The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1892-09-01
RARE EXPERIMENTS.
PRACTICAL VALUE OF DISCOVERIES
ON MIND INFLUENCE.

Hypnottsm as Healing Art-Demon
strations Which Go to Prove That the
Practice Of Hypnotism May supersede
Medicine for Many Gases.
At Mondays session Of the international
congress Of experimental psychology hyp-
notism was the leading feature.
The first paper on the subject was by the
veteran DIR. Liebaut, ito whose perseyer-
ing and benevolent practice Of hypnotism
on his poor clientele at Nancy,n said the
president professor SidgwickI "the pres
ent progress Of the science is SO largely
due" DR.. Liebault's paper described the
case of n woman who had been seized bg
monomania tending to suicide and who
was cured by hynotic suggestion. Having
enumerated several simple forms of intel
lectual disorder and others rather compli-
Gated which had already been dispelled by
the same method, which consisted of sub
stituting by suggestion true or false ideas,
the writer said he thought that similarly
he might obtain still more remarkable sue
cesses even when the disorders of the mind
of the subject were more complex.
! Professor Deldeuf Uiege) said that at
all times the mind of man had been capa-
BILE of influencing the body, but it was
only in recent times that this action had
been scientifically put in evidence. Was
it necessary for this purpose to put the
brain into an abnormal condition? Was
that which was called hypnotism state
against nature' Not at all. The question
carried the answer with it, To hypnotize
"a person was to persuade him that he
could or could not do thing which he be-
lieved he could not do, or which he be-
lieyed he could not be prevented from do
ing This persuasion might be directly
produced, but it might be also indirectly
produced. The Indirect method consisted
in producing artiilcially that which was
known as hypnotism, and it was only the
development of suggestibility, the exalta-
tion of the will.
Take, for example, high official whose
nervous, agitated state had rendered him
unhappy for twenty years. He showed to
him, without sending him to sleep, that he
had the faculty of not feeling pain. He
passed needle through his arm without
making him jump. He showed to him in
that way the power of his will. That will
had only to be directed against his nervous.
ness. The subject understood 1t and was
cured. In mental maladies the mind must
act on the mind, the healthy part of the
brain on the diseased part
He cited the case of a woman possessed
with the idea OF killing her husband and
children. Every day she asked herself on
rising if that was not the day for her to
accomplish her murders. He defed her
TO call out the morbid thought while he
looked ut her, Having succeeded, which
was easy, he announced to her that the
day from to she would not be
able to think of killing those who were
dear to her. Success was, so to speak, in
evitable By degrees it was possible to
charm away the morbid ideas for two
hours, then for day, then for week.
The cure was accomplished.
Was there any mystery in thatf Was
there the production of an abnormal con-
dition? Evidently not Apart from the
starting point, which was the conviction
of the subject that he was dealing with a
man endowed with curious power or that
he submitted himself to curious treat
ment, the subject had been simply led to
act by his own will on the ideas which he
thus arrived at dispelling.
Experiments in hypnotism followed, the
operator being DR.. Bramwell, of Goole.
He presented four patients, all Of them
we'll known to him and in respectable posi-
tions, one being a carpenter, another a
a third the wife Of seE. cap
tain and the fourth girl of that class. 1t
was said that DR.. Bramwell had recently
extracted teeth from the woman
throwing her into the hypnotic
trance by merely ordering her not to feel
pain. The suggestion was efficacious ex-
cept in the case OF one tooth, with regard
to which she had previously formed the
conviction that she would have pain, 80
that her self suggestion overbore his sug-
gestion in that case. The same patient
suffered from severe myopia, only being
able to read the third line in the ordinary
table of test letters. Dr.. Bramwell caused
her by suggestion to be able to read all her
lines-that is to say, to show more than
ordinary long sight.
This operation he now repeated. He put
the woman back into her former myopic
state at the word of command, and by word
Of command again she appeared to be imme-
iiately relieved. Thespectators warmly ap-
plauded the demonstration. DR.. Bramwell
contends that with all patients he is able
TO produce the same satisfactory results by
tho mere command in the waking state
that he had previously produced in
france. Referring to the question how far
4 patient can suggest to him Improvement
IN his own condition, DIR. Bramwell men
TONED that the mere fact of his giving a
written order to a patient to sleep enabled
hat patient to take out the order, read it
and go to sleep whenever he needed it. He
had repeatedly sent patients to a dentists
with them n written order to feel
no pain. This the patients read when they
sat down in the dentists chair. He has at
,he present time patients who go to sleep
By reading tlsa order to do So
L..
power when DIR. Bramwell had not seen
.he patients for weeks; in fact he had, he
'aid, been repeatedly called upon to give
hem new pieces of paper when the orig
nal ralisman had been worn out. 1t was
itated that the sea captains wife had been
n the habit of taking sea voyages to Lon
Ion from Yorkshire, during which she was
invariably sick, but since DR.. Bramwell
lad made a suggestion to hes not to be
lick she had made five passages AID en-
Dyed every meal.
As regarded the dangers of hypnotism,
Dr.. Bramwell believed they were easily
Lvoided by little care on the part of the
He had been accustomed to
IMPRESS on his patients that they were en-
irely free to accept or refuse his sugges-
ions. In one or two cases he found his
declaration of freedom had been too i'm
'ressive, because the patient when scpa-
ated from him for some time had sup
,osed that he would not be able to renew
he influence Mall Gazette.
The old formula for Bordeaux mix
ure was as follows: Dissolve six
'ounds of copper sulphate in sixteen
,allons of water; in another vessel
lack four pounds of fresh lime in six
,allons of water. When the lime mix
ure has cooled to the temperature of
he air, pour it slowly into the copper
mixing the two by constant
tirring. At the Ohio station the above
as been found effective when diluted
o fifty instead of twenty-five gallons,
S ordinarily recommended. Farmers
No. I, department of agrieul-
ure, recommends similar reduction
a the strength of the mixture
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