xvi] LONDON AND LEICESTER 233 



which was not at all that of the showman or the conjurer. 

 At the conclusion of the course he assured us that most 

 persons possessed in some degree the power of mesmerising 

 others, and that by trying with a few of our younger friends 

 or acquaintances, and simply doing what we had seen him 

 do, we should probably succeed. He also showed us how to 

 distinguish between the genuine mesmeric trance, and any 

 attempt to imitate it. 



In consequence of this statement, one or two of the elder 

 boys tried to mesmerise some of the younger ones, and in a 

 short time succeeded ; and they asked me to see their experi- 

 ments. I found that they could produce the trance state, 

 which had all the appearance of being genuine, and also a 

 cataleptic rigidity of the limbs by passes and by suggestion, 

 both in the trance and afterwards in the normal waking state. 

 This led me to try myself in the privacy of my own room, 

 and I succeeded after one or two attempts in mesmerising 

 three boys from twelve to sixteen years of age, while on 

 others within the same ages I could produce no effect, or an 

 exceedingly slight one. During the trance they seemed in a 

 state of semi-torpor, with apparently no volition. They would 

 remain perfectly quiescent so long as I did not notice them, 

 but would at once answer any questions or do anything I 

 told them. On the two boys with whom I continued to 

 experiment for some time, I could produce catalepsy of any 

 limb or of the whole body, and in this state they could do 

 things which they could not, and certainly would not have 

 done in their normal state. For example, on the rigid out- 

 stretched arm I would hang an ordinary chair at the wrist, 

 and the boy would hold it there for several minutes, while I 

 sat down and wrote a short letter for instance, without any 

 complaint, or making any remark when I took it off. I 

 never left it more than five minutes because I was afraid that 

 some injury might be caused by it. I soon found that this 

 rigidity could be produced in those who had been mesmerised 

 by suggestion only, and in this way often fixed them in any 

 position, notwithstanding their efforts to change it. One 

 experiment was to place a shilling on the table in front of a 



