ABNORMAL IMPRESSIONS. 267 



she could not remember it. The amateur tried in 

 vain to dislodge his suggestion ; several successful 

 hypnotists were brought, but none could remove 

 it. The young lady grieved so over the loss of 

 her name that she became demented and is now 

 in an insane asylum. Other illustrations might 

 be given, but these are sufficient to indicate the 

 potency of a suggestion for good or evil. 



The foetus is said to be amenable to mental 

 suggestion and hypnotic control. Practical hyp- 

 notists affirm that the character of a child can be 

 greatly modified by hypnotic suggestions lodged 

 in the mother's mind during the last half of the 

 period of gestation. A perfectly reliable gentle- 

 man, a hypnotist, told me that he was able to 

 control his unborn child as easily as he could the 

 other members of his family. He was first led A Father's 

 to make the experiment because of the infant's Experiment, 

 extreme activity greatly disturbing the mother, 

 who was in delicate health. He found that by 

 placing his hand over the child and silently will- 

 ing it to be quiet, or as he said, "talking to it," it 

 would soon stop its restlessness and seemingly go 

 to sleep. He gave it certain suggestions in the 

 line of the artistic and love of the beautiful, which 

 proved to be very strong natural traits in the 

 child's character. 



Other reliable cases have come to my notice 

 indicating clearly that a child is amenable to Resemblance to 

 control and subject to suggestions by persons the Unrelated, 

 other than its mother for some time prior to its 

 birth. The fact of many children strongly re- 

 sembling some pronounced character with whom 

 the mother has associated during gestation doubt- 



