Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-31
HYPNOTIC MARVELS.
Wonderful Demonstrations at the
Hospital De la Charlie.
THE AWFUL PANGS OF HUNGER,
And ether Artificial suferings Felt by
the Patients.
HOW NERVOUS CENTERs ARE REACHED

The other day wanted to include in a
page of fiction realistic description of the
agonies that a starving person undergoes
before death puts an end to suffering, says
a writer in the Pal MaH Budget 1 had con-
suited several doctors and had obtained
from them statements ofsthe symptoms pre-
ceding death from starvation. Still, I felt
that a description based on such
information was wanting in certain
particulars and could not we'll be
put into the mouth of a supposed
sufferer. Suddenly it occurred to me to go
to the Hospital de la Charlie and beg the
doctors attached to the ClinIque Hypno-
therapique to hypnotize one Of the patients,
to suggest that sine was starving, and then
to allow me to write down the sensations
experienced by the subject as she described
tbeul. I called at the hospital unexpect-
edly, and explained the object of nv visit.
The doctor smiled, and, without a
word, send for a patient, who was imme-
diately put into a hypnotic state. Nothing
passed between the doctor and the subject
before sne was hypuotized 1t was then
suggested to her that she had been without
food for many days, and was actually starv-
ing! The patient soon showed signs of
great suffering and distress, and, at the
doctors invitation, described the sensations
she felt.
1 was astounded.
A symptom that 1 had noticed in scores of
cased among the starving. Russian peasants
last winter was described bythe hvpnotiZed
woman with physical movement that was
familiar to me, though had entirely for
gotten it, aud my attention had been called
to it by any medical man con-
suited. The patient was taken
by suggestion progressively through
the stages of starvation as far as was safe,
and was afterward brought back to normal
state on its being suggested to her that she
had swallowed nourishing food Still, it
was some time before the food she had
taken in Imagination seemed to benefit her;
she persisted in declaring that it caused her
a great deal more bodily pain than the
pangs of hunger.
Artificial Suffering Created.
Dr. Jules Luys, member of the Academy
of Medicine, the eminent Professor at the
suit of this experiment, which was carried
out for me under the observation of Dr. En-
causse, his chief of the laboratory He told
me afterward that he had known the woman
for many years, and was sure that she had
never suffered from hunger
DR.. Luvs then showed me how a similar
artificial state of suffering could be created
without suggestion-in fact, by the mere
proximity of certain substances. A pinch
of coal dust, for instance, corked and sealed
in q small phial, and placed on the side of
the neck of hypnotized person, produces
symptoms of suffocation by smoke; a
t,,h, ~ al ei,
provokes signs of incipient hydrophobia;
while another very simple concoction put
in contact with the flesh brings on symptoms
of suffocation by drowning. The intense
congestion that these artificial attacks
produce might determine the rupture
of blood vessel or the stop
page of the heart; it is therefore
unwise to describe the experiments more
fully lest anybody should be tempted to
try them without proper precautions But
there was an experiment of this nature that
should be described, for it serves as a trait
d'union that will enable me to go from ex-
perimental to practical hypnotism. I
The woman who had been hypnotized
earlier in the morning was put to sleep for
a second time, and a corked and sealed tube
containing Is grains of brandy was put in
contact with her neck. A few seconds
later she commenced to make grimaccs
and moved her tongue and lips as
it she were tasting liquor of some
kind. She then began talking in broken
phrases: 'I'm thirsty-I want something
to drink-Give me something to drink-My
head pains me so-Anyone would say was
drunkp' She tried to stand on her feet, ana
fell heavily down into chair.
A State of Drunkenness Transferred.
''Therer' said Dr. Luys, who had pre-
viously taken his visitors out of the room
to explain what would happen on contact
of the tube containing alcohol with the
hypnotized person. "Now, a strange thing
is that this artificial state of drunkenness
can be transferred to another hypnotized
person
A man was brought in from an adjoining
room and hypnotized. One OF his hands was
placed in the hand of the woman, and the
passage of magnet along their arms in the
direction of the man sufficed to transfer the
symptoms of drunkenness to him. To all
appearances he was quite as drunk as the
W oman seemed to have been few moments
earlier.
''But this is far from the most important
part of my work, said the doctor. "Hyp-
notism reaches the nervous centers-the
very parts of the human organism that
medicine does not touch-and has become
Of nervous complaints. Unfortunately, at |
the outset, we find ourselves face to face
with great difficulty, for hypnotism is not
applicable in Its most effective form to |
everybody, as only a certain proportion of |
patients is hypnotizable.
"What is this proportion, doctor?'-
tAbout 60 per cent. The problem now
1oes not consist so much in directing hyp-
MOTTO action in methodic way as in en-
arging the circle of elect, and in rendering
it applicable to the greatest number, for
we are able to say that if once hypnotic ef-
ect is produced cure is almost certainly as
Iured.''
81 hear, Doctor, that you have endeav-
ored to remove birth-marks by sugges-
,ion?"-'I scarcely care to talk about my
experiments in that direction vet," replied
DR.. Luys, "because I have not carried my
ests far enough. but you can see for your
elf the progress made in one case"
Why the Doctors Are Interested.
DR.. Luys handed me the photograph of
! youth, Eugene B, 10 years of age.
The ear, part of the lett cheek and neck
we're discolored by q terrible crimson
,irthmark. Eugene B. was found
o be hypnotizable, and it was
to him in hypnotic sleep that
hese marks would disappear. Strange to
ay, not only did the discoloration become
ess vivid, but, blotches of clear pink flesh
appeared at several points in the patch that
nearly the whole of one side of
he poor boy'r head. A number
# tracings of the mark were
made from time to time by Drs. Luys
md Encausse, who were the first to apply
he cure, and they serve to show the
hanges in shape that it underwent during
he course of treatment. The cure does
lot seem to have been completely effected,
,ut the fact that such marks should be
modified. as shown by the tracings pub