The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1870-12-10

with knowledge, with feeling, and
with action. The consciousness
Of this great truth weighs like .
nightmare, l beiieve, upon many
Of the best minds Of these days
They watch what they conceive
to be the progress OF materialism
in such fear and powerless anger
as 8 savage feels, when, during an
eclipse, the great shadow creeps
over the face of the sun. The ad-
vancing tide Of matter threatens
to drown their souls; the tighten
ing grasp of law impedes their
freedom; they are alarmed lest
mans moral nature be debased by
the increase of his wisdom
It 10 evident that these leading
scientific men entertain little re-
spect for the application of meta
physical reasoning to the expla-
nation of physical phenomena, but
they do have respect for facts, and
the laws to be deduced from them,
and whenever a new phenomenon
is presented to them. they imme-
diately put it to the test Of expert
ment, and do not for a moment
think of appealing to supernatural
influences for an explanation Of
what they have seen. Our ancient
philosophers having no facts to
found their edifice upon, built up
on the frail gossaner Of their own
imaginations, and to them every
phenomenon Of nature was a spirit
ual manifestation. Thus have
come down to us traditions Of
spirits, spiritual rappings, spiritu-
al influences, spiritual presence,
communication with departed spir-
its, and the like, which are accept
ed rs true by ignorant people, and
not believed in for q moment by
men of science.
For the purpose Of dispelling
this ignorance, such works as DR..
Hammond's are Of great value.
Facts are stubborn things, and, as
Faraday was accustomed to say,
We must believe in facts DR..
Hammond adduces many instan-
ces, from his own observation, Of
so-called spiritual influences, and
shows them to be the results of
disease, just as fever or the chole-
ra can be traced to 3 disordered
system. He says: Physicians
know very we'll that actual organic
disease may be produced by the
habitual concentration of the a.
tention Of an organ. The fanci,
of the hypochondriac may thus, in
time, become realities. Many Of
the facts of spiritualism arc clear
" explainable by referring them
to this influence
He cites the case Of young la
1y, under his professional care,
,pon whom the principle of sug-
yestion can be made to act with
effect. Itis only necea-
'ary to tell her that certain ina
,es are before her, when she di-
ectly sees them exactly as they
re described. Voices ere heard
md odors smelt, and she has
weet or sour taste in her mouth,
precisely as they are sug gested to
Ter. Another feature in the pro-
luction of spiritualistic mani festa-
ions is sleight-of hanI. The au-
hor says, that he recently invited
cveral medica al friends to witness,
n his library, some surprising
exhibitions by a first
lass medium who read commu-
ications from the dead, made on
olded clips of paper, and perform
d other feats to the astonishment
t all present, which were wholly
eceptions and tricks of the trade.
Another patient had the power
, induce the hypnotic state at
ill by reading a book for a few
then closing it and fixing
'e eyes steadily, but not upon
ny fixed object. During this
ate, she was not affected by
olding aqua ammonia to tho
ostrils, Or by touching the eye
ith the finger. She was able to
erform the usual feats Of medi-
ms, and DR. Hammond, with his
cute observations, was soon able
give an explanation. Her sleep
rs incomplete, and she was in q !
'ndition similar to that of q i
canning person, for the images
I'd hallucinstions were either dis {
city connected with thoughts
e had previously had; or were 9
'mediately suggested to her
rough her sense Of hearing. Some b
entail faculties were exercised,
,i1o oxdo~. -n>~ - - ~,