6o6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



spots were often found in the middle ages on the hands of monks 

 and nuns after they had been looking steadily at a cross for hours. 

 At that time it was supposed to be a miracle and a message from the 

 Divinity. In I860, a woman was found with these spots or blisters 

 caused by something unknown. It was learned that she got these 

 while in the hypnotic state. The wounds healed in the normal way 

 and all that remained to make it necessary for it to be commented 

 upon, was that it gave the investigators the idea of trying to produce 

 these spots by artificial means. Krafft-Ebing, a noted German physi- 

 cian, produced certain results analogous to those cited above. He 

 would put something in the patient's hand and give him the sug- 

 gestion that it was burning. A reddening would appear. He would 

 take a scissors, a piece of metal and a postage stamp (saying it was 

 a mustard plaster) and would produce the same results. 



Wonderful as it may seem — that hypnotic suggestion can produce 

 such grave organic changes — the physician has only to reflect for a 

 moment on the powerful changes which the mind exerts over the 

 course of a disease. He realizes only too well that the mental attitude 

 of the patient toward his malady is of almost as much importance 

 in the cure as the therapeutic measures he may advise. Processes of 

 inflammation are purely physiological in the light of modern medicine 

 and yet there can be no inflammatory process which can not be made 

 worse by concentrated mental worry. A sore finger to the phlegmatic 

 individual is a trifle : but the hysterical woman makes a ' mountain 

 out of a mole hill ' of it and thereby actually makes the inflammation 

 worse. 



The Uses of Hypnotism. 



The general tendency has been in the last decade to use hypnotism 

 indiscriminately; but like every therapeutic agent, it in time will be- 

 come restricted and only used in certain complaints. It surely should 

 be included by every physician in his ' therapeutic arsenal.' It has 

 one thing in its favor which places it above all remedial agents and that 

 is, that when it is used properly it can do no harm. We must 

 recognize that in all the scientific literature on the subject, there has 

 not a single death been reported from its use. The unscientific ap- 

 plication is its abuse. 



We must also recognize that there are many cases that are prac- 

 tically incurable by medical treatment, cases which defy the greatest 

 physicians, cases which are surprising because of their persistency. 

 When the last extreme has been reached, when physicians consult and 

 pronounce the case as practically incurable, hypnotism may be tried. 



Before the advent of ether or chloroform, the possibility of using 

 hypnotism for anesthetic purposes was thought of and apparently its 

 use in this direction met with success in a limited number of cases. 



