MESMERIC FACTS

[They] appear to escape the stimulating stage of the mesmeric influence mesmeric influence The effect of "animal magnetism" or mesmerism, believed at the time to be a physical fluid or force transferred from the healer to the patient. altogether, and to pass at once from life to temporary death The author uses this dramatic phrase to describe a very deep, unresponsive state of trance.. I am inclined to attribute this to the concentrated and uninterrupted way the power is applied. As soon as it is felt, the body is given no time to recover from the first impression, and it yields without a struggle to the compelling power.

Some patients, when suddenly awakened, say that their vision is hazy and their heads feel light; but I believe this arises from the senses and the brain not having fully recovered their sensitivity. They are not immediately roused into the full possession of their waking powers, just as we see in people suddenly woken up from a profound natural sleep.

The fact that the mesmeric torpor A state of physical inactivity or insensibility induced by mesmerism. of the brain and nerves does not arise from sanguine congestion sanguine congestion An old medical term for an excessive accumulation of blood in an organ or part of the body; the author is arguing that the trance is not caused by blood rushing to the head. is often beautifully demonstrated by the first actions of people waking from the trance.

They open their eyes and, at the same moment, recover all their faculties; but it is observed that the pupil is unresponsive to light. The patients also become aware of this; they know that their eyes are open and that they ought to see, but they cannot. The thought fills them with horror, and with a fearful cry they bury their faces in their hands like people struck blind by lightning. However, this soon passes off, and the retina recovers its sensitivity after the eye is rubbed a little. The dreadful shock given to the mind under such circumstances—or when a somnambulist somnambulist In this context, it refers to someone in a state of "sleepwalking" or a deep mesmeric trance, rather than a literal sleepwalker. awakes and finds himself standing in some strange attitude, naked, in the midst of strangers (an experiment I have often made)—is a trial of the nerves. It would be very imprudent, and even dangerous, to attempt this with any but the most unusually indifferent and calm subjects.

This shock, and the inconvenience of inducing mesmeric disease The author's term for a condition where a patient becomes so sensitive to mesmerism that they fall into trances spontaneously or without clinical necessity. (spontaneous mesmeric action in the body) by doing more than is necessary to cure an illness, appear to me to be the real dangers to be avoided when using Mesmerism as a remedy.

I am now able to say from experience that a weakness of the nervous system makes a person more likely to receive the mesmeric influence. I predict a patient will be easy to mesmerize when I recognize in him a listless, dejected appearance—"a downcast look" original: "l'air abattu"—that usually accompanies a functional weakness of the nerves.