Theoretic-practical treatise on animal magnetism

There exists in Nature a universal fluid, that it is perhaps better felt than described. Newton called it the ethereal medium. Descartes, the universal mover, the hermetic philosophers, the universal principle, etc.
Light, sound, odors communicate by this medium or fluid. They strike first the parts nearest to he torch or to the scented flower, communicate from globule to globule, and finally lose themselves in dissipation and remain without force, thus the operation of the fluid could be explained by the laws of movement. One cannot touch or smell, one cannot perceive this fluid: from this (it would seem as if) it has no existence! But is attraction, of which the effect is so constant, any better perceived, or the power of the magnetic which is touched by the finger, or electricity of which use is made to avoid thunderbolts and even to bring about cures? The electric fluid is nothing but the universal fluid combined, which arises from the rubbing of bodies. Electricity does not create this fluid, electricity makes use of it and this new system makes its theory (that of electricity) more complicated.
Attraction, which is undefined, has perhaps no other cause than this fluid. Why should one not see this effect in the continual movement of the stars? Why should they not be supplied with a similar fluid which directs them, attracts them and traces their courses? This fluid, however it may be demonstrated, forms the action-space that there is between all bodies. One man can communicate to another the fluid which permeates him and gives him existence. Such is Animal Magnetism.
This action seems to feel the influence of the opposite poles. To make the application of this to the human body one must pay attention to the fact that it is clearly divided longitudinally into two parts: the right side may be regarded as the south pole and the left as the north pole, and in the same way that, if one presents two magnetized bars to each other in opposed directions, that is to say with their poles opposed, they attract naturally. In the same way, if one presents the south pole or the right side
north pole or left side of another body, the second body receives a more or less marked sensation which is attributed to the passage of a magnetic fluid provided by the magnetizer, if he has more of it than the magnetized, or received by the magnetizer if he has less of it.
This supposed fluid tends always to put itself in equilibrium and it produces cures in certain subjects without their feeling any sensation, one has seen several patients like this who have been cured of obstructions, hydropsies, diseased glands etc.
Here is how it is applied, the patient is placed on a chair, the magnetizer puts himself opposite, also on a chair, applying the inner sides of his knees to the outer side of the knees of the subject he is going to magnetism. In this position the poles of their bodies are opposed because the right side of the magnetizer is opposite the left side of the magnetized and his left side opposite the other’s right.
Then one lightly applies the hands to the hypochondria of the patient and leaves them in this position for seven or eight minutes, after that one moves the hands so that the thumbs are placed on the pit of the stomach, the other fingers of the left hand are on the liver and those of the right hand are on the spleen. One leaves them there for some time, after this one moves them from above downward, beginning with the head, at a distance of six lines from the patient’s body, the index or the thumb of the right hand on the left side of the body, in the direction of the sympathetic nerve, keeping the other hand on the hypochondrium.
Sometimes one moves the two hands in the same sense, the right hand in the direction of the left sympathetic nerve and the left hand in the direction of the right sympathetic. On other occasions on moves the hands on the hypochondria or on the affected parts, observing always to direct the hands from above downward in the direction of the principal nerves of the parts being magnetized, always with the right hand on the left side and the left hand on the right side, thus always observing the opposition of the poles that constitute the whole of the magnetism.
There is another method of decanting the fluid, as though one could magnetize to a greater or lesser degree, or which is the same thing, magnetize positively or negatively. For this it suffices to bring the thumb close to the part one wishes to magnetize, and withdraw it along a particular line to about a foot and a half’s distance, approaching it and withdrawing it successively without touching the exact spot. One can carry out this experiment on oneself, it suffices to bring the palm of the left hand close to the right thumb and to approach and withdraw it alternately for eight or ten minutes. Few people have done this without feeling marked warmth in the palm of the hand.
No other preparation is necessary except extreme cleanliness and avoidance of tobacco. Everyone carries with him his dose of magnetism, and all magnetisers are more equipped, or less equipped, to produce its effects, in consequence of their health, constitution and stronger organisation. Only the fingers are used, or a bar of iron six inches long, which is hardly necessary. One uses a conductor to distribute or direct the magnetism as one wishes in the same way as with the fingers, but some people claim that an iron bar is more effective because of the smaller surface-area of its extremity. The bacquet is a barrel of hardwood, one and a half feet deep and four and a half in diameter, completely covered by a lid made of planks well joined together. This lid is pierced around the circumference, at three thumb-breadths from the edge, with a number of holes through which one introduces into the interior of the baquet as many iron rods bent at right angles as there are patients seated around it; one points the iron bar, outside the baquet, on to the affected part of the patient; sometimes one sets up a chain of communication between all those who are around it by their giving each other a hand; this makes the magnetism stronger. The baquet has an inch and a half of sand in the bottom, covered by one and a half to two inches of water, and is fitted with a layer of bottles arranged in a circle, the necks to the outside, and magnetised in the following way. The bottle to be magnetised is held by its bottom in one hand, the thumb of the other hand is moistened enough to be able to provide six or seven drops of water; the thumb moistened in this way is put into the neck of the bottle, and the bottle (placed on the other hand) is caused to roll in an arc in such a way that the six or seven drops of water provided by the thumb can fall to the bottom of the bottle. After eight or ten seconds the bottle is magnetised and it is corked, being careful that the cork is put in gently so that its approach does not cause evaporation; the bottle can be applied to the stomach of a person susceptible to magnetism and will produce an effect. This experiment has been repeated successfully several times. The baquet supplied thus with magnetised bottles establishes communication between all those magnetised, and thus facilitates the action of magnetism on them, and one can in fact magnetise a bottle in the way one supercharges a Leyden jar with electricity. When the magnetised subject exhibits a crise', fainting, convulsion, spasm or delirium, the magnetiser must not be astonished; he is to continue his operation, without this the crise will last a long time and become dangerous if he does not master it. One must never magnetise from below upwards because this can cause accidents, even apoplexy.