Animal magnetism : being the first part of Animal magnetism and homoeopathy : with notes illustrative of the influence of the mind on the body / by Edwin Lee.
- Edwin Lee
- Date:
- 1843
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Animal magnetism : being the first part of Animal magnetism and homoeopathy : with notes illustrative of the influence of the mind on the body / by Edwin Lee. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![never seen reason to believe (and I have made in- numerable comparative experiments upon the point) that I have heightened the effect of my processes by exerting the strongest will, or lessened them by thinking intentionally of other things, and en- deavouring to bestow no more attention upon what I was about, than was just necessary to carry on the process. So far from willing, I have at first had no idea of what would be the effect of my processes ; one set of phenomena have come unexpectedly in one case, and one in another, without my being able to explain the diversity of effect; nay, the same process, conducted with the same object, turns out to produce opposite results in different cases ; for instance, I can powerfully excite the individual cerebral organs in the young gentleman by breathing over them, but when I breathe over those of the young lady, desir- ing and expecting the same effects, no excitement is ))roduced ; on the contrary, if they are already ex- cited, they at once become inactive. The same effect requires different processes in different per- sons; point to the e])igastrium of some persons, and will with all your might and no result comes, but point to their eyes and they drop asleep ; make passes or point at the back of their head, and will with all your might, and either no effect will come, or sleep will not take place before far longer time has elapsed than if you operate before the face ; you may make passes in vain with all your might before the faces of some persons, who drop senseless pre- sently if you merely point; and hence is apparent the error of those who gratuitously assert that the processes merely heighten the will of the operator. As to the influence of the operator’s will in excit- ing the cerebral organs, the effect ensues well in my female patient though the manipulator be a sceptic, and may therefore be presumed not to wish the pro- per result to ensue, and though I stand aside and do](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2243270x_0086.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
