Dr. Luys last Tuesday made a communication to the Academy of Medicine on this subject which electrified the members present. It was on the action, both at a distance and by direct contact, of certain medicated or fermented substances on hypnotic subjects. The latter were all women who could not possibly have got their cue beforehand, and were being observed, while Dr. Luys operated, by a jury of scientists above all suspicion of having lent themselves to any trickery. Alcohol when put to the nape in a tube no larger than a homoeopathist's vial and hermetically sealed produced exactly the same effect as if imbibed at a bar. Absinthe, haschish, opium, morphine, beer, champagne, tea and coffee were in succession tried with their characteristic effects. But "the cup which cheers but not inebriates" was found too exciting for French neuropaths. Valerian caused the deepest sadness. The thoughts of the patient were centred in a grave. She was impelled irresistibly to stoop down and scratch the ground, and thought herself in a cemetery exhuming a deceased relative whom she loved. Under the illusion she fancied herself picking up bones belonging to his skeleton, which she handled with tender reverence, and when there was an imaginary mound of them formed she placed, with deep-drawn sighs and tears and genuflections, a cross above them. Under the influence of haschish everything looked rosy and gayety prevailed. The subject was a young girl, very fond of the drama. She fancied herself on the stage and playing a part which suited her to perfection. It was in a bouffe opera and she sang her score admirably. The sentiments were expressed with delicate feeling. Dr. Luys can, according to the substances he uses, run through the whole gamut of human passions and emotions. What is most strange is that no trace of the fictitious world in which the hypnotized subject has been wandering, remains when real consciousness is restored. It is very rare for even the idea of having been in dreamland to survive the awakening from the hypnotic trance. Dr. Luys says that hypnotic suggestion sometimes has periods of incubation more or less long. The subject is at first gently drawn to do a certain thing or things, and then the drawing becomes an irresistible impulse. They are first as if tempted and then as if possessed. They can no more help themselves than a man who had got to the verge of Niagara Falls in a boat could help going over.