The herald., 1896-01-05
HYPNOTISM AND CRIME

BY invitation 1 attended yesterday after
noon the annual meeting of the Massachu-
sets Surgical and genealogical society.
About a hundred doctors were present.
The printed program gave, after the pro-
ceedings of the business meeting, the ten
papers on subjects 10 be discussed in the
scientific session." with the name of the
doctor who was to present each theme.
Questions and discussion were in order
after each one had finished. A number of
women, regular doctors and members of
the society, were present. The chief inter-
est OF the meeting seemed to center in DR..
James r. Cooke, ";he blind DOCTOR" and
his discourse on The Art of Hypuotism and
Its Use as an Anaesthetic, With Demon
stration. Although the hour had grown
late before DR.. Cookies number was
reached, all stayed to hear and see what
would be said and done on hypnotsm.
1t was striking scene when the 1.-THE,
graceful, and handsome young doctor, per-
fectly blind since he was an infant of two
months old, arose to speak. lie had no
time to prepare paper to be read. and
spoke extempore, but with clear intelli-
gence. clear and positive statement. and
absolute confidence in his position, that
eontrasted strikingy with the manner of
any or all of his predecessors. The crowd
of Bostons best physicians hung eagerly
upon his every word.
He began by saying that hypnotism
would never take the place in surgery, as
an anBsthetic, of chloroform or ether; but
added that it has a place in surgery. and
an important one. in the treatment of GER
tain cases. as old sores and ulcers. Other
cases also can be useluly treated by this
agency. He told his hearers that they
must rid themselves of all ideas that there
is in hypnotism anything occut--anything
mysterious. Hypnotsm, he said, is pro-
duced by the separation of one part of the
cerebral cortex from the rest; OF splitting,
80 to speak, the consciousness inlo units,
and OF acting upon of these uni S by sug
gestion. 1t is quite possible thus to anB5-
thetlze some one portion of the face or
hand or other part of the body and render
it insensble to pain.
How valuable aud important this is in
many cases in surgery the Doctor pointed
out. he spoke OF some of his own cases,
and mentioned one, kind of trance-like
cataleptlc case in RoXbuTy, of young
woman whom he called the "SleepiIg
Beauty" She had been long in a Lazarus
like condition from which none of her
physicians could arouse her, and when he
was called to The case he tried hypnotism.
ne uildiy Wohe Her up. Dut Sil6 al It6fWarQ
fell asleep again. He then loaded re-
volver, in every barrel, aud, after arousing
her, in par, from her trance, told her to
fire at somebody in the room. She fired,
and without any excitement or emotion,
bu he believed she "knew in her heart"
that in this case "it wasn't loaded with
bullets. He tried other tests which show ed
The existence of some interior conscious
ness which would, in most cases, refuse
any hypnotizer's attempt at a wrong. { This
was in answer to questions from some of the
doc ors who sat listening to him. Once
he told her to stab him with a dagger, 1t
was a dagger of lath, which he had pre-.
pared, and she evinced no hesitation in
using it. But when he commanded her to
hurl lighted kerosene lamp, she took the
lamp, drew back her arm as if to hurl it,
and then hesitated, and finally refused to
do it. The doctor believes there are few
cases in which a hvpnotized subject will
not refuse to do wrong act, or submit to
q wrong. no matter if it be suggested.
Scoundrelism cannot flourish on hyp
ism. The case of the murder of Miss Cling,
or the fellow who was said to have hypnot-
ically caused her murder, and who was
hanged Wednesd iy at Denver, he has in
vestigated. and found the published stories
to be mostly false. DIR. Cooke would not
assert dogmatically that crime never was,
nor could be, committed with the aid of
hypnotism, but his experience as an in