226 PHYSICAL EXPKESSION. 



interesting to study. We are getting near a meta- 

 physical question; to clear the ground, let me 

 speak plainly. I have no idea what consciousness 

 is, just as I have no knowledge what life is, or 

 what mind is in the abstract; but we can study 

 the expression of these unknowable things, con- 

 sciousness, life, mind ; we can study their physical 

 manifestation. In studying an emotion or general 

 condition, such as consciousness, by these methods, 

 we must say that such and such are the physical 

 signs produced by that condition of the brain 

 which usually produces consciousness. The physical 

 signs which we commonly say express conscious- 

 ness are not actually the result of consciousness, but 

 they are the outcome of the action of that nerve- 

 mechanism which also affords consciousness ; it is 

 not the abstract "consciousness" that is expressed, it 

 is the state of the nerve-mechanism which produces 

 the expression. 



I would not endeavour to adhere thus perti- 

 naciously to our methods of procedure, were it not 

 that it appears to me that many authors, in treating 

 of problems in which "consciousness" becomes a 

 factor, become lost in a maze of metaphysical in- 

 quiry. Now, pursuing our subject, the expression 

 of consciousness, let us see what can be learnt by 

 the direct observation of individuals acknowledged 

 to be in the state of consciousness or unconscious- 

 ness, and contrast the signs observed. In conditions 

 of consciousness there is great impressionability, 

 susceptibility to impressions upon the organs of 

 special sense, producing reflex movements; in states 



