In many forms of genito-urinary troubles I have found suggestion a useful auxiliary in treatment; nor is this to be wondered at when we consider the amount of functional disturbance which is present in these cases. I have cured two very bad cases of prostatic neuralgia, and a most obstinate one of pruritus vulvae, which rendered the patient's life a burden to her. In many forms of rheumatism the effect of hypnotic treatment is at first sight surprising. It very frequently removes pain, even in chronic rheumatoid arthritis. There is a great deal of neuralgia mixed up with most kinds of rheumatism, and suggestion enables us to meet this, and at the same time to bring about an alteration in the local blood-supply, especially if aided by friction.*

* Rheumatism, both muscular and articular, is peculiarly under the influence of suggestion, hypnotic and otherwise. One sees this in the advertisements of the day of prairie oil, electropathic belts, and antirheumatic rings. The last-named are having a great vogue, partly in Braid was extremely successful in treating these cases, and he used to combine a good deal of manipulation with hypnotism. This manipulation acted in two ways: first, on the part, by helping to break down adhesions, stimulating the muscles, etc., and, secondly, on the central nervous system, by suggestion and direction of the mind to the affected part.

In treating local troubles, it is very advisable to combine Braid's manipulative method with Liebault's suggestions. In cases of rheumatism I have frequently seen the joint to which this double treatment has been applied quickly relieved from pain, whilst the corresponding one has continued painful until attention was specially directed to it.

I have succeeded on two or three occasions in breaking down adhesions about rheumatic joints without pain, when the patient would not allow me to touch them in his normal state.

I met with rather a striking case in 1896. The patient was a country practitioner, and had suffered from obstinate rheumatism of the right deltoid muscle for several months. As his practice was a driving one, he found the condition extremely inconvenient as well as painful. He had tried injections of morphia into the substance of the muscle, and had been treated with massage and electricity without benefit. The arm was becoming wasted from disuse, and any movement of the shoulder caused acute pain. He was hypnotizable to the third degree, and I suggested that he should feel no pain when I moved the shoulder, and that there should be no tenderness on pressure. I cautiously swung the arm round, and freely massaged the muscle without his wincing, and in a few moments I told him to open his eyes and try for himself. He found himself much relieved, and the improvement was still more manifest when he came to see me next day. The treatconsequence of the testimonial given by a popular Archdeacon. The old-fashioned remedy for rheumatism, half a raw potato carried in the pocket, has still many advocates, and possesses the advantage of cheapness! ment was repeated on that day and the one following, and he then returned to his practice cured.

He was so much impressed by what he had experienced that he took up hypnotism enthusiastically, and began to use it with his patients. He performed two or three minor operations under hypnotic anaesthesia, and relieved many cases of insomnia, neuralgia, and nervous trouble generally. But the village in which he lived was exceptionally antiquated, and the people would have none of this ' new witchcraft.'

Dr. S------found he was looked at askance, and began to lose his practice. Being a family man, and a sensible one, he argued that if his patients didn't want the best treatment he could offer them it was not for him to force it on them to his own ruin. So he wrote a letter to the greatest gossip of the neighbourhood renouncing his advocacy of hypnotism, and undertaking never to use it again in the place. He was received back into the fold of orthodoxy as a sinner who had repented, and he has his reward. *

Hypnotism sometimes enables us to understand the nature of a case which has baffled treatment. It threw a flood of light, for instance, on the case of Mrs. B------.

This lady came to me suffering from very severe facial neuralgia of more than a year's duration. She was a thoroughly good, well-intentioned woman, who, in addition to devoting herself to a rather exacting husband and seven children, spent several hours a day 'slumming ' in a large town. She kept irregular hours, and neglected herself in every possible way, with the result, of course, that she broke down. But she considered it her duty to sacrifice her health, and, in spite of illness, continued to overtax herself. She came up for two weeks' treatment, and I hypnotized her daily. She was only slightly susceptible, but quite sufficiently so for our purpose. She told her husband after two or three days that, though she was getting better, this was due to the change and rest, and that she was not hypnotized. He very sensibly told me this, and enabled me to make a necessary change in my methods. I hypnotized her as usual, and asked how she felt. She replied that she was comfortable, and that the pain was better. I then told her she couldn't open her eyes, and she tried in vain to do so.

Then I assured her that she was under hypnotic influence, that she would be cured, and that she would not be able to open her eyes until the pain had quite gone.

* The Psycho-Medical Society has been started with the idea of giving backbone and support to doctors who are handicapped in their researches by being isolated and cold-shouldered. Dr. Hugh Wingfield, in joining the society, writes: ' I hope the new society will succeed in removing the prejudice against hypnotism in England. ... I am very glad it has come at last.' He adds: ' I make use of hypnotism a good deal in cases of dipsomania, and the results are to me astonishing.'