IV
THE MESMERIC PERIOD
Turning for the time being from the direct line of development of Mr. Quimby's views, we find interesting confirmations of his experiments in newspaper clippings and letters of the period, 1840-47. The first of these are from Quimby's home town, Belfast. One of these writers says, in part:
“Before we proceed to describe the experiments, we will say that Mr. Quimby is a gentleman, in size rather smaller than the medium of men, with a well-proportioned and well-balanced phrenological head, and with the power of concentration surpassing anything we have ever witnessed. His eyes are black and very piercing, with rather a pleasant expression, and he possesses the power of looking at one object even without winking, for a length of time.”
Newspaper writers were fair on the whole in what they said of him, while there were public-spirited citizens who were ready to write testimonials to physicians and other citizens of prominence in neighboring towns, that Mr. Quimby might be well received. In these testimonials and letters one finds the terms “mesmerism,” “magnetism” and “animal magnetism” used interchangeably without much idea of what they stood for. Plainly such words equalled “x,” as symbols for a power little short of a mystery, although Quimby was credited with entire honesty in performing his experiments. Apparently, it was still assumed that by making passes over a man's head he could be put to sleep by means of some “fluid.” Hence interest centered about material facts, and there was no recognition of the fact, now a commonplace, that the human mind is amenable to suggestion, and that supposed magnetic effects are mere products of one mind on another. The mesmeric sleep was not understood, and so it was an easy matter to speak of the subject as “magnetised.” The chief value, therefore, of these contemporary references is found in their testimony to the facts, the authenticity of the
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