Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-12-27
Instances of the Exercise of This
Strange Controlling Power.
MYSTERIOUS MANIFESTATIONS
How Hypnotism Differs From sompambu-
ism and Catalepsy - Some Remarkable
Experiments Performed in This City-In-
stances of All Phases That Are Believed to
he Authentic.
Written for the Eyenin9 Star.

| DOHpaIu, an aCCOunt OF WHOSE uttu Wa re-
Gently published in THE STAR, showed some
curious facts in regard to hypnotism. 1t ap-
pears that the woman, when in a hypnotic state,
rehearsed the crime in all its details, and when
she was in a normal condition was unconscious
that she had done SO. 1t is probable, too, that
the acting of the crime was more accurately
performed by the woman hypnotized than it
would have been by the woman with all her
normal senses about her.
OF all the strange things on earth the strang-
est are hypnotism, somnambulism and dreams.
Simple mesmcrism is not so extraordinary. The
| explanation that DR.. VIM. B. Carpenter, the
British specialist, gives is certainly reasonable.
A person who is mesmerized is under the in
fuence of the mesmerizer and his own imagi-
nation, but the will of the mesmerizer will not
be executed by the subject unless il is expressed
| to him. He must be told what he is expect ted
| to do, otherwise he will act according to his
| own view of what is expected Of him, no matter
how different may be the silent wish of the OPP
orator. A skillful operator may be introduced
| into the same room with the best of subjects
and if the latter is ignorant of his presence he
is powerless to affect him. The actual known
presence and generally physical contact are
| necessary to produce mesmeric influences. 1hls
is generally known as animal magnetism and is
| not a circumstance in Its strange lnexplicable-
ness to hypnotsm and its different manifesto
| tons. The latter, which is, perhaps, more cor
| rectly known somnambulism. is now receiv-
| ing more attention from the scientific world
than was ever given to 1t before. and 1t is to be
| hoped that some definite conclusions may soon
| be reached in regard to it.
| REMARKABLE BALTIMORE SUBJECT.
About eighteen months ago a select party Of
people in Washington was treated to an exhi-
bition of this peculiar disease which certainly
deserves to be recorded A young girl. who
lives in Baltimore, had excited great deal Of
interest among the physicians of that city, be-
cause of the peculiar frances in which she fell
| at certain times, and she was brought to this
| city, where a private exhibition was given. 1t
must be promised that there is nothing re-
markable or unusual in the girls appearance or
| manner. She is q most respectable young
woman of about seventeen years Of age, and
her father and mother are working people Of
excellent standing. After the company had as
sembled she was given chair in the middle of
the room. and having sat in it for few mo-
ments. she closed her eyes and Immediately
went into an hypnotic state, The things that
she did when in this trance, which lasted for
fully half an hour, were most extraordinary.
Her hands began to move and a slate pencil
was thrust into her right hand aud a slate held.
Upon this she wrote rapidly. among other
things snatch of Latin sentence. After a
| while she began to preach a sermon. She then
rose and walked few yards and would have
fallen heavily to the ground had not her father
apparently simulated death in her dreams. Her
nOstrils sank in. her mouth became compressed.
| she was deathly pale, the movement of breath
ing was not perceptble, but a physician who
was present found the pulse beating feebiy.
She resembled corpse so closely that sew
eral of the audience almost held their breath
in terror lest she might really have passed
away. From this condition she passed into
one of apparent pain and illness, coughing and
grooming. After further remarkable mani
| fot;n cha IL In 1,afra xral
no fatigue OF weakness the effects of her
trance and was entirely ignorant of what she
had done. The girl is of limited education and
writes when in her normal condition certainly
not readily, nor could she possibly, when
awake, preach a sermon Of any kind. II was
clearly a case of somnambuism.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN sONNAMBULIsM AND CAT
| ALEPsY.
The somnambulist and the cataleptic must
not be confounded. In the latter disease ami
nation is apparently suspended and the SUBJ
ject resembles a corpse, but consciousness re-
mains to a greater Or less extens. There is one
CHASTITY story OF 4 woman who went into a cata-
leptic trance and was laid out for burial. being
all the time conscious OF what was being done.
and itIwas this species of disease that Edgar
Allen Poe used as the foundation for his hor-
rible sketch on premature burial. The per-
son who is afflicted with catalepsy is without
power Of speech or motion.
The somnambulist who walks III his sleep is
merely one variety of somnanbulisIa. 1t is the
more confirmed somnambalist that goes into
the frances. The strangest thing of all is the re-
cogniZed fact that n person when III one OF these
frances undergoes an 'exaltation of the senses. v
as the scientists have expressed. He does
things and says things that he could not say or
do il he were awake. In the case of the Baiti-
more girl just described she preached and
wrote as she could never have done under nor
NAL circumstances, but there are instances on
record of still more extraordinary exaltation of
power. One common. ignorant girl sang in
imitation of Jenny Lind and sang beautifully
and when awake had no notion OF music. Sir
William Hamilton in his me L; pm sizes has cited
cases even more astounding. He tells of one
poor woman i'll France, who, when she is in her
frances. spoke an unknown tongue. and when
the sounds were repeated to her afterward she
had not the slightest conception OF their mean
ing. Investigation proved the dialect to be old
Breton, and i. appeared that. in her early in
fancy, she had h2d a Breton peasant for a nurse.
Not one word oI the language had she learnt.
Had it lodged somewhere in her baby brain--in
| some corner that only awOke when her healthy
intellects were asleep?
GABRIELLE BoMpARD's REALIZATION"
In view Of this .'exaltation Of the senses" il
is easy to see that Gabrielle Bompard would be
able, when hyprotized, to 60 over the scene of
her murder more correctly than she could
when she had simply her normal memory to
guide her. Her performance of this feat also
showed that she was subject to thcse strange
influences, and that her consort unquestioIl-
ably had a power over her independent of her
own will But il she had committed her muir
der when hypnotized, it is not probable that
she would have had any recollection of it after
ward, and yet she made full confession.
| 1t is the known fact OF "eXaltatiou OF the
senses that has given rise to the pretense of
second sight. The truth is strange enough
without any enhancement Of fiction, yet even
such plausible novelist as Wilkie Collins has
1 I. L. Al.