Stanley, Jean M. Charcot. 169 



commenced in 1880, and published under Prof. Charcot's direc- 

 tion, contain his first articles on hypnotism. For the past fif- 

 teen years, Prof. Charcot has done nearly all that has been done 

 to develop hypnotism on a purely scientific basis, clearly recog- 

 nizing" its importance in the clinical study of neuro-pathology, 

 but not seeming to attribute to it much therapeutic value. A 

 short time before his death he himself says that he had found 

 hypnotism "a rich field" for his studies in neurology. In his 

 work in hypnotism, he held that the condition induced by artifi- 

 cial means is a neurosis, and a neurosis allied to hysteria. 

 Charcot was by no means willing to accept the extreme maxim 

 of the school at Nancy "no suggestion, no hypnosis," for while 

 allowing the great value of suggestion in producing the hypnotic 

 state he was able to adduce the highly interesting phenomenon 

 of neuro-muscular hyperexcitability, one of the most certain char- 

 acteristics, he used to say, of hypnosis. Delicate pressure on a 

 point in a limb or on the face, which in the normal state pro- 

 duces no effect on the muscle, was found by him to be followed 

 by its proper physiological action when the subject was in a cer- 

 tain stage of hypnotism. He used this incontestable fact in a 

 two-fold manner, first to refute the explanation offered by the 

 upholders of "suggestion" as a universal solvent, and second to 

 confute opponents who had recourse to "imposture" as the 

 correct explanation, for he was accustomed to say that both ob- 

 jectors must believe an ignorant woman to preserve as minute a 

 knowledge of the action of each muscle as Duchenne himself. 



In thinking of Prof. Charcot's doctrine, that artificial sleep 

 is a neurosis allied to hysteria, the fact must be borne in mind, 

 that his experiments were conducted almost entirely upon hys- 

 terical patients. This undoubtedly served to color the symp- 

 toms he observed, and consequently the inference he drew as to 

 the close alliance between hypnotism and hysteria. Indeed, 

 his lucid article in the " Dictionary of Psychological Medicine," 

 bears as title the significant words, ' ' Hypnotism in the Hyster- 

 ical." While Charcot himself without doubt kept this fact in 

 mind, it has been overlooked by many other experimenters, 

 who, failing to find the phenomena as he sets forth, have blamed 



