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Mesmerism, Spiritualism, &c.: Historically & Scientifically Considered: Being Two Lectures Delivered at the London Institution, with Preface and Appendix by William B. Carpenter, published in 1889 by D. Appleton and Company, New York. A fascinating Victorian scientific examination of mesmerism, Spiritualism, trance, clairvoyance, table-turning, and other phenomena then occupying the uncertain territory between psychical research and the supernatural. Carpenter, a prominent British physician and physiologist, approaches these subjects as a skeptic, arguing that apparently paranormal manifestations could be explained through suggestion, unconscious mental processes, and involuntary physical action rather than the intervention of spirits. His interpretation became closely associated with the ideomotor principle, an important early attempt to explain such phenomena as table movement and dowsing through unconscious muscular responses. Originally delivered as lectures at the London Institution during the extraordinary nineteenth-century debate surrounding Spiritualism, the work offers a revealing contemporary view of the collision between Victorian science and widespread belief in invisible forces, mediumship, and communication with the dead. Original burgundy cloth hardcover with gilt spine lettering and light shelfwear; early owner’s fountain-pen signature and inventory notation to title page.
