'At the first appearance of hypnotism, when Braid had shown that hypnotised subjects are insensitive to external stimuli, surgeons conceived the idea of using this method fir the performance of certain operations; in fact, a certain number among them had the opportunity of testing it with a certain amount of advantage; but since the wonderful discovery of chloroform, these attempts so far as concerns surgical anesthesia have been justly abandoned.

1 Application Therapeutiques de l'Hypnotisme. Par le Dr. J. Lays. Paris: Imprimerie F. Leve, 17 Rue Casette. 1889.

'At the present time the application of hypnotism to surgical therapeutics is of absolutely no account, since it concerns only the limited number of persons comprised in the class of hypnotisable subjects. It must, however, be said that if this class of subjects should, by the employment of new methods, become more numerous, it is possible that in certain cases one might practise fascination, and thus obtain an artificial anesthesia, the duration of which might be prolonged without any ill effects. In the present state of things, when a small operation is to be done upon any of our hypnotic subjects, an abscess is to be opened, a foreign body to be extracted or one or more teeth to be drawn, I do not hesitate to hypnotise the subject and to hand him over to the surgeon. It happens to me frequently enough to have a certain number of subjects with teeth to be drawn. I place them in the condition of lucid somnambulism, I address myself to the dentists of the Charite, who examine the mouth at leisure, and extract the diseased teeth; whilst the subject, insensible throughout, on waking has no recollection of the operation he has undergone, and is quite astonished to find his extracted teeth in his hand.'