The Durham daily globe., 1894-10-30
TRICKS OF A HYPNOTIST.
L Profe ssional Subject Fools a
Number Of Physicians.
He Goes Through All the Catalogue of
Manifestations and Laughs at the Eff
forts Of the MesmeriZers-In-
sensibility to Pain.

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 language: ITO give show
at my house." | invited several med
ical acquaintance interested in hyp-
notism, including DR.. J. Milne Bran
well, DR.. Hack Tuke, DR.. OuttersOn
Wood, Surgeon Colonel J. B. Hamilton,
Mr. Wingfeld 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-
z9tiOU of T NV, ho ~f
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 a
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.
L.. 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
free from a suspicion that |
IN some of the cases at least the OBJ |
was of an cX-pOst-factO ma
ture.
One OF l.. S 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 |
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 OH
another, and allowed a fairly heavy
man to sit on his stomach: it seemed |
to me, however, that he was here with
N straw" or two of the limits of his
endurance. The ''blister trick" spoken
IF by Truth as having deceived some
medical men, was done by rapidly bit
ng and sucking the skin of the wrist.
L. did manage with some difficulty to
'aise slight swelling, but the marks
If tie teeth were plainly visible.
One point in LIS exhibition which
vas undoubtedly genuine was his re-
narka bic and stOical endurance of
pain. He stood before us smiling and
open-eyed while he ran long needles
nto the fieshy parts of his arms and
egs without finching, and he allowed
'ne OF the gentlemen present to pinch
us skin In different parts with strong
;renated plncers in a manner which
bruised 1t, and which to most people
would have caused intense pain L.
lllowed no sign of suffering or discom-
ort to appear; he did not set his teeth
" vince; his pulse was not quickened.
md the pupil of his eye did not dilate
Is Psychologists tell us it does when
'ain passes certain limit. 1t may be
aid that this merely shows that in l..
he limit of endurance was beyond the
lormal standard, or, in other words,
hat his sensitiveness was less than
hat of the average man. At any rate,
us performance in this respect was so
that some of the gentlemen
'resent were fain to explain it by
'post-hypnotic suggestions"
he theory apparently being that l..
nd his comrades hypnotized one an
ther, and thus made themselves in
ensible to pain.
Delaware Sturgeon.
Albany beef is the euphuisn on
he shores Of the Delaware for sturgeon
1eat. Doubtless the term goes back
time when the Hudson sturgeon