Many extraordinary and, at the present time, inexplicable phenomena can be produced in subjects who attain the last degree of hypnotic somnambulism.

Such persons are but rarely met with, and are, I believe, always of hysterical temperament, which is frequently combined with a tendency to phthisis, scrofula, or other chronic disease.

These phenomena, as has been already said, are of purely psychological interest, and should be kept entirely distinct from therapeutic suggestion.

Among Liebeault's patients at Nancy was a young woman named Camille, a favourite subject for experiment, as she readily falls into the most profound state of hypnotic somnambulism.

Like many hysterical persons, she took a pride in her infirmity, and therefore, without being over-sceptical, one may wish to verify the experiments tried on her. One of the most curious of these is the production of negative hallucinations by suggestion. Camille, and one or two other persons of the same nervous temperament, would be told that on waking they would not see So-and-so, though he might speak to her, touch her, and even prick or pinch her, and the suggestion was realized. Or they would be told that the door was no longer existing, in which case, though apparently quite awake, they would seek in vain to cross the threshold until the spell was removed.

On my return to London I was fortunate enough to meet a lady who takes a great interest in the subject, and is at the same time susceptible of being thrown into the most advanced stages of hypnotic somnambulism. Her husband is a man of science, and also much interested in hypnotism. They were both quite ignorant of the phenomena I wished to produce, and the conditions therefore were perfectly satisfactory.

Mrs. H------is about thirty years of age, small, slight, and a blonde. She is highly nervous, and occasionally hysterical, but she enjoys good health, is intelligent, and active in her household duties. On the first occasion I tried to develop a negative hallucination her husband was confined to the room with a bad cold, and was sitting by the fire in an arm-chair a few feet from her. I hypnotized her, and told her that on waking she would not see him, would not hear him if he spoke to her, and would not feel him if he touched her. All this was literally realized. She was apparently wide awake, and yet when I asked her where her husband was she said she didn't know, but thought he had gone upstairs, and would be down very soon. He spoke to her, calling her by name, and asked her to get his medicine, to stir the fire, what there was for supper, and a number of other questions. She gave not a sign of having heard; in fact, she evidently did not hear him, though she conversed with me intercurrently quite rationally. Mr. H------then approached her, touched her hand, sat down beside her, and talked; but evidently for her he had ceased to exist, as she betrayed not the faintest consciousness of his presence.

I then asked Mr.

H - - to speak impersonally, and he said, ' Mrs. H-----will now go to the table, take up the doctor's gloves, and try them on.' She did not appear to hear, but in a few moments she got up, went to the table, and tried on my gloves - a thing she would never have thought of doing of her own initiative. I asked her why she did this, and she replied, ' I don't know; I thought I should like to.' She was not aware that the impulse proceeded from another. When I blew on her eyes, and said, ' Mrs.

H------, there is your husband close beside you, and you can see him now,' she looked fixedly at his chair for a moment, and then said, 'Yes, I see him now; but where was he a minute ago?' adding, 'At first he looked small and indistinct, but now it is all right.' We know we may look at a thing and yet not see it when in a ' brown-study' or preoccupied with something. A familiar example of this is afforded by observing how absent-minded people pass their friends in the street without recognition, though their eyes may dwell on them for some time. Afterwards they will deny having seen them, and truly they have not. 'Eyes have they, but they see not.' A physical impression has been made on the retina, but it has not undergone that cortical co-ordination or registration in consciousness without which there can be no perception.

I had only learnt that morning, from reading an article by Professor Liegeois, the curious fact that in hypnotic somnambulism the subject will carry out a suggestion made by a person whom she is prevented, by some inhibitory nerve-action, from apparently either seeing or hearing. The same lady kindly allowed me to try other simple experiments on her. She was ignorant of the nature of them, and only stipulated that they should not make her appear ridiculous or cause much pain. When in the hypnotic sleep I gently touched and kept my fore-finger on a small surface of the wrist, saying while I did so, ' Poor Mrs. H------has a nasty burn on her wrist, probably from some boiling water; the place is very red, and rather painful.' In a few minutes I awakened her, and she immediately began rubbing her wrist, as if in pain there. On my asking her what was the matter, she replied, ' I think I must have spilt some boiling water on my wrist; it feels as if I had burnt it.' On looking at the spot, there was a very perceptible patch of redness about the size of a sixpence, and every moment this became more defined and angry-looking. As the pain was increasing, it would have been a breach of our agreement to protract the experiment, so I hypnotized her once more, and told her that there was no burn, and that the redness and pain would be quite gone when she awoke.

In point of fact, a very short time was sufficient to disperse the morbid appearance, and on reawakening her there was no complaint of discomfort. The same lady after the first operation complained of chilliness and stiffness, but I had only to suggest on future occasions that she was not to feel these unpleasant symptoms to insure her not being troubled with them.

* Binet and Fere, op. cit., p. 311, relate a convincing experiment showing a reality of this psychical blindness. A subject had on each side of the mammary region a hysterogenic zone, pressure on which immediately produced an hysterical attack. One of the physicians rendered himself invisible by suggestion, and at the same time destroyed the sensation of contact on his approach. A strong pressure on the zones then failed to produce any attack, nor did she make any effort to repel the experimenter, but only complained of a vague sense of oppression. On the other hand, she recoiled in terror when another person put his hand near these zones.

These experiments belong in no way to therapeutic suggestion, but are of interest, as they show how exactly the phenomena produced at Nancy may be reproduced by experiment in England.

* ' Un Nouvel Etat Psychologique,' Revue de Hypnotistme, August, 1888.