The mesmerist's manual of phenomena and practice : with directions for applying mesmerism to the cure of diseases, and the methods of producing mesmeric phenomena. Intended for domestic use and the instruction of beginners / by George H. Barth.

  • Barth, George H.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The mesmerist's manual of phenomena and practice : with directions for applying mesmerism to the cure of diseases, and the methods of producing mesmeric phenomena. Intended for domestic use and the instruction of beginners / by George H. Barth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    cannot possibly conceive or believe the perfectly healthy and competent operator, who already knows what lie ought to do—what end he proposes to obtain—how best to accomplish that end—understands the peculiar abnormal state he may induce on his subject—how to control and manage that state—and how to restore the patient to his natural state,—I cannot conceive that such operator is at all likely even to inconvenience his patient. It is not the operation of the instructed, but of the uninformed mesmeriser, which might be inju- rious to the subject of the experiment. The particular sort of mischief to be apprehended I will explain in my subsequent pages. Fortunately, the information ne- cessary to qualify a person for a safe and proper mes- meriser, is not difficult of acquisition. I hope, in the following chapters, to succeed in placing much that it is needful the mesmeric operator should know before the reader, and in so plain and simple a form that he will, not have any difficulty in comprehending it. I advise all who wish to exercise the art to make acquaintance with practical mesmerisers,—get permission to see their cases, and learn from personal observation; but when this is not attainable, they will find enough information in the following pages to guide them safely in the practice. MESMERISM, Or Animal Magnetism—for the terms are analogous— viewed as the expression of a fact, is the name given to a peculiar power or force, or action of one human organism npon another human organism. Viewed as a science, it is knowledge which em- braces the physical and the metaphysical—knowledge of the laws, forces, or mediums which unite the mate- rial with the spiritual—knowledge of the phenomena which are evoked by the action ol spirit upon matter,