OPERATIONS DURING SLEEP.

Mataura Ensign, 16 August 1906, Page 4

OPERATIONS DURING SLEEP.

Remarkable instances in the. use ot hypnotism in ordinary medical practice by Mr Douglas Bryan, M.K.C.S., of Leicester, are described by him in the 'Medical Times and Hospital Gazette.'

The success attained leads him to believe that hypnotism and hypnotic suggestion, so little recognised by the greater number of medical men, arc a thoroughly legitimate, und valuable therapeutic adjunct. hi each case, of course, the patient consented to be hypnotised. One instance was that of an operation performed on a lady, aged 30, for an abscess of the breast while she was in a hypnotic sleep. On being awakened she asserted she felt no pain, and remembered nothing of tho operation. Healing was effected quite normally in about a week. A case of extreme interest was that of a married woman, aged 'if, who proved an excellent object for hypnotic suggestion, and was brought safely through the ordeal of confinement while in a deep hypnotic sleep. Once, after about a quarter of an hour, the patient roused, but Sir Bryan again induced sleep easily, and now took the precaution, which he had before negi lected. of suggesting at intervals thai she should keep asleep and feel no pain.

She so remained for a considerable time, and was not uwukened by the modicul man until twenty minutes after the child's birth. She loused immediately, and remembered nothing subsequent to the indnelion of sleep except the circumstance that happened during her momentary awakening. Her cataleptic condition was most useful, Mr Bryan records, and facilitated his duties. A man agod about -10 whs brought to him for treatment by hypnotic suggestion for dipsomania. He wns just trotting over a three days' debauch and was in an extremely nervous and trembling condition. His pulse was beating at the rate of 320 per minute. He complained of excessive discomfort about the cardiac region and palpitation . "I told him ho would soon feel better, and succeeded in getting him into a light sleep. T made suggestions regarding the cardiac discomfort, etc., and that the pulse should become slower. He loused of his own accord in about one and a-half minutes, waking with a start. I immediately took the pulse again, and found it beating S3 to the, minute. All feelings of discomfort had disappeared and did not return, his astonishment at the result being most marked. "1 have good hopes," the writer adds, - 'oi eventually curing him of dipsomania.'' Insomnia was another malady which tho writer treated in the ease of a woman by hypnotic suggestion.