A practical manual of animal magnetism : containing an exposition of the methods employed in producing the magnetic phenomena, with its application to the treatment and cure of diseases / by Alphonse Teste ; tr. from the 2nd ed. by D. Spillan.

  • Teste, Alph. (Alphonse), 1814-
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical manual of animal magnetism : containing an exposition of the methods employed in producing the magnetic phenomena, with its application to the treatment and cure of diseases / by Alphonse Teste ; tr. from the 2nd ed. by D. Spillan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    iron branch, which by means of the bend might be applied directly to the affected part; a cord, passed around their body, united them one to another. Sometimes a second chain was formed by their joining hands,—that is, by each applying the thumb between the thumb and index finger of his neighbour; then the thumb thus held is pressed; the impression thus made on the left is transmitted by the right hand, and it is thus circulated. A pianoforte was placed in a corner of the room, and according to the different movements different airs were played on it. The sound of the voice and singing were sometimes joined to it. To complete the picture, it may be added, that all those who magnetised were armed with an iron rod from ten to twelve inches long; and that the patients, besides the fluid which they received from the common reservoir, were again magnetised directly, either by means of the look of the magnetiser, or with the finger or the rod held out before their face or over their head, or by the application of the hands and the pressure of the fingers over the hypochondria and abdomen. From the combined and sufficiently prolonged action of these different agents there occurred in some of the indi- viduals who submitted to them (especially in the case of delicate women) phenomena of a variable kind, but always more or less unusual, such as fits of coughing, spasm, vomiting, sweating, pains, local or general, convulsions, &c. These were the famed artificial crises from which Mesmer and his followers augured the certain and immediate cure of all diseases without the exception of a single one. God only knows whether Mesmer himself believed in the promises