“The LOST Book on Psychic Energy, Crystal Energy, Treasure Dowsing, & Psychic Sensitive’s!”

I. This book was originally written in 1846 based upon scientific research started in 1841.

II. It is a scientific book that proved the concept of vital force.

III. It proves scientifically that vital force is directional, and that certain directions are positive for humans and other directions are not positive for humans.

IV. At the same time Carl von Reichenbach accidentally proved scientifically the existence of psychics, sensitives, telepathy and clairvoyance.

V. He proved scientifically that magnetized water improves health.

VI. He proved scientifically, and experimentally how and why “water dowsing” works.

VII. He proved scientifically that Mesmerism is a valid psychological tool to train psychics.

VIII. He scientifically proven the sun and moon affect humans and humans who are “sensitive” can notice and use that knowledge.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 The Baron Dr. Carl von Reichenbach Reichenbach was educated at the University of Tübingen, where he obtained the degree of doctor of philosophy. Directing his attention to the application of science to the industrial arts, he established the first modern metallurgical company, with forges of his own in Villingen and Hausach in the Black Forest region of Southern Germany and later in Baden. From 1830 to 1834 he investigated complex products of the distillation of organic substances such as coal and wood tar, discovering a number of valuable hydrocarbon compounds including creosote, paraffin, eupione and phenol (antiseptics), pittacal and cidreret (synthetic dyestuffs), picamar (a perfume base), assamar, capnomor, and others. Reichenbach included the mixture of hydrocarbon oils now known as waxy paraffin or coal oils. In 1839 Von Reichenbach retired from industry and entered upon an investigation of the pathology of the human nervous system. He studied neurasthenia, somnambulism, hysteria and phobia, crediting reports that these conditions were affected by the moon. After interviewing many patients he ruled out many causes and cures, but concluded that such maladies tended to affect people whose sensory faculties were unusually vivid. These he termed "sensitives".[citation needed] Influenced by the works of Franz Anton Mesmer he hypothesised that the condition could be affected by environmental electromagnetism, but finally his investigations led him to propose a new imponderable force allied to magnetism, which he thought was an emanation from most substances, a kind of "life principle" which permeates and connects all living things. To this vitalist manifestation he gave the name Odic force. Reichenbach expanded on the work of previous scientists, such as Galileo Galilei, who believed the Earth's axis was magnetically connected to a universal central force in space, in concluding that Earth's magnetism comes from magnetic iron, which can be found in meteorites.

His reasoning was that meteorites and planets are the same, and no matter the size of the meteorite, polar existence can be found in the object. This was deemed conclusive by the scientific community in the 19th century.

This work contains a minute detail of the researches and experiments made by Baron von Reichenbach, for the purpose of establishing his discover)' of the existence of an influence Id nature analogous to, but essentially distinct from, the known Imponderables, Heat, Electricity, and Magnetism.

This principle, denominated Odyl by the author, is characterised by the effects which it produces on the senses of touch, the feelings (emotions), the pressures (proprioceptives) and of sight and smell.

1. In exciting peculiar sensations in the human frame; and, 2. In exhibiting luminous emanations issuing from the poles and sides of magnets.

Odic force

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 In 1839, Scientist Carl Von Reichenbach retired from industry and entered upon an investigation of the pathology of the human nervous system. He studied neurasthenia, somnambulism, hysteria and phobia, crediting reports that these conditions were affected by the moon.

After interviewing many patients he ruled out many causes and cures, but concluded that such maladies tended to affect people whose sensory faculties were unusually vivid. (Here Reichenbach was referring to proprioceptives, emotions, sight, psychic and clairvoyant. La Tourrette) These he termed "sensitives". Edgar Cayce---Take the moon, for instance. Its influence is obvious on such things as the tides and the female cycle. These influences are observable when the moon is close. The word lunatic stems from luna meaning moon. In law enforcement and emergency circles, accounts of the affect a full moon has on the crime rate have been reported. The planets are farther away than the moon, and the stars are far beyond them. But their light comes to the Earth, and they influence in some way the heart, or the brain, or the emotions. Influenced by the works of Franz Anton Mesmer he hypothesized that the condition could be affected by environmental electromagnetism, but finally his investigations led him to propose a new imponderable force allied to magnetism, which he thought was an emanation from most substances, a kind of "life principle" which permeates and connects all living things. To this vitalist manifestation he gave the name Odic force. The Odic force (also called Od [õd], Odyle, Önd, Odes, Odylic, Odyllic, or Odems) is the name given in the mid-19th century to vital energy or life force by Baron Carl von Reichenbach. Von Reichenbach coined the name from that of the Norse god Odin in 1845, after having scientifically studied it for 4 years. As von Reichenbach was investigating the manner in which the human nervous system could be affected by various substances, he conceived the existence of a new force allied to electricity, magnetism, and heat, a force which he thought was radiated by most substances, and to the influence of which different persons are variously sensitive. He Proponents say that Odic force permeates all plants, animals, and humans. Believers in Odic force (all sensitives, hypnotically and Mesmeric trained individuals. La Tourrette)…

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 …said that it is visible in total darkness as colored auras surrounding living things, crystals, and magnets, but that viewing it requires hours first spent in total darkness, and only very sensitive people have the ability to see it. (It has now been determined that many people in an alpha brain wave state, or a waking-theta- state can also “perceive” it. La Tourrette) They also said that it resembles the eastern concepts prana and qi. However, they regarded the Odic force, not as associated with breath (like India's prana and the qi/Chi of Eastern martial arts), but rather mainly with biological electromagnetic fields. Actually there are now known to be at least nine different energy fields inside the human body that are physical, electrical, magnetic and esoteric. Those 9 different systems are; the meridians, the chakras, the aura, the Celtic Weave, the basic Grid, the Triple Warmer, the Strange Flows (also called Radiant Circuits, Psychic Circuits), and the Electrical System.

Von Reichenbach did not tie Odic force into other vitalist theories. Baron von Reichenbach expounded the concept of Odic force in detail in a book-length article, Researches on Magnetism, Electricity, Heat and Light in their Relations to Vital Forces, which appeared in a special issue of a respected scientific journal, Annalen der Chemie und Physik. He said that--- (1) The Odic force had a positive and negative flux, and a light and dark side. (2) Individuals could forcefully "emanate" it, particularly from the hands, mouth, and forehead. (3) Odic force had many possible applications. The Odic force was conjectured to explain the phenomenon of hypnotism. In Britain an impetus was given to this view of the subject, following the translation of Reichenbach's Researches, by a professor of chemistry at the University of Edinburgh. These later researches tried to show many of the Odic phenomena to be of the same nature as those described previously by Franz Mesmer, and even long before Mesmer's time by Swedenborg. The French scientists Hippolyte Baraduc and Albert de Rochas were influenced by the Odic force. Von Reichenbach hoped to develop a scientific proof for a universal life force, however his experiments relied on perceptions reported by individuals claimed to be "sensitive", as he himself could not observe any of the reported phenomena. The "sensitives" had to work in total or near-total darkness to be able to observe the phenomena. Reichenbach stated that through experimentation possibly 1/3 of the population could view the phenomenon, but far less otherwise. Many scientists had abandoned concepts such as Odic force until the last 45 years. Now through the scientific studies of energy medicine, Qi Kong, Pranic Healing, etc, many are starting to again use those concepts, BECAUSE THEY ARE VERIFIABLE.) In western popular culture, the name is used similarly to qi or prana in reference to spiritual energies or vital force associated with living things. In Europe, Odic force has been mentioned in books on dowsing, for example. The author institutes a minute comparison of the new influence, odyle, with the known influences or imponderables, heat, electricity, and magnetism (proper); and establishes, in a very beautiful and convincing manner, both its great analogy to these, and the striking differences which compel him to distinguish it from them, and which leave no choice, for the present, but that of giving it a distinct place and name, although future discoveries may possibly enable us to refer all the imponderables to a common force.

But that time is still distant; and, in every event, a name will be required for the new group of distinct phenomena, just as we find it necessary to apply the names of magnetism and electricity to two such groups, the close relation, and possibly common origin, of which must be universally admitted. © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 This book is a very full, minute, and able developement of the various forms, characters, and properties of the light given out by magnets of all kinds, and visible, in the dark, to the sensitive.

It may here be mentioned, that the Author now finds fully one-third of people in general to be more or less sensitive.

This, as far as my own observations extend, I am inclined to consider as not exaggerated. The highest degree of sensitiveness is comparatively rare, but is still common enough, even among the healthy.

This, the light from magnets, is the only form of odylic light treated of in Part II. The observations, generally, of the fifty new sensitives, are first given.

Then come, specially, the forms of the light, such as glow, flames, fibrous downy light, scintillations, and luminous nebulas, vapours, smoke, and clouds; to which is subjoined a most ingenious theory of the spectres and demons of the Walpurgisnacht on the mountains of the Harz forest.

Next, we have the effects produced on it by different media, such as rarefied air, or the vacuum, water, and solid media. The colours of the odylic light of magnets are then treated of; and the Author demonstrates in it the presence of all the prismatic colours, very often in the form of a regular Iris; with many other highly interesting details.

The next investigates most successfully, and with most beautiful results, the remarkable effects produced on the light and its colours, by the varied positions of the magnet, and by the magnetism of the earth.

Lastly, he examines the effects of giving to the poles of magnets differently-shaped terminations, and of employing disc-shaped and spherical magnets. The results are singularly beautiful and interesting. As to the mode of investigation adopted by the Author: it is the inductive method, the same to which we owe all the progress of modern science; and in which the conclusions are deduced from carefully observed phenomena, varied by experiments performed with due attention to accuracy. No other method is known, by which natural phenomena, and especially obscure natural phenomena, can be investigated with any chance of success. The inductive method (usually called the scientific method) is the deductive method "turned upside down". The deductive method starts with a few true statements (axioms) with the goal of proving many true statements (theorems) that logically follow from them.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 The inductive method starts with many observations of nature, with the goal of finding a few, powerful statements about how nature works (laws and theories). About 1600 A.D., it became apparent to several people - Galileo Galilei in Italy, Francis Bacon in England, Tycho Brahe in Denmark, and others - that there were no subtle logical errors in Aristotle's use of the deductive method. The problem was that the deductive method, while wildly successful in mathematics, did not fit well with scientific investigations of nature. Since 1600, the inductive method has been incredibly successful in investigating nature - surely far more successful than its originators could have imagined. The inductive method of investigation has become so entrenched in science that it is often referred to as the scientific method. This method has been most diligently, laboriously, and successfully applied by the Author to a class of phenomena, which might perhaps be considered at once more obscure and more interesting than those which form the objects of many other departments of science, if it could justly be said that one part of nature is more interesting than another. I feel constrained to say, that in the course of a life devoted to science, I have met with no researches in which the true and universally approved rules of investigation have been more perfectly adhered to and followed out, than in those before us; which, were it necessary, might serve as a model to all experimental inquirers. The qualifications of the Author (Baron Carl von Reichenbach) for such an inquiry are of the very highest kind. He possesses a thorough scientific education, combined with extensive knowledge. His life has been devoted to science, and to its application to the practical purposes of mankind. He is known as a distinguished improver of the iron manufacture in his own native country, Austria. He is a thorough practical Chemist; and, by his well known researches on Tar, has acquired a very high position. But in Geology, Physics, and Mineralogy, he has been equally active. In particular, he is the highest living authority on the subject of meteorites or aerolites, of which remarkable bodies he possesses a magnificent collection. Of his knowledge on this subject, good use is made in this work. His sensitiveness (several of these people have been found since 1841, Edgar Cayce, Donna Eden, Barbara Brennan, and many, many others) will no doubt facilitate his researches; but it will not add any new weight to the Author's results, which, although observed in these very difficult circumstances, have been obtained in a manner which, as far as they extend, leaves nothing to be desired on this head. The essential point is, to make sure of the competency and accuracy of the observer. Now, the sensitives of Baron VON REICHENBACH, a majority of whom are intelligent and educated persons, have observed the whole series of auroral phenomena, invisible to him, but most beautifully visible to them, as produced in his magnetic spheres. And he has had the double advantage; First, of 'producing, varying, and intensifying the phenomena at pleasure; Secondly, of cross-examining the observers, with the phenomena actually under their eyes. There is one more point, on which I would offer a few remarks. This is, the bearing of the Author's researches on the subject of Somnambulism, and on that of Mesmerism. It will be obvious to the attentive reader, that the highest or extreme degree of sensitiveness to the new influence, is found in spontaneous somnambulists, but not confined to the somnambulistic state. Somnambulism takes its place, along with nervousness, spasms, catalepsy, &c. as an indication of a state of the system favourable* to the developement of sensitiveness, but not at all essential to it. Spontaneous somnambulism is of very frequent occurrence; so frequent indeed, that it is only wonderful that there should ever have existed doubts as to the possibility of inducing it by artificial means.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 Now anyone that wants to learn the skill, need only go to someone that can train them to be “conscious” at alpha and theta brainwave. If you want such a home-study course, let us know. We have them. La Tourrette. This leads us to what is called the mesmeric state, which is merely somnambulism, artificially produced. Its existence in this way is now generally, I may say universally admitted; while yet, hitherto, we could not in any way account for the fact, that one human being is able to produce this state in another, and that, too, without contact. Now, the Author's discoveries show us, that a force, or influence, analogous to heat, electricity, and magnetism, but distinct from all, exists in the human body; and that a large number of persons are more or less sensitive to this influence. MESMER and others produced powerful effects by using magnets and other means; and this is now cleared up, by the discovery that the new force residing in the human body, does also reside, not only in magnets, but in all other bodies. The conclusion naturally is, that these forces are identical. There is a fluid (or imponderable power, or influence) which is not ordinary magnetism, and which acts strongly on the system. Thus the crude observations of MESMER and his followers, which were overlaid and discredited by their gratuitous and often absurd theories, are brought into a coherent physical shape; and the reader will find, not only that they are reduced to purely physical causes, but that the contradictions, failures, inconsistencies, and confusion of the earlier mesmeric observations, are also referred to their true physical origin. Even the mesmeric baquet ceases to be a mystery to us.

In short, the Author has shown that these most obscure natural phenomena, like all others, admit of being studied as a part of physical science, and that they will well repay the investigator. But the reader will observe that the Author, preferring to begin at the beginning, has not, in these researches, studied the new phenomena on persons in the mesmeric state. The phenomena of mesmerism, or artificial somnambulism, are natural facts. Like all facts, they ought to be studied, and if, hitherto, the subject has presented results from which many recoil, it should be borne in mind, that men of science have, in general, refused to investigate it, and that the only way to obtain true and valuable results, is to apply to these phenomena the method I have endeavoured above to illustrate, as the Author has done, to a closely allied class of phenomena.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 The close connection between the two classes of facts may be easily illustrated. Everyone knows, that one of the statements most frequently made by persons in the mesmeric or sleepwalking state is this, that they see flames issuing from the points of the operator's fingers. Nay, some are reported to have seen this when in the ordinary waking state (natural sensitives). These statements have been ridiculed and decried as absurd, and denounced as wilfully false; but these denunciations have been fulminated without a shadow of proof. And now these researches prove, that a large proportion of mankind possess the power of seeing these flames (or energies). The mesmeric fact, therefore, is confirmed and established by the Author's observations on persons not in the mesmeric state. We can as little explain gravitation as we can magnetic attraction; our nightly sleep we can explain as little as we can the mesmeric sleep; but we can study both, and determine the laws which regulate them; and it is our duty to do this, to the best of our abilities, in the latter case, as well as in the former. Nor is it possible for us to declare, a priori, what things are possible, and what are impossible, in any case short of mathematical impossibility. That there is something worthy of research in these phenomena, all who have either personally studied them, or carefully read the existing evidence, admit; the best security against fraud is the utmost possible knowledge of the subject, which can only be obtained by men of scientific training and turn of mind devoting their energies to it. If there be any phenomena which, in a certain sense, we might be entitled to call incredible, they are those of clairvoyance. The term clairvoyance (from French clair meaning "clear" and voyance meaning "vision") is used to refer to the ability to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses, a form of extra-sensory perception. A person said to have the ability of clairvoyance is referred to as a clairvoyant ("one who sees clearly"). Within parapsychology, clairvoyance is used exclusively to refer to the transfer of information that is both contemporary to, and hidden from, the clairvoyant. It is very different from telepathy in that the information is said to be gained directly from an external physical source, rather than being transferred from the mind of one individual to another. We must carefully distinguish between the facts themselves, and the various, often absurd explanations and theories which unscientific observers seem to think it necessary to devise, and insist on giving; while others, before admitting the facts, require them to be explained, as if the truth of a fact depended on our being able to account for it. There are facts, of the most interesting kind, connected with this part of the subject; and we need not doubt that, if studied in the right spirit, these facts will one day admit of a natural physical explanation, as far at least as any natural fact can be explained. The example, indeed, above given, of the flames at the point of the fingers, proves that there is a physical cause for some, as we shall sooner or later find there is for all, of the mesmeric phenomena. But further, even clairvoyance has not unfrequently, as we know from the best authority, occurred, just as somnambulism and cataleptic rigidity have done, spontaneously, without the use of any mesmerising process whatever. It is, therefore, independently of mesmerism, a fact to be investigated according to the usual rules of science. The Remote Viewing tests done at SRI (1971), following the “protocols of Ingo Swann, and at Monroe Institute, and by the Silva Research teams, have verified this thousands of times. There are “processes” that anyone can learn if they are of “average Intelligence”, or higher…and if they are NOT skeptical. We do have a home-study course on it. La Tourrette To return to the Author's experiments. He has, by the minutest instructions, put it in the power of every one to repeat them. It is hardly necessary to point out, that, in repeating them, if we wish to obtain or to control his results, we must strictly attend to the conditions; indeed, this is so obviously necessary, that I should not have © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 alluded to it, had not the proceedings of certain physicians in Vienna, in what they intended for an experimental refutation of the Author's conclusions, furnished evidence that even educated men, who might be supposed to be acquainted with science, may in the grossest manner violate this essential and simple rule. I have now to add, that I have myself repeated some of the Author's experiments, and have found, as was to be expected, that his account of the phenomena was perfectly accurate. There is no difficulty in finding sensitive subjects; but it is not so easy to make good and trustworthy observations when we have found them. I have reason to know that many persons have made similar observations, in confirmation of those of the Author. One gentleman, well-known as a lover of science, has favoured me with some of his. Those who have thus had an opportunity, or who may hereafter have an opportunity, of thus confirming, illustrating, or correcting the observations of the Author, will confer on me a very great obligation by privately communicating to me the results they have obtained or may obtain; which, or a selection of which, with their permission, I should wish to add to the future parts of this work. But it will be still more desirable, that such observers should publish their results separately. Finally, with regard to the translation; I have endeavoured, in every case, to adhere rigidly to the meaning of the Author, even where, from the peculiarity of the German idiom, or of the Author's characteristic style, which is not always easily rendered, it has been necessary, (and this has often been the case,) totally to change the form of the sentence. It has been my endeavour to produce a readable English work, as far as the nature of the subject, and the very frequent occurrence of technical terms and of necessary repetitions of nearly identical details, would permit. WILLIAM GREGORY, April 1850. ACTION OF MAGNETS, CRYSTALS, ETC., ON THE HUMAN FRAME—RESEARCHES OP REICHENBACH—HIS ODYLE IS IDENTICAL WITH THE MESMERIC FLUID OF MESMER, OR WITH THE INFLUENCE WHICH CAUSES THE MESMERIC PHENOMENA—ODYLIO OR MESMERIC LIGHT.—AURORA BOREALIS ARTIFICIALLY PRODUCED— MESMERISED WATER—USEFUL APPLICATIONS OF MESMERISM, PHYSIOLOGICAL, THERAPEUTICAL, ETC.—TREATMENT OF INSANITY, MAGIC, DIVINATION, WITCHCRAFT, ETC., EXPLAINED BY MESMERISM, AND TRACED TO NATURAL CAUSES —APPARITIONS—SECOND SIGHT IS WAKING CLAIRVOYANCEPREDICTIONS OF VARIOUS KINDS. HERE, I shall proceed to mention, in a very general way, the action, on the human system, of inanimate objects, such as magnets, crystals, &c. It is the less necessary to dwell at length on this subject, as Baron von Reichenbach's Researches on Mesmerism, (a translation of which I published, in so far as they have appeared in Germany, in the month of May, 1850, having previously given, in 1846, an Abstract of Part I.) contains the results of the only truly scientific investigation which has yet been made on that point. It is true that we only possess, at present, a part of these admirable researches, which were continued, with great labour and astonishing perseverance, for five years. The Baron, during that time, collected full materials for a work on the numerous branches of the subject investigated by him ; but he has not, as yet, been able to publish more than a part, sufficient, however, to make us eager to obtain the remainder. The labour and time required for arranging and publishing the details of so many investigations, made on upwards of 100 different persons, is very great, and the remainder of the work can only appear gradually, as it is brought into a state fit for publication. In a former chapter, however, we have a general summary of the whole investigation, and it is to that that we must refer for the facts which have been ascertained on this matter. 1. Mesmer observed the effects, not only of magnets, but of other things, on the human body; but he seems to have been, and his followers certainly were, in too great a hurry to apply the power he observed to profitable purposes, and to the cure of disease, so that they made no thorough or scientific examination of it; and the whole subject fell into discredit. •Nevertheless, it now appears, that the fundamental facts are true.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 •Magnets do act on the human body. •When passes are made with them, the same sensations are experienced, as when the operator uses his hand. Here, no doubt, the influence of the hand is combined with that of the magnet; but, by using the magnet without the hand of the operator, or in the hand of a person whose hand, by itself, has no perceptible effect, it is ascertained that the magnet does exert an influence identical with that exerted by the human body. This influence may go so far as to produce, even at a great distance, unconsciousness, as well as the true mesmeric sleep, and in highly susceptible cases, even cataleptic rigidity and convulsions. In one such case, mentioned by Reichenbach, a large magnet, being disarmed at the greatest distance permitted by the room, instantly struck the patient into complete rigidity and unconsciousness. But Reichenbach has also shown that a large number of perfectly healthy persons are sensitive to the influence from the magnet. The sensitiveness is NOT a morbid condition, and is found, in different degrees, in one person out of three, on an average, of healthy and diseased people. 2. This influence is conducted, or passes, through all matter, differing in this from the electrical influence, which cannot pass, for example, through glass or resin, but passes easily through metals. 3. Like electricity and ordinary mesmerism, it is polar in its distribution. In the Magnet, this influence, which Reichenbach has named Odyle, is associated with Ferro-mesmerism, that power by which the suspended needle points to the north, and by which the magnet attracts iron filings. But it is found, as we shall see, unconnected with ferro-mesmerism, as in crystals, or in the human body. But wherever it appears, that is, whether in mesmerism, in crystals, or in the human body, it is polar, like ferromesmerism: that is, there is a difference in its manifestations at the two ends or poles of the magnet or other body possessing it. It occurs, also, in amorphous matter, &c, without distinct polarity.

4. The odylic influence is characterised, in its flow out of one body towards all others—for, like heat, light, and electricity, it is sent forth in all directions—by its emanations being luminous, that is, to sensitive persons, in the dark. The light is very faint, so as generally to be overpowered by the faintest glimmer of ordinary light, although very sensitive persons, and most persons when in. the mesmeric sleep, can see it in daylight. It presents the rainbow colours, but at the northward pole of magnets the blue, at the southward the red, predominates. © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 For a multitude of very interesting details on the odylic light of magnets, I refer to the work of Reichenbach already mentioned above. 5. Not only is the odylic influence found in magnets, but also in crystals. All bodies, when in distinct and large crystals, possess it, and exhibit, to the sensitive, the same or analogous luminous emanations, often of great beauty. Crystals are also odylically polar, and produce, though less powerfully, the same effects as magnets, or as the human hand. (Most people are not aware that all ligaments, tendons, bones and other body parts are composed of crystalline structures. La Tourrette) 6. The human body is found to possess the same influence, and to produce the same effects on the sensitive, as magnets do. I have already spoken of the light seen, by persons in the mesmeric sleep, to issue from the tips of the operator's fingers. This is odylic light, which is seen by the sensitive, at least in the dark, without their being in the mesmeric sleep.

Notice the DIRECTION of Energy Flows from current scientific research The hands are oppositely polar; and the head, eyes and mouth are also foci where the odylic influence appears to be concentrated. This is the reason why passes with the hands, and gazing, are the most powerful means of mesmerising.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 A mesmerist doing sweeps, and “gazing”. 7. Besides the sources of odyle above mentioned, Reichenbach has shown that it is present in all material substances, though generally in a less degree than in magnets or crystals. He has found it to be developed by heat, light, electricity, common or galvanic, friction, and every species of chemical action, such as combustion, the solution of a metal or of an alkali in an acid, respiration, and the changes going on in the animal body generally. This explains why the human or animal body is so plentiful a source of odyle. He has also found it in plants; and has detected its presence in the light of the sun, moon, and stars. 8. Another important observation is, that the human body is strongly influenced by the magnetism of the earth. Many very sensitive persons cannot sleep unless their bed lies in a plane parallel to the mesmeric meridian, with the head towards the north. I have had opportunities of seeing several, and hearing of many more, persons who experience this; and many of them had observed it, without being able to account for it, long before Reichenbach's experiments were made.

It appears extremely probable, that some diseases may be more easily cured when this position of the bed is observed. To some patients, the position, at right angles to it, is quite intolerable, and this has been noticed long ago, but ascribed to fancy or idiosyncrasy alone. It is found that people are more readily mesmerised when they sit, with the head towards the north, the face turned, and the feet extended towards the south, than in any other position.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 I have myself repeatedly experienced this, and probably, if observed, it will be found to be a general fact, although many are easily enough mesmerised in any position.

All 3, Besant, Leadbeater & Babbitt, had Micro-clairvoyant Psychic abilities, as did all of Reichenbach’s “sensitives” Reichenbach has also found, that to “see” the odylic light, for example, best, the subject should be in north and south position, with the head towards the north. 9. Reichenbach has also observed many very curious facts concerning the distribution of the mesmeric or odylic influence in the body, at different hours, and before or after meals. On awaking in the morning, or rather with sunrise, it begins to rise, sinks a little before breakfast, from the effect of hunger, then rises steadily, with a sudden increase at dinner-time, continuing to rise till the evening, or after sunset, when it begins to fall, and falls during the night, till before sunrise it is at the lowest ebb. For many curious and interesting details on this point, and for the application of these facts to the due regulation of our mode of life, with a view to the preservation of health, I refer to the work of Reichenbach, so often mentioned. 10. In all these researches, odyle appeared to be polar; and the negative and positive, northward or southward poles of any object possessing the odylic force, such as a magnet, a crystal, the human body, of which the hands are the chief poles, always produced peculiar effects. The negative or northward pole caused a great coolness, and gave out light in which blue predominated. The sensation caused by the positive or southward pole was a disagreeable warmth, and in its light red prevailed. The right hand is negative and cool, the left positive and warm. The sun's rays are negative, and cause to sensitives a strong but delightful coolness.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 A hot stove caused to the very sensitive, until they came so near as to be affected by the radiated heat, a cold feeling amounting to that of frost due to its negative odylic emanations; and in some, the numerous tapers (candles) in a Roman Catholic Church caused not only cold, but fainting.

The moon, on the contrary, is odylically positive, and her rays excite a feeling of warmth in the sensitive. All the planets, which, like the moon, shine by reflected light, are, like her, odylically positive.

11. In short, odyle is universally diffused throughout the material universe, and in this respect, it agrees with heat, light, and electricity. By a laborious and beautiful investigation, Reichenbach has, in my opinion, demonstrated the existence of a force, influence, or imponderable fluid, whatever name be given to' it, which is distinct from all the known forces, influences, or imponderable fluids, such as heat, light, electricity, mesmerism, and from the attractions, such as gravitation or chemical attraction. © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 But it is highly analogous to the other imponderables, and, as we have seen, is found associated with them. All of them may possibly be hereafter reduced to one primary force, but in the meantime odyle must be distinguished from the rest, just as heat, light, and electricity are from each other. Although Reichenbach has not made his experiments with artificially mesmerised persons, nor of those persons in the mesmeric sleep, or the state of artificial somnambulism, yet he has observed, that persons who are subject to spontaneous somnambulism are almost always very sensitive when in their ordinary state, and that when they fall into somnambulism, their sensitiveness is greatly increased. Now we know that persons in artificial somnambulism or mesmeric sleep are also highly sensitive, so that they see the odylic light from the hand or from other objects, even in daylight. 12. Hence it is hardly to be doubted that the odylic influence, which exists in magnets and in the hand, and which in magnets produces the sensations formerly described, and even the mesmeric sleep, is identical with the mesmeric influence of the hand, which is usually employed to produce the effects of mesmerism. Thus, when Mesmer spoke of an influence from magnets, and of a mesmeric fluid, as producing these effects, he was right, in so far, at least, as the existence of the influence is concerned; which, if not a fluid, is as much entitled to the name as the electric fluid. But he was wrong in supposing it to be identical with ferromagnetism, with which it is only associated. The magnetic baquet was merely a mixture of all sorts of things, which, giving rise to a slow chemical action, furnished a slow but constant current of odylic, or mesmeric influence. We may, therefore, for the present, safely assume the odyle of Reichenbach, discovered by a totally different and independent train of researches, as being the influence or cause to which are due the effects of mesmerism, as above described. The coincidence of the two modes of investigation in this great point, of the existence of an influence, which may be exerted, or pass, from one individual to another, is the best guarantee for the accuracy of both. We can no longer have a difficulty in conceiving how a susceptible person may be thrown into somnambulism by the influence of another, even without contact. If a magnet can do this, why may not the hand, which has been shown to possess the very same influence as the magnet? It appears to me, that the laborious and truly scientific researches of Reichenbach have for ever settled the question as to the existence of an external and universally diffused influence, different from all known influences, although closely allied with and analogous to several of them, and which is capable of producing the effects of mesmerism. 13. I have, with very imperfect means and very limited leisure, repeated many of Reichenbach's experiments, on magnets, crystals, chemical action, and the human hand, on sensitive persons in the ordinary waking state. And in every such case, with great variations in degree, I have found his statements and descriptions rigorously exact. I have also been informed, by many friends, as well as by many persons unknown to me personally, who have repeated some of these experiments, chiefly those with small magnets and crystals, that their experience, in every point observed by them, confirms the statements of the Baron. Sensitive persons are easily found, if we only look for them, and, according to my own observation, they are not less frequent here than he found them to be in Vienna. I would here, in recommending the repetition and prosecution, of these attractive researches, by enquirers possessing the leisure which is necessary, urge on them the absolute necessity of attending to the conditions minutely laid down by Reichenbach. In order to see the odylic light, for example: 1. the person be sensitive, 2. the darkness must be absolute, 3. the sensitive should remain in it for an hour or two, 4. then we can expect the eye to be fully awake to the faint and beautiful luminous emanations of magnets, crystals, the hand, &c.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 And after the observer and his subject or subjects have entered the darkened chamber, not the smallest gleam of light, even of the dullest daylight or of a candle, must be allowed to enter at chink or cranny, door or window. No one should come in or go out during the experiment; for if the door be opened, the admission, for an instant, of light from the next room, blinds the subject, unless of the highest order of sensitiveness, which is rare, for half an hour, an hour, or even longer, to the feeble beams of odylic light. Another essential precaution is, that no one should be close to the subject or to the object observed. The approach even of the observer often extinguishes the light, visible but a moment before, by changing the odylic state of the magnet, &c, as well as that of the subject himself. Unless all these and other precautions are attended to, failure is the result. 14. Before passing on to the next point to be discussed, I would here refer to two beautiful applications of Reichenbach's discoveries. First, since all chemical action is attended with the emission of odylic light as well as odylic influence, the changes which take place in dead bodies by decay, which are chemical, are sources of odylic light, just as are the changes in the living body, respiration, digestion, &c, &c. Hence sensitive persons see luminous appearances over graves, especially over recent graves. There will be found in the work of Reichenbach several most interesting and instructive cases of this fact, and thus we find, that science, with her torch, dissipates the shades of superstition. Corpse-lights exist, but they are not supernatural. Neither are those, who habitually see them, what we call in Scotland "uncanny." The lights are perfectly natural and harmless; and the seers are only sensitive persons. I have been informed of several such cases, in which these lights are always seen at night (if dark) over churchyard graves or burying-vaults, and in which the observation dates many years before Reichenbach made his investigations. Secondly, as magnets emit beautiful odylic light, so the earth, which is a vast magnet, emits its odylic light; which, in consequence of the great size and enormous power of the magnet concerned, becomes visible to all eyes, perhaps more vividly to the sensitive; but this is not easy to ascertain. This is not a mere hypothesis. It is supported by a series of the most beautiful experiments with which I am acquainted. Reichenbach converted a large iron globe, two or three feet in diameter, into a powerful temporary magnet, by causing an electric current to traverse a wire coiled round a bar of iron passing from pole to pole of the sphere. When the globe was suspended in the air, in an absolutely dark room, the sensitives saw the odylic light in the most exquisite beauty, and with all the peculiar characters of the Aurora Borealis and the Aurora Australis. At each pole appeared a wide circle of light, more blue at the northward, more red at the southward pole, but at both with all the rainbow hues. The equator was marked by a luminous belt, towards which on or close above, the surface of the sphere, lines of light constantly streamed from the polar circles. In the polar circles, as well as in the streaming lines, the colours were arranged so that red predominated in one quarter, the south, blue in the opposite, yellow in the west, and opposite to it, grey, or the absence of colour, while, as in all the odylic rainbows, a narrow strip of red appeared near the grey, at the end of the iris most remote from the great mass of red—a most beautiful confirmation of Sir David Brewster's analysis of the spectrum. The delicate streaming lines or threads of light passed by insensible gradations from one colour to the other, so that any two contiguous lines appeared to have the same colour, yet, on looking a little farther on, the colour gradually changed, and thus the whole of the rainbow hues appeared in their order, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, and last of all the small red stripe, and the grey. But the passage from red to orange, or from orange to yellow, &c, was not sudden, but slow and gradual, so that all the intermediate tints were seen.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 Nor was this all, for in the air, above each pole, appeared a splendid crown, of light, more blue at the northward, more red at the southward, but exhibiting also all the colours, and sending towards the equator splendid streamers of many-coloured light, dancing and leaping, lengthening and shortening, just as the finest northern streamers do, to the delighted eye of the observer. I cannot here enter into a full description of this artificial Aurora, the first ever produced; but I may record my conviction, that this experiment gives, to that theory which regards the Aurora as odylic light, a degree of probability far greater than attaches to any other theory of that phenomenon. I may observe also, that the Aurora does not cease to be a magnetic phenomenon; and that it should affect the needle is to be expected, since, in magnets, odylic influence and odylic light are found associated with the ferro-mesmeric influence. 15. It still remains for me to speak of a class of facts, which has not yet been alluded to. I mean the power which we possess of communicating, to certain objects, the mesmeric influence. Mesmer spoke of mesmerised water; but this idea was scouted and rejected as absurd. But everyone who has studied mesmerism, and tried the experiment, knows, that water may be so charged with vital mesmerism (with odyle) that a person in the mesmeric sleep, without the slightest knowledge that the experiment is made or intended, instantly and infallibly distinguishes such water from that not mesmerised. It is generally described as having a peculiar taste, not easily defined, and as producing internal warmth when swallowed, and these peculiarities are very strongly marked. Some subjects describe it as vapid and tasteless, like rain, or distilled water, whereas the same water, if not mesmerised, has to them (if it be good spring water) its usual agreeable sharpness. Of the fact, which I have often tested, there can be no doubt. This effect may be produced either by the hand, in which case, while the vessel is held resting on the left palm, and grasped by the fingers of the left hand, circular passes are made above it with the right hand, or the fingers of the right hand are held with their points close to the surface of the water or by magnets, held in the same way, or by crystals. Reichenbach has shown, that sensitive persons, even when not in the mesmeric sleep, often readily distinguished mesmerised water from ordinary water. The effect, in all cases, lasts only for a certain time, which may extend, when the charge is strong, to a good many hours. Mesmerised water, as I have seen, will often cause the mesmeric sleep, in persons who have been, on former occasion, put to sleep by the operator in the usual way. I have seen it also produce natural sleep, in excitable persons, not formerly mesmerised, and sometimes the sleep has taken place instantly on swallowing the water, and has been sound and refreshing. It is indeed possible, that it may have been mesmeric sleep, at least in some of these persons; but as the object was to produce sleep in those who were restless, no experiments were tried. Not only water, but any other body, as has been shown by Reichenbach, may be charged with the influence; and it is not uncommon for the mesmeric sleep to be produced, in the absence of the operator, by an object thus charged and sent by him to his patient. The patient will easily detect the attempt to impose on him by an object not charged; at least in many cases, just as he knows mesmerised from unmesmerised water. I now come to another matter; namely, the applications which may be made of the facts hitherto noticed. 1. In like manner, if mesmerism had never yet been applied to any useful purpose, this, so far from being a reason for neglecting it, would furnish the strongest reason why it should be more diligently studied, since it is only by a knowledge of all the properties which can be ascertained to belong to any agent, that we can hope to find useful applications of it. It was because the discoverers of chloroform confined their observations to its physical and chemical properties alone, or rather to some of these, and neglected to try its action on the system when inhaled, that it continued so long useless.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 But mesmerism, in point of fact, already presents many useful applications. It has been, and daily is, used to produce insensibility to pain, in surgical operations. It is used with very great success, to relieve rheumatic and neuralgic pains. Many cases of severe neuralgia, but not all, yield to its use. It daily removes headaches, and produces refreshing sleep in persons who have long suffered from wakefulness. It relieves, nay, with perseverance it often cures, many diseases of the nervous system, such as paralysis, hysteria, epilepsy, catalepsy, and chorea, or St. Vitus' dance. And all this, from its direct and powerful action on the nervous system, might be anticipated. 2. The effects of mesmerism, however, are not confined to such cases. It acts on the general health, doubtless through the nervous system, in such a way as to produce very often the most marked improvement, and in many instances to cause, sooner or later, old and very annoying complaints to disappear. Nay, cases occur, in which one operation, especially if it induce the sleep, will be followed by a rapid and permanent cure. This, it is true, is the exception; but, with patience and perseverance, even without ever producing the sleep, we may cure or relieve a large number of cases, provided they be not of that nature which precludes hope of amendment. An immense number of mesmeric cures have been recorded, both by medical and non-medical operators, among them that of a well-marked case of cancer by Dr. Elliotson; and making every allowance for imperfect observation, and for the tendency to exaggerate the merit of any new method of treatment, no doubt can reasonably be entertained, that mesmerism is a very powerful means of cure, and ought to be in the hands of every physician. The absurdity of the idea of an universal medicine, or panacea, is obvious; but that is no reason for rejecting a method which, in many cases, will prove of essential service, and which is not only manageable but safe; which, therefore, if it do no good, will at least, in good hands, do no harm. I have had many opportunities of seeing the good effects of mesmerism, even where the object has been only to study the phenomena. It daily happens that persons mesmerised for that purpose, astonish and delight the operator, by telling him that, since mesmerism was used, they have got rid of some obstinate complaint; or that their general health and spirits are strikingly improved. If it be said, that these effects are due to the imagination alone, I answer, that if so, they are not on that account unreal or imaginary; that it is then our duty to study the power of the imagination, and use it as a most powerful agent for good; that at all events, mesmerism, in that case, has a very great action on the imagination, and is probably the best means of acting on it. But, in many cases, the imagination does not act, because it is not appealed to. Both subject and mesmerist are often taken by surprise, when they find that some distressing complaint, perhaps regarded as hopeless, but which neither of them had thought of curing, has been, as if by magic, relieved or cured. I would particularly direct the attention of physicians to the value of mesmerism, in reference to insanity, not only as regards treatment, but also for another reason. There is no doubt that many persons who are subject to attacks of insanity, as in the case of other diseases of the nervous system, are very sensitive, and susceptible to mesmeric or odylic influence. Hence we are prepared to find, as has been recorded in many instances, that mesmeric treatment is sometimes effectual in insanity, where all means have failed. The treatment, and above all, the moral management of the insane, has of late been greatly improved; and for the greater part of this improvement we are indebted to phrenology. Violence, restraint, and cruelty, are banished from our asylums, and means are judiciously and kindly resorted to, in most of them, for employing such faculties as remain capable of being used. The result is, that, in spite of the sad reflections which arise in the mind when visiting an asylum, we feel, if it be well conducted, that, for most, if not all, of the unfortunate inmates, it is a scene of pleasure, and of such happiness as they can enjoy, which often surpasses, by far, the lot of the sane man. I rejoice to think, that the improvement is progressive. But I am now convinced, that the treatment of the insane will not be so complete or so efficient as it may become, till mesmerism is regularly introduced into the practice of every asylum.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 Indeed, there can be no doubt that the control exercised, by the aid of the voice and eye, on many of the insane by an experienced physician, depends mainly on their being in the impressible state so often mentioned, in which suggestion and command act like magic on the patient. If this were generally known, and systematically attended to, much good might be effected. And where the patient is susceptible or impressible, there is good reason to hope that direct mesmerisation may produce the best results. Mesmerism is not less powerful on the insane than on the sane. Nay, it is more so; probably because, in many cases, the essence of insanity is some disturbance of the natural distribution of odyle in the system. The effect of the moon, whose rays are strongly charged with positive odyle, on the insane, corroborates this view. There is, however, another reason why the physician ought to study mesmerism, in its relation to insanity. It is this: many insane persons appear, when we study the symptoms as they are described by writers on the subject, to be, in fact, only in a peculiar mesmeric state. I mean they have a consciousness distinct from their ordinary consciousness, just as happens in the mesmeric sleep. Let us suppose a patient to fall, spontaneously, into a continued mesmeric sleep, in which, while his eyes are open, he has no recollection, or only an imperfect recollection of his ordinary state. He is perhaps lucid, and lives in a world of his own, entirely consistent with itself, but absolutely incomprehensible to all around. His perceptions are, to him, and indeed absolutely, real; but to others they appear mere dreams. He sees absent or dead friends; nay, he holds long conversations with them; he sees also objects, which really exist, but at a distance. He is partially or wholly dead to the objects which surround him, and is absorbed, and perhaps supremely happy, in the contemplation of the persons, places, and things seen by his lucid vision. Lastly, he becomes ecstatic, and sees, and converses with, denizens of the spiritual world. Now every word uttered by such a person is, to those around him, positive proof of his insanity. He is shut up; and the nature of the case not being even suspected, he becomes still more firmly rooted in his new state, in which, perhaps, he dies. But it may be asked, “Is that man insane?” I answer, in one sense, “yes”, for he is unfit, so long as he continues in that state, for intercourse with the world. But in another sense, I say, no; for his mental powers are unimpaired, and he is only in a very vivid dream, so to speak, but a dream of realities, visible and audible to him by reason of exalted odylic sensitiveness. In such a case, admitting, for the present, the possibility of its occurrence, it would seem reasonable to expect that he might be cured, that is, simply restored to ordinary consciousness, by mesmeric treatment. The chief symptom is so intense a degree of odylic sensitiveness, that the impressions made on the sensorium by those odylic emanations of which I have spoken, and of which I shall speak more fully in the next chapter, and which are at all times acting on us, though overlooked,—that these impressions, contrary to what occurs in the normal state, are so vivid as to overpower those derived from the external senses. May not this excessive sensitiveness be removed by appropriate mesmeric treatment? This, however, cannot be done, unless the nature of the case be understood, and mesmeric treatment practically studied. Now, it is not a mere fancy of mine, that cases are viewed as cases of insanity, and the patients shut up accordingly, without appropriate treatment. I have been informed of a case, in which a lady, confined as insane, who (in consequence of accidental circumstances, which, appearing to have a favourable effect, were very judiciously made use of,) so far recovered as to be sent home, and was regarded as cured. During her illness, her conversation was not only rational but highly intelligent, except, of course, in regard to certain delusions, probably of the nature I have described above. When sent home, she retained complete consciousness and memory of all that had passed during her confinement; and by and bye was engaged to a gentleman with whom she had become acquainted since her illness. She now had a severe illness, of a febrile character, and on recovering from this, she had lost all trace of recollection of her insane state, of her confinement, and of the person to whom she was engaged, who was received by her, to his no small surprise, as an utter stranger.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 She was now really cured, and just as she had been before her insanity. Now, I cannot help thinking, that she was, during her confinement, in a mesmeric state such as I have described, and that her first recovery was no true cure, inasmuch as she retained her new consciousness, which was for ever lost when she really recovered, after an illness which strongly affected the nervous system. Might not a similar change have been effected by mesmeric treatment, when she was first confined? I know a young gentleman, singularly susceptible to odylic and mesmeric influences, who some years ago was still more so, and very narrowly escaped being confined as insane. Being fortunately under the charge of humane and enlightened persons, he had been treated by mesmerism with very great benefit. His susceptibility has diminished so far as no longer to cause uneasiness to his friends. Had he been confined, and had not mesmerism been employed, he would probably now be in an asylum, while, with the exception of the excessive sensitiveness to odylic impressions, he never was, in any shape or degree, insane. I am acquainted with another gentleman, who, at times, suffers acutely from odylic impressions of every kind, so that almost every person or object that he approaches is a source of the most painful and distressing sensations. He is so far from being insane, that his intellect is of a very high class, and he is quite aware of the cause of his sufferings. He has told me, that, but for this knowledge, he would almost have, at times, believed himself to be insane. I observe in the accounts of the insane, the delusion of seeing and conversing with absent persons, or with spirits, given as an infallible sign, where it occurs, of insanity. It may be so, in some cases; but it is self-evident, that as it may depend merely on spontaneous extasis, more permanent than usual, while the mind is entirely unimpaired, just as happens in artificial mesmeric extasis, some cases, treated as insanity, may have been of this latter kind. It is therefore much to be desired, that physicians should learn the characters of every stage of mesmerism. I would say, therefore, and especially to medical men, use mesmerism, were it only to become acquainted with it, and in the course of your experiments, you will be sure to find someone unexpectedly benefited by it. You will then use it for the cure of disease, and although we cannot hope to enjoy its full benefits until it has been fully studied, still, so safe and so powerful a remedy should be employed, especially when the usual means have failed. The more it is used, the better shall we become acquainted with it, the more effectually shall we be able to employ it. 3. In regard to other useful applications of mesmerism, much cannot as yet be said. I can very well imagine it to be used for the purpose of searching more deeply than by other means we can, into the nature of the relation between the mind and the body; into the laws of thought; and even into the nature of the mind itself. I mean, that whether we regard thought, as some do, as merely the necessary result of the action of the brain, or whether we assume, as is usually done, the existence of a separate being the soul, mind, or thinking principle, which uses the brain as its instrument,—in either case, a careful study of the various mental phenomena observed in mesmerism must throw light on the laws of thought, perception, sensation, &c. There is, for example, a class of patients, who, in the mesmeric sleep, can accurately point out the precise part of the brain which acts in every manifestation, whether of thought, of sensation, of muscular motion and muscular sense, of memory, in short, of every act in which the brain is concerned. Some can even see, and describe consistently, the actual physical changes in the brain which accompany these acts, and it can hardly be doubted that much valuable information may thus be acquired. I have already pointed out, that the questions of the essential nature of mind, and even of matter, are beyond the reach of the human faculties; but the laws of their mutual relations are attainable. While, therefore, we confess that we know nothing, and probably never shall know anything, of the essence of mind, let us diligently use all the means in our power to acquire a knowledge of the laws of its action. 4. Again, it is quite easy to see how sympathy and clairvoyance may be turned to useful purposes. They may enable us to obtain information about absent friends or relations; nay, they are actually often © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 used for that purpose. They may be used to discover missing or stolen goods and documents, and for this purpose also they are daily employed. In a former chapter will be found some instances of such applications of lucidity. I have already said that I think it far from improbable that this power may be so used as to throw light on obscure historical points, and to discover documentary evidence in regard to these. Moreover, I have already described the principle, which certainly has nothing impossible in it, of the use of animal sympathy in the projected Snail Telegraph, or, as it is called by the inventors, the Pasilalinic Telegraph; and I have also mentioned the application of lucidity to the inspection of the living frame, healthy or diseased, for anatomical and physiological as well as medical purposes. All these applications are yet in their infancy. But as the number of observers increases, so will increase, not only the number of cases of lucidity, but also that of useful applications, which, if not made now, will sooner or later be discovered. 5. There is, indeed, one useful application of our knowledge of mesmerism, which has already been made, and will yet be made to a greater extent; I mean that of explaining many things, which, to the ignorant, appear supernatural, and which, the knowledge of their real nature having, in earlier ages, and even down to a period not very remote, been considered as a secret, or mystery, and confined to certain classes of men, such as priests-, adepts, magicians, sorcerers, and perhaps astrologers and physicians, some of whom may have really believed that they possessed supernatural power, acquire the names of magic, sorcery, witchcraft, and the black art. All sorts of necromancy, divination, and oracles, may be ranked in the same category; and it may safely be said, that the more intimately we become acquainted with mesmerism, the more do we find, that every notion which has prevailed among men in regard to these matters may be referred to natural causes, connected with mesmerism in some of its innumerable developments. In the heathen temples, the magic cure of disease was often associated with the oracle, and the belief in both was universal. If we grant the possibility of clairvoyant prevision, and the evidence seems to me to lean in favour of it, we may readily understand how the priesthood, trained in the sacred mysteries, knew how to produce the mesmeric state, including lucidity, especially in females, who are more readily mesmerised. The lucid priestess, rendered so by means partly known and partly unknown, but certainly with the aid of music and fumigations, probably also by gazing and passes, sat on her tripod, which was perhaps a mesmeric apparatus, and by means of her lucidity, described the diseases of her clients, or predicted future events. When true lucidity was not to be found, imposture was resorted to, but it is hardly possible to believe that there was no foundation whatever for the universal belief. There can be no doubt that the priests of India, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and other Pagan countries, had secrets or mysteries, which were carefully veiled from the public eye. It is equally certain that those of Egypt had extensive knowledge of natural truths, both in astronomy and physics, as well as in medicine, and that the sages of Greece resorted to their temples for information. Such acute observers as the Egyptians could not fail to discover the leading facts of mesmerism, which indeed occur spontaneously every day. A spontaneous somnambulist, if lucid, and capable of truly describing absent persons and objects, perhaps also of predicting the inevitable consequences of what he saw, would be regarded by the people as inspired by the gods; while the priests, who studied the matter, and made it a crime for any but their own class, to do so, would soon find out how to produce the inspiration at pleasure, especially if, as is now found to be the case in India, according to the unimpeachable testimony of Dr. Esdaile, every man proved to be susceptible to mesmerism. This is a most tempting subject of investigation. I had already, to a considerable extent, collected materials for a brief history of mesmerism, and its various developments, from the earliest ages down to its rediscovery by Mesmer; and I had intended here to show, that all the magic, sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, of the early and middle ages was, in so far as founded on natural truth, only the result of a knowledge of mesmerism, a knowledge jealously guarded by those who possessed it, and probably at their suggestion, regarded by the people as the direct gift of infernal powers.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 This has been often proved, and many authors, especially in Germany, have treated of the subject, although there is no English work to which the reader might be referred. Such, therefore, was my intention; namely, to have given a. brief abstract of what had been ascertained, by the laborious investigations of many learned men, in regard to the history of mesmerism, and its relation to magic, witchcraft, divination, &c. But while occupied in this research, for which my other avocations left but little time, at uncertain intervals, I was informed and I rejoiced to find the information correct, that the proposed work was in far better hands, in those, namely, of the veteran defender of modern mesmerism in this country, Mr. Colquhoun, whose Isis Revelata many years ago, contributed in a great degree to create that general interest in the subject which has of late so greatly increased. Those who know that gentleman and his works, are aware that his learning is profound, his research unwearied, and his intellect clear and comprehensive. His proposed work on the History of Mesmerism is, I rejoice to say, in a state of great forwardness; and I gladly refer you to it, and refrain from here entering minutely upon the questions above alluded to. I shall content myself with pointing out, that a great proportion of those things which are called magic, witchcraft, divination, &c, obviously depend on those principles of mesmerism which I have endeavoured systematically to present to you. 6. Thus, not only the ancient oracles, and the magical cures of the pagan temples, but also the divination which even yet survives in Egypt, and of which Miss Martineau and other writers have given us an account, are clearly to be referred to lucidity or clairvoyance, as, in regard to the latter mode of divination, I shall endeavour to show, when treating of the theory or explanation of mesmerism. The wonders of the magic mirror, and of the magic crystal, will also be found, I think, to depend essentially on the same cause. The researches of M. Dupotet have led him, it is said, to the discovery of the secret of much of the magic of the middle ages, including the magic mirror, and the world looks anxiously for the completion of his investigations. It is well known, also, that the magic crystal has of late attracted much attention, and that several ancient crystals are extant, the properties of which, it is to be hoped, with the help of Reichenbach's discoveries, will admit of scientific ascertainment. 7. The belief in witchcraft, in the power possessed by certain persons of rendering themselves invisible, which feat is now daily exhibited by such operators as Dr. Darling or Mr. Lewis, who become invisible to their subjects in the conscious state; in that of assuming the form of any man or animal, which is quite as easy, by means of suggestion, as the former; in the power of travelling through the air to a distant place, and seeing what there occurs; finally, the belief in intercourse with spirits, good or evil, which occurs daily, whether as a dream or otherwise, in mesmeric or spontaneous extasis; all these are explainable by what has been said on sympathy, suggestion, lucidity, trance, and extasis. It is notorious that, while many persons suffered for witchcraft, who died denying every allegation against them, many confessed to all the above offences, as they themselves regarded them. The truth and actual occurrence of the facts, or visions, or delusions, which are still facts, is the most satisfactory explanation of such confessions. Mesmerism will finally dissipate all the obscurity and all the superstition which have attached to this matter; and when we see that the facts, delusions or visions, however astounding, depend on natural causes, superstition will have lost her firmest hold on the human mind. 8. Another obscure subject has been, in part, cleared up by the discoveries of mesmerism. I mean, spectral illusions, or Apparitions. There can now be no doubt, that some apparitions are visions occasioned by lucidity, that is, by clairvoyance, occurring spontaneously. In these, the absent person is really seen, and his occupation at the moment is also perceived. Or the image of a dead person is recalled by suggestion, and becomes so vivid as to be taken for reality. There is, as we have seen above, a third species of spectral appearances, depending on the odylic light from graves, etc. This, according to Reichenbach, is described generally without specific form, a mass of faint white light, often as high as a man. The accounts I have had of it, as seen by persons in this country, are similar. It is easy to imagine, that an excited and terrified imagination may give a human form to this light, and such, in the opinion of Reichenbach, is the origin of ghosts, which are generally white.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 But it is remarkable, that in the very first case mentioned by Reichenbach, that of the light seen by the amanuensis of the blind poet Pfeffel, in the garden, over a spot where, on digging, there were found the remains of a human body, imbedded in a mass of lime, doubtless buried there many years before, during a pestilence, the young man saw it in the form of a female figure floating over the spot, with one arm on her breast, the other hanging down. I am not prepared to say, that in this case, in which the observer was repeatedly questioned in presence of the object, the learned Baron has not been rather hasty in regarding the form as altogether fanciful. Further investigation only can show whether the light from a body may not have the general form of the body, as asserted by the seer in this case. But when we thus refer certain classes of apparitions to natural causes, we are not yet able with certainty to account, in this way, for all. Cases are recorded, and I shall give one or two further on, in which it is stated, and on good testimony, that apparitions, generally of persons at that moment dying or dead, have been seen, not as a faint light, but in their natural aspect and colour; not by one terrified peasant, but by two or more self-posssessed and educated men. Nay, some of these are said to have spoken, and to have done so for a purpose. Every one knows the story of Lord Lyttleton, and of the mark left on his hand, as a sign of the reality of the apparition. But, granting that to have been a dream, we cannot apply the same theory to the case of the apparition which I shall mention further on, which was seen by a whole party of officers at table, and by one among them who had never seen the person whose figure appeared. The explanation of such facts can only be looked for, when we shall have more deeply studied every branch of the subject. I am inclined to think, that mesmerism will supply us with a key for the explanation even of this class of Apparitions on natural principles. I need hardly mention, what is well known, that another class of spectral appearances, not connected with our subject, is that which depends on optical illusions, or disordered internal perception, as it has been illustrated and described by Sir W. Scott, Sir D. Brewster, and many other writers. 9. There can, 1 think, be little doubt, that the second sight is also a phenomenon depending on mesmerism, that is, on spontaneous lucidity. The objects of the seer's vision are commonly said to have been such as were at a distance, such as an approaching traveller, or enemy. If we suppose the seer to have become, by concentrating his thoughts, lucid, and yet conscious, or at all events, if in the sleep, yet capable of speaking, and conversing with those around him, he may have seen, by clairvoyance, the distant traveller, toiling along a mountain path, which he recognises as distant, one, two, or more day's journey, and he may thus have predicted his arrival and described his appearance. I know that, in certain persons, extreme voluntary concentration, or reverie, may alike produce the conscious lucid state, and that persons unknown to the seer may thus be seen. I have good reason to believe, that is, the testimony is such as I have no reason to doubt, save the strangeness of the fact, that I have myself been seen, in that state, by a gentleman in whom it frequently occurs. I mean that this took place before we ever met, and when he had only heard of me from another gentleman, who had corresponded with me on mesmerism, but had never then seen me. That this kind of distant vision often occurs in the mesmeric sleep, we have already seen. It is its occurrence in the conscious state which is so remarkable. Probably, to judge from the accounts we have of them, the Highland seers were sometimes conscious, that is, while lucid, still retained their ordinary consciousness, and sometimes in the mesmeric sleep, or in a dreamy state closely allied to it, in which their consciousness might be more or less distinct and separated from their waking consciousness. 10. I have not, in treating of lucidity, mentioned, so fully as I am now enabled to do, the fact that Major Buckley generally produces the clairvoyance I have described, in which the clairvoyants read mottoes, &c, enclosed in boxes or nuts, and known to no one present, without causing mesmeric sleep, or affecting consciousness. He has now produced this remarkable state and degree of lucidity in 89 persons, most of whom belong to the upper, educated class. Major Buckley has most kindly furnished me with some details, which will be found further on. I shall speak of his method of operating, when I come to the attempt to .explain these phenomena. 11. To return to the second sight. It is also said to extend to future events, and I am not prepared to deny the possibility of this. I have elsewhere referred to the prediction of a seer, which had become a universally believed tradition in the Highlands, "that the male line of Mackenzie, Lord Seaforth, should © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 be extinguished in the person of a "Caberfae," or head of the name, as in that clan he is called, who should be deaf and dumb. The last Lord Seaforth, whom I have seen in his unfortunate condition, deaf, unable to speak articulately, and suffering from paralysis, was in his youth a man of uncommon ability, and free from any such defects. He had a large family, and several sons, all of whom died before him, so that the title is now extinct. The family is represented by the Hon. Mrs. Stewart Mackenzie of Seaforth. The prediction was current long before the events took place, how long I know not; but the period of its fulfilment was indicated by the seer as to be marked by the contemporaneous occurrence of certain physical peculiarities in one or two chiefs of other clans. These also occurred, as has often been affirmed to me; and it is mentioned in Lockhart's Life of Scott, that Mr. Morrit of Rokeby, being on a visit to Brahan Castle, the seat of the family of Seaforth, heard the tradition in all its details, while Lord Seaforth had yet several sons alive, and in perfect health. 12. A still more remarkable instance of prevision is that of M. de Cazotte, who, some years before the breaking out of the French Revolution, predicted, with great minuteness, its bloody character, and the precise fate of many noblemen, literary men and ladies, and even that of the King and Queen. This prediction, which was uttered at a time when all in Paris looked forward with confidence to the peaceful march of Reform, excited great sensation. It was communicated, by persons who were present, to friends in England, and became the topic of conversation in the highest circles, while no one believed in its fulfilment as probable or even possible. Persons are or lately were alive, who knew of it at that time. It has often been printed, and I shall give some account of it further on. Here I shall only observe, that we have an account not only of the vision or tradition, as in the former case, but of the seer. And it is most important to remark a fact which, although often recorded, is omitted, as not essential to it, from many editions of the story, that M. de Cazotte was frequently in the habit of uttering predictions; and that, previous to doing so, he invariably fell into a state, which is described as a kind of sleep or dreaming, but not ordinary sleep. It was, doubtless, either the mesmeric sleep, or a state of deep and dreamy abstraction, favourable to lucidity. I confess that this circumstance is, to me, the strongest evidence, if such were wanting, of the truth of the story. (The 2 states are the theta state and the alpha brain wave state. La Tourrette) 13. This leads me to allude, briefly, to the subject of popular traditionary prophecies, to which, especially as regards certain predictions long current in Germany, I ventured to draw public attention in an article in Blackwood's Magazine for May, 1850. These predictions enter into very curious and often minute details exactly resembling such as would be given of a distinct vision. They are generally described as having been seen by the prophets or seers, some of whom appear to have been what are called in Westphalia, Spoikenkiker, that is, ghost-seers, in other words, highly sensitive to the mesmeric influence. At all events, these ghostseers, are frequent in the country, and among the people, where the prophets also have appeared. The predictions above alluded to, refer in general to events to happen in Germany about this time, that is soon after the introduction of railroads, and especially to a dreadful general war, in which the final conqueror, or great monarch, is to be a joung prince who rises up unexpectedly. The war is also to break out unexpectedly, and suddenly, after a period of disturbance and revolutions, while all the world is crying, "Peace, peace." I need not here enter into more minute details, for which I refer to the article above mentioned. I shall only add, that the state of Europe, and the events which have occurred since that paper appeared, are much in favour of the general accuracy of the predictions, whatever their origin. Time alone can show, how far they are to be fulfilled. But their existence, as authentic and generally received traditions, is at all events a remarkable circumstance. It appears to me, that while some predictions, which are said to have been fulfilled, may have been nothing more than the deductions made by a superior intellect, contemplating actual facts, and their most probable consequences, this explanation cannot apply to such as that concerning the Seaforth family, nor to that of M. de Cazotte; nor, should they be fulfilled, to many of those of the Westphalian and Rhenish seers, who are ignorant, illiterate peasants. Men, such as Napoleon, have hazarded predictions as to the inevitable occurrence of a great war, the end of which, according to Napoleon, would decide whether Europe was to be Cossack or Republican.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 But such guesses, dictated by profound reflection, or extensive knowledge of men and of politics, as well as of history, are always vague and general. Whereas the predictions above mentioned are not only precise and minute, in many cases, but are described as being seen, in a trance, sleep, dream, or reverie, in short, as actual visions, not deductions. That such visions, even if true previsions, may be mixed up with mere dreams, and exaggerated or otherwise disfigured by preconceived or suggested ideas, is very probable. But the cases above referred to, with their minute particularity, cannot be disposed of in this way. While, therefore, I doubt not that many spurious predictions have existed, I think we are entitled to admit, that genuine prevision or second sight is a possible occurrence as a spontaneous fact, and that it is to be explained on the principles of mesmerism. In my next chapter, I shall endeavour to show that the explanation of the phenomena of mesmerism is not so hopeless a matter as may at first sight be supposed. I have already pointed out, that we are unable to explain any natural fact, even the most familiar, in the sense of ascertaining its ultimate cause. All that we can do, is to reduce or refer facts to certain natural laws, which, like that of gravitation, are nothing more than collective facts enabling us to see the law or rule, according to which the facts occur, but not throwing any light on the ultimate question, Why or how they occur? We know that the Sun and the Earth attract, or tend towards, each other with a force, which has been shown to vary, according to a certain rule, in proportion to the masses of matter which act, and to their distance from each other. But we know no more. We cannot tell why they should tend towards or attract each other; nor what is the nature of the force; nor how it operates; but only that it does operate; or rather, we know only that a fact occurs, and we ascribe it to a force, which we conceive to be the cause of it. Our explanations, in any branch of science, reach no farther than this; and I propose to show, that we may, if we only study it, learn as much, in process of time, about the nature or cause of mesmerism, as we know about Gravitation, Chemical Attraction, or Electricity. AN EXPLANATION OF THE PHENOMENA ATTEMPTED OR SUGGESTED—A FORCE (ODYLE) UNIVERSALLY DIFFUSED, CERTAINLY EXISTS, AND IS PROBABLY THE MEDIUM OF SYMPATHY AND LUCID VISION—ITS CHARACTERS—DIFFICULTIES OF THE SUBJECT—EFFECTS OF ODYLE—SOMNAMBULISM—SUGGESTION, SYMPATHY — THOUGHT - READING — LUCID VISION — ODYLIC EMANATIONS — ODYLIC TRACES FOLLOWED UP BY LUCID SUBJECTS—MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT—THT MAGIC CRYSTAL, AND MIRROR, ETC., INDUCE WAKING CLAIRVOYANCE—UNIVERSAL SYMPATHY—LUCID PERCEPTION OF THE FUTURE. LET US now try whether we can, by comparing the facts which have been ascertained, throw any light on the cause or causes of the phenomena of mesmerism. It is well known that Mesmer ascribed the facts which he observed to a peculiar fluid, which he called the magnetic fluid. This he supposed to exist in the human body, as well as in the magnet, and he does not seem to have distinguished accurately between vital magnetism, and what has recently been called ferro-magnetism, that power, namely, by which the magnet attracts iron-filings, and the magnetic needle, when freely suspended, points North and South. As it was soon and easily perceived, that the human hand does not attract iron-filings, and cannot give to the needle the property of pointing to the magnetic poles, it was rashly concluded that Mesmer's idea of a magnetic fluid, existing in the body, was altogether without foundation; and his facts were then rejected and denied. There can be little doubt that Mesmer and his followers were in a great measure to blame for this result. They shrouded their operations in mystery, and spoke with undue confidence on points of theory which had not been sufficiently investigated; nor is the memory of Mesmer quite free from the reproach of a certain amount of charlatanism, and of having preferred his own personal interests to those of science. A not unnatural prejudice was thus created against what he taught, and the progress of truth was retarded. The reports on mesmerism by the various commissions of men of science appointed, in France, to examine it, although in some points favourable to the existence of facts well worthy of investigation, yet had on the whole an unfavourable effect, as the commissioners were not successful in obtaining good evidence of the higher phenomena, and evidently leaned to the opinion that, in some cases, deceit was practised.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 Yet these reports were not decisive. Bertrand and Colquhoun have shown their imperfections, and they are now seldom referred to by those who know anything of the subject practically. On the other hand, the Marquis de Puysegur, who devoted his life to the practice of mesmerism, and who was far above suspicion, continued to obtain, by the method of Mesmer, very remarkable results, especially in lucidity and the cure of disease. The experiments, also, of Dr. Petetin, of Lyons, established the fact of the transference of several senses to the epigastrium as a spontaneous occurrence; and in all countries, men continued quietly to study the subject, chiefly, however, with a view to its use as a remedy. No one undertook a regular inductive experimental investigation, but many facts were empirically observed. At last Baron von Reichenbach, about 1843 or 1844, was accidentally led to study the effects of magnets on susceptible persons, at first, indeed, on such as were suffering from disease of the nervous system. This inquirer was peculiarly fitted for the task. To a thorough scientific training, and the reputation of an accurate observer and skilful experimenter, amply justified by his many scientific memoirs, and his success in improving the manufacture of iron, he added the advantages of an acute and logical intellect, of habits of patient and persevering thought, and caution in drawing conclusions, as well as extreme conscientiousness in reporting the facts observed. It was fortunate for science that his attention was directed to the subject. But I must here mention, that his experiments, so far as I know, were not made on persons in the mesmeric sleep, but were rather confined to the influence exerted by magnets, crystals, the human hand, &c, &c, on persons in the natural waking condition. His object was, to begin at the beginning, and to lay a truly scientific and lasting foundation for more extended inquiries. He began his investigations with a strong prejudice against the views of Mesmer, a prejudice universally diffused among the scientific men of Germany. But he was soon compelled, by the force of facts, to admit some of the very statements which had been most repugnant to him. I may specify, the influence exerted by the magnet on the human frame; the fact that water may be magnetised, so as to be known by the patient from ordinary water; the action of the human hand; its power of magnetising water as well as the magnet does; and the appearance of light from the fingers of the operator. He now entered on a regular series of researches, continued during nearly five years, and on upwards of 100 persons, in which he made the important discovery, that light, visible in the dark to sensitives in the waking state, is emitted not only by the hand, and by the magnet, but by crystals, and, in fact, by all bodies more or less. He further observed, that his sensitives, when in a cataleptic state, or in that of spontaneous somnambulism, became far more sensitive than before. He found, that heat, light, electricity, galvanism, chemical action, friction, animal life, and vegetation, all caused emanations of the same light seen in the magnet, in crystals, and in the human hand. And he finally ascertained, that sensitiveness is not a morbid state, but is found in healthy persons, and that one person out of three is more or less sensitive, not indeed always to the light, but to the influence of magnets, &c, as proved by their sensations. By these laborious researches, Reichenbach was finally compelled to adopt the hypothesis of a peculiar influence, or force, to which he has given the name of Odyle, and which he regards as the cause of all these phenomena. And he was also forced to admit that odyle is identical with the mesmeric fluid of Mesmer, that is, in so far as the latter differs from ordinary, or ferro-magnetism, from which Mesmer failed to distinguish it. In magnets, odyle is associated with ferro-magnetism; in light, with light; in heat, with heat; in electricity and galvanism, with the electric influence; in crystals, &c, it is found alone, and, while analogous to all these imponderables, forces, influences, or fluids, as some of them are often called, it is distinct from all. The name given to this influence is a secondary matter. I have called it, in the preceding pages, Mesmerism, as being a name established and known, but if it is to have a new name, that of Odyle, which conveys no theoretical opinion, is preferable, and indeed unexceptionable. In regard to its nature, we know no more than we do of heat, light, electricity, galvanism, ferro-magnetism, chemical action, cohesion, gravitation, &c.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 We may call it a force, as we do chemical action, gravitation, and cohesion; or a fluid, as we speak of the electric, galvanic, or ferro-magnetic fluids; or an imponderable, as we call heat, light, electricity, and magnetism. It may be essentially a motion in the particles of matter, as heat and chemical action are supposed to be; or a motion in the particles of some subtle ether, as light is now considered; perhaps even of the same ether, if such exist. All this may, or may not be. What we know is only that certain facts occur, and we cannot from the constitution of our minds, avoid referring these to a force or influence, which, when the phenomena are carefully studied, is found not to be identical with any of the other influences or forces above mentioned, and must therefore have a name to itself. It is quite possible, and even probable, that many, or all of these influences, may, in the progress of our knowledge, be referred to one and the same common cause or principle. But till such a common principle be discovered, the attempt to classify the phenomena of Odyle under any other imponderable, such as heat or light, electricity or ferro-magnetism, would only lead to a hopeless confusion. And even after such a common principle shall have been discovered, it will be necessary to classify these different phenomena, as different modifications or phases of it. For these reasons, I shall use the terms odyle and odylic in discussing the subject theoretically; premising, that I use odyle as synonymous with what has been called mesmerism in the foregoing chapters. ___ The odylic influence, like that of heat, light, and electricity, is universally diffused. In regard to Ferro- magnetism, that force was long supposed to be confined to certain bodies, such as the loadstone, and two or three metals. But even then, the earth was necessarily regarded as a vast magnet. The beautiful discoveries of Faraday, however, have shown, that in a modified form, called by him diamagnetism, because bodies under its influence place themselves, when freely suspended, at right angles to the magnetic meridian, ordinary magnetism is possessed by all bodies. And his most recent discovery, that oxygen gas is attracted by the magnet, is a pregnant proof that our knowledge of this force, and of its effects on our earth and atmosphere, admits of indefinite extension. I need hardly point out, that the discovery of diamagnetism, harmonises well with the earlier discovery of Reichenbach, that all bodies act on sensitive persons, and give out luminous emanations, as the magnet does. The universal diffusion of the odylic influence naturally leads to the anticipation, that, like heat, light, &c, it must exercise some action on the human body. That it does so, has been experimentally demonstrated, and may at any time be proved by the action of crystals on the sensitive. Like heat and light, odyle is transmitted through, or traverses space, by what may be called radiation, and is also, like heat and electricity, conducted through bodies. It appears to travel less rapidly than light; but it is conducted through matter much more rapidly than heat. It passes readily through all known substances, but with somewhat less facility through fibrous or interrupted than continuous structures. Thus paper or wood are not traversed so easily by it as some other bodies, but cannot long arrest it. Heat passes very slowly through most bodies excepting metals; and electricity is arrested by most nonmetallic bodies, and is indeed only well conducted by metals, charcoal, and certain liquids. Odyle may be, to a certain extent, accumulated in a substance, but is slowly dissipated again. The body charged with it retains the charge longer than does one charged with electricity. Like electricity and magnetism, odyle has a strong tendency to a polar distribution. Thus, in magnets, in crystals, and in the human body, it is polar, and the opposite poles exhibit distinct modifications. In bodies confusedly crystallised, and in amorphous bodies, the polar arrangement cannot be observed. Like heat, light, electricity, and magnetism, odyle tends to a state of equilibrium, and its external manifestations seem to depend chiefly on the disturbance of this equilibrium. Just as a hot body, radiating more heat than it receives, soon comes to an equilibrium of temperature with the surrounding bodies, so does a body, odylically excited or charged, tend to, and ultimately attain, an equilibrium of odylic force with the surrounding bodies. And just as ferro-magnetism is found polar and active in a magnet, which is in a certain ferro-magnetic state, a state we may call a peculiar disturbance of equilibrium in the ferro-magnetic force; so, in a body odylically polar, and odylically active, such as a magnet, a crystal, or the human body, we may suppose a © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 like peculiar arrangement or distribution of the odylic force, the results only of which, and not its precise nature, are known to us. Such is a very brief and popular sketch of the nature of that influence to which I consider we must, in the present state of our knowledge, refer the phenomena of mesmerism. But while I have endeavoured to show that odyle is to be ranked with the known imponderable agents, I am quite aware that we know comparatively little of the laws by which it is regulated. The observations made on persons artificially mesmerised, have hitherto been almost entirely empirical, and have not been guided by a plan of research. Those on natural somnambulists have been accidental and imperfect; and the little that we do know on the subject, we owe entirely to the reseaches . of Reichenbach, made on persons in the ordinary state. These researches have laid a firm and lasting foundation for future investigations, but it must be remembered that the subject has peculiar difficulties. First, there is the fact, that hitherto the observer has not been able to examine the most important facts by the aid of his own senses, but has had to trust to the sensations of others. In my Preface to the translation of Reichenbach, I have endeavoured to prove, that this is no argument against the observations, if made with due care, and on a sufficient number of persons. There are many facts, admitted and reasoned upon in all sciences, by those who have not personally seen them, and know them only by the reports of those who have. Nor is there any reason why this should be less practicable in odylic inquiries than in others, for example, in geology, geography, meteorology, and above all, in medicine. Many facts in medicine rest exclusively on the testimony of the patient, whose descriptions the physician cannot test, save by comparing them with those of other patients, or with those of the same patient at another time. Everything, in medicine as well as in researches on odyle, depends on the sagacity, knowledge, experience, and honesty of the observer or physician, who, if he cannot distinguish false statements from true, after a little experience, is not well qualified for such observations. An observer, possessing the necessary qualifications, will not find this difficulty insuperable ; but it is a difficulty, and should stimulate us to increased ardour and perseverance in the pursuit of truths, which are at once more interesting and more difficult of attainment than many others. The difficulty, however, becomes daily less by practice, because we learn the necessary precautions against illusion; and our increasing knowledge of the phenomena enables us to detect fallacies and to avoid sources of error. Secondly, we do not yet possess any means of collecting, accumulating, and concentrating the odylic force, as we can do in the case of magnetism and electricity. The odyle, which, in the magnet, accompanies ferro-magnetism, is, indeed, more powerful in proportion to the force of the magnet, but, even in the most powerful magnet yet tried, it has not reached so high a degree of intensity as would be required to enable us to investigate its properties with ease and complete success. One great desideratum is an odylic battery, just as we have a galvanic battery. Since chemical action gives rise to odyle, it is probably in some form of chemical action that we shall find the means of constructing such a battery, and when we shall have thus obtained the power of odylically affecting every man, a vast step will be gained. Thirdly, we have not yet obtained, as in heat, light, electricity, galvanism, or magnetism, a convenient and accurate means of measuring the quantity or intensity of odylic force. We do not possess any substance, which is so affected by odyle, that its consequent changes may be rigidly measured and referred to a standard. But if we reflect, that odyle has only just been discovered as a physical agent, and that the galvanometer and photometer are but recent inventions, while daily improvements are made in all our instruments for measuring electricity, light, and the other analogous forces, the natural conclusion is, that a diligent study of all the properties of this new force, will ere long yield us an odylometer. It is not improbable that it may be of an animal nature, since the most marked property of odyle is its peculiar action on the nervous system. But whatever its nature, such a discovery would at once do the work of a century in promoting the progress of odylic science. Let us hope that it will not be long delayed. In the meantime, let us examine whether we cannot turn to some account the knowledge which we already possess of odyle and of its manifestations, in accounting for the phenomena of mesmerism in a natural way. 1. If the human body be a perpetual fountain of odylic force, in virtue of the chemical changes at all times going on within it, in the processes of respiration, digestion, assimilation, excretion, secretion, © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 muscular and nervous action, &c, and if any body, containing odyle, radiates it to all other bodies, it is easy to see how the vicinity of a vigorous healthy person may powerfully affect one sensitive to odylic influence. 2. If the odyle in the human body be polar, and if, as is the case, according to Reichenbach, the hands be the chief or primary poles (there are, as in crystals, secondary axes and poles, but in man the transverse axis is the principal one), then we can easily understand how the hand should be so powerful in producing mesmeric, that is, odylic effects, as we find it to be. This is confirmed by the fact that light is seen to issue from the points of the fingers, not only by sensitives in the ordinary waking state, but still more vividly by persons in the mesmeric sleep. 3. These persons, of both classes, also see light proceeding from the eyes and mouth, which are also subordinate foci of odyle, the eyes being, as the hands, and indeed the halves of the body are, oppositely polar. Hence the efficacy of gazing, or fascination, and of breathing on the head or over the heart of the patient, with the mouth close to these parts, the breath being highly charged with odyle. 4. Supposing a current of odyle, like that of galvanic electricity in an open circuit, to tend to pass from the positive or + pole, through any interposed body, to the negative or — pole, then, as the left hand is odylo-negative, and the right positive, the odylic current must pass from the right hand, through any substance held in the hands, or touched by them, to the left hand, thence up the left arm, through the chest, and so down the right arm, till the circuit is completed. When the circuit is not closed, as we close it by joining the hands, or by holding a conductor with them, the odylic current does not take place, just as in an open galvanic circuit; the odylic force is in a state of tension, and polar, that is, strongest at the poles. If now the operator, in whom a similar state of tension exists as in the patient, takes hold of his hands, right in left, and left in right, which is the natural or normal way, the current from his right hand, the patient acting as a conductor, and closing the circuit, will flow into the patient's left hand, up his left arm, through the chest, down the right arm, thence to the operator's left hand, up his left arm, through his chest, and down his right arm, thus completing the circuit. This current is very strongly felt by the sensitive, and as it harmonises with, and is added to their own, the sensations are agreeable, although they often become too violent, and if continued would cause, in some cases, fainting or convulsions. This general fact, observed by Reichenbach in waking sensitives, I have often confirmed, as to the great power and agreeable nature of the sensation, which is often compared, by the patient, to something flowing exactly in the direction described. 5. But if the operator's hands be crossed, before he takes hold of the patient's, then the two currents are opposed, instead of being united. The result is, that a species of contest occurs, accompanied by sensations so horrible, that very sensitive persons cannot endure the experiment for a minute, and can hardly ever be persuaded to allow it to be repeated. This remarkable fact, observed by Reichenbach, I can confirm to the fullest extent; having been fortunate enough to meet with a highly sensitive patient, who, when I tried the experiment, without saying one word to her, tore away her hands after a few seconds, and declared the sensation to be so intolerable, that, had it continued only a few seconds longer, she must have fainted and been convulsed. No entreaties or bribes could induce her to let me repeat the trial; indeed her expressions were almost verbatim those of one of Reichenbach's most sensitive patients, and this poor woman had never heard either of him or of his book, which at that time, early in 1846, was not yet known in this country. In a less striking degree, I have seen the same fact in many other cases. 6. It is obvious that the action of magnets and crystals, both of which are polar, on the patient, admits of the same explanation. Both, in fact, cause currents, differing according to the pole held in the hand, or to the hand which holds the pole. The pole, which causes a cold sensation in the right hand, produces a warm one in the left, and vice versd. This I have verified more than a hundred times. Non-polar bodies are altogether, according to their nature, cold or warm to the patient. It is odylo- negative bodies which are generally cold, such as oxygen, acids, &c.; and odylo-positive bodies which are warm, such as hydrogen, alkalies, &c. 6.With regard to what is called the mesmeric state, whether that extend to mesmeric sleep or not, we may attempt to explain it in the following manner. Ordinary sleep has been proved by Reichenbach to be connected with a change in the distribution of the odylic influence in the body. .

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 7. During sleep, the head, generally, is less odylically charged than in the waking hours. For details, I refer to the work of Reichenbach. Now, by the action of the operator, who, whether by passes, gazing, or contact, throws some of his odyle into the system of the patient, a change is produced in the relative amounts of odyle in different parts of the body or of the head, or, in other words, the distribution as well as the absolute quantity of odyle in the patient is changed. The precise nature of the change is not known; but we can readily conceive how, if different from the normal nightly change, as it undoubtedly is, it may produce a peculiar kind of sleep, in which the intellect remains awake, while the external senses are drowned in slumber. Such is the general view I would propose to take of the production of the mesmeric state, and of the sleep. The essential character of it I take to be this, that while most or all of the external senses are cut off from action on the sensorium, the internal senses are, perhaps in consequence of this, more alive than usual to odylic impressions of all kinds. It is certain, that persons in the mesmeric sleep, or somnambulists, spontaneous or artificial, are always highly sensitive to odylic impressions, such as the light, the sensations of heat and cold, &c. Such persons as are moderately sensitive in the waking state, often become, in the state of somnambulism, sensitives of the highest order. 8. I would regard the spontaneous occurrence of somnambulism as nothing more than the spontaneous occurrence of that peculiar distribution of odyle which is caused in the mesmeric processes, but without any addition to its quantity. And the same view will apply to the impressible state produced by Dr. Darling's process, as well as to the mesmeric sleep of Mr. Braid's method, in neither of which is odyle added from without. 9. The power of the operator over the volition, sensations, perceptions, memory, and imagination of his subject, when the latter is in the mesmeric or odylic sleep, and without any suggestion, may be supposed to depend on the odylic force of the operator being superior to that of the patient, while, from the conductibility and ubiquity of odyle the operator continues in communication with that portion which has passed into the system of the patient. If odyle be the nervous force, or vital force, and it is at least as likely to be so as electricity, then it may be the odyle of the operator, overpowering that of the patient, which moves the muscles and determines the sensations, &c, of the latter, 10. The attraction of the patient towards the operator, both mental and physical, may be explained on the same principle. This supposition, as well as the preceding ones, receives considerable support from the fact, that the sleeper constantly speaks of a light round his mesmeriser, or of a luminous vapour, which extends to and embraces himself. All the facts ascertained in regard to odyle point to an external influence, passing from one body to another, and here we have a visible something, which is seen to pass, not only from the points of the fingers, but from the whole person of the mesmeriser, to that of his patient. 11. The disagreeable and injurious effect of cross-mesmerism arises, or rather may be supposed to arise, partly from the conflict of different odylic influences, and partly from the accidental reversal of currents, which must often occur, when others take hold of the patient's hands, or touch him in various ways. The facts are notorious to all who have looked at the subject. 12. The antipathy of the sleeper to certain objects or persons, probably depends on the strong and disagreeable odylic sensations they cause, according to whether they are negative or positive in reference to him. 13. Sympathy most probably depends on the harmonious action of the odylic force of the operator, or of any other person, on the temporarily exalted odylic state of the patient. And we may, without much difficulty, conceive odyle to be the medium through which the impressions of sympathy are conveyed. The existence of sympathy cannot be doubted. It is constantly seen in spontaneous manifestation, as I have already mentioned. Nay, it is often used, by those who are unwilling to admit the existence of direct clairvoyance, as furnishing an explanation of that phenomenon less repugnant to their preconceived opinions. Such persons, rather than admit that the clairvoyant possesses the power of vision without the use of the external eye, at once adopt or even suggest the hypothesis of such a degree of sympathy with the operator, as enables the subject to read all his thoughts with perfect accuracy. They do not stop to inquire whether this be in reality less wonderful, or less unaccountable on ordinary principles, than the notion of direct clairvoyance; nor do they consider that such sympathy is as truly a new sense as anything can possibly be. © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 But all men know, that sympathy, to a very remarkable degree, is a daily recurring fact, and, although quite unable to explain it, having never perhaps thought on the subject, they embrace it at once as a refuge from the obnoxious idea of direct clairvoyance. I need hardly remind you here, that, even if we admit, as I unequivocally do, sympathy and thought- reading as sufficient to explain if they be admitted, many instances of clairvoyance, namely, such as 1 have called sympathetic, mediate, or indirect, clairvoyance, yet there are many facts which this explanation will not reach. I wish, in this place, only to point out, that, admitting sympathy, odyle is most probably the agent or medium. The odylic atmosphere of the operator, and that of the subject, interpenetrating each other, and the former predominating over the latter, the subject becomes for the time, a partaker in the thoughts and feelings of the operator; and thus, although the details of the process are shrouded, at present, from our sight, thought-reading is brought about. I have no doubt that such sympathy does occur, and I consider it highly probable, that the explanation here suggested, as far as it goes, is the true one. Of course, I understand it to apply to spontaneous, as well as to artificially excited sympathy. It is obvious, that to an influence like odyle, as to light, distance may be a matter of no importance. If odyle exist, it traverses space, as light does; only, as appears from the observations of Reichenbach, not quite so rapidly. 14. We now come to the explanation of direct or immediate, or true clairvoyance, which I have already given my reasons for admitting, as an ascertained fact, whether we can explain it or not. This phenomenon is the great stumbling-block. Some boldly declare that they never will believe it, forgetting that belief is involuntary, and that, on sufficient evidence, they must,if they attend to that evidence, believe it. In my opinion, after reading, I will not say the whole recorded evidence, but as much of it as I could procure, the recorded evidence of the fact is sufficient. But I have not expressed that belief, until after I had seen it myself. Now I have observed two things among those highly estimable persons who do not yet admit the fact of direct clairvoyance. The first is, that they are, in general, quite unacquainted with the recorded evidence. The second is, that their objections, when sifted, always assume ultimately the shape of an assertion,—that it is impossible ; or that, as it cannot be accounted for, it must be rejected. I might add a third, namely, that these persons have rarely, if ever, investigated the matter for themselves. Now I do not quarrel with the philosophic caution which declines to adopt an entirely new and startling fact, unless on unexceptionable evidence, or on ocular demonstration. But when the witnesses are numerous their character unimpeached, and the fact not physically or mathematically impossible, caution is not entitled to go further than to say, "I am not satisfied; I must inquire into these things." The most cautious philosopher has no right absolutely to reject facts thus attested, because he cannot see their explanation ; and, above all, he has no right to brand the witnesses with the charge of deceit or imposture, without full and careful inquiry. If he will not, or cannot, investigate, let him, in decency, be silent. I do not invent. I speak of what happens every day; and I say, that those men of science who, declining to investigate, have nevertheless fulminated denial and accusations of falsehood against those who have investigated, have not acted on the golden rule, "Do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you," and their conduct is as illogical and irrational as it is unjust and impolitic. But while I protest against this conduct, on the part of men of science, who ought to know better, 1 make every allowance for those not trained to scientific pursuits, many of whom, unwittingly confounding belief and understanding, really have a difficulty in admitting anything for which a plausible explanation cannot be found. I have more than once pointed out, that if we were to reject all that we cannot explain, little indeed, if anything, would be left; but that our explanations are, at best, but attempts to classify phenomena under natural laws, of which we know no more, than that they exist or appear to us to do so. Yet such explanations are of great use in facilitating the apprehension of scientific truths, and therefore I shall now endeavour to give such an imperfect explanation of clairvoyance as occurs to me, in the present state of our knowledge, as being admissible. © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 It is only an attempt, however, and is not to be regarded as truth, but only as an allowable hypothesis. It is again to odyle that I refer, as the cause or rather medium of the manifestations of this kind of vision. First, let me remind you, that the first observation of many lucid persons is, that they see, with closed eyes, the operator's hand, as well as his person, and other objects, and that all are luminous; indeed, they are often described as surrounded by a luminous vapour or atmosphere, which, as I have already mentioned, embraces the subject, and mixes with his own atmosphere. Now I think this is clearly an odylic phenomenon. The objects seen are seen in odylic light, to which lucid persons are invariably highly sensitive. Secondly; the eyes are not used, but the objects, if not clearly seen, are placed on the head or forehead, commonly on the anterior coronal surface. I have seen a clairvoyante, who, in trying to write, looks at the paper with the top of her head close to it, her eyes closed and useless from their position. I have a specimen of writing thus executed by her. She is the same, who, when she wishes to place an object, such as a letter or lock of hair, "right before her eyes," places it in contact with the anterior coronal region of her head. If odyle or odylic light be here the agent, the cranium is no barrier to its passage to the brain, for odyle traverses all solid bodies that have been tried. Thirdly; when distant objects are seen, the clairvoyant, if asked how he sees them, often speaks of a luminous cloud or fog, extending from them towards him, and joining a similar cloud from himself; in this combined cloud he then sees the object, at first dim and grey, afterwards plain and in its natural colours. This description tallies well with our hypothesis of the universal diffusion of odyle as the medium for lucid perception. All this may be learned from the accounts given of their own sensations, given by intelligent lucid subjects, and it corresponds closely to the statements, on many points, of the sensitives of Reichenbach, who were in the waking condition. 15. Now, if we would proceed a little further, and endeavour to discover how lucid perception is obtained, I must again remind you of an opinion, which is not new, that every influence emitted by any body acts, so to speak, on all other bodies. The heat, light, electricity, and sound, emitted by any bodies, fall upon all other bodies, and consequently on our organs of sense, but so weakened as to be utterly overlooked among the stronger impressions caused by nearer objects of sense. 16. Now, let us suppose that the odylic emanations, which appear certainly to be emitted by all bodies, fall on our inner sense, they also are entirely overlooked, in persons of ordinary sensitiveness, because they are very feeble, when compared with those of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. The sensitives, however, perceive them, when their attention is directed to them, and under favourable circumstances; and the lucid are always very highly sensitive. 17. Next, let us see what happens in the mesmeric sleep. In that state, the two most marked characters are, the closing of some one or more of the external senses, especially of sight, and of hearing (for all sounds save the operator's voice), the two which are constantly receiving impressions from without. The consequence is, that the inner sense, no longer distracted by the coarse impressions of these senses, becomes alive to the liner odylic emanations (which do not require the usual modes of access, as we have seen), and may even perceive the faint pulses or reverberations of the distant sights, sounds, &c, alluded to in the last paragraph but one, the odylic atmosphere aiding perhaps to convey them by their new route. If the subject be highly sensitive, and the external senses closed, he is in the very best condition for lucid perception; but the impressions he notices are not new! they were formerly overlooked because of their faintness; they are now attended to because of their intensity; for they are the strongest of all that now reach the sensorium. 18. One powerful argument in favour of this view is derived from the fact that the lucid state occurs spontaneously, and is then always preceded by abstraction, concentration of thought, reverie, sleep, or somnambulism, all of which states render us more or less dead to the impressions of the external senses, and by consequence, alive to odylic impressions. 19. I may here allude to the state of conscious lucidity, which, as I have mentioned, some individuals can produce in themselves; and this is always done by concentration or abstraction ; and which Major Buckley has been so successful in producing in others.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 I presume some part of his process implies concentration of thought; but it is truly remarkable, that the chief part of it, after lucidity has appeared, consists in his making passes over his own face, and over or towards the object to be deciphered. Both manipulations are said by the clairvoyants, to shed a flood of blue light (negative odylic light) over the object. Too many passes render the blue too deep, and reverse passes clear it up again. 20. Clairvoyants who see the intimate structure of their own bodies, or those of others, often describe the frame as bathed in beautiful light, and entirely transparent to them. This accords, in a remarkable manner, with the observation of Reichenbach's sensitives, to whom a thick bar of iron, shining in odylic glow, appeared transparent like glass. 21. When a clairvoyant takes into his hand a lock of hair, or a letter, it would appear that the odylic emanations adhering to these bodies, according to the account given by lucid subjects, enable them to trace and discover the person to whom they belong. Can it be that the hair and the writing are never totally disconnected from him, and continue in odylic communication with him? Certain it is, not only that he is thus discovered, but that much confusion and difficulty occur when the objects have been handled by various persons. The clairvoyant sometimes sees the last per son who touched them, but recognises, by an instinctive feeling, at least in many cases, that that is not the right person. He often requests the operator, by certain manipulations, to banish the intruding images, and never hesitates about the right one when found. 22. I have been informed by a gentleman, who is able to bring himself into a conscious lucid state, and in that state to see persons quite unknown to him, at a distance, that he can only compare the process by which he finds the person asked for, to that by which a dog, liberated from confinement traces his master. He first finds the (odylic) trace in the inquirer's mind, then follows it back to the point where the person asked for last parted with the inquirer. From this point he pursues only the trace of the former, and soon finds him. I regard this observation, on which I have every reason to place entire reliance, as extremely interesting and important, in reference to the theoretical inquiry. And when similar observations shall have been multiplied, we may hope to advance much further. 23. When a clairvoyant sees past events we may suppose that he follows their (odylic) traces upward, instead of downward, from a given point. Here our theory agrees with that old one, which maintains that every event leaves an indelible trace, which continues to exist as long as the world to which the event belongs. In point of fact, in mesmeric experiments with hair and with writing, past events are described every day as vividly as present ones, whatever may ultimately prove to be the medium of communication; and this, too, where the action of sympathy with the operator or inquirer is excluded. 24. We may apply the same principles to the explanation of witchcraft, magic, and sorcery, as practised in various countries from the earliest periods. I have already alluded to this, when considering the application of mesmerism, and I have there given my reasons for not entering fully into the interesting historical questions connected with it, which are in far better hands, in those of the author of Isis Revelata. It is evident that the priests of India, Egypt, and Greece, were well acquainted with mesmerism, and that they had probably various methods of producing artificial clairvoyance. The Egyptians, as is proved by paintings, used processes like our modern ones, and it is well known that soft music, a dim light, and fumigations, were used by magicians in all countries. Heathen tradition and mythology contain many traces of mesmerism. Thus the transformations of the gods into men and animals, are founded on the power possessed by the mesmeriser over the mind of his subject, even in the conscious state. I have seen this power, in regard to the perceptions of the patient, who was all the time quite conscious, so complete, that he was made to believe the operator to be any other man, or any animal, or any inanimate object; and also to believe the same of any third person. Now, our present knowledge of these matters is quite in its infancy, and there would be nothing marvellous or incredible in the news that some one had discovered, or rediscovered, the means of bringing any number of persons, at pleasure, into the impressible state in which suggestion acts so powerfully, and of acting on all at one time.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 By such means, jailers might be eluded, and he who had the secret might escape from a room full of people, eager to catch him, by simply deceiving or deranging their perceptions by such subjective metamorphoses, which they could not but firmly believe in. The ring of tradition, which conferred invisibility, is easily matched nowadays; for nothing is so easy as for the mesmeriser to render himself, and any other person or object, invisible to those under his control. The power of acquiring, silently, this control over several at once is, as I have said, now a desideratum; but that desideratum may soon be discovered if sought for. I saw, two days ago, a gentleman made, by Dr. Darling, without any preparation whatever, but just as he entered the room, to believe a watch to be a turnip, a friend to be a lamppost, and a huge balloon to ascend majestically from the floor. From this, it is hardly a step to seeing the witch ascend on her broomstick, or the devil flying through the air to the Brocken, on the back of a goat. We can readily understand how any one, possessed of this knowledge in an age of ignorance, might acquire the reputation of being a bought slave to Satan, from whom, at the cost of his soul, he had obtained his powers. Nay, we can even imagine, the story of the Devil and Dr. Faustus, to be merely an allegorical warning against the risk, to him who too curiously pries into the mysteries of nature, of losing his hold on religion and his hopes of a future existence, an opinion not yet extinct. 25. Possession, which was universally believed in, was obviously founded on the occurrence, spontaneously, perhaps as a symptom of a nervous disease, of a high degree of mesmeric susceptibility. The patient saw and felt what no one else did. He believed himself, as others believed him, to be under the influence of an evil demon. If subject to extasis, he saw in his visions the spirit that possessed him. 26. Clairvoyance was doubtless used, or abused, to inspire confidence in the sorcerer. When he could truly describe absent and unknown persons, unknown places, the events there occurring, nay, the very thoughts of the inquirer's mind, and the desires of his heart, he might easily pass for a prophet, even without prevision. An adroit use of the present, known perhaps by clairvoyance to him alone, might convince the world of his power to read the future. The magic of the modern Egyptians, as Miss Martineau has concluded, depends on clairvoyance. The boys who see are chosen, because the young are most susceptible. An operation is performed, including fumigations, which, when tried on Miss Hartineau, produced to a certain degree the well-known sensation of being mesmerised. The boys are then told to gaze at a surface of ink on the palm of the hand. Now, we know that the gazing thus, without the ink, as in Dr. Darling's method, produces a mesmeric state, and even the sleep; while Major Buckley produces clairvoyance, and that too in the conscious state, by a process as easy. Probably, some passes are also made, and the boys, becoming lucid, see and describe, often by thought-reading, the persons asked for. That they sometimes fail and blunder is what happens in all such experiments, if genuine, both because the subjects are of unequal power, and because even a good subject varies in his power. But it is not possible to doubt that they often succeed, although, no doubt, there are sham magicians and spurious subjects occasionally. The ink serves chiefly as a mirror, but may also act in virtue of its odylic influence in aiding the induction of the mesmeric state. 27. The magic crystal belongs to the same category. The high odylic virtue of rock crystal seems to have been known to the adepts of the middle ages; and crystals were cut into a round or oval shape, that they might act as mirrors. Several of such crystals, said to be magic ones, exist in this country. It is now pretty generally known that one of these, said, on what authority I do not know, to have belonged to the magicians Dee and Kelly, who certainly had one, came into the possession of a noble lady, distinguished in the literary world, who has died since that time. She was told it was a magic crystal, but could not discover any of its powers. At the sale of her effects, it was purchased by a gentleman who knew its history. One day, on entering the room, he found a group of children round it, who declared that the crystal was alive; and it appeared that they saw in it the images of absent persons, it is said, even of such as they had never seen, and of some that were dead. I cannot vouch for the details of this story, however, and I shall only say that I am not prepared to reject the statements made concerning the crystal, although they may have been distorted and exaggerated.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 I conceive, that when the children gazed at it, its odylic influence, added to the effect of gazing, may have thrown them into a conscious mesmeric or lucid state; and that these visions appeared in the crystal because they were looking into it. The subject requires to be rigorously investigated, and in the meantime we must suspend our judgment. I have been informed of two other magic crystals, both of which are said, in the same way, to act on children. A fourth is now in my possession, and I hope to obtain its history. I am trying its effects on children, and will give the results further on. I have tried it on a young gentleman in the mesmeric lucid sleep, who, without knowing what it was, as I put it into his left hand after he was asleep, saw in it, the first time, a light, which was so bright as to be painful, and was accompanied by a very strong odylic sensation up his arm, so that he disliked it. Another time he found the light not so painful (I rather think the crystal was in his right hand), and expressed great delight at its beauty. With shut eyes, he described it as full of bright bands, confusedly crossing each other, of the most splendid rainbow colours. On further inquiry, or rather, on leaving him to himself, he began to speak of lucid visions, which, although caused by the crystal, and quite distinct from his usual ones, he did not see in the crystal, but felt as if transported to the places he described. He began, and without my asking him any questions whatever, to speak of a very remarkable man, whom he saw, and whom he connected, in some way, with the crystal. I shall give further on some curious details about this man, whom my clairvoyant repeatedly visited, till, in consequence of his illness, I could make no further experiments with him. I found the same crystal to be strongly felt by other mesmerised persons, who also saw light from it, with their eyes shut. It has lately been said, by various observers, that susceptible persons, looking into a glass of mesmerised water, see clairvoyant visions. While I write this, I have been informed of some experiments of a very satisfactory nature with the crystal above referred to as having been for a few days in my possession. These I shall give further on, along with any other facts that I can obtain in reference to the action of mirrors, crystals, or mesmerised water. 28. I have been informed on good authority, that round or oval masses of glass are made in England, and sold at a high price to the ignorant, for the purposes of divination. The persons who sell them perform a certain process, which they say is necessary to their virtue. It is probably a process of mesmerisation, as water is mesmerised. The purchaser is then directed to gaze into the crystal, concentrating her thoughts, for it is generally females who resort to them, on the person she wishes to see. She then sees her lover, or any other person in whom she is interested. Now, I believe, that by the gazing and concentration of the thoughts, aided by the odylic influence of the glass, she may be rendered more or less lucid, and thus see or dream of the absent person. So that the dealers in these crystals are not mere impostors, but, as I suppose, trade on a natural truth, imperfectly known to themselves. 29. The magic mirror is to be explained on the same principle as the magic crystal. It was a contrivance, probably a very effectual one, and depending on portions of knowledge now lost or dormant, for causing the conscious lucid state. It would appear that the researches of M. Dupotet have led him to the rediscovery, among other portions of the magic of the middle ages, of the mode of manufacture of these mirrors, which are not, I understand, of glass, but of a black substance with a smooth surface, on which the visions are well seen. Now I should anticipate that the mass of the mirror will prove to be formed of some substance, either by nature highly odylic, or at least capable of being, by some means, strongly charged with odyle, and of retaining the charge. The inquirer, in a darkened room, surrounded by all those objects which act powerfully on a lively fancy, in perfect silence, except for the strains of a solemn music from time to time, and steeped in balsamic and narcotic odours, is shown the mirror, on which he is told to look earnestly, and he will see the absent friend or lover, and how they are occupied.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 He does so, at first; after a time, sees a cloud on the mirror, which clears up, and exhibits the image on which the thoughts are bent. Now, every circumstance favourable to lucidity is here present. The inquirer is deeply interested, the accessories are all such as promote tranquillity and concentration of thought, while they deeply affect the imagination, and thus produce, with the aid, no doubt, of the fumigations, and of the odylic influence of the mirror, the impressible state, open to suggestion. The magician, when he judges, perhaps by signs well known to him, that this state has been induced, directs attention to the mirror, and perhaps artfully suggests the nature of the vision. Or he commands the visitor, trembling with excitement, and now under his control as to his perceptions, to see the vision. Or, finally, the lucidity produced may be such as to yield a true clairvoyant vision. The appearance of the cloud, mentioned in all accounts of the crystal, of the mirror, and of the Egyptian magic, is also a circumstance almost invariably attendant on clairvoyant vision, in ordinary mesmerism. Such are the notions which I would form of the different kinds of magic described. I give them only as suggestions, and to show that we may at least conceive these things to depend on natural causes, and the magic of former days, in this point, as it has been shown to be in some others, to be Natural Magic. 30. You will easily perceive, that the preceding attempt to give an explanation of the phenomena of mesmerism, and especially of clairvoyance, while it excludes, in regard to lucidity, the theory of sympathy with the operator, as applicable to all cases (for to some facts, and to some cases it undoubtedly does apply), yet admits and requires another kind of Universal Sympathy, existing at all times, at all distances, and among all things, the conducting medium and essential condition of which is Odyle. I have the less hesitation in offering my views, as I regard the existence of that influence, whatever name be given to it, as established, by the researches of Reichenbach, beyond all doubt. I have endeavoured to show a remarkable agreement on many points, between the statements of lucid somnambulists and those of Reichenbach's sensitives, who are in the ordinary waking state. This agreement is, I think, sufficient to justify the attempt I have made to devise what may, by courtesy, be called an explanation of these facts. But I am sure you will do me the justice to believe, that I know the rules of scientific research too well, to attach any value to these theoretical considerations. If they shall be found justified, as suggestions merely, by the present state of our knowledge, and if they shall, in any degree, contribute to enable any inquirer better to understand and appreciate the facts, the true explanation of which will not, I fear, soon be attained, they will have served the purpose for which they were written. My own conviction is, that nothing but an infinitely more extended investigation of the phenomena of the mesmeric sleep than has ever yet been made, can enable us to make any approach to a true theory of these phenomena; and if I have here ventured, for a moment, out of the region of fact, into that of hypothesis, it has been solely from the desire to convince others that the pursuit is not a hopeless one; and to stimulate as many well-qualified observers as possible, to add to the store of well-observed facts, waiting patiently, till, out of the fulness of experience, the true theory shall be developed, as was Newton's theory of gravitation 200 years ago, and as have been, in our own day, the undulation theory of light, and the atomic theory of chemistry. 31. You will observe, that I have not attempted to explain lucid prevision. It would be mere fancy to say, that future events, as I have already hinted in the form of a query, "cast their shadows before," in the same way as past events leave their traces behind them. Can we imagine that which has not yet existed to cast a shadow, or anything else, before it 1 It is true that we may again resort to a very old opinion, namely, that which holds that present events and existences contain within them, to be developed in necessary sequence, the germs of all that is future, and that the gifted eye can see, in a succession of pictures, all the steps or some of the steps of the process, as regards the persons or objects in whom the seer is interested. We come here on ground, which quakes and gives way beneath our feet; and this is the case also, in any attempt to explain the phenomena of extasis, or what may be called the spiritual chapter of the subject. While I freely admit my inability, in either case, to throw any light on the matter, I hold fast to the facts, which I regard as too well attested to be sneered down, and too interesting to be longer neglected.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 I cannot waver in the conviction that patient and persevering research, carried on in the sincere love of truth, will, in the end, enable us better to understand even these obscure phenomena. Magnetized water is one of the most powerful and salutary agents that can be employed. The patients are made to drink of it, when the communication is established, either at or between their meals. It carries the magnetic fluid directly into the stomach, and thence into all the organs. It facilitates the crises to which nature is disposed, and therefore sometimes excites the perspiration, sometimes the evacuations, and sometimes the circulation of the blood. It strengthens the stomach, appeases pains, and often supplies the place of several medicaments. To magnetize water, take the vessel which contains it, and pass the two hands alternately from the top to the bottom of the vessel. Introduce the fluid at the opening of the vessel by presenting the fingers close to it, several times in succession. Sometimes you may breathe upon the water, or stir it round with the thumb. You may magnetize a glass of water, by holding it by the bottom in one hand, and with the other, throwing the fluid upon the glass. There is one process which I employ in preference, in order to magnetize a bottle of water, when I am certain it is not disagreeable to the person whom I magnetize. It consists in placing the bottle upon my knee, and applying my mouth to the nose. I thus throw my breath into the bottle, and at the same time I make passes with both hands upon all the surface. I believe this process charges strongly, but it is not necessary. It is sufficient to magnetize it by the hands. One may magnetize a flagon of water in two or three minutes; a glass of water in one minute. It is unnecessary to repeat here that the processes pointed out for magnetizing water, like everything else, would be absolutely useless, if they were not employed with attention, and with a determinate will. I have seen magnetized water produce effects so marvellous, that I was afraid of having deceived myself, and could not be wholly convinced, until I had made a thousand experiments. Magnetizers in general have not made sufficient use of it. They would have spared themselves much fatigue, they could have dispensed with many medicines, they would have hastened the cure, if they had accorded to this means all the confidence it merits. In internal diseases especially, magnetized water acts in an astonishing manner. It carries the magnetism directly to the organs affected. You give, for instance, a glass of magnetized water to one who has a pain in the side; some minutes after he has drunk it, it seems to him as if that water had descended to the seat of the disease. For eight days in succesion, I have purged a patient with magnetized water. The effect was the same as if she had taken the ordinary medicine, with this difference the operation was not attended with colic. Doctor Roullier says that one of his patients was thus purged five or six times a day for more than a month, and that the evacuations, the consequences of which under ordinary medicine would have justly excited alarm, procured ease and a return of health. I knew a patient who was cured in the same manner. I have seen magnetized water entirely overcome inactivity of the intestines which had lasted many years. Magnetized water is a very great help in convalescence. It gives strength; it restores the tone of the stomach; it renders digestion easy; it throws off from the system, by perspiration or otherwise, every thing which resists the entire re-establishment of health. A man of merit, whom I have now the satisfaction of numbering among my friends, was affected with colic pains in the stomach and bowels, for which he had during seven years in vain employed all the remedies of medicine. They came on by crises which lasted two or three days, and returned every week. His residence was sixty leagues off, and he came to Paris to seek some further advice. He made application to me. He inspired me with much interest, and I undertook his treatment. After the third sitting, I made him drink a glass of magnetized water. It produced in his stomach a very great heat. He told me that it seemed to him as if he had drunk a glass of spirits of wine. Two minutes afterwards this, heat expanded through the whole system, and was followed by a gentle perspiration. From that moment I caused him to make use of the magnetized water; and in fifteen days I had the pleasure of delivering him from all his sufferings. He then wished to return home. "I am very well," said he, "but 1 am going to make a decisive experiment. I never could travel in a carriage without a great deal of pain." I gave him two bottles of magnetized water, and advised him to drink of them by the way. He had hardly been a half hour in the carriage, before he began to feel ill; he then drank a glass of the water, and during more than four hours, he felt no further inconvenience. © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 By thus drinking every four hours his glass of water, he reached home without the least fatigue. Yet he was not entirely cured ; and there remains in him the principle of disease, which it is perhaps impossible to destroy. But his wife magnetizes him when it appears requisite, and in the evening, when he finds himself indisposed, she gives him a glass of magnetized water, which soothes him and makes him pass the night well. When he is obliged to travel, the magnetized water always renders him the same service, and this experiment has been repeatedly tried for five years. I have several times made the experiment of putting a bottle of magnetized water at the feet of a patient, who, while in bed, was constantly cold at the feet; and in certain cases, I have seen it excite a great deal of heat, and bring on a perspiration. The bottle acts here only as every other magnetized object will. Nevertheless, the result of this experiment was remarkable, because a bottle of water ought to produce cold, and not heat, as it often happens when the patient is not disposed to this sort of crisis. Patients often perceive a peculiar taste in the magnetized water, and generally they distinguish it very well from that which is not magnetized. I thought I could see that the taste which the patient found in it, indicated the species of remedies of which he had need. For example, if he found it bitter, and yet drank it with pleasure, it gave grounds of presumption that bitter things were salutary to him. I have not made this observation frequently enough to state it as a fact. I mention it, because, in many cases, any one can easily verify it. When the magnetizer cannot give his patient more than two or three sittings a week, magnetized water supplies the direct action. The use of it must be continued some time after the treatment has ceased. I am certain that with epileptics, or persons attacked with a nervous disease, which, to those who are not physicians, appears to be epilepsy, magnetized water, continued for many months after some sittings of direct magnetism, has caused the fits to disappear entirely. I believe that the water given to the patient to drink, ought always to be magnetized, by the same magnetizer who has undertaken the treatment. This is a consequence of the principle I have laid down, that a patient ought not to be magnetized by many persons who have not a perfect congeniality with the first magnetizer, and that the fluids of various individuals, not having the same quality, and not acting in the same manner, we ought not to unite their action. Some very remarkable phenomena confirm this opinion. Somnambulists distinguish very well when an object has been magnetized by several persons, and this mixture of divers fluids, is sometimes insupportable to them. We do not yet know how long the magnetized water preserves its virtue, but it certainly retains it for many days, and numerous facts seem to prove it not to have been lost after several weeks. Nevertheless, when one lives near the patient, it is proper to magnetize every day the water or other drinks of which he makes use. Some food, also, may be magnetized in the same manner, and especially liquid food, such as milk and broth. Many persons with whom milk does not agree, like it very well when it has been magnetized. It appears that magnetized water exercises no influence upon persons who have never been magnetized.* It generally produces marked effects only after two or three sittings. In order to have the fluid of the magnetizer act upon the patient, the communication must be established; and it is never established except by direct and immediate manipulation. I have extended my observations upon magnetized water very much, but those who make use of it with confidence, will discover that I have not said enough upon the advantages to be derived from it. Yet I ought to add, that there are some persons on whom it appears to exert no action. The number of these, however, is very small. * Some observations recently communicated to me have convinced me that my conjecture was false, and that magnetized water does sometimes act in a very efficacious manner upon persons who have never been magnetized. I can cite, among other instances, that of a woman who had been troubled for a long time with dyspepsy, who was promptly cured by this means. Objects magnetized can in the same degree exert a very salutary action, although no communication has been previously established. Magnetized reservoirs or troughs, are vessels filled with magnetized materials, and provided with conductors to direct the fluid which they contain. © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 The most common mode of constructing them is the following: 1. Take a wooden vessel, two feet high, larger or smaller, according to the number of persons to be placed round it, having the bottom elevated an inch from the floor by the projection of the sides. 2. Place an iron rod in the centre to serve as the principal conductor, having a diameter of half an inch or of one inch, descending to within two inches of the bottom, and rising above the trough two or three feet. 3. The lower end of this iron rod should be firmly fixed in a glass foot, or in a jug, so that it may retain its vertical position. 4. Put into the vessel bottles of magnetized water, or other magnetized substances; cork them, and run through each cork a piece of iron wire, projecting two or three inches; and arrange them in such a manner that the neck may be near the central conductor, and communicate with it by the iron wire which pierces the cork. 5. Then place a second range of bottles above the first. 6. If the baquet or trough is large, you can put two ranges of bottles in the same order; the neck of one being placed in the bottom of the other. 7. This being done, you will fill the vessel with water, white sand well washed, pounded glass, and iron filings, all well magnetized. 8. Place upon it a cover in two pieces, fitted closely together, having an opening in the middle for the central conductor. 9. At a short distance from the circumference, at points corresponding to the spaces between the bottles, you will pierce several holes for the purpose of thrusting into the reservoir, iron conductors bent and moveable, which are raised and lowered at pleasure, so that one may direct them against any part of the body, and pass the hands above them to draw off the fluid. 10. And lastly, you will attach to the central conductor, cords of cotton or wool, which the patients may twine around their bodies.

Although everything that is placed in the reservoir has been magnetized beforehand, the reservoir is to be regularly magnetized, when its construction has been completed, before the cover is placed upon it. When first this operation is performed it takes a considerable time, nearly an hour. It is even proper to repeat it three or four days in succession. But when once the reservoir has been well charged, it is readily charged again, by the magnetizcr's holding the central conductor in his hands several minutes. I do not know whether reservoirs filled with water are more easily charged with the magnetic fluid, than those which contain between the bottles only pounded glass, iron filings, or simply sand. But it is certain that these last are more proper and convenient, and for this reason I give them the preference. It is

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 difficult to prevent the water's escaping from the baquet, and it might become foul in the course of time. The same magnetizer ought always to charge the reservoir. I will say no more about the large magnetic reservoirs, because we do not have recourse to them except when we wish to magnetize a great number; in which case we ought to have a great deal of leisure and devote ourselves to magnetism. He who does this ought to procure the principal works published on this subject and to study them with care. But a large bottle filled with magnetized water, furnished with an iron wire inserted into the cork, and forming a curvature of from three to six inches terminated by a knob, is a little reservoir which keeps up the magnetic action, and may be very useful. The magnetizer charges this bottle occasionally without taking out the cork. The water contained in bottles placed upon the reservoir, and put in communication, by an iron wire, with the central conductor, becomes magnetized of itself. You might place on the top of the central conductor a small cap of iron or of wood, in which you have put silk or cotton, which will become very strongly magnetized. We now come to discourse of magnetized objects, of the mode of using them, and of the effects they produce. Tissues wrought in silk or cotton thread, the leaf of a tree, plates of glass, gold or steel,* and other magnetized objects placed upon the seat of the pain, are often sufficient to ease it; but they produce no effect until the magnetic action has been established. I have very often seen magnetized socks produce a warmth of the feet which could not have been obtained by any other means. These socks preserve their virtue during four or five days. It then grows feeble and is lost. A magnetized handkerchief carried upon the stomach, sustains the action during the interval of the sittings, and often calms spasms and nervous movements. Sometimes the headache is dissipated by enveloping the head during the night with a magnetized bandage. I ought to speak here of the use which is made of plates of glass magnetized, both because I have often succeeded by means of them, in calming, with surprising ease, local pains in the viscera, and because their application is usually accompanied with a very remarkable phenomenon. * Metals whose oxides are dangerous must not be used for this purpose. It now remains to speak of the chain, a method formerly in great vogue, and which is the most effectual of all for augmenting the power of magnetism and putting it in circulation, but which, though it has great advantages, has also great inconveniences. I am going to explain what it is, how it is formed, and under what circumstances and conditions it may be useful. If you have near you many persons in good health, who have confidence in magnetism, who feel an interest in the patient, and who wish to aid you in the cure, arrange them in a circle. Let them all take each other's hands, holding on by the thumbs, so that he who is on the right of the patient, may touch him with the left hand, and he who is on , the left may touch him with the right hand.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 You will form a part of this chain, and when you wish to make passes with your hands, the two persons by the side of you will place their hands upon your shoulders, or upon your knees. If you place yourself in the centre, your two neighbors will approach each other so that the chain be not interrupted. The magnetic fluid will be soon in circulation, the patient will feel the effect strongly, and your power will be considerably augmented. But, to have a chain good, it is necessary that all who compose it should be thoughtful only of the patient, and unite constantly with you in intention; without this condition, it is more injurious than beneficial. Some persons in the chain often feel the effects of the magnetic action; they faint, or go to sleep. But that does not counteract the effects so much as a single act of inattention. You should avoid admitting into the chain patients susceptible of nervous irritation. It would be dangerous to put persons there who are tainted with contagious diseases. The chain might be made use of in families, when there are to be found from four to six persons who take a lively interest in the patient, and who desire that magnetism may be of advantage to him. The chain should, as far as possible, be composed of the same persons. If a new individual be admitted into it, especially after it has been once formed, he ought first to be placed in communication. Although the baquet has a milder and slower action than direct manipulation, persons attacked with severe diseases which do not spring from morbid inaction, are exposed to crises which should be soothed apart. When these crises occur, they may have influence upon the other patients, and even be communicated by sympathy or by imitation. We know how violent these crises may become, when we remember how they were in the time of Mesmer. It is true, we did not then understand how to calm them, and the same accidents did not take place at Strasburg, yet it is always proper to take precautions; and if you assemble a large number around the baquet, it is necessary to have several magnetizers, and one of them should have an acquaintance with medicine. I think then that in the domestic practice of magnetism, it is not necessary to make use of the baquet for nervous affections, but solely for such diseases as intermittent fevers, dropsy, enlargements of the glands, rheumatic pains, debility, sluggish circulation, &c. In these it would be very useful to the patient to go every day and charge himself with magnetism at the baquet, previously to being magnetized by direct manipulation. As to the chain, several conditions are requisite, which are often difficult to fulfil. 1. All who compose it ought to be in good health. 2. They should be such as have an interest in the sick person. 3. No one of them should interrupt the action, either by his curiosity, or by the desire of exerting a particular influence. All these conditions having been fulfilled in some treatments which I have pursued, I have obtained from it very energetic and very salutary effects ; but when one of these conditions fails, I have known it to be more injurious than useful. In diseases of the lymphatic system, in those of inaction, &c., it is doubtless beneficial to have recourse to the chain, if it be possible to form a good one. In disorders of the nervous system, or of certain viscera, disorders whose treatment exhibits crises, and especially in those where somnambulism takes place, it is absolutely necessary that the patient should have near him only his magnetizer, and the person he has chosen from the commencement to assist at the sittings. It is essential that the most perfect harmony should reign in a magnetic treatment; and this cannot be obtained unless all things are directed by a single will, to which all the others are in unison. Hence it follows, that in a magnetic treatment, whatever may be the number of the patients, and of magnetizers, there ought to be but one chief to whom all those who co-operate in the action shall be in submission during the sitting. If he who has established the treatment, and charged himself with its direction, has for co-operators persons better informed or more powerful than himself, he must not invite them to take the lead; and they must be very cautious not to exert a direct influence.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 They will regard themselves merely as the aids and the instruments of the leader, and must magnetize under his direction, following the processes which he points out to them. The observance of this rule is especially important when there are somnambulists. I speak of this in my chapter on somnambulism. It is necessary for a long time to collect all the known facts, to groupe, to arrange, to class them, and to remain in doubt in relation to the causes, until we see a theory spring spontaneously from their arrangement, and until the applications and the consequences of this theory, lead to results seen and announced beforehand. * What we call the magnetic fluid, may be, as Van Helmont thought, and as Kieser believes, an agent which penetrates all bodies. The recent discoveries of M. CErsted, of M. Ampere, and of many other celebrated physicians; the researches of Messieurs Provost and Dumas and of various physiologists, upon the influence of electricity in the phenomena of the animal economy; the observations of M. de Humboldt upon the electric gvmnotus, &c, may give us some light upon this subject. But the problem does not consist in this; it is in the power which man has of directing this fluid, of modifying it, of communicating to it such or such a virtue. This problem I believe to be incapable of solution, because our external senses teach us nothing upon the internal principle of life. W* A man of distinguished learning has just published in Germany, a work in two volumes octavo, in which he considers magnetism in all its relations. He believes there is in magnetism two different actions. One which depends upon a vital principle spread throughout nature, and circulating in all bodies; the other, the same principle, modified by man, animated by his spirit, and directed by his will. He thinks that the first sort of magnetism, which he calls tellurism, or siderism, can be employed without the concurrence of the human will, and solely by the action of certain mineral or vegetable substances. According to him a baquet regularly constructed can, without having been magnetized, act upon a patient who comes to place himself there every day for a certain time, and produce, in the course of time, most of the phenomena obtained by the magnetic processes. I invite philosophers to examine this theory. My ignorance of the German language does not permit me to judge of it; but the testimony of Kieser is of great weight; and if, as I suppose, there is reason to reject his theory, there is none at all to deny the facts upon which he sustains it, and which are certainly worthy of attention. This is not the place to enter into greater details upon the researches to which a person should devote himself, when he wishes to study magnetism as a science. He who has this object in view, will learn, by reading the works published within a few years, what things ought most particularly to fix his attention. I merely recommend to him not to neglect anything, to consult the works of the enemies of magnetism as well as those of its partizans, to search out in the books of historians, philosophers, and physicians, phenomena analogous to those which the practice of magnetism brings to our view, to separate them from all the hypotheses to which they have given birth, and not to be hasty in adopting general principles.

By reading the works published upon magnetism in the various schools, from Van Helmont to the present time, we shall soon perceive that there are effects which have been exhibited every where, always with the same characteristics, and phenomena which are presented only in certain schools and by certain magnetizers, and which one might vainly seek to reproduce himself. These phenomena ought not to be rejected; the most of them are real, though often attributed to chimerical causes: people have drawn

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 erroneous conclusions from them, and you cannot use too much care to distinguish facts in them, selves, from the colors with which they have been invested by enthusiastic and credulous narrators. I have now pointed out the road for you to follow if you would reach the elevation from whence you may behold the subject in all its extent, penetrate its depths, see through the veil which covers some of its mysteries, free it from what does not belong to it, and determine the part it acts in the drama of nature. But upon the route I have traced out there are stumbling-blocks of which I should warn you, because it is essential to avoid them if you would make a just application of the knowledge you have acquired by reading and observation I have said that one would gain but vague ideas from books, if he had not been first convinced by his own experience of the power of magnetism. The phenomena of somnambulism which it offers are truly wonderful and instructive, and it is impossible to get a conception of them if you have not seen some of them with your own eyes. The various relations that have been given, contain facts so unlike in appearance, that you cannot perceive the tie which connects them; so marvellous, that you are dazzled, and know not on what to rest your faith. When you have once produced these extraordinary phenomena yourself, you are at least convinced of their reality: and you might employ the time which you would perhaps have uselessly sacrificed in satisfying yourself by reading, in examining its successive stages and its circumstances. Even in this case much attention and prudence are requisite, to discriminate in the discourses and in the perceptions of somnamblists what appertains to the exaltation of the senses, to the nervous susceptibility, to the influence of acquired ideas, to the errors of the imagination, from the manifestation or the developement of a real faculty, absolutely foreign to those which we enjoy in our ordinary state. I have many examples of somnambulists endowed with an astonishing clairvoyance in the exercise of their new faculty applied to things positive and within their scope, who would speak at random if asked by what means they were enabled to see, and especially when requested to speak on subjects which excite their imagination. I would compare somnambulism to a microscope which causes objects at its focus to be distinctly seen, though imperceptible to the naked eye; but on this side of, or beyond the focus, the rays cross each other, the hues become more brilliant, and the images are wholly distorted. The clairvoyance of somnambulists, inconceivable as it is, is not less incontestible; there is no exaggeration in what has been related concerning it; but it is in each individual limited to certain objects, and confined to a certain class of ideas; and it is only by comparison between great numbers of facts, in which truth has been separated from illusion, that you will be enabled to perceive the extent of which it is susceptible, what is its origin, and what are the conditions which favor its developement. If two magnetizers were each to form a theory of somnambulism from the facts exhibited by their respective somnambulists, it is very probable that those theories would not resemble each other. I go further and affirm that by reasoning from some phenomena considered separately, a person might form not only the strangest hypotheses, but might also be induced to deny even the reality of magnetism. I have told you to how many errors you may be exposed by an incomplete and limited examination of the phenomena. I ought now to advert to those which spring from an inconsiderate application of the branches of knowledge which do not belong to magnetism. I am convinced that a person will never make a real progress in the science of magnetism when he looks for its principles in other sciences. To explain magnetic phenomena by the laws of electricity or galvanism, by anatomical considerations of the functions of the brain and nerves, would be very much like explaining vegetation by crystallography. It is essential for learned men and physicians to know that the most profound knowledge of physiology will never lead them to the discovery of the theory of magnetism; yet this knowledge will be useful to secure the observers from many errors, by enabling them to distinguish what belongs to magnetism, from what is due to other causes, by furnishing them the means of verification, by authorizing them to reject all consequences essentially contrary to well known physical laws. Magnetism, considered as an agent, is entirely different from the other agents of nature. It has its own laws which are not identical with the laws of matter. Considered as a science, it has peculiar principles which cannot be known except by observation, no idea of which can be caught from known sciences. So much I can say with certainty; but I permit myself here to add as an opinion, common with me and many enlightened men, but which I merely propose as an opinion. © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 The theory of magnetism is based upon this great principle, that there is in nature two sorts of substances, radically different in their characteristics and properties,—spirit and matter; that these two substances act, the one upon the other, but each one possessing laws peculiar to itself. Among the laws that regulate the action of matter upon matter, many have been successively brought to light by observation, determined by calculation, and verified by experiment: such are the laws of motion, of attraction, of electricity, of the transmission of light, &c. It is not so with the mind; although the existence of our soul has been demonstrated and many of its faculties are known to us, its nature is a mystery, its union with organized matter inconceivable, and most of the laws by which mind acts upon mind are unknown. Living bodies which are composed of mind and matter,* act upon living bodies by the combination of the peculiar properties of the two substances. It is perceivable that there are in this action two distinct elements, and a mixed element. The knowledge of the laws that govern them, constitutes the science of magnetism; and it is only by observing, distinguishing, and comparing the various phenomena, that we can arrive at the discovery and the elucidation of these laws. Hence it follows that those who would establish a theory of magnetism upon the properties of matter, and those who search for it wholly in the faculties of the soul, strike equally aside of the truth. Magnetism, being an emanation from ourselves, directed by volition, partakes equally of the two substances which compose our being. This is not the place to enlarge upon this idea. The object I proposed to myself being to teach the practice of magnetism, it is rather to restrain than to excite the persons who wish to study it profoundly, that I have permitted myself to lay down the route they should follow, and the difficulties they must vanquish to effect their object. Longer details would be useless; I will, therefore, merely sum up, in a brief way, what I have said in this chapter. * Instead of recognising only two substances in man, it would perhaps be more exact to distinguish three; the soul, the body, and an intermediate substance, which is the principle of life. This was the opinion of the ancients, who designated the last as the spirit, or the chariot of the soul, (char de lame.) This is also the opinion of most somnambulists who have reached the highest degree of clairvoyance. It will be perceived that this metaphysical question is foreign to my subject. I speak of it merely to avoid the imputation of not knowing it. That there are, in sentient beings, two substances ordinarily different, is an incontestible fact. One is matter, the other is not. The principle of life is distinct from matter, because it is a principle which acts upon matter and organizes it; it is distinct from the principle of intelligence, because the plants are alive. To practice magnetism, you have need only of will, confidence, and charity; and all the books which have been written, since men have been treating it as a discovery, would add nothing essential to the principles proclaimed by M. de Puysegur, namely: An active will to do good; a firm belief in our power; and an entire confidence in employing it. To examine into the cause and the similarity of the phenomena, you must have first acquired, by your own experience, an entire conviction of the power of the agent. Next you must have gained a general acquaintance with the natural laws; then of the organization of man and of the various conditions in which he is found; and finally you must rise to another class of ideas in order to become acquainted with the influence of mind upon organized matter, and to explain how one man acts upon another by his will. Magnetized water. I will now describe the process of magnetizing water, necessary to the amateur magnetizer for the treatment of disease, and recommend its application simultaneously with that of the more direct magnetic operations. 1. Common water will acquire positive magnetic properties when magnetized with the right hand, 2. negative when manipulated with the left. (see NOTE*) 3. Woman, as the representative of the opposite—the negative —principle, produces positive magnetism with her left, and negative magnetism with her right hand. 4. The operation of magnetizing is performed in the first case by placing the right hand against the bottom of a vessel, glass, jug, or pail, filled with water to the top, or against the side if the vessel be large, © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 5. whilst the left hand is held over the water at a distance of five centimetres with pointed fingers, which after the lapse of a minute are extended, 6. the whole flat hand being held horizontally over the surface. 7. The hand is then raised to a distance of about twenty centimetres, the fingers are again pointed and lowered towards the water once more. 8. The operation is repeated and lasts from three to five minutes at the most. This process is also called "charging the water with magnetism". *(NOTE: This is NOT necessarily true. The Reichenbach studies show the right hand “pushes” energy and the “left” hand pulls energy…so the direction of the magnetic flow between the hands is “normally” right hand to left hand. This also can be “changed” by “intention” and by “will power”. La Tourrette) In crystalline substances, however, he observed that while some exerted an attractive effect on the hand, others only produced a strong convulsive movement. He therefore prosecuted his experiments on crystals with great assiduity, until after a time he was able to classify them according to these different properties. The question then arose whether the force existing in crystals was identical with what is commonly called Magnetism by Reichenbach, guided by the previous experiments of Hauy, Biot and Coulomb, after a variety of trials, came decidedly to the conclusion that it was not, but that it was a distinct force, and, in fact, a NEW IMPONDERABLE. We cannot detail all his experiments on this head, but his results are summed up by Professor Gregory, as follows: "1. That every crystal, natural or artificial, exerts a special action on the animal nerve, feeble in healthy persons, powerful in many diseased individuals, strongest of all in cataleptic cases. "2. That this influence is seated chiefly in the axis of crystals, and being most active at the opposite ends of the axis, is, consequently, polarized. "3. At the poles, light is sent forth, visible to eyes rendered preternaturally acute by disease— especially by nervous disease. "4. In certain diseases the crystal attracts or solicits the hand of the patient by a kind of attraction analogous to that of the magnet for iron. "'6. But the crystal, in virtue of this peculiar influence, does not attract iron— has no tendency to any peculiar direction; when freely suspended, does not attract the magnetic needle, and induces no electric current in a coil of wire. The new influence or force, therefore, is not Magnetism. ".6. The force may be transferred to other bodies, which may be charged with it by contact. "7. Matter possesses some degree of coercitive power in regard to this force, so as to retain it. but only for a limited time, within which the charge disappears. "8. Different bodies conduct it with different degrees of facility. "9. The power, in matter, of being charged with this force, is directly proportional to the strength of the force in the crystal employed. "10. The force differs, qualitatively, at the opposite poles,—at one causing a sensation of coolness, and at the other of warmth. Quantitatively, the cool pole is weaker than the warm one/' The similarity of some of these phenomena with another series, which had been described for many years, under the name of Animal Magnetism, suggested to Reichenbach the question, whether other analogies did not exist between the two, and whether Animal Magnetism might not, like the crystallic force, be subjected to physical laws. He had purposely abstained from reading the literature relating to the latter—partly from a sceptical aversion to it, and partly that his mind might not be biased in the independent series of investigations which he had undertaken. Before proceeding, however, to determine the questions be had started, it seemed to him necessary, first of all, to inquire what part ordinary Terrestrial Magnetism played in these phenomena. If a magnet or needle produces such decided effects on sensitive persons, he reasoned that then the magnetism of the earth, which gives the needle its direction, must have an influence on the animal nerve.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 And under this impression repeated trials were made, both upon healthy and diseased subjects, and at many different times. The experiments we cannot give here, but will again avail ourselves of the abstract of Professor Gregory; to condense the general results. Reichenbach then established the following positions: 1. That the human hand passed over sensitive persons acted upon them like the poles of crystals; 2. that the power which acts thus is conductible through all bodies, like the force of crystals; 3. that, like the same force, it disappears from the charged bodies in a short time; 4. that bodies also retain it, and have a coercitive power in reference to it; 5. that the capacity of being charged is the same for both forces in all bodies; that this, force is polarized in human bodies, as the other is in crystals; 6. that both are uninfluenced by the earth's magnetism; 7. that both exercise a mechanical attraction on the hands of cataleptics; and that both exhibit beautiful luminous phenomena, visible to the sensitive. Reichenbach, therefore, concludes, that the force of crystals and the so-called Animal Magnetism are one and the same, so that the laws which regulate the former admit of a full application to the latter. And Professor Gregory remarks, that he had, before he heard of Reichenbach's success, been witness to some of these results in experiments of his own, and refers particularly to one where a sensitive patient had seen flames issuing from the points of human fingers. This last phenomena is singularly interesting, and bears out many asseverations that have been made by mesmeric patients, but which the scientific world have consented all along to ridicule as the height of charlatanism and absurdity. But now that the facts are demonstrated by high and unquestionable scientific authority, we suppose they will be generally admitted. We have said above, that the two forces referred to were independent of the earth's magnetism ; but it must not be inferred that the patients on whom the experiments were made, were likewise insusceptible to influences from this grand source. On the contrary, both healthy and diseased subjects were found to be sensitive in this respect. It was found, also, that the rays of the Sun and Moon, Heat, Friction, Artificial Light, and Chemical Action, were all sources of the new and peculiar magnetic power; and that all these were accompanied by the luminous appearances. Magnetizing Crystals Comparing the applied bodies one with another, they arranged themselves in this respect, not according to the character of their substance, nor even in the electro-chemical series. In fact, the same chemical substances in specimens of different kinds sometimes produced the effect, sometimes did not: for example, calcareous spar, sugar, quartz, &c. First of all I perceived that there was not a single amorphous body among those which re-acted so as to make the hand close upon them; and, on the other side, that all bodies which did so were crystallized. There were, nevertheless, a good many crystalline bodies without the power. When, now, excluding all amorphous substances, f arranged the whole of the crystalline bodies in two groups, opposing those which showed themselves powerless to those which exerted the magnet-like influence upon the hand, I found upon the former, the inefficient side, all the confusedly crystallized— such as loaf sugar, carrara marble, and dolomite; and further, the substances composed of many oppositely directed groups of crystals; such as prehnite, wavellite, lumps of sugar of lead, masses of Konigsberg crystallized silver. On the latter, the effective side, all simple, free crystals, and all those where the crystalline masses had parallel principal axes,—such as celestine, many specimens of gypsum, and fibrous red and brown ironstone. For the sake of distinctness, I give here a list of the bodies with which I made the experiments.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 All these comparisons may be finally concentrated into the facts, that finely granular crystalline carbonate of lime, dense quartz, and loaf sugar, were inactive; but a free crystal of calcareous spar, a prism of rock crystal, or a good crystal of sugar-candy, therefore every perfectly free crystal, when placed in the patient's hand, irresistibly and arbitrarily excited the fingers, attracted them and drew them inward so as to grasp the crystal, and this in some of the cases with the most violent tonic spasms. Consequently, simple crystals here furnished a peculiar means of detecting a primary force, which had hitherto been altogether unknown. So far as is at present made out, this property does not belong to matter, as such, but to its form, and in fact to its condition of aggregation. Pouillet, in Muller's translation of his " Manual of Physics," p. 167, says expressly, that " it has never yet been observed in ponderable matter, that the form, the arrangement of the molecules, can be the cause of new forces acting at a distance." But this is exactly the case here; the matter must be crystallized, otherwise it does not re-act in this manner.* * All crystallized matter is essentially and ultimately composed of globular, spherical, or spheroidal molecules ; and by a number of simple experiments which I have performed on some very impressionable cases, I have been led to the conclusion that all gaseous and fluid bodies are susceptible of a submission to those laws which regulate crystalline forms of matter. Reasoning on the Baron von Reichenbach's facts, and having previously arrived at certain analogous conclusions before I had seen Professor Gregory's abstract of his researches ; from reasoning, too, upon the facts in Petetin, upon the facts detailed by Tardy de Montravel, and by De Puysegur and Deleuze, and especially on the influence of magnetized or mesmerized water, examples of which influence in the sense indicated by the older writers as well as in that of our author I had seen some hundreds of times, I arranged a number of finger-glasses varying from three to twelve, containing always the same description of fluid, whether it was water or a solution of some salt in water. Tlu-sc I connected together by means of cotton moistened in the contained fluid, and then passed a current of electricity through it. A few minutes of the current from a dozen of Smee's plates ten inches by five, sufficed to give the fluid properties which it had not before possessed to so striking an extent. Plain water treated in this manner was taken from the current into another room, into which were separately introduced one of six, eight, or sometimes ten patients awake. Plain water not electrised was at the same time introduced to the notice of each, separately, of the same individuals. The effects were very remarkable, for the degrees of impressionability of the subjects were clearly brought out; not one was affected by the unelectrised water, and the electrised water produced different degrees of attraction of the hands or of the head in each patient, and each, in different periods of time, varying from half a minute to five minutes, fell into a deep sleep, the fingers being in the fluid. Electrised solutions of four neutral salts— sulphates of magnesia, soda, and potass, and nitrate of potass, in each caused almost immediate deep sleep, while unelectrised solutions were weaker in effect, varying the access of sleep from three or four minutes to twelve, and in two cases there was no sleep at all, although the taste of the salt was perceived in the mouth. I inferred that the electric current had established a polar arrangement of the molecules of these fluids which developed the Baron's new force, since, like mesmerised water, each was easily detected by the impressionable persons, and each was attended with mesmeric consequences. © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 32. When I now tested one of these bodies separately, 1 found that the capability of producing spasms of living organs did not reside in equal degree in all parts of its surface. Points were formed, and the patient readily detected those which possessed the power either very weakly or not at all; others, on the contrary, where it manifested itself in increased strength. It was discovered that every crystal presented especially two such points, in which the force peculiarly resided. And these points lay diametrically opposite to each other in every crystal; they were the poles of a primary axis of the crystal. Both acted in the same way, but one always much more strongly than the other, and with the distinction that from one appeared to issue a cool, from the other a softer, gently warm (seeming) current of air. 33. Endeavoring to trace the expressions of this force in various directions, I now made the experiment of drawing the stronger end of a moderate sized crystal which I had at disposal, a rock-crystal two inches thick and eight inches long, a certain distance down along the inside of the hand, in the same way as is customary with the magnet, when it is intended to throw the patient into the usual sleep. It was found that the effect was exactly the same as that produced by a small magnetic needle, such as is used in a compass, which I had at hand for comparison. This needle was nearly six inches long, one- eighth of an inch broad, and one twenty-fifth of an inch thick, weighed about one hundred and eighty-five grains, and supported about twice its own weight. When I drew the point of the crystal along downward from the wrist, slowly through the palm of the hand to the tips of the fingers, the patient had the sensation of a pleasant, light, cool breeze directed over her. When I took the little magnetic needle, it produced the same in the like degree. When I reversed the experiment, so that I carried the pass from the middle finger upwards to the wrist, the magnetic needle produced a contrary, luke-warm sensation, evidently disagreeable to the patient;—the point of the crystal produced exactly the same when the reverse pass was made with it in the same way. Another time I brought a crystal three times as large: when drawn downward over the hand, it behaved like a magnetic bar capable of supporting a pound and a quarter of iron; but the reversed pass, up the hand, acted so violently, that the spasmodic condition produced by it ascended along the arm as far as the arm-pit, continued for several minutes, and by its violence rendered a repetition improper. 34. Furnished with these facts, I repaired to the hospital of our University, with a view to try whether the observations which I had gathered from Miss Nowotny could be repeated on other similar patients, confirmed, and brought to some degree of generality. Under the kind permission of Dr. Lippich I again directed my attention to Miss Angelica Sturmann. I made the pass over her hand with the apex of a rock crystal six inches long and two inches thick. The effect ensued immediately, the patient felt the warm and cool sensations very distinctly when the passes were made over the hand. When I applied the other pole of the crystal in the same manner, the sensations were just of the same kind, but weaker and reversed: these two patients therefore agreed with each other. The action on the sick Miss Sturmann was so strong that it affected the whole arm as far as the shoulder, the warm and cold sensations being prolonged all the way up. When I subsequently applied a crystal three times as large, this acted so powerfully upon the hand, immediately upon the first pass, that her colour came and went suddenly, so that I did not venture upon a second experiment with it here. I now tried the pass from the head down over the face; she described everything here exactly in the same way, and the sensation was especially perceived along the temples. Counter-experiments with the above-mentioned magnetic needle produced exactly similar effects, only the needle was here evidently felt more weakly than the rock crystal. Finally, I afterwards made the same experiments on Miss Maix. On this very sensitive patient, who, however, always remained fully conscious, the crystals acted not merely on the line of the pass, but over a broad strip up and down the hand, which action ascended all up the arm. Two mouths later, I tried Miss Reichel. This, to outward appearance, healthy and strong girl, possessed such sensibility to the crystal pole, that she perceived its approach even at considerable distances. Like her predecessors, she found the \ pass downward cool, upward warm, with the northward pole (—M); with the southward (+ M), on the contrary, that downward warm, that upward cool.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 Lastly, I became acquainted with Miss Maria Atzmannsdorfer, and found in her a sensitive subject,* who felt the pass of the crystals, strongest of all. Even little crystals of fluor spar, selenite, sulphuret of iron, &c., an inch or so long, produced a sensation of cold when passed down the hand: with rather thin acicular crystals, I could, so to speak, describe lines upon the hand; but the pass upward produced warmth of the hand, and so adversely upon her, that it affected her whole body unpleasantly, and began to produce spasms as soon as I repeated it. * I borrow the term " sensitive," for magneto-physiological reaction, from vegetable physiology, in which plants of definite irritability—such as certain Mimosas, Berberis, Dioncca, Hedysarum, &c, arc called " sensitive," in distinction to " sensible," belonging to the theories of animal life, which, as is well known, involve a more general idea.—Author. 35. As I was recounting all this to a friend, and, in order to show him distinctly how I had operated upon my patients, drew the same rock-crystals along over his hand, he looked at me with wondering eyes, and said that he himself felt the same that I had been describing to him of my patients, —the cool breeze, quite distinctly,—as often as I passed the point of the crystal over his hand. He was a strong healthy man, in the prime of life, who allowed me to name him openly, and to call upon him, as a witness,—Mr. Carl Schuh, a private gentleman residing here, well known for his great knowledge in natural sciences. After that, I made the experiment on all my own circle of acquaintance, and on many strangers, among whom were physicians, physicists, and chemists. I have permission to name especially among these, our renowned naturalist, Prof. Endlicher, chief of all the public botanical institutions. It appeared that not only my sick patients, but a great many other persons, shared these sensations, and that a large crystal of quartz, selenite, heavy spar, fluor-spar, and other substances, carried along sufficiently close over an open hand, produced, and rendered evident to the consciousness, in a tolerably large number of persons, certain peculiar sensations, which manifest themselves in the first place as heat and cold. This was equally the case when I previously heated the crystal to the temperature of the blood, to meet the objection, that the sensation might be accounted for by the radiation of heat from the hand to the stone. Many could tell me at once, with the face averted, whether I had made the pass over the hand with the positive or negative, i.e. with the weaker or stronger pole. It results from all this, that the following laws exist in nature:— a. A peculiar, hitherto overlooked force, resides in matter which, when lite latter has taken the form of a crystal, appears effectively in the direction of the axes. b. It manifests itself most strongly at the two poles, but differently, and in an opposite manner, at each. c. Its effect agrees perfectly with that of the magnet, and the magnetic poles, in every case, where it is directed upon sensitive human organs. 36. In order to put everyone in a position to repeat the experiments on his own acquaintance, I observe expressly, that a large free crystal, with a natural point, is requisite; larger in proportion as the person is less sensitive. Heavy spar, fluor spar, and selenite, are especially well adapted. It makes no difference whether the skin is delicate or coarse; I have sometimes found the roughest mechanic's hand more sensitive than the softest skin of a professional person. The point of the crystal must be carried slowly, as closely as possible without actual contact, sweeping from the end of the arm over the inside of the expanded hand, through the palm, and over the middle finger as far as the tip, at such a rate that one pass occupies some five seconds. The crystal is to be held perpendicularly to the surface of the hand. Among my own acquaintance I have found more than half the persons sensitive. I never told them what I had in view; I asked for the hand, passed the crystal a few times over it, and then asked whether any effect was felt, and of what kind? The answer usually was, a cool or a warm breeze. It need scarcely be mentioned, that this sensation is very delicate and fine; for, if it affected the

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 hand so strongly as not to require any particular attention, it would not have remained to be discovered, and brought forward now, but would have been long since generally known. Persons who do not feel it one day often feel it the next, or the day after, or a week later. I met with a remarkable instance in my own younger daughter, Ottone. She always felt a large selenite crystal very distinctly, while her brothers and sisters could scarcely feel anything. She suffered for some time from head-ache, which gradually increased; at last she was obliged to lie down. Two days after, she was seized for the first time in her life with violent spasms, lay sick a fortnight, and then recovered. Now, however, she scarcely felt the selenite crystal at all; the attack of illness had wholly removed the sensitiveness to it. Thus this sensitiveness varied even in the same persons at different times, and with their state of health. Very frequently the sensation did not become evident at the first, but at the second or third pass. Sometimes a person felt the first pass most strongly, the second and third were not perceived, while with the fourth and fifth the sensation again distinctly presented itself. It would not do to make the pass too rapidly; the full action requires some little time. It occurred, also, that it preceded the crystal, and was felt at the points of the fingers when the crystal had only reached the palm of the hand; on the contrary, it only manifested itself distinctly in other persons, after the crystal had completely passed off the hand. In some places the eyes of the persons have been bound, and then varying statements have been received. This cannot astonish, after what has just been said; the answers will always be the same from sensitive persons; from persons but slightly sensitive they will be the most uncertain: the binding of the eyes places people in an unnatural and inquiet condition, so that their attention is divided and distracted, and the requisite calm for such delicate observations is usually wanting. If many persons are present, saying and asking all kinds of things, walking to and fro, and the agitation and distraction are increased, it is natural that the answers to the questions should be incoherent concerning a sensation which does not sweep over the hand like a wire brush. To many persons the reversed pass, from the hand upward toward the arm, is more evident than the downward pass. But some persons are absolutely insensible; and these perhaps are the healthiest. The one, the northward pole,* usually acts more strongly than the other, the southward pole: the slight warmth is generally less perceptible than the coolness. It almost always contributes to increase the distinctness and strength when the hand is extended in the direction of the meridian, with the fingers directed to the south. Unfortunately, no further contacts may be allowed to exist during this, because they injure the delicacy of sensation, and divert the attention, which must be wholly concentrated here. It is worthy of remark, that this, like every other sense, becomes improved by practice. A person who never drinks wine, coffee, or tea, can seldom distinguish the different kinds of them; while a practised drinker discovers the slightest difference at once and distinctly. Mr. Schuh prepared for me in a short time series of crystals completely agreeing with those which the sensitive patients had formed. The same was speedily affected by Mr. Studer, a young man from Zurich, staying here, and his series agreed almost perfectly with that of Mr. Schuh. 37. Up to this point it was made out that in crystals resides a force of a polar nature, which they possess in common with magnets. It was next to be inquired whether this was of the same kind, and perhaps only quantitatively different, or was qualitatively different from that which we have hitherto understood by the term magnetism. If the former, it must be capable of being reduced to the same laws. It should attract iron filings, like not only magnetic nickel (chromium, manganium, cobalt*), but also oxidised bodies, even impure ores like magnetic iron-stone. * On account of the difficulty of language, to name the poles of magnets in contrast to the poles of the earth, iu so far that the latter possess a magnetism of the reverse direction to that of the oscillating needle, and in order briefly to dismiss all circumlocutions and misconceptions, I shall in this work name that pole of the needles which freely turns to the north, the " northward pole" (gen Norlpol), and that which points to the south, the "southward pole" (gen Sudpol). These terms will perhaps be found © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 fault with here and there ; but in their compressed brevity, they will everywhere be readily understood. Even in the newest German text-books of physics, those just issued from the press, that of MM. Pouillet and Miiller, and that of M. Baumgartner, the terms are in direct opposition ; and what the former called north polar, the latter speaks of as south polar. That the German and French on the one hand, and the French on the other, have long UBed opposed expressions, is otherwise well known. Hence results difficulty and confusion, and this may justify the proposition of an expedient.—Author's Note. Moreover, it ought in like manner, in quartz, selenite, &c., as it does in steel, not only to influence organic living bodies, but also convert bodies capable of becoming magnetic, such as steel, iron, nickel (cobalt, &c.), into magnets, when applied to them in the same way. When I dipped the polar end of my crystal into fine iron filings I could not detect any attraction. In order to have at my disposal the crystalline force, in its greatest possible strength, I bought the largest crystal that 1 could obtain, a prism of rock crystal from Gotthard, of eight inches in diameter, a six-sided colossus, with pyramidal ends, which I had some difficulty in using, and the action of which on the hand of the most sensitive of my healthy friends, Mr. Schuh, was so strong that he described it as feeling as if cold air were gently blown upon him through a straw. I placed a fine sewing-needle before this powerful crystal, and rubbed this with it in the same way as we do with a magnetic bar when desiring to convert it into a magnet. I made a dozen passes over it, and tried it with iron filings; it did not attract any. I repeated the passes more than a hundred times: but still it did not lift even the most minute of the iron filings. As a counter-experiment, I made a single pass over the sewing needle with the small magnetic needle which Miss Sturmann had found weaker than the little rock crystal previously applied to her, and it at once took up a long beard of filings from them. Therefore the points of the crystals could not inoculate the needle by rubbing, with a force capable of acting on iron. However, were this the case, it was still possible to excite such on it, after the manner of magnetic distribution, under the immediate influence of a crystal pole, and to render it capable of attracting iron filings in the same way that an iron rod is made to do so, by placing the pole of a magnet upon it. To try this, I attached a fine steel needle to the points of various large crystals, and dipped it, in this connexion, into filings. It did not lake up the least trace of them. 38. When I approached the polar points of any crystal, even of the great rock crystal, to the most sensitive suspended magnetic needle, they never disturbed it in the least; it remained motionless. On the other hand, I suspended a large crystal (free from iron), for instance one of selenite, by the middle, with a twisted, very fine, silkworm thread, so that it swung with its long axis horizontal, placed it under a glass shade, and laid a magnet quite close to it; but this exhibited no action, and no kind of turning occurred. 39. I wished to see whether a polar wire would act upon a suspended crystal as upon a magnetic needle. I arranged a small voltaic pile of a few elements, each of about ten square inches surface, and connected the poles by a stout copper wire. I then suspended a selenite crystal, free from iron, and about four inches long, by a silkworm thread, so that both poles were free to move in the horizontal direction. When approached to a horizontal part of the polar wire, the crystal and wire were indifferent, and not the slightest visible reaction took place. 40. It still remained to be investigated whether the crystal would induce a momentary current, like a magnet, when brought near a conducting wire. I formed a helix of about twenty-five turns of strong, covered copper wire, and connected it with the couplings of an extremely delicate Schweigger's multiplier, the well-known differential galvanometer: when I rapidly inserted into the helix a selenite or rock crystal, each of several inches long, the astatic needle did not exhibit the slightest divergence. When withdrawn the case was similar, the needle was motionless; the weakest magnetic needle that I substituted for the crystals, in a counter-experiment, immediately produced a divergence of twenty-five degrees. 41. The relation to terrestrial magnetism was here a question of the greatest importance. We have some old researches by Hauy, Biot, and especially Coulomb, in which, not indeed the proof, but the possibility is made good, that all bodies may possess magnetism to some extent, or are capable of acquiring it. Those of Hauy (Mem. du Mus. Par. 1817, p. 167) may be passed over. M. Biot, in his essay on this subject (Gilbert's Annal. v. lxiv. 395, 1820,) is uncertain whether it is magnetism; or, as he interrogatively

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 expresses it, "some other analogous force," which acts upon bodies. But in this treatise also we find throughout only such bodies denoted as more or less evidently contain iron. An experiment was made with two silver needles, one of which was made of chemically pure silver, the other of silver which had been melted with iron, and which, as no trace of iron could be detected in it by chemical analysis, was also regarded as perfectly pure. But the latter acted 416 times as strongly upon the magnet as the former. It was thence concluded that this also must contain iron, even though it could not be detected chemically, and that, as a general rule, inconceiveably small quantities of iron are always sufficient to give a body the capacity to acquire magnetism; indeed, that, consequently, even the needle made of chemically refined silver must have retained traces of iron. The most detailed account of these matters was read by Coulomb, before the French National Institute, in the year 1802 (ext. in Gilbert's Ann. xii. 194): in this he left the question unsettled whether the bodies which he tried were free from iron or not, and Gilbert remarks, with reason, that they scarcely could be. The experiments consisted essentially in this: needles of about one-third of an inch long, suspended by silk filaments, were brought between the magnetic poles, and made to oscillate previously and afterwards. The number of oscillations in the same time was always smaller previously than when they were counted between the poles; and thus the effect of the magnet was indicated. But what effect? one must ask. And every one must see that it may be one of three kinds:— 1. Dependent on the presence of iron in the bodies. 2. On the bodies themselves. 3. On "another analogous force," as M. Biot conjecturally expressed himself. The decision of these questions, so far as they bear reference here, appeared to me to require a new direct experiment. I possessed crystals, especially of selenite, which acted upon all the patients as strongly as a magnetic bar capable of supporting five to seven lbs. A bar of this kind, suspended by a common linen thread, invariably arranged itself in the direction of the magnetic meridian. If, then, the peculiar, equally powerful force, which resided in the crystals, were the same as that in the magnet, the crystal when freely suspended ought to arrange itself in the meridian. To ascertain this I freely suspended various crystals, free from iron, and in particular the selenite of two inches long, by a silk thread, three twenty-fifths of an inch long, and untwisted, just as it had been wound off from the cocoon, and I brought these under a glass shade. They stood at rest for several hours, but never in a direction toward the north, or indeed in any determinate direction whatever. When I turned the point of suspension a quarter of a circle, the crystal was also diverted ninety degrees after some hours' rest. I could thus bring it completely into any direction I pleased. Therefore not the slightest opposition to the force of torsion of the finest silk filament occurred, and the crystal force does not endow Us conductor with the slightest directive power; it does not stand in any relation of direction to terrestrial magnetism. Consequently, as on the one hand the behaviour of the magnet and of the crystal to animal nerves was exactly the same, so on the other hand, to iron, to the electric current, to the opposite poles of the magnet and to terrestrial magnetism, it was wholly different. 42. It is therefore established that, the polar force which resides in crystals, and renders its existence manifest by sensuous excitations of a peculiar kind, in the healthy and diseased animal nerves is not identical with the magnetic force, as we at present know it. It does not attract iron, does not act upon the magnetic needle, is in its strongest concentration incapable of exerting the slightest power of magnetically attracting iron, in the smallest steel fibres, does not influence the polar wire when placed in the helix, does not produce any induced current, and docs not obey terrestrial magnetism. 43. On the other side it holds good that, the magnetic force, as we at present know it in magnetic iron-ore and in the magnetic needle, is associated with that force which we have just become acquainted with in crystals. For since the magnet acts upon animal nerves in the same way as crystals, it possesses, in addition to its own properties, which are wanting in crystals, at the same time that force also which resides in crystals. © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 44. From which it further necessarily follows, that the force of the magnet is not, as has been hitherto assumed, single in its nature, but of two kinds, since to the older known one is now added a new unknown one, distinctly different from the former,— that of the crystal. It may appear divested of the other properties of the magnet, and in nature is displayed in a separate condition by the crystal. The phenomena which the magnet presents may be divided therefore into two sections, which become complicated with each other in their manifestations; and it will be necessary to subject a portion of the great store of them which science has accumulated, to a process of revision. 45. I now instituted investigations as to the nature of these new properties of crystals. In the first place, I sought to make out whether this force might be transferred, conveyed, or accumulated? Whether, and what analogies, it possessed in these respects to magnetism and electricity, which can be conveyed, displaced, conducted, and concentrated. Since first of all I possessed no other magnet but the excited animal nerves of healthy and nervously diseased persons, while the excitability of the healthy persons I have hitherto met with is so weak that a distinction by degrees did not warrant sufficient accuracy, I was compelled to apply myself to the more acute sensations of the sick. For since the persons with whom I undertook the researches, placed in the most varied circumstances and suffering from different diseases, not only were consistent in their sensations, but also the statements they made, when arranged under a theoretical point of view, harmonized with each other, every reason existed to attribute value to them. I am fully aware of the objections I shall meet with here; but with the cautious naturalist, who keeps his certain steps within the boundaries of experience, they have no weight. All that we investigate of the outer material world we must, to the end, gather by our senses; we have no other instrument of perception.* * Even with the veneration that attends our regard for such clearness and power as are in every page evinced by the philosophical author, occasions arise to strike us with wonder that he has not studied the great work of Gall, the doctrines of which would have given so decided a direction to his extraordinary powers, that passages like those in the paragraph above could not have escaped from his pen. It is most true that in every infinitely small interval of time, countless electrical movements proceed around us, but if we study the phrenological structure of our heads, and apply the experience which numerous trials with crystals have given us, we shall easily arrive at the conclusion that the pointed end of a rock crystal, or of selenite, or of sulphate of alumina, or of nitrate of potass, or indeed of many more which have been tried, applied to the attractive organs of the brain, will excite the individual to actions agreeable to his neighbour, while the same termination applied to a repulsive organ of the brain will excite the victim to an action disagreeable to his neighbour. This is not a simple matter of theory. Numerous repetitions of the experiments have established the matter of fact. Take, for instance, a female of impressionability in a condition of lucid somnambulism : apply to her organs of adhesiveness or of pure affection the points of rock crystals, and she is excited to the tenderest manifestations of pure affection. Change the direction of the crystals, point to amativenesB, and the woman, if her organs are at all full, is unable to control her actions. She burns with desire. Reverse the ends of the crystals, the feelings are calmed, or perhaps the reaction is attended with head-ache. Blowing or breathing on the organs equally dispels the feelings. Now try the points of the crystals on the organs of self-esteem—most repulsive organs, and the woman becomes imperious, angry, egotistical, and desires you to stand off, for she iletests you. Does all this power reside in the optical axes of crystals .p The Baron von Reichenbach has beyond all doubt established the existence of a force residing in the principal axes of crystals, and the manifold relatious of this great fact have yet to be fully developed. We count five senses and no more; but we are already sufficiently aware that things go on in nature, and, in fact, around and in us, which we are unable by thousands upon thousands of experiments. If these crystals can excite the organs of the brain in man, and can oblige him to act according to the impulse he has received, is he not the victim of impulses? "Electrical and magnetical movements!" What are crystals but spherical or spheroidal molecules arranged by electrical currents according to determinate laws of aggregation? What are those globular molecules but imitations of the spheres which occupy space, each having its polarity, each its north and south, its east and west; each its magnetic, each its diaraagnetic relations. If the crystals of Von Reichenbach can excite these phenomena, they can do much more. Many an impressionable individual may be put into a profound sleep by pointing such crystalline apices to the © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 eyes, and awakened again with rapidity , by applying the positive or butt end of the crystal to the eyes or to the j pit of the stomach. I have done this upon numerous patients hundreds of times. Some individuals are so easily impressed, that I have often put them to sleep with the point of a small crystal of Epsom salt, and as often awakened them with the flat end. This force of molecular arrangement suggested to me some experiments on very susceptible patients, the details of which ought to be full of interest to philosophical physicians, for they open up fields of inquiry that should lead to the modus operandi of all medicinal agents. I dissolved different neutral salts in water, and experimented upon one at a time. I took chloride of sodium first; and a solution of this substance being poured into ten finger-glasses, they were connected together by cotton moistened in the solution, and a couroune des tasses was completed. A current of electricity from four of Smee's elements was passed, and sensitive persons, who could be readily put into mesmeric sleep by crystals, were desired to put the fore-finger into one of the glasses so as to allow it to be moistened by the solution. In the first trial, seven young women tried the experiment. In different periods of time, varying from half a minute to five minutes, each fell into mesmeric sleep, previously complaining of a strong taste of brine in the mouth. The next trial was with a solution of sulphate of alumina. Sleep came on in each case, varying from one to three minutes. Each tasted alum in the mouth. Two had intense head-ache. These in the next experiment I placed first for trial. The solution was nitrate of potass, the taste of which was very cooling and agreeable. Sleep did not supervene in one for four minutes; in the other for seven minutes and a half. Some of the others slept more quickly, varying from three to six minutes. The to detect, only because we possess no instrument for their perception. In every infinitely small interval of time countless electrical movements proceed around us; we do not perceive the slightest trace of them. If any one were to come down from the clouds who had a sixth, an electrical sense, with which he could detect and could describe the finest electrical changes around us, with the accuracy that we do the phenomena of light by means of our optical organs, should we not eagerly listen to his teachings, and ask him thousands of questions, to clear up and extend our knownitre cured the head-aches. Sulphate of soda, of magnesia, of potass,were tried separately ; then together. Sleep in a comparatively short time. In some, weight about the head; in others, head-ache. These results made me try the effects of various substances in solution. In one trial with sulphate of copper, finding fearful sickness and ulceration of the mouth, which was cured with great difficulty, I was induced to reflect on the danger of such trials with poisonous metallic salts; and I left off for a time, inferring that mercury might be advantageously employed where ptyalism was desired by these means of operating. I had already in several cases of somnambules made the mouth very sore, and induced salivation, by simply placing a minute globule of mercury in the palm of each hand; establishing, by producing the rigid spasm in the first place, the dictum of my two revered masters, Abernethy and Macartney, that mercury, among its many properties, was, judiciously applied, a tonic medicine. The further reflections on the influence of two poles of crystalline agency led me to p'ass currents of electricity through baths, which I afterwards found more extensively and ingeniously applied by Mr. Tylee, of Bath. The first experiments I tried were on myself. The currents being passed from the head towards the feet, the bath was tonic and exhilarating; but being induced on one occasion to try the current in the inverse direction, I had a most intense head-ache. Mr. Tylee, and Mr. Bagshaw, at Bath, have had great success in the treatment of intractable forms of disease by means of this agency. We are as yet but at the threshold of the practical applications of this subject. In every point of view, the existence of the force which Von Reichenbach has established is a vast advance upon our old stock of knowledge. There is, to the reflective mind, no limit to the relations which the force he has indicated has to all the objects in nature. One born blind, who has never had a conception of light and colour, allows himself to be led by one that sees; and when he always finds the stone, by feeling, which the seeing guide had forewarned him of, he believes that the seer has eyes, which enable him to see things.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 Now, a nervous patient is one of this kind, in whom a sensitiveness for electrical and magnetic movements exists, and with which is unfolded to a certain extent a peculiar sense, so to speak, of which, as it will appear, the healthy are deficient. Among the nervously diseased, referable here, I do not mean directly somnambulists, sleep-walkers, &c., but, as a general rule, most persons who suffer violently from spasms. The somnambulists are only those in whom these disturbances of the normal condition of the nervous system have reached the highest degree, and in whom the excitability has reached its maximum. They give us the strongest testimony of the reactions, and show us the most delicate differences; but they are not absolutely necessary in the researches to which I devoted myself. Miss Nowotny, on whom I made my experiments, was far from being a somnambulist* during the whole time of my six weeks' study; she only suffered from cataleptic spasms. Miss Maix never exhibited a trace of somnambulism. The surgeon, Mr. Schmidt, of Vienna, who experienced the most striking effect from the crystals and the magnet, as well as the terrestrial magnetism, was a young, otherwise perfectly healthy man, who merely was attacked by cramps in one arm for a short time, through exposure of one side to cold. And the sensitiveness might be thus traced onward to the healthy, who only felt the pass of large crystals upon sensitive parts, like a cool breeze. Finally, there was a further distinction even among these, that some felt the cooling strongly, others more weakly, some not at all. * It is clear that though these patients were not somnambulists, not in that which Dr. Elliotson calls the sleep.waking state, they were in the deep mesmeric sleep, of which the other is only a condition. In the hands of an experienced mesmerist, Miss Nowutny would not have failed to exhibit an immense number of phenomena known as mesmeric phenomena. I dispute not the Baron's right to establish a stand point ; but while I yield to him the deep respect which is due to so philosophic a mind, I regret to observe his tardy acceptance of the truths to every one of which he will be obliged on enlarged experience to yield his assent. Without mesmeric sleep, the Baron's are just the cases which could not fail to convince him of the truths of Gall's phrenology. His fingers applied on their heads to Gall's organs for a short time, would produce manifestations that could not fail to strike such a mind as his that he has been making distinctions without differences, while he has bestowed the sneering remarks in the above paragraph on the physicians who have brought reproach on the philosophy of magnetism. Every thing does "follow rule and law ;'' but these rules and laws are to be traced by all the lights that can he brought to bear upon them, and when certainty cannot be attained in science at first, we must be contented with probability. When we cannot establish a theory, we must satisfy ourselves with the amusing haziness of an hypothesis. If we, at last, arrive at the truth, we shall not regret the toil it has cost us, albeit much of it has been devoted to stem the torrents of prejudices, and the foregone conditions directed against us. If, therefore, all this stands in regular connection, cause and effect cannot be disputed away, and, in my opinion, it would not be well done to throw away results which may become so valuable a key for the investigation of truths of nature, in those branches of physics and chemistry where she seems to wish to conceal her mysteries from us most obstinately. The singular sense, the peculiar irritability of nervous patients, is chiefly directed to magnetic phenomena; they are an invaluable reagent while we possess no other. They are not vague sensations, as has hitherto been often believed, and as like those by which many physicians and visionaries have brought reproach upon themselves; but everything follows rule and law, and these are soon discovered, when one does but investigate them intelligently, trace them with the aids of physical and chemical knowledge, and apply to them the touchstone of experimental criticism. I could not avoid this digression; it is indispensable to the definition of the stand-point of these researches. X now turn again to the questions, whether the peculiar force which displays itself in crystals is communicable, conductible, and condensable? When the most incongruous things, a piece of wood, a glass of water, leather gloves, paper cuttings, or anything else, were rubbed with the pole of a crystal, every sick patient detected without delay, when placed before them, the difference between such and others which had not been rubbed. The sensation was sometimes a cool, sometimes a warm feeling, perceived by the hand in which the object was placed; and this gradually increased until it became unpleasant.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 The conveyance upon paper was found to be the weakest. Miss Sturmann did not feel a book which had been once rubbed with the large rock crystal; often rubbed, scarcely at all. Finally, when I had held it for a time in contact with the point of the crystal, and at once quickly placed it in her open hand, she felt a slight warmth. A piece of porcelain touched with the crystal-point, felt cool to her. A German silver conductor of an electro-magnetic apparatus, when treated in the same way, she felt very warm. A piece of soft iron, a piece of a blue steel saw blade, a hard steel file, all at first found indifferent, produced a sensation of heat in her hand after the crystal point had been drawn over them. I placed my hand in her's, first let her get accustomed to it, then took it away, and drew it backward and forward a few times above the point of the great rock crystal, and then again laid it in her's. The patient at once felt a great difference. She said it far warmer; and this apparent elevation of temperature endured, decreasing, for more than four minutes, during which I repeatedly extended it to her for trial. A similar series of experiments were gone through with Miss Maix, and subsequently with Miss Reichel. The charge was here conveyed to copper, zinc-plates, linen, silk stuffs, and water. They gave wholly similar results. Miss Atzmannsdorfer perceived immediately whether the German silver conductor had been previously in contact with a selenite crystal or an amorphous body, and particularly whether with the warming or cooling end of a crystal the heat conveyed was stronger or weaker, or replaced by cold. The crystallic force may therefore be transferred or conveyed to other bodies. It may be transferred to iron and steel, and, at the same time, these bodies, so charged, do not attract iron filings, as I have already shown above.* * The Baron very satisfactorily establishes his positions. But I have tried all these experiments with great care on impressionable patients, and have frequently been disappointed in the results. I have repeated them on somnambules, and have found every one of them come out as above described. Then I am bound to value the testimonies afforded by good sleeping-waking persons. I am often told that confusion arises from the use of such cases. Yes, in the hands of bother-headed persons, confusion naturally takes place; but with due precautions the results obtained are far more interesting, because more definite. Having prepared a case for such experiments as those detailed above in the case of Miss Sturmann, I passed the pointed end of a rock crystal on a smooth deal board, on a piece of writing paper, on the bound leather cover of a book successively. Each in turn was offered to the right hand of the patient, Miss J. D., who had been eight times put into a state of placid sleep, undisturbed by the influence of other mesmerisers. Each object felt warm and agreeable. I repeated the crystalline applications a dozen times on each object; the effect was to make the patient smile contentedly, and to place the hand eagerly on the object: at last, by repetitions of the experiment, the sleep was deepened. Now I applied the opposite pole of the crystal to the board, the paper, and the book successively, and the patient being in a deep sleep, the hand was gently laid upon the objects in turn. First, from the deep sleep, the state of sleep-waking took place, and the hand was speedily drawn away from each object as if it were disagreeable ; and on being asked as to the nature of the sensation produced, she said it was cold, and made her chilly all over. I repeated the application of this repulsive end of the crystal many times to the paper, and on each renewed application of the hand the sensation became more unpleasant, and at last the patient woke up suddenly. A piece of porcelain touched with the pointed end of the large rock crystal was warm and agreeable to her, but did not put her to sleep. I held the point of the crystal to the forehead; she fell deeply asleep instantly. I touched the porcelain cup with the blunt end of the crystal, passing it a dozen times, and then touched the fingers of the right hand with the cup : the hand was hastily withdrawn, with an exclamation of " don't—it is like ice." The patient had instantly passed into sleep-waking. The iron poker was treated with the pointed end of the crystal, and the application of it to the hand deepened the sleep. The same result took place when it was applied to the nape of the neck. When the opposite end of the crystal was applied, the iron being well charged with the crystallic force, the patient on feeling it got up suddenly wide awake. A three-cornered file, and a pair of large polished scissors, similarly treated, produced identical effects. To detail the repetitions of the experiments on this patient, and on two others where identical results were obtained, would be tedious. Insisting upon the fact which Dr. Elliotson's experience has fully established, and which mine and that of several other experienced students in mesmerism sufficiently corroborate, that no phenomenon is observed in artificially induced mesmeric states which has not occurred in Nature, I © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 am induced to draw attention to some cases in which the polar relations would appear to be reversed. In general, when I took the hand of a patient mesmerised into sleep by myself, with a piece of pure gold, in a longer or shorter time, according to circumstances of impressionability, the hand and arm became rigid. If I apply the gold to the nape of the neck, the whole body becomes rigid, and the sleep is so deep that the patient is insensible to all impressions. If, in this state, any of the metals easily oxidable are applied to the same spot, the sleep and rigidity in times varying according to circumstances are dissolved, and the patient is restored to the vigilant and conscious state. I have performed analogous experiments with different metals hundreds of times; but I have occasionally met with cases of a high degree of impressionability, in which most unexpectedly the phenomena were nearly all reversed. By the induction of the rigid state with gold and platinum, I have repeatedly cured monorrhagia iu females. A married woman, aged 23, with dark hair and eyes, highly nervous temperament, afflicted with passive haemorrhage, occurring for a fortnight at each catamenial period, was mesmerized easily into a sleep-waking state, in which she remained quiet and comfortable for a couple of hours each morning for a week. She was cured, and remained well for four months. The vexations arising from questions relating to a drunken husband made her suffer much from headache, and I applied a disc of pure gold to the back of her neck. Instead of sleep and rigid spasm increasing, she was affected with the clone of hysteria, and sudden passive hemorrhage. I applied soft iron to the neck and soles of the shoes, and in half an hour she was quite well, and in high spirits. I persuaded her to come the next day, and put her to sleep by passes, after which I applied a disc of platinum to the nape of the neck. The same results as with gold immediately supervened. Waking up suddenly, she became very hysterical, and hemorrhage quickly came on. The cure was just as soon affected as before, by the application of iron to the neck and soles of the feet. The general conclusion at which I have arrived, that all attractive agencies tend to produce a state of nervous system favouring tone, and that all repulsive agencies tend to produce an opposite state favouring clone, was here subverted by an exception; but what does it evince? Only that cases exist in which the relations to the metals, and to the poles of crystals, are directly the reverse of those usually met with. I have seen two other cases, in which, though not identical, yet very analogous facts were exhibited, in which the pointed extremity of crystals induced wakefulness and headache ; while the blunt or butt end being offered to the eyes or to the pit of the stomach, deep sleep was immediately brought on ; in which magnetized water induced no attraction of the hand, and in which the presence of a powerful magnet brought on hysteria and headache ; but no subsequent rigidity or sleep. They were of a nervo-bilious temperament, liable to frequent attacks of nervous and sick headache. I endeavored to ascertain whether this conveyance could be effected, like that of magnetism, by rubbing from pole to pole, or, like that of electricity, by single points. It proved to be indifferent whether I rubbed the object in the direction of its length, or kept any point whatever for a short time in contact with the point of the crystal; the warmth or coolness thus produced were not found to differ. A large crystal, when the point was applied to a glass of water, produced magnetized water, as well as a horse-shoe magnet. 46. The question now was, whether a coercive power existed in matter, whether this charge was persistent or transient, and after what intervals of time? I charged various objects,—the German-silver conductor, the steel file, the soft iron, the piece of porcelain, and the book. The last soon lost its power. The piece of porcelain tried on Miss Stunnann retained it two minutes, the conductor five minutes, the iron the same, and the steel ten minutes. In this operation I did not take the objects in the free hand, but moved them backwards and forwards in a fold of paper; when the patient had taken hold of them, I made her lay them down, and wait till the sensation which continued to thrill through her hand had disappeared. This required about a minute. Then I made her take the object up again, without having touched it myself, and continued thus until the sensations of heat or cold were no longer produced. From this it follows that the retention of the charge, under the above circumstances, is not, even at night, of long, but of short duration, and, indeed, at most of ten minutes; that the charge soon disappears again, and, unlike magnetism, it cannot be permanently ingrafted upon steel. Since the iron filings fall from an iron bar which has been placed within the sphere of distribution of the magnet directly and instantaneously when the magnet is removed, but here an effect of accumulation does occur, although but for a short time, the question must be answered thus: that some, even if weak, coercive power over the crystallic force does actually exist in all bodies, which for magnetism, so far as we know it at present by its polar effects, is not the case, since the coercive power, according to our actual

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 knowledge, is limited to an exceedingly small number of bodies; in fact, according to the most recent researches, strictly to iron and nickel.* 47. Is the crystallic force capable of being isolated, arrested, or is it universally distributed through matter? The first experiments were made with Miss Sturmann, who, though sensitive to the magnetic excitement, was less clear in her perception of it as to the distinction between warmth and cold. When I placed a book upon her hand, and brought the point of the large rock crystal upon it, the hand felt nothing of it through the book. Since she had previously felt the approach of the crystal to the inside of the bare hand at a distance of 18 or 20 inches, while now the distance was no greater than the thickness of the book, that is, four-fifths of an inch, this experiment showed that a thick mass of paper was a substance capable of arresting, at least for a short time, the action of the crystallic force upon the nerves of this patient. A piece of deal board acted in a similar way, but less perfectly.* * The crystallic force, residing most probably in the optical axis of the crystal, since it has so close a relation to light in some form, in producing sleep and vigilance, according to the pole of the crystal offered to the face or pit of the stomach of a very impressionable subject, has been demonstrated here very frequently. I have seen cases in which the pointed end of a large rock crystal has, by being presented in the direction of the individual, whose back has been turned to the operator, induced sleep instantly at the distance of 42 feet. The other end immediately caused wakefulness ; and in this manner sleep and wakefulness were alternated just as often as the crystal was turned round. But even in less susceptible cases, the point of a rock crystal would, with its attractive or repulsive pole to the individual, induce sleep, and the other pole would awaken. Often and often has the experiment been satisfactorily performed by an operator going into one room, leaving the patient in the adjoining apartment, separated by a partition of deal wood painted, which was covered on one side by prints framed and glazed. As often as the respective ends of the crystal were held towards the patient, instant sleep or instant vigilance were produced. Any person standing in the door-way, so as to observe both the operator and patient, could at once see that there was no possible source of fallacy in the experiments. Many patients have been submitted to the test of this experiment, and the results have been identical. After a short interval the alteration of temperature began to be weakly perceptible beneath it. Eight folds of printing paper soon allowed the force to act through them; four folds of woollen stuff scarcely offered any perceptible obstacle. A porcelain dish, lying in her hand, touched on the upper side with the point of the crystal, was felt to be cool when I turned it over after the contact. On the contrary, an iron plate gave a warm sensation, when placed on the hand, as soon as I brought the crystal near; when I put it in contact the effect was like a shock, ascending through the elbow-joint to the shoulder.* Various metallic wires, held in the hand by one end and touched with crystal points at the other, gave sometimes warm, sometimes cool sensations, without exception. I placed one end of the German silver conductor in her hand, and placed the other end in contact with the point of a small crystal; the sensation of an alteration of temperature shot instantaneously from the hand to the elbow joint; when I operated in the same way with the large rock crystal, it ran up as far as the shoulder, and produced cramp-like sensations. When I subsequently repeated the same experiments on Miss Marie Maix, action took place through all bodies without exception, only it was more rapid through metallic, more like a shock, so to speak, than with vegetable substances, tissues, &c., which required a short interval of time for the effect. I made experiments with wool, silk, glass, and zinc on Miss Rcichel. The transmission through wool required a short moment of time in a cord 40 inches long; but with silk, glass, and zinc, it was instantaneous, and of immeasurable rapidity. My experiments on the very sensitive Miss Atzmannsdorfer furnished similar results ; brass wire, the German silver conductor, glass tubes, leaden bars, platina foil, bar iron, gold threads, and copper plates, which I placed in her hand, were instantaneously traversed by the force which passed into them by contact with the crystal. The conclusion is, that the crystallic force acts through all bodies, but in different degrees.* Paper, wool, and wood, render the passage difficult, at least for a short time; porcelain less so; silk and glass, are perfect conductors. © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 Metals permit the passage-not only on actual contact, but in slight degrees even before the contact, on mere "approximation; but on contact an immediate action ensues. So far as these preliminary tests allow of a conclusion, they indicate that the difference of conducting power of bodies depends less upon their nature than on their continuity. All tissues conduct worse than solid bodies; cotton and wool worse than wire, silk, &c. The completeness and rapidity of the conduction were experienced in different degrees by patients of different states of sensitiveness, in such a way that while to the more sensitive everything is permeable, with the less sensitive occur distinctions among the bodies in the degrees of the permeability by the crystallic force. * These experiments I have repeated on somnambules with precisely the same results; but in sleep- waking persons, as in those quite wide awake, there are many varieties in the degrees of susceptibility. A piece of cylindrical wood has been held in the two hands of a sleepwalking patient; it has been touched with the pointed ends of a rock crystal; immediately the wood has been strongly grasped by the patient, in some cases with, and in some without, the shock being experienced, but deeper sleep has supervened. The opposite end of the crystal touching the wood, wakefulness has taken place, and the piece of wood has dropped from the relaxed fingers. If an iron rod, of the diameter of an inch and a half, has been used instead of the wood, the sense of shock up the arms has been more decided, and some have complained of its burning the hands. Some have slept only more deeply. The law regulating the results I believe to be dependent upon the presence of attractive and repulsive agencies exercised by the crystals. 48. I still wished to test the magnitude of the capacity for being charged. I made passes and contacts on the conductor and the steel file a varying number of times. One pass acted evidently more weakly than several; but when I had occupied a minute in the charging, it attained a magnitude which, under the given circumstances, was insusceptible of further increase, at least of an increase of strength of the sensations of warmth and cold thereby produced on the hand of the patient; to which corresponded the frequently repeated trials of the persistence of the charge, which never endured more than about five minutes, however much time I might have consumed in it, excepting only on steel and water, where it was felt about ten minutes. The charge was not effected instantaneously, but increased during the contact for a short time, and then attained its maximum. This capacity for a charge was satisfied in a few minutes.* * The same conclusion is arrived at in relation to charging bodies with the mesmeric fluid. Water holds only a definite charge, according to the concurrent testimony of many lucid sleep-waking individuals, taken at separate times. Thus, I have darted my fingers two hundred times on the surface of a tumbler of water, and have been told that the blue haziness has overflowed the tumbler. Several persons have said precisely the same thing. In mesmerizing a decanter of water, I have placed a watch before me while I held the tips of my right-hand fingers in the mouth of the decanter. Several lucid individuals have separately indicated the precise height of the blue haze in the water at the same interval of time. A few minutes were sufficient to charge a quart decanter. All concur in the fact that the fluid sinks in the water. Is it, then, imponderable? Has it not a specific gravity? 49. In reference to the magnitude of the force and its relation to the size of the crystals, the experiments showed that a small crystal, from the size of a lentil to two inches long, if of gold, rock crystal, selenite, diamond, or hornblende, was weak, and only actively perceived in the reversed pass upward; that from this point the force increased with the size of the crystals. The exponent, of course, could not be made out as yet. *Experiments in sufficient numbers are wanting to determine the relative powers of dissimilar crystals. There is no doubt of the crystalline force being, cseteris paribus, augmented in a ratio to the volume of the same kind of crystal; but the force will be found to vary much in power according to the nature of the constituent substances of the crystal. Clear rock crystals are more agreeable to patients than fatty crystals. A rock crystal containing titanite was disagreeable, but it put patients into a deeper sleep than the clearer specimens. A very small crystal of cobalt is more powerful than a large rock crystal. In highly susceptible cases, the pointed end of a very small crystal of Epsom salt held to the forehead or to any part of the face has been sufficient to induce sleep immediately, and wakefulness has been speedily produced by holding the opposite pole of the same substance in the same direction. A crystal of morphine held in the same manner has been attended with the same results, but accompanied by headache. "The opposition of the two poles of crystals expressed itself upon the nerves at once by these striking contrasts." © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 50. The distinction of the poles, in reference to their power of affecting the nerves, was expressed by an opposition of cold and heat. Almost in every case the crystal produced cooling with one pole and warmth with the other when drawn over the hand. Miss Nowotny, and the surgeon Mr. Schmidt, in the upward pass felt, like the healthy, a cool pleasant breeze; in the downward pass a not disagreeable gentle warmth. I tried crystals of tourmaline, arragonite, rock crystal, selenite, and cleavage forms of Iceland spar and tellurium, on Miss Sturmann. All presented a stronger cooling pole, and a weaker warming one. This difference was very clearly marked with Miss Reichel, who distinguished the poles of all crystals, even at some distance, by a sensation of cold and heat; and this with very great accuracy. As I have already mentioned, Miss Atzmannsdorfer felt it most strongly. But even healthy persons, e. g. Prof. Endlicher, as already mentioned, Mr. Studer, my servant Johann Klaiber, and others, distinguished the two poles of all crystals very accurately, even of very small ones. The opposition of the two poles of crystals, therefore, expressed itself upon the nei.ves at once by slight heat and cold. I shall hereafter detail some other contrasts. 51. The high degree of distinctness which the excitement possessed in sick persons is worthy of notice. Not only do they perceive it universally on the masses of bodies which are brought to them, but they clearly perceived that there are points at which the force is concentrated. Miss Nowotny pointed out to me very definitely, in every crystal, the spots where effective poles were situated, which she very quickly discovered with the tips of her fingers. In double crystals the axis always passes through the line of junction of the two crystals. Miss Maix, Miss Sturmann, Miss Rcichcl, and Miss Atzmannsdorfcr, had the same power, in some cases with still greater readiness. Even Mr. Sehuh and Mr. Studer accurately felt out the points on large crystals, and their observations all agree accurately with one another. 52. The crystal-electricity, as excited in tourmaline and other minerals by heat, docs not exhibit any perceptible effect upon the nervous excitement produced by the crystallic force. I heated these bodies to different degrees, but they produced no evident modifications in the effects.* * I have coiled copper wire enclosed in silk thread round eight large rock crystals, and have thus produced an instrument like an electrodynamic coil, furnished with a platinum keeper. The crystallic force was not increased in the least perceptible degree, nor have I found the crystallic force modified by heating or cooling crystals. As mesmeric sleepwakcrs of high susceptibility are so much more delicate than any person awake can possibly be, the testimony derived from experiments on these must be powerfully corroborative of the Baron's conclusions. 53. Does the crystallic force stand in no relation of direction to terrestrial magnetism ? Starting from the manner in which crystals are built up, one would be induced to conjecture that the two forces are really to a certain extent independent of each other. Whoever has seen a nucleated mass of quartz crystals broken into, in a mine, and noticed how they stand in all directions, cannot have overlooked that the entire cavity is clothed on all sides, above and below, with crystals whose axes are directed in every possible direction. But without going into a mine, this observation may be made at once in a cabinet of minerals, upon the well-known balls of chalcedony, the cavity of which, i.e. the nucleus, is clothed all over with crystals of quartz and amethyst: I have never been able to detect anything like an uniform direction. Other crystallizations, again, which are grouped in stalk-like heaps around a common central point, like natrolite, zeolite, mesotype, arragonite, pharmacolite, &c., form tubercular globules, the rays of which spread out in all directions, and no indications lead us to imagine an influence or any kind of external directing force on their formation. Our own crystallizations, as they go on in our laboratories and manufactories, are in like manner usually altogether confused; prussiate of potash, alum, sugar of lead, sugar-candy, &c., deposit their crystals, in large vessels, without any choice of direction. This appears to agree with the indifference which free crystals observe towards the magnetic needle and the polar wires. On this side, therefore, the crystallic force is independent of terrestrial magnetism, in reference to the direction of its structures. 54. Since now the crystallic force shows itself to be free from that attraction to inorganic substances which so remarkably distinguishes the magnet from all terrestrial things, it must, on the other hand, prove

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 the more striking,—nay it seems to .claim the highest degree of interest in natural science,—that it shares with the magnet the singular power of attracting living organic bodies. For as I have already minutely described, I saw the effect produced by the magnet upon the cataleptic Miss Nowotny, repeated when she was brought in contact with the points of large crystals. It contracted her hand, in some cases produced cramp, and attracted her hand to follow it, not so strongly as a large magnet, but exactly in the same manner as a weak one. I am certain that if I had possessed a crystal large enough, her hand would have adhered to it, both in the unconscious and conscious state, just in the same way as it did to a strong magnet. This elective affinity of the crystallic force to attract living and not dead matter is the most extraordinary character it displays, and points to the powerful connexion in which it stands with the inmost essence of that which we call life, and respecting which, if I am not most grossly mistaken, it promises closely imminent and most important results. 55. In a former treatise I gave an account of the light which issues from the poles of a strong magnet. After that observation, it was very natural to imagine the possibility of the same at the points of crystals; indeed, there was great probability in the anticipation. I therefore instituted an experiment with the heightened vision of Miss Sturmann. A room was made as dark as possible; she entered, remained some time, till her eyes became accustomed to the obscurity, and then I placed before her the large rock crystal. She actually at once perceived a light over it, half the size of a hand, blue, passing into white above, remarkably different from the magnetic light, which she described as much yellower and redder. The experiment was repeated twice on the following night. In order to obtain as complete conviction as possible before Miss Sturmann came into the darkened room, I placed the large eight inches thick rock crystal upon a place which she could not be aware of. As soon as the obscurity was fully restored by shutting the door, she in every case immediately detected the place where the crystal stood, and saw the flaming light exactly the same in all these three experiments. She described it as somewhat resembling a tulip in shape, and beginning below with a curve directed outward, like one of the petals, or like a candle-flame, but then soon taking an erect position and rising to about the height of her finger's length. She again spoke of the colour as blue, passing into perfect white above, and in such a manner that isolated scattered streaks or filaments of a reddish colour ran up in the upper part of the white. The flame was moveable, in a waving and sparkling condition, and threw a light glare over the support on which the crystal rested, of the diameter of almost forty inches, just as a magnet had done, when flame-like appearance and light radiating from it could be clearly distinguished. From her I turned to Miss Reichel, and placed various crystals before her in the dark. She everywhere found the flaming appearances bright, surpassing those of the magnet in brilliancy of colour and regularity of form. The light was with her visible not only over the poles of the crystals, but even in the interior of their substance. She described the flame over the poles much in the same way as Miss Sturmann, but the appearances of light in the interior essentially different from this. She said that they were of peculiar, star-like forms, which assumed different shapes when the crystals were turned. It was evidently the crystalline structure of the stone, its lamination in different directions, which caused the production of luminous appearances and internal reflections, such as of course could not exist in this way in a steel magnet. She furnished me with drawings of the lights of large and small crystals, which represented most astonishing appearances. I reserve all the various magnetic luminosities, which I became acquainted with, to bring them together hereafter in a special comparison, and shall give figures of Miss Reichel's drawings of the crystallic luminosities with that. Miss Maix also, whose calm and accurate mode of observation I especially valued, for many nights that I left the great rock crystal upon her stove, beheld in her sleepless hours the beautiful spectacle of a whitish star, half the size of her hand, on the apiculated summit. Miss Atzmanns dorfer in all cases pointed out the luminous pole in the dark, in a number of different crystals, and placed them in a series for me, according to their strength.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 Since, then, all the crystals, which I had subjected in such great number to the test, exhibited the same reactions in reference to that peculiar force, which they manifested at their poles, as occurred in its maximum in a large rock crystal, one is led to the conclusion that crystals in general, like the magnet, emit a fine flaming light from their poles, usually invisible to healthy eyes, but seen by those of excited nervous patients, in whom all the senses exist in an unusually acute condition. I need scarcely mention that this bears relation to the luminous appearances frequently observed during crystallization itself by chemists, which have long found place in the text-books. The nature of these radiations has not yet been explained; they have generally been assumed to be electrical, because they look like such, but no direct proof exists. Prof. H. Rose, however, has lately shown that this light is not connected either with heat or electricity, since neither the air-thermometer nor the telescope is affected in the least when dipped in a crystallizing solution of substances which exhibit the highest known degree of evolution of light in the moment of crystallization ; for example, sulphate of potass and soda. (Poggend. Annal. LII. 443, 585). But now that we have become acquainted with the permanent luminosity of crystal poles, which at present exhibits no agreement with electricity, but indeed a great difference, it becomes highly probable that the said light is dependent, not on electricity, but on the evolution of phenomena of crystallic light, and that circumstances arise in the sudden conveyance of the molecules suspended in the fluids into solid crystalline bodies, under which the crystallic light becomes so concentrated as to be visible to common eyes. What this light is, which like sunlight beams continuously, without in the least diminishing the body from which it radiates, whether it is a vibration propagated in the surrounding fluids, I leave here untouched. We assume that the atoms, still more the molecules of matter, are polar. We regard them as the elements for the construction of the crystal. Is their arrangement into a large solid crystal, which again has its own polarity and is luminous at its poles, a sum of all these little polarities, and are its poles and expression of this, as the open poles of a voltaic pile afford the sum of the shares of electricity of all the individual elements? Is a crystal a pile for the crystallic force, as the voltaic is for the electrical? These are approaching questions reserved for further investigation ; meanwhile the consistent observations here made, and often repeated, on five different sick persons, will soon find confirmation in other places and by other observers. Only I caution them not to undertake the experiments with somnambulists in the sleep-waking condition, but either with others, not somnambulist, nervous patients, or, if none such can be found sufficiently sensitive, to take the somnambulists only in the awake, conscious condition, when their senses are clear; and not to make use of the sleep-waking condition at all, or at most solely for the control of the former. I have never employed the patients in the magnetic sleep or somnambulism in my physical investigations, but when in this condition have left them in the hands of their physicians, and contented myself with the position of a spectator. To prevent errors, I again remark, that when it is wished to repeat my experiments, the place must be completely darkened, so densely that even after a long stay in it, after one or two hours, no trace whatever of light can be detected. Finally, the crystal must be very large, for mine, as I have already mentioned, was not less than eight inches thick, and proportionately long. With those, however, who are strongly sensitive, smaller crystals will answer the purpose, since Miss Reichel and Miss Atzmannsdorfcr saw light issue from almost every crystal, especially from compounds of sulphuric and fluoric acids, which in all cases surpass rock crystal of the same size.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 56. All these researches finally unite to show, that the peculiar force of crystals here developed, opens a new page in the book of dynamics,—that it certainly falls within the general laws of these, but possesses its special code, to study which, and bring their axioms to mathematical expressions, must be henceforth one of the tasks of physics. It will be above all desirable to find some universal inorganic re-agent upon it, to discover an instrument of detection and measurement, which shall free us from the often worse than painful dependence on sick persons, hospital patients, and unscientific persons of all kinds.* * The reflection that it would be desirable to find such a reagent is natural. It is not so difficult to measure heat, light, electricity, and magnetism. These are agencies that are common to inorganic and organic matter. But it is a question whether it is easy to devise a test for a force owing its existence to a combination of molecules that constitutes an organic arrangement, which in its own nature shall not be organic. Is it possible to find an inorganic test for an organic force? We may probably, by tracing the laws regulating organic forces, be enabled to find out the means by which the human being can be stimulated to become so highly sensitive as to detect the presence of very subtle re-agents, odours, metallic lodes, streams in the bowels of the earth, but it may be problematical whether, per contra, we shall be able to frame an inorganic instrument sufficiently delicate to detect thought, the impulses of ambition, hate, or cunning ; the bewitching influences of love, benevolence, veneration, or conscientiousness. What is interesting is that some good aura-reader can do the above, because of the “shapes” seen, the colors that are there…and the colors that are missing. A good NLP practitioner (Neuro- Linguistics Programming) can also do it through body-reading. And anyone that knows how to Energy-Test (muscle test) properly, can also do it. La Tourrette. These depend upon organization; upon arrangements of living matter, so distributed in the brain as to have their own attractive and repulsive relations, but having no corresponding antagonistic forces in inanimate matter. In order to study the physics of organic arrangements, we must lay aside our repugnance to the numerous delicate phenomena offered to us in organic nature, and be content to enlarge, though in a degree hazily, our bounds of enquiry, paying respect to classes of facts that appear, and appear to proud ignorance only, the creations of fancy. Phrenology teaches us the causes of the philosopher's repugnance to new classes of ideas. Mostly, it is to pride that he is indebted for his refusal of truth, and the silly institutions of society foster and encourage the acquisitive, the approbutive, and the pride-creating organizations of man to habituate him to a love of contempt, and an adhesion to errors and fallacies. A most eminent Professor, justly celebrated for much that he has nobly wrought in science, was heard to say openly before a large audience, "Had I been sharp, I should have hit upon the discovery on which my competitor has stumbled:" by no means ashamed to acknowledge publicly, that he did not rejoice in

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 the success of a fellow-labourer, who had poured the blessings of a new truth on mankind, to elevate the thoughts, to exalt the aspirations of beings whose organizations improve by an indulgence in noble aims. However vulgar and absurd, because perhaps not severely exact, to habitually erroneous thinkers themselves, may appear much of the knowledge floating among boors and peasants, a very remarkable proof of the importance of some of it may be traced to a singular though rude anticipation of a part of the most brilliant of Professor Faraday's discoveries on magnetism and diamagnetism, by means of an instrument, the name of which has been sufficient to excite the contempt of some so-styled savants of repute. If knowledge be not in the range of the thoughts of certain severe cogitators, it is then, forsooth, no knowledge at all.

The Divining Rod The unmerciful contempt which has been cast on the divining rod—virgula divina, or baguette divinatoire—by certain cultivators of science, may be estimated by a reference to the earlier editions of a translation, by Dr. Hutton, of Moulucla's improvement of Ozanam's Mathematical Recreations, a book full of most interesting matter. In the last edition of that work, however, Dr. Hutton proved himself to be, what he always was, a sincere lover of truth. Led into error at an earlier period, he was open to inquiry, and became, subsequently, convinced of facts on the existence of which he had at one time doubted. My friend, Mr. Charles Hutton Gregory, lent me a copy of the Speculum Anni for the year 1828, in which he pointed out some passages relating to this matter, which I cannot avoid extracting here, premising a few observations on the instrument called the divining rod, virgula divina, bacillus diviuatorius, baguette divinatoire. This has been supposed to be a branch of a tree or shrub necessarily of a forked or letter Y shape, by the assistance of which certain gifted persons were enabled to discover mines, springs of water underground, hidden treasure, and to practise other skills that “sensitives” are known to be able to do.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188

This, with regard to shape, is just as vulgar au'enor as that which supposes that a stick of any kind of wood held in the hand serves as well as the hazel or the whitethorn for the production of the phenomena. In the counties of Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall, the facts on this subject are well known, and the practice of dowsing, as it is called, has been cultivated time out of mind. The Baron von Reichenbach has established facts regarding the emanations of light from graves, which are quite as remarkable as the proofs of emanations taking place from metals or from running water. Now that the Baron's researches, and the concurrent testimony of the cultivators of mesmeric science, have established that certain individuals are more susceptible of magnetic impressions than others, it will not be pronounced impossible that subterraneous running water may influence some persons, and not others.

In different classes of animals the sensitive powers are known to vary 'greatly, as they do indeed among those of the same species. "But," it has been asked, " granting that emanations from subterraneous waters may powerfully affect certain persons, what connection is there between this impression and the motion or rotation of the hazel rod, which is held in the person's hand or laid over his fingers?" © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 What! Is it fact that the hazel rod moves or rotates in the hand of a person of a certain impressionability, when that person passes over any ground, underneath his footsteps on which there happens to be a metallic lode, or a subterraneous stream of water, which we call a spring? Opinions are an energy cloak, and will strongly interfere with most energy testing, especially if they have strong emotional ties and strong emotional beliefs to the results of that test.

For example, with Olga Worrall at SRI, being tested for remote influence at the cloud chamber from 700 miles away.

When she tested and there were no dis-believers in the room, she could and did affect the cloud chamber at will, from 700 miles away.

But if a disbeliever walked into the room, then she could NOT affect that cloud chamber from 700 miles away. Dr. John La Tourrette I have been informed by highly respectable persons who have, in the West of England, witnessed the facts, that under these circumstances a hazel or a whitethorn rod does rotate and does move, and occasionally dips with so energetic a force, that on one occasion the bark of a fresh hazel rod was stripped from the stick and left in the grasp of the operator's hand. The following extracts will further illustrate this subject:— "Although the effects or motion of the divining rod, when in the proximity of springs, has been and is to this day considered by most philosophers a mere illusion, yet I think the following brief observations relating to this subject, and which were communicated to Dr. Hutton by a lady of rank, with the account of her subsequent experiments performed before him, his family, and a number of friends (as given in the doctor's translation of Montucla's edition of Ozanam's Recreations), must convince the most incredulous that in the hands of some persons, in certain situations, the baguette is forcibly acted upon by some hitherto unknown invisible cause. Notwithstanding the incredulity expressed by Montucla relative to the indication of springs by the baguette or divining rod, there appears to exist such evidences of the reality of that motion as it seems next to impossible to be questioned. This evidence was brought about in the following manner. Soon after the publication of the former edition of the Recreations, the editor received by the post the following wellwritten pseudonymous letter on the subject of this problem. The letter in question is dated Feb. 10, 1805, and as with the whole of the correspondence it would be too long for our limits, I shall select such parts only as are immediately essential to a right understanding of the subject. "The lady observes,' In the year 1772 (I was then nineteen) I passed six months at Aix in Provence. I there heard the popular story of one of the fountains in that city having been discovered some generations before by a boy who always expressed an aversion from passing one particular spot, crying out there was water. This was held by myself and the family I was with, in utter contempt. RETROSPECT. a. Every crystal, natural or artificial, exercises a specific exciting power on the animal nerves, weak in the healthy, strong in the diseased, strongest of all in the cataleptic. b. The force manifests its abode principally at the axes of the crystals, most actively at its opposite extremities ; it therefore exhibits polarity. c. It emits light at the poles visible to acutely sensitively eyes in the dark. d. In particular diseases, it attracts the human hand to a peculiar kind of adhesion, like that of iron to the magnet. e. It does not attract iron, does not cause any freely moving body to assume directions referable to the terrestrial poles, does not affect the magnet, does not induce a galvanic current in wires, and consequently it is not a magnetism. f. It may be charged and transferred upon other bodies by mere contact.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 g. Matter possesses a certain coercive power over it, but only for a limited time, during which the transferred force disappears. h. Matter has a power of conducting it, in different degrees, in proportion to the continuity of bodies. i. The capacity of bodies to receive a charge is in direct relation to the strength of the crystallic force. j. (missing in text) k. It expresses itself quantitatively different at the two poles; so that, like the magnet, it produces, as a rule, sensations of the cold corresponding to – M at the pole corresponding to + M of gentle heat. In regard to quantity the northward pole is stronger, the southward pole weaker. I. Warming the crystal has hitherto produced no essential modification. m. This force of crystals is contained in those exhibited by the magnet; it constitutes therefore a separable part of them, capable of being isolated. " ' In the course of the spring, the family went to pass a week at the Chateau d'Ansonis, situated a few miles to the north of the Durance, a tract of country very mountainous, and where water was ill supplied. We found the Marquis d'Ansonis busied in erecting what might be termed a miniature aqueduct, to convey a spring the distance of half a league, or nearly as much, to his chateau, which spring he asserted had been found out by a peasant, who made the discovery of water his occupation in that country, and maintained himself by it, and was known by the appellation of VHomme d la Baguette. This account was received with unbelief, almost amounting to derision. The Marquis, piqued at being discredited, sent for the man, and requested we would witness the experiment. A large party of French and English accordingly attended. The man was quite a peasant in manners and appearance : he produced some twigs cut from a hazel, of different sizes and strength, only they were forked branches, and hazel was preferred, as forking more equally than most other trees ; but it is not requisite that the angle should be of any particular number of degrees. He held the ends of the twigs between each forefinger and thumb, with the vertex pointing downwards. Standing where there was no water, the baguette remained motionless ; walking gradually to the spot where the spring was under ground, the twig was sensibly affected ; and as he approached the spot, began to turn round; that is, the vertex raised itself, and turned towards his body, and continued to turn till the point was vertical; it then again descended outwards, and continued to turn, describing a circle as long as he remained standing over the spring, or till one or both the branches were broken by the twisting, the ends being firmly grasped by the fingers and thumbs, and the hands kept stationary, so that the rotatory motion must of course twist them. After seeing him do this repeatedly, the whole party tried the baguette in succession, but without effect. I chanced to be the last. No sooner did I hold the twig as directed, than it began to move as with him, which startled me so much that I dropt it, and felt considerably agitated. I was, however, induced to resume the experiment, and found the effect perfect. I was then told it was no very unusual thing, many having that faculty, which, from what has since come to my knowledge, I have reason to believe is true. On my return to England I forbore to' let this faculty (or whatever you may term it) be known, fearing to become the topic of conversation or discussion. But two years afterwards, being on a visit to a nobleman's house, Kimbolton, Huntingdonshire, and his lady lamenting that she was disappointed of building a dairyhouse in a spot she particularly wished, because there was no water to be found—a supply she looked on as essential—under promise of secresy I told her I would endeavour to find a spring. I accordingly procured some hazel twigs, and hi the presence of herself and husband, walked over the ground proposed, till the twig turned with considerable force.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 A stake was immediately driven into the ground to mark the spot, which was not very distant from where they had before sunk. They then took me to another and distant building in the park, and desired me to try there. I found the baguette turn very strong, so that it soon twisted and broke. The gentleman persisted that there was no water there, unless at a great depth, the foundation being very deep, (a considerable stone cellar), and that no water appeared when they dug for it. I could only reply that I knew no more than from the baguette turning, and that I had too little experience of its powers or certainty to answer for the truth of its indication. He then acknowledged that when that building was erected they were obliged to drive piles for the whole foundation, as they met with nothing but a quicksand. This induced him to dig in the spot I first directed; they met with a very fluent spring. The dairy was built, and it is at this time supplied by it. I could give a long detail of other trials I have made, all of which have been convincing of the truth, but they would be tedious. For some years past I have been indifferent about its becoming known, and have consequently been frequently requested to show the experiment, which has often been done to persons of high estimation for understanding and knowledge, and I believe they have all been convinced. Three people I have met with, who have, on trying, found themselves possessed of the same faculty. I shall only add one more particular incident. Having once shown it to a party, we returned into the house to a room on the ground floor; I was again asked how I held the twig; taking one in my hand I found it turned immediately; on which an old lady, mother to the gentleman of the house, said that room was formed out of an old cloister, in which cloister was a well, simply boarded over when they made the room. " ' I generally use a baguette about six inches from the vertex to the ends of the twigs where they are cut off. " ' I shall most probably be in London next winter, and will (if you wish it) afford you an opportunity of making your own observations on this curious fact.' " The lady having arrived in London, wrote to Dr. Hutton to inform him that she proposed being at Woolwich on Friday the 30th inst. (May 1806) at eleven in the forenoon. " Accordingly," says Dr. H., " at the time appointed, the lady with all her family arrived at my house at Woolwich Common, where after preparing the rods, &c, they walked out to the grounds, accompanied by the individuals of my own family and some friends, when Lady showed the experiment several times in different places, holding the rods, &c. in the manner as described in her Ladyship's © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 first letter above given. In the places where I had good reason to know that no water was to be found, the rod was always quiescent; but in other places, where I knew poles, does not affect the magnet, does not induce a galvanic current in wires, and consequently it is not a magnetism. There was water below the surface, the rods turned slowly and regularly, in the manner above described, till the twigs twisted themselves off below her fingers, which were considerably indented by so forcibly holding the rods between them. " All the company present stood close round the lady, with all eyes intently fixed on her hands and the rods, to watch if any particular motion might be made by the fingers; but in vain ; nothing of the kind was perceived, and all the company could observe no cause or reason why the rods should move in the manner as they were seen to do. After the experiments were ended, every one of the company tried the rods in the same manner as they saw the lady had done, but without the least motion from any of them. And in my family, among ourselves, we have since then, several times, tried if we could possibly cause the rod to turn by means of any trick, or twisting of the fingers, held in the manner the lady did; but in vain, we had no power to accomplish it. " The annexed figure represents the form and position of the rod, about six inches in length, cut off just below the joint or junction of the two twigs.''

There can be no impropriety in stating now that the lady in question was the Honourable Lady Milbanke, wife of Sir Ralph Milbauke, Bart, (afterwards Noel) and mother of the present Dowager Lady Byron, the wife and widow of the great poet. A very interesting analogous statement relating to the same person will be found in the Quarterly Review for March, 1820 : No. xliv. Vol. 22. Lately in France, the Count de Tristan has published a work on the subject, which I have been unable to procure; but I have a most interesting volume containing two memoirs by M. Thouvenel, a physician of reputation in France, who was commissioned, in the year 1781, by the king, to analyse and report upon the mineral and medicinal waters of the kingdom. The author undertakes a patient and laborious investigation in the spirit of a philosopher, and regards his inquiries as leading to a new thread in the tangled skein of physics, which, like any single fact of science, may lead to the discovery of a thousand others; a fact which may bave escaped the vigilant sagacity of observers, or which may have been totally abandoned to the blind credulity of worthy soft-headed persons, or in short, since the reign of a kind of false philosophy the offspring of scientific pride, may have been delivered over to the presumptuous disdain of men of false wisdom. Thouvenel found a man named Bleton, whose business was that of a sourcier, or discoverer of springs by means of a divining rod; and upon this man he made more than six hundred observations, many of them in the presence of above 150 persons, mostly of important stations, and very credible from their high character, who testify to the truth of the observed phenomena. Among others was M. Jadelet, Professor of Physic at Nancy, a man eminent for his abilities, who was not only a witness of these experiments, but was actually concerned in the greatest part of them. As in the case of Lady Milbanke, with Bleton, an internal feeling was coincident with the movement of the rod. Whenever this man was in a place where there existed subterraneous waters, he was immediately sensible of a lively impression, referable to the diaphragm, which he called his "commotion." This was followed by a sense of oppression in the upper part of the chest; at the same time he full a shock, with general tremor and chilliness, staggering of the legs, stiffness of the wrists with twitching", a concentrated pulse, which gradually diminished. All these symptoms were more or less strong according to the volume and depth of the water, and they were more sensibly felt when Bleton went in a direction against the subterranean current, than where he followed its course. Stagnant water underground did not affect him; nor did open sheets of water, ponds, lakes, or rivers affect him.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 The nervous system of this man must have been susceptible, since he was more sensibly affected by change of weather and variations in the slate of the atmosphere than other persons: otherwise he appeared healthy. A severe acute disorder had absolutely at one time deprived him of the faculty of perceiving water, and his sensibility in this respect did not return until three months after his recovery ; so that if he were sensitive, be could not be classed among the sick sensitive. But however remarkable these constitutional peculiarities may have been, there was in Blelon's case a more than usual distinctness in the behaviour of the divining rod. Unlike many sourciers, he did not grasp it closely; he did not warm it in his hands; he did not prefer a young hard branch forked, new'y plucked, and full of sap. His custom was to place horizontally on his forefinger and thumb a rod of any kind of wood (except elder), fresh or dry, not forked, only a little curved or bent. A very straight rod failed to turn on its axis, but a bent rod turned on its axis with more or less rapidity, according to the quantity of the water and the force of the current. Thouvenel counted from thirty-five to eighty revolutions in a minute, and always noted an exact proportion between the rotation of the rod and the convulsive motions of Bleton. If these memoirs be critically examined, it will be found that the author experimented with full care to avoid every source of fallacy. The natural motions of the rod on Bleton's fingers was backwards, but as soon as he withdrew from the spring over which he stood, in any direction whatever, the rod, which instantly ceased to turn, was subject to a new law, for at a determinate distance from the spring an action of rotation in a direction contrary to the former one took place. This was invariable, and upon measuring the distance of the spot, where this retrograde phenomenon took place, from the spring, its depth could generally be found. I pass over an account of numerous experiments made by this intelligent and careful observer, pointing out the analogies of the known phenomena of electricity and magnetism, by modifications resulting to the sensibility of Bleton, and the rotation of the rod by various ingenious electrical and magnetic trials suggested by the inventive sagacity of Thouvenel, in order to arrive at the curious anticipations of some of Professor Faraday's discoveries, by means of the sensibility of Bleton and the invariable laws which regulated the rotation of the divining rod, when the experiments were made over places where various substances had been concealed under the ground. It was found that whether the trials were made in this manner or over masses of coal, subterraneous currents of water, or metallic veins, the divining rod indicated a determined sphere of electric activity, and was in fact an electromedical rod. " Of all the phenomena relating to the distinctions of fossil bodies," says Thouvenel, “acting by their electric emanations, doubtless the most surprising is this ; upon the mines of iron, of whatever kind they may be, the rods supported by the fingers of Bleton turned constantly upon their axis, from behind forward, as upon the mines of coal; while upon other metallic mines, as upon other metals extracted from their mines, the rotary movement took place in the contrary direction, that is to say, from before backwards. This circular movement, which never varies while Bleton is in a perpendicular position over mines or upon metals, presents revolutions as rapid and as regular as the revolutions in the contrary direction upon the mines of iron and of coal." The constitutional effects of spasms and convulsive twitchings took place more or less in all the veins, but copper emanations excited very simng and disagreeable spasmodic symptoms, accompanied by pains about the heart, by flatulent movements in the bowels, and by abundant eructations of air. On lead, there seemed to be less unpleasant consequences, but stronger again on the mines of antimony. Having previously determined that for Bleton, on all the metals, except iron, there existed a sphere of electric activity, which propagated itself towards the west, a great number of experiments were made which always had the same results. At the depth of two, three, or four feet under ground were buried gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, and iron. The weight of each was only from five to eight pounds. In other similar pits pyrites of all kinds, sulphur, coal, resin, wax, and lard, were buried. All these different deposits were made at distances from each other, in gardens or in open country, and they were so well covered over and concealed that nothing could be perceived except private marks to be known only to certain assistants. Over the resin, wax, and lard, Bleton experienced nothing. Over the coal there was a decided effect; the convulsive tremor of muscle was manifest, and the rod rotated from behind forwards. Over the iron, the same medications, but more energetic. A feeble impression from the sulphur, but sufficient to establish a difference between it and the two preceding, and the rod over the sulphur turned from before backward. Pyrites produced the same rotation as the sulphur, and a slight tendency or the electric sphere towards the west.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 Gold and copper especially exhibited strongly this singular tendency of the active electric emanations. Over silver, tm, and lead also, it was more remarkable. It extends itself more or less from the focus of the metals, according to their depth and their mass. For example, in describing a circle having a radius of three* or four feet from this focus, Bleton felt absolutely no action except on Uielme of the west. It was the same when, in proceeding from the vertical point of the focus, he successively traversed all the radii of the circle; or even if he went from all the points of the circumference to proceed to the centre. In these two inverse proceedings it was always only on the radii going westward that his person and the rods were affected by movements more or less intense, according to the kinds of metal. It must, however, be admitted that the action of these metals presenting only the differences of greater or less in degree, either in the nervous and muscular impressions of the body, or in the circular revolutions of the rods constantly moved from before backward, these differences do not yield a certain means of distinguishing the five metals one from the other. I be object Thouvenel had in view was nevertheless fulfilled, for he had established the extent and the determination of a sphere of electric activity towards the west, in certain metals and on sulphur, which does not exist in the same manner on iron, on coal, or on streams of water. To give a summary, then, of the relations of these phenomena to those established by Professor Faraday, it may be said that over iron mines the divining rod assumes a movement of rotation diametrically opposite to that which it exhibits over all other mines. When iron and other metals are extracted from their ores and deposited under ground, the phenomenon occurs with the same distinction; that is to say, with iron it rotates towards the north. With all the other metals submitted to trial, its action is from east to west. The influence of the red metals appears to be more energetic than that of the white. But with regard to this divining rod let one condition be remarked—the relation of the organic substance to another organic and living power of matter ;.to a human being in a certain susceptible state of nervous system. Thouvenel describes the symptoms which affected Bleton when he was in the sphere of metallic action, and the rod becomes the secondary part of the philosophical instrument, composed of an impressionable human being and a piece of stick. Some of the Baron von Reichenbach’s subjects would have been just the persons to illustrate the facts of Bletonism. A highly susceptible girl, the lady's maid of a very clever and intelligent friend of mine, residing in Hertfordshire, offers, when she is mesmerised, a great many deeply interesting phenomena. I have repeatedly mentioned her as Harriet . She is as guileless and as good a being as can be met with, and is much beloved by her excellent and amiable mistress, who has repeatedly addressed me on her case. If a piece of hazel stick or whitethorn be presented to Harriet, she grasps it and sleeps mesmerically in less than a minute. The sleep is at first very intense and deep, and then the stick is held so firmly that the spasmodic state of the muscles renders it very difficult for even a powerful bystander to turn it in her hand. Mary Anne Douglas and several others of my patients have exhibited the same phenomena. In two of the cases a very curious point has been remarked. If the hazel or whitethorn stick be held with the pointed end upwards, that end which is upwards when it grows from the ground, a force of attraction is so energetic that these individuals cannot resist their inclination to grasp it with both hands. One of them will rush towards it from a considerable distance, and will with extreme eagerness run from the bottom to the top of the house in order to have the pleasure of grasping it. If she succeed in getting hold of it before its direction is reversed, her delight is unbounded; she becomes intoxicated, and soon passes into a state of deep unconscious sleep. If, however, the stick be turned rapidly with its pointed end downwards, a repulsive force operates, and each patient feels a repugnance to it If the stick be allowed to be held in both hands, and a piece of gold, or of platinum, or of cobalt, or of nickel, or the pointed end of a rock crystal be held to it, in each experiment there is a burning sensation complained of, and an endeavor is made to loosen the hold on the stick, with ludicrous haste. A gentleman who had been often put into mesmeric sleep, remarked, on holding successively several pieces of these slicks, that a sensation of heat was communicated to his hand in each instance, and he felt a strong tendency to sleep. Susan L., a highly susceptible person, exclaimed, while in a sleep- waking state, " that a shower of fine small sparks of tire" came from a piece of hazel which happened to be in my hand.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 She did not see this from ash or from fir, but invariably saw it from every piece of hazel or from whitethorn that was brought near her. On numerous occasions experiments were made to test the accuracy of her repetitions on observing these things, and she invariably gave the same answers to the questions on the same objects. Subsequently, eight other individuals were separately examined as to their susceptibilities to different kinds of wood. Each gave the same results and saw the sparks of fire. In many other case, the impressionability being different, the hazel and whitethorn had no perceptible effect ; the patients handling the bits of stick without observing heat or sparks, and failing to grasp them spasmodically. But Harriet P r's impressionability was put to a very useful purpose. Her mistress had heard of the practice of dowsing for water, and in a letter to a correspondent, now before me, writes thus under date of July 1845:—" We made a curious experiment here some days since with Harriet P . We have very bad water here, and have long been unable to find a good spring. Mr. G. has in vain dug and dog and dug for one. I proposed the divining rod, for, said I, Dr. Ashburner would not think it a foolish experiment. Harriet P was willing, so we went forth to a field the most likely one for a spring; Mr. and Mrs. G., myself, and two friends staying here. We put Harriet to sleep by the hazel slick; she grasped it so tightly we were obliged to use the gold chain;—she then held it only in one hand, and immediately begun to walk, taking her own way. She went very carefully for about twenty yards; then suddenly stopped as if she had been shot. Not a word was uttered by any one. We all looked on, and were not a 'sations of cold at the pole corresponding to — M, at the pole corresponding to + M of gentle heat. In regard to quantity the northward pole is stronger, the southward pole weaker. Utile surprised to see the rod slowly turn round until her hand was almost twisted backwards. It looked as if it must pain her. Still no one spoke. Suddenly she exclaimed, 'There ! there ! don't you see the stick turn? The water is here—under my hand. I see, oh I see—let me look—don't speak to me—I like to look.' 'How deep is the water?' said Mrs. G., speaking to Harriet's fingers. 'Oh, about three feel; 1 can't quite tell, but it is here.' In a moment, to our astonishment, she sunk down on the grass, took the stick again in both her hands, and seemed to like it as if it could feel. We made a strange group round her, as we were all much astonished to see what we had come there to see, but still it astonished us: she seemed so like a little witch. We marked the place, and after a few minutes we awoke her. In the evening she was again mesmerized to sleep, and we asked her what she saw at the spring. 'Why I saw water—water everywhere.' 'Then,' said I, ' how do you know where the spring is ?' 'Oh, because it goes trinkle, trinkle—I know it is there.' 'Why did you sit down?' 'Why, because I was so giddy. It seemed as if all was water but the little piece of ground I stood upon — oh I saw so much water, all fresh, but no sea. I tried to see the sea, but I could not—I could not at all.' Mr. G. caused a large hole to be dug at the place; and just at the depth of three feet the water was found. A brick well has been constructed, and there is a good supply of excellent water. No one could doubt of the action of the rod, it turned so evidently of itself in her hand. Of course when awake Harriet knew nothing of the circumstance." So many and 30 various are the testimonies and the facts relating to the divining rod, that it would be tedious lo recite the hundreds of respectable documents offered by those authors who have written on this subject. Lately, a work by Tardy de Montravel, printed in 1781, entitled " Memoire Physique et Medicinale sur la Baguette Divinatoire," has fallen into my hands, and it abounds in testimonies as to the truth of the same class of facts. One of the most curious works I have seen on the subject is a little hook with the title of " La Physique occulte, 011 Traite de la Baguette Divinatoire, et de son Utilite pour la decouverte des sources d'eaux, des minteres, des tresors cachez, des voleurs, et des ineurtriers fugitifs, avec des principes qui expliqueiit les phenomenes les plus obsettrs de la Nature," par M. L. L. © 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 de Valletnont, Ph. D. et Ph., &c. This work, embellished with plates illustrating the different kinds of divining rods, with the various modes of holding them for use, appeared at the latter part of the seventeenth century, and passed through several editions in France as well as in Holland. It is remarkable for much curious literary and historical learning, and for able statements of the arguments which were used in the controversies, rife at that period, on the realities of the facts under consideration. It contains a curious catalogue of a great number of mines discovered, in France, by means of the divining rod, made out by a German mineralogist employed for the purpose by the Cardinal de Richelieu. But the most singular part of the book is the powerfully authenticated history of Jacques Aymar, a peasant, who, constitutionally impressionable, guided by the divining rod, followed a murderer for more than forty-five leagues on land, and more than thirty leagues by sea : — On the 5lh of July, 1692, a dealer in wine and his wife residing at Lyons were murdered in a cellar, for the sake of robbing them of a sum of money kept in a shop hard by, which was at the same time their chamber. All this was executed with such promptitude and secresy that no one had witnessed the crime, and the assassins escaped. A neighbour, struck with horror at the enormity of the crime, having remembered that he knew a man named Jacques Aymar, a wealthy peasant who could follow the track of thieves and murderers, induced him to come to Lyons, and introduced him to the king's attorney-general. This peasant assured the functionary that if they would lead him to the place where the murder was committed, in order that he might receive from it a certain influence, he would assuredly trace the steps of the guilty parties, and would point them out wherever they were. He added, that for his purpose he should make use of a rod of wood such as he was in the habit of using to find springs of water, metals, and hidden treasure. The man was conducted to the cellar where the murders were committed. There he was seized with emotion; his pulse rose as if he were suffering from a violent fever, and the forked rod which be held in his hands turned rapidly over the two places where the murdered bodies had lain. Having received the impression, Aymar, guided by his rod, passed through the streets through which the assassins had fled. He entered the court yard of the archbishop's palace. Arriving at the gate of the Rone, which was shut, it being night, he could then proceed no further. The next day he went out of the town by the bridge of the Rone, and always guided by the rod, he went to the right along the bank of the river. Three persons, who accompanied him, were witnesses that he sometimes recognised the tracks of throe accomplices, and that sometimes he found only two. In this uncertainly he was led by the rod to the house of a gardener, where he was enlightened as to the number of the criminals. For on his arrival he maintained that they had touched a table, and that of three bottles which were in the room they had touched one, over which the rod visibly rotated. In short, two boys of nine and ten years of age, who, fearing their father's anger, had at first denied the fact, at last acknowledged that three men, whom they described, had entered the house, and had drunk the wine which was contained in the bottles indicated by the peasant. As they were assured by the declaration of the children, they did not hesitate to go forward with Aymar, half a league lower than the bridge on the bank of the Rhone. All along the bank for this distance the footsteps of the criminals were traced. Then they must have entered a boat. Aymar followed in another on their track as clearly by water as by land ; and his boat was made to go through an arch of the bridge of Vienna which is never used, upon which it was concluded that these wretches had no boatman, since they wandered out of their way. On the voyage, Aymar went ashore at all the places where the fugitives had landed, went straight to their coverts, and recognised, to the great surprise of the hosts and spectators, the beds on which they had slept, the tables on which they had eaten, and the pots and glasses they had touched. He arrived at the camp of Sablon, where he was considerably agitated. He believed that in the crowd of soldiers he should find the murderers. Lest the soldiers should ill-treat him, he feared to operate with his rod. He returned to Lyons, whence they made him go back to the camp of Sablon by water, having furnished him with letters of recommendation. The criminals were no longer to be found there. He followed them to the fair of Beaucaire in Languedoc, and always remarked in his course the beds, the tables, the seats where they had been. At Beaucairu the rod conducted him to the gate of a prison, where he was positive one of the wretches would be found. Fourteen of the prisoners were paraded before him, and the rod turned on a man with a humped back, who had been sent to the prison about one hour before for a petty larceny. The peasant did not hesitate to declare his conviction that the hump-backed man was one of the

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 assassins; but he continued to search for the others, and found that they had gone towards Nismes. No more was done at that time. They transferred the hump-backed man to Lyons. On the journey he asseverated his innocence; but finding that all the hosts at whose inns he had lodged recognised him, he avowed that he had been the servant of two men of Provence who had engaged him to join them in this foul deed : that these men had committed the murder and had taken the money, giving him but six crowns and a half from their booty of one hundred and thirty crowns. He corroborated the accuracy of the indications of the peasant us to the gardener's house, the camp of the Sablon, the fair of Beaucaire, and the other places through which the three had passed, extending over forty-five French leagues. All these things of course excited immense interest. At Lyons many repetitions of the observations respecting the turning of the rod in the cellar were made in presence of many persons. Monsieur l'Abbe Bignou gives his testimony to the truth of the statement of facts, in a letter, inserted by Vallemont in his work. There can be no doubt that such statements require very strong corroboration, and here they apparently obtain it. Vallemont, quoting the authority of the Royal Society of London, in the second part of the history, seventeenth section, one hundred and twenty-fifth page, Mays, that in all countries where men are governed by laws, the testimony in a matter of life and death, of only two or three witnesses, is required; but is it, then, treating an affair of physics equitably, when the concurrence of sixty or a hundred persons is insufficient? It is difficult to define the just boundaries of credulity ; but in all these recitals of histories of events, there is this general consent, that in those who can make use of the rod, there is always an agitation, a fever, or some sensation which indicates a nervous commotion ; and the best evidence of the closest investigation goes to the point that most frequently the rod is of hazel wood. How far these stories lend to the conclusion that organic tests appear lo require the reagencies of organic force is at present a mailer of speculation ; but it is to be hoped that the effort to attract serious attention to this class of facts is not uninteresting or unimportant. APPENDIX. A. WHEN I became acquainted, in 1845, with the researches of the Author, I was naturally anxious to have an opportunity of observing, for myself, the phenomena presented by sensitive persons. I was deeply convinced of the truth and exactitude of Baron VON REICHENBACH, but it was impossible not to feel a desire personally to become acquainted with these interesting facts. I therefore enquired for such persons, affected with nervous disease, as were likely to be sensitive in a high degree, and I very soon found one who would certainly have stood very high in the Author's list. This was a young woman, recently delivered of a healthy child at one of the charitable Institutions in this city. Her appearance was that of perfect and vigorous health, and she was nursing a thriving child. But I was informed, that she was so excessively nervous, that if the hand of another person were placed on her head, she was very soon thrown into convulsions, on the cessation of which, she was found to be in a state of somnambulism. I was also told, by eye-witnesses of intelligence, education, and veracity, that she exhibited, in this state, the phenomena of transference of one of the senses. As it was obviously not prudent to excite convulsions, in order to produce the somnambulistic state, I did not see her in that state at all. Neither was it found practicable to make observations in the dark, so that I was here confined to her sensations. I tried on her passes with various weak magnets, the only ones at the time in my possession, and, in every particular, she described the same sensations, without any questions being put, as the sensitives examined by Reichenbach. Namely, different apparent temperature from the same end on the upward and downward pass, so that she could instantly tell which pole or which pass was employed. These sensations were very vivid and strong, the cooler being pleasant, the warmer unpleasant. I obtained precisely similar results with several crystals of moderate size.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 Both magnets and crystals caused twitchings and tendency to spasm. I then tried the effect of holding her left hand in my right, adding afterwards her right in my left. Here also the sensation of a current, was very strongly and vividly felt, and was not disagreeable to her, although tending after a time also to excite spasm. A few minutes later, while she was describing some of her sensations, which she did very clearly and intelligently, I quietly crossed my hands, and took hold of both of hers, unconformably, that is, right in right, left in left.

Same hand Two hands on one hand I had not thus held them for half a minute, when she stopped speaking, tore away her hands, and gave, word for word, the same description of the dreadful sensations she experienced, as is given in § 85, to which I refer. She added that, had it continued a little longer, she would have had a fit; of which, from the above history of her case, I entertain no doubt, but of course I did not attempt to verify it by experiment. As in Reichenbach's cases, no persuasions could induce her to allow this experiment to be repeated. This took place in the spring of 1846, while I was preparing my Abstract. There can, I think, be no doubt, that this patient would have seen the odylic light. Indeed, her sensitiveness was so extreme, and her case in all respects so interesting, that I had the intention of pursuing the investigation under more favourable circumstances, when she left the Institution; but she only did so to join her husband abroad, and I have never since heard of her. The next case that occurred was that of a lady, since dead, who had long laboured under a complication of disorders, chiefly of the nervous system.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 My learned colleague, Sir W. Hamilton, showed to her and to her sisters my Abstract; when they all immediately declared, that in that work they found the explanation of the fact, observed for years, that the patient could never feel tolerably comfortable, or obtain sleep, except when lying in the position from north to south. As this proved her to be sensitive, besides confirming Reichenbach by observations made long before his work existed, I was desirous to test her on other points. Sir W. Hamilton introduced me to the family, and the lady most obligingly consented to make some trials. She felt strongly the action of magnets and of crystals, precisely as Reichenbach describes them. In an extemporized and imperfect darkness, she was yet able, being highly sensitive, to see light from crystals; (I did not try magnets, as mine were but weak); and was able, in the dark, when no one of five or six other persons could see anything, instantly to discover a rock crystal wherever it might be placed, by the light it emitted.

Another lady, a member of my family, subject, occasionally, to very severe headaches, and who felt very distinctly the action of magnets and crystals, even of small size and feeble intensity, was also able to discover a small rock crystal by its light in the same way. A boy, nine or ten years of age, the son of a gentleman residing near Ambleside, and whom I saw playing on the lawn, in perfect health, was called in, and shut up in a short passage between two drawing rooms, which could be tolerably, but not perfectly darkened. He held one end of a copper wire ten or twelve feet long, which passed through the key-hole. When the other end was placed on one pole of a weak horse-shoe magnet, he soon described a warm sensation passing up his arm from the wire. When I immersed the end of the wire in weak nitric acid, the sensation was different. The wire soon felt hot, and after a pause, the boy called out, "I see a fire." On further enquiry, he described this in his own language, but found a difficulty in comparing it to any thing he knew; but at last he said it was a shining green cloud, or smoke. Of course I had carefully avoided telling him anything whatever of the phenomena. It is most interesting to see that this little boy, who probably never knew what kind of wire he held, and was certainly, if he had known it, not aware that copper and its compounds tinge ordinary flame green, described a green flame from the point of the wire, or surrounding the wire; a fact always observed by Reichenbach in the odylic light when copper was used. The same boy, in various crystals of rock crystal, rock salt, gypsum, heavy spar, galena, and Iceland spar, instantly detected the warm and cool poles in the lines of the crystallographic axes, pointing out, in some crystals, three pairs of such poles. I marked these, unknown to him, and tried him again in the dark. He always fixed on the same poles as warm or cold. I was not able to devote the necessary time and labour to a further study of such cases. I bad seen enough to confirm my previous knowledge of the Author's minute accuracy. But I have, at different times, and including the above four cases, tried twelve persons with magnets and crystals.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 More than half perceived sensations, more or less distinct, from passes made with these, and, as we have seen, four were highly sensitive. This agrees with Reichenbach's estimate of the frequency of sensitive persons; and, as far as they go, my imperfect, but carefully performed experiments, confirm what he has told us on several important points. I hear almost daily of persons exhibiting some of the phenomena of sensitiveness, so that those who wish to investigate the subject, can have no difficulty in finding the means of doing so. I have lately been informed of the following case. A lady, during her last illness, and when, I understand, speechless (probably from some cerebral affection), was observed by her family invariably, after having been, as they supposed, comfortably arranged and settled in bed, to have moved in a short time so as to lie across the bed. After they had long in vain tried to counteract this tendency, her relatives, very sensibly, turned the bed at right angles to its former position. From that time till she died, although in precisely the same state, the patient never changed her position once, as she had done before, and gave signs of satisfaction at the change. Her relatives had not the slightest idea of the cause of this, and it occurred some years before the Abstract was published. But on lately seeing that work, they at once recognised the facts they had observed, and obtained the natural explanation of them. WILLIAM GREGORY. Appendix B. The experiments to be here briefly noticed, were made by a gentleman, well versed in science, on a lady, when in the mesmeric sleep. This lady exhibited various remarkable phenomena, including clairvoyance in different forms; but into these I do not here enter, as being foreign to the special object of this work. All somnambulists, spontaneous or otherwise, are in a high degree sensitive, and we are, therefore, here to consider this lady simply in reference to her odylic sensitiveness when in the mesmeric sleep. It will be seen that her descriptions coincide perfectly with those of others examined by the Author in the ordinary state (a point of much interest); which again, in all points, agree with those given by Mile. ATZMANNSDORFER in the spontaneous somnambulistic state, as recorded in § 480. It is clear that the only difference, in regard to these phenomena, between the ordinary state and that of somnambulism, is, that in the latter the sensitiveness is more intense. April 9, 1846.—Mrs. K., aged twenty-eight, in the mesmeric sleep, produced in the course of a minute by Mr. F. Crystals of quartz and fluorspar, caused the hand to follow them. "When placed in the hand, it was spasmodically contracted, and became rigid”. April 13.—A rock crystal, two inches long and half an inch thick, was convulsively grasped in the hand, and the arm rose, and became rigid. A bilateral crystal of selenite (gypsum) four inches by one and a half inches, exhibited, in the diffused daylight, a "soft and dimmish light, but the summit very bright, and with rays, yellow and red." The light soon became too intense, and "made the eyes water; she could not bear it." A short time after, the flame above the crystal was from one to two inches higher, the light as intense as before. She saw five points of light (still in the ordinary light of a room, with the blinds drawn) on the points of Mr. F.'s fingers. April 17.—A large translucent double crystal of quartz, each crystal five inches by one and a half, held at three feet distance, gave out a light too brilliant to be borne. At six feet, it was "pleasant and very beautiful, light, yellow, and white, rising two inches above the crystal, flickering. A glow of light all over." Water was charged by these crystals, and much relished by the patient. It was somewhat different from water charged by the hand; it tasted warm and like peppermint, without flavour. A crystal of fluor spar charged water less powerfully, but distinctly. April 20.—The light of the gypsum crystal, at less than six feet, was too intense to be borne. At six feet, the colours were "beautiful, varied, white, yellow, green, and blue." It soon became too powerful even there. On interposing the hand, the crystal was not seen, but only a strong light diffused all round it. Even three or four feet further off, in front of an unclosed window, it became too powerful, and was removed on account of the over-excitement it caused. Passes with the quartz crystal were felt very vividly.

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188 A notice of these experiments appeared in the Critic of May 16, 1846, from which, with the permission of the highly qualified observer, I have extracted them. William Gregory

© 2012 Dr. John La Tourrette, [email protected], 541-535-3188