Dr. Sturges, for instance, cites the case of a young lady who was a chronic invalid, and suffered greatly from internal neuralgia. There appeared to be no objective disease, but inquiry revealed that her ill-health dated from a mental shock she had sustained by an accident to her brother, brought on, she thought, through her fault. It appears she had urged her brother to ride a restive horse in spite of his protests. The horse threw him, and he broke his arm. Though he recovered, and was none the worse for the accident, anxiety and remorse so preyed on her mind that she became an invalid.

Sturges induced a slight state of hypnosis, and suggested to her the correction of the morbid idea. The girl's friends had frequently argued the subject with her without effect, but three or four treatments by hypnotic suggestion brought about a right frame of mind and a corresponding cure of the bodily troubles.

Another case is that of a lady who quarrelled with her father immediately before his sudden death. She accused herself of being accessory to it, and fell into a state of chronic melancholia. Dr. Sturges succeeded in getting rid of the exaggerated idea, and restoring her to happiness and health.*

Professor Gibert of Havre reports an even more striking case of a young woman who was brought into the hospital suffering from paraplegia and profound disturbance of the digestive and generative functions. She had been hypnotized, and was a good subject, but the result had been disappointing. Investigation into the history of the case showed that the girl had sustained three great shocks in her life: the first when, at the age of seven, she had been forced to occupy the same bed as a child with a bad skin disease; the second just at the age of puberty, when she was put into an icy cold bath; and the third when she was terrified by seeing a woman killed by falling from a window. It was after the third shock that the paralysis developed, but it found her weakly and hysterical. Dr. Gibert threw her into a state of profound somnambulism, and then gradually worked at removing the domination of the morbid ideas. He gave a less serious turn to the events which had so influenced her life, and got her to look back upon them without terror.

The result was complete cure in a few sittings.*

* ' The Use of Hypnotism to the First Degree as a Means of modifying or completely eliminating a Fixed Idea,' Boston, 1894.

One of my early hypnotic cases was that of a lady who had nursed a relative in his last illness. It was a very trying time for her, as he allowed no one else to attend him. One of her duties was to play to him, and in this he took great delight. Shortly before his death, in a paroxysm of jealousy he made her promise that she would never touch the piano after his death, assuring her that if she broke her word he would appear to punish her.

The peculiarly distressing circumstances produced an attack of nervous prostration, and when this passed away it left her with spasmodic asthma, which was new to her, choreiform movements of the head, night terrors, and intense nervousness, so that she was unable to travel or to face crowds. But the thing which most distressed her was her inability to listen to music, which had been the passion of her life, and she could hardly look at a piano without a nervous paroxysm.

I hypnotized her, and she passed readily into a condition of profound somnambulism. Then I suggested the disappearance of the morbid ideas, and with them of the nervous symptoms. Gradually the suggestions worked, and finally I got her with much difficulty to play on the piano while hypnotized. She left me cured of her asthma and spasmodic movements, and with her nervous system so strengthened that she could ride and drive again and go into society. She was able to listen to music, but showed a great disinclination to play herself. A little more treatment would probably have completely cured all the symptoms, but she had to go abroad, and I lost sight of her.

* Again one has to refer to Freud and his psycho-analytic treatment, which is foreshadowed in the above cases. Surely they, and a host of others, disprove his assertion that there is nearly always a sexual origin of phobias.

In these cases correct diagnosis and judicious treatment are the essentials of success. One has to unravel, as it were, a tangled skein, and rough treatment would probably aggravate the trouble. One knows that diseased conditions caused by shock are sometimes cured by another shock; but the gentler method of induced hypnosis and applied suggestion is at once more pleasant and more likely to succeed. I think it will be found that a much larger amount of chronic illness is due to shock than is generally recognized, and I know of no higher duty of the physician than the curing of such cases. The study of hypnotism and the curious features it brings to one's notice often gives a new interest to ordinary practice, and throws a new light on the causation of an illness.

Dr. Constance Long has recently reported a case of most aggravated nostalgia cured very quickly by hypnotic suggestion. The patient was a young woman who was always most miserable when away from home. Dr. Ivo Cobb has found the treatment efficacious in the case of a lady whose long-continued grief after the death of her husband had become pathological. I have recently cured a major in the army of morbid jealousy of his wife. He knew his feelings to be quite unjustified, but could not restrain them or the unkind actions to which they led. His views about women were, in fact, those of a Mussulman, and their exhibition in England led to endless embarrassment and unhappiness. A few treatments by suggestion in light hypnosis completely changed his outlook on the subject, and brought about his conformity to his environment.

It is to be noted that in these three cases the trouble was an exaggeration of natural feelings, and the patient recognized it as such, and wished to be cured. Hypnotism supplied just the necessary mental leverage.