956 Dynamic Theory. 



arm transferred the whole insensibility to the left side of the body. " 



' ' Inexplicable as such a phenomenon certainly is, it is sufficiently 

 common (as French physicians hold) in hysterical cases to excite little 

 surprise. What puzzled the doctors was the change of character which 

 accompanied the change of sensibility. When Louis V. issued from the 

 crisis of transfer with its minute of anxious expression and panting 

 breath, he was what might fairly be called a new man. The restless 

 insolence, the savage impulsiveness, have wholly disappeared. The pa- 

 tient is now gentle, respectful and modest. He can speak clearly now, 

 but he only speaks when he is spoken to. If he is asked his views on 

 religion and politics, he prefers to leave such matters to wiser heads 

 than his own. " But it is found upon questioning that he has passed 

 into a different state. He now knows nothing of Rochefort, and does 

 not remember that he was ever a soldier. His memory of things is 

 confined to two short periods of his life, not the same ones he remem- 

 bers when his other side is paralyzed. He thinks he is at Bicetre, and 

 expects to see Dr. Yoisin to-day, Jan. 2, 1884, as he did yesterday. 

 And it seems that by various means this man can be transported into at 

 least six separated and partial lives, in which his memorj 7 embraces 

 some portion of his past life, and his character, for the time, corres- 

 ponds with that which predominated then. 



In his fifth state, which is brought on by placing him in an electric 

 bath, or by placing a magnet on his head, he appears completely cured. 

 He has no paralysis or defect of sensibility, < ' his movements are light 

 and active, his expression gentle and timid. But ask him where he is 

 and you find that he has gone back to a boy of 14, that he is at St. Ur- 

 bain, his first reformatory; his memory embraces his years of childhood, 

 and stops short on the very day when he had the fright with the viper. 

 If he is pressed to recollect the incident of the viper, a violent epilep- 

 tiform crisis puts a sudden end to this phase of his personality. " 



The doctor's theory of this case is, that " A sudden shock falling on 

 an unstable organization, has effected in this boy an unusually profound 

 severance between the functions of the right and left hemispheres of 

 the brain. It is not unusual to see the right side of the body para- 

 lyzed and insensible in consequence of injury to the left hemisphere, 

 and vice versa ; and hysterical cases are not unusual in which there is 

 no actual traceable injuring to either hemisphere in which the defects in 

 sensation and motility rapidly shift, as one may say ' at a touch, ' from 

 one side of the body to the other. " In the case of Louis V. there can 

 be little doubt that the changes that took place in his character and 

 memories were due to the alternate shifting of a spasm of inhibition 

 from one hemisphere to the other, the savage and unruly character ap- 

 pearing when the right side was in activity, and the gentle and civil de^ 



