FORMS OF CONSCIOUSNESS. 257 



incommensurability of rhythm; and we may surmise that the same 

 thing is true of the corresponding psychic minor systems in con- 

 sciousness which in like manner may be said to be incommensurable. 



We have thus a very simple explanation of such facts as the familiar 

 one that the soldier in the wild excitement of battle does not note 

 the painful sensations of the wound in his leg. The brain conscious- 

 ness is then so intensely active in its relation to the mental states 

 initiated by his sensations of sight and hearing, that these activities 

 are incommensurable with those in the less active minor psychic sys- 

 tems affected by the wound. 



But especially does this conception throw light, in cases of so- 

 called ' double personality/ upon the failure of recall by the one per- 

 sonality, of the occurrences in the conscious life of the other per- 

 sonality; and also of the failure of recall by the hypnotic patient, in 

 his normal life, of his mental states during his trance. Here we may 

 assume that two diverse great minor psychic systems, which are utterly 

 incommensurable in rhythm, alternately take possession, as it were, 

 of the body of man, and control his expressions. Being thus incom- 

 mensurable, the two systems are almost exactly as much disconnected 

 as are two individual men, and of course under such circumstances 

 the mental states of one psychic system can not in any way be revived 

 in the conscious life of the other psychic system. 



"We may now turn to another important point. "We have stepped 

 from the complex fully developed human consciousness to the simpler 

 consciousnesses of the animals. We have further seen that under cer- 

 tain conditions there may be in our own bodies simpler conscious- 

 nesses than what we may call, for the sake of brevity, the ' brain con- 

 sciousness.' But can we not — in fact, ought we not — take a further 

 step, and hold that psychic elements may exist? 



Apparently, if we are to be logical, we must take this step. We 

 must assume that if we could isolate a neural element, a psychic ele- 

 ment would correspond with its activities. It is true that the neurolo- 

 gist has never been able to discover a disconnected, isolated, living 

 neural element; and it is true also that we can not isolate any psychic 

 element, and even if we could do so, it as an element could not be 

 emphatic in consciousness which is necessarily systemic and not 

 elemental. 



But now we may note that if disconnected minor neural systems 

 may exist in our animal body there seems to be no reason why living 

 neural elements may not from time to time become disconnected from, 

 and then again reconnected with, one or another minor nervous system : 

 and correspondingly no reason why psychic elements may not from 

 time to time be disconnected from, and then reconnected with, one 



VOL. LXVII.— 17. 



