IT has been argued that Mesmer's letter to the Queen, asking for the assistance of the Government, was proof of avarice and self-seeking on his part. Such a view is surely as absurd as it is unjust. Had his desire been merely to make a large fortune, all he had to do was to continue his work in Paris. But this did not satisfy him. He wanted the leading scientists of his day to make an honest investigation into the natural forces at work in his cures. And he wished to obtain a recognised position in France which would leave him free to continue his investigations instead of wasting time in disputing with the doctors.
His insistence upon the need of a large establishment where he could treat his patients arose out of the serious disadvantages which attached to the baquet. He knew very well that many of those who flocked to the public baquet came, not because they were ill, but merely for the
sake of excitement. The ignorant regarded him as a magician and his work as miraculous.
Moreover, scandals had broken out in connection with the baquet. Moral effects were attributed to its action. It was said that the moral influence of the baquet depended upon which side of the apparatus the patient connected himself with. To obviate these abuses Mesmer was anxious to treat each patient separately; but owing to the large number of his patients, this was not easy.
In 1784 the King appointed a Commission, consisting of members of the Academy of Sciences and of the Royal Society of Medicine, to examine the claims of Animal Magnetism.
The sittings of the Commission took place at the house of Dr. Deslon, and most of the experiments before the Commissioners were conducted by him. Against this Mesmer protested. Dr. Deslon, while fully convinced of the phenomena of Animal Magnetism, did not agree with Mesmer's theories. Mesmer absolutely denied that imagination, or, as we should term it, Suggestion, had anything whatever to do with his cures. Deslon, on the other hand, attributed considerable effect to it.
As a result of the Commission, three reports were published in August 1784: the Report
of the Faculty of Medicine of the Academy of Sciences, the Report of the Royal Society of Medicine, and an independent report by De Jussieu—one of the Commissioners.
The first two reports were regarded at the time as a refutation of Mesmer's claims. They were, as a matter of fact, nothing of the kind. They constituted merely a refutation of Mesmer's theory of Animal Magnetism.
The modern theory of Suggestion, it should be remembered, was unknown at that time. Had the Commissioners been familiar with it, they would undoubtedly have worded their report differently. To have got rid of Animal Magnetism in favour of Suggestion would have been merely to exchange the frying-pan for the fire. But, in using the word "imagination," they fancied they had, once for all, given the quietus to Mesmer's discovery. The conclusion of the report states:—
"That which we have learned, or at least that which has been proved to us in a clear and satisfactory manner, by the examination of the process of Magnetism, is that man can act upon man at any time, and almost at will by striking his imagination; that the simplest gestures and signs can have the most powerful effects; and that the action of man upon the
imagination may be reduced to an art, and conducted with method, upon subjects who have faith."
De Jussieu's Report was more favourable to Mesmer. In his opinion there was evidence of the existence of a universal medium which was responsible for the mysterious phenomena which Mesmer had revealed. This medium appeared to him to be of the nature of heat rather than of magnetism. Other members of the medical profession, while compelled to admit the occurrence of the phenomena, steadfastly refused to trace them to that universal fluid which Mesmer called Animal Magnetism.
Thus Dr. Virey, in an article on the subject in the Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicates, denied the existence of Animal Magnetism and attributed the observed phenomena to some vital principle of the soul. "In order to act upon the body," he said, "the soul makes use of a vital principle or nervous fluid, which is capable of impressing motion and sensation on our organs. The sensitive element is not of the same nature as thought; it is secreted in the brain; it descends into the nerves; it exhausts itself and is renewed."
Had the deliberate intention of the Commissioners been to render themselves ridiculous
they could not have succeeded in doing so more successfully than was the case. Having solemnly declared in 1784 that no such thing as Animal Magnetism existed, the following year they invited foreign and provincial doctors to make observations on Animal Magnetism and to forward to them their reports. At that time there were upwards of a hundred doctors in the French provinces who had established magnetic practices and many others were trying it. Of these many sent in reports, but the Royal Society of Medicine was careful to publish only those that were opposed to Animal Magnetism.
Why, it may be asked, were the findings of the Commissioners so uniformly unfavourable to Mesmer? Why were they so staunchly opposed to the theory of Animal Magnetism?
The answer is not far to seek.
In the first place, they refused to examine Mesmer's cases and his methods at first-hand. Imagining Animal Magnetism to be a simple and constant force, like terrestrial magnetism, they expected to be able to test it themselves by similar means. In this, as was only to be expected, they failed.
Secondly, they believed their professional reputations to be at stake, and these they
valued above every other consideration. In their opinion it was the Materia Medica versus Animal Magnetism. They were afraid of what might be the result of such a contest. Consequently Animal Magnetism had, at all costs, to be suppressed.