CHAP. VII.] THE BEUTE. 221 



shared by us with animals, and is ministered to by our 

 nervous system, though still without the intervention of 

 consciousness. This is the now familiar power of *&amp;lt; reflex 

 action,&quot; a power which gives rise to movements in response 

 to unfelt stimuli, such movements becoming positively more 

 energetic with the advent of insensibility.* 



Thus when the back has been broken by an injury so that 

 the patient has no longer the slightest power of feeling with 

 his lower limbs, yet none the less the foot will withdraw 

 itself from tickling as if a sensation were consciously felt. 



A medical friend mentioned to me a short time ago a 

 curious instance of the external manifestation of apparent 

 self-consciousness which none the less was really absent. He 

 was removing a lady s finger who was under the influence of 

 nitrous oxide. All the time she was weeping and exclaiming, 

 &quot; Oh, my poor finger !&quot; &c. Yet, on recovery, she had not at 

 first the slightest knowledge that the operation had been 

 performed. 



As to the lower animals, multitudes of experiments demon 

 strate that the performance of varied and complex consenta 

 neous movements may be unaccompanied by even sensation 

 as in the case of the lady, or of the patient with the fractured 

 spine. Thus a frog which has been decapitated will none the 

 less join its hind legs together and push away a probe intro 

 duced into the cloaca. Even more remarkable is the fact 

 that a frog which has not only lost its head but even the 

 greater part of its body also, will similarly act with apparent 

 volition. The case alluded to is when the head is removed 

 and also the posterior part of the trunk and the lower 

 extremities, the part left being only the anterior portion of 

 the body together with the arms. If this operation be per 

 formed on a male frog at the breeding season, and if, after 

 its performance, the little wart-like prominence on its fore 

 paw (which at that season is in the place of a thumb) be 

 touched, the two arms immediately fly together in an 



For good examples sec Dr. Carpenter s Mental Physiology, 187-1, p. 70. 



