22 2 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ish, in spite of the agencies that strive to effect their destruction, 

 so thought germs occasionally take root in his mind, sprout and 

 grow in spite of all that "he himself* can do to prevent it. 

 Where are they to be found ? In all that we can see, hear, or 

 think, everything carries with it some suggestive power. Usually 

 the trivial suggestions of the environment pass by unnoticed, but 

 occasionally, under some special circumstances or in some sensitive 

 temperaments, they take root. A friend of mine told me that he 

 was talking with his wife one evening of a recent murder, and, 

 as he talked, his eyes rested on her eyes for a moment longer than 

 usual. He saw her shrink and turn pale, but paid little attention 

 to it at the moment. A little later he fancied she still looked 

 troubled, and tried to comfort her, but she would have none of 

 it ; she could not allow him to come near her. She kept thinking 

 of his killing her and was afraid of him. She did not believe it 

 at all ; she knew how absurd it was as well- as he did, but, she 

 said, the moment he allowed his gaze to rest on her while speak- 

 ing of that horrible subject, she saiohrm. killing her, and could 

 not shake the thought off. It wore off in the course of half an 

 hour or so. An isolated suggestion of this kind very seldom gets 

 lodged in a sound mind. The most common source of contagion 

 is to be found in the beliefs of the community in which one lives. 

 We are by nature social animals, and our aptness for social life is 

 largely due to our sensitiveness to the collective suggestions of 

 the social environment. An individual who proves refractory to 

 such influences, and evolves along his own lines without reference 

 to the claims or the standards of his age, soon lands either in 

 Bedlam or the lockup. All the forces which we vaguely call evo- 

 lutionary have for ages been impressing this trait upon man, and 

 consequently we find it a potent factor in the production of au- 

 tomatisms of all kinds. A suggestible patient often responds to 

 such impressions almost as mechanically as a mirror, and faith- 

 fully reflects the opinions and prejudices of his human environ- 

 ment without feeling his voluntary self to be in the least con- 

 cerned in it. The cases of Mr. B and of Mr. Le Baron, which 



I gave in my August paper, are illustrations in point. Automa- 

 tisms of this sort are always popularly ascribed to the interven- 

 tion of some intelligence distinct from that of the patient, but the 

 further definition of the intelligence varies in dift'erent ages and 

 countries. 



I shall pass over the familiar convulsive epidemics of flagella- 

 tion, of dancing, of tarantism, the "holy jerks" of the great re- 

 vival in the Southern States at the opening of this century, the 

 convulsionaries of Saint-M^dard, etc. All these have been often 

 described, and I shall assume that my readers are acquainted with 

 them. I shall, however, take a few cases from various periods of 



