HYPNOTISM : WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT IS NOT. 757 



ties are developed and hold the imagination in check. Neverthe- 

 less, even adults are met with in whom the imagination so readily 

 gets the upper hand that they may be induced to believe the most 

 impossible things. I recently saw a young woman of moderate 

 intelligence and education who was so readily influenced by sug- 

 gestion in the waking state that she was unable to move from the 

 place where she stood on being suddenly and decidedly told that 

 it was impossible for her to budge. She could be made to see 

 people who were in reality not present, and on the other hand 

 could be made blind to the presence of persons and objects actually 

 in the room. After repeatedly affirming that she was absolutely 

 insensible to pain, it became possible to pass a needle deeply into 

 the skin without provoking any signs of discomfort. 



At first sight, these cases appear like impostures, because they 

 are opposed to common experience, but careful examination shows 

 that there are cases of the kind in which simulation can be pretty 

 effectually excluded. Still, it must be admitted that simulation 

 can readily be overlooked, and that the number of cases in which 

 suggestibility in the waking state is so highly developed must be 

 very small. I am inclined to look upon these higher grades of 

 suggestibility in the waking state as pathological. 



• These facts have led Prof. Bernheim, of Nancy, to define hyp- 

 notism as a peculiar psychical state, characterized by increased 

 suggestibility. In proposing this definition, Bernheim perhaps 

 gives too little importance to the sleep which in the vast majority 

 of cases is essential to the production of a high degree of sensi- 

 bility to suggestion. At the same time there appears to be no 

 serious reason why the term hypnotism should not be so far ex- 

 tended in meaning as to include those exceptional cases in which 

 the phenomena characteristic of the hypnotic state can be pro- 

 duced without first inducing sleep. 



The history of hypnotism is anything but flattering to the 

 penetration and generosity of the various scientific men who 

 during the past century have from time to time passed judgment 

 upon the claims of its advocates, and affords a striking illustration 

 of how the progress of knowledge may be hindered by excessive 

 skepticism. 



I can not review even the more important features of the history 

 of " animal magnetism,^' interesting as it is, except in the briefest 

 manner. The life of Mesmer is full of instruction and romance, 

 and is well worth a careful reading ; although one can not help 

 concluding that he misdirected and prostituted his intelligence to 

 his greed of money and love of notoriety, and that he was, upon 

 the whole, a man of very questionable character. As is well 

 known, the central hypothesis of Mesmer's theory is the existence 

 of a subtile universal fluid, which he called " animal magnetism," 



