A German writer, Kluge, has given the following classification of the effects observed in mesmerized subjects: 1. Called waking. Presents no very remarkable phenomena. The. intellect and the senses still retain their usual powers and susceptibility. 2. Half-sleep, or imperfect crisis. Most of the senses still remain in a state of activity, that of vision only being impaired, the eye withdrawing itself from the power of the will. 3. The magnetic. or mesmeric sleep. The organs of the senses refuse to perform their respective func tions, and the patient is in an unconscious state. 4. The perfect crisis, or simple somnam bulism. In this stage the patient is said to "wake within himself," and his conscious ness returns. He is in a state which can be called neither sleeping nor waking, but which appears to be something between the two. 5. Lucidity, or lucid vision. This is called, in France, clairvoyance; in Germany, Hellsehen. In this state the patient iS said to obtain a clear knowledge of his own internal mental and bodily state, is enabled to calculate. with accuracy the phenomena of disease which will naturally and inevitably occur, and to determine what are their most appropriate and effectual remedies. Ile is also said to possess the same faculty of internal inspection with regard to other persons who have. been placed in mesmeric connection (en rapport) with him. 6. Universal lucidity; Ger man, allgemeine Klarheit. In this state the lucid vision becomes greatly increased, and extends to objects whether near or at a distance. To this very accurate catalogue we should add a condition-7. Coma. Into this state the patient falls who has been per mitted to escape from the influence of the will of the operator. He no longer responds to, command, he is apparently unconscious, his pulse recedes to the vanishing-point, and his heart-beats cease t6 be 'noticeable. This state closely simulates death, and is believe& tb be actually premonitory of dissolution. Cases have occurred in which it has required the utmost exertion of all the methods known to those who practice mesmerism to restore to consciousness patients who had reached this condition.
The mesmeric state has been applied mostly to the cure of disease, for which purpose. it was used by Mesmer when it first attracted public attention. It has also been used for the purpose of producing sleep during surgical operations; and Miss Martineau relates a ease of one of her servants, who when in the mesmeric condition was said to be able to predict future events. The class of diseases which have been cured by its means are those which are known to medical men a.s functional nervous diseases. Various nervous diseases, such as paralysis, epilepsy, etc., occurring from changes in the structure of various organs, are not susceptible of benefit from the mesmeric state. It is in those cases where no structural lesion can be supposed to exist, and which often yield to sudden changes of the mind from various causes of excitement, and which frequently cease without labvious. cause, that the disease has yielded to this remedy.
In 1836 Mr. Colquhoun published in London a work on animal magnetism, entitled Isis Revelata, which attracted considerable attention to the subject, and which contained_ as an appendix a translation of the report of the second French commission appointed to . investigate this subject in 1831, and to which we have already referred. This was fol lowed by the arrival in London of baron Dupotet, who performed many experiments, some of which were witnessed by Dr. Elliotson, who immediately undertook the further investigation of the subject. The results of the experiments of Dr. Elliotson, which were published in the Lan,eet, produced a great sensation, aud phenomena which had hitherto. been regarded as impossible were constantly produced. In 1841 M. La. Fontaine, a Frenchman, visited London, and gave public lectures on mesmerism and examples of its phenomena. A number of persons claiming to be " professors" of animal-magnetism, or electro-biolo,,cry, have from time to time given public exhibitions in the cities and towns of the United States and the British provinces in America. In these exhibitions the
object has been to exhibit voluntary patients placed under the control of the operator, and to display the various phenomena which could then be produced. These have been_ always simple in their nature, and of a character to amuse more than to instruct. No. scientific man had given himself to the investigation of this subject to any important extent in America until, during the winter of 1880-81, Dr. George M. Beard, of New York, a member of the Neurological society, and a man cpialified by the nature of his studies and experience, and his avowed skepticism on this subject, to undertake its inves tigation vvith a mind at least free from bias in its favor, commenced a series of experi ments, and eventually conducted 'certain of these in public. These experiments were none of them novel in character, except possibly that of showing the insensibility to the most powerful light of the eye of a patient in a mesmeric condition. The experiments were all conclusive as to the nature of the phenomena produced, but the inferences reached by the experimenter and those who witnessed them as to their occasion and. origin have not been made public at the time of this writing. But the bald facts of the phenomena have never been disputed by intelligent investigators. Only those unaccus tomed to profound investigation have set these down as the result of self-deception or of collusion. It still remains to be discovered what influence produces the conceded result, and to what extent, if at all, the human will is engaged in the matter. Something- sug gestive as to these points might be stated in this wise: that a subtle force pervades crea tion and envelops the earth, with the other planets; that this force performs specific. duties in connection with vitality, and in the form of a positive ether becomes visible. under certain conditions, and in the case of animals, including human beings, more readily so to those possessing certain natures and temperaments (sensitives); that this force inay be and is exerted without sensible regard to time or distance; that it is subject to evolution and direction by the human will; that it is concentrated in certain material forms, as in the mag,net and the crystal, and in certain atmospheric and meteorological conditions, as in snow-storms; that it is correlated with the other forces and, like these, is one of the modes of motion; that it is more elevated in its character than any of the. simply material forces; because it responds to mental impressions and psychological influences; that it includes all the forms and modes of expression of all the subordinate, or strictly material, forces ; that thus it is enabled to act upon things animate or inanimate, material as well as immaterial, thus accounting for the phenomena of table-tipping, so called " spiritual" rapping, etc.; that it may even exhibit or manifest conditions simu lating intelligence, wherein would appear one explanation of these phenomena in the. practice of spiritualism; finally, that it is superior to material laws, whence the phe nomenon of levitation, that of untying impossible knots, etc. As suggestions, merely, these may awaken interest in the general subject.
Oersted says (Soul in Nature), "Everything in science prevailing throughout a certain) period contains actual scientific truth, though frequently much obscured." Tbe fact that mesmerism, or aniinal-magnetism as it may more properly be termed, has continued to affect mankind as a possible scientific fact during more than a century of pronounced opposition, would seem to bring it within the category signified by Oersted.. And pa these days of investigation into the nature of things, and when such extraordinary dis coveries are constantly being made as to the limitless nature and scope of the n. atural forces, it would appear proper to- devote a. certain fair deg,ree of scientific skill and.
patience in the direction of elucidating the nature and origin of such remarkable phe. nomena. Sec ANIMAL MAGNETISM, ante.