Dr. Forel discusses in other chapters of his pamphlet the relation of nervous activity and nervous substance to the states of consciousness (Chap. ii). He explains suggestion, compares sleep with hypnosis, treats the symptoms of hypnosis, resistance of hypnotised persons, auto-suggestions, the "suggestion à échéance," retroactive hallucinations or suggested memory falsifications, the import and nature of suggestions (Chap. iv). He then proceeds to investigate diseased states of mind with reference to hypnotism, and maintains that insane people are least suggestible (Chap. v). He gives some valuable hints for suggestive or psycho-therapeutic treatment to hypnotisers (Chap. vii), and presents cases of successful cures (Chap. viii). The legal aspect is treated in Chap. x, the hypnotisation of animals in Chap. xi. An interesting and indeed candid chapter is Forel's views on quackery (Chap. ix); acknowledging the fact that at best one sixth only of patients are cured by physicians, our author hopes that the full recognition of the suggestion theory in therapeutics will contribute not a little to the advancement of medical science and also to the moral attitude of the profession.
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DER MODERNE MENSCH. Versuche über Lebensführung. By B. Carneri. Bonn:
Emil Strauss. 1891.
During a long and laborious life Mr. Carneri has been an indefatigable champion of the monistic world-conception. With a keen eye he recognised years ago the importance Of physiological investigations for psychology, and he saw at once the moral import of the evolution theory even at a time when most of its defenders denounced it as the immoral law of nature. Carneri thus became the preacher of a new ethics; he taught the morality of science and helped us out of the pessimism that naturally followed a time when the old foundations had been overthrown and the new ones had not as yet been built. The author is now at a very advanced age and the present book contains his maturest and dearest ideas. He is a man whose burden of life has been heavier than that the average man has to bear. Physical weakness, since birth, long periods of illness accompanied with almost incessant pain, later on periods of recovery and transient happiness followed. He married and had children. But new visitations came. He buried his wife, and also a little son at the premature age of ten years.
These are some facts of the author's life not mentioned in any one of his books; they are only hinted at in a line of the preface of the present book, quoted below. But his readers should know these facts, because they bring the author so much nearer to us. We learn to understand him better and shall the more appreciate his genuine courage in working out a noble conception of life and sound rules of moral conduct.
The present book contains a number of articles on various subjects, and the author has as he says in the preface "put into them his whole heart." It differs from former publications of his. The latter are as a rule scientific and objective, they are investigations into the laws of life and of ethics. The present book is subjective; it shows the aim and the path of the author's conduct of life. Carneri adds: "And that I, visited with ills above the average measure, have found life beautiful, and being in my seventieth year now, find it beautiful still, speaks in favor of this path. It speaks also for a happy individuality, but I hope that this will not detract from the truth that the present book is not mere imagination but is taken from the thrilling pulse of life."
Carneri is fully convinced that morality will find a better foundation in the unitary nature of man than in the old conception Of his double nature and in this sense he discusses the following topics, Gratitude, Labor, Egotism, Justice, Versatility, Passion, the Ideal, the Inevitable, the God-idea, Truthfulness, Morality, Love, Family, Imagination, Continence, Honor, God-everywhere, Death, Tolerance, Character, Art, and Humor. The whole tenor of the book is very sympathetic and we might describe the author as one of the high priests of the coming Religion of Science.
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UEBER DIE GRUNDLAGEN DER ERKENNTNIS IN DEN EXACTEN WISSENSCHAFTEN. By Paul du Bois-Reymond. Nach einer hinterlassenen Handschrift. Mit einem Bildnis des Verfassers. Tübingen: H. Laupp'sche Buchhandlung. 1890.
This little book of the late Prof. Paul du Bois-Reymond has been prepared for print by Dr. Guido Hauck with the assistance of the author's brother from a posthumous manuscript. The pamphlet contains in popular form the final résumé of a thinker's life-work; complementing and completing his investigations, and maturing mainly his favorite ideas which he had presented to his students in a course of lectures on gravitation during the winter '87-88 at the Technical High School of Berlin, where he was Professor of Mathematics.