and hysteria are closely related, even as far as metabolism is concerned.
I now come to some phenomena which almost invariably awaken mistrust. I mean
the anatomical changes effected by suggestion during hypnosis. No matter how
sceptical we may be on this point, it would be perverse to deny the possibility
of such phenomena. We certainly do know that organic changes can be brought
about by mental processes. I need only recall the physiognomy of certain professions—for
example, the type of the clergy shows how a spiritual and mental avocation gradually
exercises an influence on the physiognomy. In the hypnotic experiments which
I shall now proceed to describe the process is only somewhat more acute.
Among the experiments in this direction I will first of all mention the cases
in which menstruation is affected, more especially those in which menorrhagia
is induced or arrested ley suggestion. It is not to be doubted that this is
practicable in the case of certain persons. Forel has made a whole series of
experiments on this point, and has also partly confirmed the accuracy and the
effect of suggestion by personal investigation. Many other experimenters have
also been able to confirm the effect of suggestion on menstruation (Liebault,
Brunnberg, Sperling, A. Voisin, Gascard, Briand). The influence of suggestion
in menorrhagia seems less wonderful when we reflect how very much psychical
influences otherwise change it. It is well known that the periods often become
irregular in women who are about to undergo a surgical operation.
I have mentioned the influence of suggestion on menstruation in this place in
spite of the fact that these experiments do not, properly speaking, demonstrate
an organic change.. We may be concerned here with a vaso-motor disturbance,
which secondarily induces the organic changes. This appears to me probable.
I may further mention the experiments of Bourru, Burot, and Berjon, who induced
bleeding by suggestion in the same subject as Mabille, Ramadier, and Jules Voisin.
Puysegur had witnessed the same thing. Bleeding of the nose appeared at command
in the above-mentioned subject, and later on bleeding from the skin at a time
decided on beforehand.
SYMPTOMS OF HYPNOSIS. I15
When the skin had been rubbed with a blunt instrument in order to direct the
suggestion, bleeding of the skin is said to have appeared at command, the traces
of which were visible three months later. It is interesting that in the case
of this person who was hemiplegic and anaesthetic on the right side, the suggestion
would not take effect on that side. ' Mabille's observations of this subject
are particularly interesting, because they show that a person in hypnosis can