1. It acts as a temporary sedative, quieting the excited nerves of the
patient. It was thus employed, for instance, on an old woman who was
near her death, and who had not been able to make necessary preparations
for that important event, being beside herself with nervous agitation.
She obtained by this means a calm condition for some seven or eight
hours. Hypnotism was for her like the visit of a good angel from heaven.
2. It is used as an anæsthetic in place of chloroform, which in many
cases cannot be applied without great danger to health, or even life.
Thus perfect insensibility may be procured and long continued, allowing
sometimes of the performance of protracted surgical operations that
would otherwise be almost impossible.
3. At other times it is employed as a mere pain-killer without depriving
the patient of consciousness, so that the hurt is felt indeed, but not
attended with keen suffering.
4. It is claimed that the skilful application of hypnotism can at times
not only alleviate the pain of an injury, but even cure nervous
affections more or less permanently, removing, for instance, the defect
of stammering.
5. There are not wanting cases in which even moral improvements are
claimed to be produced, at least in the removing of bad habits, such as
drunkenness. If hypnotism can cure intoxication permanently, or even for
a season, it deserves to be encouraged. Yet even then it must be used
with great caution, for there may be very evil consequences resulting
from its use. To realize fully the dangers and the evils attendant upon
hypnotism you must understand the three stages through which the patient
is made to pass--those of lethargy, catalepsy, and somnambulism.