ANIMAL MAGNETISM.

(NORTH BRITISH REVIEW.-NO. XXIX.)

IT has been frequently asserted, and that almost from time immemorial, that the common magnet is capable of reacting upon the nervous system of man. Mesmer attributed all the phenomena of animal magnetism to the efflux and the influx of a subtle fluid conceived of as specifically localised in the magnet, but radiating also from stars and planets, sun and moon, the earth and the sky, and most effectively of all from the bodies of healthy and viripotent men. Less adventurous medicasters have confined themselves to the power of the magnet proper and to metallic tractors. Partly on account of the somewhat Paracelsian character of poor Mesmer, partly because of the bombastic and unenlightened enthusiasm of the vast majority of his disciples, and partly owing to the indeterminable nature of the professed phenomena, men of positive science have generally held aloof from the whole subject. Men of observation, accustomed to the use of telescopes and equatorials, of microscopes and micrometers, barometers and thermometers, thermoscopes and electroscopes, balances and test-glasses, entertain a laudable aversion to the employment of the morbid nerve of exceptional human beings as at once the indicator and the measure of any physical force whatever.

Even physicians, who never have attained, and probably never will, to anything like physiometrical accuracy of observation in the principal objects of their study, namely in symptoms and cures, have steadily and sternly refused to have anything to do with the magnet and its alleged effects on certain patients. They have even scouted, abused, contemned, and banned the unfortunate magnet, with that impetuous hatred which is characteristic of the otherwise magnanimous profession; -as if such proceedings could put a summary stop either to its influences or to people's belief in them.

The great obstacle in the way of animal magnetism, in so far as the regulars of science are concerned, is the circumstance that the only known reagent upon the professed and otherwise undiscoverable force is the exceptional nerve. It is to sensation, indeed, that is to say, to touching, tasting, smelling, hearing, and seeing nerves, that we owe all those facts, the recording, the classification, the generalisation, and the co-ordination of which constitute the whole substance of natural science; but it is to the common or general sensations of the race, not to the exceptional and particular sensations of the individual. It is also the unfailing instinct and practice of positive science to distrust the obscurer senses of touch, taste, and smell. It reserves its confidence for those of hearing and sight, the differences and identities of sound and of light being directly perceptible by the ear and the eye. In fact, it may be said that it is always the first effort of the exact sciences to transform the dimmer perceptions of the more deceivable organs into those of sight, the most discursive and accurate of the The mineralogist does not satisfy himself with the intimations of what has been called the muscular sense, or that sense of resistance which is related to the

senses.

perception of weight, concerning the specific gravity of a stone. He weighs it first in the air, then in water; notes the difference between the two weights; and thence computes its specific heaviness. The chemist does not trust his fingers, or even his lip, for the temperature of his agents and reagents; but invents the thermometer, and reads off its measurements with the eye. It is the same in the sciences of magnetism proper, electricity, and galvanism. Even in the investigation of sound (which is measurable with such exquisite nicety by the ear, as to render the art of music not only possible, but the very antitype of mathematical proportion), the natural philosopher converts its vibrations into visible things before he will philosophise upon them. In the region of the visible, on the other hand, he trusts as little as possible to the immediate reactions of the eye; but devises micrometers, photoscopes, and what not. The excessive beauty of all this procedure consists neither solely nor mainly in the transmutation of the perceptions of the lower senses into those of the eye, which is 'the light of the body' as reason is the light of the soul. He would deem but poorly of this great preliminary device of science who should think so. The true beauty of this primary invention consists in its elevation of the eye itself, from being a mere measure of external phenomena, to the dignity of being a measurer of them ;two things as different from one another as a polypus is from a man.

It is chiefly in the art of healing that this nobler method of procedure is not realisable as yet. The physician must work as well as he can upon the reported sensations of his patient, the sounds of his stethoscope, and the feelings of his own fingers; enlightening such comparatively vague intimations as reach him in

these ways, to the best of his ability, by means of knowledge derived from the scalpel, the microscope, chemical analysis, and other instruments of science. Let him be ever so learned in anatomy, organic chemistry, histology, pathology, and all other sciences, it is very seldom that he can altogether dispense with the sensations of his patient; that is to say, with the reported reactions of the morbid and exceptional nerve. It might, therefore, have been expected that physicians could have approached the subject of animal magnetism without scientific distress; and that not only because it professes to deal with the miserable body of man, but because its method of inquiry is akin to that of their blessed art. Alien to the habits of the natural philosopher and the chemist, its ways of procedure are not altogether foreign to theirs. It is accordingly not so wonderful that men like Elliotson, Esdaile, and Engledue, to name no foreign doctors, should have entered this department of doubtful science with the confidence of an honourable scepticism, as it is curious that the vast majority of the profession should have turned their backs upon it with aversion. This is not owing to motives of self-interest or scientific bigotry, but simply to that instinctive craving in the man of science for instrumental observation, which has been deepened in the medical men of the present day by the grand predominance of the exact sciences. They have failed, perhaps, to remember that the methods of such sciences are not altogether applicable in medicine. They have certainly gone beyond their preceptors; for it is notorious that men of eminence in optics, in chemistry, in natural history, and in physics in general, have shown more interest in the alleged phenomena of animal magnetism than have the descendants of Hippocrates and Galen. It will likely be retorted on this assertion that

it owes its truth to the fact that the physicist is ignorant of physiology. It may be so. The instinct of the profession may be preserving it from errors. It is even possible that those physicians who have dared to confront this phenomenal imbroglio, are not competent physiologists; for there is nothing more common in society than to meet doctors of medicine who are ignorant, not only of the first principles of physiology, but even of the very first principles of scientific research. But no man on earth can deny that it is the duty of every professed physiologist either to confirm or to confute the laborious and profound convictions of their colleagues in the architecture of science, be their supposed or actual deficiencies what they may :-or else to keep a wise and kindly silence. No other course of conduct is either manly or safe.

Hav

The animal magnet, however, has at last found a scientific champion in the person of Karl, Baron von Reichenbach and doctor of philosophy, resident and at work in Castle Reisenberg near Vienna.* During the last ten years, this eminent personage has satisfied himself that the old story about the power of the magnet over the nervous system of man is well founded. ing surrounded himself with a multitude of witnesses to the fact, he has multiplied experiments with rare ingenuity; recorded hundreds of results with much fidelity; and constructed a generalisation or theory of the whole subject, which is not without its feasibility and beauty. In short, the baronial doctor has either created a new science for posterity, and placed himself among the Copernicuses and Newtons, at least with the Voltas and the

* Researches on Magnetism, Electricity, &c., in their relation to the Vital Force, by Karl, Baron von Reichenbach. Translated by Professor Gregory. 1850.

VOL. II.

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