Report of the Commissioners on Animal Magnetism

...in silence, and takes care not to disturb it with remedies that are, at the very least, useless; if this progress is hindered, he facilitates it; if it is too slow or too fast, he accelerates or retards it. He sometimes limits himself to regulating the regimen Original: "régime." In the 18th century, this referred to a holistic management of diet, exercise, and lifestyle habits intended to maintain or restore health. to achieve his goal; sometimes he employs medications. The action of a medication introduced into the human body is a new force, combined with the great force that constitutes life: if the remedy follows the same paths that this force has already opened for the expulsion of ailments, it is useful, it is beneficial; if it tends to open contrary paths and divert this internal action, it is harmful.

However, it must be admitted that this beneficial or harmful effect, real as it may be, often eludes common observation Original: "l'observation vulgaire." This refers to the casual observations made by the general public, which lack the rigor of scientific or "philosophical" scrutiny.. The physical history of man offers very singular phenomena in this regard. We see that the most opposite regimens have not prevented people from reaching a great old age. We see men, seemingly attacked by the same disease, cured by following contrary regimens and by taking entirely different remedies; Nature The Enlightenment-era view of Nature as a personified, self-healing power within the body. is thus powerful enough to maintain life despite a poor regimen, and to triumph over both the illness and the remedy at once.

If she has this power to resist remedies, all the more so does she have the power to operate without them. Experience of their efficacy, then, always carries some uncertainty; when it comes to Magnetism, there is one more uncertainty: that of its very existence. Now, how can we be sure, through the treatment of diseases, of the action of an agent whose existence is...