to a lady companion, "I suppose it
would never do to paint these bricks blue." "Why blue?" "Oh,
it only occurred to me that it would look rather nice." She
acknowledged that the idea of blue bricks had been
persistently in her mind, with the notion that the color would
look well.

In another instance, Dr. Bernheim, of Nancy, suggested to a
hypnotised person to take Dr. X.'s umbrella when awake, open
it, and walk twice up and down the gallery. On being awakened
he did so, but with the umbrella _shut_. When asked why he
acted so, he replied: "It is an idea. I take a walk
sometimes." "But why have you taken Dr. X.'s umbrella?" "Oh, I
thought it was my own. I will replace it."

These are harmless instances of this strange power. There are
others the reverse of harmless in this significance. One or
two of these we may quote: Prof. Liegeois, in his recently
published pamphlet, "Of Hypnotism in its relations to Civil
and Criminal Law," describes experiments with the subjects of
M. Liebault, a well-known hypnotiser. In these experiments he
took pains to induce the patients to commit crimes. As he
relates, Mdlle. A. E. (a very amiable young lady) was made to
fire at her own mother with a pistol, which she had no means
of knowing was unloaded. The same lady was made to accuse
herself before a judge of having assassinated an intimate
friend with a knife. Yet in both these instances she was wide
awake at the time and supposed that she was acting from her
own impulse.

Many other instances might be given, but these will suffice
for illustration. As to the length of time in which such a
suggestion may remain operative, Prof. Beaunis relates a case
in which he suggested to a hypnotised subject that he would
call on her on the next New Year's day (172 days after the
date of the experiment). On that date, being perfectly
conscious, she seemed to see him walk into the room where she
was, pay his compliments, and retire. She insisted that this
had really happened, and could not be convinced to the
contrary. A striking feature of this incident was that he
seemed to be dressed in summer attire (as at the date of
experiment), though it was now the dead of winter.

A natural conclusion from the facts above detailed is, that
the strange power here indicated might prove a very dan