TREATMENT BY 
 HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
TREATMENT BY 
 YPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 OR 
 
 PSYCHO-THERAPEUTICS 
 
 C. LLOYD TUCKEY, M.D. Aberd. 
 
 lEMBRE FONDATEUR DE LA SOCIETY d'hYPNOLOGIE ; HONORAKV MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN 
 
 SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY AND CURE OF INEBRIETY ; FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE 
 
 PSYCHO-MEDICAL. SOCIETY 
 
 Sijt[3 BDltion, 1Revise& aiiD BnlargeJ? 
 
 riTH A FOREWORD BY SIR FRANCIS R. CRUISE, M. D. , D.L., K.S.G., HONORARY 
 
 PHYSICIAN TO THE KING IN IRELAND ; AND A CHAPTER ON PROFESSOR 
 
 FREDD's THEORIES AND TREATMENT BY PSYCHO-ANALYSIS, 
 
 BY DR. CONSTANCE LONG, PRESIDENT OF THE 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF REGISTERED MEDICAL 
 
 WOMEN, igiI-1913 
 
 LONDON 
 BAILLIERE. TINDALL AND COX 
 
 8, HENRIETTA STREET. COVENT GARDEN 
 
 1913 
 
 [All ligliis resciiiid] 
 
78 
 
 BIOL-UB. 
 
TO THE MEMORY OF 
 
 DR. LIEBEAULT, 
 
 OF NANCY, 
 
 IN ADMIRATION OF HIS GENIUS, 
 
 THIS BOOK, 
 
 THE OUTCOME OF HIS TEACHING, 
 
 IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED 
 
 3f]39iS 
 
PREFACE TO THE SIXTH EDITION 
 
 The fifth edition being exhausted, I have prepared a sixth 
 and probably final one. During the six years which have 
 elapsed since the last edition steady progress has been made 
 in the spread of professional interest in psycho-therapy. 
 Many misconceptions have been swept away, and the 
 practice of hypnotism has become widespread, respectable, 
 and almost humdrum. From it has arisen a new form of 
 psycho-therapy, introduced by Professor Sigismund Freud, 
 of Vienna — Psycho-analysis. I am convinced of the great 
 importance of this form of treatment, and it may take the 
 place of hypnotic suggestion in many obscure and baffling 
 cases, but there is room for both and, I think, for their 
 combination. 
 
 I have been fortunate in obtaining the collaboration of 
 Dr. Constance Long, who has made an attentive study of 
 Freud's theories, and has considerable experience of their 
 practical application. 
 
 The chief events concerning us since the last edition are : 
 The lamented death of Sir Francis Cruise, ever our stanch 
 supporter ; the growth of the Psycho-Medical Society, the 
 foundation of which was alluded to in the last edition, and 
 which now numbers over a hundred and fifty members, 
 under the presidency of Dr. T. W. Mitchell, with Dr. 
 Douglas Bryan, of Leicester, as Hon. Secretary ; the 
 establishment of clinics in London and Liverpool for 
 
viii PREFACE TO THE SIXTH EDITION 
 
 the treatment of necessitous patients and the instruction 
 of medical inquirers. 
 
 I have made a good many alterations in this edition, 
 eliminating and curtailing much which has become com- 
 monplace knowledge, and adding a good deal of matter 
 drawn from my personal experience of thirty years' 
 practice of hypnotism. The book has, always had one 
 object in view : To arouse an interest in the mind of the 
 general practitioner in the study of psycho-therapy, and 
 induce him to use it in his own and his patients' interests. 
 
 Kindly acknowledgments from hundreds of medical 
 men from all parts of the world afford gratifying proof of 
 the attainment of this purpose. 
 
 My thanks are due to Dr. Dalrymple Marriner for 
 kindly correcting proofs and other help. 
 
 C. L. T. 
 
 47, Upper Brook Street, 
 London, W. 
 
 October, 1913. 
 
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 
 
 In bringing forward this little book on Treatment by 
 Suggestion, I feel that, though I must crave indulgence 
 for the shortcomings of the writer, no apology is necessary 
 for introducing so important a subject. 
 
 The Nancy treatment has during the last few years 
 attracted so much interest among men of science and 
 members of the medical profession on the Continent, that it 
 seems strange the knowledge of it in this country is almost 
 entirely theoretical. The system of psycho-therapeutics has 
 so far attained its fullest development in Holland, where 
 in every large town it is followed by at least one well- 
 qualified practitioner ; while in Germany, Russia, Sweden, 
 and, indeed, every European country, its position is secured 
 by the support of leading physicians, and by the success 
 attending their practice. In every country, I believe, the 
 introduction of the system was at first opposed by persons 
 who feared the popularization of so potent an agent ; but 
 as the beneficial results of the treatment became manifest 
 opposition decreased, and has now almost died out. This 
 is doubtless due chiefly to the fact that the treatment has 
 not been allowed to fall into the hands of ignorant and 
 unqualified practitioners, but has been accepted by men of 
 high character and professional repute. The dangers of 
 hypnotism have been proved chimerical : in proper hands 
 no undesirable medical results can occur through its 
 practice, and there is, I believe, hardly one authenticated 
 case of its being used for a criminal purpose in the countries 
 where it is most frequently employed by medical men. 
 
X PRE FA CE 
 
 More than this can hardly be said for any system of 
 medical treatment. 
 
 But while maintaining that hypnotism has been very 
 little used for criminal purposes, we should be foolish to 
 blink the fact that it mi'^ht conceivably, under certain 
 circumstances, be a dangerous weapon in unprincipled 
 hands, and that its injudicious use might lead to physical 
 and mental ills ; but such evil results are in a very great 
 measure preventable. Wherever hypnotism has been 
 largely adopted as a valuable aid in the treatment of 
 disease, its importance has been formally recognized, and 
 its employment by charlatans, either as a toy at public 
 exhibitions, or in unauthorized medical practice, has been 
 prohibited by law. 
 
 Medical electricity is only now emerging from the limbo 
 of quackery, because for years the medical profession 
 allowed it to be exploited by ' professors,' who used it as 
 a universal remedy in all cases, suitable and unsuitable. 
 The Nancy system has been successful on the Continent 
 because it is practised there by qualified physicians and 
 surgeons, whose knowledge and experience has taught 
 them where the treatment would be likely to succeed, and 
 where it would prove ineffectual. I here advocate its use 
 not as a universal remed}- or as a supplarrter of ordinary 
 medical treatment, but as a powerful auxiliary in combating 
 many forms of disease not readily reached by other 
 means. 
 
 C. L. T. 
 
 LONDOX, 
 
 January i, 1889. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 By Sir FRANCIS R. CRUISE, M.D. 
 
 Dr. Charles Lloyd Tuckey asks me to write a short 
 introductory chapter to the fifth edition of his truly 
 monumental work on * Psycho-Therapeutics, or Treatment 
 by Hypnotism and Suggestion.' I do so with great 
 pleasure, although I know it is quite needless. His work 
 treats the subject so fully and satisfactorily I feel that any 
 addition of mine is really out of place. 
 
 I believe the best course I can adopt is to tell the story 
 of how I came to study hypnotism, to believe in it, and 
 to practise it, as 1 do in all cases which appear to me 
 suitable. 
 
 In the latter part of the eighties I read a great deal on 
 the subject, mainly owing to the advice of a friend, a very 
 learned clergyman, who was interested by the startling 
 psychological problems it involves touching questions of 
 moral responsibility. My studies included the works of 
 Dr. Lloyd Tuckey, Drs. Liebeault, Bernheim, Fontan, 
 Segard, Moll, and others; and ultimately I was led to 
 the conclusion that the statements made concerning 
 hypnotism were either astounding facts, quite unknown 
 to me, or most audacious falsehoods. 
 
 Being determined to set my mind at rest, I proceeded 
 to Nancy in June, 1890, and placed myself under the 
 tuition of Drs. Liebeault and Bernheim. Later I came 
 to Paris, and there followed the clinical instruction of 
 Dr. Luys at the Charite, Dr. Auguste Voisin, and Dr. 
 Guinon, Chef de Clinique of M. Charcot at the Salpe- 
 
xii FOREWORD 
 
 triere. Later I studied with M. Berillon at his dispen- 
 sary in Rue des Beaux-Arts. I may now state definite!}- 
 that after this somewhat extended, and I hope unpre- 
 judiced study, I arrived at the conclusion that hypnotism 
 is a marvellous reality — a most extraordinary and interest- 
 ing development of neurological and psychological science, 
 and in certain cases a potent aid in therapeutics. 
 
 I ma}' add that, while striving to be open-minded, my 
 original inclination was adverse to hypnotism. However, 
 I trust that there are exceptions to Herbert Spencer's 
 dictum that ' where prejudices exist the most obvious 
 facts avail nothing,' and that I may claim to be one of 
 the exceptions. Sir William Crookes's advice should be 
 treasured — namely, * to keep our minds, like the windows 
 of a lodging-house, with a notice written thereon, " Rooms 
 to let." ' 
 
 I do not intend here to enter upon any full account of 
 the history of hypnotism. Such may be found in all the 
 standard treatises bearing upon the subject. Suffice it to 
 say that, while known and practised, after a fashion, in 
 very ancient times, animal magnetism, so called, was pro- 
 minently revived by Mesmer, who flourished at the end 
 of the seventeenth and commencement of the eighteenth 
 centuries. Later — some sixty or more years ago — Mr. 
 Braid, a Manchester surgeon, reintroduced it, and showed 
 how it might be made practically useful in medicine. 
 Braid has the merit of foreshadowing its true application 
 by combining with mesmeric sleep the manipulation of 
 the diseased parts — the first attempt to use suggestion with 
 artificial sleep. Still later, hypnotism was again brought 
 to the front by Dr. Ambroise Liebeault, of Nancy, to 
 whom we are indebted for its present position and for its 
 establishment on a solid basis of usefulness, by its con- 
 junction with systematic verbal suggestion. Now we see in 
 hypnotism no longer a medical curiosity, but the applica- 
 tion of suggestion during 'provoked sleep.' 
 
 I think I cannot do better than relate here M. Li6- 
 beault's story, as I heard it from himself, of how he came 
 
FOREWORD xiii 
 
 to combine hypnotism with suggestion, and thereby to 
 revolutionize the treatment of a large class of ailments. 
 M. Liebeault told me that as a young practitioner he was 
 often forcibly struck by the potent effect on patients which 
 he observed to follow the physician's expression of a de- 
 cided opinion, favourable or the reverse. This he rightly 
 attributed to the power of the mind and nervous system 
 upon the physical condition. None of us is ignorant of 
 it. Oftentimes we see patients sink from fright, while 
 others are saved, because they are courageous and deter- 
 mined to recover if they can. Pondering over this problem, 
 Liebeault came to seek in what way he could apply sugges- 
 tion of cure with the utmost possible advantage. 
 
 After many trials, he discovered that in ' induced sleep ' 
 — hypnosis, in other words — when the personality of the 
 subject is partially or almost completely extinguished, and 
 the imagination set free, suggestion becomes infinitely 
 more powerful than in the waking state. This was Lie- 
 beault's point of departure — this is the essence of modern 
 hypnotism. 
 
 A careful study of his remarkable essay, ' Le Sommeil 
 Provoque,' published in i88g, will well repay study. In 
 it he summarizes the result of all his published contribu- 
 tions to the subject, which date back to the year iS68. 
 
 Despite ridicule and neglect, Liebeault, with the 
 earnestness of a true scientist and the disinterested de- 
 votion of his compatriots, worked and worked, until he 
 proved to all candid observers that he had struck upon 
 a mine of wealth in therapeutics, and his method came 
 to be tested and adopted by numbers in France and else- 
 where. 
 
 His first distinguished pupil — Dr. Henri Bernheim, 
 Physician to the Hopital Civil at Nancy and Professor 
 of the Faculty of Medicine there — took the matter up, 
 and utilized his vast field of observation. The result of 
 his labours is embodied in his exhaustive work, ' De la 
 Suggestion et de ses Applications a la Therapeutique,' 
 published in 1888, and also in a later essay, dated 189 1. 
 
xiv FORE WORD 
 
 The study and practice of hypnotism has gradually spread 
 in France and elsewhere, and now reckons amongst its 
 advocates many illustrious names in France, Belgium, 
 Holland, Swit-^erland, Russia, America, England, and 
 elsewhere. 
 
 To proceed. Let us suppose ourselves in M. Lie- 
 beault's consulting rooms — dispensary, in fact — in the 
 Rue Bellevue at Nancy. From seven in the morning 
 till noon he worked. He was a remarkably bright, in- 
 telligent old gentleman — simple, kindly in manner, and 
 sympathetic with all his patients, who streamed in to seek 
 his aid, mostly when all other means of cure had failed. 
 
 There were to be seen countless phases of disease, 
 affecting men and women of all ages and many children. 
 His procedure was as follows: He placed the patients in 
 turn in an easy reclining chair, with their backs to the 
 light, questioned them closely as to their symptoms and 
 sufferings, and then forthwith hypnotized them. His 
 method was to make the subject stare at two of his 
 fingers, which he placed a few inches from their eyes, 
 and as soon as the eyes began to water and the pupils 
 to dilate he suggested ' sleep ' in an emphatic manner, and 
 then closed the eyelids, gently pressing the eyeballs. In 
 nearly every case, sooner or later, the patients passed into 
 sleep — of very varying degree, no doubt ; but to all he 
 suggested verbally that on awakening their symptoms would 
 be improved; at the same time he rubbed strongly the 
 seat of disease. In ten minutes or less he awakened 
 them by fanning the face, and when they were aroused 
 all stated that their symptoms were improved, and they 
 went their way, returning in one or more days, as M. Lie- 
 beault directed. I had the opportunity of interrogating 
 these patients, and found that all had the same story to 
 tell — namely, that after Dr. Liebeault's treatment — short 
 or long, as he required — they were either cured or re- 
 lieved. Many of the cases were incurable, and relief 
 only was possible ; in others the cure was averred to be 
 complete. 
 
FOREWORD XV 
 
 Evidently suggestion thus used was potent for thera- 
 peutics. Such was my experience of M. Li6beault's 
 cHnique at the Rue Bellevue. I am very glad I saw his 
 practice, which I can never forget or fail to appreciate for 
 its high value and deep interest. The only criticism I 
 would venture to make is that he appeared to me to rely 
 too completely on suggestion under hypnotic sleep in the 
 treatment of disease, and but rarely sought any aid from 
 our vast medical armamentarium. I shall not attempt to 
 theorize or offer any explanation of his extraordinary 
 results. I have long ago arrived at that period of mental 
 development — for good or ill — at which I have ceased to 
 attempt explanation. If a body falls to earth I call it, as 
 I have been taught, gravitation. That word expresses a 
 fact, but explains nothing. I know that quinine lowers 
 temperature and cures some neuralgias, that aloes purges, 
 and that opium checks the purging. Of the why and 
 wherefore I know nothing. So I also must acknowledge 
 the power of suggestion in hypnosis. 
 
 If I must theorize on this point I would do so by 
 analogy. Quinine alters the circulation in the brain and 
 nervous system, and thus, I presume, alters the condition 
 of the brain, which is necessary for the sensation of pain. 
 May it not be so of hypnosis ? Obviously, this theory 
 merely puts back the difficulty a stage. Explanation 
 there is none, no more than of the countless processes of 
 physical science which we see pass before us daily. It 
 seems to me more profitable, with our present means of 
 knowledge, to observe and treasure up facts, especially 
 when they help us to cure or relieve disease. 
 
 Behind all physical phenomena is the Almighty Power 
 that works and directs them, and teaches us — if we are 
 wise — how little we know beyond mere ultimate facts and 
 the generalization therefrom. I think it was the late Duke 
 of Argyll who said : ' Nature, properly interrogated, tells us 
 much of how, when, and where ; but when asked why, she 
 is silent.' 
 
 Now let me bring my reader to visit M. Bernheim at 
 
xvi FOREWORD 
 
 the Hopital Civil. He is one of the most trusted and 
 prominent medical men in Nancy, and physician to the 
 great hospital of that city. At first he was an absolute 
 sceptic regarding hypnotism and suggestion, but was in- 
 duced to try it after seeing the strange and unexpected 
 cures worked by his friend Li^beault. After some ten 
 thousand experiments he became a firm believer in it, 
 especially in certain cases, and he uses it on a large scale. 
 His practice differs from that of Li^beault in this : that 
 he merely adds hypnotism and suggestion — the latter 
 especially — as an adjunct to other therapeutic agencies. 
 
 Let us follow him during the visit to his huge wards, 
 filled with every possible form of malady. He treats 
 disease as we physicians all do. For pneumonia he pre- 
 scribes quinine and poultices ; for rheumatism, the sali- 
 cylates ; for phthisis, cod-liver oil and phosphates, and so 
 on. But for many cases, if he thinks it desirable, he adds 
 hypnotism and suggestion. To the sleepless pneumonic 
 patient, to whom he dares not give opium, he administers 
 hypnotism and suggestion of sleep. The patient generally 
 responds and sleeps. The rheumatic patient finds relief 
 of his pains, the phthisical of his cough, and other dis- 
 tressing symptoms. 
 
 In dealing with patients whose ailments are essentially 
 neurotic he relies mainly on hypnotism. By it he rapidly 
 cures their neuralgias, functional paralysis, hysterical 
 crisis, writer's cramp, insomnia, etc. ; lessens and post- 
 pones, and sometimes cures, epileptic convulsions and 
 other analogous troubles. Of these effects I speak as an 
 eye-witness. 
 
 With dipsomaniacs he suggests the horror of stimu- 
 lants, and in a large proportion of cases when they 
 awaken there remains a dislike of what previousl}' had 
 been their absorbing passion. My subsequent experience 
 leads me to the opinion that when the patient is really 
 anxious to be cured of dipsomania, and when the sur- 
 roundings are good and helpful, hypnotism is most useful. 
 My friend Dr. J. J. Murphy can bear me out as regards 
 
FOREWORD xvii 
 
 one striking cure under our care. In many other vicious 
 habits, respecting which it is too common with physicians 
 to overlook the physical element, like good results are 
 obtainable. In certain mental failures remarkable cures 
 are . obtained. Some years ago I succeeded after three 
 months' treatment in curing a bad case of kleptomania in 
 a youth. Dr. Lloyd Tuckey gives a similar one at p. 328 
 of this work, and Dr. Berillon records another in the 
 number of the Revue de VHypnotisme of December, 1906. 
 
 M. Bernheim does not for a moment pretend that 
 hypnotism can cure organic diseases, such as cancer, 
 phthisis, paralysis from cerebral effusion, with destruction 
 of motor centres ; but even in such cases it often relieves 
 the most distressing symptoms. I have myself seen it 
 relieve pain in hopeless cancerous disease. The special 
 field for treatment by hypnotism is non-organic functional 
 disease, and we all know how rebellious ailments of that 
 nature are to ordinary medication. Strange as this may 
 appear at first sight, a little reflection prepares us to 
 understand the fact. We know how remarkably diges- 
 tion, assimilation, and nutrition are influenced by mental 
 conditions. Should not this prepare us for much more ? 
 ^i Like the late Dr. Liebeault, Dr. Bernheim is delighted 
 to see visitors, and is most attentive to them. After a 
 short time he taught me how to hypnotize, and allowed 
 me to operate on his patients before the class. I soon 
 made the observation, which I confirmed later in Paris, 
 that operators vary a great deal in their power. Some 
 succeed at once, others more slowly, and a few fail alto- 
 gether. Patience, kindness, and a firm will appear indis- 
 pensable. 
 
 It would be impossible in the short space at my dis- 
 posal to describe even a fraction of the cases I saw and 
 noted in Bernheim's wards during my stay at Nancy. I 
 shall only give some details of a few. The first I shall 
 select exemplifies the power of relieving distressing symp- 
 toms in a case of organic disease, and, moreover, illus- 
 trates that very curious state known as somnambulism, 
 
 b 
 
xviii FOREWORD 
 
 or the deepest degree of induced sleep. The patient was 
 a man aged forty-two, a soldier discharged from the army 
 owing to disease of the aortic valves, or, as M. Bernheim 
 correctly termed it, ' la maladie de Corrigan.' The ail- 
 ment was not far advanced, and the patient's troubles 
 were mainly insomnia and dyspnoea. Hypnotism, with 
 suggestion of sleep and facility of respiration, gave marked 
 relief, and was repeated whenever the effect wore off. 
 One day M. Bernheim said to me : ' I will now show you 
 a real hypnotic somnambulist.' The patient having been 
 hypnotized, M. Bernheim suggested to him as follows : 
 ' Sleep for ten minutes, then get up, walk across the ward 
 to No. 15, take the nightcap of the patient there, place it 
 under your own pillow, then open the window, and you 
 will hear music' 
 
 We left the man sleeping. In just ten minutes he 
 arose, crossed the ward slowly and carefully, his eyes 
 being closed, took the nightcap from bed No. 15, brought 
 it over and placed it under his own pillow. He then 
 went to the window, threw it open, and leant out. His 
 face expressed keen delight, and he remained standing 
 until M, Bernheim woke him by blowing on his eyelids. 
 When questioned about the nightcap he was astonished, 
 knew nothing about it ; and when asked ^why he stood 
 at the open window, replied : ' I thought I was back with 
 my regiment, and that the band was playing.' His sleep 
 being of the deepest kind — somnambulistic, in fact — he 
 had not the faintest recollection of the suggestion which 
 caused him to go through the evolutions described. This 
 was one of many similar cases I saw in the services of 
 Drs. Bernheim and Liebeault. 
 
 I shall now recount the cure of a fi.xed neuralgia of 
 long duration accomplished by suggestion under hyp- 
 notism. 
 
 One morning while on his rounds M. Bernheim found 
 a new patient just received into hospital. He was a 
 bronzed, weather-beaten man about fifty years of age — 
 a workman in one of the iron foundries which abound 
 
FOREWORD xix 
 
 near Nancy. He complained of a fixed pain in the region 
 of the right false ribs, just over the liver. This pain came 
 on suddenly about a year before, while he was making 
 great exertion in lifting a heavy bar of iron. It was 
 constant, disabling him from working, undermining his 
 health, and reducing him to poverty. He had undergone 
 much treatment, and the affected region bore evidence of 
 severe counter-irritation in the cicatrices caused by the 
 - actual cautery, of which our French brethren are fond. 
 The whole side was so tender that he could barely allow 
 us to examine it. 
 
 M. Bernheim said to me across the bed : ' I am glad 
 you are here to-day. This is a case in which I expect a 
 very good result from hypnotism.' He then hypnotized 
 the patient, and suggested that on awaking the pain would 
 be better, and at the same time rubbed strongly over the 
 affected parts. In ten minutes he returned and awakened 
 the patient. The pain was gone ! The side was so 
 insensible that vigorous palpation elicited no complaint. 
 This patient was a deep sleeper, or somnambulist. He 
 had no recollection of having even seen M. Bernheim 
 or me. 
 
 I asked M. Bernheim what explanation he could offer 
 of such a marvellous result. He replied : * I can give 
 none satisfactory. If I must propose any I would say 
 that, as the pain was felt in the brain, the cauteries, etc., 
 merely fixed it there, and that hypnotism has so altered 
 the cerebral condition that sensibility is lost.' I had the 
 opportunity of watching the progress of the case. The 
 pain returned in the evening, but greatly mitigated. A 
 daily repetition of hypnotism gradually extinguished it, 
 and in nine days it was completely gone. 
 
 All this sounds like a fairy-tale. However, I was able 
 not long after to relieve by hypnotism and suggestion an 
 almost identical neuralgia of long duration in a young 
 girl, which had resisted all other treatment. As in 
 M. Bernheim's case, the pain returned in a mitigated 
 form ; but after five repetitions of the hypnosis and 
 
XX FOREWORD 
 
 suggestion a full week's relief ensued, and the girl went 
 home. This patient was in the Mater Misericordiae 
 Hospital, under the care of my colleague, Dr. Joseph 
 Redmond, now President of the Royal College of 
 Physicians in Ireland. He can bear me out in what I 
 state. The cure has been permanent. This is one of the 
 many successes I have had. Dr. Charles Fitzgerald tells 
 me he has cured by hypnotism and suggestion a case of 
 tinnitus aurium when all other treatment failed. Drs. 
 Richard Hayes, McCullagh, and J. J. Murphy have also 
 had some remarkable results. 
 
 Thus far I have drawn a very imperfect sketch of what 
 I saw at Nancy with Drs. Li^beault and Bernheim, and 
 I must now leave them. When parting, M. Bernheim 
 gave me a few words of advice, kindly and emphatic. 
 He said that he had taught me all he could within the 
 limits of my visit, and that he could teach me no more 
 unless I remained with him for three or four months. 
 ' You must now learn,' he said, ' the rest by your own 
 experience. Remember, above all, that suggestion is the 
 basis of the new departure. You must learn to dominate 
 by your will-power those whom you treat. When you 
 can hypnotize them (and with perseverance you can do 
 so with much the greater number) your capacity to benefit 
 your patients will grow proportionately.' 
 
 I not only believe him, but have found untold value in 
 his instructions, and also the solution of much that was 
 previously quite inexplicable. The present is no fit place 
 to dilate upon his idea, but I cannot avoid hinting that it 
 elucidates much that has been hitherto mysterious. For 
 example, the effects of metallo-therapy, homoeopathy, 
 electro-homceopathy, 'faith cure,' and so forth. I now 
 believe that suggestion, plus receptivity, is the foundation 
 of all. 
 
 I regret that from want of space I dare not attempt 
 here to open up the wide field of deeply interesting study 
 offered by the marvellous effects of suggestion, auto- 
 suggestion, hypnotic and post-hypnotic suggestion. The 
 
FOREWORD xxi 
 
 more I have studied these problems, the more convinced 
 I have become that at present we are quite unable to 
 define the power and limits of suggestion, both in medicine 
 and outside of it. 
 
 From Nancy I betook myself to Paris, and there 
 followed the clinical teaching of Drs. Luys, Auguste 
 Voisin, Guinon, and Berillon. I found each most in- 
 structive in its special line, and particularly that of 
 Dr. Berillon. 
 
 But it is time for me to close this little introduction to 
 Dr. Lloyd Tuckey's work. I must not trespass on the 
 reader's patience by details of all I witnessed in Paris. 
 Those who wish can see them in a paper I read before 
 the Medical Section of the Royal Academy of Medicine 
 in Ireland, April 17, 1891, and which was published in 
 the Dublin Journal of Medical Science, May i, i8gi. 
 
 On my return home after my studies in Nancy and 
 Paris, and ever since, I have practised hypnotism in the 
 cases which appeared to me suitable, and in a large pro- 
 portion of them with most satisfactory results. I have 
 already mentioned my success in a bad case of dipso- 
 mania, in conjunction with Dr. J. J. Murphy. This is 
 only one of many. I have also referred to the remark- 
 able cure of kleptomania in a schoolboy, and of a fixed 
 neuralgia of some standing. I have succeeded also 
 in many cases of insomnia ; in the correction of various 
 bad habits ; in cases of nerve crises, such as fear of 
 crowds, and so forth ; also in various cases of nerve 
 troubles, physical and mental, and m the relief of pain, 
 even when due to organic disease. In one case I suc- 
 ceeded in curing a surgeon of a nervous condition which 
 disabled him from operating. This patient was sent to 
 me by a medical friend of his who had failed to cure him 
 by drugs. The cure has been perfect and permanent. 
 In a case of diabetes I found marked reduction of the 
 excretion of urine and sugar follow hypnotism and sug- 
 gestion. Doubtless this was a case in which the neurotic 
 element predominated. In two cases of somnambulism 
 
xxii FOREWORD 
 
 the effect was striking : one was completely and per- 
 manently cured ; the other is under treatment still, and 
 remarkably improved, though it is of very old standing. 
 
 As already stated, I have practised hypnotism since 
 1891, adopting M. Bernheim's doctrine that it is the duty 
 of a physician to do all in his power to cure his patient 
 (see p. 131 of this work). If he understands hypnotism, 
 he will meet many cases m which it is invaluable. It 
 has often struck me that most successful physicians 
 practise hypnotism — at least, that element included under 
 the term * suggestion ' — unconsciously. When I was ver}- 
 young, I frequently met two great Irish physicians, who 
 used to impress on me the importance of a cheerful, con- 
 fident manner, and I recollect one of them saying to me : 
 ' Remember that to inspire a patient with hope and con- 
 fidence is as valuable a stimulus towards recovery as half 
 the drugs in the Pharmacopoeia.' Now that I am old, I 
 understand how right and wise he was. This was treat- 
 ment by suggestion. 
 
 When I read the paper mentioned before the Ro}al 
 Academy of Medicine in Ireland, I was earnestly and 
 kindly warned to abandon a dangerous subject, and the 
 example was held up of a great London physician who, 
 years ago, met his ruin by espousing the kindred subject 
 of mesmerism. However, I felt no misgiving. I had 
 learned a new means of treating a class of disease quite 
 beyond the reach of drugs, and I refused to give it up. I had 
 no interest or purpose to serve, save truth and the relief 
 of suffering. I have had no reason to regret my decision. 
 So far from injuring me, the result has been exactly the 
 reverse. The modern mind has expanded with the 
 advance of science, and, although conservative and slow, 
 has outlived many prejudices. If my time permitted me, 
 I would practise hypnotism far more freely than I am now 
 able to do. 
 
 We are upbraided occasionally by weak-minded folk 
 who say that hypnotism is sometimes allied with quackery 
 and charlatanism. Be it so. It is all the more the 
 special duty of the physician to rescue it from such evil 
 
FOREWORD xxiii 
 
 surroundings, and to place it in its true position. As we 
 make it, so it shall be. 
 
 It may be well now to consider the objections which are 
 occasionall}^ raised against hypnotism. 
 
 These may be classified as — 
 
 (a) Those of a physical nature, and 
 
 (b) Those based on moral grounds. 
 
 (a) As regards the former, we have the evidence of 
 experts of large experience, such as Liebeault, Bernheim, 
 Forel, Voisin, and others, and they assure us that such 
 objections are groundless. If accidents have arisen, it 
 was only in the hands of unskilled non-medical operators. 
 So far as I am aware no case has been recorded of injury 
 to a patient's health where hypnotism was used by a 
 skilled physician. 
 
 (6) Passing on to the objections which may be urged 
 against hypnotism upon the score of morality, I feel that 
 I tread upon delicate ground. There is no doubt that it 
 is a very serious matter to submit our free-will to the 
 domination of another, and, as it were, to confide ourselves 
 into his hands. Nevertheless, we freely consent without 
 hesitation to do this every day when we take anaesthetics, 
 such as chloroform, ether, methylene, or nitrous oxide 
 gas. The reason we do not shrink is because we always 
 make sure to entrust ourselves to those in whom we 
 have full confidence. Why should not the same precau- 
 tion justify us in submitting ourselves or our patients to 
 hypnotism ? 
 
 Even granting, which I do, that the surrender of will 
 and action in hypnosis is greater than in the case of 
 ordinary anaesthetics, the decision must be similar, and is 
 summed up in the sentence, ' Take great care whom you 
 allow to hypnotize you.' 
 
 Bernheim lays down three rules which seem to include 
 all needful precaution on the part of the hypnotizer. Let 
 me quote them : 
 
 I. Never hypnotize any subject without his or her 
 formal consent, or the consent of those in 
 authority over him or her. 
 
xxiv FOREWORD 
 
 2. Never induce sleep except in the presence of a third 
 
 party. Thus any accusation or trouble may be 
 avoided. 
 
 3. Never make any suggestions to the hypnotized subject 
 
 except those necessary for cure. 
 
 It seems to me that the ver}- dangers which might arise 
 by the use of hypnotism in evil hands should impel all 
 physicians who naturally wish to use this potent remedy 
 honestly and for the highest ends to take up its study and 
 practice, and carry it out with due honour and tidelity to 
 a great trust. Satisfied as I am that hypnotism is a reality, 
 a potent means towards cure, one which can never be 
 crushed by ignorant and baseless criticism, I hold that it 
 is our duty — imperative duty — to do it justice, and rescue 
 it from unworthy hands. As wc use it, it will be good or 
 evil. I have treated this aspect of the subject fully in my 
 essay of 189 1. 
 
 It is very gratifying to find that due honour has been 
 paid by the citizens of Nancy to their great towns- 
 man, whose worth they have immortalized by naming 
 after him the Rue Bellevue, the scene of his labours and 
 triumph. It is now the Rue Liebeault. 
 
 When espousing hypnotism in 1891, I was quite pre- 
 pared to find my statements received with incredulity, 
 and even derision. Had I not studied the subject prac- 
 tically, I should have been sceptical myself. I am rejoiced 
 to see that a society has been inaugurated in England 
 especially devoted to psycho-therapeutics, and that its 
 first President is, most wisely and justly. Dr. C. Lloyd 
 Tuckey. 
 
 All this looks well, and I think justifies my advice to 
 those who are in doubt (as I once was) to do as I did, and 
 to go and study the subject practically where it is worked 
 out on a large scale. Then they will be capable of form- 
 ing a. just judgment. 
 
 FRANCIS R. CRUISE, M.D. 
 
 DUHLIN, 
 
 A/<in/t, 1907. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAGES 
 
 Introduction - - . ^ . - - i — 9 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Examples showing the Power of the Mind over the Body. — Anaes- 
 thesia produced by the Imagination without Chloroform. — 
 Cures effected by the Imagination and by Mental Emotions. 
 — Illness and Functional Disorders induced by Morbid 
 Direction of Thought. — Organic Changes possible from the 
 same cause. — Illness, and perhaps Death, caused by Sug- 
 gestion of Symptoms. — Auto-Suggestion. — Simulated Death. 
 — Cures at Shrines and Holy Places. — Touching for the 
 King's Evil. — Modern Instances of Efficacy of Royal Touch. 
 — John Wesley and other Spiritual Leaders as Healers 10 — 38 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Power of Mind and Body increased by Concentration of Attention 
 and Energy. — Suppression of One Faculty tends to increase 
 the Development of Others. — Concentration of Mind on One 
 Idea in Somnambulism, and Performance of Tasks impos- 
 sible when awake. — Some Tragical Results of Natural Som- 
 nambulism. — Artificial or Hyp not ic Somnambulism may be 
 turned to Therapeutic Purposes. — Natural Sleep may pass 
 into Hypnotic Sleep, and vice versa. — The Faculties may be 
 aroused and intensified in Hypnotic Somnambulism - 39 — 49 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Dr. Liebeault, of Nancy. — Description of his Treatment.— System 
 free from Mysticism. — Curative Suggestions. — Explanation 
 
 XXV 
 
:vi CONTENTS 
 
 PACES 
 
 of the Phenomena. — Definition of Hypnotism. — Ab solute 
 Sleep Of- Unconscitmsncss. OiiUiecessary forCurative Treat- 
 _jppnt — Theory of Professor Charcot not accepted by the 
 School of Nancy. — Proportion of Persons Hypnotizable and 
 Degrees of Hypnotic Influence. —Phenomena of Somnam- 
 bulism outside the Sphere of Psycho-Therapeutics - 50 — 65 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Psycho-TlierApeuticsnot an Exclusive System of TreatflttenL — 
 Some Diseases found to heiiefit Xrom it, — Organic Processes 
 affected by Hypnotic Suggestion. — Blisters and S/!if//ia/a so 
 caused. — Treatment especially useful in Neurotic Diseases. 
 — Hysteria, Hypochondriasis, Dipsomania, and the Opium 
 Habit. — Moral Depravity. — Double Consciousness. — Per- 
 manence of Cures. — Hypnotism distinct from Magnetism.— 
 Possible Abuse of Hypnotism ngt-A-iiar to its Use in Medical 
 Treatment. — Restrictions and Precautions necessary. — Safe- 
 guarding Over-sensitive Subjects . - - 66 — 131 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Some Points in the Physiology and Psychology of Hypnotism. — 
 Authorities and their Theories. — E.xpectant Attention, Sug- 
 gestion, and Inhibition. — Induction of Functional Aphasia, 
 and what it teaches. — Exaggeration or Suppression of Certain 
 Senses and Functions in the Hypnotic State. — Automatism 
 in Hypnotism and in the Pathological State. — Amnesia. — 
 Hypnotism compared with the Action of Poisons.^ — The 
 Double Brain : its Singl« -Action^inJHealth and Possible 
 DuaL-Actign ,iii..Disease and in^'tHe-iiyjj.notic Stale. — Cases 
 illustrating this. — The Induction of Automatism without 
 Hypnotism ------ 132 — 154 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Reality of Hypnotic Phenomena. — Simulation Tests. — Prg.cti€Al 
 Di rections for Medical Hypn9tism . — Excessive Nervous 
 Tension. — Warmth by Suggestion. — Vital Reaction. — Ab- 
 sence of Personal Element in the Nancy Treatment. — 
 Method of Fascination. — Some Diseased Conditions bene- 
 fited by Hypnotism. — Medical Education essential for its 
 Successful Practice. — Racial Susceptibility. — Wetterstrand's 
 
 1 
 
CONTENTS xxvii 
 
 PAGES 
 
 Practice. — Table of Diseases treated by the Author. — Farez 
 and Suj^ges/ion Somnique. — Menta l Diseases and Insanity 
 as affected by, Uypjiotism. — Voisin'g Success. in_ Lunacy. — 
 Researches of Italian Alienists and Neurologists. — Forel's 
 Opinion of the Treatment. — Treatment of Epilepsy by 
 Hypnotism and by Prolonged Hypnosis. — Hypnotism in 
 Organic Disease. — Treatment of Stammering, Rheumatism, 
 Nejjuralgia, Sea-sickness, Neurasthenia, Asthma, Chronic 
 Alcoholism. — Statistics of Results and Remarks. — Forma- 
 tTon of Medical Society for the Study of Hypnotism in 
 England. — Aids to Hypnotism - - - 155 — 256 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Inhibition. — Definition. — Dynamogenesis. — Theories of Brown- 
 Sequard. — Lauder Brunton. — Interference. — Experiments 
 
 257 — 271 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Xatural Analogies of Hypnosis. — Relation of Hypnosis to Sleep 
 and other Conditions. — Theory of Hypnosis. — Leucomaines 
 and Animal Alkaloids. — -Hughlings"Jackson's Three Planes 
 of the Central Nervous System. — Cortical Inhibition. — 
 Morselli's Mental States and Centrifugal Equivalents. — 
 Cortical Control. — Function stimulated by Hypnotism. — 
 Foundations of Consciousness. — Chlorpfprm and. Hypnotic 
 Anesthesia contrasted. — McDougall's Views. — Individuality 
 dependent on Continuity of Memory. — ^Pathological and 
 Hypnotic Lethargy. — Alcohol and Hypnosis. — Researches 
 of Tamburini and otJierltaRan Scientists on Excretions 
 during Hypnosis. — Hypnotism and Hibernation - 272 — 301 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Som ^ case a-treatpd by the Author : i. Insomnia ; 2. Neuras- 
 thenia ; 3. Writer's Cramp ; 4. Tabes Dorsalis ; 5. Tor- 
 ticollis ; 6. Traumatic Headache ; 7. Chronic Diarrhoea ; 
 8. Paroxysmal Sneezing; 9. Tic-douloureux ; 10. Symptoms 
 dependent on Organic Heart Disease; 11. Enuresis 
 Nocturna ; 12. Gouty Sciatica ; 13. Chronic Rheumatism ; 
 14. Nervous Dyspepsia; 15. Amenorrhoea ; 16. Functional 
 Dysmenorrhoea ; 17 and 18. Dipsomania ; 19. Moral 
 Breakdown; 20. Moral Case; 21. Tobacco Habit; 22. 
 Neurasthenia ; 23. Alcoholism ; 24. Nervous Prostration ; 
 
xxviii CONTENTS 
 
 PACKS 
 
 25. Extreme Anaemia; 26. Kleptomania; 27. Mischievous 
 Morbid Impulse ; 28. Agoraphobia ; 29. Puerperal Insanity ; 
 30. Mania for Washing ; 31. Spasmodic Asthma ; 32. Morbid 
 Sexuality ; 33. Meniere's Disease ; 34. Neurasthenia ; 35. 
 Diabetes ....-- 302 — 352 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Introduction to the Study of Psycho-Analysis - - 353 — 377 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Dr. Yung's Experiment with 'Magnetized Cards. — Hilger's Ex- 
 periment to show Subconscious Direction. — James Braid, of 
 Manchester. — Duration of Hypnotic Sleep. — Luys' Rotating 
 Mirror and Ochorowicz's Hypnoscope. — Theory of Professor 
 Delbojuf. — Theory of F. W. H. Myers. — Some Phenomena 
 of Hypnotic Somnambulism. — Liebeault's Classification of 
 Hypnotic Sleep. — Method of Public Performers. — Resolu- 
 tions adopted at the Paris Congress. — International 
 Statistics of Hypnotism. — Experiments in Auto- Suggestion. 
 Hypnotization of Animals. — Treatment by Transfer. — 
 Christian Science Healing. — Hypnotism and Crime. — The 
 Hypnotic Will Case. — False Evidence and Suggestion in 
 Legal Cases. — Belgian Legislation regarding Hypnotism. — 
 Report of the British Medical Association Committee 378 — 424 
 
 Index ------- 425 — 431 
 
TREATMENT BY 
 HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 It is desirable to set forth clearly the genesis of the 
 present revival of psycho-therapetUics, lest, as sometimes 
 happens, unassuming merit be deprived of the honour 
 due to it, and other claims arise to obscure those of the 
 real founders of the system. 
 
 Perhaps the most unfounded claim is that of the mag- 
 ' j netizers, who assert that they have kept the subject before 
 the public by their experiments and entertainments. This 
 contention is easily answered, for, in the first place, the 
 method practised by Dr. Liebeault,* and described in these 
 pages, differs in nearly every respect from that employed 
 by such persons ; and, secondly, their performances have 
 never done anything else but degrade this branch or 
 medical science, and turn the medical profession against 
 it. Their method is unchanged since the beginning of 
 the last century, and they have hardly even added a new 
 trick to their stock-in-trade. 
 
 So low had the estimate of the scientific value of 
 induced sleep fallen, that in 1874 the French medical 
 
 * Dr. Liebeault was born at Ferrieres, September 16, 1823. He 
 took his M.D. degree at the University of Strasburg, and after a 
 few years spent in general practice in the country settled in Nancy, 
 where he practised hypnotism for many years. He died at Nancy, 
 February 18, 1904. 
 
2 • TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM ASD SUGGESTION 
 
 dictionaries threw doubts on its existence, except as a 
 pathological curiosity, and the English encyclopaedists 
 followed much the same course. 
 
 Since the year 1875 — when Dr. Charles Richet began 
 to write on the subject of hypnotism — there has been 
 no lack of scientific investigators on the Continent. 
 Among the most distinguished of these are Charcot in 
 Paris, and Heidenhain* at Breslau, and they have demon- 
 strated beyond the possibility of doubt the genuineness 
 of the phenomena of induced somnambulism. But long 
 ere this — in 1S60 — Dr. Liebeault had opened his public 
 dispensary at Nancy, and had elaborated his system, 
 which he caused to be known as Treatment by Suggestion. 
 
 In 1866 he published a book on the subject, in which 
 he gave to the world a full description of the means used 
 by him, and an account of cases successfully treated. t 
 But little notice was taken of it at the time, and even in 
 Nancy, where Dr. Liebeault lived a retired life, devoted 
 to the poor among whom he practised, he was regarded 
 as, at the best, an amiable but mistaken enthusiast. In 
 1882, Professor Bernheim, of the Faculty of Medicine at 
 Nancy, began to investigate the system, quite as a sceptic, 
 so he tells us, and, being soon convinced of its value, 
 introduced it into his hospital diniquc. In 1884 he 
 brought out his classical work on suggestion. t 
 
 Dr. Bernheim was well known in the medical world, 
 and his book attracted general attention on the Continent. 
 Physicians began to practise hypnotism in many of the 
 larger cities, and flourishing cliniqnes sprang up in all 
 directions. Among the first and most notable of these 
 are those of Drs. Van Renterghem, of Amsterdam ; 
 Wetterstrand, of Stockholm ; \'on Schrenk-Notzing, of 
 Munich ; Moll, of Berlin ; and Berillon, of Paris. 
 
 * 'Hypnotism; or, Animal Magnetism,' second edition, London, 
 1888. 
 
 t ' Du Sommeil et des fitats Analogues, consideres suitout au 
 Point de V'ue de I'Action du Morale sur le Physique,' Paris, 1866 ; 
 second edition, 1889. 
 
 J ' De la Suggestion, ct de ses Applications k la Thcrapeutique,' 
 second edition, Paris, 1887. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 3 
 
 This book does not profess to give a literary history of 
 the movement, and a glance at the catalogue* given by 
 Dr. Max Dessoir of recent publications on hypnotism is 
 enough to deter any but the most determined student 
 from approaching the subject. During the two years 
 1888, i88g, there appeared nearly 400 books, pamphlets, 
 and articles on hypnotism. A large proportion of these 
 are by medical men, and are written in the French 
 language. But among the pioneer writers on hypnotism 
 must be named Professors Beaunisf and Liegeois,+ of 
 Nancy, who have treated the matter from the stand- 
 point of their special departments, physiology and juris- 
 prudence. Professors Delbceuf, of Liege ; Fontan and 
 Segard, of Toulon; Preyer and Max Dessoir, of Berlin; 
 Krafft-Ebing, of Vienna ; Forel, of Zurich ; Wetterstrand, 
 of Stockholm; Van Renterghem and Van Eeden, have 
 given us thoroughly practical books describing their 
 practice, and Dr. Albert Moll's book is as well known 
 in England as in Germany. On the eve of his retire- 
 ment from practice. Dr. Liebeault issued a new volume 
 containing the results of his thirty years' experience, and 
 this book will be in the hands of every student of the 
 Nancy treatment. 
 
 In i88g I wrote that, as far as I knew, there was no 
 literature in English on the subject, and Dr. A. T. Myers, 
 commenting in the Practitioner^ on the backwardness 
 shown by the profession in this country in investigating 
 hypnotism, cited the references to the treatment in the 
 medical journals of the world during the year 1888. He 
 found only seven notices in English journals, against 
 sixty-one in those of France, thirty-five in Germany, 
 twentj'-two in Italy, and sixteen in those of the United 
 States. 
 
 * 'Erster Nachtrag zur Bibliographic des Modernen Hypnotismus,' 
 Berlin, 1890. 
 
 t ' Du Somnambulisme Provoque,' Paris, 1886. 
 I ' De la Suggestion et du Somnambulisme dans leur Rapports 
 'avec la Jurisprudence et la Medecine Legale,' Paris, 1888. 
 § Vol. i., 1890, p. 201. 
 
4 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 But during the last few years a great change has 
 come over the scene, and there are allusions to hypnotism 
 in almost every issue of our medical journals. Drs. Kings- 
 bury, Bramwell, Woods, Crichton Miller, and others, have 
 published cases, and the question is now well before the pro- 
 fession. Dr. Felkin wrote a masterly exposition of hypno- 
 tism in the Edinbiiri^h Medical J otirnal (vol. xxxv.), which is 
 republished in book form (' Hypnotism, or Psycho-Thera- 
 peutics,' Edinburgh, 1S91): and Dr. Hamilton Osgood, of 
 Boston, contributed to the Boston Medical and Surgical 
 Journal (1890) an extremely interesting article illustrated 
 by cases. Dr. Kingsbury has published a valuable practical 
 handbook, and the English translations of the works of 
 Bernheim, Moll, Wetterstrand, and Forel have had a very 
 large circulation. An excellent exposition of the subject is 
 published by Dr. Ralph Vincent as a volume of the Inter- 
 national Scientific Series. There is, therefore, no longer 
 any need to lament the want of literature on hypnotism 
 in the English tongue. Dr. Milne Bramwell's important 
 book, ' Hypnotism : its History, Practice, and Theory,' was 
 first published in 1903. It is a very complete handbook to 
 the whole subject. Sir George Savage in his Harveian 
 Oration, 1909, by his commendatory and hopeful allusions 
 to hypnotism gave great impetus to its study. 
 
 The following list gives a few of the mrore important 
 books and papers recently published on hypnotic sug- 
 gestion : 
 
 Liebcault : ' Therapeutique Suggestive, son Mechanisme,' etc., 
 
 Paris, 1 89 1. 
 Hernheim : ' Hypnotisme, Suggestion, Psycho-therapie,' Paris, 1891. 
 Fontan et Segard : ' Elements de Medecine Suggestive,' Paris, 
 
 1887. 
 Delboeuf : ' De I'Origine des Effets Curatifs de THypnotisme,' 
 
 Paris, 1887. 
 A. Pitres : ' Leqons Cliniques sur I'Hysterie et I'Hypnotisnie,' 
 
 Paris, 1 89 1. 
 Bonjean : ' L'Hypnotisme, scs Rapports avec Ic Droit et la 
 
 Therapeutique,' Paris, 1890. 
 \'an Renterghem et Van Eeden : ' Clinique dc Psycho-therapie 
 
 Suggestive,' Brussels, 1889. 
 \'on Krafft-Ebing : ' Eine experinientelle Studie auf dem Gebiet 
 
 des Hypnotismus,' Stuttgart, 1889. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 5 
 
 Von Schrenk-Notzing : ' Ein Beitrag zur therapeutischen Vcrwer- 
 
 tung des Hypnotismus,' Leipsic, 1888. 
 Forel : ' Der Hypnotismus, seine Bedeutung und seine Handha- 
 
 bung,' Stuttgart, 1889. 
 Forel : ' Der Hypnotismus, seine psychophysiologische medicin- 
 
 ische,' etc., Stuttgart, 1891. 
 Preyer : 'Der Hypnotismus,' Vienna and Leipsic, 1890. 
 Moll : ' Der Hypnotismus,' Berlin, 1890 (second edition). 
 Wetterstrand : ' Der Hypnotismus und seine Anwendung in der 
 
 Practischen Medicin,' Vienna and Leipsic, 1891 ; English 
 
 translation, 1897. 
 Lehmann (of Copenhagen) : 'Die Hypnose,' Leipsic, 1891 (German 
 
 edition), 'und die damit vorwandten normalen Zustandten.' 
 Morselli : ' II Magnetismo Animale, La Fascinazione, e gli Stati 
 
 Hypnotici,' Turin, 1866 (second edition). 
 Tanzi : 'Sulla cura suggestiva del morfinismo,' Naples, 1889. 
 Herrero : ' El Hypnotismo y la Sugestion. Estudios de Fisio- 
 
 psicologia y de Psico-terapia,' Valladolid, 1889. 
 Osgood Hamilton : ' Hypnotic Suggestion,' with notes of 34 cases, 
 
 Boston, 1890. 
 Kingsbury : ' The Practice of Hypnotic Suggestion,' Bristol (second 
 
 edition), 1893. 
 Vincent: 'The Elements of Hypnotism,' London, 1897. 
 Voisin : ' Suggestion Hypnotique dans certaines formes d' Aliena- 
 tion Mentale,' Paris, 1897. 
 Berillon : ' L'Hypnotisme et I'Orthopedie Mentale,' Paris, 1898. 
 Felkin : 'Hypnotism ; or, Psycho-Therapeutics,' London, 1890. 
 Hack-Tuke : ' Sleep-Walking and Hypnotism,' London, 1884. 
 Hy. Barwise : ' Hypnotism : its Possibilities, its Uses and Abuses,' 
 
 Birmingham, 1888. 
 Gerald Yeo : 'The Nervous Mechanism of Hypnotism,' London, 
 
 1884. 
 Mason Osgood : ' Hypnotism and Suggestion,' London, 1901. 
 Milne Bramwell : ' Hypnotism : its History, Practice, and Theory' 
 
 (second edition), London, 1906. 
 Forel: 'Hypnotism; or, Suggestion in Psycho-Therapy' (trans- 
 lated from the fifth German edition by H. W. Armit), 
 
 London, 1906. 
 T. W. Mitchell : Many articles on Psychology and Hypnotism in 
 
 current medical literature. 
 Hilger : ' Hypnosis and Suggestion,' translated into English by 
 
 Dr. Felkin, 1910. 
 Boris Sidis : ' Hypnoidal Psychology,' 1910. 
 Miinsterburg : 'Psycho-therapy,' 191 1. 
 Morton Prince : 'Psycho-therapeutics,' 191 1. 
 Wingfield : ' Introduction to the Study of Hypnotism,' 19 10. 
 Crichton Miller: 'Hypnotism and Disease,' 1912. 
 Betts Taplin : 'Hypnotism,' 19 12. 
 
 Most of these books, and many others dealing with 
 psycho-therapy, are to be found in the hbrary of the 
 Psycho- Medical Society, and are available for members. 
 
6 TREATMENT BY HYPSOTISM A\D SUGGESTION 
 
 Students of contemporary hypnotism will find the 
 subject exhaustively dealt with in the Revue de PsycJio- 
 iherapie, a medical journal devoted to this branch of 
 therapeutics, published monthly in Paris, under the able 
 editorship of Dr. Edgar Berillon.* 
 
 In Germany there is the Zcitschrift fiir Hypnotismus, 
 edited by Dr. Oscar \'ogt, published every month in 
 Leipsic. There is no journal devoted to the subject in 
 England, but hypnotic treatment is frequently referred to 
 in the ordinary medical periodicals. Luminous articles 
 have appeared in the Journal of Mental Science by Dr. 
 Woods, late of Hoxton House Asylum, 1897, and in 
 Brain by Dr. Milne Bramwell, 1S97-99. I wrote a fairly 
 exhaustive article in the Medical Annual for 1898. Since 
 that date many articles and papers are to be found in 
 current medical literature. Dr. Purves Stewart will have 
 a most instructive article in the Medical Annual for 1914. 
 
 In the British Medical Journal for August 20, 1S98, there 
 is a full report of an important discussion on hypnotism at 
 the Edinburgh meeting of the association, and I think we 
 may say that there is no longer any prejudice against 
 hypnotism in the best medical circles. 
 
 A recent paper read before the New South Wales branch 
 
 * The first psycho-therapeutic clinic in England was inaugurated 
 last year (191 2) in Liverpool, ever in the forefront of progress. It is 
 proving a great success, and new and commodious premises have 
 ijeen acquired at 25 and 27, Catherine Street. At the start the 1 
 average attendance of patients was under twenty a week ; now (July, ' 
 191 3) it is over sixty. The institution is supported by voluntary sub- 
 scriptions, and most of the patients are sent by doctors. Medical 
 men and students are welcomed. There are three honorary physicians, 
 one of whom attends daily — Dr. Betts Taplin, Dr. Albert Davis, and 
 Dr. Sidney Wilkinson. We are about to open a similar clinic in 
 London under good medical auspices and a competent staff of 
 physicians. In previous editions 1 have had to refer medical men 1 
 desirous of acquiring a practical knowledge of hypnotism to Dr. 
 Herillon, who has a good public cliniquc at 49, Rue Saint-Andrc- 
 des-Arts, Paris, which is largely attended by French and foreign 
 doctors. He extends a cordial welcome to English medical men 
 who wish to learn something of the practical use of hypnotism, and I 
 strongly advise my confreres to visit this flourishing institution. It is 
 conducted on the most scientific lines by Dr. Berillon, Dr. Farez, and 
 an aljle staff. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 7 
 
 of the British Medical Association by the Hon. J. M. Creed, 
 M.R.C.S., Member of the Legislative Council, published 
 in the Australian Medical Gazette, January 20, 1899, entitled 
 * My Experience of Hypnotic Suggestion as a Therapeutic 
 Agent,' gives an interesting account of successful hypnotic 
 practice in the Antipodes. 
 
 The Society for Psychical Research has done, and is 
 doing, much good work in the scientific investigation 
 of hypnotism, and its members were among the first 
 persons in this country to recognize its importance as 
 an aid to experimental psychology. The clear and 
 able papers contributed by the late Henry Sidgwick, 
 F. W. H. Myers, Edmund Gurney, Richard Hodgson, 
 Frank Podmore, and by the Hon. Everard Feilding, 
 and other writers, in the Proceedings of the society, are 
 among the best things which have been written on the 
 subject. A medical branch of the society has been 
 established, and has already published an important 
 volume of transactions. The great posthumous work 
 by Mr. Myers, 'Human Immortality,' devotes several 
 chapters to the psychological aspects of hypnotism, and 
 will be read by every earnest student. 
 
 To James Braid, the Manchester surgeon, is due the 
 credit of having seen the germs of truth which lay hidden 
 and obscured in the writings of Mesmer and the animal 
 magnetizers. He attempted to explain by physical laws 
 the effects produced by mesmerizers,* and he ridiculed 
 the notion of there being any such thing as a magnetic 
 fluid or current. His disgust for the mysticism of mes- 
 merism drove him, perhaps, too far towards the other 
 extreme, and made him more rationalistic than the facts 
 warranted him in being. Although he publicly demon- 
 strated his system of healing — which he practised with 
 much success — and wrote several works upon the subject, 
 it appears to have died with him, and it remained for 
 Liebeault to arrive at the truth of psycho-therapeutics, 
 
 * ' Neurypnology,' London, 1843 '> 'The Power of the Mind over 
 the Body,' London, 1846. 
 
8 TREATMENT BY IIYPSOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 The most important recent event connected with the 
 progress of hypnotism in this country was the appointment 
 of a commission by the British Medical Association as 
 a result of the important discussion at the annual meeting 
 held at Birmingham in 1S90. The report of this com- 
 mittee will be found in the Appendix. It is hoped that 
 the result will be increased interest in the subject by 
 medical men and the prohibition of its use by showmen 
 and idlers. No one wishes to restrict the use of hypno- 
 tism in the researches of men of science, for this most 
 interesting study affords a key, as Professor Preyer says, 
 to many psychical and physical processes connected with 
 the nervous system ; but we feel convinced that in the 
 interest of the public, and for the dignity of the subject, 
 it will be necessary to surround its employment with 
 precautions against abuse. 
 
 One looks forward to a time, in a not very remote 
 future, when Englishmen will take that leading position 
 in the investigation and practice of hypnotism which one 
 would expect from the compatriots of James Braid. 
 
 The present movement is practically the third revival 
 of psycho - therapeutics in modern times. That in- 
 augurated by Mesmer in 1776 came to nothing on 
 account of the fraud, ignorance, and exaggeration with 
 which it was surrounded, and the second under Braid 
 ound even less acceptance from contemporary men of 
 science ; but the revival we now see is probably destined 
 to make a deep and permanent impression on the history 
 of medicine. It is the outcome of evolution and scientific 
 progress in all departments of medical knowledge, and the 
 time is ripe for its recognition and reception. 
 
 I believe that all great discoveries are led up to by 
 previous half-discoveries ; and it does not detract from 
 Li^beault's credit that he started with a large amount of 
 evidence on the subject collected by earlier observers, any 
 more than Darwin's claim to be the first evolutionist is 
 weakened by his having drawn on the material supplied 
 by Lyell, Hooker, and a multitude of others. Liebeault's 
 
 i 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 9 
 
 genius taught him to arrange and systematize the facts 
 collected by his predecessors, and to find the true explana- 
 tion of phenomena which they had misunderstood. His 
 patience and steadfast courage led him to persevere in 
 his work, undeterred by opposition or neglect, until now 
 ; we find him the founder of a school which, as I have said, 
 I has its representatives all over the Continent — acute and 
 I clear-sighted men of science, of a class quite unlikely to 
 ' entertain the fanciful theories of mesmerism on the one 
 I hand, or those of ' faith-healing ' on the other.* 
 I I need hardly say that medical hypnotism has nothing 
 I in common with spiritualism, and it is a curious thing 
 I that in this country some persons seem to think them 
 associated. 
 
 ( * The truth of this assertion has been agreeably verified by events. 
 
 I Dr. Liebeault retired from practice in 1891, and visitors to Nancy 
 
 i will no longer ha^'e the pleasure of seeing him at his cli7iiqtie and 
 listening to his kindly talk. He worked all his life from love of 
 his profession, not from desire for gain, and he retired on a modest 
 competence not acquired from his practice, which was wholly un- 
 remunerative. To celebrate the occasion, many of those who had 
 enjoyed his friendship and derived profit from his instruction decided 
 to present him with a testimonial. The movement was joined in 
 by medical men from all parts of the world, and the presentation 
 was made in May, 1891. There were over sixty subscribers to this 
 testimonial, and among the contributors one finds many names of 
 
 ; eminence in the profession, as Dumontpallier, of Paris ; Preyer, of 
 Berlin ; Krafft-Ebing, of Vienna ; Morselli, of Genoa ; Cruise, of 
 Dublin. Vide Lancet^ June 27, 1891, and Revue de r Hypnotisme, 
 June, 1 89 1. 
 
 Since the above was written Dr. Liebeault has died (February, 
 1904) in the house at Nancy he had inhabited so many years. The 
 street has been renamed in his honour ' Rue Liebeault,' and a hand- 
 some bronze bust of him will be set up in the public gardens of 
 Nancy. So the prophet has been honoured in his own city. Dr. 
 Wingfield, who was, I believe, the first English physician of note to 
 visit Liebeault at Nancy and seriously study his treatment, writes : 
 ' ' He was a great man, the nobility of whose character surpassed even 
 the value of his work' {op. cit., p. 118). 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Examples showing^ the Power of the Mind over the Body. — Anies- 
 thesia produced by the Imagination without Chloroform. — Cures 
 effected by the Imagination and by Mental Emotions. — Illness 
 and Functional Disorders induced by Morbid Direction of 
 Thought. — Organic Changes possible from the Same Cause. — 
 Illness, and perhaps Death, caused by Suggestion of Symptoms. 
 — Auto-Suggestion. — Simulated Death. — Cures at Shrines and 
 Holy Places. — Touching for the King's Evil. — Modern Instances 
 of Efficacy of Royal Touch. — Cures by Wesley and Other 
 Religious Leaders. 
 
 All who have given any attention to the subject acknow- 
 ledge what immense power the mind — acting in conjunc- 
 tion with or apart from the will — has over the body, 
 forcing it at times to unusual or even extraordinary effort. 
 This power is exercised both in health and disease, but 
 is peculiarly evident — perhaps because it is more closely 
 observed — in the latter condition. Everyone, the physician 
 and psychologist especially, knows some curious instances 
 illustrative of its effects ; such as the story of the hospital 
 patient to whom the consulting physician gave a prescrip- 
 tion, with the remark, ' Take this, it will do you good.' ?' 
 At the man's next visit, he, being asked for the prescrip- 
 tion, replied that he had swallowed it as directed, and it 
 had, according to promise, done him ' a power of good.' 
 There is nothing new or strange in that, for the administra- 
 tion of boluses made of pieces of paper, upon which are 
 written texts from the Koran, forms an important part 
 of medical treatment in Mohammedan countries. Hack- 
 Tuke* gives a number of cases in which drugs have acted 
 not according to their proved properties, but according to 
 
 * 'The Influence of the .Mind upon the Body,' London, 1884. 
 
 10 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION ii 
 
 the expectation of the patient. For instance, a student 
 having asked for an aperient pill, the dispenser, by mistake, 
 gave him one composed of opium and antimony, which, 
 instead of producing the usual effect of inducing perspira- 
 tion and drowsiness, acted in the way the student expected. 
 Every medical man can quote examples of this sort from 
 his own practice, and if sometimes he is wrongfully accused 
 of having produced baneful effects, he is indemnified at 
 others by having marvellously good results ascribed to 
 very simple measures. 
 
 There are few cases of this kind more remarkable than 
 one related by Mr. Woodhouse Braine, the well-known 
 anaesthetist. Having to administer ether to a hysterical 
 girl who was about to be operated on for the removal of 
 two sebaceous tumours from the scalp, he found that the 
 ether bottle was empty, and that the inhaling-bag was 
 free from even the odour of any anaesthetic. While a 
 fresh supply was being obtained, he thought to familiarize 
 the patient with the process by putting the inhaling-bag 
 over her mouth and nose, and telling her to breathe quietly 
 and deeply. After a few inspirations she cried, ' Oh, I 
 feel it; I am going off!' and a moment after her eyes 
 turned up, and she became unconscious. As she was 
 found to be perfectly insensible, and the ether had not 
 yet come, Mr. Braine proposed that the surgeon should 
 proceed with the operation. One tumour was removed 
 without in the least disturbing her, and then, in order to 
 test her condition, a bystander said that she was coming 
 to. Upon this she began to show signs of waking, so the 
 bag was once more applied, with the remark, ' She'll soon 
 be off again,' when she immediately lost sensation, and 
 the operation was successfully and painlessly completed. 
 This girl had taken ether three years before, so that ex- 
 pectation and the use of the apparatus were sufficient to 
 excite her recollection, and call back the effects of the 
 drug as then experienced. 
 
 But this recalling of a past impression does not explain 
 the experience of Dr. A., who is anaesthetist to a large 
 
12 TREAT^fE^T BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 dental hospital. He tells me that he often pretends to 
 give gas without doing so, and he finds many patients 
 become anaesthetic when he simply places the apparatus 
 over their face, tells them to breathe deeply and go to 
 sleep. He finds anaemic girls are the best subjects for 
 this harmless deception. 
 
 It is told that when Sir Humphry Davy was investi- 
 gating the properties of laughing-gas — as nitrous oxide 
 was then called — he proposed to administer it to a man 
 who was suffering from tic-douloureux, but before doing 
 so he tried his temperature by putting a thermometer into 
 his mouth. The man took this instrument for some new 
 and subtle remedy, and in a few minutes exclaimed that 
 the pain was cured. The same belief in the efficacy of 
 the thermometer remains to this day among the unedu- 
 cated, as a friend of mine found to his cost when he was 
 hospital-clerk to a well-known physician. It was his duty 
 to take each morning the temperature of every patient ; 
 but on one occasion, being pressed for time, and knowing 
 by experience that a certain patient's temperature was 
 always normal, he saved a few minutes by leaving it 
 untried. Later in the day, when the physician asked this 
 man how he felt, he replied that he was much worse, as 
 might be expected considering the way in which he was 
 neglected. On inquiry it came out that the potent charm 
 of having the glass tube in his mouth for three minutes 
 had been omitted, and my friend got a reprimand. The late 
 Sir Francis Cruise, physician to the King in Ireland, who 
 made much study of hypnotism, believed in its efficacy, 
 and used it in his extensive practice, told me that many 
 years ago he was engaged in a series of experiments with 
 an early form of sphygmograph in a Dublin hospital. 
 Among the patients was a man incurably ill with phthisis 
 and dilated heart. He improved considerably with treat- 
 ment and rest, but he assured inquirers that what did him 
 most good was the appliance the young doctor used to 
 put round his wrist. 
 
 Laycock (' Nervous Diseases of Women,' p. 1S4) quotes 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 13 
 
 Ij the case of a gentleman suffering from quotidian ague 
 who became so interested in conversation on one occa- 
 sion, that the hour for his paroxysm passed without his 
 perceiving it, and he escaped the attack. This story 
 gives one ground for believing a statement frequently 
 made — that the time of the recurrence of attacks of inter- 
 mittent fever may be altered by moving the clock-hands 
 unknown to the patient, and thus arousing expectant 
 attention. 
 
 On the other hand, Sir W. Goodhart mentions the case 
 of a hysterical woman who consulted a doctor about her 
 health. He examined her chest, and, thinking he detected 
 signs of phthisis, expressed great surprise that she had 
 no cough. Though up to that time she was free from 
 any symptom of the kind, the suggestion was sufficient 
 to excite a most troublesome and obstinate cough which it 
 was very difficult to cure. Sir W. Goodhart cites this case 
 as a warning to the practitioner against being too persistent 
 in asking leading questions.* A very excellent and clever 
 lady of my acquaintance tells me she never consults 
 doctors now, as she finds they always make her worse b}^ 
 their suggestions of disease. For instance, after waiting 
 some time in an atmosphere of discomfort and suffering in 
 the ante-room, she would be shown into an impressive 
 consulting-room, and find herself face to face with a grave 
 and learned physician, who would fix her with a glittering 
 eye, and say with a solemn and sepulchral voice, ' Where 
 is your pain ?' The poor lady would reply : * Sir, until 
 this moment I had no pain ; but now you make me feel 
 pains all over me.' I don't suppose there are many people 
 so bad as that ; but we learn from extreme cases. 
 
 Dr. Forel {op. cit., p, 215) confesses how in his early 
 days, before he had studied psycho-therapeutics, he once 
 * suggested ' a gastric ulcer to a patient in whom he sus- 
 pected this condition. The woman developed a number 
 of symptqms of the disease, and was confined to bed for 
 months. Afterwards he found her to be an excellent 
 * 'Common Neuroses,' Harveian Lectures, 1891. 
 
14 TREATMENT BY HYPSOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 hypnotic subject. I remember, as a very young prac- 
 titioner, a labouring man coming to me to be examined as 
 to soundness before joining the pohce. He was a strong 
 young fellow, a market gardener, and he looked the picture 
 of health. Almost as a matter of form I put the stetho- 
 scope to his chest, and to my surprise found a loud aortic 
 bruit. I told him he had heart disease and was unfit for 
 service — I fear rather brusquely. The poor fellow nearh' 
 fainted on the spot, and I am afraid the shock must have 
 made him ill for days. Evil is wrought by want of thought 
 more than by want of heart. In such cases it is one of our 
 difficulties to know how much to conceal and how much 
 to reveal, having the patient's interests and our own repu- 
 tation to consider. There is a story told by Rudyard 
 Kipling of a soldier with locomotor ataxy, who was able 
 to pull himself together as long as there was fighting to 
 be done, but quickly went to pieces when the surgeon 
 examined him and invalided him home. 
 
 Dr. Arthur, of Sydney, New South Wales, has in- 
 geniously taken advantage of the fact that the force of 
 suggestion is very greatly increased by hypnotism. He 
 has reported in the British Medical Journal a series of cases 
 in which he had tried hypnotism with excellent palliative 
 results. But the pains returned from time to time, and it 
 was impossible for the patients always to g~o to him for 
 relief. He therefore hypnotized them, and told them that 
 whenever their symptoms recurred they had only to take 
 a dose of the medicine he would give them and they would 
 experience immediate relief. Among these cases were 
 one of carcinoma uteri, one of scirrhus of the breast, one 
 of locomotor ataxy, etc., incurable diseases, in which all 
 we can do is to relieve symptoms. The medicine he gave, 
 which hypnotic suggestion caused to act as a panacea, was 
 a mixture of tincture of valerian. He terms this method 
 ' treatment by indirect suggestion.' 
 
 The power of religious ecstasy and absorbing religious 
 contemplation, in all creeds and in all climes, to cause 
 disregard of surroundings and contempt for physical 
 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 15 
 
 suffering need not be insisted upon, for its reality is 
 attested by all history. From the days when Queen 
 Jezebel's priests mutilated themselves on Mount Carmel, 
 to the present time, when we have seen the dervishes 
 hurl themselves on the bayonets of our soldiers in the 
 Soudan, utterly unmindful of the pains of death, and 
 seeing only the plains of paradise beyond, the story is the 
 same. A condition similar to hypnosis undoubtedly pre- 
 vails in such cases. It is asserted, and with some reason, 
 that in many cases martyrs at the stake have been merci- 
 fully spared much of the suffering which seems inseparable 
 from their cruel death, in consequence of a hypnotic state, 
 with its attendant anaesthesia, being induced in them, 
 partly the result of religious fervour and abstraction, and 
 partly brought about by the glitter of the flames and the 
 clamour of the crowd, over-stimulating certain sensory 
 centres to the consequent inhibition of others. The 
 devotees of certain sects obviously undergo hypnotization 
 before practising their rites — e.g., the Aissouans who 
 ! recently visited London. These Arabs are hypnotized by 
 their priest or chief, and in the hypnotic state allow them- 
 selves to be stung by scorpions and devour venomous 
 snakes. 
 
 Brown-Sdquard relates a remarkable case of ecstatic 
 catalepsy in a girl whom he was called in to see. She 
 lived in Paris, close to the Church of St. Sulpice, and 
 every Sunday morning at eight o'clock, when the bell 
 began to ring, she used at once to rise from her bed, 
 mount the edge of the bedstead, and stand there on tip- 
 toe until the bell sounded at eight in the evening, when 
 she returned to her bed. The board on which she stood 
 was curved and polished, and it would have been im- 
 possible for the most athletic man to have remained on it 
 in such a position for more than a few minutes at a time. 
 While standing there she was utterly unconscious of her 
 surroundings, and continued murmuring prayers to the 
 Virgin all the time, her hands clasped, her eyes fixed, and 
 head slightly bent. Some of the bystanders were sceptical. 
 
1 6 TREATMENT BY HYPSOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 and Brown-Sequard, to put her to the test, applied a 
 strong interrupted current to her face. She showed no 
 sign of pain, but the muscles reacted energetically, and 
 her intonation was therefore slightly affected. The girl 
 was weak and anaemic, and was so thoroughly exhausted 
 by her Sunday exertions, that the remainder of the week 
 she could only lie helpless in her bed. The enormous 
 increase in muscular and nervous force in one direction 
 (dynamogenesis) was accompanied, as is invariably the 
 case, by inhibition of other functions — in this case, those 
 of higher cerebration.* 
 
 A rudimentary knowledge of electricity is sufficient to 
 assure us that the vast majority of popular electrical 
 appliances — such as belts and pads — are absolutely inert, 
 and that the good they undoubtedly achieve in some cases 
 is due to the stimulating effect on the imagination.! If 
 the public confidence is shaken, cures no longer take 
 place, as was clearly demonstrated in the recent notorious 
 electropathic belt trial. I am acquainted with a civil 
 engineer of good standing in his profession, who assured 
 me he had been cured of lumbago of very long standing 
 by one of these belts, and he actually gave the proprietors 
 a testimonial to that effect, which was widely published. 
 The exposure in court of the inertness of the appliance 
 opened this patient's eyes, and he acknowledged that the 
 cure was largely due to imagination and suggestion. Next 
 time he gets lumbago he will seek a new specific which 
 will appeal to his imagination in a different way, for he 
 thinks himself much too clever for orthodox medical 
 treatment. Anti-rheumatic rings, cholera-belts, camphor- 
 bags, and such-like ' preventives,' probably act in a similar 
 way. Therefore, though these and kindred contrivances 
 
 • RiTinie HilHiotninairt\ 1882, p. 36. 
 
 t Vide letter by Dr. Steavenson in I^inat and British Medical 
 Journal^ October 16, 1889. Professor Ballin, the eminent authority 
 on nervous diseases and physician to the Hotel Dieu, Paris, attributes 
 at least one half of the effects of electro-therapeutics to suggestion 
 acting on the patient's mind (' Neurasthenia,' translated by Dr. 
 Campbell Smith, 1908 edition, p. 188). 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 17 
 
 do not operate in the expected manner, I should be sorry 
 to say that they do not serve a useful purpose ; by inspiring 
 confidence and keeping alive hope, they often enable their 
 possessor to go unharmed in the midst of contagion, or 
 help him to overcome disease ; for there is no more 
 effectual depressant, no surer harbinger of disease,than fear. 
 Much of the immunity from infection enjoyed by physi- 
 cians and nurses is due partly to the preoccupation of their 
 minds, which leaves no room for selfish terror, and 
 partly to the confidence begotten by long familiarity with 
 danger. 
 
 The plan of substituting a harmless draught for the 
 narcotic mixture, without which a nervous patient thinks 
 himself unable to sleep, is, as we all know, continually 
 resorted to, and is an instance of the beneficial employ- 
 ment of the imagination. 
 
 Drs. Beard and Rockwell relate how they experimented 
 on rather a large scale with patients in a New York 
 hospital with inert drugs. On one occasion, to see what 
 imagination would do, they suddenly had the patients in 
 a ward informed that a mistake had been made by the 
 dispenser, and that an emetic had been administered to 
 some of the patients instead of the usual mixture. A large 
 proportion of the patients were thereupon seized with 
 vomiting, and brought up the harmless dose which had 
 been given to them.* This effect of the imagination it is 
 not difficult to understand, but Dr. J. W. White, Pro- 
 fessor of Clinical Surgery in the University of Pennsyl- 
 ivania, has collected a large number of instances showing 
 I the beneficial effects of surgical operations/'^rs^. Hospital 
 surgeons are not supposed to be particularly imaginative, 
 jand yet Dr. White tabulates hundreds of cases which he 
 'has brought together from recently published medical 
 journals, English, American, and foreign. 
 
 For instance, he records fifty-six cases of trephining for 
 epilepsy in which nothing abnormal was found to account 
 
 * ' Sexual Neurasthenia,' New York, i8go. 
 
l8 TREATMENT BY HYPXOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 for the symptoms, and yet twenty-five of these cases were 
 cured, and eighteen improved.* 
 
 In thirty epileptic cases a bloodvessel was ligatured, 
 generally one of the vertebral arteries, and cure had 
 resulted in fourteen cases, whilst fifteen were improved. 
 In nine cases the operation was tracheotomy, and two of 
 these were cured, and six greatly improved. Dr. White 
 instances several cases in which exploratory incisions 
 under chloroform have revealed no disease, but have been 
 followed by the cure of symptoms simulating disease, and 
 from his experience he feels justified in considering that 
 ' there are large numbers of cases of different grades of 
 severity and varying character which secui to be benefited 
 by operation alone, some of them by almost any opera- 
 tion." t 
 
 The cure of warts by charms and spells is, I believe, a 
 matter of common belief in every village in England. A 
 medical friend practising in the country told me not long 
 ago that he had twice excised a number of warts from a 
 boy of thirteen, and each time a new crop had soon 
 grown. An old village woman recited some apparently 
 childish formula over them, and behold ! the warts withered 
 away, and in a few daj's had fallen off and disappeared. 
 My friend is extremely orthodox, and did not at all under- 
 stand nor approve of such interference with^ his patient. 
 
 There was an interesting discussion on the cure of warts 
 by suggestion at a meeting of the Societe d'Hypnologie et 
 de Psychologic in June, igo2. Many physicians testified 
 to having seen charms succeed in some cases and fail in 
 others, and Dr. Farez showed a series of photographs taken 
 of a girl's hand he had cured by hypnotic suggestion after 
 charms had failed. Dr. Berillon stated that to test the 
 
 * The extraordinar)' number of perforated skulls found in neolithic 
 monuments was puzzling to antiquarians until the theor}' was adopted 
 that they were the results of trephining for epilepsy. The success of 
 the operation must have encouraged the men of science of those days 
 to hold to their belief that the demon of epilepsy was expelled through 
 the hole thus made. 
 
 t Annals of Surgery^ St. Louis, 1891. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 19 
 
 discriminating powers of suggestion he had in a very bad 
 case treated only one hand, and that this was speedily 
 cleared of warts, while the other remained disfigured until 
 he applied hypnotic suggestion^ to that also. 
 
 On the other hand, it is possible for an apparently 
 quite healthy person to develop, by pure imagination, 
 the symptoms of serious illness. Laymen who dabble in 
 medical science, and medical students at the beginning 
 of their course, are apt to imagine that they have one 
 or other of the diseases they have been studying, heart 
 trouble being perhaps the most usual ; and of this they do 
 frequently develop some of the subjective symptoms. 
 
 A friend tells me that once only in his life has he 
 suffered from laryngitis and loss of voice. This was 
 while attending Sir Felix Semon's lectures on diseases of 
 the throat. It may have been a mere coincidence, but 
 that hardly explains the frequent instances of medical 
 men who have succumbed to the disease which they have 
 made their special study — e.g., Professor Trousseau from 
 cancer of the stomach. It is possible that the mind, 
 being continuously fixed on one special organ, predisposes 
 to disease of that organ. 
 
 * A prominent member of the Society for Psychical Research, Miss 
 Mason, has reported several cases of cure she has effected by simple 
 suggestion, and she tells me she generally succeeds, especially with 
 children. She just touches each wart with her finger and says ' Go 
 away,' and by her next visit she finds they have gradually shrivelled 
 up and disappeared. Miss Mason holds an important Government 
 inspectorship, so her dignified position no doubt greatly impresses 
 the small patient. It is stated that the more vascular a wart is, as 
 shown by its readiness to bleed, the more likely is it to respond to 
 suggestion. I had a curious experience in 1909 with a growth more 
 serious than a wart — molluscum contagiosum. The patient, a lady 
 of fifty, had derived much benefit from hypnotic treatment for aural 
 vertigo and neurasthenia. Her confidence was unbounded, and she 
 asked me to ' suggest away ' a growth which had troubled her for 
 months and was rapidly increasing. She hated the idea of an 
 operation even with an electric wire, so I consented to try, but had 
 little faith in the result. The growth was very vascular, about the 
 ^ize of a shilling, and attached to the skin of the thorax by a pedicle. 
 After four or five treatments suppuration set in at the base of the 
 pedicle, and in twelve days the growth sloughed off, leaving only a 
 minute scar. It may have been a coincidence, but hypnotism was 
 ■ credited with the ' miracle.' 
 
20 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 Hypochondriasis is, as we know, a condition in which 
 the patient feels the working of his internal organs, and 
 is morbidly conscious of them. It tends to grow worse, 
 because his attention becomes more and more iixed upon 
 functions which ought to be performed automatically, and 
 unless some powerful mental stimulant is applied, organic 
 disease is sometimes actually set up. The late Sir J. 
 Russell Reynolds'^ has collected and classified several 
 cases of paralysis dependent on functional causes, which 
 were cured by careful treatment directed chiefly to the 
 morale of the patients. He points out the difficulties 
 attending the ordinary treatment, and shows how neces- 
 sary it is to counteract the morbid ideas which are often 
 at the root of the mischief. Most of the cases to which 
 he refers were cured, but some resisted all forms of treat- 
 ment. Dr. James Reynolds! relates a case of a woman 
 who died in the Birmingham General Hospital from the 
 effects of hysterical paraplegia ; the necropsy showed that 
 there was no organic disease. He thus summarizes the 
 dangers of this condition : ' If the nature of the malady be 
 mistaken, and the stimulus of the will be habitually with- 
 held from the inactive muscles, the nutrition of that part 
 of the nerve centre which presides over those muscles 
 becomes impaired, and what was at the beginning a mere ■ 
 perversion of function is finally converted into real organic 
 disease.' Russell Reynolds thus concludes his paper : ' I 
 believe and know that many cases of apparently grave dis- ■ 
 orders of the nervous centres may be removed entirely ; 
 and that in other instances, when the ideal affection is 
 grafted upon organic lesion, much may be done to remove 
 the former, and afford so much of the stimulus of hope, 
 that the cure of yet graver symptoms is brought within i 
 the range, not only of possibility, but of probability and of' 
 actual fact.' There are many people of both sexes who 
 never hear of a disease without fancying they have it. 
 
 * British Medical Journal, \ol. ii., 483, 1869. 
 t ' Paralysis and other Diseases of Motion dependent on Idea,' 
 ihid.^ p. 632. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 21 
 
 The illness of a royal or distinguished sufferer, the pro- 
 gress of which is daily recorded in the newspapers, will 
 sometimes become almost epidemic ; thus, throat specialists 
 can tell some curious stories of the increase of imaginary 
 and real throat affections during the illness of the late 
 Emperor Frederick. That fear will promote disease has 
 been abundantly proved during outbreaks of cholera, 
 small-pox, the plague, and other epidemics. Pseudo- 
 hydrophobia is a recognized malady, and no doubt many 
 supposed cures of hydrophobia have in fact been cures of 
 this fear-induced imitation. 
 
 Laycock tells the story of a woman, aged forty-eight, 
 who was in constant attendance on her daughter during 
 her tedious labour. Though she had not menstruated — 
 she had passed the menopause — for eight years, she expe- 
 rienced uterine pains, and had a sanguineous discharge 
 from the parts, and the next day her breasts were swollen, 
 painful, and discharging a serous fluid.^ Quoting Sir 
 Benjamin Brodie, he adds that patients have been so 
 acted upon by their fears, and by seeing their friends 
 affected, that they have imagined they have had tumours 
 of the breast, and it is not improbable that the disease 
 has been so produced. 
 
 Nothing can illustrate this truth better than Kinglake's description 
 of the behaviour of the Levantines during an outbreak of the plague 
 at Cairo, showing how these terror-stricken people invited the very 
 danger they feared : ' For awhile it may be that the caution of the 
 poor Levantine may enable him to avoid contact (with the garments of 
 passers-by), but sooner or later, perhaps, the dreaded chance arrives. 
 . . . From that dread moment his peace is gone ; his mind, for ever 
 hanging upon the fatal touch, invites the blow which he fears ; he 
 watches for the symptoms of plague so carefully that, sooner or later, 
 they come in truth. The parched mouth is a sign — his mouth is 
 parched ; the throbbing brain — his brain does throb ; the rapid pulse 
 — he touches his own wrist (for he dares not ask counsel of anj- man 
 ' lest he be deserted) — he touches his wrist, and feels how his frighted 
 blood goes galloping out of his heart. There is nothing but the fatal 
 swelling to make his sad conviction complete ; immediately he has an 
 odd feel under the arm — no pain, but a little straining of the skin — 
 he would to God that his fancy were strong enough to give him that 
 sensation. This is worst of all. It now seems to him that he could be 
 
 * 0/>. a'/., p. 112. 
 
22 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 happy ami contented with his parched mouth and his throbliing brain 
 and his rapid pulse, if he only knew that there were no swelling 
 under the left arm ; but dares he try ? In a moment of calmness and 
 deliberation he dares not ; but when for awhile he has writhed under 
 the torture of suspense, a sudden strength of will drives him to seek 
 and know his fate ; he touches the gland, and finds the skin sane 
 and sound, but under the cuticle there lies a small lump like a pistol - 
 bullet, that moves as he pushes it. Oh I but is this for ail certainty 
 — is this the sentence of death ? Feel the gland on the other arm. 
 There is not the same lump exactly, yet something a little like it. 
 Have not some people glands naturally enlarged ? Would to heaven 
 he were one ! So he does for himself the work of the plague, and 
 when the Angel of Death, thus courted, does in truth and indeed 
 come, he has only to finish that which has been so well begun.' * 
 
 Liebeault quotes several authors to prove that many persons seem 
 to have had the power of so dominating their bodies by the force of 
 will that they succeeded in keeping off illness which threatened them, 
 and in some instances in averting or curing it when it actually had 
 assailed them. Thus, he says, Pascal cured himself of neuralgia by 
 steadfastly fixing his attention on other things, and Goethe relates how 
 he got rid of a troublesome cough in the same way. They induced a 
 condition which was practically identical with slight hypnosis, and 
 suggested to themselves functional changes in the direction of health. 
 
 Liebeault told me he was able to cure himself of slight maladies — 
 such as facial neuralgia — by auto-hypnotism and auto-suggestion. He 
 sent himself to sleep by fixing his gaze on some prominent object, 
 such as a door-handle, and his mind on the disappearance of the 
 malady, and he dropped off into a doze, out of which he awoke cured I 
 But I apprehend that such a result can only be achieved by a few, and 
 that, as a rule, both the induction of hypnosis and the suggestions for 
 cure must come from without. In most persons the disease dominates 
 the system, and entirely prevents the presence of that state of mental 
 receptivity and confidence which is an essential preliminary to curative 
 auto-suggestion. 
 
 Professor Dubois (quoted by Laycock) divided hypo- 
 chondriasis into three stages : in the first the mind only 
 is affected ; the patient is harassed by imaginary diseases, 
 and concentrates his attention on one or other of the 
 viscera, thereby changing their innervation and bringing 
 about the second stage. In the third stage these nervous 
 changes terminate in organic disease of the affected organ, 
 and the evil ceases to be one of imagination alone. 
 
 We sometimes come across people who tell us they 
 * have no time to be ill'; and certainly reports of longevity 
 shows that rust destroys more than use, and that hale old 
 age is more frequently attained by those who have led 
 
 * 'Eothen,' p. 257. 
 
 i 
 
 A 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 23 
 
 busy lives than by idlers. Idleness is a well-known factor 
 in producing all kinds of ailments, real and imaginary, of 
 mind and body, perhaps because the idle man, from sheer 
 lack of interest in life, devotes too much attention to his 
 own organism.* 
 
 Imagination, combined with * direction of conscious- 
 ness ' (Sir H. Holland) to a part, will produce results 
 which have been noticed by many pathologists. John 
 Hunter said he was confident of producing a sensation in 
 any part of his body simply by concentrating his attention 
 on it. Sir H. Holland observes :t 'In hypochondriasis, 
 the patient, by fixing his attention on internal organs, 
 creates not merely disordered sensations, but disordered 
 action in them.' And again : ' When there is liability to 
 irregular pulsation (of the heart), this is brought on and 
 increased by a simple effort of attention."* 
 
 The late Dr. Forbes Winslow, writing on this subject, 
 says : * It is a well-established fact that alterations of 
 tissue have been the result of a morbid concentration of 
 the attention to particular organic structures. Certain 
 feelings of uneasiness, or even pain, originate in the mind 
 a suspicion of disease existing in particular parts of the 
 body, it may be in the lungs, stomach, heart, brain, liver, 
 or kidneys. Some slight irregularities and functional 
 disturbances in the action of these organs being noticed, 
 
 * The remarkable growth of Christian Science is due to a great 
 extent to the recognition by Mrs. Eddy and her followers of the 
 foregoing facts. They tell people that, instead of being interesting, 
 it is rather a mean thing to be ill. Some of them pretend to possess 
 perfect health who formerly looked upon such a suggestion as almost 
 an insult. Increased love of sport and exercise among women has 
 done much to render the body more healthy and able to respond 
 to mental stimulation. Times have changed since the days of Jane 
 Austen, whose heroines were anaemic, and fainted on the smallest 
 provocation ; and even from those of Lord Beaconsfield, who wrote : 
 'At the present day, especially among women, one would suppose 
 that health was a state of unnatural existence.' Now people threaten 
 to go to the other extreme, and we hear of delicately-nurtured women 
 under Christian Science teaching getting up and going about the 
 house two or three days after childbirth, because the ' natural ' and 
 savage woman can do so with impunity. 
 
 t ' Medical Notes and Reflections,' London, 1839. 
 
24 TREATMEST BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 arc at once suggestive (to the hypochondriac) of serious 
 and fatal disease being estabhshed in the part to which 
 the attention is directed. This deviation from a normal 
 state of certain functions frequently lapses into actual 
 structural disease, as the effect of the faculty of attention 
 being for a lengthened period concentrated on this action. 
 The continuous direction of the mind to vital tissues 
 imagined to be in an unhealthy state undoubtedly causes 
 an exaltation of their special functions, and an increase 
 of susceptibility, by (it may be presumed) concentra- 
 ting to them an abnormal quantity of blood, this being 
 followed successively by (i) undue vascular action, 
 (2) capillary congestion, (3) an excess in the evolution 
 of nerve force, and (4) appreciable structural alterations.'" 
 Hysterical contraction of the lower limbs frequently 
 leads to structural changes and disease of the spinal 
 cord (Charcot, Gowers), from impairment of nutrition and 
 trophic changes leading to softening. Hack Tuke says: 
 * If twent}- persons fix their attention on their little finger 
 for ten minutes, the result will be that most of them will 
 feel decided sensations there, am.ounting in some to a 
 mere sense of weight or throbbing, and in others to actual 
 pain.' He endeavours to explain this by supposing that 
 the act of attention excites an increased flow of blood to 
 the part, and consequent increased vascularity of the 
 sensory nerve ganglia, so leading to subjective sensation ; 
 or that the sympathetic nerve centres become excited, and 
 the vasomotor nerves influenced thereby so as to cause 
 in the finger temporary vascular changes which invoke 
 sensation. He puts forward also a third hypothesis, 
 which is interesting from the relation it bears to that 
 given by Professor Delboeuf, of Liege — that fixing the 
 attention on a part of the body for some time renders 
 us conscious of the working of functions which are 
 usually performed automatically and unconsciously. Sir 
 James Paget thinks that by nervous excitement the 
 temperature may be raised to at least 101° F. (from the 
 
 * 'Obscure Diseases of the IJrain and Mind,' London, i860. 
 
 I 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 25 
 
 normal 98"5° F.) ; and Professor Wunderlich says on the 
 ■^aine subject :* ' In hysterical neurosis elevations of the 
 temperature even to excessive heights may occur without 
 any motive at all.'f Sir S. Wilkes relates cases of 
 extreme ansemia caused by depressing emotions; and this 
 agrees with the experience of all medical men, as does 
 also the opposite observation, that pleasant emotions 
 bring about a good state of the blood and secretions, and 
 improve the health. Instances in which the hair has 
 rapidly, even in a few days, suffered atrophic changes, 
 leading to its becoming white and falling out, from 
 excessive depressing emotions, are common — and under 
 similar circumstances the teeth will sometimes rapidly 
 decay. To show the interdependence of organs, and how 
 even transitory ailments affect nutrition, Dr. Savill| 
 quotes the case of a woman whose finger-nails for months 
 exhibited cracks and deficiencies marking the period of 
 severe sea-sickness. 
 
 Dr. de Watteville says : § * One of the most striking 
 properties of the nervous system is that by which the 
 activity of one portion may be arrested or prevented — 
 "inhibited" — by the activity of another . . . when we 
 attend closely to a sensory impression or to a train of 
 thought, the excitability of every part of the brain, except 
 
 * ' Medical Thermometry,' New Sydenham Society, 1871. 
 
 t I was once called to attend a medical man, whom I found ui a 
 otate of great alarm on account of the way his temperature was rising. 
 He was an e.xtremely nervous man, suffering from o\erwork and 
 anxiety, brought to a crisis by a severe attack of bronchial catarrh. 
 He took his own temperature every few minutes, and in less than four 
 hours it mounted from 101° F. — which represented the amount of 
 fever which one expected to be present — to 104^ F. He became almost 
 delirious, and it took some time to soothe him : but in less than an 
 hour the thermometer only registered 102° F., and without any special 
 treatment soon dropped to looP F. In this case nervous excitement 
 may be credited with having forced a rise of at least 2° F. Krafft- 
 Ebing, in the celebrated case of lima S., was able by suggestion in 
 tlie hypnotic state to bring about almost immediate depression of 
 temperature to the extent of 2° or 3° F., showing the relation- 
 ship between psychical and somatic processes under certain con- 
 ditions. 
 
 + 'A System of Clinical Medicine,' vol. ii., p. 775. 
 
 § ' Sleep and its Counterfeits,' Fortnightly Review^ J^Iay, 1887. 
 
26 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 that actually engaged in the act, is diminished by an 
 inhibitory action of the working portion. Thus, when we 
 say that anger or fear paralyzes, we allude in very accurate 
 language to the inhibitory influence which powerful 
 emotion exercises on the cerebral functions.' Sir Lauder 
 Brunton, speaking of the effect of emotion on the organs, 
 says : ' Whenever emotional excitement is prevented from 
 discharging itself externally by motor channels it is very 
 apt to vent itself upon the internal viscera, and the 
 principal channel through which it does this seems to 
 be the vagus.' He instances the description of emotion 
 without outlet given by Tennyson, in his poem ' Home 
 they brought her Warrior Dead,' and points out how the 
 poet recognized the reciprocity between emotion and 
 motor impulses when he described the reHef which 
 followed on the sufferer bursting into tears and embracing 
 her child.* 
 
 Dr. Charles Mercier, in his recent work, ' Sanity and 
 Insanity,' refers to the rapid pigmentary change both as 
 regards the hair and the skin produced by excitement 
 and emotion, and gives as an instance the case of a young 
 Bengalee with perfectly black hair, who was arrested on 
 a grave charge and publicly examined. The danger and 
 horror of the situation so affected him that his hair 
 actually changed colour before the eyes of the spectators, 
 and in the space of half an hour was of a uniform grey 
 tint. That emotion and fancy have power to modify the 
 secretions is shown by the well-known fact that the mouth 
 becomes dry and parched through fear or anger, while on 
 the other hand it * waters ' at the idea of savoury food, 
 the mental impression paralyzing or stimulating the 
 secretory apparatus of the salivary glands. Violent 
 emotion, again, will so modify the secretion of gastric 
 juice as to cause indigestion in subjects at all predisposed 
 to it. An attack of jaundice may be induced by anger — 
 as the popular saying, ' Green with rage,' implies — from 
 an accumulation of bile in the blood through nervous 
 ♦ 'On Inhibition,' West Riding Reports, 1874. 
 
 ii 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 27 
 
 excitement causing * inhibition ' of the healthy function of 
 the liver. 
 
 Disease, then, as we have seen, may, in hypochondriasis 
 I and kindred states, be induced by auto-suggestion, and 
 j there is no doubt that it may likewise be induced by sug- 
 gestion from without. Let a man be told repeatedly by 
 j his friends that he is looking ill, that he does not seem 
 I fit to go about, that he must take care of himself, or he 
 ! will have this or that complaint — and unless he has a very 
 I cheerful and well-balanced mind, he is pretty sure, for a 
 I time at least, to deteriorate in health. There is a story 
 I of such suggestions being made, for a practical joke, at 
 I the expense of a stalwart farmer, who, having been assured 
 I by several persons that he seemed in a bad way, did really 
 j take to his bed and go through an unmistakable attack of 
 I illness. This, of course, was a cruel and unwarrantable 
 1 jest : yet a somewhat similar effect is occasionally pro- 
 j duced by well-meaning persons, who are in the habit of 
 i commiserating their acquaintance for not looking well. 
 • Laycock {op. cit., p. 112) says that the effect of 'fearful 
 I attention ' has sometimes proved fatal, and instances the 
 1 case of a man whose death that night was foretold by a 
 I ventriloquist at a dinner-party. So great was the effect 
 \ of the prophecy that it fulfilled itself, and the unfortunate 
 i man actually died at about the time indicated. Sir William 
 1 Gowers, referring to the influence the imagination may 
 1 have on functions which are ordinarily beyond the control 
 j of the will, says that vomiting may be produced by an 
 I emotion of disgust, and the needed emotion may be called 
 I up without sensorial agency, as is shown by the strange 
 t cases in which the husband has retched in sympathy 
 I with the vomiting of his wife in pregnancy, and has at 
 I last become so sensitive that sickness occurs as soon as 
 he knows his wife is pregnant (' Diseases of the Nervous 
 [ System,' vol. ii., p. 928). 
 
 In subsequent pages I shall detail some experiments to 
 j show how greatly the will acting through suggestion is 
 able to modify the action of the heart in hypnosis, but 
 
28 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 such modifying influence is not necessarily confined to 
 the hypnotic state. As a rule we are unable to exert any 
 decided influence over the vegetative organs by simple 
 ideation, but Professor Tarchanoff has recorded the case 
 of a student who had the power of accelerating his 
 heart's action by no less than thirty-five beats in a minute. 
 Tarchanoff has very fully investigated and described the 
 case, and he supposes that the acceleration does not 
 depend upon deficiency in the controlling power of the 
 \agus, but rather on increased control over the accele- 
 rators, which the student was able to exercise through 
 the accelerator centres in the cord being connected with 
 a will centre higher up.* 
 
 Hack Tuke gives an instance of death itself being 
 produced by suggestion. A Frenchman of rank was con- 
 demned to death for some crime, and his friends, willing 
 to avoid the scandal of a public execution, allowed him 
 to be made the subject of an experiment. He was told 
 that he must be bled to death. His eyes were bandaged, 
 and his arm having been lightly pricked, a stream of 
 warm water was made to trickle down it and fall into a 
 basin, while the assistants kept up a running commentary 
 on his supposed condition. 'He is getting faint; the 
 heart's action is becoming feebler ; his pulse is almost 
 gone,' and other remarks of the sort. In a short time 
 the miserable man died with the actual symptoms of 
 cardiac syncope from haemorrhage, without having lost 
 a drop of blood. {Vide note in Appendix, p. 378.) 
 
 * Quoted by Professor Hamilton, 'Text-Book of Physiology,' p. 569 
 fLondon, s. i). On the other hand, Brown-Sequard relates how a 
 student in his class was able at will to bring about an arrest of the 
 heart's action (/?«??'. Hebdominairt% 1882, p. 36). A few years ago we 
 made a series of experiments on hypnotized subjects at the rooms oi 
 the Society for Psychical Research. The effect of suggestion on the 
 pulse-rate was very remarkable, but we found that Mr. Podmore's 
 pulse was almost as much affected as the subject's by getting him 
 to imagine himself running to catch a train. He realized the action 
 very thoroughly, though sitting in a chair, and soon the heart 
 responded to repeated urgent suggestion by quickening at least 
 twenty beats in the minute. There was no question, of course, of 
 hypnotism. It was simply a control-experiment. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 29 
 
 There are some authenticated cases of apparent death 
 being produced by auto-suggestion. We hear of this 
 being accomphshed by Indian fakirs and other rehgious 
 enthusiasts in Eastern countries. Braid cites a remark- 
 able and, he beheves, thoroughly well-authenticated in- 
 stance of a distinguished holy man, who, to convince the 
 Maharajah Runjeet Singh "^ that he possessed this power 
 over himself, apparently died, and was laid in a sealed 
 coffin within a vault, the entrance to which was also 
 sealed and guarded by soldiers. After six weeks, the 
 time appointed by himself, he was taken out of the 
 tomb in the presence of the Rajah and of several credible 
 witnesses, English as well as native, and found to display 
 every appearance of death. Having been gradually re- 
 vived by his own servant, the still ghastly-looking, corpse- 
 like creature sat up and spoke, his first words being 
 addressed to the doubting Rajah : ' Do you believe me 
 now ?' 
 
 As sickness, and perhaps even death, may be produced 
 by suggestion, so may be, and very often is, produced the 
 cure of sickness. Towards this, however, auto-suggestion, 
 though it might do much, does actually little or nothing, 
 the natural reason being that the mind of a sick person, 
 when left to itself, is prone rather to suggest morbid than 
 health-inducing ideas, and so operates for mischief rather 
 than in the direction of cure. Sir Thomas Clouston, in 
 his article on mind cures in the Quarterly Review for 
 
 * This case is related in medical detail by Dr. McGregor in his 
 'History of the Sikhs,' p. 227. He was an eye-witness of the disin- 
 
 j terment. There are other cases of a similar character, apparently 
 well authenticated. The late Sir Richard Burton wrote to me on the 
 
 1 subject, stating that he had investigated cases of vivi-sepulture, and 
 was convinced of their genuineness. 
 
 The starting-point of the movements of the heart is the excitation 
 produced by the pressure of the blood on the sensory or centripetal 
 nerve fibres of the endocardium. If the contact of the blood with 
 the endocardium be prevented, the heart ceases its pulsation, the 
 physiological cause of the reflex action having been removed. If the 
 chest, and consequently the heart, be compressed by a series of forced 
 expirations and by holding the breath, so as completely to empty the 
 lungs, and bring the muscular walls of the heart into close contact, 
 we may succeed in stopping its beating. The performance of this 
 
30 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 January, 1913, tells how a patient under his care conceived 
 the idea that he must die, and die he did in spite of ail 
 that could be done for him. He became extremely 
 emaciated, though he took plenty of food. He goes on 
 to say : ' It is certain that in time, through brain and 
 mental influences, some diseases now regarded as in- 
 curable will be cured. Such influences largely control 
 nutrition, and many organic diseases result from mal- 
 nutrition.' Sir W. Osier once said : ' Hope and nux 
 vomica will cure most curable diseases.' Every physician 
 knows how, by determined hopefulness and cheerfulness, 
 a sufferer from functional, and even from curable organic, 
 disease may facilitate the work of healing, and materially 
 hasten his recovery. 
 
 In all ages wonderful cures, real amid a multitude of 
 shams, have been wrought at holy places dedicated to 
 various saints of various cults. Among the throngs of 
 pilgrims to Mecca, to the sacred rivers and temples of 
 India, to the shrines of Buddhist hagiology, there are 
 some who, having made the outward journey wearily and 
 painfully, do indeed turn homeward with the gift of health. 
 A proportion of those who have limped or been carried to 
 Lourdes and to a hundred other holy places of the Catholic 
 Church, do leave behind them crutches that they no longer 
 require. Some of the sufferers who worshipped the Holy 
 Coat at Treves did truly receive in restored health the 
 reward of their faith. Some wearers of relics and amulets 
 are really the better for possessing them. The cheered, 
 uplifted, and convinced mind works, sometimes with 
 startling rapidity, on the diseased body.* 
 
 For this same reason, touching for the king's evil did 
 no doubt effect many cures. The royal progresses were 
 announced some time beforehand, and the sufferers along 
 their route had often weeks in which to cherish the ex- 
 
 experiment is not recommended, as it might have a fatal issue. I'it/c 
 an article on ' La Mort Simulee,' by Dr. G. Tourdes, ' Dictionnaire 
 Encyclopedique des Sciences Medicales,' Paris, 1875. 
 * / /V/t' note in Appendix, p. 409, ' Spiritual Healing.' 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 31 
 
 pectation of healing, in itself so beneficial ; and in those 
 days of faith, when a belief in the divine right of kings 
 was universal and strong, the touch of the royal hand 
 must, except in the most hopeless cases, have had a stimu- 
 lating effect which may often have caused a healthful 
 reaction. Even in our own times, a royal touch, accom- 
 panied by kindly words, has good effect. We read in the 
 'Life of Victor Emanuel,'* that in 1865, when the cholera 
 was raging in Naples, and the panic-stricken inhabitants 
 were migrating by thousands from the city, the king, 
 wishing to give his people courage, went the round of the 
 hospitals. ' He stood beside the sick-beds, and spoke 
 encouragingly to the patients.' Before one of those 
 already marked for death, the king stopped, and taking 
 his damp, frozen hand, he pressed it, saying, ' Take 
 courage, poor man, and try to recover soon.' The warm 
 grasp of the hand, the strong cheerful words, the recog- 
 nition of the king's face, had an agitating effect on the 
 dying man. That evening the syndic visited the king, 
 and said : * Your Majesty's coming is a joyful omen. I am 
 happy to tell you that the doctors report a diminution of 
 i the disease in the course of the day, and your Majesty has 
 ) unawares worked a miracle. The man you saw this 
 j morning stretched for death is out of danger this evening. 
 j The doctors say the excitement of your presence caused the 
 salutary crisis.' In Carpenter's * Physiology 't numerous 
 examples are given demonstrating the influence of the 
 
 * 'Life of Victor Emanuel,' by G. S. Godkin, vol. ii., p. 213. 
 
 t ' On the Influence of the Nervous System on the Organic Func- 
 tions,' chap, v., ninth edition. Perhaps the most striking example 
 of the power of the will and imagination to affect function, and even 
 to initiate it, is afforded in a few rare but well-authenticated cases 
 collected by Dr. Dunglison (' Human Physiology,' vol. ii., seventh 
 edition), and quoted by Carpenter, in which strong desire to furnish 
 milk, combined with continued irritation of the nipple by the infant's 
 mouth, has brought about a secretion of milk in the mammary glands 
 of childless and unmarried women, and even of men. The not un- 
 common occurrence of pseudo-pregnancy, with production of all the 
 subjective and many of the objective symptoms of real pregnancy, 
 under the stimulus of a strong desire for children, affords evidence of 
 the power of auto-suggestion. The historical case of Queen Mary is 
 a familiar example. 
 
32 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 mind and imaginative faculties on the different bodily 
 functions, and we have onh- to consider a moment to 
 recall many personal experiences pointing in the same 
 direction.* 
 
 Sir Lauder Brunton gives several examples, showing 
 how vigorous belief on the part of a friend may avert 
 what appears like inevitable death. For instance, when 
 Melancthon was lying very ill, and apparently dying, 
 Luther was sent for to see his friend. On his arrival, 
 he said : ' You must not die, Philip ; we cannot spare 
 you.' ' Oh, let me die quietly,' said poor Melancthon. 
 ' No, Philip, you must not die,' was the reply, followed 
 by an impassioned prayer that Melancthon should live. 
 The effect was soon apparent ; the tide turned and the 
 sick man got well. I am not informed as to whether 
 Luther often practised the healing art, but it is certain 
 that most religious leaders and pioneers, from Mahomeff" to 
 George Fox the Quaker! and John Wesley, have occasion- 
 ally exercised the power of curing the sick. There are 
 some remarkable cases in John Wesley's ' Journal.' For 
 instance, he writes : 
 
 ' Friday, i6th October, 17S8. Immediately after a strange 
 scene occurred. I was desired to visit one who had 
 been eminently pious, but had now been confined to her 
 bed for several months and was utterly unable to raise 
 herself up. She desired us to pray that the chain might 
 be broken. A few of us prayed in faith. Presently she 
 rose up, dressed herself, came downstairs, and, I believe, 
 had not any further complaint.' 
 
 Again : ' Wednesday, 24th April, 1782. So on Friday I 
 
 * A friend of mine was house-surgeon many years ago to Sir James 
 Paget. He was a Plymouth Brother, and felt it his duty to speak 
 seriously and rather terrifyingly to patients after operations. Sir 
 James, himself a man of great piety, forbade my friend's untimely 
 preaching, saying it depressed the patients and 'didn't give his 
 operation a fair chance.' On several occasions I have been asked by 
 surgeons to arouse a hopeful spirit in patients before an operation, 
 and at other times to inspire them with a desire to recover when there 
 was despondency, and even a wish ' to die and have done with it.' 
 
 t See ' Life of Mahomet,' by Sir William Muir. 
 
 + ' Annals of the Early Friends,' by Jane Budge. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 33 
 
 got to Halifax, where Mr. Floyd lay in a high fever, 
 almost dead for want of sleep. This was prevented by 
 the violent pain in one of his feet, which was much 
 s.welled and so sore it could not be touched. We joined 
 in prayer that God would fulfil His word and give His 
 beloved sleep. Presently the swelling, the soreness, the 
 pain, were gone ; and he had a good night's rest.' 
 
 Father Ignatius is a recent example of a spiritual leader 
 working semi-miraculous cures, if the testimony of his 
 followers is to be believed.* The Salvation Army holds 
 regular services for manifestation by cure of the sick. 
 Dr. Schofield gives accounts of extraordinary results he 
 has seen. 
 
 Some 3'ears ago the theosophist leader, Colonel Olcott, 
 
 I described to me a healing tour he made in India in the 
 
 1 interest of his propaganda. He seems to have performed 
 
 some remarkable cures, and he was most candid in his 
 
 I account of his proceedings. His approach to a town or 
 
 village was always heralded with much ceremony, and 
 
 j people were told to bring out their sick to him. He 
 
 passed them in review, and selected those he thought fit 
 
 subjects by a test well known to mesmerizers. Telling the 
 
 sick person to look steadily into his eyes, he made a few 
 
 'passes' down the body, and if the patient followed the 
 
 j hand he knew him to be susceptible to hypnotism and 
 
 [ worth trying suggestion on. The cures, then, were con- 
 
 1 fessedly hypnotic. 
 
 j The curative effect does not always depend upon the 
 
 I truth of the tenets preached, for false prophets have also 
 
 j been successful healers. For instance, Brigham Young 
 
 j had a great reputation in that line among his disciples, 
 
 : and Myers quotes the following amusing illustration of 
 
 his astuteness : One of his followers, a farmer, living 
 
 j hundreds of miles away, lost a leg through an accident, 
 
 I and so great was his faith in the prophet that he journeyed 
 
 to Salt Lake City, feeling assured that Brigham Young 
 
 could restore it to him. ' Why, yes,' said the prophet, ' I 
 
 * ' Life of Father Ignatius,' by Baroness de Bertouch. 
 
 3 
 
34 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 can restore it ; but it is for you to consider whether it is 
 expedient, for if I give you back your leg, you will have 
 two legs until you die, which will be a great convenience ; 
 but in the resurrection, not only will the leg you lost rise 
 and be united to your body, but also the one I give you : 
 thus you will be encumbered with three legs for ever, and 
 it is for you to decide whether you will take the incon- 
 venience of the one leg now or three legs through 
 eternity.' The man chose the present inconvenience, and 
 the prophet retained his reputation. 
 
 All these examples show that the chief curative factor 
 is the faith of the patient, which, if aroused to a certain 
 point, seems able to set up a healthy and healing reaction. 
 When touching for the king's evil was practised by two 
 rival kings — for instance, James II. and William III. — I 
 imagine it was only the monarch deemed legitimate and 
 possessed of divine right who worked the cure.* 
 
 * Miss Mary Hamilton, M.A., Carnegie Research Scholar, has 
 written an interesting volume (' Incubation in the Cure of Disease in 
 Pagan Temples and Christian Churches,' 1906) on incubation or 
 temple sleep as practised in ancient (ireece and Asia Minor, Italy 
 and Egypt. The sick person was laid in the temple at night, and 
 the god visited him in his dreams and cured him of his disease. The 
 dream often took the form of a vision of the deity, who sometimes 
 touched the afflicted part, and sometimes spoke words of comfort or 
 assurance. The cured patient proclaimed his gratitude on tablets, 
 many of which remain to this day and can still be read. The cures 
 recorded were chiefly of affections of the eyes, blindness, paralysis, 
 internal tumours, old wounds, rheumatism, and gout. The following 
 are typical cases : A blind man came to the temple of Asklepios in 
 Epidauros. One of the eyes had not even a trace of a ball, and the 
 socket was completely empty. Some of those in the temple said it 
 was folly to think he could recover his sight, but he became a patient 
 and slept. In his sleep the god appeared, and prepared some drug 
 which he poured into the eyes. In the morning he awoke and found 
 the sight of both eyes restored. A chronic invalid and martyr to 
 dyspepsia was quickly cured by following the god's instructions as to 
 diet, bathing, and exercise. A man with paralysis of the knees saw a 
 vision of the god in a chariot which he drove over him, so that the 
 horses trampled him under foot. In his sleep he stood upright, and 
 in the morning he departed cured. The priests used to impress the 
 patients by making them go through elaborate preliminary ceremonies 
 and invocations, and they exacted large fees. Sometimes it is staled 
 that, when the fee was not satisfactory, cure would be delayed or a 
 relapse would occur. 
 
 When Christianity triumphed over paganism, many of the heathen 
 
 III 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 35 
 
 It is hard to tell how much the personality of the healer 
 exerts a direct effect. Many people think there is some 
 telepathic influence at work. Belief in himself and his 
 mission seem necessary qualifications of a successful 
 spiritual healer, as they are of all men who influence their 
 fellows by authoritative suggestion. Even the quack brings 
 himself to believe in the efficacy of his treatment, and I 
 cannot imagine the sceptic or cynic effecting psychical 
 cures. In the first place, his scepticism would be reflected 
 in his actions, and would prevent the necessary uprush or 
 faith in the patient. We know of medical men who have 
 lost faith in themselves and their remedies. Their position 
 is a sad one, and they would be well advised to choose 
 another calling. 
 
 We know how in impressionable persons the idea calls 
 up the sensation. Thus, talking or thinking of ants or 
 fleas may produce irritation of the skin and formication, 
 recollection of a certain dish may reawaken its savour, 
 and expectation of hearing a bell ring may so act on the 
 auditory centres as to produce a subjective tintinnabulation. 
 The suggestion of a person's presence may call up his 
 image, as in the well-known story told by Dr. Wigan. 
 He was in Paris, and at a reception given shortly after 
 the execution of Marshal Ney. All the world was talking 
 about the deceased general and his tragic end, when the 
 servant threw open the doors and ushered in a gentleman 
 ; whom he announced as ' Marshal Ney!' A dead silence 
 j came over the company, and a shiver ran through them 
 
 temples, Miss Hamilton says, were converted into Christian churches, 
 and cures of the same kind continued to be worked in them in the 
 name of the saint who took the place of the god. 
 
 One cannot fail to be struck by the similarity of the cures effected 
 
 in ecstatic and hypnoid states in all times and under diverse con- 
 
 <litions. The vision of a bright light and the hearing of a voice 
 
 I are common accompaniments ; and the cures are, generally if not 
 
 I invariably, instantaneous or very rapid. Though the accompaniment 
 
 I of an impressive environment is most conducive to cure, this result 
 
 IS sometimes brought about by spontaneous ecstasy, as in 'The Heme 
 
 Hill Miracle,' much advertised in the daily papers, and fully described 
 
 jby Dr. Edwin Ash ('Faith and Suggestion,' 1912). 
 
36 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 as they glanced towards the door, and so strong was the 
 mental picture conjured up by the servant's blunder that 
 many of those present seemed to see the familiar figure 
 stalking into the room. These exaniples serve to show 
 how suggestion in the waking state may pr6"dTice4actile^ 
 auditory and visual images by direct action on the highest 
 centres, and they give us some clue to the phenomena 
 observable in the states of hypnotism characterized by 
 heightened suggestibility. In the motor sphere we find 
 the same phenomenon. The thought or idea of dancing 
 often causes the feet to move in rhythm, just as the idea 
 of a combat may lead us to clench the fist.* The thought- 
 reader's success generally depends on the fact that the 
 idea upon which the subject's mmd is intensely fixed is , 
 betrayed to the practised ' medium ' by unconscious and 
 involuntary muscular movements. 
 
 But it is unnecessary to multiply instances showing the 
 influence of the mental states over bodily functions, as 
 everyone must have numberless examples of it in his own i 
 person. Mental discouragement and depression have as , 
 their accompaniments disinclination for exertion and very i 
 frequently a sense of bodily fatigue. Who has not felt 
 such a combination of symptoms after disappointment 
 and worry, and does not know that the removal of the 
 cause is followed by immediate removal of the effect ? A 
 letter saying that the friend we mourned as about to die 
 has recovered, or that the investment we thought hope- 
 
 * Hypnotism greatly increases the ideo-motor association, as is 
 shown by Professor litres, of Bordeaux. He hypnotized a young 
 woman named Celestine, and she at once passed into a condition of 
 profound trance, in whicli she lay motionless and expressionless. He 
 asked what she was thinking of, and she replied, ' Nothing,' and her 
 face showed no sign of intelligence .She was tlien placed in a kneel- 
 ing position, with her hands clasped, and immediately her face, 
 previously so dull and apathetic, lighted up, and assumed an aspect 
 of devotion resembling that seen in religious ecstasy, while her lips 
 were seen to move. ' What are you doing .'" asked Dr. Pitres. 
 ' Saying my prayers,' answered the girl. When asked what she saw, 
 she replied, 'The Virgin,' and proceeded to describe her dress and 
 appearance. The attitude suggested the idea, and the thought 
 produced the hallucination. — Pitres, op. i/7., p. 155. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 37 
 
 lessly bad has turned out a brilliant success, not only 
 removes the mental symptoms, but also seems to put new 
 energy into our actions. The sense of fatigue vanishes, 
 the muscles become braced up, and there is an immediate 
 demand for an outlet of energy which has been liberated 
 by the removal of the inhibitory effects of despair. The 
 counterpart is equally apparent, for we know and have 
 experienced the effect on the depressed and wearied 
 mind of a game of tennis or billiards, or any form of 
 effort which acts as a derivative by calling off nervous 
 energy from overworked and enfeebled centres into other 
 channels and fresh combinations. The philosopher is 
 indifferent to privation and suffermg because he is able to 
 direct his thoughts into channels which are not affected 
 bv the ups and downs of ordinary life, and his philosophy 
 is practically the outcome of the development of his power 
 of inhibition. 
 
 The lesson the study of mental suggestion teaches is 
 not that disease is imaginary, but that the imagination has 
 a powerful influence over its manifestations, which should 
 be recognized and made use of. Here come in the train- 
 ing and skill of the physician, and it is the want of these 
 I which cause the amateur and quack to come to grief. 
 When an army surgeon is quite sure that a soldier is 
 I malingering, he has no hesitation in punishing him and 
 [ returning him to duty ; but he must make sure of his 
 I ground. A few years ago I read of a man falling dead on 
 j parade at Aldershot. He had reported himself sick, but 
 ! the surgeon, after a perfunctory examination, passed him 
 as fit for duty. The man was really ill, as the event 
 t proved. The soldier died, and the surgeon was requested 
 i to send in his papers. So in treating an organ or function, 
 let us first make sure of our diagnosis, and then we can 
 safely employ our remedies — rhaterial, mental, or both. 
 
 Hypnotism in some cases enables us to do for our 
 patients what the philosopher can do for himself. * It 
 seems the only kind of therapeutic power that can pene- 
 trate a certain obscure province of pathology at all. 
 
38 TREATMENT />'Y HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 When the senses practise strange tyrannies over the 
 emotions and the will, or when tlie imaginative and 
 intellectual powers maltreat the body with suppressed 
 treacheries and revolts, suggestion alone seems able to 
 interpose in the confusion of consequent suffering. The 
 dualism of the remedy matches the dualism of the treated 
 
 malady."* The case of Mrs. E , quoted on p. 326, is 
 
 an example of this. 
 
 I have recently seen a lady whose condition is in some ways a 
 typical example of the connection between mental states and bodily 
 functions. She is a woman of thirty-five, and is married and ha^ 
 children. She has no ort^anic disease as far as can be ascertained, 
 and spends more than half her time happily and naturally. But she 
 s subject to attacks of melancholia, and these generally come on 
 e\ery three or four weeks, and last about a week. She goes to bed 
 eeling well, but awakes utterly dejected and miserable after a dis- 
 turbed sleep of two or three hours. Her whole appearance undergoes 
 a change ; she looks much older, her complexion becomes muddy 
 and sallow, and her skin dry and harsh, her eyes dull and hea\y, her 
 attitude and gait stooping and slow. The timbre of her voice alters, 
 and her speech becomes slow. At the same time the bowels beconu- 
 obstinately confined, and the water high-coloured, thick, and scanty. 
 She also suffers at these times from constant frontal headache and 
 loss of memory. During the attacks she suffers from insomnia, and 
 when she does sleep, she has disturbed dreams, and is restless and 
 agitated. It is interesting to note that she is naturally of an unusually 
 bright and energetic temperament, and systematically overworks and 
 strains herself. She comes of a neurotic family, and was scrofulous 
 as a child. The attacks are often preceded by a period of unusual 
 excitement and mental activity. In this brief sketch of a not unusual 
 condition one sees the close connection between mental states and 
 bodily functions, and it is not easy to say whether mind or body is 
 the primary seat of disturbance. I am disposed to think that the 
 symptoms depend on exhaustion of nervous energy in the highest 
 centres of the cortical area, and that this exhaustion affects not only 
 memory and sleep, but also nutritive and secretory processes. 
 
 Dr. T. W. Mitchell relates how a patient of his had, as 
 alternating states, mental depression with terrifying 
 dreams and functional hemiplegia.! 
 
 * Wingfield, o/>. a'/., p. 170. 
 
 t Soc. Psych. Rcsccirc/i, Medical Number, Xo\ember, 191 2. 
 
 1 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Power of Mind and Body increased by Concentration of Attention 
 and Energy. — Suppression of One Faculty tends to increase the 
 Development of Others. — Concentration of Mind on One Idea 
 in Somnambulism, and Performance of Tasks impossible when 
 awake. — Some Tragical Results of Natural Somnambulism. — 
 Artificial or Hypnotic Somnambulism may be turned to Thera- 
 peutic Purposes. — Natural Sleep may pass into Hypnotic Sleep, 
 and vice versa. — The Faculties may be aroused and intensified 
 in Hypnotic Somnambulism. 
 
 I H.WE endeavoured to show how much the imagination 
 (in its widest sense) may have to do with the health of 
 mind and body ; and I shall now try to point out that 
 the effects of ' directed consciousness ' are greatly in- 
 creased under certain conditions, when the mind is so 
 withdrawn from the consideration of all extraneous ideas 
 as to be absolutely concentrated upon one object. 
 
 We have seen how concentration of mind -faculty, 
 whether self-induced or brought about by some shock 
 to the system, or some powerful external influence, can 
 modify functions, and both produce and cure disease — 
 sometimes gradually, but often, in the case of shock or 
 sudden and overpowering influence, with a rapidity which 
 seems almost miraculous. 
 
 We all know, and frequently by our own experience, 
 that mind-concentration, brought about by some strong 
 motive, will enable us to perform mental or bodily actions 
 of which we would generally be incapable. Through it 
 a man will achieve feats of strength far beyond his apparent 
 muscular power, or will go boldly through dangers from 
 which he would shrink if he paused to consider probable 
 consequences. Or he will, in a limited time, execute a 
 
 39 
 
40 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 prodigious amount of intellectual work, p^ossibly of such 
 startling excellence that he himself, in after-moments of 
 less intensity, will be amazed at his own performance. 
 Of course, concentration, if sustained at such a pitch, 
 would in time be the ruin of mind and body; but we 
 know that it is a necessary factor in the accomplishment 
 of all great things, and that there can be no success 
 in life for those who cannot command it to a moderate 
 degree. 
 
 As a rule, happily, the organic functions which carry 
 on life are purely automatic; but, as we have seen, it is 
 possible to concentrate the attention upon them, and so 
 affect their operation, sometimes beneficiall}-, but far more 
 commonly with detriment to the health of mind and 
 body. Those bodily movements over which we have 
 full control are also generally performed automatically. 
 Under ordinary circumstances, we give no conscious 
 thought to our steps in walking, to the motion of our 
 hands while at work ; these are nearly as automatic as 
 healthy breathing. So likewise, in a general way, is the 
 operation of the senses. We see, hear, feel without any 
 effort of our will, unless some special motive impels us to 
 exercise it. We concentrate our minds upon sight when 
 we strive to see a minute, or indistinct, or distant object ; 
 and upon hearing when we listen for a faint or eagerly- 
 expected sound. If such concentration is continuously 
 brought to bear upon any sense, it will in time convey 
 automatically the more intense impression which has 
 been exceptional. Thus, in savages and in travellers and 
 settlers in wild or dangerous regions, the senses of sight 
 and hearing are far more keen than in those who live 
 under civilization. The senses of touch and hearing 
 become exquisitely fine in the blind. A blind man will 
 sometimes hear sounds which are absolutely inaudible to 
 ordinary ears, and recognize objects by touch as correctly 
 as most people can by eyesight. Some blind persons 
 seem, through concentration, to have developed a sense of 
 space. On entering a room they can tell whether few or 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 41 
 
 many persons are present ; they can guess with wonderful 
 accuracy the size and shape of an enclosed place, and 
 have a curious power of avoiding any obstruction, such 
 a> an article of furniture, which may be in their way.* 
 Laycock relates how blind persons are able to recognize 
 their friends by touch alone, and cites several instances in 
 which, from a subtle comparison of form, smell, texture, 
 etc., they have been able to form correct ideas about 
 colour. In the well-known case of Caspar Hauser, who 
 was brought up in solitude and darkness, all the senses 
 were of extraordinary acuteness, so that he could distin- 
 guish colours in the dark and hear sounds inaudible to 
 other people. The more recent example of Laura 
 I Bridgman must be familiar to most readers. Though 
 j blind, deaf, and dumb from infancy, she possessed great 
 I intelligence, and kept up close relationship with the out- 
 1 side world through the development of the sense of touch. 
 She was able to recognize her friends after months of 
 absence by the touch of their hands. The history of 
 • another American blind, deaf, and dumb girl, Helen Keller, 
 recently told by herself in her autobiography, is, however, 
 the most striking of all these stories, and shows how the 
 ! highest education may be won through the exercise of one 
 i sense only, when the brain-power of genius is existent but 
 I latent. She has graduated in honours at the University, 
 [ and speaks several modern and ancient languages. She 
 j is able to follow conversation accurately and rapidly by 
 [keeping her finger on the speaker's lips and noting their 
 ' movement. Professor Binet investigated the case of a 
 hysterical girl who, when blindfolded, could discriminate 
 and describe the relieved surface of an unknown coin when 
 pressed against the skin. He reckoned that she possessed 
 in this respect fifty times the normal amount of sensitive- 
 ness. Hyperaesthesia of the special senses is not of un- 
 
 * Most people have probably noticed that closing^ the eyes will, 
 -for the moment, render the hearing and touch unusually acute. Any 
 sense may be intensified by mind-concentration, as in the case of tea 
 and wine tasters and of professional buyers of raw silk, who develop 
 [an unerring capacity of judging its quality by touch. 
 
42 TREATS! EST BY IIYPXOTISM AXD SUCGESTIOS 
 
 common occurrence in hysterical subjects ; and I have 
 met a young lady whose nights were rendered miserable 
 by the noise made by billiard-balls used on a table at 
 least fifty yards away, and quite inaudible to ordinary 
 persons. Smell is almost a lost sense with a large pro- 
 portion of civilized mankind, but in many hysterical and 
 neurotic subjects it is developed to an even painful extent, 
 so that persons and things are readily distinguished by 
 their odour. Such sensory hypersesthesia is readily pro- 
 duced in the hypnotic state by suggestion, and explains 
 many supposed instances of clairvoyance. Dr. Ralph 
 Vincent relates how at Oxford he used to hypnotize 
 undergraduate friends and make them pick out gloves 
 belonging to different persons just as a dog does; and in^ 
 the Brighton experiments of the Society for Psychical 
 Research, subjects hypnotized with their eyes open were 
 able to select cards from the pack quite indistinguishable 
 in their waking state. ' 
 
 Concentration of mind upon intellectual or physical' 
 action is usually possible only in our waking and wakeful: 
 moments. Fatigue of brain renders us incapable of it ;l 
 and in sleep, the natural consequence of such fatiguCii 
 we generally lose consciousness, and only exercise those 
 functions which are performed automatically. In dreams' 
 consciousness is once more aroused, and we may ever 
 use some reasoning power, and be influenced from with-' 
 out through our senses. But in ordinary dreams there is 
 no concentration of ideas upon an act to be performed oi 
 a goal to be reached. When a sleeper uses this effort o! 
 mind, he passes out of the region of dreams, and enter." 
 that of somnambulism. 
 
 In somnambulism actions of extraordinary difficulty 
 such as could not be performed by the sleeper during hi: 
 waking hours — except, perhaps, through mind-concentra 
 lion caused by some overpowering impulse or motive- 
 are accomplished with perfect ease. Persons in this con 
 dition will walk on the extreme edge of a precipice, dim! 
 dangerous heights, get out of a house through an upper 
 
I TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 43 
 
 : story window. There are numerous instances of this on 
 1 record, of which I will quote two or three. Dr. Paul 
 I Gamier* gives one of a patient, a dentist's assistant, of 
 I feeble bodily and mental health, who frequently fell into a 
 I state of somnambulism. On one of these occasions he 
 ; escaped by a window from the ward of the Hotel Dieu, 
 I in which he was undergoing treatment, and, though a 
 I peculiarly unathletic person, walked easily and fearlessly 
 ! along the sloping parapet of the fa9ade — a feat which a 
 I trained gymnast could hardly have accomplished. He 
 1 awoke in the course of this dangerous performance, and 
 j had to be rescued by means of a ladder. With the return 
 I of consciousness reason awoke, and he understood the 
 1 horror of his position. While blindly obeying his impulse 
 j he had acted automatically, and fear, which is a product 
 i of reflection and association of ideas,t had no existence 
 I for him. Nevertheless, it is a popular error to suppose 
 ! that somnambulists are safeguarded from accident. 
 I Reference to the daily papers tells a different tale, and 
 i hardly a week passes without a serious or fatal accident 
 ' happening to a sleep-walker. It is, therefore, a matter of 
 I congratulation that in hypnotism we possess an almost 
 I certain cure for this dangerous and embarrassing affection. 
 j A patient of my own, a young man twenty years of age, 
 j not an habitual somnambulist, but a sufferer from night- 
 mare produced by chronic dyspepsia, on one occasion, 
 while spending the night in a hotel, dreamed that he was 
 confined in a dungeon from which he must escape. The 
 ' dream, no doubt, passed into somnambulism, for under its 
 j, I influence he broke his iron bedstead — a feat of strength 
 which, waking, he assuredly could not have accomplished 
 — and tore up his bedclothes. His amazement was great 
 when he awoke in the morning amid the ruins of his own 
 creation. He remembered his dream, but had no recol- 
 
 * ' Somnambulisme devant les Tribuneaux,' Paris, 1888. 
 
 + Infants, in whom, of course, neither is possible, will, if allowed, 
 grasp at the flame of a candle, or a sharp instrument ; and young- 
 children will fearlessly put themselves into positions of great danger. 
 
44 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 lection whatever of the acts into which he had been led 
 by it. The case of Dr. Haydn Brown's referred to on 
 p. 209 is a good example of nocturnal mania of a more 
 serious type. 
 
 Dr. Bevan Lewis refers to a case of habitual somnam- 
 bulism with which he is acquainted. The subject, a 
 medical man, is frequently called up at night to visit 
 patients. He gets up and dresses automatically, but is 
 quite unconscious of his actions and of his destination 
 until he is a considerable distance from his house (' Text- 
 Book of Mental Diseases,' p. 150). 
 
 The hypnotic state, which stops short of loss of con- 
 sciousness, has been aptly compared to that condition 
 between sleeping and waking which is characterized by 
 inertia of mind and body, and by the greater or less abey- 
 ance of spontaneity. There is another similarity between 
 the dream state and hypnosis. There are many cases on 
 record, and most medical men must have met with 
 instances in practice, where the morbid condition either 
 took its rise from, or was coincident with, a terrifying or 
 painful dream. Hysterical paralysis not uncommonly 
 commences in this \\ay, and it is probable that certain' 
 neurotic troubles take their form from the influence of 
 dream-suggestion. In incipient insanity the delusions 
 which subsequently become permanent and rampant are 
 often at first only experienced either in dreams or in the 
 moments of incomplete wakefulness, and their occurrence 
 is due either to morbid auto-suggestion or to the influence 
 of morbid conditions on the mind in the sleeping state 
 which in waking moments are either not noticed or are 
 corrected by the intelligence. It seems possible for 
 healthy suggestion to combat and conquer many of the 
 conditions which are thus ushered in. 
 
 Some years ago I attended a case in point. The patient, a lady 
 thirty, had always been neurotic, and had suffered from indifferen' 
 health. She was, however, able to get through life fairly well until, ir 
 September, 1890, she went to stay away from home. In the evening; 
 the assembled company set themselves to tell the most blood-curdling' 
 stories they could think of, with the result that Miss X retired t( 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 45 
 
 her room in a state of terror, and with unstrung nerves. She had to 
 t sleep alone, a thing she was unaccustomed to, and this added to he^ 
 j alarm. In the middle of the night the house was aroused by screams 
 j proceeding from her room, and when an entrance was made Miss 
 ' X was found in an attack of violent hysteria. When she re- 
 covered from the tit she was only able to remember that she had had 
 a terrifying dream embod\'ing the stories she had heard. From that 
 time her health completely gave way ; she started at the least sound, 
 '• ingestion of food was always followed by vomiting, and obstinate 
 insomnia supervened. She underwent a six weeks' course of Weir- 
 Mitchell treatment, from which she derived no benefit, and then, after 
 a further three months of misery, expressed her wish to try hypnotism. 
 She was not an eas\^ subject, as her mind was in such a condition 
 that it was almost impossible to fix her attention, and at first, when- 
 ever she felt going off, she could not help pulling herself up with a 
 start. However, perseverance prevailed, and from the moment she 
 was slightly influenced she began to improve. She was restored, after 
 two months' treatment, to about the same state of health she was in 
 before the attack. 
 
 Dreams merging into somnambulism may produce 
 
 j tragic results. Dr. G. Tourdes* relates how a man sleep- 
 
 I ing beside his wife dreamed that she was a robber whom 
 
 I he must kill. He accordingly attempted to suffocate her 
 
 with a pillow, and it was with great difficulty that she 
 
 succeeded in waking him, and so saving her life. 
 
 In 1843 a young man was tried for the attempted 
 
 I murder of an innkeeper at Lyons.t He had arrived at the 
 
 I inn towards nightfall, and was allotted a room. In the 
 
 I dead of night loud cries were heard from this room, and 
 
 j the landlord, rushing in to see what was the matter, was 
 
 j set upon by his guest and seriously wounded. It was 
 
 ! ascertained that the young man was a somnambulist, who 
 
 I had dreamt that the landlord was murdering the occu- 
 
 l pants of a room near his own, and that he was defending 
 
 them. He was, of course, acquitted. A case is also 
 
 ; recorded by Drs. Guy and Ferrier, in their ' Forensic 
 
 j Medicine.' ' Two men, being in a place infested by 
 
 [ robbers, engaged that one should watch while the other 
 
 slept. But the watcher, falling asleep, and dreaming that 
 
 he was pursued, shot his companion through the heart.' 
 
 * Article ' Sommeil,' ' Dictionnaire Encyclopedique des Sciences 
 Medicales.' 
 
 t ' Dictionnaire Encyclopedique des Sciences Mtdicales,' article 
 ' Somnambulisme,' by Drs. Ball and Chambard. 
 
46 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 We have many instances of mental work being ac- 
 complished during somnambulism. Professor Woehner,* 
 of Gottingen, after vainly trying for several days to write 
 a Greek poem on a given subject, composed it success- 
 fully while in this condition, which probably was brought 
 about by the mental strain of his previous futile efforts.t 
 
 It rarely happens, however, that solutions of problems, 
 poems, etc., written by persons in this state, have any 
 value. They may begin well, but generally drift into 
 nonsense, probably because the mental concentration has 
 been dispelled by some new idea crossing the first, and 
 displacing it. We hear of the philosopher who dreamt 
 while under nitrous oxide gas he had solved the problem 
 of the universe and hastened to write down his discovery. 
 But when he came to read the script, he only found the 
 words, * The whole of space is pervaded b}' the smell of 
 turpentine.' 
 
 The effect of natural or accidental somnambulism on 
 the health is anything but beneficial.* An attack is gene- 
 rally followed by feelings of weariness and discomfort, 
 for which the subject is at a loss to account. The con- 
 centrated mind-power does not operate in a beneficial 
 direction, but impels the sleeper to bodily or mental 
 effort likely to have an exhausting and hurtful effect upon 
 him. But the artificially-produced mental condition seen 
 in hypnotism can be turned to therapeutic uses, and be 
 made to fill a void which no other plan of treatment can 
 reach. Bernheim considers hypnotic sleep analogous to 
 the natural state, with the important difference that in 
 natural sleep the subject is only in relation w^ith himself, 
 
 * ' Dictionnaire Encyclopedique des Sciences Medicales,' article 
 * Somnambulisme,' by Drs. Ball and Chambard. 
 
 t Coleridge's poetical fragment, ' Kubla Khan,' was probably com- 
 posed in a dream — not in somnambulism — as he remembered and 
 wrote it down on awaking. 
 
 + Ordinary somnambulism is best treated by hypnotic suggestion. 
 I have cured cases very speedily, and natural somnambulists are 
 generally good hypnotic subjects. This is what one would expect, for 
 by hypnotism a condition is artificially substituted similar in its nature 
 to the morbid one, but controllable by suggestion. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 47 
 
 whereas in the artificial state he is in relation with the 
 operator, who is therefore able to direct the thoughts into 
 the channel he wishes. That it resembles natural sleep 
 is proved by the fact that it is possible in certain cases 
 for one to pass into the other. Dr. Van Eeden told me 
 that a patient of his, a gentleman, wearied by long wait- 
 ing and exhausted by the heat, fell asleep in the waiting- 
 room. The doctor came in, and, seeing him asleep, said, 
 ' Don't wake, but come with me into m}^ consulting-room.' 
 The patient got up and, with assistance, did as he was 
 desired. After the treatment was over he was led back 
 I in the same way to his former seat in the waiting-room, 
 j and allowed to finish his sleep. He soon awoke, apologized 
 to the other patients for having slept, and expressed 
 surprise that his turn had not yet come for seeing the 
 doctor. Great was his astonishment when he was told 
 that the seance had taken place and was finished without 
 his knowing anything about it. Dr. Maury,* who cannot 
 be accused of being too easily influenced, gives some 
 instances in which, while sitting by his fireside dozing 
 after dinner, he had heard, as in a dream, the words 
 uttered by his wife and friends, and had followed out 
 the train of thought suggested by them in his dreams, 
 ; and had even acted upon suggestions so made.f If a 
 ; person is very tired, it is frequently possible to obtain 
 I an answer to a question whispered in his ear without 
 j awakening him. Hack Tuke and Braid give several 
 examples of this in their writings. 
 
 j The close analogy between sleep and hypnotism is 
 shown in many ways. If a person is hypnotized every 
 i night, hypnosis may be made to take the place of sleep 
 jfor an indefinite time, and the only difference observable 
 [in the two conditions would be that in hypnotic sleep the 
 
 * ' Le Sommeil et les Reves,' Paris, 1865, p. 42. 
 I t He relates how, on one occasion, he was sitting in his easy-chair 
 jhalf awake, when his wife spoke to him. He was awakened by the 
 (words, and remembered them, but was quite unable to tell whether he 
 had uttered them himself, or whether they were his wife's. On this 
 he remarks, ' How many actions and ideas are daily suggested to us 
 by others which we act upon, thinking they are our own !' 
 
4S TREATMEST BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 patient would not be easily aroused, if at all, and would 
 be en rapport with the operator. The experience of one 
 of my patients also points to this close resemblance. 
 \\' hen not able to sleep at night, he now repeats on him- 
 self the process I used to adopt with him — viz., gentle 
 stroking of the forehead. He tells me this never fails to 
 send him to sleep in a few minutes. It would be interest- 
 ing to ascertain if the sleep so induced possessed the 
 characteristics of the hypnotic state. It is frequently 
 possible to suggest dreams to the somnambulist. Thus 
 I told an officer to dream that he was in Jamaica, and 
 playing polo at Up Park Camp. When he awoke, he 
 volunteered the remark that he had had a most vivid 
 dream, and proceeded to describe a polo match, of which 
 he hid filled in the details without help from me. One 
 need not be hypnotized to have dreams suggested, for 
 Forel tells how he forced a disagreeable dream on a 
 sceptical medical friend who said he didn't believe in 
 suggestion. 'Nevertheless,' said Dr. Forel, 'you will 
 dream of the devil to-night, and wake up in a terrible 
 fright.' His friend laughed at the idea, but the prediction 
 came true.^ 
 
 As in natural somnambulism a person may be able to 
 do things of which he is at other times incapable, so ini, 
 the artificially-produced condition he can ^sometimes be 
 made to excel himself. Beaunis found in experimenting 
 with the dynamometer that the muscular power could be 
 greatly increased at times by suggesting in the hypnotic 
 state increased strength and efibrt ; and one frequently 
 finds that the grasp of an enfeebled patient can be 
 
 * The whole subject of dreams has been recently scientifically 
 treated by Professor Freud and his followers, and we have a new 
 psychology evolved therefrom. They contend that every dream has 
 a meaning, symbolic if not apparent, and by psycho-analysis trace 
 it to its source in the subconscious. They hold that a dream is 
 invariably the expression of a wish. The good work done by 
 Freud in this neglected and apparently hopeless field is un- 
 doubtedly epoch-making, but his theories are, I think, exaggerated, 
 and his arguments somewhat strained. By such reasoning one can 
 explain anything, from the Baconian authorship of Shakespeare's 
 plays onwards. 
 
I TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 49 
 
 perceptibly strengthened by similar suggestions. The 
 
 therapeutic bearing of this experiment is easily seen. 
 
 ' Dr. Grazzini, of Florence, has kindly sent me some 
 
 i copies of drawings done, while in a state of hypnotic 
 
 ! somnambulism, by an uneducated man who in waking 
 
 moments hardly knew the use of a pencil. These copies 
 
 are faithfully and well executed, but probably the man 
 
 I would have been quite unable to initiate a design. The 
 
 ! faculty of imitation was strengthened by the hypnotic 
 
 ' condition, and at the same time he concentrated all his 
 
 I attention on the figures, and took infinite pains to re- 
 
 i produce them. I have frequently told somnambulic 
 
 subjects that on awaking they are to write such and such 
 
 ■ a sentence with their left hand, and have invariably 
 
 I found the task accomplished fairly well, though in many 
 
 instances I have heard the same person before the opera- 
 
 I tion declare it impossible, and found him unable to make 
 
 = an intelligible letter. This may prove a practical hint in 
 
 j the case of left-handed children. 
 
 I An artist under the same circumstances would no doubt 
 
 produce a drawing in his usual style; and a musician, in a 
 
 1 similar way, if asked to play, would perform some familiar 
 
 j air. Whatever a man's natural disposition might be, it 
 
 would come out if he were in a state of profound hypnotic 
 
 sleep ; but we shall see that ' suggestion ' in this condition 
 
 j has power to modify even life-long habits and deep-rooted 
 
 i tendencies.* 
 
 * Frequent repetition of the suggestion, especially if done with 
 , confidence, has what may be called a cumulative action, expressed by 
 Delboeuf in a kind of mathematical formula. This, of course, is also 
 the case in our waking moments, and is well understood and turned to 
 iccount by advertising tradesmen. The announcement in confident 
 language on every blank wall, that 'Johnson's soap is the best,' 
 becomes, by constant repetition, almost an axiom, and we are inclined 
 to accept its truth. In the same way it is told of George IV. that from 
 constantly repeating the story of his being at Waterloo he at length 
 got to believe that he had really taken part in the battle. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 I 
 
 Dr. Licbeault, of Nancy. — Description of his Treatment. — System 
 t free from Mysticism. — Curative Suggestions. — Explanation oi 
 the Phenomena. — Definition of Hypnotism. — Absolute Sleep 
 or Unconsciousness unnecessary for Curative Treatment. — 
 Theory of Professor Charcot not accepted by the School o 
 Nancy. — Proportion of Persons hypnotizable and Degrees o 
 Hypnotic Influence. — Phenomena of Somnambulism outside th( 
 Sphere of Psycho-Therapeutics. 
 
 I HOPE to have shown in the preceding chapters tha' 
 Liebeauh's system is the outcome of the collection anc 
 classification of many isolated facts previously neglectec^ 
 or misunderstood. That cures have been and still an 
 worked by such means as are implied in faith-healing 
 the mind cure, etc., and by charms and relics, is beyonf 
 doubt ; but it is not in the supernatural that we shoult 
 seek for the explanation of them. They all proceed fror' 
 the same cause and on the same lines. We have, firsi 
 the patient's strong desire for cure ; and, secondly, hi 
 firm belief in the efftcac}' of the means used ; while t 
 these may generally be added the presence of a sympj 
 thetic and impressive environment. The reasonable an 
 deliberative side of the patient's brain is suppressed, whi/ 
 the emotional or instinctive side is developed, and in pre 
 portion as the latter is predominant the greater general, 
 is the success of the treatment. The Nancy school obtai 
 in suitable cases, as good results as it is possible 
 expect ; but they work on scientific principles and I 
 recognized laws. 
 
 A brief account of the treatment practised at Nanc, 
 
 50 
 
 i 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 51 
 
 and of the theory which explains it, will, I think, make 
 this clear.^ 
 
 If the visitor to Dr. Liebeault's dispensary was one who 
 measured results by the impressiveness of the means used, 
 he will surely have been disappointed to find how common- 
 place were operators, patients, and buildings. The rooms 
 were unpretentious and even shabby ; the patients were 
 ordinary-looking people enough, belonging mostly to the 
 artisan and labouring classes ; and the doctor himself, 
 though he had goodness and kindliness written on every 
 feature, was of unimposing presence ; while his habit of 
 chatting on all sorts of subjects with the persons around 
 him, even while receiving patients, had an odd and hardly 
 impressive effect. 
 
 The patient paying his first visit was directed to sit 
 down and watch the treatment being applied to others. 
 This gave him confidence, and aroused that imitative 
 ; faculty which is so active in childhood, and is never lost 
 1 throughout adult life. When his turn came, he was told 
 \ to take his place in an arm-chair, and to make his mind as 
 1 much a blank as possible — ' to think of nothing at all ' — 
 1 and to fix his eyes and attention on some special object : 
 I generally the doctor's fingers held a few inches above the 
 : eyes. Then the phenomena which attend the oncoming of 
 j natural sleep were gradually 'suggested' to him: 'Your 
 sight is growing dim and indistinct ; your eyelids are be- 
 coming heavy ; a numbness is creeping over your limbs ; 
 my voiceseems muffled to you; you are getting more sleepy; 
 \ you cannot keep your eyes open.' Here the eyes closed of 
 themselves, or were closed by the operator, and it was 
 generally found that the patient was indeed asleep. 
 
 About two minutes of this ' talk about sleep ' usually 
 produced the hypnotic effect on a new patient ; and on 
 subsequent visits even less time was required. 
 
 * Dr. Rolleston gives an interesting account of a! visit to Nancy 
 in St. Bartholomew's Hospital Reports, 1889, and Sir Francis Cruise 
 describes his visit in the Dublin Journal of Medical Science^ May, 
 1 89 1. See also the account of a visit to Liebeault's clinique by Sir 
 Lauder Brunton in his book, 'The Action of Medicines,' p. 227. 
 
52 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 The patient being more or less influenced, Dr. Liebeault 
 then proceeded with the treatment proper. This consisted 
 essentially in directing the invalid's attention to the part 
 affected, and suggesting an amelioration or disappearance 
 of the morbid condition and symptoms. To take a very 
 simple case — let us suppose that the malady is chronic 
 nervous headache. The part of the head affected was gently 
 rubbed, so that the patient's attention would be attracted 
 to it, and he was told that the pain was to disappear — that 
 he would awake feeling his head cool, clear, and comfort- 
 able, and that there was to be no return of the trouble. 
 In ordinary cases the whole process would not have lasted 
 more than five minutes when Liebeault brought it to a 
 close by arousing the patient, by telling him to open his 
 eyes and awake. This was generally enough ; he awoke as 
 from ordinary sleep, and was told to vacate the arm-chair 
 in favour of the next patient. When asked how he felt, he 
 would generally reply that he was better, and very often that 
 the pain had entirely vanished. He was quite his natural 
 self, and could leave the room at once and go about his 
 work as usual. Long acquaintance with the system 
 prevented an inhabitant of Nancy from regarding it as 
 anything remarkable, and a sick person consulted Dr. 
 Liebeault just as he would consult any other physician, , 
 with the simple idea that the treatment would do him 
 good. He did not trouble himself with metaphysical 
 theories, but was content to know that some acquaintance 
 had been cured of a complaint similar to his own, and 
 that he himself hoped to be relieved in a few days. 
 Liebeault generally placed his hand over the epigastrium, 
 and applied gentle friction, suggesting as he did so a; 
 sensation of warmth. He regarded a responsive glow as 
 almost essential to the success of subsequent treatment, 
 and it is the first link in the chain which constitutes 
 rapport between physician and patient. The fulfilment 
 of the first suggestion tends to augment the patient's 
 confidence, and leads to the more ready reception of those 
 which follow. This point is one of great practical im- 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 53 
 
 portance, and we generally feel that we can do good 
 when we can induce this responsive warmth, no matter 
 how slight the hypnotic influence may be. The feeling 
 is quite different to that produced by simple friction, and 
 requires to be felt to be appreciated. The magnetizers 
 attributed it to the passage of magnetic fluid from them 
 to the patient ; but, as we regard all the manifestations of 
 hypnotism as subjective, we must of course seek another 
 explanation. This is found by supposing that the sensa- 
 tion is due to action on the vaso-motor system through 
 the solar plexus, allowing a sudden afflux of blood to the 
 part. The warmth is not merely imaginary, for it is 
 appreciable to the touch and by the thermometer, and 
 is, in fact, analogous to blushing. 
 
 If the hypnotic sleep has been profound, it may be 
 necessary twice or thrice to repeat the order to awake, 
 and even to enforce it by fanning the patient, or blowing 
 gently upon his eyes ; but the simple command is nearly 
 always sufficient. 
 
 There certainly is nothing mysterious in all this, and 
 Liebeault seemed to take pleasure in making his whole 
 mode of treatment clear to any serious inquirer, and in 
 giving the rational explanation of everything that he did. 
 He directed the patient to fix his attention on a certain 
 point in order to strain the accommodation of the eyes 
 and tire the sight. The effect of the strain is to cause 
 dilatation of the pupils and consequent dimness of vision. 
 The feeling of heaviness in the eyelids results from the 
 fatigue of keeping them open in a strained position, and 
 the assertion that the eyes are becoming tired and the 
 sight dim is therefore founded on physiological data, and 
 is not guesswork. The eyes being tired, the natural im- 
 pulse is to close them, and this act calls up a previous 
 association of ideas connected with fatigued or confused 
 sight. That association points to sleep, towards which 
 the patient is rapidly led, aided by the monotonous tones 
 of the operator suggesting it to him, and by his mind 
 being free from all disturbing thoughts, and his nerves 
 
54 rREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 from all external stimuli. He falls asleep, in fact, much 
 in the same manner as one does when reading a dull book 
 or listening to a not too brilliant discourse. Maury, 
 in his well-known book on sleep and dreams, says: 'The 
 less the mind is occupied with ideas, the more easily can 
 the thoughts be directed into any given channel. If 
 nothing claims our notice or holds our attention, the 
 cerebro-spinal system, for want of that gentle stimulation 
 which is necessary to it, falls into a state of semi-torpor 
 inseparable from atony of the nervous system.' 
 
 In the chapter on sleep in Carpenter's ' Physiology ' 
 various conditions are mentioned as being favourable to 
 it, one being the desire for it, another the expectation of 
 it. We expect, from previous experience, that if we lie 
 down in a certain place, sleep will follow. The faculty of 
 imitation helps to bring it about ; when we see others 
 dozing, we naturally incline to follow their example, and 
 at night the consciousness that all around us are asleep 
 disposes us to seek the same condition. Talking about 
 sleep is apt to induce somnolence, just as talking about 
 food may provoke hunger. And a monotonous sound, 
 such as a droning voice of a speaker, or the breaking of 
 gentle waves upon the seashore, tends to encourage 
 slumber. Thus it will be seen how closely the artificial 
 method I have described follows natural rules. This 
 method may fail, just as we may fail to obtain natural 
 sleep, or may battle it off should we desire to remain 
 awake. If a patient wishes to resist the somnolent in- 
 fluence, he can do so by refusing to concentrate his 
 thoughts, or by inducing some physical discomfort — for 
 instance, by placing himself in an uneasy position. 
 Strong emotion, such as anger or fear, will prevent the 
 hypnotic sleep; so will severe pain, hunger, thirst, and, 
 indeed, anything which preoccupies the mind or agitates 
 the nervous system. Constitutional idiosyncrasies affect 
 this just as they affect the normal sleep. The naturally 
 restless sleeper will be restless, and he who commonly goes 
 off as soon as his head touches the pillow will quickly 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 55 
 
 succumb to the hypnotic influence. The extent to which 
 a person is influenced varies according to his mental and 
 physical condition. If he is of restless and flighty tem- 
 perament, it may be impossible to fix his attention for even 
 the few minutes that are necessary, and no effect is pro- 
 duced — except, perhaps, an inclination on his part to 
 treat the whole affair as a jest, and a consequent irritation 
 on the part of the doctor. But in ordinary cases some 
 effect is certainly produced, if not on a first visit, still on 
 subsequent ones. This effect will vary in various patients, 
 some feeling only a heaviness and torpor, with a disin- 
 clination to open the eyes, while others fall into a more 
 or less profound sleep, or into a state of somnambulism. 
 Liebeault divides the sleep into six different stages,* but 
 as these really merge imperceptibly into each other, 
 the division is purely arbitrary, and is made for conveni- 
 ence in classification. They may be shortly summed up 
 as : (i) Light sleep ; (2) profound sleep ; (3) somnambulism. 
 
 The first and second stages closely resemble and are 
 analogous to ordinary sleep ; but the third is siii generis, 
 and will require a few w^ords later on. Though it is 
 analogous to natural sleep, there is one very important fact 
 which shows that the conditions are not identical. If an 
 ordinary sleeper is spoken to, he is generally aroused by 
 the stimulating effect of the sound conveyed to the brain 
 through the auditory nerves, but one in the hypnotic state 
 may be talked to without being disturbed ; the effect will, 
 on the contrary, be soothing. He is, in fact, en rapport 
 with the outer world, though only to a limited extent, 
 whereas in natural sleep he is en rapport only with his own 
 consciousness. 
 
 Upon this difference depends the possibility of apply- 
 ing curative suggestion. Carpenter {op. cit.) says that the 
 very closure of the eyes renders the other senses more 
 acute ; and we have seen that the inactivit}- of one sense 
 is nearly always compensated for by increased sensitive- 
 ness of the others. Now, in the hypnotic state all the 
 * See Appendix, p. 389, note 8. 
 
56 TREATMENT BY HYPSOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 senses are more or less torpid and in abeyance until 
 called into play by the operator. Physiologists suppose 
 that during activity the nerve centres are continually dis- 
 charging nervous energy in all directions, in response to 
 stimulating impressions received through the senses ; but 
 in sleep a state of inactivity is induced, and the nervous 
 force accumulates in the brain cells. Natural sleep comes 
 as a consequence of fatigue, and because the store of 
 nerve energy is nearly or entirely exhausted. During its 
 continuance a fresh store of nerve energy will be laid up, 
 and if it be undisturbed, the store will go on increasing 
 until sufficient is acquired for complete nerve recupera- 
 tion. This point attained, the sleeper, if in good mental 
 and bodily health, will awake naturally, and feel no further 
 desire for slumber. But as the hypnotic state may be 
 produced at any time in the twenty-four hours, and long 
 before any perceptible inroad has been made on the store 
 of nerve energy laid up during the previous natural sleep, 
 it follows that during the artificial sleep there may be 
 great accumulation and excess of energy. All this can be 
 concentrated and directed into any channel the physician 
 may desire ; and this concentrated and directed nerve 
 force must naturally affect the system more powerfully 
 than any ordinary nervous impression. This fact may 
 explain the rapid production of congestion^ to a given 
 part (alluded to in Chapter V.), and also the sensation 
 of warmth usually experienced in any part to which the 
 attention has been drawn. It also accounts for the 
 success of the treatment in some cases of paralysis of long 
 standing. 
 
 We may imagine in such a case, and the surmise would 
 probably be physiologically correct, that the nervous 
 channels are blocked to ordinary impulses sent to them 
 from the brain, but that the extraordinary impulse from 
 an accumulation and concentration of nerve force is suffi- 
 cient to break down and overcome the obstruction ; as a 
 dam which easily withstands ordinary currents is swept 
 away upon the bursting of a reservoir, by the rush of 
 accumulated water. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 57 
 
 Bernheim defines hypnotism as the prodxidion of a 
 psychical condition in which the faculty of receiving impressions 
 by suggestion is greatly increased. But this is only half the 
 truth ; for not only is the receptivity increased, but the 
 power to act upon and carry out the suggestion is in- 
 creased likewise. Suggestions have all the force of com- 
 mands, and the patient will strain every nerve to obey 
 them. They are received as true, and the idea tends to 
 be realized and to be carried into execution as action. 
 If he is told to move a paralyzed limb, or to speak after 
 ' months of loss of voice, one can see what intense effort 
 [he puts into the attempt to comply. A stammerer 
 I making such effort will speak fluently, and a deaf person 
 j will distinctly hear a whisper. To express adequately the 
 (cause of such effects, the word 'suggestion,' in English at 
 } least, is far too weak, and therefore somewhat misleading. 
 I In the very excellent translation of Forel's book by 
 iDr. Armit the terms * dictation ' and ' to dictate ' are some- 
 (times substituted. The truth is that the successful 
 'physician uses dictation (command) or suggestion (per- 
 iSuasion) according to the necessities of the case. He 
 jtreats the patient, and not merely the disease. 
 I The increased force of suggestion does not depend so 
 'much as one might suppose on the profoundness of the 
 'sleep. In applying it, all that is necessary is a state of 
 jincreased receptivity of ideas suggested by the operator, 
 land an ignoring of other impressions. I have defined 
 hypnosis as a condition of increased suggestibility obtained by 
 \2rtijice. This attained, it matters little from a therapeutic 
 Ipoint of view whether light sleep, profound sleep, or som- 
 pambulism is produced. My own experience, like that of 
 all observers whom I have known, is that good results are 
 'effected when there has been no loss of consciousness, 
 pd even when the patient denies having felt any hypnotic 
 Influence.* Dr. Arthur, when at the East End Wesleyan 
 
 * A gentleman, whom I ha\e treated for \arious nervous affec- 
 ions, always denies having slept, and protests that he has remained 
 onscious of everything going on around him. Yet if I put some 
 
58 TREATMEXr BY IIYPSOTISM AXD SUGGESTION 
 
 1 
 
 Mission, showed me a case of obstinate intercostal 
 neuralgia after shingles cured in a single sitting, though 
 the patient, a seafaring man of over forty, barely felt a 
 slight degree of somnolence. He could have opened his 
 eyes at any moment, but — and this is the important point 
 — he was very conscious of a glow of reflex warmth when 
 Dr. Arthur passed his hand over the seat of pain and 
 suggested it. 
 
 Consciousness is lost only in the advanced stages of 
 profound sleep, and even when this has occurred there is 
 often partial remembrance on waking of many things that 
 have happened during the sleep. A patient in profound 
 sleep may be questioned, and will probably return answers, 
 unless the question be put too brusquely, when it will be 
 likely to wake him, or too gentl}', when he may shrink from 
 replying ; for a person in this state dislikes being disturbed, 
 and is especially unwilling to exert his reflective faculties. 
 Nevertheless, if questioned as to his complaint, he will 
 describe his symptoms truthfully, and thus may help the 
 physician in his diagnosis and treatment. 
 ^ Bernheim seems to accept the theory of Herbert 
 Spencer, and of most psychologists, that two sorts of 
 nervous action goon within the brain — the one automatic 
 and instinctive, the other rational, volitional, and de- 
 liberative. Hypnotism suppresses the latter (the Ego ol- 
 some psychologists), and allows full play to the former.' 
 It follows that, where the second kind of nervous actior 
 prevails in an individual, he is less liable to be acted upor 
 by external impressions, and is less the creature of impulse 
 than one in whom the first kind is predominant. Th( 
 more a man's actions are the result of impulse rather thar 
 of reason, the more susceptible he is to external impres 
 sions, and therefore to suggestive treatment.* 
 
 small article, such as a paper-knife, into his hand during the sleej 
 and tell him to hold it tightly, he will do so, and on being arouse 
 will show surprise at findmg himself grasping it. 
 
 * He who obeys his instincts, and instantly knocks down a ma 
 who has insulted him (this being a purely automatic action), woul 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 59 
 
 This brings us to the question, Who are the best sub- 
 jects for the treatment, and how far is it applicable to the 
 bulk of mankind ? 
 
 , . The late Professor Charcot asserted that it is suitable, 
 and indeed possible, only for hysterical subjects, and that 
 [hypnotism is a pathological condition, or induced neurosis. 
 I He divided the hypnotic sleep into three well-defined 
 Istages : (i) Lethargy; (2) catalepsy; (3) somnambulism; 
 land contended that there is a regular sequence in these, 
 jand that, according to the will of the operator, one or 
 jother can be produced. 
 
 I He obtained a state of lethargy by fixing the patient's 
 
 [eyes on a given point, or by gentle pressure on the eye- 
 
 iballs. This state resembles natural profound sleep, but is 
 
 (distinguished from it, and from all other conditions, by a 
 
 icharacteristic feature — neuro-muscular hyperexcitability ; 
 
 d.e., if one presses a nerve, the muscles supplied by that 
 
 'nerve will be put into action, and if a muscle is stroked or 
 
 [pressed, it will contract. Thus, pressure on the ulnar nerve 
 
 will, in Charcot's subjects, produce flexion of the third and 
 
 fourth fingers, abduction of the thumb, extension and 
 
 Reparation of the first and second fingers. It passes into 
 
 the second stage when the eyelids are opened ; cataleptic 
 
 rigidity may now be produced in a limb, and it may be 
 
 pent or placed in any position. Moreover, emotions cor- 
 
 I'esponding with the position are evoked. If the subject is 
 
 put into a pugilistic attitude, his expression will become 
 
 jierce and determined ; if into one of prayer, he will wear 
 
 he aspect of devotion. Moreover, if only one eye be 
 
 ppened, one-sided catalepsy is produced, and the other 
 
 tide remains lethargic. A bright light or sudden noise 
 
 vill also produce this condition, and in closing the eyes 
 
 ihe subject falls into lethargy. The third stage is pro- 
 
 hus be a better subject for hypnotism than he who dehberately calls 
 • policeman and goes in for damages. Freud lays great stress on the 
 mportance of effective ' abreaction '' to stimulation, and much ill-health 
 5 undoubtedly due to 'bottling up' our feelings. Some authorities 
 ttribute the greater prevalence of nervous troubles in women to this 
 estriction of emotional outlets. 
 
6o TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 duced from the first or second by gently rubbing the top 
 of the head, when the cataleptic condition will vanish, and 
 other characteristics will appear, chief among which are 
 abnormal acuteness of the senses, and obedience to sug- 
 gestion. 
 
 Though I have completely failed to find these three 
 stages in any of my somnambulic subjects, and though the 
 experience of most observers is of an equally negative 
 character, I am not prepared to say that they do not 
 occur in a few hysterical subjects without suggestion. 
 Dr. Grazzini, of Florence, and Dr. Barwise, of Blackburn, 
 tell me that they have elicited them spontaneously. 
 
 Liebeault, Bernheim, Beaunis, and others of the Nancy 
 school, deny the existence of these three stages. They 
 assert that their experience in treating hypnotically a vast 
 number of patients leads them to the conclusion that 
 nothing resembling them has been or can be evoked 
 spontaneously. They consider, in fact, that Charcot intro- 
 duced a new hysterical condition into the Salpetriere, and 
 that this became, as it were, an institution of the place 
 which every new-comer hastened to comply wath. The} 
 support this assertion by showing that when they in theii 
 Nancy practice explained to hysterical patients the effects 
 produced by Charcot, the three stages, never before mani 
 fested, were forthcoming. Bernheim has well said 
 ' Mefiez-vous de la suggestion ' ; and an English physiciar 
 has given an equally sage warning : ' Take care, or yoi 
 will find what you are looking for.'* Charcot thus entere( 
 
 * Braid was at one time misled into supposing that by touchin; 
 the phrenological ' bumps ' he produced corresponding effects. Fo 
 instance, if he touched the 'bump' of Destructiveness, the subjec 
 immediately proceeded to hit out and to destroy whatever was withi; 
 his reach ; if that of Benevolence, he would give away his watch 
 purse, etc., to any bystander. • The fact is, that the sense of sigh 
 (under the apparently closed eyelids), that of hearing, etc., are s 
 abnormally acute in somnambulists, that the slightest hint of expres 
 sion, voice, or touch, is sufficient to evoke from them the desirci 
 response. Some of us remember the flourish of trumpets whic 
 heralded the introduction of treatment by suspension for locomoto 
 ata.xy and other spinal diseases. Elaborate theories were put forwan 
 to explain the results, but Bernheim early in the day attributed ther 
 
I TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 6i 
 
 the field weighted with a theory which he seemed unable 
 
 to shake off. If one of his school is shown a broad-shoul- 
 ' dered navvy or a sun-dried old soldier in a state of pro- 
 1 found hypnotic sleep, and is asked whether this looks like 
 '. a hysterical subject, he will reply that appearances are 
 ' deceptive, and that the very process of hypnotizing has 
 
 developed a latent condition of hysteria, or one analogous 
 j to it.* The discoveries of Charcot in physiology and 
 [ pathology fully entitle him to the world-wide reputation 
 
 which he enjoys ; but the attitude he chose to adopt 
 
 towards hypnotism is unfortunate. By attaching undue 
 I importance to le grand hypnotisme, as seen in his subjects 
 I at the Salpetriere, and by ignoring what his school calls le 
 .petit hypnotisme, and confining his researches to hysterical 
 I cases, he has retarded the progress of rational hypnotism. 
 i Of the considerable number of medical men I have met 
 
 who have attended Charcot's demonstrations, not one has 
 [looked upon hypnotism as more than a toy, and not one 
 ^ has adopted it for the treatment of disease ; whereas nearly 
 ;all those I have met who have studied the subject at the 
 
 cliniques at Nancy have been thoroughly convinced of the 
 j value of the treatment, and have adopted it into their 
 I practice.! To my mind, the great merit of Liebeault was 
 
 I entirely to suggestion, and demonstrated the efficacy of the apparatus 
 } when the patient had it appHed lying down without any nerve-stretch- 
 I ing. Every hospital and every neurologist's consulting-room was 
 I fitted with the apparatus. But who hears of it now ? It has gone 
 j the way of Perkins' tractors. 
 
 j * The fanciful method adopted by Charcot to produce the hypnotic 
 
 I state may give rise to unexpected results. Some of his highly 
 
 j' educated' subjects fall into a state of catalepsy if a bright light is 
 
 [suddenly turned full on their eyes, and by the action of this excitant 
 
 ;a hysterical patient of his was lately taken in flagrante delicto. She 
 
 I had stolen into a room, gone to a chest of drawers, and actually 
 
 ', placed her hand on a coveted photograph which she intended to 
 
 i abstract, when a bright ray of light shot through a chink direct into 
 
 [her eyes, and she remained entranced and motionless until she was 
 
 discovered {Revue de P Hypnotisme, October, 1 889). I have never heard 
 
 of the hypnotic condition being thus involuntarily and spontaneously 
 
 induced when the Nancy method has been employed. 
 
 t Perhaps here I may be allowed to say that my own experience 
 in this matter is a very pleasant one. It has been my privilege to 
 
62 TREATMEST BY HYPNOTISM A.\D SUGGESTION 
 
 that he approached the subject with only one end in view 
 — the relief of disease. If the theories he had deduced 
 from observed facts (for every man who is not a mere 
 empiric must hold theories) did not, after closer observa- 
 tion, continue to correspond with them, the theories were 
 thrown over, and not the facts, as too often happens. 
 The Nancy school may therefore be called practical and 
 therapeutic, in distinction from Charcot's, which is theo- 
 retical and experimental. 
 
 The following table, taken from Professor Beaunis's 
 work, proves what a mistake it is to suppose that only 
 hysterical persons are influenced by the treatment. 
 
 Patients submitted to hypnotization by Dr. Liebeault 
 in iS8o (1,014) • 
 
 Not influenced 
 
 Drowsiness 
 
 Light sleep 
 
 Heavy sleep 
 
 Very heavy sleep 
 
 Somnambulism (slight) 
 
 Ditto (advanced) ... 
 
 27 
 
 33 
 100 
 460 
 232 
 
 31 
 131 
 
 1,014 
 Beaunis shows in the table on p. 63 the percentage of' 
 the different stages of hypnotism at different ages. 
 
 These statistics refer, of course, to Nancy, and, as has 
 been already pointed out, that town is pervaded by an 
 atmosphere of hypnotism and suggestion. But Dr. Van 
 Eeden assures me that at Amsterdam he finds the pro- 
 demonstrate the Nancy treatment to a large number of medical men, 
 and not only have they been kind enough to express appreciation of 
 what they had seen, but they have practically shown it by at once 
 trying the methods in their own practices. Doctors are naturally only' 
 too pleased to adopt a new treatment which has been proved useful 
 and which will help them to deal with many troublesome cases ; but it 
 requires to be presented to them in a manner free from mysticism and 
 exaggeration. The enthusiasm the good Dr. Liebeault showed was 
 a part of his character, and lent a great charm to his advocacy of 
 hypnotism ; but discretion is the better part for his followers, and 1 
 think they fully realize this. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 63 
 
 portion of the ' uninfluenced ' but little larger, and the 
 experience of Berillon in Paris, Moll in Berlin, Wetter- 
 strand in Stockholm, Bramwell, Betts Taplin, Creed, 
 Kingsbury, Wingfield, Cruise, Wright, Woods, and other 
 observers all over the world, is of a similar nature. The 
 proportion of somnambulists, however, is undoubtedly 
 much greater at Nancy than we could expect to find it in 
 England. Among over 500 patients I found only about 
 fifty. 
 
 Som- j Very 
 
 nambu- i Heavy 
 
 lism. I Sleep. 
 
 Heavy 
 Sleep. 
 
 Light 
 Sleep. 
 
 Drowsi- I Unin- 
 ness. : fluenced. 
 
 To 7 years 
 7 to 14 
 14 „ 21 
 
 28 
 
 J3 
 
 49 
 56 
 63 
 
 63 and above 
 
 26'5 
 
 55-3 
 25-2 
 13-2 
 
 22"6 
 10-5 
 2 1 "6 
 
 7-3 
 
 11-8 
 
 4-3 
 TO 
 57 
 5-1 
 5 "9 
 117 
 
 47 
 
 147 
 
 8-6 
 
 8-4 
 
 13 
 
 ! 23 
 
 I 44 
 ! 36 
 
 I 34' 
 35' 
 
 I 29' 
 35 
 11 
 38 
 
 52-1 
 
 4-3 
 
 i3-« 
 
 — 
 
 57 
 
 8-0 
 
 18-3 
 
 17-3 
 
 17-8 
 
 13-0 
 
 28-2 
 
 5-8 
 
 22-6 
 
 9 '4 
 
 27-9 
 
 IO-2 
 
 i8-8 
 
 13-0 
 
 20-3 
 
 67 
 
 10-3 
 
 9-1 
 
 5"9 
 8-2 
 
 I2"2 
 
 4-4 
 14-4 
 
 13-5 
 
 And here a word on the subject of somnambulism. 
 Though Liebeault and his followers do not seek to 
 enforce the somnambulic state, but find a state of gentle 
 lethargy or drowsiness sufficient for ordinary curative 
 purposes, he considers that it is well to induce in the 
 patient the most advanced state of hypnosis to which he 
 is susceptible ; for the more complete the hypnosis, the 
 less liable are the patient's morbid auto-suggestions to 
 interfere with the curative processes. Natural somnam- 
 bulism is nearly always associated with mental or bodily 
 weakness, but the artificial variety is not dependent on 
 defective health, mental or physical. Private soldiers 
 and agricultural labourers are not generally considered 
 neurotic, but they are ' good subjects ' for hypnotism, and 
 a large proportion — perhaps a fourth — will be found to 
 become somnambulic. 
 
 Strong muscular and intelligent men and women are, 
 
64 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 in my experience, the best subjects for hypnotism. This 
 was what Dr. Hugh Wingfield found when he was 
 assistant demonstrator of physiology at Cambridge. He 
 experimented on a great number of undergraduates, and 
 the majority of them proved extremely good subjects. 
 A few years ago, during a visit to the University, I was 
 asked to hypnoti;^e a party of undergraduates in a friend's 
 rooms. Ten out of twelve were easily influenced, two or 
 three to the extent of somnambulism. Now, we know 
 that these young men constitute the pick of the nation, 
 intellectually and physically, and such experience proves 
 the fallacy of the contention which one sometimes hears 
 urged against hypnotism, that it is only applicable to 
 fools and weaklings. In my practice I have found school- 
 masters and schoolmistresses most satisfactory patients, 
 and my experience is shared by other physicians. Their 
 training assists mind-concentration, and the same may be 
 said of Roman Catholic priests, many of whom I have 
 treated.* 
 
 I understand that persons who make a public show of 
 hypnotism always express a preference for muscular sub- 
 jects. Probably strong, healthy people are more trustful 
 and less fidgety than the weak and neurotic. 
 
 But I think the most interesting psychical results are 
 likely to be achieved with neurotic subjects whose nervous 
 systems are highly strung. I am not, however, at all sure 
 on this point, seeing that some of the most interesting 
 series of experiments in advanced hypnotism, including 
 thought transference and second personality, have been 
 made by Professor Janet at Havre with a strong-framed 
 fisherwoman as the subject ; and the Brighton experiments 
 of the Society for Psychical Research were made on a 
 young healthy tradesman. 
 
 * There is an idea still prevalent in certain quarters that the 
 Catholic Church forbids the practice of hypnotism. Such is not the 
 case. The late Sir F^rancis Cruise was a devout son of the Church, 
 and many priests have been sent to me for treatment by high 
 ecclesiastics. The Church very wisely insists that the treatment 
 shall only be carried out by medical men and by permission of the 
 authorities. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 65 
 
 Somnambulism is not an essential product of hypnotism, 
 and, interesting though its phenomena may be from a 
 pathological and psychological point of view, they are no 
 more a part of suggestive treatment than an exhibition of 
 the poisonous effects of drugs is a part of ordinary medical 
 practice. They help to elucidate points in the treatment, 
 and therefore must be studied, but experimentation upon 
 them is outside the scope of the physician, as such.^ 
 
 * See Appendix. Hypnotism being a new thing in England, the 
 
 knowledge of it seems chiefly confined to theory, and one has to hear 
 
 many fanciful and exaggerated statements. For instance, in an article 
 
 on the subject in the Saturday Revieio of December 8, 1S88, a propos 
 
 of a paper of mine in the Nineteenth Ceittia-y iox December, the writer, 
 
 evidently a medical man, states that a person once hypnotized is at 
 
 ' the mercy of the operator, who can repeat the operation at will, even 
 
 ! without the consent of the patient. Further, that anyone can easily 
 
 1 hypnotize a person who has once submitted to hypnotism ; and again, 
 
 ; that a person once hypnotized is unable to look people in the face 
 
 ' without feeling an irresistible desire to sleep. I have made inquiries 
 
 1 among my patients of both sexes, some of whom have been hypnotized 
 
 \ many times, and have fallen into the profounder degrees of sleep. 
 
 } They can all certainly look me in the face for any length of timie 
 
 [without feeling in the least degree sleepy ; and they all tell me that 
 
 ■until they entirely give up their minds to the operation no soporific 
 
 'effect is produced. Most misleading conclusions have been drawn 
 
 (from exceptional cases, such as that of the ' Soho sleeper.' These 
 
 'belong in no sense to hypnotism as a therapeutic system, but are 
 
 jexamples of hysteria. Constantly hypnotizing a weak-minded person 
 
 for experimental purposes will probably bring about a morbid state 
 
 !of brain, and such abuse o^" a therapeutic agent can only be depre- 
 
 Icated and discouraged. Du Maurier's clever novel ' Trilby ' is 
 
 Iresponsible for a good deal of popular misunderstanding. Of course 
 
 ;the novelist has drawn quite a fancy picture, and the hypnotism of 
 
 liction altogether is very much a stage product. 
 
f 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Psycho-Therapeutics not an Exclusive System of Treatment. — Some • 
 Diseases found to benefit from it. — Organic Processes affected 1 
 by Hypnotic Suggestion. — Blisters and Stigmata so caused. — I 
 Treatment especially useful in Neurotic Diseases. — Hysteria, 
 Hypochondriasis, Dipsomania, and the Opium Habit. — Moral 
 Depravity. — Double Consciousness. — Permanence of Cures. — ' 
 Hypnotism distinct from Magnetism. — Possible Abuse of Hyp- 
 notism not a Bar to its Use in Medical Treatment. — Restrictions 
 and Precautions necessary. 
 
 We are now in a position to speak of suggestion as a 
 mode of treatment and cure, and we will first consider to 
 what class of diseases it has hitherto proved applicable. 
 And here I may say that, although Liebeault rarely gave I 
 medicines, but obtained most of his remarkable results 
 by the suggestive treatment pure and simple, his followers 
 by no means dispense with those remedies which the 
 researches of generations of able men have put within 
 their reach. In suitable cases they make use of dietetics, 
 drugs, electricity, and massage, and the combination of 
 those means with suggestion often gives better results 
 than any one method of treatment. 
 
 Hypnotic suggestion is especially applicable to chronic 
 complamts. Rheumatic and gouty pains often yield 
 to it, as do also many diseases of malnutrition, such 
 as anaemia and neurasthenia. In derangement of the 
 functions in women it acts very beneficially, both in 
 checking excessive loss and in promoting a proper flow: 
 also in relieving or curing sufferings of all kinds connected 
 with the period. In chronic constipation and diarrhoea it 
 has excellect effects^, and patients usually find that the 
 intestinal functions become regular through its use. 
 
 66 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 67 
 
 Indeed, therapeutic suggestion gives a healthy tone to the 
 
 organic system generally, and tends to regulate all its 
 
 functions. A consideration of the experiments of Bern- 
 
 i heim, Delboeuf, and others will render this statement more 
 
 ; comprehensible than it may appear on the surface. Dr. 
 
 Forel, late Professor of Psychology at the University of 
 
 i Zurich, and Medical Superintendent of the Cantonal 
 
 Lunatic Asylum, is very decided in his views about the 
 
 I treatment of chronic constipation by hypnotic suggestion, 
 
 i which he affirms is greatly to be preferred to the use of 
 
 j purgative and other drugs. He cites many remarkable 
 
 I cases to prove this, and shows how suggestion acts by 
 
 ! restoring a natural function, whereas drugs pander to a 
 
 weakened and diseased subconscious craving, and per- 
 
 ! petuate it. 
 
 Suggestion is extremely useful in cramp from the over- 
 
 i use of certain muscles, such as is commonly found among 
 
 I writers and telegraph clerks. It is very successful also in 
 
 I some cases of old-standing paralysis, and especially so in 
 
 [ the infantile variety. Many practitioners speak highly of 
 
 I its curative power in nervous affections of the eyes — e.g., 
 
 \ hysterical amaurosis — and it is found beneficial in a few 
 
 1 forms of deafness. Numerous cures of Meniere's disease 
 
 t are on record. In fact, whenever we find chronic disease 
 
 i resisting the usual methods of treatment, suggesti^ may 
 
 [ be thought of as a useful ally. It often supplies a fillip 
 
 I to arrested curative processes. Many practitioners all 
 
 over the country now employ hypnotism when indicated 
 
 I in the ordinary routine of their practice, and find it an 
 
 invaluable asset. I recently asked such a one (Dr. Bryden 
 
 « of Godalming) if he would rather dispense with aspirin 
 
 (a very favourite remedy with him) or hypnotism. He 
 
 replied that it was a hard question, but he felt he could 
 
 find substitutes for aspirin whereas hypnotism was unique ; 
 
 therefore he decided in favour of the latter. 
 
 Perhaps some readers will consider the scope here 
 given to suggestion too wide,- but I am convinced that 
 its intelligent use by the medical attendant will be found 
 
68 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 beneficial in many cases where drugs do not act satisfac- 
 torily, or to reinforce the action of drugs. For instance, 
 it may be desirable to give ipecacuanha, but the retching 
 following its administration may render its use impossible 
 at an important time ; or a mild cathartic may induce 
 colic, often half imaginary ; in such cases hypnotic sug- 
 gestion may be useful to calm over-sensitiveness. In 
 many diseases, such as typhoid and rheumatic fevers, the 
 attendant weariness and restlessness are among the most 
 distressing symptoms. These may often be relieved by 
 this treatment, which is here advocated, not as a speciality, 
 but as an auxiliary in practice to every medical man. 
 Bernheim used it practically for every case in his wards, 
 and finds it of immense value in calming nervous ex- 
 citability, improving general nutrition, and producing 
 refreshing sleep. Myers relates how Bernheim hypnotized 
 a patient who was brought into his wards suffering from 
 pneumonia, accompanied with delirium and sleeplessness. 
 The man slept quietly for two hours, and awoke refreshed, 
 fairly comfortable, and free from delirium. The physical 
 signs of consolidation were the same after as they were 
 before the sleep, but the attendant suffering was very ■ 
 greatly modified. 
 
 Sir Lauder Brunton tells how he saw Liebeault treat 
 a case of bronchitis. He hypnotized the^ patient, and . 
 suggested, * You will have no more pain, no more spit, no . 
 more cough, when you w-ake up.' Dr. Brunton adds, 
 when the man woke up he had less pain, less cough, and 
 less spit (op. cit., p. 232). 
 
 When I was attending Liebeault's clinique, the only 
 patient he did not try hypnotism on was a boy suffering 
 from scabies, and for him he prescribed the usual sulphur 
 ointment. , 
 
 y The sick and those reduced in strength are exceptionally 
 good subjects for hypnotic suggestion, and therefore offer 
 a particularly favourable field for its employment. In 
 many chronic cases it seems to give the patient a fresh 
 start, and puts the system in a condition favourable to 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 69 
 
 the action of other remedies — such as massage. I am 
 certain that it will, in many instances, be found a valuable 
 adjunct to the Weir- Mitchell method, and will supply the 
 mental and moral element which is sometimes required 
 in this treatment. Some patients are irritated rather than 
 soothed by massage, and for these hypnotism will act as a 
 preparatory step. Several well-known physicians, speak- 
 ing to me on the subject of hypnotic suggestion, have told 
 me that they find suggestion sufficient in their practice, 
 without hypnotism, and have given several instances in 
 which pseudo-paralysis and hysterical troubles generally 
 have yielded to their well-timed assurances.* 
 
 * Professor George Buchanan, of Glasgow {Lancet, June 20, 1885), 
 records two cases treated by him by simple suggestion without hypno- 
 tism. The first patient, a lady who had been bedridden and unable 
 I to move for months, was supposed to be suffering from spinal disease. 
 Dr. Buchanan had but just returned from a visit to Lourdes, where 
 he had been much struck by the ' miraculous ' cures of nervous com- 
 I plaints closely simulating organic disease. He formed the opinion 
 j that this was a case of hysterical pain and paralysis, and he assumed a 
 j confident manner, and told the patient to turn on her other side. She 
 ' did so, and he gradually got her out of bed ; and before he left the 
 { house she was able to walk about the room and was free from pain. 
 \ The cure (Dr. Buchanan adds) appears permanent, for she was 
 J quite well eight years afterwards. The other case he cites is one of 
 I 'hysterical knee,' which had been diagnosed and treated as disease 
 ; of the joint. After a little manipulation, he told the patient that she 
 I could walk, and she was at once able to do so, though the slightest 
 movement previously had caused intense pain. These cases are very 
 I similar to many reported by Bernheim and others as having been 
 I cured by hypnotism, and they are, as Dr. Buchanan says, among the 
 I most intractable complaints which medical men are called upon to 
 treat, the disorder being in the imagination, and not in the part which 
 I appears affected. 
 
 I The beneficial and curative action of suggestion is not confined to 
 bodily ailments. We are all acquainted with numerous examples of 
 j cases where a ' word in season ' — i.e., a suggestion falling on a recep- 
 tive soil — has so influenced moral conduct that it has changed the 
 entire life of the individual. This point is strikingly brought out by 
 Professor James in his fascinating book, ' The Varieties of Religious 
 Experience.' 
 
 The eloquence of Father Mathew and Gough, the temperance 
 advocates, produced many as wonderful conversions of drunkards as 
 hypnotic suggestions can ever claim, and though a proportion of these 
 were but temporary, others were both sudden and permanent. The 
 history of all religious revivals abounds with instances of sinners being 
 reached by suggestion under special circumstances of preparedness, 
 who would never have been touched by ordinary preaching. 
 
70 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 Dr. Mercier, in a recent paper on the treatment of 
 agoraphobia {Lancet, October 13, 1906), recommends the 
 use of imperative suggestion, but goes out of his way to 
 say by this he does not imply hypnotic influence. I am 
 at a loss to understand his objection to the most certain 
 and scientific method of enforcing ' imperative suggestion.' 
 
 I maintain that if simple suggestion can work thus 
 beneficially, its effects must be greatly increased by 
 hypnotism, and that with this aid it will sometimes pro- 
 duce results which it would be impossible for it to achieve 
 alone, even in the most able hands. It is, as I have 
 said elsewhere, through unwonted concentration of the 
 imaginative powers upon a given point that suggestion 
 works, and for most persons intense concentration is 
 difficult — indeed, almost impossible to attain to in their 
 normal state. Sir James Crichton Browne, in his eloquent 
 address before the British Association at Leeds, in i88g, 
 laid particular emphasis on the important role played by 
 the imagination both in health and disease, and begged 
 his audience to employ this power and direct it into 
 proper curative channels. As Wesley said when he set 
 hj-mns to lively music : ' Why should the devil have all 
 the best tunes ?' 
 
 Liebeault strongly recommends the treatment for sprains 
 and muscular strains. In such cases it may be combined 
 with gentle massage of the injured part. In the acute 
 stages it will relieve pain and quicken the natural pro- 
 cesses of repair, and in chronic cases it seems to aid 
 in absorption of any exudation or deposit which may 
 have formed. The rapid relief of pain and restoration 
 of movement in some of these cases must be seen to be 
 believed. 
 
 In cases of * railway spine,' and of disorders resulting 
 from shock and concussion generally, it affords hope of 
 relief and cure ; and in such cases the patient should be 
 allowed to remain in the hypnotic state for a considerable 
 time, as the rest to the nervous system and freedom from 
 pain and irritation are, no doubt, important factors in 
 
 1 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 71 
 
 the cure. There is no question of the value of suggestion 
 
 in the treatment of such nervous conditions as insomnia 
 
 and hysteria, and of such diseases as require above all 
 
 things mental calming and repose. It is often impossible 
 
 in many cases of chronic disease to say how much of the 
 
 suffering depends upon organic disease, and how much 
 
 I on reflex disturbance and functional derangement. This 
 
 I is well seen in diseases of the heart, where the distress 
 
 I of the patient is often quite out of proportion to the 
 
 ; amount of lesion. In such cases the neurotic symptoms 
 
 j may generally be relieved by hypnotic suggestion.'^ 
 
 The use of hypnotism as a means of diagnosis should 
 
 I not be overlooked. Hamilton Osgood {loc. cit.) was enabled 
 
 j by its employment to discover the functional character of 
 
 a paralysis which had been previously looked upon as of 
 
 j organic nature. On the other hand, I have been able to 
 
 1 pronounce symptoms considered hysterical and functional 
 
 to be dependent on organic and structural degeneration — 
 
 1 e.^., spinal sclerosis — because they remained persistent 
 
 even in profound hypnosis. 
 
 Its power over organic processes has been clearly 
 j shown by many experiments, made either on students of 
 I the system or on patients, with their own previous consent. 
 I A patient in the hypnotic sleep is told that he has burnt 
 I his hand or some other part of his body ; he not only 
 j feels heat and pain in the place indicated, but it fre- 
 I quently happens that the spot becomes red and inflamed, 
 I exhibiting all the objective signs of congestion, and even 
 ' of inflammation, vesication, etc. The suggestion of the 
 I operator has, through the patient's imagination, been 
 
 * On this point I would especially refer the reader to Dr. Buzzard's 
 Presidential Address to the Neurological Society, 1891 (republished in 
 y book form). He clearly shows how fine are the differences between 
 I ' functional ' and organic diseases of the nervous system. The so- 
 called 'functional disease' of to-day may be shown to be organic 
 to-morrow, as our methods of investigation become more perfect — 
 e.g.^ the symptoms of locomotor ataxy used to be considered as purely 
 functional as those of paralysis agitans are at present ; and the fact 
 that the movements of paralysis agitans are but little affected by 
 hypnotism points, indeed, to there being a concealed organic basis. 
 
72 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 able to affect the vaso-motor functions of the sympathetic 
 nervous system. This experiment and others of a Hke 
 nature open up a wide field of pathological interest; for if 
 suggestion can cause an increased flow of blood to a part, 
 and local congestion and inflammation, it can also dissi- 
 pate and cure these conditions when they occur in disease. 
 
 But function depends upon blood-supply in the first 
 place, and it follows that by influencing the trophic and 
 vaso-motor centres we must affect and control not only 
 psychical processes, but the motor sensory and structural 
 arrangements which form their physical basis. This is 
 practically the position we assume. 
 
 Delbceuf, desiring to ascertain the positive effect of 
 hypnotic suggestion in the treatment of a burn, and being, 
 of course, unable to find two persons of identical constitu- 
 tion and condition generally, used the ingenious device of 
 producing, with caustic, two exactly similar burns on the 
 same person — one on each arm — and of treating one 
 wound by curative suggestion, combined with the usual 
 remedies, and the other with the usual remedies only. 
 Having induced hypnotic sleep, he suggested to the 
 patient that the one arm should be cured painlessly and 
 without any suppuration ; and it did in fact heal, by 
 simple separation of the slough and healthy granulation, 
 ten days earlier than the other, which went through the 
 suppurative process, accompanied by inflammation and 
 pain {op. cit., p. g). Were this case not reported by a 
 well-known savant, I confess I should feel some hesitation 
 in recording it here ; as it is, its accuracy is beyond 
 doubt.* 
 
 Beaunis (op. cit.) notes a case in which, by suggestion, 
 he regulated the pulse of a patient. Before sleep there 
 were 96 pulsations in a minute, which during the sleep 
 increased to 98*4. He suggested a reduction, and it fell 
 to 92*4. The pulse having again risen to 100*2 he sug- 
 gested an acceleration, and it further rose to ii5"5. The 
 slackening and quickening of the pulse in each instance 
 
 * See also Bcrillon's wart case, p. 18. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 73 
 
 followed immediately upon the suggestion. The tracings 
 were taken by Marey's sphygmograph, and of these 
 facsimile reproductions are given in Beaunis's work. He 
 also succeeded in slightly raising the temperature of 
 patients by suggesting an increase of warmth. 
 
 I have myself frequently succeeded in modifying the 
 heart's action by hypnotic suggestion to a notable extent 
 by as many as ten beats in either direction in the minute, 
 but the subjects on whom vesication can be produced 
 by suggestion are, I imagine, very few, and in them 
 probably only after prolonged experimentation. I have 
 jon one occasion produced vomiting by suggestion. Once 
 ja dipsomaniac patient, who had relapsed and indulged in 
 j beer, required, I felt, very drastic treatment. He was a 
 [somnambulist, and in the trance state I told him that if 
 jhe ever drank beer again it would act as an immediate 
 emetic. I then awoke him and insisted on his drinking 
 half a glass of ale. He had hardly swallowed it before 
 it returned, though he was quite unconscious of the sug- 
 gestion.^ ^ 
 
 Beaunis describes at some length the production of all 
 [the effects of a blister following the suggestion that one 
 |had been applied. ' M. Focachon, a chemist of Charmes, 
 jshowed us (Drs. Bernheim, Beaunis, and Liebeault) this 
 Iphenomenon on a patient whom he brought to Nancy. 
 During her sleep, at about 11 a.m., eight postage stamps 
 were applied to her left shoulder, while it was suggested to 
 {her that they were a blister. She was allowed to sleep all 
 Iday, being, however, aroused for meals, and was kept 
 junder observation. When she retired for the night she 
 Iwas told to sleep until 7 the next morning. At 8.15 a.m. 
 [the dressing which had been put on was removed, and 
 
 I * I have since received letters from this gentleman's friends, and 
 jwhat they say aftords remarkable evidence of the deep-seated effect 
 of hypnotic suggestion. He was taken suddenly ill at a cricket-match 
 with what turned out to be acute pleurisy. As he was faint and in 
 pain, he was given the usual rough-and-ready remedy — a glass of 
 spirits. No sooner had he swallowed it than it returned. It was 
 
 three months since I had last hypnotized him, but Dr. S had 
 
 repeated my suggestions. 
 
 ^ 
 
74 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 the stamps were found /';/ situ The surrounding skin, 
 for 4 or 5 centimetres, was thickened, modified, and of 
 yellowish-white colour. The cuticle, however, was not 
 raised, and did not form a blister ; but it was thickened 
 and wrinkled, and presented the appearance usual before 
 complete vesication. The part of the skin was surrounded 
 by a zone of intense redness and swelling.* M. Focachon 
 and the patient returned to Charmes, and by 4 p.m. four 
 or five vesicles were developed. Fifteen days later the 
 blister was still suppurating freely. M. Focachon made 
 a similar experiment on another patient, and in forty- 
 eight hours produced a blister, which followed the same 
 course.' Dr. Wetterstrand has kindly sent me photo- 
 graphs of a woman's hand, on which he raised blisters 
 by simply touching places with the tip of his finger and 
 suggesting it was a hot iron. The converse experiment 
 has also proved successful. A blister is applied to a 
 hypnotized subject who is told that it is a soothing lini- 
 ment, and no vesication is produced (Alfred Fouillee, Rev. 
 des Deux Mondcs, May, i8gi). 
 
 Professors Bourru and Burot, of Rochefort, succeeded 
 in causing ha;morrhage from the nose, by suggesting that 
 it should take place, in a young soldier of epileptic and 
 hysterical constitution ; they even fixed the hour when it 
 should come on. On this same subject Dr. Mabille, of 
 the lunatic asylum at Lafond, produced instantaneously, 
 by suggestion, haemorrhage from different parts of the 
 body, exactly similar in character to the stigmata of some 
 medieval saints. t 
 
 * Sir B. W. Richardson, in his kindly notice of my book in the 
 Asclepiui/, June, 1890, attributes the blisters produced in this case, not 
 to suggestion, but to the fact that the gum on the postage stamps was 
 of Ijad and irritating quality ! Dr. Albert Bonjean (' L'Hypnotisme 
 ses Rapports, avec le Droit et la Thcrapeutique," Paris, 1890) relates 
 numerous experiments in which he was able to obtain stigmata and 
 blisters by suggestion alone, without even touching the part affected. 
 
 + The best modern example of a religious s/ii^iihifisir is that of the 
 Belgian nun, Louise Lateau. The case was very fully investigated 
 in 1869 ''y I^r. Lefebvre, Professor at Louvain University, and other 
 physicians, who came to the conclusion that the phenomenon was a 
 genuine result of auto-suggestion (Bonjean, ofi. cit.^ p. 106!. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 75 
 
 Professor Krafft-Ebing, in his remarkable monograph 
 on the case of lima Szandor, a young Hungarian girl of 
 extremely hysterical type, gives an account of many ex- 
 periments he performed on her. He was able by simple 
 suggestion to produce blisters and haemorrhages and to 
 effect marked alteration in temperature and in the 
 character of the pulse and respiration.^ 
 
 The temperature experiments of Krafft-Ebing with lima 
 Szandor seem to have been confined to causing decrease 
 of temperature — no doubt as affording the most striking 
 evidence of the power of suggestion. At a meeting of the 
 Medical Union of Vienna in December, 1887, he hypnotized 
 her by friction of the forehead, and suggested that her 
 temperature should fall to 35*5° C. Immediately before the 
 operation the temperature was 37° C, and immediately 
 after it (at 8 p.m.) it was 37*1° C. At g.30 p.m. it was 
 36° C. Next morning at 8 a.m. it registered 35'9° C.,and 
 at noon it was 357° C. It remained at this subnormal 
 height until her next hystero-epileptic attack. The 
 experiment was repeated on several occasions, and the 
 fact was demonstrated that not only could the tempera- 
 ture be lowered by hypnotic suggestion, but that its 
 height at a fixed hour could be arranged by suggestion. 
 Truly an extraordinary phenomenon. Professor Preyer, 
 commenting on it in his admirable work, says he can see 
 no way to account for the extraordinary changes of tem- 
 perature except by admitting that intense ideo-conception 
 processes in the cortex can under certain conditions act 
 upon certain heat centres. He is disposed to doubt the 
 continuance of the action, and supposes that the applica- 
 tion of the thermometer revived the suggestion each ^ime 
 it was used, and that the effect being produced and the 
 instrument withdrawn, the temperature would rise to its 
 normal level, and would continue at it until a repetition 
 of the operation led to a repetition of the suggestion and 
 its realization {op. cit., p. 73). It must be remembered that 
 lima Szandor was altogether an exceptional subject, and 
 
 * Op. cit. 
 
76 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 that Beaunis experimented over a considerable period of 
 time without being able in any case to obtain more than 
 a fractional rise. The fact, however, that an agent only 
 produces its most extreme effects in persons of rare 
 idiosyncrasy does not take from the importance of its 
 action, and enables us to understand the slighter effects 
 produced on ordinary mortals. 
 
 In Binet and Fere's ' Animal Magnetism ' (Kegan Paul, 
 Trench and Co., London, 1887) the above and several 
 other similar experiments are related; for instance, how 
 Dumontpallier succeeded in raising the local temperature 
 several degrees, and how Bourru and Burot wrote hi? 
 name with the blunt end of a probe on both arms of a 
 hysterical male patient, suggesting to him, 'This after- 
 noon, at four o'clock, you will go to sleep, and blood will 
 then exude from your arms in the lines which have been 
 traced.' The patient fell asleep at the appointed hour, 
 and the letters appeared on his left arm, marked in relief, 
 and of a bright red colour, with here and there minute 
 drops of blood. But no such sign appeared on the right 
 arm, which was paralyzed. 
 
 Charcot (the writers go on to say) and his pupils at the 
 Salpetriere have often, by means of suggestion, produced 
 the effects of burns upon the skin of hypnotized patients 
 (pp. 198, 199). Fere adds that he has demonstrated that 
 any part of the body of a hysterical patient may be made 
 to change in volume by simple directed attention, thus 
 showing what influence may be exerted by a simple 
 phenomenon of ideation on the vaso-motor centres. 
 
 Binet and Fere cannot be accused of undue credulity. 
 They refuse to accept as proof any phenomenon which 
 has not been subjected to the most searching scientific 
 tests ; and they are so imbued with the theories of Pro- 
 fessor Charcot, that they fail to see the therapeutic 
 applicability of hypnotic suggestion, except in hysterical 
 cases.* 
 
 * Dr. (Gilbert Scott was kind enough last year to bring to see me 
 one of his patients who had allowed him to make experiments upon 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 77 
 
 I have made a few experiments to test the length of 
 time during which a suggestion of sensory illusion con- 
 tinues to act, and I have generally found that a night's 
 sleep puts an end to it. But this is not always the case, 
 
 and Mrs. S has on several occasions remained under 
 
 the suggested delusion for several days. For instance, I 
 
 once hypnotized her and told her that her favourite cat, a 
 
 tabby, had a black tail, and that it would continue so for 
 
 three days. On awaking, she no sooner saw the animal 
 
 than she described the change which she noticed had 
 
 come over it, and she expressed a fear that it was ill ; 
 
 I when at the end of three days it assumed its natural 
 
 I colour to her eyes, she expressed her relief at seeing it 
 
 ; recovered. A gentleman, to whom I have sometimes 
 
 j suggested visual hallucinations, sticks to the assertion 
 
 I that a colour is what I have told him, but he does so in 
 
 , a somewhat shamefaced manner, as one conscious that 
 
 there is something not right about it. So one gets all 
 
 grades of effect, from complete sensory hallucination to 
 
 merely increased credulity. 
 
 The effects of suggestion are not necessarily temporary 
 : and immediate, but may be caused to appear hours, days, 
 ! and in some cases months, after the suggestion has been 
 , given. Bernheim cites several instances of this prolonged 
 I or deferred action, applied to the physical or psychical 
 ' side. Under the physical heading I should place the 
 
 j her in deep somnambulism. She was a lady of good position, intelli- 
 1 gence, and education, married to a professional man, and thirty-three 
 I years of age. She had been Dr. Scott's patient for some months, 
 ) suffering from obstinate headache and menstrual troubles. Other 
 i treatment having failed to give much relief, he tried what hypnotism 
 ' would do, and the results exceeded his most sanguine expectations. 
 
 I The patient, Mrs. T , was an even better hypnotic subject than 
 
 1 my Mrs. H referred to on p. 147, and she took a great interest 
 
 in the experiments. Not only did she carry out such subconscious 
 estimation of time as described on p. 79, but she developed very well 
 j marked stigmata on her forearm, corresponding to the touch and 
 suggestions of Dr. Scott. These took the form of numerous punctate 
 spots — petechia; — arranged in the form of a cross and triangle, and 
 were evidently due to small extravasations of blood under the skin. 
 Such phenomena are, of course, quite different to the tachcs cerebralcs 
 I often obtainable in hysterical patients without hypnotism. 
 
78 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 production of such an objective symptom as a blister or 
 ecch\-mosis, and under the psychical a sensory impression, 
 such as the appearance of a hallucination at a given 
 hour, or the performance of a suggested action after a 
 certain interval. For instance, a soldier, a patient of 
 Liebeault, while in a state of hypnotic somnambulism 
 was told that on a certain day in two months' time, at ten 
 o'clock a.m., he would come to Liebeault's consulting- 
 room, and would there see the President of the Republic, 
 to whom he would make a profound obeisance. The 
 President would then advance towards him, would address 
 him in complimentary language, and confer upon him a 
 decoration, which he himself would fasten to the recipient's 
 buttonhole. On the day appointed a considerable audience, 
 consisting both of doctors and patients, was assembled 
 in the consulting-room, and at ten o'clock precisely the 
 soldier appeared. As he entered his expression changed ; 
 he regarded the bookcase, and bowed low in its direction. 
 He then advanced, bowed to Dr. Liebeault, and stood at 
 attention, with a gratified smile on his face, and looking 
 downward at his buttonhole. In a few moments he made 
 another profound obeisance, muttered some words and 
 walked away, much to the astonishment of those present, 
 who were ignorant of the meaning of this pantomime.* 
 
 Beaunis tells a similar story of a young woman whom, 
 while she was in a profound hypnotic state, he assured 
 that on the following New Year's Day she would see him 
 enter her room, and would hear him say, ' Bon jour, 
 mademoiselle.' This suggestion was made in July, and 
 on the following ist of January the young woman wrote 
 to the doctor, saying that she could not understand how 
 it was that he had entered her room that morning, had 
 greeted her, and then walked out immediately. She re- 
 marked further that he was dressed in the same clothes 
 she had seen him wear in the month of July. At that 
 time Dr. Beaunis happened to be in Paris, while the 
 young woman was at Nancy. 
 
 * Quoted by Binet and Fcrc, op. d/., p. 245. 
 
 J 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 79 
 
 Bramwell has made some interesting experiments on 
 the estimation of time by somnambuhsts (Brain, 1898). 
 His subject, a young woman, is told in the hypnotic state 
 that after a given number of hours or minutes she is to 
 perform a certain act. For example, she is to address an 
 envelope to Dr. Bramwell at the expiration of 12,500 minutes 
 from the moment she wakes up. When awakened she 
 remembers nothing of the sitting, and goes about her 
 usual work, but at the appointed time she executes the 
 order, though perhaps it may be in the middle of the 
 night, and she has to wake up for it, or she may be 
 engaged in some absorbing work.* It is a very interesting 
 question what causes this response to time suggestions. 
 It may be that the 'subconscious self has a means of 
 reckoning the moments as they fly. Perhaps the ratio of 
 expiration is unconsciously noticed, and gives a clue to the 
 passage of time. The conditions of modern life tend to 
 suppress many faculties which exist in primitive man. 
 The Australian savage can find his way through the path- 
 less bush by an instinct which has been lost by the white 
 man. There is a story of an imbecile youth who could 
 always tell the time within a few seconds : I suppose he 
 had the * time sense ' unusually developed, and, having 
 nothing else to do, cultivated it as a speciality. 
 
 Deferred suggestions, like nearly all suggestions given 
 in the advanced stage of hypnotism, are almost invariably 
 followed by amnesia. The subject, when awakened, has 
 no recollection whatever of the order received by him, nor 
 will it recur to his consciousness until the moment for 
 performance has arrived. If he is then questioned as to 
 his motives for such an action, he will probably reply that 
 he did it upon an unaccountable impulse which he could 
 not withstand. In very rare cases indeed there exists for 
 some time beforehand an impression that at a certain 
 hour a specified act must be done, or a specified word 
 spoken. Occasionally, too, the hypnotic subject may 
 
 * Dr. T. W. Mitchell has given particulars of a similar case in 
 Transactions of the Psycho-Medical Society. 
 
8o TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 recognize the impulse as having been dictated to him bj 
 a past suggestion ; but generally, as I have said, it will be 
 regarded as quite spontaneous, and not to be accounted 
 for. 
 
 Moll, in discussing this point, aptly compares the 
 mental state of a subject to whom the execution of a 
 past hypnotic suggestion at a certain time has been com- 
 manded to that of a person who has been given a letter to 
 post, and who puts it in his pocket and forgets it until he 
 is reminded of his duty by passing a post-office. He then 
 automatically posts the letter, but very likely entirely for- 
 gets the action, and may be unable to recall it. 
 
 This illustrates the fact, which cannot be too cogently 
 impressed on the reader, that hypnotism does not induce 
 a new condition, nor work on perfectly novel lines to the 
 extent which is often supposed, but that its effects have 
 analogies in nearly all the waking conditions of life, and 
 that it acts by intensifying and utilizing mental states 
 which are abnormal in degree, but not unnatural in kind. 
 
 Such phenomena throw a strong light on many stories 
 of supernatural apparitions, and show how useful hyp- 
 notism may prove in the hands of competent observers 
 as a key to psychical problems. Here we find an idea 
 impressed on the ' unconscious mind,' and lying dormant 
 for months, brought into action by the sirnple efflux of 
 time, as certainly as a piece of clockwork can be set to 
 run down at a fixed hour. I need hardly add that such 
 experiments as the foregoing are successful only in a very 
 small proportion of cases, and probably only in ' educated " 
 subjects. 
 
 Fulfilment of a suggestion, the prompting of which has 
 either not been consciously heard, or has been instantly 
 forgotten, is not without its analogy in ordinary life. We 
 must all acknowledge that we occasionally think, speak, 
 and act in what seems a motiveless manner, and yet, by 
 careful introspection or tracing back, we shall probably 
 find that our thought, word, or action has its source in 
 some forgotten or apparently unnoticed incident, which 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION Si 
 
 has left its impression upon our brain cells. The brain 
 cells, once stimulated, may under certain conditions, as 
 in delirium, prompt the utterance of sounds apparently 
 forgotten or unrecorded. Thus, we find persons on their 
 death-bed, or in fever, speaking a language which they 
 had forgotten since childhood ; like an elderly Scotch 
 physician, a friend of mine, who for an hour before his 
 death talked only in Gaelic, the language of his childhood, 
 which he had not spoken for fifty years. '^ There is a well- 
 known story of a servant-girl, who, in the delirium of 
 fever, continually repeated passages from the Greek Testa- 
 ment, which her ears had unconsciously taken in years 
 before, when she had been in the service of a clergyman. 
 And all persons entrusted with the care of lunatics must 
 know what unseemly and even vile expressions may, in 
 the paroxysms of insanity, be uttered by young, refined 
 and virtuous women, whose lives have been carefully 
 guarded from evil influences. The vicious word or phrase 
 heard by them long ago, perhaps in early childhood, while 
 
 * Some persons are, as Bernheim points out, ' suggestible ' to an 
 extraordinary degree, independently of hypnotism. This, he finds, is 
 especially marked in children and in persons afifected with phthisis. 
 He relates how he has frequently suggested imaginary actions, and 
 even crimes, to such subjects, with the result that the ideas have been 
 accepted as true, and have become as actual truths to them. This 
 increase in the normal suggestibility may perhaps serve to explain the 
 extravagant stories invented by some children. Such untruthfulness 
 may not depend upon viciousness, but on excessive imagination, which 
 has been set in action by some outside suggestion. Professor Dejerine, 
 speaking of suggestibility without hypnosis, cites the case of two 
 young countrymen under his treatment in the hospital. They were 
 both fresh from military service when he first saw them, and neither 
 of them had ever been hypnotized ; yet he was at once able by simple 
 suggestion to evoke in them sensory hallucinations, changes of 
 personality, and all the other psychical phenomena which one is 
 accustomed to associate with the most advanced stages of hypnosis 
 {Revue de rHypn-otisuie, January, 1891). 
 
 Anaesthesia by suggestion may be sometimes induced quite inde- 
 pendently of hypnotism. For instance, Dr. Robinson, of the Mile 
 End Infirmary, found that he could induce complete anaesthesia and 
 analgesia in a hystero-epileptic girl, who had never been hypnotized, 
 by telling her she was to feel nothing. The girl had confidence in 
 the physician, and his suggestion was in some way able to produce a 
 condition resembling hysterical anaesthesia, probably by inhibition of 
 the sensory centres. 
 
 6 
 
82 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 passing along a street, or standing at a window, though 
 uncomprehended at the time, and apparently unremem- 
 bered, was nevertheless recorded in the brain cells.* 
 
 It will thus be seen that suggestion is an exceedingly 
 powerful agent — effective in the hands of the experi- 
 mentalist, and efficacious also in those of the physician. 
 
 Most of the Continental practitioners of the system use 
 it chiefly at consultations in their own rooms, where, of 
 course, sufferers from acute diseases are not likely to pre- 
 sent themselves. It is frequently used in childbirth with 
 beneficial result, and in surgery it is often employed. No 
 doubt most susceptible persons might be painless)} 
 operated upon while under its influence, but, as a rule, the 
 natural agitation of a patient before an operation would so 
 distract his attention as to render hypnotism impossible at 
 the moment. A courseof training would be necessary, in- 
 volving much time and trouble ; whereas chloroform and 
 other anaesthetics are easily administered, and are com- 
 monly certain in their effect. Bernheim uses suggestion 
 
 * Dr. Felkin, in his very excellent resume of the progress of hyp- 
 notism, gives an interesting experience of his own with a hypnotized 
 subject. She was a woman of fifty, who could not in her waking 
 state speak English, yet when hypnotized she begun to talk fluently 
 in English. It appears that she had known the language as a girl, 
 but had entirely forgotten it, and that hypnotism brought back the 
 girlish memory {o/>. a/., p. 50). 
 
 A case reported by the Society for Psychical Research shows the 
 extreme importance of very early impressions which may not have 
 been registered in ordinary memory, and yet cause after-eftects. A 
 lady of early middle age was invarial^ly haunted by a certain night- 
 mare. This always took the form of being attacked and bitten by a 
 great white dog. 
 
 The underlying cause of this dream was afterwards explained by an 
 old nurse, who related that she had charge of the lady when an infant 
 of about a year old, and left her asleep in a cradle in a room opening 
 on to a garden. One day a strange white dog had dashed into the 
 room, upset the cradle, and awakened the sleeping infant. No great 
 harm had been done, but the impression made on the undeveloped 
 cortical cells had never been eradicated. Suggestion, if the patient 
 were a good hypnotic subject, would almost certainly remove the 
 idea. The researches of Freud throw much light on these cases, and 
 show how careful we must be to guard children from evil influences. 
 Not only ' every word a man shall utter,' but every word a child shall 
 hear, seems stored up in the brain, and may come up for judgment. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 83 
 
 1 conjunction with chloroform, and finds that his patients 
 ike the anaesthetic better, and require a much smaller 
 uantity, than when it is administered silently in the usual 
 'ay. This is the experience of many anaesthetists, and 
 le question was discussed in a recent debate (1910) at the 
 Loyal Society of Medicine, in the section of Anaesthetists. 
 luch of the success of certain operators was attributed to 
 leir gentle and tactful administration. I know of no 
 lore promising field for hypnotism than its use after 
 perations — to relieve pain, neutralize shock, induce sleep, 
 nd remove restlessness and malaise. I have had but 
 mited experience in this field, but such as it is it has 
 een most encouraging. 
 
 Some years ago I hypnotized a woman for a dentist 
 istead of giving her gas, and a very bad tooth was pain- 
 jssly extracted. The patient not only felt no pain at the 
 me, but there was no discomfort afterwards. This 
 entist tells me that he now often uses hypnotism as an 
 naesthetic in his practice, and finds it extremely useful, 
 s not only does the patient feel no pain, but he is able to 
 ssist the operator by holding his mouth open without a 
 ag, and spitting when told to. If he finds the patient is 
 ot hypnotizable, no harm is done, and he gives gas in 
 tie usual way. 
 
 Suggestion may be usefully employed instead of nar- 
 otics in temporarily relieving acute pain, by inducing 
 leep which will not be followed by the deleterious conse- 
 uences of drugs. It is also used in cases where the 
 leep itself is remedial, as in threatening congestion of the 
 irain, delirium tremens, and in insomnia, when this exists 
 san independent condition, and not merely as a symptom 
 if disease. 
 
 But it is in the so-called ' neuroses ' that suggestion 
 btains its most brilliant successes — in functional epilepsy, 
 )t. Vitus's dance, asthma, palpitation, nervous headache, 
 pinal irritation, neurasthenia, ovarian pain, and the many 
 3rms of dyspepsia. Nervous disease is, unfortunately, 
 ver on the increase, and the study of its symptoms, its 
 
84 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 cure and prevention, must increase to keep pace with it. 
 As civilization advances, humanity develops ' nerves,' 
 which in this sense may be said to have no existence in 
 the savage and barbarous states. The vices and virtues 
 of civilization tend alike to increase our sensitiveness. 
 Drink, narcotics, the abuse of tobacco, social excitements, 
 intellectual culture, the ever-spreading desire to be or do 
 something remarkable — these and many other stimulating 
 influences are perpetually at work to promote nerve 
 disease among us. In large cities, especially, where men 
 live under artificial conditions and at high pressure, we 
 find in all classes of the community affections presenting 
 subjective symptoms quite out of proportion to the ob- 
 jective signs. It would be interesting to ascertain what 
 proportion neurotic affections bear to organic diseases in 
 a busy doctor's day's work. Probably one half at least. 
 Many of us when fresh from the hospital are vexed and 
 surprised to find how much of our practice is made up of 
 such cases. They are really among the most painful and 
 difficult complaints a physician is called upon to treat, 
 for they generally indicate a weak and depressed state 
 of vitality, in which the slightest suffering is felt with 
 intensified force. Take the medical nomenclature ending 
 in algia : cardialgia, cephalalgia, gastralgia, myalgia, 
 neuralgia — what visions of suffering do these words 
 call up ! Most of it is curable, or at least relievable, by 
 suggestion.* 
 
 Hysteria, and many other neuroses, are popularly sup- 
 posed to be essentially the diseases of the rich and idle, 
 
 * Pain, of course, is a variable quantity, and its appreciation 
 depends upon the nervous temperament of the individual. There is, 
 so far as I know, no ' algometer' yet invented, though I have heard of 
 a physician who told a suffering patient to hold her tongue, as he 
 knew better than she the pains afflicting her. I once expressed great 
 
 sympathy with Lady A because of the intolerable anguish she 
 
 said an aching tooth was giving her. Her daughter was not much 
 moved, and told me she had always discounted her mother's com- 
 plaints since she had witnessed the effect following the sting of a gnat. 
 Suggestion in the hypnotic state not only relieves or cures pain, but 
 often helps the sufferer to bear that and the other ills of life with more 
 patience and philosophy. 
 
 i 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 85 
 
 but Savill has shown that a considerable proportion of 
 the cases in workhouse infirmaries are of this nature."*^ 
 This is what the physiologist would expect. Probably 
 nothing is so fruitful a predisposing cause of neurotic ail- 
 ments as intemperance in the parents, and the children 
 of slum-dwellers are sent into the world with such un- 
 stable nervous systems that those who manage to survive 
 infancy are the special prey of all varieties of neuroses, 
 and become the permanent tenants of workhouses and in- 
 firmaries. I have not been much impressed by the results 
 of hypnotic treatment in a large proportion of these cases, 
 and I have attributed its failure to the fact that there is 
 a total absence of material to work upon. There is no 
 reserve of nerve energy, as Dr. MacFarlane says of some 
 cases of neurasthenia. 
 
 There is one class of cases for which hypnotic treat- 
 ment offers particularly good prospects of relief. The 
 exhausted brain-worker, whose nervous system is in a 
 painful state of erethism, will here find exactly the remedy 
 which is physiologically indicated. He is suffering from 
 functional derangement of the highest centres, and the 
 action of hypnotism on those is their reduction to a con- 
 dition of physiological rest. The overwrought and over- 
 anxious victim of modern economical and social conditions 
 can be soothed and refreshed, by hypnotic suggestion, to 
 an extent quite unattainable through drugs or physical 
 treatment of any kind. But hypnotization of these sub- 
 jects is a process requiring much tact and patience — for 
 the condition of the brain is such as to render the neces- 
 sary mental quiet and confidence difficult of attainment. 
 Perseverance will, however, generally be rewarded by 
 success, and success here often means new life to the 
 sufferer. 
 
 I attended a case of this kind in 1899. The patient, 
 a professional man aged thirty-seven, had separated from 
 his wife from incompatibility of temper, and had lost 
 nearly all his money. He got attacks of rage almost 
 
 * ' Lectures on Neurasthenia,' 3rd edition, p. 19. 
 
86 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 amounting to mania on the least contradiction or provoca- 
 tion, and at other times was intensely depressed, and 
 often suicidal. It did not seem a very hopeful case, as 
 suggestion could not bring back his money, nor render 
 him and his wife suitable partners. But I tried it, and it 
 succeeded in making him take a philosophical view of the 
 situation. He now leads a rational life, vvorks hard, and 
 succeeds in forgetting his troubles. There is no doubt 
 but that hypnotism has saved this gentleman from madness 
 or suicide. 
 
 A somewhat similar case came under treatment about 
 the same time. This patient is an accountant who had 
 broken down from overwork and business worry. He 
 had been a good deal to blame, and was tortured by 
 exaggerated remorse. He had been sent a voyage round 
 the world, but Ccvlnm, non animum, mutant, qui trans mare 
 currunt, and he returned no better. Resumption of work 
 was followed by a very bad nervous breakdown, and he 
 was induced to try hypnotism. Though but slightly 
 susceptible, suggestion soon told upon him. He has lost 
 his morbid fancies, regained his power of work, and has 
 been actively engaged in his business ever since. Loss of 
 sleep is the first symptom of breakdown in these cases, 
 and it is one of the first to be corrected by suggestion. 
 
 ' When one of these hypochondriacs,' writes Binet and 
 Fere, ' whom we are apt to call malades imaginaircs, comes 
 to seek the help of medicine, complaining of subjective 
 pains and uneasiness, what do we often repl}' ? " It is 
 nothing ; it is merely fancy ; try not to think about it " ; 
 and he is sent away with some anodyne or simple remedy. 
 This invalid, who has suggested to himself his disease, 
 and who really suffers from it, becomes convinced that it 
 is not understood, and that nothing can be done for him.* 
 The more he trusts his physician, the deeper is this con- 
 
 * Dr. Savill, in his 'Lectures on Neurasthenia' (1906) devotes a 
 most instructive chapter to differentiating hypochondriasis, hysteria, 
 and neurasthenia. He considers the first as generally incurable, 
 and the last as generally curable if properly treated, and hysteria 
 as semi-curable. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 87 
 
 viction ; and he who came with merely a trifling complaint 
 may go away with one which is practically incurable.'* 
 This is an appropriate place for once more urging medical 
 men to try hypnotism and suggestion in the early stages 
 of disease, and not to wait until the patients' bodily 
 strength and mental receptivity have been exhausted by 
 experiments in other fields of therapeutics. 
 
 The disease induced by morbid auto-suggestion may be 
 controlled and cured by healthy suggestion from without, 
 given when the brain is in a state peculiarly receptive of 
 outer influence. The mind of a nervous, hysterical, hypo- 
 chondriacal person is usually shut against all outward 
 influence, except such as corresponds with and feeds its 
 morbid state. The patient when awake rejects cheerful 
 and hopeful suggestions almost as if they were insults, 
 but in the hypnotic sleep, his morbid self-influence being 
 temporarily in abeyance, his mind will admit and act 
 upon suggestions of bodily and consequent mental cure. 
 
 Dr. Russell Sturges, of Boston, U.S.A., has reported 
 an interesting series of cases which he has treated by 
 hypnotic suggestion, and a somewhat singular part of his 
 work is that he has gained success without putting his 
 patient into the deeper stages of hypnosis. On the con- 
 trary, he contends that deep hypnosis is unnecessary, and 
 sometimes even harmful. Dubois is very insistent on 
 this point, and his bookt deals with the subject in 
 an admirable manner. He says he cures by appealing 
 to the patients' reason. But surely that has been done 
 already ad nauseam by everyone in the entourage, and 
 something more is looked for from the physician. 
 Moreover, most of these professional invalids have ceased 
 
 * Physicians practising hypnotism see a great many of these cases, 
 and they are most difficult to cure, for every failure on the part of a 
 previous doctor acts as a strong counter-suggestion to success. The 
 hospital physician who recently told a young friend of mine before 
 the patient that he might try hypnotism if he liked, but that he 
 was sure an operation would be necessary, seriously handicapped the 
 treatment, for such a statement coming from one in authority tended 
 to fix the morbid idea and its attendant symptoms. 
 
 t 'The Psychic Treatment of Disease,' English translation, 1910. 
 
8S TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 to be reasonable. Dubois may succeed in many cases 
 owing to his strong personality, but most doctors need 
 all the help they can get. ' Chinese ' Gordon went 
 through his wars armed only with a walking cane, 
 but ordinary soldiers find it necessary to carry swords 
 and firearms. When I am asked if I can remove a 
 morbid idea, I reply that it depends upon the patient's 
 susceptibility to hypnotism. But, as Professor Pitres of 
 Bordeaux points out, some people are more suggestible 
 when awake than others when profoundly hypnotized. 
 
 Dr. Sturges, for instance, cites the case of a young lady 
 who was a chronic invalid, and suffered greatly from 
 internal neuralgia. There appeared to be no objective 
 disease, but inquiry revealed that her ill-health dated 
 from a mental shock she had sustamed by an accident to 
 her brother, brought on, she thought, through her fault. 
 It appears she had urged her brother to ride a restive 
 horse in spite of his protests. The horse threw him, and 
 he broke his arm. Though he recovered, and was none 
 the worse for the accident, anxiety and remorse so preyed 
 on her mind that she became an invalid. 
 
 Sturges induced a slight state of hypnosis, and suggested 
 to her the correction of the morbid idea. The girl's 
 friends had frequently argued the subject with her 
 without effect, but three or four treatments by hypnotic 
 suggestion brought about a right frame of mind and a 
 corresponding cure of the bodily troubles. 
 
 Another case is that of a lady who quarrelled with her 
 father immediately before his sudden death. She accused 
 herself of being accessory to it, and fell into a state of 
 chronic melancholia. Dr. Sturges succeeded in getting 
 rid of the exaggerated idea, and restoring her to happiness 
 and health."*^ 
 
 Professor Gibert of Havre reports an even more striking 
 case of a young woman who was brought into the hospital 
 suffering from paraplegia and profound disturbance of 
 
 * ' The Use of Hypnotism to the First Degree as a Means of 
 modifying or completely eliminating a Fixed Idea,' Boston, 1894. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 89 
 
 the digestive and generative functions. She had been 
 
 hypnotized, and was a good subject, but the result had 
 
 been disappointing. Investigation into the history of the 
 
 case showed that the girl had sustained three great shocks 
 
 in her life : the first when, at the age of seven, she had 
 
 been forced to occupy the same bed as a child with a bad 
 
 skin disease ; the second just at the age of puberty, when 
 
 she was put into an icy cold bath ; and the third when 
 
 she was terrified by seeing a woman killed by falling from 
 
 a window. It was after the third shock that the paralysis 
 
 developed, but it found her weakly and hysterical. Dr. 
 
 Gibert threw her into a state of profound somnambulism, 
 
 and then gradually worked at removing the domination 
 
 of the morbid ideas. He gave a less serious turn to the 
 
 events which had so influenced her life, and got her to 
 
 look back upon them without terror. The result was 
 
 complete cure in a few sittings.* 
 
 One of my early hypnotic cases was that of a lady who 
 
 had nursed a relative in his last illness. It was a very 
 
 trying time for her, as he allowed no one else to attend 
 
 him. One of her duties was to play to him, and in this 
 
 he took great delight. Shortly before his death, in a 
 
 paroxysm of jealousy he made her promise that she would 
 
 never touch the piano after his death, assuring her that if 
 
 she broke her word he would appear to punish her. 
 
 The peculiarly distressing circumstances produced an 
 
 attack of nervous prostration, and when this passed away 
 
 it left her with spasmodic asthma, which was new to her, 
 
 choreiform movements of the head, night terrors, and 
 
 intense nervousness, so that she was unable to travel or 
 
 to face crowds. But the thing which most distressed her 
 
 was her inability to listen to music, which had been the 
 
 passion of her life, and she could hardly look at a piano 
 
 without a nervous paroxysm. 
 
 I hypnotized her, and she passed readily into a con- 
 
 * Again one has to refer to Freud and his psycho-analytic treat- 
 ment, which is foreshadowed in the above cases. Surely they, and a 
 host of others, disprove his assertion that there is nearly always a 
 sexual origiii of phobias. 
 
90 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 dition of profound somnambulism. Then I suggested the 
 disappearance of the morbid ideas, and with them of the 
 nervous symptoms. Gradually the suggestions worked, 
 and finally I got her with much difficulty to play on the 
 piano while hypnotized. She left me cured of her asthma 
 and spasmodic movements, and with her nervous system 
 so strengthened that she could ride and drive again and 
 go into society. She was able to listen to music, but 
 showed a great disinclination to play herself. A little 
 more treatment would probably have completely cured all 
 the symptoms, but she had to go abroad, and I lost sight 
 of her. 
 
 In these cases correct diagnosis and judicious treatment 
 are the essentials of success. One has to unravel, as it 
 were, a tangled skein, and rough treatment would probably 
 aggravate the trouble. One knows that diseased con- 
 ditions caused by shock are sometimes cured by another 
 shock ; but the gentler method of induced hypnosis and 
 applied suggestion is at once more pleasant and more 
 likely to succeed. I think it will be found that a much 
 larger amount of chronic illness is due to shock than 
 is generally recognized, and I know of no higher duty 
 of the physician than the curing of such cases. The 
 study of hypnotism and the curious features it brings 
 to one's notice often gives a new interest to ordinary 
 practice, and throws a new light on the causation of an 
 illness. 
 
 Dr. Constance Long has recently reported a case of 
 most aggravated nostalgia cured very quickly by hypnotic 
 suggestion. The patient was a young woman who was 
 always most miserable when away from home. Dr. Ivo 
 Cobb has found the treatment efficacious in the case of a 
 lady whose long-continued grief after the death of her 
 husband had become pathological. I have recently cured 
 a major in the arm}' of morbid jealousy of his wife. He 
 knew his feelings to be quite unjustified, but could not ^ 
 restrain them or the unkind actions to which they led. 
 His views about women were, in fact, those of a Mussul- 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 91 
 
 man, and their exhibition in England led to endless 
 embarrassment and unhappiness. A few treatments by 
 suggestion in light hypnosis completely changed his out- 
 look on the subject, and brought about his conformity to 
 his environment. 
 
 It is to be noted that in these three cases the trouble 
 was an exaggeration of natural feelings, and the patient 
 recognized it as such, and wished to be cured. Hypnotism 
 supplied just the necessary mental leverage. 
 
 A recent case presents many points of interest. The 
 
 patient was a weaver from the North, and he was sent to 
 
 me by his clergyman. The poor man was unable to do 
 
 I his work, and suffered from sleeplessness, restlessness, 
 
 j mental depression, want of appetite, and other symptoms 
 
 i of neurasthenia. His illness dated from a year previous, 
 
 ! when his son had nearly died from rheumatic fever. 
 
 Quite unjustly he accused himself of being the cause of 
 
 t the illness, and nothing seemed to be able to get this 
 
 I haunting idea out of his mind. He proved a good hypnotic 
 
 i subject, and I sent him back in a fortnight quite well. 
 
 I have treated successfully several cases of ' stage fright ' 
 
 occurring in actors and musicians. This condition is 
 
 largely the outcome of morbid self-consciousness and self- 
 
 I suggestion, and is, therefore, more appropriately combated 
 
 I by healthy suggestion. A notable cure is that of a talented 
 
 violinist, whose nerve was completely destroyed by the 
 
 I adverse criticism of a prejudiced journal. She soon quite 
 
 [ regained confidence, and remains cured. 
 
 The suggestive system has been extensively taken up 
 ■^ I by foreign lunacy and mental physicians. Among these 
 are Drs. Semal, of the asylum at Mons ; Mabille, chief 
 physician of the asylum at Lafond ; Burckhardt, of the 
 asylum at Prefargier (Switzerland). These specialists 
 and others frequently report cases of amelioration and 
 cure, through the use of suggestion, in the Revue de 
 VHypnotisnie. 
 
 The insane are not easily influenced by hypnotism ; all 
 who have anything to do with them know how difficult it 
 
 LI 
 
92 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 is to get them to fix their attention on anything except 
 their delusion ; but once an influence is gained over them, 
 suggestion may prove most useful. 
 
 Dr. Woods, late Superintendent of Hoxton House 
 Asylum, London, is the chief worker in this field in 
 England, and in an important paper contributed to the 
 Journal of Mental Science* he describes several cases of 
 melancholia, delusional insanity, and acute mania which 
 he has benefited by hypnotic treatment. 
 
 That borderland of insanity occupied by dipsomania, 
 the opium habit, and the excessive abuse of tobacco and 
 other narcotics, offers an extensive field of usefulness to 
 suggestive treatment. Professor Forel, in his address at 
 the Congress of Neurologists held at Zurich in i88S, 
 gave it as his opinion that in those cases suggestion is 
 a very beneficial, and often a very powerful, agent, fre- 
 quently enabling the drunkard to take that first step, 
 which is always so difficult, towards reformation and cure. 
 He cited also several cases in which he had succeeded by 
 its means in curing patients of the opium habit in from 
 eight to twelve days, and that without the acute mental 
 suffering which is commonly felt when an enslaving habit 
 is quickly broken off. Drs, Van Renterghem and \'an 
 Eeden (of Amsterdam) likewise tell me th9,t they have 
 had great success in overcoming these moral diseases. At 
 Nancy I had the opportunity of seeing many such cases 
 in process of cure. One man came to Dr. Liebeault com- 
 pletely shattered by indulgence in tobacco, which he both 
 smoked and chewed. He was a railway porter, a big, 
 strongly-built fellow, but he was weak and shaky through 
 his excesses. His digestion was faulty, his tongue thickly 
 furred, and he had no appetite. His pulse was slow and 
 intermittent, he felt giddiness on movement, and his 
 sight frequently vanished through incipient amaurosis. 
 Persons whose nervous systems are broken down in this 
 way are very easily hypnotized, and Liebeault soon had 
 this man in a state of profound sleep. He then told 
 
 * April, 1897. 
 
 1 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 93 
 
 him that he was to give up smoking, that a pipe was to 
 be to him an object of loathing, and a quid of tobacco 
 even more offensive ; also that, if he did indulge in one 
 or the other, pain and sickness would be the result, so 
 that he must not even feel a desire for the indulgence. 
 The patient came daily for several mornings, and daily 
 showed an increasing improvement, till in a week he was 
 completely cured of the symptoms of nicotine-poisoning. 
 He would, of course, have been cured by voluntary absten- 
 tion from tobacco, but I doubt if the beneficial effect 
 would have been so rapid ; and no one seeing the man 
 would have credited him with the moral courage and 
 determination necessary for breaking off a long-cherished 
 habit. It is told of the younger Dumas that he was 
 formerly an inveterate smoker, and on one occasion, feel- 
 ing out of health, went to consult his doctor, with the 
 usual cigar in his mouth. The physician, one in whom 
 Dumas had entire confidence, having heard his symptoms, 
 told him plainly that smoking was destruction for him, 
 whereupon the great writer immediately flung away his 
 cigar, declaring that he would never smoke another — and 
 he kept his word. But how many are gifted with such 
 resolution ?* I am afraid most doctors share my experi- 
 ence, and find that patients come to us, not to be cured 
 of their bad habits, but to be relieved of the suffering 
 resulting therefrom. 
 
 There are many cases on record where this abandon- 
 ment of a cherished habit has been accomplished without 
 hypnotism. A man who has caused the death of one 
 
 * A near relation of my own underwent hypnotic treatment at 
 Nancy for the cure of the tobacco habit in 1891, and his experience is 
 interesting. After being a great smoker for years, he formed the reso- 
 lution of giving up the weed, as he found that it was causing nervous- 
 ness and palpitation. Dr. Liebeault never induced in him more than 
 a slight drowsiness, with inability to open the eyes, and yet the effect 
 of suggestion was immediate and remarkable. Tobacco almost at 
 once became distasteful to him, and he did not smoke again for years. 
 Now he is a very moderate smoker. Probably in this case the patient 
 would have been able to reform himself unaided ; but. Liebeault 
 saved him from a good deal of suffering, and very likely from some 
 relapses. 
 
94 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 dear to him in some drunken brawl is very likely, if he 
 has any good in him, to conceive a horror and dislike 
 for intoxicants, and to become a reformed character. 
 
 In many cases the good is thus so overshadowed and 
 hidden bv the evil that its presence is overlooked. 
 Hypnotism, at any rate, enables us, under favourable 
 conditions, to suppress the evil, and thus give the good a 
 chance of showing itself, and it is possible that it may 
 even enable us to create good qualities in course of time. 
 
 In the Revue de VHypnotismc, 1886-1887, some papers 
 appear by the late Dr. Auguste Voisin, of the Salpetriere, 
 showing the efficacy of suggestion in the treatment of 
 moral obliquity; and at the Congress of the French 
 Association for the Advancement of Science, held at 
 Nancy in 1886, papers dealmg with this subject were read 
 by several physicians of eminence. Voisin gives instances 
 of female prisoners, formerly considered incorrigible, who, 
 after a course of suggestive treatment (combined with the 
 religious and moral instruction, which alone had, unfortu- 
 nately, proved ineffectual), became modest, cleanly, and 
 industrious. Some of these reformed women have been 
 placed in situations of trust, which they hold satisfactorily. 
 His mantle seems to have fallen on his cousin, Dr. Jules 
 Voisin, also physician to the Salpetriere, who is equally 
 enthusiastic and successful in treating moral delinquents 
 by suggestion {Revue de VHypnotisme, July, igoo). I give 
 a case from my own practice later on (p. 319), and Dr. 
 Osgood Mason has had similar experience. In fact, the 
 evidence as to the reformative efficacy of hypnotism is 
 overwhelming and convincing. 
 
 In a most interesting article by F. W. H. Myers,* 
 Dr. E. Dufour, the chief physician of the Saint-Robert 
 Asylum (Isere), is quoted as follows : * From this time our 
 opinion is settled, and we have no fear of being deceived 
 when we affirm that hypnotism can render service in the 
 treatment of mental disease.' * In common with most 
 
 * ' Multiplex Personality :' Proceedings of the Society of Psychical 
 Research, vol. iv., 1886-1887. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 95 
 
 inquirers, Dufour finds only a small proportion of lunatics 
 
 hypnotizable,' says Myers, ' but the effect produced on 
 
 these is uniformly good. His best subject is a depraved 
 
 . young man, who, after many convictions for crimes, in- 
 
 j eluding attempted murder, became insane.' Dr. Dufour 
 
 assures us that this difficult subject has become a reformed 
 
 . character through the intiuence of hypnotism. 
 
 I Forel gives a case of reformation in a confirmed 
 
 ! drunkard seventy years of age, who, after twice attempt- 
 
 ing suicide, was placed under his care. He spent nine 
 
 I years in the asylum, during which he gave an infinite 
 
 I amount of trouble, drinking himself into a state of insanity 
 
 [whenever an opportunity offered, and inciting the other 
 
 ; patients to rebellion. 
 
 In 1887 Forel hypnotized this apparently incorrigible 
 I subject, and treated him by suggestion. He proved sus- 
 ; ceptible, and after a few sittings became an utterly changed 
 ! character. He proved his reformation by voluntarily 
 giving up the small quantity of wine which had been 
 allowed him, and joining the Temperance Society, which 
 i hitherto he had vilified and opposed. It was now safe to 
 'allow him full liberty, as the formerly attractive wine-shops 
 I were no longer any temptation to him. Forel adds, that 
 1 afterwards he was occasionally hypnotized for purposes of 
 i demonstration, the relief of rheumatism, and the removal 
 I of double senile cataract by operation, but required no 
 jfurther anti-alcoholic suggestion.* 
 
 It is interesting to consider in this connection how far 
 'it is possible to modify inherited or acquired habits by 
 [hypnotism, and I deal with this most important subject 
 jlater on. 
 
 I It is certain that suggestion has a twenty-fold greater 
 linfluence in the hypnotic than in the waking state, and it 
 is probable that many criminal and weak persons might 
 jbe reformed by its continued employment. They would 
 •be educated or re-educated. 
 
 * The old man died in 1895, after a second operation for rectal 
 carcinoma, performed under hypnotic anaesthesia {op. «'/., p. 250). 
 
i "t 
 
 96 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 But I believe that the environment must at the same 
 time be suitable, and that had Forel's patient been able 
 to mix with his evil associates after each hypnotization, 
 the good would have been checked in the bud by the 
 excess of evil. 
 
 It is supposed that hypnotic suggestion causes inhibition, 
 of psychical origin, of nerve tracts, and it is possible that 
 it enables new nervous arrangements and combinations to 
 be formed by directing nerve energy into new or little-used ,j|il 
 channels. j 
 
 Association of ideas plays a very important part in all , 
 our sentiments and actions, and this association is certainly ^ 
 strengthened by hypnotism. This explains the success of i 
 the treatment in many cases of drunkenness. A good 
 plan in these cases is to suggest dislike for alcohol, and , 
 even vomiting at the taste of it. If the patient is then » 
 made to sw^allow a small quantity and sickness follows, 
 and he is told, while in the hypnotic state, that such v;ill 
 be the invariable consequence of indulgence, we shall i; 
 have established a train of very disagreeable associations | 
 which will for a long time, and perhaps always, be con- 
 nected with the first step in alcoholic indulgence. It may 
 be objected that the association of a drunkard's ideas with '^| 
 alcoholism cannot naturally be pleasant, as excess is 
 always followed by illness. But ordinarily sickness and 
 disgust come after excess, while hypnotism causes them to 
 precede it. We frequently see the action of association of 
 ideas where hypnotism is not in question at all. For 
 instance, I know a lady to whom the taste of strawberry- 
 jam is most disagreeable and nauseating, because, as a 
 child, on two or three occasions evil-tasting powders were 
 given to her disguised in it. 
 
 The same lady tells me that the sight of a bottle from 
 which she had been dosed with castor-oil used to arouse 
 a feeling of nausea long after she had been emancipated 
 from such compulsory medication. But similar instances 
 are so common that they must occur to the mind of 
 everyone. 
 
 i 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 97 
 
 Alcoholic intoxication is sometimes accompanied by 
 distinct double personality, but this is rarel}' so well 
 marked as in the case of a farmer referred to by Professor 
 Ball. This man was a dipsomaniac, and frequently got 
 drunk while attending the markets. In this state, how- 
 ever, he continued to transact business, and apparently 
 with considerable judgment and ability. But on becom- 
 ing sober he would be quite unconscious of what had 
 taken place, and his business suffered severely in conse- 
 quence. He hit upon the idea of keeping a notebook for 
 use during his drunken state, and he found that by doing 
 so he was able to preserve a written record of his opera- 
 tions, which supplied the hiatus in his memory (' Maladies 
 Mentales,' p. 79). Oblivion of actions committed in a 
 state of drunkenness is, of course, common enough, and 
 there are numbers of cases on record where men have 
 been hanged for murders of which those unhappy criminals 
 had preserved no recollection. By special stimulation of 
 the brain cells, alcohol may arouse the phlegmatic and 
 dull-minded man to temporary brilliancy, and so induce 
 what appears to be change of character ; but this change 
 is generally more apparent than real. Alcohol, as a rule,, 
 does not change character, but emphasizes its features, in 
 vino Veritas, though it sometimes effects very complete 
 changes in a man's conduct. The penurious may become 
 lavish, and the morose man may assume an air of jollity. 
 Here probably the alcohol acts by removing those inhibi- 
 tory processes which are the result of education, and so 
 , allowing the natural characteristics free play. Hypnotic 
 i suggestion does not enable us to create force, but only to 
 transform it, nor to create characteristics, but merely to 
 } modify them. I cannot think that hypnotism would make 
 a naturally morose man permanently amiable, or a violent- 
 I tempered man quiet and gentle. But if the natural 
 I temperament has been altered by circumstances, or has not 
 been allowed to develop, I see no reason why hypnotism 
 should not bring out what is latent and suppress the 
 
 7 
 
98 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 acquired traits, and this applies especially in the case of 
 children.* 
 
 In such examples one would say that there are two 
 separate entities dwelling within a single bodily form, 
 and that one of these can be brought out and developed, 
 while the other is so absolutely suppressed as to appear 
 non-existent. To some extent this is indeed the case with 
 everybody. The best of us can feel a suppressed evil 
 self struggling at times to get the upper hand ; the worst 
 are dimly conscious of some crushed-down better self 
 striving within them, however rarely and feebly. It is 
 in a weakened or diseased brain condition that this 
 psychological fact becomes startlingly manifest. Dr. W. 
 Irelandf gives the case of a young man of good character, 
 who, after an epileptic seizure, took possession of a 
 carriage which he found in the street, drove to his father's 
 grave a mile and a half away, gathered some flowers , 
 which grew there, and took them home to his mother. 
 She was naturally alarmed at his conduct, and bade him 
 take the carriage back to its owner ; but instead of doing 
 this he left it at a livery-stable in his own name. When ; 
 
 * The following extract from a letter recently received from an i 
 American lady is, I think, instructive in this connection. The writer, ' 
 Dr. M. (}oldson, of Oakland, California, came to London to attend 
 the post-graduate lectures, and I gave her some instruction in hyp- 
 notism, which she is now turning to account in her practice : ' I have ' 
 
 recently hypnotized a lady, Mrs. R , who has been lately married. 
 
 Her happiness was greatly marred by the conduct of her husband, 
 who took the greatest delight in teasing her ; the more she showed 
 her annoyance, the worse he became. S,he took this so much to 
 heart that she became profoundly depressed, and was continually in 
 tears when alone. I hypnotized her, and suggested that she should 
 no longer feel grieved or annoyed at his conduct, but should enter 
 into his jokes with amusement, and should enjoy his merriment and 
 be completely happy. The treatment was entirely successful, and 
 
 after the fifth sitting Mrs. R reported that a complete change had 
 
 come over her life, and that her husband was astonished to find that 
 she no longer resented his jokes at her expense, but seemed rather 
 to enjoy them.' It seems to me quite likely that if Mrs. Goldson 
 
 had quietly talked to Mrs. R and given her sensible advice, the 
 
 desired result might have been obtained ; but no doubt hypnotism, 
 by increasing the patient's mental receptivity, greatly aided the action 
 of suggestion. 
 
 t ' The Dual Function of the Double Brain.' 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 99 
 
 he recovered his normal state of health, it was found that 
 he had no recollection whatever of this circumstance. On 
 another occasion, again after an attack, he engaged him- 
 self as a sailor, but was soon found by his shipmates to 
 be utterly ignorant of seamanship, and extremely strange 
 and tiighty in manner. In a short time he recovered his 
 usual consciousness, and was amazed to find himself on 
 board ship and far from land, for he had quite forgotten 
 the series of events which had led him there. It would 
 be interesting to see what view a judge would take of the 
 legal responsibility incurred in such a case. 
 
 Bat far more remarkable are the cases of Louis V 
 
 and Felida X . The former is well described by 
 
 F. W. H. Myers '^ {op. cit.). Louis V was born in 
 
 1863 ; his mother was a woman of ill-character, and, as a 
 natural consequence, he fell early into evil ways. At the 
 age of ten he was sent to a reformatory, where he showed 
 himself docile and obedient. Four years later he was 
 frightened by a viper, and this fright brought about a 
 series of convulsions and hysterical attacks, which left 
 him with hysterical paralysis of the lower limbs. He 
 became worse, and in 18S0 was sent to the asylum at 
 Bonneval, suffering from periodical epileptiform fits, and 
 from paraplegia. He was now a quiet, well-mannered 
 boy of seventeen, and the change in him for the worse 
 was as yet merely physical. He had, indeed, forgotten 
 how to read and write, but this was probably to be 
 accounted for by want of practice, for he distinctly re- 
 membered his life before entering the reformatory, and 
 was deeply ashamed of it. He was employed at tailoring 
 for two months ; then he had a severe attack of hystero- 
 epilepsy, after which he slept for several hours. He awoke 
 from his sleep entirely free from paralysis, and got up, 
 intending to work in the fields, as he had been used to do 
 at the reformatory, where he now believed himself to be. 
 He walked with comparative ease, though somewhat 
 
 * Fully described in medical detail by Dr. A. T. Myers m Journal 
 of Mental Science, 1886. 
 
100 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 uncertainly, a consequence of muscular atrophy from 
 disuse of the limbs. He recognized no one about him, 
 and had entirely gone back to the time before his fright. 
 His disposition was completely changed. From being 
 quiet and tractable, he had become quite the reverse, and 
 he was found out in a theft. In iSSi he escaped from 
 Bonneval, and after a few years, which he spent partly 
 in drifting about from hospital to prison, partly as a private 
 of marines, he was sent to the asylum of Rochefort, having 
 been convicted of a theft, but judged to be of unsound 
 mind. Here he came under the care of Drs. Bourru and 
 Burot, who carefully observed his case, as Dr. Camuset 
 at Bonneval and Dr. Jules Voisin at Bicetre had already 
 done. 
 
 At Rochefort he developed hemiplegia of the right side, 
 with consequent indistinctness and difficulty of speech, 
 notwithstanding which he was extremely impudent and 
 abusive, and ready to expound his theories, which were 
 all adverse to established authority. He could now re- 
 member only detached vicious periods of his past life. 
 Contact with metals (metallo-therapy) was tried upon 
 him : silver, lead, zinc, and copper had little or no effect, 
 but when a bar of steel was laid upon his paralyzed arm, 
 the hemiplegia shifted from the right side to the left, 
 which became insensible. Such a physical change is not 
 uncommon, but the coincident mental change was un- 
 expected and startling. Louis V had become another 
 
 creature. The insolent and unmanageable patient \\as 
 now gentle, modest, and respectful. His speech was once 
 more aistinct, but he now declined to give any opinion 
 on important matters, declaring himself unable to judge i 
 of them wisely. His experiences as a marine were abso- 
 lutely forgotten, and he remembered only the more 
 reputable epochs of his life. 
 
 These two contrary conditions, evil and good, were by 
 his physicians called his first and second states, and from 
 them several intermediate and varying states could be' 
 produced. His 'fifth state' was especially curious. By 
 
 J 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION ivi 
 
 being placed in an electric bath, or having a magnet 
 applied to his head, he could for a time be wholly cured 
 of paralysis. He became light and active as a healthy 
 child, and on questioning him it was found that he had 
 indeed gone back to childhood. He was again at the 
 reformatory, and all his life after his fright from the 
 viper was an utter blank. But let him be in any way 
 reminded of that circumstance, and he fell at once into 
 an epileptiform condition, which left him in his ' first ' or 
 'second ' state. 
 
 Louis V is now no longer at Rochefort, and, 
 
 according to the last account of him, his health and 
 psychical status are both much improved. 
 
 The physicians who have had charge of this extra- 
 ordinary case agree in supposing that the various observed 
 changes point to a dual action of the brain, and the un- 
 stable preponderance of one hemisphere. The imperfect 
 speech and violent, insolent conduct associated with the 
 right hemiplegia, in contrast with the clear speech and 
 self-controlled demeanour which accompanied the left 
 hemiplegia, show the contrasting tendencies (in this 
 case) of the supremacy of the right and left hemispheres 
 respectively. 
 
 Such marked effects of brain duality seldom appear 
 spontaneously, except among the insane, idiots, and 
 sufferers from brain disease or delirium. Dr. Ireland 
 gives a case of double personality, which he has witnessed 
 in an idiot boy named Finlay. This lad would talk to 
 himself, and argue as if two persons were discussing a 
 question. Sometimes he would thrash himself, saying, 
 ' Finlay is a bad boy to-day,' and then would cry out 
 with pain in his own personality. In some cases, where 
 insanity follows upon injury or disease of one half of the 
 brain, the patient is conscious of the struggle for mastery 
 which is being carried on within him. The organism 
 which remains sound controls the insane impulses of that 
 portion which is damaged, until at last it becomes tired 
 out, and partakes of the common intellectual ruin. 
 
IQ2 TR£ATMCNT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 A most remarkable case of double personality is that 
 
 of Felida X , which is fully described by the late 
 
 Dr. Azam,^ Professor in the University of Bordeaux. 
 Felida was born in 1843, of respectable parents. I'rom 
 childhood she showed a melancholy and reserved 
 disposition. She was subject to haemoptysis, and dwelt 
 continually on her bad health. At the age of fourteen 
 and a half her first transformation occurred. After a 
 sudden pain in her head, she fell into a short trance, from 
 which she awoke completely metamorphosed. She was 
 now bright and lively, very loquacious, and even noisy. 
 Her health seemed improved, and she did not complain of 
 any ailment. But after a few hours she again fell into a 
 trance, and awoke to find herself in her first or normal 
 state. Henceforth she passed her life alternately m one 
 or the other of those two conditions. For some time the 
 ' second state ' did not occupy more than a tenth part of 
 her existence, but by 1875 the relative duration of tht- 
 two states, which had been changing by degrees, hatl 
 become reversed, so that she was nearly always in the 
 second state. In this latter condition her memory of 
 the past is complete, but in her first state all that has 
 occurred in her second is utterly forgotten. Hence have 
 ensued some curious complications ; for instance, while 
 in her second stage she showed a very decided preference 
 for a young man, whom in her first she completely ignored. 
 On one occasion she was attending the funeral of a friend, 
 and while returning home in the carriage she had an 
 access of trance, which lasted only a few minutes, and 
 aroused no remark. She awoke in her first state, without 
 any recollection of why she was in the carriage, or whose 
 funeral she had been following. By questioning, hov/- 
 ever, she managed to set herself right without betraying 
 her change of personality. In due time Felida married 
 and became the mother of several children, but the 
 
 * ' Hypnotisme, Double Conscience,' etc., Paris, 1887. One of the 
 most interesting histories ever written, Professor Azam lieing a master 
 of style as well as a scientific observer of the first rank. 
 
 I 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 103 
 
 alternation of personality went on as before, and assuredly 
 she could have no secrets from her husband, as in her 
 second state she revealed everything she had done in her 
 first, even though she had intended to keep it secret. 
 
 Both Louis V and Felida X proved excellent 
 
 subjects for hypnotism, and in the case of the former 
 hypnotism produced the same alternation of personality 
 as did metallo-therapy. In this case it seems fair to 
 attribute to its use by Drs. Bourru and Burot some of the 
 credit of his recovery and reformation. 
 
 In the cases of Louis V and Felida X hypnotism 
 
 seemed to produce still another phase of personality, but 
 Dr. Richard Hodgson describes a very interesting case of 
 double personality in which hypnotism evoked the ' second 
 state.' The subject was an itinerant preacher, named 
 Ansel Bourne, sixty-one years of age, who one morning 
 disappeared mysteriously from his home, and in spite of 
 the efforts of his friends remained undiscovered for two 
 months. He woke up one morning at Norristown, 
 Pennsylvania, to find that he was keeping a small general 
 shop under the name of A. J. Brown. He had been 
 engaged in this occupation for six weeks, and had ap- 
 peared to his neighbours as a perfectly normal individual. 
 As a matter of fact, he had been in a state of somnam- 
 bulism all the time, and he knew nothing on awaking of 
 what had befallen him since he had fallen into a trance 
 whilst walking in the streets of the town where he had 
 been living. Professor James and Dr. Hodgson hyp- 
 notized him, and in the hypnotic state he resumed the 
 personality of A. J. Brown, and told his audience what he 
 had been doing during his residence at Norristown and 
 how he got there.* 
 
 A few years ago I met with a curious case of double 
 personality. The patient is a bank clerk, aged forty, with 
 a record of over twenty years' satisfactory service. He 
 left the bank one Friday after luncheon, and did not 
 return until the following Monday, when he found he had 
 
 * Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, July, 1891. 
 
I04 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 been suspended for absence without leave. He could give 
 no explanation of his conduct beyond that he had found 
 himself late on Saturday night in a strange hotel at South- 
 ampton. How he got there he didn't know, but he found 
 in his pocket some postal orders issued at Guildford, so 
 he concluded he had visited that town. I hypnoti;^ed 
 him, and he at once became somnambulic. He replied 
 to questions, and gradually gave us a complete history of 
 his doings from the time he left the bank until he ' came 
 to himself at Southampton. He had gone first to call on 
 a friend in the West End, and then on another friend in 
 the suburbs. He had spent Friday night in a temperance 
 hotel, and had gone to the station in the morning and 
 taken the first train which happened to be going to 
 Guildford. There he alighted and had breakfast. The 
 previous day he had changed a cheque, so he had ten 
 pounds in gold in his purse. This he found heavy, so he 
 exchanged the sovereigns for postal orders. Then he felt 
 he should like some sea-air, and took the train to South- 
 ampton, where he formed the plan of taking a coasting 
 steamer to Dublin, a trip he had formerly made with 
 enjoyment. He strolled about Southampton, behaving 
 much as an ordinary visitor, and engaged a room at a 
 hotel. At this hotel he suddenly ' came to himself,' and 
 was astonished to find himself in a strange place.' He 
 was just in time to catch the last train to London, where 
 he stayed the night, and thence returned to his anxious 
 family in the country the following morning. His friends 
 were naturally somewhat sceptical, and it was perhaps 
 fortunate for him that some of them had heard of double 
 consciousness. 
 
 By hypnotism one was able to tap, as it were, the sub- 
 merged level of consciousness which had prevailed during 
 the thirty-two hours' alteration of personality. It was a 
 period of some excitement whilst we extracted from him 
 sentence by sentence the way he had spent his time, and 
 the question occurred as to what duty would demand if it 
 turned out to be a case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and 
 
 4 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 105 
 
 our patient confessed while hypnotized to having com- 
 mitted an atrocious crime. But the second personality 
 of a middle-aged bank clerk could hardly be expected to 
 soar to any very great height, or to descend to any great 
 depth, and so it proved. But there did seem to exist in 
 the second personality a peculiar absence of forethought 
 and responsibility, and a tendency to act on the impulse 
 of the moment, so that no definite plans were formed, and 
 there was no compunction felt at the inconvenience caused 
 in the bank or the panic felt at his home. 
 
 I have seen two other cases of double personality 
 during the last few years. One of these was a patient of 
 Dr. Albert Wilson's, and the case is very fully and ably 
 described by Dr. Wilson in the Proceedings of the Society 
 for Psychical Research, January, 1904. The girl was 
 under Dr. Wilson's observation for several years, and 
 developed at least six independent personalities. She is 
 now settled down in the most satisfactory of these as a 
 city typewriter. The British Medical Journal has reported 
 a series of cases by Dr. Hyslop.* Such cases are 
 probably more common than was formerly supposed, and 
 now that they are becoming more understood, patients 
 will be less averse to telling their experiences. They 
 involve a problem of extraordinary psychical interest ; our 
 individuality depends upon a continuity of memory and 
 consistency of action, and the upsetting of these conditions 
 introduces an embarrassing break in the chain of cause 
 and effect.! 
 
 Some of the French experimenters have in the hypnotic 
 state made middle-aged people feel again the sentiments 
 of their childhood, and write, talk, and behave as they did 
 
 * On 'Double Consciousness,' by T. B. Hyslop, M.D., Medical 
 Superintendent of Bethlehem Royal Hospital, etc., British Medical 
 Journal^ September 23, 1899. 
 
 t Double and multiplex personality is now considered a splitting up 
 of consciousness, one strain or system of complexes, as it were, taking" 
 possession and determining conduct. Dr. Mitchell ably discusses the 
 whole subject, and illustrates it by apposite cases, in the Medical 
 Number of the Proceedings for Psychical Research, November, 1912. 
 
io6 TREATMENT DY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 when children of six or seven. Miss Goodrich Freer in 
 her experiments has shown how she reproduces forgotten 
 memories by crystal-gazing, and Dr. Morton Prince has 
 recently published his experiments in the same held with 
 a highly sensitive, hysterical young lady. In this patient 
 he was able to induce a second and a third personality by 
 hypnotism, very different to her ordinary self. Normally 
 Miss X , as he calls her, is reserved, morbidly con- 
 scientious, self-contained, serious, deferential and shy. In 
 
 her second state (X 2) she is sad, serious, and gives 
 
 the impression of weariness and suffering. X 3 is 
 
 flippant, jovial, free from all physical infirmities, full 
 of fun, reckless, and contemptuous of the normal self, 
 
 X I, whom she stigmatizes as silly, stupid and dull, 
 
 and of whom she makes great fun. Nothing seems to 
 amuse her more than the recital of the woes and worries 
 of X I. 
 
 For instance, Miss X one morning came to Dr. 
 
 Prince in a very disturbed state of mind. She had lost 
 the money she had set aside for her stay in Boston, and 
 was almost penniless. She was put into the profound 
 state of hypnosis, wherein she developed the personality 
 
 of X 3, and then described how stupid X i had 
 
 felt nervous about her money the night before, and had 
 got up from her bed and hidden it under the tabte-cloth, 
 
 and X 3 seemed greatly amused at the embarrassment 
 
 caused by this loss of money. Dr. Prince awoke her, and, 
 without telling her anything, asked her to look in a crystal. 
 She did so, and described the scene which presented 
 itself: she saw herself in bed in her room ; then she saw 
 herself get up, her eyes being closed, and walk up and 
 down the room, go up to the bureau, take the money from 
 the drawer, and hide it under the table-cloth. This 
 proved to be the correct explanation of the loss, which 
 was thus put right. 
 
 To show the conflict of personality : on one occasion as 
 X 3 she tore up and threw away a bundle of bank- 
 notes so as to annoy and embarrass X i. In her 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 107 
 
 normal state she knew nothing of this, and thought 
 she had been robbed. Dr. Prince hypnotized her, and 
 
 brought back the personality of X 3, who confessed 
 
 the deed with malignant satisfaction the next morning. 
 
 The end of this case is that Dr. Prince cured her of the 
 ailments she consulted him for, and by suggestion sup- 
 pressed the somewhat inconvenient personality of X 3. 
 
 An exciting story was thus cut short, for the curative 
 aim of the physician is occasionally in conflict with the 
 claims of the psychical researcher ; and one sometimes 
 feels it a duty in the interest of the patient to put a stop 
 to interesting developments. 
 
 I do not mean to imply that * seers ' are always 
 hysterical and in poor health ; on the contrary. Miss 
 P'reer, who has been already referred to, is a lady of great 
 talent and practical achievements in many directions ; and 
 I understand from Professor James and Dr. Hodgson that 
 the well-known Mrs. Piper, whose case they have investi- 
 gated with such care, is a healthy woman, and appears to 
 be benefited by carefully-conducted psychical experiments. 
 But rash and ignorant experimentation on such subjects 
 is strongly to be deprecated. 
 
 These cases throw some light on much which goes by 
 the name of clairvoyance and occultism, and it is, I think, 
 a healthy sign that a physician of Dr. Morton Prince's 
 position should be ready to investigate such phenomena.* 
 
 Myers' theory is that both by hypnotism and crystal- 
 gazing one taps the ' subliminal consciousness,' and thus 
 gets into touch with a far wider field of experience than 
 our everyday consciousness supplies. 
 
 I have called the first state of Felida X 'normal,' 
 
 but should it be thus called merely because it happened 
 to be the first ? It is incomparably inferior to her second 
 state, which has now almost entirely replaced it. In this 
 second state Felida is frank and cheerful in her manner, 
 
 * 'An Experimental Study of Visions,' by Morton Prince, AI.D., 
 Physician for Diseases of the Nervous System, Boston City Hospital, 
 Brain, Winter, 1898. 
 
lo8 TREATMENT BY HYPSOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 an active woman of business, and an excellent mother.* 
 In her now rarely recurring first state — her etat bi'tc, as 
 she herself calls it — she is reserved, gloomy, and selfish. 
 Which of these two is her sane, her truly natural condi- 
 tion ? which her abnormal ? Such instances lead us to 
 inquire, Can the good effects which in this woman 
 occurred spontaneously be brought about by outward 
 means ? The reassuring answer is that they can be, and 
 have been, thus brought about, and in the future will be 
 wrought more frequently and more completely. The 
 newer hypnotism is still a young science, and before the 
 physician and the moral reformer lies a vast field of 
 psychical possibilities still to be explored. 
 
 Richett describes how by hypnotic suggestion he 
 changed an enthusiastic Bonapartist into an equally 
 enthusiastic Republican, who furthermore recognized her 
 conversion. 'Vive Gambetta!' cried this lady. ' A veil 
 seems torn away ! How mistaken I have been about him I" 
 The effects of such an experiment as this are of course 
 superficial and transitory, but such incidents point to 
 possible induced moral changes, which may be rendered 
 deep and permanent. 
 
 Richet {op. cit., p. 250) and A. Pitres [Revue de 
 VHypnotisme, December, 1890) suppose that personality 
 depends upon memory of previous events and thei-r rela- 
 tion to one's self, and that this condition is never affected 
 in the lighter grades of hypnosis, and only with compara- 
 tive rarity in the deeper states of somnambulism. Accord- 
 ing to Pitres we find alteration of personality taking place 
 in three different ways — by alternation, alienation, and 
 reversion. All these occur under certain circumstances 
 in the waking state, and they may be induced in sus- 
 ceptible subjects by hypnotic suggestion. Thus, Azam 
 (o/». cit., p. 245) mentions the case of an insane patient 
 who always told him of her own symptoms as if they be- 
 
 * The changes are chiefly psychical. In both states she suffers 
 from chronic asthma and general delicacy of health. 
 t ' L'Hommc ct rintcUigence ' : Appendix. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 109 
 
 longed to a friend : ' I wish to consult you about a tumour 
 which she has in her breast, and which causes her great 
 pain,' etc., the person meant being herself. The way in 
 which children speak of themselves in the third person is 
 a matter of common observation, ' Freddy is a good 
 boy, Freddy wants to go to bed,' etc. It is probable that, 
 as memory is extremely limited in young children, their 
 individuality and personality is vague and undeveloped. 
 In insanity it is common enough to meet patients who 
 believe themselves to be other people, generally of his- 
 torical or present celebrity or importance. In the ad- 
 vanced hypnotic state it is often possible to make the 
 patient believe and act as if he w-ere any person whose 
 name is suggested to him, and he will endeavour to act 
 the character exactly like one under insane delusion. It 
 is this feature of hypnotism which is brought into such 
 requisition by platform professors, and to the ignorant 
 and careless it is a matter of merriment to see a stalwart 
 countryman imagine himself a baby or a schoolgirl, or to 
 see a young girl act the part of a general. For sex presents 
 no bar to the reception of suggestions. The cases of 
 change of personality by alternation cannot be better illus- 
 trated than by the foregoing ones of Victor V and 
 
 Felida X . Examples of alternation of personality by 
 
 reversion are not uncommon in medical practice. A 
 patient in delirium frequently fancies himself a boy again, < 
 and, forgetting everything which has occurred in recent 
 years, will remember and act over again trivial scenes of 
 an apparently long-forgotten childhood. Dr. Pitres (loc. 
 cit.) gives an interesting account of a hysterical patient 
 who had frequent attacks of amnesia, during which the 
 events of the preceding few years were absolutely for- 
 gotten, so that it was impossible to make her recognize 
 her friends of the time. Not only did she speak and act 
 as she had done in her youth, but it was evident that her 
 mind was working in exactly the same way as it had done 
 then. Pitres found he could at any time produce this 
 reversion by making her fix her attention strongly on 
 
no TREATMENT BY HYPSOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 some event in her past life, cind then hypnotizing her 
 while she so thought of it ; and he obtained the same 
 result by pressing on certain parts of the body \\hich 
 seemed to act as ideogenic zones. In this case of 
 
 Albertine M she suffered from hemianaesthesia in 
 
 her normal condition, but if by hypnotic suggestion she 
 was put back to a period prior to the incident of this 
 symptom— ?.c., to her childhood — this condition no longer 
 was present. Just as we have seen in the case of Victor 
 
 V , per contra, the induction of paralytic symptoms 
 
 brought the patient into the mental condition which went 
 with this symptom. The two cases are most instructive 
 as showing the very close relationship between psychical 
 changes and physical states. 
 
 Auguste Voisin used to keep some of his patients for 
 long periods of time in a state of altered personality; and | 
 there is no doubt but that in affecting moral reformation 
 we do not so much create new personality as bring out 
 traits of character which have either been forgotten or 
 have remained undeveloped. 
 
 Liebeault describes the case of a Pole who was under 
 his treatment for epilepsy. The man was very excitable, 
 and had been a soldier in the Polish rebellion. After each 
 attack he became so violent that it took six men to hold 
 him in bed. During his violent struggles he would'shout 
 and declaim as though in the heat of a desperate engage- 
 ment, and even after he had become calm and quiet he 
 would for some minutes believe that he had been fighting 
 in a battle, and would recite the incidents he thought he 
 had witnessed. The vision was always the same : a 
 desperate fight against overwhelming odds, a town in 
 flames, and the whole scene illuminated by a moon of 
 fantastic form.* 
 
 The head-master of a boys' school tells me that he 
 
 is obtaining good results in the suggestive treatment of 
 
 moral disease and of mental torpor, and some of his 
 
 pupils declare that when they have been hypnotized their 
 
 * ' Thcrapeutique Suggestive,' p. 142. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SLGGESTION iii 
 
 sums ' come easier ' to them than usual. Some time since 
 
 I I was called upon to treat a case of moral perversity 
 
 in a young girl, and she greatly improved under the 
 
 influence of suggestion. From being idle and rebellious, 
 
 she has, so I am told by her teachers, become docile, and 
 
 has developed a decided aptitude for study. A ' chronic ' 
 
 medical student, in about his tenth year, who consulted me 
 
 j occasionally, assured me that my treatment ' wound up ' 
 
 ' his intellectual machinery, so that he could work several 
 
 hours a day after each visit. As this gentleman was only 
 
 ' slightly hypnotizable, I do not take much credit to myself 
 
 for this good effect ; but I do claim for hypnotism the 
 
 results achieved in another case, also that of a medical 
 
 student. The patient was not only idle, but was addicted 
 
 to drink and dissipation. At heart, however, he was a 
 
 ' good fellow, and was much beloved by his friends. He 
 
 came to me in despair, assuring me hypnotism was his 
 
 , last chance, and that if it failed he should shoot himself. 
 
 ■ It succeeded, and he is now in good practice, with an 
 
 excellent wife, and every prospect of a life of happiness 
 
 and usefulness. 
 
 Wingfield relates the effect of hypnotism on one of his 
 
 Cambridge subjects. The young man was clever and 
 
 ! well-meaning, but an inveterate idler, and could not settle 
 
 ! to work. In a state of profound hypnosis Dr. Wingfield 
 
 ' suggested ' that he should retire to his rooms every 
 
 ! evening after dinner and settle down to steady work until 
 
 i midnight, that he should ' sport his oak ' and deny himself 
 
 i to his friends, and that he should pass his forthcoming 
 
 1 examination. The suggestions succeeded perfectly, and 
 
 1 in six weeks the patient passed a good examination, much 
 
 I to his own delight and to the surprise of his friends. 
 
 Wingfield's book is full of similar good stories. For 
 
 I instance, that of the very prosaic young man who was 
 
 i told to write a poem on the boat-race. This he actually 
 
 I did, and thought the inspiration proceeded from within. 
 
 Unfortunately the verses are terrible doggerel. 
 
 Liebeault tells of a schoolboy who was hypnotized as 
 
112 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 an encouragement to his younger brother, the real patient. 
 He proved such a good subject that it seemed a pity 
 to waste the opportunity, and the doctor therefore 
 ' suggested ' great industry and hard work, so that he 
 might rise to the top of his class. The boy was intelligent 
 but idle, and the suggestion had such effect that for three 
 weeks he worked hard and did occupy the top of his class 
 instead of his usual place at the bottom. But he gradually 
 deteriorated, his mother wanted to take him to Liebeault 
 again, but the boy absolutely refused to go, for he said he 
 didn't like that doctor, because what he did made him 
 work too hard. 
 
 On the other hand, Vincent relates how he suggested 
 to a history student that the Battle of Hastings was fought 
 in 1067 ; for several days, if asked for the date, he gave 
 that, and stuck to it. Then there is the story of a French 
 accountant, whose books all went wrong because he was 
 told, when profoundly hypnotized, that two and three 
 made six. Such an upsetting of one's experience and 
 knowledge would not last long without repetition of the 
 suggestion, for the mental pendulum would swing back 
 
 to its normal position, as in the case of Mrs. S and 
 
 the cat (p. 77). 
 
 I have been asked to treat several children who were 
 unsatisfactory. In one case a boy of fourteen wrote to 
 me from a public school, asking me to hypnotize him to 
 enable him to overcome certain bad habits and the intel- 
 lectual lassitude which he supposed to be their result. 
 The boy proved an excellent subject, and responded per- 
 fectly to the suggestions I made. He worked so well that 
 he took a good scholarship, and afterwards became a high 
 w rangier at Cambridge. Medical men and parents often 
 notice that boys about the age of puberty become idle 
 and unsatisfactory, and such cases require very careful 
 management, as the boy's future is at stake'. Hypnotic 
 suggestion in good hands is very useful in tiding over this 
 critical period. 
 
 It should be clearly understood that the use of hypnotic 
 
 I 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 113 
 
 suggestion as an educational influence should be carefully 
 restricted, and never allowed to interfere with the healthy 
 development of individual character. It should be re- 
 served for cases where there is inherited or acquired 
 vicious tendency, and should even then be resorted to 
 only when other means have been fairly tried and found 
 ineffectual. We know that in some young persons there 
 is a complete breakdown of the moral self, while in some 
 others it seems entirely absent, and it is for children of this 
 debased or deteriorated type — such children as abound in 
 our reformatories — that this moral treatment will prove 
 most useful. I v/ould especially mention its power to cure 
 the inherited craving for alcohol, which so frequently 
 appears in the neuropathic children of drunken parents. 
 In an article contributed to the Medical Animal for i8g8 I 
 laid great stress on the value of hypnotic suggestion as a 
 corrector of bad heredity, and of all the uses of hypnotism I 
 believe this to be the greatest. 
 
 Berillon,* as Government Medical Inspector of Public 
 Asylums in France, has great facilities for studying 
 abnormal children, and he has employed hypnotic sug- 
 gestion largely in correcting vicious tendencies. He has 
 made a special study of degeneration in children, and 
 among the signs of this condition he reckons nail-biting 
 {onychophagie), nocturnal enuresis, masturbation, and exces- 
 sive pusillanimity. These conditions are very amenable 
 to hypnotic treatment. Dr. Osgood Mason is enthusiastic 
 about the value of hypnotism in educating unmanageable 
 and backward children, and he gives many remarkable 
 examples in his interesting book, * Hypnotism and Sug- 
 
 , gestion in Therapeutics, Education and Reform ' (London, 
 1901). He relates, too, how he made a badly educated 
 but intelligent woman become a fairly good speller by 
 
 I telling her to observe and remember while reading how 
 
 I the words looked and were spelt. 
 
 ' * Dr. Berillon's services to the State have recently been acknow- 
 ' lodged by his being created a chevalier of the Legion of Honour. A 
 I banquet to celebrate the occasion was attended by the elite of the 
 ' profession. 
 I 8 
 
114 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 Many persons have objected to the educational use of 
 hypnotic suggestion, on the ground that it is a tampering 
 with the ' free-will ' of those influenced. It is true enough 
 that the will should not be weakened, but who would say 
 that it should not be interfered with ? Is it not a fact 
 that all education and all moral training are an interference 
 with free-will ? The child who delights in school-work 
 needs no coercion to application. The child — if such a 
 one there be — who has no moral faults whatever recjuires 
 no exhortations to unselfishness, truthfulness, and other 
 good qualities. But most children prefer play to work. 
 Some will tell a lie to escape punishment ; all, so it seems, 
 have a variety of failings and bad habits, so that re- 
 formative and preventive means must be used to train 
 them to industry, truth-telling, and general excellence of 
 conduct. It is, as I have said, only when those ordinary 
 means have failed that hypnotic suggestion should be 
 employed, and then it should work on the same lines as 
 all judicious education : the child should not be made to 
 obey like a slave or an automaton, but should be guided 
 by suggestion, as by a wise teacher, to practise auto- 
 suggestion, and thus, by his own wili-power, to aid in the 
 overcoming of bad habits and the acquiring of good ones. 
 
 Some enthusiastic advocates of hypnotism argue that, 
 as nearly all normal children are readily hypnotized-; as it 
 is much more easy to hypnotize patients who have been 
 operated on previously ; and as conditions are very likely 
 to arise in after-life in which the induction of hypnosis 
 would be of advantage for combating pain, inducing sleep 
 or anaesthesia, or correcting evil habits, it is very desirable 
 to hypnotize every child, so as to be able to invoke the 
 agent when required. 
 
 I confess to have no sympathy with such a contention, 
 but, on the contrary, incline to the opinion of a medical 
 friend who says he would rather have his child naturally 
 naughty than hypnotically good — if by 'naturally" he 
 means the ordinary faults and shortcomings of free, 
 happy, and healthy childhood. If he were the parent of 
 
 J 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 115 
 
 such a child as is described on p. 331, I dare say this 
 1 gentleman would modify his opinion, and be glad to 
 employ the only remedy which, as far as I know, is avail- 
 able in such cases. 
 I When the mental powers are deficient by reason of 
 i faulty brain structure, hypnotism cannot, of course, do 
 I much. No one professes to create new grey matter by 
 I hypnotic suggestion. Still, the records of our asylums 
 ' show that even when the brain is almost rudimentary, 
 educational influence may be successful in producing 
 1 decent and orderly habits. But in complete idiotcy it is 
 almost impossible to hypnotize, and suggestions are 
 ! powerless through want of point d'appui. 
 i At the Nancy Congress, Liebeault and others gave 
 I instances of dull, idle, and unmanageable children who 
 ' by suggestion (combined in some cases with judicious 
 j home influence) were made models of industry and good 
 i behaviour. Schoolboys who had habitually kept at the 
 bottom of their form were by this treatment so incited to 
 j work that they soon occupied a place at the other end. 
 i Another child, seven years of age, so obtuse as to be 
 I almost an idiot, was so benefited by suggestion that in 
 ' three months he could read, write, and understand the 
 I four rules of arithmetic. 
 
 I What other remedy but hj'pnotism can be suggested in 
 i such a case as the following, which I treated in 1895 ? A 
 i lady interested in reformatory work brought me a girl of 
 I fifteen to see if hypnotism could help her. She was a 
 1 workhouse child of degenerate type, but not imbecile. 
 I She had been placed in two different situations as servant, 
 j and in each case had been sent away for theft. At the 
 , home she was put to laundry work, and there being 
 ' nothing else to steal, she used to steal the soap and the 
 I other girls' bread-and-butter. These she hid away, but 
 made no use of. 
 
 She proved a good hypnotic subject, and I suggested 
 that in future she should know she was doing wrong when 
 I she stole, and should be able to refrain ; that she should 
 
ii6 TREATMEST BY HYIWOTISM A.\D SUGGESTION 
 
 work industriously, and be honest, truthful, and attentive. 
 In all these qualities she was deficient, but after being 
 hypnotized a few times a great improvement was per- 
 ceptible, and she was sent to a third situation. When I 
 last heard of her she was keeping quite normal and 
 giving satisfaction, so one has good reason to consider it a 
 permanent cure. Hypnotism probably saved the girl 
 from a life of misery and crime, for kleptomania is not 
 recognized among the poor. 
 
 Hack Tuke, speaking of ' moral insanity ' {Journal of 
 Mental Science, 1885), well puts it when he says that in 
 cases of this description, where, perhaps, the disposition 
 and actions of one member of a family will by their 
 perversity bring untold suffering on his relations, there is 
 undue development of the lower or automatic functions, 
 whilst the higher centres are defective, and that it should 
 be our object to correct this disproportion by suppressing 
 aome functions and developing others. If (he goes on to 
 say) the horses drawing a coach run away in consequence 
 of the driver being drunk, it is not the horses we should 
 blame for the accident, but the incapable driver who is 
 no longer able to hold the reins. We know that badness 
 may proceed from two causes, which Hack Tuke calls 
 immoral resolution — positively bad, and moral irresolution 
 — negatively bad. It is probable that in either case, if the 
 offender were caught young, hypnotic suggestion would 
 prove a valuable adjunct to other reformative agencies. 
 
 In course of time the new personality, induced by 
 suggestion and encouraged by religious ministration and ' 
 teaching, will displace the old, and a complete moral 
 revolution will be the result. 
 
 One is frequently asked whether the cures worked by 
 suggestion are of a permanent character. To this we 
 reply, they are as permanent as cures effected by any other 
 means. Relapses occur in many diseases, no matter \\hat 
 treatment has been employed — sometimes through some 
 carelessness on the part of the patient or of those who 
 have charge of him. A person who is cured of rheumatism 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 117 
 
 to-day may to-morrow get fresh cold and develop a new 
 attack, or other symptoms. But with proper attention, 
 and the customary precautions as regards diet, rest, tem- 
 perature, etc., the success of this treatment is not tran- 
 sitory. The improvement effected by its means is often 
 so marked and so rapid that patients are tempted to dis- 
 continue its use, and return to their ordinary habits before 
 the cure is perfected and the habit of disease broken. 
 They forget that when a diseased condition has existed for 
 some time it probably has taken firm hold on the system, 
 and is not to be dispelled in a day. Sudden cures by hyp- 
 notism are apt to be fallacious, as they are by other modes 
 of treatment. Though brilliant results are often attained, 
 they can never be counted upon, and there should be no 
 disappointment when improvement is a little delayed. 
 
 I have certainly found two statements commonly made 
 about the treatment to be erroneous. The first, that the 
 effects are temporary, and that amelioration of the symp- 
 toms is followed by speedy relapse and a deeper sinking 
 into the slough ; and the second, that if a relapse occurs, 
 the patient will not a second time be benefited by the 
 treatment. I have treated patients for various ailments 
 who were cured many years ago and have had no relapse ; 
 others who, from the nature of their disease, have ex- 
 perienced relapses, have almost invariably been relieved by 
 subsequent hypnotization, and more speedily than on the 
 first occasion. 
 
 On the very threshold a difficulty may occur : the 
 
 patient will perhaps appear insusceptible. This need not 
 
 cause discouragement, for in many cases the hypnotic 
 
 influence is not felt until after three or more sittings. 
 
 Comparatively few persons remain insusceptible* to it ; 
 
 * See tables, p. 62. An apparent trifle may cause one operator 
 to fail where another will succeed at once. I know a very able 
 foreign physician, who completely failed to influence two English 
 patients, because he smelt of garlic, and so called up disturbing 
 emotions in their minds. I was once unsuccessful with a gentleman, 
 who afterwards told me the reason of my failure. He imagined, as 
 many do, that it is essential for the operator to possess great strength 
 both of mind and body. When I touched his eyes to close them, he 
 
ii8 TREATMENT BY HYPXOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 and when once it is established, the hypnotic state is 
 afterwards more easily induced, and tends also to become 
 more intense, though this does not necessarily follow. 
 
 It is very difficult to eradicate a deeply-rooted popular 
 belief, and it is not very easy for a practitioner of the 
 suggestive system to avoid being called a magnetizer, 
 since artificially induced sleep is the common preliminary 
 of the treatment. But, as I have already stated, Liebeault 
 and his disciples absolutely reject the fanciful theories 
 regarding animal magnetism which were held fifty years 
 ago. They contend that no unusual gifts are needed to 
 practise the system, and that the chief requisite is con- 
 fidence. (The footnote on p. 117 shows how want of con- 
 fidence may be detected by the patient, and how the very 
 suspicion of it will cause failure.) With wider experience 
 comes increased confidence in one's self and in the system, 
 followed naturally by increased success. 
 
 But ' Majus remedium majus venenum ' is a true saying, 
 and it would be an exception to all rule if such a powerful 
 remedy as suggestion w^ere not liable to abuse. When 
 dynamite was discovered, no one denied that the lawless 
 and desperate would, if possible, turn it to bad account, 
 yet it was not tabooed for this reason, but its manufacture 
 and distribution have been surrounded by precautions and 
 restrictions, and it is allowed to occupy its proper place in 
 applied science in the hands of miners and engineers. It 
 is interesting to read in contemporary records the con- 
 troversy which raged round the introduction of chloroform 
 into medical practice sixty years ago. All manner of evils, 
 
 observed a slight tremor in my hand, and attributed this to a physical 
 or mental weakness, which, he argued, must prevent my influencing 
 him — a stranger, and a strong man of high intellectual capacity. The 
 idea called up a resistance, which rendered him insusceptible. Sub- 
 sequently, when I had explained to him that my personal attributes 
 were, in this matter, of no consequence whatever, he easily fell into a 
 profound hypnotic sleep. There is, however, a proportion of sane 
 persons — perhaps 10 per cent. — who are to all intents and purposes 
 unhypnotizable. This insusceptibility seems to depend upon idio- 
 syncrasy, and is neither a sign of commanding intelligence nor the 
 reverse. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 119 
 
 physical, religious, and moral, were foretold as certain to 
 follow man's temerity in interfering with the laws of 
 Nature ; but Sir James Simpson was a doughty champion, 
 and was not prevented from making public his grand 
 discovery because nervous people were afraid it might be 
 employed for evil purposes; nor is its use forbidden, 
 though every year a certain percentage of crimes and out- 
 rages are committed by its aid.* Poisoning by arsenic, 
 corrosive sublimate, and digitalis sometimes occur, and 
 yet these drugs occupy a prominent place in the pharma- 
 copoeia ; for it is found that, although these powerful 
 agents are sometimes used to inflict harm, the evil caused 
 by their illegitimiate employment is so outweighed by their 
 usefulness that no one would think of suppressing them. 
 So with hypnotism. Its power for good is undoubted; it 
 fills a place that nothing else can fill so adequately, and 
 used with proper precautions and under necessary restric- 
 tions, it is perfectly safe. 
 
 Dr. Semal, in the discussion on hypnotism in the 
 Belgian Academy of Medicine (June 30, 1888), having 
 condemned the prostitution of the system by travelling 
 prestidigitateurs and charlatans, spoke strongly in favour 
 of having it included in the medical curriculum of the 
 Universities, as being the only legitimate means of making 
 it known, ' This course,' he said, ' would prevent its 
 being used empirically and stupidly, and would keep it 
 as a powerful therapeutic agent in the hands of the 
 medical profession so long as the art of healing is 
 practised.' It is distressing to have to record that after 
 all these years there is still no provision made in our 
 medical schools for instruction in hypnotic practice, and 
 
 * I am informed by credible witnesses, who were living in Edin- 
 burgh at the time, that Professor Simpson used to invite his friends to 
 his house to experiment with the new agent, and it was quite common 
 for several of the guests to narcotize themselves that they might com- 
 pare experiences. This affords another analogy between the intro- 
 duction of hypnotism and that of chloroform, and we may hope that 
 as chloroform soon got beyond the popular and experimental stage, 
 so may hypnotism be freed from its platform and drawing-room 
 exponents. 
 
I20 r RE ATM EST BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 the ordinary student is still pitifully ignorant of normal 
 and abnormal ps\chology. There seems to be a fear that 
 hypnotic would supplant orthodox treatment and under- 
 mine established usages. One might as well argue against 
 teaching the value of vaccine therapy. Both forms of 
 treatment are but auxiliary and complementary to the 
 science of medicine. 
 
 The exploitation of hypnotism as an exhibition at public 
 entertainments has already been prohibited by law in 
 Switzerland, Holland, and other countries, and when the 
 true position of this treatment is understood among us, the 
 same restrictions will probably be enforced in England.* 
 ' The performance of experiments in public,' write Binet 
 and Fere {op. cit.), 'should be condemned, just as we 
 condemn public dissection of the dead body and vivi- 
 section in public. It is certain that there are still graver 
 objections to hypnotic exhibitions, since they are liable to 
 produce nervous affections even in those who do not 
 propose to be the subjects of experiment.' Such experi- 
 ments are always useless and often cruel, besides being an 
 offence against the dignity of humanity. The contortions 
 and exclamations of a patient under chloroform are often 
 interesting, and might by some persons be thought amusing, 
 but we should hardly choose to excite them for the 
 gratification of idle curiosity or the entertainment of the 
 multitude. 
 
 By all means let people be made aware of the existence 
 and nature of an influence to which most of us are sus- 
 ceptible, and some to a dangerous degree : for to be fore- 
 warned is to be forearmed, and we shall not have foolish 
 persons playing with such an edged tool if they know how 
 serious may be the consequences of their trifling. A 
 paragraph which lately went the round of the papers 
 shows how ignorance may lead to awkward results. A 
 couple of young men went to a cafe after attending a 
 
 * One of the objects of the International Congress of physicians 
 practising hypnotism, which was lield in Paris in 1889, was to pass a 
 strong resohilion dealing with this question, and calling upon Govern- 
 ments to render ])uljlic exhibitions of hypnotism illegal. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 121 
 
 'magnetic' performance, and one of them, full of what 
 he had seen, proposed ' magnetizing ' the barmaid. She 
 consented, and he imitated the ' passes ' made by the 
 lecturer. Very soon the subject fell into a hypnotic 
 trance, from which neither of the young men could 
 arouse her. Like Ali Baba's brother, they had got into 
 forbidden regions, and did not kno^^■ the password \\ hich 
 should let them out. The police were sent for, the young 
 woman was taken to the hospital, where after a time she 
 awoke, and the operator was arrested and locked up. 
 
 The following case has recently come under my own 
 notice, for my advice was sought by the much-perplexed 
 experimenter : 
 
 A young gentleman, after a few lessons from a public 
 
 magnetizer, went to stay in a country house where, among 
 
 other guests, ^^■as a young lady of well-marked hysterical 
 
 ' temperament. To show off his recently-acquired know- 
 
 I ledge, and to afford a little amusement, he undertook to 
 
 hypnotize this girl, and after a few minutes' employment 
 
 ol the method known a.s fascination, the subject fell into a 
 
 , profound trance. He had some difficulty in arousing her, 
 
 ; and ever since she has had frequently recurring fits of 
 
 I cataleptic trance, which are always ushered in by an out- 
 
 ! burst of screaming, in which she cries : ' He is doing it 
 
 [now!' She is under the impression that the young man 
 
 I is constantly exercising a power over her, though he is 
 
 hundreds of miles away, and her nervous system is reduced 
 
 to a state which causes serious alarm to her family. That 
 
 her idea is absurd, and that such action at a distance is 
 
 impossible, renders the matter none the less painful for 
 
 jthe young lady and her family, or less awkward for the 
 
 rash experimenter. Such an occurrence naturally fills 
 
 'people's minds with dislike and distrust for hypnotism, 
 
 I for they confuse a wanton and clumsily-conducted experi- 
 
 Imentwith a medical treatment of which hypnotism forms 
 
 I only a preliminary step.* 
 
 j ^ A story told by the late Professor Christison of Edinburgh bears 
 Ion this point. He one day mesmerized a highly nervous lady, and when 
 
122 TREATMENT BY HYPS'OTISM AND SUGGESTIOX 
 
 On the occasion of an academic discussion on hypnotism 
 at the annual meeting of the British Medical Association, 
 at Birminf^hain, in i8go, I read extracts from letters I had 
 received from the best-known physicians practising hypno- 
 tism at home and abroad. Bernheim, Moll, Forel, Van 
 Eeden, Milne Bramwell, and others, all wrote that they 
 had never seen any injurious effects follow the use of 
 hypnotism by trustworthy hands. Liebeault told me that 
 in his thirty years' experience he had had no bad results, 
 and referred me to an article he had recently published, 
 entitled ' Confession d'un Medecin Hypnotiseur,'* in which 
 he has set forth the little mishaps which have happened 
 from time to time in his clinique. 
 
 I was extremely glad to get this mass of testimony, as it 
 disposed of an idea, not confined only to the uneducated, 
 that medical hypnotism may induce epilepsy, hysteria, 
 chorea, etc. Dr. A. T. Myers also informed me that the 
 subjects he had seen hypnotized many scores of times 
 for the Society for Psychical Research, over long periods 
 of time, were none the worse for their experience. 
 Liebeault is undoubtedly perfectly correct when he states 
 that where any evil result has followed the treatment, it 
 has been due to want of skill or judgment on the part of 
 the operator. I am convinced that hypnotism is an agent 
 requiring careful handling in many cases. This was brought 
 home to a medical friend of mine, whose experience is 
 worth recording. He was attending a lady suffering from 
 bronchitis complicated with asthma and a weak and fatty 
 heart. He thought to quiet her spasmodic attacks by 
 suggestion, and he induced a state of profound hypnosis 
 
 she awoke he told her that the following day, at noon, he would repeat 
 the operation from a distance. At that hour the Professor was lectur-' 
 ing, and had quite forgotten the occurrence ; ne\ertheless, the lady, inr 
 spite of all her husband could do to prevent it, fell into a profound 
 trance, and said she felt she was being mesmerized. Expectant atten- 
 tion and auto-suggestion produced the cft'ect, and such is found to be 
 the explanation of most of the stories which are foisted upon a credu- 
 lous public. 
 
 * 0/>. lit., p. 308. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 123 
 
 with great facility. He continued to suggest easier and 
 quieter breathing, and was pleased to see how the patient 
 responded and how respiration became more and more 
 tranquil. He had not hypnotized many people, and 
 looked upon the process as being quite unattended with 
 risk, until the breathing, having become more and more 
 feeble, suddenly stopped altogether, and the heart-beat 
 became imperceptible. My friend feared the patient 
 would have died — the first victim of hypnotic suggestion 
 — and was intensely relieved when the spasmodic breath- 
 ing was again heard. As far as I know, no record exists 
 of its having proved fatal. Heidenhain refers to experi- 
 ments of this kind as being distinctly dangerous, and states 
 how he nearly stopped the action of his brother's heart by 
 continued suggestion. 
 
 But while contending that the risks of hypnotism in 
 proper hands are infinitesimal, we are strongly impressed 
 with the belief that its use by the ignorant or ill-disposed 
 is fraught with most serious risk to health. Dr. M. J. 
 Nolan relates, in the Journal of Mental Science (January, 
 1891), a case of stuporose insanity which he believes was 
 due to the ignorant employment of hypnotism. The 
 patient was a drunken and dissipated soldier, broken in 
 health by his excesses, and he was hypnotized by a travel- 
 ling ' professor.' Van Eeden {loc. cit.) records a case 
 of hystero-epilepsy brought on in the same way, and 
 Charcot {Revue de VHypnotismc, July, 1889) contributes 
 notes of a case in which a woman, after being frequently 
 hypnotized by a magnetizer at a fair, became aphasic for 
 several months^ and suffered in health in other ways. 
 Dr. Gilles de la Tourette read a paper dealing with this 
 subject before the Paris Society of Legal Medicine, in 
 December, 1888 {Revue de VHypnotisme, January, i8Sg\ 
 and demonstrated how the passage of magnetizers through 
 the towns of France had been followed by serious epi- 
 demics of hysteria and other nervous troubles.* He 
 
 * 'Dangers de FHypnotisme et interdiction des representations 
 theatrales' {A7w. d'' Hygiene, vol. xxi. Paris, il 
 
1^4 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 adds : ' Our country (France) has become the refuge of all 
 the magnetizers, and their advertisements cover the walls 
 of Paris.' Such a complaint can no longer be made, for 
 public performances are now forbidden by the munici- 
 pality. England is now almost the last refuge of the 
 expatriated magnetizers. 
 
 Sir F. Cruise* mentions a case in which an attack of 
 brain fever foUoxsed the induction of hypnosis by an 
 ignorant and irresponsible operator, and deduces from 
 this and other cases the argument that ' it is highly im- 
 proper and possibly dangerous for anyone who is not an 
 educated physician, and familiar with the practice, to 
 attempt hypnotism, and that it should never be induced 
 without due reason, precaution, and design.' 
 
 Dr. Dejerine, Professeur Agrege of the Faculty of Medi- 
 cine in Paris, is convinced that the continual making of 
 injurious and absurd suggestions is fraught with evil con- 
 sequences to the subject, and especially so if the halluci- 
 nations are allowed to persist over considerable periods of 
 time. He says the time may arrive when the operator 
 may find himself unable to remove the morbid symptoms 
 he has called into being (Revue de I'Hypnotisinc, January, 
 i8gi). But he adds that he has never seen hypnotism 
 produce any bad effects when it has been properly used. 
 
 Dr. Julius Solow t records a case where an amateur ' 
 hypnotist hypnotized a friend by making him look hxedly ' 
 at a diamond ring. The subject had severe convulsions 
 and lost the power of speech. Subsequently, looking at 
 any bright object caused him to become violently excited. ' 
 Commenting on this case, the British Medical Journal says 
 (March 28, 1891) : 
 
 ' It should be a warning to amateur hypnotizers and to 
 the foolish people who allow themselves to be played upon 
 by these dangerous showmen. ... It ought to be under- 
 stood that hypnotism recklessly played with is capable of 
 doing very serious mischief, and it is the duty of the 
 
 * Dublin Journal of Mcdicixl Science^ M-'^Vi 1891. 
 t Nciu York Medical Journal, March 14, 189 1. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 125 
 
 medical profession in every town to warn the public of the 
 serious risks which are being run.' 
 
 The case of lima S , so fully described by Krafft- 
 
 Ebing,* is frequently quoted as an example of the dangers 
 of hypnotism, and it gives us some idea of what must be 
 the mental condition of the unfortunate persons who are 
 being constantly hypnotized by professional showmen. 
 
 Several Italian observers have recorded cases of grave 
 mental troubles following the abuse of hypnotism by 
 public showmen and others. Fiegerio describes a case 
 where the subject, a young woman, after being experi- 
 mented on by Donato, became affected with spontaneous 
 somnambulism, accompanied by impulsive tendencies to 
 strike and destroy {American Journal of Insanity, April, 
 1891). 
 
 If a patient should take it into her head to imagine that 
 one was having an undue personal influence over her, as 
 in the case referred to on p. 121, the course to adopt is 
 plain. The physician should decline to operate agam, 
 and if the idea persists, he should obtain the assistance of 
 a colleague, whom he should get to hypnotize the patient 
 for him, and to suggest to her the disappearance of the 
 delusion. I have found it necessary to act thus in one 
 case, and the plan was completely successful. The patient, 
 a highly hysterical lady of a certain age, and unmarried, 
 developed a craving for hypnotism in much the same way 
 as she might have for alcohol or morphia.t 
 
 * Quoted in Brain^ April, 1891. 
 
 t Every form of treatment is liable to abuse. I have seen two 
 striking examples of this in Weir-Mitchell cases. The rest and fre- 
 quent feeding proved so agreeable to the patients that they continued 
 this part of the treatment when they returned to their homes. 
 
 The first of these patients was a middle-aged clergyman, who 
 became neurasthenic after an attack of influenza. After he left the 
 nursing-home, he made his wife continue to feed him every four hours, 
 and used to lie in bed all the time, except for a few hours on Sunday, 
 when he got up and conducted service in his church. He came to 
 me for hypnotic treatment, weighing 20 stone, and in a curious 
 apathetic state. I succeeded in stirring him up and making him 
 change his habits. He had been an extremely active and zealous 
 missionary clergyman, so one had good material at bottom to work 
 
126 TREATMENT BY HYPSOTISM ASD SUGGESTION 
 
 There is another reason lor the careful regulation of the 
 use of hypnotism which should appeal to all those who 
 have the progress of science at heart. The process of 
 hypnotizing an ordinary subject is so simple that it seems 
 absurd to talk of teaching it to a person of ordinary in- 
 telligence and liberal education ; to see it done a few 
 times is to be able to do it one's self. Of course, this is 
 the least part of the treatment, and, in fact, it bears the 
 same relation to the Nancy method as the administration 
 of chloroform does to a subsequent surgical operation. 
 The practice of hypnotic suggestion is surrounded by 
 pitfalls which only the operator with a medical training 
 can avoid, and the results of the treatment are only of 
 scientific value if they have been checked by investigators 
 accustomed to gauge the value of evidence. At the 
 present time, when the treatment is, we may say, in its 
 infancy, we want every fact scientifically investigated, and 
 therefore it is of great importance to restrict the medical 
 use of hypnotism to qualified medical men.* If Dr. 
 EUiotson, a physician of rare ability, and a man of unim- 
 peachable probity, had acted with the discretion shown by 
 Bernheim and other foreign physicians, he would probably 
 have arrived at the truth which it required another 
 generation to extract from a mass of superincumbent 
 rubbish. 
 
 There is another danger from the ignorant use of hyp- 
 notism as a remedial agent. I cannot agree with some 
 writers who seem to contend that pain must not be inter- 
 fered with, as it is a part of Nature's recuperative pro- 
 
 upon. The other case was that of a lady, who, when dismissed from 
 the nursing-home, straightway took to her bed, and got her maid to 
 feed her every two hours. She added excessive drinking to over- 
 feeding, and, as we couldn't get her to change her mode of life, she 
 soon died of cirrhosis of the liver and fatty heart. 
 
 Both these patients discontinued one essential detail of Weir- 
 .Mitchell's treatment — the massage, which renders it possible for the 
 system to assimilate the large amount of food consumed. 
 
 * I allude, of course, to medical hypnotism, with which I am chiefly 
 interested. The scientific value of work done by such trained observers 
 as Messrs. Gurney and Myers has been already referred to. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 127 
 
 cess.* It is often a danger-signal which should not be 
 neglected, and covering the signal does not do away with 
 the danger it denotes, but one need not go on waving it 
 indefinitely. I have heard of a patient suffering from 
 gastric ulcer being told by an ignorant magnetizer that 
 she was to go home and eat a beefsteak, and a man with 
 mitral disease directed to run up to the top of a high 
 house. So great is the power of suggestion, that in both 
 these cases the order was obeyed, and the symptoms were 
 masked for a time. One can sometimes remove the effect 
 without touching the cause. But this is true of all 
 symptomatic treatment. 
 
 Some persons, especially some young women, are so 
 susceptible that one has only to get their consent and to 
 ibid them go to sleep to induce a condition of profound 
 'somnambulism. In such cases 'expectant attention' 
 ialone seems sufficient, and it is matter for surprise that 
 ,we do not find more people falling into spontaneous som- 
 nambulism, as the condition is so easily mduced. 
 
 It is these subjects of unstable cerebral equilibrium who 
 .are most liable to danger from the abuse of hypnotism, 
 'and it is these, consequently, that we should especially 
 'seek to protect. I need hardly say that the use of hypno- 
 itism towards the accomplishment of a crime or misde- 
 jmeanour should be regarded as a serious aggravation of 
 ithe offence. 
 
 Charcot in France, Ladame in Switzerland, and Semal 
 lin Belgium, have done much to stop the public exhibition 
 3f hypnotism in those countries, by demonstrating the 
 [physical and mental evils which have befallen the subjects 
 pf such performances. Those who witnessed a so-called 
 ,2ntertainment of this kind given in London some years 
 [iince must remember how fatigued and languid, or excited 
 jind hysterical, were many of the subjects. The aim of a 
 bublic entertainer is to excite wonder or mirth in the 
 minds of his audience, and so long as he can evoke a 
 
 [ * Vide article by Dr. Sinclair Thomson in the IVesiniinstcr Revieii'^ 
 becember, 1890. 
 
128 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION ^ 
 
 sufficiently startling note, he cares little, even if he fully 
 understands, that the instrument he plays upon is the 
 delicate organism of the higher brain centres.* 
 
 There has been a great deal of correspondence in the 
 daily press about hypnotism and suggestion, and one 
 writer in an evening paper recently complained that after 
 being hypnotized she felt for some time a disagreeable 
 sensation, as of being 'drawn to the operator.' I believe 
 that such a sensation, unless suggested during hypnosis 
 by the hypnotist, could only be the result of hysterical 
 imagination, and I have never seen anything of the kind 
 in my practice. Such a statement, however, emphasizes 
 the importance of the rule, that hypnotism should be 
 practised only in the presence of witnesses, and that the 
 patient should be thoroughly aw akened before leaving the 
 consulting-room. The best guarantee against the abuse 
 of hypnotism will be its recognition as a branch of medical 
 treatment, to be used by medical men with the same 
 caution as anaesthetics and poisons in general. 
 
 The practitioner who uses hypnotism should do so with 
 the same precautions which he adopts in administering 
 an anaesthetic. Chief among these are obtaining the 
 formal consent of the patient, and, when expedient, of 
 his friends, and never operating save in the presence of 
 at least one witness. Thus he will guard himself and his 
 patient from all possible imputation of wrong-doing or 
 abuse of power. I need hardly add that a patient desiring 
 hypnotic treatment will, if commonly prudent, use dis- 
 
 * Apprehension of danger rests very frequently upon the miscon- 
 ception that loss of volition and amnesia are ordinary accompani- 
 ments of medical hypnotism. Such an idea arises from witnessing 
 public performances, and it is difficult to eradicate. The physician 
 who employs hypnotism as a remedial agent neither seeks to obtain 
 somnambulism — in which state alone the patients' memory and will- 
 power are seriously affected — nor, as a matter of fact, does it occur, 
 except in a small proportion of cases. The condition ordinarily 
 attained — and here I can speak from personal experience — is one of 
 gentle lethargy, very similar in character to that agreeable state 
 ijctween sleeping and waking which most of us experience when, after 
 being called in the morning, we give ourselves five minutes' grace 
 before getting up. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 129 
 
 crimination in choosing a physician, and will avoid placing 
 himself under the influence of one not known to him, at 
 least by reputation. 
 
 The dangers of hypnotism are, I believe, exaggerated. 
 The stories told of persons obtaining undue influence over 
 others by its means are mostly fables, which experience 
 shows to be impossible. Bernheim asserts, and is borne 
 out by other observers, that no one can be hypnotized 
 against his wish, and that, in fact, it is his own will which 
 sends him to sleep. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that 
 after a time the oncoming of sleep is less under the 
 patient's control, and when, as we see sometimes at 
 Nancy, a person is continually being hypnotized by the 
 same operator, the hypnotic state can be reproduced with 
 surprising readiness. I believe that in certain hysterical 
 cases there arises a craving for this, as there might for 
 any other sedative ; but such a craving has little chance 
 of being encouraged if the suggestive practice is confined 
 to its proper sphere. A physician does not go on pre- 
 scribing narcotic drugs because a patient has a craving 
 for them, but, on the contrary, forbids their use when 
 they cease to be beneficial. 
 
 The physician practising suggestion may protect his 
 over-sensitive patients from the dangers of being hypno- 
 tized by a stranger. He has only to impress upon them, 
 while they are in the hypnotic state, that no one can pro- 
 duce any such effect upon them without their free-will 
 and formal consent. The most practised operator would 
 try his art in vain upon one so protected, as Liebeault 
 and Bernheim have repeatedly proved,* and as I myself 
 
 * These physicians were in the habit of hypnotizing an hysterical 
 patient, who used to fall into somnambulism as easily in the hands of 
 one as in those of the other. On one occasion, while she was in this 
 state, Bernheim told her that she was not to be influenced by 
 Liebeault. She awoke quite oblivious of this suggestion having been 
 made, and soon afterwards went to Liebeault, who was ignorant of 
 what had taken place, and asked him to hypnotize her as usual. To 
 the surprise of both patient and doctor, all his attempts to do so were 
 futile, and it was only on communicating the fact to Dr. Bernheim 
 that his colleague found its explanation. 
 
I30 TREATMENT BY HYF.XuTlSM A.\D SUGGESTION 
 
 have seen. I always safeguard my more susceptible 
 patients against the danger of being hypnotized against 
 their will by telling them that no one will be able to 
 
 This is so important a point that I asked Dr. Outterson Wood 
 (Secretary of the British Medical Association Committee on Hypno- 
 tism) to put it to the test, and he kindly consented. Mrs. M , 
 
 who is frequently referred to in these pages, was the subject. The 
 first occasion was in November, 1890. I had not hypnotized Mrs. 
 
 M for several weeks, and had made no suggestions in reference 
 
 to her not being hypnotized by anyone else for at least six months. 
 I told her that Dr. Outterson Wood wished to hypnotize her, and left 
 her alone with him. When I returned in half an hour, I found her 
 asleep, and Dr. Wood informed me he had succeeded in hypnotizing 
 her after trying the method of fascination for about twenty minutes. 
 He was obliged to leave the house to keep an appointment, and I 
 
 then found Mrs. M would not reply to my questions, and was 
 
 apparently in a deep trance, and only ivi rapport with Dr. Wood. 
 Adopting Liegeois's plan, I said in a loud voice to a patient standing 
 
 by, ' Mrs. M is fast asleep now, but she will awake in exactly five 
 
 minutes.' Though apparently unconscious, her ears evidently took 
 in the suggestion, and her mind acted upon it, for she awoke to the 
 moment. 
 
 This experience affords a hint as to the course to adopt if called in 
 to a case of trance suspected to be of hypnotic origin. Though the 
 subject seemed absolutely unconscious, and would doubtless have 
 proved ani^sthetic to violent stimuli, her brain responded to the 
 stimulus of an indirect suggestion. 
 
 We repeated the experiment in Jmie, 1891, but I previously hypno- 
 tized her daily for three days, and each time suggested that on no 
 account was she to allow herself to be hypnotized b\' anyone else, and 
 I got her to promise that this should be so. I again left Dr. Wood 
 with her alone, and told her that he wished to hypnotize her. She 
 did not remember having promised that she would not allow herself 
 to be hypnotized, but she expressed disinclination for the operation. 
 However, a little persuasion made her give her consent, and Dr. 
 Wood again sought to influence her by fascination. When I returned 
 I found her very hysterical, and complaining of feeling faint and ill : 
 but she was not hypnotized, though the process had lasted twenty 
 minutes. I hypnotized her at once by stroking the forehead, and 
 the disturbance of breathing and circulation disappeared in a few 
 moments. She awoke feeling quite herself, but told me she would 
 never allow anyone else to try to hypnotize her, as the suffering she 
 experienced was acute, and she would ha\e gi\en anything to have 
 escaped it by closing her eyes and going to sleep, but felt constrained 
 to. keep awake. This patient had been hypnotized by me the first 
 time I tried in less than two minutes, and there is no doubt but that 
 any competent operator would have been equally successful. Her 
 yielding to Dr. Wood's first attempt only after a long struggle, and 
 iier not yielding at all the second time, seems to offer conclusive 
 evidence that, so far from previous hypnotization necessarily increasing 
 a person's subsequent susceptibility, it may be used so as to very 
 greatly diminish it. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 131 
 
 influence them without their previous consent in writing, 
 
 and I find this plan acts admirably. In fact, the more 
 
 susceptible the patient, the greater the effect of this 
 
 deterrent suggestion, so that I have seen practised 
 
 operators experiment on such subjects without producing 
 
 any ether effect but restlessness and discomfort. In one 
 
 case, that of a young girl, who is one of my best subjects, 
 
 j I asked her to allow a lady doctor to hypnotize her, and 
 
 [ she gave her consent. Nevertheless, she proved quite 
 
 insusceptible to the lady's persevering attempts. The 
 
 I patient told me afterwards that she had a very strong 
 
 I objection to being hypnotized by a stranger, and that her 
 
 I consent was only assumed. 
 
 j Disregard of this simple precaution was to my mind 
 ' one of the most regrettable features of the late Dr. Luvs's 
 clinique. Some of the young women there seemed to be 
 , at the mercy of anyone who cared to exert an influence 
 I over them. 
 
 \ One is sometimes asked, even by medical men, if the 
 1 fact of having hypnotized a patient does not enable the 
 practitioner to exercise more than the proper amount of 
 1 influence over him in future. Nothing of this kind is at 
 j all likely to happen, and the doctor who uses hypnotism 
 , will find neither more nor less gratitude from his patients 
 j than if he employed more material remedies. The im- 
 I portation of hypnotism into a recent case, however, shows 
 I the danger the medical attendant may incur by running 
 { counter to popular prejudice, and how necessary it is for 
 I him to safeguard himself {vide p. 419). 
 j I may fitly bring this chapter to a close with a quota- 
 i tion from Professor Bernheim's oft-referred-to work : ' It 
 I is the duty of the physician to select what is useful in sug- 
 ' gestion, and to apply it for the benefit of his patients 
 ' When, in the presence of sickness, I think that thera- 
 j peutic suggestion has a chance of success, I should con- 
 I sider myself to blame as a physician if I did not propose 
 it to my patient, and if I did not even make a point of 
 I getting his consent to its employment ' {op. cit., p. 580). 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 Some l^oints in the Physioloy^y and Psychology of Hypnotism. — 
 Authorities and their Theories. — E.xpectant Attention, Suggestion, 
 and Inhibition. — Induction of Functional Aphasia, and what it 
 teaches. — Exaggeration or Suppression of Certain Senses and 
 Functions in the Hypnotic State. — Automatism in Hypnotism 
 and in the Pathological State. — Amnesia. — Hypnotism compared 
 with the Action of Poisons. — The Double Brain : its Single Action 
 in Health and Possible Dual Action in Disease and in the 
 Hypnotic State. — Cases illustrating this. — The Induction of 
 Automatism without Hypnotism. 
 
 The study of hypnotism will doubtless do much to 
 advance our knowledge of the higher brain functions, 
 and it is well to bear in mind that, as the phenomena 
 depend upon an induced psychical condition, they may 
 not be explicable by any physiological method which we at 
 present possess. McDougall * thinks that enlightenment 
 will come from the psychological rather than the physio- 
 logical side, and Wingfield strongly favours that view. 
 Charcot, Richet, Bernheim, Heidenhain, Hack Tuke, 
 Ferrier, Hughlings Jackson, and others, have, however, 
 done most useful work by building up a working hypothe- 
 sis, which serves as a standpoint for future investigators. 
 
 Expectant attention, suggestion, and inhibition are the 
 processes which afford an explanation of the commonest 
 phenomena. 
 
 Expectant attention seems to be a necessary psychical 
 preparation, for an ordinary person may gaze at an object 
 for an indefinite time without producing hypnosis, unless 
 he expects such a result to ensue. Were this not so, 
 spontaneous somnambulism would be of very common 
 occurrence. 
 
 * ' Body and Mind,' p. 350. 
 132 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 133 
 
 Brown-Sequard and other neurologists show that when 
 one cerebral centre or function is used to excess, the 
 others become, for the time being, paralyzed or inhibited; 
 and Dr. Maudsley says (* The Pathology of the Mind,' 
 p. 58) that two nerve centres of mental function cannot 
 be in equally conscious function at the same time. Con- 
 tinuous stimulation of one centre implies diminished 
 activity of those surrounding it — including those of higher 
 cerebration : volition, attention, co-ordination of ideas, 
 and memory — and causes their temporary inhibition. 
 This is seen in everyday life. When reading an inter- 
 esting book, we greatly exert our intellectual and emo- 
 tional faculties, and consequently impressions on other 
 senses are not registered or noticed. A noise in the 
 street is unheard by us ; a coal may fall on the hearthrug, 
 and we neither see the accident nor are affected by the 
 smell of burning wool ; even bodily pain and mental 
 suffering may be forgotten or benumbed while the atten- 
 tion is thus absorbed. Everyone knows how gentle 
 friction of a skin surface, in neuralgia or headache, 
 will often act in the same way, by over- stimulating one 
 sensory centre, and rendering inactive that which registers 
 the pain. 
 
 Heidenhain attributes the hypnotic state to monotonous 
 gentle stimulation of a sense, causing inhibition of the 
 cortical cells, with consequent suspension of the higher 
 cerebral functions. A monotonous sound or scene will 
 thus induce drowsiness or sleep, and a sudden intense 
 stimulation, such as a sudden noise or flash of light, will 
 c;iuse an awakening. This is seen at magnetic seances, 
 where the sleepers are commonly aroused by the sound of 
 a gong. 
 
 Let us consider what happens when a person is pro- 
 foundly hypnotized for the first time by fixation of the 
 eyes upon a brilliant object. As his attention is exclusively 
 directed to one sensory impression, he becomes more and 
 more withdrawn from other conditions of the environ- 
 ment, until at last he sees only the object, and is conscious 
 
134 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AXD SUGGESTION 
 
 uf nothing else. But in time, as the optic centres become 
 exhausted and cease to respond to continued stimulation, 
 the visual sense likewise becomes extinct, and the subject 
 is left in a condition of mental vacuity and ' senselessness.' 
 He has been reduced from a state of polyideism, which is 
 the normal condition of the healthy man, who is constantly 
 receiving and balancing multiform impressions derived 
 from all the avenues of sense, first, to a state of mono- 
 ideism — the idea of a fixed image, upon which he must 
 keep his eyes and attention ; and, finally, to a state of 
 vacuity, in which there is complete absence of ideas. 
 Into this swept and garnished chamber of the mind ideas 
 can be implanted by the hypnotist ; and, as a ray of light , 
 thrown into a darkened room will show forth with exag- 
 gerated force and brilliancy from the contrast with the 
 surrounding darkness and the exclusion of conflicting 
 rays, so will the idea suggested to the imagination of the 
 profoundly hypnotized subject operate with immensely 
 increased effect from the absence of conflicting and correc- 
 tive impressions derived from the whole environment. 
 
 As the patient, on recovering consciousness, in some 
 cases may continue the speech or occupation which was 
 interrupted by an injury to the brain, so the hypnotized 
 person, on being aroused, will sometimes carry on a 
 phrase or an action from the point at which it was 
 broken off by hypnotic influence — thus showing how com- 
 pletely the brain, as the organ of mind, has been paralyzed. 
 But whereas in the coma of disease the paralysis is absolute 
 and complete, in induced somnambulism it is partially or 
 entirely removable at the command of the operator. He 
 can arouse any centre to more than its normal functioning 
 activity, so that the subject, who a moment before was 
 insensible to the fumes of strong ammonia held close to 
 his nostrils, will now recognize the faintest odour ; and he 
 who now lies in a condition of muscular impotence will, 
 at the word of the operator, perform extraordinary feats i 
 of strength. The sam.e holds good with the expression of I 
 the emotions. From a state of abject misery, the subject 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 135 
 
 may be suddenly transported to one of bliss, and be it 
 noted that he shows both conditions far more markedly 
 than he would do if awake : for in the normal state our 
 emotions are subject to that inhibitory influence which 
 we call self-control, and which is non-existent in the 
 somnambulic subject, over whom each passion, each 
 emotion that is called up, has for the moment an un- 
 divided sway. 
 
 If I am told to raise my arm, the order is conveyed to 
 the auditory centre, and thence referred to the ganglionic 
 cells of the cortex, in which the highest functions — 
 attention, volition, comparison, etc. — may be supposed to 
 reside ; if endorsed by the will, it is despatched through 
 the motor centres, basal ganglia, and spinal cord to the 
 muscles, which perform the required action. Even if my 
 will refuses to obey the order, it may happen that an 
 involuntary stimulus is sent downwards, sufficient to 
 cause some slight muscular movement, which, however, 
 is promptly checked by the inhibitory action of the 
 highest centres. But suppose the order is given in an 
 imperative tone to one accustomed to obey the voice 
 of authority — a soldier,"^ for example — it will probably be 
 executed automatically, without any functioning what- 
 ever of the will ; the command is referred from the 
 auditory centres, where it is taken in, direct to the motor 
 centres, and through the basal ganglia to the muscles of 
 the arm. In such a case, a like order has been so fre- 
 quently followed by its execution that the two have 
 become cause and effect, and the action is automatic or 
 cerebro-reflex, and almost beyond the man's control. A 
 hypnotized subject is in much the same position ; his 
 intellectual centres do not work, and an order suggests 
 
 * There is a well-known story of an old soldier who. while carrying 
 home his Sunday dinner, was hailed by a practical joker, who called 
 ' .Attention I' His arms immediately fell into the required position, 
 and the dinner rolled in the gutter. Assuredly, volition had no voice 
 in this matter. 
 
 The subjoined diagram (adapted from the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' 
 article 'Physiology') will assist the comprehension of voluntary and 
 automatic actions. 
 
136 TREATMEXT BY IIYPSOTISM ASD SUGGESTION 
 
 its fulfilment without, and, indeed, sometimes contrary to, 
 volition and reason. 
 
 Id., Ideational centre ; Vol., Volitional centre ; Em., Emotional 
 centre ; Sp. S., Centres for special sensations : Eq., Centre for 
 sense of equilibrium ; Mo., Motor centre ; (".. S., Centre for 
 general sensation ; Inh., Inhibitory centre ; Rf., Keflex centre ; 
 M., Muscle ; Gl., CAa.nd ; H. and V., Heart and Vessels. The 
 lines show the association of one centre with the others, and the 
 arrows indicate the direction taken by nervous impulses. Hyp- 
 notism may be supposed to cut off or inhibit some of these 
 associations — i\i,':, the volitional from the motor. 
 
 A severe mental shock will sometimes induce this 
 automatism ; the various duties and actions of everyday 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 137 
 
 life will then be gone through as in a dream, and often 
 without leaving any recollection of their performance. A 
 severe blow on the head will occasionally bring about a 
 like condition — as in the case of a gentleman, aged twenty- 
 one, a patient of mine, who was thrown from his horse 
 while hunting. He subsequently recollected riding at the 
 I fence at which he came to grief, but had totally forgotten 
 everything that followed until the end of the run, which 
 I lasted for about fifteen minutes after his fall. Yet I have 
 j the report of eye-witnesses, who state that he was up in 
 ! a moment, mounted his horse, and joined the field as if 
 ! nothing had happened ; but that he wore a dazed ex- 
 j pression, and made unintelligible answers tc the remarks 
 j addressed to him. He is always a plucky rider, but on 
 j this occasion he surpassed himself, taking a dangerous 
 I fence which only one other horseman attempted, and 
 i which he would probably have avoided had his reasoning 
 j faculties been at work. He felt a severe pain in the 
 I vertex, which had been struck in his fall, and for a few 
 I hours remained in a somewhat dazed condition. 
 1 There is no memory of acts done in the somnambulic 
 I state, because that association of centres and balancing of 
 I one mental function by another which constitute ideation, 
 i self-control, attention, volition, comparison, and memory 
 { are for the time being rendered inoperative. A patient 
 [ under hypnotic influence may be compared to a com- 
 j plicated machine, which is thrown out of gear, and yet 
 j can be so adjusted that some parts can be made to act 
 
 independently of the others. 
 1 As regards the physical basis of the phenomena, recent 
 j researches in physiology enable us to form a fair working 
 I hypothesis. Heidenhain supposed that there must be 
 I anaemia of the brain, until he found that his brother could 
 I be hypnotized as easily as usual immediately after taking 
 1 a physiological dose of amyl nitrite. 
 
 Dr. Barwise thinks nitrite of amyl, by lowering the 
 blood tension, leads to congestion of the membranes of 
 the brain, and that these exert direct pressure on the 
 
138 TREATMENT BY HYPSOTISM ASD SUGGESTION 
 
 contained organ, and so empty its vessels. He finds that 
 his best hypnotic subjects blush readily, and that they 
 commonl}' become flushed while being hypnotized. He 
 also finds that persons may be more easily h\-pnotized 
 if the head is bent back so as to obstruct the return of 
 venous blood from the brain. He therefore supposes that 
 hypnosis depends upon congestion of the membranes with 
 coincident anaemia of the cerebrum."*^ 
 
 Dr. Gerald Yeo, late Professor of Physiology at King's 
 College, thinks Heidenhain's inference that nitrite of amyl 
 causes general congestion of the brain is not a necessary 
 corollary of the fact that it produces flushing of the face. 
 He supposes that in hypnosis we have a condition of 
 partial and local anaemia of certain areas of the cortex. 
 
 Dr. Yeo has made a special study of hypnotism, and 
 his lecture before the King's College Science Society in 
 1883 was almost the first serious attempt in this country 
 to bring modern physiological science to bear on the 
 subject. Starting from the analogy afforded by the 
 innervation of the heart, which is supplied with excitor 
 and inhibitory centres, he argues that the more complex 
 an organ the greater will be the need of a double check 
 action, and he considers the brain the most complex of 
 all the organs. He supposes that the functioning of the 
 cortical cells, which forms the basis of higher cerebration, 
 depends, as does the activity of other organs, upon their 
 supply of blood, and to regulate their supply he infers 
 the existence of centres which he calls neuro-regulatory. 
 Their action is of two kinds — neuro-inhibitory and excito- 
 neural. 
 
 The excito-neural centres watch over the nutrition of 
 the brain cells, and are, in fact, trophic centres for the 
 cortex. The neuro-regulatory centres are kept an courant 
 with the condition of each organ, and its wants and 
 capabilities, through thin connecting fibres; and they act 
 accordingly, either exciting or inhibiting their representa- 
 tive centres in the brain. When the blood-supply is cut 
 
 * Op. I if., p. 12. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 139 
 
 I off from the cortical centres the functions of higher cere- 
 i bration are inhibited altogether or in part, and uncon- 
 sciousness or altered conditions of consciousness results. 
 I Some conditions of the organism cause a response from 
 the neuro-regulatory centres in the form of an inhibitory 
 impulse which puts the organ or function represented out 
 I of action, and others, on the contrary, convey a dynamo- 
 I genie impulse to the regulatory centres. The influences 
 I which cause excito-neural action are stimuli having a great 
 j degree of intensity — tr.o'., pain, noise, mental anxiety. The 
 I influences which produce neuro- inhibitory action, with 
 I consequent decreased functioning of the cortical cells, are 
 muscular and mental fatigue (with the coincident accumu- 
 1 lation of waste products), and monotonous continuous 
 stimulation of a sensory organ. This stimulation causes 
 1 an impulse resembling that due to local fatigue to be sent 
 I to the neuro-regulatory centres, and these respond by 
 [ inhibiting the activity of the cortical cells. 
 I Preyer is inclined to consider hypnosis as a cortical 
 t neurosis, dependent on disturbance of the functions of 
 j the grey matter, due either to its inhibition or excessive 
 j activity. He supposes that hypnotizability indicates an 
 : abnormal amount of instability of the cells of the highest 
 [ centres, and that in hypnosis the nutrition of the cortex 
 I is altered by the accumulation in its cells of oxidizable 
 waste product (lactates). Unless we can speak of normal 
 sleep as a neurosis, I should object to the term being 
 applied to its hypnotic analogue as confusing, and as 
 somewhat committing us to a theory. 
 
 Dr. Lehmann, lecturer on Experimental Psychology at 
 the University of Copenhagen, has published the lectures 
 he gave in i88g, and his book is one of the best which have 
 been written on the subject. He works out very carefully 
 the causation of natural sleep and the points wherein it 
 differs from hypnosis. He considers that hypnosis closely 
 resembles natural sleep, but differs from it in that the 
 process is arrested or cut short before complete un- 
 consciousness is reached. Sensation depends upon atten- 
 
I40 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 tion, and attention implies increased supply of nutrition 
 to the part of the sensorium affected. In hypnotism parts 
 of the sensorium are maintained in a state of activity by 
 the attention of the subject being directed to them by the 
 suggestions of the operator. There is increased nutrition 
 of certain centres, with corresponding innutrition of others, 
 and the phenomena produced are the outcome of these 
 changes in cortical nutrition. In the waking state there 
 is continuous stimulation of the vaso-motor centres pro- 
 ceeding from the sensorium, and cessation of mental 
 activity from fatigue or other cause brings about a dis- 
 continuance of the stimulation, with resulting relaxation 
 and dilatation of the cerebral vessels and blood stasis. 
 Lehmann points out that functional activity depends on 
 the amount of blood passing through an organ, and not 
 on the amount present at a given time. In hypnosis he 
 supposes there is a condition of tetanic contraction affect- 
 ing the bloodvessels of the active part of the brain, and 
 this tonic condition leads to increased rapidity of the flow 
 of blood through them, increased nutrition of the part, 
 and increased functional activity. The result of blood 
 stasis from withdrawal of the stimulating influences 
 arriving at the vaso-motor centres from the sensorium is 
 drowsiness and sleep, and in ordinary sleep this condition 
 affects equally the whole of the hemispheres. In hypnosis 
 it is partial, and can be modified by the suggestions of the 
 hypnotist, and the subject under his direction dreams a 
 series of dreams. In the transformation of the natural 
 into the hypnotic sleep the subject is so far awakened 
 by the voice of the hypnotist as to be enabled to 
 act upon his suggestions, but not sufficiently to regain 
 the use of all the faculties. See also review in Mind, 
 July, 1891. 
 
 Forel goes deeply into the physiology and psychology 
 of hypnotism, and quotes largely from the writings of 
 Oscar Vogt. The student is referred to these for a full 
 exposition of the theories advanced. They explain fairly 
 satisfactorily nearly all the most striking phenomena of 
 hypnosis, including catalepsy, sensory anaesthesia and 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 141 
 
 hyperaesthesia, paralysis by suggestion, etc., on the physical 
 side, and monoideism, amnesia, suggested hallucinations 
 and negative hallucinations, etc., on the psychical side. 
 It is interesting to note that Forel's ideas are generally in 
 tune with those of Liebeault, though probably they are 
 arrived at by quite different processes of thought. Fore! 
 calls the nerve waves or activities neurokymes. Con- 
 sciousness is the subjective side of concentrated cerebral 
 activities. Attention is the maximum of our psychical 
 activity, and depends upon concentration of the neuro- 
 kymes in one direction with corresponding deflexion from 
 other centres, for they tend towards the centre in which 
 the greatest metabolic activity prevails. He likens atten- 
 tion to a shifting functional macula lutea in the brain, and 
 it has also been compared to the changing of a kaleidoscope. 
 Stored-up impressions (memories) and hereditary instincts 
 render certain centres in the individual more excitable 
 than others, and the arrival at these of comparatively few 
 or weak neurokymes is sufficient tocause them to function. 
 Forel holds with Vogt that all psychical phenomena, as 
 well as movements, are produced by peripheral stimuli, 
 and that no movements originate in the brain. He 
 supposes there is a subcortical sleep centre, and that this 
 is stimulated by the arrival and accumulation there of 
 neurokymes, set in motion by suggestion, hypnotic or 
 otherwise. 
 
 No two centres can be in fullest functional activity at 
 the same time. For instance, if a certain centre A is 
 alone excited, it will dominate consciousness until the 
 centre of gravity is changed by the arrival of neurokymes 
 at B. Attention will then be deflected from A to B. 
 This is the explanation of delusions and hallucinations, 
 Forel thinks, and to illustrate this point he takes the case 
 of a person awaiting a visitor. A noise on the stairs is 
 interpreted as the footsteps of the looked-for guest. 
 Expectation has so strengthened the stored memory 
 impression that the new sounds are assimilated and given 
 the accustomed place in consciousness — i.e., the footsteps 
 of the expected visitor. 
 
14: JREATMEST BY IIYPSOTISM AXD SUGGESTIUX 
 
 The phenomena of hypnotism are, therefore, I take it, 
 according to Forel, due to directed attention and psychical 
 inhibition and dynamo-genesis, which physiologically de- 
 pend on altered local cortical blood-supply and nutrition. 
 
 Forel is an uncompromising opponent of occultism, and 
 even telepathy is to him unproved and inadmissible. 
 
 Other observers consider that there is a condition of 
 cramp of the arterioles of the brain ; and all are agreed 
 that delicate modifications in the cerebral circulation con- 
 stitute the basis of the hypnotic phenomena. We have 
 probably no drug which acts exactly in the same way as 
 hypnotism ; otherwise we might use it as a vehicle for 
 suggestion, especially in the case of patients who are 
 insensible to the hypnotic influence. Cannabis indica 
 presents certain analogous symptoms,* and apparently 
 e.xposes its consumer to exaggerated susceptibility to 
 suggestion. But there is this important difference. In 
 
 * If the following story is correct (and I have no reason to doubt 
 my informant), the action of chloroform may, under certain circum- 
 stances, be considered analogous to hypnotism. At one of the large 
 Metropolitan hospitals there existed, about forty years ago, a club of 
 medical students, called the ' Chloroform Club,' the chief object of 
 which was to test the action of narcotics, and especially of chloroform. 
 The members met in each other's rooms, and consumed physiological 
 doses of various drugs. On this remembered occasion chloroform was 
 the narcotic chosen, and one of the members was, as usual, told off to 
 keep sober and warch his companions. But the temptation proved 
 too great for him, and he also inhaled a considerable dose of the 
 poison. Into this room full of drug-e.xcited young men came a late 
 member who was extremely unpopular with the others, and one of 
 
 them shouted, ' Here's 1 Let us kill him I' The horrible 
 
 suggestion at once took possession of the whole party. They flung 
 themselves on the new-comer, and a tragedy would certainly have 
 followed had not some students in another room heard the victim's 
 cries of terror. They, of course, rushed in. and made a forcible 
 rescue. The affair was hushed up, and the club dissolved ; but some 
 of those who took part in the episode, which in its weird horror 
 reminds one of the situations of Theophile (^lautier, are now respected 
 members of the profession, and will remember the occurrence. 
 
 The word 'assassin ' is said to be a corruption of ' hashish,' and to 
 have originated from the use made of the drug by a sect of religious 
 fanatics in Persia to remove their enemies. They induced heavenly 
 visions, which they assured their followers were real and the reward 
 of assassination. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 143 
 
 hashish intoxication the suggestion is simply a natural 
 sensory impression, received spontaneously, and greatly 
 exaggerated. The hashish-taker sees a small sheet of 
 water, and in his drug-induced dreams it becomes a 
 rnagnilicent river, a vast lake, or boundless ocean. He 
 hears an Italian organ beneath his windows, and imagines 
 himself listening to the orchestra at Bayreuth. 
 
 Dr. Barwise writes {op. cit., p. 10) that, when experi- 
 menting with the drug on himself, he imagined the slight 
 noise made by some one in turning over the pages of a 
 book to be a thunderstorm. Dr. Von Schrenk-Notzing 
 has written an exhaustive treatise on hashish, and he 
 finds that some persons while under its influence are as 
 susceptible to verbal suggestion as if they were hypnotized. 
 One of the men experimented on was a medical student, 
 who not only obeyed all the suggestions made to him 
 while under the influence of the drug, but also carried 
 out suggestions made the next day (post-narcotic sug- 
 gestions), and that without having any recollection of the 
 order. For example, he was told to return to Von Schrenk- 
 i Notzing's house the following day, and to ask him for 
 j three cigarettes. This he did, and in the same awkward 
 j and shamefaced manner as often characterizes compliance 
 1 with post-hypnotic suggestions (* Die Bedeutung narco- 
 i tischer Mittel fiir den Hypnotismus,' p. 67). 
 \ In alcoholic and other forms of intoxication there is com- 
 I monly an exaggerated automatic action, as seen in gesture, 
 j speech, and general demeanour, with corresponding inhibi- 
 I tion of the higher and controlling centres, and increased 
 ! readiness to act upon suggestion, whether it be self-supplied 
 I by the senses, or from without, by the bystanders. It is 
 I known that epileptics are extremely susceptible to sugges- 
 I tion, and any action suggested to one immediately after an 
 I attack would probably be executed automatically, without 
 I volition, and without subsequent recollection of its per- 
 i formance. This point is noticed by Sir W. Gowers, and is 
 [ interesting, as these subjects are peculiarly susceptible to 
 i hypnotism, perhaps because their cerebral centres are 
 
144 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 abnormally easy to dissociate and throw out of gear.* 
 Increased suggestibility is the most prominent character- 
 istic of the curious Malayan disease, latah. 
 
 With our present knowledge, it seems impossible to 
 explain certain phenomena connected with advanced 
 hypnotism. Some of these, which have often been 
 attributed to clairvoyance, are undoubtedly the result of 
 exaggerated perception and sensory hyperaesthesia. The 
 subject will, under the stimulation of suggestion, read 
 figures or letters at an amazing distance, will distinguish 
 persons by a sense of touch too delicate to exist when the 
 other faculties are at work, will feel the apparently imper- 
 ceptible currents of air set in motion by 'magnetic' 
 passes, and will comprehend and act upon hints and 
 whispers which are inaudible to the ordinary listener. 
 Why should the hypnotized subject be deaf to all sounds 
 except the voice of the operator, and hear and obey that 
 voice, though it be but the faintest whisper, and the sur- 
 rounding sounds a perfect babel ? The waking of a tired 
 mother at the feeblest cry of her infant, though loud 
 noises are unnoticed by her, and that of Nelson's signal- 
 lieutenant at the word * Signal,' though the roaring of the 
 cannon had failed to arouse him, may afford an analogy, 
 if not an explanation. 
 
 A peculiar species of phenomena is that in which a 
 letter, or word, or object, is eliminated from the con- 
 sciousness of the patient. For instance, A B is told that 
 on awaking he is to write certain words, say ' Alexandra 
 Palace,' without the letter a. He will do this, and in so 
 
 * According to Richet {op. ci/.), the normal sleep of young children 
 is almost somnambulic, and in support of this theory he instances the 
 case of his little boy, aged five, who remains profoundly asleep when 
 his father goes in at night to caress him, but who murmurs a welcome 
 and returns the embrace. The next morning the child is unconscious 
 of what has passed. It must be the experience of all observers that 
 not only in such a matter, but in other everyday occurrences, a child 
 is frequently in a condition resembling hypnosis, and this perhaps 
 explains the fact that children are such satisfactory subjects for 
 hypnotic treatment. The balance of the faculties has not yet been 
 attained, and thus readjustment is easily effected. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 145 
 
 rapid and business-like a manner that the observer (who 
 had better try to do the like) must be convinced of the 
 genuineness of the experiment. Or he is forbidden to use 
 the pronoun /, when he will be at extraordinary pains 
 to avoid the word, and will not once be betrayed into 
 employing it, though, as in the case reported by Max 
 Dessoir, he may use its equivalent in some foreign 
 language. The subject may be wide awake and per- 
 fectly reasonable in all other respects, but this idee fixe is 
 iirmly implanted in his mind, though he is absolutely 
 unaware of its presence. If shown his copy in which the 
 letter a or the pronoun I is missing, he will see nothing 
 wrong about it, and the delusion remains until he is told 
 to return to his usual state, when the absurdity of the 
 thing will be at once apparent, and he will perhaps deny 
 having written the incorrect words or sentences. 
 
 Several varieties of aphasia may be functionally induced 
 
 by suggestion. The subject may be rendered incapable 
 
 of uttering a sound (complete motor aphasia), or can be 
 
 made to reply to every question by a meaningless formula, 
 
 as in some of the pathological cases cited by Trousseau 
 
 I and by Gowers. He may be conscious or unconscious of 
 
 I the absurdity, just as in the pathological entity, and the 
 
 ; condition may be modified in various directions. He 
 
 I may, for instance, be unable to pronounce the letter e, but 
 
 ' able to write it, or vice versa. We know that aphasia may 
 
 I occur from functional causes, as from a strong emotion, 
 
 j when one is rendered speechless by terror, indignation, or 
 
 ! overwhelming joy or surprise ;* and the induced aphasia 
 
 I of hypnotism seems to resemble this variety rather than 
 
 ; that which sometimes occurs in the course of typhoid 
 
 I * Dr. Ireland {op. ciL, p. 273) cites a case of sudden^//? of speech 
 j under the influence of exciting emotion. A well-known merchant in 
 j London had a son about eight years of age who was perfectly dumb, 
 I so that all hope of his ever speaking had long been abandoned. The 
 ! boy was intelligent, and had no other infirmity. During a water- 
 j party on the Thames the father fell overboard, and the hitherto dumb 
 j boy cried out : ' Oh, save him, save him !' From that moment he 
 I spoke nearly as well as his brothers, and afterwards became an active 
 1 partner in his father's business. 
 
 10 
 
U6 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 fever and from reflex disturbances. The subject is well 
 worth the attention of physiologists, and its study may 
 throw light on some morbid conditions connected with 
 speech. The differentiation is very much finer than any- 
 thing of this nature to be seen in disease, and requires 
 correspondingly tine analysis. Sir W. Gowers remarks 
 on the deficiency of facts and the redundancy of theories 
 connected with this subject. Hypnotic experiments may 
 help to increase the former and prove or disprove the 
 latter.* 
 
 Violent emotion may cause other effects than transient 
 loss of speech. Charcot f gives the case of an intelligent 
 man who, after a violent paroxysm of rage, lost the 
 memory of visual impressions. Though he could see 
 objects, they all appeared strange to him, and he could 
 not recognize his friends, nor even his own face in the 
 glass. Injury to certain parts of the brain, especially the 
 lower parietal lobe, may induce this 'psychical' or 'mind' 
 blindness, and this condition can be exactly simulated by 
 suggesting it to a sufficiently sensitive hypnotized subject. 
 The association between the visual centre and the higher 
 intellectual centres in which memory resides is inhibited in 
 both cases.t 
 
 That suggestion acts by partially or wholly inhibiting 
 the perceptive centres seems demonstrable ; but how it 
 does this cannot at present be explained. There is, of 
 
 * By hypnotic suggestion reading may be rendered impossible 
 (alexia). The subject may also be made incapable of writing 
 (agraphia), and can even be prevented from expressing himself by 
 signs (amimia). Sewing, drawing, and indeed every action, may be 
 tabooed by the same means. (See ' Der Hypnotismus,' by Dr. A. Moll, 
 p. 92, Berlin, 1889.) 
 
 t Quoted in Landois and Stirling's ' Physiology.' 
 
 + Partial or complete loss or impairment of all the special senses . 
 may be induced in a similar way by suggestion ; ej^., the subject may 
 be rendered unable to perceive the odour of violets, while noticing all 
 other scents, or not to see red, while other colours remain distinct. The 
 hypothesis that certain cells of the cortical perceptive centres are 
 ditferentialed in the process of evolution to react to the special 
 stimulus of certain sounds, odours, or colours, and that these are 
 inhibited, is a tempting one. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 147 
 
 course, great scope for self-deception in hypnotic experi- 
 ments; but if subjects of proved integrity are chosen 
 (hysterical women and young boys are not so trustworthy 
 as intelligent artisans), and if they are kept in ignorance 
 of the phenomena which the operator desires to obtain, 
 simulation need hardly be feared. Negative hallucina- 
 tion, as described on p. 3S7, is a complex condition 
 which I cannot explain, as some would do, by calling it 
 mere clever acting. Sometimes, indeed, I suspect uncon- 
 scious simulation on the part of the patient, as in the case 
 of E. H , who, when told not to see Dr. F , care- 
 fully avoided looking in his direction, and refused to 
 answer when he spoke to her, except once, when she looked 
 puzzled, and answered him while looking towards me. 
 
 She assured me that Dr. F was not in the room, but 
 
 had been called away to see a patient ; this I had suggested 
 to her in the hypnotic sleep. On being told by me to see 
 
 Dr. F , she immediately looked at him, and expressed 
 
 surprise at his sudden return. But in most cases the 
 blotting out is complete, and the subject may even be 
 pinched or pricked by the person designated as invisible 
 without feeling anything, and the invisibility may be ex- 
 tended to any article which he (the subject) takes in his 
 hand. 
 The induction by suggestion alone of pseudo-paralysis in 
 
 a limb is a curious phenomenon. I can say to E. F , 
 
 whom I have frequently put into a state of advanced 
 somnambulism, ' You cannot move that arm or that leg,' 
 and so evoke the idea of powerlessness, that for a few 
 minutes the limb remains motionless ; then, with a sensa- 
 tion as of ' pins and needles,' power comes back to it, and 
 she can move it freely. Max Dessoir describes how he 
 influenced a postman whom he could not hypnotize in 
 any usual way. He told him to make the movements 
 required in stamping letters, and, when he had done this 
 for some minutes, cried in an authoritative tone, ' Now 
 you cannot stop doing that !' The idea was fixed in the 
 man's mind, and, in fact, he could not leave off. During 
 
140 TREATMEST BY HYPXOTISM A.\D SUGGESTION 
 
 his performance of an act that with him had become 
 automatic, the higher centres, being inactive, were easily 
 inhibited, and the hypnotic condition was then induced 
 by suggestion. One may call this hypnotism by surprise, 
 and it corresponds to Preyer's cataplexy. I had once ;i 
 somewhat similar experience : A lady came with a patient, 
 her sister, and expressed great regret that neither I nor 
 anyone else could hypnotize her, as she had often been 
 tried with a view to cure her neuralgia. She sat down 
 near me, and while hypnotizing the sister, who was an old 
 patient and easily sent into the third stage (Li^beault) by 
 passes, I kept my eye on her. I noticed that she wis 
 quite absorbed in watching the operation, so at the 
 moment I finished hypnotizing the patient I put out my 
 hand, and, placing it over the sister's eyes, told her 
 authoritatively that she was also hypnotized. The effect 
 was immediate and striking, for after twenty minutes' rest 
 I awoke her, and she found her neuralgia gone. The 
 auto-suggestion of insusceptibility being removed, I had 
 no difficulty in hypnotizing her on subsequent occasions. 
 Thus an indirect method succeeded where I believe any 
 number of direct attempts would have failed, for, as Forel 
 says, the idea of insusceptibility, especially if strengthened 
 by failures, is the most potent bar to success. I have 
 frequently seen Dr. Arthur hypnotize his patients by telling 
 them to listen to his watch ticking, and the sound will 
 send them to sleep. I sometimes use this method in 
 persons whose sight is weak or defective. At Nancy, 
 Bernheim has almost given up fixation of the eyes, and 
 relies upon verbal suggestion alone. The patient, lying with 
 closed eyes, hears the doctor's somniferous suggestions, 
 and generally falls very quickly into the hypnotic sleep. 
 
 The case af Mrs. M , a hospital nurse, is typical and 
 
 interesting. She was first hypnotized by me in October. 
 1888, and since then I have hypnotized her frequently 
 — perhaps two hundred times — generally to demonstrate 
 various phenomena to medical friends. She is a person 
 of little education, but has good natural ability, and is a 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 149 
 
 clever nurse. I find her a somnambulist of an advanced 
 type, with no memory on waking of what has occurred 
 during the hypnotic sleep. As she was a good and 
 willing subject, I used to get her to obey my suggestions 
 i post-hypnotically ; but on one occasion she took offence 
 I at some remark of a bystander, and told me she would 
 I never again do anything of the kind. Henceforth her 
 I reply was always N'o when I asked her to do anything on 
 ! waking, and such suggestions were never carried out. 
 ■ After some months, however, I persuaded her to withdraw 
 ' her opposition, and she now again goes through the little 
 ' tests which I propose. I find, as Binet and Fere have 
 I observed in some of their cases, that this subject is quite 
 I unconscious of obeying any initiative except her own, 
 I and invariably finds some reason for her conduct. For 
 instance, she is told to move a lamp from one table to 
 another, and if asked why she has done so, she replies 
 that she thought it would look better in another place, or 
 ; give some such plausible excuse. No one could be more 
 surprised than she is when told that she has simply 
 I obeyed an order. And as in dreams no commands given 
 I seem ridiculous, and hardly any are deemed impossible 
 I to fulfil, so it is with such 'advanced' hypnotic subjects. 
 
 j Nevertheless, Mrs. M 's resistance to suggestion seems 
 
 I to show that some personal control is maintained, and 
 } her intelligent replies to questions demanding calculation 
 ( and reasoning, such as, * What is the best route to the 
 [ city ? How much time is required to get there ?' imply 
 I some working of the higher faculties. 
 
 j Dr. F , a foreign physician of much experience, 
 
 i attempted in my presence to hypnotize this subject. 
 ! Without being aware of it, she was protected by my 
 ' having frequently told her, while she was in the hypnotic 
 I state, that she must allow no one except myself to send 
 
 her to sleep. Dr. F 's attempt to do so made her 
 
 ' uncomfortable, but not at all sleepy, until I told her that 
 ! she was to be influenced by him. My embargo thus 
 I removed, a few minutes sufficed to induce her usual state 
 
I50 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 of profound somnambulism, in which she was anaesthetic 
 and insensible to her surroundings. I now spoke to her, 
 
 and she gave no reply, until Dr. F told her to do so, 
 
 when she immediately answered my questions {vide note, 
 p. 130). 
 
 There is another curious phenomenon obtainable with 
 the above-mentioned subject, as well as with many othur 
 somnambulists — a compulsory automatic action brought 
 about and maintained by suggestion without hypnotism.* 
 
 Thus, I set Mrs. M to perform the action of 
 
 ' twiddling her thumbs,' and tell her that she is unable 
 to discontinue it. Though she laughs and protests, and 
 is apparently in full possession of her faculties, she cannot 
 leave off the movement until I give her permission to do so. 
 
 Dr. Ireland, writing on the double brain (op. cit.), 
 quotes largely from Dr. Edgar Berillon's book.t This 
 author certainly has the courage of his convictions, for, 
 after giving many examples of the double-brain action, he 
 records experiments which satisfy him that through the 
 agency of hypnotism we can induce this double action. 
 For instance, he will speak into the right ear of a subject 
 in a profound state of hypnosis, and describe to her an 
 amusing scene at a theatre ; then into the other ear he 
 will pour some tragic tale. The right side of the face 
 will express pleasurable feelings, whereas the left side 
 will, at the same time, wear a look of grief or terror. 
 Dr. Berillon defies anyone in an ordinary state of health, 
 or even in hysteria, thus to produce the simultaneous 
 expression of a double set of emotions. He makes the 
 following inductions: ' i. That hypnotism can suppress 
 the psychical motor and sensory activity of one hemisphere 
 of the brain. 2. That it can give to each hemisphere a 
 different degree of activity. 3. That, the two hemispheres 
 having an equal degree of activity, we can create for them 
 
 * Moll {o/>. a'/., pp. 192, 193) is of opinion that such obedience 
 generally implies a slight degree of hypnosis, induced by the mere 
 command in a susceptiljlc subject. 
 
 t ' Hypnotisme Experimental, la Dualite Cerebrale, et I'lndepen- 
 dence F'onctionnel dcs deux Hemispheres Cer^braux,' I'aris, 18S4. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 151 
 
 at the same time manifestations varying in their seat, 
 their nature, and their character.' 
 
 That a transference of functional activity from one side 
 of the brain to the other may sometimes be effected by 
 
 hypnotism seems to be shown by the case of Louis V 
 
 (described on p. gg). This subject was easily hypnotized, 
 and in the hypnotic state would lose the right hemiplegia 
 from which he was suffering, and walk quite naturally. 
 When he was hypnotized, both his eyes were shut, as in 
 natural sleep ; and if either of them was forcibly opened, 
 the corresponding side of his body became cataleptic, 
 while if both were opened the whole body took on this 
 condition. If the right eye was opened while he was 
 talking or reciting in the h3'pnotic state, he not only 
 became cataleptic on the right side, but also aphasic, 
 and the physician in attendance, Dr. Jules Voisin, came 
 to the conclusion that this action produced an inhibitory 
 effect on the left hemisphere, and consequently and in- 
 clusively on the normal centre of speech. When the eye 
 was again closed, he took up his speaking or reciting 
 where he had left off. The opening of his left eye in his 
 ' first state ' had no effect on his speech ; but in his ' second 
 state,' during which his words and mode of expression 
 were extremely childish, opening the left eye stopped 
 speech, whereas opening the right eye produced no effect. 
 This, according to Voisin's theory, supported to a certain 
 extent by Burot and Bourru, showed that the speech 
 
 centre had shifted sides. In his ' first state ' Louis V 
 
 used chiefly the left hemisphere of his brain, and in his 
 * second state ' the right hemisphere, which, being less 
 educated than the other, accounted for the imperfect 
 character of the speech produced during its preponderance. 
 
 Dr. W. Ireland,''^ in his interesting volume of essays 
 dealing with abnormal mental conditions, gives some 
 curious examples of double consciousness occurring in 
 the course of disease and from poisoning. He refers to 
 hashish-eaters being sometimes conscious of a double in- 
 
 * 'The Blot on the Brain,' Edinburgh, 1885. 
 
152 TREATMENT BY HYPSOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 dividuality, and quotes the well-known case of a drunken 
 porter who, when sober, used entirely to forget where he 
 had left his parcels, and remembered it only when he was 
 again intoxicated — that is, when the brain was again in 
 the same specific state which it had been in when he 
 committed the action. Dr. Ireland also mentions the 
 sensation of double personality sometimes experienced by 
 a person suffering from severe illness, who has appeared to 
 himself as two different individuals, one of whom suffered, 
 while the other looked on and pitied him. 
 
 Draper, in his work on Physiology, refers to this point, 
 and remarks that one never experiences three consecutive 
 trains of thought, for the very good reason that our brains 
 possess only two hemispheres. He considers that the 
 two sides may sometimes act independentl}-, and even in- 
 harmoniously, and thinks that double cerebration may be 
 thus explained. Thus we may follow out a train of 
 thought while giving a fair amount of attention to an 
 address or sermon, or we may even be able, like Mr. Bark- 
 worth, of the Society for Psychical Research, to carry 
 on an ordinary conversation while adding up a double 
 column of figures. Of course the theory of a double 
 action of the cerebral hemispheres need not be invoked to 
 explain such everyday occurrences as being able to play 
 the violin or piano whilst carrying on a conversation-. 
 Practised musicians can, we know, play difficult music 
 while engaged in conversation, just as artists are able to 
 talk to their sitters while painting them. But we need 
 not invoke the theory of dual brain action to explain this, 
 any more than we require it to explain how it is a semp- 
 stress can ply her needle and sing the while. In these 
 cases continued practice has made the special movements 
 of eye and hand automatic, and there is no question of 
 employing the functions of higher cerebration. When the 
 artist comes to a difticult passage or piece of work, he is 
 seen to become silent and to devote all his faculties to its 
 elaboration. The associated group of centres require the 
 control and leadership of the highest nervous arrangements. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 153 
 
 The brain is, of course, a double organ, anatomically 
 and physiologically ; and though in normal life the two 
 hemispheres are so functionally associated that they act 
 as one, such cases as those I have cited seem to show 
 what most observers are agreed in concluding, that under 
 certain conditions the partnership may be dissolved, and 
 one side may act independently of the other. In some 
 cases of insanity the patient has been observed to ask 
 questions and reply to them, as in two different capacities, 
 and Ireland supposes that in such instances the two 
 hemispheres are acting alternately. He suggests that the 
 existence of such conditions may prove a key to the 
 explanation of many cases of ' spirit-possession ' and 
 hallucination. 
 
 The left hemisphere is much more used than the right, 
 and in general is proportionately more developed, though 
 in left-handed persons the reverse is said to be the case. 
 But although we may ordinarily use only one half of our 
 brain for certian actions, we can sometimes, in case of 
 necessity, educate the neglected half to act when the other 
 is injured. We may thus explain those curious instances 
 in which, after an illness, previous education is forgotten, 
 and the patient has laboriously to learn everything over 
 again — to re-educate his brain, or rather to educate that 
 portion of it which hitherto has been comparatively un- 
 used. Hypnotic suggestion, circumspectly used, might 
 doubtless afford valuable assistance in such brain education. 
 
 The dissociation of the two sides of the brain, and the 
 transference of preponderating influence from one to the 
 other, certainly seems to afford a plausible explanation 
 of many of the phenomena of advanced hypnosis. But 
 it is not so easy to attribute to this dissociation and 
 transference the therapeutic and other effects observable 
 in the minor degrees of hypnotic influence with which the 
 practitioners of the Nancy school are satisfied. Physio- 
 logical theories change as knowledge increases, and when 
 they are proved to be erroneous they are apt to drag down 
 in their fall the practice which has been founded upon 
 
154 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 them. Therefore, while avoiding mere empiricism, it is 
 safer not to depend too much on any as yet unverified 
 theory of hypnotic suggestion, Within the next few \-ears 
 a flood of light will probably be thrown upon this subject, 
 if, as we hope, the formation of a medical society for the 
 study of suggestive therapeutics leads to the interchanging 
 of ideas and experiences among practical men. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Reality of Hypnotic Phenomena. — Simulation Tests. — Practical 
 Directions for Medical Hypnotism. — Excessive Nervous Tension. 
 — Warmth by Suggestion. — Vital Reaction. — Absence of Personal 
 Element in the Nancy Treatment. — Method of Fascination. — 
 Some Diseased Conditions benefited by Hypnotism. — Medical 
 Education essential for its Successful Practice. — Racial Suscep- 
 tibility. — Wetterstrand's Methods. — Table of Diseases treated by 
 the Author. — Farez and Sitggeslioft Sotiiniqice. — Mental Diseases 
 and Insanity as affected by Hypnotism. — Voisin's Success in 
 Lunacy. — Researches of Italian Alienists and Neurologists. — 
 Forel's Opinion of the Treatment. — Treatment of Epilepsy by 
 Hypnotism and by Prolonged Hypnosis. — Hypnotism in Organic 
 Disease. — Treatment of Stammering, Rheumatism, Neuralgia, 
 Sea-sickness, Neurasthenia, Asthma, Chronic Alcoholism. — 
 Statistics of Results and Remarks. — Formation of Medical 
 Society for the Study of Hypnotism in England. — Aids to 
 Hypnotism. 
 
 To the believer in the scientific certainty and therapeutic 
 value of hypnotic suggestion, it is somewhat trying to be 
 told, as he sometimes is, that the whole thing rests upon 
 a foundation of error or misrepresentation. Sceptics, we 
 find, divide themselves naturally into two classes : those 
 who entirely deny the existence of the hypnotic state, or 
 affirm that its production is so rare as to be hardly worth 
 taking into account ; and those who, while they acknow- 
 ledge the reality of the psychical condition, refuse to believe 
 in its utility as a remedial agent. 
 
 The former are a diminishing quantity, and must soon 
 succumb under the accumulating evidence adduced by 
 such scientific observers as Charcot, Richet, Hack Tuke, 
 Moll, Heidenhain, Krafft-Ebing, Preyer, Beaunis, Tam- 
 burini, Lombroso, Bramwell, Myers, McDougall, Mitchell, 
 etc. 
 
 155 
 
156 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 The attitude of the latter class is comprehensible and, 
 indeed, natural. It is right that the guardians of the 
 public health should exercise a healthy scepticism and 
 demand convincing evidence before approving a treatment 
 of this kind, or admitting it into their practice. 
 
 The work of such practical observers and clinicians as 
 Bernheim and Liebeault of Nancy, Voisin, Berillon, Farez, 
 Dumontpallier of Paris, Von Schrenk-Notzing of Munich, 
 \'an Renterghem and Van Eeden of Amsterdam, Albert 
 Moll of Berlin, Wetterstrand of Stockholm, Cruise of 
 Dublin, Bramwell, Wingfield, and Woods of London, 
 George Kerr and Murray Lyon of Edinburgh. Betts 
 Taplin of Liverpool, Br3-an of Leicester, and many others, 
 will soon supply the necessary therapeutic testimony — if, 
 indeed, it has not already done so — and we shall see 
 hypnotic suggestion take its place in the armamentarium 
 of the medical practitioner in spite of the difficulties 
 thrown in its way by charlatanism and impostors past and 
 present. 
 
 The argiimentum ad hominevi is, as Richet* tells us 
 undoubtedly the best to use ; and as medical men are 
 often excellent subjects, it has sometimes been my good 
 fortune to convince a friend, and at the same time benefit 
 a patient, by putting a member of our profession into one 
 or other stage of the hypnotic state. 
 
 That simulation and imposture are frequently practised 
 at public ' entertainments,' I am not concerned to deny, 
 though it is easier to procure a genuinely susceptible 
 subject than to take the trouble of training a confederate. 
 Public performers are generally careful to have with them 
 some subjects whom they have frequently hypnotized, so 
 as to be prepared for contingencies. 
 
 One must admit that the desire to please and to appear 
 interesting will, especially among hospital patients, lead 
 to a good deal of simulation, intentional or unintentional. 
 But in private practice and among intelligent patients, 
 simulation is a bugbear of which we need take little 
 
 ■'•' ' L'Homme et I'lntelligence.' 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 157 
 
 account. With experience, too, comes the ability to 
 detect deception, and the practised hypnotist is on the 
 watch for it,* and is very acute in perceiving its sHghtest 
 tokens. And, in fact, the patient is, as a rule, more rather 
 than less influenced than he supposes. He will frequently 
 say that he has in no way lost control over his thoughts 
 and actions, and will be surprised to find that he cannot 
 open his eyes, or that his arm has become immovable at 
 the operator's bidding. The very way in which he tries 
 to open his eyes is characteristic of an altered condition. 
 Instead of using the levator palpebrarum, he wrinkles his 
 brows and energetically employs the frontalis. If at last 
 he succeeds, it is only after great exertion, and the eyelid 
 opens in a peculiarly slow and heavy manner. In the 
 same way, if, after being a little more influenced, he is 
 told that he cannot bend or otherwise move his arm, he 
 will make violent efforts to do so with the wrong set of 
 muscles, and will perhaps at last, with difliculty, effect a 
 partial and jerky movement in the desired direction. 
 
 It is but fair to ask one's self. Why should a patient 
 make pretence about hypnotism any more than about 
 other medical procedures ? If we give a prescription to 
 remove neuralgia or rheumatic pains, we do not accuse 
 our patient of simulation when he returns and tells us 
 that the mistura ferri or sodii salicylas has relieved or 
 cured him, but rather attribute this good result to our 
 remedy, and congratulate ourselves on its success. The 
 therapeutic test is a perfectly fair and correct one, and as 
 it is neither necessary nor desirable to produce the physio- 
 logical action of drugs when we give them as curative 
 agents, so it is needless to evoke or expect the phenomena 
 of le grand hypnotisme in cases where we use suggestion as 
 a remedy. A knowledge of the physiological action of a 
 
 * Charcot has devised an ingenious instrument, by means of which 
 the tracings given by the involuntary movements of the arm in simu- 
 lated catalepsy can be compared with the very regular and even 
 tracing made on a revolving cylinder when the subject is in the 
 genuine hypnotic state. This contrivance may prove useful in the 
 detection of fraud. ( Vide ' Diseases of the Nervous System,' vol. iii.) 
 
158 TREATMENT BY HYPXUTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 drug is necessary, as without such knowledge we should 
 be using it empirically; and a familiarity with the phe- 
 nomena of advanced hypnotism furnishes us with a key to 
 the action of suggestion, as in the phenomena of poisons 
 we find one to the action of drugs. 
 
 The method I usually adopt to produce the hypnotic 
 state is that practised by Liebeault, and is undoubtedly 
 the easiest and most rapid. The treatment is psychical, 
 and attention to detail is absolutely necessary to success. 
 The existence in the patient of any opposing idea, as of 
 fear, or of a spirit of ridicule, or of decided hostility, or 
 a consciousness of bodily discomfort, will render futile all 
 attempts to hypnotize him— at least, at the first trial.* His 
 mind must be at rest, his position comfortable, and the 
 environment should be such as would favour the advent of 
 ordinary sleep. It is sometimes helpful to hypnotize one 
 or two patients in the presence of a new-comer, so as to 
 arouse his imitative faculty and dissipate any nervous 
 feeling he may have. And some friend should always be 
 at hand during the entire operation. 
 
 I suppose most medical men have noticed a character- 
 istic symptom of many neurotic patients — their inability 
 to relax their muscles. If you hold up such a person's 
 arm, and tell him to let it fall dead when you release it, 
 
 * Not necessarily so. One of my best subjects was Dr. C , a 
 
 prosperous G.P., J. P., and Mayor of his town. I was asked to meet 
 him at a friend's house and tell him about hypnotism. I soon found 
 that he was very sceptical, and that the party were in league to draw 
 
 me out and laugh at me. After a little while I told Dr. C that I 
 
 was sure he would prove a good hypnotic subject, and he consented to 
 let me try. He passed into a state of somnambulism almost at once, 
 and to prove this I applied various tests. Among others, I told him he 
 had a sharp pain in his right knee, and could hardly walk. On 
 awaking, he complained of his knee, and attributed the discomfort to 
 having sat in a draught and getting rheumatism. After a few minutes 
 I hypnotized him again, and suggested away the pain. The laugh 
 was turned against Dr. C , who no longer scoffs at the unknown. 
 
 Dr. Wingficld relates some similar experiences at Cambridge, as, 
 for instance, when he got a rather conceited undergraduate to assert 
 that only mentally-defective people could be hypnotized, and then 
 promptly threw him into a state of somnambulism. No doubt there 
 is at the back of such persons' minds a feeling akin to fear that there 
 is something in it. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 159 
 
 you will find that it either remains suspended or is dropped 
 with violence. This state of tension often explains the 
 nervous exhaustion from which the patient suffers, for it 
 means constant waste of nervous energy. The first thing 
 to teach such a patient is to relax, and until he learns this 
 he will be difficult to hypnotize.* 
 
 The patient reclines on a couch or in an easy-chair, 
 and I stand or sit beside him, and hold the first two 
 fingers of one hand at a distance of about twelve inches 
 from his eyes, at such an angle that his gaze shall be 
 directed upwards in a strained manner. I direct him to 
 look steadily at the tips of those fingers, and to make his 
 mind as nearly blank as possible. After he has stared 
 fixedly for about half a minute, his expression will undergo 
 a change — a far-away look coming into his face. His pupils 
 will contract and dilate several times, and his eyelids will 
 twitch spasmodically. These signs indicate a commencing 
 induction of the desired psychical condition. If the eye- 
 lids do not close spontaneously, I shut them gently, and 
 the progress of sleep is generally helped by verbal sug- 
 gestions, such as : ' Your eyes are becoming heavy ; they 
 are getting more and more heavy ; my fingers seem in- 
 distinct to you ' (this when the pupils are observed to 
 dilate or contract) ; ' a numbness is stealing over your 
 limbs ; you will be fast asleep in a few minutes ; now 
 sleep.' It is sometimes an assistance to lay one's hand 
 gently but firmly on the forehead. 
 
 In ordinary cases, the operator will find that the 
 hypnotic condition has by this method been induced in 
 from one to three minutes, and he may now ascertain 
 what degree has been arrived at. This depends chiefly, if 
 not entirely, on the temperament of the subject, and I 
 consider it impossible to foretell with any certainty what 
 stage of hypnotism will be reached by any person who 
 has never yet been hypnotized. I do not, as a rule, make 
 
 * Miss Anna Call, of Waltham, Boston, U.S.A., has developed this 
 relaxation idea into a system of treatment, and her book on the subject, 
 ' Power by Repose,' is well worth reading. 
 
i6o TREATMEM' JlY IIYIWUTISM A.\D SUGGESTION 
 
 many suggestions at a first sitting, but I gently rub the 
 epigastrium and suggest a feeling of warmth in that part 
 of the body, a general sensation of comfort and well- 
 being, and an agreeable awakening. I add that my sug- 
 gestions will recur to his subconscious mind, and act 
 curativelv daring his normal sleep. I find it greatly im- 
 presses the patient, and serves as a first rung of sugges- 
 tion's ladder, to rub the skin over the parotid and submax- 
 illary glands, and so stimulate the secretion of saliva. 
 The salivar}' are the most easily stimulated of all glands ; 
 the mouth becomes full of saliva, which the patient has to 
 swallow repeatedly to get rid of. The increased secretion 
 of saliva is probably followed by similar action on the 
 gastric glands, and even those of the intestines, and 
 explains the improvement of appetite and digestion result- 
 ing from hypnotic treatment. After a few minutes I tell 
 the patient that he has rested long enough, and that 
 he can open his eyes and arouse himself. He generally 
 obeys at once, and says that he feels refreshed and com- 
 fortable. I ask him what he remembers of his few 
 minutes' rest, and he generally tells me that he has heard 
 every word I said to him, and also any other sound that 
 there may have been, but he adds that he felt a great 
 disinclination to move or speak until he was told to open 
 his eyes. He finds the feeling of warmth, induced by 
 suggestion, and by gentle friction of the abdomen, very 
 marked, and this sensation will probably continue for 
 several hours. He is perfectly awake and quite himself 
 before he leaves the house. 
 
 The feeling of warmth is a characteristic and important 
 symptom, and Liebeault was invariably confident of doing 
 good to the patient in whom he could produce it, if the 
 malady were a tractable one.^ It is likened by some 
 
 * This response to suggestion of local warmth is an excellent test 
 of vital force and reaction, and it varies with the health of the patient. 
 For instance, it is slow to develop and slight in intensity in enfeehled 
 subjects. As they improve in health and tone the reaction increases. 
 It is a much better test than the fanciful and costly instruments 
 devised by iJr. Joire of Lille and others. They assert that the move- 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION i6i 
 
 subjects to a sudden flush, and by others to the appHcation 
 of a hot poultice. Magnetizers naturally attribute this 
 sensation to the passage of the magnetic fluid from the 
 operator to his patient, but it seems to arise from stimula- 
 tion by suggestion of the vaso-motor centres, and from 
 a transmission to the part of increased nerve and blood 
 supply. A sensation of cold can often be substituted by 
 suggestion for one of warmth, as I have seen in cases of 
 gastric ulcer and of congestive headache ; in such a case 
 the ph3^siological process is perhaps reversed. Suggestion 
 without contact would probably suffice to produce this 
 local action ; and there is no doubt that friction with a 
 book or other small article has generally the same effedt 
 as hand-friction. 
 
 On a second visit, the patient will usually enter the 
 hypnotic state more rapidly, and its degree will very 
 likely be found intensified. Therapeutic suggestions may 
 now be made, or, if it is desired, the extent of hypnotic 
 influence may be tested. This is generally done by first 
 raising the arm at an angle to the body, and telling the 
 patient to keep it there. If the cataleptic state has been 
 reached, it becomes stiff and rigid in that position, and 
 will remain in it for an indefinite time, corresponding to 
 the subject's muscular development. If the arm shows no 
 tendency to drop, a rotary motion may be given to it, and 
 the patient told to continue this movement. If the third 
 degree is reached, he will do so until he is ordered to 
 desist. The tests of somnambulism may now be applied. 
 The first of these is to speak to the patient and get him 
 to reply. Another person is then told to address him, 
 
 ments of a quill balanced on a point and fixed in a glass dome depend 
 upon the ' exteriorilization of nerve force,' and measure the vitality of 
 the experimenter holding his hand near it. My friend SirW. Barrett, 
 F.R.S., tells me there is nothing new in this device, and that the effect 
 is produced by the heat of the hand. The approach of a hot-water 
 bottle would, he thinks, give rise to a greater range of movement than 
 that of the strongest man or profoundest thinker. Dr. Joire claims to 
 have eliminated the action of heat in his experiments, but this is not 
 borne out by investigators {Annals of Psychical Science, November and 
 December, 1906). Dr. Joire calls his instrument a sthenometer. 
 
 II 
 
i62 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 and if the questions he may put fail to elicit any response, 
 it will be evident that the subject is en rapport with the 
 operator only, and other tests may be used, such as 
 tickling the nostrils with a feather to demonstrate that 
 anaesthesia exists, and prove the depth of somnambulism. 
 Finally, if all these tests point to decided somnambulism, 
 post-hypnotic suggestions may be made. The patient 
 may, for instance, be told to sit on a certain chair, to open 
 some book at a particular page, or to write a sentence 
 leaving out a specified letter. Negative hallucinations, 
 delusions of the senses, etc., can also be suggested. I need 
 hardly insist that such tests and experiments are quite in- 
 admissible without the previous consent of the patient and 
 the presence of his friends. 
 
 The patients who attended Liebeault's clinique were 
 desirous and eager for the treatment, and he and Professor 
 Bernheim had the advantage of possessing their faith 
 and co-operation. It is, I believe, essential to have the 
 patient's confidence, and the time spent in acquiring this 
 previous to commencing operations is well employed. 
 Failure in obtaining the patient's good-will may not only 
 prevent success, but may even cause the process to pro- 
 duce an aggravation of the symptoms. I have had the 
 opportunity of noticing this on several occasions, and 
 now never attempt to hypnotize without having the free 
 consent of the person most interested. Neglect of this 
 precaution led to some trouble in one of my early cases. 
 A physician asked me to hypnotize a patient for him, a 
 young lady suffering from chorea. She expressed a dislike 
 to the treatment, and only gave an unwilling consent to it 
 being tried after a great deal of argument. She was sus- 
 ceptible to a certain extent, but her sleep was irregular 
 in character and very disturbed. When she awoke, the 
 choreic movements were decidedly worse. On each sub- 
 sequent occasion a similar process had to be gone through, 
 and no good result ever followed. When left alone she 
 got well without treatment in a few weeks, and then took 
 her revenge on me and hypnotism by writing letters about 
 
 II 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 163 
 
 it to the papers ! In these she stated that she had 
 struggled with might and main, and with partial success, 
 to retain consciousness, as she disliked the process, and 
 did not believe in its utility ; thus showing that the very 
 first conditions of success were wanting in her case. Of 
 course, I refer to the Nancy method of hypnotizing by 
 ' persuasion,' as it is well called. There is another method 
 employed by many of the platform operators and by some 
 medical men under special circumstances — hypnotism by 
 fright or compulsion. The state thus induced is akin to 
 that produced in animals and in man by sudden fright or 
 shock. It resembles hypnosis, and may pass into it. 
 Preyer calls it cataplexy. Charcot's cataleptic state, pro- 
 duced by the sound of a gong or by the flashing of a 
 brilliant light, corresponds to this state, and resembles the 
 condition of a person surprised by a train at a railway- 
 crossing, or transfixed with terror by an appalling sight — 
 e.g., the Head of Medusa in the shield of Perseus.* 
 
 I find a good method of testing susceptibility to 
 hypnotism is the following : The patient is directed to 
 stand with his back to me and his arms extended, so that 
 his fingers lightly touch the chimneypiece. I tell him to 
 stand easily and with relaxed muscles, to put his heels 
 together, his chin in the air, and to close his eyes. He 
 will then be in a state of rather unstable equilibrium, and 
 it does not take much to shake him. I then make ' passes ' 
 down the back from the occiput to the sacrum, my fingers 
 just touching him. If he is very susceptible, he will 
 almost at once begin to sway backwards, and will fall 
 unless supported. If less susceptible, it will onl}^ be when 
 he is told to drop his hands to the side that he will sway 
 or fall ; whilst if he feels nothing and makes no move- 
 ment, I know that I have a difficult subject to deal with. 
 This little experiment is very easily made, and it is 
 
 * Livingstone has recorded his sensations when in the clutches of 
 the hon which lacerated his arm and was very near killing him. He 
 says he felt no pain and was conscious of no fear while his eyes were 
 riveted on those of the enraged animal. In fact, the emotional centres 
 were inhibited, and he was practically hypnotized. 
 
i64 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 interesting to note the number of persons among one's 
 friends who respond to it — at least seven out of ten. 
 Sometimes the body becomes cataleptic, and sometimes 
 drowsiness is felt ; at other times, though the swaying is 
 very apparent, the subject says he feel nothing. 
 
 Hypnotism, as I have already said, is merely a psychical 
 preparation or vehicle for suggestion, and this condition 
 being induced, it remains for the treatment to be applied. 
 The suggestions vary, of course, with the nature of the 
 malady to be treated. If headache is the chief symptom, 
 the head is gently rubbed, while the disappearance of the 
 pain and its non-reappearance are suggested. If sciatica, 
 the course of the sciatic nerve is rubbed, and the substitu- 
 tion of w^armth for pain is suggested. If insomnia, the 
 patient is told to feel sleepy at a certain time, and to sleep 
 steadily through the night. If constipation, a motion is 
 suggested at a specified hour — for instance, after breakfast. 
 In treating rheumatic affections, the parts are well rubbed 
 and the joints and muscles exercised by movements. In 
 neurasthenia and spinal irritation, the spine is rubbed and 
 kneaded. I n cases of amenorrhoea, the advent of the period 
 is suggested at the time when, by inquiry, it is found to 
 be due. 
 
 In moral cases, such as dipsomania, a dislike of stimu- 
 lants and a freedom from craving or discomfort is sug- 
 gested, as also are self-control and a desire for cure. The 
 training and tact of the physician find full scope in the 
 application of suitable suggestions, and also in the recog- 
 nition of the amenability of a case to this treatment. 
 
 The results are often more pronounced and more rapid 
 than in most lines of treatment, and a patient may awake 
 relieved or cured of a long-standing pain or loss of func- 
 tion ; but it is well that neither patient nor physician 
 should expect too much, and marvellous cures are apt 
 to be short-lived. There should, however, be a steady 
 improvement from day to day, and if, after a few trials, 
 no change is observable, I generally give up the case, as 
 being unsuited for the treatment. Liebeault allowed only 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 165 
 
 a few minutes for each case, but in many instances it 
 seems to me desirable to let the patient rest for twenty 
 minutes or longer, for we may well suppose that during 
 that period suggestions are working under a favourable 
 condition of the nervous system.* The treatment should 
 be repeated at intervals of not more than two or three 
 days ; otherwise incipient improvement may be checked 
 by a fresh relapse. 
 
 I find improvement progressive, and cure permanent 
 when once achieved. But in many patients there is a 
 tendency to give up when a certain amount of progress 
 has been made ; and this tendency should be strenuously 
 combated. In moral cases, it is absolutely necessary to 
 have the patient under trustworthy observation, so as to 
 guard against deception and relapse. I now refuse to 
 treat such cases unless the friends are able to give proper 
 supervision ; and even after the cure appears complete, 
 the patient, so I consider, should be told to report himself 
 at regular intervals for at least a year, for repetition and 
 reinforcement of the suggestion. 
 
 My practice is to make three or four attempts to 
 hypnotize, and if absolutely no effect is produced I feel 
 that the subject is not susceptible. In this respect I 
 confess I lack the confidence and perseverance of Dr. Moll, 
 
 * Professor Wood, of Philadelphia, writing to the Lancet^ January 1 1 , 
 1890, on hypnotic suggestion, which he had recently studied in Paris, 
 and has introduced into his hospital practice, seems to consider that 
 the hypnotic sleep alone is frequently sufficient to promote cure, and 
 to think that Bernheim is wrong in attributing everything to ' sugges- 
 tion.' I entirely agree with Dr. Wood that in certain cases of hysteria 
 and nervous exhaustion and irritability the physiological rest enjoyed 
 during hypnosis is a powerful and, perhaps, sufficient factor in the 
 cure ; but it is impossible, even in these cases, to eliminate curative 
 suggestion, for where it is not expressed by the physician it is under- 
 stood and supplied by auto-suggestion by the patient. Dr. Wood's 
 remark that the atmosphere of the Nancy and Paris hospitals is 
 ' heavy with faith ' applies, fortunately, to all institutions where cure- 
 work is carried on. In London, at present, we have not the advantage 
 of this meteorological condition, but the results are sufficiently satis- 
 factory in suitable cases. Dr. Bramwell relates how much more easy 
 he found it to hypnotize his patients at Goole, where he carried on a 
 general practice for many years, than afterwards in London, because 
 of the greater simplicity and faith of the people there. 
 
i66 TREATMENT BY HYPXOTISM AXD SUGGESTION 
 
 who seems to think that every one can be hypnotized, 
 by one method or another, in course of time. He relates 
 how he tried one patient forty times ! Dr. Milne Bram- 
 well reports cases in which he has succeeded in inducing 
 somnambulism after the patient has proved absolutely 
 insusceptible fifty, sixty, and even seventy times — an 
 experience which speaks equally for the faith and per- 
 tinacity of patient and physician. I have occasionally, in 
 special cases, made five or six attempts, but so far I ha\e 
 almost invariably found that if no effect is produced at the 
 third sitting, it is useless making further efforts — at least, 
 for some time to come. In such cases I console myself 
 now with the dictum of a clever American woman doctor, 
 who told me that some patients are on the spiritual, 
 others on the mental, and others on the pill plane, and 
 that it is useless trying to treat the third class with 
 anything but crude drugs. It is quite probable that 
 circumstances may change, and subsequent attempts be 
 successful. I know one lady who has suffered intolerable 
 pain from occipital neuralgia for six years, and who con- 
 sulted me about two years ago with a view to trying 
 hypnotism. 
 
 I tried six or seven times to hypnotize her, but was 
 unsuccessful. I then advised her to put herself under 
 Dr. Auguste Voisin, of Paris. He endeavoured to 
 hypnotize her on thirty-five occasions, but failed, though 
 he employed chloroform as an auxiliary. On her return to 
 England I again made some futile attempts, and then sent 
 her to Dr. Milne Bramwell, who at that time lived at Goole. 
 He and his partner tried about 150 times, and at length 
 succeeded in inducing partial catalepsy and sensation of 
 numbness in one arm. But the patient could always open 
 the eyes, and the pain was little, if at all, relieved. She 
 writes to me that she has now been operated upon about 
 210 times, and expresses her intention of continuing the 
 treatment, as it seems to offer more chance of relief than 
 anything else she has tried. The lady is remarkably 
 bright and intelligent, and one can only suppose that the 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 167 
 
 intense and long-continued pain has made it impossible 
 for her to attain the necessary abstraction of thought.* 
 
 Another patient, a hospital nurse, was sent to me in 
 1904 by a throat specialist for functional aphonia. The 
 young lady had come all the way from New Zealand for 
 treatment, and several specialists had tried various treat- 
 ments, without any result. She was anxious to be hypno- 
 tized, and there seemed nothing against success, yet our 
 attempts were futile. She had to return home, so I 
 advised her to stop at Sydney and consult Dr. Creed, 
 whose success is remarkable, and to let me know the 
 result. She wrote to me some months afterwards, telling 
 me she continued much the same, and that, though 
 
 * Dr. Bramwell in his book expresses the opinion that I am wrong 
 in being so easily discouraged. Prolonged experience, however, con- 
 firms me in my practice. I do not, of course, mean that I expect to 
 get the full effect of hypnotic suggestion in three or four sittings in a 
 difficult case, but only that I look for some effect. Vain repetition of 
 attempts to hypnotize become most irksome to both doctor and patient, 
 and the money question is apt to arise. The patient may object 
 to paying fees without any result, and the doctor cannot afford to 
 sacrifice his time and energy without even the satisfaction of assured 
 ultimate success. So, except under special circumstances, 1 think it 
 is better to either send intractable patients to a colleague, to see what 
 he can do, or to tell them to try again later on. 
 
 One never can tell, as Forel says, what is at the back of the 
 patient's mind. Very often it is some erroneous preconception which 
 argument, time, or change of operator may remove ; but as long as it 
 persists it is useless to expect results. 
 
 I shall never forget my experience with two patients in my early 
 and enthusiastic days. The first was a medical man with delusions 
 of persecution, sent to me by the late Sir J. Russell Reynolds. I 
 spent an hour a day on that man for a month without the slightest 
 result, and I now know that he was absolutely unhypnotizable. 
 About the same time a lady asked me to try what I could do for her 
 brother, who had disseminated spinal sclerosis. This patient was a 
 retired officer, and he used to come to me with military punctuality 
 daily, lie down on the couch with resignation, receive my ministrations 
 with apparent acquiescence, and ask me at the end of twenty minutes 
 if I were finished and he might go. He simply came to satisfy his 
 relatives, and resolutely opposed my efforts. 
 
 Forel emphasizes the fact that much depends upon first impressions 
 in hypnotic treatment, and compares this to warfare, in which the 
 result of the campaign often turns on the first engagement. For- 
 tunately we all find good results reward our efforts even in chronic 
 cases when the apparent hypnotic effect is very slight, and both 
 patient and doctor are therefore encouraged to persevere. 
 
1 68 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 Or. Creed had been most persevering, and had tried 
 twelve times, the effect on her was absolutely nil. I tried 
 to hypnotize her ten times before giving it up, and I am 
 sure a hundred attempts would have seen us no nearer the 
 goal. 
 
 Bramwell mentions one case in which he was successful 
 in hypnotizing a patient after having failed to influence 
 her in sixty-five previous attempts. The patience of both 
 parties was rewarded by the lady being very soon cured 
 by hypnotic suggestion of pruritis vulvae, which had defied 
 treatment for several years.* 
 
 One frequently finds the degree of hypnotic effect varies. 
 
 For instance, I hypnotized Mr. R in November, 1888, 
 
 and noticed that he fell into the fourth stage. He was 
 suffering from chronic bronchitis, and was in a low, 
 depressed state of vitality generally. Subsequently I 
 could never induce more than the second degree, for as 
 his health improved he became less susceptible. 
 
 As regards personal qualification, I should say that tact 
 and confidence are the only requirements. Different 
 patients require to be approached in different ways, and 
 the somewhat imperious tone which is necessary in some 
 cases would arouse fatal antagonism in others. 
 
 The personal equation is, w'e must admit, a very power- 
 ful factor in all medical practice, and it becomes, perhapi. 
 more prominent in suggestive therapeutics. For instance, 
 some years ago a small tradesman came to me for obstinate 
 lumbago, and I put him under hypnotic treatment. He 
 was a good subject, and improved so rapidly that I 
 expected soon to have him quite well. Then suddenly he 
 ceased to make progress, and, in fact, rather went back. 
 Finally we sent him to Droitwich, and the brine baths 
 there completed his cure. 
 
 On his return he came to report himself, and then told 
 
 me why he had suddenly ceased to improve under my 
 
 treatment. It appears he was nn ardent teetotaler, and 
 
 among the many high qualities with which his imagina- 
 
 * British Mciiiial Journal^ February 28, 1 89 1. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 169 
 
 tion endowed me was that of sharing his horror of alcohol. 
 His ideal was shattered one day by my coming in to 
 hypnotize him from a luncheon party, at which I had 
 drunk a glass of sherry. My breath betrayed me ; he felt 
 I was a poor, weak sinner, weaker than himself, and my 
 suggestions never again had their former power over him. 
 The education and training of a medical man naturally 
 tend to the development of the necessary qualities, and 
 from my experience I believe that any medical man can, 
 with a little practice, succeed in hypnotizing the majority 
 of patients. Anyone can hypnotize some people, and there 
 are others whom, practically, no one can influence. Be- 
 tween these extremes lies a third and comparatively small 
 class, with whom it requires experience and practice to 
 succeed, and it is the management of these cases which 
 requires most time and patience. Doctors who have 
 known nothing of hypnotism, except that they have seen 
 me hynotize two or three patients, have frequently gone 
 home and at once been able to hypnotize their wives, 
 children, and servants, and have only been stopped in 
 their run of success by meeting a case altogether insus- 
 ceptible or requiring very careful management. Bernheim, 
 in his hospital clinique, claims over go per cent, of suc- 
 cesses, and four-fifths of the patients fall into profound 
 sleep or somnambulism, whereas in his private practice 
 this ratio is altered in a remarkable degree, for though 
 nearly the same percentage are influenced, only one-fifth 
 or one-sixth fall into profound sleep without recollection 
 on waking. The French seem slightly more susceptible 
 than other nationalities, but Forel at Zurich, Ladame at 
 Geneva, Von Shrenk-Notzing at Munich, Moll at Berlin, 
 Van Eeden and Van Renterghem at Amsterdam, Wetter- 
 strand at Stockholm, Tokarsky at Moscow, Hamilton 
 Osgood in Boston, U.S.A., Creed at Sydney, N.S.W.,and 
 other practitioners all over the world, obtain nearly as 
 good results.* 
 
 * Cory says ('Hypnotism and Mesmerism,' Boston, 1888) that he 
 has never succeeded in hypnotizing a Chinese, though he has experi- 
 
I70 TREATMEXr BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 Similar results come from far-off Brazil, where Dr. 
 Domingos Yaguaribe has established (in 1901) at San 
 Paulo a flourishing clinique, after a course of study at the 
 Institut Psycho-physiologique, under Dr. Berillon. He 
 has sent me photographs of his hospital and dispensary, 
 which point to rare success in such a short period. He 
 gives a resume of the results of his first two years" practice, 
 and these include 8,247 consultations. Among his principal 
 successes are : Alcoholism 269 cases, neurasthenia 30, 
 chronic diarrhoea 22, dysmenorrhoea 29, stammering 7, 
 incontinence of urine 22, hysteria 95, neuralgias and head- 
 aches 469, rheumatism 26, deafness 12, various paralyses 
 52, chronic ulcers 5, hysterical blindness 2, dumbness 8, 
 paralysis of speech 5. Dr. Yaguaribe finds his patients 
 are easily hypnotized generally at the first attempt, and 
 only about 5 per cent, prove insusceptible. 
 
 Perhaps the most successful hypnotic clinique was that 
 of Dr. Wetterstrand of Stockholm.* Dr. Forel of Zurich, 
 who has visited Stockholm, has described to me his 
 method of procedure, and has published an account of 
 what he saw in a recent work.t 
 
 His two large reception-rooms are luxuriously furnished, 
 and in them are a number of comfortable arm-chairs and 
 sofas. From nine till one daily patients crowd in, and each 
 one in turn is carefully examined by Dr. Wetterstand. 
 
 merited on several. The Orientals I have treated have mostly been 
 good subjects. 
 
 Dr. C. \V. Branch has experimented on 100 West Indian negroes 
 and negresses of different ages, and found 87 per cent, were hypnotized 
 with facility. He thinks the black races are more susceptible than 
 the white (Jpurnal of Tropical Medicine, April 2, 1906). 
 
 Esdaile when he left India took up his residence in Perthshire, and 
 in his retirement continued to make experiments in hypnotism as a 
 hobby. But he soon found that the canny Scot was a much more 
 difficult subject to tackle than the mild Hindoo (' Dictionary of 
 Universal Biography'). But Dr. Kerr of Edinburgh, Drs. .MacLennan 
 and McCluer of Glasgow, and other Scotch physicians who practise 
 medical hypnotism, tell me their figures work out much the same as 
 the English, French, Swedish, etc. 
 
 * I understand that his colleague, Dr. Bjerre, carries on the work 
 with great success at Stockholm. 
 
 t ' Hypnotism,' etc. (English translation, 1906), p. 221. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 171 
 
 Only such cases as he considers suited are selected for the 
 treatment, and the others are sent away with ordinary 
 prescriptions and directions. Those selected for hypnotic 
 treatment are admitted into the reception-rooms and told to 
 rest quietly and watch the procedure on the other patients. 
 All around him the visitor sees other patients comfortably 
 reclining in different stages of hypnotic sleep, and the 
 whole atmosphere of the place is full of drowsy associa- 
 tions and suggestions of cure. When Dr. Wetterstrand 
 comes to him he is already half asleep, and his mind is 
 fully prepared to act upon the suggestions made to him. 
 Ordinary suggestions, such as tend to deepen the sleep 
 and produce feelings of general rest and comfort, are 
 made aloud for everyone to hear, but the particular sug- 
 gestions applicable to each individual case are given in a 
 whisper by the doctor speaking into the patient's ear. It 
 will be remarked that every step in the method tends to 
 impress the imagination. The preliminary examination 
 which the patient actually undergoes in the hope that 
 his case will be found suitable for the treatment ; the 
 admission of the selected cases into the inner rooms, 
 about which there is a certain air of somnolency and 
 expectation ; the vision of other persons in different 
 stages of sleep — all excite the faculty of imitation and the 
 desire to sleep to the greatest degree possible. After so 
 much trouble and such careful selection the new-comer 
 would indeed be ungrateful for opportunities and un- 
 deserving of cure if he did not enter into the spirit of the 
 place and prove amenable to hypnotism and impression- 
 able to suggestion. Small wonder is it, therefore, that 
 Dr. Wetterstrand has treated over 3,000 patients with 
 such success that he finds only 5 per cent, are unin- 
 fluenced by hypnotism.* Dr. Berillon adopts a very 
 
 * In a hundred cases Wetterstrand finds the following proportions : 
 
 5'43 per cent, are uninfluenced. 
 
 7 '24 per cent, feel drowsy. 
 5 2 "49 per cent, are unable to open the eyes. 
 34*84 per cent, are somnambulic. 
 
172 TREATMENT BY HYPSOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 similar method in his clinique in Paris, and he rarely 
 attempts to hypnotize a patient on his first visit or until 
 he has been prepared for it by seeing other persons 
 operated on. He, therefore, also generally succeeds in 
 influencing his patients. Dr. \'an Renterghem at 
 Amsterdam pursues a somewhat similar course, and is 
 equally successful. No physician adopting a psychical 
 method of treatment can afford to ignore any legitimate 
 means of influencing a patient's imagination. And the 
 best way to attain this end is the assumption and main- 
 tenance of a firm and yet sympathetic demeanour. I am 
 led more especially to thus enter into minutise by having 
 observed the something like contempt some of the medical 
 men I have met have expressed for what I may call the 
 technique of suggestive treatment. I have seen a hospital 
 physician, who believes in hypnotism, fail over and over 
 again with his hospital patients because he has ignored 
 the preliminary step of gaining their confidence and 
 allaying their fears. To enter a ward surrounded with 
 students, and to pick out a trembling woman and tell her, 
 without the least preparation, that she is to be hypnotized 
 and go to sleep, is to arouse all kinds of opposing 
 emotions in her mind, and renders hypnotism, at any rate 
 by the Nancy method, impossible. The same woman, if 
 approached gently, and shown other persons put to sleep 
 and awakened, would probably prove an excellent subject, 
 and might perhaps be cured by the treatment. Drs. Van 
 Renterghem and Van Eeden always impress upon their 
 patients that the more or less powerless condition to 
 which hypnotism will for a short time reduce them 
 is for a definite object, and that object attained, there 
 will be no more after-effect from hypnotism than from 
 any other medical procedure ; that there is no weakening 
 of the will, and that the induction of hypnosis entirely 
 depends upon their volition and co-operation, and cannot 
 be achieved without them. The patient's attitude should 
 somewhat resemble that of a passenger who gets into a 
 cab in order to go to a certain place. Having secured a 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 173 
 
 decent conveyance and a respectable driver, he gives 
 himself up to rest in the confident expectation of arriving 
 safely at his destination. If, instead of sitting still and 
 trusting to the coachman, he shouts out contradictory 
 orders, and, in the fear of being taken out of his way, 
 even pulls at the reins, it is probable that his journey will 
 be somewhat prolonged. Many persons can never be 
 hypnotized, because they lack the power of composing 
 their minds and fixing their attention for two minutes at 
 a time. 
 
 During 1890 I treated 118 patients by hypnotic sug- 
 gestion, of whom fifty-nine were men, fifty were women, 
 and nine were children between six and fourteen. 
 
 Of the men, I found ten were uninfluenced after repeated 
 trials ; and of the women, twelve were insusceptible. Only 
 one of the children proved insusceptible. As regards 
 degree of influence : seven became deeply somnambulic — 
 three women, two men, and two children. Thirty-three 
 exhibited the cataleptic phenomena. The remaining 
 fifty-five patients were influenced to a degree short of 
 catalepsy, and many of them experienced only a slight 
 torpor or heaviness of the eyes. They all, however, felt 
 the glow of reflex warmth in response to suggestion, 
 which is so important a characteristic of the hypnotic 
 state. 
 
 Of the thirty-three patients on whom I tried the 
 process in vain, five were absolutely insane and four were 
 suffering from hypochondriasis almost amounting to 
 insanity. 
 
 Of the remainder, some were scatter-brained, and I 
 could not get them to fix their attention, some were 
 contradictious and would not remain passive, while some 
 seemed to be over-anxious and too analytical. Two or 
 three were so dull and heavy that they fell into natural 
 sleep of a profound lethargic character, in which they 
 were insusceptible to suggestion. 
 
 But in a few cases there seemed to be no reason what- 
 ever why the patient should not be a good subject, and it 
 
174 TREATMEXT BY HYPXOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 is quite possible that on another occasion, or under a 
 different operator,* they could be hypnotized. 
 
 The accompanying table will explain the ailments for 
 which these ninety-five hypnotized patients were treated 
 and the results of the treatment : 
 
 ^;"'"''^'^ Disease, 
 of Cases. 
 
 Cured. 
 
 Bene- 
 fited. 
 
 Un- 
 changed 
 
 8 
 
 Chronic alcoholism ... 
 
 4 
 
 It 
 
 J + 
 
 I 
 
 Tobacco habit 
 
 1 
 
 — 
 
 
 1 
 
 Morbid delusions ... 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 — 
 
 7 
 
 Hypochondriasis ... 
 
 I 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 I 
 
 Bad habits 
 
 Melancholia 
 
 2 
 
 2ij 
 
 I 
 
 8 
 
 Neurasthenia 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 5 
 
 Insomnia 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 — 
 
 I 
 
 Morbid blushing 
 
 
 — 
 
 I 
 
 o 
 
 Megrim 
 
 I 
 
 I- 
 
 — 
 
 9 
 
 Various chronic neuralgias 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 Epilepsy 
 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 4 
 
 Functional paralysis 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 Hystcro-epilepsy ... 
 
 I 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 3 
 
 Writer's cramp 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 Stammering 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 — 
 
 t 
 
 General chorea 
 
 . — 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 Dyspepsia of various kinds 4 
 
 o 
 
 — 
 
 4 
 
 Irregularities of the bowe 
 
 Is 3 
 
 I 
 
 — 
 
 3 
 
 Nocturnal enuresis... 
 
 2 
 
 — 
 
 I 
 
 8 
 
 Menstrual irregularities 
 
 •■ 5 
 
 3 
 
 — 
 
 3 
 
 Chronic rheumatism 
 
 ^ 
 
 I 
 
 — 
 
 '> 
 
 Disseminated sclerosis 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 Locomotor ataxy . . . 
 Cerebral tumour 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 Post-apoplectic paralysis 
 
 •— 
 
 ^ 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 Infantile paralysis ... 
 
 .. — 
 
 2 
 
 — 
 
 95 
 
 I have not included in the foregoing list a considerable 
 number of cases where I have used hypnotism simply as 
 
 * I have sometimes succeeded in hypnotizing patients after other 
 medical men of experience had failed, and, on the other hand, two 
 or three persons whom I could not influence have been hypnotized 
 by other operators. But, as a rule, I have found that the person who 
 cannot be hypnotized by one physician is not likely to prove more 
 susceptible with another — the conditions being similar in both cases. 
 
 t The attacks are rarer and less severe. 
 
 I There was a temporary improvement in all these cases, followed 
 by relapse. 
 
 § One relapsed after twelve months. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 175 
 
 a palliative in ordinary general practice and in the course 
 of acute disease ; e.g., in tickling laryngeal cough occur- 
 ring in a course of pneumonia, colicky pain in typhoid, 
 restlessness in endocarditis. Neither have I included cases 
 in which I was only consulted once. Hypnotic treatment 
 being comparatively novel, a number of persons come to 
 the hypnotist more out of curiosity than for any wish to 
 be cured, and others come with most exaggerated expecta- 
 tions. As an example of the latter class I may cite the 
 case of an elderly gentleman who sent for me and asked 
 me to hypnotize him in order that I might disperse an 
 abscess, and so cheat the surgeon's knife. On examina- 
 tion I found a large abscess in the perinseum almost ripe 
 for lancing. I succeeded, with some difficulty, in inducing 
 a gentle and pleasant langour, in which I left him, after 
 suggesting diminution of pain and a good night's sleep. 
 These suggestions were fairly well realized, but the patient 
 was sadly disappointed because the surgeon had to open 
 the abscess on the following day. A medical man once 
 called upon me with even greater expectations. He was 
 on his way to his dentist to have a troublesome molar 
 extracted, and he looked in to see if I could not anaesthe- 
 tize by hypnotism, and thus render gas unnecessary. 
 Needless to say, I did not succeed in gratifying him. and 
 I am afraid he left me thinking very poorly of an agent 
 which could not be evoked in its most advanced degree 
 at will.* I have several times been asked to hypnotize 
 girls, and induce them by suggestion to break off un- 
 desirable engagements. In one such case the evil was so 
 
 * Some years ago the country was inundated with circulars from 
 various institutions in America with high-sounding names. They 
 ofifered to teach pupils by correspondence the art of hypnotism and 
 suggestion, so that if tradesmen they would be enabled to sell their 
 goods, and if clergymen to move their congregations by their elo- 
 quence. A good many people wrote to me on the subject, and some 
 of the letters were very amusing. I had to reply that I did not think 
 genius could be so easily manufactured, and that a five-dollar course 
 would not make either a Whiteley or a Spurgeon. Some people's 
 belief in the power of hypnotism seems unlimited, and this has been 
 taken advantage of by some of our astute cousins. 
 
176 TREATMES'T BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 apparent that I felt justified in acting the part of Provi- 
 dence, and suggested to the young lady that she would 
 exercise judgment and caution, and be advised by her best 
 friends. She shortly afterwards dismissed her lover, and 
 I believe saved herself a life of misery. 
 
 Two or three ladies have called upon me and told me 
 that their husbands were in the habit of drinking too 
 much wine, and have asked me to treat them without 
 their knowing anything about it. They expressed much 
 disappointment when I had to tell them that the patient's 
 wish to be cured was an essential preliminary in such 
 cases. 
 
 In my own practice, during the years 1888-89, I found 
 the following results : 
 
 Somnambulists ... ... ... 32 
 
 Profound sleepers ... ... •••35 
 
 Light sleepers, or somnolent ... ... 88 
 
 Doubtful ... ... ... ... 9 
 
 Uninfluenced ... ... ... ... 42 
 
 Number of persons operated on ... ... 206* 
 
 All classes of society are represented in this table, which 
 does not profess to be anything but a record of a some- 
 what limited personal experience. The English unedu-' 
 cated classes have an invincible distrust to novelty in 
 treatment, and to this I attribute my almost complete 
 want of success hitherto in public institutions. On most 
 occasions, when I have talked to the patient and got him 
 
 * Over twenty years' further personal experience of hypnotism 
 proves to me that these figures are fairly representative. In 1894-95 a 
 committee was appointed by the Society for Psychical Research to 
 make some experiments in thought-transference and other phenomena 
 in the hypnotic state, and we advertised in a newspaper for subjects. 
 Twenty-si.\ youths were selected from a large number of applicants, 
 and all these stated that they had never been hypnotized before. 
 Eighteen proved hypnotizable, or 70 per cent., but of these only about 
 one-third were influenced to the extent of somnambulism. 
 
 The young men were of the junior City clerk class, and we found 
 the most intelligent were the best subjects. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 177 
 
 to come to my house, he has been easily hypnotized, and 
 I have no doubt but that, when hypnotism becomes a 
 recognized treatment in hospitals, English experience will 
 not differ widely from that of Nancy. One of the som- 
 nambulists is a doctor in large general practice. My 
 oldest patient was a gentleman of eighty-two, who fell 
 into the second stage, and was cured in a few days of an 
 attack of gouty sciatica, which had always previously 
 lasted for weeks. He had been my patient for seven or 
 eight years, so perhaps the therapeutic test is admissible 
 here. My youngest patient was a child of five, who fell 
 into profound sleep at once. Most of the somnambulists 
 are women of neuropathic predisposition, but very few of 
 them had ever had any attack of ordinary hysteria, and 
 many of them are hard-working clerks or good household 
 managers. Five of these, however, are boys of ordinary 
 types apparently, and three are adult men of perhaps 
 more than average ability and intelligence. The pro- 
 found sleepers were generally epileptics or persons of 
 phlegmatic temperament. I have never seen any un- 
 toward symptoms arise from medical hypnotism, nor 
 can I conceive such a thing possible with ordinary care 
 and gentleness. 
 
 I am quite certain that the patient has in no way felt 
 subsequently influenced by the operation, except in the 
 direction suggested by me and wished for by himself. 
 The Nancy treatment is essentially impersonal, and it is 
 the patient who hypnotizes himself under the suggestion 
 and guidance of the physician, and the curative effect 
 gained is the result of concentration and direction of the 
 patient's own faculties and functions. The somnambulist 
 might, I believe, be made, by frequent induction of 
 hypnosis, to do foolish and even criminal acts, but no 
 suggestion made to an ordinary subject will be executed 
 unless it be in accordance with his wish. For instance, it 
 would be useless to suggest to a stanch teetotaler, in any 
 stage of hypnosis short of somnambulism, that he should 
 drink brandy. The suggestion would defeat its end by 
 
 12 
 
1/8 TREATMENT BY HYP.XUTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 arousing indignation and disgust. Such a suggestion, 
 opposed to his moral sense, made to a somnambuHst, 
 might be obeyed even the first time, but it would probably 
 require frequent repetition to break down resistance and 
 overcome his individuality. 
 
 The view is sometimes expressed by the public, and 
 even by doctors, that as hypnotism is often so easily 
 applied, and as the suggestions required are for the most 
 part merely the contradiction of the morbid symptoms, 
 therefore medical knowledge and training are not so 
 much required in this branch of practice as in others. 
 But this conception is entirely wrong, and no form of treat- 
 ment calls for more careful medical education. The same 
 may be said of nearly every kind of medical practice. For 
 instance, it is easy for anyone to give relief to pain by a 
 dose of opium, and to remove constipation by a purgative; 
 but the wise patient prefers, when he is sick, to have his 
 opiate or purge administered by a qualified doctor. And if 
 this is the case with crude and material drugs, how much 
 more should it be so when subtler remedies are required ? 
 I should certainly prefer taking a pill from a stranger to 
 accepting his hypnotic suggestion ! 
 
 If the method described for producing hypnosis fails, 
 or loses its effect, I use a modification. Instead of the 
 fingers the patient may be told to look at a bright metal 
 disc or coin, or the skin of the forehead may be gently 
 rubbed while the gaze is fixed on a distant object. 
 Sometimes verbal suggestion tends to keep a patient 
 awake instead of inducing sleep, and in many instances 
 methods will have to be devised to meet different idio- 
 syncrasies. 
 
 The method of fascination is, I consider, inapplicable 
 and objectionable in ordinary medical practice, as it intro- 
 duces too much personal element into the operation, and 
 induces a state of complete automatism, in which the 
 subject's ego, or personality, is entirely suppressed (Binet 
 and Fer^). It is practised by looking fixedly and perti- 
 naciously into the subject's eyes at the distance of a few 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 179 
 
 inches, and at the same time holding the hands. In a 
 few minutes all expression goes out of the face, and the 
 subject sees nothing but the operator's eyes, which shine 
 with intense brilliancy, and to which he is attracted as a 
 needle to a magnet. 
 
 Auguste Voisin adopted this plan with insane patients, 
 and sometimes succeeded when he had failed by all other 
 methods. In such cases, of course, any means are per- 
 missible, as by hypnotism and suggestion he has succeeded 
 in cutting short attacks of mania, and curing various 
 intractable mental conditions. 
 
 There are objections to this method also from the 
 operator's point of view. If the subject or patient is 
 refractory and the operator tired, it may happen that the 
 natural sequence of events is reversed, and the operator 
 becomes hypnotized instead of the patient. Braid men- 
 tions several cases where this took place, and it has 
 sometimes happened to Liebeault. On one of the few 
 occasions on which I employed this method I nearly suc- 
 cumbed to the continued strain, and became conscious of 
 a curious inhibitory influence stealing over the muscles 
 around my mouth.^ Fortunately, the patient just then 
 
 * The mouth is generally acknowledged to be the most expressive 
 feature, and its movements are less under the control of the highest 
 centres than those of other parts. The man who can face an enemy 
 without flinching is often unable to control the twitching of his mouth 
 under circumstances of emotion. It seems to be especially subject to 
 inhibitory influence, and a drawing in the muscles about the mouth 
 often precedes any other symptom in the coming on of hypnosis. A 
 middle-aged physician consulted me for sleeplessness in 1889, and 
 asked me to hypnotize him. I found him susceptible to about the 
 second degree, and having made some suggestions, I left him alone 
 for a quarter of an hour. On my return his eyes were open, and I 
 spoke to him ; but he made no reply, and pointed to his mouth. In 
 a few moments I understood what he meant, and proceeded to apply 
 friction to it and told him to open it. He then said that he had not 
 lost consciousness, and had opened his eyes at the expiration of the 
 ten minutes I had told him to keep them closed ; but he found he 
 could not open his mouth, and there he had to lie speechless until I 
 appeared and unlocked it. I had made no such suggestion, and can 
 only explain the occurrence by supposing that I had unwittingly 
 passed my fingers over his mouth in such a way as to suggest to him 
 the idea that it was closed, which idea was carried into execution. 
 
i8o TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 closed her eyes and passed into a profound sleep. The 
 method by fascination is also extremely fatiguing, and 
 where prolonged staring at an object is necessary, it is 
 best to employ Luys's rotating mirror. 
 
 Dr. Paul Farez, of Paris, and several other physicians, 
 find that they are frequently able to change natural sleep 
 into hypnosis by making passes over the sleeper and gently 
 telling him not to awake. I have often done this in old 
 patients, but I have never succeeded with people who have 
 resisted ordinary hypnotic processes. Dr. Bramwell has 
 the same experience {op. cit., p. 68). 
 
 Farez recommends the trial of what he calls suggestion 
 somniquc in many cases of insanity, neurasthenia, and in 
 the correction of bad habits in children. Berillon states 
 that Hansen, the Danish hypnotist, used as a boy at 
 school to amuse himself by making suggestions to his 
 sleeping comrades, which they often automatically carried 
 out the next day. Such procedures open up possibilities 
 of a not altogether agreeable nature.* 
 
 Moll points out that the disagreeable effects sometimes 
 seen in the first induction of hypnosis by other means 
 than simple suggestion are due, not to the treatment, but 
 to the patient's fears, and he says he has noticed similar 
 symptoms accompanying the use of electrical appliances 
 in nervous persons. I once hypnotized a hospital patient" 
 who became slightly convulsed and then passed into a 
 very hysterical state. She confessed that she looked 
 upon the process with great fear, as being very ' un- 
 canny.' Bramwell relates how in one of his cases 
 hypnosis was ushered in by a slight unilateral convulsion, 
 but thi?^ did not prevent the operation being followed by 
 cure.t 
 
 The gentleman, who is an AI.D. of London, was in a nervous state 
 from want of sleep, and hypnotism would probably ha\e done him 
 good, but after this experience nothing would induce him to submit 
 to the process again. 
 
 * Rc-,'itc dc P Hypttotisme, November, 1905 ; Journal of Mental 
 Pathology^ New York, June, 1901. 
 
 t British Medical Journal^ February 28, 1891. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION i8i 
 
 r 
 
 As regards the hypnotizability of different types — taking 
 Sir B. W. Richardson's classification of men into animal, 
 intellectual, nervous, and their combinations — I should 
 say that the persons of the animal type, large-framed 
 muscular men, of somewhat slow intelligence, but placid 
 and easy-going temperament, unless aroused, are the best 
 subjects. I have had several such among my somnam- 
 bulists. Persons of the emotional type are not so easy 
 to hypnotize, but once influenced are probably the best 
 subjects for psychical experiments. I have seen a great 
 many somnambulists of this class, and I think that any 
 danger which may accompany hypnotism is only likely to 
 occur in such subjects. Men of the purely intellectual 
 type are not easily hypnotized ; their minds are too 
 analytical, and they are, as a rule, too unwilling to allow 
 their will to be in abeyance. Nevertheless, their con- 
 fidence gained, they sometimes make good subjects, 
 though I have never seen a somnambulist of this type. 
 A considerable number of my patients have belonged to 
 mixed types — animal-emotional, which Dr. Richardson 
 rightly says is not a pleasing combination ; animal-intel- 
 lectual, which is an enviable balance of qualities ; and 
 emotional-intellectual, a class comprising a very large 
 proportion of brain-workers, and to which most geniuses 
 belong. I have found hypnotism easily applied and ex- 
 tremely beneficial in the treatment of the neuroses to 
 which this last class is especially subject. I have rarely 
 reduced them to a state of somnambulism ; and, as their 
 minds are generally receptive, such reduction is not neces- 
 sary. Undoubtedly the most difficult subjects to influence 
 are those of weak and fidgety character, who are unable 
 to look one in the face or fix their attention — their eyes 
 being an index to their minds. I need hardly say that 
 such a person as a medical man, who offered me five 
 pounds if I would hypnotize him then and there at a 
 medical meeting, is not hypnotizable unless he is able to 
 change his mental attitude. 
 
 That insusceptibility to hypnotism is not a sign of intel- 
 
i82 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 ligence is well shown by the fact that imbeciles and idiots 
 are not hypnotizable. One of the severest rebuffs I 
 have ever encountered in my professional experience was 
 inflicted on me by a girl patient, an inmate of Paddington 
 Infirmary. She was of an extremely low order of intelli- 
 gence, and I suppose her bringing-up had made her very 
 suspicious of everybody and everything. She was suffering 
 from slight chorea, and it was thought that hypnotism 
 would do her good. However, I exhausted the different 
 methods in vain, and at length the patient flung my 
 arm on one side, exclaiming, * I'm not asleep, and ain't 
 a-going to!' Dr. Hyslop, in an address he recently (igii) 
 delivered before the Psycho- Medical Society, told us how, 
 at a demonstration at Bethlehem Hospital, the operator 
 closed the patient's eyes and said authoritatively, ' Now you 
 cannot open them.' The patient promptly did so, however, 
 and shouted, ' You're a damned liar.' These are the sorts 
 of things we are sometimes subjected to. 
 
 John Hunter, the great anatomist, has recorded (Hack 
 Tuke) how he nearly succumbed to the wiles of a 
 mesmerist, and only kept himself awake by fixing his 
 attention on his great toe, in which he was expecting an 
 attack of gout.* 
 
 The physician in charge of a large workhouse infirmary 
 recently asked me to try hypnotism in his wards, and he 
 picked out for me some suitable patients, as he thought. 
 They were three broken-down hysterical women of low 
 mental power, whose teeth chattered with fear when I 
 looked at them. Of course such persons are most difficult 
 
 * The peasant women of Brittany are said to send their children 
 to sleep by making them look at a bright ball suspended over their 
 cradles. This, the rocking of the cradle, and the monotonous song 
 which nurses chant to infants, are distinctly hypnogenic agents acting 
 by the monotonous and continuous stimulation of one sense. It is 
 possible that children yield more quickly to such influences than 
 adults, because their highest centres arc as yet undeveloped, and there- 
 fore are more easily acted upon by inhibitory impulses proceeding from 
 below. It is probable that the sleep of young cliildren is of less mixed 
 causation than that of adults ; it is the result of inhibition almost 
 entirely, the chemical products of cerebration which Preyer supposes 
 exercise so soporific an influence being a qiiantitc )u'i:;lii;;cable. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 183 
 
 to hypnotize, and one can only hope for success after 
 
 repeated trials. I explained this to Dr. R , and asked 
 
 him to let me try on some more promising subjects, 
 suggesting himself, his two assistants, and a ward nurse. 
 They agreed, and he, one of the assistants, and the nurse, 
 proved excellent subjects. In this relation I may say that 
 people often give us quite impossible cases ' to try hypno- 
 tism on,' and when the inevitable failure results they are 
 apt to say, ' Hypnotism has been tried, and has failed.' 
 It is more satisfactory for the hypnotist to choose his cases 
 himself than to allow a person ignorant of the treatment 
 to do so. 
 
 A few years ago I was asked as a matter of charity to 
 try the effect of hypnotism on a poor elderly lady afflicted 
 with disseminated spinal sclerosis. She was brought to 
 my house and laid on a couch every day, while for half an 
 hour I practised the various hypnogenic methods upon 
 her. But all my efforts were in vain, and after a few 
 sittings I gave her up. About a year afterwards I heard 
 through a friend that this patient was giving thanks to 
 Providence for having saved her from my wiles, and she 
 attributed her deliverance to having repeated prayers to 
 herself during the process I adopted. She had consented 
 to see me to oblige her friends, but had taken good care to 
 render my efforts nugatory. 
 
 Even if hypnotizable, the patient may refuse to accept 
 suggestion. For instance, Mr. B , the son of a noble- 
 man, was made to come to me to be treated for chronic 
 alcoholism. He was of the ' weak-waster ' type, and was 
 a surly and disagreeable patient. However, I induced 
 Liebeault's third degree, and he became cataleptic. But 
 he told his father that, though I might make him unable to 
 move his arms when hypnotized, he was damned if I 
 should prevent him drinking brandy when he wanted to. 
 In such cases there is nothing to work upon, and I only 
 saw him two or three times. He drifts from one inebriate 
 retreat to another, and it is unfortunate for his family that 
 alcohol is only such a slow poison. I now refuse to under- 
 
i84 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 take such cases. A recent experience is that of Mrs. A — 
 
 wife of a good and hardworking army officer. A lady of 
 thirty, well born and educated, and nice-looking, with one 
 child, she only came by compulsion, assured me that she 
 hated the idea of treatment, looked upon teetotalism as low 
 and allied to socialism, and that she often drank in order 
 to annoy her husband, who was a ' bigoted teetotaler.' 
 When disinclined to drink, she said, she achieved this 
 amiable purpose by washing her mouth out with whisk}-. 
 Conviction of sin in moral cases, and real desire for health 
 in chronic invalidism, are, I am sure, the states of mind 
 requisite to success. To obtain these the co-operation of 
 a wise and good clergyman is often invaluable, and the 
 two professions can often work hand in hand, as in the 
 Emmanuel Church Movement at Boston, U.S.A. 
 
 The late Dr. Auguste Voisin's practice requires a few 
 words of explanation. Many observers contend that, as 
 hypnotic suggestion is essentially a psychical treatment, 
 and dependent for its success on healthful stimulation of 
 the brain centres, it is inapplicable when the central organ 
 is diseased. It is certainly most difficult to hypnotize 
 the mentally affected, whether the condition be mania, 
 dementia, melancholia, or idiocy. Nevertheless, Voisin 
 found he succeeded in about lo per cent, of cases. But 
 his physical strength, enthusiasm, and patience enabled 
 him to do what few men would care to try. He used to 
 spend an hour a day attempting to hypnotize one patient, 
 and felt amply rewarded if after twenty operations he 
 achieved an alleviation or cure. When he read his paper 
 before the British Medical Association at Leeds, in 1889, 
 his listeners could only express astonishment at his method 
 and its results. \^oisin has done much good work in other 
 branches of medical science, and practised with such open- 
 ness and publicity at the Salpetriere that no one can fail 
 to be impressed by his testimony. Dr. Paul Farez, of 
 Paris, speaks enthusiastically of Dr. Voisin's work, and 
 emulates him in the time and energy he devotes to mental 
 cases. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 185 
 
 Personally, I have succeeded in somewhat benefiting 
 melancholia in five or six cases, and in removing slight 
 but troublesome and long-standing delusions in several 
 instances. In many cases of retarded brain development 
 in children considerable improvement is observable ; but 
 in mental diseases generally I have, as a rule, failed to 
 produce the slightest hypnotic influence. 
 
 Van Eeden considers that hypnotic suggestion will 
 remove delusions in their early stage, while the patient 
 is still aware of their falsity ; but that when they have 
 become established and a part of the personality, hypnotism, 
 even if induced, can be expected to do but little good. 
 This exactly coincides with my own experience, though in 
 one case — that of a medical man who believed himself to 
 be under the mesmeric control of a number of persons — I 
 succeeded in greatly mitigating the symptom. I told him 
 that I should be able to render him insusceptible to 
 hypnotic influences other than my own, and my sugges- 
 tions being thus more or less in a line with his thoughts, 
 he was capable of grasping them. He came to me in a 
 very depressed condition, but about twelve operations 
 served to greatly modify the trouble. Though he still, 
 from time to time, heard voices, he no longer dreaded 
 them, and felt he was able to laugh at the threats they 
 conveyed. He has been enabled to resume his practice, 
 and has greatly improved in bodily health and in capacity 
 for work. 
 
 A curious and typical case of this kind was that of a 
 retired tradesman who consulted me in i8g6, and asked 
 me if I could free him from the mesmeric control of 
 
 H.R.H. Princess X . He said he was a stanch 
 
 republican. About two years before he was visiting 
 Windsor Park, and was sitting on a bench when the 
 royal lady passed. She looked at him, but he did not 
 rise or raise his hat, an omission which he said caused her 
 to look angrily at him. He immediately felt a sharp pain 
 in the back of his head, and he had been subject to this 
 ever since. He was quite convinced the Princess had 
 
i86 TREATMENT liY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 thrown a spell over him, which she exercised from time 
 to time to punish him for his want of courtesy. I thought 
 I might succeed in removing the idea, but failed to do so. 
 When I tried to hypnotize him, he said the lady put forth 
 extra power, and neutralized my efforts ; probably he will 
 die with that delusion still dominant. 
 
 Another and more satisfactory case of a somewhat 
 similar but much more acute nature was that of a young 
 lady who became obsessed by the idea that her brother-in- 
 law was in love with her, and was influencing her by 
 * hypnotic telepathy.' She became very excited, and 
 refused to eat food, so we had to take steps to certify her 
 and send her to an asylum. As a last resource I tried 
 hypnotic suggestion, and, much to our satisfaction, she 
 proved a good subject. The result was immediate. She 
 consented to take food, became quiet and reasonable, and 
 in a few days ceased to think of the man. This was in 
 1900. The following year she had a return of the morbid 
 obsession, but it was speedily controlled by suggestion. 
 Since that time she has remained sane and well. This 
 girl was undoubtedly saved from lunacy by hypnotism, 
 and such a success justifies one in having recourse to it 
 in recent cases with considerable confidence, especially 
 in young people. 
 
 Telepathy is the latest ' force ' knocking for recognition 
 at the gate of science. Its explanation is still involved in 
 mystery and doubt, and therefore appeals strongly to the 
 imagination. So we find telepathic obsession is a common 
 idea with the insane. It used to be telephony, and before 
 that electricity. Hypnotic obsession is also a common 
 delusion. I am acquainted with two cases where the 
 patient possesses unusual and even brilliant talents. One, 
 a retired army officer, was assured by his * voices ' that the 
 late Dr. William Playfair was hypnotizing him for experi- 
 mental purposes, and he actually called on that astonished 
 physician on the subject. As he told me that he would 
 shoot the man who thus tampered with him, were he 
 quite sure of the voices, one can judge of the dangerous 
 nature of such an obsession. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 1S7 
 
 It is an interesting point that this patient kept his idea 
 almost to himself for over ten years. He told me and 
 one or two others in confidence, but it was only when 
 nominated to a high position that he betrayed himself. 
 He was of course superseded, and has now a very real 
 grievance against the voices which made him give himself 
 away. I tried hypnotic suggestion in this case, on many 
 different occasions at long intervals, but quite unsuccess- 
 fully, Major A always saying, like the previous 
 
 patient, that the opposing forces are too strong. 
 
 But there is a form of mental disorder which, though 
 not amounting to insanity, causes intense suffering, and 
 which is not uncommon. I refer to obsession by obscene 
 thoughts. Students of the religious history of the early 
 Church, and of the lives of Christian and other saints, 
 know how common this form of derangement was. The 
 temptations of St. Anthony materialized were popular 
 subjects for the old masters. I have been consulted in 
 many such cases, and have succeeded in several instances 
 in removing the morbid ideas, and restoring the patient's 
 peace of mind. I always begin by telling the patient that 
 we are not responsible for our thoughts, but only for our 
 actions. 
 
 Two of my best cases were clergymen of exemplary life, 
 and I have frequently found that it was men of the purest 
 life and with the highest ideals who were victims of these 
 thoughts. An extremely intelligent patient who went 
 abroad after a course of treatment which he said cured 
 him came to see me recently for a renewal of the sugges- 
 tions. He told me that he had been enabled to keep 
 his imagination under control ever since, but that he felt 
 that it was once more getting the upper hand. Re- 
 newed suggestion again had the desired effect. He was 
 a middle-aged man, happily married, and had several 
 children. In such cases it is Dr. Constance Long's prac- 
 tice to try hypnotism and suggestion, which she calls a 
 short-cut, and if that fails she has recourse to the much 
 more tedious and trying method of psycho-analysis (vide 
 Chapter XI.). 
 
1 88 TREATMENT BY HYPSOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 In no country have the phenomena of hypnotism been 
 more carefully studied than in Italy. The names of some 
 of the principal investigators — Lombroso, Tamburini, 
 Seppilli, Tanzi, Morselli, Vizioli, Bianchi — are sufficient 
 guarantee of the thoroughness of the work done. 
 
 A Commission of Italian physicians has been consider- 
 ing the therapeutic value of hypnotism, with special refer- 
 ence to its applicability in insanity and mental affections. 
 After exhaustive researches they have come to the con- 
 clusion that hypnotic suggestion may be efficacious in 
 dipsomania and the psychoses which are based on 
 hysteria, but that in other forms of mental disease 
 favourable results are only obtainable in a few cases. 
 The Commission put the matter to the test by experi- 
 menting with great care and patience on fifty-six mental 
 cases — thirty-two men and twenty-four women. Of the 
 men, eight were affected with slight mania, nine with 
 melancholia, eight with epileptic phrenosis, two with fixed 
 ideas, and three with paranoia. Only two of these proved 
 hypnotizable — one epileptic and one lypemaniac. Of the 
 twenty-four women, four were affected with slight mania, 
 nine with melancholia, seven with epileptic phrenosis, 
 two with fixed ideas, and two with paranoia. Only eight 
 of these proved hypnotizable, and of these three were 
 hysterical, one melancholic, and four epileptic. In the 
 other cases no effect was produced. The degree of 
 hypnosis produced was generally slight, and somnam- 
 bulism only ensued in three cases — two of which were 
 hysterical and one epileptic. As regards therapeutic 
 results very little was achieved in any of the cases. In 
 the opinion of the Commission, morbid auto-suggestion 
 is an almost insurmountable obstacle — first, against the 
 success of hypnotism ; and, secondly, against the fulfil- 
 ment of the curative suggestion. The Commission came 
 to the conclusion that hypnotism was therefore applicable 
 in only a few mental diseases, but they experimented on 
 and reported in favour of the systematic employment of 
 therapeutic suggestions, without hypnotism, in the treat- 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 189 
 
 ment of insanity. They found that suggestion made in 
 the waking state is the most effective and reliable means 
 of cure in mental diseases, and to it are due, almost 
 entirely, the beneficial effects of the asylum — which repre- 
 sents a real suggestive surrounding. 
 
 ' Summarizing now the results of our experiments, it 
 appears that hypnosis was most readily obtained in cases 
 of hysterical insanity, and in a few cases of epileptic 
 insanity, but in other forms of mental alienation, despite 
 our proceeding in accord with all the experimental rules, 
 hypnosis, excepting in one case of anxious melancholy, 
 was impossible. As regards therapeutic suggestion, made 
 during the hypnosis, we are unable to report any actual 
 results, excepting the case of hysterical ischuria described 
 by Funajoli, though in some cases the hypnosis reached 
 the degree of somnambulism, in which, according to Bern- 
 heim and others, the greatest susceptibility of the sleeper 
 was observed. If, therefore, we may judge collectively of 
 the result of our researches and of those made by the 
 observers cited by us, we must conclude that a suggestive 
 hypnotic therapeusis cannot be established, in the form of 
 any general rule, as a means of cure in mental diseases. 
 It seemed to be effective almost exclusively in cases in 
 which the psychopathic phenomena were connected with 
 a hysterical neurosis, or in dipsomania. In these special 
 conditions of the psyche, it seems that hypnosis is 
 obtained with sufficient facility, and the suggestion suc- 
 ceeds in modifying the characters, bridling the impulses 
 and bad habits, reviving the affections and sentiments, 
 and removing morbid ideas. On the other hand, in the 
 acute and chronic forms of paranoia, in states of mental 
 weakening with delirious ideas, in grave forms of melan- 
 cholia and mania, it is very rarely, if ever, that hypnosis 
 can be obtained, or that suggestion alone succeeds in 
 effecting the disappearance or the amelioration of those 
 morbid phenomena which are the consequence of an 
 abnormal organization, or of profound alterations in the 
 cerebral mass. 
 
lyo TREATMENT BY HYPSOTISM AXD SUGGESTION 
 
 * The results of therapeutic suggestion in mental diseases 
 being thus examined, it seems to us that we may assume 
 the following principal conclusions : 
 
 ' I. Therapeutic hypnotic suggestion cannot be in- 
 stituted as a general means of cure in the treatment of 
 mental diseases, owing to the difficulty of hypnotizing the 
 insane. 
 
 ' 2. Hypnosis succeeds most readily in the hysterical 
 and epileptic. 
 
 ' 3. The most certain results of hypnotic therapeutic 
 suggestion have, up to the present time, been obtained in 
 the psychoses depending on hysteria and dipsomania. 
 
 ' 4. Hypnotic suggestion may be employed when the 
 insane submit to it of their own accord, and derive benefit 
 from it. The physician should use it with great caution, 
 and take account of the hurtful effects which, in certain 
 cases, may be produced. 
 
 * 5. Therapeutic suggestion made in the waking state is 
 the most reliable and effective means of cure in mental 
 diseases, and to it almost solely are due the beneficial 
 effects of the asylum, which represents a real suggestive 
 surrounding. 
 
 ' 6. In cases of melancholia without delirium, cases of 
 fixed ideas, cases of alcoholism, and in slight forms of 
 stupor, suggestion methodically repeated in the waking -^ 
 state, in order to combat the morbid phenomena, may 
 prove effectual. 
 
 ' 7. In the chronic forms of paranoia suggestion has 
 never given favourable results.'* 
 
 It will be seen from this summary that the Commission 
 advises the systematic employment of suggestion without 
 hypnotism in some forms of mental disease. They were 
 led to this conclusion by finding that a considerable 
 number of the subjects whom they tried in vain to 
 hypnotize were amenable to, and responded to, simple 
 suggestion repeated regularly over considerable periods of 
 
 * ' Therapeusis of Mental Diseases,' by Dr. (".. Seppilli, translated 
 from the 'Archivio Italiano,' in Atncricati Journal of Insanity^ 1891. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 191 
 
 time. In this way they succeeded in removing fixed 
 ideas, folie de doiite, and incipient melancholia in several 
 cases. They also cured by this means a drunkard, whose 
 allowance of alcohol was about ten bottles of wine a day ; 
 at least he reduced his allowance to one bottle a day. 
 They found simple suggestion proved effectual in several 
 cases of stupor of the first degree, by removing the state 
 of arrest which paralyzes the will and the ideational 
 faculties. 
 
 Dr. Percy Smith and Dr. A. T. Myers made trial of 
 hypnotism in a series of cases of insanity at Bethlehem, and 
 the conclusions they came to are very similar to those 
 arrived at by the Italian investigators.* 
 
 Forel found he could hypnotize even more than 10 per 
 cent. (Voisin's proportion) of the insane who were confined 
 in the public asylum of which he was superintendent, but 
 he expresses great disappointment with the result {op. cit.). 
 Even when he obtained advanced somnambulism, so that 
 the patient proved anaesthetic, and susceptible to negative 
 hallucinations, he often failed to remove a fixed delusion. 
 
 For instance, Madame A fancied herself Madame 
 
 B . She was very susceptible to hypnotism, and 
 
 Dr. Forel assured her in the somnambulic state that she 
 
 was Madame A , and not B . She only shook her 
 
 head, and even in this state refused to part with her 
 delusion. Forel, however, obtained good results in mental 
 troubles of emotional and hysterical origin, and altogether 
 is a strong disciple of the school of Nancy. 
 
 Dr. Forel showed me a curious condition of partial or 
 complete analgesia which he is able to induce by simple 
 suggestion in subjects whom he has frequently hypnotized. 
 I saw him go up to strong, able-bodied German-Swiss 
 attendants at his asylum, take them by the arm or hand, 
 and tell them they had lost sensation in their right hand, 
 left eye, or some other part ; one could then prick the 
 conjunctiva, or pinch the hand, without causing the least 
 
 ■' ' On the Treatment of Insanity by Hypnotism,' yio/zr/w/ of Mental 
 Science, 1890. 
 
192 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 sign of pain or discomfort, though the subject would be 
 apparently in full possession of all her faculties. It is 
 common enough for dentists and surgeons to assure their 
 patients that this or that procedure will not hurt, but the 
 affirmation does not, as a rule, make much impression. 
 Forel's assertion, however, did really paralyze the sensory 
 nerve fibres, or inhibit the functioning of their cortical 
 centre. I have been able in a few cases to copy this 
 experiment, and notably in one case — a somnambulic 
 gentleman of thirty-five of good bodily and mental health. 
 Friction of a localized area of skin will produce anaesthesia 
 in a few seconds, and he will then be quite unconscious of 
 any irritation applied to it. On the other hand, a sugges- 
 tion of hyperaesthesia will be followed by increased sensi- 
 bility to impressions. This gentleman, though such a 
 susceptible subject, is now quite insusceptible to the 
 hypnotic suggestions of any save his two medical men, 
 and his individuality has been strengthened by hypnotic 
 treatment. (For anaesthesia induced by suggestion with- 
 out hypnotism, see p. 8i.) Forel made practical use of 
 hypnotism in a peculiar wa}'. The institution was under- 
 manned, and he found the attendants whom he had to 
 employ to look after suicidal patients at night required to 
 be off duty during the day, and so reduced his staff. He 
 hit upon the plan of hypnotizing these attendants, and 
 telling them they might sleep, but that any attempt on 
 the part of the patient to get out of bed would wake 
 them. He found his plan quite successful: the attendants 
 got a fair allowance of sleep at night, and were able to 
 work during the day. 
 
 Forel enumerates the following conditions and diseases 
 which he finds most satisfactorily treated by hypnotic 
 suggestion (o/>. cit., p. 210): 
 
 Spontaneous somnambulism. 
 
 Pains of all descriptions, especially headache, neuralgia, 
 sciatica, toothache, which do not depend upon an abscess, 
 etc. 
 
 Sleeplessness. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 193 
 
 Functional paralysis and contractures. 
 
 Organic paralysis and contractures (as palliative means). 
 
 Chlorosis (extremely favourable). 
 
 Disturbances of menstruation (metrorrhagia and amenor- 
 rhoea). 
 
 Loss of appetite and all nervous digestive disturbances. 
 
 Constipation and diarrhoea (provided that the latter 
 does not depend on catarrh or fermentation). 
 
 Gastric and intestinal dyspepsia (including pseudo- 
 dilatation). 
 
 Psychical impotence, pollutions, onanism, perverted 
 sexual appetite, and the like. 
 
 Alcoholism and morphinism (only by the suggestion of 
 total abstinence). 
 
 Chronic muscular and arthritic rheumatism, lumbago. 
 
 The so-called neurasthenic disturbances. 
 
 Stammering, nervous disturbances of the vision. 
 
 Blepharospasm. 
 
 Pavor nocturnus of children. 
 
 Sickness and sea-sickness, the vomiting of pregnancy. 
 
 Enuresis nocturna (often very difficult on account of 
 the depth of the normal sleep). 
 
 Chorea. 
 
 Nervous attacks of coughing (also in emphysema). 
 
 Hysterical disturbances of all kinds, including hystero- 
 epileptic attacks, anaesthesia, phobia, and the like. 
 
 Bad habits of all kinds. 
 
 I have quoted the above in extenso because Professor 
 Forel is a distinguished man of science and an original 
 and fearless thinker, who does not hesitate to examine and 
 criticize mercilessly his own as well as other people's 
 impressions. He has retired from practice, and has no 
 self-interest to serve, but is simply impelled by love of 
 truth to champion a somewhat unpopular cause. It may 
 be noticed how closely his deductions correspond with 
 those I have set forth, and it is most gratifying to me to 
 find that my observations are confirmed by such an 
 eminent authority. 
 
 13 
 
194 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 Forel believes strongly in the value of hypnotic sug- 
 gestion in the education of perverse children, and he 
 attributes the success of many schoolmasters to the wise 
 but often unconscious use of suggestion. 
 
 Advocating the use of hypnotism in general practice, 
 Forel says one is apt to greatly undervalue the palliative 
 action of suggestion. It is invaluable as a regulator of 
 digestion, secretion, and menstruation, and is quite harm- 
 less, in contradistinction to the scandalous abuse which so 
 many practitioners make of narcotics and alcohol. Forel 
 considers that the teaching of psycho-therapeutics should 
 form part of the curriculum in every medical school, and 
 that in this way only can the medical profession hope to 
 hold its own in its fight with quackery and deception. 
 He acted upon this belief during his professorship at 
 Zurich University by conducting a clinique for the 
 instruction of students and post-graduates. 
 
 Alcoholized persons are generally good subjects for the 
 treatment, but I have never succeeded in hypnotizing a 
 person for the first time while in a state of intoxication. 
 It is necessary to wait until the first effects of the stimu- 
 lant have passed off. The effect of hypnotic treatment in 
 chronic alcoholism is very marked. The patient often 
 first comes under observation suffering from the physical 
 effects of his indulgence. Probably he has subacute 
 gastritis with morning-sickness, furred tongue, flatulence 
 and heartburn, headache and heaviness in the head, cold- 
 ness of the extremities, with weak, irritable pulse and 
 irregular action of the bo\Vels. These symptoms, as well 
 as their mental accompaniments — languor or extreme 
 restlessness, despondency, and irritability — very speedily 
 yield to the treatment, so that it is no uncommon thing to 
 see the chronic drunkard well on his legs within a week. 
 
 I have tried the action of various drugs as aids to 
 producing hypnosis in intractable cases, but neither sub- 
 cutaneous injections of morphia, inhalation of chloroform 
 or ether, cannabis indica, nor bromides, have seemed to 
 exert any marked effect in that direction. (See p. 240.) 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 195 
 
 Hypnotism seems a psychical condition siii generis. 
 Alcohol, however, appears to predispose to hypnotism, 
 and I frequently find a subject is more amenable after a 
 good meal than he is before it. Hypnotism practised in 
 a rational manner is not fatiguing or trying in any wa}^ 
 and no concentration of the operator's mind or direction 
 of his will seems to be required. The late Dr. George 
 Wyld, a survival from Elliotson's days, told me he used to 
 concentrate his mind on the passes he made, and imagine 
 he was throwing off nervous force from the tips of his 
 fingers, with the result that he soon exhausted himself; 
 but when he adopted the Nancy method he no longer took 
 so much out of himself, though he got equally good results. 
 Liebeault was old and not robust, yet he hypnotized some- 
 times as many as forty people in a morning. The idea of 
 personal influence and magnetic attraction so industriously 
 promulgated by interested public performers, and so objec- 
 tionable to most people, is entirely discountenanced and 
 denied by scientific practitioners. 
 
 In the foregoing remarks an endeavour has been made 
 to answer many questions which are constantly being put 
 to the practical hypnotist. The answers are founded on 
 experience which it is in the power of any medical man 
 to verify. The cases described in the following chapter 
 are by no means exceptional, but are fairly illustrative of 
 the use of hypnotic suggestion in ordinary practice. The 
 results are certainly no better than would be attained by 
 any trained medical man using the same method with a 
 due regard to its technique. 
 
 Liebeault never attempted to hypnotize a patient for 
 the first time if there were a spasm of pain, an access of 
 retching or vomiting, or great emotional disturbance. 
 An attempt to employ suggestion under such circum- 
 stances would almost certainly result in failure, and would 
 endanger the success of future efforts. I always wait 
 until the paroxysm is over, or, if the pain is continuous, 
 I give an anodyne, and only try hypnotism when the dis- 
 quieting symptoms are veiled by the drug. 
 
196 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 After the patient has been thoroughly accustomed to 
 the treatment, it is often possible to hypnoti;^e even while 
 he is suffering great pain, as I have seen in cases of acute 
 rheumatism and neuralgia. But even w^hen the patient is 
 a good subject pain may render the process of no avail. 
 Under such circumstances I again have recourse to an 
 anodyne, and when the severity of the pain is subdued 
 there is rarely any further difficulty in inducing the usual 
 degree of hypnosis. 
 
 As an example of this, I may refer to the case of a 
 gentleman who came to me to be hypnotized for loco- 
 motor ataxy. After the second sitting he experienced no 
 more pain for nearly three months. Then he was caught 
 in a storm, and sat for some time in his wet clothes. A 
 violent attack of pain came on the night following, and 
 he got to my house with much difficulty the next day. 
 
 The lightning pains in his thighs were so severe that 
 they made him scream out, and they were almost con- 
 tinuous. He was only susceptible to the first degree, and 
 it would have been useless to have tried hypnotism under 
 the circumstances. After the injection of half a grain 
 of morphia, in divided doses, he at last became quiet 
 and free from pain, and I then hypnotized him with 
 success, and he remained free from pain for a long time. 
 He, however, returned regularly for treatment every two 
 weeks, and I find that repetition of the operation at 
 about that interval is necessary in these cases. Dr. Van 
 Eeden told me, and I have fully confirmed his observation, 
 that when natural sleep is induced instead of the hypnotic 
 state, the subject is not in touch with the operator, and is 
 therefore insusceptible to suggestion, and no benefit then 
 results from the operation. I have seen natural sleep 
 instead of hypnosis induced by suggestion several times. 
 I have found hypnotic suggestion very successful in many 
 cases of peripheral neuritis, especially when of the alcoholic 
 variety. Relief of pain and restoration of function in 
 some of these cases is so immediate that it has to be seen 
 to be believed. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 197 
 
 Forel has stated that it is very inadvisable to hypnotize 
 insane and weak-minded persons in company, as they are 
 very apt to be acted upon by suggestions meant for other 
 patients. I have always found that the more private and 
 serious the procedure is made, the better is the result — at 
 any rate, with English patients. Dr. Crichton Miller, 
 however, has adopted the Continental method, and claims 
 much success from collective hypnotism. 
 
 I have failed to get any improvement in a case of 
 paralysis of the right arm dependent on spinal sclerosis ; 
 nor have I been more successful with an old-standing 
 right hemiplegia, with late rigidity, in a 3^oung man of 
 twenty-one, dating from an attack of infantile convulsions, 
 and dependent on cerebral lesion."^ I gave up a case of 
 congenital chorea, as it wasimpossible to tell if the patient 
 — a boy aged eight, of weak intelligence, but great cunning 
 — were really influenced, or was only pretending. I am 
 unable to say much of its use in epilepsy. In some cases 
 the fits have diminished in number and intensity at first, 
 but they have generally reasserted themselves. Several 
 times, however, I have persuaded the patient to leave off 
 taking bromides, and have generally found that hypnotic 
 suggestion, as long as it is used, will enable the sufferer to 
 dispense with drugs. In cases of bromism this is by no 
 means a small gain. 
 
 In the Zoist and other mesmeric publications of the 
 last century one frequently comes across references to 
 
 * The improvement I have seen result from suggestion in several 
 cases of locomotor ataxy would encourage me to try the treatment in 
 organic cerebro-spinal diseases. Drs. Fontan and Segard, Professors 
 at the Medical School of Toulon, have published in their ' El ments 
 de Medecine Suggestive ' clinical notes of a case of disseminated 
 sclerosis of the cord. The patient improved so much under hypnotic 
 treatment that doubts were thrown on the accuracy of the diagnosis ; 
 but the man returned to the hospital the following year and died there 
 of acute tuberculosis. A careful necropsy was made, which revealed 
 very extensive patches of sclerosis, chiefly in the left lateral column, 
 and rendered the improvement somewhat extraordinary. As Bern- 
 heim says, there is, no doubt, a great deal of sympathetic and func- 
 tional disturbance of the neighbouring centres and structures in many 
 forms of cerebro-spinal disease, and it is this element which can be 
 reached by suggestion. 
 
198 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 the successful treatment of epilepsy by mesmerism, but 
 there is generally a want of scientific accuracy in the 
 accounts of such cases which very much weakens their 
 value. 
 
 On a priori grounds hypnotism might be expected to 
 exert a powerful influence in epilepsy, and I confess that 
 the rarity with which it has effected cures is a matter of 
 much disappointment to me. 
 
 Hypnotism undoubtedly affects the cortical cells, as 
 does epilepsy, and its action on them should be regular 
 and orderly, instead of explosive and destructive. In fact, 
 it might be expected to act as a physiological corrective 
 by controlling irregular nervous discharges, breaking the 
 morbid nerve habit, and conserving the energy which 
 epilepsy dissipates. No doubt hypnotism does act in this 
 manner in most cases of hysterical origin, and in some 
 where no hysteria is present. In long-standing cases, 
 when the disease is hereditary, or when it has atraumatic 
 origin, I should hardly expect, from my experience, to find 
 hypnotism of much value ; and, of course, where the 
 disease is traceable to a reflex irritation — e.g., unerupted 
 wisdom-tooth, elongated foreskin, visual defects — this 
 should be put right. It is, however, always justifiable 
 to make a careful trial of hypnotism in cases of epilepsy, 
 for there are many cures now recorded on the best 
 authority. I have cured one case of true epilepsy, of 
 recent development in a youth of sixteen, and I have 
 frequently seen it useful in modifying the number and 
 violence of the attacks. 
 
 For instance, a young lady, aged twenty-two, was 
 brought to me in 1894. She had developed epileptic fits 
 at the age of puberty, and they were only kept in check 
 by large and continuous doses of bromides. Her mental 
 condition had undergone great impairment, and she was 
 always in a dreamy state. She kept a book in which she 
 made a note of each attack, and altogether she lived in an 
 atmosphere of depression and morbid suggestion. But 
 the symptom which caused most embarrassment, and 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 199 
 
 which cut her off from social Hfe, was the unfortunate 
 delusion which always prevailed when she came out of 
 the fit, that she was going to bed, and she would proceed 
 to undress herself wherever she might be. The fits were 
 always ushered in by an aura starting from her right hand. 
 I found her a good subject, like most epileptics, and re- 
 sponsive to suggestion. I suggested that when she felt 
 the tingling in the hand going up the arm she should be 
 able to prevent the fit by tightly clasping the hands 
 together, and that she should, even if a fit occurred, 
 always come out of it quietly, and know where she was. 
 
 The bromides were entirely left off, and the dismal 
 diary was thrown away. The girl improved wonderfully 
 in general and mental health, but the fits still occured 
 about twice a week. On several occasions she was able 
 to avert them by the pressure as I had suggested, thus 
 establishing an inhibitory influence over the nervous dis- 
 charge. But the case was too far gone to admit of 
 cure, and we never got beyond a certain point. How- 
 ever, she has never since committed any social solecism 
 in the post-epileptic state, and is able to go a little into 
 society. 
 
 I have had recently under treatment a medical student 
 aged twenty - one. He is bright and intelligent, and 
 able to judge his own caSe very well. He has had the 
 opportunity of trying many treatments at the hands of 
 some of our best physicians, and has come to the con- 
 clusion that hypnotic suggestion does him more good than 
 anything else. It certainly has diminished the number 
 and severity of the fits, and his general health has improved 
 with the giving up of strong drugs. 
 
 In one case I thought cure was effected, for the patient, 
 a City clerk, aged nineteen, went for a year without a fit. 
 Previous to treatment he used to have a bad one about 
 once a week. I believe the young man would have been 
 permanently cured had he taken care of himself and led a 
 rational life. But when he got better he used to drink, 
 frequent heated music-halls, and dissipate generally, so 
 
200 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 that no treatment had much chance, and he is now, I 
 beheve, a hopeless case. 
 
 W'etterstrand of Stockholm had considerable success in 
 the treatment of epilepsy by prolonged hypnosis. In some 
 cases he kept the patient asleep as long as six weeks at a 
 time. He renewed the suggestions daily, and the patient 
 used to eat and perform the usual functions in response to 
 suggestion. 
 
 The physiological indications in favour of this treatment 
 are strong. During hypnosis the higher cortical centres 
 in which the nerve storm has its origin are kept in a state 
 of rest, morbid association and periodicity are interrupted, 
 and time given for the weakened and impoverished cortical 
 cells to recuperate and become healthy. 
 
 It may here be mentioned that Auguste Voisin thus 
 treated at the Salpetriere several cases of periodic attacks 
 of mania occurring in women. He succeeded in curing 
 some of them by the ingenious device of hypnotizing them 
 before the period was expected, and keeping up the hypnosis 
 during the critical time. 
 
 I have only had the opportunity of trying this treat- 
 ment in two cases. Both subjects were hysterical girls, 
 and I found the prolonged sleep beneficial. In one case I 
 kept it up for three, and in the other for four, days. 
 
 Dr. Barwise quotes a case in which a lady was quite 
 cured of confirmed epilepsy, and is now the healthy 
 mother of a healthy family. He himself has treated four 
 cases — two of congenital epileptic imbecility which were 
 unaffected, and two the nature of which he does not 
 mention. One is completely cured, and the other has a 
 fit aoout once in three months, as compared with one or 
 two seizures a week.* 
 
 Dr. Barwise has kindly supplied me with the following 
 further particulars about these cases (May, 1891) : 
 
 ' The girl, aged about eighteen, began having fits when 
 menstruation appeared. I saw her in Birmingham about 
 a year ago, and she had had no recurrence. Before trying 
 * op. a'/., p. 20. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 201 
 
 hynotism I had given her bromides and the usual routine 
 remedies. In the case of the woman patient there was no 
 history of injury, but the attacks were preceded by a feeling 
 of numbness and powerlessness of the left hand.' 
 
 Berillon treated twenty cases of epilepsy in 1889 and the 
 first half of 1890. He found hypnotism curative in only 
 four cases. 
 
 In six other cases the treatment was beneficial in 
 reducing the number of the attacks, diminishing their 
 severity, and improving the general health, the memory 
 and mental condition being notably ameliorated. In the 
 ten other cases the results were negative. 
 
 Dr. Outterson Wood tells me he has effected a great 
 improvement, which seems likely to be permanent, in 
 a case of undoubted epilepsy of long standing. 
 
 Van Renterghem and Van Eeden treated seven cases 
 of epilepsy during 1887-88. and their results are not en- 
 couraging. In two cases no effect was produced, and in 
 four only slight or temporary benefit followed the treat- 
 ment. In a case of hystero-epilepsy in a medical student, 
 brought on apparently by the malpraxis of a travelling 
 magnetizer, they were successful, as already mentioned, 
 in stopping the attacks. 
 
 Liebeault considers that epilepsy may frequently be 
 cured by hynotism when it does not depend on gross 
 organic lesion. He counsels perseverance in the treat- 
 ment, and cites the case of an unmarried woman, aged 
 thirty-nine, affected with epileptic vertigo from her birth. 
 He continued the treatment assiduously for four years, 
 and at the end of that time the patient was cured, and has 
 continued so.* 
 
 Milne Bramwell says his results in epilepsy have been 
 encouraging, but not convincing. Out of ten cases five 
 were markedly improved, but none recovered completely. t 
 The question of the curability of organic disease by any 
 method of treatment is one of much interest, and does 
 not aifect hypnotism alone, but all therapeutic methods 
 * Op. cit., p. 144. t Op. cit., p. 257. 
 
202 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 equally. The answer depends in a great measure on what 
 we mean by cure. If we mean only removal of symptoms 
 and arrest of active disease, it is certain that the question 
 is answered in the affirmative every day, for we see patients 
 with obvious signs of phthisis pulmonalis, for example, 
 frequently restored to what may pass for sound health by 
 many forms of treatment. But if we mean restoration 
 of structurally degenerated and altered tissue, I think 
 no physician will have the temerity to maintain that 
 destroyed lung tissue can be restored, or that liver cells 
 spoilt by cirrhosis can be replaced. But there are stages 
 in a disease short of the stage of dissolution of tissue, in 
 which, if healthy action can be set up, we may hope for 
 restitutio ad iniegruin — for example, in the early period of 
 fatty degeneration of the heart, before the muscular fibres 
 have completely lost their character ; in the first on- 
 coming of Bright's disease after scarlet fever, before the 
 excreting structure is serious compromised. 
 
 Even when structural alteration has gone so far that 
 restoration of the tissue to its normal quality is impossible, 
 we can often prevent the extension of degenerative changes, 
 and can favour a compensative increase of functional 
 activity in the healthy tissue which remains — e.g., com- 
 pensative hypertrophy in valvular disease, hypertrophy of 
 the healthy kidney when the other is destroyed. We can 
 also afford relief by removing symptoms and reducing 
 them to their anatomical expression (de Watteville), as 
 we endeavour to do in incurable diseases, such as cancer 
 and tabes dorsalis. 
 
 There is a great choice of treatment for the attainment 
 of these various indications, and no sensible medical man 
 feels bound to any one of them, or maintains that it is the 
 only method which can afford relief. Sometimes no treat- 
 ment is required, and the only indications are to place the 
 patient under the most fovourable conditions for the 
 vis medicatrix naturce to act. In other cases a course of 
 hydropathy or massage favours the curative processes, 
 and in others, again, drugs exert a specific effect. Take, 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 203 
 
 for instance, a case of locomotor ataxy. Sometimes the 
 gait may be improved and the pains reheved by suspen- 
 sion or by re-educational exercises ; by drugs, especially 
 strychnia and antipyrin ; and by hypnotic suggestion. 
 From the way many persons criticize hypnotism and 
 hypnotics, one would suppose that we employed this agent 
 as a panacea in every case. This is exactly the position 
 we want to avoid and intend to keep out of. But we feel 
 that it is a very great point to have at our disposal a 
 method of treatment to which we can have recourse when 
 other remedies have failed. 
 
 The late Mr. Ernest Hart was strongly opposed to the 
 use of hypnotism. He said it was not wanted, for we had 
 other more reliable remedies for every curable disease. 
 One can only envy Mr. Hart the good fortune which must 
 have attended him in his practice. Most of us find it 
 otherwise, and an additional weapon in our armamentarium 
 is not to be despised. 
 
 The saying ' Nature is a good physician but a bad 
 surgeon,' is on the whole, true, for the tendency, fortu- 
 nately, in most acute diseases is restoration towards 
 normal health if the conditions are favourable. Hence 
 we meet medical men in large and successful practice, 
 whose experience lies chiefly with acute illness, perfectly 
 
 ~ satisfied with things as they are. But even they will find 
 hypnotism useful in relieving symptoms and promoting 
 convalescence."^ 
 
 S When we come to chronic disease it is otherwise, and a 
 vicious circle once entered upon is apt to grow wider in 
 
 ' extent and permanent in duration unless broken by appro- 
 
 i priate treatment. 
 
 In treating it the conscientious practitioner is often 
 
 * It has been said that out of a hundred patients under the care 
 
 I of an ordinary practitioner, 80 per cent, will get well with ordinary 
 
 I routine treatment, 10 per cent, will recjuire special treatment, and 
 
 ( 5 per cent, will prove incurable to any treatment. The residual 5 per 
 
 ■ cent, is almost a negligible quantity to the busy practitioner, and is 
 
 ' the source from which the clientele of specialists, orthodox and 
 
 1 unorthodox, is drawn. A large proportion of the two latter classes 
 
 I could be benefited or cured by hypnotism. 
 
204 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 reduced to his wits' end to know what to do for his i 
 patient's good, and he will be well advised to try hypnotic 
 suggestion, either himself or through the agency of a 
 medical friend. 
 
 I would again urge medical men to try hypnotism first and 
 not last. Over thirty years ago, when I first began to use 
 hypnotism, I was asked to address an audience of medical 
 men in North London on the subject. Discussion was 
 invited, and I was considerably heckled. I remember one 
 gentleman was very outspoken. He asked if I advised 
 him to hypnotize the next patient who came to his surgery 
 with stomach-ache, and ended his harangue by betting me 
 five pounds that I couldn't hypnotize him ! So much has 
 professional feeling altered in the last few years that I ' 
 doubt if any medical man to-day would display such 
 ignorance. 
 
 I have tried hypnotism in about fifty cases of stam- 
 mering, and in half of these I have found it useful. In 
 two cases, those of schoolboys, complete cure resulted, 
 and in six others there is so much improvement that little 
 inconvenience remains. One of the patients is a barrister, 
 who was debarred from pleading in court by his infirmity. 
 He was only slightly susceptible to hypnotism, but he 
 improved rapidly, and he has recently written to tell me 
 that he has been appointed Recorder of a large town, and 
 fills that important post with satisfacton. 
 
 Another recent case is that of a medical student who 
 had repeatedly failed at his viva-voce examination, not, he 
 said, from want of knowledge, but from a mental con- 
 fusion which seemed complementary to the physical 
 difficulty of speaking the necessary words. All his atten- 
 tion was required for the mechanical work of articulation, 
 and he could give none to the subject-matter. Probably 
 the stammerer is often handicapped in this way, and I 
 think the remedy is, if possible, to bring about a natural 
 automatism in speaking. The mistake made in many 
 systems is that the attention is more than ever directed to 
 the weak spot, and morbid self-consciousness, which is 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 205 
 
 such a prominent feature in stammering, is thereby 
 increased. 
 
 I always try to impress upon stammerers that clear 
 and easy articulation is a natural act, and should come 
 spontaneously. It is like walking. If one tries to walk 
 elegantly and pick one's steps, the result is probably a very 
 halting performance, and it is often the same in speaking. 
 
 I have observed a great many patients who have been 
 under the treatment of different professors of voice pro- 
 duction and elocution. They have been given elaborate 
 exercises, and have probably benefited as long as they 
 carried out the rules laid down, and continued under the 
 eye of the master. But return to the normal conditions 
 of life has generally brought about a relapse. One of the 
 worst cases of stammering I ever heard was that of a 
 young Cambridge man who had for six months been the 
 show pupil of a voice specialist. 
 
 These systems attack the periphery instead of the centre, 
 and I am afraid only rarely cure the patient. 
 
 It is interesting to note that these views are shared by 
 Mr. Appelt, a professional but non-medical voice specialist. 
 He attaches great importance to the psychic and nervous 
 element in stammering, and treats his cases by a modified 
 psycho-analytic method."^ 
 
 Dr. Forbes Winslow claims to cure many cases by transfer. 
 I have only tried this method once. The patient was a 
 young undergraduate, with a very bad stammer. He was 
 not a good hypnotic subject, and suggestion had done him 
 no good. So I hypnotized my friend G , a rather dis- 
 tinguished wrangler, who is a somnambule, in his presence, 
 and told him to take on the stammer, and imitate the 
 patient's speech exactly. 
 
 When I awakened Mr. G he acted the part beauti- 
 fully, and I impressed upon the patient that his burden 
 was being borne by my friend, and that he was relieved of 
 it. It was certainly a strong appeal to the imagination, 
 but it didn't work; and I found myself with two bad 
 
 * ' Stammering and its Permanent Cure,' by A. Appelt. 1910. 
 
2o6 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 stammerers instead of only one, until I rehypnotized G 
 
 and restored him to normal speech. 
 
 Dr. W'ingfield is very successful in his treatment of 
 stammering by hypnotic suggestion, and he tells me he has 
 sometimes succeeded in curing cases of long standing in a 
 few sittings. He has cured six cases out of twelve, some 
 of them very bad ones.* 
 
 A bad stammer is a terrible handicap in the battle of 
 life, and any means of curing it should be welcomed as a 
 boon. I think hypnotic suggestion is the most hopeful 
 remedy in the case of young adults, and that it will 
 generally succeed in curing children if systematically em- 
 ployed before the habit has become fixed and permanent. 
 
 In the summer of 1905 I was asked to test the value of 
 hypnotic treatment on five Board-school girls, of ages 
 varying from nine to thirteen. Of these, one child proved 
 insusceptible after repeated trials, and one became som- 
 nambulic. The other three were influenced to the third 
 degree (Liebeault). The somnambulic child happened to 
 be the simplest case, and was completely cured in a few 
 sittings. One of the other children had such a bad 
 stammer as to be almost unintelligible, and she was little, 
 if at all, benefited. The other two improved considerably 
 under treatment, and would, I think, have been cured if it 
 had been possible to give them lessons in proper voice 
 production at the same time as the hypnotic suggestion. t 
 
 If it is of importance, in some cases, to transfer normal 
 actions from the domain of excessive consciousness to 
 that of subconsciousness, it is no less important, on the 
 other hand, to be able at times to reverse the process, 
 and to bring morbid actions which have become auto- 
 
 * 0/>. tvV., p. 148. 
 
 •j- Our object in undertaking these cases was entirely in the interest 
 of truthful investigation, and at the close of the treatment we wrote to 
 the teachers and parents asking them if they found the children bene- 
 fited. The parents evidently thought that we sought testimonials for 
 advertising purposes, for they supplied most glowing ones, even con- 
 cerning the poor child who had derived no appreciable benefit. This 
 good-natured facility showed us how easily such testimonials are 
 manufactured. 
 
. TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 207 
 
 matic under the direct action of the will. Nail-biting is 
 an example of what I mean. Here the habit has become 
 automatic and unconscious, so the child puts his hands 
 to his mouth and destroys his nails without knowing it, 
 until perhaps he has gnawed them to the quick, and is 
 rendered conscious of his act by the pain. Acting on 
 Herillon's advice, I have in treating these cases by sug- 
 gestion made it my aim to bring these unconscious 
 morbid actions into the sphere of consciousness, and 
 establish, as it were, a fence of inhibitory suggestions to 
 protect the threatened part. The child is told that in 
 future, when he moves his hand to the mouth to bite his 
 nails, he will feel a heaviness in his arm and shoulder and 
 a tingling in the fingers, which will continue until he calls 
 his conscious will into play and checks the impulse. An 
 inhibitory centre is thus educated ; and I have found this 
 treatment successful in a number of cases, not only of 
 nail-biting, but of other bad habits. The same principle 
 is sometimes acted upon in the treatment of drunkards. 
 The patient is told that if he attempts to raise a glass of 
 spirits to his lips, his arm will become paralyzed, and he 
 will drop the glass. 
 
 I feel perfectly convinced that hypnotic suggestion is 
 the ideal treatment for curing morbid habits in children. 
 If the child is a good subject, as most children are, the 
 effects of bad heredity can be neutralized by it.* 
 
 In incipient melancholia, and in depression of spirits 
 short of this, I have found it of service ; but hitherto I 
 have failed to notice much effect from it when the con- 
 dition was of long standing. On several occasions I have 
 
 * A great deal is written nowadays about eugenics and heredity, 
 and while acknowledging their importance, I confess to thinking 
 environment and education are still greater factors in human progress. 
 I once asked a friend much engaged in philanthropic work among 
 working boys whether he would feel most hopeful dealing with a 
 dozen lads — sons, say, of bishops — brought up in slums under the 
 worst conditions, or with an equal number of sons of convicted 
 criminals brought up under perfect conditions. He unhesitatingly 
 replied that most of the former would turn out badly, and most of the 
 latter would do well. Of course, the ideal is to combine good heredity 
 with good upbringing. 
 
2o8 TREATMENT BY HYIWOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 succeeded in removing false ideas, as in the case of a 
 gentleman who was afraid to enter a dark room in con- 
 sequence of having been frightened by ghost-stories when 
 a child. One frequently finds morbid fixed ideas depend 
 upon a suggestion made in early life, and these are well 
 met by a course of counter-suggestion. 
 
 I was once consulted as to the case of a young pro- 
 fessional man, who was afflicted with bulimia, a form of 
 morbid craving which is, I believe, uncommon. He has 
 periodical attacks of irresistible craving for food, analogous 
 to the desire for alcohol felt by dipsomaniacs. He feels 
 these attacks coming on, and begs his friends to look after 
 him, and take care of his money and jewellery, lest he 
 should pawn them for food. But, in spite of everything, 
 he finds means of raising money, and with it buys food to 
 an enormous amount. This he secretes, and gorges him- 
 self with until he can eat no more. For instance, on one 
 occasion he bought and devoured within a few hours a 
 quartern loaf, two pounds of cheese, a tinned tongue, a 
 quantity of pastry, a pot of jam, and a large assortment of 
 sweets. The bout is followed by violent sickness and a 
 bilious attack, which lasts for some days. Hypnotism 
 offers the best hope of cure in such a case ; but, as illus- 
 trating the prejudice against the remedy in some quarters, 
 the patient's friends have persuaded him not to trj' it, but 
 to live as a voluntary boarder in a lunatic asylum ! 
 
 This is only one case of several where the fear of hypno- 
 tism has been so great as to make the patient refuse to 
 submit to it, though his condition was desperate. I was 
 recently consulted about a young lady whose health and 
 safety were gravely menaced by her habit of sleep-walking ; 
 so bad had this become that she used to get herself tied 
 into bed at night. Yet she refused to let me try hypnotism, 
 as she had been warned against it by an elderly doctor whom 
 she trusted. This was particularly unfortunate, because 
 spontaneous somnambulism is one of those troubles which 
 hypnotism cures with the greatest certainty. I cured the 
 only three cases I have treated, and Sir F. Cruise tells me 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 209 
 
 he has had similar results. It appears to me that the 
 doctor allowing a patient's life and happiness to be 
 wrecked by such ignorance and prejudice incurs a terrible 
 responsibility. 
 
 I 'have notes of a remarkable case of this kind. The 
 patient, a young Irishwoman, was sent to me by the late Sir 
 Francis Cruise in igio. She was a hard-working, bright, 
 tractable girl during the day, but nearly every night became 
 a dangerous maniac, striking those about her and breaking 
 furniture. Dr. Haydn Brown kindly took her into his 
 house at Caterham and treated her by hypnotic suggestion. 
 He watched by her bedside the first two nights. The 
 first night she seemed to awake after a few minutes' sleep, 
 stared wildly about her, and leaped out of bed. Though 
 her hands were tied, she drew the heavy bedstead across 
 the room, and was quite maniacal. Dr. Brown had 
 hypnotized her the previous day, and now he had only to 
 speak forcibly and put his hand on her head and she went 
 back quietly to bed. The following night there was less 
 disturbance, and afterwards none at all. The patient 
 returned home cured, and was married soon afterwards. 
 
 Hypnotism introduces one to curious histories. I under- 
 took with some confidence the case of a gentleman, aged 
 fifty, who for three years had suffered from a curious 
 antipathy, apparently half mental and half physical. He 
 was unable to remain in the room with his youngest son, a 
 bright, intelligent boy of twelve, on account of the feeling 
 of restlessness which used to come over him, followed by 
 flushing of the face, noises in the ears, confusion of thought, 
 and palpitation of the heart. He was perfectly sane, held 
 an important financial position, and there was absolutely 
 no cause to account for the sensation. The feeling was 
 confined to this particular boy. At first I found it im- 
 possible to influence him sufficiently to master this idee 
 fixe, but later on he developed into a fairly good subject. 
 
 In December, i88g, the gentleman came to see me, not 
 as a patient, but as escort to a lady who wished to be 
 
 hypnotized. The lady was nervous, and Mr. X 
 
 14 
 
2IO TREATMENT BY HYPXOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 offered to let me demonstrate the process on him. To 
 our mutual surprise, he yielded to the soporific influence. 
 and fell into the second stage of hypnotic sleep, after look- 
 ing at a bright disc held above his eyes for a couple of 
 minutes, and I was at once able to make suggestions com- 
 bating his delusion. He experienced less discomfort than 
 usual from his son's presence that evening, and there was 
 no difficulty in hypnotizing him subsequently. The morbid 
 idea was of three years' persistence, was steadily increasing 
 in intensity up to the time of his being first hypnotized, 
 and was a cause of serious distress and worry to him. I 
 had endeavoured to influence him no less than ten times 
 previously with absolutely no effect, and I attribute my 
 ultimate success to the fact that his mind was taken off 
 its guard ; and the nervousness and unconscious resistance, 
 which had prevented any hypnotic effect when he came as 
 a patient, were no longer existent when he returned merely 
 as a spectator. Readers of fiction will remember that 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes learnedly discusses a somewhat 
 similar train of symptoms, upon which he founds his novel, 
 'A Mortal Antipathy.' 
 
 In many forms of genito-urinary troubles I have found 
 suggestion a useful auxiliary in treatment ; nor is this to 
 be wondered at when we consider the amount of functional 
 disturbance which is present in these cases. I have cured 
 two very bad cases of prostatic neuralgia, and a most 
 obstinate one of pruritus vulvae, which rendered the 
 patient's life a burden to her. In many forms of rheuma- 
 tism the effect of hypnotic treatment is at first sight 
 surprising. It very frequently removes pain, even in 
 chronic rheumatoid arthritis. There is a great deal of 
 neuralgia mixed up with most kinds of rheumatism, and 
 suggestion enables us to meet this, and at the same time 
 to bring about an alteration in the local blood-supply, 
 especially if aided by friction.* 
 
 * Rheumatism, both muscular and articular, is peculiarly under the 
 influence of suggestion, hypnotic and otherwise. One sees this in the 
 advertisements of the day of prairie oil, electropathic belts, and anti- 
 rheumatic rings. The last-named are having a great vogue, partly in 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 211 
 
 Braid was extremely successful in treating these cases, 
 and he used to combine a good deal of manipulation with 
 hypnotism. This manipulation acted in two ways : first, 
 on the part, by helping to break down adhesions, stimulat- 
 ing the muscles, etc., and, secondl}^, on the central nervous 
 system, by suggestion and direction of the mind to the 
 affected part. 
 
 In treating local troubles, it is very advisable to combine 
 Braid's manipulative method with Liebault's suggestions. 
 In cases of rheumatism I have frequently seen the joint 
 to which this double treatment has been applied quickly 
 relieved from pain, whilst the corresponding one has con- 
 tinued painful until attention was specially directed to it. 
 
 I have succeeded on two or three occasions in breaking 
 down adhesions about rheumatic joints without pain, when 
 the patient would not allow me to touch them in his 
 normal state. 
 
 I met with rather a striking case in i8g6. The patient 
 was a country practitioner, and had suffered from obstinate 
 rheumatism of the right deltoid muscle for several months. 
 As his practice was a driving one, he found the condition 
 extremely inconvenient as well as painful. He had tried 
 injections of morphia into the substance of the muscle, 
 and had been treated with massage and electricity without 
 benefit. The arm was becoming wasted from disuse, and 
 any movement of the shoulder caused acute pain. He 
 was hypnotizable to the third degree, and I suggested 
 that he should feel no pain when I moved the shoulder, 
 and that there should be no tenderness on pressure. I 
 cautiously swung the arm round, and freely massaged the 
 muscle without his wincing, and in a few moments I told 
 him to open his eyes and try for himself. He found him- 
 self much relieved, and the improvement was still more 
 manifest when he came to see me next day. The treat- 
 consequence of the testimonial given by a popular Archdeacon. The 
 old-fashioned remedy for rheumatism, half a raw potato carried in the 
 pocket, has still many advocates, and possesses the advantage of 
 cheapness I 
 
212 Th'EATMEXT BY HYPSOTISM ASD SUGGESTION 
 
 ment was repeated on that day and the one following, and 
 he then returned to his practice cured. He was so much 
 impressed by what he had experienced that he took up 
 hypnotism enthusiastically, and began to use it with his 
 patients. He performed two or three minor operations 
 under hypnotic anaesthesia, and relieved many cases of 
 insomnia, neuralgia, and nervous trouble generally. But 
 the village in which he lived was exceptionally antiquated, 
 and the people would have none of this ' new witchcraft.' 
 
 Dr. S found he was looked at askance, and began to 
 
 lose his practice. Being a family man, and a sensible one, 
 he argued that if his patients didn't want the best treat- 
 ment he could offer them it was not for him to force it on 
 them to his own ruin. So he wrote a letter to the greatest 
 gossip of the neighbourhood renouncing his advocacy of 
 hypnotism, and undertaking never to use it again in the 
 place. He was received back into the fold of orthodo.xy 
 as a sinner who had repented, and he has his reward.* 
 
 Hypnotism sometimes enables us to understand the 
 nature of a case which has baffled treatment. It threw a 
 
 flood of light, for instance, on the case of Mrs. B . 
 
 This lady came to me suffering from very severe facial 
 neuralgia of more than a year's duration. She was a 
 thoroughly good, well-intentioned woman, who, in addition 
 
 * The Psycho-Medical .Society has been started with the idea of 
 .giving backbone and support to doctors who are handicapped in their 
 researches by being isolated and cold-shouldered. Dr. Hugh Wingfield, 
 in joining the society, writes : ' I hope the new society will succeed in \ 
 removing the prejudice against hypnotism in England. ... I am very , 
 glad it has come at last.' He adds : ' 1 make use of hypnotism a good 
 deal in cases of dipsomania, and the results are to me astonishing.' 
 
 The need of such a society was felt by my friend Dr. B some 
 
 years ago. He was house-surgeon to a provincial hospital, and in the 
 wards was a patient with stammering bladder. All sorts of treatment 
 
 were tried unsuccessfully, and at last Dr. B hypnotized him and 
 
 applied suggestion. Tlie man was almost immediately cured, and 
 left the hospital full of gratitude. But the chairman of the board of 
 
 management severely censured Dr B , and told him he must not 
 
 again use mesmerism in the hospital, as it would bring the institution 
 
 into bad repute. For years Dr. B was afraid to speak of 
 
 liypnotism ; but times and opinions changed, and he now has an 
 extensive practice, and is making a large income as a psycho-therapist. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 213 
 
 to devoting herself to arather exacting husband and seven 
 children, spent several hours a day ' slumming ' in a large 
 town. She kept irregular hours, and neglected herself in 
 every possible way, with the result, of course, that she 
 broke down. But she considered it her duty to sacrifice 
 her health, and, in spite of illness, continued to overtax 
 herself She came up for two weeks' treatment, and I 
 hypnotized her daily. She was only slightly susceptible, 
 but quite sufficiently so for our purpose. She told her 
 husband after two or three days that, though she was 
 getting better, this was due to the change and rest, and 
 that she was not hypnotized. He very sensibly told me 
 this, and enabled me to make a necessary change in my 
 methods. I hypnotized her as usual, and asked how she 
 felt. She replied that she was comfortable, and that the 
 pain was better. I then told her she couldn't open her 
 eyes, and she tried in vain to do so. Then I assured her 
 that she was under hypnotic influence, that she would be 
 cured, and that she would not be able to open her eyes 
 until the pain had quite gone. 
 
 For twenty minutes it was a duel between us, for all the 
 time she was trying to open her eyes, while I was suggest- 
 ing she couldn't until the pain was cured. Gradually she 
 acknowledged that it was getting better, and at last she 
 said it was gone, and opened her eyes. She had no more 
 pain, and returned to the country quite well and strong. 
 She remained well for six months, though she again syste- 
 matically neglected all the rules of health ; and then I heard 
 she had another breakdown, accompanied by severe sciatica. 
 
 This lady was one of those who hug their infirmities 
 and call it ' bearing their cross.' She was quite sulky 
 when she had to give up her neuralgia, though, of course, 
 she would not admit it It had become a part of her 
 personality. Sometimes one is told by such patients that 
 they wouldn't know themselves without their disease. 
 Many people allow themselves to fall into a state of in- 
 validism because it is, they think, interesting, and appeals 
 to their friends' sympathies ; and others take up the role 
 
214 TREATMEST BY HYPSOTISM AXD SUGGESTION 
 
 because the)- find it is one they can fill gracefully, perhaps 
 after having failed in other walks of life. "^ 
 
 Doctors and nurses are kindly people, and may often 
 be termed professional sympathizers. I knew one rich 
 young woman who was never so happy as when in a 
 nursing home preparing for an operation. She had had 
 both ovaries and one kidney removed. While her younger 
 and more attractive sister and rival was enjoying the 
 normal life of a young girl of means, this poor woman had 
 her coterie of sympathetic and admiring friends and doctors. 
 She was much benefited by a course of suggestion, and 
 was led to regard life from a new point of view. Many 
 chronic invalids are always kicking against the pricks, and 
 are obsessed by the idea that ' Providence has a special 
 down upon them.' Removal of this sense of grievance is 
 the first step towards a better state of things, and hypnotic 
 suggestion greatly helps to do this. 
 
 The subconscious mind is a strange thing, and plays 
 curious pranks with our health and thoughts. It is not 
 reached by drugs, but by psychical influences, and I 
 believe hypnotism to be the best and most philosophical 
 Vvay of employing these. The researches of Freud and 
 the methods of psycho-analysis throw a flood of light on 
 this strange warping of the personality and the vagaries of 
 invalid subconsciousness. 
 
 The sick man may be likened to a person fallen down 
 
 * Dr. Haydn Brown, acting upon my advice, has established in his 
 medical home at Chislehurst, a system of employing neurotic patients 
 in useful and productive work under the direction of competent in- 
 structors. The creative instinct is strong in mankind, and many of 
 our patients suft'er from its not being exercised. Work they regard as 
 an evil to be avoided as much as possible. Distracted by ennui and 
 imprisoned in self, their one hope of lasting cure lies in work and 
 contact with the realities of life (W'ingfield). To get such persons to 
 make something useful is the best forms of re-education. The system 
 has laeen successfulh* worked for years in Germany and Switzerland. 
 The effect on the energetic idler is striking and immediate. He feels 
 a new interest in life when he has achieved something and can show 
 the fruits of his labour, be it only a walking-stick or hand basket. 
 Games and sports are good in their way, but constructive work is 
 much better. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 215 
 
 into a well. It is generally sufficient to lower a rope and 
 haul him up, the subject adjusting the rope around him- 
 self and co-operating with his rescuers. But the well may 
 be deep and the injury caused so serious that the subject 
 is unable to help himself, and the rescuer has to descend 
 and adjust the rope round his helpless body and so effect 
 his relief. Again, the subject may be insane to start with, 
 or have been rendered so by the fall, and instead of co- 
 operating with his rescuer or being passive, may actually 
 fight against him and require compulsory salvage. I 
 should say the patient the practitioner has generally to 
 deal with belongs to the first class. Most hypnotic patients 
 belong to the second, and deep hypnosis and psycho- 
 analysis often make it possible to successfully treat the 
 third class.* 
 
 Forms of insanity which were once thought to depend 
 upon obsession and demoniacal possession are now known 
 
 * I have come across many cases illustrating this point. For 
 instance, one wealthy neurasthenic gentleman wanted to make a 
 bargain with me to keep him in my house for a year on the under- 
 standing that he should pay me £700 if I succeeded and nothing if I 
 failed. To him I replied that I was open to a ' sporting offer,' but on 
 rather different lines — viz., that he should pay me only half fees if I 
 succeeded and double ones if I failed. For if the physician got neither 
 success nor money, his case was doubly hard. Of course, the patient 
 did not accept my offer, and I expect he is still going about from cure 
 to cure at home and abroad. Another patient assured my house- 
 keeper, with great satisfaction, that she had worn out fifteen doctors I 
 I once took such a patient to a well-known alienist, who at once 
 realized the position and said to him : ' My friend, the trouble you 
 suffer from is damned selfishness, and that same fills half the lunatic 
 asylums in the country.' One is always being asked to make silk 
 purses out of sow's ears, and a good doctor sometimes sacrifices 
 liimself in vain for a bad patient. Some such patients seem to require 
 not only re-education as practised by Vittoz of Lausanne, and by 
 Crichton Miller of London, but to be born again. I have known cases 
 where disaster and financial ruin have brought about cure after all the 
 doctors had failed, because the patient has had to follow Abernethy's 
 advice to earn a shilling a day and live on it. There is no greater 
 satisfaction than that derived from renewing a broken life and restoring 
 a working member of society to usefulness, but I advise young practi- 
 tioners taking up psycho-therapy to be on their guard against psychic 
 parasites and moral vampires. One of the points cleverly insisted 
 upon by Mrs. Eddy is the throwing of the onus of failure to cure on 
 the patient instead of on the ' healer.' 
 
2i6 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 to arise from perverted subliminal consciousness. Janet 
 relates many cases, some of which are quoted by Myers. 
 For instance, that of a commercial traveller who became 
 absolutely sleepless, and thought himself possessed by the 
 devil. Ordinary attempts to hypnotize him failed, until 
 Janet humoured the morbid idea, and addressed himself 
 to the obsessing devil. He defied him to put his victim to 
 sleep in a certain chair. ' The devil ' fell into the trap, 
 and the man fell into a sound sleep. Janet then found 
 him open to his suggestions, and got him to tell the cause 
 of the trouble. This, it appears, w-as an act of infidelity to 
 his w^fe while on his travels, which so preyed upon his 
 mind that he thought himself damned and given over to 
 the devil. Janet combated the exaggerated idea, conquered 
 it, and cured the patient. Only a very skilful psychologist 
 could hope to treat such a case successfully. Some years 
 before I knew anything of hypnotism I attended a gentle- 
 man whose remorse took a similar form. His ending was 
 was tragic, for he committed suicide.* 
 
 In various small surgical procedures, such as lancing 
 whitlows, opening abscesses, etc., I have found hypnotism 
 a useful anaesthetic ; and it is evident that in certain 
 operations in which chloroform is inadmissible, either 
 from the condition of the patient or from the locality of 
 the operation, hypnotism may be a valuable substitute. 
 
 It has been used in this way at the Paris hospitals, and 
 notably in a case of ovariotomy at the Hotel Dieu. 
 
 There is no doubt about the value of suggestion after 
 surgical operations in relieving pain, procuring sleep, and 
 promoting convalescence. I believe hypnotic suggestion 
 
 * Janet's method in these cases reminds one of that advocated by 
 Van Helmont in the seventeenth century, when he wrote, ' Dropsy 
 is not due to an org^anic lesion of the Hver, but to the anger of 
 the renal Archeus, who has lost his temper and refuses to work. 
 One way of reducing him to order is to terrify him, and this may be 
 done by tying a snake round the patient's waist and applying live toads 
 to the region of the kidneys' (Withington's ' Medical History from the 
 Earliest Times,' p. 308, London, 1894). But the modern physician 
 only pretends to believe in the malignant devil, and casts him out by 
 suggestions instead of loathly reptiles. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 217 
 
 will often be found to fill as beneficent a role after 
 operations as anaesthetics have done during them. 
 
 Creed finds hypnotism very useful to relieve pain and 
 prevent spasm after fractures and other accidents. He 
 has trained some of his patients so that they can throw 
 themselves into a state of hypnotic anaesthesia by using 
 a prearranged signal. For instance, a gentleman let a 
 quantity of ' Chatterton's Compound,' a substance more 
 destructive than molten sealing-wax, fall on his hand. 
 He immediately put the index-finger of his left hand to 
 his mouth, which was the signal agreed upon, and a state 
 of analgesia at once followed. The patient did not lose 
 consciousness or become in any way affected save that he 
 felt no pain. Recovery from this severe injury was rapid 
 and painless. In dressing surgical wounds Creed finds he 
 can induce local anaesthesia by suggestion, without other 
 hypnotic effect, so that the patient goes on talking ration- 
 ally all the time {loc. cit., p. 7). I have also seen several 
 cases of this kind.* 
 
 * The following extracts from a letter from a highly respected 
 country practitioner, Dr. Hoskins, of Masterton, New Zealand, are, I 
 .think, worthy of consideration : ' In February and March last I made 
 a trip over to study hypnotic suggestion in Sydney, under Dr. Creed, 
 who has taken the matter in hand after due inquiry. I have certainly 
 been greatly astonished at the results obtained in my cases. ... I 
 have never yet touched a case which I have not enormously benefited, 
 far and away more than I could do by ordinary treatment. ... I 
 very much regret that I had not taken the subject up years ago. But, 
 like the rest of our profession, I was prone to believe there was a good 
 deal of low-down charlatanism about it. After reading Dr. Creed's 
 address to the N.S.W. branch of the B.M.A., of which he has been 
 twice president, I communicated with him, and went across to see 
 him, and I have been easily able to prove personally nearly all I 
 saw there.' Another New Zealand practitioner. Dr. James Boyd, 
 F.R.C.S. Edin., has kindly sent me a report of a recent case of his 
 {New Zealand Medical Journal, November, 19 12). The patient, a 
 man of sixty, was buried while at work by a heavy fall of earth. He 
 was dug out, and treated at the hospital for some weeks. There was 
 no fracture or dislocation, but pain and inability to walk caused by 
 sacro-iliac strain. He was unable to work, sit, stoop, or lace his 
 boots, and his nerves were giving way under the strain. As no 
 progress was made after sixteen weeks, Dr. Boyd hypnotized him, 
 and he became somnambulic at once. Suggestions were made and 
 the patient awakened, the whole opei'ation taking five minutes. All 
 
2i8 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 It may be objected that it is dangerous to suppress pain, 
 which is Nature's danger-signal to call attention to the 
 injured organ. This is only true to a limited extent, and 
 one need not go on waving the danger-signal indefinitely. 
 The amount of pain is generally far in excess of such 
 requirement, and its alleviation is one of the practitioner's 
 most urgent functions. Fortunate is the patient who can 
 have this effected without opiates or other anodyne drugs. 
 
 I have tried the effect of suggestion on five or six 
 patients who were about to make long sea-voyages. In 
 one of these the effect was very striking, for, though the 
 sea was rough, the lady, for the first time in her life, was 
 free from sickness. In two other cases there was great 
 improvement compared with previous experiences. In 
 every case the result justified the trial of the remedy. 
 Li^beault, Berillon, Farez, Osgood, Gorodichize, and 
 other physicians have also used hypnotic suggestion 
 successfully against lual de mer {Revue dc VHypnotismc, 
 i8g6, 1905). Milne Bramwell had remarkable success in 
 two cases [op. cit., p. 262), and generally the consensus of 
 opinion as to the efficacy of hypnotic suggestion in this 
 troublesome disorder is very striking. Osgood reports 
 four cases of chronic eczema which he cured by suggestion, 
 and one remarkable case of chronic dermatitis of excep- 
 tional severity after frost-bite. I have had remarkable 
 success in several severe cases of pruritus, general and 
 local, and Bramwell reports similar results. One of my 
 patients was a lady of sixty, who had suffered tortures for 
 years, and being wealthy, had tried many kinds of treat- 
 ment. Though but slightly h}pnotizable, she soon 
 responded to suggestion and was quite cured. 
 
 The casual and careless application of hypnotic sugges- 
 
 the pains and disabilities disappeared as if by magic, and did not 
 return. The treatment was repeated on four consecutive days, and 
 the cure is permanent. The change in appearance from that of a 
 prematurely broken-down old man racked with pain to that of a smart, 
 upright middle-aged one, was, to say the least, remarkable, adds 
 Dr. Boyd. The patient was sure that a new and wonderful drug had 
 been injected. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 219 
 
 tion will be no test of its value, and handing it over to 
 unscientific persons will certainly end in disaster. 
 
 If medical men will employ the Nancy method of treat- 
 ment in their ordinary practice, they will find it a very 
 useful auxiliary in many trying, painful, and tedious cases. 
 
 For instance, in two cases of myxcedema I have used 
 hypnotism to assist specific treatment by thyroid gland 
 extract. The result was most satisfactory, for the symp- 
 toms, especially the mental ones, were speedily controlled 
 by suggestion, while the medicine was working on the 
 cause. 
 
 Dr. Douglas Bryan, of Leicester, recently published 
 some notes on interesting cases occurring in his practice. 
 He concludes his article with these words : ' To those 
 medical men who have not given hypnotic suggestion a 
 trial the above cases will read almost like fiction ; yet it is 
 open to all medical men to give hypnotism a fair trial, and 
 I am confident that, if such be the case, they will very 
 soon be able to quote cases quite as interesting and as 
 satisfactory as the two I have described.'* 
 
 By expressing this opinion I have aroused some oppo- 
 sition ; for there are those who think that, besides 
 damaging the patient's health, the practice of hypnotism 
 would ruin the doctor's pocket and reputation, since he 
 might become the prey of designing adventurers and the 
 victim of all kinds of charges and blackmail. I don't 
 suppose that the most enthusiastic hypnotist w^ould advise 
 the practitioner to hypnotize his patients recklessly and 
 promiscuously ; on the contrary, the more experienced he 
 is, the greater caution will he exercise. But probably 
 every medical man has many patients who would very 
 much prefer twenty minutes' somnolence in an easy chair 
 as treatment for neuralgia to a course of medicine, and 
 others on whom the resources of ordinary treatment have 
 been employed in vain.t 
 
 * General Practitioner, December 15, 1906. 
 
 t The experience of capable general practitioners on this subject is 
 convincing. For instance, Dr. Haydn Brown's first case at Caterham 
 
220 TREATMENT BY HYPSOTISM ASD SUGGESTION 
 
 It is well to understand that the Nancy method of 
 hypnotization acts on the central nervous system as a 
 brain calmative, and that its object is the production of a 
 state analogous to natural sleep by imitation of natural 
 processes, and is thus a wooing of repose. The condition 
 obtained is characterized by increased suggestibility, and 
 it is through this the treatment works. The method 
 adopted by Charcot and his imitators to obtain catalepsy 
 by causing a violent and sudden sensory impression — by 
 sounding a gong or flashing a bright light — acts in a 
 totally different way, and induces a state analogous to 
 that produced in waking moments by sudden fright or 
 shock, which paralyze and transfix with terror. It is the 
 difference in method shown by two nurses, one of whom 
 quiets her charge by gentle persuasion, while the other 
 prevents her from crying by threats of the policeman. 
 Both children are kept quiet, but how different will be the 
 after-effect of the two methods ! 
 
 Liebeault, whose wisdom I learn to appreciate more and 
 
 was a healthy-looking servant in a house where I visited. She 
 suffered from most obstinate constipation, for which Dr. Brown pre- 
 scribed larger and larger doses of strong aperients, with only temporary 
 effect, and he was at his wits' end. I advised him to try hypnotic 
 suggestion, and he had the courage to do so. The girl proved a 
 somnambule, and Dr. Brown suggested that her bowels should be 
 moved on her return home. She had to walk two miles, and had to 
 hurry over the last part as the call became urgent. She was cured 
 from that time. Dubois considers hypnotism unnecessary, and thinks 
 any physician worth his salt should be able to cure simple constipa- 
 tion by reasoning with the patient. I should like to have seen him 
 tackle that case. Of course, hypnotism has to be used cautiously, 
 and I always impress on my medical friends that they should not 
 press it on unwilling patients, but rather use it as a favour. 
 
 Sometimes the effect will be found astonishing, as in a case reported 
 by Dr. Betts Taplin. He recommended a patient to undergo the 
 operation of gastrotomy for symptoms attributed to cancer of the 
 stomach. The diagnosis was verified by an exploratory operation, 
 and the eminent surgeon in charge pronounced the case as hopeless 
 and sewed up the wound. Dr. Taplin continued the treatment for 
 relief of symptoms, and to everyone's astonishment the patient got 
 quite well and continued so. Dr. Taplin frankly says that the 
 diagnosis of cancer was not absolutely verified, but the ulcerating 
 tumour which the operation disclosed was certainly killing the patient, 
 and he would have died. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 221 
 
 more, used to say : ' II faut dominer vos malades.' This 
 domination may be induced by love or fear, gentleness 
 or brusqueness, and it applies not only to the use of 
 hypnotism, but to all our relationship with patients. The 
 fantastic and nasty theory of some Freudians that the 
 patient falls in love with the hypnotizer is only referred to 
 here to be scouted. Some of the best results I have heard 
 of have been obtained by women doctors practising on 
 elderly members of their own sex. A very strong case is, 
 it appears to me, weakened and made offensive by such 
 a misuse of language. The subject is temperately dealt 
 with in this volume by Dr. Constance Long, Chapter XI. 
 
 The patient's mood may vary with consequent change 
 
 of effect. For instance, I treated Miss C in 1905 for 
 
 neurasthenia with characteristic symptoms, including con- 
 •stipation, insomnia, headache, mental depression, and 
 irritability, etc. A month's treatment worked wonders. 
 She went abroad, married, and had a son. Domestic 
 worries and other causes brought on a return of the disease, 
 and in 191 1 her friends induced her to consult me again. 
 I could see that she was antagonistic and hopeless, and, 
 though she was as hypnotizable as before — first degree — she 
 got no better, and after two or three weeks I gave her up. 
 She went in for all sorts of treatment without result, and at 
 last, in 1913, wrote to me asking me to take her in hand 
 once more, and saying that this time, as in 1905, she would, 
 she was sure, respond to my suggestions. So we tried again, 
 and though she was very much worse than before — being 
 reduced to almost a skeleton, and completely sleepless 
 without large doses of bromides or veronal — she rapidly 
 improved, appetite and natural sleep were regained, and 
 she put on ten pounds weight in three weeks. I need 
 hardly say that the difference the patient's attitude makes 
 to the sensitive physician's comfort is enormous. 
 
 Dr. Constance Long says : ' As a good bedside manner 
 is expected of the doctor and helps towards the recovery of 
 the patient, so a good in-bed manner helps the doctor, and 
 it is the duty of the patient to cultivate it.' 
 
333 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 A visit to some of the Paris hospitals will afford justifi- 
 cation for the assertion which is sometimes made, that 
 abuses have not been confined solely to non-medical 
 operators, and I am in agreement with a French corre- 
 spondent who writes :* * I consider that every hypnotist 
 commits a very grave fault when he provokes post- 
 hypnotic phenomena which have no bearing on the treat- 
 ment of the case. The production of pains or paralyses 
 which do not exist, and of hallucinations, etc., may 
 determine brain troubles, and lead to accidents.' The 
 temptation to experiment is sometimes great, but it 
 should never be yielded to except with the full consent of 
 the subject, and for a definite scientific object. The old 
 experiments have been repeated ad nauseam, and who is 
 now the wiser for seeing a T5-stone operator stand on 
 the outstretched body of a cataleptic subject, or what 
 can be learned from seeing a victim eat tallow candles 
 under the impression they are sweetmeats ? When ex- 
 periments are made, it is important not to repeat them 
 loo often, and to be careful always to remove any sug- 
 gested hallucination before the subject goes out into the 
 world. The much-quoted case of Krafft-Ebing's illus- 
 trates very clearly the dangers of hypnotism when the 
 state is induced constantly and wantonly in a morbid and 
 hysterical subject. While in a hospital at Pesth, before 
 she came into Krafft-Ebing's hands, she was constantly 
 being hypnotized, not only by the physicians, but by all 
 sorts of people, simply for amusement ; and in the 
 hypnotic state most absurd and trying hallucinations 
 were generally suggested to her — ' that she was a dog. 
 that she was intoxicated, that there was a snake on her 
 dress,' etc. What wonder that she ran away from an 
 institution where such things were allowed, and that when 
 Krafft-Ebing saw her first, he found her confused, absent, 
 and with her mind full of delusions and misconceptions ! 
 This poor girl was one of a family in which suicide, 
 hysteria, and madness were rampant, and it would be 
 * Dr. David, of Sigean (Aude). 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 223 
 
 hard to find a surer plan than that adopted of developing 
 all the diseased mental traits latent in her constitution. 
 Professor Krafft-Ebing has embodied in his book the 
 experiments which he continued to make on this subject, 
 but they were conducted with great care, and led to the 
 elucidation of many instructive points. He says: * No 
 detrimental effect upon her disease was ever observed as a 
 result of hypnosis when proper precautionary suggestions 
 were made.' This patient was so susceptible to sug- 
 gestion that stigmata could be evoked, and on one occa- 
 sion so severe an injury resulted from the suggestion of a 
 severe burn on her arm — the blade of a pair of scissors 
 being held against the skin, and the suggestion made that 
 it was red-hot — that the wound took several weeks to heal. 
 It has been asserted that there is danger of persons 
 who have been hypnotized becoming subject to attacks 
 of spontaneous somnambulism, and of their being reduced 
 to a condition of dangerous over-credulity. I can well 
 believe that if the method adopted is defective, there is 
 some justification for these fears. If, for instance, a 
 person is told that he is to fall into a state of catalepsy 
 on hearing a gong, the result might be embarrassing when 
 the dinner-gong sounded (see note, p. 61).* 
 
 Again, suppose a patient has been frequently hypnotized 
 by being made to regard the rotating mirror. Certain 
 advertisements at our railway-stations bear a considerable 
 resemblance to this instrument, and it is possible that 
 a sensitive subject might be involuntarily hypnotized 
 through staring at them. Fortunately, such mishaps 
 need never occur. The method used should be of a 
 
 * Men, like the lower animals, are creatures of habit, and associa- 
 tion of ideas plays a leading" part in our words and actions. If the 
 association is artificially strengthened by hypnotic suggestion, it may 
 be of overmastering cogency. We all know the story of the circus 
 horse which was borrowed for use as a charger. Everything went 
 well until the end of the review, when ' God save the Queen ' was 
 played. At the first bar the animal reared on his hind-legs, at the 
 second sat down on his haunches, and at the third rolled over on his 
 back. He had been trained to these actions, and they were evoked 
 by the accustomed stimulus. 
 
224 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 nature not likely to be spontaneously reproduced, and 
 the patient should be told that he is not to feel the least 
 inclination to hypnotic sleep except under certain circum- 
 stances, and with his own full consent. So powerful is 
 the effect of suggestion that the subject thus protected 
 will certainly be safer against hypnotic wiles than a person 
 who has never been hypnotized. It has often happened 
 that when the patient has been warned against allowing 
 himself to be hypnotized, the very operator who has made 
 the deterrent suggestion has for a time been unable to 
 influence him. 
 
 There is another objection urged against hypnotic 
 treatment, namely, that its effects are temporary, and 
 that when a relapse occurs hypnotism will not again 
 prove even palliative. The exact reverse is the truth. A 
 patient who has been once relieved by hypnotic treatment 
 is from that very cause a particularly good subject for 
 future treatment by the same means. In diseases where 
 the influence of hypnotism can only be temporary and 
 palliative, as in locomotor ataxy and cancer, it will be 
 found to relieve the pains more quickly and surely after 
 six months than it did at first. 
 
 It is not easy to understand what foundation there is 
 for many statements made about hypnotism. Most of 
 these stories probably date from the time when mes- 
 merism was extensively practised by ignorant and credu- 
 lous persons, and others are perhaps founded on the 
 experiences of professional magnetizers who have not been 
 careful as to their method nor too scrupulous in their 
 aims. I have on two or three occasions seen the induc- 
 tion of hypnotism for medical purposes actuate an attack 
 in an epileptic subject, and I have also on more than one 
 occasion seen it threaten to develop an access of hysteria 
 in a subject in whom that neurosis was latent. But in 
 nearly all cases it is easy to control any untoward symp- 
 toms by calming suggestions, or, if these fail, to awake 
 the patient and discontinue further proceedings for the 
 time. I think there is no doubt but that hypnotism deter- 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 225 
 
 mines the manifestation of latent emotional states — in the 
 
 same way as chloroform — and this is a reason for insisting 
 
 on its very careful handling. I have only seen one class 
 
 of willing patients in whom hypnotism seemed rather to 
 
 produce an aggravation of the symptoms — cases of what 
 
 Dr. Whittle calls congestive neurasthenia. In two cases 
 
 of the kind which came under my observation, I began by 
 
 adopting the course recommended by Dr. Whittle, and 
 
 applied three leeches behind the ears to relieve the urgent 
 
 congestion. This procedure greatly relieved the head 
 
 symptoms, and I then induced hypnosis with great facility 
 
 and considerable advantage. The patient should feel 
 
 refreshed and invigorated after the operation, and if this 
 
 result is not observed, but lassitude should prevail in spite 
 
 of suggestions to the contrary, I think it may be taken as 
 
 a sign that the treatment is counter-indicated. I have 
 
 only met with one case of the kind in my own practice, 
 
 but I have heard of a few others. 
 
 My friend Colonel Neilson, late Director-General of the 
 
 Army Medical Department, Canada, tells me that the 
 
 thing which first made him investigate hypnotism was 
 
 seeing the effect of the treatment on a bugler belonging 
 
 to his regiment, who was in hospital and given up as a 
 
 hopeless case of phthisis pulmonalis. He hypnotized the 
 
 man, and suggested quiet sleep, freedom from cough, and 
 
 good appetite. The patient was only affected to the 
 
 second degree, but the suggestions immediately began 
 
 to tell : the exhausting, ineffectual cough diminished, the 
 
 appetite improved, and the man slept well. In six weeks 
 
 he was able to leave the hospital and return to duty. 
 
 The man was never influenced beyond the second degree. 
 
 One would, of course, like to have the physical signs and 
 
 points of diagnosis thoroughly described in such a case, 
 
 as I am sure Dr. Neilson would not maintain that the 
 
 processes set in motion by hypnotic suggestion can restore 
 
 broken-down lung-tissue.* 
 
 * The following extracts from a letter received from Dr. Neilson 
 will perhaps be of interest to the reader. Writing from Kingston, 
 
 15 
 
226 TREATMENT BY HYPXOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 Dr. Myers {Practitioner, vol. i., 1S90, p. 201) men- 
 tions a case of acute pneumonia he saw treated by 
 Bernheim in the hospital at Nancy. The man had the 
 physical signs of congestion of the bases of the lungs, 
 and was in a state of high fever and delirium. He at 
 first refused to be hypnotized, but eventually gave his 
 consent, and Dr. Bernheim sent him to sleep for five 
 hours. The man awoke refreshed and free from pain and 
 delirium, but the physical signs remained unaltered. A 
 medical friend of mine, suffering from pleuris}' with high 
 fever and much pain, induced a colleague to hypnotize 
 him, with the result that he experienced almost immediate 
 relief, and, though the disease ran its usual course, there 
 was but little subsequent pain. I suffered much myself 
 from sleeplessness, pain, and restlessness, after a severe 
 surgical operation in 1904, and my friend Dr. Giglioli of 
 Florence, who was staying with me, kindly hypnotized 
 me a few times. I was not a very good subject, but his 
 suggestions as to sleep and ease were completely successful, 
 and tided me over a difficult time. 
 
 The naivete of some people who use things without 
 knowing their nature reminds one of Moliere's bourgeois 
 gentleman, who was surprised to find that he had been 
 talking prose all his life.* Among the medical men who 
 
 Ontario, he says : ' Military practice offers but a few opportunities of 
 practising hypnotism, but so far I have apphed it in about 100 cases. 
 ... In eight or ten with briUiant success, in thirty or forty with fair 
 success, and in the remainder with little or no result. The best 
 results were obtained in cases of female derangements, muscular 
 rheumatism, functional dyspepsia, constipation, insomnia, chronic 
 pulmonary complaints, and dipsomania. Of the last-named I have 
 treated five cases and have obtained two cures — iw., the patients have 
 remained total abstainers, in one case twenty and in the other fourteen 
 months, without any sign of a relapse.' 
 
 * Forel is ver)' trenchant in his remarks on Professor Dubois, of 
 Berne, who has written a diatribe against hypnotism, though Forel 
 points out his success in practice chiefly depends upon the unacknow- 
 ledged use of hypnotic suggestion. \'an Renterghem, one of Liebeault's 
 most distinguished pupils, and a most loyal admirer of our master, is 
 equally outspoken in his introduction to Dr. Hilgen's book. I had 
 the pleasure of hearing these doughty antagonists engage one another 
 at the International Congress of Psychology at .Amsterdam, 1909. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 227 
 
 have come to watch some of my cases was a gentleman 
 who seemed much struck at seeing the method I adopted 
 with a rather refractory subject. I held his hand and 
 stroked his forehead, while at the same time suggesting 
 the symptoms of sleep. The gentleman told me after- 
 wards the reason why he was so interested. It appears 
 that he had a few months previously been in attendance 
 on a very severe and protracted case of delirium tremens. 
 The patient could get no sleep, and the doctor was afraid 
 of death from exhaustion. On the third evening he 
 resolved to make a strong effort to produce sleep, and, if 
 necessary, to sit up all night with the patient. He told 
 the man that he would not leave him until he slept, and, 
 sitting down by the bedside, he took his hand in one of 
 his own, and with the other gently stroked the forehead. 
 At the same time he talked quietly and reassuringly to 
 him. In less than half an hour he was rewarded by 
 seeing the restlessness entirely cease and the man drop off 
 into a quiet sleep. That sleep, the doctor told me, lasted 
 fourteen hours, and the patient awoke out of it weak, but 
 cured. Manipulation about the head has in many persons 
 a most soporific effect, and several persons have told me 
 that they always become drowsy under their barbers' hands. 
 It is said by Liebeault, on the authority of several 
 writers,* that persons in the hypnotic state, whether it 
 be induced spontaneously or by external means, are able 
 to ingest without evil results much larger doses of poisons 
 than can be taken in the normal condition, and that the 
 bites of venomous serpents are very much less likely to 
 prove fatal than in the waking state.! 
 
 * Op. aV., p. 222. 
 
 t Several medical men who were present at a recent performance 
 assure me that they saw somnambulic subjects swallow as much as 
 80 grains- of quinine in one dose, and that they watched for effects 
 and found none. The same public performer made his unfortunate 
 subjects drink large and almost poisonous quantities of paraffin oil, 
 kerosene, and other nauseous compounds, without producing any 
 result. This application of suggestion has its practical side. Forel 
 tells how he had to prescribe castor oil for his children, and they 
 much disliked it. By hypnotic luggestion he made them quite enjoy 
 
2 28 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 The action of hypnotism here is probably similar to 
 that exerted by chloral in the treatment of tetanus, and 
 of large quantities of alcohol as a remedy for snake-bites. 
 The excitability of the nerve centres is controlled, and 
 excessive and exhausting discharge prevented, until the 
 poison has been eliminated. I should imagine that 
 hypnotic treatment is likely to prove useful in the treat- 
 ment of tetanus and other spasmodic diseases depending 
 on increased reflex excitability of the brain or spinal cord 
 — not, be it understood, to the neglect of other treatment, 
 but as an auxiliary. 
 
 To show what suggestion may do, I will cite the case of 
 a medical friend who asked me to hypnotize him and 
 make suggestions about retaining his water. He had an 
 organic stricture and felt the greatest dread of a catheter. 
 I found him hypnotizable to the second degree, and I 
 made suggestions that he should be able to retain his 
 water for four or five hours during the day and all night. 
 After three or four sittings he assured me that, instead of 
 having a call nearly every hour day and night, he is now 
 able to go as long as most people. In this case I doubt if 
 the treatment has not done more harm than good, for by 
 relieving the symptoms it has enabled him to postpone 
 the surgical interference which is urgently called for. I 
 have frequently been able in the same way to relieve the 
 dysuria of patients suffering from Bright's disease or 
 diabetes, and sometimes even that due to prostatic 
 enlargement. 
 
 Dr. Kingsbury, late of Blackpool, has reported in the 
 
 it. Hilger has often used hypnotic suggestion to remove patients' 
 disHke to desirable articles of food — c.^if., milk ; and to induce them 
 to accept a necessary diet cheerfully — e.j;'., in diabetes. I had practical 
 experience of such a case of suggestion a few years ago, when I found 
 myself kept awake at night if I indulged in coffee after dinner. Being 
 fond of coffee, I found this very annoying, and I got my friend Mr. Fox 
 Pitt, the eminent psychologist, to hypnotize me a few times and 
 remove the idea. The result was satisfactory, for I have since been 
 able to enjoy my coffee and my good nights. Of course, I believed 
 in the treatment, and was a good patient, though only slightly 
 hypnotizable. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 229 
 
 British Medical Journal and in his book a remarkable 
 case of painless and rapid delivery in the hypnotic state. 
 The patient, a young girl under fifteen, was hypnotized 
 several times previous to the confinement, and was most 
 deeply influenced.* Dr. Douglas Bryan, of Leicester, 
 reports a similar case in full detail. 1 Dr. Milne Bramwell 
 has brought the surgical use of hypnotism prominently 
 before the profession, and operations were frequently per- 
 formed at Leeds with him as hypnotic anaesthetist. I need 
 hardly remind the reader that Esdaile, Presidency Surgeon 
 at Calcutta, performed many capital operations under 
 mesmeric anaesthesia sixty years ago. 
 
 Milne Bramwell excited great interest by showing 
 the profession at Leeds how easy it was for him to 
 hypnotize subjects at a distance by telegram or letter. 
 One patient went into a deep trance immediately she 
 handed the dentist a note, and in this state had several 
 teeth painlessly extracted. Suggestion, of course, is the 
 explanation of this result. On some occasions, where it 
 has been necessary to break off the treatment prematurely, 
 or where it has been advisable to continue it over long 
 periods of time, I have found the following plan very 
 efficacious: The patient is given a paper on which are 
 drawn several lines and figures, and he is told that once 
 a week, or as often as is necessary, he is to lie down in 
 some place where he can be quiet, and hold the paper in 
 his hand at a convenient distance from his eyes. After 
 looking at it a few seconds with the desire and expecta- 
 tion of sleep, he will pass into the stage of hypnosis he 
 ordinarily assumes, and in that state the memory of the 
 suggestions previously made will recur to his mind., and 
 he will feel them producing their usual effect. It is 
 
 * Dr. Marie Dobrovolsky has described in the Revue de F Hypnotisnie 
 for March, 1891, a series of eight confinements in which she has em- 
 ployed hypnotic suggestion. The pains were either greatly diminished 
 or abolished in all the cases, and that without interfering with the 
 uterine contractions. In several of the cases only a slight hypnotic 
 sleep was induced. In every instance the patient was previously 
 hypnotized several times preparatory to the lying-in. 
 
 t Genera/ Pfactiiiojter, December 15, 1906. 
 
230 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 important to remember to tell the patient that this course 
 is only to be adopted at the prescribed times, and that, in 
 fact, it is a medical prescription.* A paper is not always 
 necessary : a patient whom I am in the habit of some- 
 times hypnotising by gentle stroking of his forehead tells 
 me that he now frequently sends himself to sleep at night 
 by imitating on himself this simple process. 
 
 I have been successful in a good many cases of neuras- 
 thenia brought on from overwork, anxiety, or dissipation, 
 and also in the depressed nervous condition sometimes 
 seen to persist after influenza, typhoid, and other fevers. 
 
 Sir Clifford Allbutt says (' Gulstonian Lectures,' 1884) 
 the neurasthenic patient has no reserve of energ\-. He 
 has exhausted it perhaps in work, but frequently in dissi- 
 pation, and it has never reaccumulated. He lives, as it 
 were, from hand to mouth on the day's supply, and a pre- 
 carious existence it is. In such cases sleeplessness is a 
 very prominent symptom ; and even when sleep is obtained 
 it will generally be found that it is of an unrefreshing 
 character, so that the patient wakes up saying he is more 
 tired than when he went to bed. Theoretically, hypnotism 
 ought to work wonders in these cases, and as a matter 
 
 * The following extract from a letter received from a patient who 
 was for some months under my treatment explains the working of this 
 method. The gentleman was a dipsomaniac of the very worst t\pc, 
 and after keeping sober for seven months he left England and soon 
 relapsed. He then went to stay in a retreat where no treatment was 
 employed but enforced abstention ; and as he told me that he found 
 it much more difficult to abstain without hypnotism than with it, I 
 adopted this plan. ' Doing as you suggested,' he writes, ' I made 
 the first attempt last week, and it was completely successful. I went 
 off at once, bearing in mind that I was to awake in ten minutes. I 
 took the time and found that I awoke to the minute. All your sug- 
 gestions came back and repeated themselves, as it were, frequently. 1 
 could quite have believed that you were there making them, and they 
 were spoken in your voice.' Colonel Neilson first caused me to try 
 this method. He practised it successfully in the case of a soldier, 
 whom he cured of confirmed drunkenness of twenty years' standing. 
 
 This is, of course, quite a different thing to ' absent treatment ' as 
 understood by Christian scientists and mind healers. 1 recently 
 received a letter from a gentleman of Colorado Springs, U.S.A., 
 suffering from tabes dorsalis, asking me to treat him mentally, and 
 requesting to know my fee, and if I guaranteed a cure. The public 
 still needs a good deal of educating in medical niatters ! 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 23,1 
 
 of fact the treatment is often most successful in them 
 {vide p. 232 et seq.). 
 
 I have twice been called in to see what hypnotism could 
 do to procure euthanasia. In one case the medical man 
 in attendance was afraid to give narcotics on account of 
 the state of the heart, and in the other the patient begged 
 that nothing should be given to her to make her un- 
 conscious. Hypnotism soothed their last hours to a 
 remarkable extent, and afforded the greatest comfort to 
 the relatives. It should certainly be thought of in cases 
 where the patient's last hours are embittered by excessive 
 irritability and restlessness, and there are reasons against 
 giving drugs. 
 
 Dr. Woods {loc. cit.) relates his experience, and gives 
 most gratifying testimony as to his success in over 200 
 cases w^hich he had treated by suggestion. These 
 comprise many very bad cases of chronic alcoholism, 
 mental disease — chiefly melancholia with delusions — 
 headache, neuralgia, lumbago, gout, dyspepsia, epilepsy, 
 chorea, and writer's cramp. His results correspond with 
 those obtained by other observers. Dr. Woods states 
 that he is often successful in curing his patients by 
 suggestion alone without hypnosis. 
 
 Such detailed experience as that of Dr. Woods is most 
 convincing and valuable. It is corroborated by medical 
 men all over the world. For instance, Dr. Creed, of Sydney, 
 New South Wales, who uses hypnotism extensively in his 
 practice, says, when a good hypnotic subject has a bone 
 fractured, hypnotism will not set the limb or directly repair 
 the injury, but it may assist recovery by preventing pain and 
 muscular spasm, and giving sleep and appetite. In a case 
 of pleurisy he so completely removed the pain by sug- 
 gestion that only the most careful physical examination 
 and the continuance of an abnormally high temperature 
 convinced him that it was actual and acute pleuris}'. 
 
 He relates success in many very bad cases of chronic 
 alcoholism and the morphia habit. He considers it 
 specific in insomnia, and most efficacious in asthma and 
 
232 TREATMENT BY JIYIWOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 in heart symptoms, even when dependent on organic 
 disease. He has seen it helpful in relieving the severity 
 of epilepsy, and curative in several severe cases of chorea. 
 
 He has used it in several cases of gastric ulcer, an<l 
 speaks with enthusiasm of the results he has obtained. 
 He finds, he says, the stomach can, if pain be prevented, 
 digest a fair quantity of nourishing food without difficulty; 
 and the cessation of the state of semi-starvation in which 
 the patient has lived soon brings about such an improve- 
 ment in nutrition that the ulcers heal. He finds it very 
 successful in curing vomiting, and in preventing sea- 
 sickness. He says : ' For obstinate vomiting I believe 
 that in suggestion we possess a remedy which will prove 
 effective when all ordinary ones have been tried and 
 failed.' He also advocated hypnotism as the best remedy 
 for megrim, incontinence of urine, and many forms of 
 neuralgia ; and affirms that no good hypnotic subject 
 need suffer from sea-sickness. 
 
 Van Renterghem gets more cases of neurasthenia than 
 of any other disease in his clinique at Amsterdam, and 
 reports having treated ii8 cases during the four years from 
 1893 to 1897. Of these, eighty-six were men and thirt\- 
 two women. He states that thirty-one were cured and 
 sixty-one were much benefited by h3-pnotic treatment — a 
 very good showing in such an intractable disease. Neuras- 
 thenia, Savill and other authorities teach, depends upon 
 so many causes that it does not do to treat every patient 
 alike. Tolle causain is as important an axiom here as in 
 any class of case. If the condition depend on central 
 nervous causes, such as mental shock, overwork, excessive 
 venery, or if it follows debilitating disease, like typhoid 
 fever or influenza, I believe hypnotism is the best treat- 
 ment, and that it alone will cure the patient cito et jucimdc. 
 If the neurasthenia is the result of mal-assimilation and 
 fermentation of food, suggestion will help to promote 
 eupepsia ; and whatever the cause, it will, if the patient is 
 hypnotizable, relieve the mental gloom which weighs him 
 down, and thus hasten his recovery. Neurasthenic 
 
patients are apt to be difficult. Being self-centred and of 
 low vitality, it is not easy to gain their attention ; and they 
 are, as we all know, inclined to be sceptical, hopeless 
 and averse to giving treatment a fair trial. They con- 
 stitute a large proportion of those patients who enter the 
 physician's consulting-room with the announcement that 
 he is the thirtieth or fortieth doctor they have consulted, 
 and that no one can do them any good. I need hardly 
 say that each failure has acted as a strong counter-sugges- 
 tion to cure, and that the last state of such people is likely 
 to be worse than the first. Success in the treatment of 
 these cases depends a great deal on the doctor being able 
 to inspire confidence and to employ suggestion, whether 
 with or without hypnotism. 
 
 Neurasthenia is a very interesting study. A few years 
 ago it was hardly recognized as a pathological entity, and 
 Sir W. Gowers dismissed it in a few paragraphs in the 
 first edition (1888) of his great work on Nervous Diseases. 
 Now there is a mass of literature on the subject, and half 
 our patients seem to be neurasthenic, more or less. Its 
 successful treatment by hypnotism well illustrates the 
 power of suggestion in diseases of nutrition and function. 
 As Dr. Savill and other writers show, a leading feature of 
 neurasthenia is disturbance of digestion, with excessive 
 fermentation of food and dilatation of the stomach and 
 colon : a vicious circle is thus set up of auto-intoxication 
 and nervous atony. Most authorities think the primary 
 fault lies in the brain, and there is no doubt about this 
 being the case in neurasthenia following injury or mental 
 shock.* The indications for treatment are restoration of 
 sleep, which is nearly always impaired, and of tone to the 
 digestive organs. This may be done in many cases by 
 careful dieting and the use of electricity ; but if the 
 central nervous system is at fault, the disease is best 
 attacked through it, and here hypnotism proves a most 
 valuable ally. It makes an appeal to the head office 
 
 * ' Dyspepsias Nerveuses et Neurasthenic,' par Dr. Paul Glatz 
 Bale et Geneve, 1898. 
 
234 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 direct, instead of addressing the departments in detail. 
 The sympathetic nervous system is largely responsible 
 for most of the phenomena of hysteria and of many 
 of those of neurasthenia and allied conditions. It is not 
 under the control of the ordinary will or consciousness, 
 but can be profoundly influenced in the hypnotic and 
 allied states, as is seen by the occasional production of 
 stigmata in religious ecstasy and of inflammation of the 
 skin by suggestion in deep hypnosis. It is this action on 
 the sympathetic system — the brain of systemic conscious- 
 ness and organic life — through the highest cortical centres, 
 constituting the ultimate court of appeal, that enables us 
 to effect cures of functional and relief of organic troubles 
 by suggestion. In a successful case it is very striking to 
 see how the objective symptoms, such as distension of the 
 stomach, and mucous colitis, rapidlj' improve together 
 with the subjective ones of mental depression, painful 
 sensations, etc. Food is properly digested, and fermenta- 
 tion, with its resulting auto-intoxication, is arrested. I 
 relate later on several cases from my own and other 
 physicians' practices to illustrate these points, and I 
 strongly advocate the use of hypnotism in the early treat- 
 ment of the disease before the patient's constitution is 
 seriously affected, before he has lost confidence in doctors 
 and remedies, and before he has become hypochondriacal 
 and hopeless. There is only one serious drawback to 
 hypnotic treatment in neurasthenia — inability to fix the 
 attention is one of the characteristics of the disease, and 
 that and a low state of vitality render hypnosis difficult. 
 Sometimes one meets with very susceptible neurasthenic 
 subjects, and in such cases I look upon hypnotism as the 
 ideal remedy. During hypnotic rest repair and recupera- 
 tion of the weakened organs proceed rapidly, physiological 
 rest of the damaged central nervous system is assured, 
 and a short cut to complete cure is within our reach. 
 But, as Savill points out, neurasthenia is a very chronic 
 disease, and requires time for cure. He gives a month's 
 treatment for every year it has lasted. H}-pnotic treatment 
 
 I 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 235 
 
 is apt to be so brilliantly successful in its first effects in 
 ^^ood cases that both patient and doctor are likely to be 
 rendered unduly confident. I had tjiis experience many 
 times formerly, and found that disappointment and reaction 
 often followed these exaggerated expectations. The first 
 thing to do is to build up a strong reserve of nerve force, 
 for the patient has been living from hand to mouth, as it 
 were, for months or years. This takes time ; and we must 
 insist on the essentials of rest, careful dietary, open air, 
 and proper exercise being maintained. The restoration 
 of natural sleep and the establishment of natural action 
 of the bowels are among the first-fruits of successful 
 hypnotic suggestion.* 
 
 The following case presents many points of interest. 
 In 1893 an American working man came to me with a 
 note from a well-known omniscient editor, and this was 
 his story : He was thirty years of age, and had been for 
 ten years a labourer in the shipyards at Boston. He had 
 led a dissipated life, but was very strong and well until he 
 had a bad attack of influenza in 1892. This left him so 
 weak that he could not go back to heavy work, and if he 
 attempted to stoop, there was severe pain in the lumbar 
 muscles. Ordinary remedies did not set him on his 
 legs, so he studied his case for himself, and found in a 
 medical work on influenza in the public library in Boston 
 laudatory references to hypnotism in the treatment of the 
 sequelae of the disease, and the statement that the system 
 was practised at Nancy, in France. Without further 
 inquiry he sold his effects, and with the money took a 
 steerage passage to Havre. Thence he went to Paris, 
 where he found he had spent all his money and was still 
 a long way from his goal. He went to the American 
 Consul, who advised him to come to London, and gave 
 him money for his fare. Arriving in London, he wrote 
 to the omniscient gentleman referred to, who is as well 
 
 * Vt'de special number of the Practitioner (January, 191 2) on 
 Neurasthenia. Many well-known specialists contributed articles, and 
 I discussed the merits of hypnotism, and, I think, proved my points. 
 
236 TREATMEST BY IIYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 known in America as in England, and he referred him 
 to me. I hypnotized him, and he became at once 
 somnambulic. I let him sleep for several hours, and 
 suggested increased vitality and freedom from pain in the 
 back. These suggestions, combined with movements and 
 massage, were repeated five or six times during the next 
 ten days, and then the patient announced himself as 
 cured. He set off to look for work, and found it as a 
 dock labourer. He came to tell me that he could work 
 all day, carrying heavier loads than most of his mates ; 
 and that he was saving up his wages so as to get back as 
 soon as possible to his own country. 
 
 No doubt the trouble and expense this patient was put 
 to helped to get him into a suitable frame of mind for 
 cure from the treatment he had set his heart upon. If 
 he had only known it, there were at the time at least two 
 able physicians practising hypnotism in Boston, and it 
 would be interesting to know if the treatment would have 
 been equally successful if he had found it at his door. I 
 think it would, for he was a good subject, and one was able 
 to drive suggestion well home. This strong, self-sufficient 
 working man possessed the spirit of the pilgrims of the 
 Middle Ages, and no doubt the grotto at Lourdes claims 
 many such votaries, who return from a pilgrimage there 
 cured from their diseases. Some, alas ! remain uncured. 
 
 Asthma is another disease like neurasthenia, very in- 
 tractable by ordinary drug treatment, and yet often cured 
 by outside remedies. Dr. Francis cures a large proportion 
 of his cases by cauterizing the nasal septum. I have <> 
 known some very bad cases cured by Ling's Swedish 
 exercises, and others by putting the patient on rigorous 
 Salisbury diet. Other cases, again, have yielded to 
 vaccine therapy — we cannot have too many strings to 
 our therapeutic bow. I have cured several cases by 
 hypnotic suggestion, as is exemplified on p. 335. Asthma 
 is one of the diseases for which hypnotism should always 
 be thought of. Forel relates the cure of a very bad case 
 where there was considerable resulting emphysema of the 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 237 
 
 lungs and dilatation of the heart. Prevention of attacks 
 soon brought about structural repair, as shown by the 
 physical signs. 
 
 The profession is indebted to Dr. Milne Bramwell for 
 much information concerning the therapeutic uses of 
 hypnotism. He has frequently demonstrated its avail- 
 abihty as an anaesthetic in surgery, and he has brought an 
 exhaustless fund of patience to bear on the most obstinate 
 cases. He has described a case of pruritus vulvae which 
 had resisted all attempts at hypnotization for sixty-seven 
 times, but he succeeded in inducing somnambulism the 
 sixty-eighth time, and the patient was cured ! * 
 
 He showed at Leeds a case of aphemia with paresis of 
 the legs, which had lasted for three years, which he had 
 cured in a few days by hypnotism : a case of hyperidrosis 
 existent in a girl since infancy, with a patch of skin on 
 the left wrist so affected that the perspiration was con- 
 tinually dripping from it to the ground. She was cured 
 almost immediately. A case of intercostal neuralgia in a 
 boy was cured in three sittings. In four cases of Meniere's 
 disease he found great improvement was brought about 
 in the hearing, and the vertigo was almost entirely re- 
 moved. Dr. Bramwell tells me that he has never seen any 
 harm done by judicious employment of hypnotism, and 
 this statement coming from him must be acknowledged to 
 carry great weight. 
 
 A somewhat similar case of hyperidrosis is reported b}- 
 Dr. A. Charpentier.t The patient, a young man of twenty, 
 had suffered from excessive sweating of the hands for five 
 years, apparently dating from a mental shock. Inter- 
 mittent to begin with, it had for two years been con- 
 
 * It comes as a surprise to me that, after his early insistence 
 on the importance of getting as deep hypnosis as possible and his 
 splendid perseverance in striving to this end, Dr. Bramwell should 
 now attach little importance to hypnotism, and advocates treatment 
 by suggestion alone {vide article by Dr. Maurice Wright in the 
 National Reviezu, August, 19 10). Perhaps, as in the case of Dubois, 
 his reputation and personality suffice. I confess I still need the aid 
 of hypnotism. 
 
 t Revue de PHypnotisme^ January, 1900. 
 
238 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 tinuous, and was so abundant that when the hands were 
 held down the perspiration flowed from the finger-tips as 
 from a fiher. Many forms of treatment had been tried, 
 including astringents, ergotine, atropine, scarification, 
 electricit}', but without success, and at last Dr. Char- 
 pentier bethought himself of hj-pnotism. After some 
 difficulty the patient became a good subject and com- 
 pletely somnambulic. Improvement immediately resulted 
 from suggestions directed to the central origin of the 
 trouble, and the young man was shown cured at a 
 meeting of the French Societe d'Hypnologie et de 
 Psychologic. 
 
 So far I have only attempted to treat one case of 
 hyperidrosis by suggestion. The patient was a young lady 
 who came under treatment in 1899 for severe and almost 
 continuous frontal headache. This was speedily cured by 
 suggestion, though it had for a long time resisted all the 
 usual remedies, and she was only slightly hypnotizable. 
 She then told me of her other trouble — excessive perspira- 
 tion of the brows and nose, brought on especially by any 
 mental emotion, and a source of endless distress and 
 anno3'ance to her. 
 
 Probably a profound degree of hypnosis is necessary 
 before suggestion has sufficient influence over the central 
 nervous system to control such a local condition. I never 
 could get more than a slight torpor and drowsiness with 
 this patient, and the condition underwent no change. 
 
 The medical world is familiar with instances where a 
 treatment which has been highly praised in some quarters 
 has failed to produce good results when tried elsewhere. 
 Apostoli's method of applying electricity in uterine fibroids, 
 and Charcot's suspension treatment for locomotor ataxy, 
 are cases in point. Neglect of apparently trivial techni- 
 calities may explain some of these discrepancies. 
 
 Practitioners of the Nancy school all over the world are 
 agreed as to the efficacy of hypnotic suggestion, and of 
 the absolute importance of observing points of detail. 
 Bernheim asserts, and Forel agrees with him, that no one 
 
TREATMEXT BY HYPNOTISM A\D SUGGESTION 239 
 
 is entitled to speak with authority on the subject until 
 he succeeds in hypnotizing at least 80 per cent, of the 
 hospital patients on whom he tries the treatment. 
 Hypnotic suggestion is a psychical treatment, and to use 
 it successfully demands tact, judgment, medical know- 
 ledge, and knowledge of one's patient, or, in the words of 
 Dr. Felkin, a firm will, unlimited patience, and a calm 
 temperament. To these Forel adds enthusiasm and re- 
 sourcefulness. 
 
 Note. — The experience of a scientific and critical friend, Dr. B , 
 
 whom I have frequently hypnotized, is interesting. He is a healthy 
 man of forty-five, of dark complexion and lymphatic temperament, 
 somewhat hypochondriacal, and a clever and successful practitioner. 
 He is a good subject, and is sometimes aft'ected to the third, and 
 sometimes only to the first, degree of hypnosis. For Liebeault's 
 'stages,' see 289. 
 
 When told that he cannot open his eyes, he makes no attempt to do 
 so unless strongly urged to trj-, when he proceeds in the ineffectual 
 manner already described. With much effort he is generally able to 
 move his arm, in spite of my prohibition, but the force employed is 
 evidently entirely out of proportion to the result achieved. In the 
 hypnotic state he feels absolutely tranquil and at rest, and when ex- 
 horted to exert himself he reflects : ' Of course I can do any of these 
 things if I only try, but I am not going to disturb myself by trying.' 
 When told that he will open his eyes and be wide awake when I count 
 fifteen, he makes up his mind not to comply, and yet when I reach 
 fifteen he cannot help becoming wide awake. After removing a real 
 pain, such as occipital neuralgia, I have frequently, in the same 
 subject, induced a pain localized by suggestion — e.o^., in the eye or 
 forefinger. Dr. B frequently feels a sensation of numbness, heavi- 
 ness, and ' pins and needles ' in a limb for some minutes after I have 
 told him it is fixed and immovable. It is interesting to note that having 
 been frequently hypnotized does not prevent him from successfully 
 operating on others ; and he is beginning to use the Nancy method in 
 his practice. In this case and all others I find the patient's co-opera- 
 tion is absolutely necessary to success, and I have always failed to 
 produce any effect upon him and others when I have either asked them 
 to resist, or when there has been some disturbing emotional element 
 present. This is an important fact in face of the statement sometimes 
 advanced — that after being hypnotized the patient is unable to resist 
 subsequent attempts. I speak here only of medical hypnotism. 
 Though I have failed to find the inhalation of chloroform of much use 
 in inducing hypnosis in the twenty or thirty intractable cases where 
 I have tried it, such has not been the experience of some other ob- 
 servers. Dr. Abdon Sanchez Herrero, Professor of Clinical Medicine 
 in the University of Valladolid, contributed to the congress a paper 
 on 'Forced Hypnotization ' {Coinptes Reiidus, p. 212). He, following 
 up the experiments of Dr. Rifat, of Salonica, found that there is a 
 
240 TREATMENT IIY liYIWOTISM ASD SUGGESTION 
 
 short period during the inlKilution of chlorofonii when the sul^ject is as 
 open to outside suggestion as in somnambuhsm, and tliis stage is, he 
 says, at the end of the period of nervous excitement, and before that 
 of dehrium — a space of very short duration, sometimes only of a few 
 seconds. Dr. Herrero experimented on six patients, whom he had 
 previously found to be absolutely insusceptible to hypnotism after 
 repeated and long-continued attempts. He failed in the first two 
 cases owing, as he thinks, to allowing the favourable moment to pass ; 
 but in the other four he was successful in hitting upon the exact 
 period of ' suggestibility.' To the first he suggested ready suscepti- 
 bility to ordinary hypnotism the following day, and as a result the 
 hitherto intractable patient was hypnotized by a few minutes' simple 
 fi.vation of the eyes the next morning. He suggested to the other three 
 patients daily increasing susceptibility to the action of chloroform, and 
 finally tlie production of an;L'sthesia and unconsciousness without the 
 drug. In each case he was successful within a week in reducing the 
 cjuantity of chloroform to the vanishing-point, and in inducing what 
 was practically hypnotic somnambulism by simple suggestion. Ur. 
 Herrero has continued his researches, and feels himself justified in 
 asserting that in chloroform we have an aid to hypnosis which will 
 enable us to hypnotize the most intractable cases, and he proposes 
 it as an alternative to the terribly fatiguing and somewhat repulsive 
 method pursued by Dr. A. V'oisin, at the Salpetriere, in cases of 
 insanity. This paper throws a light on the induction of anitsthesia in 
 Mr. Braine's case (quoted on p. ii), and also on Bernheim's assertion 
 that he finds the action of chloroform greatly reinforced by sugges- 
 tions made whilst administering the an;tsthetic. On the other hand. 
 Dr. Milne Bramwell says {oj^. a'/., p. 68) that he has not found 
 chloroform or other anaesthetics helpful in inducing hypnosis. 
 
 Herrero, Von Schrenk-Xotzing, Wetterstrand, and other authorities 
 have made considerable use of chloroform for the purpose of quieting 
 nervous excitement and breaking ofT the life of relation, and so 
 favouring the induction of hypnosis. They express themselves as well 
 pleased with their results. Dr. \'an Velsen, of Brussels, tells me that 
 he succeeded in hypnotizing a friend after giving him lo grains of 
 chloral whom he never could influence before, though he had made 
 many attempts ; subsequently the patient was susceptible without 
 chloral, and became a somnambulist. 
 
 Dr. Barwise says : ' I have had no difficuUy in hypnotizing patients 
 taking bromide of potassium or chloral hydrate, and from some 
 observations I made a year or two ago upon the action of cannabis 
 indica in the treatment of sick headache, I was led to the conclusion 
 that this drug predisposed to hypnosis, and a recent experience has 
 removed all doubt of it' (op. n'/., p. 7). Dr. Farez has recently 
 substituted somnoform for chloroform, as being equally efficacious 
 and less dangerous. Dr. Crichton Miller uses what is called the 
 combined method, preparing the patient for hypnosis by large doses 
 of bromide and other drugs. 
 
 I should here like to add a word of caution against 
 regarding hypnotism as a panacea in every case of drunken- 
 ness. I am thoroughly convinced of the value of hypnotic 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 241 
 
 suggestion as an aid to moral reform, and look forward to 
 a time when it will be used in all retreats for inebriates 
 and other reformative institutions ; but I recognize its 
 limits, and I know that its indiscriminate employment will 
 only bring disappointment to the patients and discredit to 
 the system.* 
 
 When we consider that hypnotism simply intensifies to 
 a notable extent the influence of suggestion on the bodily 
 functions and mental characteristics, we see how its 
 curative scope is necessarily limited by pathological and 
 other conditions, and how illogical it is to expect miracles 
 in the way of moral reformation from it alone. Granted 
 the patient has preserved come degree of self-control, and 
 has a strong desire to be cured, it is possible that success 
 may result from the use of hypnotic suggestion even when 
 the surroundings continue unsatisfactory. Under such 
 circumstances I know that publicans have been cured 
 without leaving their business, and soldiers without quit- 
 ting their regiment ; but I regard these cases as excep- 
 tional, and in long-standing or inherited dipsomania 
 removal from temptation is an essential condition of 
 success. 
 
 It is important to bear in mind how drunkenness varies 
 in degree and kind. Between the man who drinks to 
 excess when occasion offers, and who cannot resist the 
 solicitations of friends, and the dipsomaniac, there is a 
 great difference. Though the ordinary drunkard may 
 become dipsomaniac, this is not usually the case. The 
 drunkard is mad because he drinks ; the dipsomaniac 
 drinks because he is mad. Dipsomania is a form of 
 impulsive insanity, which is nearly always inherited, and 
 which manifests itself by uncontrollable fits, during which 
 
 * Canon Barnett told me years ago a propos of a drunken woman 
 he was interested in, that he thought I should reap disappointment 
 unless I could bring about a change of heart in these patients. A 
 change of outlook is at any rate necessar}'. Hypnotic suggestion 
 undoubtedly very often enables us to effect the latter if not the former 
 change. One of my patients tells me he abstains altogether from 
 alcohol now because he finds the amount he can take without causing 
 illness and disgrace is so small as to be not worth while. 
 
 16 
 
242 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 the patient is obviously insane. Dr. Ball, speaking of 
 this disease, says : ' The prognosis is absolutely hopeless, 
 especially when it depends on heredity, and is not due to 
 acquired habit. Such patients are never cured, though 
 the methods of treatment are as varied as they are 
 numerous. ... If there is any chance of safety for them, 
 it lies only in their being placed under restraint for a pro- 
 longed period — I may say for an indefinitely prolonged 
 period' {op. cii., p. 797). 
 
 I have treated during the last twenty-five years over 300 
 cases of chronic alcoholism, and have found hypnotic 
 suggestion has proved completely curative in about a 
 third of these. This is a good result, considering that 
 in no case was the patient confined in a retreat or kept 
 away from his home or business for longer than a 
 month. I only stipulated that for a specified time he must 
 be under responsible supervision, and must lead a healthy 
 and rational life. One generally found self-control was 
 rapidly regained, and it became safe to gradually give him 
 more liberty. The immense gain of this treatment in 
 suitable cases over that of confining patients in a retreat 
 for twelve months — the least time the advocates of this 
 system recommend — is apparent. Not only does the 
 patient keep in touch with his family and business, but he 
 is saved the demoralizing effects of a loafing and idle life. 
 I know inebriate retreats are necessary, and many of 
 them are admirably managed, but association with other 
 drunkards cannot be beneficial, and it is difficult to find 
 rational employment for all the inmates of a retreat for 
 the better classes."^ I should like to see every drunkard 
 
 * The Dalrymple Home, Rickmansworth, is one of the best-known 
 and best -managed retreats in the country. Its report for 1899 
 states that, of the 518 men who had passed through it since it was 
 opened, 169 are doing well. This proportion and mine may appear 
 small alongside of systems which 'never' fail, or which claim to cure 
 over 90 per cent. The explanation lies in the fact that our reports 
 give a more accurate account of what happens. It is easy enough to 
 coax a drunkard into sobriety for a few weeks, and then to claim him 
 as a cure. In one well-known instance twelve drunkards were treated 
 by a vaunted specific, and it was reported in three months, with great 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 243 
 
 given the chance of speedy and pleasant cure by hypnotic 
 suggestion under favourable conditions.* If it failed, I 
 should consign him to an agricultural colony for inebriates, 
 conducted on somewhat similar lines to those adopted at 
 the excellent institution for epileptics at Chalfont. Work, 
 discipline, and hygienic surroundings are the remedies for 
 chronic alcoholism, as idleness, laxity of aim and principle, 
 and unhealthy surroundings, are its principal causes. An 
 unfortunate denizen of the slums once said that a bottle 
 of w^hisky was the shortest way out of Sheffield, t 
 
 flourish of trumpets, that they had all been cured. Alas ! I am 
 informed that after twelve months every one of them had relapsed. 
 Inebriates are generally emotional, and easily acted upon by their 
 environment. Well fed, petted, flattered, the excitement of their new 
 situation sufficed to keep them sober for a few weeks. But the object 
 achieved by the advertisers, their attentions to the patients ceased, 
 they were thrown on their own resources, and speedily resumed their 
 old habits. It will be noticed in the accompanying table how many 
 of my patients relapsed after three months, and I look on that as a 
 somewhat critical period. 
 
 * Dr. Astley Cooper uses hypnotism and psycho-therapy in con- 
 junction with all the other latest forms of treatment, re-educational 
 and moral, in his excellent institution near Cockermouth, and he 
 gives an interesting account of his experience in his recent book 
 ('Pathological Inebriety,' 1913, with an Introduction by Sir David 
 I Ferrier, F.R.S.). 
 
 The failure of ordinary retreat treatment was commented on 
 recently by Mr. Mead, Metropolitan magistrate at Marlborough 
 Street Police Court, who said : ' Our experience of these homes is 
 unfortunate, because we have not had a single successful case of 
 reform of persons sent to them. So far as this court is concerned, 
 the Act is an absolute failure' {Tz'fnes, January 31, 191 3). 
 
 So much for rate-supported institutions. Well-to-do patients go 
 from one institution to another, and I have met several who have 
 been in five or six. Some of those who have gone in with one vice 
 have come out with half a dozen. The greatest care should be taken 
 in choosing a home for an inebriate. Rational direction and 
 occupation are at least as important as deprivation of drink. 
 
 t Increased experience confirms these ideas, and they are shared 
 by my confreres who use hypnotism in all parts of the world. It 
 is gratifying to find they are held by Dr. Creed, and that he has 
 expressed them strongly in a report he was asked to draw up for the 
 New South Wales Government. His position will perhaps enable 
 him to put his theories into practical application. 
 
 The advertised cures for drunkenness largely depend for their 
 success upon the careful use of suggestion, supplemented by drugs 
 which seem to satisfy to some extent the craving for alcohol — e._^., 
 
244 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 1 have embodied m}- views on this subject in a paper I 
 read at the annual meeting of the British Medical Associa- 
 tion at Nottingham in 1891, which is published in enlarged 
 form by Messrs. Churchill; and I herewith (p. 246) repro- 
 duce a table from a paper I read at the International 
 Congress on Psychology, held at Munich in 1896.* 
 
 strychnine and atropine. It is difficult to keep an courant with the 
 new nostrums, generally hailing from America, and always having 
 two things in common — costliness and infallibility. The first arrival, 
 the Keeley cure, still holds its own. I have known a few successes 
 and many failures follow its use. Then, there are two other secret 
 systems, highly recommended by two distinguished and disinterested 
 philanthropists — Lady Henry Somerset and the Rev. Hugh Chapman 
 — the Oppenheimer cure and the Normyl treatment. 
 
 I have seen only a few cases treated by these, and there have 
 been more failures than successes. Mr. Chapman states in his recent 
 report (1906) of the Xormyl treatment that, out of over 1,000 cases 
 treated, the number of failures known to the association working it is 
 only 8 per cent. I fear there is a rude awakening in store for him. 
 Dr. Mary Gordon has recently read a most instructive and interesting 
 paper before the Society for the Study of Inebriety {The British 
 Journal of Inebriety, January, 1907). She criticizes the report of the 
 first year's working of the best of these drug treatments carried out 
 by scientific English medical men at the Norwood Sanatorium. Out 
 of 80 cases treated in a year 22 are reported as having abstained for 
 o\cr six months, 8 are reported as improved, and of 24 no information 
 is given. I fear, from sad e.xperience, most of those stated to be 
 improved will ultimately swell the list of known failures (at present 
 16), and the same may be predicted of those who have failed to give 
 information ; 22 are reported as having abstained for less than si.x 
 months, and are, therefore, not to be considered. Miss Gordon is, 
 therefore, in my opinion, justified in condemning the short treatment 
 system by drugs, and in preferring the system of prolonged detention 
 in well-managed retreats. The only fault I have to find with her 
 e.xcellent paper is that it ignores the value of hypnotism in treating 
 dipsomania and drunkenness. 
 
 * It is of practical interest to trace the subsequent life-history of 
 some of these alcoholic patients : 
 
 Case I (1906) continues well, and has been for many years a 
 moderate drinker. This is, of course, quite exceptional, and, in the 
 main, I agree with Forcl that it is ' utterly idiotic and harmful to 
 attempt to convert a soaker into a moderate drinker.' Total abstinence 
 is the only course, he says. 
 
 Case 2, when last heard of, in 1901, was reported as keeping well. 
 
 Case 4 emigrated to the colonies, where he led an adventurous and 
 most trying life, surrounded by temptations. He got cancer and came 
 home to die in 1897, having had no relapse. 
 
 Case 25 : This patient has had a few relapses, but none of a serious 
 nature. His younger brother, treated in 1896, seems really and 
 permanently cured, though his case appeared even more serious. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 245 
 
 Among the successful cases are certainly ten of real 
 dipsomania. In nearly all cases I have seen partial or 
 temporary success, and in many instances where there was 
 •^'relapse cure would, I think, have resulted had circum- 
 stances been more favourable. I have never seen hypnotism 
 weaken the character where it has been properly used ; 
 but, on the contrary, it is interesting to note the almost 
 invariable improvement in disposition which takes place 
 under the influence of moral suggestions. It is my 
 practice to make the suggestions in the direction of 
 evoking the patient's own powers ; and it would be mani- 
 festly wrong to introduce a personal element into the 
 treatment, or to make the patient sober in order that he 
 may please the hypnotist ! But in many quarters that 
 seems to be the idea of treatment, and in cases so treated 
 I can well understand that when the personal influence 
 of the hypnotist is removed the patient may relapse. 
 I suggest : First, abhorrence of drink and its results ; 
 secondly, absence of craving for it ; and, thirdly, increased 
 self-control, so that if temptation does arise there may be 
 power to resist it. If the patient is only slightly influenced, 
 or if it is only necessary to slightly supplement the power 
 
 Case 38 : This patient led an exemplary life for ten years and 
 became an ardent temperance worker. His wife died, and two years 
 afterwards he married, most unwisely, a young and frivolous girl. 
 Disappointment broke his heart, and he practically committed suicide 
 within three months of his marriage by shutting himself up in his 
 room with a supply of spirits and drinking himself to death. This 
 history shows how impossible it is to affirm that any drunkard is cured 
 until he has died. ' Call no man happy until he is dead,' said Solon. 
 
 Cases 46 and 65 are keeping well, according to latest reports 
 (1904-5). 
 
 Several of the failures here recorded have tried Keeley and other 
 drug treatments, but in no case, as far as I have learnt, have they 
 been permanently successful. In only one later case (that of a 
 children's nurse sent to me in 1901) has a secret drug treatment 
 been successful when hypnotism failed. This patient was a very good 
 subject, but always expressed great fear of the process. She remained 
 an abstainer for fourteen months after her first hypnotic treatment, 
 and then had a relapse. I treated her again, and she remained sober 
 for three months. Then she relapsed, and further treatment was a 
 failure. It remains to be seen whether the drug treatment makes a 
 better record in the end. 
 
246 r RE ATM EST BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 
 
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TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 247 
 
 
 
 
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 relapse after 7 months 
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348 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 
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TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 249 
 
 of his unaided will, these suggestions are all one need 
 make ; but if he is a person of very weak character, and is 
 exposed to exceptional temptation, it is well to make the 
 deterrent influence stronger by exciting a feeling of extreme 
 physical repulsion, which can easily be done in the case 
 of somnambulists. One has only to tell the patient that 
 if he takes beer or spirits they will at once cause him to 
 vomit, and then on waking him compel him to drink a 
 glass of beer to produce such an attack of nausea and 
 sickness as he will remember for many a day. Even in 
 such a case it will, no doubt, be possible for the subject to 
 re-educate himself to like liquor, just as a schoolboy who 
 will go on smoking, though every pipe at first makes him 
 sick, may at last overcome the repugnance and become a 
 confirmed smoker.* 
 
 In the combination of moral and physical influences 
 thus produced we possess a very powerful lever. If a man 
 has been made a drunkard through the solicitations of 
 fast companions, his power of resistance is reduced to nil, 
 and the offer of a drink has so often been followed by its 
 absorption, that the sequence of events becomes automatic, 
 an ideo-motor reflex action ; but let such a man be 
 hypnotized, and in this state be told that alcohol is poison, 
 and that to offer him a drink is to grossly insult him — as 
 in a case of a confirmed drunkard reported by Neilson 
 — and we form a new inhibitory tract, which by repeatedly 
 being traversed becomes well worn and habitual in place 
 
 * While attending an inebriate patient lately I was visited by an 
 
 American physician, Dr. A , who told me that he had a large 
 
 practice in the West, and that he was very successful in curing 
 drunkards. My patient was a journalist, aged forty, and as he was a 
 'soaker' I felt verj' doubtful about his cure, though he was a somnam- 
 bulic subject. I asked my visitor to try his hand, so as to reinforce 
 mine, and he kindly complied. His method was to hypnotize him in 
 the usual way, and then make strong anti-alcoholic suggestions. To 
 arouse him he gave him a rather severe blow over the stomach, so that 
 my patient awoke dazed and startled. We were a little disconcerted 
 
 by this violence, but Dr. A assured me he found this method 
 
 most successful, as the shock drove home the suggestions and fixed 
 them. Unfortunately, however, success in this case was only very 
 short-lived, and the man has since died from the effects of alcohol. 
 
250 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 of the other. But it is plain that we must not expect 
 immediate cure. Old channels cannot be destroyed, any 
 more than new ones can be formed, in the course of a few 
 days. I always tell my patients that it takes one month 
 to get over the crude effects of confirmed alcoholism, three 
 months for the liver, stomach, and other organs to recover 
 their tone, and twelve months for the brain power and 
 morale to be re-established. 
 
 After a period of treatment, varying in different cases, a 
 new personality or ' conscience ' is produced, and the 
 patient can return to his former associations and friends 
 so protected as to be safe from relapse. The time neces- 
 sary for restraint or close observation is from three to six 
 weeks, and after that he should be under observation for 
 at least a year, and the suggestions should be repeated at 
 lengthening intervals during that time. It is by no means 
 necessary that the patient should spend any portion of the 
 time in a retreat if efficient control and observation can 
 be exercised by a trustworthy relation, friend, or attendant. 
 We must remember that at first every public-house offers 
 a suggestion to drink, and every boon companion calls up 
 associations of ideas connected with former self-indulgence, 
 and opposed to the suggestions we have endeavoured to 
 implant, 
 
 I was recently induced to undertake the case of a medical 
 man, whose surroundings were extremely unsatisfactory, 
 but the patient expressed a great desire to be cured, and 
 proved a very susceptible subject. Dipsomaniacs are 
 notoriously untrustworthy, and in a few days I found on 
 inquiry that his protestations were false, and that he had 
 made no attempt to avoid temptation, but rather put him- 
 self in its way. Under such circumstances the treatment 
 had not a chance, and as he refused to submit to restraint 
 we at once abandoned it. 
 
 In another case, which has since turned out most 
 successful, the gentleman had a relapse at the end of a 
 week, in consequence of being insufficiently guarded from 
 special temptation. He at once told me of his fault, and 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 251 
 
 explained how difficult he had found it to act against 
 hypnotic suggestion and take the first glass of spirits. It 
 was a real battle, so he said, with his new conscience, in 
 which conscience nearly won the day. After a month's 
 hypnotic treatment he seemed positively proof against 
 temptation, and I could trust him anywhere alone. It is 
 now some years since the treatment was commenced, and 
 he has remained a consistent abstainer, though he has 
 paid me four or five visits for renewal and reinforcement 
 of the anti-alcoholic suggestions. 
 
 If the contention of many of Charcot's school and 
 others were correct, and if hypnosis were the induction 
 of a morbid state which takes the place of the disease, I 
 should still consider its exhibition justified in the treat- 
 ment of confirmed drunkenness ; and I look forward to a 
 time when it will be used as a matter of routine treatment 
 in our retreats, greatly to the increased utility of those 
 excellent institutions. Of course, many cases will resist 
 hypnotic treatment, as they resist everything else. Such 
 cases are, I believe, absolutely hopeless, and it will be a 
 good thing when the law allows us to keep them under 
 permanent restraint. 
 
 My experience is very much the same as that of other 
 physicians who have practised hypnotism all over the 
 world — Liebeault, Bernheim, Berillon, Forel, Schrenk- 
 Notzing, Tokarsky, Wetterstrand, Hamilton, Osgood, 
 Neilson, Bramwell, Cruise, Wingfield, Astley Cooper, 
 Crichton Miller, Woods, and many others. Berillon 
 has contributed several papers of great interest on the 
 subject to the Revue de Psychotherapie, which entirely 
 corroborate the above remarks. 
 
 Dr. Tokarsky of Moscow contributed an important 
 paper to the International Congress on Hypnotism held 
 in Paris in igoi. He states that in thirteen years he has 
 hypnotized 700 persons for the cure of drunkenness, and 
 that he has had 80 per cent, of successes in cases where 
 the patients came to him desirous of cure. They included 
 all classes of society, from University professors to working 
 
252 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 men and peasants. He reckons no one as cured until at 
 least a year has elapsed since the beginning of the treat- 
 ment. Hypnotism has taken a firm hold in Russia, and 
 is practised by able physicians in every large town. For 
 many years it was held under suspicion by the authorities, 
 and could only be employed even by medical men under 
 stringent conditions. For instance, two doctors had to be 
 present at each sitting. These restrictions have lately been 
 withdrawn, and hypnotism is treated like other medical 
 procedures. Public dispensaries have been opened under 
 official patronage in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Ekaterino- 
 slaff, and other large cities, for the treatment of drunken- 
 ness by hypnotism. A very large number of patients 
 avail themselves of the treatment ; often over sixty a day, 
 for instance, at Ekaterinoslaff, and the results are said to 
 be most encouraging. A Russian Medical Society of 
 Hypnology was founded in Moscow in ig02, and is very 
 active and flourishing. 
 
 Russia is stated to be the most drunken country in the 
 w'orld, and therefore offers a very extended field for experi- 
 ment and cure. Numerous articles on the subject have 
 appeared in the Revue de Psychotherapie during the last few 
 years, written in such a critical and impartial spirit by 
 Russian physicians on the spot that they must carry con- 
 viction. We shall soon, therefore, have overwhelming 
 evidence of an official character on this very important 
 question. 
 
 One of the best articles I have read is that by Dr. Oscar 
 Wiasemsky of Saratow (May, 1905). He had treated 
 319 cases up to a certain date (twelve months) before his 
 paper was written, and he carefully describes his treat- 
 ment and tabulates his results. He divides his cases into 
 two classes, habitual and periodic drinkers (142 of the* 
 former, 174 of the latter, 3 being unclassed), and he 
 finds the latter most amenable. He will not undertake 
 a case unless the patient expresses the wish to be cured, 
 and even with that proviso he found 197, over 60 per 
 cent., refused to follow the treatment for more than a 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 253 
 
 month. Of these, many were cured, some benefited, and 
 only ten were registered as complete failures. Eighty- 
 one patients continued under treatment for from one 
 to six months ; eleven of these are reported as failures. 
 The remaining thirty-eight patients continued under 
 treatment for from six months to a year, and of these 
 only four relapsed, and are reckoned as failures. So his 
 figures come out about the same as Tokarsky's — viz., 
 80 per cent, of successes — when his conditions are 
 observed. Dr. Wiasemsky's patients were, like Tokar- 
 sky's, drawn from all classes of the community, from 
 University professors to peasants. He only failed to 
 hypnotize one person out of the 319 patients at the first 
 sitting. He required the patient to abstain from alcohol 
 at least twenty-four hours before hypnotizing him, and 
 he gave up the treatment if he drank within the first 
 week. 
 
 He considers a year's treatment, comprising about 
 twenty-five sittings, necessary in confirmed cases to restore 
 the damaged brain and other organs, and he states very 
 emphatically that he has invariably found hypnotic treat- 
 ment conducive to rapid recovery of mind, body, and 
 morale. Dr. Wingfield is very successful in the treatment 
 of alcoholism, and gives some striking examples in his 
 excellent book. He tells me he rarely fails to get profound 
 hypnosis in these cases, and many of his patients have 
 been cured for over twenty years. 
 
 In the treatment of morphinomania a different course 
 must be adopted to that pursued in managing drunkenness. 
 In the latter the supply of alcohol had better be cut off at 
 once, but this course would be highly dangerous in the 
 morphia habit, even with the aid of hypnotism. The 
 quantity may be gradually decreased, until at the end of 
 a week the drug should be discontinued altogether. This 
 step is followed by a gastric crisis, during which the 
 patient should be frequently hypnotized, and be kept up 
 by nourishing foods and stimulants. 
 
 There are cases on record in which cures have been 
 
254 TREATMENT BY HYPXOTISM A\D SUGGESTION 
 
 sudden, but I should greatly distrust their permanence 
 except in very exceptional instances. 
 
 Many people have objected to hypnotism because they 
 consider it as interference with free-will. Do those who 
 talk about a drunkard's free-will understand that they are 
 speaking of a thing which has ceased to exist ? A dipso- 
 maniac is reported to have said that if he were given a 
 glass of whisky, and told that drinking it would imme- 
 diately consign him to the pains of hell, which might be 
 exposed to his gaze, he would be unable to resist draining 
 the glass. An occasional success in treating such a frightful 
 disorder would justify the trial of hypnotism in dipso- 
 mania, even if it were surrounded with ten times the 
 dangers with which people credit it. As a matter of fact, 
 the treatment offers considerable hope of cure even in 
 desperate cases, and it is absolutely free from risk. 
 
 The above observations apply with increased cogency to 
 treatment of the morphia habit by hypnotic suggestion. 
 It is well known that this habit is more deeply impressed 
 on the system than alcoholism, and that morphinomaniacs 
 are even less trustworthy in their resolutions and protesta- 
 tions than drunkards. In treating the morphia habit, it is 
 therefore necessary to have the patient under very efficient 
 observation, and it is desirable to induce the most advanced 
 degree of hypnosis possible, in order that suggestion may 
 act with the most complete effect. 
 
 Dr. Wetterstrand records a series of thirty-eight cases, 
 of which he treated twenty-eight successfully by sugges- 
 tion [Zeitschrift fiir Hypnotismus, March, 1896). 
 
 Sir Francis Cruise, Drs. Fitzgerald, Richard Hayes, 
 Murphy, Redmond, and M'Cullagh of Dublin, related 
 cases, and bore testimony to the value of hypnotism at the 
 meeting of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland, on 
 March 6, 1891 {Dublin Journal of Medical Science, May, 
 1891). All these physicians and surgeons had made trial 
 of the treatment, both in their private and in their hospital 
 practice, and spoke from personal observation. Sir F. 
 Cruise has kindly informed me that the lady dipsomaniac 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 255 
 
 referred to by him and Dr. Murphy continues well, and is 
 apparently cured. He has supplied me with information 
 regarding other interesting cases, and among these one of 
 diabetes mellitus. The patient is a young man whose 
 condition was very serious. By hypnotic suggestion the 
 urine has been reduced in quantity from 24 to 8 pints per 
 diem, and the sugar proportionately, while the distressing 
 thirst has been entirely relieved. Sir Francis says that, 
 of course, he does not expect a cure, but it is a good 
 thing to have been able so greatly to have mitigated the 
 symptoms. His experience coincides with that of Van 
 Renterghem and Van Eeden, who have been successful in 
 their treatment of diabetes by suggestion, and who have 
 also found it of value in Bright's disease. The treatment 
 of diabetes by hypnotic suggestion raises an interesting 
 question. We know that this disease is often of psychical 
 origin, and may follow serious emotional disturbance, 
 such as fear, anxiety, anger, and deep grief where they 
 occur in predisposed individuals. Sometimes ' psychical 
 shock ' is combined with bodily injury, as in a case 
 reported by Professor Senator (vide British Medical Journal, 
 February 17, 1900), when diabetes came on fourteen days 
 after lightning-stroke. Suggestion by working centrally 
 on the nervous system may be expected in these cases 
 to reverse the morbid process, and thus effect ameliora- 
 tion, and perhaps ultimate cure. Dr. Draper, of Hud- 
 dersfield, contributed a paper at the annual meeting of 
 the British Gynaecological Society, held at Newcastle in 
 June, i8gi. In this he records some interesting cases 
 he has treated by hypnotism. One of obstinate hysterical 
 vomiting is especially striking. Another is a case in which 
 he found suggestion of extraordinary efficacy in relieving 
 symptoms and promoting convalescence after he had re- 
 moved the ovaries, thus corroborating my own experience 
 in such cases. His paper is to be found in the Provincial 
 Medical Jotirnal for July, 1891. Dr. Draper tells me he 
 has used hypnotism with gratifying results in eighteen 
 cases of midwifery, and that he has performed a consider- 
 
256 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 able number of surgical operations under hypnotic anaes- 
 thesia. Dr. Jane Walker, of the New Hospital for 
 Women, London, records an interesting case of confine- 
 ment under hypnosis in the Revue dc VHypnotisme, 189G. 
 The manner in which many English practitioners have 
 taken up hypnotism is exactly that advocated by Professor 
 Pitres in addressing his students at Bordeaux : ' Be 
 physicians, gentlemen, and not hypnotizers ; but learn 
 how to apply hypnotism, and be ready to make use of it 
 in suitable cases.' 
 
 The formation of a medical society for the study of the 
 phenomena of hypnotism and suggestion is a move in the 
 right direction. Within three months of its foundation 
 — November, igo6 — it numbered about thirty members; 
 now (1913) its membership is one hundred and fifty, and 
 bids fair to rival in influence and utility its prosperous 
 French forerunner, La Societe d'Hypnologie et de Psycho- 
 logic, founded 1890. 
 
 The English Society will, we hope, afford encourage- 
 ment and support to those medical men who are fighting 
 as pioneers against lay and professional prejudice, and will 
 enable us to collect and compare experimental and clinical 
 results. The honorary secretary is Dr. Douglas Bryan, 
 Spa House, Leicester ; to whom, and to Dr. Betts Taplin 
 of Liverpool, for their energetic initiative we owe a debt 
 of gratitude. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Inhibition. — Definition. — Dynamogenesis. — Theories of Brown- 
 Sequard.— Lauder Brunton. — Interference. — Experiments. 
 
 I PROPOSE in the following chapter to consider briefly the 
 subject of inhibition, as it seems to me to be the key to 
 the proper comprehension of hypnotic phenomena. The 
 subject is a difficult one, and I would refer the student 
 desirous of fully studying it to consult the works of Lauder 
 Brunton,^ Brown-Sequard,t and Heidenhain.;}: 
 
 Inhibition is defined as being ' the more or less com- 
 plete arrest of present functional activity of a structure 
 or organ by a restraining influence exerted over it through 
 a nerve centre,' § or more fully by Lauder Brunton as 
 * the arrest of the functions of a structure or organ by the 
 action upon it of another, while its powers to execute those 
 functions is still retained and can be manifested as soon as 
 the restraining power is removed.' 
 
 It will be seen from these definitions that inhibition is 
 quite a different thing to the loss of function which occurs 
 in paralysis, and the cessation of function which follows 
 exhaustion. There are two characteristics which are of 
 great importance in the consideration of the relationship 
 between inhibition and hypnotism : the suddenness of its 
 induction and removal, and the want of apparent propor- 
 
 * ' On the Nature of Inhibition and the Action of Drugs upon it ' 
 (reprinted from Nature)^ London, 1883. 'On Inhibition, Peripheral 
 and Central,' West Riding Reports, 1874. 
 
 t ' Sur I'Inhibition et la Dynamogenesie,' Gazette Hebdominairc de 
 Me'decine, etc., 1882. 
 
 + 'Hypnotism, or Animal Magnetism,' London, 1888. 
 
 § ' Lexicon of Medical Terms,' New Sydenham Society. 
 
 257 17 
 
258 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 tion between the cause and effect — i.e., a relatively small 
 excitation being capable of determining most extensive 
 results. Under ordinary circumstances stimulation of a 
 motor nerve by an electric current produces in response 
 the contraction of the muscles to which the nerve is 
 distributed, and irritation of a sensory nerve produces a 
 sensory reaction ; e.g., stimulation of the gustatory nerve 
 arouses taste sensations, of the optic nerve visual sensa- 
 tions, etc. But stimulation of a nerve is not always followed 
 by functional activity. On the contrary, it is sometimes 
 followed by cessation of activity. ' Afferent impulses 
 reaching a nervous centre may, instead of stimulating it 
 to activity, stop or inhibit an activity previously going on. 
 Whenever in any tissue energy is being set free, nervous 
 energy brought to bear on the tissue may affect the rate 
 or amount of energy set free in two different ways : on 
 the one hand, it may increase or quicken the setting free 
 of energy ; on the other hand, it may slacken, hinder, or 
 inhibit the setting free of energy' (Foster's ' Physiology,' 
 
 p. 185). 
 
 The recognition of the part inhibition plays in vital 
 phenomena is undoubtedly one of the most important 
 discoveries which have been made in physiology since 
 Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood. It throws 
 light upon an immense number of phenomena previously 
 inexplicable, and enables us to form theories of a satis- 
 factory nature about many vital problems. It offers an 
 explanation of the nature of hypnotic states, which is at 
 least as satisfactory as that we have of the action of many 
 drugs. 
 
 The nervous mechanism of the heart affords the best 
 and most commonly cited example of inhibitory action, 
 and here it was first studied by Weber and Claude Bernard 
 in 1848. The cardiac ganglia derived from the sym- 
 pathetic preside over the movements of the organ, and 
 in response to the stimulus of the intraventricular blood- 
 pressure cause rhythmical contraction of the cavities. 
 Their action is, however, controlled by the pneumogastric 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 259 
 
 nerve, through which impulses of an inhibitory nature are 
 constantly travelling and acting as a restraining force. 
 Paralysis of the pneumogastric, of course, does away with 
 Its action, and hence we have, among other symptoms of 
 this condition, increased rapidity of the contractions of 
 the heart from withdrawal of the inhibitory influence. 
 This is demonstrated by dividing the pneumogastric in 
 animals, and it has also been seen in cases where it has 
 been possible to exert pressure on the nerve in men. 
 Thus, the late Professor Czermack had a small glandular 
 tumour in close contact with the right pneumogastric 
 nerve, and he was able by pressure on this to compress 
 the nerve to any extent he wished, and either to com- 
 pletely stop the heart or simply to retard it (Lauder 
 Brunton, * Inhibition,' West Riding Reports, 1874). 
 
 If when the heart is beating regularly, the branches 
 of the pneumogastric going to it are stimulated by the 
 passage through them of an interrupted electric current, 
 the heart will stop beating, and it will be found flaccid 
 and in a state of muscular relaxation. This happens 
 when the current is of sufficient intensity ; but it may be 
 insufficiently powerful to stop the action altogether, and 
 in that case we shall see all degrees of interference, from 
 mere slight retardation to complete arrest. 
 
 But the action of the heart may be inhibited by in- 
 fluencing it through the pneumogastric in other ways. 
 Golz's tapping experiment illustrates this. He exposed 
 the heart and vessels, and also the intestines, in a frog, 
 and he found that tapping on the intestines with the 
 scalpel handle had the effect of stopping the heart. The 
 practical bearing of this experiment is seen in cases 
 where sudden death follows a blow on the stomach or 
 abdomen. The heart is stopped by an intense stimulation 
 of the pneumogastric through its gastric branches. 
 
 These examples show the effect of inhibition of 
 mechanical origin, but we constantly see how the heart 
 may be inhibited by influences of psychical origin. If 
 the stimulation is intense, and the organ weak, absolute 
 
26o TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 stoppage of the heart may ensue ; and as it is with the 
 interrupted current, so it is with the effects of emotion 
 and shock. The heart may either stop or its action may 
 simpl}' be interfered with. 
 
 As in the heart we find two nervous agencies at work, 
 the one exerting an exciting and the other a restraining 
 influence, so it is in respect to all our functions and 
 organs. There is a system of action and counter-action, 
 and in a state of health there is a proper relative balance 
 maintained between the two. There is interaction of 
 nervous force, and no function or organ in normal life has 
 full and unrestricted play, for its activity is modified by 
 the interferences of nervous impulses arriving from other 
 parts. Some of these impulses are of an inhibitory 
 nature, and the amount of response to stimulation 
 depends not only on the strength of the stimulus, but 
 also on that of the counteracting inhibitory impulse. 
 For example, a person receives a violent blow, and a 
 nervous impulse of great force and tension is sent from 
 the seat of injurj^ to the brain centres. The natural 
 response to the stimulus will be a correspondingly strong 
 discharge of energy from the receiving centres along the 
 motor tracts, and vigorous muscular contraction taking 
 the form of retaliatory violence will result ; this action 
 may be called cerebro-reflex, and the less the injured 
 person is controlled by reason, the simpler will be the 
 mechanism of the act. But in educated and disciplined 
 communities, cerebro-reflex movements are not allowed 
 their full play, for the functions of the highest controlling 
 centres come into action ; and in addition to excito-motor 
 impulses sent from the motor centres, there are other 
 impulses discharged from the centres of the highest level. 
 These latter will be of an inhibitory nature, and will modify 
 those emanating from the lower levels. If the assaulted 
 person has so developed his faculties of restraint and 
 judgment that they have become the dominant features 
 of his character, he will reflect that, instead of returning 
 the blow, it may be better to either take no notice of it, 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 261 
 
 or proceed by legal action. In either case a strong in- 
 hibitory impulse from the highest centres will neutralize 
 the cerebro-reflex one. If the injury is severe, or the 
 power of restraint not fully developed, the action of the 
 highest level may not be sufficient to entirely neutralize 
 the reflex response, and the fist may be clenched or a cry 
 uttered. It is evident, then, that not only function, but 
 conduct also, depends largely on inhibition. 
 
 The controlling action of the highest centres in inhibit- 
 ing cerebro-reflex action is seen in the exaggerated start a 
 person makes on receiving a sensory impression when his 
 mind is not ready to receive it ; for instance, the touch of 
 a friend's hand on the shoulder will cause one to almost 
 jump from the chair, if the faculties of attention are off 
 guard, or if one is in a state of reverie. Similarly, in 
 hypnosis (inhibition of the cells of the highest cortical 
 centres) reflex actions are generally exaggerated. 
 
 Inhibition may be either very extended in its action or 
 extremely circumscribed. An example of the former is 
 seen in the tremendous effect which follows irritation of 
 the small mass of grey matter (the vital knot) situated 
 at the upper part of the medulla oblongata. An intense 
 inhibitory impulse is discharged, and the result is instant 
 death from fatal interference with the functions of the 
 heart and lungs : general inhibition is produced. Its con- 
 finement to a very small area is seen when the auriculo- 
 cervical nerve in a rabbit is irritated. Paralysis from 
 inhibition of the vaso-motor nerves of the ear is produced 
 with immediate flushing of the part. Brown-Sequard has 
 obtained some typical illustrations of inhibitory action. 
 By passing carbonic acid through the upper part of the 
 larynx of a dog, and so irritating the peripheral endings of 
 the laryngeal nerves, respiratory movements were at once 
 checked, though communication between the lungs and 
 the external air was freely maintained by means of a 
 tube, and though the gas was prevented acting on the 
 bronchial mucous membrane by division of the trachea. 
 On the other hand, when he irritated the pharyngeal 
 
262 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 mucous membrane by directing the vapour of chloroform 
 upon it, he found that the contrary effect was produced, 
 and respiratory movements became greatly exaggerated 
 and accelerated, though the quantity applied was very 
 small, and it was prevented reaching the lungs.* 
 
 In the case of general inhibition of vital functions 
 following irritation of the vital knot, we have seen the 
 most intense and widespread action of this force, and in 
 the different degrees of cardiac interference produced by 
 stimulation of the pneumogastric we have an example of 
 a more localized but still intense form of inhibition. As 
 Nasmyth's hammer can either wield a gigantic bar of 
 steel or crack a walnut, so inhibition has all grades of 
 action, and its effects may be extremely circumscribed or 
 widespread. 
 
 For example: No function of organic life is more in- 
 fluenced by mental states than that of salivation. The 
 thought of savoury food when one is hungry is sufficient 
 to make the salivary glands secrete and the mouth water, 
 while fear or disgust will have an exactly opposite effect, 
 and the mouth becomes dry and parched. t 
 
 * Brown-Sequard has pointed out how in the oncoming- of sleep in- 
 hibitory impulses afifect different muscles in order; the eyelids become 
 heavy from inhibitory action on the levatores palpebrarum, the head 
 tends to fall from inhibition of the muscles which support it. At the 
 same time an inhibitory impulse affects the heart and lungs, and the 
 action of these becomes slower. Consentaneously the mental faculties 
 become dulled and inactive from their inhibition. In using hypnotism 
 one endeavours by word-painting to figure in the subject's mind an 
 image of the natural processes, relying on suggestion being followed 
 by realization of the conditions suggested. 
 
 Brown-Sequard quotes the experiments of Fleming and Augustus 
 Waller, showing how simultaneous pressure on the cervical sympa- 
 thetic, the pneumogastric, and the carotid determines sleep. He 
 supposes that these procedures act as peripheral irritations which are 
 carried to a certain point — situated, probably, at the base of the brain 
 — and that from this point proceed inhibitory impulses which afifect 
 the functioning of the different centres {Arc/iives de Physiologic^ 
 January, 1889). 
 
 + This effect is taken advantage of by some of the Indian tribes. 
 If a man is suspected of a crime he is given rice to chew, and told to 
 spit it out. The guilty person is so afifected by terror that the rice is 
 reduced to a fine dry powder, in consequence of the absence of saliva, 
 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 263 
 
 Tarchanoff gives some interesting examples of inhibitory action, 
 and the following are selected from his book : 
 
 If the posterior limbs of a frog be plunged into a weak acid solution, 
 the animal will withdraw them at once ; but if at the same time the 
 middle region of its brain be stimulated by an electric current or by a 
 solution of salt, the movement does not take place, because the reflex 
 movements have been inhibited by the action induced in the brain. 
 
 If a section of the upper part of the spinal cord of a frog be removed, 
 and the remaining portion be connected with the brain by a circuit in 
 which a galvanometer is placed, the needle will be observed to oscillate 
 periodically from the passage through the circuit of nerve impulses 
 proceeding from the bulbar centres, and this movement will continue 
 for some time ; but if a nerve in connection with the cord be irritated, 
 it will be found that the needle will become motionless as long as the 
 irritation is kept up. We here see that nervous action can be inhibited 
 in the brain centres by peripheral stimulation, just as in the previous 
 example reflex action was arrested by acting on the cerebral centres. 
 
 Tarchanofif argues that external sensory impressions act as inhibitory 
 or moderating influences on the nervous centres of the brain, and that 
 in hypnosis, as there is an absence of these impressions, the phenomena 
 of excitation of the centres are no longer counterpoised, and are, 
 therefore, in the ascendant. To support this view he instances an 
 experiment he has made on a young dog. He exposed the motor area 
 of the cerebrum, and stimulated it to action by applying an electric 
 current. This procedure was found to excite localized movement, 
 according to the zone experimented on ; but when he held a piece of 
 meat to the animal's nose, he found the movements ceased ; i.e., the 
 excitation of the centres of smell and sight produced an inhibitory 
 action on the motor centres. To enforce the same theory, he quotes 
 an experiment performed on dogs by Heidenhain and Boubnoff. They 
 find that when dogs are poisoned by morphia, so that ordinary external 
 impressions cease to act upon the brain, irritation of the motor zones 
 produces strong tonic contractions, which continue after the excitation 
 has ceased ; but if other parts of the grey matter be gently stimulated, 
 the contractions at once cease ; and the same effect is observed if the 
 senses of sight, hearing, smell, or touch be peripherally excited. He 
 draws an analogy between the morphinized dog and the hypnotized 
 subject, and seeks to show how in the latter case hyperexcitability of 
 the muscular system and senses exists, in consequence of the absence 
 of many-sided impressions from the closure of all the avenues of sense, 
 except those specially excited. 
 
 whilst if innocent it is ejected as pulp. But the function of the salivary 
 glands can be influenced mechanically, in the same way as that of the 
 heart. Take the submaxillary gland. It is supplied with vaso-motor 
 nerves, which keep its vessels moderately contracted when food is not 
 being taken. A branch of the chorda tympani nerve seems to act as 
 inhibitory nerve of the vaso-constrictor fibres of the vessels supplying 
 the gland, and irritation of it has the effect of causing dilatation of 
 the vessels, with consequent increased afflux of blood and increased 
 functional activity — i.e., increased flow of saliva. 
 
264 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 Tlie accompanying diagram shows how inhibitory action 
 affects the cahbre of an artery, and consequently the 
 blood-supply of a part. G is a nerve ganglion connected 
 with the artery A, through a nerve N, and I is a centri- 
 fugal nerve derived from an inhibitory 
 centre. Under ordinary circumstances G 
 is constantly acting on A as a vaso-con- 
 Y^ strictor, and keeps its walls moderately 
 
 (contracted. W'hcn, however, an inhibitory 
 impulse arrives at G through I, the action 
 
 of G is arrested and restrained, and the 
 vessel A is free to dilate. 
 
 Lauder Brunton thinks inhibition of secretion may re- 
 sult either from interference with the supply of blood to 
 an organ, with consequent cramp of the arterioles and 
 local anaemia, or from direct action of inhibitory nerves 
 on motor cells without any changes occurring in the 
 vessels. 
 
 Brown-Sequard supposes that where on the one hand 
 there is an inhibitory influence at work, there is also 
 present on the other hand its antithesis — dynamogenesis. 
 Nervous force cannot, any more than other forms of 
 energy, be created ; it can only be transformed and made 
 to act in altered combinations and different directions. 
 
 Thus Beaunis says that every nervous excitation deter- 
 mines in the excited nervous substance two contrarj- 
 modifications, an impulsion towards activity and a ten- 
 denc}' to inhibition. Similarly Lauder Brunton considers 
 that inhibition is the opposite phase to stimulation, that 
 both depend on excitation, and that the resulting condi- 
 tion depends upon the force with which and the direction 
 from which their mutual interference acts. 
 
 It has been generally held that inhibition is the property 
 of special nerve centres situated in the brain and spinal 
 cord, from which proceed nervous discharges of an 
 inhibitory nature, in the same way as from motor centres 
 proceed motor impulses. It is proved that the higher 
 centres of the brain exercise an inhibitory action on 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 265 
 
 those below them, and that these, again, control the next 
 below them, and so on. Reflex action increases in propor- 
 tion to the removal of the control of the higher centres, not 
 only in the brain but also in the cord, for when the cord 
 is removed in segments we find the excitability of the 
 segment below increases with the removal of the one 
 above. So the activity of the lower cerebral centres will 
 become more apparent in proportion to the removal of 
 the control of the higher. 
 
 The heart, again, affords one of the best examples of the 
 close association of neuro-regulatory arrangements and 
 their action upon each other. If the heart is removed 
 from a cold-blooded animal, it will continue to contract 
 rhythmically owing to its containing within itself ganglia 
 derived from the sympathetic system. But these ganglia 
 have not all the same functions. The principal ones, 
 three in number, are those of Bidder, Remak, and Lud- 
 wig. The t\vo former appear to be excitor centres, while 
 the latter is a moderating or inhibitory centre. This is 
 well shown by experiment. Let the heart be cut into 
 two unequal portions, one consisting of the right ventricle 
 (with the ganglion of Remak), and the other of the two 
 auricles and the left ventricle (containing Ludwig's and 
 Bidder's ganglia), the first portion will continue to beat, 
 but the second will remain quiet. Let this second portion 
 be again divided, and the auricles (containing in their 
 septum Ludwig's ganglion) will be found to remain quiet, 
 while the ventricle will recommence beating. Ludwig's 
 ganglion has thus proved strong enough to counteract 
 one excitor ganglionic centre, but not sufficiently strong 
 to control two (Kliss's ' Lectures on Physiology,' edited 
 by Amory, p. i6g). 
 
 It is probable, as Brown-Sequard saj-s, that all sensory 
 and sensorial nerves are capable of determining inhibition, 
 and the study of hypnotism affords a valuable confirmation 
 of this theory. The highest centres may be inhibited by 
 acting on several sensory areas and tracts, and the position 
 of these seems to vary in different individuals. Gentle 
 
266 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 friction, for instance, of the forehead will in many persons 
 speedily determine cortical inhibition and hypnosis, and 
 some writers have even described inhibitory or hypnogenic 
 zones.* The phenomena of zonar epilepsy afford a useful 
 analogy here. Slight pressure on the ovaries will in many 
 of these cases start an epileptiform fit — i.e., will convey a 
 strong inhibitory impulse to the cortex — and the highest 
 
 * Professor Pitres gives an exhaustive account of these zones in his 
 important work. His position and experience demand our acceptance 
 of the facts he records, but some of them — i\jf., the occurrence of 
 ideogenic zones in hysterical subjects, pressure upon which give rise 
 to various emotions and sensations according to the areas stimulated 
 — make considerable demands on our imagination. It is a matter for 
 regret that, like Charcot, he seems to have confined his researches in 
 hypnotism almost entirely to hysterical subjects, as experiments on 
 healthy persons give much more satisfactory and trustworthy results. 
 Bernheim denies the occurrence of hypnogenic zones, except as a result 
 of conscious or unconscious suggestion on the part of the operator ; but 
 Pitres gives evidence that it is impossible to ignore, and it is, I think, 
 best to admit that these zones are of spontaneous origin in a few 
 exceptional cases, just as Charcot's three stages may sometimes occur 
 without suggestion. According to Pitres, the zones must be carefully 
 looked for, as they are usually confined to a small area. There may 
 be only one discoverable, or the number may mount up to fifteen or 
 more. He describes (with diagrams) the case of one hysterical young 
 woman having ten hypnogenic zones ; two of these were situated in 
 the middle line, one at the root of the nose, and the other on the 
 vertex, and eight on the left side, viz., on the malar process, the 
 superior body of the clavicle, mammary region, bend of the elbow, 
 upper and external part of the thigh, knee, external malleolus, and 
 internal malleolus. 
 
 The result of touching any of these zones was that the girl fell at 
 once into the lethargic stage of hypnosis (Charcot), and remained in 
 it until she awoke spontaneously, or was awakened by touching other 
 areas which acted as waking (hypno-phrenetic) zones. The danger 
 and inconvenience arising from the existence of these zones, whether 
 natural or acquired, is demonstrated by many cases referred to by 
 Dr. Pitres, and if they are found to exist, hypnotic suggestion should 
 be employed to remove them. A physician once told me that he 
 accidentally touched one of Charcot's patients on the elbow, and that 
 she at once passed into a state of catalepsy ; and in Luys"s clinique I 
 have seen patients who are equally subject to being in a moment 
 reduced to a stage of helplessness, and perhaps unconsciousness. Such 
 development of hysterical phenomena, whether practised in the wards 
 of a hospital or on a public platform, constitutes in my mind a grave 
 abuse of hypnotism. Instead of developing the morbid hypersus- 
 ceptibility of hysterical subjects by hypnotic education, it appears to 
 me much more commendable to correct and cure it (' Hysterie et 
 Hypnotisme,' vol. ii., chap. 44). 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 267 
 
 layer will be inhibited with corresponding overaction from 
 dynamogenesis of the lower. Conversely we find that 
 strong pressure over the ovaries will cut short an attack 
 which has begun, thus showing the close relationship 
 between the neuro-regulatory forces. But though it is 
 probable that hypnogenic zones may sometimes exist spon- 
 taneously, we must be careful to avoid confusing them 
 with what we may call habit zones. Nerve habits are 
 readily set up, especially in hysterical subjects, and an 
 artificial hypnogenic zone is easily called into being by 
 suggestion. One would only have to tell a sensitive 
 person that pressure on his right temple would determine 
 the hypnotic state, and we should either at once, or in a 
 short time, find that this action would become a hypno- 
 genic agent. 
 
 At Amsterdam Drs. Van Renterghem and Van Eeden 
 used sometimes to awaken their patients by touching the 
 tips of their noses, and this contact was at once sufficient to 
 end the sleep, no matter how deep it might be. An artificial 
 dynamogenic zone was created. The effects of nerve 
 habit are, of course, visible all around us. The pater- 
 familias who has only to take up the paper after dinner 
 and sit in his accustomed chair by the fire, in order to 
 almost immediately fall into a doze, is a familiar example 
 of this condition ; only a little less marked than that which 
 we sometimes set up by hypnotism, when we give the 
 patient a piece of paper, and tell him that on looking at 
 it he will at once feel sleepy and fall into a sound sleep. 
 The sleep of the business man over his accustomed paper 
 is, I believe, frequently of the hypnotic type. Though it 
 commonly lasts only a few minutes, such sleepers have 
 frequently told me that it refreshes them more than their 
 night's rest ; it is the rest of simple inhibition. Many 
 great generals, like Napoleon, have been able to snatch 
 sleep of this type at any time and to awake from it not 
 only refreshed but inspired. Ordinary hypnosis is not 
 alone in producing this sudden or rapid change — ' a few 
 moments of sleep ' — a mere blur across the field of con- 
 
268 TREATMEXT BY HYPNOTISM AXD SUGGESTION 
 
 sciousness, will sometimes bring a renovation which hours 
 of lying down in darkness and silence would not yield. 
 Some subtle adjustment of nervous energy to organic 
 needs takes place, and the whole aspect of the case 
 changes (Myers). Brown-Sequard points out that anaemia 
 is a predisposing cause of inhibition, and it has been the 
 experience of all observers in regard to hypnotism that 
 anaemic persons are often the best subjects. 
 
 The tendency of nerve habits to be formed more readily 
 in the h3'pnotic than in the waking condition is shown by 
 the fact that the subject is extremely apt to assume spon- 
 taneousl3% on subsequent occasions, the attitude he was 
 made to adopt when first hypnotized. Thus, if the arm 
 was raised at right angles to the body at the moment 
 hypnosis was complete, it is very probable that this action 
 becomes in the mind an essential part of the procedure, 
 and will be repeated on every subsequent occasion unless 
 checked by suggestion. 
 
 The subject of inhibition has been closely studied by 
 Sir Lauder Brunton, and his researches enable us to 
 get a little nearer the comprehension of some hypnotic 
 phenomena. He founds his theory on the analogy 
 afforded in physics by the interference of rays of light 
 and sound ^^•ith one another when they meet in certain 
 relationship."^ When two rays of light are combined so 
 that the crests of the waves of which they consist 
 coincide, the light becomes brighter ; but if the)- are 
 thrown together so that the crests of the waves in the 
 first ray correspond with the hollows of those in the 
 second, mutual interference is the result, and they so 
 neutralize one another that darkness is then produced. 
 Applied to the nervous system, the hypothesis implies 
 that nervous impulses travel like waves along the nerve 
 tracts, and as long as they coincide — apex to apex, and 
 hollow to hollow — sensation or movement is the result of 
 the impulse ; but if the coincidence be interfered with, we 
 get more or less complete neutralization of the impulse 
 
 * Loi: cit. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 269 
 
 and inhibition. The way in which waves of Hght may be 
 made to mutually interfere is by causing them to pass 
 through channels of different lengths, so that when they 
 meet, one may be half a length behind the other, the 
 crest of the first corresponding with the fundus of the 
 second. In the nervous system it is a matter of constant 
 occurrence that the impulse waves of nerve energy 
 are travelling towards the centres through channels of 
 different lengths, and it follows, ex hypothesi, that they 
 are interfering with each other in different degrees. The 
 whole nervous mechanism is subjected in its normal state 
 to a mutual check system, so that a balance is automatic- 
 ally maintained betweeen sensory and motor nerves, and 
 they are influenced to a greater or less degree by impulses 
 arriving from the higher centres — i.e., those concerned in 
 volition, etc. 
 
 Lauder Brunton illustrates this point by taking the 
 case of tickling. Here convulsive muscular movements 
 are set up by gentle continuous irritation over a sensory 
 surface. An impulse made up of waves is promulgated 
 to the sensory centres, and reflected from them down the 
 motor tracts. The stimulation being monotonous, con- 
 tinuous, and consisting of currents of the same intensity, 
 there is no wave interference, and the motor movements 
 resultant are reflex. But let the pressure be increased, so 
 that, instead of tickling, pain is produced: then, in place 
 of a weak current travelling up one nervous channel, we 
 have a strong, irregular impulse disseminated into channels 
 of different lengths ; when it arrives at the centres which 
 have been subjected to interference, a different condition 
 will result, and the reaction will cease to be m.erely 
 reflex. 
 
 Up to a certain point the action of the will may be 
 called forth to check the convulsive movements, and this 
 will operate by interference ; the waves constituting the 
 impulse from the highest centres so impinging upon the 
 excito-motor waves as to cause interference and inhibi- 
 tion. 
 
270 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 Inhibition, therefore, according to Lauder Brunton, is 
 not a special function of certain cells and nerve fibres, 
 but may be produced through any sensory or motor cell, 
 and depends not on the properties of the cell, but on its 
 relationship to other cells or fibres. * Motion, sensation, 
 inhibition, or stimulation, are not positive, but simply 
 relative terms, and stimulating or inhibitory functions 
 may be exercised by the same cell, according to the 
 relation which subsists between the wave-lengths of the 
 impulses travelling to or from it, the distance over which 
 they travel, and the rapidity with which they are pro- 
 pagated.'* Showing the effect of sufficient inducement to 
 overcome what we may almost call reflex action, I may 
 mention that a physician of m}^ acquaintance found his 
 little daughter extraordinarily ticklish, and used to tease 
 her by tickling her; but he called up such a strong 
 inhibitory action by giving her sixpence when she bore 
 it without wincing that she soon became quite callous 
 to it. 
 
 Applying the theory of interference to the induction 
 of hypnosis, we find that it serves to explain several 
 points. Take hypnotization by the method of fixation, 
 for example. An intense and unusual stimulus is applied 
 
 * Lauder Brunton, discussing the action of atropia on frogs, shows 
 how the animal gradually loses, first, the power of voluntary motion, 
 next the power of directing its movements, then the power of spring- 
 ing at all, and finally reflex action, and argues that the drug lessens 
 the functional activity of nerve cells and fibres. The impulses are 
 retarded, and thus the length of nervous connection between the cells 
 of the spinal cord which is calculated to keep them in proper relation 
 in the normal animal, just suffices at a certain stage to throw the 
 impulses half a wave's length behind the other, and thus to cause 
 complete inhibition and apparent paralysis. The paralysis is only 
 apparent, for after a time the animal will be found to respond to 
 slight stimulation in the same manner as if it had been poisoned with 
 strychnia, i.e., in an exaggerated degree. He explains this by assum- 
 ing that the retardation of the impulses proceeds as the poison con- 
 tinues to act, so that the waves after a time interfere less and less with 
 one another, and finally again coincide. The effect of the coincidence 
 is increased excitability on stimulation. This is on the theory that 
 impulses reach the centres by different routes of varying length, so 
 contrived that in normal life a constant relationship is maintained 
 between the position of waves, and a healthy balance is maintained. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 271 
 
 to the optic nerve, and by it carried to the optic centres, 
 in the form of an afferent current of abnormal form and 
 intensity. The effect of such strong stimulation is not 
 confined to the receiving centre, but overflows it and acts 
 upon neighbouring and associated ones. The nerve im- 
 pulse thus sent through the communicating nerve fibres 
 is composed of waves which meet the normal currents 
 traversing these channels in such a way as to interfere 
 with and neutralize them, and hence we arrive at inhibi- 
 tion, ei'ther complete or in part, of the functions of many 
 or a few of the cortical centres. The condition once 
 induced, its reproduction is rendered easy by the setting 
 up of a nerve habit. Psychical processes, such as auto 
 or outside suggestion, may be supposed to cause hypnosis 
 by originating a nerve impulse, starting from the idea- 
 tional centres ; but as to the nature of that nerve impulse 
 it is impossible to dogmatize. Myers says that psychical 
 processes can never be explained by physiological theories, 
 but the physiologist will not readily admit that proposi- 
 tion. Inhibition, therefore, is interference, not abolition of 
 function, and its distinguishing characteristic is its imme- 
 diate production and removability. By suggestion we 
 may be supposed to start an impulse from the higher 
 centres, the waves of which are propagated to the centres 
 it is sought to influence, and which either coincide with 
 and strengthen the efferent waves proceeding from these 
 (dynamogenesis), or by interfering with them cause in- 
 hibition. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Natural Analogies of Hypnosis. — Relation of Hypnosis to Sleep 
 and other Conditions.— Theory of Hypnosis. — Leucomaines and 
 Animal Alkaloids.— Hughlings Jackson's Three Planes of the 
 Central Nervous .System. — Cortical Inhibition. — Morselli's Mental 
 States and Centrifugal Equivalents. — Cortical Control. — Function 
 stimulated by Hypnotism.^ — Foundations of Consciousness. — 
 Chloroform and Hypnotic An;tsthesia contrasted. — McDougall's 
 Views. — Individuality dependent on Continuity of Memory. — 
 Pathological and Hypnotic Lethargy. — Alcohol and Hypnosis. — 
 Researches of Tamburini and other Italian Scientists on Excre- 
 tions during' Hypnosis. — Hypnotism and Hibernation. 
 
 In the foregoing pages I have endeavoured to show that 
 the hypnotic state has many analogies in ordinary hfe, 
 and that it is not so much the creation of a new con- 
 dition as the exaggeration of normal or partially normal 
 ones. It is the intentional production of a physical 
 state, similar to many which occur spontaneously in all 
 persons under certain circumstances. 
 
 The phenomena of hypnotism have points in common 
 with those of natural sleep, reverie, mental concentration, 
 intense nervous excitement, religious ecstasy, post-epileptic 
 states, as well as with the effects produced by alcohol and 
 various drugs. There is also a close resemblance between 
 some forms of hypnosis and hysteria, and the affinity 
 between spontaneous and induced catalepsy and somnam- 
 bulism is obvious. The distinguishing and characteristic 
 feature of the h}pnotic state is increase in the ideo-motor, 
 ideo-sensory and reflex excitability of the brain, shown by 
 increased readiness to receive, and increased ability to act 
 upon suggestion. 
 
 To elucidate more clearly the rationale of hypnotism, 
 
 272 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 273 
 
 I propose in the following pages to consider briefly the 
 physiology of conditions resembling it, and the main points 
 of difference between them. 
 
 I cannot but think that Bernheim has somewhat 
 exaggerated the closeness of the analogy between hypnotic 
 and natural sleep. To outward appearances the resem- 
 blance is certainly complete : hypnosis may pass into 
 natural sleep; and sleep may partake of the characteristics 
 of hypnosis in the same way that sleep may merge into 
 coma, or may pass into an epileptic condition ; but there 
 are clear lines of demarcation between all these states, 
 and the sleep of everyday life is distinct from its hypnotic 
 v;ounterfeit. 
 
 A short review of the etiology of natural sleep will 
 render it more easy to understand the physiology of 
 hypnotism. Sleep seems to depend upon several causes, 
 and to be the resultant of their joint action. Some of 
 these are of external and others of internal origin. First, 
 there is exhaustion of potential energy in the brain cells, 
 resulting from their functional activity ; secondly, there is 
 a condition of cerebral anemia ; and thirdly, there is an 
 accumulation in the tissues, and especially in the brain 
 centres, of waste products. To these we must add the 
 factor of periodicity — that ebb and flow of organic life 
 which has so potent an influence in all vital phenomena. 
 To ensure sleep it is necessary that these agencies should 
 be assisted by other conditions, and the most important 
 of these are, the absence of exciting sensory stimuli, a 
 comfortable posture, and a state of mental tranquillity 
 and repose. Sleep is banished if there is cerebral con- 
 gestion, if the mind is in a state of turmoil or excitement, 
 or if stimulating and vivid sensory impressions are con- 
 stantly arriving at the highest centres. Muscular repose 
 is also, as a rule, a necessary preliminary to sleep, though 
 there are many instances in which soldiers and others 
 under circumstances of exceptional fatigue have not been 
 prevented from sleeping in the most strained and uncom- 
 fortable positions, any more than they have been kept 
 
274 TREATMEXT BY HYPNOTISM AXD SUGGESTION 
 
 awake by the continuous roar of battle or the blustering 
 of the gale. 
 
 The chemical theory that sleep results from the accu- 
 mulation of waste products (leucomaines) in the organs is 
 now very generally held. Preyer supposes that kreatine 
 and lactic acid are formed during the periods of mental 
 activity, that they accumulate in the brain centres, and 
 from their affinity for oxygen rob the cells of this element, 
 upon an abundant supply of which their molecular activity 
 depends. A sleeper from this point of view may there- 
 fore be considered as narcotized by the waste products of 
 his own tissues. This theory also explains the periodicity 
 of sleep, for these products are being constantly formed 
 from tissue change during wakefulness, and as their 
 quantity increases, they cause proportionate and progres- 
 sive drowsiness, and finally sleep. During sleep or 
 inactivity of the cerebral centres no formation of these 
 products takes place, and the accumulation is gradually 
 worked off and eliminated ; a supply of oxygen again 
 becomes available, and molecular energy is restored. 
 When recuperation is complete, waking ensues, and the 
 same process is again repeated. It has, moreover, been 
 found that the vital alkaloids formed during sleep have a 
 convulsive and stimulating action on the nerve centres, 
 whereas those which are formed during the day have a 
 sedative and narcotic effect. The oxygen, which is so 
 essential to the functioning of the highest centres, is partly 
 derived from the blood, so that the cerebral respiration is 
 a term in use ; and is partly contained in a loosely com- 
 bined state in the nervous tissue, in the same way as the 
 oxygen required for the explosion of gunpowder is con- 
 tained in the nitre of its composition (Lauder Brunton). 
 The amount of oxygen, therefore, contained in the nerve 
 tissue regulates the activity of the nerve cells, and when 
 the German physiologist said that there was no thought 
 without phosphorus, he might have added, nor without 
 oxygen. Nerve energy is liberated by the explosive com- 
 bination of the carbonaceous elements in the nerve tissue 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 275 
 
 with oxygen ; and if the supply of oxygen is adequate 
 the explosive movements which initiate nervous impulses 
 are vigorous and their psychical concomitants are corre- 
 spondingly vivid. The necessity for oxygen in brain 
 processes is shown by the benumbing and soporific effect 
 of working in a crowded, ill-ventilated room. The 
 cerebral respiration is affected long before that through 
 the lungs. 
 
 Brown-Sequard* thinks that sleep results from inhibi- 
 tion, pure and simple, and supposes that the inhibitory 
 impulses proceed from the neighbourhood of the medulla. 
 He contends that the drowsiness of indigestion is not 
 produced by the formation and accumulation of leuco- 
 maines of abnormal quality, but arises from impulses of 
 gastric origin, affecting the inhibitory centres through the 
 pneumogastric. 
 
 There is almost as great a difference between the pro- 
 found, dreamless, and physiologically perfect sleep of the 
 healthy labouring man who earns his bread by the sweat 
 of his brow and is untroubled by nerves, and the stuporose 
 condition of the overfed and under-exercised dyspeptic, 
 as there is between natural sleep and hypnosis. The 
 reason of this appears to be that healthy physiological 
 sleep is the outcome of all the causes I have enumerated, 
 acting in their proper and just relationship and propor- 
 tion ; whereas in the sleep of indigestion we have one 
 cause acting in excess — the accumulation of waste 
 products and alkaloids in the tissues, as a result of imper- 
 fect assimilation and metabolism. The sleep is incomplete 
 
 * Archives de Physiologie Norinale et Pathologique, January, 1889. 
 He has demonstrated the fact that pigeons continue to sleep at regular 
 intervals after the sympathetic nerves in the neck have been divided, 
 and that dogs and cats sleep after removal of the superior cervical 
 ganglion of one side, and division of the vago-sympathetic in the 
 other — procedures leading to continued dilatation of the cerebral 
 vessels, and thus proving that sleep does not depend so much on con- 
 traction of the vessels with consequent cerebral anaemia as has been 
 
 ^supposed. Moreover, he found that pigeons continue to sleep after 
 the removal of the lobes of the brain, from which he concluded that 
 
 tsleep does not result from influences of medullar origin, and is not 
 dependent on the state of the cerebral lobes. 
 
276 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGES'IIOS 
 
 and one-sided here just as it is in hypnotism, and in both 
 cases some of the elements of natural sleep are wanting. 
 As in cases of indigestion, with somnolence and disturbed 
 sleep, there are degrees of disturbance, varying from slight 
 abnormality to complete change of type, so in hypnotism 
 we see all degrees of hypnosis, from the condition, such 
 as is seen in Charcot's cases, which has only a distant 
 resemblance to normal sleep, to a state indistinguishable 
 from and passing into it. The difference in type appears 
 to depend upon the extent to which one factor is pro- 
 ducing the condition to the exclusion of the others — 
 whether the state is an auto-narcosis from the accumula- 
 tion of alkaloids, is the result of inhibition alone, or is a 
 combination of all the causes which go to make up normal 
 sleep. 
 
 There is ground for believing that natural sleep assumes 
 the hypnotic type much more frequently than is commonly 
 supposed ; i.e., the sleeper is susceptible to suggestion from 
 without. It is certain that many persons who are 
 hypnotized for the first time, and the majority of those 
 who by frequent repetition of the process have become 
 good subjects, do not require any special stimulation of 
 one sense for the production of hypnosis ; expectant 
 attention and verbal suggestion being sufficient to deter- 
 mine the condition. Those facts are calculated to upset 
 many of the theories of the causation of hypnosis, and to 
 confirm the dictum of Brown-Sequard that hypnosis does 
 not depend upon exhaustion, but is a result of dynamic 
 inhibition of the highest centres. 
 
 When Braid's method is employed, an intense strain is 
 put upon the visual apparatus, and an excessive discharge 
 from the cells of the visual centre is followed by its ex- 
 haustion and subsequent cessation of its functional 
 activity. But in Bernheim's method there is no such 
 localized stimulation and nervous exhaustion, and the 
 condition induced would be indistinguishable from or- 
 dinary drowsiness or sleep, were it not that the subject is 
 receptive of suggestion. The chemical theory would also 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 277 
 
 be explanatory of the phenomena of Braidism, but it 
 quite breaks down when the suggestive method of induc- 
 ing hypnosis is in question. The increased functional 
 activity of a centre must lead to the increased oxidation 
 of its elements, with increased formation of the products 
 of molecular disintegration (vital alkaloids) ; and we know 
 that the accumulation of these in the system is a cause of 
 drowsiness and sleep. It is possible that their accumula- 
 tion in one part of the brain may induce partial or complete 
 inhibition of certain centres, with consequent interference 
 with or abolition of their functions (Tarchanoff). 
 
 Healthy, dreamless sleep depends upon temporary aboli- 
 tion of the functions of the highest centres, together with 
 a partial inhibition of those below — the middle and lower 
 levels. In dreamful and disturbed sleep inhibition is less 
 complete, and certain areas continue to discharge nervous 
 energv and so produce dreams. The more intense the 
 discharge, the more vivid the dream ; and if the discharge 
 be very intense, the attending process may overstep the 
 limit of mere ideation and take the form of action : there 
 will be movement or sleep-walking from stimulation and 
 discharge of the motor areas. The actions will be unac- 
 companied by consciousness : for consciousness depends 
 upon the functioning of all the higher centres in orderly 
 relation, and in somnambulism this order is disarranged or 
 destroyed. The actions, being unconscious, are automatic, 
 and tend to partake of the nature of those usually or 
 habitually performed. They will be in keeping with the 
 character and temperament of the sleeper ; for the nervous 
 discharges will travel through well-worn and accustomed 
 channels, and will hardly effect new combinations or 
 movements. 
 
 The post-epileptic state shows some very important 
 resemblances to hypnotic somnambulism ; the researches 
 of Dr. Hughlings Jackson and other observers enable us 
 to understand its phenomena. 
 
 The central nervous system may be considered as com- 
 posed of three divisions or layers : first, the medulla, pons. 
 
278 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 and basal ganglia, which function the most organized 
 processes of the animal economy, i.e., nutrition, secretion, 
 respiration, circulation ; secondly, the motor areas of the 
 cortex, which function muscular movements; and thirdly, 
 the highest and last evolved cortical centres, which 
 control and regulate the actions of those below them, 
 and which produce new associated movements. Further- 
 more, we must suppose that these highest centres are 
 assigned different grades in the hierarchy of the nervous 
 system. It is the function of the highest of all, which are 
 those last evolved, to control those immediately below 
 them, and through them to exercise a governing influence 
 over the entire nervous mechanism. It is only the 
 functioning of these highest of all centres which is 
 accompanied by psychical processes and is attended 
 with full consciousness. 
 
 If the functioning of all three divisions is suspended, 
 death ensues, and if the two higher divisions are entirely 
 placed out of action, and the lowest only functions, with 
 enfeebled force we get a state of coma, in which the 
 patient lies absolutely motionless and unconscious, and out 
 of which he cannot be roused. In this state, the functions 
 of organic life alone continue, and they only with greatly 
 diminished activity. Such are the coma of apoplectic 
 states, alcoholic poisoning, etc. In these cases the con- 
 dition depends upon destruction of the properties of the 
 highest nervous arrangements, either from gross lesion 
 or from chemical changes. One sees a somewhat similar 
 condition produced by exhaustion of nervous elements in 
 post-epileptic coma. 
 
 In natural, sound, dreamless sleep, we also get the 
 action of the two highest divisions of the nervous system 
 completely suspended, but the sleeper can be easily 
 aroused, because the suspension depends to a great 
 extent on cortical inhibition. In sleep accompanied 
 by dreams there is incomplete suspension, and certain 
 areas of the highest division continue to function apart 
 from their usual combinations, and therefore more or 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 279 
 
 less unintelligently.* If the action of the discharging 
 centres is energetic, it will, as we have seen, be accom- 
 panied by movements, and somnambulism may result. 
 In hypnosis brought about by suggestion, cessation of 
 function does not depend upon exhaustion, but is the 
 result of inhibition, and is not, therefore, followed by exhaus- 
 tion ; on the contrary, it refreshes the system in the same 
 way as, and in a marked degree more than, natural sleep. 
 The awakening is immediate, and depends upon the 
 removal of the inhibitory influence. If the phenomenon 
 depended upon exhaustion of the nervous elements, time 
 and rest would be required for recuperation, and this we 
 know is not the case. 
 
 Hypnotism cannot, I believe, produce epilepsy de novo, 
 even though it be employed ignorantly and recklessly ; 
 but under such circumstances it may determine a latent 
 
 * An experiment referred to by Heidenhain and also by Gerald Yeo 
 serves to show how completely the higher cerebral faculties are in 
 abeyance in the profounder states of hypnotism. Both these authors 
 refer to the production of the ' echo voice.' This is produced by 
 stroking the back of the subject's neck with the hand, when he will at 
 once repeat any words said to him. The effect produced is curiously 
 like that experienced in listening to a phonograph. The subject may 
 be perfectly uneducated, and yet he will repeat accurately after the 
 reciter an ode of Horace or the chorus from a Greek play (compare 
 case on p. 81). An analogous experiment on a frog, deprived of its 
 brain, illustrates how completely the profoundly hypnotized subject 
 maybe said to be ' robbed of his cerebral hemispheres.' If the frog's 
 flanks be gently stroked, it will croak, not continuously, but each 
 stroke will be followed by a croak, so that Yeo supposes there is an 
 unknown relation between certain sensory surfaces and the speech 
 centres {op. a'L, p. 13). 
 
 Another experiment is that of making a person speak by placing the 
 hand over the left temple, the idea being, of course, to stimulate 
 Broca's speech centre underneath. The subject will at once answer 
 if spoken to ; but if the same place be again touched he will as 
 suddenly become silent, though he may be in the middle of a word 
 or sentence. I have seen several such experiments, but have hitherto 
 been unable to repeat them on unprepared subjects. Heidenhain and 
 the other writers of more than a few years ago were not so fully alive 
 to the extraordinary readiness of the subject to act upon suggestion, 
 and to take advantage of the smallest hint as we are now. The 
 subject's mind is like an extra sensitive plate. As the faintest light 
 will affect the one, so will the slightest hint influence the other. With- 
 out denying that somatic reactions may occur in the hypnotic state, I 
 think we should be very cautious in accepting them. 
 
28o TREATMENT DY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 tendency. In hypnotizing epileptics, it is by no means 
 uncommon to see a slight ht produced by the process. 
 The same applies to the administration of chloroform and 
 the ingestion of an excessive quantity of alcohol, and tends 
 to show that in each case the agent acts on the cells of 
 the same cortical area. The view put forth by Hughlings 
 Jackson, in discussing epileptic convulsions, that the 
 highest level of the cortex not only subserves the psychical 
 processes and constitutes the physical substratum of con- 
 sciousness — volition, thought, emotion, judgment, etc. — 
 but also represents, though very indirectly, muscular 
 movements and organic functions, throws an important 
 light on the action of hypnotic suggestion on vital pro- 
 cesses. 
 
 The action of hypnotism is probably exerted entirely 
 on the highest centres, and if these represented only 
 mental processes, it would be difticult to understand how 
 by affecting them we could produce the changes in nutri- 
 tion and function which undoubtedly result from hypnotic 
 suggestion. But if it be correct to suppose that we can 
 influence the functions of the lower centres b}' acting 
 directly on the highest, that by influencing the hierarchy 
 we can modify the behaviour of the subordinate func- 
 tionaries of the body, we hold a key to the solution of 
 the problem. According to Liebeault, we attack disease 
 and affect function in gross by acting upon the starting- 
 point and centre of vital processes (the cerebrum), instead 
 of addressing ourselves to the treatment of their peripheral 
 manifestations, and attacking these in detail by drugs. 
 
 I believe all physiologists are now agreed as to the effect 
 the higher centres of the cerebral cortex are able to exert 
 over the lower nervous arrangements. Professor Morselli 
 of Genoa, writes : ' Every mental state and every act of 
 the intelligence has its centrifugal equivalent.' * ' The 
 mental functions act as supreme and constant regulators 
 of all the nervous processes, even of those which are 
 purely automatic and are not attended with conscious- 
 * ' Fisiopsicologia dell' ipnotismo,' p. 14. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 28 1 
 
 ness. Though they are withdrawn from the direct influence 
 of the psychic activity, they are nevertheless dependent 
 on it.' * 
 
 Bernheim contends that ' the brain controls all the 
 organs and every function, and that each part of the 
 organism has its ultimate representation in a brain cell, 
 which is its primum vwvens.\ Each movement is realized 
 by a cortical motor centre, and each tactile, visceral, and 
 muscular sensation by a cortical sensory cell.' 
 
 He considers that all the organs and functions are 
 subordinate to psychical states, and that by determining 
 these states we can influence function.* In the earlier 
 part of this work I have quoted numerous instances show- 
 ing the connection between psychical states and organic 
 functions, but in these the psychical influence has for the 
 most part been accidental and undirected, and the result- 
 ing reaction has not infrequently been more harmful than 
 beneficial. Hypnotism enables us in many cases to 
 control this influence and direct it into proper channels. 
 I would compare the effect of emotional states to the 
 conduct of the master of a large establishment. As long 
 as everything goes on well his interference with minutiae 
 is not required, and would probably be harmful. Every 
 foreman and servant knows his place, and the work is 
 regulated as it were by clockwork. But let some grave 
 source of danger or difficulty arise, and we shall find that 
 the master's hand is needed to control his subordinates 
 and to prevent confusion and damage arising. Suppose 
 that, instead of orderly and necessary interference, his 
 conduct is guided by passion or dictated by panic, and 
 what do we find ? Instead of his action being beneficial, 
 it is injurious, and even disastrous. Action of the incom- 
 petent or panic-stricken master is comparable to the mis- 
 directed and haphazard influence of the higher centres 
 on the general health and functions in emotional states; 
 
 * ' Fisiopsicologia dell' ipnotismo,' p. 24. 
 
 t ' Hypnotisme, Suggestion, Psycho-Therapie,' p. 449. 
 
 X Ibid., p. 46. 
 
283 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 while the beneficial influence exerted by a cool-headed 
 and capable one is paralleled by the influence the higher 
 centres can be made to exercise over the lower by means 
 of hypnotism. 
 
 Sir Lauder Brunton quotes a case which he considers 
 strongly corroborative of his view that the highest layer 
 of the cortical cells controls the functioning of the lower 
 centres, and that it has an influence even over reflex 
 actions. A patient under the care of Sir J. (then Dr.) 
 Crichton Browne was attacked with facial erysipelas, 
 which spread b}' metastasis to the brain. The man 
 showed symptoms of cortical irritation, and examination 
 showed that the reflexes were abolished. The disease 
 progressed, and he became unconscious, and it was then 
 found that the reflexes had returned. The patient died, 
 and the autopsy revealed degenerative changes in the 
 cortex. 
 
 Lauder Brunton, therefore, supposes that nerve currents 
 set in motion by irritation of the brain, or some of its 
 convolutions transmitted down the cord, may inhibit reflex 
 action.* Dr Merciert and other writers on insanity point 
 out how disease of the highest centres is nearly always 
 accompanied by disorder of nutrition. This is especially 
 seen in the alteration which takes place in the nails 
 and hair, the former becoming brittle and ill-shapen, 
 and the latter coarse and refractory. Dr. Van Eeden 
 once showed me a little girl under treatment by suggestion 
 for infantile paralysis. The little patient was gradually 
 regaining the use of her legs, and a great improvement in 
 general nutrition was apparent. In no direction was this 
 more marked than in the toenails. For three years there 
 had been no growth in these, and they had never required 
 cutting ; but a month after the treatment was commenced 
 they had grown so long as to necessitate the use of the 
 scissors, and from that time they required trimming every 
 four or five weeks. 
 
 * ' On Inhibition,' West Riding Reports, 1874. 
 t 'Sanity and Insanity,' p. 135. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 283 
 
 A few words on the foundations of consciousness will 
 enable us to comprehend better its impairment or abroga- 
 tion in the advanced stages of hypnosis. Its physical 
 basis depends, first, on the connection of the highest 
 layers of the cortex with the other parts of the nervous 
 system ; and, secondly, on the connection of the highest 
 centres with each other. So that, as Professor Sir Michael 
 Foster says,* consciousness, volition, and other psychical 
 processes are not the functions of the cortex, but functions 
 of its connection with other parts of the nervous system. 
 He asks what would happen if, while the cortex remained 
 healthy, afferent impulses were no longer conveyed to 
 it ? and he answers that lethargy with suspension of all 
 psychical processes would be the result. He supports 
 this theory by citing a remarkable case — that of a man, 
 who, being deaf, and blind of one eye, became, in addition, 
 affected with complete tactile and general ansesthesia, and 
 anosmia. His only connection with ' the life of relation ' 
 was through the one sense which remained in functional 
 activity, and when the eye was kept closed he soon passed 
 into a condition of lethargy. Dr. Macfarlane in his recent 
 work, * Insomnia and its Therapeutics,' quotes a somewhat 
 similar case — that of a girl, aged sixteen, whose skin and 
 mucous membrane became completely anaesthetic, so that 
 she failed to perceive the application of violent stimuli to 
 them. At the same time she lost the muscular sense and 
 became entirely dependent on her sight and hearing for her 
 relationship with the outer world. Here again it happened 
 that closing these two avenues of sense resulted in the 
 rapid production of sleep. She could be aroused from 
 this by stimuli acting on these senses, and she also used 
 to awake spontaneously after a time if left to herself. 
 These cases form an interesting antithesis to that of 
 Laura Bridgman, who not only possessed one sense (that 
 of touch) very abnormally developed, but also enjoyed an 
 unimpaired coenthesis, so that the cortex of her brain 
 was being constantly acted upon by healthy impulses. 
 * 'Physiology,' vol. iii., p. 117. 
 
284 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 She did not, therefore, fall into lethargy when the tactile 
 sense was not in use, but slept in the same way as ordinar\' 
 persons. 
 
 The condition of lethargy into which Sir M. Foster's 
 patient fell is closely imitated by the completely inert 
 state assumed by certain hypnotized persons, especially 
 chronic epileptics. They become perfectly lethargic, 
 insensible to pain, and deaf to the loudest noises. They 
 are not susceptible to suggestion, and can be aroused 
 from a state resembling coma only with considerable 
 difficulty. Dr. Habgood showed me several such cases at 
 Banstead Asylum, and I have seen the condition induced 
 in one of m}' private patients, a confirmed epileptic. In 
 consequence of the impossibility of establishing rapport 
 with these patients, I imagine that hypnotism would fail 
 to benefit them."^ 
 
 Consciousness depends, then, on the activity of the 
 senses, the conveyance of their impressions to the highest 
 centres, and the association of these highest centres with 
 each other. Anything which interferes with one or other 
 of these conditions will weaken or destroy it in proportion 
 to the amount of interference. In ordinary hypnosis we 
 find the facts exactly bear out this theory ; for sensory 
 anaesthesia, deadening of the senses, benumbing of the 
 faculties, and impairment of consciousness proceed pari 
 passu, and maintain a relative connection. But the 
 coenthesis, or subjective consciousness, on which to a 
 large extent depends the ego, or personality, is the last 
 part of the organization to be affected. t 
 
 * Those subjects evidently hear and notice nothing ; but there is 
 another class of subjects whose conduct in the hypnotized state is 
 exceptional. I have hypnotized three or four so-called ' mediums ' — 
 not professional ones— and find they refuse to accept suggestions, 
 even when profoundly hypnotized. On the contrary, one lady, Mrs. 
 Hans Spocr, takes the upper hand, often dictating and suggesting 
 our conduct to us. I imagine this is largely due to preconceived ideas 
 and auto-suggestion ; but it is a striking phenomenon, and would 
 disconcert an inexperienced investigator. 
 
 t Individuality depends upon continuous memory. Several cases 
 have been reported in the newspapers lately of men and women who 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 285 
 
 There is another factor in vivid consciousness. Not 
 only must the afferent impulses from the senses and the 
 internal organs be received by the highest centres, but the 
 efferent impulses in response to them must be vigorous and 
 of high tension. Vivid consciousness only exists when 
 nervous impulses are sent through new or little-used 
 channels, and automatism prevails when the passage 
 of nerve energy is only through thoroughly organized 
 tracts. 
 
 In ordinary hypnosis it is the well-worn channels which 
 are traversed, and therefore the actions performed during 
 this state will tend to be those habitual with the subject 
 or at least in keeping with his character and temperament. 
 
 This point has an important bearing on the question 
 of the employment of hypnotic suggestion for criminal 
 purposes, and also on the possibility of using it in the 
 reformation of bad characters. I think we may infer that 
 hypnotism will rarely enable us to convert the hopelessly 
 bad, but that it may be used to influence character by 
 developing latent good and suppressing evil tendencies. 
 It is possible, however, that by continued suggestion new 
 channels may be formed, new tastes established, and old 
 tracts inhibited, and eventually closed and abolished. 
 
 It is a natural corollary that when consciousness is 
 weakened or abolished memory will be correspondingly 
 vague and uncertain, or altogether wanting ; for memory 
 depends upon the vividness of impressions, and their 
 arrangement and association. 
 
 Some opponents of hypnotism have nicknamed it ' tee- 
 total intoxication ' ; but the analogy between it and the 
 
 have been found by the police wandering about aimlessly and unable 
 to give an account of themselves. There has been a complete lapse 
 of memory, and consequent loss of individuality. In some cases the 
 'stream of consciousness' has resumed its equal flow, and the patient 
 has recovered his identity. In other cases there is a complete hiatus ; 
 the past continues blotted out, and he has literally to begin life again. 
 Most of these cases are allied to epilepsy, but they may be the result 
 of concussion of the brain, as in that of the Rev. Mr. Hanna. Hypno- 
 tism would probably restore the memory of the past, as it did in the 
 cases of double personality referred to on p. 1 03 f/ se^. 
 
286 TREAIMEXT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 effects of alcohol is not very apparent. The drunken man 
 is to a certain extent receptive of suggestion, and it is 
 easy to foist delusions upon him, which would be rejected 
 were he sober. The effects of alcohol show themselves in 
 a somewhat different order to those of hypnotism. In 
 the former we have the nervous system involved in the 
 inverse order of its evolution, and the first part to suffer 
 is that concerned in the highest psychical processes — 
 memory, will, judgment, etc. In the lighter grades of 
 hypnotism we do not find the psychical functions so much 
 affected as those of motion and sensation ; and it is 
 common to meet with a patient who is quite unable to 
 open his eyes, or put down his arm, if told he cannot, in 
 perfect enjoyment of all the highest mental faculties. I 
 have frequently tried to hypnotize intoxicated persons, 
 but have never succeeded unless the patient had been 
 previously hypnotized. On the other hand, chronic 
 indulgence in alcohol seems to somewhat favour the 
 hypnotic process. 
 
 Sir W. Gowers* has examined the subject of hypnotic 
 catalepsy, and has published his views concerning it. He 
 supposes that hypnotism induces such a change in the 
 functional state of the brain that the lower cortical 
 mechanism is cut off from the influence of the higher 
 centres which subserve mental processes as well as exer- 
 cise control over those below. The inhibition of the 
 highest implies, as has been shown, the uncontrolled and 
 exaggerated action of the lower or motor areas, for 
 muscular relaxation or balance depend upon the equal 
 functioning of the inhibitory or higher centres and the 
 excitor or lower ones, in the same way as regular action 
 of the heart depends upon the inhibition of the vagus 
 balancing the excitation of the cardiac ganglia. The 
 inhibition of the highest centres in hypnosis explains why 
 the muscular movements and reflexes are exaggerated and 
 at the same time unattended by consciousness. In the 
 same way, the movements of a paralyzed limb, though 
 * Lance/, May 31, 1890. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 287 
 
 they may be excessive, are not accompanied by psychical 
 processes. 
 
 In the lighter grades of hypnosis there are psychical 
 accompaniments, and the patient knows the limb is being 
 moved, but is unable to prevent it, or can only do so by 
 making great efforts. In the more advanced stages he 
 loses all, or nearly all, sensation in the limb when it is 
 moved by the operator, so that he often says that it ' seems 
 to no longer belong to him ' (hypotaxis). 
 
 The analgesia of profound hypnosis is easily explained. 
 It is sometimes more apparent than real, and then 
 resembles that of incomplete narcosis. The subject 
 suffers at the time, but on awaking has forgotten the 
 circumstance. If hypnotized again and questioned, he 
 will say that he felt the pain, but not sufficiently to cause 
 him to shake off the lethargy which oppressed him. But 
 in many cases there is absolute anaesthesia, and the 
 patient is completely ignorant of what is being done to 
 him. We know that anaesthesia may be produced in three 
 ways — by acting on the arrangements of the highest 
 centres, so as to cause cessation of their functions ; by 
 acting on the peripheral endings of nerves, and destroying 
 their irritability ; and by destruction or inhibition of the 
 tract conveying sensation from the periphery to the 
 brain. Chloroform acts in the first manner by setting 
 up chemical changes in the brain cells, and hypnotism 
 influences the same nervous arrangements by dynamic 
 inhibition of the molecular activity of the cells. Cocain 
 is an anaesthetic of the second class ; and in poisoning by 
 curara, and in the cutaneous anaesthesia of locomotor ataxy, 
 we see the third cause at work. The anaesthesia produced 
 by suggestion alone, as in the cases referred to on pp. 81, 
 217, can be explained by supposing that the centres of tactile 
 sensation — w^hich Ferrier localizes in the hippocampal 
 region and the neighbouring temporo-sphenoidal convolu- 
 tions, where also probably painful sensations are received 
 (Lauder Brunton) — are put out of action by some inhibitory 
 action akin to that which obtains in the local anaesthesia 
 
2S8 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 SO common in hysteria ; and which probably proceeds 
 from some irritation of distal origin, acting as an inhibitory 
 influence. The sensation of pain is due to some con- 
 dition of the cerebrum itself, and is caused by the arrival 
 at the highest centres of intense afferent currents from the 
 seat of injury. Liebeault supposes that in perfect health 
 there is an equilibrium in the distribution of nervous force, 
 which is upset in disease. Disease is accompanied by 
 either excess or deficiency of nerve energy in the centres 
 innervating the affected organs, and hypnotism enables us 
 to check and correct this disarrangement. This theory is 
 not without support, for we frequently see excessive and 
 irregular action in one organ, associated with deficient 
 action in others in the same subject. Centres are con- 
 stantly discharging their energy through the most 
 traversed channels, and nerve energy is being sent to the 
 organs which have already absorbed most of it — e.g., an 
 uncontrolled and excessive nerve influence is constantly 
 being sent along the nerve tract concerned with the 
 movement of a limb in hysterical contraction. Hypnotism. 
 may be supposed to act in such a case by enabling us, 
 through suggestion, to divert or transform the nerve 
 energy which is thus being misdirected. Professor 
 William McDougall, of Oxford, the eminent psychologist, 
 •s doing much original research in the field of hj'pnotism, 
 and he gives this theory the latest scientific expression 
 thus : ' By withdrawing the nervous current from a much 
 overworked or unduly irritable nervous centre or bodily 
 organ, and by isolating it through induction of a relative 
 dissociation of the centre, rest may be secured and a bad 
 habit of over-action may be suspended, as, e.g., in neuralgia ; 
 while by repeatedly directing a powerful stream of inner- 
 vation through some other channel a too sluggish organ — 
 e.g., the bowel in constipation — may be brought back to 
 action and healthy functioning."* 
 
 Dr. McDougall supposes that the nervous system con- 
 
 * Address delivered to the Psycho-Medical Society, and published 
 in Brain, 1908. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 289 
 
 sists of a series of arcs arranged in dispositions or systems 
 associated according to heredity and habit. The cortical 
 centres are being continually gently stimulated by the 
 arrival from the sensory nerves of freed nervous energy or 
 neurokyme (Oscar Vogt). In health and under normal 
 conditions, there is an equable and moderate dissipation 
 of this neurokyme through all the organs and tissues 
 making our coenthesis or systemic consciousness, and 
 constituting that state of perfect health which is character- 
 ized by a sense of general well-being without undue con- 
 sciousness of any one organ. This state of equilibrium 
 explains the state of some happy individuals who say they 
 don't know what it is to be ill, and of other unhappy ones 
 who never appreciate good health until they lose it. 
 
 Whatever theory we may adopt as to the ultimate 
 causation of the hypnotic state — and theories are almost 
 as numerous as writers on the subject — we at least know 
 that its phenomena are of subjective origin, and that they 
 depend upon the inhibition and dynamogenesis of some 
 centres, and the disconnection of others which ordinarily 
 act in association. 
 
 How this dissociation is effected is of course a point 
 of immense interest, and is, in fact, the crux of the whole 
 matter. Its rationale must remain a matter of theory, as 
 it depends on changes of the most subtle nature. But 
 we know at least as much about the action of hypnotism 
 as we do about that of many drugs which we use every day. 
 It probably depends upon intracellular changes in the 
 arrangements of molecules, whereby the discharge of nerve 
 energy is prevented. The clogging of these molecules, and 
 their consequent failure to respond to stimuli, through the 
 ingestion of chloroform and other drugs, their excessive 
 stimulation by coffee or small quantities of alcohol or 
 opium, and their abnormal stimulation by belladonna 
 or Indian hemp, belong to a different order of events. 
 Natural sleep remains the closest analogue to hypnosis ; 
 but in sleep the inhibition extends to all the centres and 
 their functions, and cannot be in part overcome by verbal 
 
 19 
 
290 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 suggestion ; this is the important point of difference 
 between the two states. Moreover, as we have seen, 
 not onl}' can the inhibitory influence be exerted in any 
 direction we wish by verbal suggestion, but its correlative 
 condition, dynamogenesis, can be treated in the same 
 way. The rapid and even instantaneous induction of 
 hypnosis in * good subjects ' can be explained by the 
 setting up of a nerve habit, so that on the exhibition of 
 the accustomed stimulus the molecules fall at once into 
 their former combinations. I have already said that for 
 this reason we should be careful to make the exciting 
 cause a combination of circumstances which would not 
 be likely to occur spontaneously. The tendency of the 
 sequence of events to repeat themselves on the appli- 
 cation of the accustomed stimulus is often seen in 
 hypnosis. If on the occasion of the first hypnotization 
 the patient's arm has been fixed in a certain attitude at 
 the moment the process was completed, it is very probable 
 that the arm will spontaneously assume the same attitude 
 at each subsequent sitting. In fact, the position will 
 become an integral part of the process, unless the im- 
 pression is removed by suggestion. 
 
 According to the school of Nancy, suggestion is the key 
 to the whole position. By it the patient is hypnotized, 
 and without it he lies like a log, inert in mind and body. 
 By it one centre can be made to act independently of 
 others, and can be throwm into functional activity without 
 the corresponding actions of those ordinarily associated 
 with it. Thus, connections advantageous to the organism 
 can be formed, and unfavourable associations can be 
 modified or broken off. 
 
 The state of the subject lying passive and unacted 
 upon by suggestion very closely resembles natural sleep. 
 The breathing becomes slow and regular, the pulse slower 
 and more full, the pupils contract and the eyeballs turn 
 upwards. There is generally relaxation of all the muscles, 
 as in sleep, and the arm, if raised, falls at once, unless 
 retained in its place by suggestion. Ophthalmoscopic 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 291 
 
 examination of the retina shows neither anaemia nor 
 congestion. If a state of profound hypnosis is kept up 
 continuously for several days or weeks, as has some- 
 times been done, changes are said to occur in the urine. 
 The chief of these has been called * inverted formula of 
 the phosphates,' the relative proportion between the 
 earthy and alkaline phosphates becoming changed. 
 Dr. A. Voisin kept several patients who were subject to 
 periodic attacks of insanity in the hypnotic state for from 
 fifteen to thirty days,^ and he and Dr. Harant care- 
 fully collected and examined the urine passed before 
 and during hypnosis. They found this inversion of 
 proportion the only characteristic difference {vide table, 
 p. 292). 
 
 But the amount of urea, fixed residue, and phosphoric 
 acid were all slightly increased, thus justifying him in 
 stating that in such cases the nutritive and eliminative 
 function were better performed in the hypnotic than in 
 the waking state. 
 
 Voisin conducted these experiments in consequence 
 of a paper read before the Academie des Sciences by 
 Dr. Gilles de la Tourette, in which that opponent of the 
 Nancy school stated the results of experiments he had 
 made on some hysterical patients and on some subjects 
 in Charcot's stages of hypnosis. He also found the ratio 
 of earthy phosphates to that of the alkaline phosphates 
 inverted from the normal proportion of i to 3 to i to 2, 
 and sometimes i to i. He, moreover, found the quantity 
 of urea, phosphates, and fixed residue diminished in 
 both hysteria and hypnosis, as well as diminution in the 
 quantity of urine passed, and he therefore concluded that 
 the hypnotic state is a hysterical neurosis, and that it is 
 attended with serious disturbance of nutrition. Here 
 again we see the antagonism between the schools of Paris 
 and Nancy, and in this case it would certainly seem that 
 reason is on the side of the latter, for whereas Gilles de 
 la Tourette's experiment extended only over a few hours, 
 * Revue de P Hypnotisvte, March, 1891. 
 
292 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 
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TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 293 
 
 that of Voisin extended, as we have seen, over weeks. 
 The experiments of the former were, as was generally the 
 case in Paris, made upon hysterical subjects who were 
 hypnotized : it was therefore natural that the secretion 
 should partake of the characters of hysterical urine. 
 Voisin's figures also lose much of their value in con- 
 sequence of his subjects being in a state of mental disease, 
 so that experiments on healthy persons are wanted to 
 decide this point. 
 
 And this brings me to the vexed point whether hypnosis is 
 pathological, and a neurosis, as was contended by Charcot, 
 or physiological, and even indicative of perfect mental 
 health, as is asserted by Bernheim, Voisin, Forel, Dejerine, 
 and others. I have little doubt myself but that le grande 
 hypnotisme of Charcot, when it occurs spontaneously, is a 
 distinct neurosis of the hysterical type, and that many of 
 the phenomena of advanced hypnosis are only obtainable 
 in subjects of neurotic temperament. But that all people 
 who have been hypnotized, or might be hypnotized, are 
 hysterical or neurotic would be to so classify the great 
 majority of mankind. 
 
 Dr. Buzzard says that most brain-workers and men 
 of energy are more or less neurotic, and that the word 
 should not carry the reproach with which it is sometimes 
 associated. Even if most brain-workers are neurotic, one 
 cannot so characterize agricultural labourers, soldiers, or 
 sailors, and we know that among them are often found 
 the best subjects for hypnotic experiments. 
 
 A most masterly and judicial exposition of hypnotism 
 is contributed by Professor Tamburini, of Modena, who 
 impartially holds the balance between the theories of 
 Bernheim and those of Charcot. He and Dr. Seppilli 
 experimented on a hystero-epileptic patient, and published 
 their notes on the case in 18S2. At that time the important 
 part now assigned to suggestion was not fully recognized. 
 and in dealing with experiments made more than twenty 
 years ago one has to guard against the possible invalida- 
 tion of the facts brought forward by unintentional sugges- 
 
294 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 tion. Tamburini, however, is positive on this point, for 
 he approached the subject in a most sceptical spirit, and 
 under the impression that the patient's unconsciousness 
 was merely simulated. But he obtained all the phenomena 
 described by Charcot at once, without difficulty, and with- 
 out suggestion being possible. The further experiments 
 of Vizioli, Grocco, and Lombroso in Italy fully confirm 
 his results, and make it impossible to doubt that the 
 stages described by Charcot are real somatic phenomena 
 occurring in certain individuals. Tamburini, however, 
 traverses Charcot's assertion that such phenomena are 
 characteristic of all cases of le grandc hypiioiisnie, and con- 
 tends that they are rare accompaniments of hysteria in 
 hypnotized subjects of the hystero-epileptic type. Tam- 
 burini considers that these somatic phenomena are not 
 obtainable in their entirety even by means of suggestion 
 in ordinary hypnotized subjects, nor even in the majority 
 of hysterical subjects. Hypnotism merely accentuates and 
 brings into prominence the characteristics of the patient, 
 both physical and psychical, whether they be undeveloped 
 or suppressed. To enforce this theory, he cites cases where 
 Charcot's phenomena have occurred in hystero-epileptic 
 subjects in the waking state, just as in a few rare instances 
 stigmata have been spontaneously produced without hyp- 
 notism. Hypnotism, by cutting off the life of relation, 
 greatly facilitates the production of these accompaniments 
 of extreme hysteria.* 
 
 He sums up the condition seen in the three stages as 
 hyperexcitability of the nervous centres, which shows 
 itself in different ways, according to the nature, intensity, 
 and duration of the stimulus applied. Hypnotism, in 
 fact, increases the reflex excitability of the nervous centres, 
 which is always abnormally present in hysterical persons, 
 and in these cases it practically induces an attack of 
 la grande hysUrie, complicated with hypnotic phenomena. 
 Tamburini, therefore, considers Charcot's stages as not 
 characteristic of hypnotism, but as merely illustrating 
 * Rii/. Spcriment.^ vol. xvi. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 295 
 
 the only essential features of the condition, viz., increased 
 susceptibility to suggestion and increased reflex excitability. 
 The stages of hypnosis he considers as only a form of 
 classification, such as we might adopt in speaking of the 
 relative profundity of natural sleep. 
 
 It follows, from what he has written, that Tamburini 
 refuses to regard hypnotism as pathological or a neurosis, 
 but he considers it a psychical state, which may be 
 induced in healthy persons, and which is as varied in its 
 manifestations as are the temperaments and constitutions 
 of the subjects. 
 
 Braid found increased action of the heart with accelera- 
 tion of the pulse, and he therefore warned experimenters 
 to be careful with subjects in whom heart trouble was 
 suspected. Tamburini and Seppilli, in their experiments 
 on hysterical subjects hypnotized by the method of fixa- 
 tion, got similar results, which they have very carefully 
 recorded. They found that in the stages of lethargy 
 (Charcot) the tracing tends to rise progressively, whereas 
 in catalepsy the reverse is the case. This shows that in 
 the former state the vessels undergo dilatation, with conse- 
 quent increased volume of the pulse, whereas in catalepsy 
 they progressively contract. In somnambulism the con- 
 dition approaches closely that observed in lethargy. The 
 volume of the pulse augmented in the passage from the 
 waking to the hypnotic state, and the changes indicated 
 by the sphygmograph in the transition from one state to 
 another, were instantaneous. 
 
 In the profounder states of hypnosis I have found 
 nearly constantly present a tonic contraction of the 
 capillaries and smaller arteries, so that wounds bleed 
 less freely than in the waking state, and it is often 
 possible — as is sometimes shown in platform experi- 
 ments — to make a considerable puncture without drawing 
 blood. This condition of contraction is also present in 
 hysterical anaesthesia. 
 
 The phenomena observed in the respiratory sphere are 
 exactly what we should expect. Tamburini and Seppilli 
 
296 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AXD SUGGESTION 
 
 find that when hypnosis is induced by fixation of the 
 eyes disturbance of rhythm commences at once ; and as 
 long as the subject's attention is fixed it is quick and 
 shallow, or it may even intermit or cease entirely for as 
 long as a minute. But invasion of sleep is always marked 
 by a profound inspiration. During lethargy the breathing 
 is deep, becomes slower and slower, and tends to be 
 accompanied by stertor. When catalepsy is induced by 
 opening the eyes, there is an immediate arrest of respira- 
 tory movement — at whatever stage it has reached — and 
 this suspension may last a minute or longer. The 
 breathing then becomes of peculiar character and rhythm, 
 inspiration being slow, and expiration still slower. In 
 somnambulism the character of the respiration partakes 
 more of the character of that seen in lethargy, but is some- 
 what more irregular. During natural sleep, as in the 
 waking state, there exists a rhythm between the move- 
 ment of the chest and abdomen in respiration, but Gilles 
 de la Tourette states that in hypnosis this rhythm is 
 altered, and that the movements are no longer associated, 
 and may even become antagonistic (Diet, des Sciences 
 Med., ' Hypnotisme '). In reading Gilles de la Tourette's 
 writings on hypnotism we must remember that he refers 
 to experiments on the most hysterical subjects, and it is 
 well to bear in mind Preyer's warning against confusing 
 post hoc with propter hoc symptoms. 
 
 Preyer remarks that the disturbance in the circulation 
 and respiration noticed by some observers does not depend 
 upon the hypnotic state, but is the result of the nervous 
 stimuli used — whether visual, tactile, or auditory ; and in 
 support of this contention he maintains that persons in 
 the waking state exposed to similar sensory stimulation 
 will exhibit the same phenomena. They are, in fact, the 
 result of inhibition of the respiratory centre, producing 
 shallow and rapid breathing ; and of the regulating circu- 
 latory centres, causing increased rapidity of the heart's 
 action, with heightened arterial tension from vaso-motor 
 paralysis. Forel, contrasting the flexible catalepsy seen 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 297 
 
 in some forms of insanity with hypnotic catalepsy, 
 attributes the latter to temporary cortical hyperaemia and 
 the former to pathological oedema. 
 
 When hypnosis has been induced by simple verbal 
 suggestion without any special sensory excitation, no 
 such alteration of the pulse and respiratory rhythm is 
 observable ; and it is also seen, after the patient has 
 rested a few minutes in a state of hypnotic lethargy 
 induced by fixation, that the breathing and pulse assume 
 the character found in ordinary sleep. Tamburini, there- 
 fore, considers that the respiratory and circulatory 
 symptoms observable in Charcot's stages of hypnotism 
 
 Fig. I. 
 
 are simply manifestations of the conditions characteristic 
 of this state — general increased muscular tonicity with 
 ischsemia. 
 
 It would thus appear that the principal Italian investi- 
 gators are fairly in accord as to the phenomena of 
 hypnosis, only that Morselli denies the possibility of 
 Charcot's stages occurring spontaneously, while Tam- 
 burini asserts that he has seen them so occur in excep- 
 tional cases. I have not yet come across a case in which 
 Charcot's stages have been producible, but I believe that 
 such cases exist. Morselli's experiments are so full and 
 graphic that I reproduce them as being thoroughly illus- 
 trative of the effect suggestion in the hypnotic state has 
 upon the heart and respiration. My own experiments, as 
 far as they have gone, are thoroughly corroborative of 
 them. 
 
zgS TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 The subject of these experiments was a healthy young 
 girl presenting no signs of hysteria, unacted upon by 
 magnets, and not susceptible to Charcot's stages. She 
 was always hvpnotizcd by Professor Morselli or Dr. Tanzi 
 
 \ V 
 
 • V 
 
 ■'~~^^J^kXAj\Jv^KJ^K,K!\^t^^_!^!^KjyJ^ 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 by suggestion alone. From the first she fell into a state 
 of profound trance, and was extremely susceptible to 
 suggestion. The respiration was measured with Marey's 
 pneumograph, and the pulse with Mosso's aerosphyg- 
 mograph. 
 
 Jv-A,\^vN^MsA,\NN\^ 
 
 XX XXX. 
 
 /V^-^V 
 
 Fig. 
 
 Fig. I shows the tracings taken when the subject was 
 awake and in her normal state. They show how the 
 ordinary ' life of relation,' thoughts, ideas, and impressions, 
 influence the rhythm and regularity of the functions. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 299 
 
 Fig. 2 shows the tracings taken when the patient is 
 lying tranquil and in a state of deep trance, unacted upon 
 by the environment, and in a state of complete psychical 
 repose. 
 
 In ;Fig. 3 the subject is told that she is to lift an 
 
 Fig. 4- 
 
 imaginary weight. At X she raises it, and at x x she is 
 told to put it down. The effect in the tracing is the 
 same as if a real weight were being borne. There is 
 the'muscular contraction and preparation for the effort. 
 
 Fig. 5. 
 
 followed by relaxation. This supports the theory that 
 the idea is attended by motor accompaniments. 
 
 Fig. 4 represents the tracings taken when an attack of 
 hiccough was induced by suggestion. 
 
 Fig. 5 represents the tracings taken when suggestions 
 had been made leading up to a state of stupor, which 
 
300 TREATMENT DY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 the experimenters found a close reproduction of those 
 observed in the idiopathic condition. 
 
 It is plain that the only characteristic s\-mptoms of 
 hypnosis in this case were slight increase in volume of 
 the pulse and marked equalization of the respiratory 
 curves. In fact, they are just what we should expect to 
 find in a condition of absolute psychological repose. On 
 the other hand, Charcot, Gilles de la Tourette, Tamburini, 
 and others, as we have seen, describe marked changes in 
 the phenomena of the circulatory and respiratory functions 
 in the different stages of le grande hypnotisnie. 
 
 Morselli found that by suggesting the symptoms he 
 almost invariably and immediately produced the respiratory 
 curves and pulse tracings belonging to that condition, and 
 he was even able to obtain the characteristic tracings of 
 melancholia, mania, and other mental disorders.* 
 
 Preyer says that the rapidity of the pulse increases in 
 some persons and diminishes in others, and directs that 
 great care be taken to avoid error in gauging the blood- 
 pressure. He finds that the pulse-rate frequently falls at 
 first, but on the induction of catalepsy it becomes greatly 
 quickened, and the radial artery is so compressed by 
 muscular constriction that the pulse in it can hardly be 
 felt. He also notices that the capillaries of the face are 
 often very full during hypnosis, though sometimes there 
 is pallor, or alternate pallor and flushing ; but he thinks 
 we should be wrong to infer from this that either anaemia 
 or hypersemia of the brain is necessarily present. Preyer 
 finds that persons who have naturally very dry skins 
 readily perspire in the hypnotic state, and that the head 
 is especially affected in this way. I have very frequently 
 been able to induce perspiration by suggestion in persons 
 who were in only the lighter grades of hypnosis. 
 
 Preyer found that after long hypnotic trance the 
 chlorides and phosphates were greatly diminished ; but 
 the subject experimented on was markedly hysterical. 
 
 * ' Contribuio sperimentale alia Fisiopsicologia delT Ipnotismo.' 
 Morsellii e Tanzi. .Milan, 1889. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 301 
 
 It is but natural, however, to suppose that prolonged 
 inactivity of the muscles and of psychical functions would 
 be accompanied by greatly diminished waste and meta- 
 bolism of tissue. Liebeault considers that hypnotic 
 lethargy is a state similar to that assumed by hibernating 
 animals, and he conceives it possible that organic life 
 might be preserved for a very long period if the subject 
 were kept warm and absolutely removed from sensory 
 stimuli. He supposes that respiration would fall to eight, 
 the pulse to thirty, and the excretion of urinary products 
 to something very small. In the case referred to by 
 Dr. Voisin the patient was fed as usual, and, as has been 
 seen, her excretions differed but little from the normal 
 waking standard. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 OTHER CASES OCCURRING IN GENERAL PRACTICE AND 
 SOME FAILURES 
 
 Some cases treated by the Author : i. Insomnia ; 2. Neurasthenia ; 
 3. Writer's Cramp ; 4. Tabes Dorsalis ; 5. Torticollis ; 6. Trau- 
 matic Headache ; 7. Chronic Diarrhoea ; 8. Paroxysmal Sneez- 
 ing ; 9. Tic-douloureux ; 10. Symptoms dependent on Organic 
 Heart Disease; 11. Enuresis Nocturna ; 12. Gouty Sciatica; 
 13. Chronic Rheumatism ; 14. Nervous Dyspepsia ; 15. Amenor- 
 rhcea ; 16. Functional Dysmenorrhoea ; 17. Dipsomania ; 18. Dip- 
 somania ; 19. Moral Breakdown ; 20. Moral Case ; 21. Tobacco 
 Habit ; 22. Neurasthenia ; 23. Alcoholism ; 24. Nervous Pros- 
 tration ; 25. Extreme Anaemia ; 26. Kleptomania ; 27. Mis- 
 chievous Morbid Impulse ; 28. Agoraphobia ; 29. Puerperal 
 Insanity ; 30. Mania for Washing ; 31. Spasmodic Asthma ; 
 32. Morbid Sexuality ; 33. Meniere's Disease ; 34. Neurasthenia ; 
 35. Diabetes. 
 
 I HAVE acted upon the advice of several medical critics in 
 the Lancet and other journals, and left out the reports of 
 cases of Bernheim, Dumontpallier, \'oisin, and other 
 eminent foreign authors, and rely entirely on my own 
 experience, which is unsensational but satisfactory. 
 
 Case i. — Insomnia.* 
 
 A. T , aged thirty-five, electrician, came to me on 
 
 February i, 18S9, complaining of sleeplessness. It seemed 
 to date from a severe accident from the explosion of a 
 torpedo three years before. He was a man of exceptional 
 mental activity, and the want of sleep had induced much 
 nervous depression and dyspepsia. At whatever time he 
 went to bed he awoke at 3 a.m., and was unable to sleep 
 
 * This case and several of those following were published in the 
 Lancet, August 24, 1889. 
 
 302 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 303 
 
 again. He was readily iiypnotized, and a slightly lethargic 
 condition was induced. Suggestions were made that he 
 would sleep well that night and would not awake at 3 a.m., 
 but that if he did awake he would be able to sleep again. 
 February 2, he reported that he had awoke the previous 
 night at the usual hour, but had soon dropped off asleep 
 again. The treatment was repeated. February 3, he had 
 been awakened the previous night by a noise in the street 
 about 4 a.m., but had fallen asleep again ; on the 5th he 
 reported having had two good nights. One repetition of 
 the treatment completed the course, and since that time 
 he has remained a good sleeper, getting an average of 
 eight hours' sleep every night. His general health has 
 improved to a corresponding extent. 
 
 This case presents several points of interest. Though 
 the patient was only affected to a slight degree by hypno- 
 tism, suggestion was successful in breaking a morbid habit 
 
 of three years' growth in less than a week. Mr. T 
 
 tells me he never lies down during the day, and that while 
 lying down in my consulting-room he was completely 
 conscious, but felt comfortable and disinclined to move. 
 He was able to open his eyes, but they felt somewhat 
 heavy, and he experienced reflex warmth in any part 
 where I placed my hand and ' suggested ' it. 
 
 Case 2. — Neurasthenia. 
 
 R. H , an American, aged forty-three. Press agent, 
 
 consulted me in June, i88g, for pains in the back, depres- 
 sion of spirits, languor, loss of appetite, constipation, 
 muscular weakness, dull pain all over the head, but worse 
 in the forehead and on stooping. He had worked very 
 hard all his life at newspaper editing, and he looked at 
 least ten years older than his age. Physical examination 
 revealed no organic disease, but the heart's action was 
 rapid and feeble, and he had some tenderness over the 
 dorsal region of the spine. 
 
 He was easily hypnotized, and fell into the second 
 stage. The treatment consisted in rubbing his spine. 
 
304 TREATMENT DY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 loins, and abdomen, and suggesting increase of strength, 
 absence of pain, and regular action of the bowels every 
 morning. The patient improved rapidly under treat- 
 ment, and was able to return to America after twenty 
 operations, quite set up and in good spirits. 
 
 This seems to me a typical case of breakdown in an 
 overworked man of nervous temperament. I allowed him 
 to remain in the hypnotic state an hour daily, and no 
 doubt the rest was an important factor in the cure. He 
 was unable to open his eyes, but could raise or depress 
 the arms at will.* 
 
 Case 3. — Writer's Cramp. 
 
 Alice N , clerk, aged twenty-five, came under treat- 
 ment in March, 1S89. She had had much writing to do, 
 and for three years had felt symptoms of loss of power in 
 the right hand and want of control over the pen. She had 
 been treated at a general hospital by galvanism for three 
 months without benefit, and had become so much worse 
 that she had been obliged to leave the desk and engage in 
 other occupations. She was also unable to use the needle 
 for any length of time on account of cramp supervening. 
 After writing two or three lines, she experienced crampy 
 pains in the thumb and forefinger and in the flexor muscles 
 of the forearm. After a few lines, spasmodic jerking of 
 the thumb was observed, and this increased — together 
 with the pains — to such an extent that in less than a 
 minute the patient declared her inability to hold the pen 
 any longer. There was marked tenderness and soreness on 
 pressure over the median and musculo-spiral nerves. She 
 was hypnotized, and fell into the third stage. In that 
 condition the muscles were rubbed, the joints exercised, 
 and suggestions of improvement made. 
 
 After a few minutes' rest the patient was directed to 
 
 * Two years afterwards (July, 1S91) this patient again came under 
 treatment for influenza. He had continued perfectly well, and able to 
 work ever since the treatment. He made an unusually rapid recovery 
 from the influenza under ordinary treatment aided by hypnotism. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 305 
 
 again write, and she found the fatigue and cramp had 
 disappeared and did not return until she had written half 
 a page. She came regularly for treatment three times a 
 week for two months, and at the end of that time was able 
 to return to her original post quite cured. 
 
 She was a good example of the second or cataleptic 
 stage (Liebeault), which she never passed beyond. She 
 lay apparently fast asleep, was unable to open the eyes, 
 and retained the arm rigid in any position I placed it. 
 But she remained vividly conscious, and was able to 
 repeat the conversation going on around her, and would 
 laugh, protest, and struggle when told she was unable to 
 move the arm. This is one of many cases of occupation 
 neuroses which I have treated by suggestion. One case 
 was not susceptible to hypnotism, but all the others 
 improved rapidly, and were cured. I should certainly 
 always combine it in these cases with local massage, 
 though I believe at Nancy they use no treatment but 
 verbal suggestion. 
 
 Case 4. — Tabes Dorsalis.* 
 
 H. F , aged forty-seven, a valet, came under treat- 
 ment in March. He was pale, angemic, and emaciated, and 
 had an expression and appearance of great depression. His 
 family history was good. He had never drunk to excess 
 or had syphilis, and was married and had a healthy 
 family. In 1870 he was a soldier in the German army, 
 and was wounded severely in the leg, but made a good 
 recovery. In 1884 he had an attack of what he calls 
 blood-poisoning, but what appears to have been typhoid 
 fever, on the Continent, and he has never been really 
 well since. In 1888 he noticed some failure of sight, and 
 at the same time a numbness of parts of the skin of the 
 back and chest became apparent. His bowels became 
 constipated and only moved by the aid of purgatives, 
 which, however, caused so much colicky pain that the 
 
 * This case is published in the Comptes Reizdus of the first Inter- 
 national Congress on Hypnotism. 
 
 20 
 
3o6 TREATMENT BY HYFNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 action was always accompanied by vomiting and followed 
 by prostration, which kept him confined to bed for the 
 following twenty-four hours. He suffered from frequent 
 sharp 'lightning' pains down the arms, and especially 
 the legs, and from neuralgia in the chest and back. 
 His tongue was dry and coated ; he had no appetite, 
 and there was great mental depression. In twelve 
 months he had lost 2 stone in weight, was unable 
 to walk more than half a mile, and always felt tired. 
 The pupils were contracted and almost insensible to 
 light, and there was almost complete atrophy of the 
 right optic nerve, with partial atrophy of the left. The 
 reflexes were absent, but there was nothing ataxic in his 
 gait. Extensive patches of local anaesthesia occupied 
 almost the whole of the left chest and back, and also the 
 skin of the upper lip and nose. He was hypnotized, and 
 fell into the third state. 
 
 Suggestions were made as to regular and painless action 
 of the bowels, absence of pain, etc. The next day he had 
 a slight motion (the first natural one for three months) 
 without much pain, and felt better generally. Improve- 
 ment was steady and constant, and in two weeks he was 
 able to walk two or three miles without fatigue, was free 
 from pain and discomfort, and the bowels were regular. 
 
 With the exception of a slight relapse, following a bad 
 chill in 1892, he continued fairly well and comfortable 
 until I lost sight of him in 1897. The disease progressed, 
 but slowly and painlessly. On finding such great success 
 followed suggestions, I was induced to try if they had any 
 influence on his sight, and one morning suggested increased 
 warmth and circulation, followed by improved vision, 
 keeping m}' fingers over the eyes for three or four minutes. 
 The effect was somewhat surprising, for the following day 
 he was able to read ordinary print at a distance of 6 inches 
 with his left eye, and to distinguish the hands of the clock 
 at 2 feet with his right — a wonderful improvement on 
 his performance the previous day, when he could barely 
 make out large type (D = 4) with the left eye, and could 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 307 
 
 not distinguish the nature of any object with the right. 
 But the improvement was only temporary, and in spite of 
 repeated suggestions his sight had relapsed to nearly its 
 former condition within a week. He told me a somewhat 
 similar result followed some months previously the ad- 
 ministration of strong doses of strychnine by hypodermic 
 injection. Still, he invariably saw more clearly and dis 
 tinctly after being hypnotized than before, and whereas 
 his sight was steadily deteriorating previous to this treat- 
 ment, it afterwards remained stationary for years.* 
 
 Probably the explanation of the sudden improvement is 
 that suggestion had powerfully stimulated the healthy 
 nerve elements to abnormal activity, which, however, 
 could not be maintained. I may add that suggestion did 
 little or nothing for the local anaesthesia, but that 
 I symptom was greatly modified by a course of suspension 
 under Dr. de Watteville. 
 
 This patient was conscious of what went on around 
 him, and by an effort of attention could follow the con- 
 versation and repeat its purport ; but voices sounded in- 
 distinct and far off, and he felt very disinclined for exertion. 
 ' It is the stage of automatic continuative movement, as 
 I shown by a simple experiment. If I gave his arms or 
 ; hands a few turns and told him to go on with the move- 
 j ment, he was unable to stop it, but continued the action 
 : indefinitely. He answered questions addressed to him, 
 not only by me, but by bystanders, and he awoke spon- 
 taneously in about fifteen minutes. If told to awake at 
 the end of a certain number of minutes, he used to do 
 ; SO almost to a second. 
 
 ; * This incident throws some light on cases of ' miraculous ' recovery 
 of sight which one reads about as occurring at Salvation Army gather- 
 , ings, etc. In purely hysterical cases no doubt permanent cure is some- 
 times brought about by suggestion, aided by expectant attention, when 
 I the nervous system is thrown off its balance by enthusiasm and by the 
 ! impressiveness of the surroundings — is, in fact, in a condition analogous 
 I to hypnosis. One knows that many of such cases relapse in a very 
 short time when the effect of excessive nervous stimulation subsides. 
 
3o8 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 Case 5. — Torticollis, etc. 
 
 W. T , aged thirty-four, consulted me in March for 
 
 rheumatism of the muscles of the neck, shoulders, and 
 back. She was a rheumatic subject, and the present ill- 
 ness dated from two weeks previous, when she had been 
 exposed to wet and cold. She had been unable since 
 that time to dress or undress herself, and the least move- 
 ment of the head or upper extremities caused pain. The 
 muscles were tender to the touch, but there was no swell- 
 ing or constitutional disturbance. She was advised to 
 try hypnotism, and with some reluctance, as she said 
 she did not believe in it, she consented. In less than a 
 minute she slept profoundly, and while in the sleep the 
 affected muscles were well rubbed, and the head turned 
 in different directions. Within five minutes she was 
 awakened and told to move her hand and arms freely. 
 This she did without pain, but said there was some stiff- 
 ness remaining. The stiffness continued until the follow- 
 ing morning, when it disappeared and did not return. 
 Faith had nothing to do with this result, for even after 
 the relief was given the patient refused to believe it could 
 be anything but temporary. 
 
 This patient appeared entirely unconscious of the con- 
 versation going on around her, and of external impressions 
 generally, except such as were rendered apparent to her 
 by my suggestions. She was insensible to pain, as shown 
 by her perfect tranquillity when I moved her head, a move- 
 ment she had previously been unable to endure. Her 
 eyeballs were turned up, and the conjunctivae were nearly 
 insensible to touch, but the pupils readily contracted to 
 light. She took no notice of any sound except my voice, 
 and did not appear to hear if anyone else addressed her 
 unless I told her to answer. Her pulse and respiration 
 were slightly slower than in the waking state, and her 
 aspect generally resembled that of profound natural sleep. 
 The knee-jerk was increased by paresis of the inhibitory 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 309 
 
 centre, until I told her to control it, and then it became 
 less than normal."^ 
 
 She was not susceptible to post-hypnotic suggestions 
 regarding actions or conduct, nor to suggested hallucina- 
 tion or delusions of the senses. 
 
 Case 6. — Headache following Injury. 
 
 E. H , post-office clerk, aged thirty-two, came under 
 
 treatment in July. She had been knocked down by a 
 bicycle three weeks previously, and had fallen with her 
 head against the curbstone. Her back also had been 
 strained, and she had pain in raising the left arm. 
 
 She was anaemic, and of neuropathic constitution. 
 Pressure on the occipital and right parietal region in- 
 creased the pain, which, however, had never left her since 
 the accident. She had been stunned, but not rendered 
 actually unconscious. She was one of the most sus- 
 ceptible subjects I have ever seen, and within half a 
 minute of being told to look at my fingers and go to sleep, 
 her eyes closed, and she fell into a stage of profound som- 
 nambulism (sixth stage). Her head was gently, and the 
 shoulders somewhat more vigorously, rubbed, and sug- 
 gestions were made tending to the removal of pain and 
 shock. In ten minutes she was awakened by being told 
 to count up to twenty and awake when she got to the end 
 — a good method, as it avoids giving a sudden shock, and 
 leads up to the change of state gradually. She left the 
 house absolutely free from pain, and there has been no 
 relapse. In a profound somnambulist of this type the 
 most advanced phenomena of hypnotism are demonstrable. 
 She is in the same condition, apparently, as case No. 5, 
 but differs from her in being susceptible to post-hypnotic 
 suggestions — negative hallucination, delusions of the 
 senses, automatic actions, etc. It is important, therefore, 
 to safeguard such a subject by telling her she is not to be 
 
 * Dr. Myers tells me he has seen the knee-jerk apparently sup- 
 pressed by suggestion in Bernheim's clinique. 
 
3IO TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 hypnotized except for medical purposes, by a medical man, 
 at her own request. 
 
 Case 7. — Chronic Diarrhcea. 
 
 General B , aged seventy-two, came under hypnotic 
 
 treatment on April 3. He had previously been attended 
 by me for chronic diarrhcea, but without much effect, 
 and the malady was generally considered quite incurable. 
 It dated from the time of the Crimean War, and since 
 then he had never passed less than four motions a day, 
 and these were always thin and watery. Any excitement 
 or emotion aggravated the condition, and the day previous 
 to my visit he had been moved twelve times. He is a 
 man of exceedingly nervous type, but enjoys fairly good 
 general health for his age. Hypnotism produced very 
 much the same effect on him as on the patient in Case i 
 — a slight lethargy. In this state his abdomen was gently 
 rubbed, and the suggestion made that he should in future 
 have but two motions a day, and that they should be 
 properly formed. On April 4 the patient reported three 
 motions during the last twenty-four hours. He was again 
 hypnotized, and the same suggestions were repeated. On 
 the morning of April 5 he passed the first formed motion 
 he had had for over twenty years, and from that time his 
 bowels continued to act regularly twice a day, and the 
 stools were well formed and natural. 
 
 Case 8. — Paroxysmal Sneezing. 
 
 F. H , thirty-eight, lady's-maid, suffered during the 
 
 summer of 18S8 from hay-fever, and the fits of sneezing 
 continued into the autumn, so that when I saw her on 
 October 4 she told me that every morning on awaking 
 she was seized with a paroxysm, which lasted about an 
 hour, during which time she sneezed about forty times, 
 and discharged copiously from the eyes. In addition to 
 this, for a few days she had suffered from pain after eating, 
 flatulence, and constipation. She was hypnotized, and at 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 311 
 
 once fell into a profound sleep (Liebeault's sixth stage). 
 Her nose was rubbed, and the suggestion made that she 
 should sneeze no more. The stomach was also rubbed, 
 and the suggestion made for the regulation of the digestive 
 functions. There was no need to repeat the operation, 
 for the paroxysmal sneezing ceased forthwith, and the 
 digestion became easy and painless. There has been no 
 
 relapse. 
 
 Case g. — Tic-douloiiretix. 
 
 Mr. B , aged twenty-nine, was sent to me in 1902. 
 
 He suffered severely from tic-douloureux of the right tri- 
 geminal nerve. The pain had been almost incessant for 
 two years, and was getting worse. It was decided to try 
 hypnotism as a last resource before having recourse to 
 removal of the Gasserian ganglion. He was only slightly 
 hypnotizable, but at once experienced the local warmth 
 referred to as often taking the place of pain. He steadily 
 improved, and was able to return to America cured in three 
 weeks. I heard from him a year later, and the cure was 
 maintained, but shortly after that the pain began to recur 
 A medical friend who had not much experience hypnotized 
 him and gave considerable relief for a time, but the pain 
 eventually conquered the patient, and he had the Gasserian 
 ganglion removed. Writing six months afterwards, he 
 said, so far, the operation had been a complete success. 
 One hopes it will continue so. The operation sometimes 
 fails to give relief, as in a case Dr. Savill sent to me. The 
 patient had had the Gasserian ganglion on the right side 
 removed, but after a short period of relief the pain had 
 attacked the other side. I only saw this patient once, 
 and unfortunately failed to hypnotize him. One feels that 
 hypnotism should be tried in such desperate cases before 
 having recourse to a formidable operation. In most cases 
 of recent and simple neuralgia it is very successful. 
 
 Case 10. — Symptoms dependent on Mitral Disease. 
 
 Miss H , aged thirty-two, has been under my treat- 
 ment on and off for several years, and after a long spell of 
 
312 TREATMENT BY HYPSOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 literary work and late hours she consulted me in March. 
 iSSg, complaining of palpitation, frontal headache, loss of 
 appetite, nausea, constipation, debility, swelled feet and 
 legs, and especially of attacks of faintness coming on with- 
 out apparent cause. She has mitral regurgitation conse- 
 quent on rheumatic fever ten years ago, and her pulse 
 was very weak and rapid (104). She was hypnotized 
 and fell into profound somnambulism. Reduction in the 
 rapidity of the heart's action with increase of force was 
 suggested, and the pulse after a few minutes became 
 reduced to 87, and of firmer character. Suggestions were 
 made corresponding to all her symptoms, and she was 
 allowed to rest for nearly an hour. On awaking she at 
 once said she felt much better. The nausea which had 
 troubled her incessantly for several months had disap- 
 peared, and she felt no discomfort from her heart. On 
 going home she slept well that night, and the improve- 
 ment was maintained the next day. The following day 
 she came to me complaining of a fresh attack of palpita- 
 tion, and she was again hypnotized, with the same result 
 as before. The operation was repeated three times, with 
 an interval between each visit of three days, and she was 
 then quite free from pain and discomfort. During the 
 hypnotic treatment I purposely refrained from giving 
 medicine, but afterwards I prescribed strophanthus for the 
 swelling of the feet, which had not improved much under 
 suggestion. This medicine almost completely removed 
 that symptom in a couple of weeks. She had no more 
 attacks of syncope after the first operation. 
 
 Case ii, — Nocturnal Enuresis. 
 
 Thomas L , aged thirteen, was brought to me in 
 
 June, 1889, for this trouble. His parents had never 
 succeeded in breaking him of the habit, though they had 
 tried many different modes of treatment. He was fairly 
 well nourished, intelligent, and of nervous temperament. 
 He had no organic lesion of any kind, and the malad}' 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 313 
 
 evidently depended on functional weakness and bad habit. 
 He was hypnotized daily for six days, and then once a week 
 for six weeks, and he always fell into a profound sleep. He 
 wetted the bed once the first and once the third week, while 
 previously he had rarely gone more than two consecutive 
 nights without doing so. After that there was no return 
 of the trouble, but he wakes up every night about twelve 
 and empties his bladder quite automatically. The boy's 
 future was in danger of being compromised, as his parents 
 were unable to get him into any public school. He went 
 to a large school afterwards and did well. I told him he 
 was to always wake at twelve and leave the bed, and the 
 suggestion acted excellently well. 
 
 Case 12. — Gouty Sciatica. 
 
 Mr. S. R , a gentleman aged eighty-one, had been 
 
 for many years a patient of mine, and was subject to attacks 
 of gout, which showed itself in various ways. On this 
 occasion (July) it took the form of sciatica of the right 
 side. There was extreme tenderness along the whole 
 course of the sciatic nerve, and the pain was very severe. 
 The treatment I had previously adopted — colchicum 
 internally and poppy-head fomentations externally — was 
 practised, but he continued to suffer much and to be 
 unable to sleep, so on the third day I proposed hypnotism, 
 to which he gave a ready assent. In a few minutes — 
 using verbal suggestion and fixation of the eyes — he went 
 off into a light doze, and in that condition his thigh was 
 well rubbed and absence of pain suggested. The old 
 gentleman remained in a somnolent state for about ten 
 minutes, and awoke feeling somewhat relieved. He slept 
 well that night, and the operation was repeated daily for 
 three days, with the result that he was able to leave his 
 bed within a week, whereas previously he had always 
 been confined to it for three weeks by similar attacks. 
 He was an extremely nervous and sensitive subject. 
 
314 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 Case 13. — Chronic Rheumatism with Wasting of Muscles. 
 
 Mary T , a^ed thirty-four, dressmaker, was sent to 
 
 me in July, 1889, suffering from very intractable 
 rheumatism of the right shoulder and elbow. It had 
 lasted for three years and caused great pain on moving 
 the arm. The illness had come on gradually and had 
 resisted all treatment. The patient was somewhat anc'emic, 
 complained of constipation, and was kept awake at night 
 by the pain. The deltoid and muscles of the arm were 
 a good deal wasted, but gave a normal reaction to 
 electricity. 
 
 She at once fell into the third stage of hypnosis, and in 
 this state her shoulder and elbow were rubbed and warmth 
 and absence of pain suggested. She was able on being 
 aroused to move her arm almost to a right angle with her 
 body without pain, which she had not previously been 
 able to accomplish. She remained under treatment for 
 three weeks, and at the end of that time returned to the 
 country absolutely free of pain and able to move 
 the arm freely in any direction. 
 
 Case 14. — Nervous Dyspepsia. 
 
 Miss L , aged thirty-two, consulted me in February, 
 
 1889. She had suffered more or less all her life from in- 
 digestion. She was very thin, and her complexion was 
 yellow and spotted with papules of acne. She complained 
 of constant pain over the epigastrium, which was tender 
 on pressure, increased by food, and accompanied with 
 ' sinking,' heartburn, and palpitation. Her circulation 
 was deficient, and she had always cold hands and feet ; 
 there was frequent headache and neuralgia, generally in 
 the frontal region. She slept badly at night, and was 
 troubled with uncomfortable dreams. She felt languid 
 and despondent, and had no aptitude for setting to any 
 occupation. Her condition was becoming worse, and she 
 had been under all sorts of medical treatment for her 
 digestion since childhood. Her teeth were sufficiently 
 
 I 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 315 
 
 good for mastication, the bowels were constipated, and 
 the tongue was moist but furred. There were no symp- 
 toms pointing to disease of any organ, and it was evident 
 the malady was purely functional. 
 
 She was hypnotized, and the second degree of hypnosis 
 was induced. In this condition the stomach and abdomen 
 were rubbed and warmth suggested. Comfortable sleep 
 and improved appetite were promised, together with 
 regular action of the bowels, and general increase of 
 strength and energy. The patient was on very rigorous 
 diet, and this was somewhat modified and enlarged. Im- 
 provement in her condition became visible after two or 
 three days, and the treatment was repeated daily for ten 
 days, and then at longer intervals for a month. At the 
 end of that time she was better than she had ever been 
 previously. She slept well, ate with fair appetite, and 
 enjoyed life. The improvement has been maintained, and 
 the morbid condition seems permanently cured. 
 
 Case 15. — Amenorrhcea. 
 
 E. S , aged twenty-four, consulted me for various 
 
 symptoms dependent on amenorrhcea in May, iS8g, She 
 was pale, somewhat anaemic, ate and slept fairly well, but 
 suffered from nearly constant frontal headache. She had 
 seen nothing for five months, and thought the cause of 
 this was a chill incurred at the time of the last period. 
 She had taken iron and quinine and used hot baths with- 
 out effect. She was hypnotized, and at once fell into a 
 profound state of somnambulism. I rubbed the abdomen, 
 and suggested that the period should come on the follow- 
 ing week, without pain, and should last three days. These 
 suggestions were repeated daily, with the addition that 
 the day of the week (Friday) was suggested after the 
 second visit. Early on the following Saturday morning 
 the function was re-established, and lasted three days. 
 
3i6 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 Case i6. — Functional Dysmenorrhcea. 
 
 A. T , aged twenty-one, clerk, came under treatment 
 
 on October lo, iSSS. She suffered much from painful 
 menstruation, and has done so since the function became 
 established four years previously. The period was always 
 delayed three or four days, and was scanty and light- 
 coloured. It lasted about three days, and was attended 
 with excessive backache, languor, and frontal headache. 
 She suffered also from gastralgia, constipation, and flatu- 
 lence. After treating her for some time on general 
 principles, she was hypnotized on March 15, immediately 
 after a peried, and at once fell into a profound sleep 
 (Liebeault's sixth stage). Suggestions directed to the 
 painless performance of the digestive and menstrual 
 functions were made, and were repeated two or three 
 times a week for four weeks. The following period 
 appeared on the twenty- ninth day, and was attended by 
 but little pain or inconvenience. She was told to return 
 in three weeks, and suggestions were then made regarding 
 the next period. This came on twenty-seven days after 
 the last, and continued for four days. It was more 
 abundant and healthy, and perfectly free from pain. 
 Since that time she has continued regular, and there has 
 been no dysmenorrhcea. The digestion soon became 
 painless and natural, and the general health shows great 
 improvement. 
 
 Case 17. — Dipsomania. 
 
 The assertion is sometimes made that women are never 
 cured of alcoholism. This is quite untrue and unjust, 
 especially when applied to women who work. Idle and 
 self-indulgent people, whether men or women, are difficult 
 to cure unless one can reorganize their lives. The follow- 
 ing case shows what can be done by hypnotic suggestion 
 when one has good material to work upon : 
 
 Mrs. S , aged forty, married, was sent to me by her 
 
 doctor in 1899. He had tried everything, but nothing 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 317 
 
 had done any good, he said. Mrs. S is a very capable 
 
 and hard-working woman, supporting her husband as well 
 as herself by teaching music. 
 
 She had drifted unconsciously into the alcohol habit, 
 at first taking beer or spirits, when hurried, instead of 
 food, until she came to rely upon them. When made 
 aware of her condition, she found, to her horror, she 
 couldn't cure herself. She went to her doctor, and he 
 prescribed tonics, etc., without result, so he sent her to 
 me. She proved a very good hypnotic subject, and was 
 soon cured. She has only had one relapse, in 1900, when 
 she had a bad attack of indigestion, and took some adver- 
 tised nostrum, which consisted largely of alcohol. 
 
 The advantage of hypnotic treatment was well shown 
 
 in this case, for Mrs. S was enabled to continue her 
 
 work without a day's break. For a woman in her position 
 enforced idleness in a retreat would have been disastrous 
 to her character and ruin in her profession. 
 
 Case 18. — Dipsomania. 
 
 Mr. S , aged fifty, a wealthy American gentleman, 
 
 filling most important financial positions, was sent to 
 Europe for treatment by Dr. Putnam, of Boston. He first 
 went to Sir Francis Cruise, who laid a very good founda- 
 tion by giving excellent advice and kindly sympathy ; but 
 as he was on the eve of going abroad, he sent him on to 
 
 me for hypnotic treatment. Mr. S proved a good 
 
 subject, though he never lost consciousness. He stayed 
 three months in England under treatment, and then 
 returned to America. He comes to see me when in 
 London, and reports himself as cured, and with no desire 
 for alcohol. For over ten years he had never gone longer 
 than three months without an attack, and the intervals 
 were getting shorter. He used to begin with moderation, 
 but in a few days would lose all self-control, and drink 
 recklessly until reduced to helplessness by gastro-enteritis. 
 Through that he would be nursed by his wife, and would go 
 
3i8 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM ASD SUGGESTION 
 
 into the world again full of good resolutions and confi- 
 dence, only to follow the same vicious circle in due course. 
 
 Mr. S was exposed to very severe temptation on 
 
 his voyage after leaving me, for his artificial teeth, upon 
 which he was dependent, went wrong, and he was unable 
 to eat solid food for several days. So strong is his aversion 
 to alcohol and his fear of it, that, though a religious man, 
 he abstains from Holy Communion on account of the 
 sacramental wine.* 
 
 Case 19. — Moral Breakdown. 
 
 T. L , aged twenty-one, engineer, was sent to me 
 
 for treatment by suggestion by a medical friend, as all 
 ordinary treatment, medical and surgical, had failed. 
 Since early adolescence he had practised private vices, 
 which had reduced him to a deplorable state of mental 
 and physical weakness. He was easily hypnotized, and 
 fell into the fourth stage of hypnosis. Suggestions were 
 made directed to the reduction of morbid functional 
 activity, and to increase of power of self-control. The 
 patient, who thought himself on the verge of insanity, was 
 a willing patient, and is now, after five months, a com- 
 pletely altered man. He comes to me at graduall}- 
 lengthening intervals, and in that way anj' danger of a 
 relapse is obviated until the influence of the habit is 
 absolutely eradicated. 
 
 I was enabled to form a good estimate of the value of 
 hypnotic treatment, as I was asked to try it on two 
 brothers who were both terribly addicted to masturba- 
 tion. The elder one, aged eighteen, proved unhypno- 
 tizable after repeated efforts, and the younger, aged 
 fourteen, became somnambulic almost at once. 
 
 In the former case the patient has gone from bad to 
 worse, and is now in a lunatic asylum with delusions of 
 
 * His fear is not altogether unfounded, unfortunately. I know of 
 two cases where the craving for alcohol was re\ived by the taste 
 of wine at the Sacrament. One of them was reported to me by a 
 well-known Congregational minister, Mr. Mearns ; the other by a 
 High-Church lady. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 319 
 
 persecution. The latter is now married, middle-aged, and 
 fills a responsible post in South Africa. He has had no 
 relapse from the first day he was treated. 
 
 Sexual Perversion. — If hypnotism had done nothing more 
 for medical science than bring such melancholy cases as 
 the above within the scope of curative treatment, it would 
 have conferred a lasting benefit on humanity. In even 
 worse cases of perverted sexual instinct it is frequently 
 successful, and Dr. Von Schrenk-Notzing, of Munich, 
 read before the International Congress notes on a case 
 of this kind treated by him with the happiest results. 
 Modern medicine teaches us that these perverted instincts 
 depend upon a hereditary or acquired morbid condition 
 of the brain and spinal cord, and constitute, in fact, a 
 psychical disease. Hypnotic suggestion seems to act by 
 checking excessive functional irritability, and by developing 
 and bringmg into play the inhibitory action of the higher 
 brain centres, which have either not developed or have 
 undergone impairment. 
 
 In consequence of the translation into English of Krafft- 
 Ebing's classical work, * Psychopathia Sexualis,' and his 
 reference to hypnotism as the best, if not the only, method 
 of bringing about the cure of these cases, I have been con- 
 sulted in quite a number of them — at least twenty- five in 
 fifteen years. With two patients hypnotism was com- 
 pletely successful, and one of these is happily married. 
 In several of the others considerable improvement was 
 effected, but, unfortunately, most of the patients were but 
 indifferent subjects. 
 
 A remarkable case (20) is that of a schoolmaster, aged 
 forty. He was a man of education and ability, and had 
 filled good positions in several colonies. His downfall 
 was always due to his indecently assaulting young girls. 
 He showed his faith in hypnotism and his wish to be cured 
 by working his passage to London in 1903 in order to see 
 me. He proved a somnambulist at once, and responded 
 to suggestions most completely. That evening he went out 
 
320 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM A.\D SUGGESTIOX 
 
 for a walk, and in a dark passage ran against a little girl. 
 For a moment the old temptation assailed him, but it was 
 immediately replaced by a strong inhibitory impulse which 
 drove him rapidly from the spot. That was the last time 
 he felt any morbid desire. He wrote two years later 
 saying that he was filling a good position and had become 
 very fond of little girls in a proper way. A terrible source 
 of danger to society was thus stopped, and a miserable life 
 was reformed. I cannot conceive any other treatment 
 having the least chance of success in such a case. 
 
 In treating cases of sexual inversion the hypnosis should 
 be very profound, for one has to alter by suggestion a set 
 of very deeply ingrained instincts and emotions. 
 
 Wetterstrand (op. cit., p. 50) reports having cured a 
 case. The patient was a man of thirty-two, and he was 
 cured in seventeen sittings. He became somnambulic at 
 the first sitting.* 
 
 It is absolutely necessary to gain the confidence of 
 the patients in these cases, and they must be carefully 
 watched, as they are notoriously given to deception. 
 But their confidence can be gained by judicious manage- 
 ment, and then one is saved from the danger of allowing 
 
 • the wish to be father to the thought.' 
 
 Several cases of this kind successfully treated by 
 hypnotic suggestion convince me of its efficacy not only 
 in palliating, but in permanently curing phobias and 
 obsessions of sexual origin ; notwithstanding the asser- 
 tions of Freud and his followers that hypnotism only 
 cloaks the symptoms, and drives the morbid idea deeper 
 into the subconscious. 
 
 By all means let us fall back upon the more difticult and 
 serious operation of psycho-analysis if the simple and 
 rapid method of hypnotic suggestion fails, but one doesn't 
 
 * Doctors, lawyers, and teachers who wish to investigate tliis rather 
 unsavoury but very important subject will find it fully treated of in 
 Krafft-Ebing's book, and in the recent work by Dr. Ha\elock Ellis, 
 
 • Studies in the Psychology of Sex.'" Psycho-analysis should be 
 thought of when hypnotism fails to cure. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 321 
 
 at once amputate a limb if setting a neglected fracture is 
 all that is required. 
 
 The two following cases possess considerable interest, 
 owing to the intellectual attainments of the patients, for 
 they confirm the assertion that hypnotizability may be 
 rather a sign of intellect than the reverse : 
 
 Case 21. — Cure of the Tobacco Habit. 
 
 Dr. X is a University professor of eminence, and 
 
 he came to me in June, i8go, to try what hypnotic 
 suggestion would do to cure him of smoking. He had 
 been an inveterate smoker for twenty years, and had 
 never succeeded in breaking himself of the habit, though 
 he had made frequent attempts. He was highly nervous, 
 and complained of sleeplessness, palpitation, mental 
 irritability, and dyspepsia — all probably due to the very 
 large quantity of tobacco he was consuming in the form 
 of cigarettes. He was easily hypnotized, and fell into 
 the second stage. I suggested that he would cease to 
 care for tobacco, and that he would find himself able to 
 break off the habit without difficulty. The operation was 
 repeated daily for three days, and the patient then discon- 
 tinued treatment. On making inquiries, I have received a 
 letter from him from which the following is an extract : 
 
 * The suggestion was immediate in its effect, so that I 
 felt no craving for the weed, although I had been a 
 habitual smoker for nearly twenty years. Of course I 
 felt very uncomfortable, and my life was very much upset 
 at first by my sudden change in habit ; nor did I experi- 
 ence at once all the benefits that I expected from absti- 
 nence ; so that had I not been under influence I should 
 certainly have relapsed (to my everlasting regret), as I 
 had done whenever I relinquished the habit before being 
 hypnotized. I begin to think that I must now be tobacco- 
 proof, and have not smoked once since I saw you, and 
 am in very much better health.' 
 
322 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 This was an admirable case to treat. The patient knew 
 that tobacco was poison to him, and was full of good 
 resolves about giving it up. The will only needed a 
 strong reinforcement from outside, and this was supplied 
 by suggestion in the hypnotic state. 
 
 Case 22. — Neurasthenia. 
 
 Mr. A , aged twenty-four, has taken a distinguished 
 
 degree, and is a man of markedly neurotic and intellectual 
 type. He came to me in i8go suffering from nervousness, 
 sleeplessness, restlessness, and other symptoms of over- 
 work. He was hypnotized at once by fixation of the 
 eyes for about a minute, followed by suggestions, and 
 on his first visit fell into the second stage. He was 
 unable to see me again for three weeks, but he told me 
 that the effect of the one operation was very marked, and 
 that for three days he felt a new man. Then the effect 
 gradually wore off, and on the occasion of his second visit 
 he was in much the same state as when I saw him first. 
 He was more susceptible the second time, and in the 
 course of the treatment he several times passed into the 
 pro founder states, with amnesia on waking. I saw him 
 now every alternate day for two weeks, and then once a 
 week for a month. At the end of this course he reported 
 himself as better than he had ever felt before in his life, 
 and able to read the stiffest books for hours together with- 
 out fatigue. He sleeps well and wakes refreshed and ready 
 to get up, and is able to play tennis, row, etc., without 
 being overtired. 
 
 Case 23. — Chronic A Icoholism. 
 
 Mr. X , aged thirty-four, came under treatment in 
 
 January, 1891. He is a strong, thick-set, muscular, and 
 very plethoric man of highly nervous temperament. He 
 had been a heavy drinker for about ten years, but through 
 domestic and business worries had become much worse, 
 and was in imminent danger of losing his employment 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 323 
 
 and means of livelihood. He had had several attacks of 
 an apoplectiform character, and drinking made him dull, 
 heavy, and lethargic. His general health had suffered, 
 but there was no organic disease. He proved one of the 
 best subjects for hypnotism that I have yet found, for he 
 at once fell into a state of profound trance. The opera- 
 tion was repeated daily for three weeks, and he was then 
 sent to the seaside for a fortnight, preliminary to returning 
 to his business. He went on well for ten days, but then 
 received news from home of a distressing character. 
 Worry of any kind had always driven him to liquor, and 
 in spite of the recentness of the suggestions he again 
 sought the usual solace. For two days he drank large 
 quantities of beer — the worst form of alcohol for him — 
 and he was then brought up to see me. I found him in 
 a very restless, excitable state, with quick, bounding pulse 
 and throbbing carotids. His face was of a dusky hue, 
 and he complained of dull, heavy pain in the head. On 
 attempting to hypnotize him, I found that, instead of 
 falling into a sound quiet sleep, he passed into a state 
 resembling coma — from which it was difficult to arouse 
 him. The man was evidently on the verge of apoplexy, 
 and to relieve the congestion I at once applied three 
 leeches behind the ears. They bit very freely, and the 
 effect was very striking. In half an hour danger seemed 
 past, and the next day he was almost himself. It looked 
 as if ordinary suggestion alone would fail in this case, and 
 that stronger treatment than usual was required. I there- 
 fore began to suggest, not only disinclination for alcohol, 
 but loathing for it. In the presence of my friend Dr. 
 Arthur, I told him that liquor would act as an immediate 
 emetic if he ventured to take it ; and to put the efficacy 
 of the suggestion to the proof, I made him drink half a 
 glass of beer a few minutes after he was awakened. He 
 was quite unconscious of the nature of the suggestions I 
 had made, but I found considerable difficulty in getting 
 him to drink the beer, as he said his stomach seemed to 
 turn against it. However, he drank it, and no sooner was 
 
324 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 it down than he turned to me and asked where he could 
 go, as he felt extremely sick ; in a few moments he brought 
 up all the beer he had swallowed. I then again hypnotized 
 him, and told him that he now saw the effect of alcohol 
 upon him, and that similar indulgence would always and 
 at once lead to the same result. 
 
 Mr. X remained under my observation until the 
 
 end of March, when he returned to his home. His 
 regular attendant continued the treatment for a few 
 months very successfully, and hypnotized him once a 
 fortnight. Small business worries no longer fretted him as 
 they used to, and the ever-present domestic annoyances 
 were also borne with equanimity. Though such a suscep- 
 tible subject, I proved to demonstration that, so far from 
 being rendered more liable to be hypnotized by the 
 repeated operations he had undergone at my hands, he 
 was, on the contrary, less subject to hypnotic influence 
 than an ordinary person. For instance, I requested a 
 medical friend of some experience to try to hypnotize 
 him. Not only did the attempt fail, but the touch and 
 voice of the experimenter assumed a stimulating and 
 irritating character to the feelings of the patient, and 
 rendered sleep, and even rest, out of the question. This 
 was in response to hypnotic suggestions I had previously 
 made, that he was not to allow anyone to hypnotize him 
 but myself and Dr. Smith (his family medical attendant), 
 except at his written request. There was no particular 
 personal element in this or similar cases which have come 
 under my notice, though, of couse, it is desirable that in 
 psychical treatment there should be mutual confldence 
 and esteem between patient and doctor. Association of 
 ideas explains the causation of sickness on taking alcohol, 
 just as it explains why raspberry jam will sometimes 
 produce nausea in adults, who, as children, have fre- 
 quently been given powders in it. The train of ideas once 
 started continues, though circumstances may have com- 
 pletely changed, and the person may never be able to 
 taste that particular preserve, or even to think of it. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 325 
 
 without experiencing nausea. In the face of such an 
 explanation it seems to me quite wide of the mark to 
 contend, as some do, that the effect of suggestion in these 
 cases is purely personal, and that when the patient goes 
 away the force of suggestion will become weaker, until 
 it ceases any longer to operate as a deterrent. Such has 
 not been my experience, and Dr. Liebeault told me that 
 he possessed records of cases of chronic drunkenness 
 which he had treated over twenty years ago, and which 
 had remained cured. 
 
 Total abstinence is not much practised in France, and 
 Liebeault generally allowed his alcoholic patients to drink 
 
 light wine with their meals. Captain H consulted me 
 
 as to the benefit he was likely to derive from hypnotism 
 in December, 1888 ; and as I found him a good subject — 
 susceptible to the third degree — and he was going to 
 France, I advised him to consult Dr. Liebeault. He 
 was hypnotized at Nancy twenty times, told never to 
 drink except with his meals, and then only light wine or 
 beer. His wife was also instructed to hypnotize him and 
 make the necessary suggestions once a week. I frequently 
 see this patient and his friends, and though nearly twenty 
 years have elapsed, he continues a moderate drinker — i.e., 
 he drinks a glass of beer or claret at lunch and dinner. 
 He was a notorious drunkard, and for two years prior to 
 the treatment had hardly ever been sober except under 
 compulsion. Though this line of treatment has been so 
 successful in that case, I do not think it is one to follow — 
 at any rate with Englishmen — and I consider that total 
 abstinence is the only safe course for people who have 
 given way to drink, whatever plan of treatment is 
 employed. The deprivation of alcohol is no infliction 
 to the hypnotic patient, and there is, therefore, no object 
 in not enforcing it. 
 
 I have records of another similar case. The patient 
 was a medical student when he came to me in 1893, 
 and was such a slave to alcohol and so hopeless of 
 freeing himself that he contemplated suicide. He deter- 
 
326 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 mined, however, to try hypnotic treatment first, and 
 proved a good subject. He passed his examinations and 
 bought a practice in the country, which he worked up 
 very successfully. He married well, and after a few years 
 began to drink a little wine. He is now a very prosperous 
 practitioner and a moderate drinker. Dr. Branthwaite, 
 Government Inspector of inebriate retreats, says drunkards 
 cannot be called cured unless they are enabled to drink 
 like ordinary people in moderation ; so these two cases 
 would satisfy him. But if such a condition were exacted 
 in every case, I doubt if any system would show five per 
 cent, of cures. Forel, in his usual trenchant style, says it 
 is simply idiotic and harmful to attempt to convert a 
 soaker into a moderate drinker, for by continuing to 
 administer the poison in even small doses you keep up 
 the effect. 
 
 Case 24. — Nervous Prostration. 
 
 Mrs. E— — , aged forty-one, came under treatment in 
 January, 1890. She had led an extremely unhappy life for 
 years, on account of the misconduct of her husband, who 
 was a drunkard and a rake. The source of her trouble had 
 been some months removed by his death, and there was no 
 actual cause to keep up her state of ill-health. But the 
 impressions left by years of worry were not removed by 
 simple cessation of the irritation, and Mrs. E con- 
 tinued to suffer from sleeplessness, periodic headaches, 
 constipation, loss of appetite, and intense mental depres- 
 sion. She was hypnotized with great difficulty, and only 
 after six attempts had failed. She never lost conscious- 
 ness, but fell into Liebeault's third stage. The sugges- 
 tions I made were directed to quieting the nervous 
 apprehensions which assailed her, improving her appetite, 
 and producing natural sleep at night. The suggestions 
 acted perfectly, and the patient began at once to recover 
 her strength and spirits. The mental depression gave 
 place to a feeling of repose and relief, the headaches 
 disappeared, and she became thoroughly well and strong 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 327 
 
 in the course of two months. The improvement has been 
 continued, and the nightmare of years has been thoroughly 
 dissipated by suggestion. The improvement of mental 
 health has been accompanied by at least equal im- 
 provement in her physical condition ; she has gained 
 weight, and lost the careworn expression which she 
 formerly wore. Altogether she looks at least ten years 
 younger than she did a year ago, and there has been no 
 relapse. 
 
 Case 25. — Extreme Anwmia treated by Hypnotic 
 Suggestion. 
 
 E. A , aged eighteen, shop assistant, has been under 
 
 my observation for several years, during which time I have 
 occasionally treated her for various slight complaints. 
 Her father is a drunkard, and her mother is anaemic and 
 neurotic. The girl never had any severe illness, and was 
 always remarkably bright and lively until the beginning 
 of i8go. Then she began to droop, complained of feeling 
 constantly tired ; lost her fine healthy colour, and became 
 sallow and pale ; the period, which had been regular for 
 three years, became irregular and scanty, and the bowels 
 were constipated ; she became short of breath on ex- 
 ertion, and was unable to lie down in consequence of 
 palpitation. She developed a hsemic murmur at the base, 
 and a souffle under the clavicles; she ceased to have any 
 appetite, and wished to live on a little tea and bread-and- 
 butter. The case was thus a typical one of anaemia, and 
 as such I treated it — first by a course of Blaud's pills 
 alone, and, when that proved ineffectual, by rest and a 
 month at the seaside. She returned, however, in April 
 from the sea, little, if any, better for the change. The 
 amenorrhoea had become established, and there had been 
 no show for over three months. Under these circum- 
 stances, I felt justified in advising hypnotism, and, as 
 the patient and her mother agreed, I hypnotized her on 
 May I. She proved susceptible to the third degree, and 
 I repeated the process three times a week for a month. 
 
328 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 The result was very striking, for the girl immediately began 
 to improve. First she commenced to eat her food better; 
 then her bowels became regular ; next she lost the buzzing 
 in the ears, and was enabled to lie down at night. Her 
 pulse became slower and stronger, and the haemic 
 murmurs became less audible ; and finally, in obedience 
 to repeated suggestions, there was a slight catamenial 
 show in the third week of May. From that time improve- 
 ment was rapid, and the symptoms and signs of anaemia 
 steadily disappeared. The patient resumed work in June, 
 and has since continued rosy and well. This is one of a 
 considerable number of cases of anaemia which I have 
 treated by hypnotism, generally only after other measures 
 have failed. One has only to try it in these cases to 
 endorse Liebeault's contention, that hypnotic suggestion 
 comes near being specific in the treatment of simple 
 anaemia. 
 
 Such patients are nearly always hypnotizable, and 
 are generally very suggestible. I cannot say that I have 
 found improvement or cure so rapid as Dr. Liebeault 
 records in several instances, wherein one or two opera- 
 tions sufficed to bring about a return to health ; but I 
 have generally seen improvement set in at once, and 
 continue progressively. Anaemia so often proceeds from 
 some disturbance in nutrition connected with innervation, 
 that one can understand how it may sometimes be reached 
 by mental treatment. In these cases hypnotism acts, I 
 imagine, by placing the system in the best possible state 
 for natural recuperative processes to operate ; it certainly 
 speedily improves the assimilative functions and increases 
 the remedial action of iron. 
 
 Case 26. — Kleptomania. 
 
 The name kleptomania excites a smile in many lay- 
 men, and they look upon it as a convenient cloak for the 
 larcenies of the well-to-do. A learned judge is reputed to 
 have replied to a counsel who raised this plea that he was 
 there to cure that disease. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 329 
 
 But medical men, especially those who have to deal 
 with neurotic and mentally unstable patients, know that 
 the condition constitutes a real entity, and reference to 
 Hack Tuke's ' Dictionary of Psychological Medicine ' 
 shows that there is considerable literature on the sub- 
 ject. Drs. Auguste Voisin and Edgar Berillon, of Paris, 
 have reported cases which they have successfully treated by 
 hypnotic suggestion, and the following case affords addi- 
 tional evidence in support of this method of treatment : 
 
 A. Y , aged sixteen, is a well-grown and intelligent 
 
 youth. There is no history of epilepsy or insanity in the 
 family. The patient lived at home until three years ago, 
 when he was sent to a large public school. He was 
 reserved with the other boys, and did not join in their 
 sports with any ardour ; but he worked well, had a good 
 place in the school, and was well thought of by the 
 masters and boys. For a year he got on very well, and 
 then his character gradually underwent a change. He 
 became morose and irritable, and when remonstrated 
 with for his failure to learn his lessons, he replied that 
 it was useless to try when he forgot at once what he 
 learned. 
 
 At the same time articles of jewellery and books began 
 to be missed, and when their disappearance was traced to 
 him, and his boxes were searched, the lost property was 
 found in them. He denied all knowledge of it, and 
 became intensely excited when accused of theft. He 
 was told that he must be flogged or expelled, and his 
 relations were sent for. They very wisely, seeing his 
 condition, decided that he should leave the school, and 
 he returned to his home. He was now very different to 
 what he had been formerly. He was then bright, frank, 
 and affectionate ; now he was sullen, irritable, and un- 
 truthful. A new school was found for him, which he 
 attended as a day-scholar, but he had to be removed from 
 it in six weeks,. as he not only took things belonging to 
 other boys, but also stole books from shops and book- 
 stalls. At the same time he began to scream and gasticu- 
 
330 TREATMENT BY IIYPXOTrSM AXD SUGGESTION 
 
 late in his sleep at night, and his outbursts of passion 
 became uncontrollable. He was taken to a well-known 
 neurologist, who pronounced his case one of moral 
 insanity, advised his removal from home, and his being 
 placed under rigorous discipline. He significantly added 
 that he had known a similar case cured by three months' 
 hard labour ! The boy was shortly afterwards brought to 
 me, on March 30, 1894, and I thought it a suitable case 
 for trying hypnotism. 
 
 He was hypnotized in the usual way, and at once proved 
 a good subject, though on the first occasion he was not 
 somnambulistic. Suggestions were made that he should 
 sleep quietly at night, that the nervous irritability should 
 pass away, that his memory should improve, and that 
 generally he should return to a normal condition. As a 
 mental exercise and test of memory, he was told on his 
 third visit, while in a state of trance, that he was to learn 
 an ode of Horace that evening and write it out from 
 memory the following morning. He carried out this 
 suggestion then, and on a subsequent occasion, apparently 
 of his own initiation, for he retained no recollection of my 
 suggestion having prompted it. 
 
 He was kept under observation and hypnotized daily 
 for a week, and was then allowed to go out alone, and 
 was hypnotized twice a week for three months. 
 
 I did not see or hypnotize him from July 3 to 
 October 30, but on the latter date I found him well and 
 strong physically, and his family assure me that his former 
 sweetness of disposition is entirely restored. His memory 
 is good, and he no longer talks or gesticulates in his 
 sleep. 
 
 There are several points of interest in the case : the 
 alteration of disposition and character, the loss of memory, 
 and the night terrors, pointed to an irritative disturbance 
 of the highest cortical centres. His untruthfulness and 
 denial of thefts when confronted with the evidence of 
 them was at least partially dependent on real amnesia, 
 and reminds one of the similar condition often observed 
 
 I 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 331 
 
 after epileptic seizures. Tiiough he was kept under treat- 
 ment for four months, this length of time did not seem 
 absolutely necessary, for there was almost an immediate 
 removal of the nervous symptoms, and after the first 
 two weeks further hypnotizing was only done as a pre- 
 cautionary measure. 
 
 The case was evidently one of degeneration occurring 
 at the age of puberty ; and the physiological rest of 
 hypnosis, combined with the stimulating of the appro- 
 priate centres by suggestion, brought about a restitutio ad 
 integrum, and imparted the needful bias towards healthy 
 action, which tided him over the critical period of adoles- 
 cence. It is particularly satisfactory to be able to cure a 
 case of this kind speedily and pleasantly, as the method 
 which must be adopted in default of hypnotism is an 
 arduous and not always successful course of disciplinary 
 training, extending, perhaps, over years. 
 
 Case 27. — Mischievous Morbid Impulse in a Child. 
 
 The following notes present, I think, many points of 
 interest, and illustrate the value of hypnotism in a class of 
 cases not amenable to ordinary treatment : 
 
 M. A , aged thirteen, was brought to me for treat- 
 ment in December, 1895. 
 
 She was the illegitimate child of a prostitute by a 
 German Jew. Both parents, as far as can be gathered, 
 were drunken and dissolute ; and the child was adopted 
 when a few days old by a respectable artisan and his wife, 
 who have brought her up as their own. 
 
 The child was small for her age, fair and fragile in 
 appearance, pretty and graceful, and looked very superior 
 to the rank of life in which she was placed ; she was of 
 highly nervous temperament, but healthy, and had never 
 suffered from any severe illness. 
 
 She was intelligent, and stood well in the Board school 
 she attended. She was very fond of music, and played 
 creditably on the violin. 
 
332 TREATMENT BY HYPSOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 She was brought to me to be hypnotized for a habit of 
 mischief, which showed itself by cutting up clothing and 
 furniture whenever she had an opportunity. Her own 
 clothes, especially when new, were the chief objects for 
 destruction ; and I was shown frocks, hats, and boots, 
 which had been destroyed in that way. Everything had 
 been tried in the w^ay of cure, from severe punishment to 
 affectionate persuasion, but no effect had been produced, 
 and the habit had persisted for over seven years. She 
 always denied the acts when accused of them, but after- 
 wards used to confess to them and promise amendment 
 with much weeping. She also habitually bit her nails, 
 a habit which Berillon has shown to be a very impor- 
 tant sign of degeneracy, and she often talked in her 
 sleep. In other respects she was a normal and affectionate 
 child. 
 
 Her extreme nervousness made her difficult to hypno- 
 tize, but on the third visit she fell into a somnambulic 
 state. Suggestions were then and subsequently made, 
 that she would have no desire to do mischief, and that 
 she would be cured. At the same time, suggestions were 
 made that she would sleep quietly at night, and would no 
 longer bite her nails. All the suggestions acted perfectly. 
 The nail-biting and talking in her sleep ceased at once, and 
 there was only one relapse into mischief, when she cut up 
 a new bonnet belonging to her foster-mother in February, 
 1896. In June, 1896, she had rather a severe attack of 
 scarlet fever, from which she made a good recovery. 
 Menstruation appeared for the first time in November, 
 1896, and continues normal. There has been no return of 
 the morbid impulses, and the girl is developing rapidly. 
 Later accounts (1904) report her filling satisfactorily a 
 clerkship in the city. 
 
 If the child is intelligent I find hypnosis is easily induced, 
 and that the susceptibility to curative suggestion is very 
 marked. On the other hand, when there is deficient 
 intelligence, hypnosis is almost impossible of attainment ; 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 333 
 
 and suggestion, according to my experience, can achieve 
 but little. 
 
 Case 28. — Agoraphobia. 
 
 Mary B came to me for treatment in October, 1898. 
 
 Her age is twenty-six, and she is a Board school mistress. 
 She is a strong, healthy-looking woman and a great 
 bicyclist. 
 
 Two years ago she began to notice feelings of dis- 
 comfort when in crowded rooms, and especially in church. 
 These feelings became gradually intensified, until she was 
 unable to go into shops or any place where there were 
 many people. She was an extremely good subject — 
 sixth degree — and at once responded to suggestion. She 
 returned home in two weeks, able to go about like other 
 people, and wrote to me after a year saying there had been 
 no relapse. 
 
 Case 29. — Ptcerperal Insanity aired by Hypnotism. 
 
 I was consulted about Mrs. H in December, 1906. 
 
 She had been confined of her third child ten weeks 
 previously, and very soon afterwards had developed insane 
 delusions, which got steadily worse. 
 
 She had been at an excellent nursing home in the 
 country, under the best cure and treatment, and her 
 husband brought her up to London to consult a very 
 eminent specialist. This gentleman pronounced the case 
 a bad one, and advised her being placed under restraint, 
 and, as she refused to take food, said forcible feeding would 
 be necessary. He a:dded that hypnotism was out of the 
 question in such a case. 
 
 Mr. H , however, determined to make another effort, 
 
 and I consented to- try hypnotic suggestion, feeling assured 
 it could do no harm even if it failed to do good. I found 
 the patient restless and excited, full of delusions about her 
 husband and children, obstinately refusing all food, and 
 absolutely sleepless except with large doses of veronal, 
 which only gave two or three hours' sleep. The tongue 
 was thickly furred, the breath very offensive, and the 
 
334 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 motions lienteric and slimy. She was only made to speak 
 with difficulty, and expressed herself as quite hopeless. 
 
 After a little reassuring conversation I got her into a 
 quiet state, which gentle pressure on the eyes, combined 
 with passes and verbal suggestion, caused to pass into a 
 slight degree of hypnosis. I then told her very emphati- 
 cally that she would sleep for an hour, would feel hungry 
 on awaking, and would eat some meat jelly and bread-and- 
 butter. These suggestions were realized, and also those 
 insisting on natural sleep at night. 
 
 Steady progress set in at once, and Mrs. H was 
 
 quite restored to mental and bodily health in less than 
 two weeks. There was a slight return of the delusions 
 after a bad night, but suggestion quickly removed the 
 symptoms. The appetite became almost excessive in two 
 or three days, and the digestion was set right almost at 
 once. 
 
 Altogether it was one of the most striking and satis- 
 factory cases I have ever attended, and justifies the trial 
 of hypnotism in even desperate mental cases (compare 
 with case on p. iS6). 
 
 Case 30. — Mania for Washing cured by Suggestion. 
 
 Miss C , aged twenty-one, daughter of a well-known 
 
 physician, a bright and attractive girl, was brought to 
 me by her father in 1905. The family had moved to 
 London a year before, and the dirtiness of the great city 
 not unnaturally made a great impression on the girl. She 
 became morbidly sensitive about it, and when I saw her 
 she spent nearly half the day in her room washing, 
 especially her hands. As the weather was cold and 
 London water is hard, the hands were in a pitiable 
 condition from chapping, and the general health as well 
 as her spirits were a good deal affected. She was only 
 slightly affected by hypnotism, but suggestions imme- 
 diately began to counteract the morbid impulses, and after 
 three weeks' treatment she was dismissed quite cured. 
 Her father tells me she continues well. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 335 
 
 Case 31. — Spasmodic Asthma cured by Hypnotism.. 
 
 J. T , aged thirty-seven, came to me in 1902 having 
 
 suffered from spasmodic asthma since childhood. Attacks 
 recurred nearly every night, and his general health was 
 much impaired. He was easily hypnotized, but did not 
 lose consciousness. The asthma habit was at once modi- 
 fied by suggestion, and during a fortnight's stay in London 
 he had no severe attack. The crucial time came, of course, 
 with his return home to old conditions and associations, 
 but there was no relapse, and with the exception of an 
 occasional very mild attack, when he catches cold, he has 
 kept well. 
 
 I have treated a good many cases of asthma, and have 
 had a fair proportion of successes. In some of the cases 
 Sir Almroth Wright's vaccine-therapy has been successful, 
 and a patient who had undergone both forms of treatment 
 told me the medicine of the future would be confined to 
 psycho-therapy and vaccine-therapy ! 
 
 I have known very obstinate cases cured by psycho- 
 analysis. We cannot have too many strings to our 
 therapeutic bow for combating this evasive disease, and 
 I recommend the trial of hypnotic suggestion first. 
 
 Case ■^2.^Morhid Sexuality, etc. 
 
 Mr. N was brought to me in 1905 by a medical 
 
 relation, as he found his cousin's case quite beyond him. 
 And no wonder, for the young man was afflicted with 
 those peculiar perverted sexual ideas Krafft-Ebing calls 
 
 fetishism. Mr. N is a solicitor, of good appearance 
 
 and manners, of excellent disposition, and first-rate pros- 
 pects v but his life was ruined by his unhappy tendency, 
 and hypnotic suggestion offered the only chance of cure. 
 He proved a good subject, and suppression of the abnormal 
 desires was suggested. Success was immediate and com- 
 plete. The patient is cured and contemplates marriage. 
 I kept him under treatment for six months, seeing him 
 about ten times, for it seemed tpo much, to expect that 
 
336 TREATMEXr BY HYPNOTISM AXD SUGGESTION 
 
 a deep-seated and long-lasting tendency of that kind 
 could be cured at once. I should say that the family 
 history is bad, the father being a general paralytic at 
 sixty, and the mother morbid and hysterical to the last 
 
 degree. Mr. N has been twice to me for other nervous 
 
 troubles since : first, increased dependence upon and fond- 
 ness for alcohol ; and, secondly, for an insuperable dislike 
 to his profession, and especially for his particular office. 
 For each trouble suggestion has proved curative, and he is 
 now working cheerfully and is a total abstainer. It may 
 be said that his position and health are precarious, and 
 any day may see the development of a new nervous 
 trouble. Granted ; but in that case hypnotism will again 
 help him in the future, as it has done in the past. At the 
 
 worst, Mr. N is no worse off than another friend of 
 
 mine who was cured of myxoedema a few years ago by 
 thyroid extract, but gets ill again if he leaves off the 
 tabloids for a time. I should feel myself equally culpable 
 if I refused hypnotism in the one case or the thyroid 
 extract in the other. Moreover, in the former case one hopes 
 as the patient gets older his nervous system will become 
 more stable, and that he will be rendered independent of 
 outside help. 
 
 Case 33. — Meniere's Disease, or Aural Vertigo. 
 
 Miss D , aged fifty, came to me in igio complaining 
 
 of noises in the head, attacks of vertigo followed by vomit- 
 ing. On several occasions she had fallen in the street, 
 and she was consequently so nervous that she hardly ever 
 went out, and never alone. She had been under the treat- 
 ment of various doctors and aurists, who had all diagnosed 
 Meniere's disease. In fact, it seemed atypical case, and no 
 hope of cure was held out to her until the auditory nerves 
 were destroyed and she became quite deaf. She proved 
 hypnotizable to the second degree (Liebeault), and at once 
 responded to curative suggestions, and her whole aspect 
 underwent a change. In a month she was able to go out 
 alone, and had lost all traces of disease except slight deaf- 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 337 
 
 ness of the right ear, which seems permanent. I hear 
 from her friends occasionally, and there has been no relapse. 
 This is one of three cases of aural vertigo I have treated 
 successfully. One of these was very striking. The patient 
 was a post-office clerk aged twenty-four. She was more 
 
 seriously affected than Miss D , and the attacks often 
 
 came on in bed in the early morning, when objects seemed 
 to sway and revolve before her eyes. Her case was con- 
 sidered hopeless by several hospital physicians, and she 
 was about to resign her appointment. She quickly re- 
 sponded to hypnotic treatment, returned home, married, 
 and continues well. 
 
 Dr. Betts Taplin * has reported similar cases of Meniere's 
 disease cured, and our experience justifies the hope that in 
 hypnotic suggestion we have a cure for this distressing and 
 intractable disease. At any rate it should be tried. 
 
 Case 34. — Neurasthenia. t 
 
 Mr. A , an American lawyer aged forty-five, con- 
 sulted me in 1904. He had been ill for three years, and 
 attributed his illness to overwork and worry. He had 
 undergone a good deal of treatment of various kinds, and 
 spent his time seeking health and going from one 
 physician to another. He had the usual neurasthenic 
 symptoms, especially constipation, insomnia, dull occipital 
 headache, ' muzziness ' in the head, with loss of power of 
 concentration, defective memory, and mental depression, 
 with distrust of himself and suspicion of other people. 
 The heart shared in the general weakness, and there was 
 breathlessness on exertion, but there was no organic 
 disease discoverable. He readily agreed to try hypnotic 
 treatment, and fortunately at once proved a good subject, 
 falling into the third, or cataleptic stage of Bernheim. He 
 reacted to the suggestion of warmth when the hand was 
 placed over the epigastrium, and an abundant secretion of 
 saliva followed friction of the parotid glands and suggested 
 
 * General Practitiojier, December, 1906. 
 t //^zV/., January, 191 1. 
 
 22 
 
338 TREATMENT BY HYPXOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 increased secretion. He was allowed to rest for an hour 
 lying down in a darkened room, and when aroused he ex- 
 pressed himself as feeling warm all over, and generally braced 
 up mentally and physically. He heard and remembered my 
 suggestions, and they acted well. They were directed 
 towards relief of the symptoms, and more especially to 
 the effect that he should sleep well at night, and have a 
 natural action of the bowels in the morning. He reported 
 himself the next morning as better in everyway and full of 
 hope. The treatment was repeated daily for a week, and 
 then twice a week for three weeks, with the result that he 
 then declared himself as quite well, and anxious to return 
 home, resume his work, and relieve his partner, who had 
 been doing it all for nearly three years. He carried out 
 his plans, and I hear from him occasionally to the effect 
 that he is well, and hopes to continue so with reasonable 
 
 care.* 
 
 Case 35. — Diabetes. 
 
 Dr. Francis, the well-known specialist, has published the 
 following notes : t 
 
 ' My mother, aged eighty-one years, has suffered for 
 more than thirty years from obstinate constipation. 
 During the last fifteen years she has had glycosuria, and 
 has kept strictly to a diabetic diet. Of late years she has 
 suffered from time to time from a severe paroxysmal cough. 
 During the last few years the constipation had become so 
 serious that it was a grave menace. Almost every con- 
 ceivable form of treatment was tried, and the most drastic 
 remedies were of but little avail. The glycosuria began as 
 
 * British Medical Journal^ December, 1908. 
 
 t The relief of constipation in such cases as this by suggestion is 
 of great importance in every way, and should always be aimed at. It 
 inspires the patient with hope and confidence, and makes an excellent 
 start for psychic treatment. I always endeavour to ascertain the 
 cause — /.r., deficiency of secretion, want of power in the muscles of 
 the abdominal wall or intestines, deficient nervous impulse, or a com- 
 bination of these — and I make corrective suggestions accordingly. 
 The response, as seen and felt on the salivary glands, and as may be 
 inferred from the result on the intestinal secretions, is very marked, as 
 is the evocation of healthy inclination for stool after months, or per- 
 haps years, of inertness. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 339 
 
 more or less typical diabetes (thirst, wasting, pruritus, 
 carbuncles, etc.), and in spite of a strict diet the amount 
 of sugar remained persistently very high. 
 
 * Last October she consulted Dr. Lloyd Tuckey for the 
 constipation, and he treated her by hypnotic suggestion. 
 After the second visit she had a natural motion for the 
 first time for many years. Since then, during the last nine 
 months, the bowels have acted regularly and well, although 
 she has not taken any purgative except a little senna-tea, 
 which she takes at bedtime and was told would be 
 sufficient. 
 
 ' In November Dr. Tuckey treated her in a similar 
 manner for the cough, which at that time was very dis- 
 tressing, resembling whooping-cough in the violence of the 
 paroxysms. After one treatment the cough entirely dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 ' Having met with such success, it was proposed that the 
 glycosuria should be similarly attacked, particularly as the 
 patient suffered from double cataract, and an operation 
 was not considered advisable, on account of the large 
 amount of sugar in the urine. 
 
 ' In order to test more correctly the value of the treat- 
 ment, ten quantitative analyses were made by an indepen- 
 dent chemist. 
 
 ' The following are the results ; the first analysis was 
 made before the first treatment for the glycosuria, and may 
 be taken as representing the average antecedent condition. 
 The subsequent analyses were made of urine passed on the 
 second day after each treatment. The patient remained 
 on the same diabetic diet throughout : 
 
 Grammes per 
 100 C.C. 
 
 8-3 
 
 5-6 
 
 ... 5-3 
 
 .^.. 8-0 
 
 6-3 
 
 ... 3-12 
 
 ... ... ... Ill 
 
 2'2 
 ... 1-4 
 ... 071 
 
 Date. 
 
 
 February 27, i 
 
 908 
 
 March 6 
 
 
 March 25 
 
 
 April 3 
 
 
 April 16 
 
 
 June 4 
 
 
 June 13 
 
 
 June 18 
 
 
 June 26 
 
 
 July 4 
 
 
340 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION } 
 
 ' On July g iridectomy was performed by Mr. L. \'. | 
 Cargill. Healing took place rapidly and without any 
 complication, and the coloboma gives greatly improved 
 vision.' 
 
 At the Berlin International Medical Congress Dr. 
 Berillon was twitted with having only published his 
 successful cases, and he was able to retort that if that 
 was an offence he sinned in good company. The prac- 
 titioner undoubtedly learns much from his own failures, 
 but I cannot think that they convey much to others. 
 In hypnotism, as in all other treatments, we meet some- 
 times with failure and disappointment where success 
 seemed assured. Such a case is the following: A lady, 
 aged thirty-eight, consulted me in November, 1890, for 
 partial hemiplegia of apparently functional origin. Though 
 it had lasted for six years, and all kinds of treatment had 
 been tried in vain, I felt justified in hoping for a good 
 result from hypnotism, especially as the lady was very 
 susceptible and speedily became somnambulic. Sugges- 
 tions were made with great caution, and she was told 
 that she would become stronger and better daily, and on 
 the seventh day would be able to get out of bed and walk 
 without a stick. Though the suggestion was repeated 
 daily, and the circumstances seemed most favourable, 
 nothing critical happened on the expected day, and the 
 patient still remains partially hemiplegic. Her general 
 health has, however, improved ; she has lost her head- 
 aches and feels ' more alive.' Her intelligence, which was 
 in the same condition somewhat as her limbs, has greatly 
 benefited, and she has lost a habit she had of letting things 
 fall that she tried to hold. 
 
 Probably in this case the disorder has lasted so long 
 that it has become a part of the patient's individuality, 
 and therefore cannot be cured unless something occurs 
 to completely change that ; or possibly the case may turn 
 out to be one of those referred to by Dr. Buzzard, when 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 341 
 
 the earlier stages of disseminated spinal sclerosis are 
 masked by hysterical symptoms.* 
 
 Though she frequently becomes somnambulic, she does 
 not completely lose touch with the external world, and 
 though anaesthetic and irresponsive to any voice but that 
 of the operator, she will be seen to smile if something 
 very amusing is said in her presence. She does not, 
 therefore, fall into the profound state attained by Dr. 
 Dumontpallier's patient, in which suggestion is all-power- 
 ful, and there is always a degree of unconscious resistance 
 which prevents the suggestions being accepted by the mind 
 and transformed automatically into actions. 
 
 Another disappointing case is that of a boy aged ten, 
 who was brought to me to be treated for nocturnal 
 enuresis. He was a natural somnambulist, but hypno- 
 tism only induced Liebeault's fourth state. Suggestions 
 were made that he should sleep lightly at night and that 
 he should leave the bed. The suggestion was realized the 
 first night, but completely failed afterwards, and the 
 parents gave up the treatment at the end of a week. I 
 think it very likely that with perseverance and change of 
 method this patient might be cured by suggestion ; but 
 it was disappointing not to have succeeded at once in a 
 malady which is claimed by all authorities as affording 
 convincing proof of the efficacy of hypnotism. 
 
 Consideration of the following cases may be useful : 
 
 I. Mrs. A , aged forty, came under my care in the 
 
 beginning of i8go for intemperance. She had indulged to 
 excess for seven or eight years, and was a confirmed 
 drunkard. Her home was not very happy, and her 
 husband and children were uncongenial. She was 
 naturally a clever woman, but for many years had 
 entirely given up useful employment, and devoted her 
 whole time, when sober, to reading novels. She was in 
 the habit of drinking anything she could get in the way 
 of wine, beer, or spirits, and showed great cunning in 
 
 * The subsequent history and death of this patient proved the case 
 to be one of disseminated sclerosis. 
 
342 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 procuring them. She had completely lost all interest in 
 life, and had become thoroughly hardened and reckless. 
 My success had been so gratifying that I undertook the 
 case with some confidence, and named three weeks as 
 the time it would probably be necessary to keep her 
 
 under restraint and in the hands of a nurse. Mrs. A 
 
 proved a good subject, and was influenced to the third 
 degree. Suggestions were made in the direction of 
 loss of craving and dislike for alcohol, and were repeated 
 daily for three weeks. The patient was by that time 
 quite a changed woman, had regained an interest in life, 
 spoke affectionately of her husband and children, and had 
 altogether softened to a surprising extent. She went 
 away to stay with friends, and during her absence was 
 always bright and cheerful ; and though she had easy 
 access to wines and spirits, she showed no inclination for 
 them, but, on the contrary, proclaimed her intention of 
 never touching them again. She returned to her home 
 after being away altogether four weeks, and she continued 
 to keep steady for four or five weeks, during which time 
 she paid me bi-weekly visits. Then I ceased to see her, 
 and soon heard that she had returned to her old ways. 
 This case is a typical one, and I now know the reason 
 hypnotism failed to exert more than a transitory effect. 
 It was a bad case, and the home associations were 
 antagonistic. Instead of keeping her away for only three 
 weeks, she ought to have been under the charge of a nurse 
 for at least three months, with only occasional visits to 
 her home during that time. I have little doubt but that, 
 if this course had been followed, the woman might have 
 returned to her house and been temptation-proof in spite 
 of ennui and opportunity. The change that was effected 
 by three weeks' treatment justifies this inference, and the 
 case is a warning against expecting too rapid results in 
 difficult cases of dipsomania. 
 
 The following case is one of the most successful and 
 typical examples of curative hypnotic suggestion I have 
 ever seen ; and I record with it the story of a failure : 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 343 
 
 2. E. M , aged forty-five, a gentleman in good 
 
 position, came under treatment in i8gi. He had been a 
 dipsomaniac for fifteen years. He used to have periodical 
 bouts of drinking, during which he would disappear from 
 his home and frequent the lowest haunts until brought 
 back a wreck by the police. He was easily hypnotized, 
 and success immediately followed on suggestion. With 
 the exception of one slight relapse he has kept well ever 
 since. In igoi he brought his son, aged nineteen, to me. 
 The youth had recently fallen into bad company and taken 
 to drink, though most carefully brought up ; for the father 
 and mother were well aware of the dangers of evil heredity, 
 and did their best to counteract them. He proved a good 
 hypnotic subject, and I undertook to treat him, with con- 
 fidence of success. But suggestion had no effect on him, 
 and he rapidly went from bad to worse, until he was sent 
 abroad, where I suspect he soon drank himself to death. 
 I think this was the saddest and most disappointing case 
 I have seen. One has only the melancholy satisfaction of 
 knowing that no other treatment would have had a chance 
 of success. 
 
 3. Mrs. W , aged thirty, married, and with three 
 
 children. She has been a patient for several years, and 
 is fairly susceptible to ordinary medical treatment. One 
 symptom, however, has always resisted the usual remedies. 
 There was almost constant pain in the right ovarian 
 region, which was tender on pressure ; but examination 
 by a specialist did not reveal anything abnormal, and the 
 case was one, apparently, of ovarian irritation. I proposed 
 
 hypnotism, and Mrs. W consented. She proved 
 
 susceptible to the third degree, and I hypnotized her six 
 times during three weeks. She completely lost the pain and 
 tenderness, and though she has had ups and downs the last 
 ten years, this particular s3'mptom has never returned. 
 
 4. Mrs. B , aged thirty-three, married, and with two 
 
 children. She is of an anxious temperament, and has an 
 invalidish husband who causes her great anxiety. She has 
 a well-marked systolic bruit dependent on mitral regurgita- 
 
344 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 tion, following an attack of rheumatic fever thirteen years 
 before. She was very short of breath, had pain and 
 palpitation on exertion, and was so nervous as to be 
 unable to drive in a hansom or use a lift. There were 
 incessant spasmodic movements of the hands, and many 
 other signs of nervous breakdown. 
 
 After various remedies, such as bromides, valerian, and 
 digitalis, had been tried without much result, hypnotism 
 
 was suggested and agreed to. Mrs. B was a good 
 
 subject, though not a somnambulist. The heart's action 
 became more regular and slower, and the twitching of the 
 hands ceased. The treatment was continued daily for ten 
 days, and the patient was then fairly well. She went 
 abroad with her husband, and I hear she rides, cycles, and 
 goes about generally like a healthy woman. The valvular 
 trouble is, of course, still there, but compensation is good, 
 and the morbid nervous element has been suppressed by 
 suggestion. 
 
 Mrs. B is one of several ladies who tell me that 
 
 hypnotic suggestion has increased their courage and 
 enabled them to cycle freely in traffic. 
 
 I introduce the following case as a sort of medical 
 curiosity : 
 
 5. Miss M , aged forty-five, an extremely practical 
 
 and clever woman, mistress of a large school. She is very 
 gouty and rheumatic, but otherwise robust. She came to 
 me first in i8gg, suffering from rheumatic pain and stiffness 
 in the right knee, with slight effusion, and writer's cramp 
 of the paralytic variety. She was easily hypnotized, but 
 did not lose consciousness. Suggestion acted immediately 
 and to an extraordinary degree. She was able to walk 
 and move the leg without difficulty almost at once, and 
 the writer's cramp was cured in a few days. The rheuma- 
 tism has since occasionally returned in other joints, and 
 once it took the form of severe coccygodynia. The effect 
 of suggestion has always been so immediate and curative 
 that one wonders if it has any limits in this particular 
 case. Hard cases are said to make bad law, and excessive 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 345 
 
 suggestibility in too many of our patients might make bad 
 medical practice. 
 
 The lady lives a long way from London, and onlfy 
 comes to me when her doctor tells her he has done his 
 best with drugs. So far none of her ailments have resisted 
 hypnotic suggestion, though they have been varied in 
 kind and extend over twelve years. They include, besides, 
 various forms of rheumatism ; climacteric flushing, tin- 
 nitus aurium, obstinate constipation, acute indigestion, 
 chronic frontal headache, dysuria, sleeplessness, nervous 
 exhaustion, gouty eczema, and writer's cramp. This case, 
 though, unfortunately, quite exceptional, shows how hyp- 
 notism is a veritable panacea with some people. 
 
 Even more disappointing than failure of suggestions to 
 take effect are those cases where the treatment is strongly 
 indicated, and yet cannot be applied on account of the 
 insusceptibility of the patient. 
 
 A case in point is that of a schoolmaster who consulted 
 me a few years ago on account of a miserable delusion 
 which was wrecking his life. He was under the impres- 
 sion that the boys were always laughing at him, and the 
 struggle he had to contain his anger and maintain his 
 dignity was so intense that it was undermining his health. 
 The idea would probably soon have been removed by 
 suggestion, but, unfortunately, he proved absolutely in- 
 susceptible to hypnotism. 
 
 A similar case is that of a medical man with a very 
 large poor practice. He is a good-looking man of forty, 
 but he has got the fixed idea that he is hideous and that 
 everyone is laughing at him. He is impelled to "^uicide, 
 and has entered an asylum as a voluntary boarder. As his 
 condition is largely due to overwork, the rest and freedom 
 from responsibility will probably restore his mental 
 balance ; but if he had proved hypnotizable, curative 
 suggestion would have proved a short-cut to cure, and 
 he was certainly justified in trying it. 
 
 I should have much liked to have helped an exception- 
 ally able medical man who had won high distinction at 
 
346 TREATMEKT BY HYPNOTISM AXD SUGGESTION 
 
 college and built up a good country practice. Ambition 
 induced him to read for a ver\- difficult qualification, which 
 he failed to obtain. As a result, he formed the idea that 
 he was an ignoramus and unfit to practise his profession. 
 He told all his patients so, and became overwhelmed by 
 his responsibilities in the simplest case. He has had to 
 sell the remains of his practice and take a complete rest 
 abroad.* 
 
 The failure of the treatment was brought home to me 
 recently by a patient who came to me hoping to be cured 
 of absent-mindedness and lack of concentration. I gave 
 him a few treatments, and then he ceased coming. Ashe 
 had not paid me, I wrote two or three reminders, but 
 he took no notice, so I finally got my lawyer to write to 
 him. He then sent me a cheque with the comment that 
 my treatment was evidently unsuccessful, as such conduct 
 was what he had hoped to be cured of. 
 
 The case of Dr. A must, I fear, also be counted 
 
 among those I have failed to help by hypnotic suggestion. 
 He was a man of over forty, married, and with children. 
 Having good private means, he had given up practice, and 
 idleness had its usual result, taking the form of a liaison 
 with a young lady. 
 
 * Insane delusions occurring in doctors have, I confess, a weird 
 fascination for me, as one sees in them the struggle between practical 
 and scientific knowledge and diseased mentality. \'ery striking was 
 the case of a retired army surgeon who consulted me in 1900 about 
 his wife. She thought she was girt about by electric wires, and that 
 the current was turned on especially at night. I found the husband 
 inclined to believe there was ' something in it,' but I was not pre- 
 pared for an early and urgent summons from the landlady of the 
 lodging-house to which I sent them demanding my immediate attend- 
 ance. I found the bedroom had been wrecked by the unfortunate 
 pair, as they felt convinced the current passed through the gas-pipes, 
 and they had therefore wrenched these from the walls. He assured 
 me he felt the current, and that feeling was believing. 
 
 It is not uncommon for suggestion to act the wrong way, and for 
 the insane to inoculate those in charge of them with their ideas. 
 Recently a clergyman brought his sister to me, telling me she thought 
 herself under the mesmeric control of a neighbour. He added he 
 thought there was 'something in it.' As a matter of fact, the lady 
 was of a certain age, and the gentleman had shown her a little atten- 
 tion, which she misinterpreted. 
 
 I 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 347 
 
 He came to me and begged me to try by suggestion to 
 prevent him eloping with his mistress, and make him loyal 
 to his wife. I consented to try, and he proved a fairly 
 good subject. He was hypnotized a few times, and told 
 me the suggestions were acting powerfully. Then he left 
 off coming, and I have heard nothing more of him. 
 
 One is sometimes asked to employ hypnotism with the 
 object of influencing unfortunate love attractions. Success 
 could hardly be looked for in such cases, even if a medical 
 man were justified in acting without the full consent and 
 knowledge of the person chiefly concerned. I have, how- 
 ever, frequently found hypnotism a valuable means of 
 relief for the mental, moral, and physical sufferings due 
 to disappointed affection. 
 
 I have been called upon to treat two cases of ' phantom 
 limb,' after amputation, by hypnotism. The treatment 
 seems to be thoroughly indicated in such cases, and it was 
 a great disappointment to find that neither patient was 
 hypnotizable. The first patient was a gentleman of sixty, 
 whose leg had been amputated a few weeks previously. 
 He had intense pains, which he referred to the missing 
 limb. I made many attempts to hypnotize him, but 
 without result. 
 
 The second case was that of a colonial gentleman whose 
 arm had been badly shattered by a gun explosion, and had 
 been amputated at the shoulder. For more than ten years 
 he had suffered greatly, especially in damp weather, and 
 he referred the pain to the thumb and fingers. 
 
 He also proved quite insusceptible. But I feel confident 
 that hypnotic suggestion is the ideal treatment in such 
 cases, for it exactly fits the indications. They corre- 
 spond to hysterical joints, which are so troublesome to 
 deal with. The pain, though referred to the joint or limb, 
 depends upon central irritation, and is caused by the 
 unhealthy condition of the cortical cells functioning the 
 part. 
 
 Van Eeden tells me that he has seen a case of phantom 
 limb and epilepsy cured by hypnotic suggestion at the 
 
348 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 Amsterdam Clinique. The patient had had his arm 
 amputated after an injury, and developed traumatic 
 epilepsy. Each fit was preceded by an aura which took 
 the form of a forcible elevation of the amputated limb, 
 accompanied by intense pain. This is a case in which, if 
 hypnotism had failed, one would have urged trephining, 
 and operation on the arm centre in the cortex. 
 
 The new theory of nervous action promulgated by Golgi 
 and Ramon y Cajal throws light upon this condition. 
 They have demonstrated that the neurons form combina- 
 tions through their branches, or dendrons, not by con- 
 tinuity, but by position. When a nerve-current passes 
 from one neuron to another, it does so by their respective 
 dendrons interlocking or embracing, and the current is 
 made in a manner analogous, probably, as Dr. Hedley 
 thinks, to that seen in the coherers of electricians. 
 
 When the contact is not complete, no nerve-current or 
 impulse can pass, but a nerve-cell once serving for the 
 passage of nerve-currents undergoes an alteration which 
 allows of a more ready passage of a similar current on a 
 future occasion. Neurons tend to form combinations or 
 'sets' — to use the language of the compositor — and these 
 ' sets ' correspond with habits of thought and their 
 accompanying actions. 
 
 Bodily conditions are registered in consciousness, and 
 their physiological expression is the arrangement of the 
 neurons. When the cause of the disturbance of function 
 in a part is removed, the * set ' of the neurons should fall 
 back into its normal position, and pain and discomfort 
 cease to be registered in consciousness: but in some 
 conditions of ill-health the neurons may remain in their 
 abnormal condition, and the subjective symptoms there- 
 fore continue. 
 
 Thus, in the case of hysterical knee, some injury occurs 
 to the joint, and swelling, stiffness, and tenderness ensue, 
 with pain on movement. These symptoms are registered 
 in consciousness, and a corresponding 'set ' of the neurons 
 is the result. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 349 
 
 Under ordinary circumstances, as the inflammation 
 subsides the ' set ' of the neurons tends to fall back into 
 their old arrangement, which is associated in conscious- 
 ness with a supple and painless joint. But it sometimes 
 happens that the nervous arrangement does not change 
 with the disappearance of the cause, and the idea of 
 pain and disability continues and becomes lixed in the 
 mind. 
 
 Successful treatment must operate centrally by restoring 
 the neurons to their normal relationship and breaking up 
 their faulty ' setting.' Much depends upon the capacity 
 of change and of disjunction or conjunction in the field 
 of contact. This is termed the plasticity of the neuron. 
 Habit implies increased plasticity, and organic memory 
 depends upon plasticity acquired for the good of the 
 organism. In infancy and youth the connections are 
 less rigidly set than in adult life, and consequently it is 
 easy to direct and modify them. 
 
 Note. — The following cases further illustrate the use of hypnotic 
 suggestion in general practice. During a recent epidemic of in- 
 fluenza I was called to attend a young woman who, in addition to the 
 usual symptoms, was suffering from congestion of the right lung and 
 erysipelas of the face. She complained very much of frontal headache 
 and pains in the limbs, and had not slept the preceding night. The 
 eyes were completely occluded by the erysipelatous swelling, and she 
 experienced much heat and aching in them. I asked her if she would 
 like to sleep and get rid of some of her pain, and she naturally replied 
 that there was nothing she more desired. The ordinary method was 
 out of the question, as she could see nothing, so I gently stroked her 
 forehead and suggested drowsiness and sleep. This simple process 
 rapidly induced somnolence and tranquillity, followed in less than ten 
 minutes by a deep sleep, which lasted for two hours. The patient 
 awoke greatly relieved by the physiological rest the system had 
 enjoyed, and made a good recoveiy under the usual remedies. Of 
 course, I do not contend that hypnotism is curative in erysipelas, con- 
 gestion of the lungs, or any other acute disease ; but from a number 
 of experiences similar to the above I know that it quiets the nervous 
 erethism which is so distressing a symptom in many acute cases, and 
 puts the patients into a condition most favourable for recovery and for 
 the action of drugs. I have found it useful as a palliative in cancer 
 and other painful and incurable diseases. The following cases present 
 features of interest : 
 
 I. Hystero-epilepsy for five years in a girl aged fourteen. Attacks 
 were caused by touching the region of the right breast (a hystero- 
 genic zone), and were characterized by convulsive movements of the 
 
350 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 right side. In addition there were nearly daily attacks of what 
 looked suspiciously like epilepsy, with occasional biting of the tongue, 
 and followed by languor and drowsiness. The girl had been an 
 in-patient at several hospitals, without much benefit. After being 
 hypnotized seven or eight times she began to improve. There is now 
 no longer a hysterogenic zone, and she had no fit of any kind for 
 five months. The catamenia, which had been suppressed for six 
 months, did not, however, reappear, in spite of suggestions made to 
 that efiect. 
 
 The two last cases I shall give are not examples of brilliant cures, 
 but illustrate the importance of not promising too much from the 
 treatment. 
 
 2. Miss H has been a chronic invalid almost since childhood. 
 
 She is forty years of age, and has anchylosis of the right hip-joint, 
 following hip-joint disease and lateral curvature of the spine. She is 
 of hysterical and melancholy temperament, and her mental powers 
 .seem to have a.U-oph\ed ^a?i /lassu with her disused muscles. A year's 
 perseverance in the treatment has enabled her to find some enjoyment 
 in life ; she is able to walk over a mile without much fa-tigue, and to 
 play the violin for nearly an hour at a time. Previously for some 
 months she had been barely able to move about the house, and it is 
 years since she was able to walk a quarter of a mile. Neither had 
 she been able for a long period to play, partly because of invincible 
 hebetude, and partly from the fatigue attendant on the slightest 
 effort. 
 
 3. Miss E was sent to me suffering from hysterical right hemi- 
 plegia of a year's standing. It came on suddenly after her mother's 
 death, and she had had repeated relapses after apparent improvement. 
 She fell sometimes into the third and sometimes the fourth degree 
 of hypnosis, and in this condition friction was applied to the paretic 
 side, and suggestions made. She improved but slowly, and after 
 twelve operations suffered from a relapse, and was confined to her bed 
 completely helpless for a week. On her return to me I found the 
 right arm and leg much colder than the left, and the reflexes on that 
 side increased. Perseverance in the treatment for three months has 
 produced a decided improvement : the right leg is nearly as warm and 
 strong as the left, and her general health has greatly improved. One 
 would almost have felt justified in expecting more rapidly curative 
 results in this case, and the relapse whilst undergoing treatment was 
 disappointing. It illustrates the point I have so frecjuently alluded to, 
 that pronouncedly hysterical persons are by no means the best subjects 
 for this treatment. 
 
 My appreciation of the efficacy of drugs has been in- 
 creased since studying hypnotic suggestion ; for I have 
 seen on several occasions a properly -selected remedy 
 remove a symptom which suggestion had left untouched. 
 Van Eeden has shown how the beneficial effects of 
 massage and Swedish gymnastics are increased in certain 
 cases by being combined with Liebeault's system. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 351 
 
 Curative suggestion, of course, takes many forms. Forel 
 insists upon the importance of keeping nervous and 
 hypochondriacal patients well occupied. As we know, 
 such people lack initiative and are unable to map out 
 their own time to advantage. It is the recognition of this 
 fact that makes the success of many Continental ' cures.' 
 Forel considers the curative effect of much electrical and 
 other treatment as due to suggestion, but he nevertheless 
 urges their importance. Farez {Revue de VHypnotisme) 
 relates a case of hysterical contraction of the hand in a 
 girl. Though she was a good hypnotic subject, suggestion 
 alone failed to remove the contraction, but taking sparks 
 from the back of her hand through a static battery cured 
 her, for she said she felt the electrical flames loosening the 
 joints, and the hand gradually opened. 
 
 There was a discussion in the British Medical Journal in 
 igo6 as to the morality of a surgeon performing a sham 
 operation to satisfy a patient, and the old story was quoted 
 of the lady who thought she had swallowed a green frog, 
 which lived in her stomach and waxed fat by robbing her 
 of her nourishment. I think Trousseau first told the story, 
 and how, after seeing many doctors, she called in one who 
 understood her case. He provided himself with a green 
 frog, which he slipped into the basin required by the 
 emetic he administered. The patient, like so many hypo- 
 chondriacs, hugged her delusion and hated to part with it ; 
 so she replied, when the doctor, pointing to the reptile, said, 
 ' You were right, madam ; and there is the cause of your 
 trouble,' ' Ah ! you have only got rid of one ; but it has 
 bred in my stomach and left its young there.' ' Im- 
 possible,' said the doctor, gravely examining the frog, ' for 
 it is a male.' Dr. Mercier quoted this story to support his 
 contention that it is useless as well as wrong to deceive a 
 patient, even for his own good, for the obsessent idea re- 
 moved is almost certainly replaced by a new, and perhaps 
 more dangerous, one. But he left out the second half of 
 the story, and, I think, missed the moral, which is, I take 
 it, that the doctor using suggestion should be a man of 
 
352 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 resource and able to follow the intricate windings of a 
 nervous patient's mind. 
 
 That hypnotic suggestion is destined to play henceforth 
 an important part in the treatment of disease and the 
 alleviation of human suffering is evident, and enlarged 
 observation will show what it can and what it cannot do. 
 
 Its future in this country depends on the attitude the 
 medical profession assumes towards it during the next 
 few years. If the attitude is a wise one, and the utility of 
 hypnotism in treating certain diseases is recognized, and 
 its practice given an honourable position, we shall see 
 benefit conferred on humanity. Hypnotism affords special 
 scope for quackery, and if its legitimate possessors refuse 
 to use it, we shall probably see a class of undesirable 
 practitioners arise whose interests in it will not coincide 
 with those of their patients or the profession.* 
 
 * In giving evidence recently (191 3) before a mixed committee of 
 eminent doctors and clergymen, presided over by the Dean of West- 
 minster, instituted to investigate the claims of mental and spiritual 
 healing, I expressed earnestly the opinion that both professions should 
 study normal and abnormal psychology — i.e., human nature. The 
 young practitioner knows all about disease and drugs, but is ignorant 
 of human nature ; the quack knows nothing of medicine, but makes 
 an intimate study of human nature, and waxes fat to the detriment of 
 the profession and the public. 
 
 I cannot think this necessary instruction will be long delayed. 
 Its need was forcibly brought home to me a short time ago. Dr. 
 
 X came to see me, and asked me to show him some hypnotic 
 
 practice. He was in practice in New Zealand, and had come home 
 to take his M.D. at Cambridge and to take up post-graduate work at 
 the hospitals. He wished to return to his practice fully informed as 
 to the latest things in medicine and surgery, and expressed great 
 indignation that no reference should have been made by his teachers 
 to psycho-therapy. I think instruction in hypnotic theory and practice 
 should be given in general hospitals and medical schools as a part of 
 the ordinary student's curriculum. Nothing could be more adapted 
 to impress the young practitioner with a sense of his responsibility. 
 In after-life he could use hypnotism himself in a few suitable cases, 
 and would at any rate be able to advise patients what to do. We 
 don't all do the operation for appendicitis, but it is a poor doctor who 
 fails to recognize its needfulness. I have known people die from 
 such ignorance, and I have seen patients condemned to sufiter for 
 years when psycho-therapy would have speedily cured them. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 
 
 By Dr. Constance Long 
 
 Dr. Lloyd Tuckey has kindly invited me to contribute a 
 chapter to his book on Freud's method of psycho-analysis. 
 Although, for reasons stated farther on, psycho-analysts 
 rarely make use of hypnotism, it is fitting that methods 
 which evolved out of the use of hypnotism, and the 
 observation based upon unconscious states therein ex- 
 emplified, should be reviewed in a work on the subject. 
 
 It is no easy task to give a true picture of Freud's 
 psychology and psycho-therapy in a short essay, and this 
 partly because much is still in a fluid state. What follows 
 is intended to serve merely as an introduction to the sub- 
 ject to the uninitiated reader, who, it is hoped, may be 
 stimulated to peruse at least those few works of Freud's 
 which are already translated into English.* At the out- 
 set, for the purpose of this chapter, it is necessary to accept 
 Freud's definition of the ' unconscious ' as it refers to 
 psycho-analysis, and to understand something of his views 
 on ' infantile sexuality.' 
 
 In a paper published by the Society for Psychical 
 Research, Freud says : ' Let us call " conscious " the con- 
 ception which is present to our consciousness, and of which 
 we are aware, and let this be the only meaning of the term 
 " conscious " ; as for latent conceptions, if we have any 
 
 * Selected papers on Hysteria and Other Psychoneuroses ; ' Three 
 Contributions to the Sexual Theory' and 'The Interpretations of 
 Dreams.' Authorized translations by A. A. Brill, M.D., Ph.B. 
 
354 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 reason to suppose they exist in the mind — as we have in 
 the case of memory — let them be denoted by the term 
 " unconscious." ' 
 
 In illustration of this point, an account of a case of post- 
 hypnotic suggestion is found on p. 78 of this book. 
 Dr. Liebeault made a suggestion to a patient in a state of 
 hypnotic somnambulism which was carried out in a precise 
 manner at the appointed time two months later. Here we 
 see an act consciously carried out at the bidding of a latent 
 impression. The act is impulsively executed ; a portion of 
 the psychical process only has become conscious, the rest 
 remainmg unconscious. In such case, Freud writes, 
 ' the idea of the action ordered in hypnosis not only 
 became an object of consciousness at a certain moment, 
 but the more striking aspect of the fact is that this idea 
 grew active, and was translated into action as soon as con- 
 sciousness became aware of its presence. The physician's 
 order, the real stimulus, though it did not reveal itself in 
 consciousness, was active and unconscious at the same time.' 
 
 In the study of the unconscious, Freud makes abundant 
 use of the interpretation of dreams,* and in his book on 
 the subject gives a resume of the scientific literature on 
 dreams and dream problems through the centuries. His 
 own observations are made by the analysis of his own 
 dreams and those of neurotics ; the latter he has found of 
 utmost importance in interpreting hysterical and neurotic 
 states. 
 
 We can easily accept the foregoing definition of conscious 
 and unconscious, but Freud describes a third psychic state 
 — viz., the ' foreconscious.' ' Every psychical act begins as 
 an unconscious one, and may remain so or go on develop- 
 ing into consciousness according as it meets with resistance 
 or not.' Foreconscious activity can be recalled into 
 consciousness, albeit with a certain amount of difficulty. 
 These ideas have formerly been conscious, and can become 
 
 * Ernest Jones says : ' The repressed wishes that the neurotic finds 
 necessary to express in external symptoms is expressed in the healthy 
 by dreams. The two are merely different ways of obtaining an 
 imaginary gratification of the same buried wishes.' 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 355 
 
 so again and again, whereas the unconscious cannot spon- 
 taneously become so, and can only be tapped by the use of 
 such special methods as psycho-analysis and hypnosis. 
 Thus, he insists that immensely complex processes are at 
 the back of all activity, and that every conscious act is 
 determined by seemingly endless chains of associations 
 of unconscious psychical processes ; and that nothing 
 arises b)' chance. 
 
 It is claimed the dream arises out of the psychical pro- 
 cesses in the mind of the dreamer, and is based upon many 
 determinants, all drawn from the waking life, conscious 
 and unconscious, one being the events of the day, another 
 infantile experiences or fantasies. Whatever range the 
 dream may take, these two determinants at least are to be 
 found therein, while somatic stimuli play only a small part 
 in fitting into the dream, which they do not cause, but 
 around which the pre-existing psychic dream ideas crys- 
 tallize. Freud dismisses the popular idea that dreams 
 are prophetic, or that they are symbolic in the sense of 
 having a definite set of symbols like a ' language of flowers ' ; 
 and yet it is found that there is a symbolization in dreams, 
 but built up on well-determined processes, similar to the 
 origin of folk-lore or heathen mythology. 
 
 A dream has a manifest content and a latent content, and 
 this fact must be well understood. The manifest content 
 is often bizarre and wild, and can only be interpreted by 
 an analysis of the latent content, and by free association 
 of ideas connected with it. Every dream, Freud claims, 
 is the fulfilment of a suppressed wish or a number of 
 suppressed wishes. Conscious life is full of suppressions — 
 not necessarily morbid. The greatest amount of suppression 
 takes place during the first five years of infancy, and is not, 
 under ordinary conditions, interpreted in terms of con- 
 sciousness. This idea is expressed by Freud in his ' in- 
 fantile sexual theory.' The infant enters the world full of 
 wants, primarily physical, without which it would not sur- 
 vive ; the first and most obvious craving being that in 
 relation to sustenance. It is early trained in habits through 
 
3,6 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 this want, and a certain physical control is imposed upon 
 it until such time as self-control or habit comes into play. 
 But the infant has other wants which Freud has been the 
 first to describe as ' sexual.' The term ' sexual ' must 
 here again be accepted in his own sense, just as in the 
 former instance * unconscious ' was accepted ; it is useless 
 otherwise to try and understand his theory. Infantile 
 sexuality includes not only certain erotic tendencies which 
 may be grossly manifested in such acts as masturbation ; 
 but immodest exhibitions of the person, or vanity ; curiosity 
 and interest in the bodily functions and sensations ; 
 pleasure in the infliction of pain on others (sadism), or 
 on oneself (masochism), and exaggerated dependence upon 
 parents or nurses. It is obvious such infantile instincts 
 require subjugation because they are egoistic and anti- 
 social. They are converted by education and culture into 
 shame, modesty, morality, sympathy, filial love, and the 
 desire to win esteem. Thus they may be sublimated;* 
 or, less fortunately, they may be ' repressed ' into the 
 unconscious, whence they exert a lasting influence for 
 good. In certain instances the suppressed tendency, 
 especially when acting in a neurotic soil, forms a foreign 
 body in the unconscious, upon which base a perversion or 
 psycho-neurotic symptom may supervene. t 
 
 Dr. T. W. Mitchell, who disagrees somewhat with 
 Freud's interpretation, thus summarizes his description : I 
 ' The sexual impulse of the child manifests itself as a very 
 complex one ; it permits of an analysis into many com- 
 ponents which spring from different sources. It is entirely 
 disconnected from the function of reproduction which it is 
 
 * Sublimation is defined by Freud as 'the capacity to exchange an 
 original sexual aim for another which is no longer sexual, though 
 psychically related.' 
 
 t It is contended that it is unscientific and foolish to attempt to 
 cure an abscess caused by the presence of a foreign body without 
 getting at the cause and removing it, so it is illogical to attempt to 
 cure a malady arising from psychical shock without getting at and 
 removing the source of irritation. This principle has been acted 
 upon in the past by Gibert and others, as is shown on p. 88 cf seq. 
 
 X Transactions of the Psycho-Medical Society, vol. iv., part i. 
 
 i 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 357 
 
 later to serve. It permits the child to gain different sorts 
 of pleasure sensations, which we include, by the analogies 
 and connections which they show, under the term " sexual 
 pleasure." . . . In the course of time, when there is normal 
 development of the sexual life, most of the original impulse 
 components become subordinated to the overlordship of 
 the genital zone, so that the whole sexual life is taken over 
 into the service of procreation. But even before puberty 
 certain impulses have undergone the most energetic re- 
 pression, and mental forces like shame, disgust, and 
 morality, are developed, which, like sentinels, keep the re- 
 pressed wishes in subjection. The repressed wishes which 
 chiefly concern us here are those attaching to the persons 
 j of primitive object choice. These are almost invariably 
 j the parents, or one of them, whom the child takes as an 
 I object of his erotic wishes. The mental complex* which 
 j arises out of this relation between parent and child is soon 
 ' repressed, but it continues to exert a great and lasting 
 effect from the unconscious.' 
 
 It is to the sublimation of these infantile instincts that 
 civilization finds itself indebted, since they are converted 
 into religious energies, social service, and to purposes of 
 literature, art, and science, as well as to the controlled 
 gratification of all the senses, in which is included the 
 function of reproduction. 
 
 The opposite of sublimation is perversion of some sort, 
 and there are many delicate shades of conduct between 
 the two extremes. We find that no character is entirely 
 perfect or wholly worthless, and as Moebius says, ' We are 
 all a little hysterical.' An analogous pathological tendency 
 is seen in the origin of new growths. The structures com- 
 posing malignant growths are always present in the body ; 
 ' they deviate from the normal condition, so to speak, in 
 time and place. . . . They are composed of embryonic 
 tissue, sometimes pure, but more commonly showing a 
 tendency towards development into the type normal to 
 the part in which the tumour is growing. 't 
 
 * The (Edipus complex. t Erichsen's ' Science and Art of Surgery.' 
 
358 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISyf AND SUGGESTION 
 
 Dr. Jones says a ' neurosis represents an atavism, and it 
 is with the object of enabhng our patients to adapt them- 
 selves to civiHzed standards, and to effect sublimation, 
 that we attempt through psycho-analysis to undo the 
 influence of infantile fixations which are preventing 
 this.'* 
 
 An example of infantile fixation occurred in one of my 
 patients, who repeatedly obtained sexual gratification 
 by blacking a moustache upon her upper lip. When 
 at her worst, ' marking a book ' would serve to afford her 
 pleasure of the same kind. On analysis, this trouble was 
 traced back to infancy. It was not till she reached the 
 age of twenty that she connected her ideas in any way 
 with sex, although she had long before conceived of the 
 habit as being odd and inexplicable to herself or others ; 
 the few attempts she had made to solve it by seeking 
 advice had driven her farther and farther into herself, 
 owing to the mental confusion she found it excited in her 
 advisers ; and she grew to regard it as a secret indulgence 
 of some kind. 
 
 In adolescence the struggle between her desires and her 
 moral self brought about a conflict so severe as to lead to 
 neurasthenia and symbolic hysterical pain in the ovarian 
 region. For this she consulted an eminent gynaecologist, 
 from whom, of course, the foregoing nervous history was 
 hidden. An ovariotomy was done, and the self-knowledge 
 that the operation and its sequelae imposed revealed to 
 my patient the sexual origin of her trouble, which was for 
 a time relieved, only to return later with renewed force 
 and added conflict. Ten years later the patient came to 
 me. In the meantime another symbolic neuralgia had 
 arisen, and she had gone through rest cures, attended spas, 
 and spent most of her time combating her troubles. After 
 a laborious analysis, I was able to explain to her that this 
 was a form of masturbation in phantasy, help her to track 
 down other accessory fixations, and bring her to the point 
 of fighting her troubles in the open and on normal grounds. 
 
 * Transactions of the Psycho-Medical Society, vol. v., part i. 
 
 i 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 359 
 
 During the treatment she steadily improved in health and 
 mental capacity, and was able to take up life, no longer a 
 psychic invalid, but on more or less equal terms with her 
 fellows. A brief reference to two of her manifold dreams 
 serves to illustrate the way in which a psychoneurotic 
 symptom may appear, and may obtain gratification in a 
 dream. In the first dream she writes an essay which she 
 brings to me, and is pleased when I put many black marks 
 of correction upon it. In another dream she nurses her 
 mother and looks after her sick-room, and finds special 
 pleasure in blacking the grate. 
 
 The sexual life may be represented by a curve. At 
 different ages the human being should be at a given place 
 on this curve. In psychoneurotics certain instincts in an 
 adult of thirty may still occupy a position which would 
 have been normal at the age of two ; such fixation, being 
 unsuitable to the ego and environment, brings about con- 
 flict and states of dissociation. These infantile instincts 
 have become repressed into the unconscious, where at a 
 later period they may become active, as illustrated in the 
 foregoing case. . 
 
 For the understanding of repression, Freud has found it 
 necessary to describe a theoretical but very potent ' censor ' 
 who, as before explained, stands between the conscious 
 and unconscious, and who disallows activities from 
 becoming conscious. The power of the censor is seen in 
 hysterical repression and conversion, and allied neuroses, 
 but its handiwork can best be studied in dreams. 
 
 In healthy normal life painful ideas are ab-reacted* in 
 various ways. An insult is avenged by a blow, or an 
 expression of scorn, ironical wit, a storm of tears ; or 
 otherwise ; or by bringing the painful affect into associa- 
 tion with moral ideas leading to wholesome ' forgetting.' 
 In another case, owing perhaps to the nature of the 
 emotion and the social amenities, added to the innate 
 
 * The German abreagiren has no exact English equivalent. It 
 will therefore be rendered by 'ab-react'; the literal meaning is to 
 react away from, or to react off (Brill's footnote, Papers on 
 Hysteria). 
 
36o TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 tendencies of the individual, the affect is suppressed 
 into the unconscious, the forgetting is unsuccessful, 
 and a psychoneurotic symptom supervenes, as in the 
 
 case of Miss Lucy R , to which we shall refer later. 
 
 An instance of suppression of a distasteful incident 
 occurred in a member of my own family recently. A little 
 girl of two years and two months was discovered by a 
 friend, who was in charge of her at the time, in a deeply 
 
 cyanosed state, and obviously choking. Mrs. A , 
 
 suspecting the cause, instantly picked her up and inverted 
 her, giving her at the same time a few vigorous slaps and 
 shakes ; the swallowed halfpenny was dislodged and 
 brought up, accompanied by the child's supper. She 
 was thereupon very resentful and very frightened, 
 and refused to be comforted, and, whenever she saw 
 
 Mrs. A during the next two days, greeted her with 
 
 shrieks of fright and temper. Mrs. A 's visit then 
 
 came to an end, and the child's proper guardian returned 
 to take care of her again. From the moment the latter 
 appeared on the scene, sweet temper and good spirits 
 
 were restored, and whenever Mrs. A 's visit and the 
 
 doings of the child during that time were referred to, a 
 stony and vacant expression descended upon her, nor 
 could she be made to respond in any way to memories 
 in this connection, though it was clearly proved that other 
 events occurring immediately before and after the dis- 
 agreeable incident were minutely recalled — for instance, 
 the arrival of a postcard directed to herself, with two 
 ' meows ' (cats) upon it. This appears to be one of those 
 complete and rapid suppressions into the unconscious, of 
 which young children are capable to a very much larger 
 extent than adults, and which may easily form a focus 
 of psychic trouble in the future.* 
 
 * Several months after this incident the child in question, on the 
 
 rare occasions when she sees Mrs. A , still bursts into tears and 
 
 runs frightened to the nearest protector. The only explanation she 
 
 can give of her conduct being ' Me not like Mrs. A ,' nor is there 
 
 any other person in her small world to whom she gives a similar 
 reception. The stimulus always produces an exhibition of dislike or 
 dread undoubtedlv fed from the unconscious. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 361 
 
 Dreams reveal many trends in the ego which are con- 
 cealed in waking life. Eder writes : * ' Do we want to 
 know the springs of our conduct, it is the unconscious we 
 must lay bare ; though this can be done in diverse ways, 
 it is most readily disclosed in dream life ; we may without 
 exaggeration talk of " ruling passion strong in dreams." 
 Here we receive the first and rudest shock that Freud 
 delivers — dreams have a meaning . . . there is nothing 
 else in Freud's theory which is likely to play the same 
 havoc with our preconceptions, though there will be, and 
 should be, much to give us pause.' 
 
 It is in dreams that the censor's handiwork can be most 
 readily studied, and the analogies of its conduct as applied 
 to waking life best seen. There is a close connection 
 between day dreams and night dreams — especially signifi- 
 cant when one bears in mind the fact that in certain 
 instances ' phantasies or day dreams are immediate pre- 
 cursors of hysterical symptoms. . . . These depend 
 directly, not on the memories themselves, but upon 
 phantasies built on the basis of memories. 'f Both day 
 and night dreams have the following characteristics in 
 common — viz., they are the fulfilment of wishes, are based 
 on childish experiences, and enjoy a certain amount of 
 indulgence from the censor. 
 
 Freud says that nothing that gets into the dream is un- 
 important ; it appears so because it is not understood. 
 That misunderstanding takes place is due to the fact that 
 the wishes are usually antagonistic to the conscious ego of 
 the dreamer. In order that they may pass the endo- 
 psychic censor, the dream thoughts must undergo 
 distortion and disguise; this is part of the dream 
 work, as also is condensation, dramatization, and inver- 
 sion. It is by means of an analysis of the latent dream 
 thoughts and ' free associations ' therewith that the true 
 meaning of the symbols is found. 
 
 A censor is constantly active in waking life. It has 
 
 * Transactions of the Psycho-Medical Society, vol. iii., part iii. 
 + ' Interpretation of Dreams,' Freud, p. 393. 
 
362 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 tentatively been described as ' the spirit of the age.' 
 Another thinks of it as ' the racial conscience,' or ' the 
 ethical sense.' Thus suppression of unwelcome wishes 
 constantly takes place, and from these some are supplied 
 to the dream. Others are contributed from the infantile 
 suppressed wishes — e.g., those relating to the infantile 
 sexual life of the dreamer. These, as before indicated, 
 have from their nature met with most vigorous repres- 
 sion, and, having failed to become sublimated, remain 
 psychically active, and able to appear in a day dream, a 
 night dream, or a psychoneurotic state. As in infantile 
 life, so in dream life, they are quickly censored out of 
 recognition. 
 
 A brief reference must be made to the word-association 
 test. This method of investigation was mtroduced by 
 Galton thirty years ago, and is now elaborated by Pro- 
 fessor Jung into a most useful technique applicable to 
 psycho-analysis. A list of some hundred carefully selected 
 words is made. These are called out to the patient one by 
 one, and he is asked to reply with the first word that 
 comes into his head, his attention having been previously 
 directed by conversation to the symptoms it is desirable 
 to investigate. A long reaction time usually points to a 
 resistance, so also does failure to respond within a given 
 time, and the frequent repetition of the same word in sub- 
 sequent reactions, or the use of far-fetched associations. 
 The technique is easy to acquire, but the same cannot be 
 said of the interpretation of the reactions, in which, as in 
 the interpretation of dreams, long practice and experience 
 alone can give authority. But it is quite obvious that by 
 this means even a beginner may find much that is useful 
 and suggestive in unearthing the origin of a symptom.. 
 Even in ordinary conversation, a sympathetic person is 
 able to feel that certain topics are unacceptable, and that 
 certain words bring up a chain of painful ideas. A blush, 
 a stammer, a twitching lip, a restless foot, as well as 
 hesitation or sudden change of subject, betray perturbation. 
 To conceal this perturbation, the subject of the word- 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 363 
 
 association test uses extra care, consciously or uncon- 
 sciously, in selecting the reaction word, instead of pro- 
 ducing the first that comes into his mind. Any normal 
 adult will resort to the same artifice in a social dilemma, 
 and I have under observation a child of less than two, who 
 is a past-mistress in the art of diversion : when corrected 
 for a little fault, she will betray by a blush that the 
 rebuke has gone home, but will artfully try and divert her 
 mentor by such a remark as, ' Look at the bow-wow !' 
 
 The following example, taken from Dr. Bernard Hart's 
 paper on * The Psychology of Freud and his School,' * 
 gives an excellent illustration of the value of a word- 
 association test in directing the physician's attention to an 
 underlying complex : ' The patient from whom the series 
 was obtained had, during a recent attack of depression, 
 determined to commit suicide by drowning. The complex 
 manifested itself in the associations which are italicized. 
 These — 3, 6, 10, and 13 — are instances of increased re- 
 action time ; 13 shows a peculiarity in the reaction word 
 itself.' 
 
 Stimulus Word. 
 
 Reaction Word. 
 
 Reaetiori Time. 
 
 I. Head 
 
 Hair 
 
 1-4 
 
 2. Green 
 
 Meadow 
 
 i'6 
 
 3. Water 
 
 Deep 
 
 5'o 
 
 4. Stick 
 
 Knife 
 
 r6 
 
 5. Long 
 
 Table 
 
 r2 
 
 6. Ship 
 
 Sifik 
 
 3'4 
 
 7. Ask 
 
 Answer 
 
 1-6 
 
 8. Wool 
 
 Knit 
 
 1-6 
 
 9. Spiteful 
 
 Friendly 
 
 I "4 
 
 10. Lake 
 
 Water -., 
 
 4-0 
 
 II. Tick 
 
 Well 
 
 1-8 
 
 12. Ink 
 
 Black 
 
 1-2 
 
 13. Swim 
 
 Can swim 
 
 3-8 
 
 The psycho-analysis of dreams is made to subserve thera- 
 peutic uses by unveiling or diagnosing unconscious causes 
 of disturbance, and while the diagnosis is in process the cure 
 is being applied. Neurotic symptoms, as before stated, are 
 constantly caused by the conflict between atavistic ideas 
 and the civilized personality ; the analysis is a means of 
 
 * J our 7tal of Mental Scieftce^ July, 19 10. 
 
364 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 liberating repression by speech, and, by enabling a man 
 to understand himself psychically, forms a basis for re- 
 education. 
 
 The hysteric always unites his non-reacted affects with 
 his infantile suppressed affects, and the morbid processes 
 are seen in obsessions, phobias, psychic symbolic pain and 
 pareses, etc. The psychoneuroses which may appear to be 
 due to shock, overstrain, sorrow, or somatic causes, are no 
 more determined by these than is the dream determined by 
 the physical stimulus. The pre-existing psychic life of the 
 neurotic allows precipitation or crystallization to take place 
 round the experience of the moment, which thus acts as an 
 exciting cause, and serves very well as an obvious explan- 
 ation ; but this does not exonerate the physician from 
 searching into the subconscious for the buried causal 
 factors. 
 
 Many years ago Freud described a form of hypnoid 
 hysteria induced by dream states, akin to day dreams of 
 normal persons, as potent in the causation of hysteria. 
 These states are voluntarily induced, not with the intention 
 of producing hysteria, but to obtain psychic comfort by 
 substitution ; and they result in a splitting of conscious- 
 ness. Such dissociated states voluntarily induced show 
 a tendency to associate among themselves, building up 
 organized symptoms, which, though growing out of normal 
 experiences and tendencies, are so altered, exaggerated, 
 and unrelated to the ego, as to produce disharmony with 
 environment. In certain persons there appears to be a 
 congenital tendency to a want of synthesis (Janet) ; in 
 others there are traumatic moments generally related to 
 sexual experiences of infancy, which lie unrecognized in the 
 subconscious and act as foreign bodies; in others an un- 
 bearable idea arises which the moral fibre of the personality 
 censors or rejects, and determines to suppress by ' for- 
 getting.' This suppression prevents a normal and healthy 
 reaction, and, while it is harmless in some instances, in 
 others it produces hysterical stigmata. It lies in the un- 
 conscious ' like a lion couched, waiting its hour to spring ' 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 365 
 
 — ready to attach itself to unreacted affects should they 
 present themselves. It is as difficult to say why suppres- 
 sion should result in neurosis in one instance and not in 
 another, as it is to explain why some persons pick up 
 microbic infection while others under similar conditions 
 remain free. This theory of repression is the kernel of 
 Freud's psychology, and it is not surprising that the 
 pathological moments are to be found in the sexual life ; 
 since, in view of the strength of the primary passions and 
 the requirements of civilized life, here is found the battle- 
 ground of man's fiercest conflicts. 
 
 Direct man's passions and energies well, and he mounts 
 towards heaven ; suppress, pervert, and distort them, and 
 he plunges towards hell. The findings of psycho-analysis 
 are objected to because, as expounded by Freud, they are 
 described as rank determinism. Be this as it may, a 
 recognition of facts makes the teacher or physician provide 
 so far as possible the right determining influences. In 
 nothing is this so important as in the matter of education. 
 If, as is claimed, the life of infants and young children 
 under five is so much richer in sexual experiences than 
 was supposed, it is better to face facts ; exercise more 
 watchful care, eliminate the opportunities for perversion, 
 be ready with suitable distractions, and discourage un- 
 healthy dependence. It is clear that certain practical 
 points arise even should judgment be suspended and the 
 case for Freud's psychology be considered ' not proven.' 
 Environment is of the utmost importance. The incul- 
 cating of healthy physical habits should be by practical 
 example as well as by precept. The wise supervision of 
 children is necessary ; not that of the unthinking mother 
 who says to the nurse : ' Find out what Master Tommy 
 is doing, and tell him he mustn't.' It should not con- 
 sist in forbiddings, but in invitations to well-selected 
 activities. The coddling of only children, and the over- 
 preciousness of the members of small families, tend to 
 build up instability of character and overdevelopment of 
 the emotional side of the child. Day-dreaming, moodi- 
 
366 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 ness, and brooding, should be checked and exchanged for 
 interesting activities. The guardians and young com- 
 panions of children should be chosen, so far as may be, 
 with the same discrimination as is shown in the choice 
 of right books. If it is desired to inculcate good taste in 
 literature, it is not achieved by forbidding inferior books, 
 but by the provision of desirable ones. It is clear that no 
 knowledge or endowment, intellectual, moral, or physical, 
 that can be brought to the making of a child, will be 
 wasted from the point of view of psycho-analysis. 
 
 Other special times of psycho-sexual importance in the 
 life of the individual are adolescence (a period of several 
 years) and the involutionary processes of the climacteric 
 in both sexes. 
 
 In the education of girls, it is no longer considered 
 necessary to devote too much time to needlework,"^ which, 
 Freud says,t offers so much opportunity for reveries, from 
 which hypnoid hysteria often develops. But the repres- 
 sion under which so many are educated has a bearing 
 upon the greater prevalence of hysteria among women. 
 Taken all round, the sexual life of a woman, though 
 less recognized than that of a man, is no less imperative 
 and no less dehcately poised. In education, what is 
 required for both sexes is that energ}' should be well 
 directed, not rigorously suppressed ; and so intimately are 
 the interests of men and women combined that one sex 
 cannot be benefited without benefiting the other, nor 
 can their interests stand in opposition when Nature has 
 decreed otherwise. 
 
 A first introduction to Freud's work is almost certain to 
 arouse repulsion ; this is largely due to the unveiling 
 of psycho-sexual activities in all their minutise ; and 
 to the unusual application of language, which in the 
 
 * This is no indictment against needlework />er sc, but applies equally 
 to any occupation which is purely mechanical, and which under a 
 cloak of industry leaves the mind free to wander aimlessly. In neurotic 
 persons of a morbid and unhappy temperament more absorbing and 
 less automatic work is to be preferred. 
 
 t ' Three Contributions,' etc., p. 9. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 367 
 
 past has been employed in a very limited sense. It 
 remains to be seen whether this terminology is an integral 
 part of the psychology, or whether, indeed, the application 
 of the words * sex ' and ' sexual ' is really so wide as Freud 
 and his followers claim. But his psychology is gaining 
 wider and wider acceptation, and this in spite of the fact 
 that it arouses resistances in the individual. Perhaps his 
 theories are overstated ; if so, time and further investiga- 
 tion will remedy the defect. No one has maintained a 
 more open mind upon the subject than Freud himself, and 
 the fluid condition in which he maintained his theories 
 until they became certainties in his view is immensely 
 instructive. His followers and opponents do not always 
 show the same open-mindedness. 
 
 Freud's case of Miss Lucy R illustrates so many 
 
 important points with respect to the etiology and treat- 
 ment of hysteria that I venture to present it briefly. 
 This young lady was governess to two children in the 
 family of a widower in Vienna. She had chronic purulent 
 rhinitis, subsequently found to be due to caries of the 
 ethmoid, and was referred to Professor Freud by a 
 colleague on account of certain hysterical symptoms. 
 She complained of anosmia and subjective sensations of 
 smell — viz., an odour of burning pastry, sometimes re- 
 placed by that of cigar smoke. 
 
 The analysis showed that the first occasion upon which 
 the odour of burning pastry was perceived occurred at a 
 
 moment of emotional strain as follows : Miss Lucy R 
 
 had written home suggesting that her position in the 
 house had become unbearable owing to the servants' 
 gossip about herself and her master. She had promised 
 the dead wife that she would ' be a mother to the 
 children,' to whom she was deeply attached. She had 
 just received a reply letter from home, which the children 
 teasingly and fondly took from her, saying she must not 
 open it now, but keep it for her birthday fete two days 
 later. This display of affection occurring at a time of 
 painful indecision touched a sore point, for she was full 
 
368 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 of sorrow at the thought of leaving them and their father. 
 The children had left their play of pastry-making to come 
 to her, and at this moment a smell of burning reached her, 
 although at the time she had severe coryza and could 
 scarcely smell anything at all. 
 
 This, then, was obviously a traumatic moment,'^ of which 
 the specific odour was a memory symbol. 
 
 None of the things related so far should have led to 
 hysteria, and Freud asked himself why all this did not 
 remain on an ordinary psychological basis. He was 
 obliged to believe that the girl was in love with her master, 
 and with kindness and tact accused her of this feeling, 
 which she at once admitted she believed to be true, and 
 defended herself from having failed to confess it by saying 
 that her love (for which her master had given her some 
 slight excuse) was hopeless, from the difference in social 
 position, etc., and that she had ' determined to crowd it 
 out of her mind.' 
 
 After this confession there was some remission of the 
 symptoms, but now, after a time, an odour of cigar smoke 
 replaced the former smell. In connection with this, 
 analysis revealed a second deeper-seated accessory trauma, 
 for it was shown that this smell had occurred before as 
 well as after that of the burning pastry, which concealed 
 it for a time. She recounted another emotional moment 
 during which her master had become violently angry with 
 a gentleman visitihg the house, who on leaving gave 
 great offence by kissing the children, and brought upon 
 himself, in the presence of governess and children, a storm 
 of abuse, which revealed the master in a truculent guise. 
 Pursuing the associations with this scene, the actual 
 traumatic moment emerged. A few months earlier a lady 
 visitor had kissed the children in the presence of their 
 father, who waited till she had left the house to vent his 
 
 * The 'traumatic theory' is already a matter of past history with 
 Freud, who now lays greatest stress upon the discovery of resistances. 
 It is notable that in certain surgical conditions the muscles stand like 
 sentinels round a diseased part, resisting accidental and purposive 
 interference, and complicating diagnosis. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 369 
 
 extreme vexation on the governess for permitting it — in 
 fact, ' held her responsible,' and declared if it happened 
 again he would find someone else to look after his children. 
 This unjust upbraiding was a revelation to Miss Lucy 
 
 R that she had misunderstood the nature of her 
 
 master's former confidence and kindness, and that she 
 had been entertaining false hopes, which she thereupon 
 determined to crowd out of her thoughts. This self- 
 revelation and confession brought about a final and 
 complete cure of her symptoms. The treatment lasted 
 nine weeks, and the cure was later proved to be per- 
 manent. 
 
 Such a case is by no means uncommon, but one must 
 admit it is not often tracked down with so much insight, 
 nor so rapidly and effectually cured. The original trauma 
 was the last to be discovered. It was associated, as is 
 m variably the case, with repression of an unbearable idea. 
 
 Miss Lucy R 's love was incompatible with her 'ego'; 
 
 she probably conceived it as a want of dignity in a 
 dependent ; thus a conversion took place, the subjective 
 sensation of smell interpreting hysterical symptoms. The 
 banished thought in such cases enters the unconscious, 
 but retains its full psychic activity, and ' forms a nucleus 
 and point of crystallization for the formation of a new 
 psychic group, separated from the ego, around which in 
 time everything collects which accords with the opposing 
 presentation. The splitting of consciousness in such cases 
 of acquired hysteria is thus an intentional and desired one, 
 and is often initiated by at least one arbitrary act. But, 
 literally, something different from what the individual 
 expects happens ; he would wish to eliminate a presenta- 
 tion, but only succeeds in isolating it psychically.'* 
 
 The psycho-analysis was the means of synthesizing the 
 dissociated psychic groups, forcing the ego to bring the 
 ideas into normal (albeit painful) association and realiza- 
 tion. Here, as elsewhere, the destiny could not be changed, 
 but the patient's attitude to it was altered, the hysterical 
 
 * Papers on Hysteria, Freud. 
 
 24 
 
370 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 reactions being replaced by normal emotions and ordinary 
 sorrow. 
 
 In an analysis, points constantly arise which the 
 physician notes as resistances. These occur at places which 
 are important in the history of the illness, where the 
 censor exerts an influence over the emerging unconscious 
 thought. It is the physician's art to overcome these, 
 because they conceal the unconscious pathological com- 
 plexes which are causing the symptoms. In the process 
 of solving the problem it is not uncommon to get the 
 hysterical symptoms 'joining in the discussion.' From 
 time to time such an exacerbation may indicate that an 
 important point in the history has been reached. When 
 all the resistances have been overcome the conduct of the 
 analysis is complete. 
 
 During the therapeutic process there is usually a steady 
 advance towards recovery, the patient's health and spirits 
 improving. In a few instances the result is dramatic, in 
 some unsuccessful. It is claimed that want of success 
 does not lie in the therapy, but in failure of technique, in 
 want of experience on the part of the physician, in failure 
 of the patient to respond to treatment, either because he is 
 past repair, or is wanting in the qualities that assist the 
 cure, or too old, or too young, or because the illness has 
 been misunderstood. It will be conceded that all these 
 difficulties are found in every branch of medicine and 
 surgery. 
 
 A partial success may be admitted, and a piece of 
 educational work accomplished, if the unconscious has 
 been made accessible in a measure to consciousness. 
 Where resistances are overcome, re-education is possible, 
 and a new mental condition may be brought about. If 
 the treatment or cure is incomplete, the patient may yet 
 be able to return to work with some of his more devas- 
 tating affects released from their pathological fixations, and 
 with an additional sum of energy serviceable for new and 
 wholesome application. 
 
 It is perhaps hardly necessary to point out that, though 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 371 
 
 certain patients submit themselves to a therapeutic regime, 
 they do not necessarily wish for a cure. All who deal 
 with neurotics recognize this class ; they cannot be said 
 to have the requisite amount of intelligence or good-will, 
 and a practised analyst would not waste his energies over 
 such persons. 
 
 Psycho-analysis should not be undertaken where an 
 acute symptom presses for relief (as in hysterical anorexia), 
 nor where, owing to the nature of the symptoms, the 
 patient is unable, for their relief, to wait the many days or 
 weeks that may elapse before reaching the buried com- 
 plexes. Moreover, the general health should be sufficiently 
 good to allow the patient to contribute a very large share 
 of mental energy to the investigation. 
 
 Lastly, what has psycho-analysis to say to hypnotism ? 
 Must it stand in opposition to it, or by its side ? The 
 psycho-analysts have largely given up its use. Freud 
 found he could not always hypnotize his patients, and pre- 
 ferred to put them into a state of concentration, which in 
 his hands was more efficacious for reaching subconscious 
 memories. His words on the subject are these : ' There 
 are many ways and means of psycho-therapy. All methods 
 are good which produce the aim of the therapy. We have 
 developed the technique of hypnotic suggestion, of psycho- 
 therapy through diversion, through practice, and through 
 the evocation of serviceable affects. I do not disdain any 
 of them, and would practise them all under suitable 
 conditions.' He compares hypnotism to the art of paint- 
 ing, and analysis to that of sculpture, and says that 
 hypnotism ' conceals from us the psychic play of forces, 
 and does not permit us to recognize the resistance with 
 which patients adhere to their malady,' etc. 
 
 Thus the methods are opposite, but it is not the first 
 time that opposite methods have been successfully applied 
 in the treatment of disease. We find an analogy in a 
 localized tuberculous infection. It is our common ex- 
 perience that under suitable conditions healing may take 
 place ; the invading bacilli are overpowered by the phago- 
 
372 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 cytes, and become encapsuled and rendered inert by the 
 condensation of surrounding tissues. On the other hand, 
 the invadinf:;^ army may cause death and devastation among 
 the leucocytes. The dead cells then act as irritating 
 foreign material, and in order to avoid further destruction 
 of the tissues an incision is necessary to evacuate an 
 abscess. So, also, an idea suggested in hypnotism may be 
 strong enough to encapsule a phobia or hysterical pain, 
 and render it inert; but should this be impossible owing 
 to the nature of the trauma or the condition of the patient, 
 psycho-analysis remains as an operative procedure which 
 may be applied to the psychic focus. The longest way 
 round (psycho-analysis) is sometimes the shortest way 
 home, but that need not prevent us from using short-cuts 
 (hypnotism) where available. In fact, psycho-analysis is 
 not of very wide application, for various reasons. It is 
 laborious to the physician, and makes great demands of 
 candour on the part of the patient ; it occupies a great 
 amount of time, and is therefore very expensive ; it is 
 generally inapplicable to people over hfty ; it requires a 
 certain amount of education on the part of patients, who 
 should be persons of intelligence and good-will. Freud 
 considers it lit only for those above a certain level of in- 
 telligence. Hence it is obvious we cannot afford to ex- 
 clude hypnotism as in some instances the ' therapy of 
 choice,' and it will always prove technically useful in 
 investigating the unconscious from time to time in the 
 hands of even the most skilled analyst.* 
 
 For an understanding of the human mind there is no 
 method of equal value with psycho-analysis. Those who 
 pretend to such an understanding would do well to take up 
 one case and follow it out, devoting the leisure of months 
 to the purpose, if necessary. Freud points out that the 
 physician is limited by his own complexes and resistances, 
 
 * In the treatment of some of my cases I combine the use of 
 psycho-analysis and hypnotism. While searching the unconscious 
 and overcoming resistances it may be advantageous to treat the more 
 pressing symptoms with hypnotism (such as insomnia, for instance), 
 nor have I found this interfere with subsequent analysis. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 373 
 
 and that it is of primary importance to understand where 
 they lie. He should at least analyze himself and his 
 dreams. In this he is in the position of a poor art 
 student who is forced to use himself as his own model ; a 
 fact to which we owe many portraits of great painters, 
 which are not only interesting and valuable, but master- 
 pieces of art. 
 
 It is well to understand what is meant by the transference 
 of the affects to the physician. Any successful practitioner 
 knows well that the best results are obtained in the case 
 of an obedient and devoted patient. The bond between 
 the patient and physician is powerful, and is constantly 
 used as a lever towards health. Where the treatment is 
 psychic, and for suffering which the patient is apt to 
 believe is * worse than pain,' the debt of gratitude is 
 greater. Only persons of high moral character are fitted 
 to practise medicine at all, and the psycho-analyst above 
 all others should be well balanced, and have perfect 
 control over his own sex-life, since it is obvious he is con- 
 stantly called upon to investigate and direct the sex-life of 
 others. As complete self-knowledge as possible is advis- 
 able, and Freud considers that those who use this method 
 should themselves undergo psycho-analysis as a matter of 
 training. Here again we find our analogy in the realm of 
 surgery, for no oculist would dream of prescribing glasses 
 for a patient without having first ascertained and corrected 
 his own error of refraction. 
 
 In conclusion, what is the aim and scope of this therapy ? 
 Is there sufficient justification for digging about and un- 
 earthing the primitive and instinctive roots of human 
 nature ? We believe, and for this belief there is already 
 abundant clinical evidence, that when the psychoneurotic 
 understands the meaning of his phobias, obsessions, and 
 hysterical symptoms, they will disappear. I cannot do 
 better than quote here Freud's own words on this subject : 
 * I must explain what I mean by the general effects of our 
 work and how I build hopes upon them. . . . You know 
 that the psychoneuroses are distortive substitutive grati- 
 
374 TREATMEXr BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 tications of impulses, the existence of which one must deny 
 to himself and others. Their capacity to exist rests on this 
 distortion and misjudgment. With the solution of the 
 riddle they present, and with the acceptance of this solu- 
 tion by the patients, these morbid states become incapable 
 of existence. There is hardly anything like it in medicine: 
 in fairy tales you hear of evil spirits whose charm is 
 broken as soon as one can tell them their secretly con- 
 cealed name. The success which the therapy can have in 
 the individual must also appear in the masses.' 
 
 But before this therapy can be made generally service- 
 able for the suffering public, it must be understood and 
 appraised by the practising physician. He will then no 
 longer urge his patient to suppress those hideous tormenting 
 ideas which hitherto we have not had the art to relieve, 
 but he will induce him to unburden himself and will put him 
 in the way of cure. From the surface psychic material un- 
 folded in the history of the case he will strike down to 
 the psychic materies morhi in the unconscious. It is a case 
 of * deep calling unto deep.' This form of practice is quite 
 obviously not suited to the temperament or taste of every 
 practitioner, even should his judgment approve it ; but 
 that does not exonerate him from knowing when to 
 recommend it. 
 
 Even were there no therapy to offer, at least Freud's 
 psychology has elucidated the etiology of the psycho- 
 neuroses in an extraordinary degree. The educationalist 
 and school doctor are now in close contact, and with a 
 trained and sharpened insight they will find a fruitful field 
 for their mutual energies. A reasonable sex-education may 
 be evolved, which may prevent or undo some of the 
 infantile fixations and phantasies that can have such 
 pathological bearing in later life. Clearer comprehension, 
 franker speech, and a resulting diminution of self-con- 
 sciousness, may establish an interchange of problems and 
 experiences between the different generations. The 
 imaginary terrors and penalties of sex-abuse may be ex- 
 changed for a genuine knowledge of the actual penalties 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 375 
 
 and sufferings incurred by the individual and by the 
 race.* 
 
 Again, this psychology reveals how thin a partition 
 separates the saint from the sinner, the sane from the sick, 
 and urges us all to work together for the common good, 
 Jung points out that ' he who remains healthy has to 
 struggle with the same problems that cause the neurotic to 
 fail,' and that the psychological trouble in the neurotic, and 
 the neurosis itself, is an act of adaptation that has fat led. f 
 
 The launching of new truths must inevitably cause dis 
 turbance in the still waters of orthodoxy, and this dis- 
 turbance is caused by resistances in the masses similar 
 to those which are constantly revealed in individuals. 
 
 * It must be understood that Freud's ' sexuality ' does not merely 
 mean lust and its somatic expression. There is in many persons, 
 women especially, a great repugnance, not only to the theories, but 
 also to the facts of sex. Such persons are sometimes intentionally 
 deaf and blind to sexual questions, and when their existence is forced 
 upon them by the senses, their recognition may lead to anti-sexual feel- 
 ings, amounting almost to an obsession and may determine a neurosis. 
 This morbid attitude is not confined by any means to the unmarried. 
 Every physician meets with cases where marriage is unhappy owing 
 to this ignorance or misunderstanding of normal processes. Deficient 
 realization of the part sexuality plays in human affairs tends as much 
 as its exaggeration to social and moral sins and errors. That Society 
 is suffering from ' failure of adaptation ' is painfully evident to-day. 
 The popularity of sexual novels shows how these ideas are seeking 
 expression ; but the truth should come not through the reading of 
 fiction, but through authoritative instruction as to the realities of 
 life. This instruction is pre-eminently the province of the medical pro- 
 fession, and should be backed up by the clergyman and schoolmaster. 
 Some results of morbid sexuality are seen in the increase of nervous 
 diseases, which seems to be the special burden of our century ; and 
 also in the alarming prevalence of venereal disease. We are just 
 awaking to the devastating effects of syphilis, parasyphilis, and 
 gonorrhoea upon racial efficiency and fecundity, and we are about 
 to appoint a Royal Commission to investigate this question. At the 
 same time, in the psychological field of inquiry we are beginning to 
 ask frankly what sexuality means. It is surely appropriate that these 
 researches should proceed pari passu. Out of the experience and 
 knowledge gained a new education will spring. Those v/ho will not 
 accept the teachings of morality for its own sake will be bound to 
 accept them in their racial bearings ; for as our vision clears we shall 
 see that science and morality spring from one common foundation. 
 
 t Transactions of the Psychiatry Section, Seventeenth International 
 Medical Congress, London, 191 3. 
 
376 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 But need we fear the truth ? To call things by new names, 
 
 to allow certain words to embrace wider meanings, does 
 
 not alter any of the facts of Nature. What is of serious 
 
 moment is that we should not make the mistake of calling 
 
 good evil, and evil good. It is almost as certain that 
 
 some of Freud's theories will be discarded, as that facts 
 
 yet undreamt of will be discovered along the same line of 
 
 research. Surely we need have no fear for the morals of 
 
 the world, but fall back in comfort upon the thought of the 
 
 poet who sings : 
 
 ' Let know ledge j^row from more to more, 
 But more of reverence in us dwell : 
 That mind and soul, according well, 
 May make one music as before, 
 But vaster.' 
 
 Dr. Douglas Bryan, of Leicester, Hon. Secretary of the 
 Psycho-Medical Society, has kindly supplied us with an 
 account of his practical experience of ps3-cho-analysis. 
 As he is an enthusiastic hypnotist, his success in certain 
 cases after hypnotism had been conscientiously tried, and 
 had failed to relieve, is most convincing. 
 
 Want of space prevents publication in full, and the 
 following brief notes render scant justice to the writer or 
 the subject : 
 
 The first is a case of spasmodic torticollis of eighteen 
 months' duration in a woman of thirty-two. After the 
 failure of hypnotic suggestion Dr. Byran had recourse to 
 psycho-analysis, and after weeks of patient research got 
 at and opened up the origin of the trouble, which proved 
 to be sexual in nature, dating from the early years of the 
 patient, and through bringing this to her knowledge, her 
 recovery was brought about. 
 
 The second case is also one of spasmodic torticollis of 
 about twelve months' duration in a man of forty. Here, 
 again, hypnotic suggestion failed to remove the symptom, 
 though by its means insomnia, from which he suffered, 
 was cured. Psycho-analysis revealed a very unhappy 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 377 
 
 married life, thwarted desires of every kind, and strongly 
 suppressed sexual feelings towards another woman. These 
 unsatisfied desires were found to be the basis of the torti- 
 collis, and the full recognition and explanation of them 
 ultimately brought about a cure. 
 
 The third case was one of obstinate pain in the left arm, 
 with hysterical contracture, in a girl of twenty. The girl 
 was deeply hypnotized many times, but the symptom re- 
 mained uninfluenced. Psycho-analysis showed the origin 
 of the symptom to date from when the patient was three 
 years old. At that time a drunken father stimulated her 
 sexual feelings, and this proved to be the cause of her 
 symptoms, as shown by their being removed when this 
 infantile sexual history was thoroughly investigated and 
 explained. 
 
 In each of these three patients the treatment took 
 about three months, seeing the patient several times a 
 week for an hour at a time ; so, besides the difficulties of 
 psycho-analytic treatment, it demands unlimited patience. 
 Dr. Bryan is very insistent on minute attention to detail 
 and technique, and scathing in his denunciation of dabblers 
 in psychology who condemn Freud after only superficial 
 inquiry. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Dr. Yung's Experiment with ' Magnetized Cards.' — Hilgers Experi- 
 ment to show Subconscious Direction. — James Braid, of Man- 
 chester. — Duration of Hypnotic Sleep. — Luys' Rotating Mirror 
 and Ochorowicz's Hypnoscope. — Theory of Professor Delbccuf. — 
 Theory of F. W. H. Myers. — Some Phenomena of Hypnotic 
 Somnambulism. — Liebeault's Classification of Hypnotic Sleep. — 
 Method of Public Performers. — Resolutions adopted at the Paris 
 Congress. — International Statistics of Hypnotism. — Experiments 
 in Auto Suggestion. — Hypnotization of Animals. — Treatment by 
 Transfer. — Christian Science Healing. — Hypnotism and Crime. 
 — The Hypnotic Will Case. — False Evidence and Suggestion 
 in Legal Cases.— Belgian Legislation regarding Hypnotism. — 
 Report of the British Medical Association Committee. 
 
 Note i. — For Page 28. 
 
 I AM informed on the best authority that in the initiatory 
 rites of several secret societies the candidate is submitted 
 to a somewhat similar ordeal. He is told that he must 
 submit to be bled. His eyes are blindfolded, his arm is 
 pricked, and a stream of warm water is allowed to trickle 
 down it. 
 
 The surroundings at the same time being mj-sterious 
 and awe-inspiring, a very great effect is produced on 
 nervous and sensitive subjects. Syncope and nervous 
 exhaustion not uncommonly follow the ceremony, and 
 the new member may be made ill for days. 
 
 The rite is, no doubt, an example of the survival of the 
 form after the unpleasant reality has, in deference to 
 civilization, been allowed to fall into disuse.' 
 
 An amusing experiment is described by Dr. Yung, privat 
 decent of Geneva, which forcibly displays the power 
 of suggestion without hypnotism. He calls it * the e.x- 
 
 378 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 379 
 
 periment with magnetized cards,' and he carries it out as 
 follows : With a grave face and serious manner he pro- 
 ceeds to give a short account of * animal magnetism,' and 
 to explain how the * subtle fluid ' can be made to affect 
 even inert substances. Having thus aroused * expectant 
 attention,' he carefully arranges a few cards on the table 
 and makes ' magnetic ' passes over them. This process, 
 he assures his audience, charges the cards with his mag- 
 netism, and makes them different to any other cards, so 
 that if a person touches one of them he will change its 
 polarity, and it will thus be distinguishable to his touch 
 from the others. He then leaves the room, and a by- 
 stander touches one of the cards. Dr. Yung, on his 
 return, makes a few passes over them, and finally picks 
 out the card which has been touched, saying that he feels 
 contact with it sends a nervous thrill up his arm like an 
 electric shock. 
 
 But he adds there is nothing wonderful in this, as any- 
 one will experience the same thing. The challenge is 
 accepted, and probably the most sceptical person in the 
 room goes through the same pantomime of magnetizing 
 the cards with a look of scornful contempt on his face. 
 No card is touched, and he is told on his return not to 
 make a guess, but to really try if he can detect a difference 
 between one card and another. In nearly every instance 
 Dr. Yung found a difference was said to be felt, and what- 
 ever card was indicated was declared to be the right one. 
 The experimenter is shut out of the room a second and a 
 third time, and it is nearly always found that by the third 
 time the subject will declare he undoubtedly feels a very 
 strong nervous shock of the kind described by Dr. Yung. 
 Of course. Dr. Yung had a confederate, who, by an agreed- 
 upon signal, informed him of the card which had been 
 touched. He has tried this experiment on about 800 
 persons, many of whom were medical men and scientific 
 students, and in nine cases out of ten he has elicited by 
 pure suggestion the sensations he described, 
 
 I have repeated the experiment in about a score of cases. 
 
38o TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 and in nearly every instance have obtained a like result. 
 One subject, a particularly wide-awake American, assured 
 me at the third trial that the shock was quite as strong as 
 that received from a powerful static battery which he had 
 just been testing. 
 
 Hilger describes the following experiment as showing 
 the involuntary action of attention on the voluntary 
 muscles : 
 
 A watch is laid face upwards on the table, and a small 
 ring or ball is held over it, suspended by a fine thread from 
 the fingers held above it. Determine that the object shall 
 swing in a line between the figures 12 and 6, and keep the 
 gaze and attention fixed on these figures. In a short time 
 the ring will actually move in the direction thought of. 
 This form of experiment can be repeated in many different 
 ways, and explains most of the phenomena of thought- 
 reading, table-turning, etc. Passes made over a person's 
 hand, placed limply on the table, will often cause it to rise 
 and follow the operator's movements, and I sometimes use 
 this action to test a patient's suggestibility. No suggestion 
 of the expected result is made, but the action seems to 
 afford an indication, and the patient often describes all 
 kinds of subjective sensations, such as pricking, burning, 
 drawing. 
 
 Note 2. — Braid of Manchester. 
 
 James Braid used to throw his patients into a kind ot 
 sleep or trance by making them fix their eyes and atten- 
 tion on a bright object — generally his lancet-case — held a 
 few inches above the eyes He found this caused fatigue 
 of sight and abstraction of mind, which in nearly all cases 
 induced the condition he termed hypnotisin. 
 
 He practised his system successfully for many years at 
 Manchester, and wrote several books in which he fully 
 explained it. 
 
 But it seems to have died with him, and it is only now 
 that suggestion with hypnotism has come so prominently 
 before the profession that his works begin to be largely 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 381 
 
 read. The most important one, ' Neurypnology ' (London, 
 1852), has been translated into French by M. Jules Simon, 
 — an almost unique honour, I imagine, for a foreign 
 medical author nearly thirty years after his death.* 
 
 Braid found hypnotism increased the heart's action to 
 such an extent that he warned medical men against using 
 it when heart disease was suspected. He found it impos- 
 sible to get children to keep their eyes fixed on his lancet- 
 case for the necessary four or five minutes, and therefore 
 regarded them as insusceptible. We have seen, on the 
 other hand, that suggestion finds its best subjects in 
 children between the ages of three and fourteen, and 
 in heart disease it is one of the most successful means 
 of calming and reducing irregular heart action, Braid 
 went near to discovering the truth which Liebeault, a 
 few years afterwards, thought out, and introduced to the 
 world. 
 
 Note 3. — Duration of Hypnotic Sleep. 
 
 In order to arrive at the solution of this question, Pro- 
 fessor Bernheim allowed many of his patients to ' have 
 their sleep out.' He found its average duration was three 
 or four hours, but, as with natural sleep, it varied with 
 individuals and circumstances. 
 
 On several occasions it lasted fifteen, and once eighteen, 
 hours. In all cases the patients awoke fresh and com- 
 fortable. Dr. Wetterstrand and others, as has been 
 explained, often keep their patients in a state of hypnotic 
 somnambulism for weeks at a time, with remarkable 
 curative results. 
 
 Note 4. — Luys' Rotating Mirror, and Ochorowicz's 
 Hypnoscope. 
 
 The mirror designed by Dr. Luys, of La Charite, is 
 used in dispensaries and hospitals when it is desired to 
 
 * Braid died in i860, the year in which Dr. Liebeault opened his 
 dispensary at Nancy. So, though unrepresented in England, he 
 found a follower abroad who was possessed of a ' double portion of 
 his spirit.' 
 
382 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 hypnotize a large number of persons in a short space of 
 time. It consists of a rapidly-revolving mirror mounted 
 on a stand, and it is found that gating at this quickly 
 dazzles the sight and produces hypnosis in susceptible 
 subjects. By its means a roomful of people may some- 
 times be hypnotized at once, and the suggestions can be 
 applied at leisure. There is a large sale of these instru- 
 ments in Paris, but in private practice I think they would 
 not be found very effectual. Liebeault and others fre- 
 quently operated on thirty or forty patients in a fore- 
 noon by the ordinary method without fatigue, so I fail 
 to see the object of this plan of hypnotizing people 
 wholesale. 
 
 Considerable experience with Luys' mirror has not 
 altered my opinion as to its utility. In one instance, an 
 hysterical young woman, whom I cured of very obstinate 
 hiccough (it had been almost incessant for seven years) by 
 suggestion, was hypnotized by gazing for twenty minutes 
 at the mirror after other methods had failed ; but her case 
 is almost an isolated one in my experience. Though Dr. 
 Lu3's stated that everyone goes to sleep after looking at the 
 mirror for half an hour at the longest, I have seen several 
 patients, who wished to be influenced, gaze at it steadily 
 for nearly an hour without any result except a head- 
 ache. I have seen it produce most violent palpitation, 
 and altogether should advise caution in the use of the 
 instrument. 
 
 Dr. Ochorowicz, late Professor of Physiology at Lem- 
 burg, has devised an instrument for testing hypnotic 
 susceptibility, which he calls the hypnoscope. It consists 
 of a steel magnet bent in the form of a ring, which is 
 placed on the patient's finger. He finds susceptible 
 persons experience a sensation of numbness and stiffness 
 in the part after wearing the instrument for a short time, 
 and the finger is often rendered rigid and immovable. 
 Ochorowicz himself seems to think this effect is the result 
 of suggestion, and no doubt a patient who is so easily 
 influenced by the imagination would be a good subject for 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 383 
 
 the treatment. But I feel sure that many persons who are 
 sufficiently susceptible to hypnotism to benefit from sugges- 
 tion would be quite insensitive to such action. Readers of 
 Braid's * Neurypnology ' will remember how he paid a visit 
 to a lady who announced herself as so affected by a magnet 
 that she knew at once when there was one anywhere near 
 her. Braid sat close to her for an hour with a most 
 powerful magnet in his pocket within a few inches of her, 
 but she experienced no discomfort, because sJie did not know 
 it was there. I have frequently produced many curious 
 local subjective symptoms in impressionable persons by 
 passing a magnet over a limb, but always of the nature I 
 had previously suggested. 
 
 Note 5. — Theory of Professor Delbceuf. 
 
 The late Dr. Delbceuf, of Liege, whose experiment on the 
 cauterized arm has been referred to, puts forward a theory 
 to account for this action of suggestion on the functions of 
 organic life. He supposes that under ordinary circum- 
 stances our attention is concentrated upon external things, 
 from which come our more vivid impressions — the life of 
 relation. The vegetative functions are so established that 
 they go on automatically and unconsciously, and it is only 
 under exceptional circumstances that we become acquainted 
 with the working of organic life; e.g., lying awake at night, 
 we become conscious of the movements of the heart ; and 
 in illness we are frequently made unpleasantly cognizant 
 of functions at other times unfelt. But though in the 
 progress of evolution it has been found expedient that the 
 functions of organic life should be carried on automatically 
 by the lower departments of the cerebro-spinal system, in 
 order that all our attention may be devoted to accommo- 
 dating ourselves to the environment ; the highest centres 
 have not yet entirely lost control over those below them, 
 and may under certain circumstances resume, on occasion, 
 the power which they had ceased to exercise. It is well, 
 under ordinary circumstances, that organic life should be 
 carried on automatically ; but it is conceivable that condi- 
 
384 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 tions may arise in which the interference of the suzerain 
 may be necessary. It is in these cases, according to 
 Delbceuf, that hypnotism plays such an important part. 
 The hypnotized person is more or less cut off from the 
 life of relation, and the attention, being set free from 
 consideration of the environment, can be directed inwards, 
 and made to concentrate itself for a time on the organic 
 functions : the mind is thus enabled to resume its know- 
 ledge and the will its control. 
 
 On this theory it is possible to understand the different 
 degrees of control over those functions exercised by different 
 individuals. On the one hand we see or hear of exceptional 
 cases like that of Colonel Townshend, in which a person is 
 able, apparently, to exercise some control over his organic 
 functions in his ordinary waking state ; and others in 
 which such a result may be brought about by special 
 psychical 'preparation — e.g., the Indian fakirs. The 
 theory explains the facility with which we produce 
 curative effects in certain patients who are only slightly 
 influenced by hypnotism, whilst in others our suggestions 
 only affect functions, and relieve symptoms when the 
 hypnotic sleep is extremely profound. 
 
 Note 6. — Theory of F. W. H. Myers. 
 
 The late Mr. F. W. H. Myers for many years made a 
 careful study of hypnotism from a psychical point of 
 view, and his researches on the subconscious self, or 
 subliminal consciousness, are embodied in the Proceedings 
 of the Society for Psychical Research, and in his great 
 posthumous work, ' Human Personality: its Survival after 
 Death.' 
 
 He was invited to address the members of the British 
 Medical Association at Edinburgh in 1898, in the section 
 of Psychological Medicine, and he there briefly expounded 
 his theory, which is this : Ordinary consciousness makes ^ « 
 up but a small part of a man's personality. ' Beneath the a 
 threshold of working consciousness there lies, not merely fl|si 
 an unconscious complex of organic processes, but an ^"^ 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 385 
 
 intelligent vital control.' He supposes that this subliminal 
 consciousness is evoked by the hypnotist, who is thus 
 enabled, as it were, to tap a deeper stratum of being, 
 which is more independent of passing impressions and 
 environment than the ordinary strata of consciousness. 
 In hysteria with anaesthesia, restricted field of vision, 
 and blunted muscular sense, we see a curtailment or 
 submergence of the normal self; whereas in the manifesta- 
 tions of genius we have its enlargement or emergence. 
 
 It is this higher level which is spoken of as inspiration, 
 and which is developed in all great poets, artists, and 
 teachers who are illuminated by the flash of genius, or an 
 emergence of faculty from the subconscious strata. 
 
 Myers was a poet as well as a psychologist, and 
 might, I suppose, be called a pantheist. He believed 
 in a ' world-soul,' with which our higher nature is in 
 communion, more or less. This, however, is not the 
 place to expound the depths of his philosophy, or to 
 praise the beauty of the language in which his ideas are 
 expressed. 
 
 Note 7. — Some Phenomena of Hypnotic 
 Somnambulism. 
 
 Many extraordinary and, at the present time, inexplic- 
 able phenomena can be produced in subjects who attain 
 the last degree of hypnotic somnambulism. 
 
 Such persons are but rarely met with, and are, I believe, 
 always of hysterical temperament, which is frequently com- 
 bined with a tendency to phthisis, scrofula, or other chronic 
 disease. 
 
 These phenomena, as has been already said, are of purely 
 psychological interest, and should be kept entirely distinct 
 from therapeutic suggestion. 
 
 Among Liebeault's patients at Nancy was a young 
 woman named Camille, a favourite subject for experiment, 
 as she readily falls into the most profound state of hypnotic 
 somnambulism. 
 
 Like many hysterical persons, she took a pride in her 
 
 25 
 
386 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 infirmity, and therefore, without being over-sceptical, 
 one may wish to verify the experiments tried on her. 
 One of the most curious of these is the production of 
 negative hallucinations by suggestion. Camilla, and one 
 or two other persons of the same nervous temperament, 
 would be told that on waking they would not sec So-and- 
 so, though he might speak to her, touch her, and even 
 prick or pinch her, and the suggestion was realized. Or 
 they would be told that the door was no longer existing, 
 in which case, though apparently quite awake, they would 
 seek in vain to cross the threshold until the spell was 
 removed. 
 
 On my return to London I was fortunate enough to meet 
 a lady who takes a great interest in the subject, and is at 
 the same time susceptible of being thrown into the most 
 advanced stages of hypnotic somnambulism. Her husband 
 is a man of science, and also much interested in hypnotism. 
 They were both quite ignorant of the phenomena I wished 
 to produce, and the conditions therefore were perfectly 
 satisfactory. 
 
 Mrs. H is about thirty years of age, small, slight, 
 
 and a blonde. She is highly nervous, and occasionally 
 hysterical, but she enjoys good health, is intelligent, and 
 active in her household duties. On the first occasion I 
 tried to develop a negative hallucination her husband was 
 confined to the room with a bad cold, and was sitting by 
 the fire in an arm-chair a few feet from her. I hypnotized 
 her, and told her that on waking she would not see him, 
 would not hear him if he spoke to her, and would not feel 
 him if he touched her. All this was literally realized. 
 She was apparenth- wide awake, and yet when I asked 
 her where her husband was she said she didn't know, but 
 thought he had gone upstairs, and would be down very 
 soon. He spoke to her, calling her by name, and asked 
 her to get his medicine, to stir the fire, what there was 
 for supper, and a number of other questions. She gave 
 not a sign of having heard ; in fact, she evidently did not 
 hear him, though she conversed with me intercurrently 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 387 
 
 quite rationally. Mr. H then approached her, touched 
 
 her hand, sat down beside her, and talked ; but evidently 
 for her he had ceased to exist, as she betrayed not the 
 faintest consciousness of his presence. I then asked Mr. 
 
 H to speak impersonally, and he said, ' Mrs. H 
 
 will now go to the table, take up the doctor's gloves, and 
 try them on.' She did not appear to hear, but in a few 
 moments she got up, went to the table, and tried on my 
 gloves — a thing she would never have thought of doing 
 of her own initiative. I asked her why she did this, and 
 she replied, * I don't know ; I thought I should like to.' 
 She was not aware that the impulse proceeded from 
 another. When I blew on her eyes, and said, ' Mrs. 
 
 H , there is your husband close beside you, and you 
 
 can see him now,' she looked fixedly at his chair for a 
 moment, and then said, ' Yes, I see him now ; but where 
 was he a minute ago ?' adding, ' At first he looked small 
 and indistinct, but now it is all right.'* We know we 
 may look at a thing and yet not see it when in a * brown- 
 study ' or preoccupied with something. A familiar 
 example of this is afforded by observing how absent- 
 minded people pass their friends in the street without 
 recognition, though their eyes may dwell on them for 
 some time. Afterwards they will deny having seen them, 
 and truly they have not. ' Eyes have they, but they see 
 not.' A physical impression has been made on the retina, 
 but it has not undergone that cortical co-ordination or 
 registration in consciousness without which there can be 
 no perception. 
 
 I had only learnt that morning, from reading an article 
 
 * Binet and Fere, o/>. «/., p. 311, relate a convincing experiment 
 showing a reality of this psychical blindness. A subject had on each 
 side of the mammary region a hysterogenic zone, pressure on which 
 immediately produced an hysterical attack. One of the physicians 
 rendered himself invisible by suggestion, and at the same time de- 
 stroyed the sensation of contact on his approach. A strong pressure 
 on the zones then failed to produce any attack, nor did she make any 
 •effort to repel the experimenter, but only complained of a vague sense 
 of oppression. On the other hand, she recoiled in terror when another 
 person put his hand near these zones. 
 
388 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 by Professor Lieji^eois,* the curious fact that in hypnotic 
 somnambulism the subject will carry out a suggestion 
 made by a person whom she is prevented, by some in- 
 hibitory nerve-action, from apparently either seeing or 
 hearing. The same lady kindly allowed me to try other 
 simple experiments on her. She was ignorant of the 
 nature of them, and only stipulated that they should not 
 make her appear ridiculous or cause much pain. When 
 in the hypnotic sleep I gently touched and kept my fore- 
 finger on a small surface of the wrist, saying while I did 
 
 so, ' Poor Mrs. H has a nasty burn on her wrist, 
 
 probably from some boiling water; the place is very red, 
 and rather painful.' In a few minutes I awakened her, 
 and she immediately began rubbing her wrist, as if in pain 
 there. On my asking her what was the matter, she replied, 
 ' I think I must have spilt some boiling water on my 
 wrist ; it feels as if I had burnt it.' On looking at the 
 spot, there was a very perceptible patch of redness about 
 the size of a sixpence, and every moment this became 
 more defined and angry-looking. As the pain was in- 
 creasing, it would have been a breach of our agreement 
 to protract the experiment, so I hypnotized her once 
 more, and told her that there was no burn, and that the 
 redness and pain would be quite gone when she awoke. 
 In point of fact, a very short time was sufficient to disperse 
 the morbid appearance, and on reawakening her there 
 was no complaint of discomfort. The same lady after the 
 first operation complained of chilliness and stiffness, but 
 I had only to suggest on future occasions that she was 
 not to feel these unpleasant symptoms to insure her not 
 being troubled with them. 
 
 These experiments belong in no way to therapeutic 
 suggestion, but are of interest, as they show how exactly 
 the phenomena produced at Nancy may be reproduced by 
 experiment in England. 
 
 * ' I'n Xouvel Etat Vs\cho\oi:;'ique,' /\!e7'uedcf//}'/>;io//smc, August, 
 1888. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 389 
 
 Note 8. — Liebeault's Classification of Hypnotic 
 
 Sleep. 
 
 Fiyst Degree. — The patient feels a heaviness of the eye- 
 Hds and a general drowsiness. 
 
 Second Degree. — This is characterized by suggestive 
 catalepsy. When the operator places the arm in a 
 certain position, and says it is to remain there, it is im- 
 possible for the patient to put it down. It remains rigid 
 and fixed for a much longer time than would be possible 
 in a natural state. In these two degrees consciousness 
 remains almost complete, and often the patient denies 
 having been in the hypnotic state because he has heard and 
 remembers every word which has been spoken to him. A 
 very large proportion of people never pass beyond this stage. 
 
 Third Degree. — In this the subject is also conscious of 
 everything going on around him to a certain extent, and 
 hears every word addressed to him ; but he is oppressed 
 by great sleepiness. An action communicated to a limb 
 is automatically continued. If the arm is rotated to 
 begin with, it goes on turning until the operator directs 
 its stoppage. The term ' hypotaxis ' is applied to these 
 second and third degrees. 
 
 Fourth Degree. — In the fourth degree of hypnotic sleep 
 the patient ceases to be in relation with the outer world. 
 He hears only what is said to him by the operator. 
 
 The Fifth and Sixth Degrees, according to Liebeault, 
 constitute somnambulism. In the former, recollection of 
 what occurred during sleep is indistinct and recalled with 
 difficulty; in the latter, the patient is unable to recall 
 spontaneously anything which has occurred while asleep. 
 All the phenomena of post-hypnotic suggestion can be 
 induced in ' this condition, and it presents features of 
 extraordinary interest to the psychologist. 
 
 Note g. — Method of Public Performers. 
 
 Though, in deference to public sentiment, the travelling 
 ' professors ' style themselves hypnotists, it is easy to see 
 that they do so somewhat under protest, and that they 
 
390 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 much prefer the old name of ' mesmerism,' or, better still, 
 ' animal magnetism." 
 
 Their method is the same all the world over. A certain 
 number of previously-hypnotized subjects are scattered 
 among the audience, and when the lecturer asks for 
 persons to experiment on, these make a rush for the plat- 
 form, and form a nucleus on which to work. Probably a 
 few bona-fide strangers will lend themselves for experiment, 
 and one way and another the platform will be well filled 
 with candidates. The lecturer gives to each person a 
 bright disc, which he- is to look at steadily. In a few 
 minutes he goes round, closes the eyes, and tells the 
 subject that he is unable to open them. If he opens 
 them, he is sent back to his seat among the audience ; if 
 not, he is reserved for further use, and is given a seat on 
 the platform. A favourite plan with the experimenter is 
 now to open the subject's mouth to its widest extent, turn 
 him round so as to face the audience, and tell him he is 
 unable to shut it. A friend of mine, a doctor in good 
 practice, was so treated in a foreign watering-place, and 
 his feelings when he was thus made a laughing-stock of a 
 large assemblage of people were not enviable. After these 
 experiments in inhibiting voluntary motor action, the 
 lecturer will go on to produce hallucinations of the senses, 
 and will amuse his audience by showing what antics a 
 human being can be made to perform when he has been 
 deprived of the use of the higher brain functions. He 
 can be made to think himself a general at the head of his 
 army in battle, a school-boy being flogged, or an animal 
 at the Zoological Gardens. Whatever he is told to believe 
 is at once acted upon, and as the lecturer's object is to 
 cause amusement, he finds it advantageous to make the 
 actions outrageous, and to alternate the imaginary changes 
 of condition as rapidly as possible. It is no wonder, 
 therefore, that the unfortunate subjects complain the next 
 day of malaise and mental confusion, and it is fortunate if 
 no graver results follow. 
 
 The performance of such a person has about as much 
 
 n 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 391 
 
 relation to psycho-therapeutics as the antics of a merry- 
 andrew at a fair have to the practice of a Court physician. 
 That such things should have been tolerated will probably 
 be a subject of astonishment to our descendants. 
 
 A friend of mine a few years ago paid heavily for taking 
 one of these men at his own valuation. He was much 
 struck by the phenomena shown at a public performance, 
 and had a conversation with the ' professor ' afterwards, 
 which further impressed him. The next day at his club, 
 some of his friends said the whole thing was a fraud, and 
 
 laughed at Mr. X for believing the performance 
 
 genuine. My friend waxed warm in argument, and 
 offered to back his opinion by betting ^100 that the 
 ' professor ' would hypnotize two persons out of any ten 
 selected by the unbelievers. 
 
 The bet was taken up by two members of the club, and 
 Mr. X stood to win or lose ;£'200. 
 
 A supper was arranged, to which the ' professor ' was 
 invited, and ten young men selected from a South London 
 football team were brought in after supper as subjects. 
 Not one of them proved hypnotizable, and my friend lost 
 his money. 
 
 The conditions were very unfair, as the young men had 
 been told to resist : and to attempt to hypnotize a number 
 of unwilling strangers after supper among a crowd of 
 sceptical lookers-on was a task which no wise man would 
 undertake. My experience would lead me to reckon that, 
 under suitable conditions, eight out of the ten would have 
 been more or less influenced ; and probably two or three, 
 after a trial or two, would have proved somnambulic. 
 
 Note 10. — Resolutions adopted at the Paris 
 Congress. 
 
 The following resolutions were agreed to at the first 
 International Congress of Physicians and Jurists on 
 Hypnotism held in Paris, i88g : 
 
 * This Congress recognizes the danger of public exhibi- 
 tions of magnetism and hypnotism, and deeming that the 
 
392 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 therapeutic application of hypnotism has become a branch 
 of the science of medicine, that its official teaching is the 
 province of psychiatry, votes the following resolutions : 
 
 ' I. Public exhibitions of hypnotism and magnetism 
 should be forbidden by the administrative authorities in 
 the interest of public hygiene and public morals. 
 
 * 2. The employment of hypnotism as a curative agent 
 should be subject to the laws and restrictions which 
 regulate medical practice generally. 
 
 * 3. It is desirable that the study of hypnotism and of its 
 therapeutic application be introduced into the curriculum 
 of medical sciences.' 
 
 The following schedule (pp. 394, 395) has been sent to 
 all physicians who have sent in their names as practising 
 hypnotism. The immense practical value of the statistics 
 to be thus collected will be recognized at a glance. 
 
 International Statistics of Hypnotic Impression- 
 ability AND of Suggestive Psycho-Therapeutics. 
 
 The following schedule is framed with the object of 
 elucidating the results of hypnotic treatment by compara- 
 tive statistics. 
 
 'a. The proportion of persons who are susceptible to 
 hypnotic influence. 
 
 ' b. The degree of impressionability and its relation to 
 the age, sex, constitution and temperament of the subject, 
 and the method of hj'pnotizing adopted. 
 
 ' c. The value of hypnotic suggestion as a therapeutic 
 agent tested by the amount of success and number of 
 failures, by the duration and completeness of the cures, 
 ameliorations,' etc. 
 
 This inquiry is extremely important, because authorities 
 are not agreed on the subject, and we therefore beg our 
 colleagues who use hypnotism either as a means of cure 
 or for scientific investigation to fill in the enclosed papers 
 as completely and carefully as possible. 
 
 Please give the degree of hypnotism attained, and for 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 393 
 
 the purpose of classification observe the following defini- 
 tions and characteristics : 
 
 I. Light Sleep. — Feeling of fatigue. The patient's will- 
 power is either unaffected or is only slightly modified. 
 It is often difficult or impossible to open the eyes. The 
 subject on awaking remembers everything that has 
 happened, and does not experience the sensation of 
 having slept. 
 
 II. Profound Sleep. — The patient's will is either partially 
 >r completely in abeyance. The eyes are generally closed, 
 
 but sometimes remain open. Memory on awaking is 
 either lost or incomplete, and he feels more or less the 
 sensation of having slept. 
 
 III. Somnambidism. — Complete amnesia on awaking, and 
 possibility of realizing hallucinations and other hypnotic 
 and post-hypnotic suggestions. 
 
 The sign O signifies the waking state. 
 
 Please indicate the method employed by the following 
 signs: 
 
 a. Method of Braid and Charcot. Physical means. 
 \'ivid sensory impressions (Hght, sound, etc.). Fixation 
 of the eyes with a brilliant object. Pressure on or friction 
 of certain regions of the body (hypnogenic zones). Mono- 
 tonous sensory impressions, etc. 
 
 yS. Method of Liebeault and Bernheim. Suggestion : 
 the method adopted by the school of Nancy. 
 
 7. Combined method — a employed systematically in 
 conjunction with /3. 
 
 Forms to be obtained from, and details to be sent to, 
 Dr. Von Schrenk-Notzing, Munich. 
 
 Note ii. — Experiments in Auto-Suggestion. 
 
 Dr. Coste de Lagrave, surgeon -major in the French 
 army, contributed an interesting paper to the International 
 Congress of i8go, on auto-suggestion, and related several 
 experiments he has made on himself during the last few 
 years. 
 
 By practice he acquired the power of being able to sleep 
 
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394 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 
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396 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 at will, and of awaking at a definite time. To effect this 
 he only had to lie down, and fix his attention on sleep, and 
 on the idea that he would awake after a certain number of 
 minutes. In a short time he obtained such self-control 
 that he could get five or six distinct sleeps, and as many 
 distinct awakenings, in the course of an hour. He also 
 succeeded in producing dreams of the character he wished, 
 and in evoking sensory delusions and hallucinations to 
 such an extent that he became alarmed, lest the condition 
 thus induced should become permanent. He was able to 
 apply auto-suggestion in a curative direction, and thus to 
 relieve himself of colic, gastrodynia, and the like. He did 
 this by closing his eyes and concentrating his thoughts on 
 the organ he wished to affect. In from a quarter to half 
 an hour he generally succeeded in getting rid of the pain. 
 On one occasion, when riding with troops, he suffered 
 greatly from cold feet, and he tried the effect of auto- 
 suggestion. He closed his eyes, and induced a state of 
 drowsiness, in which he directed his thoughts to his feet, 
 which he wished to become warm. In less than half an 
 hour he was conscious of a feeling of warmth in them, and 
 as long as he kept his attention fixed there they continued 
 so ; but very soon they became cold again when he allowed 
 his thoughts to dwell on other things, showing, as he 
 thinks, that the sensation of warmth depended on mental 
 influence and mind concentration. In subsequent experi- 
 ments he produced the desired result in a shorter time, and 
 he found that the sensation of warmth was not merely sub- 
 jective, for on removing his boots he felt the previously cold 
 feet warm to the touch, thus getting the same effect as is 
 nearly always demonstrable in ordinary hypnotic practice. 
 He relates a curious experience of auto-suggestion in 
 nervous prostration. He had been invalided home from 
 Tonkin for dysentery, and for a year had been so pros- 
 trated by weakness that he was unable to walk a mile in 
 the course of a day. One night he suggested to himself] 
 increased muscular and nervous force, and ability to 
 walk without fatigue. The next day he walked over six 
 
 I 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 397 
 
 miles without difficulty ; but, unfortunately, he does not 
 mention in his paper whether this effort was followed by 
 reaction, or whether the improvement was permanent. 
 
 Dr. Coote de Lagrave continues to practise auto- 
 suggestion, and has published an interesting series of 
 observations on himself in the Revitc dc VHypnotismc 
 (March, igoo, May, 1902). He fully describes his method, 
 and seems to think anyone can practise it. The late 
 C. G. Leland, the American author and humorist, 
 working on independent lines, developed a similar system, 
 which he explains in his book, ' Have You a Strong Will ?' 
 He also claims to have strengthened his memory, im- 
 proved his temper, and increased his capacity for work 
 by repeating formulas to himself before going to sleep at 
 night. Hudson in * Law of Psychic Phenomena ' and 
 Wood in ' Ideal Suggestion ' carry out the same ideas. 
 
 De Lagrave's experiments open up an interesting field 
 of research, and if his experience is corroborated by that 
 of other scientific observers, it will throw light on a 
 number of mental phenomena connected with directed 
 self-consciousness, which are at present surrounded with 
 a degree of mysticism. The yogis and fakirs of India 
 assert that they can obtain remarkable control over their 
 bodily organs and functions by contemplation, introspec- 
 tion, and other mental exercises ; and there is little doubt 
 that many of their achievements are the result of auto- 
 hypnotism and auto-suggestion. 
 
 Note 12. — Hypnotization of Animals. 
 
 Dr. Gerald Yeo, late Professor of Physiology at King's 
 College, read a very interesting paper before the College 
 Society in 1883 (' The Nervous Mechanism of Hypno- 
 tism '}, in which he propounded some interesting theories 
 on the subject of hypnotic phenomena, and illustrated 
 them by experiments on animals. He showed how 
 animals of such diverse organization as crayfish, frogs, 
 fowls, and guinea-pigs could be easily hypnotized by 
 monotonous continuous stimulation, and made to remain 
 
398 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 motionless and unresponsive to ordinary stimulation. He 
 induced this state by firmly fixing them in one position 
 for a few minutes, and then gently removing the restrain- 
 ing influence, when it was found the animals continued in 
 that position, however abnormal, for several minutes. 
 Kircher's experiment with the domestic fowl is the most 
 familiar example of hypnotic effect in animals. If a chalk 
 line is drawn and the bird held for a few seconds with its 
 beak on this line, it will be found that the creature 
 remains in that position for several minutes. Dr. Yeo, 
 however, says that the line is unnecessary in performing 
 this experiment. Dr. Ralph Vincent {op. cit.) relates 
 various experiments he has made on hypnotized cats, 
 rabbits, toads, and other animals. 
 
 The plan of changing the nest of a sitting hen, familiar 
 to farmers, probably depends on hypnotism for its success. 
 The fowl's head is firmly held under its wing for a few 
 minutes, and she is carried from one nest to another. She 
 seems ignorant of the change, and continues sitting on 
 the new set of eggs until they are hatched, or she is again 
 removed to another nest in the same way. The drowsy 
 condition induced in many animals by gentle friction of 
 the forehead is a matter of common observation ; and I 
 have frequently seen negroes in South America reduced 
 to a condition of drowsiness verging on somnambulism by 
 the gentle stroking of the head and manipulation of the 
 hair which they seem to be so fond of at the hands of 
 their womankind. 
 
 Note 13. — Treatment by Transfer.* 
 
 The late Dr. Luys, physician to La Charite Hospital, 
 Paris, and a well-known physiologist, recently introduced 
 a novel kind of treatment of which he expected great things, 
 and which, as he told me, he thought would supersede 
 hypnotism. In company with Dr. Kingsbury, I took 
 
 * I thought that this treatment was as dead as poor Dr. Luys, but 
 the late Dr. Forbes Winslow seems to have revived it, and he claims 
 great success (see Practitioner, May, 19 13). 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 399 
 
 several opportunities in i8go of visiting his clinique and 
 seeing his method. 
 
 Dr. Luys and his assistants were most kind, and readily 
 showed us the curious experiments described in the 
 Fortnightly Review for August, i8go. Several patients were 
 undergoing the new treatment, and we had the oppor- 
 tunity of watching their progress for three or four days, 
 and of questioning them as to their feelings and symptoms. 
 Many of them spoke with enthusiasm of the progress they 
 were making, and in a few cases it was possible to note 
 an improvement from day to day. The process was simple 
 enough. The patient was directed to sit down and grasp 
 the hands of a profoundly hypnotized subject, and Dr. 
 Luys passed a heavy magnetized bar of steel up and down 
 both sitters' bodies, especially pressing on the cardiac and 
 epigastric areas. A shiver was seen to pass through the 
 hypnotized subject's frame, and he began to complain of 
 suffering from the same symptoms as the patient had 
 experienced. The doctor questioned him as to the 
 symptoms, and then assured him that they would be cured 
 and not return — much in the same way as the hypnotizer 
 deals with his patients. In the meantime the patient 
 looked on and saw the transferee writhing in his pains, 
 and imitating his voice, gait, gestures, and demeanour 
 generally. If he were an imaginative person, it is quite 
 likely that he felt better from witnessing this vicarious 
 suffering. When the doctor thought it was enough, he told 
 the subject to wake up and to feel no more pain ; and as 
 a matter of fact he did not remember on waking what 
 he had gone through in the somnambulic state, but went 
 away feeling apparently none the worse, and gratified by 
 a gratuity from the patient whose disease he had shared. 
 Luys contended that the subject not only shares the 
 disease, but partakes of the personality of the patient, 
 and demonstrated this by showing how a female sitter will 
 assume a masculine voice and carriage when sitting for a 
 male patient, and will complain of the beard being pulled 
 if one approaches the face too closely. It is not a little 
 
400 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 surprising in this age of science to find a man of Dr. Luys' 
 undoubted honesty and attainments seriously upholding 
 practice of this kind. One is taken back to the time of 
 Perkins and his metallic tractors to find a parallel for 
 what so recently took place in Paris ; and be it remem- 
 bered that remarkable cures did follow the application of 
 Perkins' instruments and of the wooden imitations which 
 the physicians of Bath tested in their hospital practice.* 
 
 What, then, is the explanation of the results which 
 follow such methods of treatment ? It is summed up in 
 the word 'suggestion.' The imagination is profoundly 
 affected by the hope and expectation of cure, and this in 
 itself is sufficient to bring about a healthy change in the 
 hj-pochondriacal, hysterical, and maladies imaginaires. But 
 among the patients we questioned were some who suffered 
 from well-defined organic disease ; one gentleman, affected 
 with aortic insufficiency, assured me that since his visits 
 to Dr. Luys he had recovered his appetite, had slept 
 well, and been able to walk uphill and upstairs, whereas 
 previously he had been sleepless, without appetite, and 
 almost bedridden. A man suffering from paralysis 
 agitans declared he felt a different being, but as far as 
 we could see there was no lessening of his tremor, though 
 the young woman who acted as his transfer reproduced 
 his disordered movements most faithfully. It is evident 
 that in nearly all diseases there exist symptoms — often " 
 the most painful part of the malady — of functional nervous 
 origin, and it is these symptoms which are largely met by 
 hypnotic suggestion and other treatments which appeal 
 to the imagination or the subconscious mind. I consider 
 that it is the duty of a physician to relieve suffering in 
 any way, as long as it is not immoral or hurtful ; but no 
 one visiting La Charite Hospital can say that the treat- 
 ment by transfer, as practised there, was free from terrible 
 abuses. It was a sad sight to see to what a deplorable 
 condition of mental instability and inanity the unfor- 
 
 * ' Influence of the Imagination in Health and Disease,' by 
 Dr. Hack Tuke. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 401 
 
 tunate subjects had been reduced by continual hypno- 
 tization and experiments. Of course, the experiments 
 carried out on such subjects, and under such hysterical 
 conditions as existed in Luys' clinique, are valueless 
 from a scientific point of view ; and the phenomena he 
 obtained from the action of the magnet, different coloured 
 balls, and with medicines at a distance, have been sought 
 for in vain by other investigators. I have found my 
 subjects perfectly insusceptible to the magnet, until I 
 have told two or three of them that contact with it will 
 always produce pain in the part touched ; henceforth 
 they have always realized my suggestion, and complain 
 bitterly when touched by it, or by any cold metallic 
 substance. When one considers that the personality of 
 a subject in the profounder hypnotic states is in complete 
 abeyance, and that his mind is a blank page, to be written 
 on at the dictation of the hypnotizer, we see how absolutely 
 necessary it is to guard against conscious and unconscious 
 simulation, and how utterly Luys' experiments are wanting 
 in the only conditions which could render them of any 
 value. 
 
 As bearing upon the above remarks, I may state that I 
 purposely asked Dr. Luys if the magnet influenced all 
 somnambulists in the same way, and he answered that it 
 did. If he had been more cautious, and had replied that 
 only some subjects were sensitive, one would have been 
 more inclined to believe in the genuineness of his results. 
 The only way of testing the so-called magnetic sense 
 described by Reichenbach is by the electro-magnet, 
 which can be ' made ' or ' unmade ' instantaneously in a 
 manner impossible for the subject to guess by ordinary 
 sensuous impressions. The inquirer will find in the first 
 volume of The Proceedings of the Society for PsycJiical 
 Research a report of some experiments made to determine 
 the existence of this sense. The experiments were carried 
 out under rigorous scientific conditions, and proved that 
 certain persons do possess the faculty of perceiving certain 
 effects from the poles of an electro-magnet when in action. 
 
 26 
 
402 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 But from this to the propositions laid down by Luys is a 
 very long step. 
 
 The use of the magnet in medical practice is nothing 
 new. Hippocrates believed in its virtues, and recom- 
 mended its employment in painful diseases (Laycock). 
 Throughout the Middle Ages its efficacy was a matter of 
 general belief, and Mesmer and his followers saw an 
 analogy between animal and telluric magnetism. It has 
 been left for Charcot and his school to claim physical 
 reactions from the use of the magnet in our own time. 
 Whether such reactions depend upon pure suggestion, as 
 asserted by Bernheim, or do really proceed from some 
 magnetic influence, is a question which can only be 
 decided by very careful experiments. In my own expe- 
 rience I have seen nothing to warrant the supposition that 
 there is any special quality in the magnet. Krafft-Ebing 
 found that lima Szandor was affected by the approach of 
 any metal which she believed to be a magnet, exactly as 
 she had been by the real magnet. However, Charcot got 
 transference of paralysis and other functional troubles in 
 hysterical subjects from one side to the other, by passing 
 the magnet over the parts — a proceeding which causes 
 Sir W. Gowers to write : ' The phenomena of transfer (of 
 the genuineness of which, in spite of its rarity out of France, 
 there can be no doubt) show that there must exist an 
 intimate connection between the sensory centres of the 
 two hemispheres, so that the restoration of functional 
 action in a part of the inhibited centre is accompanied 
 by an arrest of action in the corresponding part of the 
 centre on the opposite side. The validity of this inference 
 is independent of the mode by which the phenomena are 
 effected, or of the exact functional change in which they 
 consist ' (op. cit., p. 934). 
 
 I don't know whether Luys ever applied his treatment to the cor- 
 rection of moral ills. Historians tell us how in the Middle Ages 
 young princes were provided with ' whipping-boys,' whose office it 
 was to bear the penalty incurred by the prince's fault, but from which 
 his august rank was held to shield him. We are told that Edward \'I. 
 was of so sensitive a nature that in his case this punishment by deputy 
 was most efficacious. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 403 
 
 Note 14. — Christian Science Healing. 
 
 As far as I understand the method of healing called 
 Christian Science, and similar modes of treatment, which, as 
 Sir J. Crichton Browne told us at Leeds, fall legitimately 
 within the scope of medical inquiry, I believe that the 
 cures they have effected in certain neuropathic conditions 
 depend upon the same factors as we have been considering. 
 
 Auto-suggestion is a proved exciter of disease and ill- 
 health, and it is easily conceivable that when directed into 
 healthful instead of morbific channels, it may prove a 
 valuable moral and curative agent. 
 
 It is certain that most of those who derive benefit from 
 healthily directed self-consciousness are capable of doing 
 themselves an infinity of harm by morbid introspection if 
 left to themselves. 
 
 If a hypochondriacal or nervous invalid can by any 
 means, its name matters not, be induced to look upon 
 himself as healthy and strong, instead of as diseased and 
 weak, a great point is gained, and as he has grown into 
 the miserable creature he imagined himself to be, so it is 
 possible that under different conditions of thought he may 
 realize in his own person some of the perfection upon 
 which he fixes his aspirations. But we must remember 
 that reverie is apt to pass into brooding, and introspection 
 into hysteria, unless very carefully watched. We know 
 also that ecstatics of all times and creeds have succeeded 
 in becoming careless and unconscious of bodily pain and 
 discomfort, but that this deadening of sensation has not 
 saved them from wasting with disease, and dying from 
 exposure and neglect. 
 
 Practically, the contention of the Christian Scientist is 
 that he can bring about spontaneously what the physician 
 certainly succeeds in effecting by the aid of hypnotism — 
 viz., the inhibition of some centres, and the dynamo- 
 genesis of others. Thus, he will tell you that he can 
 become unconscious of the pain of toothache by deter- 
 
404 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 minedly denying its existence and fixing his attention on 
 other things.* 
 
 He says ' mind is all,' and that the body takes its shape 
 from it as the overcoat does from the body. A tiippant 
 American critic has observed, apropos of this simile, that 
 a man cannot raise himself off the ground by pulling on 
 his own boot-straps. 
 
 Christian Scientists ride their hobby literally to death, 
 as recent coroners' inquests and trials for manslaughter 
 show. The death of Harold Frederick, the novelist, 
 whilst under the care of a lady practitioner, was followed 
 by a coroner's inquest, and the healer was committed for 
 trial on the charge of manslaughter. She was, however, 
 acquitted, and the point seems conceded that a man or 
 woman of sound mind is entitled to choose for himself or 
 herself in the matter of medical attendance ; and that 
 a ' healer ' acting in good faith is not likely to be con- 
 victed.t 
 
 * Some mental healers profess to give absent treatment, claiming 
 that distance is no impediment to successful thought action. I have 
 been told of a lady travelling in Italy being suddenly attacked by facial 
 neuralgia. She telegraphed to her healer in London to give her 
 absent treatment, and soon she began to feel better, and ultimately 
 got well. She triumphantly gave her own case as a proof of the 
 truth of the system to her sceptical companion, and was much dis- 
 concerted when it turned out that the healer never received the 
 telegram, as he had left town. The faith of the patient proved the 
 curative force. I am sometimes asked to give ' absent treatment,' 
 and last year a gentleman suffering from tabes dorsalis wrote to me 
 from Colorado Springs, U.S.A., wanting me to treat him, asking my 
 fee, and whether I guaranteed cure — Populus vult dccipi. 
 
 t There were two interesting trials of Christian Scientists in 1906, 
 and some new points were raised. The first was tried by Mr. Justice 
 Bigham, and was the case of a registered medical man— Dr. .4dcock 
 — who had given up practice and become a Christian Scientist. The 
 patient, Major White, died of blood-poisoning, the result of neglected 
 bedsores, and Dr. Adcock being in attendance, was charged with 
 manslaughter. As a medical man he was bound to show professional 
 knowledge and skill ; but it was asserted that he attended the deceased, 
 not as a medical man, but as a ' healer ' and friend, and therefore 
 escaped professional responsibility. The jury disagreed, and ulti- 
 mately the prisoner was discharged. 
 
 The other case was that of Mr. Chisholm, tried by Mr. Justice 
 Grantham. He was charged with manslaughter, in that he had 
 refused to call in medical aid for his child, who had died of diphtheria 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 405 
 
 An interesting exposure of some of the most objection- 
 able features of the movement is supplied by Miss Alice 
 Fielding's book, entitled, ' Faith Healing and Christian 
 Science,' London, 1899. 
 
 The following case, which has been recently reported 
 to me, illustrates one of the dangers of Christian 
 Science : 
 
 Captain B , an officer living at Aldershot, went out 
 
 cycling with a friend who was a firm believer and wanted 
 to convert him. Captain B , after a mile or two, com- 
 plained of pain in the abdomen and wished to return, but 
 his friend assured him that it was only ' mortal mind ' and 
 that he must deny the pain and it would disappear. So 
 
 the ride continued, and at the end Captain B was in 
 
 a very prostrate and painful condition. A doctor was 
 called in, who diagnosed peritonitis, and the patient had 
 a severe illness. 
 
 Failure to understand the gravity of the pathological 
 condition in this case nearly cost the patient his life ; but 
 according to Mrs. Eddy, the arch-priest of the cult, all 
 diseases are the result of error of thought, and are to be 
 treated on the same principle ; medical diagnosis is but a 
 pandering to error and * mortal mind,' and therefore to be 
 severely discouraged. There is a great deal of half-truth 
 mixed up in the absurdities of this creed, and we all know 
 that this mixture makes falsehood the more dangerous. 
 
 Unlike the * peculiar people,' who often figure in the 
 courts as having contributed to their children's deaths 
 by refusing to call in medical assistance in illness, the 
 Christian Scientists appeal to the wealthy and cultured 
 classes both in America, the country of its birth, and in 
 England, and it is quite extraordinary the vogue it has 
 
 under Christian Science treatment. The healer mistook the disease 
 for mumps, and used no material remedies. After some severe 
 remarks by the Judge on the folly of people preferring quackery to 
 scientific medicine, the prisoner was found guilty, and bound over to 
 come up for judgment if called upon ; his fate, therefore, being much 
 better than that of many unfortunate ' peculiar people ' whose convic- 
 tion and punishment one sometimes reads of in the newspapers. 
 
4o6 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 acquired among the upper classes. Some people like to 
 be told that they are gods, and possess all potentiality 
 within themselves. The movement is, according to theo- 
 logians, creating and reviving all kinds of religious as well 
 as medical heresies. It is therefore arousing much con- 
 troversy and opposition among orthodox Churchmen.* 
 
 The Rev. Drs. Worcester and McComb, of Emmanuel 
 Church, Boston, U.S.A., have for some years carried on 
 a most successful system of mind-cure and hygiene, in co- 
 operation with the best doctors of the city. The two pro- 
 fessions felt the need of making a united effort to combat 
 Christian Science in its stronghold. The clergy take no fees, 
 and only act under medical supervision. The Rev. Mr. 
 Waldron, vicar of Brixton, directs a similar movement in 
 his parish, and there is an attempt being made to restore 
 the practice of unction for the sick, not to be confounded 
 with extreme unction for the dying. 
 
 I have frequently succeeded, following Dr. de Lagrave's 
 hints, in awakening at a predetermined moment, and no 
 doubt anyone with a little practice will be able to do the 
 same thing ; but I imagine that the other effects of auto- 
 suggestion which he relates are only to be attained by 
 hysterical or neuropathic subjects. 
 
 Such experiments afford additional proof of the correct- 
 
 * I was recently asked by a medical friend to investigate the claims 
 of a mental ' healer,' and I consented to let him try on one of my 
 patients. The healer^s method was to make the patient recline at 
 ease in a chair and reason with him as to the needlessness of suffering 
 and pain. He got him into a hypnoidal state by this means, and 
 then sat in silence by his side ' holding the thought of cure in his 
 mind.' The patient was not benefited. This healer had the theory 
 that disease was caused by the obsession of evil-discarnate spirits, 
 and they had to be cast out. He had quite a large practice, and 
 when addressed as ' doctor ' once replied that he was not a doctor, 
 but a healer, adding that doctors did not heal but only treated their 
 patients. Another very prosperous healer I have met is a retired 
 army colonel. He also thinks disease proceeds from spirit obsession. 
 To remove it he stands opposite the patient, and makes violent 
 gestures of expulsion, accompanied by commands given with military 
 directness and energy. I find many people one would never suspect 
 hanker after quackery, and only call in orthodox doctors when they 
 have suftered in health and pocket from the operations of quacks. 
 
 k 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 407 
 
 ness of Bernheim's theory, that in hypnotism it is the 
 patient who hypnotizes himself, and that it is the evoca- 
 tion of his own forces (under the stimulus of suggestion) 
 which constitutes the curative agency in the treatment. 
 Surely this is a better and nobler conception of the power 
 in every way than that current before Braid's time, and 
 still held by unscientific ' magnetizers,""^ which would have 
 us believe is a subtle fluid passing from operator to 
 subject. 
 
 Dr. Byrom Bramwell, speaking of the important part 
 voluntary effort plays in cases of paralysis, instances that 
 of the late Mr. Horatio Ross, a celebrated sportsman. f 
 ' When some eighty-two years of age, Mr. Ross was 
 attacked with hemiplegia, which was, perhaps, embolic. 
 He was seen by a distinguished neurologist in London, 
 who, considering the advanced age of the patient and the 
 very serious nature of the attack, gave a very unfavourable 
 opinion, saying that he would never use his arm again. 
 Shortly afterwards he came to Edinburgh, and placed 
 himself under the care of Dr. Foulis, who had previously 
 attended him. When he consulted Dr. Foulis, the paralysis 
 of the arm, though not absolute, was very great ; the legs, 
 as is usually the case, had to a much greater extent 
 recovered. 
 
 ' Dr. Foulis, who is a firm believer in the beneficial 
 effects which frequently repeated voluntary efforts produce 
 in cases of paralysis, explained to Mr. Ross the impor- 
 tance of making frequent and systematic efforts to throw 
 the paralyzed muscles into voluntary contraction. Mr. 
 Ross, who was a man of iron will as well as (in his 
 younger days) of iron muscles, fully appreciated the 
 rationale of this method of treatment, and set himself 
 diligently and with firm determination to carry it into 
 
 * The alleged discovery of N rays by Dr. Blondlot, of Nancy, a few 
 years ago gave believers in animal magnetism great satisfaction, for in 
 these emanations from nerve structures in action they saw the vindica- 
 tion of their claims. Unfortunately for them, Sir W. Crookes and other 
 scientific investigators consider the evidence altogether illusory. 
 
 t ' Studies in Clinical Medicine,' vol. i., No. 6. 
 
4oS TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 effect. Many times every day he endeavoured to perform 
 each of the individual movements which the hand, fore- 
 arm, and arm are capable of making. The paralyzed 
 muscles soon began to regain some power, and each day, 
 and almost all day, he diligently practised some form of 
 muscular movement. I was asked to see him some two 
 months after he had commenced this treatment, with the 
 object of advising whether electricity would be beneficial. 
 He had then regained considerable movement in the 
 paralyzed arm and much more in the leg. He continued 
 to practise his muscular gymnastics, and in the course of 
 three or four months he had practically recovered ; he 
 could, in fact, make such good use of his paralyzed arm 
 that, on the following 12th of August, he was able to 
 get on to the moor and actually to shoot several brace of 
 grouse.' 
 
 Dr. Bramwell attributes Mr. Ross's rapid recovery to 
 the exercise of the will-power, as each voluntary effort tends 
 to act as a stimulus which travels along the damaged 
 nerve tract and forms a path for motor impulses. 
 
 In support of this theory he reminds us that after facial 
 paralysis the orbicularis palpebrarum is the first muscle to 
 recover its tone, on account, he thinks, of its great func- 
 tional activity. In consequence of the immense number 
 of times each day the reflex stimulus from the conjunctiva 
 — inclination to wink — is applied, the nerve tract is con- 
 tinually being stimulated by impulses which endeavour to 
 force their way through the lesion, and this repeated 
 stimulation leads to rapid repair of the damaged nerve 
 fibres. 
 
 The important part will-effort and concentration of 
 purpose play in muscular development and renovation of 
 tissue is seen in Swedish gymnastics, and in the method 
 practised in America under the name of psycho-physical 
 culture. We have much to learn of hypnotism as a 
 stimulator of effort and arouser of the will ; it is in this 
 direction the power should be used, and not as a supplanter 
 or enfeebler of individuality. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 409 
 
 Note 15. — Spiritual and Mental Healing. 
 
 A committee composed of eminent doctors and clergy- 
 men — including the Dean of Westminster, the Bishop of 
 Stepney, Sir Douglas Powell, Sir J. Rickman Godlee — is 
 sitting to consider the rationale and genuineness of re- 
 ported cures. I was asked to give evidence and did so with 
 pleasure. But I had to confess I knew nothing about 
 spiritual — i.e. miraculous — cure except what I had read 
 in Dr. Boissarie's ' Annals of Lourdes ' and similar books. 
 The evidence brought forward always seemed to me to 
 fall just short of scientific proof of cure of organic disease. 
 
 I have read of ununited fractures of months' standing 
 being rectified by twenty minutes immersion in the Grotto 
 of Lourdes, and I have heard Father Gerrard, S.J., say 
 he would go to the stake if required to prove the truth of 
 such stories. Mr. Eccles asked me if I thought a hare-lip 
 could be made normal by prayer or other spiritual means, 
 and I replied that I couldn't conceive such a thing. 
 Devout clergymen and doctors would say that God works 
 through His agents and by natural laws, and it would be 
 as reasonable to expect Him to make a chemical experi- 
 ment turn out as the experimenter wished when, through 
 carelessness or ignorance, the wrong reagents were used ; 
 as to expect Divine interference in sickness or injury 
 brought about by man's defiance of natural laws. We 
 must work on scientific lines, and, as we have seen in our 
 own times scientific miracles achieved in the elimination 
 and cure of tuberculosis, enteric, malarial fevers, etc., so 
 our children may see nearly all diseases successfully dealt 
 with, and preventive take the place of clinical medicine. 
 ' Prayer and moral training are powerless to help the 
 cretin, while thyroid extract tabloids will convert him 
 into a normal and useful being. No man by taking 
 thought can add a cubit to his stature, but we can often 
 add many inches to a boy who is too short to enter the 
 navy by feeding him with thyroid.'* 'Incantations and 
 * British Medical Journal, May 24, 1913. 
 
4IO TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 quinine will cure most fevers,' said an old priest, 'but 
 don't forget the quinine.' 
 
 Note i6. — Hypnotism and Crime. 
 
 Recent events, and especially the Gouffe trial in Paris, 
 have brought the question of the employment of hypnotism 
 for criminal purposes prominently before the legal and 
 medical professions, and a word on the subject will not 
 be out of place here. It is very fully discussed by Dr. 
 Liegeois in his book, already referred to, and Mr. Taylor- 
 Innes, of Edinburgh, has treated it at some length in 
 an article in the Contemporary Review for October, 1S90. 
 Mr. Brodie-Innes states the case in the Juridical Review 
 for January, 1S91. Dr. Kingsbury has written an able 
 criticism on the former article in the Nineteenth Century 
 for January, iSgi, in which he throws great doubt on 
 the possibility of criminal acts being suggested and 
 carried out in the hypnotic or post-hypnotic state ; and 
 his arguments, so far as they go, are conclusive. VCharcot, 
 also, and his school discredit the idea that hypnotism can 
 be made the vehicle for criminal suggestion ; and contend 
 that the subject was perfectly aware of the harmless 
 nature of the act he was committing when, in obedience 
 to Dr. Liegeois, he seized a paper-knife on waking, stole 
 to his wife's side, and stabbed her to the heart, ^-^e knew 
 it was acting, and did his part well, that is all — so explains 
 Milne Bramwell. The same thing applies to other test 
 criminal actions, as, for instance, the theft of jewellery, or 
 the discharge of a revolver loaded with blank cartridge, 
 either at the patient's own breast or at a stranger's. The 
 subject knew about the trick, and the experiment was 
 simply a laboratory one, which would fail if put to a real 
 test. We here see a curious circumstance, and one which, 
 to my mind, is strong testimony to the thoroughgoing 
 honesty of the Nancy school. They are engaged in 
 strenuously maintaining that in hypnotism the evil- 
 disposed have a weapon which will give them absolute 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 411 
 
 power over their agents, and ensure the accomplishment 
 of crimes without any risk to themselves. What conten- 
 tion could possibly be more fatal to the extended employ- 
 ment of hypnotism which they advocate, or more certain 
 to arouse popular feeling against the treatment ? I con- 
 sider that the question should be met with perfect frank- 
 ness, and agree with Mr. Brodie-Innes that lawyers 
 should seriously study the possibilities of hypnotism. 
 In approaching the matter, it is necessary to bear in 
 mind a few points in order to be able to arrive at a 
 proper conclusion. In the first place, only a small pro- 
 portion of the population are sufficiently affected by 
 hypnotism to be reduced to automatism or powerless- 
 ness. In a large number even of these the loss of will 
 and self-control is not sufficient to render the subject 
 absolutely helpless, and in many cases where there is 
 apparent helplessness personal violence or criminal sug- 
 gestions would restore complete consciousness and the 
 power of resistance. It is difficult, and often impossible, 
 for even a skilful medical man to judge of the precise 
 depth of sleep ; and so pronounced a somnambulist as 
 Mrs. H often retains a degree of latent conscious- 
 ness, and remembers subsequently things I have said to 
 her in the hypnotic state : but no doubt criminal assaults 
 might be committed on women while in the deepest sleep, 
 and in some cases there would be no subsequent recollec- 
 tion of the circumstance. Here we have exactly analogous 
 abuses of chloroform and other drugs, and the criminality 
 should in each case be considered the same. The chief 
 point of interest is not whether hypnotism may be used 
 as an anaesthetic for the performance of brutal outrage, 
 but whether it may be used with any prospect of success 
 as the vehicle for criminal suggestion. I believe that, 
 under certain circumstances, it might be so used, and I 
 here give my reasons for the belief. Hypnotism acts 
 chiefly, as we have seen, by immensely increasing the 
 capacity for receiving, and the desire to act upon, sug- 
 gestion. It is this property which we make use of in 
 
412 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 dealing with drunkards and morphinomaniacs, and our 
 suggestions of abstinence and self-control are received 
 and acted upon in proportion to the depth of sleep 
 attained and the natural receptivity of the patient. I 
 have, however, seen suggestion curative in a case of 
 chronic drunkenness where the influence of hypnotism 
 was barely discoverable, and I have seen it fail where 
 somnambulism was induced. In the first case the 
 patient's desire was for cure, and the natural force of 
 moral suggestions had to be but slightly increased in 
 order to obtain success ; whereas in the latter instance the 
 patient had no real desire to give up his bad habit, 
 and the suggestions found no soil in which to take root. 
 I see no reason for supposing that a somewhat similar 
 result would not follow criminal suggestions. It would 
 be vain to make criminal suggestions to the disciplined 
 and moral man, for he would either wake up at once or 
 w'ould ignore them ; but it would be an easy task to 
 corrupt the naturally weak and ill-disposed. If, as has 
 already been said, one told a sincere teetotaler that on 
 waking he was to drink a glass of brandy, it is certain 
 that the suggestion would fail, no matter what was the 
 degree of sleep induced; but the half-hearted abstainer 
 might perhaps succumb, just as he would yield to the 
 pertinacious solicitation of his ordinary companions, 
 because the wish to abstain was not strongly grounded 
 or an essential part of his individuality.* Dr. Norman 
 
 * This theory is borne out by some experiments made by Professor 
 Lombroso, of Turin (' Studi su I'Hypnotismo,' Turin, 1886). He 
 hypnotized two medical students of good character, and suggested to 
 them that they were to steal some articles of value. One of them woke 
 up crying, ' No, I will not be a thief;' and the other, after much oppo- 
 sition, did seize the things, but almost immediately threw them from 
 him. On the other hand, the same physician found that a hysterical 
 young woman of doubtful character received with evident satisfaction 
 the suggestion that she was a thief or a brigand, but resisted the 
 assertion that she was a savant or moralist, and declined to give a 
 disquisition on the beauty of virtue. I have never gone so far as to 
 suggest criminal acts to my subjects, and I should regard such a course 
 as very objectionable ; but I have suggested lines of conduct opposed 
 to the disposition of the patient, and I have generally seen the order 
 ignored or very partially oljeyed. For instance, I suggested to a 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 413 
 
 Kerr's objection to hypnotism, that, if it enables the 
 physician to cure a drunkard, it will enable a scoundrel 
 to debauch a sober man, is extremely fallacious ; he 
 
 brother Mason whom I had hypnotized some scores of times, and who 
 is one of the best subjects I have ever seen, that he should tell the 
 secrets of the craft. He became extremely disturbed, and vigorously 
 protested that nothing would induce him to break his oath in such a 
 manner. This patient was so susceptible to my suggestions that if I 
 told him during the hypnotic state that his tie — a red one — was green, 
 he would accept the suggestion and stoutly maintain on waking that 
 it was green. Another patient, who is also a profound somnambulist, 
 though a man of great muscular strength and keen intellect, carries 
 out ordinary post-hypnotic suggestions with accuracy, but when the 
 suggested act is contrary to his volition, he argues the point and does 
 not execute it. For example, I tell him that five minutes after waking 
 he is to take a pin from a pincushion and stick it into the curtain. He 
 does so in a somewhat shamefaced manner, and perhaps says after- 
 wards that he does not know why he did it, but that he felt he must. 
 But when I tell him to pay me a visit at two o'clock on Saturday — the 
 time when he pays his men — he tells me that the thing is impossible, 
 and I am unable to persuade him to consent (see also Dr. Forel's 
 case, p. 190). 
 
 Dr. Kingsbury was able to demonstrate this point before the meet- 
 ing of the British Medical Association in 1890, for his subject, a 
 Manchester merchant, refused to execute any ordei; opposed to his 
 natural disposition. 
 
 In the Diibliii Journal oj Medical Science^ ^lay, 1891, Sir F. Cruise 
 relates how he saw Dr. Bernheim endeavour to extract a man's political 
 opinions while in a state of profound hypnosis. The patient declined 
 to tell them, and, folding his arms, said, ' C'est mon affaire.' ' What a 
 remarkable contrast to the awkward confessions occasionally volun- 
 teered under the influence of chloroform or ether I' is Dr. Cruise's 
 comment on this incident. On the other hand, Liebeault records how, 
 by telling a young girl that he was her father confessor, he succeeded 
 in obtaining her confession. The result must depend upon the 
 patient's disposition and character. For instance, I told one hypnotic 
 patient that she was to resist my suggestions, and yet she was unable 
 to do so, whereas another patient not only resisted my sug'gestions, 
 but awoke when I insisted upon them. In the debate on hypnotism 
 at the Edinburgh meeting of the British Medical Association, 1898, 
 Dr. Mercier asked if a hypnotized butcher might not be made to 
 murder a man by being told that the victim was a sheep, and that he 
 had to cut its throat in the ordinary exercise of his trade. I think the 
 answer is in the affirmative. Bernheim made an experiment of this 
 nature when he made an honest woman steal another patient's watch. 
 At first she indignantly refused, saying she was not a thief ; but 
 when Bernheim assured her it was her own watch which the other 
 woman had purloined, and that she was, therefore, only regaining her 
 own property, she took it without further scruple. It seems to me 
 better to face a danger and take steps to combat it than to deny or 
 ignore it. 
 
414 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 might as well forbid the surgeon to use a knife because 
 criminals sometimes murder people with knives. 
 
 It is my opinion, and also my experience, that the power 
 in us for good is more potent than that for evil, and that 
 it would be very much harder to make the good man do 
 wrong than to influence the bad man for good. But hyp- 
 notism acts by increasing the normal impressionability to 
 suggestion ; and as a moral person of unstable character 
 may be corrupted in time by vicious surroundings and evil 
 influences, so, I believe, the same person could be more 
 quickly and surely corrupted by evil suggestions made to 
 him while in the hypnotic state. I have no doubt that 
 many of the subjects taken about with them by travelling 
 showmen have entirely lost all individuality, and have be- 
 come passive instruments in the hands of their employers. 
 To reduce a fellow-creature to such a condition is, I hold, 
 one of the greatest offences which can be committed against 
 the dignity of humanity; for the position of the unfortunate 
 victim is worse a hundredfold than that of the captive who 
 has only to submit to material slavery. It is witnessing 
 degrading performances, and confusing the travesty with 
 rational hypnotic treatment, which makes many well- 
 meaning people look with horror on the present spread 
 of the knowledge of hypnotism. There is a simple means 
 of doing away with much of the danger which may attend 
 its popularization. Let it be regarded as a medical pro- 
 cedure, to be had recourse to only for definite therapeutic 
 purposes by qualified medical men, or as a method of real 
 scientific research in the hands of savants. Let the public 
 be made acquainted with the dangers which attend its use 
 by improper persons, and let its employment in public for 
 purposes of gain or mere amusement be sternly forbidden 
 in England, as it is in other countries. 
 
 I do not think the ordinary criminal will ever make use 
 of hypnotism ; it is too tedious and uncertain a process. 
 There have been accounts in the papers of various crimes 
 alleged to have been committed by its means. Some boys 
 in Pesth were a little time ago stated to have robbed their 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 415 
 
 masters' till in obedience to hypnotic suggestion, and an 
 ingenious newspaper correspondent was quite sure that 
 the Whitechapel murders were the work of someone 
 acting under hypnotic influence ! My opinion is that 
 the malefactor, unfortunately, finds plenty of material 
 ready to his hand without hypnotism, and that the weak 
 and criminal actions of bad men and women are capable 
 of a much simpler explanation. 
 
 Supposing that a hypnotizer got absolute control over 
 a subject, and rendered him so sensitive to his suggestions 
 that he could induce him to commit thefts and other 
 crimes, and at the same time be unconscious of the 
 prompting which had impelled him, could the subject be 
 hypnotized by another person, and made to give up the 
 secret ? I believe he could after a longer or shorter 
 period, and that the real criminal would then be dis- 
 covered. Moreover, the person acting under controlling 
 suggestion would almost certainly perform the action in 
 a manner different to his ordinary behaviour. He would 
 appear more or less dazed, and would probably make 
 either no effort, or only a very inadequate one, to escape 
 capture. 
 
 In the event of a criminal action being committed 
 through hypnotic suggestion, expert evidence will be 
 forthcoming to completely establish the case. 
 
 I think, however, a false plea of having acted under 
 hypnotic compulsion is a much more probable event than 
 the perpetration of crime through such agency. It is not 
 unlikely that we shall have persons demanding blackmail 
 for alleged felonious hypnotization, as we have had from 
 time to time similar accusations of administering chloro- 
 form.* 
 
 * It looks as if the plea of having acted under hypnotic suggestion 
 is to become a matter of course in French causes cclcbres. The papers 
 have been filled with the reports of a sensational trial in Algeria. A 
 Madame Weiss was found guilty of attempting to poison her husband, 
 and she pleaded that she had acted under the control of her lover, 
 who had hypnotized her, and whose suggestions she was unable to 
 resist. The woman was thoroughly degraded, and her accomplice 
 
4i6 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 The alleged dangers of hypnotism may be ranged, then, 
 under three heads : As they affect the morals, pocket, and 
 health of the subject. 
 
 First, those to which the patient is liable while actually 
 in the hypnotic trance. These embrace crimes of violence, 
 and especially indecent assault or violation. The use of 
 chloroform is attended with the same risk, and criminal 
 reports show that there is real danger of this abuse. I 
 venture to think that there is less danger on this score 
 from hypnotism than from drugs, on account of the 
 comparatively small number of persons who are sus- 
 ceptible to such a degree as to become ansesthetic and 
 amnesic. 
 
 The second danger is a much more serious one, and 
 if the allegations made against the abuse of mesmerism 
 were true, they went far to justify the attitude the pro- 
 fession adopted towards it fifty years ago. It was alleged 
 that persons became absolutely under the control of the 
 mesmerist, and that such control could be, and on many 
 occasions was, exercised, not only during the mesmeric 
 sleep, but subsequently, for purposes of immorality and 
 to extort money. It was even believed that this power 
 could be exercised at a distance, and against the will of 
 the subject. 
 
 More evidence of the possibility of the operator being 
 able to influence the subject at a distance is still wanted, 
 but the experiments of Professor Pierre Janet, of Havre, 
 and Professor Liegeois, of Nancy, seem to show that 
 under special circumstances and in rare instances a 
 subject who has been hypnotized a great number of 
 times by the same operator may be sent to sleep by the 
 hypnotizer exerting his will from a distance. I have come 
 to this conclusion with extreme unwillingness, for it seems 
 
 was an unscrupulous villain ; but the whole afifair was a common- 
 place crime enough, and easily explicable without calling in the aid 
 of hypnotism. For how many crimes, seductions, and accidents is 
 alcohol responsible I It is right, therefore, to educate the public on 
 the subject, as is now being done in many schools. 
 
TREATMEXT BY HYPXOTISM AND SUGGESTION 417 
 
 to open up the possibility of a man or woman being re- 
 duced to a state of complete mental and moral slavery.* 
 I believe such dependence can only be possible in cases 
 where the hypnotist has dominated the same subject a 
 
 * PLxamples of this are given in the works ofLiegeois, Liubeault, 
 and Bourru and Burot. Liebeault describes a series of experiments 
 with Camille, a very hysterical subject well known to those who 
 have visited Nancy. Camille, unconscious of the experiment, was 
 in Dr. Liebeault's garden, and Dr. Liegeois in the dispensary. The 
 distance between them was 29 metres, and subject and operator 
 were concealed from one another by a thick hedge. Dr. Litjgeois 
 simply fixed his mind on the idea of making Camille sleep. In eight 
 minutes she was actually asleep, and it was found that she was c/i 
 rapport with the Professor and with no one else. He had hypnotized 
 this subject a great number of times, and the experiment failed when 
 Dr. Neilson endeavoured to repeat it under the same conditions. 
 Dr. Beaunis, howe\er, who had also frequently hypnotized her, was 
 also able to send her to sleep from a distance (Liebeault, op. cit.., 
 
 P- 275)- 
 
 Drs. Gibert and Janet experimented on Mde. B , at Havre, in 
 
 the presence of several competent witnesses. They succeeded in 
 sending her to sleep by mental suggestion when she was some kilo- 
 metres from them, and ignorant of what was going on. But the\- 
 failed to influence her to commit definite acts. They could also 
 awaken her by mental suggestion from a distance (Bourru et Burot, 
 'La Suggestion Mentale,' p. 160). 
 
 I have several times made a similar experiment on two or three of 
 my most susceptible subjects, and have tried to hypnotize them by 
 directing my thoughts on the purpose in view at various distances, 
 but I have never noticed any effect. While, therefore, admitting 
 its possibility, I feel convinced that the phenomenon is very rare. 
 Hypnotism here, as in other directions, merely intensifies existing 
 states. The researches of the Society for Psychical Research have 
 completely proved the reality of telepathic influence ; and hypnotism, 
 by withdrawing the mind from the life of relation, intensifies the sen- 
 sitiveness of those few persons who are susceptible to telepathic 
 impressions. 
 
 It is a very common error to suppose that all persons in hypnotic 
 somnambulism are mediumistic and have extraordinary powers. I 
 have found people who are dull and phlegmatic in the waiting state, 
 are at least equally so when hypnotized, and the people who are 
 imaginative in the normal state, become more so when hypnotized. 
 Camille, for instance, thought herself clairvoyant when hypnotized, 
 and would answer questions as to the future, diagnose disease, and 
 suggest remedies. Dr. Liebeault used to humour her in that way, and 
 I have seen her make shrewd guesses and absurd mistakes. Such is 
 also the experience of Forel, who is professedly sceptical about things 
 occult. He tells, for instance, of a patient he attended who was a 
 professional medium, and was worn out by her work. He tested her 
 powers in various ways, and found she was guided entirely by her 
 
 27 
 
4i8 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 very great number of times, and then only in very ex- 
 ceptional cases. We have the consolatory legal maxim, 
 de mininiia non curat lex, but I think attention should be 
 drawn to the possibility of such a thing with a view to 
 averting its occurrence. 
 
 The Nancy theory of the all-powerfulness of post- 
 hypnotic suggestion introduces an additional element of 
 danger into the practice of hypnotism, and if Liegeois's 
 ideas were justified, they would, I think, afford a very 
 grave argument against the popularization of the treat- 
 ment. But most observers regard these ideas as exag- 
 gerated and somewhat fanciful, and the dangers opened up 
 by them as chimerical. Still, the fact remains that there 
 are a few persons in every thousand who are so influenced 
 by suggestion as to be incapable of resisting the orders 
 of the hypnotist even after long intervals of time ; and 
 who can be made to execute these orders as of their 
 own initiative, and without being conscious of their 
 source. 
 
 Occupying a somewhat middle ground between these 
 two dangers is the risk of a person being made to sign 
 cheques, forge docunients, make promises, etc., while in a 
 state of lucid somnambulism. Thus, Dr. de Watteville 
 easily persuaded the ' Soho sleeper' to sign an I.O.U. 
 But this danger does not appear to me at all so serious as 
 that arising from post-hypnotic suggestion, for the subject 
 would be able on waking to recognize the fact that he 
 had been fraudulently dealt with, and to offer opposition 
 subsequently. Moreover, the danger of such fraudulent 
 proceedings is not confined to hypnotism, for signatures 
 and promises have been extracted from persons through 
 the instrumentality of intoxicating and stupefying drugs, 
 and the law knows how to deal with such abuses. 
 
 The third alleged danger is happily non-existent. When 
 
 visual and other impressions, which were generally quite faulty. She 
 began to get l^etter under hyjinotic treatment, but her husband became 
 alarmed and took her away, fearing interference with her ' medium- 
 ship,' and consequent loss of income. 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 419 
 
 hypnotism is carefully employed for therapeutic purposes, 
 injury to the subject's physical, moral, or mental health is 
 never caused. That careless and ignorant tampering with 
 hypnotism is dangerous has been sufficiently shown by the 
 cases I have cited, in which grave nervous disturbances 
 have been proved to follow its illegitimate employment 
 (vide p. 123). There is still another danger attending its 
 popularization which medical men will do well to be on 
 their guard against, viz., blackmailing and false accusa- 
 tions, for they may be accused of improper conduct in 
 respect to hypnotism, just as they are with regard to 
 chloroform. 
 
 It is to be hoped that this possibility, while making them 
 very careful, will not prevent them recommending the use 
 of hypnotism when the patient's condition is such as to 
 benefit from it. 
 
 Note 17. — The Hypnotic Will Case. 
 
 In July, i8g8, there w^as a sensational law case in which 
 I was subpoenaed to give evidence. Dr. Kingsbury, of 
 Blackpool, was appointed executor and residuary legatee 
 under the will of an old lady patient. The son as heir-at- 
 law disputed the will on the ground of undue influence, 
 and it was alleged that the doctor had hypnotized the 
 patient, and by hypnotic suggestion had got her to make 
 the will in his favour. The charge entirely broke down, 
 and Dr. Kingsbury won the verdict. 
 
 It came out in the evidence that Mrs. Howard was on 
 bad terms with most of her family, including the plaintiff, 
 that she was greatly attached to Dr. Kingsbury, and that 
 he had been very devoted in his attendance on her for 
 more than ten years, and was her confidential adviser in 
 all her difficulties. They used to talk a good deal about 
 hypnotism, in which she knew he was much interested, 
 and in 1894 she asked him to try to hypnotize her, as she 
 suffered from sleeplessness. 
 
 Dr. Kingsbury consented to try, though he told her he 
 did not think hers a suitable case. He was seeing her 
 
420 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 daily, and every day for three weeks, in the presence of her 
 maid, he endeavoured to influence her hypnotically. But 
 the attempt failed, and he fell back upon ordinary treat- 
 ment. 
 
 Mr. Carson, Q.C., laid great stress upon the number of 
 times Dr. Kingsbury hypnotized his patient, and the jury 
 was asked to imagine the old lady lying helpless under 
 his suggestions. Sir Edward Clarke, however, was able 
 to put a different complexion on the matter, and the jury 
 decided for Dr. Kingsbury. 
 
 In this case it was evident that hypnotism was introduced 
 to prejudice the jury, and it is quite possible that had Dr. 
 Kingsbury's position been less established at Blackpool he 
 might have lost the suit. An interesting feature of the 
 case was the evidence of Sir William Broadbent, who 
 was called by Dr. Kingsbury. He was a member of the 
 Hypnotic Committee of the British Medical Association, 
 whose report is given on p. 424, and he expressed in court 
 his continued adherence to the opinions therein set forth. 
 Under French law the legacy would have been invalid, for 
 in France medical men are not permitted to benefit from 
 wills of persons under their care.* 
 
 * It is interesting to note that since the foregoing account was 
 written (1900) Dr. Kingsbury has changed his profession, and as a 
 Ijarrister is now, apparently, the standing counsel for Christian 
 .Scientists committed for trial by coroners and magistrates for man- 
 slaughter. I understand that it is largely owing to his able advocacy 
 that the prisoners in two recent cases have escaped punishment. 
 Dr. Kingsbury's extensive medical experience has revealed to him the 
 weak places in our medical armour, and he makes full use of his 
 knowledge. 
 
 I have met with two cases which show the caution necessary in 
 dealing with hypnotism. Strangely enough, I was consulted in both 
 instances on the same day. The first case was that of a young lady 
 of good education and position. She thought herself the victim of a 
 ]jlot hatched by two young men of her accjuaintance to influence her 
 telepathically ; and she was under the impression that they could at 
 any time direct her thoughts and actions from a distance. Though 
 she had never been hypnotized, she supposed that hypnotism had 
 something to do with it. 
 
 I found her, like all persons who suffer from a fixed idea, very diffi- 
 cult to hypnotize, but after six attempts 1 succeeded in inducing a 
 state of mental receptivity, with inability to open the eyes. I suggested 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 421 
 
 Note 18. — False Evidence and Suggestion in 
 Legal Cases. 
 
 Though this book is chiefly concerned with the medical 
 aspect of hypnotism and suggestion, attention has been 
 directed to the important role they play in all relations of 
 life. Lawyers, clergymen, and schoolmasters must stud\' 
 the subject from their professional standpoint if they wish 
 to keep abreast of the times. I have referred to Professor 
 Bernheim's experiments (see note p. 81) in foisting imag- 
 inary actions and even crimes on highly suggestible 
 
 that she would become insusceptible to telepathic influences, and 
 would recover her self-confidence and spirits. She almost imme- 
 diately began to feel stronger in mind and less hysterical, and in three 
 weeks she went home, thoroughly convinced that in future she was 
 proof against such influences. Suggestion alone did not suffice to 
 remove the false ideas, for several medical men and others had tried 
 argument in vain. The idea was too deep-seated to be stirred by 
 ordinary methods, and from the way things were tending, I have little 
 doubt but that the patient would very soon have drifted into melan- 
 cholia or dementia. Her suspicion that hypnotism had something to 
 do with her symptoms is interesting. There is no doubt but that as 
 the subject becomes more into vogue we shall find a great number of 
 persons will imagine themselves victims of this, to them, mysterious 
 agency. The electric telegraph and telephone have been credited by 
 scores of insane persons with being the source of their troubles, and 
 hypnotism is a very likely thing for the mental patient on the lookout 
 for a delusion to take up. 
 
 The other case was more serious, and led to a great deal of trouble. 
 A lady who has for years carried on reformatory work in a Midland 
 town was greatly impressed by the evidence she had heard of the 
 success of hypnotism in curing the craving for drink, and instead of 
 procuring the services of a medical man, she experimented on some 
 of her girls herself Girls of this class are notoriously susceptible to 
 hypnotism, and she found no difficulty in sending five out of the seven 
 she operated on into somnambulism. The result surpassed her 
 expectation, and three of the five girls seem to have been absolutely 
 cured, and to have remained perfectly sober ever since. Two of the 
 others, influenced by bad companions, tui'ned upon the unfortunate 
 lady, accused her of having hypnotized them for immoral purposes, 
 and made the situation altogether very uncomfortable for her. 1 
 have hypnotized many women of the same class in institutions, and 
 have never noticed anything peculiar ; but this lady tells me that on 
 each occasion she hypnotized those girls they awoke in a somewhat 
 dazed state, and were under the impression that they were with their 
 former companions and in their old haunts. 
 
422 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 subjects, even in the waking state. For instance, he got 
 a phthisical patient who had been bedridden for weeks to 
 affirm that he had seen Professor Liegeois knock a man 
 down in the Rue St, Dizier the day before. The man 
 became so convinced of the truth of the story that he 
 swore to it before a gentleman who posed as a jitge 
 d' instruction. Professor Forel {op. cit., p. 147) relates 
 similar experiments, especially with children, also without 
 
 hypnotism. For example, he said suddenly to Miss X 
 
 that a young man who had just then entered the room 
 had stolen her purse a month ago at the railway-station. 
 She at first looked surprised, but almost at once acquiesced, 
 said she remembered it perfectly, and demanded his 
 punishment ; moreover, she added details out of her head, 
 such as the amount in the purse, etc. In a sensational 
 trial at Buda Pesth a few years ago some Christian 
 children swore to the kidnapping and murder of a com- 
 panion by Jews for sacrificial purposes. The idea had 
 been suggested to them so imperatively that they believed 
 in the reality. Imaginative children are often punished 
 for lying when their only fault is self-deception. One 
 sees the same confusion of fiction with fact in hysteria, 
 delirium, and general paralysis of the insane. It is im- 
 portant to recognize the possibility of this form of false 
 witness. It is most dangerous to the accused, for the 
 witness thinks himself speaking the truth, and is cor- 
 respondingly plausible and convincing. In a difficult case 
 hypnotizing the witness would probably elucidate the real 
 facts. 
 
 Many barristers are masters of the art of suggestion, 
 and can make a weak witness contradict himself almost 
 at pleasure ; they even use the expression ' I suggest,' A 
 provincial coroner tells me he has to be most careful 
 in his examination not to suggest incidents to country 
 witnesses, they are so apt to accept them. The com- 
 mittal of a much-talked-about crime is very likely to be 
 followed by others similar to it, the outcome of imitation 
 and suggestion ; and one sees how after a murder weak- 
 
TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 423 
 
 minded but innocent persons often cause much trouble 
 to the authorities by false confession and self-accusation. 
 
 ***** * 
 
 As the question of the State regulation of the use of hypnotism may 
 at any moment become a burning one, I here append the draft of an 
 Act which was approved by the Royal Belgian Academy of Medicine, 
 and discussed by the Belgian Parliament in 189 1. It is now, I believe, 
 the law of the land. 
 
 LEOPOLD IL, 
 ROI DES 13ELGES. 
 A tons prcscjifs et a venir^ Saint. 
 Sur la proposition de Notre Ministre de la Justice, 
 
 Nous AVONS ARRETE ET ARRETONS : 
 
 Notre Ministre de la Justice est charge de presenter, en Notre nom, 
 aux Chambres legislatives, le projet de loi dont la teneur suit : 
 
 Article i. 
 
 Quiconque aura donne en spectacle au public une personne hypno- 
 tisee par lui-meme ou par autrui, sera puni d'un emprisonnement de 
 quinze jours a six mois et d'une amende de vingt-six francs a mille 
 francs. 
 
 Article 2. 
 
 Quiconque, n'etant pas qualifie pour exercer Fart de guerir, aura 
 hypnotise une personne qui n'avait pas atteint I'age de dix-huit ans 
 accomplis ou n'etait pas saine d'esprit, sera puni d'un emprisonnement 
 de quinze jours a un an et d'une amende de vingt-six francs a mille 
 francs, alors meme que la personne hypnotis^e n'aurait pas etc donnee 
 en spectacle au public. 
 
 En cas de concours avec les infractions punies par les dispositions 
 legales concernant I'art de guerir, la peine prononcee par le present 
 article sera seule appliquee. 
 
 Article 3. 
 
 Sera puni de la reclusion quiconque aura, avec une intention fraud- 
 uleuse ou a dessein de nuire, fait ^crire ou signer par une personne 
 hypnotisee un acte ou une piece enonc^ant une convention, des disposi- 
 tions, un engagement, une decharge ou une declaration. La meme 
 peine serra appliquee a celui que aura fait usage de I'acte ou de la piece. 
 Donne a Laeken, le i4me avril, 1890.* 
 
 LEOPOLD. 
 Par le Roi : 
 La Ministre de la Justice, 
 Jules LE JEUNE. 
 
 * Juridical Rczneiu, January, 1891. 
 
424 TREATMEXT BY HYPSOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED TO INVESTI- 
 GATE THE NATURE OF THE PHENOMENA OF 
 HYPNOTISM ; ITS VALUE AS A THERAPEUTIC 
 AGENT ; AND THE PROPRIETY OF 
 USING IT. 
 
 The Committee, having completed such investigation of hypnotism 
 as time has permitted, has to report that they have satisfied them- 
 selves of the genuineness of the hypnotic state. No phenomena which 
 have come under their observation, however, lend support to the 
 theory of 'animal magnetism.' 
 
 The experiments which have been carried out by members of the 
 Committee have shown that this condition is attended by mental and 
 physical phenomena, and that these differ widely in different cases. 
 
 Among the mental phenomena are : altered consciousness, tem- 
 porary limitation of will-power, increased receptivity of suggestion 
 from without, sometimes to the extent of producing passing delusions, 
 illusions, and hallucinations, an exalted condition of the attention, and 
 post-hypnotic suggestions. 
 
 Among the physical phenomena are vascular changes (such as 
 flushing of the face and altered pulse-rate), deepening of the respira- 
 tions, increased frequency of deglutition, slight muscular tremors, 
 inability to control suggested movements, altered muscular sense, 
 anaesthesia, modified power of muscular contraction, catalepsy, and 
 rigidity, often intense. It must, however, be understood that all these 
 mental and physical phenomena are rarely present in any one case. 
 The Committee take this opportunity of pointing out that the term 
 'hypnotism' is somewhat misleading, inasmuch as sleep, as ordinarily 
 understood, is not necessarily present. 
 
 The Committee are of opinion that as a therapeutic agent hypnotism 
 is frequently effective in relieving pain, procuring sleep, and alleviating 
 many functional ailments. As to its permanent efficacy in the treat- 
 ment of drunkenness, the evidence before the Committee is encouraging, 
 but not conclusive. Dangers in the use of hypnotism may arise from 
 want of knowledge, carelessness, or intentional abuse, or from the too 
 continuous repetition of suggestions in unsuitable cases. 
 
 The Committee are of opinion that when used for therapeutic 
 purposes its employment should be confined to qualified medical 
 men, and that under no circumstances should female patients be 
 hypnotized except in the presence of a relative or a person of their 
 own se.x. 
 
 In conclusion, the Committee desire to express their strong dis- 
 approbation of public exhibitions of hypnotic phenomena, and hope 
 that some legal restriction will be placed upon them.* 
 
 (Si^/U'tf) F. Nekdh.^M, Chaii-man. 
 
 T. OuTTKRSON Wood, Hon. Sec. 
 
 * British Medical Journal., July 29, 1893. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Absent treatment and self-sugges- 
 tion, 230 note, 404 note 
 Abuse of hypnotism in Paris hos- 
 pitals, 222, 400 
 Acute disease, hypnotism in, 68, 203 
 Adolescent insanity, hypnotism in, 
 
 112 
 Advertisement and suggestion, 49 
 After-influence of hypnotism, 172 
 Age of patients, 177 
 Agoraphobia, case of, 333 
 Aids to hypnotism, 240 
 Alcoholism and hypnotism, 95, 286 
 
 chronic cases of, 95, 322 
 
 effect on memory, 152 
 Allbutt, Sir Clifford, quoted, 230 
 Amateur hypnotism, 124 
 Amaurosis, hypnotism in, 67 
 Amenorrhoea, hypnotism in, 315 
 Amnesia in hypnosis, 73, 137 
 Amyl nitrite and hypnosis, 137 
 Anaemia cured by hypnotic treat- 
 ment, 327 
 
 predisposes to hypnotism, 268 
 
 produced by emotions, 25 
 Anaesthesia in hypnosis, 192, 229, 
 287 
 
 by suggestion, 11, 81 
 Analogies of hypnosis, 272 
 Animal alkaloids and sleep, 274 
 
 magnetism, 7, 53, 118 
 Animals, hypnotization of, 397 
 Anodyne, hypnotism as an, 16, 83, 
 
 217 
 Ansel Bourne, case of, 103 
 Aphasia, hypnotic, 145 
 
 case of, cured by hypnotism, 
 
 237 
 Arthur's, Dr. R. , practice, 14, 57 
 Association of brain centres, 136 
 of ideas and conduct strength- 
 ened by hypnotism, 96 
 Asthma, hypnotism in, 236 
 
 case of, cured by hypnotism, 
 
 335 
 
 Auto-hypnosis, 22, 123 
 Automatism, 136 
 
 Auto-suggestion, 22, 87, 230, 397 
 
 experiments in, 393 
 Awaking, methods of, 52, 267 
 Azam's, Professor, case, 102 
 
 Bad habits cured by hypnotism, 112 
 Bad heredity corrected by hyp- 
 notism, 113, 207 
 Barnett, Canon, quoted, 241 note 
 Barwise, Dr., quoted, 137, 143, 200 
 Beaunis, Professor, experiments of, 
 
 62, 72, 78, 264 
 Belgium, regulation of hypnotic 
 
 practice in, 423 
 Berillon, Dr., 5, 18, 113, 180 
 
 and degenerate children, 207, 
 
 213 
 Bernheim, Professor, 2, 57, Si note, 
 
 281 
 BHsters caused by suggestion, 73 
 Braid, James, of Manchester, 7, 211 
 Brain-fag, hypnotism in, 85, 302 
 Bramwell, Dr. Byrom, quoted, 407 
 Dr. Milne, 5, 79, 167, 218, 229, 
 237 note 
 Brazil, hypnotism in. 170 
 Bridgman, case of Laura, 41, 283 
 British Medical Association Com- 
 mittee, report of, 424 
 Brown's, Dr. Haydn, case, 209 
 Brown-Sequard on inhibition, 17, 
 
 262 note 
 Brunton, Sir Lauder, on inhibition, 
 26, 264 
 visits Nancy, 68 
 Bryan, Dr. Douglas, quoted, 219, 
 
 229, 376 
 Bryden, Dr., quoted, 67 
 Buchanan, Professor G., quoted, 
 
 6g note 
 Bulimia, case of, 208 
 Burns treated by suggestion, 73 
 Buzzard, Dr., quoted, 71 note 
 
 Cannabis indica compared with 
 
 hypnotism, 142 
 Catalepsy, hypnotic, 61 note, 161 
 
 425 
 
426 TREATMEST BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 Cataplexy, 163 
 
 Centres, brain, diagram of, 136 
 
 Charcot's stages of hypnotism, 59 
 
 Children, hypnotizability of, 63, 
 112 
 
 Chloroform and hypnotism com- 
 pared. 118, 2S7 
 and suggestion, 83, 142 note 
 as an aid to hypnotism, 83, 166. 
 239 note 
 
 Christian Science, 23, 403 
 
 Chronic disease, hypnotism in, G7, 
 197 note. 203 
 
 Church, attitude towards, G4 note, 
 406 
 
 Circulation, effects of hypnotism 
 on, 30 note, 140, 295, 300 
 
 Clairvoyance. 42, 417 note 
 
 Climacteric troubles, hypnotism in, 
 3G0 
 
 Clinics in England, hypnotic. G 
 
 Clouston, Sir T. , quoted, 29 
 
 Cobb, Dr. Ivo. quoted, 90 
 
 Coenthesis, or subjective conscious- 
 ness. 2S9 
 
 Concentration, effects of mental, 42 
 
 Consciousness, conditions of, 283 
 in hypnosis, 58 
 
 Constipation cured by hypnotism, 
 1G4, 338 note 
 
 Conversion, political, by hypnotism, 
 roS, 413 note 
 religious, and suggestion, 69 
 note 
 
 Co-operation, patient's need of . 172, 
 182. 215 note 
 
 Counter-suggestion, effect of, 87 
 note, 233 
 
 Creed's, Dr., practice, 231 
 
 Crichton-Browne, Sir J., quoted, 
 70. 403 
 
 Crichton Miller's, Dr., practice, 240 
 
 Criminal use of hypnotism, 127, 410 
 ct seq. 
 
 Cruise, Sir F. , quoted. 12, 124, 209 
 
 Crystal - gazing and subconscious- 
 ness, loG 
 
 Dangers of hypnotism, 123 et seq., 
 
 222 
 Death from imagination, 29 
 Deferred suggestion, 79 
 Definitions of hypnotism, 57 
 Degenerate children, hypnotic 
 
 treatment for, 115 
 Dejerine, Professor, quoted, 8i 
 
 note, 124 
 DelbcEuf's theory, 383 
 Delusion of hypnotic persecution, 
 
 121, 186 
 
 Demoniac obsession, 21C, 406 note 
 Dentistry, hypnotism in, 83 
 Details and technique, importance 
 
 of, 158, 172, 231 
 Diabetes treated by hypnotism, 255, 
 
 338 
 Diagnosis, hypnotism as aid to, 71 
 Diarrhoea, chronic, cured by, 310 
 Dictation versus suggestion, 57, 70 
 Digestion, disorders of, hypnotism 
 
 in, 68, 234 
 Dipsomania and drunkenness, 92, 
 234, 240 ft seq. 
 cases of. 31G 
 drug cures of, 242 note 
 in women, 31G 
 Disease caused by suggestion, 14, 
 
 27 
 Diseases treated, classification of. 
 
 174, 192 
 Dissociation of brain centres and 
 
 hypnotism, 153 
 Distance, hypnotizing from a, 121, 
 
 417 note 
 Doctors as patients, 156, 226, 34G 
 
 note 
 Double brain, loi, 151 
 
 personality, 97 et seq. 
 Draper's, Dr., practice, 355 
 Dreams, Freud's theory of, 48 note 
 illness commencing in, 44, 82 
 induced during hypnosis, 48 
 Drunkards, after-history of, 244 note 
 Drunkenness and idleness asso- 
 ciated, 243 
 varieties of, 241 
 Duration of hypnotic sleep, 3S1 
 Dynamo-genesis versus inhibition, 
 
 289 
 Dysmenorrhoea, hypnotism in, 316 
 
 Echo voice, 279 note 
 
 Ecstasy, religious, case of, 15, 36 
 
 note 
 Education, hypnotism in, 110 ct seq.. 
 
 Electricity and suggestion, 351 
 Electropathic belts act by faith, iG 
 Elliotson, Dr., and mesmerism, 12G 
 Energy, storing of nerve, in hyp- 
 nosis, 56 
 Enuresis nocturna cured by hyp- 
 notism, 312 
 Epilepsy and hypnotism, 2co et seq., 
 
 279 
 Equilibrium, nervous, established 
 
 by hypnotism. 56. 2SS 
 Esdaile, Dr., and hypnotic anres- 
 
 thesia. 170 note 
 Estimation of time in hypnosis, 79 
 
INDEX 
 
 427 
 
 Eugenics and heredity, 207 note 
 Euthanasia, hypnotism in, 231 
 Exaggeration of function in hyp- 
 nosis, 134 
 Expectant attention, a factor in 
 
 hypnotism, 54, 132 
 Expecting too much of hypnotism, 
 117 note, 175, 241 
 
 Failures and their causes, 117 note, 
 
 162, 167 note, 172 
 Faith as a factor in medicine, 36, 
 
 165 note 
 Farez, Dr., quoted, 180 
 Fascination, method of, 178 
 Fear and fright, effects of, 21, 28, 
 
 89, 205 
 
 FeHda X , case of, 102 
 
 Felkin, Dr., quoted, 4, 82 note, 
 
 239 
 Forel, Professor, quoted, 13, 67, 95, 
 192, 238 
 theory of, 140 
 
 practical experience of, 193 
 Foster, Sir Michael, quoted, 283 
 Francis, Dr. A., quoted, 236, 338 
 Free-will and hypnotism, 254 
 Freud's theories, 48 note, 82 note, 
 
 89 note, 353 et seq. 
 Function and mental states, 20, 
 
 281 
 Functional and organic disease 
 
 compared, 71, 340 note 
 
 General practice, hypnotism in, 
 
 192, 219, 349 
 Genito- urinary diseases, hypnotism 
 
 in, 210 
 Goodhart, Sir J., quoted, 13 
 Gowers, Sir W., quoted, 27, 286, 
 
 402 
 Grazzini's, Dr., practice, 49 
 
 Habits, bad, treated by suggestion, 
 207 
 nerve, 268 
 Hack Tuke, Dr., quoted, 28, 116 
 Haemorrhage by suggestion, 74 
 Hallucinations, hypnotic, 77-80 
 
 negative, 386 
 Hart, Mr. Ernest, and hypnotism, 
 
 203 
 Headache, case of traumatic, 309 
 Health and nervous equilibrium, 
 2S8 
 by repose, 59 
 Heart and inhibition, 259 
 
 disease, relief of, 202, 311 
 Heidenhain, Professor, quoted, 133, 
 279 note 
 
 Heredity, bad, hypnotism, correc- 
 tion of, by, 113, 207 
 
 versus environment, 207 note 
 Hibernation and hypnosis com- 
 pared, 301 
 Highest cortical centres and hypno- 
 tism, 278 
 Hilger, Dr., quoted, 70, 380 
 Hodgson, Dr. Richard, 103 
 Hospital and private practice, 
 
 effects in, contrasted, 84, 172 
 Hugging one's disease, 213 
 Hughlings Jackson, Dr., quoted, 
 
 277 
 Hunter, John, and mesmerist, 182 
 Hyperaesthesia in hypnosis, 134 
 
 sensory, 42 
 Hyperidrosis, cases of, 237 
 Hypnogenic zones, 266 note 
 Hypnotic will case, the, 419 
 Hypnotism by prescription, 230 
 
 dangers of, 123 et seq., 222 
 
 definitions of, 57 
 
 safeguards in, 121 
 
 stages of, 55 
 
 statistics of, 63, 174, 392 
 
 theories of, 96, 276 et seq. 
 Hypnotizability, 63 et seq., 169 
 Hypochondriasis, 19, 87 
 Hypotaxy, 287 
 
 Hyslop, Dr., quoted, 107 note, 182 
 Hysteria and hypnotism, 266 note 
 
 cases treated, 44, 193 
 Hysterical joint, 348 
 Hystero-epilepsy, hypnotism in, 36 
 
 Idea, diseases dependent on, 21 
 
 Ideo-motor connections, 36 
 
 Idleness, cure of, by hypnotism, in 
 
 lima Szandor, case of, 75 
 
 Imagination, influence of, in health 
 and disease, 16 et seq., 403 
 
 Imitation, effects of, 422 
 
 Imperative suggestion and Dr. 
 Mercier, 70 
 
 Imposture in hypnosis, 156 
 
 Impotence cured by hypnotism, 193 
 
 Incubation or ancient temple-sleep 
 cures, 34 note 
 
 Individuality and continuous 
 memory, 284 note 
 in hypnosis, 284 note, 413 note 
 
 Infantile paralysis, hypnotism in, 
 282 
 
 Inflammation controlled by sugges- 
 tion, 74 
 
 Influence at a distance, 121, 416 
 of the hypnotist, 65 note, 131 
 
 Influenza, hypnotism in, sequelae 
 of, 230, 304, 349 
 
42ti TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 Inhibition in relation to hypnotism, 
 
 26S et scq. 
 Inhibitory centres, creation of, by 
 
 hypnotism, 207 
 Insanity treated by hypnotism, 94, 
 
 185 et seq. 
 Insomnia, case of, 302 
 Insusceptibility to hypnotism, 173 
 
 ct seq. 
 Intellectual capacity of hypnotic 
 
 subjects, 64, 1 58 note 
 Intelligence during hypnosis, 148 
 Interference, theory of, 268 
 Invalidism, professional, G4, 213 
 
 et scq. 
 Ireland, Dr., quoted, 150 
 Italian researches, 1S8 ct scq. 
 
 Jackson, Dr. Hughlings, quoted, 277 
 James, Professor William, quoted, 
 
 69 note 
 Janet's, Professor, cases of insanity, 
 
 216 
 Journals devoted to psj'cho-therapy, 
 
 6 
 
 Keller, Helen, case of. 41 
 Kinglake, quoted, 21 
 Kingsbury's. Dr., practice, 228 
 King's evil, touching for, 30 
 Ivleptomania cured by hypnotism, 
 
 1 1.5, 328 
 Krafit-Ebing, Professor von, prac- 
 tice of, 75 
 
 Latah, suggestibility in, 144 
 Lawyers, use of suggestion by, 422 
 Laziness, case of, 112 
 Left-handedness and hypnotic sug- 
 gestion, 49 
 Legal aspect of hypnotism, 410 et 
 
 scq. 
 Lehmann's Dr., theory of hypno- 
 tism, 139 
 Lethargy, hypnotic, 59, 284 
 Leucomaines and sleep, 274 
 Liebeault's classification, 389 
 discovery, 7 
 dispensary, 50 ct scq. 
 theory, 288 
 Liegeois, Professor, of Nancy, 3, 
 
 418 
 Literature, recent, 5 
 Locomotor ataxy, cases of, 197, 305 
 Lombroso, Professor, quoted, 280, 
 
 412 
 Long, Dr. Constance, quoted, 90, 
 221 
 chapteron psycho-analysis, 
 353 
 
 Lourdes, miracles of. 69 note, 409 
 Love troubles, hypnotic treatment 
 
 in. 175. 347 
 Luys' hypnotizing mirror. 381 
 treatment by transfer, 398 
 
 Magnetism, animal, 389, 407 note 
 
 ' Magnetized ' cards, experiment 
 with, 378 
 
 Magnets, influence of, 402 
 
 Manners of patients, 221 
 
 Masturbation cured by hypnotism, 
 192, 318 
 
 Medical education needed in hyp- 
 notic practice, 119, 178 
 
 Mediums as affected by hypnotism, 
 284 note, 417 note 
 
 Melancholia and hypochondriasis, 
 86 ct scq., 1 84 , 207 
 
 Memory affected by emotions, I46 
 and personality, 2S4 note 
 latent. Si, 104, 137 
 in hypnosis, 139, 415 
 
 Meniere's disease cured, 336 
 
 Menstruation, disorders of, cured 
 by hypnotism, 66, 193 
 
 Mental and spiritual healing com- 
 pared, 409 
 
 Mercier, Dr. C, quoted, 70, 413 
 note 
 
 Mesmeric control, delusion of, 121, 
 186, 420 note 
 
 Mesmerism and hypnotism, 195 
 
 Metabolism and sleep, 275 
 
 Metalio-therapy and suggestion, 1 00 
 
 Methods ot hypnotizing, 51, 170 
 ct seq. 
 of public performers, 222. 3S9 
 
 Midwifery, hypnotism in, 82, 229, 
 256 
 
 Mind cure, 17 
 
 Miracle cures, 30 
 
 Mischievous child, case of, 331 
 
 Mitral disease relieved, case of, 311 
 
 Moll, Dr. .\lbert, quoted, 80, 146 
 note, iSo 
 
 Monoideism and hypnotism, 134 
 
 Moral depravity, cure of cases of, 
 
 95. 319 
 insanity, cases of, 115 
 Morbid self-reproacii, cases of, 88 
 Morphia habit, treatment of, 92, 
 
 253 
 Myers, Dr. A T. , quoted, 122, 226 
 F. W. H., theory of, 107 
 
 N rays and animal magnetism, 407 
 Nail-biting cured, 332 
 
 by hypnotism, 207 
 Nails and Nutrition, 25, 2S2 
 
INDEX 
 
 429 
 
 Nancy, school of, 2, 61 
 Negative hallucinations, 147 
 Neilson's, Colonel, practice, 225, 
 
 230 
 Nerve energy, 56, 288 
 
 habit. 267 
 Nervous prostration cured, case of. 
 
 326 
 Neuralgia cured by hypnotism, 84, 
 
 212, 330 
 Neurasthenia, cure of, 85, 215 note, 
 235. 237 
 and hypochondriasis compared, 
 86 note 
 Neuritis, peripheral, hypnotism in, 
 
 195 
 Neurons, arrangement of. 348 
 New Zealand, hypnotism in, 217 
 
 note 
 Nutrition in hypnosis, 291 
 
 Objections to hypnotism, 208, 224 
 Obscene obsessions treated by hyp- 
 notism, 187 
 Obsessent ideas, 209 
 Occupation neuroses, hypnotism in, 
 
 67 
 Olcott's, Colonel, cases in India, 35 
 Operations, hypnotism in surgical, 
 
 «3 
 cure by, per se, 17 
 Ovarian troubles, hypnotism in, 255, 
 343 
 
 Pain as danger-signal, 127 
 Panacea, hypnotism as a, 344 
 Paralysis caused by suggestion, 147 
 treated by hypnotism, 71 note, 
 
 193 
 Perjury and hypnotic suggestion, 
 
 421 
 Permanence of results, 116, 165 
 Personality, double, cases of, 103 
 change of, under hypnosis, 97 
 of hypnotist, 221 
 Perversity of some patients, 167 note, 
 
 213 
 Phantom limb, cases of, 347 
 Physiological rest in hypnosis, 85 
 Physiology of hypnotism, 138 et seq. 
 Pill-plane patients, 166 
 Pitres, Professor, quoted, 36 note, 
 
 266 note 
 Podmore, Mr. Frank, and sugges- 
 tion, 28 note 
 Possession, demoniac, 216, 406 note 
 Post-hypnotic suggestion, 78, 387 
 Precautions in using hypnotism, 128 
 
 et seq. 
 Prejudice against hypnotism, 212 
 
 Prescription, hypnotism by, 230 
 
 Preyer's, Professor, theory of sleep, 
 139. 296 
 
 Prince's, Dr. Morton, case of mul- 
 tiple personality, loG 
 
 Prolonged hypnosis, treatment by, 
 200 
 
 Proportion of persons hypnotizable, 
 62, 176 
 
 Protection of subjects, 129. 224 
 
 Pruritus cured by hypnotism, 210, 
 
 339 
 Psychical Research Society, 6, 82 
 note 
 states and organic functions, 
 38 note 
 Psycho-analysis, treatment by, 214, 
 
 353 It seq. 
 Psycho-Medical Society, 212 note, 
 
 256 
 Psycho-therapy clinics, 5 note 
 Public e.xhibitions of hypnotism, 
 
 dangers of, 123 
 Puerperal insanity cured by hyp- 
 notism, 333 
 
 Quackery and suggestion, 210 note 
 Quack's study of human nature, 352 
 
 note 
 Qualifications of hypnotist, 35, 172 
 
 Racial susceptibility, 169 
 Railway spine, 70 
 Rapport, hypnotic, 55, 129 note 
 Reflexes, action of hypnotism in, 
 
 295 
 Reformation, hypnotism as aid in, 
 
 95. 115 
 Relation, life of, 383 
 Religion and medicine, 406 
 Religious leaders, healing by, 33 
 Remorse, hypnotism in cases of 
 
 morbid, 88 
 Report of British Medical Associa- 
 tion Committee on hyp- 
 notism, 424 
 of Italian Medical Commis- 
 sion, 189 
 Repose, health by, 159 
 Resistance to hypnotism, 166, 1S3 
 
 to suggestion, 183 
 Respiration in hypnosis, 298 
 Reynolds, Sir J. Russell, quoted, 
 
 20 
 Rheumatism influenced by sugges- 
 tion, 210 
 cases of, 211, 314 
 Richet, Professor, quoted, loS, 144 
 
 note 
 Russia, hypnotism in, 252 
 
430 TREATMENT BY HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION 
 
 Safeguarding patients and doctors, 
 128 
 
 Salvation Army cures, 35, 307 note 
 
 Savage, Sir George, and hyp- 
 notism, 4 
 
 Saviil, Dr. T. D. , quoted, 25, 86 note, 
 
 233 
 Schrenk-Notzing's, Dr. von, ex- 
 periments with hashish, 143 
 Sciatica, cure of, by hypnotism, 313 
 Scott's, Dr. Gilbert, case of stig- 
 
 matization, 79 
 Sea-sickness prevented by hypnotic 
 
 suggestion, 218 
 Senses, abnormal acuteness of, in 
 
 hypnosis, 42 
 Sexual perversion, hypnotism for 
 cure of, 319 
 theory of Freud. 356 
 Sham operations, morality of, 351 
 Shock, ailments from hypnotism 
 
 in, 70, So 
 Simulation and hypnotism, 156 
 Skin diseases treated by hypnotism, 
 
 218 
 Sleep changed into hypnosis, 47 
 
 and hypnosis compared, 55, 144 
 Sleeplessness, cases of, cured, 86, 
 
 226, 302 
 Sneezing, paroxysmal, treated by 
 
 hypnotism, 310 
 Somatic reactions in hypnosis, 279 
 
 note, 294 
 Somnambulism, hypnotic, 65 
 spontaneous, 43 
 
 cured by hypnotism, 209 
 Sphymographic tracings in hyp- 
 nosis, 72, 298 
 Spinal irritation, hypnotism in, 70 
 Spiritual healing and suggestion, 
 33, 35 note, 307 note 
 and mental healing, committee 
 of inquiry as to, 409 
 Spiritualism and hypnotism not 
 
 connected, 9 
 Stage-fright cured by hypnotism, 91 
 Stammering, hypnotism in, 204 
 
 ct scq. 
 Statistics, hypnotic, 62, 174 
 Stigmata, 77 
 
 Students should be taught in medi- 
 cal schools, 194 
 Sturges, Dr. Russell, quoted, 87 
 Subliminal consciousness, 216 
 Suggestion during natural sleep, 180 
 and false witness, 421 
 indirect, treatment by, 14 
 somniquc, 180 
 
 in surgical operations, 216, 229 
 without hypnotism, 150 
 
 Surgery, hypnotism in, 216, 229 
 Surprise, hypnotism by, 147 
 Sympathetic system and hypno- 
 tism, 72 
 
 Tamburini, Professor, quoted, 18S, 
 
 295. 297 
 Taplin's, Dr. Betts, practice, 6 note, 
 
 220 note, 247 
 Temperament affected by hyp- 
 notism, 97, 412 
 Temperature affected by hyp- 
 notism, 75 
 Tension, nervous, in disease, 158 
 Testimonials, fallacious, 206 note 
 Tests of hypnotizability, 1G3, 380 
 Theories regarding hypnotism, 138 
 
 et scq. 
 Thought-reading and muscle-read- 
 ing, 36 
 Thought - transference and hyp- 
 notism, 186, 417 note 
 Tic douloureux, case of, 311 
 Tickling and inhibition, 270 
 Time, appreciation of, in hypnosis, 
 
 79 
 Tobacco habit, cure of, 93. 321 
 Tokarsky's, Dr., practice, 251 
 Torticollis, cure of, by hypnotism, 
 
 308 
 Touch, healing by royal, 34 
 Transfer, treatment by, 205, 398 
 
 Unacknowledged use of hypnotic 
 suggestion in practice, 69, 226 
 
 Van Renterghem's, Dr., practice, 
 
 267 
 Vaso-motor system, effects of hyp- 
 notism on, 72, 140, 161, 295 
 Vincent, Dr. Ralph, quoted, 42, 
 
 112 
 Vital reaction, test for, iCo note 
 Vittoz's, Dr., re-education treat- 
 ment, 215 note 
 Vivi-sepulture, case of, 29 
 Vogt, Dr. Oscar, quoted, 6, 141 
 Voisin's, Dr. Auguste, practice, 94, 
 179, 184 
 Dr. Jules, quoted, 94 
 Vomiting caused by suggestion, 17, 
 
 27, 73 
 cured by suggestion, 45, 193, 
 225 
 
 Walker, Dr. Jane, quoted, 256 
 Warmth, local, suggested in hyp- 
 nosis, 52, 160 
 by auto-suggestion, 297 
 Warts cured by charms, iS 
 
INDEX 
 
 43' 
 
 Warts cured by hypnotism, 19 
 \Vashing, mania for, cured by 
 
 suggestion, 334 
 Waste products, effects of, 274 
 Weir-Mitchell treatment, abuse of, 
 69, 125 note 
 combined with hypnotism, 69 
 Wetterstrand's, Dr., practice, 170, 
 
 Wilks, Sir Samuel, quoted. 25 
 
 Wilson's, Dr. Albert, case of mul- 
 tiple personality, 105 
 
 Wingfield, Dr. Hugh, quoted, iii, 
 15S note, 206 
 
 Woods", Dr. J. F., practice, 231 
 
 Work, need of, in alcoholism and 
 other diseases, 214 note, 243 
 
 Writer's cramp cured by hypnotism, 
 304 
 
 Yeo's. Dr. Gerald, theory of hyp- 
 notism, 13S 
 on hypnotization of animals, 
 
 397 
 Yung, Professor, experiments of, 
 
 378 
 
 Zonar epilepsy. 266 
 
 Zones, hypnogenic, 266 note 
 
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