ARTIFICIAL SOMNAMBULISM. 201 



mesmeric subject), requesting her to convey the note to its 

 destination, and to wait for an answer. The gentleman 

 himself, in her hearing, ordered a cab, stating that if anyone 

 called he was going to a place named, but was expected to 

 return by a certain hour. Whilst the female servant was 

 dressing for her errand, the master placed himself in the 

 vehicle and rapidly arrived at our dwelling. In about ten 

 minutes after the note arrived, the gentleman in the mean- 

 time being secreted in an adjoining apartment, we requested 

 the young woman who had been shown into our study, to 

 take a seat whilst we wrote the answer ; at the same time 

 placing the chair with its back to the door leading into the 

 next room which was left ajar. It had been agreed that 

 after the admission of the girl into t^e place where we were, 

 the magnetiser, approaching the door in silence on the other 

 side, should commence operations. There, then, was the 

 patient or " subject" placed within two feet of her magnetiser, 

 a door only intervening, and that but partially closed ; but 

 she, all the while, perfectly free from all idea of what was 

 going on. We were careful to avoid any unnecessary con- 

 versation with the girl, or even to look towards her, lest we 

 should raise some suspicion in her own mind. We wrote 

 our letter (as if in answer) for nearly a quarter of an hour, 

 once or twice only making an indifferent remark, and on 

 leaving the room for a light to seal the supposed letter, we 

 beckoned the operator away. No effect whatever had been 

 produced, although we had been told that two or three 

 minutes were sufficient, even when mesmerising from the 

 drawing-room, through walls and apartments, into the 

 kitchen. In our own experiment the intervening distance 

 had been very much less, and only one solrd substance inter- 

 vened, and that not completely ; but here we suspect was 

 the difference the "subject" was unconscious of the magnetism 

 and expected nothing? 



In another case Dr. Noble tried the converse experiment 

 with equally convincing results. Being in company one 

 evening with a young lady said to be of high mesmeric sus- 



