HYPNOTISM. 595 



successful the more they operate. Bernheim says that 

 whoever does not hypnotize 80 per cent of the persons 

 whom he tries has not yet learned to operate as he should. 

 Whether certain oj)erators have over and above this a 

 peculiar ' magnetic power ' is a question which I leave 

 at present undecided.* Children under three or four, and 

 insane persons, especially idiots, are unusually hard to 

 hypnotize. This seems due to the impossibility of getting 

 them to fix their attention continuously on the idea of the 

 coming trance. All ages above infancy are probably 

 equally hypnotizable, as are all races and both sexes. A 

 certain amount of mental training, sufficient to aid concen- 

 tration of the attention, seems a favorable condition, and so 

 does a certain momentary indifference or passivity as to the 

 result. Native strength or weakness of ' will ' have abso- 

 lutely nothing to do with the matter. Frequent trances 

 enormously increase the susceptibility of a subject, and 

 many who resist at first succumb after several trials. Dr. 

 Moll says he has more than once succeeded after forty 

 fruitless attempts. Some experts are of the opinion that 

 every one is hypnotizable essentially, the only difficulty 

 being the more habitual presence in some individuals of 

 hindering mental preoccupations, which, however, may sud- 

 denly at some moment be removed. 



The trance may be dispelled instantaneously by saying 

 in a rousing voice, 'All right, wake up ! ' or Avords of similar 

 purport. At the Salpetriere they awaken subjects by blow- 

 ing on their ej^elids. Upward passes have an awakeuiiig 

 effect ; sprinkling cold water ditto. Anything will awaken 

 a patient who expects to be awakened by that thing. Tell 

 him that he will wake after counting five, and he will do 

 so. Tell him to waken in five minutes, and he is very likely 

 to do so punctually, even though he interrupt thereby some 

 exciting histrionic performauce which 3^ou may have sug- 

 gested. —As Dr. Moll says, any theory which pretends to 



* Certain facts would seem to point that way. Cf., e.g., the case of the 

 man described by P. Despine, Etude Scientifique sur le Somuambuiisme, 

 p. 286 ff. 



