June 



8.] 



SCIENTIFIC NE^AAS. 



597 



the second electrically. Here the lecture closed, without 

 the learned Professor having claimed, as he might have 

 done, that he had succeeded in proving to a large extent 

 that muscle is ordinarily excited by actual electric 

 currents, not merely by forces resembling them. — Times. 



MESMERISM. 



UNDER the names of mesmerism, animal magnetism, 

 statuvolism, electro-biology, tellurism, hypno- 

 tism, etc., there exists a state or condition of the animal 

 economy, obscurely known for ages, much talked about 

 ■during the last century, and only beginning to be dealt 

 with in a scientific manner. It is certain that hypno- 

 tism was known in Egypt and India in prehistoric times, 

 and that it probably played a part in the wonders related 

 concerning the ancient oracles. In the sixteenth century 

 Paracelsus, and, after him, Helmont, became acquainted 

 with certain mesmeric phenomena, and connected or con- 

 fused them with the effects of terrestrial magnetism, of 

 which at that time very little was known. Hence arose 

 the name " animal magnetism." We must here remind 

 our readers that the supposed influence of the human 

 hand, or eye, or will, upon a magnetic needle, when care- 

 fully and conscientiously tested, is found to be purely 

 imaginary. 



The eighteenth century, with its curious intermingling 

 of scepticism and credulity, took another step. Anthon 

 Mesmer, of Mersburg, in Swabia, published in 1776 a 

 thesis on the Influence of the Planets on the Human 

 Body, whilst Father Hehl, a German Jesuit, effected, or 

 believed that he had effected, the cure of several diseases 

 by means of a loadstone and of magnetised steel plates. 

 These two made a joint stock of their ideas, and formed 

 a kind of partnership, which speedily came to an end. 

 Mesmer was, neither in reality nor even in wish, a man 

 of science. His object was notoriety and, above all, gain. 

 With his vague, obscure theories we cannot attempt to 

 entertain, or rather weary, our readers. Suffice it to say 

 that he went to Paris, and quickly performed a number 

 of wonderful cures, or seeming cures, and was fairly suc- 

 cessful in both his aims. Among his followers the most 

 conspicuous was the Marquis de Puysegur, who con- 

 nected the mesmeric phenomena with natural somnam- 

 bulism. Societies called " Harmonies " were formed for 

 the study of the new agency, chiefly among the upper 

 classes of France, and afterwards of Germany and 

 Russia. 



In a few years, however, the French government ap- 

 pointed a commission of unprejudiced scientific men, in- 

 cluding Lavoisier, Bailly, and Franklin, to investigate the 

 whole matter. Their report was fatalto Mesmer's theories. 

 They said : " This pretended agent is not magnetism, for, 

 on examining the'grand.reservoir of the fluid by a needle 

 or electrometer, neither magnetism nor electricity could 

 be detected. We tried it upon ourselves and others 

 without effect, and on blindfolding those who professed 

 great susceptibility to its influence, all its ordinary effects 

 were produced, when nothing was done but when they 

 imagined they were magnetised, while none of the effects 

 ensued when they were really magnetised but imagined 

 nothing was being done. . . . The effects, therefore, are 

 purely imaginary, and, although they have wrought some 

 cures, they are not without danger, for the convulsions 

 sometimes spread among the feeble in mind and body, 

 and especially among women. And, finally, there are 



parts of the operation which may readily be turned to 

 vicious purposes." 



Mesmer, however, before the publication of this report, 

 had realised a fortune and returned to his native town, 

 careless of the further fate of his theories. 



In the second quarter of the present century a new 

 departure was taken by Kieser, a German physician. He 

 grouped the phenomena of mesmerism, somnambulism, 

 catalepsy, etc., under the name of Tellurism, and in an 

 erudite work, in two volumes, he argued that they were 

 due to a peculiar " force," or, as we should now say, 

 form of energy, radiated out of the earth in antagonism 

 to the sun, and of the moon in antagonism to the earth. 

 He constructed large troughs filled with scrap iron, iron 

 ore and water, into which he plunged iron rods, from 

 which the telluric virtue was to be conducted to the 

 patients or subjects by means of chains. A multitude ot 

 natural phenomena were traced to this agency. But the 

 theory lacked demonstration, and went down with the 

 decline of the school of physico-philosophers (Naturphilo- 

 sophen). 



In 1 841 James Braid, a Manchester surgeon, laid the 

 foundation of a scientific treatment of the subject. He 

 had witnessed certain experiments performed by one 

 Lafontaine, a French lecturer on mesmerism and 

 suspected fraud or illusion. He set to work to unmask 

 the supposed imposture, but soon became convinced of 

 the reality of the facts produced, but hitherto misinter- 

 preted. After some time spent in experiments, he 

 published his work " Neurhypnology." Here, however, 

 he was somewhat led astray by his leaning to phrenology. 

 It is remarkable that the English mesmerists generally 

 found in their experiments confirmation of the truth oi 

 the system of Gall and Spurzheim, whilst the German 

 mesmerists, who did not accept that system, found no 

 such indications. 



But the work which Braid had begun was taken in 

 hand by Professor Charcot, of the Salpetrifere, a speciaHst 

 in the diseases of the nervous system. In undertaking 

 the study of hypnotism, he set out from hysteria as the 

 simplest and broadest basis. He proved that only some 

 individuals are capable of being hypnotised, or, as it was 

 formerly called, mesmerised. The idea of the operator 

 communicating to the subject some pecuHar fluid or 

 imponderable had been refuted by the Abbe Faria in 

 the beginning ot the century. Susceptible persons after 

 gazing long at some bright object fall easily into the 

 hypnotic state. It is remarked that persons who in 

 childhood have been liable to sleep-walking, are apt to 

 become subsequently good subjects for hypnotism. It 

 is found that the surface of the body, in susceptible per- 

 sons, present certain points named hypnogenic zones. 

 If these are pressed, hypnotism is the result. 



Meantime certain quacks laid hold of Braid's method of 

 operation, and gave it the name of " electrobiology." 

 (To be continued.) 



The late Winter. — del el Terre remarks that the 

 winter of 1887-88 does not occupy the first rank, either 

 in the frequency or the intensity of frosts. But it sur- 

 passes all in the number of snowy days and in the depth 

 of snow-fall. Further, all its seven months, from 

 October to April inclusive, have shown a mean tempera- 

 ture below the average. It may hence claim the second 

 rank among the bad seasons of the century, that of 

 1844-45 holding the first place. 



