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another, a diversion without which the 'necromancer' would cause no surprise, which is the great object of his art. It results from these considerations that the most different professions employ quite analogous although excessively varied means to attain the same end, that of first fixing man's attention so as afterwards to produce on him a determined effect.

"I think my observations are connected with the history of the faculties of animals; that some of their acts attributed to instinct are really of the class just spoken of. This seems to me especially true of gregarious animals; and it seems to me that it would be very interesting to study in this regard the influence of their leaders upon the subordinate members.

"Do not the instances above mentioned throw some light upon the cause of the fascination one animal exerts over another?"

EXTRACTS FROM THE WORK OF REICHENBACH.

"If a strong magnet, capable of supporting about ten pounds, be drawn downward over the bodies of fifteen or twenty persons, without actually touching them, some among them will always be found to be excited by it in a peculiar manner. The number of people who are sensitive in this way is greater than is generally imagined: sometimes three or four are met with in such a number as above mentioned: indeed, I know an establishment where the experiment was tried, and of twenty-two young ladies who were collected there, no less than eighteen felt more or less distinctly the passage of the magnet. The kind of impression produced on these excitable people, who otherwise may be regarded as in perfect health, is scarcely describable; it is rather disagreeable than pleasant, and combined with a slight sensation either of cold or warmth, resembling a cool or gently warm breath of air, which the patients imagine to blow softly upon them. Sometimes they feel sensations of drawing, pricking, or creeping; some complain of sudden attacks of headache. Not only women, but men in the very prime of life, are found distinctly susceptible of this influence; in children it is sometimes very active."

"The magnet thus declares itself as a general agent upon the vital principle; a property of it which individual physicians have indeed endeavored, though as yet without solid results, to bring into more extensive application, in reference to the possibility of deriving from it a curative treatment in cases of disease,-which, however, has not yet been received by natural philosophers into the realm of physics; and from the uncertainty of the observations, hitherto, has been altogether passed over by natural science generally. Nevertheless, magnetism, when more closely examined, presents an infinitely varied and exalted interest on this side. If a portion of the phenomena here assert an influence upon life, this occurs exactly and especially at the point where the boundaries of the organic and inorganic are intermingled. Since a doubt exists whether it shall be attributed to the domain of physiology or of physics, it is neglected on both sides. Thus it is left over to medicine, and has not always fallen into the best hands there. I hope, in the following pages, to disentangle some of the threads of this knot, and to combine a number of phenomena under a common point of view, at the same time arranging them under fixed physical laws."

The work gives an exceedingly interesting account of the first experiment in which the author was enabled to verify a previous conjecture, that there were sensitives, who would be able to see luminous appearances at the poles of a magnet. The sensitive, in the experiment described, was "a young woman of 25 years of age, who had suffered for several years from increasing pains in the head, and from these had fallen into cataleptic attacks, with alternate tonic and clonic spasms. ." The magnet employed in the experiment was one of great power, capable of supporting about ninety pounds of iron, with the armature removed.'

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"The magnet was placed upon a table about ten yards from the patient, with both poles directed toward the ceiling, and then freed from its armature. No one present could see in the least; but the girl beheld two luminous appearances, one at the extremity of each pole of the magnet. When this was closed by the application of the armature, they disappeared, and she saw nothing more; when it was opened again, the lights reappeared. They

seemed to be somewhat stronger at the moment of lifting up the armature, than to acquire a permanent condition, which was weaker. The fiery appearance was about equal in size at each pole, and without perceptible tendency to mutual connection. Close upon the steel from which it streamed, it appeared to form a fiery vapor, and this was surrounded by a kind of glory of rays. But the rays were not at rest; they became shorter and longer without intermission, and exhibited a kind of darting rays and active scintillation, which the observer assured us was uncommonly beautiful. The whole appearance was more delicate and beautiful than that of common fire; the light was far purer, almost white, sometimes intermingled with iridescent colors, the whole resembling the light of the sun more than that of a fire. The distribution of the light in rays was not uniform; in the middle of the edges of the horseshoe they were more crowded and brilliant than toward the corners, but at the corners they were collected in tufts, which projected further than the rest of the rays." At the close of various sections of the work there is a Retrospect," specifying briefly, the points supposed to be proved by the particular division of the work. Some of these specifications are as follows.

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"A strong magnet exercises a peculiar action upon the senses of many healthy and sick persons; it is an agent upon the vital force.

Those who manifest this sensibility in a high degree frequently exhibit a great exaltation of the acuteness of the senses, and are then in a condition to perceive light and flame-like appearances upon the magnet. The strength and distinctness of this perception increases with the sensibility of the observer and the obscurity of the place.

The pole-м gives the larger, the †м the smaller flame, in the northern latitude of Vienna. Its form and color change according as the magnet is open or closed,-a magnet made by touch, or an electro-magnet,-free, or under the influence of other magnets.

Positive and negative flames display no tendency to unite.

The flame may be mechanically diverted in various directions, just like the flame of a fire.

It emits a light which is red, that acts upon the daguerreotype, and may be concentrated by a glass lens, but is without perceptible heat.

Magnetic flames and their light exhibit such complete resemblance to the aurora, that I believe myself compelled to consider the two as identical.

"Every crystal, natural or artificial, exercises a specific exciting power on the animal nerves, weak in the healthy, strong in the diseased, strongest of all in the cataleptic.

The force manifests its abode principally at the axes of the crystals, most actively at its opposite extremities: it therefore exhibits polarity.

It emits light at the poles visible to acutely sensitive eyes in the dark.

In particular diseases, it attracts the human hand to a peculiar kind of adhesion, like that of iron to the magnet.

"The sun's rays carry with them a power to affect sensitive patients, which agrees perfectly with the force residing in crystals, the magnet, and the human hands.

The greatest influence in reference to a force corresponding to that of crystals is manifested in the outer borders of the red and violet-blue rays of the solar spec

trum.

The light of the moon possesses the force now under consideration in a strong degree.

Heat is a source of it.

It occurs with friction, and

It appears as a result of the light of flame.

"Chemism is a widely-comprehensive source of magnetic-like force, both when simple and when produced by combustion and the voltaic pile.

"Not only magnets, crystals, hands, chemism, &c., but all solid and fluid matters without exception, produce sensations of coolness and tepid heat equivalent to pleasure and inconvenience.

The effective force, therefore, does not appertain to particular forms or especial qualities of matter, but it dwells in matter in and by itself.

This force not only manifests itself in contact, but also at distances,-as from the sun, moon, and stars; so, also, from all matter.

Finally this principle is one that extends over the entire universe.'

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NOTES.

NOTE (A.), P. 20.

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The lobbies of

I have never been a member of any Legislature, and I know next to nothing, by personal observation, about their proceedings. Such knowledge as I have is derived mostly from the publick journals. These affirm persistently that our legislative assemblies, including the Congress of the United States, are exceedingly corrupt. So much so that publick virtue, if it exist, is deprived of influence. the legislative halls are filled with a class of men called agents, whose business it is to work private bills through Congress, or publick bills in which, like-private interests are deeply concerned, by means of influence upon members-or, in plain terms, by some form of corruption. This is no secret matter, for indeed secrecy is little known in Ameri can affairs; the power of the lobby is alluded to in every debate." This is extracted from a writer who seems to be distinguished by candor and moderation. And while it describes the chronic state of the evil, the following is indicative of one of its periodical developments. It is from a manifesto of an assemblage of distinguished politicians, chosen to designate a presidential candidate. "The people justly view with alarm the reckless extravagance which pervades every department of the Federal government; a return to rigid economy and accountability is indispensible to arrest the systematic plunder of the publick treasury by favoured partisans, whilst the recent startling developments of frauds and corruption at the Federal metropolis show that an entire change of administration is imperatively demanded." The party, represented by the convention above, succeeded in electing their candidate, who came into office in March 1861; and in the daily paper of to-day,* (friendly to the present administration,) and received since commencing this paragraph, I observe an article which commences thus, "The plunderers and speculators, who have made such frightful inroads upon the federal treasury the last year, &c., &c. This need not implicate the present administration-it only proves that the evil is well nigh ineradicable.

*April 30, 1862.

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