MAGIC AND MESMERISM.
Edinburgh, 20th October 1851. ir Sin—Referring to the article headed "Hungerford Hall," in the Spectator of Saturday last, I beg to say, that as a candid inquirer into the truths of mesmerism, I have always felt the difficulty to which you so justly allude, namely, that the professed jugglers exhibit feats not a whit less surprising than those of the clairvoyantes of the mesmerists. Were it not for some well- authenticated cases of clairvoyance, where there could be no suspicion of trick on the part of the patient, I should at once, in common with the anti- mesmerists, rest satisfied that all the wonders of mesmerism are to be con- sidered merely as tricks of legerdemain. It seems to me, therefore, very desir- able that some experimentum crucis should be tried with the Hungerford Hall clairvoyants; and none seems to be more easy than that of the compass. Take from the jug,gler his table and invisible hair, and set his bottle on some other part of the platform where he exhibits his tricks and he will be a real magician if a card or apiece of money jump out of the bottle at his word of command. If Mademoiselle Prudence can affect the magnetic needle in any place or position except that where her coadjutor has arranged for that display of her powers, I should be disposed to admit the reality of the fact; but if he decline this test, it may fairly be presumed that the movement of the needle is effected by some concealed contrivance ; and the natural inference will be, that all the other mesmeric phienomena, however unaccountable, are equally delu- sive. That the clever artist is in the mesmeric sleep may be granted, as proved by the application of the ammonia to her nose unless by a legerdemain trick another bottle is substituted for the one which the audience are allowed to smell. I believe that Dr. Elliotson's mesmerized ladies have taken shocks of electricity unmoved ; which no one could do in the natural state without manliesting the usual symptoms. But hitherto we have never heard that they were natural magnets and could affect the compass. If such really be the fact, let men of science follow up the inquiry. On an insulated stool the human body can be charged with electricity and give out sparks to the fingers of the spectators. We may believe that aairvoyantes are charged with the mag- netic fluid, when, in like manner, they can attract or repel a steel needle.
A CANDID INQUIRER.
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