Mesmerism Spiritualism C

Excerpt from Mesmerism, Spiritualism, &C: Historically Scientifically Considered; Being Two Lectures Delivered at the London Institution The recent direction of the public mind to the claims of what is called 'Spiritualism' partly by the discussion which took place in the Anthropological Section of the British Association at its Meeting in Glasgow, and partly by the Slade prosecution which followed, having led the Directors of the London Institution to invite me to deliver two Lectures on the subject, I consented to do so on the understanding that I should treat it purely in its Historical and Scientific aspects: my purpose being to show, first, the relation of what seems to me essentially an Epidemic Delusion, to Epidemics, more or less similar, which have at different periods taken a strong - though transient - hold on the popular imagination; and secondly, to point out how completely the evidence adduced by the upholders of the system fails to afford a scientific proof of the existence of any new Power or Agency capable of antagonising the action of the known Forces of Nature. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.