Some seven hundred medical students assembled in the lecture hall of the New York University Medical College January 28, 1881, and listened to a lecture on "Hypnotism," by Dr. William S. Hammond. Mesmerism has been in the hands of quacks and charlatans, said Dr. Hammond. For a long time there was an impression that animal magnetism had much to do with it, but that was one of the false ideas that had crept in through ignorance. I don't claim anything for mesmerism. I am simply testing it like many others. I think about two men in eight would prove good subjects, and about four women in the same number. Its influence is not confined to men and women; animals are liable to it, and make good subjects. I operated not long ago on a lot of crabs in Fulton Market. Frogs are capital subjects. You can take a frog and put him under this influence and turn him on his back. Now, of all the things in the world a frog dislikes it is being laid on his back. Well, when a frog is in this condition you might take a scissors, cut him open, and he will show no sign of the operation.

Dr. Hammond then experimented with a hen, putting her under the influence by holding her head for a few seconds so that her eyes rested on a piece of glass, and the hen rolled over and was insensible. After some further explanations Dr. Hammond introduced a human subject.

He brought forward Mr. Howley and sat him in a chair fronting the audience. He then held before the gentleman's eyes a small glass ball, and after a little delay the subject seemed to be completely absorbed in the contemplation of it. Turning again to the students Dr. Hammond said: "You see I begin in the way serpents charm birds. The serpents fasten their steely eyes on those of the birds and fascinate the poor things until they fall an easy prey. Now you will see in a minute how this young man will follow the ball wherever it goes." And so he did. Whichever way Dr. Hammond moved the ball the young man went after it. Nothing stopped him. Chairs, tables, doctors, stood in his way, but he stumbled over them or by them, and kept on after the ball with his eyes riveted on it as if his very life depended on his getting as near it as possible. Suddenly Dr. Hammond hid it and told him it wa3 gone. He stopped, dazed, and looked as if he had lost something very precious. While he was in this state he was handed a bottle of soda-water and told it was a young lady. He took the bottle in his arms and immediately began to make love to it. He caressed it and said tenderly, "Will you have me ? Do. I love you dearly. Oh, do have me." As he walked up and down Dr. Hammond took a lance and stuck the blade into the flesh of the young man's hand, telling him it was a bouquet, and the young man admired the imaginary flowers, showing no symptoms of pain. Suddenly he was told that the bottle was an old woman, seventy-five years of age, and he quickly dropped it, exclaiming, "I don't want to have anything to do with her." He ate lemon for strawberry, and asked for more; stripped off his coat and made a dash for a man he was told had called him a liar; waltzed, sang, cried, smelt water, and said it was " beautiful cologne," and proved himself an utterly pliant subject.

The next subject was Mr. David Wright, who accepted a book for a bird, and sang the "Sweet By-and-By" to it. When told it had escaped through the hall he made a rush for it among the students as if they had not been present. He made frantic efforts to climb a pillar and was furiously pursuing the bird when called back. He preached as an orthodox clergyman, then as a colored minister, changing his accent and his manner as quickly as the order was given to him, and did a number of other things, much to the amusement and astonishment of the audience. The next subject, a Mr. Wilson, acted Macbeth, reading the vision scene with good effect; preached, told funny stories, said he was Colonel Bob Ingersoll, repeating parts of that gentleman's lectures; got drunk on water, rolled in agony when told he was sick at the stomach, and created much merriment as a clown in a circus. Mr. Pritchitt, the last gentleman, stripped off all his clothes with lightning rapidity when told he was in-fested with rats. He delivered a lecture on electricity when told he was Benjamin Franklin. He stripped to fight at an imaginary insult, rode a chair for a horse with the same seriousness and intensity he would a live equine. He became an organ-grinder, a ballet-dancer, a violinist, and numerous other characters. Dr. Hammond touched his nose with a cork and he roared with pain. The next instant he danced with delight at being assured that it was on again and in good condition. Dr. Hammond told him that his clothes were on fire, and he pulled them off, rushing almost nude to the opposite side of the amphitheatre. Dr. Hammond frequently put his fingers on the left temple of the different subjects and instantly arrested their power of speech; then he would touch the right temple and the subject resumed his discourse. At the close of the experiments, Dr. Hammond started two of the subjects going at the same time, and the result was most ludicrous. The lecture was a most interesting and entertaining one and occupied two hours in the delivery.