First lines of physiology : designed for the use of students of medicine / by Daniel Oliver.

  • Daniel Oliver
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First lines of physiology : designed for the use of students of medicine / by Daniel Oliver. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    to weigh every fact, to appreciate every circumstance, to detect any imposture, and to reason soundly on the whole subject; men, it may be added, who can have no conceivable motive to de- ceive or to impose upon others; many such men, I say, have become convinced, and have avowed their conviction, of the reality of Animal Magnetism. I repeat it, says Rostan, in writing on this subject, what I am about to describe I have seen, and have seen frequently. I have not been satisfied to witness it in a single person, but have subjected numerous indi- viduals to these investigations. I have taken as subjects of my researches individuals of various classes, and of both sexes,— persons many of whom were ignorant even of the name of mag- netism, men of letters, students of medicine, epileptics, ladies of fashion, young females, &c. I have continued these inquiries for many years, and, with very few exceptions, I have always obtained results worthy of the greatest attention; and in nearly all these cases the phenomena were exactly of the same kind, or strikingly similar. Among these phenomena there were some of a very extraordinary character, which always appeared, others more rarely, and some but seldom. He afterwards proceeds to observe, that in these experiments it was physically impossible that there could be any collusion, or any communication what- ever, between the persons on whom they were made. Now what are we to do with such testimony as this 1 And this is only a single specimen of what might be adduced. Are we to reject it with contempt, and to declare such men as the distin- guished physician just cited, and many others who might be mentioned, to be fools or impostors, because they testify to facts which do not accord with a certain standard of truth or possi- bility which, in the plenitude of our knowledge and presumption, we have seen fit to set up, a standard derived from the little glimpses we have been able to catch of the secret operations of nature ? How much of the intimate and essential nature of the nervous system do we know ? How much of this terra incognita have we yet explored, which shall authorize us to say that nothing does or can lie beyond the reach of our own vision ? But these stories about magnetism contradict experience, and therefore must be false ! The true expression of this fact is, that they do not fall within the sphere of common experience.
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