HYPNOTISM, ITS HISTORY, NATURE AND USE. 605 



this nutriment these suggestions given under the hypnotic influence 

 come into play. 



Before closing this portion of the essay I should like to say that I 

 believe hypnotism is not an occult power, but is a simple, natural 

 physiological process. And again, anybody can use the power just as 

 any one can become a good piano player, or student or business man 

 by training. Yet it is only those with the natural tendency toward 

 personal power who will make the greatest success. 



It would indeed be pleasing to me to cite a number of wonderful 

 cases where hypnotism has been used experimentally in order to show 

 the great influence of the mind over the body — how a horse can be 

 ridden over the outstretched body of a man in a cataleptic state, how 

 illusions and hallucinations can be produced, how we may even obtain 

 negative hallucinations, how we can turn an adult into a child, how we 

 can conjure before the mind's eye vistas grand and superb, panoramas 

 gorgeous and elegant, how the commonest man may become an orator, 

 a saint, an assassin perhaps. But all these things would be far beyond 

 the scope of this essay. However, one case seems to be of especial 

 interest as it shows how far hypnotism may be used in the cure of 

 various inflammations. 



The experiment is on a nurse 28 years old, who is not at all hysterical. 

 She is a daughter of plain country people, and has been for a long time an 

 attendant in the Zurich Lunatic Asylum, which Forel directs. He thinks her 

 a capable honest person, in no way inclined to deceit. The experiments were 

 as follows : A gummed label was fixed upon her chest on either side ; the paper 

 was square. In no case was an irritating gum used. At mid-day Forel sug- 

 gested that a blister had been put on the left side ; and at six o'clock in the 

 evening a moist spot had appeared in that place ; the skin was swollen and 

 red around it, and a little inflammation also appeared on the right side, but 

 much less. Forel then did away with the suggestion. On the next day there 

 was a scab on the left side. Forel had not watched the nurse between noon 

 and six o'clock, but had suggested that she could not scratch herself. The 

 other nurses said that the subject could not raise her hand to her chest, but 

 made vain attempts to scratch. Forel repeated the experiment later; he put 

 on the paper at 11:45 a. m. and ordered the formation of blisters in two and 

 one half hours. Little pain was suggested, and the nurse therefore complained 

 but little. At two o'clock Forel looked at the paper on the left side, for which 

 the suggestion had been made, and saw around it a large swelling and redden- 

 ing of the skin. The paper could with difficulty be removed. A moist surface 

 of epidermis was then visible, exactly square like the paper. There was noth- 

 ing particular under the paper on the right side. Forel then suggested the 

 disappearance of the pain, inflammation, etc. 



In time everything disappeared. 



Many investigators have been able to bring about a change in 

 blood supply and other visceral changes of a similar kind. Changes 

 in temperature have been made as much as three degrees centigrade. 

 Bernheim found that by suggestion he could induce local reddening of 

 the skin. This is undoubtedly a vaso-motor change. These local red 



