The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 6, 1896, Page 17

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1896. 17 C LAST BOAT o e i S B A e g THCATRE pLvs OYSTER SVPPCR: i\)o 4 0 0 I} T TTE GLASS THAT 5 IRREOISTIBLE. HYPNOTISM IN A VERY PAINFUL DENTAL OPERATION By a Mere Wave of the Hand Intense Suffering Was Prevented In the rooms of the Stomatological Club, at Post and Stockton streets, on Tuesday afternoon last, a clinic was held in the presence of nearly all the mewmbers, in which hypnotism wasintroduced as'a sub- stitute for anesthesia. It was an experiment and the experi- ment was successful in the highest degree, | insomuch that it is safe to say that it fixes the date of a subsidence of old and the peginniug of entirely new methods in the operating-rooms of San Francisco dentists. Hypnotism is not a new thing in dentis- try any more than it is in therapeatics. It has just landed in San Francisco, how- ever—preceded, to be sure, by tales of great successes in Paris, Berlin, London and New York. That San Francisco dentists are fully alive to the progress that has been making in their science and eager to keep the best pace that is being made in the world was made evident by the number in attendance and the inter- est manifested in the clinic. The demonstration was arranged by Dr. M. W. Levkowicz. His subject was a boy of 17, Alfred Bouiton, a native of Victoria, B. C., but who has returned but a few weeks irom a residence of some years in Honolulu. He was an admirable subject for a test of the possibilities of applied hypnotism, in that he was a bright-eyed, intelligent laa of nervous temperament, and in that he had a couple of very sore teeth. J. B. Earley, a teacher of hypnotism, was present to make the magic passes and show the congregated doctors how easily it might be done. The clinic began shortly after 4 o’clock, the subject or pa- tient being placed in the red-plush chair, so full of terrors to the tooth-aching coan- tingent, and all of which teriors were to be driven away by the wave of a hand. But the thing was an experiment, and the terrors have been long intrenched in that red-plush chair. Tney laughed at this mild attempt to dislodge them—at first they did. The chair was placed in 2 wide bay-win- dow that extends out from an upper floor immediately at the corner—the southeast corner of Post and Stockton streets. There was plenty oflight and platform steps sur- rounded the chair, and on these the mem- bers of the society were Fn!nered, full of interest. The boy took his place and Pro- fessor Karley told him to close his eyes. He did so. *‘You cannot open them,” sa1d the professor, and he could not. “Qpen them,” said the _nrofessor. and he did. ‘‘Place your hands together—there; you cannot take them apart,’’ and he could not. 3 “Now, when I count ten you will be gound asleep and your sense ot feeling will have entirely left you, 80 that you will feel no pain.” The professor counted ten slowly and deliberately. The boy waited a mame'ne and then opened his eyes, quite 2s wide awake as before, The professor smiled re- assuringly and placing his hands upon the boy's head, with his fih\fmbs at the bridge of the nose, repeated his statement in quiet confidence. Still the boy looked 1up p with wide-awake eyes. The terror of the red chair was upon him. | Two or three times the charm was tried | again, but it would not work. The doctors watched and waited patiently enough, but their comments and discussions, however quiet, were distracting. The professor saw his influence slipping away. He took | the boy out of the red chair and led him | to a rocker in the corner, as nnlike the red cbair as possible. Still the boy’s eyes | would open. It pe- "gan to look like a hopeless case. The | doctors broke up in knots and talked of | | other things. Finally it was suz- | gested that the pro- | fessor 1ake the sub- | ject into a room | apart and to them- | selves, Hedid soand | the doctors waited— waited quite a little while. Then the sep- arating -door opened and the doctor en- tered, leading the | boy, his eyes fast shut, impossible for | him to open them, | but still not asleep. He was led to the chair, and the profes- sor told the doctors to go ahead. “This boy is not asleep,” said the pro- fessor. “He is in a semi-conscious state, | but he has no feelinz. You can work with him with perfect free- dom.” He spoke to the boy. *“Now. my boy, you will feel no pain whatever. Do not think of theden- tist; think of me; no harm will come to you; you need have {no fear; lie there quietly and dream pleasant dreams.” Dr. Levkowicz be- gan to work with no more ado. The boy responded to his in- structions, opening his mouth wide and holdine it as desired. He had what theden- tists call a “fungoid growth of the pulp” of a back molar. That is to say, the *“nerve,” as it is popularly called, was ex- posed and had filled up the large cavity of a decayed tooth. As explained afterward by the doctor “This is a most sensitive and painful con- dition. To touch such a tooth under or- dinary conditions will cause great pain, and dentists do not attempt to work with such a tooth until after two or three days, and then with iodine and arsenic. The pulp bleeds profusely upon the slightest | | touch. Now, I wished to demonstrate | | that with the patient under the influence | | of hypnotism this painful and distressing | growth could be removed quickly and | without pain.” The doctor began digging into the sensi- tive tooth with his cold steel instruments with speedy and certain touch. In fifieen | minates the growth had been wholly re- moved and the cavity made clean for a filling. And during those fifteen minutes the boy lay m the chair apparently as comfortable as though he were enjoying a siesta in a hammock. The professor had said at the beginning that there would be a minimum of blood flow from the operation. The doctor took up what little there was in the customary way with small pellets of absorbent cotton in the tooth. One of the doctors remarked that there seemed to be a good deal of saliva in the mouth. *I will stop it,’’ said the professor, and he did so by merely speak- ing the word. When it was finished and the doctors | had examined and approved and mar- veled at the demonstration, the boy said, “I would like to open my eyes.” “Oh, certainly,” said the professor, “you may open your eyes, but you will still re- main without pain—without being sus- ceptible to pain.”’ The boy opened his eyes—as clear and as intelligent as when he had closed them. Then Doctor Frank 8. Pague stepped up with a pair of forceps and from the other side of the sfflicted mouth he pulled a tooth. It was well planted and resisted at first and broke off. The doctor took another hold, pushed the forceps down hard upon the fragment remaining, q ( twisted it in the fetching way thatdentists have, untii it yielded and came out. It was then discovered to have an ulcerated root. 8 *That should hurt you, boy.” “Shouid it?’ he answered. “Didn’t you feel it?'? “*Oh, yes; I felt you were pulling my tooth, but it did not hurt.” “‘Such a tooth ordinarily is very painful in being drawn,” explained the doctor. \ \‘\\":’ J | Remarkable Demonstration of the ysterious Science “For fifteen minutes, and sometimes an hour, aiter pulling an ulcerated tooth the patient usually suffers greatly. It is cer- tainly a convincing demonstration of the great beneficence of hypnotism in den- tistry that this patient did not. Further- { more, I felt his pulse when he took a seat 1 the chair under the hypnotic influence and it was beating wildly. During the progress of this ordinarily painful opera- I Il & Scene at the Clinic in the Rooms of the Stomatological Club When the Hypnotic Experiment Was Made tion it quieted down until it became en- tirely normal” But this was not the end of the demon- stration, finished, the boy said, “1 would like to be released now; I want my sense of feeling.” *Certainly,” said the professor, ‘I will give you that again.” But to'show the doctors that the subject’s entire body was without feeling he ran a needle through the flesh of the arm and drew it away without any blood following. “Now,” he said, ‘‘you have your sense of feeling all except in your teeth that have been operated upon. They will re- main painless until the operation is over and they bave healed up. You are to go up to Dr. Levkowicz' office to-morrow morning at 10 o’clock and this tooth will be filled. It will give you no pain what- ever—remember that. Now you have your sense of feeling again except as 1 have said.” The clinic being at an end a general dis- cussion of the mys- tery of hypnotism ran on for some time. “I will show you,” said Professor Earley, “the difference in the amenability of the patient to the influ- ence, now that the fear of the dental op- eration is removed. All the surroundings were before alarming and distracting. Now, my boy,” said the professor, ad- dressing young Bol- ton, “‘take that chair over there in the cor- ner as far from me as you can get. Sit down. That’s right. When I count ten you will be sound asleep.” The profes- sor counted ten and the boy was sound asleep. He was put to convincing tests that it was so. “Now,” said the professor, “when you awake and have talked with these gen- tlemen in vour nor- mal condition you will fall asleep again immediately upon seeing me draw my watch from my pock- et. “Then the pro- fessor snapped his fingers and told him to wakeup. Hecame toinstantly. Hewas questioned as to how he teit and the con- versation became general. Professor Earley casually drew his watch while the boy was looking his way, and the latter instantly dropped over asleep. T The operation for the day being | The doctors present, as stated, made them- selves certain that the demonstration was in all particulars just what it seemed. On Wednesday morning: young Boulton went to the office of Dr. Levkowicz and had that sensitive tooth filled without feeling any pain, the *‘post hypnotic sug- gestion,” as they call it, holding good. All the dentists present at the clinic and aware of the circumstances are agreed that the results are nothing less than wonderful and that they mean a revolu- tion in the science of dentistry. “It means that by a wave of the hand a patient having a ‘painful operation to zo through may be set at ease. It means much for both the dentist and the suffer- ing public,” said one of them. The Stomatological Club 1s a rather ex- clusive organization and its members were at first blush greatly opposed to having the fact made public that it had lent itself to a . countenancing of hypnotism. Dr, Levkowicz explained this feeling: “We know, as scientific men, the trend of the times and the necessity of keeping pace with them ‘if we are to keep in the race at all. Dr. Bernheim’s work in the hospitals of France is familiar to all well- informed practitioners—his success, the wonderful results he has attained. We know also the charlatanism that obtains in this mystic art, and we know that the pub- lic at large, generally less well informed in scientific matters than the practitioner, is inclined to be wary of men who practice it. ‘While we feel it our duty to investigate iv we do not wish the impression to go abroad that the members of the Stomato- logical Club are rushing into hypnotism as a fad. We approach the subject with the conservative care of a scientific propo- sition. We feel that it would be a great beneficence to a patient 1f the pain of the dentist’s chair might be done away with by a word. Bat, while we have had a number of experiments of the kind at the clubrooms, I am free to say that this of Professor Earley is the only one that has proved entirely convineing as to the util- ity of hypnotism in the science of den- tistry. All persons may not be hypno- tiz:d, however. Dr. Beraheim himself, [ believe, brings under the influence only about 80 per cent of those he attempts. And, at all events, the consent of the patient must be obtained. As I say, with the Stomatological Club it is a scientitic experiment.”” Following were the members of the ciub who were present at the clinic; Clinician, M. W. Levkcwicz; Wiiliam J. Younger, president of the club; Russell H. Cool, vice-president; S. E. Knowles, secretary; Thomas Morffew, treasurer; Luther A. ‘Teague, A. J. Merriman Jr., J. A. W. Lundborg, Walter F. Lewis, Clyde S. Payne, W. Z. King, H. R. Morton Sr., F, M. Hackett, J. 8. Knowlton, F. L. Platt, S. L. Strickland, M. A. Greenlaw, J. J. Giust, E. A. Younger, George W. Cool, J. E. Cummings, A. H. Millberry, Cecil Corwin, Arthur H. Wallace, Frank C. Pague, J. L. Asay, Max Sichel, Alfred Cane, H. D. Boyes, F. K. Ledyard. As for Professor J. B. Earley, who worked the strange influence, he is a new- comer to the City. He isa man of slight figure and quiet manner, wearing the ap- pearance of the student. His voice is low and kindly rather than stern and com- manding. His eyes and the expression of his face are calm and reassuring. He said: “Icannotattempt to explain the mystery of hypnotism any more than Edison will try to tell you what electricity is,”” he said,