DR. CARPENTER ON SPIRITUALISM. 



437 



ignorant they may be of all the conditions re- 

 quisite tor the study of these delicate and fluc- 

 tuating phenomena of the nervous system. But 

 we, on the contrary, would only give that name 

 to inquirers who have experimented for months 

 or years on this very subject, and are thoroughly 

 acquainted with all its difficulties. When such 

 men are also physiologists, it is hardly consistent 

 witli the historical and scientific method of in- 

 quiry to pass their evidence by in silence. I 

 have already called Dr. Carpenter's attention to 

 the case of the lady residing in Prof. Gregory's 

 own house, who was mesmerized at several streets' 

 distance by Mr. Lewis, without her knowledge or 

 expectation. This is a piece of direct evidence 

 of a very satisfactory kind, and outweighs a very 

 large quantity of negative evidence ; but no men- 

 tion is made of it except the following utterly 

 unjustifiable remark : " His (Mr. Lewis's) utter 

 failure under the scrutiny of skeptical inquirers, 

 obviously discredits all his previous statements, 

 except to such as (like Mr. A. R. Wallace, who 

 has recently expressed his full faith in Mr. 

 Lewis's self-asserted powers) are ready to accept 

 without question the slenderest evidence of the 

 greatest marvels " (" Mesmerism, Spiritualism," 

 etc., p. 24). Now, will it be believed that this 

 statement, that I " place full faith in Mr. Lewis's 

 self -asserted powers" has not even the shadow of 

 a foundation ? I know nothing of Mr. Lewis or of 

 his powers, self-asserted or otherwise, but what 

 I gain from Prof. Gregory's account of them ; 

 and in my letter to the Daily News, immediately 

 after the delivery of Dr. Carpenter's lectures, I 

 referred to this account. I certainly have "full 

 faith" iu Prof. Gregory's very careful narrative 

 of a fact entirely within his own knowledge. 

 This may be " the slenderest evidence " to Dr. 

 Carpenter ; but, slender or not, he chooses to 

 evade it, and endeavors to make the public be- 

 lieve that I, and others, accept the unsupported 

 assertions of an unknown man. It is impossible 

 adequately to characterize such reckless accusa- 

 tions as this without using language which I should 

 not wish to use. Let us pass on, therefore, to 

 the evidence which Dr. Carpenter declares to be 

 fitly described as "the slenderest." M. Dupotet, 

 at the Hotel de Dieu, in Paris, put a patient to 

 sleep when behind a partition, in the presence of 

 M. Husson and M. Recamier, the latter a com- 

 plete skeptic. M. Recamier expressed a doubt 

 that the circumstances might produce expecta- 

 tion in the patient, and himself proposed an ex- 

 periment the next day, in which all the same con- 

 ditions should be observed, except that M. Dupo- 



tet should noi come till half an hour later. 

 He anticipated that the " expectation " would be 

 still stronger the second time than at first, and 

 that the patient would be mesmerized. But the 

 result was quite the reverse. Notwithstanding 

 every minute detail was repeated as on the pre- 

 vious day when the operator was in the next 

 room, the patient showed no signs whatever of 

 sleep, either natural or somnambulic (Teste's 

 " Animal Magnetism," Spillan's translation, p. 

 159). The commission appointed by the Acade- 

 mie Royale de Medeciue in 1S26 sat for five years, 

 and investigated the whole subject of animal 

 magnetism. It was wholly composed of medical 

 men, and in their elaborate report, after giving 

 numerous cases, the following is one of theii- 

 conclusions : 



" 14. We are satisfied that it (magnetic sleep) 

 has been excited under circumstances where those 

 magnetized could not see and were entirely ig- 

 norant of the means employed to occasion it." 



These were surely " trained experts ; " yet 

 they declare themselves satisfied of that, the evi- 

 dence for which, Dr. Carpenter says, has always 

 broken down when tested. 



Baron Reichenbach's researches are next dis- 

 cussed, and are coolly dismissed with the remark 

 that " it at once became apparent to experienced 

 physicians that the whole phenomena were sub- 

 jective, and that 'sensitives' like Yon Reichen- 

 bach's can feel, see, or smell anything they were 

 led to believe they would feel, see, or smell." His 

 evidence for this is, that Mr. Braid could make 

 his subjects do so, and that Dr. Carpenter had 

 seen him do it. One of them, for instance — an 

 intellectual and able Manchester gentleman — 

 " could be brought to see flames issuing from the 

 poles of a magnet of any form or color that Mr. 

 Braid chose to name." All this belongs to the 

 mere rudiments of mesmerism, and is known to 

 every operator. Two things, however, are essen- 

 tial : the patient or sensitive must be, or have 

 been, mesmerized, or electro-biologized as it is 

 commonly called, and the suggestion must be 

 actually made. Given these two conditions, and 

 no doubt twenty persons may be made to declare 

 that they see green flames issuing from the opera- 

 tor's mouth ; but no single case has been adduced 

 of persons in ordinary health, not subject to any 

 operation of mesmerism, etc., being all caused to 

 see this or any other thing in agreement, by being 

 merely brought into a dark room and asked to 

 describe accurately what they saw. Yet this is 

 what Yon Reichenbach did, and much more. 

 For, in order to confirm the evidence of the 



