Magnetism before the Academy.

Left at the door, magnetism came in through the window, by means of a disguise and another name. Instead of saying: I am magnetism, which probably would not have earned it a favorable welcome, it said: My name is hypnotism (from the Greek hypnos, sleep). Thanks to this safe-conduct it managed to enter after twenty years of patience. But it did not lose by waiting, for it knew how to get itself introduced by one of the greatest celebrities. It carefully avoided presenting itself with its retinue of passes, of somnambulism, of vision at a distance, of ecstasies, which would have betrayed it. It simply said: You are good and humane; your heart bleeds at seeing your patients suffer; you seek a means to soften the pain of the patient cut by your scalpel, but what you sometimes employ is very dangerous. I bring you one that is simpler and that, in any case, has no drawbacks. It was quite sure of being heard, speaking in the name of Humanity. And it added, slyly: I am one of the family, for I owe my life to one of you. It thought, not without some reason, that this origin would not harm it. If we lived in the time of brilliant and poetic Greece, we would say: Magnetism, son of Nature and of a mere mortal, was banished from Olympus because, by competing with Aesculapius, it injured the interests of the latter, boasting that it could cure without his assistance. It wandered the Earth for a long time, teaching men the art of healing by new means; it unveiled to the common folk a host of marvels that, until then, had been mysteriously hidden in the temples; but those whose secrets it had revealed, unmasking their charlatanry, persecuted it with stones, so that it was at once banished by the gods and ill-treated by men. Even so it did not cease to spread its benefits, relieving Humanity, certain that one day its innocence would be recognized and justice would be done to it. It had a son, whose birth it carefully concealed, fearful of drawing persecutions upon him; it called him hypnotism. This son shared its exile for a long time, making use of it to instruct himself. When it judged him sufficiently formed, it said to him: Go and present yourself on Olympus; refrain from saying that you are my son; your name and a disguise will ease your access; Aesculapius will present you. — How, my father! Aesculapius, your most relentless enemy! He, of all people, who banished you! — He himself will extend his hand to you. — But if he recognizes me, he will expel me. — Come now! If he expels you, you will come back to me and we will continue our beneficent work among men, awaiting better days. But rest easy, I have much hope. Aesculapius is not wicked; he wants, above all, the progress of Science: otherwise he would not be worthy of being the god of Medicine. Besides, perhaps I have committed some faults toward him; offended at seeing myself denigrated, I grew heated and attacked him without consideration. I lavished insults upon him, I ridiculed him, I vilified him, I called him an ignoramus. Now, this is a deplorable way of treating men and gods; and his wounded self-love was irritated against me for a moment. Do not do as I did, my son; be more prudent and, above all, more considerate. If others are not so toward you, the fault will be theirs, and the right, yours. Go, my son, and remember that nothing is obtained from anyone by force. — Thus spoke the father. Hypnotism set off timidly for Olympus; his heart beat hard when he presented himself at the threshold of the sacred door. But, oh surprise! Aesculapius himself extends his hand to him and brings him in. Here, then, is magnetism in place. What will it do? Oh! do not believe in the definitive victory; we are not yet even at the preliminaries of peace. It is a first barrier knocked down: that is all. This step is important, no doubt, but do not think that its enemies will confess themselves vanquished. Aesculapius himself, the great Aesculapius, who recognized it by its family traits, espoused its defense so thoroughly that they would be capable of sending him to the asylum [of Charenton]. They will say that it is…. something…. but that, assuredly, it is not magnetism. So be it! We do not quibble over words: it will be all that they wish. But, in the meantime, it is a fact that will have consequences. Now, here are those consequences. At first they will occupy themselves only with the anesthetic [1] point of view (from the Greek aisthesis, sensibility, and a, privative, that is, general or partial deprivation of the faculty of feeling) and this by reason of the predominance of materialist ideas, for there are still so many people who, no doubt out of modesty, insist on reducing themselves to the role of a roasting-spit crank that, on ceasing to work, is thrown onto the scrap heap, leaving no traces! Thus, they will examine the fact in every way, even if out of mere curiosity. They will study the action of the different substances to produce the phenomenon of catalepsy. Then, one fine day, they will recognize that it suffices to place a finger. But that is not all. In observing the phenomenon of catalepsy, others will arise spontaneously. The freedom of thought during the suspension of the organic faculties has already been noted; thus, thought is independent of the organs. There is, then, in man something more beyond matter. There will be seen the manifestation of strange faculties: sight acquiring an unusual amplitude, crossing beyond the limits of the senses; all the perceptions modified; in a word, it is a vast field for observation and observers will not be lacking. The sanctuary is open, and we hope that light will spring forth from it, unless the celestial areopagus leaves the honor to no one but itself. Our readers will surely much appreciate the remarkable article that Mr. Victor Meunier, editor of l'Ami des Sciences — Google Books, published on this interesting subject, in the weekly scientific review of the Siècle, of December 16, 1859:

“Animal magnetism, brought to the Academy by Mr. Broca, presented to the illustrious association by Mr. Velpeau, experimented upon by Messrs. Follin [François Anthyme Eugene Follin ], Verneuil, Faure, Trousseau, Denonvilliers, Nélaton, Azam, Ch. Robin, etc., all surgeons of the hospitals, is the great novelty of the day”.

“Discoveries, like books, have their destiny. The one of which we are going to speak is not new. It dates from some twenty years ago, and neither in England, where it was born, nor in France, where, at present, nothing else is being occupied with, did publicity fail it. A Scottish physician, Dr. Braid, discovered it and devoted an entire book to it Neurypnology or the rationale of nervous sleep, considered in relation with animal magnetism — Google Books. Dr. Carpenter, a celebrated English physician, carefully analyzed Dr. Braid's discovery in the sleep article of Todd's Encyclopedia of Anatomy and Physiology Cyclopedia of anatomy and phisiology — Google Books; an illustrious French savant, Mr.

Littré, reproduced Dr. Carpenter's analysis in the second edition of J. Mueller's Manuel de physiologie — Google Books. Finally, we ourselves devoted one of our feuilletons in the Presse (July 7, 1852) to hypnotism (it is the name given by Dr.

Braid to the set of data in question). The most recent of the publications relating to this subject dates, then, from seven years ago; and here, at the moment when it was thought forgotten, it acquires this immense repercussion.

There are two things in hypnotism: a set of nervous phenomena, and the process by means of which they are produced.

This process, employed formerly, if I am not mistaken, by the Abbé Faria, is of great utility. It consists in holding a brilliant object before the eyes of the person with whom one is experimenting, at a short distance from the base of the nose, so that he can look at it only by squinting his eyes inward; he must fix his eyes upon it. At first the pupils contract, then they dilate considerably and, in a few moments, the cataleptic state is produced. On raising the patient's limbs, these keep the position we give them. This is only one of the phenomena produced; of the others we will speak in due course.

Mr. Azam, substitute professor of Surgical Clinic at the School of Medicine of Bordeaux, having successfully repeated Dr. Braid's experiments, exchanged opinions with Dr. Broca, who thought that hypnotized persons might perhaps be insensible to the pain of surgical interventions. The letter that he has just addressed to the Academy of Sciences is the summary of his experiments in this regard. Before all else, however, he had to make sure of the reality of hypnotism. And he succeeded without difficulty.

Visiting a lady of about forty years, somewhat hysterical, and who was keeping to her bed from a slight indisposition, Dr. Broca pretended to want to examine the patient's eyes and asked her to gaze attentively at a small gilded flask that he held about fifteen centimeters from the base of that lady's nose. At the end of three minutes her eyes became a little red, her features motionless, her answers slow and difficult, but perfectly rational. Dr. Broca raised the patient's arm and it kept the position in which it was left; he subjected her fingers to the most extreme positions and they kept them; he pinched the skin in several places, with a certain force, but the patient seemed to feel nothing. Catalepsy, insensibility! Dr. Broca did not carry the experiment further: it had taught him what he wanted to know. A friction over the eyes, an insufflation of cold air on the forehead brought the patient back to the normal state. She kept not the slightest memory of what had just taken place. It remained to be known whether hypnotic insensibility would withstand the test of surgical interventions.

Among the inpatients of the Necker Hospital, in Dr. Follin's service, there was a poor woman of 24, victimized by an extensive burn on her back and on both right limbs and by an enormous abscess, extremely painful. The slightest movements were a torment to her. Exhausted by suffering and, moreover, very faint-hearted, this unfortunate woman thought with terror of the operation that had become necessary. It was on her that, in agreement with Dr. Follin, Dr. Broca resolved to complete the test of hypnotism.

They placed her on a bed in front of the window, warning her that they were going to make her sleep. At the end of two minutes her pupils dilate; raised almost vertically above the bed, her left arm remains motionless. At the fourth minute her answers are slow and almost laborious, but perfectly sensible. Fifth minute: Dr. Follin pricks the skin of the left arm and the patient does not even stir; a new prick, deeper, which produces bleeding, and the same impassivity. They raise the right arm, which stays in the air. Then the covers are lifted and the lower limbs drawn aside to expose the seat of the abscess. The patient makes no reaction and said calmly that they will, no doubt, harm her. When the abscess was opened, a faint cry was the only sign of reaction on her part, and it lasted less than a second. Not the slightest tremor in the muscles of the face or of the limbs, not a single shudder in the arms, still raised vertically above the bed. A little injected, the eyes were widely open; the face had the immobility of a mask…. Raised, the left foot keeps itself suspended. They take away the brilliant body (a spyglass): the catalepsy persists. For the third time they prick the left arm, the blood drips and the operated woman feels nothing. For thirteen minutes the arm has kept the position given to it.

Finally, a friction on the eyes, an insufflation of fresh air awaken the young lady almost suddenly; relaxed, the arms and the left leg fall suddenly onto the bed. She rubs her eyes, regains consciousness, remembers nothing and is surprised that they have operated on her. The experiment had lasted eighteen to twenty minutes; the period of anesthesia, twelve to fifteen.

Such are, in summary, the essential facts communicated by Mr. Broca to the Academy of Sciences. They are no longer isolated. A great number of surgeons of our hospitals had the honor of repeating them, and they did so with success. The aim of Dr. Broca and of his distinguished colleagues was and ought to be surgical. Let us hope that hypnotism, as a means of provoking insensibility, has all the advantages of the anesthetic agents, without keeping their drawbacks. But Medicine is not within our province and, in order not to depart from its attributions, our Review must consider the fact only from the physiological point of view.

After having recognized the truthfulness of Dr. Braid on the essential point, one will no doubt have to verify everything that concerns this singular state, to which he gives the name of hypnotism. The phenomena that he attributes to it may be classified in the following manner:

Exaltation of sensibility — The sense of smell is raised to a degree of acuity that at the least equals that observed in animals of the best scent. Hearing likewise becomes very penetrating. The sense of touch acquires, especially in relation to temperature, an incredible delicacy.

Suggested sentiments — Place the face, the body, or the limbs of the patient in the attitude that suits the expression of a particular sentiment and at once the corresponding mental state is awakened. Thus, placing the hypnotized person's hand on his head, he straightens up spontaneously, leaning backward; his bearing is that of the liveliest pride. If at that moment one bends his head forward, slightly flexing the body and the limbs, pride will give way to the deepest humility. By delicately drawing aside the corners of the mouth, as in laughter, a cheerful tendency is at once produced; ill humor enters the field immediately when one makes the eyebrows converge downward. Provoked ideas — Raise the patient's hand above the head and flex the fingers over the palm: at once the idea of climbing, of swinging, or of pulling a rope is aroused. If, on the contrary, the fingers are flexed, leaving the arm hanging, the idea of lifting a weight is provoked. If the fingers are flexed and the arm carried forward, as if to give a punch, the idea of boxing arises. (The scene takes place in London.)

Increase of muscular force – If one wishes to arouse an extraordinary force in a group of muscles, it suffices to suggest to the patient the idea of the action that calls for that force and to assure him that he can carry it out with the greatest ease, should he wish. Dr. Carpenter says: “We saw one of the patients hypnotized by Dr. Braid, remarkable for the poverty of his muscular development, lift, with the aid of his little finger, a weight of fourteen kilos and make it spin around his head, with the sole assurance that the weight was as light as a feather.”

We limit ourselves, for today, to the indication of this program. To the facts the word; the reflections will come later.

[1] Translator's note: In the original anerthétigue, anaesthetic. We translate it as anesthetic, anesthésique.