Chapter V: The Malay (16)

This disease affords a convincing proof of the vascularity of the hair, since it tumefies, augments in capacity so as to allow an evident circulation of blood, as the hairs will often bleed when divided with the scissors. Dr. Kerckhoffs regards the malady as the mere result of the custom among the filthy Poles of letting the hair grow to an immense length, of never combing or cleaning it, and always keeping the head covered with a woollen or leathern cap. Hence he observes that the rich are generally exempt from the affection which particularly prevails amongst the Jews. With this view of the disorder, he thinks that cleanliness and the excision of the matted hair are sufficient to effect a cure.

It is, however, more than probable that other causes occasion this horrible disease; and there is but little doubt that the system is affected by a particular virus. In many instances affections of the head complicate it; although it is likely that they may result from the constant irritation of the scalp, that sympathizes so powerfully with the membranes of the brain.

The different names given to the _plica_ indicate more or less the ideas that prevail regarding its nature. The Poles call it _gwozdiec_ or _gwodziec_, which signifies a _nail_ that splits the wood into which it is driven. In the district of the Roxolans it is termed _koltun_, _a stake_. In Germany superstitious fancies have also given it various curious denominations. It is called _alpzopf_ and _schraitelzopf_, as being the result of the _malefices_ of vampires and incubi. By some it is asserted that the Moravians, natural enemies of the Poles, not having been able to conquer them by their arms, had recourse to magical art to inflict this scourge: hence they term it _mahrenflechten_, _mahrenwichtung_. To this day it is called _hexenzopf_ and _bichteln_, or unbaptized, alluding, no doubt, to the Jews, who were accused of having introduced the disorder in the deadly hate they bore the Christians; hence was it also known by the name of _Judenzopf_ (_Coma Judaeorum_).

Amongst the whimsical ideas to which the _plica_ has given rise, the most extraordinary effort of the imagination was that of Hercules Saxoniae. He maintained that the fabulous description of the heads of the Gorgons and the Furies was derived from this affection: "_Caput Gorgoneum, caput Furiarum, vera humana capita fuisse, et fictitiis poetarum occasionem praebuisse_."

There are instances on record of infants being born with this loathsome malady. Davidson attributes this circumstance to the mental impressions of the mother: "_Si ita matris ac nutricis superstitioni placere libuerit_." The length of the matted hair in plica is frequently considerable: Bachstrom relates the case of a Prussian woman whose hair extended beyond the sides of her bed, and she was in the habit of turning it over to make a quilt of it; Caligerus saw a man in Copenhagen whose clotted locks were six feet three inches in length; and Rzaczyinski gives an account of a woman whose hair measured six ells. In the museum of Dr. Meckel, at Halle, is to be seen a specimen of the disease eight feet long. The beard and the hair of other parts of the body are equally liable to these attacks; while the affection has been observed in horses, dogs, and other animals. A curious case is related on this subject by Dr. Schlegel: A drunken coachman was carried away by a pair of spirited young horses, who precipitated themselves, with the fragments of the broken carriage, into the Moskwa. One of the animals was drowned; but the other contrived to extricate itself, and swam ashore. It continued sick for a considerable time, and, on its convalescence the plica broke out in its entire coat.

The assertion that the hairs become endowed with sensibility in this disorder is unfounded. The pain is experienced in the root or bulb; thus a painful sensation is occasionally felt when a lock of hair has been turned back under the nightcap. There is little doubt that the plica is to be attributed to a specific virus, which pervades the whole system unless successfully treated. The most serious accidents have arisen from neglecting it; and Starnigelio gives the following horrible account of its ravages. "Magno omnium malo magnoque cruciatu divagatur: infringit ossa, laxat artus, vertebras eorum infestat. Membra conglobat et retorquet; gibbos efficit, pediculos fundit, caputque aliis atque aliis succedentibus ita opplet, ut nequaquam purgari possit. Si cirri raduntur, humor ille et virus in corpus relabitur, et affectos, ut supra scriptum est, torquet; caput, manus, pedes, omnes artus, omnes juncturas, omnes corporis partes exagitat."

Amongst the various specifics recommended for the cure of plica, is the _lycopodium_, hence called _herba plicaria_; the _vinca_, or _perventia_. The [Greek: daphnoeides] and [Greek: kamai daphne] of the Greeks was also extolled, possibly from its supposed powers in cases of incantation, whence Apuleius calls it "_victoria, quod vinceret pervinceretque injuriam temporis_." This is the plant for which Rousseau felt such a predilection, that in after life he never beheld it without experiencing a delightful recollection of the pleasures of his boyhood. Its flowers are considered the symbol of virginity, and in Flanders are still called _Maegden-palm_. In Etruria maidens are crowned with a wreath of it on their funerals.

The decay and fall of the hair is an accident of frequent occurrence. This unpleasant drawback on vanity has been termed _alopecia_, from the Greek word [Greek: alopex], _vulpes_, a _fox_; this animal and the wolf being said to lose their hair and become bald sooner than any other quadruped. The Arabian writers were impressed with the same belief, and named the affection _daustaleb_, literally the _wolf disease_. Baldness is more frequent in males than in females; and it has been observed, that emasculated subjects are exempt from its visitation.

Amongst the singular anomalies that characterize our ideas, the respect in which hair (naturally unclean unless most carefully attended to) was held at various periods is as singular as the fond devotion with which it is treasured when having belonged to the objects of our affections. In ancient Rome neglected hair was the badge of bondage, and slaves were distinguished by the _capillum passum, fluxum, et intonsum_. Free men, on the contrary, took great care of it; and the term _caesaries_ is said to be derived from the frequency of its cutting, while _coma_ alluded to the great attention paid to its ornamental appearance. The Gauls wore long hair, and their country was thence called _Gallia Comata_. The German chiefs, deprived of their rank and power, were shorn of their locks as a mark of degradation and loss of strength. Shaving the heads of criminals is to this day considered ignominious.

Hair, most unquestionably, constitutes the proudest ornament of female beauty; and clustering locks, compared both by the ancients and the Oriental poets to the growth of grapes, has ever been considered a _desideratum_ at the female toilet, artificial means to curl it having been resorted to from time immemorial, even by men. We find Virgil speaking contemptuously of Aeneas for the care he took of his locks:

Vibratos calido ferro, myrrhaque madentes.

The Romans called a man who thus frizzled himself, _homo calamistratus_.

Crisp and curled ringlets were ever admired, and Petrarch thus describes them:

Aura che quelle chiome bionde e _crespe_
Circondi, e movi, e se mossa de loro
Soave mente, e spargi quel dolce oro
E poi'l raccogli, e'n bei nodi _l'increspe_.

Apuleius maintains, that if Venus were bald, though circled by the graces and the loves, she would not please even swarthy Vulcan. Petronius, in his description of Circe, describes her tresses naturally curling, and falling negligently over her shoulders, which they entirely covered. Apuleius praises her trailing locks, thick and long, and insensibly curling, dispersed over her divine neck, softly undulating with carelessness. Ovid notices those beauties who platted their braided hair like spiral shells. Petronius, to give an idea of a perfect beauty, says, that her forehead was small, and showed the roots of her hair raised upwards. This fashion, adopted by the Chinese, was not long ago a modish _coeffure_ in France. Lucian, however, makes Thais say of a rival courtezan, "Who can praise her person, unless he is blind? Does she not draw up her scanty hair on her large forehead?"

The ancients also perfumed their hair, especially on festivals, with various ointments, composed of the spikenard and different balsams. They also occasionally painted it with a bright yellow. Unhappy must have been the poor slaves who had to attend a Roman lady's toilet; if a single ringlet was displaced, the scourge was applied, and the _cow-skin_ of our West Indian planters, the _Taurea_ ("_scutica de pene taurino_") brought into play; and not unfrequently the head of the offender was broken with the steel mirror that betrayed their negligence to the impatient fair one. As we are on the subject of female ingenuity in endeavouring to spread their nets more cunningly, it may be some comfort to our modern coquettes to know that antiquity seems to sanction the use of rouge, notwithstanding the fate of Jezabel. Plautus tells us that the Roman dames daubed their faces with the "_fucus_, compound of white lead and of vermilion:" hence were they called _fucatae_, _cerusatae_, and _minionatae_. Various cosmetics were also employed, and, when at home, their faces were preserved with a coat of paste, the skin having been previously rubbed with a pumice-stone, and then washed with asses' milk. Poppaea, the wife of Nero, had five hundred asses milked every day for her baths; and when she was exiled, a reduction of her establishment to fifty asses was considered a severe chastisement. Patches were also worn, of various shapes and dimensions, even by men; and Pliny tells us of one Regulus, a lawyer, who put a patch upon his right or left eye as he was going to plead for plaintiff or defendant.

The ancients also wore a certain hair-powder, a custom that was only revived in Europe in the seventeenth century, since it appears that this filthy fashion was brought in vogue at the fair of St. Germain, in 1614, by some beautiful ballad-singers.

In ancient mythology, hair was the symbol of life. All dead persons were supposed to be under the jurisdiction of the infernal deities, and no man could resign his life until some of his hair was cut off. Euripides introduces Death going to cut off some of the hair of Alcestis, when doomed to die instead of her husband Admetus; and Virgil describes Dido unable to resign her life, from her hair having been cut off by Proserpine, until Iris was sent by Juno to perform the kind office:

"Hunc ego Diti
Sacrum jussa fero, teque isto corpore solvo."
Sic ait, et dextra crinem secat; omnis et una
Dilapsus, calor, atque in ventos vita recessit.

Locks of hair were suspended over the door of the deceased, to show that the family were in mourning. On these occasions, the hair was torn, cut off, or shaved. It was then sometimes strewed over the dead body, or cast on the funeral pile. On the demise of great men, whole cities and communities were shorn, while animals shared a similar fate. Admetus, on the death of Alcestis, ordered this operation to be performed on his chariot horses: and when Masistius was slain by the Athenians, the Persians shaved themselves, their horses, and their mules. Alexander, not satisfied with this testimony of grief, ordered the very battlements of a city to be knocked down, that the town might look bald and shorn of its beauty.

While in some cases bald heads were expressive of affliction, in others long hair denoted grief; Joseph allowed his hair to grow during his captivity; and Mephibosheth did the same when David was banished from Jerusalem. Juvenal informs us that mariners, on their escape from shipwreck, shaved their heads; and Lycophron describes long and neglected hair as a sign of general lamentation.

To be shaved by barbers was a proof of cheerfulness; but to cut off one's own hair denoted mourning. Hence Artemidorus informs us that for a man to dream of shaving himself was a presage of some calamity. However, this ceremony may, in its signification, be attributed to the customs of the various nations. Where the hair was generally worn short, its length indicated grief, and _vice versa_. The filth of long and neglected hair might also have been considered a proper and respectful mark of tribulation; for the ancients fancied that rolling themselves in the dirt was a convincing proof of affection; and we see Oeneus besmearing himself with nastiness on the death of his son Meleager:

Pulvere canitiem genitor, vultusque seniles
Foedat humi fusos, spatiosumque increpat aevum.

Shaving was also a nuptial ceremony, when virgins presented their hair to Venus, Juno, Minerva, Diana, and other propitious divinities. At Troezene virgins were obliged to sacrifice their hair to Hippolytus, the son of Theseus, who died for his chastity. The Megarensian maidens presented them to Sphinoe, daughter of Alcathous, who died a virgin. Statius records this ceremony, when speaking of Minerva's temple:

Hic more parentum
Insides, thalamis ubi casta adolescerat aetas,
Virgineas libare comas; primosque solebant
Excusare toros.

ANIMAL MAGNETISM.

Are we to give credit to the various observations that record the wonderful effects of animal magnetism; or should we reject them as the impostures of knaves, or the result of the credulity of fools? It is now nearly half a century since this method of relieving diseases has been introduced by modern practitioners. Thousands of disinterested and candid witnesses have corroborated their assertions, and testified to their veracity. How, then, are we authorized to treat this doctrine as visionary or fraudulent? The most learned bodies have not thought it derogatory to their dignity to investigate the matter; and, notwithstanding opposition, ridicule, and contempt, the practice obtains to the present day. It has, no doubt, been materially impeded in its progress by the invectives of occasional scepticism; but such will ever be the case with science, and those discoveries which accelerate its inevitable empire on the human understanding. Persecution may be considered as the harbinger of truth, or, at any rate, of that investigation which directs to it. Pythagoras was banished from Athens; Anaxagoras was immured in a dungeon; Democritus was considered a maniac, and Socrates condemned to death. An advanced and honourable old age did not protect Galileo against his barbarous persecutors. Varolius was decreed an infamous and execrable man for his anatomical discoveries, and our immortal Harvey was looked upon as a dangerous madman. Inoculation and vaccination were deemed impious attempts to interfere with the decrees of Providence.

Magnetism may be defined as a reciprocal influence which is supposed to exist between individuals, arising from a state of relative harmony, and brought into action by the will, the imagination, or physical sensibility. This influence is said to exist in a peculiar fluid, transmissible from one body to another under certain conditions of each individual, without which the expected results are not manifest. Under these conditions, the effects of animal magnetism are obtained by manual application, by gestures, words, and even looks, more frequently, as may be easily conceived, with nervous, weak, and impressionable individuals. By these means magnetizers affirm that they can effect cures when all other remedial endeavours have been of no avail, either when the patient is awake or in a state of artificial somnambulism.

The history of this doctrine is curious. The ancients fully admitted the power of sympathy in the cure of diseases; but generally attributed its action to the interference of Divinity, or the operation of sorcery and enchantment. A remarkable affinity can be traced between modern magnetism and its supposed phenomena, and the relations of the Pythian and Sibylline oracles, the wonders of the caverns of Trophonius and Esculapius, and the miraculous dreams and visions in the temples of the gods. Amongst the Hebrews, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and Romans, we constantly discover traces of this supposed power of manual apposition, friction, breathing, and the use of the charms of music and mystic amulets. The Egyptian priesthood were considered as possessing a divine attribute in healing diseases. Prosper Alpinus, in his treatise on the medicine of the Egyptians, informs us that mysterious frictions were one of their secret remedies. The patients were oftentimes wrapped in the skins of animals, and carried into the sanctuary of their temples to be assisted by visions, that appeared either to them or to their physicians, who pretended that Isis was the immortal source of these celestial inspirations. The same divine assistance was firmly believed by the Hebrews. It was intimated to Miriam and Aaron that the Lord would make himself known to them in a vision, and speak to them in a dream; and we find in Deuteronomy that the signs and the wonders of prophets and dreamers of dreams were to be considered as the abominations of idolaters, who were to be put to death without pity. This anathema on false prophets was not unfrequently rigorously carried into execution, and we read in the Book of Kings the destruction of all the worshippers of Baal. Ahab marched upon Ramoth-Gilead by the advice of his prophets.

The sympathetic power of corporeal apposition was illustrated when Elisha, to revive the widow's child, stretched himself three times upon him and prayed to the Lord. When Elisha restored the child of the Shunamite to life he lay upon it, put his mouth upon his mouth, his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands, and he stretched himself upon the child, and the child opened its eyes. Miracles were generally wrought by manual application or elevation. Naaman expected that Elisha would have stricken his hand over the place to cure his leprosy; and we find in the Scriptures that our SAVIOUR healed the sick upon whom he laid his hands. Amongst the Greeks we again see the same ceremonies performed on all wonderful recoveries. Plutarch tells us that Pyrrhus cured persons with diseased spleens by passing his hand over the seat of the malady. Aelianus informs us that the Psylli performed their cures by stretching themselves upon the patients, and making them swallow water with which they had rinsed their mouths; and he also mentions that those who approached these mysterious agents were seized with a sudden stupor, and deprived of their intellects until they had left them. Apollonius brought a young girl to life by touching her, and leaning over her as though he were whispering some magic words in her ear; and Origenes affirms that there were sages who dispensed health with their mere breath. Vespasian restored sight to the blind by rubbing their eyes and cheeks with his saliva, and cured a paralytic by merely touching him: the same emperor kept himself in perfect health by frequently rubbing his throat and his body. From a passage of Plautus, it appears that this manual application was resorted to in his days to procure sleep. Mercury is made to say, "Quid si ego illum tractem, tangam ut dormiat;" to which Sosia replies, "Servaveris, nam continuas has tres noctes pervigilavi."

Pliny maintains that there exist persons whose bodies are endowed with medicinal properties; but he admits, at the same time, that imagination may produce these salutary emanations. Celsus informs us that Asclepiades by friction could calm a phrensy; and further states, that when these frictions were carried to too great an extent, they brought on a lethargic state. Caelius Aurelianus recommends manual frictions for the cure of pleurisy, lethargy, and various other maladies, describing the manner in which they are to be conducted: for instance, in epilepsy, the head and forehead are to be chafed, then the hand is to be carried gently over the neck and bosom; at other times, the extremities of the hands and feet are to be grasped, that "we may cure by the very act of holding the limb."

That remedies were indicated in a state of somnambulism is affirmed by Tertullian, who thus speaks of one of the followers of Prisca and Maximilla, two women who foretold future events when they fell into an ecstatic swoon: "She conversed with angels, discovered the most hidden mysteries, prophesied, read the secrets of the heart, and pointed out remedies when she was consulted by the sick." He thus describes ecstasy in his treatise _De Anima_: "It is not sleep, for during sleep all reposes; whereas in ecstasy the body reposes, while the soul is actively employed. It is therefore a mixed state of sleep and ecstasy which constitutes the prophetic faculty, and it is then that we have revealed unto us, not only all that appertaineth to honour, to riches, but the means of curing our diseases." St. Stephen relates the case of a youth who was in such a lethargic state, that he was insensible to all painful agents, and could not be awakened; but when he recovered his senses, he declared that two persons, the one aged, the other young, had appeared to him and recommended sea-bathing. He complied with the instruction, and was cured. But the miracles of paganism were soon discredited, when the relics and tombs of saints were resorted to instead of the temples of the false gods; and priests assumed the power once held by their Chaldean and Egyptian predecessors, and the Druids of Gaul. The beatified were not only physicians during their life, but medicinal after death. St. Gregory of Tours tells us that St. Cosmus and St. Damian were not only able physicians during their blessed existence, but assisted all those who consulted them in their tombs, not unfrequently appearing to them in visions, and prescribing the proper remedies. A saint's breathing upon a veil, and then placing it on the head of a demoniac, infallibly cast out the evil one; and St. Bernard never failed in his exorcisms, by making the possessed swallow some water in which he had dipped his hands. St. Martin stopped the most fearful hemorrhage by merely touching the patient with his garment. The shrines of St. Litardus, St. Anthony, and various other saints, lulled to sleep, and inspired with miraculous visions those who sought their aid.

However, as the progress of intellect dispelled the dark clouds that shrouded the middle ages in superstitious and credulous prejudices, philosophy endeavoured to investigate the nature of this mysterious agency, which priests had for so many centuries usurped as their special gift and property. Sceptic as to supernatural powers in the common occurrences of life, philosophers attributed these phenomena to some peculiar principle with which organized bodies were endowed, and hence arose the dawn of the doctrine of animal magnetism. So early as 1462, Pomponatius of Mantua maintained, in his work on incantation, that all the pretended arts of sorcery and witchcraft were the mere results of natural operations; he further gave it as his opinion, that it was not improbable but that external means, called into action by the soul, might relieve our sufferings; that there, moreover, did exist individuals endowed with salutary properties, and it might therefore easily be conceived that marvellous effects should be produced by the imagination, and by confidence, more especially when they are reciprocal between the patient and the person who assists his recovery; physicians and men of sense being well convinced that if the bones of any animal were substituted for those of a saint, the result would be the same. It need not be added that our author was violently persecuted for this heretical doctrine. Two years after, Agrippa, in Cologne, asserted that the soul, inflamed by a fervent imagination, could dispense health and disease, not only in the individual himself, but in other bodies. In 1493, Paracelsus expressed himself in the following language: "All doubt destroys work, and leaves it imperfect in the wise designs of nature. It is from faith that imagination draws its strength. It is by faith that it becomes complete and realized. He who believeth in nature, will obtain from nature to the extent of his faith. Let the object of this faith be real or imaginary, you nevertheless reap similar results; and hence the cause of superstition."

Cardanus, Bacon, and Van Helmont pursued this study; and the latter physician, having cured several cases by magnetism, was considered a sorcerer, and was seized by the Inquisition. Magnetism, he observed, "is a universal agent, and only novel in its appellation, and paradoxical to those who ridicule every thing they do not comprehend, or attribute to Satan what they cannot understand. The name of magnetism is given to that occult influence which bodies possess on each other at various distances, either by attraction or by impulsion. The means or the vehicle of this influence is an ethereal spirit, pure, vital, (_magnale magnum_,) which penetrates all matter, and agitates the mass of the universe. This spirit is the moderator of the world, and establishes a correspondence between its several parts and the powers with which it is endowed. We can attach to a body the virtues that we possess, communicate to it certain properties, and use it as the intermediate means to operate salutary effects. I have hitherto withheld the revelation of this great mystery. There exists in man a certain energy, which can act beyond his own person according to his will or his imagination, and impart virtues and exercise a durable influence even in distant objects. Will is the first of powers." Van Helmont fully admitted the wonderful faculties that somnambulism seemed to develop, and informs us that it was chiefly during his sleep that he was inspired with his doctrines. One might have imagined that these philosophic researches would have put an effectual stop to the progress of superstition, or rather of persecution; yet their promulgation could not save Urbain Grandier, and many supposed sorcerers, from a barbarous death.

It was in the beginning of the eighteenth century that various experiments were made with the loadstone in researches regarding electricity. In 1754, Lenoble had constructed magnets that could be used with facility in the treatment of various diseases. In 1774, Father Hell, a Jesuit and professor of astronomy at Vienna, having cured himself of a severe rheumatism by magnetism, related the result of his experiments to Mesmer. This physician was immediately struck with observations that illustrated his own theories respecting planetary influence. He forthwith proceeded to procure magnets of every form and description for the gratuitous treatment of all those that consulted him; and, while he widely diffused his doctrines, he sent his magnets in every direction to aid the experimental pursuits of others, and thus expressed himself on the subject in a memoir published in 1779: "I had maintained that the heavenly spheres possessed a direct power on all the constituent principles of animated bodies, particularly on the _nervous system_, by the agency of an all-penetrating fluid. I determined this action by the INTENSION and the REMISSION of the properties of matter and organized bodies, such as gravity, cohesion, elasticity, irritability, and electricity. I supported this doctrine by various examples of periodical revolutions; and I named that property of the animal matter, which renders it susceptible to the action of celestial and earthly bodies, ANIMAL MAGNETISM. A further consideration of the subject led me to the conviction that there does exist in nature an universal principle, which, independently of ourselves, performs all that we vaguely attribute to nature or to art."

Mesmer, as might have been foreseen, became the object of persecution and of ridicule, and withdrew to Switzerland and Suabia. It was there that he met with a certain Gassner of Braz, who, having fancied that an exorcism had relieved him from a long and painful malady, took it into his head to exorcise others. He considered the greater part of the disorders, to which flesh is heir as the work of the devil, and he counteracted his baneful influence in the name of our SAVIOUR. He divided these diabolical visitations into _possessions_, _obsessions_, and _circumsessions_; the latter being trifling invasions. For the purpose of ascertaining whether his patients laboured under natural or infernal ailments, he conjured Satan to declare the truth. If, after three solemn interpellations, and signs of the cross, the devil did not answer, the disorder was considered as coming within the province of medicine; but if, on the contrary, the patient fell into convulsions, Gassner drew forth his stole and crucifix, and, in the name of the Redeemer, commenced rubbing and pinching, sometimes in the most indecorous manner, when females were submitted to his manipulations. When his attempts failed, he accused the patient of want of faith or of the commission of some deadly sin, which baffled his endeavours. His fame became so universal, that the Bishop of Ratisbon sent for him, and he exercised his art under his auspices. At one period, the town was so crowded with his patients, that ten thousand of them were obliged to encamp without the walls. It appears that this adventurer had the power of acting upon the pulse, and could increase or retard it, render it regular or intermittent, and was even reported to paralyze limbs and produce tears or laughter at will. It is scarcely credible, yet the celebrated De Haen, one of the most distinguished and learned practitioners in Germany, not only believed in the power of this Gassner, but actually attributed it to a paction with the devil.

Mesmer was not so credulous, and explained the miraculous cures of Gassner by the doctrines of the animal magnetism which he advocated. From Suabia he returned to Vienna, whence he was expelled as a quack; and in 1778 arrived at Paris, a capital that had patronised Cagliostro and St. Germain, and was ever ready to be deceived by ingenious empiricism. In 1779 he published a paper on the subject, in which he maintained twenty-seven propositions to establish his supposed influence between the celestial bodies, the earth, and animated matter, produced by a fluid universal, subtile, susceptible of receiving, transmitting, and communicating its impressions, on mechanical principles, until then unknown, and producing alternate effects of flux and reflux. This powerful agent, he said, acted chiefly on the nervous system. The human body, moreover, according to his notions, possessed properties analogous to the loadstone, and presenting an opposed polarity, subject to various modifications, which either strengthened or weakened it. The action of animal magnetism, according to him, was not confined to animal matter, but could be equally communicated to inanimate bodies at various distances. Mirrors could reflect and increase its power like the rays of light, and sound could propagate and increase it. This magnetic property, he further stated, could be accumulated, concentrated, and transported at pleasure, although there did exist animated bodies possessed of properties so opposite as to render this powerful agent inefficient. He found that the loadstone was susceptible of animal magnetism, and of its opposite virtues, without any apparent influence on its power over iron and the needle; whence he concluded that there existed a wide difference between animal and mineral magnetism.

Mesmer soon found a warm advocate of his doctrines in a Dr. D'Eslon, and animal magnetism became in fashionable vogue. Not only were men and animals subjected to their experiments, but this wondrous influence was communicated to trees and plants, and the celebrated elm-tree of Beaugency was magnetized by the Marquis de Puysegur and his brother; while the enthusiastic D'Eslon absolutely went knocking from door to door to procure patients. Breteuil, who was then one of the ministers, offered Mesmer a yearly pension of thirty thousand francs, with a sum of three hundred thousand francs in cash, with the decoration of St. Michael, if he would consent to reveal the mysteries of his science to the medical faculty. This tempting offer our magnetizer indignantly rejected, and a secret society was instituted under the name of the Lodge and Order of Harmony. The charms and the power of youth and music were not neglected as auxiliaries to propagate the fashionable doctrine. Young men of elegant manners and athletic form were initiated in the practice of magnetizing, and the _salons_ of Paris consecrated to this worship (for such it might have been termed) were crowded with the most fascinating women that the gay metropolis of France could produce. Most of these females, impassioned by nervous excitability, as loose in their morals as to outward appearance they were fervent in their devotions, abandoned themselves without reserve to the delightful sensations that magnetism and its surrounding machinery were said to afford. In their ecstasies, their hysteric attacks, their spasms, Mesmer, the high-priest, fancifully dressed, but in the height of fashion, with his useful acolytes, endeavoured to soothe and calm the agitation of their enchanting patients by all the means that Mesmerism could devise.

It soon became pretty evident that these phenomena were solely to be attributed to the influence of imagination; and Doppet, one of the most ardent disciples of the new creed, frankly avowed that "those who were initiated in the secrets of Mesmer entertained more doubts on the subject than those who were in thorough ignorance of them." Notwithstanding this evidence brought forward against Mesmer's fascinating practice, he was warmly eulogised even by high churchmen; and Hervier, a doctor of Sorbonne, did not hesitate to assert that the Golden Age was on the return; that man would be endowed with fresh vigour, live for the space of five generations, and only succumb to the exhaustion of age; that all the animal kingdom would enjoy a similar blessing; while magnetized trees would yield more abundant and delicious fruits. This belief of the good ecclesiastic arose, according to his own assertion, from his having been cured of some cruel disorder by magnetism, while all his intimate acquaintances insisted that he had never ceased to enjoy perfect health.

Such were the circumstances that attended the introduction of animal magnetism, which to this day is defended and maintained by ardent proselytes. Sound philosophy can only attribute its wonderful phenomena, many of which cannot be denied, to the influence of the imagination, and the all-powerful deceptive agency of faith. It is an incontrovertible fact, that the nervous system may be so worked upon, thrown by various secret and physical means into such a morbid condition, that results bordering upon the miraculous in the eyes of the credulous may be easily obtained. Every circumstance that appears to differ from the usual course of nature is deemed miraculous by the ignorant; and the Greek proverb [Greek: thaumata morois], plainly maintains that miracles are only for the simple. In fact, who are the persons who in our times cry out "miracle," but weak and timid men, worn out by excesses or age, labouring under the influence of terror; silly old women, who have not the power of reasoning; or nervous and enthusiastic females, who seek for some saving clauses in a pact between vice and virtue, depravity and religion.

All the wonders of the creation are miraculous, if we are to consider those phenomena that are, and most probably will ever remain, beyond our humble and miserable comprehension to be such. The manifestations of the Creator's will are daily exhibited in stupendous forms that strike the ignorant with awe, while they lead the man of science to bow in grateful veneration to that Almighty power that has harmonized the creation for our wellbeing, if we would only obey the sublime dictates of his laws, without attempting to scrutinize their spirit by quibbling with their letter.

There can be but little doubt that the wonders of magnetism may be referred to the imagination; yet some of the phenomena must excite our surprise, and may occasion some degree of hesitation in invariably attributing its results to fancy. The Academy of Medicine of Paris having appointed a commission of twelve members to examine and report upon it, their inferences were as follow:

1. The effects of magnetism were not evident in healthy persons, and in _some_ invalids.

2. They were _scarcely_ apparent in others.

3. They _often_ appeared to be the result of ennui, monotony, and the influence of imagination.

4. Lastly, _they are developed independently of these causes, very probably by the effects of magnetism alone_.

The points of this report that I have printed in italics prove most clearly that the members of the commission, all of whom were decidedly adverse to the doctrine, were convinced, at least to a certain extent, by the experiments they had witnessed, of some singular powers residing in this mysterious science. Such must have been the case, since we find three members seceding from their associates, Laennec, Double, and Magendie, all well known as distinguished physiologists, somewhat inclined to pure materialism, and what may be termed _matter-of-fact_ men, who would hesitate in yielding their belief to any assertion that the scalpel could not demonstrate. Notwithstanding the protest of these gentlemen, the following were the conclusions of the commission:

1. Contact of the thumbs and magnetic movements are the means of relative influence employed to transmit magnetic action.

2. Magnetism acts on persons of different age and sex.

3. Many effects appear to depend on magnetism alone, and are not reproduced without it.

4. These effects are various. Sometimes magnetism agitates, at other times it calms. It generally causes acceleration of the pulse and respiration, slight convulsive movements, somnolency, and, in a few cases, somnambulism.

5. The existence of peculiar characters of somnambulism has not yet been proved.

6. It may, however, be inferred that this state of somnambulism prevails when we notice the development of new faculties, such as _clairvoyance_ and intuitive foresight, or when it produces changes in the physiological condition of the individual, such as insensibility, sudden increase of strength, since these effects cannot be attributed to any other cause.

7. When the effects of magnetism have been produced, there is no occasion on subsequent trials to have recourse to _passes_.[42] The look of the magnetizer and his will have the same influence.

8. Various changes are effected in the perceptions and faculties of those persons in whom somnambulism has been induced.

9. Somnambulists have distinguished with closed eyes objects placed before them. They have, then, read words, recognised colours, named cards, &c.

10. In two somnambulists we witnessed the faculty of foreseeing acts of the organism to take place at periods more or less distant. One announced the day, the hour, and the minute of the invasion and recurrence of an epileptic fit; the other foresaw the period of his recovery. Their anticipations were realized.

11. We have only seen one somnambulist who had described the symptoms of the diseases in three individuals presented to her.

12. In order to establish justly the relations of magnetism with therapeutics, one must have observed the effects on a number of individuals, and have made experiments on sick persons. Not having done this, the commissioners can only say, they have seen too few cases to enable them to form a decisive opinion.

13. Considered as an agent of physiological phenomena, or of therapeutics, magnetism should find a place in the range of medical science, and be either practised, or its employment superintended by a physician.

14. From the want of sufficient opportunities, the commission could not verify the existence of any other faculties in somnambulists; but its reports contain facts sufficiently important to conclude that the Academy ought to encourage researches in animal magnetism, as a curious fact of psychology and natural history.

This report was impugned by Mr. Dubois, in what he calls his rational conclusions, which of course maintain that those of the commission were irrational. However, in this paper he merely affirms his own incredulity, without supporting it upon any grounds of experiment or observation; and therefore his observations must be considered an individual attempt to refute the assertions of a body of scientific men, who, after diligently and maturely weighing the arguments in favour of a doctrine that they were previously disposed to condemn as unworthy of research, came to the conclusions that we have seen.

While the French Academy did not consider it beneath their dignity to investigate this doctrine, in other parts of Europe it attracted the attention both of the reigning monarchs and the most distinguished physicians. In Prussia, Hufeland, who had been one of the warmest opponents of magnetism, became a convert; and a clinical hospital was established in Berlin, by order of the government, to observe and record its phenomena. At Frankfort and Groningen, Drs. Passavant and Bosker published works on the subject; the latter having translated the critical history of Deleuze. At Petersburg, Dr. Stoffreghen, first physician of the Emperor, pronounced himself with several colleagues in its favour; and most of these distinguished men seemed to partake of the opinion of the justly celebrated Orfila, who certainly may be considered as an authority, and who thus expressed himself on the subject:

"If there exists trickery and quackery in animal magnetism, its adversaries are too hasty in refusing to admit all that has been asserted in regard to its effects. The testimony of enlightened physicians should be considered as proofs. If the magnetic phenomena appear extraordinary, the phenomena of electricity appeared equally marvellous in its origin. Was Franklin to be considered a quack when he announced that with a pointed metal he could command thunder? Whether magnetism acts in good or in evil, it is clearly a therapeutic agent, and it behoves both the honour and the duty of the Academy to examine it."

Such is the present state of this curious science. To what credit it may be entitled, and how far it may become a useful medical agent, experience alone can decide. At the same time, it would be unjust to assert, in our present ignorance, that all the learned and independent men who support it are either fools or knaves.[43]

POISONOUS FISHES.

The deleterious qualities of certain fishes have long been the subject of medical conjectures. It is somewhat singular, and most difficult to account for, that the same fish should be wholesome in some waters, and deadly in others, although under the same latitude, and when, to all appearance at least, no local cause can be discovered to which we might reasonably attribute this fatal property. So powerful and prompt moreover, it is in its action that rapid death will ensue whenever a small portion of the fish has been eaten. Such, for instance, is generally the case with the yellow-bill sprat, the _clypea thrissa_.

Some naturalists attribute this poison to copper banks, on or near which the fish may feed. The absurdity of this opinion has been fully demonstrated; in the first instance, no such copper banks have been discovered in the West Indies, and these fish abound on the coasts of islands of coral formation. Moreover, it is not likely that this mineral should saturate the animal; and, even if it could produce this effect, the entire body would in all probability be affected, whereas the poison seems to lie in particular parts, chiefly in the intestines, the liver, the fat, &c. This is evident from the practice of fishermen, who can eat poisonous fish with impunity if they have taken the precaution to draw them carefully and salt them. In addition to these observations, the symptoms of the disease thus produced, by no means resemble those of mineral poisons. Dr. Chisholm, who pretends that copper banks do exist in the Windward Islands, is of this opinion. Admitting the facts, it may be asked, have the waters of these seas been impregnated by the copper? if they are not, how can its influence extend to its inhabitants? and why are particular fish only affected? Moreover, although it is well known that certain substances are deleterious to some animals and harmless to others, yet one might fancy that, if the coppery principal of an animal's flesh could poison, it is not irrational to think that the same deadly substance would also destroy the animal. The presence of this mineral has never been detected by any chemical test; and, if the poison consisted in copper, how could salting the fish destroy it? In opposition to these objections, it has been maintained that fish may be rendered poisonous by feeding on the marine plants that grow upon these deadly banks. Now, unless it could be proved that copper is not injurious to fish, these same lithophyta and zoophyta would no doubt poison them.

However, it is more than probable that it is to a certain injurious food that these dangerous qualities are to be referred. Various plants that grow in these regions are of a poisonous nature to man, although, as I have just observed, they may not be so destructive to fish. The circumstance of the alimentary tube being more poisonous than any other part seems to warrant the conclusion; and I have observed in the West Indies, that the crabs that feed upon banks where the manchineel is to be found, frequently occasion serious, and sometimes fatal accidents. On the coast of Malabar, crabs are poisonous in the month of October, when the _blue tithymale_ abounds.

Whatever may be the causes of this deadly principle, the effects are most rapid. When a large quantity has been taken, the patient soon dies in strong convulsions; but frequently, when the quantity and the nature of the poison have not been sufficient to occasion death, the body becomes emaciated, the cuticle peels off, particularly on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet, the hair drops, acute pains shoot through every joint, and the sufferer not unfrequently sinks under a lingering disease. In these cases change of climate has been found the most effectual remedy, and a return to Europe becomes indispensable.

The usual symptoms that denote the presence of the poison, are languor, heaviness, drowsiness, great restlessness, flushing of the face, nausea, griping, a burning sensation, at first experienced in the face and eyes, and then extending over the whole body; the pulse, at first hard and frequent, soon sinks, and becomes slow and feeble. In some cases the salivary glands become tumefied with a profuse salivation; and the body, and its perspiration, are as yellow as in the jaundice. These peculiar symptoms have frequently been known to arise after eating the _rock-fish_.

The remedies that are usually resorted to are stimulants. Capsicum has been considered a powerful antidote; and the use of ardent spirits or cordials has also been strongly urged. It has been observed, that persons who had drunk freely, or who had taken a dram after eating fish that had disordered others, were, comparatively speaking, exempt from the severity of the disease. A decoction of the root of the _sour-sop_, and an infusion of the flowers of the _white cedar_ and the _sensitive plant_ have also been advised by several West India practitioners.

The practice of putting a silver spoon in the water in which fish is boiled, to ascertain its salubrity, is a popular test that cannot be depended on. Fishermen have observed that fish that have no scales are more apt to prove injurious; and those of uncommon size are looked upon as the most dangerous.

To ascertain whether the nature of the fishes' food could thus render them poisonous, Mr. Moreau de Jonnes had recourse to many curious experiments. He took portions of polypes found in the waters reputed dangerous, more particularly the _liriozoa Caribaea_, the _millepora polymorpha_, the _gorgonia pinnata_, the _actinia anemone_, &c., and, having enveloped them in paste, he fed fishes with them; but in no one instance was any prejudicial result observed. He tried in the same manner the _physalis pelagica_ of Lamark, which contains an acrid and caustic fluid; but the fish invariably refused it, nor would they touch fragments of the manchineel apple.

Oysters have been known to produce various accidents; and, when they were of a green colour, it has been supposed that this peculiarity was also due to copper banks. This is an absurdity; the green tinge is as natural to some varieties as to the _esox belone_, whose bones are invariably of the same hue as verdigrise. Muscles frequently occasion feverish symptoms, attended with a red, and sometimes a copper-coloured, efflorescence over the whole body. These accidents appear to arise from some peculiar circumstances. In Boulogne I attended a family in which all the children who had eaten muscles were labouring under this affection, while not another instance of it was observed in the place. In the Bahama Islands I witnessed a fatal case in a young girl who had eaten crabs; she was the only sufferer, although every individual in the family had shared in the meal. The idea of the testaceous mollusca avoiding copper-bottomed vessels, while they are found in abundance on those that are not sheathed, is absurd; this circumstance can be easily explained by the greater facility these creatures find in adhering to wood. There is every reason to believe, that the supposed poisonous oysters found adhering to the copper bottom of a ship in the Virgin Isles, and the occasional accidents amongst the men that ate them, were only so in the observer's imagination, and that part of the ship's company were affected by some other causes. Another report, equally absurd, was that of the fish having gradually quitted the Thames and Medway since coppering ships' bottoms has been introduced! The following may be considered the fish that should be avoided:

The Spanish mackerel, _Scomber caeruleo-argenteus_.
The yellow-billed sprat, _Clupea thrissa_.
The baracuta, _Esox baracuta_.
Grey snapper, _Coracinus fuscus_.
The porgie, _Sparus chrysops_.
The king-fish, _Scomber maximus_.
The hyne, _Coracinus minor_.
Bottle-nosed cavallo, _Scomber_.
Old wife, _Balistes monoceros_.
Conger eel, _Muraena major_.
Sword-fish, _Xiphias gladius_.
Smooth bottle-fish, _Ostracion globellum_.
Rock-fish, _Perca manna_.

I have known accidents arise from the use of the dolphin on the high seas; and, while I was in the West Indies, a melancholy instance of the kind occurred, when the captain, mate, and three seamen of a trading vessel died from the poison; a passenger, his wife, and a boy, were the only survivors, and were fortunately picked up in the unmanageable vessel.

The above catalogue of poisonous fishes is extracted from Dr. Dancer's "Jamaica Practice of Physic," and its correctness fell under my own observation in the Wrest Indies. The different systems and classifications of ichthyologists have produced much confusion, and may lead to fatal errors; I think it therefore advisable to submit to travellers, who may have to visit these unhealthy regions, the names of the _toxicophorous_ fishes according to the French momenclature.

Le poisson arme, _Diodon orbicularis_.
La lune, _Tetraodon mola_.--LINN.
Le tetraodon ocelle, _T. ocellatus_.
Le t. scelerat, _T. scelreatus_.
La vieille, _Balistes vetula_.
La petite vieille, { _B. monoceros_.--LINN.
{ _Alutus monoceros_.--CUVIER.
Le coffre triangulaire, _Ostracion trigonus_.--BLOCH.
La grande orphie, _Esox Brasiliensis_.--LINN.
La petite orphie, _E. marginatus_.--LACEPEDE.
Le congre, _Muraena conger_.--MINN.
Le perroquet, _Sparus psittacus_.--LACEPEDE.
Le capitaine, _S. erythrinus_.--BLOCH.
La becune, _Sphyraena becuna_.
Le thon, _Scomber thynnus_.--LINN.
La carangue, _Caranx carangus_.

A work, in which a _synonymous_ catalogue of all the fishes supposed to be poisonous might be found, would be highly desirable, as they generally bear different popular and scientific names, thus producing a dangerous confusion even amongst naturalists; how much more dangerous amongst seafaring people and voyagers!

I cannot conclude this article without noticing the singular properties of those electric fishes denominated the _torpedo-ray_ and the _gymnote_. They had been long known to naturalists, and the ancients attributed their destructive faculties to a magic power that Oppian had recorded in his _Alieuticon_, where he describes a fisherman palsied through the hook, the line, and the rod. This influence being voluntary on the part of the animal, seemed to warrant the belief in its mischievous nature, since it allows itself sometimes to be touched with impunity, while at others it burrows itself under the sand of the beach, when the tide has receded, and maliciously benumbs the astonished passenger who walks over it. This singular fish, which is common in the Mediterranean Sea, has been described both by the Greek and Roman writers; amongst others, by Aristotle and Athenaeus: and Socrates, in his Dialogues, compares a powerful objection, to the influence of the torpedo.

This voluntary faculty has been observed by Lacepede and Cloquet in the Mediterranean, and at La Rochelle. In torpedos kept in water for experimental purposes, Reaumur found that he handled them without experiencing any shock for some time, until they at last appeared to become impatient: he then experienced a stunning sensation along the arm, not easily to be described, but resembling that which is felt when a limb has been struck with a sudden blow. One of the experiments of this naturalist proved the extensive power of this faculty. He placed a torpedo and a duck in a vessel containing sea-water, covered with linen to prevent the duck from escaping, without impeding the bird's respiration. At the expiration of a few minutes the animal was found dead, having been killed by the electric shocks of its enemy.

Redi was the first who demonstrated this faculty. Having laid hold of a torpedo recently caught, he had scarcely touched it, when he felt a creeping sensation shooting up to the shoulder, followed by an unpleasant tremor, with a lancinating pain in the elbow. These sensations he experienced as often as he touched the animal; but this faculty gradually decreased in strength as the animal became exhausted and dying. These experiments he related in a work entitled "_Esperienze intorno a diverse cose naturali_." Florence, 1671.