HYPNOTISM, ITS HISTORY, NATURE AND USE. 603 



it into her forearm for over half an inch. Very little blood appeared, 

 as I had suggested, and she felt nothing. In fact, after the experi- 

 ments were over she did not know anything about the wound. Taking 

 a glass of water, I told her it was whiskey. She took a little with 

 some show of difficulty in swallowing and when I told her to walk, 

 about the room, she reeled around as though she were overcome by the' 

 liquor. I then procured some salt, telling her it was sugar and that 

 it would cure her of her dizziness immediately. She took the salt, a 

 half teaspoonful, said it tasted sweet, asked for more, and was entirely 

 herself again. Finally I placed her between two people putting her 

 head on one's lap and her feet on the other's. She became cataleptic 

 on my suggestion and when two hundred and fifty pounds were put 

 on her body she sustained them very readily. 



Before she awakened, I gave her three suggestions: (1) That as 

 soon as she awoke she would go into the front room and lie down on 

 the sofa for a few minutes; (2) that she would go up to her parents 

 and tell them that she was never going to bite her nails again; and 

 (3) that two weeks from that night she would sit down after supper 

 and write me a letter, thanking me for what I had done. All these 

 suggestions were carried into effect. 



On Monday, December 9, two weeks and a day after the experi- 

 ment had been made, I received the following letter : 



Dec. 8th, 1901. 

 Dear Mr. Hays : 



I feel as though I owe you a note of thanks for the wonderful cure you 

 have effected on me. I have not bitten my nails since three weeks ago to-night 

 and I am very proud of them. I am writing this to try to let you know how 

 much I thank you. It seems remarkable that a little thing like hypnotism 

 can do so much good and I shall always feel grateful and indebted to you for 



this. 



Yours sincerely, 



E. 



Not until after the letter had been sent did she find out that it 

 had been I who prompted her to do it. This young lady has not 

 bitten her finger nails since and is entirely cured. 



We have already found the primary cause of the sleep when pro- 

 duced by the tiring of the eyes. The eyelids droop because the muscles 

 become temporarily paralyzed. There is one advantage in placing 

 the hand on top of the head. It is that it rolls the eyeballs upward, 

 thus putting them in a natural position for sleep. The various other 

 processes after the sleep has been produced are all dependent on the 

 workings of the nervous system. Let us first try to explain the 

 cataleptic state — how it is that the arm becomes so rigid that the 

 bones can be broken before the arm will bend. The most plausible 

 explanation to my mind is that impulses are sent from the brain which 

 make one set of muscles counteract the influence of another set. For 



