ction of an inch, while the old one will come out to the same
extent. At each fresh blow with the hammer, that is to say at each
fresh suggestion, the one will be driven in a fraction further and the
other will be driven out the same amount, until, after a certain
number of blows, the old nail will come out completely and be
replaced by the new one. When this substitution has been made, the
individual obeys it.

Let us return to our examples. Little M----, a child of eleven living at
Troyes, was subject night and day to certain accidents inherent to
early infancy. He was also a kleptomaniac, and, of course, untruthful
into the bargain. At his mother's request I treated him by suggestion.
After the first visit the accidents ceased by day, but continued at
night. Little by little they became less frequent, and finally, a few
months afterwards, the child was completely cured. In the same
period his thieving propensities lessened, and in six months they had
entirely ceased.

This child's brother, aged eighteen, had conceived a violent hatred
against another of his brothers. Every time that he had taken a little
too much wine, he felt impelled to draw a knife and stab his brother.
He felt that one day or other he would end by doing so, and he knew
at the same time that having done so he would be inconsolable. I
treated him also by suggestion, and the result was marvelous. After
the first treatment he was cured. His hatred for his brother had
disappeared, and they have since become good friends and got on
capitally together. I followed up the case for a long time, and the
cure was permanent.

Since such results are to be obtained by suggestion, would it not be
beneficial--I might even say _indispensable_--to take up this
method and introduce it into our reformatories? I am absolutely
convinced that if suggestion were daily applied to vicious children,
more than 50 per cent could be reclaimed. Would it not be an
immense service to render society, to bring back to it sane and well
members of it who were formerly corroded by moral decay?

Perhaps I shall be told that suggestion is a dangerous thing, and that
it can be used for evil purposes. This is no valid objection, first
because the practice of suggestion would only be confided [by the
patient] to reliable and honest people,--to the reformatory doctors,
for instance,--and on the other hand, those who seek to use it for evil
ask no one's permission.

But even admitting