The age-herald., 1899-12-17

kleptomania. By the mere exercise of the hypnotic suggestion he has cured moral ills that no amount of medical treatment could reach, but one of his most wonderful achievements was the transformation of Joseph Rubins, the music-mad boy genius of Brooklyn, from demon to swaet-tem pered child
 For some time Joseph Rubins has been a marvel to the medical fraternity of New York. Although he has taken but few les sons In music he has been able to play the violen like an angel. He played entirely by ear but he played well. Beyond that he was little short of an idiot He was sullen and he had a violent temper; he had deu- sions- that he was being pursued by rats and his sleep was troubled by horrible dreams from which he awoke with screams of terror. At home he was disobedient and he was unable to find any children who would play with him because of his inordi- nate desire to torture them He bit and scratched his brothers and sisters and every one said that he ought to be sent to an insane asylum. He was expelled from school as an incorrigible, and everywhere he was known as "Rubins' silly boy"
 Dr. Quackenbos had his attention drawn to the lad and he at once placed him un- der treatment. That was but a few weeks ago, but today the boy has been cured of all his bad traits. He plays the violin as sweetly as ever, but he is now obedient and kind The children play with him without fear. and the teachers at his school wonder at his reforma tion. He was on the border land that divided the sane from the insane, and he was about to cross the line that would have made of him a hopeless lunatic. With few treatments Dr. Ouackenbos re- stored the missing something in his nature and the future opens bright before him. When hypnotism is able to accomplish such feats it is not strange that medical men should have decided to have introduced thn nf th.n n colleges.
 In speaking of his remarkable achieve ments the other day Dr. Quackenbos said:
 "There is no mystery about what I am doing; nothing occult in it, nothing at var lance with the purest Christian belief and practice. I have no supernatural gifts nor am I in league with the devil
 ''I look upon hypnotism with a reverence that is felt by very few. I regard it as a great instrument for the moral and spir- itual elevation of mind, for the giving of definition to the intellectual and ethical divine in human character. And the secret . of success consists in the substitution of lofty and happy standards for the unna- tural, sinful impulses and beliefs that hold sway.
 hypnotic sleep I know that I have been given possession of the soul of my patient for such a time as I may prescribe, to do with it what I will. The responsibility of the moments that follow is awful beyond any power of mine to picture. I stand in a closer relation to that sleeping mind than father or mother, teacher or preacher, hus- mand of wife can ever attain; and it be- comes my Christian manhood to act only as the vice-regent of the Almighty in the use I make of this great power and sacred opportunity.
 "Perhaps I talk too frankly, but hypno- science is we'll understood today as tele- graphy, and in consenting to give the re- suit of my experiments am actuated sole ly by a desire to extend a knowledge of hypnotic suggestion a philanthropic in- strumentality among noble minded Ameri- can men and women."