Incitation, which is called suggestion, addressed to the mind of the sleeper whose inert nervous force is centered in the idea of sleep, must without resistance direct this force by turns to any part of the organism; from this results an action on the organs, in proportion to the amount of attention fixed on the idea of sleep. When a suggestion is made to cure the sleeping patient, deprived of initiative power, it causes either a depression or an excitation of an organ or a part of the nervous system; or the brain diminishes its active influence on the tissues according as the nervous force is accumulated in it; or, on the contrary, it augments this influence in the same proportion. The more emphasis there is centered on the idea of sleep, the greater become the curative effects obtained by suggestion; that is, the nearer we bring the subject to a state of profound somnambulism, the more susceptible we render him to a quick and complete cure.

Whatever method may be employed to obtain the cure of the sick submitted to suggestion, whether simple affirmations of suggestive force are made to them when awake, or whether favorable emotions are produced, we induce in the diseased organs effects either sedative or exciting according to the curative idea which we express. These actions could not be produced if the mental and physical faculties were not transformable, if the mind was not closely allied to the matter. Suggestion cannot cure all morbid affections, but it has at least, and especially in sleep, a beneficial influence over them, even those which are incurable.

With the aid of Professors Bernheim, Beaunis and Liegeios, Liebault was enabled to produce on a hysterical somnambulist, the apparitions of reddening spots on the skin, blisters and stigmata, by the single action of the idea they had suggested. On other subjects they obtained separately like results. If emotion is added to the power of suggestion to reinforce it, the results are still more decided. In two somnambulists they were able by simple suggestion to produce the slightest modifications in the skin. As a result of strong emotion added to suggestion they caused a redness in the form of a double cross to appear on the hand of one, and blisters'of the epidermis on the hand of the other, which took several days entirely to pass away.

The suggestion during natural sleep must be made without the consent of the patient and not at his instigation. Suppose the consciousness of the sleeping subject to have been previously freed from all imaginative representation, and a receptivity created similar to that of the ordinary hypnotic subject and conformable to the laws of the diminution of consciousness. The intervention itself must convey suggestions, distinctly articulated, in such a manner that there is synchronism between the emissions of the voice of the therapeutical psychologist and the respiratory movements of the subject. It would be well to suspend the intervention whenever the patient gave evidence of waking up, or his respiration quickened. The suggestion should never be brusque or sudden and the beginning and the end should be thus: the one gradually increased, the other progressively diminished, but both enunciated in a purposely drawling and monotonous voice. When the suggestion is finished the subject must continue to sleep, to dream of the things suggested, and not to waken until the hour determined upon.

Suggestion during natural sleep has right to a prominent place in the treatment of mental diseases. It also finds place in the diverse branches of the psycho-therapeutic domain. In this way we may learn more as to the psychology of sleep.

Mesmerism, hypnotism, and suggestion are perhaps effects of the same cause, but these effects are certainly produced under different conditions and according to different laws. Boirac agrees with Durand de Gros that suggestion and mesmerism are two distinct agents equally real and independent one from the other, which can counterfeit each other as they can also combine for the production of common effects. Thus there may be suggestion without mesmerism and mesmerism without suggestion. There may be a pseudo-mesmerism, which is but suggestion, and a pseudo-suggestion which is only mesmerism; finally, there may be inseparable mesmerism and suggestion; suggestive mesmerism or mesmeric suggestion. That suggestion exists without mesmerism is continually proved. "When," says Boirac, "without looking at or touching a subject, I say, 'Close your eyes, now you cannot'open them, and he vainly tries to do so; when I add, 'They will open of themselves when I have counted seven/ and the effect announced is produced, it is evident that mesmerism has nothing to do with the phenomena and they must be explained by suggestion alone."

But suggestion is not only independent of mesmerism, it can in many cases take its place or rather simulate all its effects. Here, for example, is an experiment often tried with certain subjects. I place my open hand above the hand of the subject; after several seconds he declares that he feels a very strong impression of heat; presently this heat becomes intolerable and he begs me to take my hand away. I reply that I do not hinder him from withdrawing his, but after unsuccessful effort he declares it impossible, and in fact the hand seems to be paralyzed. Nevertheless, it moves, rises or falls as soon as I make these movements, as if an invisible thread attached them. Would one not believe one's self to be in the presence of a veritable magnetic phenomenon? Yet there is nothing but the counterfeit of magnetism by suggestion. To convince one's self it is only necessary to change one condition of the experiment, that which permits operator and subject to suggest unknown to each other. Example: I say to the subject, "Close your eyes, now you cannot open them," and the subject makes vain efforts to unseal the lids. If then I begin by holding my hand above his to make it rise or fall, as he is not apprised by sight he feels nothing and does not move.

My hand, a moment before so efficacious, no longer exercises any influence. But there are cases where, suggestion being eliminated, the magnetic effects remain just as distinct and complete, the subject being truly magnetic and pseudo-magnetic or purely suggestible.

It is evident that suggestible subjects with whom we can obtain the counterfeit of magnetism are more common than the true magnetic subjects, therefore, Bernheim and all pure sug-gestionists are of good faith when they claim to have victoriously refuted mesmerism.

Boirac cites two out of five cases of persons who possessed this remarkable element. The one, G. P., a young electrician; the other L. V., a student of law and philosophy. In experimenting with them, precaution was always taken to bandage the eyes; then they were told to tell as soon as they felt anything. Under these conditions the most varied and precise effects were obtained in all parts of the body, corresponding to positions and movements of the operator.

In the case of G. P., Boirac once placed mesmerism and suggestion in opposition; he says, "I told him I wished to experiment on the time necessary to produce the magnetic effect and asked him to tell me the instant he began to feel it. I said I would act exclusively by attraction in his right hand and asked him to concentrate all his attention on that side. After this preparatory suggestion I said, 'I begin, making a movement with the right hand, but without placing it opposite that of my subject. At the end of two or three minutes the subject, who was very attentive, murmured: 'It is strange, but I feel absolutely nothing/ then suddenly, 'Oh, I do feel something, only it is in the left hand and it is not an attraction but a tingling or pricking " Boirac had in fact silently placed his left hand (which always produced tingling, while the right produced attraction) close to the left knee of G. P.

This proves, in this case at least, that suggestion is powerless to simulate the effect of magnetism. When the subject is eminently suggestible, he may be advised to fix all his attention on one of his hands, being told that he will feel attracted by an irresistible force. As soon as the operator says, "I begin," the subject's hand rises, although the operator has made no movement. In this instance suggestion simulates magnetic action perfectly, but if at the same time without saying anything the operator places his right hand vis-a-vis to his other one it will be attracted, the two effects being simultaneous. Identical in appearance, they are in reality produced by two distinct causes; the one by magnetism, the other by suggestion.

Again, the subject being still in the charmed or credulous condition, it is suggested that, in order to act exclusively on one side of his body, the operator will render the other inert, and he ascertains that there is in fact paralysis and anaesthesia of that side. Here again the operator has obtained by suggestion a phenomenon of attraction in the members where sensibility and motility remained intact, but if he place his right hand near the knee or foot paralyzed by suggestion, he finds that inspite of the suggestion there are movements of attraction.

Thus not only can mesmerism produce its effects independent of suggestion, but it can in certain cases annul the effects of suggestion. There is consequently, besides pseudo-suggestive mesmerism, a pseudo-mesmeric suggestion. If it is scientifically proven that magnetism exists, it becomes necessary to have regard to its possible intervention in the ensemble of phenomena attributed to hypnotism and especially to suggestion.

The Nancy school said with justice that the old magnetizers did not cease to make suggestions unwittingly and suggestionists should expect to have it said that they have unwittingly employed magnetism. It is possible that the gaze, the contact, the passes, and the personality of the operator do not act on certain subjects except through purely suggestive influence, but it is also possible that with certain other subjects a magnetic influence is added to or takes the place of suggestion. As long as these two agents, each as real as the other, are always liable to enter into play and combine their actions, neither has a right apriorito the effects produced by one to the exclusion of the other.

It is then permissible to suppose that if certain operators, such as Liebault, Bernheim, succeed so easily in suggesting so large a number of persons, it is not alone because of their great skill, their long experience, and consummate knowledge of suggestive technic, but that they unwittingly possess an exceptional magnetic power. This, too, would explain the great inequality in the operations of different suggestionists.