We are constantly assured that such experiments have been successfully carried out, but for my own part, I have been quite unable to find any that afforded exact proof of that which was to be demonstrated.

We are also told that it is quite possible to magnetize people who are themselves unaware that this is taking place, as, for instance, at a great distance. Magnetism must exist, it is argued, to account for this, as for the kindred phenomena of telepathy (super-sensual thought transference) to which I shall return shortly. Then, again, we have the magnetizing of plants, with its stimulating action on their growth, the transmission of the magnetic force to inanimate substances, such as water, which then carries on the action of the magnetizer, - all these are given as proofs of magnetism. In the same category we find are ranged the following: - the creation of somnambulic states, during which the marvellous phenomena of clairvoyance, transposition of the senses, etc., etc., occur; the attraction exercised over the magnetized person by the magnetizer, the perception of the magnetic fluid by the former, his sudden acquaintance with languages he has never learned, variations in the weight of bodies, said to become heavier and lighter under the influence of animal magnetism, the setting in motion of objects without mechanical means being employed, fluctuations of the magnetic needle, power of destroying animal life by a look, - and much more of the same kind.

Some of these questions I, must still deal with. Very nearly all the assertions of the mesmerists I have myself minutely tested, and have given an account of some portion of my observations in my book, Der Rapport in der Hypnose, published in Leipzig, 1892. Several other investigators had associated themselves with me in this inquiry into the existence of animal magnetism. On critical examination, the result of all our experiences was negative. The mesmerists themselves constantly misinterpret their own observations. That a magnetized person may at times discern "magnetized" water, is correct. It has, however, nothing on earth to do with magnetism. In the first place, it is very often impossible to prevent a slight rise in the temperature of water that has just been magnetized. Secondly, it is highly probable that in the act of magnetizing, which is generally accompanied with the gesture of flourishing something in the direction of the water, chemical substances may be introduced into the latter, and may bring about an alteration in its taste. But chemical dissociations have nothing in common with magnetism, which is supposed to represent a physical force.

This intentional confusion between chemical agencies and the magnetic force is a good proof of the want of clearness prevailing on the subject amongst most mesmerists. Just the same want of clearness distinguishes the attempt to fix magnetic impressions by photography. It cannot possibly be denied that the atmosphere immediately surrounding the body may exercise an influence on the photographic plate, that heat rays and chemical rays - i.e., rays imperceptible to human vision - may very often come into play here. But what all this has to do with animal magnetism it is not so easy to see. As a specimen of the utter confusion of ideas prevailing among mesmerists in general, I need only give my own experience of the trial of the Tilsit quack-doctor, which I attended in the character of professional expert. During the whole proceedings, Schroter, the mesmerist in question, kept trying to convince me that he had a certain magnetic force under his control. The argument on which he chiefly relied consisted in taking in one hand an india-rubber bladder filled with water, which he pressed against the window-pane; he then placed his other hand flat against the pane, and showed that round this one a light film formed, not, however, round the bladder.

To this vaporous deposit, produced by cold, Schroter pointed triumphantly as a proof of his own magnetic powers. Exactly the same confusion of ideas attends the photography of irradiations and similar experiments.

For the present only this much can be said: the statements of most mesmerists are extremely confused; things that have no possible connection with magnetic force are cited by them in proof of its existence. Nowhere do we find any series of exact experiments reported, in the conduct of which all sources of error were so carefully excluded as to furnish a satisfactory proof of the existence of animal magnetism. On all sides only unproved assertions.

Mesmerists have propounded quite a long list of theories, only the principal of which I can allude to here. According to Mesmer himself, whose theory has been made the subject of much misrepresentation, the whole universe is filled with a fluid, more subtle than the ether, just as this is more subtle than air, and air more so than water. Vibrations, he maintained, take place throughout this fluid, just as they do throughout the ether, air and water. And just as light is transmitted by the vibrations of the ether, so, he concluded, are phenomena of another nature constantly produced by the vibrations of this all-pervading fluid. On these vibrations he believed the mutual attraction and repulsion of the heavenly bodies to depend, and that they also determine the interchange of attraction and repulsion between bodies endowed with animal life. In the vibrations of this fluid Mesmer considered animal magnetism to reside. Mesmer's theory of the magnetic fluid has often been confounded with another, according to which the nerves of the human body contain a fluid that may be conveyed to the surface by motion from within.

This was propagated by the celebrated physiologist of the eighteenth century, Albrecht von Haller, who even went so far as to set forth against Mesmer claims of priority of discovery, although, as is perfectly obvious, the two theories are quite distinct the one from the other. That the activity of the sensitive nerve-fibres may be exercised at a certain, though perhaps very limited distance, was admitted also by Alexander von Humboldt, and his opinion was concurred in by the well-known anatomist and clinician, Reil. More than once the hypothesis has been put forward of electric activities being called up by the mesmeric passes (Rostan, J. Wagner). Tarchanoff has demonstrated that the application of gentle stimuli to the skin will excite in it slight electric currents, and that, moreover, a strong effort of concentration of the will, with the muscular contraction by which it is invariably attended, will also suffice to produce the same. Now, since mesmerists always insist on the necessity of strong tension of the will on the part of the mesmerizer while making his passes, may not a peripheral development of electricity be induced in his person and passed on to that of the individual he is mesmerizing ?