964 Dynamic Theory. 



the inhibition is probably different. Whereas, in the normal state we 

 withdraw attention from organ A by attending to organ B, as may hap- 

 pen to a soldier wounded in the excitement of a desperate charge ; in 

 the h} T pnotic state a new organ C is erected in antagonism to A, and the 

 plus activity of A is nullified by the minus activity of C . This new 

 organ C is a new person which is erected when all the normal ones are 

 asleep, and from which all the rest are permanently inhibited, except A, 

 whose sensibility it is destined to strangle. So when the lady with the 

 abscess wakes up, she leaves that part of organ A whose action consti- 

 tutes consciousness of its function, in the lethargic embrace of C. The 

 influence of a new person thus created, does not often last long after 

 its function is performed and its tension relieved. 



Some of the effects of the application of magnets in hypnotic experi- 

 ments made by Binet and Fere*, have been related by them in their work 

 on Animal Magnetism. When a subject is made by suggestion to see 

 an imaginary object with the right eye, for example, if a magnet be 

 held near the left side of the body, the hallucination will be transferred 

 to that side, and the left eye will appear to see it instead of the right. 

 In case the imaginary object is seen by both eyes, if the magnet be 

 brought near, the hallucination will be abolished altogether. The same 

 is true in the case of hallucination of hearing. If, by a suggestion of 

 the operator, a. real object becomes invisible to the subject, bringing 

 the magnet near will neutralize the suggestion, and the subject will 

 again see the object. If the subject by suggestion is made to perform 

 a movement with one hand, the influence of the magnet will cause the 

 movement to be taken up by the other hand, and discontinued b} T the 

 first. Thus, the right hand can be restrained from writing, and the left 

 made to continue it. These experiments appear not to have been re- 

 peated in very many cases, but if a magnet has this power of changing 

 polarities, reversing them apparently, it affords a suggestion of similar 

 reversals arrived at in some other way, as being at the bottom of the 

 transfer of inhibitions from one locality to its complement, in case of 

 double personality. 



CHAPTER LXXXIII. 



CONSCIOUSNESS. 



Consciousness, as we think of it in the general lump, is made up of 

 single sensations. Whenever we are conscious, we are conscious with 

 regard to some definite thing or things. Consciousness is not an ab- 

 stract quality. We may experience several sensations at once, one of 

 which is more distinct and intense than the rest, but the aggregate of 



