Ey pnot, We Hallucinationscam) CHAPTER IX HALLUCINATIONS. L Hrexortc hallucination, of which we propose to give 1a short sketch, is undoubtedly one of the most important phenomena of hypnosis; the attention of observers has long been directed to it, and it has been the subject of ‘numerous experiments, In the case of a subject sensitive to suggestion, the experimenter ean produce the most varied hallucinations, ‘and it may almost be said that there is nothing which suggestion cannot create. This observation will suffice, ‘and we need not cite the innumerable instances of hal- lucinations given by some authors, who are more inte- rested in experiments which amuse than in those which instruct. Tt is as unprofitable to enumerate all the species of hallucination which it pleases the observer to impose upon his subject, 9s to describe all the forms which » pioce of clay may assume in the hands of its moulder. We shall, therefore, content ourselves with giving a fow instances of the way in which hypnotic hallucination may affect all the senses. ‘Sight—A false appreciation of the form of an object may be suggested, so that it appears to the subject to be212 ANIMAL MAGNETISM. larger, smaller, or misshapen. If, for example, the idea ‘of some deformity of face in a given person is suggested, the subject, even when some hours have elapsed since hia awakening, will regard that person with an of disgust or horror whenever he looks that way, and, indeed, the person in question may sometimes become an object of permanent dislike We have employed this method with success in order to break off the relations ‘between cortain hysterical patients, ‘The illusion may be carried 90 far as to produce a mistake with respect to the identity of a person ; an hypnotic subject will in the ‘waking state lavish caresses on « person whom she is, known to detest, if during the hypnotic sleep it has been suggested to her that she has to do with some other person to whom she is attached, and the error will some- times persist for a whole day, until the illusion is destroyed by natural sleep or by an hysterical attack. If the presence of a person who is really absent has been evoked during the hypnotic sleep, the illusion is equally persistent, and the subject may perceive an imaginary object throughout the day. At the word of the experi- menter the laboratory becomes a street, a garden, = cemetery, a Inke, ote; a portrait appears on a blank sheet of paper. Tt may even be suggested that there is a column of figures on the paper, which the subject will ‘add up correctly. Babinski.) Hearing.—Influenced by suggestion, the subject con- founds the voice of an unknown person with that of an absent acquaintance; he can hear, in the midst of pro- found silence, voices which issue orders, which repeat, insults or obscene words, ete. Taste—If the subject is presented with a piece of