New-York tribune., 1890-05-27
"rUC UJDDEN SELF

In recent number Of " Scrhncr's Maga-
zinc" Professor William James, oi Harvard
University. gave an extraordinarily interesting
occonnt of the contents of book published
last summer by French professor OF phlioNo-
pby. This volume is record Of observations
unon certain patients. subjects of hystcrla, mt
tho Havrc Hospital and l. described 10y ITO
fcssor lanes "a, a contribution to the COM
narrative science Of trance states. II oi''h
happcrs" he remarks. that scattered lA''s
of certain kind float around for long time
but that nothing scientific or solid comes oi
thom until some man writes just enough "t
hook TO give them a possible body ana mean
inc. Then they shoot together, rs 1t were
from all directions and that book becomes me
centre Of crvstallization of rapid accumula-
ton Of new knowledge. such book am
sure that W. Janots ought 10 be- II IS no'
possible in this article 10 do moro than aIiudc
10 two or three of the strange experiences eN-
troctod from the Frcnchman's work by the
American professors in fact, mere statements
without examples 10 explain them arc not fully
ineligible.
The most interesting and important dis
coycrv which VI. Janet made was the p"Ssl-
biltv OF throwing the subjects Of his expert
nrnts. when they were III somnambulNuc
state. into deeper trance, so that they pos
scsscd different sensibiltics, different mem
ories. and became, in fact, different persons.
In the primary statc-thc one which disease
had made normal. aS il worc-a certain patent
..was anac,thctic all oyer, nearly deaf ana
with badly contracted field of vision In
the first hypnotic trance those anaeNthcSaS
,,orc diminished but in the deeper trance no
trace Of them remained. These different per
.or,litics saws Professor James, ARE proved
Ly VI. Janet not only 10 exist in the successive
forms in which we have seen them, but 10
cocyist, 10 exist simultaneously; in such wise
that Lucie /. for example, is apparently the
only Iucc. anacsthctc, helpless, yet absorbed
IN conversation that the other Lucic-Lucie 3
is all the time alive and kicking inside oi the
same woman, and fully sensible and wide
awake and occupied with her own quite dicr-
cnt concerns" To the experiments by which
tho French professor convinced himself OF the
trutb of this assertion there Is not space here
10 refer
The significance OF these investigations, as
Professor James remarks, lies in their pos
sibIe application to the relief OF suffering. II
is great satisfaction that they do not stop
short Of that point, even at this early stage.
The story of their practical employment Is Il
means of cure is the story of young glil,
Marie by name who came to the llavrc Hos
pital in a ptiablo condition. She was afflicted
with pcriodical c0nvulsve crises, attacks of
terror and fixed blindness of the left eye.
Having observed that patients in the deeper
ausfprmeI into uormu
persons. and that lapscd recollections, in par
rcular, were revived in them, he threw Marie
into that condition and thereby easily discov-
cred the original causes of her hysterlcal
troubles Of which when not in that condition
She could give no definite account Thus he
ascrrtancd that the convlIlsivc crises were due
,o her being immersed in cold water at a crit
ical age; the attacks of terror To her having
witnessed a horrible accident; the blindness
10 an acute rcvulson at being compelled, in
her sixth year, TO sleep with child on whose
face there was IA disgusting eruption, similar
cruption subsequently appearing and recurring
ON her own face, and leaving behind it anacs-
tbcsia of the skin and hystcrcal blindness.
For the purpose Of "A cure, says Professor
lanes the thing needed was to get the sub
conscious personality to leave off these sense
less halmcinatiens hut they had become so
stcrcotypcd and habitual that this was no easy
task. 1t was, however, achieved by W. Janet
in this way: He made her believe that she
was child again, and caused her to live
through the profound experiences which had
so afflicted her, but gave To each a happy ter
mnation "Thc sub-conscous Marie. passive
and docile as usual, adopted these new versions
of the old tales" and "all morbid symptoms
ceased as if by magic" Five months later,
when W. Janet wrote out the description of
her case, she was well, had grown stout and
was 10 longer hypnotizable.
1t is Professor James's opinion that "mind-
curers' and christian scientists" sometimes