February 28, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



147 



the halls, struck the keeper, making his nose bleed. You were 

 there." The illusion soon developed; and the subject repeated 

 the whole story, adding that a nurse came with a basin of 

 water to wash off the blood. A neighboring subject was then 

 aroused, and asked what happened yesterday to No. 3. After 

 some hesitation, he repeated the story. And so on with all the 

 others, including one who was sleeping naturally. No. 3 

 himself admitted that he struck the keeper, but he did not 

 begin the quarrel. None of these patients had ever assisted at 

 ' such an experiment before. The experiment may not succeed 

 at all times and with all subjects; but it shows, that, when the 

 sleeper has his attention fixed upon the person who is speaking, 

 he hears and accepts every thing. On awakening, he does not 

 recall this of his own accord; but, as soon as a hint is given, 

 he recalls it all, and accepts it as a reality. As a practical 

 outcome of the observation, Dr. Bernheim gives the warning 

 not to tell secrets in the presence of a sleeper. 



Statistics of Cures by Hypnotism. 



The methods and purposes of the clinic for the treatment of 

 diseases by hypnotism, founded at Amsterdam by Drs. van 

 Beuterghem and van Eeden, have been noticed before in these 

 columns {Science, May 24, 1889) . On the occasion of completing 

 the first two years of their experience, they have put together 

 an account of the kind and number of diseases treated, and the 

 amount of success achieved; and these statistics, being com- 

 paratively extensive and carefully collected, have good claims 

 to general consideration. There were treated, in all, 414 

 patients (319 men and 195 women). Of these, only 1.5 (less 

 than 4 per cent) could not be hypnotized; 317 (53 per cent) 

 •entered a light stage of sleep; 135 (32 per cent) entered a 

 deeper stage; and 47 (11 per cent) entered the somnambulic 

 stage, characteristic of the best hypnotic subjects. The ages of 

 the patients were distributed as follows : from 1 to 10 years, 

 9; from 11 to 20 years, 46; from 21 to 40 years, 203; from 41 

 to 60 years, 131 ; from 61 to 80 years, 25. There were 361 of 

 the 414 afllicted with various kinds of nervous troubles, 168 

 were classed as general neuropathic disorders, 68 as neuralgias 

 and pains, 60 as mental diseases, 40 as hysterical affections, 

 and 29 as organic affections. In general, the effects of the 

 treatment are indicated by the following figures : no effect in 71 

 ■cases (20 per cent) , a slight or passing improvement in 92 cases 

 (26 per cent) , a distinct and permanent improvement in 98 cases 

 (27 per cent), and a cure in 100 cases (28 per cent). The dis- 

 proportion in the number of nervous and non-nervous cases 

 makes a fair comparison of the results in the two classes impos- 

 sible. Among the nervous diseases, those classed as neuropathic 

 -show a very favorable result, 33 per cent being cured, and 36 per 

 <3ent permanently benefited. Hysterical and neuralgic affec- 

 tions show nearly as high a percentage, though the absolute 

 numbers are here much smaller. Diseases classed as organic 

 naturally show the very minimum of success in treatment. We 

 have thus no announcement of hypnotism as a panacea curing 

 all diseases, but a fair proportion of success and failure dis- 

 tributed among various disorders in a way that accords with 

 our knowledge of the nature of such diseases. It is only by 

 ■auch impartial and scientifically collected results that the 

 movement can make progress. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 



Last week's issue of Garden and Forest contains an excellent 

 illusti-ation of the famous Waverly Oaks, near Boston, and a 

 figure of Gladiolus turicensis, one of the noteworthy additions to 

 garden-plants last year. Jlr. Charles Eliot writes instructively 

 of the coast of Maine ; and among other contributors to the num- 

 ber are Professor J. B. Smith, Professor W. A. Buckliout, Pi-o- 

 fessor E. S. Goff, Professor J. T. Rothrock, Dr. Udo Dammer, 

 John Thorpe, and Mi's. Schuyler Van Rensselaer. 



— The March number of the Neiv E)igland Magazine will con- 

 tain many portraits. In the article on the ' 'Supreme Court of 

 the United States" ' there will be given likenesses of more than a 

 •dozen of the great justices. In an article on "Chautauqua" 



will be found portraits of Bishop Vincent and Mr Lewis Miller. 

 "A Successful Woman's Club," "A Strange Dinner -Party, " 

 and "An Old New England Country Gentleman," are other 

 illustrated articles in this number. 



— To meet the demand for a much greater variety and number 

 of illusti-ations in the American Architect, Messrs. Ticknor & Co. 

 have arranged to more than double the extent of that depai'tment, 

 and to add many new features. To give their subscribers a gi'eater 

 amount of illustration, it is necessary to increase the subscrip- 

 tion price, but only to those who desire the increased illusti'a- 

 tion. They therefore continue their regular and imperial edi- 

 tions, but have issued, in addition, an enlarged and more expen- 

 sive edition, called "the intei-national edition." The interna- 

 tional includes all that the imperial contains (that is, the 

 equivalent of 384 pages of photo-lithographic illusti-ation of all 

 sorts, also 40 gelatine and 12 heliochrome plates, and the extra' 

 photogravure plate for the year) , and adds (A) a large amount 

 of foreign work, received regularly from England, France, and 

 Germany. The apportionment of this new matter is not yet 

 finally settled, but it will amount approximately to over 300 

 pages of photo-lithographs, and probably 150 gelatine plates, be- 

 sides a large number of genuine coppeiplate etchings. To give 

 still further value to this edition, there will be from time to time 

 (B) additional colored prints and (C) real photogravures, — 

 genuine copperplate prints, such as are issued by Messrs. Goupil 

 in Paris by that name. But the feature perhaps the most inter- 

 esting to the American profession will consist (D) in publishing 

 in this international edition, as far as subscribers will aid, com- 

 petitive designs submitted in limited, and in some cases in public, 

 competitions. To do this — to provide a journal containing ap- 

 proximately 1,000 page illustrations (besides nearly as many 

 smaller cuts in the text) and (E) an attendant increase in the 

 text of four pages weekly, 300 pages per annum — has required 

 a considerable increase in the subscription price, and it cannot 

 be placed at less than $25 per annum. At the same time, to 

 place it within reach of many to whom so large a single payment 

 might be an inconvenience, quarterly payments at a slightly in- 

 creased rate may be made when preferred. No subscriptions will 

 be received, however, for less than the full calendar year, as the 

 plans involve contracts in at least three foreign countries, made 

 upon a permanent basis by the year. There has just been issued 

 in the American Architect a photogravure from Mr. Axel H. 

 Haig' s famous etching, ' 'At the Fountain of St. George. ' ' This is 

 commonly called "St. George at Lubeck; " but Mr. Haig 

 writes, ' ' The subject is not to be found at Lubeck at all or in 

 any North German town. The work is a composition, partially 

 founded on a scene in an old Bavarian town, but, being so very 

 much an invention, I cannot give a locality to it. " 



— "The danger of an ignorant person in seizing an electric wire 

 carrying a strong current is as gi-eat as that to which a person 

 ignorant of the ways of snakes would be subjected if he under- 

 took to take the place of the skilled observer . . . accustomed to 

 put his arm into a tall jar containing rattlesnakes and take them 

 out. ' ' This extract will show the general drift of an article on 

 ' 'Dangers from Electricity, ' ' by John Trowbridge, which appears 

 in the Atlantic for March. There is a paper by Charles Worces- 

 ter Clark on "Woman Suffrage, Pro and Con;" George Parsons 

 Latlu-op shows us '-The Value of the Comer;" and there is a 

 paper called "Loitering through the Paris Exposition, " which 

 tells, among many other things, of all the concerts given at the 

 cafes of the exposition by the various nationalities, — Gypsies, 

 Javanese, Hungarians, and many more. Dr. Holmes is particu- 

 larly amusing in ' 'Over the Teacups, ' ' and seems to wish that 

 people would write less poetry. He closes with some odd verses 

 on the rage for scribbling. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



Physical Fields. 



I THINK Professor Dolbear misunderstands the motive of my 



communication relative to physical fields, that appeared in 



Science Jan. 34. It was not so much what I conceived to be 



misuse of the term "stress," that I wished to call attention 



