44 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



I say she could not, because, though there was power in the muscles, 

 there was no consciousness of power, and thus there could be no voli- 

 tion. 



The plan of securing an unconscious volition is often verv useful 

 and sometimes indispensable in determining questions of diagnosis 

 growing^ out of mental influence over function. The following incident 

 occurred within the last few weeks : A young lady nineteen years old 

 was sent to me from Albany for what was supposed to be partial paraly- 

 sis of the left foot and ankle. She had been affected during the past 

 three years, and was so far disabled that she could not walk more than 

 a block or two without danger of falling, and she actually did fall very 

 frequently. 



The exciting cause, or that which called her attention to her foot, 

 was the alleged slipping of the tendon of the peroneus longus muscle 

 where it passes under the outer ankle-bone. She had no theory, fancy, 

 or any other sentiment regarding her lameness whatever. She simply 

 dropped her toes when walking, and was obliged to lift that limb very 

 high to advance the foot and prevent stumbling. When, in examining 

 her, I asked her to raise the foot, she was unable to do so. The muscles 

 moving the ankle-joint were powerless. She was very simple-minded, 

 and would try to do whatever I asked of her. So, making an excuse 

 to get off her shoes and stockings, and keeping her attention while 

 gradually working myself across the room, I suddenly asked her to 

 come toward me, being careful to keep her eyes on me instead of her 

 feet. The floor is of hard wood, and without covering, except a bear- 

 skin rug in front of where she sat. The hair tickled* her feet, and she 

 came to me with toes elevated and walking on her heels. I then called 

 her attention to the fact that she had bent her ankles to keep her bare 

 feet from contact with the floor, and asked her to bend them again 

 while looking at them. But she could not do it. I found means, how- 

 ever, to relieve the mental impression which interfered so effectually 

 with the autonomy of locomotion, consciousness of power in the affected 

 foot was restored, and, after having been lame for three years, she went 

 home, within ten days, in a natural state. 



But unconscious mental interference with the muscles is to be seen 

 not only in loss of muscular power. Increased muscular action, simu- 

 lating muscular spasm, may have a mental cause. This may be illus- 

 trated by a case. In the spring of 1864 a lad}', about thirty-eight 

 years old, unmarried, presented herself with a lame shoulder. Three 

 weeks before, as she raised her right arm to turn the slats of the shut- 

 ters, she felt a sharp pain in the shoulder. It may have been due to a 

 somewhat energetic contraction of certain muscular fibers, such as 

 most of us occasionally experience without any impression being left 

 on the mind, but which in her case left a lasting effect. 



I did not understand the true mental character of the difficulty, and 

 the consequence was, that I got into a great deal of trouble before I 



