13S 



THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



these experiments prove that the presence of 

 sleep in the ordinary sense is in the highest de- 

 gree physiologically improbable, they by no means 

 explain the true nature of the state of cataplexy, 

 which comes on so suddenly, and persists so long 

 when once an animal has been terrified in the last 

 degree. As yet I am unable to give any definite 

 answer, nor is it in the power of any one else to 

 do so. But that is a different question from the 

 one treated here. 



The physiology of terror is as yet too little 

 developed. Only isolated facts relating to the 

 far-reaching consequences of fright in man are at 

 our disposal. How are we, for instance, to ex- 

 plain the fact that a sight which causes terror 

 strikes one speechless ? "Why is it that the ac- 

 tion of the brain, and even the process of diges- 

 tion, are often disturbed for a long time after a 

 person has witnessed some horrifying occurrence ? 

 Even the tremulousness of one who is under the 

 influence of terror, and the cold perspiration pro- 

 duced by fright, are unsolved physiological prob- 

 lems. These facts and many others prove that 

 strong, sudden impressions through the eye, the 

 ear, the skin, may have for their effects lasting, 

 profound perturbations of the bodily health. No 

 intelligent man will, in explaining these phenom- 

 ena, postulate unknown " spirit " forces in conflict 

 with natural laws that are known, and that have 

 always been found to be in force ; but physiology 

 will strive to coordinate them, by investigating 



the influence of the stimulation of the sensor 

 nerves upon the central organs — the brain and 

 the spinal cord. 



Fright without a sudden sense-impression is 

 impossible ; hence the physiology of terror begins 

 with investigation of the effects of sudden ex- 

 citation of peripheral nerves. What is called 

 reflex inhibition must be analyzed. I have here 

 recounted some of my experiences in this field — 

 such of them as could be of interest to a wide 

 circle of readers. The scientific investigation of 

 the behavior of the separate organs in a terrified 

 animal does not belong here. I am in hopes 

 hereafter to be able to show, by a fuller discussion 

 of cataplegic phenomena, what it is that deter- 

 mines the enormous lowering of excitability in 

 the nervous organs of sensation and motion of the 

 brain and the spinal cord. 



In conclusion I would, with all emphasis, re- 

 mark that, however wonderful the foregoing ex- 

 periments may appear to one who has never seen 

 them — and however the layman may by them be 

 led to think of sorcery, or magical craft, or super- 

 natural agency — in truth, they contain nothing 

 that could justify such preposterous ideas. But 

 at every step we find ourselves confronted with 

 the weighty lesson that, under any circumstances, 

 terror produced on purpose, whether in adults or 

 children, is simply injurious, and hence is always 

 to be condemned. 



— Deutsche Rundschau. 



IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA. 



BV E. W. DALE. 



II. — Politics. 



THE American Revolution is very commonly 

 regarded as one of the results of that wide 

 and general movement of political thought and 

 passion which sixteen years later overthrew the 

 French monarchy. But we shall misunderstand 

 both American history and American politics un- 

 less we remember that most of the leaders of the 

 Revolution were English Whigs pur sang. They 

 had no theoretical or sentimental objections to 

 monarchy, and no democratic faith in "the rights 

 of man." The famous passage in the Declaration 

 of Independence — " We hold these truths to be 

 self-evident, that all men are created equal, that 

 they are endowed by their Creator with certain 



inalienable rights ; that among these are life, 

 liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," etc. — this 

 passage, I say, is colored by a political theory 

 which had very little to do with the resistance 

 offered to the Stamp Act and to the threepenny 

 duty on tea ; and for this theory only a few of 

 the men who were assembled in Independence 

 Hall on July 4, 1776, and voted for the Decla- 

 ration, had any hearty admiration. The Ameri- 

 cans maintained that they ought not to be taxed 

 by a Parliament in which they were not repre- 

 sented. This was the real question in dispute 

 with the mother-country. Webster, in his fa- 

 mous speech on Adams and Jefferson, puts the 



