An account

H.M.S. ' Marlborough', Portsmouth. (685) For the last year, or for about the last 15 months, I have been in the habit of mesmerising a fellow-student of mine. The way 1 did it was by simply looking into his eyes as he lay in an easy position on a bed. This produced sleep. After a few times I found that this sleep was deepened by making long passes after the patient was ofi . ^ Then comes 1 In conversation, I learnt (as I expected) that during the trance Mr. Cleave was to a considerable degree insensitive to pain, and that, on waking, he had no memory of any actions that he had been made to perform, or of what had passed around him. 672 CASES TOO LATE FOR INSERTION the remarkable part of this sort of mesmerism. [Mr. Sparks then describes his ' subject's ' ability to see, in the trance, places in which he was interested, if he resolved to see them before he was hypnotised ; but there is nothing to show that these visions were anything but purely subjective.] However, it has been during the last week or so I have been so surprised and startled by an extraordinary affair. Last Friday evening (January 15th, 1886) he expressed his wish to see a young lady living in Wandsworth, and he also said he would try to make himself seen by her. I accordingly mesmerised him, and continued the long passes for about 20 minutes, concentrating my will on his idea. When he came round (I brought him round by just touching his hand and willing him, after 1 hour and 20 minutes' trance) he said he had seen her in the dining-room, and that after a time she grew restless, and then suddenly looked straight at him and then covered her eyes with her hands. Just after this he came round. Last Monday evening (January 18th, 1886) we did the same thing, and this time he said he thought he had frightened her, as after she had looked at him for a few minutes she fell back in her chair in a sort of faint. Her little brother was in the room at the time. Of course, after this we expected a letter if the vision was real; and on Wednesday morning he received a letter from this young lady asking whether anything had happened to him, as on Friday evening she was startled by seeing him standing at the door of the room. After a minute he disappeared, and she thought that it might have been fancy; but on the Monday evening she was still more startled by seeing him again, and this time much clearer, and it so frightened her that she nearly fainted. This account I send you is perfectly true, I will vouch, for I have two independent witnesses who were in the dormitory at the time when he was mesmerised, and when he came round. My patient's name is Arthur H. W. Cleave, and his age is 18 years. My own is 19 years. A. 0. Darley and A. S. Thurgood, fellow-students, are the two witnesses I mentioned.