The Sun.
London, England, 1853-07-15 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Zoist : a Journal of Cerebral Physiology and
Mesmerism.

This periodical increases in interest every quarter.
The present number gives us much characteristic
information, and several articles on subjects of
general entertainment. Among others, a letter to
Dr. Elliotson on "Table Moving," and " Sensi-
tiVes." The introductory notice by W. Gregory,
M.D., speaks for itself as to the nature of the sub-
ject far better than any criticism. We here sub-
join it at length ; it is well worthy of attentive
consideration, from the importance of the theme
and the able manner in which it is expounded :

" The medical profession has, within the last two or
three years, found it necessary to admit a very large part
of the long and obstinately rejected phenomena of mes-
merism ; viz., all those phenomena which depend on
suggestion. These, so long as they were described by
mesmerists as occurring in the mesmeric sleep, were
scornfully rejected, and it is only since they have been
publicly exhibited as occurring in the waking state, and
absurdly called electro-biological, thal they have been
admitted. Yet they were just as true, and as fully de-
monstrated by the mesmerists before, had the evidence
but met with a fair reception.

" But those who now admit the suggestive phenomena
forget the past and, still neglecting or despising investi-
gation, ascribe, without hesitation, all mesmeric pheno-
mena whatever, so far as they admit these, to the in-
fluence of suggestion ; and either deny or disregard all
the evidence which tends to prove the existence of a
transferable influence, capable of acting at a distance,
and otpassing through various media—opaque or other-
wise. The writers now alluded to still reject, precisely
as they once did the phenomena of suggestion, all the al-
leged facts of action at a distance, of sympathy without
suggestion, of vision at a distance, or lucid vision gene-
rally ; and rather than admit such facts, which imply
such a transferable influence as I have above alluded to,
ascribe all the alleged facts to imposture and collusion,
exactly as they did a few years ago in reference to the
phenomena of suggestion. They pronounce the very
idea of such a force or influence to be unphysiological,
unphilosophical and absurd, and begin their researches (!)
with assuming, a priori, the principle that no such in-
fluence or force exists or can exist.
"Now against this mode of reasoning, a priori in op-
position to alleged facts, observed by competent persons
of good character, I protest, in the name of logic and
science as altogether inadmissible. I maintain that we
know little or nothing of the laws of nature in such
matters, and certainly nothing to justify such an assump-
tion. Nor can we ever learn anything of the laws of
nature save by observation and deduction from observed
facts • in no case by a priori assertions.
" I maintain further that there exists a mass of evi-
dence in favour of the existence of a force or influence,
in all probability imponderable but quite distinct
from all the known imponderables—such as heat, light,
electricity, magnetism &c. ; and that the facts observed
by mesmerists, in which suggestion has no share, can
only be accounted for by the supposition of some such
force. But I hold, that even if we could not account
for them at all in this or any other way, these facts exist
as truly as do those of suggestion, and to deny them
does not annihilate them. They remain, and will ulti-
mately compel recognition.
"I will go further, and say that we have no more nor
better evidence of the existence of the forces or influences
which we assume to be the cause of heat, light, &c. (but
of the true nature of which we no nothing, except that
they appear to be imponderable), than we do of the
supposed mesmeric force or influence. When we are
able to answer the question, "What is light, or heat, or
electricity ?" but not till then, we shall be able
to say what is the true nature of the mesmeric in-
fluence. At present, of all these forces and many more
we know only the effects, but not the essence. We
have ascertained by observation some of the laws which
regulate them, but still not their essence. And there is
no reason whatever to suppose that the admitted list
of imponderable natural forces is incapable of additions
being made to it, from the same source, namely, ob-
servation.
"Be this as it may, it is on this point at present that
the mesmeric controversy hinges. Those who assume
that we know all the forces and laws of nature refuse to
admit a new influence or imponderable ; as if electricity
itself did not date, at the very earliest, from the 17th
century only ; and as if magnetism as a science, and
above all, electro-magnetism, were not of still more re-
cent origin. Those, again, who appeal to observation,
maintain that the facts observed demonstrate the exist-
ence of a new imponderable, or force, or influence as
plainly as do other facts the existence of the causes of
heat, light, electricity, magnetism (ordinary), chemical
attraction, gravitation, cohesion, and any other forces
which may belong to this category. And if it be un-
philosophical to talk of the mesmeric fluid, be it remem-
bered that this is done only in the same sense in which
we speak of the electric fluid or the magnetic fluid, a
mode of expression which arose from the resemblance of
some of the phenomena to the motion of currents of
, fluid matter. _ _

" Up to a recent period, all the evidence in favour of
the existence of a mesmeric force or influence was derived
from experiments made on persons in the state of mes-
meric sleep or somnambulism. But in 1842, Reichen-
bach adduced a vast body of facts, altogether indepen-
dent of the mesmeric state or processes. He studied
the phenomena precisely as those of all the other depart-
ments of physical science are studied ; and, precisely as
is done in all other cases, he gave a name to the new
force, because he found it to differ from all known forces.
" The letters which follow contain a brief and popular
account of his researches, and are, in my opinion, ad-
mirably calculated to show the utter futility of the a
priori argument against the existence of this force. It
is for this reason that I think they will be useful at the
present time, when so much misapprehension prevails as
to the extent and bearing of his researches. None of
the writers who have opposed his views have given proof
of having even carefully read his work. Their argu-
ments are addressed to superficial and erroneous notions
of it ; and I have no hesitation in stating my conviction,
after a very careful study of his writings, and many ex-
periments on the subject of them, that no scientific work
whatever, known to me, deserves to rank higher in all
the qualities which belong to an investigation conducted
on the true Baconian principles. I have met with no
argument which even touches his conclusions. But in
conclusion I would remind the reader that while Baron
Reichenbach speaks of a force or influence as the cause
of the phenomena he has observed, he is not to be under-
stood as using these terms in any other sense than that
in which we daily use them in reference to the known
and admitted imponderables. As we speak of a mag-
netic or electric influence or force, so, and not otherwise,
does he speak of the od force or the odic force—meaning
by this the unknown cause of certain observed pheno-
mena, which is precisely what we mean when we speak
of the electric force.

"Evidently, then, the important point is the pheno-
mena, and not the name given to the supposed cause of
them. And the reader will find in these letters:abundant
proof of the existence of peculiar phenomena, and also,
if he considers the subject fairly, equally abundant proof
that suggestion has nothing whatever to do with them.
The precautions taken to exclude suggestion, however,
cm only be fully understood by studying Baron Reichen-
bach's great work, of which the first volume has been
translated both by Dr. Ashburner and by myself.
"Even the present letters, however, contain suffi-
cient proof to satisfy such as can judge of scientific evi-
dence, that suggestion cannot explain the facts ; and this
is the conclusion to which all have come, who have in-
vestigated these phenomena, and which agrees perfectly
IN:th the conclusion arrived at by the independent re-
searches of mesmerits on persons in the mesmeric state,
it being borne in mind that all the observations of
Reichenbach were made on persons in the ordinary or
waking condition.

" WILLIAM GREGORY.'

THE PENINSULAR MAILS.

SOUTHAMPTON, JULY 14.
By the Peninsular and Oriental Company's ship Iberia,
Captain John Bowen, we have dates from Gibraltar to
the 6th ; Cadiz, the 7th ; Lisbon, 9th ; Oporto, 10th ;
and Vigo, the 11th inst.
The Iberia brought on freight 5 packages specie, value
2,8151. steiing ; 64 boxes eggs, 58 boxes 241 half and
35 quaff ter boxes raisins, 24 packages onions, 6 bags
potatoes, and 20 packages general merchandise.
Among the passengers by this steamare—theer Dmut,
Duke
oßfarFoonliGi ,utcb,
heMthaerqßuaisroonf
aCndarß Baroness acacrioonhEscharege, Mr.
, Sir M.
C. Smith,
Campbell, her Majesty's Consul at Port St. Mary's, &c.
On the 7th the Iberia passed the screw steamer Alba-
tross steering to the southward ; on the Bth, the barque
Bullfinch ; on the 10th, the steamer Madrid ; and on
the 12th, the steam-ship Great Western.
The news from Portugal brought by this packet has
been anticipated by the arrival of the Tay.
From Gibraltar our accounts are to the 7th inst. The
screw-steamer Teneriffe, ten days from Alexandria, five
and a-half from Malta, touched at Gibraltar on the Ist
inst., on her way to Liverpool. The screw-steamer
Arno, three days from Marseilles, arrived on the 3d,
and cleared for Liverpool. The Peninsular and Oriental
Company's screw-steamer Cadiz, seven and a-half days
from Southampton, arrived on the Bth, and proceeded
for Constantinople. This steamer, after leaving South-
ampton, had to anchor in Yarmouth-roads for 30 hours,
in consequence of a tremendous gale of wind from the
south-west. The screw-steamer Livorno, three and a-
half days from Marseilles, arrived on the sth, and left
on the 6th for Liverpool. At Gibraltar, exchanges on
London are 90 days' date, as quoted, 511 to 5111 ; Spa-
nish Pillared Dollars, 31 to 4 per cent. premium.

PREPARING FOR NEXT CENSIIB.—In the Wick Free
Church, on Sabbath last, no fewer than eleven children
were baptised by the Rev. Charles Thomson. The ma-
jority of them were boys, and, judging from the strength
of their tiny lungs, some of them were evidently very
fine children.