The Spiritualist newspaper > No.318, September 27th 1878

Sept. 27, 1878.
THE SPIRITUALIST.
151
SPIRITUALISM IN PARIS.
(From our Special Correspondent.)
Paris, Tuesday.
During the past fortnight I have spent a considerable
portion of my time in seeing and hearing all I could of
Spiritualism and Spiritualists in Paris, and facilities for so
doing have been liberally offered me by various friends,
including the Count de Bullet, M. Leymarie, the Baron
Dupotet, and Dr. Locander.
Last Friday night some public experiments in mesmerism
were given at the Salle Philippe Herz by M. Donato, with
his psychical sensitive Mdlle. Lucie. The elegant and
richly-decorated hall presented a strong contrast to the great
majority of buildings used for public purposes in London ;
it was tolerably well filled on the occasion. I attended
with Mrs. Makdougall Gregory, the Baron Dupotet, and i
nine or ten new acquaintances, in whose minds an interest j
in psychic subjects had been awakened by Mrs. Gregory in
the course of conversations at a table d’hote. Some doctors
and some members of the French press took seats, at the
invitation of 11 Le Magnetiseur Donato,” upon seats at the
back of the platform, after which he invited the veteran
Spiritualist, the Baron Dupotet, to take the chair, and give
a short address to the listeners. At the conclusion of the
speech from the chair, which seemed to awaken a lively
interest among those present, M. Donato introduced Mdlle.
Lucie, a remarkably handsome young woman of perhaps
twenty years of age, dressed in a simple white robe, with a
white girdle round the waist, and with]loose hanging sleeves.
She was exceedingly sensitive to the mesmeric influence,
for M. Donato could send her into a somnambulic sleep by
merely gazing into her eyes for one minute from any dis¬
tance. When he made mesmeric passes behind her back
she evidently felt them, each motion of the hand making
her shake from head to foot.
The first experiment was of a repulsive nature, displeasing
to many of the observers, however interesting it may have
been to the French doctors. The mesmerist made the arm
of Mdlle. Lucie rigid, and made her stretch it out horizon¬
tally while she was in the mesmeric sleep. A long gold
shawl pin was then borrowed, and by invitation of M.
Donato, who assured them that Mdlle. Lucie was then in¬
sensitive to pain, the doctors ran the pin several times into
her arm just below the elbow, to the depth perhaps of half
an inch; but finally they ran it right through the arm ; the
distance between the place it entered and the place it came
out again was not less than three inches ; the centre of the
pin was then about one inch below the surface of the skin of
the arm. All this time the sensitive was rigid and im¬
movable ; not a muscle of her face moved. The mesmerist
then caused her to walk slowly up and down the hall, with
her bare arm extended, and the pin sticking through it, that
all might clearly see that the fact was beyond question, after
which he withdrew the pin, all covered with blood, from the
arm, and this repulsive part of the performance came to a
close. Fortunately there is not so very much pain in such
an operation even to persons in a waking state, for it is a
schoolboy freak to sometimes run a common pin, as far as it
will go, into the fleshy part of the arm; and one day I was
present when Sir John Lubbock hammered a pin into the
fleshy part of his leg, to show that certain acts which
appeared to be painful were not necessarily so. But not a
muscle of Mdlle. Lucie’s face moved during the whole of the
operations just described, her rigid and extended arm never
trembled, and the long shawl pin right through the arm was
an experiment on a larger scale than the others just men¬
tioned with short common pins.
He next made her open her eyes while in the mesmeric
sleep, but there was “ no speculation ” in them, and he
rivetted her gaze upon the eyes of a gentleman in the
audience, who was endowed with a comical face and some¬
what large organs of vision. She followed him up and down
the hall, twisting round him when he turned his head, in
order not to lose sight of his fascinating eyes, and when he
put his hand before his face the somnambulist knocked it
down with a sharp slap. He then proceeded to make hideous
grimaces at Mdlle. Lucie, who, however, gazed at him
fixedly with as sad an expression of countenance as a
penitent gazing at a statue of the Virgin. The observers
| were roaring with laughter, but the gravity of the sensitive
! was undisturbed.
The mesmerist next made her so deaf that on shouting
I close to her ear, almost loud enough to split the drum of it,
! she moved not a muscle. Next he either abnormally exalted
her powers of hearing, or rendered her truly clairaudient—
probably the latter. Some doctors stuffed her ears with
plenty of cotton wool, after which a handkerchief was tied
tightly over both her ears. Then when the mesmerist, at the
distance of two or three feet from her, whispered sentences
(given to him by the audience) in so low a tone that those
! close to his mouth could scarcely hear all he said, she heard
them, and repeated them verbatim. Two doctors suggested
that there might be collusion, so they were allowed to choose
their own sentence, and one of them to do the whispering
himself. Nevertheless Mdlle. Lucie repeated all he said,
and the doctor candidly admitted his satisfaction. Had the
body of the doctor been “ dead,” and himself out of the body
instead of in it, he might possibly have performed the same
experiment, and. through the mediumship of Mdlle. Lucie,
given utterances from the land of spirits to a disbelieving
world.
Last Saturday I called upon Mdlle. Huet, at 173, Rue St.
Honore. She bears the reputation of being a good rapping
medium, but no raps were heard at the seance which then
took place. The other sitters present were Dr. Kennedy, an
American Spiritualist, and Mr. Lacroix, a Spiritualist from
Canada. By tiltings of the table the following message
was given :—u I am an old friend of Cogmaris. Cogman
and his wife are with me.” I remarked that there appeared
to be some mistake, for Mrs. Cogman was still living in the
body. Another influence then came, and on the name of the
communicant being asked, the following answer was given :
u Cogman. I was a medium. The sister of Mrs. Williams is
with me ; she is a victim of the u Princess Alice.” Her hus¬
band also is a victim; his name is Smith.” I knew nothing
of the facts stated in this message, and did not know that
Mr. and Mrs. Williams had relatives of the name of Smith.
All present, including the medium, testified that they had
,, i been in equal ignorance, and at the time that I send this to
| j press I do not know whether the statements in the message
| | are true or false. Mdlle. Huet has a feeble smattering of
| | the English language, and the message is in far better
| i English than she can put together. It was given with some
| | determination, that is to say, no attention was paid by the
| i communicating intelligence to various questions put in
I | English and French during the signalling of the message,
| | but at the close off such interruptions, the communication
began again at the point at which it had been broken off.
I Mdlle. Huet seemed not to know what the message was or
to feel any interest in what was coming, but directly a
message began to come in French through her mediumship
| she was all attention and animation.
In reply to leading questions, whereby the trustworthiness
of the communication must be lessened, it was asserted :—
j \ “ Mr. Williams is in the spirit world. Spirits are using fiis
I | body without his consent, and he often does not like what they
| (I are doing with it; yet they are good spirits.”
Mr. Alexander Calder, President of the British National
j | Association of Spiritualists, is here, and has made the
I I personal acquaintance of M. Leymarie, whom he once tried
j j to aid when unjustly attacked at law by people ignorant of
I | psychical subjects. Mr. Calder has strong claims upon the
| | attention of the French Government, because he once
I ! relieved and entertained all the officers and men of a ship-
| | wrecked French line-of-battle ship in China, and sent them
| I back safely to their native country. For this he received the
I | Cross of the Legion of Honour.
Mr. F. A. Binney, solicitor, of 24, St. Ann’s-square,
j j Manchester, one of the members of the Council of the
| I British National Association of Spiritualists, has sent me a
| | prospectus of his proposed 11 English Peasant Farm Associa-
|;| tion, Limited.” Of the commercial aspects of his scheme I
|j| know nothing, and am not competent to express an opinion,
|j| but of the merit of its religious and social aspect I am
||| certain. Spiritualism teaches that the body and soul are
I I connected by processes governed by natural law, that they
ij | act and react upon each other, hence that the proper culti-
''i vation of the body exercises a beneficial influence on the