569 A. The production of local anaesthesia and rigidity is a common phenomenon, familiar to all hypnotic operators as the result of a definite verbal suggestion, and one that can also be produced in some subjects by self-suggestion (see 518 D). The special feature of the experiments recorded in this Appendix and 569 B is that they were carried out under conditions which, as the experimenters believed, precluded any knowledge on the part of the subject as to which of his fingers was to be operated on. Experiments of this type were first tried by Gurney from 1883 onwards, partly with a view to testing the reality of the "mesmeric effluence." I quote extracts from his latest account of them in his paper on "Recent Experiments in Hypnotism" in the Proceedings S.P.R., vol. v. (1888), pp. 14-17. For the details, I must refer the reader to the paper itself.

Experiments of this most important class have been already described in these Proceedings.1 In outline the modus operandi has been as follows: The "subject" is made to put his arm through a thick screen, extending high above his head, and to spread his ten fingers on a table in front of him. The fingers are thus completely concealed from his view, and the operator's hand is held, without contact, at a distance varying from about a third to three-quarters of an inch, over one or another of them, according to my selection, with the result that in a very large majority of cases the finger so treated, and that finger alone, becomes rigid and insensible to extremely severe treatment in the way of stabs, burns, and electric shocks. From my knowledge of the "subjects," and of the circumstances, I regard simulation as practically out of the question. But this is not really important, for the hypothesis of simulation has no application to the frequent cases where the rigidity was tested before the anaesthesia.

The "subject" is told to double his fist, and no desire to deceive could have taught him which particular one of his ten digits was to remain recalcitrant.

In the recent series there have been 160 experiments of the described type with five "subjects." In all these cases I held my hand, in the same position as S.'s[" S." is Mr. G. A. Smith, the hypnotist who constantly assisted in Gurney's experiments], over one of the remaining nine fingers. In 124 cases S. alone produced the effect intended. In 16 cases S. and I both succeeded; and in 13 cases I succeeded, and S. failed. In the remaining 7 cases no effect at all was produced....

The finger operated upon was generally restored to its normal condition by reverse passes, made with contact - about twenty being the average number required. Most of the attempts to annul the effect without contact were inconclusive. Sometimes the effort was successful, and in a few instances very distinctly so, but in other cases the process took so much time that contact was eventually resorted to. I frequently tried, by stroking the finger, to undo the effect which S. had produced; but I succeeded on only one occasion....

The "subject" is occasionally, but not usually, conscious of some change in the finger as the experiment progresses. Asked to say whether he felt anything unusual, he would sometimes say that he felt "cold," "pins and needles," "numbness," or "creepiness," in a certain finger - which finger was in nearly every case the one under experiment. In connection with this point the following experiment with Wells is of great interest. Without telling him specially to observe any change in his fingers, one was made insensitive and rigid in the usual way. It was then "undone" by reverse strokings over the back of his hand, and he appeared to be in complete ignorance as to which particular finger had been the subject of experiment, and could not say which one had been affected. But entranced immediately afterwards, and told to write which finger had been stiffened, and then woke and set to the planchette, he wrote the right one. The experiment was repeated several times, with the same result. The planchette gave the information which the "subject" could not consciously supply.

Besides the above, forty-one experiments were made in which S., while holding his hand as usual, willed that no effect should be produced. Of these, thirty-six were successful (in the sense that no effect was produced), and five failed.

1 See vol. i. pp. 257-60; vol. ii. pp. 201-205; vol. iii. pp. 453-59. For a discussion of the subject see the concluding portion of my paper in this number on " Hypnotism and Telegraphy." - E. G.

[Several experiments were made in which the selected fingers were covered with small screens, but these were generally unsuccessful. In other successful cases, selected spots on the bare arms of the subjects were operated upon, instead of fingers].