Text: Edgar Allan Poe (?), “Review of Grimes's Etherology” (A), from the Evening Mirror (New York), December 5, 1844, vol. 1, no. 52, p. 2, col. 3, middle


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[page 2, column 3, continued:]

PROFESSOR GRIMESS ETHEROLOGY; OR THE PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. — We opened this book with a strong prejudice against it, expecting to see the usual parade of wonderful performances; but we were agreably [[agreeably]] disappointed. The professor has taken up the subject de novo, and, instead of following in the old beaten track of Mesmer and Deluze, Buchanan and the rest, he has attempted to bring the facts of mesmerism and of phrenology into harmony with the known and admitted laws of electricity and magnetism. At first it seems impossible to reduce such apparently heterogeneous facts and assumptions as those which constitute the work of Mesmerism, to anything like a science. But Professor Grimes has done this with a degree of ingenuity and plausibility, to say the least, which commands our admiration of his talents, even if we cannot fully assent to his conclusions. If we are not greatly mistaken, this work will excite much discussion and lead to important results.


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Notes:

This notice was attributed to Poe by Hull, in a longish commentary, ending “This notice I give to Poe with no hesitation. Notice in particular the final sentence; this sort of thing Poe does time and time again.” This review is not mentioned by Heartman & Canny or Mabbott.

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[S:0 - NYEM, 1844] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Criticism - Review of Grime's Etherology (E. A. Poe ?, 1844)