Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1881-05-20

imaginary sore finger, and grave and aged
women to skip the rope like girls.
But there is no firing of pistols in the
ear to test the sense Of hearing, or pass
ing of surgical needles through the flesh
of the forearm to prove the reality Of local
an9thesia, personal liberties being dis
countenanced by general consent. 1t is
not easy, however, even with these guar
antees, to induce gentlemen and ladies' to
submit themselves to experiment, and
the officiating professor has sometimes to
arm himself beforehand with two or three
well trained subjects, who receive tri-
fling compensation for their service, be-
sides the satisfaction of appearing in full
evening dress III circles of society ordi-
narily closed to them. These advance to
the seats assigned after little deceptive
hesitation, and their example induces
others to participate in the entertain
ment. Sometimes a dozen subjects are
ranged about the operator, all locked in
hypnotic slumber, and with this number
scenes of lively and dramatic interest are
enacted, one reciting Macbeth's address
to the air-drawn dagger, another Hamlet's
sOhloquy, and third the nursery rhyme
Of Mary and her lamb. Such are the
entertainments which are Just now popu-
lar in certain cultivated circles, and upon
whose phenomena believers in animal
magnetism talk in mysterious whispers as
to the wonderful forces which uaderlio
cur puny nves.
1t is singular fact that though the
researches of science in this field have re-
suited i'll showing that no such energy
as animal magnetism is concerned in
these extraordinary phenomena-man
intellectual people still fondly nourish the
old illusion, and implicitly believed that
some mysterious influence is generated in
the person of the operator, and discharg-
ed upon the nervous system of the EN-
tranced subject. The delusion is encour-
aged by few regular physicians, but by
only n few, the most of its advocates being
quack scientists and elf-styled professors,
having in view profitable itineraries from
village to village i'll the country and even
ing discourses to wonder stricken all-
diences. In reality, according to the
ablest modern experimental neurolo-
glsts, there ls nothing mysterious about
these phenomena, nor any such thing as
animal magnetism, nerve, aura, or odic
force concerned in thoir exposition.
Beard finds (''Scientitic Basis of Delu-
sions, page 20, ct sep that all persons
are liable to trance under extremes of
emotional tension, circumstances of ter
ror, or reaction of nervous shock, and ex-
perienced physicians who have often wit
messed the precursory phenomena of death
say that most patients die entranced,
and alto tler seemingly i'll possession
of their senses, are really unconscious of
their condition, and pass away in state
of dream; listening sometimes intently
to imaginary strains of music, or beckon-
ed by imaginary angels; semi-conscious
of terrestrial affairs only in transitory
glimpses. According to Boards theory
there is a suspension of the functions Of
the median tract of the brain, and an
ncceleration Of the activity of the lateral
tracts, in mesmerie trance. The volition
OF the subject of the experiment is thus
held in allegiance, and he either sits mo-
tionless in a vacant and stupid slumber,
or acts upon the suggestion of a second
person, and apparently under his con-
troll. "If," said DIR. Hammond in one of
his lectures, were to tell this
young man to plunge knife into the
heart Of any person in this audience, into
mine, or his own, he would, no doubt,
act upon the suggestion Just as prompt
ly as though l merely told him TO dance,
brush the snow from his clothing, or
laugh at the most serious remark as the
finest bon mot of the season. But the
suggestion-th behest, whatever it may
be-must be tangible one my thoughts
and my will can influence him to muscu-
lar action only through the medium of
the senses / have no intangible influence
upon him, and he has no conception of
what is passing in my mind, save through
the ordinary media of communication be-
tween man and man..
DIR. Hammonds explanation Of the
hypnotic state differs in detail from that
of Dr. Beard, but both are cuinci,ient in
denying that any mysterious energy liz
transmitted from the operators person to
that of the recipient of impressions, and
agree i'll affirming that the association of
preternatural control exercised by the
former over the latter is entirely erron-
eous. DIR. Hammond also dissents from
the classification which places hypnotic
slumber in the somnambulistic group of
phenomena and ventures upon that dam
gerous experiment i'll scientific nomen-
clature, coinage of IL special term,
"sygnosticism," to distinguish il from
allied bat very different conditions. The
suspension Of junction in the median
tract of the brain, assumed by DIR. Beard,
is point upon which Hammond is silent.
He rather inclines to the view that the
function of this important tract is perver-
ted, not suspended, coinciding substan-
TALLY with the doctrines set forth by the
celebrated English authority, DIR. Car