To the long-mooted question, therefore, What are the specific changes in the organism that produce the state of unconsciousness? my tentative reply is, It is the isolation of the brain cells from physical contact with each other.

Let us examine this question a little further with special reference to the brain cells, their functions, and their filamentary connections.

We have already seen that the cells of the cerebral cortex are the depositories of memories, and that they are connected with each other by filaments similar in kind, and presumably in purpose, to those which connect the other cells of the body with their neighbors, or coadjutors in functional activity. Roughly speaking, we may say, by way of illustration, that each cell is the storehouse of a memory of an experience, or, let us say, of a fact, that may in due time be used in connection with other associated facts for purposes of induction. But before kindred facts or memories can be brought into actual association, a connection must be established between the various cells which contain them; and this is the office performed by the filamentary lines of communication already described. These filamentary lines may be termed the instruments of mental association; and they account for "the tendency of a sensation, perception, feeling, volition, or thought to recall to consciousness others which have previously existed in consciousness with it or with states similar to it." 1 In a word, the brain cells and their lines of communication with each other constitute the physical mechanism of induction, of correlation, or of association of ideas; the tendency in an active brain being for each cell to establish 1 Century Dictionary.

immediate connection with new and kindred ideas and to refunction on lines already established. In other words, these lines of communication constitute the mechanism which enables the brain cells to act as a unit, precisely as the filamentary connections between the cells of the body enable them to act in harmony, and live, move, and have their being as one.

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As we have already seen, when the connections between the cells of the body are operative, intelligence and sensation are communicable; but when from any cause they are withdrawn, all sensation is inhibited, anæsthesia results, local or general, as the case may be, and we say that the body is insensible. The cells are at rest. In like manner, when the connections between the brain cells are intact, the process of mentation goes on; memory combinations are made and crystallized into ideas, and we say the brain is active, the mind is conscious, the man is awake. But when the cells are exhausted, and a period of rest and recuperation is required, the connections between the cells are withdrawn, and the brain, to all intents and purposes, is resolved into its constituent elements. It is then simply a mass of unicellular organisms for the time being, — an aggregation and not an organization, —— and, as such, it is just as incapable of thinking, or of an interchange of sensations, as would be an equal bulk of protozoans dredged from the bottom of the ocean. The cells are at rest; the brain is asleep, — unconscious.

I submit that this hypothesis, crudely and imperfectly as it is stated, affords a complete explanation of all the facts pertaining to the phenomena of sleep. I have not space in this outline to dwell upon the

particulars of the various phases of the phenomena, but the intelligent reader will supply the deficiency. In the meantime I have but to remark that it seems to indicate the existence of a universal law of inhibition, a law which enables the subjective mind to meet all emergencies as they arise, in sickness, in health, in deadly peril, and in death. That is to say, it enables it to inhibit pain in surgery or in sickness; it enables it in health to give all the cells of the body the necessary periods of rest and recuperation; it enables it to take entire possession of the body when imminent danger threatens; and finally, it enables it to afford complete immunity from suffering in the hour of final dissolution.

The most wonderful part of it all is the simplicity of the process and of the physical mechanism by which all these things are accomplished. It may all be comprehended in the simple formula, Segregation of cells. It is this, together with the wide range of its usefulness, that stamps it as a law and attests its universality.

1

It will now be obvious to the intelligent student of experimental psychology that this hypothesis affords an explanation of much that is mysterious in the phenomena of hypnotism. Students of my earlier works will remember that, following Bernheim and Liébault, I stated that "there is nothing to differentiate hypnotic sleep. from natural sleep," 1 and gave many reasons for entertaining that opinion. They need not be repeated here, for they all pertain to phenomena occurring subsequently to the induction of sleep. In the years that have elapsed since the expression of that view I have never seen any reason 1 The Law of Psychic Phenomena, pp. 179 et seq.

to change it, although it has frequently been controverted by those possessing only a superficial knowledge of the subject. It is now apparent that Liébault, whom Professor Bernheim credits with being the first to proclaim the doctrine, builded better than he knew; for if my theory of sleep is correct, natural and induced sleep are identical. That is to say, the same subjective energy that induces sleep in one case induces it in the other, by the same process, and by the aid of the same histological mechanism.

No one now pretends to deny the fact that the sleep of hypnotism is induced by the subjective mind, acting in obedience to the suggestions of the operator; and everybody knows that the state is brought about by inhibiting the activity of the brain cells. That the subjective mind is charged with the induction of natural sleep is evidenced by the fact that insomnia is often cured by suggestion. It possesses the power, therefore, and as it is charged with the responsibility for the well-being of the whole vital organism, no good reason can be seen for making an exception of that which is most imperatively necessary to the wellbeing of the organism, — the rest and recuperation of the brain cells.

It will now be seen that if this hypothesis is correct, or approximately correct, both natural and induced sleep are robbed of their mystery. Natural sleep is seen to be nature's method of securing the necessary intervals of bodily rest and recuperation; and the power to induce and regulate it necessarily inheres in that sleepless energy which controls, subject always to the law of suggestion, all the other physical functions and conditions.

And hypnotism, or the power to induce sleep, is

seen to be, not a thing apart, not anything exceptional, -not a mysterious power, resident somewhere, for some occult purpose, and capable only of inducing abnormal conditions of body and mind, but a concomitant of the power to induce natural sleep. It is governed by the same laws and restricted by the same limitations, and the same physical mechanism is employed in the same way to induce it; that is to say, it is brought about by isolating the brain cells from physical contact with each other, just as in natural. sleep. In either case the different stages of sleep are due to their more or less complete isolation; and the variant phenomena in different cases, and at different times in the same subject, are due to the variant degrees of isolation in different departments of the cerebral cortex. This is a subject, however, which cannot be entered upon at this time; for it is believed that the intelligent student of hypnotism will have no difficulty, under this hypothesis, in solving the various minor problems as they arise. In the meantime my sole object has been to point out an efficient cause for the phenomenon of induced sleep and to correlate it with other similar states and conditions, with the view of showing that hypnotism is but one of the numerous phenomenal manifestations. of that inhibitory energy which constitutes the conservative power of the vital organism. In a word, hypnotism is a subsidiary phase of the phenomenal manifestations of that energy. It is merely incidental to it, and not a law unto itself."