HYPNOTISM, ITS HISTORY, NATURE AND USE. 60 1 



All trick or conspiracy was out of the question. Not only had the young 

 woman been a harmless simple creature, but she was evidently under a nervous 

 fever. In the town in which she had been resident for many years as a 

 servant in different families, no solution presented itself. The young physician, 

 however, determined to trace her past life, step by step; for the patient her- 

 self was incapable of returning a rational answer. He at length succeeded in 

 discovering the place where her parents had lived, travelled thither, found them 

 both dead, but an uncle surviving, and from him learned that the patient had 

 been charitably taken by an old Protestant pastor at nine years old, and had 

 remained with him some years, even till the old man's death. Of this pastor 

 the uncle knew nothing, but that he was a very good man. With great 

 difficulty and after much search, our young medical philosopher discovered 

 a niece of the pastor's who had lived with him as housekeeper and had inherited 

 his effects. She remembered the girl ; related that her venerable uncle had 

 been too indulgent, and could not hear the girl scolded; that she was willing 

 to have kept her, but that, after her parent's death, the girl herself refused to 

 stay. Anxious inquiries were then, of course, made concerning the pastor's 

 habits; and the solution of the phenomenon was soon obtained. For it ap- 

 peared that it had been the old man's custom for years to walk up and down 

 a passage of his house into which the kitchen door opened, and to read to 

 himself, with a loud voice, out of his favorite books. A considerable number 

 of these were still in the niece's possession. She added that he was a very 

 learned man and a great Hebraist. Among the books was found a collection 

 of Rabbinical writings, together with several of the Greek and Latin fathers; 

 and the physician succeeded in identifying so many passages with those taken 

 down at the young woman's bedside that no doubt could remain in any rational 

 mind concerning the true origin of the impression made on her nervous 

 system. 



The same power of the subjective mind is many times seen in 

 hypnotic phenomena. The case cited is but one of a number, all of 

 which are just as wonderful. Being a mind so perfectly endowed, it is 

 hardly too audacious to say that this mind exercises its influence over 

 all bodily functions, so that any function may be inhibited or ac- 

 celerated by its influence. For example, the following is related of 

 Henry Clay. 



On one occasion he was unexpectedly called upon to answer an opponent 

 who addressed the Senate on a question in which Clay was deeply interested. 

 The latter felt too ill to reply at length. It seemed imperative, however, that 

 he should say something; and he exacted a promise from a friend, who sat 

 behind him, that he would stop him at the end of ten minutes. Accordingly, 

 at the expiration of the prescribed time the friend gently pulled the skirts of 

 Mr. Clay's coat. No attention was paid to the hint, and after a brief time 

 it was repeated a little more imperatively. Still Clay paid no attention and 

 it was again repeated. Then a pin was brought into requisition; but Clay 

 was by that time thoroughly aroused, and was pouring forth a torrent of 

 eloquence. The pin was inserted deeper and deeper into the orator's leg with- 

 out eliciting any response, until his friend gave up in despair. Finally Mr. 

 Clay happened to glance at the clock and saw that he had been speaking two 

 hours; whereupon he fell into his friend's arms, completely overcome by 

 exhaustion, upbraiding his friend severely for not stopping him at the pre- 

 scribed time. 



