The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-09-27

krRctice OF Aypnotism May Supersede
Medicine for Many Cases.
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. Liebault, "to whose persever-
ing and benevolent practice of hypnotism
on his poor clientele ut Nancy" said the
president professor Sidgwick), "the pres
ent progress of the science is so largely
due" DIR. Liebault's paper described the
case of a woman who had been seized by
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
shutting 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 DeldDuf (Liege) said that at
oil times the mind of man had been cana
bic OF influencing the body, but it was
only in recent times that this action had
been scientifically put in evidence. Was
1t 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
person was to persuade him that he
could or could not do u thing which he be-
lieved he could not do, or which he be-
lieved 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 artificially that which was
known us hypnotism, aud it was only the
development of suggestibility, the exalta-
ton 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. Tho subject understood it 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 n 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 defied her
to call out the morbid thought while he
looked ut her. Having succeeded, which
was easy, he announced to her that the
following day from 8 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 1t was possible to
charm away the morbid ideas for two
bours, then for a day, then for week
The cure was accomplished.
W6s there any mystery in that? Was
there the psxs;;!9n 6 az ssa9ym.l c9n e,
starting point. which was the conviction
OF the subject that he was dealing with a
man endowed with q curious power or that
be submitted himself to curious treSt-
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
well known to him and in respectable posi-
tions, one being carpenter, another
shoemaker, a third the wife of a sea cap
tain and the fourth n girl of that class. It
was said that DR.. Bramweil had recently
painlessly extracted teeth from the woman
without throwing her into the hypnotic
trance by merely ordering her not to feel
pain. The suggestion was efIicacious ex-
cept in the case of one tooth, with regard
to which she had previously formed the
conviction that she would have pain, so
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 rend ali her
lines-that is to say, to show more than
ordinary long sight
This operation he now repeated. He put
tho woman back into her former myopic
state Mt the word of command, and by word
Of command ag2iR she appeared to be imme-
diately relieved. The spectators warmly APP
plauded the demonstration. DR.. Bramwell
contends that with all his patients he is able
to produce the same satisfactory results by
the mere command in the waking state
that he had previously produced in q
trance. referring to the question how far
patient can suggest TO MIN Improvement
in his own condition, DIR. Bramwell men,
toned that the mere fact of his giving n
written order to a patient to sleep enabled
that patient to take out the order, read it
and 90 to sleep whenever he needed it. He
had repeatedly sent patients to u dentist s
carrying with them "a written order 10 feel
no pain. This the patients read when they
sat down in the dentists chair. He has at
the present time patients who 90 to sleep
by reading the order to do so.
These orders were said to retain their
power when DR.. Bramwell had not seen
the patients for weeks; in. fact he had, he
sud. been repeatedly called upon to give
them new pieces of paper when the orig
inal talisman had been worn out. It was
stated thas the sea captains wife had been
in the habit of taking sea voyages to Lon
don from Yorkshire, during which she was
invariably sick, but since Dir. Bramwell
had made IL suggestion to her not to be