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POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 



[NoViiMIiEU, 1SS9. 



that of his hypnotizer. He does not intelligently 

 see or hear. He is free to move, yet, being destitute 

 of will-power, is unable to do so, until thus c&ni- 

 manded by the master of his will. Temporarily, 

 his is a dream existence. He is in an hypnotic 

 sleep, which lasts from a few minutes to to a quarter 

 of an hour or longer. While in this condition, he 

 is entirely unconscious of his startling — oft-times 

 highly ridiculous — actions. The hypnotizer makes 

 his subject discern the most ferocious of beasts in 

 the inanimate chair before him. In sanguine faith 

 he accepts from him the proffered broom-stick and 

 paper-knife as effective weapons of defense. 



At sight of this, the skeptic exclaims, "Possum!" 

 — that the hypnotizer and his victim are conniving 

 with each other. But the hypnotizer dispels further 

 doubt by making the sleep so profound that catalep- 

 tic tetanus of the muscular system takes place. In 

 such a case the physiological deportment of the sub- 

 ject is almost miraculous. A limb, an arm, or half 

 the body, may be tetanized, and made to act entirely 

 independent of its complement. When the whole 

 body has been tetanized it will maintain the most 

 trying of positions for many minutes ; positions 

 which the professional athlete would find it ex- 

 tremely difficult to assume. The tetanized subject 

 is utterly oblivious to the pain and discomfort of his 

 awkward postures. At all events, in this instance, 

 the behavior of the subject is genuine. 



Should there yet remain a possibility of fraud, it 

 is effectually eliminated by hypnotic experiments on 

 animals. The simplest and best known instance of 

 hypnotism in animals is the experiment first de- 

 scribed, more than two centuries ago, by the noted 

 Jesuit, Father Athanasius Kircher, of Fulda, Ger- 

 many. In his work, published in 1646 at Rome, 

 under the title, Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrce, he 

 describes this experiment, under the heading of 

 Eocperimentum Mirahile de ImagiuaUone Gallina, 

 or experiment on the marvellous imagination of the 

 hen. 



He first ties the feet of a hen, and then lays the 

 animal on the floor. After considerable struggling, 

 and not a little noise, the hen evidently comes to 

 the conclusion that further resistance is useless and 

 escape impossible. It gradually quiets down, sur- 

 rendering itself to the victor. Now Father Kircher 

 drew a chalk line, from each eye of the hen, along 

 the floor for some distance, and cut loose the tie. 

 Although no tangible hindrance any longer held the 

 hen, it still remained in the same position without 

 stirring ; it even remained though he tried to chase 

 it by noise. So much as to the facts, which anyone 

 can readily verify by repeating this experiment. 



The learned Jesuit father also furnished an expla- 

 nation of this notable fact. He says that the vivid 

 imagination of the hen takes the chalk line for a 

 ribbon, and thus thinks itself tied down, though the 

 real ribbon has been cut from the legs. This ex- 

 planation is entirely erroneous, for the experiment 

 succeeds very well without even t^'ing the feet or 

 drawing a chalk line. Take a chicken, hold it down 

 in a stooping position, with light but firm and 

 unyielding force. Gently stretch the neck forward 

 and down ; hold it for a little while in this position, 

 till the chicken will have ceased its struggles, which 

 must not be successful, by reason of the firm hold 

 of the experimenter. You may now remove your 

 hands; the chicken will continue to remain un- 

 moved and perfectly quiet in the position given. 

 But, while the experiment succeeds when made in 

 this manner, success is more easily attained if, 

 before removing both hands, a chalk line is drawn 

 from the beak forward. In this condition the ani- 

 mal is said to be hypnotized, or in the hypnotic 

 state. At times the hypnosis is so deep that the 

 chicken does not awaken even if pushed, and may 



remain in this state when gently turned over upon 

 its back. In this last case, however, it continues to 

 keep its head unmoved, in the original position, 

 turning the neck without moving the head. The 

 eyes remain open, and respiration continues — deep 

 and rather frequent. After a while, it will come to 

 and escape. If sufficiently disturbed, especially by 

 noise, it also comes to and flies away. 



Prof. Czermak, of Leipzig, many years ago, made 

 special investigations on hypnosis of birds. He 

 operated, not only on chickens, but also on turkeys, 

 pigeons, all sorts of small birds, and even on a 

 swan. He succeeded in hypnotizing all of these. 

 The small songsters of the garden were particularly 

 sensitive to his operations. In fact, it is an old 

 trick among bird fanciers and dealers to put these 

 birds forcibly upon their backs, and hold them in 

 that position for a few minutes; they will then 

 remain in that position in the open hand, and make 

 no eftbrt to escape, being really hypnotized. Ex- 

 periments on pigeons did not at first succeed. The 

 pigeon persisted in flying away after having been 

 subjected to the treatment which promptly hypno- 

 tized the chickens and other birds. But Czermak 

 found that, when holding a pigeon down with his 

 left, he need only bring a finger of his right hand 

 to, and in front of, the eyes of the pigeon, to see it 

 promptly hypnotized. Fastening a match or a 

 piece of cork on the head, close in sight of and 

 above the eyes, was especially effective. This shows 

 that hypnosis is greatly facilitated by compelling the 

 eyes to fixedly look at a near, distinct object. This 

 readily fixes the eyesight, and produces the sleep- 

 like condition called hypnosis. Even suddenly and 

 closely pointing the finger at a pigeon, causes it to 

 succumb to this hypnotic sleep. 



After having once been hypnotized, a bird is much 

 more ready to fall into that state than at first. 

 Tiius, a hen need only be pressed down gently a 

 second time ; or, if the last hypnosis was quite 

 recent, the hand need not even touch her, so that 

 the riew state recurs in response to, apparently, a 

 mere gesture or motion without contact. 



Even the cray-fish is subject to hypnosis. Take 

 a European river cray-fish, stand him on his head 

 and fore claws, and hold him so for a short time; 

 ere long he will give up all struggle and remain 

 standing in the hypnotic state. Putting a small 

 basket full of these animals, in that condition, on a 

 table, furnishes a strange sight indeed. Presently 

 they come to, one by one " unbending" and run- 

 ning away. Of course, if " demagnetizing strokes " 

 are made from head to tail, upwards, at a short dis- 

 tcnce from the hypnotized cray-fish, he will come 

 to as well as if left to himself; but the unsuspecting 

 observer might falsely be induced to ascribe a 

 special power to this motion of the hand. 



Frogs have also been hypnotized, but in a some- 

 what different manner. A frog is not specially 

 affected by being placed on his back, — he promptly 

 turns over and leaps off. Dr. Lewissohn, of Berlin, 

 however, found that by firmly tying a thread about 

 its fore legs, near the feet, and then putting the 

 frog on his back, he would remain in that position, 

 even after the thread had been cut. He then lies 

 still, as if robbed of his will, as if he had lost all the 

 little intelligence he possessed, or as if sleeping 

 with open eyes; indeed, he is in hypnosis. Special 

 physiological experiments convinced Dr. Lewissohn 

 that the result is due to an effect on the sensory 

 nerve-fibres, distributed in the skin of the frog, at 

 the point where it was tied. 



In Czermak's experiments on chickens, he some- 

 times changed the position of the head, raising or 

 lowering it by gentle force, and the bird would not 

 only follow the motion as if the neck were of yield- 

 ing wax, but would retain the position given as if 



the neck, after the hand was withdrawn, were of 

 iron. This is clearly the condition of catalepsy, as 

 has been seen in studying experiments on the 

 human subject. 



By gentle, but unyielding force, assisted by cer- 

 tain actions on sensory nerves of the skin, greatly 

 facilitated by a definite, very near, bright object, on 

 which the eyes are fixed, birds and otl^f r animals 

 readily fall into a state of apparent sleep. While in 

 this sleep they loose their will of voluntary motion, 

 and even disregard noise that, in a normal state, 

 would greatly frighten them. They are in a state 

 of hypnosis, from which they gradually recover, and 

 which they assume with more readinesi at each suc- 

 cessive time. 



«♦► 



[Original in The Popular Science Netos.'] 



INSTINCT THE GUIDE TO DIET. 



BY M. J. GORTON. 



The records of science, as of history, tell the story 

 of ceaseless change. Life and death, success and 

 failure, progress and retrogression, are not fixed 

 quantities, but subject to variations. The right of 

 yesterday is often the wrong of today. Posterity 

 reverses the verdict of contemporaries, and science 

 — the classified and proven knowledge of the human 

 race — is found to be in some instances the handmaid 

 to instinct. 



Huxley says that "Nature's discipline is not even 

 a word and a blow, and the blow comes first, but 

 the word without the blow." She lays her lash 

 unsparingly upon the wise and the unwise, like a 

 second Herod slaying many children to obtain the 

 destruction of a single obnoxious one. However, 

 it is true that science has grown wise with experi- 

 ence, and in many cases has changed from the 

 method of dictating exact formula, and accepts the 

 now accepted position of handmaid to instinct and 

 the interpreter of natural desires. This is seen and 

 acknowledged by the wise physiologist, when 

 attempting to lay down dietetic laws. The digestive 

 "struggle for existence" is, indeed, a "survival. of 

 the fittest," and the law of instinct is the guide to 

 the normal state. 



Dr. Edward Smith, a well-known and highly 

 credited authority, who spent much time and pub- 

 lished many well received works on various physio- 

 logical subjects, says in reference to the inclination 

 or dislike to special articles of diet: "It is known 

 that whilst there is a general correspondence among 

 men in the food they desire, there are many excep- 

 tions, both in the healthy and diseased system. In 

 my inquiries I found that with a disrelish for an 

 article of food there was less influence from it than 

 under ordinary circumstances; so that in reference 

 to milk, the effect of every element of it was less on 

 another gentleman who took part in my experiments 

 than on myself, and neither he nor any member of 

 his family can take milk or cheese. Hence appetite 

 for food is the expression not only of desire, but of 

 fitness. Moreover, it was found that in the same 

 person the various substances which were disliked 

 had a common mode of action ; also that with this 

 disrelish there was an unusual enjoyment of some 

 other article having a similar mode of action. Thus 

 one disliking milk and sugar was very fond of tea. 

 It is, therefore, very questionable how far it is 

 proper to induce a person to take that which he dis- 

 relishes. An important meaning is shown to exist 

 in that which is commonly regarded as irrational or 

 capricious." 



So if we apply our present principles of physiology 

 to diet, we enlarge our liberty as we understand the 

 demand made by appetite supplied by instinct. 

 That philosopher was right who declared that health 

 purchased by a strict adherence to diet of so much 

 weight and of just such and such a kind, irrespective 



