The two sides differently susceptible in some patients. 25

put a charged sovereign into the hand of the younger. Her hand began to contract, and she could not by any effort open it. She was

very cross, and seeing two rods exactly alike, took up one, thinking it was iron; and told me now she was a match for me and would open her hand. But her hand would not open. I then went to look at the other rod, and found that it was the iron rod, and that she had taken the leaden. I pulled the leaden one out, and introduced the iron one between the fingers and palm, and her hand immediately opened."

"I have mesmerised a sovereign_without the knowledge of the Okeys, and placed other unmesmerised sovereigns upon it, and a finger of one sister upon the last of them, and the effect has always at length come. When an unmesmerised roll of sovereigns has long lain in Mary Ann's hand without increase of effect, I have put my finger on the highest, and the effect, presently became great."

Before Reichenbach had published, the same English writer had noticed a difference of the two sides in one of his patients.

"I have a patient who in his deep sleep-waking would never allow one of his hands to be put in contact with the other, or with any part of the opposite half of his body, but moved it away very angrily. Neither would he allow my right hand to touch his left, or any part of the right half of my frame to touch his left half, or the converse. In Vol. II., p. 215, I said, 'As a further illustration of occult property in the mesmeric state, I have a patient who, in his silent sleep, with his eyes perfectly closed, and any thickness of cloth thrown over his head and chest and drawn close round him, is instantly distressed beyond measure by a piece of gold placed upon the back of his hand after lying in the hand of another person, but not at all if it has been taken from my hand. Any one with gloves on makes the experiment, placing the sovereign first on my hand or the hand of another at pleasure, in every succession and with as many repetitions as are thought proper. Nay, if the gold is taken off my right hand and placed upon his left, or off my left and placed upon his right, he is distressed, and shakes it off, and, if it is placed in his palm, violent spasm of the hand occurs; though he expressed no uneasiness when it is taken from my right and placed in his right or from my left and placed upon his left. Neither temperature nor anything but occult property can explain these wonderful facts.' If while his right hand was holding my right hand tightly, I touched any part of his left half or my left half with even one finger, he instantly let my hand go angrily, just as he did if I touched another person with it; and when ordinary occular knowledge was an impossibility. He is a high-minded, modest youth, disdaining all affectation and artifice."

In No. XXXIX., p. 356, will be found the following passages. Six pages are most interesting.

26

Petetin's experiments early in this century.

"Dr. Petetin noticed facts recently communicated to the world by Reichenbach. In speaking of one of his patients he says:

"I had a magnetized steel bar in my pocket, capable of being entirely hidden by my hand. I approached the patient (in one of her cataleptic attacks) and, after having bent one of her hands in order that she might hear me (this patient seemed to hear only when words were whispered at the ends of her fingers), I turned the hand and presented the south pole at the distance of three or four inches from the pit of her stomach: her countenance changed immediately. I asked at the ends of her fingers how she felt? Better in regard to my stomach; but I warn you that unless you devise some means to moderate the next paroxysm, which will begin half an hour sooner than usual, I shall die.' In what respect do you feel better in the stomach ?' In a pleasant sensation produced by luminous fluid which escapes from the iron you are holding, and which penetrates into my stomach.' I turned my hand and presented the north pole. The patient instantly shrieked, and fell into convulsions, which obliged me to change the pole without delay: and, when they had ceased, I asked her the cause of them. I entreat you not to point the end of this iron to my stomach: the flame which proceeds from it is much too active: but the other is as beneficial as this is injurious to me.' I satisfied the impatience of my colleagues and the bystanders by letting them see the magnet: and they were struck as much as myself with this new prodigy. I say new, because I had never before thought of trying the magnet with this patient.

"I begged her to attend to the fingers which I held at a little distance from her stomach, and say whether she saw light proceed from them also. She said, 'Yes, but with this difference, that the light was weaker and did not produce the same effect upon her stomach.'

Practitioners, upon whom we can rely, declare that the magnet is useful in nervous diseases: but what nervous diseases, the degree of strength which it should possess, and the method of employing it, are not yet well enough known for us to employ it in difficult and urgent cases.'-pp. 245-7." (Electricité Animale. 1808.)

Our experiments made with magnets subsequently in consequence of our becoming acquainted with Reichenbach's writings will be found in Vol. IV., from p. 277 to p. 284.

"Both my present patients followed the magnet with their hand, as a piece of iron would, and adhered to it as closely as possible. On being asked why they did so, their reply was that they did not know they could not help it. The action was not regular like that of a needle following a magnet, but irregular, like that of a person striving to keep close to and up with another. Baron R. is correct in considering this to be no magnetism. It is evidently a willed action; an involuntary, forced willing. The patient has a pleasant sensation, and finds the inclination to touch the magnet irresistible. The movements produced by traction, even when they vex the pa

The invention of the Minié rifle.

27

tient, are equally willed, although by compulsion (see Vol II., p. 58, 204.) Although the magnet produced these effects upon Baron R.'s patients even when apparently insensible, the sleep of sleepwaking, which was their state, is seldom so deep but that certain influences, different in different cases, are felt, and, if there be strength enough, some active voluntary sign of the influence manifested. The brains of his patients in the deep sleep no doubt felt the influence of the magnet, and unconsciously and involuntarily willed movements towards it. When patients' eyes are open in their mesmeric state and they see, some roll them involuntarily rapidly from side to side, upwards or downwards, just as a prism, or piece of wood, &c., is moved." When the hand was contracted by the magnet applied to the palm, I opened it by applying the magnet to its back; and it was rigidly opened."

To shew how averse we have been from speculating and dreaming, we will quote the English physician's words from our Fourth Volume:

"That there was a distinct power for which I adopted the term mesmerism, after finding it used by Mr. Chenevix, but whether invented or not by him I knew not, I was satisfied; and stated this in my demonstrations at University College Hospital in 1838, and subsequently in my own house. I also declared I could discover no grounds for supposing it identical with electricity or magnetism, and therefore preferred an arbitrary name to one which implied a speculation. I never ventured to call it an imponderable, because I did not know whether there are any imponderable bodies. I invariably called it a power, force or influence, expressing a mere fact-the existence of a certan power in animal bodies, both human and brute; and of its existence in the latter, I gave sufficient proofs. But whether this was a property of the forms and states of matter with which we are acquainted, or of a peculiar matter, I never ventured to determine; its existence in animal bodies being the fact, it having a peculiar matter imponderable and subtle being a mere speculation and fancy. I always gave ample proofs of its communicability to inanimate matter, by the mesmerisation of metals, water, &c.: its gradual wasting again its transmission through substances transparent and opaque."

II. Instances of great benefit from Mesmerism in Typhus Fever, Dysenteric Diarrhoea, violent Pains of the Bowels, severe suffering in Pregnancy, After-pains, Congenital Deformity of the Foot, severe cut in the Face, and Chronic Abscess. By JOHN BATTISHILL PARKER, Esq., Surgeon, Exeter.

"The idea of attempting improvements in fire-arms had struck him many years ago. He had begun by learning particulars of everything that had been already done. He also learned all the details of the gunmaker's trade: he be

28

Archbishop of Dublin's late sermon.

came a working man, able to carry out his own ideas. He could fashion every part of a rifle. He thus obtained a thorough knowledge of his business. He had not always studied under favourable circumstances. In explanation of this remark, I may add, from authentic information which I have obtained, that M. Minie's study of fire-arms almost cost him his position in the army during the reign of Louis Philippe. His dismissal from the service was actually signed when the Duke of Montpensier, who lived at Vincennes, interceded (to his honour be it said), and obtained the revocation of this most disgraceful act of tyranny. Innovations in France, as in other countries, seldom bring profit to the innovators. Officials hate to be disturbed from their old routine. The man with an idea is avoided, rather than courted. The army did very well, he would be told, for instance, with the old musket. Austerlitz was fought with flint and steel. It is very probable that in certain military circles the percussion-cap is hardly regarded with a friendly eye even now. Some men fall into routine, as horses fall in with the monotony of a water-wheel; the former do their work blindfold like the latter. Unhappy, therefore, is the humble member of a corps who suggests an improvement. Routine will surely prick up its length of ears, and aim the proverbial force of its asinine hoofs at him. M. Minié began his useful work in times of peace, while France was governed by a crowned caroteur: while traiteurs were ruining themselves by serving the royal table at so much per head; while France was regarded at the Tuilleries as an Orleanist domain hardly large enough to satisfy the reasonable wants of a very numerous family— when improvements in the machinery of war were disregarded as a matter of course. We were all going to turn swords into sickles-cannon into metal monuments to Quakers! Almost hopelessly must Minié have worked on at Vincennes, while in Paris Victor Hugo and his English friends were pelting one another with olives. Yet while war must be, unwise are the governments that disregard the labours of a Minié. In that little work-room of his-within the shadow of the grim tower whence the spirit of Mirabeau looks down upon his labours-the modest Chef du Tir has done brave work in his generation. He has given double strength to the armies of his country. The extent of his sacrifices and of his perseverance was described, not in a studied narrative, but in little detached bits of gossip, generally referring more to the progress of the science of warfare generally than to himself."-DAILY NEWS, Feb. 2. account of a visit to M. Minié, the inventor of the Minié rifle, by W. B. J.

An

THE progress of our cause is most cheering. Converts are daily added to our lists, and bodily sufferings in many cases overcome the strongest opposition to the use of mesmerism : however, there are many persons who take every opportunity of denouncing it, no matter how ignorant they may be of the subject. I have often wished that the excellent sermon preached by the Archbishop of Dublin at Liverpool during the late assembling of the British Association could be extensively circulated and read. Dr. Whately animadverts on the persecutions which are being carried on for differences of opinion on religious beliefs and practices. Consequently I have often thought it might be read with advantage by those who revile the curative powers of mesmerism, and endeavour to impute the most degrading motives to those who are engaged in practising and disseminating it. I question whether a greater pleasure can be experienced than that felt by a successful mesmeriser, and that pleasure is not a little enhanced when a grateful patient boldly expresses his

Nine-tenths of the deaths in England not from old age. 29

wish that the relief of his sufferings should be made public, in order that some other fellow-sufferer may have a chance of learning how he may be relieved from similar pain. The daily experience of every medical man must convince him of the difficulty, if not of the total inefficacy, of all the usual remedial means in relieving many of the most common ills to which flesh is heir. It is in the treatment of many such cases that the contrast of success between ordinary and mesmeric measures becomes so conspicuous. If we consult the Registrar-General's Report we shall find that one only in ten of the deaths is the result of old age or violence: the remaining nine are proofs of the inefficacy of ordinary medical and surgical knowledge. I would ask if this ought not to be sufficient to rouse the attention of the medical profession and that of the thinking part of the community? Do medical men oppose, laugh, and sneer at mesmerism, because it pretends to alleviate sufferings which baffle all other means of cure? For my own part, I cannot too strongly declare that, in wishing to introduce this powerful agent into the materia medica, I do not presume to affirm that it shall supersede other remedies: but, from practical experience, I have found it of inestimable value, sometimes in conjunction with these, and sometimes alone.

Every medical man is so familiar with typhus fever as to be thoroughly acquainted with its intractable character: that for six, eight, or even twelve weeks, patients often struggle through this terrible scourge, and that active remedies are frequently inadmissible, if not pernicious, and palliatives only can be adopted. Having conversed with many intelligent persons who have recoverd from long and severe attacks of typhus fever, I find that they nearly all agree that the sufferings in the stomach and bowels are trifling when compared with the disordered state of the brain and spinal cord, aching pains of the limbs, constant head-ache, confused intellect, if not delirium, aggravated by sleepless nights and restless days. The want of repose and absence of oblivion torment the sufferer; and, if his strength be not wasted by such long continued disorder, ending in coma and death, years often elapse ere the patient recovers his usual vigour ; and this is because a congenial remedy has not been hitherto applied. This I shall endeavour most fully to establish by showing the curative powers of mesmerism in the following cases of typhus fever.*

See a case successfully treated with mesmerism, recorded by the father, a medical man, in No. XLVII., p. 316.