he Catholic Church, was ever conducted with greater
bitterness." His adversaries denied the discovery; some calling him a
quack, others a fool, and others again, like the Abbe Fiard, a man who had
sold himself to the Devil! His friends were as extravagant in their
praise, as his foes were in their censure. Paris was inundated with
pamphlets upon the subject, as many defending as attacking the doctrine.
At court, the queen expressed herself in favour of it, and nothing
else was to be heard of in society.

By the advice of M. D'Eslon, Mesmer challenged an examination of his
doctrine by the Faculty of Medicine. He proposed to select twenty-four
patients, twelve of whom he would treat magnetically, leaving the other
twelve to be treated by the faculty according to the old and approved
methods. He also stipulated that, to prevent disputes, the government
should nominate certain persons who were not physicians, to be present at
the experiments; and that the object of the inquiry should be, not how
these effects were produced, but whether they were really efficacious in
the cure of any disease. The faculty objected to limit the inquiry in this
manner, and the proposition fell to the ground.

Mesmer now wrote to Marie Antoinette, with the view of securing her
influence in obtaining for him the protection of government. He wished to
have a chateau and its lands given to him, with a handsome yearly income,
that he might be enabled to continue his experiments at leisure,
untroubled by the persecution of his enemies. He hinted the duty of
governments to support men of science, and expressed his fear, that if he
met no more encouragement, he should be compelled to carry his great
discovery to some other land more willing to appreciate him. "In the eyes
of your majesty," said he, "four or five hundred thousand francs, applied
to a good purpose, are of no account. The welfare and happiness of your
people are every thing. My discovery ought to be received and rewarded
with a munificence worthy of the monarch to whom I shall attach myself."
The government at last offered him a pension of twenty thousand francs,
and the cross of the order of St. Michael, if he had made any discovery in
medicine, and would communicate it to physicians nominated by the king.
The latter part of the proposition was not agreeable to Mesmer. He feared
the unfavourable report of the king's physicians; and, breaking off the
negotiation, spoke of his disregard of