OF SENSATION IN GENERAL. 857 



deep inspirations which accompany, in almost every individual, the general 

 movement of the body. 



863. It is remarkable that not merely are subjective sensations, like all 

 others, rendered more intense by the direction of the attention to them, but 

 they may be actually called into existence by the fixation of the attention on 

 certain parts of the body; still more, by the belief in the existence of objective 

 causes for such sensations. The " effects of mental attention on bodily organs" 

 have been specially pointed out by Dr. Holland; 1 from whose examples the 

 following may be cited in proof of the foregoing position. "The attention 

 concentrated, for so by an effort of will it may be, on the head or sensorium, 

 gives certain feelings of tension and uneasiness, caused possibly by some change 

 in the circulation of the part ; though it may be an effect, however difficult to 

 be conceived, on the nervous system it-self. Persistence in this effort, which is 

 seldom indeed possible beyond a short time without confusion, produces results 

 of much more complex nature, and scarcely to be defined by any common terms 

 of language/' " Stimulated attention will frequently give a local sense of 

 arterial pulsation where not frequently felt, and create or augment those singing 

 noises in the ears, which probably depend on the circulation through the capil- 

 lary vessels." " A similar direction of consciousness to the region of the stomach 

 creates in this part a sense of weight, oppression, or other less definite uneasi- 

 ness ; and, when the stomach is full, appears greatly to disturb the due digestion 

 of the food. The state and action of the bowels are much influenced by the 

 same cause." A peculiar sense of weight and restlessness approaching to cramp, 

 is felt in a limb, to which the attention is particularly directed. So, again, if 

 the attention be steadily directed to almost any part of the surface of the body, 

 some feeling of itching, creeping, or tickling will soon be experienced. The 

 fact that sensations may be modified by previous beliefs, which must be within 

 the experience of every one, is remarkably illustrated by the well-known excla- 

 mation of Dr. Pearson, " Bless me ! how heavy it is," when he first poised upon 

 his finger the globule of potassium produced by the battery of Davy ; his pre- 

 conception of the coincidence between metallic lustre and high specific gravity 

 causing him to feel that as ponderous which the unerring test of the balance 

 determined to be lighter than water. Of the absolute creation of subjective 

 sensations by the belief in the existence of their objective causes, the two 

 following cases, related by Prof. Bennett, 3 are very satisfactory examples; the 

 effect of the idea not being limited to the production of the sensations, but 

 extending itself to the consequences which would have followed those sensations 

 if their supposed cause had been real. "A clergyman told me that some time 

 ago suspicions were entertained, in his parish, of a woman who was supposed to 

 have poisoned her newly-born infant. The coffin was exhumed, and the procu- 

 rator-fiscal, who attended with the medical men to examinee the body, declared 

 that he already perceived the odor of decomposition, which made him feel 

 faint, and in consequence he withdrew. But, on opening the coffin, it was 

 found to be empty ; and it was afterwards ascertained that no child had been 

 born, and consequently no murder committed." The second case is yet more 

 remarkable. "A butcher was brought into the shop of Mr. Macfarlan, the 

 druggist, from the market-place opposite, laboring under a terrible accident. 

 The man on trying to hook up a heavy piece of meat above his head, slipped, 

 and the sharp hook penetrated his arm, so that he himself was suspended. On 

 being examined, he was pale, almost pulseless, and expressed himself as suffer- 

 ing acute agony. The arm could not be moved without causing excessive 



1 See his valuable Essay on that subject in his " Medical Notes and Reflections," and in 

 Ms "Chapters on Mental Physiology." 



2 "The Mesmeric Mania of 1851," Edinburgh, 1851. 



