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Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions

C >> Charles Mackay >> Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions




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 Oesterline 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 Gassner, who, like Valentine Greatraks,
amused himself by casting out devils, and healing the sick by merely
laying hands upon them. At his approach puling girls fell into
convulsions, and the hypochondriac 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 Berne and
Zurich, and succeeded, according to his own account, but no other
person's, in curing an opththalmia and a gutta 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 Paradis, 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 Birth,
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. [An enthusiastic
philosopher, of whose name we are not informed, had constructed a very
satisfactory theory on some subject or other, and was not a little
proud of it. "But the facts, my dear fellow," said his friend, "the
facts do not agree with your theory." -- "Don't they," replied the
philosopher, shrugging his shoulders, "then, taut pis pour les faits;"
-- so much the worse for the facts.] He declared that there was a
conspiracy against him; and that Mademoiselle Paradis, 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 idle, 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. M. D'Eslon, 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 blossoms scented all the air of his corridors;
incense of the most expensive kinds burned in antique vases on his
chimney-pieces; aeolian 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. Wittitterley'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 debauchees,
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 baquet. From each hole issued a long
moveable rod of iron, which the patients were to apply to such parts
of their bodies as were afflicted. Around this baquet 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 finger-tips fresh
streams of the wondrous fluid. They embraced the patients 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 M. Dupotet, "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 Abbe Fiard, 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 M. D'Eslon, 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 St. 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 unfavourable 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
recognised 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 M.
D'Eslon, for the third and last time, to renounce the doctrine of
animal magnetism, or be expelled from their body. M. D'Eslon, so far
from doing this, declared that he had discovered new secrets, and
solicited further examination. A royal commission of the Faculty of
Medicine was, in consequence, appointed on the 12th of March 1784,
seconded by another commission of the Academie 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 Bailly, 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. M. D'Eslon 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.

Bailly 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 baquet, receive the magnetism
by all these means: by the iron rods which convey it to them from the
baquet -- 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 pianoforte, 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 hypochondres 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 their 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 characterized by the precipitous,
involuntary motion of all the limbs, and of the whole body: by the
construction of the throat -- by the leaping motions of the
hypochondria and the epigastrium -- by the dimness and wandering of
the eyes -- by piercing shrieks, tears, sobbing, and immoderate
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." [Rapport des Commissaires, redige par M. Bailly. --
Paris, 1784.]

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 Bergasse, 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 less a sum than one
hundred and forty thousand francs.

With this fortune he returned to Paris, and recommenced his
experiments, while the royal commission continued theirs. His admiring
pupils, who had paid him so handsomely for his instructions, spread
the delusion 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 notorious
libertines, who took that opportunity of gratifying their passions. An
illegal increase of the number of French citizens was anything but a
rare consequence in Strasburg, Nantes, Bourdeaux, Lyons, and other
towns, where these societies were established.

At last the Commissioners published their report, which was drawn
up by the illustrious and unfortunate Bailly. 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 three hundred and forty thousand
francs which had been subscribed by his admirers, and retired to his
own country, where he died in 1815, at the advanced age of eighty-one.
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 Puysegur and the Chevalier Barbarin, honest
men, who began by deceiving themselves before they deceived others.

The Marquis de Puysegur, the owner of a considerable estate at
Busancy, was one of those who had entered into the subscription for
Mesmer. After that individual had quitted France, he retired to
Busancy 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 Puysegur 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
communion with all nature, and more especially with him, M. de
Puysegur. 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
Greatraks, he found it hard work to magnetise all that came - that he
had not even time to take the repose and relaxation which were
necessary for his health. In this emergency he hit upon a clever
expedient. He had heard Mesmer 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 Busancy, under which the peasant girls used to dance on festive
occasions, and the old men to sit, drinking their vin du pays on the
fine summer evenings. M. de Puysegur 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 toward the trunk, and from the trunk toward
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 Puysegur had now 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, "If you do not come, my
dear friend, you will not see my extraordinary man, for his health is
now almost quite restored. I continue to make use of the happy power
for which I am indebted to M. Mesmer. Every day I bless his name; for
I am very useful, and produce many salutary effects on all the sick
poor in the neighbourhood. They flock around my tree; there were more
than one hundred and thirty of them this morning. It is the best
baquet 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 every one; 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 clearsighted (clairvoyant) than he is."

In another letter, describing his first experiment with the
magnetic tree, he says, "Yester 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 somnambulism. 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 down stairs and
walked to the tree. To-day 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 Puysegur, the friends
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 descants still more poetically upon his
gardener with the enlarged soul. He says, "It is from this simple man,
this tall and stout rustic, twenty-three years of age, enfeebled by
disease, or rather by sorrow, and therefore the more predisposed to be
affected by any great natural agent, -- it is from this man, I repeat,
that I derive instruction and knowledge. When in the magnetic state,
he is no longer a peasant who can hardly utter a single sentence; he
is a being, to describe whom I cannot find a name. I need not speak; I
have only to think before him, when he instantly understands and
answers me. Should anybody come into the room, he sees him, if I
desire it (but not else), and addresses him, and says what I wish him
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 of his conversation in the
middle of a word, and give it quite a different turn!"

Among other persons attracted to Busancy by the report of these
extraordinary occurrences was M. Cloquet, the Receiver of Finance. His
appetite for the marvellous being somewhat insatiable, he readily
believed all that was told him by M. de Puysegur. 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. ["Introduction to the
Study of Animal Magnetism," by Baron Dupotet, p. 73.] He says that the
patients 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 patients were
closed; the sense of hearing was abolished, and they awoke only at the
voice of their magnetiser. "If any one touched a patient during a
crisis, or even the chair on which he was seated," says M. Cloquet,
"it would cause him much pain and suffering, and throw him into
convulsions. During the crisis, they possess an extraordinary and
supernatural power, by which, on touching a patient presented 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.

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