Popular Superstitions, and the Truths Contained Therein: With an Account of MesmerismMayo, Herbert
History
Popular Superstitions, and the Truths Contained Therein: With an Account of Mesmerism
Mayo, Herbert
Mesmerism; Parapsychology and medicine; Superstition
Parties to experiments with the odometer may be in the position either
of Od-subjects, or of reversers of its effects in the hands of others,
or they may be themselves components of the odometer.
I can discover absolutely no difference in the results obtained by the
odometer on men and women, when treated as Od-subjects. The following
results appear to me equally obtainable with persons of both sexes.
With the exception of the arms below the elbows, the wrists and hands,
and of the legs below the knees, the ankles and feet, the two sides
of the person display the polar differences already noticed. If the
odometer be held over the right side of the head, (either front or
back,) over the right side of the face, over the right shoulder or
elbow, or right knee, it exhibits clock-rotation. Held over the same
parts on the left side, it exhibits versed-rotation. On touching the
odometer-finger with the thumb, these effects are of course reversed.
If the odometer be held over the middle and outside of either arm, or
over the middle and back of either fore-arm or hand, it oscillates
longitudinally and towards the hand or foot. On reapplying the
thumb, these longitudinal oscillations are replaced by transverse
oscillations, having a direction _outwards_—_i. e._, away from the
mesial plane of the frame.
The phenomena last described show that the primary idea of a
transverse polarity for the whole frame is still verifiable, even in
the extreme parts of either limb. But below the elbows and knees a
second polarity is superinduced upon the former. Below the elbows and
knees, one side of each limb repeats the phenomena of the right side of
the body, the other those of the left. The odometer held over the tips
of the fingers of either hand exhibits clock-rotation, over the thumb
of either hand versed-rotation; and with these, as I have mentioned,
all the other effects that can be elicited out of the two limbs of
a horse-shoe magnet. The same rotatory movements may likewise be
obtained by holding the odometer near the two edges of the hand, wrist,
fore-arm. The latter singularity, which contrasts with the simpler
effects on the upper arm, must result from the combination of the two
polarities—the systemic and the submembral one.
The odometer, held over the back of the neck or throat, oscillates
transversely. When versed, longitudinally.
It appears to me now that women generally are incapable of eliciting
the movements of the odometer when held by themselves, without touching
a second party.
I have already, in the introductory part of this letter, given a
summary of all the modes I am acquainted with of reversing the motions
of the odometer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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