The Great Keinplatz Experiment

Of all the sciences which have puzzled the sons of men, none had
such an attraction for the learned Professor von Baumgarten as
those which relate to psychology and the ill-defined relations
between mind and matter. A celebrated anatomist, a profound
chemist, and one of the first physiologists in Europe, it was a
relief for him to turn from these subjects and to bring his varied
knowledge to bear upon the study of the soul and the mysterious
relationship of spirits. At first, when as a young man he began to
dip into the secrets of mesmerism, his mind seemed to be wandering
in a strange land where all was chaos and darkness, save that here
and there some great unexplainable and disconnected fact loomed out
in front of him. As the years passed, however, and as the worthy
Professor's stock of knowledge increased, for knowledge begets
knowledge as money bears interest, much which had seemed strange
and unaccountable began to take another shape in his eyes. New
trains of reasoning became familiar to him, and he perceived
connecting links where all had been incomprehensible and startling.

By experiments which extended over twenty years, he obtained a
basis of facts upon which it was his ambition to build up a new
exact science which should embrace mesmerism, spiritualism,
and all cognate subjects. In this he was much helped by his
intimate knowledge of the more intricate parts of animal physiology
which treat of nerve currents and the working of the brain; for
Alexis von Baumgarten was Regius Professor of Physiology at the
University of Keinplatz, and had all the resources of the
laboratory to aid him in his profound researches.

Professor von Baumgarten was tall and thin, with a hatchet face and
steel-grey eyes, which were singularly bright and penetrating.
Much thought had furrowed his forehead and contracted his heavy
eyebrows, so that he appeared to wear a perpetual frown, which
often misled people as to his character, for though austere he was
tender-hearted. He was popular among the students, who would
gather round him after his lectures and listen eagerly to his
strange theories. Often he would call for volunteers from amongst
them in order to conduct some experiment, so that eventually there
was hardly a lad in the class who had not, at one time or another,
been thrown into a mesmeric trance by his Professor.

Of all these young devotees of science there was none who equalled
in enthusiasm Fritz von Hartmann. It had often seemed strange to
his fellow-students that wild, reckless Fritz, as dashing a young
fellow as ever hailed from the Rhinelands, should devote the time
and trouble which he did in reading up abstruse works and in
assisting the Professor in his strange experiments. The