The Sun.
London, England, 1851-11-11 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

THE ZOisT.

No. XXX 17

01 almost ail cur modern (so called) discoveries,

the germ may be found in anciet times. The recently
discovered sculptures of Egypt and of Nineveh
prove to us that some of our most recent inventions
are merely revivals of inventions which had been in
common use three thousand years ago among the
civilized populations of the plains of Asia and of the
Valley of the Nile; and even our most recent disco-
veries in modern science, discoveries the reality of
which are denied by interested and prejudiced men,
the priests of science (for science, like religion, has
its priesthood as ignorant, as bigotted, as prejudiced,
and as blind to the full as their compeers the
priests= of theology), can be proved to have been
practised in the very earliest ages, and to have
been occasionally practised in full faith from those
days to the present, although those who practised
them may have practised them solely through
faith, being unable to give any reason for the
faith which was in them. Of these sciences

thus practised in ignorance, as it were, mes-
merism is one, and the first article in the present
number of the Zoist records several remarkable in-
stances of the practice of mesmerism in the middle
ages, in which the practiser and the specta-
tors, being equally ignorant of the cause
which produced these wonderful effects, at
once jumped to the conclusion that the effects, that
is to say, the cures thus wrought, must have been not,
as they really were in accordance with, but contrary
to the laws of nature--that they were, in fact, miracles.
This paper is entitled " A Mesmeric Scene a Thousand
Years Ago," commnnicated by Mr. Thomas Chand-
ler, with a note of Dr. Elliotson. The communica-

tiou of Mr. Chandler is as follows :
" Sir,—ln Mrs. Jameson's third volume of ' Sacred
and Legendary Art,' entitled, Legends of the Monastic
Orders'—a work full of instruction and amusement—l
was much pleased to find the accompsnying sketch,
which, by the kind permission of the authoress, I send
for publication in the next Lois*, if you think it worthy
of a place.
" Mrs. Jameson informs me that Bernard von Orlay
was born about 1490, and died about 1560. By this it
would appear that the curative power of mesmerism,
which, as has been clearly demonstrated, was known to
the ancient Egyptians, has never been entirely lost sight
of, but has been revived at intervals. It remained,
howeverjor the present age to establish it on a firm

foundation.
" I think no one can dispute the fact that St. Ewald
is healing the maniac by means of mesmerism, though
of course he did not call it by that name. He lived about
700.

" The learned authoress has this remark upon it, p.
82:--' I have etched the scene of the miracle. The at-
titude of St. Ewald is precisely that which I once saw
assumed by a famous mesmerist, when throwing a pa-
tient into the mesmeric sleep.'
" I remain, yours faithfully,
" THOMAS CHANDLER.
" 58, Paradise-street, Rotherhithe, July 14, 1851."
Mr. Chandler has' employed an artist to lithograph
the original picture of, Bernard von Orlay, and there
we see St- Ewald the Fair standing over the woman
with the first and middle fingers of his right hand
extended towards the woman—his eyes intently fixed
upon her countenance—in fact, an accomplished
mesmerist mesmerising a patient, and she herself dis-
plays that peculiar expression of countenance which
is exhibited by those who, endeavouring to resist mes-
meric power, are at length compelled to give way to
its influence, and with her extended hand uplifted, as
though endeavouring by a last despairing effort to
fight mesmerism by mesmerism, is in the act of sink-
ing into a reclining position ; and to any one who has
attended a mesmeric seance, and has studied the
expression of patients who are about to become com-
pletely subjected to mesmeric influence, it is evident
that in a few seconds the woman will be in a mes-
meric sleep. Here we have an instance of the suc-
cessful practice of mesmerism more that a thousand
years ago, and the very valuable note which Dr.
Elliotson has appended to the communication by Mr.
Chandler proves that the saint was only practising a
method of miracle-working which had been handed
down by tradition from the time of the Egyptians,
and that he was merely doing empirically: that.
which the Egyptian priests had been two thousand
years before in the habit of practising rationally and
scientifically.
" The Saint is represented extending his thumb and
fore and middle fingers towards the patient's front, while
his ring and middle fingers are bent against his palm.
This is a very ancient representation of an exertion of
influence.
" To the edition of the anatomical works of Galen by
Joannes Guinter, in 1531, is prefixed the figure of a
man, with his hands crossed upon his breast, imploring
another person, who is stretehing forth his own hand
towards the sufferer, and whose thumb and two adjoin-
ing fingers are extended, while the ring and middle
fingers are bent. Galen flourished in the second century.
"In another edition of Galen's works, published in
1625, to the book de seetis ad eos is prefixed the figure
of a man with his right hand stretched forth; the thumb
and two oxljoining fingers aro extended, while the other
two are bent. '

" The works of the ancient Egyptians were destroyed
at the period of the invasion by the Romans, and we
know no more of their medical and mesmeric practice
that can be learnt from the history and writings of
other nations who were acquainted with Egypt in its
prosperity and decline. Their medical practice was
divided into the ordinary and the occult. Its practice
was forbidden to the common people, and permitted to
kings, grandees, and priests only. In the monument
which is named the Table of Isis, are three persons; one
lies upon is bed, a second places his left hand upon the
other's breast and holds up his right wide open, while a
third, in front of the second, who is looking towards him,
holds his right hand above the head of the recumbent
person, with his thumb and two adjoining fingers ex-
tended and the two others bent. The gesture and atti-
tude of the third person are very striking; ho evidently
is giving directions.
" The Indians, according to M. Gauthier, like other
nations, observed that the mesmeric force was great,
active, and penetrating in the thumb and two adjoining
fingers, united and extended, while the two others were
bent; and the force was diminished when all were ex-
tended.
" The god Vishnu has four arms and eight hands; two
arms and their hands are raised, the others at a level
with the chest. The thumb and two adjoining fingers of
the raised hands are extended, the two other lingers
bent. Each of these four hands are surrounded by flame.
" The four hands of the two other arms are wide
open. The god presents them all with an evident inten-
tion, which was not discerned by antiquarians because
they were ignorant of mesmerism.
"Other divinities, Chiven, Parachiven, Ravanen, Para-
chsti, are represented sometimes with four arms, some-
times with many, and all the hands are represented open
and extended, or with three fingers raised and two bent."
Now, these are assertions deliberately made, and
however startling they may be from their boldness—
and we honour Dr. Elliotson for the boldness and
independence with which he has always given utter-
ance to what he believes to be the truth—they are as-
sertions that cannot be met with and put down by
clamour. No doubt we shall have raised a sacer-
dotal chorus of blasphemy, aided by a medical semi-
chorus of quackery ; but mankind are now•too en-
lightened to be misled either by theological or medical
bigots. In these days public opinion reigns supreme,
because the public is now an educated public
and a reasoning public, and cannot be misled
by a cry, whatever the Tapers and Tad-
poles of theology, politics, and science may think
to the contrary. The public will not be frightened
from its propriety by any cries, but the public will
demand that the gainsayers of Dr. Elliotson shall
condescend ''to argument, and if they contend that he
is wrong, will demand from them proof that he is in
error ; and as it is clear that he has advanced nothing
in the above passage save upon the authority of those
whom his gainsayers; themselves must admit to be
credible and trustworthy witnesses, will estimate the
opposition of the interested opponents of truth at its
true value. On the subject of miracles generally we
would recommend to attentive study. the following
comment (all occurs in the same paper) by Dr.
Elliotson on the admirable work of the celebrated
Conyers Middleton on miracles. Dr. Elliotson says:—
" While there can be no reason to differ from Mid-
dleton as to the utterance of much downright falsehood
and error, and the occurrence of much that was ordi-
nary natural result unconnected with the means em-
ployed, the knowledge which we now possess of natural
facts unknown to the majority of educated persons of
modern times renders it indisputable, not that Middle-
ton was mistaken in concluding that there were no
miracles on these occasions, but that things occurred
which he took for granted to be impossible, and effects
were produced by causes which he took for granted to
be inadequate to their production. He was ignorant of
the facts of mesmerism. He did not know, as we do,
that clairvoyance in sleep-waking, and without sleep-
waking, is, and always has been, a fact; he did not know
the occurrence of cerebral sympathy of sensation, idea,
and inclination; nor the power of the silent human will.
He did net know the effects of mesmeric processes nor
their power over disease, not to say of all kinds, but of
any kind. He did not know the stupendousness of the
power of suggestion and imagination. With the know-
ledge which we possess, he would have allowed that
oracles and prophecies were often genuine; that heathen
and post-apostolic wonders, though not miracles in the
sense of supernaturalism, were n..,t the less possible,
and in innumerable instances were no doubt true. Many
Jews and Christians, though not inspired nor miracu-
lously endowed, acted like persons of all the nations
who had preceded them and who surrounded them, and
spoke and accomplished things which ignorance only
ascribed to supernatural agency, holy or impure as
their revilers might choose, or denied from the fancy of
impossibility."
In illustration of the above passage, Dr. Elliotson
quotes an example, in which he thinks Conyers
Middleton was mistaken. Middleton relates a story
of St. Jerome, recorded by St. iiiiarion in which, ac-
cording to Hilarion, St. Jerome had exorcised a
133CtriAll camel, of enormous size, which had become
mad, or possessed. " The camel's eyes were bloody,
his mouth foaming, his tongue rolling and swollen,
and his strange roarings above all terrors. The old
man ordered it to be let loose, upon which all who
were about him ran away immediately. The Saint