Mesmer said: "Animal magnetism may be accumulated, concentrated,
transported, without the aid of any intermediate body. It is reflected
like light; musical sounds propagate and augment it."

Properties so distinct, so precise, seemed as if they must be capable of
experimental verification. It was requisite, then, to be prepared for
some instance of want of success, and Mesmer took good care not to
neglect it. The following was his declaration: "Although the fluid be
universal, all animated bodies do not equally assimilate it into
themselves; there are some even, though very few in number, that by
their very presence destroy the effects of this fluid in the surrounding
bodies."

So soon as this was admitted, as soon it was allowed to explain
instances of non-success by the presence of neutralizing bodies, Mesmer
no longer ran any risk of being embarrassed. Nothing prevented his
announcing, in full security, "that animal magnetism could immediately
cure diseases of the nerves, and mediately other diseases; that it
afforded to doctors the means of judging with certainty of the origin,
the nature, and the progress of the most complicated maladies; that
nature, in short, offered in magnetism a universal means of curing and
preserving mankind."

Before quitting Vienna, Mesmer had communicated his systematic notions
to the principal learned societies of Europe. The Academy of Sciences at
Paris, and the Royal Society of London, did not think proper to answer.
The Academy of Berlin examined the work, and wrote to Mesmer that he was
in error.

Some time after his arrival in Paris, Mesmer tried again to get into