Note 11 — REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS, &c.
Reading edition
M. Sigault, doctor of the faculty of Paris, well known for his invention of the operation of the symphysis of the ossa pubis, made a number of experiments, tending to prove that the magnetism is merely an imaginary power. The following is the detail which he made in a letter, dated July the 30th, 1784, and addressed to one of the commissioners.
“Having given the persons who inhabited a large house in the Marais, to understand that I was a pupil of M. Mesmer, I produced various effects upon the woman of the house. The magisterial tone and the serious air I affected, together with certain gestures, made a very great impression upon her, which she at first was desirous to conceal from me; but having guided my hand upon the region of the heart, I felt that it palpitated. The state of oppression in which she appeared likewise indicated a contraction of the chest. Other symptoms were connected with these; her face became convulsed, her eyes wandered, she at length fell into a swoon, then threw up her dinner, had several stools, and was reduced to a state of weakness and sinking, perfectly incredible. I repeated the same trick upon several persons, and succeeded more or less, according to their different degrees of sensibility and credulity.
“A celebrated artist, master of design to the children of one of our princes, complained for several days of an extreme head-ach; he acquainted me with it upon the Pont-royal; having persuaded him that I was initiated in the mysteries of M. Mesmer, I expelled his head-ach almost instantaneously by the means of a few gestures, to his great astonishment.
“I produced the same effects upon the apprentice of a hatter in the same distemper. The lad felt nothing in consequence of my first gestures; I then laid my hand upon his false ribs, bidding him at the same time look in my face. He immediately felt a contraction of the chest, palpitations of the heart, yawnings, and an extreme dejection. He doubted no longer of the power I possessed over him. I then guided my finger over the part affected, and asked him what he felt. He replied that his pain dislodged itself and descended. I assured him that I would guide it towards his arm, and make it come out at his thumb, at the same time squeezing it with considerable force. He took me at my word, and was perfectly well for two hours. At that period he stopped me in the street to tell me that his pain was returned. This effect seems to be the same with that produced by certain dentists upon the mental faculties of those, who go to them to have a tooth drawn.
“Further lastly, being in the parlour of a convent, rue du Colombier, fauxbourg Saint Germains, a young lady said to me: I understand, sir, that you are a pupil of M. Mesmer. I am so, replied I; and I can perform the magnetical operation upon you, notwithstanding the intervention of the grate. At the same time I presented my finger; she was terrified, trembled extremely, and besought me for God’s sake to proceed no farther. Her emotion was such, that, if I had persevered in my experiment, she would infallibly have fallen into convulsions.”
M. Sigault relates that he had himself felt the power of imagination. One day, the operator having undertaken to perform upon him the magnetical operation to convince him of its reality, at the moment he had determined to touch him, he felt a contraction of the chest, and a palpitation of the heart. But having immediately composed himself, the gestures and the process of the magnetism were employed in vain, and made no impression upon him.