684 MESMERISM. 



vain ; and, if I opened them forcibly, they immediately shut 

 again. After the Baron had done this, she always was sent 

 asleep rapidly; and it was invariably remarked that at length 

 she made one deep inspiration, and was then in a comatose 

 sleep. This deep inspiration, the Baron informed me, is the 

 uniform precursor of the coma. From this moment, we could do 

 what we pleased without waking her, halloo in her ears, dash 

 her arms in any direction, pull her hair out, pinch her hand, put 

 snuff up her hose : she was perfectly insensible, breathing pla- 

 cidly, and slept on in spite of any attempt to awake her, till the 

 Baron made two or three transverse movements, when she instantly 

 awoke. These phenomena were too striking and invariable for 

 any rational person to disbelieve that some peculiar power had 

 been in operation. Still, though awake, she generally could not 

 open her eyes till transverse passes had been made around them. 

 Her lower jaw was always firmly closed in her sleep, so that none of 

 us could open it : but the Baron always caused it presently to 'open 

 on moving his finger along it or holding his hand in contact with it : 

 it was opened more slowly by manipulations made without touch- 

 ing her. On one occasion he held his finger near the meatus of 

 the ear, and she presently heard, and from that time heard more 

 or less and talked, especially if he operated again upon the 

 ear ; but after she was awakened she knew nothing that had 

 passed in her sleep-waking. Still she was mesmerised many 

 times before she answered questions : she heard a noise, and this 

 roused her sufficiently to make her talk of what was present in 

 her mind, but her words had no relation to the question. At 

 length she began to speak to every question ; and, on one occasion, 

 on being teased again and again to give an answer when she 

 repeatedly declared she could not, she fell into a violent rage, 

 rose, seized the inquirer, shook and pushed him with both hands, 

 and on being forced into a chair, after resting quiet a few mi- 

 nutes, she rose and made at the same person again very fiercely, 

 and, sat down at last with difficulty, pale with rage, and her 

 hands quite cold. Baron Dupotet thought it right to awaken her, 

 and did so immediately, when she smiled with her natural good 

 humour, and, on being addressed, proved herself to be in complete 

 ignorance of all that had just passed. 



The power of mesmerism was shown as strikingly though dif- 

 ferently upon one of my two epileptic female patients. She ceased 



