DB. DESLON'S reputation was embarrassing to the Royal Society of Medicine. Thirty-three more or less insignificant members of the Faculty suffered deprivation under the decree issued against Animal Magnetism. But they were not in a strong enough position to enforce it against Dr. Deslon, who laughingly defied their thunderbolts. Deslon was therefore separately reprimanded, suspended for a year from voting at the meetings of the Society, and threatened with loss of his diploma in a year's time if he did not meanwhile abjure Animal Magnetism. The meeting necessary to confirm the decree before it became valid, however, was never held, and Deslon openly defied the Society.
Not content with their refusal to give countenance to Mesmer or his work some members of the Faculty resorted to the basest means in order to entrap him. A Dr. Portal, a well-
known practitioner in Paris, went to him, feigned the symptoms of a disease, gave him a fictitious history of it, and, after being operated on magnetically, pronounced himself cured. He then published an account of how he took in Mesmer, declaring that his allowing himself to be duped showed his ignorance and the folly of Animal Magnetism.
During Mesmer's residence in Paris Marie Antoinette had become interested in him and his work. Mesmer, despairing of gaining any recognition from the Faculty, wrote to her with the view of securing her influence in obtaining for him the protection of the Government. He wished to have a chateau given him, with a yearly income, in order that he might continue his experiments at leisure, untroubled by the persecution of his enemies. If he met with no more encouragement, he would be compelled, he said, to carry his discovery to some other country more willing to appreciate him. "In the eyes of your Majesty," he wrote, "four or five hundred francs, applied to a good purpose, are of no account. The welfare and happiness of your people are everything. My discovery ought to be received and rewarded with a munificence worthy of the monarch to whom I shall attach myself."
M. de Maurepas, on behalf of the King, thereupon opened negotiations with Mesmer to induce him to remain in Prance and teach his system publicly. At a conference between M. de Maurepas and Mesmer it was agreed that a certain large house and grounds should be given to him for the accommodation of himself and his patients, and a pension of 20,000 francs for himself, on condition that he treated cases, and taught the doctors. He was not to leave France until he had established his system or had obtained permission of the King.
Some weeks later Mesmer had another visit from de Maurepas, proposing certain alterations in the agreement: a sum of 10,000 francs was substituted for the proposed property, with which wholly inadequate sum Mesmer was to provide an establishment for his patients. His own pension was to remain the same, but the ratification of the agreement was to be left to the decision of his pupils, some of whom were to be appointed by the Government. They were at the same time to pronounce upon the value, or otherwise, of his system.
Mesmer very naturally rejected these conditions. "My intentions," he wrote, "when I came to France were not to make my fortune but to secure for my discovery the unqualified
approval of the most scientific men of this age. And I will accept no reward so long as I have not obtained this approval; for fame, and the glory of having discovered the most important truth for the benefit of humanity, are dearer to me than riches." Moreover, "it is contradictory and impossible," he said, "that I should be judged by my pupils. What if Drs. Laffone, Maloet, and Sollier were to be sent to me as pupils?" Obviously his pupils could give no authoritative pronouncement on his discovery, and, since this was what he desired above all else, he decided that all further negotiation was useless and prepared to leave France.