568 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



foot what Professor Ongston has called a 

 canoe-shape. The success of any treatment 

 of the deformity depends largely upon the 

 age and extent of the affliction and the abil- 

 ity of the patient to conform to the sur- 

 geon's directions. It includes prolonged 

 rest, the avoidance of standing still, the ex- 

 hibition of tonics, the adaptation of boots 

 to the requirements of the case, with the 

 application of devices to raise and support 

 the arch or bring the other parts of the foot 

 into proper position, with, sometimes, surgi- 

 cal operations. Professor Ongston, availing 

 himself of the advantages of Listerism, has 

 ventured, with success, upon the bold opera- 

 tion of rearranging the bones of the foot 

 in their proper position and plugging them 

 together with ivory pegs. 



The Trne and False in Mesmerism. — 



The physiologist, says the "Saturday Re- 

 view," holds that some of the phenomena 

 of mesmerism are genuine and comparable 

 to certain natural states, but that none ex- 

 ist to justify the supposition of any unknown 

 force or effluence, most mesmeric mani- 

 festations of a certain sort being entirely 

 due to individual or collusive fraud. For 

 most of the facts alleged are of such a 

 nature that it is infinitely more probable 

 that all connected with them, both actors 

 and reporters, are deliberate impostors, than 

 that they themselves should be true. The 

 careful study of the alleged phenomena by 

 those who are alone qualified to report on 

 them has over and over again negatived all 

 shadow of evidence that a person in the 

 state called hypnotism, somnambulism, or 

 mesmerism, has any power whatever of 

 being influenced in any way by another to 

 perform specific actions, all possibility of 

 previous hints or impressions being ex- 

 cluded, while demonstrably apart from all 

 methods of communication by the senses. 

 That in many cases the mind may act ab- 

 normally most are aware, and spontaneous 

 counterparts are found in disease to the 

 real phenomena of hypnotism. Artificial 

 somnambulism, indeed, is practically un- 

 distinguishable from the somnambulism 

 which is called disease; and it is mainly 

 true to regard the psychological fields of 

 these phenomena as identical. In this state 

 the brain acts, as it were, fitfully; some 



of its functions sleep while others wake, 

 and in various combinations the actions of 

 the senses are heightened or lowered, or 

 apparently for a time abolished. But in 

 no instance of this artificial somnambulism 

 that has been admitted to be genuine has 

 there been any justification for supposing 

 a special effluence from the operator ; and 

 innumerable counter - experiments have 

 been made on hypnotic subjects who have 

 promptly fallen into this condition from 

 merely believing that some force was being 

 exerted. Every hypnotic phenomenon can 

 be more or less obviously referred to mor- 

 bid conditions of the nervous system and 

 to abnormal reaction or response to sug- 

 gestions and other stimuli from without. 

 Illustrations of this are not far to seek. 

 We know that lunatics, out of harmony as 

 they are with their own environment, often 

 imagine themselves to be other people, 

 especially kings and queens. So do the 

 subjects of hypnotism at the suggestion of 

 external surroundings ; in the one case the 

 morbid condition is temporary, in the other 

 often permanent. The explanation, then, 

 of the phenomena in question, is to be 

 sought not in the person of the mesmerizer 

 or operator, or in any unknown force, but 

 in the subject " mesmerized." The common 

 element of mesmerism and spiritualism, and 

 it is indeed a large one, is really fraud and 

 fraud alone. Of what remains, the genuine 

 fact of hypnotism, it must be repeated, that 

 it is amply recogoized by scientific observ- 

 ers. 



Niel£el-PIating in the United States.— 



" Nickel-plating," says Mr. William H. Wahl, 

 in a paper read before the Chemical Sec- 

 tion of the Franklin Institute last Novem- 

 ber, " is an American industry, in the sense 

 that it was first practiced on a commercial 

 scale in the United States, and here re- 

 ceived that practical demonstration of its 

 usefulness that has since made it the most 

 successful and most widely practiced branch 

 of the art of electro-plating." It first came 

 into prominence about ten years ago, and 

 has developed into an industry of great 

 magnitude, and acquired a popularity which 

 is easily accounted for by any one acquainted 

 with the use and the excellence of nickel- 

 plated articles. Its growth has been favored 



