There is one thing typical of the major part of hypnotic phenomena. This thing stands out and differentiates all of the artificially induced hypnotic states from similar states which occur naturally. I wish to emphasize it, and I hope every reader may understand it. It is this. A man's internal consciousness will, while he is hypnotized, contradict the perceptions of his senses at the will, or better, at the suggestion of the operator. Such a condition occurs in only one other class of mental affections. They are the various extreme hysterical states. Even at the risk of repetition let me again state: First, a profoundly hysterical person may be blind, deaf or angesthetic, as the result, possibly, of a hyper-excitability of consciousness, plus an idea or suggestion. Certainly this state is one of mental perversion. "We see these same phenomena in a lesser degree every day among persons who exaggerate their ordinary sensations. Secondly, these phenomena can be singly or in combination induced by suggestion in a person who is hypnotized.

He will be blind, deaf or anaesthetic, and will reproduce at the suggestion of the operator all these things. Thirdly, when two hysterical persons are together it frequently happens that one receiving the suggestion from the other will have a paralysis on the same side as the first, and will imitate, or better still, will exactly reproduce many times these states, attitudes, gestures, etc., occurring spontaneously in the first one. The hypnotic subject will, at the suggestion of the operator, tell you he feels pain in any part of the body named, and imitate his every look, every tone, and every gesture. It does not seem to me that the analogy could be made clearer, the resemblance closer.

In closing let me say, then, that every man, woman or child who is susceptible to hypnotism, possesses in his or her nature the possibility of becoming in one way or another hysterical. One faculty may act in excess of all the rest, and credulity may sweep from the firmament of the mind the stars of reason and of will. Even individuality itself may be, for the time, banished.

I ask those who wish to study the condition of latent hysteria to simply look about them. One does not need to go abroad to attend the clinics at La Charite or the Salpetriere to see it. It is within the depths of every human consciousness. It forms a chain of impulses that runs through the mind of every man from the cradle to the grave. It led the Crusades in the Middle Ages. This latent hysterical condition is the smouldering fire which, once kindled, makes religious wars possible. It is the insane side of every man's nature. Sensual Lust is its queen. Bacchus is its prime minister. Malice and Hatred are its body-guards, the walls of its house consist of Selfishness, its roof of Conceit, its floor of Treachery. This latent hysteria is the one thing that needs to be understood in all of its many possibilities. To it may be attributed many failures in business, many of the strange infatuations which have captured men and women during their lives. It is a smoked glass which, placed in front of the eyes of Reason, bedims the glorious sun of Truth.

As I have given the opinion that latent hysteria constitutes the susceptibility to hypnotism and allied states, the question will be asked, "Is it justifiable to use hypnotism as a remedial agent?" Most assuredly; for it is always justifiable to produce, if necessary, a state of minor disturbance of the nervous system, if great good may be accomplished thereby.

Owing to the susceptibility of hypnotized subjects to suggestion, we may even by suggestion repress this same susceptibility.

If our patients are made to understand that the hypnotic state is not to be trifled with, they will not, as a rule, at least, submit themselves to needless hypnotizations.

Most persons are made temporarily delirious by taking ether or chloroform, and yet, in a large majority of cases, no harm is done by the use of these drugs.

Nearly every drug in use, as has been said before, will produce a diseased state if it is used to excess; the same is true of hypnotism. Therefore I hold that, while the susceptibility of the nervous system to hypnotism is possibly initself aweakness, it, like other diseased states, may be made available for the cure of many profoundly morbid states.