598 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the patient has awoke, and does not then relax even during the inter- 

 val of normal sleep. On the other hand, the rigidity immediately 

 gives way under the influence of gentle stroking of the skin over the 

 contracted muscles. 



By catalepsy is meant a condition of suspended psychical manifes- 

 tations on the part of the subject, during which the limbs exhibit no 

 muscular or nervous hyper-excitability, but possess the singular prop- 

 erty, while remaining flexible, of preserving indefinitely any attitude 

 imparted to them ; hence the name of " waxy flexibility " given to 

 this condition by old writers. Unlike the rigid spasms of the lethargic 

 muscle, the plastic fixity of the cataleptic limb can not be relaxed by 

 friction over the skin. The aspect of the patient in the two condi- 

 tions, moreover, offers striking differences, the sleep-like immobility 

 of lethargy contrasting vividly with the petrified attitudes of cata- 

 lepsy. In both conditions, however, there often is the same absolute 

 insensibility even to the most painful stimuli. A most remarkable 

 phenomenon may be observed in some instances : by merely opening 

 one eye of the lethargic patient the corresponding side of the body 

 is cataleptized. And so in the same subject these two phases of the 

 hypnotic sleep may coexist side by side, with the fullest display of 

 their contrasted characteristics. 



The third condition, that of somnambulism, may easily be brought 

 about by light pressure or rubbing on the top of the head. The 

 hysterical patient then passes into a state somewhat between the 

 lethargic and the cataleptic condition. The muscles have lost the 

 hyper-excitability of the former state, and do not possess the plastic 

 adaptability of the latter. Still they react abnormally to light exter- 

 nal stimuli ; if we very gently stroke or blow upon a limb, it becomes 

 somewhat rigid. We can not then relax it by a mere touch as we can 

 in lethargy, and, unlike catalepsy, it offers some resistance when we 

 attempt to move it into a different attitude. Insensibility to pain 

 may persist, but there often is in the somnambulistic phase a singular 

 exaltation of memory and of sensorial perception, which has caused it 

 to be called the " lucid state," and which has been described by the 

 devotees of mesmeric delusions as "second-sight." Our readers will 

 recognize in this description the ordinary "magnetic" or "mesmeric" 

 sleep into which not only hysterical, but many other individuals may 

 be more or less completely plunged by the usual " passes " of operators. 



It is especially in the somnambulistic state that the astonishing 

 phenomena of suggestion are observed. By this we mean that the 

 patient in whom every spontaneity is in abeyance, who does not 

 "sleep," and who yet does not move or think, can be so impressed 

 through some sensory channel as to enter upon some definite train of 

 ideas or movements. He is under the control of the experimenter, 

 whose will is his will, so to speak. He is a machine ready to go, but 

 unable to start of itself. 



