course contains a 100th part of a 100th part of a drop of belladonna-that is, the 10,000th part of a drop. This is diluted and thoroughly mixed with ninety-nine drops more of fluid. One drop of this mixture is taken out, and of course contains the 100th part of the 10,000th part of a drop of belladonna-that is the 1,000,000th part. Suppose this process proceeded with to the twelfth, or still more, to the thirtieth time, and it may be understood how many were impressed with the idea that a drop of such a preparation could not possibly contain any appreciable quantity of belladonna, certainly none that could act, for good or ill, on the animal economy. But these preparations are gross and material compared with the dilutions. or potencies often resorted to, where thirty is left behind, and the chemist manipulates up to the hundreds, and even thousands. No wonder that men pohpoohed, and declared that in a drop of such a fluid, and still more certainly in a globule of sugar moistened with a very small portion of such a drop, there could be no belladonna at all.

With globules of this character the lecture proceeded to experiment.

First placing his hand on the knob, a few globules of pure sugar were placed on his left palm; but no effect whatever was produced by the sugar, the direct circular movement taking place as usual. For the sugar was then substituted one globule of sulphur, 30th dilution, and the motion was at once reversed. In consequence of a question from a gentleman present, as the lecturer was about to proceed with a new substance, he made the following curious statement: that he had been trying the magnet-. oscope with gold, and it struck him as strange that the gold ring on his left hand appeared inert, while that which he held acted. But on putting by the ring for a short time, it was found to influence the instrument like any other specimen. He had found, too, a similar difference with newly adopted garments and such as had been long worn-as though articles in time became saturated with an individual's electricity, and became part of himself.

A globule of the 20,000th and another of the 65,000th sulph. produced no effect; but one of the 7,000th ́acted immediately.

A trituration was then tried. One grain of arsenic had been rubbed down with ninety-one grains of sugar-ofmilk. A small portion of this was placed on the left palm,

and caused the plumbob to stop; but on a bone counter being also placed on the palm, the normal movement from left to right ensued, as if nothing had been there. It will be remembered that the effect of the bone is to stop the circulation of the plumbob, and that of the arsenic is also to stop it. The arsenic alone succeeds in doing so; yet when the effect of the bone, in the same direction, is added to it, they nullify instead of assisting each other, and the influence of the right hand is exerted as if the left held nothing at all. This is certainly curious, whatever we may think of its bearing on the homoeopathic dogma, similia similibus curantur,'—of which more anon.

6

A globule of arsenic of the 40,000th dilution was tried, and stopped motion.

west.

On placing a globule of bryonia (20th) in the left palm, a pendulum motion was produced in a line running northCalcareo-carbonica produced a north and south pendulum; iodide of potassium a north-east; muriate of ammonia, an oscillation in a long, narrow ellipse lying north and south; sulph. and mercury both give a reverse circular motion.

Be it remembered, 1st, That, however the direction and character of these movements altered, yet they were invariably the same for the same substance-insomuch that the operator having one of the globules taken at random from any box, placed by a bystander on his left palm, could, from the figure described by the bob, and its direction, pronounce what medicinal substance the sugar contained; 2nd, That the vibrations here spoken of were not mere incipient agitations of the bob, to which a wish to believe gave positive character, but bona fide swingings to and fro, so that the arc described by the lower end of the bob was perhaps more than two inches long.

It will be seen that this new branch of magnetology, though here shown in more or less connexion with homoopathy, and with what has hitherto been known as animal magnetism, has no necessary dependence on these proscribed subjects; neither are there the difficulties of proof, and the apparent openness to fraud, and the consequent disinclination of many to experiment, which attend the latter. The opponents of these systems are apt to regard every thing which succeeds as a collusion or an accident, and every failure as a damnatory proof; and the repugnance even to experiment is extreme. Here the

student may acquaint himself with phenomena as curious, and at first thought as incredible, as any that have aroused the indignant incredulity of the wise, jealous for the honor of the human intellect and the dignity of the established authorities-phenomena produced by the unassisted experimenter, consisting in gross, material movements, leaving no room for delusion or illusion.

The foregoing statements are not only interesting and curious, but appear to indicate discoveries of the highest importance. So great a number of seemingly harmonious and curious facts, cannot be entirely devoid of instruction; but what they indicate, must be ascertained by a more thorough examination than the facts have as yet received. In the American experiments, it is to be observed that the odometer, or aura-test, was always suspended from the person of the experimenter, which connexion was supposed to be necessary, for the purpose of rendering it sensitive to the auric force. Here is at once a source of fallacy. It is easy to produce any number of vibrations and gyrations, by suspending a weight from the finger; and it would be extremely difficult to prevent it from manifesting motion. If the movement of the suspended body was really produced by the substance placed underneath it mechanically influencing the motion, it would be very easy to make the requisite experiments with a gold ring, or a bit of sealing-wax, suspended by a fixed mechanical support, independent of the human body. But no such experiments have been made—or if made, they have proved entire failures-thus demonstrating that the suspended body or odometer is not really influenced by the object over which it is suspended; and that all the movement which is really produced, is produced through the agency of the human being who is concerned, and not by means of inorganic matter. It is true that in the English experiments, the odometer was suspended from a brass rod, attached to an upright support, upon which rod the finger of the experimenter was placed. Such a contrivance would possess all the mobility necessary to put the suspended body in motion. If instead of a brass rod

and wooden upright, a solid iron frame be substituted, resting on an immoveable basis, from a projecting arm of which the moving body is to be suspended, the requisite conditions would exist, but no movement would be produced. In other words, the whole of the movements which have been described as taking place, belonged to the movement of the hand and arm of the operator alone. Consequently they are proofs, not of a mysterious force acting upon dead matter, but of the influences that operate upon the living constitution of the experimenter. Hence, individuals who are highly impressible, are apt to prove successful in such experiments where those who are defective in impressibility fail.

When impressible persons hold the odometer or auratest, over the various organs of the brain, they are themselves affected by the proximate organs, and the unconscious movements of their hands, which are imparted to the suspended body, are produced in accordance with the pathognomic laws; hence, the record of such experiments becomes interesting, simply as an illustration of the laws of muscular movements, governed by the brain; and a beautiful and decisive demonstration is produced, while the operator is unconscious of the law which he is obeying.

The influences of medicinal substances, when held by the hand, are transmitted through the nervous system, and are thus made to excite the muscular system, producing movements in accordance with their constitutional influence. Medicinal substances which excite the basilar organs, produce basilar movements; and those which excite the anterior and coronal region of the brain, produce a corresponding class of movements. Hence, the explanation of the various movements which have been produced, requires a knowledge of those pathognomic laws which Í am now developing in the Bremer correspondence. Why the results should vary according to the position of the individual, in relation to the points of the compass, appears at first inexplicable; but a clue to this mystery may be obtained by a knowledge of the relation which man bears to the globe. I would simply announce that the pathognomic laws bear a fixed relation to the points of the compass, and consequently that the various lines-north and south, east and west, and their intermediates, correspond in their character and influence with the pathognomic lines of the brain. Hence, the attitude in relation to the

points of the compass must have its influence, as well as the impressions of medicinal substances, which may be swallowed or held in the hand.

As the movements of the suspended body are produced by the hand of the experimenter, it is not at all myste-. rious that they should appear to be governed by the influence of the will. The influence of the will, or a strong mental impression, is quite capable of producing movements, when the individual is unconscious of having called his muscles into action. The limbs of mesmeric subjects, under the control of operators who rely upon imagination and commands emphatically uttered, readily perform the movements which he suggests, even when the subject is reluctant, or makes decided attempts at resistance. The impression on the mind becomes realized in the muscles, without the consent or even knowledge of the subject. It is not strange, therefore, that the mesmeric subject should exhibit these odometric movements at the command of the operator's will, or that they should be produced unconsciously by other influences, or even by the idea the subject entertains. In short, the whole of these experiments, while they fail to develope any new laws as to the relations of mind to inorganic matter, afford a beautiful illustration of the laws of muscular movement-the delicate impressibility of the human constitution, and the relations of man to the universe.

I have repeated a few of these experiments, showing that with impressible persons they may be successfully performed, but with a sufficient degree of firmness and steadiness, no such movements occur. A detailed explanation of the movements might be given, but space forbids.

[From the American edition of Mind and Matter, by Sir Benjamin Brodie.] In connexion with the subjects discussed in this chapter by Sir Benjamin Brodie, the following letter addressed by the eminent French savant, Chevreuil, in 1833, to his friend Ampere, the celebrated electrician and physicist, will be read with interest. In this letter, M. Chevreuil discusses the influence of the mind on muscular and nervous action, particularly in reference to the asserted fact