Teratoscopie du fluide vital et de la mensambulance

Paris, 1822. FIRST EDITION. Contemporary gilt red sheep-backed marbled boards. Bookplate of Pierre Lambert, ex-libris inscription of Michel Collet, old manuscript notes on the flyleaves. Mild foxing, otherwise a good copy. First edition (Caillet cites the first printing as Dentu 1821, but this edition is a ghost), of this critical examination of superpowers. The author, who remained anonymous in this publication, stresses the role of “vital fluid,” an unknowable connective substance between the soul and the body that governs the human specimen.
Neither strictly spiritual or material, vital fluid conducts magnetic fields within the body and marries it to the natural world. He compares the body to a piano, wherein the music produced is vital fluid. If harnessed correctly, vital fluid can impart superhuman powers to its user. Hannapier is particularly interested in sleepwalking and miraculous cures, which he asserts are caused by manipulation of vital fluid. The last part of the book homes in on cases in which people have successfully manipulated their vital fluids and become seers, wizards, mages, and exorcists.
OCLC locates 4 copies in the U.S. (NY Acad. Of Med., MIT, NLM, Texas).
Dorbon 1441 “Ouvrage très curieux et devenu rare”; Caillet 4963.