WHY CHILDREN LIE. 387 



known that the products of fermentation and putrefaction found 

 as a result of faulty assimilation of food may act as irritants, 

 either in the way of repressing normal impulses or exaggerating 

 feeble sensory impressions, to the end that the relation of con- 

 cepts may be quite broken, and even go so far as to assume the 

 dignity of full illusions. A full list and explanation of the possi- 

 ble causes of disturbances of the perceptive process would be be- 

 yond the scope of this article ; although it is distinctly in place, 

 I believe, to mention a few of the most common, simply to give 

 an idea of the wide range which they occupy. Among them are 

 diseases of the eye, such as phenomena which occur in the end 

 distribution of the optic nerve, among which are light phenomena 

 developed in the retina, the so-called light dust of the internal 

 field of vision, and the shadowings and polychrome pictures. 

 These are all aided by processes in the retinal vessels, such as 

 those involving the blood-corpuscles ; likewise the pulsations of 

 the central artery, opacities of the cornea and vitreous, and in- 

 deed all conditions producing entoptic shadows on the retina may 

 give rise to illusions. And these are not all; in addition we 

 may include catarrhs of the middle ear, irritations of mucous 

 membranes and the skin of the head and face, blows and falls 

 upon the head, as well as morbid changes in the viscera and 

 muscles. 



The sum of the matter is this : We constantly see children who 

 lie habitually, and usually for no recognized reason. This habit 

 is commonly looked upon as an indication of spontaneous vicious- 

 ness. In the majority of cases this opinion has no basis in fact. 

 The children usually are suffering from disorders of mind or body, 

 or both, which radically interfere with the transmission of con- 

 ceptions and perceptions from the internal to the external pro- 

 cesses of expression, so that they are really unable to be more exact 

 than they seem ; usually these peculiarities are either neglected 

 or cause severe punishments to be inflicted, with the natural re- 

 sult that they are confirmed and added to by various unfavorable 

 characteristics of cruelty, revenge, slyness, and actual deceit. 



Lying does not necessarily mean viciousness, nor is truth to 

 be regarded merely as a saving means of grace. On the contrary, 

 many a child may be led to forget the lie simply by being placed 

 in proper physical and mental environments. 



The result of an experiment instituted to determine the effect of rhythm 

 on the visibility of a succession of optical signals, tried by M. Charles 

 Henry at the Depot des Phares, France, is to show that it is possible to 

 increase the range through whicb an optical signal will carry by adjusting 

 the succession of flashes according to a sufficiently complex nonrhyth- 

 mical law. 



