Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 25.djvu/819

Rh details as to the method of magnetization. In Paris the belief in the power of Mesmer to cure diseases soon waned; but by this time he had made a stir in the world, and had drawn attention to a number of facts which were either only locally known, or largely disregarded. Mesmer devoted himself chiefly to curing patients, and it must be added, to receiving fees; but about ten years after the time of his coming to Paris it was found that a state resembling somnambulism, or sleep-walking, could be produced in some persons by magnetizing them. This gave a stimulus to the investigation of what I may call the magical side of the phenomena. This magical side had always been present, but in the height of Mesmer's power had not been much regarded. Of the magic of animal magnetism I will say one word more presently.

The term animal magnetism lingered long, but has now happily fallen into disuse, either mesmerism or hypnotism being used in its stead. "Hypnotism" we owe to Dr. Braid, of Manchester, who, from 1841 to the time of his death in 1860, subjected all the phenomena said to be produced in the magnetic state to a searching investigation. Braid is the founder of mesmerism in its scientific aspect. Hypnotism and mesmerism, as commonly used now, are synonymous terms; it would be advantageous, I think, if we could make a distinction between them. We might, for example, use the term hypnotism to embrace all those phenomena which are proved, and the term mesmerism to embrace all those phenomena which are not proved. Mesmerism would then mean what I have called its magical side, and would embrace those phenomena which are sometimes called the higher phenomena of mesmerism. These are of various kinds. It is said, for instance, that one person can, at any time he wishes, mesmerize another who is at a distance, and who is in perfect ignorance of the intentions of the mesmerizer; that a mesmerized person can perceive the thoughts and sensations of the mesmerizer, without receiving any indications from the known organs of sense; that a clairvoyant can see with parts of the body other than the eyes, for example, with the back of the head, or with the pit of the stomach; that a clairvoyant can describe places and persons which he has never read of, or heard of, or seen. Those observers who have done most to elucidate the subject, such as Braid, have failed to observe any of these and other similar higher phenomena. They are unproved. It would be convenient, I say, to include such phenomena only, under the heading of mesmerism; but this I can not yet venture to do. The facts I have to mention I shall call those of hypnotism or mesmerism indifferently. The magical side of the subject may, I think, at present be fairly left out of account.

The primary point in mesmerism is the paralysis of the will; the nervous system is then out of the control of the subject, whether animal or man, and, by appropriate stimulation, any one or more of his nerve-centers can be set in activity. I shall consider first the behavior