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 ; translated from the second edition 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 ; translated from the second edition by D. Spillan. 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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    new theory of diseases the universal utility of the principle which I oppose to them. 26. With this knowledge the physician shall judge with certainty of the origin, nature, and progress of diseases, even the most complicated; he will arrest their increase, and attain their cure, without ever exposing the patient to dan- gerous effects or fatal consequences, whatever be the age, temperament, and sex. Women, even in the state of preg- nancy, and at the time of their accouchement, will enjoy the same advantage. 27. This doctrine, finally, will enable the physician to judge accurately of the degree of health of each individual, and to preserve him from the diseases to which he might be exposed. The art of healing will attain its ultimate per- fection. Heaven grant that this hope may one day be realised ; but we much fear, for the sake of humanity, that Mesmer's prophecy is still far removed from the period of its accom- plishment. Be this as it may, the propositions which have been just read, a true imbroglio where we meet a little of every thing, of the absurd and the true, of facts and of meta- physics,—these propositions, I say, met but little sympathy in the learned world of the time ; and their author, from being too refined in his theory, passed as an eccentric in his practice. Besides Mesmer had no right to claim to himself the honour of his doctrine, since we find all the elements of it scattered through works more than a century anterior to his birth ; an assertion whose truth may be readily appre- ciated by turning over the writings of Paracelsus, Van Helmont, Santanelli, and especially of Maxwell ; we may say further, that the philosopher of Weiler shews himself,