on of all other
phantoms, I will premise a few words about mesmerism itself.

I. Mesmer was born about 1733, studied in Vienna and there became a
doctor of medicine in 1766. Soon after, he began to speculate upon the
curative powers of the magnet, and claimed to have discovered the
existence of a force in man similar to magnetism and the source of
strong influence on the human body.

In 1775 he published an account of the medical powers of this animal
magnetism, which from his name was afterward called _mesmerism_. Paris
was then the centre of attraction for scientific discoverers and
pretenders. Thither Mesmer betook himself and there he soon created a
lively sensation by the exhibition of mesmeric trances, some of which
were accompanied by clairvoyance--that is, the power of seeing objects
concealed from the eyes. He was also supposed to work some inexplicable
cures.

The secret of his art he could not be induced to reveal even for the sum
of 340,000 livres, which was offered him in compensation. People began
to doubt whether he had a real secret, or whether he was a rank
impostor. A royal commission was appointed to examine into the matter.
Our Benjamin Franklin, then in Paris, was one of the commissioners.
Their report was unfavorable. They found no proof of the existence of a
fluid such as animal magnetism, and thought that all that was not
imposture could be accounted for by the power of imagination. In a
secret report they pointed out very strongly the dangers likely to arise
from this unhealthy stimulus to the imagination. Their verdict does
honor to their learning and their common-sense. Mesmer left Paris, and
he died in obscurity in 1815.

But his pretended discovery did not die with him. It was a mine of
resources to charlatans and impostors generally. There were strange
effects produced, and at the sight of the inexplicable men lose their
wits. The gullible public wondered, restless minds experimented, and
many pondered thoughtfully on facts, most of which were not facts at
all. But after eliminating all the elements of imposture and
exaggeration there seemed to remain a residue of phenomena that were
strange and unaccountable.

II. THEORY OF HYPNOTISM.

About 1840 the vaunted claims of the many clairvoyants were exposed
before the French Academy of Medicine, which passed a resolution
rejecting mesmerism altogether as unworthy of notice on the part of
scientific men. The theory of a mesmeric fluid,