=The Dangers of Hypnotism.=--In a review of the medico-legal aspects of hypnotism Dr. Sydney Kuh inquires whether the hypnotized can be injured physically or mentally by hypnotization, and whether they can fall victims to crime. Summing up a number of cases cited as bearing on the former question, he finds that hypnotism is now generally conceded to be a pathological and not a physiological condition; that its use, when resorted to too frequently, is liable to bring on mental deterioration; that it may be the cause of chronic headache or of an outbreak of hysteria; that at times it has an undesirable effect upon pre-existing mental disease; and that in some cases it may even produce an outbreak of insanity. He has learned of a few cases on record in which hypnotism was directly or indirectly responsible for the death of the patient. On the other hand, "we all know that hypnotism is a useful therapeutic agent practically only in cases of functional disease which only very rarely endangers the patient's life." Seeking simpler, less dangerous methods of treating maladies for which hypnotism has been recommended, the author has experimented upon the use of suggestion in the waking state, with results that encourage him. A large series of cases convinced him that a hypodermic injection of _aqua destillata_, given under proper precautions and circumstances, so as to impress the patient deeply, will produce very nearly, if not quite, as many cures as hypnotization. As for the other question, laboratory experiments indicate that a hypnotized person may be induced to commit acts bearing the aspect of crime, but that when the case becomes a serious one something will most likely occur in the mind of the patient or the conditions to prevent the consummation. The result is too uncertain and difficult, and the risks are too many and various, even to permit the use of hypnotism as an instrument of crime to become common or really dangerous. And the author's conclusion is that the dangers of hypnotism lie much more in its use for experimental and therapeutical than for criminal purposes.