ARTIFICIAL HYPNOTISM. 365 



nervous impressibility, and of the power which imagination exercises 

 over their minds. Others seem to be rebellious against it, and it is 

 necessary to prepare them for it. The contemplation of the glass but- 

 ton exacted by M. Hansen (the magnetizer at Breslau) is intended 

 solely to promote this excitability. Dr. Braid, of Manchester, first 

 demonstrated that the fixed view of inanimate objects provoked a con- 

 dition akin to the cataleptic sleep. Persons put to this sleep by him 

 became insensible to pain. Some retained a feeling of what passed ; 

 others lost it. Fixing the sight upon bright objects is attended by pe- 

 culiar phenomena. The dazzling effect, the flow of tears, and the fa- 

 tigue of the retina cause the images on the edges of the field of vision 

 to disappear. The hand that holds the button becomes indistinct and 

 the button fades away. Phenomena of contrasts are produced, and 

 posterior images appear during the involuntary movements of the 

 eyes. Cex'tain feeble and monotonous sounds act in a similar manner 

 to produce stupefaction. If we cause a person to sit with his back 

 against a table on which a watch has been put, and tell him to listen 

 to its ticking, he will in a few minutog fall into the hypnotic sleep, and 

 will then imitate unconsciously the motions of the operator. The effect 

 is especially prompt if the eyes are kept shut. Light and continuous 

 excitations on the surface of the skin exert a similar effect. This is 

 the pi'operty on which depend the manipulations of touch and the 

 passes which the magnetizer makes along the face of the person whom 

 he wishes to put to sleep. These passes produce peculiar sensations, 

 partly of contact and partly of heat. The sensations of contact at a 

 distance are produced by the oscillations of the air, which is disturbed 

 by the hand of the magnetizer. These currents occasion an almost 

 imperceptible feeling of prickling, of shuddering. The sensation of 

 heat is provoked by the difference in the temperature of the hand, 

 which has been warmed by exercise, and of the motionless face of the 

 patient. 



The reactions to the different excitations vary according to the in- 

 dividual. Some persons are more sensitive to an excitation of the skin ; 

 others to that of the hearing or sight. The organs in which stupefac- 

 tion is first felt are also the first to return to consciousness if they are 

 subjected to an energetic shock. The touch of a cold hand on the 

 face, a word spoken aloud at the ear, a light brought suddenly before 

 the eyes, are enough to break the charm. After the waking, the disposi- 

 tion to hypnotism persists in a latent form. One who has been put to 

 sleep many times has only to imagine he is going to fall into that con- 

 dition, to go to sleep really. He has only to sit down, shut his eyes, 

 and think, to the exclusion of every other idea, of the torpor which is 

 about to overtake him, for the phenomenon to have its full effect. 

 There is needed, in a word, to produce this effect, an exclusion of all 

 change of thought and images. Having become acquainted with this 

 disposition, we can produce effects which will be really inexplicable to 



