The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-02-19
STARVED By HYPNOTIsM.
Agonies of tho Furnishing Depicted by
One Who Was Well Fed.
F3.ou1 The poU Non fIo-ayta


From, the Fail Man Gazette.
The other day I wanted to include In a
page Of fiction a realistic description of the
agonies that a starving person undergoes
before death puts an end to the suf-
ferlng. / had consulted several doc
tors and had obtained from them
statements of the symptoms preced-
ing death from starvation. Still. I felt
that description based on such informa-
tion was wanting 10 certain particulars aud
could not well be put into the mouth of a
sufferer. Suddenly it occurred to me to 20
to the Hopital de la Charlie and beg the
doctors attached to the CliniQue HVpnoth-
eraplque to hypnotic one of the patients.
to suggest that she was starving aud then
then allow rue Co write down the
sensations experienced by the subject
as she described them. | called
at the hospital unexpectedly and explained
the object of my VISIT The doctor smiled.
and without word sent for patient, who
was Immediately put into q hypnotic state.
Nothing passed between the doctor aud the
subject before she was hypnotized. 1t was
then suR Jested to her that she had been
without food for many days and was actu-
ally starving. The patient showed signs of
great suffering and distress, and at the doc
tors invitation described the sensation she
felt.
/ was astounded.
A symptom hat had noticed in scores Of
cases among the starving Russian peasants
last winter was described by the hypnotized
woman with physical movement that was
familiar to me, though I had entirely for
gotten it, and my attention had not been
called to 1T by any medical man consulted.
The patient swas taken by suggestion pro-
Rresstvely through the stages Of starvation
as far Fa ~
brought back to a normal state on it's being
suggested to her that she had swallo wed
nourishing food Still, it was some time
before the food she had taken in imAQina-
ton seemed TO benefit her. She persisted in
declaring that 1t caused her more bodily
pain than the pangs OF hunger.
Dr. Jules Luys, member Of the academy
OF medicine, the eminent professor at the
Charlie, was greatly interested in ths re-
suit of this experiment. which was carried
out for me under the observation Of DR..
Encasse, 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.
DIR. Luye 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
a small phial and placed on the side of
the neck of a hypnotized person, produces
symptoms of suffocation by smoke; tube
of distilled water, similarly placed. pro-
vokes signs of incipient hydrophobia, while
another very simple concoction put in con-
tact with the flesh brings on symptoms of
suffocation by drowning The intense con-
gestion that these artificial attacks produce
might determine the rupture OF blood
vessel or the stopping of the heart; it is
therefore unwise to describe the expert
ments more fully lest anybody should be
tempted to try them without proper pre-
cautions.