Isis Revelata: An Inquiry into Animal Magnetism

knowledge of the technical lore peculiar to their craft, that I felt my own weakness and lack of support.* The celebrated Report of the French Academicians, in 1784—to which I shall have occasion to refer later—had nearly banished Animal Magnetism from the territory of science, consigned it to the realms of imagination and delusion, and presented formidable obstacles to its restoration by erecting a strong barrier of preju-

* This neutrality, so far as I am aware, has been quite strictly observed, and I may even venture to acknowledge my gratitude for the polite attention I have experienced from several of the junior, and consequently most unprejudiced and most inquisitive, members of the profession. I cannot help expressing some surprise, however, that the subject should have been viewed by medical men, in general, with such an apparently listless and apathetic indifference. Upon proper inquiry (and this is all I ask for), they would find a number of very extraordinary and highly interesting facts, presented with the most incontrovertible evidence, to which sufficient attention has not yet been paid. These facts are most important to medical science and ought to be seriously investigated. They ought to be the most competent to handle this investigation; and by neglecting it, they leave a wide door open to quackery, besides depriving themselves of additional ways to be useful to society. By abandoning the scientific study of their profession, they become little better than mere empirics.

I must take this opportunity to return my grateful thanks to the gentlemen connected with the medical journals for the candor and courtesy with which they treated my former hasty and very imperfect production, and for the indulgence they showed toward the many errors into which my ignorance of their science must have led me.—
Veniam petimus damusque vicissim.