698 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ness of external force, answers to the conclusion drawn that space- 

 ideas are built out of experiences of resistant positions, the relations 

 among which are measured by sensations of muscular effort. Further, 

 there is meaning in the fact that a vague sense of relative position with- 

 in the body survived ; since we concluded that by mutual exploration 

 there is gained that knowledge of the relations among the parts of the 

 body which gives measures through which the developed knowledge 

 'of surrounding space is reached. Once more we get evidence that 

 the ego admits of being progressively shorn of its higher components, 

 until finally the sensations produced by the beating of the heart re- 

 main alone to constitute the conscious self: showing, in the first place, 

 that the conscious self, at any moment, is really compounded of all the 

 states of consciousness, presentative and representative, then existing, 

 and showing, in the second place, that it admits of being simplified 

 so far as to lose most of the elements composing the consciousness 

 of corporeal existence. Whence it is inferable that self-conscious- 

 ness begins as a mere rudiment consisting of present sensations, 

 without past or future. Lastly, we have the striking testimony that 

 there exists a form of consciousness lower than that which the lowest 

 kind of thought shows us. The simplest intellectual act implies the 

 knowing something as such or such implies the consciousness of it as 

 like something previously experienced, or, otherwise, as belonging to 

 a certain class of experiences. But we here get evidence of a stage so 

 low that a received impression remains in consciousness unclassed : 

 there is a passive reception of it, and an absence of the activity re- 

 quired to know it as such or such. 



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HALLUCINATIONS OF THE SENSES. 



By Dr. HENEY MAUDSLEY 



BY hallucination is meant, in scientific phraseology, such a false 

 perception of one or other of the senses as a person has when he 

 sees, hears, or otherwise perceives as real what has no outward exist- 

 ence that is to say, has no existence outside his own mind, is entirely 

 subjective. The subject is one which has special medical interest ; but 

 it will be seen to have also a large general interest, when it is remem- 

 bered how momentous a part hallucinations have played sometimes at 

 critical periods of human history. Take, for example, the mighty work 

 which was done in the deliverance of France from English dominion by 

 a peasant-girl of eighteen Joan of Arc, the famous Maid of Orleans, 

 who was inspired to her mission by the vision which she saw, and the 

 commands which she heard, of St. Michael and other holy persons. 

 Now, as there are few persons nowadays who believe that St. Michael 



