Many of the most eminent scientists of Europe are now devoting
themselves assiduously to these researches. Periodicals making a
specialty of the subject are now published in France, Germany, and
England. A catalogue of the recent literature of hypnotism and related
phenomena, compiled by Max Dessoir, was printed in the number of the
German magazine called the _Sphinx_ for February of this year, and
this catalogue occupied nine pages. The list is limited to those works
written on the lines laid under the methods of the modern school, all
books being excluded whose authors hold to "mesmeric" theories, or who
are even professional magnetizers. The catalogue is, therefore, as
strictly scientific as possible, and, being classified with German
thoroughness under the different branches of the subject, such as
"hystero-hypnotism," "suggestion," "fascination," etc., it will prove
a valuable assistance to the student.
In this country the interest of scientists has not yet been aroused to
an extent comparable with that of European investigators. Old
prejudices have not entirely lost their potency. One of the most
eminent professors of a leading university is said to have been
subjected to ridicule from his colleagues because of a marked interest
shown in the subject, and a Boston physician of high standing within a
few months confided to the writer that he had made use of hypnotic
methods, with gratifying success, in the case of a patient where
ordinary remedies had proven unavailing, but he did not venture to
make the results public, since his fellow doctors might be inclined to
condemn his action as "irregular."
A work embracing the whole subject has lately appeared in Paris, and,
as it is to form a volume of the valuable International Scientific
series, published in English, French, German, and Italian, it can
hardly fail to diffuse a correct popular understanding of the results
thus far attained. The book is called "Le Magnetism Animal" (Animal
Magnetism), and its authors are Messrs. Alfred Binet and Charles Fere
of the medical staff of the Salpetriere Hospital for Nervous Disorders
in Paris. It gives a history of the patient researches conducted at
that institution by the medical staff under the celebrated Prof.
Charcot during the past nine years. These experiments have been
prosecuted according to the most exact scientific methods, and with
the most extreme caution. The endeavor has been to obtain, first of
all, the most elementary psychic phenomena, and to test every step in
the investigations by separate experiment, specially devised to prove
the good faith of the subject and the reality of his hallucination, to
eliminate the possibility of unconscious suggestion, to establish
relations with similar phenomena of disease or health in the domain of
physiology and psychology, and to note the modifications which can be
brought about by altering the conditions of the experiments. The
authors possess the great scientific virtue of never dogmatising. In
the entire book not a single law is laid down, not a single hypothesis
is advanced, which is not reached by the most approved inductive
processes. A great service of the book lies in its enunciation of new
and trustworthy methods for studying the physiology of the brain in
health and disease, while it brings into the realm of physical
experiment vexed questions of psychology heretofore given over to
metaphysical methods exclusively.