Three lectures on animal magnetism : as delivered in New-York, at the Hall of Science, on the 26th oc July, 2d and 9th of August / by Dr. Joseph Du Common.

  • Du Commun, Joseph.
Date:
1829
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Three lectures on animal magnetism : as delivered in New-York, at the Hall of Science, on the 26th oc July, 2d and 9th of August / by Dr. Joseph Du Common. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    my own powers. A citizen of this happy country, not by birth, but from choice, hardly able to com- mand enough of the language to express plainly and clearly my ideas, if I have to request your impartiality for the subject, I have at the same time to beg your indulgence for the manner in which it is treated. About the year 1778, a German physician, Mesmer, in his practice for the cure of several sorts of diseases, made use of magnetic iron bars, or Tractors; this extraordinary genius one day, not having at hand the magnetic Tractors, imagined to substitute for them simple iron bars; to his own astonishment he produced the same effect. Struck with this unexpected result, he substituted for iron other metals—silver, gold, &c, and he obtained constantly the same effect. Then, tak- ing objects of a different nature with the same intention, he finally came to use merely his own hands. He made attempts; renewed them, and succeeded in producing again the same pheno- mena. He then recognised in man the power of acting on the organs of another man, by means which depend on the will of him who employs them. From that moment Animal Magnetism was discovered, and the discovery received that strange name in opposition to mineral magnetism, or to the property of the loadstone, of which it seemed to be but the substitute. The manner this discovery was made, led to the disadvantageous circumstance, that many «•