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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



are not based on delusion — since in the last-cited 

 instances the presence of a magnetizer is not 

 necessary — and that a diseased state of 'the ner- 

 vous system does not suffice to account for them." 



Now, instead of going at length into the rea- 

 sons which justify exact physiology in holding 

 aloof from spiritism and animal magnetism, I pro- 

 pose here to give an account of the only phenom- 

 ena of this kind that have as yet been experi- 

 mented on in the physiological laboratory — the 

 facts of "hypnotism" falsely so called. In order 

 to exclude all possibility of fraud on the part of 

 the individuals under experiment, I shall take no 

 note of experiments made on human subjects, and 

 only consider those made on brutes. It is a mat- 

 ter of indifference which term we employ, whether 

 "hypnotism" or "magnetism," but the reader 

 must bear in mind that here " magnetism " has 

 nothing to do with the magnetism and diamag- 

 netism of the physicist. I propose to show that 

 hypnotism is a consequence of fright. 



The starting-point of physiological experimen- 

 tation in hypnotism was an observation probably 

 of immemorial antiquity, but which was first 

 brought under the notice of the scientific world 

 in 1646, as the " experimentum mirabile," by the 

 Jesuit professor Athanasius Kircher. In his 

 wonderful book, " The Great Art of Light and 

 Shadow" (which appeared in Latin at Rome in 

 1646), book ii., part i., p. 154, chapter x., the title 

 of which is " Of Actinobolism ; or, the Radiation 

 of the Phantasy," he writes as follows : 



" This very great power of phantasy is seen 

 even in brutes. Hens, as I have found, possess so 

 strong an imaginative faculty that they are seized 

 with a peculiar numbness at the very sight of a 

 string. The truth of this statement is shown by 

 the following experiment : 



" Wonderful Experiment on the Hen's Power of 

 Imagination. — Lay a hen, with its feet tied togeth- 

 er, on the ground : at first, finding itself tied, it 

 will strive in every way, by flapping its wings and 

 contorting its body, to free itself from its fetters. 

 But at last, after long struggling in vain, it will, as 

 though it despaired of escaping, compose itself and 

 submit to the will of the conqueror. Now, while 

 the hen lies motionless, describe with chalk or any 

 other coloring substance a straight line of the same 

 form as the string, beginning at the eye of the 

 hen ; then remove the cord from the hen's feet, 

 and let the animal be. The hen will not fly off, 

 though its fetters have been removed, even though 

 one should encourage it to take flight. The ex- 

 planation of this is to be found in nothing else but 

 the lively imagination of the animal, which takes 

 the string chalked on the floor to be the fetters 



with which it is bound fast. I have again and 

 again repeated this experiment to the great won- 

 derment of the lookers-on, and I make no doubt 

 but that it would be equally successful with other 

 animals. But it is for the inquisitive reader to 

 satisfy himself about that." 



Many a one will be reminded of the amuse- 

 ments of his own youthful years as he peruses 

 this curious and though imperfect yet forcible 

 description, which, by-the-way, is illustrated in 

 the original with a large woodcut. Oftentimes 

 has Kircher's experiment been repeated in the 

 poultry-yard, and that, too, without tying the 

 hen's feet together. If a hen be seized and laid 

 on the ground, its fluttering motion being pre- 

 vented in the mean time, it will remain there, 

 making no resistance after a few moments ; then, 

 a few seconds or a few minutes later, it will rise 

 to its feet again, nothing the worse for the ex- 

 perience. 



The naif explanation given by Kircher of the 

 behavior of an animal subdued in this way shows 

 what weak control he himself exercised over his 

 own imagination, and how unacquainted he was 

 with even the preliminaries of the art of experi- 

 menting. 



Singularly enough, in the course of the next 

 two centuries, no one made this " bewitching " 

 of the hen the subject of a scientific investiga- 

 tion. Here we have a striking instance of " mag- 

 netization," from which all possibility of fraud is 

 excluded, for hens do not practise dissimulation ; 

 and yet no one seems, even while mesmerism was 

 at its height, to have thought of studying more 

 closely Kircher's experiment. It continued to 

 be repeated, but only by way of amusement for 

 the old and the young. Even in the Hofrath 

 Prof. Boeckmann's " Archiv fur Magnetismus 

 und Somnambulismus," the "magnetization" of 

 animals is never mentioned. So, too, nothing is 

 said of the exprrimenturn mirabile in the first 

 twelve volumes of the "Archiv fur thierischen 

 Magnetismus" (Leipsic, 1817-1824), published 

 by Profs, and Drs. C. A. von Eschenmayer, of 

 Tubingen ; D. G. Kieser, of Jena ; and Fr. Nasse, 

 of Bonn. Only quite incidentally mention is 

 made in a book-notice of magnetic experiments 

 on animals, " the first that have ever been made 

 of set purpose" (vol. vi., 1819). In these experi- 

 ments, as the animal lay on a table, the thumb of 

 the operator was laid on its stomach or its head. 

 Under this manipulation a dog, after one minute, 

 fell " into convulsions, which lasted for sixteen 

 minutes. Aside from this, the animal was per- 

 fectly quiet." So, then, there was perfect repose, 



