HYPNOTISM IN DISEASE AND CRIME.
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may be profitable to consider this subject, which is indeed entitled to further development.
Somnambulist subjects often display a kind of attraction for the experimenter who has hypnotized them by touching the scalp. As soon as the experimenter has pressed upon the scalp with his hand, or has breathed upon the subject with his mouth, the latter is attracted toward the experimenter; if the experimenter withdraws to a distance, the subject displays uneasiness and discomfort; he sometimes follows the experimenter with a sigh, and can only rest beside him. It is probable that the phenomena of electivity have their origin in the experimenter's contact with his subject. Bain, in his work on the emotions, remarks that animal contact and the pleasure of an embrace are the beginning and end of all the tender emotions.
The dangers of this attraction with respect to morality were pointed out in the secret report presented to the King of France in 1784, by a commission which had been appointed to investigate the practice of magnetism by Deslon, Mesmer's chief pupil. The following is extracted from this report:
It is possible to suggest to a subject in a state of somnambulism fixed ideas, irresistible impulses, which he will obey on awaking with mathematical precision. The subject may be induced to write down promises, recognitions of debt, admissions and confessions, by which he may be grievously wronged. If arms are given to him, he may also be induced to commit any crime which is prompted by the experi-