128 GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY 



Q* 



degree at this unexpected change, and after some further conversa- 

 tion with him, and among ourselves, went away fully satisfied as 

 to all the particulars of this fact, but confounded and puzzled, 

 and not able to form any rational scheme that might account 

 for it." 



It is not to be denied that a priori these tales, especially those of 

 the Indian fakirs, are calculated to awaken distrust, and a sound 

 scepticism is the basis of all good criticism. The mistrust is 

 increased when cases happen in which the fakirs are exposed as 

 swindlers, as at the Hungarian Millennium Exposition in Budapest. 

 But from the standpoint of an unprejudiced science we must say 

 that it would be an entire mistake superciliously to regard a thing 

 as untrue merely because at first sight the reports appear strange, 

 and because an impostor employs it for purposes of gain. It is 

 rather in accordance with the liberality of scientific research first 

 carefully to test the phenomenon and to see whether genuine 

 scientific grounds for its impossibility may be brought against it. If 

 from all the known stories their more or less sensational accom- 

 paniments be removed, the simple statement remains that certain 

 men can voluntarily put themselves into a state in which no vital 

 phenomena are demonstrable by a more or less superficial examina- 

 tion, and can awaken later to normal life. Now, sufficient cases 

 are known where physicians by the usual methods of their practice 

 are able to discover absolutely no traces of vital phenomena, where 

 pulse, respiration, movement, and irritability are not to be observed ; 

 and yet where the person, supposably dead, has after a time re- 

 turned to life. These phenomena are usually termed " apparent 

 death," and are connected with those of normal sleep by a series- 

 of transition phenomena. Such transition phenomena are the 

 continual sleep in which persons, such as the " sleeping soldier " 

 and the " sleeping miner," continue in a state of depressed vital 

 activity and incapable of being awakened, and, especiallv, the 

 phenomena of the winter sleep of warm-blooded animals. If 

 the fact of apparent death cannot be disputed, the mysterious- 

 and mystical in the reported tales constantly diminish and become 

 limited solely to the power of going into such a state voluntarily. 

 As regards this, we know that it is possible by exercise to bring 

 under the influence of the will bodily activities, such as the move- 

 ment or inhibition of certain muscles, which once took place only 

 involuntarily. And it is known that in certain pathological con- 

 ditions, especially in cases of profound hysteria, many phenomena, 

 which are never associated with the will in normal persons, can 

 be brought under its influence. Hence it is not justifiable to 

 assert, a priori, the impossibility of the reported phenomena, al- 

 though the reports, which come almost exclusively from the English 

 military and civil officials, concerning fakirs that are buried alive 

 must be received with great caution and criticism. It will be an 



