HYPNOTISM.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3181, 8 September 1881, Page 4

HYPNOTISM.

(Pall Mall Gazette.)

Hypnotism is perhaps better known to trie world under the less accurate names of mesmerism or electro-biology ; and with the exception of some important distinctions the phenomena of all three are practically identical. Mesmerism, after the curiosity ■which attended its first introduction hnJ. subsided, fell under a suspicion of charlatanry which was not wholly unjustified. Some of its exponents professed to refer its effects into an occult influence passing freu; the operator to the patient. As a matter or fact this expiation was incorrect; but. besides its erroneousness, it embodied the further objection of opening a wide door to imposture. Consequently, like many other popular fancies, mesmerism passed through the several stages of acceptance, incredulity, and ridicule, and sank ultimately into a piVi-'ioil oblivion. Fortunately, however, its works did not perish with it, and amid a general scepticism pome few were "ound who accepted the reality of its results, while rejedhig the professional explanation of them. The researches of Mr Braid dispelled the cloud of somewhat discreditable mystery whioh hung around the subject by showing conclusively that the hypnotic state is really by the patient, though uuder the direction of the operator. Stated generally, it consists simply in an abstraction of the attention from all objects of consciousness and a concentration of this faculty upon itself: in other words, it is initially a state of rapt attention, with nothing to attend to. In this condition the patient's will is completely in abeyance so far as its originative capabilities are concerned, and, like his consciousness, becomes slavishly obedient to external suggestions. It is easy to understand the ii!fioulties in the way of directly producing the hypnotic condition. The immediate exclusion from the mind, not only of its perceptions, but of conscious volition, would demand an effort far beyond all ordinary powers of abstraction. Accordingly, various methods were adopted as preliminary means to the attainment of the requisite state of abstract expectancy. The patient was usually directed to concentrate his attention on some small and uninteresting object, sufficient to fix the attention without affording any adequate scope for its exercise. Herein lay the secret of the metal disc of the electro-biologists, the mesmeric passes, and the more familiar trick of mesmerising a person by ranking him watch the end of his little finger. The subject is too large to admit of detailed discussion within the limits of an article ; but it has lately acquired a new interest from some recent experiments of Professor Heidenliain, an account of which is given by ~VIV Stanley Hull in the current number of "Mind." The methods employed by the professor appealed mainly to the sense of touch. Ho would lightly stroke the ball of the patient's thumb, or subject him to a serir■■< ,-,f touches un tha back of the neck. The experiments were conducted in Breslau ; and Mr Hall informs us that on one occasion " a long English sentence, i.e., with extreme and grotesque inflexions, was repeated almost perfectly, in every detail, by an old workman in tho hospital. The instant the finger is removed from the neck the repetition stops, often iv the middle of a word. ' This closely resembles the well known experiment in which an illiterate factory girl was found able, when hypnotised, to reproduce songs sung in her presence by Miss Jenny Lind, following her through all the intricacies of an elaborate chromatic passage with a most accurate imitation of execution and stylo. With some of his subjects the professor succeeded in hypnotising one half of the brain and body npa't from the other. The effect, as described by Mr Hall, must have been most peculiar : —•"' One half the face smiles, the other remains in the fumiliar immobile, waxy, cataleptic state. One arm and leg can be moved at will, the other not; ono eye sees distinctly, the other imperfectly or not at all." "When the right side is hypnotised the patient is deprived of the power of speech ; but this does not usually hiippen when the left alono is affected. This, as Mr Hall observes, is quite ! 'in accordance with pathological observations, which locate the speech-centre in or near the left cerebral convolution." A similar effect is of course common in caees of paralysis. It was even found possible to hypnotise one eye alone, with the effect of urodueintr color-blindness. It appears that this stale is ac ■oinpunie I by a diminished circulation, and a t-ninip of .-omc of the muscles nf the eye. In some cases the muscles of accommodation become so intensely cramped a-? to enable lie hypnotised subject k r<-;id type of "almost invisible fineness, at a distance of nn inch or less from the anterior surface of the cornea." Various other results were obtained resembling those discovered by previous experiments, and which therefore call for no special comment. They mainly corrborate the curious effect which muscular modifications have been observed to produce on the imagination of the hypnotised subject. Thua, if the hands be folded, the patient imagines himself to be in church ; an appropriate manipulation, or a slight blow persuades hin that he is engaged in a fight, and calls into play all the angry passions, as well as a corresponding series of bellicose actions. ■ arpenter relates a case where two hypnotised subjects bein<j in the pitmn '"■ ■••'i n< , :»'-ci'lental!y hit the ,•1 !■(■;■ ..! •■ \: •■. furious light ensued, vih c!:, h'.w vr, «*■■ hiiinediulely calmed by pui'Mble i:iii-MMil.ii- ireiif.mrn'. It' a person in I'!' , hypn. lit* slate be, placed on his knees and tie heal depressed, he imagine'himself engaged in an act of profound religious abasement; let the h:ud be raised, and he is instantly transported into an ecstacy of adoration.

Without adopting in its entirety Mr Hall's conclusion tlmfc the reaulfcs of these investigations are strongly confirmatory of " the fundamental assumption of psychophysics thtit all the secrets of the soul are somehow or i>! her bound up in those of , the nervous syctem," men may cordially agree that they are likely to prove of considerable value in medical treatment. The interdependence of mind and body is daily becoming better established, notably in the case of lunacy, which is now proved beyond all doubt to be frequently traceable to physical causes. An important cliisa of nervous diseases contains a large imaginative element; and if the imagination is capable of producing morbid, (•iindil-ions, it may prove, under proper dii: '•'ions, to be equally potent in removing them.