“planchette-writer,” reads the unspoken thoughts of the questioner, in a manner very like, yet vastly more delicate than that by which deaf mutes are taught to interpret the movements of the lips of persons with whom they converse. This fact is clearly illustrated by the experience of Maury,[98] in an interview with a celebrated table-rapper who, without the slightest hesitation, made known to him the age, name, and date of death of a brother whom he had lost. She also gave the same information regarding his father, and pronounced the names of other persons upon whom he had fixed his attention. But, if he turned away his face, or if he concealed his eyes so that the woman could no longer scrutinize their expression, her responses became entirely uncertain and destitute of conformity with fact. The induction of the hypnotic state, if not too often repeated, is sometimes of considerable service in the relief of various functional disorders of a painful character. This fact, enthusiastically announced, many years ago, by Dr. Braid, has recently been freshly brought forward through the experiments of Fischer,[99] Wiehe,[100] Rieger,[101] and others. In our own country this method of treatment has not yet been adopted by many in the medical profession, though its efficacy in a particular class of cases is not denied. Outside of professional circles, however, it is exploited to a considerable extent under the strange misnomer of Metaphysical Healing. But, as De Watteville has truly remarked,[102] “the time is near when the curative influence of hypnotism will be submitted to the same scrutiny as its physiological and psychological import has undergone.” THE END. INDEX. Acids, 71 hydrobromic, 88 hydrochloric, 72 hydrocyanic, 100 hydrocyanic, in gastric disease, 103 lactic, 72 nitric, 72 nitro-muriatic, in hepatic insomnia, 103 phosphoric, 72 Aconite, 63, 93, 100 Africa, maladie du sommeil of, 30 winds from the deserts of, effect of, 46 Africans, habits of, regarding sleep, 40 victims of the maladie du sommeil, 30 Alcohol, 76 effect of, upon the brain, 54 in angina pectoris, 99 in asthma, 101 in chorea, 110 in dyspepsia, 103 in fever, 105 in hepatic diseases, 102 Allen, Prof. J. Adams, case of somnambulism observed by, 185 Allix, observations of, regarding bodily temperature in sleep, 7 Allix and Hohl, observations of, regarding the pulse in sleep, 6 Aloetic purgatives in insanity, 94 Ammonia, in fever, 105 Amyl nitrite, 84 in angina pectoris, 99 in asthma, 101 Anæmia of the brain, 53 Anæsthetics, 75 Angelic visitors, delusions regarding, 129 Angina pectoris, 99 Anti-spasmodic effects of belladonna, 69 Apparent death, 34 crucial test of, 35 Arabia, effects of wind from the deserts of, 46 Arago, observations of, regarding atmospheric electricity, 46 Arsenic, in asthma, 101 Atropia, 69