Therefore it may also be obvious to you that it is very much better to reason with the Prince of Darkness than with stupidity i.e. poverty of mind and supper-cleverness with which the world of to-day is crammed where the gods themselves strive in vain. If you my dear Sir doubt this and refer it to the realm of hallucination you must do just the same with Kerner's Seeress, but I am convinced this is most profoundly true from my own experience, but how to understand this is disclosed by no science only with 99% belief are the profundities of all knowledge disclosed as Gothe already said. Awaiting your kind agreement and reply.

1 I Do Not Pretend To Be Able To Do Justice To This Letter

Translator.

I remain yours faithfully.

(Signature).

The assertion made by magnetopaths and similar persons that they are totally disregarded by doctors, is in any case incorrect. Apart from the fact, that during the period of its greatest prosperity animal magnetism played a part in officially recognized science, magnetopaths have at all events had opportunities for having their supposed powers tested scientifically. I have offered to make such tests, and undoubtedly others would do so also. Considering the constant complaint of magnetopaths that they are ignored by medical men, one would think they would take advantage of every opportunity given them for having their powers tested; but this is far from the case, for during the fifteen years that have elapsed since I offered to carry out such experiment only three of these gentlemen have allowed their supposed magnetic power to be tested.

I now come to the question of mineral magnetism. Belief in the action of the magnet on human beings is very old The magi of the East used the magnet to cure disease, and the Chinese and Hindoos did so long ago. Albertus Magnus in the thirteenth century, and later Paracelsus, Helmont and Kircher also used it. So did the astronomer and ex-Jesuit Hell, of Vienna, at the end of the eighteenth century. It was from him that Mesmer is said to have learned the influence of the magnet on human beings. As we saw on page 6, Mesmer used the magnet at first, though even then, some doctors - Deimann of Amsterdam, for instance - denied the therapeutic action of the magnet and asserted that brass plates did as well. Reil also used the magnet In the year 1845 Reichenbach asserted that some sensitive persons had peculiar sensations when they were touched with a magnet. He also said they saw light - the so-called Od light; an assertion that was long supposed to be disproved, but which has lately been again made by Barrett in London, and by Luys in Paris, on the ground of fresh experiments. According to Schrenck-Notzing, Jastrow and Pickering have specially opposed the revival of the Od doctrine.

Still, the opinion that the magnet exerts a specific, and, more especially, a therapeutic action on the human body, has many adherents. Maggiorani, in Italy, has lately contended for the therapeutic use of the magnet (Belfiore), and the school of Charcot has asserted the influence of the magnet on certain individuals. Benedikt also, in opposition to a few American investigators - Peterson, Kennelly - who had attributed the therapeutic action of the magnet to suggestion, advocated its specifically physiological curative action. But some people suppose that there are further affinities of mineral magnetism to man. Formerly, it was occasionally assumed that some people could deflect the magnetic needle by merely approaching it, and more particularly by putting a finger near it. Wolfart relates of himself in his Erlauterung zum Magnetismus, that he could cause the magnetic needle to deflect and incline downwards by bringing his finger near either pole, and that the needle was so firmly fixed in its new position that it did not at once react to a strong magnet, whereas Wolfart was able to restore its normal equilibrium by making a few counter-passes with his finger. He consequently supposed that there is a definite connection between mineral and animal magnetism.

Further, Du Potet reports, that a subject named Angelika Cottin could deflect the magnetic needle by merely bringing her arm near it (Perty). Fechner, who was very sceptical with regard to Reichenbach's Od doctrine, and who was more inclined to look upon the deflection of the magnetic needle as a disproof and not a support of that doctrine, experimented on one of Reichenbach's subjects, a Frau Ruf, and was convinced that this lady could deflect the magnetic needle. When Frau Ruf waved her finger over one of the poles, the needle oscillated just as if a bar-magnet were being waved over it Although the strictest conditions were not imposed - Fechner wanted to do so, but the magnetic power of the lady abated - Fechner did not consider himself justified in assuming fraud on the part of the subject, and declared he was convinced by the experiments. He added, with that modesty which is so characteristic of the real savant, that he had thought of the possibility of hallucination, but he considered he must discard that suspicion because another investigator, Professor Erdmann, witnessed the experiments and also observed the same phenomenon. But we are quite justified in thinking that Frau Ruf produced the effects by means of some steel object which she had concealed about her.

Moreover, Fechner does not claim that other people were convinced by the experiments. Only, at the end of his book he strongly recommends investigators to be on the look-out for some such fraudulent procedure. As Ulrici reported in his work on so-called spiritualism, Slade was able to deflect the magnetic needle. In the presence of W. Weber, Scheibner and Zollner, Slade deflected the needle 40o to 6o° until it finally made several complete revolutions, although his hand was quite a foot from the compass. He is also said to have magnetized steel knitting-needles. The Tilsit magnetopath, Schroter, asserted when on trial for quackery, that he could deflect the magnetic needle himself without employing any friction. In connection with Harnack's experiments, which I shall presently discuss, I may here mention that Max Breitung states that he also has employed a thin knitting-rod, such as is used in making fishing-nets, to test his own magnetic power, and that he first magnetized the rod with a horse-shoe magnetic and then hung it up. He states that when he laid the thumb and first two fingers of his right hand together and brought them near the needle which was freely suspended, the needle followed his hand to the right no matter which pole was approached.