676 PSYCHICAL RP:SEARCH of the CENTtTRY. 



educated persons have investigated the evidence for the reported 

 marvels. In the Alexandria of the fourth Christian century. Por- 

 phyry; in the Enoland of Charles II, Glanvill, More, Baxter, and 

 Boyle; in the America of 1680-1720, the Mathers; in the Germany of 

 1760-1S3O. Kant and Hegel: in the France of 17S0-1830, various 

 learned ))()dies, took pai't in these investigations. Little that can 

 l)e reli(>d on was discovered. The resear<'h(\s wvw usually utuue- 

 thodical, often prejudiced, often superstitious. ( )nly in the last twenty 

 years has iiuiuiry been methodical, skeptical, and persistent. The 

 practices of Mesmcr at the end of the eighteenth eentury opiMied the 

 way. They interested, in the nineteenth century, the Schellings, 

 Hegel, and Hitter. Hegel believed in clairvoyance, in Avhat is called 

 teh^pathy (the action of distant mind on distant mind, tlirough no known 

 channel of sense), and in the di\ining-rod. Foi' all these things he 

 found a place in his "Philosophy of Spiiit." Tlie theory which 

 explains what we call facts of hyi)notism by •'animal magnetism*' was 

 accepted, or at least many of the mar\els of this kind wei-e accepted, 

 in a report of a scientific French committee in 1831. But the report 

 was ]>urked. and the topic was banished to keep company with the 

 oi'ig-in of language and the scjuaring of the circle. Yet the topic- kept 

 recurring, and the "magnetic sleep" was vouched foi- by Dr. Elliotson. 

 About 18-lI-l.S-ir), Braid of ]\Ianchestei- introduced the word "'hypno- 

 tism," to cover the })henomenaof induced s()nmaml)ulism. He proved 

 that tile old theory of a magnetic efflux from the operator was super- 

 fluous, and that the sleep, with all its peculiarities of hallucination 

 and of submission to tlu^ will, could be induced in a variety of me- 

 chanical ways. The patient could be made insensi})le to pain, and only 

 the introduction of chloroform checked the use of hypnotism in sur- 

 g-ical operations. It was also shown that the mind of the hypnotic 

 patient could be so influenced as to affect his Ixjdy, and, at least in 

 nervous and hysterical diseases, to exercise a healing influence. These 

 discoveries, obviously, explain many of the stories of witchcraft, of 

 healing miracles, and of ''glamour,"" or the induced false perceptions, 

 which were part of the stock in trade of conjurers in the Middle Ages 

 and the seventeenth century. 



So far, I think, these inquiries have undeniably reached solid 

 ground, and have cleared up the obscure subject of witchcraft. The 

 onl}- question is one of degree. How far are the stranger phenomena 

 of h} pnotism, such as the suggestion of sleep from a distance, based 

 on good evidence? In the middle of the century Drs. Gregory and 

 Mayo, in two interesting works, investigated the amount of truth 

 involved in popular superstitions. They accepted clairvoj^ance and 

 successful cr\'stal-gazing. that world-wide practice. Meanwhile, many 

 ph3'sicians and others w^orked at the topic of hallucinations of the 

 senses, both in the sane and the insane. A few of them brought for- 



