Human magnetism, or, How to hypnotise : a practical handbook for students of mesmerism

Front matter

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Introduction

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There is nothing new in hypnotism save the name — Hippocrates mentions the practice — ^sculapius employed breathing and manipulations for the cure of his patients — “Magnetism active everywhere” — Mesmer’s theories and practice — His claims rejected by a Commission in 1784 — “The report was not unjust, but very unsatisfactory”— Jussieu’s withdrawal from the Royal Society Commission and his minority report — Subsequent report of the French Academy of Medicine, and the vindication of magnetism — Puysegur’s experiments and somnambulism—Progress of hypnotism — Dr. Braid practically the originator of “hypnotism” — His theory of concentration and nerve-sleep — The hypnotic state — The bans of the Holy Mother Church — Baron von Reichenbach’s discovery of odylic force — Dr. Esdaile’s practice in India — The American electro-biologists— British experimenters — Professor Gregory on the phenomena and methods of induction — All the phenomena observed in mesmerism and hj^pnosis are observable in human beings without the action of either — Opinions of writers and experts in hypnotism — Differences of opinion — The folly of theorising— Suggestion an important factor, but as a hypothesis unduly strained to cover the facts — Two items to be considered, the subject and the operator — A running criticism on MM. Binet and Ford’s work on “Animal Magnetism ” — Some of Heidenhain’s views — His methods of inducing hypnosis — Confession of non-success — Unsatisfactory nature of his theories — Extract from Dr. Charcot’s article on “Magnetism and Hypnotism” — Interesting experiments in super-sensitivity — Photography by suggestion — Fascination of magnetism — Natural

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deductions — Dr. Li^bault of Nancy — His theory of concentration— Its importance — Dr. Bramwell on concentra* tion — Degrees of susceptibility — His own experience — Difficulty of influencing the mentally unsound, idiots, and children — Experimenting with animals— Successful results without regard to intellectual attention, concentration, expectancy, or other hypothesis of hypnotists — Mr. llomanes’ opinion 1-31

Chapter I Trance, Dream-life, And Hypnotic States

The world within and without man — The human brain the medium between the two worlds — That which does not affect us for us does not exist — The gift of sensitiveness — Interesting test experiments — Professor Gregory on double consciousness — Dr. M'Laury and "The Magnetic Sense” — Dr. Beard’s opinion that "Trance is a disease of the nervous system” — Hypnosis a perfectly healthy condition— Trance and the dream state compared — Incoherence of the majority of dreams accounted for — Experiences in trance — The physiological and the psychical dream — The importance of dreams — Degrees of susceptibility— Susceptibility to subjective impressions — Refined organisation requisite for true susceptibility — A summary of the hypnotic states 32-56

Chapter II

Hypnotism not a cure-all — Its value as a therapeutic agent in intractable diseases — One reason why it should be employed in health — Where hypnotism fails — Hypnotism inducing remarkable cures — The value of sound sleep — Hypnotism as an anaesthetic — Its employment by Braid and Esdaile — The danger of chloroform — Some remarkable surgical operations under hypnotism— Dr. Milne Bramwell— Dr. Fahnstock — Dr. Liobault’s cures of confirmed alcoholism and other evil habits — Dr. Andrew Wilson’s criticisms and ignorance of hypnotism— Dr. TucJjey’s opinions— My opinion of Dr. Tuckey — Cure of dipsomania

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— Suggestions in connection therewith — What suggestion in hypnotism means compared with suggestion in ordinary life — Dr. C. Theodore Green— Comprehensive views of the mind’s action — Dr. Felkin — Evidence of the range of diseases successfully healed by hypnotism — Other benefits 57-72

Chapter III

Mainly based on erroneous conceptions — Mr. Hart’s self-contradictions— The late Sir Andrew Clarke — Medical men and unqualified practitioners — Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace —

Dr. Norman Kerr’s objections — My comments — Dr. Wyld’s opinion on the folly of confining hypnotic practice to medical men — Professor Delboeuf — Dr. Wines’ objections — His erroneous deductions — Dr. Lidbault’s serious statement— Rebutting evidence of leading hypnotists — Post-hypnotic crimes practically unknown — Reason for failure — The Society of Psychical Research — Prolonged trances —

Dr. Bernheim’s advice to operators — Dr. Kingsbury’s advice to patients — “ Magnetic treatment” as a therapeutic agent free from all objections — Why hypnotism is not practised more extensively by medical men . . . 73-89

Chapter IV

Hypnotism is nerve-sleep — Suggestion a factor in the induction of this sleep — To cure by hypnotism and suggestion — Suggestion in ordinary life — Silent suggestions— Active suggestions — The influence of suggestion in the education of self — Why mental suggestions are vital — Rationale of the power of suggestion — Braid on suggestion, and why effective in nerve-sleep — The potency of hypnotic suggestion — The special susceptibility of the hypnotised — The theory of cure based on suggestion not satisfactory — Suggestion in phenomena — Susceptibility of subjects, as exhibited in conscious but subjective suggestion — Psychical sensitiveness — Experiments of Dr. Ochorowicz — Phenomena of mental ex-

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ANALYSIS or CONTENTS

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pression — Graduated sensitiveness in the subject — Graduated suggestions from the ordinary objective to the subjective — Some speculation on sensitiveness — Dr. Ochorowicz’s concession to the transmission of human magnetism — Photography of thought — Human magnetism or nervaura essential to that photography — Experimental suggestions— Conclusions 90-103

Chapter V

Life and electricity — Analogous forces — Dr. Richardson’s experiments— Revitalising power of electricity — Electricity in medical treatment — Why human magnetism is more suitable — ^^The brain the capital of the nervous system —

The nervous telegraphic system — Grand trunk lines, minor branch lines, and the operating depots or centres — Mental and magnetic transmission — Diagnosis of disease — The importance of vito-electricity — Its substitution by chemical electricity in experiments by Ferrier — How vito-electricity or zoo-magnetism is generated in the system —

The influence of the mind on the body — Change of mental direction necessary in healing and in the product of phenomena— The influence of bodily conditions on the brain — Healing influence — The nature of emanations — Their creation and character— Influence on social life — Unconscious employment in healing— The human hand in healing— Secondary causes — Their use and failure — The objectivity of the aura demonstrated by experiment — Recognised under various terms 104- 1 21

Chapter VI How To Hypnotise : Self-preparation

Hints preparatory to the induction of phenomena — Self-preparation — Selection of subjects — Testing susceptibility —

The value of perseverance — The cultivation of health, will, and concentration — Development of human magnetism— Deep breathing — Breathing exercise improves health and strengthens will — What passes are, and why they should be cultivated— Blowing and breathing as

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passes — The use of the eye — Means employed to cultivate the gaze — Physiognomic hints and other aids — Relative and positive inferiority of subjects — The alphabet of hypnotism — The importance of self-preparation — Attempted classification of operators and subjects . 122-140

CHAPTER YII

HOW TO HYPNOTISE : ACTUAL PRACTICE

Experiments in the waking state with the view of testing susceptibility — The spine test — Deductions therefrom —

How to fasten subject’s hand and cause him to kneel — Indications of susceptibility presented by the forehead — The centre of somnolence — Testing susceptibility by the concealed contents of packets — Holding fingers to organ of somnolence, and hand to the upper surface of the head — Phenomena of the sixth sense — Hallucinations common — Why the higher phenomena are seldom induced — True and false hallucinations — My objections to hallucinations as a prominent feature in experimentation— Methods of procedure outlined— Hypnotic and mesmeric processes — Sleep induced by warm hand on forehead — Dr. Jean de Turchanoff on passes — Fascination— Hypnosis by electricity — Luy’s Miroir rotatif— Other means equally effective — Nancy method — Dr. Moll’s method — Causes of failure — Methods of induction to be varied according to the subject and the class of pheno mena — How to awaken a subject — The use of the crysta. disc — Mode of procedure — A few simple experiments —

How to open the eyes — Some more experiments — Some facts about suggestion, and experiments therewith illustrated— Experiments on hallucination should be kept in a very subordinate position 141-165

Chapter VIII How To Hypnotise : Phreno-magnetism

The importance of phrenology — Dr. Gall — Dr. Spurzheim, George and Dr. Andrew Combe — Principles of phrenology— Principles and practitioners — Dr. Frederick Bateman’s tribute to Dr. Gall — Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace

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and the prejudice of men of science — Phrenology a science — Dr. Davey — Dr. Bernard Hollander — Human nervaura, the stimulating agent — Phrenology a key to the susceptibility of the subject — All experimentation must be carried out on basis of natural adaptability — Phreno - magnetism in therapeutics — Also, a test of character — Forecasting results in the waking state by operations in hypnosis — M. Fern’s phreno-magnetism experiments— Sense hallucinations — Explanation of failure — Professor Gregory on phreno-magnetism — Actual demonstrations— The two theories — The anticipation of and answer to objection — The induction of phreno-magnetism — Will, sympathy, or subjective suggestion not in all cases the cause of induction — Cerebral exploration proving localisation of function — General benefits . , , 166-179

Chapter IX

Community of sense — Mode of procedm'e — Special organs of sense — Varied sensations — The sensatisn of force distinct from that of feeling — Common and general sensations — Sensation from diseased conditions — Hyperesthesia, excess of nerve sensitiveness — Sense hallucinations sometimes traceable to hyper-sensitiveness — Sense-transference and thought-transference — Experiments neglected by hypnotists— Verified hallucinations of taste, touch, hearing, sight, and thought — Sensitiveness and concentrativeness — Control of pulse by suggestion and without — Control by sympathy— The original of Du Maurier’s Trilby — Marvellous powers of imitation — Truthfulness in subjects — Community of taste — How to conduct the experiment — Smell — Touch — Sight — Grading experiments — Sensetransfer experiments allied to thought-transference — Community of emotion — Condition of subjects in these experimental stages — Hypnotists deny clairvoyance, but accept thought-reading and telepathy — Opposition founded on the dread of being esteemed superstitious — Dr. Gregory on clairvoyance — Human microscopes — What is clairvoyance— Explanations — Various phases of clairvoyance —

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Natural — Induced — Direct and indirect clairvoyance — Experiments with odylic mirror disc — The induction of clairvoyance — A good clairvoyant a rara avis — Clairvoyance not peculiar to somnambulism, and may appear subsequently in the normal state — Major Buckley’s method described by Professor Gregory — Bertolacci’s method of vague contemplation — Gradual development of clairvoyance — An experiment — The use of the disc in clairvoyance — Dr. Baker Fahnstock’s method explained —

Some advantages — General suggestions — Hints on the conduct of experiment — Experimenting in public and in private — Advantages and disadvantages — Precautions — Public entertainments to be deprecated — Experimentation with healthy and refined subjects beneficial alike to operators and subjects — Concluding remarks . , 180-213

Chapter X How To Heal — Hypnotic And Magnetic Methods

Psychopathy — Mind cure — Psychic healing — Christian science healing — Its false assumptions — Remarkable cures — Divine science healing — A metaphysical-theological system— Faith-healing — Self-healing — A method suggested — Advantages and objections — Hypnotic treatment — Hypnotic processes — Induction of hypnosis — Healing suggestions — Manipulations — A case of chronic indigestion, treatment and cure — A case of gastralgia, treatment and cure — A case of dumbness, treatment and cure — Remarks on these cases for the young practitioner — The diseases curable by hypnotic processes — Prejudices of parents— The value of graded suggestions — Illustrative case of treatment of dipsomania — Procedure and cure — The value of touch, presence, as well as suggestion — Magnetic healing — The body diseased and the body treated — Subtle healing agents — Human nervaura — Magnetised fabrics — Dr. Esdaile’s experiment — The proper atmosphere for healing — The effects of the patient’s nervaura on the healer — The secret of successful medical diagnosis — Diseases diagnosed from a clue — Magnetic healing — Touch, proximity “and the laying on of hands” — “I touch,” says Vignes, “and God cures” — Laying on

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of hands essential to cure — Suggestion valuable — Potency of human nervaura in the healing art — The temperature and pulse of patient improved by simple contact — “ Cause, suggestion, plus something else” — The most successful magnetic healers do not induce hypnosis — Mr. George Milner Stephens, the Australian healer — His method of healing — Kemarkable cures — Dr. Mack, magnetic healer — Method of treatment — Objections urged against hypnotism cannot be made against magnetic healing — Difficult cases of hallucination and the value of hypnotic treatment — Auditory hallucinations — -Objective, subjective, and unknown causes — Attempted explanation of the causes — Voices — Obsession — Mode of treatment — My uniform treatment by magnetic healing— Other serious hallucinations — Treatment — Dr. Elliotson’s prescience —

My appeal to intelligent laymen .... 214-242

Appendix 243

Index 247

INTRODUCTION

The bibliography of hypnotism has of late become so extensive that a detailed history of the subject is unnecessary; what is presented here is intended to throw a light on the practice rather than the history of hypnotism.

There is nothing new in hypnotism, save the name. The phenomena observed and induced by hypnotic methods are as old as human tradition, and traces of them can be found in the sacred and profane histories of mankind. The methods in use among the Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks, and Eomans present a striking similarity to those employed by magnetisers and hypnotists of more recent years. The passes of the mesmerist are illustrated by a bas-relief taken from a tomb at Thebes ; and by the goddess Isis on the Zodiac of the temple at Denderah. The writings of Varro and Tacitus, the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, are full of records of phenomena akin to hypnotism — namely, prophecy, seership, divination^ visions, trances, sacred sleep, dreams, gifts of speech

A and healing, and all the “signs and wonders ” following the exercise of faith and the imposition of hands. In the church ceremonies of to-day, we have still the form of “laying on of hands” without the spirit or the results, possibly owing to the absence of faith in the communicants and in the priestly operators.

Hippocrates mentions, according to Tacitus, the practice of using the hands in curing disease, and says : “ It hath often appeared, while I have been soothing my patient, as if there were some strange property in my hands to pull and draw away from the afflicted parts aches and divers impurities, by laying my hand upon the place, and by extending my fingers towards it. It is thus known to the learned that health may be impressed on the sick by certain movements and by contact, just as some diseases may be communicated from one to another.”

The conception of Hippocrates, that health may be communicated as some diseases are by contagion, appears to me quite correct, and nothing has been advanced by hypnotists of recent years which is sufficiently convincing to the contrary. Why are passes and manipulations used to-day, if there be no virtue in “ certain movements ” and in contact ? The hypnotist of the Nancy school uses both passes and manipulations when all other methods fail.

.(Esculapius, we are informed, was able to allay pain by breathing on the inflamed parts ; by stroking with his hands he could throw patients into long and refreshing sleep ; by manipulations, passes with contact, he could subdue the insane and cure the hysterical. He appears also to have induced auto-hypnosis, i.e., put himself in a state of sleep, and when in that state 'to have prescribed for his patients. Here we have an indication of modern clairvoyance and the magnetic sleep.

The curative and phenomenal use of hypnotism may be traced in the lives of the early saints, in the exorcism of evil spirits, in the removal of disease said to be the result of obsession, in the records of ecstasies and stigmata, fastings, visions, and so forth.

One of the earliest records of the use of the hand occurs in Solon, of which Stanley (“ History of Philosopy,” 1666) gives this translation —

“ The smallest hurts sometimes increase and rage More than all art of physic can assuage ;

Sometime the fury of the worst disease The hand, by gentle stroking, will appease.”

Pomponatius, born at Mantua in 1462, and a professor of philosophy at Padua, was convinced that disease could be cured by means of passes, and that human magnetism emanated from the human body by the action of sympathy and the will of the operator. He said : “ When thou who art endowed with this faculty dost operate by employing the force of the imagination and the will, this force affects their blood and their spirits, which produce the intended results by means of an evaporation thrown outwards.”

John Baptist van Helmout, born in Brussels in 1577, a Flemish philosopher of repute, and a noted chemist, referring to the signs and wonders of mediaeval times, preceding the advent of Anton Mesmer by nearly two hundred years, wrote thus : “ Magnetism is active everywhere, and has nothing new but the name ; it is a paradox only to those who ridicule everything, and attribute to Satan whatever they are themselves unable to explain.”

Dr. Frederick Anton Mesmer was born at Stein, on the banks of the Ehine, on the 5th May 1734, and in due time became a physician. In intelligence and personal appearance he was a remarkable man. Influenced, no doubt, by preceding writers on magnetism, such as Paracelsus, Pomponatius, Kircher, Helmont, Wirdig, and others, and especially the experiments and cures of the Jesuit, Father Hehl, he became deeply interested in cures by magnetism, which proceeded from steel plates and magnets. By accident Mesmer discovered that when he had bled a patient, and passed his hand over the place, the bleeding stopped ; in a word, all the effects attributed to ferromagnetism could be induced by the human hand; hence his adoption of the term “ Animal Magnetism,” and the theories founded thereon. Mesmer established a “cure” at Vienna, and in 1775 published his now historical but somewhat visionary speculations on magnetism. His successful healing created quite a furor of excitement. Dr. Osterwald, a director of the Academy of Science at Munich, was cured of paralysis. Professor Baur of blindness, and numerous other patients less noted of various diseases. His success, and the nature of his proceedings, eventually aroused great opposition, especially from the members of the Faculty. The government was influenced by these, and forbade his exp' riments, whereupon he left Vienna and proceeded to Paris. In this fresh field he performed many remarkable cures, and obtained almost incredible patronage. He taught pupils for large fees, and bound them over to secrecy. He received the support of the government. His hypothesis, was, however, fantastic, and his methods of practice, playing as they did upon the imagination of his patients, and developing various nervous phenomena, explained nothing and revealed nothing. Whatever there was in “ Animal Magnetism,” neither he nor his pupils could demonstrate it. When his claims were investigated in 1784, by a commission — which commission included Franklin, Lavoisier, and Guillotin — there was nothing on which to report. Hence it concluded : “ That there is no proof of the existence of the animal magnetic fluid ; ” and that “ the violent effects which are to be observed in the public practice of magnetism are due to manipulations, to the excitement of the imagination, and to that root of mechanical imitation which leads us to repeat anything which produces an impression on the senses.” It was further stated : “ That the spectacle of these crises is dangerous on account of the imitative faculty which is a law of nature ; and, consequently, that all treatment in public, in which magnetism is employed, must, in the end, be productive of evil results.”

“ The report,” says Dr. Buchauan, “ was not unjust, but it was very unsatisfactory. If Mesmer did not know how to demonstrate scientifically an influence emanating from the human constitution, the commissioners should themselves liave made a proper investigation ; but they did not. That task, however, was performed to some extent by Jussieu, a member of the committee appointed by the Eoyal Society of Medicine about the same time, which also issued a negative report. Laurent de Jussieu made a separate minority report, based on experiments which he regarded as proving that one human being may affect another by friction, by contact, or by simple proximity. Had the committee been composed of earnest truth-seekers on this subject, like the naturalist Jussieu, animal magnetism would have assumed the shape of a dawning science at once, as galvanism began in Galvani’s experiments with a frog.”

The conclusion arrived at by Laurent de Jussieu demonstrates that one cool, observant man can get at facts better than commissions. When he said that the phenomena were in a large measure induced by frictions, contact, proximity, and animal heat, or as he termed it, “auimalised electric fluid,” he exhibited a keener insight than the learned commission, which attributed all the phenomena to what may be briefly summed up as “ perverted imagination.”

Jussieu’s withdrawal from the Eoyal Society Commission, and his report, left the way open for Foissac to urge the Academy of Medicine to take up the subject again. A commission of eleven members sat in June 1825, and after five years’ research issued a favourable report in 1 8 3 i . In this report the phenomenal results of magnetising are fairly stated ; the methods of inducing them, apart from magnetism, are recognised, and the higher phenomena admitted, while in paragraph 1 1 it is stated : “ However, we may conclude with certainty that the state (somnambulism) exists, when it gives rise to the development of new faculties, which have been designated by the names of clairvoyance, inhiition, internal prevision, or when it produces great changes in the physical economy, such as insensibility, a sudden and considerable increase of strength, and when these effects cannot be referred to any other cause.”

Dr. Moll, within recent years, has had the courage to vindicate Mesmer’s character, and thus set an excellent example to some writers on hypnotism. I think there can be no doubt of his personal sincerity. Whatever his mistakes and faults, we owe much to him, and can learn something even from his errors. His followers adopted a modified view of magnetism, and departed wholly from his methods. The Marquis de Puysegur, his pupil, who induced the magnetic sleep by passes only, is an instance to the point. By accident he discovered what is called somnambulism, somnoloquence, and clairvoyance, all of which now enter the best forms of magnetic or hypnotic treatment. He induced what we now recognise as the true hypnotic states. His patients were put into the unconscious sleep, but heard and obeyed the operator’s voice. He allowed no one but himself to touch them, and under his care they exhibited unexpected powers — hence not the product of suggestion only. For what the hypnotist suggests, he expects. His patients were able to diagnose disease and exhibit all the phenomena of lucidity. Puysegur’s motives in treatment were scientific — a love of truth and philanthropy. He gained no fees, gave no entertainments, and set the example to modern hypnotists not to experiment with hysterical women for the sake of obtaining notoriety.

The subject became of sufficient importance to enlist the attention of M. Deleuze, a naturalist connected with the Jardin des Plantes, Paris. His book on “Animal Magnetism” is a remarkable and critical contribution to the subject, marred, perhaps, by tedious instructions in the art of manipulations. In Prussia, Great Britain, and America, the phenomena and the theories were also sufficiently attractive not to be eclipsed by the ascendency of Napoleon and the subsequent fall of the Empire. Anatomists, physiologists, psychologists, and medical practitioners devoted their attention to the subject, and at no time could it be said that the practice was in “ the hands ” of the unlearned. In Prussia, Bertrand, Georget, Kluge, and Kieser; in Britain, Dr. Ashburuer, Elliotson, Gregory, and Archbishop Whately, gave their adhesio’^ to the practice.

In 1841, Dr. Braid, a Manchester surgeon, devoted

INTKOJJUUTiON special attention to the subject. He had witnessed certain public performances of an operator named M. La Fontaine. Braid was at first of the opinion that the whole entertainment was fraudulent, and he set himself the task to find out how it was done, with the result that he was converted as to the facts, and set himself to devise a new theory to account for them. This theory he called neuro-hypnotism, or nerve sleep. He found that he could produce trance by “a fixed and abstracted attention of the mental and visual eye on one object, held about a foot from the eyes, and above their level.” That is to say, he tired the nerves of his patients’ eyes by getting them to concentrate their attention, as well as vision, on a small bright object. Hence “ expectant attention,” as well as fatigue, was necessary to induce hypnosis. The latter, without “ expectant attention,” merely induces ordinary sleep. The hypothesis of Braid may be summed up in two items : — •

1. That the assumption of any force, as magnetic fluid, mesmeric influence, or other unknown agency, was unnecessary.

2. That the state was a super-normal physiological one, induced by a physical or appreciable action on the nervous system.

These views, plus unconscious suggestion, zoo-magnetism, and the influence of nervaura, are adopted now by many hypnotists. Dr. Braid, indeed, coined the term hypnotism, and may be called the progenitor of all later hypnotists — for he induced certain phenomena, similar in character and in results to those produced by mesmerists, without passes, and other methods said to impart the “ magnetic fluid.” In 1 842, Dr. Braid published a work on “ Neurypnology, or the Eationale of Nervous Sleep considered in Eelation with Animal Magnetism.” In the same year he offered to read a paper before the British Association of Science, in Manchester. His offer was rejected, and his paper returned. The narrowness and prejudice exhibited by the advisers of the association, however, did not prevent many of its members hearing the paper read privately, and investigating thoroughly many of the remarkable cures accomplished by the new system.

Hypnotising by concentrating the attention upon a bright object, although revived by Braid, was known to the ancients. It was employed in Egypt from tw'o to three thousand years before the birth of Christ. The white porcelain plate presented by the operating priest had two triangles ^ drawn in some black substance upon it; in and about these were certain mystic signs, and oil was poured on the plate to increase its brightness. The patient or worshipper, who was to be thrown into the trance state, was required to gaze intently for some time at the figures in the centre of the design. Add to this the expectancy of the subject, the supposed power of the priests, or rather the gods whom they represented, with the mystic surroundings, and it is not surprising that the trance state supervened, or that many pheno-

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mena were manifested surpassing, in startling surprises, the possibilities of modern hypnotism.

We are indebted to Braid : by his careful and painstaking investigations, he rescued animal magnetism from the charge of imposture ; in a word, he demonstrated that the phenomena were real. That was a great gain. He also demonstrated the value of hypnotism in the treatment of patients. That was another great gain. Moreover, he was possibly the first to make clear the attitude of the patient towards the induction of phenomena ; he taught that these, in a large degree, depended upon certain bodily and mental (psychical) states in the subject, and not on the will or passes of the operator exercising a specific or any influence.

Mesmerists have, as a rule, underrated the attitude of the patient, and the actual changes which take place in him, i.e., in which the patient’s own mind, and not the mind of the operator, is the prime factor. Mr. Braid, however, was wrong to ignore his own personal influence and presence. He omitted to notice that at the time of carrying out his experiments, he was in his physical and psychical prime. Surely this counts for something. Sound in mind and body, inspired by certain convictions and the enthusiasm of research, he entered upon his labours as fully equipped as any magnetiser could desire, and we can understand his success. His clients were practically hypnotised before they gazed at his pencil-case.

Braid possibly never knew anything about what is now called Telepathy — or that form of it recognised as “ unconscious suggestion ” — but he could not ignore that there was something — not animal magnetic fluid — which proceeded from the operator to the patient, capable of exciting the cerebral organs and inducing what has been called phreno-magnetic phenomena.

About the period of Braid’s investigations, the miracles of magnetism became so notorious on the Continent, that the Catholic Church, or, more precisely, the Holy Inquisition, forbade in 1847 its use, and priests who indulged in the practice had to give it up. The Inquisition was induced to take action, not merely because such practices interfered with the spiritual interpretation and spiritual prerogatives of the church, but because they were misused, as in Mesmer’s time, and led to demoralising results.