Mesmerism, with hints for beginners / by John James.

  • John James
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mesmerism, with hints for beginners / by John James. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    “ hypnotic, or nervous sleep.” During this state he elicited many wonderful phenomena, and had great success in the treatment of disease. In my opinion —and I have witnessed many experiments exhibited on public platforms by the followers or imitators of Mr. Braid—the hypnotic state is not identical with the mesmeric coma, and, in fact, Mr. Braid himself is said to have acknowledged afterwards that his was a new discovery, and not merely an explana- tion of mesmerism. There are many phases of the hypnotic condition that widely differ from mes- merism ; for instance, Mr. Braid observed that all the senses, with the exception of sight, were won- derfully exalted ; so much so, that he found by measurement that the hearing is about twelve times more acute than in the natural condition. “ Thus, a patient who could not hear the ticking of a watch beyond three feet when awake, could do so when hypnotised at the distance of thirty-five feet, and walk to it in a direct line without difficulty or hesi- tation. Smell in like manner is so wonderfully exalted, that a patient has been able to trace a rose through the air when held forty-six feet from her.” Now, every experienced mesmeriser knows that during the true mesmeric sleep the functions of the different senses are, as a rule, temporarily suspended, and that the sensitive only smells, feels, and tastes in sympathy with or through his mesmeriser, and that in most cases he is completely deaf to all sounds save that of his mesmeriser’s voice. Again, during the hypnotic state it is easy to infect the patient with
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