The _somnambulic state_ may be directly induced by fixed attention with the eyes, by feeble and monotonous excitement of the senses, by passing the hands over the face and arms of the subject, and by many other processes of analogous character. This variety constitutes the ordinary form of hypnotic sleep. It may be very easily developed during either the lethargic or the cataleptic state as a consequence of pressure or of gentle friction upon the top of the head. Thus Heidenhain, in the course of his experiments, caused muscular paralysis by rubbing the scalp. Friction of one side of the head occasioned paralysis of the opposite side of the body without notable affection of the consciousness of the subject. The eyes and the eyelids behave as in the lethargic state. The subject seems to be asleep, but there is less muscular relaxation than in the lethargic variety. There is no exaggeration of the tendinous reflexes, and muscular hyper-excitability is absent. But by lightly touching or breathing upon the surface of a limb, its muscles may be thrown into a condition of rigidity which differs from the contracture of the lethargic state, in the fact that it does not yield to excitement of the antagonistic muscles, though yielding readily to a sudden repetition of the same form of excitement by which it was originally produced. Thus a subject under my own observation who, by pressure upon the eyeballs, was rendered insensible to every form of painful stimulation, would immediately pass into a state of perfect rigidity, if his limbs and body were rubbed for a few seconds with the palm of the hand. While in this condition, if the heels were placed upon a chair and the back of the head upon another, not only could the entire weight of the body be thus supported, but also the additional weight of another full-grown man, sitting upon his body, without causing any more yielding than if it had been a log of wood that was lying across the chairs. From the immobility of the cataleptic state this rigidity differs by its greater degree of resistance to passive motion. Though insensibility to pain may be perfectly developed in this state, there is generally an exalted condition of certain forms of cutaneous sensibility, and of the muscular sense. Strange perversions of other special senses are sometimes remarked. Thus, Cohn[96] discovered that a patient who was naturally color-blind, was able, when unilaterally hypnotized, “to distinguish colors which were otherwise undistinguishable.” Conversely, when the cataleptic state is induced, the healthy eye becomes incapable of discerning colors. Spasm of accommodation is also present, and is one of the earliest demonstrable symptoms of the hypnotic condition.