COUE, EMIL

(1855), a French hypnotist, b. in France. As a youth he studied pharmacy and was for many years established as a druggist in Nancy. During this period, beginning with the early 80’s, there was practicing in Nancy what was known as the ‘Nancy school of hypnotism,’ at the head of which was the famous Bernheim. The Nancy school was then establish ing the theory that hypnotism is a normal condition, which may be induced in any healthy person, thereby scoring an imortant triumph over the Paris school, Headed by Charcot, which contended that it was an abnormal manifestation and usually a symptom of hysteria. As a pharmacist Coué became interested in the therapeutic phase of the controversy, and especially in the contention of Bernheim that most illne was due to suggestion and could be cured by hypnotism, which was merely counter suggest i on. In 1904 Coué definite ly abandoned his busine and began actively to practice hypnoti sm, as a member of the Nancy school. He soon distinguished himself from his colleagues in the great amount of latitude he gave his patients in treating themselves under his verbal instructions. Adopting Bernheim’s theory that hypnotism was suggestion from the operator to the patient’s subconscious mind, he came to the logical conclusion that the patient, without needing to enter the complete hypnotic condition, could produce results through auto-suggestion, without the intervention of an operator. This enabled him to take on such a vast number of patients, compared to his colleagues, that he quickly acquired a national and later an international reputation, more especially as the percentage of cures increased rather than diminished through wholesale mode of treatment. Coué was invited to demonstrate his theory in London, which he did so succe fully that his name became as widely known in England as in France. In the following year Lord Curzon, suffering from nervous breakdown, went to Nancy to consult Coué. Soon after he publicly announced an almost miraculous cure, as a result of which Coué became world famous. On January 5, 1923, he arrived in New York, beginning a tour of lectures and demonstrations which lasted a month. can surgeon and naturalist, b. Portsmouth,. H. He graduated from Columbian University, Washington, D. C., in 1861 and entered the Union Army as a medical cadet. His medical serv= ices through the war gained him the rank of brevet captain. He served as surgeon and naturalist to the United States Boundary Commi ion in 1873, and in 1877 taught in the department of anatomy at the Columbian University. He was one of the charter members of the American Ornithologist’s Union, edited several departments of the Century Dictionary and did important work for the Smithsonian Institution. Among his publications may be cited Birds of the Northwest, 1874; New England Bird Life, 1881; Biogen, 1884; and The Daemon of Darwin, 1884.