In many cases the good is thus so overshadowed and hidden by the evil that its presence is overlooked. Hypnotism, at any rate, enables us, under favourable conditions, to suppress the evil, and thus give the good a chance of showing itself, and it is possible that it may even enable us to create good qualities in course of time.

In the Revue de l'Hypnotismc, 1886-1887, some papers appear by the late Dr. Auguste Voisin, of the Salpetriere, showing the efficacy of suggestion in the treatment of moral obliquity; and at the Congress of the French Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Nancy in 1886, papers dealing with this subject were read by several physicians of eminence. Voisin gives instances of female prisoners, formerly considered incorrigible, who, after a course of suggestive treatment (combined with the religious and moral instruction, which alone had, unfortunately, proved ineffectual), became modest, cleanly, and industrious. Some of these reformed women have been placed in situations of trust, which they hold satisfactorily. His mantle seems to have fallen on his cousin, Dr. Jules Voisin, also physician to the Salpetriere, who is equally enthusiastic and successful in treating moral delinquents by suggestion {Revue de l'Hypnotisme, July, 1900). I give a case from my own practice later on (p. 319), and Dr. Osgood Mason has had similar experience.

In fact, the evidence as to the reformative efficacy of hypnotism is overwhelming and convincing.

In a most interesting article by F. W. H. Myers, * Dr. E. Dufour, the chief physician of the Saint-Robert Asylum (Isere), is quoted as follows: 'From this time our opinion is settled, and we have no fear of being deceived when we affirm that hypnotism can render service in the treatment of mental disease.' ' In common with most inquirers, Dufour finds only a small proportion of lunatics hypnotizable,' says Myers, 'but the effect produced on these is uniformly good. His best subject is a depraved young man, who, after many convictions for crimes, including attempted murder, became insane.' Dr. Dufour assures us that this difficult subject has become a reformed character through the influence of hypnotism.

* ' Multiplex Personality:' Proceedings of the Society of Psychical Research, vol. iv., 1886-1887.

Forel gives a case of reformation in a confirmed drunkard seventy years of age, who, after twice attempting suicide, was placed under his care. He spent nine years in the asylum, during which he gave an infinite amount of trouble, drinking himself into a state of insanity; whenever an opportunity offered, and inciting the other patients to rebellion.

In 1887 Forel hypnotized this apparently incorrigible subject, and treated him by suggestion. He proved susceptible, and after a few sittings became an utterly changed character. He proved his reformation by voluntarily giving up the small quantity of wine which had been allowed him, and joining the Temperance Society, which hitherto he had vilified and opposed. It was now safe to 'allow him full liberty, as the formerly attractive wine-shops were no longer any temptation to him. Forel adds, that afterwards he was occasionally hypnotized for purposes of demonstration, the relief of rheumatism, and the removal of double senile cataract by operation, but required no further anti-alcoholic suggestion.*

It is interesting to consider in this connection how far it is possible to modify inherited or acquired habits by hypnotism, and I deal with this most important subject; later on.

It is certain that suggestion has a twenty-fold greater influence in the hypnotic than in the waking state, and it is probable that many criminal and weak persons might be reformed by its continued employment. They would be educated or re-educated.

* The old man died in 1895, after a second operation for rectal carcinoma, performed under hypnotic anaesthesia (op. cit, p. 250).

But I believe that the environment must at the same time be suitable, and that had Forel's patient been able to mix with his evil associates after each hypnotization, the good would have been checked in the bud by the excess of evil.

It is supposed that hypnotic suggestion causes inhibition, of psychical origin, of nerve tracts, and it is possible that it enables new nervous arrangements and combinations to be formed by directing nerve energy into new or little-used channels.

Association of ideas plays a very important part in all our sentiments and actions, and this association is certainly strengthened by hypnotism. This explains the success of the treatment in many cases of drunkenness. A good plan in these cases is to suggest dislike for alcohol, and even vomiting at the taste of it. If the patient is then made to swallow a small quantity and sickness follows, and he is told, while in the hypnotic state, that such will be the invariable consequence of indulgence, we shall have established a train of very disagreeable associations which will for a long time, and perhaps always, be connected with the first step in alcoholic indulgence. It may be objected that the association of a drunkard's ideas with alcoholism cannot naturally be pleasant, as excess is always followed by illness. But ordinarily sickness and disgust come after excess, while hypnotism causes them to precede it. We frequently see the action of association of ideas where hypnotism is not in question at all.

For instance, I know a lady to whom the taste of strawberry-jam is most disagreeable and nauseating, because, as a child, on two or three occasions evil-tasting powders were given to her disguised in it.

The same lady tells me that the sight of a bottle from which she had been dosed with castor-oil used to arouse a feeling of nausea long after she had been emancipated from such compulsory medication. But similar instances are so common that they must occur to the mind of everyone.

Alcoholic intoxication is sometimes accompanied by distinct double personality, but this is rarely so well marked as in the case of a farmer referred to by Professor Ball. This man was a dipsomaniac, and frequently got drunk while attending the markets. In this state, however, he continued to transact business, and apparently with considerable judgment and ability. But on becoming sober he would be quite unconscious of what had taken place, and his business suffered severely in consequence. He hit upon the idea of keeping a notebook for use during his drunken state, and he found that by doing so he was able to preserve a written record of his operations, which supplied the hiatus in his memory ('Maladies Mentales,' p. 79). Oblivion of actions committed in a state of drunkenness is, of course, common enough, and there are numbers of cases on record where men have been hanged for murders of which those unhappy criminals had preserved no recollection. By special stimulation of the brain cells, alcohol may arouse the phlegmatic and dull-minded man to temporary brilliancy, and so induce what appears to be change of character; but this change is generally more apparent than real.

Alcohol, as a rule,, does not change character, but emphasizes its features, in vino Veritas, though it sometimes effects very complete changes in a man's conduct. The penurious may become lavish, and the morose man may assume an air of jollity. Here probably the alcohol acts by removing those inhibitory processes which are the result of education, and so allowing the natural characteristics free play. Hypnotic suggestion does not enable us to create force, but only to transform it, nor to create characteristics, but merely to modify them. I cannot think that hypnotism would make a naturally morose man permanently amiable, or a violent-tempered man quiet and gentle. But if the natural temperament has been altered by circumstances, or has not been allowed to develop, I see no reason why hypnotism should not bring out what is latent and suppress the acquired traits, and this applies especially in the case of children.*