Take one case. The subject began to count aloud, while the magnetizer
was in an adjoining room, the door standing open between them. At a
certain moment the doctor, with all his energy, projected his "nervous
fluid" from his hands, and the magnetized subject forthwith ceased
counting; yet the doctor's linen cuffs made enough noise to indicate
what he commanded, though no word was spoken. During the experiments
at Salpetriere and at Ivry, to which Doctor Luys was kind enough to
invite me, I thought I observed that a previous knowledge of the
sequence of the experiments furnished a wide margin for the exercise
of the personal faculties of the young women upon whom the experiments
were made. These suspicions, however, did not prevent certain facts in
regard to mental suggestion from being absolutely incontestable.
Here is one among others:--
Doctor Ochorowiez was attending a lady troubled with long-standing
hysterio-epilepsy, aggravated by a maniacal inclination to suicide.
Madame M. was twenty-seven years of age, and had a vigorous
constitution. She appeared to be in excellent health. Her active and
gay temperament was united with extreme moral sensibility. Her
character was specially truthful. Her profound goodness was tinctured
with a tendency toward self-sacrifice. Her intelligence was
remarkable. Her talents were many, and her perceptive faculties were
good. At times she would display a lack of willpower, and an element
of painful indecision; while at other times she showed exceptional
firmness. The slightest moral fatigue, any unexpected impression,
though of trifling importance, whether agreeable or otherwise,
reacted, although slowly and imperceptibly, upon her vaso-motor
nerves, and brought on convulsive attacks and a nervous swoon. Writes
Dr. Ochorowiez in his work on Mental Suggestion:
One day, or rather one night, her attack being over
(including a phase of delirium), the patient fell quietly
asleep. Awaking suddenly, and seeing us (one of her female
friends and myself) still near her, she begged us to go
away, and not to tire ourselves needlessly on her account.
She was so persistent that, fearing a nervous crisis, we
departed. I went slowly downstairs, for she resided on the
fourth story, and I paused several times to listen
attentively, troubled by an evil presentiment; for she had
wounded herself several times a few days before. I had
already reached the courtyard, when I paused again, asking
myself whether or not I ought to go away.
All at once her window opened with a slam, and I saw the
sick woman leaning out with a rapid motion. I rushed to the
spot where she might fall; and mechanically, without
attaching any great importance to the impulse, I
concentrated all my will in one great desire to oppose her
precipitation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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