By Sir FRANCIS R. CRUISE, M.D.

Dr. Charles Lloyd Tuckey asks me to write a short introductory chapter to the fifth edition of his truly monumental work on 'Psycho-Therapeutics, or Treatment by Hypnotism and Suggestion.' I do so with great pleasure, although I know it is quite needless. His work treats the subject so fully and satisfactorily I feel that any addition of mine is really out of place.

I believe the best course I can adopt is to tell the story of how I came to study hypnotism, to believe in it, and to practise it, as I do in all cases which appear to me suitable.

In the latter part of the eighties I read a great deal on the subject, mainly owing to the advice of a friend, a very learned clergyman, who was interested by the startling psychological problems it involves touching questions of moral responsibility. My studies included the works of Dr. Lloyd Tuckey, Drs. Liebeault, Bernheim, Fontan, Segard, Moll, and others; and ultimately I was led to the conclusion that the statements made concerning hypnotism were either astounding facts, quite unknown to me, or most audacious falsehoods.

Being determined to set my mind at rest, I proceeded to Nancy in June, 1890, and placed myself under the tuition of Drs. Liebeault and Bernheim. Later I came to Paris, and there followed the clinical instruction of Dr. Luys at the Charite, Dr. Auguste Voisin, and Dr. Guinon, Chef de Clinique of M. Charcot at the Salpetriere. Later I studied with M. Berillon at his dispensary in Rue des Beaux-Arts. I may now state definitely that after this somewhat extended, and I hope unprejudiced study, I arrived at the conclusion that hypnotism is a marvellous reality - a most extraordinary and interesting development of neurological and psychological science, and in certain cases a potent aid in therapeutics.

I may add that, while striving to be open-minded, my original inclination was adverse to hypnotism. However, I trust that there are exceptions to Herbert Spencer's dictum that 'where prejudices exist the most obvious facts avail nothing,' and that I may claim to be one of the exceptions. Sir William Crookes's advice should be treasured - namely, 'to keep our minds, like the windows of a lodging-house, with a notice written thereon, "Rooms to let.' "

I do not intend here to enter upon any full account of the history of hypnotism. Such may be found in all the standard treatises bearing upon the subject. Suffice it to say that, while known and practised, after a fashion, in very ancient times, animal magnetism, so called, was prominently revived by Mesmer, who flourished at the end of the seventeenth and commencement of the eighteenth centuries. Later - some sixty or more years ago - Mr. Braid, a Manchester surgeon, reintroduced it, and showed how it might be made practically useful in medicine. Braid has the merit of foreshadowing its true application by combining with mesmeric sleep the manipulation of the diseased parts - the first attempt to use suggcstion with artificial sleep. Still later, hypnotism was again brought to the front by Dr. Ambroise Liebeault, of Nancy, to whom we are indebted for its present position and for its establishment on a solid basis of usefulness, by its conjunction with systematic verbal suggestion. Now we see in hypnotism no longer a medical curiosity, but the application of suggestion during 'provoked sleep.'

I think I cannot do better than relate here M. Lie-beault's story, as I heard it from himself, of how he came to combine hypnotism with suggestion, and thereby to revolutionize the treatment of a large class of ailments. M. Liebeault told me that as a young practitioner he was often forcibly struck by the potent effect on patients which he observed to follow the physician's expression of a decided opinion, favourable or the reverse. This he rightly attributed to the power of the mind and nervous system upon the physical condition. None of us is ignorant of it. Oftentimes we see patients sink from fright, while others are saved, because they are courageous and determined to recover if they can. Pondering over this problem, Liebeault came to seek in what way he could apply suggestion of cure with the utmost possible advantage.

After many trials, he discovered that in 'induced sleep' - hypnosis, in other words - when the personality of the subject is partially or almost completely extinguished, and the imagination set free, suggestion becomes infinitely more powerful than in the waking state. This was Lie-beault's point of departure - this is the essence of modern hypnotism.

A careful study of his remarkable essay, 'Le Sommeil Provoque,' published in 1889, will well repay study. In it he summarizes the result of all his published contributions to the subject, which date back to the year 1868.

Despite ridicule and neglect, Liebeault, with the earnestness of a true scientist and the disinterested devotion of his compatriots, worked and worked, until he proved to all candid observers that he had struck upon a mine of wealth in therapeutics, and his method came to be tested and adopted by numbers in France and elsewhere.

His first distinguished pupil - Dr. Henri Bernheim, Physician to the Hopital Civil at Nancy and Professor of the Faculty of Medicine there - took the matter up, and utilized his vast field of observation. The result of his labours is embodied in his exhaustive work, 'De la Suggestion et de ses Applications a la Therapeutique,' published in 1888, and also in a later essay, dated 1891.

The study and practice of hypnotism has gradually spread in France and elsewhere, and now reckons amongst its advocates many illustrious names in France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Russia, America, England, and elsewhere.

To proceed. Let us suppose ourselves in M. Lie-beault's consulting rooms - dispensary, in fact - in the Rue Bellevue at Nancy. From seven in the morning till noon he worked. He was a remarkably bright, intelligent old gentleman - simple, kindly in manner, and sympathetic with all his patients, who streamed in to seek his aid, mostly when all other means of cure had failed.