NORMAL AND HEIGHTENED SUGGESTIBILITY. 645 



forced the latter at the very moment that it distracted attention 

 from the former, and the slight advantage thus given to the 

 weaker of the two systems of forces was sufficient to contract the 

 finger and bring about the catastrophe. 



The spontaneous phenomena which the Germans call Massen- 

 psychosen a word denoting a state of mind shared by a mass 

 of people at once are nothing more than Nature's experiments 

 in suggestibility conducted on a large scale for our benefit. The 

 panic is a familiar illustration. The terrifying suggestion which 

 each man could easily brave alone becomes so intensified in being 

 reflected upon him from a thousand frightened faces that he 

 gives way and becomes for the time being an unreasoning, strug- 

 gling animal. During every great strike such phenomena are 

 common. A crowd gathers, the spirit of disorder is abroad, and 

 the soberest of citizens feels his fingers fairly itching for mis- 

 chief. A stone is thrown, another, and then another, and in a few 

 moments every man is vying with his neighbor to see how much 

 damage he can do. In these cases the frequently repeated sug- 

 gestions given by the words, and still more by the deeds, of others 

 overcome the results of years of training in orderly habits, and 

 when the excitement has subsided many a participant in the late 

 riot may fall to wondering " what in the world possessed him." 

 The colloquial phrase, like many another, enshrines a truth. He 

 was indeed possessed not by any evil spirit, to be sure, but 

 by myriads of delicate physical impulses, which, streaming in 

 through eye and ear, prompted him with almost irresistible force 

 to violence. 



The so-called " contagion of crime " is somewhat analogous. 

 There are at all times in the community "weak brethren" who, 

 while not criminals, are drawn like moths to the flame by the 

 fascination of a great crime. The Whitechapel murders and the 

 assassination of Mr. Harrison, late Mayor of Chicago, are illustra- 

 tions fresh in our minds. In each case a crop of dangerous 

 " cranks " was brought to light, who, without the suggestion, 

 might never have fallen into the hands of the police. 



Turning now from these illustrations of suggestibility in gen- 

 eral to the conditions under which it is heightened, the first 

 phenomena to arrest attention are those of childhood. The con- 

 sciousness of a newborn baby must be very unlike anything that 

 we can picture. It contains perhaps sensations of pain and touch 

 something like those with which we are familiar, but differing 

 from them in lacking all localization and reference to an outer 

 world. It is only by slow degrees that sight and hearing are 

 developed, and we can never hope to know the various stages 

 through which the raw material delivered to consciousness by 

 the developing organs of sense must pass before it becomes any- 



