Hypnotism / Doctor Foveau De Courmelles ; translated by Laura Ensor.

  • François Victor Foveau de Courmelles
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hypnotism / Doctor Foveau De Courmelles ; translated by Laura Ensor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    existence of free will, or to alarm the thinking man preoccupied with reflections on an hereafter. Where lies the truth then, amid all these novel ideas ? The question suggests the thought, that guided by reason and experience it might be desirable to endeavour to unravel the network of scientific opinions and dis- entangle the labyrinth of dissertations. From the outset I am prepared to affirm—and later on I shall clearly demonstrate—that free will is not a mere idle word. Formerly, as a medical student in the Paris hospitals, and afterwards as Vice-President of the International Magnetic Congress in 1889,1 had access to the best authorities, and have been able personally to test most of the assertions which have been put forward, to effectuate some cures, and to form an exact opinion on the different phenomena. I have interrogated the much decried magnetizer, the humble practitioner and the learned academician ; and the book I now offer to the public is the result of rny numerous observations and interrogatories. Facts that seem still to pertain to the domain of' the marvellous, speculative experiments, and complex hypotheses are all herein recorded. In these cases, however, I shall confine myself to the part of a faith- ful historian of the facts and experiments of others.