self evidence

Self Evidence
Author(s): Simon Schaffer

Source: Critical Inquiry, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Winter, 1992), pp. 327-362
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1343787
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Self Evidence
Simon Schaffer
To turnand fix ... ones attentionupon oneself,is not perhapsitself

entirelywithoutits effects.There is so intimatea connection ...
betweenthevolitionsof the soul and themotionsof thebody,thatitis
not easy to prescribelimitsto the influenceof attention.... The first
thingtherefore,to whichthe commissionerswere bound to attend,
was not to observe too minutelywhat passed withinthem.
-Report of theCommissioners on AnimalMagnetism,1785
There seems to be an importanthistoricalconnexionbetweenchangesin

the concept of evidence and that of the person capable of giving evi-
dence. Michel Foucault urged that during the classicalage the relation-
ship betweenevidence and the personwas reversed:scholasticismderived
statements'authorityfromthatof theirauthors,whilescientistsnow hold
that mattersof factare the most impersonalof statements.'In a similar
vein,Ian Hacking definesa kindof evidence which'consistsin one thing
pointingbeyonditself',and claimsthatuntilthe earlymodernperiod 'tes-
timonyand authoritywere primary,and thingscould count as evidence
onlyinsofaras theyresembledthe witnessof observersand the authority
of books'.2 This capturesa ratherfamiliarthemeof the ideologyof early
modern natural philosophy.Nullius in verba was the Royal Society of
1. See Michel Foucault, L'Ordre du discours:Lecon inaugurale au Collegede France

prononceele 2 decembre1970 (Paris, 1971).
2. Ian Hacking, The EmergenceofProbability:A PhilosophicalStudyofEarlyIdeas about
Inductionand StatisticalInference(Cambridge, 1975), pp. 34, 33.
Probability,
CriticalInquiry 18 (Winter 1992)

? 1992 by The Universityof Chicago. 0093-1896/92/1802-0007$01.00. All rightsreserved.
327
328 SimonSchaffer SelfEvidence
London's motto. Robert Boyle,doyen of the Society'sexperimentalphi-

losophers,triedto build up thecreditof laboratoryobjectsat the expense
of untrustworthy humans.He reckonedthat'inanimatebodies ... are not
capable of prepossessions,or givingus partialinformations', while'vulgar
men may be influencedby predispositions,and so many other circum-
stances,that theymay easilygive occasion to mistakes'.So an inanimate
body's deeds could functionas signsof some otherstateof affairsin a way
that the storiesof vulgar humans could not.3
Not all were so condemned. The vulgarcould not be trustedto know
themselves,but a privilegedgroup was potentiallycapable of givingevi-
dence. Its formationwas of fundamentalsignificanceforthe conduct of
natural philosophy.This paper explores this collectivebody of reliable
providersof evidence. Two notionsof evidence were in playhere. Hack-
ing picksout one of these: evidence as a gesturebeyondthe factto some
otherstateof affairs.But evidence also carriesthe rhetoricalsense of viv-
idness,a gesturewhichrefersto theimmediateappeal of thefactitself.An
earlyuse of evidence as self-reference is to be foundin Boyle's Occasional
Reflectionsupon Several Subjects(1665). The book gathered togethera
seriesof essayswhichBoylebegan in the 1640s. Drawingbothon the liter-
ature of Anglican apologetics and on the courtesyliteratureof polite
performance,Boyle set out a programme for the contemplationand
transcriptionof commonplace and artificial experiences viewed as
emblems.The metaphorof the inscription,of hieroglyphics, was funda-
mental.In the imaginedsolitudeof his laboratory,Boyle was able to read
and then writedown the meaningsof God's nature. Hence self-evidence
became a primaryqualityof the Christianvirtuoso'sworld,both because
he could descrythe meaningsof nature'ssignsand because in so doing he
fashionedhis moral character.One such meditationwas transcribedat
Leighs Priory,the house of his pious sisterMary Rich, where he kepta
glowwormin a crystalglass. Boyle's meditationprompted the thought
thatthecreature'slighthad been itsundoing,sinceotherwiseitwould not
have been shut up. So great wit was oftena burden, for 'Men allow ...
muchpraise,but littleRest'. But italso suggestedthe impossibility of con-
finingtruth: 'thereare certainTruths, that have in themso much of native
3. Quoted in Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer, Leviathan and the Air Pump
(Princeton,N.J., 1985), p. 218. See also Peter Dear, 'Totiusin verba:Rhetoricand Authority
in the Early Royal Society', Isis 76 (June 1985): 145-61.
SimonSchafferlecturesin historyand philosophyat theUniversity

of Cambridge.He is thecoauthor(withStevenShapin)ofLeviathan and
theAirPump:Hobbes, Boyle,and the Life(1985)
Experimental and coauthor
(withDavidGoodingand TrevorPinch)ofTheUsesofExperiment: Studies
in theNaturalSciences(1989).
CriticalInquiry Winter1992 329
Light or Evidence, that ... in spightof Prisons,it shines freely'.4Self-

evidence emerged in companywiththe transitionfromprivacyto public-
ity,frommeditationto reputation.
Boyle helped definethe differencebetweenthe falselightof Wit,the
delusions of the Vulgar,and the true lightof Philosophy.True philoso-
phersknewthemselves.They could be trustedto tell whathad happened
to them.Since the Fall,men's senseshad been dimmed.Experimentalphi-
losophycould restoreknowledgeto itsprelapsarianstate.This was espe-
ciallyapparent when naturalphilosophersprofferedtheirown bodies in
evidence. They oftendid. They blinded themselveswithsunlight,gassed
themselvesinto states of ecstasyand insensibility, and electrifiedtheir
limbs into paralysisor spasm. In celebrated episodes of the 1660s, for
example, Isaac Newton poked brass plates and bodkinsbetweenhis eye-
ball and the bone to test the relation between will and vision; Arthur
Coga, a 'veryfreakishand extravagant'Cambridge divinitystudent,was
paid a guinea so that fellowsof the Royal Societycould transfusetwelve
ounces of sheep's blood intohisveins,and in returripresentedthemwitha
Latin account of his experience.5The aim was to establishmattersof fact
in optics,physiology, This enterpriseof experi-
pneumatics,or electricity.
mentationon the selfraisesinterestingquestionsabout the polityof natu-
ral philosophy.Experimenters' bodies were integrated into collective
bodies of practitioners.They were equipped withthe technologiesof in-
strumentation,literaryreportage, and social organisation to warrant
reportsof artificialexperience.
In his account of the fortunesof the body as a site of knowledge,
Foucault suggestedthatinsteadof viewingknowledgesolelyas the result
of subjects'activityone could documentthe processeswhichinvestedthe
bodyand determinedthe formsof knowledgeto whichitwas subject.The
paper which followscan be seen as a contributionto this 'politicalanat-
omy' of experimentalphilosophy.6Here evidence is treatedboth as the
resultof certaintheatricalritualsthroughwhichthe personof the experi-
menterwas integratedinto public performances,and also as the resultof
the accreditationof experimenters'storiesby the public communityof
naturalphilosophy.Bodies are treatedboth as the objectson whichexper-
imentersworkedand as the collectiveto whichtheybelonged and from
4. Robert Boyle, OccasionalReflectionsupon SeveralSubjectswitha Discourseaboutsuch

kindofthoughts (1665; Oxford, 1848), p. 310. For the backgroundto thistext,see Shapin,
"'The Mind Is Its Own Place": Science and Solitude in Seventeenth-Century England',Sci-
encein Context4 (Spring 1991): 143-70. For evidence as vividness,see Carlo Ginzburg,
'Montrer et citer: La VWritede l'histoire',Le Debat 56 (Sept.-Oct. 1989): 43-54.
5. For Newton, see J. E. McGuire and Martin Tamny,CertainPhilosophicalQuestions:
Newton'sTrinity Notebook(Cambridge, 1983), pp. 438, 482. For Coga, see Marjorie Hope
Nicolson,Pepys'Diaryand theNewScience(Charlottesville,Va., 1965), pp. 77-82, 167-69.
6. Foucault, Disciplineand Punish: TheBirthofthePrison,trans. Alan Sheridan (1975;
Harmondsworth,1979), p. 28.
whichtheydrewauthority.These linksbetweenthe privacyof the experi-

mental trialon the individualbody and the public warrantof collective
authoritycan be clarifiedthroughthe concept of evidentialcontext, the
proper implications of some trial.7Experimenters who used their own
bodies tried to shiftthe evidentialcontextfromthe body itselfto some
wider naturalphilosophicalconcern. The episodes consideredbelow are
Stephen Gray's effortsin the 1730s to build an electricalmodel of the
solar system;Italian work of the 1740s to demonstratethe diffusionof
medicinalfluidsthroughelectrifiedglasstubes;and Parisiancommissions
of the 1780s on animal magnetism.Evidentialcontextsfor these trials
included the motionsof the planets or of universallydiffusedelectrical
and magneticfluids.Criticswho denied these implicationstriedto shift
the evidentialcontextback to theexperimenter'sbody.Trialswhichsome
reckoned revealed truthsabout the universewere judged by others to
reveal much about the movementsof Gray'shands, Italian servingmen's
bellies, or Charles Deslon's eyes. Stabilizingan evidentialcontextrelied
on thepowerand authorityof thecollectivebodyof experimentalphiloso-
phy.Winningthatbody'sassentwas a conditionof makingevidence. I will
close witha briefaccount of the fateof these trialsafterthe transforma-
tion of the collectiveat the end of the ancienregime.If the politicsof the
King's body was a victimof thattransformation, so too was the courtcul-
ture of the corporationsof naturalphilosophers.We see a shiftfromthe
ritualsof publicperformancetowardsthefigureof thedisembodiedscien-
tificgenius; and we see the new insistenceon the importanceof self-
registeringmaterialdevices and instrumentation. These two changes are
associated witheach other. The disembodimentof the scientistand the
embodimentof skillwithinthescientificinstrument are bothresultsof the
of
process making evidence out of the person of the experimenter.
The GesturesofExperiment
In early modern naturalphilosophy,the managementof the practi-
tioner's body was involvedin the establishmentof his credit. Trust and
honour developed throughthe face-to-faceinteractionsof thispatrician
culturewere immenselydependenton the apparentlytrivialand superfi-
cial marksof comportmentand behaviour.NorbertElias remindsus that
the societyof ordersbred an 'extraordinarily sensitivefeelingforthe sta-
tusand importancethatshould be attributedto a personin societyon the
basis of his bearing,speech, manneror appearance'. He also argues that
this culture of restraintand self-controlaccompanied the emergence of
7. See Trevor J. Pinch, 'Towards an Analysis of Scientific Observation: The

Externalityand EvidentialSignificanceof Observational Reportsin Physics',Social Studies
ofScience 15 (Feb. 1985): 3-35.
the modern polity.Good societyprovided manypublic and privatesites

where,accordingto Elias, members''individualmarketvalue, theirrepu-
tations,their prestige,in a word their personal social power ... were
exalted, abased or lost'.8 Natural philosopherscould help themselvesto
thesecodes to showhow to interprettheirperformances.They paid much
attentionto the meansby whichexperimentstriedin privatespaces,back-
stage,could be made to transitto the public settingsof politeculture.Pri-
vacywas suspectand the stagewas littlebetter.Distinctionsbetweentrials
and showsmatteredmostin a naturalphilosophymuchaddicted to histri-
onics. The comparisonwiththe dress codes of the stage is close. In mid-
eighteenth-century plays,public dress was customaryeven in allegedly
privatescenes, while plebeian costume was typicallydisplaced by a more
fancifuland pastoralcostumeeven forservantsand the urban poor. What
seemed mostintimatemightbe seen as publicaction.Humble actorscould
be representedas public personages.9Hence the forceof Montesquieu's
joke in Lettrespersanes(1721) thatwhilein a theatre'the mainactionis on
a platform,called the stage',yetin the boxes too one could see 'men and
womenactingout scenes together'and 'eventuallyeveryonegoes offto a
room wheretheyact a special sortof play:it beginswithbows and contin-
ues with embraces.... The place seems to breed affection'.01
Thus culturalconventionsdid not provide unambiguousinstruction
fornatural philosophersaimingat the productionof credit.There were
no universallyeffectivemeans for reading bodilygesture.Early modern
genteel bodies were treated as objects to be decorated in a deceitfulor
playfulmanner;judgment of others' statuswas persistently subvertedin
masquerades, streets,and courts. Terry Castle pointsout that 'masquer-
ade dress demystifiedthe sartorialcode by exposing its arbitrariness'."
Criticsof the Georgian theatre,such as theJacobitepoet and physician
John Byromand his friendthe novelistand printerSamuel Richardson,
were also hostile to the theatricalityof experimental philosophy.
Richardson condemned the lecturers'audiences as 'gay people, who, if
they have white teeth, hear [the lecturer] with open mouths, though
perhaps shut hearts'. Byrom also focussed on the physiognomyof per-
formance.In 1746 he composed a vicioussatireof contemporaryefforts
to encode the means actors should use to representemotion, efforts
which Byrom reckoned were designed to show 'the muscular Effectof
Thought / In Looks and Features,Nervesand Sinews,wrought,-/ For
8. NorbertElias, TheCourtSociety,trans.EdmundJephcott(Oxford, 1983), pp. 55, 96.

9. See Shapin, 'The House of Experimentin Seventeenth-CenturyEngland', Isis 79
(Sept. 1988): 373-404.
10. Montesquieu, Persian Letters,trans. C. J. Betts (1721; Harmondsworth,1973),
p. 79. See also Richard Sennett, The Fall ofPublicMan: TheForcesErodingPublicLifeand
BurdeningtheModernPsychewithRolesIt CannotPerform (New York, 1977), pp. 65-72, 110.
11. Terry Castle, Masquerade and Civilization:The Carnivalesquein Eighteenth-Century
EnglishCultureand Fiction(London, 1986), p. 57.
what?To teach hisBuskin-footedFools / How to belie theirWantof Sense

by Rules!'12Public fascinationwiththe artsof physiognomy, especiallyin
the versionpropounded by the SwisspastorJohannLavater,was a conse-
quence of, and a contributionto, this trouble of recognition.Lavater's
friendlysatirist,the natural philosopher and dramatic critic Georg
Lichtenberg,wrotepithilyin the late 1760s of the linkbetweenmagnetic,
ideographic,and physiognomicsigns:'We can see nothingwhateverof the
soul unlessitis visiblein theexpressionof thecountenance;one mightcall
the facesat a large assemblyof people a historyof the humansoul written
in a kindof Chinese ideograms.As themagnetarrangesironfilings,so the
soul arranges around itselfthe facial features'.'3
Analogies between these puzzles of public expressionand the com-
monplaces of eighteenth-century experimentalphilosophywere ubiqui-
tous. Thus Jean-GeorgesNoverre, a collaborator of David Garrick at
Drury Lane in the 1750s, wrotethatactorsmust'trap the public withthe
forceof illusion',whileat the same timethe 'truth... whichcharacterises
the great Actor ... is, ifI mayso expressmyself,the image of the electric
shock:itis a firewhichis rapidlycommunicated,whichinstantly embraces
the spectators'imagination'.'4There was a complex relationshipbetween
the discourseof public illusionand thatof public experiment.Showmen
deployed theirwares,such as electricfire,in the marketplaceof natural
philosophy,makingthem evident by multiplyingthe places where they
could appear and performreliably.BenjaminMartin,a leadingpubliclec-
turer,and manylikehim made such entitiesreal bydistributing the prac-
tices and instrumentswhich could realise them. Martin promised his
audience a visit'to a Gentleman'sHouse, who has a properapparatusfor
thatpurpose,and willbe extremelypleased withan Opportunityto satisfy
your Curiosity,in a most entertainingand innocent Manner.... These
Things maypossiblysaluteyourEyesand Ears at thesame Time as youare
sittingwithhimat the Tea-Table'.'5 The new instrumentation of the mid-
eighteenthcenturyincluded the high-poweredglass globes or cylinders
rotated against the hand or a leather stop to excite them; the so-called
12. Samuel Richardson,Correspondence, ed. Anna Laetitia Barbauld, 6 vols. (London,

1804), 3:319; John Byrom,'The Art of Acting', 11. 15-18, ThePoemsofJohnByrom, ed. A.
W. Ward, 2 vols. (Manchester, 1894-95), 1:261.
13. Georg Lichtenberg,Aphorisms, trans.and ed. R. J. Hollingdale (Harmondsworth,
1990), p. 31. For Lavater's debate withLichtenberg,see Johann Lavater,'Remarks on an
Essay upon Physiognomy',Essays on Physiognomy, 7th ed. (1793-94; London, 1850),
pp. 266-92.
14. Jean-GeorgesNoverre,Lettressur la danse etsur les ballets(Lyon, 1760), pp. 285-
86; myemphasis;all translationsmyown except wherenoted. See also Marian Hobson, The
ObjectofArt:TheTheoryoflllusionin Eighteenth-CenturyFrance(Cambridge, 1982), pp. 194-
97, and Leigh Woods, GarrickClaimstheStage:Actingas Social Emblemin Eighteenth-Century
England (Westport,Conn., 1984), p. 95.
15. Benjamin Martin,The YoungGentleman and Lady'sPhilosophy, 2d ed., 2 vols. (1759;
London, 1772), 1:318-19.
Leydenjar, a glassbottlefilledwithwaterwhichcould receivethe electric

fluidand give offshockswhen held in the hand; or the orrery,an elegant
machine whichdisplayedthe motionsof the heavenlybodies. Domestica-
tionof such machinesin salonsand schoolroomswas alwaysdifficult.Cus-
tomersand studentshad to indulgein new bodilyroutinesiftheywished
to repeat the public experimentalshows.The mathematicsteacherJohn
Ryland proposed 'a livingorrery,made withsixteenschool-boys',substi-
tutinghuman bodies for the metallicmodels of celestialones. 'Half an
hour spentin thisplay once a week willin the compass of a year fixsuch
clear and sure ideas of the solar systemas theycan neverforgetto the last
hour of life'.16 Ryland's scheme was characteristicof a culture which
linkedthe disciplinedbody and the disciplinedunderstanding.Electrical
philosophersmade the same pointbecause electricalshowsofteninvolved
remarkable bodily gestures. The prominent Parisian lecturer Jean
Antoine Nollet described 'beatifying when sparkswere drawn
electricity',
fromvictims'hair; the fashionableGentleman'sMagazine carried stories
'that a lady's finger,that her whale-bone petticoat,should send forth
flashesof true lightening,and thatsuch charminglips could set on firea
house'. 'Brilliantassemblies'were supposed to witnessnew electricaldis-
playswhichwould workonlyifsubjectscarefullyfollowedthe instructions
philosophersproposed for their bodies."7
A range of troublesgoverned the abilityof electricalperformersto
manage and replicate their public trials. First,enculturation:the trials
were fragileand dependenton the experimenter'sbody.In the 'beatifica-
tion' theinsulatedsubjectwas to sitexactlybeneatha pointedmetalcrown
underan electrifiedplate. In the 'electricalVenus' a numberofelectrified
suitorswerearrangedroundan insulatedlady: 'each personshouldbend a
littleforwards,and lean theirheads towardsthe same shoulder so as to
preventany other parts beside the lips coming withinthe sphere of the
electricaleffluvia'.Nollet statedthatin trialson theeffectof electricity
on
perspiration one must make sure that 'the people one uses are alwaysin
the same circumstances,thattheymaintaina uniformdiet, thattheyare
weighedand electrifiedat the same hour forthe same period of time'.18
All thislooked like artifice.Electricalfirewould become natural only if
these patternsof conduct could become tacit,and understood as self-
evident. This is a familiarlesson of recent sociologyof scientificknowl-
16. John Ryland,An Easy Introduction toMechanics,Geometry, Plane Trigonometry, Mea-

suringHeightsand Distances,Optics,Astronomy (London, 1768), pp. xix, xxi-xxii.
17. Jean Antoine Nollet to E. F. Dutour, 27 Apr. 1745; quoted inJ. L. Heilbron, Elec-
in theSeventeenth
tricity and Eighteenth Centuries:A StudyofEarlyModernPhysics(Berkeley,
1979), p. 282; [Albrechtvon Haller], 'An historicalaccount of the wonderfuldiscoveries,
made in Germany,etc. concerningElectricity',Gentleman's Magazine 15 (Apr. 1745): 194.
18. John Neale, Directions
for Gentlemen whohaveElectricalMachines(London, 1747),
sur les causesparticulieres
p. 30; Nollet, Recherches des phenomeneselectriques(Paris, 1749),
pp. 386-87.
edge. The repetitionof a trial relies on the transmissionof craftskills

whichcannot be completelyspecifiedin explicitinstructions and mustbe
acquired throughsharedculture.The purveyorsofelectricalexperiments
needed to propagate a new cultural practice in which strange bodily
deportmentcould be learntand thenjudged natural.They could not rely
on formalrules alone.
Second, calibration:the tenetsof thisshared culturewere challenged
whenreplicationwas troubled.A reliableexperimentdepended on a com-
petentperformance.The criterionof such competencewasjust the right
outcome of the trial.But oftentrialswere staged to check what the out-
come should be. When the outcome was in question,there could be no
unambiguouscriterionof adequate replication.This is whatH. M. Collins
calls the 'experimentersregress'."9The regresscould be closed by cali-
bratingthe experimentalsetup. This would give an independentindica-
tion of the competence of some trial. Calibration worked because the
culture supplied a similarityrelation between a surrogatephenomenon
and the phenomenonin question.Electricalcalibrationsreliedon specific
bodily skills.A mid-eighteenth-century electricianknewthata body was
electrifiedif he could draw a spark via his finger.He followedthe fire's
path by tracingthe shock throughhis body. Self-inspectionwas crucial:
the Surreydivine Henry Miles noticed that if someone approached 'the
electrifiedPerson withhis Hand near his Shoulder,the said Gentleman
felta verypungent Stroke on his Flesh, thro' his Coat and Waistcoat'.
Miles's colleagues worked out ways of calibratingthe 'Stroke' so as to
judge likenessesbetweenvaryingtrials.20So theelectrician'sbodybecame
an instrumenton whichsurrogatephenomenaforthe unknownelectrical
fire could be played out.
Third, ontology:these techniques were underwrittenby electrical
ontology,since it was widelyagreed that electricalfluidsgoverned the
behaviour of living matter.This reflexivityis a commonplace. Instru-
ments'creditis builtup by suggestingthattheirstructurematchesthatof
the nature to be investigated.Ontologies support practiceswhen users
indicatethatsome artificeis a good model of a naturalsystem;practices
supportontologieswhen it is argued thatthisartificegivesreliableinfor-
mationabout thatsystem.John Desaguliers moved frominstructionsfor
rubbingthe glasstube to an analogywiththe effectof windson trees,and
thence to the claim thatpollenationwas an electricalprocess,and finally
thatthebehaviourof lightbodies near thetubeexplainedhowpollenation
worked.Eighteenth-century electriciansbuilt models of electricfishout
of Leydenjars to show thatelectricityfunctionedin the same wayin the
19. H. M. Collins, ChangingOrder:Replicationand Inductionin Scientific

Practice(Lon-
don, 1985), pp. 84, 100-103.
20. Henry Miles, 'Extracts of Two Letters ... containing several Electrical Experi-
ments',PhilosophicalTransactions44 (Jan.-Feb. 1746): 55.
naturaland artificialworlds.21The spinningelectricglobe was analogised

with the body, since both pumped vitalityaround the materialsystem.
William Watson, doyen of London electriciansin the 1740s, reckoned
that'the Officeof the Globes exactlytallieswiththatof the Heart in Ani-
mals',and so it could give informationabout the waythe animaleconomy
worked.22The formationof theelectricalphilosophy,withitstalkofactive
fluidsdiffusedin space and governingbothanimateand inanimatebehav-
iour,depended on the formationof electricalexpertise.The formationof
thepersonof theexpertreliedon theformationofa newpatternofbodily
behaviour.
'A SecretMotionof theHand': Gray'sElectricalPlanetarium

These behavioursworkedby enteringand disappearingintothe cul-
ture of the experimentalphilosophicalcommunity.Tacit skillslike these
become evidentagain, however,duringmomentsof controversy. Protago-
nistsbroughtforthhithertounnoticedfeaturesof deportmentin order to
explain, or explain away,apparent differencesin the outcome of trials.
Makingthe experimenter'sbody visiblewasjust to make the oddityof the
experimentapparent. The orrery,in its electricalform,providesa good
case. During theearly 1730s StephenGray,in collaborationwiththeCam-
bridge don and countrygentlemanGranville Wheler, tried a series of
experimentsto communicatean 'attractivevertue' froma rubbed flint
glass rod along lines made up of a range of substances,including,notori-
ously,the body of a schoolboysuspended fromstrongsilkthreads.Gray
had resided in London at the Charterhousesince 1712, havingbriefly
worked at the observatory in Trinity College Cambridge and with
Desaguliers's public lecturesin Westminster. The new experimentsmade
his London reputation.Graywas widelycreditedwith'a particularknack
of excitingthispropertyby frictionwithhis hand':23evidentlyboth the
knack and the propertyrevealed by these 'surprising'trials spread to
Europe fromthe Royal Society.They were replicatedand extended in
21. See John Desaguliers, 'Some thoughtsconcerningElectricity',RoyalSocietyMan-

uscripts Letters and Papers XVIII (2) no. 34, ff399-400 (3 June 1731); and Henry
Cavendish, 'An Account of some Attemptsto imitatethe Effectsof the Torpedo by Elec-
tricity',PhilosophicalTransactions66, no. 1 (1776): 196-225.
22. William Watson, 'A Sequel to the Experimentsand Observationstendingto illus-
trate the Nature and Properties of Electricity',PhilosophicalTransactions44 (Oct.-Dec.
1747): 728.
23. William Stukeley,quoted in I. Bernard Cohen, 'Neglected Sources forthe Life of
Stephen Gray',Isis 45 (May 1954): 43. For Gray,see D. H. Clark and Lesley Murdin,'The
Enigma of Stephen Gray: Astronomerand Scientist(1666-1736)', Vistasin Astronomy 23,
no. 4 (1974): 351-404, and Michael Ben-Chaim, 'Social Mobilityand ScientificChange:
Stephen Gray'sContributionto ElectricalResearch',British JournalfortheHistoryofScience
23 (Mar. 1990): 3-24.
Paris by the Intendantof theJardindu Roi, Charles Dufay,who reported

back to London on hisown workon the varioustypesof electricity, on the
relationbetweenelectricalrepulsionand attraction,and on thebehaviour
of electricalshocks and sparksdrawn fromthe body.24
Grayhad showntheelectricalvirtuein a humanbodybysuspendinga
boy from silkthreads,excitinghim,and thenallowingpieces of leafmetal
tojump towardsthe boy's body.Dufaywentone better:he had himselfso
suspendedpreciselyto checkthisphenomenon.The substitution of a pro-
ficientfor innocentvictimproved crucial. Dufay was able to reportthat
near anotherperson 'thereimmediatelyissuesfrommyBody one or more
prickingShoots,witha cracklingNoise, thatcauses to thatPersonas well
as to my self,a little Pain resemblingthat fromthe sudden Prick of a
Pin'.25In 1733 Dufay came to London and may have met the electrical
workers.During 1734 Gray and Wheler studied these trialswithsparks
and shockson 'animal and inanimatebodies', triedto catalogue the pains
and lightstheygenerated,and set up a trialin whicha suspendedboygave
an electricshock and sparkto a man standingon a cake of wax or resin.
This enterprisedrew theirattentiontowardsthe deportmentof human
bodies near electrifiedones. Gray startedusing a 'pendulous thread' to
estimatethe electricalstateof the body.26Public repetitionsof thesetrials
drewappreciativeLondon audiences. Grayreportedthat'I have now and
then some Companysof Gentlemenand Ladys come to me to be enter-
tained withmy ElectricalExperiments'.27Then, just before his death in
February1736, Grayfoundwhathe reckonedwere remarkableaffinities
between electricaland planetarymotions'and he did not doubt but in a
shortTime to be able to astonishtheWorldwitha new SortofPlanetarium
neverbeforethoughtof,and thatfromtheseExperimentsmightbe estab-
lisheda certainTheory foraccountingforthe Motionsof the GrandPlan-
etariumof the Universe'.Graywas a proficientastronomer:he had been a
close collaborator of the AstronomerRoyal John Flamsteed and had
printedpapers in thePhilosophicalTransactions on halos,eclipses,and sun-
In
spots. any case, linkagebetween and
electricity astronomywas a prize
worthwinningin the period of Newtonian hegemony.28
24. See Charles Dufay, 'A Letter ... to his Grace Charles Duke of Richmond and
Lennox, concerning Electricity',trans. T. S., PhilosophicalTransactions38 (Jan.-Mar.
1734): 258-66.
25. Ibid., pp. 261-62.
26. See Stephen Gray,'Experimentsand Observationsupon the Light thatis produced
by communicating Electrical Attraction to animal or inanimate Bodies', Philosophical
Transactions39 (Jan.-Mar. 1735): 16-24, and 'A Letter ... containingsome Experiments
relating to Electricity',PhilosophicalTransactions39 (Oct.-Dec. 1735): 166-70.
27. Gray,dictated to Mortimer,14 Feb. 1736, Royal Society ManuscriptLetters G.II
no. 31. See also Ben-Chaim, 'Social Mobilityand ScientificChange', p. 16, for other
reports of visitors.
28. Cromwell Mortimer,'An Account of some ElectricalExperimentsintended to be
communicated to the Royal Society by Mr. Stephen Gray', PhilosophicalTransactions39
This was what Gray and his acolyte Wheler did: in a carefulritual
derivedfromtheirpreviousworkwithsuspendedhumans,theytooka cir-
cular cake of resin,excited it by 'clapping it threeor fourtimeswiththe
Hands', resteda smalliron sphereon the resin,and above the spheresus-
pended a smallcork froma thread,'whichhold betweenyourFingerand
Thumb'. The experimentersfoundthatthecorkwould revolveround the
globe in the same directionas theplanetsround thesun,and thatthecork
would move ellipticallyifthe globe were placed eccentricallyon the resin.
The trialwould workifthe iron were substitutedby black marble,and if
the resin were replaced by a rubbed glass hoop; withouteitherglass or
resinthe orbitwould be muchslowerand smaller.Graysaid thatthe orbit
depended on the threadbeing held by some animal substance:a human
hand, a chicken leg, raw meat. He also suggested that the trials were
closely linked with well-knownpeculiaritiesof the interactionbetween
human bodies and will. 'If a Man restinghis Elbows on his Knees, places
his Hands at some small Distance fromeach other,they will gradually
accede to each other,withoutany Will or Intentionof the Man to bring
them together;and they will again recede of themselves'.29
Wheler's problem was to draw attentionawayfromhis body toward
the solarsystem.But he had to givesufficient instruction to maketheplan-
etary trialscredible,and these detailswere unavoidably linked to thebody.
So he tried introducingmore controlledinstrumentation into his setup.
An occasion to show these new protocolsarose the year followingGray's
death. Whelerread more reportsof Dufay'swork,includingthenewsthat
Dufay could not replicateGray's orbital motions.Wheler contactedthe
Royal Societyto protesthis and his colleague's originalityin determining
the motions of threads away from and towards electrified bodies.30
Wheler travelledup fromKent to show the Londoners his revisionsof
Gray'strialswithplanetarybodies. In May 1737 he took overthe wholeof
the RoyalSociety'slibraryfortwodays. Much had changed since the pre-
vious year to make sure the orbitsworked.Now the large resincake was
placed on a glassreceivera yardhigh.It had to be warmedin a specialway
the previous nightand was excited by being 'struckperpendicularlyall
over itsSurfacewiththe Hands in parallel Directions'.At middaythe fol-
lowingday all was ready.The doyenof London astronomicalinstrument-
makers, George Graham, stood by to watch 'the End of Mr Wheler's
Finger'. When Wheler held a smallcork over an ivoryball on the resin,it
(Nov.-Dec. 1736): 403. See also Gray, 'His last Letter ... concerning the Revolutions
which small pendulous Bodies will, by Electricity,make round larger ones', Philosophical
Transactions39 (Apr.-June 1736): 220.
29. Mortimer,'An Account of some Electrical Experiments',p. 402.
30. Granville Wheler, 'Some Electrical Experiments,chieflyregardingthe Repulsive
Force of Electrical Bodies', PhilosophicalTransactions41 (Apr.-June 1739): 98.
dutifullyperformed its planetary orbit as required. When placed

eccentricallyit would describean ellipse,and when substitutedby a cut-
out paper cylinderit would revolveround itsown axis as well. But while
the audience was satisfiedwithWheler's performance,it emerged thatit
was crucial that he be the man holding the thread. Neither Francis
Hauksbee, nor Graham, nor the Society'ssecretary,could get the thing
to work.31
It is characteristicof troubledreplicationthattheauthor is required
to produce ever more details of the necessary accompanimentsof his
trial. Initially,Wheler proposed that the same man must electrifythe
resinand hold the cork. This explained whyWheler's servanthad as lit-
tle success as the London savants. 'There was somethingin the human
Hand essentialto the Experiment'.32In February 1738, two yearsafter
theirfirstproduction,Wheler tried one last time to spell out the recipe
for the electric planetarium. The ivoryball and the thread should be
wet, the thread mustbe held in the righthand, and the back of a chair
could serveas an arm rest.Under thesecircumstances,Wheler stated,he
could get at least 220 revolutionsof the cork. But as he gave thesedetails
his attentionwas ineluctablydrawn away fromthe heavens towardshis
own body. Many trials were devoted to Wheler's posture. His calibra-
tions were designed to set up equivalences between his own arm and
hand and more mechanical devices. The influencesof his hand shaking
or of his pulse were excluded. At length,he supposed that as his right
arm became tired it would insensiblyapproach his body, and thus
produce the motion fromwest to east. A telescope stand was designed
to support his arm and this conjecture. Wheler concluded that 'the
Motion ... mustgenerallyhave been determinedby myself;... a Desire
of producing a Motion from West to East, was the secret Cause that
determinedthe pendulous Body to that direction'. The keyphrase was
that 'no Motion sensible even to himself'was responsible.This excused
Gray and Wheler of wilfuldeceit; it shiftedthe evidentialcontextdeci-
sivelytowards the relation between mind and body. Wheler protested
mildly against this shift,claiming that 'it may not be improper for
Astronomers to consider' his experiments,and noting the similarity
between Gray's electric shocks and celestial fire.33
Wheler's body emergedas uncontrollableand itsmotionsinsensible,
but he stillprofferedhis own testimonyas thatof a reliable practitioner.
The strategyhe adopted was characteristicof what may be called the
31. Mortimer,'An Account of some of the ElectricalExperimentsmade by Granville

Wheler,Esq. at the RoyalSociety's House', PhilosophicalTransactions
41 (Apr.-June1739):
113, 117.
32. Ibid., p. 117.
33. Wheler, 'A Letter ... containing some Remarks on the late Stephen Gray and
his Electrical Circular Experiment',PhilosophicalTransactions41 (Apr.-June 1739): 124,
123, 125.
Cartesianismofthegenteel:in polite society,memberscould be treatedas

capable of separatingtheirdisorderlybodies fromthecool deliverancesof
their intellectualjudgment. The social meaning of this divisionwas an
importanttheme of enlighteneddiscourse. Hence, for example, David
Hume's reflexion,based firmlyin contemporarynervousphysiology, that
'men of delicate taste ... are easilyto be distinguishedin societyby the
soundness of their understanding,and the superiorityof theirfaculties
above the rest of mankind'.34The deploymentof thissuperiorityin the
electricaltrialshighlightedthe ambiguitiesin the person of the experi-
mentalauthor.First,it was necessaryto distancethe experimentfromthe
immediatecircumstancesand person of the originalexperimenter.The
social technologyof collectivewitnessingand replicabilitywas designedto
effectthis. But Wheler's own person was all too obviouslythe author of
thesetrials.He conceded 'a secretmotionof the hand,whichthe desireof
success imperceptiblygave the pendulous Body'. Second, in literarytech-
nologyit was importantto representoneselfas an unwillingentrantonto
the public stage. Wheler recalled thatin summer 1733 he had wishedto
publishvia Gray,'throughhis Hands, to whom theyowe theirBeing....
But, unwillingto be an Author,I deferredthe Communicationfromtime
to time'. The language linkingbody and author throughtechniquesof
hands and body was characteristic.Polite conventiondemanded such dis-
playsof deferenceand putativewithdrawal.Only thuscould the creditof
gentlemanlyreportagebe secured. The Societyagreed thatWheler had
made the invisiblemotionsof his own body evident,and denied that he
had provided evidence of electricastronomy.35 As fellowand gentleman,
Wheler could preservehis creditas an author whiledescribingthe unno-
ticed behaviourof hisown body.Not everyonecould do this.Hired hands
and overwroughtspiritswere scarcelycapable of actingas authorsof cor-
poreal reports. They were not widelyallowed the capacityto separate
theirreportagefromtheirbodilycondition.This problemmatteredwhen
the powersof electricalfirebegan to be distributedthroughoutthe social
body to encompass the poor and the sick.
'A verydelicateChoiceofPersons':Nollet'sItalian Tour

Medical electricityboomed during the 1740s. Throughout Europe,
the managersof electricalmachinescarefullyscrutinisedtheeffectsof pow-
on thebodies ofparalytics,
erfulelectrification consumptives,and thepoxy.
34. Hume is cited in ChristopherLawrence, 'The Nervous Systemand Societyin the

Scottish Enlightenment',in Natural Order:HistoricalStudiesofScientific
Culture,ed. Barry
Barnes and Shapin (London, 1979), p. 30.
35. Wheler to Benjamin Wilson, 7 Sept. 1748, British Library ManuscriptsADD
30094 f71.; Wheler, 'Some Electrical Experiments',p. 98.
The therapistshad a rangeofresourcesavailableto them:a newtechnology

fromspring1746 embodied in Leydenjars, togetherwitha reasonedcos-
mologywhichsupposedthatanimateobjectswerepeculiarlysusceptibleto
electricvirtueand whichalso describedelectricalinstruments in animate
terms.Fire,shocks,and sparksboth mimickedand transformed the living
body. German and French professors canvassedthe application electrical
of
fireto humanvitality. Englishoperators could draw 'Streamsoffinepurple
Fire' fromelectrifiedtrees,and triedto acceleratetheflowofblood aftera
phlebotomyby electrification. Makingelectricfirevitalwas partof a cam-
paign which infringed on the boundaries between physic,experimental
philosophy, and theatre. The Gentleman's Magazine listed a number of
experiments 'fora to
gentleman perform with plantsand animals',includ-
ing the acceleration of vegetablegrowth, the restoration of healththrough
the electrification of beddingand apparel,and 'whetherby puttinga tube
into the anus of any animal, the electricvapour mayn'tbe propagated
through... the whole animal system?'Electricalfirewas realised in the
mid-1740sas a universally diffusedfluid,whoseactivitiescrossedtheinter-
ests of all sectionsof polite society.36
Since electricfirewas so potent,its ownershipwas a contestedprize
worthwinning.But since it was so universal,the authorityover itseffects
was hard to secure. Electricalphilosophersset out to enclose the commu-
nitywhich could reliablytestifyto its effectsand yet to multiplythose
humanswho could experienceit. Nollet,formerlyDufay'sassistant,was a
des corps,publishedin
protagonistin thisprocess. His Essai sur l'blectricite
summer 1746, summarisedthe relationshipbetweenthe motionsof elec-
tricityand the behaviour of the new spinningglobes.37Nollet reckoned
thataffluentand effluentstreamsof matterenteringand leavingbodies
could account for the differencesbetween typesof electricityand the
behaviourof sparksand shockswhenthesestreamscollided. Nolletstaged
showsat courtand in the cityto realisethesestreamsand to transmitelec-
tric influence through docile bodies, including ranks of soldiers or
Carthusian monks. The shocks from the Leyden jar were calibrated
through their appalling effects:Johann Winckler,classics professorat
Leipzig, reportedto London about his and his wife'sheadaches, fevers,
and nosebleeds resultingfroma Leyden shock. Winckleralso designeda
strongelectrical machine and used a leather pad, rather than his own
hand, to electrifyit. Neither Nollet nor the Royal Society credited
Winckler'ssufferings, preferringto attendto theirown,but theyused his
36. John Browning, 'Part of a Letter ... concerning the Effectof Electricityon
44 (Jan.-Feb. 1747): 375; Daniel Stephenson,'Elec-
Vegetables',PhilosophicalTransactions
tricalExperimentson Animals,Vegetables,etc.Proposed', Gentleman's Magazine 17 (Mar.
1747): 141.
37. See Nollet, 'Observations sur quelques nouveaux phenomenes d'electricite',
Memoiresde l'AcademieRoyaledes Sciences(1746): 1-23.
1 41
Wl. W
of~
4 r!
ijj
FIG. 1.-The scene of electricmedicine. FromJohann GottliebSchaeffer,Die electrische

Medicin(Regensburg, 1766), frontispiece.Reproduced by Whipple Library,Departmentof
History and Philosophy of Science, Universityof Cambridge.
equipment.38'I do not wishto be takenforsomeone who has shownyou

the wayto the next world',Nollet explained to the Genevan naturalphi-
losopherJean Jallabert,so 'I have found a means of makingthe distur-
bance felt safelyby dividingit amongst several persons who hold each
otherbythe hand' (TE, pp. 139, 143). Theatricalitywas as usefulas safety.
He analogised betweenhis own displaysand thoseof Nature: 'the marvels
which we deal withat presenton our scale are small imitationsof those
great effectswhich terrifyus-all depends on the same mechanism'.39
Electricitywas part of Nollet's stock-in-trade.
His possessionof mate-
rial technologyhelped him control the market.He built and commis-
sioned new electricglobes, sold themto his colleagues or to those gentry
who attended his lectures,and thus disseminateda standardisedreper-
toire of instrumentation.40He also managed those personswho could be
allowed to give evidence. Monks and soldiersbecame objects of display,
but the communityof reliable electricalphilosophersneeded more care-
fuldefinition.This pair of strategies,materialand social,came intoplayin
Nollet's work on electrotherapy.In spring 1746, soon after gettinga
Leydenjar workingin Paris,Nolletcollaboratedwitha couple ofsurgeons
to electrifyparalyticswithlittlesuccess.He was soon attackedbythemedi-
cal establishment.The surgeonAntoine Louis wrotethatmedical knowl-
edge 'of theanimal economy,thenatureof disease and theelectricpower'
demonstratedthatelectricfire'was farfromcuring,and could onlyharm,
thosepoor sickwho have thewillingnessto subjectthemselvesto histrials'.
Thus, the surgeonconcluded, Nollet's work'can laydown no law forthe
art of healing'.4 This was a major challenge to Nollet's rightsto control
the electricityof the body. He mobilisedministerialsupportto quash the
medics,and betweenwinter1747 and spring1748 he decided to develop
a new set of resources to reinforcethese rights.One resource involved
marryinghis doctrine of the electrical effluentstream to English and
38. See Johann Winckler,'Letter ... concerningthe Effectsof Electricityupon Him-

self and his Wife', PhilosophicalTransactions44 (May-June 1746): 211-12. Nollet's
response is in Isaac Benguigui, Theorieselectriques du XVIIIe siecle:CorrespondanceNollet-
Jallabert (Geneva, 1984), p. 173; hereafter abbreviated TE. Winckler's 'heated
imagination' is discussed in Watson, 'An Account of ProfessorWinkler's Experiments',
PhilosophicalTransactions47 (1751-52): 241; hereafterabbreviated'APW'. For Winckler's
new machine and his trialssee Willem Dirk Hackmann,Electricity fromGlass: TheHistoryof
the FrictionalElectricalMachine, 1600-1850 (Alphen aan den Rijn, 1978), pp. 73-82,
94-96. For Nollet's systemsee Heilbron, Electricity in theSeventeenth and Eighteenth
Centur-
ies, pp. 280-88, and Roderick Weir Home, The EffluvialTheoryofElectricity (New York,
1981), pp. 103-45.
39. Quoted in Jean Torlais, L'Abbe Nollet: Un Physicienau siecledes lumieres(Paris,
1954), p. 74.
40. See Maurice Daumas, ScientificInstruments oftheSeventeenth and Eighteenth
Centuries
and TheirMakers,trans. Mary Holbrook (1972; London, 1989), p. 219, and Hackmann,
ElectricityfromGlass, pp. 114-15.
41. Antoine Louis, Observations sur l'electricite
(Paris, 1747), pp. 81, 138.
'
Rechercnhesfir 1'Electricite I)isc.p1. 2
.Al,
.
. , L-
u!L.,r
,iil-.f., ..I..
'i , 2t t
:!I
'7
44
_i
Or
A6.
,. .
FIG.2.-Nollet's experiments on theelectrification

ofwaterjets,plants,and animals.
FromJeanAntoineNollet,Recherches surlescausesparticulires
desphinomrnesilectriques
(Paris,1749),p. 402. ReproducedbyWhippleLibrary, Department ofHistory and Philos-
ophyof Science,University of Cambridge.
German workon the electrification of capillaryflow.In phlebotomyand

water-jets,experimentersreported that electrificationaccelerated and
enlivened fluid motion. Since Nollet 'consider'd all organized Bodies as
Assemblagesof capillaryTubes', he reckoned that these resultsdemon-
stratedthewayselectricfirecould acceleratevegetablegrowthand animal
perspirationand 'removeObstructionsfromthe Pores,or ... scour them
of any noxious Humours which they may happen to contain'.42
Nollet bolsteredhis claimsby staginga new trial:duringApril 1748
he got permissionfrom the war ministerto take over a room in the
Invalides foran electricalprogrammeon paralytics.He consultedhiscol-
league Jallabertfordetailed instructionson the rightwayto manage the
show:Had paralyticsallegedlycured electricallyin Geneva been on a diet?
How manyLeyden shockswereneeded? Despite hispreparations,Nollet's
Invalides performanceremained indecisive.He had recourse to a reper-
toire of importantcaveatsabout such experiments.They were too local:
Genevans mightrespond differently fromParisians.They were too emo-
tionallystriking:impressionable victims would not be appropriate wit-
nesses to electricity'seffects.Nollet commentedthatin Geneva Jallabert
had randomlychosen 'common folk' whose pulses would obviouslyrace
under the ministrations of the experimenter:'were one to expose natural
philosophers to this experiment,we are convinced that electrification
would not alter theirpulse in any way' (TE, p. 62). Nollet confirmedthis
conjecturebyelectrifying one of hissurgicalcolleagues withno effect.He
pointed out the significanceof the extreme localisation of different
effects,and the difference between unreliable plebs and calm natural
philosophers.43
The problems of localisationand social statuscame to the fore in a
remarkableepisode in medical electricityduring 1748. The Royal Soci-
etylearnt fromWincklerthatVenetian experimenters,led by the advo-
cate GianfrancescoPivati,had managed to conveythe vapours of several
medicinesintopatients'bodies bycoatingthe insideofa sealed glasstube
witha substancesuch as Peruvian balsam, opium, or a purgative.When
the tubes were electrifiedby friction,a patientholdingthe tube by hand
would imbibe the effluviumof the substancein question. Alternatively,
linen soaked in the drug could be wrapped round an iron bar. When the
bar was electrified,the patient,grippinga ball chained to the bar,would
benefitfromthe effluviumtransmittedvia the bar. Wincklerreported
thatsulphuror cinnamoncould be made to bathe hisroom,and that'any
person, who was perfectlyignorantof what was doing, would immedi-
42. Nollet, 'Part of a Letter ... concerning Electricity',PhilosophicalTransactions45

(Feb.-Mar. 1748): 189, 194. See also Nollet, Recherchessur les causesparticulieres
despheno-
electriques, pp. 323-29, 366-72.
mines
43. See Nollet, Recherchessur les causes particulieresdes phenomineselectriques,pp.
406-13.
ately smell the balsam therein.The man, who was electrified,said, that
his tea next morninghad a finertaste than usual' ('APW', p. 233). The
analogy with Nollet's earlier work on the acceleration of perspiration
was close. There were confirmedreplicationsin Turin by the anatomist
Giovanni Battista Bianchi. Furthermore,remarkable success with the
electrificationof paralyticswas reported by the Bolognese natural phi-
losopher Giovangiuseppe Veratti.The Londoners judged these reports
'extravagantand whimsical',and would not yet authorise them. How-
ever, since human bodies conducted electric effluvia,the trial with
medicated tubes, 'romanticas it mayseem, should not be absolutelycon-
demned withouta fair Tryal'.44
During the rest of the year,both Watson in London and Nollet in
Paris stroveto replicate these trials,with no success. Nollet recognised
thathis own authoritywas in question; he had been cited by the Italians.
The trialsseemed to promise major medical reform:'we have heard of
nothingless than. .. purgingall Sortsof Personsin a mannerofall others
the mostproperto avoid the Repugnanceand Disgustwe naturallyhaveto
medical Potions'.45Even the pox could apparentlybe cured if the tube
were coated withmercury.Nollet observed thatParisianladies would be
especiallyinterestedin a therapy'so easyto manage and fittedto theirdel-
icacy' (TE, p. 183). The workingof his own electricaldeviceswas at issue,
since were glasspermeableto such fluidsthenitsbehaviourin the Leyden
jar would also be called into question. Most important,the problemsof
trust and locality were raised here. 'Respectable Witnesses' in Italy
seemed to give good testimony, but Nollet wantedto know 'whatfatehas
reservedthese miraclesto Italy?'46So in spring 1749 he decided to cross
the Alps to see 'succeed, in the Hands of those who had said theyhad,
those Phaenomena in Electricity'('E', p. 374).
Nollet's Italiantourwas a remarkableexercisein thepoliticalgeogra-
phy of calibration.This calibrationrequired that Nollet make it evident
thathisbody countedas the equivalentof an Italianone, and thathistesti-
monycould count instead of those of the experimentersthemselves.His
strategywas to insiston personalmanagementofthe Italians'instruments;
choice of Nollet's own candidates for trial, including himself; and
demands forexplicitrecipesforreplication.Such visitsto theoriginalsites
of challengingphenomena are oftendestructive.They are to be distin-
guished fromthe genteel visitsto whichGray,Watson,or Nollet himself
were willinglysubject.The distinctionbetweentryingand showingexper-
44. Henry Baker,'A Letter ... concerningseveralMedical Experimentsof Electricity',

PhilosophicalTransactions45 (Feb.-Mar. 1748): 274, 275.
45. Nollet, 'An Examinationof certain Phaenomena in Electricity, published in Italy',
PhilosophicalTransactions46 (Jan.-Apr. 1750): 370; hereafterabbreviated 'E'.
46. Nollet, 'Experiences et observationsfaitesen differensendroitsen Italie', Histoire
et memoiresde l'AcademieRoyaledes Sciences(1749): 444-88.
imentsis fundamentalin the establishmentof workablemattersof fact.

When the boundarybetweenprivacyand the public is breached,authors
mayhave recourseto a hostof featureswhichexplainawayfailuresduring
absurdly public visitations.47 Thus Nollet confrontedconventions of
privacyand of gesturein his inspectionof Italian sitesduringthe summer
of 1749. The vocabularyof the Grand Tour was importanthere. The
knowing ultramontane savant would see through catchpenny tourist
attractions.Nollet told the Englishvirtuosiabout Vesuvius,Neapolitan
grottoes,and the glowof the Venetianlagoon. In mostcases, Nollet insin-
uated, Italian wonders proved to be 'temporaryShadows': just as the
lagoon glowed because of insects,and the grottoes'airs were explicable
throughconventionalpneumatics,so the Italian medicated tubes were
powerfulsolelyon 'any one, upon whom the Love of the Marvellouscan
make a victorious Impression' ('E', pp. 383, 397; see also p. 369).48
Nollet's demystifying tour thus involvedthe constructionof three ideal
roles: the witness,the subject,and the practitioner.Each mustbe invul-
nerable to the marvellous;each must separate mind frombody.
Nollet set out to make himselfthe perfectwitnessto the electric
cures. The taskwas hard. He certainlytook a scepticalattitudewithhim:
'I really fear that I have nothing to purge here except imagination'.
Despite his protestationsthat reliable electricalmedicationwould have
proved therealityof his favouriteeffluentmatter,and thusthathe had no
interestin demolishingItalian claims,the Italiansthemselvesjudged oth-
erwise.They reportedthatNollet was 'a Man so prejudicedagainstFacts,
thatthe strongestcould not make [him]believe'. When Nollet arrivedin
Venice in August 1749, Pivati summoned a large assemblyof notables
who, so Nollet believed, were 'called togetherto be an Evidence of my
Conviction' ('E', p. 384). In response, Nollet fashioned himselfas an
impartialjudge. The dilemmahe faced was to seem a membercompetent
enough to interpretelectricalwork,and yet a strangerinvulnerableto
prejudice. This was partof his strategyforthe managementof theproper
electricalsubject.At Turin, in May 1749, he put thisstrategyintoeffect.
He profferedhimselfto Bianchi's electricaltubes,initiallywithoutissue,
and thenagain some dayslater,when,so Nollet reported,'I was troubled
withan Indigestion,and feltPainsof the Colic'. The Turinesealleged that
Nollet had been electricallypurgedbut would not admitit. Nollet replied
that 'during my whole Life I have had a weak Stomach', and that
Piedmontesefood had disagreed withhim ('E', p. 381). Nollet's diet was
47. For breaches of laboratoryprivacy,see MaryJo Nye, 'N-rays:An Episode in the

Historyand Psychologyof Science', HistoricalStudiesin thePhysicalSciences11, pt. 1 (1980):
125-56. For visitation,see Collins and Pinch,FramesofMeaning:TheSocial Construction of
Extraordinary Science(London, 1982).
48. For the rhetoricof the tour,see PercyG. Adams, Travelersand TravelLiars 1660-
1800 (Berkeley,1962).
one problem;the testimonyof plebs was another.Amongstthe Turin sub-

jects were two servants,one hired by Nollet, the other employed by
Bianchi.Both men reportedthatthe electrictubeshad worked,but Nollet
discovered that one had previouslytaken strongmedicine,and failed to
report it, while the other had boasted of his trialall over town. Lack of
candour and love of the marvellous, Nollet reckoned, were endemic
amongst such menials:
This, I say,made me verydelicate in the Choice of the Personswho I

was desirousshouldbe admittedto our Experiments.I declared thatI
was not willingto receivetheretoeitherChildren,Servants,or People
of the lower Class; but onlythatreasonable People should be admit-
ted, and of an Age sufficientto leave nothingto be feared of the
Truth of what they mightdepose. ['E', p. 377]
Nollet repeatedlylimitedthose who could give evidence of the state

of theirown bodies. They could not even be sick,sinceinvalidswere 'prej-
udiced perhapsbytoo greatHope, and possessedbya kindof Enthusiasm'
('E', p. 383). When Verattitold him that electricaltrialshad been per-
formedon 'his servants,that is a valet and two servingwomen',Nollet
sternlycounselled thatthese trialsmustbe repeated 'on people of a solid
brain,incapable of fear,and who would have nothingto gain fromwhat-
ever happened to them' (TE, p. 178). Nollet recognisedthathis 'extreme
Circumspection'limitedthe possible scope of the evidence the Italians
mightpresent him. The Italians responded that such conditionssimply
preventedreplication.This set up a potentiallyviciouscircle,akin to the
experimentersregress,forwhile Nollet reckonedthatno competenttrial
could involvethe sick or the poor, the Italians insistedthat under these
conditions the electrifiedtubes could not be expected to work. Pivati
statedthat'now therewas too much Company;thatit was too hot,and, in
consequence, thatthe Electricitywould be too weak forit' ('E', p. 385). In
order to break this regress,Nollet tried yet a third strategy,alongside
those of makinghimselfauthoritativeand excludingthe invalid.This was
a judgment on the personsof the experimentersthemselves.He told his
correspondentsthatPivatiwas 'a man completelynew in physics,unaccus-
tomed to performexperiments,rather devoted to the marvellousand
believingon verylightgrounds'. He was 'an ignoramusand a charlatan'
(TE, pp. 177, 180). Nollet also mobilisedreportsfroma friendlyTurin
physicianto confirmthis character assassination.Furthermore,Nollet
alleged, the Italianssimplyused bad instruments, 'a glassTube, whichwas
cracked from oneEnd tothe or
other', weak electrical machines('E', p. 392).
Thus a range of strategieswas available to the French critic:he could
explain awayany effectson his own person; he could deny the legitimacy
of any female or servanttestimony;he could damage the gentlemanly
standingof the experimenter;finally,he could explain the curesas simple
instancesof electrification,conformableto his own theory,ratherthan

evidence of the strangetransmission of medicalodours. This laststrategy,
forexample, was his chosen ruse in Bologna, where he creditedVeratti's
honour just so as to make the Bolognese cures count as supportfor the
Nollet systemof efflux.
Nollet's reportsfromItalyback to the bodies of naturalphilosophers
in London and Pariswerecrucialresourcesin makingmedicaltubescount
as evidence of popular enthusiasmand sober electricity. When the great
MontpellierphysicianFrancois Boissier de Sauvages reportedsuccessful
electrificationsof cases of sciaticaand gout,Nollet baldlystatedthat'I am
alwaysafraid when I see such extraordinaryfactsmultipliedon people
who are poor, and who willknowthattheywillbe helped so long as they
have fixed upon them the attentionof men of place' (TE, p. 186). Simi-
larly,the Londoners rapidlyset out to scotchall remainingevidence for
electrotherapythroughmedical tubes. Winckler'stestimony, and similar
storiesfromPrague, were hauled before the Royal Society.The Leipzig
professortriedsendinghis own tubes to London to get replicationgoing
there. Indeed, a minor trade startedin medicated tubes. Henry Miles
picked up some of Pivati's tubes froma Mediterraneanmerchant;they
worked 'as well as any of ours'.49Wincklergave verydetailed recipes to
accompanyhis present.Only silkor woollen clothwould workto rub the
tube, while the witness'snose mustbe at most two inches away.Watson
triedtheseinstruments beforethepresident,vice-president, and secretary
of the Society.They werejoined by one of Winckler'sfriends,and by 'a
person well-skilledin these odours', presumablya perfumer('APW',
p. 238). JohnCanton and WilliamWatsoncould get nothingto work.So
although,as theyconceded, 'everygentlemanhas a rightto performhis
experimentsin his own way',it seemed implausibleto the Londoners that
'our noses are not so good as those of the gentlemenat Leipsic' ('APW',
pp. 239, 240). Watsondrew the appropriatemoral. He straightforwardly
reinforcedthe contrastbetween 'Prejudice' and 'Credulity'-the prop-
ertyof plebeians,the sick,womenfolk,and Italians-and good judgment,
reservedto the 'gentlemen'of the RoyalSocietyand Nollet,their'worthy
Brother'.50
The Italian episode both supportedand dramatisedkeyconventions
to which the body of electrical philosopherssubscribed. Nollet's tour
helped clarifythe statusof naturalphilosophicalgentlemenand exclude
fromthe republicof learningthose incapable of givingevidence of their
49. Miles, letter to Wilson, 29 Nov. 1750, BritishLibrary ManuscriptsADD 30094

f76.
50. Watson,'A Letter ... declaringthathe as wellas manyothershave notbeen able to
make Odours pass thro' Glass by means of Electricity',PhilosophicalTransactions
46 (Jan.-
Apr. 1750): 349, 350. Compare Watson, 'An Account of Dr. Bohadsch's Treatise', Philo-
sophical Transactions47 (1751-52): 345-51.
own bodilycondition.These conventionswere realised in such episodes,

and their propagation depended on making the tacit explicit. Further-
more, differentgroups withinthe social body set out to make trialsserve
differentevidentialpurposes. It was thus,for example, that an aspiring
candidate foradmissionto thisbody,BenjaminFranklin,learntofthe Ital-
ian episode when he began workon electricityin the late 1740s. Franklin
was told of thesetrialsbyhis London correspondentPeterCollinson,who
reported Nollet's failureto discover the 'Knack' the Italians seemed to
possess. Franklinswiftlybuilt these resultsinto his own account of the
Leydenjar. It was a fundamentalpremiseof his storythatglass be imper-
meable to electricity, and he interpretedthe resultsof Nollet's tour as
provingthistruth.In a seriesof clevertrials,reportedto Watsonin Lon-
don, Franklinreinforcedthe lesson that since cinnamon could not be
smeltwhen inside a sealed electrifiedtube, glass was reallyimpermeable
and thusobjects likethe Leydenjar mustworkbybeing earthed.This was
a furthermove in the evidentialcontextof the medical tubes: what had
initiallycountedas evidence forthe motionof topicalmedicinesnow testi-
fied to the ultimatesource of electricalfluid and became a sign of the
effectsof the power of overwroughtimagination.51
'We are all reallyPuppets':Mesmerism

on Trial
Contemporariesheld thatthe laterdecades of theeighteenthcentury

witnesseda 'moral epidemic' fuelled by the imagination.The waspish
Parisjournalist Louis-SebastienMercierusedjust the same phrase as that
of Nollet: 'the love of the marvellousalwaysseduces us'. He diagnosed a
disease of the public body. What an isolated individualwould promptly
reject,the collectivewould rapidlyendorse. 'Such is thepeople: theydon't
believe thattheycan be mistakenas a body'.52The solutionwas to form
public groups in whichindividualscould escape the plague of unreason.
Nothingwas self-evidently illusory-it had to be demonstratedto be so.
The moststrikingepisode was thatsurroundingthe Frenchcommissions
of enquiry into animal magnetism.Franklinhad discussed animal mag-
netic cures in 1779, and in early 1784 he statedthatalthoughsuch ther-
apy was a case of 'a disposition in mankind to deceive themselves',
'delusion may howeverin some cases be of use', since animal magnetism
51. See Peter Collinson to Benjamin Franklin,25 Apr. 1750, and Franklin to Cad-
walladerColden, 28June 1750, ThePapersofBenjaminFranklin,ed. L. W. Labaree, William
B. Willcox, and Claude A. Lopez, 27 vols. (New Haven, Conn., 1959- ), 3:476, 483.
Watson discussed Franklin's work in his 'Account of Mr. Benjamin Franklin's Treatise',
PhilosophicalTransactions47 (1751-52): 202-11.
52. Louis-Sebastien Mercier,Le Tableau de Paris, ed. JeffryKaplow (1781-88; Paris,
1979), p. 268.
would prevent hypochondriacs from overdoses.5 In March 1784,

Franklinwas named by the ministerof the Departmentof Paris,Breteuil,
to serve alongside notables such as Antoine Lavoisier and Jean-Sylvain
Bailly,representingtheAcademyof Sciences,and JeanDarcet and Joseph
Guillotinfromthe medicalfaculty.A second commission,drawnfromthe
Royal Societyof Medicine,was also instructedto investigatetheastonish-
inglyfashionableanimal magnetictherapiesdeveloped by the Viennese
physicianFranz Mesmer,who had reached Paris six years earlier.54The
specifictargetof the group's studies was a middle-agedmedical practi-
tioner, Charles Deslon, Mesmer's best-knownand most controversial
interpreter.Deslon's treatmenthighlightsthe social constructionof sub-
jects' capacityto treattheirown bodies as observableand separable from
their minds.
Mesmerists'careerswere dominatedby the politicsof the body,both
privateand public. The pre-Revolutionary conjunctureexacerbated and
illuminatedthe tensionsin bodilyrepertoireprovided by Enlightenment
culture. Dorinda Outram demonstratesthat politics was construed in
termsof the waybodies were seen, and whichbodies were to be visible.
Such powers,as Nollet showedin Italy,wouldjudge those who could not
be made fitmembersof the communityof discourse. The enlightened
savants formed corporations,such as the Academy of Sciences or the
Royal Societyof Medicine,whichinvestigatedand invigilatedboth public
beliefand public welfare.In a settingratherprone to grandspeurs,fears
of child-stealingor cometarycollision,of rabies or of grain shortages,it
was importantto showthatthereason ofthesetribunalswouldin principle
govern the irrationalityof the subordinate.Experimentersand medics
began to insistthatexpertscould penetratethe interiorof the body and
uncoverthe truthof disease and possession.Electricaltrialsgave evidence
of the real seat of illusion.But these expertscelebratedthe self-possessed
bourgeois as the ideal typeof the bearer of knowledge.These featuresof
the natural philosophicalpredicamentwere not easily reconciled. Self-
possession,withitsimplicationthatthe body was invulnerableto external
coercion or internaland rebellious passion, sat uneasilywiththe newly
intrusivegaze of the medical and experimentalsavant.55A pair of roles
53. Franklin,quoted in Denis I. Duveen and HerbertS. Klickstein,'Benjamin Franklin

and Antoine Laurent Lavoisier:JointInvestigations',AnnalsofScience11 (Dec. 1955): 288.
54. For mesmerism,see Robert Darnton,Mesmerism and theEnd oftheEnlightenment in
France (Cambridge, Mass., 1968), pp. 47-81, and Charles Coulston Gillispie,Scienceand
Polityin France at theEnd oftheOld Regime(Princeton,N.J., 1980), pp. 261-84. Mesmer's
works are gathered in Robert Amadou, Le Magnitismeanimal (Paris, 1971).
55. See Dorinda Outram, TheBodyand theFrenchRevolution: Sex,Class and PoliticalCul-
ture(New Haven, Conn., 1989), pp. 41-67; Michel Vovelle, La Mentaliterevolutionnaire:
Societeet mentalitessous la Revolution
francaise(Paris, 1985), pp. 31-64; and ArletteFarge
and Jacques Ravel, The Rules ofRebellion:Child Abductionin Paris in 1750, trans. Claudia
Mieville (1988; Cambridge, 1991).
characterisedthe episodes in whichthesepublic bodies set out to manage

and regulate animal magnetism:the charlatanand the marionette.The
commissionersrepresentedanimal magnetisersas quacks, thus placing
Deslon withinthe richbestiaryof charlatanryagainstwhichmedical vigi-
lance was so strenuouslydirected.In animal magneticseances 'individuals
in a numerousassemblyare more subjectedto theirsenses,and less capa-
ble of submittingto the dictatesof reason. ... It has been usual to forbid
numerousassembliesin seditioustowns,as a means of stoppinga conta-
gion so easilycommunicated.Everywhere example acts upon the moral
part of our frame, mechanical imitation upon the physical part'.56
Mechanical imitationturned subjects into puppets. According to the
commissioners,the mesmericmilieuand the therapysubvertedtheneces-
saryseparationof reason frombodilypassion: 'In subduingthe imagina-
tion by ... the confidence and enthusiasm inspired by magnificent
promises,it is possibleto exalt the tone of sensibleand nervousfibres,and
afterwardsto direct, by the application of the hands, their impulse
towardscertainorgans' (R, p. 10). The savant'sselfwas identifiedwithhis
rationality.So mesmeristswere deprivingcitizensof self-possession. The
charge went further:it was alleged that any magnetiser who believed that
his workwas effectivewas himselfunder the influenceof some irrational
power; it was also suggestedthatpatientswho entered a stateof crisisin
mesmericseances were being twitchedhitherand thithernot by genuine
forcesbut by theirown imagination.The commissionersset out to spot
the stringswhichwere pullingthese puppets around: 'They are entirely
under the governmentof the person who distributesthe magneticvirtue'
(R, p. 27). All thiswas dependenton, and contrastedwith,the self-control
of the enquiring savant who could detect the concealed mechanismby
puttinghimselfin evidence.
The storygained itsplausibilitypreciselybecause automataand natu-
ral philosophicalshowmanshipwere intimatelyconnected withquackery
on Paris streets.Puppet showswere highlypopular throughoutthe cen-
turyboth in theatresand at the great fairs.Afterthe decline of the Paris
fairsin the 1770s, marionettesand automata spread to the boulevards.
These machines were judged to be dangerous by churchmenfighting
idolatryor by the police wagingwar againstobscenityand satire.Puppet
shows and displaysof lifelikeautomata infringedon social boundaries
56. Reportof Dr. BenjaminFranklin,and otherCommissioners, chargedbytheKing of

France,withtheexamination oftheAnimalMagnetism, as nowpractisedat Paris, trans.William
Godwin (London, 1785), pp. 92-94; hereafterabbreviatedR; Godwin is identifiedas the
translatorin a letterfromBenjamin Vaughan to Franklin,Oct. 1784, cited in Duveen and
Klickstein,'Benjamin Franklin and Antoine Laurent Lavoisier: Joint Investigations',p.
300. See also Jean-Claude Beaune, 'The Classical Age of Automata: An Impressionistic
Surveyfromthe Sixteenthto the NineteenthCentury',trans.Ian Patterson,in Fragments
fora HistoryoftheHuman Body,ed. Michel Feher,Ramona Naddaff,and Nadia Tazi, 3 vols.
(New York, 1989), 1:430-80.
because of theirpoliticaluse and because theyclaimedacademic warrant.

The artificeswhichduplicatedlifehelped efface,or challenge,the differ-
ence betweenpoliteand popular cultures.The showsalso challengedcon-
temporarynotionsofstatusand evidence.As GeoffreySuttonhas argued,
some showmen,such as the electricalphilosophersLe Dru and Mauduyt,
wereaccepted as licitbythe publicbodies of medicine,court,and philoso-
phy. They might be trusted by communities at some conjunctures,
rejected at others. The same therapiescould generate widelydifferent
evidence. Credibilityhinged on judgments of membershipand cultural
standing.In the case of animal magnetism,thismutuallysupportivesetof
judgments was peculiarly difficultto sustain. It was hard to display
mesmerists'victimsas deluded peasants.They includedthe Parisianelite.
It was hard to deny the bodily existence of magneticfluids. Such sub-
stanceswere the commonplacesof establishednaturalphilosophy.And it
was hard to mark as outsiders well-knownmembers of the medical
profession.57
A revealingcommenton these problemswas provided during 1784
by the eminent physicianJean-JacquesPaulet. Paulet was a veteran of
severalcampaignson behalfof the RoyalSocietyof Medicine. In hisvitri-
olic pamphlet, L'Antimagnetisme,Paulet composed a spoof on a
mesmeristcatechism,outliningthe protocolsof the ideal seance, includ-
ing the individualtreatmentin whichthe magnetiserwould sitfacingthe
patient, 'his back to the north',and run his thumbsover the patient's
stomachand ribswhile fixinghis gaze on the eyes.5sThe effectcould be
multipliedbyconnectingpatientsin chains,or by seatingthemin a circle
around the baquet,a barrel of magnetizedwaterwithiron rods protrud-
ing fromit. Paulet noted that mesmeristsreckoned that trees could be
magnetisedby placing iron rods in frontof them,and, worryingly, that
anyone could magnetise themselves.He wanted to displaythesepractices
as alien and antique. But he reckoned that animal magnetism,'at the
moment the most fashionable toy' (A, p. 5), had become modish and
commonplace. So rather than portray it as straightforwardly distant
frompolite culture,as were peasant medicines or popular illusions,he
demonstrated that mesmerismwas now all too intimatelyensconced
withinthe Parisian social body:
57. See Robert M. Isherwood,Farce and Fantasy:Popular Entertainment in Eighteenth-

Century Paris (Oxford, 1986), pp. 43-44, 48-51, and Darnton,Mesmerism and theEnd ofthe
Enlightenment in France,pp. 24-29. GeoffreySutton ('Electric Medicine and Mesmerism',
Isis 72 [Sept. 1981]: 389) notes: 'the very procedures that had convinced at least half a
dozen doctors several monthsearlier [in 1783] were ruled ineffectiveand fraudulent[in
1784]'.
58. Jean-JacquesPaulet, L'Antimagnitisme (London, 1784), p. 115; hereafterabbrevi-
ated A. Compare Antoine Lavoisier,'Sur le magnetismeanimal', in Oeuvresde Lavoisier,6
vols. (Paris, 1865), 3:506; hereafterabbreviated 'MA'.
In Paris thereexist societieswhere enormoussumsare spentto deal

withthese sciences.It is held thatin naturethereexistpowers,invisi-
ble spirits,sylphs,whichcan be made available to men; thatmostof
the phenomenaof nature,thatour actionsdepend on hiddensprings,
on an order of unknownbeings; ... thatfate,indeed destinyis deter-
mined by particulargenies who guide us withoutour knowledge,
withoutour being able to see the stringswhichhold us; at lastthatin
this lower world we are all like real puppets, ignorantand utterly
blind slaves.They stronglyimpressin everyone'shead thatit is time
to enlightenoneself,thatman mustenjoyhis rights,feelthe shockof
invisibleforces,or at least make out the hand which guides him.
[A, pp. 3-4]
Paulet's strategywas highlynuanced. Referencesto puppetrylinkedmes-

merismwith the boulevards. Talk of sylphsand genies connected it to
'researchintoAntiquity'(A,p. 3). The searchfortheinvisiblesprings,and
the demand for human rights,made mesmerisminto dangerous subver-
sion. Finally,the 'invisiblespirits'whichhaunted the seances were to be
revealed as the highlyvisiblemagnetisers,the primemoversof thisthreat-
ening charade. Animal magnetismwas a threat because it challenged
importantboundariesin enlightenedculture.Lavoisierstatedsimplythat
'the governmentcould not be indifferent about a question of this kind
whichintereststhe healthand lifeof itscitizens'.Were each citizenable to
magnetizehimselfthen'we would have to shutthe schools,change the sys-
tem of instruction,and destroythose bodies regarded tillnow as the de-
positariesof medical knowledge' ('MA', 3:514).
These exercises in beating the bounds of proprietyand property
provided the milieu of Deslon's career. He sponsored Mesmer's most
importantautobiographicaltext and published a manifestoforthe new
therapy.He tried to get influentialmedics to witnesssuccessfulcures,
and several reports were presented to the Paris medical faculty.He
insistedabove all on his own experience: Mesmer had cured Deslon of
headaches and stomach pains, while acknowledging that the young
Frenchman'sbody was so fargone thatno complete cure would ever be
possible. The strategywas completelyunsuccessful.The facultyruled
that he should cease propagandising,and he was suspended for a year.
Successive effortsin frontof the facultywere equally disastrous,ending
in expulsion. Deslon tried lobbyingat court, but Mesmer's behaviour
alienated all potential patrons. Indeed, Deslon's relationshipwith his
erstwhilemasterwas notoriouslystormy.MesmerwithdrewfromParisto
the Ardennes,where,in companywithradical allies, he concocted plans
for a joint stock companyand masonic lodge based on mesmericteach-
ing. Deslon was excluded fromthese deliberations,publiclybroke with
the Mesmer circle,and establishedhis own clinic. He lobbied Versailles
once again for recognitionof the virtuesof animal magnetism,and it
40100'
t,
Ye
.- .) ..
/. ~?r
ljr
," g~a--
,
,\
.,\ '/
FIG. 3.-The commissioners,led by Benjamin Franklin,put the Mesmer

and theEnd ofthe
Magnitismedivoulk,reproduced in Robert Darnton, Mesmerism
(Cambridge, Mass., 1968), p. 63.
was his demand whichpromptedthe establishmentof thecommissionsin

spring 1784.59
Between April and July 1784 the commissionersvisited Deslon's
clinicand, since Franklinwas ill withgout at his suburbanhouse at Passy,
Deslon also took his machinerythere. Establishingpower means govern-
ing space. Lavoisier wanted a secure boundary between 'the effectsof a
real agent and those of imagination' ('MA', 3:509). This was the line
between experimentalspace and Deslon's mesmericworld. Condorcet,
the Academy's secretary,set out the same conditionson replicationas
those Nollet had promulgated:'if he wishesto convincepersonswithout
prejudice, let him open his cabinet to natural philosophers,and there,
withoutthe sick,and withno witnessessave those who reallywish to be
there,let him performverysimpleand convincingexperiments'.60 This
strategy needed control over the mesmeric milieu. The commissioners
could then make themselvessubjects,witnesses,and experimenters.The
carefulprotocols of Deslon's theatreruled out thisrole play. Hand ges-
tures,music,bodilycontact,all mattered.So aftera fewvisitsthecommis-
sionersshiftedto privatespace, theirspace, by excludingDeslon's clients
and staging their own trials (see R, pp. 24-27). Mesmerismdamaged
moralorder.A secretreportbyCommissionerBaillydetailedtheastound-
inglyeroticorientationof mesmericbodies. Deslon conceded to thepolice
thatsuch deportmentmightpromptimmorality, hence his insistencethat
mesmerismshould be the prerogativeof the faculty.The relationsof class
and gender were stressedto bringout the relationsof power and to con-
trol these dangers. Lavoisier and his colleagues noted that 'patientsof
rank ... mightbe displeasedwiththe enquiriesof the commissioners;the
veryact of watchingthem mightappear a nuisance' (R, p. 29). Further-
more, since the magnetiserswere men, theywould alwaysbe the puppets
of the femalepatient:'whateverthe stateof the illness,itdoes not deprive
us of our sex, it does not entirelyallow us to escape fromthe other's
power'. The commissionersmustbe on guard againstimperceptible,irre-
sistibledeferenceand passion.Justas mesmerisedwomen 'could give no
account of what theyexperience,theyare ignorantof the statein which
theyare', so the savant must make a space where he could manage the
potent imaginationsof the seance, lest he become a mute and female
victim.61
The commissionerscould now calibrate mesmerismby insinuating
thatthereshould be a similarity relationbetweenanimal and othermag-
59. See Charles Deslon, Observationssur le magnetisme animal (London, 1780), pp.
16-22. See also Gillispie,Scienceand Polityin Franceat theEnd oftheOld Regime,pp. 272-81.
60. Condorcet, 'Raisons qui m'ont emp&che'jusqu'icide croireau magnetismeanimal',
in Darnton, Mesmerism and theEnd of theEnlightenment in France, pp. 191-92.
61. Jean-SylvainBailly,'Rapport secretsur le mesmerisme,ou magnetismeanimal', in
Duveen and Klickstein, 'Benjamin Franklin and Antoine Lavoisier-Documentation',
Annals ofScience 13 (Mar. 1957): 43, 44.
netisms.Iron needles did not respond to the baquet.Solar microscopes

and thermometersrevealed that witnesses'magneticfluids were sweat
and heat. The commissionersdamned 'the public process,wherethereis
neithertimenor opportunityof makingdecisiveexperiments',and where
'theymightthemselveshave been led into error.It was necessaryto have
libertyto insulatethe effectsin order to distinguishthe causes' (R, p. 99).
When, each week, theyvisitedDeslon and were magnetised,theycould
now explainawaytheeffectsas 'the resultof perpetualand ordinaryvaria-
tionsin the stateof theirhealth' (R, p. 42). Commissionersused theirbod-
ies like other instruments,to calibrate and then destroythe magnetic
characterof the experimentallymasteredevents.Another circle was set
up: Deslon said thecommissionerswereignoringhiswell-evidencedcures,
while the commissionersanswered that these reportscould not be pro-
cessed experimentally.The regresswas brokenbecause the commission-
ers had power.They ran the show and definedthe available explanatory
resources. Deslon and the commissionersagreed that the differencein
stagingexplained the differencein outcome. They disagreed about the
legitimacy, and theevidentialcontext,of thisdifference.The commission-
ers said that in 'the public processes ... nature [was] wroughtup to the
highestpitch',but in privateexperiments'the body [was] freefrompain,
and the mind fromanxiety,nature preservingher ordinarycourse' (R,
p. 43). Deslon simplydenied thatthe experimentswere natural.He said
the experimenterscould not reliablyreporttheirown state,thatthe mag-
netic touch mustbe insensibleand thatthe milieuof the baquetmattered
much.62 The commissionersanswered that if animal magnetismwere
physical,thenclose self-scrutiny would be unnecessary;ifitwerenot,then
such examinationmightbe deceitful.'If the magnetismwere a real and
operative cause, there was no need that it should be made an object of
thought,in order to [perceive]itsactionand [manifest]itself.It ought ...
to renderitselfperceptibleto a mindthatshould even be distractedfrom
it by design' (R, p. 40). This showed how to select subjectsaccording to
Nollet's rules. They 'selected fromthe polite worldsuch as could not be
suspectedof sinisterviews,and whose understandingmade themcapable
of inquiringinto and givinga faithfulaccount of theirsensations'(R, p.
46). Anypleb would be distractedand corruptedby the collectivegaze of
expert savants.So three typesof subject were made up: the commission-
ers, who carefullyavoided self-absorption;patricians,who could give
credible witness;and 'persons reallydiseased', selected 'out of the lower
class', on whomtrickswere playedand whose own reportscould rarelybe
trusted(R, p. 44).
The commissioners'dramas made mesmerismincorporealby using
theconventionsof moralorder.Lavoisierwrotethescript:Deslon mustbe
62. See Deslon, Supplementaux deux rapportsde mm.les commissaires

(Amsterdam,
1784), pp. 6-7; hereafterabbreviated S.
silent;each commissionermustlearn and transcribehis part; the precise

wordsand gestureseach mustmake was specified.'Each of the sickwillbe
led intoa place in thehouse wheretheyare keptin view,each in a separate
room; one maybe placed in the salon' ('MA', 3:511). Neithera scrofulous
child nor a youngconvulsivegave evidence of mesmericeffect.The com-
missionersdecided thatthisshowedthe 'sound understanding'of the for-
mer and the 'idiotism'of the latter(R, p. 53). A blindfoldedservantand a
learned medic were tricked into giving magnetic responses when
untreated,and no response when magnetised.In Franklin'sgarden, a
blindfoldedboy was paraded througha cherrygrove of whichjust one
tree had been magnetised.When he startedsweatingnear the wrongtree,
Deslon retorted that all the trees 'participatedof the magnetism'(R,
p. 68). The commissionersimpersonatedDeslon and successfully deluded
some patients.Thus it was thata planned deceptionrevealed the truth:'it
mustbe ascribedto the powerof communicationpossessedbythe numer-
ous emotions' (R, p. 72). This 'power' became the realityof the commis-
sioners'trials:'The imaginationis thatactiveand terriblepower,by which
are operated the astonishingeffects,thathave excited so muchattention
to the public process' (R, p. 98). While deconstructinganimal magnetism,
theyreconstructeda new forcewhichpenetratedthe whole social body.
They mobilisedmuchevidenceforthisprincipleofimagination,located it
in the eyes, 'the source of a veryhigh degree of power',and the uterus,
whose 'empire and extensiveinfluence . .. over the animal economy is
well known'(R, p. 77). As Thomas Laqueur putsit,in Enlightenment dis-
courses of sexuality,'a notionof order and coherence is replaced by cor-
poreal wiring'.63Bailly indicated that the 'mobility'of women's nerves
made thema startlingwhole: 'In touchingthemin one part,one mightsay
that one simultaneouslytouches them everywhere.... Women ... are
likesoundingstringsperfectlytunedin unison'. But thepowerofimitative
imaginationwas 'imposed upon as a law',and could not be confinedto the
female. Franklineven worried that the reportsof imagination'spower
would damage faithin true scripturalmiracles.Thus the experimenters
put theirown personsin question.They reportedtheirinvulnerability to a
power they reckoned was omnipotent. Their claim to representthe natu-
ral state of body and mind was compromisedby theirown claims to an
exceptionallyrobust self-possession.64
This moral and political puzzle made the commissioners'reports
rathervulnerable. Mesmer denied them by denyingthat Deslon was an
adequate representative of animal magnetism. The commissioners
63. Thomas Laqueur, MakingSex:Bodyand Genderfrom theGreekstoFreud(Cambridge,

Mass., 1990), p. 154.
64. Bailly, 'Rapport secret sur le mesmerisme',p. 43; Franklin to William Temple
Franklin,25 Aug. 1784, TheWritings ofBenjaminFranklin,ed. AlbertHenry Smith,10 vols.
(New York, 1905-7), 9:268.
358 SimonSchaffer Self Evidence
answered that they saw no difference between the two therapies.

Deslon's strategywas to reprintlong listsof autobiographies fromhis
successfulpatients,to insistthat 'tojudge ifMagnetismexists,and ifit is
useful,one need not be an academician or physician'(S, p. 1), and, most
important,to point out that the commissionersseemed invulnerableto
the imagination they alleged affected everyone: 'To understand the
Commissioners,imaginationwould almostbe our normalstate. If thatis
so, theyshould have told us how theymade sure of themselveswhenthey
werejudging Magnetism'(S, p. 9). Deslon had a good resource to use to
make this point. Unlike other commissioners,the naturalistAntoine-
Laurent Jussieu had tried to magnetise patients himself,and had suc-
ceeded in at least four cases. He attributed his own success to an
interactionbetweenanimal heat and animal electricity.But Deslon reck-
oned otherwiseand printed the testimonyof one of Jussieu's subjects,
the militaryinstructorRobert. Robert said that he could not deny the
factof animal magnetism.He had indeed responded whenJussieubegan
to magnetisehim: 'If this is the effectof imagination,there is nothing
positivein thisworld'. And who, 'in an enlightenedage', could possibly
be terrifedby Deslon's baquet,'unless theyhad the imaginativepowersof
a Don Quixote?' (S, pp. 54-55).65
Mesmericpracticesremained credible, if mutable,resources. They
survived Mesmer's flightto Swabia and Deslon's death in 1786 while
under a magnetictrance.In companywiththe new enterprisesof animal
electricityand pneumatics,theymade good tools forJacobinnaturalphi-
losophy. While mid-eighteenth-century experimenters staged polite
showsto dramatiseactiveprinciplesin all bodies, in the 1780s and 1790s
radicalsdrew more attentionawayfromthe divineauthorof theseprinci-
ples to theirown persons. Galvanism,pneumatics,and mesmerismwere
used byphilosophicalmaterialiststo effacedistinctionsbetweenmindand
body.66 In his 1785 translationof the commissioners'report, the radical
journalist William Godwin stressed thatwhileDeslon was wrong,hisstory,
likeany branchof ecclesiasticalhistory,was the 'record of our errors'(R,
p. xviii). Error was metaphysicallyand politically crucial because it
revealed the powers of the unfetteredmind: 'in this field the soul has
room enough to expand herself,to displayall her boundlessfaculties'(R,
pp. xvii-xviii).Writingforthe London communityofradicalsand dissent-
ing Whigs,Godwin stressedthatsuch strategiescould yieldmattersof fact
about human reason.
65. See Antoine-LouisJussieu,'Rapport de l'un des commissaireschargespar le roi de

l'examen du magnetismeanimal', in Alexandre Bertrand,Du magnetisme animalen France
(Paris, 1826), pp. 151-206.
66. See Darnton,Mesmerism and theEnd oftheEnlightenmentinFrance,pp. 50, 106-25.
Conclusion:Embodiment
and Disembodiment
in Science
When natural philosophersmade inferencesfromtheirown bodies

to mattersof fact,theyneeded a stable and carefullyenclosed commu-
nityto warranttheir actions. These communitieswere integratedinto
the culture of the ancien regime.While Franklinworried that the social
destructionof animal magnetismmightalso entail damage to faithin
miracles, Voltaire satirised the stringencyof these privileged cultural
formations:'For a miracleto be well establishedone would wishit to be
performedin the presence of the Academie des Sciences of Paris,or the
Royal Society of London, and the facultyof medicine, supported by a
detachment of the regimentof guards to control the crowd of people
whose indiscretionmightprevent the operation of the miracle'.67The
indiscretionsof the people and the collapse of credibilityof these institu-
tions during the Revolutionaryepoch made it increasinglydifficultto
stage safelysuch experimentalperformances.Foucault has summarised
thistransformation fromthe powerof the classicalage to thatof modern
discipline: 'traditionally,power was what was seen, what was shown....
In discipline,it is the subjectswho have to be seen'.68This was especially
true when experimentersmade their own bodies into stage props. In
France, the great festivalsof the Revolutionaryregimes involved this
inversionof the gaze, as the state surveyedits own people. Criticsreck-
oned thisshowed the devilishpuppetryofJacobintyranny.69 And just as
anti-Jacobins saw Revolutionary rituals as bestial, so theyjudged the
clubs of savantsas dangerous coteries of materialistconspiracy.In the
1790s the EnglishJacobin Thomas Beddoes set up a pneumaticinstitute
in Bristol,and hired HumphryDavy to administerpowerfulgases to his
clients. This materialistpneumatics demonstratedthe corporealityof
the mind.70 Auto-experimentationwas crucial. Davy's Researches(1800)
was stocked withautobiographical reportsof the inhalation of the gas.
Davy 'lost all connectionwithexternal things.... I existed in a worldof
newlyconnected and newlymodifiedideas. I theorised-I imaginedthat
I made discoveries'.The poet Robert Southeywrotethat'Davy has actu-
ally invented a new pleasure for which language has no name'. The
unspeakable relationshipbetween the evidence of imaginationand the
power of a material gas proved too vulnerable a resource at a time of
fierce conservativereaction. It was not obvious that the reduction of
67. Voltaire,PhilosophicalDictionary,trans.and ed. Theodore Besterman(1764; Har-

mondsworth,1972), p. 316.
68. Foucault, Disciplineand Punish, p. 187.
69. See Mona Ozouf, La Fite revolutionnaire 1789-1799 (Paris, 1976), p. 244.
70. See Dorothy A. Stansfieldand Ronald G. Stansfield,'Dr Thomas Beddoes and
James Watt: PreparatoryWork 1794-96 forthe BristolPneumatic Institute',MedicalHis-
tory30 (1986): 276-302.
360 SimonSchaffer Self Evidence
the experimenter's body to the status of a marionette could carry

conviction.71
Auto-experimentationprecisely required that the experimenter
become a puppet master over himself.In Britain,the theme was fre-
quentlycanvassedin Regencyculture.The perfectemblemof the experi-
menter's body as inanimate subject was surely Jeremy Bentham's
notorious'Auto-icon'(1832), an embalmedcorpse designedto propagate
confidenceboth in anatomicalbequestsand in itspossessor'sgenius. The
alternative ethos was expressed in Frankenstein(1818), where Mary
Shelley,respondingboth to the materialismof her fatherWilliamGodwin
and to the chemical galvanismtouted by Davy, brilliantlyexplored the
tensionsinherentin the naturalphilosophicaldivorceof moraland physi-
cal forces.72Elsewhere,romanticwritersjudged thatthe materialistver-
sion of the philosophicpuppeteer was hopelesslycompromised.Instead,
they forged a more direct and dynamicrelationshipbetween external
natureand thepowersof mind.Here the keynew role was thatof the gen-
ius. Enlightenmentphilosophershad typicallydenied the statusof genius
to the naturalphilosopher,reckoningthatsince it was replicableand rea-
sonable, experimentcould not be the prerogativeof the isolatedand ele-
vated individual. But the scientificgenius, such as Davy or his German
rival the chemical galvanistJohann Ritter,became a romanticcommon-
place. For such men, autobiography was a preferred means of self-
expression,and self-experimentation a favouredresearchstrategy.Hence
the significanceof the romanticdebate on the role of self-consciousness.
Heinrich von Kleist's 'Uber das Marionettentheater',published in his
Berlin newspaperin December 1810, can be read as an interventionin
thisexchange. In several of his textsfromthisperiod, Kleist displayeda
graspof contemporarygalvanism,and hisdialogue confrontstheproblem
of self-knowledgein the settingof a puppet show.The lesson is thatself-
consciousnessdestroyseffectiveperformance.The perfectmachine and
theall-knowing,immaterialdeityare bothcapable of grace,but thesavant
standstrappedby his own sense of self:'since we have eaten of the tree of
knowledge. We must make the journey around the world to see if
maybe there....
is still some opening from behind'.73In the same sense,
71. Humphry Davy, Researches,Chemicaland Philosophical,chiefly concerningNitrous

Oxide,vol. 3 of The CollectedWorksofSir HumphryDavy, ed. John Davy (London, 1839),
p. 289. Southey is quoted in E. B. Smith,'A Note on HumphryDavy's Experimentson the
Respirationof NitrousOxide and Other Gases', in Scienceand theSons ofGenius:Studieson
HumphryDavy, ed. Sophie Forgan (London, 1980), p. 233.
72. For Bentham, see Ruth Richardson, Death, Dissectionand theDestitute(London,
1987), pp. 159-61. On Mary Shelley,see Anne K. Mellor, 'Frankenstein: A FeministCri-
tique of Science', in One Culture: Essays on Scienceand Literature,ed. George Levine
(Madison, Wis., 1987), pp. 287-312.
73. Heinrich von Kleist, 'On the Marionette Theater', trans. Roman Paska, in Frag-
mentsfor a Historyof theHuman Body, 1:417.
Coleridge argued in his BiographiaLiteraria(1817) thatthe true genius

was defined by his unself-consciousness.A genius's 'sensibilityis excited
byanyothercause more powerfully, thanbyitsown personalinterests'.So
here was a new role forthenaturalphilosopher,in whichthe management
of nature and of the body would be guaranteed by the disembodiment of
the intellectual.For Coleridge, for example, this process of disembodi-
ment dominated successfulperformance.It explained the superiorityof
theatre,in which'a speciesof Animal Magnetism'allowed the audience to
'liveforthe timewithinthe dilatedsphereof [theperformer's]intellectual
Being'.74
Two anecdotes of romanticauto-experimentation illustratehow dis-
embodiment worked in the interpretationof nature. In 1806 Ritter
staged a seriesof trialsin Munichwiththe philosophersSchellingand von
Baader to investigatethe powersof a Tyrolese diviner,Campetti.Ritter
reckoned that such bodies were exceptionallysensitivedetectors of a
power he called Siderismus,the interactionbetween the motionsof the
human body and the cosmos. To make Siderismuscredible,however,he
reckoned it was necessaryto replace his body witha machine,just as he
had done in the 1790s when he successfully removedany animal fromhis
galvanic circuits.He hoped 'to reproduce these phenomena withdevices
that do not incorporateanythinglivingand then withoutrequiringany
exceptionally sensitive instrumentthat depends . .. in particular on
human nerves'.75Ritter'strialson Lichtenbergfigures,made bydischarg-
ing electricitythroughglass or across metal,werejust such devices: 'My
aim was to rediscover,or else to find,the original or natural scriptby
means of electricity'.76Coleridge, a carefulreader of Ritterand of Davy,
shared the viewthatnaturewas a systemof signs,and thatinvestigation of
this semioticscould be achieved as part of self-understanding. So, for
example, he agreed withGodwin thatmesmerismtaughtmuch about the
power of imagination. Magnetic effectscould not be material, since
magnetisersneverperceivedtheirfavouredluminousfluid,but theywere
real, fortheydramatisedthe potencyof excited nerves.In a remarkable
letter writtenat the same time as BiographiaLiteraria,he recalled the
74. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, BiographiaLiterariaorBiographicalSketchesofMyLiterary

Lifeand Opinions,2 vols.,ed. JamesEngell and W.JacksonBate, vol. 7 of TheCollectedWorks
of Samuel TaylorColeridge(1817; Princeton, N.J., 1983), 1:43, 2:239.
75. Quoted in Keld Nielsen, 'Another Kind of Light: The Work of T. J. Seebeck and
His Collaboration withGoethe: Part 1', HistoricalStudiesin thePhysicaland BiologicalSci-
ences 20, no. 1 (1989): 133. For electric writing,see Johann Ritter,Fragmenteaus dem
Nachlasse einesjungen Physikers,2 vols. (Heidelberg, 1810), 2:230. The semiotictheoryis
discussed in Walter Benjamin, The Originof GermanTragicDrama, trans.John Osborne
(1963; London, 1977), p. 214.
76. Quoted in Walter Wetzels, Johann WilhelmRitter:Physikim Wirkungsfeld der
deutschenRomantik(Berlin, 1973), pp. 52-53.
aftermathof a drunkenpartyin order to demonstratethe relationship

between mesmericillusionand the act of writing:
I have myselfonce seen (i.e. appeared to see) myown body under the
Bedcloaths flashingsilverLight fromwhateverpart I prestit-and
thesame proceed fromthetipsof myfingers.I have thuswritten,as it
were, my name, greek words, cyphers, etc. on my Thigh: and
instantlyseen themtogetherwiththe Thigh in brilliantLettersof sil-
ver Light.... I deduced fromthe Phaenomenon the existenceof an
imitativesympathyin the nerves, so that those of the Eye copied
instantaneouslythe impressionsmade on those of the Limbs.77
Coleridge worked hard to read bodily experience as neurotic.The

Cartesianismof the genteelgave wayto thedisembodimentof theintellec-
tual. Romanticsheld that the world was structuredin dialogue withthe
mind: Ritter'sview was that 'man's anatomyand thatof the body of the
Earthand thatof the greaterhumanbodyare a unity'.78 Thus disembodi-
ment was one solution to the crisisof authorityover the experimental
body. But as Coleridge's bodily inscriptionand Ritter's work with
Siderismusalso showed,therewas anothersolutionto theproblemof mak-
ing the body yieldevidence. This was to replace humans withmachines.
New experimentalregimeswere designed to distractattentionfromthe
person of the experimenter by making instrumentsinto inscription
devices and byautomatingthe experimentalprocess. New scientificdisci-
plinesneeded disciplinedinstrumental techniquesand docile bodies. Self-
registration became a key goal for modern instrumentaldesign. The
nineteenth-century body would be increasinglysubjectto the vigilanceof
instruments which were supposed to record and transcribeits real pro-
cesses.79These two formations,self-registrativetechnologyand disem-
bodied genius,mayseem completelyantagonistic.Yet theywereproduced
together.The lesson of the storyof self-evidencemay thereforebe that
thereis an intimaterelationshipbetweenthe trustplaced in the evidence
of self-registeringscientificinstrumentationand the moral authorityof
the scientificintellectual.
77. Coleridge to Boosey, May 1817, inJohn LivingstonLowes, TheRoad toXanadu: A

Studyin theWaysoftheImagination(1927; London, 1978), p. 546. See also Trevor H. Levere,
'Coleridge and the Human Sciences: Anthropology,Phrenologyand Mesmerism',in Sci-
ence,Pseudo-Scienceand Society,ed. Marsha P. Hanen, MargaretJ. Osler, and Robert G.
Weyant(Waterloo, Ont., 1980), pp. 171-92.
78. Ritter,Fragmenteaus demNachlasse einesjungen Physikers, 2:37.
79. For a verygood account of Davy's path frompneumaticauto-experimentationto
galvanic experimental discipline, see Jan Golinski, 'Humphry Davy and the "Lever of
Experiment"',in Experimental Inquiries:Historical,Philosophicaland Social StudiesofExperi-
mentationin Science,ed. H. E. Le Grand (Dordrecht, 1990), pp. 99-136.

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Author(s): Simon Schaffer

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To turnand fix ... ones attentionupon oneself,is not perhapsitself

There seems to be an importanthistoricalconnexionbetweenchangesin

1. See Michel Foucault, L'Ordre du discours:Lecon inaugurale au Collegede France

CriticalInquiry 18 (Winter 1992)

London's motto. Robert Boyle,doyen of the Society'sexperimentalphi-

SimonSchafferlecturesin historyand philosophyat theUniversity

Light or Evidence, that ... in spightof Prisons,it shines freely'.4Self-

4. Robert Boyle, OccasionalReflectionsupon SeveralSubjectswitha Discourseaboutsuch

whichtheydrewauthority.These linksbetweenthe privacyof the experi-

7. See Trevor J. Pinch, 'Towards an Analysis of Scientific Observation: The

the modern polity.Good societyprovided manypublic and privatesites

8. NorbertElias, TheCourtSociety,trans.EdmundJephcott(Oxford, 1983), pp. 55, 96.

what?To teach hisBuskin-footedFools / How to belie theirWantof Sense

12. Samuel Richardson,Correspondence, ed. Anna Laetitia Barbauld, 6 vols. (London,

Leydenjar, a glassbottlefilledwithwaterwhichcould receivethe electric

16. John Ryland,An Easy Introduction toMechanics,Geometry, Plane Trigonometry, Mea-

edge. The repetitionof a trial relies on the transmissionof craftskills

19. H. M. Collins, ChangingOrder:Replicationand Inductionin Scientific

naturaland artificialworlds.21The spinningelectricglobe was analogised

'A SecretMotionof theHand': Gray'sElectricalPlanetarium

21. See John Desaguliers, 'Some thoughtsconcerningElectricity',RoyalSocietyMan-

Paris by the Intendantof theJardindu Roi, Charles Dufay,who reported

dutifullyperformed its planetary orbit as required. When placed

31. Mortimer,'An Account of some of the ElectricalExperimentsmade by Granville

Cartesianismofthegenteel:in polite society,memberscould be treatedas

'A verydelicateChoiceofPersons':Nollet'sItalian Tour

34. Hume is cited in ChristopherLawrence, 'The Nervous Systemand Societyin the

The therapistshad a rangeofresourcesavailableto them:a newtechnology

FIG. 1.-The scene of electricmedicine. FromJohann GottliebSchaeffer,Die electrische

equipment.38'I do not wishto be takenforsomeone who has shownyou

38. See Johann Winckler,'Letter ... concerningthe Effectsof Electricityupon Him-

FIG.2.-Nollet's experiments on theelectrification

German workon the electrification of capillaryflow.In phlebotomyand

42. Nollet, 'Part of a Letter ... concerning Electricity',PhilosophicalTransactions45

44. Henry Baker,'A Letter ... concerningseveralMedical Experimentsof Electricity',

imentsis fundamentalin the establishmentof workablemattersof fact.

47. For breaches of laboratoryprivacy,see MaryJo Nye, 'N-rays:An Episode in the

one problem;the testimonyof plebs was another.Amongstthe Turin sub-

This, I say,made me verydelicate in the Choice of the Personswho I

Nollet repeatedlylimitedthose who could give evidence of the state

instancesof electrification,conformableto his own theory,ratherthan

49. Miles, letter to Wilson, 29 Nov. 1750, BritishLibrary ManuscriptsADD 30094

own bodilycondition.These conventionswere realised in such episodes,

'We are all reallyPuppets':Mesmerism

Contemporariesheld thatthe laterdecades of theeighteenthcentury

would prevent hypochondriacs from overdoses.5 In March 1784,

53. Franklin,quoted in Denis I. Duveen and HerbertS. Klickstein,'Benjamin Franklin

characterisedthe episodes in whichthesepublic bodies set out to manage

56. Reportof Dr. BenjaminFranklin,and otherCommissioners, chargedbytheKing of

because of theirpoliticaluse and because theyclaimedacademic warrant.

57. See Robert M. Isherwood,Farce and Fantasy:Popular Entertainment in Eighteenth-

In Paris thereexist societieswhere enormoussumsare spentto deal

Paulet's strategywas highlynuanced. Referencesto puppetrylinkedmes-

FIG. 3.-The commissioners,led by Benjamin Franklin,put the Mesmer

was his demand whichpromptedthe establishmentof thecommissionsin

netisms.Iron needles did not respond to the baquet.Solar microscopes

62. See Deslon, Supplementaux deux rapportsde mm.les commissaires

silent;each commissionermustlearn and transcribehis part; the precise

63. Thomas Laqueur, MakingSex:Bodyand Genderfrom theGreekstoFreud(Cambridge,

answered that they saw no difference between the two therapies.

65. See Antoine-LouisJussieu,'Rapport de l'un des commissaireschargespar le roi de