300 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI. No. 281 



philosophy is broader than any science, broader than all sciences 

 together, and cannot be comprehended under the formulas of any 

 of them. 



Bibliographte des Modernen Hypnoiismus. Von Max DesSOIR. 

 Berlin. 8°. 



To realize the great activity in the study of hypnotism now pres- 

 ent in all parts of the civilized world, nothing could be more ser- 

 viceable than this bibliography. There are included no less than 

 eight hundred titles ; and these are devoted to the modern, scien- 

 tific phases of the study alone, excluding references to the history 

 of the topic, as well as the works of those who wrote when the 

 topic was in a pseudo-scientific stage. By this plan seven-eighths 

 of all the writings catalogued fall in the period since 1880. The 

 increase of interest in the topic since 1880 can be read off from the 

 increase of publications year by year. In 1880 there were published 

 14 works pertinent to this bibliography; in 1 881, 9; in 1S82, 39; 

 in 1883, 40; in 1SS4, 78; in 1885, 71 ; in 1886, 131 ; in 1887, 205 ; 

 in 1888 (January to April), 71. The countries in which the activ- 

 ity in hypnotic studies is greatest are likewise indicated by the lan- 

 guages in which the publications are issued : 473 are in French ; 

 102 are in English, of which 40 come from America; 88 in Italian ; 

 69 in German ; 22 in Danish ; 16 in Spanish : 12 in Russian ; 6 in 

 Dutch ; 4 in Swedish ; 3 in Norwegian ; 2 each in Polish and 

 Hungarian ; I each in Portuguese and Roumanian. The classifica- 

 tion of the topics is a very convenient one. We have first the gen- 

 eral works (191 in number) ; then those with a more special medi- 

 cal interest (of which there are 199) ; next those on magnetism 

 (36), on the physiology of hypnotism (62), on its psychological and 

 pedagogical aspects (85), on its forensic aspects (43) ; and, finally, 

 sections on telepathy (81), mesmerism (58), and miscellaneous (46). 

 Under each section the titles are arranged by date of issue, and 

 cross-references to other sections are given. There are also ref- 

 erences to the numbers treating of the works of the Nancy school, 

 of the Paris school, the question of simulation, of suggestion, of the 

 practice of hypnotism and its theory. No trouble has been spared 

 to make the bibliography convenient ; and, to enable the author to 

 maintain its completeness, he requests that books and articles on 

 the topic be sent to him at W. Kothenerstr. 27, Berlin, Germany. 



Die Ekstasen des Menschen. Von Paul ManteGAZZA. Tr. 

 by Dr. R. Teuscher. Jena. 8°. 



Like many of his eminent countrymen, such as Lombroso, Mor- 

 selli Sergi, Buccola, Vignoli, IVEantegazza belongs to the psycholo- 

 gical school of naturalists, and devotes his main efforts to bringing 

 into the domain of science groups of facts that have hitherto been 

 left to grow wild in the open road of speculation, or have been per- 

 versely cultivated at the hands of mercenary pseudo-scientists. 

 His three works treating from various points of view, but with the 

 anthropological, pedagogical, and psychological interests ever up- 

 permost, of the sexual relations of mankind, indicate one phase of 

 his labors, while another is suggested by his work on facial expres- 

 sion. He combines with his scientific interests a deep feeling for 

 nature, both in the phenomena of land and sea and in that more 

 specially inviting subject conveniently termed 'human nature;' 

 and this is brought to the front in his essay on the art of being 

 happy {Science, Dec. 9, 1887). Add to this that the author is a 

 wide traveller, a careful reader, and an excellent stylist, and it is 

 not difficult to understand that whatever he writes is likely to be 

 interesting reading. In the present volume this expectation would 

 not be disappointed. Under the head of human ecstasies are here 

 included all those many extremes of emotion that lead to the for- 

 getting of self, and in their extreme forms to a condition closely 

 allied with the phenomena of hypnotism. It is this connection that 

 lends an especial interest to the study of these phenomena, and res- 

 cues many apparently incredible and inexplicable narratives, espe- 

 cially in the history of religious devotion, from the scepticism with 

 which they have been regarded. IVIoreover, as scientific psychology 

 widens its domains more and more, it finds a large class of phe- 

 nomena capable of only such a lenient and elastic treatment as are 

 the classification and description of diseases. At best one can 

 empirically describe and diagnose, leaving it to the future to gain a 

 "Clearer insight and to deduce important generalizations. By 



singling out the ecstasies of mankind as the heading of a chapter 

 in descriptive psychology, Mantegazza has done a real service to 

 that science, which he himself acknowledges is still in its ' prat- 

 tling ' stages. 



Rudimentar)' forms of minor ecstasies are to be found in ani- 

 mals. There are not only love ecstasies, but, as those passionate 

 delights in activity visible in an unchained dog indicate, a motor 

 type of ecstasy; while the admiration of the bower-bird for its 

 work of art, or the self-admiration of the strutting peacock, shows 

 the beginnings of an aesthetic absorption. In man, and more espe- 

 cially in the man of civilization, the forms of ecstasy are many. 

 We see not only ecstatic states brought about by the exercise of 

 normal physiological functions, but even more by extreme devotion 

 to artificially acquired possessions. Under the first head we con- 

 template the all-absorbing love of a mother for her child leading to 

 deeds of astounding self-sacrifice, and to moments of rapturous 

 adoration ; we witness, though more rarely, the devotion of child 

 to parent, remaining as a rule on a more respectful, contemplative 

 stage ; we read of the mutual love and devotion of brothers and 

 sisters, of the soul-stirring compact of friend with friend that 

 played so large a 7'6le in the friendship of classic times ; we must 

 even add the instances of Platonic love so often decried as impos- 

 sible, but warmly defended by IMantegazza, to the crowning passion 

 of romantic love, if we are to grasp the broad extent of the 

 ecstatic horizon. The most interesting as well as the most com- 

 pletely described ecstasies are those connected with religion. 

 These are most closely akin to the exaltations of love, and the 

 devotee often calls herself (for women are more prone to this than 

 men) the bride of her Saviour. Mantegazza confines his descrip- 

 tions to the ecstasies of Christian religionists, though he could 

 have found material in the history of all Oriental religions. St. 

 Theresa is the type of religious ecstatics, and the minute descrip- 

 tion of her own feelings and passions that she has left form a very 

 interesting psychological document. With her the deepest passion 

 was for a more intimate communion with the divine essence, — a 

 religious contemplation freed from the trammels of a sensuous life. 

 Of such a nature, too, were the ecstasies of Plotinus, by which his 

 philosophic insight was gained. This is the condition that leads to 

 mysticism, and it has been claimed that a similar state of super- 

 sensuous, dreamy abstraction follows the taking of certain drugs. 

 In another kind of religious ecstasy the passion for self-denial and 

 self-torture is uppermost. The feeling that ever)' transgression, 

 however slight, must be absolved by inflicting pain, the feeling of 

 unworthiness, of being a sinful being, seizes the soul, and drives 

 the devotee onward to more and more intense tortures, until pain is 

 no longer felt and the body subjugated. Here occur such marvels 

 as the stigmata, or flowing of blood from definite regions of the skin, 

 in the shape of a cross, or from the hands and feet. The same 

 thing has within recent years been witnessed in very sensitive hys- 

 terical hypnotic subjects as the result of a suggestion, and thus in- 

 dicating what an extreme influence nervous states have over nor- 

 mally automatic, involuntary processes. The conditions of cata- 

 leptic rigidity, of trance that we now artificially induce, were seen in 

 religious ecstasy, and, according to the beliefs of the time, were 

 converted into cases of possession by evil spirits. Asceticism, 

 with hallucinations caused by fasting and fatigue, is another fertile 

 cause of religious ecstasy. All these instances deserve careful 

 study from all who would grasp the various forms in which mental 

 phenomena present themselves in nature. 



Patriotism may be so supreme a motive in a man's life that it 

 acquires an ecstatic intensity, and in Mazzini our author finds such 

 an ecstatic. We must also condescend to enumerate under the 

 same head all the devotions of men to favorite pets. There are 

 real cases of ecstatic love of a master to his dog, his horse. Here, 

 too, belong all those hobbies and mania (crazes) that, according 

 to their nature, save the mind from ennui and inactivity, or blunt 

 the susceptibilities. The miser gloating over his gold, and the 

 book-collector over a musty treasure, are both in a minor form of 

 ecstasy. There remain a large class of high emotional and intel- 

 lectual ecstasies in which genius finds its sphere. The assthetic 

 raptures, whether addressed to the beauties of nature or of art, are 

 among the most real and ennobling, because they touch one of the 

 deepest chords of the human soul, and one that has ever responded 



