ANIMAL MAGNETISM MAGNETIC HEALING.
The employment of animal magnetism in the treatment of disease has constituted an important part in
the general practice of a number of prominent physicians for many years. These physicians have not, as a rule, made a conspicuous display of their knowledge of the subject, realizing that the public in general
were not prepared to sufficiently differentiate between their methods and those employed by ignorant charlatans. Nevertheless the great success that attended their efforts to relieve suffering through
what we now call hypnotic influence, led them to impress upon their professional brethren the importance of a more thorough study of this valuable branch of medicine. Among the first in America to employ “animal magnetism” in medical practice, was Alva Curtis, A. M., M. D., a highly educated and talented physician, who died in 1881. He attributed his remarkable success in practice to the scientific use of nonpoisonous remedies and the mental influence he was able to exert over his patients. While not claiming to be a “magnetic healer,” he nevertheless practiced and taught to his classes the art of “magnetizing,” and as early as 1846, he published the formulated principles of animal magnetism that have ever since formed the basis of the practice of magnetic healing. The author, like many others, is greatly indebted to the genius and erudition of this remarkable teacher who devoted his life to the amelioration of his fellow men.
PHILOSOPHY AND METHOD OF DR. CURTIS.
The brain is a compound organ, to the distinct portions of which is assigned the performance of special mental functions. These separate portions, or organs, can be readily excited by the touch of the hand, and can be made to perform not only the peculiar functions of the brain, but of those of all theother portions of the body, increasing or depressing them at pleasure. Magnetism (neuraura) may be made to proceed at will from every organ of the brain of every person, and to affect to some extent the organs of any other brain to which the fingers of the operator may be applied. Of course, the more of this magnetism a person has, the more effectually he can operate upon others ; and the less he possesses, the more distinctly he perceives the influence of those who have the most. Those who have tiie least magnetism are termed impressibles. So sensitive are some of these to the influence of the magnetism of others, that whenever they touch an organ of the head or face of another, they feel, in themselves, the influence of the action of that organ, as strong or weak, healthy. or unhealthy, and are consequently capable of determining the relative power of different brains, or ofthe different organs of the same brain.
