418 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



we find we have been mistaken : That life instead of being a thing of miracle, 

 induced by an act of external power beyond natural law, sustained and ended by 

 similar agency, is simply a part of the eternal order, and of necessity co-existent 

 and continuous with the cause of all. For the first time, so far as we know, we 

 are able to apprehend the problem from strictly scientific methods, and to com- 

 prehend its necessary conditions from the analogies and logic of precedent 

 knowledge — because science has led us up to it step by step. And as mesmerism 

 has been admitted to the sacred circle of accepted science we will use it as the 

 key to unlock this door. 



What is mesmerism ? Phenomenally it is the domination of one mind by 

 another, from a state induced by physical methods — passes by the hand and anal- 

 ogous processes — all of which are based upon the passage of a magnetic current 

 or force from the operator to the subject. And your pardon is once more asked 

 for reminding you that in this description we are still in the domain of accepted 

 science. The conditions are simple : Given a person of strong magnetic or- 

 ganization and a person of nervous conditions, and the one controls the other, 

 makes him responsive to his mental moods, or to act as willed to do, despite 

 volition or will to the contrary. This is not mental force alone, for often the 

 subject is far superior in intellectual power to the operator, and as a rule men- 

 tality or brain power is not a quality of mesmeric operators. What is the power ? 

 Scientifically, a stronger magnetic current thrown from the operator over the sub- 

 ject, which current or force is evolved by the will of the operator from the brain, 

 just in kind as the currents from a battery. This so generated current is thrown 

 upon the brain of the subject, and for the time paralyzes the will, and the brain 

 responds to the stronger force. 



W^hat is the medium for transmittal? And here is another occult thing, for 

 as yet science can tell you but little as to the function of the nerves. Physiology 

 can name all the principal nerves and map out their modifications ; can locate 

 the nerve centres and trace the vast net-work going out from them, but beyond 

 this it can do little else. Now, in view of all the facts we know, what can the 

 nerves be but electricals — not only conductors, but like glass, exciters of electri- 

 city. Here, then, we have the means perfected to perform exactly what we see. 

 Here, too, we have the agent for these phenomena of living organisms. The 

 normal action of the nerves conveys the magnetic forces of life or excites the 

 electrical currents in a degree that supplies the regular uses of the organism. 

 Excessive or abnormal action or impulse produces more powerful currents, and 

 so we see that people under excitement speak with greater force, act with higher 

 power and perform tasks with more ease and facility than in an unexcited state. 

 This arises from nervous action, an augmented generation of electric power, 

 which carried to the grand centre of the nervous system, the brain, gives to the 

 man extra mental and physical force. While this exists more or less in all, its 

 manifestation in individuals is of degree. Hence all cannot mesmerize, nor can 

 all be mesmerized. 



And here science can find explanation for what has ever been a mystery — 



