Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 December 1884 — Curiosities of Mesmerism. [ARTICLE]

Curiosities of Mesmerism.

The distinguishing feature of the earlier stages of mesmerism in man is that by slight stimulation any one center can be easily set in violent activity, and its activity easily stopped, without the activity spreading to other distant centers. It is on this that the mesmeric phenomena usually exhibited depend; with most of these phenomena you are no doubt famiiiar, so that I need mention one or two only. Complicated reflexes may be produced in various ways, just as we have seen in the case with a frog even when without its cerebral hemispheres. Thus Braid mentions that on one occasion an old lady who had never danced, and who indeed considered it a sinful pastime, when mesmerized began to dance as soon as a waltz tune was played.— Popular Science Monthly.