en observed that he is affected by a change of time or tune in the
airs performed on the pianoforte; that his agitation is increased by a
more lively movement, and that his convulsions then become more
violent. Patients are seen to be absorbed in the search for one
another, rushing together, smiling, talking affectionately, and
endeavoring to modify their crises. They are all so submissive to the
magnetizer that even when they appear to be in a stupor, his voice, a
glance, or a sign will rouse them from it. It is impossible not to
admit, from all these results, that some great force acts upon and
masters the patients, and that this force appears to reside in the
magnetizer. This convulsive state is termed the _crisis_. It has been
observed that many women and few men are subject to such crises; that
they are only established after the lapse of two or three hours, and
that when one is established, others soon and successively begin.

"When the agitation exceeds certain limits, the patients are
transported into a padded room; the women's corsets are unlaced, and
they may then strike their heads against the padded walls without
doing themselves any injury." Notwithstanding these means, thousands
were healed of their diseases.

"It is impossible," says Baron Dupotet, "to conceive the sensation
which Mesmer's experiments created in Paris. No theological
controversy, in the earlier ages of the Catholic Church, was ever
conducted with greater bitterness." He was called a quack, a fool, and
a demon, while his friends were as extravagant in his praise as his
foes in their censure. After this great excitement, his life may
largely be summed up in his challenges to different societies, the
appointment of commissions, their examinations, and their reports.

On the advice of Deslon he challenged the Faculty of Medicine,
proposing to select twenty-four patients, of whom twelve should be
treated according to the old and approved methods and twelve
magnetically, the cures to prove the efficacy of the treatment. The
faculty declined to accept the conditions. Deslon asked his colleagues
on the faculty to summon a general meeting to examine the matter.
Through the influence of M. de Vauzesmes, the meeting was very hostile
to him, and he was condemned and threatened with having his name
removed from the list of licensed physicians if he did not reform.

Mesmer now wrote to Marie Antoinette suggesting that the government
furnish him wit