green was
chosen, and round this patients gathered on stone benches as around
Mesmer's _baquet_.

Following Mesmer's theories very closely, the contribution he made was
in the recognition of the likeness between the magnetized state and
that of somnambulism, so that he designated this state "artificial
somnambulism." He also modified the conditions of inducing this
state, and simple contact or spoken orders were substituted for the
use of the _baquet_. The effect was therefore milder, and instead of
hysteria and violent crises accompanied by sobs, cries, and
contractions, there was peaceful slumber. He recognized the rapport
between operator and subject, and amnesia on awaking, and other
phenomena now well known, but he still held to the Mesmeric theory of
the existence of a universal fluid which saturated all bodies,
especially the human body. It was electric in nature, and man could
display and diffuse this electric fluid at will.

While the Marquis de Puysegur was using the elm tree near Soissons,
the Chevalier de Barbarin was successfully magnetizing people without
paraphernalia. He sat by the bedside of the sick and prayed that they
might be magnetized; his efforts were successful. He maintained that
the effect of animal magnetism was produced by the mere effort of one
human soul acting upon another; and when the connection had once been
established the magnetizer could communicate his influence to the
subject regardless of the distance which separated them. Numerous
persons adopted this view, calling themselves Barbarinists after their
leader. In Sweden and Germany they were called _spiritualists_, to
distinguish them from the followers of de Puysegur, who were called
_experimentalists_.

About the same time a doctor of Lyons, Petetin, experimented with
magnetism. After his death a paper written by him was published
describing catalepsy and sense transference. Numerous magnetic
societies were founded in the principal cities of France. In
Strasburg, the Society of Harmony, consisting of more than one hundred
and fifty members, published for years the result of their work. The
disturbance incident to the Revolution and the wars of the Empire
which followed repressed the investigations of magnetism in France for
several years.

In England the advent of magnetism seems to have taken place about
1788. In that year one Dr. Mainandus, who had been a pupil first of
Mesmer and later of Deslon, arrived in Bristol and