Magnetism recognized by the Judiciary.

In the Spiritist Review of October 1858, we published two articles entitled Official Use of Animal Magnetism and Magnetism and Somnambulism Taught by the Church. In the first, we referred to the magnetic treatment of King Oscar of Sweden, advised by his own physicians; in the second, we cited several questions and answers, drawn from a work entitled Elementary Course of Christian Instruction for the Use of Catechisms and Christian Schools, published in 1853 by the Abbe Marotte, vicar general of the diocese of Verdun, in which magnetism and somnambulism are clearly defined and recognized. And now behold, justice comes to give them an extraordinary sanction, through the judgment of the Correctional Court of Douai, of the 27th of last August. As all the newspapers reported this judgment, it would be useless to repeat it, which is why we shall merely relate the circumstances summarily.

A young man, who knew nothing of magnetism but its name, and had never practiced it, consequently being ignorant of the measures of prudence that experience advises, undertook one day to magnetize the nephew of the maitre d'hotel where he was dining. After a few passes the boy fell into somnambulism, but the improvised magnetizer did not know how to conduct himself in order to make him come out of that state, which was followed by persistent nervous crises, from which resulted a complaint to Justice, presented by the uncle against the magnetizer. Two physicians were called as experts. Here is the extract of their testimony, which is more or less identical, at least as to the conclusion. After having described and ascertained the somnambulistic state of the boy, the first physician adds:

“I absolutely do not believe in the existence of a new fluid, of a physical agent more or less analogous to terrestrial magnetism, developing in man under the influence of passes, touches, etc., and which would produce in the persons influenced effects that are at times marvelous.

“The existence of such a fluid has never been scientifically demonstrated. Far from it: every time that men difficult to deceive, members of the Academy of Sciences and eminent physicians, wished to verify the alleged facts, the princes of magnetism always drew back, propped up by pretexts all too evident, and neither the question of fact, nor much less the question of doctrine, could be elucidated. For the scientific world, therefore, animal magnetism does not exist. Yet, does it follow from this that the practices of the magnetizers produce no effect? By the fact of denying, and with reason, magnetism, could we not admit magnetization?

“I am convinced that, if nervous and impressionable imaginations are every day shaken by the maneuvers in question, it is in themselves that we must see the phenomena they present, and not in a kind of irradiation on the part of the experimenter. This explanation would apply to the Jourdain case if the attacks that followed the first one, supposing they were determined by the magnetization, were spacing out and weakening: a single impulse should logically produce decreasing effects. Now, exactly the contrary occurs: as time passes, the attacks accelerate and increase in intensity. This circumstance confounds me. Evidently an indeterminate influence is at play: which would it be? Jourdain's antecedents and physical manner of being are not sufficiently known to me for me to be able to attribute them to his temperament; and I must confess that I do not know where to place the cause.”

At this point the child is stricken by one of his attacks. Just as his colleague, the witness ascertains: general and clonic muscular contractions;[1] skin and eyes with sensitivity preserved; photoreactive pupils; absence of foam in the mouth; thumbs flexed into the palms of the hands. Moreover, the initial cry did not occur and the access ends gradually, passing through the somnambulistic period. In view of this, the physicians declare that the child is not epileptic, nor, still less, cataleptic.

Questioned regarding the word somnambulism, with the aim of knowing whether all this could not be explained by admitting that the patient, having previously been a somnambulist, might have had on the 15th of August an access of that kind of illness, the witness answered that, “in the first place it was not established that the child was a somnambulist and, furthermore, such a phenomenon would have been produced under conditions altogether unusual: instead of occurring at night, in the midst of natural sleep, it would have come in full midday and in complete wakefulness. To me, the magnetic passes appear to be the cause of the child's present state: I see no other reason.

The second physician testifies thus: “I saw the little patient on the 13th of October 1858; he was in a somnambulistic state, enjoying voluntary locomotion; he was reciting the catechism. My son saw him on the night of the 15th: he was in the same state and was conjugating the verb to be able. It was only some time afterward that I learned he had been magnetized, and that a traveler was said to have stated: if he is not demagnetized, he may perhaps remain thus for his whole life. In my youth I knew a student in the same state who, having been cured without medical resources, became a distinguished man in the profession he embraced. The accidents that the patient experienced were nothing but nervous disturbances: there is no symptom of epilepsy, nor of catalepsy.”

The Court pronounced the following sentence:

“Considering that the accused, on the 15th of August, in imprudently exercising upon the person of the young Jourdain, aged 13, touches and gestures qualified as magnetic passes, at the least wounding by this apparatus and by these unaccustomed maneuvers the feeble imagination of the child, producing in him an overexcitement, a nervous disorder and, finally, an injury or an illness, whose accesses have since then repeated themselves at various intervals;

“Considering that the imprudent maneuvers that provoked the said injury, or illness, constitute an offense provided for in article 320 of the Penal Code;

“Considering that the matter in question caused the civil party a damage that must be repaired; and “Taking into account that there exist attenuating circumstances, “The Court condemns the accused to 25 francs of fine, 1200 francs of losses and damages, and to bear the costs of the proceedings.”

We have nothing to say as to the judgment in itself. Did the Court have, or did it not have, reason to condemn? Is the penalty too strong or is it excessively weak? This does not concern us; justice has pronounced itself and we respect its decision. Nevertheless, we shall not fail to examine the consequences of the judgment, which has a capital import. There was a condemnation, therefore there was an offense. How was it committed? The sentence says: by touches and gestures qualified as magnetic passes; therefore, the magnetic touches and passes have an action and do not result from mere simulation. These touches and these passes differ, in some way, from ordinary touches and gestures; how to distinguish them? Here is an important matter, because, if there were no difference, we could not touch the first person we met, nor make signs to them, without exposing ourselves to making them fall into a crisis and without incurring a fine. It is not for the Court to teach us, nor, much less, to say how the passes and touches, when they have the magnetic character, can produce any effect whatever. It ascertains the fact of an accident and the cause of the accident; its mission is to appraise the harm and the reparation that is due. But the experts called upon to enlighten the Court will surely instruct us in this regard; even without having taken a course on the matter, they ought to ground their opinion, as is done in all cases of legal medicine, and to prove that they speak with knowledge of the cause, considering that this is the first condition to be fulfilled by an expert. Well now! We are disappointed by the logic of these gentlemen; their testimony reveals complete ignorance about that on which they ought to give an opinion; not only do they not know magnetism, but the facts of natural somnambulism are not familiar to them, for they imagine, at least one of them, that such facts are produced only at night and during natural sleep, which is contradicted by experience. It is not there, however, that the most notable part of the testimony is found, especially that of the first witness: “By the fact of denying, and with reason, magnetism, could we not admit magnetization?” In truth, I do not know whether there is a logic very difficult to be understood, but I confess with all humility that this surpasses my intelligence and that many people are with me, because it would be the same as affirming that it is possible to magnetize without magnetism, absolutely as if we said that a man had received blows of the cudgel in the absence of the cudgel responsible. Now, we believe firmly, in accordance with an old saying, and until proof to the contrary, that to give blows of the cudgel the cudgel is necessary and, by analogy, to magnetize magnetism is needed, in the same way that, to purge, the purgative is needed. Our intelligence does not go so far as to comprehend effects without causes.

You will say that you do not deny the effect; on the contrary, you ascertain it. What you deny is the cause that you attribute to that effect. You say that between your fingers and the patient there exists something invisible, which you call the magnetic fluid. As for me, I assert that there is nothing at all; that this fluid does not exist. Now, what exists is magnetism; your gestures are the magnetization. — Agreed. You admit, then, that simple gestures without an intermediary can produce nervous crises and somnambulistic, cataleptic and other effects, solely because the imagination has been wounded. Let us admit so. I should like to see a person be impressed by means of these gestures and that impression reach the point of making them sleep in broad day, and against their will, which, you will have to agree, would already be an admirable fact. But will that be a natural sleep, caused, as some say, by the monotony of the movements? In that case, how would you explain the instantaneity of the sleep produced in a few seconds? Why do you not easily awaken this sleeper, by merely shaking his arms? Let us set aside, for obvious reasons, many other phenomena equally little explicable by your system; nevertheless, there is one whose solution you will doubtless be able to give, for I do not believe that you have elaborated a theory upon a subject of such gravity without having assured yourselves that it resolves all cases, a theory that must be little risky, allowing you to enunciate it in full court. You must, then, be quite certain. Well then! I ask you, for the instruction of the public and of all the persons simple enough to believe in the existence of a magnetic fluid, that you resolve by your system the two following questions: 1st If the effects attributed to the magnetic fluid result only from an excited and strongly impressionable imagination, how are they produced unbeknownst to the person, when she is magnetized during natural sleep, or when she finds herself in a neighboring room, without seeing the magnetizer and without knowing that she is being magnetized?

2nd If the magnetic touches or passes can produce nervous crises and somnambulistic states, how can these same touches and passes produce the contrary effect, destroy what they did, calm the most violent nervous crises they occasioned and make the somnambulistic state cease suddenly, as if it were a stroke of magic? Is it by effect of the imagination that the person neither sees nor hears what is going on around her? Or must one admit that one can act upon the imagination without the concurrence of the imagination, which would be quite possible, since one can magnetize without magnetism?

This reminds me of a little anecdote. An imprudent man was handling a rifle; the shot fired killed another individual. The expert was called to examine the weapon, declaring that the individual had been killed by a rifle shot, although it was not loaded. Is this not exactly the case of our magnetizer, who wounds by magnetizing, but without magnetism? Surely the Court of Douai, in its high wisdom, did not meditate upon these contradictions, on which it ought not to pronounce itself. As we have said, it considered only the effect produced, declaring it produced by magnetic touches and passes; there was no reason to decide whether in us there exists, or does not exist, a magnetic fluid. But the judgment ascertains no less authentically that magnetism is a reality; otherwise it would not have condemned someone for having made insignificant gestures. Let this serve as a lesson to the imprudent, who play with what they do not know.

In the opinion they emitted, these gentlemen did not perceive that they arrived at a result diametrically opposed to their objective, that of attributing to the magnetizers a power which the latter are far from claiming. Indeed, the magnetizers maintain that they act only with the aid of an intermediary; that, when that intermediary fails them, their action is null; they do not recognize in themselves the power of giving blows of the cudgel without cudgels, nor of killing by shots with an unloaded rifle. Very well! With their theory these gentlemen perform yet another prodigy, because they act without having anything in their hands or pockets. Truly, there are things that cannot be taken seriously; we ask them many pardons, but this in no way diminishes their merit. They may be very skillful and physicians quite competent; doubtless it was for that reason that the Court consulted them. We allow ourselves only to criticize their opinion on magnetism.

We conclude with an important observation. If magnetism is a reality, why is it not officially recognized by the Faculty? On this subject there are many things to say. We shall limit ourselves to a single consideration, asking why the discoveries today most accepted were not so immediately by the scientific corporations? I leave to others the care of answering. The medical class is divided on the question of magnetism, just as in relation to homeopathy, to allopathy, to phrenology, to the treatment of cholera, to purgatives, to bloodlettings and on so many other things, in such a way that an opinion for or against is nothing but an individual opinion, without force of law. What makes the law is the general opinion, which is formed by the facts, in spite of all opposition, and which exerts upon the most recalcitrant an irresistible pressure. This is what happens with magnetism, and likewise with Spiritism, and it will not be advancing too much to say that half the physicians today recognize and admit magnetism, and that three quarters of the magnetizers are physicians. The same occurs with Spiritism, which counts in its ranks an infinity of physicians and men of science. What matters, then, the systematic or more or less interested opposition of a few? Let time pass, which sweeps away wounded self-love and petty preoccupations! Truth may be shaken, but not destroyed, and posterity records the name of those who combated or sustained it. If magnetism were a utopia, it would long since have ceased to be heeded, whereas, like its brother, Spiritism, it takes root on every side. Fight, then, against the ideas that invade the entire world, from top to bottom of the social scale! [1] Translator's Note: Our emphasis: Spasms in which rigidity and relaxation alternate, in rapid succession. In the original the word chroniques is written, with no correlation to the clinical picture described above.