ETHICS AND ECONOMICS. 



77\ 



Tlie exact indications for the use of hypnotism have not yet 

 been determined, but it seems probable that functional nervous 

 disorders will be one of the classes of cases in which it will always 

 be most successfully used. 



In order to get the best results in any individual case it is im- 

 portant to make all the suggestions in the somnambulistic state, in 

 which there is amnesia upon waking. Otherwise it is impossible 

 to obtain such complete control over the patient's mind. 



Such, then, are the uses of hypnotism as we at present know 

 them. Unfortunately, there are abuses also. I have said that, when 

 properly employed, hypnotism is absolutely harmless. When, 

 however, a nervous or hysterical woman is rej)eatedly hypnotized 

 for half an hour at a time, for the purpose of exhibiting her pow- 

 ers to an inquisitive public, the case is different, and I believe that 

 the patient is harmed physically, mentally, and morally. Un- 

 fortunately, traveling " magnetiseurs " are not the only persons 

 who give such exhibitions. I was recently present at a public 

 demonstration of hypnotism in Paris, given by a well-known 

 French physician under the name of a scientific lecture, which 

 was nothing more than a vulgar unscientific catering to the curi- 

 osity of an equally vulgar and unscientific iDublic. If a law simi- 

 lar to that of Belgium, prohibiting such abuses of hypnotism, 

 were immediately carried into effect in other civilized countries, I 

 believe there would be a timely prevention of much mischief. As 

 it is, the matter will probably be overlooked until enough harm 

 has been done to convince thoughtful persons that some decided 

 measure is necessary to prevent injury at the hands of ignorant 

 or unprincipled persons. 



♦♦♦ 



ETHICS AND ECONOMICS. 



By EOBEET MATHEWS. 



WHATEVER else the theory of evolution has done for hu- 

 man thought, it has at least added tAvo phrases to our 

 current literature that, by the frequency of their use, have done 

 much to mold opinion into harmony with the ideas that are sup- 

 posed to underlie them. Open any magazine or journal of the 

 day, and one is almost sure to find on some of its pages "the 

 struggle for existence " and " the survival of the fittest." The 

 wide acceptance of the Darwinian hypothesis, of which these 

 phrases are the embodiment, has naturally caused them to be ap- 

 plied to the predominant form of social contiict — industrial com- 

 petition. In thus applying them, we have also brought with 

 them ideas derived from the study of the way in which the 

 struggle for existence has gone on in the past. The survival of 



