Journal du traitement magnétique de Madame B..... Pour servir de suite au journal du traitement magnétique de la D.lle N.... & de preuve à la théorie de l'essai

Strasbourg: La Librairie Académique, 1787. FIRST EDITION. Woodcut head- and tailpieces. Contemporary calf-backed marbled boards, spine label; backstrip repaired but still worn, interior excellent. Small bookplate of Dr. Chaptal on the paste-down. First edition. This work reports the results of the follow-up of the author’s attempts to formalize
the existence of the mysterious fluid which would explain the phenomena of magnetism. In 1785, Miss N., who was given only a few weeks to live, was admitted to the Place Vendôme, to Mesmer's “poor man’s bath”, a magnetic therapeutic machine, a version of which was reserved for the poor on certain days. The treatment of this patient had allowed the author, a disciple of Mesmer, to publish his Essai sur la théorie du somnambulisme magnétique (Essay on the theory of magnetic somnambulism, London, 1785), which was the first treatise to present this theory in a comprehensible manner.

Tardy de Montravel thought in fact that the sleepwalker could exercise his powers thanks to a “sixth sense” activated in the somnambulistic state. He maintained that this sixth sense came from the region of the stomach and that sleepwalkers could see and hear with their stomach.

Tardy de Montravel (1744-1805) was a commander in the army. He became a disciple of Mesmer and a recognized practitioner of therapy by the processes of magnetism.

Crabtree 173.