The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1884-06-04
|PHENOMENA0F MESMERISM.
NOVEL MEsMERIC DISCOVERIES
MADE IN ST. LOUIS.
Rabbits, Chickens, Snake. II Dogs
Me.meri ell By a Woman "Details
of Some of the Expc IimcntS.

IN laSl ljp("tlDcl Il HcIltlClluh 'HS"SSN
to teach in ST. louis invited a number of
friends to his house to meet Il lady who
had lust returned from Europe, and who
had travelled extensively i'll the East.
She had net Madam Blavatsky and
Colonel Olcott and other members OF the
T~hcosophical society, but was not herself
a t%hcos0phist At Damascus, where her
husband died. she met an Arab physician
who possessed in Il limited degree what
is called the power of tactual cure. lhe
acquaintance which followed proved to
her that she herself was strongly endowed
with the mcsmcric power. The .Arab
taught her how to develop it, and her
knowledge of the Indian mysticS, ana
the tremendous power they CLAIM, was
perhaps one of the reasons why she en-
braced electro biology so strongly, max
in~ it the study of her life.
The LADY was able to perform some
very remarkable feats, as she proved at
the time. For instance, she took Il small
mirror, and. holding it before her face,
lreathed upon it repeatedly, finally put,
tinr it upon a table and making several
rapid passes over it. In turn each OF the
party was invited to look into the glass,
fixing in their minds the face they de-
sired to see. When the reporters turn
came he fastened his mind upon the set
of fair features which were easiest to re-
call and looked. At first his own lace
| alone was there, but it faded away. DIS
solving first ut the SIDES until nothing
but the ewes remained. Then the glass
| cloudcd utterly with that cracking sound
called rapping by sp%iritualistS' and
| framed on the clouds, came the countc-
nance for which the writer looked. There
| could be no doubt about it. 1t was as
truthfully limned as though the original
herself stood before the mirror. Slngu-
larlv enough those who tried to call up
dead faces were the only ones who sui
fcred even il partial disappointment. AS
the Madam remarked: ''Thc glass will
only project the picture in your mind.
If that picture is faded you will get only
your idea, nothing more" Madam Is.
lett the city shortly after for her home in
Philadelphia, and returned to st. LOU
in the latter part of March: IN
the mean time the experiments
which she had performed were
not forgotten, and the gen
| tlcmcn who had witnessed her power
were anxious to develop something OF a
| similar order themselves. Singularly
enough it has been only the dark-halrcd
and dark-cycd ones who have met any
success at ill. The books on the subject
were ransackcd, and some advance made.
The doctor living on Olive, beyond Jel-
fcrson venue, seemed to have the most
powcr. At these meetings, however,
nothin" but the stock phenomena of
clcctro.biology were exhibited, until late
in January one of the party made the
! remarkable discovery that certain classes
of animals, particularly ordinary barn
yard fowl, pigeons and rabbits, were sls,
ccptiblc to the mcsmcric influence n
could be controlled with the utmost ease.
Some of the experiments arc so simple
and so striking that a detailed dcscrip-
ton of them may be given. No animal
will look man in the eye except furtlvely,
the prolonged stare requisite for ordinary
mcsmcrism Is out Of the question. and
consequently the means had to be found.
Taking a large sheet of good white
paper. Il heavy black line was ruled up
and down the center, about onc-eighth
of an inch thick and eighteen inches
long. A chicken was brought in, a panic
stricken and intensely excited Shanghai
rooster. Standing the cock on the paper,
his head was forced down so that his beak
touched the end Of the black line, the
line itself stretching out before him in
the axis Of the body. Slight, caressing
passes were made with the tips of the
fingers of the right hand from the head
of the fowl backward, and in less than
three minutes he was in a state of COM
pletc coma. This experiment every one
of the party has tried, at the doctors
and at home, and everywhere with the
most complete success. You may re-
move YOUR hands from the fowl com
plctcly, leaving him pinned by the psy-
chic force to the end of the lcad-pcncil
line on your paper. The pupils Of the
ewes dilatc. the cock is entirely inscnsl-
bic to sounds at a distance Of q yard,
and if the passes are continued after the
coma has begun for any length of time
it becomes really difficult to get the bird
out of the trance. In one instance a
sprightly bantam hen that seemed full
Of life and vitality died during the en-
pertinent.
\ great many experiments with differ
ent colorcd lines and paper, drawn IN
different positions On the paper, all failed
with rabbits, although on white paper a
black ~" produced 4 coma which lasted
as long as the passes were kept up, but no
longer. Thenextidea tried was thorough
" successful. Two bright half dollars
we're placed on q table near an open Win
dow at which diffuscd daylight entered.
They were put about two inches apart,
and a rabbits head held with the nose
touching the table about IN inch and-a-
half behind the coins. Then with small
pellets of paper and matches the pieces of
silver were raised at the edges so that each
reflected the light into one of the animals
ewes. The head was held firmly in position
without hurting for about five minutes,
when coma WAS found to have set in sufi-
GENTLY to permit the removal Of the hands,
leaving tlie robbit swaying backward and
forward. and altogether unable to move
away. The customary passes were tncn
made and the animal became rigid.
1t could be taken up and handled, and
was as stiff as if it was Il frozen corpse.
After a trance of some ten minutes du-
ration the rabbit came back to conscious
ness of itself without any effort being
made to revive it.. 1t rcclcd and stag
gcrcd about the floor Cor Il moment or
two, then seemed thoroughly to recover,
eating with much relief some food that
was given it.
Pigeons, canary birds and hooking
birds were found to yield to ordinary
manipulations if they were held close to
the eve, and the breath is an all power
full element in mcsmerising them.
When Madam b. had returned to st.
Louis she took up with much enthusiasm
the investigation which was being prose-
cutcd. 1t was rs new to her as to the
people making the discovery, although,
as she pointed out, The snakc-charmerS
of India have been working in this line
for ages. Equipped as she was by her
pccial study, she soon made advances
which had not been dreamed Of by the
Others. 1t was her idea to add the power
of music to the magnctizing. At first
this seemed to have no effect, but finally
a piccolo was secured, and the results
with chickens, birds, rabbits, cats and
ut last dogs were truly remarkable. The
time requisite for magnctization WAS
shortened to Il few seconds, and the char
actcr of the trance changed. Searching
through the line of instruments the oc-
arina wa found to be even better than
the piccolo. 1t is smaller and more cf-
fcctivc.
A r~attlcsnakc was purchased from a
Memphis druggist who had been keeping
the ophidian in his showcase during the
winter. 1t arrived by express, and. was
ut once warmed and fed into activity. \
close examination showed that its poison