think that I was present at the birth of that
jest of the late Dean Mansel which Mr. Lionel Tolle- mache mentions in the letter printed in your issue of January 28th. It was in "the sixties,” not "the fifties," that Mr. Auberon Herbert invited a large party to a room in St. John's College to witness and test the perform- ances of a certain Madame Card who was having a con- siderable success in Oxford as a hypnotist and mesmerist. Under her directions, the party seated themselves in a row, each with a leaden disc in the palm of the hand, on which our eyes, according to instructions, were devoutly fixed. After a pause the lady approached the Professor, and told him to close his eyes. He obeyed. And then, glaring fixedly into his face, she said : " You cannot open your eyes ; you cannot; I defy you." The philosopher promptly retorted, " Can't I P " and opened them wide, and then, rising from his seat, said to his neighbour: " The Latin grammar says `didiei a disco,' but I have learned nothing whatever from the disc."—I am, Sir,
EDWARD BOND.
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