V.A.[219] The principal inorganic objects alleged to have elicited novel
sensations are running water, metals, crystals and magnets;--including
under this last heading the magnetism of the earth, as claimed to be
felt differently by sleepers according as they lie in the north-south or
in the east-west positions.
(1) The faculty of finding _running water_ has the interest of being the
first subliminal faculty which has been so habitually utilised for
public ends as to form for its possessors a recognised and lucrative
occupation.
An exhaustive and impartial survey of the existing evidence for the
faculty of "dowsing" is given in Professor W. F. Barrett's two articles
"On the so-called Divining Rod" in the _Proceedings_ S.P.R., vol. xiii.
pp. 2-282, and vol. xv. pp. 130-383.
From this it seems clear that this power of discovery is genuine, and is
not dependent on the dowser's conscious knowledge or observation. It
forms a subliminal uprush; but whether it is akin to _genius_, as being
a subconscious manipulation of facts accessible through normal sensory
channels, or to _heteræsthesia_ (as resting on a specific sensibility to
the proximity of running water), is a question which will be variously
decided in each special case. The dowser, I should add, is not
hypnotised before he finds the water. But (as Professor Barrett has
shown) he is often thrown, presumably by self-suggestion, into a state
much resembling light hypnotic trance. The perceptivity (we may say) of
central organs, in an unfamiliar direction, is stimulated by
concentrated attention, involving a certain disturbance or abeyance of
perceptivity in other directions.
(2) I next take the case of metallæsthesia,--that alleged reaction to
special metals which has often been asserted both in hypnotic and in
hysterical cases. As a definite instance I will take the statement made
by certain physicians attending Louis Vivé,[220] that while they
supported him during a hysterical attack a gold ring on the finger of
one of them touched him for some time and left a red mark, as of a burn,
of whose origin the patient knew nothing. It is further alleged--and
this is a quite separate point, although often confused with the
first--that gold is distinguished by some subjects under conditions
where no degree of sensitiveness to weight or temperature could have
shown them that gold was near.
Now, as to the first point, _e.g._ the Louis Vivé incident, I can
readily believe that the touch of gold, unknown to the subject's
supraliminal consciousness, may produce a redness, subsequent pain, etc.
All that is needed for this is a capricious self-suggestion, like any
other hysterical idea. This self-suggestion might remain completely
unknown to the waking self, which might be puzzled as to the cause of
the redness and pain. The second claim, however, involves much more than
this. If gold is recognised through a covering, for instance, or heated
to the same point as other metals, so that no sensation of weight or
temperature can help observation, this might possibly be by virtue of
some sensibility more resembling the attraction of low organisms to
specific substances whose chemical action on them we cannot determine,
or to particular rays in the spectrum. I am not convinced that this has
yet been proved; but I should not regard it as _a priori_ impossible.
Medicamentous substances have also been claimed by many different
hypnotists as exerting from a little distance, or when in sealed tubes,
specific influences on patients. The phenomenon is of the same nature as
the alleged specific influences of metals,--all being very possibly
explicable as the mere freak of self-suggestion.
(3) Considering in the next place the alleged sensibility of certain
persons to crystals and magnets,--known to be absolutely inert in
relation to ordinary men,--we should note the alleged connection between
the perception of magnets and that of running water.
Some experiments intended to test the reality of the "magnetic sense,"
and especially of the so-called "magnetic light"--luminous appearances
described by Baron Reichenbach as being seen by his sensitives in the
neighbourhood of magnets--were carried out by a Committee of the S.P.R.,
in 1883. After careful and repeated trials with forty-five "subjects" of
both sexes and of ages between sixteen and sixty, only three of these
professed to see luminous appearances.
The value of these experiments as evidence of a magnetic sense of
course depends primarily on whether the subjects had any means, direct
or indirect, of knowing when the current was made or broken. The
precautions taken to avoid this and the other conditions of the
experiments are described in detail in the report of them in the
_Proceedings_ S.P.R., vol. i. pp. 230-37. See also a further note by the
Chairman of the Committee, Professor W. F. Barrett, vol. ii. pp. 56-60.
(4) And next as to the heteræsthesiæ alleged to be evoked by dead
organic substances, or by living organisms. We may begin by observing
that some of our senses, at any rate, form the subjective expression of
certain chemical reactions. But many kinds of chemical reactions go on
in us besides those which, for example, form the basis of our sense of
taste. And some persons are much more affected than others by certain
special reactions, which from a purely chemical point of view may or may
not be precisely the same for all. Some persons have a specific
sensibility to certain foods, or to certain drugs;--the presence of
which their stomach detects, and to which it responds with extraordinary
delicacy. Now, if it were an important object to discover the presence
of a certain drug, such a sensibility would be regarded as a precious
gift, and the discovery might be quite as valuable when made by the
stomach as it would have been if made by the nose. These are nascent
heteræsthesiæ, which, however, are not fostered either by natural
selection or by human care.
Of similar type are the specific sensibilities to the presence of
certain plants or animals,--familiar in certain cases of "rose-asthma,"
"horse-asthma," and discomfort felt if a cat is in the room. These
feelings have many causes. At one end there is ordinary mechanical
irritation by solid particles. At the other end of the scale there is,
of course, mere self-suggestion. But between the two there seems to be a
kind of sensibility which is not purely self-suggestive, and not exactly
olfactory, but resembles rather the instincts by which insects or other
animals discern each other's neighbourhood.
(5) It is perhaps through some such power of discrimination that effects
are produced on sensitive subjects by "mesmerised objects,"--assuming,
of course, that sufficient care has been taken to avoid their
discovering by ordinary means that the objects have been specially
manipulated in any way. See some experiments recorded in the
_Proceedings_ S.P.R., vol. i. pp. 260-262, and a description of
Esdaile's experiments with mesmerised water in vol. iii. p. 409; also
cases in the _Zoist_, _e.g._ vol. v. p. 129, and vol. v. p. 99.
(6) And now I pass on to medical clairvoyance, or the power of
diagnosing the present or past state of a living organism either from
actual contact or even in the absence of the invalid, and from contact
with some object which he has himself touched.
The early mesmerists, _e.g._ Puységur, Pététin, Despine, and Teste, all
had the utmost faith in the faculty of their subjects to see their own
disease and prescribe the right remedy. The same attitude of mind can be
traced all through the _Zoist_. Fahnestock was perhaps the first to
point out the ambiguity of this alleged introvision. "It is well known
to me," he says, "that when a resolution is taken, a belief cherished,
or a determination formed by persons while in the somnambulic state,
that, when they awake, although they may know nothing about it or
relative to it, they always do what has been so resolved or determined
upon at the time appointed or specified" (_Statuvolism_, p. 203), and he
quotes experiments to prove his point. With the knowledge we now possess
of the extraordinary power of self-suggestion in producing all kinds of
bodily symptoms, it is obvious that these cases cannot be adduced as
evidence of anything more. A typical instance of one of these early
observations is to be found in the _Zoist_, vol. x. p. 347. See also
Puységur, _Recherches sur l'Homme dans le Somnambulisme_ (Paris, 1811),
pp. 140 _et seq._ and 214 _et seq._; Pététin, _Electricité Animale_
(Paris, 1808); Despine, _Observations de Médecine Pratique_
(1838)--"Estelle nous a indiqué tous les soirs, dans sa crise, ce qu'il
y avait à faire pour le lendemain, tant pour le régime alimentaire que
pour les moyens médicamentaires" (p. 38).
V. B. Some of the most striking cases of moral reforms produced by
hypnotic suggestion are those recorded by Dr. Auguste Voisin. For
instance:--
In the summer of 1884, there was at the Salpêtrière a young woman
of a deplorable type.[221] Jeanne Sch---- was a criminal lunatic,
filthy in habits, violent in demeanour, and with a lifelong
history, of impurity and theft. M. Voisin, who was one of the
physicians on the staff, undertook to hypnotise her on May 31st, at
a time when she could only be kept quiet by the strait jacket and
_bonnet d'irrigation_, or perpetual cold douche to the head. She
would not--indeed, she could not--look steadily at the operator,
but raved and spat at him. M. Voisin kept his face close to hers,
and followed her eyes wherever she moved them. In about ten minutes
a stertorous sleep ensued, and in five minutes more she passed into
a sleep-waking state, and began to talk incoherently. The process
was repeated on many days, and gradually she became sane when in
the trance, though she still raved when awake. Gradually, too, she
became able to obey in waking hours commands impressed on her in
the trance--first trivial orders (to sweep the room and so forth),
then orders involving a marked change of behaviour. Nay more; in
the hypnotic state she voluntarily expressed repentance for her
past life, made a confession which involved more evil than the
police were cognisant of (though it agreed with facts otherwise
known), and finally of her own impulse made good resolves for the
future. Two years later, M. Voisin wrote to me (July 31st, 1886)
that she was then a nurse in a Paris hospital, and that her conduct
was irreproachable. It appeared, then, that this poor woman, whose
history since the age of thirteen had been one of reckless folly
and vice, had become capable of the steady, self-controlled work of
a nurse at a hospital, the reformed character having first
manifested itself in the hypnotic state, partly in obedience to
suggestion, and partly as the natural result of the
tranquillisation of morbid passions.
M. Dufour, the medical head of another asylum,[222] has adopted
hypnotic suggestion as a regular element in his treatment. "Dès à
présent," he says, "notre opinion est faite: sans crainte de nous
tromper, nous affirmons que l'hypnotisme peut rendre service dans
le traitement des maladies mentales." As was to be expected, he
finds that only a small proportion of lunatics are hypnotisable;
but the effect produced on these, whether by entrancement or
suggestion, is uniformly good. His best subject is a depraved young
man, who after many convictions for crimes (including attempted
murder) has become a violent lunatic. "T.," says Dr. Dufour, "a été
un assez mauvais sujet. Nous n'avons plus à parler au présent,
tellement ses sentiments moraux ont été améliorés par
l'hypnotisme." This change and amelioration of character (over and
above the simple recovery of sanity) has been a marked feature in
some of Dr. Voisin's cases as well.
See also a case given by Dr. Voisin in the _Revue de l'Hypnotisme_, vol.
iii., 1889, p. 130.
V. C. The subject of these experiments in telepathic hypnotisation was
Professor Pierre Janet's well-known subject, Madame B. The experiments
were carried out with her at Havre, by Professer Janet and Dr. Gibert, a
leading physician there, and described in the _Bulletins de la Société
de Psychologie Physiologique_, Tome I., p. 24, and in the _Revue
Philosophique_, August 1886.
I give the following extract from my own notes of experiments, April
20th to 24th, 1886, taken at the time in conjunction with Dr. A. T.
Myers, and forming the bulk of a paper presented to the Société de
Psychologie Physiologique on May 24th (also published in _Proceedings_
S.P.R., vol. iv. pp. 131-37.)
In the evening (22nd) we all dined at M. Gibert's, and in the
evening M. Gibert made another attempt to put her to sleep at a
distance from his house in the Rue Séry--she being at the Pavillon,
Rue de la Ferme--and to bring her to his house by an effort of
will. At 8.55 he retired to his study, and MM. Ochorowicz,
Marillier, Janet, and A. T. Myers went to the Pavilion, and waited
outside in the street, out of sight of the house. At 9.22 Dr. Myers
observed Madame B. coming half-way out of the garden-gate, and
again retreating. Those who saw her more closely observed that she
was plainly in the somnambulic state, and was wandering about and
muttering. At 9.25 she came out (with eyes persistently closed, so
far as could be seen), walked quickly past MM. Janet and Marillier,
without noticing them, and made for M. Gibert's house, though not
by the usual or shortest route. (It appeared afterwards that the
bonne had seen her go into the _salon_ at 8.45, and issue thence
asleep at 9.15; had not looked in between those times.[223]) She
avoided lamp-posts, vehicles, etc., but crossed and recrossed the
street repeatedly. No one went in front of her or spoke to her.
After eight or ten minutes she grew much more uncertain in gait,
and paused as though she would fall. Dr. Myers noted the moment in
the Rue Faure; it was 9.35. At about 9.40 she grew bolder, and at
9.45 reached the street in front of M. Gibert's house. There she
met him, but did not notice him, and walked into his house, where
she rushed hurriedly from room to room on the ground-floor. M.
Gibert had to take her hand before she recognised him. She then
grew calm.
M. Gibert said that from 8.55 to 9.20 he thought intently about
her, from 9.20 to 9.35 he thought more feebly; at 9.35 he gave the
experiment up, and began to play billiards; but in a few minutes
began to will her again. It appeared that his visit to the
billiard-room had coincided with her hesitation and stumbling in
the street. But this coincidence may of course have been
accidental....
Out of a series of twenty-five similar experiments nineteen were
successful. The experiments were made at different times in the day and
at varying intervals, in order to avoid the effects of expectancy in the
subject.
APPENDICES
TO