450 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



as she recovered, exhibited, among other things, the following remark- 

 able powers : 



"After lying for a considerable time quiet, she would in an instant throw 

 her whole body into a kind of convulsive spring, by which she was thrown en- 

 tirely out of bed ; and in the same manner, while sitting or lying on the floor, 

 she would throw herself into bed, or leap on the top of a wardrobe fully five 

 feet high. During the whole of these symptoms her mind continued entire, and 

 the only account she could give of her extravagance was, a secret impulse which 

 she could not resist." l 



This case cannot be disposed of by saying that the movements were 

 convulsive, because it is evident that they were definitely combined 

 and adjusted to the production of a well-defined result the landing of 

 the patient's body either upon the floor, the bed, or the wardrobe so 

 that a certain amount of mentality or volition accompanied the result ; 

 this she herself was aw T are of, and called it a " secret impulse." It 

 is also evident that the movements were very complex, and required a 

 special and peculiar coordination of a great many muscles ; in -fact, 

 nearly every voluntary muscle of the body. The only conclusion at 

 which we can arrive is, that the patient, in the abnormal state into which 

 disease had thrown her, was able to draw upon an inheritance of mus- 

 cular capacity to which she had matured, but which she had not been 

 called upon to use before. 



Dr. Abercrombie also relates the following case : A young lady, 

 fifteen years of age, was subject to attacks of catalepsy, in consequence 

 of a fall from a horse. 



"On one occasion, she was playing from a book a piece of music which was 

 new to her, and had played a part of it, when she was seized with a cataleptic 

 attack. During the paroxysm she continued to play this part, and repeated it 

 five or six times in the most correct manner ; but, when she recovered from the 

 attack, she could not play it without the book." 2 



In this case the young lady was able to execute, in the cataleptic 

 state, what she apparently had not learned and could not execute when 

 out of that state. From this and similar cases it would seem that much 

 of our inherited voluntary command over our muscles is ordinarily dis- 

 guised or marked, as it were held in abeyance how or why we know 

 not, and we are enabled to get glimpses of it during those states of 

 mental and organic spontaneity and mobility which, for want of a better 

 name, we call abnormal, and which often seem temporarily to put the 

 individual en rapport with the secret chambers of his own boundless 

 wealth the countless treasures of ages of accumulation. 



The following case, taken from the Globe-Democrat, of St. Louis, 

 Missouri, is as remarkable, perhaps, as any of a similar character on 

 record ; 



1 Abercrombie, " Diseasse of the Brain and Spinal Cord," p. 292. 

 a Ibid., pp. 293-295. 



