APPENDIX.

THE following is from the Journal of Man for November, 1851:

[From Chamber's Edinburgh Journal.]

THE OD FORCE.

It is nearly a century ago since Mesmer began his remarkable career, and six-and-thirty years have passed since he descended unhonored to the grave. But when ridiculed and defamed by the would-be wise ones of his day, he is said to have retorted by declaring that ere 1852 the world would be convinced of the genuineness of his pretentions. That epoch is now at hand, and lo! the prophecy is coming true. Within the last few months there has been a stirring in men's minds. Not a year ago, Mesmerism was still laughed at by the vulgar, and scouted by men of science; and the few who in heart gave heed to it, were careful how they let the quizzing public into their secret. Now all this is changed; since winter commenced, a revolution has been all but accomplished. Poor Mesmer is no longer vilified as a charlatan; he is about to win his long-deferred laurels.

A new truth, it has been well said, has to encounter three normal stages of opposition: In the first it is denounced as an imposture; in the second-that is, when it is beginning to force itself into notice-it is cursorily examined, and plausibly explained away; in the third, or cui bono? stage, it is decried as useless, and hostile to religion. And when at length it is fully admitted, it passes only under a protest that it has been perfectly known for ages! As mesmerism has now reached at all events the third stage of belief, it may prove not uninteresting to glance at its present aspect.

Mesmer declared that he had discovered a cosmical (or world-wide) power, by means of which he could induce sundry startling phenomena in his patients; but his

whole system was regarded as a piece of daring charlatanism, until lately a laborious and inquisitive German stumbled upon a something somewhat similar. Von Reichenbach, in the course of his researches, became aware of a certain power, undreamed of by modern physiologists, pervading both living beings and inert matter, to which he gave the arbitrary name of Od. Whatever this was, it could be both seen and felt, though only persons of a certain (relaxed or irritable) temperament were capable of perceiving it. In the dark, such persons saw dim flames of light issuing and waving from the poles of a magnet; and if a hand were held up, the same luminous appearance was visible at the finger-tips. When Reichenbach, to test the reality of this, had a powerful lens so placed that it should concentrate the light of the flames (if flames there were) upon a point of the wall of the room, the patient at once saw the light upon the wall at the right place; and when the inclination of the lens was shifted, so as to throw the focus successively on different points, the sensitive observer never failed in pointing out the right spot. Reichenbach also found that when slow passes were made with a strong magnet along the surface of the body, his subjects experienced sensations rather unpleasant than otherwise, as of a light draught of air blown upon them in the path of the magnet. When the northward pole of a magnet was employed, the sensation was that of a cool draught; while the southward pole, on the contrary, excited the sensation of a warm one. He soon discovered that the whole body possessed these Od qualities, and that the one side of a person was polar to the other; that is to say, one's right side bears the same relation to his left as the negative and positive sides of a horse-shoe magnet; so that when two persons take hold of each other's hands normally (left to right, and right to left), the Od current passes through both persons unobstructedly, but sometimes attended by uneasy sensations. But by changing hands the circle is broken, and the opposite currents meet: so that if the two persons be equal in odylic power, no effect is produced, the rival currents mutually repelling each other: but if unequal, a sense of inward conflict ensues, which quickly becomes intolerable. We have ourselves experienced this.

'But what does all this testimony to the reality of the Od force amount to?' says the sceptic. The subjectivity

of your evidence renders it worthless. All that you can say is, that you and a few others see and feel so-and-so, and as we, and the great majority of men, see and feel nothing of the kind, we must just set you down as very fanciful persons, who are the dupes of your own imaginations.' This, in truth, is a very damaging line of argument, and, coupled with the charge of collusion brought against all platform exhibitions of mesmerism, was deemed sufficient to shelve it altogether. The only obvious way of overcoming this argument was by exhibiting so many severely-tested cases as gradually to overwhelm scepticism, by making it more astonishing that so many honest and sensible men should be deceived by impostors, or duped by their fancy, than that the marvels which they avouched should be true.

Fortunately a more speedy and satisfactory remedy for scepticism has at length been found. An objective proof of mesmerism has just been discovered; and it is so simple in its nature that any one can try it for himself. Dr. Herbert Mayo, well known both in the literary and medical world, has of late been residing as an invalid at Boppard on the Rhine; and anxious to while away the long tedious nights of winter, he resolved to engage in the study of the higher mathematics, and with this view sent for Herr Caspari, professor of that science in the gymnasium at Boppard. It was on the last night of December last, that the German professor entered the room of his invalid pupil, and after the hour's lesson was over, they entered into desultory conversation. I am told you have written something on the divining-rod,' said Herr Caspari, and as I have two or three experiments possibly akin to it, I thought it might not be uninteresting for you to see them.' He added that, so far as he knew, they were original, and that, though he had shown them to many, he had never yet received any explanation of them. He then attached a gold ring to a silk thread, wound one end of the thread round the first joint of his fore-finger, and held the ring suspended above a silver spoon. After a few seconds' quiescense, lo and behold! the ring began to oscillate backward and forward, or to and from Herr Caspari. At the suggestion of the operator, the maid was then summoned and directed to place her hand in his unengaged one; and forthwith the oscillations of the ring became transverse! Herr Caspari next took a pea-like bit

of something which he called schwefel-kies, and which he said exhibited another motion: when held suspended over either of the fingers, it rotated one way; when held suspended over the thumb, it rotated in the contrary direction. The professor then took his departure, promising to return on the morrow to assist in any explanatory experiments which his pupil might think fit to make.

Before detailing these, let us explain his terms. Any article of any shape suspended either by silk or cotton thread, the other end of which is wound round the nail joint of the forefinger or thumb, he calls an odometer. The thread must be long enough to allow the ring, or whatever it is, to reach to about half an inch from the table, upon which you rest your elbow, to steady your hand. As soon as the ring becomes stationary, place under it on the table what substances you please-these he calls Od-subjects. A good arming for the odometer is gold, or a better still, a small cone of shell-lac about an inch long; the best odsubjects are gold, silver, and one's fore-finger. All odsubjects do not act equally well with each odometer: for instance, an odometer of dry wood remains stationary over gold, while it moves with great vivacity over glass; and over rock-crystal shell-lac acts very feebly, while a glass odometer oscillates brilliantly. We may add that, in our own experience, the transverse oscillations are never so strong as the longitudinal; doubtless because the former act against the attraction of the body, while the latter act with it. The following are a few of Dr. Mayo's experi

ments:

"1. Odometer (we will suppose armed with a shell-lac,) held over three sovereigns heaped loosely together to form the od-subject; the odometer suspended from the forefinger of a person of either sex. Result-Longitudinal

oscillations.

2. Let the experimenter, continuing experiment 1, take with his or her unengaged hand the hand of a person of the opposite sex. Result-Transverse oscillations of the odometer.

3. Then the experiment being continued, let a person of the sex of the experimenter take and hold the unengaged hand of the second party. Result-Longitudinal oscillations of the odometer.

4. Repeat experiment 1, and the longitudinal oscillations being established, touch the forefinger which is en