According to Liébeault, the difference between the sexes is rather less than I per cent. The majority of Esdaile's subjects were men, and, as we have seen, Mr. Wingfield was able to hypnotise about 80 per cent. of the Cambridge undergraduates at the first attempt.

Are Children and Old People Insusceptible ?

Wetterstrand found that all children from three or four to fifteen years of age could be influenced without exception. Dr. Bérillon. out of 250 cases in children, hypnotised 80 per cent, at the first attempt. Lie*beault also found children peculiarly susceptible, and one of his statistical tables records 100 per cent, of successes up to the age of fourteen. In adult life age apparently makes little difference. In the same table we find that from the ages of fourteen to twenty-one the failures were about 10 per cent., and from sixty-three years and upwards about 13 per cent.

Can Hypnosis be Induced by Mechanical Means alone ?

This question is answered by the Nancy School in the negative, and my own, experience agrees with this. I know of no single instance where hypnosis has followed the employment of mechanical means, when mental influences have been carefully excluded, and the subjects have been absolutely ignorant of what was expected of them. No one was ever hypnotised by looking at a lark-mirror until Dr. Luys had borrowed this lure from the bird-catchers and invested it with hypnotic power. On the other hand, any physical method will succeed with a susceptible subject who knows what is expected of him.

Are Hypnotic Phenomena divided into three Distinct Stages?

The stages described by the Salpêtrière School, as arising from definite physical stimuli, have never been noticed by other observers. Amongst the many hundred hypnotised subjects I have seen, none have responded to the manipulations which produced such striking phenomena at the Salpêtrière. On the other hand, I and many others have found that we could easily evoke these stages by verbal suggestion, and train the patients to manifest them at any given signal. The condition, however, was always an artificial one.

Is Hypnotism of Little Therapeutic Value?

On the one hand, we have the negative evidence of a few cases observed at the Salpêtrière, where experiment, not cure, seemed the main end. On the other, the positive evidence, drawn from many thousands of cases, where hypnotism has been successfully employed for the relief or cure of disease.

Is Hypnotism Dangerous ?

The Salpêtrière School answer this in the affirmative, asserting that hysterical symptoms have sometimes appeared after the attempted induction of hypnosis. That such phenomena should occur with them is not surprising, when one considers the nature of the subjects and their surroundings, and the violent and startling methods sometimes resorted to. The slight accidents which they record have not occurred in other and more experienced hands. Professor Forel says: - "Liébeault, Bernheim, Wetterstrand, van Eeden, de Jong, Moll, I myself, and the other followers of the Nancy School, declare categorically that, although we have seen many thousands of hypnotised persons we have never observed a single case of mental or bodily harm caused by hypnosis, but, on the contrary, have seen many cases of illness relieved or cured by it." This statement I can fully endorse, as I have never seen an unpleasant symptom, even of the most trivial nature, follow the skilled induction of hypnosis.

See also an important paper by Dr. Bramwell, relating chiefly to the therapeutic value of hypnotism, and entitled "Hypnotism: A Reply to Recent Criticisms," in Brain, Part lxxxv. (Spring, 1899), p. 141.

512 A. It has been maintained by Rifat (see Revue de l'Hypnotisme, 1888, p. 297) that during the process of narcotisation, whether by chloroform, choral, morphia, or any other narcotic, there is a period in which the patient is as suggestible as if he were in the hypnotic state. This assertion is repeated by Herrero, of Valladolid (Revue de l'Hypnotisme, January 1890, p. 195). The suggestible period in chloroformic sleep is, however, very short, unless the chloroformisation is but slight. In one case Herrero found that five or six inhalations of the narcotic sufficed to put the subject into a somnabulic state which lasted as long as he wished. This subject had been refractory until then to ordinary methods of hypno-tisation; but the suggestion now given that in future simple fixation of the attention would suffice to produce sleep, was obeyed. A similar result was obtained in three other cases of refractory subjects. Vet another case, in which the resistance to suggested sleep was voluntary and intentional, deserves more detailed notice, as it throws some light on the probable nature of this method of inducing somnambulism. It is the case of a lady who looked upon hypnotism as a work of the devil, and whose objection to this therapeutic means had the strength of a monomania.

Herrero proposed chloroform as the only remedy possible - breathing not a word more of hypnotism. Fifteen grams of chloroform were sufficient to induce, in less than five minutes, the suggestible period of the anaesthetic sleep. The next day only three grams were needed; and on the following day, the inhalator, empty of chloroform, and applied to the nostrils, produced the requisite effect. After the fourth day the patient acknowledged her mistake, and allowed Herrero to hypnotise her without the superfluous apparatus. The chloroform itself had here apparently acted less as a drug than as a suggestion.

512 B. Compare with this last case those reported by Dr. Auguste Voisin (Revue de l'Hypnotisme, October 1891, pp. 114-16). He has obtained hypnotic sleep in cases of acute mania and obsession by means of slight chloroformisation. "Patients (he says) who throw themselves violently about and struggle and scream, fall after a few seconds into a deep sleep, and answer my questions and my orders in a subdued tone. This sudden calm after the storm is a very impressive sight. A few drops of chloroform are sufficient to bring this about. It cannot be said that chloroformic sleep has been induced. Moreover, this sleep may last several days, and suggestion may put an end to it. Under the same conditions it has been possible to obtain hypnotic sleep; it is identical with the other, and lasts as long as I like." Voisin's conclusion is that the narcotic diminishes the agitation of the maniac, or lowers the intensity of the obsession, thus permitting the patient to fix his attention upon the idea of sleep.

See also Schrenck-Notzing: Die Bedeutungnarcotischer Mittel für den Hypnotismus (1891). He recommends the use of narcotics in extreme cases; and thinks that the hypnosis induced by means of a narcotic is deeper than that which ordinary hypnotic methods applied for the first time generally produce.