The Sun.
London, England, 1851-04-14 00:00:00

ANIMAL MAGNETISM.

On Wednesday night Professor Gregory delivered the
first of two lectures iu Queen-street Hall, on the subject
of animal magnetism, "in aid of the fund for relief of the
famishing Highlanders in Ski e and other places." The
attendance, of which a considerable portion were ladies,
was very numerous, and the meeting was presided over
by the Rev. Dr. Guthrie. Previous to the lecture, Mr.
Spence read several letters from clergymen and others
in Skye, stating that " eases of extreme distress were
becoming more and more frequent," and " the prevailing
destitution more and more alarming."
Professor GREGORY said that the subject of animal
magnetism had at various times since the appearance of
Mesmer excited much interest, but at no time bad that
interest been so universal in this country as within the
last 12 months. Formerly men of science held aloof, either
rejecting the whole thing without inquiry as the result of

imposture or delusion, or, admitting some small amount o

truth in it, they neglected the investigation of that truth
as insignificant and unimportant. Now, however, they
found men distinguished in science to a greater or
less extent convinced of the -existence of very astounding
facts, and anxious to investigate them in a proper spirit.
It was now twenty-four years since be (Professor Gre-
gory) turned his attention to this subject and examined
these facts for himself, and he trusted it would not be
deemed presumption in him to offer a few remarks en
t,ein. Two very interesting lent uree on this subj. et bad
been recently delivered in this hall by his learned col-
league Dr. Bennett, who took somewhat different views
trom himself on the subject; and though he had no desire
of entering into any controversy with Dr. Bennett,
who had investigated with a right feeling all those facts
ho had had an opportunity of seeing, and had explained
them according to a certain theory which ho (Dr.
Gregory) was not prepared now either to adopt or re-
ject, and did not mean to discuss, he wished to point out
that that theory would be found inadequate to explain
many of those phenomena which had been recently
exhibited here by Mr. Lewis, Dr. Darling, and other
operators. Ho would not go into the details of those
phenomena which might be elicited by suggestion in
controlling the volition, the sensations, and the emotions
of the patient, and rendering the mind so inipressible
as by the suggestion of the operator to produce many
striking and peculiar results, and which, though now
admitted, had beforo been denied, rejected, and ri-
diculed again and again, but would proceed to show
those facts which could not be explained by the
same theory. Dr. Gregory then said that pa-
tients could be put into a states of impressibility,
or magnetic sleep, without their imagination being
appealed to at all, and by operators in another
room or another house, and it had also, he had gcod
reason to believe, been done in cases where the operator
had never seen the patient at all. He then alluded
to the experiments and discoveries of Reichenbach,
who had found that ordinary magnets, crystals,
and all mineral substances, more or less, as well as
the human frame, and especially the head, eyes, and
breath, as also animals, and even plants, possessed
the odyllie force or power of evolving this mys-
terious influence. This influence was neither
magnetic attraction, for it could not affect the needle;
nor electricity, for it could pass through glass; nor heat,
nor light, although it caused a peculiar illumination, and
combined both heat and light; nor chemical action,
though it combined that force; nor was it gravitation or
any other known natural fonts, but it was supposed to
be a peculiar natural force highly analogous to these,
though quite distinct from them all—all of them proba-
bly springing from a common source, but which was un-

known. They could not tell if it was a fluid—it might be a
mere vibration or undulation of some rare subtle ether
pervading the universe. This odyllic force tni;b.t be
transferred from one body to another ; water might
be charged with it, and the patient would intalltbly dis-
tinguish that water without knowing anything of the ex-
periment, among a hundred glasses, and generally by
its appearing strongly luminous. The lecturer then
stated persons in a conscious waking state, who were
under odyllic influence, sometimes saw, if the room was
nearly dark, a luminous appearance in the operator's face
—a red gleam of light being observable in Mr. Lewis's
face, and a blue light in that of Major Berkeley, which
flowed outward to whatever object they magnetised.
This strange light was shown by Reitchenback to be
polar, and that the positive ray was red, and the negative
one blue, while the former predominated in the right
hand, and the latter in the lett, and highly sensitive pa-
tients had even seen the whole colours of the rainbow pris-
matically arranged, although, in some cases, a white
equilibrium was presented. This also accounted for the
difficulty of operating where the odyllic force was either
positive or negative in both operator and patient. Dr.
Gregory then went on to show that the fact of the mag-
netic sleep being produced without the knowledge of the
patient (Mr. Lewis having in one case operated on a pa-
tient at a distance of fourteen miles) was proof of the
existence of some external influence. An operator, after
magnetising a patient, and retiring to another room or
house, could in certain cases make him imitate his actions
and sentiments in every particular—in one case the ope-
rator kept his hand very near the.fire, and the patient in
another room shrieked out that his hand was burning.
Many sensitive persons could tell that the magnetiser was
approaching, by certain sensations they felt, although
they could nos possibly have known it before; and cases
had occurred in which the operator engaged magnetisiug
one person might produce sleep in another eilaged iu
conversation on a different sub tect. In mapycases the ope-
rator had by his silent will, when the imagination was
in no respect appealed to, caused the patient to do what-
ever he liked, however absurd and ridiculous, while
magnetic attraction, or attraction of a patient towards
an operator at a distance, and of which the 1.-cturer re-
lated some very striking instances, as given by llamas.
&c., w,s eq t..lsy itolcpi.cibie by t tho,u)
Dr. Lireg-ry al.o nbowed that the force wign, be
conveyed by magnetised gloves or by water, and yet,
produce all its ordinary effects though unknown to
the patientsi while, if not magneute.l, though the
patients believed it to be manetised, no effects
tolluwed. The lecturer then made some remarks
on the mysterious sympathy sometimes felt with per-
Bens at a distance, the premonition or simultaneous
knowledge of some danger happening to them, the state
of en rapport, and flume allied sensations to
clairvoyance, and which he said be would treat of
more fuily in his next lecture, and cot chided
by expressing his conviction that when Dr. Be-
nett, Sir David Brewster, Dr. Simpson, and others,
had also investigated for themselves the facts he
had personally studied, they would come to be of
the same opinion with himself regarding all the pheno-
mena ef animal magnetism which they at present enter-
tained regarding some of them.
A hearty vote of thanks was then awarded, on the
motion of the Rev. Mr. Macgregor, to Profes.or Gre-
gory for his highly interesting lecture; and after a few
remarks from the chairman, the audience separated .
Scotsman.