Seven lectures on somnambulism / translated from the German of Arnold Weinholt ; with a preface, introduction, notes, and an appendix by J.C. Colquhoun.

Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Seven lectures on somnambulism / translated from the German of Arnold Weinholt ; with a preface, introduction, notes, and an appendix by J.C. Colquhoun. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    reality. Never, indeed, was truth mora irrationally opposed. At an early period, it was the fashion among the opponents, after the example of the first French commissioners, to ascribe all the effects of the mag- netic treatment to the influence of the imagination. This objection was in itself sufficiently vague; but so far as it is intelligible, we venture to assert that no man acquainted with the principles and practice of magnetism could ever have thought of attempting to explain the phenomena upon such an hypothesis. Indeed, it was at once refuted by Cuvier, and others, by merely referring to a few simple facts. But the absurdity of this objection is so much the more glar- ing, when we consider that even had the opponents actually succeeded in establishing this hypothesis to their hearts' content, still it would have constituted no valid objection to the magnetic treatment. If the imagination be really a remedy in diseases, what reason can there possibly be why we should not em- ploy the imagination for this purpose, instead of nauseous drugs. If it be the best and most sovereign remedy, why not assign it an honourable place in the Materia Medica ? The doctors, no doubt, know a great deal about the imagination, and we might venture a shrewd guess that every eminent physician,