g and
open-eyed while he ran long needles into the fleshy part of his arms and
legs without flinching, and he allowed one of the gentlemen present to
pinch his skin in different parts with strong crenated pincers in a
manner which bruised it, and which to most people would have caused
intense pain. L. allowed no sign of suffering or discomfort to appear;
he did not set his teeth or wince; his pulse was not quickened, and the
pupil of his eye did not dilate as physiologists tell us it does when
pain passes a certain limit. It may be said that this merely shows that
in L. the limit of endurance was beyond the normal standard; or, in
other words, that his sensitiveness was less than that of the average
man. At any rate his performance in this respect was so remarkable that
some of the gentlemen present were fain to explain it by supposed
'post-hypnotic suggestion,' the theory apparently being that L. and his
comrades hypnotized one another, and thus made themselves insensible to
pain.

"As surgeons have reason to know, persons vary widely in their
sensitiveness to pain. I have seen a man chat quietly with
bystanders while his carotid artery was being tied without the use of
chloroform. During the Russo-Turkish war wounded Turks often astonished
English doctors by undergoing the most formidable amputations with no
other anaesthetic than a cigarette. Hysterical women will inflict very
severe pain on themselves--merely for wantonness or in order to excite
sympathy. The fakirs who allow themselves to be hung up by hooks beneath
their shoulder-blades seem to think little of it and, as a matter of
fact, I believe are not much inconvenienced by the process."

The fact is, the amateur can always be deceived, and there are no
special tests that can be relied on. If a person is well accustomed to
hypnotic manifestations, and also a good judge of human nature, and will
keep constantly on guard, using every precaution to avoid deception, it
is altogether likely that it can be entirely obviated. But one must use
his good judgment in every possible way. In the case of fresh subjects,
or persons well known, of course there is little possibility of
deception. And the fact that deception exists does not in any way
invalidate the truth of hypnotism as a scientific phenomenon. We cite it
merely as one of the physiological peculiarities connected with the
mental condition of which it is a manifestation. The fact that a
tendency to deception