Mesmerism, or System of Interactions

degree that I felt determined, in order to avoid tiresome adversities, to leave the capital of the Austrian states in the year 1778 for some time, and to choose France as my place of residence, to dedicate to that nation, which I then imagined to be more receptive to the communication of my important truths, the gift that was bestowed upon me by Providence.

"Indeed, my communications did find a reception—and that, too, among the most respected part of the nation—that was extremely flattering to me; less so among the scholars of the profession.

"The men of that class, among them the leading physicians of the capital, deceived by the completely erroneous view that my so-called secret was a specific, weighable, and salable remedy, sought to steal it from me through cunning and artifice. Because they could not grasp my ideas, however, the communication could not occur without danger to the cause. When the success did not correspond to their undertakings, a formal feud was declared against me, and I, as a foreign physician, was labeled with the contemptuous name of charlatan. Indeed, even association with me was viewed as a desecration of sacred customs, forbidden to their own members under threat of exclusion from the