ART. V.—1. Histoire Critique du Magnétisme Animal, par TP. F. Deluze. Seconde Edition. Seconde Edition. Paris. 1819. 2. Du Magnétisme Animal en France, &c.par Alexandre Bertrand, Docteur en Médecine, Membre de la Société Royale Académique, &c. &c. Paris, 1826.

3. L'Hermes, Journal du Magnétisme Animal, publié par une Société de Médecins de la Faculté de Paris. 1826-1829. 4. Versuch einer Darstellung des Animalischen Magnetismus, als Heilmittel von C. A. F. Kluge. Dritte Auflage. Berlin, 1818.

5. Ansichten von der Nachtseite der Naturwissenschaft von Dr. G. H. Schubert. 'Dritte Auflage. Dresden, 1829. 6. Ennemoser, Jos. der Magnetismus nach der allseitigen Beziehung seines Wesens, &c. 8vo. Leipz. 1818. FOR the last fifty years Animal Magnetism has been the subject of almost incessant discussion in various parts of the Continent, and more especially in France and Germany. Some hundreds of works have been written on the subject, and yet the discussion seems as violent now as at the outset, and the combatants on both sides as loud and sturdy. By some of its partisans, Animal Magnetism has been extolled as a universal remedy in the cure of diseases, nay more, as an agent by which man might be brought into nearer connexion with his Creator; by which the soul might sometimes be freed from its fetters of mortality, and the relations' of Time and Space become no longer applicable to it. Its opponents, on the other hand, have treated Animal Magnetism as a pure chimera, a revival of the old miracle-working witchcraft and sorcery, which, in darker ages, used to be so formidable to our forefathers; and some have gone so far, even in this nineteenth century,* as to denounce the Magnetisers as agents of Satan, sent to do his foul errands on the weakest and most helpless part of our species.

Now had all this been confined to Germany alone, many of us would have found it easily explained and disposed of; for the Germans have long had an established reputation amongst us for furnishing the dreaming world with all sorts of strange ware, from the old adventures of Faust and the Devil down to the recent visions and miracles of Prince Hohenlohe. But when we find Animal Magnetism at first rejected and banished from Germany and taking root and thriving in France, that country of

* See the pamphlet of a certain M. M- de la Marne, published last year at Paris, and entitled,Etude raisonnée du Magnetisme Animal, et preuve de l'intervention des Puissances Infernales dans les phénomènes du Somnambulisme Magnétique.'

savans,

savans, of light laughter, and mockery, and universal doubting, where ridicule is more feared than death itself, it may move wonder and claim investigation. Since the introduction of Animal Magnetism in Paris, in 1778, there have been Magnetisers and Magnetised without number, and of all ranks, from the Marquis de Puységur, and the Duchess de Bourbon, down to the woe-begone, moonstruck semstress, la femme Couturier,'* and the wakeful' crackbrained music-teacher, M. Geslin. Within these few years experiments have been made regarding it in most of the public hospitals of Paris, in the Hôtel Dieu, la Salpétrière, la Charité, la Pitié, St. Louis, &c.; and a committee of the Faculty of Medicine has been appointed for its investigation. On this side the Channel, it has hitherto been heard of only in faint rumours; its history and fate are almost totally unknown amongst us. There seems now for the first time some slight tendency to import this new science. We consider it our duty to inform our countrymen what it really is, and to warn them what they have to expect from its introduction into Britain. But, independently of these considerations, we hold it worthy of investigation: it is a curious feature of the times in which we live, and as such it deserves notice. The first part of our task will be to give a sketch of its history and progress.

Anton Mesmer, the reputed discoverer of Animal Magnetism, was born at Mersburg in Swabia, in the year 1734. He studied at Vienna, and took his degree of doctor of medicine there in 1776, at which time he published an inaugural thesis, on the 'Influence of the Planets on the Human Body '; which may be regarded as a first step towards the doctrines he afterwards maintained. About the same period, the loadstone was by some

*Two women, Couturier, 'ouvrière en dentelles,' and Burckart, were tried last year at Paris for prescribing remedies and giving consultations in magnetic sleep to a weakminded young man, Gustave Pigault, whose imagination seems to have been so much excited by the last account he received from them of his disease, that he went and killed himself. His mother deposed, that he had been for three years connected with Couturier, that he had imagined himself sick and consulted somnambulists incessantly. 'One day,' says she, 'he told me: I am deceived; that woman has given me a medicine fit for a horse, composed of aloes, saffron, mercury, and jalap: I have a fire in my bowels.' She tried in vain to get him to break with these women and consult a physician. He at length came to her and said: 'Mother, the woman Couturier has promised to cure me in two months, if I will give her 600 francs. If you will be caution for me, I shall recover my health.' His mother was induced to make a promise of doing so. 'Madame Couturier came to the house, and pretending to fall asleep, exclaimed: "Heavens! what do I see! your body is filled with spots of blood. I am not satisfied with you; you will never get better!" We have already seen the consequences of this exclamation. In the report of the case, (Hermes for April, 1828. p. 60) it is stated that 'the woman Couturier expresses herself with much embarrassment and difficulty; and has her eyes half shut. M. Geslin ('professeur de Musique'), her Magnetiser, on being asked if he had ever had recourse to magnetic sleep for himself, when sick, replied: 'Je suis très éveillé; personne na jamais pu m'endormir.'

supposed

supposed to possess medicinal virtues; and experiments on the subject had been made in various parts of Europe. Father Hell, a jesuit, professor of Astronomy at Vienna, had invented steel plates of a peculiar form, which he impregnated with the virtues of the magnet, and to which he attributed great efficacy in the treatment of diseases. Mesmer was his friend, and, wishing to employ the magnet according to his own ideas, made use of these plates in several experiments, and communicated his astonishing success to Father Hell. The latter published the results of these experiments, attributing, however, all the virtues of the plates to their form, and speaking of Mesmer as a physician whom he had employed to make his experiments. Mesmer seemed indignant, complained loudly of the conduct of Father Hell, and accused him of having betrayed confidence, and of wishing to turn to his own advantage a discovery with which he had been entrusted. Hell replied, and, after a long contest, gained the victory over Mesmer, who was less known and less respected. Yet, in having attracted attention, Mesmer seems to have gained his main object. He was nowise discouraged at this open defeat, but boldly continued to 'din the public ear' with the noise of his discovery, and the wonderful cures which it enabled him to perform. He wrote an account of these to the various learned Societies of Europe, soliciting their attention and investigation. He maintained that Magnetic matter was the grand agent pervading the universe, and connecting all things together in mutual influence; he affirmed that his discovery consisted in being able to communicate to bodies, which he touched, the properties of the loadstone. We may have some idea of the extravagance and absurdity of his pretensions from the following passage in one of his letters to a friend in Vienna: 'I have observed,' says he, that the magnetic matter is almost the same thing as the electrical fluid; and that it may be propagated in the same manner as this, by means of intermediate bodies. Steel is not the only substance adapted to this purpose; I have rendered paper, bread, wool, silk, leather, stones, glass, wood, men, dogs, in short everything I touched, magnetic to such a degree that these substances produced the same effects as the loadstone on the diseased. I have charged jars with magnetic matter in the same way as is done with electricity.' The Academy of Sciences at Berlin was the only one that deigned to answer him, and naturally treated his pretensions with contempt and

ridicule.

The scandalous scenes of contention and animosity in which Mesmer found himself involved at Vienna, the disapprobation of the Court, the unqualified disdain of all men of science or

learning,

learning, and his public failure in attempting to cure some persons of rank, soon made it necessary for him to quit that city. After travelling for some time in different parts of Germany, and in Switzerland, where he continued to noise abroad his cures without finding any resting-place, he set out for Paris, where he arrived in 1778. We cannot but think he had now chosen a proper field for selling his pretended discoveries to advantage. The capital of France is known to contain more idle people than any other in Europe; more who are incessantly seeking for sensations agréables,' and without any other object in the world. It will not astonish those who know both countries when we remark, that there is a better market for the supernatural in Paris, than in any part even of Germany, where things are at least treated with earnestness and some degree of consideration.

During these transactions, Mesmer, whose sole aim from the very commencement seems to have been to enrich himself, had been sharpsighted enough to perceive the necessity of altering his views, in order to turn them to advantage; experience had instructed him that they were unsaleable in their original shape. He accordingly began to maintain, that the agent he employed was totally different from the magnetism of the loadstone; to distinguish it from which, he gave it the name of Animal Magnetism. The term, however, had been employed by several writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to designate almost the same thing; only Mesmer's pretensions were set forth with more care and more appearance of science-necessary in a more enlightened age. In a work which he published the year after his arrival at Paris, we find him thus explaining the supposed agent, which we have already seen him regarding as the magnetic matter of the loadstone.

'It is,' says he,' a fluid universally diffused; it is the medium of a mutual influence between the heavenly bodies, the earth and animated bodies; it is continuous so as to leave no void; its subtility admits of no comparison; it is capable of receiving, propagating, communicating all the impressions of motion; it is susceptible of flux and of reflux. The animal body experiences the effects of this agent; and it is by insinuating itself into the substance of the nerves that it affects them immediately. There are observed, particularly in the human body, properties analogous to those of the magnet'; and in it are discerned poles equally different and opposite. The action and the virtues of Animal Magnetism may be communicated from one body to other bodies, animate and inanimate. This action takes place at a remote distance, without the aid of any intermediate body; it is increased, reflected by mirrors; communicated, propagated, augmented by sound; its virtues may be accumulated, concentrated, transported.

H 2

transported. Although this fluid is universal, all animated bodies are not equally susceptible of it; there are even some, though a very small number, which have properties so opposite that their very presence destroys all the effects of this fluid on other bodies.

'Animal Magnetism is capable of healing diseases of the nerves immediately, and other diseases mediately. It perfects the action of medicines; it excites and directs salutary crises in such a manner, that the physician may render himself master of them; by its means he knows the state of health of each individual, and judges with certainty of the origin, the nature, and the progress of the most complicated diseases; he prevents their increase, and succeeds in healing them, without at any time exposing his patient to dangerous effects or troublesome consequences, whatever be the age, the temperament, and the sex.' (Mémoire sur la Découverte du Magnétisme Animal, par M. Mesmer. Paris, 1779. pp. 74, et seq.) In Animal Magnetism nature presents an universal method of healing and preserving mankind.' (Ibid. Avis au Lecteur, p. 6.)

After his arrival in Paris, Mesmer established public apartments for the treatment of such patients as chose to submit themselves to the influence of Animal Magnetism. These apartments were soon crowded with people of all ranks, from the peer to the peasant; and hundreds were ready to attest the cures he had performed upon them. He also succeeded in making a convert of M. d'Eslon, one of the members of the medical faculty, who publicly adopted and defended his opinions, though at the risk of being expelled by his fellow members. M. d'Eslon published a work, (Observations sur le Magnétisme Animal. Paris, 1780.) in which, without insisting on the theories of Mesmer, he attempted to show the value of Animal Magnetism in the treatment of diseases. By his advice, Mesmer challenged a comparative examination of the Faculty of Medicine; proposing to select twenty-four patients, twelve of which he would treat by Animal Magnetism, and leave the remaining twelve to the faculty to be treated by them according to their most appoved methods. He also stipulated that proper precautions should be taken to prevent subsequent disputes, and that persons, not of any medical body, chosen by Government, should be present at each comparative examination, and decide the result. He refused to permit any investigation into the nature of his proceedings, but only into their efficacy in the cure of disease. The medical faculty would not adopt this method, but insisted on examining how he performed his pretended cures ; and thus the proposal fell to the ground. Mesmer, indeed, seems never seriously to have wished to submit his pretensions to any examination of the medical faculty: their sanction was not necessary to him; his patients were ready to support his claims. He re