HYPNOTISM. 387 



suggestion in the lethargic state as evidence tending to show 

 that that suggestion cannot have any influence in the pro- 

 duction of the neuro-muscular hyperexcitability : the ease, 

 however, with which the subject wakes up on the simple 

 verbal command, " Wake," shows that we cannot exclude 

 this. Again, we can easily cultivate the cataleptic flexi- 

 bilitas cerea in an ordinary hypnotic state. 



It would appear, then, that it is very doubtful if any value 

 can be placed on the classification of Charcot. 



Legal questions, as might readily be imagined, have arisen 

 in connection with these acquisitions to our knowledge of 

 the influence of one person over another. They need only 

 be briefly dwelt upon. In the first place, a person who has 

 been hypnotised may falsely accuse the hypnotiser of un- 

 lawful acts, or of inciting him to do unlawful acts. This 

 danger should always be avoided by first gaining the person's 

 consent to be hypnotised, and by always having a competent 

 witness present. 



Supposing such an accusation were made, if the person 

 were hypnotised by the previous hypnotiser or by another, 

 what had happened in a former hypnosis could readily be 

 elicited, the hypnotised person not being capable of distort- 

 ing the truth ; for the absence of voluntary control over men- 

 tal operations is precisely the characteristic of the hypnotic 

 state. 



In the second place, h3^pnotic suggestion may be made use 

 of for unlawful ends ; thus crimes -have been committed by 

 persons as the result of post-hypnotic suggestion by another. 

 It may be most difficult to discover this ; the following con- 

 siderations, however, will generally be of assistance in 

 coming to a correct conclusion. If the suggestion had been 

 given in the pre-somnambulistic stage, the person will re- 

 member it ; if in the deeper stage, not. Now the number 



