The Durham daily globe., 1894-11-02
TRICKS OF A HYPNOTIST.
4 Profe ssional Subject Fools &
Number Of Physicians.
He Goes Through All the Catalogue OF
Manifestations and Laughs at the Eff
forts Of the Mesmerizers-In-
sensibility to Pain.

Mr.. Ernest Hart, editor of the Lon
! don Medical Journal, reveals many of
the tricks of professional hypnotists in
an article in the Century, entitled The
Eternal Gullible." After quoting lit
orally from the confession made to him
by a hypnotic subject, L., Mr.. Hart
continues:
Being curious to study the technic Of
SO exceptionally gifted an artist as
'L.," accepted his offer, to use his
own elegant languages: ''To give show
at my house." | invited several med
ical acquaintances interested in hyp-
notism, including DR.. j. Milne Bran
well, DR.. Hack Tuke, DR.. Outterson
Wood, Surgeon Colonel J. B. Hamilton,
Mr.. Wingtield and others, to be present
on the occasion. L. brought two other
subjects with him, one of these was in
trOduced by him as his cousin, but
there was SO strong a family likeness
between the three that they might
easily have passed for brothers. There
are few people who, as Sydney Smith
said of Francis Horner, have the ten
commandments written on their faces"
1t is, therefore, not the fault Of these
ingenious youths that their physiog-
nomy is not exactly, to put it delicate
ly, such as would generally be accept
ed as guarantee of good faith. They
went through all their ordinary ''plat-
form" business, Stimulating the hypnotic
sleep, performing various antics under
CONTROL" and in particular 'going
through catalepsy," to use my friends
own phrase.
Not the least interesting part of the
''shOW' was the preliminary hypnOti-
zatiOn of l.. by the demonstration of
physiology already referred to, whose
eyes had not yet been opened to the
fact that he had been imposed upon.
When he commanded l.. to ''sleep," the
latter obediently did SO, with all the
usual appearances of profound hypno-
tizatiOn, muscular relaxation, facial
congestion, upturned eyeballs, not
moving when touched, apparent insen-
sibility, stertor, insensibility to sound,
light, and external stimuli. The per-
fOrmance was splendid and complete.
Mr.. -- enjoyed a moments triumph
But l.. instantly woke up again with
leer as soon as the operator announced
that he was ''under influence" Mr..
- made several further attempts to
hypnotic his former subject, each time
with the same result. The situation
was comic, yet had in it an element of
pathOs; the operator was SO earnest a
believer that the shock of his awaken
ing was almost painful to witness.
LIS performance was not destitute of
merit, but to the critical judgment it
left good deal to be desired. He over
did his part, the congestion of his face
being exaggerated to a degree almost
suggestive of impending apoplexy,
while his snoring somewhat over
stepped the modesty of nature. These
points were dwelt on by more than one
OF the gentlemen present, but am not
altogether free from a suspicion that
IN some Of the cases at least the OBJ
servation was Of an eX-post-facto ma
ture.
One of LIS companions seemed to me
to simulate the hypnotic sleep better
than he did, but L. at once dispelled
any illusion there might have been by
unexpectedly gripping him behind the
knee. Some exhibitions of 'post-hyp-
motto suggestion" given by the two
were well calculated to tickle the
groundlings in a music hall, but could
hardly have deceived any serious OBJ
server. The ''catalepsy business" had
more artistic merit. So rigid did L.
make his muscles that he could be
lifted in one piece like an Egyptian
mummy. He lay with his head on the
back of one chair, and his heels on
another, and allowed a fairly heavy
man to sit on his stomach; it seemed
to me, however, that he was here with
in a straw" or two of the limits of his
endurance. The "blister trick" spoken
of by Truth as having deceived some |
medical men, was done by rapidly Bit
ing and sucking the skin of the wrist.
L. did manage with some difficulty to
raise slight swelling, but the marks
of tie teeth were plainly visible.
One point in LIS exhibition which
was undoubtedly genuine was his re-
markable and stoical endurance Of
pain. He stood before US smiling and
open-eyed while he ran long needles |
into the feshy parts of his arms and |
legs without f1inching, and he allowed |
one Of the gentlemen present to pinch |
his skin in different parts with strong
crenated pincers in a manner which |
bruised it, and which to most people |
would have caused intense pain. L. |
no sign of suffering or discom-
fort to appear; he did not set his teeth |
~ II