PREFACE.

THE object of the present volume is to lay before the British public a compendious view of the elementary facts and principles of Animal Magnetism. Hitherto there has been in this country a disinclination to entertain this investigation; but I trust the evidence now adduced will tend to dispel this prejudice, which can only have arisen from the science not having been yet fairly represented.

It is evident that our belief in the facts of any newly-announced doctrine must be derived either from authority, or from direct personal observation. In respect to authority, the most eminent scientific men in Europe have acknowledged the facts of animal magnetism. Among others, Cuvier, La Place, Ampère, Hufeland, Treviranus, Humboldt, Sprengel, Reil, Autenreith, Brandis, Kieser, Gmelin, Georget, Cloquet, Rostan, Andral, Dugald Stewart, Coleridge, &c.; and by referring to the Appendix of this Volume it will be observed that two of the

most distinguished medical professors in this cityProfessors Elliotson and Mayo-have also recently convinced themselves of the reality of the magnetic influence. In addition to these authorities, I may also appeal to the Report of the Commission of the French Academy, which, after a very formal and deliberate investigation, recorded facts in support of animal magnetism, the details of which cannot, I apprehend, be in any way impugned. Hence, if reference to authority fail to command conviction in its favour, at least it should induce those who have not yet studied the science to suspend their judgment until they have investigated it.

Again: The appeal to personal observation is open to every inquirer, and can, it is obvious, be obtained only by attending the séances of any professor of animal magnetism, whether at the North London Hospital, or at my own apartments, where I shall always be happy to afford men of science and literature every facility for the examination of magnetical phenomena. Here, however, I would caution those who attend such demonstrations, not to form an opinion too hastily ;-let them, in particular, beware how they attach importance to negative evidence. It is not pretended by magnetisers that all individuals are equally susceptible of the magnetic influence; the best magnetisers will occasion

ally fail to induce any ostensible effects; furthermore, from my own experience I do not think the phenomenon of somnambulism occurs in more than three out of ten cases, yet the positive evidence is hereby not rendered the less interesting, much less is it in the slightest degree invalidated.

It remains for me to add, that this volume is intended only as an introduction to the study of animal magnetism; it being my intention to publish, speedily, a more comprehensive and systematic work on the subject.

20, Wigmore-street,

Cavendish-square.

AN

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY

OF

ANIMAL MAGNETISM.

CHAP. I.

HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM.

IN commencing a course of demonstrations in London on Animal Magnetism, I am aware of the many difficulties that surround me, and I rely on overcoming them, only upon the truth of the cause I advocate. In Paris, when this new discovery first became the theme of discussion, it was assailed by every species of hostility; learned professors denounced it from their chairs; unlearned journalists made it the subject of their flippant pleasantries; it was turned into ridicule on the stage; and every satirist who could pen an epigram, directed the energies of his wit against it. But animal magnetism could not thus be put down. In the same city, only a few years afterwards, when the shock of political convulsions had subsided, and science and literature again resumed their dominion, the same facts again challenged attention. In vain were they denied; they were over and over again demonstrated in the public hospitals, in the presence of a numerous auditory, to the conviction of the most sceptical; and the force of the evidence alone bore down those official barriers of pre-judgment which so

B