was Mesmer's idea to teach magnetism to the clergy, and this may account for
the assumption on the part of a few individuals—Nicolai and Biester in
Berlin, for instance—that the only object of Mesmer's teaching was to restore
their lost power to the Church and the Jesuits.
The attitude of the Catholic Church to animal magnetism has often been discussed.
Clerical authorities were frequently asked if the use of animal magnetism in
the treatment of disease were permissible. Such a question was propounded in
Rome in 1842, and, according to Gousset, the Grand Penitentiary Castracane replied
in the following somewhat evasive terms :—A hasty decision might endanger
the honour of the Holy Chair, and the question was not of a nature to necessitate
an immediate conclusion being come to, because no danger would be run by postponing
judgment. The Catholic Church had raised no general objection to the use of
animal magnetism in individual cases, but had tacitly permitted it, though she
had protested against many abuses.
HISTORY OF HYPNOTISM. II
In the rest of Germany, also, many investigators occupied themselves with animal
magnetism; in several universities a knowledge of the phenomena was spread by
means of lectures —for example, by Wolfart in Berlin, and by Bartels in
Breslau. In 1821, Fritze, the Magdeburg physicist, began to occupy himself with
magnetism, and in 1853 Varges, who had commenced his investigations at the same
time as Fritze, published the result of his experiences since 1821. In South
Germany also the importance of animal magnetism began to be better recognized,
and in 1818 Haberl, of Munich, employed it in the treatment of disease in the
hospital of that town. As many authors inform us, a royal order in February
t817 made magnetization in Prussia the privilege of physicians only; but in
the official code of laws nothing is to be found on the subject. At the same
time such laws were enacted in other countries. Magnetism was introduced everywhere,
especially in Russia and Denmark, in which countries medical men were bound
to report periodically to the authorities the results they had obtained with
animal magnetism (Brandis). In Holland such distinguished physicians as Bakker,
Wolthers, and Hendriksz devoted themselves to the study of animal magnetism
; but in Switzerland and Italy it was at first received with less sympathy.
After Mesmer had left France in the time of the Revolution, in order, after
prolonged travels, to settle himself at his native place on the Lake of Constance,
magnetism only regained its importance in France at the beginning of the last
century. In Germany it was chiefly the medical profession which turned to the
study of animal magnetism. True, a number of French doctors experimented with