An Introduction to the Study of Animal Magnetism

but such decrees as the one mentioned above are calculated to perplex, harass, and torment the individuals against whom they are directed. It is clear that the anathema of the Académie Royale de Médecine against inoculation, antimony, Peruvian bark, and animal magnetism could no more arrest the progress of science—as far as these discoveries were concerned—than the voice of Canute the Great could restrain the incoming tide.

The influence of physical contact—whether by touch, breath, or saliva—in the curing of diseases has been recognized in all ages. However, it is to MesmerM. Thouret published, in 1784, a work entitled "Recherches et Doutes sur le Magnétisme Animal" (Researches and Doubts on Animal Magnetism), in which he exhausts much useless erudition attempting to prove that Mesmer's system was entirely borrowed from the ancients. The principal authorities he appeals to are Paracelsus, Van Helmont, Goclenius, Burgravius, Libavius, Wirdig, Maxwell, Santanelli, Teutzel, Kircher, and Borel. He extracts entire passages from their works to prove their ideas are identical to Mesmer's. A committee of the Royal Society of Medicine was appointed to examine this work and highly complimented the "industry," "depth," and "sagacity" of the author. But, as M. Colquhoun justly observes, by the same principle, the discovery of the circulation of the blood could be attributed away from Harvey to Servetus, Cesalpinus, or Fabricius—and the discovery of the laws of gravitation from Newton to Lucretius, Democritus, or Aristotle. There is scarcely a modern discovery about which we might not find some vague sentences in ancient authors that, through translation, could appear to have been anticipated. But, supposing it is established that any particular series of facts was noted by the ancients rather than being a recent discovery, the reiteration of these observations only provides a strong argument in favor of their reality. that we are indebted for the discovery of animal magnetism; he systematized its principles—he reduced