of our Sensations. 263 



experiment with the first person who may desire to do so. It 

 is indeed very rare, as will be seen immediately , for the expe- 

 riment not to succeed, and this equally with incredulous 

 persons and with those who believe in the fluid and in the 

 fantastic tales of some mesmerists. I then pretend to place 

 myself in magnetics-elation with some person in the company, 

 I apply my hand to his forehead, press his hand strongly, 

 or perform some other absurdity of the same kind, and then 

 request him to touch one of the cards of the figure without 

 my knowledge. In order still more to convince the party 

 that I do not see, I quit the room while he " magnetizes " the 

 card. 



At my return, an accomplice (for one is necessary) imme- 

 diately indicates the card touched, without attracting any- 

 body's attention, by scratching the corresponding part (nose, 

 chin, eye, &c.) of his own face. Being thus instructed I 

 perform an innocent comedy, which consists in pretending 

 that I am going to recognize the card touched by means of a 

 sensation (attraction, draught of air, quivering, odour, &c.) due 

 no doubt to the fluid deposited by the person. In fact I make 

 believe to experience this sensation from the card which has 

 been indicated to me by my accomplice, as I have described. 

 As I am never mistaken, every one is much astonished at the 

 success obtained. How is it possible that the fact of the 

 fingers having been placed for a moment upon this card has 

 sufficed to communicate to it such a property ? 



Up to this point the experiment has nothing very remark- 

 able about it. But if I beg the astonished person, who is still 

 perhaps rather incredulous, to leave the room in his turn, and 

 himself to seek for the card that I will magnetize in his absence, 

 on his return he imitates the examination that he saw me 

 make, he watches for the sensation that I have announced to 

 him, and always, or nearly always, picks out a card. He 

 thus becomes the subject of a true hallucination, seeing that, 

 during his absence, I do not touch any card, and yet he sup- 

 poses that he has undergone the shock, the vibration, the 

 un comfortableness, &c. which I have suggested to him. 



If all the people present agree to testify that the card at 

 which he fancies he has experienced a sensation is really that 

 which I am supposed to have magnetized, he becomes con- 

 firmed in his notion, and I can make him repeat the same 

 experiment several times over with a constantly increasing 

 success. 



Results. — To this experiment as just described I have sub- 

 jected more than 100 people of different sexes and ages, most 

 of them in good health, well educated, and attached to scien- 



U2 



