on a fair estimate, men and women were about equally sensitive; and this
is the case with hypnotism generally. A further proof of the nature of
the attack.
With regard to rooms Nos. 1 and 2, the following curious fact is noted by
Miss Langton. "The knocks on the door between Nos. 1 and 2 have been
audible in this room; No. 2 in my experience only when No. 2 is empty;
and in No. 1 only when No. 2 is empty."[25] This looks as if attacks were
made from the opposite side of the house to make detection less easy,
especially by daylight. The maid-servants in the attics were often more
impressed than the people in the rooms below. This seems due to the
construction of the house; the attics are more approachable than the
rooms from the staircase. The electricity follows the track of a person
far better on a stair than on a ladder, it may be remarked. Thick walls,
high window-sills, a commanding position, and a murmuring brook, are
great securities against hypnotism, and these would be found in older
Scotch castles. Another element of safety, the purling brook, is here
mentioned; all noise is a good antidote; it is perhaps the case that with
hypnotism from a distance the hypnotic state is continually waxing and
waning, one link, generally a weaker one, succeeding another in the chain
of impressions on the temperament. The diminution being continual, the
force is renewed by people getting near enough to get a strong hold
again, otherwise it dies out.
[Footnote 25: "Alleged Haunting of B---- House," p. 169.]
These approaches were doubtless most dangerous on railway journeys;
hypnotism acts better in a small room than in a large one, and therefore
a person in a railway carriage is more affected. Here discomfort and
oppression helps hypnotism, but the hypnotist if in the train is in a
favourable position, as the distance is preserved very closely and need
not be very great.
Carriages are of the same size, and this is doubtless a help to the
operator. The frequency of phenomena being observed on the night of
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