The water cure in Scotland : five letters from Dunoon, originally published in the "Aberdeen herald," now reprinted / by J.S. Blackie.

  • Blackie, John Stuart, 1809-1895.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The water cure in Scotland : five letters from Dunoon, originally published in the "Aberdeen herald," now reprinted / by J.S. Blackie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    exhibition in no other light than as an amusing game, in which they were privileged to join along with their seniors, and some of whom were, I believe, influenced by an amiable desire to please their parents, guardians, or teachers, who operated personally, or were at least known to the quick-sighted urchins as having a leaning towards Mesmerism. By far the larger number, estimated at seven hundred and forty, were more deceived than de- ceiving ; they imagined that the operator had filled their bodies with animal magnetism, or some other mysterious power which they could not resist, and before they were well aware, they had committed themselves to such an extent, that to retreat was more difficult than to advance; in so far, therefore, we can impute to them nothing more than a mere error of judgment, or a want of self-possession, with consequent obfuscation or sus- pension of their mental faculties : but it would be carry- ing charity too far to say the same of those who, instead of continuing in the stolid state throughout, regained the possession of their mental faculties so completely, as to indulge in wit and repartee, see an adored object conjured up by the operator, kiss it and bow to it, sing songs, deliver speeches, and, in short, cut a decided figure upon the platform. I insist particularly upon the fundamental importance of this distinction, between those who continue in the stolid state throughout, and those who emerge from the stolid into the lucid state; although I am unable to assign numerically the propor- tions which they bear to each other and to the whole. Last of all, fifty, or five per cent., a proportion probably too high, but intentionally taken in excess, may be con- sidered as labouring under disease of the nervous system, or as having more delicate and impressible nerves than other men. The result is therefore as follows:—