Platform Experiments misleading.--Their Utter Inutility as a Test.--So-called "Tests" described and explained.--Sexual Outrages impossible.--Auto-suggestion protects the Virtuous.--A Willing Subject necessary.--Demonstrative Experiments.--Modern Authorities cited against themselves.--Professor Gregory's Views.--The Elevated Moral Tone of Subjects when mesmerized.--Successful Suggestion of Suicide impossible.--The Three Normal Functions of the Subjective Mind.--Self-Preservation.--Propagation.--Preservation of Offspring.--Instinctive Auto-suggestion.--Indifference on Near Approach of Death.--A Universal Law.--Illustrative Incidents.--Suggestive Criminal Abortion impossible.--Premonitions explained.--The Dæmon of Socrates.--Clairaudience.--The Instinct of Death.--Hypnotism in Jurisprudence.--Testimony Valueless.--Vital Secrets impossible to obtain.--Doctors must not monopolize the Forces of Nature.--The Folly of Adverse Legislation. Before leaving the subject of hypnotism, I deem it proper to say a few words on one of its branches which is just now attracting the attention alike of students of the science and the public at large. The idea is being very generally promulgated among the people that the ability of one man to mesmerize or hypnotize another implies the possession of a very dangerous power, and one which, in the hands of an unscrupulous man, may be used for criminal purposes. It is perhaps not strange that such an idea should prevail among those who have not studied the science except by observation of platform experiments, which are designed rather to amuse than to instruct. There is something so mysterious in the whole subject, viewed from the standpoint of an audience assembled to witness experiments of this character, that it would be strange indeed if the average man were not impressed with an indefinable dread of the power of the hypnotist. He sees him, by means of certain mysterious manipulations, throw his subject into a profound sleep, and awaken him by a snap of the fingers. He sees the subject impressed with all manner of incongruous ideas,--made to believe that he is Diogenes, or a dog, at the will of the operator. He is made to ride an imaginary horse-race, astride a deal table, or to go in swimming on the bare floor. He is made to see angels or devils; to wander in the Elysian fields of paradise, or to scorch in the sulphurous fires of hell; to feel pain or pleasure, joy or sorrow,--all at the caprice of the man in whose power he has placed himself. All this, and much more, can be seen at public exhibitions of hypnotism, and under conditions that leave no doubt in the mind of the observer, of the genuineness of the phenomena. He sees his friends, for whose integrity he can vouch, go upon the platform and become subject to the same mysterious power. Still doubting, he may go upon the stage himself, only to find that he is amenable to the same