Oct. 17, 1884.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



JOO- 



1 1 ir/w .lU. 

 AM Illustrated 



MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE 

 pLAiNiyWORDED-EXACTDT Described^ 



LONDON: FRIDAY, OCT. 17, 1884. 



Contents of No. 155. 



FAGB 



Onr Two Brains. Bt R. A. Proctor 309 



Dreams. X. By E'. Clodd SIO 



Pleasant Hours with the Microscope. 

 (/«»».) BtU. J. Slack 312 



Dickens's Sto'rjr left Half Told. By 

 Thomas Foster 313 



The Earth's Shape and Motions. 

 (Illm.) By K. A. Proctor 3U 



British Seaai^e Resorts. By Percy 

 Kassell 316 



International Health Exhibition. 

 XX. Antiseptics and Disinfec- 

 tants 317 



A'accination for Yellow Fever 318 



FAOB 



" English as She is Spoke " in 



America. By E. A. Proctor ...319 

 The 'New York Fire Department, 



{JUm.) 319 



Eeviews 32'i 



Practiciil Dietetics. By T. E. 



Allinson.L.E C.P 323 



The Recent Eclipse of the Moon ... 324 



Miscellanea 335 



Correspondence : Life After Death 

 The " Westminster Papers " — 



Breeding In and In, &c 326 



The Inventors' Column 329 



Our Chess Column 330 



L 



OUR TWO BRAINS. 



By Richard A. Proctor. 



(Continued from p. 230.) 



THE next point on which Dr. Wigan insisted, was the 

 fact that among insane persons we often recognise two 

 diiferent minds, either one sane and the other insane, or 

 both insane but in different degrees. No one who has 

 studied the literature of insanity can fail to recall instances; 

 but I shall venture to quote in illustration a passage from 

 an American narrative, " The Hoosier Schoolmaster," based, 

 I am assured, on an actual case which came under the notice 

 of the author of that pleasant story. 



" Ralph stood looking into a cell, where there was a man 

 with a gay red plume in his hat and a strip of red flannel 

 about his waist. He strutted up and down like a drill- 

 sergeant. ' I am General Jackson,' he began ; ' people 

 don't believe it, but I am. I had my head shot off at 

 Bueny Visty, and the new one that growed on isn't nigh so 

 good as the old one ; it's tater on one side. That's why 

 they took advantage of me to shut me up. But I know 

 some things. My head is tater on one side, but it's all 

 right on t'other. And when I know a thing in the left side 

 of my head I know it' " (This illustrates a point on which 

 Dr. Wigan specially insisted. An insane patient knows he 

 is insane. He will put forward insane ideas, and imme- 

 diately after ha-dng put them forward he will say, " I know 

 they are insane." " The lunatic is at one and the same 

 time perfectly rational," says Brown-Sequard, " and per- 

 fectly insane." Dr. Wigan concluded, like the poor lunatic 

 of the Indiana worldiouse, that in such cases one-half of the 

 brain is normal and the other half diseased ; one-half em- 

 ploys the faculties in a normal way, the other half employs 

 them in a wrong way.) The crazy pauper is called on to 

 give evidence, or rather he introduces himself to the judges, 

 with the remark that one side of his head being " sound as 

 a nut," he " kin give information." He refuses to be 

 sworn, because "he knows himself." "You see when a 

 feller's got one side of his head tater, he's mighty onsartin 

 like. You don't swear me, for I can't tell what minute the 

 tater side'll begin to talk. I'm talkin' out of the lef side 

 now and I'm all right. But you don't swar me. But if 



you'll send some of your constables out to the barn at the 

 poor-house and look under the hay mow in the north-east 

 corner, you'll find some things maybe as has been missin' 

 for some time. And that a'n't out of the tater side neither." 

 The exactness of the information, with the careful refer- 

 ences to locality and time, as also the suggestion of the 

 proper course of action — not merely " go and look," but 

 send some of your const;ibles, Ac. — all this illustrates well 

 the perfect coutrast often existing between the two states 

 in which a so-called lunatic exists. 



There are cases, however, which are even more interest- 

 ing, in which two different mental conditions are presented, 

 neither of which presents any indication of mental disease, 

 except such as might be inferred from the completeness of 

 the gap which separates one from the other. Dr. Brown- 

 S^quard gives the following account of a case of this kind. 

 " I saw a boy," he says, " at Notting-hill, in London, who 

 had two mental lives. In the course of the day, generally at 

 the same time, but not constantly, his head was seen to fall 

 suddenly. He remained erect, however, if he was standing, or 

 if sitting he remained in that position ; if talking, he stopped 

 talking for awhile ; if making a movement he stopped moving 

 for a while ; and after one or two minutes of that state of 

 falling forward or drooping of the head (and he appeared 

 as if falling asleep suddenly, his eye.s closing), imme- 

 diately after that his head rose, he started up, opening his 

 eyes, which were now perfectly bright, and looking quite 

 awake. Then, if there was anybody in the room whom 

 he had not previously seen, he would ask who the persoa 

 was, and why he was not introduced to him. He had seen 

 me a great many times, and knew me very well. Being 

 with him once when one of these attacks occurred, he lifted 

 his head, and asked his mother, " Who is this gentleman ? 

 Why don't you introduce him to me ^ " His mother intro- 

 duced me to him. He did not know me at all. He 

 shook hands with me, and then I had a conversation 

 with him as a physician may have with a patient. On th& 

 next instance, when I was present during an attack of thLs 

 kind, I found that he recognised me fully, and talked of 

 what he had spoken of in our first interview. I ascertained 

 from what I witnessed in these two instances, and also (and 

 chiefly, I may add) from his mother, a very intelligent 

 woman, that he had two lives in reality — two mental lives 

 — one in his ordinary state, and another occurring after 

 that attack of a kind of sleep for about a minute or two; 

 when he knew nothing of what existed in his other Ufe, 

 In his abnormal life, the events of his normal life were 

 forgotten — his ordinary life became a blank.* He knew 



* I have been compelled slightly to modify the report of Dr. 



Brown-Sequard' s statement. Thongh manifestly a report taken by 

 shorthand writers, and intended to be verliatim, there are places^ 

 where it is clear that either a part of a sentence has been omitted 

 or some words are wrongly reported. I speak from experience in 

 saying that even in America, where lectures are much more care- 

 fully reported than in England, mistakes are not uncommon. Th& 

 enterprise of the New Tori Tribune, in taking full reports of 

 lectures considered noteworthy, is a well-known and most ereditr 

 able feature of American juurnalisra. But it is a mistake to sup- 

 pose that reports, even if actually i-erhatiin, can exactly represent 

 a lecturer's meaning. A speaker, by varieties of inflection, 

 emphasis, and so on, to say nothing of expression, action, and illus- 

 tration, can indicate his exact meaning whilst using language which, 

 written in the ordinary manner, may appear indistinct and con- 

 fused. Thus a most exact and carefully-prepared lecture may 

 appear loose and slipshod in the report. This applies to the caso 

 where a lecturer speaks at so moderate a rate that the shorthani? 

 writers can secure every word, and is true even when in writin;,- 

 out their report they make no mistake, though it seldom happens, 

 as any one will readily understand who is acquainted with the 

 stenographic art. But the case is much worse if a lecturer is :i 

 rapid speaker. A reporter is compelled to omit words and- 

 sentences occasionally, and such omissions are absolutely fatal to. 



