Abstract of 'Researches on magnetism and on certain allied subjects', including a supposed new imponderable / By Baron von Reichenbach. Translated and abridged from the German by William Gregory.

  • Reichenbach, Karl, Freiherr von, 1788-1869.
Date:
1846
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Abstract of 'Researches on magnetism and on certain allied subjects', including a supposed new imponderable / By Baron von Reichenbach. Translated and abridged from the German by William Gregory. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    but she also perceived currents of light proceeding from the whole external surface of the magnet, weaker than at the poles, but leaving in her eyes a dazzling impression, which did not for a long time disappear. We shall soon see how all these things are related together. This was the fourth confirmation of the existence of the magnetic light. Dr von Eisenstein had collected several more among his patients ; but the author has not dwelt on them, because he soon saw that from all quarters there might be obtained abundance of confirmation, if it were only looked for. But he had yet to become acquainted with the most remarkable and most dis¬ tinct observer. 7. This was M]le. Barbara Reichel, aged 29, of stout build, daughter of a servant in the imperial castle at Laxenburg. At the age of 7, she had fallen out of a window two stories high, and since that time she had suffered nervous attacks, passing partly into lunacy, partly into somnambulism, and speaking in her sleep. Her disease was intermitting, often with very long intervals of health. At this time she had just passed through severe spasmodic attacks, and retained the entire sensitiveness of her vision, the acuteness of which was singularly exalted during her attacks. She was at the same time in full vigour, perfectly conscious, looked well ex¬ ternally, and went alone through the crowded streets of Vi¬ enna to visit her relations in their houses. The author in¬ vited her to his house, and she came as often as he wished it, so that he was enabled to employ her extraordinary sensi¬ tiveness to the magnetic influence in researches with such apparatus as could not conveniently be brought into other houses. This person, although strong and healthy, saw the mag¬ netic light as strongly as any sick individual; she could move about freely, and was very intelligent; and ill addition to these rare advantages, although highly sensitive, she could bear the approach of magnets, and experimenting with them, far better than sensitive persons generally do. It has al¬ ready been stated that Mlle. Sturmann, for example, could not endure the approach of an open magnet without insensibility and convulsions being brought on. Such a rare case as that of Mlle. Reichel was invaluable for the purposes of science ; and in fact by means of Mlle. Reichel, the author has obtained most precise and valuable results in reference to the theory of Electro-magnetism. In the present paper, however, he only brings forward those observations which bear on the luminous emanations from the magnet. Mlle. Reichel saw the magnetic light, not only in the dark,