Hypnotism.

Opunake Times, Volume I, Issue 44, 30 November 1894, Page 2

Hypnotism.

The death of a young girl whilst being made the medium of hypnotic experiments has redrawn attention to the little that is really known about mesmerism and the danger attendant on ordinary mortals meddling with its mysteries. The deceased was the daughter of well-to-do people in Pesth, and had on several occasions before, with the consent and in the presence of her parents, been hypnotised with remarkable results. On the fatal evening several medical men as well as the mesmerist Neukom wei’e present. The experiment fixed upon by the hypnotiser had to do with the condition of a consumptive brother of one of the guests, resident at a town hundreds of miles away, whose condition Neukom undertook the medium should describe accurately. Neither mesmerist nor medium knew or had ever seen the subject. Dr Von Bragassy (a spectator) writes to the Times that what followed was startling and incredible. The hypnotiser ordered the sleeping girl to go to Werchez, where Herr X lives, and report fully on his illness and the means to be taken to alleviate it. A few moments passed, and then the girl began a scientific description of the lungs, giving a minute account of the deceased’s condition, with technical particulars which even a ordinary doctor would not give, and which could only be expected from an experienced specialist. W ith a full command and correct use of technical expressions, she gave the closest details extending to a full diagnosis of inflammation of the lungs, and declared that the prognosis was very unfavorable, as against that kindofdisease medical skill was powerless. In conclusion, she described the end of the patient in the usual Latin terminology. Immediately afterwards she fell back senseless, uttering a piercing shriek. The doctors at once tried every known means of bringing the poor girl to, but all in vain. Within eight minutes her pulse began to fail, and death followed shortly. A post mortem showed concussion of the brain to be the cause of death. In other words, the strain of the experiment killed her.