convincing results. Being in company one evening with a young lady
said to be of high mesmeric susceptibility, he requested and
received permission to test this quality in her. In one of the usual
ways he 'magnetised' her, and having so far satisfied himself, he
'demagnetised' her. He next proceeded to 'hypnotise' her, adopting Mr.
Braid's method of directing the stare at a fixed point. 'The result
varied in no respect from that which had taken place in the foregoing
experiment; the duration of the process was the same, and its intensity
of effect neither greater nor less.' 'De-hypnotisation' again restored
the young lady to herself. 'And now,' says Dr. Noble, 'we requested
our patient to rest quietly at the fire-place, to think of just what
she liked, and to look where she pleased, excepting at ourselves,
who retreated behind her chair, saying that a new mode was about to
be tried, and that her turning round would disturb the process. We
very composedly took up a volume which lay upon a table, and amused
ourselves with it for about five minutes, when on raising our eyes, we
could see by the excited features of other members of the party that
the young lady was once more _magnetised_. We were informed by those
who had attentively watched her during the progress of our little
experiment, that all had been in every respect just as before. The lady
herself, before she was undeceived, expressed a distinct consciousness
of having _felt our unseen passes streaming down the neck_.'
In a similar way, Mr. Bertrand, who was the first (Dr. Carpenter tells
us) to undertake a really scientific investigation of the phenomena
of mesmerism, proved that the supposed effect of a magnetised letter
from him to a female somnambule was entirely the work of her own lively
imagination. He magnetised a letter first, which on receipt was placed
at his suggestion upon the epigastrium of the patient, who was thrown
into the magnetic sleep with all the customary phenomena. He then wrote
another letter, which he did not magnetise, and again the same effect
was produced. Lastly he set about an experiment which should determine
the real state of the case. 'I asked one of my friends,' he says, 'to
write a few lines in my place, and to strive to imitate my writing,
so that those who should read the letter should mistake it for mine (I
knew he could do so). He did this; our stratagem succeeded, and the
sleep was produced just as it would have been by one of my own letters.
It is hardly necessary to say, perhaps, that none of the phenomena
of hypnotism require, as indeed none of them, rightly understood,
suggest, the action of any such occult forces as spiritualists believe
in. On the other hand, I believe that many of the phenomena recorded
by spiritualists as having occurred under their actual observation
are very readily to be explained as phenomena of hypnotism. Of course
I would not for a moment deny that in the great majority of cases
much grosser forms of deception are employed. But in others, and
especially in those where the concentration of the attention for some
time is a necessary preliminary to the exhibition of the phenomena
(which suitable 'subjects' only are privileged to see), I consider the
resulting self-deception as hypnotic.
We may regard the phenomena of hypnotism in two aspects--first and
chiefly as illustrating the influence of imagination on the functions
of the body; secondly, as showing under what conditions the imagination
may be most readily brought to bear in producing such influence. These
phenomena deserve far closer and at the same time far wider attention
than they have yet received. Doubt has been thrown upon them because
they have been associated with false theories, and in many cases with
fraud and delusion. But, rightly viewed, they are at once instructive
and valuable. On the one hand they throw light on some of the most
interesting problems of mental physiology; on the other they promise to
afford valuable means of curing certain ailments, and of influencing
in useful ways certain powers and functions of the body. All that is
necessary, it should seem, to give hypnotic researches their full
value, is that all association of these purely mental phenomena with
charlatanry and fraud should be abruptly and definitely broken off.
Those who make practical application of the phenomena of hypnotism
should not only divest their own minds of all idea that some occult
and as it were extra-natural force is at work, but should encourage no
belief in such force in those on whom the hypnotic method is employed.
Their influence on the patient will not be lessened, I believe, by the
fullest knowledge on the patient's part that all which is to happen to
him is purely natural--that, in fact, advantage is simply to be taken
of an observed property of the imagination to obtain an influence not
otherwise attainable over the body as a whole (as when the so-called
magnetic sleep is to be produced), or over special parts of the body.
Whether advantage might not be taken of other than the curative
influences of hypnotism is a question which will probably have occurred
to some who may have followed the curious accounts given in the
preceding pages. If special powers may be obtained, even for a short
time, by the hypnotised subject, these powers might be systematically
used for other purposes than mere experiment. If, again, the repetition
of hypnotic curative processes eventually leads to a complete and
lasting change in the condition of certain parts or organs of the body,
the repetition of the exercise of special powers during the hypnotic
state may after a while lead to the definite acquisition of such
powers. As it now appears that the hypnotic control may be obtained
without any effort on the part of the operator, the effort formerly
supposed to be required being purely imaginary and the hypnotic state
being in fact readily attainable without any operation whatever, we
seem to recognise possibilities which, duly developed, might be found
of extreme value to the human race. In fine, it would seem that man
possesses a power which has hitherto lain almost entirely dormant, by
which, under the influence of properly-guided imagination, the will
can be so concentrated on special actions that feats of strength,
dexterity, artistic (and even perhaps scientific) skill may be
accomplished by persons who, in the ordinary state, are quite incapable
of such achievements.
_HEREDITARY TRAITS._
In Montaigne's well-known essay on the 'Resemblance of Children to
their Fathers,' the philosopher of Périgord remarks that 'there is
a certain sort of crafty humility that springs from presumption; as
this, for example, that we confess our ignorance in many things, and
are so courteous as to acknowledge that there are in works of nature
some qualities and conditions that are imperceptible to us, and of
which our understanding cannot discern the means and causes; by which
honest declaration we hope to obtain that people shall also believe
us of those that we say we do understand.' 'We need not trouble
ourselves,' he goes on, 'to seek out miracles and strange difficulties;
methinks there are such incomprehensible wonders amongst the things
that we ordinarily see as surpass all difficulties of miracles.' He
applies these remarks to inherited peculiarities of feature, figure,
character, constitution, habits, and so forth. And certainly few of
the phenomena of nature are more wonderful than these, in the sense of
being less obviously referable to any cause which seems competent to
produce them. Many of those natural phenomena which are regarded as
most striking are in this respect not to be compared with the known
phenomena of heredity. The motions of the planets can all be referred
to regular laws; chemical changes are systematic, and their sequence at
least is understood; the phenomena of heat, light, and electricity are
gradually finding interpretation. It is true that all these phenomena
become in a sense as miracles when we endeavour to ascertain their
real cause. In their case we can ascertain the 'how,' but in no sense
the 'why.' Gravity is a mastery of mysteries to the astronomer, and
has almost compelled us to believe in that 'action at a distance'
which Newton asserted to be unimaginable by anyone with a competent
power of reasoning about things philosophical. The ultimate cause of
chemical changes is as great a mystery now as it was when the four
elements were believed in. And the nature of the ether itself in which
the undulations of heat, light, and electricity are transmitted is
utterly mysterious even to those students of science who have been most
successful in determining the laws according to which those undulations
proceed. But the phenomena themselves being at once referable (in
our own time at least) to law, have no longer the mysterious and in
a sense miraculous character recognised in them before the laws of
motion, of chemical affinity, of light and heat and electricity, had
been ascertained. It is quite otherwise with the phenomena of heredity.
We know nothing even of the proximate cause of any single phenomenon;
far less of that ultimate cause in which all these phenomena had their
origin. The inheritance of a trait of bodily figure, character, or
manner is a mystery as great as that other and cognate mystery, the
appearance of some seemingly sudden variation in a race which has
for many generations presented an apparently unvarying succession of
attributes, bodily, physical, or mental.
It need hardly be said that this would not be the place for the
discussion of the problems of heredity and variation, even if in the
present position of science we could hope for any profitable result
from the investigation of either subject. But some of the curious facts
which have been noted by various students of heredity will, I think,
be found interesting; and though not suggesting in the remotest degree
any solution of the real difficulties of the subject, they may afford
some indication of the laws according to which parental traits are
inherited, or seemingly sudden variations introduced.
The commonest, and therefore the least interesting, though perhaps the
most instructive of the phenomena of heredity, are those affecting
the features and the outward configuration of the body. These have
been recognised in all ages and among all nations. A portion of the
Jewish system of legislature was based on a recognition of the law that
children inherit the bodily qualities of the parents. The Greeks noted
the same fact. Among the Spartans, indeed, a system of selection from
among new-born children prevailed, which, though probably intended
only to eliminate the weaker individuals, corresponded closely to
what would be done by a nation having full belief in the efficacy
of both natural and artificial selection, and not troubled with any
strong scruples as to the method of applying their doctrines on such
matters. Among the Romans we find certain families described by their
physical characteristics, as the _Nasones_ or Big-nosed, the _Labeones_
or Thick-lipped, the _Capitones_ or Big-headed, the _Buccones_ or
Swollen-cheeked. In more recent times similar traits have been
recognised in various families. The Austrian lip and the Bourbon nose
are well-known instances.[15]
Peculiarities of structure have a double interest, as illustrating both
variation and persistence. We usually find them introduced without any
apparent cause into a family, and afterwards they remain as hereditary
traits, first inherited regularly, then intermittently, and eventually,
in most cases, dying out or becoming so exceptional that their
occurrence is not regarded as an hereditary peculiarity. Montaigne
mentions that in the family of Lepidus, at Rome, there were three, not
successively but by intervals, that were born with the same eye covered
with a cartilage. At Thebes there was a family almost every member of
which had the crown of the head pointed like a lance-head; all whose
heads were not so formed being regarded as illegitimate. A better
authenticated case is that of the Lambert family. The peculiarity
affecting this family appeared first in the person of Edward Lambert,
whose whole body, except the face, the palms of the hands, and the
soles of the feet, was covered with a sort of shell consisting of
horny excrescences. He was the father of six children, all of whom,
so soon as they had reached the age of six weeks, presented the same
peculiarity. Only one of them lived. He married, and transmitted the
peculiarity to all his sons. For five generations all the male members
of the Lambert family were distinguished by the horny excrescences
which had adorned the body of Edward Lambert.
A remarkable instance of the transmission of anomalous characteristics
is found in the case of Andrian Jeftichjew, who, three or four years
ago, was exhibited with his son Fedor Jeftichjew in Berlin and Paris.
They were called in Paris _les hommes-chiens_, or dog-men, the father's
face being so covered with hair as to present a striking resemblance to
the face of a Skye terrier. Andrian was thus described:--'He is about
fifty-five years of age, and is said to have been the son of a Russian
soldier. In order to escape the derision and the unkind usage of his
fellow-villagers, Andrian in early life fled to the woods, where for
some time he lived in a cave.
During this period of seclusion he was much given to drunkenness. His
mental condition does not seem to have suffered, however, and he is
on the whole of a kindly and affectionate disposition. It may be of
interest to state that he is an orthodox member of the Russo-Greek
Church, and that, degraded as he is intellectually, he has very
definite notions about heaven and the hereafter. He hopes to introduce
his frightful countenance into the court of heaven, and he devotes all
the money he makes, over and above his outlay for creature comforts,
to purchasing the prayers of a devout community of monks in his native
village, Kostroma, after his mortal career is ended. He is of medium
stature, but very strongly built. His excessive capillary development
is not true hair, but simply an abnormal growth of the _down_ or fine
hairs which usually cover nearly the entire surface of the human
body. Strictly speaking, he has neither head-hair, beard, moustache,
eyebrows, nor eyelashes, their place being taken by this singular
growth of long silky down. In colour this is of a dirty yellow; it is
about three inches in length all over the face, and feels like the hair
of a Newfoundland dog. The very eyelids are covered with this long
hair, while flowing locks come out of his nostrils and ears. On his
body are isolated patches, strewed but not thickly with hairs one and
a half to two inches long.' Dr. Bertillon, of Paris, compared a hair
from Andrian's chin with a very fine hair from a man's beard, and found
that the latter was three times as thick as the former; and a hair from
Andrian's head is only one-half as thick as an average human hair.
Professor Virchow, of Berlin, made careful inquiry into the family
history of Andrian Jeftichjew. So far as could be learned, Andrian was
the first in whom this wonderful hirsuteness had been noticed. Neither
his reputed father nor his mother presented any peculiarity of the
kind, and a brother and sister of his, who are still living, are in
no way remarkable for capillary development. The son Fedor, who was
exhibited in company with Andrian, was illegitimate, and about three
years of age. Andrian's legitimate children, a son and a daughter, both
died young. Nothing is known of the former; but the daughter resembled
the father. 'Fedor is a sprightly child,' said the account from which
we have already quoted, 'and appears more intelligent than the father.'
The growth of down on his face is not so heavy as to conceal his
features, but there is no doubt that when the child comes to maturity
he will be at least as hirsute as his parent The hairs are as white
and as soft as the fur of the Angora cat, and are longest at the outer
angles of the eyes. There is a thick tuft between the eyes, and the
nose is well covered. The moustache joins the whiskers on each side,
after the English fashion, and this circumstance gives to accurate
pictures of the child a ludicrous resemblance to a well-fed Englishman
of about fifty. As in the father's case, the inside of Fedor's nostrils
and ears has a thick crop of hair.' 'Both father and son are almost
toothless, Andrian having only five teeth, one in the upper jaw and
four in the lower, while the child has only four teeth, all in the
lower jaw. In both cases the four lower teeth are all incisors. To
the right of Andrian's one upper tooth there still remains the mark
of another which has disappeared. That beyond these six teeth the man
never had any others is evident to anyone who feels the gums with the
finger.'
The deficiency of teeth, accompanied as it is by what is in reality a
deficiency not a redundancy of hair--for Andrian and his son have no
real hair--accords well with Darwin's view, that a constant correlation
exists between hair and teeth. He mentions as an illustration the
deficiency of teeth in hairless dogs. The tusks of the boar, again, are
greatly reduced under domestication, and the reduction is accompanied
by a corresponding diminution of the bristles. He mentions also the
case of Julia Pastrana, a Spanish dancer or opera singer, who had a
thick masculine beard and a hairy forehead, while her teeth were so
redundant that her mouth projected, and her face had a gorilla-like
appearance. It should rather be said that in general those creatures
which present an abnormal development in the covering of their skin,
whether in the way of redundancy or deficiency, present, generally,
perhaps always, an abnormal dental development, as we see in sloths and
armadilloes on the one hand, which have the front teeth deficient, and
in some branches of the whale family on the other, in which the teeth
are redundant either in number or in size. In individual members of the
human family it certainly is not always the case that the development
of the hair and that of the teeth are directly correlated; for some
who are bald when quite young have excellent teeth, and some who have
lost most of their teeth while still on the right side of forty have
excellent hair to an advanced age.[16]
Another case, somewhat similar to that of Andrian and his son, is found
in a Burmese family, living at Ava, and first described by Crawford in
1829. Shwe-Maong, the head of the family, was about thirty years old.
His whole body was covered with silky hairs, which attained a length of
nearly five inches on the shoulders and spine. He had four daughters,
but only one of them resembled him. She was living at Ava in 1855, and,
according to the account given by a British officer who saw her there,
she had a son who was hairy like his grandfather, Shwe-Maong. The case
of this family illustrates rather curiously the relation between the
hair and teeth. For Shwe-Maong retained his milk-teeth till he was
twenty years old (when he attained puberty), and they were replaced by
nine teeth only, five in the upper and four in the lower jaw. Eight of
these were incisors, the ninth (in the upper jaw) being a canine tooth.
Sex-digitism, or the possession of hands and feet with six digits
each, has occurred in several families as a sudden variation from
the normal formation, but after it has appeared has usually been
transmitted for several generations. In the case of the Colburn family
this peculiarity lasted for four generations without interruption, and
still reappears occasionally. In a branch of a well-known Scotch family
sex-digitism--after continuing for three or four generations--has
apparently disappeared; but it still frequently happens that the edge
of the hands on the side of the little finger is partially deformed.
Hare-lip, albinism, halting, and other peculiarities, commonly reappear
for four or five generations, and are seldom altogether eradicated in
less than ten or twelve.
The tendency to variation shown in the introduction of these
peculiarities, even though they may have been eventually eradicated, is
worth noticing in its bearing on our views respecting the formation of
new and persistent varieties of the human as of other races. It must be
noticed that in the case of the human race the conditions not only do
not favour the continuance of such varieties, but practically forbid
their persistence. It is otherwise with some varieties, at least, of
domestic animals, insomuch that varieties which present any noteworthy
even though accidentally observed advantage have been made practically
persistent; we say practically, because there seems little reason to
doubt that in every case which has hitherto been observed the normal
type would eventually be reverted to if special pains were not taken to
separate the normal from the abnormal form.
An excellent illustration of the difference between the human race and
a race of animals under domestication, in this particular respect, is
found in the case of the Kelleia family on the one hand, and that of
the Ancon or Otter sheep on the other.
The former case is described by Réaumur. A Maltese couple named
Kelleia, whose hands and feet were of the ordinary type, had a son
Gratio who had six movable fingers on each hand and six somewhat less
perfect toes on each foot. Gratio Kelleia married a woman possessing
only the ordinary number of fingers and toes. There were four children
of this marriage--Salvator, George, André, and Marie. Salvator had six
fingers and six toes like the father; George and André had each five
fingers and five toes like the mother, but the hands and feet of George
were slightly deformed; Marie had five fingers and five toes, but her
thumbs were slightly deformed. All four children grew up, and married
folk with the ordinary number of fingers and toes. The children of
André alone (who were many) were without exception of the normal type,
like their father. The children of Salvator, who alone was six-fingered
and six-toed like Gratio the grandfather, were four in number; three
of them resembled the father, while the other--the youngest--was
of the normal type like his mother and grandmother. As these four
children were the descendants of four grandparents of whom one only was
hexadactylic, we see that the variety had been strong enough in their
case to overcome the normal type in threefold greater strength. But
the strangest part of the story is that relating to George and Marie.
George, who was a pentadactyle, though somewhat deformed about the
hands and feet, was the father of four children: first, two girls, both
purely hexadactylic; next, a girl hexadactylic on the right side of
the body and pentadactylic on the left side; and lastly, a boy, purely
pentadactylic. Marie, a pentadactyle with deformed thumbs, gave birth
to a boy with six toes, and three normally formed children. It will be
seen, however, that the normal type showed itself in greater force than
the variety in the third generation from Gratio: for while one child
of Salvator's, one of George's, three of Marie's, and all of André's
(some seven or eight) were of the normal type--twelve or thirteen
in all--only five, viz., three of Salvator's and two of George's,
presented the variety purely. Three others were more or less abnormally
formed in fingers and toes; but even counting these, the influence of
the variety was shown only in eight of the grandchildren of Gratio,
whereas twelve or thirteen were of the normal type.