ON THE TRUTHS CONTAINED IN POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS WITH AN ACCOUNT OF MESMERISM BY HERBERT MAYO, M.D._1796-1852 FORMERLY SENIOR 2 ANATOMY SURGEON OF MIDDLESEX HOSPITAL ; PROFESSOR OF IN THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS, LONDON, F.R.S. F.G.S. ETC. THIRD EDITION WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON MDCCCLI 1851 146 PREFATORY REMARKS IN the following Letters I have endeavoured to exhibit in their true light the singular natural phenomena of which old superstition and modern charlatanism in turn availed themselves, to indicate their laws, and to develop their theory. The subject is so important that I might well have approached it in a severer guise. But, slight as this performance may appear, I profess to have employed upon it the keenest and most patient efforts of reflection of which I am capable. And as to its tone at the commencement, and the prominence given to popular and trivial topics, I candidly avow that, without some such artifice, I doubt whether I should have found a publisher of repute to publish, or a circle of readers to read, my lucubrations. "Cosi all' egro fanciul porgiamo aspersi Di soave licor gli orli del vaso; Succhi amari ingannato intanto ei beve, It was in the winter of 1846 that the original seven Letters were written, of which the present |