The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-05-19
CRIMINAL SUGGESTION.

The question of criminal suggestion is
by no means abandoned. 1t is still
learnedly discussed, notably by the
French Investigators. The question is:
Can subject in hypnotic condition be
deprived Of free will to the extent of max
ing him an accomplice in crime? We
have not believed it possible, nor have we
seen any cases cited that prove it prob
able. There is great deal of humbug
and twaddle about hypnotism talked and
acted. That there is something in mes
meric influences may be fully admitted,
however.
Years ago it was claimed that if a man
heard apparent voices constantly saying
to him, skill your wife, kill, kill, kill
herr; and if he acted under this influence,
that he did so by involuntary impulse,
which might be the result of suggestion
by a superior mind. But the common
sense of such case is that the man is in
sane and that his moral strength has been
broken down by constant contemplation
of the crime. Mesmerism, hypnotism,
animal magnetism, may by practices
bring weak mind into such a state that
it will fail to CO ntrol physical action 10 a
certain extent But that means only that
by perversion of the mentality the vic
contemplation of single idea. fear and
other causes may produce a like result.
But that by what is called hypnotism
one may COW and control another to
certain extent and for a limited time, we
think has been proved by the French
scientists, who have Investigated the phe-
nomenon. Professor Deboeuf, in the Chi
cago MOniSt, believes the hypnotic con-
dition to be pathological. while the Nancy
school holds it to be psychological. He
holds the somnambulist in the hands of
the hypnotizer to be without will of his
own, and actuated only by the wilfof the
operator, even to the extent Of swearing
falsely in court of justice, and believing
he sees things that he never saw. While,
however, theoretically he believes such
power to be exceedingly dangerous, prac-
tically he thinks there is little to fear
from it.
The California physicians, who in So
ciety resolutions, protested against pub
lie exhibitions Of hypnotism did so on
the basis of pathological belief. They do
not believe that one of good moral bot
tom can by suggestion be led by hypnotic
influence to become an accomplice in
crime. Obviously one of weak moral
purpose can be led into crime by per-
suasive mind without the aid of hypno-
tism. Debeuff holds that a criminal
seeking hypnotic accomplice in one of
sound moral build would be more likely
to be compromised than aided by his sub
ject. He gives this instance as one cited
to support the theory that the hypnotized
patients will is wholly subordinated.
NJ. Liegeois believed that he had produced
in Miss e. such absolute automatism. so
complete an humiliation of moral sense ana
OF ali liberty OF action, that he, without NOV
ing muscle, caused her to place the muzzle
OF a revolver close to her mother, and
appeared completely awake and far caimer
than We're tae witnesses of the scene. Take
notice OF this Her mother reproached her,
Ieihng her that she might have killed her.
Miss E answered. smiling: 81 have not
killed you, since you are speaking u me now.n
Now, says the essayist, 1.-The hypothesis
of stimulation, the stimulation which is
practiced in the hypnotic state, appears
TO me the only plausible explanation.
The calm, smiling attitude of Miss E
is an unanswerable proof of this. All
experience shows that where the hyp-
Noticed are impelled by suggestion TO the
performance of an act repugnant to their
natures, they recoil from it with re-
pugnance. My own experiments have
convinced me that the hypnotic subject
under suggestion realizes that he is play
ing role, not, perhaps, strictly in ac-
cordance with the rules of ordinary act
ing, but feeling, nevertheless, that he has
a certain part to play, and must enter into
the spirit of it."
This conclusion really answers the
question referred to, and leads us back to
the conviction with which we started
out-that criminal accomplices are very
unlikely under hypnotic influence, and
that the claim that they may be used is a
part of the humbuggery of mesmerism
or hypnotism, and in line with ali the
extravaganza claims made at the outset
for new theories touching mental phe-
nomena.
THAT Mr.. Stewards purchase, which so
many at the time derided. has turned out