DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1233#0158
130 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE.
proper working of the nerves, for when it is
withdrawn there is no sensation. We know
how a limb may be so numbed by cold as to
be absolutely insensible to the touch; and the
reason of such insensibility is that the vital force
is no longer flowing through it. It might be
supposed that it was rather due to the failure of
the circulation of the blood, but those who have
studied mesmerism are aware that one of the
commonest experiments is to produce similar
insensibility in a limb by magnetic passes. This
does not at all interfere with the circulation of
the blood, for the limb remains warm ; but it
does check the circulation of the subject's life-
fluid, and substitutes for it that of the magnetizer.
The nerves of the subject are still there, and (so
far as physical sight can see) in perfect working
order ; yet they do not perform their office of
reporting to his brain, because the fluid which
animates them is not connected with that brain,
but with the brain of the operator.
In a healthy man the spleen does its work
in so generous a fashion that the specialized
life-force is present in very large quantities, and
is constantly radiating from the body in all
directions. A man in perfect health, therefore,
not only is able to impart some of it to another
intentionally, by means of mesmeric passes or
otherwise, but is also constantly though uncon-
proper working of the nerves, for when it is
withdrawn there is no sensation. We know
how a limb may be so numbed by cold as to
be absolutely insensible to the touch; and the
reason of such insensibility is that the vital force
is no longer flowing through it. It might be
supposed that it was rather due to the failure of
the circulation of the blood, but those who have
studied mesmerism are aware that one of the
commonest experiments is to produce similar
insensibility in a limb by magnetic passes. This
does not at all interfere with the circulation of
the blood, for the limb remains warm ; but it
does check the circulation of the subject's life-
fluid, and substitutes for it that of the magnetizer.
The nerves of the subject are still there, and (so
far as physical sight can see) in perfect working
order ; yet they do not perform their office of
reporting to his brain, because the fluid which
animates them is not connected with that brain,
but with the brain of the operator.
In a healthy man the spleen does its work
in so generous a fashion that the specialized
life-force is present in very large quantities, and
is constantly radiating from the body in all
directions. A man in perfect health, therefore,
not only is able to impart some of it to another
intentionally, by means of mesmeric passes or
otherwise, but is also constantly though uncon-