It must be confessed, that some of the experiments at which I have myself assisted exhibit very strange results. In some, there is the propensity to chatter nonsense,—a system of one form of _hysteria_, of which the analogy is perfect. One little jade created much amusement, by inserting supernumerary syllables, thus—oppor_way_tuni_whats_ty. The insensibility of the nostril to the most powerful _ammonia_ is a very imposing fact; one which must strike us more than that of insensibility of the eye to light, or the ear to sounds. For the faculty of perception may be often suspended in either of those organs of sense, if attention be powerfully diverted to another point, or, as it is by the abstraction of magnetic ecstacy, not directed _to any_. So that I do not wonder when thoughtless proselytes believe these effects to be _miraculous_, or credit the assertions of Pereaud, in his “_Antidæmon of Mascon_,” that,—“The devil causeth witches to fall into ecstacies, so that a man would say their souls were out of their body.” Or those of Bodin, in his “_Theatre of Universal Nature_,” that “those that are rapt of the devil feel neither stripes nor cuttings.” So that the honour of the magnetic monomania must at last be conceded to the fallen angel. IDA. And are all these wonders worked only to excite curiosity? ASTR. I believe there is some good in it. Is it not certain, that during this state of magnetic sleep, operations have been performed without creating pain? The lady on whom Mons. Chopelain operated, talked coolly and unconsciously during its performance. And Jules Cloquet, in Paris, amputated the breast of a lady who had been put into an ecstacy or state of apathetic trance by a mesmerizer. EV. It is, I believe, quite true that she was perfectly unconscious of the operation. But even this is not _safe_. Pain is given us as a warning against extreme injury; that by our complaint or suffering, the surgeon’s mind may be _on its guard_. For the body is so far in disorder when it is chilled by this apathetic spell, that it may sink under fatal injuries, although they may be endured by the mind unconscious of its peril or its state. As a very curious antitype to these cases, it is stated in a medical gazette, that a young lady fell down in an hysterical fit and was insensible for two days. As a puffy swelling arose, she was _trephined_, but there was no disease of the brain. In two days after this, she awoke and expressed all the steps of the operation, of which she had been _painlessly sensible_. ASTR. And in this state of _ecstasis_, is there not strange havoc played with the senses, by their seeming displacement or transference?