Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-07-03
A WONDERFUL FORCE
AN UNKNOWN POWER THAT MAY
REvOLUTloNizE OUR IDEAS.


Magnetism and Hypnotism-An Intima-
ton of What This Force May Mean In
Surgical Operations.
In the history of civilization frequent
allusion is made to an occtslt and weird
force, seemingly possessed by a few
people of unusual temperamental devel-
opment, called odylic force. This force
was first Systematically studied and
taught as well as exhibited by DR.. Mes
mer, a Suabian, in 1918. 1t q later date
Baird of England took up the subject,
and after long and patient study made
still further advance in its application to
benefcent purposes, and DIR. Carpenter
of London followed up the study of what
had already been named as hypnotism
and made 1t to some extent useful in the
cure of disease.
Like electricity. the mesmeric, mag
netic, hypnotic or odylic force is still a
great mystery. Nobody knows its true
origin or its essential character. They
are both occult and known only by their
phenomena. While electricity is being
daily harnessed to the car of civilization
and progress and. compelled to serve
mankind IL q multitude of ways, mag
netism or lnesmerism has come more
slowly into the service of man.
The odylic force is vastly more subtle
and elusive than the electric, and there
fore yields far more tardy response to
the question of science: What art thou?
Whence contest thou" On account Of
its great power for evil as we'll as good
many governments have forbidden its
practice and PRONUNCIATION, notably
those of France and Germany. 1t has
always been discourtenanccd by the
church as a species of hercsy and witch
craft, and until about so years ago it was
practically under ban everywhere.
Since the inductive method has been
adopted for finding ont natures most
sacred secrets, she has begun to whisper
her occult mysteries into the souls of her
most inquisitive children. and we come
to know more and more of her fine sor-
ceries. For the most part this fine force
has been devoted to the grotesque. and
through its influence men and women
have been made guys and merry andrews
instead of loving devotees and faithful
servitors.
Yet many thoughtful men see in this
strange force a subtitle power for good
and are betaking themselves to its study
with n devotion and purpose that seems
surely bound TO divorce mesmerisn from
monkeyism and harness one more of the
fine forces of nature to the triumphal
Car Of science. Jugglery and iingoism
-.
veloped resources of the race and have to
be shaken off sometimes with the energy
that piled the pillars of the temple upon
the devoted head of Samson and his per-
secutors. But that energy is now active
ly at work clearing the hypnotic field of.
the phihstines that have infested it.
The people of our fair capital have
been given a series of exhibitions of the
marvellous powers and capacities of this
still too little known force. DR.. H. L.
Flint of New York, an educated and
conscientious physician and one of
family of great physicians, is giving
nightly proferts of this mysterious force
in our midst, and while to the casual OBJ
server the humorous and ludicrous
phases of the exhibitions are the attract
i've features, yet to many thoughtful
minds there is a deep and profound sig
nificance in it.
Chemical anasthesia is held to be the
greatest discovery of all tie ages, and
yet here is subtle force that does for
many people not only all that chloro-
form can do in lulling pain and Danish
ing horror and fear, but does more, for it
can Danish disease in at least some of its
forms without putting the patient in
peril. 1t can make its votary sing a
happy roundelay while the surgeon is
seyering his mangled members to save
he. 1t can convert all pain INTO beau
tiful dream of happiness and$liminate
the inflammatory process thI makes re
covery problematic in so many cases.
Among the odic phenomena produced
by DR.. Flint Is one which makes the blood
run cold in all sensitive and sympathetic
spectators. In his daughter, beautiful
and delicate girl of 10, he induces cata-
lepsy, a state which SO stimulates death
that in India people in that condition are
buried for many days and then return to
active life as if they had only slept a
night, and while in this condition, with
every muscle in the body rigid and hard
as sole leather, she is laid across two
chairs placed under her head and feet,
and large limestone rock weighing 500
pounds is laid upon her chest and abdo-
men, where it is broken into fragments
with a heavy sledge hammer by some
powerful man who is selected by and
from the audience.
From a private demonstration of this
phenomenon made in my own Office,
without any chance for collision or de-
ception, and every possible opportunity
/ could desire to test the genuineness Of
the demonstration, can only say
more than ever profoundly imp
with the wonder and majestY-a
alive fat that gave us. thG
DR.. H. w. RobSio