It at least gives the patient the benefit of sleep, they say. In fact they claim a far more extended applicability than Mesmer himself; for they treat chronic organic disease where there is degeneration of tissue by hypnotism. Dr. Bernheim, indeed, whose medical horizon has since 1880 been gradually overspread by the word 'suggestion,' seems to think that all treatment is a form of the same thing. Certainly such measures as electricity, water-cure, massage, suspension, and metallotherapy, he believes to be nothing but suggestion in disguise. This is absurd. No doubt they act mainly in the same way as suggestion does; namely, by influencing the local bloodsupply, but not by any means through suggestion. It is not likely that the large promises now being freely made will be carried out. To speak of 'proceeding on rigidly scientific lines' is to talk solemn nonsense. No treatment is anything but empirical, and treatment by suggestion the most empirical of all. Previous manipulators, who were quite as skilful and as well acquainted with the power they wielded as Dr. Bernheim, failed nevertheless to make very much mark with actual results, except Esdaile and his anæsthesia. In fact the weakness of mesmerism, that which has caused it to come to grief so often, is its therapeutic inutility, just as its strength, that which has caused it always to rise again, lies in the reality of its phenomena. There are obvious difficulties in the way of its medical application. There is the personal factor, a quite unknown quantity. Every patient is not susceptible, and every doctor does not possess the power. Then the results are very uncertain; nearly everything that can be done, can be done by other more certain means. Other effects are only temporary. The dipso-maniac or morphino-maniac, who is 'cured by suggestion,' does not remain permanently cured, but has to come again and again to be hypnotized. And is the state of the confirmed hypnotic very much better than that of the other? It is only exchanging one servitude for another. Lastly, the condition is not free from danger-the danger of a disorganized nervous system and of an abandoned self-control. Most thinking persons will hesitate before they run the risk of submitting themselves to an influence, which may end in the surrender of their free-will to another, the annihilation of their very identity.

There are two classes of cases, however, in which hypnotism may perhaps be found very beneficial. Those are the insane, and children who have become vicious, or who suffer from certain functional troubles. Mesmer himself suggested that the treatment is particularly suitable for the insane; but it has not Vol. 171.-No. 341.

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been

been tried much until recently. Dr. Forel of Zürich, Dr. Voisin, and others, claim to have had very encouraging results in certain forms of insanity, though Dr. Percy Smith's attempts at Bethlehem Hospital have not yet met with much success. Insanity is a thing so completely beyond all ordinary therapeutic measures that any additional method of treatment is welcome. Similarly certain vices and disorders of childhood are extremely difficult to deal with, and Dr. Bérillon has made out a good case for the use of hypnotism here. For the rest, we can only expect that hypnotism will be employed here and there in exceptional cases as an additional means, to be handled with the greatest discretion, when others have failed. It is not a remedy that can or ought ever to come into general use. If modern investigations make anything clear, it is that the real value of hypnotism lies in its efficiency as a method of research. We possess no such powerful instrument for searching out the mysteries of the physiology and pathology of the nervous system and of the mind. It has been truly called a method of moral vivisection;' but whether any one is justified in practising such moral vivisection is very much open to doubt.

In conclusion, if any ask, What after all is mesmerism ? we can only say that its real nature remains a mystery. None of the modern theories cover all the ground, nor would they explain the essence of the thing even if they did. Certainly it is not merely a form of hysteria, as they say in Paris; and even if it were, we do not know, cannot even guess, what hysteria itself is. Equally certain it is not all subjective, all due to suggestion, and therefore a mere extension of the ordinary influence which one mind has over another, as they say at Nancy. That does not explain the influencing of patients behind their backs, without their knowledge, as was done by Esdaile in open court and since by Liégeois. Nor is it compatible with the definite physiological effects upon the muscles, the circulation, and the secretions, which have been proved to take place; nor with the mesmerizing of the lower animals, of birds, snakes, and crabs, which is an established fact. Besides, the ordinary influence of one; mind over another is always greatest between strangers: witness the case of lunatics and children; the more familiar people are, the less influence they have, whereas in hypnotism the exact opposite obtains-influence is proportionate to familiarity. And even if this theory of suggestion being everything were tenable, we should still ask :-What is this condition in which the influence of another's mind is increased to such an extraordinary degree? Heidenhain's physiological theory that it is

due

due to inhibition' of the higher centres in the cerebral cortex does not help us much. What is inhibition, and how is it established? There can be little doubt that the actual mechanism by which the phenomena are brought about is the modification of the circulation in the brain. We may suppose that in the ordinary state there is a central organ which holds the balance between the others and prevents any being specially prominent. In the hypnotic state this is thrown out of gear somehow or other, and then, on attention being drawn to a particular organ, the blood rushes thither, and a condition of tremendous over-activity ensues; hence the heightening of the senses and other faculties, which seems so marvellous. All the energy is, as it were, concentrated in one spot. But that leaves us just as much in the dark as before about the real nature of the state in which this happens, and how it is induced. The only theory which attempts to go to the root of the matter is Mesmer's own, and it may be that some day, when our knowledge is extended, that theory, though couched in the vague and fanciful language of the last century, will be found to contain the germ of a true idea. There is nothing inherently absurd in supposing that living creatures possess a property analogous to 'magnetism, by virtue of which they may act and react on each other; and there is not a little in the most recent experiments, particularly those with magnets, which go some way towards proving it. At least Science has learnt a lesson from her discomfiture in the past, and will not be so ready to deny the existence of a thing simply because it cannot be seen. 'De non apparentibus et de non existentibus eadem est ratio' may be a good maxim in law, but is a bad one in science.

ART. X.-1. The New York City Ring. By Samuel J. Tilden. New York, 1873.

2. The History of Tammany: New York Star. 1883, 1884. 3. Machine Politics, and Money in Elections in New York City. By William M. Ivins. New York, 1887.

4. The American Commonwealth.

6

London and New York, 1888.

By James Bryce, M.P.

5. New York City Daily Journals, 1870-1890.

E

RIN'S Isle,-Manhattan.' So says 'Life,' a shrewd New York observer of men and things. If the definition be accurate, we have the whole purpose of this article in three words; possibly, before we finish, we may be in a position to show whether the definition is accurate or not. It is necessary, however, to state, for the benefit of strangers, that Manhattan is the aboriginal name of the Island which, until a few years ago, was co-extensive with the City and County of New York.

It is a somewhat difficult task for an outsider to determine what an American means by the term 'Home Rule.' There is Federal Home Rule at Washington; 'government of the people by the people, and for the people;' there is State Home Rule in each State; municipal Home Rule in the large cities. The Federal Government is jealously excluded from all interference with State rights; and the municipalities claim, within certain limits, complete autonomy in the management of local affairs. The limits of each autonomy are clearly defined; and, theoretically at all events, American Home Rule means, as defined by the Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, when Mayor of New York in 1888, that 'America should be governed by Americans,' with the American flag as the symbol of Home Rule and of the sovereignty of the people.'

But in New York the American flag fails as an acknowledged symbol of Home Rule. One-third of the inhabitants are, as we shall show, of Irish birth or of Irish descent; and this third part of the population has so dominated the remainder, that the 'Irish flag,' whatever that may be, is raised as the peculiar local symbol of Home Rule in Manhattan. The Irish are in fact and evidence the rulers there; and they supply fully twice their due proportion of the city aldermen and magistrates, policemen, criminals, and paupers. They can turn Municipal, State, and even Federal elections. They hold not only the balance of power, but actually rule New York;

*See page 279.

and

and since, more than once, the Presidential election has turned on the vote of New York City and State, in ruling New York they practically rule the country.

At home the Irish have never found a government to suit them. Laws proscribing evil-doers, and protecting those who are amenable to social and political authority, have hitherto been specially obnoxious to the Irish character. The people do, no doubt, prefer a varying element of illegality, and submit best to a despotism. But since anarchy has now been vigorously expelled, and individual despotism has become impossible, the Irish accept, when they have opportunity, the despotism of a mob. Such despotism they denominate Home Rule,' and legal statesmanship, enforcing equitable order, is by them, in their disorder, called 'coercion.'

In one quarter of the world, however, it appears that Irishmen are satisfied, and find Home Rule according to their mind. In New York City they seem quite at home; and if we take a little pains to see how New York has been ruled of late by Irishmen and their associated sympathisers, we may understand what blessings for Belfast, and Cork, and Dublin, would result from, and accompany, Home Rule in Ireland.

It becomes then a matter of interest to discover how the Irish so 'oppressed' and so 'coerced' at home behave abroad when they have power and opportunity to rule. It might, however, be presumptuous in an Englishman to decide this question. Let Americans answer; the reader bearing constantly in mind that two-thirds of the influence and character revealed are Irish.

6

Speaking of the loss to New York of the World's Fair,' 'America' (March 6, 1890) attributes this to corrupt politics; while Life,' of the same date, pronounces New York City singularly incapable of carrying out such a project successfully' on account of its 'political rottenness.' The Aldermen are especially corrupt; it is impossible to get any authorization of work with money' in it passed through the Board without first satisfying their itching palms. The granting of a charter for a railroad in Broadway was a few years ago a notable illustration of this fact; public opinion was so outraged that the corrupt members were indicted. Some of them saved themselves by skipping' to Canada; some were tried and convicted, and are now suffering for their misdeeds in State prisons. In the trials of others the juries disagreed: their re-trials were conveniently postponed; and now the witnesses, whose evidence is necessary to conviction, suffer a grievous lapse of memory. Thus the trials of the Aldermen for bribery have

been,