El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-01-09

Hypnotized animals are the newest
wonder. writes Rene Bache in the
Globe-Democrat. Prof. Max Verworn,
an eminent German scientist. has
been making an exhaustive series of ex
periments in inis line, and has discov
cred that there is hardly any kind of
mammal. bird or reptile which may no5
be subjected to the ''mesmeric" in
fiuence if the thing is properly done.
Not only guinea pigs and rabbits. b'it
frogs and venomous serpents, have
been successfully treated in this way
in the professors laboratory. the phe
nomena exhibited by them under sucn
conditions being most remarkable.
Since very early times, and certainly
for hundreds of years. it has been
known that some animals. if held in
abnormal positions, would behave
queerly. The most familiar instance
was that of the hen, which, as has Of
ten been observed. may be reduced
to a state of helplessness by holding
her beak to the ground and drawing
from the end of it straight chalk line
OF some length. II has been imagined
that the chicken line for string*:t
that the chicken under such circum-
stances mistook the chalk line for a
string. to the end of which she suppos-
ed herself tied, and so made no at
tempt to move. but it has been proved
by Prof. Verworn that this notion was
a mistake, inasmuch as he is able to
hypnotic the fowl without using any
chalk line. accomplishing the purpose
by simply laying the hen in a certain
posture upon a table.
Prof. Verworn has found that this
experiment with the hen may be snc-
cessfnlly reproduced with many other
tkind of animals. though the mode
TO manipulation adopted in each case
is peculiar. When a guinea pig. for
example, is skillfully grasped and
turned upon it's back it will make en-
ergetic efforts to recover its normal
position. Being restrained. however.
it will soon cease to resist, and will
become rigid in the attitude imposed
upon it. Then the hands may be
taken slowly away, and the creature
will lie stiff and motionless. except.
perhaps, for a slight wiggling of the
legs.
Occasionally an individual guinea
pig will be so susceptible to this pc
culiar kind of hypnotic influence as
to lose consciousness instantly when
turned over upon its back. One
method adopted by the professor was
TO rool the guinea pig over and over,
and another was to lay it on it's back
and spin it like top-a performance
which probably reduced the animal
TO a dazed condition. But the same
effect was obtained by hanging up
guinea pigs with strings in abnormal
positions
The eyes of the hypnotised guinea
pig remained open as usually, and
lasted for a period of
five to ten minutes. or sometimes |
longer. A quick movement in front |
Of the eyes, or a high squeaky noise |
would restore them almost instantly |
at any time, care being required. to |
avoid any such disturbance while ma |
was always very sudden, the creature |
jumping upon its feet andbecoming |
once again it's own guinea pig so to |
speak, except for stiffness in the |
hind legs that was apt to remain for |
, little while-a vestige evidently of |
he abnormal condition.
Young crocodiles and alligators |
prove excellent subjects. responding
readily to the hypnotic influence
when lad on their backs. and be-
coming for a while like dead saurians
This was accomplished even with
arge ones. but for experimental pur-
poses it was found more convenient /
o deal with small lizards. The COM
non green European lizard. for in
stance. was turned over and preven-
ed from spuirming by holding its
Jaws between two fingers and its tail
with the other hand. After awhile
{ would give up trying to bite and |
% get upon its legs, and. the hands |
being slowly withdrawn, would re-
IN hour or even longer. 1t could be
to consciousness at any time
~ blowing sharply upon its nose. AMI