Mesmerism true, mesmerism false : a critical examination of the facts, claims and pretensions of animal magnetism / edited by John Forbes ; with an appendix, containing a report of two exhibitions by Alexis.

Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mesmerism true, mesmerism false : a critical examination of the facts, claims and pretensions of animal magnetism / edited by John Forbes ; with an appendix, containing a report of two exhibitions by Alexis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    seem to be—what are the phenomena truly developed in somnambulism? After we have determined this question, we can more appropriately pro- ceed to estimate the testimony in favour of the possibility of creating such a condition by artificial, or mesmeric, agency. 1 All writers on mesmerism regard theinduced somnambulism as a stage of development in advance of what, for the sake of convenience, we have designated the hysteric phenomena ; and, in this respect, a con- formability is discovered between the mesmeric speculations and the statements of scientific writers on what we have regarded as the corre- spondent nervous derangements. In a few instances, says Dr. Copland, the paroxysms (of hysteria) change their character, and assume the form of catalepsy, extacy, or of somnambulism The attack may commence either as a slight or as a severe hysterical fit, and pass, in a short time, into the cataleptic or extatic state; or it may begin in the form of extacy, catalepsy, or somnambulism, and pass into the hyste- rical convulsion. Before adducing cases in illustration of the somnambulistic state, we propose the subjoined formula, as defining the principal phenomena cha- racteristic of this remarkable phasis of human existence : A condition in which certain senses and faculties are suppressed or rendered thoroughly impassive, whilst others prevail in most unwonted exaltation ; in ivhich an individual, though asleep, feels and acts most energetically, holding an anomalous species of communication with the external world, awake to objects of attention, and most profoundly torpid to things at the time indifferent ; a condition respecting which, most commonly, the patient, on awaking, retains no recollection ; but, on any relapse into which, a train of thought and feeling related to, and associated with, the ante- cedent paroxysm will very often be developed. As illustrating the above singular state, and exemplifying the pheno- mena affirmed in the above definition, we shall supply a few cases of spontaneous somnambulism recorded by good and respectable authors. a. The following instances are narrated by Gassendi, as occurring within his own experience, in the eighth book of his Natural Philosophy, sixth chapter, and third section. The cases are adduced, generally, by writers on somnambulism, including Bertrand and Prichard ; and they are always referred to as genuine and authentic. They seem to furnish illustrations of exaltation of the visual faculty, compensating, as it were, for the torpor of others. Not having the work of Gassendi by us at present, although we have read the narrative in his work, we take the following account of his cases from the work of Muratori.* One John Ferod, well known to Gassendi, was accustomed to rise in his sleep and dress himself; he opened the doors, descended into the cellar, drew wine, or did some other such thing. Sometimes even he would apply himself to writing ; and, what is very curious, although he did all this in the dark, he appeared to see as clearly as if it had been day. He (Gassendi) relates also that a certain Riporto, a countryman of his own, once rose in the night, and, on stilts, passed over a neighbouring torrent whilst greatly swollen; but, awaking on the opposite bank, he dared not repass it, until it was light, and the waters had subsided. We take the following account from Dr. Prichard's ' Treatise on * Delia Pom della Fantasia Unuma. Trattato di Lod. Ant. Muratori.