1878.] 
A New Theory of Trance . 
75 
V. A NEW THEORY OF TRANCE. 
^HE subject of Trance has for centuries excited great 
Lth wonder and curiosity, and although the essays and 
works on its nature and causes may be numbered by 
hundreds there are very few writers who have treated the 
subject fully and scientifically. It was therefore with great 
satisfaction that we received from Dr. G. M. Beard a paper 
on the subject, which he recently read before the New York 
Medico-Legal Society.* Our readers have already had an 
opportunity of judging of the care and originality with which 
Dr. Beard works out his ideas, from his article on “The 
Longevity of Brain Workers,” which appeared in the 
“ Quarterly Journal of Science ” for October, 1875 ; and in 
this paper on Trance there is the same evidence of deep 
thought and mature consideration. 
With regard to the value of human testimony our own 
views do not, in some points, coincide with those expressed 
by Dr. Beard ; but from the exhaustive way in which the 
whole subject is treated we believe we are consulting the 
interests of our readers in placing before them an explana- 
tion of his new theory, and of giving in a somewhat abbre- 
viated form the principal arguments which he adduces in 
its favour. 
Under the word “Trance” Dr. Beard includes the real 
phenomena represented or suggested by terms which are 
more or less meaningless and incorreCt — such as somnam- 
bulism, artificial and spontaneous mesmerism, animal mag- 
netism, hypnotism, Braidism, catalepsy, ecstacy, biology, 
&c. He very rightly insists on the absolute necessity of 
having recourse to deduCtive as well as induCtive reasoning 
when grappling with such subjects as trance, reasoning from 
generals to particulars, and drawing conclusions from prin- 
ciples already established, as well as from particulars to 
generals ; and in opposition to the oft-repeated assertion 
that it is the wiser course for scientific men to let these 
subjects alone, and not to attempt their solution, he re- 
marks — what indeed we have ourselves often urged — that 
such sciences as Astronomy, Physics, Physiology, and 
Chemistry were in their infancy opposed on substantially 
the same ground. These things, it was claimed, could not 
* “A New Theory of Trance, and its Bearings on Human Testimony.” 
By George M. Beard, A.M., M.D. 
