seem to be spontaneous physiological incidents of the trance itself, and not merely effects of the operator's conscious Or unconscious suggestions. Such are lethargy, catalepsy, anaesthesia, and amnesia on waking up. In short, we must regard hypnotic trance as a genuinely peculiar state, carrying increased suggestibility in its train.
In the next division, Dr. Schmidkunz tries his hand at an ultimate explanation. He gives us a number of chapters on the various forces and factors of the inner life, on the tendency of ideas to persist and to produce motor effects, on judgment, emotion, instinct, will, sympathy, imitation, etc. These chapters are full of penetrating glimpses, of ingenious turns and apt quotations, but their outcome is far from precise. It amounts to little more than the conclusion that the involuntary life is the seat of more energetic forces than the voluntary life; that Judgment, Reflection, and Will yield when the blinder, deeper, more unconscious and antediluvian tendencies of our nature come into activity. Suggestion unchains these tendencies, — herein lies its positive force. In the trance and other 'hypnoid' conditions, "bricht eben die Natur aus ihren sonst geschwächten gefesselten Elementargewalten hervor, und dies ist erst das Unheimliche, dann das 'Mystische' an solchen Zuständen. . . . Was wir an Herrschaft über ein psychisches Phänomen gewinnen das verlieren wir an Kraft derselben" (pp. 223-224). But how or why suggestion should unchain these more primordial forces, Dr. Schmidkunz fails to show.
In the last division of the book there is a good chapter on psycho-therapeutics, filled with quotations from Dr. Gerster (whose contributions throughout the work seem full of sense and point) . There is also a chapter on the forensic relations of hypnotism (who shall practice suggestion? — crimes accomplished by its means, etc.), in which the author admits the possibility of disasters, but advises that the power of existing laws to deal with them be well tested, before special legislation is invoked. In this wise council the present reviewer heartily agrees.
M. Delboeuf, in his delightful essay, Le Magnetisme Animal, describes Dr. Bernheim suggesting to a patient that he shall be able to walk, after friction down his spine. The friction being made, the subject fails to move. "Ah!" says the doctor, "this is one of those patients who only recover when the friction is from below upwards. Just see! "On the friction being made in the new direction, the patient walks immediately. "Mon Dieu!" adds the Belgian philosopher, "taken roughly, the phenomenon is simple enough. The first suggestion was not efficacious, we say, the second was so. ... But if we penetrate below the surface, we soon lose our foothold. This man's soul, at the command of your voice, strikes the body with powerlessness to move. And now when this same voice asks that the spell be undone, the soul does not
