Page:Illustrations of Madness.djvu/74

Rh be previously saturated with magnetic fluid, a number of emissaries, who are termed novices, are sent about in different directions to prepare those who may hereafter be employed in the craft and mystery of event-working. This is termed Hand-impregnation, and is effected in the following manner : an inferior member of the gang, (generally a novice,) is employed in this business. He is furnished with a bottle containing the magnetic fluid which issues from a valve on pressure. If the object to be assailed be sitting in a coffee-house, the pneumatic practitioner hovers about him, perhaps enters into conversation, and during such discourse, by opening the valve, sets at liberty the volatile magnetic fluid which is respired by the person intended to be assailed. So great is the attraction between the human body and this fluid, that the party becomes certainly impregnated, and is equally bound by the spell as the lady was