Part 12

Of this type were the observations that, through the zeal of Dr. Foissac, the Academy of Medicine was called upon to consider in 1825. He offered to exhibit his subjects, claiming for them all the supernormal powers above indicated--that, indeed, "they were possessed of the genius that had inspired Hippocrates." The work of this commission was not free from dissensions; and five years elapsed before they were able to submit a report. The report was extremely favorable to the magnetists, and urged that, while some of the effects produced were too trivial to serve as evidence of a new system, and while others could be explained as due to the action of the imagination, "some results depend solely upon magnetism and cannot be produced without it." The commission corroborated the physiological and other effects that had been already recorded,--such as quickening of respiration and circulation, the induction of tremors and convulsive movements, insensibility to pain and to ordinary stimuli, the rapport between subject and operator, the continuity of memory in successive magnetic states; but the chief stress was laid upon the more wonderful operations. Of these they certified as genuine, reading with closed eyes, the prediction of the course of disease, clairvoyance, and general mental exaltation. They also testified to the value of the therapeutic effects, and conclude that the "academy should recognize and encourage researches into magnetism as an interesting branch of psychology and natural history." The report was read, but met with such decided disapproval that it was withheld from the public. Its fundamental error was the supposition that the demonstration of so unaccountable a phenomenon as reading without the use of the eyes was necessary to or could establish the existence of animal magnetism; they also erred through ignorance of the extreme rigidity of conditions necessary to exclude the endless possibilities of deception, conscious and unconscious, and of the remarkable subtlety and hyperæsthesia of hysterical and hypnotic subjects.

The next scene upon the stage of the Academy of Medicine was enacted in 1837. At this time, the painless extraction of a tooth from a patient in a somnambulic condition aroused considerable attention, especially as the operator, Dr. Oudet, was a member of the Academy. Other painless surgical operations upon magnetized patients were reported. At about this time, Dr. Berna directed the attention of the Academy to his subjects, for whom he claimed such powers as reading with closed eyes. To test these claims a commission of nine was appointed, and reported promptly, July 17, 1837. This report was negative in the extreme. It raised the objection that everything was made to rest upon the testimony of these somnambulists; it declared that even the proofs of insensibility were defective, and flatly denied the existence of the condition of somnambulism. The alleged interpretation of the will of the operator was referred to unconscious suggestion; the attempt at reading with the eyes closed and the recognition of objects applied to the occiput was either a total failure, or depended for its small measure of success upon the shrewd guesses of the subjects, whose honesty was regarded as not above suspicion. "We are at a loss what to think of a somnambulist who described the knave of clubs on a blank card, who transformed the ticket of an academician into a gold watch with a white dial plate inscribed with black figures, and who, if she had been pressed, would perhaps have gone on to tell us the hour marked by this watch." The commission of 1837, even more specifically than that of 1825, was called upon to consider alleged marvels; and this circumstance should be taken into account in applying to them, as may properly be done, the same criticism as was directed against former commissions. They, too, have mistaken the real issue, and their justifiable skepticism regarding such facts as reading without the use of the eyes unduly biased their judgment in regard to the simpler and readily verifiable phenomena.

The next step was certainly a practicable one; Burdin, a member of the Academy, offered a prize of three thousand francs to any one who could read without the use of the eyes. The offer was open for two years, and subsequently the time was extended. Considering the large number who had claimed this power, few offered themselves for examination; and these either clearly failed to meet the test (being detected in the manipulation of the bandage, and the like), or those who had the somnambulists in charge refused to conform to the conditions required by the examiners; and so the prize was never awarded. The Academy then voted, October 1, 1840, to refuse from that time on to give any consideration to questions relating to animal magnetism.

VII

Soon after the study of animal magnetism was thus denied academic recognition in France, it was in some measure divested of its mystifying and confusing accretions, by the independent observations of an English surgeon, James Braid. Braid's first experience with the phenomena of animal magnetism was at the séance given by Charles Lafontaine, a traveling mesmerist, at Manchester, on November 13, 1841. He came to this exhibition inclined to regard the phenomena as due to deception, trickery, and illusion, and saw nothing to disturb his belief. At a second attendance, he was impressed with the fact that the "magnetized" subjects were unable to open their eyes; this he attributed to a paralysis of the nervous centres by a too prolonged or too intense sensory strain. Braid at once initiated experiments at his home. He began by asking a friend to stare fixedly at the neck of a bottle, held close to and a little above his eyes; in a few minutes the subject's eyelids closed, his head dropped, and he went to sleep; the same process was repeated upon Mrs. Braid, with an equally successful result. These experiments were soon extended, and Braid was successful in sending to sleep nearly all who presented themselves. The regularity and simplicity of the process, as well as the unmistakable evidences of an altered mental condition, left no doubt of the genuineness of the induced sleep. "I now stated that I considered the experiments fully proved my theory, and expressed my entire conviction that the phenomena of mesmerism were to be accounted for on the principle of a derangement of the state of the cerebro-spinal centres, and of the circulatory, and respiratory, and muscular systems, induced, as I have explained, by a fixed stare, absolute repose of body, fixed attention, and suppressed respiration concomitant with that fixity of attention. That the whole depended upon the physical and psychical condition of the patient, arising from the causes referred to, and not at all on the volition, or passes of the operator, throwing out a magnetic fluid, or exciting into activity some mystical universal fluid or medium. I further added that having thus produced the primary phenomena, I had no doubt that the others would follow as a matter of course, time being allowed for their gradual and successive development." The practical importance of the change of view thus inaugurated was extreme; it combated the prevalent notion that to prove the reality of the magnetized condition, it was necessary to perform miracles; it recognized different degrees and stages of the induced condition; it emphasized the dependence of the condition upon the state of the nervous system, and supplied the physiologist with a rational interest in the phenomena; it discarded the vain hypothesis of an universal fluid; it simplified the methods of producing the state, and showed its analogy to ordinary sleep; it proved that the phenomena were independent of the will or any subtle power of the operator, but depended essentially upon the compliance and suggestibility of the subject.

The importance of Braid's position in the history of hypnotism is not easily overrated; it depends largely upon the fact that he was the first to recognize the physiological aspect of the phenomena and to abandon completely any relation with the fantastic theories and practices that grew up in the wake of animal magnetism. It cannot be said that Braid's discoveries, however original with him, had not been anticipated by others; indeed, it is clear that the Abbé Faria's method of inducing the condition and the phenomena that he exhibited were essentially the same as those to which Braid directed attention; while Bertrand, and even Puységur and others, had recognized the rôle of suggestibility and imagination in producing many of the effects. But Braid, far more clearly than any one else, presented the phenomena from a legitimate scientific view, correlated the various phenomena with one another, and laid the foundations of a true science of hypnotism. Without disparaging the labors of others in this field, and without forgetting the unfortunate circumstances in Braid's career which detracted from his influence, the title may be justly claimed for him, of the founder of modern hypnotism, as he was also the inventor of the term.

It would take us too far into the details of the hypnotic condition to describe Braid's practices and experiments; attention will be directed only to those points which have a bearing upon the further history of the topic. At the outset, Braid recognized that he was dealing with an altered nervous condition, in which were present hyperæsthesia, or exalted sensibility of several of the senses, together with a control over functions normally beyond the reach of the will; that these powers could be used to neutralize pain, as well as for curative suggestions in the treatment of disease; and that the phenomena had a distinct relation to ordinary sleep; this last relation led him at first to speak of the topic as "Neurypnology,"--the title of his first book, published in 1843. It is quite intelligible that the confused and misleading form in which the phenomena were presented during Braid's time prevented him from grasping at once or completely the true subjective nature of the condition, in spite of the clearness with which he recognized the marks of its genuineness. Thus, he regarded that a physical influence had much to do with the result, and confessed that he was entirely at a loss to understand why a breath of air upon the skin, as by blowing upon it, should terminate the hypnotic condition; or make a rigid limb flexible, or restore the sight of one eye, and leave the other insensible; or change the condition from that of general inactivity to one of extreme mobility and excitability. Later, however, he recognized in all this, the action of suggestion combined with the imaginative ingenuity of the subject. But his most serious handicap was his connection with the doctrines of phrenology, then occupying a very conspicuous position in the public eye. It was brought into connection with mesmerism or hypnotism by the performances of professional exhibitors, who claimed that pressure upon different parts of the head of the magnetized subject induced the display of the corresponding "faculties." It seems quite clear that Braid was entirely misled by these curious experiments; and in spite of the fact that he later abandoned all belief in their reality, and explained them as due to suggestion and association; and further that he presented some grounds for believing that his former experiments were intended to disprove phrenology,--yet it is perfectly clear why the medical profession and the intelligent public should have discredited Braid's labors by reason of his notorious connection with the doctrines of phrenology. Surely a work which recorded such experiments as the following naturally excited a feeling of distrust. Patients, on being "pressed over the phrenologist's organ of time, always expressed a desire 'to write'--a letter--to her mother or brother; over their organ of tune, 'to sing'; between this and wit, 'to be judicious'; the boundary between wit and causality, 'to be clever'; causality, 'to have knowledge'; in the centre of the forehead, to have 'a certain perception of learning'; and so on." And again "I placed a cork endways over the organ of veneration and bound it in that position by a bandage passing under the chin. I now hypnotized the patient, and ... after a minute and a half an altered expression of countenance took place, and a movement of the arms and hands, which latter became clasped as in adoration, and the patient now arose from the seat and knelt down as if engaged in prayer. On moving the cork forward, active benevolence was manifested, and, on being pushed back, veneration again manifested itself." We are then assured that the subjects knew nothing of phrenology, were perfectly honest, and that no indications were given of the expected results. Braid frankly records his belief in the possibility of calling out phrenological activities by pressure on definite points of the cranium; and the only loophole of explanation which he left open was the one to which he later resorted, claiming that the manifestations may be due to "a system of training during the sleep, so that they may come out subsequently as acts of memory, when corresponding points are touched, with which particular ideas have been associated through audible suggestion." In brief, in this explanation, given in 1854, Braid demonstrated the admitted possibility of arousing emotions in hypnotic subjects by inducing the expressions with which those emotions were associated. But in 1843 he wrote, "If I am to believe the evidence of my senses, therefore, in anything, I cannot see how I can doubt the relation which consists between certain points of the cranium and the mental manifestations which are excited by acting on them during hypnotism. I believe there are few physiological phenomena which can be more clearly demonstrated, especially at such an early stage of their investigation."

Braid's later works did not attract the attention which they deserved, and perhaps it is proper to base an estimate of his insight into the phenomena of hypnotism upon his more mature but less influential writings. In these, Braid recognized the subjective nature of the phenomena as fully as they are recognized by the extreme representatives of the "suggestionist" school of to-day. Indeed, he spoke of the state as "Monoideism," to emphasize the fact that, while in this condition, the subject's mind was totally absorbed in one idea; and that this narrow concentration of consciousness, this influence of the dominant idea, completely controlled mental and physical action, and rendered the subject insensible to all other stimuli. Braid acquired a profound knowledge of the effects of suggestion, both directly, as verbal suggestion, and the indirect suggestion of manner and expectation. He tells of a physician in London who used "mesmerism" with his patients, and who produced catalepsy of the hands and arms and other wonderful effects by the application of magnets. Braid recognized that the subject, though asleep, was in a condition in which she could hear what was going on. He assured the physician (in the subject's hearing) that he had a little instrument in his pocket, which though not a magnet, would produce equally marked effects. Braid gave the patient the little instrument, with the remark to the physician that it would produce catalepsy in both hands and arms; and such was the result. Next, Braid declared that now she would be unable to hold it, which also was the case, the little instrument dropping out of her hands whenever it was given to her. When the patient was aroused, Braid next told the physician that when the little instrument was suspended on the third finger of the right hand of the patient, it would send her to sleep; to which the physician responded, "It never will." But Braid insisted that it would; and the event proved that he was correct. The little instrument, so variously potent in combination with a proper suggestion, was nothing more than his portmanteau key and ring. It illustrates the reverse of Voltaire's saying, that incantations, together with a sufficient amount of arsenic, will kill your neighbor's sheep. In the same way Braid proved that the experiments which seemed to show that certain persons were sensitive to metals were in reality due to unconscious suggestion, and that when, unknown to the subjects, wood was substituted for metals, the expected results ensued. The peculiar effects described by Reichenbach's sensitives he naturally referred to the same cause; as also the doctrine, then brought forward, that susceptible individuals could perceive the effects of drugs enclosed in sealed vials. All these alleged phenomena were correctly referred to unconscious suggestion and to hyperæsthesia. Homœopathic remedies, he argued, owed their efficiency to the same action of the expectant imagination; for the effect could hardly be ascribed to a quantity so minute that a patient would have to take a dose every second of the day and night for 30,000 years to get a single grain of the substance. He analyzed the possibilities of error in the interpretation of clairvoyance; and showed that perfectly natural and well-understood processes were sufficient to furnish an intelligible mode of accounting for so much of the success as could be verified. He recognized the dangers of hypnotism in inexperienced hands; although he believed that the moral sensibility of the subject was sufficiently retained in the hypnotic condition to prevent the abuse of the state for criminal purposes. He appreciated its field of applicability in the cure of disease, though he by no means regarded it as a panacea, and also its special use in surgical operations. In fine, Braid, in spite of certain shortcomings, which are characteristic only of his earlier writings, stands out preëminently as the first to appreciate at their true value the entire range of the complex factors of the hypnotic condition; to distinguish the genuine phenomena from those which owed their marvelous aspect to unconscious suggestion; and to show the relation of the whole topic to the recognized body of scientific knowledge.

VIII

In spite of these very great merits, Braid's influence was for a considerable time a slight and uncertain one; this was probably due not alone to the opposition which his methods and teachings aroused in the medical profession, but far more to the natural distrust of a topic which was exploited in the form of popular and vulgar exhibitions. The main association of hypnotism was still with the absurd notions of animal magnetism, and with attempts to demonstrate marvels, such as clairvoyance and the sensitiveness to magnets. It thus came about that, during the period subsequent to Braid's discoveries, hypnotism presented a varied aspect. On the one hand, unlimited skepticism and a determined repudiation of readily verifiable observations; on the other, uncritical enthusiasm without appreciation of science and its methods. But in addition to the conservatism of the man of science, and the groundless pretensions of the mesmerist, are found the contributions of a few discerning students aiding, though in a sporadic and uncertain way, the progress of the science. What had been repeatedly established was forgotten and had to be reëstablished; observations made by those who in some one direction had fallen into error were discredited, and had to be verified anew. The progress was thus tortuous and ill-defined, but none the less the essential and important phenomena were gaining wider and more authoritative recognition. The use of hypnotism as an anæsthetic was most influential in compelling the attention of the medical profession; for the frequent reports of surgical operations upon hypnotized patients by men of reputation could hardly be dismissed as illusory. As early as 1821 Recamier had utilized the magnetic insensibility for surgical purposes; in 1829 Clocquet performed a severe operation upon a magnetized woman; in 1837 Oudet extracted a tooth from a patient in this condition; from 1842 on a number of English surgeons--Tupham, Ward, Elliotson, Purland--used hypnotism for various surgical operations, and a Mesmeric Infirmary for this purpose was successfully maintained. Many of the reports of such operations were received with extreme skepticism. The celebrated surgeon, Lisfranc, regarded Clocquet as a dupe; and Oudet met with a similar reception. Most extensive and remarkable were the series of operations performed in India upon natives by Dr. Esdaile, and reported in 1846. The most shocking and dangerous pathological growths were removed without pain and with the minimum of discomfort. Dr. Esdaile is entitled to high rank in the account of this period, because his work was done so largely in independence of others; moreover, he developed a theory of the phenomena quite analogous to that of Braid; and in days when anæsthetics were but little known naturally grew enthusiastic over the value of the practices which he had so successfully demonstrated.

A more detailed account of this period than is here possible would consider the physiological contributions of such as Carpenter and Bennett and Mayo, whose criticisms and explanations of the alleged marvels and false theories of mesmerism stemmed but could not stay the flow of extravagant practices and beliefs with which England was then deluged; with the carefully detailed conclusions and experiments of Azam, of Demarquay, and Girard-Teulon, of Durand de Gros (who later assumed the name of Phillips, and through whom Braid's work was introduced into France); and of several other and often independent workers. There is one, however, whose position is worthy of separate notice, and who in a peculiar way forms the transition between the present status of hypnotism and that which prevailed a half century ago. I refer to Dr. A. A. Liebault, who, until within recent years, maintained at Nancy the hypnotic clinic founded by him forty years ago. In 1866, he published a valuable and original work describing his methods and practice. He put his subjects to sleep by verbal command, and suggested to them the relief of their pains and ailments, enforcing the suggestions with such prescriptions as were likely to be effective. He thus adopted the method of "suggestion" as the central point of the system, and may be regarded as the founder of the "suggestionist" school, also known, though not in the main by reason of his labors, as the school of Nancy. Living in retirement, out of touch with the medical profession, presenting his results in a form unattractive to the scientific mind, and encumbered by peculiar personal views, his work attracted no attention; and it remained for more influential investigators, particularly Charcot at Paris and Bernheim at Nancy, to establish the recognized doctrines of modern hypnotism.

It will be instructive at this point to retrace our steps and complete the survey of the antecedents of hypnotism by some account of a series of contributions, which, while they may represent the backward steps in the zigzag line of progress from obscure speculations to science, are nevertheless important historical factors in the continuity of the movement, and in the maintenance of the interest in this branch of psychological study. The fanciful doctrines, which Mesmer revived, originated in mediæval mysticism and superstition; and at no time, from then till now, have such extravagant systems and notions failed to attract an all too extensive class of intellectual malcontents, to whom the progress of knowledge seems absurdly slow and laborious. Before the establishment of the scientific theory of the relation of body and mind, the opportunity in this field for such speculations was endless, and it is to the vast history of pseudo-science that an account of these properly belongs. It is for the purpose of gaining a proper understanding of the various conceptions which were and are associated with hypnotism that an excursion into this barren area is here made. The fantastic schemes of Mesmer, Puységur, and Pétetin, and even of Braid, have already been noticed, and the seed sown by them still bears undesirable fruit. To J. P. F. Deleuze (1785-1835), author of influential works on mesmerism, may be accorded the doubtful honor of ranking as leader in the movement which continued the mystic and eccentric elements of animal magnetism. He accepted the combined marvels of mesmerism and somnambulism. He directed his efforts towards the elaboration of the paraphernalia of the baquet, the wand and passes, and the inculcation of most detailed cautions and regulations for the guidance of the operator. Every movement of the hand, and eyes, and head assumed special significance. The poles of the human frame must be considered, and no departure made from the prescribed manipulation. The process of demagnetizing is thus described:--

"When you wish to put an end to the sitting, take care to draw toward the extremity of the hands and toward the extremity of the feet, prolonging your passes beyond these extremities and shaking your finger each time. Finally, make several passes transversely before the face, and also before the breast, at the distance of three or four inches; these passes are made by presenting the two hands together, and briskly drawing them from each other, as if to carry off the superabundance of fluid with which the patient may be charged. You see that it is essential to magnetize, always descending from the head to the extremities, and never mounting from the extremities to the head." The magnetism is imparted to inanimate objects, and "one may magnetize a pitcher of water in two or three minutes, a glass of water in one minute. It is unnecessary to repeat here that processes pointed out for magnetizing water, like everything else, would be absolutely useless, if they were not employed with attention and with a determinate will." "The magnetizer who uses a wand ought to have one of his own, and not lend it to any person, lest it should be charged with different fluids--a precaution more important than it is commonly thought to be." It is this phase of the subject that found its way into Germany, and was most typically embodied in the writings of Wolfart, Kieser, and Ennemoser. For such mystics nothing seemed too absurd to find credence, nor too profound to find an explanation in animal magnetism.

It was through Deleuze's influence, also, that mesmerism was transplanted to America. As early as 1837, Charles Poyen lectured and wrote on animal magnetism in New England; he exhibited the usual phenomena, made the usual claims for supernatural faculties, and gave the usual fanciful expositions. It was, however, through Dods and Grimes, in 1850, that mesmerism became prominent in America, under the absurd name of "electro-biology." The popular interest which they aroused may be inferred from the fact that they were invited to exhibit before Congress, the signatures of Clay and Webster appearing in the letter of invitation. The absurdity of their writings is sufficiently evident in the following extracts: "Let two persons of equal brain, both in size and fluid, sit down. Let one of these individuals remain perfectly passive, and let the other exercise his mental and physical energies according to the true principles of mesmerizing, and he will displace some of the nervo-vital fluid from the passive brain and deposit it in his own instead. The next day let them sit another hour, and so on day after day, until the acting brain shall have displaced the major part of the nervo-vital fluid from the passive brain and filled up that space with its own nervous force, and the person will yield to the magnetic power and serenely slumber in its inexpressible quietude." "Your brain being magnetically subdued is worth hundreds of dollars to you. You are then ready for the day of distress." An ignorant young man is magnetized and forthwith converses with a "mental activity which put to blush men of superior education and intellectual endowments." An eminent lawyer is astonished at his learning and his quotations from legal authorities. He speaks Greek, Latin, French, Polish, all perfectly, and without accent; though when awake he knows no language but English. Grimes determined the function of parts of the brain from the answers of his somnambulist, and thus discovered that the corpus callosum is designed to equalize the flow of the nervous fluid. From the same source he received the assurance of the correctness of his phrenological views. "I then asked her concerning the location and uses of several new phreno-organs, which I supposed that I had discovered, and to my surprise she answered me without the least hesitation, and confirmed all my previous opinions, not even excepting those opinions which I had never mentioned to any one, and which she could only have known by clairvoyance."

"Electro-biology" made its way into England, and there found a place among the endless forms of absurdity and pseudo-science then prevalent. A few illustrations are powerless to give any adequate notion of the extent and variety of the extravagant pretensions with which animal magnetism was saturated in the years following Braid's observations. The diabolic origin of mesmerism was discussed by pulpit and press; a pamphlet, entitled "Dialogue between a Mesmerist and a Christian," maintained that the two faiths were incompatible. It was generally urged that mesmerism favored materialism, and in 1856 the Catholic Church issued an edict against the practice. The skepticism of the medical profession found expression in extreme and certainly unscientific statements. Dr. Buchanan (1851) of Glasgow, holding that the alleged condition was the result of acting and trickery, proposed the experiment of telling a hypnotized boy that he could not move, and then applying the birch; this, he felt confident, would satisfactorily refute the whole doctrine, and if, in ninety-nine cases out of one hundred, the boy did not scamper off, though his feet were mesmerized, he promised to recant "and to believe in mesmerism ever after." There is unfortunately no record of the acceptance of this test, which, in comparison with the hypnotic anæsthesia of surgical operations then performed, would have been easily met. From the following comment of a medical journal, in 1843, one may infer that the controversy did not always recognize the politesses of discussion. "The mesmero-mania has nearly dwindled in the metropolis into servile fatuity, but lingers in some of the provinces with the gobe-mouches and chaw-bacons, who, after gulping down a pound of fat pork, would, with well-greased gullets, swallow such a lot of mesmeric mummery as would choke an alligator or boa-constrictor."

The two writers to be presently cited are selected as illustrations of the truth that the possession of intellectual attainments in other directions does not insure against such gross errors as are about to be noticed, and the second, moreover, serves as a type of the compilations of the period, to which the reader may be referred for further instances. The reputation of Miss Harriet Martineau insured general attention to her "Letters on Mesmerism" (1845). Miss Martineau was cured of a long-standing illness by magnetic treatment, the operator being a noted mesmerist, Spencer T. Hall. The magnetizing process gave rise to peculiar sensations which were attributed to the action of the magnetic fluid. "My head has often appeared to be drawn out, to change its form according to the traction of my mesmerist, and an indescribable but exceedingly agreeable sensation of transparency and lightness through a part or whole of the frame has followed." Miss Martineau was thus made a convert to mesmerism, and initiated experiments of her own, finding in her maid, J., a somnambule of unusual powers. She maintained her health by following the prescriptions given by the somnambule, and the latter exhibited the many varieties of marvels with which we have become familiar. The spontaneous or suggested utterances of the somnambule upon matters relating to her exalted condition were unquestioningly accepted. "Do the minds of the mesmerist and the patient become one?" "Sometimes, but not often."--"Is it, then, that they taste, feel, etc., the same things, at the same moment?" "Yes."--"Will our minds become one?" "I think not."--"What are your chief powers?" "I like to look up and see spiritual things; I can see diseases, and I like to see visions."--"Can the mind hear otherwise than by the ear?" "Not naturally; but a deaf person can hear the mesmerist when in the sleep; not anybody else, however."--"How is it that you can see without your eyes!" "Ah! that is a curious thing. I have not found it out yet."

From the "Letters to a Candid Inquirer on Animal Magnetism," by William Gregory, M.D., F.R.S.E., professor of chemistry in the University of Edinburgh, selections appropriate to our present purpose may be made almost at random. Some writing is placed in the hands of the somnambule, and from this she pictures the writer, tells of the lady's recent ailments, her surroundings, her travels, and her condition; and when the lady herself is presented she immediately recognizes her as the subject of her vision. A lost watch is recovered and the thief detected by the same means; the whereabouts of absent friends traveling in distant lands is determined by placing a sample of their handwriting or a lock of their hair in the somnambule's hands. The somnambule transports herself to past times, and details the events of the life of Mary, Queen of Scots, as she witnesses them. In her magnetic vision she follows, day by day, the adventures of Sir John Franklin, who was then in the Arctic regions. She frequently spoke of his occupations, and, when asked the time of day, found it either by looking at a timepiece in the cabin or by consulting Sir John's watch; and from the difference in time indicated by the somnambule the longitude of Sir John Franklin's location and the directions of his movements were calculated. "On a Sunday afternoon in February, 1850, she said it was about 10 A.M. there, and described the captain, Sir John, as reading prayers to the crew, who knelt in a circle with their faces upward, looking at him and appearing very sorrowful. She even named the chapter of St. Mark's gospel which he read on that occasion." Although we are naïvely told that, "as a general rule, we ought to verify the vision before admitting it as an instance of genuine clairvoyance," yet in this case the somnambule's assertions had been so uniformly verified that it seemed unnecessary to question the correctness of her mental Arctic explorations.

All the varieties of supernatural conditions--conscious lucidity, conscious clairvoyance, sympathetic clairvoyance, sympathetic retrovision, direct clairvoyance, mental traveling, introvision and prevision, spontaneous retrovision--were formulated and added their quota to the general mystery. The doctrine of cross-magnetism, or the disturbing influence of different magnetizers, was developed, and became a favorite mode of accounting for failures of all kinds. Extravagant doctrines originating in other fields of pseudo-science were incorporated into magnetism; the magic mirror or crystal was one of these. The notion is doubtless very ancient,--compare the shew-stone of Dr. Dee (1527-1608),--and was revived by Baron Du Potet, who drew a black magic circle on the floor with a piece of charcoal; this the subject approached, stared at it fixedly, and seemed fascinated by it; grew excited, breathed hard, moved to and fro, and then saw visions in the magic mirror. "It was no dream nor nightmare; the apparitions were actually present. A series of events were unrolled before him, represented by signs and figures which he could understand and gloat over, sometimes joyful, sometimes gloomy, just as these representations of the future passed before his eyes! Very soon he was overcome by delirium, he wished to seize the image, and darted a ferocious glance towards it; he finally started forward to trample on the charcoal circle, the dust from it arose, and the operator approached to put an end to a drama so full of emotion and terror."

"Darlingism" was a term brought forward by one Darling, who used a disc, said to be made of zinc and copper, to put his subjects to sleep. Like electro-biology, it was merely a new name for the same phenomena exhibited in connection with absurd theoretical notions. The phrenological manifestations, so unfortunately countenanced by Braid, continued to be exhibited by others in connection with the hypnotic state. Clairvoyance continued to be regarded as one of the most essential tests of the mesmeric condition, and took a prominent part in public exhibitions. Somewhat later it was incorporated into the equipment of spiritualism, and this movement probably exerted a mystic influence upon mesmerism.

The investigations of Baron Reichenbach added a new class of sensitives. Reichenbach announced the doctrine of an "odic" force or "odyle," streaming forth from magnets and from the human frame, and affecting the human system; certain sensitives could see these emanations, and magnetized subjects at once become "odic" sensitives. The doctrine that certain persons are sensitive to metals was an ancient one. It reappeared in the myths that were woven about Casper Hauser, the wild boy of Nuremberg (1828), who gave evidence of his unusual origin by shuddering in the presence of a needle, and evidencing intense agony in passing a hardware shop. Miss Martineau's J. holds a piece of steel so tightly that no one can wrench it from her, but touch the steel with gold and it falls from her hands at once. The following citation will show how this movement was utilized in mesmeric practices: "But to ascertain whether he (a Major Buckley, a mesmerist) can obtain conscious clairvoyance, he makes slow passes from his own forehead to his own chest. If this produces a blue light in his face, strongly visible, the subject will probably acquire conscious clairvoyance. If not, if the light be pale, the subject must first be rendered clairvoyant in the sleep. Taking those subjects who see a very deep blue light, he continues to make passes over his own face, and also over the object, a box or a nut, for example, in which written or printed words are inclosed, which the clairvoyant is to read. Some subjects require only a pass or two to be made clairvoyant, others require many. They describe the blue light as rendering the box or nut transparent, so that they can read what is inside. If too many passes be made by Major B., the blue light becomes so deep that they cannot read, and some reverse passes must be made to render the light less deep. Major Buckley has thus produced conscious clairvoyance in eighty-nine persons, of whom forty-four have been able to read mottoes contained in nut-shells, purchased by other parties for the experiment."

It must not be supposed that these practices have entirely disappeared. In a work published as late as 1869 we may read such sentences as, "the clairvoyance of an idiot in a state of somnambulism would inspire me with more confidence if I were sick than the greatest geniuses which grace modern medicine;" and again, "it never could be imagined with what tact, accuracy, and precision, somnambulists account for anything that takes place in them. They are literally present at the performance of all their organic functions; they detect in them the slightest disorder, the minutest change. Then of all this he forms a clear, exact, and mathematical idea. He could tell, for instance, how many drops of blood there are in his heart; he knows, almost to a gramme, how much it would require to satisfy his appetite at the moment; how many drops of water would be necessary to satisfy his thirst, and his valuations are inconceivably exact. Time, space, forces of all kinds, the resistance and weight of objects, his thoughts, or rather his instinct measures, he calculates, appreciates all these matters by a single glance of the eye." In the lectures and cheap compendiums telling "How to Mesmerize," and giving "The Whole Art of Mesmerism," by which the traveling mesmerists of yesterday, if not of to-day, extend their fame, one may find these very same doctrines side by side with garbled accounts of recent discoveries in hypnotism. But we have already dwelt too long upon the aberrations of the human intellect, in which the ludicrous and the solemn are so curiously combined.

The transition from the antecedent to the present status of hypnotism was accomplished in the main by two factors; by the precise determination, according to rigidly scientific methods, of the physiological and psychological characteristics of the hypnotic state, and by the advocacy of its claims and the further development of its sphere of influence, on the part of professional men of ability and acknowledged standing. The mischievous and erratic associations of mesmerism, as also of hypnotism, were difficult to outgrow. Unjustifiable skepticism and neglect were the natural consequences of extravagance, perversion, and charlatanism. Even the repeated and verifiable production by hypnotic means of anæsthesia sufficient for serious surgical operations, was ignored; partly, perhaps, because of the discovery of ether, which turned the interest in anæsthetics into new channels. The legitimate and progressive investigations of such as Braid, Liebault, Azam, Durand de Gros, and others, were only fitfully and sparsely recognized. As late as 1874 Dechambre, in his Medical Encyclopedia, declares that all the phenomena rest upon self-deception and delusion, and that the condition does not exist. But beginning with the third quarter of the century the attitude rapidly changed. Richet (1875) published an important paper in an authoritative physiological journal, in which he again established by scientific methods the reality of the hypnotic condition. In this he wrote, "It requires considerable courage to speak aloud the word somnambulism. The stupid credulity of the masses and the pretensions of certain charlatans have brought the thing itself as well as the name into such disfavor that there are but few men of science who do not look disparagingly upon any communication on the subject." The advocacy of Charcot (1878) and his demonstrations at the Salpêtrière finally succeeded in gaining the day; and in 1882 the ban placed upon academic discussions of this subject was lifted by the reception on the part of the Academy of Science of a memoir by Charcot on hypnotism. The extensive series of studies instigated by him at the Salpêtrière, and carried on with marked ability and success by those who in some measure drew their inspiration from the field of inquiry which he inaugurated; the recognition which he secured for the presentation of studies upon hypnotism before learned societies; the far-reaching influence of his authority,--all contributed to the acceptance of hypnotism as a scientific fact, and the inclusion of its study within the circle of the sciences. It should be carefully noted, however, that the period (which, to connect it with the name of but one of its representatives, may be called the period of Charcot), though marked by important extensions of our knowledge of hypnotic phenomena, was in essence a period of reinstatement. All the essential and fundamental discoveries had been made and forgotten, and even had been rediscovered decades before; but not until this period were they extensively and authoritatively acknowledged. This reinstatement was naturally the result of coöperation of many workers; while hypnotism still remained a favorite study of French neurologists, other countries contributed extensively to its advance. In Germany the main impetus to its study seems to have been given by the striking demonstrations of hypnotic phenomena by a Danish hypnotist, Hansen (1879 and 1880), which led to their study by various physiologists. The earliest American contribution of this period (and which was somewhat independent in origin) was a study of trance-states by Dr. G. M. Beard, of New York, in 1881. But accounts of contributors and contributions belong no longer to the historical aspect which we are considering, but to modern hypnotism. Suffice it to say that the literature of the subject of the past two decades is almost alarmingly voluminous in its extent, and most cosmopolitan in its composition; that cognate departments of science--physiology, psychology, medicine--consider its bearings upon their special problems; that its therapeutic application to the cure of disease by the efficacy of the power of suggestion is recognized extensively by general practitioners, by neurologists, as well as in specific hypnotic clinics; that its utilization as a special method of psychology has been productive of interesting and valuable contributions; and that it illuminates many a dark recess in the story of the historical and sociological development of humanity. One phase of the matter, alone, seems destined to serve as an historical turning-point; the year of the new epoch is best marked by the appearance in 1886 of Dr. Bernheim's classic volume on "Suggestion and its Therapeutical Applications"; and the key-note of the newer doctrine lies in the term "suggestion." Charcot and his followers had, in different degrees and ways, emphasized the physical characteristics of the hypnosis; they held that in typical subjects there were objectively distinct hypnotic states, characterized and induced by physical manifestations. They recognized the importance of suggestion, but in addition to it also recognized the existence of objectively differentiated hypnotic phenomena. These and related doctrines are commonly referred to as those of the "school of Paris." In contrast with this is the "school of Nancy," of which Dr. Bernheim is the acknowledged leader, and which may be characterized as the "suggestionist" school. This school recognizes different degrees of suggestibility, and an endless variety of resulting phenomena, but regards suggestion, in its various forms, as furnishing a sufficient and comprehensive clue to the entire range of observations. It is compelled accordingly to regard the three distinctive states recognized by Charcot as themselves the product of unconscious suggestion and of a contagious esprit de corps of the Salpêtrière subjects. The school of Nancy to-day enjoys the most extensive following, and may be said to represent the dominant trend of present study. One may fairly say that the present psychological study in this domain is the study of suggestion, one form, though only one form, of which is hypnotic suggestion. With the complete realization of the psychological significance of the hypnotic state, the fierce and adventurous struggle for existence of hypnotism may be said to terminate in its undisturbed adaptation to a scientific environment.

The history of the antecedents of hypnotism is rich in suggestiveness. For the historian of the inductive sciences it illustrates the influence of the circumstances accompanying a discovery upon the status of the discovery itself; that the acceptance of a discovery depends more upon its logical concordance with current scientific conceptions, upon the manner of its demonstration, than upon the intrinsic content of what is demonstrated. It is as difficult in science as in real life to escape the influences of unfortunate associates; the interesting state which we now recognize as hypnosis was naturally discredited when it consorted with animal magnetism and the marvels of somnambulism, but was recognized when its credentials were expressed in intelligible physiological and psychological terms. For the historian of human error the story is equally significant. It illustrates again that the mental attitude essentially influences truth and error alike; that with all due allowance for ignorance, for faulty observation, for defective organization of knowledge, error was due, more than to any of these, to the lack of suitable concepts for the proper absorption and appreciation of the phenomena in their true significance. For lack of these there was misconception and oversight, and in their stead prepossession by notions of a wholly irrelevant character. Such notions were fostered by what we retrospectively recognize as pseudo-science; such was the fictitious animal magnetism, an entity never demonstrated, but supported only by a superficial analogical plausibility. They were fostered also by the activity of the marvel-loving impulse, which is unresponsive to the uniformities of nature, and favors mystic fable, while overlooking sensible fact. "Wer unmögliches geglaubt, könnt unmögliches verrichten." The special form of belief, the name of the system, the nature of the explanatory theory, seem almost accidental. Throughout all times, the same intense craving to overthrow the limitations of the human mind has been present, and has been satisfied by much the same beliefs and theories. Mesmerism harks back to astrology; prophets and seers have always existed; the mystery of the attractive force of the magnet for long made magnetism a most popular explanation of any obscure phenomena; the same performances that convinced the mesmerist of the existence of the magnetic fluid are evidence to the electro-biologist of the electro-vital force, of the "od" to the followers of Reichenbach; and--more striking still--the outfit of the modern spiritualistic medium, the trance, the clairvoyant discovery of one's private affairs, the reading of messages in sealed envelopes, the conversation with absent or departed friends, are all to be found in the annals of somnambulism. Truly, history repeats itself; and the endless forms of mysticism, error, and extravagance seem immortal; they change in form and accommodate themselves to the advance in knowledge and civilization, and parody the forms of statement and the methods of science in an age which has learned to be impressed with scientific demonstrations.

For the special student of hypnotism no lesson of the history of its antecedents is more practically significant than its illumination of the extent, variety, and subtlety of unconscious suggestion. If Puységur's subjects prescribe for their own ills and see without their eyes; if Pétetin's read what is placed on their stomachs; or the interposition of poor electric-conductors prevent manifestations; if one of the subjects examined by the commission of 1784 could not be deprived of speech unless the magnetizing band passed below his mouth; if one of the Salpêtrière subjects of 1829 could be cured only by immersion in the river; if Deleuze's subjects respond differently to the minute differences in manipulations, which he believed to be essential; if the subjects whom Braid examined could prove the truth of phrenology, and the mesmerist's subjects feel the magnetic fluid streaming through their systems; if within recent times paralyses are transferred from one arm to the other by the action of a magnet, or Dr. Luys's subjects show the characteristic effects of a drug when a sealed vial containing it is placed upon the subject's neck, or respond to the puppets which he has manipulated,--surely it is as obvious that some spontaneous caprice of the subject or unconscious suggestions of the operator have originated these notions, and that unconscious imitation has further contributed to their dissemination, as it is obvious that all these in part mutually contradictory phenomena cannot be true, objective facts. The significance of more recent investigations in allied fields still turns upon the factor which unconscious suggestion plays in their production. The advocates of telepathy, whether occurring under hypnotic or more normal conditions, feel confident that unconscious suggestion as well as all other sources of error have been eliminated; the skeptical critics point out overlooked and novel modes of unconscious suggestion, and draw confidence from the history of the past, both of the unwarranted flight to improbable hypothesis on the basis of an alleged absence of a natural explanation, and of the solvent power which future investigation may hold in store.

The story of the conquest of a realm of fable by a campaign of enlightenment is always a tale of interest. The opening of a new vista directs one's gaze outward over unexplored areas. It may be, as our seventeenth-century chronicler tells us, that "we are all Indians and Salvages in what we have not accustomed our senses," and that, "what was Conjuring in the last age is Mathematiques in this"; but our more extensive acquaintance with the course of discovery and the demonstration of truth has given us a more logical sense of the probable and the improbable; and the evolution by which conjuring becomes mathematics is more intimately understood. The recent establishment of hypnotism in its scientific aspects furnishes the proper perspective for the comprehension of its antecedents; it gives confidence that its future development will incorporate the spirit of present research, as it will avoid the aberrations of the past; and it gives to the story of its vicissitudes a timely pertinence as well as a psychological significance.

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF ANALOGY

The origin of human endowment lies hidden in an obscure and unrecorded past; the fact of development, of the gradual unfoldment of capacity, stands out conspicuously throughout the historical record of human achievement, and is equally recognizable in the extensive remains of prehistoric humanity. The story of the mental development of man is constructed from travelers' accounts of primitive peoples, from the records of early civilizations, from the sequences of thought and belief that are considered in the history of culture, from the study of the intellectual growth of childhood, from the observation of the less progressive elements of current civilizations. The present essay attempts to portray the status of one form of intellectual process, or of mental attitude, which characterizes undeveloped stages of human thought, and has played an important and variable part in the drama of mental evolution. I propose to present the "Natural History of Analogy,"--meaning thereby the treatment, according to the methods of natural science, of a type of mental action, interesting at once as a psychological process, and again from its practical results as a factor in the anthropological history of the race.

An analogy is a type of reasoning, and as such is referred to the logician for more precise definition. His briefest explanation of the term may be stated as the inference of a further degree of resemblance from an observed degree of resemblance; the argument that because the Earth and Mars agree in the common possession of a solid crust, an atmosphere, presence of water, changes of season, the possibilities of rain and snow, and other observed qualities, they will also agree in the further respect of being inhabited. This may serve as an exemplar of the analogical argument in its purest and most developed form; but in the survey of the varieties and distribution of this natural product of rationality, it will be necessary to include many forms of thought diverging more or less from, though always retaining, a recognizable relation to this type. The analogical inference, indeed, goes back to an inarticulate form, in which it merges into a feeling rather than an argument, a susceptibility to an influence supported by undefined plausibility, rather than a conclusion from tangible evidence. But however lacking in definiteness or formulation, however unconsciously realized and barely expressible, the tendency or disposition to believe is communicated to others and becomes an influential factor in the ultimate fixation of belief and in the guidance of conduct. Logically considered, analogy is always a weak argument; and becomes weaker, as the range of observed resemblance is more and more limited, as the resemblances belong to accidental, unessential traits, and as the underlying basis of the inference is removed from direct verification. Psychologically, its power to influence belief may be very strong, and when this is not the case, there still may exist a disposition to be influenced by analogical considerations, even when these are successfully resisted or suppressed. The instinctive proclivity towards the use of analogies, whether it be logical or anti-logical in effect, forms an interesting psychological trait. Logic counsels how we may think most profitably and correctly; psychology describes how we actually do think or tend to think. The logician is the gardener bent upon training certain selected flowers according to an ideal standard, and eradicating all others as weeds; while the psychologist is the botanist to whom all plants, weeds, and flowers alike are worthy objects of study, and who, indeed, traces significant resemblances between the despised weed and the choice flower.