Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-30

over them again and still does not discover
it. And again and again he goes over
them until that error is found. And again,
and again, and again, until that error is
found"
The old man kept on repeating the "again
again and again until that error is found, 4"
until first one and then another of his listen
ers, in language more emphatic than polite,
insisted that if he didn't shut up they
would pitch him out of the window.
He ignored the Interruptions very calmly,
and finally said: "Now you are wondering
why 1 said that so often. But wanted to
impress upon your minds the fact that eat
ing, sleeping, rest. must all be laid aside by
the book keeper, and he must patiently and
persistently seek until he finds his error, be-
cause there is one there, and he knows it.
And perhaps after days and nights of weary
search he finds it in the very last place he
would have ever thought of looking for it
not in any of the ledgers, but in the day
book, the blotter.
TRIED NOT TO LISTEN.
Now, that was certainly coherent tale,
with an apparently proper premise and d
logical sequence. The patient tried not to
hear it; he even argued with himself that
it was only another. delusion; in fact, he
felt sure it was a delusion, yet it required
actual information as to the location of the
male surgical ward to satisfy himself that
the old bookkeeper and all his statements
were only Pigments of disordered brain.
But not yet was the work of delirium
ended. On the evening of that same day
commenced probably the most remarkable
of ali the mental phantasms which
grew into an apparently logi-
impression than all others upon the patient.
1t can only be outlined briefly, because it
occupied over 16 hours in its full develop
ment. One of the lady nurses was mar
ried woman, who had her son in the hospi-
tai. She met that son just outside the pa
TENTS door, and asked him to do an errand
for her and bring her four articles. He
couldn't understand, and yet the request
was a very simple one. Astonished at the
wonderful dullness OF the child (as the pa
tient supposed it was), she took him in the
room adjoining that of the patient, and
there endeavored to make him understand.
There she patiently examined him Tor long
time, the patient hearing every word that
was said, and when the mother finally real
lied that her son, who was not child,
had become insane over his mathematical
studies, her grief was profound and all the
dences as much as possible. There were
other developments and continuous
growth of this story until long after day
light the next morning. During the day
the patient learned there was no married
woman, no son, no grief; nothing at all but
singularly llfe-like chimera.
POSSIBILITIES IN HYPNoTIsM.
In the foregoing there is nothing but
II r.
other reason for their publication beside
that of their own novelty. Mr.. Pierre
Janet, Professor of Philosophy in the Lycee
of Havre, France, has devoted much atten-
tion to the cure of hysteria by the use OF
hypnotism., In the March Scribner'S Mdgu-
zine William James has an interesting
article on o work written by M. Janet, en-
titled "De lAntomatIsme Psychologique."
In this work of over 400 pages NJ. Janet
recites the results of his experiments, inves-
LEGATIONS and cures. Some of these are GER
tainly wonderful; indeed, almost incredible
in what they reveal of "the hidden self"
But it is not of them that 1 wish particu-
larly to speak. NJ. Binet, noted MEM
Der of the Saitpetrie school, has also written
paper on the same subject. NJ. Binet
says that hysteria is contraction of the
field of consciousness.
terra are capable OF realizing only half what
a normal person can. Both writers say that
the second self has no subsequent recollec-
tion of the act committed. They allege that
hysteria is splitting up of the conscious
ness, defect of unifying power, which may
result from abnormal weakness.
NJ. Janet saws be succeeded in getting the
same phenomena from persons in alcoholic
delirium as he did from hvsteric patients.
IF this be the case, then the proper deini-
tion of hysteria is not so much what M.
Binet gives contraction of the field of
consciousness, but rather what both savants
say, "a splitting up Of the consciousness.
THREE DISTINCT SELVES.
1t would take too long to describe even
briefly the cases of TWO women, called IN his
work Luie and Leonie, treated by NJ. Janet,
but it is sufficient to say that they developed
three distinct selves, and only in the third,
when deepest under the influence of hypna-
tism did they know the other two. In their
first or normal, selves, they knew nothing
of the actions of their two other selves.
The three phantasmagorias, the result of
delirium, which are related in this article
occurred to the patient at time when he
was capable of fully realizing all his sur
roundings, and when he could read and un-
derstand what he read. There was no for
getiulness of them nor of what actually took
place while they seemed to be taking place.
That must then have been splitting up of
the consciousness. The hidden self was act
ing at the same time as, if not in unison
with, the normal self.
Now, the final question is this: If hys-
terra can be cured by hypnotism, and if, as
NJ. Janet says, alcoholic delirium is akin to
hysteria, of which there is little doubt,
why cannot hypnotism be brought into use
to cure delirium? 1t would be interesting
to ascertain what would be the result it a
person In delirium was thrown entirely into
the hypnotic state. Being controllable by the
operator the result should be beneficial TO
the patient. NJ. Janet does not state what
efforts were made to relieve one delirium
victim. All that Mr.. James reports is that
the man was made to walk, crawl, lie down
andltalk, while the patient was under the
impression throughout it all that he was
standing beside his bed. This gives no
further Information than that person in
delirium is still amenable to hypnotic in
fuences. CHARLES JACKSON.