The Funny Side of Physic Part 60

Let us begin with the brain. Let us take a ball of cotton for our ill.u.s.tration. We draw out a piece from it, and spin it out to our fancy.

It is a thread, but _cotton_ still, twisted to a fine string. The brain is located at the top of man. By means of fine threads, called nerves, the brain is distributed over the entire body, so completely that you cannot stick a pin in the flesh without touching a nerve, wounding the brain.

Suspend the entire action of the brain, as by ether, chloroform, or nitrous oxygen gas, and sticking the pin is not felt. Partially suspend the action, as by a small quant.i.ty of the nitrous oxygen gas, and the force of the brain (or active force) is centred upon the lower brain, and the man under its influence acts out his animal nature in spite of reason.

A man, I hold, who magnetizes or mesmerizes another, uses only the force of the lower brain. Like begets like. He cannot affect a person of large intellectual organs; only one with the animal organs active.

You cannot _see_ the gas, yet it affects the person. You cannot see the subtile power conveyed from one man to a weaker. He conveys it by touch--nerve to nerve. I believe science will yet discover just what this subtile agent is--both in the blood and nerves; for it is in both, or why does the suspension of it in one destroy the other? Destroy the nerve, and the corresponding blood-vessel is inactive. Destroy the blood-vessel, and the corresponding nerve suffers.

It is the power that the mother exercises to hush her sobbing babe to slumber. As the child gathers strength of mind, she loses that control. A person may be used as a mesmeric subject until he becomes a mere idiotic machine. Educate a clairvoyant doctor, and what becomes of his clairvoyant power? It is lost with the increase of intellectual power. Now, is this a "divine" quality, that only ignorance can make use of? Is it really "hidden from the wise and prudent, and given to babes?" All sciences were practised by the uneducated first, before being reduced to a _science_. I think this will be yet reduced to a useful science. As it now stands, it is useless. If it is a spirit power, the spirits are mighty silent as to the fact.

We come into this world by natural causes. We live, grow, exist, and we die by natural causes. We brought no knowledge with us; we carry none out.

All the qualities yet developed in man are natural, and adapted to this life. Millions upon millions have so lived and so died, and a spirit power in _this_ world is no nearer to being established than it was when Adam was a little boy. All that heretofore has been attributed to spirit, or supernatural causes, has been proven to be but natural. I claim that magnetism and the undiscovered sciences are natural, and have no connection with the next world, to which we tend. The human eye, to some extent, is magnetic. A blind man cannot thrill an audience; hardly can an orator with gla.s.ses over his eyes. Dr. Chapin approaches the nearest to it. Dr. Beecher's great magnetic power is in his eyes, and is also let off at the ends of his fingers. But to _thoroughly_ magnetize a person, he must be _touched_.

POWER OF THE HUMAN EYE.

A wild animal has only small reasoning organs. The influence of the human eye is potent over him. Lichtenstein says, "The African hunters avail themselves of the circ.u.mstance that the lion does not attempt to spring upon his prey until he has measured the ground, and has reached the distance of ten or twelve paces, when he lies crouching on the ground, gathering himself up for the effort. The hunters," he says, "make it a rule never to fire on the lion until he lies down at this short distance, so that they can aim directly at his head with the most perfect certainty.

If one meets a lion, his only safety is to stand still, though the animal crouches to make his spring; that spring will not be hazarded if the man remain motionless, and look him steadfastly in the eyes. The animal hesitates, rises, slowly retreats some steps, looks earnestly about him, lies down, again retreats, till, getting by degrees quite out of the magic circle of man's influence, he takes flight in the utmost haste."

It is said of Valentine Greatrakes, the great magnetizer and forerunner of Mesmer, that the glance of his eye had a marvellously fascinating influence upon people of a susceptible or nervous organization. All magnetizers, etc., who have tried their powers upon the writer, first bent a sharp, scrutinizing gaze upon the eye of their unruly subject. Yet they have exercised no _reason_ in selecting the subject.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LION MAGNETIZED.]

I attended the exhibitions of Professor Cadwell, night after night, in Boston. I went on the stage. I examined the subjects whom he controlled "like an old fiddle," and, physiognomically and phrenologically, not one of them was above mediocrity intellectually, and the most of them were far below. The best subjects had the least intellectuality. His control over them was astonis.h.i.+ng. In some he could suspend the power of memory, others all the reasoning faculties. Some he could control muscularly, some mentally.

"This is a hot stove," he said, setting an empty chair before the row of men, boys, and girls sitting along the wall side of the stage. "_It is very hot_;" and they began drawing back--all but one. "Don't you see the stove, and feel the awful heat, Frank?" he asked of one hard subject.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A HARD SUBJECT.]

"I can feel the heat, but I can't see the stove in that chair," was his droll reply.

The professor could make this gentleman forget his name, but could not make him believe that "a silk hat was a basin of water."

THE ROYAL TOUCH.

The old ignorant kings and queens were said to remove the scrofula (king's evil) by the touch. Gouty old Queen Anne was the last to exercise the royal prerogative to any extent.

A scrofulous _development_ is the result of imperfect action, and obstruction of some one or more of the five excretory organs of the human system. These are the skin (or glands of the same), the lungs, the liver, the kidneys, and the colon. The most that the regular physician does in scrofula (or one who is not a specialist in this branch of physic) is to attend to the general health of the patient of a scrofulous diathesis, build up the strength, and endeavor to increase the vitality. This _in a measure_ tends to reduce the scrofulous development. Now, will not a child sleeping continually with an aged person or invalid tend to reduce the vitality of the child? Yes, it absorbs the disease of the one, while the vitality is thrown off for the benefit of the weaker person. Here, you see, one person may partake of the vitality of another by touch. Then may not the continued touch of a healthy person (king or subject) affect the health of a weaker, on the principle of increased vitality?

But it really removes no cause, hence cannot take the place of an alterative, or anti-scrofulous medicine. The "crew of wretched souls" who waited the king's touch really believed that he "solicits Heaven." Hence the cure. The coin which he hung about the neck of these "strangely visited people, all swollen and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye," called their attention continually to "the healing benediction."

Pyrrhus, who was placed upon the throne by force of arms B. C. 306, was said to cure the "evil" by the "grace of G.o.d." Valentine, who only held his throne--A. D. 375--by the help of Theodosius, not by the "grace of G.o.d"--claimed to cure scrofula by the latter power, as did Valentine II., whose wicked temper ended his life in a "fit of pa.s.sion."

The subject of the following sketch claimed also divine power:--

HERR Ga.s.sNER. "THE DEVIL UNDERSTANDS LATIN."

It seems from the following truthful account of Herr Ga.s.sner, a clergyman at Elw.a.n.gen, that the devil can understand Latin, as well as "quote Scripture." About the year 1758 this clergyman became so celebrated in curing diseases by animal magnetism, that the people came flocking from Switzerland, the Tyrol, and Swabia, in great numbers, to be cured of all sorts of ailments, a thousand persons arriving at a time, who had to lodge in tents, as the town could not lodge them all.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ga.s.sNER HEALING "BY THE GRACE OF G.o.d."]

His _modus operandi_ was as follows. Dressed in a long scarlet cloak, a silken sash about his loins, a chain about his neck, and wearing, or holding in one hand, a crucifix, and touching with the other the diseased part, and in the Latin tongue commanding the disease, or the evil spirit, whichever the case was termed, to depart, in the name of Jesus Christ, the patient was usually healed. Dr. Schlisel says, that Ga.s.sner "spoke chiefly in Latin, in his operations, and the devil is said to have understood him perfectly."

The Austrian government gave him its a.s.sistance. The excitement became great. Elw.a.n.gen was overcrowded by people, rich and poor. Riches flowed into the coffers of its trades-people, though Ga.s.sner took nothing directly for his cures. Hundreds of patients arrived daily; the apothecary gained a great revenue from dispensing simples ordered by Ga.s.sner, princ.i.p.ally powder of _blessed thistle_, oils, and washes. The printers labored day and night at their presses in order to furnish sufficient pamphlets, prayers, pictures, etc., for the eager horde of admirers. The goldsmiths were crowded, also, to furnish all kinds of _Agni Dei_, crosses, charms, hearts, and rings. Even the beggars had their harvest, as well as bakers, hotel-keepers, and the rest.

During seven years he carried on his public cures. Hundreds of physicians went to see him. Mesmer, in answer to the inquiry of the Elector of Bavaria, declared his astonis.h.i.+ng cures were produced merely by the exercise of magnetic spiritual excitement, of which he himself (claiming no G.o.d-like power) gave to the elector convincing proofs on the spot.

On the contrary, Ga.s.sner claimed that he could heal none unless they exercised faith. His surroundings, trappings, dress, crucifixes, appeals to Jesus Christ, and Latin mummery, had the effect to impress the patient with faith in Ga.s.sner's Christ-like powers.

"Some," says Dr. Schlisel, "described him as a prophetic and holy man; others accused him of being a fantastic fellow, an impostor, and leagued with the devil. Some accused him of dealing in the black art; others attributed his cures to the magnet, to electricity, to sympathy, to imagination; and some attributed the whole to the omnipotent power of the name of Christ."

Having touched or rubbed the affected part of the patient, Ga.s.sner, in a "loud, proud voice," commanded the disease to come forth, or to manifest itself. Sometimes he had to repeat this command ten times. Then, when the part was presented, he seized it with both hands; he inspired the patient to himself repel the disease, by saying, "Depart from me, in the name of Jesus Christ."

"He then gave the patient his blessing by spreading his cloak over the head, grasping his neck or head in both hands, repeating a silent, earnest prayer, making the sign of the cross, ordering some simple from the apothecary's, which he consecrates, compels the patient to wash his hands clean, when he is permitted to 'depart in peace.'

"Most diseases he cured instantly. Some required months, and others he could not affect in the least."

There is but one philosophical way to account for these cures. To say there is nothing in it, or, "It is all humbug," will not satisfy the people. To affirm it is the arts of the devil is merely nonsensical. It is _influence_. Of what? Of one powerful mind over another. And when Ga.s.sner found a mind equally as powerful as his own, the disease refused to depart. There you have the whole of it, "in a nutsh.e.l.l,"--the exercising of one mind over another; and mind (not unusually) controls matter in the living body.

For about seven years Ga.s.sner was a public healer, and then he suddenly and forever disappeared.

ROYALTY IN THE SHADE.

Sir John Fortesque, the learned legal writer of the time of Edward IV., spoke of the gift of healing by touch as a "time immemorial privilege of the kings of England." He very seriously attributed the virtue to the unction imparted to the hands in the coronation. Elizabeth was not superior to this superst.i.tion, and she frequently appeared before the people in the character of a miraculous healer. There was formerly a regular office in the English Book of Common Prayer for the performance of this ceremony. The curious reader is referred to Macbeth, Scene III. of Act IV. for further particulars.

With the rise of Valentine Greatrakes, the "royal prerogative" received a staggering blow. The marvellous cures of this man, living in Ireland, reached England, and the king invited him to come to London; and along his journey, whither he was preceded by the returning messenger, we are told that the magistrates of the towns and cities waited upon Valentine, and begged him to remain and heal their sick.

On his arrival, the king, "though not fully persuaded of his wonderful gift, recommended him to the care of his physician, and permitted him to practise his power as much as he pleased in London."

Greatrakes had no medical education, nor claimed aught beyond a gift of healing most diseases by "stroking the parts with his hand." He is described as being a man of "commanding address, frank and pleasing, having a brilliant eye, gallant bearing, fine figure, and a remarkably handsome face. With a hearty and musical voice, and a natural stock of high _animal_ spirits, he was the delight of all festive a.s.semblies. Yet he was a devout man."

Daily there a.s.sembled a great number of people, invalids from all parts of the kingdom, to be healed, and to see the wonderful miracles performed by a _man_! Here congregated the dropsical, those afflicted by unsightly sores, tumors, and swellings, the lame, the halt, and the blind. "Some he could not affect, but the most of them he cured." The only visible means he took was to stroke, or at times violently rub, the part affected. Lord Conway wrote in his praise, but added, "After all, I am far from thinking his cures miraculous. I believe it is by a _sanative virtue_ and a _natural efficiency_, which extend not to all diseases." The Viscountess Conway was afflicted by an inveterate headache, which he could not remove.

This lady was a positive character. The failure was attributed to the _peculiar_ disease, when it should have been a.s.signed to the peculiarity of the person. Sir Evremond, then at court, wrote a sarcastic novel on the subject of "The Irish Prophet." The Royal Society held a meeting on the subject, and, unable to refute the facts of his cures, accounted for them as being "produced by a sanative contagion in Mr. Greatrakes' body, which had an antipathy to some peculiar diseases, and not to others." They demanded (particularly Dr. Loyd, in a "severe pamphlet") how he cured, and why he cured some, and could not others. Greatrakes replied that he was not able to tell. And "let them," he said, "tell me what substance that is which removes and goes out with such expedition, and it will be more easy to resolve their questions."

To the scandalous reports respecting his operations upon female patients, without referring directly to such report, he says, attributing the diseases to evil spirits, "which kind of pains cannot endure my hand, nay, not with gloves, but fly immediately, though six or eight coats or cloaks be between the person and my hand, as at the Lady Ranelagh's," etc.

The clergy had previously taken alarm, and cited Valentine before the Bishop's Court to account for his proceedings, and when he took a scriptural view of his cures, he was forbidden to practise more; which was as preposterous as the decree of Louis XIV., which commanded that no more miracles should be performed at the tomb of the Abbe Paris.

Neither the clergy nor the faculty could prevent him, and daily the crowd of representatives of heterogeneous diseases made pilgrimages to the Squire of Affam. The scene was said to be ludicrously painful. They came in crowds from everywhere; on foot and in carriages; the young and the aged; some hobbling upon crutches, others literally crawling along; the blind carrying the cripple upon his back, while the latter directed the way, and the deaf and dumb followed in their wake.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NO LACK OF PATIENTS.]

While the lord mayor and the chief justice, with great physicians, were among his vehement supporters of the sterner s.e.x, the majority of his real admirers were the ladies. The lovely Countess of Devons.h.i.+re entertained him in her palace, and other high ladies lionized him nightly in their parlors, where he "performed his pleasant operations, with wonderful results, on the prettiest and most hysterical ladies present." "But his triumph was of short duration. His professions were made the b.u.t.ts of ridicule, to which his presence of mind and volubility were unable to effectually respond. His tone of conversation was represented by his enemies as compounded of the blasphemy of the religious enthusiast and the obscene profligate. His boast that he never received a fee for remedial services was met by a square contradiction, and a statement that he received five hundred dollars at once." Finally, the tide of opposition and slander became too strong for him, and he returned to his native land, and to oblivion.

We are indebted to several authorities for the foregoing sketch of Greatrakes, particularly Chambers' Miscellany, Lord Conway, E. Rich, and Jeaffreson.