AN ACCOUNT OF A REMARKABLE INTERVIEW BETWEEN WHILE IN A STATE OF SOMNAMBULISM. Phil 6688.5 [Entered according to the Act of Congress of the United States of America, in the year 1837, by GEORGE DEARBORN, in the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York.] SCATCHERD AND ADAMS, No. 38 Gold Street. ANIMAL MAGNETISM. LETTER FROM DR. BRIGHAM TO MR. STONE. MY DEAR SIR, NEW-YORK, SEPTEMBER 1, 1837. Understanding that you have recently witnessed many experiments, and even performed some yourself, illustrative of the powers of Animal Magnetism, and have become a believer in this new art, science, or imposture, I am exceedingly desirous of knowing what phenomena, witnessed by yourself, have served to convince you. Animal Magnetism has attracted the attention of many of the most scientific men in Europe, some of whom believe in the extraordinary power ascribed to it. That very remarkable effects may result from extreme sensibility, or disease of the nervous system, I can readily believe, we see such in Catalepsy, Somnambulism, &c. We read of such in every age. In every age great moral commotions, by affecting the organization of some very sensitive persons, have produced very singular physical and intellectual phenomena. The Trembleurs des Cevennes, and the Convulsionnaires de Saint Medard, are memorable instances. Many of the results attributed to Animal Magnetism may be accounted for, by supposing an unusual augmentation of sensibility,-but other phenomena ascribed to it cannot be thus explained, and an immensity of proof appears to me to be necessary, in order to establish things so extraordinary, and so contrary to the common sense and to the testimony of all times. The facts which have served to make you a believer in Animal Magnetism, must be curious and interesting, and when your leisure permits, I beg you will furnish them in detail, that others may know on what evidence one who has been charged with a lamentable want of credulity on some subjects, and who must be disinterested, has become convinced of the truth of these most incredible phenomena. Very respectfully your friend, A. BRIGHAM. WILLIAM L. STONE, Esq. LETTER OF MR. STONE TO DR. BRIGHAM. DEAR SIR, NEW-YORK, SEPTEMBER 10, 1837. Your favor of the first instant reached me several days since, and in so far as "a round unvarnished tale" will serve the purposes of your inquiry, I can have not the slightest objection to a compliance with your request. I can the more readily do this, from the circumstance, that the greatest portion of the labor is already performed; that is, if you refer, as I presume you do, to certain cricumstances connected with ANIMAL MAGNETISM, which transpired during a brief visit recently made by me to the city of Providence. A full narration of that visit, so far as it was connected with the science of Animal Magnetism "falsely so called" for I hold that nothing can rightly be regarded as a science which has not been reduced to fixed principles-was written immediately after my return, while all the circumstances were fresh in my recollection; and, in order to still greater accuracy, I have since made another flying visit to Rhode Island, and submitted the manuscript to several persons who were present at the time when the events related occurred. Before I proceed to the main design of the present communication however, allow me to correct a misapprehension into which, like many others of my friends, you have been betrayed by the loose reports of common fame. The inference from your letter is, that I have suddenly become a convert to Animal Magnetism, to the whole extent claimed and practised by Frederick Anthony Mesmer, the founder of the art, and contended for by Wolfart and Kluge, and the other German and French enthusiasts, who have written in explanation and support of the system. This is an error. I am not a positive believer in the system, because I know not what to believe; and yet, I am free to confess, that I have recently beheld phenomena, under circumstances where collusion, deception, fraud, and imposture, were alike out of the question, if not impossible, which have brought me from the position of a positive sceptic to a dead pause. From the evidence of my own senses, I have |