Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-07-03
HYPNOTISM.
DIR. Newton's Interesting Paper
on the Subject.
EXCITED WIDESPREAD ATTENTION.
A Follower OF Charcot Gives the Result
of Twenty Years. Study of Medical
jurisprudence.

DIR. Robert T. Newton. of the Society
of Medical Jurisprudence, delivered an
address some time ago upon "Hypno-
tism and Crime In answer to some
urgent inquiries from Mail and Ex-
press readers regarding the subject, the
paper is for the first time printed prac-
itcally in full. 1t is as follows:
DIR. Newton is we'll able to discuss
such a subject. and his opinions carry
great weight, as he has devoted twenty
years of hard study to it, and has
studied under the great master Charcot,
whose name indicates distinct school
of hypnotism known everywhere.
DR.. Newton has been an expert for
the State many times. He is head of
the department of nervous diseases of
the Presbyterian Hospital, of insanity
and nerovus diseases at st. Mary's
Hospital and lecturer on insanity and
nervous diseases at the Polytechnic Hos
pital.
DIR. Newton began by describing the
difference between the two great
shoots of hypnotism, that of Charcot
and the Nancy. or Natural School.
He then went into a lengthy descrip-
ton of the different stages of hypno-
tism and how hypnotic sleep can be
most readily induced. After citing
number of experiments in both schools.
he said:
"Of all the hypnotic states lethargy
is the most favorable to passive crimes.
Hypnotic education may be i'll the line
of suggested rovement. Authorizations
or of acts. Suggestion, which is best
in q somnambulistic state, becomes more
and more irresistible. and in it crimes
can be done by. as well as upon, the
subject. Not only does resistance
grow impossible, but even memory of
crime both done OF suffered, is often
irrevocably lost on waking. All this
is the more alarming il acts can be sug-
gested mentally without word or sign.
Suggested amnesia may be partial. and
one may recall. and perhaps confess.
a certain crime and forget the sug-
gester. Retroactive suggestion may be
made in such way that the subject
believes himself to remember acts or
crimes committed, or robberies, or
tortures suffered which have not oc-
Cured. A crime may be suggested to
a hypnotized subject to be done, say
hours, days. or even weeks, in the
future. and the subject then awakened,
but at the appointed time the act is
spontaneously done, and, in some cases.
entirely forgotten. The problems what
is the state of the subject in the in
term between the suggestion and the
act, and what at the time of the
act, are as impossible for determining
the question of resp onsibllity as they
are to solve.
Twill hypnotism ever be as valid
an exculpatlon from criminal intent
as insanity? Although the former, on
account of its brief duration. is more
easily simulated, yet. if the subject
knows his malady he may be culpable
if he takes no precautions and crime is
done.
''Bernheim believes that suggestibil-
ity exists in the normal state, but that
it is neutralized or repressed by reason,
attention and Judgment. In sleep
these faculties are enfeebled, impress
sions are accepted without control and
transformed into movements and
images. This psychic modality or new
consciousness makes the brain more
docile and plastic to suggestion, and
more apt to react on the functions and
organs either by inhibitions or dynamo
genesis.
"Hypnotism may. then, be defined
as the provocation of particular psy
chic state in which suggestibility is
augmented. This state need not neces-
sarily be sleep, for catalepsy. an@sthe-
STA, paralysis and hallucinations can be
provoked without sleep. The highest
degree of hypnotism is marked by
amnesia on awakening and by the pos
sibility of Authorizations both hypnotic
and post hypnotic.
eff subject knows his malady and
takes no precautions, and crime is
done. that is his responsibility. How
is he is question for judicial
decision.
"Since all the immediate causes of
action proceed from person
atty. we must look for the origin of
voiition in the inmost core of person
atty. that is to say. in his or her char.
acter. 1t is this character which is
the sole immediate cause of
action. Motives are only
mediate causes of action. While
motives are Immediately given. or are
at least determined by close examina.
ton of the external conditions of an
action, the ultimate grounds of an
action remain unknown to us. opening
out as they do into the infinite source
Of the psychological conditions of the
development of the individual mind.
1t is true that something may be
learned of character by observation.
and the more complete the determine /
lion of an individuals character by |
experience the greater is the
,oDfideuce of our Dredictinp that he I