violent physical effects often arise from exciting moral causes; but it is rarely to be expected that any benefit can accrue to the corporeal functions from an over excitement of the mind. The frequent employment of the imagination in producing the convulsive crises, could not fail in the end of causing the most pernicious physical effects.

The blow struck by the royal commissioners when they put forth their report seemed likely to be fatal to the theory of animal magnetism. All faith in it ceased among those men of science and learning who had previously entertained an idea of its possibility, though some time elapsed before the belief was dissipated from the minds of the multitude. It dragged out a lingering existence with the credulous people for a brief space, when at length by the power of this report it died; or rather fell into a lengthened trance. After a lapse of years, however, it was again revived under the influence of a new phenomenon, the discovery of the Marquis de Puységur, which excited an extraordinary enthusiasm. We refer to the somnambulism and clairvoyance, which were capable of being produced by it.

Puységur and his disciples asserted that the results of magnetism arose from a subtle fluid accumulated in the brain, which was conducted throughout the system by the nerves leading from the brain-that this fluid has an universal corporeal action, and is wholly subjected to the will, and can be insinuated into any other body. It was the will alone which was the origin of the magnetic influence, and the manner of directing the power of the will towards the patient, in order to be effectual must be physical, that is, by the eye, or by pointing the finger, or some other mode of manipulation. The theory of the poles, and the planetary influence was entirely denied. The modus operandi of the school of Puységur being also different from that of Mesmer, the bucket and the manipulation by contact being dispensed with, and the operations also being private, the results produced were singularly different. The violent excitement and the convulsive crisis no longer appeared, but the patients were reduced to a state of somnambulism. This new discovery— without which the science could not easily have been revived after the report of the royal commissioners-renewed the excitement throughout Europe; and in 1827 the subject was again presented to the Academy of Medicine of Paris, and a committee nominated to investigate the new doctrine. Five years elapsed before their experiments enabled them to come to any conclusion upon the subject. They then reported favourably to the magnetic science, and detailed a number of experiments, which, casting aside the possibility of deception, were, without doubt, confirmatory of this report. But if the candid and unbiased reader will examine that report, he will be struck with astonish

ment that so learned a body could allow themselves to be thus egregiously duped. In many of their experiments no effects whatever were produced by the application of the magnetism, and in every case where somnambulism was produced, the fact that the commissioners did not detect the collusion which was evidently practised, can only be accounted for by supposing that they must have been asleep themselves.

We shall now proceed to the introduction of the magnetic science into the United States, and the manner in which it is practised here. But in the first place it will be proper to lay before the reader a description of the manipulations, and the mode of magnetizing, used by Deleuze and his followers. We take this description from the report of the commission last mentioned.

"The person," says the report, "who was to be magnetized was placed in the sitting position, on a convenient sofa, or upon a chair. The magnetizer, sitting on a little higher seat, before his face, and at about a foot distant, recollects himself a few moments, during which he holds the thumb of the patient, and remains in this position until he feels that the same degree of heat is established between the thumbs of that person and his own. Then he draws off his hands in turning them outwards, and places them upon the shoulders for nearly one minute. Afterwards he carries them down slowly, by a sort of friction, very light, along the arms, down to the extremities of the fingers-he begins again the same motion five or six times; it is what magnetizers call passes. Then he passes his hands over the head, keeps them there a few moments, brings them down in passing before the face, at the distance of one or two inches, to the epigastrium, where he stops again, either in bearing upon that region, or without touching it with his fingers. And he thus comes down slowly along the body, to the feet. These passes, or motions, are repeated during the greatest part of the course, and when he wishes to finish it, he carries them even beyond the extremities of the hands and feet, in shaking his fingers at each time. Finally, he performs before the face and the chest some transversal motions, at the distance of three or four inches, in presenting his two hands, put near one another, and in removing them abruptly. At other times, he brings near together the fingers of each hand, and presents them at three or four inches distant from the head or the stomach, in leaving them in that position for one or two minutes; then, alternately drawing them off, and bringing them near those parts, with more or less quickness, he imitates the motion that we naturally execute when we wish to get rid of a liquid which met the extremity of our fingers."

It is in this way that the magnetic fluid is transmitted from the magnetizer to the patient, and brings the latter in subjection to the will of the former. The manner of ascertaining the time when the fluid has taken effect is given by Deleuze :"If your patient speaks, and to the question 'Do you sleep?' answers Yes;' he is a somnambulist. When your somnambulist shall have given an affirmative answer to your first question, you may address others to him. These questions should be simple, clear,

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well adapted, and concise. They should be made slowly, with an interval between them, leaving the somnambulist all the time he wishes to reflect on them."

The first lectures in this country on animal magnetism which attracted much public attention, were delivered in Providence, Rhode Island, in the year 1836, by Charles Poyen St. Sauveur, the translator of the Report on Magnetical Experiments by the Commissioners of the Royal Academy of Medicine. It is asserted that he has made proselytes to the science of many men of learning and eminence, by the extraordinary facts developed by his lectures and experiments, and that some of these persons have, under his instructions, become professional magnetizers. Neither he nor his disciples put forth any hypothesis to account for the phenomena of the science: they attempt not to account for their existence by any of the known laws of nature: they exhibit those phenomena as sustained by the evidence of the senses, without the shadow of an explanation-for they are alike wonderful and inexplicable.

How far the evidence of the senses may be relied upon, or how far they may be blinded and deceived by the collusion of fraudulent actors, is a question to which we now address ourselves; by taking up the pamphlet whose title stands third in order at the head of this paper, and examining the evidences which it adduces in favour of the magnetic influence.

Col. William L. Stone, the author of this pamphlet, is the editor of a newspaper, and a gentleman of respectability in the city of New York. He had already made himself conspicuous by his writings, and by the active part he had taken in detecting the notorious impostures of Maria Monk. When the science of animal magnetism was last introduced into this country it excited general attention, and became a subject of controversy among the learned and unlearned-"Scribimus indocti, doctique" and the newspaper press took a most decided part, either as its opponents or advocates. In this discussion, the editor of the Commercial Advertiser was its bitterest foe, and for many months the science was writhing under the lash of his unsparing satire. About this time M. Poyen introduced the system into Providence, and the illustrations which he exhibited there, it is said, made a strong impression upon some of the eminent men of that city. The publication of the experimental details and the attestations of men of unimpeachable character who had witnessed them, caused a great excitement in the public mind, and even our learned author began to ponder deeply upon the mysterious developments of the power of the magnetic influence. Still he continued to oppose it with undiminished rancour, to the no small dissatisfaction and inconvenience of the eastern professors, who were thus made the subjects of laughter and ridicule.

The battery of the gallant colonel seemed to carry more bullets into the camp of the magnetizers than they could well endure; and although only "paper bullets of the brain" and easily returned in kind-yet, distrusting their power of silencing the battery in this way, they chose capitulation rather than battle. Accordingly, they instigated one of their converts, "a distinguished prelate of the episcopal church," then at Providence, to write to Mr. Stone, inviting him to an investigation of the phenomena of the magnetic influence. This letter was carried to him by a special ambassador, (doubtless one of the magnetizers,) who entered into a conversation with him on the subject in question, detailing a number of facts of a surprising character" Of the truth of which," says the colonel, "I could not entertain a doubt, without impeaching the character of my informant for veracity."!!!

With this delicate consideration for a person whom he had never before seen, and of whom he knew nothing, our author listened with a greedy ear to the wondrous tales of his visiter. The gallant colonel was, as it were, magnetized by the eloquence of the professor, and subjected to the power of his "will"-and before they parted a promise was given that he would make a visit to Providence, and witness the magnetic experiments.

The great object of his curiosity at that place was a Miss Loraina Brackett, who (as his informant stated) had performed some astonishing exploits while in a state of magnetic somnambulism. For example: she had read a note sent to her from Troy under three envelopes, while the seals remained unbroken. She had gone into a garden when asleep and gathered flowers, whose names and colours she would easily distinguish. She had been sent to a dry goods store, and had purchased various articles of merchandise with as perfect facility as any other person could have done when awake. The envoy of the magnetizers had also informed Mr. Stone that this young woman was a person of respectable character and of unaffected piety; that some years before she had received a severe injury upon the head, which for a time deprived her of reason. From this injury she had partially recovered-her eyes, however, were so affected as to produce a disease of the optic nerves, (amaurosis,) which gradually weakened her sight, until, finally, she became totally blind, and so continued to be to that moment.

In pursuance of his resolution, Mr. Stone went to Providence in the month of August of the present year, and on his arrival instituted an enquiry in relation to these statements, preparatory to a personal investigation of the truth by actual experiment. The information was confirmed, and our author further satisfied himself that the characters of the other persons concerned in the experiments were such as to place them beyond all suspicion

of quackery or imposture. Doctor Capron, particularly, the individual who was to perform the magnetic operation, was a physician of eminence, and could not by any possibility be suspected of bad faith towards him, or fraudulent collusion with his patient. Many other particulars of the history of Miss Bracket Mr. Stone also learned, which confirmed his belief of the integrity of the parties. We refer the reader to the pamphlet under consideration for a fuller exposition of them.

During all the time that elapsed between his arrival at Providence and the exhibition of the experiments, it appears to us that the magnetizers lost no time, and omitted no opportunity for disciplining the mind of the colonel into the state of credulity necessary for their purpose. It seemed to be their constant effort to impress him with confidence. They dwelt upon the diffidence and retiring manners of the young lady, and her delicate and sensitive feelings. They spoke of the great difficulty of obtaining her consent to this exhibition, asserting and reiterat ing that her friends, (who were of the highest respectability,) and her physician, (who was of the first eminence,) and herself, (who was remarkably timid and modest,) were unwilling to subject her to public scrutiny.

Having thus endeavoured to impress Mr. Stone with the belief that they had no other object in view than the promotion of truth and the advancement of science, they proceeded to introduce him to Dr. Capron, whom we have already mentioned as the conductor of the projected experiments. "I found him," says our author, "an intelligent gentleman, alike above imposture, deception, collusion, and quackery." The positive manner in which this judgment is pronounced upon a man whom he had never before seen, and of whom he had never even heard, except from those who were directly associated with him in this enterprise, is but little calculated to inspire confidence in the deliberation and caution with which Colonel Stone forms his opinions. A correct estimate of a man's intelligence may often be founded upon a single conversation; but how any one can reconcile it to his conscience to guarantee the integrity and moral character of an utter stranger, we are at a loss to conceive. If a person utterly unknown to him should apply to Mr. Stone, requesting him to become his security for his faithfully performing the duties of an office of high pecuniary trust and responsibility, the request would be laughed to scorn, and the applicant treated with the disdain which his impudence would merit. In the case of such a pecuniary guarantee, however, if the principal should prove faithless, the person becoming security would be the only sufferer; but in endorsing the moral integrity of an individual under the circumstances mentioned, and introducing him to the confidence of the public under the