THE CEREBRUM, AND ITS FUNCTIONS. 827 



the part of the Somnambulist, to apply the teachings of ordinary experience to the correc- 

 tion of the erroneous ideas which are thus made to occiipy the mind. In these particulars, 

 this condition closely corresponds with that of the Artificial Somnambulism or "hypnotism" 

 of Mr. Braid ($ 827) ; and the only peculiarity in its phenomena which can be regarded as 

 at all essential, consists in the special relation which is affirmed to exist between the 

 mesmerizer and his "subject." Now in regard to the existence of this rapport, it is spe- 

 cially noteworthy that it was not discovered until long after the practice of Mesmerism 

 had come into vogue, having been unknown to Mesmer himself and his immediate disciples ; 

 and that its phenomena have only acquired constancy and fixity, in proportion as its 

 (supposed) laws have been announced and received as established. The history of Mes- 

 merism, candidly and philosophically analyzed, affords abundant evidence in proof of this 

 position ; but the best guarantee of its truth is drawn from the results obtained by the 

 numerous Mesmerizers, who have begun to experiment for themselves without any know- 

 ledge of what they were to expect, and who have produced a great variety of remarkable 

 phenomena, without having ever discovered this rapport ; and yet have obtained immediate 

 evidence of it, when once the idea has been put into their own minds, and thence into those 

 of their "subjects." It is quite easy to understand, that if the mind of the "subject" be 

 so yielded up to that of the mesmerizer, as to receive and act upon any impression which 

 the latter forces upon or even suggests to it, the notion of this peculiar relation is as easily 

 communicable as any other, and may exert a complete domination over the "subject," 

 through the whole of the sleep-waking state. Thus the commands or suggestions of the 

 mesmerizer meet with a response which those of no other individual may produce ; in fact, 

 the latter usually seem to be unheard by the somnambule, simply because they are not 

 related to the dominant impression a phenomenon of which the experience of natural 

 somnambulism is continually presenting examples. And further, it being a fact that 

 individuals of what may be termed the susceptible constitution, have brought themselves, 

 by the habit of obedience, into complete subjection to the expressed or understood will of 

 some other party, even in the waking state, without any mesmeric influence whatever, it 

 is not at all difficult to understand how such a habit of attending to the operator, and to 

 him alone, should be peculiarly developed in the state of Somnambulism, in which the 

 mind seems to have lost its self-acting power, and to be the passive recipient of external 

 impressions. And the same explanation applies to the other phenomena of this rapport ; 

 such as its establishment with any bystander, by his joining hands with the mesmerizer 

 and the somnambule ; for, as already shown ($ 827), it is quite sufficient that the som- 

 nambule should be previously possessed with the idea that this new voice will thus be 

 audible to her, and that she must obey its behests, for it to produce all the same effects 

 upon her as that of the mesmerizer had previously done. In all the successful experiments 

 of this kind which the Author has seen, this previous idea was entertained, both by mes- 

 merizer and somnambule ; but in by far the larger proportion of cases which have fallen 

 under his notice, and especially when the subjects of them were not habitudes of the mes- 

 meric seances, the phenomena of this class could not be made to show themselves, the 

 consciousness of the somnambule not being limited to the mesmerizer or to those en rapport 

 with him, but being equally extended to all around her. 



3. A frequent phenomenon of this condition, and one which has its parallel in Natural 

 Somnambulism, is a remarkable Exaltation of one or more of the Senses, so that the indivi- 

 dual becomes susceptible of influences, which, in his natural condition, would not be in the 

 least perceived. The Author has witnessed a case in which such an exaltation of the sense 

 of Smell was manifested ; and in the same case, as in many others, there was a similar 

 exaltation of the sense of Temperature. The exaltation of the muscular Sense, by which 

 various actions that ordinarily require the guidance of vision, are directed independently 

 of it, is a common phenomenon of the "mesmeric" with various other forms of artificial 

 as well as of natural Somnambulism. The Author has repeatedly seen Mr. Braid's "hypno- 

 tized" subjects write with the most perfect regularity, when an opaque screen was interposed 

 between their eyes and the paper, the lines being equidistant and parallel ; and it is not 

 uncommon for the writer to carry back his pen or pencil to dot an i or cross a T, or make 

 some other correction in a letter or word. Mr. B. had one patient who would thus go back 

 and correct with accuracy the writing on a whole page of note-paper ; but if the paper 

 was moved from the position it had previously occupied on the table, all the corrections 

 were on the wrong points of the paper as regarded the actual place of the writing, though 

 on the right points as regarded its previous place; sometimes, however, he would take a 

 fresh departure, by feeling for the upper left hand corner of the paper, and all his correc- 

 tions were then made in their right positions, notwithstanding the displacement of the 

 paper. To the extraordinary exaltation of one or more of the senses, which is a character- 

 istic of this state, may fairly be attributed a great number of the phenomena which have 

 been supposed to indicate a peculiar and mysterious influence exerted by the mesmerizer 

 over his subject; since the latter will be far more receptive of "suggesting" impressions, 



