HYPNOTISM AND THE DUKE OF ARGYLL.
[To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR." J SIR,—His Grace the Duke of Argyll's experience of hypno- tism and clairvoyance is but elementary. True, he carries us back forty years, but the times of which he writes were the palmy days of the art. Clairvoyance is not the thought readingwith which he confounds it. It is an altogether different phenomenon. Not one hypnotic in ten thousand is truly clairvoyant—A servant of mine, some years ago, possessed this gift in a remarkable degree. Times might be -antedated or postdated at will, she would describe accurately, naming persons or depicting things wholly unknown to me at the moment. On one occasion I sent her, mentally, to the harbour at Whitstable, where I then lived, to satisfy myself that a certain ship had arrived. To my surprise, she described the brig, which was commanded by my friend Captain Pearce, as being injured and broken. It was true; the vessel, the 'Prince Consort,' had been run- into—in Yarmouth Roads, I -think—her stern was injured, and her quarter-boards torn away on the port side. My experience of the art has familiarised me with clairvoyance extraordinary.
Mr. Taylor Innes is interesting : he might go further than
he does. The heart's action may be accelerated, as well as retarded, by hypnotic means. The flow of blood from any lesion can be stimulated, checked, or stopped at pleasure. I have often in chorea stopped the convulsion, and in paralysis given movement to an affected limb. Respiration can be affected by the same means.—I am, Sir, &c., C. N. BA.RHADI, Author of "Hypnotism," in Universal Review. Nottingham, October 15th.
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