Legend
Strange Forces in Nature
George W. Rains, Esq., Professor of Medical Chemistry and Practical Pharmacy in the Medical Department of the University of Georgia, tailing the above for the subject of an introductory lecture to the course of 1874-75, before the present class of the Medical College, said, —
Gentlemen: It devolves upon me to make the annual address to your class, and in accomplishing this duty it is a matter of consideration as to what shall be the subject. You have no time to listen to discourses that do not tend to give you additional knowledge in the profession you have adopted, or to suggest useful ideas relative to its practice. I will take advantage of the liberty which the occasion affords to speak on a few subjects that cannot, as yet, be properly taught as science in the lecture room, and yet of great interest to the medical profession.
The progress of science resembles the exploration of an unknown — and in the minds of many a hostile — country; advanced scouts are thrown out from the main body to penetrate its tangled recesses and boggy grounds, to bring back information of new discoveries and feasible routes. Such information rarely proves strictly accurate, but it supplies indispensable aid for the advance of the army of workers, which steadily moves forward with resistless force. It is of this border land of science that, as one of the scouts, I bring you some news of interest; not first discovered by the speaker, however, who has mainly followed in the trails of those who preceded, but who confirms their tales and corroborates their assertions. To many of you who have but just entered as recruits into the army of progress, the matters treated of will be new and startling, but to those who are veterans in the ranks of science I shall give perchance but little news that they have not received from other sources.
My subject may be entitled, “Strange Forces in Nature, and their Relation to the Healing Art."
It is well known that there is in progress a marked change in the usually accepted ideas of the constitution of matter, as well as in the nature of force. Solid and liquid masses, and the gases which we can weigh and measure, no longer comprehend the whole of material existence as now conceived; out recognized matter exists so transcendently attenuated that, to use the language of an eminent physicist, only the mind can come into contact with it; nevertheless, actual matter completely filling space, and governed by fundamental laws. The beautiful blue of the sky is proven to be due to matter, which, if the whole that is seen completely filling the vast firmament were gathered up into the condensed form of ordinary matter, might, it is supposed, be enclosed in the palm of one's hand.
The phenomena of the tails of comets, the extremities of which in some cases move with astonishing velocity as they sweep around the sun in perihelion, appear best explainable as being the result of an electric polarization of an etherealized matter filling space, producing a cosmical aurora. Even in the case of our atmosphere, which must extend not less than five hundred miles above the earth, as shown by the aurora, we find matter inappreciable to the skill of man. Vastly finer it that boundless ocean of matter called ether, which penetrates between all atoms, and fills the immensity of space with its eternal vibrations and undulations. It is assumed by many physicists, that the atoms of all matter are but the agglomerated and condensed points or particles of this primeval existence; its first appearance to optical vision being probably that taint luminosity enveloping the sun, giving its halo in total eclipses, and marking the first line of matter in the spectroscope. Hydrogen follows next, with its three bright lines, and so on, until we arrive at platinum, which is two hundred and fifty thousand times more condensed than hydrogen.
Thus our conceptions of matter must be greatly expanded before we can take in the facts of the surrounding universe, and similarly our conceptions of the forces which act on matter must undergo material and essential changes. Mankind are indisposed to change long accepted Ideas, and it is with great reluctance cherished opinions are enlarged or abandoned. Scientists especially, as a class, cling with great tenacity to routine theories, and with strong opposition meet new views or accept new facts.
Thus the statements of the pioneers are received with incredulity, if tending to change preconceived views; and it is only after the vanguard of the main body, in its advance, has actually occupied the disputed ground, that the tales of the scouts, with the required corrections, are received as fact and become accepted science. Hence arc seen two classes of scientist; the statements set forth by the one being denied by the other, sad generally long years elapse, sometimes centuries, before startling new truths, although set forth by the ablest men, are received and accepted.
One of the remarkable discoveries of modern times which met with great opposition was promulgated at Vienna, in 1776, by a German physician named Mesmer. He published a thesis setting forth that there was a universally diffused fluid which he called Animal Magnetism; that it was a subtle agent of communication between animate and inanimate nature. That it existed in man, and could by will be communicated, or passed into other persons, under favorable conditions; that, when so communicated to the sick, it healed diseases, perfected the action of medicines, and brought on favorable crises. He assumed that this fluid issued from magnets, and at times used them in treating his patients.
This claim to the discovery of a new force produced great excitement in Europe, particularly in Paris, where two commissions from the Royal Academy of Medicine, one in 1784 and the other in 1831, reported on the alleged phenomena. The former admitted many of the asserted nets, but attributed the successful results to the imagination. The latter, composed of eleven members, after consuming five years in their investigations, made a report entirely favorable to most of the asserted facts of animal magnetism, and in conclusion stated that, as a therapeutic remedy, it ought to be allowed a place within the circle of the medical sciences. The British Foreign Medico-Chirugical Review, in 1851, in an elaborate article on the subject, stated that animal magnetism presents to the medical practitioner a new means of investigating the functions of the brain and nervous system, and of elucidating their physiology, pathology and therapeutics; and, therefore, the phenomena and alleged phenomena are most deserving the notice of the profession.
Many eminent physicians on the Continent and in Great Britain advocated the claims of mesmerism, as it was now called, as being a remedial agent possessing great power. Dr. Esdaile, a surgeon attached to the English army in India, established the practice of mesmerism in the army hospitals under his charge at Hooghly in 1845, and published a statement of the numerous and remarkable cures which followed in the treatment of a large variety of diseases. He organized a number of native assistants to whom he taught the art, and then availed himself of their aid in mesmerizing the hospital patients; it is believed that in no case was there a failure in magnetizing the patients, varying from one minute to a dozen trials of one hour each, on successive days. Dr. Esdaile asserted that a force was communicated to the patient, since water could be charged with it, and that he had succeeded in magnetizing the blind without their knowledge, at a distance of ninety feet; also that the Influence passed freely through walls, like ordinary magnetism or electrical induction.
He summed up nis experience as follows: That mesmerism is a natural power of the human body; that it affects directly the nervous and muscular systems; that in the mesmeric trance, or sleep, the most severe and protracted surgical operations can be performed, without the patients being sensible of pain; that spasms and nervous pains often disappear before the mesmeric trance; that it gives us a complete command of the muscular system, and is therefore of great service in restoring contracted limbs; that the imagination has nothing to do with the first physical impression made on the system by mesmerism, as practiced by him; that it is not necessary for the eyes to be open; that ft is better to shut them as a source of distraction, and that blind men are as readily mesmerized as others; that water can be charged with the mesmeric fluid, or force, and has a powerful effect on the system when it has been previously affected; that the mesmeric fluid, or force, can be transmitted through the air to considerable distances, and even pass through dense materials.
The late Dr. Gregory, the eminent professor of chemistry in the University of Edinburgh, was a strong advocate for its employment by physicians, and classified its therapeutic use: first, in relieving pain and curing diseases; secondly, its use in preventing pain in surgical operations; thirdly, the use of magnets, crystals and other inanimate objects, as well as of magnetized water, or magnetized objects of any kind; and, lastly, the use of clairvoyance in diagnosis.
The actuality of clairvoyance, or perception without the use of the known senses, is still an open question in the minds of many physicians, although probably generally adopted by those who have made the subject a thorough study. The lowest stage of this peculiar perception is in sympathy, a higher phase is thought reading, or the perception of ideas; this capability was possessed by Zschokke, the German Swiss writer, as detailed by him in his autobiography, and is, in a greater or lesser degree, more common than is generally imagined. A prominent case is in the person of Mr. G. R. Brown, who at the present time is exhibiting this capability before the scientists of New York and Yale College. He submits to the conditions imposed, in fact allows the professors to arrange matters to their own satisfaction; he appears to be remarkably successful, and seems to have convinced the most skeptical. One of his acts at Yale was as follows Prof. Lyman held a paper in his hand concealed, on which words were written by Prof. Fisher, and, blind-folded. Brown spelled the words without difficulty.
Editor's notes
- ↑ Strange Forces in Nature by Rains, George W., Spiritual Scientist, v. 1, No. 16, December 24, 1874, p. 184
Sources
-
Spiritual Scientist, v. 1, No. 16, December 24, 1874, p. 184