Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/296

Rh 278 MAGNETISM [ANIMAL MAGNETISM. on 5th March 1815. He left many disciples, the most distinguished of whom was the Marquis de Puysegur. This nobleman revolutionized the art of mesmerism by showing that many of the phenomena might be produced by gentle manipulation causing sleep, and without the mysterious surroundings and violent means resorted to by Mesmer. The gentler method was followed successfully by Deleuze, Bertrand, Georget, Rostan, and Foissac in France, and by Dr John Elliotson in England up to about 1830. In 1845 considerable attention was drawn to the an nouncement by Baron von Reichenbach of a so-called new &quot;imponderable&quot; or &quot;influence&quot; developed by certain crystals, magnets, the human body, associated with heat, chemical action, or electricity, and existing throughout the universe, to which he gave the name of odyl. Persons sensitive to odyl saw luminous phenomena near the poles of magnets, or even around the hands or heads of certain persons in whose bodies the force was supposed to be concentrated. In Britain an impetus was given to this view of the subject by the translation in 1850 of Reichenbach s Researches on Magnetism, d-c,, in relation to Vital Force, by Dr Gregory, professor of chemistry in the university of Edinburgh. These Researches show many of the phenomena to be of the same nature as those described previously by Mesmer, and even long before Mesmer s time by Swedenborg. The idea that some such force exists has been a favourite speculation of scientific men having a mental bias to mysticism, and it makes its appearance not unfrequently. The next great step in the investigation of these phenomena was made by James Braid, a surgeon in Manchester, who in 1841 began the study of the preten sions of animal magnetism or mesmerism, in his own words, as a &quot; complete sceptic &quot; regarding all the phenomena. This led him to the discovery that he could artificially produce &quot;a peculiar condition of the nervous system, induced by a fixed and abstracted attention of the mental and visual eye on one object, not of an exciting nature.&quot; To this condition he gave the name of neuro- hypnotism (from vevpov, nerve, v-nvos, sleep) ; for the sake of brevity, neuro was suppressed, and the term hypnotism came into general use. Braid read a paper at a meeting of the British Association in Manchester on 29th June 1842, entitled Practical Essay on the Curative Agency of Neuro- Hypnotism ; and his work Neurypnology, or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep considered in relation with Animal Magnetism, illustrated by numeroiis cases of its successful application in the relief and cure of disease, was published in 1843. It is necessary to point this out, as certain recent Continental writers have obtained many of Braid s results by following his methods, and have not adequately recognized the value of the work done by him forty years ago. Braid was undoubtedly the first to investigate the subject in a scientific way, and to attempt to give a physiological explanation. In this he was much aided by the physiologist Herbert Mayo, and also by Dr William B. Carpenter, the latter being the first to recognize the value of Braid s re searches as bearing on the theory of the reflex action of the ganglia at the base of the brain and of the cerebrum itself, with which Carpenter s own name is associated. Recently the subject has been reinvestigated by Professor Weinhold of Chemnitz, and more particularly by Dr. Rudolf Heidenhain, professor of physiology in the university of Breslau, who has published a small but interesting work on animal magnetism. In this work Heidenhain attempts to explain most of the phenomena by the physiological doctrine of inhibitory nervous action, as will be shown hereafter. Phenomena and Physiological Explanation. The usual method of inducing the mesmeric or hypnotic state is to cause the person operated on to stare fixedly at a faceted or glittering piece of glass held at from 8 to 15 inches from the eyes, in such a position above the forehead as will strain the eyes and eyelids. The operator may stand behind the patient, and he will observe that the pupils are at first contracted from the effort of accommodation of each eye for near vision on the object; in a short time the pupils begin to relax, and then the operator makes a few &quot; passes &quot; over the face without touching it. The eyelids then close; or the operator may gently close them with the tips of the fingers, at the same time very gently stroking the cheeks. Often a vibratory motion of the eyelids may be observed when they are closed, or there may be slight spasm of the eyelids. The eyes may afterwards become widely opened. The patient is now in a sleep-like condi tion, and the limbs often remain in almost any position in which the operator may place them, as in a cataleptic con dition. At the same time the patient may now be caused to make movements in obedience to the commands of the operator, and to act according to ideas suggested to him. Thus, he may eat a raw onion with gusto, apparently under the impression that it is an apple ; he may make wry faces on drinking a glass of water when told that what he is taking is castor oil ; he may ride on a chair or stool as in a horse race ; he may fight with imaginary enemies, or show tokens of affection to imaginary friends ; in short, all kinds of actions, even of a ridiculous and a degrading nature, may be done by the patient at the command of the operator. Another class of phenomena consists in the production of stiffness or rigidity of certain muscles or groups of muscles, or even of the whole body. For example, on stroking the fore arm it may become rigid in the prone or supine condition ; the knee may be strongly bent, with the muscles in a state of spasm ; the muscles of the trunk may become so rigid as to allow the body to rest like a log, head and heels on two chairs, so stiff and rigid as to bear the weight of the operator sitting upon it ; or various cataleptic conditions may be induced and as readily removed by a few passes of the hand. Many disorders of sensation have been observed, such as defective colour perception, the hearing of special sounds which have no objective existence, or deafness to certain tones, or perverted sensations, such as tingling, prickling, rubbing, &c., referred to the skin. The patient may remain in this condition for an hour or more, and may then be roused by holding him for a few minutes and blowing gently into the eyes. Usually the patient has a vague recollection, like that of a disturbed dream, but sometimes there is an acute remembrance of all that has happened, and even a feeling of pain at having been compelled to do ridiculous actions. Certain persons are more readily hypnotized than others, and it has been observed that, once the condition has been successfully induced, it can be more easily induced a second time, a third time more easily than a second, and so on until the patient may be so pliant to the will of the operator that a fixed look, or a wave of the hand, may throw him at once into the condition. Such are the general facts in artificially induced hypnotism, and they belong to the same class as those referred to animal magnetism, electro-biological effects, odylic influences, &c., according to the whim or theory of the operator. It is not surprising that such phenomena have been the cause of much wonder and the basis of many superstitions. Some have supposed that they were supernatural, others that they indicated the existence of a specific force exerted by the experimenter upon the passive subject. Many operators have no doubt believed they possessed such a force ; such a belief would not affect the success of their experiments except to make them more likely to be