December i '., 1891. j 



SCIENCE. 



3St 



the sting from disease. Bernheim, when taunted with un- 

 tvisdom because he employed hypnotism in the treatment of 

 consumptive patients, and asked if by suggestion he expected 

 to cure the disease and destroy the bacilli of tubercle, replied 

 that he hypnotized those patients, not with the expectation 

 of restoring disintegrated lung tissue, but because his sug- 

 gestions relieved the wearing cough, reduced perspiration, 

 improved the appetite, and gave refreshing sleep. If the 

 disease was far advanced, suggestion by relieving the symp- 

 toms which constituted its sting enabled the poor sufferers 

 to enjoy some comfort during the short spell of life remain- 

 ing to them. If it had not passed the early stages there was 

 a possibility that, by placing the patient under favorable 

 bodily and mental conditions, reaction towards cure might 

 be initiated and assisted. 



After all, is it not the aim of most medical treatment to 

 be thus Nature's auxiliary ? The physician can aspire to do 

 little more than place his patient in the most favorable posi- 

 tion for cure, and thus aid that restitutio ad integrum which 

 is the natural and vital reaction towards health. Some 

 writers object to hypnotism for the reason that it removes 

 pain without curing the disease of which it is a symptom, 

 and aver that pain is Nature's danger signal, which should 

 not be lowered unless the cause of danger is removed. Their 

 objection carries little weight when hypnotism is employed 

 by experienced physicians, who know how to interpret the 

 signal, and who, while they try to dispel pain, do not neglect 

 to combat the disease which it betokens. And we must not 

 forget that in certain cases — for instance, in many forms of 

 neuralgia — the pain is the disease, and its removal means 

 the recovery of the patient; nor that pain is often the most 

 distressing accompaniment of incurable disease. How can 

 we let the poor victim of cancer or of locomotor ataxy drag 

 out months or years of agony, when we have at hand the 

 means of mitigating his sufferings ? For such a one, the 

 physician can often effect by hypnotism what otherwise he 

 could effect only by narcotics and sedatives; and with this 

 advantage, that hypnotism does not impair the mental and 

 physical powers nor wealcen the moral sense, as such drugs 

 must do if their use be persisted in. 



An objection frequently urged against hypnotism is that a 

 person who has been subjected to it, even only once or twice, 

 becomes over-susceptible to hypnotic influence. Repetition of 

 the hypnotic process does generally increase susceptibility, 

 though not to the extent which is often supposed. I have 

 frequently seen a practised hypnotist fail absolutely to affect 

 a subject who had many times before been under hypnotic 

 influence. It should be the object of a medical hypnotist 

 not to weaken but to strengthen his patients will-power, and 

 to make him understand that — to quote Bernheim's words — 

 he hypnotizes himself under the guidance of the operator. 

 It is a good plan to protect young and very susceptible sub- 

 jects by impressing upon them during hypnosis thattiiey are 

 not to be hypnotized by any one except their own physician. 

 I have seen sensitive persons who were thus protected resist 

 all the efforts of the most successful hypnotists. It is hardly 

 necessary to insist on the advisability of never hypnotizing 

 women, nor, as a rule, very young persons, except in the 

 presence of a responsible guardian or friend. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



*** Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. Tlte icriter^s na/ne 

 is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



On request in advance^ oii". hundred copies of the number containing his 

 communication wilt '>e furnished free to any correspondent. 



Tlie editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the charactir 

 of the journal. 



A Suggestion on Telepathy. 



Many persons, when in some public place, as a street-car, 

 church, or theatre, have felt the peculiarly unpleasant sensation 

 that some one is staring at them from behind. Some claim to be 

 able to make certain persons of their acquaintance look around 

 by simply gazing fixedly at them. I am assured by one that at 

 any public gathering she is able, without fail, to makea very self- 

 conscious and sensitive friend look around in an annoyed 

 manner when stared at from behind and entirely out of the range 

 of the friend's vision. One person in sfeming physical isolation 

 appeal's to control another at some little distance. Such cases 

 seem not uncommon, ami scientific investigation of them might 

 throw some light on certain cases of telepathy and hypnotism. 



Some people also claim to be immediately aware of the presence 

 of certain individuals — to have a physical intuition wholly with- 

 out sense impression. This is doubtless generally due to an in- 

 terpretation, unconsciously made, of various sensations which are 

 not welded into ego-experience, and so escape memory. Yet 

 sometimes the physical break seems so complete that any sensa- 

 tion seems impossible, and ths feeling of presence appears to be a 

 true telepathy. Of one thing I am convinced, namely, that we 

 must first study all instances of what may be termed short-dis- 

 tance telepathy before we can expect to make much progress 

 with long-distance telepathy. Hieam M. Stanley. 



Lake Forest University, Dec. 2. 



"Recent Tendencies in the Reform of Land Tenure" is the 

 title of a pamphlet lately published by the American Academy 

 of Political and social Science. The author is Professor E. P. 

 Cheney of the Univei-sity of Pennsylvania, who has written sev- 

 eral other essnys on the land question. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 



In the December number of Babyhood there are medical arti- 

 cles on "Biliousness in Children," "Nursery Ventilation and 

 Warming," and "The Care of Delicate Children." 



— The New York Mathematical Society has begun the publica- 

 tion of a monthly bulletin. Three numbers, for October, Novem- 

 ber, and December, have already appeared. The adilress of the 

 society is 41 East Forty-ninth Street, New York. 



— The Review of Reviews will issue about the middle of De- 

 cember a brochure that is sure to create a sensation. It is nothing 

 less than a compilation of anecdotes and materials upon appari- 

 tions and ghostly hallucinations, prepared by Mr. Stead, the 

 English editor, and issued with the assistance and approbation of 

 the British and American societies for psychical research, of which 

 Professor Sidgwich of Cambridge University, England, and Pro- 

 fessor James of Harvard University are in their respective coun- 

 tries the guiding spirits. 



'•Jerusalem, the Holy City," is the title of Mrs. Oliphanfs new- 

 book which Messrs. Macmillan & Co. are to publish early in De- 

 cember, uniform in style with " The Makers of Florence," " Royal 

 Edinburgh," etc., by the same author. It will be illustrated by 

 Hamilton Aide. The same firm will soon publish in this country 

 "In Cairo," by William Morton Fullerton. The author formerly 

 occupied the position of literary editor of the Boston Advertiser. For 

 several years past he has lived abroad, and the book to be pub- 

 lished embodies the result of a winter's sojourn in Egypt. It will 

 be illustrated with drawings by Percy Anderson, the English 

 artist, who was Mr. FuUerton's fellow-traveller in Egypt and 

 Greece. A book oC researches in the Peloponnesus, which Mr. 

 Fullerton explored on donkey-back, will soon follow. 



— The December number of the Educational Review completes 

 the second volume of that journal. President Setli Low of Colum- 

 bia has a suggestive paper on James Russell Lowell as an educator; 

 Principal W. C. Collar of the Roxbury. Mass.. Latin School studies 

 the action of the colleges on the schools ; Professor Joseph Jastrow 

 contributes a psychological study of memory and association ; 

 while Dr. D. A. Sargent of Harvard discusses the subject of college 



