Morning journal and courier., 1890-06-09

restored to health by the touch Of king in
the times when kings were thought to rule
by divine right. Was there ever such Q
thing as faith cure2 Who will undertake
to say that cures have not been performed by
each of these meanss And yet If it were 30
it is not necessary to suppose that there was
any occult power in either saint, king or
apostle Of faith cure. The whole secret lay
In the psychological state of the sick person,
in whom confidence in the means and hope,
combined with latent nervous force, con-
spired to set the vital functions again in mo-
ton.
The pathological phase is only the border
land of the mysterious subject. On the phe
nomena of the nerves, magnetism, spiritism
and hypnotism have erected systems and the
ories involving host of strange illusions,
but conveying also scientific facts of su-
preme value. A spirit medium is only be-
nerves. A nervous subject may be hysteric,
epileptic or the victim of hallueinations or
impulses of various kinds, which result in
eccentric actions or abnormal physical con-
ditions. The nervous system of some of
these persons is in such an excessively NOR
bid state that an external sensation, such as
a sudden noise, the ticking Of watch, a
pressure on the body, contact with warm
or cold body, breath, ray of light, the
reflection from some bright object, suspends
animation. The subject falls into sleep
which lasts for longer or shorter time, and
wakes to forget everything that has passed
during this period, though it may have been
filed with acts and incidents, and may have
continued several weeks. The Witch of En-
dor was probably mere bundle Of nerves
sort of spirit medium of Bible times. The
Pythoness of Delphi was hystertc or cpl
leptic capable OF extreme nervous exaltation.
The witches and sorcerers of the middle ages
were in many cases the victims of nervous
attacks, which those about them and they
themselves sincerely believed to be caused
by divine or demoniac inspiration. In the
light Of modern science these characters and
events are seen in a less mysterious light.
Several cases involving hypnotism have,
within the last two years, appeared in French
courts. One was that of a married woman
in Algiers, Of great correctness of life, Sc
ddeed by young man and afterward killed
by him with revolver during clandestine
interview. He pretended that he had con-
sented to double suicide, but his own cour-
age seemed to have failed after half the
tragedy was accomplished. He was con-
demned to hard labor for long term of
years. 1t was proved that she was a highly
nervous woman, and had once been found
inanimate in the garden gazing intently at a
silver spoon she was holding in her hand.
The case of Gabrielle Bompard, the mistress
of Eyraud, the assassin Of Geuffe, is even
more to the point. This strange young wo-
man, after having assisted at the assassina-
ton, slept composedly two nights with the
: dead body in trunk beside her bed. The
lightness of, her manner since has astonished
every one. aware of the circumstances. She
is go neryously susceptible that she has been
known 10 fall into magnetic sleep by sim
ply looking at q bright object on the mantel-
piece. The courts will have to decide how
far she was personally responsible and to
what extent she was dominated by the will
of Eyraud. Hypnotism is now regarded in
France as so dangerous that the minister of
war has forbidden its practice by the army
physicians.
Among the many interesting cases that the
Investigations of French sayants have
brought to light is that of young lawyer of
thirty three, son of father addicted to the
excessive use of liquors and an exceedingly
nervous mother He lives actually two lives,
In either OF which he is completely ignorant
of what transpires in the other. All that is
necessary to throw him into a magnetic
sleep is to gaze intently on some point In
space, to hear a sudden noise or experience
some vivid emotion. On day he was hypno.
tized by looking into mirror at q cafe, and
his companions had to take him to o hospi-
tai to have him awakened. On another oo-
casion he suddenly fell asleep while pleading
cause in court because the presiding judge
looked at him attentively, and was brough.
back to his normal state with difficulty by q
friend. Sometimes he loses completely the
memory of the past, and a new life com
mences, in which ne travels, stops at hotels
sleeps, makes and receives visits, buys and
sells, and takes part in the sports Of those
- IL A~ 7, =
he remembers none of these things. On the
Esd of September, 1888, he had an alterca-
tion with his father-in. law, from which date
till the middle of October he performed a
variety of acts of which he has no reoollec-
ton. When he returned to his normal state
he was in the department of Upper Marne,
and over one hundred and fifty miles from
Paris. He was afterward told that he had
visited the priest Of villsge and an uncle
living not far off, who is bishop, at whose
house he had broken numerous objects and
torn up quantity of manuscripts, and that
he had elsewhere contracted debts which
caused his trial and condemnation by default
for fraud. In May, 1889, he left restau-
rant in the Latin quarter, where he had
breakfasted, and two days later found him.
self at Troyes, in the department. of Aube.
overcoat and purse, whose whereabouts he
was only able to indicate after having been
again thrown Into magnetic sleep.
Similar things happen in injuries to the
brain, in cases of hysteria, and even In SOM
nambulism. Even the ordinary dreamer re-
calls in dream what he has seemed to see in
former dream, though he may never have
remembered it in his waking moments. II
is not, perhaps, for this reason the less re
markable, for sleep with its active brain, itf
thoughts and its visions, remains and may
always remain one of the mysteries of exis
tenca. To the doctors all these things indi-
cate disease. Dreams are the result of ar
imperfect digestion. The subjugation of ont
person to another's will, the dual state in ons
of which the subject seems on the confines
of another world, is caused by disorgsnized
| nervous system. Even genius, especially
poet genius, is stigmstized as an unhealthy
Psychological state. Everything that is moi
the dullest and plainest prose of life seemt
in the process of being transformed into
morbid conditions of the body. Does 1t rem
der phenomenon less mysterious to prove
that il is physicala An object falls to the
ground by the law of gravitation. Do we
understand that marvellous law better be-
cause We constantly see its operationa Chem.
| ical atoms attract or repsl one another in vir
| tue of universal law of whose hidden forc'
! and meaning we have not the remotest con
ception. But we are consoled when we dis
| cover that something in nature fails within
| the domain OF natural. The phenomenon il
| classified, bub has by no means ceased to b