MODERN EVOLUTION. 



155 



sions of august visions such as carried Saint Paul, 

 Saint Theresa, and Joan of Arc, into the presence 

 of the holiest; or hallucination of drowned cat, thin 

 and " dripping with water," born of the disordered 

 nerves of Mrs. Gordon Jones. To quote from Dr. 

 Gower's Bowman Lecture (Nature, 4th July, 1895) 

 on Subjective Visual Sensations, such as accom- 

 pany fits, when, e. g., sensations of sight occur with- 

 out the retina being stimulated: 



The spectra perceived before epileptic fits vary widely. 

 They may be stars or sparks, spherical luminous bodies, or 

 mere flashes of light, white or coloured, still or in movement. 

 Often they are more elaborate, distinct visions of faces, per- 

 sons, objects, places. They may be combined with sensations 

 from the other special senses, as with hearing and smell. In 

 one case a warning, constant for years, began with thumping 

 in the chest ascending to the head, where it became a beating 

 sound. Then two lights appeared, advancing nearer with a 

 pulsating motion. Suddenly these disappeared and were re- 

 placed by the figure of an old woman in a red cloak, always 

 the same, who offered the patient something that had the 

 smell of Tonquin beans, and then he lost consciousness. Such 

 warnings may be called psychovisual sensations. The psy- 

 chical element may be very strong, as in one woman whose fits 

 were preceded by a sudden distinct vision of London in ruins, 

 the river Thames emptied to receive the rubbish, and she the 

 only survivor of the inhabitants. 



Had a man of lesser renown and mental calibre 

 than Mr. Wallace thrown the weight of his testimony 

 into the scales in favour of spiritualism, there would 

 have been neither necessity nor excuse for this di- 

 gression. But both these pleas prevail when we 

 find the co-formulator of the Darwinian theory 



