Official employment of animal magnetism.

From Stockholm they write to the Journal des Débats, on September 10, 1858:

“Unfortunately, I have nothing consoling to communicate to you, relative to the illness from which our sovereign has been suffering for about two years. All the treatments and remedies that the professionals in the field have prescribed during this time have brought no relief to the sufferings that are ruining the health of King Oscar. According to the advice of his physicians, Mr. Klugenstiern, who enjoys some reputation as a magnetizer, was recently summoned to the castle of Drottningholm, where the royal family continues to reside, in order to submit the august patient to a regular treatment of magnetism. Here it is believed that, by a rather singular coincidence, the seat of King Oscar's disease is established precisely in the same location of the head where the cerebellum is situated, as, unfortunately, also seems to be the case with King Frederick William IV, of Prussia.” We ask whether, twenty-five years ago, the physicians would have dared to prescribe publicly such a recourse, even to a mere private individual, much less, and with all the more reason, to a crowned head. At that period, all the scientific faculties and all the newspapers did not have sarcasms enough to denigrate magnetism and its partisans. Things have changed considerably in this short space of time! Not only is magnetism no longer laughed at, but here it is officially recognized as a therapeutic agent. What a lesson for those who smile at new ideas! It will make them understand, finally, how imprudent it is to enter a false objection against things they do not understand. We have a quantity of books written against magnetism by men of distinction. Would they not have done better to keep silent and wait? Then, as today for Spiritism, the opinion of the most eminent, most enlightened, and most conscientious men was opposed to it: nothing shook their skepticism. In their eyes magnetism was merely charlatanism, unworthy of serious persons. What action could a hidden agent have, moved by thought and will, whose chemical analysis cannot be made? We hasten to say that the Swedish physicians are not the only ones to reconsider this narrow idea and, everywhere, in France as abroad, opinion has completely changed in this respect; and this is so true that, when an unexplained phenomenon occurs, one says: it is a magnetic effect. One thus finds in magnetism the reason for being of a quantity of things formerly attributed to the imagination, quite convenient for those who do not know what to say. Will magnetism succeed in curing King Oscar? This is another question. Without doubt it has already operated prodigious and unexpected cures, but it has its limits, like everything that exists in Nature. Moreover, one must take into consideration the fact that in general one does not have recourse to magnetism except in extremis and in desperation, when often the malady has already made irremediable progress or has been aggravated by a contraindicated medication. When it triumphs over such obstacles, it must be very powerful indeed!

If the action of the magnetic fluid is today a point generally admitted, the same does not hold in relation to the somnambulic faculties, which still find many unbelievers in the official world, above all in what concerns medical questions. Nevertheless, one must agree that, on this point, the prejudices have weakened remarkably, even among men of science: we have proof of this in the great number of physicians who form part of all the magnetic societies, whether in France or abroad. To such a degree have the facts become widespread that it was necessary to yield to the evidence and follow the current, willing or not. Soon the same thing will happen with intuitive lucidity.

Spiritism is linked to magnetism by intimate ties, considering that these two sciences are interdependent. Who, however, would believe that it would find its most obstinate enemies among certain magnetizers, although these do not encounter the opposition of the Spiritists? The Spirits have always extolled magnetism, whether as a curative means or as the first cause of a quantity of things; they defend its cause and come to lend it support against its enemies. The Spiritist phenomena have opened the eyes of many persons who, at the same time, adhere to magnetism. Is it not bizarre to observe that the magnetizers forget so quickly what they suffered from prejudices, denying the existence of their defenders and hurling against them the same arrows that were formerly cast upon themselves? This is neither noble nor worthy of men from whom Nature withholds, more than from others, the right to pronounce the famous nec plus ultra, by unveiling one of its most sublime mysteries. Everything proves, in the rapid development of Spiritism, that it will soon have the right of citizenship. While it waits, it applauds with all its strength the position that magnetism has just conquered, as an incontestable sign of the progress of ideas. [1]

Nec plus ultra or non plus ultra. A descriptive phrase meaning the best or the most extreme example of something. The Pillars of Hercules, for example, were literally the nec plus ultra of the ancient Mediterranean world. — Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunc_est_bibendum.