficacy of the salve, he never neglected those common but much more important remedies of washing, bandaging, etc., which the experience of all ages had declared sufficient for the purpose. Flood moreover declared that the magnet was a remedy for all diseases if properly applied, but that man, having like the earth, a north and a south pole, magnetism could only take place when his body was in a boreal position. In the midst of his popularity, an attack was made upon him and his favourite remedy, the salve, which, however, did little or nothing to diminish the belief in its efficacy. One Parson Foster wrote a pamphlet entitled Hyplocrystma spungus, or a sponge to wipe away the weapons have, in which he declared that it was as bad as witchcraft to use or recommend such an urgent, that it was invented by the devil who, at the last day, would seize upon every person who had given it the slightest encouragement. In fact, said Parson Foster, the devil himself gave it to Paracelsus, Paracelsus to the emperor, the emperor to the courtier, and the courtier to Baptista Porta, and Baptista Porta to Dr. Flood, a doctor of physics, yet living and practicing in the famous city of London, who now stands tooth and nail for it. Dr. Flood, thus assailed, took up the pen in defence of his urgent in a reply called The Squeezing of Parson Foster's Sponge, wherein the sponge-bearer's immodest carriage and behaviour towards his brethren is detected. The bitter flames of his slanderous reports are, by the sharp vinegar of truth, corrected and quite extinguished, and lastly the virtuous validity of his sponge in wiping away the weapons have is crushed out and clean abolished. Shortly after this dispute, a more distinguished believer in the weapons have made his appearance in the person of Sir Kenelm Digby, son of Sir Everard Digby, who was executed for his participation in the gunpowder plot. This gentleman, who, in other respects, was an accomplished scholar and an able man, was imbued with all the extravagant notions of the alchemists. He believed in the philosopher's stone, and wished to engage Descartes to devote his energies to the discovery of the elixir of life, or some other means by which the existence of man might be prolonged to an indefinite period. He gave his wife, the beautiful Venetia Anastasia Stanley, a dish of capons fed upon vipers, according to the plan supposed to have been laid down by Arnold of Villeneuve, in the hope that she might thereby preserve her loveliness for a century. If such a man once took up the idea of the weapons have, it was to be expected that he would make the most of it. In his hands, however, it was changed from an urgent into a powder, and was called the powder of sympathy. He pretended that he had acquired the knowledge of it from a Carmelite friar, who had learned it in Persia or Armenia, from an Oriental philosopher of great renown. King James, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Buckingham, and many other noble personages believed in its efficacy. The following remarkable instance of his mode of cure was read by Sir Kenelm to a society of learned men at Montpellier. Mr. James Howell, the well-known author of The Dendrologia and of various letters, coming by chance as two of his best friends were fighting a duel, rushed between them and endeavored to part them. He seized the sword of one of the combatants by the hilt, while at the same time he grasped the other by the blade. Being transported with fury one against the other, they struggled to rid themselves of the hindrance caused by their friend, and in so doing the one whose sword was held by the blade by Mr. Howell drew it away roughly and nearly cut his hand off, severing the nerves and muscles and penetrating to the bone. The other almost at the same instant disengaged his sword and aimed a blow at the head of his antagonist, which Mr. Howell, observing, raised his wounded hand with the rapidity of thought to prevent the blow. The sword fell on the back of his already wounded hand and cut it severely. It seemed, said Sir Kenelm Digby, as if some unlucky star raged over them, that they should have both shed the blood of that dear friend for whose life they would have given their own if they had been in their proper mind at the time. Seeing Mr. Howell's face all besmeared with blood from his wounded hand, they both threw down their swords and embraced him, and bound up his hand with the garter to close the veins which were cut and bled profusely. They then conveyed him home and sent for a surgeon. King James, who was much attached to Mr. Howell, afterwards sent his own surgeon to attend him. We must continue the narrative in the words of Sir Kenelm Digby. It was my chance, says he, to be lodged hard by him, and four or five days after, as I was making myself ready, he came to my house and prayed me to view his wounds. For I understand, said he, that you have extraordinary remedies on such occasions, and my surgeons apprehend some fear that it may grow to a gangrene, and so the hand must be cut off. In effect his countenance discovered that he was in much pain, which, he said, was insupportable in regard of the extreme inflammation. I told him I would willingly serve him, but if happily he knew the manner how I could cure him, without touching or seeing him, it might be that he would not expose himself to my manner of curing, because he would think it, per adventure, either ineffectual or superstitious. He replied, the many wonderful things which people have related unto me, of your way of medicinement, makes me nothing doubt at all of its efficacy, and all that I have to say unto you is comprehended in the Spanish proverb, agace el milagro y agalo majoma, let the miracle be done, though Muhammad do it. I asked him then for any thing that had the blood upon it, so he presently sent for his garter wherewith his hand was first bound, and as I called for a basin of water, as if I would wash my hands, I took a handful of powder of vitriol which I had in my study, and presently dissolved it. As soon as the bloody garter was brought to me, I put it in the basin, observing in the interim what Mr. Howell did, who stood talking with the gentleman in a corner of my chamber, not regarding at all what I was doing. He started suddenly, as if he had found some strange alteration in himself. I asked him what he ailed. I know not what ails me, but I find that I feel no more pain. Methinks that a pleasing kind of freshness, as it were a wet cold napkin, did spread over my hand, which hath taken away the inflammation that tormented me before. I replied, since then you feel already so much good of my medicament, I advise you to cast away all your plasters, only keep the wound clean, and in moderate temper betwixt heat and cold. This was presently reported to the Duke of Buckingham, and a little after to the King, who were both very curious to know the circumstances of the business. Which was, that after dinner I took the garter out of the water, and put it to dry before a great fire. It was scarce dry before Mr. Howell's servant came running, and saying that his master felt as much burning as ever he had done, if not more, for the heat was such as if his hand were betwixt coals of fire. I answered that, although that had happened at present, yet he should find ease in a short time, for I knew the reason of this new accident, and would provide accordingly. For his master should be free from that inflammation, it might be before he could possibly return to him. But in case he found no ease, I wished him to come presently back again. If not, he might forbear coming. Thereupon he went, and at the instant I did put the garter again into the water. Thereupon he found his master without any pain at all. To be brief, there was no sense of pain afterwards. But within five or six days the wounds were sycotrized, and entirely healed. Such is the marvellous story of Sir Kenelm Digby. Other practitioners of that age were not behind him in their pretensions. It was not always thought necessary to use either the powder of sympathy or the weapon-sav to effect a cure. It was sufficient to magnetize the sword with the hand, the first faint dawn of the animal theory, to relieve any pain the same weapon had caused. They asserted that if they stroked the sword upwards with their fingertips the wounded person would feel immediate relief, but if they stroked it downwards he would feel intolerable pain. Another very singular notion of the power and capabilities of magnetism was entertained at the same time. It was believed that a sympathetic alphabet could be made on the flesh by means of which persons could correspond with each other and communicate all their ideas with the rapidity of volition, although thousands of miles apart. From the arms of two persons a piece of flesh was cut and mutually transplanted while still warm and bleeding. The piece so severed grew to the new arm on which it was placed, but still retained so close a sympathy with its native limb that its old possessor was always sensible of any injury done to it. Upon these transplanted pieces were tattooed the letters of the alphabet, so that when a communication was to be made, either of the persons, though the wide Atlantic rolled between them, had only to prick his arm with a magnetic needle, and straight away his friend received intimation that the telegraph was at work. Whatever letter he pricked on his own arm, paint the same letter on the arm of his correspondent. Contemporary with Sir Kenom Dygme was the no less famous Mr. Valentine Gray Tracks, who, without mentioning magnetism or laying claim to any theory, practiced upon himself and others a deception much more akin to the animal magnetism of the present day than the mineral magnetism it was then so much the fashion to study. He was the son of an Irish gentleman of good education and property in the county of Cork. He fell at an early age into a sort of melancholy derangement. After some time he had an impulse, or strange persuasion in his mind, which continued to present itself whether he were sleeping or waking, that God had given him the power of curing the king's evil. He mentioned this persuasion to his wife, who very candidly told him that he was a fool. He was not quite sure of this, notwithstanding the high authority from which it came, and determined to make trial of the power that was in him. A few days afterwards he went to one William Mayer of Saltersbridge in the parish of Lismore, who was grievously afflicted with the king's evil in his eyes, cheek, and throat. Upon this man, who was of abundant faith, he laid his hands, stroked him, and prayed fervently. He had the satisfaction to see him heal considerably in the course of a few days, and finally, with the aid of other remedies, to be quite cured. This success encouraged him in the belief that he had a divine mission. Day after day he had further impulses, from on high, that he was called upon to cure the ague also. In the course of time he extended his powers to the curing of epilepsy, ulcers, aches, and lameness. All the county of Cork was in a commotion to see this extraordinary physician, who certainly operated some very great benefit in cases where the disease was heightened by hypochondria and depression of spirits. According to his own account, such great multitudes resorted to him from diverse places, that he had no time to follow his own business, or enjoy the company of his family and friends. He was obliged to set aside three days in the week, from six in the morning till six at night, during which time only he laid hands upon all that came. Still the crowds which thronged around him were so great that the neighbouring towns were not able to accommodate them. He thereupon left his house in the country, and went to Ugal, where the resort of sick people, not only from all parts of Ireland, but from England, continued so great that the magistrates were afraid they would infect the place by their diseases. Several of these poor, credulous people no sooner saw him than they fell into fits, and he restored them by waving his hand in their faces and praying over them. Nay, he affirmed that the touch of his glove had driven pains away, and, on one occasion, cast out from a woman several devils, or evil spirits, who tormented her day and night. Every one of these devils, says Graetrax, was like to choke her when it came up into her throat. It is evident from this that the woman's complaint was nothing but hysteria. The clergy of the diocese of Lismore, who seemed to have had much clearer notions of Graetrax's pretensions than their parishioners, set their faces against the new prophet and worker of miracles. He was cited to appear in the dean's court, and prohibited from laying on his hands for the future. But he cared nothing for the church. He imagined that he derived his powers direct from heaven, and continued to throw people into fits, and bring them to their senses again, as usual, almost exactly after the fashion of modern magnetizers. His reputation became, at last, so great that Lord Conway sent to him from London, begging that he would come over immediately to cure a grievous headache which his lady had suffered for several years, and which the principal physicians of England had been unable to relieve. Graetrax accepted the invitation, and tried his manipulations and prayers upon Lady Conway. He failed, however, in affording any relief. The poor lady's headache was excited by causes too serious to allow her any help, even from faith and a lively imagination. He lived for some months in Lord Conway's house at Dragley in Warwickshire, operating cures similar to those he had performed in Ireland. He afterwards removed to London, and took a house in Lincoln's in Fields, which soon became the daily resort of all the nervous and gradualist women of the Metropolis. A very amusing account of Graetrax at this time, 1665, is given in the second volume of the miscellaneous of St. Evermont, under the title of the Irish Prophet. It is the most graphic sketch ever made of this early magnetizer. Whether his pretensions were more or less absurd than those of some of his successors, who have lately made their appearance among us, would be hard to say. When Monsieur de Cominguez, says St. Evermont, was Ambassador from his most Christian Majesty to the King of Great Britain, there came to London an Irish Prophet, who passed himself off as a great worker of miracles. Some persons of quality having begged Monsieur de Cominguez to invite him to his house, that they might be witnesses of some of his miracles, the Ambassador promised to satisfy them, as much to gratify his own curiosity as from courtesy to his friends, and gave notice to Graetrax that he would be glad to see him. A rumour of the Prophet's coming soon spread all over the town, and the hotel of Monsieur de Cominguez was crowded by sick persons, who came full of confidence in their speedy cure. The Irishmen made them wait a considerable time for him, but came at last in the midst of their impatience, with a grave and simple countenance that showed no signs of his being a cheat. Monsieur de Cominguez prepared to question him strictly, hoping to discourse with him on the matters that he had read of in Van Helmont and Baudenous. But he was not able to do so, much to his regret for the crowd became so great, and cripples and others pressed around so impatiently to be the first cured that the servants were obliged to use threats and even force, before they could establish order among them, or place them in proper ranks. The Prophet affirmed that all diseases were caused by evil spirits. Every infirmity was with him a case of diabolical possession. The first that was presented to him was a man suffering from gout and rheumatism, and so severely that the physicians had been unable to cure him. Ah! said the miracle worker, I have seen a good deal of this sort of spirits when I was in Ireland. They are watery spirits, who bring on cold shivering and excite an overflow of aqueous humours in our poor bodies. Then addressing the man, he said, evil spirit, who hast quitted thy dwelling in the waters to come and afflict this miserable body, I command thee to quit thy new abode, and to return to thine ancient habitation. This said, the sick man was ordered to withdraw, and another was brought forward in his place. This newcomer said he was tormented by the melancholy vapours. In fact, he looked like a hypochondriac, one of those persons diseased in imagination, and who but too often become so in reality. Aerial spirit, said the Irishman, return, I command thee into the air, excise thy natural vocation of raising tempests, and do not excite any more wind in this sad, unlucky body. This man was immediately turned away to make room for a third patient, who in the Irishman's opinion was only tormented by a little bit of a sprite, who could not withstand his command for an instant. He pretended that he recognized the sprite by some marks which were invisible to the company, to whom he turned with a smile, and said, This sort of spirit does not often do much harm, and is always very diverting. To hear him talk one would have imagined that he knew all about spirits, their names, their rank, their numbers, their employment, and all the functions they were destined to, and he boasted of being much better acquainted with the intrigues of demons than he was with the affairs of men. You can hardly imagine what a reputation he gained in a short time. Catholics and Protestants visited him from every part, all believing that power from heaven was in his hands. After relating a rather equivocal adventure of a husband and wife who implored great tracks to cast out the devil of dissension which had crept in between them, Saint Evermont thus sums up the effect he produced on the popular mind. So great was the confidence in him that the blind fancied they saw the light which they did not see, the deaf imagined that they heard, the lame that they walked straight, and the paralytic that they had recovered the use of their limbs. An idea of health made the sick forget for a while their maladies, and imagination which was not less active in those merely drawn by curiosity than in the sick, gave a false view to the one class from the desire of seeing as it operated a false cure on the other from the strong desire of being healed. Such was the power of the Irishman over the mind, and such was the influence of the mind upon the body. Nothing was spoken of in London but his prodigies, and these prodigies were supported by such great authorities that the bewildered multitude believed them almost without examination, while more enlightened people did not dare to reject them from their own knowledge. The public opinion, timid and enslaved, respected this imperious and apparently well authenticated error. Those who saw through the delusion kept their opinion to themselves, knowing how useless it was to declare their disbelief to a people filled with prejudice and admiration. About the same time that Valentine Gray attracts was thus magnetizing the people of London, an Italian enthusiast named Francisco Bagnone was performing the same tricks in Italy and with as great success. He had only to touch weak women with his hands, or sometimes, for the sake of working more effectively upon their fanaticism, with a relic, to make them fall into fits and manifest all the symptoms of magnetism. End of Chapter 7 Part 1 The Madness of Crowds, Volume 1 by Charles McKay The magnetizers, Part 2 Ended himself famous for the boldness of his views on the subject, the magnet, said the latter, attracts iron. Iron is found everywhere. Everything, therefore, is under the influence of magnetism. It is only a modification of the general principle which establishes harmony or ferments divisions among men. It is the same agent that gives rise to sympathy, antipathy and the passions. Baptista Porter, who in the whimsical genealogy of the weapon self, given by Parson Foster in his attack upon Dr. Air Flukterbus, is mentioned as one of his fathers, had also great faith in the efficacy of the magnet, and operated upon the imagination of his patients in a manner which was then considered so extraordinary that he was accused of being a magician, and prohibited from practicing by the court of Rome. Among others who distinguished themselves by their faith in magnetism, Sebastian Wirdig and William Maxwell claim a special notice. Wirdig was professor of medicine at the University of Rostock in Mecklenburg, and wrote a treatise called The New Medicine of the Spirits, which he presented to the Royal Society of London. An edition of this work was printed in 1673, in which the author maintained that magnetic influence took place not only between the celestial and terrestrial bodies, but between all living things. The whole world, he said, was under the influence of magnetism. Life was preserved by magnetism. Death was the consequence of magnetism. Maxwell, the other enthusiast, was an admiring disciple of Paracelsus, and boasted that he had irradiated the obscurity in which too many of the wonder-working recipes of that great philosopher were enveloped. His works were printed at Frankfurt in 1679. It would seem, from the following passage, that he was aware of the great influence of imagination, as well in the production, as in the cure of diseases. If you wish to work prodigies, says he, abstract from the materiality of beings, increase the sum of spirituality in bodies, rouse the spirit from its slumbers, unless you do one or other of these things, unless you combine the idea, you can never perform anything good or great. Here, in fact, lies the whole secret of magnetism, and all delusions of a similar kind. Increase the spirituality, rouse the spirit from its slumbers, or, in other words, work upon the imagination, induce belief and blind confidence, and you may do anything. This passage, which is quoted with approbation by Monsieur Duporte in a work, as strongly corroborative of the theory now advanced by the animal magnetists, is just the reverse. If they believe they can work all their wonders by the means so dimly shadowed forth by Maxwell, what becomes of the universal fluid pervading all nature, and which they pretend to pour into weak and diseased bodies from the tips of their fingers? Early in the 18th century, the attention of Europe was directed to a very remarkable instance of fanaticism, which has been claimed by the animal magnetists as a proof of their science. The convulsionaries of Saint Medard, as they were called, assembled in great numbers round the tomb of their favourite saint, the Jansenist priest Paris, and taught one another how to fall into convulsions. They believed that Saint Paris would cure all their infirmities, and the number of hysterical women and weak-minded persons of all descriptions that flocked to the tomb from far and near was so great as daily to block up all the avenues leading to it. Working themselves up to a pitch of excitement, they went off one after the other into fits, while some of them, still in apparent possession of all their faculties, voluntarily exposed themselves to sufferings which on ordinary occasions would have been sufficient to deprive them of life. The scenes that occurred were a scandal to civilisation and to religion, a strange mixture of obscenity, absurdity and superstition. While some were preying on bended knees at the shrine of Saint Paris, others were shrieking and making the most hideous noises. The women especially exerted themselves. On one side of the chapel there might be seen a score of them, all in convulsions, while at another as many more, excited to a sort of frenzy, yielded themselves up to gross indecencies. Some of them took an insane delight in being beaten and trampled upon. One in particular, according to Montegoire, whose account we quote, was so enraptured with this ill usage that nothing but the hardest blows would satisfy her. While a fellow of Hercules' strength was beating her with all his might with a heavy bar of iron, she kept continually urging him to renewed exertion. The harder he struck, the better she liked it, exclaiming all the while, Well done, brother, well done, oh how pleasant it is, what good you are doing to me, courage my brother, courage, strike harder, strike harder still. Another of these fanatics had, if possible, a still greater love through a beating. Cary de Montgérion, who relates the circumstance, was unable to satisfy her with sixty blows of a large sledgehammer. He afterwards used the same weapon with the same degree of strength for the sake of experiment, and succeeded in bettering a whole inner stone wall at the twenty-fifth stroke. Another woman, named Sonny, laid herself down on a red-hot brazier without flinching, and acquired for herself the nickname of the salamander, while others, desirous of a more illustrious martyrdom, attempted to crucify themselves. Monsieur de Luz, in his critical history of animal magnetism, attempts to prove that this fanatical frenzy was produced by magnetism, and that these mad enthusiasts magnetised each other without being aware of it. As well might he insist that the fanaticism which tempts the Hindu bigot to keep his arms stretched in a horizontal position till the sinews wither, or his fingers closed upon his palms till the nails grow out of the backs of his hands, is also an effect of magnetism. For a period of sixty or seventy years, magnetism was almost wholly confined to Germany. Men of sense and learning devoted their attention to the properties of the lodestone, and one father Hell, a Jesuit, and professor of astronomy at the University of Vienna, rendered himself famous by his magnetic cures. About the year 1771 or 1772, he invented steel plates of a peculiar form, which he applied to the naked body as a cure for several diseases. In the year 1774 he communicated his system to Anthony Mesmer. The latter improved upon the ideas of Father Hell, constructed a new theory of his own, and became the founder of animal magnetism. It has been the fashion among the enemies of the new delusion to decry Mesmer as an unprincipled adventurer, while his disciples have extolled him to the skies as a regenerator of the human race. In nearly the same words as the Rosicrucians applied to their founders, he has been called the discoverer of the secret which brings man into more intimate connection with his creator, the deliverer of the soul from the debasing trammels of the flesh, the man who enables us to set time at defiance and conquer the obstructions of space. A careful sifting of his pretensions, and examination of the evidence brought forward to sustain them, will soon show which opinion is the more correct. That the writer of these pages considers him in the light of a man who, deluding himself, was the means of deluding others, may be inferred from his finding a place in these volumes, and figuring among the flamels, the agrippers, the bories, the burmans, and the cagliostros. He was born in May 1734 at Merzburg in Swabia and studied medicine at the University of Vienna. He took his degrees in 1766 and chose the influence of the planets on the human body as the subject of his inaugural's dissertation. Having treated the matter quite in the style of the old astrological physicians, he was exposed to some ridicule both then and afterwards. Even at this early period some faint ideas of his great theory were germinating in his mind. He maintained in his dissertation that the sun, moon, and fixed stars mutually affect each other in their orbits, that they cause and direct in our earth a flux and reflux, not only in the sea, but in the atmosphere, and affect in a similar manner all organised bodies through the medium of a subtle and mobile fluid which pervades the universe and associates all things together in mutual intercourse and harmony. This influence, he said, was particularly exercised on the nervous system, and produced two states which he called intention and remission, which seemed to him to account for the different periodical revolutions observable in several maladies. When in afterlife he met with Father Hell, he was confirmed by that person's observations in the truth of many of his own ideas. Having caused Hell to make him some magnetic plates, he determined to try experiments with them himself for his further satisfaction. He tried accordingly, and was astonished at his success. The faith of their wearers operated wonders with the metallic plates. Mesmer made due reports to Father Hell of all he had done, and the latter published them as the results of his own happy invention, and speaking of Mesmer as a physician whom he had employed to work under him. Mesmer took offense at being thus treated, considering himself a far greater personage than Father Hell. He claimed the invention as his own, accused Hell of a breach of confidence, and stigmatized him as a mean person, anxious to turn the discoveries of others to his own account. Hell replied, and a very pretty quarrel was the result which afforded small talk for months to the literati of Vienna. Hell ultimately gained the victory. Mesmer, nothing daunted, continued to promulgate his views till he stumbled at last upon the animal theory. One of his patients was a young lady named Ersterlein, who suffered under a convulsive malady. Her attacks were periodical, and attended by a rush of blood to the head, followed by delirium and syncope. These symptoms he soon succeeded in reducing under his system of planetary influence, and imagined he could foretell the periods of accession and remission. Having thus accounted satisfactorily to himself for the origin of the disease, the idea struck him that he could operate a certain cure if he could ascertain beyond doubt what he had long believed, that there existed between the bodies which compose our globe, an action equally reciprocal and similar to that of the heavenly bodies, by means of which he could imitate artificially the periodical revolutions of the flux and reflux before mentioned. He soon convinced himself that this action did exist. When trying the metallic plates of Father Hell, he thought their efficacy depended on their form, but he found afterwards that he could produce the same effects without using them at all, merely by passing his hands downwards towards the feet of the patient, even when at a considerable distance. This completed the theory of Mesmer. He wrote an account of his discovery to all the learned societies of Europe, soliciting their investigation. The Academy of Sciences at Berlin was the only one that answered him, and their answer was anything but favourable to his system, or flattering to himself. Still he was not discouraged. He maintained to all who would listen to him that the magnetic matter, or fluid, pervaded all the universe, that every human body contained it, and could communicate the superabundance of it to another by an exertion of the will. Writing to a friend from Vienna, he said, Everything I touched magnetic to such a degree that these substances produced the same effects as the lodestone on diseased persons. I have charged jars with magnetic matter in the same way as is done with electricity. Mesmer did not long find his residence at Vienna as agreeable as he wished. His pretensions were looked upon with contempt or indifference, and the case of Mademoiselle Österlein brought him less fame than notoriety. He determined to change his sphere of action, and travelled into Swabia and Switzerland. In the latter country he met with the celebrated father Gastner, who like Valentine Graytracks, amused himself by casting out devils, and healing the sick by merely laying hands upon them. At his approach, delicate girls fell into convulsions, and hyperchondriacs fancied themselves cured. His house was daily besieged by the lame, the blind, and the hysteric. Mesmer at once acknowledged the efficacy of his cures, and declared that they were the obvious result of his own newly discovered power of magnetism. A few of the father's patients were forthwith subjected to the manipulations of Mesmer, and the same symptoms were induced. He then tried his hand upon some paupers in the hospitals of Bern and Zürich, and succeeded according to his own account, but no other persons, in curing an ophthalmia and a gutter serena. With memorials of these achievements, he returned to Vienna in the hope of silencing his enemies, or at least forcing them to respect his newly acquired reputation, and to examine his system more attentively. His second appearance in that capital was not more auspicious than the first. He undertook to cure a mademoiselle paradise, who was quite blind and subject to convulsions. He magnetised her several times, and then declared that she was cured. At least, if she was not, it was her fault, and not his. An eminent oculist of that day, named Bath, went to visit her, and declared that she was as blind as ever. While her family said she was as much subject to convulsions as before, Mesmer persisted that she was cured. Like the French philosopher, he would not allow facts to interfere with his theory. He declared that there was a conspiracy against him, and that mademoiselle paradise, at the instigation of her family, feigned blindness in order to injure his reputation. The consequences of this pretended cure taught Mesmer that Vienna was not the sphere for him. Paris, the idol, the debauched, the pleasure hunting, the novelty loving, was the scene for a philosopher like him, and thither he repaired accordingly. He arrived at Paris in 1778, and began modestly by making himself and his theory known to the principal physicians. At first, his encouragement was but slight. He found people more inclined to laugh at than to patronise him. But he was a man who had great confidence in himself, and of a perseverance which no difficulties could overcome. He hired a sumptuous apartment, which he opened to all comers who chose to make trial of the new power of nature. Monsieur Diezlon, a physician of great reputation, became a convert, and from that time animal magnetism, or as some called it, mesmerism, became the fashion in Paris. The women were quite enthusiastic about it, and their admiring tattle wafted its fame through every grade of society. Mesmer was the rage, and high and low, rich and poor, credulous and unbelieving, all hastened to convince themselves of the power of this mighty magician who made such magnificent promises. Mesmer, who knew as well as any man living the influence of the imagination, determined that, on that score, nothing should be wanting to heighten the effect of the magnetic charm. In all Paris, there was not a house so charmingly furnished as Monsieur Mesmer's. Richly stained glass shed a dim religious light on his spacious saloons, which were almost covered with mirrors. Orange blossom scented all the air of his corridors, incense of the most expensive kinds burned in antique vases on his chimney-pieces. Eolian harps sighed melodious music from distant chambers, while sometimes a sweet female voice, from above or below, stole softly upon the mysterious silence that was kept in the house, and insisted upon from all visitors. Was ever anything so delightful, cried all the Mrs. Witt-Italy's of Paris, as they thronged to his house in search of pleasant excitement. So wonderful, said the pseudo-philosophers, who would believe anything if it were the fashion. So amusing, said the worn-out des brochés, who had drained the cup of sensuality to its dregs, and who longed to see lovely women in convulsions, with the hope that they might gain some new emotions from the sight. The following was the mode of operation. In the centre of the saloon was placed an oval vessel, about four feet in its longest diameter, and one foot deep. In this were laid a number of wine-bottles, filled with magnetised water, well-corked up, and disposed in radii, with their necks outwards. Water was then poured into the vessel, so as just to cover the bottles, and filings of iron were thrown in occasionally to heighten the magnetic effect. The vessel was then covered with an iron cover, pierced through with many holes, and was called the backay. From each hole issued a long movable rod of iron, which the patients were to apply to such parts of their bodies as were afflicted. Around this backay the patients were directed to sit, holding each other by the hand, and pressing their knees together as closely as possible, to facilitate the passage of the magnetic fluid from one to the other. Then came in the assistant magnetisers, generally strong, handsome young men, to pour into the patient from their fingertips fresh streams of the wondrous fluid. They embraced the patient between the knees, rubbed them gently down the spine and the course of the nerves, using gentle pressure upon the breasts of the ladies, and staring them out of countenance to magnetise them by the eye. All this time the most rigorous silence was maintained, with the exception of a few wild notes on the harmonica or the piano forte, or the melodious voice of a hidden opera singer swelling softly at long intervals. Gradually the cheeks of the ladies began to glow, their imaginations to become inflamed, and off they went, one after the other, in convulsive fits. Some of them sobbed and tore their hair, others laughed till the tears ran from their eyes, while others shrieked and screamed and yelled till they became insensible altogether. This was the crisis of the delirium. In the midst of it the chief actor made his appearance, waving his wand like Prospero, to work new wonders, dressed in a long robe of lilac coloured silk, richly embroidered with gold flowers, bearing in his hand a white magnetic rod, and with a look of dignity which would have sat well on an eastern caliph, he marched with solemn strides into the room. He awed the still sensible by his eye, and the violence of their symptoms diminished. He stroked the insensible with his hands upon the eyebrows and down the spine, traced figures upon their breast and abdomen with his long white wand, and they were restored to consciousness. They became calm, acknowledged his power, and said they felt streams of cold or burning vapour passing through their frames, according as he waved his wand or his fingers before them. It is impossible, says Monsieur Dupote, to conceive the sensation which Mesmer's experiments created in Paris. No theological controversy in the earlier ages of the Catholic Church was ever conducted with greater bitterness. His adversaries denied the discovery, some calling him a quack, others a fool, and others again like the Abbé Fiat, a man who had sold himself to the devil. His friends were as extravagant in their praise as his foes were in their censure. Paris was inundated with pamphlets upon the subject, as many defending as attacking the doctrine. At court the Queen expressed herself in favour of it, and nothing else was to be heard of in society. By the advice of Monsieur Dieselon, Mesmer challenged an examination of his doctrine by the Faculty of Medicine. He proposed to select twenty-four patients, twelve of whom he would treat magnetically, leaving the other twelve to be treated by the faculty according to the old and approved methods. He also stipulated that, to prevent disputes, the government should nominate certain persons who were not physicians to be present at the experiments, and that the object of the inquiry should be not how these effects were produced, but whether they were really efficacious in the cure of any disease. The faculty objected to limit the inquiry in this manner, and the proposition fell to the ground. Mesmer now wrote to Marie Antoinette with the view of securing her influence in obtaining for him the protection of government. He wished to have a chateau and its lands given to him, with a handsome yearly income, that he might be enabled to continue his experiments at leisure untroubled by the persecution of his enemies. He hinted the duty of governments to support men of science, and expressed his fear that if he met no more encouragement, he should be compelled to carry his great discovery to some other land more willing to appreciate him. In the eyes of your majesty, said he, four or five hundred thousand francs applied to a good purpose are of no account. The welfare and happiness of your people are everything, my discovery ought to be received and rewarded with a munificence worthy of the monarch to whom I shall attach myself. The government at last offered him a pension of twenty thousand francs, and the cross of the Order of Saint Michael, if he had made any discovery in medicine, and would communicate it to physicians nominated by the king. The latter part of the proposition was not agreeable to Mesmer. He feared the unfavorable report of the king's physicians, and, breaking off the negotiation, spoke of his disregard of money, and his wish to have his discovery at once recognized by the government. He then retired to Spa in a fit of disgust, upon pretence of drinking the waters for the benefit of his health. After he had left Paris, the faculty of medicine called upon Monsieur Deslon for the third and last time to renounce the doctrine of animal magnetism, or be expelled from their body. Monsieur Deslon, so far from doing this, declared that he had discovered new secrets, and solicited further examination. The Royal Commission of the Faculty of Medicine was, in consequence, appointed on the 12th March 1784. Seconded by another commission of the Académie des Sciences, to investigate the phenomena and report upon them. The first commission was composed of the principal physicians of Paris, while among the eminent men comprised in the latter were Benjamin Franklin, Lavoisier, and Bailey the historian of astronomy. Mesmer was formally invited to appear before this body, but absented himself from day to day, upon one pretence or another. Monsieur Deslon was more honest, because he thoroughly believed in the phenomena, which it is to be questioned if Mesmer ever did, and regularly attended the sittings and performed experiments. Bailey has thus described the scenes of which he was a witness in the course of this investigation. The sick persons, arranged in great numbers, and in several rows around the baccay, received the magnetism, by all these means, by the iron rods which convey it to them from the baccay, by the cords wound round their bodies, by the connection of the thumb, which conveys to them the magnetism of their neighbours, and by the sounds of a piano forte, or of an agreeable voice, diffusing the magnetism in the air. The patients were also directly magnetised by means of the finger and wand of the magnetiser, moved slowly before their faces, above or behind their heads, and on the diseased parts, always observing the direction of the holes. The magnetiser acts by fixing his eyes on them, but above all they are magnetised by the application of his hands, and the pressure of his fingers on the hypercondries, and on the regions of the abdomen. An application often continued for a long time, sometimes for several hours. Meanwhile the patients in their different conditions present a very varied picture. Some are calm, tranquil, and experience no effect. Others cough, spit, feel slight pains, local or general heat, and have sweatings. Others again are agitated and tormented with convulsions. These convulsions are remarkable in regard to the number affected with them, to the duration and force. As soon as one begins to be convulsed several others are affected. The commissioners have observed some of these convulsions last more than three hours. They are accompanied with expectorations of a muddy viscous water, brought away by violent efforts. Sometimes streaks of blood have been observed in this fluid. These convulsions are characterised by the precipitous involuntary motion of all the limbs, and of the whole body, by the contraction of the throat, by the leaping motions of the hypercondria and the epigastrium, by the dimness and wandering of the eyes, by piercing shrieks, tears, sobbing, and in moderate laughter. They are preceded or followed by a state of languor or reverie, a kind of depression, and sometimes drowsiness. The smallest sudden noise occasions a shuddering, and it was remarked that the change of measure in the airs played on the piano forte had a great influence on the patients. A quicker motion, a livelier melody, agitated them more and renewed the vivacity of their convulsions. Nothing is more astonishing than the spectacle of these convulsions. One who has not seen them can form no idea of them. The spectator is as much astonished at the profound repose of one portion of the patients as at the agitation of the rest, at the various accidents which are repeated, and at the sympathies which are exhibited. Some of the patients may be seen devoting their attention exclusively to one another, rushing towards each other with open arms, smiling, soothing, and manifesting every symptom of attachment and affection. All are under the power of the magnetiser. It matters not in what state of drowsiness they may be. The sound of his voice, a look, a motion of his hand, brings them out of it. Among the patients in convulsions there are always observed a great many women, and very few men. These experiments lasted for about five months. They had hardly commenced before Mesmer, alarmed at the loss both of fame and profit, determined to return to Paris. Some patients of rank and fortune, enthusiastic believers in his doctrine, had followed him to spa. One of them named Bergas, proposed to open a subscription for him of one hundred shares at one hundred Louis each, on condition that he would disclose his secret to the subscribers, who were to be permitted to make whatever use they pleased of it. Mesmer readily embraced the proposal, and such was the infatuation that the subscription was not only filled in a few days, but exceeded by no lesser sum than one hundred and forty thousand francs. With this fortune he returned to Paris, and recommended his experiments, while the Royal Commission continued theirs. His admiring pupils, who had paid him so handsomely for his instructions, spread his fame over the country, and established in all the principal towns of France, societies of harmony, for trying experiments and curing all diseases by means of magnetism. Some of these societies were a scandal to morality, being joined by profligate men of depraved appetites, who took a disgusting delight in witnessing young girls in convulsions. Many of the pretended magnetisers were asserted at the time to be notorious libertines, who took that opportunity of gratifying their passions. At last the commissioners published their report, which was drawn up by the illustrious and unfortunate Bailey. For clearness of reasoning and strict impartiality it has never been surpassed. After detailing the various experiments made, and their results, they came to the conclusion that the only proof advanced in support of animal magnetism was the effects it produced on the human body. That those effects could be produced without passes or other magnetic manipulations. That all these manipulations and passes and ceremonies never produce any effect at all, if employed without the patient's knowledge. And that therefore imagination did, and animal magnetism did not, account for the phenomena. This report was the ruin of Mesmer's reputation in France. He quitted Paris shortly after, with the 340,000 francs which had been subscribed by his admirers, and retired to his own country, where he died in 1815, at the advanced age of 81. But the seeds he had sown, fructified of themselves, nourished and brought to maturity by the kindly warmth of popular credulity. Imitators sprang up in France, Germany and England, more extravagant than their master, and claiming powers for the new science which its founder had never dreamt of. Among others, Cagliostro made good use of the delusion in extending his claims to be considered a master of the occult sciences. But he made no discoveries worthy to be compared to those of the Marquis de Puissacar and the Chevalier Barbaran, honest men who began by deceiving themselves before they deceived others. End of Chapter 7, Part 2 Chapter 7, Part 3 of Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Volume 1 This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org. Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Volume 1, The Vanguetizers, Part 3 The Marquis de Puissacar, the owner of a considerable estate at Brussancy, was one of those who had entered into the subscription for Mesmer. After that individual had quitted France, he retired to Brussancy with his brother to try animal magnetism upon his tenants and cure the country people of all manner of diseases. He was a man of great simplicity and much benevolence, and not only magnetised but fed the sick that flocked around him. In all the neighbourhood, and indeed within a circumference of twenty miles, he was looked upon as endowed with a power almost divine. His great discovery, as he called it, was made by chance. One day he had magnetised his gardener, and observing him to fall into a deep sleep, it occurred to him that he would address a question to him, as he would have done to a natural somnambulist. He did so, and the man replied with much clearness and precision. M. de Puissacar was agreeably surprised. He continued his experiments, and found that, in this state of magnetic somnambulism, the soul of the sleeper was enlarged, and brought into more intimate communication with all nature, and more especially with him, M. de Puissacar. He found that all further manipulations were unnecessary, that without speaking or making any sign he could convey his will to the patient that he could in fact converse with him soul to soul without the employment of any physical operation whatever. Simultaneously with this marvellous discovery he made another, which reflects equal credit upon his understanding. Like Valentine Great Wax, he found it hard work to magnetise all that came, that he had not even time to take the opposing relaxation which were necessary for his health. In this emergency he hit upon a clever expedient. He heard Mesmus say that he could magnetise bits of wood. Why should he not be able to magnetise a whole tree? It was no sooner thought than done. There was a large elm on the village green at Bussancy, under which the peasant-goals used to dance on festivocations, and the old men to sit, drinking their vando pey, on the fine summer evenings. M. de Puissacar proceeded to this tree and magnetised it, by first touching it with his hands, and then retiring a few steps from it, all the while directing streams of the magnetic fluid from the branches towards the trunk, and from the trunk towards the root. This done he caused circular seats to be erected round it, and cords suspended from it in all directions. When the patients had seated themselves, they twisted the cords round the diseased parts of their bodies, and held one another firmly by their thumbs to form a direct channel of communication for the passage of the fluid. M. de Puissacar now had two hobbies, the man with the enlarged soul, and the magnetic elm. The infatuation of himself and his patients cannot be better expressed than in his own words. Writing to his brother on the 17th of May 1784 he says, They flock around my tree. There were more than 130 of them this morning. It is the best back way possible. Not a leaf of it, but communicates health. All feel more or less the good effects of it. You will be delighted to see the charming picture of humanity which this presents. I have only one regret. It is that I cannot touch all who come, but my magnetised man, my intelligence, sets me at ease. He teaches me what conduct I should adopt. According to him it is not at all necessary that I should touch everyone. A look, a gesture, even a wish is sufficient. And it is one of the most ignorant peasants of the country that teaches me this. When he is in a crisis I know of nothing more profound, more prudent, more clear-sighted, clairvoyant, than he is. In another letter describing his first experiment with the magnetic tree he says, Yesterday evening I brought my first patient to it. As soon as I had put the cord round him he gazed at the tree and with an air of astonishment which I cannot describe exclaimed, What is it that I see there? His head then sunk down and he fell into a perfect fit of some nambulism. At the end of an hour I took him home to his house again when I restored him to his senses. Several men and women came to tell him what he had been doing. He maintained it was not true that weak as he was and scarcely able to walk it would have been scarcely possible for him to have gone downstairs and walked to the tree. Today I have repeated the experiment on him and with the same success. I own to you that my head turns round with pleasure to think of the good I do. Madame de Passega, the friend she has with her, my servants, and in fact all who are near me, feel an amazement mingled with admiration which cannot be described, but they do not experience the half of my sensations. Without my tree, which gives me rest and which will give me still more, I should be in a state of agitation, inconsistent I believe with my health. I exist too much if I may be allowed to use the expression." In another letter he discounts still more poetically upon his gardener with the enlarged soul. He says, Should anybody come into the room he sees him if I desire it, but not else, and addresses him and says what I wish to say. Not indeed exactly as I dictate to him, but as truth requires. When he wants to add more than I deem it prudent strangers should hear, I stop the flow of his ideas and have his conversation in the middle of a word and give it quite a different turn. Among other persons attracted to Boussancy by the report of these extraordinary occurrences was Monsieur Cloquet, the receiver of finance. His appetite for the marvellous being somewhat insatiable, he readily believed all that was told him by Monsieur de Passega. He also has left a record of what he saw and what he credited, which throws a still clearer light upon the progress of the delusion. He says that the patience he saw in the magnetic state had an appearance of deep sleep during which all the physical faculties were suspended to the advantage of the intellectual faculties. The eyes of the patient were closed, the sense of hearing was abolished, and they awoke only at the voice of their magnetiser. If anyone touched a patient during a crisis, or even the chair on which he was seated, said Monsieur Cloquet, it would cause him much pain in suffering and throw him into convulsions. During the crisis they possess an extraordinary and supernatural power, by which, on touching a patient presenting to them, they can feel what part of his body is diseased, even by merely passing their hand over the clothes. Another singularity was that these sleepers who could thus discover diseases see into the interior of other men's stomachs and point out remedies, remembered absolutely nothing after the magnetiser thought proper to disenchant them. The time that elapsed between their entering the crisis and their coming out of it was obliterated. Not only had the magnetiser the power of making himself heard by the somnambulists, but he could make them follow him by merely pointing his finger at them from a distance, though they had their eyes the whole time completely closed. Such was the animal magnetism under the auspices of the Marquis de Persaigre. While he was exhibiting these phenomena around his elm tree, a magnetiser of another class appeared in Lyon, in the person of the Cherolier de Barberon. This gentleman thought that the effort of Will, without any of the paraphernalia of Wands or Bacquet, was sufficient to throw patients into the magnetic sleep. He tried it and succeeded. By sitting at the bedside of his patients, and praying that they might be magnetised, they went off into a state very similar to that of the persons who fell under the notice of Monsieur de Persaigre. In the course of time a very considerable number of magnetisers, acknowledging Barberon for their model, and called after him Barberonists, appeared in different parts and were believed to have affected some remarkable cures. In Sweden and Germany, this sector of fanatics increased rapidly and were called spiritualists, to distinguish them from the followers of Monsieur de Persaigre who were called experimentalists. They maintained that all of the effects of animal magnetism, which Mesmer believed to be produced by a magnetic fluid dispersed through nature, were produced by the mere effort of one human soul acting upon another. That when a connection had been established between a magnetise and his patient, the former could communicate his influence to the latter from any distance, even hundreds of miles, by the Will. One of them thus described a blessed state of a magnetic patient. In such a man animal instinct ascends to the highest degree admissible in the world. The clairvoyant is then a pure animal, without any admixture of matter. His observations are those of a spirit. He is similar to God. His eye penetrates all the secrets of nature. When his attention is fixed on any of the objects of this world, on his disease, his death, his well-beloved, his friends, his relations, his enemies, in spirit he sees them acting. He penetrates into the causes and the consequences of their actions and becomes a physician, a prophet, a divine. Let us now see what progress these mysteries made in England. In the year 1788, Dr. Maynarduck, who had been a pupil, first of Mesmer and afterwards of Deslon, arrived in Bristol and gave public lectures upon magnetism. His success was quite extraordinary. People of rank and fortune hastened from London to Bristol to be magnetised, or to place themselves under his tuition. Dr. George Winter, in his history of animal magnetism, gives the following list of them. They amounted to 127, among whom there were one Duke, one Duchess, one Marchioness, two Countesses, one Earl, one Baron, three Baronesses, one Bishop, five Right Honourable Gentlemen and Ladies, two Baronettes, seven members of Parliament, one clergyman, two physicians, seven surgeons, besides 92 gentlemen and ladies of respectability. He afterwards established himself in London where he performed with equal success. He began by publishing proposals to the ladies for the formation of a hygiene society. In this paper he wanted highly the curative effects of animal magnetism, and took great credit to himself for being the first person to introduce it into England, and thus concluded, As this method of cure is not confined to sex or college education, and the fair sex being in general the most sympathising part of the creation, and the most immediately concerned in the health and care of its offspring, I think myself bound in gratitude to you ladies, for the partiality you have shown me in midwifery, to contribute, as far as lies in my power, to render you additionally useful and valuable to the community. With this view I propose forming my hygiene society, to be incorporated with that of Paris. As soon as 20 ladies have given in their names, the day shall be appointed for the first meeting at my house, when they are to pay 15 guineas, which will include the whole expense. Hannah Moore, in a letter addressed to Horace Walpole in 1788, speaks of the demoniacal mummaries of Dr Menedoc, and says that he was in a fair way of gaining £100,000 by them, as Mesmer had done by his exhibitions in Paris. So much curiosity was excited by the subject, that about the same time, a man named Holloway gave a course of lectures on animal magnetism in London, at the rate of five guineas for each pupil, and realised a considerable fortune. Luther Borg, the painter and his wife, followed the same profitable trade, and such was the infatuation of the people to be witnessed of their strange manipulations, that at times upwards of 3,000 persons crowded around their house at Hammersmith, unable to gain admission. The tickets sold at prices varying from one to three guineas. Luther Borg performed his cures by the touch, after the manner of Valentin Greytracks, and finally pretended to a divine mission. An account of his miracles, as they were called, was published in 1789, entitled A List of New Cures Performed by Mr and Mrs. Dolotheborg of Hammersmith Terrace, without medicine, by a lover of the Lamb of God, dedicated to his grace the Archbishop of Canterbury. The lover of the Lamb of God was a half-crazy old woman, named Mary Pratt, who conceived from Mr and Mrs. Dolotheborg a veneration which almost prompted her to worship them. She chose for the motto of her pamphlet a verse in the thirteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, Behold ye despisers, and wander and perish, for I will work a work in your days which ye shall not believe, though a man declare it unto you. Attempting to give a religious character to the cures of the painter, she thought a woman was the proper person to make them known, since the apostle had declared that a man should not be able to conquer the incredulity of the people. She stated that from Christmas 1788 to July 1789, Dolotheborg and his wife had cured two thousand people, having been made proper recipients to receive divine manu-ductions, which heavenly and divine influx, coming from the radix God, his divine majesty, had most graciously bestowed upon them to diffuse healing to all, be they deaf, dumb, blind, lame or halt. In her dedication to the Archbishop of Canterbury, she implored him to compose a new form of prayer to be used in all churches and chapels, that nothing might impede this inestimable gift from having its due course. She further entreated all the magistrates and men of authority in the land to wait on Mr. and Mrs. Dolotheborg to consult with them on the immediate erection of a large hospital with the pool of Bethesda attached to it. All the magnetizers were scandalised at the preposterous jabber of this old woman, and Dolotheborg appears to have left London to avoid her, continuing, however, in conjunction with his wife, the fantastic tricks which had turned the brain of this poor fanatic, and eluded many others who pretended to more sense than she had. From this period until 1798, magnetism excited little or no attention in England. An attempt to revive the belief in it was made in that year, but it was in the shape of mineral rather than of animal magnetism. One Benjamin Douglas Perkins, an American, practising as a surgeon in Leicester Square, invented and took out a patent for the celebrated metallic tractors. He pretended that these tractors, which were two small pieces of metal strongly magnetised, something resembling the steel plates which were first brought in to notice by Father Hell, would cure gout, rheumatism, palsy, and in fact, almost every disease the human frame was subject to, if implied externally to the afflicted part, and moved about gently, touching the surface only. The most wonderful stories soon obtained general circulation, and the press groaned with pamphlets, all wanting the curative effects of the tractors which were sold at five guineas that pair. Perkins gained money rapidly. Gouty's subjects forgot their pains in the presence of this new remedy, the rheumatism fled at its approach, and the toothache, which is often cured by the mere sight of a dentist, vanished before Perkins and his marvellous steel plates. The benevolent society of friends, of whose body he was a member, warmly patronised the invention. Desirous that the poor, who could not afford to pay Mr Perkins five guineas or even five shillings for his tractors, should also share in the benefits of that sublime discovery, they subscribed a large sum and built an hospital, called the Perkenean Institution, in which all comers might be magnetised free of cost. In the course of a few months they were in very general use and their lucky inventor in possession of five thousand pounds. Dr Hagarth, an eminent physician at Bath, recollecting the influence of imagination in the cure of disease, hit upon an expedient to try the real value of the tractors. Perkins cures were too well established to be doubted, and Dr Hagarth, without gain saying them, quietly but in the face of numerous witnesses, exposed the delusion under which people laboured with respect the curative medium. He suggested to Dr Faulkner that they should make wooden tractors, paint them to resemble the steel ones, and see if the very same effects would not be produced. Five patients were chosen from the hospital in Bath, upon whom to operate. One of them suffered severely from chronic rheumatism in the ankle, knee, wrist and hip, and the fifth had been afflicted for several months with the gut. On the day appointed for the experiments, Dr Hagarth and his friends assembled at the hospital, and with much solemnity brought forth the fictitious tractors. Four out of the five patients said their pains were immediately relieved, and three of them said that they were not only relieved but very much benefited. Dr Faulkner felt his knee warmer, and said he could walk across the room. He tried and succeeded, although on the previous day he had not been able to stir. The gouty man felt his pains diminish rapidly, and was quite easy for nine hours, until he went to bed when the twitching began again. On the following day the real tractors were applied to all the patients, when they described their symptoms in nearly the same terms. To make still more sure, the experiment was tried in the Bristol Infirmatory, a few weeks afterwards, on a man who had rheumatic affection in the shoulder, so severe as to incapacitate him from lifting his hand from his knee. The fictitious tractors were brought and applied to the afflicted part, one of the physicians, to add solemnity to the scene, drawing a stopwatch from his pocket to calculate the time exactly, while another, with a pen in his hand, sat down to write the change of symptoms from minute to minute as they occurred. In less than four minutes the man felt so much relieved that he lifted his hand several inches without any pain in the shoulder. An account of these matters was published by Dr. Haygarth, in a small volume entitled, of the imagination as a cause and cure of disorders exemplified by fictitious tractors. The exposure was accrued agrar to the system of Mr. Perkins. His friends and patrons, still unwilling to confess that they had been deceived, tried the tractors upon sheep, cows, and horses, alleging that the animals received benefit from the metallic plates, but none at all from the wooden ones. But they found nobody to believe them. The Perkinian institution fell into neglect, and Perkins made his exit from England, carrying with him about £10,000 to soothe his declining years in the good city of Pennsylvania. Thus was magnetism laughed out of England for a time. In France the revolution left men no leisure for studying it. The Société d'Almenie of Strasbourg and other great towns lingered for a while, till stoner matters occupying men's attention, they were one after the other abandoned both by pupils and professors. The system, thus driven from the first two nations of Europe, took refuge among the dreamy philosophers of Germany. There the wonders of the magnetic sleep grew more and more wonderful every day. The patients acquired the gift of prophecy, their vision extended over all the surface of the globe. They could hear and see with their toes and fingers, and read unknown languages, and understand them too by merely having the book placed on their stomachs. Ignorant peasants, when once entranced by the grand mesmeric fluid, could spout philosophy diviner than Plato ever wrote, discount upon the mysteries of the mind with more eloquence and truth than the profoundest metaphysicians the world ever saw, and solve knotty points of divinity with as much ease as waking men could undo their shoe-buckles. During the first twelve years of the present century little was heard of animal magnetism in any country of Europe. Even the Germans forgot their airy fancies, recalled to the knowledge of this everyday world by the War of Napoleon's Canon and the fall of the establishment of kingdoms. During this period a cloud of obscurity hung over the science, which was not dispersed until Monsieur Deleuze published in 1813 his Histoire Critique du Magnetime Animal. This work gave a new impulse to the half-forgotten fancy. Newspapers, pamphlets and books again waged war upon each other for question of its truth or falsehood, and many eminent men in the profession of medicine recommenced inquiry with an earnest design to discover the truth. The assertions made in the celebrated treaties of Deleuze are thus summed up. There is a fluid continually escaping from the human body, and forming an atmosphere around us which, as it has no determined current, produces no sensible effects on surrounding individuals. It is, however, capable of being directed by the will, and when so directed is sent forth in currents with a force corresponding to the energy we possess. Its motion is similar to that of the rays from burning bodies. It possesses different qualities in different individuals. It is capable of a high degree of concentration and exists also in trees. The will of the magnetiser, guided by a motion of the hand several times repeated in the same direction, can fill a tree with this fluid. Most persons when this fluid is poured into them from the body and by the will of the magnetiser feel a sensation of heat or cold when he passes his hand before them without even touching them. Some persons when sufficiently charged with this fluid fall into a state of somnambulism or magnetic ecstasy, and when in this state they see the fluid encircling the magnetiser like a halo of light and issuing in luminous streams from his mouth and nostrils, his head and hands, possessing a very agreeable smell and communicating a particular taste to food and water. One would think that these notions were quite enough to be insisted upon by any physician who wished to be considered sane, but they form only a small portion of the wondrous things related by Monsieur de Luz. He further said, When magnetism produces somnambulism, the person who is in this state acquires a prodigious extension of all his faculties. Several of his external organs, especially those of sight and hearing, become inactive, but the sensations which depend upon them take place internally. Seeing and hearing are carried on by the magnetic fluid, which transmits the impressions immediately and without the intervention of any nerves or organs directly to the brain. Thus the somnambulist, though his eyes and ears are closed, not only sees and hears, but sees and hears much better than he does when awake. In all things he feels the will of the magnetiser, although that will be not expressed. He sees into the interior of his own body and the most secret organization of the bodies of all those who may be put en rapport or in magnetic connection with him. Most commonly, he only sees those parts which are diseased and disordered and intuitively prescribes a remedy for them. He has prophetic visions and sensations which are generally true, but sometimes erroneous. He expresses himself with astonishing eloquence and facility. He is not free from vanity. He becomes a more perfect being of his own accord for a certain time if guided wisely by the magnetiser, but wonders if he is ill-directed. According to Monsieur de Luz, any person could become a magnetiser and produce these effects by conforming to the following conditions and acting upon the following rules. Forget for a while all your knowledge of physics and metaphysics. Remove from your mind all objections that may occur. Imagine that it is in your power to take the malady in hand and throw it on one side. Never reason for six weeks after you have commenced the study. Have an active desire to do good, a firm belief in the power of magnetism and an entire confidence in employing it. In short, repel all doubts, desire success and act with simplicity and attention. That is to say, be very credulous, be very persevering, reject all past experience and do not listen to reason and do our magnetiser after Monsieur de Luz's own heart. Having brought yourself into this edifying state, remove from the patient all persons who might be troublesome to you. Keep with you only the necessary witnesses, a single person if need be. Desire them not to occupy themselves in any way with the processes you employ and the effects which result from them, but to join with you in the desire of doing good to your patient. Arrange yourself so as neither to be too hot nor too cold and in such a manner that nothing may obstruct the freedom of your motions and take precautions to prevent interruption during the sitting. Make your patient then sit as commodiously as possible and place yourself opposite to him on a seat a little more elevated in such a manner that his knees may be betwixt yours and your feet at the side of his. First, request him to resign himself to think of nothing, not to perplex himself by examining the effects which may be produced, to banish all fear, to surrender himself to hope and not to be disturbed or discouraged if the action of magnetism should cause in him momentary pains. After having collected yourself, take his thumbs between your fingers in such a way that the internal part of your thumbs may be in contact with the internal part of his and then fix your eyes upon him. You must remain from two to five minutes in this situation or until you feel an equal heat between your thumbs and his. This done you will withdraw your hands, removing them to the right and left and at the same time turning them to the internal surface be outwards and you will raise them to the height of the head. You will now place them upon the two shoulders and let them remain there about a minute, afterwards drawing them gently along the arms to the extremities of the fingers, touching very slightly as you go. You will renew this past five or six times, always turning your hands and removing them a little from the body before you lift them. You will then place them above the head and after holding them there for an instant, lower them, passing them before the face, at the distance of one or two inches down to the pit of the stomach. There you will stop them two minutes also, putting your thumbs upon the pit of the stomach and the rest of your fingers below the ribs. You will then descend slowly along the body to the knees or rather, if you can do so without deranging yourself, to the extremity of the feet. You will repeat the same processes several times during the remainder of the sitting. You will also occasionally approach your patient so as to place your hands behind his shoulders in order to descend slowly along the spine of the back and the thighs, down to the knees or the feet. After the first passes, you may dispense with putting your hands upon the head and make the subsequent passes upon the arms, beginning at the shoulders and upon the body, beginning at the stomach. Such was the process of magnetising recommended by Deleuze. That delicate, fanciful and nervous woman, when subjected to it, should have worked themselves into convulsions will be readily believed by the sturdiest opponent of animal magnetism. To sit in a constrained posture, be stared out of countenance by a fellow who enclosed her knees between his, while he made passes upon different parts of her body, was quite enough to throw any weak woman into a fit, especially if she were predisposed to hysteria and believed in the efficacy of the treatment. It should be just as evident that those of stronger minds and healthier bodies should be sent to sleep by the process. That these effects have been produced by these means, there are thousands of instances to show. But are they testimony in favour of animal magnetism? Do they prove the existence of the magnetic fluid? It needs neither magnetism nor ghost from the grave to tell us that silence, monotony, and long recumbency in one position must produce sleep. Or that excitement, imitation, and a strong imagination acting upon a weak body will bring on convulsions. Monsieur Deleuze's book produced quite a sensation in France. The study was resumed with redoubled vigour. In the following year, a journal was established devoted exclusively to the science under the title of A Nile du Magnetisme Animal, and shortly afterwards appeared the bibliothèque du Magnetisme Animal and many others. But at the same time, the Abbe Fahya, the man of wonders, began to magnetise, and the belief being that he had more of the mesmeric fluid about him and a stronger will than most men, he was very successful in his treatment. His experiments afford a convincing proof that imagination can operate all, and they suppose fluid none, of the results so confidently claimed as evidence of the new science. He placed his patients in an armchair, told them to shut their eyes and then in a loud commanding voice, pronounced the single word sleep. He then used no manipulations whatever. He had no back-a or conductor of the fluid, but he nevertheless succeeded in causing sleep in hundreds of patients. He boasted of having in his time produced five thousand somnambulists by this method. It was often necessary to repeat the command three or four times, and if the patient still remained awake, the albe got out of the difficulty by dismissing him from the chair, and declaring that he was incapable of being acted upon. And it should be especially remarked that the magnetisers do not lay claim to universal efficacy for their fluid, the strong and the healthy cannot be magnetised, the incredulous cannot be magnetised, those who reason upon cannot be magnetised, those who firmly believe in it can be magnetised, the weak in body can be magnetised, and the weak in mind can be magnetised, and lest, from some cause or other, individuals of the latter classes should resist the magnetic charm, the apostles of the science declare that there are times when even they cannot be acted upon. The presence of one scornor or unbeliever may weaken the potency of the fluid and destroy its efficacy. In Monsieur de Lerse's instructions to a magnetiser he expressly says, never magnetised before inquisitive persons. Here we conclude the subject, as it would serve no good purpose to extend to greater length the history of animal magnetism, especially at a time when many phenomena, the reality of which it is impossible to dispute, are daily occurring to startling perplex the most learned, impartial and truth-loving of mankind. Enough, however, has been stated to show that if there be some truth in magnetism there has been much error, misconception and exaggeration. Taking its history from the commencement it can hardly be said to have been without its uses. To quote the words of Bailey in 1784 magnetism has not been altogether unavailing to the philosophy which condemns it. It is an additional fact to record among the errors of the human mind and a great experiment on the strength of the imagination. Over that vast inquiry of the influence of mind over matter an inquiry which the embodied intellect of mankind will never be able to fathom completely it will at least have thrown a feeble and imperfect light. It will have afforded an additional proof of the strength of the unconquerable will and the weakness of matter as compared with it. Another illustration of the words of the inspired psalmist that we, that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.