ARTIFICIAL SOMNAMBULISM. 179 



periments that no magnetiser, with his imaginary secret 

 agents or fluids, is in the least wanted ; but that the subjects 

 can place themselves in the same condition as the supposed 

 subjects of electro-biological influences by simply gazing 

 fixedly at some object for a long time with fixed attention. 



The condition thus superinduced is not hypnotism, or 

 artificial somnambulism, properly so called. ' The electro- 

 biological ' condition may be regarded as simply a kind of 

 reverie or abstraction artificially produced. But Braid dis- 

 covered that a more perfect control might be obtained over 

 'subjects/ and a condition resembling that of the sleep- 

 walker artificially induced, by modifying the method of fix- 

 ing the attention. Instead of directing the subject's gaze upon 

 a bright object placed at a considerable distance from the 

 eyes, so that no effect was required to concentrate vision 

 upon it, he placed a bright object somewhat above and in 

 front of the eyes at so short a distance that the convergence 

 of their axes upon it was accompanied with sufficient effect 

 to produce even a slight amount of pain. The condition to 

 which the 'subjects' of this new method were reduced was 

 markedly different from the ordinary 'electro-biological' state. 

 Thus on one occasion, in the presence of 800 persons, four- 

 teen men were experimented upon. 'All began the experi- 

 ment at the same time ; the former with their eyes fixed upon 

 a projecting cork, placed securely on their foreheads ; the 

 others at their own will gazed steadily at certain points in 

 the direction of the audience, In the course of ten minutes 

 the eyelids of these ten persons had involuntarily closed 

 With some, consciousness remained ; others were in cata- 

 lepsy, and entirely insensible to being stuck with needles ; 

 and others on awakening knew absolutely nothing of what 

 had taken place during their sleep.' The other four simply 

 passed into the ordinary condition of electro-biologised ' sub- 

 jects/ retaining the recollection of all that happened to 

 them while in the state of artificial abstraction or reverie. 



Dr. Carpenter, in that most interesting work of his, 

 1 Mental Physiology/ thus describes the state of hypnotism ; 



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