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ANIMAL MAGNETISM 
ALFRED BINET 
BY 
AND 
CHARLES 
ASSISTANT PHYSICIAN AT THE SALPETRIfiaE 
NEWYORK 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
1888 PREFACE. 
We think it well to state that this work was written in 
the environment of the Salpetriere. By this we not only 
mean that our descriptions apply to facts observed in 
that hospital, but also that our personal observations 
were made in accordance with the method inaugurated 
O 
by M. Charcot, the chief of the school of the Salpetriere, 
that is, in accordance with the experimental method 
which is illustrated by clinical science. While relying 
on the observation of spontaneous facts, we have 
strengthened these facts by experiments. 
It would at present be premature to write a didactic 
treatise on animal magnetism and hypnotism. This work 
only aims at giving an account of special researches 
which, notwithstanding their number and variety, will 
not justify general conclusions on the question. After 
receiving this warning, the reader will not be surprised VI 
PREFACE. 
to meet with, occasional breaches of continuity, which 
are, however, more apparent than real, and which are 
due to our resolution not to speak of experiments which 
we have not verified for ourselves. Completeness is good, 
but it is still better to assert nothing of which we are 
not assured. 
B. AND F. CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER 
I. Animal Magnetism in its Beginnings—Mesmee and 
PAGE 
PuYSEGUE... ... ... ... ... ... 1 
11. Histoby of Animal Magnetism—the Academic Period 33 
111. History of Animal Magnetism.—Braid: Hypnotism— 
Grimes, Azam, Durand de Gros, Demarquay, and 
Gieaud-Teulon, Liebault, Ch. Richet, Charcot, and 
IY. The Modes of producing Hypnosis ... ... 88 
P. Richer ... ... ... ... ... 67 
V. Symptoms of Hypnosis ... ... ... ... 104 
YI. The Hypnotic States ... ... ... ... 154 
VII. Imperfect Forms op Hypnosis ... ... ... 164 
VIII. General Study of Suggestion ... ... ... 171 
IX. Hallucinations ... ... ... ... ... 211 
X. Suggestions of Movements and of Acts ... ... 277 
XL Paralysis by Suggestion : Anaesthesia ... ... 304 
XII. Paralysis by Suggestion: Motor Paralysis ... 323 
XIII. The Application of Hypnotism to Therapeutics and 
Education ... ... ... ... ... 352 
XIV. Hypnotism and Responsibility ... ... ... 361 ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
CHAPTER I. 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM IN ITS BEGINNINGS—MESMER AND 
PUYSEGUR. 
We propose to discuss a question as old as the world 
itself; which about a century ago was admitted into the 
sphere of scientific discussion; which, although con- 
stantly rejected and disclaimed by learned bodies, has 
always reappeared, and is still in process of evolution, 
notwithstanding the importance of the results already 
achieved. In retracing the history of animal magnetism 
we shall endeavour to explain the causes of these vicissi- 
tudes of fortune, and to indicate what instruction may 
be derived from them. As we proceed with our subject, 
the truth will become more evident that it was owino- 
O 
to a lack of method that animal magnetism was not 
admitted at an earlier date to take its place in science. 
It concerns scholars to trace the course of animal 
magnetism through the ages, and to seek for its remote 
beginnings in the customs of ancient peoples. We refrain 
from such historic studies, for which we are incompetent, 
and propose merely to sum up the conclusions of science 2 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
with respect to animal magnetism, and consequently only 
to speak of its history so far as this history has left its 
traces on the present state of the question.* From 
this point of view, it is unnecessary to go back to an 
earlier period than that of Mesmer and of his immediate 
predecessors. 
Mesmerism is connected with a tradition which had 
its origin towards the middle of the sixteenth century, 
a tradition which, as the name of animal magnetism 
implies, not invented by Mesmer, ascribed to man the 
power of exercising on his fellows an action analogous 
to that of the magnet. It seems to be established that 
a profound impression had been produced upon the 
human mind by the natural magnet and its physical pro- 
perties, the existence of two poles, endowed with opposite 
properties, and a remote action without direct contact. 
Even in ancient times it had been observed, or assumed, 
that the magnet possessed a curative power, and it had 
been employed as a remedy. This belief still subsisted in 
the middle ages.f In a work by Cardan, dated 1584,J there 
is an account of an experiment in anaesthesia, produced 
by the magnet. It was then customary to magnetize rings 
which were worn round the neck or on the arm, in order 
to cure nervous diseases. The idea gradually dawned 
that there are magnetic properties in the human body. 
The first trace of this belief appears in the works of 
Paracelsus. This remarkable thinker maintained that 
* Many authors have written the history of animal magnetism : Dubois, 
Dechambre, Bersot, Figuier, etc. The only study of the subject entitled 
to be called critical is that of Paul Richer, in the Nouvelle Bevue, 
August 1, 1882. 
% Cardan’s Works, book vii., on Precious Stones. 
+ Eichet, Bulletin de la Societe de Biologic, May 30, 1884. ANIMAL MAGNETISM IN ITS BEGINNINGS. 
3 
the human body was endowed with a double magnetism; 
that one portion attracted to itself the planets, and was 
nourished by them, whence came wisdom, thought, and 
the senses; that the other portion attracted to itself the 
elements and disintegrated them, whence came flesh and 
blood; that the attractive and hidden virtue of man 
resembles that of amber and of the magnet; that by this 
virtue the magnetic virtue of healthy persons attracts the 
enfeebled magnetism of those who are sick.* After Para- 
celsus, many learned men of the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth centuries—Glocenius, Burgrave, Helinotius, Robert 
Fludd, Kircher, and Maxwell—believed that in the 
magnet they could recognize the properties of that 
universal principle by which minds addicted to generali- 
sation thought that all natural phenomena might be 
explained. These men wrote voluminous books, filled 
with sterile discussions, with unproved assertions, and 
with contemptible arguments. 
Mesmer drew largely from these sources; it cannot be 
disputed that he had read some of these many books, 
devoted by early authors to the study of magnetism, 
although such study was forbidden. Where he showed 
his originality was in taking hold of the so-called uni- 
versal principle of the world, and in applying it to the 
sick by means of contact and of passes. His predecessors 
do not appear to have been addicted to such practices; 
they believed that in order to infuse the vital spirit, it 
was enough to make use of talismans and of magic boxes. 
Anthony Mesmer was born in Germany, in 1734. He 
was received as doctor of medicine by the Faculty in 
* See Sprengel, Histoire de la Medecine, vol. iii. pp. 230 et seq.; and 
Figuier, Histoire du Merveilleux, vol. iii. chap. v. 4 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
Vienna, and took for the subject of his thesis, The 
Influence of the Planets in the Cure of Diseases (1766). 
He undertook to prove that the sun, moon, and heavenly 
bodies act upon living beings by means of a subtle fluid, 
which he called animal magnetism, in order to point out 
the properties which it has in common with the magnet. 
After the publication of this whimsical and mystical 
work, Mesmer made acquaintance with the Jesuit Father 
Hell, professor of astronomy, who in 1774 settled in 
Vienna, and cured the sick by means of magnetic steel 
tractors. Mesmer discovered some analogy between 
Hell’s experiments and his own astronomical theories, 
and tried what effect the magnet would produce in the 
treatment of diseases. 
An account of his cures filled the Vienna newspapers. 
Several people of importance gave evidence that they 
had been cured, among whom was Osterwald, director of 
the Munich Academy of Science, who had been affected 
by paralysis; and Bauer, a professor of mathematics, 
who had suffered from an obstinate attack of ophthalmia. 
On the other hand, the learned bodies of his native 
country did not accept his experiments, and the letters 
which he wrote to most of the academies of Europe 
remained unanswered. He soon abandoned the use of 
the magnet and of Hell’s instruments, and restricted 
himself to passes with the hand, declaring animal mag- 
netism to be distinct from the magnet. 
Obliged to quit Vienna, in consequence of some ad- 
venture not clearly explained, Mesmer came to Paris. 
He first established himself in a humble quarter of the 
town, Place Vendome, and began to expound his theory 
of the magnetic fluid. In 1779 he published a paper ANIMAL MAGNETISM IN ITS BEGINNINGS. 
5 
on the discovery of magnetism, in which he announced 
to the world that he had discovered a principle capable 
of curing all diseases. He summed up his theory in 
twenty-seven propositions, or rather assertions, most of 
which only reproduce the cloudy conceptions of magnetic 
medicine. 
Propositions. 
1. A responsive influence exists between the heavenly 
bodies, the earth, and animated bodies. 
2. A fluid universally diffused, so continuous as not 
to admit of a vacuum, incomparably subtle, and naturally 
susceptible of receiving, propagating, and communicating 
all motor disturbances, is the means of this influence. 
3. This reciprocal action is subject to mechanical 
laws, with which we are not as yet acquainted. 
4. Alternative effects result from this action, which 
may be considered to be a flux and reflux. 
5. This reflux is more or less general, more or less 
special, more or less compound, according to the nature 
of the causes which determine it. 
6. It is by this action, the most universal which 
occurs in nature, that the exercise of active relations 
takes place between the heavenly bodies, the earth, and 
its constituent parts. 
7. The properties of matter and of organic substance 
depend on this action. 
8. The animal body experiences the alternative 
effects of this agent, and is directly affected by its in- 
sinuation into the substance of the nerves. 
9. Properties are displayed, analogous to those of the 
magnet, particularly in the human body, in which diverse 6 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
and opposite poles are likewise to be distinguished, and 
these may be communicated, changed, destroyed, and 
reinforced. Even the phenomenon of declination may 
be observed. 
10. This property of the human body which renders 
it susceptible of the influence of the heavenly bodies, 
and of the reciprocal action of those which environ it, 
manifests its analogy with the magnet, and this has 
decided me to adopt the term of animal magnetism. 
11. The action and virtue of animal magnetism, thus 
characterized, may be communicated to other animate 
or inanimate bodies. Both these classes of bodies, however, 
vary in their susceptibility. 
12. This action and virtue may be strengthened and 
diffused by such bodies. 
13. Experiments show that there is a diffusion of 
matter, subtle enough to penetrate all bodies without 
any considerable loss of energy. 
14. Its action takes place at a remote distance, with- 
out the aid of any intermediary substance. 
15. It is, like light, increased and reflected by 
mirrors. 
16. It is communicated, propagated, and increased 
by sound. 
17. This magnetic virtue may be accumulated, 
concentrated, and transported. 
18. I have said that animated bodies are not all 
equally susceptible; in a few instances they have such 
an opposite property that their presence is enough to 
destroy all the effects of magnetism upon other bodies. 
19. This opposite virtue likewise penetrates all 
bodies: it also may be communicated, propagated, ANIMAL MAGNETISM IN ITS BEGINNINGS. 
7 
accumulated, concentrated, and transported, reflected by 
mirrors, and propagated by sound. This does not merely 
constitute a negative, but a positive opposite virtue. 
20. The magnet, whether natural or artificial, is like 
other bodies susceptible of animal magnetism, and even 
of the opposite virtue: in neither case does its action 
on fire and on the needle suffer any change, and this 
shows that the principle of animal magnetism essentially 
differs from that of mineral magnetism. 
21. This system sheds new light upon the nature 
of fire and of light, as well as on the theory of attrac- 
tion, of flux and reflux, of the magnet and of electricity. 
22. It teaches us that the magnet and artificial 
electricity have, with respect to diseases, properties 
common to a host of other agents presented to us by 
nature, and that if the use of these has been attended 
by some useful results, they are due to animal magnetism. 
23. These facts show, in accordance with the practical 
rules I am about to establish, that this principle will cure 
nervous diseases directly, and other diseases indirectly. 
24. By its aid the physician is enlightened as to the 
use of medicine, and may render its action more perfect, 
and he can provoke and direct salutary crises, so as 
completely to control them. 
25. In communicating my method, I shall, by a new 
theory of matter, demonstrate the universal utility of 
the principle I seek to establish. 
26. Possessed of this knowledge, the physician may 
judge with certainty of the origin, nature, and progress 
of diseases, however complicated they may be; he may 
hinder their development and accomplish their cure 
without exposing the patient to dangerous and trouble- 8 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
some consequences, irrespective of age, temperament, and 
sex. Even women in a state of pregnancy, and during 
parturition, may reap the same advantage. 
27. This doctrine will, finally, enable the physician 
to decide upon the health of every individual, and of the 
presence of the diseases to which he may be exposed. 
In this way the art of healing may be brought to absolute 
perfection. 
Mesmer’s doctrines obtained success. In the outset 
he was fortunate enough to convert one of the leading 
physicians of the faculty of medicine, Deslon, the 
Comte d’Artois’s first physician. Pupils and patients 
flowed in. The moment appeared to be favourable: 
men’s minds had been stirred by recent discoveries, and 
were open to any science which afforded a new horizon. 
Franklin had invented the lightning conductor, and the 
Montgolfier brothers were inventing balloons. Some 
scientific discoveries excite popular superstition by 
rendering the marvellous probable. 
All the world wished to be magnetized, and the 
crowd was so great that Mesmer employed a valet 
toucheur to magnetize in his place. This did not 
suffice; he invented the famous haquet, or trough, round 
which more than thirty persons could be magnetized 
simultaneously. A circular, oaken case, about a foot 
high, was placed in the middle of a large hall, hung with 
thick curtains, through which only a soft and subdued 
light was allowed to penetrate; this was the haquet. 
At the bottom of the case, on a layer of powdered glass 
and iron filings, there lay full bottles, symmetrically 
arranged, so that the necks of all converged towards the 
centre; other bottles were arranged in the opposite ANIMAL MAGNETISM IN ITS BEGINNINGS. 
9 
direction, with their necks towards the circumference. 
All these objects were immersed in water, but this 
condition was not absolutely necessary, and the haquet 
might be dry. The lid was pierced with a certain 
number of holes, whence there issued jointed and mov- 
able iron branches, which were to be held by the patients. 
Absolute silence was maintained. The patients were 
ranged in several rows round the haquet, connected with 
each other by cords passed round their bodies, and by a 
second chain, formed by joining hands. As they waited 
a melodious air was heard, proceeding from a pianoforte, 
or harmonicon, placed in the adjoining room, and to 
this the human voice was sometimes added. Then, 
influenced by the magnetic effluvia issuing from the 
haquet, curious phenomena were produced. These are 
well described by an eye-witness named Bailly: 
“ Some patients remain calm, and experience nothing: 
others cough, spit, feel slight pain, a local or general heat, 
and fall into sweats ; others are agitated and tormented 
by convulsions. These convulsions are remarkable for 
their number, duration, and force, and have been known 
to persist for more than three hours. They are charac- 
terized by involuntary, jerking movements in all the limbs, 
and in the whole body, by contraction of the throat, by 
twitchings in the hypochondriac and epigastric regions, 
by dimness and rolling of the eyes, by piercing cries, 
tears, hiccough, and immoderate laughter. They are 
preceded or followed by a state of languor or dreaminess, 
by a species of depression, and even by stupor. 
“ The slightest sudden noise causes the patient to 
start, and it has been observed that he is affected by a 
change of time or tune in the airs performed on the 10 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
pianoforte; that his agitation is increased by a more 
lively movement, and that his convulsions then become 
more violent. Patients are seen to be absorbed in the 
search for one another, rushing together, smiling, talking 
affectionately, and endeavouring to modify their crises. 
They are all so submissive to the magnetizer that even 
when they appear to be in a stupor, his voice, a glance, 
or sign will rouse them from it. It is impossible not to 
admit, from all these results, that some great force acts 
upon and masters the patients, and that this force appears 
to reside in the magnetizer. This convulsive state is 
termed the crisis. It has been observed that many 
women and few men are subject to such crises; that 
they are only established after the lapse of two or three 
hours, and that when one is established, others soon and 
successively begin. 
“When the agitation exceeds certain limits, the 
patients are transported into a padded room; the 
women s corsets are unlaced, and they may then strike 
their heads against the padded walls without doing 
themselves any injury,” 
Mesmer, wearing a coat of lilac silk, walked up and 
down amid this palpitating crowd, together with Deslon 
and his associates, whom he chose for their youth and 
comeliness. Mesmer carried a long iron wand, with 
which he touched the bodies of the patients, and especi- 
ally those parts which were diseased; often, laying aside 
the wand, he magnetized them with his eyes, fixing his 
gaze on theirs, or applying his hands to the hypochondriac 
region and to the lower part of the abdomen. This appli- 
cation was often continued for hours, and at other times 
the master made use of passes. He began by placing ANIMAL MAGNETISM IN ITS BEGINNINGS. 
11 
himself en rapport with his subject. Seated opposite 
to him, foot against foot, knee against knee, he laid his 
fingers on the hypochondriac region, and moved them to 
and fro, lightly touching the ribs. Magnetization with 
strong currents was substituted for these manipulations 
when more energetic results were to be produced. “ The 
master, erecting his fingers in a pyramid, passed his 
hands all over the patient’s body, beginning with the 
head, and going down over the shoulders to the feet. 
He then returned again, to the head, both back and 
front, to the belly and the back; he renewed the pro- 
cess again and again, until the magnetized person was 
saturated with the healing fluid, and was transported 
with pain or pleasure, both sensations being equally 
salutary.” * Young women were so much gratified by 
the crisis, that they begged to be thrown into it anew ; 
they followed Mesmer through the hall, and confessed 
that it was impossible not to be warmly attached to 
the magnetizer’s person. 
It must have been curious to witness such scenes. 
So far as we are now able to judge, Mesmer excited in 
his patients nervous crises in which we may trace the 
principal signs of the severe hysteric attacks which may 
be observed daily.*!* Silence, darkness, and the emotional 
expectation of some extraordinary phenomenon, when 
several persons are collected in one place, are conditions 
known to encourage convulsive crises in predisposed 
subjects. It must be remembered that women were in 
the majority, that the first crisis which occurred was 
* Louis Figuier, Histoire du Merveilleux, vol. ii. p. 20. Paris, 1860. 
t See Bourreville and Eegnard, Iconographie photographique de la 
Salpetriere ; Paul Richer, Eludes diniques sur VHystero-epilepsia. 12 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
contagious, and we shall fully understand the hysterical 
character of these manifestations. 
We must again draw attention to some of the 
characteristics of these convulsive crises. The movements 
of all the limbs and of the whole body, the contraction 
of the throat, the twitchings of the hypochondriac and of 
the epigastric regions, are manifest signs of hysteria, and 
may be referred to the nervous antecedents of the elegant 
and frivolous crowd which was the subject of Mesmer’s 
experiments. There is, however, still considerable un- 
certainty as to the nature of many of the phenomena 
which took place round the haquet. 
The desire to submit to Mesmer’s treatment soon 
became more general. The house in Place Yendome 
became too small, and Mesmer purchased the Hotel 
Bullion, in which he established four baquets, one of them 
for the gratuitous use of the poor. Since the latter did 
not suffice, Mesmer undertook to magnetize a tree at 
the end of Hue Bondy, and thousands of sick people 
might be seen attaching themselves to it with cords, in 
hopes of a cure. 
But this rage for Mesmer’s treatment could not last 
long, and difficulties of all kinds assailed him. On his 
arrival in Paris, he had requested the Academy of 
Science, and subsequently the Royal Society of Medicine, 
to institute an inquiry into his experiments; they were 
unable to agree as to the conditions of this inquiry, 
and the meeting dissolved in anger. Deslon, a professor 
of the Faculty of Medicine, asked his colleagues to sum- 
mon a general meeting to examine his observations and 
Mesmer’s propositions. This meeting, incited by M. 
de Yauzesmes, was extremely hostile to him. He was ANIMAL MAGNETISM IN ITS BEGINNINGS. 
13 
condemned without any examination of the facts, and, 
moreover, was threatened with the penalty of having 
his name removed from the list of licensed physicians 
unless he amended his ways. In consequence of this, 
Mesmer left France, although the government offered him 
a life-pension of 20,000 francs if he would remain. 
Mesmer’s absence was short. He was soon recalled 
by his disciples, who were aware of their master’s 
avarice, and opened a subscription of 10,000 louis, in 
order to induce him to give a course of lectures in which 
he was to reveal his discoveries. This course was, how- 
ever, the point of departure for dissensions between the 
master and his disciples. Since the latter had bought 
his secret, they thought themselves entitled to publish 
it in lectures to the public. Mesmer claimed the monopoly 
of his discovery. Moreover, in spite of his promises, 
he had never made a complete explanation, doubtless 
because he had nothing to tell. He had nothing definite 
o o 
to add to the twenty-seven propositions published in 
1779. Several of Mesmer’s disciples, who had paid a 
high price for his secret, accused him of having enunciated 
a theory which was merely a collection of obscure 
principles, and in fact they were justified in this asser- 
tion. One of Heslon’s hearers said: “ Those who know 
the secret are more doubtful than those who are ignorant 
of it.” It was a period of disputes, dissensions, epigrams, 
invectives, vaudevilles, and songs. 
Finally the government intervened, and in 1784 a 
commission was nominated to inquire into magnetism. 
This commission consisted of members taken from the 
Faculty of Medicine, and from the Academy of Sciences. 
Bailly, the celebrated astronomer, was chosen as its 14 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
reporter, and it included other illustrious men, such as 
Franklin and Lavoisier. Another commission, composed 
of members of the Royal Society of Medicine, was 
charged to make a distinct report on the same subject; 
Laurent de Jussieu was included in this second com- 
mission. 
We find it interesting at the present day to read 
the reports of these commissions, since they contain a 
disquisition on an obscure matter, of which time has 
revealed part of the secret. The line of conduct pursued 
by the commissioners in their inquiry was irreproach- 
able. The question concerned the existence of a mag- 
netic fluid of the nature which Mesmer and Deslon 
claimed to have discovered. Deslon proposed to prove 
the existence of the fluid by the observation of the cures 
which he effected. But the commissioners rightly con- 
sidered that this method was too doubtful; they decided 
to observe in the first instance “ the instantaneous effects 
of the fluid on the animal body, while depriving these 
effects of all the illusions which might be allied with 
them, and ascertaining that they could be due to no 
other cause than animal magnetism.” 
The immediate effects of magnetism, as they occurred 
at this period, were crises, and these were the special 
object of research. Some really magnetic effects might 
be combined with them, but Mesmer and his disciples 
only ascribed curative virtue to the manifestation of 
these convulsive movements. Deslon asserted that it was 
only by means of these crises, which were produced and 
directed by the will of the magnetizer, that he was able 
to assist or excite the efforts of nature, and thus effect 
a cure. We are now aware that these crises are real ANIMAL MAGNETISM IN ITS BEGINNINGS. 
15 
phenomena, of which the cause is generally admitted 
to he hysterical neurosis. Moreover, a considerable number 
of facts demonstrate that, under the influence of such 
crises, certain forms of paralysis, which have persisted 
for months, and even for years, may suddenly disappear. 
There was, therefore, a certain truth in the curative 
virtue of these convulsive phenonema. 
The commissioners placed themselves under treatment 
once a week, and experienced nothing, except from time 
to time, after the seance had been protracted for several 
hours, a slight nervous irritability or pain in the hollow 
of the abdomen, to which Deslon applied his hand. We 
can understand this negative experience since we are 
aware that such crises, as well as magnetism, can only be 
produced in a favourable soil. In the case of susceptible 
subjects, the commissioners observed an extreme difference 
between those who were treated in public and in private, 
and this can be still more readily explained by the well- 
known contagious effect of example in all hysterical 
manifestations. The commissioners were particularly 
struck with the fact that the crises did not occur unless 
the subjects were aware that they were being magnetized. 
For instance, in the experiments performed by Jumelin, 
they observed the following fact. A woman who appeared 
to be a very sensitive subject, was sensible of heat as 
soon as Jumelin’s hand approached her body. Her eyes 
were bandaged, she was informed that she was being 
magnetized, and she experienced the same sensation, but 
when she was magnetized without being informed of it, 
she experienced nothing. Several other patients were 
likewise strongly affected when no operation was taking 
place, and experienced nothing when the operation was 16 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
going on. But the most curious experience of this kind 
was made in Deslon’s presence, much to his confusion. 
According to the theory, when a tree was magnetized, 
every person who approached it was affected by its 
influence. The experiment was made at Passy when 
Franklin was present. Deslon magnetized one tree in an 
orchard, and a boy of twelve years old, very sensitive 
to magnetism, was brought towards it with his eyes 
bandaged. At the first, second, and third tree, he turned 
giddy; at the fourth, when he was still at a distance of 
twenty-four feet from the magnetized tree, the crisis 
occurred, his limbs became rigid, and it was necessary to 
carry him to an adjoining grass-plat before Deslon could 
recall him to consciousness. All that these experiments 
show is that the preconceived idea may produce the same 
magnetic effects as purely physical means. This truth 
is well known to the performers of experiments. It is 
now an established fact that a subject may be thrown 
into a magnetic sleep, simply by assuring him that this 
will occur, and by the same process he may even be 
magnetized from a distance, if it is asserted that he will 
fall into somnambulism on a given day and hour, in any 
place which has been selected. 
The commissioners, ignorant of all these phenomena, 
which are now thoroughly established, thought that all 
which they had observed might be explained by three 
chief causes—imitation, imagination, and contact. This 
is the conclusion of their report;— 
“ The commissioners have ascertained that the animal 
magnetic fluid is not perceptible by any of the senses; 
that it has no action, either on themselves or on the 
patients subjected to it. They are convinced that ANIMAL MAGNETISM IN ITS BEGINNINGS. 
17 
pressure and contact effect changes which are rarely 
favourable to the animal system, and which injuriously 
affect the imagination. Finally, they have demonstrated 
by decisive experiments that imagination apart from 
magnetism, produces convulsions, and that magnetism 
without imagination produces nothing. They have come 
to the unanimous conclusion with respect to the existence 
and utility of magnetism, that there is nothing to prove 
the existence of the animal magnetic fluid; that this 
fluid, since it is non-existent, has no beneficial effect; that 
the violent effects observed in patients under public 
treatment are due to contact, to the excitement of the 
imagination, and to the mechanical imitation which 
O 7 
involuntarily impels us to repeat that which strikes our 
senses. At the same time, they are compelled to add, 
since it is an important observation, that the contact 
and repeated excitement of the imagination which 
produce the crises may become hurtful; that the 
spectacle of these crises is likewise dangerous, on ac- 
count of the imitative faculty which is a law of nature; 
and consequently that all treatment in public in which 
magnetism is employed must in the end be productive 
of evil results. 
“ (Signed) 
B. Franklin, Majault, Le Boy, Sallin, 
Bailly, D’Arcet, Be Bory, Guillotin, 
Lavoisier. 
The commissioners therefore merely regarded mag- 
netism as an effect of the imagination. Deslon appears 
to have come to the same conclusion, since he says, not 
unreasonably, “ If the medicine of the imagination is the 
most efficient, why should we not make use of it ? ” In 
“ Paris, August 11, 1784.” 18 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
our day this would appear to be an insufficient explana- 
tion. We might as well say that hysteria is due to the 
imagination. 
At the same time, the commissioners presented a 
secret report which expressed their final estimate of 
magnetism. It is the object of this curious document 
to point out the dangers of magnetism with respect to 
morality. We think it well to reproduce it in extenso. 
“ The commissioners entrusted by the king with the 
examination of animal magnetism have drawn up a 
report to be presented to his Majesty which ought 
perhaps to be published. It seemed prudent to suppress 
an observation not adapted for general publication, but 
they did not conceal it from the king’s minister. This 
minister has charged them to draw up a note designed 
only for the eyes of the king. 
“ This important observation concerns morality. The 
commissioners have ascertained that the chief causes of 
the effects ascribed to animal magnetism are contact, 
imagination, and imitation. They have observed that 
the crisis occurs more frequently in women than in 
men. The first cause of this fact consists in the differ- 
ent organizations of the two sexes. Women have, as 
a rule, more mobile nerves; their imagination is more 
lively and more easily excited; it is readily impressed 
and aroused. This great mobility of the nerves, since 
it gives a more exquisite delicacy to the senses, renders 
them more susceptible to the impressions of touch. In 
touching any given part, it may be said that they are 
touched all over the body, and the mobility of their 
nerves also inclines them more readily to imitation. It 
has been observed that women are like musical strings ANIMAL MAGNETISM IN ITS BEGINNINGS. 
19 
stretched in perfect unison; when one is moved, all the 
others are instantly affected. Thus the commissioners 
have repeatedly observed that when the crisis occurs in 
one woman, it occurs almost at once in others also. 
“ This organization explains why the crises in women 
are more frequent, more violent, and of longer duration 
than in men; it is nearly always due to their sensitive 
nerves. Some crises are due to a hidden, but natural 
cause, to an emotional cause to which women are more 
or less susceptible, and which, by a remote influence, 
accumulates these emotions and raises them to their 
highest pitch, thus producing a convulsive state which 
may be confounded with the ordinary crises. This is due 
to the empire which nature has caused one sex to exert 
over the other, so as to arouse feelings of attachment and 
emotion. Women are always magnetized by men; the 
established relations are doubtless those of a patient to 
the physician, but this physician is a man, and whatever 
the illness may be, it does not deprive us of our sex, it 
does not entirely withdraw us from the power of the 
other sex; illness may weaken impressions without 
destroying them. Moreover, most of the women who 
present themselves to be magnetized are not really ill; 
many come out of idleness, or for amusement ; others, if 
not perfectly well, retain their freshness and their force, 
their senses are unimpaired and they have all the 
sensitiveness of youth; their charms are such as to 
affect the physician, and their health is such as to make 
them liable to be affected by him, so that the danger is 
reciprocal. The long-continued proximity, the necessary 
contact, the communication of individual heat, the inter- 
change of looks, are ways and means by which it is well 20 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
known that nature ever effects the communication of the 
sensations and the affections. 
“ The magnetizer generally keeps the patient’s knees 
enclosed within his own, and consequently the knees and 
all the lower parts of the body are in close contact. The 
hand is applied to the hypochondriac region, and some- 
times to that of the ovarium, so that the touch is exerted 
at once on many parts, and these the most sensitive parts 
of the body. 
“The experimenter, after applying his left hand in 
this manner, passes his right hand behind the woman’s 
body, and they incline towards each other so as to favour 
this twofold contact. This causes the closest proximity; 
the two faces almost touch, the breath is intermingled, 
all physical impressions are felt in common, and the re- 
ciprocal attraction of the sexes must consequently be ex- 
cited in all its force. It is not surprising that the senses 
are inflamed. The action of the imagination at the same 
time produces a certain disorder throughout the machine; 
it obscures the judgment, distracts the attention; the 
women in question are unable to take account of their 
sensations, and are not aware of their condition. 
“The medical members of the commission were present 
to watch the treatment, and carefully observed what passed. 
When this kind of crisis is approaching, the countenance 
becomes gradually inflamed, the eye brightens, and this 
is the sign of natural desire. The woman droops her 
head, lifts her hand to her forehead and eyes in order 
to cover them; her habitual modesty is unconsciously 
aroused, and inspires the desire of concealment. The 
crisis continues, however, and the eye is obscured, an 
unequivocal sign of the complete disorder of the senses. ANIMAL MAGNETISM IN ITS BEGINNINGS. 
21 
This disorder may be wholly imperceivcd by the woman 
who experiences it, but it cannot escape the observant 
eye of the physician. As soon as this sign has been 
displayed, the eyelids become moist, the respiration is 
short and interrupted, the chest heaves rapidly, con- 
vulsions set in, and either the limbs or the whole body 
is agitated by sudden movements. In lively and sensitive 
women this last stage, which terminates the sweetest 
emotion, is often a convulsion; to this condition there 
succeed languor, prostration, and a sort of slumber of 
the senses, which is a repose necessary after strong 
agitation. 
“ This convulsive state, however extraordinary it may 
appear to the observers, is shown to have nothing painful 
or contrary to nature in it, from the fact that, as soon as 
it is over, it leaves no unpleasant traces in its subjects. 
There is nothing disagreeable in the recollection, but, on 
the contrary, the subjects feel the better for it, and have 
no repugnance to enter anew into the same state. Since 
the emotions they experience are the germs of the affec- 
tions and inclinations, we can understand why the 
magnetizer inspires such attachment, an attachment 
likely to be stronger and more marked in women than 
in men, so long as men are entrusted with the task of 
magnetism. Undoubtedly many women have not ex- 
perienced these effects, and others have not understood 
the cause of the effects they experienced; the more modest 
they are, the less they would be likely to suspect it. But 
it is-said that several have perceived the truth, and have 
withdrawn from the magnetic treatment, and those who 
have not perceived it ought to be deterred from its 
pursuit. 22 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
“The magnetic treatment must necessarily be danger- 
ous to morality. While proposing to cure diseases which 
require prolonged treatment, pleasing and precious emo- 
tions are excited, emotions to which we look back with 
regret and seek to revive, since they possess a natural 
charm for us, and contribute to our physical happiness. 
But morally they must be condemned, and they are the 
more dangerous as it becomes more easy for them to 
become habitual. A condition into which a woman 
enters in public, amid other women who apparently have 
the .same experience, does not seem to offer any danger; 
she continues in it, she returns to it, and discovers her 
peril when it is too late. Strong women flee from this 
danger when they find themselves exposed to it; the 
morals and health of the weak may be impaired. 
“Of this danger M. Deslon is aware. On the 9th of 
last May, at a meeting held at M. Deslon’s own house, the 
lieutenant of police asked him several questions on this 
point in the presence of the commissioners. M. Lenoir 
said to him, ‘ In my capacity as lieutenant-general of 
police, I wish to know whether, when a woman is mag- 
netized and passing through the crisis, it would not be 
easy to outrage her.’ M. Deslon replied in the affirmative, 
and it is only just to this physician to state that he has 
always maintained that he and his colleagues, pledged 
by their position to act with probity, were alone entitled 
and privileged to practise magnetism. It must be added 
that although his house contains a private room origin- 
ally intended for these crises, he does not allow it to be 
used. The danger exists, however, notwithstanding this 
observance of decency, since the physician can, if he will, 
take advantage of his patient. Such occasions may occur ANIMAL MAGNETISM IN ITS BEGINNINGS. 
23 
daily and at any moment; he is sometimes exposed to 
the danger for two or three hours at a time, and no one 
can rely on being always master of his will. Even if 
we ascribe to him superhuman virtue, since he is exposed 
to emotions which awaken such desires, the imperious 
law of nature will affect his patient, and he is responsible, 
not merely for his own wrong-doing, but for that he may 
have excited in another. 
“There is another mode of producing convulsions, 
a mode of which the commissioners have obtained no 
direct and positive proof, but which they cannot but 
suspect; namely, a simulated crisis, which is a signal for, 
or produces many others, out of imitation. This expedient 
is, at any rate, needed to hasten or maintain the crises 
which are an advantage to magnetism, since without 
them it could not be carried on. 
“ There are no real cures, and the treatment is tedious 
and unprofitable. There are patients who have been 
under treatment for eighteen months or two years with- 
out deriving any benefit from it; at length their patience 
is exhausted, and they cease to come. The crises serve as 
a spectacle; they are an occupation and interest, and, 
moreover, they are to the unobservant the result of mag- 
netism, a proof of the existence of that agent, although 
they are really due to the power of the imagination. 
“ When the commissioners began their report, they 
only stated the result of their examination of the mag- 
netism practised by M. Deslon, to which the order of the 
king had restricted them, but it is evident that their 
experiments, observations, and opinions apply to mag- 
netism in general. M. Mesmer will certainly declare 
that the commissioners have not examined his method, 24 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
proceedings, and the effects they have produced. The 
commissioners are undoubtedly too cautious to pro- 
nounce on that which they have not examined, and with 
which they are not acquainted, yet they must observe 
that M. Deslon’s principles are those of the twenty-seven 
propositions printed by M. Mesmer in 1779. 
“If M. Mesmer has enlarged his theory, it thereby 
becomes more absurd: the heavenly influences are only a 
chimsera, of which the fallacy has long been recognized. 
The whole theory may be condemned beforehand, since it 
is based upon magnetism; and it has no reality, since the 
animal magnetic fluid has no existence. Like magnetism, 
this brilliant theory exists only in the imagination. M. 
Deslon’s mode of magnetizing is the same as that of M. 
Mesmer, of whom he is the disciple. When we place 
them together, we see that they have treated the same 
patients, and, consequently, have pursued the same 
process: the method now in use by M. Deslon is that of 
M. Mesmer, 
“The results also correspond; the crises are as violent 
and frequent, and the same symptoms are displayed under 
the treatment of M. Deslon and of M. Mesmer. Although 
the latter may ascribe an obscure and inappreciable dif- 
ference to his method, the principles, practice, and results 
are the same. Even if there were any real difference, no 
benefit from such treatment can be inferred, after the 
details given in our report and in this note, intended for 
the king. 
“ Public report declares that M. Mesmer’s cures are not 
more numerous than those of M. Deslon. There is nothing 
to prevent the convulsions in this case also from becoming 
habitual, from producing an epidemic, and from being ANIMAL MAGNETISM IN ITS BEGINNINGS. 
25 
transmitted to future generations: such practices and 
assemblies may also have an injurious effect upon 
morality. 
“The commissioners’ experiments, showing that all 
these results are due to contact, to imagination and 
imitation, while explaining the effects produced by M. 
Deslon, equally explain those of M. Mesmer. It may, 
therefore, reasonably be concluded that, whatever be the 
mystery of M. Mesmer’s magnetism, it has no more real 
existence than that of M. Deslon, and that the proceed- 
ings of the one are not more useful nor less dangerous 
than those of the other. 
“(Signed) 
Feanklin, Boey, Layoisiee, Bailly, 
Majault, Sallin, D’Aecet, Guil- 
lotin, Le Roy. 
“Paris, August 11, 1784.” 
The Royal Society of Medicine presented their report 
five days later, and came to the same conclusions. But 
one member of the commission, Laurent de Jussieu, 
dissented from his colleagues, and, with scientific courage, 
published a separate report, containing his convictions 
on the subject. 
De Jussieu had performed some experiments which 
could not, as he thought, be explained by the imagination. 
These facts demonstrated, in his opinion, that man pro- 
duced a sensible action upon his fellow by friction, by 
contact, and, more rarely, by simple proximity. This 
action, ascribed to an universal fluid not yet demon- 
strated, was, he said, certainly due to animal heat, which 
he elsewhere terms animalized electric fluid. With respect 
to the theory of animal magnetism, he did not reject it 
as absolutely as Bailly, who said, “Everything is done by 26 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
the imagination; magnetism has nothing to do with it.” 
He was content with saying, much more wisely, that the 
theory of magnetism could only be accepted when it was 
developed and supported by substantial proofs. In short, 
as Dechambre remarks, the idea pervades this report 
that Mesmer is on the track of a fruitful truth. This 
presentiment of the illustrious naturalist was soon to be 
confirmed; and, moreover, it is worth while to consider 
some of the assertions in de Jussieu’s paper, since they 
contain an element of truth. 
The efficacy of the action of contact and friction is 
proved by the existence in certain subjects of hypnogenic 
zones, of which the slightest stimulation produces som- 
nambulism. M. Charcot has shown that the irritation of 
hysterogenic zones produces convulsions, and these zones 
are generally seated in the hypochondriac, or in the 
ovarian regions, on which Mesmer preferred to exercise 
his manipulations. 
After Bailly’s report, Mesmer left France, and returned 
to Germany. His part was played out, and we shall not 
recur to it. His friends have represented him as a man 
desirous of fame, but at the same time full of love for 
suffering humanity. Public opinion, more severe in its 
judgment, regards him as the type of the scientific 
charlatan. 
Up to this time, animal magnetism had not been dis- 
covered ; it probably had something to do with most of 
the mesmeric phenomena, with the haquet, etc.; but it was 
not recognized amid the nervous crises excited by Mesmer. 
It is to one of his disciples, to the Marquis Armand Jacques 
Marc Chastenet de Puysegur, that the discovery must 
be ascribed of animal magnetism, or of artificial som- ANIMAL MAGNETISM IN ITS BEGINNINGS. 
27 
nambulism, which ought, therefore, to bear the name of 
Puysegurian somnambulism.* 
In May, 1784, M. de Puysegur, living in retirement 
on his estate of Buzancy, near Soissons, employed his 
leisure in magnetizing peasants, after the manner of his 
master, and on one occasion he chanced to observe the 
production of an entirely new phenomenon.! A young 
peasant named Victor, twenty-three years of age, who 
had been suffering for four days from inflammation of 
the lungs, was thrown by magnetism into a peaceful 
sleep, unaccompanied by convulsions or suffering. He 
spoke aloud, and was busied about his private affairs. It 
was easy to change the direction of his thoughts, to in- 
spire him with cheerful sentiments, and he then became 
happy, and imagined that he was firing at a mark or 
dancing at a village fete. In his waking state he was 
simple and foolish, but during the crisis his intelligence 
was remarkable ; there was no need of speaking to him, 
since he could understand and reply to the thoughts of 
those present. He himself indicated the treatment 
necessary in his illness, and he was soon cured. 
This is a brief account of the peasant Victor’s case. 
The news of his cure was rapidly spread abroad, and 
from all sides there was a concourse of sick people 
demanding relief. The phenomenon was repeated, to de 
* The following are the works of Puysegur:—Me'moires pour servir a 
VHistoire da Magnetisms animal, 1784; Suite aux Memoires, 1805; Du 
Magnetisme animal, etc., 1807 ; Decker dies, Experiences et Observations 
physiohgiques sur Vhomme, dans le'tat de somnambulisme naturel, et dans 
le somnambulisme provogue' par Va.de magne'tique, 1811; etc. 
f Puysegur asserts that Mesmer must have been acquainted with 
somnambulism, but that he did not choose to mention his discovery to his 
disciples. 28 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
Puysegur’s great joy, and he wrote : “My head is turned 
with joy, now that I see what good I am doing.” Since 
he was unable to minister to the continually increasing 
number of patients, the marquis pursued Mesmer’s plan 
of magnetizing an elm which grew on the village green 
at Buzancy. The patients were seated on stone benches 
round this tree, with cords connecting its branches with 
the affected parts of their bodies, and they formed a 
chain by linking their thumbs together. Meanwhile de 
Puysegur chose from among his patients several subjects 
who, through contact with his hands or on the presenta- 
tion of a metallic tractor, fell into the ordinary crisis, 
and this soon passed into a sleep in which all physical 
faculties appeared to be suspended, while the mental 
faculties were enlarged. 
Cloquet, an eye-witness,* has given us some valuable 
information on the subject. He says that the patient’s 
eyes were closed, and there was no sense of hearing, 
unless it was awakened by the master s voice. Care was 
taken not to touch the patient during his crisis, nor even 
the chair on which he was seated, as this would produce 
suffering and convulsions, which could only be subdued 
by the master. To rouse them from the trance, the 
master touched the patient’s eyes, or said, “Go and 
embrace the tree.” Then they arose, still asleep, went 
straight to the tree, and soon afterwards opened their 
eyes. As soon as they returned to a normal condition, 
the patients retained no recollection of what had occurred 
during the three or four hours’ crisis. 
But it was the cure of diseases at which de Puysegur 
* T)Hails des cures opHrHes a Buzancy, pres Svissons par le magndtisme 
animal. Soissons: 1784. ANIMAL MAGNETISM IN ITS BEGINNINGS 
29 
aimed: therapeutics were his object, as it had been that of 
Mesmer. He observed, or thought that he observed, that 
during the crisis, the patients possessed a supernatural 
power which entitled them to be called physicians; it 
was, in fact, enough for them to touch through his clothes 
the sick person presented to them, in order to feel the 
part affected, and to indicate fitting remedies. Since 
they were solely occupied with this question, de Puysegur 
and the other magnetizers who followed his example in 
Lyons, Bordeaux, Bayonne, Marseilles, etc., did not study 
the natural history of this artificial sleep. De Puysegur, 
like Mesmer, was a healer. But in the case of de Puyse- 
gur’s treatment we agree with Dechambre that if his 
o O 
faith was robust, so likewise was his honesty. There 
was no public exhibition, nothing was done to strike the 
imagination; there was no selection of subjects from 
among silly or melancholic women. His patients of both 
sexes were of the peasant class, and were often suffering 
from severe and obstinate diseases. De Puysegur’s honesty 
and disinterestedness contrast well with Mesmer’s avarice. 
As far as de Puysegur’s theoretic views are concerned, 
they are slight modifications of those of Mesmer. As 
little versed in physical science as his master, he always 
maintains the existence of an universal fluid, of which 
he recognizes the electric nature; this fluid saturates all 
bodies, and especially the human body, which has a 
perfect electric organization, and is an animated electric 
machine. Man can display this electric fluid at pleasure, 
and diffuse it externally by his movements, in order to 
produce somnambulism. It is curious that de Puysegur 
should have strongly condemned the use of magnets in 
the treatment of disease, and of all electricity foreign 30 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
to our organism. This dogma has been falsified, and, as 
we are aware, electro-therapeutics has come into use. 
In this way de Puysegur modified the tradition he 
had received from Mesmer, and simple contact or 
spoken orders were substituted for the use of the haquet. 
There were no more violent crises, accompanied by cries, 
sobs, and the contortions of an attack of hysteria; instead 
of these, there was a calm, peaceful, healthy, and composed 
slumber. This was not a transformed phase of mag- 
netism, but the actual discovery of this state, of which 
the honour is due to de Puysegur. 
It is easy to disentangle the portion of truth which 
exists in the descriptions of the magnetic sleep left by 
de Puysegur. He has carefully observed the obedience 
of the magnetized subjects to the magnetizer’s orders, 
who directs their thoughts and acts at his pleasure. We 
shall presently study this symptom under the name of 
suggestion. He has also observed the patient’s uncon- 
sciousness, and that he retains no recollection of what 
has occurred during sleep. We shall see that this uncon- 
sciousness is a frequent and almost constant phenomenon 
during profound hypnotism. Finally, the descriptions 
show the singular affinity which seems to exist between 
the magnetizer and his subject; a phenomenon which 
is shown in some curious ways: the magnetizer alone 
must touch the sleeping subject, for fear of producing 
suffering and even convulsions. All this is accurate, 
established by science, and now admitted by every one. 
But it is not yet admitted that the subject is able to 
divine the thoughts of the magnetizer without any 
material communication, nor that the patient is acquainted 
with the nature of his disease, and can indicate effectual ANIMAL MAGNETISM IN ITS BEGINNINGS. 
remedies and foresee future events. De Puysdgur tried 
to give this faculty an air of probability by naming it 
pressentation. 
Mesrner’s theory had been condemned by the judg- 
ment of scientific bodies, and this judgment was not 
reversed by de Puysegur’s experiments, in which there 
was too much of the supernatural. Professional magne- 
tizers adopted his experiments as the theme of their 
discourses. We can also understand the favour with 
which his assertion of the clairvoyance of somnam- 
bulists was received, since this was a new form of the 
gift of divination which had always obtained credence. 
Numerous magnetic societies were formed in different 
parts of France, especially, as Thouret states, in those 
towns which possessed no university, and which were 
therefore less under control. The Harmonic Society, 
however, founded at Strasburg, consisted of more than 
one hundred and fifty members. 
We must mention in passing Petetin’s experiments 
in catalepsy, since he had the good fortune to be the 
first, or one of the first, to observe the phenomena of the 
transposition of the senses. Petetin was a Lyons 
physician, President of the Medical Society in that city, 
and opposed to the new theories of magnetism. He 
observed and exhibited to his colleagues a cataleptic 
woman who saw, heard, felt, smelled, and tasted by 
means of the epigastric region and of the finger-tips. 
This occurred in 1787. After Petetin’s death a paper 
by him appeared, containing seven observations of the 
same kind. He ascribed these strange phenomena to 
the accumulation of the animal electric fluid in certain 
parts of the body. The magnetizers seized upon this fact, ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
and we shall see that for some time to come the question 
of the transposition of the senses was predominant. 
Up to the year 1820, we find no work to quote, 
except that of the naturalist Deleuze, on the history of 
magnetism. His book is entitled Histoire critique du 
Magnetisms animal (1813); it is a crude work, which has 
been estimated much above its real value, and while it 
displays the honesty and sincerity of its author, it adds 
nothing to the sum of our knowledge on the subject. 
Deleuze, like his predecessors, was chiefly concerned 
with the curative virtues of magnetism; and in order 
to prove their reality, he found no better expedient 
than to advise the incredulous to make use of it in 
various diseases. He said, moreover, that faith was 
essential to success, thus dispensing with any legitimate 
demonstration. Magnetism was held to be applicable 
to all diseases, and constituted, as in the days of de 
Puysegur and of Mesmer, an universal panacea. At 
about the same period, in 1813, a thaumaturgist named 
Faria, who came from the Indies, gave public representa- 
tions, for money, of the wonders which could be effected 
by means of magnetism. The process by which he 
induced sleep was curious. He seated the subject in an 
armchair, with closed eyes, and then cried out in a 
loud and imperious voice, “Go to sleep 1 ” After a slight 
movement, the subject sometimes fell into a condition 
which Faria termed a lucid slumber. This charlatan had 
rightly observed that the cause of somnambulism rests 
in the subject himself. He truly said that sleep might 
be induced at the will of the subject, or when such will 
was absent, or even when it was exerted in the contrary 
sense. 33 
CHAPTER 11. 
HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM—THE ACADEMIC 
PERIOD. 
In 1820 it might have been supposed that animal 
magnetism was about to enter upon a scientific era. Dr. 
Bertrand, a former pupil of the Polytechnic School, had 
just brought the subject before the public in a course 
of lectures. General Noizet, about the same time, drew 
up a paper for the Royal Academy of Berlin on somnam- 
bulism and animal magnetism. Experiments were per- 
formed in the hospitals, directed at the Hotel-Dieu by 
Du Potet, pupil of Husson, and at the Salpetriere by 
Georget and Rostan. The experiments made on hysterical 
patients were not such as to modify the scepticism of 
the scientific world, and it was thought probable that 
the experimenters had been deceived by their patients. 
Indeed Petronille, one of Georget’s well-known somnam- 
bulists, afterwards confessed that she had imposed on 
the observers. But Richer justly observes that such 
confidences are the common boasts of hysterical patients, 
and that those who believe them incur the same reproach 
of credulity as their opponents are charged with. 
The general council of the hospitals put an end to 
these operations, on the ground that the patients should 34 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
not be subjected to such experiment, but on all sides the 
need of some definite proof was felt. 
In 1825 Foissac induced the Academy of Medicine, 
which had succeeded to the Royal Society of Medicine, 
to take part in the controversy. He drew up a paper, 
in which he undertook to show that simple contact 
enabled his somnambulists to diagnose their diseases, 
with an intuition worthy of the genius of Hippocrates. 
Although such language did not seem to be adapted to 
convince the Academy, its members nominated a com- 
mission charged to decide whether it was expedient to 
undertake a fresh examination into the question of 
animal magnetism. The report presented by Husson 
was in favour of such an examination, and the Academy, 
by a majority of thirty-five votes against twenty-five, 
nominated a commission of inquiry, consisting of Bourdois, 
Double, Fouquier, Itard, Gueneau de Mussy, Guersant, 
Leroux, Magendie, Marc, Thillaye, and Husson. Magendie 
and Double, finding that the experiments were not very 
carefully performed, took no part in the labours of the 
commission. At the end of five years’ patient research, in 
June, 1831, Husson presented a report in which the exist- 
ence of animal magnetism was affirmed. “The results 
are negative or insufficient in the majority of cases,” 
the report declares; “in others they are produced by 
weariness, monotony, or by the imagination. It appears, 
however, that some results depend solely on magnetism, 
and cannot be produced without it. These are physio- 
logical phenomena, and well established therapeutically.” 
The importance of this work decides us to reproduce 
its principal conclusions in extenso. 
“The contact of the thumbs and hands, friction, or HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
35 
the employment of certain gestures within a short 
distance of the body, which are called passes, are the 
means employed to place the patient en rapport, or, in 
other words, to transmit the action of the magnetizer 
to his subject. 
“The time necessary for transmitting and effecting 
this magnetic action varies from half an hour to one 
minute. 
“When once a person has been thrown into the 
magnetic sleep, it is not always necessary to have 
recourse to contact and passes in order to magnetize him 
afresh. A glance from the magnetizer, or his will alone, 
may have the same influence. 
“ The effects produced by magnetism are extremely 
varied; it agitates some people and calms others; it 
generally causes a momentary quickening of the respira- 
tion and of the circulation; this is followed by fibrillary, 
convulsive movements like those produced by electric 
shocks; by a more or less profound torpor; by stupor 
and somnolence; and, in a few instances, by what 
masrnetizers term somnambulism. 
O 
“ The perceptions and faculties of individuals who are 
thrown by magnetism into a state of somnambulism are 
modified in various ways. 
“ Some, amid the noise of general conversation, only 
hear the voice of their magnetizer; many make a direct 
reply to the questions which he or the persons with 
whom they are placed en rapport address to them; 
others converse with all those who surround them; in 
few instances are they aware of what is passing. They 
are generally completely unconscious of any sudden 
external noise made close to their ears, such as the 36 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
striking of copper vessels, the fall of a piece of furni- 
ture, etc. 
“ The eyes are closed, and the lids yield with difficulty 
to any effort made with the hand to open them. This 
operation causes pain, and the pupil of the eye is then 
seen to be contracted and turned upwards, or sometimes 
towards the base of the orbit. 
“ Sometimes the sense of smell is altogether absent, 
and they may be made to breathe nitric acid or am- 
monia without being incommoded, or even without their 
becoming aware of it. But this is not always the case, 
and some subjects retain the sense of smell. 
“ Most of the somnambulists whom we have observed 
were completely insensible. The feet might be tickled, 
the nostrils and the corner of the eyelid might be touched 
with a feather, the skin might be pinched until it was 
discoloured, pins might suddenly be driven to some depth 
under the nails, and the subjects would betray no sign 
of pain, nor even a consciousness of the fact. Finally, a 
somnambulist has been rendered insensible to one of the 
most painful surgical operations, and neither the counte- 
nance, the pulse, nor the respiration betrayed the 
slightest emotion. 
“We have only observed one individual who was 
thrown into the state of somnambulism when magnetized 
for the first time. Sometimes somnambulism only occurs 
after the eighth or tenth seance. 
“We have constantly observed that natural sleep, 
which is the repose of the organs of the senses, of the 
intellectual faculties, and of voluntary movements, 
precedes and terminates the state of somnambulism. 
“The magnetized subjects whom we have observed HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
37 
under somnambulism retain the faculties of the waking 
state. The memory even appears to be more retentive 
and of wider range, since they recollect all that occurred 
on each previous occasion when they were under som- 
nambulism. 
“We have observed two somnambulists who were 
able, with closed eyes, to distinguish the objects placed 
before them; who could declare, without touching them; 
the suit and value of playing cards; who could read 
words traced with the hand, or some lines from a book 
opened at random. This phenomenon has even occurred 
when the fingers are firmly pressed upon the closed 
eyelids.* 
* “On January 12 there was a meeting of the commission at the 
house of M. Foissac. This physician amiounced that he should put Paul 
to sleep; that when he was in this state of somnambulism, a finger would 
be applied to each closed eyelid, and that in spite of this he would 
distinguish the colour of cards, he would read the title of a book, or 
some words or lines indicated at random in the book itself. After the 
magnetic passes had been made for two minutes, Paul was thrown into 
sleep. The eyelids were kept constantly closed, in turn by Fouquier, 
Itard, Marc, and the reporter, and a new pack of cards was presented to 
him, from which the royal stamp was freshly removed. When these were 
shuffled together, Paul named them successively without effort: the king 
of spades, the ace of clubs, the queen of spades, the nine of clubs, the 
seven, the queen, and the eight of diamonds. 
“ When the eyelids were kept closed by Segalas, a volume with which 
the reporter was provided was presented to him. He read from the title- 
page, Histoire de France, was unable to read the two intermediate lines, and 
could read only the name of Anquetil on the fifth line, where it is preceded 
by the preposition par. The book was then opened at page 88, and he read 
the first line: ‘le nombre de ses . ..’ He missed the word troupes, and went 
on, ‘Au moment ou on le croyait le plus occupt des plaisirs du carnavaU 
He likewise read the running title Louis, but was unable to read the 
Roman figures which followed it. A paper was presented him on 
which were written the words agglutination and magnetisms animal. 
He spelled the first word, and pronounced the two others. Finally, 
the report of this stance was presented to him; he read the date 38 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
“In two somnambulists we observed the power of 
foreseeing the more or less remote or complicated acts 
of the organism. One of them announced, several days, 
and even months, in advance, the day, hour, and minute 
on which an epileptic attack would occur; the other 
indicated the epoch of his cure. Their previsions were 
verified with remarkable accuracy. These appear only to 
apply to the acts and lesions of their own organisms. 
“We only observed one somnambulist who indicated 
the symptoms of the diseases of three persons with 
whom he was placed en rapport, although we inquired 
into a considerable number of cases.* 
with some distinctness, and some of the words which were more legibly 
written than the rest. In all these experiments the fingers were applied 
to the whole surface of each eye, by pressing the upper on the lower lid 
from above in a downward direction, and we observed that there was a 
constant rotatory movement of the eyeball, as if it were directed towards 
the object presented to the vision.”—Text of the Report. 
* “M. Marc, a member of the commission, consented to undergo ex- 
amination by a somnambulist, and Mile. Celine was requested to consider 
attentively the state of our colleague’s health. She applied her hand to 
his forehead and to the region of the heart, and at the end of three minutes 
she said that there was a determination of blood to the head, and that on 
its left side M. Marc was now suffering from pain; that he was often 
oppressed, especially after eating ; that he was subject to a hacking cough; 
that the lower part of the chest was congested with blood; that there was 
obstruction to the passage of food; that there was a contraction in the 
region of the ensiform appendix; and that in order to effect a cure, M. 
Marc should be frequently bled, that hemlock plasters should be applied, 
that he should be rubbed with laudanum on the lower part of the chest, 
that he should drink lemonade prepared with gum Arabic, that he should 
eat little and often, and not go out walking immediately after meals. 
“ We were anxious to hear whether M. Marc’s experience agreed with 
the somnambulist’s assertions. He said that he really suffered from 
oppression after eating, that he was subject to a cough, and had pain on 
the right side of the head, but that he was not conscious of any uneasiness 
in the digestive canal. 
“ We were struck by the analogy between M. Marc’s sensations and the HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
39 
“ Some of the magnetized patients experienced no 
benefit. Others derived more or less relief from the 
treatment; in one case habitual suffering was suspended, 
in another strength returned, in a third epileptic attacks 
were averted for several months, and in a fourth serious 
paralysis of long standing was completely cured. 
“ Considered as the agent of physiological phenomena, 
or as a therapeutic expedient, magnetism must take its 
place in the scheme of medical science, and consequently 
it should be practised or superintended by physicians 
only, which is the rule in northern countries. 
“The commission has had no opportunity of verifying 
the other faculties which are said by magnetizers to be 
possessed by somnambulists. But the facts collected and 
now set down, are of sufficient importance to justify the 
belief that the Academy ought to encourage researches 
into magnetism, since it is an interesting branch of 
psychology and of natural history. 
“ (Signed) 
Bourdois de la Motte, Fouquier, 
GukNEAU de Mussy, Guersant, 
Itard, J. Leroux, Marc, Thil- 
laye, Husson (reporter).” 
Such was the celebrated report, of which the mag- 
netizers made so much that the Academy did not venture 
to print it. 
It must be admitted that the commissioners did not 
pursue in their researches a rigorously scientific method. 
Since they were chiefly desirous to prove the existence 
assertions of the somnambulist: we noted it carefully, and await a future 
opportunity of confirming the existence of this singular faculty.”—Text of 
Report. 40 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
or non-existence of animal magnetism, they applied 
themselves almost exclusively to the study of extra- 
ordinary facts. They thought that if the results of a 
given experiment exceeded the limits of the possible, 
animal magnetism would thereby be proved. In this 
way the question was wrongly stated, since it was 
possible that magnetism might be at once a natural 
fact, and a fact wdiich agreed with known physio- 
logical laws. The commissioners did not understand 
O 
this elementary truth. Impelled by curiosity with re- 
spect to the marvellous and the supernatural, they 
directed their attention to those phenomena which 
were the most disputed and the most open to dispute, 
such as the transposition of the senses, the power of 
reading with bandaged eyes or vision by means of the 
internal organs, by the epigastrium or the occiput, 
together with the diagnosis of diseases and an acquaint- 
ance with their remedies. 
It appears that on all these points the conduct of the 
inquiry was unsatisfactory, and that the commissioners 
neglected to take any sufficient precautions. Some of 
the experiments were really futile. The report states 
that a somnambulist named Petit, whose eyes were so 
firmly closed that the eyelashes were interlaced, and 
who was constantly watched by commissioners who 
“held the light,” was able to read what was presented 
to him, and played several games of piquet with great 
spirit. It does not appear that any precautions were 
taken to prevent this individual from reading through his 
eyelashes. The commissioners were content to watch his 
eyes, and it did not occur to them that there is nothing 
more easy than to read with the eyes apparently closed. HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
41 
At another seance, Paul, a young law-student, over 
whose eyes a commissioner placed his hand, displayed 
a marvellous clairvoyance; he divined the cards in a 
pack and could read almost fluently. The reporter 
observed, however, that the eyeball was constantly 
rolling, and appeared to be directed towards the object 
presented to the vision. When we add that the young 
man read slowly, before a large circle, and that he made 
mistakes, we shall agree with Segalas, a member of the 
Academy, who had himself on one occasion kept the 
eyes of the subject closed, that it was probably possible 
to move the eyelids, to catch a glimpse of some of the 
words, and to guess the rest. At any rate, more careful 
experiments were needed before admitting that it is 
possible to see and read with closed eyes. We do not 
speak of internal vision, of the prevision of crises, and 
the instinctive knowledge of remedies, since the experi- 
ments were all of the same stamp. 
Together with these unsatisfactory statements, we 
find some good descriptions of somnambulism. The 
commissioners observed that when the subjects were 
put to sleep they presented “an acceleration of the 
pulse and of the breathing, fibrillary movements like 
those produced by electric shocks, stupor, and somno- 
lence. . . . The subject sometimes made a direct reply 
to the question addressed to him, but in general he 
was quite unconscious of any sudden noise made at 
his ear. . . , The eyes were closed, and on raising 
the eyelid, the pupil was seen to be contracted and 
turned upwards. . . . The surface of the body was 
generally insensible to pain; . . . the skin might be 
pinched until it was discoloured, pins might be driven 42 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
under the nails without disturbing the subject’s im- 
passibility.” All this description is excellent: it is 
unfortunate that the commissioners, who observed the 
natural phenomenon with such accuracy, were unable 
to detach it from the phantasmagoria by which it was 
surrounded. 
Finally, the commissioners were mistaken in two 
points. First, in confounding the question of animal 
magnetism with the extraordinary and supernatural 
phenomena described by the magnetizers ; secondly, in 
not bringing to a study of these phenomena, which 
required the utmost caution, the rigorous care which we 
have a risbt to demand from an academical commission. 
The Academy, which did not include among its 
members many partisans of magnetism, was somewhat 
astonished by Husson’s report. It was read in the 
meetings held on the 21st and 28th of June, 1831. 
But there was no public debate, nor was the question 
put to the vote.. The report was not even printed, 
only committed to writing. The Academy shrank from 
deciding such burning questions. 
In 1837 the brooding discussion burst forth, on 
account of the painless extraction of a tooth during the 
magnetic sleep, which was related by M. Oudet. 
Berna, a young magnetizer, implored the attention 
of the Academy of Medicine, and a fresh commission was 
nominated. It consisted of Boux, Bouillaud, Cloquet, 
Emery, Pelletier, Caventou, Cornac, Oudet, and Dubois, 
the last-named acting as reporter. The Academy was 
again drawn in the wrong direction. Berna urged them 
to examine extraordinary phenomena, such as vision 
without using the eyes, and the communication of the HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
43 
magnetizer’s thoughts to his subject, phenomena which 
he boasted of producing in two of his somnambulist 
subjects. 
The results of this inquiry, which was conducted 
with greater care than that of the previous commis- 
sion, were negative. We give the conclusions of this 
report, as we have already given those of Husson’s 
report. 
“ls£ Conclusion.—Dubois, in terminating his report, 
states that it appears from all the facts and incidents 
witnessed by us that, in the first place, no special proof 
has been given to us as to the existence of a special 
state, called the state of magnetic somnambulism; that 
it is only by way of assertion, and not by way of de- 
monstration, that the magnetizer has affirmed at each 
seance, before undertaking any experiments, that his 
subjects were in a state of somnambulism. 
“It is true that, according to the magnetizer’s pro- 
gramme, we might be assured that the subject, before 
he was thrown into a state of somnambulism, was 
in perfect possession of all his senses, that for this 
purpose we were to prick him, and that he would then 
be put to sleep in the presence of the commissioners. 
But it appeared from our experiments at the seance of 
the 3rd of March, and before any magnetizing process 
had taken place, that the subject of experiment was as 
insensible to pin-pricks before the supposed sleep as he 
was when it had occurred; that his countenance and 
replies varied little before and after the so-called mag- 
netic sleep. Your commissioners are unable to decide 
whether this was from inadvertence, from a natural or 
acquired insensibility to pain, or from an unreasonable 44 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
desire to attract attention. It is true that we were told 
on each occasion that the subjects were asleep, but this 
was purely a matter of assertion. 
“If, however, experiments made upon subjects pre- 
sumed to be in a state of somnambulism should ulti- 
mately prove the existence of such a state, the conclusions 
we are about to draw from their experiments will show 
whether such proofs have any value or not. 
“2nd Conclusion.—According to the terras of the 
programme, the second experiment is intended to estab- 
lish that the subjects are insensible to pain. 
“We must, however, recall the restrictions imposed 
on your commissioners. The face was not to be subjected 
to such experiments, nor yet those parts of the body 
which are usually covered, so that they could only 
be performed on the hands and the neck. . These parts 
were not to be pinched nor twitched, nor placed in 
contact with any burning substance, nor exposed to 
any high temperature; the only thing permitted was to 
insert the points of needles to the depth of half a line, 
and at the same time the face was half covered by a 
bandage which did not allow us to observe the expression 
of the countenance, when the attempt was made to inflict 
pain. When we recall all these restrictions, we deduce 
from them the following facts:—(l) that the sensations of 
pain we were permitted to excite were extremely slight 
and of limited extent; (2) that they could only be excited 
on a small portion of the body, which was perhaps accus- 
tomed to receive such impressions; (3) that since these 
impressions were always of the same kind, they were 
of the nature of tattooing; (4) that the face, and particu- 
larly the eyes, in which the expression of pain is most 45 
HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
apparent, were concealed from the commissioners; (o) 
that under these circumstances, impassibility, however 
absolute and complete, could not be accepted by us as 
a conclusive proof that the subject in question was 
devoid of sensibility. 
“ 3rd Conclusion.—The magnetizer undertook to prove 
to the commissioners that, by the mere exercise of the 
will, he had the power of making his subject either 
locally or generally sensible to pain, which he terms the 
restitution of sensibility. 
“ As, however, he had been unable to give us any ex- 
perimental proof that he had taken away and destroyed 
this girl’s sensibility, this experiment was correlative 
with the other, and it was consequently impossible to 
prove such a restitution; moreover, the facts observed 
by us showed that all the attempts made in this direction 
had completely failed. You must remember, gentlemen, 
that the only verification consisted in the somnambulist’s 
assertions. When, for instance, she assured the com- 
missioners that she was unable to move her left leg, this 
was no proof that the limb was magnetically paralyzed; 
even in this case her words were not in accordance with 
her magnetizer’s pretensions, so that we only obtain 
assertions without proof, opposed to other assertions, 
equally without proof. 
“4th Conclusion.—What we have just said with 
reference to the abolition and restitution of sensibility, 
is applicable in every respect to the so-called abolition 
and restitution of the power of movement, of which your 
commissioners did not obtain the slightest proof. 
“ sth Conclusion.—One paragraph of the programme 
is entitled, ‘ Obedience to the mental order to cease, in 46 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
the midst of a conversation, to reply verbally and by 
signs to a given person.’ 
“In the seance of March 5, the magnetizer attempted 
to prove to the commissioners that the power of his will 
went so far as to produce this effect; hut it resulted from 
the facts which occurred during this seance that, on the 
contrary, the somnambulist was still unable to hear when 
the experimenter no longer wished to prevent her from 
hearing, and that she appeared to possess the power of 
hearing when he distinctly desired her to hear nothing. 
So that, according to the somnambulist’s assertions, the 
faculty of hearing, or of ceasing to hear, was in this 
instance in absolute revolt against the will of the mag- 
o o 
netizer. 
“But well-considered facts lead the commissioners 
to the conclusion that there was neither a revolt nor a 
submission of the will; only an absolute independence. 
“ 6th Conclusion.—Transposition of the sense of sight. 
—The magnetizer, as you are aware, complied with the 
commissioners’ request in turning from the study of the 
abolition and restitution of sensibility and the power of 
movement, in order to consider more important facts; 
namely, the facts of vision without the aid of the eyes. 
All the incidents in connection with these facts have 
been shown to you; they occurred in the seance of April 
3, 1837. 
“Berna undertook to show the commissioners that 
a woman, influenced by his magnetic manipulations, 
could decipher wTords, distinguish playing cards, and 
follow the hands of a watch, not by means of her eyes, 
but by her occiput—a fact which would imply either 
the transposition or the inutility of the organs of sight HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
47 
during the magnetic state. These experiments were 
made, and, as you are aware, were a complete failure. 
“All which the somnambulist knew, all which she 
was able to infer from what was said in her immediate 
vicinity, all which she could naturally surmise, she 
uttered with bandaged eyes; from which we at once 
concluded that she was not without ingenuity. Thus, 
when the magnetizer invited one of the commissioners 
to write a word on a card, and to present it to the 
woman’s occiput, she said that she saw a card, and even 
the writing on the card. If she was asked how many 
persons were present, she could, since she had seen them 
enter, approximately declare their number. If she was 
asked whether she saw a commissioner sitting near her, 
engaged in writing with a scratching pen, she raised her 
head, tried to see under the bandage, and said that this 
gentleman held something white in his hand. When 
asked whether she saw the mouth of the same indi- 
vidual, who had left off writing and placed himself 
behind her, she said that he had something white in his 
mouth. Hence we concluded that this somnambulist, 
more experienced and adroit than the former one, was 
able to make more plausible surmises. 
“ But with respect to facts really adapted to establish 
vision by means of the occiput, decisive, absolute, and 
peremptory facts, they were not only altogether absent, 
but those which we observed were of a nature to give 
rise to strange suspicions as to this woman’s honesty, as 
We shall presently observe. 
“Ith Conclusion. Clairvoyance. When the mag- 
netizer despaired of proving to the commissioners the 
transposition of the sense of sight, the nullity and super- 48 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
fluity of the eyes during the magnetic state, he sought 
to take refuge in the fact of clairvoyance, or of vision 
through opaque bodies. 
“You are acquainted with the experiments made on 
this subject. The main conclusion deduced from these 
facts was that a man, placed before a woman in a given 
attitude, is unable to give her the power of distinguish- 
ing the objects presented to her when her eyes are 
bandaged. 
“Here your commissioners were occupied with a 
more serious reflection. Admitting for a moment an 
hypothesis which is very convenient for magnetizers, 
that in many cases somnambulists lose all lucidity, and 
are as unable as ordinary mortals to see by means of 
the occiput, of the stomach, or through a bandage, what 
are we to conclude with respect to the woman who gave 
minute description of objects quite different from those 
presented to her ? We are at a loss what to think of a 
somnambulist who described the knave of clubs on a 
blank card, who transformed the ticket of an academician 
into a gold watch with a white dial-plate inscribed with 
black figures, and who, if she had been pressed, would 
perhaps have gone on to tell us the hour marked by 
this watch. . . . 
“If, gentlemen, you now ask what is the ultimate 
and general conclusion to be inferred from all these 
experiments, made in our presence, we declare that M, 
Berna undoubtedly deceived himself when, on February 
12 of this year, he wrote to the Royal Academy of 
Medicine that he could boast of affording us the personal 
experience of which we were in need (these are his 
words); when he offered to show to your delegates con- HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
49 
elusive facts; when he affirmed that these facts were of 
a nature to throw light upon physiology and upon thera- 
peutics. You have now been acquainted with these 
facts; you agree with us that they are by no means 
conclusive as to the doctrine of animal magnetism, and 
that they have nothing in common either with physi- 
ology or with therapeutics. 
“We do not attempt to decide whether the more 
numerous and varied facts supplied by other magnetizers 
would lead to a different conclusion, but it is certain 
that if other magnetizers exist, they do not openly 
appear, and they have not ventured to challenge the 
sanction or reprobation of the Academy. 
“ (Signed) 
M. M. Roux (President), Bouillaud, 
H. Cloquet, Emery, Pelletier, 
Cayentou, Cornat, Oudet, Du- 
bois (Reporter). 
“ Paris, July 17, 1837 
When this report, taking such a decided part 
against animal magnetism, was read, Husson felt him- 
self to be directly attacked, and replied. The Academy, 
however, accepted the conclusions of the report by an 
immense majority. In our opinion this report did not 
prove much, since general conclusions could not be 
drawn from the negative experiments performed on only 
two somnambulists. 
In order to settle the question of animal magnetism, 
the younger Burdin, a member of the Academy, proposed 
to award from his private fortune a prize of 8,000 francs 
to any person who could read a given writing without 
the aid of his eyes, and in the dark. The Academy 
accepted the proposal. In this way the field of ex- 50 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
periment was restricted, and it seemed that by limiting 
the point at issue, it was rendered more decisive. This 
was a defiance hurled by the Academy at the mag- 
netizers, and at the first glance it might appear that 
Bardin went straight to the heart of the question. He, 
speaking for the Academy, seemed to say, “If there is 
a single somnambulist capable of reading without using 
his eyes, we will admit the existence of animal magnet- 
ism, and go into the question. If no somnambulist can 
stand the test, animal magnetism has no existence.” But 
as Richer has observed, the dilemma is false. Somnam- 
bulists might easily be admitted to be incapable of 
reading without using their eyes, and yet be genuine 
somnambulists. In fact, the Academy demanded that a 
miracle should be wrought before they would believe in 
animal magnetism. 
At this time Pigeaire, a Montpellier doctor, had a 
daughter, ten or eleven years of age, who, in a state of 
somnambulism, did many wonderful things, and especially 
could read writing when her eyes were covered by a 
bandage of black silk. This was attested by Lordat, the 
Professor of Physiology at Montpellier. Pigeaire brought 
his daughter to Paris, in hopes of gaining the Burdin 
prize. He began with giving private seances, which 
were completely successful; and, indeed, the private 
seance generally succeeds. A very favourable report, 
signed by Bousquet, Orfila, Ribes, Reveille-Parise, etc., 
is still extant. But the scene changed when it was 
necessary to appear before the commission nominated 
by the Academy. The commissioners suspected that the 
bandage used by Pigeaire did not serve as a complete 
obstacle to the normal vision. In fact, there is nothing HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
51 
apparently so simple, and in reality so difficult, as to 
find a bandage which is absolutely opaque; any one 
may see perfectly through an extremely minute hole, 
such as may, for instance, be perforated in a card, and 
especially if there are more holes than one, placed at 
intervals of one or two millimetres from each other. If 
our readers wish for further information on this interest- 
ing question, we must refer them to Decharabre’s article 
on Mesmerism (Dictlonnaire encyclopedique den Sciences 
medicates).* Dechambre took the pains to try for him- 
self the arrangements made by magnetizers for covering 
the eyes of their somnambulists; and he was satisfied that 
none of these arrangements, although apparently very 
complex, would after a while prevent them from reading 
the writing placed under their eyes. We may add that 
errors become more probable from the excessive keenness 
of sight common in somnambulists, from the time which 
elapses before the reading begins, and from the contor- 
tions by which the subject tries to displace or loosen the 
bandage. The Academicians were, therefore, justified in 
rejecting the bandage used by Pigeaire. They suggested 
a mask or headpiece of black silk, very light and 
stretched on two iron wires, so that it might be held at 
the distance of six inches from the girl’s face, so as not 
to interfere with her breathing, nor with her freedom of 
action. Pigeaire, on his side, objected to this, and they 
were unable to come to an agreement, in spite of the 
concessions made by the commissioners, so that the 
experiments did not take place. In fact, Pigeaire’s stipu- 
* Gerdy’s paper on the same subject may also be read with interest: 
Histoire acad&mique du magnetisme animal, par Burdin jeune et Duhoitt 
d’Amiens, p. 635. 52 
ANBIAL MAGNETISM. 
lations would, as it was said at the time, have degraded 
the experiment into a mere game o£ blind-man’s-buff. 
Pigeaire was succeeded by another magnetizer, Teste, 
who presented himself before the Academy: he boasted 
of the possession of a somnambulist who could read 
writing which was enclosed in a box. This experiment 
was easily performed, and the magnetizer and the 
commissioners soon agreed upon the conditions. But 
the failure was complete, since the subject was unable to 
divine a single word of the writing. 
The Burdin prize was not awarded. 
In conclusion, Double proposed that the Academy 
should henceforward refuse to pay any attention to the 
proposals of magnetizers, and that animal magnetism 
should be treated as the Academy of Sciences treats the 
propositions which refer to perpetual motion, or to the 
squaring of the circle. 
Such was the result of so many efforts, of such 
patient research, of so many discussions and reports : an 
absolute and complete negation of the existence of 
animal magnetism. 
This failure of the long labours of the Academy of 
Medicine was, as we have already said, primarily the 
fault of the magnetizers. Instead of contenting them- 
selves with the study of the simplest and most ordinary 
phenomena, they were bent on establishing the exist- 
ence of complex psychical phenomena, such as vision by 
means of the occiput, or an acquaintance with future 
events. The Academy was also mistaken in being 
seduced by them into this research into the marvellous. 
It may be said that at the outset of the Academic 
history of animal magnetism, the problem was wrongly HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
53 
stated. It seems to us that the Academy ought to have 
clearly stated a question which the magnetizers were 
allowed to obscure ; it should have been seen that amona’ 
' O 
the phenomena proclaimed by the magnetizers, there 
might be some which were connected with known 
physical laws, and which might become the object of 
serious and fruitful study. 
At any rate, the Academy ought not to have accepted 
Double’s trenchant proposition, declaring that the ques- 
tion as to animal magnetism was definitively closed, as 
if no new facts might subsequently arise to compel the 
Academy to reverse its summary judgment. These new 
facts consist, as we are aware, in hypnotism, formerly 
regarded as an illusion, and now accepted as a truth of 
which no one can doubt the reality. 
In fact, the history of animal magnetism is of all 
histories the most instructive and philosophic: we must 
be indeed incorrigible if it does not disgust us with 
d priori negations. 
It was a matter of course that after the Academy 
had pronounced its sentence, somnambulists continued 
to see through opaque bodies, to predict future events, 
and to prescribe remedies, just as if the Academy had 
not spoken at all. Du Potet, the celebrated inventor of 
the magic mirror, was at this period the chief representa- 
tive of magnetic science. This famous mirror, which 
had the effect of throwing people into convulsions, was 
made as follows:— The performer of the experiment 
described a circle on the parquet with a piece of charcoal, 
taking care to blacken the whole circle, and he then 
withdrew to a distance. The subject approached the 
magic circle, regarded it at first with confidence, raised 54 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
his head to look at the assembly, and again looked down 
to his feet. “ Then,” says Dn Potet, “ the first effect 
might be observed. The subject drooped his head still 
lower with an unquiet movement of his whole person, 
and he revolved round the circle without losing sight of 
O O 
it for an instant; again he stooped lower, drew himself 
up, retreated a few paces, advanced anew, frowned, 
became gloomy, and breathed hard. The most singular 
and curious spectacle followed ; the subject undoubtedly 
beheld images reflected in the mirror ; his agitation and 
extraordinary gestures, his sobs and tears, his anger, 
despair, and fury—everything, in short, revealed the 
trouble and emotion of his mind. It was no dream nor 
nightmare; the apparitions were actually present. A 
series of events was unrolled before him, represented by 
signs and figures which he could understand and gloat 
over, sometimes joyful, sometimes gloomy, just as these 
representations of the future passed before his eyes. Very 
soon he was overcome by delirium, he wished to seize 
the image, and darted a ferocious glance towards it; he 
finally started forward to trample on the charcoal circle, 
the dust from it arose, and the operator approached to 
put an end to a drama so full of emotion and of terror.” 
Du Potet, a sincere enthusiast, incapable of any 
scientific research, explained the effects of his mirror by 
the intervention of magic. Gigot-Suard subsequently 
performed similar experiments on hypnotized subjects. 
This was at the time when table-turning, spirit-rapping, 
Home’s apparitions, and other eccentricities of spiritual- 
ism were carried on. Lacordaire, in a sermon preached at 
Notre Dame in 1846, gave his adhesion to magnetism, 
which he regarded as the last flash of the old power, HISTORY OF AMIMAL MAGNETISM. 
55 
destined to confound human reason, and abase it before 
God; it was a phenomenon of the prophetic order.* He 
went on to say, “Thrown into an artificial sleep, man 
can see through opaque bodies, he indicates healing 
remedies, and appears to know things of which he was 
previously ignorant.” Other members of the clergy 
went further, and practised magnetism with the avowed 
object of obtaining revelations from on high. The Court 
of Rome intervened on several occasions, and in 1856 an 
encyclical letter from the Holy Roman Inquisition was 
sent to all bishops to oppose the abuses of magnetism. 
The following is a translation of the Latin text:—t 
“At the general assembly of the Holy Roman Inqui- 
sition, held at the convent of Santa Maria Minerva, 
the cardinals and inquisitors-general against heresy 
throughout the Christian world, after a careful examina- 
tion of all which has been reported to them by trust- 
worthy men, touching the practice of magnetism, have 
resolved to address the present encyclical letter to all 
bishops, in order that its abuses may be repressed. 
“July 30, 1856 
“ For it is clearly established that a new species of 
superstition has arisen respecting magnetic phenomena, 
with which many persons are now concerned, not with 
the legitimate object of throwing light on the physical 
sciences, but in order to mislead men, under the belief 
that things hidden, remote, or still in the future may be 
brought to light through magnetism, and especially by 
the intervention of certain women who are completely 
under the magnetizer’s control. 
* (Euvres de Lacordaire, vol. iii. p. 246. Paris, 1861. 
t Quoted by Mabru, Lea Magne'tiseurs. Paris, 1858. 56 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
“ The Holy See, when consulted in special cases, has 
repeatedly replied by condemning as unlawful all ex- 
periments made to obtain a result which is foreign to 
the natural order and rules of morality, and which does 
not make use of lawful means. It was in such cases 
that it was decided, on the 21st of April, 184.1, that 
magnetism as set forth in this petition is not permitted. 
So likewise the holy congregation thought fit to forbid 
the use of certain books which systematically diffuse 
error on this subject. But since, exclusive of special 
cases, it became necessary to pronounce on the practice of 
magnetism in general, the following rule was established 
on July 18, 1847 :—‘ For the avoiding of error, of all 
sorcery, and of all invocation of evil spirits, whether 
implicit or explicit, the use of magnetism—that is, the 
simple act of employing physical means, not otherwise 
prohibited—is not morally unlawful, so long as it is for 
no illicit or evil object. With respect to the application 
of purely physical principles and means to things or 
results which are in reality supernatural, so as to give 
them a physical explanation, this is an illusion, and an 
heretical practice worthy of condemnation.’ 
‘'Although this decree sufficiently explains what is 
lawful or unlawful in the use or abuse of magnetism, 
human perversity is such that men who have devoted 
themselves to the discovery of whatever ministers to 
curiosity, greatly to the detriment of the salvation of 
souls, and even to that of civil society, boast that they 
have found the means of predicting and divining. 
Hence it follows that weak-minded women, thrown by 
gestures which are not always modest into a state of 
somnambulism, and of what is called clairvoyance, pro- HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
57 
fess to see those things which are invisible, and claim 
with rash audacity the power of speaking on religious 
matters, of calling up the spirits of the dead, of receiving 
answers to their inquiries, and of discovering what is 
unknown or remote. They practise other superstitions 
of like nature, in order by this gift of divination to 
procure considerable gains for themselves and their 
masters. Whatever he the arts or illusions employed 
in these acts, since physical means are used to obtain 
unnatural results, the imposture is worthy of condem- 
nation, since it is heretical and a scandal against the 
purity of morals. In order, therefore, effectually to re- 
press so great an evil, which is most fatal to religion 
and to civil society, the pastoral care, vigilance, and 
zeal of all the bishops cannot be too earnestly invoked. 
Aided by divine grace, the ordinary of each diocese must 
do all in his power, both by the admonitions of paternal 
love, by severe reproaches, and, finally, by legal means, 
using these according to his judgment before the Lord, 
and taking account of the circumstances of place, of time, 
and persons;—he must do his utmost to avert the abuses 
of magnetism, and to bring it to an end, so that the 
Lord’s flock may be preserved from the attacks of the 
enemy, that the faith may be maintained in its integrity, 
and that the faithful committed to their care may be 
saved from the corruption of morals. 
“ Given at Rome, at the Chancery of the Sacred Office 
of the Vatican. 
“Y. Card. Macchl 
“ August 4, 1856.” 
It will be seen from this document that the Court 
of Rome appealed to a singular motive in their condem- 58 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
nation of magnetism. “ With respect to the application 
of purely physical principles and means to things or 
results which are in reality supernatural, so as to give 
them a physical explanation, this is an illusion, and 
an heretical practice worthy of condemnation.” The 
encyclical letter goes on to define this idea, and speaks of 
“weak-minded women . . . who profess to see those 
things which are invisible, and claim with rash audacity 
the power of speaking on religious matters, of calling up 
the spirits of the dead, of receiving answers to their 
inquiries, and of discovering what is unknown or re- 
mote.” It would be impossible to declare more plainly 
that the Holy See proposes to maintain a monopoly of 
the supernatural. 
Condemned by the Court of Rome, as it had been 
condemned by the Academy of Medicine, animal mag- 
netism did not perish, but took refuge in the popular 
imagination. To this day we possess clairvoyant, and 
even excessively clairvoyant somnambulists who find the 
trade profitable. They are to be found in the drawing- 
rooms of private houses, as well as at public fairs. It 
is certain that animal magnetism will not perish, since 
it is one of the thousand forms assumed by that belief 
in the marvellous which is eternal. 
As we here conclude the history of the wonders of 
animal magnetism, which must give place to the positive 
facts of hypnotism, we ought to say that it would be an 
error to suppose that all the phenomena of this species 
of legend are absolutely false. There are degrees in the 
marvellous. The transmission of thought, or mental 
suggestion, which constitutes the first stage in this 
domain,, has been recently the subject of an article by HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
59 
Ch. Richet, in the Revue Philosophique of December, 
188k He has attempted to show “ the influence exerted 
in a definite direction by the thought of one individual 
on another in his vicinity, without any external phe- 
nomenon, appreciable by the senses.” Although these 
phenomena are not logically connected with hypnotism, 
since they could be produced in Richet’s friends when they 
were in normal health, awake, and in no sense hypnotized, 
yet it is true that public opinion has confounded together, 
under the name of animal magnetism, the nervous dis- 
turbance termed hypnotism, somnambulism, etc., and the 
phenomena which appear to be supernatural, such as the 
communication of thought, vision through an opaque 
body, prevision of the future, etc. For this reason we 
propose to say a few words on mental suggestion. 
The facts in question are not absolutely new. Richet 
observes that we may perhaps trace the first accounts 
of mental suggestion to the well-known case of possession 
at Loudun. According to the story, Gaston d’Orleans 
found the Ursuline nuns agitated by frightful demoniac 
attacks, and he declared that they obeyed orders trans- 
mitted mentally. This was regarded as one of the chief 
signs of demoniac possession, De Puysdgur also men- 
tions facts of mental suggestion. In the course of this 
century, many magnetizers have asserted that they 
could transmit their thoughts to somnambulist subjects; 
but they have been unable to prove this faculty to 
the satisfaction of learned bodies, which throws some 
doubt on their sincerity, or at any rate leads to the 
supposition that they unconsciously placed themselves 
en rapport with the subject by some external sign. It 
is now known that the slightest contact suffices to 60 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
establish a communication between the one who divines 
and the one who suggests. Cumberland’s recent experi- 
ments must not be forgotten, of which the wonderful 
results were shown to be explicable by very simple 
causes. Cumberland held the hand of an individual 
who had hidden, or who was thinking of, some particular 
object, and, with his eyes bound, went directly towards 
the object in question. Eichet has ascertained that 
when the experiment succeeds, the subject, who is 
generally impressionable, unwittingly and involuntarily 
makes slight movements with his hand. This involun- 
tary action betrays his thought, and puts the seeker 
on the right track in a way which no one who has not 
tried the experiment for himself would suspect.* Gley 
has thrown further light on Cumberland’s method by 
his tracing of the muscular movements which explain 
the so-called thought-reading. The tracings clearly 
show that throughout the experiment there occurs in 
the subject’s hand fibrillary contractions, slight move- 
ments of pressure, and in some cases a traction movement 
of the hand and whole arm. These movements increase 
in intensity when the object is approached, and when 
it is reached they suddenly cease.f Positive results were 
obtained from sixteen out of twenty-five persons. 
We now come to Eichet’s experiments, and to the 
three orders of proof by which he sought to demonstrate 
mental suggestion. 
1. In naming at a venture a card taken from a pack 
* Ch. Eichet, A prnpos de la suggestion mentale (Sociele de Biologic, 
May, 1884.) 
f Gley, Sur les mouvements musculaires inconscients en rapport avec 
leg images (Society de Biologic, July, 1884). HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
61 
of playing-cards, or a picture from picture-cards, the 
repetition of the experiment for a given number of times 
will show an average more or less in agreement with the 
o O 
calculus of probabilities. For instance, in a hand con- 
taining six cards, the probability of guessing aright is 
one-sixth; that is, one time in six. 
This is not the case when the card taken at random 
has been seen by another person; the average, varying 
with the sensitiveness of the subject, is then somewhat 
higher than that which would have been afforded by 
the calculus of probabilities. In 218 experiments, it 
would be 67 instead of 42. 
2. With the aid of a rod which reveals the un- 
conscious action of the diviner’s muscles, the average is 
still higher than that indicated by the- calculus of pro- 
babilities. The probable number in (J8 experiments 
would be 18; the actual number was 44. 
3. If the subject be placed in what are call spiritist 
conditions, which only serve to reveal the slight, un- 
conscious movements of a sensitive person, the average 
obtained is very much higher than that of the calculus 
of probabilities. 
The author considers that these latter experiments 
prove more than all the others. Three persons are seated 
at a table, engaged in conversation; the middle one, 
termed the medium, unconsciously moves the table, and 
this movement, by means of a simple arrangement, causes 
an electric bell to ring. Two other persons are seated 
at a second table, placed behind the former one, and 
concealed from the other three persons: one silently 
runs through the alphabet with a pencil; the other 
notes on which letter the pencil rests when the bell 62 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
rings. Finally, there is a sixth person in the room, who 
has thought of a given word. On consulting the letters 
dictated by the table, it will be seen that there is a 
singular correspondence between these letters and the 
word thought of by the sixth person, who is neither 
seated at the spiritist table nor before the alphabet. 
We give instances— 
Words thought of. 
Words dictated by table. 
1. Jean Racine. 
2. Legros. 
3. Esther. 
4. Henrietta. 
5. Cheuvreux. 
6. Doremond. 
7. Chevalon. 
8. Allouand. 
1. Igard. 
2. Heghn. 
3. Foqdem. 
4. Higiegmsd. 
5. Dievoreq. 
6. Epjerod. 
7. ChevaL 
8. Iko. 
On a first inspection our readers will doubtless find 
these results very unsatisfactory. Richet has, however, 
deduced some curious results from them, after submitting 
them to mathematical analysis. Thus, in experiment three, 
where the word Esther was thought of, and the medium 
replied through the table Foqdem, the exactly corre- 
sponding number of letters counts as in the calculation 
of chances, since the alphabet consists of twenty-four 
letters, and the word of six letters, so that it represents 
six attempts to guess right. The actual number is, 
however, much higher than the probable number; it is 
one out of six, namely—the letter e, which is in its right 
place. On applying this analysis to all the other cases 
cited, Richet finds that the total probable number is 
equal to =2, a calculation our readers may make for HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
63 
themselves. The actual number obtained was fourteen, 
which is very high. 
Richet comes to the definitive conclusion that the pro- 
bability in favour of mental suggestion may be estimated 
at two-thirds. He, therefore, admits it to be probable 
that intellectual force is projected from the brain and 
echoed in the thought of another individual. He likewise 
admits that this re-echo acts chiefly on the unconscious 
intelligence of the individual who perceives and of the 
individual who transmits. This accounts for the success 
obtained with the spiritist table. Under these condi- 
tions the thought of the transmitting individual acts on 
the unconscious thought of the medium: the latter is 
endowed with a faculty of semi-somnambulism, in which 
one portion of the brain effects certain operations without 
giving notice to the ego. Finally, it should be said that 
this transmission of thought occurs in a degree which 
varies with the individual, since some are much more 
sensitive than others. 
While we heartily applaud the step taken by Richet, 
who has had the courage to declare at his own risk what 
he believes to be the truth, we cannot accept his theory 
without reserve. It will generally be found that the 
facts prove less than he asserts, and that his inter- 
pretation of them is too favourable. One main objection 
consists in the fact that the calculation of chances is not 
adapted to decide questions of this nature: the mental 
transmission of thought is one of the phenomena which 
can only be accepted when demonstrated by proofs 
which should be strong in proportion as they are remote 
from established knowledge. The calculation of chances 
is, however, for the most part incapable of affording a 64 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
peremptory proof; it produces uncertainty, disquietude, 
and doubt. 
Yet something is gained by substituting doubt for 
systematic denial. Richet has obtained this important 
result, that henceforth the possibility of mental sugges- 
tion cannot be met with contemptuous rejection. 
While Richet, followed by Pierre Janet and others, 
has been trying experiments in France, a Society has 
been formed in England, called the Society for Psychical 
Research, which likewise makes the transmission of 
thought the object of study. This coincidence shows 
that the question is “in the air.” The results obtained 
in England are surprising, and much higher than those 
of Richet. The least we can infer from them is that 
research should be continued in this direction, and that 
we should not be justified in an a priori denial of the 
possibility of these phenomena because they appear to 
be improbable or supernatural. 
Moreover, if we consider the question of mental 
suggestion in its simplest aspect, if we study thought- 
reading in the absence of any deliberately expressed 
movement, we shall soon see that we touch upon 
phenomena which physiologists do not disdain to 
consider.* 
Of late years Strieker has strongly insisted on the 
fact that a mental representation of a word or letter 
cannot occur without a corresponding movement in the 
muscles which serve for the articulation of this word or 
letter. This movement, constituting external speech, is 
* Ch. Fere, La question de la suggestion mentale est une question de 
physiologic. (Bull. Soc. Biologie, 1886, p. 429; Revue FMlcsophique, 
March, 1886, p. 261.) HISTOKY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
not generally considered as such, since it may remain un- 
perceived by the individual in whom it occurs. Yet such 
a movement is visible enough to be rapidly understood by 
certain subjects, as we have observed for ourselves; nor 
will the fact appear surprising to those who understand 
the process by which the deaf are able to understand 
what is spoken. This can only be regarded as mental 
suggestion, since it is the reading of unexpressed ideas. 
But it is not only the muscles concerned in articu- 
lation which undergo modifications of tension under 
the influence of external excitement, or of mental repre- 
sentations : all the muscles of the organism take part 
in this modification.* There is no paradox in the state- 
ment that certain subjects are endowed with a peculiar 
sensitiveness which enables them to seize these changes 
of form. The experiments in graphology undertaken by 
Eichet, Ferrari, and Hericourt constitute another and 
no less interesting process, which shows that each psychi- 
cal state corresponds to a dynamic state, characterized 
by objective phenomena which come within the depart- 
ment of physiology. 
If it is true that every psychical phenomenon is accom- 
panied by vascular modifications,! and consequently by 
modifications of colour, of temperature, of secretion, etc., 
we shall not push the hypothesis too far if we admit 
that excessively sensitive subjects are capable of feeling 
these thermic or secretory modifications. 
Nothing occurs in the mind without a modification 
* Ch. Fere, Sensation et mouvement (Revue Philosophique, October, 
1885 ; March, July, 188G). 
f Ch. Fere, Changements de volume des memhres sous Vinfluence des 
excitations peripheriques et des representations mentales (Bull. Soc. Biol., 
ISBG, p. 399). 66 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
of matter, and it is impossible to say at what point these 
modifications of matter may become perceptible. The 
study of mental suggestion is thus reduced to the reading 
of involuntary signs, and includes research into our most 
subtle reactions, and the measurement of the differential 
sensitiveness of various subjects, and especially of those 
who in their several states are hyper-excitable. This 
study should not be relegated to the occult sciences, to 
the unknowable; it is a most interesting physiological 
question. CHAPTER, 111. 
HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM.—RRAID : HYPNOTISM— 
GRIMES, AZAM, DURAND DE GROS, DEMARQUAY, AND 
GIRAUD-TEULON, LIEBAULT, CH. RICHET, CHARCOT, 
AND P. RICHER. 
At the time when the Paris Academy of Medicine was 
condemning animal magnetism, Dr. James Braid, a 
Manchester surgeon, directed the question into its proper 
field—that of observation and experiment. Braid must be 
regarded as the initiator of the scientific study of animal 
magnetism. For this reason, since it expresses the 
change of method which he effected, it is usual to sub- 
stitute for that of animal magnetism the word hypnotism, 
by which he designated the artificial nervous sleep. 
Magnetism and hypnotism are fundamentally synony- 
mous terms, but the first connotes a certain number 
of complex and extraordinary phenomena, which have 
always compromised the cause of these fruitful studies. 
The term hypnotism is exclusively applied to a definite 
nervous state, observable under certain conditions, 
subject to general rules, produced by known and in 
no sense mysterious processes, and based on modifica- 
tions of the functions of the patient’s nervous system. 
Thus it appears that hypnotism has arisen from animal 68 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
magnetism, just as the physico-medical sciences arose 
from the occult sciences of the Middle Ages. 
Braid began to observe the results of magnetism 
merely as an inquirer, and even as a sceptic. In 
November, 1841, he was present for the first time at 
some public experiments performed by Lafontaine, a 
Swiss magnetizer. Convinced that the phenomena 
which he saw were only due to an adroit imposture, he 
was anxious to discover by what means the operator was 
able to dupe his audience. He was soon satisfied that 
these phenomena, however strange, were quite genuine. 
But he saw no reason for admitting with Lafontaine that 
they were the consequence of the operator’s personal 
action on his subject, by means of a magnetic fluid; he 
rather considered them to be due to a subjective state, 
independent of all external influence. This was the first 
result of Braid’s researches; he showed that the theoretic 
fluid was not required to explain hypnotic phenomena. 
Braid gives the following account of the way in 
which he arrived at this discovery. All which he saw 
at the first magnetic seance left him incredulous. At 
a second seance, six days later, his attention was struck 
by the fact that it was not possible for the patient to 
open his eyes. He regarded this incapacity as a real 
phenomenon, for which he sought the physical cause; it 
occurred to him that this cause might be found in the 
fixed gaze, which has the effect of exhausting and 
paralyzing the nervous centres of the eyes and their 
appendages. It signifies little whether this explanation 
is true or false—it is only a matter of detail; but it is 
important that Braid should have regarded this first 
symptom of hypnotism, the spasm of the orbicularis HISTOKY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
69 
palpebrarum, as due to a modification of tlie state of the 
nervous system. Two days later he began, in the presence 
of his family and friends, a series of experiments, in- 
tended to justify his theory. He tells us that he 
requested his friend Walker to sit down and look fixedly 
at the neck of a wine-bottle, which was placed at such 
a height as to cause considerable fatigue to his eyes and 
eyelids when he looked at it attentively. In three 
minutes the eyelids closed, tears flowed down his cheeks, 
his head drooped, his countenance was slightly contracted, 
a sigh escaped from him, and at the same moment he fell 
into a deep sleep. Mrs. Braid was much astonished by 
the patient’s fear and agitation when he awoke, for 
which she could see no cause, since she had not ceased 
to wTatch her husband, and she had seen that he did not 
approach Walker, nor touch him in any way. Braid 
proposed that she should herself submit to the operation, 
to which she readily assented, assuring those present 
that she should be less easily frightened than the first 
subject. Braid made his wife sit down and fix her eyes 
on the ornaments of a porcelain sugar-basin, which was 
placed at about the same angle with the eyes as that 
formed by the bottle in the previous experiment. In 
two minutes the expression of her features was changed; 
in two and a half minutes the eyelids closed with a 
convulsive movement, the mouth was distorted, the 
patient sighed deeply, the chest heaved, she fell back. 
It was evident that she had passed through a paroxysm 
of hysteria, and Braid then awoke her. 
This account shows that there was nothing complex 
nor mysterious in the process which caused sleep; it was 
only necessary for the subject to concentrate his attention 70 
AMIMAL MAGNETISM. 
and his gaze for a few minutes on a given object. A 
brilliant object was sometimes employed, but this was 
not an indispensable condition. 
From this time the reality of somnambulism was 
established; it became a state subject to observation, 
which any one could produce at pleasure. Numerous 
observers since Braid have repeated the experiment of 
the fixity of gaze, and have reproduced precisely the 
same phenomena. The simultaneous fixing of the 
attention appears to be necessary as a rule, and Braid 
considers that this explains why idiots cannot be 
hypnotized. 
This important discovery throws a vivid light on 
religious practices which up to that time had been 
inexplicable. We know that Indian devotees are thrown 
into an ecstasy of union with God, by contemplating for 
hours an imaginary point in space. The monks of Mount 
Athos were addicted to the same practice, fixing their 
gaze on their navels. These are evidently hypnotic 
states, produced by the fixity of gaze. 
Since he showed that hypnotism could be produced 
by fixing the eyes on an inanimate object, such as the 
stopper of a bottle or the blade of a lancet, Braid 
proved that this nervous state did not necessarily result 
from the transmission of a fluid by the operator. He 
had therefore simplified the study of hypnotism by 
getting rid of all the marvellous phenomena which had 
discredited it for such a length of time. But Braid’s 
conclusions were too absolute. The first conceptions of 
things are always simpler than the reality. It would be 
a mistake to suppose that the personality of the operator 
never has anything to do with the phenomena displayed HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
71 
before him. Broca’s assertion must not be taken literally, 
“The subject is not put to sleep; he goes to sleep.” The 
sleep produced by fixing the eyes on a brilliant object 
sometimes differs in certain points from the sleep produced 
by personal intervention. We shall soon have occasion 
to show that in some cases the patient displays a sort of 
affinity for the person who puts him to sleep, and who 
touches his bare hands. 
Braid pursued his investigations further. His most 
important discovery relates to the effect produced by a 
given attitude on the subject’s sentiments. When placed 
in the attitude of anger, with clenched fists, his counte- 
nance assumes a menacing expression, and he begins to 
box; if he is made to imitate the action of sending a 
7 o 
kiss, his mouth smiles. So, again, the action of climbing 
or swimming is produced when the body is placed in the 
position required for executing the several acts. 
These were Braid’s two chief discoveries; he also 
made several observations of which the justice has now 
been admitted. He ascertained that the character of 
the sleep was not always the same, but that it consisted 
of a series of states, varying from a light slumber up to 
the most profound sleep. He observed that breathing on 
the face had the singular effect of changing the hypnotic 
state, and breathing on it for the second time caused the 
subject to awake. He also observed that the senses, espe- 
cially those of touch, smell, and hearing, might suddenly 
become excessively acute in hypnotized subjects, and it 
appeared to him that this sensorial modification might 
afford a rational explanation of some of the marvellous 
effects obtained by professional magnetizers. Finally, he 
observed that verbal suggestion might produce hallucina- 72 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
tions, emotions, paralysis, etc. Suggestion during the 
waking state, which has latterly been asserted by some 
writers to be possible, did not escape his notice. 
Although so many of his observations were just, 
Braid’s descriptions of hypnotism are not definite; they 
contain an indiscriminate account of all the symptoms 
of hypnotism, anaesthesia, hypereesthesia, hallucinations, 
paralysis, suggestions of theft and other criminal acts, 
unilateral hypnosis, duplication of the consciousness, etc., 
as if all these phenomena had not their peculiar con- 
ditions, and did not belong to distinct states. Braid’s 
imperfect work has been completed by the Salpetriere 
school, which shows that hypnotism is a nervous 
condition, presenting characteristics which vary in in- 
tensity, if not in their nature, so that it is possible to 
distinguish the several phases or states in which the 
action of the subject varies. 
In addition to the want of classification betrayed by 
this disorderly exposition of facts, Braid has erred in 
putting in one category the unproved and the uncertain, 
the uncertain and the purely imaginative. A few pages 
of his book suffice to show that we have to do with a 
believer rather than with an observer. 
Braid has also been blamed for his unsatisfactory 
experiments in phreno-hypnotism, intended to prove 
the possibility of exciting special sentiments, ideas, and 
acts, by pressing on the humps of the skull of a hypno- 
tized subject. The account of these experiments occupies 
an important place in his Neurypnology. Braid, after 
taking care to inform us that, while making use of 
phrenology, he is no materialist, confidently asserts that 
he could inspire the idea of theft by pressing on the HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
73 
organ of acquisitiveness ; of fighting, by pressing on that 
of combativeness; of prayer, by pressing on the organ of 
veneration, etc. 
The following experiment was the most curious of 
the series, and will give an idea of the others. Acquisi- 
tiveness was excited, and the subject stole a silver snuff- 
box from one of the spectators; the pressure was then 
transferred to the organ of conscientiousness, and the 
patient surrendered the object with a striking air of 
contrition. Braid seems to have foreseen the charge of 
simulation, and he takes care to affirm that several of 
his phrenological experiments were performed on persons 
who knew nothing about phrenology, and whose honour 
was unimpeachable. It is easy, up to a certain point, to 
understand the strange illusion of which Braid was the 
dupe. He had not observed the importance of that 
frequent source of error called unconscious suggestion. 
It is now known that an indiscreet word uttered before 
subjects very sensitive to suggestion is enough to show 
what is expected of them, and to make them act in the 
sense intended by the operator. A gesture may some- 
times produce the same effect, and this explains how, in 
some public exhibitions, the magnetizer, having agreed 
with his subject to deceive the spectators, is able to 
make him obey mental orders without expressing them 
verbally. There is in reality no communication by 
thought, but by signs which are comprehended by the 
subject with extraordinary quickness of perception. In 
Braid’s experiments it is probable that something- 
analogous occurred, although there was no imposture. 
Braid was doubtless as honest as his subjects, but the 
latter unconsciously obeyed a gesture or word, or were 74 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
unconsciously influenced by the recollection of a previous 
seance. This seems the more probable assumption, since 
Braid’s subjects were often people in good society, 
assembled to take part in a seance of phreno-hypnotism, 
and who, after seeing what Braid effected on others, 
voluntarily submitted to be the subjects of experiment. 
Braid’s errors are not, however, wholly devoid of 
truth. Numerous observers have declared that pressure 
on the heads of hypnotic subjects produces a surprising 
variety of sensory and motor effects. 
As a physician, Braid was much occupied in applying 
hypnotism to therapeutics. His observations refer to 
diseases of the eye, to tic-douloureux, nervous headaches, 
spinal irritation, neuralgia of the heart, palpitations and 
irregular action of the heart, epilepsy, paralysis, convul- 
sions, tonic spasms, affections of the skin, rheumatism, 
etc. We cannot refrain from the belief that here again 
Braid was deceived in more than one instance, but he 
must be credited with having made a fairly methodical 
study of hypnotic therapeutics. 
The results of Braid’s labours have in our day been 
considerable. He has the merit of having proved that 
animal magnetism is a natural phenomenon, a definite 
nervous condition, produced by means of known pro- 
cesses. Lasegue regards him as an indifferent physiologist. 
But this matters little, since many more intelligent and 
liberal minds have not the merit of having discovered 
a single new fact. Indeed, it appears that a certain 
narrowness of mind, allied with an obstinate will, is to 
some extent characteristic of the innovator.* 
* We subjoin a list of Braid’s works ; Neurypnology; or, The Rationale 
of Nervous Sleep, considered in relation with Animal Magnetism, by James HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
75 
Braid’s discovery had little success in his own country, 
although it obtained the support of the physiologist 
Carpenter. In 1842 he submitted his researches to the 
medical section of the British Association, and offered to 
repeat his experiments before a special commission. 
The offer was formally rejected, and the section proceeded 
to other matters. It was said that this subject, like so 
many others, must make its way independently of learned 
bodies. Braid was not discouraged, and became the 
propagator of hypnotism with the indefatigable ardour 
which is characteristic of innovators, and which we have 
lately observed in Burq, the inventor of metaUo-therapia. 
He held many experimental seances in London, Liver- 
pool, and Manchester, without obtaining the justice due 
to him. 
Braid’s theory had more success in America, but not 
under his own name. In 1848 an American named 
Grimes, who does not appear to have been acquainted 
with Braid’s discovery, showed that most of the hypnotic 
phenomena could in certain subjects be produced in the 
waking state by means of verbal suggestion. This 
theory, which passed in the United States under the 
somewhat absurd name of electro-biology, reached Eng- 
land in 1850, and produced a new movement in favour 
of hypnotism. 
Although extracts from Braid’s works were published 
by Littre and Bob in, by Bobin and Beraud, etc., and 
Braid (London: John Churchill, 1813); The Power of the Mind over the 
Body (1846); Observations on Trance, or Human Hybernation (1850); Magic, 
Witchcraft, Animal Magnetism, Hypnotism, and Electro-biology (1852); The 
Physiology of Fascination (1855); Observations on the Nature and Treatment 
of Certain Forms of Paralysis (1855). 76 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
there was an article on the subject in the Presse by 
Meunier, his theories were little known in France. 
In 1850 the question was, however, again brought 
before the French public by Azam, a Bordeaux surgeon. 
Azam had been called in to see a poor girl who was 
said to be insane, and who presented the singular phe- 
nomena of spontaneous catalepsy, of anaesthesia, and of 
hypersesthesia. Azam was acquainted with the mag- 
netic phenomena of artificial somnambulism, and was 
struck by the correspondence between these and those 
which occurred spontaneously in his patient. One of 
his colleagues mentioned to him Braid’s experiments, 
which were reported in Todd’s Encyclopedia, and he 
tried to repeat these experiments on his patient, not 
without misgivings. He tells us that “at the first 
attempt, after being subjected for one or two minutes to 
the usual process, the patient fell asleep; the anaesthesia 
was complete, and it was evident that she was in a state 
of catalepsy. Hypersesthesia afterwards supervened, 
accompanied by the power of answering questions, and 
other symptoms indicative of the exercise of the intelli- 
gence.” * Similar experiments were successfully per- 
formed by Azam on another girl living in the same 
house, for the most part such experiments as had been 
described by Braid. We quote an instance of suggestions 
by means of the muscular sense : “ If, during the period 
of catalepsy, I place Mile. X ’s arms in the position 
of prayer, and leave them thus for a certain time, she 
states that her thoughts are fixed on prayer, and that 
she supposes herself to be present at a religious rite. 
When placed with folded arms and drooping head, she 
* Archives de Mtdecine, 18G0, p. 8. HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
77 
feels her mind possessed by a series of ideas of humility 
and contrition. When her head is raised her ideas 
become haughty.” The hypersesthesia of the senses is 
no less decided. Azam asserts that the hearing becomes 
so acute as to distinguish the ticking of a watch at the 
o o 
distance of nine or ten yards : this sensitiveness to noise 
fatigues the subjects, and an expression of pain passes 
over the face at the rolling of carriages, the human 
voice, etc. When a bare hand is placed behind her back, 
at a distance of forty centimetres, Mile. X stoops 
forward and complains of feeling the heat. 
Azam was, however, chiefly struck by the general 
anaesthesia which frequently accompanied the hypnotic 
sleep. In concert with Broca, he sought in hypnotism 
a fresh mode of producing anaesthesia during surgical 
operations. This idea gained ground. Broca remarks 
that a method which introduces no foreign substance 
into the system appears to him to be absolutely in- 
offensive. This, however, is erroneous, since death may 
be produced by a suggestion. In 1851 Broca and Follin 
put a woman under hypnotism before making an incision 
in an abscess in the anus. This fact was communicated 
to the Academy of Sciences by Yelpeau, who, in an- 
nouncing with satisfaction this “new discovery,” appeared 
to have no doubt that animal magnetism, which had 
been condemned by the Academy, had reappeared under 
a new name. A few days later Guerineau, of Poitiers, 
employed the same hypnotic anaesthesia during the 
amputation of a thigh. The interest in hypnotism 
became general, and it was remembered that as early 
as 1829 Cloquet had amputated the breast of a mag- 
netized woman, and that Loysel had performed very 78 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
serious operations under like conditions. It was, how- 
ever, a transient interest, since the surgeons perceived 
that the hypnotic sleep could not be produced in all 
subjects; that even in those most susceptible to it, a series 
of daily hypnotizations must precede the operation, and 
that sometimes, instead of producing anaesthesia, the 
converse effect of hyperaesthesia was produced. These 
failures were partly due to the fact that it was not then 
known that suggestion might be used to produce in- 
sensibility. Chloroform was, therefore, soon preferred to 
hypnotism as the safer and more convenient means. 
The year 1860 witnessed the dawn and decline of the 
prevailing fashion of employing hypnotism to produce 
surgical anaesthesia. 
The question of animal magnetism, which had been 
proscribed twenty years before by the Academy of 
Medicine, was, however, reopened. The reality of the 
nervous sleep was no longer disputed; the mode of 
producing it was known, as well as its main symptoms. 
Distinguished physicians were now anxious to study 
these phenomena, without fear of compromising them- 
selves. It was at this time that the works of Demarquay, 
and Giraud-Teulon, Gigot-Suard, Liebault, and Philips 
(Durand de Gros) appeared. 
The chief result of these researches was to confirm 
Braid’s work in essential particulars. It was again 
proved that the personality of the hypnotizer is not a 
necessary element in producing the subject’s sleep. 
Demarquay and Giraud-Teulon, in order to ward off the 
influence of the experimenter’s gaze, made use of a 
polished steel ball, which was mounted on a stalk and 
fastened to a diadem; this diadem was placed on the HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
79 
subject’s head, and his eyes were consequently drawn 
into the indicated convergence without the intervention 
of the experimenter.* It is needless to add that this 
method produced sleep in the subject, just as other 
methods did. Gigot-Suard even ascertained that a bril- 
liant object need not be presented to the eyes, and that 
the fixity of gaze would suffice. It was enough to order 
the subject to look at his nose, and then immediately to 
bandage his eyes. This also produced hypnosis. 
Demarquay and Giraud-Teulon agreed that a pre- 
disposition to hysteria was a general condition of hypnotic 
effects. In fact, results were only obtained from four 
persons out of eighteen, and these four were all women; 
the men submitted to experiment were altogether refrac- 
tory. Moreover, in one of these women the attempt at 
hypnotization produced the first symptoms of an hysteric 
attack. Hence they concluded that the nervous state 
designated as hypnotism was not physiological, but alto- 
gether morbid. The work by Demarquay and Giraud- 
Teulon is brief, accurate, and full of carefully observed 
facts, without the mystical tendency which is found in 
Braid. It is perhaps the first work on hypnotism of a 
strictly scientific character. 
Durand de Gros, better known as Dr. Philips, since 
he was one of the proscribed of December 2, and as- 
sumed this name in order to return to France, delivered 
public lectures on hypnotism in Belgium, Switzerland, 
France, and Algeria. In 1860 he published a Cours 
theorique et 'pratique de Braidisme, in which he developed 
his ideas on the mechanism of hypnosis. But the medical 
world was not much moved by his abstract conceptions 
* Recherche sur VHypnotisms (Gazette Medicate de Paris, 1859, 18GO). 80 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
of the hypotaxle state and of ideoplasticism, of which we 
will only say a few words. According to this author, the 
exercise of thought is necessary for the regular diffusion 
of nervous force into the sensory nerves ; the exercise of 
this mental activity is suspended by hypnotism, or rather 
is reduced to a minimum by submitting it to the exclusive 
excitement of a simple, homogeneous, and continuous 
sensation. Since the nervous force is no longer consumed 
by thought, it accumulates in the brain, and this sort of 
nervous congestion is termed the hypotaxic state. But, 
by a special impression on the sight, the hearing, or the 
touch, a given point of the brain may be excited, so that 
all the disposable nervous force may be accumulated on 
it. The same result may be obtained with a mental 
impression as with a sensorial impression; it awakens 
the activity proper to a given part of the brain, and 
produces the most varied effects. This is ideoplasticism. 
Durand de Gros’s theories somewhat resemble those 
set forth five years later by Liebault, a physician of 
Nancy, in a work entitled, “ Sleep, and the states analo- 
gous to it, specially considered in the action of the morale 
on the physique ” (Nancy, 1866). In his preface Liebault 
writes: “In my endeavour to study the passive modes of 
existence, I have first sought to demonstrate the truth 
that they are the effects of a mental action, and then to 
make my readers acquainted with their properties, from 
the point of view of the action of the morale on the 
physique.” In these words we find the germ of the idea 
developed by subsequent writers, who wish to prove that 
all the phenomena of artificial sleep,—both mental and 
physical phenomena, such as contractions, catalepsy, etc.. 
—are produced by suggestion. Thus, Liebault asserted HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
81 
that artificial as well as natural sleep was produced by 
an act of the intelligence, that is, by concentrating the 
attention on one idea, that of going to sleep. This 
explanation does not apply to those persons who are 
hypnotized against their will. Liebault goes further, 
and maintains that modifications of the attention, its 
too energetic retreat into the brain, etc., cause the 
difficulty of breathing, the dilatation of the pupils, the 
weight of the head, singing in the ears, cyanosis, and the 
palpitations of the heart which accompany the approach 
of sleep. In Liebault’s opinion, attention appears to sum 
up the action of the mind on the physique. Concentration 
of the attention causes the isolation of the senses, the 
cessation of muscular movements, the establishment of a 
rapport between the somnambulist and the operator, 
catalepsy, etc. The afflux of attention to the organs of 
the senses increases their power of perception; its 
accumulation on the “ empreintes sensorielles ” quickens 
the memory, and so it is with the other senses. On 
waking from a state of profound hypnotism, there is 
oblivion, which is due to the fact that all the nervous 
force accumulated in the brain during sleep is, on awaking, 
again diffused throughout the organism; since the nervous 
force is diminished in the brain, it is impossible for the 
subject to recall to mind that of which he was previously 
aware. 
Liebault’s ideas were received with incredulity; his 
mode of practice appeared to be so singular that it was 
rejected by his colleagues without further examination. 
He lived in retirement, apart from the medical world, and 
entirely devoted to his convictions and to his patients, 
who were almost wholly of the poorer class. It is not 82 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
difficult to understand the cause of his failure. His 
book does not contain any clear and definite account of 
hypnotism; the symptoms which result from this pro- 
found modification of the system are not the object of 
a methodical study, and his descriptions are vague and 
without definite character. There is, perhaps, not a 
single scientific proof of hypnotism in the whole book. 
Yet we must give Libbault credit for having been a 
conscientious observer, convinced of the truth of his 
practice. It is said that his convictions brought him 
into unpleasant relations with his colleagues, and it is 
probable that they would never have been accepted 
without the labours of Charcot and his pupils, who re- 
established the study of hypnotism, simply by giving an 
accurate description of the physical characteristics of 
some of the nervous states designated by that name. 
The theories of Braid were now again in the 
ascendant. Up to 1878 nothing of much novelty was 
contributed to them. We need only mention the works 
of Mesnet (1860), of Lasegue (1865), of Baillif (1868), 
of Pau de Saint-Martin (1869). No advance was made, 
but the same ground was traversed again. 
There is a good account of the works of this period 
in an article by Duval, which appeared in 187-1 in the 
Dictionnaire pratique de medicine et de chirurgie. At 
the same date, Dechambre declared in the Dictionnaire 
encyclope'dique des sciences medicates that animal mag- 
netism did not exist. 
By degrees the question sank into silence and 
oblivion. The more earnest minds turned away from it, 
and abandoned the subject to professional magnetizers, 
who contrived to make money by public exhibitions of lIISTOEY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
83 
hypnotism. From time to time a man of note attempted 
to shake off the general indifference, but no response 
was made. In 1875, Ch. Fichet published in the Journal 
de Vanatomie et de la physiologic the result of some 
researches on hypnotism, which he had made while 
house-surgeon of a hospital. Although the paper was 
interesting and full of facts, it obtained little notice. 
At about the same time the somnambulism of animals 
was studied in Germany. As Fichet justly observes: 
“ In order to judge of the question of simulation, nothing 
can be simpler than to perform experiments on beings 
incapable of playing a part.” But it was ascertained, on 
setting to work, that the symptoms of somnambulism in 
animals are by no means strongly marked. 
As early as 1646, Father Athanasius Kircher relates, 
in a book entitled Ars magna lucis et umbrae, that if a 
cock, with his legs tied together, be placed before a line 
made upon the floor with white chalk, he becomes at the 
end of a few moments perfectly motionless ; if the string 
be untied and he is excited, he does not issue from the 
cataleptic state. This experiment may be of still earlier 
date, since it has been ascribed to Daniel Schwenter 
(1636). However this be, in many countries the 
hypnotization of poultry became a popular amusement. 
In 1872, Czermak carefully repeated these experiments; 
he hypnotized a cock without making use of the ligature, 
or of the chalk line, and kept the animal immovable. 
He extended the experiment to other animals, to 
sparrows, pigeons, rabbits, salamanders, and crabs.* 
Preyer,f whose treatise on the subject is the most 
* Coinptes rendus de VAcade'mie de Vienne, 18/2, p. 361. 
f Die Kataplexie, etc. Jena, 1878. 84 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
complete which we possess, ascribed most of the phe- 
nomena observed under these conditions to fear. This 
author holds that strong excitement produces the cata- 
leptic state, that is, a paralysis due to fear. For instance, 
if a lizard’s tail, or a frog’s foot, is suddenly pinched, the 
animal becomes petrified, sometimes for several minutes, 
and is incapable of moving its limbs. Gentle and 
protracted excitement is needed to effect the hypnosis of 
animals. If the nostrils of a guinea-pig are kept for 
some time slightly compressed with a pair of pincers, the 
animal becomes hypnotic, and is thrown into such a 
stupor that it can be placed in the most absurd positions 
without being awakened. This arbitrary distinction 
between catalepsy and hypnotism has not been accepted. 
We need only note that many animals can be hypnotized, 
either by a brief and strong excitement of the skin, or by 
a repeated and fainter action of the same kind. 
The experiments on the frog are interesting, and easy 
to reproduce. Heubel * has shown that if a lively frog 
is lightly held between the fingers, with the thumb on 
the belly, and the four fingers on the back, the animal 
becomes perfectly motionless at the end of two or three 
minutes; it may be stretched upon its back, or placed in 
all sorts of positions, without making any attempt at 
defence or escape. The same paralytic state may be 
produced by gently scratching the frog’s back. But it 
must be admitted that none of these facts throw much 
fresh light on animal magnetism, and we do not, therefore, 
insist on them further. 
We now come to the year 1878, and to the researches 
of the Salpetriere school. 
* Archives Pfl tiger, vol. xiv. HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
85 
The history of animal magnetism has shown that if, 
up to late years, the existence of the nervous sleep, and 
of the various phenomena allied with it, has been 
doubted, it is chiefly because the experimenters wanted 
method, and were principally concerned with the study of 
complex psychical phenomena. Such phenomena often 
lack the material characteristics which would place them 
beyond dispute. Since the proofs of these remarkable 
manifestations were wanting, it was at once concluded 
that they were, at any rate, hypothetical, if not false. 
The disputes and doubts might have gone on in- 
definitely, but for the intervention of material facts, 
which it was impossible to interpret in different senses. 
These material facts could not be at once discovered in the 
domain of the complex phenomena which had attracted 
the attention of the early experimenters; they belonged 
to the purely physical order of things. 
We must add that these physical signs of hypnosis 
have not hitherto been observed in their complete 
development, except in subjects affected by hysteria. 
Hence it follows that the hypnotism which first took its 
place in science is that of hysterical patients, and it is 
still termed profound hypnotism, both to characterize the 
intensity of its symptoms, and to distinguish it from the 
feebler forms which had, up to that time, been exclusively 
studied by physicians, and which may now be grouped 
under the name of slight hypnotism. 
The method which led to the revival of hypnotism 
may be summed up in these words: the production of 
material symptoms, which give to some extent an ana- 
tomical demonstration of the reality of a special state 
of the nervous system. This is merely an application of 86 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
Descartes’s rule, that we should go from the simple to 
the compound. Before adopting this method, we have 
passed through an age of senseless errors and sterile 
discussions. 
It is to Charcot that the honour must be assigned of 
having been the first to enter on this course, in which he 
has been followed by numerous observers. The violence 
with which he was attacked is a proof of the important 
part he took in the question. Whatever objections may 
be made to his description of the different states known 
under the name of hypnotism, it is certain that the 
application of the nosographic method to this study 
enabled Charcot to establish phenomena within the 
domain of science which had hitherto been regarded as 
beyond its range. Charcot was not only fortunate enough 
to establish the scientific value of hypnotism, but to obtain 
compensation for his earlier academic failures by his 
triumphant readmission into the Academy of Sciences.* 
The researches of the Salpetriere school served as the 
point of departure for a fresh scientific movement, which 
continues up to the present day. 
In 1880, Heidenhain, an eminent German physio- 
logist, resumed the study of hypnotism, prompted by 
some public performances at Breslau, given by a Danish 
magnetizer named Hansen. Heidenhain’s paper f gave 
the signal for several other German publications, among 
* J. M. Charcot, Essai d'nne distinction nosographique des divers etafs 
compris sous le nom d’Uypnotisme (G. R., Ac. des Sciences, 1882). 
t Heidenhain, Dcr sogenannte thierische Magnetismus; Physiologische 
Beohaehtungen (Leipzig, 1880); Heidenhain uud Grutzner, Halbseitige 
Hypnotismus, ffypnotische A phasic, Farbenhlindheit, u. Mangel des Temper• 
atuvismus hei Hypnotischen, in Brest. Artel. Zeitschr., ii. 4. 1880. HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
87 
which we may mention that by Griitzner,* by Berger,| 
by Baumler, X by Preyer, § by Schneider. || In France 
we find, among others, P. Richer, Bourneville and 
llegnard, Dumontpallier and his pupils, Ladame, Bottey, 
Pitres, Bremaud, Bernheim, Beaunis; in Italy, Tamburini 
and Seppili, and Lombroso; in England, Hack Tuke. 
* Griitzner, Ueber d. neureren Erfahrungen aus dem Gehiete des sage- 
nannten thierischen Magnetismus {Cent. f. Nerv. Psch., 10. 1880). 
t Berger, Eypnotische Zustdnde, und Hire Genesnng, in Brest. Arztl. 
Zeitschr., ii., 10, 11, 12. 1880; Das Verhnlten der Sinnesorgane, in hypno- 
tischen Zustand, in Brest. Arztl. Zeitschv., iii. 7. 1881; Experimentelle 
Katalepsie; Deutsch. med. Wochenschrift, vi., 10. 1880. 
$ Baumler, Der sogen. ardmalische Magnetismus, oder Eypnotismus. 
Leipzig, 1881. 
§ Preyer, Die Entdeclcung des Eypnotismus, Berlin, 1881. 
|( Sclmeider, Diepsych. Ursache der Eypnot. Erschein. Leipzig, 1880. 88 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
CHAPTER IY. 
THE MODES OF PRODUCING HYPNOSIS. 
As far as its mode of production is concerned, hypnotic 
sleep does not essentially differ from natural sleep, of 
which it is in fact only a modification, and all the causes 
which produce fatigue are capable of producing hypnosis 
in those who are subject to it; it is in this sense that we 
may say with Richer, that all means are effectual, if only 
they are applied to a predisposed organism. 
Sensorial excitements produce hypnosis in two ways : 
when they are strong and abrupt, or when they are faint 
and continued for a prolonged period. 
The former mode of excitement was studied for the 
first time by Charcot and his pupils, who employed, 
among other means, vivid impressions on the sight, such 
as the sudden introduction of a solar lamp into a dark 
room, fixing the eyes on the sun, the incandescence of a 
strip of magnesium, the electric light, etc. In hysterical 
subjects the intense excitement immediately produces 
catalepsy. If the patient is seated at work, is standing, 
or walking, she is transfixed in the attitude in which she 
was surprised, and fear is expressed in her countenance 
and in her gestures. The same effect may be produced 
by an intense noise, like that of a Chinese gong, by a THE MODES OF PRODUCING HYPNOSIS. 
89 
whistle, or by the vibration of a tuning-fork. When 
the subject is predisposed, comparatively slight, but 
unexpected noises, such for instance as the crackling 
of a piece of paper, or the chinking of a glass, are enough 
to produce catalepsy. 
If the excitement is moderate, rather than violent, it 
must be prolonged in order to cause the hypnotic sleep, 
which, however, it scarcely ever fails to produce. The 
subject is put to sleep after Braid’s method, by fixing his 
gaze for a few moments on an object which may be 
slightly luminous, or altogether dark, such as a black 
stick, which should be held near the eyes and a little 
above them, so as to produce a convergent and superior 
strabismus. After a while the eyes become humid and 
brilliant, the gaze becomes fixed, the pupils are dilated. 
When the object is withdrawn, the subject remains in 
a cataleptic state; if it is not withdrawn, the subject 
soon falls backwards with a sigh, there is a slight 
frothing on the lips, and lethargy ensues. The converg- 
ence of the eyes alone will produce sleep, as for instance 
at night (Carpenter); some subjects fall asleep spon- 
taneously when their eyes are fixed upon their needle- 
work, when they are reading, or looking in the mirror 
while dressing. Monotonous sounds also produce sleep. 
Weinhold and Heidenhain produced hypnosis by causing 
the subject to listen to the ticking of a watch; and a 
faint but continuous musical sound may produce the 
same effect. It is also well known that monotonous 
action on the hearing, a nurse’s lullaby, the noise of 
the wind, the reciting of prayers, have a marked effect 
in producing natural sleep in many people. 
It likewise occurred to us to produce a lethargic 90 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
sleep by fatiguing the sense of smell with a protracted 
odour of musk. No experiments have been made on 
the sense of taste. Tickling of the pharynx has succeeded 
with many subjects, but in this case it may be from 
complex reasons, since the subject nearly always fixes 
his eyes and keeps the thorax motionless. 
Some facts appear to indicate that an excitement 
of the organs of the senses which does not act upon their 
special functions, but only mechanically, may produce 
like effects. Thus, when the eyeball is compressed 
through the closed lid, which was often done by Lasegue, 
hypnosis may be produced in some subjects, and a like 
effect may be produced by pressure on the external meatus 
of the ear. These modes of hypnotization belong, as we 
think, to the group of those which act by exhaustion of 
the special senses. In fact, a pressure on the eyeball, 
however slight, produces irritation at the base of the 
eye, whence there follows a sensation of light. When 
the external orifice of the ear is compressed, there is a 
pressure on the membrane of the tympanum by means 
of the air contained in the tube, and it may easily be 
shown that this causes a continuous murmur, which 
fatigues the sense of hearing, so that in this case also 
sleep results from exhaustion. 
The hypnotizing processes in which a method in- 
volving contact with the skin is necessary, are, however, 
susceptible of more than one interpretation. We know 
that magnetizers formerly made use of what are termed 
passes; these passes consist in lightly touching the 
subject, either directly, or indirectly, through his clothes, 
and a prolonged repetition of these gestures produces 
sleep. Ch. Eichet has ascertained that a gentle excite- THE MODES OF PRODUCING HYPNOSIS. 
91 
merit of the skin may produce the somnambulist sleep as 
well as the excitement of the special senses ; yet it may 
be assumed that the success of the passes is greatly due 
to the psychical element. 
We must note one interesting point in the history 
of hypnotizing processes, by means of irritation of the 
skin. On looking over the writings of magnetizers in 
o o o 
the first half of the century, we are struck by the re- 
currence of certain gestures which contributed to dis- 
credit animal magnetism. It appears that the experi- 
menter often caused his subject to sit down opposite to 
him, pressed his or her knees within his own, grasped 
the thumbs with his hands, and sometimes applied his 
forehead to that of the subject of experiment. These 
gestures, which appeared to be indecent, and unnecessary 
for the purpose he wished to effect, were in fact founded 
on accurate observations, which have since been verified. 
It has been ascertained that when the scalp of 
hypnotized subjects is slightly irritated, the character of 
the sleep is changed. Thus, individuals plunged in the 
state designated by Charcot as lethargic or cataleptic, 
may be made to pass into the somnambulist state by a 
slight friction in the region of the scalp. Heidenhain, 
Griitzner, and Berger, by slight and prolonged friction on 
one side of the heads of subjects in the waking state, 
have produced in them a unilateral hypnosis, displayed 
by an excessive muscular excitability. The influence 
of irritation localized in certain regions has recently been 
well described by Pitres, who has shown that in some 
subjects there are zones he terms hypnogenic, sometimes 
superficial, sometimes deeply seated, and that even a 
slight irritation of these zones may produce hypnosis, 92 
ANIMAL BIAGNETISM. 
or occasionally cause it to cease.* Such zones may be 
found in all parts of the body, but most frequently in 
the vicinity of the joints, on the scalp, and especially 
on the forehead, and also at the root of the thumb. The 
legitimate observation of facts therefore justifies the 
gestures formerly in use, and we must not hastily 
condemn or deny that which we do not understand. 
Irritation of the skin is as effectual when it is done 
with a feather, or some other inert body, as with the 
hand. We have ascertained that the sleep may be 
produced in several instances by placing a magnet close 
to an hypnogenic zone. We have also observed that the 
subject may put himself to sleep by pressing on such a 
zone. It should be added that each subject may display 
different hypnotic zones, not only as to their site, but as 
to their action; lethargy, catalepsy, and somnambulism 
may result in their several forms from the excitement of 
one or other of these zones. 
Heat may produce the same effect as a mechanical 
excitement of the skin. Berger showed that he could 
produce hypnosis by holding his hot hands near the head 
of a person in a natural sleep ; the heat disengaged from 
his hands produced this effect, for when he wore woollen 
gloves, or covered the sleeper’s head, hypnotization did 
not occur. Berger also obtained like effects by placing 
metal plates, moderately heated, near the heads of his 
subjects. 
An excitement which is not felt may have a hypno- 
tizing effect, since consciousness is a super-added element, 
which is not essential. Thus the magnet, which acts 
as a peripheral excitement, may hypnotize a subject 
* A. Pitres, Des zones hysitfrogenes et hypnogenes. Bordeaux, 1885. THE MODES OF PRODUCING HYPNOSIS. 
93 
without his perceiving the action exerted by this body 
on his organism. The influence of the magnet on 
hypnosis was first pointed out by Landouzy, in 1879, 
and the fact was afterwards verified by Chambard, and 
by the present writers. 
Hypnotization by sensorial excitement, or by a 
physiological process, may be summed up as follows : 
1. By excitement of the sense of sight: (a) Strong 
and sudden excitement, by luminous rays, by solar or 
electric light, or by the sudden incandescence of a 
magnesium wire; (b) slight and prolonged excitement, 
by fixing the eyes on an object, brilliant or otherwise, 
which is placed near the eyes, and somewhat above their 
level. 
2. By excitement of the sense of hearing: (a) Strong 
and sudden excitement, by a gong, by copper instru- 
ments, etc.; (b) slight and prolonged excitement, by the 
ticking of a watch, the vibrations of a tuning-fork, or 
any other monotonous sound. 
3. By excitement of the senses of taste and smell. 
4. By excitement of the sense of touch: (a) Strong 
and sudden excitement, by pressure on the hypnogenic 
zones; (b) slight and prolonged excitement, by passes, 
contact, action of heat or of the magnet. 
These several physiological processes act very differ- 
ently on different subjects. When used in combination, 
their effect may be greater or more rapid. Although, 
as Braid has shown, the operator’s personality has not 
the importance which was formerly ascribed to it, yet it 
cannot be said to be altogether negative. It can easily 
be proved that some experimenters are more successful 
than others, at any rate with some subjects. This 94 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
elective phenomenon is not unimportant, and is perhaps 
partly due to the specific heat, smell, etc. 
If this elective affinity exists in physiological pro- 
cesses, it is much more manifest in those processes which 
are psychical. In fact, hypnosis is not produced only 
by sensorial and peripheral excitement; it is also effected 
by central excitement, that is, by acting on the imagi- 
nation. It may be asserted that, whenever the subject 
is warned that he is about to be hypnotized, his mind 
contributes to the success of the operation, and the sleep 
is partly due to psychical action. 
The Abbe Faria, who induced sleep by intimation, 
has clearly shown that hypnosis may be effected by 
psychical action. His process consisted in desiring the 
subject, in an imperious voice, to go to sleep, and some- 
times, without uttering a word, a commanding gesture 
was enough to effect his purpose. Faria’s simple process 
is rarely employed, and insinuation is often substituted 
for intimation. Sleep may, for instance, be induced by 
telling the subject that he is sleepy or heavy, that his 
eyelids are closing, that he does not hear, nor see, etc., or 
—as we have ourselves observed—when the experimenter 
himself feigns to deep. This gentle process is perfectly 
successful with subjects who have previously been 
hypnotized in other ways, and it succeeds at once with 
predisposed subjects, who have been under a course of 
treatment, and who feel confidence in the operator, and 
in the result of the operation. It is, in fact, only sugges- 
tion in the waking state. 
This suggestion is often veiled by manoeuvres which 
formerly led to the belief that it was possible to magne- 
tize from a distance. A susceptible subject could be put THE MODES OF PRODUCING HYPNOSIS. 
95 
to sleep by making passes through a door, if only the 
subject was aware that a magnetizer was present with that 
purpose in view. This experiment, intended to show 
that somnambulism is produced by a fluid which escapes 
from the magnetizer’s body, and passes through opaque 
bodies, simply proves that the subject’s fixed idea that 
he is being hypnotized is enough to put him to sleep, 
and this is a psychical impression. In this way it can 
be explained how a magnetizer in Paris can hypnotize 
one of his subjects in the country, when the latter is 
aware on what day and at what hour the operation is to 
begin; and, again, how some subjects are hypnotized by 
causing them to touch objects to which magnetic virtue 
has been openly ascribed. This likewise explains the 
action of magnetized water and magnetized trees. But 
the most striking experiment is the suggestion of sleep 
after a long interval of time. The subject is assured, 
with the necessary firmness and authority, that after so 
many days, at such an hour, he will spontaneously fall 
asleep. On the day appointed and at the given hour the 
suggestion is realized; the subject is overcome by sleep 
in the midst of his occupations, and in whatever place he 
may happen to be. 
Several writers, who have observed the power of 
suggestion as an hypnogenic agent, have regarded it as 
universally present. Thus Braid asserts that the imagi- 
nation of the subject is an indispensable element in the 
success of the experiment; he declares that the most 
expert hypnotizer will exert himself in vain, unless the 
subject is aware of what is passing and surrenders him- 
self, body and soul. In our day, some authors have 
maintained that the expectant attitude was the cause of 96 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
all hypnotic phenomena, as well as of the phenomena of 
metallotherapeutics. Schneider and Berger consider that 
hypnosis is produced by a unilateral concentration of 
the attention. These assertions are too absolute. A 
whole series of purely physical agents exist, which prove 
that sleep can be induced without the aid of the subject’s 
imagination, against his will, and without his knowledge. 
We will mention, in conclusion, some of the experi- 
ments made by one of the present writers,* which confirm 
the idea already suggested by Braid, that hypnosis results 
from the exhaustion of the cerebral influx. An experi- 
mental proof can be given that all the sensorial excite- 
ments which induce hypnosis act by exhaustion, for the 
first effect of these excitements is an exaggeration of the 
motor phenomena. If the subject is made to ’hold a dyna- 
mograph in his right hand in such a -way as to exert 
no pressure on it, and if he is then hypnotized, it can 
be ascertained that a motor discharge occurs in the in- 
terval between the excitement and the sleep. There is 
an intense pressure of the fingers on the dynamograph, 
and, indeed, the movement extends to all the muscles of 
the body. It is therefore probable that the hypnogenic 
excitement provokes an exhausting activity. 
We are here met by the difficulty that the theory of 
exhaustion does not explain the sleep produced by sug- 
gestion. It has often been said that the psychical 
element in hypnosis vitiates all the attempts to give 
a physical explanation of this state. While admitting 
that the problem is difficult, we think it possible to 
* Ch. Fere, Inhibition et epuisement (Soc. de Biologic, May 7, 1886); 
Impuissance et pessimisms (Revue Philosophique, July, 1886); La medicine 
climagination (Brogres Medicals, 1886, p. 717). THE MODES OF PRODUCING HYPNOSIS. 
97 
reconcile some psychical processes of hypnotization with 
processes due to exhaustion. All kinds of suggestion 
consist in making one idea predominant in the subject’s 
mind; the suggestion of sleep is included in this category, 
and hypnotization is effected by the idea of sleep. Re- 
peated experiments, which we shall afterwards mention 
in detail, show that every idea is an image, that every 
image recalls an anterior sensation. From this point of 
view, hypnotization by suggestion consists in hypnotiza- 
tion by physical excitements, not actually occurring, but 
remembered. In confirmation of this assertion, we give 
an example of an experiment communicated to us by 
Ballet. The suggestion was made to a subject, either in 
her waking state or in a previous sleep, of an electric 
lamp, shining from the corner of the room. The subject 
was awake and conversing tranquilly. When told to 
look in the corner where the imaginary lamp was placed, 
she was at once attacked by catalepsy, just as if the 
electric ray had shone upon her face. Hallucination, 
that is, the image of the luminous impression, produced 
the same effect as the actual impression, because it was 
recalled to her mind. So it seems probable that the 
suggestion of sleep only effects its purpose by inducing 
the recollection of certain impressions of fatigue which 
involve exhaustion in the same way as a physical 
excitement. 
The awakening of the hypnotized subject, as well as 
his hypnotization, may be effected by two different pro- 
cesses—by a peripheral impression, or by a central and 
psychical impression. It is generally enough, in order to 
awaken the subject, to breathe lightly on his eyes or fore- 
head. The wind from a pair of bellows may be substi- 98 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
tuted without inconvenience for breathing from the mouth, 
or a few drops of water may be sprinkled on the face. 
When these means fail, the subject’s eyelids are opened, 
in order to breathe strongly on the cornese. And, in 
the case of patients, who do not awake under 
this treatment, pressure is applied in the region of the 
ovarium. Pitres has also shown the existence of super- 
ficial zones in many hysterical subjects, which may be 
excited in order to awaken them. It is very probable 
that they might be awakened by addressing special 
senses, particularly those of sight and hearing. But 
nothing certain is known on these points. If the 
experimenter breathes on one half of the forehead, while 
sheltering the other half with a screen, only half of the 
body is awakened. The subject may also be awakened 
by a psychical impression. When the order to awake 
is repeated a certain number of times, the subject awakes, 
just as he goes to sleep when ordered to do so. 
We see that there is a certain parallelism between 
the causes which produce hypnotism and those which 
remove it, and that in both cases it is done by excite- 
ment, whether of the surface of the skin, or of the special 
senses, or by a psychical excitement. This relation be- 
tween the two processes is still more marked in some 
hysterical patients in whom there are found zones en- 
dowed with inverse properties, at once hypnogenic and 
the reverse. When the patients in question are awakened, 
an excitement of one of these zones, as for instance 0:1 
the scalp, hypnotizes them, and an excitement of the 
same spot awakens them. In this case it may be said 
that the same cause has produced contrary effects, de- 
pending on the physical condition of the subject at the THE MODES OF PRODUCING HYPNOSIS. 
99 
moment of its action. But this is not a general rule. 
Some zones are exclusively hypnogenic; others are 
exclusively the reverse. 
If there are numerous ways of producing hypnotism, 
their efficacy greatly depends upon the conditions. The 
first of these is habit. It has been justly observed that 
the first attempt to hypnotize a subject nearly always 
fails, and that it almost invariably succeeds when the 
experiment has been several times repeated. It is 
important to note this fact of hypnotic education. 
Although absolutely no effect may be obtained at the 
first seance, and the subject may declare that he ex- 
perienced nothing, yet the attempt has impressed a 
permanent modification on his nervous system, which 
will render subsequent attempts more easy. At first the 
sleep is tardily produced, then it comes in a few minutes, 
next in a few moments, and finally almost instan- 
taneously. After this, the subject is entirely in the 
magnetizer’s power. It is interesting to observe that 
these facts are the expression of a general physiological 
law—the law of repetition. Numerous psychometrical 
experiments have shown; first, that when an act is 
frequently repeated, with sufficient intervals of repose, 
each series of repetition is accompanied by a shortening 
of the period of reaction; secondly, that this period 
becomes shorter in proportion to the increase in the 
number of repetitions; thirdly, that it is finally reduced 
to its lowest limit. 
We, now come to one of the questions most disputed 
at this time in the history of animal magnetism, namely, 
whether every individual is capable of hypnotization by 
the processes of which we have given a general account, 100 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
or if, in order to effect the result, a morbid predisposition 
must exist in the subject. Is there, to use Ladame’s ex- 
pression, an hypnotic neurosis, without which hypnotiza- 
tion is impossible, and are nervous diseases, and especially 
hysteria, to be regarded as the indispensable predis- 
position ? 
We have already said that, as far as its production is 
concerned, artificial cannot be separated from natural 
sleep, and we will add that in its attenuated forms the 
one does not differ from the other in nature and character. 
We readily admit that artificial sleep may be produced 
in any subject by repeating, varying, and sufficiently 
prolonging the attempts, so as to induce fatigue. Before 
asserting that this result is impossible, these attempts 
should be made, and it logically rests with the sceptics 
to prove a negative. It is, however, certain that most 
nervous patients, and especially those suffering from 
hysteria, are distinctly predisposed to the hypnotic sleep, 
and that it differs from natural sleep by special physical 
characteristics. 
It is precisely the addition of such characteristics 
which constitutes the most important part of the question, 
for these physical phenomena serve as the indication of 
the extremely complex psychical manifestations which 
accompany them. 
Up to this time it has been asserted that physical 
phenomena, impressing a special character on the sleep, 
have only been observed in the hypnotism of hysterical 
patients, described by Charcot and Richer under the 
name of profound hypnotism. We admit that, in a great 
majority of cases, sufficient exhaustion to cause sleep may 
be artificially induced. But the following point remains THE MODES OF PRODUCING HYPNOSIS. 
101 
open to discussion: whether, because it is proved that an 
individual is artificially put to sleep, it necessarily follows 
that this is a special, not a natural sleep. 
Even if this question should be decided in the 
affirmative, and it should be established that no one 
is absolutely refractory to hypnotism, we should feel 
justified in asserting that hypnotic phenomena consist 
in a disturbance of the regular functions of the organism. 
As Barth lately observed, it is possible to give every one 
a headache, but this does not prove that a headache is a 
physiological state. We do not therefore accept the 
opinion of those authors who treat hypnosis as a physio- 
logical state, and appear more anxious to separate it from 
other forms of neurosis, than to connect it with them.* 
A second question is immediately connected with the 
former, namely, whether an individual susceptible to 
hypnotism can be hypnotized without his consent, and 
even against his will. Many persons are agitated by 
the idea that a stranger may influence and dispose of 
them as if they were mere automata. This is certainly 
dangerous to human liberty, and it is a danger which 
increases with the repetition of experiments. When a 
subject has been frequently hypnotized, he may be un- 
consciously hypnotized in several ways : first, during his 
natural sleep, by a slight pressure on the eyes; next, in 
the case of an hysterical patient, by surprising her when 
awake by some strong excitement, such as the sound of 
a gong, an electric spark, or even by a sudden gesture. 
Some curious anecdotes are told on this subject. An 
* Under the name of hypnoscope, Ochorowiez has invented an instru- 
ment to show the peculiar sensitiveness of some subjects to the magnet. 
These subjects appear to be also more easily hypnotized. 102 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
hysterical patient became cataleptic on hearing the brass 
instruments of a military band ; another was hypnotized 
by the barking of a dog; another, who had hypnogenic 
zones on her legs, fell asleep in the act of putting on her 
stockings. Even supposing that the subject knows that 
he is to be hypnotized, and desires to resist, this resistance 
will often be in vain, in spite of his urgent protestations, 
and he will soon submit to the authority which the 
experimenter has acquired over him. Sometimes, how- 
ever, it has occurred to the subject that he will not sleep, 
and then the experimenter finds himself opposed by an 
idea which he is unable to modify;—neither the gong nor 
the electric light produces any effect, and pressure on the 
eyes, continued for hours, only brings on an attack of 
convulsions. If these fixed ideas are artificially developed, 
they form an almost complete obstacle to all attempts at 
hypnotization. Of this the patients are aware, and some- 
times, when they do not wish to be hypnotized by a given 
person, they cause their companions to hypnotize and 
suggest to them. Experimenters sometimes adopt similar 
expedients; and the caskets and talismans which have 
been given to patients, with the assurance that no one 
can hypnotize them while they carry these objects about, 
must be regarded as simply a mode of suggestion. 
With respect to persons who have never been hypno- 
tized, and to the question whether they can successfully 
resist the forcible attempt to put them to sleep, some 
authors have said that an individual can prevent any one 
from hypnotizing him, if he resists. The naivete of this 
assertion reminds us of those philosophers who say, “ I 
am free to do this or that, if I wish it.” Everything 
depends on whether the subject can exercise resistance THE MODES OF PRODUCING HYPNOSIS. 
103 
and use his will. It must not be supposed that because 
moral resistance is a psychical function, it is found to an 
equal degree in all men. On the contrary, it varies with 
the individual, just as muscular force varies. The ques- 
tion does not therefore admit of a simple answer. In 
the case of a person who has never been hypnotized, and 
is not very susceptible to hypnotism, his consent, and 
even his good will are very necessary for the success of 
the operation, and without these he cannot be hypnotized. 
But some people are excessively susceptible, and in them 
the resistance is necessarily slight. They may be taken 
by surprise when naturally asleep and hypnotized by 
pressure on the eyes, and in the waking state they may 
be intimidated, taken by surprise, and may even receive 
dangerous suggestions without being put to sleep.* Such 
persons should guard themselves carefully, since the 
seriousness of the danger cannot be denied. 
* In confirmation of this statement, we may cite the well-known story 
of a girl hypnotized by a beggar called Castellon. She left her father’s 
house in order to follow him, although regarding him with terror and 
disgust, and remained in his power for four days, during which time he 
outraged his unhappy victim several times. (Despine, fctude scientijique 
sur le somnabulisme. 1880.) 104 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
CHAPTER Y. 
SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
The hypnotic sleep, by whatever processes it may have 
been effected, is displayed under very different aspects; 
sometimes it is marked by distinct physical charac- 
teristics, and is then designated as profound hypnotism ; 
at other times it does not differ from the natural sleep, 
and it is then termed slight hypnotism. 
Between natural sleep and the most profound 
hypnosis it is possible to establish an unbroken chain of 
intermediate states, which it is somewhat difficult to 
distinguish from each other. The diversity of symptoms 
which marks the gradation of hypnotic states accounts 
for the disputes which are of daily occurrence, and which 
are far from being exhausted. Each observer, who con- 
scientiously describes the subject before him, believes 
himself to be in possession of the whole truth, and allows 
himself to doubt the phenomena which he does not find 
in this instance. In many cases he even denies their 
existence, thus contributing to establish an absolute 
disbelief in those who do not observe for themselves. 
Without attempting a critical study of these dis- 
crepancies, we believe that they may be ascribed to two 
chief causes; first, the different states of the patients on 
whom the experiments are tried; second, the variable SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
105 
nature of the exciting causes of hypnotic phenomena in 
these patients. If the Salpetriere school obtained results 
which do not only agree with each other, but with those 
obtained by other observers (Tarnburini, Seppili, etc.), it 
is because they took care to define with the utmost 
accuracy the physical conditions of their subjects, and 
the nature of their experimental processes. These two 
points include the whole method summed up by Paul 
Richer * in the following propositions : 
1. To choose those subjects for experiment whose 
physiological and pathological conditions are well known 
to resemble each other. 
2. To submit the different experimental conditions to 
a rigorous law. 
3. To proceed from the simple to the compound, from 
the known to the unknown. 
4. To guard carefully against simulation. 
5. To be chiefly occupied with simple cases, that is, 
with those in which the different phenomena appear to 
be most distinct and isolated from each other. 
6. To follow the method of nosologists in classing 
these different phenomena in natural series, so as to 
establish several subdivisions in the great group of facts 
collected under the name of hypnotism. 
We shall in our description accord tbe first place to 
hysterical hypnosis, which is entitled to serve as an intro- 
duction to the general study of hypnotism, not only on 
account of its historic importance, but on account of its 
clearly marked divisions, and the intensity of its symp- 
toms. We shall describe separately each of the hypnotic 
* P. Richer, Eludes cliniques sur la grande hysl&rie, ou, Hysle'ro- 
epilepsie, p. 512, 2nd edition. 1885. 106 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
symptoms,beginning with, the neuro-muscular phenomena, 
which are manifested by more objective, and to some 
extent more palpable, signs than the others. We shall 
substitute synthesis for analysis, and give an account of 
the different nervous states designated by Charcot under 
the names of lethargy, catalepsy, and somnambulism. In 
order to do this, we must define the nature of these 
hypnotic states, which have been the subject of so 
much discussion. 
Our study of profound hypnotism will be succeeded 
by that of its slighter forms; we shall endeavour to 
classify all these different states, and to connect them 
with each other, so as to show how the phenomena of 
hypnotism are allied with those of physiology. We 
hold that hypnotism should not be considered by itself, 
nor simply as a matter for curiosity; it is chiefly im- 
portant as enabling us to study the physiological processes 
in man, and especially the cerebral functions, and it is 
adapted to play a considerable part in psychology. 
We do not propose, however, like some German 
writers, to discuss theories on the mechanism of the 
nervous sleep, since these theories, whether physical, 
chemical, or physiological, are not founded on solid experi- 
ence, and appear, at all events at present, to constitute 
the metaphysics of hypnosis. We shall aim at giving to 
the ensuing descriptions a purely symptomatic character. 
I. Neuro-muscular Hyperexcitability. 
Definition—Excitement of the Muscles.—Charcot and 
his school regard this important phenomenon as the 
dominant characteristic of lethargy. SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
107 
The patient in a lethargic state appears to be in the 
deepest sleep; the eyes are closed, or half-closed, the 
eyelids quiver, the face is impassible and expressionless. 
The body is perfectly helpless; the head is thrown back; 
the limbs hang slackly down, and if they are raised and 
again dropped, they fall heavily back into the same 
position. 
An examination of the muscles shows, however, that 
they have acquired the property of contracting under 
the influence of a direct mechanical excitement, and 
even, when thus contracted, of forming a contracture, 
that is, of remaining fixed in the acquired position. To 
this phenomenon Charcot gives the name of neuro- 
muscular hyperexcitability.* It may be produced 
by very simple treatment. For instance, on kneading 
the muscles on the front of the fore-arm, the limb be- 
comes fixed in a bent position; if the thenar eminence 
is excited, the thumb turns inward on the palm of the 
hand. If the muscles of the face are excited, those, for 
instance, which connect the malar bones with the lips, 
the latter are raised upwards and outwards. It may be 
said that all the striated muscles respond to mechanical 
excitement, without excepting those which do not 
usually contract under the influence of the will, like the 
muscles of the pinna of the ear. The abdominal and 
thoracic muscles form no exception to this rule, so that 
it is imprudent to perform experiments of this kind 
on hypnotized patients without an accurate acquaint- 
ance with anatomy and physiology. Some unskilful 
experimenters have produced unpleasant phenomena by 
* J. P. Charcot and P. Richer, De Vhyperexcitabilite neuro-musculaire 
(Archives de Neurologie, 1881-1882). 108 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
simply touching the larynx, and by manipulating the 
diaphragm. 
In order to produce a lethargic contracture, a me- 
chanical excitement is usually required, which goes 
beyond the limits of the skin, and either acts directly 
on the muscles, on the tendons, or on the nerves. 
There are several ways of applying the excitement; 
in most cases friction, pressure, a shock, and massage are 
equally successful. The process may be carried out 
equally well with the hand and with an inert body. 
The application of a magnet, held at a little distance 
from a group of muscles, produces the same effect as 
direct mechanical excitement, but with more energy 
and diffusion.* Finally, the degree of excitement is 
important; a slight excitement produces a simple con- 
traction, a stronger one produces a contracture. 
Excitement of the facial muscles.—The facial muscles, 
during the lethargy accompanied by neuro-muscular 
hyperexcitability, are differently affected from the other 
muscles of the body. Contraction may be produced by 
mechanically exciting the nerve which animates them, 
for instance, the facial nerve as it issues from the 
parotid, or by exciting the body of the muscle itself; 
but this contraction does not become permanent con- 
tracture. It generally ceases with the pressure, and if 
the excitement is continued for some time, the effect is 
exhausted, and the muscle becomes relaxed. In order 
to fix the contraction of the facial muscles during the 
lethargy, it occurred to one of the present writers to 
uncover the subject’s eyes at the moment when contrac- 
tion had been effected. The subject at once became 
Tamburini and Seppili, Rivista di Freniatria, p. 278, 1881. SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
cataleptic, and the contraction of the muscle which had 
been excited was maintained for some time. 
It is possible to cause many of the muscles to con- 
tract singly, such as the frontalis, the depressor alse nasi, 
and the triangularis menti. Several muscles may also 
be contracted simultaneously, so as to produce what is 
termed by Duchenne combined, expressive contractions. 
With the finger, or with a slender stick, rounded at the 
end, all the electric experiments performed by Duchenne 
on subjects in the waking state, may be reproduced on 
the face of a subject in the lethargic state. These studies, 
carried on with the utmost care by Charcot and Richer, 
afford an experimental proof of the part taken by each 
muscle in the expression of the emotions. In fact, 
with some few exceptions, the muscular action due to 
hyperexcitability is strictly localized in the muscle 
which has been directly excited; and the action ol 
this muscle does not induce that of the other muscles 
which are habitually associated with it, in order to pro- 
duce an emotional expression. For instance, by press- 
ing the finger, or the end of a blunt pencil on the 
zygomaticus major, an isolated contraction of this 
muscle may be effected, so as to give the expression of 
a forced laugh. In order to obtain the expression of 
spontaneous laughter, the inferior half of the orbicularis 
palpebrarum must be simultaneously excited. Lastly, 
the hyperexcitability of the muscles of the face make it 
possible to set in motion those muscles which are not 
usually subject to the will, such as those of the pinna 
of the ear. 
The contraction of the muscles is not only produced 
by acting on their fleshy body; the mechanical excite- ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
merit of their tendons, or fibrous extremities, produces 
the same effect. 
Excitement of the Tendons.—The effect of exciting the 
tendons of the knee is particularly marked. If, in the 
case of a normal individual, the ligamentum patellae is 
struck, a contraction of the quadriceps fern oris takes 
place, and this induces a slight shock in the limb, to- 
gether with an extension of the leg. Hysterical subjects 
frequently present in their waking state an exaggera- 
tion of this tendon reflex. But some fresh symptoms 
occur in the artificial lethargy : first, a diffusion of the 
reflex action which is displayed in the shock extending 
to all the corresponding half of the body ; and next, by 
a marked tendency to contracture. 
Excitement of the Nerves.—The mechanical excitement 
of the peripheral nerve-trnnks is chiefly interesting 
from the fact that it produces the contracture of all 
the muscles to which the excited nerve is distributed. 
Hence it results that the limb subject to experiment 
assumes a characteristic attitude, which is determined 
by the special distribution of the branches of the ex- 
cited nerve to the muscles of that region. It has been 
said that neuro-muscular hyperexcitability constitutes an 
anatomical demonstration of the reality of the nervous 
sleep; it is at any rate certain that this phenomenon 
cannot be simulated, even by those subjects who are 
thoroughly acquainted with anatomy. 
The nerves of the arm, which are easily accessible 
to mechanical excitement, are generally chosen to demon- 
strate this neuro-muscular property of lethargy. The 
ulnar nerve may be easily reached, in the region of the 
elbow in the hollow between the olecranon and the internal SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
condyle. If mechanical pressure is exerted by the finger 
on this point, the subject’s hand becomes contractured in 
the attitude represented in Fig. 1. 
Fig, I.—Ulnar attitude. (From Charcot and Richer.) 
The fundamental characteristics of this attitude, 
which presents some secondary variations in different 
subjects, are the flexion of the ring and little fingers, 
the adduction of the thumb, the extension and separa- 
tion of the index and middle fingers. Analysis shows 
that this attitude is in complete accordance with our 
anatomical and physiological knowledge. On the one 
hand, anatomy teaches us the distribution of the ulnar 
nerve in the fore-arm and the hand; on the other, 
physiology shows the partial action of the muscles by 
means of the ulnar nerve. By combining both these 
data, we may rigorously infer what attitude the hand 
ought to take under the combined action of all the 
muscles brought into play. The attitude deduced by 
reasoning precisely agrees with the attitude produced 112 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
during lethargy by excitement of the nerve. The 
attitude is controlled hy the localized faradisation. 
In healthy individuals faradic excitement of the nervous 
trunks gives the same results as mechanical excitement 
in subjects in the lethargic state. 
The median attitude, which is produced by exciting 
the median nerve, which extends along the inner edge 
of the biceps, consists in a contracture which causes the 
flexion of all the segments of the limb; the fore-arm is 
Fig. 2.—Median attitude. 
Fig. 3.—Radial attitude. 
(From Clxareot and Richer.) 
raised in a constrained position, the wrist is bent, and 
the hand closes (Fig. 2). 
The radial attitude, which is in some sort the con- 
verse of the preceding one, consists in the supine position 
of the fore-arm, while the wrist and all the fingers are 
extended. This attitude is produced by exciting the 
radial nerve, where it issues from the spiral groove of 
the humerus (Fig. 3). SYMPTOMS OP HYPNOSIS. 
113 
By the mechanical excitement of the spinal nerves, 
Berger and Heidenhain were able to produce movements 
in the limbs in correspondence with them. 
We have one remark to make on the localization of 
the contracture which is produced by exciting the nerve. 
In the case of the ulnar position, the band becomes 
stiffened into what may be termed a sacerdotal attitude. 
In fact, the muscles in connection with the ulnar nerve 
are not the only ones affected ; their antagonists also are 
evidently in a state of tension, and it may be said that 
all the muscles of the hand are affected. Yet the ulnar 
attitude assumes a characteristic form which enables us 
to distinguish it from the median and radial attitudes 
which we have described. This is due to the fact that, 
in the collective action of the muscles of the hand, it 
is only the muscles connected with the ulnar nerve 
which give a characteristic attitude to the hand, and 
the other muscles only come into play in order to keep 
the hand immovable in that attitude ; their contraction 
is perhaps due to the excitement which affects their 
fibres in consequence of their sudden extension. 
Galvanic Excitement of the Scalp.—The phenomena 
produced by the galvanic excitement of the scalp of a 
subject in the state of lethargy must be referred to an 
hyperexcitability allied to that which is neuro-muscular. 
Charcot observed that the application of a galvanic 
current to the cranial arch during lethargy produced 
strong muscular shocks in the subject’s body. The posi- 
tive electrode is placed on the scalp, at a level with 
the motor regions, and the negative electrode is placed 
on the sternum, on the fore-part of the head, or behind 
the ear. When the circuit is interrupted, at its open- 114 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
ing, and especially at its closure, a distinct shock is 
produced on the opposite side of the body, and of the 
face. In some patients the shock occurs on both sides 
of the body, with a marked predominance on the side 
to which the electrodes are applied. When the same 
experiment is performed on subjects in the waking state, 
variable results are obtained. In some, the galvanic 
excitement has no effect; in others, its effects are the 
same as in the lethargic state.* 
Character of the Lethargic Contracture.—Lethargic 
contracture presents some characters which clearly dis- 
tinguish it from a voluntary contraction, and make it 
easy to ascertain that there is no simulation on the 
part of the subject. 
Experiments have been performed on strong and 
healthy subjects, who voluntarily assumed attitudes 
resembling those of lethargic contracture, and the com- 
parison furnished the following results. Under the 
influence of a continuous traction, the contractured limb 
of a lethargic subject gradually relaxes, just like the 
limb which is voluntarily stiffened. So far the re- 
semblance is complete, but the myographic and cardio- 
graphic tracings reveal curious differences. In the 
simulator, the trembling of the limb and the irregular 
breathing soon betray that the effort is voluntary; in 
the hypnotized subject the respiratory rhythm does not 
vary, and the contractured limb is slowly relaxed, with- 
out the slightest irregularity. 
Charcot and Richer state that when, during lethargy, 
a group of muscles is excited, and at the same time the 
limb is not allowed to move in the direction of the 
* J. M. Charcot, Society de Biologie, January 7 and 14, 1885. SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
115 
muscles under excitement, this excitement is trans- 
ferred to the antagonist muscles. For instance, if 
while exciting the extensors of the fingers the hand 
is kept half bent, its flexion is accentuated by the con- 
traction of the flexors, although the excitement was 
limited to the extensors. We remarked above on an 
analogous fact; the attitude due to a lethargic con- 
O 7 CD 
tracture depends not only upon the muscles which 
are excited, but also on the antagonistic muscles. It 
may be stated as a rule of motor-nerve power, that 
the antagonist shares in the excitement of any muscle 
whatever. In ordinary circumstances, this contraction 
of the antagonist has only a regulating function, but 
it may become preponderant if the effect of the direct 
contraction is in any way arrested.* 
If the contracture is left to itself, it will continue 
throughout the lethargy ; in some subjects the transition 
to another phase of sleep, or the awakening, will put an 
end to the contracture; in others, it will remain for an 
indefinite time, even after they are awake. In order 
to put an end to it, the experimenter must in this case 
throw the subject into a fresh lethargy, and then proceed 
to excite the antagonistic muscles. 
Friction and the kneading of the muscles will, in 
fact, soon relax lethargic contractures. When a con- 
tracture of the flexors has been produced, the excite- 
ment of the extensors on the back of the hand will soon 
cause it to disappear. If the sterno-mastoid muscle 
has been excited, so as to produce a rotation of the 
head in the opposite direction, the excitement of the 
opposite muscle will bring back the head to its original 
* Charcot and liicher, Brain, October, 1885. 116 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
position. This antagonistic action is one of the charac- 
teristics peculiar to contractures of the lethargic type. 
There is another interesting phenomenon which 
should not be omitted in the history of neuro-muscular 
hyperexcitability. Under the name of “a paradoxical 
contraction,” Westphal has described the following 
phenomenon :—When a sudden and energetic movement 
of dorsal flexion is, for instance, given to the foot, the 
anterior tibial muscle contracts so as to produce ad- 
duction and a certain degree of dorsal flexure of the 
foot, which remains fixed in this position. Charcot 
shows that this phenomenon is more marked in hyper- 
excitable patients. If, instead of abruptly bending the 
limb, it is gently placed in the same position, and the 
extensor muscles are mechanically excited, the limb 
remains fixed in the attitude of flexion. The excite- 
ment of the extensors has a reflex action on the flexors 
to which they respond by forming a contracture. 
Erleraeyer makes the reasonable suggestion that the 
term “ contracture by antagonistic distension ” should 
be substituted for that of “paradoxical contraction.” 
This phenomenon, which is most marked in hysterical 
and hyperexcitable subjects in the state of lethargy, 
explains why some of these subjects retain the positions 
due to a sudden effort, as, for instance, when a subject 
who has thrown a stone, or given a blow, retains his 
arm in contracture in that position.* 
The msthesiogenic action on lethargic contracture 
must be briefly noticed. In subjects sensitive to the 
magnet, the transfer of unilateral contractures may be 
* Ch. Fere, La Contraction paradoxale (Progres Medical, 1884, 
p. 69). SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
117 
effected by means of this agent; thus, when the ulnar 
attitude has been produced in the right hand, and a 
magnet is brought close to the subject’s fore-arm when 
he is asleep, and even when he is awake, both his hands 
become agitated with slight, jerking movements; then 
the contracture of the right hand ceases, and is trans- 
ferred to the left hand, without losing any of its charac- 
teristics or of its precise localization. Several other agents, 
such as a vibrating tuning-fork, metals, and electricity 
in all its forms, may be used to effect the transfer.* 
Some interesting phenomena are allied with this 
last experiment. If the circulation is arrested by the 
circular compression of a limb in a centripetal direction, 
by means of one of Esmarch’s elastic bandages, the me- 
chanical excitement of the limb thus rendered anaemic 
does not produce contracture, or rather, it produces a 
latent contracture, of which there is no external sign, but 
which is manifested when the circulation returns. In 
fact, when the bandage is removed, the contracture of the 
limb takes place in proportion as its colour returns.! 
Again, the magnet applied to the anaemic member 
transfers the contracture to the sound member, in which 
it at once becomes visible (Charcot and Richer). 
We have observed a phenomenon somewhat allied 
to the one just cited. When a lethargic subject is placed 
under the influence of a magnet, and the subject’s hand 
or arm is mechanically excited, the contracture does not 
occur in the muscle which is directly excited, but in the 
corresponding muscle of the other arm. 
* K. Yigoureux, Metalloscope, Metallothfrapie Eslhesiogcnes (Archives 
de Neurologie, 1881). 
f Brissaud et Kichet, Progres Medical, Nos. 23, 24, 1880. 118 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
When the magnet is applied to a bilateral and 
symmetrical contracture, such as two radial or ulnar 
attitudes, it does not produce a transfer, but another 
phenomenon, for which we have suggested the term 
polarization.* Under the magnetizing influence, both 
the subject’s hands, when in a state of contracture, 
display slight, irregular, and rapid oscillations, succeeded 
by more extensive movements, then by actual con- 
vulsions, and finalty, the two contractures almost 
simultaneously disappear. 
According to Tamburini and Seppili, the neuro- 
muscular hyperexcitability of a limb may be destroyed 
by the application of cold water, or of ice. 
Neuro-muscular hyperexcitability, like other patho- 
logical symptoms, is not equally developed in all subjects. 
In some we only find an exaggeration of the tendon 
reflex with no tendency to contracture; in others the 
contractures may be displayed, yet without any precise 
localization. Finally,—a singular fact, which shows that 
in some subjects the waking and hypnotic states are 
closely allied, and that there are symptoms common to 
hysteria and hypnosis,—contractures can be easily pro- 
duced in many hysterical patients in their waking state, 
either by kneading the muscles, by pressure on the 
nerves, or by striking the tendons. These contractures 
in the waking state are, indeed, of the same nature as 
those which occur during lethargy, since they yield to 
the excitement of the antagonistic muscles, and may be 
transferred by the magnet; they are occasionally as 
intense and as clearly defined. Several writers—Charcot 
and Richer, Heidenhain, Tamburini and Seppili, Brissaud 
* A. Biuet et Ch. Fere, La Polarisation psychique (Revue Philos., 18S5), SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
119 
and Richet*—have observed that hyperexcitability may 
continue during the waking state. In many hysterical 
patients, digital pressure on the nerves will produce in 
the waking state median, radial, and ulnar attitudes, 
identical with those produced in the state of lethargy, 
with the exception that they are sometimes accompanied 
by pain. We may infer from these facts, at any rate in 
the case of some subjects, that an aptitude for contractures 
is not a symptom peculiar to lethargy, and cannot prove 
the reality of that state. 
In reply to an inquiry into the nature of the con- 
tractures produced by muscular hyperexcitability, we 
should connect them with reflex phenomena, without, 
however, claiming to throw any vivid light upon the 
question. Even when the excitement is directly applied 
to the centre of a muscle, the contracture which ensues 
is due to a stimulus which has followed the diastallic 
arc formed by the afferent nerves, the nerve-centres, 
and the efferent nerves. This is proved by the inhibitory 
action exerted by the antagonist muscles on the con- 
tracture, even when they are, like the sterno-mastoid 
pair, placed on either side of the median line. This 
kind of interference can only be produced in the nerve- 
centres, in the brain, or in the spinal cord. Some of the 
poisons which affect the central nervous system may, by 
suspending its action, serve to show the part taken by 
the nervous centres in neuro-muscular hyperexcitability. 
If an hypnotized subject is made to inhale ether or 
chloroform, the moment comes when all ti'aces of hyper- 
excitability disappear, and the mechanical excitement of 
the muscles and the motor nerves ceases to take effect. 
* Fails pour servir a V Ridoire da Contractures (Frog res Medical, 
Nos. 10, 23, 21, 1880). 120 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
Finally, neuro-rauscular hyperexcitability constitutes 
the most important objective characteristic of that 
hypnotic state which is termed lethargy ; it is displayed 
by an exaggerated reaction to mechanical excitement 
applied to the muscles, the nerves, and even to the 
nerve-centres. It cannot, however, be doubted that the 
same reactions may be produced on some subjects in the 
state of lethargy under the influence of superficial excite- 
ment of the skin, or of bones in the region of muscular 
insertions. It need not astonish us to find them occasion- 
all}7 in other hypnotic states. We have already observed 
that nenro-muscular hyperexcitability is displayed in 
some hysterical patients when not under the influence of 
hypnotism. In a slight degree, that is, when it is reduced 
to a simple exaggeration of normal reflex action, neuro- 
muscular hyperexcitability belongs to other pathological 
states of the nervous system, with which consequently 
it is necessary to be acquainted, in order that we may 
justly estimate the value of this phenomenon. 
11. Cataleptic Plasticity. 
Immobility is the most striking feature of the 
cataleptic state. The subject maintains all the attitudes 
given to his limbs and his body. The arms can be raised 
or bent by the observer with great ease, since they 
offer no resistance. The eyes are wide open, the gaze 
is fixed, and the countenance is expressionless. These 
collective phenomena give to a cataleptic subject an 
appearance which cannot be forgotten when once it has 
been seen. 
These attitudes cannot be maintained for an indefinite SYMPTOMS OP HYPNOSIS. 
121 
time, as some authors have asserted. A cataleptic subject 
cannot remain in a constrained position for more than 
ten or fifteen minutes, and a strong man might do as 
much. The distinctive character of the cataleptic attitudes 
must be sought elsewhere. 
If, in a case of true catalepsy, a tambour is applied to 
the extended arm to register its slightest oscillations, and 
a pneumatograph to the chest, to obtain the curve of the 
respiratory movements (Fig. 4), the following facts may 
Fig. 4.—Plan of arrangements for experiments in cataleptic immobility. 
R, Marey’s tambour; P, Pneumatograph; C, Revolving cylinder; 
TT, Tambours with lever. (Charcot, Legona sur lea moladiea du 
ayateme nerveux, vol. iii.) 
be ascertained :—the cataleptic limb does not tremble ; 
it drops slowly and gently, and the style of Marey’s 
apparatus traces on the cylinder a perfectly regular 
straight line (Fig. 5, II). At the same time the respira- 122 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
Tory tracing maintains the same calm and normal 
character throughout the experiment (Fig. 5, I). On the 
Fig. 5.—Plan of tracings obtained from an hystero-epileptic patient in a 
state of hypnotic catalepsy (Charcot). I, Tracings of the respiration ; 
11, Tracings of the oscillation of the limb. 
other hand, an individual who voluntarily attempts to SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
123 
maintain such an attitude soon becomes fatigued, his 
hand trembles (Fig. 6, II); his breathing, calm at 
Fig. 6.—Plan of tracings obtained from a man who attempted to maintain 
the cataleptic attitude (Charcot). I, Tracings of the respiration ; 
11, Tracings of the oscillations of the extended limb. 
first, becomes hurried and irregular (Fig. 6, I). The 124 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
tracings show abrupt oscillations, which betray muscular 
fatigue, and the efforts intended to conceal it. 
The Salpetriere experimenters have endeavoured to 
define the characteristics of true catalepsy, in opposition 
to the false catalepsy, or catalepsoid states, which may 
be met with in other phases of hypnotism. If the limb 
of a patient in a state of lethargy or somnambulism is 
raised and held up for a few moments, it will remain in 
the position in which it has been placed. At first sight, 
this might be called catalepsy, but the truth is that the 
muscles of the arm were excited by this process, and 
they have formed a contracture in situ. The limb is 
contractured, not cataleptic; friction and massage will 
at once cause the muscles to relax. Besides, a certain 
resistance is offered to a change of attitude, and neither 
of these characteristics belong to true catalepsy. 
We do not, in fact, in profound hypnotism, meet with 
contractures during catalepsy. If a prolonged pressure 
is exerted on the muscles, nerves, or tendons,, only a 
relaxation of the muscles takes place, which is followed by 
paralysis. Richer has devoted himself to the study of 
cataleptic paralysis. He shows that the paralyzed muscle 
loses its elasticity and becomes elongated, and the in- 
fluence of the opposing muscles becomes preponderant. 
For this reason, when the flexors are excited, the limb is 
extended. The cataleptic attitude is therefore the exact 
contrary of the lethargic attitude produced by the excite- 
ment of the same motor point. As, however, there is no 
contracture, the new attitude is not maintained with any 
rigidity. Localized faradization rapidly puts an end to 
cataleptic paralysis, if it should continue after sleep is 
over. It is modified with difficulty by excitement of the 
antagonists, and by suggestion. SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS, 
125 
The magnet and other sesthesiogenic agents may 
effect the transfer of cataleptic attitudes.* A subject is 
seated near a table on which a magnet is placed; the 
left elbow rests on the arm of the chair, the fore-arm and 
the hand are raised in a vertical position, the thumb and 
fore-finger are extended, and the other fingers are half 
bent. The right fore-arm and hand are stretched upon the 
table; the magnet is placed at a distance of about five cen- 
timetres, covered by a cloth. At the end of two minutes, 
the right fore-finger becomes tremulous and is raised, the 
extended fingers of the left hand become flaccid, and so 
likewise is the hand for an instant. The right hand and 
fore-arm are raised and assume the original position of 
the left hand, which is extended on the arm of the chair 
with the waxy softness peculiar to the cataleptic state. 
It is possible to limit catalepsy to one half of the 
body, an experiment which it occurred to Descourtes to 
try at the Salpetriere in 1878. f It is well known that 
during catalepsy the eyes are widely opened, and that the 
cataleptic subject falls into a lethargy if they are closed. 
If one eye, the right, for example, is closed while the 
other is kept open, a mixed state ensues; the right side 
continues to be affected by catalepsy, while the left 
acquires all the characteristics of lethargy. If the right 
arm is raised, it retains the position given to it, while 
the left arm falls heavily down again. Mechanical ex- 
citement on the right side fails to produce reflex action, 
or contracture, while excitement on the left side imme- 
diately produces an intense contracture. 
Catalepsy may also be combined with somnambulism, 
* Ch. Fere anti A. Binet, Soci&te de Biologic, July 5, 1885. 
f Progres Medical, December 21, 1878. 126 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
by first throwing the subject into a lethargy, and then 
acting on one side of the scalp, while opening the eye 
on the other side.* 
The magnet produces the transfer of all these divided 
states. The transfer of hemi-catalepsy, associated with 
hemi-lethargy, presents a special feature: at the end of 
the experiment, the eye remains open on the side which 
has become lethargic, and conversely, the eye remains 
closed on the side which has become cataleptic. Thus, 
in the case of a typical subject, this mode of transfer 
enables us to obtain a hemi-catalepsy with the eye 
closed, and a hemi-lethargy with the eye open.f 
Cataleptic attitudes display a certain number of 
characteristics to which we shall revert when we come 
to describe suggestions. Braid was the first to point out 
that there is a constant agreement between the attitude 
of the body and the expression of the countenance. The 
alternation which exists in catalepsy between the atti- 
tudes and the intellectual manifestations should also be 
noted. When, for instance, a cataleptic subject receives 
an hallucination, the fixed attitudes, artificially impressed 
on a limb, give place to complex and perfectly co-ordi- 
nated movements, corresponding with the object of the 
suggestion. The subject resembles a statue, endowed 
with animation; presently the suggestion is exhausted, 
the hallucination loses its force, and the subject, if left 
to himself, again becomes immovable in a cataleptic 
attitude. This sort of oscillation between psychical and 
motor disturbance is peculiar to catalepsy. 
• Dumontpallier and Magnin, Society de Biologic, 1882, p. 147. 
f Ch. Fere and A. Binet, Socie'te de Biologic, July 5, 1884. SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
127 
111. CUTANO-MUSGULAR HYPEREXCITABILITY. 
We have seen that daring lethargy strong con- 
tractures may be produced by the mechanical excite- 
ment of the nerves, of the tendons, or of the bodies of the 
muscles themselves, and sometimes also by the excitement 
of the skin. In the state of somnambulism, as it is pro- 
duced in hysterical subjects, we find a contracture which 
seems to be of a different kind; it differs both in the 
mode of excitement and in the mode of its relaxation. 
The starting-point for the contracture of somnam- 
bulism appears to be in the skin, which acquires an 
exquisite sensibility; it may be produced by making use 
of very slight superficial excitements, such as stroking, 
passing the hand over the hairs of the skin, breathing 
from the mouth, or moving the hand to and fro at a 
little distance, so as to induce' a slight current of air, and 
perhaps also a psychical excitement. This is different 
from the contracture of lethargy, which is generally the 
result of a strong excitement. This first difference in- 
volves a second : produced by a diffused cutaneous excite- 
ment, the contracture of somnambulism is itself diffused, 
and although it may be limited to one segment of the- 
limb, there is none of what may be called the anatomical 
localization of the contracture of lethargy. On the con- 
trary, the observations of Heidenhain and Dumontpallier 
show that it gradually overspreads those parts which 
had not been subject to the excitement. But the mode of 
relaxation offers the best distinction between these two 
species of contracture, at any rate in the typical cases of 
profound hypnotism. The excitement of the opposing 
muscles, which at once puts an end to the contracture 128 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
of hypnotism, has no effect on that of somnambulism ; it 
can only be relaxed by renewing for a few moments the 
cutaneous excitement which produced it. Other differ- 
ences have been noted, but they are less constant than 
those given above. It has been asserted that it is only 
the contracture of lethargy which can be transferred by 
the magnet, but we have been equally successful in the 
transfer of the contracture of somnambulism. 
The aptitude for contracture by means of cutaneous 
excitement is generally diffused over the whole surface 
of the body. But it is possible to limit it to a definite 
region by exciting the scalp in different ways.* We 
shall presently see, as we continue our description of the 
different states, that when a subject of profound hypno- 
tism is in a lethargy or catalepsy, friction of the scalp 
will cause complete somnambulism, and all parts of 
his body acquire an aptitude for cutaneous contractures. 
A lateral friction, limited to one side of the head, will 
produce hemi-somnambulism; restricted to the corre- 
sponding side of the body, the state of the other half 
of the body remains unchanged. Thus we have a 
hemi-somnambulism, allied with hemi-lethargy, or hemi- 
catalepsy. If, again, instead of applying the friction 
to the whole of the scalp, a strong pressure is exerted 
with the finger, or some blunt instrument, on certain 
points of the hairy scalp which seem to correspond 
with the motor centres, it is possible to effect the 
partial somnambulism of the limb to wThich the motor 
centre affected appears to belong. In this way it is 
possible to effect the isolated somnambulism of one half 
of the face, one arm, one leg, both arms, both legs, and of 
* Ch. Fere and A. Binet, Societyde Biologic, July 19, 1884, SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
129 
the whole face. It is even possible .to produce the isolated 
somnambulism of the upper part of the face, by exciting 
a point of the scalp situated above the horizontal line 
which would pass through the eyebrows, and behind 
a vertical line which would pass at the back of the 
mastoid process, etc. The isolated and successive ex- 
citement of these different points produces a generalized, 
partial state of somnambulism, in which the subject 
speaks, hears, and is receptive of hallucinations. 
The rigorousness of these experiments secures them 
from fraud, for they involve the local disappearance of 
the phenomenon of neuro-rauscular hyperexcitability 
which is peculiar to lethargy. This is not a phenomenon 
capable of imitation ; the subject can neither produce nor 
suppress it at pleasure. We think it is impossible to 
explain these experiments, and to decide if they are a con- 
firmation of cerebral localization, or if it is to be explained 
by the existence of reflexogenic zones. The latter inter- 
pretation appears to us to be the most probable. 
We find, in fact, that in hysterical hypnotized subjects 
there are several zones in which excitement produces 
reflex action: first, the hysterogenic zones, on which 
the pressure produces an attack of hysteria, which is 
arrested when that pressure is removed; * next, the 
hypnogenic zones, distinct from the former in their 
position and effects ; the excitement of these produces, or 
in some cases modifies and even puts an end to, the 
hypnotic sleep. Then come the dynamogenic zones, 
pointed out for the first time by one of the present 
writers; i* the excitement of these produces a momentary 
* Charcot, Maladies du Systems nerveux, vol. i. 
t Ch. Fere, Sensation et Moucement (Jtcvue ridlosophique, 1S8G). 130 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
exaggeration of muscular force, which may be measured 
by the dynamometer. There are also erogenic zones, of 
which we shall speak presently. Finally, Heidenhain, 
Born, Dumontpallier, and Magnin have described the re- 
tlexogenic zones, which, when excited in hypnotic subjects, 
produce motor phenomena, in places more or less distant 
from that point on the skin which has been excited. In 
some of Heidenhain’s subjects, pulling the skin of the nape 
of the neck, in the region of the cervical vertebrae, produced 
by reflex action a sonorous respiration, or groan; in this 
way the celebrated experiment performed by Goltz on 
frogs is repeated on the human subject. Dumontpallier, 
by exciting the skin of the hairy scalp, produced direct 
or complex movements, in correspondence with the motor 
centres excited by him. All these experiments show 
that in the hypnotized subject many points of the body, 
and especially those of the hairy scalp, are in a state 
of hyperexcitability. It would be imprudent to go 
beyond this simple assertion. 
IV. Disturbance of the Breathing and of the 
Circulation. 
When a subject is put to sleep by a slow and pro- 
longed process, as for instance by fixity of gaze, it may 
be observed that after a while the breathing is quickened; 
then, at the moment when sleep comes on, a peculiar 
sound is often heard in the larynx. Tamburini and 
Seppili have applied the graphic methods of modern 
physiology to the study of the respiration and the 
circulation.* The results to which they have arrived by 
* Rivista sperimentale di freniatria, No. 3, Scries vii.; Nos. 3, 4, 
Series viii. SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
131 
these methods are in perfect agreement with those made 
at the Salpetriere at about the same time. 
During the state of lethargy, the respiratory curve is 
fairly regular; its movements are usually slow and deep ; 
in short, the respiration does not essentially differ from 
what it is in the normal state. The same may be said 
of the state of somnambulism. The only characteristic 
peculiar to hypnotism appears to be a certain disconnec- 
tion, or even a true antagonism between the thoracic and 
abdominal respiration. 
In catalepsy, however, there is a considerable modifica- 
Fig. 7.—Respiratory tracing. L. dnring lethargy; G, during catalepsy. 
(Tamburini and Seppili.) 
tion in the mode of breathing. The movements are in- 
frequent, superficial, and extremely slow, and separated 
by a longer or shorter interval of complete immobility. 
In the subjoined figure (Fig. 7), the widely different 
tracings afforded by catalepsy and lethargy may be 
compared. 
It has been observed that the application of a magnet 
to the subject’s epigastrum produced profound modifica- 132 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
tions in the respiratory curve of lethargy; in catalepsy, 
on the contrary, the curve was scarcely affected by the 
magnet. The subjoined figure (Fig. 8), which we owe to 
Tamburini and Seppili, who performed the experiment, 
accurately represents these two contrary effects. The 
Fig. 8 —Respiratory tracing. L, curve of lethargy ; M+ , the magnet is 
approached to the thorax; 0, catalepsy is produced; L, lethargy is 
produced; M—, the magnet is withdrawn. 
subject is placed in the state of lethargy; after a few 
regular respirations the approach of the magnet induces 
a strong movement of expiration, then of inspiration ; SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
133 
catalepsy is then produced by opening the subj ect’s eyes, 
and the shallow breathing peculiar to this state is at once 
displayed. Soon afterwards the eyes are again closed, 
and lethargy is produced; another deep expiration, 
followed by a deep inspiration, takes place, owing to the 
unchanged position of the magnet, and if this is removed, 
the curve of lethargy reverts to its normal type. 
The researches made by Tamburini and Seppili on 
the circulation are no less interesting. By means of 
Mosso’s plethysmograph, and the air-sphygmograph, they 
ascertained that in the state of lethargy the graphic 
tracing shows a constant tendency to rise, and that when 
catalepsy is produced, it again descends gradually. In 
other words, lethargy increases the volume of the fore- 
arm, that is, causes the vessels to dilate; catalepsy, on 
the other hand, diminishes the volume of the fore-arm, 
or causes the vessels to contract. Tamburini and 
Seppili’s experiments were repeated by one of the 
present writers, and although the results obtained were 
not absolutely corroborative, yet they showed that modi- 
fications took place in the peripheral circulation which 
appeared to be wholly independent of the subject’s will. 
We have dwelt long upon the neuro-muscular pro- 
perties of hypnotism, because the Salpetriere school 
considers that these phenomena display physical signs 
which irresistibly prove the sincerity of the experiments. 
The precise localization of the lethargic contracture in 
the muscles supplied by the branches of the nerve 
which has been excited; the maintenance of the cataleptic 
attitudes without trembling or fatigue; the effects of a 
continuous traction on the contractures of lethargy 
and somnambulism; the limitation of each of these phe- ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
nomena to one half of the "body; their mode of appear- 
ance and disappearance—all these signs serve as so 
many guarantees against simulation. On this point the 
demonstration is complete. It is almost certain that no 
individual in the waking state, unless affected by. a 
nervous state allied to hypnotism, could imitate the 
distinctive physical signs by which profound hypnotism is 
manifested. The dread of simulation, which dominated 
the whole history of animal magnetism, has now become 
a completely imaginary danger, if the experimenter is 
adroit and cautious. 
V. Subjective Symptoms. 
Up to this time the modifications produced by hypno- 
tism in the condition of the senses, and of the intellectual 
functions, have not been the subject of accurate research. 
Some isolated observations have been made, which are 
not wholly in agreement with each other, and no general 
view can be deduced from them. In order to obtain a 
clue to the labyrinth, we should compare hypnotic sleep 
with natural sleep, and we shall see that the psychical 
manifestations of hypnosis present a strong analogy to 
the faculty of dreaming. 
1. The state of the senses, in hypnotic subjects, ranges 
from anaesthesia to hypersesthesia. During lethargy all 
the senses are suspended, with the occasional exception 
of the sense of hearing, which is sometimes retained, as 
it is in natural sleep. During catalepsy, the special 
senses are partially awake; the muscular sense, in 
particular, retains all its activity. Finally, in somnam- 
bulism the senses are not merely awake, but quickened SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
to an .extraordinary degree. Subjects feel the cold pro- 
duced by breathing from the mouth at a distance of 
several yards (Braid). Weber’s compasses, applied to the 
skin, produce a twofold sensation, with a deviation 
of 3°, in regions where, during the waking state, it would 
be necessary to give the instrument a deviation of 18° 
(Berger.) The activity of the sense of sight is some- 
times so great that the range of sight may be doubled, 
as well as the sharpness of vision. The sense of smell 
may be developed so that the subject is able to discover 
by its aid the fragments of a visiting-card which had 
been given to him to smell before it was torn up 
(Taguet). The hearing is so acute that a conversa- 
tion carried on in the floor below may be overheard 
(Azam). These are interesting but isolated facts. We 
are still without any collective work on the subject, of 
which it would be easy to make a regular study, with 
the methods of investigation we have at our disposal. 
2. More careful observations of the state of the 
memory have been made, but this state has only been 
studied as it is found during somnambulism, when it 
generally displays the same hyperexcitability as the other 
organs of the senses. 
The contrast between the memory on awaking and 
the memory during hypnotic sleep has been justly re- 
marked. There is a difference between the two phases 
of memory; and this, indeed, is also the case with 
natural sleep. The hypnotized subject seldom re- 
members, on awaking, the events which occurred during 
his hypnotic sleep. On the other hand, wThen he is 
asleep his memory embraces all the facts of his sleep, 
of his waking state, and of previous hypnotic sleeps. 136 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
We will first consider the hyperexcitability of the 
memory which occurs in somnambulism. Richet per- 
formed an experiment which throws a strong light on 
this strange phenomenon. “ After hypnotizing Y 
I recited some verses to her, and then awoke her. She 
was unable to remember them. I hypnotized her again, 
and she remembered the lines perfectly. When I awoke 
her, she had again forgotten them.” 
The memory of a hypnotized subject has a wide 
range—much wider than it has at other times. Frequent 
instances of this extraordinary memory have been given, 
so surprising as sometimes to lead to the belief that the 
subjects were endowed with a mysterious lucidity. 
Richet remarks that somnambulists describe with 
minute details places which they have formerly visited, 
or facts which they have witnessed. In one instance, a 
hypnotized subject sang the air of the second act of 
VAfricaine, of which she could not remember a note after 
she awoke. Beaunis cites the case of a subject whom 
he induced during sleep to tell him all that she had 
eaten on the day, or two days before, without omitting a 
single item. When she awoke, he recounted the menu 
of her dinner, and she was astonished to find him so well 
informed. We have been able to make a hypnotized 
subject give the menus of dinners she had eaten a week 
before. Her normal memory did not extend beyond three 
or four days, and in order to cause her to exceed this 
limit, it was necessary to use the excitement of the 
magnet. 
We give one more instance, well calculated to display 
the acute memory of somnambulists. A girl, in a state 
of somnambulism, was in Charcot’s room at the Salpe- SYMPTOMS OP HYPNOSIS. 
137 
triere when Parrot entered, the physician to the refuge 
for Enfants assistes. The subject was asked what was the 
stranger’s name, and she replied, to the surprise of all 
present, and without hesitation, “M. Parrot.” On awaking 
she declared that she did not know him; but, after looking 
at him for a long while, she finally said, “ I think that 
he is a physician at the Enfants assistesWhen about 
two years old she had been for some time in this refuge, 
and had long forgotten the physician, whom she now 
recognized with difficulty in her waking state, while 
she could, during somnambulism, give his name when 
ordered to do so. 
The acuteness of the memory during somnambulism, 
without absolutely justifying those who assert that 
nothing is lost to memory, yet shows that its con- 
servative power is much greater than is supposed, 
when measured by the capacity of reproduction or re- 
collection. It proves that, in many cases in which we 
believe that a certain fact is completely effaced from the 
memory, this is by no means the case; the trace of it is 
there, but the power of recalling it is wanting; and 
it is probable that under the influence of hypnotism, or 
of some excitement to which we are sensitive, it would 
be possible to revive the apparently extinct memory of 
the fact in question. 
It is therefore evident that hypnotism has a peculiar 
power of exciting the recollection. Our experiments, 
which are in accordance with those of other observers, 
tend to show that in the sleeping and waking states the 
conservative memory is about the same. After repeated 
attempts to make hypnotized subjects repeat a series of 
figures after only one reading, we could not discover that 138 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
they were able to retain a greater number of figures than 
in their waking state. But these are negative experi- 
ments, which must not be taken for more than they are 
worth. 
The development of the memory under somnambulism 
may be compared with its development during natural 
sleep. There are numerous facts to show that in dreams 
we see people or hear names with which we were once 
acquainted, and which we believed we had completely 
forgotten. Maury, an author who may with advantage 
be consulted on the subject of sleep and dreams, gives 
several interesting examples of this revival of old 
memories in the sleeper, “ Some years ago,” he writes, 
“the word ‘Mussidan’ was recalled to my mind. I knew 
that it was the name of a town in France, but I had 
forgotten where it was. A few days later, I saw a person 
in my dreams who said that he came from Mussidan. I 
asked him where it was, and he told me that it was in 
the department of Dordogne.” Maury verified the truth 
of this fact when he awoke. The same author gives 
another instance of the recall of forgotten facts in a 
dream. His youth was passed at Trilport, where his 
father built a bridge. He dreamed one night that he was 
a child at Trilport, and that he saw a man in uniform 
and asked his name. The man replied that his name 
was C , that he was the bridge-ward, and then 
disappeared. When he awoke, Maury was haunted by 
C ’s name, and some time after he asked an old 
family-servant if she remembered any one of that name. 
She answered at once that a man named C was 
bridge-ward when his father was at work on the bridge.* 
* Maury, Sommeil et Jteves, p. 6. Paris, 1861. SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
139 
The comparison we have just made between natural 
and artificial sleep may be extended to the phenomena 
which ensue on awaking. It is well known that the 
forgetting of dreams is an almost constant fact. At the 
moment of awakening we have a somewhat vivid sense 
of our dreams, which is effaced a few instants afterwards, 
unless we take the precaution of relating them to a third 
person, or of writing them down. So also in hypnosis; 
if the sleep has been at all profound, forgetfulness ensues 
on awaking, and this forgetfulness is even more absolute 
than after the natural sleep. This characteristic fact has 
been noted by all observers. Take a subject who has 
been caused to execute the most complex acts, and to 
display the most dramatic hallucinations: he has ex- 
pressed astonishment, has laughed, wept, and been angry 
—passing through all the violent emotions; he may even 
have fallen down and injured his head in so doing, yet he 
remembers none of these things when he awakes. If left 
to himself, he will be unable to recall one of the scenes in 
which he has taken part either as witness or actor. 
On a closer examination, however, we see that his 
forgetfulness is not absolute; a vague and confused 
memory remains, which may be revived by putting the 
subject on the right road, especially when he is aroused 
from somnambulism without allowing him to pass 
through its deepest phases. Heidenhain gives several 
instances of this recall of the memory, which is, indeed, 
equally possible in the case of ordinary dreams. 
After hynotizing his brother, Heidenhain repeated 
to him the following quotation from Homer:— 
He then awoke him, and in order to bring the line back 
notov ere inos (pvyei/ ipicos oSovroot'. 140 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
to his brother’s mind, it was enough to say, “ Homer, 
flight.” The brother then accurately, but with extreme 
slowness, repeated the line in question. I take this 
instance from Eichet, who cites another of the same 
nature : “ On awakening F , I can revive his recollec- 
tion of what has occurred. He says at first that he 
remembers nothing, but if, for example, I indicate that 
he rose up in terror, he says, fAh yes, I remember that 
you made me see a serpent.’ ” Other experimenters— 
Beaunis, for example—have made use of a different 
method, suggestion. It was enough to suggest to some 
subjects that they would, on awaking, remember all that 
they had seen, heard, and done during sleep, and their 
recollection was accordingly complete. Delboeuf arrived 
at the same result without making any special suggestion; 
he ascertained that whenever the subject is awakened 
in the midst of an action, he is capable of remembering 
all that is connected with that action.* For instance, 
the experimenter smokes an imaginary cigar beside his 
hypnotized subject; he suddenly says that the burning 
ash has fallen from the cigar on to her neckerchief and 
has set it on fire. The subject rises at once, and places 
the neckerchief in a basin of water which stands on the 
table. This is the moment for waking her; she feels 
that her hands are wet, sees the neckerchief, and recalls 
the whole scene. In this experiment, the last act of the 
dream is the first act of awakening. Delboeuf insists 
on this condition, which he considers necessary to ensure 
the recollection. It is not enough that the suggestion 
made during somnambulism should leave a material 
* Delboeuf, La Memoirs chez les hypnotises {Revue Philosophique, 
May, 1886). SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
141 
trace; it is also necessary to surprise the subject by 
awaking him in the midst of an action. 
These experiments are the more interesting since 
they agree with other pathological facts. One of the 
present writers has shown that in the epileptic state, 
which has been compared to the so-called unconscious- 
ness of somnambulism, the patient may have retained 
the memory of the act reputed to be automatic, and can, 
under the same conditions, even explain it.* We should 
not, however, be too hasty in including all these modes 
of reviving the memory in a formula, since the result 
depends upon many causes—the constitution of the 
subject, the form of the suggestion, the hypnotic educa- 
tion, etc. It may be a matter of surprise to learn that 
it is sometimes possible to cause a subject to remember 
some act committed during somnambulism, without 
putting him on the right road as Eichet does, or giving 
him a special suggestion like Beaunis, or awakening 
him in the midst of an act like Delboeuf; it may be 
done simply by firmness, and by fixing the subject’s 
attention as steadily as possible on the memory which 
it is proposed to evoke. If at the same time an exciting 
cause, such as the magnet, is employed, it contributes to 
revive the memory by suggestion. 
Whatever may be the expedients devised to excite 
the memory of an individual issuing from the hypnotic 
state, so as to form a kind of bridge between his sleep 
and his awaking, the truth remains that a profound 
hypnotic sleep is always followed by a suspension of the 
power of memory—a fact proved by the very efforts 
* Ch. Fere, Note pour servir a Vhistoire des actes impulsifs des 
epileptiques (llevue de Medecine, 1885). 142 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
which, it is necessary to make to restore it. It is evident 
that hypnosis produces a lesion of the memory. 
This lesion is, however, superficial rather than 
profound; it only affects one portion of the memory— 
that of the recollection; the memory of conservation 
remains almost intact, since a fresh sleep gives back to 
the subject the complete memory which he appeared to 
have lost in his waking state. 
It may, therefore, be said that the disturbance of the 
memory which ensues from somnambulism is superficial, 
and only concerns one kind of memory—that of recollec- 
tion; its power is exaggerated under somnambulism, 
and depressed on a return to the normal state, and we 
are still completely ignorant of the cause of such 
variations. We shall have to make many such con- 
fessions of ignorance in the course of this work. 
It is difficult to define the intellectual condition of 
hypnotized subjects; we may estimate the keenness of 
their senses, and make an inventory of the contents 
of their memory, but it is not possible to appreciate with 
the same accuracy the state of their judgment and of 
their reason. All that can be done is to make the 
general remark that the intelligence of a hypnotic subject 
is developed in proportion to his sensitiveness. 
What is called lethargy implies a deep and dream- 
less sleep, in which the psychical faculties are usually 
dormant. Those subjects who retain the sense of hear- 
ing are still capable of receiving some elementary 
suggestions: if pulled by the sleeve, they may be made 
to rise, and hallucinations of the hearing may also be 
produced; but this is all which can be effected. It is, 
however, possible that lethargy only suspends the power SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
143 
of reaction, and that behind the inert mask of lethargy 
a remnant of thought is still awake. 
In the two other phases of catalepsy and somnam- 
bulism, the sleep is not nearly so profound; the subject’s 
intelligence comes into play, and the hypnotic dream 
begins. 
The automatism of catalepsy is its dominant character. 
This epithet has sometimes been used to define the in- 
tellectual character of hypnosis, but it is, in fact, only 
the cataleptic subject wdio can be termed an automaton. 
Catalepsy is sometimes allied with a partial wakefulness 
of the intelligence, which enables the experimenter to act 
on his subject by verbal suggestion. In all cases, catalepsy 
permits the mind to be handled with the same docility 
as the limbs; the subject’s ideality may be said to be 
plastic. The suggestions offered to him are inevitably 
accepted, since he never resists them. It has been justly 
said that a cataleptic subject ceases to have a personality; 
that there is no cataleptic ego. An analogous state may 
be found in certain dreams to which we surrender our- 
selves without reflection and without resistance. 
The condition of the somnambulist is very different; 
he is no automaton, but a person endowed with character, 
aversions, and preferences. For this reason the name of 
secondary condition, in opposition to the waking state, 
has been given to somnambulism. In this state there is 
certainly an ego. The somnambulist’s intellectual condi- 
tion may be compared to those dreams in which the 
sleeper actively intervenes, and displays judgment, critical 
sense, and sometimes even mind and will. There are, 
indeed, somnambulists who dream spontaneously, and 
then cease to be en rapport with the experimenter. 144 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
Setting aside what concerns lethargy and catalepsy, 
we propose to study some developments of the in- 
tellectual state of a somnambulist. Somnambulism is 
emphatically the medico-legal state, and it is the state 
in which the aptitude to receive suggestions is the most 
fully developed. 
We have now under observation two subjects, repre- 
senting the two opposite types of somnambulism—the 
active and the passive types. The latter remains motion- 
less, with closed eyes, without speech or expression, and, 
if asked a question, she replies in a low voice. Yet we 
are confident that this repose of the intelligence is only 
apparent; the subject retains her consciousness of places 
and of persons, and hears all that is said in her presence. 
The other subject is a singular contrast to the one we 
have just described, since she is in a state of perpetual 
movement. As soon as she is thrown into a somnambu- 
list condition, she rises from her chair, looks to the right 
and left, and will even go so far as to address the persons 
present with familiarity, whether she is acquainted with 
them or not. On one occasion the photograph of one of 
these persons was shown to her; she took it, looked for 
and found the original, and compared him with the 
photograph, in order to satisfy herself of the resemblance. 
At another time she spontaneously described some hyp- 
notic experiments which another person had performed 
upon her a few days before. In short, this subject 
did not, like the other one, appear to be asleep. These 
are, however, only appearances, and we must endeavour 
to examine more closely the psychical state of somnam- 
bulism. 
In the majority of subjects there is no marked SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
145 
difference between their normal life and that of somnam- 
bulism. None of the intellectual faculties are absent 
during sleep. It only appears that the tone of the 
psychical life is exaggerated; excessive psychical excite- 
ment is nearly always present during somnambulism. 
This is clearly shown in the emotions. It is, in general, 
perfectly easy to make a subject shout with laughter, 
or shed tears. He is deeply moved by a dramatic tale, 
and even by words in which there is no sense, if they are 
uttered in a serious tone. It is curious to note the 
influence of music; the subject expresses in all his 
attitudes and gestures an emotion in accordance with 
the character of the piece. 
In short, hypnotism does not appear to effect any 
radical change in the character of those subjects whom 
we have observed. The intellectual faculties are as 
active as before. The following is a convincing proof of 
the exercise of the mind. A patient who had been ad- 
mitted to the Salpetriere at an early age was in the habit 
of tutoying M. X when she was alone with him, or in 
company with her acquaintance; she ceased to do so on 
the entrance of a stranger. Even under somnambulism 
this patient observed the laws of good breeding, address- 
ing M, X as tu when she was alone with him, 
and ceasing to do so as soon as a stranger came in. 
It is in somnambulists that we find the curious 
phenomenon of resistance, of which we shall speak 
further, when we come to consider suggestions. When 
an order is given to somnambulists, they will often 
dispute it, ask the reason, or refuse to obey. It is under 
the form of a refusal to obey a given order that resistance 
occurs; subjects more rarely resist hallucinations, since ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
these do not affect their personality. There are, how- 
ever, instances of this latter form of resistance. When 
we proposed to transform one of our subjects into a 
priest, and to give him a cassock, he obstinately refused 
it. It was suggested to one of Richet’s subjects that her 
arm was being amputated, and she screamed at the sight 
of the flowing blood, but almost at the same moment she 
discovered that it was a fiction, and she laughed through 
her tears. Facts of this kind have unjustly led to the 
suspicion of imposture. Richet’s subject was really 
under an hallucination, and beheld a sensible image, but 
her reason was not completely paralyzed, and she was 
still able to defend herself against the false perception 
suggested to her. 
If we study our own dreams, we may all become 
aware of these curious duplications of the consciousness; 
and this shows the connection between normal and 
hypnotic sleep. The dreamer is, in general, like the 
somnambulist to whom hallucinations are suggested; he 
is surprised by nothing, although the most absurd im- 
probabilities are presented to his vision. Yet there is 
sometimes a remnant of critical sense which induces him 
to say, in the midst of some grotesque scene, “ But this 
is impossible ; I must be dreaming ! ” 
Somnambulists can not only resist, they can tell lies. 
Pitres states that he suggested to a somnambulist woman 
that she should murder one of her neighbours, and when 
she supposed that the crime was accomplished, he caused 
her, still in the somnambulist state, to appear before a 
magistrate. She declared her innocence of the crime, 
and it was only after a prolonged examination, when 
pressed with questions and overwhelmed by proof, that SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
147 
she finally confessed that she had stabbed her neighbour 
with a knife. And even then the confession was made 
with some reserve* 
These facts show that a somnambulist is far from 
being, as some writers assert, an unconscious automaton, 
devoid of judgment, reason, and intellectual spontaneity. 
On the contrary, his memory is perfect, his intelligence 
is active, and his imagination is highly excited. 
Instances have been given of subjects who could, 
during somnambulism, perform intellectual feats of which 
they were incapable in the waking state. We ourselves 
have ascertained nothing decisive on this point, except 
that we have sometimes observed hypnotized subjects, 
who could read printing in an inverted position more 
rapidly than when they were awake, and who could even 
supply the omitted letters of a double acrostic. There is, 
indeed, nothing improbable in this quickening of the 
intellect. There are several instances of a thinker having, 
when dreaming at night, resolved problems to which he 
had devoted the fruitless study of many days. 
We must, finally, note a peculiar mental state which 
is only found in slight hypnotism. The subjects assert, 
on awaking, that they have never for a moment lost 
consciousness, and that they have in some sense been 
present as witnesses at the phenomena of suggestion 
developed by the magnetizer. 
The very vague observations to which we have been 
obliged to restrict ourselves show the difficulty of stating 
the psychical formula of somnambulism. We are content 
to assert that the state is not accurately defined by 
applying to it the term of automatism. 
* Pitres, De la suggestion hypnotique, p. 63. Bordeaux, 1884. 148 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
Finally, their aptitude for suggestions is a feature of 
the intellectual state of hypnotic subjects, and this fact 
is so important that we propose to treat of it apart. 
The phenomena of elective sensibility, which we 
have already mentioned in speaking of the processes of 
hypnotization,are considerably developed during somnam- 
bulism. Somnambulist subjects often display a kind 
of attraction for the experimenter who has hypnotized 
them by touching the scalp. We shall see presently that 
friction of the scalp is the means most generally used 
in the secondary production of somnambulism. When 
pressure on the scalp is effected with an inert object, as, 
for instance, with a paper-cutter, a state of indifferent 
somnambulism is generally produced: the subject 
remains calm, and may be approached and even touched 
by any one without causing him to make any gesture 
of defence; the contractures proper to a state of som- 
nambulism may be produced by any one, or produced 
by one person and destroyed by another; they do not 
depend on any individual influence,- and suggestions 
may be given by any of those present. 
It is quite otherwise in the case of elective somnam- 
bulism. As soon as the experimenter has pressed upon 
the scalp with his hand, or has breathed upon the subject 
with his mouth, the latter is attracted towards the experi- 
menter ; if the experimenter withdraws to a distance, the 
subject displays uneasiness and discomfort; he sometimes 
follows the experimenter with a sigh, and can only rest 
beside him. Any contact with a third person causes 
suffering. 
Elective somnambulism is also produced when the 
subject is hypnotized by means of passes, which is the SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
149 
practice of magnetizers, or by intimation or suggestion. 
It is a curious fact that if the subject is told that he 
will fall asleep at a given hour on the following day, 
the sleep which occurs at that hour in the operator’s 
absence is elective, and the subject is only en rapport 
with the person by whom the suggestion was made 
(Beaunis). Finally, when the subject is in a state of 
indifferent somnambulism, and a person touches an ex- 
posed part of the body, such as the hands, the elective 
phenomena are displayed in his favour. All these 
processes display the common characteristic of bringing 
the personality of the experimenter into play, and if his 
importance was formerly exaggerated, it has been too 
much depreciated since Braid’s time. 
It has been ascertained that electivity is altogether 
absent in some subjects, while it is constant in others. 
And again, in addition to the artificial electivity de- 
veloped by the experimenter, there is a natural or spon- 
taneous electivity; for this reason one experimenter is 
more successful than another in hypnotizing or in giving 
suggestions to a given subject, and especially when he 
has often hypnotized that subject before. 
This special influence of one individual on another, 
which is so strongly marked during somnambulism, is, in 
fact, only the exaggeration of a normal fact. It is not 
uncommon to find persons who feel a special attraction 
towards some others, and who have a sense of sympathy 
or antipathy without any sufficient motive. It cannot 
be disputed that these are real psychical states, although 
psychologists have for the most part abandoned their 
study to novel-writers. 
It is probable that the phenomena of electivity have 150 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
their origin in the experimenter’s contact with his 
subject. Bain, in his work on the Emotions, remarks 
that animal contact and the pleasure of an embrace 
are the beginning and end of all the tender emotions. 
We have seen, in fact, that electivity is displayed in a 
somnambulist after his scalp and bare hands have been 
touched by the experimenter; the action of the fingers, 
as they are used in making passes, seems also to be due 
to a like influence. The production of elective somnam- 
bulism by means of suggestion may also be explained 
by the fact mentioned above, that since suggestion con- 
sists in the recall of a sensation, it probably acts in the 
same way as a sensorial excitement. 
An ingenious experiment made by Richer confirms 
this view, and shows that electivity has its source in an 
exaggeration of the sense of touch. “ When the subject 
is in a state of profound somnambulism, owing to friction 
of the scalp with some inert object, two observers 
come forward, and each takes hold of one of his hands, 
without meeting with any resistance on his part. Very 
soon the subject presses each observer’s hand with his 
own, and will not leave go of them. The special state 
of attraction applies to both, and the subject is in some 
sort torn in two. Each observer only possesses the 
sympathy of one half of the subject, who offers the same 
resistance to the observer on the left, when he attempts 
to seize the right hand, as to the observer on the right, 
who would take the left hand.” * 
A variation on this experiment is also very in- 
structive. The experimenter preferred by the subject 
may transmit this attraction to another person; the 
• Eicher, op. cit., p. 603. SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
151 
second experimenter has only to slip his hand over that 
of the former one, so as gradually to lay hold of the 
subject’s hand, and he, after one strong shock, presses up 
to him in the same way as to the first experimenter. 
Elective sensibility is displayed by several phe- 
nomena, of which that which relates to contractures is 
the most important. Only the experimenter who is 
en rapport with the subject can produce and destroy the 
contractures of somnambulism. It is useless for another 
person to try to put an end to a contracture by a fresh 
excitement of the same nature, directed on the same 
point. His efforts are fruitless, even when the subject 
cannot see him. The hypergesthesia of the sense of 
touch enables the subject to recognize the contact of 
one operator in a thousand; he may even recognize it 
through his clothes. 
Electivity is also found in suggestions. In the case 
of indifferent somnambulism, the subject complies with 
all suggestions, from whomsoever they come ; an halluci- 
nation effected by the words of one person may be 
continued by another, and destroyed by a third. This 
also occurs in catalepsy. In elective somnambulism, the 
subject is often only able to hear the voice of his 
hypnotizer, and from him alone he can receive sug- 
gestions, We have also remarked that when two 
observers divide the subject’s sympathy in half, the 
hallucination by the one en rapport with the right side 
only affects the right eye; it is unilateral, and the subject 
sees nothing with his left eye. 
When the phenomena of elective sensibility are 
subjected to gesthesiogenic action, repulsion, by a singular 
transformation, succeeds to attraction. At the moment 152 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
when one of our somnambulist subjects was holding 
M. X ’s hands, we placed a small magnet close to 
his head. The subject at once withdrew from M. X , 
uttering a cry; M. X followed her; she still with- 
drew, groaning whenever he touched her. Shortly after- 
wards she came towards the experimenter of her own 
accord, and again drew back, so that it was impossible 
to touch her. When she approached for the third time, 
he took the opportunity of awaking her.* 
We must here remind our readers that in the case 
of some hysterical subjects there are regions in certain 
parts of the body, termed by Chambard erogenic zones,f 
which have some analogy with the hysterogenous zones, 
and simple contact with these, when the subject is in a 
state of somnambulism, produces genital sensations of such 
intensity as to cause an orgasm. These phenomena have 
often been displayed, unknown to the observer, who 
might be liable to the gravest imputations, unless he had 
taken the precaution, indispensable in such cases, of never 
being alone with his subject. When we add to this fact 
the possibility of suggesting to the somnambulist the 
hallucination that some given person is present, it is 
easy to see what culpable mystifications might occur. 
The erogenic zone only becomes sensitive when 
somnambulism is absolute. In partial somnambulism, 
produced by artificial excitement in the region of the 
motor centres of the limbs, the erogenic zone is inactive; 
it becomes active when the occipital region of the brain 
is excited. 
* Binet and Fere, La Polarization psychique (Jlevue PhUosophique, 
April, 1885). 
f Chambard, Titudes sur le Somndbulisme provoque. 1881. SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
153 
The erogenic zone may be transferred by the magnet. 
This transfer is followed by consecutive oscillations, 
which produce an intense genital agitation. Finally, the 
excitement of the erogenic zone has no effect unless it 
is made by a person of the opposite sex; if the pressure 
is made by another woman, or with an inert object, it 
merely produces an unpleasant impression. 154 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
CHAPTER YI. 
THE HYPNOTIC STATES. 
Charcot’s nosographic essay—Catalepsy—Lethargy—Somnambulism— 
Meaning of the three states—Their variations—Intermediate states. 
The different phenomena presented by the symptoms of 
hypnotism may either exist separately or occur associated 
in a certain order. Charcot and his pupils have observed 
that in hysterical subjects these symptoms tend to fall 
into three distinct groups. We think it well to give here 
a summary of Charcot’s nosographic essay.* 
“ Attempt to make a nosographic distinction of the 
different nervous states known under the name 
of Hypnotism. 
“The numerous and varied phenomena which are 
observed in hypnotic subjects do not occur in one and 
the same nervous state. In reality, hypnotism clinically 
represents a natural group, including a series of nervous 
states, differing from each other, and each distinguished 
by peculiar symptoms. We ought, therefore, to follow 
the example of nosographists in endeavouring to make a 
clear definition of these different nervous states, accord- 
* Comjptes rendue de VAcademic des Sciences. 1882. THE HYPNOTIC STATES. 
155 
ing to their generic characters, before entering on the 
closer study of the phenomena presented by each of 
them. It is owing to not having begun by defining 
the special state of the subject under observation that 
observers so often misunderstand and contradict one 
another without sufficient cause. 
“These different states which, taken as a whole, include 
all the symptoms of hypnotism, may be referred to three 
fundamental types : Ist, the cataleptic state ; 2nd, the 
lethargic state ; and 3rd, the state of artificial som- 
nambulism. Each of these states, including moreover a 
certain number of secondary forms, and leaving room for 
mixed states, may be displayed suddenly, originally, and 
separately. They may also, in the course of a single 
observation, and in one subject, be produced in succession, 
in varying order, at the will of the observer, by the 
employment of certain methods. In this latter case, the 
different states mentioned above may be said to represent 
the phases or periods of a single process. 
“ Setting aside the variations, the imperfect forms, and 
the mixed states, we do not propose in this account to do 
more than indicate briefly the general features of these 
three fundamental states, which may be said to dominate 
the complex history of the symptoms of hypnotism. 
“1. The Cataleptic State.—This may be produced : (a) 
primarily, under the influence of an intense and unex- 
pected noise, of a bright light presented to the gaze, or, 
again, in some subjects, by the more or less prolonged 
fixing of the eyes on a given object; (5) consecutively 
to the lethargic state, when the eyes, which up to that 
moment had been closed, are exposed to the light by 
raising the eyelids. The subject thus rendered cataleptic 156 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
is motionless and, as it were, fascinated. The eyes are 
open, the gaze is fixed, the eyelids do not quiver, the 
tears soon gather and flow down the cheeks. Often there 
is anaesthesia of the conjunctiva, and even of the cornea. 
The limbs and all parts of the body may retain the 
position in which they are placed for a considerable 
period, even when the attitude is one which it is difficult 
to maintain. The limbs appear to be extremely light 
when raised or displaced, and there is no flexibilitas cerea, 
nor yet what is termed the stiffness of a lay figure. 
The tendon reflex disappears. Neuro-muscular hyper- 
excitability is absent. There is complete insensibility to 
pain, but some senses retain their activity, at any rate 
in part—the muscular sense, and those of sight and 
hearing. This continuance of sensorial activity often 
enables the experimenter to influence the cataleptic 
subject in various ways, and to develop in him by means 
of suggestion automatic impulses, and also to produce 
hallucinations. When this is the case, the fixed attitudes 
artificially impressed on the limbs, or, in a more general 
way, on different parts of the body, give place to more 
or less complex movements, perfectly co-ordinated and in 
agreement with the nature of the hallucinations and of 
the impulses which have been produced. If left to him- 
self, the subject soon falls back into the state in which he 
was placed at the moment when he was influenced by 
the suggestion. 
“2. The Lethargic State.—This is displayed: (a) pri- 
marily, under the influence of a fixed gaze at some object 
placed within a certain distance of the eyes; (b) in suc- 
cession to the cataleptic state, simply by closing the eye- 
lids, or by leading the subject into a perfectly dark place. THE HYPNOTIC STATES. 
157 
“At the moment when he falls into the lethargic 
state, the subject often emits a peculiar sound from the 
larynx, and at the same time a little foam gathers on 
the lips. He then becomes flaccid, as if plunged in 
deep sleep; there is complete insensibility to pain in the 
skin, and in the mucous membrane in proximity with 
it. The organs of the senses sometimes, however, retain 
a certain amount of activity ; but the various attempts 
which may be made to affect the subject by means of 
suggestion or intimidation are generally fruitless. The 
limbs are relaxed, flaccid, and pendent, and when raised 
they fall back again as soon as they are left to them- 
selves. The pupils are, on the other hand, contracted, 
the eyes are closed or half-closed, and an almost incessant 
quivering of the eyelids may usually be observed. There 
is an exaggeration of the tendon reflex ; neuro-muscular 
hyperexcitability is always present, although it varies 
in intensity. It may be general, extending to all the 
muscles of the animal system, the face, the trunk, and 
the limbs; and it may also be partial, only present, for 
instance, in the upper limbs, and not in the face. This 
phenomenon is displayed when mechanical excitement is 
applied to a nerve-trunk by means of pressure with a 
rod or quill; this causes the muscles supplied by this 
nerve to contract. 
“ The muscles themselves may be directly excited in 
the same way; somewhat intense and prolonged excite- 
ment of the muscles of the limbs, trunk, and neck pro- 
duces contracture of the muscles in question; on the 
face, however, the contractions are transitory, and do not 
become established in a state of permanent contracture. 
Contracture may also be produced in the limbs by means 158 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
of repeated percussion of the tendons. These contrac- 
tures, whether produced by excitement of the nerves 
or muscles, or by percussion of the tendons, are rapidly 
relaxed by exciting the antagonist muscles. As it has 
been already said, the cataleptic state can be instan- 
taneously developed in a subject plunged in lethargy, 
if while in a light room the upper eyelids are raised 
so as to expose the eyes. 
“3. The State of Artificial Somnambulism.— This state 
may, in some subjects, be immediately produced by fixity 
of gaze, and also in other ways which it is not now 
necessary to enumerate. It may be produced at will in 
subjects who have first been thrown into a state of 
lethargy or catalepsy, by exerting a simple pressure 
on the scalp, or by a slight friction. This state seems 
to correspond with what has been termed the magnetic 
sleep. 
“It is difficult to analyze the very complex phe- 
nomena which are presented under this form. In the re- 
searches made at the Salpetriere, many of them have been 
provisionally set aside. The chief aim has been to define, 
as far as possible, the characteristics which distinguish 
somnambulism from the lethargic and cataleptic states, 
and to demonstrate the relations which exist between 
it and the two latter states. 
“ The eyes are closed or half-closed; the eyelids 
generally quiver; when left to himself the subject seems 
to be asleep, but even in this case the limbs are not in 
such a pronounced state of relaxation as when we have 
to do with lethargy. Neuro-muscular hyperexcitability, 
as it has been defined above, does not exist; in other 
words, excitement of the nerves or of the muscles them- THE HYPNOTIC STATES. 
159 
selves, and percussion of the tendons, do not produce 
contracture. On the other hand, various methods, among 
others, passing the hand lightly and repeatedly over the 
surface of a limb (mesmeric passes), or, again, breathing 
gently on the skin, cause the limb to become rigid, but 
in a way which differs from the contracture due to 
muscular hyperexcitability, since it cannot, like the latter, 
be relaxed by mechanical excitement of the antagonist 
muscles; it also differs from cataleptic immobility in the 
resistance encountered in the region of the joints, when 
the attempt is made to give a change of attitude to the 
stiffened limb. To distinguish this state from cataleptic 
immobility, strictly so called, it is proposed to distinguish 
the rigidity peculiar to the somnambulist state by the 
name of catalepsoid rigidity; it might also be called 
pseudo-cataleptic. 
“ The skin is insensible to pain, but this is combined 
with hj’persesthesia of some forms of cutaneous sensi- 
bility, of the muscular sense, and of the special senses of 
sight, hearing, and smell. It is generally easy, by the 
employment of commands or suggestion, to induce the 
subject to perform very complex automatic actions. We 
may then observe what is strictly called artificial som- 
nambulism. 
“ In the case of a subject in a state of somnambulism, 
a slight pressure on the cornea, made by applying the 
fingers to the eyelids, will change that state into a 
lethargy accompanied by neuro-muscular hyperexcita- 
bility ; if, on the other hand, the eyes are kept open in a 
light room by raising their lids, the cataleptic state is 
not produced.” 
We ought to add that this description is made from 160 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
nature, and that the Salpetriere nearly always furnishes 
patients in whom it is easy to observe these three states, 
with all their characteristics. In order to observe these 
states in a new subject, the conditions laid down by 
the Salpetriere school must be observed. These two 
conditions have been already noted by us: (1) The 
experiment must be tried on the same kind of subject, 
that is, on one affected by epileptic hysteria; (2) the 
same mode of operation must be used, that is, by 
the simplest processes—by fixity of gaze, pressure on the 
scalp, the electric spark, etc. Any change effected in 
one of these two conditions alters the experiment and 
consequently modifies its results. 
It must be admitted that even in the case of subjects 
affected by epileptic hysteria, results differing from those 
of Charcot will be obtained if the patients are subjected 
to a different modus operandi; if, in other words, they 
do not receive the same hypnotic education. 
We have often been struck by this fact in the course 
of our researches, and it has appeared the more significant 
to us, since our experiments have been made on subjects 
resembling those who served to establish the theory of 
the three states. We give some examples. It is not, 
as might be supposed, a necessary symptom of catalepsy 
that the eyes should be open. We have observed that 
if hemi-catalepsy and hemi-lethargy are produced, and 
these hemi-states are then transferred, half of the body 
becomes cataleptic, although the eye belonging to that 
half remains shut. Catalepsy with closed eyes may, there- 
fore, exist in profound hypnotism. So, again, it is possible 
to throw the same subjects into a deep lethargy, in which 
no trace of neuro-muscular hyperexcitability remains. THE HYPNOTIC STATES. 
161 
We have ascertained that when a magnet is brought near 
to the arm of a subject in a natural sleep, or to the scalp 
of a subject in the lethargic state, a new state is pro- 
duced which has nothing in common with the lethargy 
described above except the relaxed state of the muscles; 
mechanical excitement of the nerves, muscles, and ten- 
dons, and pressure on the hypnogenic or hysterogenic 
zones, produce absolutely no effect. No change occurs 
when the eyes are forced open, the breathing is impercep- 
tible, and there is complete insensibility; it is, in fact, the 
image of death. Pitres * had the opportunity of observ- 
ing a case of equally profound lethargy in a patient who 
was subject to spontaneous attacks of sleep. When one 
of these attacks came on while he was in a lethargy 
accompanied by hyperexcitability, this phase of hypnosis 
became more profound, and all muscular reaction disap- 
peared. Finally, as we have already remarked, neuro- 
muscular hyperexcitability is not a symptom peculiar to 
lethargy; in cases of profound hypnotism, contractures 
may be produced in the waking state, corresponding in 
all respects to those of lethargy. 
These facts only prove that the general symptoms 
of profound hypnotism may be incomplete or modified, 
and this is also the case with all other morbid symptoms. 
The number of states or periods may also vary in the 
case of each subject. Speaking generally, there are three 
states—lethargy, catalepsy, and somnambulism ; but this 
number is not fixed. Dumontpallier and his pupils 
demonstrated some time ago, and any one may verify 
the fact for himself, that there are transitional stages 
between each of these periods, really mixed states, which 
* Des Zones hypnogenes, p. C 5. 162 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
the experimenter may make permanent by the employ- 
ment of appropriate means. In this way from six to 
nine new states may be created, or even a greater 
number. It is probable that the invention of new 
experimental processes, subjecting hypnotic patients 
to fresh modes of excitement, would lead to the pro- 
duction of entirely new manifestations, differing from 
those which have been described up to this time. In 
fact, hypnosis is not a spontaneous neurosis, but an 
experimental nervous state, of which the symptoms may 
vary with the processes which give rise to it, while, 
however, still falling within the limits of the general 
physiology of the nervous system. 
We should misunderstand Charcot’s description if 
we regard it as a systematic work. The only object of 
the description was to represent hypnosis in all its forms 
and details. It must not be forgotten that at the time 
it was made, he wished to establish the real existence 
of a certain number of hypnotic phenomena, and to 
demonstrate the existence of an experimental nervous 
state by such strongly marked characters as to be 
obvious to every one. Charcot selected subjects in 
whom these characters were displayed in an ex- 
aggerated form which left no room for doubt. This 
method was perfectly successful, since even those who 
were unwilling to accept profound hypnotism, were led 
to study its less developed forms. 
The theory of the three states, therefore, only includes 
one part of the truth, but it is a part which opened the 
way to all the researches subsequently made upon the 
question, and even now profound hypnotism is the 
only state in which we find such objective characters THE HYPNOTIC STATES. 
163 
as to limit tlie field of discussion. It is the object of 
the Salpetriere school, not so much to give a definitive 
description, as to show that hypnotism may be studied 
in accordance with the most improved processes of clini- 
cal science and experimental physiology, and that the 
science can only be constituted by means of the charac- 
ters determined by this mode of study. As long as 
patients affected by acute hysteria exist, most of the results 
obtained by the Salpetriere school may be verified. 
The history of profound hypnotism serves as an 
invaluable guide in threading our way through the con- 
fused mass of observations which are not included in this 
form of neurosis. ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
CHAPTER YII. 
IMPERFECT FORMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
imperfect states—Confusion of states in hysterical subjects—Hypnosis in 
healthy individuals : Experiments by Richet, Bottey, and Bremaud— 
Different results obtained by the Nancy school. 
There are many hysterical subjects in whom the division 
of hypnosis into three states cannot be traced. Many 
observers have pointed out these exceptions to the rule, 
which are indeed much more numerous than the normal 
cases; it is only just to add that this fact was first pointed 
out by the Salpetriere school. Richet writes : “ The neuro- 
muscular phenomena of lethargy and of somnambulism 
are often confounded, while the cataleptic state retains 
its peculiar characteristics. Sometimes the confusion is 
still greater, and the neuro-muscular phenomena remain 
the same, whatever be the phase of hypnotism.” 
Dumontpallier, Magnin, and Bottey * have insisted 
on this confusion of states. They ascertained that 
some hysterical subjects display an aptitude for contrac- 
ture throughout the periods of hypnosis. They also found 
that there was often a complete confusion between the 
* Magnin, Effets des excitations periphe'riques chez les hydc'ro- 
epileptiques a Ve'tat de veille et d’hypnotisme (These de Paris, 1881); Le 
Magnctisme Animal (Paris, 1884). IMPERFECT FORMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
165 
two kinds of contractures distinguished by Charcot; 
excitement of the skin and profound excitement of the 
muscles produced the same muscular phenomena in all 
degrees of hypnosis. This phenomenon may also occur 
under the slightest excitement, such as the ticking of 
a watch, the noise of a telephone, the wind of capillary 
bellows, a drop of ether or of warm water, a ray of light 
falling directly on the skin, or reflected from a mirror. 
Finally, all the peripheral excitements capable of producing 
contracture are also capable of putting an end to it. 
Pitres has also described another deviation from the 
normal type in what he terms the catalepsoid state, when 
the eyes are closed, which he has observed in some of his 
hysterical patients. 
We pass from hysterical hypnosis to the hypnosis of 
persons who are, or are assumed to be, in perfect health. 
We mean by these words persons who display none of 
the well-known signs of hysteria. Many experimenters 
have observed persons of both sexes, of all ages and 
conditions, without taking any note of their pathological 
antecedents, which involve such minute research, that 
nothing can be said about them without a careful ex- 
amination.* Richet, who holds that no one is absolutely 
insensitive to magnetism, pursued this course as early as 
1875. He hypnotizes his subjects by exerting a strong- 
pressure on their thumbs for three or four minutes, and 
then by making passes in a downward direction over 
the head, forehead, and shoulders. After a while, this 
prolonged process produces what Richet terms som- 
* Cli. Fere, La Famille n<foropathique (Archives de Neurologic, 1884); 
Nervous Troubles, as foreshadowed in the child (Brain, July, 1885); 
Dejerino, De Vhereditd dans les maladies du systemc nerveux, 1886. 166 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
nambulism. This state is capable of presenting three 
degrees of intensity.* 
The first degree, the period of torpor, occurs after 
passes have been made for a period varying from five to 
fifteen minutes. The subject begins by being unable to 
raise his eyes, and these become red and moist: some- 
times the muscles show a tendency to contracture under 
mechanical excitement. 
The second degree, or period of excitement, is not 
attained at once, but after a series of magnetizations; 
in this state the subject is asleep, yet able to answer 
questions. During this period, hallucinations may be 
produced, acts may be suggested, and there is forget- 
fulness on awaking. 
The third degree constitutes the period of stupor; 
automatism prevails, together with insensibility to pain 
and the muscular phenomena of contracture and of cata- 
lepsy, over which the author passes too rapidly. 
Some recent writers, Bremaud and Bottey, have 
returned to this question of the hypnotism of healthy 
individuals, and have more accurately defined the fea- 
tures of Bichet’s clinical description. They state that 
if some other processes are substituted for the passes, 
such as pressure on the closed eyes or on the scalp, or 
the prolonged and fixed gaze on some brilliant object, in 
short, if the means in use for hysterical hypnosis are 
employed, it is easy to produce in healthy individuals, 
not only somnambulism, but also lethargy and catalepsy, 
and there is no sensible difference between these states 
and those produced in hysterical subjects. 
Bremaud was also able to produce in men presumed 
* Ricliet, TJHomme et Vlntelligence, Paris, 1884. IMPERFECT FORMS OF HYPNOSIS, 
167 
to be perfectly healthy, a new state which he terms 
fascination. It is effected by fixing the eyes on a 
brilliant point; the subject appears to fall into a sort 
of stupor, he follows the experimenter, and servilely 
imitates all his movements, gestures, and words; he is 
also sensitive to suggestion. On the physical side con- 
tractures produced by excitement of the muscles may be 
observed, and cataleptic plasticity is absent. 
Bremaud considers that fascination represents hypno- 
tism in its lowest degree of intensity. This nervous 
state cannot be effected in women, nor in men who have 
been the subjects of repeated experiments. In propor- 
tion to the increase of impressionability in the subject, 
he over-leaps this first stage, and passes at once into 
catalepsy.* 
These experiments are completely at variance with 
the results to which Bernheim, Liegeois, and Beaunis 
arrived. Their experiments, like the foregoing, were 
made on all kinds of subjects, without distinction of age, 
sex, and pathological condition. Their observations do 
not, in fact, amount to much, exclusive of the facts of 
suggestion. 
By whatever process a subject is hypnotized, the 
moment arrives when his eyes are closed, and his arms 
fall slackly down. In this state the subject can hear the 
experimenter. Although motionless and with a counten- 
ance as inert as that of a mask, he hears everything, 
whether he remembers it or not when he awakes. Of 
this we have a proof in the fact that the one word 
“ Awake! ” uttered once, or repeated several times, 
awakes him, without touching or breathing on his eyes. 
• Bremaud, Societe de Biologie, 1883, pp. 537, 635; 1884, p. 169. 168 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
In this state the subject can receive all sorts of 
suggestions. If a limb is raised, and he is told that it 
cannot be lowered, he passively retains it in the attitude 
in which it has been placed. If, again, a given movement 
is given to his limbs, that movement goes on indefinitely 
until it is arrested. In most subjects there is complete 
anaesthesia; the skin may be pricked with a pin, and 
they do not appear to be aware of it. Those who remain 
sensible to pain may be rendered insensible to it by 
suggestion. 
These observers have not ascertained that the act of 
opening or closing of the eyes, or that friction of the 
scalp modifies the phenomena in any way, or that it 
develops them in subjects in whom they cannot be pro- 
duced by suggestion alone. They have only ascertained 
that the degree in which subjects are liable to suggestion 
varies with the individual. Some only close their eyes, 
with or without torpor; in others the limbs are relaxed, 
inert, or incapable of spontaneous movement; others re- 
tain the attitudes given them; contracture by suggestion 
and other suggested and automatic movements are dis- 
played in other cases. Finally, automatic obedience, 
anaesthesia, illusions, and hallucinations mark the succes- 
sive stages to which suggestion may be carried, of which 
somnambulism is the culminating point. It is only in 
this latter state, in which the phenomena of suggestion 
are most fully developed, that there is forgetfulness on 
awaking. About one hypnotic subject out of six attains 
to this degree of profound somnambulism. 
It appears that the performers of these experiments 
at Nancy only observed in their subjects the phenomena 
of suggestion which belong to somnambulism; they hold IMPERFECT FORMS OF HYPNOSIS. 
169 
that all hypnotism is summed up in suggestion. Not 
content with explaining what they have observed, they 
repeatedly manifest the intention of including within the 
sphere of suggestion the lethargy and catalepsy described 
by other writers. But we may set aside the interpreta- 
tion, and content ourselves with the facts. It is very 
strange that the observers at Nancy have not seen con- 
tracture produced in hypnotized subjects by excitement 
of the nerves, tendons, or muscles. Bichet has often met 
with this common phenomenon in his experiments on 
healthy subjects; it has been constantly observed by 
Bottey; Braid himself repeatedly mentions it; and yet 
Bernheim, whose experiments were performed on similar 
subjects, is unacquainted with it. If it is true that none 
of his subjects, whatever be the excitements to which 
they are subjected, displayed any physical characteristics 
of hypnosis, and that everything was summed up in the 
phenomena of suggestion, we are compelled to infer that 
there is no scientific proof that his subjects were really 
hypnotized. Our disbelief is not absolute; we do not 
assert that these observers only had to do with impostors, 
nor do we throw doubt on their experiments in general, 
but if we had to make a medico-legal examination of 
one of their subjects, we should find it hard to decide 
whether he was truthful or a deceiver. 
We are not disposed to believe that subjects at Nancy 
differ from those at Paris. In reality, the differences are 
not due to the subjects, but to the experimenters; they 
come from the mode of culture, and still more from the 
processes of study. As we have repeatedly said, the 
results of experiments depend on the methods by which 
they are carried on. If suggestion is employed as the 170 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
sole process, only the effects of suggestion will be obtained; 
and thus it was at Nancy. But if we apply ourselves to 
the study of physical characteristics, they may sometimes 
be observed at the outset, and they may also be gradually 
developed in some other subjects. CHAPTER YIIL 
GENERAL STUDY OF SUGGESTION. 
I. Definition of suggestion—Suggestion and dreams—Distinction between 
the experimental processes by ideas and by peripheral excitement— 
The persons capable of receiving suggestions—The conditions of 
receptiveness : mental inertia, psychical hyperexcitability—Sugges- 
tion during hypnotism—Suggestion during the waking state—Diffe- 
rent kinds of suggestion—Speech—Gesture—Muscular sense—Auto- 
suggestion—Relation between the idea suggested and the peripheral 
excitement—Error made by those who see suggestion in everything. 
11. The method—Simulation—Voluntary suggestions—Unconscious sug- 
gestion—Comparison between the phenomena of suggestion and the 
facts of positive science. 
111. Effects of suggestion—Modifications of vegetative functions—The sug- 
gestion of psychical phenomena—Classification—Positive suggestions 
hallucination, and action—Psychological analysis of their produc- 
tion—Law of negative suggestions—Law of psychical inhibition— 
Post-hypnotic hallucinations—Forgetfulness of the act of suggestion. 
Definition of Suggestion.—We have seen that the 
hypnotic sleep approximates to natural sleep in its mode 
of production and in some of its symptoms. This com- 
parison may serve as an introduction to the theory of 
the facts of suggestion. These facts are at first sight 
astonishing, unintelligible, and sometimes indeed they 
appear incredible. The question arises how it should be 172 
ANIMAL magnetism. 
possible for one person to exert over another the power 
of making him speak, act, think, and feel as it pleases the 
experimenter to dictate. 
In order to make a systematic study, we must proceed 
from what is better known, to what is less known. As 
we have repeatedly said, the psychical phenomena of 
hypnosis can only be understood when they are compared 
with the dreams of natural sleep. The effects produced 
on hypnotized subjects by suggestion are nothing but a 
dream, produced and directed by the experimenter. This is 
a legitimate comparison, since it is possible to modify the 
dreams of a person who is naturally asleep. Maury per- 
formed some striking experiments on himself to illustrate 
this fact.* He begged a person to remain beside him in 
the evening, and as soon as he fell asleep to excite certain 
sensations in him, without telling him what they were 
to be, and to wake him after giving him time to dream. 
These dreams, produced by sensorial excitements, did not 
differ from those obtained from hysterical hypnotized 
subjects, by means of suggestion. On one occasion 
eau-de-cologne was given to him to smell; he dreamed 
that he was in a perfumer’s shop, then the idea of the 
perfume aroused that of the East, and he dreamed that 
he was in Jean Farina’s shop at Cairo. The nape of his 
neck was gently pinched, and he dreamed that a blister 
was applied to it, which recalled to mind the physician 
who had attended him in childhood. When a hot iron 
was brought near his face he dreamed of stokers. When 
he was asleep on another occasion, a person present 
ordered him in a loud voice to take a match, and he 
dreamed that he went voluntarily to find one. 
* Maury, Sommeil et Reves, p. 127. GENERAL STUDY OF SUGGESTION. 
173 
Another resemblance of a different kind may be 
established between the psychical phenomena of natural 
sleep and those of hypnotic sleep. As one of the present 
writers has shown,* in the case of many patients the 
pathogenic idea, the first manifestation of delirium, 
may originate in the waking state, but it is generally 
confirmed by the dreams of natural sleep, in which it is 
re-echoed with added strength. Clinical observation 
therefore shows that the experiments so easily performed 
during the artificial sleep may be spontaneously realized 
in the normal sleep. 
The region of suggestion has a wide range. There 
is not a single fact of our mental life which may not be 
artificially reproduced and magnified by this means. It 
is easy to understand how much psychologists may gain 
from this method, which introduces experiment into 
psychology. 
Before going further, we must define the extent and 
limits of suggestion, by a more precise definition than 
the somewhat vague and summary one given above. 
Strictly speaking, suggestion is an operation producing 
a given effect on a subject by acting on his intelligence. 
Every suggestion essentially consists in acting on a 
person by means of an idea; every effect suggested is 
the result of a phenomenon of ideation, but it must be 
added that the idea is an epi-phenomenon; taken by 
itself, it is only the indicative sign of a certain physio- 
logical process, solely capable of producing a material 
effect. 
This characteristic will generally enable us to recog- 
* Ch. Fere, La Medicine d'imagination {Progres Mddical, 1881, p. 
309 ; 1886, pp. 717, 741, etc.). 174 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM, 
nize what is and what is not suggestion, although this is 
often a very difficult question. Thus, when striking the 
tendons, or kneading the muscles makes it possible to 
form a contracture of the arm of an hysterico-lethargic 
patient, no suggestion is made, since the contracture 
results from a physical action, into which the subject’s 
mind does not appear to enter. If, on the other hand, 
the experimenter approaches tbe subject, and says, with- 
out touching him, “Your arm is bent and stiffened, and 
you cannot straighten it,” the contracture which occurs 
in consequence of these words results from a psychical 
action. The experimenter’s command only produces its 
effect by traversing the subject’s intelligence; it is the 
idea of contracture, entering into the subject’s mind, 
which has produced the contracture, and this is really 
suggestion. From this point of view, it may be said 
that the theory of suggestion infuses new life into the 
old philosophic question of the action of the mind upon 
the body, and that at the same time it throws fresh light 
on the large group, still so obscure, of diseases of the 
imagination. 
We give another example. Like contracture, paralytic 
movements may be produced in two different ways. If in 
a hysterical subject the fixed end of a vibrating tuning- 
fork is applied to certain points of the vault of the cranium, 
a transitory excitement of motor force takes place in the 
subject’s arm which soon passes into complete and flaccid 
paralysis.* In this case the paralysis is the direct result 
of the vibratory movement transmitted by the tuning- 
fork through the thickness of the skull to the brain: the 
* Oh. Fere, Inhibition et Epuisement (Bull. Soc. de Biologie, 1886, pp. 
178, 195, 220). GENERAL STUDY OF SUGGESTION. 
175 
subject’s intelligence takes no part in it; tbe experiment, 
although made upon his body, has not affected his mind; 
there is no suggestion. On the other hand, if the idea is 
impressed upon the subject that his arm is affected by 
paralysis, the paralysis which ensues is of a psychical 
nature, since it results solely from the subject’s conviction 
that he is paralysed. It does not result from a physical 
shock, or traumatism, but from a phenomenon of ideation. 
A suggestion has been made. 
The analysis of this last example makes it possible 
to avoid a confusion made by some writers. It has been 
too readily admitted that every hypnotic process which 
has its seat in the brain, proceeds from a phenomenon 
of suggestion, and this has led to the opinion that 
lethargy, catalepsy, and hysterical somnambulism, which 
are perhaps due to reflex cerebral action, are the pure 
and simple products of suggestion. The fact just 
mentioned disposes of this error. The paralysis induced 
by physical vibration and the paralysis induced by 
suggestion probably both result from modifications of 
the cortical substance of the brain; they are conse- 
quently reflex cerebral acts. But the two cases are 
widely different. Paralysis by suggestion demands the 
aid of the subject’s intelligence, and if the function of 
ideation were for any reason suspended, this kind of 
paralysis could no longer be produced. 
The study of hypnosis may be divided into two 
parts, distinguished by the different processes which are 
employed. The first part includes the hypnotic phe- 
nomena produced by physical excitements, or sensations, 
which were the subject of the two preceding chapters; 
the second part includes the hypnotic phenomena pro- 176 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
duced by ideas, that is, the theory of suggestions. These 
two modes of experimentation are parallel, and it is 
difficult to say which of the two has the widest extent. 
Those liable to Suggestion.—Suggestion does not act 
with equal intensity on all individuals. If you assure 
a person who is awake, in normal health, and perfectly 
self-possessed, that she is hungry, she will reply that 
you are mistaken; if you try to suggest a visual halluci- 
nation by asserting that she has a book in her hands, 
shew ill declare that she does not see it. The assertion 
only produces in her mind a slight effect, which is quickly 
effaced. It produces an idea of the phenomenon, not the 
phenomenon itself. It is, in short, evident that the 
suggestion influences a sound person no more than 
the opening of her eyes would produce catalepsy. 
In order that the suggestion should succeed, the 
subject must be either spontaneously or artificially in 
a morbid state of receptivity; but it is difficult to define 
with precision the conditions under which suggestion 
is possible. Two have been given, of which the first 
is the mental inertia of the subject. It has been said 
that in an hypnotic subject the field of consciousness 
is completely vacant. A state is produced, and since 
there is no obstacle—neither the power of arrest nor that 
of antagonism,—the idea suggested dominates the sleep- 
ing consciousness. This explanation has been given 
by Heidenhain, Eichet, Ribot, and others, yet we doubt 
whether it is altogether in harmony with the facts. If 
the limitation to a single idea is realized in cataleptic 
subjects, it is much more rare in the case of somnam- 
bulists. We believe that the aptitude for suggestions 
is caused by a second phenomenon—by psychical hyper- GENERAL STUDY OF SUGGESTION. 
177 
excitability. In our opinion, if the idea suggested 
exerts an absolute power over the intelligence, the 
senses, and the movements of the hypnotized subject, it 
is especially due to its intensity. But we admit that it 
is difficult to resolve the question, and we prefer to leave 
it open. 
The number of persons liable to suggestions is im- 
mense ; the liability is evinced, not only in cases of 
hypnosis and of natural sleep, but also in some forms 
of intoxication by alcohol, and haschich, and in the 
waking state. We only propose, however, to consider 
hypnotized subjects. 
The aptitude to receive suggestions is strongly 
developed by hypnotism, but, as we have already said, 
it does not occur in all phases of hypnosis, only in 
catalepsy and somnambulism. The suggestions made 
to a cataleptic subject are simple, automatic, inevitable; 
the reason takes part in those of somnambulism; the 
subject discusses and enlarges on them, and sometimes 
even offers resistance. We shall have to consider these 
shades of differences whenever we have to do with 
interesting suggestions, and we shall for the most part 
content ourselves with describing the suggestions of 
o oo 
somnambulism. 
After awaking, the subject is still sensitive to sug- 
gestion ; this fact has long been known, and is mentioned 
by Braid among other writers. Of late years it has been 
studied by Richet, Bernheim, Bottey, etc. It is possible, 
not only to make suggestions to subjects in the waking 
state, but also to persons who have not been hypnotized 
at all. Learned men have been agitated by these latter 
experiments, which have aroused in them doubt and 178 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
dissatisfaction. They have no difficulty in admitting 
that suggestions may be made to hypnotized subjects, 
since they are not in normal health, but they cannot 
understand how they should be made to individuals who 
are awake, not under hypnotism, and that this should 
be done by modes of action in daily use in our relations 
to one another. The question arises whether individuals 
capable of receiving suggestions in their waking state 
are in common life liable to submit automatically to the 
influence of others; whether they are weak in mind; 
what is their physical and moral state, and if there is 
anything peculiar in their waking state and hereditary 
antecedents. These are the questions stated by Janet, 
and they have not as yet received any reply. The possi- 
bility of making suggestions to normal subjects must, 
however, be admitted if, as one of the present writers has 
done, we refer suggestion to the act of attention. When 
attention is sufficiently intense, the period of reaction 
may disappear, and may even become negative ; that is, 
the reaction may precede the excitement. An intense 
mental representation, whether arising spontaneously, or 
induced by suggestion, may therefore produce a reaction 
irrespective of any excitement.* 
Different lands of Suggestions.—lf it is the character- 
istic of suggestion to address itself to the subject’s 
intelligence, it follows that there are as many forms of 
suggestion as there are modes of entering into relations 
with another person. 
The experimenter may begin by employing spoken 
or written suggestion. This is the simplest and most 
convenient means. In order to produce an hallucination, 
* Oh. Fere, Frogres Medical, p. 741. IBS 6. GENERAL STUDY OF SUGGESTION. 
179 
it is enough to name the imaginary object, to say to the 
subject, “There is a serpent at your feet!” and the 
hallucination immediately occurs. Verbal assertion is 
the process most in use, since in this way everything 
which human speech is capable of expressing may be 
suggested, and it is also the most precise. 
Gestures, which are often employed by some experi- 
menters, are a very inferior means. They are undoubt- 
edly fairly successful in the case of subjects who have 
been long under treatment. Without uttering a word, 
the hallucination of a serpent may be produced in such 
subjects by making an undulatory movement with the 
linger, or still more simply, by directing their eyes 
downwards. It also becomes possible to give orders by 
means of gestures, to constrain the subject to walk, to 
follow or approach the experimenter, to make him 
kneel down, etc. On pointing to a hat, the subject 
takes hold of it, and on pointing again to his head he 
puts it on. He may also be made to take something out 
of the pocket of another person. Pitres mentions the 
amazing quickness with which he has observed some 
subjects divine the meaning of the slightest movement 
of the lingers, lips, or eyes. But these processes are 
lacking in precision. Although it is probable that it 
is the psychical and expressive character of the gesture 
vhich generally acts upon the subject, that is, that it 
arouses ideas, we do not certainly know that no other 
cause is at work. The same must be said of passes, for 
when suggestions are made by their means, we do not 
know how it is done. But if suggestion by means of 
gestures is often vague, it may be very intense. When 
a verbal suggestion of movement is given to a subject, 180 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
the linage of such movement is aroused in his mind; 
O ' 
this image, however intense it may be, must always be 
less intense than the sensation given to the same subject 
when the movement in question is executed before his 
eyes. The result of the two experiments is therefore 
very different.* It has been repeatedly ascertained that 
if a dynamometer is placed in a subject’s right hand, and 
he is ordered to hold it with all his might, this verbal 
suggestion only augments his normal dynamometric force 
by a few degrees ; but if the action of firmly clenching 
his fist is imitated before him, his muscular force is not 
merely increased, but doubled; thus showing that in 
certain cases the suggestions given by gestures afford 
more intense results than it is possible to obtain by 
words only. 
It is sometimes useful to combine suggestive gestures 
with verbal suggestion, or with the presentation of an 
object. For instance, a real object is presented to the 
subject, of which the nature is said to be different; he 
is caused to eat paper, wdiile told that it is a cake; or it 
is suggested to him that one of the persons present has a 
false nose. Combining the word with the gesture gives 
definiteness to the suggestion. 
Suggestive gestures address themselves to the sight. 
The other senses may also receive impressions. If a gong 
is gently sounded close to the ear of an hypnotized subject, 
he thinks that he hears bells; and if he is pricked or 
pinched, the image of stinging creatures may be aroused. 
But all these processes are inferior to that of speech. 
In all cases in which the idea awakened in the 
subject emanates from the experimenter’s direct sugges- 
* See Ch, Fere, Sensation et Mouvement (Etudes de psycho-mechanique). GENERAL STUDY OF SUGGESTION. 
181 
tion, the subject is in a state of direct subjection to him. 
This state is not opposed to that which we may observe 
in the waking state; there is only an exaggeration of 
phenomena, which makes it easier to understand what 
occurs in subjects held to be of sound mind, who are 
unconsciously influenced by the will of another person 
substituted for their own. Indeed we have only to 
glance at social relations in order to see that individuals 
fall into two categories—the leaders and the led—that is, 
the givers and the recipients of suggestions. 
It is characteristic of suggestion by means of the 
muscular sense, that it may be said to have its origin in 
the hypnotized subject. If his limbs are placed in a 
tragic attitude, a corresponding emotion is displayed; if 
his fists are clenched, he frowns with an expression of 
anger ; if his limbs are disposed so as to begin any 
action, it is carried on by the subject, and in this way he 
may be made to climb or go on all fours ;' or if a pen or 
piece of work is put 'into his hand, he will write or sew. 
If his hand is raised, and the fore-finger is bent, the idea 
occurs to him that a bird is perching on his finger, and 
this hallucination is developed. A slight movement by 
the experimenter will carry on this silent suggestion; the 
subject then imagines that the bird has taken flight, and 
he runs about the room trying to catch it. If the hands 
of a female subject are crossed upon her bosom, it sug- 
gests the idea that she is holding an infant. All these 
o o 
facts are included in the same formula; the attitude 
given to the subject’s limbs is accompanied by definite 
muscular impressions, which arouse corresponding ideas 
in the brain. 
Since every suggestion has its origin in a sensorial 182 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
impression which is experienced by the subject, it is easy 
to see that this impression may be produced by an external 
object without the intervention of the experimenter. 
This mode of suggestion is inconvenient, and therefore 
rarely employed, but it is sometimes spontaneously dis- 
played. Bennett mentions the case of a butcher who 
wished to place a heavy piece of meat on a hook above 
his head; he slipped, the hook caught him by the arm, 
and he remained suspended. He was taken down half- 
dead, his sleeve was cut open, and, although he complained 
of great suffering, as soon as the arm was exposed, it 
was found to be absolutely intact; the hook had only 
penetrated his coat-sleeve, This is an instance of sug- 
gestion without an experimenter, and many others might 
be given. We shall speak presently of the paralysis 
induced in hypnotic subjects by suggestion. It is pro- 
bable that some cases of hysterical paralysis, termed 
traumatic,—that is, caused by a shock,—are also due to 
suggestion, since the patient cannot divest himself of the 
idea that such a severe shock must produce paralysis. 
These latter facts pass gradually into those to which 
the name of auto-suggestion has been given. There 
are cases in which suggestion has its origin in the 
subject’s intelligence; in which the suggestion is made 
by himself. Instead of being the result of an external 
impression, as in the case of verbal suggestion, the 
suggestion results from an internal impression, such as 
a fixed idea, or delirious conception. A few examples 
will explain this better than dry definitions, A subject 
imagined that she was opposing by force the halluci- 
nation suggested by one of the present writers, and that 
she had given him a blow on the face. When her supposed GENERAL STUDY OF SUGGESTION. 
183 
adversary entered tire room on the following day, she 
imagined that she saw a bruise upon his cheek. This 
hallucination was derived from the former one, just as 
a conclusion is derived from its premisses, and it may be 
taken as a type of auto-suggestion. The subject must 
have unconsciously argued after this fashion: I gave 
him a blow on the cheek, of which therefore he must 
bear the mark. Another subject, coming out of a state 
of profound lethargy, which had only lasted for five or 
six minutes, imagined that she had been asleep for 
several hours. We encouraged the illusion by saying 
that it was two o’clock in the afternoon, although it was 
in reality nine in the morning. When she heard this, 
the patient felt extremely hungry, and begged us to let 
her go to get food. This was a kind of organic hallu- 
cination—the hallucination of hunger—suggested to the 
subject by herself. She reasoned some- 
what after this manner: It is two o’clock in the after- 
noon; I have eaten nothing since I got up, and am 
therefore dying of hunger. This imaginary hunger was 
soon satisfied by an equally imaginary meal. We sug- 
gested that there was a plate of cakes on a corner of the 
table, of which the subject might partake, and at the 
end of five minutes her hunger was appeased. These 
examples of auto-suggestion are derived from halluci- 
nation, and we now give one belonging to a different 
order of ideas. We ajjproached a hypnotized subject, 
and addressed her as follows: “ A serious accident has 
just befallen you. Do you remember it ? Your foot 
slipped in crossing the court-yard, and you fell upon your 
hip. You must have hurt yourself very much.” The 
subject instantly felt a severe pain in the hip and began 184 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
to moan, and also, suggesting to herself the natural con- 
sequences of the fall, she gave herself a slight paralysis 
of the limb, and limped on awaking. 
The general conclusion to be derived from all these 
facts and experiments is, that suggestion consists in 
introducing, cultivating, and confirming an idea in the 
mind of the subject of experiment. In reply to the 
inquiry. What is meant by an idea, and what latent force 
does it possess in order to affect some individuals so 
powerfully ? we must repeat that the idea resolves itself 
into an image, and the image into a revival of the sensa- 
tion. It consists in the psychical renewal of a peripheral 
sensation already experienced by the subject. This 
enables us to understand its power; the idea is, strictly 
speaking, only an appearance, but there lurks behind 
it the energy excited by a physical, anterior excitement. 
This point of view is confirmed by the fact that it is 
possible to produce, by simple physical excitements, that 
is, by sensations, almost all the effects which have hitherto 
been produced by suggestion, that is, by ideas. Thus, 
instead of producing or putting an end to paralysis by 
speech, it may be produced by a shock to the limb or 
on the skull (Charcot), and it may be terminated by 
employing the same process. The repetition of the vibra- 
tions of the tuning-fork represents the shock of trauma- 
tism. Hysterical anaesthesia may also be produced and 
destroyed by analogous processes.* The movements may 
also in some cases be produced by excitement of the 
scalp. We cannot here give full details, and only 
wish to show that suggestion may be referred to the 
* Ch. Fere, Note pour servir a Vhistoire de Vamhlyopie hyd&rique 
(Bulletin de la Soc. de Biolngie, 1886, p. 389). GENERAL STUDY OF SUGGESTION. 
185 
peripheral excitement in which it has its source. It 
is precisely because it produces in the nervous centres 
of some subjects the same dynamic modifications, that 
suggestion is able to effect all the phenomena which 
result from peripheral excitements. We are reminded 
of an old saying which is not yet obsolete, Nihil est in 
intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu. 
In our day the power of suggestion has been so 
firmly established that some people have maintained 
that it is to this we must ascribe the action of msthesi- 
ogenic and dynamogenic agents, etc., employed for 
peripheral excitements. The reality of the process of 
cure by these agents has been denied, and it is thought 
that suggestion will explain the singular phenomenon of 
transfer, discovered by Gelle, and afterwards studied by 
a commission of the Societe de Biologie ; what Carpenter 
ascribed to expectant attention is now ascribed to sug- 
gestion. This error is chiefly due to the idea that if 
suggestion will reproduce any given phenomenon which 
was previously ascribed to a physical excitement, there- 
fore suggestion is its true cause. But this argument 
is weak. It might as well be said that since it is possible 
to satisfy a somnambulist’s hunger with an imaginary 
meal, nourishment is at all times unnecessary for him. 
Moreover, this opinion does not possess the merit of 
simplicity which is claimed for it, since it is as difficult 
to understand why the simple idea of paralysis should 
paralyse, as to understand why a shock to the skull 
should produce the same effect. Besides, in ascribing 
everything to the idea, we ignore the fact that it 
is a secondary and derivative phenomenon. To main- 
tain that the idea is everything, and the peripheral 186 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
excitement nothing, would be equivalent to maintaining 
that the idea is a phenomenon entirely independent of 
the sensorial functions; it is, in fact, a revolt against the 
grand theory of the relations between sensations and 
images which dominates modern psychology. Such an 
opinion is also opposed to physiology, which teaches us 
that several functions—the secretions of sweat, tears, etc. 
—may become active by means both of physical and 
mental causes, and that the reality of the one does not 
exclude the other. 
We now come to the important question of the 
method. 
Such a book as this cannot include within its narrow 
limits the innumerable details of hypnotic experimenta- 
tion. Since it is necessary to restrict the exposition of 
facts, we think it well, by way of compensation, to throw 
light on the questions of method, which constitute the 
philosophic side of the subject. 
The study of hypnotism bristles with difficulties, 
although this has not occurred to the numerous persons 
who have expected to find in these questions the 
occasion of a brilliant and easy success. Although 
nothing is more simple than the invention of dramatic 
experiments, which strike the vulgar with fear and 
astonishment, it is on the other hand very difficult, in 
many cases, to find the true formula of the experi- 
ment which will give its result with convincing accuracy. 
Speaking generally, the method is the same in the 
study of physical phenomena, and in that of the pheno- 
mena of suggestion. In order to obtain constant results, GENERAL STUDY OF SUGGESTION. 
187 
which may be verified at pleasure by any other observer, 
it is necessary to define with the utmost precision the 
physiological and pathological conditions of the subjects 
of experiment, and the nature of the processes by which 
it is performed. Whenever one of these two rules is vio- 
lated, the method is incorrect. There is a risk of seeing 
the result announced falsified by another observer, who 
was unable to reproduce it; hence the questions become 
confused, personal discussions, which are necessarily 
sterile, ensue, and finally general disbelief is aroused. 
The physical state of the subject must first be 
defined. We recommend the course pursued by our- 
selves, of choosing hysterical subjects who display the 
strongly marked characteristics of profound hypnotism. 
Any one who wishes to verify the new experiments 
in suggestion which we adduce, must occupy himself 
solely with these subjects. It is very important to 
indicate the physical state of the subject of experiment, 
and in no other way can there be any comparison of 
results. It is true that no morbid state is constantly 
presented under the same aspect. Each individual im- 
presses a peculiar stamp on the morbid state to which he 
is subject. All diseases are displayed in forms which 
vary with the constitution of the subject, and it may 
even be said that each organic function presents in- 
dividual variations. We cannot, therefore, be surprised 
that hypnosis is displayed under various and more or 
less characteristic aspects, but this is an additional reason 
for only comparing similar facts, unless we wish to fall 
into deplorable confusion. 
It is less easy to define with precision the modes of 
operation, since the experimenter is often mistaken with 188 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
respect to the means which he employs. He believes 
that he is suggesting a given idea, but at the same 
moment he unconsciously suggests a second, which alters 
the first idea, or else the subject intervenes in an active 
manner, in order to simulate certain phenomena, thus 
deceiving the observer. Simulation and unconscious 
suggestion are the two rocks to be avoided in studying 
the facts of suggestion. 
Simulation.—lt must be admitted that simulation, 
always a difficulty in the study of hysteria, is no where 
so formidable as it is in this department of study. The 
experimenter is safe as long as he has to do with physical 
phenomena, but this is not the case with many of the 
facts of suggestion. It is very easy for the subject to 
simulate an hallucination or delirium. These are internal 
phenomena which cannot be seen, touched, and handled, 
like an objective fact; they are subjective phenomena, 
personal to those who experience them, and consequently 
they may readily be assumed. Before studying them, it 
must be proved that they exist. Before observing the 
characteristics of an artificial hallucination, we must 
ascertain that it is really experienced by the subject. 
The danger is not averted by proving that the subject 
is really hypnotized, for, as we have already said, simula- 
tion and somnambulism do not exclude each other. Pitres 
has ascertained that even when the subject is asleep she 
may still deceive. We must, therefore, exact from the 
facts of suggestion themselves the proof of their reality. 
Strictly speaking, we might appeal to moral proofs; 
but these proofs are only valuable to those who know 
the subjects; they are strictly personal. Moreover, those 
who are satisfied with moral proofs should remember GENERAL STUDY OF SUGGESTION. 
189 
Hublier, whose good faith is undoubted, and who was 
deceived by his somnambulist subject for four consecutive 
years. It would be wise to accept the lesson of caution 
presented by this fact. 
The method to be pursued in such cases is already 
told, and it may be summed up in one word : it is the 
experimental method, and includes the most improved 
processes of clinical observation and physiological re- 
search. 
In earlier times magnetizers were content to observe, 
and many in our day imitate them in this respect. After 
producing a given psychical phenomenon by suggestion, 
they observe, and then describe it. We hold that this is 
only a preparation for the experiment, which remains 
incomplete. Passive observation is not enough to assure 
us of the subject’s sincerity, nor can the reality of the 
hallucination suggested be proved, if we only observe 
what the subject does, and listen to what he says. The 
investigation must be carried further, and the pheno- 
menon of suggestion must be subjected to oystematic 
examination, in order to separate it from the objective 
signs. It is in this way that experiments have shown 
that hallucinative vision is modified by optical instru- 
ments just as actual vision is; that hallucination with 
respect to a colour produces the same effects of contrast 
in colour, as if it were actually seen; that artificial 
anaesthesia produces the same phenomena of colour as 
the spontaneous achromatopsia of hysterical patients; 
that the motor paralysis induced by suggestion is accom- 
panied by the same physical signs as a paralysis due 
to organic causes. These hidden characters, which are 
revealed by experiment, are evidently of a complex 190 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
nature; in order to understand them we must be 
acquainted with physics, psychology, and the physiology 
of the nervous system. The effects of contrast produced 
by colour-hallucination is inexplicable, unless we under- 
stand the theory of complementary colours. Again, we 
cannot understand the clinical signs of motor paralysis 
produced by suggestion, unless we are acquainted with 
the nature of organic paralysis; and so it is in other 
cases. There is no risk of the subject’s inventing the 
characteristics as a whole, in order to deceive the experi- 
menter, and we may therefore be assured that there is no 
simulation, and this for two reasons : first, want of know- 
ledge, and, secondly, want of power. The objective signs 
mentioned just now are therefore very valuable; they 
apply to every case, and offer an irrefutable proof of the 
reality of the experiment. 
In short, the method to be pursued with respect to 
facts of suggestion is this: the artificial psychical phe- 
nomena must be matter for experiment, with the aim of 
rendering these subjective disturbances objective. 
A singular problem, however, occurs with reference to 
simulation, which has not yet been examined by any 
observer. The rules which we have just laid down in 
order to counteract simulation are very efficacious when 
the simulator does not experience in any degree the 
assumed phenomenon. For instance, if the subject asserts 
that he has a visual hallucination, when he sees absolutely 
nothing, the manifold proofs furnished by optical instru- 
ments, complementary colours, etc., will easily expose the 
fraud. But it is open to question whether simulation in 
a subject liable to suggestion may not effect all which is 
effected by suggestion itself. GENERAL STUDY OF SUGGESTION, 
191 
Let us take an important instance. Motor paralysis 
can be given to some subjects by means of suggestion, 
and it is a question whether the subject, with the 
purpose of deceiving the experimenter, may not simulate 
a motor paralysis, and whether this assumed paralysis 
may not present the same objective characters as that 
which is produced by suggestion. We think that this is 
possible, for in paralysis by suggestion the real cause of 
functional impotence is the idxa of a paralysis, and it 
matters little whether this idea proceeds from suggestion 
by the experimenter, or from simulation by the subject; 
it is only essential that it should be sufficiently intense 
as to affect the motor power. It is in this way that we 
hold that simulated phenomena may in some cases be 
absolutely confounded with real phenomena. 
This question of simulation in an individual liable 
to suggestion is, in fact, only one aspect of a much larger 
question: that of the action of the will on phenomena 
of suggestion. It may be asked whether an individual 
liable to suggestion can voluntarily create, modify, and 
destroy effects on himself comparable to those developed 
by suggestion. We are acquainted with facts which 
enable us to reply in the affirmative. We have seen 
subjects who could at pleasure, and in the waking state, 
call up the hallucinative image; when looking attentively 
at a sheet of white paper, they could cause it to appear 
red, blue, green, etc., and the colour thus evoked would 
be sufficiently distinct to give birth in due succession 
to the complementary colour which the subject could 
indicate correctly. This remarkable visual phenomenon 
differs from artificial hallucination in one respect; it 
requires a voluntary effort, continued for a period vary- 192 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
ing between twenty seconds and a minute, while a 
suggested hallucination occurs almost spontaneously. 
We met with another instance of voluntary suggestion 
in psychical paralysis. A subject to whom complete 
paralysis of the arm had been given was able to free 
herself from it after endeavouring for five minutes to 
move the paralysed limb. 
Unconscious Suggestion.—We have not yet had 
occasion to speak of this last kind of suggestion, which 
has a tendency to introduce itself like a parasite into 
the experimenter’s mental suggestions, so as alto- 
gether to vitiate the results. It should be known that 
some hysterical subjects become when hypnotized so 
sensitive and such delicate re-agents, that no word or 
gesture escapes their notice; they see, hear, and retain 
everything, like registering instruments. Suppose that 
the experimenter has produced a visual hallucination ; 
he then wishes to ascertain whether this sensorial dis- 
turbance has produced any modification in the sensibility 
of the integuments of the eye, which were insensitive 
before the experiment. Before making the examination, 
he says to one of his assistants, “I am going to see 
whether the’ cornea and conjunctiva have become 
sensitive.” The subject hears what is said, and it may 
easily, although not certainly, happen that the words act 
as a direct suggestion of the symptom in question, so 
that the experimenter runs the risk of taking for an 
effect of hallucination what is the effect of suggestion. 
The subject acts in good faith, as well as the experi- 
menter ; there is no simulation, and yet there may be 
a considerable error. 
The risk of unconscious suggestion is not found in GENERAL STUDY OP SUGGESTION. 
193 
the subjects of profound hypnotism in all degrees of hyp- 
nosis ; it is slighter during lethargy and catalepsy, and 
does not exist at all in the case of some subjects, who 
are in these states unable to receive any suggestions 
whatever. It is during somnambulism that unconscious 
suggestion is most frequently present, and when the 
experimenter has to do with a somnambulist, he should 
always remember this source of error, and guard against it. 
The moral proof derived from the subject’s good faith is 
useless, since we are not concerned with simulation. It is 
well for the experimenter to work in silence, not to pre- 
pare his experiments in the presence of his subject, and 
to execute them before a limited number of spectators. 
One or two are enough. We cannot too often repeat 
that only the first experiments are convincing, since, 
strictly speaking, these alone are performed on a virgin 
subject, safe from unconscious suggestion. Every time 
that the experiment is repeated, there are probably more 
spectators who comment upon it aloud; they uncon- 
sciously make suggestions which vitiate the purity of the 
phenomenon, and greatly diminish its value. In addition 
to this there is another source of error, namely, that 
when the second experiment takes place, the subject 
remembers the former one. For instance, if a given 
phenomenon has been produced once by the employment 
of a given agent, on the second occasion the presence of 
this agent, or even its image, may recall its sensation, and 
so disturb the experiment in hand. 
For these reasons, among others, we have always been 
careful in our papers on hypnotism to give the results of 
the first experiment, although these results were often 
less exact and complete than those which followed. 194 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
We believe that the experimenter who follows the 
rules just laid down, who accurately defines the physical 
and mental condition of his subjects, who takes measures 
completely to eliminate simulation and unconscious 
suggestion, will obtain verifiable results. 
OO 7 
We must not omit a final precept, equally applicable 
to the research into facts and to the performance of 
experiments, and that is, to bring together the phe- 
nomena of suggestion which are already known, and 
which make part of positive science. Many experi- 
menters have disregarded this important precept, and 
have written pages on suggestion which are only a 
collection of amusing anecdotes, adapted rather to pique 
curiosity than to afford instruction. Paul Janet has 
forcibly remarked on the serious consequences of this 
omission : “ In recent works on the subject of suggestion, 
all more or less intended for the public, since they were 
published at conferences, lectures, or in reviews, we have 
observed that, instead of first relying on the most common 
and elementary facts, assuming that these were already 
too well known, which is by no means the case, they 
have been chiefly anxious to dwell on extraordinary 
facts which strike the imagination. This is intelligible 
enough, since in addressing the public, success is the 
first object. The writer doubtless loves truth for its own 
sake, but he is not unwilling to make it effective. If 
the audience or the reader is prepared, the effect is 
weakened, and it becomes greater in proportion to its 
unexpectedness. This tendency to throw into relief 
the extraordinary and the unexpected is excellent from 
the literary and dramatic point of view, but it has many 
inconveniences when we are concerned with science, GENERAL STUDY OF SUGGESTION. 
195 
for when the amazement is too great, it inclines the 
mind to unbelief, and diverts it from examination. 
Enlightened minds have long held aloof from the 
study of magnetism, precisely because of its marvellous 
and mysterious character. And now, although the 
new facts rest, or appear to rest, on a really scientific 
method, yet their resemblance to those of magnetism 
tends to produce an analogous disposition to hostility 
and dislike. At the same time, by a reciprocal and 
contrary effect which is no less vexatious, others regard 
these singular phenomena, of which they cannot divine 
the cause, as if they were invested with the same 
prestige of the unknown and the mysterious as those 
of magnetism. The one leads to the other, and since 
the public is unacquainted with the methods of science, 
they confuse the subjects together, so as to fall back into 
the error which it was sought to avoid.” * 
The method to be pursued consists, as we have said, 
in at once showing that suggestion is not a distinct 
phenomenon in the history of intelligence, an isolated, 
disconnected fact, explained by nothing, and as it were 
suspended in mid-air. It is necessary to insist on the 
close relations existing between the phenomena of sug- 
gestion and the admitted facts which form part of 
positive science; the connection between them must 
be made clear, since these phenomena are only an 
exaggeration and a pathological deviation. 
On this subject we shall have to point out numerous 
parallels between the facts of suggestion and those of 
physiology, of psychology, and of mental disorder. 
The comparative study of suggestion and of psycho- 
* Revue politique et litteraire, August, 1884. 196 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
logical phenomena will show us that the hypnotic 
subject is not governed by special psychological laws, 
and that the germs of all his symptoms may be traced 
in the normal state. The comparative study of the 
phenomena of suggestion and of mental disorder will, 
moreover, show that the psychical disturbance caused 
in the subject by suggestion has many characters 
in common with the spontaneous disturbance found in 
an insane person; that, for instance, the hallucination of 
hypnotism does not essentially differ from the ordinary 
forms of hallucination. 
It is by means of these repeated comparisons that 
the experimenter finds his bearings in the study of 
hypnotism, in which such care is necessary. Re- 
liance on the achieved results of positive science acts 
as a check and guidance, and hypnotism, instead of 
being merely an amusement for the idle, becomes a 
useful method of experiment in psychology and in 
mental diseases. 
Suggestion acts on the subject’s nervous system, 
and produces modifications analogous to those which 
are produced by peripheral excitements. But we are 
far from knowing all the effects produced by the idea 
which is introduced by means of suggestion into the 
subject’s brain ; it is, indeed, probable that we are not 
acquainted with the thousandth part of them. Far from 
wishing to conceal this incompleteness of the theory of 
suggestion, we think it well to call particular attention 
to it. The study of suggestion has only just begun, 
and many surprises are doubtless in store for us. GENERAL STUDY OF SUGGESTION. 
197 
We think it probable that when suggestion is em- 
ployed in the case of a subject adapted for it, it is 
capable of producing all the actions connected with 
the nervous system. This is, however, only a proba 
bility, since direct proofs are wanting, and if it were 
proved, we have still to learn the extent and limits of 
the influence of the nervous system on the rest of the 
organism. The question of suggestion merges in this 
case in an important and still somewhat obscure question 
of physiology. 
A fresh chapter in the history of suggestion has 
been lately opened. Various observers have been study- 
ing suggestions which do not exert any action on the 
subject’s physical life, but on the so-called vegetative 
functions, circulation, calorification, secretion, digestion, 
etc. 
We do not propose to dwell on well-known facts, 
such as purging by means of suggestion, since such 
facts present no special feature, and we know that in 
the normal state these effects are produced by certain 
forms of mental emotion. 
The most important of the organic disturbances pro- 
duced by an idea is an experiment on vesication, per- 
formed by Focachon, a chemist at Charmes. He applied 
some postage stamps to the left shoulder of a hypnotized 
subject, keeping them in their place with some strips 
of diachylon and a compress; at the same time he 
suggested to the subject that he had applied a blister. 
The subject was watched, and when twenty hours had 
elapsed the dressing, which had remained untouched, was 
removed. The epidermis to which it had been applied 
was thickened and dead and of a yellowish white colour, 198 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
and this region of the skin was puffy, and surrounded 
by an intensely red zone. Several physicians, including 
Beaunis, confirmed this observation, and the latter made 
photographs of the blister, which he presented to the 
Society of Physiological Psychology on June 29, 1885.* 
Shortly afterwards, on July 11, 1885, Dumontpallier 
informed the Societe de Biologie of experiments per- 
formed on hypnotized hysterical subjects, whose tem- 
perature he had raised locally several degrees; this is 
a curious fact, to which another is analogous, namely, 
that the temperature is lowered in the correlative 
region of the body during the suggestion of these 
physical phenomena. 
During the same seance, Bourru and Burot, professors 
of the Rochefort school, published records of epistaxis, and 
even of blood-sweat, produced by suggestion in a male 
hysterical patient, who was affected by hemiplegia and 
hemi-amesthesia. On one occasion, after one of these 
experimenters had hypnotized the subject, he traced his 
name with the blunted end of a probe on both his fore- 
arms, and then issued the following order:—“ This after- 
noon, at four o’clock, you will go to sleep, and blood 
will then issue from your arms on the lines which I have 
now traced.” The subject fell asleep at the hour named; 
the letters then appeared on his left arm, marked in 
relief, and of a bright red colour which contrasted with 
the general paleness of the skin, and there were even 
minute drops of blood in several places. There was 
* It seems that as long ago as November, 1840, Prejalmini, an Italian 
physician, raised a blister by applying to the healthy skin of a somnam- 
bulist a piece of paper on which he had written a prescription for a blister. 
We owe this fact to Ferrari, who found it in Eicard's Journal de May- 
ntftisme Animal, 2nd year, 1840, pp. IS, 151. GENERAL STUDY OF SUGGESTION. 
199 
absolutely nothing to be seen on the right and paralysed 
side. Mabille subsequently heard the same patient, in 
a spontaneous attack of hysteria, command his arm to 
bleed, and soon afterwards the cutaneous haemorrhage 
just described was displayed. These strange phenomena 
recall, and also explain, the bleeding stigmata which have 
been repeatedly observed in the subjects of religious 
ecstasy who have pictured to themselves the passion of 
Christ. 
Charcot and his pupils at the Salpetriere have 
often produced the effects of burns upon the skin of 
hypnotized subjects by means of suggestion. The idea 
of the burn does not take effect immediately, but after 
the lapse of some hours. It is still very doubtful whether 
all organic functions may be thus modified by means of 
suggestion. 
Quite recently one of the present writers * succeeded 
in showing, by means of processes analogous to those of 
Mosso, that any part of the body of an hysterical patient 
may change in volume, simply owing to the fact that 
the patient’s attention is fixed on that part. This im- 
portant observation is not only an addition to the 
foregoing, but explains them by showing what influence 
may be exerted in hyperexcitable subjects by a simple 
phenomenon of ideation on the vaso-motor centres, which 
are concerned in all experiments of this kind. 
Among the effects of suggestion only one class has 
been the object of regular research: that of psychical phe- 
nomena. These have been studied by preference because 
they were the first which charlatans sought to turn 
to their advantage. To these we now propose to turn 
* Ch. Fere, Bull. Societe de Biologie, 1886, p. 399. 200 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
our attention, endeavouring to define and classify them 
with the utmost care. 
If, before going into details, we consider the subject 
as a whole, it will be seen that we have to study the 
part played by ideas in the modification of the in- 
telligence ; that we must observe what this factor 
produces when it acts alone. It is generally admitted 
by psychologists that the idea is only a secondary factor, 
that it is for the most part a resultant, a point of 
arrival; that psychical phenomena are in some sort 
developed from below in an upward direction. They do 
not begin in the upper centres of ideation, but are com- 
pleted there.* So also the phenomena of suggestion 
which, by an inverse mechanism, are developed from 
the higher to the lower plane, are more superficial and 
ephemeral than spontaneous phenomena. It is possible 
to suggest to a subject that he is very hungry, but this 
feeling, which is dictated by an idea, will not be so deep 
as that which is due to an organic necessity. So, again, 
the personality of the subject may be transformed, and 
he may be changed into a dog or a wolf; but when this 
borrowed personality is engrafted on the true one, 
the character is not fundamentally changed. If the 
suggestion is to produce any permanent modifications 
it must be often repeated, and it will then, at least in 
some cases, end by producing habits. A subject to whom 
suggestions of motor paralysis had been repeatedly made, 
said that in dreams she often saw half of her body 
paralysed. Experimental suggestions of crime ought 
not to be lightly made, since we cannot always tell 
what traces they leave behind them. 
* Eibot, Maladies de la PersonnaUld, p. 131, Paris: F. Alcan. GENERAL STUDY OF SUGGESTION. 
201 
A careful study of suggestion shows that this word 
does not imply a single fact, hut two principal facts 
which may be said to form the cardinal points of the 
whole theory. There are two fundamental kinds of 
suggestion; the one produces an active or impulsive 
phenomenon, such as a sensation of pain, an hallucination, 
an act; the effect of the other is to produce a phenomenon 
of paralysis, such as the flaccidity of a limb, the loss of 
memory, anaesthesia of the senses. These are two quite 
different processes, and may even be said to be opposed 
to each other, since the one undoes what is done by the 
other. It is impossible to refer them to the same psychical 
law, and to apply to them the same explanation. 
Let us first consider the positive suggestions, of which 
the hallucination and the act are the most important. It 
has already been observed that all suggestions are ad- 
dressed to the subject’s sensorial organs, and that the 
co-operation of his intelligence is necessary in order to 
attain the end in view. We must go further, and establish 
the fact that each suggestion includes two things : first, 
an impression is made upon the subject, which is, ac- 
cording to circumstances, a sensation of sight, of hearing 
(verbal suggestion), of touch, or of the other senses. 
This initial impression, which may be termed the sugges- 
tive impression, has the effect of arousing in the subject’s 
brain a second impression, which may be termed the 
suggested state, such, for instance, as the hallucinatory 
image. The first impression is the means, the second its 
object. In reply to the question how the first impression, 
which is directly produced by the experimenter, can 
arous the second, which is wholly from within, and 
without any direct influence from the experimenter, we 202 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
should reply that this is owing to the association of ideas. 
Suggestion in its positive form is only the setting in 
action of a mental association previously existing in the 
subject’s mind. 
Suppose, for example, that the subject is told to look 
at the bird on her apron. As soon as the words are 
uttered she sees the bird, she feels it in her hand, and 
can sometimes even hear it sing. Inexperienced persons 
may think it extraordinary and even inexplicable that 
an imaginary image can be created in the subject’s brain 
by mere words; but it is nevertheless a fact that the 
association of ideas is the cause of the suggestion of 
hallucinations. The words uttered by the experimenter 
are associated with the mental image of a bird by 
education, by repetition, in a word, by habit; therefore 
it produces this image, and the hallucination is effected. 
It is a law that when two images have frequently been 
received together, simultaneously or in quick succession, 
the presence of the one tends to revive the other. The 
production of the hallucinatory image by means of verbal 
affirmation is only a fulfilment of this well-known law. 
We should be able to show, by considering it more closely, 
that this mode of suggestion belongs to the group of 
associations by proximity. 
Instead of making use of speech, the subject’s sense 
of sight may be employed. When his eyes are mobile 
and follow all our actions with docility, we make with 
the hand the appearance of some flying object, and the 
subject soon exclaims, “What a beautiful bird!” This 
singular effect of a simple gesture is also due to the 
association of ideas. The rude imitation by which the 
hand represents the movement of some flying object has GENERAL STUDY OF SUGGESTION. 
203 
raised up the image of a bird. In this case the associa- 
tion which comes into play differs from the former one; 
it is an association due to resemblance. 
It is in this way that psychology explains the 
mechanism of hallucinatory suggestion, which essenti- 
ally consists in acting on an association. It is only a 
special case of the great law of which this is the for- 
mula :—When an image is aroused in the mind, it tends 
to reproduce all the images which resemble it, or which 
were found with it in an anterior act of consciousness. 
In a word, one image suggests another. Paul Janet 
observes on this subject: “ Some Scotch psychologists, 
Brown for example, have even proposed to call this law 
the law of suggestion, a term which would be much 
more appropriate than the other. I have no doubt that 
the expression of suggestion, introduced by Braid into 
his theory of hypnotism, is derived from this source.” * 
Just as the association of the word with the image 
explains the suggestion of hallucinations, so the association 
of the image with the movement explains the suggestion 
of acts. 
When a given movement is executed before the eyes 
of a subject, such as clapping the hands, the representation 
of this movement is produced in his mind. When, with- 
out moving himself, the experimenter bids his subject 
clap his hands, the representation of the same action is 
aroused in his mind by the association of words with 
ideas ; if in both cases alike the subject performs 
the act in question—in other words, if the image is 
translated into movement—this is because custom has 
associated the image with the movement. It is, as it 
* Heme politique et litt&raire, August, 1884. 204 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
were, the beginning or first stage of the movement which 
it represents, and owing to this fact the subject auto- 
matically executes whatever he is ordered to do, even if 
the act should be dangerous, immoral, or merely ridiculous. 
Richet tells us that on one occasion, when performing 
experiments on the friend he had hypnotized, he com- 
pelled him to pick up the piece of chalk he had thrown 
under the table twenty times. In fact, the suggestion of 
acts is perhaps, of all the phenomena of suggestion, the 
one which approximates most closely to the normal state; 
it simply consists in the servile execution of an order. 
We have, however, an observation to make on this 
subject. We are compelled to connect these facts of 
suggestion, impulses, and hallucinations, with the facts of 
positive science which may serve to prove and control 
them. Yet we are far from believing that this method 
will give a complete explanation of the phenomena in 
question. It is a proof of excessive confidence to assume 
that everything is explained, and a word is enough to 
show that the matter is still full of obscurity. Admitting 
that the suggestion of a movement is explained by the 
association of the movement with its image or representa- 
tion, it is a question whether as much can be said of the 
suggestion of an act. When the subject’s brain is charged 
with this idea, “On awaking you will steal the hand- 
kerchief of some given person,” and the subject when he 
awakes does actually commit the theft, we cannot suppose 
that there is nothing in this except an image associated 
with an act. The subject has, in fact, appropriated and 
assimilated the experimenter’s idea. Instead of passively 
executing the order given by another, the order has 
passed into the active state, that is, the subject feels a GENERAL STUDY OF SUGGESTION. 
205 
desire to steal—a complex and obscure state which no 
one has hitherto been able to explain. We shall return 
to this subject presently, in order to examine it more 
closely. 
Since we find so much that is enigmatical in the 
region of impulsive suggestions, which are the clearest 
and most intelligible, this is still more the case when we 
approach the subject of inhibitory suggestions. Here 
the most superficial psychologist will find himself on 
new ground. The facts of paralysis by means of sug- 
gestion completely overthrow classic psychology. The 
experimenter who produces them with perfect ease does 
not really know what he is doing. 
Take an instance of systematic anaesthesia. The 
subject was told, “ On awaking you will be unable to see 
or hear, or in any way perceive M. X , who is now 
present; he will have completely disappeared.” Accord- 
ingly, when the subject awoke she saw all the persons 
who surrounded her with the exception of M. X . 
When he spoke, she did not answer his questions, and 
when he laid his hand on her shoulder, she was uncon- 
scious of the contact. He put himself in her way, and 
she walked on and was alarmed to encounter an invisible 
object. We are ignorant how this phenomenon is pro- 
duced and can only accept the external fact; namely, 
that when a subject is assured that an object present 
has no existence, the suggestion has the direct or indirect 
effect of establishing in his brain an anaesthesia cor- 
responding to the object selected. But it is still a 
question what occurs between the spoken affirmation, 
which is the means, and the systematic anaesthesia, 
which is the end. We cannot, as in the case of halluci- 206 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
nation, assume that the word spoken to the subject, and 
the phenomenon produced, are connected by association. 
If it is true that the image of a serpent is associated 
with the words, “Here is a serpent,” it cannot be said 
that the incapacity for seeing M. X , who is present 
at the time, is also associated with the words, “ M. X 
is non-existent.” In this case the law of association, 
which is so useful in resolving psychological problems, 
is altogether unavailing. This is probably because this 
law will not explain all the facts of consciousness, and 
is less general than it is supposed to be by English 
psychologists. 
Similar reflections apply to another instance of 
paralysis by suggestion, or motor paralysis. It is pos- 
sible to suggest to a hypnotized subject that her arm is 
paralysed. It is only necessary to say repeatedly with 
the requisite authority, “ Your arm is paralysed,” and 
functional impotence is soon displayed. The subject 
begins by signifying a denial of the fact, she tries to raise 
her arm, and succeeds in doing so. She is repeatedly 
told, “You cannot raise your arm; it will fall again,” 
and paralysis gradually comes on, and presently extends 
to the whole arm. The subject can no longer move it, 
and its flaccidity is absolute. Such is the singular 
phenomenon of motor paralysis by means of suggestion. 
It is as difficult to understand as the anaesthesia to 
which it corresponds. We do not think that it can be 
explained by any psychical facts now known to us. 
Perhaps this whole class of facts is subject to a 
general psychical law of which the most advanced 
psychologists have not yet discovered the formula and 
which may have some analogy with an inhibitory action. GENEEAL STUDY OF SUGGESTION. 
207 
According to this hypothesis it may be provisionally 
admitted that in order to paralyse the subject the 
experimenter produces in him a mental impression which 
has an inhibitory effect on one of his sensorial or motor 
functions; it should also be clearly understood that, 
strictly speaking, it is not the mental impression which 
produces the inhibition, but the concomitant physio- 
logical process. Moreover, it must be remembered that 
the word inhibition explains nothing, and does not dis- 
pense with the necessity of seeking the true explanation. 
Hypnotic suggestions may be classified as follows: 
Some are only effected during sleep, and disappear with 
a return to the normal state ; others continue during the 
waking state; others, again, are produced in the waking 
state. 
Thus, the hallucination of a bird may be given to a 
somnambulist, and this hallucination will disappear when 
the subject is awakened by breathing on his eyes. As 
soon as he returns to the normal state, he is completely 
free from any imaginary vision. This is the case 
with fresh subjects and with those who are only mode- 
rately receptive, in whom suggestion does not outlast 
the hypnotic sleep. It is possible, however, to protract 
the suggestion after the awakening by strengthening it 
with a different suggestion. If the precaution is taken 
of telling the subject to whom the hallucination is given 
that he will still see the object in question when he 
awakes, the assertion is often enough to ensure the 
existence of the suggestion in the post-hypnotic state. 
It is not usually necessary to make a special sugges- 
tion in order to produce this effect in subjects thoroughly 
under the influence of profound hypnotism. Every effect 208 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
which has been suggested without fixing any term to it, 
and which has a continuous form, may persist for a shorter 
or longer period during the waking state. This is 
especially the case with hallucinations, paralysis, etc. 
We are thus presented with a curious experience, calcu- 
lated to interest the psychologist. The subject is awake, 
has returned to what may be called his normal state, 
is able to reflect, reason, and direct his conduct; and yet, 
under these conditions, he is influenced by the hypnotic 
suggestion. 
The suggestion which persists during the waking 
state presents one interesting characteristic; it appears 
to the subject to be spontaneous. As a general rule, 
the process which produced the suggestion seems to 
leave no trace of its symptoms, and the subject who after 
awaking is still a prey to the hallucination which was 
suggested, does not remember the way in which it was 
produced. We have not in a single case met with 
a subject who said spontaneously, “If I see a bird at 
this moment, it is because you assured me that I saw 
one when I was asleep.” The memory of the uttered 
word has completely disappeared, while its effect remains 
in the hallucinatory image. Hence it follows that 
hypnotic hallucination has always the appearance of 
a spontaneous symptom. Some curious consequences 
ensue. A subject is told that one of the persons present 
wears a coat with gold buttons, and the word arouses 
the sensible image of buttons of a yellow colour. If the 
subject is afterwards asked of what the buttons are 
made, he may reply, “ They are made of copper.” The 
buttons which he has before his eyes are yellow, and he 
supposes that they are copper; he has completely for- GENERAL STUDY OF SUGGESTION. 
209 
gotten the word gold which figured in the verbal 
suggestion. 
The same may be said with respect to suggestion of 
acts. On awaking, the subject obediently performs the 
act which he was ordered to do during the hypnotic 
sleep, but he does not remember who gave him the order, 
nor even that it was giAmn at all. If asked why he is 
performing this act, he usually replies that he does not 
know, or that the idea has come into his head. He 
generally supposes it to be a spontaneous act, and some- 
times he even invents reasons to explain his conduct. 
All this shows that the memory of the suggestion, so far 
as respects its utterance, is completely effaced. 
The same rule applies to paralysis by suggestion. 
The subject who is affected by a monoplegia, Avhen he 
awakes does not understand how the accident occurred; 
he remembers nothing of the verbal suggestion, nor does 
he suspect that the incapacity to move his arm is due to 
a conviction of the want of motor power. In short, the 
suggestion is effaced from the subject’s mind as soon as 
it has produced its effect, and the symptoms appear to 
be evolved independently of their cause. The existence 
of this partial failure of memory may perhaps allow us 
to compare the artificial results of suggestion with the 
phenomena which are spontaneously displayed in normal 
individuals and also in the insane, in their acts, pheno- 
menal impulses, hallucinations, etc. 
We now come to the detailed study of the facts of 
suggestion. It is impossible to examine all of them, 
and we must be content with selecting a certain number 
of typical cases for careful study. We shall successively 
consider hallucinations, impulsive acts, motor paralysis, 210 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
and paralysis of the senses. The phenomena just indicated 
are the simplest which can be obtained by means of 
hypnotic experimentation, and in studying them we may 
be said to study the most elementary properties of the 
phenomena of suggestion. If space permitted, we should 
follow up the study of these elementary facts of sugges- 
tion by enumerating the complex facts derived from 
them. Thus, we might connect with the hallucinatory 
image all the facts included under the name of intelli- 
gence—sensation, the association of images, memory, 
reason, and imagination. With a suggested act are con- 
nected sentiments, emotions, passions, voluntary action, 
and all the phenomena constituting the psychology of 
movement, with which we are as yet imperfectly ac- 
quainted. Finally, paralysis by suggestion is connected 
with the phenomena of psychical inhibition of which the 
study has not as yet even begun. CHAPTER IX. 
HALLUCINATIONS. 
Hypnotic hallucination, of which we propose to give 
a short sketch, is undoubtedly one of the most important 
phenomena of hypnosis; the attention of observers has 
long been directed to it, and it has been the subject of 
numerous experiments. 
In the case of a subject sensitive to suggestion, the 
experimenter can produce the most varied hallucinations, 
and it may almost be said that there is nothing which 
suggestion cannot create. This observation will suffice, 
and we need not cite the innumerable instances of hal- 
lucinations given by some authors, who are more inte- 
rested in experiments which amuse than in those which 
instruct. It is as unprofitable to enumerate all the 
species of hallucination which it pleases the observer to 
impose upon his subject, as to describe all the forms 
which a piece of clay may assume in the hands of its 
moulder. We shall, therefore, content ourselves with 
giving a few instances of the way in which hypnotic 
hallucination may affect all the senses. 
Sight.—A false appreciation of the form of an object 
may be suggested, so that it appears to the subject to be 212 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
larger, smaller, or misshapen. If, for example, the idea 
of some deformity of face in a given person is suggested, 
the subject, even when some hours have elapsed since his 
awakening, will regard that person with an expression 
of disgust or horror whenever he looks that way, and, 
indeed, the person in question may sometimes become an 
object of permanent dislike. We have employed this 
method with success in order to break off the relations 
between certain hysterical patients. The illusion may be 
carried so far as to produce a mistake with respect to 
the identity of a person ; an hypnotic subject will in the 
waking state lavish caresses on a person whom she is 
known to detest, if during the hypnotic sleep it has been 
suggested to her that she has to do with some other 
person to whom she is attached, and the error will some- 
times persist for a whole day, until the illusion is 
destroyed by natural sleep or by an hysterical attack. If 
the presence of a person who is really absent has been 
evoked during the hypnotic sleep, the illusion is equally 
persistent, and the subject may perceive an imaginary 
object throughout the day. At the word of the experi- 
menter the laboratory becomes a street, a garden, a 
cemetery, a lake, etc; a portrait appears on a blank 
sheet of paper. It may even be suggested that there is a 
column of figures on the paper, which the subject will 
add up correctly, (Babinski.) 
Hearing.—lnfluenced by suggestion, the subject con- 
founds the voice of an unknown person with that of an 
absent acquaintance; he can hear, in the midst of pro- 
found silence, voices which issue orders, which repeat 
insults or obscene words, etc. 
Taste.—lf the subject is presented with a piece of HALLUCINATIONS. 
213 
paper, and told that it is a cake, he will begin to eat it 
with relish. In other cases, he may be convinced that 
his food is poisoned. If the idea of a nauseous substance 
is suggested to him, the sensation may be so intense as 
to produce vomiting. 
Smell.—This sense may also become the seat of 
erroneous impressions. The subject may, for example, 
believe that a bad smell is coming to him through the 
keyhole, etc. 
Touch.—The illusions and hallucinations of touch 
assume still more varied forms, and all forms of cuta- 
neous sensibility may occur together or separately. The 
suggestion of a wound is one of the most curious of 
oo 
these hallucinations; the subject’s description of his 
suffering varies with the suggestion that the wound 
was given by a sharp or blunt instrument, but his 
description is only correct if he has previously experienced 
one of these accidents. It is still more remarkable that 
the hallucination of sight is simultaneously developed ; 
the subject sees the blood flow, etc., and a systematic 
delirium ensues which is more or less persistent, and 
during which he complains of imaginary suffering, applies 
appropriate dressings, and carries his arm in a sling, just 
as if the wound really existed. 
Muscular Sense.—lf an hallucinatory object, such as a 
lamp-shade, is put in the subject’s hands, and he is told 
to press it, he experiences a sensation of resistance, and 
is unable to bring his hands together. 
Internal Sense.—Suggestion cannot only be applied 
to the senses; it is possible to produce visceral hallucina- 
tions and illusions, the sensation of a foreign substance 
in the interior of the body, etc. But the most remarkable 214 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
of this group of suggestions, and the one which it is the 
most easy to produce, are those which refer to the calls 
of nature. When hunger or thirst has been suggested, 
the subject eagerly calls for food or drink as soon as he 
awakes, and if they are presented to him, he swallows 
them with avidity. If it is suggested that he wishes to 
make water, the subject is scarcely awake before he 
assumes an embarrassing attitude and hastens to satisfy 
the imaginary necessity. Sensual suggestions provoke 
equally imperious desires, of which the consequences may 
be imagined. 
Nor is this all. Not only do the suggestions of 
imaginary sensations affect the senses and the viscera, 
but it is possible to suggest the idea that there is a 
change of structure in the whole substance. The subject 
may, for instance, awake in amazement, saying, “I am 
made of glass, do not touch me,” and systematic delirium 
may ensue from this mistaken idea. Other forms of 
delirium may be created at pleasure, by the suggestion of 
a sensation affecting one of the special senses. Richet’s 
observations on this subject, in the Bevue Pkilosophique 
of March, 1881, are worthy of notice, and .we subjoin a 
few of them. 
Mme. A , a respectable matron, underwent the 
following metamorphoses;—As a peasant. She rubbed 
her eyes and stretched herself: “What o’clock is it? Four 
in the morning! ” She drags her feet as if wearing 
sabots. “I must get up and go to the stable. Now, La 
Rousse, turn round ! ” She assumes to be milking a 
cow. “ Leave me alone, Gros- Jean ; leave me alone, I say, 
and let me get on with my work.” As an actress. Her 
face, so harsh and dissatisfied a moment before, assumes HALLUCINATIONS. 
215 
a smiling expression. “ You see my skirt ? My director 
insisted that it should be longer. In my opinion, the 
shorter the better; but these directors are always annoy- 
ing. Do come and see me sometimes; lam always at 
home at three. You might pay me a visit, and bring a 
present with you.” Ms Archbishop of Paris. Her face 
assumes a very serious expression, and she speaks slowly, 
in a voice sweet as honey: “ I must finish writing my 
charge. Oh, it is you, M. le grand vicaire. What do you 
want ? I did not wish to be disturbed. . . . Yes, this is 
New Year’s Day, and I must go to the cathedral. . . . This 
is a very reverent crowd, is it not, M. le grand vicaire ? 
There is still a sense of religion in the people, whatever 
happens. Let that child come near, that I may bless 
him.” She presents an imaginary ring for the child to 
kiss, and throughout this scene she makes gestures of 
benediction to the right and left. “ I have now another 
task in hand. I must go and pay my respects to the 
President of the Republic. M. le President, I give you 
my good wishes. The Church wishes you a long life; 
in spite of the cruel attacks made upon her, she knows 
that she has nothing to fear as long as a perfectly honest 
man is at the head of the Republic.” She pauses, appears 
to listen, and says aside, “Yes, yes, only false promises !” 
Then aloud, “Now let us pray;” and she kneels down. 
We have observed some phenomena of the same kind, 
but in a less developed form. On one occasion we told 
X that she had become M. F , and after some resist- 
ance she accepted the suggestion. On awaking she was 
unable to see M. F , who was present; she imitated his 
manner, and made the gesture of putting both her hands 
in the pockets of an imaginary hospital apron. From 216 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
time to time she put her hand to her lips, as if to smooth 
her moustache, and looked about her with assurance. 
But she said nothing. We asked her whether she was 
acquainted with X . She hesitated for a moment, and 
then replied, with a contemptuous shrug of the shoulders, 
“Oh yes, an hysterical patient. What do you think of 
her ? She is not too wise.” 
It is difficult to define the psychical nature of these 
transformations of personality. In our opinion the 
phenomenon is more complex than that of hallucination, 
and constitutes true delirium. Moreover, many hypnotic 
hallucinations—that of hearing, for instance—have a 
secondary tendency to produce a delirium corresponding 
with their character. 
The form of hallucinatory suggestion may be varied. 
We have begun by considering the hallucinations which 
relate to the present time, those which are realized as 
soon as the suggestion is given. It is possible, in the case 
of some subjects, to create an hallucination which is to 
be realized in a given number of days, weeks, or even 
months. A simple affirmation is enough to effect this 
experiment. The patient is told that when he enters 
the room on the following day he will see a crow perched 
on the table; or that two months hence, on the Ist of 
January, he will see the speaker come in to wish him a 
happy new year. The subject remembers nothing of 
this when he awakes, and the suggestion remains 
dormant in his mind until the date fixed for its revival. 
We* shall have more to say on the subject of these 
experiments. 
On the other hand, retrospective hallucinations, 
which are really hallucinations of the memory, can also HALLUCINATIONS. 
217 
be given. It is, for instance, impressed upon tlie sub- 
ject that at a given moment of his past life he witnessed 
the commission of a crime by an old man living in the 
same house with him (Bernheim), and if the suggestion 
is clearly defined, the subject’s memory will be as intense 
and as full of details as if the fact had actually occurred. 
We can see what grave consequences might ensue from 
these experiments from a medico-legal point of view. 
Unilateral Hallucinations. The hallucinations 
hitherto in question are bi-lateral; the senses all agree 
to deceive the subject: what the eye sees, that the hand 
touches, and the ear hears. By means of suggestion, how- 
ever, a subject can receive a uni-lateral hallucination, as 
when an imaginary object is presented to him which he 
can only see with one eye. Dumontpallier was the first to 
study this phenomenon, which is common in the insane, 
and may be produced in several ways. For instance, the 
subject is told that there is a portrait on a blank sheet 
of paper, and it is added, after opening the right eye 
only, “You see this portrait?” Then this eye is closed 
and the other is opened, with the words, “ Yon no longer 
see anything.” On awaking the hallucination remains, 
localized in the right eye, with which the subject sees 
the portrait, while for the left ejm the paper remains 
blank. The experiment, performed in this way, is simple 
enough. Dumontpallier has made it more complex by 
giving different hallucinations to each of the two 
symmetrical organs, to each eye or each ear. Thus, after 
hypnotizing the subject, he says to the right ear that it 
is a fine, sunshiny day, while another person says to the 
left ear that it is raining. On the right side of the 
subject’s face there is a smile, while on the left the lip 218 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
is drawn down, so as to display annoyance at the bad 
weather. The experiment is continued by the interven- 
tion of sight and hearing, and the description of a rustic 
fete, attended by young people of both sexes, is trans- 
mitted to the right ear. This description is perceived by 
the left cerebral hemisphere, as it appears from the smile 
on the right side of the face, while on the left there is an 
expression of emotion, caused by the imitation of the 
barking of a dog at that ear. It is said that the different 
expression of the two halves of the face is most striking. 
These bilateral hallucinations, which may also be some- 
times observed in the insane, are very interesting from a 
psychological point of view. Dumontpallier thinks that 
they may be taken as a proof of the functional indepen- 
dence of the two cerebral hemispheres.* 
In connection wdth this order of ideas, we will adduce 
a fresh fact, which we have repeatedly observed. Suppose 
the idea is given to the subject that a white cardboard 
appears red to the right eye only; if he closes the left 
eye while looking at the cardboard with the right eye, 
it appears to be of a brilliant red ; if he uses both eyes, 
the colour appears to be pink. It is probable that the 
sensation of whiteness received by the left eye exerts an 
attenuating effect on the hallucination of the right eye, 
and thus produces the degradation of colour. The two 
following facts are connected with this experiment:—lf 
one eye is fixed on a red square, and the other on a 
white surface, the sensation of red persists, but it is 
eclipsed from time to time as if by a white cloud. If a 
red image is produced in one eye after gazing fixedly at 
* Society de Biologic, \ 882, p. 786; Bcrillcm, Be Vindependance fonction- 
elle dcs deux hemispheres cerehraux (These de Paris, 1884, p. 175). HALLUCINATIONS. 
219 
a green square, and the other eye is then opened on a 
white surface, the consecutive monocular image is soon 
effaced. The experiment of the unilateral hallucination 
of colour holds a middle place between these two; the 
hallucinatory red image is weakened by the sensation of 
whiteness received by the other eye, but it is not so 
much weakened as the consecutive image, and it is more 
weakened than the actual sensation. With the exception 
of these differences in intensity, the three phenomena 
may be referred to a single fact, belonging to the study 
of optics, and termed the concurrence or struggle of the 
two fields of vision. 
Nor is this all. The result is complicated if it is 
suggested that the cardboard appears red to the right 
eye, and green to the left eye. In the subjects observed 
by us, we have not found that there was a confusion of 
the two suggested colours, but a species of conflict; at 
first the cardboard appeared to be red, and a moment 
after it was green, and this alternation of colour seemed 
to perplex and weary the patient’s sight. This second 
experiment may be explained like the former one, by the 
struggle between the two fields of vision. In the normal 
state we find that this struggle occurs when two dif- 
ferent colours, such as red and blue, are simultaneously 
presented to the right and left eyes. The subject does not, 
as might have been supposed, see a composite colour, but 
a kind of mist floating over both colours, and occasionally 
displacing them. Finally, on looking through the stereo- 
scope at two similar images, one white and the other 
black, the colour of the images is not fused into a 
uniform grey, but a conflict takes place between the two 
fields of vision, so that at one time the bright, at the 220 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
other the obscure, shade predominates, and hence there 
results the impression of a shining surface.* These well- 
known phenomena seem to explain the experiments on 
hallucinations which we have mentioned above. 
Before going further, we must draw some psychological 
conclusions from the facts just enumerated. Most modern 
psychologists accept the law indicated by Dugald Stewart, 
and more regularly developed by Taine,f according to 
which every image involves a momentary belief in the 
reality of its object. Dugald Stewart observed that few 
men could look from the top of a high tower without 
experiencing a sensation of fear, although their reason 
convinces them that they run no greater danger than if 
they were standing on the ground. “In fact,” as Taine 
adds, “ on looking suddenly down, we imagine ourselves 
to be suddenly thrown headlong to the bottom, and this 
imagination only terrifies us, because for an imperceptible 
moment of time it is a belief. We instinctively draw 
back, as if we felt ourselves falling.” In every image 
presented to the mind there is, therefore, the germ of an 
hallucination, which only needs development. Such 
development occurs in the hypnotic state, in which it is 
only necessary to name a given object to the subject, 
simply to say, “ Here is a bird! ” in order that the 
image suggested by the experimenter’s words should 
become an hallucination. Thus there is only a difference 
of degree between the idea of an object, and the halluci- 
nation of that object. 
There is one striking fact to be noted, namely, that 
* Bernstein, On the Senses. For greater details, see Helmholtz, Optique 
plysiologique, p. 9GI. 
f Be Vlntelligence, vol. i. p. 89. HALLUCINATIONS. 
221 
most of the patients whom we have employed as subjects 
of experiments in hallucination are, in the waking state, 
endowed with a special power of representing objects in 
a sensible form. Liebault regards this quality as the 
sign of individuals susceptible of hypnotism. Without 
fully accepting this opinion, we believe that persons who 
have what Galton terms the power of visualizing, are 
more susceptible of visual hallucinations than others. 
When we request one of our subjects to picture to him- 
self an absent person, he soon declares that he sees that 
person as distinctly as if he were actually present. This 
vivid power of representation is frequently found in 
hysterical patients, and it explains why, when such 
patients are gathered together, they, by exchanging 
confidences or by imparting their respective impressions, 
reciprocally hallucinate each other. 
When susceptible and hysterical subjects have been 
hypnotized by the same experimenter for several days, 
they often end by remaining in a state of permanent 
obsession; they are, so to speak, possessed, both by day 
in the waking state, and at night during their dreams. 
This state of mind is accompanied by spontaneous hallu- 
cinations of varying form, but of which the experimenter 
is always the object. One patient will have an incubus, 
another will be tormented, embraced, etc. If several 
subjects meet under the same conditions, and confidences 
are exchanged, a species of epidemic of hysterical delirium 
ensues, in which the hallucinations will be followed by 
impulses, acts of violence, etc., which would account for 
the different phases of the drama which terminated in 
the death of Urban Grandier. One of the present writers 
was present at a scene of this nature, which showed that 222 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
such methods of experiment ought to be conducted with 
the utmost care.* 
As we have just seen, hallucination consists in the 
vivid external projection of an image. But these terms 
have the defect of treating the image as a thing, as a 
unity. Yet reflection soon shows that this assumed unity 
is composed of numerous and heterogenous elements— 
that it is an association, a group, a fusion, a complexity, 
a multiplicity.*!* The image of a hall is the resultant of 
complex sensations of sight, touch, and muscular sense. 
It is, therefore, interesting to know if, when an image is 
associated by contiguity with several others, the external 
projection of the first image involves that of the others. 
This occurs in numerous cases of hallucination which 
may be referred to the action of the memory. Heiden- 
hain gave a series of hallucinations to a hypnotized 
student, in which he went to the hippodrome, and then to 
the Jardin des Plantes, where he saw the lions come out 
of their cages. When, some time afterwards, the subject 
was again hypnotized, the same series of hallucinations 
occurred spontaneously. So, again, if the subject was 
reminded of his normal life, or, rather, if an hallucinatory 
suggestion was made to him, the memory of subsequent 
events was evoked in its turn, and formed a tableau or 
hallucinatory scene. In this way a subject may be con- 
strained to live over again a part of his life, and secrets 
are revealed which would never have been uttered in the 
waking state, nor even perhaps under hypnotism. We 
may, for example, cite the story of the singer given by 
* Ch. Fere, Les hypnotiques hystdriques considdrdes comme sujets cTex- 
perience mentale, etc. (Saddle'Medico-psychologique, 1883). 
t Eibot, Maladies de la memoire, p. 15. Paris. HALLUCINATIONS. 
223 
Mesnet. If a curved stick was given to him, which he 
took for a gun, his military recollections revived; he 
loaded his gun, crouched down, took aim and fired. If a 
roll of paper was given to him, and a light was flashed 
across his eyes, recollections of his present profession of 
singer at a cafe-chantant were aroused ; he unrolled the 
paper and sang loudly. Finalty, if a story is told to the 
subject, and he is then hypnotized, it is not impossible 
that as soon as he is put upon the track, he may have an 
hallucination of all the events in succession, as they were 
related to him. 
This tendency of hallucinatory images to suggest 
themselves shows that the law of the association of 
ideas by proximity may be exerted without the partici- 
pation of the subject’s intelligence and will. One image 
provokes another, in virtue of the bond which unites 
them, and in the same way the second suggests the third. 
This is one of the clearest manifestations of cerebral 
automatism. 
In pushing the analysis a little further, it may be 
observed that in these kinds of hallucination it is not 
merely the image, taken by itself, which is externally 
projected, but the bond of association which unites 
several images. It is, in fact, this association which 
formulates the hallucination; it produces the successive 
projection of the images in the order in which they are 
grouped in the mind. This proves that the law laid 
down by Dugald Stewart with respect to the states 
of consciousness also applies to the relations of these 
states. In reply to the question, What is meant by ex- 
ternal projection ? we answer that it is the belief in the 
reality of a thing. The external projection of an image 224 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
is, therefore, the belief in its reality. So that, if it is true 
that we are inclined to make an external projection of 
the associated images existing in the mind, this implies 
that we are inclined to believe that things are in reality 
associated together, just as their images are associated 
in the mind. This is no new idea; a considerable time 
has elapsed since it was formulated by Stuart Mill, and it 
is confirmed by the facts of hypnosis in the most striking 
manner. 
Speaking generally, we may say that, whenever two 
images are in association, an implicit affirmation of the 
existence of a relation between two things ensues; this 
is an opinion which, therefore, must be referred to an 
association of externally projected images. 
One of the most striking characteristics of hypnotic 
hallucination is the permanence of its localization. Take 
the hallucination of a portrait, which is instructive in 
many respects. If, by means of suggestion, a portrait is 
caused to appear on a sheet of cardboard of which both 
sides are alike, the picture will always be seen on the 
same side of the cardboard, and in whatever direction it 
may be presented to him, the subject will always place 
it in the position which it occupied at the moment of 
suggestion, so that the picture may not be inverted, 
nor even inclined. If the cardboard is turned round, 
the portrait is no longer seen, and if it is turned upside 
down, the portrait is seen with its head downwards. 
The subject never makes a mistake; if his eyes are 
covered, or if the experimenter stands behind him while HALLUCINATIONS. 
225 
changing the position of the object, his answers are 
always in conformity with its original localization. 
This fact is still more clearly shown by an experi- 
ment devised by one of the present writers.* We place 
a blank card on a blank sheet of paper, and with a blunt 
pointer, which does not, however, touch the paper, we 
follow the outline of the card so as to suggest the idea of 
a black line. We ask the subject, on awaking, to fold 
the paper in accordance with these imaginary lines; he 
holds the paper as far from him as it was at the moment 
of suggestion, and he folds it so as to form a rectangle 
which precisely covers the card. 
Charcot has often repeated a curious experiment 
which fundamentally resembles the foregoing one. It is 
suggested to the subject that there is a portrait on a 
blank card, which is then mixed with a dozen others 
which appear to be precisely similar. The subject is 
requested, on awaking, to run his eye over these cards, 
which he does without understanding the reason, but 
when he comes to the card on which the imaginary 
portrait was traced he sees it at once. 
All these experiments seem to imply that the halluci- 
natory image produced in the subject by verbal sugges- 
tion does not remain in his brain in a vague and floating 
state; it is probable, as one of the present writers has 
shown,f that this image is associated with some external 
mark—a dot, for instance, or a raised spot,—some dis- 
tinctive feature of the blank card which was shown to him 
when the suggestion was made, and this association of the 
* Ch- Fere, Les hypnotiques hysteriques consider(fes comme sujets d'ex- 
perience, etc. Paris, 1883. 
t Binet, UHallucination (Revue Philusophique, April, May, 1881 J. 226 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
cerebral image with an external mark would explain the 
series of facts of which we have given an account. 
One detail of these experiments is significant. If, 
instead of putting the pack of cards into the subject’s 
hands, we show him the imaginary portrait while hold- 
ing it two yards from his eyes, the card still appears to 
him to be white, although a real photograph would 
appear to be grey. If the card is gradually brought 
nearer to his ej7es, the imaginary portrait becomes 
visible, but it must be brought much nearer than an 
ordinary photograph before the subject can say for whom 
it is meant. This peculiarity can be explained on the 
assumption that the hallucinatory image is evoked by 
distinctive marks on the card which are only visible at a 
short distance. So again, the subject cannot distinguish 
the portrait through a sheet of tissue paper placed upon 
the card. With the help of an opera glass, the subject can 
recognize the object of hallucination when it is too far 
for him to perceive it with his naked eye, and the same 
explanation applies to this experiment, although there is 
an air of paradox about it. 
Without going further into the matter, these observa- 
tions may be summed up in the following formula: 
The imaginary object presented by hallucination is 
perceived under the same conditions as if it were real. 
This formula has served as our guide in a series of 
experiments on visual hallucination, which we have 
endeavoured to modify by optical instruments. We 
proceed to indicate the most important results of these 
researches into what Janet terms hallucinatory optics. 
The origin of these researches is found in an early 
experiment by Brewster, which was performed in the HALLUCINATIONS. 
227 
following way :—lt is well known that if, in the normal 
state, a finger is pressed upon the eye so as to divert it 
from its normal position, and at the same time the 
individual looks fixedly at some external object, his sight 
is doubled, and he sees two objects instead of one. 
Brewster performed this experiment on a subject who 
had visual hallucinations, and pressure on the eye caused 
a duplication of the imaginary object. Paterson tells us 
that this curious experiment was repeated in analogous 
circumstances by a student subject to hallucinations. 
When this student was crossing a garden, he perceived 
a phantom, wrapped in a large blue cloak, standing a 
little way off under a tree. The student desired to 
verify Brewster’s famous experiment, and pressed one 
eyeball, which only had the effect of rendering the figure 
less distinct. But on looking obliquely he saw the same 
figure double, and of the natural size. This observation 
has been confirmed by others. Ball mentions an hys- 
terical female servant who was subject to ecstatic crises 
in which the Virgin appeared to her in a splendid robe ; 
pressure on the eyeball caused a duplication of the vision, 
and she beheld two Virgins. 
This experiment of duplication has served as the 
point of departure for researches intended to establish 
the reality of the subjective phenomena produced in 
hypnotic subjects.* It occurred to one of the present 
writers to substitute a prism for pressure on the eyeball. 
If, when regarding external objects, a prism is placed 
before one eye, the objects appear to be double, and one 
of the images presents a deviation of which the direction 
* Fere, Mouvements de la pupille et propriety du prisme dans les hal- 
lucinations provoqu&es des hystfriques (Soc.. de Biologie, December, 1881). 228 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
and extent may be calculated. If, during the hypnotic 
sleep, it is suggested to the subject that a profile portrait 
is on a table of dark wood before him, he distinctly sees 
this portrait on awaking. If, without warning, a prism 
is placed before one eye, the subject is astonished to see 
two portraits, and the position of the false image is 
always in conformity with the laws of physics. Two of 
our subjects answered, correctly in the cataleptic state, 
although they were unacquainted with the properties of 
the prism. Moreover, by concealing its edges they may 
be deceived as to the precise position in which it is 
placed. If the base of the prism is uppermost, the two 
images are placed one below the other, and if the base 
is lateral, the images are side by side. Finally, the 
table may be brought so near that the duplication of 
the image ceases, and this will serve as an index.* 
This experiment with the prism is only a variation 
of the one performed by Brewster. The prism, as well as 
ocular pressure, exerts two distinct actions on the hallu- 
cinatory image—that of duplication and of deviation. 
Deviation by means of the prism is a more accurate 
phenomenon than when it is effected by ocular pressure, 
since, when the position of the prism and its distance 
from the object is known, it is not only possible to 
predicate its direction, but to estimate its extent. It is 
an interesting fact that, in the case of a given distance, 
the prism produces or fails to produce a duplication of 
the image in proportion as the sight of the eye is more 
or less normal. This same remark applies to the vision 
of real objects in the waking state. 
* Fere, Soc. de Biologic, October, 1881; Progres Medical, December, 
1881. HALLUCINATIONS. 
229 
One of the present writers * has substituted other 
optical instruments for the prism, in order to verify and 
develop the former experiments. An opera-glass brings 
imaginary objects nearer, or makes them appear further 
off, just as if the objects were real. We begin by sug- 
gesting a given hallucination, either placed upon the wall 
of the laboratory or, which is better, on a screen covered 
with white; it may be a bird perched upon the wall, a 
lizard which runs up it, a flower, or a picture hung upon 
the wall. If the subject is made to look at the hallucina- 
tory object through an opera-glass, it appears to be nearer 
or more distant, according to the end of the glass pre- 
sented to his eye. It is well to guard against imposture, 
by not allowing the subject to see which end of the glass 
is in use. It is the simplest arrangement to have two 
cards of equal size, each pierced with two openings, and 
fastened with sealing wax to both ends of the opera- 
glass. This will prevent the subject from perceiving 
real objects on the field of the glass, which might, owing 
to the changes of dimension, serve as an index of its 
position. For the same reason, a plain and even surface 
should be chosen as a back ground for the hallucination. 
It is interesting to observe that the opera-glass will 
not make the object appear more or less remote unless it 
has been adapted to the subject’s sight. Thus W , 
who is short sighted, could see nothing through a glass 
O' o o o 
which had been adapted to C ’s long sight. Hence 
the subject must be requested to adapt the glasses to his 
sight before he is hypnotized. A great difference may be 
observed in the way in which subjects are affected by the 
experiment. C and D merely declare that the 
* Biuct, I!Hallucination {Ttevas Fhilos'i'phiquo., April, May, 1884). 230 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM, 
imaginary object is at one time near, at another far off; 
and this change of distance does not surprise them ; only 
if an unclean beast is the object of suggestion and he is 
made to appear close to them, they utter a cry of terror. 
W , who is much more intelligent, always evinces 
the most lively astonishment. When a bird perching 
on the branch of a tree is the object of suggestion, she 
cannot understand why it should be close to her at one 
moment and far from her at another. If we tell her that 
the bird is moving from place to place, flying nearer or 
further away, she rejects this explanation, and replies 
that the tree also seems to change its position. She 
finally concludes that her eyes are affected, so as to 
change the apparent distance of objects, which is a 
reasonable, if not a just conclusion. These reflections 
are all made during the state of somnambulism. 
This experiment with the opera-glass may be modified 
by making use of hallucinatory portraits. The portrait 
of a given person may be made to appear on a square 
of white paper, and a series of experiments may be 
performed on this imaginary portrait, which are only a 
development of those with the opera-glass, since a final 
analysis must refer them all to an application of the 
laws of refraction. If a magnifying glass is placed before 
the imaginary portrait, the subject declares that it is 
enlarged, and if the lens is sloped, the portrait is dis- 
torted. If the sheet of paper is placed at a distance 
equal to twice the focal length of the lens, the por- 
trait appears to be inverted. These experiments do not 
always succeed, but if under favourable conditions they 
are successful in only one instance, they must be accepted 
as genuine. HALLUCINATIONS. 
Again, a prism with three equal facets is passed over 
the white paper, and the subject is requested to look 
through it at the portrait, beginning with its upper 
part; he sees two heads instead of one, and these heads 
are enlarged in a direction corresponding with the orien- 
tation of the prism. Now, we must observe that the 
surface of the paper on which the prism is placed is 
perfectly white and smooth, so that no one ignorant of 
the properties of a prism could perceive that it doubled 
the image of the subjacent morsel of paper. If 
again the paper is applied to one facet of the prism, the 
subject sees only a single portrait, which seems to be 
folded in two. These appearances all conform to the 
reality; the subject would see the same series of modifi- 
cations if there were really a picture on the paper. 
Under similar conditions a doubly refracting crystal 
gives two images, which are modified by revolving the 
crystal on its axis. 
The last experiment of this nature is that with 
the microscope. The question arises whether, if a given 
preparation is supposed to be mounted on a micro- 
scopic slide, and the subject is made to examine it 
through the microscope, the hallucinatory image will 
appear to him to be magnified ; whether this enlargement 
will be sufficient to reveal to him structural details 
which are invisible to the naked eye; whether, for 
instance, he will distinguish the corpuscles in the drop 
of blood suggested to be on the slide, or if he will see 
the stomata in a fragment of vegetable epidermis. The 
experiment is difficult, since most of the subjects who 
look at the microscopic slide fail to discover the imagin- 
ary preparation. Repeated attempts have convinced us 232 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
that the microscope enlarges the hallucinatory image— 
that a spider’s foot, for example, becomes enormous,—but 
we have not observed that hypnotic subjects discover 
details invisible to the naked eye. 
It is much more easy to obtain the reflection of an 
imaginary object in a mirror. It may be suggested to 
the subject that an object is placed on a given point of 
the table, and if a mirror is placed behind that point 
the patient immediately sees two objects. If, for ex- 
ample, the appearance of one cat is suggested, a second 
is likewise seen, but the two objects are not always 
alike. On one occasion we gave to our subject the 
hallucination of a white cat, and the mirror caused 
another to appear, which was of a grey colour. The 
reflection of the imaginary object appeared to the 
subject to be just as real as the imaginary object of 
suggestion. Thus, when the mirror was in its place and 
the subject was told to look at the beautiful butterfly 
perched upon the table, she at once exclaimed that she saw 
two butterflies. When desired to catch them both, she 
made the gesture of seizing the one perched before the 
mirror, and fastened it with a pin to her bodice. This at 
least was done by D , while C refused to be so 
cruel as to run a pin through the butterfly. She then 
tried to catch the second butterfly, of which she saw the 
reflection in the mirror, but as her hand came in contact 
with the glass, she was unable to reach the spot which 
the butterfly seemed to occupy. It was curious to observe 
W ’s behaviour at such a time. After knocking her 
hand against the glass several times in succession, she gave 
it up with indignation; disregarding our orders, she abso- 
lutely refused to repeat the attempt, saying, " I cannot HALLUCINATIONS. 
233 
do it, I cannot do it.” It may easily be shown that the 
subject does not place the imaginary object on the surface 
of the mirror, but sees it within the mirror. In fact, 
if the mirror is advanced, withdrawn, or inclined, so that 
it could no longer reflect the supposed object, the double 
vision ceases. 
These primary experiments are rude. They may be 
summarily explained by saying that the subject sees the 
mirror, and logically concludes that the object of sug- 
gestion must be reflected in it. We do not assert that 
this phenomenon of auto-suggestion is impossible, yet it 
seems to be excluded by the following experiments:—We 
recur to the hallucination of a portrait, which we have 
already employed, and shall have further occasion to 
employ. A prism of total reflection is placed upon the 
blank sheet on which there is an imaginary portrait. 
The resemblance of this prism to a mirror cannot warn 
the subject of what is to follow, and yet he never fails to 
see a second portrait, like the first one, when he looks at 
the hypothenuse facet of the prism. If the portrait is 
then placed opposite to a mirror, and it has been sug- 
gested that the profile is turned to the right, it appears in 
the mirror to be turned to the left. The reflected picture 
is therefore symmetrical with the hallucinatory image. 
If, without allowing the subject to see what is done, the 
paper is turned upside down, the reflected portrait also 
appears to be inverted, and, which is to be noted as in 
agreement with the laws of optics, the profile is turned 
to the right. We repeat that the imaginary portrait is 
turned to the right, and in the mirror it is turned to 
the left, but that if the paper is inverted, it appears 
to be turned to the right. Such combinations would not 234 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
be invented, and a still more complex experiment may- 
be performed. An inscription of several lines may be 
substituted for the portrait, and in the mirror it is 
inverted and runs from rig’ht to left. If the paper is 
turned upside down, so also is the reflection of the 
inscription, and at the same time it ceases to run from 
right to left. This experiment frequently, but not in- 
variably, succeeds, and that in a way which excludes all 
suspicion of fraud. Yet few persons are aware that, 
while reflected writing must be read from right to left, 
this condition ceases when the reflected writing is in- 
verted. Such difficulties do not exist for the hypnotic 
subject, who only sees and does not reason. 
Since the imaginary object created by hallucination 
acts in all respects as if it were real, it may be asked 
whether that object is concealed by the interposition 
of a screen. This depends upon the subject, and the 
results are extremely varied. In the simplest case the 
hallucination is destroyed by the screen, and the subject 
declares that he has ceased to see anything. In the case 
of other subjects the screen has not this effect, the 
hallucination persists, without any change of place, and 
if the subject is ordered to seize the object of sug- 
gestion, his hand goes to the other side of the screen in 
search of it. In other subjects, again, the imaginary 
vision is not interrupted by an opaque body, but the 
object is transferred to that body. 
We are unable to assign a cause for these variations, 
which may be noted in different subjects, and sometimes 
in the same subject, in the course of a series of experi- 
ments, We need only remark that peculiarities of the 
same kind occur in the vision of real objects during HALLUCINATIONS. 
235 
somnambulism. In some somnambulists tbe vision of 
real objects is not destroyed by tbe interposition of a 
screen, and it is destroyed in others. It must be clearly 
understood that these experiments were not concerned 
with the wonderful phenomena of vision through a thick 
bandage, of which so much was said in former times, and 
for the demonstration of which the Burdin prize was 
offered by the Academy of Medicine. We have not, 
strictly speaking, to do with vision through a screen, but 
with an hallucinatory vision which persists in spite of 
interposed screen, which is very different. The incon- 
stancy of these phenomena, however, decided us not to 
make them the object of continued study. 
The logical connection of the foregoing experiments 
will be readily seen. The first in date and importance 
is that of ocular pressure. This is a curious discovery, 
which must serve as a starting-point for a whole series 
of fresh researches, and it is the first instance of experi- 
ment on hallucinations, although it has been long 
neglected, and has only become fruitful in our own day. 
The prism experiment is merely a variant on that by 
Brewster; instead of the mechanical deviation of the eye 
produced by the finger, the prism causes the deviation of 
the luminous ray before it enters the eye, but the result 
of double vision is the same. The experiment with the 
opera-glass, again, may be regarded as a development of 
that with the prism, since both instruments are founded 
on the laws of refraction of light. Finally, the mirror is 
as closely connected with the preceding experiments as 
in physics the phenomena of the reflection of light are 
connected with the phenomena of refraction. All these 
new facts are logically derived from Brewster’s ex peri- 236 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
ment, which virtually includes them all, just as the 
properties of lines, angles, and surfaces virtually include 
the whole of geometry. It is only necessary to deduce 
and suppoit each deduction by experimental research. 
In order to give a satisfactory explanation of these 
experiments, we must decide between three hypotheses. 
1. A suggestion is made; the subject is aware that a 
prism is placed before his eyes which has the property 
of duplicating objects, or an opera-glass which enlarges 
them, etc. But this first hypothesis must be rejected, 
since it is evident that the subject is ignorant of the 
complex properties of the lens, of the simple prism, the 
bi-refracting prism, and of the prism of total reflection, 
and although the subject may be acquainted Avith the 
other instruments, such as an opera-glass, care is taken 
to conceal them in the performance of the experiment. 
Therefore, unless we suppose that the experimenter has 
been incautious enough to announce the result before- 
hand, it must be considered certain that suggestion in 
this sense has had nothing to do with it. 2. The 
optical instruments employed have modified the real 
objects in the subject’s field of vision, and these modifica- 
tions have served as an index from which he could infer 
similar modifications in the imaginary object. Although 
this second explanation is better than the former one, it 
appears to us insufficient. It is opposed by numerous 
facts already cited—by the precise localization of the 
hallucination on a point which the experimenter is only 
able to find by the aid of elaborate measurements; by 
the recognition of an imaginary portrait on a blank card 
mixed with other cards which appear to us precisely the 
same; by the inversion of the imaginary portrait when HALLUCINATIONS. 
237 
the card itself is inverted, without the subject being 
aware of it, etc. We adopt a third hypothesis, which 
has already been indicated. 3. The hallucinatory image 
is associated with external and material marks, and the 
modifications produced by the optical instruments on 
these marks modify the hallucination in their turn. The 
following observations seem to confirm this theory. 
We will first give an account of the experiments 
performed by Marie and Azoulay, on the duration of the 
perception of the imaginary object. These observers 
have shown that it takes a longer time to perceive an 
imaginary object than when the object is real.* “The 
apparatus consists of a white strip placed on Marey’s 
cylinder; as the cylinder revolves, the strip passes 
before a spy-glass of somewhat small diameter, through 
which the subject looks. At the moment when the 
subject sees the white strip, he gives an electric signal. 
The precise moment at which the strip passes before the 
glass is known, so that in order to ascertain the time 
of personal reaction it is only necessary to measure the 
period which elapsed between that moment, and the 
moment when the signal was given. 
“ In the first series of experiments we estimated, in 
the case of an hysteric patient attended by Charcot, the 
time of reaction in the waking state, making use of a 
real white strip. This time was on an average 018", 
and it was the same in the case of a normal individual. 
In the state of somnambulism the time was 0 20', that is, 
it was increased by 0-02". We then, instead of employing 
a real white strip, suggested to the hypnotized subject 
that there was a white strip on a certain part of the 
* Suciele de Biologic, July 31, 1885. 238 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
blackened cylinder, although there was in fact absolutely 
nothing to distinguish this part of the cylinder. We 
told the subject to indicate the moment at which she 
saw the imaginary white strip. The time of reaction 
was 022". We then awoke the subject and again 
estimated the time of reaction. In this case the average 
was 0 23", 
“ It remained to be seen whether this average varied 
during the period of suggestion. On the following day, 
after the lapse of twenty-four hours, we found that the 
time of reaction was 102", and after forty-eight hours it 
was 1T14". We could not carry our researches further, 
since at the end of seventy-two hours the suggestion had 
vanished, and the subject could no longer see the strip 
on the cylinder. 
“ These are the two points on which we wish to 
insist: first, on the value of these experiments as a means 
of verification, since, as we were able to ascertain, simu- 
lation is absolutely impossible. However intent the 
subject may be, he cannot, either by sight or by the 
employment of some rhythm, succeed in producing such 
a tracing as those we have obtained, since in these 
tracings all the times of reaction agree almost perfectly. 
Therefore, the images furnished by suggestion may, as 
well as the real images, be checked by the graphic 
method. Secondly, the time of reaction increases enor- 
mously, but not in direct proportion with the duration 
of the suggestion. 
Seconds. 
Immediately after suggestion it is ... ... ... 0-23' 
Twenty-four Lours after it is ... ... ... 1-02" 
This is an increase of ... ... ... ... 0-79" 
Forty-eight hours after it is ... ... ... 0 114" 
This is an increase of ... ... ... ... 0093" HALLUCINATIONS. 
239 
“ In a second series of experiments, the relative values 
of the time of personal reaction was the same, although 
each was slightly raised to the amount of 0 02" or 0 03".” 
The primary fact to be deduced from these experi- 
ments is that for the perception of a real object the time 
of reaction is 018"; for that of an imaginary object it 
is 0 23". The probable reason for this difference is that 
in the vision of a real colour, there is only a single 
phenomenon—the sensation received by the eye. On the 
other hand, in the vision of an imaginary colour, fixed 
by suggestion on an external point, two things are 
involved—the vision of the point, and then the appearance 
of the imaginary colour on that point. This double 
phenomenon must occupy more, time than a simple 
sensation. Moreover, as time goes on, the association 
between the point in question and the hallucinatory 
image is relaxed, until at last it disappears, since the 
moment comes when the point ceases to arouse any 
image in the subject’s mind. Hence we understand why 
the duration of the time of reaction increases up to the 
moment when the perception ceases altogether. The 
graphic method has the advantage of seizing these pro- 
gressive modifications in the duration of the imaginary 
perception, delicate phenomena which completely escape 
from simple observation. For this reason the experi- 
ments by Marie and Azoulay have a real psychological 
interest, teaching us how to measure the force of a mental 
association as it becomes weaker. 
Londe, chief of the chemical works at the clinical 
establishment of the Salpetriere, informed us of the 
following fact, which is a remarkable instance of pro- 
tracted suggestion, confirming the ideas just set forth. ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
On one occasion when an hysterical patient was in a state 
of somnambulism he approached her, and showed her a 
plate, representing a view in the Pyrenees, with asses 
ascending the hill, and said, “ Look at your portrait. 
You are quite naked.” The subject happened to see the 
plate when she awoke, and since she was furious at 
seeing herself represented in a state of nature, she 
jumped upon it, and broke it. Two photographs had, 
however, been taken from the plate, and these were 
carefully preserved. The patient’s fury was excited 
whenever she saw them, since she always saw herself 
represented naked, and after two months had elapsed 
the hallucination still remained. 
This extraordinarily long survival of the hallucination 
is easily explained by the theory of distinctive marks. 
In fact, photography presents to the subject an immense 
number of such distinctive marks, which become associ- 
ated with the hallucinatory image and evoke it with in- 
vincible force by accumulating their effect. The most 
curious feature of this observation is that the subject did 
not see these distinctive marks, or, rather, it did not occur 
to her what they really were, since she must have seen 
them in order to project her hallucination. She failed 
to see, however, that their combination formed a view in 
the Pyrenees. The effort to convince the subject of her 
error was fruitless; she only saw her own portrait. 
There is another remark to make on Londe’s obser- 
vation. This hallucination of the portrait existed in the 
case of all the proofs of the same photograph. It was 
first produced by the plate and then transferred to the 
copies printed off from it; the imaginary portraits equalled 
in number the printed copies. This multiplication of HALLUCINATIONS. 
241 
the hallucination by the multiplication of the distinctive 
marks somewhat resembles the phenomenon of the reflec- 
tion in the mirror; at any rate, it clearly proves with 
what force the fictitious image was associated with the 
sight of the photograph, since the presentation of a new, 
hut entirely similar copy was apt to suggest the same 
hallucination. 
We repeat that if the hallucination of a portrait is 
created on a real photograph, the subject will discover 
the same portrait on a second copy of the photograph 
without the intervention of any fresh suggestion. This, 
which was at first an isolated experiment, led us to 
invent another which is logically derived from it. A 
blank card on which suggestion had fixed an imaginary 
portrait was photographed, and when we presented this 
photograph of the blank card to the subject, she instantly 
recognized the imaginary portrait. But it is evident 
that experiments of this kind are too delicate to be 
invariably successful. Just as experiments in physics 
sometimes miss fire, so it is with experiments in cerebral 
physiology. The one which succeeded had, however, a 
great demonstrative value, since it was the first. We 
o 
made a second attempt, which completely failed, and we 
have made no further attempts. 
This same theory of distinctive marks may explain 
some other points. It leads us to understand why 
hypnotic hallucination persists in many cases after the 
subject awakes, while the memory of what occurred 
during sleep is completely effaced, at least unless certain 
expedients are used to revive it. The contrast is striking. 
The subject is ordered to commit a murder, and on 
awaking, he neither remembers the order he has received, 242 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
nor the act he is supposed to have performed. Yet if 
the hallucination of a bird has been given, it will be 
almost as vivid after awaking as it was during somnam- 
bulism, and for this we may ask the reason, since if the 
hallucination is an image, so also is memory. This 
is true, but the hallucination is an image with the 
addition of some external, distinctive mark, and this 
distinctive mark, which is still present, recalls the 
hallucinatory image by means of the association of ideas, 
like a knot tied in a pocket-handkerchief. 
The existence of this distinctive mark establishes a 
natural transition between the hallucination and the illu- 
sion of hypnotism. The two phenomena are both pro- 
duced by verbal suggestion ; the only difference between 
them is that there is a substratum for the illusion which 
is wanting in the hallucination; in the case of every 
illusion there is a real object which is more or less 
transformed by the suggestion. It must be admitted 
that this is not an essential difference, since suggestion 
may transform the object in a thousand ways. A book 
may become a hat, a dog, or a person, and precisely the 
same appearances may be created without the aid of any 
object. For those who accept the theory of distinctive 
marks this difference between hallucination and illusion 
is completely effaced, and hypnotic illusion appears to 
be an hallucination for which the special suggestion has 
selected a distinctive mark which happens to be a real 
object. Hence some interesting consequences ensue; the 
hypnotic illusion is modified, just as an hallucination is 
modified in accordance with the real object to which it 
is applied. 
We have seen that in the ease of hallucination these HALLUCINATIONS. 
243 
modifications consist in phenomena of deviation, duplica- 
tion, etc., produced by optical instruments. In the case 
of illusion, since the distinctive mark is not a mark, but 
a real object, and often a person, it may be spontaneously 
modified, and this adds a fresh complication to the 
experiment. A gentleman named X was trans- 
formed by suggestion into a dog. The subject no longer 
saw X , who ceased to exist for her, but she ascribed 
all his gestures and movements to the dog which had 
been suggested to her. Hence it followed that the 
illusion had not the fixed character habitual in halluci- 
nation, but constantly varied, and all the changes which 
took place in X reacted on the illusion. On one 
occasion we pointed out X to one of our subjects, 
saying, “Ho you see that person ? She is a nurse, 
carrying an infant.” The hallucination persisted on 
awaking, and the subject looked at the nurse and child 
with feminine curiosity. Strangely enough, she watched 
X ’s gestures, and ascribed them to the nurse, so 
that the real and the imaginary were closely inter- 
mingled. When X raised his hands, she said 
angrily, “ Wretched woman, is that the way to carry 
an infant ? Ho you wish to kill it ? ” 
Hypnotic illusion leads us by a logical transition to 
the ordinary and physiological illusion of the senses, 
which occurs in so many different circumstances, and 
of which every one has had experience. The cause of 
these two illusions is not the same, since hypnotic 
illusion is produced by verbal suggestion, that is, from 
within, and the illusion of common life is generally 
produced by the imperfect perception of external objects, 
that is, from without. Yet it cannot be doubted, in 244 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
spite of this difference in the formative process, that 
every kind of illusion is formed by the synthesis 
of two elements—the external element and the false 
image constructed by the mind and projected on the 
object. We may add the ordinary illusion may, like the 
other, be magnified by a lens, reflected by a mirror, etc., 
as some of our observations prove. In this case these 
optical modifications seem to be quite natural, since the 
false image is associated with an external object. It is, 
however, an interesting fact that a common law domi- 
nates the whole series of phenomena, hallucination, 
hypnotic illusion, and normal illusion. 
Nor does the series end here. The normal illusion 
of the senses is directly connected with the external 
perception, that is, with the normal act by which we 
enter into relations with external and present objects. 
External perception is termed by Taine a true halluci- 
nation. Certainly this act is, like illusion, a synthesis 
of external sensations with internal images. The study 
of the mechanism of perception by one of the present 
writers leads to the conclusion that it presents on a 
small scale the phenomena which occur on a large 
scale in hypnotic hallucination—deviation, duplication, 
and enlargement of the mental images. Hallucination 
must, therefore, be a disease of external perception.* 
The theory of distinctive marks may be extended to 
hallucinations which are given for some remote period; 
a singular fact which conflicts with our scientific ex- 
perience, so that doubt has been thrown upon it. 
* Binet (La psychologie du raisonnement. Paris, 1886) has set forth the 
principal psychological conclusions derived from these phenomena of 
hallucination. HALLUCINATIONS. 
245 
Bernheim* said to S , formerly a sergeant, when he 
was in a state of somnambulism, “ On what day will you 
be at liberty during the first week of the month of 
October?” He replied, “On Wednesday.” “Then, listen 
to me. Go to I)r. Liebault on the first Wednesday in 
October, and you will see the President of the Republic, 
who will give you a medal and a pension.” He said that 
he would go, but remembered nothing of it when he 
awoke. On the 3rd of October, however, sixty-three 
days after the suggestion, S—— presented himself at Dr. 
Lidbault’s, at ten minutes to eleven. On entering he met 
and saluted F , and then, without paying attention 
to any one, he went to the left side of the library, made 
a respectful salute, and uttered the words, “Your Ex- 
cellency.” As he spoke rather low, Dr. Liebault went 
up to him, and at that moment he extended his right 
hand, saying, “ I thank your Excellency.” Liebault 
asked to whom he was speaking, and he replied, “ To the 
President of the Republic.” 
Beaunis informed the Socieie cle psychologie physio- 
logique (April, 1885) of another instance of post-hypnotic 
hallucination, which was realized six months after the 
suggestion. On the 14th of July, 1884, he told a hypno- 
tized young woman that she would see him enter her 
room on the following Ist of January, and wish her 
a happy new year. And so, in fact, it was. On New 
Year’s Day the young woman saw Beaunis (who was in 
reality in Paris) enter her room, wish her a happy new 
year, and disappear. Suggestions of dreams which would 
occur on some subsequent night have also been given. 
Our observations lead us to believe that hallucinations 
* Be la Suggestion. Paris, 1884. 246 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
given for some remote period really take effect. The 
length of the intervening period is less surprising than 
the fact that they are realized at the fixed hour. 
It may he asked whether hypnotic subjects possess 
an abstract power of measuring time. We think it more 
probable that the occurrence of the hallucination at the 
moment assigned beforehand is produced by some ex- 
ternal circumstance, and that if this circumstance, which 
acts as a stimulus, is removed, the latent existence of 
the hallucination may be indefinitely prolonged. It 
must be observed that in the experiments by Bernheim 
and Beaunis the day fixed for its fulfilment bore a dis- 
tinctive mark. In the one case it was the first Wednes- 
day of October, in the other the Ist of January. These 
dates perhaps served as the subject’s distinctive mark; 
it was as if he had been told that the hallucination 
would occur when the experimenter clapped his hands, 
and the advent of the moment which had been named 
served as a kind of signal. This explanation must, how- 
ever, be regarded as provisional, and the question, like 
so many others, remains open. 
We next propose to describe a series of hypnotic 
experiments which seem to throw some light on the 
still obscure problem of the physiology of hallucinations. 
In fact, the new phenomena with which we are about to 
acquaint our readers appear to show that hallucination 
is produced by an excitement of the sensory centres. 
If the conclusion is not new, it is, at any rate, interesting, 
and although it has often been set forth by physicians of HALLUCINATIONS. 
247 
the insane, no complete proof of the hypothesis has 
hitherto been given. Such a proof is furnished by the 
careful study of hypnotic phenomena. 
We must, however, hasten to add that we are less 
anxious to develop a theory than to register a certain 
number of facts which are interesting in themselves 
inasmuch as they are facts. The conclusions which we 
draw from them with respect to the physiology of hallu- 
cinations are merely the bond which serves to connect 
very varied observations, and it is these alone which have 
any value. The regular observation of any phenomenon 
remains as a definite acquisition to science, whatever after- 
wards ensues, while the future of theories is uncertain. 
1. Achromatopsia.—We will first consider achro- 
matopsy, or colour-blindness. Paul Richer, in his Etudes 
cliniques sur Vhystevo-epilepsie, was the first to show 
that in the case of most hysterical subjects it is im- 
possible for their vision to accept hallucinations of 
colour. Since the eye has lost its chromatic sensitive- 
ness, it cannot see the colours of an imaginary object. 
As one of the present writers has shown, the same 
rule seems to apply to the spontaneous hallucinations of 
insanity. We observed in the St. Anne asylum, of 
which Dr. Magnan is in charge, an insane, hysterical 
patient who was constantly haunted by the image of a 
man dressed in red. The left side of this woman’s 
body was afiected by anaesthesia and achromatopsia, and 
when her right eye was closed, she continued to see the 
hallucination with her left eye, but instead of being 
dressed in red, the man appeared to be in grey, and 
enveloped in mist.* 
♦ Binet, L'Hallucination (Revue Philosophique, April, 1884). 248 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
Since the fact is proved, it has still to he explained. 
It may be considered strange that a somnambulist sub- 
ject is capable of receiving all sorts of hallucinations, 
however absurd they may he; that in the course of a 
few minutes she may be surprised by the appearance 
of a hall, a public fete, the overturning of a carriage, 
a tumultuous crowd, an insurrection, a conflict before 
barricades, succeeded by a quiet, moonlit night, reveal- 
ing the bodies of the dead. The patient who sees all 
this may laugh, weep, be amazed, or utter cries of terror, 
in correspondence with the scenes unrolled before her; 
but when the attempt is made to display some coloured 
object to her, the experimenter’s power is suddenly 
arrested, and the automaton, who is so docile in all other 
respects, obstinately asserts that she does not see the 
colours suggested to her. For instance, if the eye which 
remains open has lost the perception of violet, it is 
impossible for that colour to enter into any of her 
hallucinations, unless the other eye, which retains the 
sense of that colour, is opened. This is a striking fact, 
but it will cease to appear absurd when we bestow upon 
it sufficient reflection. It can be satisfactorily explained 
when we consider the seat of achromatopsia, and the 
probable seat of the hallucination. 
It is now almost certain that hysterical achromatopsia 
results from a functional disturbance of the cerebral 
cortex, and not from any lesion of the retina, or of the 
media of visual perception. All that we know of the 
nervous disturbances of hysteria leads us to believe 
that they do not involve these media, and that we 
must regard achromatopsia as a functional disturbance 
of the cortical cells concerned with the perception of HALLUCINATIONS. 
249 
colour. This belief leads to the conclusion that if 
this functional disturbance is the same hindrance to 
the hallucination as to the perception of a given colour, 
it is probably because these two phenomena, perception 
and hallucination, employ the same class of nervous ele- 
ments. In other words, hallucination occurs in the centres 
in which the impressions of the senses are received, and 
it results from an excitement of the sensory centres. 
It may be objected that in the case of some hypno- 
tized subjects achromatopsia is no hindrance to the sug- 
gestion of coloured hallucinations, but we find it easy 
to explain this deviation from the rule. The achroma- 
topsy of hysterical subjects depends on hemi-anmsthesia, 
and there is nothing definite in this lesion. It is not 
so much a paralysis as a paresia, a slothfulness of the 
nervous elements. These elements no longer respond 
to the call of their normal excitant, the coloured ray, 
yet it is not surprising that they should react when 
approached from a different direction, by an excitement 
which proceeds from the auditory centres, and which 
is merely verbal suggestion. 
2, The phenomena of contrast.—There is another 
fact which shows, still more clearly than the one just 
given, that hallucination and sensation have the same 
seat in the brain, namely, the property with which 
the hallucinatory image is endowed of producing the 
same effects of contrast as those produced by sensation. 
Parinaud, the head of the ophthalmological laboratory 
of nervous diseases at the Salpetriere, has been good 
enough to send us the following paper, relating to 
hitherto unpublished experiments, which are of an 
extremely interesting character;— 250 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
“Hallucinations of colour may develop phenomena of 
chromatic contrast as readily as, and 'with even 
greater intensity, than the actual perception of colour. 
“ If, for instance, a piece of paper divided by a line 
is presented to a hypnotized subject, and it is suggested 
to her that one half is red, the sensation of the com- 
plementary colour, green, occurs on the other half. If, 
after awaking, the sensation of red remains, so also does 
the sensation of green. 
“In order to understand the meaning of this fact, 
I must refer to the following experiment, relating to 
chromatic contrast, which I communicated to the Socie'te 
de Biologic in July, 1882. 
“A card which is half white and half green on 
one side, and wholly white on the other, is marked in 
the centre on both sides with a spot intended to fix the 
vision. For half a minute the eyes are fixed on the 
parti-coloured side, and then the card is turned and 
the eyes are fixed on the central spot of the white side. 
On the half which corresponds to the green half a red 
tint appears, which is merely the definitive after-image, 
and on the other half the complementary green tint is 
seen. The after-image of red has, therefore, developed 
by induction the sensation of green in the part of the 
retina which had only received the impression of 
white. This experiment, which may be varied in 
different ways, so as to establish the fact that we 
have to do with positive sensations, and not with 
any error of judgment, shows that every impression 
of colour leads to a more or less persistent modification 
of the nervous elements which produce the after-image HALLUCINATIONS. 
251 
and that this modification causes, in the parts not 
affected, a modification in the opposite direction which 
develops the complementary sensation, by a phenome- 
non analogous to that which occurs in a magnetized 
body. 
“ The image of hallucination acts like the after-image, 
and may likewise cause an induced sensation, so that it 
corresponds with a material modification of the nervous 
centres. 
“In order that the experiment should succeed, it is 
necessary that the subject should retain the perception 
of the suggested colour, for we know that the per- 
ception of colours is frequently affected by hysterical 
amblyopia. If there is any blindness with respect to 
this colour, the suggested sensation is confused, and the 
7 oo 7 
induced sensation does not occur. When the subject is 
able to distinguish all the colours in the waking state, 
she can also distinguish their complementary colours. 
When only unable to distinguish certain colours, which 
is often the case, a singular result follows. Suppose that 
the subject sees red, and cannot see green, the hallucina- 
tion of green cannot develop the induced sensation of red; 
yet the hallucination of red, which she sees, may develop 
the induced sensation of green, which she cannot see.” 
It clearly appears from these experiments that from 
the point of view of simultaneous contrast, the halluci- 
natory image acts precisely as a real sensation would do, 
whence it may be concluded that the two phenomena 
effect the vibration of the same keys of the cerebral 
instrument. They are, however, distinguished by the 
following difference. When a real sensation of colour is 
experienced, the sensation results from an excitement of 252 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
the retina, and it reaches the centre of visual sensation hy 
the paths of vision, by the optic nerve, the chiasma, the 
optic tracts, etc. The sensation of colour suggested by 
words, that is, the hallucinatory image, results from the 
excitement of the organ of hearing, and it is reflected in 
the centre of auditory sensation before it reaches the 
centre of vision. With the exception, however, of this 
difference in the process of excitement, we repeat that 
the hallucination and the real sensation appear to cor- 
respond with the same physiological process, since other- 
wise the same effects of chromatic contrast would not 
occur in both cases. 
3. Subjective Sensations.—Parinaud’s researches into 
the simultaneous contrast naturally led to the inquiry 
whether hallucinations produce subjective sensations, 
since these two orders of phenomena are closely allied. 
Let it be remembered, for the sake of clearness, that 
the term of objective sensations is given to the perception 
of images which follows the impression on the sight of a 
luminous or bright object. The image which ensues is 
positive or negative, according to the conditions under 
which it is seen. In the positive image we have the 
representation of the object as it really is ; its colour and 
the relatively luminous intensity of its parts are main- 
tained. Conversely, in the negative image the light 
parts of the object appear to be dark, and the dark parts 
to be light; and its general colour is exchanged for the 
complementary colour. 
The production of after-images is a normal phe- 
nomenon which constantly, but with varying intensity, 
accompanies the exercise of external vision. We 
have ascertained that hallucinatory vision is subject to HALLUCINATIONS. 
the same conditions; every hallucination of some per- 
sistence is succeeded, on its disappearance, by an after- 
image, just as in the case of ordinary sensations which 
affect the retina.* 
This phenomenon was first observed, several years 
ago, by the physiologist Gruithuisen. Observing what 
occurred in his dreams, he states that “sometimes a 
bright, fantastic image was succeeded by one of the same 
form, but indistinct. Sometimes, again, after dreaming 
of violet fluor-spar, or burning coals, he perceived a 
yellow patch on a blue ground.” f 
We had occasion to verify the exactness of this 
observation in our treatment of hypnotic patients. The 
somnambulist subject was requested to look attentively 
at a square of white paper, with a black spot in the centre, 
designed to fix her vision. At the same time the sugges- 
tion was made that the paper was of a red or green 
colour. A second square of paper, likewise marked in 
the centre with a black spot, was then produced, and as 
soon as the subject had fixed her eyes on the spot, she 
exclaimed that the spot was surrounded by a coloured 
square, and the colour indicated was complementary to 
that which had been made to appear by means of sugges- 
tion. This complementary colour is the negative image 
left by the hallucinatory colour; it lasts but a short 
while, it is effaced, is lost, or dies, as the subject says, 
and it resembles in all respects a normal, negative image. 
This experiment was repeated by Charcot before a 
numerous assembly, during one of his lectures on aphasia. 
* This experiment was performed for the first time by Richer and the 
present writers in June, 1884. 
f Quoted by Burdach, in his Traite de physiologic, vul. v. p. 206. 254 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
That eminent professor demonstrated that, in order to 
ensure success, care must be taken to define the nature of 
the suggested colour. For instance, if only the colour 
red is suggested, the subject may either see the shade of 
red, of which green is the complementary colour, or the 
orange-red, of which blue is complementary. These con- 
tradictory results are impossible when the colour which 
the subject is intended to see is made clear by a com- 
parison. It may be remarked in passing, that this 
experiment is a peremptory reply to those who still 
believe in the existence of a general simulation. It 
would be unreasonable to maintain that an hysterical 
woman, who scarcely knows how to read or write, has 
the theory of complementary colours at her fingers’ ends. 
Our subjects have always answered correctly, and, which 
is more important, the correct answer has been given 
when the experiment was performed for the first time.* 
It must be remembered that analogous phenomena 
occur in the mental vision of normal individuals. The 
persistent idea of a brilliant colour develops an after- 
image of the complementary colour, just as a real sensa- 
tion does.f If we close our eyes and fix our minds for a 
long while on an image of some vivid colour, and then 
open our eyes to look at a white surface, we shall, for a 
brief space, see the object of our imagination, but of the 
complementary colour. One of the present writers 
successfully repeated this experiment, which is difficult 
and demands from the subject a great power of visualiza- 
* An interesting fact was displayed in the case of one of our subjects. 
She had lost the perception of violet in both eyes; violet looked like black. 
When the hallucination of yellow was given, the after-image was black, 
instead of violet, the complementary of yellow. 
f Wundt, quoted by Kibot, Maladies de la memoire, p. 11. HALLUCINATIONS. 
255 
tion. He was able to picture to himself the idea of red, 
so intensely that at the end of a few minutes he was 
able to see a green patch upon the white paper; but, 
strangely enough, repeated efforts were required before 
he was able to associate an outline with the colour, so as 
to reproduce under the form of a subjective image the 
idea of a coloured cross or circle. 
These facts show the close connection which unites 
sensation, hallucination, and memory. These three phe- 
nomena are evidently based on the same physiological 
operation, and are effected in the same region of the 
nervous centres. Thus, whether it is a real impression 
of the colour red, whether the colour is pictured by the 
memory, or again, whether itis seen by an hallucination, 
it is always the same cell which vibrates. 
4. The Mixture of Imaginary Colours.—Since it is 
interesting to develop an experiment, so as to consider a 
fact in every aspect, we sought to discover what would 
result from the mixture of imaginary colours. We wished 
to know whether an hypnotic subject could make white 
out of the suggested colours of combined red and green. 
The process which, after many attempts, we found to be 
the most convenient, does not involve much preparation. 
Two squares of coloured cardboard are placed on a table 
at a little distance from each other, and a piece of glass is 
held before the eye at such an angle as to admit a direct 
view of one of the squares, and at the same time a 
reflected image of the second square; in this way it is 
easy to place one image over the other, and thus to mix 
their colours. The result may be varied in manifold 
ways by employing differently coloured squares. After 
this arrangement is made, a series of blank cards are 256 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
shown to the subject, and it is suggested to him that 
they are coloured. Care is taken each time to define the 
suggested colour by showing to the subject, by way of 
pattern, one of the coloured cards which were used for 
the previous experiment. In this way the imaginary 
colours of the white cards are absolutely the same as the 
real colours on the other cards. 
The subject may then, with a piece of glass and his 
collection of cards coloured by suggestion, effect the same 
mixture of colours as the experimenter, who can on each 
occasion verify the exactitude of the result by the com- 
bination of the real colours. Under these rigorous 
conditions, which leave no scope for erroneous sugges- 
tions, the imaginary colours give the resultant shades 
which are in conformity with optical laws. Hence we 
may conclude that the hallucination of a colour is a 
suggested sensation which occupies the same region of 
the cerebrum as a real sensation. 
5. Phenomena observed with reference to the Eye.— 
We now come to a consecutive series of clinical observa- 
tions and of experiments which furnish a valuable argu- 
ment in proof of our thesis, and which are perhaps the 
most decisive of all. 
When a lesion of the brain produces sensory dis- 
turbances in the integuments of the eye, visual disturb- 
ances also occur, such as achromatopsia, or concentric or 
lateral contraction of the field of vision. This has been 
shown by numerous observations.* This singular rela- 
tion between the general sensitiveness of the eye and its 
* Fere, Des troubles fonctionnels de la vision par lesions cerehrales, 
pp. 152, 153 (1882); Notes sur Vanesthesie hyste'rique (Soc. de Biologic, 
October 29 and November 26, 1881; July 24, 1886). HALLUCINATIONS. 
257 
special sensitiveness is particularly apparent in the 
hemi-anaesthesia of hysterical patients. In fact, in these 
cases, the insensibility of one-half of the body not only 
extends to the skin and mucous membrane, but also to 
the other organs of the senses: sight, smell, and hearing 
are likewise affected on the same side; in a word, there 
is, as a rule, a sensitivo-sensorial hemi-anaesthesia. Under 
these conditions the general sensitiveness of the eye, 
the sensitiveness of the conjunctiva and of the cornea, 
is always in correspondence with the special sensitive- 
ness of that organ. Thus the hemi-anaesthetic hysterical 
patients whom we have observed, and in whom there 
was neither contraction of the field of vision, nor achro- 
matopsia, retained the sensitiveness of the conjunctiva. 
Those who had lost the power of seeing one or more 
colours, or whose field of vision was more or less re- 
latively contracted, did not only experience anaesthesia 
of the conjunctiva, but also of the cornea. In this 
latter case, if while the subject is looking intently at 
any object, the conjunctiva and the cornea are touched 
by a strip of paper, the eye and eyelids do not move as 
long as the foreign substance does not come in front of 
the pupil. The reflex movement of the eye and eyelid 
which occurs in the latter case is exclusively produced 
by the excitement of the retina, which has lost the per- 
ception of colour, but still distinguishes light and shade. 
In those who are simply hemi-ansesthetic, or who are 
totally anaesthetic with a predominance on one side, 
magnetization, statical electrization, etc., will effect a 
transfer of the anaesthesia, so as to furnish a counter- 
proof, affording constant results. 
This relation between cutaneous and sensorial in- 258 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
sensibility does not only exist when the ansesthesia 
extends to one-half of the body, but when it is more 
restricted. When statical electrization has destroyed the 
hysterical ansesthesia, after an interval which varies in 
different subjects, insensibility reappears in a localized 
region, which does not correspond with the distribution 
of the nerves. In the case of one of our patients, in- 
sensibility first returned to a limited zone round the eye, 
which included the cornea and the conjunctiva, and 
visual ansesthesia was reproduced, simultaneously with 
the limited ansesthesia of the skin.* 
Another proof of the relation which exists between 
the special sensitiveness of the eye, and the sensitiveness 
of the conjunctiva, may be found in the observations 
we made on three hysterical and hypnotic patients at 
the Salpetriere. Two phases of catalepsy may be dis- 
tinguished, as far as the eye is concerned: First, in 
profound catalepsy, such as is produced by a sudden 
noise, the eyes remain fixed, with no movement of the 
eyelids. In this state it is possible to touch the con- 
junctiva without producing any reflex action. Secondly, 
when an object is moved to and fro before the subject’s 
eyes, so as to fix his gaze on the moving object. If in 
this case the conjunctiva is touched, there is an imme- 
diate reaction of the eyelids, as in a healthy subject, 
although the insensibility of the rest of the body is 
maintained. The experiment may be repeated at plea- 
sure by again throwing the subject into a state of 
profound catalepsy, and the result is always the same; 
* What we have said of the eye applies also to the other senses. For 
further details, into which we do not enter here, see Fere’s work, quoted 
above. HALLUCINATIONS. 
259 
as soon as the fixed gaze ceases, the sensitiveness of the 
conjunctiva returns. The object which is moved to and 
fro excites the special sensitiveness of the eye, just as 
under other circumstances a strong local excitement 
brings back the sensitiveness of the skin, and together 
with the function of sight the sensitiveness of the external 
membrane of the eye returns. 
These facts appear to indicate that in some indeter- 
minate region of the brain there are sensory centres 
common to the organs of the senses and to the integu- 
ments by which they are covered.* 
This long preamble brings us to the observations in 
which we are more immediately interested, which regard 
the physiology of hallucinations. One of the present 
writers has ascertained that when a cataleptic subject 
receives a visual hallucination, the general sensitiveness 
of the eye is often profoundly modified. We have just 
seen that in the cataleptic state the conjunctiva and the 
cornea, with the exception of the region of the pupil, are 
generally insensitive. In the case of the subject P , 
as soon as a visual hallucination was developed, the 
sensitiveness of the external membranes of the eye 
returned; the membranes could not be touched by 
any foreign body without producing reflex action of the 
eyelids.An hallucination arouses the general sensi- 
tiveness of the eye, just as it is aroused by waving a 
real object before the subject’s eyes. This is surely a 
proof that visual hallucination excites the visual centres. 
A second experiment displays the same fact under 
* Fere, Troubles fonctionnels de la vision, pp. 149, 151, 158. 
f Fere, Les hypnotiques hyste'riques, comme sujets d’experience en 
me' icine mentale, etc. {Arch, de Neurologia, p. 122, vol. vi. 1883). 260 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
another form. In M ’s case the visual hallucination 
usually persisted for three or four minutes after awaking. 
As soon as this subject awoke, she complained of pain in 
the eyes and constantly rubbed them, only ceasing to do 
so when the hallucination disappeared. We saw this 
behaviour repeated more than forty times without 
attaching any importance to it, so true is it that we only 
see what we expect to see. And yet the phenomenon is 
curious; the hyperesthesia, or rather the dysesthesia, of 
the integuments of the eye is produced by the visual 
hallucination, since it lasts for the same period and dis- 
appears at the same time. If an hallucination brings about 
this modification of the cutaneous sensitiveness of the 
eye, it is probable that it excites the special sensitive- 
ness of that organ, in other words, the centre of vision.* 
We observed another form of the same phenomenon 
in the subject X . We suggested to her the halluci- 
nation of a bird perched on her finger, suggesting at the 
same time that she only saw the bird with her right eye. 
The hallucination persisted after awaking; the subject 
fondled the bird without being aware that she only saw 
it with one eye, for both eyes were open, nor did it 
occur to her to close one of them. After a while she 
complained of pain in the right eye, saying that she felt 
as if sand had got into it, and she only put her hand to 
this eye. It should be observed that persons affected by 
conjunct!vis complain of the same sensation of sand in 
the eye. The localization of the pain in the right eye 
proves that the dyseesthcsia depended on the halluci- 
nation. 
* In this patient an hallucination of hearing produced local pain in 
the auditory meatus. HALLUCINATIONS. 
261 
Each of these facts, taken alone, is insignificant, but 
they are in logical agreement and connection, and appear 
to prove that visual hallucination has its seat in the 
visual centre. 
After studying the influence of hallucination on the 
organs of the senses, and on the eye in particular, we 
must mention the observation made by one of the present 
writers* on the state of the pupil in subjects of hallu- 
cination. He observed in the first place that in the 
hallucinations which accompany the third period of a 
strong hysterical attack, the diameter of the pupil varies 
with the assumed distance of the hallucinatory object. 
This interesting fact also occurs in the hallucinations 
produced by hypnotism; “ This was what we observed 
in the case of two hysterical patients with whom it was 
possible to hold oral communication during catalepsy. 
When we desired them to look at a bird perched on a 
steeple, or flying high in the air, the pupil was gradually 
dilated until its normal diameter was almost doubled. 
When we caused the bird to fly down, the pupil 
gradually contracted, and the same phenomenon was 
reproduced as often as the idea of any moving object 
was evoked. 
“The modifications of the pupil produced in this 
manner in a cataleptic subject, who continued to display 
all the phenomena peculiar to catalepsy, show that the 
fictitious object of hallucination is seen just as if it 
actually existed, and its supposed movements produces 
efforts of accommodation which are governed by the same 
* Fere, Note on some phenomena of the eye observed in hystero-epi- 
leptic subjects, either during the attack or at other times, in the Society 
de Biologic, October, November, December, 1881. 262 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
laws as if it were a real object. We, therefore, have to 
do with a true hallucination, and not with any im- 
posture.” 
We have now to observe how hallucination is affected 
by sesthesiogens. 
We have had frequent occasion to speak of sesthesio- 
genic agents. The term is applied to certain agents 
which, according to Burq, whose observations have been 
confirmed and extended by other scientific men, have 
the property of acting on the sensibility and motor power 
of a certain category of subjects. The magnet is the 
sesthesiogen to which we have most frequently had 
recourse. There is nothing mysterious about this agent; 
compared by physics to a solenoid, it acts like a faint 
electric current on the nervous system, and produces a 
continuous peripheral excitement. Its mode of action 
has, moreover, been clearly established by one of the 
present writers.* 
We need not in this place prove the reality of 
testhesiogenic influence, in order to reply to those who 
only see in these agents the effects of suggestion and 
of expectant attention, since we have already had 
occasion to explain this point. It only remains to show 
that in the. following experiments we took sufficient 
care to eliminate suggestion and expectant attention. 
These were the points on which we insisted; 1. Since 
these researches were new to us, we were in many cases 
unable to foresee what would occur, and especially with 
respect to the polarization of emotions, so that suggestion 
* Fere, Bull. Society de Biologie, p. 590,1885. HALLUCINATIONS. 
263 
on onr part was impossible. 2. We repeated the experi- 
ments on absolutely fresh subjects, and obtained the 
same results. 8. The same effect was produced when 
the magnet was concealed under a cloth. 4. This was 
also the case when the magnet was made invisible by 
suggestion. 5. We made use of a wooden magnet, and 
nothing occurred, although if there had been any results 
they could not have afforded a counter-proof, since 
they might have been explained by the recollection of 
a previous peripheral excitement. 6. The experiments 
made under somnambulism were in logical connection 
with those made under lethargy and catalepsy, although 
in these two latter states we have found our subjects 
incapable of receiving any complex suggestion. We 
think that under these conditions the results we have 
obtained must be considered due to msthesiogens, and 
not to unconscious suggestion. 
Many observers may attempt to verify our experi- 
ments, and if they fail they will declare them to be 
false, or to have been produced by suggestion. Let them 
remember Claude Bernard’s remark, that for the most 
part a negative experiment only proves that it has been 
imperfectly understood. It is clear that sesthesiogens 
only act on a certain class of subjects ; this was admitted 
at the outset by all observers who have studied this 
question. Since our experiments with sesthesiogens are 
only the logical development of the experiments in 
metallo-therapeutics made by Burq and his successors, 
they are clearly subject to the same conditions. Our 
researches will not be invalidated by showing that they 
failed with the first subject who was presented to them ; 
such an argument would be irrational. We do not dis- ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
believe the phenomenon of neuro-muscular hyper- 
excitability, because it cannot be produced in a healthy 
subject, not affected by hysteria. Our present and future 
opponents are recommended to perform their experiments 
exclusively on the hysterical patients who display the 
features of profound hypnotism, and in those whose 
sensitiveness and muscular strength are modified by the 
application of magnetism. 
We have observed that in the case of some"subjects 
affected by profound hypnotism, unilateral hallucination 
may be transferred by the magnet, like a contracture 
or an hysterical paralysis.* 
Contrary to what occurs in contractures, the trans- 
ferred hallucination of vision is not symmetrical with 
the initial hallucination. It is suggested to the subject 
that he sees a portrait in profile on a card, and that this 
profile is turned to the right; it is added that he only 
sees this profile with the right eye, not with the left. 
By applying a magnet the hallucination is transferred 
from the right to the left eye; if the subject is then 
asked to which side the profile is turned, he says, as 
before, that it is turned to the right, although symmetry 
demands that it should be turned to the left. 
During the transfer, the subject spontaneously com- 
plains of pain in the head, shooting from side to side. 
This pain is not diffused but local, and its seat is note- 
worthy. The cranio-cerebral topography established by 
one of the present writers f enables us to show that the 
point where pain is confidently indicated by the subject 
* Binet et Fere, Le transfert p ychique (Revue Philosophique, January, 
1885). 
t Fere, Anatomic medicate du systcme nerveux, p. 95. Paris, 1886. HALLUCINATIONS. 
265 
coincides, in the case of certain forms of hallucinations, 
with the sensory centres of the cerebral cortex, just 
as they have been established by the physiological and 
anatomical researches of late years (Fig. 9). This is 
Fig. 9.-Cranio-cerebral topography— B, Bregma; C, Point corresponding 
with the outer extremity of the coronal suture; L, Lambda, 
ing with the parieto-occipital fissure; 0 S, Fissure of Sylvius; R R', 
Sulcus of Rolando; R, Its anterior extremity, about three centimeters 
behind the outer extremity of the coronal suture; R', Its posterior 
extremity, forty-five millimeters behind the bregma; A A, Condylo- 
alveolar plane; B O, Auriculo-bregmatic plane; G L, Plane passing 
through the minimum frontal transverse diameter and the lambda; 
K E, Section passing between the two folds of the third frontal 
convolution at tbe point C, which corresponds with the external 
extremity of the coronal suture, and just touching the head of the 
caudate nucleus ; R' H, Section passing through the posterior extremity 
of the sulcus of Rolando, and behind the posterior border of the optic 
thalamus; NM, Horizontal plane passing over the upper surface of the 
corpus callosum, and below the grey nuclei. 266 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
especially the case with the most important halluci- 
nations, those of sight and hearing. Thus, in the transfer 
of an hallucination of vision, the point is a little behind 
and above the pinna of the ear, corresponding with 
the region of which the destruction causes blindness 
and hemianopia; it is, therefore, the posterior part of 
the lower parietal lobule. 
In the transfer of an hallucination of hearing, the 
pain is seated in the centre of the space included between 
the anterior part of the pinna of the ear and the external, 
angular process of the frontal bone. The pain almost 
corresponds with the centre of the temporo-sphenoidal 
lobe, and approximatively with the region of which the 
destruction causes deafness. For the sense of taste, the 
point is above the external occipital crest, two centimeters 
from the median line. For the sense of smell, it is one 
centimeter above that line. These two latter localizations 
are not in agreement with the results of anatomical and 
clinical researches, and demand revision. 
It may be asked how this coincidence should be 
interpreted: whether it proves that the physiological 
process in correspondence with the hallucination is 
seated in the sensory centres of the cerebral cortex, 
behind the motor zone, or if we are only to regard it as 
one of the reflex acts, termed in physiology, an echo of 
pain. We cannot decide this question, since it is only 
certain that in the case of some subjects there is a special 
relation between some points of the external covering of 
the head, and certain nervous centres of which the exact 
locality is still undefined. On this account the seat of 
the pain of transference must be estimated as an 
objective sign. HALLUCINATIONS. 
267 
In another experiment on the same subjects, we 
obtained a demonstration of the same relation between 
certain points of the hairy scalp and certain sensory 
functions. This was in experiments on partial somnam- 
bulism.* If the subject is thrown into a state of total 
catalepsy, and those points of the scalp which become 
painful during the transfer are then mechanically ex- 
cited by the finger or by some other blunt object, curious 
results are produced. On exciting that point of the 
scalp which corresponds with the centre of vision, both 
the subject’s eyes are affected by somnambulism; they 
lose their cataleptic fixity, and follow the movements of 
the finger. If the point corresponding with the auditory 
centre is excited in a similar way, somnambulism affects 
the organ of hearing, and the subject who, up to that 
movement is completely insensible to the voice, hears 
the orders addressed to him and attempts to execute 
them, so far as his limbs, which are still cataleptic, allow. 
We have seen what effect is exerted by the sesthesio- 
gen on unilateral hallucinations; it displaces, and sub- 
jects them to a series of oscillations. When the halluci- 
nation is bilateral, the result is different; it is not a 
transfer, but what we have termed a polarization.! Of 
this we will give some instances. 
The usual hallucination of a bird perched on her 
finger was given to a somnambulist subject. While she 
was caressing the imaginary bird, she was awakened, and 
a magnet was brought close to her head. After the lapse 
of a few minutes, she suddenly paused, raised her eyes 
* Fere and Binet, Le somnambulisms partiel (Soc. de Biol., 1884). 
t Fe're and Binet, La 'polarization psychique (Revue Philosopliique, 
April, 1885). 268 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
and looked about her in astonishment. The bird which 
she supposed to be on her finger had disappeared. . She 
looked about the room, and finally discovered it, since 
we heard her say, “So you leave me thus ! ” The bird 
presently disappeared again, and once more reappeared. 
The subject complained from time to time of pain in the 
head at the point already described by us as correspond- 
ing with the centre of vision. 
The magnet exerts the same suspensive effect on a 
real perception. For instance, after awaking one of our 
subjects, we showed her a Chinese gong and the pad with 
which it was sounded. The sight of the instrument 
alarmed the subject, and as soon as it was struck, she fell 
into a state of catalepsy. After this preparatory experi- 
ment, she was awakened and requested to look attentively 
at the gong, and meanwhile a small magnet was 
brought close to her head. In the course of a minute she 
asserted that she could not see the instrument, and that 
it had completely disappeared, and when the gong was 
sounded, more loudly than before, she did not fall into a 
state of catalepsy, but only looked about her with an air 
of some surprise. Hence it appears that the magnet in 
some sense paralysed the vision of the gong; the per- 
ception of this object was replaced by a corresponding 
anaesthesia, so that the noise of the gong no longer pro- 
duced catalepsy. 
We have also ascertained that the magnet destroys a 
suggested memory, just as it destroys both real and 
imaginary vision. This analogous effect is intelligible, 
since all these phenomena have a common basis. Memory 
is an image, and so also is hallucination, and an image is 
only a faint copy of an anterior sensation. HALLUCINATIONS. 
269 
Memory, hallucination, and true perception are dis- 
tinguished by the secondary states of consciousness which 
accompany the suggestion of the image. In the case of 
memory, this state consists in the reasoning which localizes 
the image in the past. In hallucination and true percep- 
tion these states consist in reasoning which localizes the 
image in the external world. But these localizations in 
space and time are secondary, accessory, superadded acts. 
One experiment on polarization clearly shows the 
connecting link between these three phenomena. When 
one of our subjects was in the waking state, we spoke 
to her of the gong, begging her to describe its form, 
colour, size, and use. She repeatedly told us that she 
saw it distinctly in her mind. When her attention had 
been firmly fixed on the idea of this object, we applied 
the magnet, and in the course of a minute she had a 
difficulty in picturing the gong to herself, and ended 
in being unable to understand us when we spoke of it. 
We then took the gong off a table which stood near, 
and offered it to the subject, who did not see it. Even 
when it was sounded with considerable force, she only 
gave a slight start. But after waiting a few seconds, a 
consecutive oscillation took place; her recollection of the 
gong returned, together with the vision of the instru- 
ment, and then a slight stroke upon the gong sufficed to 
throw the subject into a state of catalepsy. 
Thus we see that the suppression, or rather the 
paralysis of memory, produced by the application of the 
magnet, induces a corresponding paralysis of the per- 
ception of the object. Since the subject was unable to 
picture the gong to herself, she was also unable to see it 
when it was presented to her. 270 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
The foregoing account describes the action of the 
magnet on a sensation, an hallucination, a memory, either 
by suppressing them, or by substituting a corresponding 
Fig. 10.—Eed cross. 
paralysis. There is an additional element in polarization, 
the production of a complementary phenomenon. This 
Fig. 11.—Eose-coloured cross with green rays between its arms 
is shown by the following experiment, to which we 
must limit our description. We have seen that after 
looking intently at a red cross, and then on a white HALLUCINATIONS. 
271 
surface, a green cross appears as the consecutive sensa- 
tion; in the subjective image the primitive colour is 
replaced by its complementary, but the form of the cross 
still persists. The same thing occurs when the hallucina- 
tion of a red cross is evoked, or when the same coloured 
figure is presented to the imagination with sufficient 
intensity. 
Fig. 12.—The cross has disappeared, leaving a space. The green rays 
have become elongated and of a darker shade. 
If we inform one of our subjects, W or C , 
While in the waking state, that the cross we have just 
drawn on a piece of white paper is coloured red, and if 
we then request him to consider this cross attentively 
while a magnet is, without his knowledge, placed behind 
his head, we have the following result: the subject sees 
green rays appear between the arms of the cross, these 
rays gradually become elongated and at the same time 272 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
the original red tint of the cross changes to pink. For 
an instant the cross appears to be green, and then all 
colour disappears from the original figure, and the subject 
perceives a blank cross, a space surrounded by the 
persistent green rays (Fig. 12, p. 271). If at this moment 
a red cross is placed over the outlined.figure, the subject 
is unable to see it. The magnet produces analogous effects 
on the memory of coloured objects. 
It would be interesting to apply similar experiments 
to the senses of taste, smell, and hearing, in order to 
ascertain whether in the case of these sensory organs 
it is possible to establish a theory of complementary 
sensations, comparable to those of vision. We have 
merely had occasion to observe that under the influence 
of the magnet a suggested impression of heat is replaced 
by an impression of cold, which causes shivering. 
In the case of some subjects, the hallucination begins 
and ends during somnambulism. In others it is more 
permanent, and persists during the waking state. It 
will be easily understood that the duration of post-hyp- 
notic hallucination is very variable, since it depends on 
many circumstances. 
In the case of subjects whose hypnotic hallucinations 
continue in the waking state, it is interesting to inquire 
what the hallucination becomes in its new environment. 
It might at first appear that the subject would on 
awaking correct her hallucination and in some sense expel 
it from her intelligence, but this is by no means the case. 
In subjects affected by profound hypnotism the hallucina- HALLUCINATIONS. 
273 
tion which persists in the waking state is accompanied by 
blind confidence. It is useless to tell the subject that she 
is the victim of an illusion, and that the portrait which 
she thinks she sees is an imaginary vision. She regards 
such language as a mockery, and if it is repeated the 
subject becomes uneasy and assumes a distracted air, 
and indeed on one occasion an hysterical attack appeared 
to be imminent. These facts seem to show that a con- 
viction of the reality of the hallucination is an essential 
part of the phenomenon; the hallucination does not 
merely consist in the external projection of a sensible 
image, but in the condition of mind which accompanies 
the projection of this image. 
On one occasion we informed our subject before 
hypnotizing her, that we were going to suggest an 
hallucination, and we agreed that she should, on awaking, 
make every effort to correct the hallucination and regard 
it as false. After hypnotizing her, we gave her the 
suggestion that a gold ten-franc piece, bearing the effigy 
of Napoleon 111., was lying on the table. When she 
awoke, she still saw this coin. We said to the subject, 
“You know what we agreed upon. We gave you an 
hallucination, and the gold coin is not really there.” She 
looked at us with a stupefied air, or I might almost say 
in a stupor, our words seemed to her so amazing. The 
mere idea that it was possible to doubt the existence of 
a piece of money which she saw and touched seemed to 
disturb her intelligence. But she soon recovered herself, 
and positively declared that she saw the coin, that it was 
a real coin, and that we were laughing at her in asserting 
the contrary. It was impossible to infuse the slightest 
doubt into her mind. The hallucination might be destroyed 274 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
by suggestion, but as long as it remained, the subject 
believed it with all her might. 
On the other hand, many writers have declared that it 
was only necessary to tell the subject that the hallucination 
was suggested to destroy his belief in the reality of the 
vision. We have only met with this submission in our 
subjects when the hallucination was fading away, and 
had lost its intensity. 
We have still to say how the hallucination which has 
been produced may be destroyed. It is often very im- 
portant to leave no trace of a sensory disturbance which 
may have dangerous consequences for those who are 
brought in contact with the patient. Any subject of hal- 
lucination is as dangerous as some explosive substance. 
Jn many cases the hallucination is spontaneously effaced, 
and this mode of disappearance has been well described 
by some subjects. The imaginary object loses its dis- 
tinctness of outline, it becomes transparent, and ceases 
to conceal the real objects before wdiich it is placed, 
and it finally seems to melt into air (Richer). In other 
cases, the hallucination disappears during the waking- 
state, after an interval which varies with the subject. 
Some are in despair when the imaginary object dis- 
appears. One subject, to whom Bernheim had given 
imaginary rings, bracelets, and fans, implored him to leave 
her in possession of these gifts, since experience had 
taught her their fugitive nature. Others try to find some 
mode of accounting for this strange disappearance. 
X , who, at the end of a few days, saw the portraits 
which had been suggested to him fade away, and the 
cards become blank, explained the fact by saying that the 
photographs had been badly focussed. HALLUCINATIONS. 
275 
The simplest mode of destroying the hallucination is 
to assure the subject that he has seen, heard, and felt 
nothing. Sometimes he resists this intimation. The 
magnet may also be employed, if the subject is sensitive 
to this msthesiogen; we have already seen that the 
magnet rapidly destroys a bilateral hallucination. For 
the most part, the hallucination and all recollection of 
it disappears together; such amnesia may even occur 
when the hallucination has been produced in the waking 
state, and this is a valuable note by which we may 
ascertain the sincerity of the experiment. 
This is the place for mentioning some curious pheno- 
mena. A somnambulist was shown a real scent bottle, 
which was on the table, and it was then removed, and 
she was told that it was still there. On awaking she saw 
the imaginary scent bottle, and was unable to see, smell, 
or in any way perceive the real one. It was placed in 
her hand, passed over her face, struck with a key, and 
she was not the least aware of it. The perception of the 
real object was completely paralysed by the imaginary 
vision of the same object. 
Here is another example. The hallucination was 
given to X that one of the present writers at- 
tended a ball which is annually given at the Salpe- 
triere; she saw him distinctly and spoke to him several 
times during the ball. He came to the Salpetriere on 
duty on the following day, in reality this time, and not 
in hallucination. X saw, but did not recognize him, 
taking him for a stranger. It was necessary to hypno- 
tize her in order to restore the perception of his person. 
An hallucination may also be destroyed by a simple 
physical excitement. It is suggested to a somnambulist 276 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM, 
that she hears a letter repeated, L, for example. On 
awaking she continues to hear the same sound. On 
opening her mouth it is ascertained that the movements 
of her tongue coincide with each mental act of hearing. 
If this movement is checked by an energetic pressure, 
the hallucination disappears. It also disappears if the 
subject protrudes her tongue, and keeps it in this con- 
strained attitude, or again if a contracture is produced. 
We see, therefore, that an hallucination may be 
destroyed by three different processes, by suggestion, by 
physical excitement, and by the magnet. It is probable 
that the two latter agents really act by suggestion. 
Hallucination, of which we have now described the 
chief characteristics, stands at the beginning of a series of 
much more complex and more obscure phenomena; it 
may therefore serve as the preparation and introduction 
to the study of these higher phenomena, among which 
we may mention the conceptions of delirium. CHAPTER X. 
SUGGESTIONS OF MOVEMENTS AND OF ACTS. 
Motor suggestions present us with a series of experi- 
ments which start from a simple, natural, and even fairly 
intelligible phenomenon, the suggestion of a movement, 
and culminate in complex phenomena which it is most 
difficult to explain, the suggestion of acts. Acts do not 
consist merely of movements, but of sensations, percep- 
tions, reasoning, reflection, and will. The act may be 
said to be the resultant in which all the intellectual, 
moral, and motor functions of the individual converge. 
The simplest suggestions of movement belong to the 
cataleptic phase. We have seen that harmony is the 
chief feature of the attitudes artificially impressed upon 
the subject. 
The expressive movements given by the experimenter 
to different parts of the body are always immediately 
reflected in the countenance, which thus completes the 
expression. Braid clearly saw this influence of the 
gesture on the countenance, and we regard this fact as 
one of the finest and most wonderful results of hypnotic 
experiments. It affords to psychology a valuable source 
of information in the expressive mechanism of the emo- 
tions, and it furnishes the artist with a motionless model, 278 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
representing with striking fidelity all the sentiments of 
which man is capable. It has been said that the sculp- 
tors of antiquity took women in a state of catalepsy for 
their models, and there is nothing improbable in the fact. 
An infinite number of expressive attitudes may be 
given to the subject, who may be caused to express 
ecstasy, prayer, grief, suffering, disdain, anger, and fear. 
If the extended hand is approached to the mouth, as if 
in the act of sending a kiss, the mouth smiles. If the 
fists are clenched, the brows contract and the face ex- 
presses anger. This reaction of the gesture on the 
countenance is not only seen in catalepsy but in other 
states, as, for instance, in somnambulism, and even, 
although in a minor degree, in the waking state. But 
the maximum of intensity only occurs in cataleptic 
subjects, on account of the complete automatism which 
characterizes this state. The slightest change in the 
attitude of the limbs produces a corresponding modifica- 
tion of the expression. When the open hand is carried 
to the lips, there is a smile; when the fist is clenched, 
there is an expression of anger. Moreover, this reaction 
of the expression takes place, with whatever rapidity the 
change in the attitude of the limbs may be effected. If 
the subject’s open hand is taken and moved swiftly to 
the mouth and again withdrawn, a formal smile is seen 
on the lips as the hand approaches, which passes away 
as soon as it is withdrawn. Again, the influence of the 
gesture on the countenance may be rendered unilateral; 
when the left hand is clenched, a frown is seen on the 
left side only, and if at the same time the right hand is 
approached to the mouth, there is a smile on the right 
side of the face. Each side of the face thus expresses 
a different emotion. SUGGESTIONS OF MOVEMENTS AND OF ACTS 
279 
It occurred to Charcot and Richer to modify the 
gesture by acting on the countenance. By means of 
localized faradization they developed a given emotion 
on the features, and the body at once assumed an attitude 
in correspondence with that emotion. When once it 
has been produced, the emotion impressed upon the 
features does not become effaced, and the position of 
the limbs is likewise persistent. It is possible, by 
graduating the force of the current, to cause the subject 
to express different degrees of the same emotion. We 
have seen that in a state of lethargy, all the muscles of 
the face may be contracted separately, by pressing the 
finger on their motor points. The experiment of which 
we are now speaking is of a somewhat different character, 
and of greater importance in the study of the play of 
countenance. The excitement is no longer, as in lethargy, 
localized in the muscle which is touched; it is communi- 
cated to the other facial muscles, which must also be 
brought into play in order to produce the desired 
expression. 
It has often been asked what is occurring in the 
mind of the cataleptic subject, when he is placed in an 
emotional attitude. There is a curious contrast between 
his statuesque immobility and the tragic expression of 
his countenance; in one sense he appears to see and 
hear nothing, and in another he displays intense emotion. 
It occurred to Richer to resolve the problem by con- 
sulting the respiratory tracings of the subject under 
experiment. He effected the contraction of the muscles 
which express terror, and, strange to say, while the 
features and gestures of the subject expressed the most 
lively alarm, the breathing, after one abrupt act of expira- 280 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
tion, resumed the calmness and immobility characteristic 
of catalepsy. Hence we may infer that in the cataleptic 
subject suggestions by the muscular sense are more 
superficial than the suggestions of somnambulism. 
The chief conclusion to be drawn from these studies 
is the influence exerted on psychical activity by the 
expressive movements of the countenance and of the 
whole body. The expression is not merely an external 
sign of the emotion, but it forms an integral part of it. 
Even in the normal state, when an expression is arti- 
ficially produced, it gives rise to the corresponding 
emotion, which passes away when the expression changes. 
Dugald Stewart’s remarks on this subject have been 
often quoted. He observes that just as every mental 
emotion produces a sensible effect on the body, so when 
the countenance assumes the expression of any strong 
emotion, accompanied by analogous gestures, the emotion 
corresponding with this artificial expression is in some 
degree felt. Burke asserted that he had often experi- 
enced the awakening of the passion of anger in proportion 
as he assumed the external signs of that passion, and 
Stewart did not doubt that in the case of many individuals 
the same experiment would afford the same results. 
Burke also remarked that when Campanella, a celebrated 
philosopher and great physiognomist, wished to know 
what was passing in the mind of another person, he 
imitated, as well as he could, the attitude and counte- 
nance of the person in question, and at the same time he 
concentrated his attention on his own emotions. 
Suggestions of attitude constitute the simplest form 
of automatism. A given number of co-ordinated move- 
ments may moreover be produced in some cataleptic SUGGESTIONS OF MOVEMENTS AND OF ACTS. 
281 
subjects by placing their limbs in a certain position. 
For instance, if his hand is approached to his nose, the 
subject will blow his nose. Or certain impulses, which 
may be indefinitely prolonged, may be impressed on his 
limbs, as when the subject is made to twirl his thumbs, 
he will continue this automatic movement until it is 
stopped mechanically or by suggestion. These phe- 
nomena are simply automatic, and can be explained 
in great measure by the laws of the association of 
movements. 
A higher form of automatism consists in what 
Heidenhain calls imitative automatism. The experi- 
menter begins by looking fixedly at the subject, so as to 
arrest his gaze, and then draws back. The subject rises 
to follow the experimenter, of whom he never loses sight, 
and he imitates his every mo vement, whatever it may be. 
In this way he can be made to laugh, whistle, sing, blow 
his nose, clap his hands and feet together. The subject 
reflects the acts of the experimenter as a mirror might 
do; he imitates with his right hand the movements of 
the experimenters left hand, who stands opposite to him. 
Despine has termed this phenomenon specular imitation. 
Automatism may also be produced by the recollection 
of the use of an object. This is a less direct process, and 
the automatism is more complex. For instance, if a cake 
of soap is placed in the hands of a cataleptic subject, he 
rubs his hands, as if in the act of washing them. If an 
umbrella is given to him, he opens it, shivering, as if 
sensible of the coming storm. Sight, or contact with the 
object, automatically arouses a series of movements which 
are in the normal state associated with the same sensory 
impression. The subject relies on a basis of habits, and 282 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
invents nothing. An unknown object produces no 
suggestion. 
This is not the place for insisting on the analogies 
which exist between the movements, acts, and suo-o-ested 
' ' oo 
ideas of hypnotic subjects and the spasmodic movements 
and ideas of the insane. We will only remark that in 
the case of the latter, an impulsive act is not un- 
frequently induced by the sight of an appropriate object. 
Max Simon gives an instance of a learned man who was 
seized by an overwhelming impulse to cut his throat 
when he was shaving, and who could only overcome it 
by desisting from this operation. Many other analogous 
facts might be cited. 
Certain acts which are not purely mechanical cannot 
be suggested merely by the presence of the instrument 
which effects them. The act of writing, for instance, not 
only involves the exercise of the hand which traces the 
characters, but of the thought which co-ordinates the 
words in a given sequence. If, during the cataleptic 
state, a pen is placed between B ’s fingers, she holds 
it loosely, and at the end of a few moments lets it drop, 
without making any attempt to use it. If a sentence is 
dictated to her while she holds the pen, a word at a time, 
or still better, a syllable at a time, she may be induced 
to write a phrase or two in her own orthography, but 
the writing is irregular, since it is due to the influence of 
successive suggestions which are disconnected in the 
subject’s mind. Yet if care is taken about the position 
of the hand, an autograph may be obtained which can 
hardly be distinguished from those which are written in 
the waking state. 
There are several proofs of the absence of design. SUGGESTIONS OF MOVEMENTS AND OF ACTS. 
283 
The subject to whom soap is given will go on washing 
his hands indefinitely, and on one occasion the operation 
was protracted for two hours (Regnard). If a subject is 
putting on her boot, she will go on doing up and undoing 
the laces for an indefinite period, and if a piece of crochet 
work is given her, she will make a long chain of loop- 
stitch without attaching it to the rest of the work. 
Sometimes the act which is begun is continued indefi- 
nitely, owing to contact with the object which suggests 
the idea of employing it. More frequently, when the 
suggestion is exhausted, the subject stops short and 
becomes rigid in catalepsy. A species of oscillation may 
be observed between the cataleptic attitude and the 
psychical phenomena produced by suggestion. While 
the subject is affected by the suggestion, catalepsy ceases ; 
as soon as the suggestion comes to an end, catalepsy 
reappears. 
During the automatic activity it is possible to affect 
the subject unilaterally. Take a subject, for instance, be- 
fore whom are placed a jug and basin and some soap. As 
soon as her eyes are attracted to these objects the subject, 
with apparent spontaneity, pours water into the basin, 
takes the soap and washes her hands with scrupulous 
care. If one of her eyes is then closed, the same side of 
the body becomes lethargic, while the other hand con- 
tinues to exert the same movements. So, aefain, when 
} O ' 
the subject is working crochet and one eye is closed, the 
corresponding hand becomes motionless, while the other 
continues to exercise the same movements alone, although 
they are rendered useless by its isolation. Yet, as Richer 
observes, the intelligence seemc to take some part in 
the unilateral movements; the subject tries to supply 284 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
the place of the missing hand by supporting the other on 
the knee or breast. 
None of these phenomena are peculiar to catalepsy: 
they may all be readily reproduced in somnambulism. 
But in catalepsy the movements are simpler and more 
automatic ; the impulse seems to be irresistible. 
It may be profitable to consider the facts of automatic 
imitation which are so readily produced in the cataleptic 
state; the echoing of any utterance, or echolalia. It is 
long since pathologists became acquainted with this 
phenomenon, which was discovered by Berger in the case 
of hypnotic subjects. It is produced in a somnambulist 
by applying the hand to the forehead or to the nape of the 
neck; the subject, who up to that time has answered the 
questions put to him with distinctness, at once repeats, 
instead of replying to the questions, as if he were 
transformed into a phonograph. He may be made to 
sing, scream, cough or sneeze; he will repeat words 
uttered in languages unknown to him, with an exact- 
ness which is often surprising. Some subjects also retain 
tunes, and may be made to sing a musical air; if a 
vibrating tuning-fork is applied to the ear, the subject 
reproduces the sound, with its pitch and quality. In 
this state also the subject automatically imitates all 
the gestures of the experimenter (Charcot). 
Marie and Azoulay* have measured the period of 
reaction in echolalia. They adopted the following 
arrangement. A telephone was applied to the subject’s 
ear, and his mouth was provided with a mouthpiece, so 
constructed that when the word “ toe ” was uttered by 
the subject, an electric signal was given by Marey’s 
♦ Soc. de Psychologic, May 18, 1885. SUGGESTIONS OF MOVEMENTS AND OF ACTS, 
285 
tambour. At the other end the fixed telephone was 
inserted in a circuit which included an electric contact 
and one of Deprez’s signals, also registering on the same 
cylinder. Thus, when the electric contact took place, 
a sound in the telephone and a signal on the cylinder 
were simultaneously produced. The subject said “toe,” 
whenever he heard the sound in the telephone, so as to 
give the period of personal reaction, as far as his auditory 
impressions were concerned. 
In the waking state this period was f595 of a second. 
In the somnambulist state „ 
In echolalia T3JS „ 
Acts only differ from movements in their complexity. 
Acts consist of associated movements, adapted by the 
subject to the end which he has in view. We wish 
to study these acts in the phase of somnambulism. 
Verbal suggestion is the process usually employed, 
Heidenhain observed that when he said to his hypnotized 
brother, “ If I had a watch, I should like to see what 
o’clock it is,” no effects ensued. But if he said, “ Show 
me your watch,” the order was at once obeyed. We 
have been successful in giving such orders in writing. 
As soon as the subject read the words: “I am going to 
rise,” he arose. In short, the only necessary condition is 
that the image of the act in question should be distinctly 
formed in the subject’s mind. 
To give an idea of the mathematical precision with 
which the suggested act is executed on awaking, one of 
the present writers performed the following experiment. 286 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
We showed to the somnambulist an imaginary spot on a 
smooth surface, which we could only afterwards ascertain 
by means of careful measurement, and we ordered her 
to stick a penknife into this spot when she awoke. She 
executed the order without hesitation and with absolute 
correctness: a criminal act would have been as punctually 
executed.* 
It is interesting to ascertain whether the subject who 
is actuated by an irresistible impulse behaves like an auto- 
maton subsisting on a basis of the past, on his memory 
and habits, or if, on the contrary, the subject is capable 
of reflection and of reasoning like a normal individual. 
This latter is more frequently the case. When care 
is taken to suggest a somewhat complex act, for the 
performance of which some combination is necessary, we 
may observe that the subject invents such combined 
expedients although they had not been suggested to him, 
and this inventive process shows that everything is not 
explained by comparing him to an automaton. For 
instance, it was suggested to a subject that she should 
poison X with a glass of pure water which was 
said to contain poison. The suggestion did not indicate 
in what way the crime was to be committed. The 
subject offered the glass to X , and invited him to 
drink by saying, “Is it not a hot day ? ” (It was in 
summer.) We ordered another subject to steal a pocket- 
handkerchief from one of the persons present. The 
subject was hardly awake when she feigned dizziness, 
and staggering towards X , she fell against him and 
hastily snatched his handkerchief. When a similar theft 
was suggested to a third subject, she approached X , 
* Oil. Fere, Les hypnotiques hysteviques, etc. SUGGESTIONS OF MOVEMENTS AND OF ACTS. 
287 
and abruptly asked him what he had on his hand. While 
X , somewhat startled, looked at his hand, his hand- 
kerchief disappeared. None of these expedients were sug- 
gested, but were derived by the subjects from their own 
resources. These complex phenomena cannot be referred 
to the simple fact that the image of a movement produces 
that movement; such a rudimentary explanation can only 
apply to elementally experiments. 
There are numerous instances of resistance in hypno- 
tized subjects. The order is disregarded, and not executed 
by the subject. The failure may arise from two different 
causes, derived either from the experimenter or from his 
subject. In the former case, as one of the present 
writers has already observed, the promptness and energy 
with which the act is performed depends on the authority 
with which the suggestion is given. When the order is 
given gently and indecisively, the subject awakes in a 
state of mind which it is interesting to study. She is 
uneasy, beset by the fixed idea that she has to do some- 
thing which is absurd or revolting—to embrace a skull, 
for example. She hesitates long, and sometimes even 
expresses her hesitation, saying, “ I must be mad, to wish 
to embrace a skull. It is absurd; Ido not wish to do it, 
and yet it seems impossible to resist.” And eventually 
she does it. It should be added that the personality of 
the experimenter has some share in the efficacy of the 
suggestion; a subject may resist an order given by one 
person, and obey the same order given by another. 
These facts were known to the early magnetizers, and 
they recommended the experimenter to use an authorita- 
tive tone, and the subject to be perfectly submissive. 
At another time the subject’s resistance may be due 288 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
to the nature of the suggested act. This resistance may 
he said to be a survival of the subject’s personality; his 
personal reaction which is not completely destroyed by 
the hypnotic sleep. Such resistance occurs most fre- 
quently in those affected by profound hypnotism, and it 
is more common in some states than in others. We have 
already observed the automatism of the somnambulant 
state is much less absolute than that of catalepsy; the 
cataleptic subject is a machine, the somnambulist is a 
person. The first readily performs all the acts suggested, 
while the second often offers a resistance which may 
become troublesome to the experimenter. 
Many subjects display their honesty by refusing to 
commit the thefts suggested to them. They assign 
various motives for the refusal. Sometimes the subject 
may reply: “ No, I will not steal; lam no thief.” Some- 
times the motive is not so high. Many subjects reply 
to the suggestion by saying frankly, “ Some one will see 
me.” The suggestions of murder may provoke similar 
objections. If Z is armed with a paper-knife, and 
ordered to kill X , she says, “ Why should I do it ? 
He has done me no harm.” But if the experimenter 
insists, this slight scruple may be overcome, and she 
soon says, “If it must be done, I will do it.” On 
awaking, she regards X with a perfidious smile, 
looks about her, and suddenly strikes him with the 
supposed dagger. But neither this subject nor any other 
could be impelled to murder some unspecified person. 
Another of our subjects presented an interesting example 
of invincible resistance. She had been deeply attached 
to a young man, and although she had suffered much 
from him, the passion was not extinct. If the presence SUGGESTIONS OF MOVEMENTS AND OF ACTS. 
289 
of this man was evoked, she instantly displayed signs of 
great distress, and attempted to escape; but it was im- 
possible to induce her to do anything which might he 
injurious to him whose victim she had been. Yet she 
automatically obeyed every other command. Another 
subject cannot be induced to repeat a prayer; a second 
will not sing a song which she has composed, reflecting 
on one of the present writers; a third resists the order 
to sign a cheque for a million francs, and will only do so 
for a much smaller sum. 
Some hypnotized persons have the illusion of resist- 
ance, and believe that they can resist if they please. 
These illusions do not occur when the sleep is profound, 
and we have not met with them in our subjects, but 
Eichet has observed them in some cases. He writes; 
“One of my friends, who was drowsy but not quite 
asleep, carefully studied this phenomenon of incapacity, 
combined with the illusion of capacity. When I pre- 
scribed a movement, he always performed it, even 
although he had, before he was magnetized, been deter- 
mined to resist. He found this hard to understand when 
he awoke, and said that he certainly could have resisted, 
only he did not wish to do so. Sometimes he was 
inclined to believe that he was simulating. ‘When I 
am asleep/ he said, ‘I feign automatism, although I 
believe that I might act otherwise. I begin with the 
firm determination not to simulate, but as soon as I am 
asleep it seems that, in spite of myself, simulation 
begins.’ It is evident that this mode of simulating a 
phenomenon does not differ from the real phenomenon. 
The automatism is proved by the simple fact that in all 
good faith persons act like automata. It matters little 290 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
that they believe themselves capable of resistance, since 
as a fact they do not resist. This is what we have to 
consider, not their illusion as to their imaginary power 
of resistance.” * 
Among the psychical phenomena which accompany 
the motor impulse that is suggested, there is perhaps 
none more interesting than the apparent motives which 
the subject assigns to his act. These facts show, as the 
illusion of resistance has already shown, that the subject 
is altogether ignorant of the original source of the im- 
pulse he has received. When the subject awakes, and 
performs the act which was suggested to him during 
somnambulism, he generally supposes it to be sponta- 
neous ; the suggested act, imposed by the will of another, 
seems to him of precisely the same nature as those acts 
which he performs of his own initiative. And again, since 
he is unaware of the true cause of action, the subject in- 
vents a motive, more or less plausible or ingenious, to 
explain to himself the reason of his conduct. Richet 
was the first to make a regular study of this phenome- 
non, and we give some of his observations: “ When 
B was hypnotized, I said to her: ‘On awakening, 
you will take the shade off the lamp.’ I awoke her, and 
when we had conversed for a few minutes, she said: 
‘We do not see well,’ and she took off the shade. Another 
time I said to B , ‘ When you awake, you will put 
a good deal of sugar in your tea.’ I awoke her, tea was 
served, and she filled her cup with sugar. Some one 
asked what she was about. ‘I am putting in the sugar.’ 
‘ But you put in too much.’—‘ Really! that is a pity.’ 
And she continued to put it in. Then she said, on finding 
* liicbet, L’homme et Vintelligence. SUGGESTIONS OF MOVEMENTS AND OF ACTS. 
291 
the tea undrinkable: ' What would you have ? It was 
a stupid thing to do; but have you never done anything 
stupid ? ’ ” * 
An analogous observation was made by one of the 
present writers. Together with M. B , whose first 
visit to the Salpetriere was made on that day, we per- 
formed some hypnotic experiments on one of Charcot’s 
hystero-epileptic patients. When the subject was in a 
state of somnambulism, I ordered her on awakening to 
stab M. B with the pasteboard knife I put into her 
hand. As soon as she awoke, she rushed towards him 
and struck him in the region of the heart. M. B 
feigned to fall down. I then asked the subject why 
she had killed this man. She looked at him fixedly 
for a moment, and then replied with an expression 
of ferocity, “He is an old villain, and wished to insult 
me.” f 
It is evident that there was in this case no sub- 
stantial motive for the crime, nor had any motive been 
suggested to her. When the crime was accomplished, 
the subject hesitated for a moment before assigning a 
motive; her conscience was at fault, and she questioned 
the outward aspect of her victim. No great power of 
observation was necessary in order to note M. B ’s 
sprightly expression of countenance, and this was enough 
to supply the answer. He had not struck nor robbed 
her, and since there was no other reason for stabbing 
him, an insult must have been the cause, since she would 
not have done such a thing without a reason. It must 
* Kid iet, La Me moire et la personnalile dans It somnambulisme (jßevue 
Philosophique, March, 1882). 
t Ibid. 292 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
be remembered that epileptic subjects, when they have 
involuntarily committed a crime may, like the subjects 
of suggestion, not only admit their guilt, but’explain it 
by more or less rational motives. This is only another 
proof that experiments in hypnotism are valuable in the 
treatment of mental diseases.* We may add that a 
suggested impulse resembles the irresistible impulses of 
some insane persons in two important features: the 
subject’s anguish when he is restrained from accomplish- 
ing the act, and his relief when it is accomplished. 
Suggestions which are not to be at once acted upon are 
possible in the case of acts as well as of hallucinations. 
Eichet was the first to call attention to these experi- 
ments. f “ When B was hypnotized,” he writes, “ I 
said to her: ‘You will come here on a given day and at 
a given hour.’ When she awoke she had forgotten these 
words, and she asked when I wished to see her again. 
I said: ‘ Whenever you can come; any day next week.’ 
—‘ At what o’clock ? ’—‘ Whenever you please.’ And she 
came regularly, with surprising punctuality, at the date 
and time indicated by the suggestion. This phenomenon 
sometimes leads to absurd consequences. A—— arrived 
one day at the hour agreed upon during hypnotism, and 
the first thing she said was: ‘ I do not know why I 
came. The weather is horrible, and I had visitors. I 
had to run to get here in time, and I cannot stay. 
I must go back in a few moments. It is absurd, since 
I do not understand why I came. Is this another 
phenomenon of magnetism ? ’ ” 
* Fere, Note pour servir a Vhistoire des actcs impulsifs des epileptiques 
{Revue de Medicine, 1885). 
t Revue Fhilosophique, March, 1888. SUGGESTIONS OF MOVEMENTS AND OF ACTS. 
293 
These experiments give rise to the same difficulties 
as the hallucinations which occur at a fixed date, and we 
need not go over the question again. The only point 
peculiar to suggestions of command is that up to the 
moment which has been fixed, the subject does not perform 
the act enjoined, even when led up to it and reminded of 
the order. Suppose that a subject is told that at five 
o’clock on the following day he will read page 8 of this 
book. On awaking, the book is presented to him, open 
at the page just indicated, but it suggests nothing to him. 
The suggestion is only realized at the given hour, and 
cannot be realized until that hour arrives.* 
It cannot be denied that all these facts have disquiet- 
ing consequences with respect to the existence of free- 
will. Psychologists of the spiritualist school have long 
regarded the sense of liberty with which we all perform 
a voluntary act as a proof of free-will. The history of 
suggested impulses show what is the value of this sub- 
jective sense, which has been exalted into an objective 
proof, and which is perhaps only an illusion. Philo- 
sophers will have to ask themselves what confidence can 
be placed in what Leibnitz termed “ the lively internal 
sense of freedom,” since this sense may be so greatly 
deceived. Spinoza’s profound remark on this subject 
must be remembered; “ The consciousness of free-will 
is only ignorance of the causes of our acts.” It must be 
admitted that these words are perfectly applicable to 
the acts produced by hypnotic suggestion; the subject 
believes himself to act freely, beiause he has forgotten 
the suggestion by which he is impelled. It may be asked 
whether we can reason from a hypnotic patient to a man 
* Beaunis, Le Somnamhulisme provoque, p. 57. Bailliere, 1886. 294 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
of sane and normal mind. Some philosophers may 
accept this as a mode of escape, and we cannot go more 
deeply into the question. But we think that at any rate 
the experience of hypnotism proves one important fact, 
that the testimony of our inner consciousness is not 
infallible. 
We have not yet dwelt upon the form in which the 
suggestion is given. For the most part the act to be 
performed is simply indicated: “ When you awake you 
will clap your hands.” The wish to perform the act 
may also be suggested. “You are very angry with 
X , and when you awake, you intend to strike him.” 
A suggestion of incapacity may also be substituted for 
the suggestion of will; “I order you to strike X , 
and however much you resist, you will be obliged to 
obey.” In all these cases the result is the same, and the 
act suggested is performed. From the psychical point of 
view there is, however, a wide difference between the 
agent who performs an action because he wishes it, and 
the agent who obeys the irresistible will of another 
person. Yet hypnotism shows that this difference is 
merely superficial. In both cases there is what may be 
called in psychological terms the same impulse, and in 
physiological terms the same dynamic state of the motor 
centres. We were confronted with a similar fact in 
the study of hallucinations. Hallucination, memory, and 
sensation, as we then observed, are clearly founded on 
the same physiological act, which takes place in the 
same region of the cerebrum. They are only distin- 
guished by the secondary states of consciousness which 
accompany the formation of the image. In memory, this 
state consists in the reasoning which localizes the image SUGGESTIONS OF MOVEMENTS AND OF ACTS. 
295 
in the past. In hallucination and in sensation, these 
states consist in the reasoning which localizes the image 
in the external world. But these localizations in time 
and space are superadded acts, which are not essential 
and are often absent. We believe that it is the same 
with volition. The impulse is the fundamental fact, 
around which may be grouped the secondary states of 
consciousness which make the impulse a voluntary or 
involuntary act, or which assign to it a given motive. 
These are accessory and superadded phenomena, not 
integral parts of the occurrence. 
Finally, we must indicate the relation which exists 
between cataleptic attitudes and the attitudes produced 
by a suggestion given during somnambulism. By sug- 
gestion a subject may be induced to maintain a given 
attitude for some time, as he does during catalepsy. 
This retention of attitudes under the influence of an 
idea cannot last indefinitely; its duration depends upon 
many circumstances, and chiefly upon the muscular 
strength of the subject, and on the form of the sug- 
gestion. If the subject is merely ordered to keep his 
arm horizontally extended, the arm soon begins to 
tremble, and respiration becomes irregular. In one 
debilitated subject the trembling was very marked, and 
the arm dropped in two minutes. But if this subject 
was told that her arm was made of wood, then the ex- 
tended arm did not precisely tremble, but was affected 
by slow oscillations which moved the whole limb, and 
it only dropped at the end of three minutes. Con- 
sequently the attitudes imposed on our subjects by 
suggestion differ from those impressed upon them during 
catalepsy, a difference which proves that the catalepsy 296 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
of these subjects is not a state produced by suggestion. 
But we do not wish to assert that by subjecting patients 
to repeated experiments in suggestion, it might not be 
possible to give them attitudes resembling those of true 
catalepsy. 
We have submitted to the action of the magnet the 
unilateral form of the acts and movements suggested 
during hypnotism, and we have ascertained that these 
unilateral phenomena may be transferred like halluci- 
nations, and other physical symptoms of hypnotism,* 
After hypnotizing one of our subjects, we placed a 
bust of Gall on a table standing near. We then sug- 
gested that she should make a long nose at the bust 
with her left hand. A magnet was placed close to her 
right hand. On awaking, the subject, as soon as she 
saw the bust, made a long nose at it with her left 
hand; after the lapse of a few seconds she began again, 
and repeated the gesture fourteen times, always with 
the left hand. The latter movements were more faintly 
executed, and the gesture was not fully carried out; she 
only raised her hand as high as her mouth, without 
extending the fingers. A slight tremulous motion then 
began in the right hand, and the left hand remained 
still. The subject appeared to be uneasy, and turned 
her head from one side to another; she addressed the 
bust, saying: “ How offensive that man is! ” She 
scratched her ear with the right hand and then began 
a series of the same gestures as before with that hand, 
* Bevue Vliilosopluque, January and March, ISBS. SUGGESTIONS OF MOVEMENTS AND OF ACTS. 
297 
which went on for ten minutes. She admitted that 
it was absurd to make such gestures, yet if she paused 
for an instant, it was only necessary for the experi- 
menter to make a long nose at the bust to cause her to 
resume them. We withdrew the magnet, and the action 
was then transferred to the left hand, with the same 
characteristics as before. We gave the subject a piece 
of work to employ her hands, but she laid it down at 
regular intervals of three or four seconds, in order to 
make a long nose. From time to time she complained of 
pain, which oscillated from one side of the head to the 
other. 
This is an instance of a transferred act, which was 
suggested during somnambulism, and yet had all the 
appearance of being spontaneous. The subject invented 
specious reasons to explain her conduct; she said that 
the bust was offensive, and believed that she made a 
long nose at it for this reason. As we have observed, 
when she paused, it was only necessary to imitate the 
gesture in order to re-charge the subject, and make her 
resume the insult. This proves the force of example, 
or rather, the influence of the representation of the 
movement on the movement. 
The ensuing experiment defines the result of the 
transference, and shows that the transferred act is sym- 
metrical with the suggested act. We impressed on a 
hypnotized subject the idea of setting down figures in 
the ordinary way, with her right hand, and at the same 
time a magnet was concealed near her left hand. On 
awaking, she wrote as far as the figure 12 with her 
right hand, then she hesitated, changed the pen to her 
left hand, and went on writing. The figures she set 298 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
down were correct when seen in a mirror, so that the 
movements executed with the left hand were sym- 
metrical with those made with the right hand. The 
magnet had therefore transferred the action. It should 
be observed that while she was writing with the left 
hand, she was unable to use the right; she was as it 
were left-handed with her right hand. 
Fig. 13.—Experiment on June 16,1884. Magnetic transfer of impulse 
to write. 
Fig. 13 represents the first experiment of the transfer 
of writing. These figures were set down with the left 
hand. Only the three first figures are reversed. 
Fig. 14.—Experiment of November 29, 1884. Magnetic transfer 
of impulse of writing. 
Fig. 14 represents a subsequent experiment. The 
subject had improved; the first line of figures was 
written with the right hand, and that below with the 
left, set down from left to right. The figure 7is absent, 
because it had been suppressed by suggestion in a 
previous experiment. The reversed waiting produced 
by the magnet demands attention. This phenomenon SUGGESTIONS OF MOVEMENTS AND OF ACTS. 
299 
is due to the fact that the magnet has transferred the 
impulse to set down figures from right to left and 
reversed writing is the normal writing of the left hand. 
This fact has been proved by many experiments. 
The transfer of verbal impulse, which is in fact only 
a variety of the motor impulse, may also be effected. 
We suggested to a subject that she should count aloud, 
up to 100. She began to count as soon as she awoke. 
A ten-forked magnet was placed near her right arm. 
When she got to 72 she paused, hesitated, could not 
go on counting, and at the end of a minute she was 
unable to speak at all. Yet she could move her tongue, 
and understand what was said to her. After ten minutes 
had elapsed, the magnet was applied to her left side ; in 
about two minutes the left arm began to tremble and 
the power of speech returned. 
Finally, let us note the transfer of resolutions, that is, 
of proposed, but unfulfilled acts. We said to X 
when under somnambulism : “ Here is the key of the 
wardrobe at the end of the room. When we offer you 
the key, you will take it in your right hand ; you will 
open the drawer, take out a box, close the drawer, and 
finally give the box to B ; all with the right hand.” 
On awaking the subject, a magnet was placed near her 
right fore-arm. After a few moments X complained 
of pain in the right parietal region; pain which traversed 
the head and passed into the same region on the left. A 
minute afterwards we offered her the key; she took it 
in her left hand, walked to the wardrobe and attempted 
to open it with her right hand, but was unable to do so. 
She had recourse to her left hand in order to open the 
drawer, and she went through the same process before 300 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
taking the box; she alternately extended the right and 
left hand, and finally made use of the latter. She closed 
the drawer, after the same hesitation with the left hand, 
came back with the box, stood before B , and said, 
“ Here is the box, sir,” and offered it to him with her 
left hand. 
We repeated this experiment a second time, allowing 
five minutes to intervene before presenting the key, so 
that the transfer might be completely effected. In this 
case the subject took the key in her left hand without 
the slightest hesitation, she opened the drawer, took out 
the box, closed the drawer and gave the box to B 
without any attempt to use the right hand. 
We have here a peculiar kind of transfer. There is a 
resolution to perform an act, which is in some sense 
present in the subject’s cerebral cells. This virtual act 
is susceptible of transference, precisely like an act which 
is actually accomplished, and this clearly shows that it 
has likewise a material substratum. We should also 
observe the phenomenon of pain which accompanies the 
transfer • a pain which is not diffused but local, and 
according to the theories of cranio-cerebral topography 
already established by one of the present writers, the 
pain is localized in the ascending frontal and parietal 
convolutions, in the motor centres of the limbs. It will 
be remembered that the pain which accompanies the 
transfer of an act has the same localization. This resem- 
blance seems to show that the resolution to perform an 
act with a given limb, with the right arm for example, 
corresponds with a physiological process which has the 
same site as the movement of the arm. The potential 
act—and a resolution to act is nothing else—seems to SUGGESTIONS OF MOVEMENTS AND OF ACTS. 
301 
have the same cerebral centre as the act which is really 
performed. It must be understood that we give this 
interpretation with all reserve, and that it is merely an 
hypothesis. 
Finally, the magnet exerts its special action on 
spontaneous phenomena, which have not merely the 
appearance of being freely displayed, but are really 
voluntary, in the ordinary sense of the word. In fact 
transference may be effected without the hypnotic sleep 
or suggestion. The subject is merely requested to per- 
form a given act, and the application of the magnet will 
compel him to perform a second act, symmetrical with 
the former. We give the experiment without further 
comment. 
X was perfectly awake, and had not been hyp- 
notized for several days. We begged her to rest her 
right elbow on the table, close to a concealed magnet. 
She asked the reason, and we made the pretext of a wish 
to take her portrait, to which she agreed. After two or 
three minutes, she brought her right arm close to her 
body, saying that she was tired and that her arm was 
numb. She seemed uncertain for a moment, and looked 
to the right and left. We begged her to resume her 
position, and she said she had forgotten what it was ; in 
another minute she rested her left elbow on a chair she 
had drawn up, in a position symmetrical to the former 
one. When the magnet was withdrawn, consecutive 
oscillations were observed. 
The magnet will likewise effect a bilateral act: the 
result differs according to the simply automatic character 
of this act, or its correspondence with the emotional 
state; in the former case it produces what we have 302 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
called a motor polarization, and in the second case an 
emotional polarization. 
We first give an example of motor polarization. The 
idea is suggested to a subject that he should move both 
his hands as if rolling a ball. While he is continuing 
O O 
this action, a magnet is brought close to the nape of the 
neck. After a while both hands begin to tremble; the 
subject tries to roll his fingers without being able to do 
so, and seems at a loss what to do. The suggested im- 
-3 O o 
pulse is succeeded by a corresponding paralysis. Many 
other experiments might be cited, in which the impulse 
is likewise changed into paralysis. 
When motor polarization is compared with sensory 
polarization, it will be seen that they are at once 
alike and unlike. When the vision of the colour red 
is polarized, three effects are produced : suppression of 
this vision, paralysis, as far as red is concerned, and 
the subjective consciousness of the complementary 
colour, green. When an automatic movement is polarized 
the two effects of suppression and of paralysis are 
indeed produced, but the production of an inverse, com- 
plementary phenomenon corresponding with the colour 
green, appears to be absent. This gap is more apparent 
than real, and we shall presently attempt to fill it. 
We must now give an instance of emotional polari- 
zation. We impressed the idea on a hypnotized subject 
that she would on awaking feel a desire to strike F . 
A magnet was placed near her right foot. As soon as 
she awoke, she looked uneasily atF •, got up suddenly, 
and tried to give him a slap which he had just time to 
ward off. “I do not know why,” she said passionately, 
“ but I feel a desire to strike him,” and indeed she tried SUGGESTIONS OF MOVEMENTS AND OF ACTS. 
303 
hard to do so. In another moment her countenance 
changed, she assumed a gentle and supplicating ex- 
pression, threw herself on the experimenter, saying, “ I 
want to embrace him,” and it was necessary to use force 
to restrain her impulse. Consecutive oscillations were 
then observed. 
In this last experiment, the magnet directly polarized 
the suggested emotion, which in its transformation led 
to a fresh series of acts. This is an emotional, not a 
motor polarization, a distinction which should be clearly 
understood. The magnet, if it acted solely on a motor 
phenomenon, such as the act of striking, would not 
substitute for it phenomena of another order, such as the 
act of embracing: for the opposition of these two acts is 
due to the difference in the emotion they express, and 
not to the difference in their motor character. The state 
of emotion is therefore the pivot on which the experi- 
ment turns. 
The analysis of this emotional polarization will show 
that it consists of the three elements mentioned above : 
suppression, paralysis, and manifestation of the converse 
state. When we compare these facts with those ob- 
tained from the polarization of colours, we shall see that 
there are complementary emotions, just as there are com- 
plementary colours.* 
* For further details, see Revue Fhilosoplmiue, March, 1885. Bianchi 
and Sommer (Archivio di psichiatria, scienze penali, etc., vol. vii. p. 387; 
1886) were successful in reproducing some of the phenomena of psychical 
polarization which were discovered by the present writers. 304 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
CHAPTER XT. 
PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION : ANESTHESIA. 
The study of the different forms of paralysis by sugges- 
tion opens a perfectly new horizon to psychology, which 
is not bound by the mental laws hitherto established, 
and refuses to be included within the too restricted limits 
of its classification. If you consult one of the classic 
works on psychology, you will find in it the three great 
divisions of emotion, intelligence, and will, and in none 
of these does psychical paralysis find a place. In fact 
the very name of psychical pai’alysis is new. Up to this 
time it has only been used metaphorically, and the notion 
of this fact has only been slightly indicated by writers 
on the subject. The experimental method employed in 
hypnotism was necessary to reveal the existence and 
extent of paralysis by suggestion. We are now aware 
that it may affect all the parts of the psychical mechanism, 
sensation, imagination, memory, reason, will, motor power, 
etc.; it is, in a word, co-extensive with the intelligence. 
Classical psychology, which does not mention psychical 
paralysis, omits half the history of the mind: it describes 
the active, impulsive forms of the intelligence, without 
taking note of the passive, negative forms, which are 
equally numerous; it represents that side of the mind PAKALYSIS BY SUGGESTION; ANAESTHESIA. 
305 
on which the light falls, without taking note of the side 
in shadow. 
The course of this work has repeatedly brought us 
in contact with paralysis by suggestion. We have seen 
that when an sesthesiogen acts upon a bilateral halluci- 
nation, the latter is destroyed, and that it is succeeded by 
a corresponding anaesthesia. So, again, when a bilateral 
movement is subjected to magnetic action, the corre- 
sponding paralysis is produced. It may also be observed 
that when suggestion puts an end to an hallucination or 
ah act, these active phenomena give place on disappear- 
ing to a paralysis representing their negative form. • We 
have now to consider these forms of paralysis, as they 
are displayed in consequence of a direct suggestion. 
Sensibility can be destroyed by suggestion. This 
fact of anaesthesia by suggestion has long been known, 
and has sometimes been employed in cases of surgical 
operations. One of the present writers was able, by 
means of suggestion, to open an abcess, seated in the 
axilla, without causing pain. There is nothing more 
surprising than this power of destroying pain by sug- 
gestion. The anaesthesia may be such as to lead the 
subject to believe that the limb is gone; it may affect, 
not merely the general sensibility of the body but the 
special senses. It would be easy to render some subjects 
perfectly blind by suggestion, but the operator must 
prudently refrain from such serious experiments, lest he 
should be unable to put an end to their results. 
We propose to make a special study of systematic 
anaesthesia, erroneously termed by Bernheim and some 
other writers negative hallucinations. 
Since the definition of systematic anaesthesia presents 306 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
pedal difficulties, it seems well to defer it, and pro- 
visionally to substitute for it as complete a description 
as possible. We suggested to a hypnotized subject that 
when she awoke she would be unable to see F , but 
that she would continue to hear his voice. When she 
awoke, F placed himself before her, but she did not 
look at him, and when he extended his hand, there was 
no corresponding gesture on her side. She remained 
quietly seated in the chair in which she had been sleep- 
ing, and we sat waiting beside her. After a while, the 
subject expressed surprise at no longer seeing F , 
who had been in the laboratory, and she asked what had 
become of him. We replied, “He has gone out; you 
may return to your room.” F placed himself before 
the door. The subject arose, said good morning, and 
went towards it. Just as she was about to lay hold of 
the handle, she knocked up against F , whom she 
was unable to see. This unexpected shock made her 
start; she tried to go on again, but on encountering the 
same invisible and inexplicable resistance, she began to 
be afraid, and refused to go near the door. 
We next took up a hat, and showed it to the subject. 
She saw it quite well, and touched it in order to satisfy 
herself that it was really there. We then placed it on 
F ’s head, and words cannot express the subject’s 
surprise, since it appeared to her that the hat was 
suspended in the air. Her surprise was at its height 
when F took off the hat and saluted her with it 
several times; she saw the hat, without any support, 
describing curves in the air. She declared that it was 
de la physique, and supposed that the hat was suspended 
by a string; she even got upon a chair to try and touch PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION: ANESTHESIA. 
307 
this string, which she was unable to find. We then took 
a cloak and handed it to F , who put it on. The 
subject looked at it fixedly with a bewildered air, since 
she saw it moving about and assuming the form of a 
person. “It is,” she said, “ like a hollow puppet.” At 
our command the furniture was moved about and noisily 
rolled from one end of the room to the other—they were, 
in fact, displaced by the invisible F ; the tables and 
chairs were overturned, and then the chaos was succeeded 
by order. The different objects were replaced, the dis- 
jointed bones of a skull, which had been scattered on the 
floor were joined together again; a purse opened of itself, 
and gold and silver coins fell from it. 
We then induced the subject to sit down again, and 
we placed ourselves beside her chair, in order to subject 
her to experiments of a quieter nature. We shall see 
how she managed to explain certain facts, rendered 
inexplicable by her inability to see F . That gentle- 
man placed himself behind her, and while she was 
quietly conversing with us, he touched her nose, cheeks, 
forehead, or chin. Each time the subject put her hand 
to her face in a natural way, and without any appear- 
ance of alarm. We asked why she put her hand to 
her face, and she replied that it itched, or was painful, 
and she therefore scratched it. Her tranquil assurance 
was extremely curious. We begged her to strike out 
violently into space, and at the moment she raised her 
arm it was arrested by F . We asked what was the 
matter, and she replied that her arm was affected by 
cramp. She was, therefore, never at a loss; she invariably 
explained everything, however insufficient the explana- 
tion might be. This need of explanation, which exists ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
in the normal state, is carried to excess in the experi- 
ments produced by suggestion. 
Such are the main lines of the phenomenon of 
systematic anaesthesia, and it may be well to insist on 
some points of this description. With respect to the 
extent of the systematic anaesthesia, it should be said 
that when a small object, such as a pencil, is rendered 
invisible, it is this object alone which the subject is 
unable to see. The limits of anaesthesia are fixed, its 
extent invariable. This is not the case when the per- 
ception of a more complex object is destroyed; the 
anaesthesia then affects all which is indirectly connected 
with the object. If suggestion has rendered a purse in- 
visible, the subject may fail to see the coins which issue 
from it. When it is a person who is rendered invisible, 
the subject cannot see the person, nor the clothes he 
wears, nor—which is more curious—the things he takes 
out of his pocket, a handkerchief, watch, or key. But 
these results are very variable, and differ with diffe- 
rent subjects. Although the perception of the object is 
destroyed, it cannot be said to be as though it were non- 
existent, for its presence continues to be displayed by 
certain signs. For instance, when it has been suggested 
to the subject that he cannot see the light, the pupils 
continue to react when his eyes are turned to the 
window. So, again, we have seen that when suggestion 
has rendered the magnet invisible, transference and pola- 
rization can be effected in some subjects. And again, a 
person rendered invisible by suggestion may hypnotize 
a subject by means of passes. Moreover, the suppressed 
object may continue to act on the conscious sensibility 
of the subject. Suppose that a scent-bottle is rendered PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION : ANAESTHESIA. 
309 
invisible, and the subject is told: “You will no longer 
see this bottle; your fingers will not feel it; when you 
strike it, it will not sound; it will have no existence for 
you.” The subject receives the scent-bottle on awaking, 
and it is true that he does not see it, nor feel its contact. 
But an intelligent subject will soon perceive that there 
is something in his hands, and be conscious of resistance 
when he tries to put them together. One of our subjects, 
after studying the nature of this resistance, came to the 
conclusion that the object was round, and this offers a 
curious analysis of the sense of touch, and of the muscular 
sense. 
In order to complete the description, we should 
ascertain whether the object which has become invisible 
conceals what is placed behind it. This is sometimes 
the case. If F puts on a pince-nez when he is 
invisible, and then turns his back on the subject, she 
can no longer see the pince-nez. But generally the 
invisible object does not prevent the subject from seeing 
the things beyond it in the same line of vision. It does 
not cause an apparent gap in the field of vision. The 
subject believes that he sees the hidden object as well as 
the rest. When F stands before the door, the subject 
maintains that she still sees its handle, and will try to 
take hold of it. It is probable that she spontaneously 
creates an hallucination in order to fill up the gap which 
the invisible object has produced in her field of vision. 
This effect of auto-suggestion recalls a well-known 
physiological fact—the normal existence in the field of 
vision of a gap or blind spot, corresponding with the 
entrance of the optic nerve. The existence of this spot is 
only ascertained by means of experiments, since it is filled ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
up unconsciously during normal vision. It is scarcely 
necessary to add that, in spite of appearances to the 
contrary, the invisible object really acts as a screen, and 
that the subject cannot see what is on the other side of 
it. If we stand behind F when he is invisible, the 
subject maintains that she can still see us, but she cannot 
accurately describe our gestures. 
We must conclude this superficial description of 
systematic anaesthesia by proving its reality, since all 
the preceding phenomena might result from adroit simu- 
lation; they do not include any of the material, objective 
characteristics which completely exclude the suspicion of 
fraud. But there is a mode of ascertaining the good faith 
of the subject. We know that the deafening noise of 
a Chinese gong produces catalepsy in some hypnotic 
subjects, and among these must be included two who 
were submitted to our observation. During the hypnotic 
sleep we impressed upon them the idea that they would 
no longer see the gong nor its sounder on awaking, and 
that they would be unable to hear its noise. In other 
words, we suggested a systematic anaesthesia, of which 
the gong was the object. When they awoke, and the 
maintenance of the anaesthesia had been ascertained, the 
gong was brought close to their ears, which they per- 
mitted without displaying the terror it habitually excited, 
and it was violently sounded. No catalepsy ensued, 
and in each case the subject did not fiinch. She made a 
slight movement of surprise, and said that she had heard 
something like a gust of wind in the chimney. The 
counter-proof was immediately afforded by again hypno- 
tizing the subject and restoring to her the perception of the 
instrument, A much fainter stroke then threw her into PAKALYSIS BY SUGGESTION; ANAESTHESIA. 
311 
a profound catalepsy. In a fresh experiment we destroyed 
the existence of the gong, and for eleven successive days 
its effects were absolutely negative, after which the effect 
of the suggestion spontaneously disappeared. 
Another experiment indicates that these forms of 
anaesthesia are genuine. One of our subjects had, on 
each side of the mammary regions, an hysterogenic 
zone, pressure on which immediately produced an 
hysterical attack. One of the present writers rendered 
himself invisible by suggestion, and at the same time 
destroyed the sensation of contact on his approach. A 
strong pressure of the hysterogenic zones then failed 
to produce any attack in the subject, nor did she make 
any effort to repel the experimenter; she only complained 
of a vague sense of oppression. On the other hand, she 
recoiled in terror when another person put his hand 
near these zones. 
The researches we have made into the duration of 
systematic anaesthesia are still incomplete. It is often 
maintained for several days. In the case of our hysterical 
patients, the effect of the suggestion is destroyed by an 
attack. We have, however, repeatedly observed instances 
of anaesthesia with reference to small objects, such as 
watches, pencils, etc., which lasted for several months. 
Their mode of disappearance is remarkable. When a 
person has been rendered invisible, the subject does not 
see nor recognize him, but as time goes on the anaesthesia 
gradually becomes fainter. It is a curious fact that when 
the subject begins to see the person in question, she fails 
to recognize him, and the act of recognition only occurs 
later, by a species of ascendant evolution. Thus F , 
who was the object of experiment in the observations 312 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM 
we have cited, was visible to the subject after the lapse 
of three or four days, but she did not recognize him : 
she took him for a stranger who had come to see the 
Salpetriere. We have noticed elsewhere the physio- 
logical importance of these phenomena.* 
We recently observed the converse of the preceding 
fact in the case of a subject named C , who was 
subjected to an experiment in anaesthesia for the first 
time. It was suggested to her during somnambulism 
that when she awoke she would no longer see D , 
one of the persons present, whose name she knew. When 
she awoke she . saw, but did not recognize him, and at 
the same time she had forgotten her own name and 
identity. This subject had received, a few minutes before, 
the hallucination of D ’s portrait on a blank card. 
She was now made to look at the card, and after 
repeatedly comparing the portrait with its original, 
she became able to recognize D . The systematic 
anaesthesia was therefore destroyed by a recollection, 
just as in some cases paralysis may be destroyed by 
recalling the movement to mind. 
It would be an error to suppose that systematic 
anaesthesia consists solely in a sensory disturbance. In 
the case of our subjects we have often found that this 
suggested disturbance readily serves as the point of 
departure for delirium. Thus, we once suggested to an 
hypnotic subject that she would cease to see F , but 
would continue to hear his voice. On awaking the 
O 
subject heard the voice of an invisible person, and looked 
about the room to discover the cause of this singular 
phenomenon, asking us about it with some uneasiness. 
♦ Binet, La psychologic du raisonnement. Paris, ISB6. PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION: ANAESTHESIA. 
313 
We said jestingly, “F is dead, and it is his ghost 
which speaks to you.” The subject is intelligent, and in 
her normal state she would probably have taken the jest 
at its true value; but she was dominated by the sug- 
gestion of anaesthesia, and readily accepted the explana- 
tion. When F spoke again he said that he had 
died the night before, and that his body had been taken 
to the post-mortem room. The subject clasped her hands 
with a sad expression, and asked when he was to be 
buried, as she wished to be present at the religious 
service. “ Poor young man ! ” she said ;“ he was not a 
bad man.” F , wishing to see how far her credulity 
would go, uttered groans, and complained of the autopsy 
of his body which was going on. The scene then became 
tragic, for the emotion of the subject caused her to fall 
backwards in an incipient attack of hysteria, which we 
promptly arrested by ovarian compression. This ex- 
periment shows that when a subject remains under the 
influence of a suggestion after awaking, he has not, 
whatever be the appearances to the contrary, returned 
to his normal state. The suggestion of anaesthesia has 
disturbed the intelligence, and exerts a suspensory action 
on the judgment and on the critical sense. 
In order to understand the nature of systematic 
anaesthesia, it is necessary to compare it with the 
spontaneous phenomena of hysteria, which resemble it. 
We frequently meet with paralysis of the senses in hys- 
terical patients. There is one remarkable characteristic of 
hysterical anaesthesia, whether suggested or spontaneous, 
and this is especially apparent in the anaesthesia with 
respect to colour, or achromatopsia. 
Suppose that the left eye of an hysterical subject 314 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
displays complete achromatopsia, extending to all colours. 
If a square of red is shown to her, while her right eye is 
closed, this square appears to her to be black or grey, 
and she has no conscious perception of red. Yet the red 
ray emitted by the object still exerts its special action 
on the visual centre of the subject, for if she is requested 
to close the right eye and to look fixedly for a moment 
at the red square which appears to her to be grey, she 
will after a while obtain the after-image of a green 
square. Thus the red, which the patient does not see, has 
enabled her to see the complementary colour, green, and, 
in spite of her achromatopsia, the colours produce correct 
after-images. This curious experiment, which was per- 
formed several years ago by Regnard, may be varied in 
many ways. For instance, it has been ascertained that, 
even when the subject is colour-blind, the invisible red, 
when mixed with a visible green, produces white, etc. 
From these facts Regnard drew the probable conclusion 
that hysterical achromatopsia does not, as the theory of 
Helmholtz asserts, result from a lesion of the elements 
of the retina, but from a modification of the centre of 
vision. 
In order to ascertain whether the achromatopsia of 
suggestion displayed the same characteristics as true 
achromatopsia, we made a square of red paper invisible; 
we then requested the subject to look fixedly at its centre, 
and she saw the after-image of a green square. A 
repetition of the experiment with other colours always 
afforded corresponding results.* The mixture of un- 
* We may observe in passing that in this anaesthesia by suggestion, the 
consecutive image retains the form of the actual image ; a red cross pro- 
duces the subjective image of a green cross. On the other hand, in. the PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION : ANAESTHESIA. 
315 
porceived colours produced the same tints as if their 
components were perceptible. In short, we ascertained 
that, notwithstanding their diversity of origin, the charac - 
teristics of suggested and of spontaneous achromatopsia 
were the same. The paralysis was of the same nature. 
It is, therefore, probable that when anaesthesia is suggested 
in the case of colours, the coloured ray reaches and pene- 
trates the sensory centre, since it produces a sensation 
of the complementary colour. Suggested achromatopsia 
is a central, not a peripheral disturbance. 
An experiment of another kind leads to the same 
conclusion. A blank card is shown to the subject, and 
she is told that she will not see what is placed upon it. 
On awaking, the subject’s attention is drawn to a square 
of blue paper, placed upon the card, which, however, still 
appears to her to be blank. Yet it may be ascertained 
that although not consciously perceived by the subject, 
her brain, like a photographic plate, has registered all 
the modifications of the card, and this negative proof 
may subsequently be developed and rendered visible. 
In other words, the subject may receive a conscious recol- 
lection of the blue square laid upon the card. This is most 
easily effected by the magnet. The subject is invited to 
picture to herself the colour of the card, and at first it 
appears to her to be white, but under the influence of 
magnetization the centre of the card becomes darker, and 
she finally declares that she sees on it a small blue square. 
The anaesthesia by suggestion which we are now con- 
case of anaesthesia produced by the application of the magnet, the after- 
image is disfigured; a blank space in the form of a cross, and surrounded 
by green, succeeds to the vision of a red cross. We are ignorant of 
tin causes of these differences. 316 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
sidering displays one important feature—systematization. 
The spontaneous anaesthesia of hysteria is in some sense 
diffuse. When a patient is unable to see the colour red, 
she is unable to see that colour in the case of any object, 
whatever be its form and nature. On the other hand, a 
suggested anaesthesia may easily be produced which 
refers to a single, definite object. For instance, the subject 
may be unable to see one particular cross of red paper, 
while she still sees all the other figures, and even other 
crosses, cut out of the same paper. And again, suggestion 
prevents the subject from seeing X , while all other 
people remain visible to her. 
We wish to insist on the systematic character of 
suggested anaesthesia, since its consequences are singular, 
and we might even say paradoxical. Since suggestion 
only deprives the subject of the perception of a special 
object, it follows that the subject must recognize this 
object in order not to see it. This fact is illustrated by 
an experiment. We took one of ten cards which were 
apparently alike, and said to a somnambulist subject, 
“ When you awake, you will no longer see this card.” 
On awaking, we offered her the ten cards, one after the 
other, and she took each in turn except one, which she 
did not appear to see. It was the one to which we had 
directed her attention, and which we had rendered in- 
visible. She therefore distinguished it from the others 
and recognized it, since she obeyed the suggestion 
which made it invisible. 
It is clear that there is nothing supernatural in this 
recognition of an invisible object, when it is mixed with 
several similar objects. The subject was probably aided 
by some distinctive mark in which it differed from the PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION: ANAESTHESIA. 
317 
others, and this was also the case when she picked out 
of ten cards the one on which suggestion had placed an 
imaginary portrait. There is some analogy between 
these two experiments, since in both cases the optic 
image of the card, with all its slightest details, is photo- 
graphed in the subject’s brain, and serves as a guide to 
her researches. 
It is curious that this recognition of the card, a 
complex and delicate operation, involving a sustained 
effort of attention, should end in a phenomenon of 
anaesthesia. It seems probable that this act of recog- 
nition occurs altogether in the region of unconscious 
vision. This explanation—admitting it to be an ex- 
planation—also applies to the fact that when a person 
who has been rendered invisible takes out his pocket- 
handkerchief, the subject does not see the hand- 
kerchief. If he does not see it, it is clearly because he 
has ascertained that the handkerchief came from the 
pocket of the invisible person. Here, again, we find an 
act of unconscious reasoning, which precedes, prepares, 
and directs the phenomenon of amesthesia. 
It sometimes happens that the attempt to produce 
systematic amesthesia results in a shallower and less 
defined phenomenon, which is, however, interesting, since 
it approximates to the phenomena of normal life. 
On awaking from the hypnotic sleep, six cards were 
placed on the table before X , and she perceived and 
remembered their number. One of the present writers 
took one of them, showed it to her, and asserted that it 
did not exist. After some resistance, she finally admitted 
that his hand was empty. But when she was told to pick 
up the cards and give them back to him in succession, it 318 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
was not always the card which had been rendered in- 
visible which she left upon the table; it was sometimes 
one card, sometimes another. Moreover, if a certain 
number of other cards was added to the six, without 
telling the subject how many they were, she counted 
them all from the first to the last, including the invisible 
card in her enumeration. This experiment seems to show 
that the suggestion made in the waking state had not 
produced in the subject a sensory anaesthesia with 
respect to a given card, but rather the fixed idea that 
there were only five cards upon the table. There was 
not the profound disturbance implied in an error of the 
senses, but it was an error of the reason, and it was 
this fixed idea which unconsciously inclined her to leave 
out one card when she attempted to count them. 
There is something in normal life which closely 
resembles this attenuated form of anaesthesia. The 
preconceived idea that certain objects occupy a certain 
place is a hindrance to seeing them elsewhere, when they 
are displaced. We have often observed this peculiarity. 
If the hand of another happens to have removed an 
object which habitually stands on our study table, we 
look about for it, and may pass over the place in which 
it now stands ten times without perceiving it. Nor is 
this the only point of contact between the strange facts 
of invisibility by suggestion, and the known facts of 
normal life. It should be observed that these effects 
of psychical inhibition are produced in subjects by 
a negative form of suggestion. The experimenter always 
utters a negation, saying, “ You do not see that person, 
you do not feel the contact of my hand.” In other 
words, he impresses on his subjects the conviction that PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION: ANESTHESIA. 
319 
a given object does not exist. It may, therefore, be 
inferred that in the normal state, whenever an individual 
is dominated by the conviction that an object does not 
exist, the conviction renders him blind and deaf. If 
it can be truly said that miracles only appear to those 
who expect them, the converse is also true, and the 
preconceived idea that an object does not exist is a 
hindrance to seeing it. It may also be affirmed that 
every negation is far from being merely an inverted 
assertion, as it has been termed; it probably produces 
in a normal hearer a phenomenon of inhibition which 
is an attenuated form of systematic anaesthesia, just as 
the categorical assertion of a fact produces in a normal 
hearer a phenomenon of excitement which is an 
attenuated form of hallucination. 
Nor, indeed, is a preconceived idea essential to the 
production of effects analogous to anaesthesia. The 
simple fact of attention, which consists in the concentra- 
tion of the mind on a single point, has the result of 
increasing the intensity of that point so as to surround 
it with a zone of anaesthesia. Attention only increases 
the force of certain sensations in proportion as it 
attenuates others. One curious fact unites systematic 
anaesthesia with the negative effects of attention. We 
have seen that an invisible object, such as a square 
of red, may, when looked at with intentness, produce 
an after-image of the same form and of the comple- 
mentary colour ; the object which was invisible in the 
case of direct vision becomes visible in this sort of con- 
secutive vision. It is the same with objects at which 
we gaze without seeing them, since the attention is 
directed elsewhere. Physiologists say that, after look- 320 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
ing at an object, an after-image is sometimes obtained 
in which details are discovered which had escaped the 
direct vision. 
It is difficult to define the nature of systematic 
anesthesia. We believe that the sensations produced 
by invisible objects penetrate to the sensory centre, since 
they produce after-images, and the cerebral seat of these 
images is no longer doubtful.* Moreover, the recognition 
of an invisible card among ten others which resemble 
it show that the subject’s nervous centres had photo- 
graphed all the details of the invisible object, as well as 
all the modifications to which it was subjected during 
the experiment. 
It occurred to Richer to compare the mechanism of 
these phenomena with that of amnesia. We know that 
when memory does not respond to a spontaneous call, 
the material modifications wdfich constitute its physical 
substratum still remain, since the amnesia may be 
transitory, and is curable. Something of the same kind 
occurs in anaesthesia by suggestion ; the material modifi- 
cations corresponding with the perception of the invisible 
object are produced, but they are not accompanied by 
consciousness. It is as if the subject, as soon as he 
perceived the invisible object, immediately forgot it. This 
is, however, only a comparison, not an explanation. 
Nothing more definite can be said, except that 
systematic anaesthesia and other facts of the same class 
must be included in the great group of unconscious 
phenomena, in which they form a fresh class, with dis- 
tinctive features of their own. Whatever be the part 
* With respect to the cerebral seat of consecutive images, see Binet, 
La psychologic du raisonnement, p. 43. PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION: ANAESTHESIA. 
321 
assigned to consciousness, it is clear that the appearance 
of this phenomenon is connected with certain material 
conditions of the nervous centres; the conscious state 
implies different physiological conditions from the un- 
conscious state. It may, therefore, be assumed, that 
suggested anaesthesia does not only destroy the phe- 
nomenon of consciousness, but that it modifies to a 
certain extent the concomitant nervous process. Indeed, 
we cannot understand how a suggestion should modify 
a psychical phenomenon without affecting the nervous 
process on which it is founded. 
We have not yet had occasion to show the action 
of aesthesiogens on suggested anaesthesia; this action 
is curious, since the anaesthesia is destroyed. If, for 
instance, it has been suggested to an hypnotic subject 
that she does not see X , who is standing before her, 
and a magnet is then applied to the back of her head, 
the anaesthesia presently disappears, and X again 
becomes visible. This experiment is the more curious, 
since the magnet also possesses the property of producing 
anaesthesia. Therefore the agent exerts two opposite 
effects, according to circumstances, and it may also be 
observed that when the action is continuous, these opposite 
effects are alternate, and this gives rise to consecutive 
oscillations. 
Systematic anaesthesia is a comparatively simple 
phenomenon, accessible to observation and experiment, 
and for this reason it may serve as an introduction to 
the study of other phenomena of the same order which 
are much more complex. 
Like hallucination and impulse, anaesthesia is a 
phenomenon which affects the peripheral parts of the ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
intelligence, the senses and the movements. On the 
other hand, the complex phenomena connected with it 
are not external, and in some sense belong to interior, 
central psychology; they are seated in a region which 
for the most part eludes direct observation. We wull 
only cite, as an instance of these complex phenomena, 
the failure of memory with respect to a letter, a word, 
or a whole language. This experiment was often per- 
formed by the early magnetizers, and it never failed to 
make a strong impression upon their audience. They 
requested one of those present to come upon the plat- 
form, and after making some passes over him, said 
abruptly in an imperious tone, “You have forgotten 
what your name is.” The person addressed would make 
signs of denying the fact, would attempt to reply, and 
after wearying himself by opening his mouth in fruitless 
efforts, would finally confess that he no longer knew 
what his name was. The general astonishment can be 
imagined. This experimental amnesia appears to be 
allied wdth systematic anaesthesia; it is of the same 
order, with this difference, that it affects the images of 
the memory, instead of the external sensations and 
perceptions. 
Some of our experiments confirm this idea. A few 
days after rendering F invisible, a somewhat curious 
fact was observed. The subject was able to see F ’s 
person, but did not recognize him, nor remember his 
name, although she had been acquainted with him for 
ten years. The suggested sensory anaesthesia had, with- 
out suggestion, spontaneously produced anaesthesia of 
the memory. CHAPTER XII. 
PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION : MOTOR PARALYSIS. 
Motor paralysis by means of suggestion forms one of the 
most interesting and most carefully observed branches 
of hypnotism. We must first devote a few words to the 
history of this form of paralysis, of which the discovery 
is due to clinical science, and not to hypnotism. 
It was in 1869 that Russell Reynolds first noted the 
existence of motor and sensory disturbances, developed 
under the influence of an idea.* The motor disturbance 
sometimes consists in spasms, in ataxic or inco-ordinated 
movements, and more frequently in paralysis which 
affects the upper limbs. Erb gives to these symptoms 
the name of imaginative paraplegia.! 
The type of this paraplegia is afforded by Reynolds’s 
first observation, which concerned a young woman who 
was affected by paraplegia under the following circum- 
stances. She lived alone with her father, who had 
undergone a reverse of fortune, and who became para- 
lytic in consequence of protracted anxiety. She sup- 
* Russell Reynolds, Remarks on Paralysis and other disorders of 
Motion and Sensation, dependent on Idea {Brit. Med. Journal, pp. 378, 835, 
vol. ii., 1869). 
f Erb, Paraplegic durch Mnbildung (Handh. d. Kranlc. d. Nerven- 
system, p. 826, in Ziemssen, vol. xi. part ii., 1878). 324 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
ported tlie household by giving lessons, which involved 
long walks about the town. Influenced by the fatigue 
caused by so much walking, it occurred to her that she 
might herself become paralysed and that their situation 
would then be terrible. Haunted by this idea, she felt 
a growing weakness in her limbs, and after a while was 
O O ' 
quite unable to walk. The pathology of the affection 
was understood by Reynolds, who prescribed a purely 
moral treatment. He finally convinced his patient that 
she was able to walk, and in fact she resumed the 
practice. 
Reynolds reports another remarkable case in which, 
although there was no real want of motor power, there 
was such a failure of motor co-ordination that walking 
became impossible. It was a case of this kind which 
led Charcot to study psychical paralysis, and he applied 
himself to show that the interpretation given by the 
English writer was legitimate. On this occasion Charcot 
again demonstrated the advantage to be derived from 
hypnotism in the experimental study of the phenomena 
which are spontaneously displayed, both in health and 
disease. 
If the idea is impressed on a somnambulist that her 
right arm is paralysed, we see that this limb does in fact 
lose its motor power, and if the suggestion is made with 
that intent, the paralysis is maintained on awaking. 
Charcot has shown that this form of paralysis often dis- 
plays objective characters which approximate to those of 
organic paralysis. 
Moreover, as Bernheim has observed, many subjects 
who have been previously hypnotized may, without 
being hypnotized anew, display in the waking state an PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION; MOTOR PARALYSIS. 
325 
aptitude for the same suggestive phenomena; that is, 
paralysis by suggestion may he produced in some sub- 
jects, sensitive to hypnotism, when in the waking state.* 
Nor is this all. Bottey has confirmed Bernheim’s re- 
searches by showing that in the case of some subjects 
who have never been hypnotized, paralysis may be 
produced by strongly impressing on them the idea that 
they are going to be paralyzed.f We thus come back 
by experiment to Reynolds’s psychical paralysis. 
Charcot, after repeating these various experiments, 
has shown that there is no breach between the somnam- 
bulist, and the subject liable to suggestion, but only 
a gradual transition, which enables us to understand 
psychical paralysis, and which demonstrates its reality. 
The experimenters of the Salpetriere have aimed more 
especially at throwing into relief, according to the 
experimental method indicated ’above, the clinical cha- 
racters of the paralysed limb. It is the more important 
to recognize these clinical characters, since they serve as 
a proof of the genuineness of the experiment, and make 
the nature of this paralysis by an idea in some degree 
intelligible. 
We will now give an account of a case in which one 
of our subjects was paralysed by suggestion, taking care 
to insist on the material phenomena of which we have 
just spoken. The subject was first thrown into a lethargy 
by ocular pressure, and then into somnambulism by 
friction of the scalp. She was then told that her right 
arm was completely paralysed. It was necessary to in- 
sist on this assertion in a determined manner, since the 
* De la suggestion hypnotique, p. 47. 1884. 
t Soc.iete de Biologic, March 15, 1884. 326 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
subject offered resistance; she shook her head, moved 
her arm so as to show that she was able to do so, and 
replied to the experimenter, “ I tell you I am not para- 
lysed.” The experimenter rejoined with unwearied repe- 
tition, “Your arm is paralysed: it is heavy; you cannot 
hold it up, it falls slackly to your side.” In proportion 
to the repetition of these words, the subject moved her 
arm with increasing difficulty. Finally the paralysis 
was absolute, and the subject was altogether incapable 
of moving it. 
This being the case, we said to her; “ This paralysis 
will continue when you awake.” We then awoke her 
by lightly breathing on her eyes. She was much sur- 
prised to find that her arm was paralysed, since her 
mind had retained no recollection of the suggestion made 
during somnambulism. She took up the pendent, para- 
lysed arm with the other hand, and placed it on her lap. 
It may seem surprising that when subjects awake in 
this manner to find themselves affected by a serious or 
revolting complaint, they show hardly any uneasiness. 
Unless a sensation of pain has also been suggested, they 
are rarely troubled by their condition, and they seem to 
be quite easy as to the issue of this affection. But it 
must be remembered that we have to do with hysterical 
patients, who endure with the greatest indifference all 
the sufferings which are the spontaneous result of their 
disease. For instance, they display no impatience if 
their limbs remain contracted for months together, and 
they do not deplore their lot as patients would do who 
are similarly affected in consequence of some organic 
lesion. This is a well-known feature, peculiar to hysteria. 
When we examine the phenomena which are dis- PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION : MOTOR PARALYSIS. 
327 
played by the paralysed limb, we shall first be struck 
by the complete destruction of motor power. The sub- 
ject is incapable of performing the slightest movement. 
When desired to move her arm, she makes futile efforts 
and ineffectual contortions. It sometimes happens that 
when attempting to move the paralysed right arm, the 
subject performs involuntary and unconscious movements 
with the left arm. Besides being unable to raise the 
arm, the subject cannot hold it up, when it is raised by 
the hand of another; as soon as the arm is left to itself, 
it falls back like an inert mass. Its flaccidity is com- 
plete. This motor paralysis is generally accompanied 
by insensibility of the skin, an insensibility which may 
be profound, even if the subject was not anaesthetic 
before the experiment began. The arm may be pricked 
or pinched with impunity, and without producing the 
slightest reaction. If this proof is considered insufficient, 
recourse may be had to electricity, and intense currents 
may be sent through the paralysed arm without inducing 
the subject to complain; she remains perfectly passive. 
With respect to the distribution of the anaesthesia, 
Charcot has recently ascertained that in some subjects 
anaesthesia is exactly coextensive with the paralysed 
region. If only the shoulder joint and its movement 
are paralysed, that region alone is affected by insensi- 
bility ; the arm, the fore-arm, the wrist and fingers 
retain their normal sensibility. If the articulation 
of the shoulder and that of the elbow are paralysed, 
the anaesthesia goes lower, advancing as far as the middle 
of the fore-arm; if the wrist is also paralysed, the 
anaesthesia extends still further, and it finally affects the 
extremities when the fingers have also been paralysed. 328 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
Muscular sensibility is destroyed, as well as the sensi- 
bility to touch and to suffering; that is, the subject is 
unaware of the position occupied by the paralysed 
limb, and of the passive movements communicated to it. 
When the subject’s eyes are closed, she is incapable of 
finding the hand of her paralysed arm with her sound 
hand; in order to do so, she must have recourse to the 
expedient of feeling for her shoulder, and passing her 
hand thence all along the arm to its extremity. When 
not allowed to use this means, the search occupies much 
time, and may even be indefinitely prolonged by with- 
drawing the paralysed hand from the sound hand which 
is seeking for it. 
Conversely, if instead of suggesting the loss of motor 
power, the subject is told that throughout the limb 
there is a loss of cutaneous and sub-cutaneous sensi- 
bility, that her skin is insensible to contact, to pricks, 
etc., the association of symptoms produces more or less 
disorder in the motor functions. In some subjects a 
complete paralysis is produced; in others the effect is 
more superficial, and yet still more curious. The subject 
whose right arm is affected by anaesthesia, is unable, 
when her eyes are closed, to use this arm ; when told 
to put her right hand on her forehead, she executes 
the gesture in question with her left hand. Sight is 
required in order to rectify this confusion between the 
two hands, and the subject makes no mistake when her 
eyes are open, and fixed upon the limb. We need not 
say more of this peculiarity, which is known to patho- 
logists in other connections. 
All the foregoing phenomena are purely subjective; 
there are others which are displayed by external signs. PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION: MOTOR PARALYSIS. 
329 
The paralysed limb is cold, and the sensation of cold 
experienced by the subject may sometimes be verified 
by thermometrical observation. The motor signs must 
also be noted. Motor paralysis is accompanied by an 
exaggeration of the tendon reflex, which can be demon- 
strated by a very simple process of investigation. 
Striking on the tendons at the back of the neck, or of 
the wrist, suffices to produce shocks in the arm which do 
not occur in the normal state. This exaggerated reflex 
action is still more readily displayed in the leg, in which 
percussion of the patellar ligament produces a considerable 
shock (Charcot). This character connects paralysis by 
suggestion with organic paralysis. But, like the spon- 
taneous paralysis of hysteria, paralysis by suggestion 
may present some variations in its symptomatic forms. 
Richer and Gilles de la Tourette performed some 
interesting experiments with respect to the form of the 
muscular shock, by means of Marey’s graphic method. 
They ascertained that during the period of paralysis 
the shock increases, and that it diminishes with the 
return of voluntary movement. In some cases, in 
addition to the increase in the height of the shock, they 
observed the broken and prolonged line of descent, which 
resembled an imperfect tetanisation. We know that 
when a contracture is produced during lethargy by 
the excitement of a nerve branch, or by kneading of 
the muscles, this lethargic contracture presents the 
curious property that it is relaxed and completely de- 
stroyed, when the excitement is applied to the muscles 
which are antagonistic to the contractured muscles. The 
contractures and paralysis produced during somnam- 
bulism or in the waking state do not display the same 330 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
characteristic. If the subject is thrown into a lethargy, 
she maintains the contracture or paralysis which is given 
to her, and the excitement of the antagonist muscles 
produces no effect on this phenomenon. In order to 
make it disappear, recourse must be had to suggestion, 
by which it was produced. 
So far, our study has been confined to the paralysed 
limb, but when a limb is paralysed by suggestion, an 
interesting fact takes place in the limb on the opposite 
side; its strength is increased so as to compensate to a 
certain extent for the paralysis of the other limb. In his 
normal state one of our subjects was requested to grasp 
a dynamometer, with the following result:— 
With the right hand ... ... ... ... 39 
With the left hand ... ... ... ... 27 
paralysed by suggestion. The pressure of the dynamo- 
He was then hypnotized, and his right arm was 
meter afforded the following results : 
With the right hand ... ... ... ... 0 
This result may be explained by saying that the 
inhibition effected on the right side by suggestion 
produced dynamogeny on the left. The simultaneous 
production of inhibition and of dynamogeny in sym- 
metrical points has been repeatedly noted by Brown- 
Sequard in his experiments in vivisection. He writes 
as follows: —“ The diminution and augmentation of the 
power and activity of the nervous system generally, if 
not always, co-exist. The same excitement of a point in 
the nervous system which diffuses itself so as to produce 
the inhibition of a property or activity in certain parts 
With the left hand ... ... ... ... 37 PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION : MOTOR PARALYSIS. 
331 
of the nervous centres, in certain nerves and muscles 
of one half of the body, also produces dynamogeny in 
the corresponding parts of the other half. This occurs 
when the exciting lesion is unilateral. For instance, 
the division of the sciatic nerves generally increases the 
excitability of the motor centres of the cerebral surface 
of the corresponding side, while it diminishes the ex- 
citability of the corresponding parts of the opposite side. 
Analogous, and generally stronger effects are observed 
after the transverse division of a lateral half of the 
spinal cord, and especially of the medulla oblongata, or 
of the pons varolii.” * 
These phenomena seem to show that the artificial 
modification produced in one hemisphere tends to produce 
a modification in the opposite direction in the other. 
There must therefore exist between the two hemispheres, 
or, as it has been said, between the two brains, not only 
a functional independence, but also, under conditions 
which are not yet ascertained, a compensating power 
of supply. It may be remembered that we met with 
similar facts during our study of hallucinations. 
In the foregoing cases we have only spoken of the 
total paralysis which takes possession of the whole limb. 
By a different mode of suggestion the paralysis may be 
restricted to a group of muscles which are habitually 
associated in one movement. The subject may be told 
that she is unable to bend one finger. In this case the 
paralysis is not total but partial, and it is accompanied 
by some interesting facts which do not occur in total 
paralysis, of which the following is an instance. 
* Brown-Sequard, Recherches sur rinhibition et la dynamog&nie, p. 25. 
Paris, 1882. 332 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
We suggested to a subject tliat she would be unable 
to bend her thumb in a way which was indicated to 
her. After a moment, when time had been given for 
effecting the suggested paralysis, we awoke the subject, 
who remembered nothing and had no suspicion of the 
paralysis. We desired her to make a great effort to bend 
her thumb, which she attempted to do, but the converse 
of what was ordered and intended took place, and instead 
of bending the thumb towards the palm of the hand, it 
was forcibly extended. The experiment was carried on 
by herself, and the thumb was contractured in its ex- 
tended position; by degrees the index finger lost the 
power of bending, and this was also the case with the 
middle and third fingers, which were gradually extended, 
and slightly contractured in their extension. Thus it 
appears that when the subject desired to bend her 
thumb, she could only extend it, and the importance of 
this species of motor quid proquo is entitled to a passing 
notice. The experiment may be connected with that of 
systematic anaesthesia. We have seen that when the 
vision of a red square has been destroyed by sugges- 
tion, the fixed gaze at this square enables the subject to 
see the green complementary image. In the experiment 
we are now considering, the paralysis of a group of move- 
ments produced, when the subject wished to execute 
these movements, those which were antagonistic to them. 
Such a movement may be compared to the after-image, 
and the same relation may be said to exist between 
the antagonistic movements as between the comple- 
mentary colours. 
Of this we can cite another proof. It will be 
remembered that the application of the magnet, as well PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION: MOTOR PARALYSIS. 
333 
as suggestion, produces sensory paralysis, but with 
characteristic differences. Thus, under the influence of 
the magnet, the vision of a red cross is changed into the 
vision of a blank cross on a green ground. Suggestion, 
on the other hand, when it destroys the conscious vision 
of a red cross, enables the subject to see a green cross. 
The motor paralysis produced by the magnet differs in 
an analogous way from the motor paralysis produced by 
suggestion. If the subject is told that she can bend her 
thumb, and the flexion movement is then paralysed by 
the application of the magnet, it will be seen that the 
subject is also unable to extend her thumb; she can 
do nothing with it at all. If, on the contrary, suggestion 
has paralysed the flexion, the movement of extension is 
retained. We may say that paralysis by the magnet, 
which includes the two antagonistic movements, is com- 
parable with the blank cross, in which paralysis of the 
two complementary colours occurs, and that paralysis by 
suggestion, which does not affect the antagonistic move- 
ment of extension, is comparable with the green cross, 
which preserves the complementary colour intact. 
Secondary Symptoms. Aphasia.—The course of this 
brief description has enabled us to see that suggestion 
does not merely produce an isolated symptom in a subject, 
but a complete disease. It is, indeed, a remarkable fact, 
that when the suggested symptom is one of a nexus of 
symptoms, the subject of experiment shows a tendency 
to display the whole nexus. For instance, we impressed 
upon one of our hypnotized subjects the idea that 
when she awoke her right arm would be paralysed. 
We were much surprised to find that when she awoke, 
not only her right arm was paralysed, but she was 334 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
unable to utter a word. Her intelligence was not 
affected, and she perfectly understood what was said, but 
the extremity of her tongue was drawn to the left side, 
and moved with difficulty. It was impossible for the 
subject to divine that this coincidence, interesting in 
more than one particular, could occur. This association 
is explained by the vicinity of the motor centres of the 
right arm, and of those for the muscles concerned with 
the production of articulate speech in the cortex of the 
left hemisphere of the cerebrum.* 
So far we have been only concerned with the flaccid 
forms of paralysis. Contractured paralysis may be pro- 
duced by the same process, since it is subject to the same 
laws as flaccid paralysis, and likewise causes an aug- 
mentation of muscular power in the corresponding limb. 
The special feature of suggested contractures consists in 
the possibility of impressing upon them the character of 
systematization which belongs to lethargic contractures. 
We have already observed that during lethargy the 
excitement of a nerve produces the contracture of the 
muscles in connection with it; the excitement of the 
ulnar nerve, where it passes behind the internal condyle, 
produces the well-known ulnar contracture. What is 
effected by mechanical excitement may also be effected 
by suggestion; when the idea is suggested to the subject 
of a pressure exerted at a level with her elbow, an ulnar 
contracture is produced which cannot be distinguished 
from that of lethargy. This experiment may be varied 
by describing a small circle on the lethargic subject’s fore- 
arm, and by pressing the centre of this circle with the 
finger; a certain number of the muscles become contrac- 
* Ch. Fere, Les TTypnotiques, eto. PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION: MOTOR PARALYSIS. 
335 
tured. The subject is then caused to pass from lethargy 
into somnambulism, and is told that on awaking she will 
feel a strong pressure on the centre of the small circle 
which has been described on her fore-arm. When she 
awakes, the subject complains of pain, seated in the spot 
indicated by the suggestion, and her hand soon becomes 
contractured, and reproduces precisely the attitude it had 
assumed during lethargy. This experiment shows that 
the suggested idea of an excitement, the image of a cuta- 
neous excitement, may produce effects as intense and as 
precisely localized as an actual excitement. 
This does not imply that lethargic contracture is a 
contracture produced by suggestion. Suggestion and 
the physical impression constitute two parallel methods, 
and it would be very illogical to refer the method by 
excitement to the method by suggestion, because the 
latter is really derived from the former. 
When once produced, paralysis by suggestion may be 
indefinitely prolonged. We have seen a case in which it 
was maintained for twenty-four hours, and was unmodified 
by natural sleep. The attempt to put an end to it pro- 
voked more resistance than if the paralysis had been 
recent, and there can be no doubt that without such 
intervention, it would have become more intense, and 
more difficult to cure. The usual mode of destroying 
physical paralysis is to suggest the opposite idea of motor 
power; a simple assertion will not suffice, and it is neces- 
sary to insist, and to return to the charge, repeatedly 
telling the subject that she can move the limb if she 
chooses to do so. Under the exciting influence of this 
suggestion, the subject attempts to raise the stiffened arm, 
the power of movement gradually returns to it, and the 336 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
nervous circulation is restored, but some of the objective 
signs of paralysis, such as the exaggeration of the 
tendon reflex, remain for a little while longer. Another 
mode of curing motor paralysis is often quicker and more 
efficacious than suggestion; namely, to represent move- 
ment to the subject, either by actually performing such 
movements before him, or by impressing passive move- 
ments on the paralysed limb. The influence of such 
operations is well shown by the fact that, in the case of 
a healthy subject, the representation of a movement pro- 
duced by one of the methods just indicated is calculated 
to increase the motor power.* It is a still more effectual 
process to induce the subject to move his sound limb, 
and then attempt to imitate these movements with the 
paralysed limb. In this way the subject carries on his 
motor education, at once by the muscular sense and by 
the sense of sight. 
In concluding this clinical study of paralysis by sug- 
gestion, it should be added that the physical charac- 
ters described above are not absolutely constant, and 
have not occurred in the subjects of several experiments. 
But their inconstancy does not affect their value and 
importance. All the foregoing experiments were per- 
formed on typical subjects, that is, on the hystero-epi- 
leptic subjects who display all the characters of profound 
hypnotism. These subjects have the advantage of dis- 
playing, with considerable exaggeration, symptoms which 
are rudimentary or altogether absent in normal subjects. 
From this point of view it may be said that the subjects 
of profound hypnotism constitute analytic cases which 
are eminently adapted for nosographical study. 
* Ch. Fere, Sensation et Mouvement, etc. PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION : MOTOR PARALYSIS. 
337 
Systematic paralysis differs from total paralysis in its 
more complex character. It consists in the loss of special 
and adapted movements. The subject affected by it does 
not completely lose the use of his limb, but he is inca- 
pable of using it to perform a given act, and that act 
only. Thus, the subject may be deprived of the power 
of performing the movements necessary in the action of 
sewing, drawing, writing, smoking, singing, playing on 
the piano, etc., while other movements are not affected. 
The authoritative assertion that the subject will, on 
awaking, be unable to write will, if repeated often 
enough, produce, by a mechanism which we do not yet 
understand, a paralysis of the power of writing, which is 
termed agraphia. 
It is for the experimenter to choose the form which 
the systematic paralysis is to take; it may be varied 
indefinitely, just as the form of hallucinations may be 
indefinitely varied. Suggestion can reproduce all physio- 
logical phenomena, and the old magnetizers often took 
advantage of this fact. They said to their subjects : 
“ You cannot leave the circle I have drawn round you,” 
and the subject remained glued to the spot, in spite of 
all his efforts to leave the circle. Or : “You cannot pro- 
nounce your own name,” and the subject vainly opened 
his mouth, without being able to utter a syllable of his 
name. Dr. Phillips, who in 1860 held public seances 
in hypnotism in Paris, on one occasion suggested to a 
person present, who was called Laverdant, that he would 
be unable to pronounce or write the two a’s in his name. 338 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
The subject tried in vain to write his name, and he traced 
the characters given in the accompanying facsimile 
(Fig. 15). 
At first sight, systematic paralysis appears to have 
nothing in common with total paralysis. When a subject 
Fig. 15. 
has received the suggestion that she will on awaking be 
unable to write, no visible modification occurs in her arm. 
The paralysis remains in some sense latent, and is only 
revealed to the subject’s consciousness at the decisive 
moment when she takes up a pen and tries to write. 
Up to that time her right arm appeared to be as perfectly 
free as the left, and displayed nothing in common with 
the flaccidity of total paralysis. Yet these two forms of 
paralysis only differ in degree. Total paralysis involves 
the loss of all kinds of movement, extension, flexion, 
rotation, abduction and adduction, etc., while in syste- 
matic paralysis, the loss does not apply to all movements, 
but only to those which are necessary for the performance 
of a given act. 
To speak more precisely, when the subject is deprived 
of the power of performing a certain act, all the move- 
ments which have to do with that act are paralysed by 
suggestion. This is the plain fact. Suppose that sugges- 
tion has destroyed an act in which the movement of 
extending the index finger occurs. It may be asked 
whether the subject, who cannot perform the act as a PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION: MOTOR PARALYSIS. 
339 
whole, is incapable of extending the index in an isolated 
movement. In other words, is the systematic paralysis 
a loss of movement, or a loss of the power of co-ordi- 
nating certain movements with a view to an act ? 
Experiment alone can reply to this question. Give 
to a subject a suggestion of agraphia, and when she 
awakes, examine her right hand. It is easily ascertained 
that the power of bending and extending the fingers 
remains, although these movements are largely employed 
in the act of writing, so that the individual movement 
is not lost, but the possibility of co-ordinating these 
movements so as to accomplish a given act. Another 
instance throws a still stronger light on this fact. De- 
prive a hypnotized subject of the power of writing the 
word not, and she will still be able to write at your 
request many other words, even those which contain 
the letters n, o, t, which proves that she has not lost the 
power of writing each of these letters separately, but 
only the power of combining them. Systematic paralysis 
therefore consists in a disturbance of motor co-ordination; 
it does not affect movements, but the association of move- 
ments ; it disassociates the movements which were 
originally associated. 
A useful comparison may be made between systematic 
paralysis and systematic anaesthesia, of which we have 
given a slight sketch above. There is a correspondence 
between these two phenomena, since one is in the series 
of facts of motor power, the other in the series of facts of 
sensation. There is paralysis in both cases, and in both 
the paralysis has a systematic character. The total 
paralysis of a limb corresponds with the total blindness 
of an eye, and the incapacity to perform a given act, and 340 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
that act only, corresponds with the incapacity to perceive 
a given object, and that object only. We therefore 
decline to apply to systematic anaesthesia the name of 
negative hallucination, which appears to us- to be 
singularly inappropriate, since we are not at all con- 
cerned with hallucination. To call systematic anaesthe- 
sia a negative hallucination is much the same as it would 
be to call systematic paralysis a negative motor impulse. 
We must set aside a vicious terminology which only 
serves to confuse our ideas. 
The comparison we have just indicated might be 
carried further if our space permitted it. We can only 
point out one conclusion which may be deduced from it; 
that systematic anaesthesia, since it resembles paralysis, 
consists in great measure in a disturbance of the co- 
ordinating faculty. 
We return to the study of systematic paralysis after 
this short digression. One character connects it with 
total paralysis: it is generally accompanied by a weak- 
ening of the motor power. If we turn to the former 
example, which is the simplest, we find that the sub- 
ject whom we have caused to be affected by agraphia 
generally complains that his right hand feels somewhat 
heavy and inert. These subjective sensations are con- 
firmed by direct examination. If the subject of agraphia 
is requested to grasp the dynamometer with his right 
hand, it is generally found that he exerts less than the 
normal pressure. This slight paresia has been pointed 
out by Pitres in a minute clinical observation, whence it 
appears that the artificial agraphia produced by sug- 
gestion presents this characteristic in common with 
spontaneous agraphia. PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION : MOTOR PARALYSIS. 
341 
We have noted a second physical sign, which we 
also think important. Systematic paralysis, as well as 
total paralysis, produces a manifestation of dynamogeny 
in the symmetrical limb. When the right hand is 
affected by agraphia, the left hand becomes capable of 
registering on the dynamometer a higher degree than 
before. The loss on the one side is compensated by a gain 
on the other. This experiment may be carried further. 
The systematic paralysis of one limb may not only pro- 
duce in the other an increase of intensity in the muscular 
contraction, but also greater accuracy and perfection of 
movement. When a subject's right hand had been 
rendered agraphic by suggestion, she was on awaking 
requested to set down figures with the left hand. She 
consented, and the figures, which were reversed, as in 
a mirror, were almost irreproachable as far as the writing 
was concerned. The figures were all set down with one 
movement, and continuously, nor did the subject pause 
to consider. On another occasion we observed this 
subject’s normal writing with the left hand, when the 
right hand was not agraphic. She then wrote with 
great difficulty; each figure cost her at least a half- 
minute’s reflection, and moreover the result was some- 
what defective. 
The agraphia of the right arm consequently increases 
the co-ordinating power of moving the left arm in writing. 
This experiment may be explained by saying that, owing 
to the suggested agraphia, the faculty of writing, acquired 
by the right hand in consequence of a long apprentice- 
ship, is transferred to the left hand. 
These facts will remind the reader of the experiments 
in transference by the magnet which we have given 342 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
above. We saw that when the magnet was applied to a 
subject who had received the suggestion of writing with 
the right hand, the impulse was transferred from the 
right to the left hand; the subject wrote backwards, as 
in a mirror, with the left hand, and at the same time the 
right hand became agraphic. The direct suggestion of 
agraphia produces an analogous result, and this is ex- 
plained by the fact that, whatever be the nature of the 
excitement, whether suggestion or the application of the 
magnet, the brain remains the same, and always re-acts 
in accordance with the laws which govern it. This 
reason also explains why Brown-Sequard produced the 
same effects in dogs and guinea-pigs, by a twofold 
organic lesion, which are produced in hysterical subjects 
by transference. 
We must in conclusion point out one more character- 
istic of systematic paralysis, which is also found in total 
paralysis. The following observation was made by 
Richer, who was not aware of its importance, although 
he recorded it with the scrupulous conscientiousness of 
an observer, and this makes it the more significant.* 
“ When X was in the somnambulant state, we told 
her that she was unable to write. ... As soon as she 
awoke, we requested her to wxdte her name. She took 
up a pen with eagerness, but it had hardly touched the 
paper, when she found it impossible to write a stroke, 
however anxious she was to do so. It was interesting 
to observe her gestures. At every effort which she made 
to bend her fingers, they assumed movements of extension. 
* Op. cit. p. 747. This observation was made on March 1, 1881, and 
it agrees in all respects with experiments performed by us in December, 
1885. PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION: MOTOR PARALYSIS. 
343 
Her wrist wag also extended, and her hand was raised. 
She tried to keep her right hand resting on the table 
with the aid of the left hand, but she was ■ unable to 
restrain and regulate the contradictory movements which 
ensued from each attempt to write.” 
As we have already observed, the occurrence of 
antagonistic movements which accompanies the para- 
lysis of certain movements, seems to us to resemble the 
production of the complementary colour which is observed 
in suggested achromatopsia. In both cases the paralysis 
of one function causes an exaggeration of the other, and 
it may be said that the same relation exists between the 
antagonistic movements as between the complementary 
colours. 
When speaking of suggestions of acts, we insisted on 
the varied forms which the suggestion may assume. 
Suggestions of paralysis are susceptible of similar varia- 
tions. Sometimes the subject is simply told that his 
arm is paralysed; sometimes it is suggested to him that 
he has forgotten how to move it, or again that he wishes 
not to move his arm, or the idea of an inability to move 
it is impressed upon him. 
Most observers make use of several of these suggestions 
at once, cumulatively and without distinction, and it is 
noteworthy that such different processes afford identical 
results. From the psychological point of view there is 
a wide difference between the subject who does not move 
his arm because he is unable to do so, the subject 
who does not move his arm because he does not wish to 
do so. But the clinical observation of these two kinds 
of paralysis shows that they present the same character- 
istics ; it is, therefore, probable that in all these cases 344 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
suggestion produces the same modification in the motor 
centres of the arm, in spite of its diverse forms. 
We thus come to the conclusion that paralysis of the 
motor centre is the fundamental fact. This fact may he 
interpreted by the agent in different ways, and may be 
ascribed either to an incapacity to act, or to a determi- 
nation not to act; but such interpretations are secondary, 
accessory, superadded phenomena, which do not form an 
integral part of the occurrence. The whole history of 
the will is comprised in two words, impulse and paralysis. 
It may be asked what are the normal facts which 
may be compared with psychical paralysis by means of 
suggestion. Total paralysis, with its complete flaccidity, 
and its other strongly marked features, does' not appear 
to correspond with anything in normal psychology; but 
this is not the case with systematic paralysis, since 
phenomena of inhibition occur in a sound person when- 
ever his will effects an arrest of movement. Heidenhain 
observes that inhibition takes place when a man lowers 
his raised arm, and this is also the case when he refrains 
from the manifestation of violent anger or of fear. Ribot 
justly regards the will as at once a power of impulse 
and a power of restraint. As energetic a will is displayed 
in remaining impassive as in giving free vent to passion. 
The action of aesthesiogens on paralysis by suggestion, 
merits examination. It is a remarkable fact that the 
transference which takes place in unilateral paralysis 
only occurs after a great convulsive discharge in the 
limb to which the paralysis is transferred, resembling 
a partial attack of epilepsy. When a bilateral 
paralysis is subjected to sesthesiogenic action, the cor- 
responding impulse is substituted for it. The follow- PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION: MOTOR PARALYSIS. 
345 
ing example will suffice. When X was in a state 
of somnambulism, we suggested to her that she could 
no longer twirl her thumbs. She resisted the sug- 
gestion, saying that she could twirl them, and she did 
twirl them, hut when the suggestion was repeated she 
stopped short. She was then awakened, and requested 
to make the movement in question; she tried to cross 
her hands, and Avas unable to do so. A small magnet 
was then placed at the back of her head, on the left side, 
without her being aware of it. After it had been there 
a few moments, she crossed her hands and twirled her 
thumbs. Presently she desisted, saying that she did not 
know how to do it, then resumed the movement, and 
continued it for five minutes without interruption, 
twirling her thumbs now in one direction, now in 
another. Meanwhile she talked of her friends among 
the patients, without thinking of what her fingers were 
about. We have already observed that the inverse 
effect is obtained by applying magnetic excitement to 
a subject who has received the suggestion of a motor 
impulse; in this case the movement is paralysed. 
It should also be mentioned that in the case of many 
subjects a simple peripheral excitement, such as the 
compression of a limb, produces a similar inversion of 
the physiological state; the corresponding paralysis is 
substituted for the impulse, or the impulse for the paralysis. 
It is therefore probable that the magnet only acts as an 
unconscious peripheral excitement, of which the efficacy 
depends on the subject’s physical condition. 
What we have said of hallucinations, suggestions of 
acts, the paralysis of the senses, etc., also applies to motor 
paralysis. These comparatively simple and objective 346 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
phenomena should serve as an introduction to the study 
of those which are more delicate and complex. We 
think that motor paralysis, the first order of systematic 
paralysis, naturally leads the observer to the study of 
the paralysis of the will, which has been termed aboulia. 
In order to make the meaning of this word intelligible, 
we may mention one of Bennett’s patients, who was 
thirsty and requested the servant to bring a glass of 
water. When the glass was presented to her on a 
tray, the patient could not make up her mind to take 
it, although she wished to drink and her arm was not 
paralysed. 
One of the present writers * has observed that when 
aboulia is produced by suggestion, it may become the 
source of delirious impressions which tend to become 
general. A subject who has been rendered incapable 
of seizing a given object will go on to say that it is 
not worth having, and will reject all the objects which 
resemble it. 
We must now point out the analogy between aboulia 
and systematic paralysis; these two phenomena cannot 
be distinguished by any objective character. It can 
only be said that aboulia is an attenuated form of 
paralysis, but that it is at its maximum intensity equiva- 
lent to paralysis. Suppose that a subject affected by 
aboulia has at first experienced a certain reluctance to 
take up a pen and write, and gradually becomes incapable 
of doing so. At this point, his incapacity cannot be 
distinguished from a psychical paralysis of the move- 
ments employed in writing. 
It may also be said that aboulia is a more complex 
* Ch. Fere, Tmpuusance et pessimisme (Revue Philosopliiqne, July, 1886). PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION: MOTOR PARALYSIS. 
347 
state than systematic paralysis. To take, again, a case 
of agraphia, a subject affected by aboulia may be able to 
write anything except his signature, as was the case with 
a notary observed by Billod, while a subject affected by 
normal agraphia is unable to write anything at all. 
This difference is not, however, opposed to the fact that 
aboulia consists in a functional paralysis of one order 
of movements while all others are retained; it is in some 
sense an agraphia, but of a more systematic kind. 
Whether, therefore, we have to do with total paralysis, 
with systematic paralysis, or with aboulia, the motor 
disturbance in correspondence with it is fundamentally 
the same, and we must recognize a cause which is 
analogous both in its nature and site. The analogy 
between these three phenomena can be illustrated by 
experiments in suggestion, performed on hypnotic sub- 
jects. We have seen that total paralysis and systematic 
paralysis produce in some cases an augmentation of 
force in the opposite limb. This is also the case in 
aboulia. 
Suppose that it is suggested to a subject that he will 
be unable, however much he wishes it, to open a table 
drawer with his right hand, in order to take out some- 
thing which is there; if, after having produced this 
unilateral aboulia, a dynamometer is placed in the 
subject’s hands, it will be ascertained that the muscular 
force of the right arm has diminished, wdnle that of the 
left arm has increased. 
We can judge from this example of the value of a 
method which takes phenomena in a series. Aboulia 
is a complex pathological fact which cannot be grasped 
at once, and without preparation; we might as well 348 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
begin geometry with the study of curves. Aboulia can 
only be understood after we have studied the simpler 
phenomena, which are more easy to observe and analyse. 
We consider that paralysis by suggestion presents the 
elementary phenomena which should serve as a basis 
and introduction to the study of aboulia. 
In short, the great psychological conclusion which 
may be drawn from all the disturbances of motor power, 
is that these disturbances are directly caused by 
functional modifications of the motor centres: these are 
the true causes of motor paralysis, whether total, syste- 
matic, or phenomena of aboulia. It may even be said 
that in a case of total paralysis by suggestion, the effects 
observed are the same as when a knife has destroyed the 
motor centre in correspondence with the paralysed limb. 
The mode in which the subject interprets the motor 
disturbance by which he is affected is an altogether 
secondary matter. It is unimportant whether the motive 
assigned by the subject for his impotence is that he can- 
not, or that he will not, or again—as it is said by some 
subjects affected by aboulia—that he is not able to exert 
his will, or that he does not understand. If these assertions 
were taken literally, we might be inclined to regard these 
disturbances of the motor power as distinct phenomena, 
instead of recognizing the fact that they are included in 
the same order. When the subject says that he cannot 
move his limb, we shall see in this inability a simple 
motor paralysis. When the subject asserts that he really 
desires and yet is unable to resolve on passing through 
a door, a lesion of the will may be diagnosed. Finally, 
when the subject says he has forgotten how to make the 
movements employed in writing, such agraphia must PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION : MOTOR PARALYSIS. 
349 
be ascribed to a lesion of the motor memory. The 
logical consequence of this method would be to ignore 
the fundamental unity of these three motor facts, which 
are, as we must repeat, only variations of the same state, 
that of motor paralysis. 
Our object in this study of the facts of suggestion is 
to show the importance of hypnotism as a psychological 
study. Its importance was advocated many years ago, 
but the cause of animal magnetism was so much com- 
promised by erroneous methods, that people were afraid 
of entering upon such questions. After Braid had 
demonstrated the reality of a nervous state, produced by 
looking fixedly at a brilliant object, together with the 
possibility of producing, by verbal suggestion, many 
psychical phenomena in the hypnotized subject, it might 
have been supposed that psychologists would at length 
have begun to study these facts, in which they were so 
directly interested. This was, however, by no means the 
case. With the exception of a few isolated attempts, 
these fruitful studies were for the most part neglected, 
doubtless from the dread of compromising the inquirer. 
It is a matter of regret that the English psychologists of 
the associationist school—Stuart Mill, Bain, and Spencer 
—who, although not experimenters, strictly so called, yet 
have always evinced the greatest respect for experiment, 
never thought of availing themselves of the precious 
documents contained in the writings of their fellow- 
countrymen. It is strange that they did not understand 
that these afforded the finest illustrations of the general 
law of the association of ideas which justly appeared to 
them to be so important. 
The indifference displayed by psychologists towards 350 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
hypnotism was such a well-known and established 
fact, that it was supposed to have nothing to do with 
psychology, and in 1871 Mathias Duval expressed the 
current opinion, when he wrote the remarkable article 
on hypnotism in which he asked, not without irony, 
“ Where are the discoveries of hypnotism ? Where are 
its analyses ? Where are the results of this new experi- 
mental philosophy ? ” 
A revolution has taken place since that epoch. Pro- 
found hypnotism, studied with so much precision by 
Charcot, has triumphed over the general indifference 
which stifles inquiry. It is now generally admitted that 
hypnotism constitutes one method of psychological re- 
search, which offers the twofold advantage of enlarging 
' o O C 5 
and isolating the states of consciousness. 
It is the more important to insist on this fact, since 
we think that hypnotism is adapted to fill up a breach. 
It is some years since a certain set of writers endeavoured 
to establish an experimental psychology in France, in 
opposition to the classic psychology which is still supreme 
in all the universities. But up to this time we have 
been unable to note any marked distinction between the 
new and old schools. In reply to the inquiry into 
its characteristics, we are told in the first place of a 
dislike to metaphysics. But this is only a name, and 
it is hard to say where metaphysics begin, and positive 
science ends. Again, it has been said that the new 
psychology is experimental. But in order to be experi- 
mental it is necessary to perform experiments, and we 
must ask where these are to be found. They are few in 
number, and chiefly consist of observations relative to 
the measure of sensations, the time of reaction, etc. It PARALYSIS BY SUGGESTION: MOTOR PARALYSIS. 
351 
seems to us that hypnotism, in association with the 
clinical observation of mental and nervous diseases, 
would afford to the new school the method of which it 
is in search, and would furnish conclusions founded on 
experiment. 352 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
CHAPTER XIII. 
THE APPLICATION OF HYPNOTISM TO THERAPEUTICS AND 
EDUCATION. 
What we have said of hypnotism, and particularly of 
suggestion, may lead the reader to understand the virtue 
of medicine for the imagination, of which the importance 
has already been intimated by earlier writers. Deslon 
asked why, if medicine for the imagination was the most 
effective, it should not be employed. 
We must be permitted to dwell for a moment on this 
medicine for the imagination, whicli is entitled to the 
name of suggestive therapeutics. The process is as 
follows. Influenced by a persistent idea, suggested by 
external circumstances, a paralysis is developed. The 
physician makes use of his authority to suggest the idea 
of an inevitable, incontestable cure, and the paralysis is 
cured accordingly. This cure, as well as the develop- 
ment of functional disturbance, was directly effected by 
an idea. An idea may, therefore, be, according to circum- 
stances, a pathogenic and a therapeutic agent. This 
notion is not new, but since it was misinterpreted, it has 
remained unfruitful* 
* Oh. Fere, La medicine d’imagination (Frogres Me'dical, p. 309, 1884, 
pp. 717, 741, 760, 1886). APPLICATION OF HYPNOTISM TO THERAPEUTICS. 
353 
Diseases have been termed imaginary, or diseases 
caused by the imagination, and this confusion of terms 
has confirmed the confusion of ideas. We have, however, 
just shown, especially by means of the facts which relate 
to paralysis by suggestion, that diseases caused by the 
imagination—that is, produced by a fixed idea—are real 
diseases, and, at any rate in some cases, display undis- 
puted objective symptoms. 
Since the existence of real diseases, produced by 
means of the imagination, is proved, it is thereby proved 
that imaginary diseases do not and cannot exist; by 
this we mean purely fictitious diseases, since as soon 
as the subject has accepted the fixed idea that he is 
affected by any functional disturbance, such a disturbance 
is in some degree developed. It should be added that 
these diseases, produced by means of the imagination, are 
not merely influenced by a local disturbance; the subject 
who allows himself to be dominated by this idea of disease 
must be peculiarly excitable and open to suggestion; he 
must be endowed with a condition of congenital psychical 
weakness which is frequently found in conjunction with 
more or less strongly marked neuropathic manifestations, 
or with physical malformations. As Lasegue observed, 
not every one who pleases can be hypochondriac. 
This distinction throws light on the therapeutics of 
diseases produced by means of the imagination, or 
suggested diseases. 
When one of these victims to hypochondria, anaemic 
and emaciated, who are usually called malades imagi- 
naires, has recourse to medicine, on the plea of suffering 
pain or some other subjective disturbance, he is usually 
told that it is of no importance, that he is rather 354 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
fanciful and should think less about his health, and some 
anodyne is carelessly prescribed. The patient, who is 
really suffering from the pain he has suggested to himself, 
feels convinced that his malady is not known, and that 
nothing can be done for him. The idea that his com- 
plaint is incurable becomes intense in proportion to his 
high opinion of his physician’s skill, and thus the patient, 
who was suffering from the chronic affection suggested 
by his imagination, often goes away incurable. 
Those who undertake miraculous cures act very 
differently. They do not deny the existence of the 
disease, but they assert that it may be cured by super- 
natural power. They act by means of suggestion, and 
by gradually inculcating the idea that the disease is 
curable, until the subject accepts it. The cure is some- 
times effected by the suggestion, and when it is said to 
be by saving faith, the expression used is rigorously 
scientific. These miracles should no longer be denied, 
but we should understand their genesis and learn to 
imitate them. 
There are, therefore, no imaginary diseases, but there 
are diseases due to the imagination, and accompanied 
by real functional disturbances. Such disturbances may 
be developed under the influence of spontaneous, acci- 
dental, or deliberate suggestion, and they may be cured 
under the influence of another suggestion of equal in- 
tensity working in an inverse direction. The moral 
treatment ought not, therefore, to consist in denying the 
existence of the disease, but in asserting that it is sus- 
ceptible of cure, that the cure has actually begun, and 
will soon be completed. 
When a believer associates the Deity with his idea APPLICATION OP HYPNOTISM TO THERAPEUTICS. 
355 
of cure, he is accustomed to expect it to be sudden and 
complete, as the result of a definite religious manifesta- 
tion; and this, in fact, often occurs. We had a well-known 
instance at the Salpetriere, when a woman of the name 
of Etcheverry was, after her devotions in the month of 
May, suddenly cured of an hemiplegia and contracture, 
by which she had been affected for seven years. Only 
a slight weakness of the side remained, which disap- 
peared in a few days, and which could be explained by 
the prolonged inaction of the muscles. This may be 
termed an experimental miracle, since the physicians 
had prepared for it beforehand, having for a long time 
previously suggested to the subject that she would be 
cured when a certain religious ceremony took place, and 
it is a miracle which explains the numerous cures by the 
laying-on of hands which are recorded in the Bible. If 
we do not go further back than the last century, sugges- 
tion explains the cures by Greatrakes, the exorcisms by 
Gassner, Mesmer’s successes, and the miracles performed 
at the tomb of the deacon Paris in the cemetery of 
Saint Medard; and in our day, in the famous caves on 
the slopes of the Pyrenees. 
The resources of the physician, who does not profess 
to be a thaumaturgist, are more scanty. When he is 
consulted by a patient whose disease has a psychical 
origin, he is unable, unless in some exceptional, circum- 
stances, to inspire confidence in remedies which are not 
more or less gradual, but whatever they are, he must 
prescribe with firmness and authority. It is a well- 
known fact that the hydropathic treatment of some forms 
of hysteria has afforded more speedy results than other 
modes of treatment, merely from the fact that suggestion 356 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
has been employed at the same time. This remark 
also applies to massage, etc., under analogous circum- 
stances. 
In many cases suggestion may become a valuable 
therapeutic agent. In addition to the paralysis and 
spasms which are of psychical origin, it has a great in- 
fluence on nervous or hysterical anorexia, and on the 
anaemic disturbance which is generally developed on an 
hysterical soil (A. Yoisin, Seglas, Lombroso, Dufour, etc.). 
Some weight must be given to several facts of this nature, 
reported by Braid, Charpignon, Liebault, Bernheim, 
Beaunis, etc.* It is, therefore, useful in such cases to 
inquire into the most favourable conditions of suggestion, 
to ascertain whether the subject is susceptible to hypno- 
tism, or peculiarly sensitive to any mode of suggestion 
which is employed with confidence and authority. 
It should be observed that a neuropathic state does 
not occur suddenly, and is not created by the person 
affected by it. It is generally the result of a progressive 
and accumulated hereditary degeneration. The subject 
under treatment does not essentially differ from the rest 
of his family, who usually suffer to some extent from 
the same evil; the nervous patient lives in a nervous 
environment. If suggestion has taken part in the 
development of the affection in question, the moral 
treatment may be ineffectual because the pathogenic 
idea continues to be cultivated in this morbid environ- 
ment. Such treatment will only have a chance of success 
when, as a measure of moral hygiene, we isolate the 
* Charpignon, Etude sur la medicine animique et vitaliste (1864); Lie- 
hault, Du sommeil et des Mats analogues (1864); Bernheim, De la suggestion 
et de ses applications a la the'rapeutique (1886). APPLICATION OF HYPNOTISM TO THERAPEUTICS. 
357 
patient, and tins is still more necessary in the so-called 
epidemic phenomena of suggestion. 
We are particularly anxious to call attention to the 
effect of moral treatment, and to the pa*rt taken in it by 
suggestion. This is no new thing; when the so-called 
fulminating pills are administered, suggestion is em- 
ployed in the pilular form, and when pure water is 
injected under the skin, suggestion takes a hypodermic 
form. This medicine for the imagination is particularly 
to be recommended in that category of diseases which 
are of definite psychical origin. 
This is not the place for insisting on the special indi- 
cations of suggestion in therapeutics. The study just 
made is enough to show to what extent it may act on 
motor, sensory or psychical phenomena, and conse- 
quently how it may be usefully employed in the treat- 
ment of the dynamic disturbances which are due to the 
influence of a psychical action, of a moral shock, or even 
of a peripheral excitement. Its effect cannot any longer 
be disputed. It is, however, still difficult to give a rigor- 
ously scientific account of the results obtained, since few 
observations have as yet been published, and in some of 
these it is impossible to find an objective characteristic 
of hypnosis. Others, again, are incomplete, or published 
by incompetent persons, whose descriptions do not carry 
with them a conviction of the reality of the morbid state 
in question. Finally, precisely on account of the nature of 
its action, which is exclusively exerted on diseases in which 
there is no definite material lesion, and which are, there- 
fore, purely dynamic, suggestion only cures affections which 
are capable of spontaneous modification, or which are 
influenced by various external agents. At present, there- 358 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
fore, it is difficuit to establish the real value of this mode 
of treatment, although less difficult than in the case of 
many remedies in general use. It can only be said that 
it is founded on accurate notions of mental physiology, 
and consequently on a rational basis. 
Medicine for the imagination is distinct from hypnotic 
therapeutics, in which the artificial sleep is itself the 
curative agent, in whatever way it may have been pro- 
duced, These two therapeutical processes, artificial sleep 
and suggestion, have sometimes been erroneously con- 
founded.* They are far from being of equal value. 
The hypnotic sleep often exerts a merely suspensive 
and momentary action on functional disturbances, such 
as neuralgia, contractures, etc.; but, taken by itself, it 
rarely effects the complete disappearance of these pheno- 
mena, unless they are of an essentially fugitive nature. 
It should also be noted that in many cases hypnotic 
sleep, like other forms of artificial sleep produced by 
chloroform, morphia, etc., may cause neuropathic affec- 
tions which the subject has not experienced before. 
Many hysterical patients were attacked by convulsions, 
when assembled round Mesmer’s haquet, and magnetizers 
have often produced contractures of a cataleptic character. 
This fact must not be ignored, and it shows that the 
employment of hypnotism as a therapeutic agent should 
not be undertaken rashly. 
When, however, we have to do with strongly marked 
cases of hysteria, in which the convulsive attacks are 
intense, so that the artificial sleep can only produce 
affections which existed previously, it has been ascer- 
* Grasset, J)u sommeil provoque' comme agent thtfrapeutique (or thera- 
peutic suggestion, Semaine mifdicale, p. 205, 1886). APPLICATION OF HYPNOTISM TO EDUCATION. 
359 
tained that the number and intensity of these attacks 
may he greatly diminished by hypnotic treatment. Many 
of the hysterical patients of the Salpetriere, who have 
been admitted on account of their attacks, enjoy a respite 
from them whenever they are thrown into the hypnotic 
sleep, even when it is not accompanied by suggestion. 
It should also be observed that the nervous sleep is 
something more than a simple hypnotic action. The 
subject is aware, when hypnotized by a magnetizer, that 
the object of his treatment is therapeutical, and the arti- 
ficial sleep may in some cases be regarded as pertaining 
to the medicine of the imagination. Suggestion is 
present, whether it be the work of the patient or of his 
physician. 
The employment of suggestion in education is pro- 
bably as ancient as the art of teaching, and interesting 
remarks on the subject may be found in many educational 
works. Fechtersleben, in his Hygiene de I’dme, insists 
on the benefit of convincing children that they have a 
gift for some branch of study, in order to develop their 
capacity, Gratiolet remarks that certain gestures and 
attitudes will develop correlative tendencies in children.* 
But it would be a serious mistake to subject children of 
normal constitution to the regular practice of suggestion ; 
there would be a great risk of making them into auto- 
mata, which is by no means the end of education. It is 
more easy to defend the application of hypnotic suggestion 
to vicious children. It is probable that it might succeed, 
* Leuret and Gratiolet, Anatojnie comjaaree du systeme nerveux, vol. ii 
p. 630. 360 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
but it would be difficult to prove this by indisputable 
facts, for it is certain that some of the vicious children 
who escape from premature insanity or from a progress 
in vice, pass by spontaneous evolution into a psychical 
state which is almost normal. On the other hand, some 
of the vagrant children who have been confined in 
asylums are found under the same conditions as those 
whose penal sentence confirms the motives for avoiding 
vice. In these cases hypnotic suggestion only plays the 
part of penitentiary suggestion, and its utility is doubtful- 
The efficacy of suggestion by teachers may, as we 
believe, be shown by the possibility of modifying certain 
instincts by suggestion in the case of animals. One of the 
present writers has repeatedly witnessed a curious prac- 
tice employed by a farmer’s wife in the district of Caux. 
When a hen has laid a certain number of eggs in a nest 
of her own selection, and has begun to sit, if there is any 
reason for transferring her to some other nest, the hen’s 
head is put under her wing, and she is swung to and fro 
until she is put to sleep. This is soon done, and she is 
then placed in the nest designed for her; when she 
awakes, she has no recollection of her own nest, and 
readily adopts the strange eggs. By means of this 
process, hens may sometimes be made to sit which had 
shown a previous disinclination to do so. This modifi- 
cation of instinct by suggestion seems to show that the 
educational use of suggestion is not so absurd as some 
authors assert it to be. CHAPTER XIV. 
HYPNOTISM AND EESPONSIBILITY. 
“ Non onines dormiunt qui clauses liabent oeulos.” 
Since the past history of hypnotism verged upon the 
marvellous, it had the privilege of exciting the curiosity, 
not only of learned men, but of people in general. 
Exhibitions with which science had nothing to do made 
the public acquainted with a certain number of pheno- 
mena of which a criminal use might be made; and 
hypnotic sleep and suggestion have played a part in 
several judicial dramas.* One of the present writers was 
therefore justified in being the first to call attention to the 
study of hypnotism from the medico-legal point of view, 
in a paper which only treated of profound hypnotism, 
characterised by symptoms of a ph)Tsical kind.f Liegeois 
* Tardieu, Etude medico-legale sur les attentats aux mceurs, pp. 88, et 
seq. (Paris, 1878); Brouardel, Accusation de viol accompli pendant le 
sommeil hypnotique (Annales <t hygiene et de medicine legale, January, 1879); 
Motet, Annales mddico-psychologiques, p. 468 (1881). 
f Oh. Fere, Les hypnotiques hystdriques, considerees comme sujets d 1 ex- 
perience en medicine mentale: illusions, hallucinations, impulsions irre- 
sistibles prorogues; leur importance au point de vac medico-legale (Socie'te 
medico-psychologique, May, 1883). J. Charpignon (Rapports du magndtisme 
uvec la jurisprudence et la medicine legale, 1860) lias been chiefly concerned 
with an inquiry whether the practice of magnetism does not constitute 
the criminal offence of an illegal practice of medicine. 362 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
has subsequently communicated to the Academy of the 
Moral and Political Sciences a paper on the same subject, 
regarded from a somewhat different point of view, and 
this has given rise to lively discussions.* We think it 
may be profitable to consider this subject, which is indeed 
entitled to further development. 
Most of the writers on this question have been chiefly 
occupied in throwing light on the possibility of accom- 
plishing criminal acts by means of hypnotism, but they 
have not considered the question of proof. They have 
not asked under what conditions judges would admit the 
reality of the facts of hypnotism brought before them. 
They have not understood that in a medico-legal study, 
the demonstration of the hypnotic state is the first 
question, and the most important of all; the others are 
comparatively unimportant, since if the hypnotism is not 
proved, all the consequences which may be drawn from 
it become illusory. It need hardly be added that a 
scientific demonstration of hypnotism can only be made 
by means of objective and material signs. Several ob- 
servers have accepted as proofs the honesty and good 
faith of their subjects, but these words do not involve 
any objective sign. Moral proofs must always remain 
personal to those who appeal to them, and cannot be 
taken into account in a medico-legal study. We cannot 
hope to convince judges of the reality of a state in which 
all the phenomena may be simulated. To accept the 
fact hypnotism on the ground of moral proofs would be 
to open the door to innumerable abuses of the most 
serious character. 
* Liegeois, Be la suggestion hypnotique dans ses rapports avec le droit 
civil et le droit criminel (Ac. des sc. m. et p., April and May, 1884). HYPNOTISM AND EESPONSIBILITY. 
The medico-legal question may be briefly stated in 
the following terms. An individual appeals to the law, 
asserting that he has been the victim of some violence, 
or of a suggestion, after he had been thrown into the 
hypnotic state. It may be admitted that the assertion 
is probable, if it is proved experimentally that he is 
susceptible to hypnotism, and that he displays a certain 
number of objective, characteristical phenomena, but this 
proof can only be obtained if he voluntarily submits 
to be subjected to experiment. Again, an individual 
accused of a crime or an offence, may plead that he acted 
under the influence of an impulse suggested during the 
hypnotic sleep, and in this case also it is necessary to 
obtain a material proof that the subject is susceptible 
to hypnotism. As a general rule, whenever an accused 
person pleads hypnotism, the fact should be proved by 
subjecting him to experimental observation. 
Another situation may occur. A witness may be 
suspected of making a deposition dictated by hypnotic 
suggestion. If the fact of suggestion is established by 
material proof, the fact that he has borne false witness 
will also be demonstrated. If the material fact cannot 
be established, the difficulty is almost insuperable, since 
an individual cannot be constrained to submit to hypno- 
tization, any more than to take chloroform or haschish. 
The conditions which enable an expert to affirm 
that a person is susceptible to hypnotism are as follows. 
The hypnotized subject must display its physical phe- 
nomena, and must be a subject of profound hypnotism. 
Profound hypnotism may occur either in a perfect or 
imperfect form; that is, some of the established pheno- 
mena may be absent in a given subject without affecting 364 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
its general aspect, if a sufficient number of characteristic 
phenomena remain. 
In slight hypnotism, in the states described as fasci- 
nation, magnetic sleep, etc., subjects appear to be pecu- 
liarly liable to suggestion. It is possible to develop 
in them catalepsoid states, muscular rigidity, fixed atti- 
tudes, paralysis, anaesthesia, various hallucinations and 
impulses; but not the special and characteristic states 
described above under the names of catalepsy, lethargy, 
and artificial somnambulism. These subjects only dis- 
play a few physical phenomena which have not yet been 
the object of a regular nosographic study. The strict 
attention with which the facts should be examined, must 
be redoubled in such cases, since the only criterion 
is afforded by physical phenomena. Until we know 
more of the subject, a person who displays none of 
the physical characteristics of hypnotism cannot plead 
it as a justification. It is practically impossible to 
define in any other way the limits of normal suggesti- 
bility. 
After having shown how the expert may satisfy 
himself that a subject is susceptible to hypnotism, we 
must consider the special circumstances in which it is 
possible to admit the probability of hypnotization. 
The hypnotic sleep, which is produced with so much 
difficulty and delay in fresh subjects, occurs with 
alarming rapidity in those who have been long under 
treatment. Some of our patients are hypnotized at 
once by a single abrupt gesture, and this may be 
effected in ail places alike, and at any hour of the day. 
If we meet one of these subjects crossing the courtyard, 
an exclamation or abrupt gesture will cause her to stop HYPNOTISM AND RESPONSIBILITY. 
365 
short and become motionless in catalepsy. She may 
be as instantaneously awakened by breathing on her 
forehead or eyes. The hypnotic sleep may, therefore, 
be produced and brought to an end in an extremely 
short time, we might even say during the passage from 
one door to another. This is a somewhat important 
fact from the medico-legal point of view. And again, 
a suggestion may be given in a sleep of very short 
duration. We have observed that in the course of 
fifteen seconds we could throw a subject into a 
lethargy, then into somnambulism, suggest an act, 
and then awake him. It is, therefore, possible that 
an individual might make use of the fifteen seconds 
in which he found himself alone with a susceptible 
subject to inculcate an idea, an hallucination, or an im- 
pulse. We must not rely on a question of time in 
maintaining the impossibility of such a fact, since the 
time required to hypnotize and suggest to an habitual 
subject of experiment is so extremely short. 
Experience also shows that we must not accept 
the subject’s assertions in estimating the duration of 
hypnotic sleep. The subject is unable to measure the 
length of time she has slept, and if she attempts to do 
so she makes the gravest mistakes. For instance, one 
of our subjects whom we had hypnotized for a period 
which did not exceed twenty seconds, believed that she 
had slept an hour, and in other cases there was equal 
miscalculation. The hypnotic subject has no land- 
marks by which to measure the void which this sleep 
produces in the normal course of life. We must not, 
therefore, deny the reality of an hypnotic suggestion, 
merely because the experimenter had only a minute’s 366 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM.. 
contact with the subject, although she asserts that she 
has slept for hours. 
We unfortunately possess but few documents bear- 
ing on the question how far the subject is aware that 
he has been hypnotized. Some of those on whom we 
have been performing experiments for a whole morn- 
ing, do not know how often they have been hypno- 
tized and awakened ; but they have a general knowledge 
of having been subjected to hypnotism. They know this 
from an impression of cold, a shivering which often lasts 
long after they are awake. But this sign is not of much 
value, since it may not only be absent, but destroyed 
by suggestion, and it is less marked in proportion to 
the shortness of the sleep. 
In cases of profound hypnotism there is often an 
oblivion of what occurred during the hypnotic sleep. 
This oblivion is complete when the experimenter has 
taken care to tell the hypnotized subject that he will 
remember absolutely nothing. The oblivion is also 
rendered more profound when the subject has not been 
directly recalled to the waking state, but has passed from 
somnambulism into lethargy, from lethargy again into 
somnambulism, and thence into the waking state. On 
the other hand, the amnesia is often only partial when 
the subject is awakened immediately after the occur- 
rence of a given fact; a more or less vivid recollection 
of it still remains. The hypnotic subject seems to be 
in the same situation as a man who awakes from normal 
sleep; he has a vague recollection of what he has seen, 
or of what has been said to him during sleep, and he 
thinks that he has been dreaming. Finally, the events 
which occurred during hypnosis recur to his mind with HYPNOTISM AND RESPONSIBILITY. 
367 
great force, when they are recalled by some external 
object or circumstance. 
Thus it appears that it is impossible to lay down 
an absolute rule as to oblivion on awaking; there is, 
in fact, every variety of case, from the most profound 
oblivion to the most lucid recollection, and these are 
all entitled to careful consideration from the medico- 
legal point of view. 
A suggested amnesia is the most important of these 
situations. It must always be borne in mind that a 
suggestion will destroy the subject’s recollection of all 
which has occurred to her during hypnosis. This want 
of memory, which may either occur spontaneously or be 
artificially produced, is possible even when the subject 
has experienced a shock, of which the effects are painful 
or more or less enduring. In the course of an experi- 
ment, one of our subjects, who was in a state of lethargy, 
fell down and knocked her head violently against the 
floor. She was not awakened by this excitement, nor 
for some time afterwards, and she was then awakened by 
breathing on her face. On coming to herself, the subject 
was astonished by the pain in her head; she had the 
sensation of a violent blow or shock, and could not 
understand whence it came. We are, therefore, justified 
in the assertion that a subject of profound hypnotism 
may undergo all sorts of violence without retaining any 
recollection or consciousness of it, unless the violence 
has produced permanent lesions, such as the attrition 
of the tissues resulting from a violent shock, etc. We 
even think it possible that a subject might be violated 
in the hypnotic state, in which she would be unable 
to offer any resistance. 368 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
We turn from the subject who has forgotten every- 
thing, to the subject who asserts that she remembers 
everything, in order to consider whether her story is to 
be believed. It is a serious question, and admits of 
many hypotheses. 
In the first place, the subject may be perfectly honest, 
and yet the victim of an illusion. When a subject finds 
on awaking that she is suffering from a wound, or from 
some serious or unpleasant affection, she is apt to look for 
an explanation, and sometimes she invents an explanation 
for herself. Sometimes, again, she accepts it from a 
third person, but in all cases she ends by suggesting to 
herself that she saw things occur as she has explained 
them; in other words, the explanation has led to an 
hallucination of memory. Thus a subject who has, 
during hypnosis, received a blow from a third person, 
may explain her injury by the supposition that she fell 
down, and she will maintain the reality of this imaginary 
fall with the strongest conviction. The medical jurist 
must be on his guard against the remarks and explana- 
tions adopted by the subject to account for the accidents 
which happen to her, and her assertions should not be 
accepted without confirmation. 
The subject may err from another cause, the sugges- 
tion of the experimenter, who has impressed upon her 
a recollection which is false. It is impossible for the 
expert to steer clearly amid all these phenomena, and to 
make a categorical declaration as to the way the thing 
occurred. 
Finally, the subject who in the waking state remem- 
bers what occurred during hypnosis, may simulate. 
This danger of simulation is always present in a legal HYPNOTISM AND RESPONSIBILITY. 
369 
case, whatever be the physical state of the subject. 
Even in a case of profound hypnotism, we must not blindly 
accept whatever is related by the subject. The testi- 
mony may be recorded, and taken for what it is worth, 
in conjunction with other facts, but this is not the 
business of the expert. 
We have hitherto regarded the subject in a state of 
repose, and we must now consider him in a state of 
activity, influenced by suggestions or excitements. We 
will begin with the study of hallucinations. The subject 
may, for instance, be induced to mistake the identity of a 
person, or to accept the presence of one who is really 
absent, and to recognize his features, voice, etc. The 
possible consequences of this illusion or hallucination are 
evident. If an unlawful or criminal act should be com- 
mitted on the subject, or in her presence, an accusation 
might be made against an innocent person, and it would 
be maintained with the deepest conviction. The illusion 
or hallucination might apply to the act itself, and would 
lead to analogous consequences. 
Some writers have lately returned to this question, 
of which we long ago noted the importance. They 
devised some dramatic experiments, to illustrate the 
criminal use which might be made of hypnotic hallucina- 
tion, but we do not think it necessary to reproduce them. 
It seems to us more important to inquire under what 
conditions these facts of retrospective hallucination can be 
adduced in a court of justice. As we have already said 
the medico-legal question of hypnotism is reduced to a 
question of diagnosis, and it may be added that what- 
ever is not diagnostic in the legal questions which affect 
hypnotic subjects is not within the province of the 370 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
physician. The expert has not to decide upon the 
reality of a fact of suggestion, but on its possibility; 
and in order to do this, he must establish by experiment 
the fact that the phenomena under dispute can be repro- 
duced in a given subject, by me-ans of an hypnotic 
suggestion. We are, therefore, concerned to know what 
are the objective signs which demonstrate the hallucina- 
tions produced in a given subject to be genuine. We 
propose to dwell chiefly on hallucinations of vision, 
since they are the most easy to examine, and we can 
deduce from them the sincerity of the hallucinations of 
the other senses. 
Hallucinations of vision, whether induced by verbal 
suggestion, or by any other process, are chiefly charac- 
terized by their power of duplication, either when a prism 
is placed before the eyes, or when a mechanical deviation 
is effected. The hallucinatory object may be enlarged or 
diminished in size by a lens, and may be reflected and 
rendered symmetrical by a mirror. If a coloured object 
is in question, it may give rise to a subjective sensation 
of the complementary colour, and if the hallucination is 
unilateral, it may be transferred to the other side by the 
action of the magnet. Finally, if the imaginary object 
is brought nearer, or withdrawn, there is a corresponding 
dilation and contraction of the pupil. These movements 
to accommodate the sight occur spontaneously in very 
few cases, and only under known conditions. 
It should be added that in the case of some subjects, 
the general sensibility of the eye is profoundly modified 
during the period of visual hallucination; there is, in 
fact, speaking generally, insensibility of the conjunctiva 
and of the cornea, as well as of the region of the pupil. HYPNOTISM AND RESPONSIBILITY. 
371 
These may, in the case of most subjects, be touched with 
a foreign body, without producing any reflex action of 
the eyelid. In P , however, when a visual hallucina- 
tion has been developed, the sensibility of the external 
membranes of the eye is normal. 
All these signs enable the expert to know whether 
O x 
a subject can or cannot receive an hallucination by sug- 
gestion, but they by no means establish the fact that 
the hallucination has actually occurred. This is a dis- 
tinct question, which it is the part of the legal exami- 
nation to elucidate. 
Systematic anaesthesia serves as a counterpart to 
hallucination, and must be considered in conjunction 
with it. It may be suggested to a subject before whom 
a crime or offence is to be committed, that he is unable 
to see a given person. The possibility of making such 
a suggestion would enable a criminal to get rid of a 
troublesome witness, and the subject might then declare 
in a court of justice, in all good faith, that he had seen, 
heard, and felt nothing. 
We need only remind our readers of the numerous 
proofs of systematic anaesthesia. The first of these is 
the Chinese gong. A subject susceptible to hypnotism 
who instantly becomes cataleptic at the sound of the 
gong, is no longer affected by catalepsy when it is 
sounded after his perception of the instrument has been 
destroyed by suggestion. A second proof is derived 
from the complementary colours. When it has been 
suggested to the subject that he cannot see the colour 
red, his fixed gaze at an invisible square of red produces 
after a while a consecutive green image. Finally, the 
action of the magnet impresses a special character on 372 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
systematic anaesthesia. The expert may ascertain from 
these signs whether a given subject, placed in a state of 
hypnotism, is capable of affording authentic instances of 
anaesthesia. 
It is possible to suggest to a subject in a state of 
somnambulism fixed ideas, irresistible impulses, which 
he will obey on awaking with mathematical precision. 
The subject may be induced to write down promises, 
recognitions of debt, admissions and confessions, by 
which he may be grievously wronged. If arms are 
given to him, he may also be induced to commit any 
crime which is prompted by the experimenter. We could 
cite several acts, to say the least unseemly, committed 
by hysterical patients, which were crimes in miniature, 
performed by an unconscious subject, and instigated by 
one who was really guilty, and who remained unknown. 
At the Salpetriere a paper-knife has often been placed 
in the hands of an hypnotic subject, who is told that it 
is a dagger, with which she is ordered to murder one of 
the persons present. On awaking, the patient hovers 
round her victim, and suddenly strikes him with such 
violence that I think it well to refrain from such experi- 
ments. It has also been suggested to the subject to 
steal various objects, such as photographs, etc. 
These facts show that the hypnotic subject may 
become the instrument of a terrible crime, the more 
terrible since, immediately after the act is accomplished, 
all may be forgotten—the crime, the impulse, and its 
instigator. 
Some of the more dangerous characteristics of these 
suggested acts should be noted. These impulses may 
give rise to crimes or offences of which the nature is HYPNOTISM AND RESPONSIBILITY. 
infinitely varied, but wbicli retain the almost constant 
character of a conscious, irresistible impulse ; that is, 
although the subject is quite himself, and conscious of 
his identity, he cannot resist the force which impels 
him to perform an act which he would under other 
circumstances condemn. Hurried on by this irresistible 
force, the subject feels none of the doubts and hesitations 
of a criminal who acts spontaneously; he behaves with 
a tranquillity and security which would in such a case 
ensure the success of his crime. Some of our subjects 
are aware of the power of suggestion, and when abso- 
lutely resolved to commit an act for which they fear 
that their courage or audacity may fail when the moment 
arrives, they take the precaution of receiving the sug- 
gestion from their companions. 
The danger of these criminal suggestions is increased 
by the fact that at the will of the experimenter, the act 
may be accomplished several hours, and even several 
days, after the date of suggestion. Facts of this kind, 
which were first reported by Eichet, are not exceptional, 
and have been repeatedly observed by us. 
The reality of this class of facts cannot now be dis- 
puted, but the difficulty of proof in any given case is 
considerable. We have not, in the case of impulsive 
acts, the same objective criterion as we have in halluci- 
nations and in the paralysis of movements and of 
sensation. It is, therefore, necessary for the expert to 
be cautious in his judgment. 
Loss of memory is one chief characteristic of the 
facts of suggestion. The hypnotic subject does not know 
from whom, when, and how the suggestion was received. 
This amnesia may be either spontaneous or suggested, ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
and it is a phenomenon of the waking state, which 
disappears when the subject is hypnotized anew. The 
recollection of all which occurred during hypnosis is 
then revived, and the subject is able to indicate, often 
with remarkable precision, the author of the suggestion, 
the place, day, and hour when it was made to him, 
always supposing that he has received no special sug- 
gestion of complete oblivion. Hence the question occurs 
whether an accused person who appeals to an hypnotic 
suggestion for his defence, and who submits to experi- 
ment, can be profitably examined at a time when he 
displays all the physical characteristics peculiar to the 
somnambulist state, so that there is no danger of im- 
posture. We have had occasion to show that some 
subjects are in this state capable of suppressing the 
truth, and Pitres has shown that deceit was not im- 
possible. An hypnotic subject may at the same time be 
criminal, and suggestion must be accepted only so far 
as it admits of material proof, or at any rate as far as it 
can be necessarily deduced from the facts of the case. 
Simulation is not the only danger to be avoided in 
the examination of a somnambulist subject. It is possible 
that a magistrate or physician may, by the persistence 
of his questions and his authoritative voice, unconsciously 
give suggestions which modify the subject’s recollections, 
and give rise to hallucinations of memory. There is a 
further danger that the examination of the subject may 
conflict with a previous suggestion, by which he had 
been forbidden to speak of certain events. It is true 
that a little dexterity will overcome this defence, as, 
for instance, by assuming, by means of suggestion, the 
personality of the first experimenter. But the facts we HYPNOTISM AND RESPONSIBILITY. 
375 
have given are enough to show that the examination of 
an hypnotic subject does not afford a sufficient warrant 
of her sincerity. 
There is still more reason for condemning an inquiry 
by means of hypnotism. It has been suggested that a 
suspected or accused person might be hypnotized against 
his will, in order to obtain from him admissions or in- 
formation respecting the facts of the accusation. This 
process, which resembles that of torture, would have the 
same danger of leading a suspected person to confess 
crimes of which he was not really guilty. 
We should say, in conclusion, that the suggestion of 
crime, whether made in or out of the hypnotic state, 
upon hypnotic or neuropathic subjects, can only be 
proved by the physical characteristics furnished by the 
subject. The medical expert, whose duty it is to bring 
justice to light, and not to find victims for the law, must 
be content with this observation. He may prove by 
experiment that a given subject is or is not susceptible 
to hypnotism, and that the phenomena in question may 
be produced during hypnosis, or under the influence of 
an hypnotic suggestion, but he can only give evidence 
of the possibility of the fact. It is for others to decide 
whether the fact really occurred. 
When once the suggestion has been proved, it remains 
to be seen what is the penal, and moral responsibility of 
the individual who has acted under the influence of an 
hypnotic suggestion. We think that some authors have 
been too hasty in deciding that the moral responsibility 
of the subject has absolutely ceased. We should at any 
rate inquire why he consented to be hypnotized, unless 
this was done suddenly, or by force or guile. Even if 376 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
he was not aware of the experimenter’s purpose in 
hypnotizing him, he must be held responsible for having 
voluntarily alienated his free will. This principle may 
certainly be established, and it is still more applicable if 
the subject was aware before he was hypnotized for what 
criminal act it was proposed to employ him. This 
hypothesis is by no means impossible. 
It is possible that a subject susceptible to hypnotism 
might be found in a band of swindlers or murderers who 
would willingly become the recipient of criminal sugges- 
tions. We can readily understand the use of suggestion 
in such circumstances, since those who act under the 
influence of hypnotic suggestion display more daring and 
courage, and even more intelligence, than when they act 
from their own impulse. 
Even when the subject has been hypnotized without 
his consent, when he has been taken by surprise, and has 
received the suggestion during his waking state, and has 
consequently incurred no moral responsibility, it cannot 
be denied that society is justified in defending itself 
against such a dangerous subject. So far, hypnotism has 
only made a casual appearance in a court of justice. But 
this state of things might change at any time, and sug- 
gestion may become an instrument of criminal practices. 
No one who studies the history of crime will maintain 
that society ought not to guard against such a danger. 
Hypnotic criminals ought to be treated like insane 
criminals.* 
Since the possibility of curing a certain number of 
nervous diseases by means of hypnotism is established, 
* We are glad to see that Tarde shares this opinion. See Alcan, La 
criminality comjparee, p. 142. HYPNOTISM AND RESPONSIBILITY. 
377 
it cannot be disputed that physicians are justified in 
making use of it, under the same reservation as any 
other methods of therapeutics. The physician’s responsi- 
bility is diminished if he has to treat an affection which 
would not yield to other measures; if he has obtained the 
consent of his patient and the concurrence of the patient’s 
friends, and, finally; if he can show that he has acted 
prudently, with due consideration of the danger incurred 
by the patient, and with proper precautions against these 
risks. 
Some reservations must be made with respect to 
experiment, strictly so called. 
Some facts recently observed in Italy seem to indicate 
that the practice of hypnotism may produce in the 
subject permanent nervous affections. Yet to assert that 
experiments must, therefore, be prohibited would imply 
that there are truths which it is better not to know. It 
is, however, certain that the prejudice should be over- 
come by those who have excited it, and that men are not 
freed from all responsibility by the fact that they possess 
a diploma. If, instead of considering the interest of the 
patient, the result of the experiment is the only object 
in view, it may come to pass that, on pretence of shedding 
light on the highest problems of physiology or psychology, 
inquirers who are not thoroughly acquainted with 
anatomy, physiology, and therapeutics, may imperil the 
lives of subjects committed to their care. Ignorance of 
the danger is no valid excuse for the imprudence of the 
experimenter. 
It is only on these conditions that experiments on 
the human subject should be performed, and it may be 
said in passing that there is nothing in them which need 378 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
appeal' shocking. It is indeed an every-day practice, 
since in laboratories and hospitals, patients or students 
are always willing to submit to the action of drugs or to 
physiological experiments, and experiments in hypnotism 
may he performed without inconvenience under the 
same conditions and safeguards. 
With respect to the performance of such experiments 
in public, it should he condemned, just as we condemn 
public dissections of the dead body, and vivisection in 
public. It is certain that there are still graver objections 
to hypnotic exhibitions, since they are liable to produce 
nervous affections, even in those who do not propose 
to be the subjects of experiment. 
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