Isis Revelata: An Inquiry into Animal Magnetism

almost entirely neglected the most important work of their professional colleagues on the Continent. The interesting and instructive works of Sprengel, Reil, Treviranus, Gmelin, Wienholt, Autenrieth, and many others, are known to only a few; and when any mention happens to be made of the subject of Animal Magnetism, it is at best received with ignorant ridicule, or with a haughty reference to the superseded report of the French Commissioners in 1784; as if nothing had been done since that period toward a more profound experimental investigation and improvement of magnetic treatment.

But it is evident that our physicians cannot long remain ignorant of these matters without falling greatly behind the times in respect to their professional knowledge. To them, therefore, I would respectfully, but earnestly, recommend a scientific and impartial inquiry into the subject. They are unquestionably the most competent to conduct the investigation, the most interested in its result, and the best qualified to make the discovery—provided they shall be ultimately satisfied that it really is a discovery—most beneficial to the interests of science and to the public welfare. In any case, they should no longer show total ignorance of a subject which has long been discussed in almost every physiological textbook on the Continent.