Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1890-09-05
TO be continued.
The Scientific Sensa ton of the Hour
August Arena.

august Arena
Mesmerism alias Hypnotism, the latest
scientific sensation of the hour, was a few
years since denounced by the scientific
world in unmeasured terms. No express
siOns of scOrnful contempt were strong
enough to characterize those fearless torch
bearers of advance thought, who after
patiently, earnestly, and extensively iu-
vestigating the alleged powers of Mesmer,
proved beyond the possibility of a doubt,
the genuineness of the mesmeric or hyp-
motto influence.
They were charlatans, impostors, or
mentally unsound in the eyes, not only of
the medical profession, but the scientific
world, with some few notable exceptions.
The more charitably disposed among the
great conservative societies of scientific
thinkers, were content toTegard those who
believed in such 'absurdities. - as mes
merism, us "unduly credulous''; liable to
be ''duped''; and, therefore, not safe or
critical investigators.
Camille Flammarion, the illustrious
French astronomer, in his recent remark
able novel Uranie, tells US that fifteen
years ago he communicated to several
physicians the magnetic phenomena OBJ
served by himself in the course Of many
experiments. One and all denied most
positively and absolutely the possibility of
the facts related, but on meeting one of
these same physicians at the Institute at
Paris, recently, he called his attention to
his denial of the phenomena. oh! re-
piled the physician, not without shrewd-
ness, then it was magnetism, now 1t Is
hypnotiSm. and it Is we who study it: that
is very different thing" The astrono-
mer wisely adds 10y way of impressing the
moral: Let us deny nothing positively
let US study; let us examine; the explana-
ton vii! come later.
A true scientist will take cognizance of
the smallest fact and though the light
that floats before may appear a mere will
o'-the-wisp he will follow it until ne de-
monstrates by careful, impartial, and eX-
haustiye investigation whether it rests on
the bedrock of truth or not, remembering
that the prejudices of hoary thought and
early training may blind him to SEN
sible appreciation of the true significance
of the problem that confronts him. 1t Is
not more than five years since paper read
on Hypnotism in the medical society of q
leading American city was excluded from
the report of the society's meetings, on the
ground that the subject was unsientifc and
| absurd.
Less than a decade ago telepathy was as
much an outcast in the scientific world as
mesmerism was after the celebrated Baily
commission pronounced it fraud. >
Yet to-day telepathy, or thought transfer.
ence. is as well established a scientific fact
as hypnotiSm.
From present indications we are enter
| ing new field of scientific discovery, Of
to be more explicit, the great body Of
! scientific thinkt rs are expressing a willing
! ness to recognize phenomena other thar
material, and to treat with measure Of
respect the views and discoveries made by
the patient heralds of psychic truth:
which have long been tabooed as little
worthy the attention of the materialistiC
scientific investigator, whose eyes have
been accustomed to rest on the earth, it
rocks, plants, and animals, as the myth:
of bygone day. The age of electrical in
vention has been so marvellous, that mer
! have ceased to wonder at the inventive in
| genuity of man. The age of psycholG gica
! discovery upon which we are now entering
| if it be unrestricted and receive the care
| full and unbiased attention of our beS
| brains will, we believe, untold a world Of
| truth, eclipsing in its startling character
as well as in its great utility the creates
| discoveries since the man-chlld science was
born; truths which will give to life {
! deeper significance, a richer meaning,
| nobler impulse, a grander ideal