, 1889-10-13
ALL ABOUT HYPNOTISM.
A POWER WHOSE MANIFESTATIONS
ARE ALMOST INCREDIBLE.

in the Treatment Of DIsease-CapabIe of
Injury when ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Should
be Limited by Law
Tn term hypnotism is nearly synony-
nous with mesmerism, animal magnet
ism, braidism and syggignoscism. Hyp-
notism is believed to have been practiced
by r~eligionists many centuries ago, but
little, however, is known of its history
previous to the time of Mesmer Q77sl
Since then ~hypnotism has been much
studied by many eminent men in the
professions Of medicine, science, religion
and the arts. There came a time when
the interest In 1t tagged very greatly;
but a few years ago a revival took place
in France, and since then it has been
generally recognized as a therapeutic
agent and employed by many physicians
all over the world. One of the earliest
uses Of h%ypnotism was to produce a state
Of insensibility, so that surgical opera
tions could be performed without pain.
But it has been applied for many other
purposes, and some men, very skillful in
its application, use it in the treatment of
a long list of diseases both acute and
chronic. Nervous affections sometimes
tCi1 NtAI It.lilly W Us luluenCGA
HOW PRODUCED.
To produce hypnotism, operators have
methods which vary somewhat in detail,
but the principle is the same. Most all
use passes, although some depend almost
entirely, If not entirely, upon the fxa-
ton of gaze. For reasons which will
appear anon, none of the methods en-
ployed to produce the hypnotic state will
be described in this communication. As
to the force generated or liberated in
hypnotism, nc one pretends to know;
but many believe it to be electric, or
perhaps magnetic. According to one
observer, the description the subjects
give of their sensations is that they first
feel their fingers tingle and their hands
and feet get cold; then they become
sleepy; and when told that they cannot
open their eyes, they say they hear and
know all, but cannot open them; then
comes deep sleep, unless it is desired to
extract a tooth or do some other such
work when the subject is not entirely
unconscious. Then they know and do
as hidden, but suffer Mt pain. They say
IL the skin is cut it feels as if something
were being gently drawn over it, and
they feel the forceps applied to the tooth,
but that pulling the tooth feels like pull
ing a peg out of q hole.
As to the value of hypnotism as a
remedial agent, there is necessarily much
difference of opinion. Some physicians
consider its range a very limited one,
while others think it applicable to a long
list of affections. The majority Of those
who ought to know best appear to agree
that it will undoubtedly prove of very
great service in properly selected cases
in medical practice. As for its use in
surgical operations, as a substitute for
gas, ether or chloroform, it can never
displace them to more thar a very slight
extent, except, perhaps, it be with chill
dren. Very many who are about to have
an operation performed must necessarily
be so nervous that %hypnotism will be
quite out of the question.
And there will doubtless always exist
persons who will be insensible to the
efforts of operators. Some subjects are
easy to hypnotic, while with others it is
the reverse; to which of these classes a
person belongs cannot be known until
an effort to put him into the hypnotic
state is made. And in the susceptible
cases not infrequeHtly several seances
are necessary before the power of the
operator is sufficiently felt.
One very important point that the
study of hypnotism has brought out and
emphasized, says an observer, is the po-
tency of suggestion. Doubtless most of
the slight aches and pains hat the gem
eral practitioner is called upon to treat
are partly imaginary, and all that is
necessary for cure is a certain amount
of faith on the part of the patient, be-
gotten by judicious suggestion by the
medical man. AT first sight this seems
to be a sort of chicanery, but it is impos-
sible to deny its efficacy, and it is much
safer for the doctor to acknowledge, to
himself at least, that it is not his simple
remedy which has wrought the cure,
but his suggestion to the patient. One
needs no better example of the power of
suggestion than the many cures brought
about by the faith cure. In this case
religious fanaticism is called upon to
produce an effect upon the mind of the
credulous patient. and if the malady is
an imaginary ono the relief is i%nstanta-
cot
We now come to the reason why none
of the methods employed to produce
hypnotism have been herein described.
1t is an agent which only should be used
by reputable physicians, for, like others
which they employ, it will do much harm
II injudiciously applied. Were the meth
DDS known, there would naturally be a
tendency on the part of some to try it as
a means of amusement, while, without
doubt, there are not q few who would
use it for no good purpose. That hypno-
tism may be rightly applied and without
injury it must be exclusively confined to
physicians, who alone are capable of dis
tinguishing between those subjects upon
which it is likely to do good and those
likely to be injured by it. 1t is a well
known fact that persons who are often
hypnotized finally become SO susceptible
that the act is accomplished with the
greatest ease. And in not a few in
stances of subjects SO treated for a long
time. it requires scarcely more than a
single glance for the operator to throw
them into a hypnotic sleep.