BY WALTER SPENCER, M.D., M.R.C.S., ETC. 65 



At a meeting of the Medical Institute of Liverpool Dr. 

 Grossmann reported he had seen Dr. Bernheini hypnotise one 

 patient after another in his hospital wards until not one re- 

 mained awake ; also that a blister was produced by the appli- 

 cation of a postage stamp, which, it was suggested, would act 

 as a vesicant. 



Dr. Liebault asserts that concentration of a patient's mind 

 on the idea of sleep will induce sleep by leading to forgetful- 

 ness of the outer world and to a state in which suggestions 

 are readily adopted and acted on, the hypnotic differing from 

 the ordinary sleep in that there exists a relation between the 

 sleeper and the operator. Dr. Forel considers that hypnotism 

 is a state of sleep artificially induced, during which the course 

 of the patient's dreams can be influenced. It depends, firstly, 

 on the power of falling asleep easily ; and, secondly, on 

 willingness to submit to the operator's will, the disappearance 

 of nervous symptoms being explained in the same way as the 

 sudden cessation of toothache or sciatica after a shock. He 

 could induce sleep readily in fifty patients out of seventy- 

 two. 



The school of Nancy teaches that the lethargic, cataleptic, 

 and somnambulic stages of hypnotism can be produced at 

 any time by the suggestion of the operator, suggestion being 

 the key to all the phenomena. The psycological stages of 

 hypnotism, although they may be divided into three — 

 lethargy, catalepsy, and somnambulism — are variously 

 classified by different observers. 



According to Wetter strand they reveal : — 



1. Sleepiness and sense of weight. 



2. Inability to move a muscle. 



3. Unconscious automatic movements. 



4. Consciousness only of the operator and obedience 



to his will. 



5. Somnambulism and complete insensibility. 



According to Haidenheim : — 



1. Imitative movements. 



2. Exaltation of special senses. 



3. Illusions and hallucinations. 



4. Loss of pain and of sensation. 



5. Tonic spasms. 



6. Spasms of the ocular muscles, dilatation of the 



pupils, accelerated pulse and respiration. 



According to Liebault: — 



1. Torpor of limbs and somnolence, the will power 



being still available if needed. 



2. Eetention by the limbs of any strained posture, the 



patient still remaining conscious. 



E 



