not know what this
Latin quotation means, but I would like it to convey "don't you think
it rot yourself?"

Ask any medical man about the explanation of hypnotism and kindred
other "isms" being accountable for the performance of this trick. I
understand that a hypnotist can persuade a patient to believe that his
finger is momentarily stiff, and that when released from this
suggestion, the patient can remember that it had been made to him. But
in order to persuade a person that he sees such a thing as a rope
being thrown in the air and so forth, that person must be so much
under the influence that when he is released from it he is totally
unable to remember what he saw when under the trance. How then, can he
describe what he saw when he comes to?

Some people say that photos have been taken of the trick and that when
the plate was developed it was found to be blank. As I say, a person
to be sufficiently mesmerised to imagine that he sees the trick being
done, must perforce be so much under the influence that he cannot
remember what he saw or anything that he did when under that
influence. How does he know that he took a photo? Or that anyone else
took one? Or remember anything at all about it?

I hope that the above arguments will do away with the plea of mesmeric
power being accountable for this myth. The plea is to my mind too
absurd for words, yet it is wonderful that many people put it forward
in all good faith.

While on the subject of photography, let me now point out that
although the magicians of Europe and America have for ages been trying
to get in touch with the trick, and although the ubiquitous Kodak has
been in vogue for at least thirty years, not one single photo or
snapshot is available that depicts any part or portion of this trick.
If there is such a snapshot, and its owner cares to communicate with
me through my publishers, I can get him a good price for the plate or
film, even for a copy of the picture. A really handsome price for it.

To sum up I maintain that the trick has never been performed out of
doors. That is to say that a rope thrown up into the air has not
remained suspended in mid-air, nor has any boy ever climbed up it.
That when at the top he has not disappeared and that after his
disappearance he did not come down in bits, covered with blood or
otherwise.

I further maintain that no one has seen this trick, as described
above, or in any way similar to the above description, who