The cure (Dr. Buchanan adds) appears permanent, for she was quite well eight years afterwards. The other case he cites is one of ' hysterical knee,' which had been diagnosed and treated as disease of the joint. After a little manipulation, he told the patient that she could walk, and she was at once able to do so, though the slightest movement previously had caused intense pain. These cases are very similar to many reported by Bernheim and others as having been cured by hypnotism, and they are, as Dr. Buchanan says, among the most intractable complaints which medical men are called upon to treat, the disorder being in the imagination, and not in the part which appears affected.

The beneficial and curative action of suggestion is not confined to bodily ailments. We are all acquainted with numerous examples of cases where a ' word in season' - i.e., a suggestion falling on a receptive soil - has so influenced moral conduct that it has changed the entire life of the individual. This point is strikingly brought out by Professor James in his fascinating book, ' The Varieties of Religious Experience.'

The eloquence of Father Mathew and Gough, the temperance advocates, produced many as wonderful conversions of drunkards as hypnotic suggestions can ever claim, and though a proportion of these were but temporary, others were both sudden and permanent. The history of all religious revivals abounds with instances of sinners being reached by suggestion under special circumstances of preparedness, who would never have been touched by ordinary preaching.

Dr. Mercier, in a recent paper on the treatment of agoraphobia (Lancet, October 13, 1906), recommends the use of imperative suggestion, but goes out of his way to say by this he does not imply hypnotic influence. I am at a loss to understand his objection to the most certain and scientific method of enforcing ' imperative suggestion.'

I maintain that if simple suggestion can work thus beneficially, its effects must be greatly increased by hypnotism, and that with this aid it will sometimes produce results which it would be impossible for it to achieve alone, even in the most able hands. It is, as I have said elsewhere, through unwonted concentration of the imaginative powers upon a given point that suggestion works, and for most persons intense concentration is difficult - indeed, almost impossible to attain to in their normal state. Sir James Crichton Browne, in his eloquent address before the British Association at Leeds, in 1889, laid particular emphasis on the important role played by the imagination both in health and disease, and begged his audience to employ this power and direct it into proper curative channels. As Wesley said when he set hymns to lively music: ' Why should the devil have all the best tunes?'

Liebeault strongly recommends the treatment for sprains and muscular strains. In such cases it may be combined with gentle massage of the injured part. In the acute stages it will relieve pain and quicken the natural processes of repair, and in chronic cases it seems to aid in absorption of any exudation or deposit which may have formed. The rapid relief of pain and restoration of movement in some of these cases must be seen to be believed.

In cases of 'railway spine,' and of disorders resulting from shock and concussion generally, it affords hope of relief and cure; and in such cases the patient should be allowed to remain in the hypnotic state for a considerable time, as the rest to the nervous system and freedom from pain and irritation are, no doubt, important factors in the cure. There is no question of the value of suggestion in the treatment of such nervous conditions as insomnia and hysteria, and of such diseases as require above all things mental calming and repose. It is often impossible in many cases of chronic disease to say how much of the suffering depends upon organic disease, and how much on reflex disturbance and functional derangement. This is well seen in diseases of the heart, where the distress of the patient is often quite out of proportion to the amount of lesion. In such cases the neurotic symptoms may generally be relieved by hypnotic suggestion. *

The use of hypnotism as a means of diagnosis should not be overlooked. Hamilton Osgood (loc. cit.) was enabled by its employment to discover the functional character of a paralysis which had been previously looked upon as of organic nature. On the other hand, I have been able to pronounce symptoms considered hysterical and functional to be dependent on organic and structural degeneration - e.g., spinal sclerosis - because they remained persistent even in profound hypnosis.

Its power over organic processes has been clearly shown by many experiments, made either on students of the system or on patients, with their own previous consent. A patient in the hypnotic sleep is told that he has burnt his hand or some other part of his body; he not only feels heat and pain in the place indicated, but it frequently happens that the spot becomes red and inflamed, exhibiting all the objective signs of congestion, and even of inflammation, vesication, etc. The suggestion of the operator has, through the patient's imagination, been able to affect the vasomotor functions of the sympathetic nervous system. This experiment and others of a like nature open up a wide field of pathological interest; for if suggestion can cause an increased flow of blood to a part, and local congestion and inflammation, it can also dissipate and cure these conditions when they occur in disease.

* On this point I would especially refer the reader to Dr. Buzzard's Presidential Address to the Neurological Society, 1891 (republished in book form). He clearly shows how fine are the differences between 'functional' and organic diseases of the nervous system. The so-called 'functional disease' of to-day may be shown to be organic to-morrow, as our methods of investigation become more perfect - e.g., the symptoms of locomotor ataxy used to be considered as purely functional as those of paralysis agitans are at present; and the fact that the movements of paralysis agitans are but little affected by hypnotism points, indeed, to there being a concealed organic basis.