226 A. This case was reported by Dr. Proust, Professor of Hygiene at the Hotel Dieu of Paris, before the Académic des Sciences Morales et Politiques, as an instance of what he called "ambulatory automatism in a hysterical man," or, as it might otherwise be phrased, of double personality with an active second self. I give a brief resume from the Revue de l'Hypnotisme, March 1890, p. 267.

Emile X., oet. 33, is a barrister in Paris; of good ability and education in classical studies, both as a boy and at the university. He was always nervous and over sensitive, with some hysterical attacks and functional derangements of motion and sensation, signs, in fact, of la grande hystirie. He could be hypnotised very easily, and whilst M. Luys had him in charge he could be put to sleep by a loud noise, or any sudden impression. One day in a café he saw himself in the looking-glass and at once fell into a hypnotic state which frightened his friends and led them to take him to an hospital, where he recovered without any difficulty. Sometimes his attacks were different; he would seem to his companions to undergo no loss of consciousness, but would lose the memory of all his past life during a few minutes or a few days, and in this condition of secondary consciousness would lead an active and apparently normal life on foot or on horseback, in his friends' houses or in shops. From such a state he woke suddenly, and was entirely without memory of what had happened to him in this secondary state. An instance of this occurred on September 23rd, 1888. He had had a quarrel with his stepfather in Paris, which had excited him considerably, and he fell into his second state.

Three weeks later he woke after his usual fashion, without any memory whatever of what had been happening, and found himself at Villars-Saint-Marcelin, in the Haute Marne, more than 100 miles from Paris. He picked up from various sources a little knowledge of what he had done. He was told he had visited the priest of the village, who had thought him "odd"; that he had also stayed with one of his uncles, who was a bishop in the Haute Marne, and at his house had broken various things, and torn up some MSS. of his uncle; that he had run into debt to the extent of 20, and that he had been summoned before the Court at Vassy on some charge of petty theft, and in his absence judgment had been given against him. Again, on May nth, 1889, he was breakfasting at a restaurant in Paris, and two days later found himself at Troyes. Of what had happened during these two days he could remember nothing. He recollected that before losing his consciousness he had had a great-coat and a purse in it containing 226 fr.

These facts reminded Professor Proust of the well-known case of Félida X. [231 A], and of the more recent case of Louis V. [233 A], in which the memory of the secondary personality was recalled by hypnotism. Emile X. was easily hypnotised, and in that state could give a full account of what had happened to him in his states of secondary personality. In his first of these two attacks he described how he had lost some of the.£20 at cards, and told the complete story of what he had done when staying with his uncle the bishop, and afterwards with the priest. In the same way as to his visit to Troyes, he told the details of his journey, of the friends he had dined with there, and where he had left his overcoat and purse. Notes were taken of his hypnotic account, and on the strength of these he wrote to the hotel-keeper at Troyes asking for his coat and purse, and describing where he had left them. Two days later, to his great astonishment, he received them both, and the 226 fr. in the purse. The Court at Vassy also, when his true condition had become known, reversed the judgment given against him.

1 "The Croonian Lectures on Evolution and Dissolution of the Nervous System" (1884), by J. Hughlings Jackson, M.D. See also, by the same author, "Ophthalmology and Diseases of the Nervous System" (1885),and " Temporary Mental Disorders after Epileptic Paroxysms," in The West Riding Lunatic Asylum Reports, vol. v.

226 B. The following case of "Automatisme Somnambulique avec dédoublement de la personnalité" was reported by J. M. Boeteau, Interne des Asiles de la Seine, in the Annates Médico-psychologiques for January, 1892. It has some resemblance to the Ansel Bourne case, insomuch as the lost memory of an escapade is recovered under hypnotisation, but differs from it in the presence of marked hysteria. There seemed to be no suspicion of epilepsy. I abbreviate M. Boeteau's very full and clear account: -

Marie M., now aged twenty-two, has been subject to hysterical attacks since she was twelve years old. She became an out-patient at the Hôpital Andral for these attacks; and on April 24th, 1891, the house physician there advised her to enter the surgical ward at the H6tel-Dieu, as she would probably need an operation for an internal trouble. Greatly shocked by this news, she left the hospital at 10 a.m., and lost consciousness. When she recovered consciousness she found herself in quite another hospital - that of Ste. Anne - at 6 a.m. on April 27th. She had been found wandering in the streets of Paris, with haggard aspect, worn-out boots, and lacerated feet, in the evening of the day on which she left the H6pital Andral, under the shock of painful apprehension. On returning to herself, she could recollect absolutely nothing of what had passed in the interval. While she was thus perplexed at her unexplained fatigue and footsoreness, and at the gap in her memory, M. Boeteau hypnotised her. Like Ansel Bourne, she passed with ease into the hypnotic state, although she had never before been hypnotised, and like him she at once remembered the events which filled at least the earlier part of the gap in her primary consciousness.

It appears that when she left the H6pital Andral she set out at first for the H6tel-Dieu, as recommended; but that the horror of the impending operation upset her balance of mind, and suddenly transformed itself into a conviction that her baby, which had died at the Assistance Publique, was being kept from her by the nurse to whom she had entrusted it at Chaville. She had walked to Chaville, and then on to Versailles, whither the nurse had removed. She could learn nothing of her baby, and walked back to Paris. During this long walk, which wore out her boots and wounded her feet, she was insensible to fatigue or hunger. But on regaining Paris she began to be haunted by spectral surgeons, endeavouring to perform operations on her. She was found in an increasing state of maniacal excitation, and was taken to a police infirmary on the 25th and to the Hospital of Ste. Anne on the 26th April.

The patient's account of her adventures was found to be correct. The novel point here is the recovery by hypnotism of the memory of a state resembling a sudden access of mania. There seems to have been some fragmentary recollection of the primary state during the secondary state, inasmuch as the poor woman recollected the fact that she had a baby, and the name and address of the nurse. But there was so little of such memory that Dr. Boeteau feels justified in saying that " for a time she had had a real mental life differing from the normal life, with a recurrence to her normal life after three days; thus presenting a clear example of alternating and divided personality, with complete separation between the two psychical existences".

One further point should be noted. If the patient is hypnotised and told to write the day of the month, she writes April 25th, 1891. This is one of the days during her fugue - the day, as it appears, on which she sank from coherent into incoherent delirium. It thus appears that some kind of secondary personality, identified with the earlier part of the fugue, still exists subliminally, although the patient has apparently quite recovered her mental balance.