1. Certain physiological and psychical laws were laid down, which appeared to the author to form the data on which a probable explanation of the phenomena exhibited by patients in the mesmeric trance might be founded.

2. He next gave a summary of the more ordinary mesmeric phenomena, attempting to refer them to the principles laid down.

3. It was shown that the views put forward were in strict accordance with the recently received doctrines of the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system. And

4. He discussed to what extent the power of producing these phenomena, and the manner of their production, could be explained on any known principle.

Dr Bennett stated that previous to the present session he had been deterred from investigating this subject by the gross charlatanism with which it was accompanied. It had so happened, however, that a very diligent and well-informed medical student, who acted as his assistant, had been found to be very sensitive, and having satisfied himself of the reality of certain morbid phenomena in his case, he had considered it due to his position to investigate the matter thoroughly. In conjunction with several members of the Royal Medical Society, he had instituted numerous experiments in private; and latterly Mr Lewis had been invited to exhibit what were called the higher phenomena of mesmerism. All these last had uniformly failed. But the nervous phenomena which had been produced opened up a wide field for speculation and medical observation; and the fact, that they could be induced in so large a proportion of the people as one in twenty, was one of considerable importance, and, he thought, new to medicine. Notwithstanding the variety the phenomena might be made to assume, they were all referable to increase, loss, or perversion of motion, sensitiveness, and intelligence. All of them could be shown to be analogous to some one of the many forms of monomania, delirium tremens, hypochondriasis, hysteria, ecstasy, somnambulism, and other morbid conditions with which medical men were familiar. The only novelty consisted in their production in many persons who were apparently in sound health. Their reality, however, being ascertained, what was their nature? They were always produced, in the first instance, by exhausting the attention, by looking for a longer or shorter time at some object. A condition of the cerebral functions was in this way produced, analogous to that in somnambulism or reverie, in which the individual could be governed by suggestive ideas, however communicated. These ideas, under such circumstances, have all the effect of reality, and influence their conversation and conduct. The condition was identical with monomania, with the difference that it was temporary, and that the predominant idea might be changed at the suggestion of others. Dr Bennett then exhibited copies, on a large scale, of the dissections made by Gall, Mayo, and Solly of the white fibres of the cerebral lobes; and stated that, in his opinion, these, like other nervous fibres, served the purpose of conducting the influence of impressions. One set of these fibres ran between the spinal ganglia and the hemispherical ganglia, and seemed to keep up a connection between the sensory and motor organs and the brain; but two other sets of fibres ran between different parts of the hemispherical ganglion, and these he considered served to convey psychical influences, and unite together the various mental acts, in that uniform whole which constituted thought. In the condition of the cerebral functions alluded to, these fibres were apparently paralysed, or their functions were suspended, in consequence of which the predominant idea, uncorrected by the other mental faculties, caused the individual to act under a mental illusion. There were mental as well as sensory illusions. The former were corrected in sound minds by the faculties of attention, comparison, judgment, and the latter by the application of the other senses. If the proper balance between all the mental faculties, and all the senses is destroyed, illusions of one or the other kind are likely to arise. He thought an analogy in this respect existed between the cerebral or mental, and the spinal or senso-motory functions, which, though often confined in action, were not only capable of being performed separately, but possessed an apparatus peculiar to each.

Dr Macdonald preferred the demonstrations of Foville to those exhibited by Dr Bennett. He could not concur in the explanation offered, either by Dr Wood or Dr Bennett, of the mesmeric phenomena; and made various remarks.

Dr Alison said that the only objection he saw to the statements of Dr Wood and Dr Bennett were, that they seemed to him to yield too much to the notion prevalent in general society in this city at present, that the phenomena under consideration were new to medicine. All that he had heard described seemed to him to be substantially the same as he used to describe in his lectures more than twenty years ago, under the name of Magnetic Sleep or Extase; and to be illustrated (particularly when heightened by the principle of imitation and by religious enthusiasm), by reference to such facts as the "Conversions at Cambuslang," recorded in the "Statistical Account of Scotland," and the history of the "Tremblans de Cevennes," the "Convulsionnaires de St Medard," and other persecuted sects in France, of whom (and indeed of the whole subject, and the inquiries of many eminent men in regard to it) we have a very distinct account in the work of Bertrand "Du Magnetisme Animal en France."

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All these observations had established the existence of a very curious and culiar modification of all the functions of the nervous system, to which these names had been given, and had shown that this condition may be produced (not always safely) in a large proportion of persons, and by various means, in influencing the minds of the persons so affected; but all had left doubtful the ulterior questions, whether a peculiar influence, passing from one person to another, could produce this state? and whether, during this state, what had been called "clairvoyance," ever really took place? This he had regarded as the state of the question about twenty years ago, and it did not appear to be further advanced at present. Dr Bennett explained that it was not the nature of the phenomena he considered to be new, but the manner and frequency of their production in apparently

healthy persons.

Dr W. T. Gairdner adduced an example of the operation on one individual of the "epidemic influence," referred to by Dr Alison, in relation to mesmerism and the allied affections:-A gentleman, who had been much in the company of mesmerisers and of believers in the extreme doctrines on this subject, though professing himself a sceptic up to the advent of Mr Lewis and Dr Darling, soon became one of their most sensitive subjects. There was no doubt of the reality of the control over his will and sensations, exercised, not only by these operators, but by several others. Soon afterwards he became seriously ill. Sensitiveness continued during some part of his illness, but the experiments were discontinued, and on his convalescence it was found that he had ceased to be sensitive, the epidemic influence having at the same time blown over. So marked was the change in the space of a few weeks, that his medical attendant was suspected of having "demesmerised" him, and Dr G. admitted that this charge was founded in truth, although no occult process had been employed.

Dr Simpson referred to what his experience of the reputed phenomena of biology had been in former years. Some fifteen or sixteen years ago he had assisted in writing a somewhat bitter article against the so-called phenomena of animal magnetism, and it was not till after it was published that he saw any of the phenomena themselves. There was an epidemic of mesmerism at that time in Edinburgh of a character similar to the present. In saying so, he meant merely to express that the study of these physiological phenomena, like the study of most other physiological and scientific phenomena, did not go on always regularly and methodically, but occurred, as it were, per saltum,-interest in it, as in histology, &c., being alternately revived and lost from time to time. Dr S. considered that the present epidemic of it had been useful in this respect, that it had convinced Dr Bennett, and most other physicians here, of the reality of some of the alleged phenomena to which they did not give credit six months ago. Ten or twelve years since Dr S. had seen Mr Dove produce phenomena in all respects similar in their causation to those so frequently produced in this city of late by Dr Darling and others. In relation to all these phenomena he believed

this, that though they appear very strange and very extraordinary, there were none of them whatever that indicated the presence or action of any influence passing from the so-called mesmeriser to the so-called mesmerised. In these experiments it was not the mind or the will of the mesmeriser that influenced his subjects; it was merely the words or the command spoken by him. At different times, or in different epidemics, the phenomena had varied; at least so the history of animal magnetism showed. At one time the principal symptoms were symptoms of convulsion, at another time of sleep, and at another time of somnambulism, &c. Still these and all other results were results produced by the mind of the individual himself operated upon, and not in any degree by the mind of the operator. The whole secret (if secret it may be called) in electro-biology, seemed to him to consist in the operator getting the person operated upon to believe in his complete influence over him. The acquisition of that power was, as was well-known, promoted by the subject being made to gaze intently and willingly upon any object for ten or fifteen minutes, and by other analogous means. Whether these means produced their effect by exhausting in some way the powers of mental self-control in the subject, was a problem which was too long to discuss. When once, however, the mind of the individual was rendered sufficiently impressible by the measures adopted, or in other words, when he was fully biologised, he, though quite awake and conscious, was so much under the command of his biologiser, that by the mere words of the latter, his muscles were fixed in particular ways, or forced to act in particular ways and directions; or by a dogmatic order to that effect, the biologiser could deprive him of the power of speech, or the power of recollection; or entirely pervert his senses of sight, smell, taste, &c.; or make him suppose himself another individual; or send him into a profound sleep; or drive him to fancy that bees were stinging him, or vipers pursuing him,&c., &c. Whatever, in short, was suggested was believed in and acted on as reality. In all these results, the rapidity with which the effect followed the suggestion, appeared almost less remarkable than another circumstance,― namely, the rapidity of the release from the effect which the observation, "Now, all's right," or the like, on the part of the biologiser, produced. The instantaneous production of any result that was ordered, was not less strange than the instantaneous removal of the result by another order. There were no analogous states in disease that could be thus artificially exorcised, or suddenly dispelled by a mere word. It had been averred, that in several instances here, the production of these phenomena as morbid phenomena, had proved hurtful to the individual biologised. Perhaps, a priori, we might expect this; but experience, on the contrary, certainly went altogether to show that the expectation was wrong, and the averrment of its occurrence perfectly gratuitous. Dr Macdonald had brought him, as a proof of the truth of electro-biology, a case printed and attested by many people in Cupar, showing that a man, ordered the day before, when biologised, to go to sleep at a certain hour next day, did fall asleep at that hour. But that was no proof whatever that this second sleep was the effect of aught else but an operation in the mind of the patient himself. In a sensitive and intellectual lady, who was twice or thrice the subject of biological experiments two or three months ago, Dr S. told her that next day she would fall asleep at one o'clock, because she would be mesmerised at that hour from a distance. At one o'clock she certainly did fall asleep, but as certainly without any one mesmerising. It was here, as it was elsewhere, a self-mental act in the person affected. Dr S. mentioned a case witnessed by Dr Arbuckle, Dr Wood, and Dr Taylor, in which a biologised patient slept, as commanded, for thirty-five hours, with two short intervals of permitted awakening. In that and other cases of deep biological sleep, the voice of no person, except that of the biologiser, seemed to have any effect in producing re-awakening. They were deaf for the time to other sounds. Bells may be rung in their ears, strong noises of all kinds made, tickling, shaking, rubbing the cornea, &c., practised, but they sleep on, apparently listening alone to the voice that sent them asleep, to summon them to the wakening state. We all know something of the same kind in our own experience. Many

doctors will awaken at the sound of their own door-bell, while louder sounds fail in the same effect. Dr Wood and Dr Bennett had endeavoured to explain the phenomena, but their explanation seemed limited to the explanation of the muscular motions, or want of motions only. Dr S. had no doubt that these were quite explicable, by taking into account the facts, that the influence of the emotional feelings was stronger than the influence of volition, and that the action of the muscles was interfered with in consequence of this circumstance. But this explanation did not account for other phenomena, which had been seen in this city during the last two or three months by most members of the profession. Many of the phenomena produced were apparently entirely mental, and not physical or muscular, and would seem to require a deeper psychological analysis to account for them than the doctrine of emotion merely, or the anatomical arrangement of the fibres of the brain. You tell a subject that he can recollect nothing, and instantly he forgets even his own name. This, and sleep, and local anesthesia, and other mental phenomena, it seemed to him, could not be explained by the mere doctrine of excited emotion. The mere word uttered by the biologiser produces this and other strange effects, even when his own will wished that the word uttered should not produce these effects. It was always the word spoken, and not the will that spoke the word. Dr S. concluded by stating that he totally disbelieved in any of the so-called higher phenomena of animal magnetism, as lucidity, transference of the senses, clairvoyance, &c. If a person could see with the tips of his fingers, or the pit of his stomach, as was averred, it would be an enormous fact, and would require an enormous amount of proof to substantiate it as a fact. But the evidence adduced was generally of a very imperfect kind, and melted down before accurate inquiry. He had such a conviction of this, that he offered to place in the President's hands one hundred pounds, which he would give to Dr Macdonald for the scheme for which he was lecturing on "clairvoyance," if Dr Macdonald could bring any " clairvoyant," who could read a line of Shakespeare, or two or three words out of the Dictionary, which Dr S. would shut up in a box. If there was any truth in clairvoyance, why should not a clairvoyant be able to gain for Dr Macdonald this sum of money?

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Mr Syme thought it needless to repeat experiments of the kind just alluded to by Dr Simpson, so long as the hundred pound note lay unseen and unclaimed by any clairvoyant in the bank at Dublin. Any further experiments, he thought, should be of an entirely new character.

Dr Wood, in reply, stated that he could not take so hopeless a view of the probability of explaining some of the phenomena as Professor Simpson. That he had never professed more than merely to indicate the course in which inquiries were likely, if followed, to lead to success. The cases of mistaken personality, though amusing, were not difficult to explain, and had many analogues. In regard to falling into the state, and wakening at hours predetermined by the operator, he thought it more perplexing. Two circumstances, however, seemed to tend in the direction of an explanation,-1st. The power we all possessed of wakening at an unusual hour, if predetermined to do so previously to falling asleep. This could not be by an exercise of volition, because during sleep volition is evidently suspended. 2d. The transition which, even in ordinary somnambulism, is made between two states, the one that of ideal existence, the other that of conscious personality. Dr Wood said this certainly did not explain this obscure phenomena, but it might serve as a guide to future inquiry, which, indeed, was all that in his paper he had ever presumed to do. In regard to Dr Bennett's theory, he did not think it went very far to explain the difficulties of the subject; indeed, he scarcely thought it went so far as his own. He deprecated altogether the tendency of philosophers of the present day to believe in nothing which could not be seen and handled. Granting the existence of the fibres exhibited by Dr Bennett, and all the motions he had attributed to them, he did not see that their real knowledge of the subject was advanced a single hair-breadth.

EDINBURGH OBSTETRICAL SOCIETY.

MEETING II.—January 22, 1851.-DR SIMPSON, President, in the Chair.

CASE OF SPONTANEOUS EVOLUTION. BY DR ADAMS, OF BANCHORY. [This case will be found among the original articles of our February Number, detailed at full length, see p. 126.]

IMPROVED BLUNT HOOK AND CROTCHET. DR GRAHAM WEIR.

Dr Weir exhibited to the Society a new instrument, combining in one the blunt hook and crotchet, and having a handle so constructed as to slide along the body of the instrument. This handle, when adjusted at either extremity, became fixed, and thus the single instrument could be used either as a blunt hook with a fixed handle, or as a crotchet with a fixed handle.

ON FISSURING AND LACERATION OF THE STRUCTURES OF THE PERINEUM AND CERVIX UTERI IN NATURAL LABOUR. BY PROFESSOR SIMPSON.

Dr Simpson directed the attention of the Society to this important subject; and, as the result of a long series of observations on the matter, he drew the following conclusions:

First, Fissuring and laceration of the cervix uteri and perineum are not, as is generally conceived, rare lesions during labour; on the contrary, they are very common occurrences; especially in primiparous labours.

Secondly, These lesions are not, as has been often alleged, necessarily the result of mismanagement, but they occur constantly in practice, despite every modification of management; and in cases also in which no kind of management has been adopted.

Thirdly, Evidence of the great frequency of laceration of the anterior structures of the perineum is furnished by,-1. Almost every careful autopsy of women after delivery, whether assisted or not assisted during their labour; 2. By the contracted or shortened state in which the perineum is almost always found, when vaginal examinations are made for uterine disease in women who have borne a family; and, 3. By the fissuring or laceration itself being usually traceable (under careful tactile examination), particularly in first labours, when that examination is instituted in the interval of pain, immediately before the passage of the child's head, or after its birth.

Fourthly, Lacerations of the perineum may be often felt beginning in the form of slight roughish rents or fissures upon the mucous surface of the perineum, and these may extend either backwards or forwards; and if they extend forwards, they at last run over the edge of the perineum, and along its cutaneous surface; the mucous and cutaneous structures of the perineum being thus sometimes lace