A WONDERFUL MESMERIC FEAT.

Colonist, Volume XXII, Issue 2761, 25 September 1880, Page 3

A WONDERFUL MESMERIC FEAT.

SUSPENDED ANIMATION. The South Australian Advertiser contains an account, by a correspondent^ of some wonderful feats performed by an electro-biologist, how living at Portland, Victoria. "On one occasion," says the writer, " he was performing in the city of Oxford. He had given out' thafc he was able to suspend animation, to cause, pulsation to cease, and the person operated upon to be to all appearance dead. This announcement attracted a large number of collegian?; and Wost.of the medical men of the pity. A plucky undergraduate, of good family, and a sceptio as to Mr Blank's power submitted himself for the operation. Seated, in; a chair on the stage before the whole ftudie.noo, be wasspon sent into a mesmerio sleep- by' the lecturer." The sleep became a trance, the trance a state of coma, and finally ' the lecturer called upon a leading medical maa to come forward and say whether the subject "was living or dead. The physician felt the young man's wrist, and it was pulsed less jplaoed his haud upon his heart, and it had ceased to beat. He took a pocket mirror, and, passing it before his mouth, said ho' had ceased to breathe. Then ensued a scene of wild excitement. Some lady relatives of tho patient who were amongst the audience screamed and fainted. The collegians roseto their feet, shouted at and threatened tha lecturer, and were just storming the stage todo him a sorious injury when they were stilled into silence by the statement that their friend's life depended upon the leofcurer being undisturbed, bo that he night retain all the powers that were necessary to restore the young man again to life and animation. My friend informed me that he himself implored them to resume their seats, or he would not answer for the^ coasequences, as he felt that tha meamerio effort which he had exercised and the excitement that prevailed were fast exhausting him. For a few breathless momenta of painful anxiety the audience restrained their feelings, and watched the lecturer make certain passes that caused the apparently dead figure in the ohair to give a slight Bigh of returning consciousness. A few more moments of silence—a few more mesmeric hand-war-ing*, aad the young student was again a breathing animate boing. When he opened his eyes, gazed with a wondering look upon the audience, and rose to hi* feet, a loud and deafening shout of applause raag through tha building, and the professor of eleotro-biology gave vent to a sigh of relief as he resumed his seat and wiped the perspiration from his brow. I inquired what would have been the conse* quenco had the disturbance continued and his patient been separated from him. He said 'No power on earth oould have saved him. I alone washable to restore him.' The experiment of suspended animation waa never again repeated in publio, the risk being too great and the consequenoes that might ensue too unpleasant to be contemplated, even by the most suooessf ul of electro-biologists."