98 ON CERTAIN PHENOMENA OF HYPNOTISM. 



Lateau. One of these professors suggested to a hypnotised 

 subject, upon whose arm he had traced letters with the bkmted 

 end of a probe, that he would go to sleep that afternoon, and 

 blood would issue from his arms on the lines that had been traced. 

 The subject fell asleep at the hour named ; the letters then 

 appeared on the left arm, marked in relief, and of a bright red 

 colour, which contrasted with the general paleness of the skin, and 

 there were minute drops of blood in several places. 



Strange as these cases appear, they may be parallelled by the 

 singular effect of mental impressions upon the body in perfectly 

 healthy and wideawake people. Dr. Carpenter relates the case of 

 a lady who saw a heavy gate about to swing-to upon the ankle of 

 a child, in whom she was particularly interested. " It was 

 impossible," she said, " by word or act to help him, and, Jn fact, 

 I could not move, for such intense pain came on in my ankle, 

 corresponding to the one which I thought the boy would have 

 injured, that I could only put my hand on it to lessen its extreme 

 painfulness. When my stocking was removed I found a circle 

 routid the ankle, as if it had been painted with red cw'rant juice, 

 with a large spot of the same on the outer part. By morning the 

 whole foot was inflamed, and I was a prisoner to my bed many 

 days." * 



In the B. Medical Journal, a case was reported of a gentleman 

 who was convinced that he had swallowed his false teeth. His 

 medical attendant found him apparently almost in the agonies of 

 death, and suffering from every symptom which usually attends the 

 impaction of the springs of false teeth in the throat. Fortunately, 

 before the patient had quite frightened himself to death, the teeth 

 were found innocently wedged behind a chest of drawers, and the 

 alarming symptoms disappeared as if by magic. 



Another effect of suggestion is the inability of the subject to 

 see a real person or thing, which she has been assured when 

 asleep that she will not see when she wakes. For instance, one 

 of M. Charcot's patients was told — " On awaking you will be 



unable to see, or hear, or in any way perceive M. X , who is 



now present ; he will have completely disappeared." When the 

 subject awoke she saw all the persons round her except M. X . 



* Dr. Tuke, quoted by Dr. Carpenter, " Mental Physiology," p. 682. 



