, 1888-01-01
STUDY OF MESMERISM.
SOME VERY CURIOUS EXPERIMENTS
MADE AT THE CAPITAL.

Journalist Cronut's Exhibition of Skill in
Observation-Disclosures burglary Com
mitted by a "Sensitive"-Not So Sue
cessfu1 with Another Subject.
W. A. Croffut has recently taken up the
study Of mesmerism, or hypnotism, as the
scientists prefer to call it. Mr.. Croffut
has developed considerable skill in this
direction, and the other night gave an ex-
hibition at his house before a noteworthy
audience. Among others a present were
Postmaster General Villas and his family,
Senator ingalls,, Senat Platt, of Con-
necticut; Gen. A. w. Greedy and his wife,
Admiral and Mrs. Russell, Mr.. Coleman,
the COMMISSIONS of agriculture; Col.
Nicolay, marshal of the United States SUI
preme court; Gen. Bryant, assistant at
torney general; Professor Thompson, of
the geological survey, and a number of
other scientific gentlemen and physicians.
Before beginning his experiments Mr..
Croffut explained that he had been very
much Interested in reading, in Paris let
tiers, Of the experiments conducted by Drs.
Charcot and Luys in Europe.
vICARIoUs CRIMINALITY.
Mr.. Croffut remarked that the expert
mentation with dangerous drugs and
medicated compounds under scientific
conditions would be postponed to another
evening, but he woul Immediately make
tests as to the vicarious commission of
crime. After performing some minor ex-
periments and getting his subjects into q
good condition, Mr.. Croffut attempted the
feat of compelling a fellow being to COM
init a crime by the force of his own will,
acting upon the will of that fellow being.
One of the subjects, q young woman EN-
ployed in the government printing office,
was told to go INTO the audience and pick
the ladies' pockets. She manifested great
horror of the act and refused, but by an
imperative command the mesmeriZer in
duced her to comply, and without much
display of ingenuity she got a phantom
purse, not n real one, from Mrs. John c..
Fremont. The experiment was not salts
factory as to the practical employment of
an agent.
Another sensitive, a clerk in a depart
ment, was mesmerized, and Mr.. Croffut
explained to him that in a house of one
of the neighbors, in an upper chamber, in
n certain corner and q certain drawer in
the dressing Ease was a pocketbook which
contained $1,000. He described the stu
alton of the Gus infinitely, the way to
&C there, the arrangement of the dressing
case and SO on, repeating it over several
times until the subject had the geography
impressed upon his mind. Then handing
him two keys he said:
"The larger key will open the front
door of the house and the smaller key will
open the drawer of the dressing case in
which the pocketbook will be found"
He told the young man that if he would
steal that pocketbook he would give him
the money. There was a good deal of dis
cussion between the mesmerist and his
subject concerning the liability of discov-
cry and arrest, but when assured hat
there was not the slightest possibility of
anybody interfering with him, and that
there were no dogs about the place, he
consented to undertake the burglary.
-Four or five gentlemen in the room were
asked to follow the subject on his trip.
Due arrangements had previously been
made with n neighbor to place the pocket
book III the situation described. The
young man ran out into the street, turned
the corner, and when he came to. the
house described by Mr.. Croffut recognized
it at once by the description. He then
began to show the greatest degree of agi-
tation, looking nervously behind all the
tree boXes and around the corners, and
finally jumped over the fence, saying to
those who accompanied him as 'pals''-
of whose presence he seemed only half
conscious-that he did SO lest the gate
should make q noise.