namely, the employment of the rays of radium salts. While Abbe's experience has not entirely eliminated failure, his success, nevertheless, with a vast amount of clinical material, has firmly convinced him that proper apparatus will greatly promote the efficiency of this metallic agency. In a series of one hundred twenty-seven cases treated by Abbe excellent results have been reported. In thirty-five cases of lupus and epithelioma not a single one resisted the ameliorating properties of the rays, and twenty were pronounced entirely cured. Recurrences were exceptionally few and healing readily followed secondary administration of the rays. In internal carcinomata the rays exerted little effect. Regarding the action of radium salts on warts the investigator says: "It is of some interest to note at this point that the ordinary wart, small or large, is but an overgrowth of cells normal to the skin, and in every case where I have laid a radium tube on one it has speedily disappeared through a process of retrograde degeneration of the mass of cells composing it." Abbe classes radium rays as irritating and stimulative. When the dosage is moderate they are stimulating and their effect alterative; on the other hand when the dosage is excessive they are irritating and their effect destructive.

THE SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENTS OF SCHAUDINN.

THE untimely demise of Fritz Schaudinn, at the early age of thirtyfive, removed from the medical world a man whose researches gave promise of much enlightenment in the field of biology, and especially in an important branch of that science-bacteriology. The work of Schaudinn and his confrere, Hoffmann, with various forms of protozoal life, notably the spirochæta pallida, throw much light upon certain pathologic conditions. The determination of the etiologic factor of syphilis placed a shining crown upon the head of the young investigator and immortalized his name, but his premature death will probably delay the discovery of new facts concerning the organism. To Schaudinn is due our knowledge of the relationship between protozoa and metazoa, the former having been classed by scientists as the only animals to which the blastodermic stage of development is not peculiar. This theory, however, was discredited and proven erroneous by Schaudinn. His researches in cytology have exerted marked influence in establishing a correct understanding of this branch of science, and his assumptions are in harmony with the latest teaching in this subject. The observations on sporozoa, trypanosomes, and the spirochæta have led to the adoption of new views regarding the methods of propagation and multiplication of microorganisms. Prospectively this zealous Teuton had much to contribute to science, and it is to be hoped that some coworker will be able to grasp the situation and successfully continue the investigations so auspiciously inaugurated.

AN APPEAL IN BEHALF OF BLIND ARTISANS.

MISS HELEN KELLER, in a contribution to the Outlook, bemoans the indifferent attitude of our government toward the welfare of the blind, and contrasts our system of succoring such individuals with the methods vogue in Europe. That this remarkable woman is eminently qualified to discuss the question no one will deny, and her own case attests the wonderful degree of development attainable under proper direction and instruction. Statistics compiled by the New York Commission for the Blind disclose the fact that only one per cent of sightless persons in the metropolis are employed. In London only six per cent of the blind are self-supporting, but in the other cities of Great Britain thirteen per cent find employment in the workshops. Both France and England have societies whose purpose is to secure positions for the blind and arrange for a disposition of their handiwork, while in Germany a similar system under governmental control proffers assistance of like nature. The chief pursuits open to the blind are mat-weaving, many kinds of carpentry, massage, brush-making, mattress-making, and the manufacture of baskets, both fancy and plain. However apathetic our country has been in the past, an awakening to the necessity of educating the blind along lines that will best subserve their welfare and maintenance is apparent, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin having at last inaugurated movements in behalf of nature's deficiency.

CONTEMPORARY.

HYPNOTISM:

ITS HISTORY, NATURE, AND USE. [HAROLD M. HAYS, OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS, NEW YORK CITY, IN THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.]

It is perhaps unnecessary to state that the word hypnotism brings to the mind of the average person timid recollections of many criminal acts. That is because few people hear of hypnotism in its proper sphere. It is clothed with the garb of shame; it is surrounded with all the horror belonging to the age of witchcraft. Newspapers delight in depicting its bad sides, in painting to the world the crimes that have been committed under its influence, the fearful results of its all powerful spell. To most it means a giving up of one's will to another who is superior, the crushing of one's entity by the power of another, the total abstinence of individual self-control, the entire weakening of one's higher intelligence. Vivid imagination supplies the result-suffering, hardship, labor and total subservience.

The question arises, "Why should hypnotism have been thus derided?" Simply and plainly because the ignorance of people in general has given it no opportunity to show its good sides. Unfortunately people are always looking for the "eternal gullible" and are not satisfied

until they get a taste of it. And as hypnotism was first practised solely and is now practised mostly by men who have made the world their dupes, the world has had to suffer in the advancement of hypnotism on a scientific basis. But it has been so with other sciences. Astrology and alchemy are now things of the past; but astronomy and chemistry are their results-two great and everlasting sciences. There is therefore still great hope for hypnotism; for, although known under differ ent names for so many hundreds of years, it is still in its infancy and the scientific aspect of the subject is yet in embryo.

Before, however, proceeding to cases in point, we may review briefly the history of hypnotism up to the present day. Call it what we may, since the beginning of the world, before Noah ever went on to the Ark or the whale swallowed Jonah (much to the discomfort of both), hypnotism has been practised. The influence of one man over another by a certain innate quality or by personal magnetism has always been. Even Eve exerted an influence over Adam which has precipitated the world into misery and kept it there ever since. As time went on, people recognized this influence, gave it a name and called it the influence of the gods, the result being that those who were ordained with this wonderful power were called God's ministers. Soothsayers, divine healers, the oracle ministers, all made the oriental people construe this power by religious means. Among the Chaldeans, Babylonians, Persians, Hindoos and other ancient peoples, there were priests. who, because of their power of exerting a superhuman influence over others, were considered divine. To this day the vogis and fakirs of India use this power and throw themselves into a state of hynotic ecstacy and revery. In the eleventh century it was used in the Greek church, as it is now by the omphalopsychics. In the middle ages it was practised by Paracelsus, who maintained that the human body possessed a double magnetism, the first magnetism coming from the planets, the second from flesh and blood. All through the middle ages, hypnotism was practised under different names such as witchcraft, divinations, et cetera. It was supposed to be a supernatural power derived from Satan himself, and, therefore, the user of this power was expelled from society and sometimes put to death. Magic spells where people went into trances or out of their head were of common occurrence. Religious ecstasy, demon-possession, cures by shrines and relics, the cure by the king's touch, et cetera, were all phenomena of this sort. During the seventeenth century, a number of faith-healers sprang up all over the continent and British Isles. Many of these men were noted for their skill, but the one who attained the greatest reputation was one by the name of Greatrakes, who was born in Ireland about 1628. This "healer" was sent for by a Lord Conway who expressed his message in the following language: "to cure that excellent lady of his, the pains of whose head, as great and unparallelel as they are, have not made her more known or admired abroad than have her other endow

ments." At Lady Conway's was a miscellaneous gathering, chiefly engaged in mystical pursuits, "an unofficial but active society for psychical research, as that study existed in the seventeenth century." Says Mr. Lang: Greatrakes' special genius in these mystical pursuits was of divine agency; for he tells us that at one time "he heard a voyce within him (audible to none else), encouraging to the tryals: and afterwards to correct his unbelief the voice aforesaid added this sign, that his right hand should be, dead, and that the stroaking of his left arm should recover it again, the events whereof were fully verified by him three nights together by a successive infirmity and cure of his arm." We are told that he failed to cure the lady but that he worked some wonderful miracles of healing among the sick of the neighborhood.

Henry Stubbe, a physician of Stratford-on-Avon, thus comments on Greatrakes' miracles. He says "that God has bestowed upon Mr. Greatrakes a peculiar temperament, et cetera, composed his body of some particular ferments, the effluvia whereof, being sometimes introduced by a light, sometimes by a violent friction, should restore the temperament of the debilitated parts, reinvigorate the blood and dissipate all heterogeneous ferments out of the bodies of the diseased, by the eyes, nose, mouth, hands and feet." Indeed, he recognized the difference. between functional and organic complaints; and he only meddled with such diseases as "have their essence either in the masse of blood and spirit (or nervous liquors) or the particular temperament of the part of the body" and attempted to cure no disease "wherein there is a decay of nature." "This is a confessed truth by him, he refusing still to touch the eyes of such as their sight has quite perished." None the less his cures were regarded as miraculous, and Doctor Stubbe tells us that "as there is but one Mr. Greatrakes, so there is but one Sonne"; Greatrakes' method consisted principally in stroaking and passings and in driving the pains from one point to another until they went out at the fingers or toes.

In the latter half of the eighteenth century many fakirs, alleged philosophers, quacks and cosmongerers came to the front. Swedenborg, with his inspirations; Cagliostro, with his idea of personal power; Schrepfer, with the beginning of spiritualism; and then Gassner, the priest healer, who gave to Mesmer later on some of the ideas for the foundation of his theories.

Johann Joseph Gassner, a Swabian priest, appeared upon the scene in 1773. He was a forerunner of our modern spiritualist in a way, but had the added distinction of attributing all diseases to the devil. So his object was to pray for the expulsion of this satanic being. The patient had to have implicit faith and was made to give a detailed account of his malady. Gassner's next procedure was to chant various symptoms such as pain, weakness, stiffness, et cetera, and at his peremptory command to "stop," these symptoms would disappear and the patient be well again. At the words "You will cease being disabled,"

the patient's symptoms vanished. "Your right hand and arm will become somewhat weak," he says; and no sooner are the words out his mouth than the right hand is cold and numb and the pulse is accelerated. "Your left hand will become as your right one was and this one will be normal," is his next invocation, whereupon the left hand is cold and numb and the right returns to normal. Gassner keeps up these incantations until the patient is entirely cured, each prayer being accompanied by the invocation that "this is accomplished in the name of the Lord, Our Father." Gassner's cures in theory and practise were identical with those of Greatrakes, except that the mystery was now clothed in a religious garb. In both, the predominant idea was the suggestion to the patient that he would get well.

The reason why hypnotism was not studied scientifically until the middle of the eighteenth century was that there was too much of an air of mystery surrounding the workings of the phenomena. Whenever hypnotic power was discovered in a person, he at once considered himself as one who possessed attributes which placed him above the plane of society. Suggestion was of course practised as it always has been, but the true idea of what the power consisted of was unknown. At last, toward the close of the century, Frederick Anton Mesmer rose before the world as a disciple of a new force which was destined to turn the scale on to the side of science and forever after to present hypnotism in a new light.

Frederick Anton Mesmer was born at Weil, near the point at which the Rhine leaves the Lake of Constance, on May 23, 1733. He studied medicine at Vienna under eminent masters, although at first his parents had destined him for the church. Interested in astrology, he imagined that the stars exerted an influence on beings living on the earth. He identified the supposed force first with electricity and then with magnetism; and it was but a short step to suppose that stroking diseased bodies with magnets might effect a cure. In 1776, meeting Gassner in Switzerland, he observed that the priest effected cures without the use of magnets, but by manipulation alone. This led Mesmer to discard the magnets, and to suppose that some kind of occult force resided in himself by which he could influence others. Mesmer's first practical work with magnets was in 1779, when he magnetized a young lady complaining of various functional disorders. This emotional young lady "felt internally a painful streaming of a very fine substance, now here, now there, but finally settling in the lower part of her body and freeing her from all further attacks for six hours." She was extremely sensitive to any of Mesmer's suggestions, but would obey no one but him. Thus we see the primeval workings of animal magnetism, afterwards called hypnotism.

Mesmer removed to Paris in 1778, and in a short time the French capital was thrown into a state of great excitement by the marvelous effects of what he called mesmerism. Mesmer soon made many con