willing in my internal consciousness that there should be
no sleep, failed to prevent it, where the usual physical methods of
hypnotization, stillness, repose, a fixed gaze, or the verbal expression
of an order to sleep, were employed."

The dangers of hypnotism have been recognized by the law of every
civilized country except the United States, where alone public
performances are permitted.

Dr. Cocke says: "I have occasionally seen subjects who complained of
headache, vertigo, nausea, and other similar symptoms after having been
hypnotized, but these conditions were at a future hypnotic sitting
easily remedied by suggestion." Speaking of the use of hypnotism by
doctors under conditions of reasonable care, Dr. Cocke says further:
"There is one contraindication greater than all the rest. It applies
more to the physician than to the patient, more to the masses than to
any single individual. It is not confined to hypnotism alone; it has
blocked the wheels of human progress through the ages which have gone.
It is undue enthusiasm. It is the danger that certain individuals will
become so enamored with its charms that other equally valuable means of
cure will be ignored. Mental therapeutics has come to stay. It is yet in
its infancy and will grow, but, if it were possible to kill it, it would
be strangled by the fanaticism and prejudice of its devotees. The whole
field is fascinating and alluring. It promises so much that it is in
danger of being missed by the ignorant to such an extent that great harm
may result. This is true, not only of mental therapeutics and hypnotism,
but of every other blessing we possess. Hypnotism has nothing to fear
from the senseless skepticism and contempt of those who have no
knowledge of the subject." He adds pertinently enough: "While hypnotism
can be used in a greater or less degree by every one, it can only be
used intelligently by those who understand, not only hypnotism itself,
but disease as well."

Dr. Cocke is a firm believer that the right use of hypnotism by
intelligent persons does not weaken the will. Says he: "I do not believe
there is any danger whatever in this. I have no evidence (and I have
studied a large number of hypnotized subjects) that hypnotism will
render a subject less capable of exercising his will when he is relieved
from the hypnotic trance. I do not believe that it increases in any way
his susceptibility to ordinary suggestion."

However, in regard to the dange