On the occasion of an academic discussion on hypnotism at the annual meeting of the British Medical Association, at Birmingham, in 1890, I read extracts from letters I had received from the best-known physicians practising hypnotism at home and abroad. Bernheim, Moll, Forel, Van Eeden, Milne Bramwell, and others, all wrote that they had never seen any injurious effects follow the use of hypnotism by trustworthy hands. Liebeault told me that in his thirty years' experience he had had no bad results, and referred me to an article he had recently published, entitled ' Confession d'un Medecin Hypnotiseur,' * in which he has set forth the little mishaps which have happened from time to time in his clinique.

I was extremely glad to get this mass of testimony, as it disposed of an idea, not confined only to the uneducated, that medical hypnotism may induce epilepsy, hysteria, chorea, etc. Dr. A. T. Myers also informed me that the subjects he had seen hypnotized many scores of times for the Society for Psychical Research, over long periods of time, were none the worse for their experience. Liebeault is undoubtedly perfectly correct when he states that where any evil result has followed the treatment, it has been due to want of skill or judgment on the part of the operator. I am convinced that hypnotism is an agent requiring careful handling in many cases. This was brought home to a medical friend of mine, whose experience is worth recording. He was attending a lady suffering from bronchitis complicated with asthma and a weak and fatty heart. He thought to quiet her spasmodic attacks by suggestion, and he induced a state of profound hypnosis she awoke he told her that the following day, at noon, he would repeat the operation from a distance. At that hour the Professor was lectur-' ing, and had quite forgotten the occurrence; nevertheless, the lady, in spite of all her husband could do to prevent it, fell into a profound trance, and said she felt she was being mesmerized.

Expectant attention and auto-suggestion produced the effect, and such is found to be the explanation of most of the stories which are foisted upon a credulous public.

* Op. cit., p. 308.

But while contending that the risks of hypnotism in proper hands are infinitesimal, we are strongly impressed with the belief that its use by the ignorant or ill-disposed is fraught with most serious risk to health. Dr. M. J. Nolan relates, in the Journal of Mental Science (January, 1891), a case of stuporose insanity which he believes was due to the ignorant employment of hypnotism. The patient was a drunken and dissipated soldier, broken in health by his excesses, and he was hypnotized by a travelling ' professor.' Van Eeden (loc. cit.) records a case of hystero-epilepsy brought on in the same way, and Charcot (Revue de l'Hypnotisme, July, 1889) contributes notes of a case in which a woman, after being frequently hypnotized by a magnetizer at a fair, became aphasic for several months, and suffered in health in other ways. Dr. Gilles de la Tourette read a paper dealing with this subject before the Paris Society of Legal Medicine, in December, 1888 (Revue de l'Hypnotisme, January, 1889), and demonstrated how the passage of magnetizers through the towns of France had been followed by serious epidemics of hysteria and other nervous troubles. * He adds: ' Our country (France) has become the refuge of all the magnetizers, and their advertisements cover the walls of Paris. Such a complaint can no longer be made, for public performances are now forbidden by the municipality.

England is now almost the last refuge of the expatriated magnetizers.

* 'Dangers de PHypnotisme et interdiction des representations theatrales' (Ann. d'Hygiene, vol. xxi. Paris, 1889).

Sir F. Cruise * mentions a case in which an attack of brain fever followed the induction of hypnosis by an ignorant and irresponsible operator, and deduces from this and other cases the argument that 'it is highly improper and possibly dangerous for anyone who is not an educated physician, and familiar with the practice, to attempt hypnotism, and that it should never be induced without due reason, precaution, and design.'

Dr. Dejerine, Professeur Agrege of the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, is convinced that the continual making of injurious and absurd suggestions is fraught with evil consequences to the subject, and especially so if the hallucinations are allowed to persist over considerable periods of time. He says the time may arrive when the operator may find himself unable to remove the morbid symptoms he has called into being (Revue de l'Hypnotismc, January, 1891). But he adds that he has never seen hypnotism produce any bad effects when it has been properly used.

Dr. Julius Solow † records a case where an amateur hypnotist hypnotized a friend by making him look fixedly at a diamond ring. The subject had severe convulsions and lost the power of speech. Subsequently, looking at any bright object caused him to become violently excited. Commenting on this case, the British Medical Journal says (March 28, 1891):

' It should be a warning to amateur hypnotizers and to the foolish people who allow themselves to be played upon by these dangerous showmen. ... It ought to be understood that hypnotism recklessly played with is capable of doing very serious mischief, and it is the duty of the medical profession in every town to warn the public of the serious risks which are being run.'

* Dublin Journal of Medical Science, May, 1891.

+ New York Medical Journal, March 14, 1891.

The case of Ilma S------, so fully described by Krafft Ebing, * is frequently quoted as an example of the dangers of hypnotism, and it gives us some idea of what must be the mental condition of the unfortunate persons who are being constantly hypnotized by professional showmen.

Several Italian observers have recorded cases of grave mental troubles following the abuse of hypnotism by public showmen and others. Fiegerio describes a case where the subject, a young woman, after being experimented on by Donato, became affected with spontaneous somnambulism, accompanied by impulsive tendencies to strike and destroy (American Journal of Insanity, April, 1891).