The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-09-09
HYPNOTISM IN PARIS.
How BeTill0n Masters the Will-POWer
Of His Patients.
Almost Diabolioal Impaired to Med
ical Studsnts.
From the New York Press.

EAOA TUE 4fDW VI IA ANos
Paris, Aug. 2O-In Paris hypnotism is
an established fact. In America, where
it is looked upon as a branch Of the
oscult, aud is naturally viewed with
some suspicion, it is hard to realize that
in the French capital it is in every day
use Ia the municipal hospitals-that
specialists in hypnotism are Just as
reputable as specialists in optics, and
that there are clinical schools where
each day classes of students assemble
to practice producing the hypnotic trance,
just as they practice the tying of band
ages.
The most unique and interesting clint
CUES in Paris are the hypnotic cliniques,
and the head of these is the cliuique OF
Frances foremost hypnotist, Berillon.
Promptly at 10 a. m. the folding doors
open, and Berillon enters with his assist
ants. His chief assistant is by name G.
Mavroukakis He is a Greek. His face
is made striking by wonderful pair of
eyes. They are coal black, piercing and
magnetic" and when he fixes them on
you they cause the odd feeling that
while looking into yours, they are also
regarding something behind you.
In the case of an adult, the patient is
generally seated in a comfortable chair,
IN half reclining position. a small table
is placed before him, On which is tiny
instrument of brightly FURNISHED
steel, 1t consists of pedestal,
on which are mounted two or
TOUR arms, which the mechanism of the
box makes whirl very swiftly. The
whole looks much like the gov
ernor of a steam engine, and the
whirling arms are of such a shape as to
catch the light and to throw it in a multi
tude of tiny flashes into the eye. The in
strument is SET near to and little above
the eye, and lying thus, unless the patient
looks determinedIy in another direction,
his eye must be capJivated by its fash.
This is to tire the eye, and through it,
that portion of the brain which is most
susceptible 10 such impressions, focus the
| patients attention and hus produce the
! first stage of the hypnotic trance.
Sometimes there is strapped to the
shoulders a peculiar leather harness,
| holding a curved steel rod, which comes
over the head, and terminates in brass
! ball. This ball, no matter what She posi-
| tion of the head may be, always hangs
| between the eyes and a little above them.
| Perfect quiet is always enjoined, and
/ after, perhaps, a half hours gazing at the
| wheel or the ball, the operator finds the
will much weaker and the resistance less.
In treating patient in this condition,
| Berillon sits before him and speaks in a
| low, gentle, and rather persuasive than
| commanding voice, as follows:
| Look fxedly into my eyes Bien!
! Your eyelids are firing. They are becom-
ing very heavy. You begin to want to
! close them. You grow drOwsy. The
! drowsiness spreads. You feel the sensa-
tion of calm. You are going to sleep.
| The desire to sleep grows upon you. You
viii sleep as though in your own bed.
Sleep!"
The last sleep he repeats several
times in a voice slightly elevated and
| monotonous. Sometimes Berillon lays his
fingers on the eyelids with gentle pres
sure.
The stronger the mentality of the pa
tieLt says Berillon, the easier to estab-
fish a control. Hardest 10 hypnotic are
patients of weak minds, and it is almost
impossible to get any results at all from
idiots.
The affection in the treatment of which
Berillon's hypnotic process has been most
successful is hysteria. This is cured by
strengthening the resolution and by di
minishing the number OF crises, or par
oxysms. by suggestion, ~ while in hyp-
motto trance. The case is now being CON-
mented on in Paris of a woman whose
nervous crises were, in three months
/ treatment, reduced from one every three
| hours TO intervals of three weeks.
remember the curious case ofa woman
whose hysteria had for several seances
| failed to show any reduction. While in
! trance Berillon suddenly said to her in
! rapid, incisive French you do not tell
NE the truth. You know what causes
| this condition You have a trouble which
| you have concealed from me. What is
| it,"
Yes" the woman admitted. Il have.
| 1 did not tell you the truth. l had a
| lover year ago who abandoned me for
! another woman, and I have never seen
him since. hate MIN, but l love him,
/ and--I suffer-
when you wake" said Berillon, "you
/ will have no hate against him. You will
remember him only as part of your past.
/ He will become less and less TO you, and
/ finally you will forget him"
| The woman fought against this, ex-
! claiming vehemently: "No, I will not for
| get him. love him in spite of it. and
| wish still TO love him" 9 ~
! Berillon repeated the suggestion per-
/ suaslyely, while the tranced woman
! clinched her teeth and shook her head
! dehantly, but gradually her resolution
| became weaker beneath Berillon's will.
| and ne ceased to struggle or TO exclaim
! against it, Waking an hour afterward
the woman mad no recollection that her
secret had been dragged from her in a
manner that seemed almost cruel.
Some weeks afterward I questioned
! Berillon in regard to the case and found
/ that she had been discharged some days
/ before. The infatuation for her recreant
/ lover had died.
| The curious question arises, If this is
I possible in the case of an Illicit affection,
/ is it not possible in the case of husband
/ and wife, or any Of the other relations
which imply human alfectionf A power
I that could thus weaken them seems dia-
! bolic
| Everyone remembers the celebrated
! case in Paris, a year or two ago, when the
mistress and her accOmplice murdered
1 the lover by strangling. In the most SEN
! sational trial which followed the claim
/ was made that the murderer committed
/ the deed while hypnotized by the woman,
/ and was thus innocent Of moral intent to
/ kill. The jury, il is relieving TO remem-
| Der, made no delay in sending the wretch
| TO the guillotine, and Berillon would have
agreed with them
! And yet, If hypnotized subject were
/ told mat man we're rabid dog, and a
| pistol were put into his hands, he would
/ certainly shoot the man. What are we
/ 70 say Of science that makes this posi-
/ blel
Three times a week the inner consult
| ing room is turned into a lecture clinique
| and students Of the University OF Paris
I medical schools who intend making hVO-