PBA Galleries

[iv], 136 pp. (8vo) old three-quarter red morocco and marbled boards. First Edition.

“Servan was a distinguished French lawyer and correspondent of Voltaire and d’Alembert.  He had been cured by a mesmerist when traditional medicine had failed to help him.  In this treatise, Servan defends Mesmer’s views on animal magnetism in the wake of the negative reports of the two commissions. He addresses some well-considered questions to the members of the commission of the Societé Royale de Médecine.  These ‘doubts’ question: why they expected quick cures through animal magnetism and dismissed its efficacy on the basis of brief trials; why they did not choose optimal conditions for success but arbitrarily set up conditions they preferred; and why with the limited experience they felt justified in drawing such far-reaching conclusions about the non-existence of animal magnetism.  Servan’s treatise is one of the most thoughtful contemporary criticisms of the findings of the commission.” -- Crabtree 111. “The best of the many attacks published by the pro-Mesmerists against the report of the first Royal Commission.” -- Norman Library M142. Not in Tinterow.