First, then, the mind has subjectively the power of repeating in a real and vivid manner all of the phenomena of objective life. One will dream of eating and will relish food, or it will be loathsome to him. In dreams we hold imaginary conversations. In a dream which I remember well I had a discussion with a phantom being. His replies to my statements were sarcastic and intelligent. The style of language used, as I remember it was not my own. Now, if while sleeping one's mind can create from the store-house of associations a being who is friendly or antagonistic, who will share in his pleasures, or participate in or add to his miseries, is it at all strange that disease, aye, real, keen, local or general pain can exist in the consciousness and have no local gross anatomical basis? Some substance in the blood acting upon the portion of the brain which perceives sound, may cause subjective noises in the head. The same or another substance may act upon the centre of sight, and a variety of strange things may be seen.

Every sense, indeed, every thought, is undoubtedly influenced by the nature and chemical and mechanical composition of the substance brought to its nervous mechanism by the blood, or such a substance may be generated within its nervous mechanism, as a result of its activity, and not be properly eliminated.

It is easily proven that poisonous substances produce new, and alter the usual, forms of thought. There are a number of drugs which induce delirium. This delirium differs with the different drugs used. The same is true of the state termed "narcotism." Narcotism induced by opium and that induced by chloral hydrate, while resembling each other in certain particulars, vary much in others.

In hysteria we have a certain condition of the brain and nerve cells which may have resulted from some form of the many circumstances affecting embryonic life. This condition may be a chemical one, or a morphological one. Given a certain impetus by environment, and the result of the activity to such a nervous mechanism is inharmonious, in just so far as its constitution differs from the ordinary types. Dr. Wesley Mills, in his "Animal Physiology," emphasizes the fact that even low forms of life are influenced to a very great degree by the law of habit, and also he shows that rhythm is another characteristic of animal life. Again, the degenerate nervous system which has formed certain habits will continue to do these things rhythmically even after the cause has been removed, until something occurs to interrupt the regular phenomena which it evokes.

Hysteria occurs in crises of paroxysms. Each successive paroxysm leaves its impress and predisposes the nervous system to another paroxysm, or at least lowers its resistance so that it will be easily disturbed. Hypnotism, by impressing profoundly the psychic life, may interrupt these habits, or may alter, very profoundly, the chemistry, and possibly to a limited extent the morphology (form), of all or a part of the central nervous system. Use or disuse of any faculty, as is well known, improves or injures it.

It is equally well known that under strong stimulation the mind can perform feats which without it would be impossible. Hypnotism certainly impresses the whole psychic life to a very great extent, hence its work may be good or evil, according to the way in which it is used. The more susceptible the patient, the more injurious or beneficial will be the hypnotism, according to the method of application, and other circumstances. It is not necessary, then, to explain the action of hypnotism by any other than known phenomena. Whether there be vital fluid and animal magnetism yet remains to be determined, but we do know, and in a measure can understand and study, the facts which are presented by the action of the mind, whatever its ultimate essence may be. It is by studying these facts and by classifying them that we may form some conception of the laws of psychic life, health and development. Most men and women possess in widely different degrees all of the same mental faculties. Some of them may be rudimentary in certain individuals.

When a normal man is in his ordinary waking state there is a happy balance between all of the faculties. If he is frightened, this happy balance is disturbed. If he is intoxicated, it is likewise disturbed. Everything which acts violently upon the consciousness will cause one faculty of the mind to act in excess of the others. The same thing occurs in grave hysteria. The same thing occurs in hypnosis. The proposition is, then, that the balance of every mind can be destroyed by means of one kind or another, and when it is, phenomena occur indicative of the derangement.

I believe every one could be made to show certain phenomena indicative of hysteria. Consequently it appears that hysteria in some of its forms may be developed in every one fey a disturbing influence which renders the coordinate action of the mind in all of its parts inharmonious. Let me illustrate.

Severe fright can make a man insensible to pain. A man, when frightened, may sustainan injury, and be at the time unconscious of it. A man of my acquaintance, who was in a railway accident, had his left leg badly crushed. After twenty minutes he succeeded in extricating himself from the wreck, and first perceived his injury when he attempted to use the crushed limb. In other words, fright rendered him, by disturbing the balance of his consciousness, insensible at the time to pain. Great joy may produce the same result. Great mental sorrows will sometimes have the same effect. Many states of the mind can be carried to such a degree as to render all other sensations and conditions temporarily impossible.

It seems to me that in this statement the phenomena common to hypnotism find an explanation; but my critics would say, "Not an absolute explanation."

Such an absolute explanation cannot be given to any of the phenomena of life. We do not know why oxygen causes a combustion of the tissues. We know that it has a certain chemical affinity for them, and that is all we know about it. We have only the facts and cannot explain them by any methods of investigation which we now possess. Chemistry, histology, physiology, pathology and anatomy are only classifications of ultimate facts. Why belladonna induces delirium, and cold water does not, we do not know. Physiologists will say, "Ah, but it induces it by its action, which causes a state of hyperemia (congestion) of the brain. It acts upon the centres controlling the blood vessels, and upon the centres controlling respiration." Why it does so, we do not know. Why one state will occupy the whole consciousness to the exclusion of all the rest, we do not know, but we know that it does. Why a certain method of impressing the nervous system will subjugate for a time the higher centres of thought, we do not know, but we know that it will do so, and we have discovered some of the avenues over which it travels.

Again, we do not know that the psychic life can reproduce within itself, to itself, all the experiences which it has had with the external world when the brain and nervous system are destroyed.

Dr. Ireland says that the nervous system, like the osseous system, has the outline of the form of man. He might have added that in the mind there is an outline, something even better than an outline, the whole form of a man's life from the cradle to the grave. The mental arm may move, the man's eyes may see, the man may feel, when the avenues of expression through the body and to the outside world are destroyed. Now, as the whole body is under the control of the nervous system, as each portion of the body has assigned to it a portion of the nervous system, this portion may act in harmony with the rest, may do the work of the rest, or may act independently.

Hence it seems to me that the relation between the inharmonious actions of the mind during the hypnotic state and some conditions, occurring as they do in widely different states, resembling the phenomena of the hypnotic state, is explained, at least is made easier of comprehension.