THE SENSATIONALISM OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM.

Dunstan Times, Issue 496, 20 October 1871, Page 3

THE SENSATIONALISM OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM.

(Melbourne A ye.) The ex-coroner of Chiltem. Dr. Eohner, is an eccentric. Madame Sibley, it seems, is on a professional visit to that district jnst now, and the Doctor feels bound, as ‘•the health officer of the district of Chiltern, appointed by her tyranical majesty Queen Conscience,” to rush to the rescue. He warns all with forcible language, but particularly those who “ have a natural inclination to idiotcy, or daftness, and such temperaments as in common life are called silly or foolish to beware of Madame Sibley lest she might mature yon for the lunatic asylum.” He then gives the following story, written with all the picturesqueness of Dumas, and founded doubtless on as much truth as his Monte Christo, as an example of the dangers of the art of which the Sibley woman is a professor : Some young gentlemen (their names, &c., wo my secret), equally sceptical in matters

of religion and animal magnetism, belonging to that class of incredulous persons who are open to every superstition ami fanaticism, had, for money, bought over a poor and abandoned girl to submit to their experiments. She was of an impressionable and nervous temperament, being mo>eover worn out by the excesses of a more than irregular life, and already tired of her existence. She is put to sleep; she is ordered to see ; she cries, and’refuses to comply; They speak to her of God . . . ; all her limbs tremble. “ No,” says she; no ; lam afraid. I will not see him. ” “Look at him; 1 will it.” She then opens jher eyes ; her pupils become dilated; her ap pearance is frightful. “What do you see?” “I could not tell it . - , . Ob ! for heaven’s sake wake me up r’ “No, look, and tell me what you see.” “I see a dark night, in which twirl about sparks of divers colours ; they turn round two large rolling eyes. From these eyes stream rays of light, which twist themselves into widening spirals and fill all space. Oh, how bad I feel, do wake me up !” “No, look.” “What else do you want me to see ?” “Look into paradise. ” “No, I cannot rise up there, the dark night pushes me back, I am always falling down again,” “Very well, then, look into hell.” At this moment the soinnambule is violently convulsed. “No, no,” she cries, sobidnsr, “I will not; I should get giddv. I should fall. Oh 1 oh 1 keep me hack, hold me !” “No, go down.” “Where do you want me to go to ?” “Intohell.” “But this is horrible ! No, no, I shaT not go there !” “Go.” Mercy.” “Go, I will it.” The features of the snmnamhule become terrible to look at; the hairs of her head stand on end ; her eyes, wide open, only show the white ; her bosom heaves violently and a certain ratt'e-escapes her throat. “Go there, 1 will it,” repeats the magnetisev. “I am I here, ” murmurs the unfortunate girl between her teeth, falling hack exhausted. Then she answers no more. Her heavy head falls upon her right shoulder, her arms hang dead by the aide of her body. The hold experimenters come to her assistance ; they touch her. They try to wake her up ; it is too late, the crime has been committed The poor girl was dead, and the authors of tjiis tragical and sacrilegious experiment had to thank the public incredulity in matters of animal magnetism for not being prosecuted. The authority of the law had to find a cause of death, and a virdiet of an aneurism of the heart was readily—but. falsely—returned. The body presented no external marks of violence. The girl was buried, and that was the end of it.”