Nov. 28, 1884.J 



• KNOWL.EDGE. ♦ 



435 



MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE 

 PlainlyWorded-Exactlydescribed 



LONDON : FRIDAY, NOV. 28, 1884. 



Contents op No. IGl. 



rxes 



Our Two Brains. By Kicbard A. 



Proctor 435 



Kambles with a Hammer. III. By 



W. Jeromp Harrison, F.G.S...... 436 



Dreams. {C'jiifluaion.) By Edward 



Clodd : 438 



Dickens's Story left Half Told 439 



Optical Kecroationa. {llltu.) By 



F.R.A.S 410 



Electro-Platine. XIT. By W . Slingo 442 



American Forest Fires -413 



A Total Lunar Eclipse. (J7?«».) 



By R. A. Proctor 443 



FAGS 

 Chapters on Modem Domestic Eco- 

 nomy. III. [llliu.) 416 



Other Worlds than Ours. By M. 

 de Fonlenelle. With Notes by 



R. A. Proctor 44" 



Reviews 44S 



Face of the Sky. By F.R.A.S 460 



Correspondence : Doctoring Wine 

 — Is Gypsum in Beer Injurious? 

 — Prevision in a Dream — No 

 Matter !— Children's Dress, &c.... 450 



Our Inventors' Column 153 



Our Chess Column 46i 



OUR TWO BRAINS. 



By Richard A. Proctor. 



{Continued from p. 355.) 



AMONG the arguments adduced by Dr. Wigan in 

 favour of his theory of the duality of the brain is 

 the " sentiment of pre-existence " which most of us have 

 recognised. Dr. Wigan says that he has never met a person 

 who had not experienced it more than once ; and, though I 

 believe there are a few who know nothing of it, nearly 

 every one when the sentiment is described recognises it as 

 one with which he is more or less familiar. It is a sudden 

 feeling, as if some scene just witnessed had been presented 

 before in all its details, with " the same speakers, .seated in 

 the same positions, saying the same words, and uttering the 

 same senliments." As Dr. Wigan remarks, ''the postures, 

 the expression of countenance, the gestures, the tone of 

 voice, all seem to be remembered and to be now attracting 

 attention for tlie second time : never is it supposed to be 

 the third time." 



The attempt has more than once been made to explain 

 the phenomenon we are considering as merely the repro- 

 duction of some early and all but forgotten impressions of 

 a scene more or less resembling the one actuallv before us 

 at the moment when the sensation is experienced. But no 

 one who rightly apprehends the nature of this " sentiment 

 of pre-existence " can for a moment adopt such an explana- 

 tion as this. When experienced in its full force it always 

 presents the person him.self who experiences it as of the 

 same mental capacity, with the same ideas, the same views, 

 as at the moment when the phenomenon is noticed. In 

 ■what seems a recollection, he sees siich and such persons 

 around him as persons familiar to him, he hears their 

 ■words, notices their actions, and (so far as the suddenness of 

 the conception will permit) considers their conduct, as he 

 could only do at the particular part of his life which he 

 has actually reached. It can be no recollection of long- 

 past events ; for at no long-past part of his life had he such 

 persons among his frit-nds, or such ideas and views as to 

 them and their actions. Or it may be that events are in 

 progress which cannot possibly have occurred before in the 

 experience of the person who yet seems to recollect them. 



It is absurd to refer such cases to the recollection of events 

 which had happened in early infancy. 



As an illustration of the weakness of this explanation, I 

 quote an interesting case, on which great stress was laid in 

 the article to which I refer; it is taken from Dr. Carpenter's 

 valuable work on " Mental Physiolof;y ' : — " Several years 

 ago," he says, "the Rev. S. Hansard was doing clerical 

 duty fur a time at Hurstmonceaux, in Sussex; and while 

 there, he one day went over with a party of friends to 

 Pevensey Castle, which he did not remember to have ever 

 previously visited. As he approached the gateway, he 

 became conscious of a very ^ivid impression of having 

 seen it before ; and ' he seemed to himself to see,' not only 

 the gateinay itself, but donkeys beneath the arch and people 

 on the top of it. His conviction that he must have 

 visited the castle on some former occasion, — although 

 he had neither the slightest remembrance of such 

 a visit, nor any knowledge of having ever been 

 in the neighbourhood previously to his residence at 

 Hurstmonceaux, — made him inquire from his mother if she 

 could throw anj- light on the matter. She at once informed 

 him that being in that part of the country when he was 

 about eighteen montlis old, she had gone over with a large 

 party, and had taken him in the pannier of a donkey ; that 

 the elders of the party having brought lunch with them, 

 had eaten it on the roof of the gateway where they would 

 have been seen from below, whilst he had been left on the 

 ground with the attendants and donkeys." " This case." 

 adds Dr. Carpenter, " is remarkable for the vividness of 

 the sensorial impression (it may be worth mentioning that 

 Mr. Hansard has a decidedly artistic temperament) and for 

 the reproduction of details which were not likely to have 

 been brought up in conversation, even if he had happened 

 to hear the visit itself mentioned as an event of his child- 

 hood, and of such mention he has no remembrance what- 

 ever." 



Here is undoubtedly an interesting case of early recol- 

 lection suggesting to a person in a particular place that he 

 had been there before. In this case the remarkable gate- 

 way of Pevensey Castle recalled the time when the gateway 

 had last been seen ; but so far back was that time that no 

 circumstances not immediately related to the aspect of the 

 gateway were recalled, nor could the observer tell to what 

 jiart of his past life his "recollection" had gone back, though 

 he felt assured he had himself witnessed what he recalled. 

 In other words the only " sentiment of pre-existence " in 

 question was the familiar idea that he had existed for some 

 time before. Beyond the early age to which Mr. Hansard's 

 recollection went back, his remembrance of the gateway 

 has no more scientific i interest, and certainly has no more 

 bearing on " the sentiment of pre-existence," than has 

 yout g John's remembrance in the "Professor of the 

 Breakfast Table ' that he had often in his past life been 

 occupied as he was at that moment, — to wit, smoking a 

 cigar. As might be expected too, in every case of mere 

 recollection, detaUs not actually pre.-^ent when remembrance 

 was brought back, came as vividly before Mr. Hansard as 

 the gateway itself. He saw with his mind's eye not the 

 scene before him but another scene : what has to be ex- 

 plained is the sudden and vivid perception that the very 

 same sights and sounds seen and heard at the moment had 

 been seen and heard before, as if in some previous state of 

 existence. 



Still less available is the dream theory which Dr. Car- 

 penter himself seems to favour. He says that most per- 

 sons, however unimaginative they may be, have noticed 

 the reproduction of ideas which have previously only passed 

 through the mind in dreams; "for," he goes on, "almost 

 every one has had occasion, at some time or other, to say, 



