Essai sur les probabilités du somnambulism. Paris: Gastelier, 1785.
After the discovery of “magnetic somnambulism” by Puységur in 1784, Fournel was the first person to attempt to theorize about the nature of this new phenomenon. He sees magnetic somnambulism as a state midway between waking and sleep, a state essentially the same as natural somnambulism, which had been widely recognized as a reality. Fournel points out that the seemingly extraordinary phenomena associated with magnetic somnambulism, such as suggestibility and clairvoyance, have been noted for centuries in connection with natural somnambulism. Speaking of the sudden rise to popularity of magnetic somnambulism, he estimates the number of somnambulists in Paris and the provinces to be in the neighborhood of six thousand. Fournel makes a strong case for accepting magnetic somnambulism as a genuine phenomenon which deserves further study.
(Crabtree, 139)