ANIMAL MAGNETISM.

Southland Times, Volume VII, Issue 538, 10 August 1866, Page 3

ANIMAL MAGNETISM.

The following, communication has been handed to us for publication, it is assumed to be a narrative of facts, taken from the writer's experiences : —

" It is now about eighteen years since tnere was so many experiments tried in England, by the electricity in the human frame, or what was called Animal Magnetism. There was at that time a great number of people who believed in such a power. I joined in with several parties to experimentalise on it, and I was fully satisfied that such a power did exist, and, in sufficient quantity to produce a sensible effect upon a table, for I have known the table to crack as though it was going te fly to pieces. I tried my power against several others, and I was always able to drawtlieobject towards me ;so it appeared by that I am surcharged, but since that time I have thought but little of it, until lately. It is now about five months since I began to have a most singular sensation come over me, soon after I got to bed. It' was a stifling kind of sensation. I have been obliged to get overend in bed at times before I could shake it off. I have often made the remark, that I was worse for my night's rest instead of being better. I always had a dreadful headache ; my bed stood with the head to the east, so I removed it to the north, to try !if that would make any difference, for I thought that the electricity of the earth might have something to do with it ; but still I was the same ; so one night, about a month after removing it, I was afraid of going to sleep for fear that t should 'suffocate. So I took it in hand to try to 3olve the problem. Pirst, I thought that it might be owing to a strong electric current in the earth that ran near to the house, but then I considered that I sometimes went to sleep on the couch, and then 1 did not feel it ; so I thought that it must be about the bed. Pirst I sidered the bed over ; could not find anything likely in it ; next the bedstead ; considered it harmless also ; then I thought of what there was under the bed, and then the true cause flashed to my mind instantly ; there - was a toolbasket, with several edge tools, chiefly polished steel, and several other things in steel and iron. So, out of bed I got, and removed it away form the bed, and since then I have not felt the sensation. So it appears by that that I formed a battery, and as the tools were right under my pillow, as soon as I laid down there was a connection formed between me and the tools, and that I was trying to draw them to me, and it appaers that the electricity rushed from all the other parts of my body into my head and stomach so that I was nearly suffocated by the operation. It will be a caution to me against ever doing the like again. There ia much to be learnt from it, for we are affected, more or less, by everything that we eome_ against. — Sydney Morning Herald.