proceedings: anthropological society 313 



instance, one patient with intact perceptions and intelligence declares, 

 "It is black all around; there is no world there; but you can not under- 

 stand, and I can not explain it." The root of this condition is a dis- 

 turbance of the internal feelings, the cause of which is usually a physi- 

 cal disorder, a perverted body chemistry. However, as the feelings 

 may be incited psychogenetically, and as the superstitious belief may 

 persist even when the body chemistry is restored, it is necessary in 

 dealing with them to understand the facts of human psychology, more 

 especially of morbid psychology. The comfort brought by the feeling 

 of support and the sense of refuge found in reliance upon a supernatural 

 agent make their appeal very strong to inadequate persons. That is 

 why the superstitious aspect of so many religions is clung to so fer- 

 vently; for, not differentiating this from the essence of the religion, 

 the devotee fears that the destruction of the superstition will entail 

 the loss of the comfort brought by his religion, which is, of course, an 

 improper inference. 



That the religious aspect of these, however, is not that which makes 

 belief in them so strong is proved by what so often happens during 

 anaesthesia. For instance, Humphry Davy, on waking from nitrous 

 oxide narcosis, had so grandiose a feeling of having made wonderful 

 discoveries that he showed his contempt for those round him by walk- 

 ing about calling, "Nothing exists but thought; the universe is com- 

 posed of impressions, pleasure, and pain;" and it took him some time 

 to overcome his belief in the validity of this experience. Again, a 

 young man, who, during anaesthesia for an operation, had the awful 

 feeling of a world reverting to nothingness, could not shake off the 

 belief in the terribleness of this, so that special measures had to be 

 used to bring his mind into normal touch with the real world. 



The color of the superstition depends upon the Zeitgeist; but its 

 fundamentals are psychopathological facts, and the study of their origin 

 demands an extensive knowledge of the cognate phenomena revealed 

 by persons with disturbed minds. Even in the case of amputated 

 limbs a patient may declare himself "more sure of the lost limb than of 

 the one he has." Like these instances the inexpressible wonderfulness 

 of the mystic's experience is pure illusion and its origin is in feelings 

 of similar kind. 



The portion of the address on The craving for the supernatural 

 appeared in the Medical Record for February 12, 1916. 



At the 494th meeting of the society, held February 1, 1916, two pa- 

 pers were read. The first, by Dr. Truman Michelson, of the Bureau 

 of American Ethnology, was on Ritualistic origin myths of the Fox Indi- 

 ans. This has appeared in the Journal of the Washington Academy of 

 Sciences (6: 209-211. April 19, 1916). In the discussion, a visitor, Mr. 

 Stewart, who said that he had grown up among the Kickapoo, in- 

 sisted that scientists should get behind the form of the myth to its mean- 

 ing and that, although the solar explanation of myths, for example, had 

 been overworked by Max Miiller, there is a real esoteric meaning of 



