BARON DUPOTET DE SENNEVOY* AND MR. LEE ON ANIMAL MAGNETISM.

THE publications which we have classed together as discussing the subject of our notice, not only take different. sides of the ques- tion, but exhibit perfectly opposite characters. Mr. LEE'S little book is distinguished by comprehensive brevity, sound and sensi- ble views, considerable knowledge of the curious anomalies which nervous disease produces, and a cool judgment and convincing logic, which neither scholastic nor medical learning will give without natural penetration and common sense. M. DUPOTET is the very antipodes of this character. Assuming that he is really the dupe of his own zeal, he possesses no quality necessary for the investigation of subtile and abstruse subjects, unless it be a dauntless enthusiasm. With an imposing array of methodical arrangement and formal terms, he is very deficient in real logic. His ardour has so heated his mind, and his faith so operated upon his powers of belief, that he narrates as facts things morally or physically impossible according to all human experience tested by human reason. He also possesses the vivacious imagination of his countrymen to so high a degree, that it may be questioned whether lie is a perfectly reliable witness even on the commonest matter. In a literary view, however, his peculiarities have served him well. His arrangement of the subject is clear, all-embracing, and facilitates the labour of the reader : he who only wishes to con- sider the bodily and mental pliceaomena of Animal Magnetism, may go to those divisions at once without reading its History, or the Testimony of the Ancients to its existence, or the proofs of its effects in the old cases of Sorcery and Witchcraft, or of the Royal Touch for evil. M. DUPOTET'S vivacity, which renders him an indifferent philosopher, makes him an animated narrator ; and his book is readable and intelligible throughout. In a common case, this notice on a medical subject would have sufficed for us. But Animal Magnetism just now is not a common case. The world is agog after it ; many professional persons believe and practice it ; medical publications treat of it; and names of celebrity in science are arrayed among the converts. These facts, with the extraordinary cures it is said to have effected, and the still more extraordinary placenomena which are alleged to ac- company its exhibition, induce us to enter into the subject itself at some length. We shall endeavour, first, to explain the theory or principles of' Animal Magnetism ; secondly, to describe the various modes of administering it; thirdly, to state its alleged effects ; fourthly, to examine into the evidence on which it rests, and its probable truth or falsehood.

1. Animal Magnetism was first announced to the world by MESMER, a German physician, about seventy years ago. It was named from some properties it was supposed to exhibit analogous to the magnet; and the discoverer considered the magnetic sub- stance to pervade all things. The influencing body is now held by the most eminent magnetizers to be a nervous fluid, secreted by the brain, circulating through the nerves, and capable of trans- mission from one living body to another, or to inanimate substances. The transmitting agents are the fingers, or the eyes of the mag- netizer; and the fluid is capable of being transmitted from a dis- tance, and through solid bodies, as stone or brick walls, &c. The conjectured modes operandi is, that the nervous fluid secreted

by the brain passes off by the skin, and " thus forms a real nervous atmosphere—a sphere of activity absolutely similar to that which surrounds electrified bodies ;" and this atmosphere, we conclude, more or less surrounds all " vertebrated" animals.

" The nervous and active atmosphere of the magnetizer, increased, no doubt,

by the impulse of his volition, mixes and is brought into contact with the ner- vous and passive atmosphere of the magnetized person; which latter it aug- ments to such a degree, that in some cases there seems to be an actual satura- tion of the nervous system." (Daputet, quoting Rasta's, page 4339.) This magnetic fluid is "propelled from the body in right lines ;" so that it' one of the very few non-conducting substances be placed between the operator and the patient, that part of his body behind the non-conductor will be unaffected, whilst the rest may be vio- lently convulsed. The most powerful opponent of the magnetic fluid yet discovered is a book,—which seems to us a significant alle- gory. "One day," says Baron Drtorcr, "after having experimental, and tried with great perseverance, whether some natural bodies had not the property to isolate the somnambulist from the magnetic action, I fell upon the device of taking, out of the library of a gentleman in whose house I was experiment- ing, a large and voluminous folio : I magnetized the somnambulist through the covers of the book, holding my fingers in a pointed direction. He soon experienced all the effects of magnetization, as powerfully as if no body had

been interposed between him and me. I then endeavoured to magnetize the somnambulist through the whole book ; and soon perceived, with some

surprise, that the epigastrium, [the superior part of the abdomen,] which I • We take the name as it stands on the titlepage. A note by Mr. Erg (p. 14.) wo.ild imply that M. Durorzr has no right to the an.tomatic distinctions assumed, tried to operate ulmn• felt nothing, whilst the head and tees visibly fir. deuced the magnetic action. It was only after persisting for some time that the epigastrium :dot telt the agency of magnetism; but still the effect was much weaker. I repeated this experiment on other organs ; and they were very slightly influenced, while the rest of the body was actually convulsed. Experiment* repeated under every variety ot eumstanees, do not allow me to doubt this extraordinary fact—namely, that of all known bodies, the best calcu- lated to intercept the transmission of the magnetic fluid is a great number of superimposed leaves 4 paper, as in a book." (Dupotet, pages 217, ete.) 2. The mode of operating adopted by MESMER exactly resembled the mummeries of a mountebank.

The persons to be magnetized," ayeMr. LEE, " were assembled in a room dimly lighted with meets, and placed in a circle around a (supposed mag- netic) covered vessel (baguet,) each person being connected with the rest by means of wires or cords. The niu•ic of a harpsichord or piano was heard from an adjoining apartment, while various moteeueres ..t•re performed by assistants for the space of an hour or two, when Mesmer himself entered with grave aspect, clothed in a rohe of lightwoleured silk, and holding in his hand a rod, which be directed to different parts of the bodies of the magnetized.”• M. PAVSEGUR, the emit disciple of MESMER, after much con- sideration and much practice, discarded the accessories of his master, and appealed only to the touch ; it being deemed essential that one hand of the magnetizer should be placed on the back and the other on the belly of the patient, exactly opposite each other. The necessity of manipulation was finally discarded, unless in ob- stinate cases, and passes substituted. These passes, or motions of the extended hand and fingers, should be made downwards, not upwards : in patients easily susceptible of the magnetic in- fluence, it is sufficient to point the fingers, even when the eyes are bandaged : many suseeptibles, who have been magnetized suffici- ently long, obey the will of the magnetizer conveyed by a look. The essential property of an operator is, of course, a surplus secretion of the magnetic fluid, together with great energy of will (volition); an intention to magnetize, is said to be absolutely re- quisite; and to overcome obstinate cases, the magnetizer should possess great litmus of self control, and the capability of steadily fixing his attention for hours to ;ether upon the object in view. "The physician also, to be successful," says Baron DUPOTET, " must constantly maintain a mental power or ascendancy over the mind and nervous system of his patient, in order that he may possess his entire confidence; and if this relation or truly magnetic rap- port be not established, all his skill will be unavailing." Physical or constitutional strengih is not necessary to a magnetizer, though frequently an accompani,nent of the magnetic power. It is held by some. but not apparently established as a canon, that a pure mind is essential to a practitioner.

" All magnetizers," our Baron tells us, "believe that magnetized persons can tacitly communicate with, and know intimately each other's most secret thoughts. It is even affirmed, that in this state of exaltation, the whirl of the person mag- netised is so much divested of all gross and sensual qualities, that it recoil* from the slightest impurity in the ideas of any person with whom it may be in mogoetieal connexion. • Such parsons,' says Loewe, • express this without re- serve; and add, that those individuals who would spare them the pain of violent spasms, must relinquish their impure ideas, or leave the room" I was myself present,' adds Loewe, ' when a magnetized person said to the magnetizer, •• No, Doctor, you have impure ideas ; I beg you will leave them ; you give me much pain."' Hence it is, that purity of intention on the part ot the magnetizer is limited on as one of the elementary conditions under which the operation should be performed." (Dupotet, pages 24S, 249.) 3. Omitting details, and stripping ideas of the technical jargon in which they are swaddled, the direct effects produced by magne- tism are four,—first, uneasiness: second, sleep; third, insensi- bility ; fourth, somnambulism. The symptoms in the first stage only consist of yawnings, prickings, slight flying pains, and other odd sensations. The second state is merely slumber, but more soothing than the natural sleep. The third stage of insensibility is often not induced till after repeated magnetizings. During its continuance, the patient is insensible of all external influences; the head and arms drop, the body would fall if not supported ; external noises do not rouse ; the hair may be pulled, the flesh pricked with needles, and the moxa (a burning of the skin with ignited cotton) applied, without inducing any appearance of sen- sibility, though the usual pain is felt alter the patient is released from magnetic influence. At the London University, Dr. ELLIOT- SON exposed a girl to the influeuce of a powerful galvanic battery, without producing any apparent sensation. During this insensi- bility, the most painful operations, it is asserted, can be performed without being felt. The patient can generally be roused from this comatose condition at. the will of the magnetizer. The usual mode is gently to rub the eyebrows, from the nose towards the ears. The fourth stage, or somnambulism, is not so easily induced as the third. Patients in this state exhibit various symptoms. Some- times they differ little from common somnambulists ; talking and walking in a state of slumber, with the eyes open though the " sense is shut.- Mostly, however, they exhibit more " miracu- lous organs." With the eyes firmly closed, they read, by means of' some other senses which (it is so set down) perform the func- tions of the nerves of sight. In some cases, patients distinguish objects and writing when held behind the head, or with the eyes bandaged ; in others, the object to be discerned must be placed upon the stomach, and so forth. During this stage, the mind often exhibits higher powers : the dull become lively, the obtuse sensitive. The memory is more active ; the magnetized repeat- ing things they have heard during their natural state,—for we cannot admit that any case adduced supports the claims of the magnetizers to supernatural acquirements. This magnetic me- m. ory ceases with the somnambulism ; but revives with it,—that Is, the patient remembers in a newly-induced magnetic state what took place in a fernier one. Some of Dr. ELLIOTSON'S patients at • A similar but more detailed account will be found iu Dupeat, pages 138,139. the London University are said to afford specimens of this and the preceding classes.

There is a further state of somnambulism, the rarest of all, called clairvoyance (" prevision," or rather clear-seeing). In this condition, the magnetized are endowed with posters evidently supernatural. They prescribe for their own cases, and such pre- scriptions should be rigidly followed ; they accurately predict the recurrence of their paroxysms, and the termination of their own disorders. They are insensible of the presence of a third party when addressed, until the magnetizer puts them in communion (rapport). They will then tell him, (we beg it to be understood that we are as yet only the mouthpiece of the magnetizers,) the pains which he is suffering ; if any internal organ, hidden from the acumen of the faculty, is diseased, they will mention it; they will prescribe for his disorders; they will tell what he has in his pockets, and what is passing in his mind. It was by one of this tribe that the mental impurity of the unlucky doctor, alluded to by LOEwe, was detected.

By common practitioners the alleged curative influences of magnetism are very uncertain, often failing altogether, and when successful, chiefly limited to nervous diseases, such as palsy and epilepsy.—the latter a disorder of a very obscure and capricious nature, the fits often ceasing of themselves for long periods, and then recurring. In the hands of the mighty masters of the art, however, much greater effects are produced by the marvellous influence at their disposal; and Baron DUPOTET very properly warns amateurs or tyros from ignorantly sporting with such powers, or evoking a spii it they may find it difficult to lay. That nothing is too desperate for him and some of the Continental practitioners, may be easily shown. The Italics in the first quo- tation are ours, to direct attention to the prophetic parts : the case, besides the wonder of the cure, embraces all or nearly all the various stages of Animal Magnetism.

"Caroline Baudoin, twenty years of age, of a lymphatic temperament, had passed her childhood at Geneva; where the badness of her constitution fully developed itself, aggravated perhaps by the influence of the climate or use of unwholesome food. Her whole glandular system became diseased ; her throat, breasts, and armpits exhibited tumours of a decidedly scrofulous nature, many of which suppurated, and discharged an abundance of puru- lent matter. The disease had been treated by all the most approved means ; several issues bad been inserted. but other tumours gathered and burst. One in particular, in the left anti, had burrowed down to the bone, and spread through the adjacent muscles, so as to render necessary the amputation of the arm. This having been resolved on, the operation was performed at the Hospital Saint Louis, with the consent of the patient, who, (deigned with the pain occasioned by this festering limb, looked upon its removal as a blessing. It was attended with complete success; the wound, however, took some time in healing ; and the patient afterwards left the hospital, wherein she had been under treatment for several months. But her system, infected as it was with scrofulous matter, gave her no rest. Another wound opened on her breast, and resisted every medical treatment. She was in this state when I first knew her ; a pour girl, doomed to great eutiering, and apparently to a premature death. Moved by the recital of her sufferings, I resolved upon magnetizing her, rather from an instinctive feeling that I might relieve her, than from any conviction that I could do her good, for I scarcely considered it possible to cure so invete- rate a disease. In the course of three minutes' magnetization, she fell asleep, and began by telling me that, had she known me seven months sooner, she would not have lust her arm. It was only three months since she bad been operated upon. She pointed out the means of healing the wounds on the arm and breast ; and on these being applied they proved completely successful. The must important thing, however, remained to be effected ; which was to change her constitution, or at least to modify it in such a manner as to prevent a re- currence of the previous eruptions. Magnetism had produced a sufficient de- gree of lucidity to allow of her giving advice to other patients, but hitherto not enough to describe the means (limning herself. One day, as she was preset ib- ing for a patient whose recovery she was anxious to bring about, she interrupted the consultation, and told me that on the 24th of August, at nine in the even- ing, she should fall into a state of profound sleep, which would last for thirty hours; that this sleep would he very calm, if during{g, the tiers preceding (1.1311 she were not annoyed by any thing, but otherwise she should be much agi- tated; and that, by an unaccountable feeling, she should endeavour to eat her own flesh. She therefore desired that precautions might be taken to check this fatal propensity, and requested that she might he incessantly watched. She declared further, that 4101 ing this crisis of thirty hours, she would eat abso- lutely nothing ; and that the scrofulous matter would be carried out of her sys- tem. She also said, that during her sleep a bruissentent would be heard at the epigastrium, caused by the flow of scrofulous humours. She then predicted her perfect recovery. This declaration was made on the 14th of July 1833. I made her repeat it on the 21st of the same mouth, in the presence ot fifteen persons; who drew up and signed a report to this effect, having previuusly taken care to ascertain her scrofulous state. In the intervening period, many persons took cognizance of the declaration, and promised, if her prediction were fulfilled, to attest su remarkable a case. On the 24th of August, at eight in the evening, it was urranged that several persona should assemble in the louse of the patient, at the Petit Carreau ; and I enjoined her at- tendants to put her to bed half an hour before the accession of her crisis, in order to prevent her being annoyed. All this was punctually done. At nine o'clock precisely, a number of visiters had congregated. On arriving, we were informed that the crisis had declared itself a few minutes sooner than she had predicted, and that it was fully developed. On entering the room, we saw the unfortunate girl with her face swelled—her tongue protruding out of her mouth—nearly, to all appearance, cud in two by her teeth—her limbs etiffeoed, and her jaws so firmly locked that it was impossible to open them. After having magnetized the masseter muscles so as to remove the stiffness of the jaws, I caused the tongue to be drawn in ; which was already very much dis- coloured, and fortunately had only been bitten very slightly. No one had yet perceived that one of her fingers had not only been bitten, but that there was a loss of substance, the piece wanting having been swallowed by her during her precious paroxysm. The wound was now dressed ; out of which no blood, but a great quantity of red lymph, issued. As the violence of this crisis continued, I thought it proper to 'remain with her during the ensuing thirty hours. 1 was perfectly right in having taken this resolution ; for she struggled long with ex. traordinary violence, and attempted to put her hand into her mouth to bite it again ; but she had been so bound down that she could only get at the sheets, a piece of which she succeeded in tearing off. The somnambulic state at length terminated; her prediction was fulfilled; and she was, to the satisfaction of all the parties interested, from that day cured." (Dupotet, pages 1dB to 191.)

RAISING THE DEAD.

" In the thesis of a distinguished foreigner, M. Albert Jozwik, which was cor. dully received by the Professors,* who encouraged him to proceed in his scientific researches, several remarkable magnetical cases are reported. I extract the following. • In the month of July 1829, in the camp then before Warsaw, a subaltern officer of the third regiment of Chas.eurs a pied of the Polish army, shot himself by putting the muzzle of his musket in his mouth. The medical officer of his regiment was instantly on the spot, and gave him every assistance, but in vain. This case was reported to me, as I was then superintending the medical department of the division. The body of the severely-wounded officer had been conveyed to the infirmary, to which I immediately repaired ; and having found it still warm. I magnetized it. After a magnetization of about half an hour, the poor fellow began to breathe, and was resuscitated ; I then dressed his wound, and sent him to the hospital called Uaizdow.'" (Dupotet, pages 193, 196.)

The reader must bear in mind, that however startling our exposition may seem, it is in reality an under-statement ; re- quiring to be supported by more extracts than we can find room for, before the marvels of Animal Magnetism can be thoroughly comprehended. Premising this, we proceed to our fourth divi- sion— the nature of the evidence on which magnetism rests, and its probable truth or falsehood.

4. The first point which strikes the attention, on analyzing the subject, is the facility which its leading dogma affords to fraud,— to such an extent, indeed, that contrivance could not have pro- sicced a better. Although the magnetic fluid is said to be secreted in all men, if not in all vertebrated animals, yet many persons are not susceptible of its influence, nor is every body capable of mag- netizing, nor can similar results be to a certainty produced upon any class of persons, whether sick or whole ; so that, if the greatest adept fails in affecting an individual, or the most susceptible patient is unaffected by an experimentalist, an escape and an excuse are always provided. Some constitutions, too, arc obstinate, requiring to be magnetized several hours a day for several weeks; an excel- lent means of throwing failure upon the impatience of the sub- jects.

In keeping with these dogmas, is the circumstance that almost all the more extraordinary cases of magnetism furnish every opportunity for fraud or collusion. The patients are chosen by the operator ; they have always been in communication for some time before the exhibition, though of the nature of these com- munications no evidence (in the strict meaning of the term) his ever been adduced, or. as far as we can see, been sought for; and the magnetizers decline attempting to produce any of ths higher phcenomeua except upon certain selected persons. Thus, the most extraordinary of Dr.ELLIOTSON*S cases was under him for months before it was exhibited ; and according to Mr. Lae, Baron DUPOTET does not in London exhibit any of the " higher plicenomena of magnetism ; " even what' little out of the common order he does attempt, is upon his own servant. (Lee, pages 50, 51.) Fraud bus been established ; collusion strongly suspected. Mr. LEE says, that PETRONILLA LECLERC, a celebrated clairvoyant, owned before her death that "she had never experienced the least degree of somnambulism, and used to laugh in her sleeve at GEORCET" and other dupes. M. VELPEAU mentioned cases of a similar kind before the Acadi:inie; and in the experiment of a man reading with his eyes blinded, that gentleman thought of looking under the bandage, " when,' says he " my surprise ceased." At page 28 to 40 of Mr. Lea's little book, will be found an abridged account of some examinations by a Commission of the French Acad6mie, where collusion is not indeed proved, but where both magnetizer and somnambulist broke down when the magnetizer was ignorant of the tests proposed to the latter.

I. is highly probable that many cases are exaggerated in the re- porting. Indications of this peep out. Throwing " pellets" of wood from a table, talking loudly, or firing off a pocket-pistol, which are mentioned as if they were all conclusive experiments on the insensibility of the patients, are not sufficiently astound- ing to alarm the merest tyro in imposture ; still less to startle if coma was induced by imagination, disease, or any other cause. The experiments of pain are equally inconclusive. Generally speaking, the exact limit is rigidly defined by the magnetizer ; and he takes care to stop short of a degree of pain capable of making a dogged impostor flinch. In one examination of the Commission already referred to, a Commissioner ran his

needle deeper than the prescribed depth ; a movement of the throat followed, and the magnetizer immediately interfered. The effect upon the features could not be detected ; for the eyes and upper part of the face were covered by a bandage. Perhaps the strongest test is the galvanic battery of Dr. ELLIOTSON.

So many questionable circumstances would justify any degree of (suspicion ; but we do not mean to deny that some of the cases may probably be real, or founded in truth ; for an adequate cause exists for their production. We know that imagination will kill suddenly, or slowly ; we also know that it will cure disorders in- curable by art or time, and induce many bodily feelings and affections included within these two limits. Instances of this kind will suggest themselves to any one of varied reading.

BEANE killed an Indian by thoughtlessly giving his enemy a scrawl which he exhibited as a white man's death-charm. The

effects of the West Indian Obi are well known; as are also those of charms and incantations amongst all barbarous nations, espe-

cially Negroes. DAVY cured, or very greatly alleviated, a ner- vous disorder by a thermometer. A patient came to him to undergo electricity or galvanism ; before doing any thing, he put the then- • MM. Pelletio, Burnett!, Andral, Roston. and Charnel, were the examiners. mometer into the person's mouth, to ascertain the tempera ure the man, whose faith was excited, supposing it to be the new remedy, exclaimed, " Ah. Sir ! I feel it does me good already!"— aware of the influence of imagination, DAVY did not undeceive him, but told him to come again, and used nothing else through- out. The most simple substances have produced the effects of strong medicine if taken under that impression. Persons who have been told to watch their feelings and write them down, have produced a catalogue of symptoms; whilst others under the same treatment, when questioned afterwards, have said they felt nothing. How readily imagination induces hysterics, comatose delirium, and ravings, is shown by the phrensied exhibitions at love-feasts, and other meetings of religious fanatics.

If the bulk of the cases of Animal Magnetism be rationally looked at, they are just such as would be likely to arise from the processes of the magnetizers. The " prickings, flying pains, and odd sensations," are things which most of us frequently expe- rience, and which any one not of iron nerves or robust health may readily induce by sitting down for an hour and fixing his mind upon his bodily feelings. How much more readily, then, may they be caused in persons whose minds are moved by the doubt of a new experiment, the anxiety of expectation, and a closer attention to their own feelings than ever they gave before. The disposition to drop off to sleep, varies with varying constitu- tions; but there can be few readier ways to induce natural slumber, than to seat a person in a chair for hours together— to deprive him of any thing to amuse the mind, or even to attract his attention—and slowly to wave the hand before the eyes, gaz- ing gravely all the time at the individual. Yet, so little do facts support the theory of magnetism, which, giving a secretion of the nervous fluid to us all and a surplus quantity to the gifted mag- netizer, should always produce some result, that many persons are magnetized without effect, and none, we believe, has ever been produced upon sceptics.

The stages of insensibility, and still more of somnambulism, are naturally more difficult of induction, and are more rarely induced by magnetizers. But, however unusual or surprising, they are not impossible, or of such a kind as to warrant our attributing many of them to other than common causes. From some morbid condition, or some idiosyncrasy, founded perhaps in a morbid con- dition of structure or even of tissues, so minute as to defy anatomist or chemist, many persons suffer palpable deviations from a natural state when any exciting cause calls their latent peculiarity into action. SHARSPEARE made his Shylock note some of these ; others are ready to the mind of any physiologist, or to any one who has read books of physiology. Fish, especially shell-fish, distempers some persons, even, it is recorded, to death, though the rest of the company have eaten it without inconvenience. Individuals will become insensible from the heat of a concert- room or theatre, though the hundreds or thousands around them only feel uncomfortable: some nearly faint at particular scents. Cases are reported of individuals who could induce a trance at will, and other conditions opposed to the general con- dition of our nature. Some persons talk in their sleep ; others walk ; others perform various actions which they are capable of doing when awake, as playing music if they have learnt it ; in others the memory is stimulated so that they remember things forgotten in their waking hours. A few cases, though of vulgar, or at least second-band report, are recorded, in which

the faculties have been stimulated to greater liveliness and vivacity, but tainted by wildness and inconsistency's—the awri somnia. Tile causes of these anomalies are a mystery ; and per- haps ever will be. It is as probable a theory of somnambulism as any other, that a derangement of the stomach excites the brain to act upon the nervous system ; which in its turn acts upon the peculiar idiosyncrasies of the sleeper. At all events, there are facts enough in the physical history of man, to show, as we said just now, that persons may be killed, or cured, or affected in vari- ous ways between those limits, by the force of imagination, and that individuals by very slight circumstances may be thrown into an extraordinary condition. These classes of cases are indeed rare in nature; so they are amongst the magnetizers. We cannot say that the constitutions of the people successfully magnetized are those best fitted to develop the different peculiarities we have alluded to ; but, certainly, they are the persons whose nerves or whose imagination any one would el priori pronounce most easily affected. The sick, the nervous, the ignorant, the weak in body or the weak in mind, are classes on which the magnetizers experimentalize, and with whom they best succeed. What- ever latent peculiarities may exist in the patient, are likely to be stimulated by the excitement of hope, fear, expectation, wonder, and the mummery end the questions to which they are exposed. Putting aside for the moment alt suspicion of art, (thought the probability of imposture in the patient, or of fraudu- lent collusion between doctor and patient, should never be lost sight of,) whatever effect has been once produced by imagination acting directly on the nervous system, or stimulating some lurking idio- syncrasy into action, is likely to increase in strength on each suc- cessive experiment, till the patients of the magnetizer fall into

• The Acts of somnambulism have never been properly investigated, partly from the rarity and scattered nature of the cases, partly because nothing is to be got by it. Baron DUPOT ET puts forward one or two cases as analogous to clutreoyanee ; but they are no such thing. All the somnambulists do, is re- solvable into repetition. The dangerous walks they take with impunity, are owing to the mind being firmly fixed on one object, and closed against every other. If awoke in their dangerous positions, they fall. the same unnaturally exciteable condition as the victims of reli- gious fanaticism. The few experiments made by dispassionate examiners coincide with this view. Persons accustomed to be magnetized (see Lee) in a particular spot, when taken thither, exhibit all the usual symptoms though they are not magnetized at all. Mr. Las, in the absence of the operator, has instantly stilled patients by imitating his manipulations, though without the intention to magnetize, and merely for the sake of the expe- riment. The most unaccountable case we have met is that of an operation for the cancer, to which the patient was insensible; but Mr. LEE considers it explicable, and instances an analogous opera- tion performed by Mr. WARDROP during a state of natural coma, with similar results, hating the clairvoyance.* We have already alluded to the contradictions between the theory and practice of Animal Magnetism : but we will nut dwell upon them, any more than upon the discrepancies in the practice itself, because the truth of Nature does not depend upon the folly of her interpreters, or the unskilfulness of practitioners. But when the magnetizers, with the modesty of true merit, compare them- selves to GALLILEO and HARVEY, we must beg to assure them there is no analogy in the cases. The facts, observations, and arguments of GALLILEO, were consistent, intelligible, and uni- form; difficult and abstruse no doubt to master, but demon- strable to those who could examine them. The instance of HARVEY is similar. The circulation of the blood did not depend upon the faith or scepticism of the person. The experiments of that illustrious man were uniform in their results, and constant in their production. In showing the difference between arterial

and venous blood, (or in other words, proving that one sort of blood left the heart and another sort returned to it,) he was not like the magnetizers, constantly baffled by " non-susceptibility ; " still less was he compelled, like them, to wait four or five years

and only produce a few chance cases of the higher plicenomena. There is also another difference : very few years elapsed before the theory of GALLILEO was established ; HARVEY, though his prac-

tice fell off at first, lived to recover it, and to receive the honour due to his great discovery. The same is true of the medicines

adduced by a writer in the Monthly Chronicle : antimony, bark,

inoculation for the smallpox, though opposed at first, gradually made their way, and were in a short time admitted remedies.

Animal Magnetism has been nearly seventy years before the world, and is just where it was when MESMER duped the Pari- sians of the old regime--exercised by a few practitioners fond of startling innovations; believed in by some of the ignorant and credulous vulgar, by many of the equally ignorant and credulous .gentry, and by a few scientific men, of ability in their respective pursuits, though somewhat to seek in common sense.

Upon clairvoyance and the magnetization of inanimate sub. stances, by which paper being magnetized and then burnt, even its ashes induce magnetic phcenomena, we shall not offer a word of comment. The person who can believe such facts (if they are facts) to be any thing more than the result of imposture, or ac- cident, is reason-proof.

We intended to have offered some remarks upon the various cures that magnetism has been said to have ettbcted ; to have calmly examined the few (best-authenticated) cases reported by British practitioners, and, after bringing them to strict account,

and making fair deductions, to have seen said they really amounted to. We also intended to have said a few words upon the partial belief of some persons, and whether any collateral ad- vantage was likely to spring from the pursuit of Animal Mag- netism. But we may already have wearied the attention of the reader ; we should, moreover, have to travel over a larger space than we can spare: so we take leave of the subject, with a lirm conviction that the so-called Animal Magnetism results from a combination of imagination, imposture, and collusive fraud, though it may be difficult if not impossible to estimate the propor- tions of the component parts.

• Baron DUVOTiT given part of the race; but the whole seems to have be-n too much even for his stomach, or it was produced by a tivat master. The reader will find it at length in the Monthly Chronicle for June. The paper is anonymous; but as the scientific department is. nutter Latin:sea and IIREwsrE11., we must m.sume that these two philosophers are to be ranked among the disciples of the Baron Dunn? Dr SENNEVOY.