Suicide or Hypnosis? 



the Cloudy Buprestis; but how many others 

 have resisted quite indomitably, or remained 

 motionless for only a few seconds ! 



The insect's return to the active state pre- 

 sents certain peculiarities which are well 

 worthy of attention. The key to the pro- 

 blem lies here. Let us return for a moment 

 to the patients who have been subjected to 

 the ordeal of ether. These are really hyp- 

 notized. They do not remain motionless by 

 way of a ruse, there is no doubt upon that 

 point; they are actually on the threshold of 

 death; and, if I did not take them in good 

 time out of the flask in which a few drops 

 of ether have been evaporated, they would 

 never recover from the torpor whose last 

 stage is death. 



Now what symptoms herald their return 

 to activity? We know the symptoms: the 

 tarsi tremble, the palpi quiver, the antennae 

 wave to and fro. A man emerging from a 

 deep sleep stretches his limbs, yawns and rubs 

 his eyes. The insect awaking from the 

 etheric sleep likewise has its own fashion of 

 marking its recovery of consciousness : it flut- 

 ters its tiny digits and the more mobile of 

 its organs. 



Let us now consider an insect which, up- 

 set by a shock, perturbed by some sort of 



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