JAMES BKAID, SUHGJSON AND HYPNOTIST. BY DR. J. MILNE BBAMWELL. JAMES BKAID, the subject of this sketch, was bom at Bylaw House, in Fifesbire, about 1795. He studied at Edinburgh University and, after qualifying as a surgeon, Downloaded from practised for a short time in Scotland; then removed to Manchester, where he remained up to the time of his death. On November 13, 1841, Braid, for the first time, was by guest on January 9, 2015 present at a mesmeric seance, the operator being Lafontaine. At this time mesmeric phenomena were believed to be due either to some mysterious force or fluid, self-deception, or trickery. Braid held the latter theory and, on the first occasion, saw nothing to cause him to alter his views. At the next seance, six days later, he noticed that one subject was unable to open his eyes. Braid regarded this as a real phenomenon, and was anxious to discover its physiological cause; and the following evening, when the same case was again operated on, he believed he had done so. After making a series of experiments, chiefly on personal friends and relations, he expressed his conviction that the phenomena he had witnessed were purely subjective, and began almost immediately to place these views before the public, his first lecture being delivered on December 27, 1841. In 1842 Braid offered a paper on the subject of hypnotism to the Medical Section of the British Association. This was refused; whereupon he gave a Conversazione, at which many members of the Association were present, read his paper, and showed cases. His first work on mesmerism was JAMES BRAID. 91 entitled " Satanic Agency and Mesmerism reviewed, in a Letter to the Eev. H. McNeile, A.M., of Liverpool, in reply to a Sermon preached by him at St. Jude's Church, Liver- pool, on Sunday, April 10, 1842." McNeile had charged Braid with " refusing to state the laws of nature by the uniform action of which mesmeric phenomena were pro- duced." To this Braid replied, that he had always explained the phenomena on physiological and psychological principles, and that McNeile had persistently refused to attend his lectures, or read any account of them. " Neurypnology, or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep," published by Braid in 1843, and of which 800 copies were sold in a few months, was the first of a series of works on the subject of hypnotism. The necessarily limited length of this article does not permit me to deal with each of these Downloaded from separately and in detail. I propose, therefore, first to give a short account of the theories which appear in " Neuryp- nology " alone, and then to group together the more important of the facts and views found in the other works. by guest on January 9, 2015 Neurypnology.—At the second seance Braid observed that the mesmeric condition was induced by fixed staring, and concluded that the inability to open the eyes arose from paralysis of certain nerve centres and exhaustion of the levator muscles. " I expressed," he said, " my entire conviction that the phenomena of mesmerism were accounted for on the principle of the derangement of the state of the cerebral spinal centres, and of the circulatory, respiratory, and muscular systems, induced by a fixed stare, absolute repose of body, fixed attention and suppressed respiration, concomitant with that fixity of attention. That the whole depended on the physical and psychical condition of the patient arising from the causes referred to, and not at all on the volition or passes of the operator, throwing out magnetic fluid, or exciting to activity some mystical, universal fluid or medium." Braid not only insisted that the condition was a purely subjective one, produced in this mechanical way, but he also claimed to have successfully demonstrated that it could be induced in like manner in persons who had never heard of mesmerism, and who were 92 OEIGLNAL ABTICLES AND CLINICAL CASES. ignorant of what was expected of them. In illustration of this, he mentioned that he had hypnotised one of his servants, who knew nothing of mesmerism, by giving him such directions as were calculated to impress his mind with the idea that his fixed attention was required merely for the purpose of watching a chemical experiment with which he was already familiar. After having established the subjective nature of the phenomena, Braid suggested that these should be called hypnotic instead of mesmeric, and invented the terms hypnotism, hypnotist, hypnotise, &c, which, with little change, still form to-day the recognised terminology of the subject. Braid induced hypnosis by making the subject look at a bright object, held at such a position above the forehead as Downloaded from was calculated to produce the greatest possible strain upon the eyes and eyelids, while at the same time the mind was to be riveted on the idea of that one object. After hypno- tising his patients, he manipulated them in various ways, in by guest on January 9, 2015 order to cause changes in the muscular and circulatory systems ; he believed that this excited the different hypnotic phenomena, and played an important part in the cure of disease. Braid found that he could terminate the hypnotic con- dition by means of a current of cold air. He also noticed that he could make a rigid limb flexible by blowing on it; that he could restore sight to one eye by the same means, and leave the other insensible ; excite one half of the body to action while the other remained rigid and torpid, or make the patient pass from a general state of inactivity of the organs of special sense and tonic muscular rigidity to the opposite condition of extreme mobility and excited sensibility. He acknowledged that he was unable to explain these extraordinary phenomena, but stated that he had no difficulty in reproducing them, that they were independent of any " rapport" between operator and patient, and in- variably appeared no matter whether the current of air came from the lips, a pair of bellows, the motion of the hand, or any inanimate object. JAMES BBAID. 93 The subjective explanation of the origin of mesmeric phenomena was not a new one, and had already been given both by the Abbe Faria and Bertrand. Their views, how- ever, if not entirely forgotten, exercised no practical influence on mesmeric theory, and Braid evidently was unacquainted with them when he commenced his mesmeric researches; thus, his conclusions were arrived at independently, and successfully substituted for those universally held in his day. At a later date, when his opponents pointed out the similarity between the theories, Braid asserted that this was more apparent than real, as Faria had attributed everything to the effect of imagination; on this point they differed, but were alike in asserting that neither contact nor magnetic fluid was necessary. At this time Braid did not believe that the phenomena of Downloaded from hypnotism were the result of attention, for, in speaking of some articles on animal magnetism which had appeared in the Medical Gazette in 1833, he said : " In the writer's opinion by guest on January 9, 2015 the phenomena are the result of attention strongly directed to different parts of the body, whereas, by my method the attention is riveted to something outside the body." In opposition to the theory that hypnotism resembled reverie, Braid said : " Reverie proceeds from an unusual quies- cence of the brain, and inability of the mind to direct itself strongly to any one point. There is defect in the attention, which, instead of being fixed on one subject, wanders over a thousand, and even on these is feebly and ineffectively directed. This is the very reverse of what is induced by my plan, because I rivet the attention to one idea, and the eyes to one point, as the primary and imperative condition." Some experiments Braid made, as to the methods of in- ducing hypnosis, appear to have first suggested alterations in his hypnotic theory and shaken his faith in the purely physi- cal explanation of hypnotic phenomena. At first he had required his patients to look for a considerable time at some inanimate object until the eyelids closed involuntarily. He frequently found, however, that this was followed by pain and slight conjunctivitis, and in order to avoid this he closed the patient's eyes at a much earlier stage. Despite this he 94 ORIGINAL ARTICLES AND CLINICAL CASES. was able to hypnotise as easily as before and without sub- sequent unpleasant sensations. This led to further experi- ment, when he found he could induce hypnosis as readily in the dark or with the eyes bandaged, as in the light and with the eyes uncovered; it being only necessary to keep the eyes fixed and the body and mind at absolute rest. He always failed, however, in young children and in persons of weak intellect, or of restless and excitable minds, who were un- able to comply with these simple rules. As he succeeded with the blind, Braid concluded tbat the impression was made through the mind and not through the optic nerve. " It is important to remark," he said, " that the oftener patients are hypnotised, from association of ideas and habits, the more susceptible they become ; and in this way they are Liable to be affected entirely through the imagination. Thus, Downloaded from if they consider or imagine there is something doing, although they do not see it, from which they are to be affected, they will become affected; but on the contrary, the most expert hypnotist in the world may exert all his efforts in vain, if the by guest on January 9, 2015 party does not expect it, and mentally and bodily comply, and thus yield to it." Braid at first was inclined to believe in phrenology, and thought it possible that the passions, emotions, and in- tellectual faculties could be excited during hypnosis by simple contact or friction over certain sympathetic points of the head and face.