POSTHYPNOTIC AND CRIMINAL SUGGESTION. 239 



age the following suggestion : " To-morrow, at 11.30, you will go 



to call upon M. F . You will be received in his room and 



will see upon the chimney-piece two statuettes ; you will carefully 

 possess yourself of them after talking of sundry things, and will 

 carry them off hidden under your clothes. But day after to-mor- 

 row you will repent of what you have done, and, seized with 



remorse, will return the statuettes to M. F at about the same 



time of day." Then, just before Prof. Lidbeault awakened the 



patient. Dr. X said : " You will steal, you understand ; you will 



steal." The suggestion was punctually executed. Two months 

 later the boy was arrested for the theft of an overcoat which he 

 took in a very stupid and obvious fashion, and upon his person 

 was found a written list of petty thefts recently committed, 

 among them being that of some visiting cards. Dr. Lidbeault, 



believing that the indeterminate suggestion given by Dr. X 



was at the bottom of the whole matter, got a lawyer to undertake 

 the defense, and secured the diminution of the penalty to two 

 months' imprisonment. Four years later, when the boy came of 

 age. Prof. Lidbeault hypnotized him again, his parents not allow- 

 ing it while he was a minor. In the hypnotic state he claimed 



that about the time he stole the overcoat " he had met Dr. X 



in the street, had gone with him to a cafe, had been hypnotized 

 and told to steal watches, pocketbooks, gloves, etc." The theft 

 of the overcoat was specifically suggested. This case proves 

 that theft can be occasioned by suggestion, but it does not prove 

 that it could be successfully suggested to an honest and upright 

 patient. For aught that appears, the boy would have stolen if a 

 companion had put the idea in his head in his waking state. 



A still better illustration is given by M. Focachon, which I 

 take from Prof. Li^geois : J. D is a seamstress, aged twenty- 

 seven, nervous, not hysterical, not very intelligent, uneducated, 

 of recognized honesty. While hypnotiz.ed, M. Focachon suggested 

 to her that she should steal from the closet of one of her employ- 

 ers some cloth, should bring it to M. Focachon's house, and should 



borrow the use of the sewing machine to make it up. " J. D 



at first protested very vigorously, asked what I took her for, wept 

 and begged me to wake her, that she might no longer hear such 

 propositions, but quieting her little by little, minimizing the 

 importance of the theft, telling her it would never be known, 

 and playing upon her vanity, I finally got her to say she would 

 think about it." The suggestion was obeyed, but before she made 

 the goods up M. Focachon hypnotized her again, took it from 

 her, and abolished her recollection of the whole matter. 



If such cases put it beyond question that suggestion may be 

 used for the performance of crime, they also, I think, make it 

 evident that the danger is not one of great magnitude. If there 



