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.

    42/128 (page 30)
    were so completely gone, that she was again cheerful. But besides these very disagreeable feelings which acted pro¬ foundly on her, in the altered position, all her sensations, in regard to external matters, were altered. For example, the streaking with a magnet, usually so agreeable, was now dis¬ agreeable ; and if strong, intolerable ; and, in short, all her relations to different substances took a new and very differ¬ ent form. All these experiments were at different times repeated, and with exactly the same results. She could hardly endure the position from west to east, or that from east to west more than a minute, without feeling all the symptoms above described, with a tendency to syncope, and recovered in¬ stantly when the position was changed to that of north to south. As she had long been affected with a gradually increasing illness, the author inquired if at any former period this sen¬ sibility to position had occurred, and it appeared that she had lived in different houses, and had suffered uneasiness in some, while in others she had felt comfortable, without the cause being knowm. Her brother was now told to take a compass and ascertain the position of her beds in the differ¬ ent houses, as well as of her couches and work-chairs. It was found that in one house her bed and couch had acci¬ dentally been almost exactly in the magnetic meridian, and that she had lain with her head towards north, not towards south. In another house she had lain in a line north-east and south-west. In fact she had been comfortable in the former, while in the latter she had always suffered and struggled with illness. Even now, without knowing why, she could not bear to sit across her bed or sofa, neither could she lie on the sofa, but could only bear to lie in bed. In the first case her position was from west to east, in the second east to west, in the third south to north ; only in the last could she obtain the indispensable position from north to south. Of all positions, the worst by far was that from west to east, that is, the head to the west. 64. Mlle. Sturmann, in consequence of violent dancing, 3 years before, was attacked by her illness. She now suf¬ fered from tubercles in the lungs, and was subject to cata¬ leptic attacks. The author found her lying in the position from west to east. In this position, the great magnet (carrying 80 lb.), placed above her head or under her feet, had hardly any effect. She was then placed in the position from north to south. The change was instantaneous. The