PREFACE.

About eighty years have now passed since Anthony Mesmer—a German physician—first announced a new and very remarkable discovery he had made in the course of his research. Although it was little appreciated when first announced, it was later found to be of no small importance toward the expansion of our scientific knowledge of nature and, especially, of the constitution of man. For a considerable period, as is well known, this very interesting discovery made slow progress in the learned world. It was, indeed, new and startling; it was thought to be inconsistent with some of the already accepted principles of established science, and, therefore, it received little support from the supposedly learned men of the day.

It was, moreover—although on clearly false grounds—considered a dangerous doctrine: a complete scientific and religious heresy. The few who gave it their honest support and encouragement, therefore, were publicly denounced as mystics and ridiculed as fools, or pitied as madmen. The magnetic discovery, indeed, was generally regarded, even by many philosophers, as a gross deception of the ignorance and gullibility of the age; and no terms of contempt were considered too strong to be applied to the few faithful supporters of the seemingly excessive and heretical doctrine.

Time,