Statuvolism, or artificial somnambulism, hitherto called mesmerism or animal magnetism : containing a brief historical survey of Mesmer's operations and the examination of the same by the French commissioners : the identity of these conditions with other states and mysteries : together with an account of several obstetrical cases delivered while in this state, the proper method of preparing subjects for surgical operations, their management during and after the same, and the latest and best method of curing disease, etc. in those persons who are in that condition / by Wm. Baker Fahnestock.

  • Fahnestock, Wm. Baker (William Baker), 1804-1886.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Statuvolism, or artificial somnambulism, hitherto called mesmerism or animal magnetism : containing a brief historical survey of Mesmer's operations and the examination of the same by the French commissioners : the identity of these conditions with other states and mysteries : together with an account of several obstetrical cases delivered while in this state, the proper method of preparing subjects for surgical operations, their management during and after the same, and the latest and best method of curing disease, etc. in those persons who are in that condition / by Wm. Baker Fahnestock. 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.)

    10/302
    true path of investigation, and through the combined labors of Spurzheim, Combe, and others, we have reached a much more definite and philosophical system. The friends of this science may have claimed more for it than it is justly entitled to, but the fundamental facts that the brain is a series of organs, and that these have definite locations, are too well established to admit of a doubt. I know that these facts have been objected to, upon the ground that in cases of dropsy of the brain, where the convolutions were unfolded by the effusion, the intelligence of the subject was not always impaired. But the objectors, in their zeal to overthrow the science, overlooked the fact that such un- folding did not destroy the fibres of the brain, but only al- tered their position, which were wisely placed so as to occupy the least possible space, at the same time that peculiar quali- ties occupied certain localities which those gifted with com- prehensive minds were enabled to locate. Other experimenters working upon a different plane, and although less direct in their efforts to develop mind, have in a measure done so inadvertently, in their endeavors to in- vestigate and account for the various phenomena exhibited by persons who were in a statuvolic condition ; but, instead of attributing them to the true cause, they ascribed them to some outside force, such as Animal Magnetism, a nervous fluid or Od force. Numerous experiments, however, have proved that all these forces are imaginary, and the facts all demonstrate that the cause of this condition is the will of the subject. A power that they can use at pleasure, in- dependent of any person, force, or outside influence, when they have been taught the true nature of their powers therein. My experiments for the past thirty years have proved that the entire system, or any part of it, rnay be thrown into the statuvolic condition by an act of the will, and that when in this condition they can awaken any particular organ or part of the body, and leave the rest in the state—as Doctor Henry