public exhibitions and the results coming from examinations made by Lucius. Letters of recommendation were still necessary in those days.
Writing from Belfast, Nov. 18, 1843, and addressing himself to Hon. David Sears, Mr. James W. Webster makes the following statement:
“The bearer, Mr. Phineas P. Quimby, visits your city for the purpose of exhibiting the astonishing mesmeric powers of his subject, Master Lucius Burkmar. Mr. Quimby, as also the young man, are native citizens of this place, and sustain in the community unblemished moral characters.
“Mr. Quimby is not an educated man, nor is he pretending or obtrusive; but I think if you should take occasion to converse with him you will discern many traces of deep thought and reflection, particularly upon the subject above mentioned.
“His boy will I think demonstrate in an extraordinary manner the phenomena of magnetic influence, more especially in that department usually termed clairvoyance; and should you take an opportunity to be put in communication with him, I doubt not you will be gratified with the results. Time and distance with him are annihilated, and he travels with the rapidity of thought. I think he will describe to you the appearance of any edifice, tower or temple, and even that of any person either, in Europe or America, upon which or upon whom your imagination may rest. I say this much from the fact that I have been in communication with him [mentally] myself and do know that he describes remote places and even the appearance of persons at great distances which he never before could have heard or thought of. . . .”
Writing to Dr. Jacob Bigelow, apparently a physician of prominence, Dr. Albert T. Wheelock writes from Belfast under date of Nov. 10, 1843, and describes an experiment in “animal magnetism” under mesmeric conditions in the case of an operation for the removal of a polypus from the nose. With a physician's care in describing symptoms, the writer gives an account of the patient's general condition and mentions her desire to be “magnetised.” Dr. Wheelock then goes on as follows:
“As she was entirely unacquainted in the town, at her request I procured the attendance of a gentleman who had the reputation of being a good magnetiser (Mr. P. P. Quimby), although entirely faithless on my own part, as I
