Hints on animal magnetism, addressed to the medical profession in Great Britain / [J.C. Colquhoun].

  • John Campbell Colquhoun
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hints on animal magnetism, addressed to the medical profession in Great Britain / [J.C. Colquhoun]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    HINTS, &c. Gentlemen, A short time ago, upon my return to Edinburgh from the country, where I had been engaged, for a considerable pe¬ riod, in the discharge of important official duties, I found some interesting communications from high quarters await¬ ing me, upon the subject of Animal Magnetism, especially upon the recent experiments of Baron Dupotet in London; and I have also been informed of the important circum¬ stance, that several respectable physicians of that city had either become convinced of the truth of some of the funda¬ mental facts, or expressed their opinions in favour of a can¬ did investigation. This information could not fail to be highly gratifying to me, who had long and earnestly sug¬ gested inquiry, and who felt confident that such an inquiry must ultimately lead to results of vast importance, not to medicine only, but to science and to humanity. Gentlemen,—You must all recollect the time—it is not yet very remote—when to mention the name of Animal Magnetism in this country, to profess a belief in its asserted agency, or to express the smallest interest in the investiga¬ tion of the facts it was said to have elicited, was sufficient to excite universal laughter and ridicule, and to draw down upon the unwary individual, who thus exposed himself, a charge of folly, mysticism, or madness. Medical gentle¬ men, too, were unfortunately among the loudest in this
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