The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-20 00:00:00

MADAME TECMAN'S SOIREE.
MESMERISM.

The celebrated clairvoyante, the Marquise de St.
Simon Tecman, gave last evening a soirée mes-
merique, at her elegant residence, in Baker-street,
Portman-square. The experiments commenced at
nine o'clock, when the drawing-rooms were crowded
with the elite of the rank and fashion still remaining
in town. In the first instance the marquise under-
took to try her active powers of mesmerism, before
she proceeded to the grand object of her visitors'
curiosity—the exhibition of those phenomena by
which her own mesmeric trances are attended. Ac-
cordingly she invited any lady or gentleman present
who had never been mesmerised to submit to the
operation at her hands, and thus fairly test her
powers. Two gentlemen accepted the offer. One
of them the Marquise (after considerable:exertion to
effect the mesmeric influence upon him) declared
to be then in a state so far removed from susceptibility
that it would be impossible to mesmerise him. The
other gentleman was in a few minutes reduced to the
mesmeric sleep by the manipulations of the Marquise.
No further experiments of this kind were made, as
the anxiety of the company to see the lady herself
a subject of the mysterious power became very evi-
dent. Mr.; Margrave, of Highgate, was, we
believe, the operator, and the fair patient
was in a few minutes to all appearance
buried in a profound and death-like trance. It was
then stated that a lady of rank, who was present, had
been for some time afflicted with paralysis of the right
side, of which she had been partially, and that in a
great degree, cured by Madame Tecman's mesmeric
operations. The lady, with the greatest affability,
explained to the company the particulars of her case,
and walked across the room, raising her arm, extend-
ing the fingers, &c., to demonstrate how far the cure
had progressed in eleven flays, from the first curative
experiment, when she was unable to walk, to raise
her arm from her side, or to open her hand. Several
persons then successively placed themselves in com-
munication with the apparently unconscious Marquise,
and as each took her hand, her really beautiful coun-
tenance beamed with a peculiar and fascinating ex-
pression of life and tenderness. She pressed the hand
of the patient fondly, and whispered softly in the ear
her conjectures as to the existence of malady, its seat,
cause, and cure. In every instance but one the pa-
tients avowed themselves astonished beyond expres-
sion at the minute accuracy of her revelations. A.
gentleman, however, who was suffering from a gun-
shot wound in the right hip, the ball having traversed
to the left side, and had not been extracted, although
he underwent many painful operations, declared
that Madame had failed in her description of
his condition and sensations, and that she pointed
to the right groin as the place where the ball
was lodged, whereas he was convinced that it
was in the neighbourhood of the left groin. On the
whole, the experiments gave great satisfaction. We
heard a widow lady (whom she had never seen) in
consultation with the clairvoyante. The conversation
was carried on in French, and in a very low tone, but
with evident earnestness and feeling on both parts.
Madame Tecman told the lady she would soon get
well—the cause of her illness was the loss of her
husband, who died abroad (and she stated where),
of a broken heart. The effect of this extraordinary
revelation on all present may be imagined.
It is only fair to the English professors of this
much-disputed mystery to state, that last evening
we were present at another mesmeric reunion at the
house of Mr. liaise, medical electrician, Pelham-
crescent, Brompton, and there a clairvoyante, Miss
Taylor, mesmerised by Mr. Holmes, a professor of
the alleged science, made revelations far surpassing,
in their extraordinary character, to a gentleman with
whose strange case the writer was previously well
acquainted, but of which the young lady could
scarcely have known anything.