16. One of the principal Israelites who supported Ezra on the left while expounding the law to the people (Neh. viii, 4). B.C. cir. 410. He may have been iden- tical with No. 9, 12, 13, 14, or 1.5. He is probably the same with one of those who subscribed the sacred cov- enant on the same occasion (Neh. x, 20).
17. One of the priests Avho joined in Nehemiah's solemn bond of allegiance to Jehovah (Neh. x, 7). B.C. cir. 410. He is perhaps the same with either No. 6 or No. 7.
Meshul'lemeth (Ileb. Meshulk'meth, ni2^pp, friend; Sept. :\I f (To\\nju,Vulg. Messalemetli), the daugh- ter of Ilaruz of .lotljab ; she was the mother of king Amon, and ciiiiMfiiicnily ilie wife of Mauasseh, whom she appears in have Miixived (2 Kings xxi, 19). Her character m;i\- lie iiilcrrcl from the idolatry of her son as well as of her Imsband. B.C. 664-642.
Mesitys (^tairijc, i. e. mediator) was the name given to a presbyter while engaged in discharging the functions of the Eucharist. This was considered by the ancient Church as the highest point of a presbyter's dignity and othcc. The appellation was very properly censured by Augustine as derogating from tlie dignity and office of the true and only Mediator of the Christian covenant (Contr. I'urmen. lib. ii, c. 8 ; comp. l)e Civ. Dei, lib. ix, c. lo). This word also denoted the middle rank occupied by the presbyter between the bishop and dea- con. Sec liiddlc, Christian Antiquities (see Index).
Mesmer, Fkanz (according to others, Fuikdiuch Anton ), the founder of the doctrine of animal magnet- ism, or, as it is more generally termed, mesmerism, was born at a village near the Bodensee Jlay 23, 1733. He studied mathematics and natural science at the Jesuit school in Dillingen, and, later, medicine at the University of Vienna, and there took the degree of doctor of medi- cine in 1766. About 1772 he commenced, assisted by father Hell, to investigate the curative powers of the magnet, and was led to adopt the opinion that there exists a power similar to magnetism, which exercises an extraordinary influence on the human body. This he called animal mar/netism, and published an account of his discovery, and of its medicinal value, in 1775 : Precis liixtoriqve et faits rehilifs an maf/iii'tisme ani- mul ; and in 1776, in liis thesis, On the lujluence of the Planets on the Unman Bodij. Honors were conferred upon him in (iermany. In 1778 he "went to Paris, where he attracted much attention. His system ob- tahieil the sujiport of members of the medical jirofes- sion, as well as of otliers; but he refused two offers, one of 30,000 livrcs, and the other of 340.000 livrcs, to re- veal Ills secret; and this, combined witli other circum- stances, gave rise to suspicion, and iinUiced the French government to api)oint a commission, composed of i)liy- sicians and naturalists, among tliem Bailly, our own Frankhn, and Lavoisier, whose report was unfavorable to him. He now fell into disrepute, and after a visit to
England, retired to Meersburg, near his native place, where he spent the rest of his life in complete obscuri- ty. He died ^larch 5, 1815. See Mesmekism.
Mesmerism. I'nder this lieading we propose to consider the various phenomena which have at diflferent times been presented for public consideration under the names of Jlesnierism, A nimal Magnetism, Mat/netic Siimnamhulism, Clairroyance, etc., etc. The nature of this Cyclopcedia of course limits us in the consideration of this subject from a theological stand-point.
Animal magnetism is a supposed influence or emana- tion by means of which one person can act upon anoth- er, producing wonderful effects upon his body, and con- trolling his actions and thoughts. It was fancied to have some analogy to the magnetism of the loadstone, and hence its name. The term has been used to group together a multitude of manifestations deemed to be of a wondorfid kind, which have given rise to an amoimt of delusion and credulity hardly exemplified on any other subject. Elect ro-biologj', odylism, table-turn- ing, spirit-rapping, table-talking, spiritism, have been classed as only modifications of the same phenomena. For the sake of securing a thorough review of the va- rious phenomena which mesmerism, so called, or better, animal magnetism, has been conceived to produce in those who were brought under its influence, we divide the subject into two classes: cases which arc effected while the person operated upon remains awake, and those which take place while the patient is in a state of sleep, or in a state resembling it. These two classes of phenomena, moreover, belong to difiiercnt periods of the history of mesmerism. To those of the first class chiefly the early practitioners of this mysterious art con- fined their pretensions, and it was onlj' at a later period that the magnetizers laid claim to the power of pro- ducing those wonderful manifestations included under the second class.
Afesnierism Proper. — Anthony Blesmer, whose per- sonal historj' we have detailed above, is supposed to be the first in modern times who claimed to have dis- covered the i)roccss of healing physical derangements by the application of animal magnetism, as already defined. Many were the cures pretended to be wrought by Mesmer and his disciples, until he was suddenly checked in his auspicious career by the unfavorable re- port of the committee which the French government appointed in 1785. '-This pretended agent,"' said they, "is not magnetism; for on examining the grand reser- voir of the fluid V>y a needle and electrometer, neither magnetism nor electricity could be detected. We tried it upon ourselves and others without eflect. On blind- folding those who ])rofessed great susceptibility of its influence, all its ordinary eifects were (iroduced when nothing was done, but they imagined they were mag- netized; while none of its effects were produced when they were really magnetized, but imagined nothing was done. So also when lirought under a magnetized tree ; nothing happened if they thought they were at a dis- tance from it, while they immediately went into violent convulsions when they thought they were near the tree, though really not so. The effects, therefore," say the connnissioners, "are purely imaginary; and although they have wrought some cures, they are not with- out evil results, for the convulsions sometimes spread among the feeble of mind and body, and especially among women. And. finally, there are parts of the oper- ations wliich may readily be turned to vicious jiurposes, and in fact immoral practices have already actually grown out of tliem."