Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Theatre and Laboratory: Medical Attitudes to Animal Magnetism in Late-Nineteenth-Century Italy

  • Chapter
Studies in the History of Alternative Medicine

Part of the book series: St Antony’s/Macmillan Series ((STANTS))

Abstract

The theatre was crowded. On stage stood a large man dressed entirely in black. His face was round, not particularly attractive; but his glance was glowing, penetrating, worthy of the title with which he introduced himself: ‘il fascinatore’ — ‘the bewitcher’. With him, in front of an audience held in rapt attention, stood a group of five or six young men. Donato — this was his stage name — announced that they would feel hot and then cold. The young men started panting, they fanned their faces with handkerchiefs, wiped their foreheads and unbuttoned their clothes. Some undid their ties and their laces; some took off their waistcoats. And then, suddenly, as if shivering from cold, they scrambled for the clothes they had thrown on the floor fighting over each others’ jackets to take them back. The audience applauded.

Translated by Anna Guagnini.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. G.G. Franco, ‘L’ipnotismo tornato di moda’ La Civiltà Cattolica, 3 (1886), pp. 129–36. Another description can be found in E. Morselli, Il magnetismo animale: la fascinazione e gli stati ipnotici (Turin, 1886). For commentaries in the press, see those that appeared during Donato’s performances in Milan in 1886: Il Secolo, 27–28 May; L’Unità Cattolica, 27 May; L’Osservatore Cattolico, 26–27 May; and L’ltalia, 22–23 May. Illustrations of Donato appeared in Illustrazione Italiana, 1 (1886), p. 463.

    Google Scholar 

  2. See: Franco (note 1), esp. pp. 5–6. His many articles on the subject in La Civiltà Cattolica were republished in L’ipnotismo tomato di moda (1886, 3rd ed., enlarged, 1888). Lombroso, ‘Studi sull’ipnotismo: comunicazione preventiva’, Archivio di psichiatria, scienze penali e antropologia criminate, 7 (1886), pp. 257–81. Lombroso took part in the Catholic crusade against the use and abuse of hypnotism, in Osservatore Cattolico, 26–27 May 1886.

    Google Scholar 

  3. See, for example, A. Donati, I misteri svelati dell’ipnotismo, Guida pratica per magnetizzatori (Rome, 1886); G. Mangini, Le meraviglie dell’ipnotismo. Sommario dei principali fenomeni del sonnambulismo provocato e metodi di sperimentazione (Turin, 1887); R. Pirro, I fenomeni dell’ipnotismo e della suggestione (Milan, n.d.).

    Google Scholar 

  4. See also, Lombroso, ‘Sulle proibizioni degli spettacoli ipnotici’, Archivio di psichiatria, 7 (1886), pp. 504–5; and A. Mosso, ‘Fisiologia e patologia dell’ipnotismo’, Nuova Antologia, 3rd ser., 21 (1886), pp. 56–74.

    Google Scholar 

  5. On Morselli, and for a bibliography of his works, see P. Guarnieri, Individualité difformi: La psichiatria antropologica di Enrico Morselli (Milan, 1986); and idem, ‘Between Soma and Psyche: Morselli and Italian Psychiatry in the Late Nineteenth Century’, in W.F. Bynum et al. (eds), The Anatomy of Madness, vol. 3 (London/New York, forthcoming).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Lombroso was certainly not happy, however, that the much sought after chair of psychiatry in Turin went to Morselli, a younger man who had emerged from the school of Reggio Emilia, directed by Carlo Livi, which was critical of the schematic doctrines of criminal anthropology. It is not necessary to recall here that, despite Lombroso’s fame in Italy and abroad, neither anthropology nor psychiatry in Italy were entirely ‘Lombrosian’. On Lombroso see: L. Bulferetti, Cesare Lombroso (Turin, 1975); G. Colombo, La scienza infelice (Turin, 1975); and R. Villa, Il déviante e i suoi segni: Lombroso e l’origine dell’ antropologia criminate in Italia (Milan, 1985).

    Google Scholar 

  7. See Morselli, Psicologia e spiritismo. Impressioni e note critiche sui fenomeni medianici di Eusapia Paladino (Turin, 1908) 2 vols.; and Lombroso, Ricerche sui fenomeni ipnotici e spiritici (Turin, 1909), part 2.

    Google Scholar 

  8. For a useful bibliography on animal magnetism and spiritualism arranged according to given interpretations (to 1907), see E. Morselli, Psicologia e spiritismo (note 10), vol. 1, pp. xiii–xlvii, and vol. 2, pp. v–xvi.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Among the more important of several reconstructions of Italian positivism by persons more or less involved with it, see: F. De Sarlo, Studi sulla filosofia contemporanea. Prolegomeni, la ‘filosofia scientifica’ (Rome, 1901), esp. pp. 163–241; L. Limentani, ‘Il positivismo italiano’, Logos, 7 (1924), pp. 1–38; G. Gentile, Storia della filosofia italiana, new edn. with an introduction by E. Garin (Florence, 1969), vol. 2, pp. 230–436. For a general view of Italian culture during the years of state unification, see A. Asor Rosa, ‘La cultura’, in Storia d’Italia, vol. 4, Dall’Unità a oggi (Turin, 1975), chapters 1–3. For the intellectual climate of Turin in this period, see C. Pogliano, ‘Mondo accademico, intellettuali e questione sociale dall’Unità alla guerra mondiale’, in A. Agosti and G.M. Bravo (eds), Storia del movimento operaio, del socialismo e delle lotte sociali in Piemonte (Bari, 1979), vol. 1, pp. 477–544; and P. Guarnieri, ‘“La volpe e l’uva”: cultura scientifica e filosofia nel positivismo italiano’, Physis, 25 (1983), pp. 601–36.

    Google Scholar 

  10. For a parody of a somnambulist operating in the Piazza Pepe in Rome, listen to the recording ‘La sonnambula abruzzese’ by Ettore Petrolini on his album Melanconie petroliniane (EMI, 1972). See also, C. Gallini, La sonnambula meravigliosa: magnetismo e ipnotismo nell’Ottocento italiano (Milan, 1983), pp. 130–2.

    Google Scholar 

  11. See: Lombroso, ‘Inchiesta sulla trasmissione del pensiero’, Archivio di psichiatria, 12 (1891), p.98; and Morselli, Il magnetismo animale (note 1), pp. 5 and 213.

    Google Scholar 

  12. See: D. Zanardelli, La verità sull’ipnotismo, Rivelazioni (Rome, 1886), with a portrait of Emma; and G. Belfiore, ‘Il fenomeno del transferto’, Tribuna giudiziaria, 3, no. 20 (1889), p. 158 and no. 26 (1889), pp. 198ff On the various professionals of ‘the marvellous’ on stage, see L. Stefanoni, Magnetismo e ipnotismo svelati. Storia critica (Rome, 1889).

    Google Scholar 

  13. See, ‘Donato e il Consiglio Superiore di Sanità’, Giornale di Neuro-patologia, 4 (1886), p. 134.

    Google Scholar 

  14. For an overview, see L. Leppo, ‘Hypnotism in Italy, 1800–1900’, in E.J. Dingwall (ed.), Abnormal Hypnotic Phenomena (London, 1968), vol. 3, pp. 138–89.

    Google Scholar 

  15. A. Mosso, ‘Mesmer e il magnetismo’, in La vita italiana durante la rivoluzione francese e l’Impero, proceedings of a conference held in Florence in 1896 (Milan, 1925; 1st ed., 1897), pp. 57–95.

    Google Scholar 

  16. See Angelo Cogevina and Francesco Orioli, Fatti relativi a mesmerismo e cure mesmeriche (Corfu, 1842). Five years later G. Pellegrino published, pseudonymously (under ‘L. Verati’), Cenni critici alle osservazioni ed esperienze intorno al metodo dell’assopimento animale e umano …[as practiced by Doctor Geminiano Grimelli, professor of pathology at Modena] (Florence, 1847); see also G. Nani, Trattato teorico-pratico di magnetismo animale (Turin, 1850). F. Guidi, Trattato teorico-pratico di magnetismo animale (Milan, 1854); and idem, Il magnetismo animale secondo le leggi della natura e principalmente diretto alla cura delle malattie (Milan, 1860). On Guidi, see Gallini (note 15), pp. 90–5.

    Google Scholar 

  17. In his preface (pp. v–x), Lombroso admitted that scientists needed to lower their heads and recognise the importance of the behaviour manifested by some magnetisers as well as the curative effects of some homoeopaths. See also, G. Campili, Il grande ipnotismo e la suggestione pratica nei rapporti col diritto penale e civile (Turin, 1886); and C. Conca, Isterismo e ipnotismo. Manuale ad uso degli studenti e dei medici pratici (Naples, 1888).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Cf. Robert Fuller, Mesmerism and the American Cure of Souls (Philadelphia, 1982); and Heinz Schott (ed.), Franz Anton Mesmer Und Die Geschichte Des Mesmerismus (Stuttgart, 1985).

    Google Scholar 

  19. Writers and physicists can also be numbered among those involved. Antonio Fogazzaro, for example, affirmed that his novel Malombra (1881) had originated from a period of immersion in the occult (see, T. Gallarati-Scotti, La vita di Antonio Fogazzaro [Milan, 1920], pp. 86–90); an interesting example of a physicist involved with both animal magnetism and spiritualism is Enrico Dal Pozzo di Mombello, an ex-Barnabite priest whom the Inquisition forced into exile because of his explicitly pantheistic ideas (see his Il magnetismo animale considerato secondo le leggi della natura [Siena, 1852], L’Universo invisibile [Perugia, 1864], and Trattato pratico di magnetismo animale [Foligno, 1869]).

    Google Scholar 

  20. For example, this appeal was made in relation to the case of a fourteen year old girl and patient of his who, during hysteric fits, claimed to be able to smell through her heel and to see through her left earlobe: Lombroso, ‘Sull’azione del magnete e sulla trasposizione dei sensi nell’isterismo’, Archivio di psichiatria, 3 (1882), pp. 220ff.

    Google Scholar 

  21. See Vizioli, ‘Relazione sull’operato del Consiglio Superiore di Sanità intorno le esperienze di ipnotismo nei pubblici spettacoli’, Giornale di Neuropatologia, 4 (1886), p. 136. (Vizioli was the director of this journal.)

    Google Scholar 

  22. See A. Binet, ‘E. Morselli, Il magnetismo animale’, Revue Philosophique, 12 (1887), pp. 423–26.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Ibid., chapters 2 and 3. Among Italian studies were: G. Buccola and G. Seppilli, ‘Sulle modificazioni sperimentali della sensibilità e sulla teorie relative’, Rivista sperimentale di freniatria e di medicina legale, 6 (1880), pp. 107–25; G. Buccola, ‘Sui fenomeni e sulla natura dell’ipnotismo’, Rivista di filosofia scientifica, 1 (1881–2), pp. 201–7; A. De Giovanni, ‘Alcune risultanze terapeutiche ottenute mediante l’ipnotismo’, Gazzetta Medica Italiana-Provincie Venete, 25 (1882), pp. 343–4; Lombroso, Studi sull’ipnotismo, con ricerche oftalmoscopiche del Prof. Reymond e dei Prof. Bianchi e Sommer (Turin, 1882); Morselli and E. Tanzi, ‘Contributo sperimentale alla fisiopsicologia dell’ipnotismo’, Rivista di filosofia scientifica, 8 (1889), pp. 705–29; Lombroso and S. Ottolenghi, Nuovi studi sull’ipnotismo e sulla crédibilité (Turin, 1889); G. Seppilli, ‘Gli studi recenti sul cosi detto magnetismo animale’, Rivista sperimentale di freniatria e di medicina, 6 (1880), pp. 337–44, 7 (1881), pp. 106–40, and pp. 308–9; idem, ‘I fenomeni di suggestione nel sonno ipnotico e nella veglia. Rassegna’, ibid., 11 (1885), pp. 325–50; A. Tamburini, ‘Sulla natura dei fenomeni somatici nell’ipnotismo’, ibid., 16 (1890), pp. 147–74; A. Tamburini and G. Seppilli, ‘Contribuzione allo studio sperimentale dell’ipnotismo’, ibid., 7 (1881), pp. 261–300 and 8 (1882), pp. 268–307, 392–414.

    Google Scholar 

  24. See R. Ardigò, ‘L’equivoco dell’inconscio di alcuni moderni’, Rivista di filosofia scientifica, 7 (1888), pp. 1–14. On Ardigò’s La psicologia come scienza positiva (1870), see W. Büttemeyer, Roberto Ardigd e la psicologia moderna (Florence, 1969).

    Google Scholar 

  25. Though this was specifically an attack on Charcot, it applied to all organicists and somaticists. Written in support of the Nancy School, was his ‘Contributo critico sperimentale alla fisiopsicologia della suggestione’, Rivista di filosofia scientifica, 9 (1890), pp. 513–47.

    Google Scholar 

  26. See the brief account of the interview given by Donato, in F. Vizioli (note 27), pp. 138–9, where reference is made to Donato, ‘Introduction presentante le tableau permanent des découvertes et des progrès’, Revue des sciences physio-psychologiques, 10 February 1886 (also referred to in Franco, ‘L’ipnotismo’ [note 1]); and ‘Discours de Donato’, Congrès international de magnétisme humain (Paris, 1890), pp. 427–42. On Donato in France, see R. Harris, ‘Murder Under Hypnosis’, in W.F. Bynum et al (eds), The Anatomy of Madness, vol. 2 (London/New York, 1985) pp. 227–8.

    Google Scholar 

  27. See Morselli, L’idroterapia nell’isterismo. Osservazioni e note cliniche (Turin, 1887).

    Google Scholar 

  28. Lombroso, ‘L’ipnotismo e gli stati affini’, Archivio di psichiatria, 9 (1888), pp. 198–9; and, with S. Ottolenghi, Nuovi studi (note 33).

    Google Scholar 

  29. Morselli, ‘Osservazioni critiche sul neomisticismo psicologico. I fenomeni telepatici e le allucinazioni veridiche’, Archivio per l’antropologia e l’etnologia, 26 (1896), pp. 183–236, memorial presented to the Italian Society of Anthropology directed in Florence by Paolo Mantegazza (who had already been generally critical of Lombroso). Morselli’s essay contained bitter comments on Lombroso (for example, p. 184) to which the spiritualist Count Baudi di Vesme objected: ‘A proposito dell’opuscolo “I fenomeni telepatici” del Prof. Morselli’, Archivio di psichiatria, 18 (1897), pp. 261–5.

    Google Scholar 

  30. ‘L’ipnotismo e lo spiritismo e la parola di Lodge’, Archivio di psichiatria, 12 (1891), pp. 580–5. Referring to and quoting from members of the Society for Psychical Research in London (such as Oliver Lodge) became a way of legitimating opinions on spiritualism. The Society’s existence was also another reason for being interested in spiritualist phenomena. On the Society for Psychical Research, see A. Gauld, The Founders of Psychical Research (London, 1968); Janet Oppenheim, The Other World: spiritualism and psychical research in England, 1850–1914 (Cambridge, 1985) and J.P. Williams, ‘Psychical Research and Psychiatry in Late Victorian Britain’, in Bynum et al. (note 39), vol. 1, pp. 232–54.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Morselli, La psicanalisi. Studi e appunti critici (Turin, 1926), 2 vols.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Morselli, Manuale di semejotica delle malattie mentali, vol.1: Guida alla diagnosi della pazzia per i medici e i medico legisti e gli studenti (Milan, 1885), vol. 2: Esame psicologico (Milan, 1894); and see, Introduzione alle lezioni di psicologia patologica e clinica psichiatrica (Turin, 1881). See also, P. Guarnieri, ‘Soma and Psyche’ (note 8).

    Google Scholar 

  33. Morselli, ‘Cesare Lombroso e la filosofia scientifica’, in a volume by various authors, L’opera di Cesare Lombroso nella scienza e nelle sue applicazioni (Turin, 1906), pp. 354–84.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Lombroso, Ricerche sui fenomeni (note 10); idem, After Death — What? Spiritualistic phenomena and their interpretation (Boston, 1909); and Cesare Lombroso’s Great Work. After Death — What?, abridged by Mrs Marson (London and Manchester, 1910). Lombroso first met Paladino in Naples in 1891. As a positivist, he felt unable to avoid the repeated invitations to investigate the séance phenomena for himself. No serious attention has been paid to Lombroso’s interest in spiritualism.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Patrizia Guarnieri
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, University of Manchester, UK

    Roger Cooter (Senior Research Fellow) (Senior Research Fellow)

Copyright information

© 1988 Roger Cooter

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Guarnieri, P. (1988). Theatre and Laboratory: Medical Attitudes to Animal Magnetism in Late-Nineteenth-Century Italy. In: Cooter, R. (eds) Studies in the History of Alternative Medicine. St Antony’s/Macmillan Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19606-7_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19606-7_7

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-19608-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-19606-7

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation