654 Mr. F. Galton [May 13, 



tendency to see Number-forms, and tlie still rarer tendency to asso- 

 ciate colour with sound, are strongly hereditary, and I should infer, 

 what facts seem to confirm, that the tendency to be a seer of visions is 

 equally so. Under these circumstances we should expect that it would 

 be equally developed in different races, and that a large natural gift 

 of the visionary faculty might become characteristic not only of 

 certain families, as among the second-sight seers of Scotland, bat of 

 certain races, as that of the Gipsies. 



It happens that the mere acts of fasting, of want of sleep, and of 

 solitary musing, are severally conducive to visions. I have myself 

 been told of cases in which persons accidentally long deprived of 

 food became subject to them. One was of a pleasure-party driven 

 out to sea, and not being able to reach the coast till nightfall, at a 

 place where they got shelter but nothing to eat. They were mentally 

 at ease and conscious of safety, but they were all troubled with 

 visions, half dreams, and half hallucinations. The cases of visions 

 following protracted wakefulness are well known, and I also have 

 collected a few. As regards the maddening effect of solitariness, it 

 may be sufficiently inferred from the recognised advantages of social 

 amusements m the treatment of the insane. It follows that the 

 spiritual discipline undergone for purposes of self-control and self- 

 mortification has also the incidental effect of producing visions. It 

 is to be expected that these should often bear a close relation to the 

 prevalent subjects of thought, and although they may be really no 

 more than the products of one portion of the brain, which another 

 portion of the same brain is engaged in contemplating, they often, 

 through error, receive a religious sanction. This is notably the case 

 among half-civilised races. 



The number of great men who have been once, twice, or more 

 frequently subject to hallucinations is considerable. A list, to which 

 it would be easy to make large additions, is given by Brierre de 

 Boismont (' Hallucinations, &c.' 1862), from whom I translate the 

 following account of the star of the first Napoleon, which he heard, 

 second-hand, from General Eapp : — 



" In 1806 General Eapp, on his return from the siege of Dantzic, 

 having occasion to speak to the Emperor, entered his study without 

 being announced. He found him so absorbed that his entry was 

 unperceived. The General, seeing the Emperor continue motionless, 

 thought he might be ill, and purposely made a noise. Napoleon 

 immediately roused himself, and without any preamble, seizing Eapp 

 by the arm, said to him, pointing to the sky, ' Look there, up there.' 

 The General remained silent, but on being asked a second time, he 

 answered that he perceived nothing. ' What ! ' replied the Emperor, 

 ' you do not see it ? It is my star, it is before you, brilliant ; ' then 

 animating by degrees, he cried out, ' it has never abandoned me, I 

 see it on all great occasions, it commands me to go forward, and it is 

 a constant sign of good fortune to me.' " 



It appears that stars of this kind, so frequently spoken of in 



