Case XVI. Mrs Slater, 33 years of age, in the autumn of 1841, had suffered a good deal during her pregnancy, and in December of that year was delivered of a seven months' child. From this period, her legs, which had been very weak for some time previously became very much worse, and in a short time she lost all voluntary power over them, together with loss of natural feeling. She had been under the care of three professional gentleman, but as she became worse instead of better, notwithstanding the means used, the case had been considered hopeless and left to itself, for some time previous to my being consulted, which was on the 22d April, 1842. I found she had not only lost feeling and voluntary motion of her legs and feet, but that the knees were rigidly flexed, the heels drawn up, the toes flexed, and the feet incurvated, and fixed in the position of slight club foot (varus.) She had not menstruated since her confinement, but there was no other function as regarded the secretions or excretions, which appeared to be at fault. Her speech was imperfect and her memory impaired. I hypnotized, and endeavoured, whilst in that condition, to regulate the morbid action of the muscles, and malposition of the feet and legs. In five minutes I roused her, when she thanked God she now felt she had feet, could feel the floor with them, and could move her toes. I now raised her on her feet, and with the assistance of her husband supporting her by the one arm, and myself by the other, she went across the room and back again to the sofa, moving her legs and supporting half the weight of her body on them. I operated on her again the same evening, after which she was able to support herself standing with the soles of her feet on the floor. She required merely to be steadied by placing the points of the fingers of one of my hands against her back. Before being operated on, the heels were drawn up, and the feet twisted so that she could only have touched the floor with a small portion of the outer edge of the feet, near the root of the little toes. I hypnotized her in the same manner daily for some time with increasing improvement, so that in a week she was able to walk into her shop alone, merely requiring to steady herself by the wall, and in two weeks more she could walk into it without any assistance whatever. Two months from my first seeing her, she went to Liverpool, and was able to walk several miles in a day. She could walk from the middle of the town where she lodged, to the pier head and back, and from her lodgings  to Everton and back, all in the same day, which was several miles partly on very steep acclivities. She had no relapse, and has continued well ever since.

       In a very few days after I first operated on this patient, the catamenial discharge appeared for the first time since her confinement. She had no interval medicine, no external application whatever to her legs for several days after I first saw her. Her extraordinary improvement, therefore,  resulted entirely from the effects of the operations. After I had attended her some days, she required some simple aperient medicine, and I afterwards prescribed a diuretic, which I hoped might expedite the cure. The feeling and power of her legs and feet were greatly restored, her speech perfect, and her memory much improved, before she had a single dose of medicine from me. Her improvement therefore was strictly the result of hypnotism alone.

       The extraordinary effects manifested in this case, as well as in many others, after a few minutes' operation-- so different from what is realized in the application of ordinary means-- may appear startling to those unacquainted with the powers of hypnotism. On this account, I have been advised to conceal the facts, as many may consider it impossible, and reject the less startling, although not more true reports of its beneficial action in other cases. In recording cases, however, I consider it my duty to report facts as I have found them, and to make no compromise for the sake of accommodating them to the preconceived notions of prejudices of any one [Braid, 1843/1976, 202-4].
 

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I now proceed to detail the mode which I practise  for inducing the phenomena. Take any bright object ( I generally use my lancet case) between the thumb and for and middle fingers of the left had;  hold it from about eight to fifteen inches form the eyes, at such position above the forehead as may be necessary to produce the greatest possible strain upon the eyes and eyelids, and enable the patient to maintain a steady fixed stare at the object. The patient must be made to understand that he is to keep the eyes steadlily fixed on the object, and the mind riveted on the idea of that one object. It will be observed, that owing to the consensual adjustment of the eyes, the pupils will be at first contracted: they will shortly begin to dilate, and after they have done so to a considerable extent, and have assumed a wavy motion, if the fore and middle fingers of the right hand, extended and a little separated, are carried form the object towards the eyes, most probably  the eyelids will close involuntarily, with a vibratory motion. If this is not the case, or the patient allows the ebeballs to move, desire him to begin anew, giving him to understand that he is to allow the eyelids to close when the fingers are again carried towards the eyes, but that the eyeballs must be kept fixed in the same position, and the mind rivited to the one idea of the object held above the eyes. It will generally be found that the eyelids close with a vibratory motion, or become spasmodically closed. After ten or fifteen seconds have elapsed, by gently elevating the arms and legs, it will be found tha the patient has a disposition to retain them in the situation in which they have been placed, if he is intensely affected. If this is not the case, in a soft tone  ov voice desire him to retain the limbs in the extended position, and thus the pulse willspeedily become greatly accelerated, and the limbs, in process of time, will become quite rigid and involuntarily fixed. It will also be found, that all the organs of special sense, excepting sight, including heat and cold, and muscular motion, or reisistance,  and certain mental faculties, are at first prodigiously exalted, such as happens with regard to the primary effects of opium, wine, and spirits. After a certain point, however, this exaltation of function is followed by a state of depression, far greater than the torpor of natural sleep [Braid, 1843/1976, 27-9]....

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