Phreno-Magnet
Journal of Magnetism. (See Spiritualism.) Phreno-Mesmerism (or Phrenopathy) : An application of the principles of Mesmerism to the science of phrenology. Mesmerism and phrenology had for some time been regarded by the English mesmerists as related sciences when it was discovered that a somnambule whose bumps" were touched by the fingers of the operator would respond to the stimulus by exhibiting every symptom of the mental trait corresponding to the organ touched. Thus signs of joy, grief, destructiveness, combativeness, and friendship might be exhibited in rapid succession by the entranced patient. Among those who claimed to have discovered the new science were Dr. Collyer, a pupil of Dr. Elliotson's; and the Rev. Laroy Sunderland, though the former afterwards repudiated it. As time went on enterprising phreno-mesmerists discovered many new cerebral organs as many as a hundred and fifty being found beside those already mapped out by Spurzheim and Gall. Among its supporters phreno-mesmerism numbered the distinguished hypnotist Braid, who expressed himself fully satisfied of its reality. He has recorded a number of cases in which the patient correctly indicated by his actions the organs touched, though demonstrably ignorant of phrenological laws, and inaccessible to outside information. Braid himself offers but a very halting and inadequate physiological explanation, and since he may be supposed to have been fully alive to the factors of suggestion and hyperæsthesia, it would seem advisable to admit the possibility of mental suggestion, or telepathy, by means of which the expectation of the operator, reproducing itself in the mind of the patient, would give rise to the corresponding reactions.