MESMERISM, ODYLISM, TABLE-TURNING, ETC. 21 

 



and the universal consent of mankind, any evidence is inadequate to 

 the proof, which is not complete, beyond suspicion, and absohitely in- 

 capable of being explained away." 



Putting aside for the present the discussion of these asserted mar- 

 vels, I shall try to set before you briefly the essential characters which 

 distinguish the state of somnambulism (whether natural or acquired) 

 on the one hand from dreaming, and on the other from the ordinary 

 waking condition. As in both these, the mind is in a state of activity; 

 but, as in dreaming, its activity is free from that controlling power of 

 the will by which it is directed in the waking state ; and is also re- 

 moved from this last by the complete ignorance of all that has passed 

 in it, which is manifested by the " subject " when called back to his 

 waking self, although the events of one access of this " second con- 

 sciousness " may vividly present themselves in the next, as if they had 

 happened only just before. Again, instead of all the senses beino- 

 shut up, as in ordinary dreaming sleep, some of them are not only 

 awake, but preternaturally impressible ; so that the course of the som- 

 nambulist's thought may be completely directed by suggestions of any 

 kind that can be conveyed from without through the sense-channels 

 which still remain open. But, further, while the mind of the ordinary 

 dreamer can no more produce movements in his body than his im- 

 pressions on sense-organs can affect his mind, that of the somnambulist 

 retains full direction of his body (in so far, at least, as his senses serve 

 to guide its movements) ; so that he acts his dreams as if they were 

 his waking thoughts. The mesmerized or hypnotized somnambule 

 may, in fact, be characterized as a conscious automaton, which, by 

 appropriate suggestions, may be made to think, feel, say, or do, almost 

 anything that its director wills it to think, feel, say, or do ; with this 

 remarkable peculiarity, that its whole power seems concentrated upon 

 the state of activity in which it is at each moment, so that every 

 faculty it is capable of exerting may become extraordinarily intensified. 

 Thus, while vision is usually suspended, the senses of hearing, smell, 

 and touch, with the muscular sense, are often preternaturally acute, 

 in consequence, it would seem, of the undistracted concentration of 

 the attention on their indications. I could give you many curious in- 

 stances of this, which I have myself witnessed, as also of the great ex- 

 ertion of muscular power by subjects of extremely feeble physique ; 

 but as they are all obviously referable to this one simple principle, I 

 need not dwell on their details, preferring to narrate one which I did 

 not myself witness, but which was reported to me on most trustworthy 

 authority, of a remarkable manifestation of a power of imitative vocal- 

 ization that is ordinarily attainable only after long practice. When 

 Jenny Lind was singing at Manchester, she was invited by Mr. Braid 

 to hear the performances of one of his hypnotized subjects, an illiterate 

 factory-girl, who had an excellent voice and ear, but whose musical 

 powers had received scarcely any cultivation. This girl, in the hyp- 



