HYPNOTISM, ITS HISTORY, NATURE AND USE. 597 



physically impossible for him to open them. With the view of proving this, 

 I requested Mr. Walker, a young gentleman present, to sit down, and maintain 

 a fixed stare at the top of a wine bottle, placed so much above him as to pro- 

 duce a considerable strain on the eyes and eyelids, to enable him to maintain 

 a steady view of the object. In three minutes his eyelids closed, a gush of 

 tears ran down his cheeks, his head drooped, his face was slightly convulsed, 

 he gave a groan and instantly fell into a profound sleep, the respiration be- 

 coming slow, deep and sibilant, the right hand and arm being agitated by 

 slight convulsive movements. At the end of four minutes, I considered it 

 necessary, for his safety, to put an end to the experiment. 



Braid became so convinced that his interpretation of the phenomena 

 was the correct one that he used it universally, succeeding in a remark- 

 able number of cases. His method was as follows : 



He would take any bright object, most often his lancet case, and 

 holding it about fifteen inches from the eyes and in such a position 

 as to strain them and still allow the patient to gaze steadily at it, he 

 would carry it slowly toward them until the eyelids closed involun- 

 tarily. After a preliminary contraction of the pupils, they would; 

 dilate, and finally a tremulous motion of the iris would take place. If 

 this did not succeed after a few minutes, he would try again, letting 

 the patient understand that his eyes and mind had to be riveted on 

 the one idea of the object before him. The primary fact was the 

 fixation of the mind on a certain object. Nay, even the hynotist 

 himself, if he use the method of attraction, may be hypnotized, as 

 Braid shows in the following example. Mr. Walker, Braid's friend, 

 offered to hypnotize a certain person. When Braid went into the 

 room where the experiment was going on, he saw the gentleman 

 sitting staring at Mr. Walker's finger. Mr. Walker was standing a 

 little to the right of his patient with his eyes fixed steadily on those of 

 the latter. Braid passed on, and when he returned he found Mr. 

 Walker standing in the same position fast asleep, his arm and finger 

 perfectly rigid and the patient wide awake, staring at the finger all 

 the while. 



After Braid, many men pursued the scientific investigation of the 

 phenomena. The interest in the new science since 1875 has spread 

 quickly over Europe. In Belgium, the eminent psychologist Del- 

 boeuf of Liege, made a path for it. In Holland such men as Van 

 Reuterghem, VanEiden and De Jong used hypnotism for curative 

 purposes; in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, there were Johann- 

 essen, Sell, Frankel, Calsen and Wetterstrand, of Stockholm, and 

 finally Swedenborg. In Russia were Strembo and Tokarski; in 

 Greece, Italy and Spain, hypnotism has greatly come into play in 

 medical treatment. In England, Carpenter, Laydock, Sir James 

 Simpson, Lloyd-Tuckey, Mayo and others have used it for curing the 

 sick. In America, the science also has its advocates. It is one of the 

 subjects constantly appearing before the Society for Psychical Re- 



