478 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Dec. 12, 1884. 



backward in all things which the young are taught than the 

 normal boy. As nothing of tins kind was noted, it would 

 appear probable that the boy's earlier years were common 

 to both lives, and that his unconsciousness of his ordinary 

 life during the abnormal condition extended only to those 

 parts of his ordinary life which had passed since these 

 seizures began. Unfortunately, Brown-Sequard's account 

 does not mention when this had happened. 



It does not appear that the dual brain theory is required 

 so far as this case is concerned. The phenomena seem 

 rather to suggest a peculiarity in the circulation of the 

 brain corresponding in some degree to the condition pro- 

 bably prevailing during somnambulism or hypnotism 

 though with characteristic diflferences. It may at least be 

 said that no more valid reason exists for regarding this 

 boy's case as illustrating the distinctive duality of the brain 

 than for so regarding some of the more remarkable cases 

 of somnambulism ; for though these differ in certain 

 respects from the boy's case, they resemble it in the 

 circumstances on which Brown-Sequard's argument is 

 founded. Speaking generally of hypnotism — that is, of 

 somnambulism artificially produced — Dr. Carpenter says, 

 " In hypnotism, as in ordinary somnambulism, no remem- 

 brance whatever is preserved, in the waking state, of 

 anything that may have occurred during its continuance ; 

 although the previous train of thought may be taken up 

 and continued uninterruptedly on the next occasion when 

 hypnotism is induced." In these respects the phenomena 

 of hypnotism precisely resemble those of dual consciousness 

 as observed in the boy's case. In what follows, we observe 

 features of divergence. Thus " when the mind is not 

 excited to activity by the stimulus of external impressions, 

 the hypnotised subject appears to be profoundly asleep ; a 

 state of complete torpor, in fact, being usually the first 

 result of the process just described, and any subsequent 

 manifestation of activity being procurable only by the 

 prompting of the^ operator. The hypnotised subject, too, 

 rarely opens his eyes ; his bodily movements are usually 

 slow ; his mental operations require a considerable time for 

 their performance ; and there is altogether an appearance 

 of heaviness about him which contrasts strongly with the 

 comparatively wide-awake air of him who has not passed 

 beyond the ordinary biological state." 



It would not be easy to find an exact'parallel'to the case 

 of the two-lived boy in any recorded instance of somnam- 

 bulism. In fact, it is to be remembered that recorded 

 instances of mental phenomena are all selected for the very 

 reason that they are exceptional, so that it would be un- 

 reasonable to expect them closely to resemble each other. 

 One case, however, may be cited, which in certain points 

 resembles the case of Dr. Brown-Sequard's patient. It 

 occurred within Dr. Carpenter's own experience. A young 

 lady of highly nervous temperament suffered from a long 

 and severe illness, characterised by all the most marked 

 forms of hysterical disorder. In the course of this illness 

 came a time when she had a succession of somnambulistic 

 seizures. " The state of somnambulism usually supervened 

 in this case in the waking state, instead of arising, as it more 

 commonly does, out of the conditions of ordinary sleep. In 

 this condition her ideas were at first entirely fixed upon one 

 subject — the death of her only brother, which had occurred 

 some years previously. To this brother she had been very 

 strongly attached ; she had nursed him in his last illness ; 

 and it was perhaps the return of the anniversary of his death, 

 about the time when the somnambulism first occurred, that 

 gave to her thoughts that particular direction. She talked 

 constantly of him, retraced all the circumstances of his ill- 

 ness, and was unconscious of anything tiat was said to her 

 which had not reference to this subject. . . . Although her 



eyes were open, she recognised no one in this state — not 

 even her own sister, who, it should be mentioned, had not 

 been at home at the time of her brother's last illness." 

 (It will presently appeal', however, that she was able to 

 recognise tliose who were about her during these attacks, 

 since she retained ill-feeling against one of them ; moreover, 

 the sentences which immediately follow suggest that the 

 sense of sight was not dormant.) " It happened on one 

 occasion, that when she passed into this condition, her 

 sister, who was present, was wearing a locket containing 

 some of their deceased brother's hair. As soon as she 

 perceived this locket she made a violent snatch at it, and 

 would not be satisfied until she had got it in her possession, 

 when she began to talk to it in the most endearing and 

 even extravagant terms. Her feelings were so strongly 

 excited on this subject, that it was deemed prudent to 

 check them ; and as she was inaccessible to all entreaties 

 for the relinquishment of the locket, force was employed to 

 obtain it from her. She was so determined, however, not 

 to give it up, and was ao angry at the gentle violence used, 

 that it was found necessary to abandon the attempt, and 

 having become calmer after a time, she passed off into 

 ordinary sleep. Before going to sleep, however, she placed 

 the locket under her pillow, remarking, ' Now I have hid 

 it safely, and they shall not take it from me.' On awaking 

 in the morning she had not the slightest consciousness of 

 what had passed ; but the impression of the excited feelings 

 still remained, for she remarked to her sister, ' I cannot 

 tell what it is that makes me feel so, but every time that 

 S. comes near me I have a kind of shuddering sensation ; ' 

 the individual named being a servant, whose constant 

 attention to her had given rise to a feeling of strong 

 attachment on the side of the invalid, but who had been 

 the chief actor in the scene of the previous evening. This 

 feeling wore off in the course of a day or two. A few 

 days afterwards the somnambulism again returned ; and 

 the patient being upon her bed at the time, immediately 

 began to search for the locket under her pillow." As it 

 had been removed in the interval, " she was unable to 

 find it, at which she expressed great disappointment, and 

 continued searching for it, with the remark, ' It imist be 

 there — I put it there myself a few minutes ago, and no one 

 can have taken it away.' In this state the presence of S. 

 renewed her previous feelings of anger ; and it was only 

 by sending S. out of the room that she could be c&.lmed 

 and induced to sleep. The patient was the subject of 

 many subsequent attacks, in every one of which the anger 

 against S. revived, until the current of thoughts changed, 

 no longer running exclusively upon what related to her 

 brother, but becoming capable of directions by suggestions 

 of various kinds presented to her mind, either in conver- 

 sation, or, more directly, through the several organs of 

 sense." 



I have been particular in quoting the above account, 

 because it appears to me to illustrate well, not only the 

 relation between the phenomena of dual consciousness and 

 somnambulism, but the dependence of either class of 

 phenomena on the physical condition. If it should appear 

 that dual consciousness is invariably associated with some 

 disorder either of the nervous system or of the circulation, 

 it would be impossible, or at least very difficult, to main- 

 tain Brown-Sequard's explanation of the boy's case. For 

 one can hardly imagine it possible that a disorder of the 

 sort should be localised so far as the brain is concerned, 

 while in other respects affecting the body generally. It 

 so chances that a remarkable case, dealt with a few years 

 since by French men of science, forms a sort of connecting 

 link between the boy's case and the case just cited. It 

 closely resembles the former in certain characteristic 



