The origin of man's knowledge of that which now is known by the name of "hypnotism" is lost in antiquity. There are references to the subject in some of the earliest writings now extant. The Ebers Papyrus, which dates back to 1552 B. c, contains mention of the "laying on of hands," in a description of medical methods as practised in Egypt.

The Greeks also made use of similar methods.

Vincent gives an account of a bas-relief in the British Museum which was taken from a tomb in Thebes. One man is sitting while another stands at a short distance from him with his hand raised as if making a "pass," so Mr. Vincent considers. I, for one, fail to see how one making "passes " could be represented in bas-relief, and it seems to me more likely that the attitude is one of benediction.

A reference to the virtues of the stroking with the hands is found in Solon. Below is given a translation of the passage taken from Stanley's "History of Philosophy."

"The smallest hurts sometimes increase and rage More than all art of physic can assuage; Sometimes the fury of the worst disease The hand by gentle stroking will appease."

There are hints of the same thing in Pliny, Hist. Nat., lib. vii. c. 2, and Martial, bk. iii. ep. 82.

According to Tacitus and Suetonius, the Emperor Vespasian performed many cures by laying on of hands. During the Middle Ages the belief in the virtues of the "royal touch" was very widespread.

It has long been known to the people of the Orient that the hypnotic state can be induced by gazing fixedly at a small object.

In Greece also the sect known as the Oniphalo-psychics were accustomed to hypnotize themselves by gazing at the umbilicus.

The method of soothsaying by gazing into crystals, which was long practised by the Egyptians, is another evidence of the early use of auto-hypnotism.

It was not until toward the end of the Middle Ages that any systematized theory of the subject of magnetism, as it was then believed to be, appeared. This theory was evolved from the principles of astrology. Many of the most 21 eminent doctors and philosophers of that time studied this subject. Among these writers may be named Theophrastus Paracelsus, Glo-cenius, Petrus Pomponatius, Athanasius Kir-cher, Sir Kenelm Digby, Van Helmont, and a number of others.

Paracelsus, about the year 1530, advanced the theory that the heavenly bodies exert an influence on the bodily health of man. From this theory was developed the belief that men exert an influence upon each other. It was taught by Van Helmont and the Scotchman, Maxwell, that there was a magnetic power in man which could be used beneficially for the cure of disease. Later Santanelli taught the same in Italy. Pomponatius, a Professor of Philosophy at Padua, about the beginning of the sixteenth century, supported a similar view.

John Baptist Van Helmont, the discoverer of laudanum, spirits of hartshorn, the volatile salts, and the aeriform fluids to which he gave the name Gas, wrote on the subject of magnetism. This was about the beginning of the seventeenth century.

His definition of Magnetism is, "Thatoccult power which bodies exert over each other at a distance, whether by attraction or repulsion."

Frederick Anton Mesmer, a doctor of Vienna (1734-1815) was the first to bring the doctrine of animal magnetism into general notice. He believed in the existence of animal magnetism as a fluid force, but distinguished it from the magnetism of metals. In the year 1775 he sent out a circular letter addressed to a number of the leading academies. In this letter he Bet forth his belief that animal magnetism existed, and that by means of it one person could exert an influence over another. No attention was paid to his letter except by the Academy of Berlin, which sent him an unfavorable reply.

Mesmer made use of animal magnetism in the practice of medicine, at first by contact, later by using various objects of wood, glass or iron, which he believed could be charged by him with the magnetism.

In 1778 he went to Paris where he constructed his famous "baquet" which he used for the cure of disease. It was a complicated apparatus. It consisted of a tub containing bottles arranged in a particular manner, also powdered glass, iron filings, water, etc. Through the lid passed movable iron rods which could be applied to the bodies of the patients. The patients stood in circles about the "baquet." Soon the influence of the supposed current made itself felt and caused the appearance of various hysterical and convulsionary symptoms, laughter, tears, moans, spasmodic movements, etc. As Mr. Vincent says, these were probably merely hysterical attacks brought about by the exciting combination of circumstances. Similar phenomena are constantly occurring in spiritualistic circles in this country at the present day.

In the year 1779 Mesmer published a paper entitled, "Memoire sur la decouverte du mag-netisme animal," in which he claimed to have discovered a principle which would cure every disease. He sets forth his conclusions in twenty-seven propositions of which the substance is as follows: -

There is a reciprocal action and reaction between the planets, the earth, and animate nature by means of a constant universal fluid, subject to mechanical laws yet unknown. The animal body is directly affected by the insinuation of this agent into the substance of the nerves. It causes in the human bodies properties analogous to those of the magnet, for which reason it is called "Animal Magnetism." This magnetism may be communicated to other bodies, may be increased and reflected by mirrors, communicated, propagated and accumulated, by sound. It may be accumulated, concentrated, and transported. The same rules apply to the opposite virtue. The magnet is susceptible of magnetism and the opposite virtue. The magnet and artificial electricity have, with respect to disease, prop-til erties common to a host of other agents presented to us by nature, and if the use of these has been attended by useful results, they are due to animal magnetism. By the aid of magnetism, the physician enlightened as to the use of medicine, may render its action more perfect, and can provoke and direct salutary crises so as to have them completely under his control.