Louise Lateau of Bois d'Haine : her life, her ecstasies, and her stigmata, a medical study / by F. Lefebvre ; translated from the French ; edited by J. Spencer Northcote.

  • Lefebvre, Ferdinand J. M., 1821-1902.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Louise Lateau of Bois d'Haine : her life, her ecstasies, and her stigmata, a medical study / by F. Lefebvre ; translated from the French ; edited by J. Spencer Northcote. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    the colour of the card and then what card it was. Every one ex- claimed that it was most wonderful. After the operator had enjoj^ed our applause for some minutes, he told us it was simply a trick, in wliich neither magnetism nor second sight had any part. It had been agreed between him and his pretended subject that the latter, on entering the room, should glance at him, and that the various manners of placing his legs, near the legs of the chair or far from them, and the position of his hands on his knees, should constitute a language by the aid of which the fifty-two cards could be desig- nated.'^^ XVI. The phenomenon oi clairvoyance has given rise to many illusions and to much jugglery. In 1837 Dr. Burdin proposed to the Academy of Medicine of Paris to found at his own expense a prize of three thousand francs, to be given as a premium to any one who could fiu'nish proofs of the fact that it is possible to read without the assistance of the eyes, of light, or of touch. The Academy accepted the proposal, and a commission of seven members, chosen from that body, was appointed to superintend the trials. At the exxDiration of two j^ears, the term fixed by the Academy, only three competitors presented themselves in earnest. The first, Dr. Pigeaire, came from MontpeUier ^^dth his daughter, a somnambulist eleven years of age, whose lucidity was highly extolled. He had written : ' Make my daughter bhnd for a moment, and still she will read.' In spite of tliis assurance he could not agTee with the commission concerning the manner of keeping the light from the eyes of the somnambulist. The conditions offered by the commissioners were, however, most reasonable; the}^ proposed that she should be bhndfolded or not, at her own choice; that simply a sheet of x^ajper should be interposed between her eyes and the ob- ject to be discerned; that she might also, if she chose, make use of her fingers, but with a plate of glass between them and the book in which she was to read; finally, they declared that they would be content with a bandage of any description without the interpo- sition of a sheet of paper, but on condition that the objects to be discerned should be jDlaced at any distance M. Pigeaire mshed, and in such a direction that, in case the bandage should shj), nothing could be seen from beneath it. ' Thus,' said they, ' instead of jplacing the objects obliquely below, they should be x)laced directly o]3posite; « Morin, p. 112.