THE PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECT OF MESMERISM. 805 



fected. But apart from this the fundamental features are the same, 

 whether a man or a frog be mesmerized. The primary point is, as I 

 have said, the paralysis of the will — that is, the inhibition of a certain 

 activity of the nerve-cells of the cortex of the cerebrum. 



The great majority of people can not be mesmerized unless they 

 consent to fix their attention on some particular object. This fixing 

 of the attention, speaking generally, seems to be a voluntary exclusion 

 of exciting impulses, leaving thus the inhibitory ones an open field. 

 Idiots, who, on account of the lack of co-ordination of their nerve- 

 centers, can not fix their attention for any length of time on any one 

 object, can not as far as I know be mesmerized. Now this, now that 

 part of the brain becomes active, and exciting impulses are sent out 

 which overpower the inhibitory ones.* Inhibition from impulses aris- 

 ing in the cortex itself are rare unless the patient has been previously 

 mesmerized. Some such cases, however, do occur. But in people who 

 have been previously mesmerized inhibition in this manner is of not 

 unfrequent occurrence ; within limits, the more often the changes in 

 the cells accompanying inhibition have been produced, the easier they 

 are to reproduce. Those who have often been mesmerized may fall 

 again into this condition at any moment, if the idea crosses their minds 

 that they are expected to be mesmerized. 



Thus, if a sensitive subject be told that the day after to-morrow at 

 half-past nine he will be mesmerized, nothing more need be done ; the 

 day after to-morrow at half -past nine he will remember it, and in so 

 doing will mesmerize himself. 



An instance sent by M. Richer to Dr. Hake Tuke, presents, it 

 seems to me, an example of inhibition from the cortex which is of a 

 somewhat different class, and more allied to that which occurs in birds 

 and lower mammals. A patient was suspected of stealing some photo- 

 graphs from the hospital, a charge which she indignantly denied. 

 One morning M. Richer found this patient with her hand in the 

 drawer containing the photographs, having already transferred some 

 of them to her pocket. There she remained motionless. She had 

 been mesmerized by the sound of a gong struck in an adjoining ward. 

 Here, probably, the changes in the cortex accompanying the emotion 

 which was aroused by the sudden sound at the moment when she was 

 committing the theft produced a wide-spread inhibition — she was 

 instantaneously mesmerized. 



I will show you the method of mesmerizing which is, perhaps, on 

 the whole, most effective ; it is very nearly that described by Braid. 

 I have not time to attempt a mesmeric experiment to-night ; it is the 

 method only which I wish to show you. With one hand a bright ob- 

 ject, such as this faceted piece of glass, is held thus, eight to twelve 



* It is said that some persons, while they are sleeping, can be brought by means of 

 passes into the mesmeric state. It would be interesting to observe if this can also be 

 done with insane people. 



