healer of earlier times. He
believed that through animal magnetism a direct physical effect was
exerted upon the human body. And this effect he held to be due to the
virtues of a subtle fluid.

Frank Podmore, in "Mesmerism and Christian Science" (1909), expresses
the belief that Mesmer obtained many of his ideas from his
contemporary, Gassner. For even if he did not actually meet the latter,
Mesmer must have known him by reputation and doubtless was familiar with
his methods of healing. Gassner was a believer in the demoniac theory of
disease, and sought to expel the evil spirit by chasing it from one part
of the body to another, finally driving it out by word of command, from
the fingers or toes. Similar procedures were characteristic of Mesmer's
earlier methods, but were not retained by his successors.

One of Mesmer's most prominent followers was Armand Marc Jacques de
Chastenet, Marquis de Puysegur, born of noble ancestry at Paris, March
1, 1751. He entered early upon a military career, and attained by
successive promotions the rank of colonel in the Royal Artillery in
1778. Serving with distinction at the siege of Gibraltar during the
Spanish campaign, he was appointed field-marshal in 1789, and
lieutenant-general in 1814. Meanwhile he had become greatly interested
in the subject of animal magnetism, having been at one time a pupil of
Mesmer, whom he had assisted at the latter's _seances_. Retiring to his
chateau at Buzancy, Department of Aisne, in northern France, he devoted
himself to the study of the phenomena of mesmerism, and to practical
experimentation of its therapeutic value in the open air, beneath the
dense foliage of the forests, after the style of the ancient Druids.
Puysegur introduced new methods of magnetizing, and demonstrated that
many of the resultant phenomena could be made to appear by gentle
manipulation, and without the mysterious appliances and violent
procedures of Mesmer. Mindful of the latter's assertion that wood could
be magnetized, he decided to experiment upon a large elm tree which grew
upon the village green. As a result, streams of magnetic fluids were
alleged to pass from its branches by means of cords twisted around the
bodies of patients, who sat in a circle about the tree, with thumbs
interlocked, in order to afford a direct passage for the healing
influence.

In his work entitled "Memoires pour servir a l'histoire et a
l'etablissement du Magnetisme Animal" (London, 1786), P