542 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



performed before him, or to continue indefinitely tlie regular 

 movement that is imparted to a part of his body. It is supposed, 

 for the explanation of this phenomenon, that the continuation of 

 a movement may occur, either from obedience or merely because 

 an image has been conjured up in the mind of the patient, this 

 image being the source of the movements. An aneesthetic hand is 

 made to write a letter; the movement of this hand stimulates 

 somewhere in the mind of the unconscious subject the motor im- 

 ages ; these images are not inhibited by anything ; they spend 

 themselves in action, and the movement is repeated. This in- 

 volves no obedience ; it is a much more simple and elementary 

 psychological phenomenon. These explanations may possibly 

 both hold good, each for different persons and for different con- 

 ditions of experiments. 



The same effects as in anaesthesia may be produced in the 

 state of distraction. Attention an effort of the mind and of the 

 entire organism which increases the intensity of certain states of 

 consciousness if brought to bear on a perception, makes it more 

 swift, more exact, more detailed. This adaptation of all the avail- 

 able force of the organism converging in a single event, which 

 may be a sensation, an image, a sentiment, etc., produces a tem- 

 porary state of monoideism. It is accompanied by distraction. 

 One can not pay attention to certain things without being dis- 

 tracted from others. The likeness of distraction and anaesthesia 

 has been mentioned. A hysterical patient whose arm is insen- 

 sible finds himself in very nearly the same state of mind as if 

 he never thought of his arm, or if he were indifferent to it, or as 

 if he had concentrated the power of his attention on other things. 

 So we may try experiment with it : we may concentrate this hys- 

 terical patient's attention on a certain point and examine the 

 special effects of the division of consciousness produced by dis- 

 traction. The ease with which the attention of these patients can 

 be distracted is almost incredible. Profiting by the state pro- 

 duced, one has only to approach from behind and pronounce some 

 words in a low voice to place himself in relation with the uncon- 

 scious person. The sentence is not heard by the principal per- 

 sonality, whose mind is elsewhere, but the unconscious person 

 hears it and acts upon it. The identity of the secondary ego con- 

 stituted during anaesthesia or distraction with the somnambulistic 

 ego has been established in experiments by M. Paul Janet. 



While the two consciousnesses are separate from a certain 

 point of view, they may be reunited from another point of view 

 and may retain both relations. The phenomena are very compli- 

 cated and very interesting for psychology. The relations of two 

 consciousnesses may take two distinct forms those of antagonism 

 and those of united action. When they are in collaboration we 



