EXPERIMENTS ON HYPNOTISM. 213 



When quite a lad, and residing in a Western State, I often observed 

 the farmers brought their poultry alivo to market, preventing the 

 escape of the fowls by tying their legs together. The fowls, whenever 

 I saw them, were always quiet. 



Prof. Czermak thought that the stretching out of the neck of the 

 fowl caused, in some manner, a " slight mechanical extension of cer- 

 tain parts of the brain, .... apart from the fear which the animal 

 experiences," etc. 1 



Now, since my last experiments I dispensed entirely with all 

 " neck-stretching." Prof. Czermak's explanations do not tend to throw 

 that light upon the subject which he believed they would; and we 

 must look to Kircher for a fuller explanation of this phenomenon that 

 of the power of the imagination. 



Those parts, then, which it has been said were necessary to touch 

 for the success of the expei*iment, I have latterly entirely let alone. 



I usually, after catching my fowl, hold it firmly upon the ground, 

 floor, etc., as the case may be, until all struggling has ceased. Then 

 I remove my hands, making -no "passes," nor any more movements 

 than are necessary to take them away from the animal. Now I have 

 the fowl stretched out before me motionless, and breathing deeply ; 

 the eyes are generally open. Some hens are more easily subjected to 

 this experiment than others. Tame hens will allow much handling, 

 and are hence never good subjects. A very wild fowl is an excellent 

 animal upon which to make these experiments. 



As in the cases instanced by Prof. Czermak, so I find different 

 fowls must be differently treated. Some require to be held a shorter, 

 some a longer time, than others. But this fact is evident, that the 

 animal must be held firmly until perfectly quiet. 



It was only the other day, while writing the above, I visited a 

 neighbor's poultry-yard to verify still further my views upon this sub- 

 ject. After catching a huge Brahma cock, which I had great diffi- 

 culty in holding, as he was very violent, I held him fast until he as 

 well as I knew he could not escape, and then took away my hands. He 

 lay just as quiet as though my hands were holding him. But his 

 eyes were open and his head was somewhat raised from the ground. 

 In this condition I placed him in his coop, where he remained in a 

 most awkward position upon his side until a hen came along, and 

 seemed to assure him of his liberty. 



Thinking that the " stretching out of the neck and bill" had simply 

 the effect of closing the animal's eyes, I held a duck firmly in one hand, 

 and with the other threw my handkerchief over its head. The same 

 phenomena resulted, but they were of shorter duration. I next treated 

 a little bantam pullet in the same way ; but, being a tame and gentle 

 little creature, I could do almost anything with her. One singular 

 feature was that, while upon her back, and the handkerchief over her 



1 Vide Popular Science Monthly, loc. cit. 



