542 



SCIElSrCE, 



[Vol. IX., No. 226 



explanation relegating them to the realm of the 

 known. The trance caused by regarding fixedly 

 a gleaming point, produces in the brain, in his 

 opinion, an accumulation of a peculiar nervous 

 power, which he calls 'electrodynamism.' If this 

 is directed in a skilful manner by the operator 

 upon certain points, it manifests itself in certain 

 situations and actions that we call hypnotic. Be- 

 yond this somewhat questionable theory, both 

 books contained a detailed description of some of 

 the most important phenomena ; but with the 

 practical meaning of the phenomena, and espe- 

 cially with their therapeutic value, the author 

 concerned himself but slightly. Just on account 

 of this pathological side, however, a certain at- 

 tention has been paid to hypnotism up to the 

 present time. 



In the year 1847 two surgeons in Poictiers, 

 Drs. Ribaut and Kiaros, employed hypnotism with 

 great success in order to make an operation pain- 

 less. " This long and horrible work," says a jour- 

 nal of the day, " was much more like a demon- 

 stration in a dissecting-room than an operation 

 performed upon a living being." Although this 

 operation produced such an excitement, yet it was 

 twelve years later before decisive and positive 

 official intelligence was given of these facts by 

 Broca, Follin, Velpeau, and Guerinau. But these 

 accounts, as well as the excellent little book by 

 Dr. Azam, shared the fate of their predecessors. 

 They were looked upon by students with distrust, 

 and by the disciples of Mesmer with scornful con- 

 tempt. 



The work of Demarquay and Giraud Teulon 

 showed considerable advance in this direction. 

 The authors, indeed, fell back upon the theory of 

 James Braid, which they called stillborn, and of 

 which they said, " Elle est restee accrochee en 

 route ; " but they did not satisfy themselves with 

 a simple statement of facts, as did Gigot Suard ' 

 in his work that appeared about the same time. 

 Through systematic experiments they tried to 

 find out where the line of hypnotic phenomena 

 intersected the line of the realm of the known. 

 They justly recognized that hypnotism and hys- 

 teria have many points of likeness, and in this 

 way were the precursors of the present Parisian 

 school. They say that from magnetic sleep to the 

 hypnotic condition an iron chain can be easily 

 formed from the very same organic elements that 

 we find in hysterical conditions. 



At the same time, as if to bring an experimental 

 proof of this assertion, Lasigue published a report 

 on catalepsy in persons of hysterical tendencies, 

 which he afterwards incorporated into his larger 

 work. Among his patients, those who were of 

 a quiet and lethargic temperament, by simply 



pressing down the eyelids, were made to enter 

 into a peculiar state of languor, in which 

 cataleptic contractions were easily produced, and 

 which forcibly recalled hypnotic phenomena. 

 " One can scarcely imagine," says the author, 

 " a more remarkable spectacle than that of a sick 

 person sunk in deep sleep, and insensible to all 

 efforts to arouse him, who retains every position 

 in which he is placed, and in it preserves the 

 immobility and rigidity of a statue." But this 

 impulse also was in vain, and in only a few cases 

 were the practical tests followed up with theo- 

 retical explanations. 



Unbounded enthusiasm and unjust blame alike 

 subsided into a silence that was not broken for ten 

 years. Then Charles Richet, a renowned scien- 

 tist, came forward in 1875, impelled by the duty 

 he felt he owed as a priest of truth, and made 

 some announcements concerning the phenomena 

 of somnambulism ; and in countless books, all of 

 which are worthy of attention, he has since then 

 considered the problem from its various sides. 



He separates somnambulism into three periods. 

 The word here is used for this whole class of 

 subjects as Richet himself uses it ; viz., torpeur, 

 excitation, and stupeur. In the first, which is 

 produced by the so-called magnetic passes and 

 the fixing of the eyes, silence and languor come 

 over the subject. The second period, usually pro- 

 duced by constant repetition of the experiment, 

 is characterized chiefly by sensibility to hallu- 

 cination and suggestion. The third period has as 

 its principal characteristics supersensibility of the 

 muscles, and lack of sensation. Yet let it be 

 noticed that these divisions were not expressed 

 in their present clearness until 1880 ; while in the 

 years between 1872 and 1880, from an entirely 

 different quarter, a similar hypothesis was made 

 out for hypnotic phenomena. 



Jean Martin Charcot, the renowned neurologist 

 of the Parisian Salpetriere, without exactly de- 

 siring it, was led into the study of artificial 

 somnambulism by his careful experiments in ref- 

 erence to hysteria, and especially by the question 

 of metallotherapie, and in the year 1879 had pre- 

 pared suitable demonstrations, which were given 

 in public lectures at the Salpetriere. In the fol- 

 lowing years he devoted himself to closer investi- 

 gation of this subject, and was happily and skil- 

 fully assisted by Dr. Paul Richer, with whom 

 were associated many other physicians, such as 

 Bourneville, Regnard, FerS, and Binet. The in- 

 vestigations of these men present the peculiarity 

 that they observe hypnotism from its clinical and 

 nosographical side, which side had until now been 

 entirely neglected, and that they observe patients 

 of the strongest hysterical temperaments. " If 



