Somnolism & psycheism, or, The science of the soul and the phenomena of nervation, as revealed by vital magnetism or mesmerism : considered physiologically and philosophically, with notes of mesmeric and psychical experience

Table Of Contents

Preface P- ix

Chapter I. — Introduction . . . . . • PP- i — 5 Characteristics of the age — Chemistry and geology, new sciences — Psycheism, in a similar sense, new — Mesmerism unfairly judged by scientific authority — Its greatest wonders not more unlooked for and surprising than the electric telegraph — We may never know the real nature of mind, or spirit, and matter; in both cases we only knowsome of the laws or properties.

Chapter II. — Origin and Progress of Vital Magnetism, or Mesmerism . . . . . . • PP« 6 — 19

Mesmeric phenomena discoverable among the recorded events of ancient times — Egyptian priests, Delphian oracles and Roman sybils — Truthfulness of some sybilline oracles asserted by Saint Justin — Recognized in the hymns of the Romish church — Effect of passes known to Asclepiades and Celsus — Valentine Greatrakes, confirmation of his cures — Perkins, and his metallic tractors — Conduct of Dr. Falconer, of Bath ; humanity sacrificed to scientific pride — Mesmer, his birth and progress — He becomes acquainted with a curative power in magnets, through his intimacy with the professor of astronomy in Vienna — Ascertains the mode of using them, as instruments for passing — Success at Paris — Offered a reward by the French Government — Retirement and death — His theory — Uses of animal magnetism — Marquis de Puysegur — Discovery of artificial somnambulism — Mesmer's mode of operating — Report of the First French Commission of Enquiry — Conclusions of the Second Commission — Origin of the name Mesmerism.

Chapter III — Phenomena and Physiology of Vital Magnetism, or Mesmerism . . . . . .pp. 20 — 62

Mesmerism comprises a variety of states having one common character — Classification of states — Brain and nervous system — Cerebrum — Cerebellum — Cranial nerves — Origin of nerves from brain — Spinal marrow, sensory and motor nerves — Connection of cerebellum with sympathetic and pneumo-gastric nerves — State of brain in wakefulness and sleep — Motion of brain — Circulation within in it — Mechanism of

VI CONTENTS.

arteries and veins ; a perpetual supply, and regulated quantity of blood — Simplest mesmeric state — Hypnotism and electro-biology — Methods of mesmerising — Coma — Catalepsy; its physiological cause — Insensibility to pain ; examples and caution — Phreno-mesmerism ; explanations and elucidations — Phantasy — Transfer of state and feeling — Cerebral lucidity and clairvoyance — Case of Madame Lagan dre; verification of her statements by dissection — Application of the anatomy and physiology of the brain.

Chapter IV. — Philosophy and Psychology of Vital Magnetism, OR Mesmerism — Clairvoyance, Inner Vision, or Trance

Perception and seeing — Natural vision has a psychological basis — Lucidity has the same sensorium and basis ; but the light, or its analogue, is from within — Powers of lucidity and clairvoyance — Atheistical philosophy and rational Scriptural philosophy — Locke; St. Paul — Order and degree in nature — Necessity of observing these distinctions — Psyche, or animus — Psycheism, the science of the soul — Psychological change induced by mesmerism — Influence of operator on subject — Mental atmospheres — Psychological cause for the observed physiological effects ; Internal and external memory — Superior state, or extasis — Man lives both in the spiritual and natural world at the same time — Definition of a true clairvoyant — Psychological explanation of distant clairvoyance — Cerebral lucidity — Imagination — Conclusion,

Chapter V. — Particular Mesmeric Experience. — Case of E. L

Account of *' Emma" — Discovery of mesmeric capabilities — Etherisation — Insensibility to pain — Catalepsy — Phreno-mesmerism — Magnetic attraction — Personal influence — Removal of teeth while mesmerised — Discovery of the faculty of luciditj' — Experiments — Gradual development of state — Causes of occasional failure — Phraseology and manners in the mesmeric state — Discovery of distant clairvoyance — Fatigue arid mental excitement attending it — Second inversion of state — Discovery of the mode of communication when away — Curious experiments with cats.

Chapter VI. — Successful Clairvoyant Experiments

Mr. Wood's case, loss of cash-box and contents, discovery of the thief, and restoration of the property— Mr. Arrowsmith's case, recovery of £650, miilaid in the Bank of l^olton— Case of farmer from Yorkshire, recovery of £40— Other cases of lost property — Reasons for discontinuing such inquiries— First case of distant patient— Description of persons in different parts of the globe— Case of young man in America

CONTENTS. Vii

Interesting case of Mr. Willey, description of him, and his pursuits,

in California; original notes of the case, and subsequent verifications — Discoveries of missing registers — Brief general account of the inquiryrelative to Sir John Franklin — Case of personal descriptions of some of the officers— Position assigned to Franklin — All yet should be considered as conjecture.

Chapter VIT. — Clairvoyance, as applied to Physiology and Medicine ....... pp. 152 — 164

Use of clairvoyance in physiology and medicine — Emma's first notice of the interior of the human body — Remarkable case of a lady in Manchester, cure of cerebral disease — Recommendation of homeopathic medicines — Description of Mr, Turner's shop in Manchester, from the bust of Hahneman in the window — Method of testing medicines through the bottles — Remarks on homeopathic remedies — Use of the drugs and preparations of the pharmacopseia — Reasons why numerous cases not published — Cure of blindness in a child — Cure of epilepsy — Method of conducting medical enquiries, by the aid of clairvoyance — Use, and endeavour to avoid abuse, of clairvoyance as applied to medicine.

Chapter VIIT. — Clairvoyant Experiments in Electro -Chemistry and Magnetism . . . • PP- 166 — 179

Results of reading Dr. Mayho's book — Reichenbach's discoveries — Experiments with Emma in magnetism — The eifect of metals on the livmg force — Direction of the magnetic current — Influence of sunlight on metals — Actual inflammation produced by the contact of a wire, while experimenting — Chemical experiments — Sensitive experiments — Conscious lucidity, verification of mesmeric statements.

Chapter IX.-^Extasis or Trance . . .pp. 180 — 203

Ancients acquainted with such a state — What is meant by extasis — Emma's gradual approach to the extatic condition — First spontaneous extasis — Other states of extasis — General statement of Emma's revealments — Trances in July, 1848 — Emma repeatedly selects the same passage of Scripture by mesmeric touch and vision although unable to read it — The assigned mode by which she was guided in this action — Mentions facts only known to author and a deceased party — Trance, July 14th, 1848, similar to St. Peter's vision — Trance, September 28th, 1848 — Description of it, and notes of Emma's statements — Education of children in the spirit- world — Conjugal union — Vision of sepulchre with attendant angels, brilliant light, significative of the resurrection of Jesus — Case of still-born children — Questioned in physiology — Emma describes things unknown to herself and the author, from communication with the spirit of a deceased gentleman — Investigation of a mysterious murder ; Emma unravels the transaction ; the facts, as known, confirm her statements — Law of spiritual communication — Conclusion .

Vm CONTENTS.

Chapter X. — Practice and Use of Vital Magnetism, or Mesmerism pp. 204 — 210

Direct use as a curative agent — Method of magnetizing patients — Mesmeric passes — How to combine the odylic influence, and terrestrial magnetism, with mesmerism— how to act with patients labouring under nervous, or painful diseases — Diseases in which mesmerism is useful — Old and nev/ medical treatment — Practice of mesmerism ought to be under medical direction — Suggestion of distinctive terms, psycheism, and parapsycheism.

Appendix

Illustrations of the activity of the internal memory . . p. 211

A singular dream, illustrative of the laws of mental association 216

Dr. Vaughan on miracles, Sic, ...... 218

Confirmation of the theory of sleep, from Baron Reichenbach . 220

Development of new states in Emma . . , . . 226

Mr. Atkinson and Miss Martineau on the " Laws of Man's

Nature and Development" ...... 230

List of Engravings.

No. I. — A diagram of a section of the brain divided nearly longitudinally, illustrative of the arrangement and distribution of the fibres.

No. 2. — The base of the brain, the arachnoid membrane, the arteries and veins removed, shewing the cerebellum, the medulla oblongata, and the principal nerves.

No. 3. — Front view of a pair of spinal nerves, shewing the anterior and posterior roots.

No. 4. — A portion of the brain dissected, shewing a number of motor fibres descending from one of the hemispheres of the cerebrum, passing under the arch of the optic nerves, and through the pons varolii, and converging to form the anterior column of the spinal marrow.

No. 5. — A diagram illustrating the sympathetic and pneumogastric systems of nerves.

No. 6. — The principal arteries of the brain removed from their situation, and represented on a plane surface, in order to shew their communications, called the circle of Willis. The arrows shew the course of the blood.

No. 7. — A diagram representing the venous channels, called sinuses, in the upper and back part of the head, by which the blood is conveyed away from the brain.

^o. 8. — A section of the globe of the eye, cut through the middle from front to back, shewing the chambers.

PEEFACE.

In the advertisement to the First Edition of this work, it was stated, that it contained the substance of Two Lectures, delivered in the early part of 1848, before large audiences, in the Temperance Hall, Bolton, under the auspices of the Mechanic's Institution of that town. To the body of the work was added an Appendix, containing a narrative of facts, embodying interesting mesmeric information, and which was partly intended as a reply to the inquiries of many respectable persons in Lancashire, and elsewhere, as to how, and when, the writer discovered the peculiar susceptibilities of his chief mesmeric subject. When written, it was chiefly intended for local circulation, and was thus rendered as brief and condensed as possible. But it has obtained a wider range than was anticipated by its Author ; and has been republished in New York, with the addition of wood engravings of the brain and nervous system ; and a larger edition than was originally contemplated, has been sold within two years. The work has been also favourably noticed, both in England and America, and the writer has received from professional gentlemen, entirely strangers to him, very flattering opinions and encomiums.

Under these circumstances, the public is presented with a second, and greatly enlarged edition, containing mucli entirely new matter, and the original part re-modelled, and, in part, re-written, so as to place the whole subject in a clearer light, and easier to be understood : and, in furtherance of this object, several engravings have been

X PREFACE.

introduced, to illustrate the physiological portion. Knowing the distaste generally felt to lengthened discussion on the abstruse subject of psychology, the writer has scarcely ventured to exceed the original limits assigned to that portion of the work ; but he has chiefly enlarged the chapter on the physiology and phenomena of mesmerism, and introduced a greater variety of notes of mesmeric and psychical experience, which the reader can explain by any theory or suggestion of his own, if dissatisfied with the Author's. There are many gentlemen, of high professional attainments, who are satisfied of the certainty of the main facts of mesmerism, but consider that the time is not yet ripe for theory. To such, and, indeed, to all his readers, he would say, that he is chiefly desirous that his work should be considered as a truthful narrative of facts, which may confidently be relied on. Of course, the Author considers his theory the best, or he would not have proposed it ; but he is wedded to no dogmas, and he will willingly relinquish it, whenever he is presented with a better, which will meet the whole case.

It was also stated, in the former edition, that an attempt had been made to explain the phenomena of mesmerism in harmony with science and revelation. With all due respect for the opinions of those who have taken an opposite view, and after mature re-consideration, the writer feels that he has adopted the right course, and he is constrained to say, that, to him, the philosophy of Christianity appears to ofler the easiest and most rational solution of the higher mesmeric phenomena, especially as regards the state of extasis, or trance ; and that the narratives of the New Testament, and the facts of mesmerism, are mutually explanatory and corroborative of each other. He also considers, that the progress of sound mesmeric knowledge, and the benefits that might accrue from it, have been greatly retarded, and the interests of truth seriously injured, by the atheistic and materialistic views of some

PREFACE. XI

influential mesmeric writers, and the attempts of others, to upset the received truths of physical science. And his regret on this account, he knows, is shared by scientific and professional gentlemen, well able to form a sound opinion.

The American publisher changed the title to " Psychology ; or, the Science of the Soul." The original leading title is, however, retained, as identifying the present with the former edition : besides, the term, psychology, does not generally convey the idea, or meaning, in which the author has used the term Psycheism. But such addition is made to the original title, as, it is presumed, will sufiiciently characterize the work.

Should this edition be as favourably received as the former, it is the Author's intention to follow it speedily by another work, in which he will enter more fully into the physiology of the brain, and the uses of some parts of the encephalon, deduced from researches that he is now making ; and, also, more extended observations and experiments on the imponderable elements, in their relations to the laws of nervation, with such further illustrations of vital magnetism and psycheism, as increasing experience furnishes.

Wood Street, Bolton ; April, 1851.

Postscript. — In Professor Gregory's recently published "Letters on Animal Magnetism," the reader will find several additional cases of successful clairvoyance, tending to confirm the narratives of this work ; but which the writer omitted to record, partly to avoid increase of bulk, and partly because he considered them in the light of private experiments, the records of the whole of which would have occupied all the following pages.

May \st.

Dr. HADDOCK may he consulted "personally ^ or by letter, in all Medical cases. The terms and conditions of inquiry^ where patients are desirous that the faculty of Clairvoyance should he used as an aid in discovering the cause and nature of their complaints, may he had, on application at his residence in Bolton, or hy sending a stamped directed envelope; and he is now making arrangements for a stated attendance in Manchester, with a view to the ultimate establishment of a Sanative Institution,

SOMNOLISM AND PSYCHEISM.

Introduction

One of the most striking characteristics of the present age, consists in the vast amount of knowledge respecting external objects, which has been accumulated in a comparatively short period. For within the brief compass of human life, so extensive has been the discovery of the physical properties of natural substances, that chemistry, although of ancient date, may be considered as a new science. Geology, with its marvellous revealments, has opened a new world to human enquiry ; and, by the strict rules of scientific induction, has led its votaries back to the infancy of our globe, and traced the wondrous revolutions by which the Almighty Creator fitted it to be the natural abode of man : and reason has led the human mind, with sure and certain step, into regions where even imagination dares not follow. While man has thus been permitted to increase his knowledge of the world without him, we might reasonably expect, that some additional knowledge would be acquired of the world within him. That his knowledge would not be confined to the superstitions of the dark ages, or to the assumptions of self-constituted authority on the one hand, nor to the barren negations of a sceptical philosophy on the other hand. But that something real, positive, and satisfactory, should be learnt, respecting his own constitution, and its relation to things unseen, as well as seen. For wliat

knowledge can be so interesting to man, as a knowledge of himself? — of the nature, powers, and capabilities of his own being.

To the calm, contemplative, and well-informed inquirer, who has patiently investigated for himself, or dispassionately considered the investigation of others, it will, I think, be evident, that the remarkable phenomena displayed in the higher stages of what is called vital magnetism, or mesmerism, — or, as it is considered, for reasons hereafter to be given, would more properly be called Psycheism, — rightly interpreted, — do afford us the means of acquiring a knowledge of the laws and nature of the psychical or mental part of our being, as much transcending what is commonly known and believed, as the recent discoveries in magnetism and electricity, exceed the ancient ideas of these natural powers ; and at the same time they afford us the means of becoming acquainted with the more abstruse points in our bodily organization also.

The discoveries and doctrines of an enlightened physiology teach us, that all the elements, forms, and forces of the entire universe, are found, in their highest perfection, in the bodily form of man ; and that in him, as the microcosm, or little world, is to be found all that exists in the macrocosm, or great world of the universe. And, as in the great world without us, the most astonishing and transforming powers are displayed by those subtile, imponderable, and invisible elements, which elude the most acute physical senses, even when aided by the highest artificial means ; so in the world within us, the most w onderful and unexpected powers are manifested by those psychical or mental operations, by which the laws and developments of the world of mind, are capable of being openly displayed before our physical sight.

But the curious and interesting phenomena displayed by vital magnetism, or mesmerism, instead of being calmly and carefully investigated by all inquiring minds, especially by those whose profession and pursuits ought to have interested them in the inquiry.

INTRODUCTION. 3

have^ in too many instances, been scornfully and contemptuously neglected. Authority, instead of lending its aid to elicit the truth, has rather scowled upon the attempt which has been made to lift the veil under which truth has been concealed; and, in some cases, has misrepresented the character and intentions of those, who, at any cost, were determined to seek her for themselves. Notwithstanding these discouragements, there have not been wanting able and fearless advocates in eacb of the branches of the learned professions, who have fully proclaimed the general truthfulness of mesmeric phenomena, and thus prevented a most important branch of human knowledge from being consigned, by authority, to the charlatan and the quack.

It is possible indeed, that the very remarkable results said to flow from the enquiry; — results, so different to the expectations and ideas of a materializing age, and in some respects, disclosing matters which seem to clash with established opinions, — may have been the reason for this unfair, and certainly unphilosophical mode of proceeding. But, granting that the most astounding statements made by mesmeric experimenters are true, they are not, when properly considered, more wonderful than things now universally admitted as facts. Look at the wonder-working electric telegraph ! The elements on which that invention rests, must be as old as the present order of things : yet if any one in the middle of the last century had ventured to assert, that, by human ingenuity, electricity, or magnetism, could be made to transmit human thought with mathematical precision, and with the velocity of light ; — '^ that the sun could be made to paint our pictures, and the lightning to carry our messages ;^^ — he would have been set down by the practical authorities of that age, as a dreaming theorist, or an enthusiastic visionary. To us, however, the visionary theory has become a reality : and yet, what magnetism or electricity really are, is no more known to us, than it was to our great ^rand-

1* fathers. The truth is, the mode has been ehcited by which certain comparatively unknown mediums, may be practically applied to subserve the purposes of social life : and herein, and for all practical purposes, consists the useful discovery. If we may never know what magnetism and electricity in themselves really are, we certainly do know much of the mode by which their laws and powers may be developed and manifested : — we have discovered a mode of working certain imponderable mediums, altogether unknown to our ancestors.

Just so, I apprehend, it is with the discoveries associated with the names of vital magnetism or mesmerism. Here is in fact a discovery of a new mode of working and manifesting the powers of an old medium. That mind and matter are both necessary to form the peculiar organism we call man, is no new doctrine : but the true nature of the body, as the mind^s medium or instrument, and of the necessary organization of that superior in-dwelling power, — the soul or mind, which directs and controls the outward form, has been somewhat overlooked. Metaphysicians have studied mind irrespective of form or matter ; — some philosophers would resolve all things into material operation, irrespective of mind. I believe that fact, and demonstrative evidence, will prove that both classes of philosophers are wrong. From Divine Revelation we know that there is both " a spiritual body and a natural body,^^ — both a spiritual organization and a natural organization. These cardinal truths will be found to lie at the bottom of all the higher stages of mesmeric experience ; and from that experience it is conceived, that the a priori statements of the Scriptures will receive abundant confirmation : we shall see that in our present state of existence, if we wish to study mind or spirit, we must study it as manifested in its divinely appointed and true correspondent instrument, — the bodily organization.

With some of the mind^s operations, and the bodily

INTRODUCTIOX. 5

functions and sensations thence ensuing^ we have become so familiar^ that we scarcely ever stop to think of the perpetual miracles involved in our daily experience. Thus the great blessing of sight, involves, as we shall point out farther on, a fact which all the philosophers that have ever lived have been unable to explain ! Yet_, when some manifestation of mind or spirit, which has hitherto eluded general notice, is brought before us, although it may not be more inexplicable than natural sight, we are apt to deny the possibility of the declared manifestation, simply because we were not previously acquainted with it : — apt to make our present standard of knowledge the measure by which all future acquisitions are to be estimated. Sometimes too, we are told authoritatively, that it is impossible for us to know anything of mind or spirit. What, it may be asked, do we know of matter ? Simply some of its laivs and properties, and from these we predicate its qualities. So it is with mind or spirit ! Mesmerism, or more truly psycheism, furnishes us with a means of acquiring an experimental acquaintance with some of its most distinctive qualities ; — distinctive it is meant, with respect to the qualities of inert matter. Whether we shall ever know the essential nature of either spirit or matter, remains for a higher stage of existence to determine. It is privilege enough to be enabled to know^ something of the laws and properties of that higher and imperishable organism, to w^hich our outward bodily organism is subser^dent.

Chapter II. Origin And Progress Of Vital Magnetism Or Mesmerism

In the records of past ages^ we have many statements of remarkable mental or psychical manifestations^ and also of the performance of remarkable cures^ by mental or moral agency^ which ignorance and superstition have ascribed to miracle or magic ; and scepticism^, to collusion and deception. The more extended knowledge^ and juster philosophy which is progressing in the present generation^ has admitted the possibility and probability of many things which were ridiculed in the middle of the eighteenth century : some of these^ as the fall of large masses of iron, — meteorites^ afc> they are termed, — from, the atmosphere,, are now admitted as established verities ; and the more recent observation of what i^ called mesmeric phenomena, has gone far to establish the veracity of ancient writers on other disputed matters^ and to afford a reasonable explanation of otherwise mysterious, and apparently impossible, events.

Ancient history speaks of the mysterious doings, oracular sayings, prophetic forebodings, and apparently miraculous performances of the Egyptian Priests; of the Delphian Oracle among the Greeks, and of the Sybils among the Romans. From what is known of the practices, the long vigils and fastings, and the peculiar attitudes and manners of the Sybils, there can be little doubt, that by various means, kept secret from the multitude, a condition similar, if not identical with the higher mesmeric, or psychic state^ as it is proposed to call it, was induced ; and that the Sybils and utterers of oracles, were, at times, really clairvoyant, and in a state of trance. Saint Justin says, '^ that the Sybils spoke many great things with justice and with truth, and that when the instinct which animated them ceased to exist, they lost the recollection of all they had declaredr"^- It will be seen in the sequel^ that this is so strikingly in accordance with the mesmeric sleep or trance, as to leave scarcely a doubt of its identity with it. That the Sybils were sometimes possessed of super-sensual or prophetic perceptions, is an opinion commonly entertained, as is evident from the well-known hymn of the Roman Catholic church, which commences, —

Thus anglicised in a number of the ^^ Congregational Magazine,^^ —

The day of wrath, that dreadful day, When heaven and earth shall pass away, As David and the Sybils say.

The soothing application of what are now called passes, was evidently known at a very remote period ; for there is a curious passage in the works of Celsus, the Uoman physician, in which, he states that the old Greek father of physic, Asclepiades, practised li(/ht friction, as a means of inducing sleep in phrensy and insanity ; and, what is more remarkable, he says, that by too much friction there luas danger of inducing lethargy.-\

But as it is not proposed to introduce anything like a history of ancient or middle-aged mystery, we mention only one authentic case prior to the discoveries of Mesmer. In the reign of Charles II., a gentleman of the name of Valentine Greatarick, or Greatrakes, acquired considerable notoriety from curing diseases by stroking with his hands. These cures were authenticated by the Bishop of Derry, and many other respectable individuals. The Boyal Society is said to have accounted for them, by the supposition that there existed ^^ a sanative influence in Mr. Greatrakes^ body, which had an antipathy to some particular diseases, and not to others.''^ There is an article in the ^^ London Medical Gazette'' for October 12th, 1849, entitled, ^^ The Practice of Mesmerism for the cure of Diseases in the seventeenth century,'' which, although intended as a sneer at mesmerism generally, and abuse of such professional gentlemen as have had the manliness to avow their belief in the efficacy of mesmeric treatment, contains the following curious particulars : ^^ In the library at Maldon, there is a curious old book, entitled, ^ The Miraculous Conformist ; or, an account of several marvellous cures, performed by the stroaking of the hands, by Valentine Greatarick, with a physical discourse thereupon, in a letter to the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq. With a Letter Relating some other of his miraculous cures attested by E. Foxcroft, Esq., M.A., and Fellow of King's College, in Cambr., by Henry Stubbs, Physician, at Stratford-upon-Avon, in the county of Warwick. Oxford: Printed by H. Hall, Printer to the University for Ric: Davis, 1666.' '* At page 28th is the following : — ^^ The Account of a Leprosy cured by Mr. Greatarick in the presence of the Lord Conway. A

drink, and sleep ; that in the evening, water should be given him for drink ; then that gentle friction should be applied, so that he who was rubbing, did not even press the part strongly : then, on the next day, the same things should be repeated, and gruel and water given in the evening, and friction again applied ; for the effect would be to induce sleep. It would sometimes happen, as he confesses, that too much friction produced a danger of lethargy."

boy about fourteen years old, sonne to a Prebend of Gloucester, recommended to the Lord Conway by the Bishop of Gloucester, came with a letter to Ragley : he was afflicted with a Leprosy judged incurable ; and had been so tenne years. At his coming to my Lord^s he found Mr. Greatarick touching people in the field: whereupon he pressed upon, and got him to stroke his body all over : this happened upon Wednesday : on Friday morning the boy came to my Lord and delivered his letter : whereupon my Lord sent for him up to his chamber, and causing him to be stripped, they found that the moist salt and brinish humour which caused a moist leprosy, was dried up, and in some places scaled off, the skinne under it w^as red (as under all crusts fallen oft') there was no itching or pricking at all nor heat : with which symptoms he had formerly been troubled. Mr. Greatarick stroked him again, and rubbed his body all over with spittle. My Lord ordered his boy to return if he were not cured, but he came no more.^^ At the present day it is plain enough that Greatarick^ s ^^ stroakings,^^ were similar in practice, and identical in effect, with mesmeric passes; and he appears to have been one of those individuals, whose moral and physical constitution was peculiarly fitted for the transmission of a healing agency.