Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-11-07
Observation-Disclosures
ITS HISTORY AND PROGRESS UP
TO DATE.
Charlatans Have Made 1t Their Stock in
Trade in All Tim es-Origin Of the Term
Mesm erism Famous Scientific Men
Who Have Investigated Hypnotism.

Who Have Investigated Hypnotfsm.
How largely European thought has
turned toward the subject of hypnotism
is shown by the fact that there are two
schools and half a dozen societies devoted
exclusively to its study, a scientific jour
nal published monthly in Paris upon its
progress, and at least fifty prominent physi-
clans and scientists who are making it a
special field Of investigation. Since 1885
forty-sT looks have been written upon it,
LntL hypnotiSm can be truly said to
have c1litc coodly literature of its own.
As 49, ~ has caught TIE contagion of
research it is more than probable that the
next dcu,;.c S...l ;sIe Ike figures mentioned
largely increased by American societies,
newspapers and literary work.
That people could be put into trance or
artificial sleep has been known for centu-
ries. In the east as far back as 500 b. G.
fakirs have practiced the same tricks as
are being tried today by the physicians a
Europe and America. Both Hindoo and
Chinese writers of that time referred to
these curious psychological experiments in
very much the same manner as the daily
papers do to DR.. Charcot at the present
time. According to DR.. Bjornstrom, a
leading Swedish physician and author,
there is a sect in Egypt that has practiced
hypnotism for forty centuries, and to cap
the climax, an enthusiastic New York The
osophist claims that the deep sleep into
which Adam was thrown at the time of
Ewes creation was merely case Of mes
meric sleep.
Hypnotism made no great impression
upon the European mind until the begin
ming of the Eighteenth century, when in
The province of Dauphine, France, the en-
tire population went crazy on the subject
AT one time not less than 10000 people of
that district imagined that they were
prophets directly inspired from heaven.
From that time on there has been an unin-
terrupted line of hypnotizers and hypno-
tized, amateur and professional, genuine
and fraudulent.
Only in the latter part of the Eighteenth
century was there any attempt made to
explain the phenomena from a scientific
standpoint. Before that time they were
regarded as the manifestations of good
spirits or of devils. In I713 for example, a
famous eX-monk known as Father Gass-
ner, established n spiritual sanitarium in
Regensburg, where he is said to have
drawn around him 10000 His treatment
was simplicity itself He would mesmer-
ize his patient until the latter went into
commissions. This showed conclusively di-
aholic possession ard was considered al
most miraculous by his followers. BY re-
storing the patient to consciousness he was
believed to have exercised the devil and
effected cure.
This curious field was first brought into
the highest prominence by the celebrated
Swiss physician, DR.. Friedrich Mesmer
\ strange combination of discoverer and
quack, of brilliant intellectual powers and
deficient moral qualities, he kept Europe
in turmoil from about ITO to 1885 The
mere fact that the words mesmerize and
mesmerism, coined in his honor. have en-
dured 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 creations
and are as much in vogue today as in his
luxurious parlors on the Place Nendome.
He seems to have known p. T. Barnum's
great principle that human nature loves
to be humbugged and will pay for il pro-
portionately," for the few scientific truths
which he apprehended 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, Lavoiser 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 dis
honest surroundings under which it was
conducted for after all modern hypno
tisn is nothing more or less than mes
rnc-ism. In creating the new name sci
Mesmer was followed by the notorious
impostor CaSliostro, by d'Eslon, Marias
and. greatest, the Marquis de Puysegur.
The last named had a strong scientific
bent and early called attention to mes
meric features which heretofore had been
overlooked He was undoubtedly the first
to give careful study to those 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 studying details,
ascertaining conditions and classifying
phenomena. 1t will probably surprise the
reader to know that over 800 large volumes
have been written upon the subject by sci
entific 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 DIR. George
y. Beard, DR. Grimes and DR.. William T.
Hammond, of the United States; Baron
Won Rcichcnbach, Dr. Preyer and PROBES
sor Weinhold, of Germany; Professor
Hansen, of Denmark; DR.. Bjornstrom, of
Sweden; Professor Azam, Dr. Broca, DR.
Liebault, Professor Richet, and, last in
point of time but one of the greatest in
talent, Professor Charcot. the neurologist,
of France.
When a person is hypnotized he may be
in any one of three states-the cataleptic,
the lethargic or the somnam bulistic. In
the first the body is immobile and appar-
emily 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 charlatans. There is in