Researches on magnetism, electricity, heat, light, crystallization, and chemical attraction : in their relations to the vital force / By Karl, Baron von Reichenbach. Tr. and ed. at the express desire of the author, with a preface, notes, and appendix, by William Gregory. With three plates and twenty-three wood-cuts. Parts I and II, including the second edition of the first part, cor. and improved.

  • Reichenbach, Karl, Freiherr von, 1788-1869. Physikalisch-physiologische Untersuchungen. English
Date:
1850
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Researches on magnetism, electricity, heat, light, crystallization, and chemical attraction : in their relations to the vital force / By Karl, Baron von Reichenbach. Tr. and ed. at the express desire of the author, with a preface, notes, and appendix, by William Gregory. With three plates and twenty-three wood-cuts. Parts I and II, including the second edition of the first part, cor. and improved. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    445/536 (page 391)
    LICH distinctly stated, that when the air was tranquil, and the flame not agitated by the breath of those who were near it, so as to mix up its different parts, its colours arranged themselves in a regular Iris. He gave me a general account the journal in which their protocol (under an assumed title) appears, a small specimen of that production, directed as it is against my researches. At page 50, for example, occurs the following passage. “ [Dr. von Eisenstein led her, (Mlle. RercHE.) in this state (the supposed magnetic sleep) into a large room, where he made her sit down on a sofa, and tried, by passes with his hands, and with four bar-magnets, to raise her state to that of clairvoyance,and, at the same time, to destroy the influence of the sun upon her, and give the preponderance to the magnets. When he brought the magnets into the region of the heart, and Mlle. REICHEL, as if involuntarily, shuddered, (or was affected with slight spasm,) he exclaimed—“ Aha! here, then, resides this filthy sun ?! thou hast him in thy heart? Wait a moment; I shall soon expel him’—and now he made spiral tours near the heart with considerable energy.—The same scene followed when he magnetised her over the back, and on the pit of the stomach. The sun was remorselessly pursued, and driven out of every lurking-place. At one of these operations, Mlle. REICHEL sprang up, and struck at her magnetiser, who forced her down on her seat, and magnetised her lips with circular tours. When she offered to resist this, and put her hands before her face, he removed them, and reproached her “ because she would not kiss the magnet, her benefactor which cured her. The abominable sun must be driven away from her lips, and its place taken by the magnet, &c.”’] On turning the leaf, we find the acconnt of an experiment, in which, in a room by day-light, Mile. REICHEL was expected to see magnetic flames on the magnets presented to her, and, in addition to this, her eyes were bandaged with handkerchiefs ! This ends with the follow- ing words :—[“ Dr. von Eisenstein, who conducted the experiment, gave us no explanation of its tendency. Baron von REICHENBACH always made his experiments on the luminous emanations from magnets in darkened rooms, and found that they were seen the more distinctly, the more perfect was the dark- ness. Why Dr. von Eisenstein tried this experiment in a room brightly illu- minated by reflected daylight, why he chose the time when her eyes were blind- folded ; whether he wished to test her power of divination, or whether he wished to prove something else, we know not. He gave us no explanation of the experiment just described.”] Similar drivelling is not unfrequently met with in the course of the report. Who would have the patience to wade through 200 pages of it!—R. I have waded through it, and experienced nothing short of disgust in doing so. Dr. von Eisenstein would indeed find it difficult to explain his most absurd expe- riment, which could not, by any possibility, have any bearing on the researches of the author, inasmuch as he had expressly declared that he avoided making expe- riments on persons in the magnetic sleep. But even if he had made experiments on persons in that state, it is inconceivable how a man of ordinary education could imagine that such experiments as those of Dr. E. could prove any thing, or how he could make them in the manner described in the report.—W.G.