Chapter III: Part 3

The medium of space is the visual medium; not, however, for looking through, as is supposed, but by reason of it forming the link or intermediate means by which the object is connected with the sense. Now, as the medium of space is present everywhere, and as it promotes visual or optic perception, the question naturally arises, why do we not see in the night as well as day, in all places and at all times; in a word, why do we not see in the dark? The clairvoyant does "see" in the dark.

The nervous fluid excites the sensation of colour; the medium of space connects mediately the object with the nervous fluid, which fluid acts on the optic cerebral organ by pressure and degrees of pressure. The nervous fluid, nor anything else, acts essentially, that is, by means of properties and qualities; and its acting on the brain is caused by external agency, the fluid itself being _inert_. It may well be supposed that the exquisite construction of the brain, from being competent to produce psychologic effects, although excited by material agency, requires but the most simple means, such as a simple impulse or impression, to be actuated into excitement; and as the portion or line of the medium of space which is continuous from the external object, through the pupil, to the nervous fluid within the retina, is that which puts the nervous fluid into functional action on the brain, it is fairly assumable that only by pressure, degrees, and changes of pressure, the nervous fluid can by possibility act on and excite the brain; which equally applies to the nervous fluid of all the senses. Taking, then, the maximum of optic pressure as productive of no sensation; so, from there being no object to perceive, it is imagined we are surrounded with darkness; and taking the minimum as exciting the sensation recognised as luminous, light, or white, to intermediate degrees of cerebral pressure are to be attributed the sensations of red, yellow, blue and of colours generally. According to these terms of the colorific scale, all optically-excited perceptions are consequent on the cerebral pressure being in degrees on the scale of descent from the maximum.

For the reduction of optic pressure, there are different minus-pressure means, namely, the sun, flame, electricity, phosphoric substances; and the daily electric matter, which is constant in the atmosphere at the eastern hemisphere of the globe, and which keeps pace with the sun; because the rarest elements of the atmosphere will be in greater quantity on the side facing the sun. As this daily electric matter emerges before the sun is above the horizon, the general optic pressure excites the sensation supposed to be the light of day-break; and while following, after sunset, the sensation is known as twilight. Any such minus-pressure matter lying in the visual direction, shortens the visual line, and intercepts the continuity of that line of the medium of space which makes one with the axis of the eye, and thus effects the reduction of optic pressure.

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_Note._--The terms here made use of, from being unknown in the olden philosophy, need explanation.--_Axis line_: that line of the medium of space which is as the axis of the eye produced to, and terminated by the external object. _Visual line_, the same. _Visual continuity_; the line which is continuous _angularly_ with the termination of the axis line. From the termination of this _continuous_ line, there may be another angular continuity or _line_, as from mirror to mirror. All lines continuous from the axis line and terminated by _the object_ supposed to be seen, and however irregular, are _lines_ of _vision_: the angular point, _the point of_ (first, second, or third) _continuity_. The reader should make a diagram for each case as he proceeds.

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Within the window-closed room, a lighted candle is supposed to fill the entire space with light radiated from the flame: the perception is named light, and is thus wise excited. When the axis line is terminated by the flame, the pressure on the nervous fluid is lessened to the degree which promotes the sensation of luminousness, which seems to be the physical appearance of the flame itself. Again; when, in the same room, the eye is directed to a mirror the like perception is excited, because the visual line is continuous from the point of continuity, or termination of the axis line, to the flame as before. When the axis line is terminated by a piece of furniture, the point of continuity being imperfect and the visual continuity thence to the flame irregular or indirect, the optic pressure on the brain by the axis line excites the sensation of colour, which is imputed to the object, chair, or table.

In the celebrated OPTICS, the visual lines are mistaken for rays of light radiated from the flame, and reflected from the other objects; which rays are supposed to enter the eye, and (as if possessed of intelligence) arrange themselves on the back of the eye or on the retina, in the precise form, but of a different size, of the object to which the eyes are directed, as the means by which externals are seen before the face. In cases wherein the visual line is indirect, as when lying through media of unequal density, the supposed rays are said to be refracted: and, because the curtained iris excludes the visual medium, except through the pinhole pupil, thence along the axis through the lenses of the eyeball, the _optics_ inculcate, that the eye has been formed to see only in straight lines. Finally, by Dr. Reed it is taught, that the use of the sensation and of the image on the _back_ of the eye, is to make the external object _opposite the face_ be seen; all which has to be rejected and forgotten in being guided by the natural, real function of the sense, against which there is no appeal. There are no rays concerned; the medium of vision is quiescent; there can be neither radiation, reflection, nor refraction effected by passive inert bodies; there is no image on any part of the eye or retina; and externals could not be made visible, or seen by their images. Such absurdities, all of which are maintained in modern philosophy, have prevented, more than any thing else, the science and phenomena of Mesmerism being understood.

According to the interstitial composition of the surface of a body, so is the point of visual continuity at or beneath the surface; which determines the degree of pressure on the axis line; which determines what shall be the resulting sensation, or apparent colour of the surface of the object to which the pupil of the eyeball is directed. Through a pane of glass, or through the clear atmosphere, the axis line may be said to be uninterruptedly continuous, and the perception is as if the glass were away. Through an ignited sheet of iron the visual continuity is imperfect, and may be said to be continuous only halfway through the sheet. An ignited bar, at first, is said to be brown, then ignited to redness: colours are sensations. Within the bar the axis line is continuous in zig-zag order, which causes the optic pressure to excite the sensation of red: it is a prismatic case. The _spectra_, by means of the prism, are only in the sensorium; the skreen itself is unseen. When the direct axis line terminates at the apparent red on the skreen, the continuity thence is maintained through some particular part of the prism; when terminated by the yellow, through a different part; when by the blue, through another different part; and through each part the continuity is somewhat curvilinear, hence the pressures and perceptions are different. Through the air, when the perception is of the many-coloured rainbow, the visual continuity is as through the prism: there is no coloured bow out of the sensorium.

Where there are no minus-pressure means for lessening the optic pressure, as in mines, caves, and window-closed rooms, there can be no perceptions of light and colour. From the sensation ceasing the same instant the last window-shutter is closed, it would seem, that, the _daily_ minus-pressure matter is in constant flow eastward through the globe. The rheumatic sufferer fears sun-down, as if the daily matter enters and protects the nerves from the nightly. The meteorologist has to resolve the problem for the philosopher in tracing the magnetic meridian.

The objection is unfounded against pressure being the cerebral exciting cause. It is objected, that, from two stars equally distant, one considered red, the other blue, the pressure cannot be changed along the visual lines in the small space of time the eye takes to direct itself from one to the other star. There is no changing of pressure on either line. The existing pressure on the sense by each is different, and what it is, depends on the constitution of the external object, as in every other instance, and just as on that of the ignited bar already stated. The imputed colours of the stars being different, so is the continuity of axis line beneath the surface of the atmosphere of each star, also the degree of pressure and the sensitive result.

Neither is it maintainable that the medium of space cannot be the medium of vision, because "from being all-pervading, it should excite vision through all kinds of bodies, as through a block of rock crystal, but does not through so thin a substance as a leaf of blotting-paper." By clairvoyance it is proved that the visual continuity is maintained through stone walls; and by reason of the _visual and auditory_ medium being the same, that is, medium of space, the "hearing" through stone walls, makes the "seeing" possible. The bell must be connected mediately with the auditory sense, as is the object with the visual sense; and through stone walls there is nothing continuous but the medium of space. Sound is no more a transmissible object than colour; neither belongs to the external object. In all such cases of sensations which are different, although the promoting means are the same for all the senses, that the organs of sense may not be equally susceptible, or capable of being put into functional service by the same degree of cerebral pressure, should be held in mind, or else it might be asked why all the senses are not excited at the same time.

TRANSPARENCY.

A transparent body, is one through which the visual line is uninterruptedly continuous from an object to the sense. The materials for glass-making are opaque, and the natural opacity of their elementary atoms is unalterable. Hence in some novel arrangement of the atoms towards promoting the direct continuity of the medium of space through them, consists the object of vitrifying and principle of transparency.

OPACITY.

The principal obstacle to transparency is interposed electric matter. In the earliest stages of glass-making an immense volume of electric matter is got rid of by means of the furnace fire, which becomes sooty smoke while ascending and passing through the furnace funnel; and to prevent all return of the like, it is, that solid oxygen is added to the materials when fused, the interstices of which, in the vitrified mass, secure the direct continuity of the visual medium. Priestley made black wax and brass filings transparent, by only removing all interposed electric matter. The body of a living man, by being de-electrised, has been made transparent. In these instances the transparency is of short continuance, and the opacity is restored by returning electric matter. Fire, in de-electrising gems and crystals, destroys all partial opacity. The clearest water is made cloudy on receiving the charge from the electrifying jar; by uncustomary electric matter, the atmosphere is made foggy, and is transparent again when the electric matter becomes a constituent of rain-water. These instances show, that, electric matter lying in the way of the medium of space and vision, interrupts its regular continuity, consequently, its direct pressure; yet not wholly,--clairvoyance and sound make manifest that the continuity is maintained through the most opaque bodies. The principle bears strongly on the physiology of clairvoyance.

THE NERVOUS FLUID.

Were there a distinct fluid belonging to the nerves of sensation, and insulated, it could not be affected by external circumstances, nor its cerebral excitement be productive in the least of any knowledge, relative or inferential of external bodies. Were the fluid not insulated, it should be subject to waste like the lachrymal fluid, and must excite the brain differently at different times, even under equal circumstances; which must make it impossible to identify the same body after its removal out of the axis-of-vision direction.

A distinct fluid, not insulated, has to be in contact with the line of medium of space which the external object terminates, which adds to the difficulty of waste, in the possibility of the nerves becoming flooded with an abnormal fluid, medium of space. Much more likely is it, that, _the cerebral exciting fluid, of the nerves generally, consists in medium of space_, received from without through the cuticular insertions and orifices of the nerves as streamlets from the great ocean of space, subject to neither ebb nor flow, and liable to change of pressure occasioned by external agency. According to this idea, the object and brain are the terms of the visual line; and medium of space, continuous from the object through the nerves to the brain, is the connecting link.

Further; although medium of space is the nervous fluid and immediate cerebral exciting cause, (which entitles it to be named the TRUE _nervous fluid_,) there are strong grounds for concluding that, with the true fluid, the nerves include a pair of correlative elements. Because of the mesmeric effected polarities being without the comatose flow, which leaves nothing to look to for the polarizing means but the contents of the nerves. Next, as clairvoyance is a cerebral effect, something connected with the nervous fluid must be concerned in its production, or why not clairvoyance take place without the magnetic passes. Finally, the true fluid, or any single fluid, is incapable of being polarized; and the true fluid might be rendered immovable at times, were there no electric or minus-pressure matter within the nerves, also to prevent its increase, and to retain the normal quantity of the true fluid. All extremes being prevented, and the polarities of the extremities productive of increased lucidity, are consistent with idea of the nerves including magnetising correlatives, which, beside, serve as an elastic break against the fluid exciting the brain indistinctly, irregularly, or exquisitely; and only, as it were, muffled, to prevent the sensibility of the cerebral organs being worn out prematurely.

Another object may be attained by the included electric correlatives, namely, restricting the exciting pressure to certain degrees, so that the sensation shall be defined and directing, but otherwise useless and misleading. Another may be, that of regulating the degrees of pressure on such a scale, as that, by the same senses, sensations shall be excited as different from each other as those of red, yellow, and blue by the optic sense, heat and cold by the feeling sense, sweet and bitter by the gustory sense. To which the conjecture may be added, for the purpose of anatomic and physiologic inquiry, that, as not even an elementary interstice is without design, so may the orifices of the retina be of regulated diameters, to ensure such definite degrees of pressure on the brain as shall excite the sensations recognised as primitive colours.

On the principle that the nervous fluid is derived from without, the question is decided as to the cuticular termination of the nerves, which is objected to by some, in consequence of a few of the nerves being observed to have "inward bending." And is it not a matter of common observation, that "feeling is most sensible at the tips of the fingers" or apparent place of the sensation.

CLAIRVOYANCE.

All mesmerically-produced phenomena are the consequence of the passes. The immediate effect of the passes is de-electrisation of the nerves, that is, of their contents, which leaves them polarised (as is the case in natural sleep), but more intensely than is effected by the comatose flow. In the ordinary condition, the contents of the nerves may be likened to milky water in a barometer tube; in natural sleep, to the same, with a less degree of milkiness--the latter subsiding from the ends to the middle portion of the water; and in the clairvoyant condition of the nerves, to the milkiness having so completely subsided as to leave the water above and below the middle of the tube transparent. In the ordinary condition, the nervous fluid is clogged, as it were, with intermixed electric matter, which, by marring the regular continuity of the fluid from without to the brain, reduces in some degree the exciting pressure on the brain, which prevents the function of the fluid being employed to its utmost. In this encumbered state, the fluid may be said to act on the brain, as the clapper when muffled on a bell. Still the excited pressure is sufficiently strong, and the mental result sufficiently distinct for all human purposes. When to the clairvoyant degree the nerves have been denuded of impeding electric matter, the nervous fluid is enabled to act on the brain as if unmuffled; and as its continuity from the orifices of the retina through space is not in any manner altered, so, to the altered electric condition, mesmerically effected, on the contents of the nerves between their orifices and the brain, we must attribute all mesmerically produced phenomena; and without supposing that the brain is quickened into a higher degree of sensibility, or that any one of its various organs has acquired some exalted degree of psychologic ability.

That _long vision_ and _opaque vision_ should be consequences of cleansing, as it were, the nerves of intercepting minus-pressure matter, is nothing surprising, it is as removing dust from the window to better our vision: the physiology is traceable, and the psychology not more incomprehensible than its hourly occurrence in a minor degree, to which, as sensible effects, we are indebted for all we know, and by which we abide, without inquiry into their nature or origin; so perfect is the design of Nature in our make for supplying all that is requisite to the comfort and enjoyment of man in his present state of existence.

_Long vision_, during the clairvoyant state, or the recognition of objects greatly remote by the sensation each promotes, has its wonder much more in the _nature of the medium of space_ than in the familiar mental effect. The optically promoted sensation is proof that the external object, were it at the antipodes, is in mediate connection with not only the nervous fluid of the retina, but the brain. Long and ordinary vision have the same theory: in both states the same chromatic cerebral organ is excited by the nervous fluid; in both the nervous fluid is continuous from the brain to the external body; and in both the object perceived is the sensation of colour. That the eye-ball lenses are concerned in long and opaque, as in short vision, however in the two former, the eyes may be bandaged (to satisfy the desire of spectators, otherwise useless, if not worse,) is obvious, from the knowledge of form being connected with the sensation, as in every instance of optically-excited perception.

By the passes, the nervous fluid is freed from the visual intercepting electric matter; which matter, like the colouring matter in stained glass, renders the continuity of the visual medium or fluid within the optic nerve impaired.

To account for the phenomenon of much longer than ordinary vision, there is nothing in the mesmeric case to effect the difference, or refer to, but the de-electrised condition of the nervous fluid. From which it would seem that the visual line from the most remote object, is always as continuous to the brain as from one within arm's length before the face; and that the degree of cerebral exciting pressure on the longer line is rendered equally efficacious, _now_, that the electric impediment has been removed from the nervous fluid; hence, that the normal intermixed quantity of electric matter with the nervous fluid prevents us being clairvoyant at all times, is reasonable to conclude.

_Opaque vision_, or the "seeing through opaque bodies," is not the absurdity so generally imagined when judged and reasoned on according to the true principles of visual perception: the facts of clairvoyance place the absurdity on the denier.

As the medium of space furnishes all the nerves with the true and only cerebral exciting fluid, which is necessarily all-pervading, and proved to be so by the auditory sense, or "hearing through stone walls," the possibility of seeing through such bodies is made manifest, and _clairvoyantly_, has been proved. Misled by the idea that the eye-balls look through solid glass, yet cannot look through a stone, to doubt and deny is pardonable; yet nothing else is requisite, than that the visual medium shall be continuous from the object to the brain, no matter how many opaque objects lie between, for the perception being excited, and promoted by the remote object: the object perceived is the sensation of this or that colour, as in transparent vision. It is no ordinary circumstance, that of "seeing through opaque bodies;" neither is it an ordinary circumstance, the extreme de-electrised condition of the nervous fluid, _on which the extra-ordinary of the phenomenon depends_. In removing the partial opacity of a crystal by means of fire, the hindrance to the visual continuity, electric matter, is displaced; but as no such electric displacement from a stone wall is effected or practicable, while to the clairvoyant the continuity is as were there no electric impediment in the wall, is proof additional that the medium of space, the common cerebral exciting cause, pervades all things, the human body included, and hence the being in _Report_.

Now that mesmeric practice and proof have stifled all open opposition, by the influential ignorant, to the surprising truths of the science, that all persons cannot be mesmerised to the clairvoyant stage, is in nowise prejudicial to mesmerism, or to the SCIENCE OF THE ECONOMY being intimately connected with medical practice; neither are occasional failures by the clairvoyant, especially in trial tests, some of which exhibit samples of complicated confusion, as if for the purpose of suppression, instead of laudably exalting the all-important science of mesmerism. Had the very liberal offer of a hundred pounds been under less complicated conditions, the bank-note most certainly would have been deciphered and changed hands. Had the note been spread open, while enclosed between two plates of sheet-iron, and then read by the clairvoyant, the test would have been sufficient to convince the most steady, sturdy, staunch unbeliever, and the _dénouement_ affirmative to every dispassionate observer. But from being folded line upon line, letter on letter, at least three deep, the misarrangement destroyed most effectually all reading order. A Newtonian would say, that, "the commixed rays proceeding from the several overlaid typographic characters, and from the lines placed tier over tier, could never form the image of even a single letter on the retina, with anything resembling legible clearness;" therefore the trial must fail most inevitably.

RIGIDITY.

None deny that rigidity of the limbs can be effected mesmerically; but all mistake who impute the phenomenon to muscular ability, irritability, or energy. All flesh is _inert_; all muscular fibrine is flexible, bends from its own weight when held horizontally, and over it the will has neither power nor influence. Then, how is a muscle or nerve to stiffen itself, and where is the mechanical arrangement within for such purpose? The power is derived from without, and consists in medium of space. The de-electrising passes make entrance-room for influent medium of space, which is the cause of the limbs becoming rigid. As in Bramah's pump, water serves the purpose of an iron piston, so, within the nerves and muscles, medium of space in excess and under the general pressure, is an equally rigid piston, and the cause of all muscular strength and of rigidity. The depolarizing passes bring back electric matter, which displaces all excess of medium of space, and with it the physical cause of rigidity.

PAIN.

Pain is not removed but prevented by means of the passes. It is not excited in the mesmerised patient during severe surgical operations, because the movements of the brain, as is said of a watch with the finger on a wheel, are stopped.

General insensibility being effected by pressure of the surgeon's finger on the brain of a fractured skull, so is it mesmerically effected by the nervous fluid, which has suffered increase as the nerves have been de-electrised by the passes.

_Curative Mesmerism._--The curative principle of mesmerism seems to consist in correcting occasional irregularities in the _electric circulation_. By the passes, electric matter in excess is removed, which, from being noxious to the part, might contribute to the formation of mucus to become concrete, or otherwise injurious to the flesh: or, the passes may transfer the excess to supply deficiency elsewhere,--as in the case of gout, a disease of the sufferer's own making, from excess of de-electrising food and drink, which uncoats and unlines the nerves, and thus leaves the nervous fluid, from casual circumstances, to almost lacerate the brain. Stomach coating aliment, not denuding physic, is the cure: as electric matter may become a constituent of the humidities of the different organs, so may it of the serous fluid, which is indispensable to wholesome flesh. In all such cases mesmerism is curative.

_Ethers._--From inhaled _ethers_, producing insensibility without rigidity, it would seem that they contribute a kind of electric matter to the interior of the nerves, but which, from being uncongenial, is happily soon displaced. All excess being the more prejudicial, the quicker the displacement the better. Any ether imparted to the fluids of the nerves, may effect reduction in the quantity of the true fluid through the cuticle orifices; or make breaks in what is left, so as to leave the nervous fluid incompetent to produce excitement of the brain; hence the insensibility of the patient, if that can be considered insensibility, when there is nothing of pain of which to be insensible.

Etherising by external application, but which may not amount to mesmerizing, is nothing new. A Dublin apothecary, sixty years since, cured the poor daily of nervous complaints, headaches especially, by pressing a folded handkerchief on the forehead, taken from a wide-mouth jar, concealed with professional delicacy, behind the counter, but long since discontinued; the learned in the laws of life and living, considering that short-hand work is a forbidden practice,--that something newest in the last _Pharmacopoeia_ is better than the best, for all parties. Tobacco-smoking brings on a degree of insensibility, and mesmerically conduces to sleep, which exertion frustrates. The smoke of the fire in London stayed the plague in the year 1666. The subject is worthy of consideration by the mesmerizing physician, in case of epidemics especially.

REPORT.

The being in report one with another, the mesmerised with the mesmeriser, is proved possible, and from being effected by the passes is proved also to be natural,--not satanic or supernatural, the weakest of all ideas. Within Nature there can be nothing supernatural; nor out of Nature, or of the other worlds, anything in the power of living man or poor human nature to command or imitate. However, as believers are not reasoners, except in the arithmetic of funds, to the reformer _Time_, must be left the conversion to Reason.

Throughout the whole of Nature there is nothing insulated, not even an atom. Involved in a universal medium of pressure, all things must be in contact, mediate or immediate. The atmosphere is a universal connecting link. As by the sea the most distantly-situated islands are in mediate connection, so are all mankind by means of the atmosphere. Still this atmospheric connection is limited to margin with margin, surface with surface. By the all-pervading medium of space, the interior of all living beings is in mediate connection, equally as the interior of submerged sponges by the water. As "light" would pervade and connect our bodies were they glass, so does the medium of space. But were mankind so left, it is difficult to conceive how the organic functions could possibly take place, and impossible to say how personal individuality could be, as at present, an independent animal privilege.

Although the medium of space is continuous through all bodies, the regular continuity is impaired by the elements of the atmosphere between each. The atmosphere not only protects all living bodies against the maximum and all excess of pressure, but in some considerable degree insulates the bodies of persons from each other, just as fog and small snow intercept the visual continuity and would render "rays of light" interruptedly continuous; so do the intermixed atoms of the atmosphere the regular continuity of the medium of space between person and person, as respects surfaces. Within the body, insulation is still more complete: here, electric matter and air abound to the exclusion of all excess of medium of space; by which the different organs remain, in a manner disconnected, or so far, as that the functional action of each organ has its distinct period, instead of the action of the whole being simultaneously performed. Beside these means and degrees of insulation, the non-conducting coating and lining of the nerves insulate more completely their elementary contents, by which the nerves are not only tubes of separation but insulation, and are direct conducting channels of the nervous fluid through the body from its external source to the brain.

Although man is thus isolated from man, the isolating means do not prevent the medium of space being continuous through all, and from one to another; which is manifested by the clairvoyant, who has the like of the sensation excited in the brain of the mesmeriser repeated or excited in his own brain; as when the mesmeriser masticates and the sensation of the same flavour is known by the mesmerised. The sensation is nothing transferable; taste is not by the tongue; hence, by the sensation being excited in succession in the brain of each person, is the only conceivable mode, in reason, why the second should know what the first is masticating. The nervous fluid of the two may be supposed to be derived from the medium of space between them; then, by the medium of space lying between, the nervous fluids of the two are rendered continuous one with the other, and is so at all times, but only when the nervous fluid is mesmerically de-electrised is it productive of clairvoyant perceptions. Community of sensation, or the _same_ sensation being perceived by different persons, is an impossibility. The first sensation is only where it has been excited, in the brain of the mesmeriser; and supposing the matter of the nervous fluid continuous direct from his brain to that of the patient, in it, what has the latter to perceive?--nothing; neither is perception separable in idea from the result of cerebral excitement. It is to be hoped that the desultory ideas here advanced may tend to a better knowledge on this singular mesmeric discovery. Even the foregoing may be objected to with apparent reason, on consideration of what is termed "community of thought," wherein there is no previous sensation to be repeated. To account for which requires more cerebral information than has as yet been brought to light; when satisfactorily known it may show, whether or not community in dreaming may be effected. Report would be impossible were there not intimate connection of brain with brain.

VOLUNTARY DE-ELECTRISATION.

Every motion of the limbs being effected by pressure, to promote the local change minus-pressure matter has to be displaced. That the assent of will is indispensable is evident, inasmuch as there is no _ordinary_ limb motion, if not previously assented to by the will. Yet will is no mechanical power, nor anything having a distinct existence. Will seems to be, the mutual accordance of the cerebral organs to act together so as to effect, or rather assist, the accomplishing of a present intention. The act may be likened to that of suction, voluntarily performed by the brain to de-electrise itself, in order to make room for and receive that which lies in the way of the desired object being effected. The voluntary act by the brain cannot be on anything far away, or not in contact with the brain, and that which is acted on must be continuous to the place of the removable impediment. If, then, the brain does de-electrise itself, and that by so doing it receives electric matter from the nerves which are continuous from the limb to the brain, such removal of electric matter is effected within the nerves of the limb, as makes space for medium of space to enter in the requisite quantity to move the limb according to the required velocity. It is not to be overlooked, that, previous to the self de-electrisation of the brain, thought may be concerned in promoting the cerebral de-electrising act. So far as the foregoing may be true, the like circumstances take place when the mesmeriser wills into report with himself the far-off patient, the electric matter in the space between being affected with as much facility, as the transfer of similar matter from the trough to the utmost extent of the galvanic wire, which may be considered instantaneous, considering the hundreds of miles distance between.

_The Nature and Power of Will._--The power of effecting, voluntarily, the transfer of electric matter from one part of the interior of the body to a different, seems to belong, in some necessary degree, to all bodies possessed of life. The object is to make space for medium of space to enter, and by its pressure to put the animal in a state of locomotion. The snake, worm, and snail do so to be pressed onward along the ground; the oyster, to have the shells firmly collapsed; the limpit, to be pressed against the rock; and each, cerebrally wills the replacement of electric matter to displace the cause of pressure, medium of space, for the grovelling reptile to be at rest--the oyster, that the shells may be opened; the limpit, when willing to fall into the water. The fly, lizard, and walrus, so de-electrise the body, as to reverse the direction of what is supposed to be their natural weight, by which means each becomes pressed upwards, and walks with the back downwards--which, to be consistent with the established philosophy, should be considered _repellent gravitation_. The goat voluntarily de-electrises his body to have it pressed with double force against the slippery rock; the lynx, to have mesmeric long vision; the cat, to have opaque vision, or "see through the dark;" the fire-fly, to effect reduction of the optic pressure productive of sensations of colour. The carrier-pigeon effects self de-electrisation to the clairvoyant degree, by which the external object, the turret at Constantinople, promotes the sensation which indicates at once the shortest direction of flight from London to the birth-place of the bird. The eagle de-electrises itself inwardly, the same as if by the mesmeric passes, to promote olfactory lucidity, by which to ascertain the presence of carrion on the ground. Fishes effect internal de-electrisation, somehow by means of the contents of the swim, for influent medium of space to propel the body with a velocity superior to the power of the short, flexible fins. The flight of birds is not effected by wing motion, or wing powers. The crow, eagle, and kite sail in all directions on extended motionless wing, and the odd wing-flap now and then given, is only to assist in keeping the body in the necessary electric condition. The swallow is darted most rapidly through the air with closed wing, and changes acutely, without way, the direction of flight, by changing instantaneously the direction of impulse. With the greatest wing-agitation the hawk remains at times stationary in the air. The fish, bird, and bullet are impelled by the same cause, pressure, by the medium of space on the de-electrised rear.

The cow and goat voluntarily de-electrise the cud, for medium of space to enter and press it upwards through the food-passage which the cud presses against, instead of being raised by nerves or muscles of the esophagus. In parturition also, and the discharge of the feces, the same principles are maintained. The "throes of Nature" are consequent on the natural pressure being made intermitting, by electric matter returning to and escaping from the birth at intervals. The physiologist may refer to muscular action; but where are the delivery muscles? The stage-dancer makes de-electrising efforts to receive medium of space, by which to be lifted above the boards and supported a few seconds in the air. Muscles at full stretch in opposite directions, and the fulcrum, if any, being carried by them, is out of all dynamic rule. All persons make a de-electrising effort previous to the leap-spring, and while continuing to stand or run and tiptoe, without being aware of the reason; and the fatigue is not muscular, but in keeping the body fittingly de-electrised.

The _gymnotus electricus_ kills the distant prey instantaneously, which receives nothing whatever of missile from the enemy; nor could the latter be accessary to the death-stroke, were there nothing between to connect one with the other: nothing passing and no connecting means, no outstretched arm or instrument touching that which is to be acted on, is a mechanical absurdity, and is attributing an effect to that which, it may be said, is an absent cause. The eel voluntarily performs the cerebral operation on the electric matter which is continuous from itself through the air to the marked prey, which effects instantaneous removal of the same matter from the prey; which permits medium of space at the same instant to give the de-electrised part the death-blow.

APPLICATION OF MESMERISM.

First. A National Asylum, to be named, THE BRITISH MESMERIC INSTITUTION, should be founded and endowed. England should take the lead. A Professorship of Magnetism should be founded. All Sanatory Asylums to be obliged to furnish their experience periodically, and be under control of the Institution, which should be possessed of power to undiploma the medical practitioner who refuses to mesmerise. Self-mesmerising to Clairvoyance, to be taught, which is as teachable as ventriloquism; the principle is the same of both,--the theory is that of sound.

Through self-mesmerising, the blind and eyeless would be extricated occasionally from the shadow leading to the valley of death and be enabled to follow some useful calling. Some blind, illiterate clairvoyant, may have superior _connoisseurship_, entitling him to fill the academic chair. Through mesmerism the resuscitating process can be brought under rules of science. Through clairvoyance the geography of the globe may yet be improved; the northern passage discovered; the astronomer assisted in his stellar speculations beyond the possibility of mere telescopic discovery. On ship-board, the voluntary clairvoyant may make discovery of the haze-hidden lighthouse and wave-hidden shoal. In the hands of the clairvoyant the telescope and microscope, will, in time, make us acquainted with other worlds, other beings, and other of the wonderful works of the GREAT GOD OF NATURE!

The Seeker after God from the book of God's own composing, the holy volume of his own works, through voluntary clairvoyance, will feel himself in the enjoyment of a second nature, the fit inhabitant of an intellectual world, in which the powers of thought are without limits. And who can say what discovery of abstract truths may not be elicited from the conversation of two or more clairvoyants in mutual report, all of exalted talent and superior education? Other worlds, ere this be past, may open to our view, and their inhabitants become clairvoyantly familiar to human observation. The idea is pregnant with hope; it presumes that we are not inhabitants of only the earth, but the universe; which may be considered a natural, _never_-dying hope. Why, then, should the science be opposed which has already been so beneficial to our species, and promises to make known the never yet discovered wonders of the animal economy? Surely they will be yet ashamed of having done those things, the fruit of which is the bitterness of remorse.

CONTINUOUS MOTION.

The motion which continues after the body has ceased to be in contact with the _sensible_ impelling cause, is named continuous motion. The body impelled receives neither force nor motion from the impelling cause: neither force nor motion is anything transferrable or anything communicable; forcible velocity and change of place are but accidents of matter, and but local, casual circumstances of bodies. Being _inert_, the body cannot move itself. Motion, therefore, is but a physical effect, and must have a cause equal to the duration of the effect: motion after impulse has ceased, would be effect without cause--which is an absurdity and impossibility; therefore impulse is constant as motion, however insensible the impelling cause. These dynamic principles cannot be too frequently brought to mind, considering the general erroneous opinion on the subject which maintains, that "a body continues in motion because it cannot stop itself;" which is effect without its equal of cause.

A body in motion is under unequal pressure on opposite sides, greater on the rear than front. The air in front resists, that in the rear may be said to recede from the body; therefore neither impels the projectile. Under such circumstances there remains but the alternative, that of the electric constitution of the body being changed by the previous impulse, by which medium of space accumulates on one side, or decreases on the opposite. The phenomenon admits of being thus illustrated:

The first, previous or sensible impulse, effects de-electrisation of the body on the rear or side of impulse; influent medium of space immediately occupies the vacated rear, and by its pressure impels the body through the air. The velocity of the previous impulse, gives momentum to the body greater than the included freely-removable elementary matter can obtain; of consequence the latter is left behind in the air, and the pressure of the acquired medium of space in the rear, is the continuous impelling cause. Thus is the mistake of Dugald Stuart made evident, that "motion is the immediate and only effect of impulse."

It is not the air's resistance which makes the motion of a projectile decline and end. Taking impulse as ten, resistance four, there remains six degrees of unresisted impulse, which should impel the body for ever through the atmosphere. The decline and cessation of impulse is that which brings the projectile to rest.

From the instant the body has ceased to be in contact with the sensible impelling cause, electric matter is re-entering the rear, which displaces gradually the impelling medium; and as are the increments of the former, so are the decrements of the latter, and so is the decline of motion.

_Ascending and Descending Motion._--The rear of the vertically-impelled body becomes vacated of minus-pressure matter, and replaced with medium of space; by the latter, and general pressure, the body is forced upwards as a cork by water. While ascending, the rear is acquiring electric matter and losing the impelling medium,--the velocity of course declines; and when at the highest, the body is at rest in the air for an instant, then is precipitated to the ground. During the entire of the descent, electric matter is vacating the rear and medium of space entering, consequently the fall is accelerated. Now as the body cannot fall of itself; as descending motion is of increasing velocity, while motion in every other direction is retarded; and, because all descent has the same _centripetal_ direction, so should there be some distinct cause to produce these conspicuous effects, which, to trace, suggest the following hypothesis:

_Centripetal Flow._--The different motions of the globe affect all bodies on its surface, so as to appear to the inhabitants as if the whole were at rest; supposing thence, that the centre of the earth is the centre of motion, the following may be considered probable consequences:--The general pressure being less at the centre and axis than on the surface of the earth, obliges the medium of space to flow through the atmosphere and entire surface, _centripetally_, to the centre, thence along the axis, carrying with it electric matter, and has exit at the poles, which polarizes the globe and produces the boreales. The centripetal flow retains the atmosphere to the earth; precipitates bodies from the air in a centripetal direction; accelerates the descent; and retards all motion not in its own direction: it prevents vertical ascent being equal to impulse, the difference being employed in bearing against the flow. The flow makes bodies ponderate or have weight, causes the dip and direction of the compass-needle.

FORMATION OF A PLANET.

That cannot be considered a chaotic state from which the eternal order sprung; nor that a created body, the substance of which previously existed, which was and is common to all bodies. Hence it may be concluded that a planet is a natural production, equally as the instantly-formed ponderous atmospheric aërolite, supposed to have come from the moon.

From the elementary to the aëriform, thence the aqueous state, seems the simplest and primeval order of atomic combination. Hence it is conceivable, that, were an immense volume of the general elements collected together in the regions of space, and subjected to extreme pressure, the result would be an aqueous sphere, with an attached residue of the same elements to serve as a primeval atmosphere to receive increase from future mists and exhalations. While aqueous and with one side only of the sphere facing the sun, the elements of the water cannot avoid being in a state of constant disturbance and transfer, productive of combinations, formations, and precipitations until the equilibrium has obtained, leaving ultimately the solid masses so formed, as they would now appear were the ocean away: the original water, from having contributed the elements of the newly-formed solids, being reduced in quantity and changed in quality, is left as the ocean is at present, saline. During the intermediate plastic state, and as induration increased, the endowed fertility may have produced _kinds_, many of which have become extinct.

It may be further assumed, that deep within the planet the elements abound in neither kind nor quantity as at the surface and in the atmosphere; and if the imponderable oxygen element be absent, an immense mass of ice would form the nucleus of the earth, the occasional melting at the surface of which, in the neighbourhood of sulphurous and ferruginous masses, may cause those volcanic eruptions from which no region of the earth is free. Thus it would seem that a planet may be the natural formation of an instant, requiring time for completion, and may be an everyday circumstance in space.

The strict inquirer into terrestrial magnetism has to ascertain, whether the non-conducting central ice be not the means, some how, of separating the correlative fluids which the centripetal flow carries with it along the axis through the Poles, and which make the Poles magnetic opposites; or, whether, of these fluids, one only is transmissible through ice.

A planet may be subject to wear and the fertility to decrease, thence to be uninhabitable, as Herschel describes the very probable condition of the moon, owing to the rapid motion through space, solar effects and cultivation. The idea is neither gloomy nor a threatened dread. Man was born to leave this world, and live where GOD has pleased. Some anticipate the night, when we shall see "our God in terror, and our world on fire!"--"undoing all, as all had never been," or made in vain. But He who blessed and never cursed his works, whose mercy and goodness endureth for ever, and who will "save both man and beast," is not a God of terror!

Why the planets are moved round the sun, all in the same direction, excites speculation in the absence of demonstration. Let it be supposed that the inequalities in a newly-formed planet prevent the body being at rest under the general pressure; in which case the planet is put into its primeval motion, and in the direction of the strongest impulsive pressure. But as the like inequalities precisely, cannot present in every new planet, neither could the motion of all be in the same direction, which gives room for conceiving the probability that the portion of the medium, however extensive, in which the solar system is involved, revolves round the sun, or round the orbit of the sun, and that its motion is promoted by the sun in the solar orbit,--which orbit may probably be promoted by the rarity of the elements in the solar regions. The medium of space so revolving, determines the direction of all the planets, which by the hypothesis must be the same as that of the revolving medium.

By some such means only is it conceivable how solar matter can arrive at Neptune, the Earth, or even Mercury,--the _inert_ sun being incapable of radiating anything from itself, and solar atoms requiring a physical impelling cause, in motion, and acting on the rear of each from the sun to the extreme of planetary space. A circulating medium of constantly-increasing radius, appears indispensably necessary for the purpose of conveying solar matter through the regions of space, and for the maintaining all planetary motion in the same uniform direction. The subject is open to all, and worthy of notice: what is now advanced will be passed over, from having no mathematical appendage, but which, makes even false causes pass for the demonstrated truth. The mathematical science has not to this day demonstrated the cause of planetary motion,--a subject wholly indifferent to modern astronomy, in which the false, self-gravitation, in connection with _inertia_, satisfies all as long as the astronomer remains self-satisfied.

_Formation and Use of a Comet._--A _Comet_ may have been a planet by formation, and impelled, before completion, immeasurably far beyond the sun. The tail is probably the primitive atmosphere, left behind and pressed after the body as towards a sheltering wall; the _coma_ may be electric matter collected on the front, and subject to increase, which, by lessening pressure on the side facing the direction of motion, and without increased pressure on the opposite side, may cause the velocity of the planet to be subject to acceleration, or prevent the motion being equitable: the reticulated tail may serve to collect all redundant solar matter in space, after planetary use, for deposit in the solar regions, or the sun as the heart of the system, for future circulation. Were the tail to approach the earth sufficiently near, the waters of the sea would be pressed upwards as towards an immense water-spout; in which case the rivers must become drained; and as the Comet recedes from the earth, the fall of the immense column would produce _another general deluge_ over one hemisphere, at least, of the globe! The deposits from a comet's tail may occasion those nebulocities named solar spots.

* * * * *

THE END.

* * * * *

Tyler and Reed, Printers, Bolt-court, London.

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE.

Archaic, dialectical and unusual spellings and usage have been maintained. Obvious typos have been fixed as detailed below.

Table of Contents entries with no corresponding centered title in the original book have been indented and the titles have been inserted inline.

Page vii:
DEDICATION iii
ADVERTISEMENT v
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii
MESMERISM AND ESTABLISHED PHILOSOPHY 1
In the original book:
PHILOSOPHY, THE ESTABLISHED 9

Page vii: THE USE OF OXYGEN IN PROMOTING COMBUSTION 42
In the original book: ----, ITS USE IN COMBUSTION 42

Page vii: USE OF THE INSPIRED OXYGEN WITHIN THE SYSTEM 56
In the original book: USE OF OXYGEN IN RESPIRATION 56

Page vii:
NATURAL SLEEP 65
COMATOSE FLOW 66
MESMERIC SLEEP 68
In the original book:
SLEEP, NATURAL 65
----, MESMERIC 68
COMATOSE FLOW 66

Page viii:
TRANSPARENCY 77
OPACITY 77
In the original book:
TRANSPARENCY AND OPACITY 77

Page viii:
MESMERISM, CURATIVE 87
ETHERS 87
In the original book:
ETHERS 87
MESMERISM, CURATIVE 87

Page viii: TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
In the original book: (inserted)

Page 10: an excruciating, painless toothache, and,
In the original book: an excruciating, painless toothach, and,

Page 24: velocity and direction makes no exception.
In the original book: velocity and direction makes no exeption.

Page 41: constituent of every aëriform body
In the original book: constituent of every acriform body

Page 42: In this twofold manner of service
In the original book: In this two-fold manner of service

Page 43: suffers de-electrisation and acquires medium
In the original book: suffers de-electrisation and acquiries medium

Page 55: within the stomach, or in the tea-cup
In the original book: within the stomach, or in the teacup

Page 56: the accumulation of minus-pressure matter in
In the original book: the accumulation of minus pressure-matter in

Page 56: which is compensated by minus-pressure matter
In the original book: which is compensated by minus pressure-matter

Page 58: the arterialising, minus-pressure, imponderable
In the original book: the arterialising, minus pressure, imponderable

Page 58: losing the arterialising minus-pressure matter
In the original book: losing the arterialising minus pressure matter

Page 59: the venous flow on the minus-pressure capillary
In the original book: the venous flow on the minus pressure capillary

Page 59: _Use of the Spleen._--The SPLEEN, from being an
In the original book: The SPLEEN, from being an

Page 60: _How the Diaphragm Is Raised._--The _diaphragm_
In the original book: The _diaphragm_