iments were performed at the Hotel-Dieu in 1820 but later were
prohibited. Through the influence of Foissac in 1826 the Academy of
Medicine appointed a committee to examine the subject, and in 1831 a
report acknowledging the genuineness of the phenomena was made, and
therapeutic effects were frankly admitted. In 1837 the Academy
appointed another commission to examine still further, for the members
as a whole were not convinced. The report of this commission was
largely negative.

After this the younger Burdin, a member of the Academy, proposed to
award from his own purse a prize of 3,000 francs to any person who
could read a given writing without the aid of his eyes, and in the
dark. The existence of animal magnetism must stand or fall on this
test. That was the difficulty during this period: the whole dispute
was waged about, and experiments consisted in tests of, clairvoyance,
transposition of the sense of sight, and other mystical phenomena,
instead of dealing with the state as such. This, of course, made the
struggle much easier for the opponents of mesmerism, but was largely
the fault of the magnetizers. The Burdin prize was not awarded, and in
1840 Double proposed that the Academy should henceforth pay no further
attention to animal magnetism, but treat the subject as definitely
closed. This was certainly unfair and unscientific, but was the
attitude assumed.

At the beginning of this period another series of tests was being
performed in Germany, but after 1820 the belief in magnetism declined
more and more. It flourished longest in Bremen and in Hamburg where
Siemers was its advocate. From 1830-1840 Hensler and Ennemoser were
the chief exponents in Bavaria. As the scientific investigators
withdrew from the study, the charlatans and frauds entered the field,
and the marvellous and occult were emphasized, so that in 1840 little
general attention was paid to the subject.

Notwithstanding the efforts of the London physicians Elliotson and
Ashburner, magnetism could obtain little footing in England during
this period. Numerous investigations were made, however, and several
publications were sent forth. Townshend, Scoresby, and Lee are names
prominent in the study of the subject in England at this time. In the
next period, though, an Englishman gives the impetus necessary for the
successful pursuit of the study.

In 1841 the French magnetizer, La Fontaine, gave some public
exhibitions in Manchester which attracte