Next in importance to the discoveries of Puységur were those of
Dr. Pétetin, of Lyons. His general position is much the same as
that of Puységur; for "animal magnetism," he substituted an "animal
electricity," (such was the title of his posthumous volume, 1808);
and he claimed to have found that the intervention of poor electric
conductors opposed the appearance of certain of the phenomena of the
somnambulic state. In a work published in 1787, he described a new
condition characterized by a fixed rigidity of the limbs, to which
he gave the name (still applied to it) of "catalepsy," and which
continues to be one of the characteristic modifications artificially
produced by hypnotization. Dr. Pétetin describes how his subject,
when magnetized, became insensible to external stimuli, how her pulse
slackened, her muscles became fixed, and how she would maintain
any position in which she was placed with statue-like rigidity.
Dr. Pétetin was also the first to record the automatic repetition
by the subject of the movements of the operator; the recollection
when re-magnetized of what had happened in a previous somnambulic
condition, but had been forgotten in the normal interval; and he
also recorded the production of what is now known as a negative
hallucination. When he had suggested to his subject that whoever
would touch a certain candlestick would disappear from her sight,
the subject no longer saw the individual thus spirited away. But as
in the case of Puységur, so also in that of Pétetin, he became known
not for his most careful and significant observations, but for those
which administered to the love of the marvelous, and which were in
essence totally erroneous. Pétetin's contribution to the aggregate
of error in which this study was to be merged was the memorable
"transposition of the senses." The same subject who brought to his
notice the cataleptic condition led him into this extravagance. This
subject while magnetized began to sing vociferously; while engaged in
changing her position during her catalepsy, his chair slipped, and he
fell toward her, exclaiming, "Oh, how unfortunate that I cannot stop
this singing." "Oh, doctor," she replied, "do not worry, I won't
sing any more;" and she stopped at once. Presently the singing was
resumed, and no words of the doctor could stop it, until he spoke
to her in the attitude previously assumed by the accidental fall,
with his head near her stomach. In this position she heard him and
obeyed, but gave no heed to his commands when he shouted them into
her ear. And thus was originated the transposition of the senses;
for Pétetin at once concluded, in accordance with the remarkable
sensibilities attributed to somnambules, that his subject heard
through her stomach. By further experiments he became convinced
that tastes and odors could be similarly perceived, and that his
subject could read what was written on a card applied to her stomach.
He also credited the various other exalted and marvelous mental
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