door between them, it was entirely without result; and no other reason for the failure could be assigned than her entire freedom from expectancy. So in another case, in which Mr. Lewis (accounted one of the most powerful Mesmerists of his time) undertook to direct the actions of his somnambule in the next room, according to a programme agreed on between himself and one set of witnesses, whilst the actions actually performed were recorded and timed by another set, there was found to be so complete a discordance between the programme 'willed' and the actions really executed, as entirely to negative the idea of any dependence of the latter upon the directing power of the mesmeriser.' Mr. Lewis was challenged to this test-experiment by Professors of the University of Aberdeen, in consequence of his public assertion that he had repeatedly induced the mesmeric sleep, and had directed the operations of his somnambules, by the exertion of his 'silent will' from a distance. His utter failure to produce either result, however, under the scrutiny of sceptical enquirers, obviously discredits all his previous statements; except to such as (like Mr. A. R. Wallace, who has recently expressed his full faith in Mr. Lewis's self-asserted powers,) are ready to accept without question the slenderest evidence of the greatest marvels. Further, when challenged to give proof before the same Committee, of the power he had publicly claimed of overcoming the force of gravity by raising a man from the ground and keeping him suspended in the air for a short time,

simply by holding his hand above the man's head and willing the result, Mr. Lewis admitted "that he had "no such power, and that he could only influence "a person lying on the ground so as to make him start

up, though others were endeavouring to hold him "down." Now I would ask you to compare this disclaimer, made to a body of sceptical Professors of Aberdeen, whose published report of it was never impugned by Mr. Lewis, with the assertion made to and accepted by Professor Gregory of Edinburgh :— "When Mr. Lewis stood on a chair, and tried to draw "Mr. H., without contact, from the ground, he gradu"ally rose on tiptoe, making the most violent efforts to rise, till he was fixed by cataleptic rigidity. Mr. Lewis "said, that had he been still more elevated above Mr. "H., he could have raised him from the floor without

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contact, and held him thus suspended for a short time, "while some spectator should pass his hand under his feet. "Although this was not done in my presence, yet the "attraction upwards was so strong, that I see no reason "to doubt the statement made to me by Mr. Lewis and "others who saw it, that this experiment has been success"fully performed." One is inclined to say of such pretenders, and of the believers in them, "These be thy gods, O Israel.”

1

A converse experiment performed by Dr. Elliotson himself, satisfied him that 'expectancy' would take the place of what he maintained to be the real Mesmeric influence. Having told one of his habituées that he would go into the next room and mesmerise her 1 Letters to a Candid Enquirer on Animal Magnetism, p. 352.

through the door, he retired, shut the door, performed no mesmeric passes, but tried to forget her, walked away from the door, busied himself with something else, and even walked into a third room; and on returning in less than ten minutes found the girl in her usual sleep-waking condition. The extreme susceptibility of many of these 'sensitive' subjects further accounts for their being affected (without any intentional deceit) by physical impressions which are quite imperceptible to others such as slight differences in temperature, when two coins are presented to them, of which one has been held in the hand of the mesmeriser; or two wine-glasses of water, into one of which he has dipped his finger for a short time. But the belief that he has transmitted his. influence in any mode is quite sufficient to produce the result; as was shown in an amusing case recorded by M. Bertrand, whose treatise on Animal Magnetism (Paris, 1826) is, by far, the most philosophical work extant on the subject. Having occasion to go a journey of a hundred leagues, leaving a female somnambule under the treatment of one of his friends, M. Bertrand sent him a magnetised letter, which he requested him to place on the stomach of the patient, who had been led to anticipate the expected results; Mesmeric sleep, with the customary phenomena, supervened. He then wrote another letter which he did not magnetise, and sent it to her in the same manner, and with the same intimation. She again fell into the Mesmeric sleep, which was attributed to the letter having been unintentionally impregnated by M. Ber

trand with the mesmeric fluid while he was writing it. Desiring to test the matter still further, he caused one of his friends to write a similar letter, imitating his handwriting so closely that those who received it should believe it to be his ;-the same effect was once more produced.

And so it was with the large number of experiments that were made within my own knowledge during the twenty years' attention that I gave to this subject, with a view to test the Mesmeriser's power of inducing any of the phenomena of this state without the patient's consciousness. Successes, it is true, were not unfrequent; but these almost invariably occurred when the experiments were made under conditions to which the parties had become habituated, as in the case of Dr. Noble's friend. For his performances were so continually being repeated to satisfy the curiosity of visitors, that Dr. Noble's call at his house would have been sufficient to excite, on the part of the 'subject,' the expectancy that would have thrown. her into the sleep. But when such expectancy was carefully guarded against, the result was so constantly negative, as I will not say to disprove the existence of any special Mesmeric force,-but to neutralise completely the affirmative value of the evidence adduced to prove it. For I think you must now agree with me, that, if 'expectancy' alone is competent to produce the results, as admitted by the most intelligent Mesmerisers, nothing but the most rigid exclusion of such expectancy can afford the least ground for the assumption of any other agency. And my own.

prolonged study of the subject further justifies me in. taking the position, that it is only when the enquiry is directed, and its results recorded, by sceptical experts, that such results have the least claim to scientific value. The disposition to overlook sources of fallacy, to magnify trivialities into marvels, to construct circumstantial 'myths' (as in the case of Miss Martineau's J and Lord Morpeth) on the slightest foundation of fact, and to allow themselves to be imposed upon by cunning cheats, have been so constantly exhibited by even the most honest believers in the 'occult' power of Mesmerism, as-not only in my own opinion, but in that of my very able allies in this enquiry to deprive the unconfirmed testimony of any number of such believers, in regard to matters lying beyond scientific experience, of all claim to acceptance. In fact, the positions taken in regard to Mesmerism by my friend Dr. Noble, as far back as 1845,' and more fully developed by myself a few years later on the basis of Mr. Braid's experiments and of my own Physiological and Psychological studies,2 have, not only in our own judgment, but by the general verdict of the Medical and Scientific world, been fully confirmed by the subsequent course of events, the history of which I shall now proceed to sketch.

1 British and Foreign Medical Review, vol. xix.

2 Principles of Human Physiology, 4th edition, 1853; Quarterly Review, October, 1853.