I say, "You are yawning." The hypnotized yawns. "You feel an irritation in your nose, and must sneeze three times in succession." The hypnotized immediately sneezes three times in the most natural way. Vomiting, hiccough, etc., can be produced in the same manner. One is dealing with the so-called psychical reflexes here, which are produced by perceptions.

The most extraordinary phenomena of suggestion are found in the vaso-motor, secretory, and exudative actions. One can produce menstruation in women by simple prophesying during hypnosis, or can cause it to stop. One can regulate its intensity and duration. I have even been able to obtain with certainty punctuality to the minute, both as regard the commencement and the termination in some subjects. Blushing and becoming pale can be achieved. In the same way, reddening of certain parts of the body or areas of the skin, bleeding of the nose, and even the bleeding habit, can be produced. However, these are very rare results. The pulse can be quickened or slowed occasionally.

I have been able to regulate the menstruation in several cases for years in such a way that the period always appeared at the same date of the month - e.g., the first - no matter whether the month had thirty-one, thirty, or twenty-eight days. These cases will be given later. The matter is of importance for the theory of the relation of menstruation to ovulation. One gynaecologist told me that he regarded such menses obtained by suggestion as uterine haemorrhages, and not as menstruation. Could such an opinion hold good if the menstruation remains regulated for years, and the woman has normal pregnancies and labors in the meantime? The usual theories on the relation between ovulation and menstruation are still very insecure. Animals ovulate without menstruating, and the same takes place in some women. In my opinion there are two possibilities;

(1) Either menstruation has nothing whatever to do with ovulation, and only serves to form the decidua more or less periodically, and in this way to freshen up the uterine mucosa, so that the ovum can attach itself well. For this purpose, however, a bleeding would not be absolutely necessary; a free fluxion or hyperemia would appear to suffice. There is much which speaks in favor of this view.

(2) Or that both processes are so intimately connected with one another that the ripening of the ovum does not necessitate the immediate casting out of it, but that the ripened ovum can wait in the Graafian follicle, and that the same periodical nerve process of the fluxion or menstruation produces at the same time the casting out of the ripe ova from the Graafian follicles and the fluxion or uterine bleeding, by the osmotic process in the follicles being favored by !he hyperaemia.

The way in which menstruation depends on suggestion admits of both these explanations in my opinion, but does not tally with the view that menstruation is produced purely as secondary to ovulation, I refer those who still are skeptical about the influence of suggestion to Delius's work.1 Delius records sixty eases of menstrual disturbances which were nearly all cured by suggestion, or very materially improved.

It is easy to produce the secretion of sweat by suggestion, or to inhibit it. The influence on the movements of the bowels is of greater importance. One can produce diarrhoea or constipation very often, or, what is of greater value, stop it. I have completely cured obstinate cases of constipation which have lasted for years by a few suggestions (vide infra). The same applies to diarrhoea, as long as it does not depend on inflammatory conditions or on fermentation. The stimulation of the appetite, of the digestion, and the removal of idiosyncrasies by suggestion behave similarly. The secretion of the gastric glands is regulated or influenced without doubt by means of the suggested perception. In the influencing of menstruation a vaso-motor paralysis simply or a vaso-motor spasm is produced by the perception. Thus it can be demonstrated ad oculos how completely independent the menstruation can be from ovulation. The same process takes place by the induction or inhibition of erections by suggestion, and in this way pollutions can be influenced. Urticarial wheals can be produced in certain very suggestible persons by simply touching the, skin. One can produce their name in graphic wheals on their skin with a pencil (dermographism). I regard this phenomenon of pathological reflex irritability as not only related to urticaria, but also to hysterical suggestibility. Von Sebrenck and others have controverted in the other direction, and have explained the matter simply as a pathological, urticaria-like phenomenon. But a suggestibility which is pathologically increased in one special direction is nevertheless pathological, as are all the pathological increasings or diminishings of the normal life phenomena. One should not set up antitheses where none are present. Von Shrenck doubts the authenticity of the suggestive vesication. Against this, Wetterstrand 2 produced two gangrenous vesicles by means of suggestion in somnambulism. One of these, situated in the middle of the hand, was produced on October 7, 1890, and the other, on the thumb side of the hand, was produced on October 14, and he photographed them on October 15. Both vesicles appeared eight hours after the suggestion was given. The patient, a nineteen-years-old epileptic, was controlled and carefully watched, and no attacks took place from July 15, 1889, until the day Wetterstrand sent in his article on December 14, 1890. The very excellent original photograph which Wetterstrand sent me is in my possession. I have seen one other case like this in the practice of Dr. Marcel Briand in Paris. The patient was an hysterical female, and the blisters were produced beneath a newspaper by suggestion. While these cases are very rare, it is very easy to produce bleeding from the mucous membrane by suggestion.

1 Delius, "The Influence of Cerebral Processes on Menstruation, and the Treatment of Disturbances of Menstruation by Hypnotic Suggestion." (Wie-ner Klinische Rundachou, Nos. 11 and 12, 1005.)

2 Wetterstrand, " Hypnotism," p. 31. (Vienna and Leipzig, 1891.)

The following cases seem to me to be interesting, and to be very nearly related to, or identical with, suggestion: A nervous, sensitive parson was slandered by a woman, who perjured herself in a court of law. Shortly after this the parson's hair in the neighborhood of both temples turned white. Later, however, his hair regained its black or brown color - i.e., the white hairs gradually fell out, and were replaced by brown hairs. I myself have treated a woman, aged forty-eight years, whose mind was severely affected. Her hair had rapidly turned white one and a half years previously, in consequence of deeply affecting experiences and great exhaustion. While she was in the asylum under my care she improved bodily, and she got a copious growth of dark brown hair. It looked as if every bunch of hair was brown at the roots and white at the tips; but, on looking more closely, one found that the brown hairs were only shorter, and thus covered the roots of the long white hairs. The latter were much longer and also much sparser, as they had fallen out considerably six months after they had turned white. I published this case in the Zeitschrift fur Hypnolis-mus in 1897.