the first duty of the mesmerist to show cause why he should not be
put down as a charlatan. So we had tests and counter-tests, evidence
and counter-evidence; there were doctors to feel the pulse and to
scrutinise the rigidity of the muscles, experts to propound scientific
ifs and buts, and wiseacres generally to put spokes in the wheel of
progress, as is their playful way, wherever they find that wheel
in motion. It was doubly satisfactory, then, that the good faith of
subject and mesmerist could be conclusively proved.

One of these séances led to a rather amusing incident. One night I
was awakened from first slumbers by a sharp ring at my bell, and when,
after some parleying, I opened the door, I found myself confronted
by two individuals. One I recognised as an "inquirer" who had been
brought to my rooms some time previously; the other was a lad I
had not seen before. The inquirer, I ascertained, having carefully
watched my _modus operandi_ on the occasion of his visit, had next
tried experiments of his own. In this instance he had succeeded in
mesmerising a lad, but had found it impossible to recall him to his
normal condition. So, securing him by a leather strap fastened round
his waist, he led him through the streets of Paris to my rooms.
There we both tried our powers upon him, the result being very
unsatisfactory. The youth, feeling himself freed from one operator and
not subjected by the other, refused allegiance to either, and, being
of a pugnacious temperament, he squared up and commenced striking
out at both of us. It was not without considerable difficulty that I
re-mesmerised him completely, and then, having previously prepared his
mind to account naturally for his presence in my rooms, I succeeded in
awakening him, and all ended happily. The inquirer was duly grateful,
the youth went home strapless and none the worse for the adventure,
and I proceeded to do some very sound sleeping on my own account.