MESMERISED BY A PICTURE.

Shannon News, 11 May 1928, Page 3

MESMERISED BY A PICTURE.

A Roumanian nerve specialist practising in Transylvania narrates an extraordinary incident which recently occurred in the course of his practice. He was consulted by a lady, who stated that when she was about to retire on the previous evening she was overcome by an inexplicable feeling of drowsiness which robbed her of all power and occasioned her the greatest uneasiness. He questioned her closely, and ascertained that opposite the settee in which she was reclining at the time was a large portrait of an Italian of the 13tli century.

The doctor asked permission to examine the picture, and he carried out an interesting experiment. He asked the lady to stare at the picture. She did so, and in a very few minutes she fell into a state of deep trance. He ordered her to awake without result, and although he resorted to the most drastic means to restore her to consciousness.his efforts weie in vain. It was only after the lapse of 36 hours that she opened her eyes and emerged from the trance.

The lady’s husband, greatly alarmed at this occurrence, had the picture removed, and presented it to the doctor, who experimented with other media without being able to reproduce the phenomenon. He did not venture to repeat the test with the sensitive lady patient, fearing that she might not be able to recover from the strange influence of the painted eyes.