OX "AXIMAL MAGXETISM." 



133 



notwithstanding these convulsive movements in 

 every member ! In a cat, the eyelids closed after 

 seven minutes, and two minutes later profound 

 sleep supervened, which continued a quarter of 

 an hour. On the following day the animal closed 

 its eyes after five minutes, and seemed to sleep. 

 In the case of a monkey, the manipulation was 

 on the first day continued for fifteen minutes, 

 and produced only faint signs of drowsiness. On 

 the second day the monkey, after twenty min- 

 utes, shut and opened the eyes alternately, and 

 there was a slight convulsive movement of its 

 arms. On the evening of the same day sleep set 

 in after ten minutes, and continued during five 

 minutes. This treatment having been practised 

 for a few days, the animal, which was a very 

 lively one, sitting still hardly a moment during 

 the daytime, was made at once to close its eyes 

 at any hour of the day, and to fall into a quiet 

 slumber, by laying the hand on the head and 

 moving the thumb before its eyes. Similar phe- 

 nomena were exhibited by another monkey. In 

 a dove frequent winking of the eyes was pro- 

 duced, sometimes accompanied by convulsions 

 of the whole body. 



Inasmuch as in the case of the monkeys there 

 is a possibility of deception — they may have been 

 trained to keep quiet by repetition of the experi- 

 ment — and as there was no sleep-like condition in 

 the case of the dog and the dove, the only instance 

 of " hypnotism " in this entire series is supplied 

 by the cat. But cats readily fall asleep in day- 

 time ; hence these observations which, it has been 

 claimed, " demonstrate the reaction of animals 

 to magnetic influence" (!), are not to be classed 

 with the experimentum mirabile of Kircher. But 

 in the almost impenetrable wilderness of the lit- 

 erature of animal magnetism and somnambulism 

 for the third and fourth decennium of the present 

 century, a few notices might perhaps be found 

 of the effect on animals of the manipulations 

 usually employed in " magnetizing" sick persons. 

 I have myself taken a good deal of pains to find 

 such notices, but without success. 



In 1872 for the first time was the attention 

 of physiologists called to the " magnetization " 

 of animals and Kircher's experiment, by my la- 

 mented friend and colleague, Prof. J. Czermak, 

 prematurely deceased. In a communication to 

 the Vienna Academy of Sciences, he stated that 

 he had made this experiment very successfully 

 not only with hens, but with birds of various 

 species — goldfinches, siskins, canaries, robins, 

 and, though not so easily, with doves ; he even 

 succeeded in " magnetizing " crawfish. Czermak 



writes as follows : " I was, I confess, struck 

 dumb with amazement when I first, and with the 

 most brilliant success, made this experiment ; for, 

 not only did the hen remain in its unnatural and 

 forced position with labored respiration, though 

 otherwise motionless, but it did not make the 

 slightest attempt to fly away, despite my repeated 

 though not too violent efforts to startle it. After 

 a little while it came to itself again and escaped." 

 In another paper Czermak describes his experi- 

 ments (which now were further extended to tur- 

 keys, ducks, geese, and a very refractory swan) 

 more minutely, stating the length of time during 

 which the animals, though perfectly free to move, 

 remained motionless in unwonted positions. It 

 was seen that neither the cord nor the chalk- 

 line was needed to produce the " true hypnotic " 

 condition, as Czermak called it, and to cause the 

 animal to remain motionless for two, three, four, 

 five, six, even eleven, and in one case thirteen 

 minutes continuously. How quiet was the be- 

 havior of the animals during the experiments is 

 best seen from the admirable photographs taken 

 of them by Frof. Czermak. Czermak attempts 

 no explanation of the remarkable fact that ani- 

 mals held down on a table in unaccustomed posi- 

 tions by rather gentle pressure of the hands, after 

 for a short time struggling in vain, lie there mo- 

 tionless, even when the pressure of the hands is 

 removed. He simply refers to earlier experi- 

 ments, especially those of Dr. Lewissohn in 18C9 

 with frogs, in which the voluntary as well as the 

 involuntary movements ceased, on tying with a 

 thread a foot, or the neck, or any of the members 

 of the animal. Czermak. however, thought it to 

 be very important that the animals experimented 

 on, just as was the case with the human subjects 

 experimented on by Dr. Braid, should gaze stead- 

 ily on some object fixed close before their eyes. 

 This it was, according to him, which gave to 

 Kircher's chalk-line its efficacy ; but other ob- 

 jects would serve the same purpose. 



On learning of these researches of my then 

 collengue in the University of Leipsic, I recalled 

 to mind certain experiments which I myself, only 

 incidentally, however, had made some time be- 

 fore, in 1865, and later. I now repeated with 

 remarkable success my experiments on hens, 

 doves, sparrows. Guinea-pigs, rabbits, frogs, sala- 

 manders, crawfishes, and even on a very wild 

 squirrel. Czermak's statements of facts were all 

 easily confirmed. But I was struck by the fact 

 that even animals which, by suitable contriv- 

 ances, were cut off from all possibility of seeing 

 or feeling an object before their eyes, fell into 



