5 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



it does not prevent the introduction of moral qualities also. A person 

 may lose the use of a member, for instance, through loss of conscious- 

 ness of power in that member, and at the same time she may have so 

 much pleasure in the sympathy which the disability excites in those 

 around her as to prefer to be lame or bedridden. Confinement, from 

 any cause, is more apt to be demoralizing than elevating, at the best, 

 and it is not strange that a certain number of bedridden cases should, 

 more through the ignorance and want of tact of those around them 

 than original desire to deceive, form the habit of, first, making the most 

 of their infirmities to increase sympathy, and, finally, come to exagger- 

 ate and to falsify ; thus they pave the way to becoming the instruments 

 of their own and others' craving to be considered phenomenal. And it 

 may well be, and circumstances seem to establish, that the Brooklyn 

 case alluded to has arrived at that point now. I only insist that it is 

 not logically necessary, in similar cases, to assume intentional deception 

 from the beginning, nor, in many cases, at any time can this be right- 

 fully asserted. 



It will be observed that I have not used the word " imagination " in 

 connection with the phenomena under consideration. I have not used 

 that term, because it does not apply to the facts. Imagination is an 

 attribute of the mind, an important but wholly distinct mental faculty. 

 But it is not the whole mind, neither does it represent a special condi- 

 tion of the mind. The imagination is often given full play in many of 

 these cases, and undoubtedly assists in producing that mental state 

 which ultimately ends in mental allotropism. But, however conspicuous 

 the imagination may be in such a case, its only importance consists in 

 being one of the many factors tending to produce a certain definite re- 

 sult, which, when reached, is not imagination nor the direct product of 

 the imagination. I speak of this because I think a great deal of harm 

 has been done by the use of this word. It is employed, generally, as if 

 the use of it carried some explanation, and it is understood by the sub- 

 jects as casting some imputation. Besides, abnormal mental timbre, 

 productive of positive effects on the organism, is quite as apt to be 

 manifested in certain wholly unimaginative persons as in the imagina- 

 tive. The most marked cases which have come under my observation 

 have been those of persons whose characteristics have been strong com- 

 mon sense and self-forgetfulness. 



