Détail des cures opérées à Buzancy, près Soissons, par le magnétisme animal
period treatise · 1784
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SUMMARY
Puységur's own 1784 account of the cures he performed by animal magnetism among the inhabitants of his family estate at Buzancy, near Soissons. The pamphlet is the contemporary primary record of the practice in which Puységur, applying Mesmer's magnetic technique, first observed a calm sleep-like lucid state (later named artificial or magnetic somnambulism) rather than Mesmer's convulsive crises. Wellcome Collection catalogue record (work es4ayp6q) gives the imprint 'A Soissons, [s.n.], MDCCLXXXIV [1784]' and the author authority 'Chastenet de Puységur, A.-M.-J. (Armand-Marie-Jacques), 1751-1825.'
NOTES
The 1784 Détail des cures opérées à Buzancy is the contemporary primary source for the discovery setting of this case: the magnetic treatments Puységur conducted among the peasants and dependents on his Buzancy estate near Soissons. It is the first stage of the documentary record that runs through his later Mémoires and the 1811 Recherches. The Wellcome Collection holds and catalogues the pamphlet (work es4ayp6q), which establishes the 1784 date, the Soissons imprint, and Puységur’s authorship (1751-1825).