One of the most notable features of the scientific tendencies of the
present day is the extraordinary interest taken in the investigation
of those peculiar physical and psychical conditions attending the
states now known collectively under the name of hypnotism, varying
from lethargy, catalepsy, etc., to somnambulism. Until quite recently
these investigations have been frowned upon and tabooed in scientific
circles, and the fact that any man of scientific inclinations was
known to feel an interest in matters associated with "mesmerism" or
"animal magnetism" was sufficient to make him an object of suspicion,
and injure his good standing amongst his fellow-scientists. The result
of the so-called investigations long ago instituted by the French
Academy, pronouncing in effect the whole subject a humbug and
delusion, has lain like an interdict upon further researches, and the
whole matter was left over, for the most part, to charlatans or to
persons hardly capable of forming sound judgments or proceeding
according to the accurate methods demanded by modern science. Science,
however, in the remarkable progress attained of late, has advanced so
far upon certain lines that it has been hardly possible to proceed
further in those directions without entering upon the forbidden field.
Therefore, the old signboards against trespassing have been taken
down. For "mesmerism," that verbal scarecrow, has been substituted
"hypnotism," which word has had a wonderfully legitimatizing effect;
while "animal magnetism," that once flouted idea, has been proven to
be an existent fact by methods as accurate as those adopted by Faraday
or Edison to verify their observations.