had reached the glen a headless man appeared on the road in front of
them. The neighbor’s horse stood shivering, as if rooted to the ground,
but Brontë’s horse, without any appearance of fear, walked up to the
dreadful object, and Brontë, unmoved, and without pause or word, simply
cracked his whip at it, and it disappeared in a flash of light.
Ghost baiting became a passion with the Brontës, and though they were
too proud to associate much with their neighbors, they were not averse
to being stared at and talked of by them.
The mill at the lower end of the glen, where now stand Mr. Ratcliffe’s
dwelling-house and offices, was haunted. Lights flitted through it at
night, and no one would go near it after sunset. When the terror was
at its height Hugh Brontë armed himself with a sword and a Bible, and
went alone to encounter the ghost or devil, or whatever it might be.
The neighbors, who saw Brontë marching to his doom, stood afar off in
the darkness, and awaited the result. Unearthly noises were heard, and
it was clear that a serious contest was proceeding. After a long delay
Brontë returned, bruised and battered and greatly exhausted, but he
would give no account of what had transpired.
His secrecy regarding his adventure increased the terror of the
superstitious, for it was given out and believed that Brontë, having
been worsted in the encounter, saved his life by making some compact
with the fiend or ghost. And some even believed that he was ever after
in league with the powers of darkness.
This fearsome theory seemed to be confirmed by Hugh Brontë’s subsequent
action. One dark and dismal night, the ghost in the glen began to wail
like a child in distress. The people barred their doors, covered their
heads in bed with their blankets, and stopped their ears, to keep out
the unearthly sounds; but Hugh Brontë went down quietly to the glen,
and soothed the ghost until by little and little its moaning died away.
On several occasions it was believed that Hugh was actually seen in the
glen, standing with his hand on the mane of a magnificent black horse,
but when any neighbor drew near, the black horse dwindled into a great
black cat, which kept purring around Brontë, and rubbing itself against
his legs. As soon as the neighbor withdrew, the cat would again develop
into the large black horse, and Brontë was often seen riding up and
down upon it, near precipices and ravines where there was no path!
There was also supposed to be a white-sheeted figure that used to
frequent the glen, carrying a little child in her arms. It was said
that she was in the habit of asking for a night’s lodging, but never
seemed disposed to accept it. She generally kept her face covered, or
averted, but when it was exposed it proved to be a toothless, grinning
skull, with a light shining from each eyeless socket.
One of the Brontë sisters and her daughter lived in a house near by, in
which a man called Fraser had hanged himself. The house was declared
to be haunted. Apparitions appeared in it, both by day and night, but
especially at night. Noises were heard in the rooms during the hours of
darkness. When the inmates slept at night, something like a huge frog
with claws used to rush up the clothes from the foot of the bed, settle
on their chests, and almost suffocate them.
Hugh went to his sister’s house one night, taking his gun with him. He
upbraided Fraser for his ungallant and mean conduct in frightening lone
women, and then called on him to come out like a man and face him. But
nothing appeared, the ghost evidently declining to face a loaded musket.
Brontë was importunate in his challenge, taunting Fraser’s ghost with
all kinds of sarcastic gibes and accusations, that he might irritate
it into appearing, but the ghost would not be drawn. Then he fired off
his gun, and challenged the ghost to meet him face to face, using every
scornful and reproachful epithet to drive it into a passion, but all in
vain.
On the following night Hugh returned to the haunted house with a
fiddle, and tried to coax the ghost to appear in response to the music.
The ghost, however, remained obdurate, regardless alike of threats,
reproaches, and blandishments. Brontë returned home that night in a
state of wild excitement. All the way he incessantly called on Fraser
to come and shake hands with him, and make up their quarrel.
He retired to bed in a delirium of frenzy, and during the night the
ghost appeared to him, and gave him a terrific squeeze, from which he
never recovered. He died shortly after in great suffering, upbraiding
Fraser for his heartless cruelty and cowardice, and he declared, dying,
that when he reached the land of shadows he would take measures to
prevent Fraser from haunting his sister and niece. After Hugh’s death
the rumblings and apparitions ceased to trouble his sister’s house.
The great horror, however, of the haunted glen was the _Headless
Horseman_. The phantom generally made its appearance among thickets of
tangled bushes, which no horse could penetrate, and glided silently
over uneven and broken ground, where no horse could have gone.
It always appeared to be ridden and guided by a man in flowing robes,
whose feet were firmly in the stirrups and whose hands held the bridle,
but whose head had been chopped off, leaving only a red and jagged
stump.
The ghastly spectacle was so minutely described by the Brontës that
others carried the picture of it in their imaginations, and it is
not to be wondered at if many thought they saw the spectre among the
shimmering shadows of the trees.
A neighbor of the Brontës, Kaly Nesbit, a very old and, I believe,
a very good man, once gave to a number of us a vivid account of the
apparition. He told the story with great earnestness, and with apparent
conviction as to its truth. I give his account as nearly as I can in
his own quaint language:
“I heerd the horse nichering in the glen. It was not the voice of a
horse but of a fiend, for it came out of the bowels of the earth, and
shook the hills, and made the trees quake. Besides, there was no room
for a horse on the steep bank, and among the bushes and brablack.
”I had just had a drap of whiskey, about a noggin, and I wasn’t a bit
afeard of witch or warlock, ghost or devil, and so I stepped into the
glen to see for myself whatever was to be seen.
“At first I could not see any inkling of a horse, but I heerd the
branches swishing along his sides, at the lower end of the glen. Then
I saw a large dark object as big as a haystack coming nixt me, and
walking straight through trees and bushes as if they were mere shadows.
“I juked down behind a hedge of broom, and as I hunkered in the shadow
he came on in the slightly dusk light. The horse was as big as four
horses, and at a distance I thought the rider was a huge blackavised
man; but when he came fornenst me the moon fell full upon him through
a break in the trees, and then I saw that he was crulged up on the
saddle, and that only a red and ghastly stump stuck up between his
shoulders, where his head should have been.
”I escaped unseen, but just as the terrible thing passed me it nichered
again horribly, and I saw sparks of fire darting out of its mouth.
“It then turned and cut triangle across the valley, passing over the
cockpit, and walking upon the air, as it emerged into the moonlight.
It walked up straight against the steep edge of the quarry-pit, and
vanished into the bank. I saw it vanishing by degrees, like a shadow,
at first black, but growing lighter and lighter, till it entirely
disappeared, and there was nothing on the high bank where it stopped
but the bright moonlight.”
Kaly Nesbit had the reputation of being a very good man. I knew him
pretty well, especially as a near relative of his had been my kind
old nurse, who imparted to me much Brontë lore. I am sure he believed
the fascinating story he told; but a noggin of whiskey is a rather
indefinite quantity, and Kaly Nesbit, on that night, may have had his
faculties for hearing and seeing in a rather sensitive condition.
However that may have been, his sober and earnest account of the
monstrous spectre, confirming, as it did, the wildest stories of the
Brontës, created a profound impression.
THE HYPNOTIC EXPERIMENTS OF DOCTOR LUYS.
BY R. H. SHERARD.
(Illustrated with photographs of Doctor Luys’s patients, taken at the
Charity Hospital in Paris.)
The scientific world is greatly interested in the dispute between
the believers in the value of hypnotic experiments for purposes of
therapeutics and psychology, and those who stigmatize the wonderful
results which the former claim to have obtained, as the mere outcome of
delusion or fraud.
[Illustration: DOCTOR LUYS.]
Ever since the possibility of producing phenomena by the effect of
animal magnetism was established, and their medical value asserted,
by Frederick Anthony Mesmer, in his theory of mesmeric cures, the
most violent hostility has been provoked. Volumes of controversy have
been written, the most ardent of the writers being Nees Von Esenbeck,
Kieser, Enemoser, Carus and Kluge amongst the Germans, and Deleaze and
Foissac among the French.
The report made by the commission appointed by the French Academy
of Sciences, the principal members of which were Benjamin Franklin,
Lavoisier, Bailly, and Guillotin, pronounced the whole theory of
Mesmer charlatanry, asserting that “there is no proof of the existence
of the animal magnetic fluid; that this fluid, having no existence,
is consequently without utility; and that the violent effects to
be observed are due to the manipulations, to the excitement of the
imagination, and to that sort of mechanical imitation which leads us to
repeat anything which produces an impression on the senses.”
The consensus of opinion among scientists was opposed to the soundness
of the theory of hypnotism. Yet such men as Laplace, Agassiz, Hufeland,
Sir William Hamilton, and Doctor William Carpenter were always among
its stanch supporters, so far as the fundamental facts were concerned.
THE NEW MESMERISM.
The novel development of the subject on sharply defined lines of
scientific method owes itself to J. Braid, a surgeon of Manchester,
England, who first published the results of his studies in 1840. But
it was many years before his studies became widely known and had
their due weight. He now shines _primus inter pares_ among those
who have shed most light on a perplexing problem. But just as the
modern French art school built itself upon the work of the Englishman
Constable, so it took the genius and enthusiasm of such investigators
as Doctors Charcot and Luys, and of Colonel Rochas d’Aiglun to carry on
Braid’s beginnings. These three scientists of recognized worth never
proclaimed that the secrets of hypnotism have been solved, or that its
possibilities have been more than foreshadowed; they simply asserted
that the results already obtained, many being practical in an eminent
degree, give encouragement to pursue their investigations.
[Illustration: PLEASING EFFECT OF THE NORTH POLE OF A MAGNET.]
It is my purpose to simply set forth that which has come under my
personal observation at the Charité Hospital, whose doctor-in-chief,
Doctor Luys, is to-day the most enthusiastic believer in experiments on
the hypnotic phenomena.
METHODS OF LA CHARITÉ HOSPITAL.
The hypnotic experiments practised by the doctor-in-chief of the
Charité Hospital, may be roughly divided into two classes. The first
are experiments of a speculative kind, that is to say, such as do not
produce practical effects. The second class includes such as often
produce such results. These last experiments are mainly the diagnosis
of patients by subjects in the hypnotic state, the cure of nervous
disorders by the transfer of the same from patients to subjects in the
hypnotic state, and the cure of moral and physical maladies by the
power of suggestion.
The hypnotic state is divided by Doctor Luys into five phases of
intensity: somnambulism, fascination, catalepsy, lethargy, and
hypo-lethargy, with various intermediary phases which have not yet been
tabulated. The hypnotic state in one or other of its phases is produced
in the subject or patient in two ways; by word of command or by the
use of the rotative mirror. The rotative mirror is often used where
hypnotic influence is first applied to an individual. This mirror much
resembles that used by bird catchers for snaring larks. It is composed
of four arms, overlaid with bright, polished metal. The arms revolve
by clockwork on a pivot, at a tremendous rate of speed. The patient is
seated in a high-backed chair with his back to the light, which shines
full on the mirror, and is bidden to keep his eyes fixed upon it, and
simultaneously to desire to be sent to sleep. The clockwork sets the
mirror in rotary motion with a dazzling effect. Sleep is not invariably
produced. Many persons are refractory; but, as a rule, in about twenty
per cent. of the cases the operation is successful, and after a period
varying from five to twenty minutes the patient is seen to drop to
sleep.
[Illustration: REPULSIVE EFFECT OF THE SOUTH POLE OF A MAGNET.]
“The eyes,” says a writer on the subject, “are first attracted by the
rays of light which flash from the wings of the mirror, then little
by little, and at the end of a period which varies according to the
temperament of the patient, a kind of fascination is produced, the
lids get tired and imperceptibly close, the head falls back, and the
patient sleeps a sleep which seems natural, but which is really one
of the first phases of the hypnotic sleep.” In other cases, that is
to say, in the case of patients who are more predisposed, a slight
shock is manifested during the state of fascination, due, no doubt, to
the sudden contraction of some muscle or system of muscles, and the
patient falls into a deep sleep, breathing hard. He is then completely
insensible, and apt for the reception of suggestion, having passed
quickly through the several stages of the hypnotic sleep, sometimes
to the last. In most cases, however, where the doctor has to do with
subjects who have often been hypnotized, the simple word of command,
without passes or gestures of any kind, suffices. With these he has
but to say, “Go to sleep,” and they fall at once into a hypnotic state
of greater or lesser profundity. Doctor Luys is, however, the sole
possessor of hypnotism I have seen who has this power; and both Charcot
and his assistant, Doctor Encausse, as well as Colonel Rachas, are
obliged to enforce their commands with certain gestures of the hands
and influence of the eyes.
THE DANGER OF HYPNOTISM.
Doctor Luys says: “From the social point of view, these new states
of instantaneous loss of consciousness into which hypnotic or merely
fascinated subjects may be made to pass deserve to be considered
with lively interest. As I shall have to explain to you later, the
individual in these novel conditions no longer belongs to himself; he
is surrendered, an inert being, to the enterprise of those who surround
him. He may be induced to become a homicide, an incendiary or suicide,
and all these impulses deposited in his brain during sleep become
forces stored up silently, which will then burst forth at a given
moment, causing acts like those performed by the really insane. All
these are real facts which you may meet with this very day in ordinary
life.”
This is, indeed, one of the most dangerous features of hypnotism, that
a being, apparently in perfect possession of himself, may be forced
to do things by the potency of a command given to him in a trance, a
fatal edict which he does not in the least remember, but is constrained
mechanically to obey. Doctor Luys and his _confrères_ insist that,
unjust as it may appear, the plea of having acted irresponsibly under
the effect of a hypnotic suggestion cannot, when the safety of society
is involved, be admitted as an excuse any more than drunkenness. This
justifies the French law that none but licensed physicians should
practise hypnotic experiments.
[Illustration: ESTHER, DOCTOR LUYS’ SUBJECT.]
Fortunately for the science of hypnotism the same energy towards useful
acts can be stimulated, and it is just this entire obedience of which
the professors take advantage for the practice of their healing art.
Thus the confirmed drunkard, the man of vicious habits, the lazy child,
the kleptomaniac, the suicidal or homicidal maniac can be cured. More
wonderful things have been achieved. The patient’s willpower can be
so intensified as to enable him to resume mastery of parts of the
body which, as the result of such nervous disorders as paralysis,
he may have entirely lost. Cases of ague, tic nerveux, neuralgia,
and analogous disorders have been cured by repeatedly enjoining the
patient, while in the hypnotic state, to conquer his trouble.
HOW CURATIVE PROCESSES ARE PURSUED.
These cures may be divided into two classes, the first effected by
auto-suggestion, that is to say, by inspiring the patient with the
determination to get the better of his disorder; and, second, those
effected by the transfer of the disorder from the patient in his
ordinary state to a subject in the hypnotic state.
In the same class may be named numerous cases of persons to whom
hypnotism has been administered, just as chloroform is in other cases,
as an anæsthetic: as, for instance, the case of a girl who came to the
hospital maddened with toothache, and who, once in the hypnotic state,
into which she was thrown by the influence of the revolving mirrors,
allowed two molar teeth, which till then had caused her the most
excruciating agony, to be removed without a sign of discomfort.
[Illustration: ESTHER IN THE LETHARGIC STATE.]
The second class of cures are, however, by far the most interesting
and the most wonderful. These are the “direct cures,” which are called
cures by transfer. This is the method used. One of the subjects
attached to Doctor Luys’ clinic--such subjects being persons who have
proved themselves very susceptible--is sent to sleep by a word of
command from the doctor, and in this state grasps the hands of the
patient who desires to be cured. In some cases the hands of the subject
are laid upon the patient’s head. The subject is now described as
“tapping” the patient of the nervous disorder that affects him. During
the process of the transfer an assistant passes a magnetized iron bar
over the arms and bodies of both patient and subject. The transfer
usually lasts about three minutes. During this period the subject, or
the person in the hypnotic state, assumes the individuality of the
patient for the nonce, and can answer the doctor’s questions as to the
patient’s state and progress. Thus it is the former and not the latter
whom the doctor will question how the case is progressing and what
ameliorations may be felt, and the subject will answer. In the cases
which I saw, the patient in every case described what the subject had
said about his state, symptoms, and progress as absolutely true and
exact. It is further stated that no injury whatever is wrought on the
substitute. While relieving the patient from whom the transfer is made,
this vicarious agent is considerably benefited.
[Illustration: ATTRACTION OF THE HAND IN THE LETHARGIC STATE.]
The detection of imposture on the part of the subject has invariably
resulted in immediate dismissal.
EXTRAORDINARY PHENOMENA.
All the experiments described above are, if genuine (but scientific
camps are divided on the question of their genuineness), of practical
value. The same thing may be said of another series of test studies,
which are also being pursued, though the value is less in degree.
Doctor Luys says that the subject in the hypnotic state has an
intensely increased visual faculty. Indeed, one of the symptoms of
this state is a very noticeable alteration of the appearance of the
eye. It is stated by the doctor, and the experiments publicly made may
be considered as convincing, that, thanks to this increased visual
faculty, the hypnotic subject is able to see in the human face what is
entirely hidden to ordinary sight.
[Illustration: THE ACTION OF WATER; THE HANDS ARE CLENCHED AND THE JAW
SET; THE SUBJECT CAN NEITHER SWALLOW NOR SPEAK.]
For some time past the doctor had established that when a magnet is
presented to a hypnotic subject in one of the phases of trance, the
effect produced varies, according as the north or south pole, that is
to say, the negative or the positive end of the magnet, is offered. The
north pole in all cases produces a state of intense delight, expressed
by gestures and outcries of pleasure. The subjects in this case declare
that they see at the end of the magnet emanations of a beautiful blue
light. When the bar is reversed the greatest horror and disgust at once
affect the subject. If asked what it is that causes this dismay the
subject will answer that it is the sight of a fearful red light playing
around the end of the magnet.
[Illustration: EXPRESSION OF PLEASURE CAUSED BY PEPPER PRESENTED TO THE
LEFT SIDE.]
Investigating further in this direction the doctor has discovered that
the same subjects can detect in the human face emanations corresponding
to those seen at the ends of the magnetic bar. Thus from the left eye
and left ear and left corner of the mouth in persons in a good state of
health, blue emanations can be seen by the hypnotized person, according
to the declarations of such subjects.
In cases of persons, however, suffering from nervous disorders, or from
the results of diseases or accidents, the colors vary. Thus, according
to one of the subjects, the red light proceeding from the right eye of
a person affected with shortsightedness and fatigue of the organ was
largely spotted with violet. Violet is the characteristic color in all
cases of great nervous fatigue. Black, green, and multi-colored flames
have been described by the subjects as showing from persons suffering
with various forms of nervous disorder. A man who had been wounded
in the eye with a rapier was characterized, at an interval of three
months, by two different subjects, who, according to Doctor Luys, had
had no means of inter-communication, as emitting a green light from the
injured organ.
[Illustration: EXPRESSION OF ANXIETY CAUSED BY PEPPER PRESENTED TO THE
RIGHT SIDE.]
If it can be established that certain diseases produce in those
suffering from them a variation in the color of the emanations, which
are perceptible to the hypnotic subject, the existence and nature of
the disease will be certified by the tint.
Amongst the experiments which have been classified as of a speculative
kind, and distinct from those of practical worth, none are more
interesting than those that involve the presentation to subjects in
the hypnotic state, of various substances and medicines contained in
hermetically sealed tubes. The manifestations, according as the tube
is presented on the right or the left side of the subject, indicate
emotions of a diametrically opposite nature. Thus, when a tube
containing ordinary red pepper was offered to the left, or, as the
doctor calls it, the blue side, of a girl subject in the hypnotic
state, symptoms of keen pleasure were discernible, which changed
suddenly to an expression of violent disgust when the tube was carried
to the red or right side. According to the doctor, the human being is
double, and does not feel the same on his red as on his blue side.
Thyme presented to one patient produced terrifying hallucinations; in
another it called forth an expression of calm delight. Singularly, in
the application of thyme there was a physiological effect, also, on
the thyroid gland of the throat, the size of the neck being increased
from thirty to thirty-three centimetres, or somewhat more than an inch.
Morphine in one patient bred fancies of an evidently terrifying nature;
in another, an intense drowsiness. The effect of frankincense presented
to the left of the neck was an emotion of terror. Some water in a tube,
held near the left side of a hypnotic subject’s head, caused a series
of spasms resembling those usual to patients suffering from hydrophobia.