“Then, for the sake of clearness, let me state in closing that hypnotism is dangerous only when it is misused, or when it is applied to that large class of persons who are inherently unsound; especially if that mysterious thing we call credulity predominates to a very great extent over the reason and over other faculties of the mind.” CHAPTER IX. Hypnotism in Medicine.—Anesthesia.—Restoring the Use of Muscles.—Hallucination.—Bad Habits. Anaesthesia—It is well known that hypnotism may be used to render subjects insensible to pain. Thus numerous startling experiments are performed in public, such as running hatpins through the cheeks or arms, sewing the tongue to the ear, etc. The curious part of it is that the insensibility may be confined to one spot only. Even persons who are not wholly under hypnotic influence may have an arm or a leg, or any smaller part rendered insensible by suggestion, so that no pain will be felt. This has suggested the use of hypnotism in surgery in the place of chloroform, ether, etc. About the year 1860 some of the medical profession hoped that hypnotism might come into general use for producing insensibility during surgical operations. Dr. Guerineau in Paris reported the following successful operation: The thigh of a patient was amputated. “After the operation,” says the doctor, “I spoke to the patient and asked him how he felt. He replied that he felt as if he were in heaven, and he seized hold of my hand and kissed it. Turning to a medical student, he added: ‘I was aware of all that was being done to me, and the proof is that I knew my thigh was cut off at the moment when you asked me if I felt any pain.’” The writer who records this case continues: “This, however, was but a transitory stage. It was soon recognized that a considerable time and a good deal of preparation were necessary to induce the patients to sleep, and medical men had recourse to a more rapid and certain method; that is, chloroform. Thus the year 1860 saw the rise and fall of Braidism as a means of surgical anaesthesia.” One of the most detailed cases of successful use of hypnotism as an anaesthetic was presented to the Hypnotic Congress which met in 1889, by Dr. Fort, professor of anatomy: “On the 21st of October, 1887, a young Italian tradesman, aged twenty, Jean M—. came to me and asked me to take off a wen he had on his forehead, a little above the right eyebrow. The tumor was about the size of a walnut. “I was reluctant to make use of chloroform, although the patient wished it, and I tried a short hypnotic experiment. Finding that my patient was easily hypnotizable, I promised to extract the tumor in a painless manner and without the use of chloroform.