of the room, declaring, at the same time, that his unconsciousness had been complete.

In one point of view the above relation lays claim to a peculiar interest. The effects of a new influence, when manifested by the young, are especially to be relied upon; they can be neither prompted nor impeded by those prepossessions which are the growth of maturer years; nor can they be attributed to those nervous imaginings which spring from infirmity. Youth, moreover, is the season of candour, when all is bold, healthy, unsophisticated; and the phenomena which it exhibits are valuable in proportion as they are exempt from the suspicion which attaches to the doings of the older inhabitants of this crafty world.

SECT. II.

SHOWING THE CLAIMS OF MESMERIC SLEEPWAKING TO BE CONSIDERED A PECULIAR CONDITION OF MAN.

In the spring of 1837, I went to Cambridge, on a visit to some friends. That I should have succeeded in interesting them, and others of the University, upon the subject nearest my thoughts, will not surprise those who have observed that, where science is most studied, new statements respecting natural phenomena obtain the most patient bearing. I did, in fact, at Cambridge, meet with many persons really desirous of witnessing experiments in mesmerism, and even of submitting themselves to the mesmeric influence.

CASE III.

In my first essay of mesmerism, at Cambridge, I experimented before seven or eight persons upon a servant, whom I had brought from Belgium, a man of about 27 years of age, in good health, lively and quick-tempered; able also to speak English. I had attempted to mesmerise him once before, but, at that time, he had advanced no further than imperfect sleepwaking, during which he retained his consciousness, but could neither move nor open his eyes. On the present occasion, after a quarter of an hour's mesmerisation, he closed his eyes, but seemed restless,

and, in answer to a question I made him, declared that it was impossible for him to sleep on account of noises in the street and the constraint caused by the presence of so many persons. Scarcely, however, had he said this, when I perceived that his head followed my hand; and, continuing the mesmeric passes for about five minutes more, I again asked him if he felt disposed to sleep. To my surprise, (for I had not expected a perfect result so soon) he replied, —"I am asleep." "Can you rise from your chair?" I inquired. "Yes, but I had rather stay quiet." When, however, I got up and removed to a short distance from the patient, he also rose and moved a step or two towards me, but tottered and would have fallen, had I not hastened to his assistance. He leaned heavily against me, and seemed unable to stand without my support; I therefore placed him in a chair, when he complained of a pain at the chest, and begged me earnestly to wake him. "Can you not awake of yourself?" I asked; to which he replied, "By no means but I beg of you to awake me." Reluctant to do so without exhibiting to the party present some of the marked phenomena of mesmerism, I soothed my patient as well as I could, and persuaded him to remain a little while longer in the state of sleepwaking. As he, however, manifestly suffered, I was unwilling to fatigue him by many experiments. The following were the principal : wine, water, and coffee were handed to me, and I tasted them, successively, in such a way as to prevent the patient from perceiving, by any usual

He, however, cor

means, what the liquids were. rectly named them in their order. The order was then changed, and the results of the experiment were the same.

Flowers were given me to smell: I was holding the patient by one hand, at the time, but turning altogether away from him to a table, over which I bent, so as to interpose myself between him and any thing that might be handed to me. He, however, when I smelt to the flowers, imitated the action, and on my asking him what he perceived, replied, without hesitation "flowers." Upon this, one of the party silently changed the flowers for a bottle of eau de cologne, when he observed, "That is not the same smell; it is eau de cologne." With the manner of conducting this experiment, and its results, all who were present declared themselves perfectly satisfied.

The patient, on being awakened, declared that he remembered nothing of what had passed since the moment when he complained of the noise in the street. His mesmeric sleepwaking had been complete.

CASE IV.

T. S., an undergraduate of Trinity College, consented to try how far I could influence him mesmerically. He possessed abilities of no common order, was extremely lively, by no means of a wonderseeking nature, and altogether seemed the last person in the world who could be worked upon by nervous apprehensions. He sat down to be mesmer

ised, laughingly, and with perfect calmness. In about ten minutes his eyelids drooped, and closed gradually; his head followed my hand; his features became fixed and rigid; his colour fled, and a dead stillness came over his countenance: the change was the more striking on account of the usually animated and mobile character of his physiognomy. It painfully resembled the alteration caused by death. Nevertheless, on being interrogated as to his state, he declared that he was well, with the exception of a slight pain in the back of his head*, which was shortly relieved by the mesmeric passes. To other questions he replied that he did not sleep, but was unable to move, or to open his eyes. As, after long mesmerisation, I saw no probability of his advancing further into sleepwaking, I awoke him in the usual manner, when his countenance resumed its accustomed expression. On attempting, however, to rise, he complained of feeling extremely weak and dizzy, and, for a short time, he was unable to stand with any firmness. He was convinced that he had experienced the effects of an influence independent of the imagination.

CASE V.

C. M., a bachelor of Trinity, aged about twentyfive, submitted to be mesmerised; he was clever, thoughtful, and rather grave in character. On first sitting down, he seemed very wakeful, and declared that it would be strange, if, under circumstances the

* See Case ii.