Psycho-Therapeutics not an Exclusive System of Treatment. - Some Diseases found to benefit from it. - Organic Processes affected by Hypnotic Suggestion. - Blisters and Stigmata so caused. - Treatment especially useful in Neurotic Diseases. - Hysteria, Hypochondriasis, Dipsomania, and the Opium Habit. - Moral Depravity. - Double Consciousness. - Permanence of Cures. - Hypnotism distinct from Magnetism. - Possible Abuse of Hypnotism not a Bar to its Use in Medical Treatment. - Restrictions and Precautions necessary.

We are now in a position to speak of suggestion as a mode of treatment and cure, and we will first consider to what class of diseases it has hitherto proved applicable. And here I may say that, although Liebeault rarely gave medicines, but obtained most of his remarkable results by the suggestive treatment pure and simple, his followers by no means dispense with those remedies which the researches of generations of able men have put within their reach. In suitable cases they make use of dietetics, drugs, electricity, and massage, and the combination of those means with suggestion often gives better results than any one method of treatment.

Hypnotic suggestion is especially applicable to chronic complaints. Rheumatic and gouty pains often yield to it, as do also many diseases of malnutrition, such as anaemia and neurasthenia. In derangement of the functions in women it acts very beneficially, both in checking excessive loss and in promoting a proper flow; also in relieving or curing sufferings of all kinds connected with the period. In chronic constipation and diarrhoea it has excellect effects', and patients usually find that the intestinal functions become regular through its use.

Indeed, therapeutic suggestion gives a healthy tone to the organic system generally, and tends to regulate all its functions. A consideration of the experiments of Bern-heim, Delboeuf, and others will render this statement more comprehensible than it may appear on the surface. Dr. Forel, late Professor of Psychology at the University of Zurich, and Medical Superintendent of the Cantonal Lunatic Asylum, is very decided in his views about the treatment of chronic constipation by hypnotic suggestion, which he affirms is greatly to be preferred to the use of purgative and other drugs. He cites many remarkable cases to prove this, and shows how suggestion acts by restoring a natural function, whereas drugs pander to a weakened and diseased subconscious craving, and perpetuate it.

Suggestion is extremely useful in cramp from the overuse of certain muscles, such as is commonly found among writers and telegraph clerks. It is very successful also in some cases of old-standing paralysis, and especially so in the infantile variety. Many practitioners speak highly of its curative power in nervous affections of the eyes - e.g., hysterical amaurosis - and it is found beneficial in a few forms of deafness. Numerous cures of Meniere's disease are on record. In fact, whenever we find chronic disease resisting the usual methods of treatment, suggestion may be thought of as a useful ally. It often supplies a fillip to arrested curative processes. Many practitioners all over the country now employ hypnotism when indicated in the ordinary routine of their practice, and find it an invaluable asset. I recently asked such a one (Dr. Bryden of Godalming) if he would rather dispense with aspirin (a very favourite remedy with him) or hypnotism. He replied that it was a hard question, but he felt he could find substitutes for aspirin whereas hypnotism was unique; therefore he decided in favour of the latter.

Perhaps some readers will consider the scope here given to suggestion too wide, but I am convinced that its intelligent use by the medical attendant will be found beneficial in many cases where drugs do not act satisfactorily, or to reinforce the action of drugs. For instance, it may be desirable to give ipecacuanha, but the retching following its administration may render its use impossible at an important time; or a mild cathartic may induce colic, often half imaginary; in such cases hypnotic suggestion may be useful to calm over-sensitiveness. In many diseases, such as typhoid and rheumatic fevers, the attendant weariness and restlessness are among the most distressing symptoms. These may often be relieved by this treatment, which is here advocated, not as a speciality, but as an auxiliary in practice to every medical man. Bernheim used it practically for every case in his wards, and finds it of immense value in calming nervous excitability, improving general nutrition, and producing refreshing sleep. Myers relates how Bernheim hypnotized a patient who was brought into his wards suffering from pneumonia, accompanied with delirium and sleeplessness. The man slept quietly for two hours, and awoke refreshed, fairly comfortable, and free from delirium.

The physical signs of consolidation were the same after as they were before the sleep, but the attendant suffering was very greatly modified.

Sir Lauder Brunton tells how he saw Liebeault treat a case of bronchitis. He hypnotized the patient, and suggested, 'You will have no more pain, no more spit, no more cough, when you wake up.' Dr. Brunton adds, when the man woke up he had less pain, less cough, and less spit (op. cit., p. 232).

When I was attending Liebeault's clinique, the only patient he did not try hypnotism on was a boy suffering from scabies, and for him he prescribed the usual sulphur ointment.

The sick and those reduced in strength are exceptionally good subjects for hypnotic suggestion, and therefore offer a particularly favourable field for its employment. In many chronic cases it seems to give the patient a fresh start, and puts the system in a condition favourable to the action of other remedies - such as massage. I am certain that it will, in many instances, be found a valuable adjunct to the Weir-Mitchell method, and will supply the mental and moral element which is sometimes required in this treatment. Some patients are irritated rather than soothed by massage, and for these hypnotism will act as a preparatory step. Several well-known physicians, speaking to me on the subject of hypnotic suggestion, have told me that they find suggestion sufficient in their practice, without hypnotism, and have given several instances in which pseudo-paralysis and hysterical troubles generally have yielded to their well-timed assurances.*

* Professor George Buchanan, of Glasgow (Lancet, June 20, 1885), records two cases treated by him by simple suggestion without hypnotism. The first patient, a lady who had been bedridden and unable to move for months, was supposed to be suffering from spinal disease. Dr. Buchanan had but just returned from a visit to Lourdes, where he had been much struck by the ' miraculous' cures of nervous complaints closely simulating organic disease. He formed the opinion that this was a case of hysterical pain and paralysis, and he assumed a confident manner, and told the patient to turn on her other side. She did so, and he gradually got her out of bed; and before he left the house she was able to walk about the room and was free from pain.