96 ON CERTAIN PHENOMENA OF HYPNOTISM. 



positions. Braid also observed that the sleep was not always the 

 same, but varied from a light slumber up to a profound sleep ; 

 that the senses, especially those of touch, smell, and hearing, 

 might suddenly become excessively acute; and finally, that verbal 

 suggestions might produce hallucinations, emotions, paralysis, etc., 

 which might continue into the waking stage. Instead of seeking 

 for the supernatural, Braid made it his object to account for the 

 phenomena of hypnotism by natural laws, and, once started on a 

 rational basis, the study progressed, and became disentangled from 

 the mystic and miraculous theories which had done it so much 

 injury. 



During the last few years, whilst the mesmerism and spiritualism 

 of the charlatans have been gradually sinking into well-deserved 

 contempt, the brilliant researches of Heidenhain and Giirtzner, 

 of Voisin, Ruber, Berger, and a host of other scientific observers, 

 the innumerable experiments carried on by Charcot and his 

 assistants at the Salpetriere, and the recent discoveries of physio- 

 logists as to the localisation of function in the brain, have made of 

 hypnotism one of the most interesting and most progressive of the 

 biological sciences. 



For a detailed account of the experiments at La Salpetriere I 

 refer my readers to the work on "Animal Magnetism," by Binet 

 and Fere, on which I have already so largely drawn. I will only 

 mention some experiments which can be parallelled in ordinary 

 experience ; and, on the other hand, one or two of the experiments 

 which are as yet inexplicable. 



The hypnotised subject " shows by the expression of her face, 

 her words, and actions* that she believes everything suggested to 

 her by the experimenter." One highly respectable lady imagined 

 that she was by turns a peasant, an opera dancer, and finally the 

 Archbishop of Paris. Another subject, who had been asleep for 

 only a few minutes, imagined that several hours had elapsed. The 

 illusion was encouraged by telling the patient it was two o'clock, 

 whereas it was in reality only nine in the morning. When she 

 heard this she felt extremely hungry, and begged to be supplied 



* Charcot's experiments being carried on upon female patients, the feminine 

 pronoun is usually employed. 



