Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing Part 18

[186] T. J. Pettigrew, _Superst.i.tions Connected with ...

Medicine and Surgery_, p. 117.

CHAPTER X

MESMER AND AFTER

"Some deemed them wondrous wise, And some believed them mad."--BEATTIE.

"A perfect medicine for bodies that be sick Of all infirmities to be relieved; This heleth nature and prolongeth lyfe eke."

Probably no one would claim that the phenomena now grouped under the head of hypnotism were unknown before the end of the sixteenth century. They are as old as man, yes, probably older, since we know that some of the same phenomena apply to animals. But the claim might well be made that while isolated facts of this kind were well known, especially in the East, no scientific collaboration and explanation were attempted until this time.

As with all other departments of science, we may trace a gradual development. Astrology of old taught the influence of the stars upon men, which doctrine was accepted by the great physician Theophrastus Paracelsus (1490-1541). This, however, was only part of his belief: the human body was endowed with a double magnetism; one portion attracted to itself the planets and was nourished by them, the result of which was the mental powers; the other portion attracted and disintegrated the elements, from which process resulted the body. He also claimed that the magnetic virtue of healthy persons attracted the enfeebled magnetism of the sick. With this theory of animal magnetism, it was only natural that he should value the use of the magnet very highly in the cure of diseases. This dual theory of magnetic cures, that of the magnetic influence of men on men and of the magnet on man, was prevalent for over a century, and found its latest exponent in Mesmer.

Following Paracelsus, Glocenius, Burgrave, Helinotius, Robert Fludd, and Kircher believed that the magnet represented the universal principle by which all natural phenomena might be explained. This principle, existing as it did in the human body, was an important factor in health and disease. The great chemist Von Helmont (1577-1644) taught more precisely that a power resided in man by which he could magnetically affect others, and thereby cure the sick who were most influenced by it. He published a work on the effects of magnetism on the human frame.

About the same time Balthazar Gracian, a Spaniard, boldly proclaimed his views. "The magnet," he said, "attracts iron; iron is found everywhere; everything, therefore, is under the influence of magnetism.... It is the same agent which gives rise to sympathy, antipathy, and the pa.s.sions." Baptista Porta (1543-1615), one of the originators of the weapon-salve, had also great faith in the magnet.

So effective was his work on the imaginations of his patients that he was considered a magician and prohibited from practising by the court of Rome. Sebastian Wirdig, professor of medicine at the University of Rostock, in Mecklenburg, wrote a treatise on "The New Medicine of the Spirits" which he presented to the Royal Society of London in 1673. He maintained that a magnetic influence took place, not only between the celestial and terrestrial bodies, but between all living things. The whole world was under the influence of magnetism: life was preserved by magnetism, death was the consequence of magnetism.

Maxwell (1581-1640) propagated somewhat the same doctrine. He was a firm believer in sympathetic cures, and a.s.sumed a vital spirit of the universe which related all bodies. It was probably from this that Mesmer got his idea of what he called the universal fluid. It would seem, however, that Maxwell was aware of the great influence of imagination and suggestion. He said: "If you wish to work prodigies, abstract from the materiality of beings--increase the sum of spirituality in bodies--rouse the spirit from its slumbers. Unless you do one or other of these things--unless you can bind the idea, you can never perform anything good or great." About the same time, in Italy, Santanelli propagated the theory of a universal fluid. Everything material possessed a radiating atmosphere which operated magnetically. He also recognized, however, the great influence of the imagination.

[Ill.u.s.tration: F. A. MESMER]

About the year 1771, Father h.e.l.l, a Jesuit, and professor of astronomy at the University of Vienna, became famous through his magnetic cures, and invented steel plates of a peculiar form which he applied to the naked body as a cure for several diseases. In 1774 he communicated his system to Mesmer, the man who, more than any one else, drew the world's attention to the investigation of mental healing. Various estimates have been made of Mesmer's character and he frequently has been condemned. He was fond of display, but it is doubtful if he was more avaricious than most persons who lived before and have lived since. He was evidently honest in his scientific investigations and opinions, and this is our main concern.

Friederich Antony Mesmer (1733-1815) was born at Mersbury, in Swabia, and studied medicine at the University of Vienna. He read freely the books written by the authors already mentioned, and accepted much of their teaching. His originality consisted princ.i.p.ally in applying to the sick this universal principle, by means of contact and pa.s.ses, while his predecessors infused the vital spirit through the use of talismans and of magic boxes. He took his medical degree in 1766 and chose as the subject of his inaugural dissertation "The Influence of the Planets in the Cure of Diseases." In this dissertation he maintained "that the sun, moon, and fixed stars mutually affect each other in their orbits; that they cause and direct in our earth a flux and reflux not only in the sea, but in the atmosphere, and affect in a similar manner all organized bodies through the medium of a subtle and mobile fluid, which pervades the universe, and a.s.sociates all things together in mutual intercourse and harmony." This influence, he said, was particularly exercised on the nervous system, and produced two states, which he called _intension_ and _remission_, which seemed to him to account for the different periodical revolutions observable in several maladies.

Eight years later he met Father h.e.l.l, and after trying some experiments with his metallic plates was astonished at his success. He continued working with h.e.l.l for some time, but they finally quarrelled, and shortly afterward he stumbled upon his theory of animal magnetism. After this he no longer used the magnet in healing.

The Academy of Science at Berlin examined his claims, but their report was far from favorable or flattering. Nevertheless, writing to a friend from Vienna, he said: "I have observed that the magnetic is almost the same as the electric fluid, and that it may be propagated in the same manner, by means of intermediate bodies. Steel is not the only substance adapted to this purpose. I have rendered paper, bread, wool, silk, stones, leather, gla.s.s, wood, men, and dogs--in short, every thing I touched--magnetic to such a degree, that these substances produced the same effects as the loadstone on diseased persons. I have charged jars with magnetic matter in the same way as is done with electricity." About this time he was nominated a member of the Academy of Bavaria.

Leaving Vienna and travelling through Swabia and Switzerland, he met Ga.s.sner and witnessed some of his cures. Mesmer claimed that they were performed by his newly discovered magnetism. He arrived in Paris in 1778 and found this city more receptive to his arts. He at first established himself in an humble quarter of the city and began to expound his theory. The following year he published a paper in which he summed up his claims in twenty-seven a.s.sertions to which he rigidly held through his life. His doctrines were well received, and acquired an impetus at the beginning by the conversion of one of the leading physicians of the faculty of medicine, Deslon, the Comte d'Artois'

first physician.

Pupils and patients now flocked to him. The crowd was so great that Mesmer employed a _valet toucheur_ to magnetize in his place. This was not sufficient; he then invented the famous _baquet_, or trough, around which thirty persons might simultaneously be magnetized. This _baquet_ is described as follows: "A circular, oaken case, about a foot high, was placed in the middle of a large hall, hung with thick curtains, through which only a soft and subdued light was allowed to penetrate; this was the _baquet_. At the bottom of the case, on a layer of powdered gla.s.s and iron filings, there lay full bottles, symmetrically arranged, so that the necks of all converged toward the centre; other bottles were arranged in the opposite direction, with their necks toward the circ.u.mference. All these objects were immersed in water, but this condition was not absolutely necessary, and the _baquet_ might be dry. The lid was pierced with a certain number of holes, whence there issued jointed and moving iron branches, which were to be held by the patients. Absolute silence was maintained. The patients were ranged in several rows round the _baquet_, connected with each other by cords pa.s.sed round their bodies, and by a second chain, formed by joining hands."[187]

Additional features were provided to heighten the effect of the magnetic charm. "Richly stained gla.s.s shed a dim religious light on his s.p.a.cious saloons, which were almost covered with mirrors. Orange blossoms scented all the air of his corridors; incense of the most expensive kinds burned in antique vases on his chimney-pieces; aeolian harps sighed melodious music from distant chambers; while sometimes a sweet female voice, from above or below, stole softly upon the mysterious silence that was kept in the house and insisted upon from all visitors."[188]

Bailly, the historian and celebrated astronomer, an eye-witness, describes the results. "Some patients remain calm and experience nothing; others cough, spit, feel slight pain, a local or general heat, and fall into sweats; others are agitated and tormented by convulsions. These convulsions are remarkable for their number, duration, and force, and have been known to persist for more than three hours. They are characterized by involuntary, jerking movements in all the limbs, and in the whole body, by contraction of the throat, by twitchings in the hypochondriac and epigastric regions, by dimness and rolling of the eyes, by piercing cries, tears, hiccough, and immoderate laughter. They are preceded or followed by a state of languor or dreaminess, by a species of depression, and even by stupor.

"The slightest sudden noise causes the patient to start, and it has been observed that he is affected by a change of time or tune in the airs performed on the pianoforte; that his agitation is increased by a more lively movement, and that his convulsions then become more violent. Patients are seen to be absorbed in the search for one another, rus.h.i.+ng together, smiling, talking affectionately, and endeavoring to modify their crises. They are all so submissive to the magnetizer that even when they appear to be in a stupor, his voice, a glance, or a sign will rouse them from it. It is impossible not to admit, from all these results, that some great force acts upon and masters the patients, and that this force appears to reside in the magnetizer. This convulsive state is termed the _crisis_. It has been observed that many women and few men are subject to such crises; that they are only established after the lapse of two or three hours, and that when one is established, others soon and successively begin.

"When the agitation exceeds certain limits, the patients are transported into a padded room; the women's corsets are unlaced, and they may then strike their heads against the padded walls without doing themselves any injury." Notwithstanding these means, thousands were healed of their diseases.

"It is impossible," says Baron Dupotet, "to conceive the sensation which Mesmer's experiments created in Paris. No theological controversy, in the earlier ages of the Catholic Church, was ever conducted with greater bitterness." He was called a quack, a fool, and a demon, while his friends were as extravagant in his praise as his foes in their censure. After this great excitement, his life may largely be summed up in his challenges to different societies, the appointment of commissions, their examinations, and their reports.

On the advice of Deslon he challenged the Faculty of Medicine, proposing to select twenty-four patients, of whom twelve should be treated according to the old and approved methods and twelve magnetically, the cures to prove the efficacy of the treatment. The faculty declined to accept the conditions. Deslon asked his colleagues on the faculty to summon a general meeting to examine the matter.

Through the influence of M. de Vauzesmes, the meeting was very hostile to him, and he was condemned and threatened with having his name removed from the list of licensed physicians if he did not reform.

Mesmer now wrote to Marie Antoinette suggesting that the government furnish him with houses, land, and a princely fortune to enable him to carry on his experiments untroubled. The government finally offered him a pension of 20,000 francs, and the cross of the order of St.

Michael, if he had made any discovery in medicine, and would communicate it to the physicians whom the king should name. Mesmer refused the conditions and left Paris.

Deslon was then called upon to renounce animal magnetism, but instead, invited investigation. In 1784 the government appointed a commission to inquire into magnetism, consisting of members from the Faculty of Medicine and the Academy of Sciences. Franklin, Lavoisier, and Bailly were members, the last named being chosen reporter. Another commission, composed of members of the Royal Society of Medicine, was charged to make a distinct report on the same subject. After experimenting for five months the first commission presented two reports, one public and the other secret, neither of which was favorable. The Royal Society of Medicine presented its report a few days later, and agreed with the first commission with the exception of one member, Laurent de Jussieu, who dissented and published a separate report of a more favorable nature. The gist of the commissions'

reports was that imagination, not magnetism, accounted for the results.

Soon after the commissions started their investigations, Mesmer returned to Paris at the invitation of his friends, who proposed to open a subscription for him for 10,000 louis. Immediately it was over-subscribed by over 140,000 francs. He came with the understanding that he was to give lectures and to reveal the secret of animal magnetism. The lectures and secrets were not satisfactory.

After the commission reported he left Paris and returned to his own country where he was little heard of during the remainder of his life which ended in 1815.

Whatever may be said of Mesmer, there seems to be no doubt about the honesty of his most famous pupil, the Marquis de Puysegur, and to him we are indebted for a forward step. When Mesmer left Paris, the marquis retired to his estate near Soissons, and employed his leisure in magnetizing peasants. He magnetized his gardener, a young man named Victor, and after experimenting upon him claimed that during the state Victor exhibited marvellous telepathic and clairvoyant phenomena.

Unable to attend all the patients who applied to him, he followed Mesmer's plan of magnetizing a tree. An elm on the village green was chosen, and round this patients gathered on stone benches as around Mesmer's _baquet_.

Following Mesmer's theories very closely, the contribution he made was in the recognition of the likeness between the magnetized state and that of somnambulism, so that he designated this state "artificial somnambulism." He also modified the conditions of inducing this state, and simple contact or spoken orders were subst.i.tuted for the use of the _baquet_. The effect was therefore milder, and instead of hysteria and violent crises accompanied by sobs, cries, and contractions, there was peaceful slumber. He recognized the rapport between operator and subject, and amnesia on awaking, and other phenomena now well known, but he still held to the Mesmeric theory of the existence of a universal fluid which saturated all bodies, especially the human body. It was electric in nature, and man could display and diffuse this electric fluid at will.

While the Marquis de Puysegur was using the elm tree near Soissons, the Chevalier de Barbarin was successfully magnetizing people without paraphernalia. He sat by the bedside of the sick and prayed that they might be magnetized; his efforts were successful. He maintained that the effect of animal magnetism was produced by the mere effort of one human soul acting upon another; and when the connection had once been established the magnetizer could communicate his influence to the subject regardless of the distance which separated them. Numerous persons adopted this view, calling themselves Barbarinists after their leader. In Sweden and Germany they were called _spiritualists_, to distinguish them from the followers of de Puysegur, who were called _experimentalists_.

About the same time a doctor of Lyons, Petetin, experimented with magnetism. After his death a paper written by him was published describing catalepsy and sense transference. Numerous magnetic societies were founded in the princ.i.p.al cities of France. In Strasburg, the Society of Harmony, consisting of more than one hundred and fifty members, published for years the result of their work. The disturbance incident to the Revolution and the wars of the Empire which followed repressed the investigations of magnetism in France for several years.

In England the advent of magnetism seems to have taken place about 1788. In that year one Dr. Mainandus, who had been a pupil first of Mesmer and later of Deslon, arrived in Bristol and gave public lectures on the subject. People of rank and fortune soon came from different cities to be magnetized or to place themselves under his tuition. He afterward established himself in London where he was equally successful in attracting and curing people. So much curiosity was excited by the subject that, about the same time, a man named Holloway gave a course of lectures on animal magnetism in London.

Large crowds gathered to hear him at the rate of five guineas for each pupil.

Loutherbourg, the painter, and his wife entered upon a similar work.

"Such was the infatuation of the people to be witnesses of their strange manipulations," says Mackay, "that at times upwards of three thousand persons crowded round their house at Hammersmith, unable to gain admission. The tickets sold at prices ranging from one to three guineas." Loutherbourg later became a divine healer. From 1789 to 1798 magnetism attracted little or no attention in England. At the latter date a Connecticut Yankee, Benjamin Douglas Perkins, invented "metallic tractors." The Society of Friends built a hospital called the "Perkinean Inst.i.tute" where all comers might be magnetized free of cost.

About 1786 animal magnetism appeared in two different places in Germany--on the upper Rhine and in Bremen. At this time Lavater paid a visit to Bremen and exhibited the magnetizing process to several doctors. Bremen was for a long time a focus of the new doctrine, and thereby was brought into bad repute. About the same time the doctrine spread from Strasburg over the Rhine provinces. Among those active in experiments were Bockmann of Carlsruhe, Gmelin of Heilbronn, and Pezold of Dresden. Soon it spread all over Germany. In 1789 Selle of Berlin brought forward a series of experiments made at the Charite (Hospital), in which he confirmed some of the alleged phenomena but excluded the supernormal.

Notwithstanding the early dislike, animal magnetism flourished in Germany during the first twenty years of the nineteenth century. In 1812 the Prussian government sent Wolfart to Mesmer at Frauenfeld, to acquaint himself with the subject. He returned to Berlin an ardent adherent of Mesmer and introduced magnetism into the hospital treatment. From this magnetism flourished so much in Berlin that, as Wurm relates, the Berlin physicians placed a monument on the grave of Mesmer at Morsburg, and theological candidates received instruction in physiology, pathology, and the treatment of sickness by vital magnetism. The well-known physician Koreff was interested in magnetism and often made use of it for healing purposes. Magnetism was introduced everywhere, especially in Russia and Denmark. In Switzerland and Italy it was at first received with less sympathy, and in 1815 the exercise of magnetism was forbidden in the whole of Austria.

In 1813 the naturalist Deleuze published a book ent.i.tled _Histoire critique du magnetisme animal_. Like his predecessors, he was chiefly interested in the therapeutic value of magnetism, and insisted that faith was necessary for effective treatment. On account of this condition any demonstration was impossible. He still held to the idea of a pervading fluid and maintained that the depth of the magnetic sleep depended upon the amount of the magnetic charge. Shortly after the appearance of Deleuze's book, interest in animal magnetism increased, and several journals dealing exclusively with the subject were started.

With the death of Mesmer in 1815 ended the first period in the history of the phenomena known as animal magnetism. Up to this time the generally accepted theory was that of a vital fluid which permeated every thing and person and through which one person influenced another. The second period extended from 1815-1841 when Braid discovered and formulated the method of operation. The third period reached from 1841-1887 during which there was careful and scientific study of the whole subject, and hypnotism came into repute as a healing measure. I am inclined to posit a fourth period, 1887 to the present time, for Myers' hypothesis of a subliminal self, or the theory of the subconsciousness, has made a great difference in the theory of hypnotism.

The second period began when Abbe Faria in 1814-15 came from India to Paris and gave public exhibitions, publis.h.i.+ng the results of some of his experiments. He seated his subjects in an armchair, with eyes closed, and then cried out in a loud commanding voice, "Sleep." He used no manipulations and had no _baquet_, but he boasted of having produced five thousand somnambulists by this method. He opined that the state was caused by no unknown force, but rested in the subject himself. He agreed with the present generally accepted theory that all is subjective.

Following Faria, Bertrand and Noizet paved the way for the doctrine of suggestion notwithstanding their inclination toward animal magnetism.

Experiments were performed at the Hotel-Dieu in 1820 but later were prohibited. Through the influence of Foissac in 1826 the Academy of Medicine appointed a committee to examine the subject, and in 1831 a report acknowledging the genuineness of the phenomena was made, and therapeutic effects were frankly admitted. In 1837 the Academy appointed another commission to examine still further, for the members as a whole were not convinced. The report of this commission was largely negative.

After this the younger Burdin, a member of the Academy, proposed to award from his own purse a prize of 3,000 francs to any person who could read a given writing without the aid of his eyes, and in the dark. The existence of animal magnetism must stand or fall on this test. That was the difficulty during this period: the whole dispute was waged about, and experiments consisted in tests of, clairvoyance, transposition of the sense of sight, and other mystical phenomena, instead of dealing with the state as such. This, of course, made the struggle much easier for the opponents of mesmerism, but was largely the fault of the magnetizers. The Burdin prize was not awarded, and in 1840 Double proposed that the Academy should henceforth pay no further attention to animal magnetism, but treat the subject as definitely closed. This was certainly unfair and unscientific, but was the att.i.tude a.s.sumed.

At the beginning of this period another series of tests was being performed in Germany, but after 1820 the belief in magnetism declined more and more. It flourished longest in Bremen and in Hamburg where Siemers was its advocate. From 1830-1840 Hensler and Ennemoser were the chief exponents in Bavaria. As the scientific investigators withdrew from the study, the charlatans and frauds entered the field, and the marvellous and occult were emphasized, so that in 1840 little general attention was paid to the subject.

Notwithstanding the efforts of the London physicians Elliotson and Ashburner, magnetism could obtain little footing in England during this period. Numerous investigations were made, however, and several publications were sent forth. Townshend, Scoresby, and Lee are names prominent in the study of the subject in England at this time. In the next period, though, an Englishman gives the impetus necessary for the successful pursuit of the study.

In 1841 the French magnetizer, La Fontaine, gave some public exhibitions in Manchester which attracted the attention of a physician by the name of James Braid. Through the aid rendered by Braid, animal magnetism blossomed into a science. He directed the subject into its proper field: he eschewed the occult and mysterious, and emphasized observation and experiment. It was Braid who gave us the word "hypnotism." At first a sceptic, he began experimenting and proved that fixity of gaze had in some way such an influence on the nervous system of the subject that he went off into a sleep. He therefore opined that the transmission of a fluid by the operator had no part in the matter.

He further showed that an a.s.sumed att.i.tude changed the subject's sentiments in harmony with the att.i.tude, and that the degree of sleep varied with different persons, and with the same person at different times. He also noted the acuteness of the senses during hypnosis, and that verbal suggestion would produce hallucinations, emotions, paralysis, etc. Therapeutics was a subject in which he was naturally interested, and his experiments on different diseases were frequent and valuable. Braid made some mistakes, as was natural, but his discoveries covered the field so well and his ideas were so sound that too much credit cannot be ascribed to him. At first he thought hypnotism (Braidism) was identical with animal magnetism, but later made the mistake of considering it a.n.a.logous, and the two flourished side by side and independently.