Mesmerism.

Date:
[1840]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Mesmerism. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    by perusing the works of Kircher, Athanasius, and other travellers and Jesuit missionaries, who, without having been prejudiced in favour of Mesmerism, relate facts bearing so strong a resemblance to those of more modern date, that the idea of their dependence on a similar power might be very reasonably entertained. That all ancient priests were impostors or fanatics is what, in the present enlightened age, we have all been taught most religiously to believe ; but although, from the barbarous times in which they lived, it might have been considered expedient to envelope all their proceedings in a certain air of mystery (which fancy we cannot say has entirely deserted us in the present day), still, had not a considerable portion of truth been mingled with their mysticism, and had they not possessed a knowledge of the secrets of nature far superior to that of their ignorant countrymen, they could not, so long and successfully, have practised their profession, as the advantages expected from them would not have been obtained ; and, amongst these advantages, the recovery from disease was one of the most prominent, and this was brought about, in many instances, by deep sleep much resembling the modern Mesmeric coma. Passages are frequently met with, amongst Greek and Latin authors, containing clear allusions to sanative processes closely resembling the oj>erations of Mesmer ; but, as the knowledge possessed by the ancients on this subject is viewed by us more as a matter of curious interest than as necessary to support the more modern theories of Mesmer, we shall merely call the attention of our readers to a passage referred by Stobseus to Solon, the celebrated lawgiver of Athens, who, be it remembered, travelled much in Egypt and Lydia, and must have had, we should sup pose, some claim to the possession of what is called common sense as well as genius, inasmuch as he was considered one of the wise men of Greece, and the Athenians continued to be governed by his salutary practical laws for full four hundred years. This passage is quoted by Mr Colquhoun in his 6 Isis Revelata it runs thus :•— i6 Toy xaxa/V v ovaoicri x.vytoj[jt,svov a^yoc.Xious' T£ A oil-^/cc tiOy)<j lyiv)” and may be literally translated, “ and having touched, with his hands, him a mass of bad and painful diseases, he quickly restores him to health.” From the time of Solon, however, we must pass over in silence many centuries ; not however because in the records, such as we have of the in tervening ages, we should find no mention made of persons possessing the power of healing diseases by manipulation, but, as we have before stated, because these facts can be brought forward less as matter of proof than of interest to the curious ; and we will now investigate the subject as it has appeared in more modern times. Petrus Pomponatius, born in 1462, and who became, though in what year we do not find, professor of philosophy at Padua, asserted that the imagina tion or will of one individual could exercise a decided influence on the system of others, and the conditions of the exercise of this power were given by him in a manner showing that his views strongly resembled those entertained by many modern magnetisers. After Pomponatius we find Van Helmont, born at Brussels in 1577, who appears to have been sufficiently well versed in this science to employ it for remedial purposes, and with such a degree of success that his cures were ascribed to the assistance of the devil; a strong test at all events, we think, of the efficacy of his treatment, for we may observe that the aid of