Part 2
1. That the touch frequently employed in his method for a considerable time, and on regions extremely sensible, such as those of the stomach, is of itself capable of producing effects, by communicating a vivid impulse to the nerves of the plexuses which are there situated, and which have an intimate connection with the whole nervous system; that authentic records present us with a great number of facts of this kind, and that in consequence, the sensations, which originate in the application of the touch, do not prove the existence of a separate fluid or agent.
2. That the heat produced by the hand, and the motion communicated to the air, may occasion very strong impressions upon a person extremely sensible, and whose fibres are in a state of convulsion, without these impressions being calculated to prove a new agent.
3. That in subduing the imagination by solemn preparations, by extraordinary proceedings, by the confidence and enthusiasm inspired by magnificent promises, it is possible to exalt the tone of sensible and nervous fibres, and afterwards to direct, by the application of the hands, their impulse towards certain organs, and to excite in them evacuations or excretions, without there resulting any addition to the sciences, either of philosophy or medicine.
4. That the partisans of the animal magnetism do not produce what they call crises, that is, a state of convulsions, but in subjects extremely irritable, extremely nervous, and above all, in women, whose sensibility has been already excited by the means we have described.
5. That among these disposing causes, particular stress is to be laid upon the presence of a person already in a state of convulsion, or ready to fall into that state; that just as an organ attacked with spasmodic affections, easily propagates these affections to the other organs, in like manner are they transmitted from one man to another; that we have therefore no reason to be surprised, if in the halls, where the pretended magnetical operations are performed, spasms, and even convulsions are diffused with extreme alacrity; and that history furnishes a great number of facts, of convulsions propagated through whole villages or towns, in a manner still more astonishing than that of which the animal magnetism presents us with an example.
6. That history has also transmitted to us a great number of cures operated by fear, by joy, or the commotion of any violent passion; which proves beyond controversy, the power of nervous influences over diseases.
7. That in different ages, two famous empirics, Valentine Greatrakes of the kingdom of Ireland, and Gassner of Ratisbon, produced upon different persons effects which appeared surprising, and have had their admirers; that they employed only the instrumentality of the touch, either upon the nape of the neck, or the limb affected; and that it has been universally acknowledged, that they acted only upon the imagination[5].
8. That in many instances, the partisans of the magnetism seem to bestow a greater attention to excite surprise in the spectators, than salutary effects in their patients; the spasms and convulsions which they produce being the source of undoubted evil, were it only by the habitude of that state which they are calculated to induce, while the advantages of this method are not equally demonstrated.
9. That certain local diseases not being of the number of those upon which the animal magnetism acts, and certain persons, by the confession of M. Mesmer, not being susceptible of its action, it may be suspected, that the partisans of this system have contrived for themselves this resource, in order to account for their failure of success in certain cases.
10. That to pretend to the discovery of a means which shall extend to every kind of disease, that is, to an universal medicine, is an illusion which cannot be excused in an enlightened age.
11. That the known effects of sensibility are sufficient to explain, without any new agent, the phenomena which M. Mesmer produces by a method which he has not yet imparted to the public.
12. That M. Mesmer, in supposing a particular agent, has adopted a rout contrary to the interests of his discovery, in following the example of those who have exerted their efforts to give credit to a system, worthy upon every account of the oblivion into which it has fallen.
The society may judge of the performance from this extract: it is proper here to call to mind, that the royal society, acquainted with the zeal of M. Thouret, and his indefatigable enquiries into every thing that concerned the magnetism, charged him in their session of the twelfth of March 1784, with the collection from the authors, as well ancient as modern, of all that had been written respecting the animal magnetism. This collection, which is sufficiently complete to satisfy every reasonable desire, and of which M. Thouret communicated the plan to the society, composes the first part of his work, and is to be considered as his report to the society upon that subject. We are of opinion, that the society is extremely indebted to him in that respect. The second part contains judicious reflections and sagacious doubts. We think both of them worthy of being printed with the approbation and privilege of the society.
The society, charged by the king with the examination of all new inventions and secret methods of healing diseases, has not beheld without inquietude, the species of vogue acquired by the animal magnetism; whose procedures, whatever be their merit, have been and are administered to the diseased, and paid for by the public, without having previously, in obedience to the express provisions of the laws of the kingdom, undergone the examination of the physical profession; an abuse, against which the society, as in duty bound, has exclaimed ever since its introduction. They have a right to take much pride to themselves, that one of their members is publishing so learned enquiries upon a subject, which has not been hitherto treated but in anonymous compositions, which are, for the greater part, destined more for the amusement than the instruction of their readers. The work of M. Thouret, full of depth and sagacity, will enlighten those who are impartial in their enquiries, and will greatly tend to the solution of a question, upon which the public interest requires that sentence should be pronounced as soon as possible.
Louvre, July the 9th, 1784.
(Signed) GEOFFROY, DESPERRIERES, JEANROI, DEFOURCROY, CHAMBON, VICQ D’AZYR.
REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS, &c.
The king named, on the twelfth of March 1784, four physicians of the faculty of Paris, messieurs Borie, Sallin, d’Arcet, Guillotin, to enter into the examination, and to lay before him an account of the animal magnetism practised by M. Deslon: and upon the petition of these physicians, his majesty joined with them, for the purpose of this inquisition, five members of the royal academy of sciences, messieurs Franklin, le Roy, Bailly, de Borie, Lavoisier. M. Borie having died in the commencement of the business, his majesty appointed M. Majault, doctor of the faculty, to replace him.
M. Mesmer has described the agent he professes to have discovered, and to which he has given the appellation of animal magnetism, in the following manner. “It is a fluid universally diffused; the vehicle of a mutual influence between the celestial bodies, the earth and the bodies of animated beings; it is so continued as to admit of no vacuum; its subtlety does not admit of illustration; it is capable of receiving, propagating and communicating all the impressions that are incident to motion; it is susceptible of flux and reflux. The animal body is subject to the effects of this agent; and these effects are immediately produced by the agent insinuating itself into the substance of the nerves. We particularly discover in the human body qualities analogous to those of the loadstone; we distinguish in it poles different and opposite. The action and the virtue of the animal magnetism are capable of being communicated from one body to another, animated or inanimate; they exert themselves to considerable distances, and without the least assistance from any intermediate bodies: this action is increased and reflected by mirrors; it is communicated, propagated and augmented by sound; and the virtue itself is capable of being accumulated, concentrated and transferred. Though the fluid be universal all animal bodies are not equally susceptible of it; there even are some, though very few, of so opposite a nature, as by their mere presence to supersede its effects upon any other contiguous bodies.
“The animal magnetism is capable of curing immediately diseases of the nerves, and mediately other distempers; it improves the action of medicines; it forwards and directs the salutary crises so as to subject them totally to the government of the judgment; by means of it the physician becomes acquainted with the state of health of each individual, and decides with certainty upon the causes, the nature and the progress of the most complicated distempers; it prevents their increase, and effects their extirpation, without at any time exposing the patient, whatever be his age, sex or constitution, to alarming incidents, or unpleasing consequences[6].” “In the influence of the magnetism, nature holds out to us a sovereign instrument for securing the health and lengthening the existence of mankind[7].”
Such is the agent, with the examination of which the commissioners have been charged, and whose properties are avowed by M. Deslon, who admits all the principles of M. Mesmer. This theory forms the basis of a memoir, which was read at the house of M. Deslon, on the ninth day of May, in the presence of M. the lieutenant general of the police, and the commissioners. It is asserted in this memoir, that there is but one nature, one distemper and one remedy; and this remedy is the animal magnetism. This physician, at the same time that he acquainted the commissioners with the doctrine and process of the magnetism, instructed them in its practice by discovering to them the poles, and shewing them the manner of touching the diseased, and directing in regard to them the magnetic fluid.
M. Deslon undertook to the commissioners, in the first place, to evince the existence of the animal magnetism; secondly, to communicate to them his knowledge respecting this discovery; and thirdly, to prove the utility of this discovery and of the animal magnetism in the cure of diseases.
After having thus made themselves acquainted with the theory and practice of the animal magnetism, it was necessary to observe its effects. For this purpose the commissioners adjourned themselves, and each of them repeatedly witnessed the public method of M. Deslon. They saw in the centre of a large apartment a circular box, made of oak, and about a foot or a foot and an half deep, which is called the bucket;[8] the lid of this box is pierced with a number of holes, in which are inserted branches of iron, elbowed and moveable. The patients are arranged in ranks about this bucket, and each has his branch of iron, which by means of the elbow may be applied immediately to the part affected; a cord passed round their bodies connects them one with the other: sometimes a second means of communication is introduced, by the insertion of the thumb of each patient between the forefinger and thumb of the patient next him; the thumb thus inserted is pressed by the person holding it; the impression received by the left hand of the patient, communicates through his right, and thus passes through the whole circle.
A piano forté is placed in one corner of the apartment, and different airs are played with various degrees of rapidity; vocal music is sometimes added to the instrumental.
The persons who superintend the process, have each of them an iron rod in his hand, from ten to twelve inches in length.
M. Deslon made to the commissioners the following declarations. 1st. That this rod is a conductor of the magnetism, has the power of concentring it at its point, and of rendering its emanations more considerable. 2dly. That sound, conformably to the theory of M. Mesmer, is also a conductor of the magnetism, and that to communicate the fluid to the piano forté, nothing more is necessary than to approach to it the iron rod; that the person who plays upon the instrument furnishes also a portion of the fluid, and that the magnetism is transmitted by the sounds to the surrounding patients. 3dly. That the cord which is passed round the bodies of the patients is destined, as well as the union of their fingers, to augment the effects by communication. 4thly. That the interior part of the bucket is so constructed as to concentre the magnetism, and is a grand reservoir, from which the fluid is diffused through the branches of iron that are inserted in its lid.
The commissioners in the progress of their examination discovered, by means of an electrometer and a needle of iron not touched with the loadstone, that the bucket contained no substance either electric or magnetical; and from the detail that M. Deslon has made to them respecting the interior construction of the bucket, they cannot infer any physical agent, capable of contributing to the imputed effects of the magnetism.
The patients then, arranged in considerable number and in successive ranks round the bucket, derive the magnetic virtue at once from all these conveyances: from the branches of iron, which transmit to them that of the bucket; from the cord which is passed round their bodies, and the union of their fingers, which communicate to them that of their neighbours; and from the sound of the piano forté, or of a musical voice, which diffuses it through the air. The patients are beside magnetised directly, by means of a finger or a bar of iron, guided before the face, above or behind the head, and over the surface of the parts affected, the distinction of the poles still observed; they are also acted upon by a look, and by having their attention excited. But especially they are magnetised by the application of the hands, and by the pressure of the fingers upon the hypochonders and the regions of the lower belly; an application frequently continued for a long time, sometimes for several hours.
In this situation the patients offer a spectacle extremely varied in proportion to their different habits of body. Some of them are calm, tranquil and unconscious to any sensation; others cough, spit, are affected with a slight degree of pain, a partial or an universal burning, and perspirations; a third class are agitated and tormented with convulsions. These convulsions are rendered extraordinary by their frequency, their violence and their duration. As soon as one person is convulsed, others presently are affected by that symptom. The commissioners saw accesses of this kind, which lasted upwards of three hours; they were accompanied with expectorations of a thick and viscous water, brought away by the violence of the efforts. Sometimes these expectorations were accompanied with small quantities of blood; and there is among others a lad, a patient, who has frequently brought up blood in considerable abundance. These convulsions are characterised by precipitate and involuntary motions of all the limbs or of the whole body, by a contraction of the throat, by sudden affections of the hypochonders and the epigastrium, by a distraction and wildness in the eyes, by shrieks, tears, hiccuppings, and immoderate laughter. They are either preceded or followed by a state of languor and reverie, by a species of dejection and even drowsiness. The least unforeseen noise occasions starting; and it has been observed, that the changing of the key and the time, in the airs played upon the piano forté, had an effect upon the patients; so that a quicker motion agitates them more, and renews the vivacity of their convulsions.
There is an apartment lined with quilting, which was originally destined for the patients in whom the magnetism produced convulsions, and is denominated the apartment of crises; but M. Deslon has not judged proper to make any use of it; and all the patients, whatever be the accidents of their situation, are placed together in the apartment of public proceeding.
Nothing can be more astonishing than the sight of these convulsions; he that has not had it, can have no idea of it: and in beholding it, a man is not less struck with the profound repose of one class of patients, than with the violence which agitates another; he observes with admiration the various accidents that are repeated, and the sympathies that are developed. He sees some patients seek each other with eagerness; and in approaching smile, converse with all the demonstrations of attachment, and soothe their mutual crises. They are entirely under the government of the person who distributes the magnetic virtue: in vain they may appear to be in a state of the extremest drowsiness, his voice, a look, a sign from him rouses them. It is impossible not to recognise in these regular effects an extraordinary influence, acting upon the patients, making itself master of them, and of which he who superintends the process, appears to be the depository.
These convulsive affections are improperly stiled crises in the theory of the animal magnetism: according to this doctrine indeed they are regarded as a salutary crisis, of the same kind as those which nature produces, or which a skilful physician has the art to excite to facilitate the cure of diseases. The commissioners will adopt this expression in the following report; and, wherever they employ the word crisis, they will always understand the convulsive, drowsy or lethargic affections, produced by the means of the animal magnetism.
The commissioners observed, that in the number of patients in the state of crisis, there were always many women and few men: that it was one or two hours before these crises took place; and that, when one had taken place, all the others commenced successively, and without any considerable interval. But after having made these general remarks, the commissioners were speedily of opinion, that the public process could not be made the scene of their experiments. The multiplicity of the effects is one obstacle; too many things are seen at once for any one of them to be seen well. Beside, the patients of rank, who repair hither upon account of their health, might be displeased with the enquiries of the commissioners; the very act of watching them might appear a nuisance; and the recollection of this might be burdensome, and impede the commissioners in their turn. They therefore resolved, that as their frequent attendance at the public process was unnecessary, it would be sufficient for a few of them to go from time to time, to confirm the former general observations, to make new ones in case an opportunity should occur for that purpose, and to report them to the commission assembled.
After having observed these effects at the public process, it behoved them, in the next place, to endeavour to discover their causes, and enquire into the proofs of the existence and utility of the magnetism. The question of its existence is first in order; that of its utility it were idle to examine, till the other shall have been fully resolved. The animal magnetism may indeed exist without being useful, but it cannot be useful if it do not exist.
Of consequence the first object of attention with the commissioners, and the direct tendency of their first experiments, ought to be the ascertaining this existence. Again, this was itself an object of considerable comprehension, and had need of being simplified. The animal magnetism embraces the whole compass of nature; it is the vehicle, we are told, of the influence exerted upon us by the celestial bodies; the commissioners were of opinion, that they ought, in the first place, to leave this more extensive influence out of the question, and to consider only that part of the fluid which is diffused over the earth, without troubling themselves with whence it comes; in a word, to evince the action it exercises upon us, around us, and within the sphere of our inspection, before they undertook to examine its relation to the universe.
The most certain method of determining the existence of the animal magnetic fluid, would have been, to have rendered its presence capable of being perceived by the senses; but much time was not necessary to convince the commissioners that this fluid is too subtle to be subjected to their observation. It is not, like the electrical fluid, luminous and visible; its action is not, like the attraction of the loadstone, the object of our sight; it has neither taste nor smell; its process is silent, and it surrounds you or penetrates your frame, without your being informed of its presence by the sense of touch. If therefore it exist in us and around us, it is after a manner perfectly insensible. There are persons among those who profess the magnetism, who pretend that it may sometimes be seen passing from the extremity of the fingers, which serve it for conductors, or who believe that they feel its passage when you guide your finger before their face, or along their hand. In the first of these cases, the emanation perceived is merely that of transpiration, which becomes completely visible when viewed through a solar microscope; in the second, the impression of cold or freshness which is felt, an impression by so much the more perceptible the warmer one is, results from the motion of the air which follows the finger, and the degree of whose temperature is always below that of animal heat. When, on the other hand, the finger is approached to the surface of the face, which is colder than the finger, and it is held at rest, the consequence is a sensation of heat, which is no other than the communication of the animal heat.
It is also pretended that this fluid has a smell, and that it is perceived when either the finger or an iron conductor is brought into contiguity with the nostrils; it is even said, that the sensation is different, according as the finger or the rod of iron is directed parallel with, or opposite to the poles. M. Deslon made the experiment upon several of the commissioners; the commissioners themselves have repeated it upon different subjects; not one has experienced this difference of sensation: and if, by giving a close attention, any scent has been perceived, it has been that of the iron, when the rod has been presented rubbed and heated; or that of the emanation of the transpiration, when the finger has been presented, a scent frequently combined with that of the iron with which the finger itself has been impressed. These effects have been erroneously attributed to the magnetism, but they may be traced in reality to natural and definite causes.