Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1897-12-18
HYPNOTISM AND SURGERY.

.bis time. Upon some subjects
doctors disagree with more facility
tbsn upon others. ard hypnotlsm is
o,a Of those subjects. At o recent
r,satjng of 1.-THE Academy of Medicine
more was II lively discussion of the
,,erits of hypnotism as n therapeutical
AGENT. Some of the learned gentlemen
beiIoved In the hypnotic power, for the
.xcellent reason that they themselves
,osssss It, So they said Some Of the
learned gentlemen did not believe in
shts mower. and their reason. apparent
IL, was because they do not possess It,
az don't know 1t II they do. Every
harmed gentleman thought that his
reason was just as good as anybody
else.
There was also learned lady present,
ond. Of course, she had her own opln-
Tan obout the matter Also, of course,
,or opInion was different from that of
,,e learned gentlemen. The lady was
mn Mary Putnam jacob, and she said
thai in her opinion women could never
succeed in hypnotizng patient She
,oo had her reasons for thinking so.
she had tried 1t and had failed.
when a reporter called upon DIR, ia
,oti TO ask her something about her
hvnnotic experiments she declined to
cav ANYTHING about the matter. She
.,,d that she did not consider 1t
suitable subject for discussion IN seou-
lar journals" She did not deny That
she had attempted hypnotism in GER
,ain cases without success, but she de-
,lored the fact that apy mention of her
remarks had been made In the daily
papers
balever in hypnotism, laughed at DR..
Jacobi's remark about feminine inabil-
t,v TO exercise the mysterious influence
IIa eoid that Miss Chandos Leigh Hunt.
daughter of Leigh Hunt, is one OF the
most successful hypnotists In EnSiahu;
"uiss Hunt is not II physician,' sald
mr. cum, but she has been repeatedly
~ Gov nv physicians, and has placed
satiants under the hypnotic influence
ihre N surgical operation was per-
,nrmad | do not know personally OF
anv woman physician who mas mace
professional use OF hypho'is 7.1,.,
ss not however, because they cannot
hnt because they have not given the
waiter serious study ana ehort'
20 YOU, yourself use the hypnotic
i,Nnence in your practiceE asked 'he
repgrtci,' said DIR. Gum. Occasionally
do But not as often as | used To- IL
!. ,n, hecnuse | have less confidence
In II hut because | have Been 700 pusS
IN experiment with 1t. l 40 not tiiiiih
that the greatest success lies III .lie
,sa Of the hypnotic power by the phg-
" uSa.i H., mr. surgeon himself For instance,
IN the casc of a surgical operation the
ha,ter ARRANGEMENT would he to nave
regular hypnotist place the pat,cn'
under control, just as we nave w
tor simply TO give the cniu ,,,',r,n,, ~ ba
ether Then the operating surgeon mas
M strain upon his nerves, ana can CIV
hls entire concentrated attention W
the operation. a.. ,,,,o,o,ic
us the exercise of the hypnOtic
power exhausting to the operator
take somthlng from him. For instance,
an one occasion | invited NUMBER Oh
friends to my house for the purpose W
showing them some experiments ~
hypnotlsm. | spent about three iou III
nj the work, and after they hau an
zone 1 sat down at my desk, intenui,ls
10 prepare an article to be sent to me
printer in the morning. inc supJt,r.
was one with which l was perlectly
familiar. and ordinarily / couiu nay.
prepared the paper in IL very siote
lime on this occasion, however WIS
incapable of constructing a single SEN
tence. / had no particular sense OF eN-
haustlon. | simply felt like remaining
perfectly quiet, and ! finally gave up
the attempt to write that night
Soon after that l wanted to devote
an evening to hypnotic experiments
so concluded to do my Writing IN wv
afternoon and have 1t out OF the way
before evening. l wrote for over thiee
hours and up to within Few minutes
Of the time set for the experiments
Although / had the same SUBJECTS hs
before all of my experiments were ull-
satisfactory. and some OF thern "e.e
total failures. l had evidently cN-
hausted my nervous energy by close
application to mental work, and there
had not been a sufficient interval LOT
recuperation.' t
could you hypnotize a person IN
the same room with you without max
ing an open attempt To do so! -
Not unless ] had hypnotized the
same person a number of times pelore.
1t is always more difficult to hyphotlze
person the first time than IL Is a,ter-
| ward. The more frequently 1t rs cone
the more susceptible the subject pe-
comes" ,,,
Have you ever hypnotized person
at a distance?' -.
"Ies. in one case. had been treat
ing q woman for insomnia hau on
repeated occasions put her to steep
| through hypnotic influence. one even
80
tomorrow night, Mrs. -, but AT ~
o'clock exactly 1 shall try to put you
to sleep Just as IL We're here the
next evening went home so that at ~
o'clock could settle myself to an con-
centrated effort to hypnotic my pa
tent. l conjured up the picture OF the
room, of all her surroundings, OF her-
self, and then I tied to put her 10
sleep. The next day she told me thnt
she had gone to sleep soon after ~
and had enjoyed n good nights rest
Well, Of course, l put II down 10 her
Imagination and concluded to test her'
told her that l would try again that
night at the same hour But dld
not went out with n friend and did
not come home until late.
The next day she said: Doctor, you
didn't do MS YOU said YOU would.
was awake until 2 or o'clock this
morning.. l assured her that 1 had
tried TO influence her and that / would
Try again that night, Again, how
ever l did not. / wrote until about
a. M, and then | concentrated my
mind on my patient and tried to put
i her asleep. In the morning she told
me that at 10 o'clock she was perfectly
Wide awake and remained so until
o'clock, when she suddenly became
ufoWSy and soon went to sleep.