90 NEKVOUS SYSTEM. 



necessary for him to be constantly on his guard to prevent 

 such an accident. 



A very curious fact has been observed with regard to the 

 imaginary presence of limbs after amputation, which we have 

 had ample opportunities of verifying. After a time the 

 sense of possession of the lost limb becomes blunted, and 

 may, in some cases, entirely disappear. This may take place 

 a few months after the amputation, or the sensations may 

 remain in their full intensity for years. Examples are 

 reported by Miiller where the sense was undiminished thir- 

 teen, and, in one case, twenty years after amputation. 1 In 

 a certain number of cases, however, the sense of the inter- 

 mediate part is lost, the feeling in the hand or foot, as the 

 case may be, remaining as distinct as ever, the impression 

 being that the limb is gradually becoming shorter. These 

 curious facts, noted by M. Gueniot, 2 show that the sense of 

 the limb becoming shorter is observed in about half of the 

 cases of amputation in which cicatrization goes on regu- 

 larly ; and in these cases, the patient finally experiences a 

 feeling as though the hand or foot were in direct contact 

 with the stump. By careful inquiries among a large num- 

 ber of patients in military hospitals, we have been enabled 

 to verify these observations in the most satisfactory manner. 



1 MULLER, Elements of Physiology, London, 1840, vol. i., p. 746. 



2 GUENIOT, D"une hallucination du toucher (ou heterotophie subjective des extre 

 mites) particuliere a certains ampules. Journal de la physiologic, Paris, 1861, 

 tome iv., p. 416, et seq. 



