PSYCHOLOGY OF PRESTIDIGITATION. 563 



watch on his right hand when he finishes jnggling, but while he was 

 Juggling and making a ])retense of passing the nutmeg into the right 

 hand, when he was holding it secretly in the left hand, we had only 

 looked on mechanically. This part of the oi>eration remained in 

 shadow, as it were; it is perceived in a semiconscious manner, as an 

 act void of all importance, and the illusion that results becomes all 

 the stronger, no one being aware of the exact moment in which it was 

 produced. 



All these details go to show that positive illusions produced by a 

 pretense or feint have peculiar qualities of their own ; the illusion is not 

 a durable one, as that of the bent stick in the water — the false appear- 

 ance lasts only for a moment. We would not say, while looking on at 

 the performance, "I see the ball passing from one hand to the other;" 

 we would say "I saw it; I am positive that it passed"— an illusion of 

 memory rather than of the senses. 



III. 



We meet with another class of illusions in the tricks of the presti- 

 digitators, to which we may give the name of negative illusions, in 

 contrast with the preceding ones. The first and best examines of 

 these singular illusions have been made known to us through hypnotic 

 experiments. These illusions consist in not seeing, in not hearing, 

 in not feeling, and which abolish the perception, be it either of an 

 object or of a class of objects. We place, for instance, before the 

 person hypnotized a real, material, tangible object. Suppose it to be 

 a person assisting at the experiment; the subject is commanded not 

 to see this i^erson, and the commaiul is sufficient to cause the disaii- 

 pearance of the person — of his becoming invisible, as it were. This last 

 class of illusions is much more difficult to understand than the first. 

 Authors have not given, it must be admitted, a perfectly satistactory 

 explanation of it. We do not kno\v what is taking i^lace in the mind 

 of the subject hypnotized who is commanded not to see a person imme- 

 diately in front of him. We have difficulty in understanding the proc- 

 ess by which the person hypnotized, while being perfectly sincere 

 with himself and not in any way "making believe" or endeavoring to 

 play a joke, can arrive at that state of not being able to see a person 

 immediately in front of him with whom he is well acquainted. ISTegative 

 illusions are frequent in seances of iirestidigitation ; we will endeavor 

 to ascertain how a person perfectly sane and in possession of all his 

 faculties is prevented from seeing objects placed immediately before 

 his eyes. 



The objects from which it is necessary to divert the attention of the 

 lookers-on vary according to circumstances. In certain feats it is a 

 corner of the conjurer's table. In other tricks it is a goblet or a pa(;k of 

 cards. As a rule it is the hands of the prestidigitator himself, to which 

 the too close attention of the audience must not be given. It must be 



