Science not only accounts for a great deal, but has a great deal to account for. The other day M. Charcot publicly hypnotized a gendarme and then told him to assassinate M. Grevy, whom he would find in the corner of the garden. The poor constable went out and stabbed a tree with a paper knife, and came back trembling and confessed the murder. Such feats have been done in Leeds as well as Paris, and we know what is the power of the magnetizer. It has hitherto been one of the fairy tales of science, but now it is said to have added a new and terrible chapter to the records of crime. One waits for proof, but accusation is definite enough.
One malefactor, a French libertine, actually in the hands of the police, is said to have selected his victims, choosing those of an emotional temperament, and then to have magnetized them and ordered them to commit suicide. One poor girl did do so. Law and science are equally interested in the result of an investigation which, it is said, will very shortly be held. If the facts are proved, the question will arise whether the offence actually amounts to what the law recognizes as murder. If not, we certainly ought to have a new law, and we shall probably have a new word. "To suicide a person" seems a contradiction in terms.—
