howing criminal suggestion is not possible--Dr. William
James' theory--A bad man cannot be made good, why expect to make a good
man bad?

CHAPTER VIII--Dangers in being hypnotized Condemnation of public
performances--A commonsense view--Evidence furnished by Lafontaine; by Dr.
Courmelles; by Dr. Hart; by Dr. Cocke--No danger in hypnotism if rightly
used by physicians or scientists

CHAPTER IX--Hypnotism in medicine--Anesthesia--Restoring the use of
muscles--Hallucination--Bad habits

CHAPTER X--Hypnotism of animals--Snake charming

CHAPTER XI--A scientific explanation of hypnotism--Dr. Hart's theory

CHAPTER XII--Telepathy and Clairvoyance--Peculiar power in hypnotic
state--Experiments--"Phantasms of the living" explained by telepathy

CHAPTER XIII--The Confessions of a Medium--Spiritualistic phenomena
explained on theory of telepathy--Interesting statement of Mrs. Piper,
the famous medium of the Psychical Research Society

INTRODUCTION.

There is no doubt that hypnotism is a very old subject, though the name
was not invented till 1850. In it was wrapped up the "mysteries of Isis"
in Egypt thousands of years ago, and probably it was one of the weapons,
if not the chief instrument of operation, of the magi mentioned in the
Bible and of the "wise men" of Babylon and Egypt. "Laying on of hands"
must have been a form of mesmerism, and Greek oracles of Delphi and
other places seem to have been delivered by priests or priestesses who
went into trances of self-induced hypnotism. It is suspected that the
fakirs of India who make trees grow from dry twigs in a few minutes, or
transform a rod into a serpent (as Aaron did in Bible history), operate
by some form of hypnotism. The people of the East are much more subject
to influences of this kind than Western peoples are, and there can be no
question that the religious orgies of heathendom were merely a form of
that hysteria which is so closely related to the modern phenomenon of
hypnotism. Though various scientific men spoke of magnetism, and
understood that there was a power of a peculiar kind which one man could
exercise over another, it was not until Frederick Anton Mesmer (a doctor
of Vienna) appeared in 1775 that the general public gave any special
attention to the subject. In the year mentioned, Mesmer sent out a
circular letter to various scientific societies or "Academies" as they
are called in Europe, stating his belief that "animal magnetism"
existed, and th