Note 5 — REPORT

“Valentine Greatrakes, esq; was a native of Afane, in the kingdom of Ireland. We are told, that one day he was conscious to a wonderful internal revolution, and at the same time heard a voice like that of a genius, which cried incessantly for a long time: “I endow you with the faculty of curing diseases.” Importuned by this salutation, from which he could in no way distract his attention, he determined to make an experiment of the truth of the intelligence. The voice had first announced to him the gift of curing the king’s evil. He made an experiment upon this distemper, and succeeded. He afterwards touched persons attacked with an epidemical fever, that raged in his neighbourhood; the voice had announced to him the gift of curing this disease. In fine, he was enabled to cure every species of disease; and he succeeded in all cases, except where, as he observed, the malady was too deeply rooted, or the patient laboured under a particular indisposition to this method of cure. The exterior of this man was extremely simple. His cures were accompanied with no degree of pomp and ceremony, unless we should call such, his ascribing his success to God, publicly expressing his gratitude, and inviting the patient to join with him in the act of thanksgiving. But he made a very extensive use of the operation of touch. The distemper fled before him, and he was able, we are told, to dislodge it from its seat, and remove it to parts the least useful. If its progress appeared to be suspended in any part, he redoubled his frictions upon that part, to remove the obstacle. In this operation nature, excited by the stroking, seemed frequently to operate crises, and it produced stools, vomitings and perspirations.” Thouret.

“Greatrakes cured not only internal diseases, but also external ones, such as wounds and ulcers. The second Villiers, duke of Buckingham, was one of his patients. His attestations were signed by Boyle, Wilkins, Whichcot, Cudworth and Patrick. He was born in 1628, received the gift of healing 1662, and removed to London 1666.” Des Maizeaux, Vie de St. Evremond.

“The cures of Gassner are of a much later date, and are not above ten or twelve years old. This German, having in his youth been afflicted with an ill state of health, which resisted the efforts of all the physicians, suspected that his distemper might have a supernatural cause, and derive from the influence of the devil. His conjecture was verified by his success in expelling the devil, having adjured him in the name of Jesus Christ. From that moment he enjoyed the most perfect health for sixteen years. Encouraged by this event, he laid aside the study of medicine, to which his distemper had prompted him, and procured all the authors who had treated of exorcism. He began with healing his parishioners in an obscure town upon the borders of Switzerland and the Tirol, and his reputation increased so much, that, in the two last years of his residence there, he had between four and five hundred patients who applied to him. He then made a progress through several of the Swiss cantons, and settled at Ratisbon in 1774. He distinguished diseases into two classes, the natural and the demoniac, the last of which were much the most numerous. Over the former he pretended to no power. His cures were performed with much pomp and solemnity; and it was observed, that he constantly rubbed his hands upon his girdle and handkerchief previously to his touching the patient. He performed his cures in the name of Christ, and by the faith of the diseased in his holy name; if their faith failed, the cure did not take place. He gave the sick, when he dismissed them, balm and oil, which he considered as spiritual medicaments, together with certain waters and powders, and a little ring, inscribed with the name of Jesus, to prevent a relapse.” Thouret.

Thouret considers the system of Gassner as having had an influence on that of M. Mesmer. Astrology and possessions were extremely current in Germany; and as Gassner had taken possession of, and ruined the latter pretension, Mesmer had recourse to the former. It should however be remembered, that Mesmer had written and published his thesis upon astrology before the pretensions of Gassner were heard of.

These instances are produced by Thouret, as distinguished proofs of the efficacy both of the touch and the imagination. In proof of the contagion of convulsive affections, he cites the convulsions of Saint Medard, and the possessions of Loudun. “The former of these took place in 1732, and made their appearance as soon as any of the religious were approached to the tomb of their patron saint. They were exposed in the most triumphant manner, and covered with ridicule by Hecquet, in his Natural History of Convulsions. The pretended possessions of Loudun (1740) originated in an infamous scheme of avarice and revenge against the unfortunate Urbain Grandier, rector of Loudun, who became the victim of the machinations of his enemies. The physicians of Montpelier, charged with the examination of the affair, discovered the whole secret of the possessions to consist in factitious and pretended convulsions.” Thouret.