The World's Greatest Books — Volume 15 — Science

Part 1

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THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS

JOINT EDITORS

ARTHUR MEE Editor and Founder of the Book of Knowledge

J.A. HAMMERTON Editor of Harmsworth's Universal Encyclopaedia

VOL. XV

SCIENCE

WM. H. WISE & Co.

Table of Contents

PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM HARVEY Frontispiece

PAGE

BRAMWELL, JOHN MILNE Hypnotism: Its History, Practice and Theory 1

BUFFON, COMTE DE Natural History 12

CHAMBERS, ROBERT Vestiges of Creation 22

CUVIER, GEORGES The Surface of the Globe 33

DARWIN, CHARLES The Origin of Species 43

DAVY, SIR HUMPHRY Elements of Chemical Philosophy 64

FARADAY, MICHAEL Experimental Researches in Electricity 75 The Chemical History of a Candle 85

FOREL, AUGUSTE The Senses of Insects 95

GALILEO Dialogues on the System of the World 105

GALTON, SIR FRANCIS Essays in Eugenics 111

HAECKEL, ERNST The Evolution of Man 123

HARVEY, WILLIAM On the Motion of the Heart and Blood 136

HERSCHEL, SIR JOHN Outlines of Astronomy 146

HUMBOLDT, ALEXANDER VON Cosmos, a Sketch of the Universe 158

HUTTON, JAMES The Theory of the Earth 170

LAMARCK Zoological Philosophy 179

LAVATER, JOHANN Physiogonomical Fragments 191

Part 2

LIEBIG, JUSTUS VON Animal Chemistry 203

LYELL, SIR CHARLES The Principles of Geology 215

MAXWELL, JAMES CLERK A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism 227

METCHNIKOFF, ELIE The Nature of Man 238 The Prolongation of Life 246

MILLER, HUGH The Old Red Sandstone 255

NEWTON, SIR ISAAC Principia 267

OWEN, SIR RICHARD Anatomy of Vertebrates 280

VIRCHOW, RUDOLF Cellular Pathology 292

* * * * *

A Complete Index of THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS will be found at the end of Volume XX.

Acknowledgment

Acknowledgment and thanks for the use of the following selections are herewith tendered to the Open Court Publishing Company, La Salle, Ill., for "Senses of Insects," by Auguste Forel; to G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, for "Prolongation of Human Life" and "Nature of Man," by Elie Metchnikoff; and to the De La More Press, London, for "Hypnotism, &c.," by Dr. Bramwell.

Science

JOHN MILNE BRAMWELL

Hypnotism: Its History, Practice and Theory

John Milne Bramwell was born in Perth, Scotland, May 11, 1852. The son of a physician, he studied medicine in Edinburgh, and after obtaining his degree of M.B., in 1873, he settled at Goole, Yorkshire. Fired by the unfinished work of Braid, Bernheim and Liébeault, he began, in 1889, a series of hypnotic researches, which, together with a number of successful experiments he had privately conducted, created considerable stir in the medical world. Abandoning his general practice and settling in London in 1892, Dr. Bramwell became one of the foremost authorities in the country on hypnotism as a curative agent. His Works include many valuable treatises, the most important being "Hypnotism: its History, Practice and Theory," published in 1903, and here summarised for the WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS by Dr. Bramwell himself.

I.--Pioneers of Hypnotism

Just as chemistry arose from alchemy, astronomy from astrology, so hypnotism had its origin in mesmerism. Phenomena such as Mesmer described had undoubtedly been observed from early times, but to his work, which extended from 1756 to his death, in 1815, we owe the scientific interest which, after much error and self-deception, finally led to what we now term hypnotism.

John Elliotson (1791-1868), the foremost physician of his day, was the leader of the mesmeric movement in England. In 1837, after seeing Dupotet's work, he commenced to experiment at University College Hospital, and continued, with remarkable success, until ordered to desist by the council of the college. Elliotson felt the insult keenly, indignantly resigned his appointments, and never afterwards entered the hospital he had done so much to establish. Despite the persistent and virulent attacks of the medical press, he continued his mesmeric researches up to the time of his death, sacrificing friends, income and reputation to his beliefs.

The fame of mesmerism spread to India, where, in 1845, James Esdaile (1808-1859), a surgeon in the East India Company, determined to investigate the subject. He was in charge of the Native Hospital at Hooghly, and successfully mesmerised a convict before a painful operation. Encouraged by this, he persevered, and, at the end of a year, reported 120 painless operations to the government. Investigations were instituted, and Esdaile was placed in charge of a hospital at Calcutta, for the express purpose of mesmeric practice; he continued to occupy similar posts until he left India in 1851. He recorded 261 painless capital operations and many thousand minor ones, and reduced the mortality for the removal of the enormous tumours of elephantiasis from 50 to 5 per cent.

According to Elliotson and Esdaile, the phenomena of mesmerism were entirely physical in origin. They were supposed to be due to the action of a vital curative fluid, or peculiar physical force, which, under certain circumstances, could be transmitted from one human being to another. This was usually termed the "od," or "odylic," force; various inanimate objects, such as metals, crystals and magnets, were supposed to possess it, and to be capable of inducing and terminating the mesmeric state, or of exciting or arresting its phenomena.

The name of James Braid (1795-1860) is familiar to all students of hypnotism. Braid was a Scottish surgeon, practising in Manchester, where he had already gained a high reputation as a skilful surgeon, when, in 1841, he first began to investigate mesmerism. He successfully demonstrated that the phenomena were entirely subjective. He published "Neurypnology, or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep," in 1843, and invented the terminology we now use. This was followed by other more or less important works, of which I have been able to trace forty-one, but all have been long out of print.

During the eighteen years Braid devoted to the study of hypnotism, his views underwent many changes and modifications. In his first theory, he explained hypnosis from a physical standpoint; in the second, he considered it to be a condition of involuntary monoideism and concentration, while his third theory differed from both. He recognised that reason and volition were unimpaired, and that the attention could be simultaneously directed to more points than one. The condition, therefore, was not one of monoideism. He realised more and more that the state was a conscious one, and that the losses of memory which followed on waking could always be restored in subsequent hypnoses. Finally, he described as "double consciousness" the condition he had first termed "hypnotic," then "monoideistic."

Braid maintained an active interest in hypnotism up to his death, and, indeed, three days before it, sent his last MS. to Dr. Azam, of Bordeaux, "as a mark of esteem and regard." Sympathetic notices appeared in the press after his death, all of which bore warm testimony to his professional character. Although hypnotic work practically ceased in England at Braid's death, the torch he had lighted passed into France.

In 1860, Dr. A.A. Liébeault (1823-1900) began to study hypnotism seriously, and four years later gave up general practice, settled in Nancy, and practised hypnotism gratuitously among the poor. For twenty years his labours were unrecognised, then Bernheim (one of whose patients Liébeault had cured) came to see him, and soon became a zealous pupil. The fame of the Nancy school spread, Liébeault's name became known throughout the world, and doctors flocked to study the new therapeutic method.

While Liébeault's work may justly be regarded as a continuation of Braid's, there exists little difference between the theories of Charcot and the Salpêtrière school and those of the later mesmerists.

II.--Theory of Hypnotism

The following is a summary of Braid's latest theories: (1) Hypnosis could not be induced by physical means alone. (2) Hypnotic and so-called mesmeric phenomena were subjective in origin, and both were excited by direct or by indirect suggestion. (3) Hypnosis was characterised by physical as well as by psychical changes. (4) The simultaneous appearance of several phenomena was recognised, and much importance was attached to the intelligent action of a secondary consciousness. (5) Volition was unimpaired, moral sense increased, and suggested crime impossible. (6) Rapport was a purely artificial condition created by suggestion. (7) The importance of direct verbal suggestion was fully recognised, as also the mental influence of physical methods. Suggestion was regarded as the device used for exciting the phenomena, and not considered as sufficient to explain them. (8) Important differences existed between hypnosis and normal sleep. (9) Hypnotic phenomena might be induced without the subject having passed through any condition resembling sleep. (10) The mentally healthy were the easiest, the hysterical the most difficult, to influence.

Part 3

In England, during Braid's lifetime, his earlier views were largely adopted by certain well-known men of science, particularly by Professors W.B. Carpenter and J. Hughes Bennett, but they appear to have known little or nothing of his latest theories. Bennett's description of the probable mental and physical conditions involved in the state Braid described as "monoideism" is specially worthy of note. Not only is it interesting in itself, but it serves also as a standard of comparison with which to measure the theories of later observers, who have attempted to explain hypnosis by cerebral inhibition, psychical automatism, or both these conditions combined.

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