HYPXOTISM IX DISEASE AXD CRIME. 769 



constant character of a conscious, irresistible impulse ; that is, although 

 the subject is quite himself, and conscious of his identity, he can not 

 resist the force which impels him to perform an act which he would 

 under other circumstances condemn. Hurried on by this irresistible 

 force, the subject feels none of the doubts and hesitations of a crimi- 

 nal who acts spontaneously ; he behaves with a tranquillity and secu- 

 rity which would in such a case insure the success of his crime. Some 

 of our subjects are aware of the power of suggestion, and, when abso- 

 lutely resolved to commit an act for which they fear that their courage 

 or audacity may fail when the moment arrives, they take the precau- 

 tion of receiving the suggestion from their companions. 



The danger of these criminal suggestions is increased by the fact 

 that, at the will of the experimenter, the act may be accomplished 

 several hours, and even several days, after the date of suggestion. 

 Facts of this kind, which were first reported by Richet, are not excep- 

 tional, and have been repeatedly observed by us. 



The reality of this class of facts can not now be disputed, but the 

 difficulty of proof in any given case is considerable. We have not, in 

 the case of impulsive acts, the same objective criterion as we have in 

 hallucinations and in the paralysis of movements and of sensation. It 

 is, therefore, necessary for the expert to be cautious in his judgment. 



Loss of memory is one chief characteristic of the facts of sugges- 

 tion. The hypnotic subject does not know from whom, -when, and 

 how the suggestion was received. This amnesia may be either spon- 

 taneous or suggested, and it is a phenomenon of the waking state, 

 which disappears when the subject is hypnotized anew. The recollec- 

 tion of all which occurred during hypnosis is then revived, and the 

 subject is able to indicate, often with remarkable precision, the author 

 of the suggestion, the place, day, and hour when it was made to him, 

 always supposing that he has received no special suggestion of com- 

 plete oblivion. Hence the question occurs whether an accused person 

 who appeals to an hypnotic suggestion for his defense, and who sub- 

 mits to experiment, can be profitably examined at a time when he 

 displays all the physical characteristics peculiar to the somnambulist 

 state, so that there is no danger of imposture. We have had occasion 

 to show that some subjects are in this state capable of suppressing the 

 truth, and Pitres has shown that deceit was not impossible. An hyp- 

 notic subject may at the same time be criminal, and suggestion must 

 be accepted only so far as it admits of material proof, or at any rate 

 as far as it can be necessarily deduced from the facts of the case. 



Dr. Schunk, in the British Association, prognosticating the future of chem- 

 istry, thought that pure or systematic chemistry becoming practically exhausted 

 in the course of time from the want of new compounds to prepare, the future 

 tields of the science would lie in such lines as the growth-processes of plant-sub- 

 stances and of those agents to which decomposition and decay are due. 

 VOL. XXXII. — 49 



