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Spirit Rappings. the Man-Turtle: Hell

MESMERISM.-Mesmerism, or animal magnetism as it was formerly called, first excited public notice about the middle of the last century, when several persons in different parts of Europe conceived that men are sensible to its influence. Maximilian Hell, Professor of Astronomy at Vienna, advised (1773) a Baden physician of his acquaintance, Anton Mesmer-whence the name mesmerism-to try if he could not cure disease with the magnet. The Doctor, pleased with the idea, experimented actively, and finding that he could affect very singularly a number of his patients, laid claim to the discovery of a new remedial agent. Many sufferers were healed; popular attention was aroused on the subject, and Mesmer gained wide fame. A controversy arose between him and Hell, the former declaring that he did not cure his patients by mineral, but by animal magnetism, developed by his own body, and conducted to his patients with or without magnetism. The dispute waxed so fierce that Mesmer quitted Vienna for Paris, whence, as from the great centre of literature and science, he proposed to proclaim his new doctrines to the intellectual world. He caused great excitement there, became celebrated, and gained many converts, particularly among the higher classes. He published several works on his favorite topic, and they were very favorably received. Although the French Government refused to grant him a certain chateau, with adjoining lands, as a reward for his discovery, to be employed as a great healing institute, it offered him an an uual pension of 20,000 livres. He declined the offer, and complained of the nation's ingratitude. His followers and friends, desiring to compensate him for what he had done, proposed to form classes, which he should instruct in animal magnetism. By these classes he got 340,000 livres-nearly $70,000-a vast sum for such a man in those days, and had among his pupils Lafayette, D'Espreneuil, Puysegur, and Dr. d'Eslon, physician to the King's brother. The Government subsequently ordered the medical faculty to investigate Mesmer's theory, and a commission was appointed for the purpose, Benjamin Franklin, Lavoisier, Bailly, and Jussieu being among the members. Mesmer declined to appear before them; but they reported, after careful research and inquiry, adversely to his claims, deciding that the influence exercised was due mainly to the imagination. While his pupils adhered to him, the general voice proclaimed him a quack, and he was extinguished by it. He soon retired to Mörsburg (Baden), and died at an advanced age in total obscurity. Mesmer's animal magnetism was very unlike that of the present day. He usually treated his patients by placing magnets on different parts of their body, or ranging them around a covered tub, from which an iron rod went out to each person, the entire party touching hands. He also made passes with his hands on or near their bodies, causing nervous twitchings, drowsiness, sleep, sometimes cramp, convulsions, and alleviation of pain in those suffering from nervous disorders. HYPNOTISM.- Some seven hundred medical students assembled in the lecture hall of the New York University Medical College January 28, 1881, and listened to a lecture on "Hypnotism," by Dr. William S. Hammond. Mesmerism has been in the hands of quacks and charlatans, said Dr. Hammond. For a long time there was an impression that animal magnetism had much to do with it, but that was one of the false ideas that had crept in through ignorance. I don't claim anything for mesmerism. I am simply testing it like many others. I think about two men in eight would prove good subjects, and about four women in the same number. Its influence is not confined to men and women; animals are liable to it, and make good subjects. I operated not long ago on a lot of crabs in Fulton Market. Frogs are capital subjects. You can take a frog and put him under this influence and turn him on his back. Now, of all the things in the world a frog dislikes it is being laid on his back. Well, when a frog is in this condition you might take a scissors, cut him open, and he will show no sign of the operation. Dr. Hammond then experimented with a hen, putting her under the influence by holding her head for a few seconds so that her eyes rested on a piece of glass, and the hen rolled over and was insensible. After some further explanations Dr. Hammond introduced a human subject. HYPNOTISM.