6o2 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The fact that Mr. Clay, on that occasion, made one of the ablest speeches 

 of his life, two hours in length, at a time when he felt almost too ill to rise 

 to his feet, and that his body was at the time in a condition of perfect 

 anaesthesia, is a splended illustration of the synchronous action of the two 

 minds, and also of the perfect control exercised by the subjective mind over 

 the functions and sensations of the body ( ' Law of Psychic Phenomena ' ) . 



I now propose to attempt to explain some of the phenomena of 

 hypnotism by reviewing thoroughly a specific example. 



On November 23, 1901, I was asked by a young lady to try to 

 cure her of biting her finger nails. She was then about 18 years 

 of age. I immediately replied that I should be glad to do so if I 

 had her full permission. Besides her and myself, there were four or 

 five other persons in the room, including her father and mother. 

 Getting her perfectly composed, I placed my hand on the top of her 

 head, and told her to turn her eyes in the direction of the hand. This 

 tired her eyes very readily. They became heavier, the eyelids twitched 

 and inside of five minutes they fell and she was sound asleep. I first 

 placed her in a cataleptic condition. I told her her arm was a piece 

 of stone and therefore could not be bent. Two or three of those 

 assembled tried to bend it, but failed. Then by more suggestions I 

 placed her in an anesthetic condition and rubbed the ball of her eye. 

 She neither winked nor flinched. I then gave her a few post-hypnotic 

 suggestions. For example, I told her that when she awakened she 

 would go over and close the window, that she would then thank me for 

 what I had done, and would feel no bad effects and also would re- 

 member nothing. Then I told her that the following Sunday I would 

 come over, and, as soon as I told her to go to sleep, she would do so. 

 When she awoke, she went over and closed the window, and then 

 thanked me for what I had done. She remembered nothing and felt 

 much rested. Of course, suggestions were constantly given that she 

 would not bite her nails. 



The following Sunday, I went over there again. She had not 

 bitten her finger nails since the last time I saw her. I told her to 

 lie down and that in three minutes she would be sound asleep. I 

 used no method whatsoever. In fact, I was in another room. When 

 the three minutes were up, I went in to her and found her in a deep 

 sleep. I impressed on her a number of times that she would never 

 bite her finger-nails again. I placed her in a chair, telling her to 

 open her eyes. She was to see or hear nobody but me. A number of 

 people stood before her, but she could not see them. I asked her 

 a question which she readily answered. Then somebody else asked 

 her the same question, but no answer could be got from her. She 

 seemed perfectly deaf to their words. I asked her if she heard any- 

 body else and she answered ' No.' I next procured a needle which 

 was perfectly clean, and telling her she would feel no pain, I ran 



