Abstract of 'Researches on magnetism and on certain allied subjects', including a supposed new imponderable / By Baron von Reichenbach. Translated and abridged from the German by William Gregory.

  • Reichenbach, Karl, Freiherr von, 1788-1869.
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Abstract of 'Researches on magnetism and on certain allied subjects', including a supposed new imponderable / By Baron von Reichenbach. Translated and abridged from the German by William Gregory. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ABSTRACT, &c. INTRODUCTION. Magnets of 10 lb. supporting power, when drawn along the body, downwards, without contact, produce certain sen¬ sations in a certain proportion of human beings. Occasion¬ ally in 20, 3 or 4 sensitive individuals are found; and in one case, out of 22 females, examined by the author, 18 were found sensitive. The sensation is rather unpleasant than agreeable, and is like an aura, in some cases warm, in others cool: or it may be a pricking, or a sensation of the creeping of insects on the skin: sometimes headach comes rapidly on. These effects occur when the patient does not see the magnet nor know what is doing: they occur both in males and females, although more frequently in females ; they are sometimes seen in strong healthy people, but oftener in those whose health, though good, is not so vigorous, and in what are called nervous persons. Children are frequently found to be sensitive. Persons affected with spasmodic diseases, those who suffer from epilepsy, catalepsy, chorea, paralysis, and hysteria, are particularly sensitive. Lunatics and som¬ nambulists are uniformly sensitive. <j The magnet is consequently an agent capable of affecting the living body; but although some physicians have at¬ tempted to employ the magnet as a curative agent, no fixed or decided results have been attained. The subject, havino- a close connection with physiology on the one hand, and physics on the other, has been neglected both by physiolo¬ gists and natural philosophers; while among medical men it has not always fallen into the best hands. The object of the author is to solve some of the disputed questions, and to bring a number of the phenomena under fixed physical laws. A