The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1892-12-31

psychological experiments in very much
the same manner as the daily papers do
to Dr. Charcot at the present time. Ac-
cording to DR.. Bjornstrom, leading
Swedish physician and author, there is
q sect in Egypt that has practiced hyp-
notism for forty centuries. And to cap
the climax an enthusiastic New York
theosophist claims that the deep sleep
into which Adam was thrown at the
time of Ewes creation was merely
case of mesmeric sleep.
Hypnotism made no great impression
upon the European mind until the be-
ginning of the eighteenth century, when
in the province of Dauphine, France,
the entire population went crazy on the
subject At one time not less than ten
thousand people of that district imag-
ined that they were prophets directly
inspired from Heaven. From that time
on there has been an uninterrupted line
OF hypnotizers and hypnotized, amateur
and professional, genuine and fraudu-
lent
Only in the latter part of the eight
eenth century was there any attempt
made to explain the phenomena from
a scientific standpoint. Before that
time they were regarded as the mani
festations of good spirits or of devils.
In 1773, for example, famous ex-monk
known as Father Gassner established a
spiritual sanitarium in Regensburg,
where he is said to have drawn around
him ten thousand. His treatment was
simplicity itself. He would mesmerize
his patient until the latter went into
convulsions. This showed conclusively
diabolic possession and was considered
almost miraculous by his followers
By restoring the patient to conscious.
ness he was believed to have exercised
the devil and effected cure.
This curious field was first brought
into the highest prominence by the cele-
brated Swiss physician, Dr. Friedrich
Mesmer. A strange combint6icn of dis
coverer and quack. of brilliant intellect
ual powers and deficient moral quail
ties, he kept Europe in turmoil from
about ITO to 1896 The mere fact that
the words mesmerize and mesmerism,
coined in his honor, have endured the
wear and tear Of more than century,
bears witness to the power of the mans
personality.
The expressions animal magnetism
and personal magnetism were his crea-
tions and are as much in vogue to-day
as in his luxurious parlors on the Place
Vendome. He seems. to have known P.
I. Barnums great principle that ''hu-
man nature loves to be humbugged and
will pay for it proportionately," for the
few scientific truths which he appre-
hended were SO weighted down with
charlatanry and mummery of the idlest
kind as to escape the attention of the
scientific world of his time.
Though denounced by such men as
Franklin, Lavoisier and Bailly, and in
after years neglected and forgotten by
the people whose idol he once was, he
did great work for the race despite
the dishonest surroundings under which
it was conducted, for, after all, modern
hypnc tism is nothing more nor less than
mesmerism. In creating the new name
scientists have only beaten about the
bush.
Mesmer was followed by the notori-
GUS imposter Cagliostro, by d'Eslon,
Marias and, greatest, the Marquis de
Puysegur. The last named had strong
scientific bent and early called atten-
ton to mesmeric features which there
tofore had been overlooked. He was
undoubtedly the first to give careful
study to these phenomena, which, for
lack of better words, we sum up and
indicate by such clumsy terms as SOM
nambulism, clairvoyance, clairaudience,
mind-reading, thought transference,
will control and the like.
Since his time comparatively little
new and original work has been done
in this field of research, but an immense
amount has been accomplished in study
ing details, ascertaining conditions and
classifying phenomena. 1t will proba-
] bly, surprise the reader to know that
over three hundred large volumes have
been written upon the subject by scien-
tltc men of high standing, and that
the work goes steadily on. Among the
more eminent investigators may be
mentioned DIR. James Braid, DR.. Hack
Tuck and DR.. Ireland of England; the
late DR.. George N. Beard, DIR. Grimes
and DR.. William T. Hammond, Of the
United States; Baron Won Reichenbach,
DIR. Preyer and Prof Weinhold, of Ger
many; Prof Hansen, of Denmark; DR..
4 Bjornstrom, of Sweden; Prof Azam,
DIR. Broca, DR.. Liebault, Prof. Richet,
and last In point of time, but one of the
greatest i'll talent, Prof. Charcot, the
neurologist, of France.
When a person ishypnotized he may
tNoY - L.
leptic, the lethargic, or the somnam bu-
listic. In the first the body is immo-
bile and apparently dead, but the
muscular sense, vision, and especially
hearing, retain their powers in part, if
not in whole. In the lethargic state
there is complete insensibility of the
skin and external tissues. The third,
or somnambulistic is the one made
familiar by lecturers and charatans.
There is insensibility to pain, but a