HYPNOTISED HERSELF.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 80, 28 December 1907, Page 14

HYPNOTISED HERSELF.

.-A;remarkablo case-of a .patient being ren•dered :' by-the, mere suggestion that an anaesthetic was being administered, has. occurred, at, one, ofthe London hospitals. A; young'w.omaii; wont,to the' hospital to have' 'five; t.eeth '.extracted,.- Tho an'aesthtic decided upon by the dental surgobn was ethyl cliloiride,.' and; this' wasradmiiiistered by tho .usual form' y of:'.apparatus.;';;_JVu ,'iiidiarubber cap is 'placed..^over^the'-patient's/mouth and trilsj" and': connected '.with it is a bag' into which.,a:.sealed.:capsule of. ethyl chloride, is. introduced; By the tnrning of a screw from, the outside tho capsulo is broken and the anaesthetic'liberated. Tlie, scrow was turned, and the patient went off gradually into the usual condition of insensibility. Five. teeth wore extracted, andjthe patient awoke without /having/ felt .'any ;p'art of tho operation. Only i when tho young woman had left the room, and the apparatus was being. made ready for another patient was it. discovered thaOhbYcapsiile"' ethyl chloride had, by some', mischance, not been broken, at all. Tho condition of insensibility ■ had been brought about by the self-hypnotism of';tho patient.' The boliof that' an anaesthetic was being adminiAe're'd wasso strongly fixed in'her mind that .she 'had. passed' into' insensibility en-' tirely by hypnotic suggestion. Another ease of a; similar nature: has occurred at' the saino dental hospital. In this instance ethyl chlorido'was being sprayed on tho gum in order to'freeze it and produce local insensibility. It-was afterwards found that a "gag" had: been so placed in'the mouth as to screen tho gum from the ethyl chloride. Yet the mere 'suggestion that the gum had been frozen was sufficient to prevent the patient feeling any pain when tho tooth was being' extracted.- -