122 Tra )i sac t ions . — Miscellaneous . 



many of these testimonials, no little stir being made at the- 

 time by the so-called discoveries in animal magnetism. 



But, whilst faith in animal magnetism was still unshaken, 

 and the daily Press teemed with accounts of extraordinary 

 cures, famous seances, and wonderful clairvoyant visions. Dr. 

 James Braid, of Manchester, England, explained most of the 

 phenomena as due not to odic, mesmeric, vital, or any other 

 force, but as simply the result of psychological or physiological 

 laws. The operator, he stated, need possess no special gifts 

 of mind or body, and the phenomena were due solely to an 

 unusual degree of "concentration of attention," mental and 

 visual, in the person affected. His patients were asked to look 

 steadily at an object on a level slightly above their heads, or 

 were soothed by gentle sounds, by the hair being lightly 

 brushed, by being walked slowl}- about the room, or suchlike 

 means, when incontinently they fell into what he called the 

 hypnotic slumber. Other operators, though adopting these 

 views, varied slightly their modes of inducing such sleep, by 

 directing their patients to look fixedly at a bright glass button 

 lield by themselves some Sin. from, and just above the level of, 

 their eyes. Persons carrying out their directions were found 

 after a brief time to be more or less profoundly affected. " Con- 

 centrate one's attention," says Dr. Braid, "upon an object 

 to the exclusion of all else, and the result will follow as a- 

 1 natter of course." That was his opinion ; but many operators 

 deny that concentrated attention is an essential factor in 

 those abnormal states, or that such a conception of hypnotism 

 is by any means established, or that it explains many facts 

 attending it. Be it as it may, these experiments completely 

 disposed of the magnetic influence ; and when, after some 

 time, it was found that some persons could acquire the pecu- 

 liar faculty of hypnotizing themselves, the delusion of a force 

 emanating from the operator vanished altogether. Of late 

 years we have all heard much of electro-biology, table-turning,, 

 spirit-rapping, and such like eccentricities, which, though they 

 imposed for a time upon the credulous, were rightly ascribed 

 by the thinking portion of the world simply to a juggler's 

 sleight of hand, <)]■ to concerted tricks in which electricity 

 played no inconsiderable part. 



Science, as }"ou know, throws out explorers along every 

 conceivable line of thought ; and they record, publicly or 

 privately, the course they have, pursued, the difficulties they 

 have encountered, the experiments tliey have made, and the 

 conclusions they have arrived at. Many of these conclusions 

 prove subsequently to be incorrect, but they tend in no small 

 degree to inform the general mind and lead to more important 

 discoveries. The gradual advance in astronomical science, 

 though the conclusions were in many respects based in error,. 



