The mental reflexes are extremely common; stooping at the whistling of a bullet, laughing at the sight of a clown, sickness produced by a disgusting smell, are mental reflexes. The involuntary muscular action is caused by a stimulation of the eye, ear, or sense of smell, after the stimulation has been interpreted in a particular way by the consciousness.

The classification of the reflexes into physical and mental is not valueless for us; I think it better at present to keep to this classification, although it is only schematic, and although Lewes supposed a mental action in all reflexes. Gurney, Max'

Dessoir, and Hiickel have directed attention to the importance of mental reflexes for hypnosis. Heidenhain and Charcot denied any mental action in the contractures they induced; the Nancy school, on the contrary, believes that it occurs, that the subject knows what is intended to result, but that his will is unable to prevent the contracture; this is called a suggestion, and is therefore only a kind of mental reflex. Consequently the question put forward above, whether Heidenhain and Charcot's contractures are reflexes, may be thus modified: Have we to do as these authors suppose with physical reflexes, or with mental ones ?

The phenomena of echolalia (imitative speech), described by Heidenhain and Berger, belong to this action. Berger says that hypnotics will repeat everything that is said before them, like phonographs; even what is said in foreign languages is repeated with some exactness. Heidenhain and Berger believed that only particular tracts of the bodily surface (the stomach or the neck) are suitable for the production of this imitation by means of stimulation. They came to this conclusion because they were not as yet acquainted with the significance of suggestion. In reality the hypnotic echoes what he believes he is intended to echo. It is certain that some persons are able to perform great feats in this way, imitating a hitherto unknown language quickly and correctly, particularly after the necessary practice.

Other reflexes, also, which are induced by touching certain parts of the cranium, the.appearance of aphasia, or of twitchings or contractures in the arm or leg, should be understood in the same way. Statements of this - kind were made by Heidenhain, and have been repeated lately by Silva, Binet, and Fere. These last even believe that they can place single limbs in the somnambulic state by stimulating the parts of the head which correspond to the motor centres of the limbs concerned. They also refer to the phrenology of Gall, and Chalande even wishes to study the physiology of the brain in the same way (Delboeuf). Braid described similar phenomena, which he called phreno-hypnotic, and conjectured that there was a kind of reflex stimulus. By pressure on a portion of the skull a nerve was stimulated which by reflex action excited a part of the brain, and by this means aroused feelings of benevolence, for example; by stimulating another spot another nerve was excited, which by reflex action produced an expression of piety, etc.

Hypnosis of one side (hemi-hypnosis) may also be explained as a phenomenon of suggestion. Braid thought that by blowing on one eye the corresponding side could be awakened. Des-courtis, Charcot, Dumontpallier, Berillon, Lepine, Strohl, as well as Griitzner, Heidenhain, and Berger, who were under Kayser's influence, carried on these experiments in various modified forms; Berger later on changed his views. Though these authors regarded hemi-hypnosis as a physiological condition induced by the closing of one eye or by friction of one half of the scalp, their statements do not now prove their point. We know that we can produce all these states by mental influence, and suggestion must be excluded before the experiments can be considered conclusive. The statements made by the various authors are. so contradictory on this point that they only increase one's doubts. Sometimes stroking the right side of the head was supposed to make the. left half of the body hypnotic; sometimes the result followed, on the right side. The main point is that the subject shall know what is intended to happen to him, and what effect is expected from the processes. Hemi-hypnosis has even been utilized for drawing such far-reaching conclusions as that the two cerebral hemispheres act independently of each other.

Grasset has recently assumed this view, and considers the assumption justified even if the hemi-hypnosis is attributed to suggestion. I do not deny the relative independence of the functions of the two hemispheres; but hemi-hypnosis proves nothing that is not equally well demonstrated by every pianist who plays somewhat differently with his right hand than with his left, or by any individual who moves his right arm but keeps his left still, or tosses his right leg about while the left is allowed to remain at rest. I think it is better to have nothing to do with this sort of physiology.

It is evident, from the preceding considerations, that in hypnosis the influence of suggested ideas on the voluntary muscles is very extensive. Let us now see whether certain other peculiarities in the functions of the muscles, due either to suggestion or some other cause, appear in hypnosis.

The cataleptic posture of the limbs is sometimes maintained for a very long time, even for several hours. One person remained for seventeen hours in a cataleptic posture. Berger mentions the case of a young girl who maintained this condition without perceptible change for seven hours, during which she was continually watched. In these cases the fatigue and pain which ordinarily follow on great muscular exertion do not ensue. Great fatigue rarely results even when the same position 'is maintained for so long as an hour; still, this is not necessarily the rule. Certain differences which Binet and Fere think they have found between the curve-tracings in suggested catalepsy and those obtained in the simulated form will be dealt with by me later on, in the section on Simulation.