, 1877-05-09
MEsMERIsM AND SPONTANEOUSLY.

90, OIOIORV gave TlS6 10 b uISCuSSlOH, III INC COuIS6
of which Mr.. Sergeant Cox, the President, said
? be had tried mesmerio experiments very often
at one period of his life, and he was quite salts
fed of their genuineness. The meSmerio sleep,
be was convinced, was a selfinduced condition
all that the operator did being to fix the mind
of the patient on some one idea. There was a
marked difference between the mesmeric and
ordinary sleep 10 the former a person did not
lose the control over his limbs-he acted in a
dream; whereas 10 ordinary sleep be was bereft
of the power and did not act the dream be
thought he was acting. In mesmerism there
we're several stages. The first was a stage of
mere sleep, and if left in that stage patients
would remain in that stage for a very long time
indeed. He had known them TO remain asleep
for IA or Is hours, The difference between
mAsmeric and ordinary sleep could be noticed
bv lifting the ey elids. When in the former sleep
thew would be seen pointed upward, and in q
state Of nervous CULVER. And again the hand
or arm or leg Of the sleeper could be raised, and
By making a pass over 1t, it would remain
dxed In a perfectly catalepti0 condition. La
this state If the patients were left In That condl-
ton no more phenomena occurred. They remain
ed in q passive cStaleptic condition, that gfadu-
allv merged into a condition ct ordinary sleep,
from which they swoke In more or less tnl0'
much refreshed. lie had once put q young man
into q mesmerio sleep, from which ho was una
bic TO awake him, and be became muohaIarmed,
IN consequence. 1t was however, late at night
and the sleeper was carried up to bed, ana
when he went the next m0rnlng~of course III
a state Of great anXietJ-he found tua young
man, who had walked up during tue night
considerably benefited by tho sleep ne
had had. Some patients were awakened
in a very few minutes, In the next s'aS9
r. -oo~poario ooo1if;ov fho VnGIp NOUV cOUtI
be thrown into a cataleptio state at the Will
OF the operator, and that will must be mani
tested by action mere bidding would not do.
It was necessary to make some motion lnd'oa-
tive Of tia act the operator desired the pa
tient to perform. To stiffen the ARM Tor
instance, it was only necessary to take NE arm
and make one pass, and so with every member OF
the body. The body could be so stIfened that
the edge of the foot could be placed on a chalr'
and the top of the head Oh another chair, ana 1t
would not fall to the ground. d condition which
was perfectly impossible in q normal STATE Lie
had known q body to remain In that position
half an hour, and three people could stand on 1t,
while the patient was utterly unconscious OF
what was being done. This was what he
would call the bodily stage of somnambullsm.
The next stage was the mental one. 1t was
nothing more than somnambulSm artiicially
produced. He had no doubt if an ordinary
somnambulist we're operated upon while asleep
the same phenomena could be elected. Persons
In a state ofofsomnam bulism had been known
to walk on a very narrow ledge at the top OF a
house, where no person with bis senses about
him could walk with perfect safety. and
1t was obvious. therefore, that some sense
must guide them in doing SO. It was certain
that was the result of some supersensuous per-
c%eption. He had always found that when the
patient had been brought to stage Of mentalIn-
Sensibility it was necessary for experiments par
TALLY to awaken him-to rouse the mind gently
and ]ndioiously, just sufficient to bring hlmt to con"
sClousness-a limited consciousness, but still
o consciousness. Tbs patient could then be-
made to do almost anything, although the
eyes were in that %upturned position at which
vision vas physically impossible, because the
rstina OF the eye was turned quite out of the
line Of vision. In that state the mind was
more actiye than it was in a more awakened
condition it was in q highly exalted condi.
tiOn-that Is to say, that every faculty which
could be called into exercise was then mpl.
tiplisd, in the most commonplace patients
ten.fold, though he had seen it multiplied, be
would almost say, a thousand fold in power,
Thesmost astonishing things were done. Init
not all the faculties were 50 multiplied 1T
once. The difference, therefore between
the normal and esmeric sleeper was that
one dreamed and realized. in his own mind
that he was going through a certain course
AZ NNffnn which hn uaAlI-