Page 80 - Malay sketches
P. 80

IX

                                LATAH

                                   Ofttimes he falleth into the  fire and
                                      oft into the water
                                              MATTHEW xvii. 14

                  the  spring  of  1892  I was  privileged, by  the
                                                     of Dr.
             IN kindness of a friend and the courtesy
             Luys,  to visit the Hospital  de la  Charite in  Paris,
             where  I witnessed some  very  remarkable and in-
             teresting experiments  in  suggestion.  There were
             patients undergoing  successful treatment for nervous
             disorders where the disease was in  process  of  gradual
             relief  by passing  from  the  afflicted  person  to  a
             medium without  injury  to  the  latter  ;  there was
             the strange power  of  hypnotising, influencing and
             awakening  certain  sujets  whose nervous  organisations
             seem to be  specially susceptible,  and there was the
                        influence of the     over these same
             astonishing              magnet
                   when already hypnotised.  There  is some-
             sujets
             thing more than usually uncanny  in the  sight  of a
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