asked him to look at me fixedly while I gently
stroked his forehead above the eyes with my hand. Imagine my surprise
when I found him to be an extremely sensitive hypnotic subject. He did
not become entirely unconscious, but was in a peculiar somnambulistic
condition, in which he conversed readily enough. He is one of the best
subjects for post-hypnotic suggestion that I have ever seen.

"I tried several experiments with him, and the thought occurred to me if
it was not possible that this susceptibility to hypnotic suggestion
might be used by unscrupulous persons in many ways, which might be
especially dangerous in case he was riding a good horse in a race.

"Upon questioning Murphy, after I had awakened him, regarding his
susceptibility to hypnotic influence, he told me that _Simms had often
put him to sleep for fun, when they met at his sister's house_. The
question which now presents itself is, Suppose he has been hypnotized
and has been given a post-hypnotic suggestion, that he is to 'pull'
Emperor if a certain man waves his handkerchief, how are we to prevent
his carrying out these instructions? Of course, we can take the boy off
the horse and put on another jockey, but Blake does not wish to do this.

"In his waking moments Murphy does not remember anything that has been
told him while hypnotized, and I doubt if we could make Blake believe
that there was any real danger in that quarter. Again, if we allow him
to go in and ride the race, it is more than possible that he could be
made to win or lose the race by any one who had given him orders while
in a hypnotic condition, and we also know that he would forget entirely
that he had received such orders after waking.

"Now, the difficulty presents itself as to how we can prevent him
following out such instructions, in case he has received them. We know
we cannot affect such suggestions by re-hypnotizing him, because we do
not know the exact circumstances under which such directions were given.
To merely hypnotize and tell him he is not to carry out such orders
would have no effect whatever. Perhaps if we could tell him that under
certain described circumstances he was not to carry out such orders we
might succeed.

"But my experience has been that the directions, as given, are carried
out by the subject if, at the time, the circumstance described, which is
to be recognized as a signal for such and such action on the part of the
hypnotized sensitive, occurs _and