5 i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the food supplies of the various tissues that differ so widely in 

 composition and function are derived from the same common 

 pabulum, the blood, which under the varying conditions of supply 

 and demand maintains a comparatively uniform composition — the 

 futility of assigning to each or any element of the food a specific 

 role in the processes of nutrition must be obvious. 



THE REVIVAL OF WITCHCRAFT. 



By ERNEST HART. 

 II. 



FINALLY, I must refer to another set of experiments which 

 Dr. Luys conducted before us at La Charite* on two of the 

 patients there (on whom I subsequently performed counter-experi- 

 ments). Having thrown these patients into the state of artificial 

 sleep, he took from his pocket some sealed glass tubes. " This 

 tube," he said, " contains alcohol." He placed the tube in contact 

 with the skin of the patient inside the collar of her dress. After 

 a minute she began to complain of feeling giddy and oppressed. 

 Presently she manifested all the signs of incipient drunkenness — 

 she was gay and disposed to sing. A little later she fell from the 

 chair on to the floor in a state of complete inebriety, and with a 

 simulation of the various stages of drunkenness so effectively 

 dramatic that I doubt if any woman so uneducated could go 

 through such a performance, except an hysteric of this class, when 

 "sleep-waking" and freed from the restraint of the fully conscious 

 action of the upper brain. It is this mixture of hysteria, partially 

 numbed consciousness, trained automatism, and imposture, which 

 so often takes in either the wholly credulous or ignorantly skep- 

 tical spectator. Of the imposture there was, as I shall presently 

 show, yace the intelligent reporters, no doubt whatever. Nor do 

 I doubt at any rate that this girl was a thorough-paced hysteric 

 and trained hypnotic, and that she was in an artificially induced 

 and pathological condition when she went through these elaborate 

 and brilliantly performed antics. She was lifted into the chair 

 and another hypnotized person placed alongside her in another 

 chair. Their hands were clasped together. " We will now see," 

 said Dr. Luys, whether " the vibrations will be communicated 

 from one to the other," and the state of drunkenness transferred. 

 So said, so done; and a similar performance, not, however, so skill- 

 fully executed, was gone through by the second and less experi- 

 enced subject. On the following day we had yet a more pictur- 

 esque performance. I was told beforehand that this was "the day 

 of the cat," and that I might expect to see a highly trained sub- 



