The Indianapolis journal., 1896-04-26
POWER OF THE WILL
GREwsoME CHAPTER FROM THE
LIFE OF DR. ANNA KINGsFoRD.
Had ~ Mania for killing vivfsectfon-
lists by sswilIins- Their Death. and
Claimed to BE successfuI.


BILE exercise OF the will power has lately
been asserted. That a person endowed with
the hypnotic faculty may obtain absolute
control over the actions. thoughts and in
tentions of another is, as every one knows, a
commonplace OF recent science. It is now
contended that influence of this kind may be
given a still wider range. extending even TO
life itself. In other words. 1t is believed that
a person endowed with the particular tenn
permanent required may. by sheer exercise Of
the will, and without any physical contact
whatever. cause the death of selected vic
tim, even though he be at the moment hun
dreds OF miles away.
The central idea Is, of course very old
one. 'It is possible" says Paracelsus. that
my spirit. without the help Of my body, may,
through fiery will alone. and without a
sword. stab and wound others. The will Is
a most potent operator in medicine. The
imagination of another may be able to kill
me or save me. If we rightly esteemed the
power OF mans mind nothing on earth would
be impossible The same theory was acted
upon by the witches and wizards of q later
day, who thought that by piercing a wax
doll with pins or slowly melting 1t before a
fire they could compass the death Of the
person in whose image 1t had been made.
Hitherto these ideas and practices have been
contemptuously dismissed as the worthless
superstitious lumber of an unenlightened
age. but change OF attitude In regard to
them has suddenly taken place. 1t is openly
contended that the medieval magicIans
were. however blunderingly, on the track of
great scientific truth. Nay, more, one of
the most highly cultivated and most widely
known women Of our own time has made 1t
her boast that by the mere concentration
of her will sha succeeded in assassinating two
European scientists of the first rank. These
successes she followed up by an attempt upon
a third-the great Louis Pasteur himself.
But this time, as the story goes. she failed
The effort recoiled upon herself. and. though
her intended victim fell Ill, 1t was she who
died
The woman in question was DR.. Anna
Kingsford, the noted advocate of the medical
education of her sex. Her character and
career are among the most interesting to be
found In the records of the present century.
Her maiden name was Anna Bonus. She
was the daughter OF a London ship owner Of
italian descent, whose family in the middle
ages had given a cardinal to the church,
a founder to Venice. an architect to the Vat
lean and an expert to the mysterious study
OF alchemy. She married the Rev. Mr..
Kingsford, Church Of England clergyman,
and; on being admitted into the Roman
Catholic Church, took the name Of Maria
Johanna. The names by which she was
known TO those around her are thus varied.
Her married life was an extraordinary one
sven for these end of the century days.
While still betrothed she had bargained with
her clerical lover that the marriage should
velopment OF her gifts To this he consent
ed. and the contract so made was fully car
ried out. He was tied to parish in which
his wife suffered constantly from asthma,
and he therefore acquiesced in absences on
her part, which shattered all possibility of
constant companionship. He relieved her of
oIl hrtfo lt<.f1 ItfkfA NJ ID -
taking them upon himself Finally, desir-
Gus that she should work out her own hap
piness In her own way, he consented to her
living for years 'in the closest spiritual and
intellectual companionship" with Mr.. Ed
ward Maitland, gentleman whose ideas,
beliefs and mystical imaginations strangely
now that his strange companion is dead,
has Just given TO the world In most fascin-
her temperament, methods and aims in life.
ORIGIN OF HER CRUSADE
To complete her medical studies and take
her doctors degree Mrs. Kingsford went
to Paris. 1t was impossible at that time to
obtain the full professional qualifications IN
England. She was accompanied by Mr.
Maitland and they lived together, ostensibly
as uncle and niece, In an apartment" In
the Rue Jacob. While in Paris she first
came to know something In practical way
about vivisection, and It was her horror
at the suffering 1t involved that led her to
make those murderous experiments In the
supposed success OF which she glorled. She
herself has told how 1T came about. Very
Paris Faculty she was one morning, while
studying alone in the Natural History Mu-
scum. suddenly disturbed by frightful
tressing than words can convey, proceeding
from some chamber on another side of the
of the museum and asked him what it
meant He replied with a grin, 'It Is only
she q ED dogs being Xivisectsd in & Mr. seclard,s
There swept over me-" she wrote, "a wave
of such extreme mental anguish that my
rs e'' ror suoVr sun - S,sraton II Wa no, s1
felt; II was nearer despair than these
A, then and there, burying my face in my
hands. with tears of agony. I prayed for
for the abolition of vile a wrong, and to
do at least what one heart and one voice
land '' '
1t was in these circumstances that her
anti-vivisection crusade had its Begin
ming. That In the course OF It she should
have recourse to abnormal methods Is only
what might have been expected from a
Her mind was filled with weird ideas. She
was persuaded, for instance, that she was
the reincarnation of Anne Boleyn. who was
the reincarnati0n OF Joan OF Arc, who was
the reincarnation of the Empress Faustine,
who finally was the reincarnation of Mary
Ma8ualeDe. Sne Was seer OF VISIONS ana
believed that IN dream life she had be-
come acQuain ted not only with many Illus
trious personages OF history, but with the
whole tribe of gods and goddesses belong
ing to the mythology of ancient Greece.
And she was firmly convinced that she
possessed strange personal faculties far
transcending those OF ordinary and
women.
In waging war against the practitioners
and advocates of vivisection she resolved
to make full use of the powers with which
she thought herself endowed Her first Sc
1ected victim was Claude Bernard This
famous vvisector had introduced the en-
ployment OF new kind of oven, in which
living animals were slowly baked to death.
Upon him, a the foremost living repre-
sentative of the science she abhorred, Anna
Kingsford resolved that her Walls of wrath
should first be poured Her purpose was
strengthened by a conversation she had
with the professor under whom she was
studying. In response to her questions he
declared that in his opinion the oven was
useless and very unscientific. But he went
on to contend that 1t was absurd. in mat
ters of that kind. to allow sentiment or mo-
rality or religion any weight Self-gratif-
cation the main point, and against 1t
purely emotional arguments were Of no
value BY this mode of reasoning he sue
ceeded in working his pupil into a perfect
Of nd af fou no Srrdd fel