Oct. :U, ISb-t. 



- KNOV^y LEDGE - 



iOo 



adopt the opinion that this man's normal condition depends 

 on the action of the left brain. And we may jieihaps 

 assume, from the length of time during which the right 

 side remained paralysed after the left brain had resumed a 

 portion of its functions, that the other portion — the control 

 of the right-hand oigans — has never been recovered at all 

 by the left brain, but that the right brain has acquired the 

 power, a result which, as we shall presently see, accoids 

 well with experience in other cases. 



It would almost seem, on Wigan's hypothesis — though I 

 must admit that the hypothesis does not explain all the 

 difficulties in this very singular case — that the right brain 

 having a.ssumed one set of functions belonging to the left, 

 from time to time tries, as it were, to assume also another 

 set of functions belonging to the left — viz. the control of 

 mental operations, the weakened left brain passing tem- 

 porarily into unconsciousness. The matter is, however, 

 complicated by peculiarities in the bodily .state, and in 

 sensorial relations during the abnormal condition. The 

 whole case is, in fact, replete with difficulties, as Professor 

 Huxley well points out,* and it seems to me these difficulties 

 are not much diminished by Wigan's theory. 



Let us consider some of the facts of the man's twofold 

 life : — " In the periods of normal life the ex-sergeant's 

 health is perfect ; he is intelligent and kindly, and performs 

 satisfactorily the duties of a hospital attendant. The com- 

 mencement of the abnormal state is ushered in by uneasi- 

 ness and a sense of weight about the forehead, which the 

 patient compares to the constriction of a circle of iron ; and 

 after its termination he complains for some hours of dulness 

 and heaviness of the head. But the transition from the 

 normal to the abnormal state takes place in a few minutes, 

 without convulsions or cries, and without anything to indi- 

 cate the change jto a bystander. His movements remain 

 free and his expression calm, except for a contraction of 

 the brow, an incessant movement of the eyeballs, and a 

 chewing motion of the jaws. The eyes are wide open, and 

 their pupils dilated. If the man happens to be in a place 

 to which he is accustomed he walks about as usual ; but if 

 he is in a new place, or if obstacles are intentionally placed 

 in his way, he stumbles gently against them, stops, and 

 then, feeling over the objects with his hands, passes on one 

 side of them. He offers no resistance to any change of 

 direction which may be impressed upon him, or to the 

 forcible acceleration or retardation of his movements. He 

 eats, drinks, smokes, walks about, dresses and undresses 

 himself, rises and goes to bed at the accustomed hours. 

 Nevertheless, pins may be run into his body, or strong 

 electric shocks sent through it without causing the least 

 indication of pain ; no odorous substance, pleasant or un- 

 pleasant, makes the least impression ; he eats and drinks 

 with avidity whatever is offered, and takes asafretida, or 

 vinegar, or quinine, as readily as water ; no noise affects 

 him ; and light influences him only under certain condi- 

 tions. Dr. Mesnet remarks that the sense of touch alone 

 seems to persist, and indeed to be more acute and delicate 

 than in the normal state ; and it is by means of the nerves 



* I may in passing note that the case of Brown-Sequard's donble- 

 lived boy throws some light on the question whether the soldier is 

 conscious in his abnormal state. Professor Huxley says justly that 

 it is impossible to prove whether F. is conscious or not, because in 

 his abnormal condition he does not possess the power of describing 

 his condition. But the two conditions of the boy's life were not 

 distinguished in this way, for he was perfectly rational, and could 

 describe his sensations in both conditions. The only evidence we 

 can have of any other person's consciousness was afforded by this 

 boy during his abnormal state. But what strange thoughts are 

 suggested by this twofold consciousness — cr, rather (for twofold 

 consciousness is intelligible enough), by this alternate unconscious- 

 ness ? To the boy in one state, what was the other life ? Whose 

 was the life of which he was unconsciona ? 



of touch, almost exclusively, that his organism is brought 

 into relation with the outer world." 



Such are the general phenomena presented by this curious 

 case. As respects the details of the man's behaviour under 

 particular circunustances, I refer the reader to Professor 

 Huxley's paper in the Forliurjldlij lieiicw for November, 

 1874. But one peculiarity is so noteworthy, and, rightly 

 understood, gives so special an interest to Wigan's hypo- 

 thesis, that I must quote it at length, together with the 

 significant remarks with which Professor Huxley intro- 

 duces the subject. " Those," he says, " who have had 

 occasion to become acquainted with the phenomena of 

 somnambulism and mesmerism, will be struck with the 

 close parallel which they present to the proceedings of F. 

 in his abnormal state. But the great value of Dr. Mesnet's 

 observations lies in the fact that the abnormal condition is 

 traceable to a definite injury of the brain, and that the 

 circumstances are such as to keep us clear of the cloud of 

 voluntary and involuntary fictions, in which the truth is 

 too often smothered in such cases. In the unfortunate 

 subjects of such abnormal conditions of the brain, the dis- 

 turbance of the sensory and intellectual faculties is not 

 unfrequently accompanied by a perturbation of the mora! 

 nature which may manifest itself in a most astonishing 

 love of lying for its own sake. And in this respect, also, 

 F.'s case is singularly instructive ; for, although in his 

 normal state he is a perfectly honest man, in his abnormal 

 condition he is an inveterate thief, stealing and hiding away 

 whatever he can lay hands on, with much dexterity, and 

 with an absurd indifference as to whether the property is 

 his own or not. Hoffmann's terrible conception of the 

 " Doppelt-ganger " is realised by men in this state, who 

 live two lives, in the one of which they may be guilty of 

 the most criminal acts, while in the other they are eminently 

 virtuous and respectable. Neither life knows anything of 

 the other. Dr. ^lesnet states that he has watched a man 

 in his abnormal state elaborately prepare to hang himself, 

 and has let him go on (!) "until asphyxia set in, when he 

 cut him down. But, on passing into the normal state, 

 the would-be suicide was wholly ignorant of what had 

 happened." 



If Wigan and Sequard are right in regarding the changes 

 of opinion with which most of us are familiar as differing 

 only in degree from the duality of a lunatic's mind who has 

 sane and insane periods, and mental indecision as differing 

 only in degree from the case of a lunatic who " is of two 

 minds," knowing that what he says is insane, a curious 

 subject of speculation arises in the consideration of the 

 possible duality of the moral nature. The promptings of 

 evil, and the voice of conscience resisting these promptings, 

 present themselves as the operation of the two brains, one 

 less instructed and worse trained than the other. " Con- 

 version " is presented to us as a physical process, bringing 

 the better trained brain into action in such sort as to be 

 the only or chief guide of the man's actions. 



(To le continued.) 



Theemal-Colouked Kings. — M. Decharme, whose experiments 

 on the flow of cnrrents in pipes and their hydro-dynamic analogy 

 to electric currents have attracted much attention, has also recently 

 drawn attention to the fact that thermal-coloured rings bear a 

 striking resemblance to electro-chemical-coloured rings. When a 

 copper plate is erposed to the flame of a spirit lamp or a Bnnsen 

 burner, an irisated or rainbow-coloured corona is produced about 

 the heated point. Under good condifons these colours are fixed 

 and unalterable in the air. These rings are, according to M. De- 

 charme, quite similar to Xobili's electro-chemical rings ; like the 

 latter, they succeed each other in waves, the colours being m the 

 same order, namely, that of Newton's rings viewed by transmission. 

 — Engineering. 



