Medicine in the Middle Ages: Extracts from "Le Moyen Age Medical" by Dr. Edmond Dupouy; translated by T. C. MinorDupouy, Edmond
History
Medicine in the Middle Ages: Extracts from "Le Moyen Age Medical" by Dr. Edmond Dupouy; translated by T. C. Minor
Dupouy, Edmond
Medicine, Medieval
“Under some circumstances, to the subject of which I shall, at some
future day, give more details, I have not found any of this air; but
the cold was so intense that I can only compare it to that experienced
by placing the hand at a short distance from mercury in a state of
congelation.” (_Crookes_).
I have obtained, like the eminent “member of the Royal Society of
London,” the movement of weighty bodies by contact very easily, not
only lifting massive tables of a weight altogether out of proportion
and far superior to the force of a very robust man, but have also seen
this furniture move in a given direction; I have even noted a small
square table keep time in beating with a determined cadence. This
phenomenon, well known to all experimenters, may be reproduced without
the assistance of a powerful medium; it was well known in times of
antiquity, but is not mentioned in the writings on sorcery during the
Middle Ages.
As extraordinary as these facts seem, they are no more singular than
those observed by W. Crookes, and very recently by Zoellner,[83]
Professor in the University of Leipsic and correspondent of the French
Institute, in presence of Professors Fechner, Braune, Weber, Scheibner,
and the celebrated surgeon, Thiersch. It was with Slade, an American
medium as extraordinary as Home, that Zoellner experimented. These
experiments may be thus briefly mentioned:
1. Movements made by psychic force, through the medium of Slade, of a
magnet enclosed in a compass box.
2. Blows struck on a table, a knife raised in air, without contact, to
the height of a foot.
3. Movement of heavy bodies. Zoellner’s bed was drawn two feet from the
wall, Slade remaining seated with his back to the bed, his legs covered
and in full view of the experimenters.
4. A fire-screen broken with noise, without contact with the medium,
and the fragments thrown five feet.
5. Writing produced on several experimental occasions between two
slates belonging to Zoellner, and held well in view.
6. Magnetization of a steel needle.
7. Acid reaction given to neutral substances.
8. Imprints of hands and naked feet on smoked surfaces or surfaces
powdered with flour, which did not correspond with the hands and feet
of the medium, who remained meantime in full view of the experimenters,
while Slade’s feet were covered with shoes.
9. Knots tied in bands of copper sealed at both ends and held in the
hands of Slade and Zoellner, etc.
We find the same tests and facts observed by Mr. Crookes and the French
experimenters, who, following his example, have sought to account for
_Psychic Force_.
CLASS II.—_Phenomenon of percussion and other analogous noises._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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