VI AUTOMATIC BEHAVIOUR OF SOLDIERS 297 



barred window and burst over our heads. I remember 

 perfectly that immediately upon the explosion, which filled 

 the room with gunpowder smoke and the dust of the plaster 

 of the shattered walls and ceiling, I threw my body and arms 

 about in rapid motions, at which I afterwards laughed heartily 

 myself, for these motions were as purposeless as possible — 

 instead of contracting my body within a smaller space, I 

 greatly increased its surface by these reflex motions. Very 

 quickly, however, I learnt in future on similar occasions to 

 act appropriately. Later on, while we lay before the fortress 

 on the left bank of the Ehine on the island of Sporen, when 

 a shell from the Strassburg citadel fell in our neighbourhood, 

 I no longer beat about with my arms, but crouched together 

 into the smallest space without further reflection — by force 

 of habit, automatically. If I had acted thus appropriately 

 on the occasion of the first shell, as by habitual action 

 inherited from my forefathers, I should have acted from 

 instinct. When on ,a subsequent occasion, it was in the fight 

 at Chateauneuf, a chassepot ball flew so close past my ear that 

 the pressure of the air produced the impression that the ball 

 had struck me, I actually clapped my hand to my ear, evidently 

 in consequence of the inherited habit of grasping any part of 

 the body suddenly threatened, so as to protect it — that is, I 

 acted by instinct. 



Moreover, it is well known that in war men soon become 

 so accustomed to shot and shell that they expose themselves 

 with more and more indifference, almost with heedlessness, 

 while the automatic motions of self-protection become rarer 

 and are only exhibited in the most dangerous circumstances. 

 When the first large projectile, a shrapnel-shell, from Strass- 

 burg burst over the open space in front of the church of the 

 village of Kehl, and scattered its balls around, I was much 

 astonished to see our colonel continue his walk across the 

 place with folded arms, without looking round, although 



