but not in contact with it, all those who were sensitive to the magnet felt either a cool or a warm aura, and that generally more distinctly than in the case of a crystal. Indeed many healthy people were sensitive to this influence, among others M. Schuh, M. Studer, and M. Kotschy, the African traveler, all healthy, vigorous men, the latter a rare specimen of manly vigor and hardy constitution. The fingers, therefore, act on the nerve exactly like a crystal of middling size. 81. The author now compared the conductibility of the influence from both sources. He made Mad'lle Sturmann take hold of one end of a pair of callipers of packfong, and when she had become quite accustomed to the sensation of its contact, he placed his five finger points of the right hand in contact with the other end. Immediately she perceived a sensation of warmth at the point of contact, and this sensation extended to the elbow. He now added the five remaining fingers, when the effect was more than twice as strong, and extended to the shoulder. On removing the fingers, the sensation rapidly diminished, but did not suddenly disappear, and when the fingers were alternately laid on and taken off, the sensation corresponded to these changes. On another day, he induced Dr. Lippich to do the same, and his fingers produced the same effect. On trying the experiment with Mad'lle Maix, it was equally successful; with the author's ten fingers the sensation amounted to that of heat, and extended to the head. Her physician repeated the experiment successfully'; but although more than 10 years younger than the author, the whole effect was decidedly weaker. Pater Lambert, of the Franciscans, her confessor, also tried his hands, which she felt to be equal to those of the author in power. Mad'lle Barbara Pschierl, the nurse, being sent for, her fingers were also tried, with a similar result; but they were much less powerful than those of men. When, instead of the callipers, an iron-wire of 4 feet long was placed, one end in her hand, and after five minutes the author's five fingers were brought in contact with the other end, she felt instantly the sensation of a current of decided warmth; and with ten fingers the sensation increased to apparent heat, which soon disappeared as often as the fingers were removed. This was established by very frequent repetition. When the ten fingers of her sister, also a nervous patient, were placed in contact with the further end of the wire, the effect was strikingly feeble. Even with ten more fingers, of another lady, the united effect was far below that of 5 of the author's fingers, although he has long been gray and bald. A copper wire, nearly 9 feet long, was also found to conduct the influence, but slower and rather less powerfully than the iron-wire. The same experiments, with many variations, were repeated with Mad'lle Reichel, with complete success. The effect was particularly strong in the case of Mad'lle Atzmannsdorfer. But even the healthy M. Studer was sufficiently sensitive to perceive distinctly the effect of the author's hands through metallic wires. From these experiments it follows that the influence of the human hand can be conducted through other bodies, in the same way and in the same degree as the influence of crystals. 82. In order to ascertain if the force could be collected in a body, the author took in his hands for a few seconds the callipers after Mad'lle S. was accustomed to their temperature, and returned them to her. She now felt them so hot that the well-known sensation caused by crystals, was felt up to the elbow. This was frequently repeated with every possible precaution, and with complete confirmation. Dr. Lippich took in his hand, for a short time, one of two exactly similar porcelain saucers, and then offered both to the patient, after an interval of some minutes. She instantly pointed out the one which had been in his hands, and the difference was perceptible until ten minutes had elapsed. The author tried the same experiment on Mad'lle Maix, but with the callipers which were charged by his fingers; and the charge, which Mad'lle Sturmann had recognized for 5 minutes, was perceived for 20 minutes by the more excitable Mad'lle Maix. In both cases, the sensation was that of heat, and exactly similar to that caused, under similar circumstances, by the rock-crystal. The same results were obtained, some months later, from Mad'lles Reichel and Atzmannsdorfer. The most singular experiment is that with a glass of water. If it be grasped from below by the fingers of one hand, and from above by those of the other, during a few minutes, it has now acquired, to the sensitive, the taste, smell, and all other singular and surprising properties of the so-called magnetized water. "Against this statement," says the author, "all those may cry out who have never investigated the matter, and to the number of whom I formerly belonged: but of the fact, all those who have submitted to the labor of investigation, and have seen the effects I allude to, can only speak with amazement." This water, which is quite identical with that treated with the magnet or with the crystal, in all its essential properties, has, therefore, received from the fingers and hand an abundant charge of the peculiar force residing in them, and retains this charge for some time, and with some force. It was found that all substances whatever were capable of receiving this charge, which the sensitive patients invariably detected. The inevitable conclusion is, that the influence residing in the human hand may be collected in other bodies, in the same way and to the same extent, as the influence residing in crystals. 83. That the charge, thus collected, again by degrees disappears, is obvious from what has been stated. The bodies, therefore, which can be charged with this influence, and which lose it again, possess the same coercitive power for it as, it has been shown, they do for the influence of crystals. With the strength or rather power of the hand, the amount of charge conveyed to other bodies increased; and the capacity for charge of these bodies did not, as far as has been observed, seem to have any obvious limit. 84. The question whether this influence, in the animal body, was polarized, could only be decided by comparative investigation. All the sensitive patients pointed out in crystals not only the chief axis but secondary axes, always polar, in which the force was weaker. These secondary axes, as well as the principal, always coincided with the crystallographic axes, and it is, therefore, more than probable that the new force plays an important part in the construction of crystals. (The perfect agreement among so many sensitive persons, diseased and healthy, was the best security for the genuineness and accuracy of their observations.) Possibly the new force may be, in reference to crystallization, what the vital force is in reference to organic structures. At all events, the force or influence in crystals lies in axes and is polarized, the different axes being of different power. But it is not only polar in the crystals, it is also polar in the bodies charged with it. Thus Mad lle Sturmann found a 6 feet long iron-wire, charged by the large rockcrystal, nearly indifferent in the middle, and increasing in force of charge toward each end. The wire was therefore polar, in reference to the charge of influence which it had received. 85. Similar relations may be traced in that intermediate condition where inorganic and organic influences combine together. Mad'lle Maix took in her hand one end of a copper-wire 9 feet long, which had formed 11 turns of a spiral, and the screw thus formed was drawn out in the direction of its axis to 14 feet, so that each turn of the screw was free. When her hand was used to it, the author took the other in his ten fingers, and she at once felt the influence in its full force. On examination she found the influence strongest close to her hand, diminishing regularly until, at the sixth turn from her hand, or the middle turn of the screw, it reached a minimum. Beyond this, it again increased, until at the, author's hand the amount was exactly equal to that at the other hand. This experiment was often repeated, with every precaution, and with all dif ferent substances, but invariably showed a dualism, a polarity, in the arrangement of the influence derived from his hand. Substituting the large rock-crystal for the hand, precisely similar results were obtained. 86. Analogous facts may be observed in the animal kingdom. In man there is admitted a principal axis, from above downward, and the brain and organs of generation are considered the opposite poles of this axis. If I may venture to draw a conclusion from the observations of animal magnetism, this is not the chief but a secondary axis. In the first place, it has been seen that the patients cannot bear to be laid in such a position that their long axis lies across the magnetic meridian; by that means the body is differentiated magnetically in its breadth, which appears to be intolerable. We observe something similar in chills; if they come from the side they are at once more active and more hurtful than when they come from before or behind. This was subsequently rendered more intelligible. When the author placed his right hand in the left hand of Mad'lle Maix, she felt it exactly like a small magnet or a crystal placed with the N. pole perpendicularly on her hand. But if he gave the left hand, the feeling was very much more disagreeable. When he placed his right hand in her left, and his left hand at the same time in her right, she described the sensations as of a perpetual current of something up her right arm, across her breast and shoulders, down her left arm, and through him continually. It was painful, and nearly caused her to faint. If he now crossed his hands, she could not endure it, and declared that there then arose so painful a sensation of a strange kind of struggle and contest in her arms and through her breast, an undulation up the arm and down again, that she found it absolutely unendurable. In fact, after she had released her hands, it was found impossible to persuade her to repeat the experiment, which was always done, if possible, for the sake of a check on errors. If, then, it be established by these experiments, that in nervous cases it is anything but indifferent which hand is given or taken, it follows that both hands, in respect to the influence residing in them, are not in the same condition; and it would even appear from the last experiment that there is a current, after the fashion of an electric current, from his left hand to her right, and then from her left to his right, a motion which meets with obstacles, and strives, as it were, to break through them, as soon as like hands are joined. This difference between the hands can only be due to polarization, as we see it artificially produced in the copper-wire, and as we have found it in magnets and in crystals. In this point of view, the chief axis in man is transverse, and the long axis is only secondary. In fact, it is only transversely that we are formed of two symmetric halves. Everything, brain, organs of sense, organs of mastication and deglutition, arms, hands, and feet, are opposed to each other transversely; and it is especially transversely that we are polarized. 87. These interesting observations were afterward confirmed by experiments with Mad'lle Atzmannsdorfer, who experienced the same sensations, as of a current, even stronger than Mad'lle Maix. When the hands of the author were crossed, she became sick within a minute. When one end of the metallic callipers was put into her hand, and the other end touched by the author's right hand, she felt it light and as it were buoyant; but when it was touched by his left hand, she felt it preternaturally heavy. This was also observed in Mad'lle Maix. It is worthy of notice, as a mark of distinction, or rather opposition, between the right and left hands in the style of attraction and repulsion. The patient even experienced different sensations, according as substances were laid in her own right or left hand. 88. Very recently the author has carried through a series of ex periments with Mad'lle Reichel, and pushed them farther than in any other case. Not only the right hand, but the whole right side, was found by her opposed in its properties to the other side. Nay, the mere approach of the author's side, whether right or left, affected her differently. This subject is to be investigated subsequently; here it is only necessary to say, that all the observations in regard to polarity, made with Mad'lle Maix, have been fully confirmed by Mad'lle Reichel. 89. It appears, therefore, from these researches, that all the symmetrically arranged organs of the body, and especially the hands, exhibit a difference, which is caused by a magnetic polar opposition; and that consequently there exists a dualism of the fundamen tal influence above alluded to, exactly as we have seen it to exist in crystals. 90. In § 49 and § 52, it has been shown, that the earth's magnetism exerts no perceptible influence on crystals; and that crystals do not assume any special direction, as magnets do. The same is the case with the influence of the hands. It-terrestrial magnetism-has no action on healthy animals. The force exerted by the author is alike in all positions; and he cannot perceive that in any position he is passively affected differently from what he is in any other. Doubtless the perfectly healthy man, who probably is never sensitive, is in no way affected by the earth's magnetism, how strongly soever it may act on certain patients. The author has not been able in any animal, even in blind ones, such as larvæ, to discover any evidence of an action being exerted on them by terrestrial magnetism. In this indifference, therefore, to the influence of the earth's magnetism, the force of crystals and that of the human hand fully agree. 91 With regard to the remarkable attraction of the sensitive patient's hand effected by the magnet and by crystals, it has been already stated that the hands of M. von Eisenstein produced this effect, but only after he had been magnetized. Without this, he was never able to attract the patient's hand. But it appeared that he was weak in the peculiar influence. The author omitted at the proper time to try his own power in this respect on Mad'lle Nowotny, when her state of health was fitted for the inquiry; but he has since that time often seen the phenomenon in question in Mad'lles Reichel and Atzmannsdorfer in the higher stages of their disease. When cataleptic, their hands followed readily those of any vigorous young man, and indeed those of the author himself, insomuch that, while insensible, this attraction of the hand has often made them rise from their chair, and follow the hand for some distance. It was even possible to attract their hands through an intermediate substance, such as a lump of chalk held in the hand of the experimenter. The attraction and adhesion of the hand was also seen in Mad'lle Sturmann, but not by the author, although he has entire confidence in the testimony of those who did see it in |