OUR SUBORDINATE PERSONALITIES. 113 



safeguard against utter confusion and idleness of 

 thought being to fall back upon the superficial and 

 common sense view, and refuse to tolerate discussions 

 which seem to hold out little prospect of commercial 

 value, and which would compel us, if logically followed, 

 to be at the inconvenience of altering our opinions 

 upon matters which we have come to consider as 

 settled. 



And we observe that this is what is practically done 

 by some of our ablest philosophers, who seem un- 

 willing, if one may say so without presumption, to 

 accept the conclusions to which their own experiments 

 and observations would seem to point. 



Dr. Carpenter, for example, quotes the well-known 

 experiments upon headless frogs. If we cut off a 

 frog's head and pinch any part of its skin, the animal 

 at once begins to move away with the same regularity 

 as though the brain had not been removed. Flourens 

 took guinea-pigs, deprived them of the cerebral lobes, 

 and then irritated their skin ; the animals immediately 

 walked, leaped, and trotted about, but when the 

 irritation was discontinued they ceased to move. 

 Headless birds, under excitation, can still perform 

 with their wings the rhythmic movements of flying. 

 But here are some facts more curious still, and more 

 difficult of explanation. If we take a frog or a strong 

 and healthy triton, and subject it to various experi- 

 ments ; if we touch, pinch, or burn it with acetic acid, 

 and if then, after decapitating the animal, we subject 

 it to the same experiments, it will be seen that the 

 reactions are exactly the same; it will strive to be 



