Hypnotic therapeutics : illustrated by cases : with an appendix on table-moving and spirit-rapping / by James Braid.

  • Braid, James, 1795?-1860.
Date:
[1853]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hypnotic therapeutics : illustrated by cases : with an appendix on table-moving and spirit-rapping / by James Braid. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    11/48 (page 9)
    It is indeed Avell known that I use hypnotism alone, only in a cer^ tain class of cases, to which I have ascertained, hy experience, that it is peculiarly adapted; and, that I use it in other cases i« conj/wnc- iiomsith medicines; whilst, in the great majority of cases Ida not use hypnotism at all, but depend entirely upon the exhibition of medi- cines, which I administer in such doses as are calculated to produce ob^dous and sensible effects. .K v.iii it; .'>'.-'/U . '.iJ ^^y 'Again, inasmuch as the only rational imode of treating disease'is, 6rst of all, to ascertain the pathological condition, and whether the indication is to stimulate or to depress, and to what extent, in either respect, it is obviously equally necessary that a person shall have sucli j^rofessionai knowledge as shall qualify him to do this, in order] to iprepdre! him, for treating cases, with general success by hypnotism, as by the ordinary modes of treatment. In proof of this I may state the following facts:—In cases which had been treated mesmerically by others, with the low circulation, not only without benefit, but with an aggravation of symptoms, so soon as they were subjected by me to the hypnotic process, with the high circulation or stimulating plan, relief and. cure were effected immediately. In like manner, at a iperiod when 11 wag much less acquainted with the hypnotic mode of treatment, this same fact waS strikingly manifested during my treatment of a sevei'e case of epilepsy^ After this case had resisted energetic treatment under medical meanSj; the patient was brought to me to be hypnotised. Being a chi'onie ease, I adopted hypnotism alone, with the excited cireidation, loithoztti benefit, and then I combined this method with the exhibition of meq dicines, biit still without benefit..''1 tlieui?ecommended a residenq^' in the countiy, with fresh air and moderate exercise in the open au^ suitable medicines being also used in the ijieantime,; ,but all to no purpose, as the patient retamed as bad as. ewer. . i,I , npiw, hypnotised him daily, toith the low circulation, and from that day he had but one fit subsequently, and has now remained quite well for eight years. I have also had many other examples .j>i'oving the same doctrine, of how much of our success depends upon proper management after the hypnotic stute is induced. , ,1 u, i^.i ,,, , iiirjol .n. i ij j During the nervous sleep, bi^. induqmg, ,th|Q.4Q?!?Mci^cul^ suppressed rospu-ation, as; explained, elsewhere ,j|i^,|iny,: writings, the blood, from being thus insufficiently arterialised, acts as a narcotiG;,^ and depresses all the powers of life below that of natural sleep ; and if the attention has also beeix fixed in some particular train of thought, every other functioii becomes deadened iii an extraordinary degree, so tliat severe inflictions and operations may be borne in that stat]E^ without the patient evincing any apptu'ent consciousness of pain^ nor, if (questioned when he awakes, will he remember haying felt any pain. The patient seems to have been reduced to a state of tempo? rary nervous coma, during which anaesthesia was complete. Iiij otiier cases, a patient wlio is iiighly sensible to pain when a\vak^j. may be rendered quite tolerant of, or indifferent to, an operation, e-y^^jiji,