Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1890-10-15
REGARDING HYPNOTtsM.
Scientists Everywhere Are Beginning TIA
Study Its Phenomena.

Scientists Everywhere Are Beginning TIA
Study Its Phenomena.
Mesmerism alias hypnotism, the latest
scientific sensation of the hour, was
few years since denounced by the scien-
tific world in unmeasured terms. No ex-
pressions of scornful contempt were
strong enough to charact srize those
fearless torch-bearers of advanced
thought, who, after patiently. earnestly
and exclusively investigating the al
legged powers of Mesmer, proved beyond
the possibility of a doubt the genuine
ness of the mesmeric or hypnotic infiu
ence
They were charlatans, impostors or
mentally unsound in the eyes, not only
of the medical profession, but the scien-
tltlc world with some few nota le ex-
ceptions. The more charitably disposed
among the great conservative societies
of scientific thinkers were content to re-
gard those who believed in such "ab-
surdities" as mermerism as ''unduly
credulous;" liable to be ''duped;" and.
therefore, not ''safe" or Critical invest
igators."
Camille Flammarion, the illustrious
French astronomer, in his recent re-
markable novel 'Uranie," tells us that
fifteen years ago he communicated to
several physicians the magnetic phenom-
ena observed by himself in the course
of many experiments. One and all de-
MED most positively and absolutely the
possibility of the facts related, but on
meeting one of these same physicians at
the n fin in nj hn
called his attention to his denial of the
phenomena "Oh!' replied the physi-
clan, not without shrewdness, ''then it
was magnetism, now it is hypnotism,
and it is We who study it; that is very
different thing" The astronomer wise
ly adds by way of impressing the moral:
LET us deny nothing positively; let us
study; lot US examine; the explanation
will 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 he demonstrates by careful, i'm
partial, and exhaustive investigation
whether it rests on the bedrock of
truth or not, remem bering that the
prejudices of hoary thought and early
training may blind him to sensible APP
probation of the true significance OF the
problem that confronts him. It is not
more than five years since paper read
on tHypnotism" in the medical society
of a leading American city was excluded
from the report Of the society's meeting,
on the ground that the subject was un-
scientific and absurd.
Less than year ago telepathy was as
much an outcast in the scientific world
as mesmerism was after the celebrated
Bailey commission pronounced it
fraud Yet to-day telopathy, or
thought transference, is as well estab-
lished scientific fact as hypnotism.
From present indications we are en-
tering new field of scien tifc discovery,
or to be more explicit, the great body OF
scientific thinkers are expressing will
ingness to recognize phenomena other
than material, and to treat with
measure of respect the views and dis
coveries made by the patient heralds OF
psychic truths which have long been tab
booed as little worthy the attention OF
the materialistic scientific investigator,
whose eyes have been accustomed to
rest on the earth, it's rocks, plants and
animals, as the myths of bygone days
The age of electrical invention has been
SO marvellous that men have ceased to
wonder at the inventive ingenuity Of
man. The age Of physiological dis
covery upon which we are now en- tering,
If it be unrestricted and receive the
careful and unbiased attention Of our
best brains, will, we believe, unfold
world of truth, eclipsing in its startling
character as well as in its great utility
the greatest discoveries since the man
child science was born, truths which
will give to life deeper significance,
richer meaning, nobler impulse,
prander ideal-Arena