BY WALTER SPENCER, M.D., M.R.C.S., ETC. 63 



Bramwell, Mr. Hewetson had a fortnight previously opened 

 and scraped freely, without knowledge or pain, a large lachry- 

 mal abscess, extending into the cheek. Furthermore, the 

 dressing had beeD daily performed and the cavity freely 

 syringed under hypnotic anaesthesia, the "healing suggestions" 

 being daily given to the patient, to which Dr. Bramwell in a 

 great measure attributes the very rapid healing. She was pu. 

 to sleep by the following letter from Dr. Bramwell, addressed 

 to Mr. Turner : — 



" Burlington Crescent, Goole, Yorks. Dear Mr. Turner, — I send you a 

 patient with enclosed order. When you give it to her she will fall asleep at 

 once and obey your commands. — J. Milne Bramwell. 



"Order. — Go to sleep at once, by order of Dr. Bramwell, and obey Mr. 

 Turner's commands. — J. Milne Bramwell." 



This experiment answered perfectly. Sleep was induced at 

 once by reading the note, and was so profound that, at the 

 end of a lengthy operation, in which sixteen stumps were re- 

 moved, she awoke smiling, and insisted that she had felt no 

 pain, and, what was remarkable, there was no pain in her 

 mouth. She was found after some time, when unobserved, 

 reading the Graphic in the waiting-room as if nothing had 

 happened. During the whole time she did everything which 

 Mr. Turner suggested, but it was observed that there was a 

 diminished flow of saliva and that the corneal reflexes were 

 absent, the breathing more noisy than ordinarily, and the 

 pulse slower. 



Dr. Bramwell took occasion to explain that the next case, a 

 boy aged 8, was a severe test, and would probably not suc- 

 ceed, partly because the patient was so young, and chiefly 

 because he had not attempted to produce hypnotic anaes- 

 thesia earlier than two days before. He also explained that 

 patients require training in this form of anaesthesia, the time 

 of training, or preparation, varying with each individual. 

 However, he was so far hypnotised that he allowed Mr. Mayo 

 Eobson to operate on the great toe, removing a bony growth 

 and part of the first phalanx, with the result that he appeared 

 to know very little of what had been done. 



It was necessary in this case for Dr. Bramwell to repeat the 

 hypnotic suggestions. Dr. Bramwell remarked that he 

 wished to show a case that was less likely to be perfectly suc- 

 cessful than the others, so as to enable those present to see 

 the difficult as well as the apparently easy straightforward 

 cases ; " in fact," as he said, " to show his work in the 

 rough." 



The next case was a girl of 15, highly sensitive, requiring 

 the removal of enlarged tonsils. At the request of Dr. Bram- 

 well Mr. Hewetson was enabled in the hypnotic state to 

 extract each tonsil with ease, the girl, by suggestion of the 



