Can these facts be put to any good use? Of this I am bound to say there is no present evidence except with relation to the most insignificant and imperfect results, and in my opinion there is little prospect of any. Esdaile showed long ago that the anaesthesia induced by hypnotism can be employed for the purposes of surgical operation, but the process is so tedious, the duration of anaesthesia so uncertain, and the number of persons whose nervous system is in the unstable condition which makes them amenable to hypnotic influence happily so few, that as a practical method of anaesthesia it is unavailable, and far inferior to. the chemical action of chloroform and other narcotic vapours. The same holds good of hypnotism as an ordinary hypnotic. It is far less certain, far more troublesome, much more rarely capable of application, and much more likely to produce mischief, than opium or sulphonal, or any other of a dozen narcotics which are always at hand, are cheap, easily used and under ordinary circumstances innocuous when properly administered.-

As to the treatment of other diseases, I have, I believe, read all that is to be read on the subject, whether from the schools of-Nancy, Paris, or Vienna, and I have arrived at the conclusion that Professor Charcot, with his abundant good sense, his great erudition, and his vast experience, is fully justified in the conclusion at which he and his eminent pupils, Richer, Babinsky, Dejerine and others have arrived; that for curative purposes hypnotism is very rarely useful, generally entirely useless, and often injurious.

The Practtce of Hypnotism, except by Skilled Physicians, should be Forbidden.

And here I will end by saying that, since no evident advantage has during forty years of extensive, patient and elaborate trial and research been obtainable by the hundreds of physicians and physiologists who have devoted themselves to the study of the question, it is therefore justifiable to conclude that the practice of hypnotism, mesmerism, electro-biology, and so-called animal magnetism, being almost invariably useless and often dangerous, even in the hands of the most highly skilled, careful and conscientious physicians, is a practice which ought to be forbidden to the unqualified, and is most unfit and improper for platform performances. It is equally unsuited for private amusement and is dangerous and improper as a society game. It is liable to gross abuse, and is frequently the means of fraud and imposture, extortion of money, and degradation of body and mind, and is apt to induce serious injuries to both. The confirmed and trained hypnotic subject is a maimed individual in mind and body, and is likely at any time to be dangerous to himself and to society. Instances of these results are so common that I need not follow up this branch of the subject.

I conclude by expressing the hope that this outline of the physical facts connected, with hypnotic phenomena may help to arm those who have not previously had an opportunity of investigating the subject against the wiles of the impostor and the false suggestions of the somewhat profane persons who endeavour to connect these phenomena with the incarnation of spiritual power and relations]! in themselves or their favourite ' Sludge/ At any rate, I venture to hope that it may have given some correct ideas of the nature of the hypnotic state, and have cleared away some of the fictions which have been associated with it by imaginative, ill-informed, or interested persons.

The Forgotten Impostors - The Scientific Studies of Braid, and of Charcot and his School-Experiments and Publication of the author on Mesmerism, Hypnotism, and Hysteria - The Rational Interpretation of the Veritable Facts - Hypnotism, a Subjective Phenomenon - The Marvels of La Charite and of the Boole Polytechnique - Reports of British Journalists thereon - The Subjects of Demonstration - Definition and Preliminary Phenomena of Hypnotisation: Their Dangers - Methods of Inducing Sleep - Magnetic* Susceptibility and Perceptions-Blue Flames and Bed - Attraction and Repulsion - Magnetised Photographs and Engravings - Stored-up Thoughts in a Magnetic Band. - Psychical Phenomena - Influence of Drugs in Tubes applied to the Neck-Drunkenness without Drink - A Human Cat - Dr. Luy's Demonstration - The Control Experiments - Dr. Luys's Recent Declaration that his Subjects were Unworthy of Confidence - The Moral Dilemma - Appeal to Dr. Luys for Explanations - Details of Experiments with False Magnets and Misnamed Medicinal Tubes - Results of the Control - Some Counter-Experiments - Evidence of Drs. De Cyon, Louis Olivier, and Lutaud - Fact and Fiction in Hypnotism-Hysteria at the Salpetriere and Hypnotism at La Charite - M. Luyis Testimony to the Dangers of Hypnotism- - Letter from a Trained Subject - Hypnotism and the New Magic - The Library of Marvels - A Modem Sorceress - Evidence of Charcot and Babinski - Medical Uses of Hypnotism Limited to Manifestation* of Hysteria - Its Frequent Failures even in that Domain-Valueless in the Treatment of Mental Disease (Magnan, Ferel Briand) - Hypnotism before the Court* of Law - Inapplicable to Surgery or Obstetrics - Essential Identity of Faith-Cure* and Hypnotic Cures - Summary - The Relative success of the Faith-Cures of the Laboratory, the Chapel, and the Grotto.

I have been spending Christmas week and the early days of the new year in the 'Pays des Merveillles.' For scenic effects and thaumaturgical performances the wards of Dr. Luys, membre de l'Academie de Medecine, at the Hopital de la Charity, surpass those to which we have all been more or less accustomed at the theatres of magic and the conjurers' halls on the boulevards of Paris or in Piccadilly. Ordinary hypnotic performances-have still enough attraction to draw large audiences in the provinces, but they are growing somewhat stale and out of feshion in the metropolitan centres. The spiritualistic tricks of the Davenport Brothers, the reading of names and dates in sealed envelopes, and the appearance of corresponding writings on the arms of mediums-such as Foster, the materialisation of flowers and diamond rings out of space, the externalisation of the ' spirit form' of mediums as in the case of Katie King, the slate-writing of Slade, the levitation of Hume, the reinforcement of muscular strength of the Georgian Magnet, have all had their day of sham mystery, of pseudo-marvel and of profitable exploitation.