26 Mr. J. K Langley [March 14, 



meriser, the moment when the disease was considered to be forcibly- 

 expelled from the system. Now-a-days it is the last state a physician 

 would care to produce in a patient. 



For a time Mesmer's success was enormous. His admirers sub- 

 scribed for him a sum of nearly 350,000 francs, receiving in return 

 details as to the method of magnetisation. In Paris the belief in the 

 power of Mesmer to cure diseases soon waned ; but by this time he 

 had made a stir in the world, and had drawn attention to a number 

 of facts which were either only locally known, or largely disregarded. 

 Mesmer devoted himself chiefly to curing patients, and it must be 

 added, to receiving fees ; but about ten years after the time of his 

 coming to Paris it was found that a state resembling somnambulism, 

 or sleep-walking, could be produced in some persons by magnetising 

 them. This gave a stimulus to the investigation of what I may call 

 the magical side of the phenomena. This magical side had always 

 been present, but in the height of Mesmer's power had not been much 

 regarded. Of the magic of animal magnetism I will say one word 

 more presently. 



The term animal magnetism lingered long, but has now happily 

 fallen into disuse, either mesmerism or hypnotism being used in its 

 stead. " Hypnotism " we owe to Dr. Braid of Manchester, who, from 

 1841 to the time of his death in 1860, subjected all the phenomena 

 said to be produced in the magnetic state to a searching investigation. 

 Braid is the founder of mesmerism in its scientific aspect. Hypnotism 

 and mesmerism, as commonly used now, are synonymous terms ; it 

 would be advantageous, I think, if we could make a distinction 

 between them. We might, for example, use the term hypnotism to 

 embrace all those phenomena which are proven, and the term mes- 

 merism to embrace all those phenomena which are not proven. 

 Mesmerism would then mean what I have called its magical side 

 and would embrace those phenomena which are sometimes called the 

 higher phenomena of mesmerism. These are of various kinds. It 

 is said, for instance, that one person can, at any time he wishes, 

 mesmerise another who is at a distance, and who is in perfect 

 ignorance of the intentions of the mesmeriser ; that a mesmerised 

 person can perceive the thoughts and sensations of the mesmeriser, 

 without receiving any indications from the known organs of sense ; 

 that a clairvoyant can see with parts of the body other than the 

 eyes, for example with the back of the head, or with the pit of the 

 stomach ; that a clairvoyant can describe places and persons which 

 he has never read of, or heard of, or seen. Those observers who 

 have done most to elucidate the subject, such as Braid, have failed 

 to observe any of these and other similar higher phenomena. They 

 are unproven. It would be convenient, 1 say, to include such 

 phenomena only, under the heading of mesmerism ; but this I cannot 

 yet venture to do. The facts I have to mention I shall call those 

 of hypnotism or mesmerism indifferently. The magical side of the 

 subject may, I think, at present be fairly left out of account. 



