-jeS THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



a subject was hypnotized, the pulse was at first slowed, but after- 

 ward accelerated, and he attributed this acceleration to the occur- 

 rence of cataleptic rigidity of the muscles. He also observed that 

 the respiration was increased in frequency, and sometimes became 

 difficult. Later observers have made numerous experiments, some 

 of them very carefully conducted, in order to settle these points, 

 and their results in general support Braid's conclusions. These 

 investigators, however, employed Braid's method of hypnotizing, 

 and this fact vitiates their results, because the continued fixation 

 on the glass knob requires a good deal of physical effort, tires the 

 eyes, and gives rise to a certain amount of emotion, particularly 

 in subjects who have not been previously hypnotized. In conse- 

 quence, there is a physiological increase in the rapidity of the 

 pulse and respiration, not unlike that which some persons experi- 

 ence when being examined by a physician, and which are there- 

 fore to be regarded as the effects of emotion and fatigue, rather 

 than of hypnotism. This view receives confirmation from the 

 fact that subjects who are hypnotized by the suggestion-method 

 of Liebault and Bernheim seldom exhibit any alterations in the 

 rhythm and rapidity of the circulation and respiration. I say 

 seldom, because it does sometimes happen that a nervous per- 

 son experiences an acceleration of these functions when hyp- 

 notized for the first time, even when the suggestion-method is 

 employed. 



There are also rare cases of somnambulism in which it is pos- 

 sible to modify the pulse-rate by means of suggestion. Thus, 

 Beaunis reports a case in which the pulse registered ninety-eight 

 beats per minute during the sleep and was reduced to ninety-two 

 per minute by a suggestion of decrease. Then the heart, having 

 recovered from the effects of suggestion, returned to its previous 

 rate of pulsation, and a suggestion of increase resulted in an ac- 

 celeration to one hundred and nineteen beats per minute. 



There are exceptional cases of somnambulism in which it is 

 possible to produce the most astonishing effects upon the circula- 

 tion of the blood at the surface of the skin by suggestion. Nose- 

 bleeds have actually been produced in this way, and in several 

 cases real blisters were caused. In one of these cases eight post- 

 age-stamps were applied to the shoulder during hypnotic sleep, 

 and the suggestion was given that a blister was being applied. 

 The subject was allowed to sleep all day, and on the following 

 morning the stamps were removed. The skin under the stamps 

 was found to be thick, wrinkled, and yellowish white, over an 

 area of from four to five centimetres in diameter, and around this 

 space there was a zone of intense redness. By four o'clock of the 

 same day, four or five small blisters had appeared, and fifteen 

 days later evidences of inflammation were still present. This case 



