MODERN HUMBUG.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 188, 23 June 1862, Page 5

MODERN HUMBUG.

A letter in The Times, signed " A Denizen of this World," contains the writer's expepirences of mesmerism, clairvoyance, electrobiology, spirit-rapping, and all the other demoniacal little amusements of modern times :— "My first supernatural acquaintance was Alexis, and I confess that the roots of my hair moved uncomfortably when I saw him playing ecarte with a bandage over his eyes; but when the gymnastics began I recovered. The patient, being in the rigid state, wassetina chair, and a man stood on his outstretched legs. They did not bend, but the weight overbalanced Alexis, and he, forgetting himself in a small matter, bent his " rigid" knees, got up, reseated himself, and stuck out his legs once more. Thus the experiment was a feat of strength. I did the same with Alexis, when he pretended to be mesmerically rigid, tried to deceive, and all his proceedings then assumed the value of conjuring tricks.. For example, the card-playing melted into a code of signals, for the assistant looked into both hands, and spoke continually during the game. "I next spent some hours in a dark room with a large magnet, striving earnestly to see the electric fluid. I knew by sounds that my companion was mesmerising me all the time, but there was no result. Our experiments failed, so we held a keen argument. My friend at last poured out some water, and, holding the glass in a particular manner, said, 'If I give that mesmeric fluid to any one he would sleep.' This could be tested; there was no drug, so I drank the water, and did not sleep. My friend became a mesmerist, but this experiment convinced me that he habitually deceived himself, and many subsequent experiments confirmed the conviction. But I have seen my friend exercise an influence over another friend which amounted to an exaggeration of the power which Napoleon I. exercised over' the nation which he commanded, but to nothing more. The most famous clairvoyante of her day described the symptoms of a sick person, and I wrote them down in silence till the list covered most maladies; but Avhen a companion, who had been directed to keep silence, spoke and asked a leading question, the sitting became a mixture of guessing and of the game of Yes and No. All sj'mptoms were neglected but those indicated by the questioner, and there was no subsequent cure.

"At a public electro-biological meeting, I, with some 20 others, stared hard at bits of tin without any result, but a man of very suspicious exterior was affected, : and he went through all sorts of contortions at the word of command; but these might be acted. Finally, the patient was told that he could not see, and declared that he did not see the candles. The operator, who was the most famous of his day, summoned the audience to examine the patient, and a medical spectator did so with a candle. The - rigid, unwinking eyes, and the grim, stony face of the biologized were something to remember, but the doctor said quietly, " The pupils expand and contract freely under the influence of light."

" There was still a chance —the muscle* might contract, though the man was unconscious of the luminous cause; but the audience were sceptical, and the angry patient removed all doubt by shouting, ' I should like to see you bear the candle as near your eyes as I did without winking.' He had seen the candle, then. The cheat betrayed itself in a small matter, and soon after this lecturer disappeared.

"On mentioning this incident to another famous American biologist, who called himself 'Doctor,' he said that the retina expanded and contracted involuntarily under the influence of light. The medical sceptic said it was the pupil.

" Again, a mesmerised patient of a then well-known operator. declared that she was unable to hear, but a hard-headed medical sceptic walked quietly about muttering ' Hovr. wonderfnl!' ' How extraordinary !' ' Cannot hear!' Then, suddenly addressing the patient in the same tone, he said, ' You can't hear at all, can you ? " ' No, Sir,' said the girl, 'not a word.' Another patient, who could not feel, was slyly pinched in a tender place by another doctor, and, being taken unawares, sprang up, exclaiming ' You brute!' The doctor was 'perfectly satisfied,' and so, within my experience, whenever the senses were tested, the wonders of mesmerism, clairvoyance, and electro-biology disappeared. "A mechanical model explained table-: turning. . ... When Faraday's index proved that fact, table-turning went out of fashion, but it still survives in mental corners. " Now we have's new phase of magic in spirit-rapping, and I hold it to be a wicked imposture, trading upon the best affections and feelings of human nature. . . • The system of communication is by raps. I saw the same man rapping while he asserted that the spirit of my aunt was communicating with him by raps. I saw the muscular motion in one knuckle of his right hand, which he masked with his left arm, and each muscular contraction answered to each sound, as a pendulum answers to the tick of a clock. I tried the experiment, and produced the same sound by moving the same muscle, so a9 to jerk the back of the nail of the forefinger against an ed'^e cut in the side of a pencil, the point oi which was pressed hard against the table. • Table-turning did little harm, and promoted flirtation. Mesmerism breaks no bones. If a man when biologised thinks himself a pump and assumes the attitude, that is his look-out; but spirit-rapping is different. In the first place, it is obtaining money under false pretences; and in the second, it has driven hundreds of Americans as mad as March hares.

" I appeal to you, Sir, to use your pen to save our wits, to stir up the police, who are ready enough to pounce upon the poor gipsy who tells fortunes, and so earns a few pence, but who let slip these larger fisb, who make fortunes out of human 'weakness."