aul Richer, with whom were
associated many other physicians, such as Bourneville, Regnard, Fere,
and Binet. The investigations of these men present the peculiarity
that they observe hypnotism from its clinical and nosographical side,
which side had until now been entirely neglected, and that they
observe patients of the strongest hysterical temperaments. "If we can
reasonably assert that the hypnotic phenomena which depend upon the
disturbance of a regular function of the organism demand for their
development a peculiar temperament, then we shall find the most marked
phenomena when we turn to an hysterical person."

The inferences of the Parisian school up to this time are somewhat the
following, but their results, belonging almost entirely to the medical
side of the question, can have no place in this discussion. They
divide the phenomena of hystero-hypnotism, which they also call
_grande hysterie_, into three plainly separable classes, which Charcot
designates catalepsy, lethargy, and somnambulism.

Catalepsy is produced by a sudden sharp noise, or by the sight of a
brightly gleaming object. It also produces itself in a person who is
in a state of lethargy, and whose eyes are opened. The most striking
characteristic of the cataleptic condition is immobility. The subject
retains every position in which he is placed, even if it is an
unnatural one, and is only aroused by the action of suggestion from
the rigor of a statue to the half life of an automaton. The face is
expressionless and the eyes wide open. If they are closed, the patient
falls into a lethargy.

In this second condition, behind the tightly closed lids, the pupils
of the eyes are convulsively turned upward. The body is almost
entirely without sensation or power of thought. Especially
characteristic of lethargy is the hyper-excitability of the nerves and
muscles (_hyperexcitabilite neuromusculaire_), which manifests itself
at the slightest touch of any object. For instance, if the extensor
muscles of the arm are lightly touched, the arm stiffens immediately,
and is only made flexible again by a hard rubbing of the same muscles.
The nerves also react in a similar manner. The irritation of a nerve
trunk not only contracts all the small nerves into which it branches,
but also all those muscles through which it runs.

Finally, the somnambulistic condition proceeds from catalepsy or from
lethargy by means of a slight pressure upon the _vertex_, and is
parti