OX "ANIMAL MAGNETISMS 



135 



magnetized was quite unaffected when, conscious 

 of her maternal duties, she was concerned about 

 her chickens. A courageous hen, whose intel- 

 lectual functions are plainly of a high character, 

 is not reduced to the " magnetic " state, or, at 

 least, is not so easily reduced to that state as is 

 the tame-spirited fowl ; fright or terror does not 

 deprive her entirely of her power of reflection. 



Another noteworthy fact is that the animals 

 under experiment oftentimes, and especially on 

 being seized or laid down very suddenly, submitted 

 to their fate without the least movement of resist- 

 ance. If the cause is to be sought in the alarm 

 of the animal, the suppression of its voluntary 

 and involuntary movements being determined by 

 terror, then this momentary access of torpidity 

 will not appear so strange, for even men may sud- 

 denly for a time lose speech and the power of mo- 

 tion under the influence of fright. Still the hy- 

 pothesis here offered does not give an explanation. 

 Suppose it to be true, then the main question is 

 only shifted further back and we have to inquire : 

 " What is terror ? what is fright ? and how can 

 they bring about total interruption of the activity 

 of the motor centres ? " That sudden fright, a high- 

 ly-disagreeable surprise, may check the faculty of 

 deliberation in timid persons, is certain ; also that 

 animals under experiment are placed artificially 

 in a position to be dominated by this affection, so 

 that they are seized with dread and terror. Now, 

 even if it were permitted to ascribe to animals 

 these human emotions, we should still have to 

 find a true explanation ; for we know not why it 

 is that under terror the motor impulse, which 

 normally sets the extremities in motion, fails to 

 appear. Wherein consists the paralyzing action 

 of fright ? 



The reader perceives that, according to my 

 view, the question is, not to find an exhaustive 

 explanation of this form of animal magnetism so 

 called, but only to refer this problem back to an- 

 other one. I simply affirm that a thorough inves- 

 tigation of all the physiological effects of terror 

 will fully explain the phenomena presented by 

 such experiments as Kircher's. 



The essential difference between my hypothe- 

 sis and the hypothesis of Czermak, according to 

 which we should be here confronted only with 

 hypnotic, that is, sleep-like states, was discussed 

 in the correspondence which took place between 

 him and me, but it persisted to the end. Czermak 

 lectured concerning his experiments, published 

 them in the Gartenlaube, and mentioned to me 

 his purpose of publishing them in a pamphlet 

 illustrated with the photographs already referred 



to ; but this purpose he did not carry out, for he 

 died on September 16, 1873. So early as March 

 of that year, he, in his letters to me, complained 

 of being misapprehended by the spiritists, and of 

 having much to bear from the daily newspapers 

 on account of his " hypnotism." I myself ob- 

 served only that the public took a very lively in- 

 terest in these experiments, which immediately 

 awakened interest, but I did not find time to make 

 them the subject of a thorough-going investiga- 

 tion. True, I again and again exhibited my ex- 

 periments in academic and popular lectures, as 

 also in an address delivered before the Medico- 

 Scientific Society of Jena ; and everywhere I met 

 with acquiescence in my theory that terror or 

 fright acts the principal part in producing " hyp- 

 notic " phenomena. Nearly four years, however, 

 elapsed before the question began again to be in- 

 vestigated physiologically. 



In the fall of 1876, Dr. Emil Ileubel, Do- 

 cent in the Kiev University, published an essay 

 entitled " Ueber die Abkiingigkeit des wachen 

 Gehirnzustandes von ausseren Erregungen : ein 

 Beitrag zur Physiologie des Schlafes und zur 

 WLirdigung des Kircher'schen Experimentum 

 mirabile." 1 In this work the author pronounces 

 against the correctness of Czermak's view, as also 

 against my own, which at first had appeared to 

 him by far the more plausible. He observes that 

 frogs — with which he chiefly experimented — on 

 being held down in the usual way and then freed 

 from constraint, may continue to lie perfectly 

 motionless on their backs from one to two hours, 

 often three to four hours or even five to six 

 hours, and then again resume all their liveliness 

 as though nothing had happened. It is as though 

 contact with the experimenter's hand possessed 

 a magic imfluence on the frog, causing that lively 

 and active, oftentimes loud-croaking animal to lie 

 still and motionless for hours. Similar results 

 were obtained with frogs whose cerebrum had 

 been removed. From all this Dr. Heubel con- 

 cludes that the behavior of the animals cannot 

 be regarded as the expression of terror combined 

 with resignation (resignirte Angst). But it is a 

 fact that has long been known, that a frog de- 

 prived of its cerebrum and left to itself does not 

 move from the place where it lies. Describe with 

 chalk a circle on the table around the frog, and 

 after twenty-four hours the animal will be found 

 dry and shrunken within it. This absence of volun- 



' "The Dependence of the Waking State of the 

 Brain on Externa) Excitations : a Contribution to the 

 Physiology of Sleep and to the Estimation of Kircher's 

 Experimentum mirabile." 



