OBSERVATIONS ON TRANCE: OR, HUMAN HYBERNATION. BY JAMES BRAID, M.R.C.S. EDINBURGH, C.M.W.S., ETC., ETC. "No affection, to which the animal frame is subject, is PREFACE. SOME years ago I had a number of queries published in the Medical Journals, and also printed in a separate form for circulation, both at home and abroad, with the view of accumulating additional and accurate information regarding the curious points in Physiology treated of in this pam phlet. Through the kindness of my friend, GEORGE SWINTON, Esq. of Edinburgh, and Sir C. E. TREVELYAN, of the Treasury, application was made to Sir CLAUDE MARTIN WADE on my behalf, and a copy of the said queries was given to him; to which application Sir CLAUDE kindly responded, by furnishing me with the valuable narrative now published, regarding what he was an eye-witness of when acting as Political Agent at the Court of Runjeet Singh, at Lahore. The narrative bears internal evidence that Sir CLAUDE was a most accurate observer, as well as a lucid writer. To all of those gentlemen I beg to tender my very best thanks for furnishing me with such a valuable document. It was intended to have appeared in a new edition of my work on Hypnotism; but as the publication of that work must unavoidably be postponed for a short time longer, I have thought it desirable to print the original information. which I have obtained immediately, in a separate form, as it cannot fail to be most interesting to all scientific men; and its publication may, moreover, stimulate others to investigate and furnish additional evidence on the subject. The second case, by an eye-witness of the facts, was furnished to me by a retired Major, who served as an officer for many years in India. He requested me not to publish his name, because he understood the Directors disliked that any official men in their service should be known to take a prominent part in anything so far out of the line of their special duties. However, after I had written my narrative of the transaction, from the facts which he had communicated to me, he was kind enough to hear it read over to him, in the presence of several mutual friends, when he pronounced it correct on every point. assured us that he never could forget the He circumstances of that transaction, in as much as the part which he took in it, and his dread, in the end, that the devotee must have perished in the enterprise, and he be thereby rendered liable to be indicted as accessory to his murder, had caused him greater anxiety and horror than all the actions and scenes of danger he had encountered during the whole of his military career. If medical gentlemen residing in India would only take the trouble of investigating a few of these cases systematically and carefully, not merely with the view of guarding against all sources of collusion and fraud which might be perpetrated in such exhibitions, but also by weighing the body of the Fakeer before his being shut up or buried, and again on being exposed to view; and also by noting particularly the relative degree in which respiration and circulation become respectively affected, both as regards time and extent of change, by the voluntary processes of the Fakeer for inducing the Trance, we might very soon be in possession of all the information on the subject which we could desire. I should feel much obliged to any gentleman who would be so kind as forward such information to me, and, in publishing, I |