“At this time she fell every evening into magnetic sleep, and gave orders about herself; to which, however, those round her no longer paid attention.

I was now called in.  I had never seen this woman, but had heard many false or perverted accounts of her condition.  I must confess that I shared the evil opinion of the world as to her illness; that I advised to pay no attention to her magnetic situation, and the orders she gave in it; in her spasms, to forbear the laying of hands upon her; to deny her the support of persons of stronger nerves; in short, to do all possible to draw her out of the magnetic state, and to treat her with attention, but with absolutely none but the common medical means.

These views were shared by my friend, Dr. Off, of Loewenstein, who continued to treat her accordingly.  But without good results.  Hemorrhage, spasms, night-sweats continued.  Her gums were scorbutically affected, and bled constantly; she lost all her teeth.  Strengthening remedies affected her like being drawn up from her bed by force; she sank into a fear of all men, and a deadly weakness.  Her death was to be wished, but it came not.  Her relations, in despair, not knowing themselves what they could do with her, brought her, almost against my will, to me at Weinsburg.

She was brought hither an image of death, perfectly emaciated, unable to raise herself.  Every three or four minutes, a teaspoonful of nourishment must be given her, else she fell into faintness or convulsion.  Her somnambulic situation alternated with fever, hemorrhage, and night-sweats.  Every evening, about seven o’clock, she fell into magnetic sleep.  She then spread out her arms, and found herself, from that moment, in a clairvoyant state; but only when she brought them back upon her breast, did she begin to speak. (Kerner mentions that her child, too, slept with its hands and feet crossed.) In this state her eyes were shut, her face calm and bright.  As she fell asleep, the first night after her arrival, she asked for me, but I bade them tell her that I now, and in future, should speak to her only when awake.

After she awoke, I went to her and declared, in brief and earnest terms, that I should pay no attention to what she said in sleep, and that her somnambulic state, which had lasted so long to the grief and trouble of her family, must now come to an end.  This declaration I accompanied by an earnest appeal, designed to awaken a firm will in her to put down the excessive activity of brain that disordered her whole system.  Afterwards, no address was made to her on any subject when in her sleep-waking state.  She was left to lie unheeded.  I pursued a homoeopathic treatment of her case.  But the medicines constantly produced effects opposite to what I expected.  She now suffered less from spasm and somnambulism, but with increasing marks of weakness and decay.  All seemed as if the end of her sufferings drew near.  It was too late for the means I wished to use.  Affected so