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TUE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



the " hypnotic state " on being first held firmly, 

 and then, after their efforts to escape or their 

 resistance had ceased, slowly freed from con- 

 straint, and placed in an unwonted position. 



From all the experiments made by myself, and 

 they were numerous, I received the impression as 

 though the animals were frightened, seized with 

 mortal dread, and that so they were rendered 

 stupid and deprived of will. I was reminded of 

 the power of " fascination " exerted by serpents 

 which terrify their victims so that they become 

 motionless ; I was reminded also of instances in 

 which animals of a very different kind, namely 

 insects, in moments of great alarm, lie perfectly 

 still, causing uncritical observers to suppose that 

 they pretend to be dead, so as not to betray by 

 any movement their presence, in the hope that 

 thus they will be overlooked. Either the beetle 

 which " simulates death " is frightened by some 

 strong, sudden, and unwonted impression, and so 

 temporarily loses its faculty of motion, or else we 

 have to do here with the hereditary transmission 

 of an instinct. Those insects which kept quiet- 

 est in the moment of danger were overlooked by 

 the enemy; hence they lived on, and transmitted 

 to their posterity the power of preserving a state 

 of immobility in the presence of danger. That 

 insects which remain quiet for a longer or short- 

 er time after being seized should sleep when the 

 danger is past, is surely very improbable. Fur- 

 ther, the behavior of animals under experiment 

 appeared to me not at all like that of sleeping 

 animals, though I frequently saw them close their 

 eyelids. On the contrary, the panting, the trem- 

 bling, the wonderfully altered expression of the 

 eye, the state of attention, as shown by the same 

 organ ; then the cataleptic phenomena (of which 

 more presently) ; finally, the immobility often su- 

 pervening instinctively as it were and without 

 any show of resistance upon being seized sudden- 

 ly, aud its duration in most cases of only a few 

 minutes — all this appeared to me irreconcilable 

 with the theory of a state of sleep, in which first 

 of all the eyes are permanently closed. Hence, 

 in 1873, I offered the hypothesis that all these 

 phenomena are the results of the unspeakable 

 terror of the freshly-seized animal, whose intellect 

 is thrown into confusion, so as to produce a sort 

 of paralysis, or to lead it to think it is still held 

 long after the gentle pressure of the hands has 

 ceased. The animal which does not lose its self- 

 possession the instant it is seized, learns by ex- 

 perience that its movements are of no avail, that 

 its struggles are vain. It fears the worst, having 

 been terrified to the utmost degree at the instant 



of seizure. Now it has made the experience that 

 resistance is fruitless, that no movement it can 

 make is of any service to it. Hence, so long as it 

 perceives no change, it will at first act conscious- 

 ly, governing itself according to its experiences, 

 but afterward it becomes discouraged or resigned 

 to despair in the position forced upon it. By 

 exercising great care this position may be some- 

 what altered by the experimenter — a leg, or a 

 wing, may be stretched out; indeed, the hen will, 

 without making resistance, suffer its body to be 

 rolled over, the head in the mean time holding 

 its original attitude unaltered. Cut every animal 

 does not exhibit these strictly cataleptic phenom- 

 ena. With warm-blooded animals the utmost 

 caution is to be observed in the manipulation : if 

 the touch is not quite gentle, the spell is broken. 

 A physical shock, a whispered word, a sudden 

 light, in case the experiments are carried on at 

 twilight, may awaken reflex action. The animal 

 then perceives that it is no longer bound, instanta- 

 neously resumes its ordinary attitude, and either 

 flics away at once, or else remains a few moments 

 on the spot with an expression of amazement 

 which, in hens particularly, is exceedingly amus- 

 ing. The contrast is indeed very great : a while 

 ago, inability to move about, unwonted posture, 

 (for instance, on the back), violent efforts to es- 

 cape, perception of their unavailingness, profound 

 terror, resignation, despair, paralysis of will, loss 

 of the power of turning over or moving ; but now, 

 on the other hand, sudden recovery of perfect 

 freedom. " So, then, I can move about, I do not 

 lie on my back, I need not despair, need not try 

 to escape, I am not in danger of death, I am my 

 own master. What, then, has happened to me ? " 

 But this condition of amazement persists only for 

 a very short time, a few seconds, seldom over a 

 minute. 



Inasmuch as animals cannot plainly tell us 

 men what they feel and think, this point of de- 

 parture of an explanation remains for the present 

 purely hypothetical. Still it is favored by the 

 fact that, if we withdraw the hands not slowly 

 but abruptly, the animals in every instance forth- 

 with resume their natural position. They note 

 the breaking of the bond. 



It also strikes me, as conformable to this hy- 

 pothesis, that the peculiar state of stupidity and 

 absence of will can be produced in the more in- 

 telligent animals only with great difficulty, or even 

 not at all. In my own experiments cats and dogs' 

 could never be completely subdued or "magne- 

 tized" in this way; nay, I found that the one 

 hen which showed the greatest aptitude for being 



