Six lectures on the philosophy of mesmerism : delivered in the Marlboro' chapel, January 23-28, 1843 / by John Bovee Dods ; reported by a hearer.

  • Dods, John Bovee, 1795-1872.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Six lectures on the philosophy of mesmerism : delivered in the Marlboro' chapel, January 23-28, 1843 / by John Bovee Dods ; reported by a hearer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    18/78
    Though it is a well-known law, that two bodies of water will seek a level when a communication is made between them, yet it is equally true that, by a pump, water may be thrown from a lower to a higher cistern ; and who will deny that it is in perfect accordance with the law of equilibrium? Surely no one. It is by physical energy that the air is removed from the pump, and the circumambient air pressing upon the water in the cistern, causes it to rise till an equilibrium of height is attained — exactly equal to all the powers employed. But so far as the mes- meric state is concerned, it will be remembered, that man, in acting on his fellow-man, exerts not only a physical, but a mental, and moral power. These must all be taken into consideration and duly weigh- ed, in order to form a correct idea of the law of equilibrium in the employment of the magnetic forces. If this common law in nature extended no further than merely to bring substances that are out of balance down to a common level, then all action in the various elements would soon cease. It will be remembered that no one kindred element, ever disturbs itself, or ever throws itself out of balance. It requires another element to do this. The water would always keep on a perfect level with itself, throughout the globe, if air and heat never disturbed it. By heat it is rarified into vapors, carried over the globe in aerial conductors, condensed by cold into drops, and rained upon the mountains and more elevated portions of the globe, and then again seeks its level with the parent ocean. So there is a power that rarities the air, and the denser portions rush to its aid, and the winds are in action to keep up a perfect balance in its own empire, while air, abstractly, could never disturb itself. Hence it is even the law of equilibrium by which one portion of water is thrown out of balance with itself; and the same is also true in relation to the atmosphere. If heat, which is but the action of