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NA TURE 



[October 9, i8co 



psychological interest ; and it does not refuse to consider 

 with some careful attention the phenomena of telepathy 

 and thought transference in a hypnotic state, such as are 

 judged by Charles Richet, Gurney, Pierre Janet, Oliver 

 Lodge, and others to .take place under conditions which 

 render their explanation by the action of the known senses 

 at present inadequate. 



Such a comprehensive review of the present position 

 is in need of a far more extensive and careful historical 

 preface than is usually undertaken ; and in this respect 

 Dr. Moll has shown his sense of his responsibilities, and 

 gone much beyond a mere reproduction of the hackneyed 

 account of many of the French writers. He sees that 

 the phenomena generally called mesmeric did not entirely 

 originate with Mesmer (1734-1815), about a century ago ; 

 but can be in. part traced back to some of the earlier 

 civilizations (cf. Ebers's papyrus, l6th century. B.C.), and 

 assumed some of their more modern forms under Paracel- 

 sus (1493-1541) and van Helmont (1577-1644), although, 

 of course, their recent growth has been far more rapid. 

 Mesmer is a man hard to estimate rightly. The final 

 account of him has probably not yet been written, nor 

 the final judgment passed, but Dr. Moll furnishes a sketch 

 of some discrimination, based chiefly on contemporary 

 evidence, and showing some sympathy for the mental and 

 moral bewilderment occasioned by the chaos of the Great 

 Revolution with which he was surrounded in Paris. 

 Since Mesmer, he realizes the steps in advance made by 

 Braid (1843), i^i recognizing the physiological and psycho- 

 logical importance of a state of attention in what he 

 called no longer mesmerism or animal magnetism, but 

 hypnotism ; by Esdaile in 1845, in demonstrating the 

 complete anaesthesia that was made possible by hyp- 

 notism, even in major surgical operations ; by Li^beault 

 (1866), in showing the practical use of post-hypnotic 

 suggestion to dominate at least some morbid habits and 

 minor pains ; and by the schools both of the Salpetriere 

 under Charcot (1878) and of Nancy under Bernheim 

 (1884), in proving to the general public the permanent 

 importance of a deeper study of the subject. 



The survey of the methods of induction and the 

 symptoms of hypnotism is founded on much personal 

 experiment and a wide experience in all the European 

 nations. More than 600 authors are quoted, and more 

 than half of these are contemporary. Though fully half 

 of them come from France and Germany together, yet 

 there is a very considerable total of English, Swiss, Aus- 

 trians, Americans, Italians, Spaniards, Belgians, Dutch, 

 Swedes, Danes, Greeks, and Russians. Hypnotism is 

 certainly not a limited or local fancy. Last year the four 

 days' discussion of hypnotism under its various aspects at 

 the Congr^s International de Psychologie Physiologique, 

 in Paris, by such a large gathering of men from all parts 

 of Europe, not interested merely in the medical side of 

 the subject, but in its total results and their relation to 

 other branches of knowledge, gave very tangible proof 

 of this, as may be seen in their Compte rendu. And who 

 are the easiest persons to hypnotize ? It is very common 

 to find those who have had little or no experience them- 

 selves confident that they can point out the most amen- 

 able subjects, and choosing generally persons with some 

 obvious weakness. But Dr. Moll shows that neither 

 neurasthenia nor hysteria, nor weakness of will, nor any 

 NO. 1093, '^OL. 42] 



of the sentimental weaknesses that may be made to 

 render their subjects laughable, really conduce to making 

 them more readily hypnotizable. Hysterical people may 

 be morbidly imitative, and if one is hypnotized many may 

 follow the example, if it is open to their observation ; but 

 taken singly, their hysterical tendencies rather hinder 

 than help their hypnotization (p. 316), a point which has 

 unfortunately been rather obscured by the long and im- 

 portant experiments made by Charcot on the hysterics 

 only ; for, from the success of many of these, it was hastily 

 and incorrectly assumed, before wider trial, that thi-s 

 class of subject was the most easily influenced. Whether 

 there can be any special capacity in the hypnotizer is a 

 point Dr. Moll does not discuss in detail ; he assumes 

 that all of fairly good intelligence are about equal after a 

 little practice at the technique. But there are some case- 

 which he mentions (p. 363), of hypnotism at a distance by 

 Dr. Gibert and Pierre Janet, in which, when both the 

 persons hypnotizing and the times of hypnotism were un- 

 known to the subjects, certain persons proved pre-eminently [ 

 successful {Bulletins de la Societe de Psychologie Physio- 

 logique, 1886, p. 78). The proof or disproof of individual 

 qualifications is, in fact, one of the many difficult points 

 for the settlement of which a wide and very careful ex- 

 perimental research is still necessary. The mesmerists 

 of the early part of the century can be shown to have laid 

 too much stress upon it ; it may be that it is'too much 

 overlooked now. 



Any exact definition of hypnotism, as of other abnormal 

 states of consciousness, is difficult enough, as Dr. Moll 

 very readily acknowledges. " The two characteristics of 

 hypnosis are suggestibility and the power of ending the 

 state at pleasure " (p. 208), he observes, in agreement with 

 most others who have considered the subject ; but it is | 

 not plain how this is consistent with what he has said just I 

 before (p. 201), viz. that "to my mind the dividing line 

 between sleep and hypnosis is merely a quantitative 

 difference in the movements." The mental susceptibility 

 would have seemed to us a more important point of 

 variance. But we are glad to say that, on the more 

 difficult points of theory. Dr. Moll promises us another 

 book at some future date, and it seems wise to allow- 

 some considerable time for the collection and attestation 

 of the phenomena before attempting the establishment 

 of theory in matters of such traditional difficulty. 



That the practice of hypnotism is very useful in the 

 healing art Dr. Moll is convinced, and offers a good 

 deal of technical medical evidence which it would be 

 hardly appropriate to consider here. The power of post- 

 hypnotic suggestion in checking habits of drunkenness, 

 &c., is one which is just beginning to be confirmed from 

 various quarters, and which opens a wide vista. The 

 • possible dangers which arise from the hypnotist's power 

 over the patient's conduct need very careful attention, 

 though Dr. Moll is inclined to point with satisfaction to 

 the very few cases in which any injury has been actually 

 done. We could have wished that he had made plainer 

 that most important preventive practice of Li^beault's, 

 viz. that those who are afraid of the dominion of any 

 hypnotist can be and should be protected against it by 

 hypnotization under other trustworthy hands, and by the 

 suggestion that no one can have any hypnotic or post- 

 hypnotic power over them. In his last chapter on 



