In many cases the limbs of the patient may be flexed or the body placed in any position, and that position will be retained for a longer or shorter period, sometimes for hours, without change. Sometimes the condition is one of rigidity so firm that the head may be placed upon one chair and the heels upon another, and the body will remain stiff like a bridge from one chair to the other, even when a heavy weight is placed upon the middle of the patient's body or another person is seated upon it. This is the full cataleptic condition. Sometimes the whole body will be in a condition of anæsthesia, so that needles may be thrust deep into the flesh without evoking any sign of pain or any sensation whatever. Sometimes, when this condition of anæsthesia does not appear with the sleep, it may be induced by passes, or by suggesting that a certain limb or the whole body is without feeling. In this condition the most serious surgical operations have been performed without the slightest suffering on the part of the patient. From the deep sleep the patient often passes of his own accord into a condition in which he walks, talks, reads, writes, and obeys the slightest wish or suggestion of the hypnotizer--and yet he is asleep. This is called the alert stage, or the condition of somnambulism, and is the most peculiar, interesting, and wonderful of all. The two chief stages of the hypnotic condition, then, are, first: the lethargic stage; second, the alert stage. The stage of lethargy may be very light--a mere drowsiness--or very deep--a heavy slumber--and it is often accompanied by a cataleptic state, more or less marked in degree. The alert stage may also vary and may be characterized by somnambulism, varying in character from a simple sleepy "yes" or "no" in answer to questions asked by his hypnotizer, to the most wonderful, even supranormal, mental activity. From any of these states the subject may be awakened by his hypnotizer simply making a few upward passes or by saying in a firm voice, "All right, wake up," or, again, by affirming to the patient that he will awake when he (the hypnotizer) has counted up to a certain number, as, for instance, five. Generally, upon awakening, the subject has no knowledge or remembrance of anything which has transpired during his hypnotic condition. This is known as amnesia. Sometimes, however, a hazy recollection of what has happened remains, especially if the hypnotic condition has been only slight. Up to the present time hypnotism has been studied from two separate and important standpoints and for two well-defined purposes: (1) For its therapeutic effects, or its use in the treatment of disease and relief of pain; (2) for the mental or psychical phenomena which it presents. The following cases will illustrate its study and use from the therapeutic standpoint--and, first, two cases treated by the old mesmerists, 1843-53. They are from reports published in The Zoist:--