organs, and to become aware of events happening at a distance, has been
frequently ascribed to an additional sense, possibly the Common Sense of
Aristotle. Its fainter operations are seen in the almost marvelous power
possessed by bats to fly through minute meshes of silk nets, stretched
out for the purpose, even when deprived of sight, and to find their way
to their nests without a moment's hesitation. Cuvier ascribed this
remarkable power to their exquisitely developed sense of touch, which
would make them aware of an almost imperceptible pressure of the air;
but while this might explain their avoiding walls and trees, it could
not well apply to slender silk threads. Another familiar illustration is
found in the perfectly amazing ability often possessed by blind, or
blind and deaf persons, who distinguish visitors by means neither
granted nor known to their more fortunate brethren. It is generally
believed that in such cases the missing senses are supplied by a
superior development of the remaining senses, but even this assertion
has never yet been fully proved, nor if proved, would it supply a key to
some of the almost marvelous achievements of blind people.
This new or general sense seems only to awaken in exceptional cases and
under peculiar circumstances. That it never shows itself in healthy life
is due to the simple fact that its power is then obscured by the
unceasing activity of the ordinary senses. A peculiar, and as yet
unexplained feature of this power is the tendency to ascribe its
results, not to the ordinary organs, but by a curious transposition to
some other part of the body, so that persons in magnetic sleep believe,
as the magnetizer may choose, that they see, or smell, or hear by means
of the finger-tips, the pit of the stomach, the forehead, or even the
back of the head. It is true that savants like Alfred Maury (_Revue des
Deux Mondes_, 1860, t. 25) and Dr. Michea ascribe these new powers only
to an increased activity of the senses; but nothing is gained by this
reasoning, as such an astounding increase of the irritability of the
retina or the tympanum is as much of a magic phenomenon as the presumed
new sense. The simple explanation is that it is not the eye which sees
nor the ear which hears, but that images and sound-waves are carried by
these organs to the great nervous centre, where we must look for the
true source of all our perceptions. If in magnetic sleep the same images
and waves can be conveyed by other means, the result will be precisely
the same as if the patient was observing with open eyes and ears.
A lady treated by Despine thus heard with the palm of her hand and read
by means of the finger-tips, which she passed rapidly over the letters
presented to her in her sleep. At the same time she invariably ascribed
the sensations she experienced to the natural senses; flowers, for
instance, laid down unseen by her, so as barely to touch her fingers,
caused her to draw in air through the nostrils and to exclaim: Ah, how
sweet that is! and if objects were placed against the sole of her foot,
she would often exclaim: "What is that? I cannot see it distinctly."
Somnambulists can, hence, carry on domestic work in the dark with the
same success as in broad daylight, and a patient whose case has been
most carefully investigated, could hem the finest linen handkerchiefs by
holding the needle to her brow, high above her eyes. Thus persons have
seen by means of almost every part of the body, a fact which has led
more than one distinguished physiologist to assume that, under special
circumstances, all the papillae of nerves in the epidermis may become
capable of conveying the sensual perceptions ordinarily assigned only to
certain organs, as the eye or the ear. Even this supposition, however,
would not suffice to explain the ability possessed by some magnetized
persons to see and hear by means of their fingers, even without touching
the objects or when separated from the latter by an intervening wall.
The highest magic phenomena connected with magnetic sleep consist in the
perception of hidden things and in the influence exercised over persons
at a distance. Only a few of these can be explained by natural laws and
by the increased power of the senses frequently granted to peculiarly
constituted or diseased persons. The senses, on the contrary, cease to
operate, and man, for a time, becomes endowed with a higher power, which
is probably part and portion of his spiritual being, as made after the
image of the Most High, but obscured and rendered inoperative by the
subjection of the soul to the earthborn body. Nor is this power always
under his control; as if to mark its supernatural character, the patient
very often perceives what is perfectly indifferent to himself, and is
forced, almost against his own will, to witness or foresee events, the
bearing of which he cannot discern. Generally, therefore, the importance
of these revelations is of less interest than the manner in which they
are made, which is invariably of the kind we call magic. This is still
further attested by the difficulty, which is almost always felt, of
translating them, as it were, into ordinary language, and hence the many
allegoric and symbolic forms under which they are made known. Future
events are often not seen, but read in a newspaper or heard as recited
by strangers; in other cases they are apparently imparted by the spirits
of deceased persons. A very frequent form is the impression that the
soul leaves the body and, pursuing the track of a person to whom the
magnetizer points, with all the fidelity and marvelous accuracy of a
well-trained dog, finally reaches him and sees him and his surroundings.
Nor is the distance a matter of indifference; like the ordinary senses,
this new sense also seems to have its laws and its limits, and if the
task is too heavy and the distance too great, the perception remains
vague and indefinite. Most important of all is the fact that, unlike
spiritual visions, magnetism never enables the sleeper to go beyond the
limits of our earthly home. On the other hand, time is no more an
obstacle than space, and genuine somnambulists have seen past and future
events as well as distant scenes. Mistakes, however, occur here as with
all our other senses; as healthy persons see amiss or hear amiss, so
magnetic sleepers also are not unfrequently mistaken--errors to which
they are all the more liable as the impressions received by magic powers
have to be translated into the language adapted to ordinary senses.
Among somnambulists of this class Alexis is one of the best known, and
has left us an account of many experiments in his _Explication du
Sommeil Magnetique_. Alexis was once put into magnetic sleep by a friend
of Dr. Mayo, and then ordered to go to Boppard, on the Rhine, and look
for him; Alexis, after some hesitation, stated that he had found him,
and described--although he had never seen him before--his appearance and
dress, not only, but also the state of mind in which he was at that
moment, all of which proved afterward to be perfectly correct. Alexis
declared that his perceptions varied very much in clearness, and that
his power to see friends at a distance depended largely on the affection
he felt for them. In all instances his magic powers were far inferior to
those of his natural senses, although they never misled him, as the
latter had done occasionally. In the _Bibliotheque du Magnetisme Animal_
(vii. p. 146), a remarkable case is reported as attested by undoubted
authority. The English consul, Baldwin, was, in 1795, visited by an
Italian improvisatore, who happened to have a small medicine-chest with
him. In the consul's kitchen was a little Arab, a scullion, who suffered
of a harassing cough, and whom his master magnetized in order to cure
him. While in his sleep the boy saw the medicine-chest, of which he had
known nothing before, and selected among the phials one with sugar of
agrimonium, which relieved him of his troubles. The Italian, thereupon,
asked also to be magnetized; fell promptly asleep, and wrote in this
condition, with closed eyes, a poem praising the art of magnetism.
Haddock's famous subject, Emma, actually accomplished once the crucial
test of all magic phenomena--she proved the value of magnetism in a
question of money. In the year 1849 three notes, amounting to L650, had
been deposited in a bank, and disappeared in the most unaccountable
manner. One of the clerks confessed, that although he had received them,
wrapped them up in paper, and placed them with a parcel of other notes,
he had forgotten to enter them regularly in the books. No trace could be
discovered; at last the magnetized subject was consulted, and after some
little time declared that the notes were lying in a certain room,
inserted in a certain panel, which she described so accurately that upon
search being instituted the missing notes were found, and the clerk's
character was cleared. Dr. Barth magnetized, in 1846, a lady who was
filled with anxiety about her husband in America, from whom she had not
heard for a long time. After having been put into magnetic sleep several
times, she once exclaimed: "God be thanked, my poor husband is better. I
am looking over his shoulder and see him write a letter addressed to me,
which will be here in six or seven weeks. He tells me that he has been
ill for three months." Two months afterwards she actually received such
a letter, in which her husband informed her of his three months'
illness, and regretted the pain he had probably caused her by his
protracted silence. A young lady, magnetized by Robert Napier in his
house in Edinburgh, not only described her parents' house as it appeared
at the moment, but also the home of a Miss B., in New South Wales, where
she had never been. In the garden of the house she saw a gentleman
accompanied by a lady in black, and a dog of light color with dark
spots; upon inquiry it appeared that Colonel B., the father of the young
lady, had at that time actually been in the garden with his wife and his
dog, although some of the minor details proved to have been incorrect.
She also gave a minute and accurate account of the upper stories of
Napier's house, where she had never been; but recognizing everything
only gradually, and correcting the mistakes which she had at first
committed. Thus she spoke of Napier's old aunt as dressed in dark
colors; after a while she exclaimed: "Oh, now I see she is dressed in
white!" It appeared afterward that the old lady had been sitting in a
deep arm-chair, overshadowed by the back of the chair, the gas-light
being behind her; just at that moment, however, Napier's wife had come
up, the aunt had leaned forward to speak to her, and thus being brought
into the light, had revealed her white night-dress. This case is
peculiarly interesting as proving that the perceptions of somnambulists
are dependent upon conditions similar to those which govern the ordinary
senses. (Colquhoun, p. 626.)
According to such high authorities as Hufeland and others, magnetic
sleep enables persons to see the interior of the bodies of others. He
himself heard one of his female patients, a woman without any knowledge
of anatomy, describe quite accurately the inner structure of the ear,
and of certain other parts of the body. (_Ueber Sympathie_, p. 115.) It
seems to have been well ascertained that she had never had an
opportunity of reading such a description, even if her memory had been
retentive enough to enable her to recall and recite what she had thus
chanced to read. The clairvoyant Alexis once saw through the clothing of
a visitor a scar, and after gazing at it--in his sleep--for a long time,
he came to the conclusion that it was the effect of a dog's bite, and
finally stated all the facts attending the accident of which the scar
was the sole remaining evidence. Even historical predictions made in
magnetic sleep are not wanting. The death of a king of Wuertemberg was
thus foretold by two somnambulists, who were under medical treatment,
and who warned their physicians, well-known and trustworthy
practitioners of good standing, of the approaching event. The king's
death took place without being preceded by any serious illness, and in
the manner minutely predicted by one of the patients; a confirmation
which was all the more striking, as the prediction had been made in the
presence of a number of distinguished men, among whom were a minister of
the kingdom and several divines. Another case is that of the Swedish
king, Gustavus Vasa, who was assassinated in 1792, by Ankarstroem.
Accompanied by his physician, he once called, as Count Haga, upon a
patient treated by Aubry, a pupil of Mesmer. She recognized him
immediately, although plunged in magnetic sleep, told him that he
suffered of oppressions of the chest, the effect of a broken arm, and
foretold him that his life was in danger and that he would be murdered.
The king was deeply impressed, and as his physician expressed doubt and
contempt in his face, he desired that the latter should be put _en
rapport_ with the patient. No sooner was this done than the physician's
eyes fell, he sank into magnetic sleep, and when, after some time, he
was aroused he left the room in great agitation. (A. Gauthier. _Hist. du
Somnamb._, ii. p. 246.)
An occasional phenomenon of magnetic sleep is the improvement of the
language of patients; this appears not only in the case of well-educated
persons, whose diction assumes often a high poetical form, but far more
strikingly in unlettered and ignorant patients, who suddenly manifest an
unexpected familiarity with the more refined form of their native
tongue, and not unfrequently even with idioms of which they have
previously had no knowledge whatever. All these different symptoms have
been authenticated by numerous and trustworthy witnesses. Humble
peasant-women have used the most elegant forms of their native language;
travelers have unexpectedly recovered the use of idioms once known to
them, but long since forgotten; and, finally, a real gift of languages
has unmistakably enabled patients to use idioms with which they had
previously never come in contact. This phenomenon develops itself
occasionally into poetical improvisations of considerable merit, and the
beautiful music which many hear in magnetic sleep, or just before dying,
as if coming from another world, is, in like manner, nothing but a
product of their own mental exaltation. Thus persons who spoke merely a
local dialect, and were acquainted with no other form of their
mother-tongue, when placed in magnetic sleep would speak the best
English or German, as if their mind, freed from all fetters, resumed
once more the original task of forming the language in accordance with
their heightened capacities. Little children, whose education had
scarcely begun, have been known to recite verses or to compose speeches,
of which they would have been utterly incapable in a healthy state, and
of which they had afterwards no recollection. Macnish mentions a young
girl who, when magnetized, always fell back into Welsh, which she had
spoken as a child, but long since forgotten, and Lausanne mentions one
of his patients, a Creole, who came at the age of five to France, and
late in life, when magnetized, spoke no longer French but the miserable
patois of her early years. A young tanner in England, also, though
utterly uneducated, like the peasant-boy of Puysegur, was able in
magnetic sleep to speak German. Whenever another person, at such a time,
spoke to him in English, his lips began at once to move, and he
translated what he heard into fair German verses. (Morin, _Journ. du
Magn._ 1854, No. 199.)
It must not be overlooked that the gift of singing and of using poetical
language, often of great beauty, is not unfrequently developed in
fever-patients also, and in insane persons.
Insensibility to impressions from without is another phenomenon which
magnetic sleep has in common with many other conditions. It is produced
by anaesthetics like chloroform and ether, by utter exhaustion in
consequence of long suffering, as was the case with martyrs and
prisoners subjected to torture, and by excessive loss of blood. But in
magnetic sleep it reaches a higher degree than under other
circumstances; cataleptic patients, and even clairvoyants in moments of
greatest excitement, seem to be in a state in which the nerves cease to
act as conveyers of impressions to the brain. This has often led to
unwarrantable abuse; physicians, under the pretext of scientific
investigation, inflicting severe injuries upon their patients, utterly
unmindful of the fact that, however great the momentary insensibility
may be, the sense of pain returns at the instant of re-awaking. On the
other hand, physicians have taken advantage of this state of
unconsciousness of pain, in order to perform serious operations.
The first instance of a surgical operation being attempted while the
patient was in mesmeric sleep, was that of Madame Plantin, a lady of
sixty-four years, who suffered of cancer in the breast. A Mr. Chapelain
prepared her by throwing her for several days into a trance by means of
the usual mesmeric passes. She then manifested the ordinary symptoms of
somnambulism, and conversed about the impending danger with perfect
calmness, while she contemplated it, when conscious, with the utmost
horror and apprehension. On the 12th of April, 1824, she was again
thrown into a trance, and the painful and dangerous operation
accomplished in less than a quarter of an hour, while she conversed with
the surgeon, the famous Dr. Ploquet, and showed in her voice, her
breathing, and her pulse not the slightest sign of excitement or pain.
When the wound was bound up, she awoke, but upon hearing what had taken
place, she became so violently excited that the magnetizer had to cause
her once more to fall asleep under his passes. And yet, in spite of this
brilliant success, when Dr. Warren of Boston asked the great surgeon
why he had never repeated the experiment, the latter was forced to
acknowledge that he had not dared do it, "because the prejudice against
mesmerism was so strong in Paris that a repetition would have imperiled
his position and his reputation!"
Since that time mesmerism has been repeatedly, and almost always
successfully employed as an anaesthetic; Dr. James Esdall, chief surgeon
of the presidency of Calcutta, having reduced the application to a
regular method. Dr. Forbes reports two cases of amputation of the thigh
in magnetic sleep, which were successful, and similar experiments have
been made in England, and in India, with the same happy result.
It is probably a feature connected with this insensibility that persons
in magnetic sleep can with impunity take unusually large doses of
medicine, which they prescribe for themselves. For magnetic sleep seems
to develop, as we have stated, among other magic phenomena, a peculiar
insight also, into diseases and their remedies. Although diseases may
assume a variety of deceptive forms, the predictions made by magnetic
patients, many months in advance, seldom fail to be verified. This is a
mere matter of instinct, for ignorant persons and young children possess
the gift in equal degree with the best-informed and most experienced
patients. The remedies are almost exclusively so-called simples--a hint
of some value to physicians--but always prescribed with much judgment,
and in a manner evincing rare medical tact. The dose, however, is
generally twice or three times as much as is ordinarily given. Magnetic
patients prescribe as successfully for others, with whom they are placed
_en rapport_, as for themselves, since a state of perfect clairvoyance
enables them to judge of other persons also with perfect accuracy. One
of the most remarkable cases is mentioned by Schopenhauer. ("Parerga,"
etc., I. p. 246.) A consumptive patient in Russia directed, in her
magnetic sleep, the attending physician to put her for nine days into a
state of syncope. He did so reluctantly, but during this time her system
seemed to enjoy perfect rest, and by this means she recovered. Haddock,
also, cured several persons at a distance, by following the directions
given to him by a patient of his in her magnetic sleep; he handed her a
lock of hair, or a few written lines, which sufficed to put her _en
rapport_ with the absent sufferers.
Among the magic phenomena observed in magnetic sleep we must lastly
mention ecstatic elevation in the air, the giving out of peculiar
sounds, and the power to produce extraordinary effects at a distance.
Even common somnambulists, it is well known, seem not to be in the same
degree subject to the laws of gravity as persons in a state of
wakefulness: hence their amazing exploits in walking on roofs, gliding
along narrow cornices, or even running up perpendicular walls. Persons
in magnetic sleep have been known to float on fresh water as well as in
the sea, although they were unable to swim, and sank, if they went into
the water when awake. Dupotel saw one of his patients running along the
side of his room on a small strip of wood which was merely tacked on to
the wall, and could not have supported a small weight. This peculiar
power is all the more fully authenticated as persons have fallen from
great heights, while in magnetic sleep, without suffering any injury;
but if they are aroused, and then fall, they invariably become subject
again to the natural laws, and are often killed. This temporary
suspension of the law of gravity has been compared with similar
phenomena in science. Thus it is well known that a galvanic stream
passing through coils of copper wire will hold an iron needle suspended
within the coils; and an iron ball dropped into a glass tube between two
powerful magnets will in the same manner remain hanging free in the air.
The advocates of this theory reason that if magnetism can suspend the
law of gravity in metals, it is at least possible that it may have a
similar power in the human body. It has, besides, been observed that
certain affections, such as violent nervous fevers, increase the weight
of sufferers considerably, while a state of trance diminishes it even
more strikingly.
With regard to the magic phenomena of increased intelligence,
Abercrombie mentions the case of a girl who as a child had heard a
relative play the violin with a certain degree of mastery. Later in life
she became his patient, and in her magnetic sleep repeated unconsciously
some of the pieces in tones very pleasing and closely resembling the
notes of a violin. Each paroxysm, however, was succeeded by certain
symptoms of her disease. Some years afterwards she imitated in like
manner the sounds of a piano and the tones of several members of the
family who were fond of singing, in such a manner that each voice could
be readily and distinctly recognized. Another year passed, and she
conversed with a younger companion, whom she fancied she was instructing
on topics of political and religious interest, with surprising ability
and a frequent display of wit. Henceforth she led two different kinds of
life; when awake she was stupid, awkward in her movements, and unable to
appreciate music; in her sleep she became clever and showed amazing
information and great musical talents. At a critical point in her life,
when she was twenty-one years old, a complete change took place in the
poor girl; her conversation in her magnetic sleep lost all its
attractions; she mixed with it improper remarks, and a few months later
she had to be sent to an insane asylum.