Dr. Semal, in the discussion on hypnotism in the Belgian Academy of Medicine (June 30, 1888), having condemned the prostitution of the system by travelling prestidigitateurs and charlatans, spoke strongly in favour of having it included in the medical curriculum of the Universities, as being the only legitimate means of making it known. 'This course,' he said, 'would prevent its being used empirically and stupidly, and would keep it as a powerful therapeutic agent in the hands of the medical profession so long as the art of healing is practised.' It is distressing to have to record that after all these years there is still no provision made in our medical schools for instruction in hypnotic practice, and the ordinary student is still pitifully ignorant of normal and abnormal psychology. There seems to be a fear that hypnotic would supplant orthodox treatment and undermine established usages. One might as well argue against teaching the value of vaccine therapy. Both forms of treatment are but auxiliary and complementary to the science of medicine.

* I am informed by credible witnesses, who were living in Edinburgh at the time, that Professor Simpson used to invite his friends to his house to experiment with the new agent, and it was quite common for several of the guests to narcotize themselves that they might compare experiences. This affords another analogy between the introduction of hypnotism and that of chloroform, and we may hope that as chloroform soon got beyond the popular and experimental stage, so may hypnotism be freed from its platform and drawing-room exponents.

The exploitation of hypnotism as an exhibition at public entertainments has already been prohibited by law in Switzerland, Holland, and other countries, and when the true position of this treatment is understood among us, the same restrictions will probably be enforced in England. * ' The performance of experiments in public,' write Binet and Fere (op. cit.), 'should be condemned, just as we condemn public dissection of the dead body and vivisection in public. It is certain that there are still graver objections to hypnotic exhibitions, since they are liable to produce nervous affections even in those who do not propose to be the subjects of experiment.' Such experiments are always useless and often cruel, besides being an offence against the dignity of humanity. The contortions and exclamations of a patient under chloroform are often interesting, and might by some persons be thought amusing, but we should hardly choose to excite them for the gratification of idle curiosity or the entertainment of the multitude.

By all means let people be made aware of the existence and nature of an influence to which most of us are susceptible, and some to a dangerous degree: for to be forewarned is to be forearmed, and we shall not have foolish parsons playing with such an edged tool if they know how serious may be the consequences of their trifling. A paragraph which lately went the round of the papers shows how ignorance may lead to awkward results. A couple of young men went to a cafe after attending a

* One of the objects of the International Congress of physicians practising hypnotism, which was held in Paris in 1889, was to pass a strong resolution dealing with this question, and calling upon Governments to render public exhibitions of hypnotism illegal.

'magnetic' performance, and one of them, full of what he had seen, proposed 'magnetizing' the barmaid. She consented, and he imitated the 'passes' made by the lecturer. Very soon the subject fell into a hypnotic trance, from which neither of the young men could arouse her. Like Ali Baba's brother, they had got into forbidden regions, and did not know the password which should let them out. The police were sent for, the young woman was taken to the hospital, where after a time she awoke, and the operator was arrested and locked up.

The following case has recently come under my own notice, for my advice was sought by the much-perplexed experimenter:

A young gentleman, after a few lessons from a public magnetizer, went to stay in a country house where, among other guests, was a young lady of well-marked hysterical temperament. To show off his recently-acquired knowledge, and to afford a little amusement, he undertook to hypnotize this girl, and after a few minutes' employment of the method known as fascination, the subject fell into a profound trance. He had some difficulty in arousing her, ' and ever since she has had frequently recurring fits of cataleptic trance, which are always ushered in by an out-burst of screaming, in which she cries: ' He is doing it } now !' She is under the impression that the young man is constantly exercising a power over her, though he is hundreds of miles away, and her nervous system is reduced to a state which causes serious alarm to her family. That her idea is absurd, and that such action at a distance is impossible, renders the matter none the less painful for the young lady and her family, or less awkward for the rash experimenter.

Such an occurrence naturally fills people's minds with dislike and distrust for hypnotism, for they confuse a wanton and clumsily-conducted experiment with a medical treatment of which hypnotism forms 'only a preliminary step. *

* A story told by the late Professor Christison of Edinburgh bears on this point. He one day mesmerized a highly nervous lady, and when with great facility. He continued to suggest easier and quieter breathing, and was pleased to see how the patient responded and how respiration became more and more tranquil. He had not hypnotized many people, and looked upon the process as being quite unattended with risk, until the breathing, having become more and more feeble, suddenly stopped altogether, and the heart-beat became imperceptible. My friend feared the patient would have died - the first victim of hypnotic suggestion - and was intensely relieved when the spasmodic breathing was again heard. As far as I know, no record exists of its having proved fatal. Heidenhain refers to experiments of this kind as being distinctly dangerous, and states how he nearly stopped the action of his brother's heart by continued suggestion.