Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Hypnotism / by Doctor Foveau De Courmelles ; translated by Laura Ensor. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![PREFACE. 4 ]?he study of hypnotism—that is to say, of sleep >voked by artificial influences—is one which pre- its no small difficulty in the attempt to reduce it to i intelligence of the general reader. So many lories have been mooted, so many consciences have in startled, that it would seem advisable that a rely scientific and rational account should be laid ’ore the public. Hypnotism is now a common topic of conversation ; )ks and newspapers teem with it. The moment a me is committed, the pet theory of hypnotism and ujesUon is invoked, destroying and drowning all lgment. It is loudly asserted that free will is an pty word and that the hypnotized subject is a mere tomaton. This idea is assuredly more than suffi- nt to arouse a feeling of doubt in the mind of a •yman summoned to decide the fate of a, fellow- lature, or to make a philosopher ponder over the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21912397_0009.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)