SINGULAR EFFECT.

Evening Star, Issue 5013, 28 March 1879, Page 4

SINGULAR EFFECT.

It lias beeir discovered, (says a Home .paper) that the electric light has a par* ticular effect on patients suffering from catalepsy and other, nervous complaints; the soft of invalids who are especially prizecl as " mediums" arid mesmeric subjects.-v Professor Charcot, of the Salpetriere at Paris,, after making a series of experiments with the Dfum.'mond electric light oil- a''number of hysterical subjects, f a patient placed, before V very' bright; electric light .fell..usually, after s'onje' seconds, occasionally n/i't*" until ' -'after ■'' three minutes, but in some cases •instantaneously, ' into., an r< an?estlietic,,condition, to which he givesthe name of lethargy," The ; subject; of this treatment stands as if fascinated, perfectly motionless/' and; with fixed staring .eyes. The ; Uimbs are stiff, but not ..so: rigid that .they cannot be'moved,- and they preserve whatever position may be given to them. The patients, neither.see-nor hear. In vain the operator speaks to •them,,'or makes signs ;' all communication between them and the outer world seems to* be at an end. Mean while,/the features take the expression of the-ges-tures.,: Giye.to the .patients, a menacing or 'tragic attitude,, and theVeyebrows become knitted-; close 1 the-hands as if in prayer, ,and the eyes -assume a'meek and resigned expression. This phenomenon had already been .noticed in mesrnejric • cases, and:ia',,known '(according to 'Dr Barenberg,-Avho writes on tfie. •subject .in the' 'Journal' des Debats')as the" "phenomenon.of suggestion." J'