he cries, the disorder, stagger the organs, impart the
same movement to men's minds, and raise their imaginations to a similar
degree. In this unity of intoxication, an impression once manifested
becomes universal; it encourages men to charge, or determines men to
fly." Some very curious examples of imitation close this portion of
Bailly's report.

The commissioners finally examined whether these convulsions, occasioned
by the imagination or by magnetism, could be useful in curing or easing
the suffering persons. The reporter said: "Undoubtedly, the imagination
of sick people often influences the cure of their maladies very much....
There are cases in which every thing must first be disordered, to
enable us to restore order ... but the shock must be unique ... whereas
in the public treatment by magnetism ... the habit of the crises cannot
but be injurious."

This thought related to the most delicate considerations. It was
developed in a report addressed to the king personally. This report was
to have remained secret, but it was published some years since. It
should not be regretted; the magnetic treatment, regarded in a certain
point of view, pleased sick people much; they are now aware of all its
dangers.

In conclusion, Bailly's report completely upsets an accredited error.
This was an important service, nor was it the only one. In searching for
the imaginary cause of animal magnetism, they ascertained the real power
that man can exert over man, without the immediate and demonstrable
intervention of any physical agent; they established that "the most
simple actions and signs sometimes produce most powerful effects; that
man's action on the imagination may be reduced to an art ... at least in
regard to persons who have faith." This work finally showed how our
faculties should be experimentally studied; in what way psychology may
one day come to be placed among the exact sciences.

I have always regretted that the commissioners did not judge it
expedient to add a historical chapter to their excellent work. The
immense erudition of Bailly would have given it an inestimable value. I
figure to myself, also, that in seeing the Mesmeric practices that have
now been in use during upwards of two thousand years, the public would
have asked itself whether so long an interval of time had ever been
required to push a good and useful thing forward into estimation. By
circumscribing himself to this point of view, a few traits wo