34 THE PRINCIPLE OF Chap. I. 



Another curious instance of an odd inherited move- 

 ment, associated with the wish to obtain an object, will 

 be given in the course of this volume. 



There are other actions which are commonly per- 

 formed under certain circumstances, independently of 

 habit, and which seem to be due to imitation or some 

 sort of sympathy. Thus persons cutting anything with 



is of peculiar interest, because it occurs only during- sound 

 sleep, and therefore cannot be due to imitation, but must 

 be altogether natural. The particulars are perfectly trust- 

 worthy, for I have enquired fully into them, and speak 

 from abundant and independent evidence. A gentleman 

 of considerable position was found by his wife to have the 

 curious trick, when he lay fast asleep on his back in bed, 

 of raising his right arm slowly in front of his face, up to 

 his forehead, and then dropping it with a jerk, so that 

 the wrist fell heavily on the bridge of his nose. The trick 

 did not occur every night, but occasionally, and was in- 

 dependent of any ascertained cause. Sometimes it was 

 repeated incessantly for an hour or more. The gentle- 

 man's nose was prominent, and its bridge often became 

 sore from the blows which it received. At one time an 

 awkward sore was produced, that was long in healing, 

 on account of the recurrence, night after night, of the 

 blows which first caused it. His wife had to remove the 

 button from the wrist of his night-g'own as it made severe 

 scratches, and some means were attempted of tying his 

 arm. 



" Many years after his death, his son married a lady 

 who had never heard of the family incident. She, how- 

 ever, observed precisely the same peculiarity in her hus- 

 band; but his nose, from not being particularly promi- 

 nent, has never as yet suffered from the blows. The trick 

 does not occur when he is half-asleep, as, for example, 

 when dozing in his arm-chair, but the moment he is fast 

 asleep it is apt to begin. It is, as with his father, inter- 

 mittent; sometimes ceasing for many nights, and some- 

 times almost incessant during a part of every night. It 

 is performed, as it was by his father, with his right hand. 



" One of his children, a girl, has inherited the same 

 trick. She performs it, likewise, with the right hand, but 

 in a slightly modified form; for, after raising the arm, 

 she does not allow the wrist to drop upon the bridge of the 

 nose, but the palm of the half-closed hand falls over and 

 down the nose, striking it rather rapidly. It is also very in- 

 termittent with this child, not occurring* for periods of some 

 months, but sometimes occurring almost incessantly," 



