THE MIRACLES OF MESMERISM.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 463, 16 April 1890, Page 5

THE MIRACLES OF MESMERISM.

Om London correspondent draws attention to an article on “Mesmerism” in the “ Forum,” by Dr. Charcot, the famous chief of the Salpetriere. In describing the process used to bring about tho hypnotic state he says : That used by Braid is one of the easiest to apply and of the most certain in operation. It consists in holding in front of the patient a small shining object, and getting him to gaze upon it without letting his attention be diverted. This object must be held 10 or 15 centimeters distant from his eyes, and a little above the usual plane of vision. Soon the eyelids begin to wink ; then the winking becomes more and more rapid ; later they tend to droop, and finally they fall. Having got the patient into this sleep, he is thrown into lethargy. To produce catalepsy all that is necessary is to open his eyes with the finger, and if, after that, the top of his head is rubbed briskly, he passes into the somnabulistic state, in which he speaks freely and answers questions put to him. The characteristic of this somnambulistic state i 3 boundless credulity on the part of the mesmerised person, credulity which lasts long after tho mesmerism has passed away. Of this he gives a striking instance of the phenomena of suggestion : I present to a woman patient in the hypnotic state a blank sheet of paper, and say to her : “ Here is my portrait; what do you think of it ? Is it a good likeness ?” After a moment’s hesitation, she answers : “ Yes, indeed, your photograph ; will you give it to me?” To impress deeply in the mind of the subject this imaginary portrait, I point with my finger towards one of the four sides of the square leaf of paper, and tell her that my profile looks in that direction ; I describe my clothing. The image being now fixed in her mind, I take the leaf of paper a~d mix it with a score of other leaves precisely like it. I then handed the whole pack to the patient, bidding her go over them and let me know whether she finds among these anything she has seen before. She begins to look at the leaves one after another, and as soon as her eyes fall upon theonetirstshown to her (I had made upon it a mark that she could not discern), forthwith she exclaims, “ Lo6k, your portrait!” What is more curious still, if 1 turn the

leaf over, as soon as her eyes rest upon it, she turns it up, saying that my photograph is on the obverse. I then convey to her the order that she shall continue to see the portrait on the blank paper even after the hypnosis has passed. Then I awaken her and again hand to her the pack of papers, requesting her to look over them. She handles them just as before, when she was hypnotised, and utters the same exclamation, “Look, your portrait !” Furthermore, this suggestion, this hallucination, will, if I wish, continue several days. Having suggested to the patient that the leaf of paper set before her eyes is a photo graph, I put it amid a great number o other leaves so exactly like it that even a keen eye cannot tell one leaf from another. Then I tell the lady to find whether the lot of papers contains auything she has seen before. Whatever I may do to “ throw her off the scent,” she never misses ; every time that, as she goes over the papers, her eyes fall upon the leaf in question, she recognises it without any hesitation. Here we enter the domain of the marvellous, the enchanted garden toward which everyone has been drawn who has studied magnetism ; and from it few have come back. But is there any need to appeal to the miraculous for an explanation of facts of this character? Must we invoke the supernatural? Certainly not, when we can account for these phenomena in the simplest way in the world, by

assuming an enhanced acuteness of some of the senses—an acuteness developed under the influence of the hypnotic state. Dr. Charcot’s opinion would seem to be that it is possible for the mind to impress upon a blank sheet of paper a picture, visible only to the eye of the hypnotised person, a kind of invisible photograph, without the intervention of the rays of light by which the mind is able to make a more or less permanent impression on the blank surface. This suggestion if followed up may lead us far.