24 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



between them, it was entirely without result ; and no other reason 

 for the failure could be assigned than her entire freedom from expect- 

 ancy. So, in another case, in which Mr. Lewis (accounted one of the 

 most powerful mesmerists of his time) undertook to direct the actions 

 of his somnambule in the next room, according to a programme agreed 

 on between himself and one set of witnesses, while the actions actually 

 performed were recorded and timed by another set, there was found 

 to be so complete a discordance between the programme "willed" 

 and the actions really executed as entirely to negative the idea of 

 any dependence of the latter upon the directing power of the mes- 

 merizer the supposed relation having obviously grown up under the 

 habitual repetition of a certain succession of performances (such as I 

 had myself frequently witnessed), which the somnambule supposed 

 himself expected to go through in the same order.' A converse ex- 

 periment, performed by Dr. Elliotson himself, satisfied him that ex- 

 pectancy would take the place of what he maintained to be the real 

 mesmeric influence. Havins: told one of his liabitxi'ees that he would 

 go into the next room and mesmerize her through the door, he retired, 

 shut the door, performed no mesmeric passes, but tried to forget her, 

 walked away from the door, busied himself witli something else, and 

 even walked into a third room ; and, on returning in less than ten 

 minutes, found the girl in her usual sleep-waking condition. The ex- 

 treme susceptibility of many of these "sensitive" subjects further 

 accounts for their being afiected (without any intentional deceit) by 

 physical impressions which are quite imperceptible to others : such 

 as slight differences in temperature, when two coins are presented to 

 them, of which one has been held in the hand of the mesmerizcr ; or 

 two wineglasses of water, into one of which he has dipped his finger 

 for a short time. But the 5e?^V/'that he has transmitted his influence 

 in any mode is quite sufficient to produce the result, as was shown in 

 an amusing case recorded by M. Bertrand, whose treatise on " Animal 

 Magnetism" (Paris, 1826) is by far the most philosophical work ex- 

 tant on the subject. Having occasion to go a journey of a hundred 

 leagues, leaving a female somnambule under the treatment of one of 

 his friends, M. Bertrand sent him a magnetized letter, which he re- 

 quested him to place on the stomach of the patient, who had been led 

 to anticipate the expected results mesmeric sleep, with the customary 

 phenomena, supervened. He then wrote another letter which he did 

 not magnetize, and sent it to her in the same manner, and with the 

 same intimation. She again fell into the mesmeric sleep, which was 

 attributed to the letter having been unintentionally impregnated by 



' Mr. Lewis was challenged to this test-experiment, in consequence of his assertion 

 that he had repeatedly induced the mesmeric sleep, and had directed the operations of 

 his somnarabules, by the exertion of his "silent will," from a distance. His utter failure 

 to produce either result, however, under the scrutiny of skeptical inquirers, obviously 

 discredits all his previous statements, except to such as are ready to accept without 

 question the slenderest evidence of the greatest marvels. 



