SCIENCE. 



[Vol. X. No. 245 



Next, Professor Delboeuf had three steel bars made exactly alike, 

 two of which were strongly magnetized, and the third not. He 

 gave the boy a real magnet, and asked him whether he felt any 

 thing. After an exploring glance of from thirty to forty seconds, 

 the boy felt tingling sensations, then pain and the usual symptoms. 

 The same was done with the other hand, and he was shown that 

 the bar was a real magnet. Professor Delboeuf then drew the 

 false magnet from his pocket and gave it to the boy : no effect fol- 

 lowed. Then the third (true) magnet was given him, with the re- 

 quest that he should say whether it was a magnet or not. No con- 

 traction followed ; and from now on, the boy had no clew as to the 

 true or the false magnet. Fourteen trials were made, consisting 

 simply in giving the boy a bar, and noting the result. In eleven of 

 these trials he either exhibited the contraction when holding the 

 false magnet, or failed to exhibit it when holding a true one ; thus 

 showing most conclusively that all the effects were self-induced, 

 and suggested by his belief that a magnet was being applied. The 

 same was repeated with another subject, with a like result. 



Professor Delboeuf similarly tested the powers of the hypno- 

 scope, which is simply a small hollow magnet to be held on the 

 finger, and, when thus giving rise to peculiar sensations, is claimed 

 to show that the holder is a good hypnotic subject. Three hypno- 

 scopes were made exactly alike, only two of which were magnetized. 

 Of fifteen university students, three claimed to feel glowing sensa- 

 tions from the instrument, and one of these felt it all the way up to 

 the shoulder. Strangely enough, this young man held the false 

 hypnoscope, and on trial proved to be the best subject. The con- 

 clusion drawn is, that the hypnoscope is useful in detecting hyp- 

 notic subjects, not because of any magnetic sensibility, but because 

 persons of such a susceptible temperament as to imagine sensations 

 from it furnish one of the chief requisites for passing into this con- 

 dition. 



Dr. Voisin indorses this same general view. He has repeated 

 the noted Paris observations, in which the mere approach of an her- 

 metically sealed vial containing a certain drug affects the hypno- 

 tized subject in the same way as a strong dose of the substance in 

 the normal state. He finds that if the utmost precautions against 

 talking to his assistants, and other modes of suggesting the ex- 

 pected effect, are taken, the result is negative, and concludes that 

 in his subject a wonderfully shrewd appreciation of suggestions ac- 

 counts for all that was exhibited. He finds, too, that the applica- 

 tion of a magnet unknown to the subject had no effect, while she 

 is extremely sensitive when she knows a magnet is about. 



Dr. Bernheim has described some remarkable cases in which the 

 mere suggestion of a certain idea in the waking state serves to im- 

 press this idea with a lifelike reality. His subjects are young men 

 of neurotic temperaments in their ordinary waking condition. One 

 patient was told that a certain physician attacked him on the street 

 and picked his pocket. He at once accepted the tale, added details 

 of time and place, and no amount of questioning would get him to 

 give up the notion. Turning to another patient. Dr. Bernheim 

 asked whether he knew any thing about it. The suggestion was 

 sufficient. The subject of the attack had told the second patient 

 all about it in the morning, and so on. The same delusion was 

 passed on to several patients, and accepted. These observations 

 show a connection betv\'een what occurs in the hypnotic state and 

 the phenomena observed in weak-willed persons. The possession 

 by a dominant idea imposed by another or suggested by circum- 

 stances is the common mark of many of these semi-abnormal states. 

 They also show how easily such people can be utilized for base 

 purposes ; and Dr. Bernheim believes that the son of the sexton in 

 the famous Tisza-Eslar affair (who claimed to have seen through 

 the keyhole the cruelties on which the trial was founded) was a 

 case in point. 



In this connection it may be added that there is a growing sense 

 of the great danger to which this subject is liable at the hands of 

 amateurs. Examples of its pernicious effects in individual cases 

 are accumulating, and a most celebrated French alienist recently 

 expressed himself thus : " Hypnotization is not as harmless as it 

 has been made out to be : the hypnotic state is closely allied to the 

 hysterical neurosis, and, like the latter, it may in some cases become 

 markedly contagious. If medicine in the name of science and art 

 has taken possession of hypnotism, it should keep it within the 



strict limits of its own domain, using it as a powerful therapeutic 

 agent, and never letting it pass into profane hands, where it is 

 liable to be abused to the detriment of the public health. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 



Precautions against Cholera. 



In view of the possibility of an attack of cholera during the com- 

 ing year, we deem it appropriate to quote below from the recom- 

 mendations of the sanitary conference held at Washington in 1884, 

 in anticipation of the arrival of cholera : — 



First, That all surface wells should be closed at the earliest pos- 

 sible moment, and that great care should be taken that the water- 

 supply of all cities, towns, and villages shall be of undoubted 

 purity. 



Second, That all privy-vaults should be abolished wherever 

 water-closets can be supplied, and that, wherever the existence of 

 such vaults is necessary, they should be rendered water-tight in 

 such a manner as to prevent the saturation, not only of the ground 

 surrounding them, but also of the materials of which they are built, 

 and that the contents of such vaults should be kept constantly dis- 

 infected, and removed to a proper place at frequent intervals. 



Third, That all stagnant ponds, when practicable, should be 

 disinfected, and when possible the water removed by drainage or 

 pumping, and the further accumulation prevented by filling with 

 fresh earth, or other material free from garbage or other filth. 



Fourth, That great care should be exercised to keep at all 

 times clear and free from obstruction all sewers into which passes 

 the refuse from dwellings, factories, and other buildings, and that 

 such examinations should be made as wiirdetect imperfect plumb- 

 ing in all buildings, and the defects immediately corrected. In this 

 connection special attention is directed to the necessity for the 

 thorough ventilation of all soil and waste pipes, and to the dangers 

 connected with untrapped and unflushed soil-waste and overflow- 

 pipes. 



Fifth, That extraordinary care should be exercised in refer- 

 ence to all tenement-houses, lodging-houses, and in general all 

 places where large numbers of human beings congregate ; that no 

 accumulation of garbage or other filth be permitted in cellars or 

 yards ; and that frequent and thorough cleaning and whitewashing 

 of such structures be required ; and that householders should fre- 

 quently and thoroughly examine their yards, cellars, closets, and 

 other out-of-the-way places, to see that no filth of any kind has 

 been deposited there. 



Sixth, That the food-supply be vigorously watched to exclude 

 from the market all unwholesome meat, all milk adulterated or 

 from diseased animals, and all unripe fruits and vegetables ; and 

 that cow-stables be kept at all times clean, well whitewashed, and 

 free from all excremental accumulations. 



Seventh, That all garbage, kitchen and household refuse, should 

 be promptly removed from dwellings, stores, and other buildings, 

 to a proper place, where it may be destroyed by fire, or otherwise 

 disposed of in such manner as to occasion no nuisance. 



Eighth, That such material should never be used in the filling of 

 lots, or disposed of by throwing the same in streets or vacant prop- 

 erty, where it may decompose and exhale offensive and deleterious 

 gases. 



Ninth, That the attention of the authorities of all institutions, 

 both public and private, and of individuals as well, be drawn to the 

 great importance of maintaining a habit of personal cleanliness in 

 the persons under their charge, as being one of the most efficient 

 means of warding off an attack of cholera, or, if it has once ap- 

 peared, of greatly reducing its virulence and fataHty. 



Tejith, Should the cholera appear in any place in this country, 

 the health authorities of the place should have immediate notice of 

 the first cases, in order that prompt action may be taken for com- 

 plete isolation and disinfection. 



Eleventh, That all authorities of states, cities, or villages be 

 urged to adopt measures which will result in the amelioration of all 

 conditions such as have been referred to in the foregoing proposi- 

 tions, with the warning, that, in the opinion of this conference, such 

 conditions, if permitted to continue, will greatly promote the spread 

 of cholera when it comes, and with the assurance, that, if requisite 



