182 DK. T. WESLEY MILLS OK 



dissembling, curiosity, training, changes in the condition of the blood (deficiency of 

 oxygen from restrained chest movements) and imitation. 



To my own mind, all of these explanations are partial and inadequate. That terror, 

 surprise, etc., are in no sense essential for the induction of hypnotism is sufficiently 

 evident from Czermak's experiments on pigeons, vv^hich could not be put into this condi- 

 tion by mere restraint, but only after uniting with this steady gazing at a near object. 

 Again, it is vpell-knov^'n that the human subject can be hypnotised by the latter means 

 alone, as Heidenhain first attempted to shew. The latter's explanation, though, perhaps, 

 as good as can be given in the existing state of physiological knowledge, does not apply 

 evidently in its present form to animals in which the cerebrum is not developed, as in 

 insects and other invertebrates. The view of Dr. Prentiss has the merit of breadth ; but, 

 manifestly some of his factors, as training, imitation, etc., cannot apply to the hypnotic 

 condition, when first experienced, at least in the lower animals. 



Notwithstanding the inconsistency in Dr. Clarke's article, he is probably quite correct 

 in explaining the quiet of animals, when restrained, in many cases by an intelligent 

 perception that struggle is useless. I have, myself, frequently noticed when controlling 

 rabbits in the laboratory for the purposes of observation, that so long as there was no 

 part of the fastenings loose, they remained cjuiet without any attempt at freeing them- 

 selves ; but, if only a single limb became the least free, then a general struggle began. 

 Birt such an explanation will not suffice when a greater or less degree of unconsciousness 

 supervenes. 



It may, I think, be said, that the phenomena included under such terms as hypnotism, 

 cataplexy, etc., are due to influences reaching the nervous centres, unusual either in 

 quality or intensity, or with an altered relation as to frequency of repetition when 

 compared with those associated with the ordinary experiences of the animal. When we 

 fully understand the physiology of sleep we may then be able to give a final and satis- 

 factory explanation of these phenomena, but scarcely before. However, I venture to assert 

 that most, if not all of the phenomena of hypnotism may find psychological realisation 

 in the experiences of every individual human being, if he will but observe himself closely 

 enough over a sufficiently long period of time. 



Turning now to feigning death. This subject did not escape that great master of 

 close observation, Charles Darwin. He says, in his " Essay on Instinct " (now published as 

 as an appendix to Dr. Romanes' work, "Mental Evolution in Animals "):—" Insects are 

 most notorious in this respect. "We have amongst them a most perfect series, even with 

 the same genus, (as I have observed in Circulio and Chrysomela), from species, which 

 feign only for a second, and sometimes imperfectly, still moving their antennœ (as with some 

 Histers), and which will not feign a second time however much irritated, toother species, 

 which, according to De Geer, may be cruelly roasted at a slow fire without the slightest 

 movement ; to others again which will long remain motionless, as much as twenty-three 

 minutes, as I find with Clirysomela sparlii." 



Darwin speaks of such feigning as instinctive. Romanes (loc. cit) believes it 

 instinctive, but thinks cataplexy may have been of much assistance in originating and 

 developing it. Both of these writers agree, however, that instinct has been perfected by 

 natural selection. 



If this shamming death, or rather assuming the position of the dead, were really of 



