SOME SEXSE DEFECTS PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 555 



terns to see if one figure would exactly fit its neighbour. They 

 always did, with deadly monotony. But the body got the best 

 of it. After an interval, in which I had relaxed my conscious 

 efforts, 1 found that the images were firmly separated, and now 

 I have quite lost control, and can do nothing to make the right 

 image even approach the left. Moreover, my hands and feet 

 refuse to obey the right image. If I shut my left eye and try 

 to touch something on a table, I miss by about 4 or ^ inches. 

 I once tried to walk witli the left eye shut, and ifound myself 

 colliding with lamp-posts. Anxious to preserve my reputation 

 for sobriety, I do not repeat that experiment. But it is surely 

 curious that two sets of muscles should have passed from a state 

 of will-resisting co-ordination to a state of equally will-resisting 

 dis-co-ordination, through a period of perfect separate will- 

 control. 



A further consetiuence has resulted. It is well known that 

 our perception of colour is so " interpreted "' by the mind, that 

 artists have to unlearn the interpretation. Sunlight should be 

 " seen '" more yellow, shadows more purjile, and candle-light 

 more red. Now, that is what has hai^pened to my right eye. 

 Since the " mind " has made up its mind to ignore the right 

 image, the two eyes give c|uite a different colouring. And I do 

 not think it is a new defect, one of partial colour-blindness: 

 such defects rarely, if ever, come nearer to the truth. The fact 

 distinctly is that for my right eye sunlight is more yellow, 

 shadows more purple, and candle-light is almost as red as 

 Gherardo delle Notti ever painted it. 



Yet one more optical effect may be noted. Looking once at 

 a white object, surrounded by shadow, but itself in the light, 

 my right eye being closed to block oft" its image, I found that on 

 opening that eye the left image immediately bricjhtcned. This 

 could not be from super-position of images, because that is im- 

 possible now to me : nor could it be from access of light from 

 surroundings, for all Avas gloom around. However, to make 

 quite sure, I put my hand before my right eye, and then found, 

 to my amazement, that the mere opening of the right eye (though 

 it saw nothing) reinforced the image of the left. Evidently the 

 extra flow of energy was shared by sympathy. From this one 

 can easily believe that it is not merely a poetic fancy that things 

 look brighter when we are gay and gloomier when we are dull. 



Last of all, my experience is that the muscles in the head 

 which sub-^erve attention are so sympathetically linked together 

 that each contributes towards the action of the rest. Normal 

 people have enough energy to be able to use their senses together. 

 I cannot. If I read, I cannot hear. If I listen, I cannot look. 

 A friend asked me to dinner twice : the first time he asked me 

 to choose the wine, and I patriotically chose Witzenberg: the 

 next time he chose for himself, and we had one of the choicest 

 Rhine wines: unfortunately I did not notice the difference, and 

 he thinks poorly of my taste. If he reads this paper he will 

 know that I prefer my friends' conversation to the most epicurean 



