If, as I
have suggested, the contrivance of an artificial limb was then new, it
would not occur to the cardinal himself to suspect it; especially under
the carelessness of mind with which he heard the tale, and the little
inclination he felt to scrutinize or expose its fallacy.
III. The miracles related to have been wrought at the tomb of the abbe
Paris admit in general of this solution. The patients who frequented the
tomb were so affected by their devotion, their expectation, the place,
the solemnity, and, above all, by the sympathy of the surrounding
multitude, that many of them were thrown into violent convulsions, which
convulsions, in certain instances, produced a removal of disorder,
depending upon obstruction. We shall, at this day, have the less
difficulty in admitting the above account, because it is the very same
thing as hath lately been experienced in the operations of animal
magnetism: and the report of the French physicians upon that mysterious
remedy is very applicable to the present consideration, viz. that the
pretenders to the art, by working upon the imaginations of their
patients, were frequently able to produce convulsions; that convulsions
so produced are amongst the most powerful, but, at the same time, most
uncertain and unmanageable applications to the human frame which can be
employed.
Pages:
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301