Warfare of the Schools.--History of the Science.--Mesmer's Career.--The Academicians.--The Successors of Mesmer.--The Royal Academy of Medicine.--Its Idiotic Prejudices.--Dr. Braid's Discovery.--Re-baptism of the Science.--Effects of Braid's Discoveries.--Liébault's Theory of Suggestion.--The Nancy School and the Paris School compared.--The Fluidic Theory.--The Law of Suggestion the Greatest Discovery in Psychic Science.--The Significance of Braid's Discoveries not Appreciated.--Hypnotism of Animals.--The Charcot School.--The Sources of its Errors.--Reform in Terminology suggested.--The Mesmeric Theory.--Braid's Processes not productive of Higher Phenomena--Mesmerization of Animals.--Recapitulation of Points. Thus far little has been said regarding the light which has been shed upon the subject under consideration by the discoveries of modern science. The more important of these discoveries having resulted from investigations of the subject of hypnotism, it will be necessary briefly to review the more salient features of that science, and to trace its progress from the time of Mesmer down to the present day. Since the time when Mesmer first brought his discoveries to the attention of the scientific world the students of the phenomena which he evoked have been hopelessly at variance. That they should entertain diverse theories regarding the cause of phenomena so strange and full of mystery is natural. That they should, in the absence of knowledge of the subject, abuse and vilify each other because of their differences of opinion, was to be expected. Hatred of our neighbor because his problematical theories do not agree with our undemonstrable hypotheses is, unfortunately, one of the salient weaknesses of human nature. It is, however, comparatively rare that scientific investigators disagree regarding the demonstrable facts pertaining to a subject under investigation. Yet this is the condition in which we find the science of hypnotism after more than a century of research by some of the ablest scientists of the world. They are divided into schools, to-day, as they were in the infancy of the science. Indeed, the science is still in its infancy. Facts have accumulated, it is true; and they will be found to be of infinite advantage to some future investigator whose mind is capable of rising above the prejudices which characterize the different schools, and of assimilating and harmonizing their demonstrated facts into one comprehensive system.