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Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions

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




In the third stage, which is that of magnetic sleep, all the
senses are closed to external impressions; and sometimes fainting, and
cataleptic or apoplectic attacks may occur.

In the fourth stage, the patient is asleep to all the world; but
he is awake within his own body, and consciousness returns. While in
this state, all his senses are transferred to the skin. He is in the
perfect crisis, or magnetic somnambulism; a being of soul and mind --
seeing without eyes -- hearing without ears, and deadened in body to
all sense of feeling.

In the fifth stage, which is that of lucid vision, the patient can
see his own internal organisation, or that of others placed in
magnetic communication with him. He becomes, at the same time,
possessed of the instinct of remedies. The magnetic fluid, in this
stage, unites him by powerful attraction to others, and establishes
between them an impenetration of thought and feeling so intense as to
blend their different natures into one.

In the sixth stage, which is at the same time the rarest and the
most perfect of all, the lucid vision is not obstructed by opaque
matter, or subject to any barriers interposed by time or space. The
magnetic fluid, which is universally spread in nature, unites the
individual with all nature, and gives him cognizance of coming events
by its universal lucidity.

So much was said and written between the years 1820 and 1825, and
so many converts were made, that the magnetisers became clamorous for
a new investigation. M. de Foissac, a young physician, wrote to the
Academie Royale du Medicine a letter, calling for inquiry, in which he
complained of the unfairness of the report of Messrs. Bailly and
Franklin in 1784, and stating that, since that time, the science had
wholly changed by the important discovery of magnetic somnambulism. He
informed the Academy that he had under his care a young woman, whose
powers of divination when in the somnambulic state were of the most
extraordinary character. He invited the members of that body to go
into any hospital, and choose persons afflicted with any diseases,
acute or chronic, simple or complex, and his somnambulist, on being
put en rapport, or in magnetic connexion, with them, would infallibly
point out their ailings and name the remedies. She, and other
somnambulists, he said, could, by merely laying the hand successively
on the head, the chest, and the abdomen of a stranger, immediately
discover his maladies, with, the pains and different alterations
thereby occasioned. They could indicate, besides, whether the cure
were possible, and, if so, whether it were easy or difficult, near or
remote, and what means should be employed to attain this result by the
surest and readiest way. In this examination they never departed from
the sound principles of medicine. "In fact," added M. de Foissac, "I
go further, and assert that their inspirations are allied to the
genius which animated Hippocrates!"

In the mean time experiments were carried on in various hospitals
of Paris. The epileptic patients at the Salpetriere were magnetised by
permission of M. Esquirol. At the Bicetre also the same resuits were
obtained. M. de Foissac busied himself with the invalids at the
Hospice de la Charite, and M. Dupotet was equally successful in
producing sleep or convulsions at Val de Grace. Many members of the
Chamber of Deputies became converts, and M. Chardel, the Comte de
Gestas, M. de Laseases, and others, opened their saloons to those who
were desirous of being instructed in animal magnetism. [Dupotet's
Introduction to the Study of Animal Magnetism, page 23.] Other
physicians united with M. de Foissac in calling for an inquiry; and
ultimately the Academy nominated a preliminary committee of five of
its members, namely, Messrs Adelon, Burdin, Marc, Pariset, and Husson,
to investigate the alleged facts, and to report whether the Academy,
without any compromise of its dignity, could appoint a new commission.

Before this committee, M. de Foissac produced his famous
somnambulist; but she failed in exhibiting any one of the phenomena
her physician had so confidently predicted: she was easily thrown into
the state of sleep, by long habit and the monotony of the passes and
manipulations of her magnetiser; but she could not tell the diseases
of persons put en rapport with her. The committee of five framed
excuses for this failure, by saying, that probably the magnetic fluid
was obstructed, because they were "inexperienced, distrustful, and
perhaps impatient." After this, what can be said for the judgment or
the impartiality of such a committee? They gave at last their opinion,
that it would be advisable to appoint a new commission. On the 13th of
December 1825, they presented themselves to the Academie to deliver
their report. A debate ensued, which occupied three days, and in which
all the most distinguished members took part. It was finally decided
by a majority of ten, that the commission should be appointed, and the
following physicians were chosen its members:-- They were eleven in
number, viz. Bourdois de la Motte, the President; Fouquier, Gueneau de
Mussy, Guersent, Husson, Itard, Marc, J. J. Leroux, Thillay, Double,
and Majendie.

These gentlemen began their labours by publishing an address to
all magnetisers, inviting them to come forward and exhibit in their
presence the wonders of animal magnetism. M. Dupotet says that very
few answered this amicable appeal, because they were afraid of being
ridiculed when the report should be published. Four magnetisers,
however, answered their appeal readily, and for five years were busily
engaged in bringing proofs of the new science before the commission.
These were M. de Foissac, M. Dupotet, M. Chapelain, and M. de Geslin.
It would be but an unprofitable, and by no means a pleasant task to
follow the commissioners in their erratic career, as they were led
hither and thither by the four lights of magnetism above mentioned;
the four "Wills-o'-the-Wisp" which dazzled the benighted and
bewildered doctors on that wide and shadowy region of metaphysical
inquiry -- the influence of mind over matter. It will be better to
state at once the conclusion they came to after so long and laborious
an investigation, and then examine whether they were warranted in it
by the evidence brought before them.

The report, which is exceedingly voluminous, is classed under
thirty different heads, and its general tenor is favourable to
magnetism. The reporters expressly state their belief in the existence
of the magnetic fluid, and sum up the result of their inquiries in the
four assertions which follow:--

1. Magnetism has no effect upon persons in a sound state of
health, nor upon some diseased persons.

2. In others its effects are slight.

3. These effects are sometimes produced by weariness or ennui, by
monotony, and by the imagination.

4. We have seen these effects developed independently of the last
causes, most probably as the effects of magnetism alone.

It will be seen that the first and second of these sentences
presuppose the existence of that magnetic power, which it is the
object of the inquiry to discover. The reporters begin, by saying,
that magnetism exists, when after detailing their proofs, they should
have ended by affirming it. For the sake of lucidity, a favourite
expression of their own, let us put the propositions into a new form
and new words, without altering the sense.

1. Certain effects, such as convulsions, somnambulism, &c. are
producible in the human frame, by the will of others, by the will of
the patient himself, or by both combined, or by some unknown means, we
wish to discover, perhaps by magnetism.

2. These effects are not producible upon all bodies. They cannot
be produced upon persons in a sound state of health, nor upon some
diseased persons; while in other eases, the effects are very slight.

3. These effects were produced in many cases that fell under our
notice, in which the persons operated on were in a weak state of
health, by weariness or ennui, by monotony, and by the power of
imagination.

4. But in many other eases these effects were produced, and were
clearly not the result of weariness or ennui, of monotony, or of the
power of the imagination. They were, therefore, produced by the
magnetic processes we employed: -- ergo -- Animal Magnetism exists.

Every one, whether a believer or disbeliever in the doctrine, must
see that the whole gist of the argument will be destroyed, if it be
proved that the effects which the reporters claimed as resulting from
a power independent of weariness, monotony, and the imagination, did,
in fact, result from them, and from nothing else. The following are
among the proofs brought forward to support the existence of the
magnetic fluid, as producing those phenomena:--

"A child, twenty-eight months old, was magnetised by M. Foissac,
at the house of M. Bourdois. The child, as well as its father, was
subject to attacks of epilepsy. Almost immediately after M. Foissac
had begun his manipulations and passes, the child rubbed its eyes,
bent its head to one side, supported it on one of the cushions of the
sofa where it was sitting, yawned, moved itself about, scratched its
head and its ears, appeared to strive against the approach of sleep,
and then rose, if we may be allowed the expression, grumbling. Being
taken away to satisfy a necessity of nature, it was again placed on
the sofa, and magnetised for a few moments. But as there appeared no
decided symptoms of somnolency this time, we terminated the
experiment."

And this in all seriousness and sobriety was called a proof of the
existence of the magnetic fluid! That these effects were not produced
by the imagination may be granted; but that they were not produced by
weariness and monotony is not so clear. A child is seated upon a sofa,
a solemn looking gentleman, surrounded by several others equally
grave, begins to play various strange antics before it, moving his
hands mysteriously, pointing at his head, all the while preserving a
most provoking silence. And what does the child? It rubs its eyes,
appears restless, yawns, scratches its head, grumbles, and makes an
excuse to get away. Magnetism, forsooth! 'Twas a decided case of
botheration!

The next proof (so called), though not so amusing, is equally
decisive of the mystification of the Commissioners. A deaf and dumb
lad, eighteen years of age, and subject to attacks of epilepsy, was
magnetised fifteen times by M. Foissac. The phenomena exhibited during
the treatment were a heaviness of the eyelids, a general numbness, a
desire to sleep, and sometimes vertigo:-- the epileptic attacks were
entirely suspended, and did not return till eight months afterwards.
Upon this case and the first mentioned, the Committee reasoned thus:--
"These cases appear to us altogether worthy of remark. The two
individuals who formed the subject of the experiment, were ignorant of
what was done to them. The one, indeed, was not in a state capable of
knowing it; and the other never had the slightest idea of magnetism.
Both, however, were insensible of its influence; and most certainly it
is impossible in either case to attribute this sensibility to the
imagination." The first case has been already disposed of. With regard
to the second, it is very possible to attribute all the results to
imagination. It cannot be contended, that because the lad was deaf and
dumb he had no understanding, that he could not see the strange
manipulations of the magnetiser, and that he was unaware that his cure
was the object of the experiments that were thus made upon him. Had he
no fancy merely because he was dumb? and could he, for the same
reason, avoid feeling a heaviness in his eyelids, a numbness, and a
sleepiness, when he was forced to sit for two or three hours while M.
Foissac pointed his fingers at him? As for the amelioration in his
health, no argument can be adduced to prove that he was devoid of
faith in the remedy; and that, having faith, he should not feel the
benefit of it as well as thousands of others who have been cured by
means wholly as imaginary.

The third case is brought forward with a still greater show of
authority. Having magnetised the child and the dumb youth with results
so extraordinary, M. Foissac next tried his hand upon a Commissioner.
M. Itard was subjected to a course of manipulations; the consequences
were a flow of saliva, a metallic savour in the mouth, and a severe
headach. These symptoms, say the reporters, cannot be accounted for by
the influence of imagination. M. Itard, it should be remarked, was a
confirmed valetudinarian; and a believer, before the investigation
commenced, in the truth of magnetism. He was a man, therefore, whose
testimony cannot be received with implicit credence upon this subject.
He may have repeated, and so may his brother Commissioners, that the
results above stated were not produced by the power of the
imagination. The patients of Perkins, of Valentine Greatraks, of Sir
Kenelm Digby, of Father Gassner, were all equally positive: but what
availed their assertions? Experience soon made it manifest, that no
other power than that of imagination worked the wonders in their case.
M. Itard's is not half so extraordinary; the only wonder is, that it
should ever have been insisted upon.

The Commissioners having, as they thought, established beyond
doubt the existence of the magnetic fluid, (and these are all their
proofs,) next proceeded to investigate the more marvellous phenomena
of the science; such as the transfer of the senses; the capability of
seeing into one's own or other people's insides, and of divining
remedies; and the power of prophecy. A few examples will suffice.

M. Petit was magnetised by M. Dupotet, who asserted that the
somnambulist would be able to choose, with his eyes shut, a mesmerised
coin out of twelve others. The experiment was tried, and the
somnambulist chose the wrong one. [Report of the Commissioners, p.
153.]

Baptiste Chamet was also magnetised by M. Dupotet, and fell into
the somnambulic state after eight minutes. As he appeared to be
suffering great pain, he was asked what ailed him, when he pointed to
his breast, and said he felt pain there. Being asked what part of his
body that was, he said his liver. [Ibid, p. 137.]

Mademoiselle Martineau was magnetised by M. Dupotet, and it was
expected that her case would prove not only the transfer of the
senses, but the power of divining remedies. Her eyes having been
bandaged, she was asked if she could not see all the persons present?
She replied, no; but she could hear them talking. No one was speaking
at the time. She said she would awake after five or ten minutes sleep.
She did not awake for sixteen or seventeen minutes. She announced that
on a certain day she would be able to tell exactly the nature of her
complaint, and prescribe the proper remedies. On the appointed day she
was asked the question, and could not answer. [Report of the
Commissioners, p. 139.]

Mademoiselle Couturier, a patient of M. de Geslin, was thrown into
the state of somnambulism, and M. de Geslin said she would execute his
mental orders. One of the Committee then wrote on a slip of paper the
words "Go and sit down on the stool in front of the piano." He handed
the paper to M. de Geslin, who having conceived the words mentally,
turned to his patient, and told her to do as he required of her. She
rose up, went to the clock, and said it was twenty minutes past nine.
She was tried nine times more, and made as many mistakes. [Idem, p.
139.]

Pierre Cazot was an epileptic patient, and was said to have the
power of prophecy. Being magnetised on the 22nd of April, he said that
in nine weeks he should have a fit, in three weeks afterwards go mad,
abuse his wife, murder some one, and finally recover in the month of
August. After which he should never have an attack again. [Idem, p.
180] In two days after uttering this prophecy, he was run over by a
cabriolet and killed. [Foreign Quarterly Review, vol. xii. p. 439] A
post mortem examination was made of his body, when it was ascertained
beyond doubt, that even had he not met with this accident, he could
never have recovered. [At the extremity of the plexus choroides was
found a substance, yellow within, and white without, containing small
hydatids. -- Report oltre Commissioners, p. 186.]

The inquest which had been the means of eliciting these, along
with many other facts, having sat for upwards of five years, the
magnetisers became anxious that the report should be received by the
solemn conclave of the Academie. At length a day (the 20th of June
1831) was fixed for the reading. All the doctors of Paris thronged
around the hall to learn the result; the street in front of the
building was crowded with medical students; the passages were
obstructed by philosophers. "So great was the sensation," says M.
Dupotet, "that it might have been supposed the fate of the nation
depended on the result." M. Husson, the reporter, appeared at the bar
and read the report, the substance of which we have just extracted. He
was heard at first with great attention, but as he proceeded signs of
impatience and dissent were manifested on all sides. The unreasonable
inferences of the Commissioners -- their false conclusions - their too
positive assertions, were received with repeated marks of
disapprobation. Some of the academicians started from their seats, and
apostrophising the Commissioners, accused them of partiality or
stolidity. The Commissioners replied; until, at last, the uproar
became so violent that an adjournment of the sitting was moved and
carried. On the following day the report was concluded. A stormy
discussion immediately ensued, which certainly reflected no credit
upon the opponents of Animal Magnetism. Both sides lost temper - the
anti-magnetists declaring that the whole was a fraud and a delusion;
the pro-magnetists reminding the Academy that it was too often the
fate of truth to be scorned and disregarded for a while, but that
eventually her cause would triumph. "We do not care for your
disbelief," cried one, "for in this very hall your predecessors denied
the circulation of the blood!" - "Yes," cried another, "and they
denied the falling of meteoric stones!" while a third exclaimed
"Grande est veritas et praevalebit!" Some degree of order being at
last restored, the question whether the report should be received and
published was decided in the negative. It was afterwards agreed that a
limited number of copies should be lithographed, for the private use
of such members as wished to make further examination.

As might have been expected, magnetism did not suffer from a
discussion which its opponents had conducted with so much
intemperance. The followers of magnetism were as loud as ever in
vaunting its efficacy as a cure, and its value, not only to the
science of medicine, but to philosophy in general. By force of
repeated outcries against the decision of the Academie, and assertions
that new facts were discovered day after day, its friends, six years
afterwards, prevailed upon that learned and influential body to
institute another inquiry. The Academie, in thus consenting to renew
the investigation after it had twice solemnly decided (once in
conjunction with, and once in opposition to a committee of its own
appointment) that Animal Magnetism was a fraud or a chimera, gave the
most striking proof of its own impartiality and sincere desire to
arrive at the truth.

The new Commission was composed of M. Roux, the President; and
Messieurs Bouillard, Cloquet, Emery, Pelletier, Caventon, Oudet,
Cornac, and Dubois d'Amiens. The chief magnetiser upon the occasion
was M. Berna, who had written to the Academie on the 12th of February
1837, offering to bring forward the most convincing proofs of the
truth of the new "science." The Commissioners met for the first time
on the 27th of February, and delivered their report, which was drawn
up by M. Dubois d'Amiens, on the 22nd of August following. After a
careful examination of all the evidence, they decided, as Messieurs
Bailly and Franklin had done in 1784, that the touchings, imagination,
and the force of imitation would account satisfactorily for all the
phenomena; that the supposed Mesmeric fluid would not; that M. Berna,
the magnetiser, laboured under a delusion; and that the facts brought under their notice were anything but conclusive in favour of the doctrine of Animal Magnetism, and could have no relation either with physiology or with therapeutics.

The following abridgment of the report will show that the
Commissioners did not thus decide without abundant reason. On the 3rd
of March they met at the house of M. Roux, the President, when M.
Berna introduced his patient, a young girl of seventeen, of a
constitution apparently nervous and delicate, but with an air
sufficiently cool and self-sufficient. M. Berna offered eight proofs
of Animal Magnetism, which he would elicit in her case, and which he
classed as follow:--

1. He would throw her into the state of somnambulism.

2. He would render her quite insensible to bodily pain.

3. He would restore her to sensibility by his mere will, without
any visible or audible manifestation of it.

4. His mental order should deprive her of motion.

5. He would cause her, by a mental order, to cease answering in
the midst of a conversation, and by a second mental order would make
her begin again.

6. He would repeat the same experiment, separated from his patient
by a door.

7. He would awake her.

8. He would throw her again into the somnambulic state, and by his
will successively cause her to lose and recover the sensibility of any
part of her body.

Before any attempt at magnetisation was made by M. Berna, the
Commissioners determined to ascertain how far, in her ordinary state,
she was sensible to pricking. Needles of a moderate size were stuck
into her hands and neck, to the depth of half a line, and she was
asked by Messieurs Roux and Caventon whether she felt any pain. She
replied that she felt nothing; neither did her countenance express any
pain. The Commissioners, somewhat surprised at this, repeated their
question, and inquired whether she was absolutely insensible. Being
thus pressed, she acknowledged that she felt a little pain.

These preliminaries having been completed, M. Berna made her sit
close by him. He looked steadfastly at her, but made no movements or
passes whatever. After the lapse of about two minutes she fell back
asleep, and M. Berna told the Commissioners that she was now in the
state of magnetic somnambulism. He then arose, and again looking
steadfastly at her from a short distance, declared, after another
minute, that she was struck with general insensibility.

To ascertain this, the girl's eyes having been previously
bandaged, Messieurs Bouillard, Emery, and Dubois pricked her one after
the other with needles. By word she complained of no pain; and her
features, where the bandage allowed them to be seen, appeared calm and
unmoved. But M. Dubois having stuck his needle rather deep under her
chin, she immediately made with much vivacity a movement of
deglutition.

This experiment having failed, M. Berna tried another, saying that
he would, by the sole and tacit intervention of his will, paralyze any
part of the girl's body the Commissioners might mention. To avoid the
possibility of collusion, M. Dubois drew up the following
conditions:-- " That M. Berna should maintain the most perfect
silence, and should receive from the hands of the Commissioners
papers, on which should be written the parts to be deprived of motion
and sensibility, and that M. Berna should let them know when he had
done it by closing one of his eyes, that they might verify it. The
parts to be deprived of sensibility were the chin, the right thumb,
the region of the left deltoid, and that of the right patella." M.
Berna would not accept these conditions, giving for his reason that
the parts pointed out by the Commissioners were too limited; that,
besides, all this was out of his programme, and he did not understand
why such precautions should be taken against him.

M. Berna had written in his programme that he would deprive the
whole body of sensibility, and then a part only. He would afterwards
deprive the two arms of motion -- then the two legs -- then a leg and
an arm - then the neck, and lastly the tongue. All the evidence he
wished the Commissioners to have was after a very unsatisfactory
fashion. He would tell the somnambulist to raise her arm, and if she
did not raise it, the limb was to be considered paralyzed. Besides
this, the Commissioners were to make haste with their observations. If
the first trials did not succeed, they were to be repeated till
paralysis was produced. "These," as the Commissioners very justly
remarked, "were not such conditions as men of science, who were to
give an account of their commission, could exactly comply with." After
some time spent in a friendly discussion of the point, M. Berna said
he could do no more at that meeting. Then placing himself opposite the
girl, he twice exclaimed, "Wake!" She awakened accordingly, and the
sitting terminated.

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