Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 001.djvu/557



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

MR EDITOR,

is now before me the First Part of the First Volume of a work, entitled, Archives of Animal Magnetism, published in the commencement of the present year, in the German language, at Altenburg and Leipsic. This work is to be continued periodically; and the conduct of it has been undertaken by three medical professors in the respectable universities of Tubingen, Jena, and Halle, viz. Drs Eschenmayer, Kieser, and Nasse. No other proof than this is necessary, that a system which sound philosophy had, more than thirty years ago, pronounced to be a delusion, has again been revived in Germany; and has obtained credit, not merely with the vulgar, but with the more intelligent classes of society; and has even gained the belief of some, who, from their having been elevated to the situation of teachers in the highest seminaries of learning, may be presumed to possess a certain reputation among men of science.

It was my intention, in the present communication, to have presented your readers with such extracts from this journal as might enable them to judge for themselves of the nature and spirit of those doctrines, which are said to have excited so much interest abroad, and to hold out the prospect, in their ultimate improvement, of so much mental, as well as corporeal, good to man. On farther reflection, however, I have thought it better to defer this task till another opportunity, and to occupy the present paper with a few remarks relative to the history of this singular species of magnetic agency, such as may not be unaccessible to those who have little leisure or inclination for research, in subjects so remote from the common path of useful study.

The great teacher and practical administrator of animal magnetism in modern times, was a German physician named Mesmer. This individual first distinguished himself by a dissertation on the Influence of the Stars on the Human Body, which he printed at Vienna in 1766, and publicly defended as a thesis in that university. But Father Hehl, a German philosopher, having, in 1774-, strongly recommended the use of the loadstone in the art of healing, Mesmer immediately became a convert to his doctrines, and actually carried them into practice with success. In the midst, however, of his attention to the utility of the loadstone, he was led to the adoption of a new set of principles, which he conceived to be much more general and important in their application. He accordingly laid aside the use of the loadstone, and entered on the cure of disease on this more improved system. This apostacy involved him in a quarrel with Father Hehl, and with the celebrated Ingenhouz, by whom he hd formerly been patronised; and as their credit in Vienna was extremely high, and their exertions against him indefatigable, his system almost immediately sunk into general