[Footnote 1: Translated for _Science_ from _Der Spinx_.]
The voluntary production of those abnormal conditions of the nerves
which to-day are denoted by the term "hypnotic researches" has
manifested itself in all ages and among most of the nations that are
known to us. Within modern times these phenomena were first reduced to
a system by Mesmer, and, on this account, for the future deserve the
attention of the scientific world. The historical description of this
department, if one intends to give a connected account of its
development, and not a series of isolated facts, must begin with a
notice of Mesmer's personality, and we must not confound the more
recent development of our subject with its past history.
The period of mesmerism is sufficiently understood from the numerous
writings on the subject, but it would be a mistake to suppose that in
Braid's "Exposition of Hypnotism" the end of this subject had been
reached. In a later work I hope to show that the fundamental ideas of
biomagnetism have not only had in all periods of this century capable
and enthusiastic advocates, but that even in our day they have been
subjected to tests by French and English investigators from which they
have issued triumphant.
The second division of this historical development is carried on by
Braid, whose most important service was emphasizing the subjectivity
of the phenomena. Without any connection with him, and yet by
following out almost exactly the same experiments, Professor
Heidenhain reached his physiological explanations. A third division is
based upon the discovery of the hypnotic condition in animals, and
connects itself to the _experimentum mirabile_. In 1872 the first
writings on this subject appear from the pen of the physiologist
Czermak; and since then the investigations have been continued,
particularly by Professor Preyer.
While England and Germany were led quite independently to the study of
the same phenomena, France experienced a strange development, which
shows, as nothing else could, how truth everywhere comes to the
surface, and from small beginnings swells to a flood which carries
irresistibly all opposition with it. This fourth division of the
history of hypnotism is the more important, because it forms the
foundation of a transcendental psychology, and will exert a great
influence upon our future culture; and it is this division to which we
wish to turn our attention. We have intentionally limited ourselves to
a chronological arrangement, since a systematic account would
necessarily fall into the study of single phenomena, and would far
exceed the space offered to us.
James Braid's writings, although they were discussed in detail in
Littré and Robin's "Lexicon," were not at all the cause of Dr.
Philips' first books, who therefore came more independently to the
study of the same phenomena. Braid's theories became known to him
later by the observations made upon them in Béraud's "Elements of
Physiology" and in Littré's notes in the translation of Müller's
"Handbook of Physiology;" and he then wrote a second brochure, in
which he gave in his allegiance to braidism. His principal effort was
directed to withdrawing the veil of mystery from the occurrences, and
by a natural explanation relegating them to the realm of the known.
The trance caused by regarding fixedly a gleaming point produces in
the brain, in his opinion, an accumulation of a peculiar nervous
power, which he calls "electrodynamism." If this is directed in a
skillful manner by the operator upon certain points, it manifests
itself in certain situations and actions that we call hypnotic. Beyond
this somewhat questionable theory, both books contained a detailed
description of some of the most important phenomena; but with the
practical meaning of the phenomena, and especially with their
therapeutic value, the author concerned himself but slightly. Just on
account of this pathological side, however, a certain attention has
been paid to hypnotism up to the present time.
In the year 1847 two surgeons in Poictiers, Drs. Ribaut and Kiaros,
employed hypnotism with great success in order to make an operation
painless. "This long and horrible work," says a journal of the day,
"was much more like a demonstration in a dissecting room than an
operation performed upon a living being." Although this operation
produced such an excitement, yet it was twelve years later before
decisive and positive official intelligence was given of these facts
by Broca, Follin, Velpeau, and Guérinau. But these accounts, as well
as the excellent little book by Dr. Azam, shared the fate of their
predecessors. They were looked upon by students with distrust, and by
the disciples of Mesmer with scornful contempt.
The work of Demarquay and Giraud Teulon showed considerable advance in
this direction. The authors, indeed, fell back upon the theory of
James Braid, which they called stillborn, and of which they said,
"_Elle est restée accrochée en route_;" but they did not satisfy
themselves with a simple statement of facts, as did Gigot Suard in his
work that appeared about the same time. Through systematic experiments
they tried to find out where the line of hypnotic phenomena intersected
the line of the realm of the known. They justly recognized that
hypnotism and hysteria have many points of likeness, and in this way
were the precursors of the present Parisian school. They say that from
magnetic sleep to the hypnotic condition an iron chain can be easily
formed from the very same organic elements that we find in historical
conditions.
At the same time, as if to bring an experimental proof of this
assertion, Lasigue published a report on catalepsy in persons of
hysterical tendencies, which be afterward incorporated into his larger
work. Among his patients, those who were of a quiet and lethargic
temperament, by simply pressing down the eyelids, were made to enter
into a peculiar state of languor, in which cataleptic contractions
were easily produced, and which forcibly recalled hypnotic phenomena.
"One can scarcely imagine," says the author, "a more remarkable
spectacle than that of a sick person sunk in deep sleep, and
insensible to all efforts to arouse him, who retains every position in
which he is placed, and in it preserves the immobility and rigidity of
a statue." But this impulse also was in vain, and in only a few cases
were the practical tests followed up with theoretical explanations.
Unbounded enthusiasm and unjust blame alike subsided into a silence
that was not broken for ten years. Then Charles Richet, a renowned
scientist, came forward in 1875, impelled by the duty he felt he owed
as a priest of truth, and made some announcements concerning the
phenomena of somnambulism; and in countless books, all of which are
worthy of attention, he has since then considered the problem from its
various sides.
He separates somnambulism into three periods. The word here is used
for this whole class of subjects as Richet himself uses it, viz.,
_torpeur_, _excitation_, and _stupeur_. In the first, which is
produced by the so-called magnetic passes and the fixing of the eyes,
silence and languor come over the subject. The second period, usually
produced by constant repetition of the experiment, is characterized
chiefly by sensibility to hallucination and suggestion. The third
period has as its principal characteristics supersensibility of the
muscles and lack of sensation. Yet let it be noticed that these
divisions were not expressed in their present clearness until 1880;
while in the years between 1872 and 1880, from an entirely different
quarter, a similar hypothesis was made out for hypnotic phenomena.
Jean Martin Charcot, the renowned neurologist of the Parisian
Salpetriere, without exactly desiring it, was led into the study of
artificial somnambulism by his careful experiments in reference to
hysteria, and especially by the question of _metallotherapie_, and in
the year 1879 had prepared suitable demonstrations, which were given
in public lectures at the Salpetriere. In the following years he
devoted himself to closer investigation of this subject, and was
happily and skillfully assisted by Dr. Paul Richer, with whom were
associated many other physicians, such as Bourneville, Regnard, Fere,
and Binet. The investigations of these men present the peculiarity
that they observe hypnotism from its clinical and nosographical side,
which side had until now been entirely neglected, and that they
observe patients of the strongest hysterical temperaments. "If we can
reasonably assert that the hypnotic phenomena which depend upon the
disturbance of a regular function of the organism demand for their
development a peculiar temperament, then we shall find the most marked
phenomena when we turn to an hysterical person."
The inferences of the Parisian school up to this time are somewhat the
following, but their results, belonging almost entirely to the medical
side of the question, can have no place in this discussion. They
divide the phenomena of hystero-hypnotism, which they also call
_grande hysterie_, into three plainly separable classes, which Charcot
designates catalepsy, lethargy, and somnambulism.
Catalepsy is produced by a sudden sharp noise, or by the sight of a
brightly gleaming object. It also produces itself in a person who is
in a state of lethargy, and whose eyes are opened. The most striking
characteristic of the cataleptic condition is immobility. The subject
retains every position in which he is placed, even if it is an
unnatural one, and is only aroused by the action of suggestion from
the rigor of a statue to the half life of an automaton. The face is
expressionless and the eyes wide open. If they are closed, the patient
falls into a lethargy.
In this second condition, behind the tightly closed lids, the pupils
of the eyes are convulsively turned upward. The body is almost
entirely without sensation or power of thought. Especially
characteristic of lethargy is the hyper-excitability of the nerves and
muscles (_hyperexcitabilite neuromusculaire_), which manifests itself
at the slightest touch of any object. For instance, if the extensor
muscles of the arm are lightly touched, the arm stiffens immediately,
and is only made flexible again by a hard rubbing of the same muscles.
The nerves also react in a similar manner. The irritation of a nerve
trunk not only contracts all the small nerves into which it branches,
but also all those muscles through which it runs.
Finally, the somnambulistic condition proceeds from catalepsy or from
lethargy by means of a slight pressure upon the _vertex_, and is
particularly sensitive to every psychical influence. In some subjects
the eyes are open, in others closed. Here, also, a slight irritation
produces a certain amount of rigor in the muscle that has been
touched, but it does not weaken the antagonistic muscle, as in
lethargy, nor does it vanish under the influence of the same
excitement that has produced it. In order to put an end to the
somnambulistic condition, one must press softly upon the pupil of the
eye, upon which the subject becomes lethargic, and is easily roused by
breathing upon him. In this early stage, somnambulism appears very
infrequently.
Charcot's school also recognize the existence of compound conditions,
the history of whose symptoms we must not follow here. These slightly
sketched results, as well as a number of other facts, were only
obtained in the course of several years; yet in 1882 the fundamental
investigations of this school were considered virtually concluded.
Then Dumont-Pallier, the head of the Parisian Hospital Pitié, came
forward with a number of observations, drawn also exclusively from the
study of hystero-hypnotism, and yet differing widely from those
reached by the physicians of the Salpetriere. In a long series of
communications, he has given his views, which have in their turn been
violently attacked, especially by Magnin and Bérillon. I give only the
most important points.
According to these men, the hyper-excitability of the nerves and
muscles is present not only in the lethargic condition, but in all
three periods; and in order to prove this, we need only apply the
suitable remedy, which must be changed for each period and every
subject. Slight irritations of the skin prove this most powerfully. A
drop of warm water or a ray of sunshine produces contractions of a
muscle whose skin covering they touch.
Dumont-Pallier and Magnin accede to the theory of intermediate stages,
and have tried to lay down rules for them with as great exactness as
Charcot's school. They also are very decided about the three periods,
whose succession does not appear to them as fixed; but they discovered
a new fundamental law which regulates the production as well as the
cessation of the condition--_La cause qui fait, defait_; that is, the
stimulus which produces one of the three periods needs only to be
repeated in order to do away with that condition. From this the
following diagram of hypnotic conditions is evolved:
[Illustration]
And, furthermore, Dumont-Pallier should be considered as the founder
of a series of experiments, for he was the first one to show in a
decisive manner that the duality of the cerebral system was proved by
these hypnotic phenomena; and his works, as well as those of Messrs.
Bérillon and Descourtis, have brought to light the following facts:
Under hypnotic conditions, the psychical activity of a brain
hemisphere may be suppressed without nullifying the intellectual
activity or consciousness. Both hemispheres may be started at the same
time in different degrees of activity; and also, when the grade is the
same, they may be independently the seat of psychical manifestations
which are in their natures entirely different. In close connection
with this and with the whole doctrine of hemi-hypnotism, which is
founded upon these facts, stand the phenomena of thought transference,
which we must consider later.
As an addition to the investigations of Charcot and Dumont-Pallier,
Brémaud, in 1884, made the discovery that there was a fourth hypnotic
state, "fascination," which preceded the three others, and manifested
itself by a tendency to muscular contractions, as well as through
sensitiveness to hallucination and suggestion, but at the same time
left to the subject a full consciousness of his surroundings and
remembrance of what had taken place. Descourtis, in addition,
perceived a similar condition in the transition from hypnotic sleep to
waking, which he called _delire posthypnotique_, and, instead of using
the word "fascination" to express the opening stage, he substituted
"captation." According to him, the diagram would be the following:
[Illustration]
This whole movement, which I have tried to sketch, and whose chief
peculiarity is that it considers hypnotism a nervous malady, and one
that must be treated clinically and nosographically, was opposed in
1880 in two directions--one source of opposition producing great
results, while the other fell to the ground. The latter joined itself
to the theory of the mesmerists, and tried, by means of exact
experiments, to measure the fluid emanating from the human body--an
undertaking which gave slight promise of any satisfactory result.
Baillif in his thesis (1878) and Chevillard in his (for spiritualists)
very interesting books, tried, by means of various arguments, to
uphold the fluidic explanation. Despine also thought that by its help
he had been able to explain the phenomena; but it was Baréty who, in
the year 1881, first turned general attention in this direction.
According to him, mankind possesses a nerve force which emanates from
him in different kinds of streams. Those coming from the eyes and
fingers produce insensibility to pain, while those generated by the
breath cause hypnotic conditions. This nerve force goes out into the
ether, and there obeys the laws that govern light, being broken into
spectra, etc.
Claude Perronnet has more lately advanced similar views, and his
greatest work is now in press. Frederick W.H. Myers and Edmund Gurney
sympathize with these views, and try to unite them with the mesmerist
doctrine of personal influence and their theory of telepathy. The
third champion in England of hypnotism, Prof. Hack Tuke, on the
contrary, sympathizes entirely with the Parisian school, only
differing from them in that he has experimented with satisfactory
results upon healthy subjects. In France this view has lately been
accepted by Dr. Bottey, who recognizes the three hypnotic stages in
healthy persons, but has observed other phenomena in them, and
vehemently opposes the conception of hypnotism as a malady. His
excellently written book is particularly commended to those who wish
to experiment in the same manner as the French investigator, without
using hysterical subjects.
The second counter current that opposed itself to the French
neuropathologists, and produced the most lasting impression, is
expressed by the magic word "suggestion." A generation ago, Dr.
Liebault, the patient investigator and skillful physician, had
endeavored to make a remedial use of suggestion in his clinic at
Nancy. Charles Richet and others have since referred to it, but
Professor Bernheim was the first one to demonstrate its full
significance in the realm of hypnotism. According to him,
suggestion--that is, the influence of any idea, whether received
through the senses or in a hypersensible manner (_suggestion
mentale_)--is the key to all hypnotic phenomena. He has not been able
in a single case to verify the bodily phenomena of _grandehypnotisme_
without finding suggestion the primary cause, and on this account
denies the truth of the asserted physical causes. Bernheim says that
when the intense expectance of the subject has produced a compliant
condition, a peculiar capacity is developed to change the idea that
has been received into an action as well as a great acuteness of
acceptation, which together will produce all those phenomena that we
should call by the name of "pathological sleep," since they are only
separable in a gradual way from the ordinary sleep and dream
conditions. Bernheim is particularly strenuous that psychology should
appear in the foreground of hypnotism, and on this point has been
strongly upheld by men like Professors Beaunis and Richet.
The possibility of suggestion in waking conditions, and also a long
time after the sleep has passed off (_suggestions posthypnotiques ou
suggestions a (longue) echeance_), as well as the remarkable capacity
of subjects to change their personality (_changement de la
personnalite objectivation des types_), have been made the subject of
careful investigation. The voluntary production of bleeding and
stigmata through spiritual influence has been asserted, particularly
by Messrs. Tocachon, Bourru, and Burot. The judicial significance of
suggestion has been discussed by Professor Liegeois and Dr. Ladame.
Professor Pitres in Bordeaux is one of the suggestionists, though
differing in many points from the Nancy school.
This whole tendency brings into prominence the psychical influence,
while it denies the production of these results from purely physical
phenomena, endeavoring to explain them in a different manner. These
explanations carry us into two realms, the first of which has been
lately opened, and at present seems to abound more in enigmas than in
solutions.
_Metallotherapie_, which was called into existence by Dr. Burg, and
further extended by Dr. Gellé, contains a special point of
interest--the so-called transference in the case of hysterically or
hypnotically affected persons. Transference is caused by
electro-magnetism, which has this peculiarity--that in the case of
specially sensitive persons it can transfer the bodily affection from
left to right, and _vice versa_. The transference of paralysis, the
cures attempted on this plan, and the so-called "psychical
transference," which contains special interest for graphologists, are
at the present time still open questions, as well as the closely
connected theory of human polarity; and the odic experiments of Dr.
Chazarain are yet waiting for their confirmation. At present the
problem of the connection between magnetism and hypnotism is under
investigation, and in such a manner that we may hope for a speedy
solution.
Still stranger than these reports are the accounts of the distant
operation of certain bodies; at least, they seem strange to those
unacquainted with psychometry and the literature of the past century
relating to this subject. Two physicians in Rochefort, Professors
Bourru and Burot, in treating a hystero-epileptic person, found that
gold, even when at a distance of fifteen centimeters, produced in him
a feeling of unbearable heat. They continued these experiments with
great care, and, after a number of trials, came to this
conclusion--that in some persons certain substances, even when
carefully separated from them by long distance, exercise exactly the
same physiological influence as if introduced into their organism. In
order to explain these phenomena, they refer to the radiating force of
Baréty, an explanation neither satisfactory to themselves nor to
others. Lately the distinguished Parisian physician, Dr. Luys, has
confirmed by his experiments the existence of these phenomena, but he
thinks the explanation referable to hyper-sensitiveness of the
"_regions emotives et intellectuelles de l'encephale_" yet even he has
not reached the kernel of the difficulty.
In close connection with action at a distance is the question of
distant production of hypnotic sleep. For an answer to this problem,
they are experimenting in both France and England; and Frederick W.H.
Myers has thrown an entirely new light upon the subject by the
investigations he is making upon a purely experimental basis. In Italy
they have limited themselves to the study of isolated cases of
hystero-hypnotism, except as the phenomena of magnetic fascination
investigated by Donato have given rise to further research; but all
the books I have seen upon this subject, as well as many by French
authors, suffer from ignorance of the latest English discoveries.
With this I think that I have given a slight outline of the history of
hypnotic investigation to the end of the year 1886. I shall attempt a
criticism of this whole movement at some other time, as space is not
afforded to me here; but I should like to make this statement now,
that two of the characteristic indications of this period are of the
gravest import--first the method ("Our work," says Richet, "is that of
strictly scientific _testing_, _observation_, and _arrangement_");
and, secondly, the result. Hypnotism has been received into the realm
of scientific investigation, and with this the foundation of a true
experimental psychology has been laid.