386 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. IX., No. 320 



LONDON LETTER. 



The case of M. Chauflfat, a native of Haute 

 Savoie, who has been overtaken by a trance in a 

 French hotel in London, has been exciting very 

 great interest among the section of medical men 

 devoted to psychological studies. To-day is the 

 seventeenth day of his cataleptic condition, from 

 which he shows no sign of awakening, and the 

 administration of food is not a little diflScult. 

 Chauffat has been a patient of the famous Dr. 

 Charcot, in the Salpetriere hospital in Paris, where 

 a large number of experiments are now being con- 

 ducted upon hypnotizing. Dr. Charcot, however, 

 particularly wishes it to be understood that Chauf- 

 fat is not a hypnotized subject. The general state 

 of his body is good, the temperature and pulse being 

 normal, though the respkation is subject to great 

 variation, changing from 15 to 28 in the course of 

 a few hours. The only way in which he can be 

 aroused sufficiently for the administration of food 

 is by directing a strong ray of light on to his eyes. 

 An examination of them by the eminent oculist, 

 JMr. Brudenell Carter, showed that all the vessels, 

 both veins and arteries, were much contracted and 

 very small. Both sides of the body are alike in 

 their condition, though the cataleptic condition 

 is stronger in the limbs than in the trunk. The 

 most extraordinary feature of the case is the re- 

 markable results obtained by gently stroking 

 Chauffat's arm. The limb, if raised upright, re- 

 mains in that position indefinitely ; and, when 

 certain nerves are stroked, the fingers clinch 

 tightly, the blood is forced from the extremity, 

 the hand and fore-arm turn slowly round to the 

 right till the strain is so great that the muscles 

 stand out rigidly, the limb being perfectly rigid. 

 On the other hand, the most gentle touch or strok- 

 ing of the flexor of the fore -arm is sufficient to 

 relax the whole. Without doubt, Chauffat's case 

 is one of the most remarkable of the kind that has 

 occurred in England, although they are more fre- 

 quently to be met with in France. The following 

 extract from the Proceedings of the Royal society 

 of Edinburgh for Feb. 19, 1816, has recently been 

 published, and has an interesting bearing on the 

 case. 



" Dr. Brewster communicated an account of 

 the sleeping woman of Dunninald, near Montrose, 

 drawn up by the Rev. James Brewster, minister 

 of Craig. Margaret Lyall, aged 21, daughter of 

 John Lyall, laborer, of Dunninald, was first 

 seized with a sleeping fit on the 27th of June, 

 1815, which continued to the 30th of June ; next 

 morning she was again found in a deep sleep — in 

 this state she remained for seven days, without 

 motion, food, etc. ; but at the end of this time, by 

 the moving of her left hand and by plucking at 



the coverlet of the bed and pointing to her mouth, 

 a wish for food being understood, it was given 

 her. This she took, but still remained in her 

 lethargic state till Tuesday, the 8th of August, 

 being six weeks from the time she was seized with 

 the lethargy, without appearing to be awake, ex- 

 cept on the afternoon of Friday, the 30th of June. 

 For the first two weeks her pulse was generally 

 about 60, and previous to her recovery at 70 to 72. 

 Though extremely feeble for some days after her 

 recovery, she gained strength so rapidly that be- 

 fore the end of August she began to work at the 

 harvest on the lands of Mr. Arkley, and continued 

 without inconvenience to perform her labour. 



" The account is drawn uj) by the clergyman of 

 the parish, and is accompanied with the medical 

 report of the surgeons who attended ; to whose 

 attestations are added those of Mr. Arkley, the 

 proprietor of Duiminald, and Lyall, the father, 

 and is in every respect entitled to the fullest 

 credit." 



The term 'hypnotism' was first introduced 

 many years ago, by Mr. Braid, a surgeon of Man- 

 chester, to whom the demonstration of the con- 

 dition was first due. An account of his work is 

 given in Dr. W. B. Carpenter's ' Mental physiol- 

 ogy,' pp. 601 - 610. The subject has very recently 

 been revived, and has formed the subject of 

 several curious experiments in the Salpetriere 

 hospital and elsewhere. According to the Zeit- 

 schrift fur EleMrotedinik, experiments have 

 shown that there was no difficulty in producing 

 all the ordinary hypnotic effects upon a distant 

 subject by means of a telephone. The present 

 writer, however, has not been able to verify the 

 statement. 



Rumors of important telegraphic and telephonic 

 discoveries come to us from Belgium, as having 

 been made by von Rysselberghe, but details are 

 at present wanting. It is certain, however, that 

 arrangements are in progress for the establish- 

 ment of a telephone-line between Paris and Lon- 

 don. 



At the Colonial conference now assembled in 

 London, some striking facts were put forward by 

 Mr. Pender, chairman of the ' Eastern telegraph 

 company,' as to the debt which commerce owes to 

 science. Twenty years ago there were scarcely 

 2,000 miles of submarine cables : now there are 

 107,000 miles, of which all but 7,000 are under 

 British control (the total cost being $185,000,000); 

 and " cables can at the present time be laid with 

 comparatively little risk of breakage, and with 

 an almost certainty of efficient repair." The 

 total land-lines are estimated at 1,750,000 miles, 

 costing $260,000,000. W. 



London, April 9. 



