wever, found that they
could only be induced when the subjects knew they were being magnetized,
and that they differed according as they were conducted in public or in
private. In short--whether it be a coincidence or the truth--imagination
was considered the sole active agent. Whereupon d'Eslon remarked, 'If
imagination is the best cure, why should we not use the imagination as a
curative means?' Did he, who had so vaunted the existence of the fluid,
mean by this to deny its existence, or was it rather a satirical way of
saying. 'You choose to call it imagination; be it so. But after all, as
it cures, let us make the most of it'?

"The two commissions came to the conclusion that the phenomena were due
to imitation, and contact, that they were dangerous and must be
prohibited. Strange to relate, seventy years later, Arago pronounced the
same verdict!"

Daurent Jussieu was the only one who believed in anything more than
this. He saw a new and important truth, which he set forth in a personal
report upon withdrawing from the commission, which showed itself so
hostile to Mesmer and his pretensions.

Time and scientific progress have largely overthrown Mesmer's theories
of the fluid; yet Mesmer had made a discovery that was in the course of
a hundred years to develop into an important scientific study. Says
Vincent: "It seems ever the habit of the shallow scientist to plume
himself on the more accurate theories which have been provided f, by the
progress of knowledge and of science, and then, having been fed with a
limited historical pabulum, to turn and talk lightly, and with an air of
the most superior condescension, of the weakness and follies of those
but for whose patient labors our modern theories would probably be
non-existent." If it had not been for Mesmer and his "Animal Magnetism",
we would never have had "hypnotism" and all our learned societies for the
study of it.

Mesmer, though his pretensions were discredited, was quickly followed by
Puysegur, who drew all the world to Buzancy, near Soissons, France.
"Doctor Cloquet related that he saw there, patients no longer the
victims of hysterical fits, but enjoying a calm, peaceful, restorative
slumber. It may be said that from this moment really efficacious and
useful magnetism became known." Every one rushed once more to be
magnetized, and Puysegur had so many patients that to care for them all
he was obliged to magnetize a tree (as he said), which was touched