HYPNOTISM
HY’PNOTISM (from the Greek word hypnos, sleep), is a term invented by the late Mr. Braid, of Manchester, to designate certain phenomena of the nervous system which in many respects resemble those which are induced by animal magnetism, but which clearly arise from the physical and psychical condition of the patient, and not from any emanation proceeding from others.
The following are his directions for inducing the phenomena, and especially the peculiar sleep-like condition of hypnotism. Take a silver lancet-case or other bright object, and hold it between the fingers of the left hand, about a foot from the eyes of the person experimented on, in such a position above the forehead as to produce the greatest strain on the eyes compatible with a steady fixed stare at the object. The patient must be directed to rivet his mind on the object at which he is gazing. His pupils will first contract, but soon dilate considerably; and if, after they are well dilated, the first and second fingers of the operator’s right hand, extended and a little separated, are carried from the
object towards the eyes, the eyelids will most probably close with a vibratory motion. After ten or fifteen seconds have elapsed, it will be found that the patient retains his arms and legs in any position in which the operator places them. It will also be found that all the special senses, excepting sight, are at first extremely exalted, as also are the muscular sense and the sensibility of heat and cold; but after a time the exaltation of function is followed by a state of depression far greater than the torpor of natural sleep. The patient is now thoroughly hypnotized. The rigidity of the muscles and the profound torpor of the nervous system may be instantly removed, and an opposite condition induced by directing a current of air against the muscles which we wish to render limber, or the organ we wish to excite to action; and then by mere repose the senses will speedily regain their original condition. If a current of air directed against the face is not sufficient to arouse the patient, pressure and friction should be applied to the eyelids, and the arm or leg sharply struck with the open hand.
From the careful analysis of a large number of experiments, Mr. Braid is led to the conclusion, that by a continual fixation of the mental and visual eye upon an object, with absolute repose of body and general quietude, a feeling of stupor supervenes, which renders the patient liable to be readily affected in the manner already described. As the experiment succeeds with the blind, he considers that ‘ it is not so much the optic, as the sentient, motor, and sympathetic nerves, and the mind through which the impression is made.’
Many of the minor operations of surgery have been performed on patients in the hypnotized state without pain, and hypnotism has been successfully employed as a therapeutic agent in numerous forms of disease, especially such as have their seat in the nervous system. An interesting memoir On Hypnotic Therapeutics was written by Mr. Braid in 1853; but see also more recent works on Animal Magnetism and Mesmerism.