THE ANNUAL CONVERSAZIONE. 33 



of suggestion was found to be a powerful agent in those without 

 fixed or settled habits, or strong will in determining their actions, 

 or even their thoughts. In considering Professor Eeichenbach's 

 Odyle Theory, it was shown that not only were his so-called facts 

 founded on most insufficient data, but that they were actually dis- 

 proved by Mr. Braid's investigations. The lecturer concluded by 

 stating his belief that the mesmeric phenomena were produced by 

 attention, this attention being of various kinds. It may either be 

 the involuntary attention directed to any organ or series of organs, 

 or it may be of an intellectual variety, having to do either with 

 objects of sense, such as distant sounds, or obscure images requiring 

 a concentration of the faculties for their perception, or with its 

 own thoughts, giving rise to reverie, abstraction, and imagination. 

 Attention may also be of an emotional character, such as that pro- 

 duced by extreme anxiety or by great terror. Mesmerism is then 

 a condition of mind, only differing from that produced by attention, 

 by its being prolonged far beyond the momentary action of the 

 former. 



THE ANNUAL CONVERSAZIONE. 



The Annual Conversazione will be held on Thursday, January 

 13th, at half-past seven. The engagements of the evening will 

 include music, vocal and instrumental, microscopic and other 

 objects, choice chemicals, &c. 



It is intended to secure a collection of portraits of local celebri- 

 ties for the walls; and, with the permission of the municipal 

 authorities, the plans for the new Guildhall for which the first 

 premium was awarded — an honour in which the Institution, 

 through one of its members, claims a share — will also be exhibited. 



Coffee will be served at eight o'clock. 



CAPTUEE OF A KITE. 



Mr. Edward Hearle Rodd, of Penzance, writes, Dec. 4th, 1869: 

 It may be interesting to your Society to record tlie capture, at 

 Trebartha this week, of an adult example of the common Kite, a 

 species I have failed to obtain during the last half a century from 

 any part of the West of England. There will be a notice of this 

 fact in the Field in the present or next week's copy." 



