te lectures, at Boston, November 14, 1906,
Dr. Pierre Janet described the development of metallo-therapy in France
between the years 1860 and 1880. Metallic discs were applied to the
patient's body. These discs were of different kinds, sometimes being
composed of two or more metals. In some cases a magnet was used.
Different subjects, it was found, did not manifest sensitiveness to the
same metals, some being cured by iron, others by copper, while the
greatest number were susceptible to gold. Many interesting facts
relating to these cures were noted, such as periods of transition and
oscillation in the maladies, and most curious of all, a kind of
transference. For example, should a paralysis or a contraction seat
itself on the right side, the application of the discs would effect a
cure, but the malady would often return to the opposite side. And there
were other curious phenomena. A modification of sensation was invariably
observed.

Under the influence of the metal disc, the shin and muscles, which
before were numb, regained their normal states, and the return of
sensation preceded the cure, and was an indispensable condition. One can
obtain exactly the same results with discs composed of inert substances.
An old-fashioned letter-wafer, for instance, applied to the hand, has
produced similar effects. According to Dr. Janet, these phenomena are
wholly due to psychic agencies, partly akin to suggestion and partly
different. They depend upon the mechanism of attention. This faculty,
when directed upon any organ, will bring into prominence sensations not
ordinarily felt.

Consciousness is limited, in that it does not always take cognizance of
all the existing sensations. This explains the phenomenon of
transference, in that the suppression of those sensations which were
prominent brings to the surface others which were not before recognized
by the consciousness.

As a result of the introduction of metallo-therapy in the hospitals of
Paris, an enormous number of hysterical patients applied for treatment,
influenced partly, no doubt, by the love of notoriety.

CHAPTER XIII

ANIMAL MAGNETISM

Although curative attributes were ascribed to the magnet in ancient
times, and the same belief prevailed in the Middle Ages, the noted
charlatan Paracelsus (1493-1541) was the first to propound the theory of
the existence of magnetic properties in the human body. During the
seventeenth century several persons in Great Br