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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    of which they are sure, and which are afraid to put them- selves in collision with the strong and the majority. Jussieu closed his report thus :— The theory of magnetism cannot be admitted so long as it will not be developed and sup- ported by solid facts. The experiments instituted to ascer- tain the existence of the magnetic fluid prove only that man produces on his like a sensible action by friction, by contact, and more rarely by simple approximation at some distance. This action, attributed to a universal fluid not demon- strated, certainly appertains to animal heat existing in bodies, which constantly emanates from them, is carried to a considerable distance, and is capable of passing from one body into another. Animal heat is developed, increased, or diminished in a body by moral as well as by physical causes. Judged by its effects, it participates in the property of tonic remedies, and like them produces salutary or injurious effects according to the quantity communicated, and accord- ing to the circumstances in which it is employed. A longer use of this agent will make its real action and degree of usefulness to be better understood. Every physician may follow the methods which he thinks advantageous in the treatment of diseases, but only on condition that he pub- lishes his mode of cure when they happen to be new or opposed to the ordinary practice. Those who have esta- blished, propagated, or followed the treatment called mag- netic, and who propose to themselves to continue it, are accordingly bound to publish their discoveries and observa- tions ; and all treatment of this kind should be proscribed the processes of which shall not be made known by im- mediate publication. Even though Jussieu had not pointed out to mag-