Electro-biological phenomena considered physiologically and psychologically / by James Braid, M.R.C.S.E.

  • Braid, James, 1795?-1860.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Electro-biological phenomena considered physiologically and psychologically / by James Braid, M.R.C.S.E. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    {Lecture delivered at the Royal Institution, Manchester, March 20, 1851.) In the following essay, I shall endeavour to submit to your consi- deration, in the most simple and comprehensible manner, the results of my experience, whilst investigating one of the most recondite and interesting departments of philosophy and science,—namely, the re- ciprocal actions upon each other of mind and matter. Most of you have no doubt seen or heard of the experiments in what has been designated Electro-Biology, or the Electrical Science of Life, which were lately exhibited in Manchester, Liverpool, and the sun*ounding towns, and which are now being exhibited in London, by an American gentleman named Mr Stone. The following an- nouncement is contained in one of his hand-bills, of the 12th inst., as to what he professes to exhibit in London, at the Marylebone Literary and Scientific Institution :— Persons in a perfectly wakeful state, of well known character and standing in society, who come forward voluntarily from among the audience, will be experimented upon. They will be deprived of the power of speech, hearing, sight. Their voluntary motions will be completely controlled, so that they can neither rise up nor sit down, except at the will of the operator; their memory will be taken away, so that they will forget their own name and that of their most intimate friends; they will be made to stammer, and to feel pain in any part of their body at the option of the operator—a walking stick will ^ be made to appear a snake, the taste of water will be changed to vinegar, honey, coffee, milk, brandy, wormwood, lemonade, &c. &c. &c. These extraordinary experiments are really and truly per- formed without the aid of trick, collusion, or deception, in the slightest possible degree. These may no doubt be considered as startling announcements; nevertheless, I know as a fact, that such phenomena, and the very reverse effects, may be realised in certain individuals; but I account tor them in a very different manner from the so-styled Electro-Bio- logists.