102 ON CERTAIN PHENOMENA OF HYPNOTISM. 



pupil gradually contracted, and the same phenomenon was repro- 

 duced as often as the idea of any moving object was evoked." 

 In short, hallucinatory vision follows in every respect the laws 

 governing ordinary vision. 



The other phenomena, which are as yet inexplicable by any 

 laws known to us, are those of the transference of sensation, the 

 obliteration of real images, the transfers of impulses and of 

 resolutions, caused by an unseen magnet placed near the subject. 

 A paralysis of the right side will be thus transferred to the left ; 

 an action which a hypnotised patient is ordered to perform with 

 the right hand can only be performed with the left ; an impulse to 

 murder is changed into a display of violent affection. A patient 

 ordered to count up to a hundred became gradually unable to 

 articulate the numbers, after the application of a magnet, although 

 her lips continued to move. 



Another patient was so violently aflected by the sound of a 

 Chinese gong that the fear of hearing it was sufficient to send her 

 into a fit of catalepsy, if she only saw the instrument. In this 

 condition she was awakened and requested to look attentively at 

 the gong, and meanwhile a small magnet was brought close to her 

 head. After the lapse of a minute she declared she could not 

 see the instrument, and that it had completely disappeared, and 

 when the gong was sounded loudly she only looked about her 

 with an air of surprise. 



Reasoning is by no means invariably absent during the 

 hypnotic state, but is of as unsteady a nature as reasoning in 

 dreams. The patients, perhaps, see the folly or the wickedness 

 of certain acts they are required to perform, but always end by 

 doing as they are ordered. They also reason as to the mode in 

 which certain simple suggestions are to be carried out. It was 



suggested to a subject that she should poison X with a glass 



of pure water, said to contain poison. She offered the glass to 



X , and invited him to drink by saying, " Is it not a hot 



day ? " It was in summer. Many subjects display their honesty 

 by refusing to commit a theft. They may reply, " No, I will not 



steal, I am no thief." Z was armed with a paper-knife, and 



ordered to kill Y . She said, " Why should I do it ? He 



has done me no harm." The experimenter still insisting, her 



