138 
Mesmerism. 
[March, 
seems to indicate the existence of such a fluid to a certain 
extent, enables it to assume the charadter of a certainty : — 
Several tumblers containing pure cold water are placed on a 
table a short distance apart, and passes are made over any 
one of them. The mesmerised subject, on being brought 
into the room, will, on tasting in turn the water contained 
in these tumblers, immediately recognise the one over which 
the passes were made, at the same time giving demonstrative 
evidence of his dislike to the water contained therein. 
The above experiment we are thoroughly convinced is in 
every sense trustworthy, we having performed it several 
times, and in every case with complete success. It is men- 
tioned in most works on Mesmerism, and is recorded by the 
late James Gregory, Professor of Chemistry in the University 
of Edinburgh, in his most interesting work on Animal 
Magnetism. Other experiments having the same end in 
view have been successfully performed, but are too elaborate 
to receive attention in a short treatise like the present. We 
may just mention that Gregory, Colquhoun, Reichenbach, 
and many competent authorities assert that to sensitive 
persons in the waking state, and the majority of subjects in 
the mesmeric trance, the emanations of this fluid are visible, 
appearing as faint luminous streaks of light shooting from 
the tips of the fingers. Our own experience, however, pre- 
cludes us from passing an opinion on the subject, and it 
would therefore appear unphilosophical for us to adduce 
these statements as proofs. 
The upholders of the anti-magnetic theory maintain that 
these phenomena are merely the result of the tiring out of 
that portion of the brain which presides over the action of 
the judgment, thereby rendering the will of the subjedt sub- 
servient to that of the operator. Their principal argument 
lies in the fadb that it is possible to induce certain of the 
mesmeric phenomena by such means, viz., by causing the 
subjedt to gaze for a sufficiently long time at a fixed objedt, 
such as a coin. Starting from this particular premise, they 
proceed, by a train of reasoning as ingenious as it is falla- 
cious, to the general conclusion that all the mesmeric phe- 
nomena are produced in like manner, the subjedt being (they 
state) placed under conditions in which there is a continued 
strain on, and consequent tiring out of, the mental faculties. 
Now, apart from the consideration that the explanation set 
forth in this argument is not calculated to throw the faintest 
ray of light on the remote causes of the psychical effedts 
which manifest themselves in the higher stages of the mes- 
meric trance, it is hardly necessary to state that it is opposed 
