A CASE OF AUTOMATIC DRAWING. 



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I saw Mr. P. make one drawing. His hand on that occasion moved 

 yery slowly in small circles, not leaving the paper till the drawing had, 

 ^s it were, thickened itself up. He seemed to grow very abstracted 

 before the close of the performance, but on testing his hand with a 

 needle, it showed no anesthesia. 



It is evident that with a little more system, a little more handwri- 

 iing, and possibly some speaking under 'control,' this gentleman (whose 

 narrative seems absolutely sincere) would exemplify a case of medium- 

 ship of what one might call the 'Martian' type. It would then remind 

 •one somewhat of the case so admirably studied by Professor Flournoy 

 in his book 'From India to the Planet Mars.' As the case stands, 

 it is peculiar only for the monotony and oddity of the designs drawn 

 by the hand. As in many other cases, we have no means of guessing 

 why the subject in his drawings follows so peculiar a type. His own 

 statement that he never saw anything like them before, must be taken 

 with a grain of salt; for memories which have lapsed entirely from the 

 upper consciousness of a subject have again and again been proved to 

 actuate his hand in automatic writing. This case may be one of such 

 a memory simply developing and confirming its habits. It may 

 possibly on the other hand be the expression of a 'secondary person- 

 ality' of some sort, in which (or in whom), if we could make explora- 

 tion, a systematic context of ideas would be found. 



