Hynoptic Experiment.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 14039, 23 October 1909, Page 3 (Supplement)

Hynoptic Experiment.

AN AMUSING STORY. A professor of hypnotism, who deprived one of liis subjects of memory and then had the misfortune to lose him in London for three days, had an amusing story to tell a. "Daily Chronicle" representative. He is Mr. Arthur Lancaster, a wellknown club swiuger and physical-cul-turist, who has been practising hypnotism with some success as a, euro for drunkenness and the drug-habit. "Some weeks ago," he said, "I advertised in a weekly paper for a subject for hypnotic experiments, and from many applicants, selected a Mr. Marshall, an. ex-schoolmaster from Cornwall, aged about 39. I soon found tliat I had perfect control over him, arid on Monday last I put - him into the hypnotic state and deprived'him of his memory, the object of the experiment being to wipe all the past out of his mind so that I might impress on it new ideas, like writing on a clean slate.

" Just as I had Marshall in this state I was called away for a moment. When I returned I was told by an attendant that he had walked out of ■£he building. I did not worry about the matter then thinking that my subject had merely gone, home on a sudden impulse, and that he would turn up as usual, the next day. But Tuesday came and no sign of him. He had not gone home, and so I informed the police. His description was circulated, and on Wednesday night I was notified that my .lost, subject was in St. Giles Union Infirmary.

"Later on I learned that about midnight on Monday, many hours after he had left me, ho rushed up, to a police officer iu the. West-end, gesticulating wildly, and uttering meaningless sentences. Accordingly ho was taken to Bow Street, thence to the Strand Workhouse, and eventually to St. Giles Infirmary, where lie was detained as a mental case. ■ "When I arrived at the Infirmary to identify him the master said he could not he released without a magistrate's order. In short, my poor subject was certified insane. He did not know me, so I had to release him from the hypnotic, state and restore his memory. First of all I said to him, 'I shall begin to count, and when I reach twenty you will fall asleep.' Ho did so. Then I said, 'I shall again count and this time when I reach twenty you will awake with restored memory. " Sure enough, he woke up quite himself again, but the most surprised man in London when he saw whero lie was anl learned that three days had .passed since ho was at Apollo's school, the last incident he remembered. He seemed quito satisfied when he learnt the truth —for, of course, his mind was a blank —and, as soon as a magistrate's order lias been received, ho will be releasd, and will return to assist me in my experiments with every confidence.

" of course, I am sorry for his plight, the incident is gratifying to me, because it assures rne that the man was really under hypnotic influence and deprived of memory, and hot merely 'shamming.' "