hat he had not dared: that
the prejudice against mesmerism was so strong at Paris, that he
probably would have lost his reputation and his income by so doing."

Here, then, we discover two purposes of partial, indeed, but signal
utility, compassable by the induction of trance, at the very outset of
our inquiry into its utility. It will appear by-and-by that this
resource promises to afford yet farther assistance to the physician. In
the mean time, let us look at a relation of the subject which may appear
more interesting to the general reader.

It has been mentioned that, in ordinary trance, the relations of
consciousness to the nervous system are altered; that the laws of
sensation and perception are suspended, or temporarily changed; that the
mind appears to gain new powers. For a long time we had to trust to the
chance turning up of cases of spontaneous trance, in the experience of
physicians of observation, for any light we could hope would be thrown
on those extraordinary phenomena. Now we possess around us, on every
side, adequate opportunities for completely elucidating these events, if
we please to employ them. The philosopher, when his speculations suggest
a new question to be put, can summon the attendance of a trance, as
easily as the Jupiter of the Iliad summoned a dream. Or, looking out for
two or three cases to which the induction of trance may be beneficial,
the physician may have in his house subjects for perpetual reference and
daily experiment.

A gentleman with whom I have long been well acquainted, for many years
Chairman of the Quarter Sessions in a northern county, of which the last
year he was High Sheriff, has, like M. de Puysegur, amused some of his
leisure hours, and benevolently done not a little good, by taking the
trouble of mesmerising invalids, whom he has thus restored to health. In
constant correspondence with, and occasionally having the pleasure of
seeing this gentleman, I have learned from him the common course in
which the new powers of the mind which belong to trance are developed
under its artificial induction. The sketch which I propose to give of
this subject will be taken on his descriptions, which, I should observe,
tally in all essential points with what I meet with in French and German
authors. The little that I have myself seen of the matter, I will
mention preliminarily; the most astounding things, it appears to me
safer to shelter under the authority of Petetin, who, tow