Forel enumerates the following conditions and diseases which he finds most satisfactorily treated by hypnotic suggestion (op. cit., p. 210):

Spontaneous somnambulism.

Pains of all descriptions, especially headache, neuralgia, sciatica, toothache, which do not depend upon an abscess, etc.

Sleeplessness.

Functional paralysis and contractures.

Organic paralysis and contractures (as palliative means).

Chlorosis (extremely favourable).

Disturbances of menstruation (metrorrhagia and amenor-rhoea).

Loss of appetite and all nervous digestive disturbances.

Constipation and diarrhoea (provided that the latter does not depend on catarrh or fermentation).

Gastric and intestinal dyspepsia (including pseudo-dilatation).

Psychical impotence, pollutions, onanism, perverted sexual appetite, and the like.

Alcoholism and morphinism (only by the suggestion of total abstinence).

Chronic muscular and arthritic rheumatism, lumbago.

The so-called neurasthenic disturbances.

Stammering, nervous disturbances of the vision.

Blepharospasm.

Pavor nocturnus of children.

Sickness and sea-sickness, the vomiting of pregnancy.

Enuresis nocturna (often very difficult on account of the depth of the normal sleep).

Chorea.

Nervous attacks of coughing (also in emphysema).

Hysterical disturbances of all kinds, including hystero-epileptic attacks, anaesthesia, phobia, and the like.

Bad habits of all kinds.

I have quoted the above in extenso because Professor Forel is a distinguished man of science and an original and fearless thinker, who does not hesitate to examine and criticize mercilessly his own as well as other people's impressions. He has retired from practice, and has no self-interest to serve, but is simply impelled by love of truth to champion a somewhat unpopular cause. It may be noticed how closely his deductions correspond with those I have set forth, and it is most gratifying to me to find that my observations are confirmed by such an eminent authority.

Forel believes strongly in the value of hypnotic suggestion in the education of perverse children, and he attributes the success of many schoolmasters to the wise but often unconscious use of suggestion.

Advocating the use of hypnotism in general practice, Forel says one is apt to greatly undervalue the palliative action of suggestion. It is invaluable as a regulator of digestion, secretion, and menstruation, and is quite harmless, in contradistinction to the scandalous abuse which so many practitioners make of narcotics and alcohol. Forel considers that the teaching of psycho-therapeutics should form part of the curriculum in every medical school, and that in this way only can the medical profession hope to hold its own in its fight with quackery and deception. He acted upon this belief during his professorship at Zurich University by conducting a clinique for the instruction of students and post-graduates.

Alcoholized persons are generally good subjects for the treatment, but I have never succeeded in hypnotizing a person for the first time while in a state of intoxication. It is necessary to wait until the first effects of the stimulant have passed off. The effect of hypnotic treatment in chronic alcoholism is very marked. The patient often first comes under observation suffering from the physical effects of his indulgence. Probably he has subacute gastritis with morning-sickness, furred tongue, flatulence and heartburn, headache and heaviness in the head, coldness of the extremities, with weak, irritable pulse and irregular action of the bo\vels. These symptoms, as well as their mental accompaniments - languor or extreme restlessness, despondency, and irritability - very speedily yield to the treatment, so that it is no uncommon thing to see the chronic drunkard well on his legs within a week.

I have tried the action of various drugs as aids to producing hypnosis in intractable cases, but neither subcutaneous injections of morphia, inhalation of chloroform or ether, cannabis indica, nor bromides, have seemed to exert any marked effect in that direction. (See p. 240.)

Hypnotism seems a psychical condition sui generis. Alcohol, however, appears to predispose to hypnotism, and I frequently find a subject is more amenable after a good meal than he is before it. Hypnotism practised in a rational manner is not fatiguing or trying in any way, and no concentration of the operator's mind or direction of his will seems to be required. The late Dr. George Wyld, a survival from Elliotson's days, told me he used to concentrate his mind on the passes he made, and imagine he was throwing off nervous force from the tips of his fingers, with the result that he soon exhausted himself; but when he adopted the Nancy method he no longer took so much out of himself, though he got equally good results. Liebeault was old and not robust, yet he hypnotized sometimes as many as forty people in a morning. The idea of personal influence and magnetic attraction so industriously promulgated by interested public performers, and so objectionable to most people, is entirely discountenanced and denied by scientific practitioners.

In the foregoing remarks an endeavour has been made to answer many questions which are constantly being put to the practical hypnotist. The answers are founded on experience which it is in the power of any medical man to verify. The cases described in the following chapter are by no means exceptional, but are fairly illustrative of the use of hypnotic suggestion in ordinary practice. The results are certainly no better than would be attained by any trained medical man using the same method with a due regard to its technique.

Liebeault never attempted to hypnotize a patient for the first time if there were a spasm of pain, an access of retching or vomiting, or great emotional disturbance. An attempt to employ suggestion under such circumstances would almost certainly result in failure, and would endanger the success of future efforts. I always wait until the paroxysm is over, or, if the pain is continuous, I give an anodyne, and only try hypnotism when the disquieting symptoms are veiled by the drug.