The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-10-17 00:00:00

DR. COLLY ER'S LECTURES ON MESMERISM.

Last Tuesday evening, at the Royal Assembly Rooms,
Great George-street, Dr. Collyer introduced the tranth-
agitated subject by some pet Gerrit and striking remarks,
to a select though not numerous audience. We cannot
2ive any lengthened account of the various details of the
novel science included iu his general survey, but shall
content ourselves with noticing some of the more promi-
nent features of his eloquent and impressive disconrse.
After a review of the general character of the so-called
Mesmeric phenomena, Dr. C. proceeded to allude to that
modification of the process of manipulation introduced
by Mr. Braid, wherein by an exhaustion of the sense of
vision, nerve sleep can be produced, followed by the cata-
leptic stage, somnambulism, &e. Dr. C. asserted that the
facts of this neurohypnological condition furnished the
strongest arguments for the proposition maintained by
Dr. C., viz., that these phenomena are the result of the
transference of the will of the operator. Dr. C. lays
great stress upon this will operation; and is opposed to
the idea that it is a physiological state merely, i. e. a state
of the body superinduced by organic and material causes:
in other and simple words, Dr. C. believes these pheno-
mena to depend upon the operation of mind upon mind,
or upon mind and matters conjoined. Mr. B.'s idea is
that they are caused by the agency of matter upon mat-
ter. One may be said to be a metaphysical. the other a
physical doctrine. This sublimation of the subject by
Dr. C. by resolving the effects into will-agency, stands
opposed as much to the original proposition of Mesmer
and Du Potet, as to that of Braid and the disciples of his
school. The former, accounted the agent, that of an as-
sumed imponderable master—magnetism, the latter a
conditional function of the nervous system, a natural
state of the animal body independent of will, or the super-
natural. We have tried to convey to our readers a per-
ception of the difference between the three dogmas, under
which the students of this extraordinary re-discovered
science range themselves, if we rightly apprehend the
lecturer and his views. If our analysis proves mistaken,
it will be a pity that a subject so complex cannot be at
least approached under some such simplified ideas as we
have endeavoured to embody herein, as the scope of the
various explanations of the magnetic nerve-sleep. (neuro-
hypnological), and will-transferred—•(psychographical)
schools.

Dr. C. alluded to the verdict of the French commission
of inquiry, appointed in 1785, and to Dr. Franklin's re-
porting of the want of analogy with electricity and terres-
trial magnetism. He remarked that the class of pheno-
mena were dependant on the persons themselves.
Dr. C., in referring to the manifestations of the cere-
bral organs during the mesmeric sleep, or phreno-mes-
merism, stated that be was the first in America to turn at-
tention to the facts. First he looked upon it as amuse-
ment, then traced its important relations, and be con-
cludes that where there is no knowledge of phrenology in
the patient, there is no respondence to the manipulations
(pericranial). The Zoist, a new magazine, em racing
these subjects, asserts Dr. C.'s priority of discovery of
phreno-mesmerism. He touched upon the medical
fact of revived memory in fever cases, which corre-
sponds to the extraordinary memory of the mesmerised,
which appears as photographically inscribed. Dr. C.
avers that the will of the operator is the sole law of the
patient when the sleep is complete.
Dr. C. appears to entertain his convictions on this re-
vived science with an enthusiasm which carries others
away with him, and still further with an honesty which
does credit to the cause as advocated by an ingenuous
mind; corresponding with which we find (an invariable
counterpart,) that he gives credit to others who may dif-
fer from him for maintaining their various opinions with a
tone alike truth-seeking and honest. He thinks it neces-
sary to success, for the subject (patient) to be mentally,
morally. and physically calm, or there will be no conges-
tion of brain ; therefore he refused to operate on any of
the audience.
In Exp. 1, he fixed the feet of the young woman wham
he had only seen for two days past, viz. since his arrival
in Liverpool from America. This was a mental condition
he said, and not a corporeal one, as the general impression
would be.
Exp. 2. fixed the jaw—mouth open—remarking
further upon the will of the operator as sole law for un-
conscious subject.
Exp. 3. To prove that mental hallucination could be
induced by operator, he took the young woman—only
semi-mesmerised, and, placing a jug in her hands which
previously she had recognised to be a jug ; by a few
;Asses of his hand, she began to stroke it as a pet cat,
which she declared was such ; and, on her being de-
mesmerised, her own surprise at her mistake was pictured
by a look and expression of shame heft:pi e the audience
which could not be feigned. Again her mind was taken
in tow, and she saw a large fish at her side, from which
she endeavoured to escape, with every gesture of horror,
until rectified as before.
Exp. 4. A youtw, man and the young woman (both per-
fect strangers to Dr. C., except during one or two re-
hearsals) were placed in the cataleptic condition, or rigid
spasm of the musclrs of the arms and limbs.
Dr. C. stated that he knew of two operations having
been performed in America during mesmeric condition,
viz., extirpation of cancer from the foot, and adjustment
of a compound-fractured fore-arm. In the latter, por-
tions of bone were removed, in order to set the
a very painful operation—and to all this the patient was
insensible. _ _

Exp. 5. The young man so mesmerised as, on attempt-
ing to walk, to reel as if drunk,—a state described by an
old tutor of ours as if a man had business on both sides
the way at once.
Exp. G. Hand fixed on table, and immovable, though
patient made great efforts—table could be withdrawn
from hand, except when Dr. C. placed his own hand un-
derneath the table, when the table was pulled over by
patient as by forcible adhesion ;' yet this was in the mind
of the patient, and not in the muscles, Dr. C. says.
Exp 7. Coin placed in the hand—dropped—because
"felt as if it were a red-hot poker"—(a mental state.)
Exp. 8. Similar trial with water—rejected as " scald-
ing." because the lecturer blew into it a moment.
Dr. C. mentioned that nostalgia—a disease called `love.
of home'—could be cured by exciting the patient mesme-
rically, and then stimulating the brain anlipodieally, and
leaving this as the last mental phase before restoring them
to ordinary consciousness.
Dr. C. does not appear to be one crediting the transla-
tion of senses named by the French clairvoyance. lie
explains it as, where manifested, to consist in a mental
transfer from operator Ma patient, and not a transfer of
one sense to another.