PROGRESS OF MAGNETISM.
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.