Mesmerism, Spiritualism, & etc. Historically and Scientifically considered; being two lectures delivered at the London Institution
London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1877. First Edition. Hardcover. Small octavo. xiv + 158pp + 32pp publisher's adverts. Brown cloth with gilt titling to spine, black rules and device to upper board, appendices. The author of these two lectures, William Benjamin Carpenter (1813-1885) was an English physiologist, biologist, and naturalist, long-term registrar of the University of London, and one of the founders of the modern theory of the adaptive unconscious. He was highly skeptical about Spiritualism and Mesmerism, and wrote these essays "to show, first, the relation of what seems to me essentially an Epidemic Delusion, to Epidemics, more or less similar, which have at different periods taken a strong - though transient - hold on the popular imagination: and secondly, to point out how completely the evidence adduced by the upholders of the system fails to afford a scientific proof of the existence of any new Power or Agency capable of antagonising the action of the known Forces of Nature." A well researched and fascinating, if highly critical, study. Cloth slightly rippled on upper board. Spine slightly darkened at spine. Corners, spine edges and ends a bit rubbed and bumped. Very lightly fraying to lower corners. Some bubbling to cloth on front board. Edges dusty, previous owner's names on pastedown and front endpaper, paper lightly browned at outer margins, a bit of light foxing to early and later pages, otherwise internally clean. Overall a tight, clean about VG copy. Item #34328
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