ive movements. Sardonic laughter, piteous moans and
torrents of tears burst forth on all sides. The bodies were thrown back
in spasmodic jerks, the respirations sounded like death rattles, the
most terrifying symptoms were exhibited. Then suddenly the actors of
this strange scene would frantically or rapturously rush towards each
other, either rejoicing and embracing or thrusting away their neighbors
with every appearance of horror.

"Another room was padded and presented another spectacle. There women
beat their heads against wadded walls or rolled on the cushion-covered
floor, in fits of suffocation. In the midst of this panting, quivering
throng, Mesmer, dressed in a lilac coat, moved about, extending a magic
wand toward the least suffering, halting in front of the most violently
excited and gazing steadily into their eyes, while he held both their
hands in his, bringing the middle fingers in immediate contact to
establish communication. At another moment he would, by a motion of open
hands and extended fingers, operate with the great current, crossing and
uncrossing his arms with wonderful rapidity to make the final passes."

Hysterical women and nervous young boys, many of them from the highest
ranks of Society, flocked around this wonderful wizard, and incidentally
he made a great deal of money. There is little doubt that he started out
as a genuine and sincere student of the scientific character of the new
power he had indeed discovered; there is also no doubt that he
ultimately became little more than a charlatan. There was, of course, no
virtue in his "prepared" rods, nor in his magnetic tubs. At the same
time the belief of the people that there was virtue in them was one of
the chief means by which he was able to induce hypnotism, as we shall
see later. Faith, imagination, and willingness to be hypnotized on the
part of the subject are all indispensable to entire success in the
practice of this strange art.

In 1779 Mesmer published a pamphlet entitled "Memoire sur la decouverte
du magnetisme animal", of which Doctor Cocke gives the following summary
(his chief claim was that he had discovered a principle which would cure
every disease):

"He sets forth his conclusions in twenty-seven propositions, of which
the substance is as follows:-- There is a reciprocal action and reaction
between the planets, the earth and animate nature by means of a constant
universal fluid, subject to mechanical laws yet unknown.