812 Dynamic Theory. 



which the teacher could not do, nor he either in an ordinary state of 

 mind. It is related of a Kentucky pioneer, that when pursued by In- 

 dians upon one occasion, he suddenly found himself confronted by an 

 immense tree which had fallen directly across the path on which he was 

 fleeing, and the limbs of which made a barrier many feet high. His 

 pursuers thinking they now had him, gave an exultant yell and dashed 

 forward. Under the stimulus of this, he made a mighty effort and by 

 a miraculous leap cleared the barrier and by the time thus gained, while 

 the Indians were recovering from their astonishment and finding their 

 way around the obstacle, he made good his escape. Other cases involv- 

 ing the same principle have been cited above. 



Carpenter well enough remarks that mental actions in the states of 

 natural and artificial reverie and abstraction, and the bodily movements 

 which are the expressions of those states, ' ' are to be regarded as essenti- 

 ally automatic in their nature, the course of thought being entirely deter- 

 mined by the play of suggestions upon the associations previously 

 formed." But as observed above, ordinary life differs from these 

 states, only, in showing a less degree of abstraction. There is abso- 

 lutely no definite boundary line possible. And certainly there is no 

 condition of finite existence actual or conceivable, in which the course 

 of thought is not entirely determined by the play of suggestions upon 

 the associations previously formed. If our actions are automatic in 

 one state they are in all the others. Since the condition of the brain in 

 the various emotional states exerts so much influence upon the glandu- 

 lar secretions and the blood, it is apparent that in the hypnotic and 

 biological states in which the emotions can be made more intense than 

 they ordinarily are in the waking state, the effects on the secretions 

 could be made proportionally intense. And whatever beneficial effect 

 upon the secretions there is to be had through the mental states, it is in- 

 tensified when the patient is in the hypnotic condition. Thus it is told, 

 that ' a lady who was leaving off nursing from defect of milk, the 

 baby being thirteen months old, was hypnotized by Mr. Braid, and 

 whilst she was in this state he made a few passes over the right breast 

 to call attention to it. In a few moments her gestures showed that the 

 babe was sucking ( in her imagination ) and in two minutes the breast 

 was distended with milk at which, when subsequently awakened 

 she expressed the greatest surprise. The flow of milk from that 

 side continued most abundant; and in order to restore symmetry to her 

 figure, Mr. Braid subsequently produced the same change on the other; 

 after which she had a copious supply- of milk for nine months. " Again, 

 a female relative of Mr. Braid was the subject of a severe rheumatic 

 fever, during the course of which the left eye became seriously impli- 

 cated, so that after the inflammatory action had passed away there was an 



