IX VOLUNTARY MOVEMENTS. 745 



"wooden frame, lidding a heavy plate glass, fifteen Indies square, 

 and mounted on three brass legs, with screw adjustments by- 

 means of which the plate may be brought into exact level. Upon 

 the plate glass are placed in the form of a triangle three very per- 

 fectly turned and polished brass balls, and upon the balls rests a 

 thin crystal j)late glass fourteen inches square, set in a light 

 wooden frame. Covering the upper glass is a sheet of paper, and 

 upon the paper the subject lightly rests the finger-tips of one hand. 

 When all is properly adjusted, and glass and balls are rubbed 

 smooth with oil, it is quite impossible to hold the apparatus still 

 for more than a few seconds ; the slightest unsteadiness or move- 

 ment of the hand at once sets the apparatus going. If one closes 

 his eyes and thinks intently of something, one readily forms the 

 conviction that the glass remains quiet, but a bystander is equally 

 convinced of the opposite. The rest of the apparatus is designed 

 to give a permanent record of these movements. Fastened to the 

 light frame containing the upper glass is a slender rod some ten 

 inches long, bearing at its end a cork, and piercing the cork is a 

 small glass tube that serves to hold a snugly fitting glass rod. The 

 rod is drawn to a smooth rounded point, and when in position rests 

 upon a piece of glazed paper that has been blackened over an oil- 

 flame, and is smoothly stretched over a small glass plate. The 

 point of the rod thus records easily and accurately every move- 

 ment of the hand that is imparted to the upper plate, and by the 

 manner of its adjustment accommodates itself to all irregularities 

 of movement or surface. Inasmuch as the main purpose of the 

 apparatus is to write involuntary movements, it may not be amiss 

 to name it the " automatograph," and speak of the record it yields 

 as an " automatogram." * 



Firt. 1. — (H-^ READiNa Colors. Time of reooni, 95 seconds. 

 In all the fi(,nires A represents the beginning of the record, Z the end. In Fiofs. 4 and 6 the 

 numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 indicate the points of the record 15, 30, 45, (100 seconds— in Fig. 11, 30, 60, 

 90, 120 seconds — after the start. Tlie arrow indicates the direction in which the ohject attended 

 to was situated. The tracings are permanently fixed by bathing them in a weak solution of 

 shellac and alcohol. 



Various means may be employed to hold the attention of the 

 subject in a definite direction, and in all he is instructed to thiuk 

 as little as possible of his hand, making an effort, if he chooses, to 



* The apparatus was designed and the results were obtained in the PsycholoLncal Labo- 

 ratory of the University of Wisconsin. The success of the investiijation and the labor of 

 obtaining the rcsidts are to a great extent duo to the skill and industry of Miss Helen West, 

 A. B., 1891, of the University of Wisconsin. 



