BY WALTER SPENCER, M.D., M.R.C.S., ETC. 69 



The British Medical Association recognises that hypnotism 

 cannot be considered a general remedy of reliable action, and 

 lays down the rule that a stranger should never be hypno- 

 tised without a suitable witness. No satisfactory explanation 

 having yet been given, I am justified in assuming that the 

 medical profession has now got hold of something which we 

 do not understand. My mind was a tabula rasa as regards 

 this subject, when, fifteen years ago, finding myself pos- 

 sessed of means and leisure, I undertook to study hypnotism 

 and allied phenomena. Attracted by an advertisement, T 

 made acquaintance with an illiterate man named Ashton, pro- 

 prietor of a sort of hospital for magnetic healing, and took 

 from him a series of lessons in his art. He was able to 

 alleviate pain and disease chiefly of joints, displaying diligent 

 patience and manipulative skill. I was impressed that a force 

 emanated from him. On one occasion when he was declaim- 

 ing in front of me at some 6 feet distance the rise and fall of 

 his arms (he was a vehement gesticulator) when directed 

 towards me so affected my nerves that I had to ask him to 

 desist. After twelve lessons I found that I could generally 

 relieve slight neuralgias of my friends and family. My 

 opportunities were few. I could not go about gathering 

 patients. The faculty I had acquired became enfeebled and 

 left me through want of use, in accordance with Ashton' s 

 doctrine that it could be acquired and cultivated only by 

 constant practice in most instances. After this I went 

 through the whole round of spiritualism that was accessible 

 to me, finding it wholly unprofitable to the mind, until I 

 obtained an introduction to a well-known old gentleman, a 

 Mr. Frederick Hockley, a man of erudition, but apparently of 

 great credulity. His claims to a knowledge and practice of 

 the occult sciences, made to me in confidence, simply, 

 modestly, and as a matter of course, were little less than 

 those of the mediaeval magicians. Thirst for knowledge led 

 to my becoming his most intimate friend, to whom he bared 

 his heart, his history, and his lore. I cannot too highly 

 estimate his goodness and nobility of mind. A bibliophite 

 and bookhunter, he possessed an extensive and very valuable 

 library of books and MSS. (now in the British Museum by 

 his bequest), but the series of his own minutely-kept diaries, 

 ranged in handsome bindings on his shelves, inspired me 

 with more interest than all. He had long abandoned all 

 other occult practice to devote himself to what we call " divi- 

 nation" by mirrors and crystals, consideration of which, I 

 believe, will be found to throw a side light upon hypnotism. 

 The notes of his numerous experiences, or, as he called them, 

 "actions," bore by turns upoa the most interesting metaphy- 

 sical discussions, revelations on past, current, and in some in- 

 stances future events, and scenes and anecdotes like those of 



