"At first a suggestive treatment was undertaken, in order to improve Mr. N.'s general psychical condition. The first hypnosis was carried out in the presence of several other patients who had been hypnotized first. As our patient's turn was approaching he became extremely excited, was seized with a sensation of great fear, and also with palpitation, and began to get jerky, hysterical convulsions. He soon recovered, in response to energetic suggestions, and to treating the attack as if it were a mere nothing, which would soon pass over, and then the hypnosis was conducted quite smoothly. The patient proved himself to be accessible to suggestion, and was easily brought into the hypotactic stage, with beginning amnesia in the first sitting. The suggestions which were given at first dealt with improving his sleep, removing all his minor complaints, and replacing his depressed mood by a collected and contented one. In this the result was striking. His sleep became longer and quieter, his mood became more composed, even if it did remain somewhat unstable. He acknowledged the beneficial influence of each hypnosis himself. He took an active part in conversations from this time onward, was energetic in going for walks or bicycle rides in the neighborhood, gained confidence in himself again, and looked into the future full of hope.

" The condition of his memory naturally absorbed our special interest. The memory for the present and for recent times could not be considered good, but could scarcely be regarded as being morbidly changed. Mr. N. presented the picture of a person who, in ordinary life, would be styled ' forgetful,' such as one meets with in almost every social sphere. For example, he forgot to fulfill a commission, which he had been requested to carry out immediately, for several days; he failed to recognize a shop again after a short time, because the window-blinds were pulled down to keep off the sun; he often left parcels in shops, and he misplaced things frequently, and bad great difficulty in finding them again. His memory seemed to be specially imperfect for names of people. Mr. N. was quite conscious of this weakness, and therefore wrote down important things at once, to remind himself of them; but he obviously did not trust his memory as far as it could be trusted, since he lost much of his self-confidence as the result of the disclosure of his memorial defect.

" Next, great interest was evinced in an investigation to see if some impression or other had remained from the intermedia-ate period between the time when his memory had gradually been lost and that when it returned. It was hoped that some such impression might be spontaneously reproduced, and that the memory might partly or wholly be reinstated in connection with this. It was therefore intentional that suggestion was not applied in this direction at first. The following was elicited: On being asked about the name of the ship on board which he had traveled home to Europe, Mr. N. thought that it was Orotava, but this was only mentioned after he had been assisted with the first letters of the name. On mentioning the real name Oroya to him, he did not appear to recognize it. The patient had mentioned the name of a steamship Orotava in a letter which he had written during the time when he was quite well as being the name of the ship which would carry the letter from Australia home. The memorial impression of the word Orotava must, therefore, have been preserved in his brain, but must have been falsely associated on its turning up without being connected with any other impression, and thus would be substituted for the word Oroya, which certainly has a similar sound.

"Some days later the patient was visited by his parents, who found their son absolutely unchanged in himself. On being reminded by them of the conclusions of his studies in A., of the applications for his new post, and of the preparations for his sea-trip, he failed to recognize anything. His parents further brought the letters with them which the patient had written to them during his journey and during the early part of his residence in Australia. Mr. N. recognized his own handwriting in them, it is true; but for the rest they seemed to him to be something quite new and unknown. One of these letters was then read aloud to him, in which he described minutely his rooms in Z.; this, too, met with a negative result. The rest of the letters were kept from him for the time, so that the remembrance of what he read and the memories of what he had actually experienced, which might chance to make their appearance, should not be hopelessly confused. Besides, he himself requested that this should be done, for these letters excited and confused him.

"By a lucky chance, a certain Mr, D., from Australia, who had frequently met our patient in Z., was staying in Zurich at this time for the benefit of his health. Both doctor and patient looked forward to the visit of this gentleman, whom the patient had not known before he went to Australia, with equal interest. Shortly before, Mr. N. remarked, on being asked, that he could not remember the gentleman at all, nor yet form any picture of him. He, however, believed that he knew that some gentleman or other had two children, and the name of one of them was a very striking one, probably Achillea. This might be the gentleman. Mr. D. greeted the patient as an old acquaintance, reminded him of this and that occurrence in Z., and of the time they had spent together, while not only the personality of Mr. D., but also all that he said, were absolutely strange and new to the patient. He felt very awkward in his presence, as if he were sitting on hot bricks. On the other hand, it turned out that Mr. D. actually did have two children, and that one of them was called Alarich, but not Achilles. But there was not the least agreement between the conception which the patient attempted to call forth about the ages, height, and appearance of the children and Mr. D.'s actual descriptions. Mr. D. assured us that as long as he had had the opportunity of observing him in Z. - that is, until his departure for the interior - the patient had always created a perfectly normal impression on him, not only in his speech, but also in his dealings.