conduct of life, that I would limit belief to scientific proof. As an
example, I will cite the very interesting case of the hypnotic
treatment of a patient by DR. VOISIN, and as given by MASON.

"In the summer of 1884, there was at the Salpètrière a young woman of
a deplorable type, Jeanne S----, who was a criminal lunatic, filthy,
violent, and with a life history of impurity and crime. M. Auguste
Voisin, one of the physicians of the staff, undertook to hypnotize
her, May 31. At that time she was so violent that she could only be
kept quiet by a straight-jacket and the constant cold douche to her
head. She would not look at M. Voisin, but raved and spat at him. He
persisted, kept his face near and opposite to hers, and his eyes
following hers constantly. In ten minutes she was in a sound sleep,
and soon passed into a somnambulistic condition. The process was
repeated many days, and she gradually became sane while in the
hypnotic condition, but still raved when she woke.

"Gradually then she began to accept hypnotic suggestion, and would
obey trivial orders given her while asleep, such as to sweep her room,
then suggestions regarding her general behavior; then, in her hypnotic
condition, she began to express regret for her past life, and form
resolutions of amendment to which she finally adhered when she awoke.
Two years later she was a nurse in one of the Paris hospitals, and her
conduct was irreproachable. M. Voisin has followed up this case by
others equally striking."

This is not only an unusually well authenticated instance, but one
which seems to carry conviction from the manner of narration. Yet it
would be absurd to declare that the subject neither deceived herself
nor others, or that the doctor made no mistakes either in fact or