Can no further use be made of the facts and principles we have thus seen verified and established, than to explain a class of delusions6 which prevailed in times of ignorance? The powers which we have seen successfully employed to shake the nerves and unsettle the mind in154 the service of superstition7, can they not be skilfully8 turned to some purpose beneficial to society?
A satisfactory answer to the question may be found in the invention of ether-inhalation, and in the history of mesmerism. The witch narcotized her pupils in order to produce in them delusive9 visions; the surgeon stupefies his patient to annul10 the pain of an operation. The fanatic11 preacher excites convulsions and trance in his auditory as evidence of the working of the Holy Spirit; Mesmer produced the same effects in his patients as a means of curing disease.
It occurred to Mr. Jackson, a chemist of the United States, that it might be possible harmlessly to stupefy a patient through the inhalation of the vapour of sulphuric ether, to such an extent that a surgical12 operation would be unfelt by him. He communicated the idea to Mr. Morton, a dentist, who carried it into execution with the happiest results. The patient became insensible; a tooth was extracted; no pain seemed felt at the time, or was remembered afterwards, and no ill consequences followed. Led by the report of this success, in the course of the autumn of 1846, Messrs. Bigelow, Warren, and Heywood, ventured to employ the same means in surgical operations of a more serious description. The results obtained on these occasions were not less satisfactory than the first had been. Since then, in England, France, and Germany, the same interesting experiment has been repeated many hundred times, and the adoption13 of this, or of a parallel method, has become general in surgery.
I withdraw from the present Letter a sketch14 which I had made from the “report” of Dr. Heyfelder, of the phenomena of etherization; for a year had barely elapsed, when the narcotizing agent recommended by Mr. Jackson155 was superseded15 by another, suggested and brought into use by Professor Simpson of Edinburgh. The inhalation of chloroform is found to be more rapid, uniform, and certain in its effects, and compassable in a simpler manner, than the inhalation of ether. Its brief phenomena are wound up by the production of stupor16; they are remotely comparable to those produced by alcohol. Alas17! the time is passed when I enjoyed the means of looking through, and forming a practical judgment18 upon discoveries like the present. Not the less, however, do I hail the advent19 of this as a boon20 to the art of surgery. The conception was original, bold and reasonable; its execution neat and scientific; its success wonderful. It established in the year 1847, to the satisfaction of the public and of the medical profession, that the exclusion21 of pain from surgical operations is a practicable idea, and the attempt to realize it a legitimate22 pursuit.
Then, what is Mesmerism?
The object of the inventor of the art was to cure diseases through the influence of a new force brought by him to bear upon the human frame.
Talent, for philosophy or business, is the power of seeing what is yet hidden from others. As the eyes of some animals are fitted to see best in the dark, so the mental vision of some original minds prefers exercising itself on obscure and occult subjects. Whoever indulges this turn will certainly pass for a charlatan23; most likely he will prove one. Mesmer had it, and indulged it, in a high degree. The body of science which I have unfolded in the preceding Letters was wholly unknown in his time, (he was born in 1734;) but he was led by his wayward instinct to grope after it in the dark, and he seized and brought to upper light fragmentary elements of strange156 capabilities24, which he strove to interpret and to use. He had early displayed a bias25 towards the mystical. When a student at Vienna, (he was by birth a Swiss,) his principal study was astrology. He sought in the stars a force which, extending throughout space, might influence the beings living upon our planet. In the year 1766 he published his lucubrations. In attempting to identify his imaginary force, Mesmer first supposed it to be electricity. Afterwards, about the year 1773, he adopted the idea that it must be magnetism26. So at Vienna, from 1773 to 1775, he employed the practice of stroking diseased parts of the body with magnets. But in 1776, happening to be upon a tour, he fell in with a mystical monk27 of the name of Gassner, who was then occupied in curing the Prince-Bishop of Ratisbon of blindness, by exorcism. Then Mesmer observed that, without magnets, Gassner produced much the same effects on the living body which he had produced with them. The fact was not lost upon him: he threw aside his magnets, and operated mostly afterwards with the hand alone. It appears that he was often successful in curing disease, or that his patients not only experienced sensible effects from his procedures, but frequently recovered from their complaints. But in 1777, his reputation, which must have always hung upon a very slender thread, broke down through a failure in the case of the musician Paradies. So Mesmer left Vienna, and in the following year betook himself to Paris. There he obtained a success which quickly drew upon him the indignation, perhaps the jealousy28, of the Faculty29, who failed not to stigmatize30 him as a charlatan. They exclaimed against him for practising an art which he would not divulge31; and when he offered to display it, averred32 that he threw difficulties in the way of their investigations33. Perhaps he suspected157 them of want of fairness in their inquiries34; perhaps he was really unwilling35 to part with his secret. He refused an offer from the Government of 20,000 francs if he would disclose it; but he communicated freely to individuals, under a pledge of secrecy36, all he knew for a hundred louis. His practice itself gave most support to the allegations against him. His patients were received with an air of mystery and studied effect. The apartment, hung with mirrors, was dimly lighted. A profound silence was observed, broken only by strains of music, which occasionally floated through the rooms. The patients were seated round a sort of vat37, which contained a heterogeneous38 mixture of chemical ingredients. With this, and with each other, they were placed in relation by means of cords, or jointed39 rods, or by holding hands; and among them slowly and mysteriously moved Mesmer himself, affecting one by a touch, another by a look, a third by passes with his hand, a fourth by pointing with a rod.
What followed is easily conceivable from the scenes referred to in my last letter as witnessed at religious revivals41. One person became hysterical42, then another; one was seized with catalepsy; others with convulsions; some with palpitations of the heart, perspirations, and other bodily disturbances44. These effects, however various and different, went all by the name of “salutary crisis.” The method was supposed to provoke in the sick person exactly the kind of action propitious45 to his recovery. And it may easily be imagined that many a patient found himself the better after a course of this rude empiricism, and that the effect made by these events passing daily in Paris must have been very considerable. To the ignorant the scene was full of wonderment.
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To ourselves, regarding it from our present vantage-ground, it presents no marvellous characters. The phenomena were the same which we have been recently contemplating—a group of disorders47 of the nervous system. The causes which were present are not less familiar to us, nor their capability48 of producing such effects; they were—mental excitement, here consisting in raised expectation and fear; the contagiousness49 of hysteria, convulsions, and trance, its force increased by the numbers and close-packing of the patients; the Od force, developed by the chemical action in the charged caldron, developed by each of the excited bodies around, its action first favoured by the absolute stillness observed, then by the increasing sensibility of the patients as their nerves became more and more shaken. It is remarkable51 that Jussieu—the most competent judge in the commission of inquiry52 into the truth of mesmerism, set on foot at Paris in 1784, of which Franklin was a member, and which condemned53 mesmerism as an imposture—was so struck with what he saw, that he strongly recommended the subject to the attention and study of physicians. His objections were against the theory alone. He laid it down in the separate report which he gave in, that no physical cause had been proved to be in operation beyond animal heat! curiously54 overlooking the fact that common heat would not produce the effects observed; and, therefore, that the latter must have been owing to that something which animal heat, or the radiating warmth of a living body, contains, in addition to common heat. That something we now know, but only since 1845, to be the Od force.
The Od force is so new, so young in science, that Mesmer’s reputation has not yet been credited with the159 honour thence reflected upon it. I will not say that Mesmer’s astral force was a distinct anticipation55 of Von Reichenbach’s discovery, which was noways suggested by the former, and was from first to last an effort of inductive observation. But the guess of the mystic had certainly a most happy parallelism to the truth, which a different sort of mind tracked in the same field; for the Od force reaches us even from the stars, and the sun and the fixed56 stars are Od-negative; and the planets and the moon Od-positive. It is unnecessary to follow Mesmer through his minor57 performances. The relief sometimes obtained by stroking diseased parts with the hand—that is, the effects obtained through the local action of Od—had been before proclaimed by Dr. Greatrex, whose pretensions58 had had no less an advocate than the Honourable59 Robert Boyle. The extraordinary tales of Mesmer’s personal power over individuals are probably part exaggeration, part real results of his confidence and skill in the use of the means he wielded60. Mesmer died in 1815.
Among his pupils, when at the zenith of his fame, was the Marquis de Puységur. Returning from serving at the siege of Gibraltar, this young officer found mesmerism the mode at Paris, and appears to have become, for no other reason, one of the initiated61. At the end of a course of instruction, he professed62 himself to be no wiser than when it began; and he ridiculed63 the credulity of his brothers, who were stanch64 adherents65 of the new doctrine66. However, he did not forget his lesson; and on going the same spring to his estate at Besancy, near Soissons, he took occasion to mesmerize67 the daughter of his agent and another young person, for the toothache, and they declared themselves, in a few minutes, cured. This questionable68 success was sufficient to lead M. de Puységur, a few days160 after, to try his hand on a young peasant of the name of Victor, who was suffering with a severe fluxion on his chest. What was M. de Puységur’s surprise, when, at the end of a few minutes, Victor went off into a kind of tranquil69 sleep, without crisis or convulsion, and in that sleep began to gesticulate and talk, and enter into his private affairs. Then he became sad; and M. de Puységur tried mentally to inspire him with cheerful thoughts; he hummed a lively tune71 to himself inaudibly, and immediately Victor began to sing the air. Victor remained asleep for an hour, and awoke composed, with his symptoms mitigated72.
The case of Victor revolutionized the art of mesmerism. The large part of his life, in which M. de Puységur had nothing to do but to follow this vein73 of inquiry, was occupied in practising and advocating a gentle manipulation to produce sleep, in preference to the more exciting means which led to the violent crises in Mesmer’s art. I have no plea for telling how M. de Puységur served in the first French revolutionary armies; how he quitted the service in disgust; how narrowly he escaped the guillotine; how he lived in retirement74 afterwards, benevolently75 endeavouring to do good to his sick neighbours by means of mesmerism; how he survived the Restoration; and how, finally, he died of a cold caught by serving in the encampment at Rheims, at the coronation of Charles X.
For he had fulfilled his mission the day that he put Victor to sleep. He had made a vast stride in advance of his teacher. Not but that Mesmer must frequently have induced the same condition; but he had passed it by unheeded as one only of numerous equivalent forms of salutary crises; or that M. de Puységur himself estimated, or had the means of estimating, the real nature161 and value of the step which he had made. To himself he appeared to be winning a larger domain76 for mesmerism, when in fact he had emerged into an independent field, into which mesmerism happened to have a gate.
The state which he had induced in Victor was common trance, the initiatory sleep, followed by half-waking. He had obtained this result by using the Od force with quietness and gentleness, leaving out the exciting mental agencies to which the mixture of violent seizures in Mesmer’s practice is attributable. The gentler method has been adopted and practised by the successors of M. de Puységur, by Deleuze, Bertrand, Georget, Rostan, Foissac, Elliotson, and others. To Dr. Elliotson, the most successful probably, certainly the most scientific employer of the practice of mesmerism, the credit is due of having introduced its use into England: the credit,—for it required no little moral courage to encounter the storm of opposition77 with which his honest zeal78 in the advocacy of an unpopular practical truth was met. It is but fair to add, that though his theory has been superseded, and his method changed, to Mesmer belongs the merit of having first tracked out and realized this path of discovery. The golden medal is his.
The modern practice of mesmerism contemplates79 two objects: one, the application of the Od force to produce local effects; the other, its employment to induce trance. In the present slight sketch I shall say nothing on the first subject; but let me describe how trance is induced. It is to be observed, that attention to certain conditions favours very much the success of the experiment. The room should not be too light; very few persons should be present; the patient and the operator should be quiet, tranquil, and composed; the patient should be fasting.162 The operator has then only to sit down before the patient, who is likewise sitting with his hands resting on his knees, and gently closed, with the thumbs upwards80. The operator then lays his hands half-open upon the patient’s, pressing the thumbs against those of the patient, as it were taking thumbs: this is a more convenient attitude than taking hands in the ordinary way. The operator and patient have then only to sit still. An Od-current is established; and if the patient is susceptible81, he will soon become drowsy82, and perhaps be entranced at the first sitting. Instead of this, the two hands of the operator may be held horizontally with the fingers pointed83 to the patient’s forehead, and either maintained in this position, or brought downwards84 in frequent passes opposite to the patient’s face, shoulders, arms; the points of the fingers being held as near the patient as possible without touching85.
It is easy, theoretically, to explain the beneficial results which follow from the daily induction86 of trance for an hour or so, in various forms of disorder46 of the nervous system,—in epilepsy,—in tic-doloreux,—in nervous palsy, and the like. As long as the state of trance is maintained, so long is the nervous system in a state of repose87. It is more or less completely put out of gear. It experiences the same relief which a sprained88 joint40 feels when you dispose it in a relaxed position on a pillow. A chance is thus given to the strained nerves of recovering their tone of health; and it is wonderful how many cases of nervous disorder get well at once through these simple means. As it is certain that there is no disease in which the nervous system is not primarily or secondarily implicated89, it is impossible to foresee what will prove the limit to the beneficial application of mesmerism in medical practice.
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In operative surgery the art is not less available. In trance the patient is insensible, and a limb may be removed without the operation exciting disturbance43 of any kind. And what is equally important, in all the after-treatment, at every dressing90, the process of mesmerizing91 may be resorted to again, with no possible disadvantage, but being rather soothing92 and useful to the patient, independently of the extinction93 of the dread94 and suffering of pain. The first instance in which an operation was performed on a patient in this state was the celebrated95 case of Madame Plantin. It occurred twenty years ago. The lady was sixty-four years of age, and laboured under scirrhus of the breast. She was prepared for the operation by M. Chapélain, who on several successive days threw her into trance by the ordinary mesmeric manipulations. She was then like an ordinary sleep-walker, and would converse96 with indifference97 about the contemplated98 operation, the idea of which, when she was in her natural state, filled her with terror. The operation of removing the diseased breast was performed at Paris on the 12th of April, 1829, by M. Jules Cloquet; it lasted from ten to twelve minutes. During the whole of this time the patient, in her trance, conversed99 calmly with M. Cloquet, and exhibited not the slightest sign of suffering. Her expression of countenance100 did not change; nor was the voice, the breathing, or the pulse at all affected101. After the wound was dressed, the patient was awakened102 from the trance, when on learning that the operation was over, and seeing her children round her, Madame Plantin was affected with considerable emotion, whereupon M. Chapélain, to compose her, put her back into the state of trance.
I copy the above particulars from Dr. Foissac’s Rap164ports et Discussions de l’Académie Royale de Médecine sur le Magnetism Animal.—Paris, 1833. My friend, Dr. Warren, of Boston, informed me that, being at Paris, he had asked M. Jules Cloquet if the story were true. M. Cloquet answered, “Perfectly103.” “Then why,” said Dr. Warren, “have you not repeated the practice?” M. Cloquet replied “that he had not dared; that the prejudice against mesmerism was so strong at Paris that he probably would have lost his reputation and his income by so doing.”
It has been mentioned that in ordinary trance the mind appears to gain new powers. For a long time we had to trust to the chance turning up of cases of spontaneous trance, in the experience of physicians of observation, for any light we could hope would be thrown on those extraordinary phenomena; now we possess around us, on every side, adequate opportunities for completely elucidating104 these events, if we please to employ them. The philosopher, when his speculations105 suggest a new question to be put, can summon the attendance of a trance as easily as the Jupiter of the Iliad summoned a dream; or, looking out for two or three cases to which the induction of trance may be beneficial, the physician may have in his house subjects for perpetual reference and daily experiment.
A gentleman, with whom I, have long been well acquainted, for many years chairman of the Quarter Sessions in a northern county, of which during a late year he was high sheriff, has, like M. de Puységur, amused some of his leisure hours, and benevolently done not a little good, by taking the trouble of mesmerizing invalids106, whom he has thus restored to health. In constant correspondence with, and occasionally having the pleasure165 of seeing this gentleman, I have learned from him the common course in which the new powers of the mind, which belong to trance, are developed under its artificial induction. The sketch which I propose to give of this subject will be taken from his descriptions, which, I should observe, tally70 in all essential points with what I meet with in French and German authors. The little that I have myself seen of the matter, I will mention preliminarily.
In some, instead of trance, a common fit of hysterics is produced; in others, slight headache, and a sense of weight on the eyebrows107, and difficulty of raising the eyelids108, supervene.
In one young woman, whom I saw mesmerised for the first time by Dupotet, nothing resulted but a sense of pricking109 and tingling110 wherever he pointed with his hand; and her arm, on one or two occasions, jumped in the most natural and conclusive111 manner when, her eyes being covered, he directed his outstretched finger to it.
A gentleman, about thirty years of age, when the mesmeriser held his outstretched hands pointed to his head, experienced no disposition112 to sleep; but in two or three minutes he began to shake his head and twist his features about; at last, his head was jerked from side to side, and forwards and backwards113, with a violence that looked alarming. But he said, when it was over, that the motion had not been unpleasant; that he had moved in a sort voluntarily—although he could not refrain from it. If the hands of the operator were pointed to his arm instead of his head, the same violent jerks ensued, and gradually extended to the whole body. I asked him to try to resist the influence, by holding his arm out in strong muscular tension. This had the effect of retarding114 the attack of166 the jerks, but, when it came on, it was more violent than usual. I have lately seen another similar case. The seizure1 is evidently a form of St. Veitz’s dance brought out by the operation of the Od force. In neither of these two cases could trance be induced.
A servant of mine, aged115 about twenty-five, was mesmerized116 by Lafontaine, for a full half-hour, and, no effect appearing to be produced, I told him he might rise from the chair and leave us. On getting up he looked uneasy, and said his arms were numb50. They were perfectly paralyzed from the elbows downwards, and numb to the shoulders. This was the more satisfactory, that neither the man himself, nor Lafontaine, nor the four or five spectators, expected this result. The operator triumphantly117 drew a pin and stuck it into the man’s hand, which bled, but had no feeling. Then heedlessly, to show it gave pain, Lafontaine stuck the pin into the man’s thigh118, whose flashing eye, and half suppressed growl119, denoted that the aggression120 would certainly have been returned by another, had the arm which should have done it not been really powerless. However, M. Lafontaine made peace with the man, by restoring him the use and feeling of his arms. This was done by dusting them, as it were, by quick transverse motions of his extended hands. In five minutes nothing remained of the palsy but a slight stiffness, which gradually wore off in the course of the evening.
Occasionally partial tonic121 spasm122 (improperly termed catalepsy, for it is of the nature of catochus, and the rigidity124 attending it is absolute) supervenes as the only consequence of mesmerising a limb. This result, which is not less alarming to the patient who has not been led to expect it than the preceding, may be got rid of in the167 same way. If you point with your fingers to the rigid123 muscles, or again, as it were, dust the limb with brisk transverse passes, or breathe upon it, the stiffness is thawed125 and disappears. Trance is seldom induced by mesmeric passes without more or less partial muscular rigidity of this kind supervening; it always yields to the means which have been mentioned.
Genuine and ordinary trance I have seen produced by the same manipulations in from three minutes to half-an-hour. The patient’s eyelids have dropped, he has appeared on the point of sleeping, but he has not sunk back upon his chair; then he has continued to sit upright—seemingly perfectly insensible to the loudest sounds, or the acutest and most startling impressions on the sense of touch. The pulse is commonly a little increased in frequency; the breathing is sometimes heavier than usual.
Occasionally, as in Victor’s case, the patient quickly and spontaneously emerges from the state of trance-sleep into trance half-waking—a rapidity of development which I am persuaded occurs much more frequently among the French than with the English or Germans. English patients, especially, for the most part require a long course of education, many sittings, to have the same powers drawn out. And these are by far the most interesting cases. I will describe, from Mr. Williamson’s account, the course he has usually followed in developing his patient’s powers, and the order in which they have manifested themselves.
On the first day, perhaps, nothing can be elicited126. But after some minutes, the stupor seems, as it were, less embarrassing to the patient, who appears less heavily slumbrous, and breathes lighter127 again: or it may be the168 reverse, particularly if the patient is epileptic; after a little, the breathing may be deeper, the state one of less composure. Pointing with the hands to the pit of the stomach, laying the hands upon the shoulders, and slowly moving them along the arms down to the hands, the whole with the utmost quietude and composure on the part of the operator, will dispel128 this oppression.
And the interest of the first sitting is confined to the process of awakening129 the patient, which is one of the most marvellous phenomena of the whole. The operator lays his two thumbs on the space between the eyebrows, and as it were vigorously smooths or irons the eyebrows, rubbing them from within outwards130 seven or eight times. Upon this, the patient probably raises his head and his eyebrows, and draws a deeper breath, as if he would yawn; he is half awake, and blowing upon the eyelids, or the repetition of the previous operation, or dusting the forehead by smart transverse wavings of the hand, or blowing upon it, causes the patient’s countenance to become animated131; the eyelids open, he looks about him, recognises you, and begins to speak. If any feeling of heaviness remains132, any weight or pain of the forehead, another repetition of the same manipulations sets all right. And yet this patient would not have been awakened if a gun had been fired at his ear, or his arm had been cut off.
At the next sitting, or the next to that, the living statue begins to wake in its tranced life. The operator holds one hand over the opposite hand of his patient, and makes as if he would draw the patient’s hand upwards, raising his own with short successive jerks, yet not too abrupt133. Then the patient’s hand begins to follow his; and, often having ascended134 some inches, stops in the air169 catochally. This fixed state is always relieved by transverse brushings with the hand, or by breathing in addition, on the rigid limb. And it is most curious to see the whole bodily frame, over which spasmodic rigidness135 may have crept, thus thawed joint by joint. Then the first effect shown commonly is this motion, the patient’s hand following the operator’s. At the same sitting he begins to hear, and there is intelligence in his countenance when the operator pronounces his name: perhaps his lips move, and he begins to answer pertinently136, as in ordinary sleep-walking. But he hears the operator alone best, and him even in a whisper. Your voice, if you shout, he does not hear: unless you take the operator’s hand, and then he hears you too. In general, however, now the proximity137 of others seems in some way to be sensible to him; and he appears uneasy when they crowd close upon him. It seems that the force of the relation between the operator and his patient naturally goes on increasing, as the powers of the sleep-walker are developed; but that this is not necessarily the case, and depends upon its being encouraged by much commerce between them, and the exclusion of others from joining in this trance-communion.
And now the patient—beginning to wake in trance, hearing and answering the questions of the operator, moving each limb, or rising even, as the operator’s hand is raised to draw him into obedient following—enters into a new relation with his mesmeriser. He adopts sympathetically every voluntary movement of the other. When the latter rises from his chair, he rises; when he sits down, he sits down: if he bows, he bows; if he makes a grimace138, he makes the same. Yet his eyes are closed. He certainly does not see. His mind has interpenetrated170 to a small extent the nervous system of the operator; and is in relation with his voluntary nerves and the anterior140 half of his cranio-spinal chord. (These are the organs by which the impulse to voluntary motion is conveyed and originated.) Further into the other’s being he has not yet got. So he does not what the other thinks of, or wishes him to do: but only what the other either does, or goes through the mental part of doing. So Victor sang the air which M. de Puységur only mentally hummed.
The next strange phenomenon marks that the mind of the entranced patient has interpenetrated the nervous system of the other a step farther, and is in relation besides with the posterior half of the cranio-spinal chord and its nerves. For now the entranced person, who has no feeling, or taste, or smell of his own, feels, tastes, and smells every thing that is made to tell on the senses of the operator. If mustard or sugar be put in his own mouth, he seems not to know that they are there; if mustard is placed on the tongue of the operator, the entranced person expresses great disgust, and tries as if to spit it out. The same with bodily pain. If you pluck a hair from the operator’s head, the other complains of the pain you give him.
To state in the closest way what has happened: The phenomena of sympathetic motion and sympathetic sensation thus displayed are exactly such as might be expected to follow, if the mind or conscious principle of the entranced person were brought into relation with the cranio-spinal chord of the operator and its nerves, and with no farther portion of his nervous system. Later, it will be seen, the interpenetration can extend farther.
But, before this happens, a new phenomenon manifests itself, not of a sympathetic character. The operator171 contrives141 to wake the entranced person to the knowledge that he possesses new faculties142. He develops in him new organs of sensation, or rather helps to hasten his recognition of their possession.
It is to be observed, however, that several who can be entranced cannot be brought as far as the present step. Others make a tantalizing143 half-advance towards reaching it thus, and then stop. They are asked,—“Do you see any thing?” After some days, at length they answer “Yes.” “What?” “A light.” “Where is the light?” Then they intimate its place to be either before them, or to one side, or above or behind them. And they describe the colour of the light, which is commonly yellowish. And each day it is pointed to in the same direction, and is seen equally whether the room be light or dark. Their eyes in the mean time are closed. And here with many the phenomenon stops. Others in this light now begin to discern objects held in the direction in which they see it. The range of this new visual organ, and the conditions under which it acts, are different in different instances. Sometimes the object must be close, sometimes it is best seen at a short distance; but seen it is. The following experiment, which is decisive, was made at my suggestion: A gentleman standing144 behind the entranced person held behind him a pack of cards, from which he drew several in succession, and, without seeing them himself, presented them to the new visual organ of the patient. In each case she named the card right. The degree of light suited to this new mode of vision is variable: sometimes bright daylight is best; sometimes they prefer a moderate light. Some distinguish figure and colour when the room is so dark that the bystanders can distinguish neither.
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These observations, which are, however, only in conformity145 with similar evidence from many other quarters, I give on the authority of Mr. J.?W. Williamson of Wickham, the gentleman to whom I have before alluded146. The following accidental features, attending the manifestation147 of transposed senses, were further observed by Mr. Williamson:—
In most of the persons in whom Mr. Williamson has brought out transposed vision, the faculty has been located in a small surface of the scalp behind the left ear; and to see objects well, the patient has held them at the distance of five or six inches from and opposite to this spot. One young woman, who had been temporarily set aside under affliction for the loss of a relative, on the experiments being resumed, saw from all parts of the head, but confusedly, a broken and incomplete picture. On a subsequent day, she saw with the right side of her head. Afterwards the visual sense returned to its first place.
In one young person, the new sentient148 organ was on the top of her head, and to see objects she required them to be brought into contact with it. Once that she had a rheumatic cold and tenderness of the scalp, she said, when entranced, putting her hand to the crown of her head, that the cold had made her eyes sore.
One person saw objects best when placed behind her at the distance of seven or eight feet.
The governess in a neighbouring family was mesmerised for tic-doloureux. In seven sittings she was cured. At the second sitting, in her trance she exhibited displaced sensation. She could read with her finger-ends; her way was to hold the book open against her chest, the back of the book towards her, with one hand; then she passed a finger of the other hand slowly over each word, to read it.
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The part-physical character of these phenomena is shown by an observation of Dr. Petetin’s on the first of his cataleptic patients. At the time that the patient heard with the pit of her stomach, he found that if with the fingers of one, say the left hand, he touched the pit of her stomach, and whispered to the fingers of his right hand, the patient heard him; but if the left hand was removed to the smallest possible distance from the patient, the contact being interrupted, she no longer heard him. Then he made a chain of seven persons, holding each other’s hands. The nearest to the patient was her sister, who touched the pit of her stomach; at the other end was Dr. Petetin, who whispered to his fingers, and was heard. A cane149 was then introduced as part of the circuit—the patient still heard; but if a stick of sealing-wax, or a glass rod, was substituted for it, or if one of the party wore silk gloves, the patient could no longer hear Dr. Petetin. Without close observation, what is physical in the phenomena which have thus engaged us is liable to be overlooked; and the bystander may class them as examples of lucidity150, which they are not. Organic co-operation may be traced in them all. Thus, among Mr. Williamson’s earlier experiments, he tried, sitting before the entranced person, (who had shown no lucidity,) by imaging strongly to himself a white horse, to force the image into her mind. When, being awakened, she had left the room, on her way she said to her fellow-servant, “What was it master said to me about a white horse? I am sure he said something.” Mr. Williamson, on learning the maid’s remark, supposed his mental operation had been successful. But the same experiment, when repeated, mostly failed. At last he found out why: It only succeeded when, in his mental urgency, he half174 made in his own throat the motions of the sounds that expressed the mental image. Then, and then only, the patient caught it. For her mind could not read his thoughts, but as yet had penetrated139 the inferior part of the nervous system only, the cranio-spinal cord; and, being there, had adopted sympathetically the voluntary impulses that were there performed; so she half-moved the muscles of her own vocal151 organs to express the idea, and from that—its imperfect expression—received it into her thoughts. No doubt the phenomenon of Victor’s singing the words to M. de Puységur’s mentally hummed air was the same with the above, and not one of mesmeric lucidity, the subject which we are now approaching.
But I pause;—and go no further.
For my object in these Letters, generally, has been to establish principles. And the phenomena of lucidity developed in artificial trance have been only the same as, and have not been as yet made more of than, the lucidity of catalepsy. No further principle has yet emerged from their study; and my special object in this Letter has been to persuade the opponents of mesmerism to do it justice; and I think I am most likely to attain152 my end by not attempting to prove too much.
So that nothing remains for me to do, but to observe the form in which these Letters were originally shaped, in recollection of the pleasant hours which the residence of your family at Boppard, during the winter of 1844-5, caused me, and to say finally,
Dear Archy, Farewell.
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1
seizure
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| n.没收；占有；抵押 | |
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2
seizures
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| n.起获( seizure的名词复数 )；没收；充公；起获的赃物 | |
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3
initiatory
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| adj.开始的；创始的；入会的；入社的 | |
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4
phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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5
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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6
delusions
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| n.欺骗( delusion的名词复数 )；谬见；错觉；妄想 | |
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7
superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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8
skilfully
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| adv. (美skillfully)熟练地 | |
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9
delusive
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| adj.欺骗的，妄想的 | |
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10
annul
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| v.宣告…无效，取消，废止 | |
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11
fanatic
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| n.狂热者，入迷者；adj.狂热入迷的 | |
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12
surgical
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| adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的 | |
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13
adoption
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| n.采用，采纳，通过；收养 | |
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14
sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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15
superseded
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| [医]被代替的，废弃的 | |
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16
stupor
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| v.昏迷；不省人事 | |
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17
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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18
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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19
advent
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| n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临 | |
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20
boon
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| n.恩赐，恩物，恩惠 | |
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21
exclusion
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| n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行 | |
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22
legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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23
charlatan
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| n.骗子；江湖医生；假内行 | |
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24
capabilities
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| n.能力( capability的名词复数 )；可能；容量；[复数]潜在能力 | |
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25
bias
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| n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见 | |
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26
magnetism
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| n.磁性，吸引力，磁学 | |
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27
monk
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| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
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28
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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29
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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30
stigmatize
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| v.污蔑，玷污 | |
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31
divulge
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| v.泄漏(秘密等)；宣布，公布 | |
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32
averred
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| v.断言( aver的过去式和过去分词 )；证实；证明…属实；作为事实提出 | |
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33
investigations
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| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
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34
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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35
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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36
secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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37
vat
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| n.(=value added tax)增值税，大桶 | |
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38
heterogeneous
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| adj.庞杂的；异类的 | |
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39
jointed
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| 有接缝的 | |
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40
joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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41
revivals
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| n.复活( revival的名词复数 )；再生；复兴；（老戏多年后）重新上演 | |
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42
hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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43
disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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44
disturbances
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| n.骚乱( disturbance的名词复数 )；打扰；困扰；障碍 | |
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45
propitious
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| adj.吉利的；顺利的 | |
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46
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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47
disorders
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| n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调 | |
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48
capability
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| n.能力；才能；(pl)可发展的能力或特性等 | |
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49
contagiousness
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| [医] （接）触（传）染性 | |
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50
numb
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| adj.麻木的，失去感觉的；v.使麻木 | |
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51
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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52
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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53
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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54
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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55
anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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56
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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57
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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58
pretensions
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| 自称( pretension的名词复数 )； 自命不凡； 要求； 权力 | |
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59
honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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60
wielded
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| 手持着使用（武器、工具等）( wield的过去式和过去分词 )； 具有； 运用（权力）； 施加（影响） | |
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61
initiated
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| n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入 | |
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62
professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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63
ridiculed
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| v.嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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64
stanch
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| v.止住（血等）；adj.坚固的；坚定的 | |
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65
adherents
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| n.支持者，拥护者( adherent的名词复数 )；党羽；徒子徒孙 | |
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66
doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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67
mesmerize
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| vt.施催眠术；使入迷，迷住 | |
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68
questionable
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| adj.可疑的，有问题的 | |
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69
tranquil
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| adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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70
tally
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| n.计数器，记分，一致，测量；vt.计算，记录，使一致；vi.计算，记分，一致 | |
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71
tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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72
mitigated
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| v.减轻，缓和( mitigate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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73
vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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74
retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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75
benevolently
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| adv.仁慈地，行善地 | |
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76
domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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77
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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78
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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79
contemplates
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的第三人称单数 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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80
upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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81
susceptible
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| adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的 | |
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82
drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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83
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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84
downwards
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| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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85
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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86
induction
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| n.感应，感应现象 | |
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87
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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88
sprained
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| v.&n. 扭伤 | |
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89
implicated
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| adj.密切关联的；牵涉其中的 | |
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90
dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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91
mesmerizing
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| adj.有吸引力的，有魅力的v.使入迷( mesmerize的现在分词 ) | |
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92
soothing
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| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
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93
extinction
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| n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种 | |
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94
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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95
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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96
converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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97
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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98
contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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99
conversed
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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100
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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101
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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102
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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103
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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104
elucidating
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| v.阐明，解释( elucidate的现在分词 ) | |
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105
speculations
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| n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 )；思考；投机活动；推断 | |
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106
invalids
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| 病人，残疾者( invalid的名词复数 ) | |
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107
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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108
eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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109
pricking
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| 刺，刺痕，刺痛感 | |
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110
tingling
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| v.有刺痛感( tingle的现在分词 ) | |
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111
conclusive
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| adj.最后的，结论的；确凿的，消除怀疑的 | |
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112
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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113
backwards
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| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
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114
retarding
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| 使减速( retard的现在分词 )； 妨碍； 阻止； 推迟 | |
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115
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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116
mesmerized
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| v.使入迷( mesmerize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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117
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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118
thigh
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| n.大腿；股骨 | |
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119
growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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120
aggression
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| n.进攻，侵略，侵犯，侵害 | |
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121
tonic
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| n./adj.滋补品，补药，强身的，健体的 | |
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122
spasm
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| n.痉挛，抽搐；一阵发作 | |
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123
rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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124
rigidity
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| adj.钢性，坚硬 | |
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125
thawed
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| 解冻 | |
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126
elicited
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| 引出，探出( elicit的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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127
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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128
dispel
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| vt.驱走，驱散，消除 | |
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129
awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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130
outwards
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| adj.外面的，公开的，向外的；adv.向外；n.外形 | |
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131
animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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132
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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133
abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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134
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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135
rigidness
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| n.坚硬，劲直 | |
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136
pertinently
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| 适切地 | |
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137
proximity
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| n.接近，邻近 | |
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138
grimace
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| v.做鬼脸，面部歪扭 | |
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139
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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140
anterior
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| adj.较早的；在前的 | |
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141
contrives
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| （不顾困难地）促成某事( contrive的第三人称单数 )； 巧妙地策划，精巧地制造（如机器）； 设法做到 | |
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142
faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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143
tantalizing
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| adj.逗人的；惹弄人的；撩人的；煽情的v.逗弄，引诱，折磨( tantalize的现在分词 ) | |
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144
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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145
conformity
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| n.一致，遵从，顺从 | |
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146
alluded
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| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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147
manifestation
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| n.表现形式；表明；现象 | |
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148
sentient
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| adj.有知觉的，知悉的；adv.有感觉能力地 | |
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149
cane
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| n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的 | |
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150
lucidity
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| n.明朗，清晰，透明 | |
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151
vocal
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| adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
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152
attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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