BY WALTER SPENCER, M.D., M.R.C.S., ETC. 67 



by being made to look at a diamond ring, and afterwards the 

 sight of any thing glittering threw him into a state of violent 

 excitement. The floor of the room in which the physician 

 found him was covered with cushions, as he frequently threw 

 himself from the sofa on to the floor. He performed various 

 odd automatic movements, slept only in snatches, awaking in 

 nightmare, and, in fact, was in a condition to which the 

 French physicians would probably apply the term grave 

 hysteria with maniacal excitement. He was treated with full 

 doses of sedative drugs, but did not at first show any signs of 

 amendment. After ten days the convulsive attacks were re- 

 placed by periods during which he sang persistently. He 

 would sing over song after song, apparently every song he 

 knew, and as long as one song remained unsung nothing 

 would stop him. After about a fortnight of this sort of 

 thing he had an attack of fever, followed by copious perspira- 

 tion and asthma. A few days later he had another feverish 

 attack, again followed by perspiration, after which he de- 

 clared himself quite well. From first to last he was seriously 

 ill for three weeks. The cause of the fever is not very clear. 

 His physician believed it was probably due to inflammation 

 of the anterior part of the brain. Instances similar to this 

 have not been infrequent. It has therefore been resolved by 

 the committee of the British Medical Association that public 

 exhibitions of hypnotism are dangerous, and should be pro- 

 hibited, a prohibition which has already become law in 

 Belgium, France, Eussia, and Portugal, the only result to 

 State medicine of the study of hypnotism thus far. 



I have hitherto been dealing with facts which appear to 

 obtain general acceptance. Allegations are made as to 

 further phenomena which require a good deal more patience 

 in investigation. The power of raising a blister by means of 

 an inert postage stamp or of causing a patient to obey com- 

 mands given by letter shortly after leaving the hypnotiser is 

 transcended by the alleged power to compel obedience after a 

 considerable lapse of time. Induction of a condition of 

 double consciousness, alternation of two separate mental 

 states, lasting each for considerable periods, in which two 

 different personalities, unconscious of each other, are revealed, 

 is more extraordinary still, while the marvels of somnambu- 

 lism, the display of faculties independent of the senses, read- 

 ing with bandaged eyes, and descrij)tion of simultaneous 

 remote occurrences rival old legends of possession. 



It will be useful to give you a brief sketch of the observa- 

 tions which preceded hypnotism. When we remember that 

 this is not a new science, but only a new name, and that it is 

 the habit of mankind to re-christen and adopt to-day many 

 things which it rejected and reprobated yesterday, it should 



