Hirst recommends hypnotism in the neuroses of traumatism and emotion.

Whether suggestion can be of any essential use in neurasthenia is a question that has often been raised, but the views expressed on it differ. Bernheim has seen no good results; but this is not the experience of Eeden. Many believe that neurastheniacs are not so very suggestible, an opinion which is not shared by B^rillon, Mezeray, Mavroukakis, and others. The successful results reported by Berillon have been sharply criticized by Schrenck-Notzing.

In reference to an experiment by Heim, in which suggestion was successfully used to ward off sea-sickness, Forel mentions a similar case. Other authors also (Farez, Hamilton Osgood, and Bonnet) state that it is possible to prevent sea-sickness- by suggestion, or to stop it at the onset On theoretical grounds Bonnet thinks that it would only be possible to stop seasickness that has once really started if the patient were very highly suggestible; but from his own experience he admits the value of suggestion as a prophylactic. I believe, with Rosen-bach, to whom we owe an admirable treatise on sea-sickness, that we have here to distinguish two causes, one of which is fear and excitement. In this respect a favourable influence can certainly be exerted by suggestion. But the second is made up of physical causes, the movement of the ship and of objects on it which are watched. That suggestion may sometimes render these physical influences inoperative appears to me conceivable; but one can well understand that it only rarely succeeds.

I may here mention that as far back as 1793 a woman who had an unconquerable aversion to trusting herself afloat, once crossed the water in the somnambulic state while under the influence of so-called animal magnetism (Ferret).

Affections which can scarcely be called diseases may also yield to hypnotic suggestion. In a case of David's, a lady for many years had been liable to burst into tears at every occurrence, however slight; this condition improved under hypnotic suggestion, and five years later there had been no relapse. The dread of thunderstorms, which in some cases is almost pathological, can occasionally be combated by hypnotic treatment. Lloyd Tuckey relates that he was consulted about a young girl who had fallen in love with an unprincipled man and become engaged to him. Lloyd Tuckey was requested to bring about a rupture between the lovers by means of hypnotic suggestion. At first he refused, but finally consented on hearing the details of the case. The girl was hypnotized ostensibly for neuralgia, and proved to be a somnambulist. After the third sitting he began to suggest cautiously that she would let herself be guided by her mother and would break off the connection. She gradually acceded. In a second case a young widow of thirty was nearly letting herself be ruined financially by another woman for whom she had a romantic attachment. She was treated ostensibly for insomnia and a weakness for alcoholic drinks.

In this case also Lloyd Tuckey succeeded in suppressing the perverse tendency by means of hypnotic suggestion.

I must here append a case that came to my knowledge in Berlin, in which a young girl had fallen in love with a poor gentleman. The services of a hypnotizer were requisitioned to turn the love to hate. He succeeded, so I was told. Then the poor man who had been freed from the bonds of love suddenly inherited a fortune; so the hypnotizer was again sent for, this time to reverse the former process and turn the hate to love. I have had similar propositions made me in a whole series of such cases; but I am of opinion that on principle a physician should never do anything in hypnosis to which the patient has not given his assent while in the waking state, provided, of course, that the person in question is of sound mind.

There are, besides, many cases in which suggestion has been used in a somewhat fantastical manner. A Russian physician once told me that he was able to influence the sex of an embryo by means of suggestion. But apart from such fanciful notions, it has also been proposed to employ hypnosis for practical purposes in many other cases which are not strictly medical. I shall return to this question later on when I come to discuss the use of hypnotism in education.

Many attempts have been made to treat mental diseases by hypnosis, but certainly without any great success. This is partly because insane persons are often anything but good subjects for hypnosis (A. Voisin, Percy Smith, A. T. Myers), but is also due to the fact that such essential symptoms of mental disease as insane ideas, delusions of the senses, melancholic frame of mind, etc., are difficult to remove. It is easier to remove nervous symptoms, such as sleeplessness and headache, although the mental malady as such continues (Forel, Robertson, Kraepelin). However, in the lighter forms of mental disease - e.g., melancholia and mania, remarkable improvements have been obtained (Forel, Burckhardt, A. Voisin, Seglas, Burot, Dufour, Frank). Hysterical mental disorders have often been influenced beneficially by suggestion (Majewska). Anglade is quite satisfied that hypnosis should be used in mental cases, but only for the purpose of treating hysterical disturbances; Sturgis reports good results in cases of fixed ideas; A. Voisin, Repoud, and Locojano say they have seen good effects produced in cases of severe mental disorder.

Tokarski rightly protests against the forcible hypnotization of children, criminals, and the insane as carried out by some, such as A. Voisin, Herrero, and Caryophilis.

Forel has recommended another special method for making use of hypnosis in psychiatrics; it consists in hypnotizing the attendants in asylums so as to make them more careful with their patients. Walter Inhelder has collected and published Forel's experiences, from which it appears that after being treated by hypnosis and suggestion the attendants certainly sleep peacefully, but wake at the slightest suspicious noise made by a patient whom they are then quite able to protect from himself, or prevent injuring others. Inhelder thinks that in this way victims of melancholia who are dangerous to themselves are better looked after. Such patients could not sleep if placed in the attendants' room on account of the noise, and to provide special attendants for them would cost too much; but by employing hypnotized attendants both these difficulties can be got over.