Report of the experiments on animal magnetism : made by a committee of the Medical Section of the French Royal Academy of Sciences : read at the meeting of the 21st and 28th of June, 1831 / translated, and now for the first time published, with an historical and explanatory introduction, and an appendix by J.C. Colquhoun.

  • Académie de médecine (France)
Date:
1833
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the experiments on animal magnetism : made by a committee of the Medical Section of the French Royal Academy of Sciences : read at the meeting of the 21st and 28th of June, 1831 / translated, and now for the first time published, with an historical and explanatory introduction, and an appendix by J.C. Colquhoun. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    from the proximity of the metals, or of a running wa- ter. It is natural to suppose that the action of these causes is very feeble, and that it may be easily dis- turbed by accidental circumstances ; but because, in some cases, it has not been manifested at all, we are not entitled to conclude that it has no existence. We are so far from being acquainted with all the agents of nature, and their different modes of action, that it would be quite unphilosophical to deny the existence of the phenomena, merely because they are inexpli- cable in the present state of our knowledge, It be- comes us, however, to examine them with an attention the more scrupulous, in proportion as we find it more difficult to admit them ; and it is here that the calcu- lation of probabilities becomes indispensable, in order to determine to what degree we ought to multiply our observations and experiments, with a view to obtain, in favour of the agents which they seem to indicate, a probability superior to the reasons we may have for rejecting their existence. The essential point, says Nicole,* after Aristotle, when any question arises respecting facts that are ex- traordinary and difficult to conceive, is not to demon- strate how they exist, but to prove that they do ex- ist.— We must not decide, says Father Lebrun, that a thing is impossible, because of the common belief that it cannot exist; for the opinion of man cannot set limits to the operations of nature, or to the power of the Almighty.! # Nicole, Oeuvres, Vol. vii. let. 45, p. 238. f Hist. Critiq. des Superst. B. i. eh. 7.