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Biography Quote by Mike Jay

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““Come the revolution, however, mesmerism was reconceived once more. From its beginnings many had seen it as an aristocratic fad: Mesmer (by this stage long gone to Germany and Switzerland) had made a fortune from the nobility, charged the huge fee of 100 livres for admission to his Society of Universal Harmony, and even been offered a pension for life by Marie-Antoinette.””

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“At Bow Street Magistrates' Court the essential facts were established. The man's name was James Tilly Matthews. He was a pauper of the south…

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“Up to this point, it was rare for the mad to be distinguished from the poor, the homeless, the indigent, beggars, vagabonds, petty criminals…

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“We think of 1789 as the date of the French Revolution, and the storming of the Bastille as its defining event. Yet as late…

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“Many had suspected that the political disasters of the past few years had a hidden cause. The bloodiness of the French mob rule was…

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“To look back before 1800 is to enter another world, one where the number of institutions for the mad was a tiny fraction of…

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“But, mad or sane, Matthews was a man of no ordinary persistence. He was not prepared to renounce the peace plan, any more than…

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“Haslam leaves us in no doubt what we are supposed to make of Matthews' mental world: this is gibberish and nothing more.”

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“The French army had crowned a campaign of extraordinary successes by defeating the Austrians at Jemappes and pressing on to occupy a large swathe…

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