An Introduction to the Study of Animal Magnetism

often obstruct the path of knowledge. Hence, the Académie Royale de Médecine original: Royal Academy of Medicine. was in a manner forced, by the urgent complaints of its own members, to appoint a new commission to investigate the subject. After a most elaborate and scrupulous inquiry, during which every possible source of error that suspicion could suggest was narrowly scrutinized, the commissioners—many of whom were previously unbelievers—not only attested to the truth of animal magnetism generally, but cited in their report facts that were completely clear, proving the existence of the higher order of the phenomena which its influence induces. In France, this was an important turning point in its history; but in the meantime, the new science spread rapidly in Germany, Holland, Sweden, and Russia. Consequently, at present, public establishments for the practice of animal magnetism exist in many of the most enlightened cities of Europe. Journals reporting its progress are published periodically; theses in its favor, written by candidates for medical degrees, are accepted and defended in medical schools; and among those who, from personal observation, have attested to its phenomena, may be listed the names of some of the most eminent scientific men of the age. On the continent, this is the current state of animal magnetism; but in England it is otherwise. Here the subject has not been fairly investigated; here it is still only imperfectly understood; and here, therefore, I expect to encounter the same obstacles, the same prejudices, and even the same personal hostility which I had to contend against twenty years ago in Paris. But I believe so firmly in the steady and immutable progression of truth that I enter cheerfully on the task, satisfied that if the most incredulous of my antagonists will only witness and investigate the phenomena, they will become convinced of their reality.