Personal magnetism, in the sense in which we now use it, a transference of the idea from the science of magnetics as related to the phenomena of the magnet, seems to have originated with Paracelsus. He was sure that the influence exerted over certain patients by certain physicians was due to a force very like that exerted by the magnet over iron. He was even inclined to think that magnets themselves might exert a strong potency over diseased conditions, and he found them to be useful in epilepsy. Doubtless in many cases of supposed epilepsy successfully treated the ailment was really of an hysterical nature. In these cases the strong suggestion which the use of the magnets gave for many centuries acted favorably. Agrippa.--The writings of Cornelius Agrippa, a contemporary of Paracelsus, and, like him, a student of alchemy and of the secrets of nature, contain corresponding passages which serve to show how much of interest there was in mental influence during the Renaissance. All of these men were, of course, a little outside of the ordinary medical tradition, intent on getting to realities, not being satisfied either with words or assumptions, refusing to accept many thing that the physicians of their time completely credited. Agrippa in a characteristic passage said: Our mind doth effect divers things by faith (which is a firm adhesion, a fixed intention, and a vehement application of the worker or receiver) in him that cooperates in anything, and gives power to the work which we intend to do. So that there is made in us, as it were, the image of the virtue to be received, and the thing to be done in us, or by us. We must, therefore, in every work and application of things, affect vehemently, imagine, hope and believe strongly, for that will be a great help. Van Helmont.--At the end of the sixteenth century Van Helmont, who carried on the work in pharmaceutics begun by Paracelsus, and to whom we owe the discovery of a number of substances commonly used, as well as the invention of the word "gas," was a thorough believer in the influence of mind over body and, indeed, in the existence in human beings of storehouses {16} of latent energy ordinarily unemployed, but that might under special circumstances be tapped to produce wonderful effects. Indeed, some passages remind us of Prof. James' expressions in his discussion of the law of human energy. Van Helmont said: