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Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions

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




Such was Animal Magnetism under the auspices of the Marquis de
Puysegur. While he was hibiting these fooleries around his elm-tree, a
magnetiser of another class appeared in Lyons, in the person of the
Chevalier de Barbarin. This person thought the effort of the will,
without any of the paraphernalia of wands or baquets, 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 M. de Puysegur. In the course of
time, a very considerable number of magnetisers, acknowledging
Barbarin for their model, and called after him Barbarinists, appeared
in different parts, and were believed to have effected some remarkable
cures. In Sweden and Germany, this sect of fanatics increased rapidly,
and were called spiritualists, to distinguish them from the followers
of M. de Puysegur, who were called experimentalists. They maintained
that all the effects of Animal Magnetism, which Mesmer believed to be
producible by a magnetic fluid dispersed through nature, were produced
by the mere effort of one human soul acting upon another; that when a
connexion had once been established between a magnetiser 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 the blessed state of a magnetic patient: -- "In such a man
animal instinct ascends to the highest degree admissible in this
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; he becomes a physician, a prophet, a
divine!" [See "Foreign Review, Continental Miscellany," vol. v. 113.]

Let us now see what progress these mysteries made in England. In
the year 1788, Dr. Mainauduc, who had been a pupil, first of Mesmer,
and afterwards of D'Eslon, 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 one hundred and twenty-seven, 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 baronets, seven members of parliament, one clergyman,
two physicians, seven surgeons, besides ninety-two 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 Hygeian Society. In this paper he vaunted 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 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 Hygeian Society, to be incorporated with that of
Paris. As soon as twenty ladies have given in their names, the day
shall be appointed for the first meeting at my house, when they are to
pay fifteen guineas, which will include the whole expense."

Hannah More, in a letter addressed to Horace Walpole, in September
1788, speaks of the "demoniacal mummeries" of Dr. Mainauduc, and says
he was in a fair way of gaining a hundred thousand pounds 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. Loutherbourg, the painter, and his
wife followed the same profitable trade; and such was the infatuation
of the people to be witnesses of their strange manipulations, that, at
times, upwards of three thousand persons crowded around their house at
Hammersmith, unable to gain admission. The tickets sold at prices
varying from one to three guineas. Loutherbourg performed his cures by
the touch, after the manner of Valentine Greatraks, 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. de Loutherbourg of Hammersmith Terrace,
without Medicine; by a Lover of the Lamb of God. Dedicated to his
Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury."

This "Lover of the Lamb of God" was a half-crazy old woman, named
Mary Pratt, who conceived for Mr. and Mrs. de Loutherbourg 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 wonder 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, De Loutherbourg and his wife had
cured two thousand people, "having been made proper recipients to
receive Divine manuductions; 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. de Loutherbourg, to
consult with them on the immediate erection of a large hospital, with
a pool of Bethesda attached to it. All the magnetisers were
scandalised at the preposterous jabber of this old woman, and De
Loutherbourg 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 deluded 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 doctrine 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 Leicestersquare, 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 into notice by
Father Hell, would cure gout, rheumatism, palsy, and in fact, almost
every disease the human frame was subject to, if applied 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 vaunting the curative effects of the
tractors, which were sold at five guineas the pair. Perkins gained
money rapidly. Gouty subjects forgot their pains in the presence of
this new remedy; the rheumatism fled at its approach; and toothache,
which is often cured by the mere sight of a dentist, vanished before
Perkins and his marvellous steel plates. The benevolent Quakers, 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 "Perkinean 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. Haygarth, 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's cures were too well
established to be doubted; and Dr. Haygarth, without gainsaying them,
quietly, but in the face of numerous witnesses, exposed the delusion
under which people laboured with respect to the curative medium. He
suggested to Dr. Falconer 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. Four 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 gout. On the day
appointed for the experiments, Dr. Haygarth 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 they were not only
relieved, but very much benefited. One 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
Infirmary, a few weeks afterwards, on a man who had a 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 stop-watch 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 a
coup de grace 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 Perkinean
Institution fell into neglect; and Perkins made his exit from England,
carrying with him about ten thousand pounds, 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 such puerilities. The "Societes
de l'Harmonie," of Strasburg, and other great towns, lingered for a
while, till sterner 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 bellies. Ignorant clodpoles, when once entranced
by the grand Mesmeric fluid, could spout philosophy diviner than Plato
ever wrote, descant 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 every-day
world by the roar of Napoleon's cannon and the fall or the
establishment of kingdoms. During this period, a cloud of obscurity
hung over the science, which was not dispersed until M. Deleuze
published, in 1813, his "Histoire Critique du Magnetisme Animal." This
work gave a new impulse to the half-forgotten delusion; newspapers,
pamphlets, and books again waged war upon each other on the 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 treatise of Deleuze are thus
summed up: [See the very calm, clear, and dispassionate article upon
the subject in the fifth volume (1830) of "The Foreign Review," page
96, et seq.] -- "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 absurdities were quite enough to be
insisted upon by any physician who wished to be considered sane, but
they only form a small portion of the wondrous things related by M.
Deleuze. 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 connexion, 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 wanders if
he is ill-directed."

According to M. Deleuze, 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 you are a
magnetiser after M. Deleuze's own heart.

Having brought yourself into this edifying state of fanaticism,
"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 till their 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
pass 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 may 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 women, 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 is 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? Every
unprejudiced person must answer in the negative. 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. It will be seen hereafter that
magnetism produces no effects but these two; that the gift of prophecy
- supernatural eloquence - the transfer of the senses, and the power
of seeing through opaque substances, are pure fictions, that cannot be
substantiated by anything like proof.

M. 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
"Annales du Magnetisme Animal;" and shortly afterwards appeared the
"Bibliotheque du Magnetisme Animal," and many others. About the same
time, the Abbe Faria, "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 the supposed fluid none, of the resuits so
confidently claimed as evidence of the new science. He placed his
patients in an arm-chair; told them to shut their eyes; and then, in a
loud commanding voice, pronounced the single word, "Sleep!" He used no
manipulations whatever -- had no baquet, 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 Abbe got out of the difficulty by dismissing him from the chair,
and declaring that he was incapable of being acted on. And here it
should be remarked that the magnetisers do not lay claim to a
universal efficacy for their fluid; the strong and the healthy cannot
be magnetised; the incredulous cannot be magnetised; those who reason
upon it 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 scorner or unbeliever may weaken the
potency of the fluid and destroy its efficacy. In M. Deleuze's
instructions to a magnetiser, he expressly says, "Never magnetise
before inquisitive persons!" ["Histoire Critique du Magnetisme
Animal," p. 60.] Yet the followers of this delusion claim for it the
rank of a science!

The numerous writings that appeared between the years 1813 and
1825 show how much attention was excited in France. With every
succeeding year some new discovery was put forth, until at last the
magnetisers seemed to be very generally agreed that there were six
separate and distinct degrees of magnetisation. They have been classed
as follow:-

In the first stage, the skin of the patient becomes slightly
reddened; and there is a feeling of heat, comfort, and lightness all
over the body; but there is no visible action on the senses.

In the second stage, the eye is gradually abstracted from the
dominion of the will (or, in other words, the patient becomes sleepy).
The drooping eyelids cannot be raised; the senses of hearing,
smelling, feeling, and tasting are more than usually excited. In
addition, a variety of nervous sensations are felt, such as spasms of
the muscles and prickings of the skin, and involuntary twitchings in
various parts of the body.

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