I would have had the honour to submit to your consideration, had you called before you so obscure a pioneer of improve ment, as your very obedient and humble servant,

A. B. C.

DUMFRIES, 2d December 1843.

IV. Letter from Mr Simpson on Hypnotism, and Mr Braid's Theory of Phreno-Mesmeric Manifestations.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PHRENOLOGICAL Journal.

DEAR SIR,-Happening to be in Manchester in March last, I had the pleasure of forming the acquaintance of Mr James Braid, an eminent surgeon there; who, as is well known to mesmerists and phreno-mesmerists, has gained no inconsiderable celebrity by certain discoveries, alleged to have been made by him, of the nature and cause of the mesmeric sleep, and published, with his proofs, in a small volume, entitled, Neurypnology, or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep [called also by him Hypnotism], considered in relation with Animal Magnetism, and illustrated by numerous Cases of its successful application in the Relief and Cure of Disease. As I had read, with great interest, Mr Braid's work, and the summary of his views in your Number of January last, I considered myself fortunate in obtaining personal communication with him.

I have to acknowledge much courtesy and attention received. from Mr Braid, and the greatest assiduity on his part, in introducing me to his most instructive cases, and candidly and clearly submitting to me the proofs of his theory.

Mr Braid holds that there is at least analogy, if not identity, between the mesmeric sleep as induced by others, and the hypnotic sleep, as he certainly more philosophically calls it, as induced by himself.* This sleep, he alleges, is the result of an ex

.

* In his Neurypnology, p. 21. Mr Braid says:- "For a considerable time I was of opinion that the phenomena induced by my mode of operating and that of mesmerisers were identical; and, so far as I have yet personally seen, I still consider the condition of the nervous system induced by both modes to be at least analogous. However, from what the mesmerisers state as to effects which they can produce in certain cases, there seem to be differences sufficient to warrant the conclusion that they ought to be considered as distinct agencies." These effects, which he has never been able to produce by his mode, he states to be, "such as, telling the time on a watch held behind the head, or placed on the pit of the stomach; reading closed letters, or a shut book; perceiving what is doing miles off; having the power of perceiving the nature and cure of the diseases of others, although uneducated in medical science; mesmerising patients at miles' distance, without the knowledge or belief in the patient that any such operation is intended." It

hausted irritability in the motor nerves, and fatigue in the muscles, of the eyes; in which condition the eyes close. Nothing more is required than that the patient shall stare steadily

appears from a paper lately read by Mr Braid at the Royal Institution in Manchester (quoted in a subsequent part of this article), that he has not yet seen reason to believe in the reality of any such feats as these. "There ought, in my opinion," said he, "to be far stronger evidence, and a more extensive series of experiments, and those subjected to more searching scrutiny than hitherto, before being received as facts; for to me it appears far more probable that the narrators have been deceived than that the Almighty would ever delegate to man such dangerous prerogatives and powers-powers which are quite inconsistent with the security and harmony of society in the present state of our existence." He referred, in support of this opinion, to the small number of satisfactory cases which had been met with of the kind, compared with the length of time over which they were spread, and the number of the investigators. "Then, again," he observed, "there is the acknowledged uncertainty of even the most clairvoyant patients, for in general they are oftener wrong than right; whereas answers from true perception ought always to be right. Nor should we overlook the fact that most of their answers are given in very vague language, which may admit of very different interpretations. Moreover, in every case of supposed clairvoyance which I have had an opportunity of investigating closely, I have been enabled to convince the parties that they had been deceived, and that the whole was explainable on principles which I shall immediately point out, and a want of the knowledge of which I believe has been the chief source of error in those inquiries. Until cases are investigated with due attention to these sources of fallacy, no implicit confidence should be given to the results recorded. For example, General Green of Philadelphia, a man of great talents and observation, honoured me with a call last summer. He believed his daughter highly clairvoyant, and she was represented as such by her mesmeriser; but I very soon convinced him they had been mistaken. In like manner, the satisfaction of many with the late case of the boy Cooke, at Deptford, who was represented as highly clairvoyant, all arose from their ignorance of the sources of error I am about to explain, as a letter from the boy's master, compared with my paper in the Medical Times of 13th January last, clearly proves. In another case, published in the Phreno-Magnet, I wrote to the operator, requesting him to repeat the experiment, with certain precautions I had suggested, and offered L.5 as a reward to his patient if successful, or to the patient of any of his mesmeric friends who had met with such marvels; but although it was offered-not as a bet, involving risk to them, but as a reward-and I offered them any number of trials, if the first proved unsuccessful; while five months have elapsed, still the money has not been demanded." He also appealed to a late investigation, made with precautions he had referred to, which had proved one of the most noted cases of clairvoyance to be a complete delusion. He saidAmongst the sources of error which should be kept in view whilst investigating the subject of clairvoyance, community of feeling, and mesmeric intuition-the remarks apply equally to hypnotism as mesmerism— the following are the most important:-The extreme exaltation of function, at a certain stage, of the organs of special sense, which enables them to perceive, through the ordinary media, impressions so faint that they could not be perceived in the waking condition; second, the extreme docility and sympathy, which gives a tendency to imitate the actions of

at an object, animate or inanimate,-the better if a short way above the head,―till the exhaustion takes place. It is conditioned that the patient shall concentrate his thoughts on the fixed object, and yield himself implicitly to the operation. The nervous system is thrown into a new condition; and if the arms and legs be raised, the pulse speedily becomes greatly accelerated, and the limbs, in a short time, will become quite rigid and involuntarily fixed. It is also found that all the organs of special sense, except sight, but including heat and cold, and muscular motion or resistance, are, at first, much exalted, and have extreme sensibility. After a certain period, this exaltation of function is followed by a state of depression, far greater than the torpor of natural sleep. From this state of torpor of the senses and rigidity of the muscles, the patient may be instantly brought back to the state of exalted sensibility, and of extreme mobility of muscle, by a current of air directed against the organ or organs wished to be recalled to action. By mere repose this effect will in time take place. Mr Braid was long puzzled to explain this effect of a current of air: a theory has recently occurred to him, which I shall presently notice.

I witnessed the results, now briefly described, but more fully in Mr Braid's work and article above alluded to,* in a number of Mr Braid's patients of both sexes, and had no doubt whatever of their reality. Several of the patients were requested by him to throw themselves into the hypnotic state, without any operation of his; which they did by gazing steadily for a very few seconds upon a fixed object. Nay, more, if the object gazed at was another patient's eyes, the two persons could hypnotise each other. This, also, I saw done repeatedly. From this reciprocal result, and likewise from the phenomenon of self-hypnotism, Mr Braid concludes, as he appears entitled to do, that the nervous sleep of his patients, whatever be its nature, is not produced by any influence, magnetic or other, passing from one person to another. This is an immense point gained, if gained it be; for at one step it gets beyond

others; third, the extraordinary revivification of memory at a certain stage of the sleep, which enables them to remember things long forgotten in the waking condition; fourth, the remarkable effect of contact or touch in arousing memory; fifth, the remarkable condition of double consciousness, or double personality; sixth, the vivid state of the imagination, which instantly invests every idea suggested, or remembrance of past impressions, with the attributes of present realities." On these, and other grounds in the sequel, I should humbly hold that the states are identical, not merely analagous.

See also his papers in the Medical Times of 6th and 13th January, and 13th and 20th April, 1844.

the mystery and magic of Mesmerism, and finishes "Animal Magnetism.'

Mr Braid informed me-indeed, has stated in his work-that he has entirely separated Hypnotism from Animal Magnetism. By this I understood him to mean, that he investigates the former by its own facts, and independently of the controversy on the subject of Mesmerism. He does not, however, say that the mesmeric and hypnotic states are essentially and intrinsically different, and does not hold that they are. The effects, as witnessed by me, left me without a doubt that they are one and the same, only that Hypnotism is the more brief, and decidedly the more certain, method of producing what has been called the mesmeric sleep. The discovery of the cause, at least the commencement, of the hypnotic state, in the affection of the motor nerves and muscles of the eyes,-which may come to be classed with those brilliant feats of science, which, in a moment, unlock a store of Nature's secrets, and give an immense onward move to human knowledge-this observation is Mr Braid's own, safe from either envy or dishonesty, whatever may be its consequential value.

It was during a mesmeric experiment conducted by M. Lafontaine to which, in his then incredulity and disdain, he was almost dragged by a friend-that this idea occurred to Mr Braid. The steady fixation of the patient's eyes suggested it; and that fixation, which was believed to be for the reception of an influence from the eyes of the mesmeriser, but which is followed by the same effect when the object is something inanimate, not even held by another person, the very mode and occasion of the discovery are, to my mind, a proof that, by and through M. Lafontaine's patient's fixed gaze, and not by any influence passing from M. Lafontaine, the said patient was hypnotised in Mr Braid's sense, not mesmerised in M. Lafontaine's; the actual state being, however, the same in both

senses.

Mr Braid exhibited a number of his cases to me both in Manchester and its neighbourhood, and left me convinced of the identity of the mesmeric and hypnotic states. The new consciousness, to be forgotten on waking up,-the cataleptic state of the limbs-the insensibility to pain-and the obedience of the faculties of the patient to the impressions made upon them by the operator, were, as far as I could judge, the same in the hypnotised as in the mesmerised patient. I saw no case of clairvoyance, introvision, or reading with the eyes bandaged, in Mr Braid's hands. He himself is incredulous as to the reality, at least the alleged nature, of these phenomena; and some others, especially introvision, as it is called,

I

he imputes to the exalted sensibility of the sense of smell. saw a boy in the hypnotic state restore to several persons, in a crowded room, each their own glove, which he previously applied to his nose. He followed me, like a questing hound, till he found me in a corner, and presented my glove. Mr Braid shewed me some instances of the increased sensibility of the sense of hearing, in which the slightest whisper was heard and answered at the distance of a large room. The effects, too, of the currents of air were very striking; the perception of them seemed most acute; and he thinks that the passes and attractions of the mesmerists owe their effect to modifying the air in contact with the body of the patient, and producing a stream or current.

The same boy who, in a large party, restored my glove by its odour, walked through and through the company and furniture, even the footstools, without touching any object whatever; from extreme sensibility, as Mr Braid thought, to the state of the air around his body. The blind are believed to acquire some degree of the same power. This sensibility to the most evanescent impressions on certain senses, accounts, on natural laws, in Mr Braid's opinion, for much of the mysterious influence of the mesmerists. To verify this opinion, which seems very reasonable, would require a more extended and minute course of observation than my short visit permitted me to make.

Mr Braid, I observed above, has ventured a rationale of the current of air. This he did in a paper read by him a few weeks ago, with great effect, to a meeting of some of the most scientific men of Manchester, in the theatre of the Royal Institution, and reported in the Manchester Times, and also, less fully, in the Medical Times of 18th May. The theory is ingenious, and I am happy to give it a place in my letter.

"At one stage of Hypnotism there is a great exaltation of the functions of all the organs of sense, sight excepted, and at another all these may be reduced to a state of extreme torpor. During the latter condition, a simple waft of wind may restore any part from the extreme of torpor to the highest state of excitation. Thus the arm may be extended, and in process of time the muscular activity shall have reduced the limb to that state of rigidity called the cataleptic state; so that it is not only held up as it were involuntarily, but will offer prodigious resistance before it can be depressed; nay, may actually be so unyielding that it could not be flexed without the application of such force as might endanger the integrity of the tissues. The arm shall also be insensible to pricking or pinching; but the moment a waft of wind is directed against