The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 83, September, 1864

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By this time the cry of witchcraft was raised in the neighborhood, and
public opinion had even designated by name the sorcerer who had cast the
spell. On the twenty-first of January the phenomena increased in
violence and in variety. A chair on which the girl attempted to sit
down, though held by three strong men, was thrown off, in spite of their
efforts, to several yards' distance. Shovels, tongs, lighted firewood,
brushes, books, were all set in motion when the girl approached them. A
pair of scissors fastened to her girdle was detached, and thrown into
the air.

On the twenty-fourth of January, M. de Faremont took the child and her
aunt in his carriage to the small neighboring town of Mamers. There,
before two physicians and several ladies and gentlemen, articles of
furniture moved about on her approach. And there, also, the following
conclusive experiment was tried by M. de Faremont.

Into one end of a ponderous wooden block, weighing upwards of a hundred
and fifty pounds, he caused a small hook to be driven. To this he made
Angelique fix her silk. As soon as she sat down and her frock touched
the block, the latter _was instantly raised three or four inches from
the ground; and this was repeated as much as forty times in a minute_.
Then, after suffering the girl to rest, M. de Faremont seated himself on
the block, and was elevated in the same way. Then _three men placed
themselves upon it, and were raised also_, only not quite so high. "It
is certain," says M. de Faremont, "that I and one of the most athletic
porters of the Halle could not have lifted that block with the three
persons seated on it."[6]

Dr. Verger came to Mamers to see Angelique, whom, as well as her family,
he had previously known. On the twenty-eighth of January, in the
presence of the curate of Saint Martin and of the chaplain of the
Bellesme hospital, the following incident occurred. As the child could
not sew without pricking herself with the needle, nor use scissors
without wounding her hands, they set her to shelling peas, placing a
large basket before her. As soon as her dress touched the basket, and
she reached her hand to begin work, the basket was violently repulsed,
and the peas projected upwards and scattered over the room. This was
twice repeated, under the same circumstances. Dr. Lemonnier, of Saint
Maurice, testifies to the same phenomenon, as occurring in his presence
and in that of the Procurator Royal of Mortagne;[7] he noticed that the
left hand produced the greater effect. He adds, that, he and another,
gentleman having endeavored, with all their strength, to hold a chair on
which Angelique sat down, it was violently forced from them, and one of
its legs broken.

On the thirtieth of January, M. de Faremont tried the effect of
isolation. When, by means of dry glass, he isolated the child's feet and
the chair on which she sat, the chair ceased to move, and she remained
perfectly quiet. M. Olivier, government engineer, tried a similar
experiment, with the same results.[8] A week later, M. Hebert, repeating
this experiment, discovered that isolation of the chair was unnecessary;
it sufficed to isolate the girl.[9] Dr. Beaumont, vicar of
Pin-la-Garenne, noticed a fact, insignificant in appearance, yet quite
as conclusive as were the more violent manifestations, as to the reality
of the phenomena. Having moistened with saliva the scattered hairs on
his own arm, so that they lay flattened, attached to the epidermis, when
he approached his arm to the left arm of the girl, the hairs instantly
erected themselves. M. Hebert repeated the same experiment several
times, always with a similar result.[10]

M. Olivier also tried the following. With a stick of sealing-wax, which
he had subjected to friction, he touched the girl's arm, and it gave her
a considerable shock; but touching her with another similar stick, that
had not been rubbed, she experienced no effect whatever.[11] Yet when M.
de Faremont, on the nineteenth of January, tried the same experiment
with a stick of sealing-wax and a glass tube, well prepared by rubbing,
he obtained no effect whatever. So also a pendulum of light pith,
brought into close proximity to her person at various points, was
neither attracted nor repulsed, in the slightest degree.[12]

Towards the beginning of February, Angelique was obliged, for several
days, to eat standing; she could not sit down on a chair. This fact Dr.
Verger repeatedly verified. Holding her by the arm to prevent accident,
the moment she touched the chair it was projected from under her, and
she would have fallen but for his support. At such times, to take rest,
she had to seat herself on the floor, or on a stone provided for the
purpose.

On one such occasion, "she approached," says M. de Faremont, "one of
those rough, heavy bedsteads used by the peasantry, weighing, with the
coarse bedclothes, some three hundred pounds, and sought to lie down on
it. The bed shook and oscillated in an incredible manner; no force that
I know of is capable of communicating to it such a movement. Then she
went to another bed, which was raised from the ground on wooden rollers,
six inches in diameter; and it was immediately thrown off the rollers."
All this M. de Faremont personally witnessed.[13]

On the evening of the second of February, Dr. Verger received Angelique
into his house. On that day and the next, upwards of one thousand
persons came to see her. The constant experiments, which on that
occasion were continued into the night, so fatigued the poor girl that
the effects were sensibly diminished. Yet even then a small table
brought near to her was thrown down so violently that it broke to
pieces. It was of cherry-wood and varnished.

"In a general way," says Dr. Beaumont-Chardon, "I think the effects were
more marked with me than with others, because I never evinced suspicion,
and spared her all suffering; and I thought I could observe, that,
although her powers were not under the control of her will, yet they
were greatest when her mind was at ease, and she was in good
spirits."[14] It appeared, also, that on waxed, or even tiled floors,
but more especially on carpets, the effects were much less than on an
earthen floor like that of the cottage where they originally showed
themselves.

At first wooden furniture seemed exclusively affected; but at a later
period metal also, as tongs and shovels, though in a less degree,
appeared to be subjected to this extraordinary influence. When the
child's powers were the most active, actual contact was not necessary.
Articles of furniture and other small objects moved, if she accidentally
approached them.

Up to the sixth of February she had been visited by more than two
thousand persons, including distinguished physicians from the towns of
Bellesme and Mortagne, and from all the neighborhood, magistrates,
lawyers, ecclesiastics, and others. Some gave her money.

Then, in an evil hour, listening to mercenary suggestion, the parents
conceived the idea that the poor girl might be made a source of
pecuniary gain; and notwithstanding the advice and remonstrance of her
true friends, M. de Faremont, Dr. Verger, M. Hebert, and others, her
father resolved to exhibit her in Paris and elsewhere.

On the road they were occasionally subjected to serious annoyances. The
report of the marvels above narrated had spread far and wide; and the
populace, by hundreds, followed the carriage, hooting and abusing the
sorceress.

Arrived at the French metropolis, they put up at the Hotel de Rennes,
No. 23, Rue des Deux-Ecus. There, on the evening of the twelfth of
February, Dr. Tanchon saw Angelique for the first time.

This gentleman soon verified, among other phenomena, the following. A
chair, which he held firmly with both hands, was forced back as soon as
she attempted to sit down; a middle-sized dining-table was displaced and
repulsed by the touch of her dress; a large sofa, on which Dr. Tanchon
was sitting, was pushed violently to the wall, as soon as the child sat
down beside him. The Doctor remarked, that, when a chair was thrown back
from under her, her clothes seemed attracted by it, and adhered to it,
until it was repulsed beyond their reach; that the power was greater
from the left hand than from the right, and that the former was warmer
than the latter, and often trembled, agitated by unusual contractions;
that the influence emanating from the girl was intermittent, not
permanent, being usually most powerful from seven till nine o'clock in
the evening, possibly influenced by the principal meal of the day,
dinner, taken at six o'clock; that, if the girl was cut off from contact
with the earth, either by placing her feet on a non-conductor or merely
by keeping them raised from the ground, the power ceased, and she could
remain seated quietly; that, during the paroxysm, if her left hand
touched any object, she threw it from her as if it burned her,
complaining that it pricked her, especially on the wrist; that,
happening one day to touch accidentally the nape of her neck, the girl
ran from him, crying out with pain; and that repeated observation
assured him of the fact that there was, in the region of the
cerebellum, and at the point where the superior muscles of the neck are
inserted in the cranium, a point so acutely sensitive that the child
would not suffer there the lightest touch; and, finally, that the girl's
pulse, often irregular, usually varied from one hundred and five to one
hundred and twenty beats a minute.

A curious observation made by this physician was, that, at the moment of
greatest action, a cool breeze, or gaseous current, seemed to flow from
her person. This he felt on his hand, as distinctly as one feels the
breath during an ordinary expiration.[15]

He remarked, also, that the intermittence of the child's power seemed to
depend in a measure on her state of mind. She was often in fear lest
some one should touch her from behind; the phenomena themselves agitated
her; in spite of a month's experience, each time they occurred she drew
back, as if alarmed. And all such agitations seemed to diminish her
power. When she was careless, and her mind was diverted to something
else, the demonstrations were always the most energetic.

From the north pole of a magnet, if it touched her finger, she received
a sharp shock; while the contact of the south pole produced upon her no
effect whatever. This effect was uniform; and the girl could always tell
which pole touched her.

Dr. Tanchon ascertained from the mother that no indications of puberty
had yet manifested themselves in her daughter's case.

Such is a summary of the facts, embodied in a report drawn up by Dr.
Tanchon on the fifteenth of February. He took it with him on the evening
of the sixteenth to the Academy of Sciences, and asked M. Arago if he
had seen the electric girl, and if he intended to bring her case that
evening to the notice of the Academy. Arago replied to both questions in
the affirmative, adding,--"If you have seen her, I shall receive from
you with pleasure any communication you may have to make."

Dr. Tanchon then read to him the report; and at the session of that
evening, Arago presented it, stated what he himself had seen, and
proposed that a committee should be appointed to examine the case. His
statement was received by his audience with many expressions of
incredulity; but they acceded to his suggestion by naming, from the
members of the Academy, a committee of six.

It appears that Arago had had but a single opportunity, and for the
brief space of less than half an hour, of witnessing the phenomena to
which he referred. M. Cholet, the speculator who advanced to her parents
the money necessary to bring Angelique to Paris, had taken the girl and
her parents to the Observatory, where Arago then was, who, at the
earnest instance of Cholet, agreed to test the child's powers at once.
There were present on this occasion, besides Arago, MM. Mathieu and
Laugier, and an astronomer of the Observatory, named M. Goujon.

The experiment of the chair perfectly succeeded. It was projected with
great violence against the wall, while the girl was thrown on the other
side. This experiment was repeated several times by Arago himself, and
each time with the same result. He could not, with all his force, hinder
the chair from being thrown back. Then MM. Goujon and Laugier attempted
to hold it, but with as little success. Finally, M. Goujon seated
himself first on half the chair, and at the moment when Angelique was
taking her seat beside him the chair was thrown down.

When Angelique approached a small table, at the instant that her apron
touched it, it was repulsed.

These particulars were given in all the medical journals of the day,[16]
as well as in the "Journal des Debats" of February 18, and the "Courrier
Francais" of February 19, 1846.

The minutes of the session of the Academy touch upon them in the most
studiously brief and guarded manner. They say, the sitting lasted only
some minutes. They admit, however, the main fact, namely, that the
movements of the chair, occurring as soon as Angelique seated herself
upon it, were most violent ("_d'une extreme violence_"). But as to the
other experiment, they allege that M. Arago did not clearly perceive the
movement of the table by the mere intervention of the girl's apron,
though the other observers did.[17] It is added, that the girl produced
no effect on the magnetic needle.

Some accounts represent Arago as expressing himself much more decidedly.
He may have done so, in addressing the Academy; but I find no official
record of his remarks.

He did not assist at the sittings of the committee that had been
appointed at his suggestion; but he signed their report, having
confidence, as he declared, in their judgment, and sharing their
mistrust.

That report, made on the ninth of March, is to the effect, that they
witnessed no repulsive agency on a table or similar object; that they
saw no effect produced by the girl's arm on a magnetic needle; that the
girl did not possess the power to distinguish between the two poles of a
magnet; and, finally, that the only result they obtained was sudden and
violent movements of chairs on which the child was seated. They add,
"Serious suspicions having arisen as to the manner in which these
movements were produced, the committee decided to submit them to a
strict examination, declaring, in plain terms, that they would endeavor
to discover what part certain adroit and concealed manoeuvres of the
hands and feet had in their production. From that moment we were
informed that the young girl had lost her attractive and repulsive
powers, and that we should be notified when they reappeared. Many days
have elapsed; no notice has been sent us; yet we learn that Mademoiselle
Cottin daily exhibits her experiments in private circles." And they
conclude by recommending "that the communications addressed to them in
her case be considered _as not received_" ("_comme non avenues_"). In a
word, they officially branded the poor girl as an impostor.

That, without any inquiry into the antecedents of the patient, without
the slightest attempt to obtain from those medical men who had followed
up the case from its commencement what they had observed, and that, in
advance of the strict examination which it was their duty to make, they
should insult the unfortunate girl by declaring that they intended to
find out the tricks with which she had been attempting to deceive
them,--all this is not the less lamentable because it is common among
those, who sit in the high places of science.

If these Academicians had been moved by a simple love of truth, not
urged by a self-complacent eagerness to display their own sagacity, they
might have found a more probable explanation of the cessation, after
their first session, of some of Angelique's chief powers.

Such an explanation is furnished to us by Dr. Tanchon, who was present,
by invitation, at the sittings of the committee.

He informs us that, at their first sitting, held at the Jardin des
Plantes, on the seventeenth of February, after the committee had
witnessed, twice repeated, the violent displacement of a chair held with
all his strength by one of their number, (M. Rayet,) instead of
following up similar experiments and patiently waiting to observe the
phenomena as they presented themselves, they proceeded at once to
satisfy their own preconceptions. They brought Angelique into contact
with a voltaic battery. Then they placed on the bare arm of the child a
dead frog, anatomically prepared after the manner of Matteucci, that is,
the skin removed, and the animal dissected so as to expose the lumbar
nerves. By a galvanic current, they caused this frog to move, apparently
to revive, on the girl's arm. The effect upon her may be imagined. The
ignorant child, terrified out of her senses, spoke of nothing else the
rest of the day, dreamed of dead frogs coming to life all night, and
began to talk eagerly about it again the first thing the next
morning.[18] From that time her attractive and repulsive powers
gradually declined.

In addition to the privilege of much accumulated learning, in addition
to the advantages of varied scientific research, we must have something
else, if we would advance yet farther in true knowledge. We must be
imbued with a simple, faithful spirit, not presuming, not preoccupied.
We must be willing to sit down at the feet of Truth, humble, patient,
docile, single-hearted. We must not be wise in our own conceit; else the
fool's chance is better than ours, to avoid error, and distinguish
truth.

M. Cohu, a medical man of Mortagne, writing, in March, 1846, in reply to
some inquiries of Dr. Tanchon, after stating that the phenomenon of the
chair, repeatedly observed by himself, had been witnessed also by more
than a thousand persons, adds,--"It matters not what name we may give to
this; the important point is, to verify the reality of a repulsive
agency, and of one that is distinctly marked; the effects it is
impossible to deny. We may assign to this agency what seat we please, in
the cerebellum, in the pelvis, or elsewhere; the _fact_ is material,
visible, incontestable. Here in the Province, Sir, we are not very
learned, but we are often very mistrustful. In the present case we have
examined, reexamined, taken every possible precaution against deception;
and the more we have seen, the deeper has been our conviction of the
reality of the phenomenon. Let the Academy decide as it will. _We have
seen_; it has not seen. We are, therefore, in a condition to decide
better than it can, I do not say what cause was operating, but what
effects presented themselves, under circumstances that remove even the
shadow of a doubt."[19]

M. Hebert, too, states a truth of great practical value, when he
remarks, that, in the examination of phenomena of so fugitive and
seemingly capricious a character, involving the element of vitality, and
the production of which at any given moment depends not upon us, we
"ought to accommodate ourselves to the nature of the fact, not insist
that it should accommodate itself to us."

For myself, I do not pretend to offer any positive opinion as to what
was ultimately the real state of the case. I do not assume to determine
whether the attractive and repulsive phenomena, after continuing for
upwards of a month, happened to be about to cease at the very time the
committee began to observe them,--or whether the harsh suspicious and
terror-inspiring tests of these gentlemen so wrought on the nervous
system of an easily daunted and superstitious girl, that some of her
abnormal powers, already on the wane, presently disappeared,--or whether
the poor child, it may be at the instigation of her parents, left
without the means of support,[20] really did at last simulate phenomena
that once were real, manufacture a counterfeit of what was originally
genuine. I do not take upon myself to decide between these various
hypotheses. I but express my conviction, that, for the first few weeks
at least, the phenomena actually occurred,--and that, had not the
gentlemen of the Academy been very unfortunate or very injudicious,
they could not have failed to perceive their reality. And I seek in vain
some apology for the conduct of these learned Academicians, called upon
to deal with a case so fraught with interest to science, when I find
them, merely because they do not at once succeed in personally verifying
sufficient to convince them of the existence of certain novel phenomena,
not only neglecting to seek evidence elsewhere, but even rejecting that
which a candid observer had placed within their reach.

This appears to have been the judgment of the medical public of Paris.
The "Gazette des Hopitaux," in its issue of March 17, 1846, protests
against the committee's mode of ignoring the matter, declaring that it
satisfied nobody. "Not received!" said the editor (alluding to the words
of the report); "that would be very convenient, if it were only
possible!"[21]

And the "Gazette Medicale" very justly remarks,--"The non-appearance of
the phenomena at such or such a given moment proves nothing in itself.
It is but a negative fact, and, as such, cannot disprove the positive
fact of their appearance at another moment, if that be otherwise
satisfactorily attested." And the "Gazette" goes on to argue, from the
nature of the facts, that it is in the highest degree improbable that
they should have been the result of premeditated imposture.

The course adopted by the Academy's committee is the less defensible,
because, though the attractive and repulsive phenomena ceased after
their first session, other phenomena, sufficiently remarkable, still
continued. As late as the tenth of March, the day after the committee
made their report, Angelique being then at Dr. Tanchon's house, a table
touched by her apron, while her hands were behind her and her feet
fifteen inches distant from it, _was raised entirely from the ground_,
though no part of her body touched it. This was witnessed, besides Dr.
Tanchon, by Dr. Charpentier-Mericourt, who had stationed himself so as
to observe it from the side. He distinctly saw the table rise, with all
four legs, from the floor, and he noticed that the two legs of the table
farthest from the girl rose first. He declares, that, during the whole
time, he perceived not the slightest movement either of her hands or her
feet; and he regarded deception, under the circumstances, to be utterly
impossible.[22]

On the twelfth of March, in presence of five physicians, Drs. Amedee
Latour, Lachaise, Deleau, Pichard, and Soule, the same phenomenon
occurred twice.

And yet again on the fourteenth, four physicians being present, the
table was raised a single time, but with startling force. It was of
mahogany, with two drawers, and was four feet long by two feet and a
half wide. We may suppose it to have weighed some fifty or sixty pounds;
so that the girl's power, in this particular, appears to have much
decreased since that day, about the end of January, when M. de Faremont
saw repeatedly raised from the ground a block of one hundred and fifty
pounds' weight, with three men seated on it,--in all, not less than five
to six hundred pounds.

By the end of March the whole of the phenomena had almost totally
ceased; and it does not appear that they have ever shown themselves
since that time.

Dr. Tanchon considered them electrical. M. de Faremont seems to have
doubted that they were strictly so. In a letter, dated Monti-Mer,
November 1, 1846, and addressed to the Marquis de Mirville, that
gentleman says,--"The electrical effects I have seen produced in this
case varied so much,--since under certain circumstances good conductors
operated, and then again, in others, no effect was observable,--that, if
one follows the ordinary laws of electrical phenomena, one finds
evidence both for and against. I am well convinced, that, in the case
of this child, there is some power other than electricity."[23]

But as my object is to state facts, rather than to moot theories, I
leave this debatable ground to others, and here close a narrative,
compiled with much care, of this interesting and instructive case. I was
the rather disposed to examine it critically and report it in detail,
because it seems to suggest valuable hints, if it does not afford some
clue, as to the character of subsequent manifestations in the United
States and elsewhere.

* * * * *

This case is not an isolated one. My limits however, prevent me from
here reproducing, as I might, sundry other recent narratives more or
less analogous to that of the girl Cottin. To one only shall I briefly
advert: a case related in the Paris newspaper, the "Siecle," of March 4,
1846, published when all Paris was talking of Arago's statement in
regard to the electric girl.

It is there given on the authority of a principal professor in one of
the Royal Colleges of Paris. The case, very similar to that of Angelique
Cottin, occurred in the month of December previous, in the person of a
young girl, not quite fourteen years old, apprenticed to a colorist, in
the Rue Descartes. The occurrences were quite as marked as those in the
Cottin case. The professor, seated one day near the girl, was raised
from the floor, along with the chair on which he sat. There were
occasional knockings. The phenomena commenced December 2, 1845; and
lasted twelve days.

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