A practical manual of animal magnetism : containing an exposition of the methods employed in producing the magnetic phenomena, with its application to the treatment and cure of diseases / by Alphonse Teste ; tr. from the 2nd ed. by D. Spillan.

  • Teste, Alph. (Alphonse), 1814-
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical manual of animal magnetism : containing an exposition of the methods employed in producing the magnetic phenomena, with its application to the treatment and cure of diseases / by Alphonse Teste ; tr. from the 2nd ed. by D. Spillan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    she saw for the first time, and whom she certainly had never heard speak, she said to her,— You have headachs (which was not true); you have a sense of stifling (which, moreover, was not true) ; but, more especially, a constant disposition to vomit (which was per- fectly true). Now it is certain that in these two cases the principal points carried by my somnambulists are irre- proachable. Shall I still be told that there was an error ? I agree; but these are errors which, after eight days, my somnambulist will probably never commit again. It sometimes happens that somnambulists prescribe dan- gerous substances, regarding the effect of which there is some reason to be alarmed. It is then very important that the magnetiser should revert several times to the doubtful point, and, if necessary, that he should have recourse to another somnambulist. This precaution would be a sort of hors-d'oeuvre, if the case were that of a somnambulist attend- ing himself. I have seen a woman, says M. Koreff, insist on taking substances which appeared to me to be dangerous for one in her condition. Thinking her in error, I opposed her opinion. I directed her attention to the state of her organs, such as it seemed to me. I ordered several drugs to be brought, among which were those which she desired: she recognised them, and insisted on them. I struggled with her for several hours, and I at length gave way to her, being convinced, by all the means at my dis- posal, of her perfect lucidity. Uterine hemorrhage, which was the alarming symptom of her malady, was instantly arrested, without any thing unpleasant occurring. In recapitulation of what precedes, and notwithstanding what we have said of the medical instinct with which non-