Auguste-Henri Jacob, better known as the Zouave Jacob, was born on March 6, 1828, in Saint-Martin-des-Champs, Saône-et-Loire, and died on October 23, 1913, in Paris. He was a renowned French healer during the Second Empire.
Jacob, the third trombone in the band of the , first came to public attention in 1866 at the Châlons camp, where he performed some healings attributed to the supposed effects of his fluid. In the following year, his purported healings in greater numbers on in Paris made him famous, and he was notably caricatured by André Gill. However, this fame was short-lived, as two marshals soon debunked the press reports of an alleged healing.
Subsequently, the Zouave, who continued his healing activities until his death, garnered significantly less media attention, except for instances when he was prosecuted for the , which established legal precedents. He died in 1913, leaving unresolved the questions of whether he was a charlatan or a miracle worker, and whether these healings were due to something beyond his powers of persuasion. According to several sources, his authoritarian healing methods foreshadowed those of evangelists. Several books appeared under his name, though it is uncertain if he was the author. After his death, his grave in the became the site of persistent devotion.
Background
Auguste-Henri Jacob was born in Saint-Martin-des-Champs, a locality that was subsequently incorporated into Saint-Jean-des-Vignes and subsumed by Chalon-sur-Saône. His father was the proprietor of a chemical products factory in the area. Following the demise of his mother, his father, who had remarried, placed him in the care of his grandmother. His education consisted of a single year at the village school of Saint-Martin-des-Champs, which he described as having focused exclusively on "basic reading and writing." Subsequently, he pursued a career in the military, initially serving as a store clerk. He was subsequently enlisted in the army and served in the 7th Hussars and the . He was later transferred to the 1st Horse Chasseurs, where he learned to play the trombone in four months. He concluded his military career with service in the 16th Artillery and .
In 1858, he terminated his employment and commenced work in a circus in Marseille. He performed trapeze under a free balloon floating 150 meters above the ground. Following the accidental demise of his two acrobatic colleagues, he joined a Soullié circus in Nîmes, where he performed equestrian acrobatics with a monkey he had trained. He also performed at provincial fairs in Oran and Marseille, handling weights of 25 kilos.
He resumed his musical career with the , where he held the position of "third trombone." His particular instrument was the baritone saxhorn, an instrument invented by Adolphe Sax.
Châlons camp The Châlons, a military camp established in 1857 in Mourmelon, attracted considerable public interest due to its maneuvers. The Zouaves of the Guard, whose camp was situated close to the imperial residence, consistently drew a substantial number of visitors, who were drawn to their tanned complexions, prominent beards, and distinctive attire.
In 1866, while his Zouave regiment was stationed at the Châlons camp, Jacob commenced his career as the "most renowned healer of the nineteenth century." The initial incidents are reported to have occurred during the summer months, although the details vary depending on the source. He is said to have healed either a young girl or a cholera patient by placing his hand on their abdomen, which resulted in "violent reactions" and "convulsions in bed." Alternatively, he is purported to have healed several of his ailing comrades in the infirmary, either through simple touch or merely by being present.
When an officer at the camp inquired as to whether he truly believed he had cured genuine illnesses, Jacob responded, "It is not my responsibility to ascertain whether they were genuinely ill or if I genuinely healed them.", quoted by
In an article published on August 1, L'Écho de l'Aisne reported that numerous convoys of individuals with ailments were being transported to the Châlons camp. The article further noted that many of these individuals had returned to their homes with improved health. On August 4, the same newspaper referred to "an actual army of the sick" arriving daily at the camp and advised readers that only patients with "nervous system" issues should "visit and hope." L'Éclaireur de Coulommiers estimated that approximately 20,000 individuals, many of whom were reportedly credulous, had visited the Châlons camp in the hope of being healed by the Zouave. Military authorities intervened to prevent them from entering the camp without special permission, assigning a guard to Jacob to "protect him from clients," according to Jacob.
Subsequently, Jacob established a consulting office in a hotel in Mourmelon, where he could treat up to eighteen individuals per session. He later relocated to a larger hotel, where groups of twenty-five to thirty could attend. Boivinet subsequently reported:
Boivinet estimated that the Zouave received 4,000 patients, which represented a reduction of approximately one-third compared to the estimates provided by Jacob. Of these patients, Boivinet noted that "one-quarter were healed and three-quarters were relieved." However, he subsequently revised this estimate, stating that "of the 4,000 patients, one-quarter saw no results, and... of the remaining 3,000 patients, one-quarter were healed and three-quarters were relieved."
Marshal Regnaud de Saint-Jean d'Angély, the camp commander, brought the sessions to a close on August 7, forbidding the public from approaching Jacob. Boivinet stated that "the word 'Spiritism' was pronounced," although it is unclear by whom. Jules Chancel (in 1897) attributed the intervention to the camp chaplain and doctors.
A controversial fluid
The period of the Châlons events was characterized by a state of flux and instability, as evidenced by Honoré Daumier's series of caricatures, published in 1853, which he titled "Fluid-Maniac". The contemporaries of the Zouave were willing to attribute his spectacular healings to "a law of unknown nature, exercised through an individual endowed with an intense magnetic power." However, multiple paradigms competed to explain the situation. These included those of the mesmerists, who were divided into several schools, and the spiritualists, whose popularity continued to grow. As Le Magnétiseur noted, each group claimed Jacob as one of their own:
Mesmerist explanations
Jacob's achievements are initially attributed to those of a magnetizer by the mesmerists. Mesmer—whom Jacob characterizes as a "martyr" who sought to "convince the world of scholars, especially doctors, his colleagues"—held the conviction that humans were interconnected with the extraterrestrial realm through the currents and fluctuations of fluidic fields. He postulated that the harmonious distribution of these fluids was a prerequisite for optimal health and endeavored to rectify imbalances through magnetism. As Mesmer perceived it, the objective of the magnetizer was to reinstate the equilibrium of these flows through the utilization of "passes" to "magnetize" the patient. Amand Marie Jacques de Chastenet de Puységur, a disciple of Mesmer, employed a technique he termed "magnetic somnambulism" for therapeutic purposes. This concept, while foreshadowing the practice of hypnosis, was not entirely identical to it. Subsequently, magnetizers induced a hypnotic state in "somnambulists" to facilitate clairvoyance, description, explanation, and treatment of illnesses such as rheumatism, stomach aches, insomnia, and amenorrhea. These mesmerists, who retained their influence around the time of the events at Camp Châlons—Louis Figuier even noting that magnetism was "the main exercise of military life" quoted by —based their practices on the results of somnambulistic treatments, viewed themselves as scientists and were skeptical of the trend of table-turning and the theories developed by American spiritualists to explain phenomena associated with the Fox sisters or the clairvoyant Daniel Dunglas Home.
By 1866, mesmerism had diverged into many distinct schools of thought:
Strict mesmerists, focused on a physicalist explanation, i.e., the fluid as a material vector of magnetism, and on the medical applications of electricity. Psychofluidists, considered the will as the agent of magnetic action but maintained the hypothesis of a fluid as a vector of this will. Spiritualists, some of whom explained the magnetizer's action not by a material fluid but by the effects of will and prayer, while others attributed it to the somnambulist's contact with angelic entities. Imaginationists, who believed neither the magnetizer's will nor any kind of fluid was involved. For them, magnetism merely released internal powers within the subject, the powers of the imagination.
Kardecist explanation
Although Jacob does not explicitly reject the concept of magnetism, he states that he is uncertain whether to attribute his "magnetic power" to spiritualism or magnetism. He does, however, mention his "initiation into spirit science." In 1897, he informed Jules Chancel, a journalist, that he had attended a spiritism session "by chance" and later recognized the existence of spirits and their potential for utilization in various capacities. At that time, there were a considerable number of spiritist followers in France, estimated to be between 400,000 and two million. However, it was challenging to differentiate between "conviction spiritism" and "recreational spiritism." Some authors have even postulated the existence of a "latent spiritism" that pervaded society in a context where the ties between the Church and the State were becoming increasingly tenuous. The practice was particularly prevalent in the military, especially among the 3rd Lancers, where Jacob had previously served before becoming a Zouave. The practice of healing mediumship experienced growth in France from 1865 onwards, with medical authorities demonstrating a relatively tolerant stance towards the illicit practice of medicine. Kardec asserts that this practice is exempt from the aforementioned legislation, as it does not prescribe any specific treatment. Additionally, as Guillaume Cuchet notes, while some medical professionals were initially skeptical of animal magnetism, they became more receptive to spiritism due to its lack of therapeutic claims, at least until 1866 and the success of the Zouave Jacob. Following the successful demonstrations of healing at Camp Châlons, Kardec, who regarded spiritism as a scientific method based on observed facts, asserted that "healing mediumship does not seek to supplant medicine and doctors; it merely seeks to prove to them that there are things they do not know and invites them to study them."
In 1865, met a Zouave at the Paris Spiritist Society. Lachatre described the Zouave as a "fervent spiritist follower and writing medium" who received "mediumistic communications" of "remarkable superiority." Additionally, he created intricate illustrations of unconventional flora and fauna, which he asserted originated from Venus. In 1866, Allan Kardec asserted that he had been acquainted with Jacob for an extended period as a writing medium and ardent proponent of Spiritism. Furthermore, he noted that Jacob had initiated preliminary efforts at healing mediumship before his tenure at Camp Châlons.