Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-07-16
A NEW ELEMENT IN THE LAW OF
EVIDENCE.


The London Saturday Reuiew is con-
WINGED that three things are now thor
oughly well established as truths-to wit:
That one in the hypnotic or somnambulic
condition may commit acts of which he
asneither knowledge nor recollection when
he awakes; that crimes may be committed
on the persons of hypnotic subjects when in
the abnormal condition that would be i'm
possible in the normal state; that hypno-
tiled persons may be made the unconscious
and involuntary agents of crime by sug-
gestion.
Certainly late experiments tend strongly
to sustain these views, and the question is
thus presented to jurists: "What reforma-
ton shall be made in the laws of evidence
to meet these new conditions ?" We may
assume that one essential change will be
the admission of experts to testify to the
susceptibility to hypnotic influences of one
who makes defense of unaccountability
and subjugation of will. Another will be
the admission of experiments in the pres
ence of Court and jury, to demonstrate the
truth or falsity of such claims. Since the
intent to commit crime is the essence of
the offense, and as hypnotic subsection de-
stroys that essential element of criminal
lty, these changes must be made in order
to arrive at the truth. In other words,
hypnotism now enters into the realm of
truth, as means by which Courts and
Juries are to determine the guilt or inno-
cence of accused persons claiming to have
acted through suggestion that they were
powerless to resist.
1t will be remembered that not long
ago m San Francisco witness claimed to
be incapable of testifying SO long as GER
tain person remained in the room, and
when the party was removed manifested
such relief that the Court had no doubt
whatever of the sincerity of the claim
that the Objectionable party had some
sort of control over the will power of the
witness.
A case illustrating the first point made
by the ReUieD is the Afialre L. r. Ioir-
et-Cher, 1889:
A servant girl was accused of having robbed
her mistress, and was sent to prison. 1t turned
out that she had been accustomed to be hypno-
tiled by DOCTOR he recognized her in prison
and was allowed 10 hypnotiZe her AGAIN as an
experiment. In the hypnotic state she at once
recoiiected having moved the missing things in
order to put them in safer place. She de-
scribed the place to the Judge who found them
in the spot precisely according to her de-
scription, and she was Immediately re-
leased. The fact was that she had become SOM
nambulistic through being hypnotizad, had
moved the things in this state, forgetting as is
usual what she had done on waking but re-
membering again in the hypnotic state.
A case illustrating the second position
assumed by the London journal, is the
Affaire Levy, 1879:
Levy was a dentist who hypnotized one
OF his patients, a young woman, and util-
lied the opportunity to commit an assault She
knew nothing of what had happened, but when
the consequences became apparent he confessed
the crime. he was prosecuted by the young
woman and her mother. aud was sentenced to
ten years penal servitude. But If she had not
become enciente the crime would never have
been discovered, aud IL he lad not confessed il
could never have been proved.
Josephine Hughes respectable young woman
living with her father, was hypnotized by Cas-
tellan yagabond mesmerizer to whom they
gave shelter He compelled her to leave her
home, follow him and live with him, though he
was filthy aud repulsive creature. She was
rescued, all the facts fully established, and Cas-
tellan sentenced to twelve years hard labor In
Court he offered to give proof of his powers: All
she remembered was being compelled to submit
10 him by an irresistible power
DR.. Esdalie, a Scotch surgeon in India and an
expert mesmerizer the established under the
Government, in 1885, hospital at Hooghly, in
which he performed several hundred operations
under hypnotic annsthesiai, had reason to sus-
pect native barber of kidnapping boy under
hypnotic influence. His suspicious were aroused
by the boys appearance. He tried expert
ments. which were repeated in Court. and found
he could make natives follow him involuntarily.
The man was condepned tonine years labor in
irons. The sentence was confirmed by the SUI
preme Court, but eventually RENTED by the
Government.
But it is not new that hynotized or mes
merized persons can be used to commit
crime involuntarily. De Puysegur claimed
as much as early as IVA, and for hun
dred years thereafter similar claims were
made by distinguished Investigators.
What is new is the demand upon Courts
to recognize the influence. Lately at
Nancy, as few weeks ago detailed in the
RECORD UNION, large body of eminent
physicians entered upon line Of expert
ments that led them to believe in the
theory that hypnotic subject can be con-
trolled to commit crime unconsciously.
That Board is presently to report to Paris
ian magistrates, and their detailed explain
ations will be looked for with much inter-
est. In our own State it will be recalled
that respectable body of doctors has re-
solved to petition the Legislature to pass
law forbidding hypnotic exhibitions and
the use of the mesmeric power, under the
belief that great danger to the subjects is
involved and permanent injury done them.
The doctors did not go so far as to suggest
that hypnotic may be controlled to COM
init crime, but it is clear that they had
some such thought in mind, but we're not
prepared to express it. 1t is since the
California doctors spoke out that the ex-
periments and inquiries at Nancy have
been made.
THE REPORT UPON THE RIVER.
Major Heuer, engineer in charge of Cali