There has been a great deal of correspondence in the daily press about hypnotism and suggestion, and one writer in an evening paper recently complained that after being hypnotized she felt for some time a disagreeable sensation, as of being ' drawn to the operator.' I believe that such a sensation, unless suggested during hypnosis by the hypnotist, could only be the result of hysterical imagination, and I have never seen anything of the kind in my practice. Such a statement, however, emphasizes the importance of the rule, that hypnotism should be practised only in the presence of witnesses, and that the patient should be thoroughly awakened before leaving the consulting-room. The best guarantee against the abuse of hypnotism will be its recognition as a branch of medical treatment, to be used by medical men with the same caution as anaesthetics and poisons in general.

The practitioner who uses hypnotism should do so with the same precautions which he adopts in administering an anaesthetic. Chief among these are obtaining the formal consent of the patient, and, when expedient, of his friends, and never operating save in the presence of at least one witness. Thus he will guard himself and his patient from all possible imputation of wrong-doing or abuse of power. I need hardly add that a patient desiring hypnotic treatment will, if commonly prudent, use discrimination in choosing a physician, and will avoid placing himself under the influence of one not known to him, at least by reputation.

* Apprehension of danger rests very frequently upon the misconception that loss of volition and amnesia are ordinary accompaniments of medical hypnotism. Such an idea arises from witnessing public performances, and it is difficult to eradicate. The physician who employs hypnotism as a remedial agent neither seeks to obtain somnambulism - in which state alone the patients' memory and willpower are seriously affected - nor, as a matter of fact, does it occur, except in a small proportion of cases. The condition ordinarily attained - and here I can speak from personal experience - is one of gentle lethargy, very similar in character to that agreeable state between sleeping and waking which most of us experience when, after being called in the morning, we give ourselves five minutes' grace before getting up.

The dangers of hypnotism are, I believe, exaggerated. The stories told of persons obtaining undue influence over others by its means are mostly fables, which experience shows to be impossible. Bernheim asserts, and is borne out by other observers, that no one can be hypnotized against his wish, and that, in fact, it is his own will which sends him to sleep. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that after a time the oncoming of sleep is less under the patient's control, and when, as we see sometimes at Nancy, a person is continually being hypnotized by the same operator, the hypnotic state can be reproduced with surprising readiness. I believe that in certain hysterical cases there arises a craving for this, as there might for any other sedative; but such a craving has little chance of being encouraged if the suggestive practice is confined to its proper sphere. A physician does not go on prescribing narcotic drugs because a patient has a craving for them, but, on the contrary, forbids their use when they cease to be beneficial.

The physician practising suggestion may protect his over-sensitive patients from the dangers of being hypnotized by a stranger. He has only to impress upon them, while they are in the hypnotic state, that no one can produce any such effect upon them without their free-will and formal consent. The most practised operator would try his art in vain upon one so protected, as Liebeault and Bernheim have repeatedly proved,* and as I myself

* These physicians were in the habit of hypnotizing an hysterical patient, who used to fall into somnambulism as easily in the hands of one as in those of the other. On one occasion, while she was in this state, Bernheim told her that she was not to be influenced by Liebeault. She awoke quite oblivious of this suggestion having been made, and soon afterwards went to Liebeault, who was ignorant of what had taken place, and asked him to hypnotize her as usual. To the surprise of both patient and doctor, all his attempts to do so were have seen. I always safeguard my more susceptible patients against the danger of being hypnotized against their will by telling them that no one will be able to futile, and it was only on communicating the fact to Dr. Bernheim that his colleague found its explanation.

This is so important a point that 1 asked Dr. Outterson Wood (Secretary of the British Medical Association Committee on Hypnotism) to put it to the test, and he kindly consented. Mrs. M------, who is frequently referred to in these pages, was the subject. The first occasion was in November, 1890. 1 had not hypnotized Mrs.

M------for several weeks, and had made no suggestions in reference to her not being hypnotized by anyone else for at least six months. I told her that Dr. Outterson Wood wished to hypnotize her, and left her alone with him. When I returned in half an hour. 1 found her asleep, and Dr. Wood informed me he had succeeded in hypnotizing her after trying the method of fascination for about twenty mini He was obliged to leave the house to keep an appointment, and I then found Mrs. M------ would not reply to my questions, and was apparently in a deep trance, and only en rapport with Dr. Wood. Adopting Liegeois's plan, I said in a loud voice to a patient standing by, ' Mrs. M------is fast asleep now, but she will awake in exactly five minutes.' Though apparently unconscious, her ears evidently took in the suggestion, and her mind acted upon it, for she awoke to the moment.

This experience affords a hint as to the course to adopt if called in to a case of trance suspected to be of hypnotic origin. Though the subject seemed absolutely unconscious, and would doubtless have proved an;vsthetic to violent stimuli, her brain responded to the stimulus of an indirect suggestion.