Amongst the experiments which have been classified as of a speculative kind, and distinct from those of practical worth, none are more interesting than those that involve the presentation to subjects in the hypnotic state, of various substances and medicines contained in hermetically sealed tubes. The manifestations, according as the tube is presented on the right or the left side of the subject, indicate emotions of a diametrically opposite nature. Thus, when a tube containing ordinary red pepper was offered to the left, or, as the doctor calls it, the blue side, of a girl subject in the hypnotic state, symptoms of keen pleasure were discernible, which changed suddenly to an expression of violent disgust when the tube was carried to the red or right side. According to the doctor, the human being is double, and does not feel the same on his red as on his blue side. Thyme presented to one patient produced terrifying hallucinations; in another it called forth an expression of calm delight. Singularly, in the application of thyme there was a physiological effect, also, on the thyroid gland of the throat, the size of the neck being increased from thirty to thirty-three centimetres, or somewhat more than an inch. Morphine in one patient bred fancies of an evidently terrifying nature; in another, an intense drowsiness. The effect of frankincense presented to the left of the neck was an emotion of terror. Some water in a tube, held near the left side of a hypnotic subject’s head, caused a series of spasms resembling those usual to patients suffering from hydrophobia.
[Illustration: EXPRESSION OF PLEASURE CAUSED BY FENNEL PRESENTED TO THE RIGHT EYE.]
[Illustration: EXPRESSION OF ANXIETY CAUSED BY HELIOTROPE.]
[Illustration: THE EFFECT OF THYME: THE PATIENT CANNOT SPEAK; THE EYES BECOME PROMINENT; THE THYROID GLAND ENLARGES, INCREASING THE CIRCUMFERENCE OF THE NECK AN INCH.]
The doctor maintains that in each case the patient was in total ignorance of the contents of the tube. Indeed, in looking over the illustrations of this article, which are direct reproductions from _unretouched_ photographs, one can hardly help believing, with Doctor Luys, that the effect is actual, not simulated. In conclusion, who can tell but that these strange experiments will be looked upon some day as the first lisps of a new science?