ELECTRO-BIOLOGY, the science which treats of the electric currents developed in living organisms; also the department of knowledge which treats of the influence or control over the feelings, thoughts and actions of a mesmerized person. Very simple powers of observation show that the motions of a man's body are under the direction of his will. He puts forth his hand because he wills to do so; he walks through volition, even though his mind be occu pied with other things; and talks or is silent as his will directs. It follows that there is some method by which the will communicates with the physical mechanism of that wonderful ma chine, the human body. Through anatomy we learn that the muscles do the work, and that the nerves guide the muscles, and that the nerves all proceed from or centre in the brain. Through chiropractic we learn to plot the paths of the nerves through the body, and discover when their office is interfered with. Through phrenology we learn that certain classes of nerves connect with certain portions of the brain, and thus certain brain areas are identified with certain physical, mental and moral capaci ties.
But the thing we cannot demonstrate— be cause we cannot see it—is just how the will connects with a portion of the brain and sends out its order, which we know travels through the nerves to the muscles. Therefore we have to theorize as to how this is done, and the best theory appears to be the electric or magnetic theory, that that which Mesmer called magnetismx' is the medium of exchange. This is not meant as an endorsement of all that Mes mer said and did—far from it—but simply that the force, process or thing used and little understood by Mesmer is the same force, process or thing that translates a man's will into brain action. The problem is elucidated by a study of hypnotism and mediumistic control. It 'will be remembered that mesmerism and hypnotism have been identified as based on the same natural laws, and that all authorities on the subject are in agreement that in hypnotism one person's will is replaced by another person's. The subject (or victim) of a hypnotist surren ders his will to the hypnotist, to the degree in which he is brought under the influence of hypnosis. This is why the subject obeys the commands of the hypnotist, even when told to do ridiculous and absurd things. The hypnotist
has got control of the subject's
for the time being, and he is helpless, a mere puppet or slave of his hypnotist's will. This is logical and rational, and for a fuller exposition of the subject the reader is referred to the arti cle on HYPNOTISM. Mesmer apparently was right in his assumption that by mesmeric passes he gained control of his patient's magnetism. His theory was that there existed as fluid universally diffused, continuous, and naturally susceptible of receiving, propagating and com municating all motor disturbances' (Binet and Fere,
Whether this animal magnetism is identical with animal electricity, or whether—as is more probable— it is a separate form of sou.: higher etheric vibration than electricity, is interesting, but not all-important, and appears never to have been demonstrated. The vital fact of interest in electro-biology is that the human organism is virtually a vitalized dynamo, that gathers charge from the air breathed, and which gives off energy through the muscles under the direc tion of the will. Electrical engineers commonly make this comparison, being struck with the similarity of the human organism with the elec tric dynamo. And the fact that the human organism gets its charge of magnetism through the air breathed suggests that human magnetism is either universal in space or at least existent in both the air and water in which men and fishes live.