Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-04-20
A DANGEROUS AGENCY

At the Medical Convention held in San
Francisco this week, one of the regular
essayists took up the subject of hypnotism,
and treated of the dangers that threaten
those who permit themselves to become
Exhibition subjects" of biologists
and hypnotizers. According to this physi-
clan the mesmeric and similar states
should not be trifed with, and are fraught
with a great deal of danger. The sus-
cess of the operator is dependent upon
the extent to which the subject" is tenn
porarily deprived of his reason and Volt
ton, for which are substituted those of the
operator. The restoration of the subject
is attended with more or less difficulty,
and with each subsection to the operator
the power becomes feebler. As conse-
quence the approach to insanity is closer
and closer as one is more and more oper-
ated upon. The essayist proceeds to say :
The exhibitions are against public morals and
should be prohibited. The persons who thought
lessly subject themselves to the manipulation
of the mesmerist have no conception of The
harm they are mourning. In Germany and Italy
public exhibitions of hypnotism are forbidden
by law. A movement is also on foot in France
to interdict them. The eminent Charcot of
Paris, himself close investigator into this
class of phenomena, calls attention to its dan
gers, saying: Z" Medicine has taken possession
of hypnotism, and il is only through her that
such an agent can be made use of to mankind
and prevented from working injury to the hui
man race" Maudsley remarks in the same
warning voice: 1t is not merei harmless
amusement for one who is susceptible to the
hypnotic trance to suffer himself TO be fire.
queutly practiced upon, for there is danger of
his mind being weakened temporarily or per-
manently. 4 fer coming out of the trance
little while must elapse before his will RECEIVERS
its power, he remains unduly susceptible to the
suggestions of others and too easily influenced
by commands. In the end he is likely to lose
all control over his own mind and 10 become
insane"
1t has been matter that has occasioned
surprise that physicians have not spoken
thus freely upon this subject earlier. Per-
haps, however, they have been restrained
by the fear that the public would deem
them Intermediates and jealous of the sac
cess of the hypnotizers. The world is
often disposed to look upon the voluntary
advice of the medical fraternity as opposi-
ton to progress, or at least as excessive
conservatism. But as rule the profess
sion, in its public councils, in its magazine
literature and through Boards of Health,
has rightly advised and safely guided the
public. 1t has been our thought, on wit
Messing the exhibitions of these operators
in mesmerism and electro-biology, that the
subjects were exposed to dangers that the
cautious man would avoid and that the
nervous and susceptible should not be ex-
posed to- 1t is fact familiar to all who
have witnessed these experiments that the
subjects most easily controlled are, as we
have said, more readily brought under the
influence of the operator the more they
submit themselves to his influence. Hyp-
notism certainly is an agency that should
not be left to the use of whosoever chooses
to experiment with it. As it affects the
mental state and subjects the reason TO an
extent that makes the person influenced by
it the passive instrument of another's Will
II ID easy W utlAtiStttAid now NetuECiOuS q
weapon it is and that, ike dealing in poi
sons, it should be brought within the con-
troll of the law. When eminent ply
sicians, who have made the phenomenon re-
ferred to profound study, gravely tell us
that it is an edged tool, and should, even
by the most careful, be handled with the
utmost care, and only then after full
knowledge of the physical and mental
condition of the subject operated upon,
it behooves society to give attention to the
advice and to prohibit promiscuous and
unskilled experimenting with it, or its use
as an amusement. AS the President of
the Convention well said:
An agent so uncertain and OF so limited ap-
plicstion holds out but little promise of ultimate
therapeutic value OF its potential evils, how
ever, ifleft in the hands OF ignorant cnarlatans
there can be no doubt. In person of weak
mental fiber it tends TO foster the neurotic tenn
permanent and evoke the unstable and hyster-
ical. By its repetition the supremacy of the
viii and the dominance of the higher brain
centers, all that make men better than the
beasts of the field are endangered. Nothing
could be better calculated 10 breed mental in
yertebrstes.