Read "The Hypnotist" by Andrew Barton Paterson online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
A man once read with a mind surprised / Of the way that people were "hypnotised"; / By waving of hands you produced, forsooth, / A kind of trance where men told the truth! / His mind was filled with wond'ring doubt; / He grabbed his hat and he started out, / He walked the street and he made a "set" / At the first half-dozen folk he met. / He "tranced" them all, and without a joke / 'Twas much as follows the subjects spoke: First Man
-"I am a doctor, London-made, / Listen to me and you'll hear displayed / A few of the tricks of the doctor's trade. / 'Twill sometimes chance when a patient's ill / That a dose, or draught, or a lightning pill, / A little too strong or a little too hot, / Will work its way to a vital spot. / And then I watch with a sickly grin / While the patient 'passes his counters in'. / But when he has gone with his fleeting breath / I certify that the cause of death / Was something Latin, and something long, / And who is to say that the doctor's wrong! / So I go my way with a stately tread / While my patients sleep with the dreamless dead."