In course of time the new personality, induced by suggestion and encouraged by religious ministration and teaching, will displace the old, and a complete moral revolution will be the result.

One is frequently asked whether the cures worked by suggestion are of a permanent character. To this we reply, they are as permanent as cures effected by any other means. Relapses occur in many diseases, no matter what treatment has been employed - sometimes through some carelessness on the part of the patient or of those who have charge of him. A person who is cured of rheumatism to-day may to-morrow get fresh cold and develop a new attack, or other symptoms. But with proper attention, and the customary precautions as regards diet, rest, temperature, etc., the success of this treatment is not transitory. The improvement effected by its means is often so marked and so rapid that patients are tempted to discontinue its use, and return to their ordinary habits before the cure is perfected and the habit of disease broken. They forget that when a diseased condition has existed for some time it probably has taken firm hold on the system, and is not to be dispelled in a day. Sudden cures by hypnotism are apt to be fallacious, as they are by other modes of treatment.

Though brilliant results are often attained, they can never be counted upon, and there should be no disappointment when improvement is a little delayed.

I have certainly found two statements commonly made about the treatment to be erroneous. The first, that the effects are temporary, and that amelioration of the symptoms is followed by speedy relapse and a deeper sinking into the slough; and the second, that if a relapse occurs, the patient will not a second time be benefited by the treatment. I have treated patients for various ailments who were cured many years ago and have had no relapse; others who, from the nature of their disease, have experienced relapses, have almost invariably been relieved by subsequent hypnotization, and more speedily than on the first occasion.

On the very threshold a difficulty may occur: the patient will perhaps appear insusceptible. This need not cause discouragement, for in many cases the hypnotic influence is not felt until after three or more sittings. Comparatively few persons remain insusceptible * to it;

* See tables, p. 62. An apparent trifle may cause one operator to fail where another will succeed at once. I know a very able foreign physician, who completely failed to influence two English patients, because he smelt of garlic, and so called up disturbing emotions in their minds. I was once unsuccessful with a gentleman, who afterwards told me the reason of my failure. He imagined, as many do, that it is essential for the operator to possess great strength both of mind and body. When I touched his eyes to close them, he and when once it is established, the hypnotic state is afterwards more easily induced, and tends also to become more intense, though this does not necessarily follow.

It is very difficult to eradicate a deeply-rooted popular belief, and it is not very easy for a practitioner of the suggestive system to avoid being called a magnetizer, since artificially induced sleep is the common preliminary of the treatment. But, as I have already stated, Liebeault and his disciples absolutely reject the fanciful theories regarding animal magnetism which were held fifty years ago. They contend that no unusual gifts are needed to practise the system, and that the chief requisite is confidence. (The footnote on p. 117 shows how want of confidence may be detected by the patient, and how the very suspicion of it will cause failure.) With wider experience comes increased confidence in one's self and in the system, followed naturally by increased success.

But ' Majus remedium majus venenum ' is a true saying, and it would be an exception to all rule if such a powerful remedy as suggestion were not liable to abuse. When dynamite was discovered, no one denied that the lawless and desperate would, if possible, turn it to bad account, yet it was not tabooed for this reason, but its manufacture and distribution have been surrounded by precautions and restrictions, and it is allowed to occupy its proper place in applied science in the hands of miners and engineers. It is interesting to read in contemporary records the controversy which raged round the introduction of chloroform into medical practice sixty years ago. All manner of evils.

observed a slight tremor in my hand, and attributed this to a physical or mental weakness, which, he argued, must prevent my influencing him - a stranger, and a strong man of high intellectual capacity. The idea called up a resistance, which rendered him insusceptible. Subsequently, when I had explained to him that my personal attributes were, in this matter, of no consequence whatever, he easily fell into a profound hypnotic sleep. There is, however, a proportion of sane persons - perhaps 10 per cent. - who are to all intents and purposes unhypnotizable. This insusceptibility seems to depend upon idiosyncrasy, and is neither a sign of commanding intelligence nor the reverse.

physical, religious, and moral, were foretold as certain to follow man's temerity in interfering with the laws of Nature; but Sir James Simpson was a doughty champion, and was not prevented from making public his grand discovery because nervous people were afraid it might be employed for evil purposes; nor is its use forbidden, though every year a certain percentage of crimes and outrages are committed by its aid. * Poisoning by arsenic, corrosive sublimate, and digitalis sometimes occur, and yet these drugs occupy a prominent place in the pharmacopoeia; for it is found that, although these powerful agents are sometimes used to inflict harm, the evil caused by their illegitimate employment is so outweighed by their usefulness that no one would think of suppressing them. So with hypnotism. Its power for good is undoubted; it fills a place that nothing else can fill so adequately, and used with proper precautions and under necessary restrictions, it is perfectly safe.