Neurypnology Chapter IV

Neurypnology Chapter IV

In passing into common sleep objects are perceived more and more faintly, the eyelids close, and remain quiescent, and all the other organs of special sense become gradually blunted, and cease to convey their usual impressions to the brain, the limbs become flaccid from cessation of muscular tone and action, the pulse and respiration become slower, the pupils are turned upwards and inwards, and are contracted (Muller). In the hypnotic state, induced with the view of exhibiting what I call the hypnotic phenomena, vision becomes more and more imperfect, the eyelids are closed, but have, for a considerable time a vibratory motion, (in some few they are forcibly closed, as by spasm of the orbiculares) the organs of special sense, particularly of smell, touch, and hearing, heat and cold, and resistance, are greatly exalted, and afterwards become blunted, in a degree far beyond the torpor of natural sleep; the pupils are turned upwards and inwards, but, contrary to what happens in natural sleep, they are greatly dilated, and highly insensible to light ; after a length of time the pupils become contracted, whilst the eyes are still insensible to light.

The pulse and respiration are, at first, slower than is natural, but immediately on calling muscles into action, a tendency to cataleptiform rigidity is assumed, with rapid pulse, and oppressed and quick breathing. The limbs are thus maintained in a state of tonic rigidity for any length of time I have yet thought it prudent to try, instead of that state of flaccidity induced by common sleep ; and the most remarkable circumstance is this; that there seems to be no corresponding state of muscular exhaustion from such action. [Footnote: The average of a great number of experiments gives me the following results : The rise in the pulse from mere muscular effort, to enable patients to keep their legs and arms extended for five minutes, is about 20 per cent. When in the state of hypnotism it is upwards of 100 per cent. By arousing all the senses, and the head and neck, it will speedily fall to 40 per cent, (that is, twice what it was when so tested in the natural condition) and by rendering the whole muscles limber, whilst the patient is in the state of hypnotism the pulse very speedily falls to, or even below, the condition it was before the experiment.] In passing into natural sleep, any thing held in the hand is soon allowed to drop from our grasp, but, in the artificial sleep now referred to, it will be held more firmly than before falling asleep. This is a very remarkable difference.

The power of balancing themselves is so great that I have never seen one of these hypnotic somnambulists fall. The same is noted of natural somnambulist. This is a remarkable fact, and would appear to occur in this way, that they acquire the centre of gravity, as if by instinct, in the most natural, and therefore, in the most graceful manner, and if allowed to remain in this position, they speedily become cataleptiformly and immovably fixed. From observing these two facts, and the general tendency and taste for dancing displayed by most patients on hearing lively music during hypnotism, the peculiarly graceful and appropriate movement of many when thus excited, and the varied and elegant postures they may be made to assume by slight currents of air, and the faculty of retaining any position with so much ease, I have hazarded the opinion, that the Greeks may have been indebted to hypnotism for the perfection of their sculpture, and the Fakirs for their wonderful feats of suspending their bodies by a leg or an arm. [Footnote: It has been suggested to me, that it can scarcely be doubted that the Bacchanalians, who had no feeling of wounds, ('non sentit vuInera Moenas', - 0vid) and whose condition was a stupor different from common sleep, ('Exsomnis stupet Oevias', - Horace) were in the hypnotic condition or nervous sleep, and therein excited to dance by music ; and that, as uneducated maid-servants, when under the full influence of that state of nerve, move with the grace and peculiar action of the most accomplished dancers of pantomimic ballet, there is reason to believe, not merely that the perfect grace exhibited in the attitudes represented in ancient sculpture and painting, was derived from studying the Bacchanalian and other mystic dancers, but that the movements used by stage-dancers, in our days, have been transmitted to us by continued imitation, through Italy, from the dancers in the Greek mysteries. No person can see girls of humble education, under the influence of music while in the nervous sleep, without perceiving, that those individuals, if awake, could not move with the elegance they exhibit under that influence. The reason of such grace probably is, that it arises from the simple and pure effects of nature to balance the body perfectly in all its complicated movements while the power of sight is suspended.]

It thus clearly appears that it differs from common sleep in many respects, that there is first a state of excitement as with opium, and wine, and spirits, and afterwards a state of corresponding deep depression or torpor. In the case of two patients, symptoms very much the same as those produced in them by the laughing gas, were produced twice on each patient, and the only time I know of their having been hypnotised. One lost the power of speech for two hours, as happened also after the gas. Both these patients had hypnotised themselves. There is a remarkable difference between the hypnotic condition, and that induced by the nitrous oxide. In the latter there is great, almost irresistible inclination to general muscular effort, as well as laughter ; in the former there seems to be no inclination to any bodily effort, unless excited by impressions from without. When the latter are used, there is a remarkable difference again in the power of locomotion and accurate balancing of themselves, when contrasted with the condition of intoxication from wine or spirits, where the limbs become partially paralysed, whilst the judgement remains pretty clear and acute. The state of muscular quiescence, with acute hearing, and dreamy, glowing imagination, approximates it somewhat to the condition induced by conium.

During the course of last spring some lectures were delivered in this town to prove that the mesmeric phenomena might be induced by an 'undue continuance or repetition of the same sensible impression' on any of the senses. Immediately after the first lecture I instituted experiments according to this plan, but very soon ascertained, that the sleep induced by this mode of operating, unless through the eye, was nothing more than NATURAL or common sleep, excepting in patients who had had the impressibility stamped on them, by having been previously mesmerised or hypnotised. The lecturer concluded his course by stating his opinion, that he knew no sleep but natural or common sleep ; and by representing that he considered the effects produced by the different modes to be the same. [Footnote: This being his belief, there could be no novelty in his views. The following was the language of Cullen, long before he was born, 'If the mind is attached to a single sensation, it is brought very nearly to the state of the total absence of impressions ; or, in other words, to the state most closely bordering upon sleep ; remove those stimuli which keep it employed, and sleep ensues at any time'.] M'Nish also writes, 'Attention to a single sensation has the same effect (of inducing slumber). This has been exemplified in the case of all kinds of monotony, where there is a want of variety to stimulate the ideas, and keep them on the alert'. And again M'Nish writes, 'I have often coaxed myself to sleep by internally repeating half a dozen times any well known rhyme. Whilst doing so the ideas must be strictly directed to this particular theme, and prevented from wandering'. He then adds, that the great secret is to compel the mind to depart from its favourite train of thought, into which it has a tendency to run, 'and address itself solely to the verbal repetition of what is substituted in its place' ; and farther adds, 'the more the mind is brought to turn upon a single impression, the more closely it is made to approach to the state of sleep, which is the total absence of all impressions'. Which also, some forty years ago, wrote thus, 'Sleep is promoted by tranquillity of mind, * * * by gently and uniformly affecting one of the senses; for instance, by music or reading ; and lastly, a gentle external motion of the whole body, as by rocking or sailing'. Counting and repeating a few words have been also long and generally known and resorted to for the purpose of procuring sleep.

Let any one read attentively the following extract from the Medical Gazette of February 24, 1838, on the power of weak monotonous impressions on the senses having the power of inducing sleep, and many phenomena usually attributed to mesmerism, and say what merit could be due to a person acquainted with the article referred to, for recording a note to the same effects some six or eight months thereafter, and that without having instituted a single experiment to prove the correctness of the hypothesis? 'For the other slight symptoms' (others enumerated having been attributed to imagination or emotion of mind) 'of vapours, drowsiness, and at last natural sleep, no other cause need be sought than the tediousness and ennui of passing the hands for more or less than an hour over the most sensitive parts of the body. This is only an instance of the well known effect of weak, monotonous impressions on the senses inducing sleep ; analogous examples are found in the soothing influence of a body seen slowly vibrating, or of a distant calm scene, or the motions of the waves, or of quivering leaves ; or in impressions on the sense of learning by the sound of a waterfall, the rippling of billows, the humming of insects, the low howling of the winds, the voice of a dull reader ; or on the nerves of common sensation by gentle friction of the temple or eyebrow, or any sensitive part of the body ; the rocking of a cradle ; any slow and regular motion of the limbs or trunk ; all these instances show that the effect of monotonous impressions on the senses is to produce, in most persons, tranquillity, or drowsiness, and ultimately sleep'. Where, then, is the great merit of any one having recorded a note six or eight months after this was published, that these phenomena were induced by 'the undue continuance and repetition of the same sensible impression!' I believe most, if not all the patients this gentleman exhibited at his lectures had been previously mesmerised or hypnotised, which, if I am correct in this supposition, from the circumstances already referred to, (see page 36, and note, page 61) would completely nullify the importance of his apparent results. However, I have never heard of his having operated successfully, and exhibited the phenomena on numbers of patients taken indiscriminately from a mixed audience, ,who had never been operated on before ; or produced curative results such as I have so repeatedly done. I therefore consider it a fair inference, that until the same phenomena are produced by his method in cases of persons which have never been hypnotised or mesmerised, nothing is proved beyond the fact which I have so often urged, namely, the power of imagination, sympathy, and habit, in producing the expected effects ON THOSE PREVIOUSLY IMPRESSED. [Footnote: A very decided proof of this was exhibited at one of my lectures, where, as may be seen from the report of it, twenty-two who had been operated on before, laid hold of different parts of each other's persons or dresses, and by concentrating their attention to that act, and anticipating the effect, they all became hypnotised in about a minute. After another lecture, in the ante-room, sixteen who bad been hypnotised formerly, stood up in the same manner, and also one who had never been hypnotised. In about a minute all were affected excepting the latter. I then operated on him alone in my usual way, and in two or three minutes he was very decidedly affected. Suffice it to say, I have varied my experiments in every possible form, and clearly proved the power of imagination over those previously impressed, as the patients have become hypnotised or not by the same appliance, accordingly to the result which they previously expected. This readily accounts for the result of Mr Wakley's experiments with the 0keys.]

From overlooking another important fact which I have repeatedly explained, that all the phenomena are consecutive, that is, first increased sensibility, inobility, and docility, and afterwards a subsidence into insensibility and cataleptiform rigidity, this gentleman, by mistaking and exhibiting the primary phenomena for the secondary, seems to have managed to deceive both himself and some others who are satisfied to look at such matters loosely. This, however, is confounding things which are in themselves essentially different. I beg especial attention to the note below. [FOOTNOTE: In illustration of this, I may here state the following remarkable facts, which have been frequently repeated before many most competent witnesses, and of which, therefore, I consider there can be no doubt.] The first symptoms after the induction of the hypnotic state, and extending the limbs, are those of extreme excitement of all the organs of sense, sight excepted. I have ascertained by accurate measurement, that the hearing is about twelve times more acute than in the natural condition. Thus a patient who could not hear the tick of a watch beyond 3 feet when awake, could do so when hypnotised at the distance of 35 feet, and walk to it in a direct line, without difficulty or hesitation. Smell is in like manner, wonderfully exalted ; one patient has been able to trace a rose through the air when held 46 feet from her. May this not account for the fact of Dr Elliotson's patient 0key, discovering the peculiar odour of patients in articulo mortis? when she said on passing them, 'there is Jack'. The tactual sensibility is so great, that the slightest touch is felt, and will call into action corresponding muscles, which will also be found to exert a most inordinate power. The sense of heat, cold, and resistance, are also exalted to that degree, as to enable the patient to feel anything without actual contact, in some cases at a considerable distance, (18 or 20 inches) if the temperature is very different from that of the body ; and some will feel a breath of air from the lips, or the blast of a pair of bellows, at the distance of 50, or even 90 feet, and bend from it, and, by making a back current, as by waving the hand or a fan, will move in the opposite direction. The patient has a tendency to approach to, or recede from impressions, according as they are agreeable or disagreeable, either in quality or intensity. Thus, they will approach to soft sounds, but they will recede from loud sounds, however harmonious. A discord, such as two semi-tones sounded at same time, however soft, will cause a sensitive patient to shudder and recede when hypnotised, although ignorant of music, and not at all disagreeably affected by such discord when awake. By allowing a little sure to elapse, and the patient to be in a state of quietude, he will lapse into the opposite extreme, of rigidity and torpor of all the senses, so that he will not hear the loudest noise, nor smell the most fragrant or pungent odour ; nor feel what is either hot or cold, although not only approximated to, but brought into actual contact with, the skin. He may now be pricked, or pinched, or maimed, without evincing the slightest symptom of pain or sensibility, and the limbs will remain rigidly fixed. At this stage a puff of wind directed against any organ instantaneously rouses it to inordinate sensibility, and the rigid muscles to a state of mobility. Thus, the patient may be unconscious of the loudest noise, but by simply causing a current of air to come against the ear, a very moderate noise will instantly be heard so intensely as to make the patient start and shiver violently, although the whole body had immediately before been rigidly cataleptiform. A rose, valerian, or asafoetida, or strongest liquor ammonioe, may have been held close under the nostrils without being perceived, but a puff of wind directed against the nostrils will instantly rouse the sense so much, that supposing the rose had been carried 46 feet distant, the patient has instantly set off in pursuit of it ; and even whilst the eyes were bandaged, reached it as certainly as a dog traces out game ; but, as respects valerian or asafoetida, will rush from the unpleasant smell, with the greatest haste. The same with the sense of touch.

The remarkable fact that the whole senses may have been in the state of profound torpor, and the body in a state of rigidity, and yet by very gentle pressure over the eyeballs, the patient shall be instantly roused to the waking condition, as regards all the senses, and mobility of the head and neck, in short to all parts supplied by nerves originating above the origin of the fifth pair, and those inosculating with them, and will not be affected by simple mechanical appliance to other organs of sense, is a striking proof that there exists some remarkable connection between the state of the eyes, and condition of the brain dud spinal cord during the hypnotic state.

This is also a remarkably good illustration of the propriety of Mr Mayo's designation of the origin of the fifth pair of nerves, which he styles 'the dynamic centre of the nervous system'. (The Nervous System, and its Functions, p.27) Another remarkable proof to the same effect is this ; supposing the same state of torpor of all the senses, and rigidity of the body and limbs to exist, a puts of air, or gentle pressure against ONE eye will restore sight to that eye, and sense and mobility to one half of the body - the same side as the eye operated on - but will leave the other eye insensible, and the other half of the body rigid and torpid as before. Neither hearing nor smell, however, are restored in this case to either side. Thus, by one mode of acting through the eye, we reduce the patient to a state of hemiplegia, by the other to that of paraplegia, as regards both sense and motion. In many cases, when the patient has been hypnotised by looking sideways, this gives a tendency to the body to turn round in that direction when asleep. It seemed puzzling, that by acting on one eye, both sense and motion could be communicated to the same side of the body, seeing the motor influence is communicated from the opposite hemisphere of the brain. It has occurred to me that the partial decussation of the optic nerves may account for this, and that this partial decussation may be for the express purpose of perfecting the union of sensation and motion through the eyes, 'on which we lean as on crutches' ; thus enabling us to balance ourselves so much more perfectly than we could otherwise have done. There is another most remarkable circumstance, that whilst the patient is in the state of torpor and rigidity, we may pass powerful shocks of the galvanic battery through the arms, so as to cause violent contortions of them, without his evincing the slightest symptom of perceiving the shocks, either by movement of the head or neck, or expression of the countenance. On partially arousing the head and neck, as by gentle pressure on the eyes, or passing a current of air against the face, the same shocks will be felt, as evinced by the movements of the head and neck, the contortions of the face, and the whine, moan, or scream of the patient. All this may happen, as I have witnessed innumerable times, and the patient be altogether unconscious of it when roused from the hypnotic condition.

Moreover, whist the patient is in the condition to be unconscious of the shock passed through the arms whilst a rod is placed in each hand, if one of the rods is applied to any part of the head, or neck, or face, in short, to any part, which is set at liberty by acting on both eyes, as formerly referred to, he will instantly manifest symptoms of feeling a shock, though it be much less powerful than that which had failed to produce any sensation or consciousness when passed through both arms. This might readily be accounted for on the principle of the circuit being shortened, and also by one of the rods being nearer the centre of the sensorium ; but that it depends on something else is apparent from the following fact : Without moving the rod placed on the neck, head, or face, carry the other rod from the hand, to any other part of the head, neck, or face, and all evidence of feeling will disappear, unless the power of the galvanic current is increased. Analogous to this is another most puzzling phenomenon : The brain being in a state of torpor, the limbs rigid, and the skin insensible to pricking, pinching, heat or cold, by gently pressing the point of one or two fingers against the back of the hand, or any other part of the extremity, the rigidity will very speedily give place to mobility, and quivering of the arm, hand, and fingers, and which is greatly increased by pressing another finger against the neck, head, or face. Indeed, in the latter case, the commotion of the whole body is as violent in some patients as from shocks of the galvanic battery. By placing BOTH fingers on any part of the head, face, or neck, the commotion almost, or entirely ceases. By pinching the skin of the hand or arm with one finger and thumb, and the skin of the neck or face with the other, no effect is produced. Pressure, made, with insulating rods, glass, or sealing wax, is followed by the same phenomena as when done by the points of the fingers. The flat hand applied has very little effect. The pressure being made against both hands, the arms are contorted, and if the head is partially de-hypnotised, the patient will complain of pins running into the fingers, especially if one point of contact is the hand, and the other the face or head. These phenomena do not occur whilst the skin remains sensible to pricking or pinching.

Moreover, during the state of cataleptiform rigidity, the circulation becomes greatly accelerated, in many cases it has more than double the natural velocity ; and may be brought down to the natural standard, in most cases in less than a minute, by reducing the cataleptiform condition. It is also found, that it may be kept at any intermediate condition between these two extremes, according to the manipulations used ; and that the blood is circulated with less force (the pulse being always contracted) in the rigid limbs, and sent in correspondingly greater quantity and force into those parts which are not directly subjected to the pressure of rigid muscles. It is also important to note, that by acting on both eyes in the manner required to induce the state of paraplegia, as already explained, the force and frequency of the heart's action may be as speedily and perceptibly diminished, as the action of a steam engine by turning off the steam. By again fixing the eyes, its former force and velocity will be almost as speedily restored, as can be satisfactorily proved to anyone who keeps his ear applied to the chest during these experiments. The amount of change in the pulse, by acting on the two eyes, and thus liberating the organs of special sense, and the head and neck, is about 60 per cent of the actual rise of the pulse when at the maximum above the ordinary velocity of the circulation. We might therefore, I think, a priori, infer, that in this new condition of the nervous system we have acquired an important power to act with. N.B. - It is to be observed, that owing to the extreme acuteness of hearing during the first stage of hypnotism, it is extremely apt to mislead the operator, or those who do not understand this fact, during operations on the acuteness of the other senses, such as smell, currents of air, and heat and cold. To avoid such mistakes, therefore, it is best to allow the hearing to disappear, by which time all the other senses will have gone to rest, with the exception of the susceptibility to be affected by a current of air. I allow all the senses to become dormant, and then rouse only the one I wish to exhibit in the state of exalted function, when operating carefully.

Of all the circumstances connected with the artificial sleep which I induce, nothing so strongly marks the difference between it and natural sleep as the wonderful power the former evinces in curing many diseases of long standing, and which had resisted natural sleep, and every known agency, for years, e.g. patients who have been born deaf and dumb, of various ages, up to 32 years, had continued without the power of hearing sound until the time they were operated on by me, and yet they were enabled to do so by being kept in the hypnotic state for eight, ten, or twelve minutes, and have had their hearing still farther improved by a repetition of similar operations. Now, supposing these patients to have spent six hours out of twenty-four in sleep, many of them had had four, five, six, or eight years of continuous sleep, but still awoke as they lay down, incapable of hearing sound, and yet they had some degree of it communicated to them by a few minutes of Hypnotism. Can any stronger proof be wanted, or adduced, than this, that it is very different from common sleep? A lady, 54 years of age, had been suffering for 16 years from incipient amaurosis. According to the same ratio, she must have had four years of sleep, but instead of improving she was every month getting worse, and when she called on me, could with difficulty read two words of the largest heading of a newspaper. After eight minutes hypnotic sleep, however, she could read the other words, and in three minutes more, the whole of the smaller heading, soon after a smaller sized type, and the same afternoon, with the aid of her glasses, read the 118th Psalm, 29 verses, in the small diamond Polyglot Bible, which for years had been a sealed book to her. There has also been a most remarkable improvement in this lady's general health since she was hypnotised. Is there any individual who can fail to see, in this case, something different from common sleep? Another lady, 44 years of age, had required glasses 22 years, to enable her to see to sew, read, or write. She had thus five years and a-half of sleep, but the sight was still getting worse, so that, before being hypnotised, she could not distinguish the capitals in the advertising columns of a newspaper. After being hypnotised, however, she could, in a few minutes, see to read the large and second heading of the newspaper, and next day, to make herself a blond cap, threading her needle without the aid of glasses. This lady's daughter, who had been compelled to use glasses for two years, was enabled to dispense with them, after being once hypnotised. It is also important to note, that all these three, as well as many others, were agreeably surprised by improvement of memory after being hypnotised. The memory of one was so bad that she was often forced to go upstairs several times before she could remember what she went for, and could scarcely carry on a conversation ; but all this remnant of a slight paralytic affection is gone, by the same operations which roused the optic nerves, and restored the sight. Now, with such cases as these, who can doubt that there is a real difference in the state of the brain and nervous system generally, during the hypnotic sleep, from that which occurs in common sleep? The same might be urged from various other diseases cured or relieved by this process, but I shall only briefly refer to a few.

In the second part of this treatise, where the cases are recorded, will be found many examples of the curative power of hypnotism, equally remarkable with those to which I have just referred : such as Tic Doloureux ; Nervous headache ; Spinal irritation ; Neuralgia of the heart ; Palpitation and intermittent action of the heart ; Epilepsy ; Rheumatism ; Paralysis ; Distortions and tonic spasm, etc.

I shall here give a few particulars of a case which shows in a most remarkable degree the difference of this and common sleep, or that induced by opium and the whole range of medicines of that class. Miss Collins, of Newark, Nottinghamshire, had a spasmodic seizure during the night, by which her head was bound firmly to her left shoulder. The most energetic and well directed means, under a most talented physician, and aided by the opinion of Sir Benjamin Brodie, had been tried, as far as known remedies could be carried (amongst other means, narcotics, in as large doses as were compatible with the safety of the patient) and although she was carefully watched by night and by day, there bad never been the slightest relaxation of the spasm, which had continued nearly six months. When I first examined her, no force I was capable of exerting could succeed in separating the head and shoulder in the slightest degree. Experience led me to hope, however, that I might be able to do so after she was hypnotised. Having requested all present, excepting the patient, her father, and her physician, to retire, I hypnotised her, and in three minutes from commencing the operation, with the most perfect ease to myself, and without the slightest pain to the patient, her head was inclined in the opposite direction, and in two minutes more she was roused, and was quite straight. I visited this patient only three times, after which she returned home. Shortly afterwards, she had a nervous twitching of the head, and on one occasion it was again drawn to her shoulder. Dr Chawner, however, hypnotised her as he had seen me do, and put it right immediately ; and she is now (about twelve months after she was hypnotised) in perfect health, 'her head quite straight, and she has perfect control over the muscles of the neck' (See cases). Miss E Atkinson had been unable to speak above a whisper for four years and a half, notwithstanding every known remedy had been perseveringly adopted, under able practitioners. After the ninth hypnotic operation she could speak aloud without effort, and has continued quite well ever since - now about nine months. (See case at length, Part II.)

The extraordinary effects of a few minutes hypnotism, manifested in such cases (so very different from what we realise by the application of ordinary means) may appear startling to those unacquainted with the remarkable powers of this process. I have been recommended, on this account, to conceal the fact of the rapidity and extent of the changes induced, as many may consider the thingimpossible, and thus be led to reject the less startling, although not more true, reports of its beneficial action in other cases. In recording the cases, however, I have considered it my duty to record facts as I found them, and to make no compromise for the sake of accommodating them to the preconceived notions or prejudices of others. It may be proper to add, however, that I have afforded opportunities to many eminent professional and scientific gentlemen to see the patients, and investigate for themselves the real state of these respective cases ; and to them I can confidently appeal is to the accuracy and fidelity of the reports of most of the cases recorded in this treatise.

After such evidence as this, no one can reasonably doubt that there is a remarkable difference between hypnotism and natural sleep, and that it is a valuable addition to our therapeutic means.

How these extraordinary effects are produced, it may be impossible absolutely to decide. One thing, however, I am certain of, that, in this condition, besides the peculiar impression directly made on the nervous centres, by which the mind is for the time 'thrown out of gear', and which enables us, in a remarkable manner, to localise or concentrate the nervous energy, or seasonal power, to any particular point or function, instead of the more equal distribution which exists in the ordinary condition, we have also an extraordinary power of acting on the capillaries, and of increasing and diminishing the force and frequency of the circulation, locally and generally. [Footnote: By this I mean that any one examining the pulse by the radial artery, whilst the patient has his arms in the cataleptiform condition, and held at right angles with his body, (and when, of course, the circulation can only be influenced by the state of rigidity or flaccidity of the muscles) it will be found feeble or contracted, but the moment the rigidity of the muscles is reduced, by blowing on or fanning them, the pulse will become much more developed. This, of course, which may, be done without the patient being conscious of the experiment, is totally different from what may be displayed as a trick, by a person voluntarily compressing the axillary and brachial arteries, by drawing his arms firmly against his side. The former is independent of volition, the latter is entirely voluntary, and a mere trick.]

This can be done in a most remarkable degree, both as regards the extent and rapidity of these changes. [Footnote: The first time I ever had an opportunity of examining a patient minutely, or of feeling the pulse of one, under the mesmeric influence, was on the 19th November, 184I. I was much struck with the state of the pulse at the wrist - so small and rapid as, combined with the state of tremor, or slight subsultus in the arm, rendered it impossible to count it accurately at the wrist. This circumstance induced me to reckon the velocity of the pulse by the carotid artery, as will be found recorded in the 'Manchester Guardian' of the 24th of that month. I adduced this as the cause of the discrepancy between the numeration of the pulse by others and myself, that I had counted it by the carotid artery, and considered it impossible for any one to reckon it correctly by the radial artery in such a case. The injected state of the conjunctival membrane of the eye, and the whole capillary system in the neck, head, and face, was so apparent, as Dr Radford very correctly stated, that no one near the patient could fail to observe it : this, together with the cold hands and contracted pulse at the wrist, led me to infer, that the rigid state of the cataleptiform muscles, opposed the free transmission of the blood through the extremities, and would thus cause increased action in the heart and determination to the brain and spinal cord, as resulted from the ingenious experiments of my late friend Dr Kellie, for speedily terminating the cold stage of ague, by putting a tourniquet round one of the extremities.]

And, moreover, changes from absolute insensibility to the most exalted sensibility, may be effected at a certain stage, almost with the rapidity of thought, as exemplified at page 63. On the whole, I consider it is of great importance to have acquired a knowledge of how these effects can be produced and generally applied, and turned to advantage in the cure of disease, although. we should never ascertain the real proximate cause, or principle through which we produce our effects. Who can tell how, or why, quinine and arsenic cure intermittent fever ? They are, nevertheless, well known to do so, and are prescribed accordingly.

Whilst I feel assured from personal experience, and the testimony of professional friends, on whose judgement and candour I can implicitly rely, that in this we have acquired an important curative agency for a certain class of diseases, I desire it to be distinctly understood, as already stated, that I by no means wish to hold it up as a universal remedy. I believe it is capable of doing great good, if judiciously applied. Diseases evince totally different pathological conditions, and the treatment ought to be varied accordingly. We have, therefore, no right to expect to find a universal remedy either in this, or any other, method of treatment.

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