The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-27 00:00:00

HERRING FISHING.

ABERDEEN.—The herring fishery has been interrupted
here this week by the unseasonable weather, but on the
nights that the boats got to sea, they all caught herrings.
The fishery along the coast has now fairly commenced,
and bids well to be successful.
PETERHEAD, JULY. 22.—Our boats, including Bod-
dam and Burnhsven, are 408. Last night and to-night
the boats have not got to sea, in consequence of the
rough weather. Our average will not be above three
or four crans per boat, but the fishing has been pretty
general.
itzsamount.—On Friday week only three boats
.ea_;(l. returned next morning with from three
vven. ~.. P 7
e;,. On Tuesday and Wednesday they
er
to fiavgeedcratwil:
ana -pc crans each. In consequence of
thev state of the weathweatherWednesday night, none of
a
the boats went to sea.
HOPEHAN.—The herring fishing commenced here on
Monday the 12th instant, and the take for the first week
was pretty fair. This week they have been much better,
and good hopes are entertained of a successful fishing.
On Wednesday the boats averaged about six crans each.
There are 26 boats belonging to this thriving port en-
gaged in the fishing.
BANFF, JULY 22.—The fishing, though not heavy, has
been pretty regular and general for the last few days.
On the 17th, the average was about 5 trans ; 20th and
91s t , about 3 trans. Nothing this morning, the strong
north winds having prevented the boats getting to sea
last night. The demand for cured fish is very languid ;
some few more sales have been made at 215., and at
Wick at 20s. per barrel, but we believe the buyers
will not come freely into the market till the prises
are lower.
STONEHAVEN.—The rough weather has prevented the
boats from going to sea for some nights past.

The Floating Island in Derwent Lake, Keswick
was on the 19th inst. discovered above the placid sur-
face of that fur-famed sheet of water, by Mr. Wright. the
celebrated guide and mineralogist. The last appe,aratio
of this phenomenon, we believe, wii, ill the mouths of
July and August, 1837.

THE PROGRESS OF MESMERISM.
(From the Times.)
We are not an imaginative people, though we are
' sometimes led away by fashion or the force of example,
and therefore we require always that some proof that the
pretensions of any man to any especial art or science
should be set forth before proper alai competent judges,
and examined by them before we admit his claims. But,
on the other hand, the moment some person of supposed
knowledge of the subject affixes his imprimatur, we run
into the opposite extreme. We will allow no cavil, no
question, no argument upon the person's abilities. We
could illustrate this proposition by a reference to Dr. Lard-
nor's profound opinion that steamers could not cross the
Atlantic ; or to the idea that prevailed previous to the
establishment of railroads, of a physical impediment to
the traction of the wheels upon the rails, which led to the
patent of Mr. Blenkinsop for overcoming this supposed
attfieulty. Those wno teavel on radroaus or in steam-
vessels at the present day arc apt to wonder how any doubts
of the kind could have existed ; but that they did exist
we can adduce,irrefragible proofs. Let us therefore now
examine into the facts of animal magnetism or mesme-
rism, without any reference to theory, or any appeal to
reason. Certain effects are produced on certain indivi-
duals, by persons possessing a power little short of the
miraciihnis. Of this fact there can be no doubt—nay,
the effects are admitted, but they are ascribed to imagina-
tion, to sympathy, to nervous affection, or to some other
cause, which leaves the solution exactly where the in-
quiry commenced. .Entering the field neither as a par-
tisan nor an adversary, we are only desirous of eliciting
the truth. Either animal magnetism is, or is not, an
imposition. If it be an imposition, let us scout its pro-
fessors from our shores ; if not, let us calmly and dis-
passionately examine into their merits. A few remarks,
therefore, upon the earlier history of the science, will
enable us to come to a more decided opinion as to whe-
ther the inquiry is worth the time that it must neces-
sarily cost.
Mesmer. a native of Switierland, from whose cogno-
men the science has been named, was the first person is
I...i:rope who attracted attention by the practice of the
art. His exhibitions, however, were attended with a
great deal of mummery, with the playing of musical
instruments, and the manipulation of iron spindles
issuing from a wooden circular box. This box, or tub,
admitted round it about 50 patients, and each patient was
connected to his neighbour by a cord, while, to render
the chain of communication more complete, the one
pinched the other's thumb. This new science produced
so much sensation in Paris, that the Government ap-
pointed a Commission to inquire into its merits, at the
head of which was the celebrated Benjamin Franklin.
flic report was unfavourable to the pretensions of the
new science, but it is worthy of remark, that Mesmer
himself never came in contact with the Commissioners
lie refused to explain the principles by which he ope-
rated ; but one of his pupils, Deslon, undertook to explain
overything, but, as we have said, not to the satisfaction of
the Commission. Nevertheless, they admit that 5 out of 14
sick persons experienced some effects from the operation,
but attribute these effects to the influence of imagination.
But, as we can only judge from effects, and allowing
that mesmerism works only through the medium of the
imagination, still are not the principles which govern so
tremendous tin agency worthy of being inquired into ?
Any objections urged either from analogy, from reason,
or from experience, can scarcely be entertained: At
first sight, who would suppose that the combination of
certain plates of metal immersed in diluted acid would
produce the extraordinary effects which we can sec daily
demonstrated either by the electro-galvanic battery or
the voltaic pile ? Or that the union and combustion of
two gases should produce so great a heat as to consume
iron, and reduce the diamond to its primitive elements ?
Or that Hall's hydraulic machine should overcome the
.laws of gravitation, and raise water in spite of its phy-
sical properties, simply by rapidity of motion ? Or that
the violet ray of the prism should magnetize iron ?
Yet these arc facts which no one ventures to ques-
tion, because they are daily demonstrated. Or shall
we make any allusion to the daguerrotype, the elec-
trotype, and the wonderful powers of steam, with its
strange faculty of electricity ? Why, therefore, with-
out inquiry, should we refuse to an individual the credit
of possessing latent powers, which are not common to all
our race ? All fish have not the property of the gymno-
tus—yet who doubts the power of the eel in the Adelaide
Gallery to produce electrical phenomena ? We could
multiply cases of extraordinary qualities possessed not
only by animals but by men ? Does any one doubt the
venom of the rattle-snake, of the copro de capella, or of
that horrid reptile common near the mines of Choco,
South America, whose bite is instantaneous and fright-
ful dissolution, when the body swells, and the whole
frame in a few seconds is decomposed, and becomes a
fluid mass of loathsome corruption ? Or does any man
question the extraordinary faculty which that individual,
pensioned at the Mauritius by the British Government,
possesses of seeing vessels some hundred miles at sea?
Or the fact of the Brahmin who could sit on air ; or of
another Indian who could bury himself for a month, as
witnessed by Lieutenant Boileau, and then resuscitate
himself ; or of the case of Colonel Townsend, noticed by
Cheyne, who could voluntarily expire and again return to
life ? The power of the hazel twig in the hands of cer-
tain persons to point out the source of springs was long
treated as fictitous ; but in the 22d volume of the Quar-
terly Review there is a well authenticated case of Lady
N.'s exhibiting this power in the presence of Dr. Hutton
and others, in a field near the new college at Woolwich.
and subsequently at other places.