j'uNE 3, 1887.] 



SCIENCE. 



545 



Bernheim says that when the intense expectance 

 of the subject has produced a comphant condition, 

 a peculiar capacity is developed to change the idea 

 that lias been i*eceived into an action as well as a 

 great acuteness of acceptation, which together 

 will produce all those phenomena that we should 

 call by the name of ' pathological sleep,' since they 

 are only separable in a gradual way from the 

 ordinary sleep and dream conditions Bernheim 

 is particularly strenuous that psychology should 

 appear in the foreground of hypnotism, and on 

 this point has been strongly upheld by men like 

 Professors Beaunis and Richet. 



The possibility of suggestion in waking condi- 

 tions, and also a long time after the sleep has passed 

 off {suggestions posthypnotiques ou suggestions a 

 (tongue) eeheance), as well as the remarkable ca- 

 pacity of subjects to change their personality 

 {changement de la personnalite, object ivat ion des 

 typtes), have been made the subject of careful in- 

 vestigation. The voluntary production of bleeding 

 and stigmata through spiritual influence has been 

 asserted, particularly by Messrs. Tocachon, Bourru, 

 and Burot. The judicial significance of sugges- 

 tion has been discussed by Professor Li^geois and 

 Dr. Ladame. Professor Pitres in Bordeaux is one 

 of the suggestionists, though differing in many 

 points from the Nancy school. 



This whole tendency brings into prominence the 

 psychical influence, while it denies the production 

 of these results from purely physical phenomena, 

 endeavoring to explain them in a different man- 

 ner. These explanations carry us into two realms, 

 the first of which has been lately opened, and at 

 present seems to abound more in enigmas than in 

 solutions. 



Metallotherapie, which was called into existence 

 by Dr. Burg, and further extended by Dr. Gell6, 

 contains a special point of interest, — the so-called 

 trjnsferrence in the case of hysterically or hyp- 

 notically affected persons. Transferrence is caused 

 by electro-magnetism, which has this peculiarity, 

 — that in the case of specially sensitive persons it 

 can transfer the bodily affection from left to right, 

 and vice versa. The transferrence of paralysis, 

 the cures attempted on this plan, and the so-called 

 ' psychical transferrence,' which contains special 

 interest for graphologists, are at the present time 

 still open questions, as well as the closely con- 

 nected theory of human polarity ; and the odic 

 experiments of Dr. Chazarain are yet waiting for 

 their confirmation. At present the problem of 

 the connection between magnetism and hypnotism 

 is under investigation, and in such a manner that 

 we may hope for a speedy solution. 



Still stranger than these reports, are the ac- 

 counts of the distant operation of certain bodies ; 



at least, they seem strange to those unacquainted 

 with psychometry and the literature of the past 

 century relating to this subject. Two physicians 

 in Rochefort, Professors Bourru and Burot, in 

 treating a hystero-epileptic person, found that 

 gold, even when at a distance of fifteen centi- 

 metres, produced in him a feeling of unbearable 

 heat. They continued these experiments with 

 great care, and, after a number of trials, came to 

 this conclusion, that in some persons certain sub- 

 stances, even when carefully separated from them 

 by long distance, exercise exactly the same physio- 

 logical influence as if introduced into their organ- 

 ism. In order to explain these phenomena, they 

 refer to the radiating force of Barety, an expla- 

 nation neither satisfactory to themselves nor to 

 others. Lately the distinguished Parisian physi- 

 cian. Dr. Luys, has confirmed by his experiments 

 the existence of these phenomena, but he thinks 

 the explanation referable to hyper-sensitiveness of 

 the " regions emotives et intellectuelles de Venceph- 

 aJe,'^ yet even he has not reached the kernel of 

 the difficulty. 



In close connection with action at a distance is 

 the question of distant production of hypnotic 

 sleep. For an answer to this problem, they are 

 experimenting in both France and England ; and 

 Frederick W. H. Myers has thrown an entirely 

 new light upon the subject by the investigations 

 he is making upon a purely experimental basis. 

 In Italy they have limited themselves to the 

 study of isolated cases of hystero-hypnotism, ex- 

 cept as the phenomena of magnetic fascination 

 investigated by Donato have given rise to further 

 research ; but all the books I have seen upon this 

 subject, as well as many by French authors, suffer 

 from ignorance of the latest English discoveries. 



With this I think that I have given a slight 

 outline of the history of hypnotic investigation 

 to the end of the year 1886. I shall attempt a 

 criticism of this whole movement at some other 

 time, as space is not afforded to me here ; but I 

 should like to make this statement now, that two 

 of the characteristic indications of this period are 

 of the gravest import, — first the method ("Our 

 work," says Richet, "is that of strictly scientific 

 testing, observation and arrangement'^); and, sec- 

 ondly, the result. Hypnotism has been received 

 into the realm of scientific investigation, and 

 with this the foundation of a true experimental 

 psychology has been laid. Max Dessoir. 



WALCOTT ON THE CAMBRIAN FAUNAS. 



. In a recent English geological work there occurs 

 the remark, that, "in spite of the excellent work 

 done by many American geologists, the true se- 



