Reverie, Somnambulism, Hypnotism,, Sleep. 805 



When experiments were first made in Electro-Biology and Mesmerism, 

 an operator was supposed to be necessary in order to produce the mes- 

 meric state by imparting to the subject some of his magnetism. This 

 magnetic influence was supposed to be transferred to the subject by 

 means of "passes," or downward stroking of the hands over the head 

 and breast, or arms, or down the back of the neck and shoulders. Af- 

 ter a subject had been in the biologized state a few times, it came to 

 him much more easily, and it was found that passes at a few feet dis- 

 tance, had the desired effect. Later, it was found that a subject could 

 be operated upon at a distance, on certain conditions. M. Bertrand ap- 

 pears to have been the first to discover these conditions. He attempted 

 to mesmerize a lady upon whom he had often operated, by sending to 

 her a letter which he had magnetized by the usual passes. This he re- 

 quested a friend to place upon her stomach, and report results. The 

 lady went into the usual mesmeric or hypnotic state the same as if the 

 operator had been present. M. Bertrand then tried the experiment of 

 sending her a letter which he pretended he had magnetized, but in real- 

 ity had not. The effect was still the same, the lady readily dropping 

 off into the mesmeric state. He now got a friend to write a letter for 

 him, imitating his handwriting. This scheme also succeeded the same 

 as the others. These experiments were transacted over a distance of 

 one hundred French leagues. Other experimenters obtained like results. 

 Dr. Elliotson put one of his subjects into the mesmeric state by telling 

 her that he would mesmerize her from the next room. He seated her 

 near the door, which he closed after going into the next room ; but he 

 made no passes, and even went on into a third room, paying the subject 

 no attention. She fell into the desired state, however, all the same. 

 Other experiments showed that good subjects who could be "magnet- 

 ized " in two or three minutes, when they knew that the experiment was 

 being made, were not affected at all when the operator made his passes, 

 and exerted his "will power" behind a door or screen without letting 

 the subject know what he was doing. It was thus shown that the effect 

 produced by the operator was purely imaginary, and if the imagination 

 could be got to work without the operator, the effect would be just the 

 same. The concentration of the attention so as to induce the intense 

 state of it, called hypnotism or mesmerism, is all that is required, and 

 this concentration can be effected by the subject himself. Mr. Braid ex- 

 perimented with a gentleman of high literary and scientific abilities, who 

 possessed an unusual power of concentration of the attention, and who 

 needed only to place his hand upon the table and fix his attention on it 

 for half a minute in order to place himself in a condition to be con- 

 trolled. Mr. Braid then positively assuring him he could not remove 

 his hand, he was entirely unable to do it. 



