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1894.] The Psychology of Hypnotism. 921 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HYPNOTISM. 
By Jas. Wetr, JR., M. D. 
The various phenomena accompanying animal magnetism, 
so-called, have been observed and commented on by man 
since a very early era in his history. Our savage ancestors, 
whose psychical development had just begun, considered these 
manifestations to be a direct evidence of the supernatural, and 
those individuals who, either actively or passively, gave evi- 
dences of this, to them, occult power, to be directly influenced 
by supernatural agencies. This manner of regarding these 
phenomena has, in a measure, descended to us, and the vast 
majority of civilized beings of to-day look with a certain awe 
on the person who is laboring under hypnotic influence. The 
sceptieal minority, however, generally regard hypnotism as a 
baseless fraud and imposture. Both classes of individuals are 
in error; the first, because there is nothing supernatural in 
the phenomena of so-called animal magnetism; the second 
because these phenomena really do exist and are the result of 
perfectly natural causes. The term, animal magnetism, owes 
its origin to a tradition which came into existence about the 
middle of the sixteenth century. Atthattime, man conceived 
the idea that he could influence his fellows in a manner 
analogous to that of a magnet, attracting some, and repelling 
others. The first written evidence of this belief occurs in the 
works of Paracelsus. He maintained that “the human body 
was endowed with a double magnetism, that one portion 
attracted to itself the planets, and was nourished by them, 
whence came wisdom, thought and the senses; that the other 
portion attracted to itself the elements and disintegrated them, 
whence came flesh and blood; that the attractive and hidden 
virtue of man resembles that of amber and the magnet; that by 
this virtue, the magnetic virtue of healthy persons attracts the 
enfeebled magnetism of those who are sick.” The latter part 
of this doctrine is believed by many people at the present 
