78 



"aJiKlil' AN]) JJKEAMS. 



exclusion of all others ; must in fact be able to block up all 

 senses but one, as cfEectually as wo do when we draw the 

 "curtains of repose" at night. If tlio eyes or attention 

 waver or wander, the experiment is a failure. It is in fact 

 a " withdrawal of stimuli," and true mesmeric states can be 

 explained, I think, on this hypothesis. In 1850 two itinerant 

 Americans came to tliis country and produced a great sensa- 

 tion by mesmerising people. They made the subject of the 

 experiment look tixedly at small copper plates which they 

 held before the eyes, and hence they designated themselves 

 by the ridiculous name of electro-biologists, a name which 

 has clung over since. Mr. Braid took up the question and 

 soon discovered that any small object would do as well as 

 copper, the only re(|ui.site being that the person operated 

 upon looked steadily at it for a long enough time. 



There is an imrDcnso amount of humbug clouding the 

 subject, and it alnu)st baffles investigation, because you can 

 nevei' be quite sure that the people yon are dealing with 

 will not act or deviate from the truth. 



Mr. A. G. Leonard, of the Psychical Research Society, very 

 kindly arranged a mesmeric seance iov my investigation, 

 and I think it would perhaps interest some if I narrated my 

 experiences. I have not trusted at all to memory, but made 

 notes at the time, many of wliich were seen by others 

 present and endorsed. The seance was lield in London, in. 

 the rooms of the above society, at 7 o'clock on the evening of 

 Saturday, Dec. 13th, 1886. There were present the following 

 (I give these names in full, as a guarantee to some extent of 

 tlie authenticity of the proceedings) : Rev. H. P. Gurney (of 

 Wren & Gurney's), Felhjw of Clare College, Cambridge, 

 Messrs. Jebb, Charles Downing, Vladimli' (a Russian artist), 

 A. G. Leonard, B.A., Lend., W. G. Leonard, G. A. Smith, 

 G. D. Hornblower, tlie sensitive, named Conway, and myself. 



