ARTIFICIAL HYPNOTISM. 363 



necessary to avoid hitting them. The hypnotic is in a similar situa- 

 tion. Sensorial impressions of which he is not conscious provoke ap- 

 parently voluntary and reasoned acts. 



The hypnotic, although his eyes are shut, perceives what is passing 

 around him. The eyelids are not wholly closed. Movements perceived 

 unconsciously, by the aid of the sight or hearing, are imitated by him 

 involuntarily and under a constraint from which he can not withdraw 

 himself, and with an almost servile exactness. Thus he will regulate 

 his step according to that of the experimenter who makes him act, will 

 raise his arm to the same height, will bend his body back .and forth in 

 accord with his model. 



Some acts of imitation, such as yawning, laughing, crying, etc., 

 take place even in the normal condition ; generally the idea of a move- 

 ment determines the action, but in induced sleep the contrary takes 

 place, and the unconscious perception of a movement leads to its accom- 

 plishment. This relation explains the facility with which hypnotics 

 are made to execute movements of which what we may call the sensa- 

 tion has been communicated to them in advance. If the subject is not 

 disposed to follow the experimenter when he walks briskly in front of 

 him to excite him, the operator has only to draw him lightly by the 

 hand to make him follow with docility. We have thus explained the 

 secret of the power which the magnetizer exercises over his subject. 

 The former gives an order which the hypnotic does not apprehend, but 

 which he executes nevertheless if he has unconsciously experienced a 

 sensorial impression corresponding with the action which is commanded 

 of him. In testing whether the hypnotic, after waking, remembers 

 what has passed, it is important that he be not assisted by being asked 

 a question the form of which will suggest the answer. If he is asked 

 if he remembers any particular thing, his answer will always be " Yes " ; 

 but if he is asked, generally, what has taken place, he will answer that 

 he does not know. The slightest allusion may cause the remembrance 

 to revive ; and unconscious traces may be recalled on the intervention 

 of suggestive external excitations. The hypnotic condition, when di- 

 vested of charlatanism, discloses a multitude of interesting physiologi- 

 cal and psychological facts. 



In a slight degree of hypnotism, the sensorhan commune is still so 

 free that the constraint of involuntary imitation does not exist. As 

 long as consciousness is not obscured, the excitation of the motive ap- 

 paratus by special sensations does not take place ; but when conscious- 

 ness disappears, the sensorial excitation becomes predominant. So pro- 

 found states of unconsciousness may be produced that all traces of 

 sensorial perceptions, and the possibility of executing automatic acts 

 of imitation, will disappear. A more advanced symptom of hypnotism 

 is painlessness. Sensibility returns with the cessation of the sleep. 

 The exaggeration of the reflex excitation of the striated muscles is also 

 striking and of surprising duration. A person who has been hypno- 



