stances may in a similar way be impregnated with the magnetic energy. In particular complaints the remedy should be applied locally; and it is not always needful to be near the parties to effect them, six feet and six inches being of little perceptible account in the intensity of the operation. It is thought that silk is a non-conductor; and some magnetisers have stood upon a stool of glass.

The operation is universally described to be as pleasant as it is beneficial; and I never knew any one properly affected by it, who did not desire it to be tried again.

Finally, no experiments as such should be attempted; and magnetism should never be practised by any except by persons of a mature judgment, and (as disease may be otherwise thus communicated) by such as are blessed with health and freedom from hereditary tendencies.

CHAPTER VII.

CASES.

NOTWITHSTANDING all that has been said, this little treatise will yet, I imagine, receive its chief value from experience. I, therefore, proceed to give a brief account of a few cases, out of many, which have come beneath my notice, and in which it will be seen that the words of the parties in describing their sensations and their cures have generally been followed. If the medical world should be scandalized at the seeming intrusion into their office, others will, at least, unite with me, I trust, in gratitude to the Author of good, who has bestowed such mercies on his creatures.

First, then, I may premise, that I have met with a few instances in which little or no perceptible change has taken place. One friend, on this point, told me, that he had submitted more than once to the operation, and endeavoured to communicate the force, and that he had been capable neither of receiving nor of imparting it. For my own part, if I do not succeed in a short time, ten minutes or so, in producing some effects, I usually leave off; for the exertion after that is great, and

I doubt whether the continuation is salutary to the patient.

But, again, I have met with cases in which the benefit has been only partial or transient; for example, I find this entry in my book:

-, age 74, rheumatism and numbness in the right leg and foot, pain now in the abdomen and thigh; has had it four months. After a quarter of an hour he signed his name to this declaration:"I feel myself a great deal better; I can walk much better without a stick than with one before." However, on inquiry a month afterwards, the man told me his pains had returned. Whether, if I had continued to magnetise him, I could permanently have removed the disorder I do not know. The man's age was against him, and in many cases I have not been able to repeat often the attempt. Another man, suffering from pleurisy, was quite relieved for a few hours, but the pains returned; he was not a susceptible patient, and I did not succeed in removing them. He called in a medical man by my advice, (for I never unduly incur responsibility), and that gentleman's treatment cured him.

A young gentleman was received by me at first every day for a week or so, then twice a week for about a month. He had suffered from a forming cataract. His father thus wrote to me:-" My

boy's eye-sight is evidently much improved, and the medical men who have seen him, and were acquainted with his previous state, are much struck with the alteration. One of them (the surgeon and apothecary who attends my family) had a few months ago thought an operation inevitable, as the only chance of restoring the sight. He said today, on seeing the boy for the first time since he has been in your hands, that the eyes will get well. I have not yet said to them a word of the cause of this extraordinary amendment."

About two months after the date of the above letter his sight had not gone back, and he was still able to read, but with effort, a fine print, which he could not read till after I had magnetised him four or five times. Yet it was but a partial benefit. He was very insusceptible, and I never succeeded in comatizing him.

The above may suffice as instances of insufficient or not completed cures. I would wish not to flatter myself with hopes beyond the facts. But, perhaps, even in these, some defect in me, or the want of the opportunity of perseverance, might diminish or prevent the effect.

I come now to more complete cases. And, first, of children. These I adduce because they offer a strong argument against the remedial power being merely the influence of imagination.

An infant was brought to me aged seven weeks. Her symptoms:- "She does not grow, screams much, always craving, never sleeps by day, little by night." I magnetised her for three minutes. After eight days the nurse again called, and signed this declaration::---"The infant is much improved since Mr. Pyne saw her; she slept three hoursand-a-half immediately, and has slept well since; her appetite is returned, and she grows. The parents are very thankful, and I."

A child, aged about five years, was brought to me afflicted with deafness. I saw her three times. The mother wrote me this certificate:-" Mrs.

feels greatly obliged to Mr. Pyne for the benefit her daughter has received. She has been quite cured by him of her deafness. Thanks be to the Almighty for it."

I was requested to call on a family to see their daughter, a child of about four years old. I did so, and found her very ill with an abscess on the saurus muscle. I only magnetised her for a few minutes, but saw some change; the next day I did it more perfectly; it was evidently better. By the fourth day it had dispersed. I give the parents' certificate: My child, has been afflicted

A me

with an abscess in the loin for two months. dical gentleman attended her throughout the time

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