stigmatization. Dr. Hodgson told me he went to Louisville and endeavored to study the case, but found she was in the hands of the Roman Catholic authorities, and he was not allowed to examine her.
The ease with which warts can be "charmed away" by suggestion has long been known. I will quote two cases. The patient in the first case was my wife, then a little girl, and the account was written for me by her mother. "I remember it all perfectly. It was when E was about six years old, just before we went to Boston to live. She had had warts on her hands for over a year. They had spread until her hand was not only badly disfigured, but very painful, as they were apt to crack and bleed. Two physicians, both relatives of ours, had prescribed for them, and we had followed directions without success. We were in Lawrence, at M. P's. A lady came to tea, noticed the warts, and offered to remove them by a 'charm.' As I had once or twice been relieved in childhood in the same way, I was delighted at the offer. She went through some mummery, rubbing them and muttering something, I think, and then announced that they would be gone in a month. They were, every one. In a few days they began to dry up and disappear. So far as I can remember, she never had another. When I was a child there was a neighbor of ours who used to remove all the warts in the neighborhood. I never heard of his failing, and I know of many successful removals in our own family. He used a piece of thread. He would tie it around the wart—if he could—with great solemnity, rub it three times, and very carefully put the piece of thread in a paper in his pocketbook. This made a very great impression on us, I remember. It seemed next to a church service, having your wart taken off."
Dr. Bonjean, of Lausanne, in a letter to the Revue de l'Hypnotisme, dated March 3, 1896, tells an interesting story of the same sort. An old lady, a relative of his, had long had the reputation of being able to remove warts, and he had himself been cured by her of a very bad one. Her method was to bandage the eyes of the patient and instruct him not to touch the wart or disturb the bandage while she was operating. Her daughter then entered and touched the wart with an object (described by Dr. Bonjean) which could not have had any curative power. The warts disappeared in from one to three weeks. When the old lady died. Dr. Bonjean learned her secret. He saw clearly that her success must be due to suggestion, and he undertook to cure warts without the use of the object upon which she relied, but imitating her methods in other respects. He never hypnotizes the patient, and says he thinks it is only important to impress him deeply with the notion that the warts will go away.
