ABSTRACT
Since the dawn of history, superstition and magic have played a large part in the treatment of disease. The greatest magnetizer that the world has ever produced was Mesmer, who appeared in the latter part of the eighteenth century. In 1774, Hell, professor of astronomy in Vienna, informed Mesmer that he had cured rheumatism in himself by a magnetic process. In England, the subject of animal magnetism was taken up in 1841 by James Braid, who had witnessed the public demonstration of Lafontaine in Manchester. Hypnosis may be induced in a variety of ways. All of the methods, however, can be grouped under the following heads: first, those depending upon sensory impressions; secondly, those depending upon sensory impressions plus fatigue; and, thirdly, those depending upon conceptions or hallucinations of sleep aroused in the subject by suggestion. The phenomena of hypnotism, like those presented by hysteria, are classifiable into psychic, sensory, motor, and somatic.
