543 F. The following is an abstract of Dr. Levillain's account of an experiment performed by Professor Charcot before a large class at the Salpêtrière 3: -

1 From "Experiments in Clairvoyance," by Dr. Alfred Backman, Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vii. p. 204.

2 See Drs. Bourru and Burot, Comptes Rendus de la Société de Biologie, July 12th, 1885; and Dr. Mabille, Progrès Médical, August 29th, 1885.

3 Revue de l'Hypnottsme, June 1890 (p. 353), Progrès Midical, October 11th and 18th.

Some few hysterical patients, it appears, suffer from a swelling with local cyanosis and low surface temperature, styled by Professor Charcot "blue oedema." Professor Charcot, indeed, claims to have been the first to describe, in June 1889, this exceedingly rare hysterical abnormality. It then occurred to him to try whether he could produce the condition by hypnotic suggestion. "On April 26th, 1890, a hysterical woman was deeply hypnotised, and it was suggested to her that her right hand and wrist would swell and become cyanosed. After she was woke this suggestion gradually realised itself, and in four days the right hand was in the condition of that of the patients who had had spontaneous attacks. There was a smooth surface, hardly any pitting on pressure, but much dull-blue mottled swelling (which had obliged her to discontinue wearing her rings) and anaesthesia. A bright red patch was produced by touch.... M. Charcot re-hypnotised the patient, and assured her that her hand was quite natural again, helping his suggestion with a little massage.

After a quarter of an hour the anaesthesia, venous colour, and swelling were gone".

543 G. A case was described by Professor Artigalas in the Revue de l'Hypnotisme, February 1892 (p. 251), of a hysterical hospital patient with a tendency to apparently causeless haemorrhage, which appeared first in the ear and afterwards as tears of blood in the eye, which was quite healthy. Hypnotic suggestion failed at first to cure this symptom, but caused it to occur only at stated times. Next it was suggested that instead of the ocular haemorrhage the patient should bleed at the palm of the left hand; this occurred, the skin, however, remaining intact, and the blood appearing to ooze through it like perspiration. After further hypnotic suggestion these symptoms entirely ceased.

543 H. Dr. von Schrenck-Notzing (in the Zeitschriftfiir Hypnotismus, Band iv., Heft. 4, p. 209), criticises the recorded experiments in blistering by suggestion on the ground that in some cases the patients may have had specially sensitive skins, and that in other cases the supervision exercised over them was inadequate. He describes three test experiments carried out by several doctors on the maid-servant of one of them (in October 1895 and January 1896), he himself taking part on the last two occasions. On the first occasion, blistering was produced on the left arm, as suggested, within twenty-four hours. The arm had been carefully bandaged, and the bandage appeared not to have been moved. Next time the arm was enclosed in a shield made of three thin boards, and completely bandaged, and the patient was watched continuously. A rudimentary blister appeared, but not in the place suggested, and where she might have caused it by rubbing, and there was some evidence that she had tried to scratch her arm with a hairpin.

Once more the arm was enclosed in plaster of Paris and the patient was watched continuously, and no blisters were formed.

1890, and see Practitioner, January 1891 (p. 50). It would be well to be able to state explicitly in experiments of this class that the consent of the subject had been previously obtained.

These results seem to confirm what had previously been pointed out by other writers, - that the subject may deliberately try to produce stigmata on herself in response to the hypnotic suggestion. But it must be noticed that in this case the experimenters deliberately suggested that she should feel the irritation and pain that would accompany an actual burn, as well as that blisters should be formed. She complained much of the pain, and may have tried to rub her arm merely to relieve it.

546 A. The following experiments on the relation of points de repert to negative hallucinations were tried by Mrs. H. Sidgwick in the course of her experiments on thought-transference quoted below (573 A). P. was the subject, and was hypnotised, as usual, by Mr. G. A. Smith. The account is written by Miss Johnson, who was present, and is based on her notes made at the time, March 25th, 1890: -

P. being hypnotised, eight plain cards marked with the numbers 2-9 were placed on a chair by his side, and he was told that those marked with odd numbers would be invisible. On being then asked how many cards he saw, he said "six." When the cards were held so as to hide the numbers, and he was made to count them by feeling their corners, his counting varied, but once came to eight. It appeared, therefore, that the failure of the suggestion of invisibility depended, partially at least, on the hiding of the numbers, i.e. of the points de repère with which the invisibility was associated.

Mr. Smith then took the card with the number 5 marked on it; when this was turned with the mark towards P. he could not see it, but when the other side was turned towards him he could. He was much puzzled at seeing the card disappear and reappear several times in Mr. Smith's hand by a slight twist of his fingers, but concluded that it was done by sleight-of-hand, that Mr. Smith somehow got it up his sleeve, or otherwise concealed it. He was then made to take the card into his own hand and turn it backwards and forwards himself, and was very much astonished at its continuing - as he did so to disappear and reappear when no one but himself was touching it. He asked to be allowed to keep it as an entertaining puzzle to show off to his friends, and, on leave being given, pocketed it. Soon after he took it out again, and the invisible side being uppermost, saw nothing and dropped it. It dropped with the visible side upwards, so he found it again, and again made it appear and disappear.

A similar experiment was tried with the Knave of Hearts, and this was at first invisible on both sides, but soon he was able to see the back side, though not the front.

He then took the card marked 5 out of his pocket again, and found it still invisible on the marked side, though he had been twice awakened and re-hypnotised since looking at it. This, however, only held as long as the mark was uncovered, and soon the effect wore off altogether, and both sides became equally visible to him.

A good deal of variety was observed in the behaviour of different subjects with regard to negative hallucinations; Miss B., for instance, did not appear to make use of points de repère in the way that P. did; a card made invisible to her was equally invisible on both sides, and she exhibited no sort of interest or alarm in the mysterious disappearances which so strongly excited P.'s curiosity and sometimes caused him alarm.