MESMERISM AND TH E FRENCH DOCTORS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 2499, 30 August 1890, Page 6 (Supplement)

MESMERISM AND TH E FRENCH DOCTORS.

A SCIENTIFIC NEMESIS

(PALL MALL GAZEi’iK.)

In the Paris salon of v thie year there is a very curious picture. % A group of women belonging to the working classes, with here and there a man, is gathered in a large room round a wooden stand about 4ft. high, on which is placed an object apparently emitting rays of light. The women are of various ages ; some are sitting down, others standing up ; but all have something strange in their expression aud attitude. Here is one almOßt dancing in a state of ecstatic abandonment, another inclines her body _to one side as if falling asleep, with a smile of languorous enjoyment on her faae ; an elderly woman in the oentre sits bolt upright, her right haud clawing convulsively at her bosom, the while regarding the object in front of her with a rapt and gloomy stare. Others in a variety or attitudes, all suggestive of great excitement or perturbation, complete the group. In the background appear a few grave and reverend signors, watching the socne with earnest attention. On the wall hangs a printed placard, on which is legible the word “ Hypnotisme.’’ The title of the picture is “ Les Fascines de la Charity.” It is a representation of mesmerism as practised to-day in a leading Paris hospital. The apparatus in the centre is Dr. Luys’s mesmeric machine, as it may be called. It consists of an apparatus by means of which bite of different-coloured glass are made to revolve before the eyes of the patients ; and its advantage is that any number can bo operated on simultaneously without trouble, and that it aets with great certainty. Some are mastered in a few minutes, others take half an hour ; but, as a Paris correspondent says, “ in the meanwhile what pitiful straggles here and there. This one laughs, that one blinks. But little by little silence comes upon the agitated crowd. One by one they drop off’ into immobility. Some appear as if actually asleep; otliere have the wide-open staring oyes of somnambulists; but in either case the fascination of the subject is complete.” The whole scene irresistibly reminds the spectator of descriptions of Mesmer's celebrated baquet a hundred years ago. Ho had so many patients that he oould not operate upon them singly; eo, like Dr. Luys, he invented on apparatus—the baquet, to wit. It consisted of a circular oaken tub, round which tho patients eat. In the tub were placed bottles containing magnetised water, and arranged circularwise in a peculiar manner—that is, in two layers, one with the necks converging to the centre, the other with the necks diverging towards the circumference. The bottles were covered with magnetised water, in which some iron filings and other things were put. Tho whole was covered by a lid. Iron rods passed from the water through 1 Miles in the lid and were held by the patients, who were either in actual contact with each other or connected by a rope so as to complete the magnetic oirole. As we know now, all this apparatus was unnecessary. Dr. Luys’s revolving glass is much simpler. Scientific advance is generally in the direction of simplification, and so it has been in the case of mesmerism. Tho effects are produoed by different add simpler means, and probably with greater certainty; but they are essentially tho 6amo. Mesmer’a patients passed into a state of what he o&llcd “ crisis,” by which he meant a peculiar but favourable condition, which took various forms. Sometimes it was sleep, which he called sommeil critique, and regarded us one of tho most striking phenomena produced. Sometimes it was lethargy, sometimes catalepsy, sometimes convulsions. In short, his aalle must have borne a most striking resemblance to that of the Charite Hcspital today. A conclusive proof that Mesmor was not the sordid charlatan he is made out to have been (though he knew tho value of money) is tho fact that, wherever he went, his fust object was to draw the attention of tho medical profession and of scientific men generally to his discovery. He was himself a graduate in medicine of tho University of Yionna. If he had only wished to make money out of a credulous and ignorant public, he would have earofully avoided the scientific men; whereas he constantly tried to obtain from them an authoritative investigation of his theory and practice. But the Paris doctors would have none of him, with tho exception of D’Eslon, physician in ordinary to the Comte d* Artois, the king's brother, and a man of good position. He became greatly interested in animal magnetism, and took tho matter up keenly. In tho year 1780 ho read a ]>apor upon Mcsmer'.s discoveries before the Faeulte de Medicine, to the effect that he hud given attentiou to the subject, hud found that there was something in it, and proposed, in Mesmer’s name, a competitive trial—namely, to take so many invalids and treat half of them in Mesmer's way, and half in the ordinary way. The answer to this very sporting offer, which at least proves that Mesmer had not only convictions but the courage to uphold them, was as follows : —(1) Injunction to M. d’Bslon to be more careful in future ; (2) his suspension for a year as a voting member of the Faaulte ; (3) that he should be struck off the rolls at tho end of that time unless ho repudiated his observations ; (4) rejection of Mesmer’s proposal. And to-day the Faculty iu Paris i.s given up to what a French medical journal called ! the other day a veritable “debauch” of mesmerism. One calls it one thing, one another- — hypnotism,?, conmc u:buUstne provoqui (a name invented by one of Mesmer’s earliest disciples and now adopted by the celebrated school of Nunov), suggestion, sonirneil, pmvoque, fcacinalion- it is all the same. A* Mesmer himself said. *• It i 3 not a matter of the name, but of the thing, an ! above all of the usefulness of its application.” Tho innumerable professional students of the science, both •in France and elsewhere, differ from each other iu theory and method as widely as any of them from Mesmer ; indeed, there were some very smart squabbles among them at the International Hypnotic Congress last year ; but they are all mesmerists. And there is an extraordinary coincidence in tho matter. Tho present upheaval dates from tho time when Charcot, tho head of the French medical profession, took it up. The work of Dr. Liebeanlt, of Nancy, passed unnoticed for many years; but Charcot is a man to whom all the world listens with respect ; and when he began his investigations other distinguished physicians did nob disdain to follow the lead. Hence tho celebrated Nancy clique—Bemheim, Beaunis, and others who bud long regarded Licbeault, their fellow-townsman, with contempt, but who now oonbider him a shining light. And tho year in which Cbaroot took is up was 1878. Exactly one hundred years before, in 1778, Mesmer entered Paris. Moreover Cbaroot, precisely like Mesmer, was led on to the study by what is known as metallo-therapy—that is, tbo application of metallic disks or coins to tho limbs of hysterical patiouts. Yet further, his clientele is the same; lie operates, as Mesmedid, on tho neuropathic, the hysterical, the h y*taro epileptic. Truly the “charlatan” is avenged! But the French to this day can neither forge*, nor forgive the fact that he took from the Parisians 348,000 Hvres o«ld, though the money was raised by a voluntary subscription ; and they persistently try to put the honour of the discovery ou tho Marquis do Puysogur, Mesmer's pupil, an honour categorical! v repudiated by the good Marquis himself. “It is to him (Mesmer) alone I owo my feeble iights, my fortunele attempts.” But tho French are pi trio tic before all tilings, uadFriedrioh Anton Mesmer was a German. The United States House of Representatives has passed a Bill'.for granting to Mrs. Parnell, mother of the Irish leader, a pension of 50dol. a month. Tho allowance was claimed on the ground ol’ tile service-* rendered to the United States by Mrs. Parnell’s father, thu late Admiral Stewart.

Princess Louise (Marchioness of Lome) has sent bomo notable work, from designs of her own, to the Edinburgh Exhibition, two especially fine specimens being a bod-quilt of homespun linen and a blotting-book cover embroidered with Scotch emblems, the latter being highly artistic.