∗ Erratum in former communication-p. 66, line 15, for iris, read pupil.Google Scholar

∗ Why is the pupil contracted in sleep ? One might have expected it would be dilated, seeing that the action of the ganglionic system is not suspended. A medical friend maintains, indeed, that the pupil is dilated, but is forced to contract by the examiner's attempts to raise the eyelid and by the employment of light. My own observations on children, however, made with great care as regards light, convince me that contraction is the rule. Dr. Hughlings Jackson has, also, in his examinations of the eye with the ophthalmoscope, invariably found the pupil contracted. That this is not due merely to the introduction of light seems clearly proved by the fact that the pupil is often more contracted during sleep than when the patient is awake, subjected to the same amount of light. Dr. Jackson examined the eye of a somnambulist (a girl), and found the pupil not so mueh contracted as in ordinary sleep. The pupil of the other eye, to which atropine had been applied, was as large as when the patient was awake. After being roused, the girl fell into a natural sleep. The arteries of the retina became then a little smaller and the veins larger-their usual condition in sleep as observed by Dr. Jackson.Google Scholar

Thus, if we may take the vascular condition of the retina as an index to that of the brain, the usual opinion that there is less arterial and more venous blood in the cerebrum during sleep seems to be correct. It would be interesting to employ the ophthalmoscope to determine the condition of the cerebral circulation in hypnotism, both in the conscious and unconscious stage.Google Scholar

∗ Subsequent experiments convince me that the effect may be produced without drawing any line. I have found it impossible to influence some fowls.Google Scholar

∗ The old cure of throwing insane persons into a well is an illustration. Perfect, I think, records cures of this kind. I am not, however, advocating this way of acting upon the emotions!Google Scholar

∗ [We shall be happy to record in this Journal ‘Clinical Cases’ treated by this method. Apart from their bearing on treatment, a clear report of the phenomena exhibited in each case would be of great psychological interest.—Eds.]Google Scholar

∗ Mr. Braid's works are out of print, but I am glad to find that bis son Dr. Braid, of Weymouth, contemplates the collection and republication of them. In the mean time the references to the subject in Dr. Carpenter's ‘Human Physiology’ (fourth edition) are by far the best the reader can consult. In the preface to the last (the sixth) edition (in which these references are abridged) he expresses a hope that he may publish a separate Manual on the mind. In this he will, no doubt, work out still further the relations of artificial somnambulism and hypnotism, founded on his own experiments.Google Scholar

∗ I think it is wiser, with Dr. Watson, to refer the beneficial influence of such manipulations to their monotony than to ignore it on the ground that an untenable theory has been connected With them. So long as the rationale is clearly understood and stated, and the practice freed from all unproved theory, it is a matter of secondary importance what means are employed to procure alleviation of pain or recovery. Nay, better cure by remedies, of the rationale of which we are ignorant, than not cure at all. The monotony system of treatment may, it is easy enough to understand, soothe an irritable brain and procure sleep upon the soundest physiological principles.Google Scholar

∗ Of course the same rule holds good here as in drug experimentation—to he careful not to injure the experimentee.Google Scholar