RIDICULOUS JUGGLERY
An Essay of Instruction, on Animal Magnetism – Marquis de Puységur, translated by Dr John King
Reading this book has been such a peculiar experience, I wasn’t sure how to write about it. But, determined not to procrastinate, I just googled the book, its translator and Puységur to sort out the links, only to fall down an internet-shopping rabbit hole…
Marquis de Puységur Armagnac is A Thing, hypno-fans!
I immediately recognised this as the perfect Kev birthday gift. (Even though I’m not sure we like brandy...) But, alas, it is rare and pricey stuff. So: socks it is.
ANYWAY. If you’re not familiar with the Marquis de Puységur, he’s known as one of Mesmer’s most prominent and devoted students. He became a successful magnetiser in his own right, teaching animal magnetism to people who flocked from all over France to learn his methods via his institute, Société Harmonique des Amis Réunis, during the 1780s.
Supposed hypnosis experts (still) regularly credit Mesmer with having discovered ‘somnambulism’, or the ‘sleep-like state’ associated with James Braid’s 1842 definition of hypnosis that persists today. However, Mesmer, ever the showman, preferred the far more violent ‘mesmeric crisis’ – and it was, in fact, Puységur who ‘discovered’ what he coined ‘artificial somnambulism’.
I’ve read a few books about Mesmer, and a translation of his writing on his discovery of animal magnetism sits impatiently on our bookshelf. But it occurred to Kev I knew little to nothing of Puységur… and so this book soon popped through our letterbox!
I’ve abbreviated the title above, but it’s actually: AN ESSAY OF INSTRUCTION, ON ANIMAL MAGNETISM; TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF THE MARQUIS DE PUYSÉGUR, TOGETHER WITH VARIOUS EXTRACTS UPON THE SUBJECT, AND NOTES, JOHN KING, M.D., PROFESSOR OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM.
It was published in 1837 and Kev tracked down a reproduction printed in India from Facsimile Publisher. (Incidentally, it’s great quality compared to digitised old, obscure books from Amazon where words are omitted or scrambled – I have such a Trilby book for making notes, where, ironically, the name ‘Trilby’ is mostly missing.)
Naively, I assumed I’d be reading the Puységur essay, based on the book title. But no! We start instead with a confusing, catty, comma-ridden ‘introduction’ courtesy of our editor (?!), Dr John King.
I can’t find anything about Dr King from my cursory Google. But, like so many of the hypno-characters we’ve met thus far, he’s frothing at the mouth that anyone would question his beliefs. He’s so busy citing religious and ancient historical ‘proofs’, and dropping liked and loathed doctor-y names in defence of his position, he seems to have forgotten to share much of substance of Puységur, mesmerism and animal magnetism.
King is so convinced of the righteousness of his belief in Puységur and animal magnetism, he makes a ghastly mess of conveying his points and arguments.
Consider a short, scruffy sentence to the tune of ‘vaccines work, ergo animal magnetism works’. The reader is presumably to extrapolate that animal magnetism is what quinine is to the treatment of malaria, but he just kind of leaves this, and more such points, hanging.
On the flip side, he labours over counter arguments in such a drolly acerbic tone that I wasn’t sure what his actual position was. Here’s a corker of a quote after boring us about mesmeric passes:
“Assuredly, if it were necessary to decide by appearances, nothing would have more of a ridiculous jugglery, than these gestures, – so singular that we might well believe they were invented rather for the purpose of imposing on the imagination of women and children, than to produce results worthy of the attention of serious men.”
After 19 pages of introduction, I’m hoping we get to Puységur. But no! Of course we don’t! Because the bulk of this book is Dr King’s theory of animal magnetism!
His ‘theory’ begins with a nine-point list, with number one informing us that the brain is a galvanic battery. I sense that he’s taken Mesmer and Puységur’s work and run with it, using the promised Puységur translation in much the same way SEO pioneers of the 90s and 2000s worked ‘Britney Spears’ into any and all Google-attention-seeking content.
The rest of King’s ‘theory’ is a beef with a recent US journal article on animal magnetism and the Royal Commission, entitled ‘An old Humbug new-vamped’ (which he doesn’t include).
So. It’s essentially 34 pages of the 1830s equivalent of an epic Facebook-rant.
Given much of King’s ‘argument’ seems to comprise shouting “COMPASSES WORK! VACCINES WORK! RELIGIOUS MIRACLES HAPPENED!”, I’ll leave it at that.
The final few pages feature a Puységur Q&A translation, and fragments of translated quotes from other sources.
Puységur’s comments on the role of belief and will in magnetising are worth a gander. It’s also useful to read his position on the existence of ‘the universal fluid’ first-hand:
“I have never said that there was, or was not, a universal fluid; I know not, moreover, whether there are magnetic fluids, electric, galvanic, &c. One thing of which I am very certain, is, that in order to magnetise well, it is absolutely useless to know whether or not there does exist a single one of these fluids.”
A highlight of Puységur’s comments is his answer to the question of whether “females” can magnetise: “Yes, they prove to be excellent magnetisers, as they generally possess more love, benevolence, &c., than males.”
Ultimately, he comes across as a far more measured and sensible figure from hypnosis history than most characters I’ve come across thus far. Here’s to finding actual books about Puységur in the future!
PS – King concludes the book with the following postscript… just in case you were thinking this book couldn’t get any more cynical and self-serving:
“Dr. J. King, respectfully informs the public, that he Magnetises for the cure of the following diseases, at N 13 Chystie street: Asthma, Chronic affections of the Lungs, Livers and Kidneys, Convulsions, Cramps, Deafness, Diseased Eyes, Dropsy, Epilepsy, Fever and Ague, Female complaints, General Debility, Headache, Hypochondria, Hysterics, Jaundice, Palsy, Palpitation of the Heart, Rheumatism, St. Vitus Dance, and all other chronic diseases, accompanied by nervous debility.”
