Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-12-05
Pl [ III II SLEEP.
A Hypnologist Talks to Chicago
Physicians.
SOME PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.

Three Persons Operated Upon with De
cided succcss-A Dandy Subject for .
Tooth rpcnter''-Importsuee OF the
New Power ms an Anesthetic-A
New Device for wooins Tired Natures
Sweet Restorcr, and How II Worked.
CHICAGO. Dec 5.-Twenty wide-awake
dentists and several men OF medical SCI
ence, with skepticism written all over their
faces. sat in club room A at the Grand Pa
cifc hotel last night and listened to an In
teresting discourse on ''Hypnotism." Pro
fessor Norman j. Roberts, Of Waukegan,
Ills, was the lecturer and hypnologist.
Before the professor finished his clinic and
his hypnotic demonstrations he succeeded
in putting about half Of the learned doc
tors aud wide awake dentists asleep. They
all went home feeling ashamed OF their
skepticism. The clinic was for the benefit
of the Chicago Anesthetic club. which
holds regular monthly meetings. and which
boasts of being the frs. club OF its kind
ever organized. 1t is hard ut work inves-
tigating the science of anesthesia- IL
has now forty members, and is rapidly
growing. DIR. G. Leininger is president
and Dr. B. J. Cigrand secretary.
A study Recommended.
The first thing Professor Roberts did
was to recommend the study of the his
tory and development Of hypnotism as set
forth in the Humboldt Library" for Au-
gust, 1889. Hypnotism, he said, was a
very old science, but only within the last
three years had it been employed by
French surgeons for producing anesthesia
for painless operations. Hypnotism, the
professor declared, was no trick or farce,
but a reality that must be studied and un-
derstood before its power could be recog-
nized or felt. Too many set it down hast
lily as mere quackery or the result of q dis
eased imagination. 1t is nothing of the
kind. All the professors Investigations
had been to advance the science OF anBs-
thesia and not for ''show" purposes.
Proving His Theory.
He predicted that hypnotism would take
the place of ether and chloroform inside OF
three or four years, and that special men
would be found to hypnotize patients for
all operations The conditions OF the pa
tient who could be successfully hypnotized
were absolute quiet, concentration OF mind
and non-resistance. In proof of his thee
ries Professor Roberts brought forward
three subjects on whom he had previously
operated They were two half grown
school boys and a young man BY few
passes of the hands andwords of command
each of the boys was put asleep. Then
needles were put through the flesh OF
their faces and hands, and they never
WINGED
Great scheme for Dentist
One of the subjects slept with his mouth
wide open. What fine chance for u den
tistf' exclaimed the hypnologist. He
would sleep with his mouth open there for
n month il you let him. You have to sug-
gest whatever condition of mind you want
to your patient, and he carries il out. "
sleep, sleep, sleep hard, f" were commands
used by the professor. When his patients
slept and he was about TO pierce them with
large needles, he kept saying, cold. cold.
numb, no feeling no feeling" A physi-
clan who kept tab said that during the
time the boys were under the mesmerist's
influence their respiration was sixteen and
their pulse normal.
His Control Over the Boys.
A peculiarly o5 one subject was that IL
required longer time to hypnotic one OF
his sides than the other. To one OF
the boys the professor said: ''Wh,n
you wake you will see a pretty
bird and try to catch it," and sure
enough the boy did. To another he said:
when you wake you'll have the tooth
ache and that boy clapped his hands to
his face and rocked bis body TO and fro as
if in great torment The professor said be
had many. hypnotic patients, who would
not consent to appear in public, but will
ingly submitted To his control In his prl-
vate off ,e.
Put His Audience 60 sleep.
In conclusion, he exhibited new appar-
atus for producing sleep by mechanical
means. This was revolving mirror
which flashed the lights from four or five
surrounding lamps. The professor got the
doctors in a semi-circle around the ma
chine. He told them to take comfortable
positions, <Jncentrate their minds on the
flashing mirror, and gaze at it steadily
with wide open eyes. In fifteen minutes
many OF them were asleep and snoring.
Presently the mesmerist allowed them to
wake up.
Went Home Puzzled.
They rubbed their eyes, looked around in
dazed and sheepish sort OF way, and went
home not knowing whether to believe in
hypnotism OF not. Among those present
were: Drs. Haskell, Pierce, Rennebaum,
Wachter, Marshall Biglow. Fish, Pfennig.
Whipple, Jefteris, Anderson, Benz. Bar
thelmew, Williams. Birchell, Schnell,
and Patrick.