22 



• KNOWLEDGE 



[Jan. 9, 18 35. 



screen between the man's eyes and his hands ; under 

 these circumstiincea, F. went on writing for a short time, 

 liut the words became illegible, and he finally stopped, 

 without manifesting any discontent. On the withdrawal 

 i.f the screen, he began to write again where he had left 

 off. The substitution of water for ink in the inkstand had 

 a .similar result. He stopped, looked at his pen, wiped it 

 on his coat, di|iped it in the water, and began again with 

 a similar result. On another occasion, he began to write 

 upon the topmost of ten superimposed sheets of paper. 

 After he had written a line or two, this sheet was suddenly 

 drawn away. There was a slight expression of surprise, 

 but he continued his letter on the second sheet exactly as 

 if it had been the first. This operation was repeated five 

 times, so that the fifth sheet contained nothing but the 

 writer's signature at the bottom of the page. Nevertheless, 

 when the signature was finished, his eyes turned to the top 

 of the blank sheet, and he went through the form of 

 reading what he had written — a movement of the lips 

 aocompanjiog each word ; moreover, with his pen, he put 

 in such corrections as were needed, in that part of the 

 blank page which corresponded with the position of the 

 words which required correction in the sheets which 

 had been taken away. If the five sheets had been 

 transparent, therefore, they would, when supeiposed, have 

 formed a properly-written and corrected letter. Imme- 

 diately after he had written his letter, F. got up, walked 

 down to the garden, made himself a cigarette, lighted and 

 smoked it. He was about to prepare another, but sought in 

 vain for his tobacco-pouch, which had been purposely tikeu 

 away. The pouch was now thrust before his eyes and put 

 under his nose, but he neither saw nor smelt it; when, how- 

 ever, it was placed in his liand, he at once seized it, made 

 a fresh cigarette, and ignited a match to light the latter. 

 The match was blown out, and another lighted match 

 placed close before his eyes, but he made no attempt to 

 take it ; and if his cigarette was lighted for him, he made 

 no attempt to smoke. All this time his eyes were vacant, 

 and neither winked nor exhibited any contraction of the 

 pupil." 



These and other similar experiments are explained by 

 Dr. Mesnet (and Professor Huxley appears to agree with 

 him) by the theory that F. " sees some things and not 

 others ; that the sense of sight is accessible to all things 

 which are brought into relation with him by the sense of 

 touch ; and, on the contrary, inseusihle to all things which 

 lie outside this relation." It seems to me that the evidence 

 scarcely supports this conclusion. In every case where F. 

 aiipears to see, it is quite possible that in reality he is 

 guided entirely by the sense of touch. All the circum- 

 stances accord much better with this explanation than with 

 the theory that the sense of sight was in any way affected. 

 Thus the sunlight shining through the window must have 

 affected the sense of touch, and in a manner similar to what 

 F. had experienced when before the foot-lights of the stage, 

 where he was accustomed to appear as a singer. In this 

 respect there was a much closer resemblance between the 

 effect from sunlight and that of the light from footlights, 

 than in the circumstances under which both sources nf light 

 affect the sense of sight. For in one case the light came 

 from above, in the other from below ; the heat would in 

 neither case be sensibly localised. Aga'n, when a screen 

 was interposed between his eyes and the paper on which he 

 was writing, he probably became conscious of its pre-ence 

 in the same way that a blind man is conscious tf the 

 presence of objects near him, even (in some cases) of otjects 

 quite remote, by some subtle effects discernihle by the sense 

 of touch excited to abnormal relative activity in the absence 

 of impressions derived from the sense of sight. It is true 



that one might have expected him to continue writing 

 legibly, notwithstanding the interposed screen ; but the 

 consciousness of the existence of what in his normal con- 

 dition would effectually have prevented his writing legibly, 

 would be sufficient to explain his failure. If, while in full 

 possession of all our senses, the expectation of failure quite 

 commonly causes failure, how much more likely would this 

 be to happen to a man in F.'s unfortunate abnormal con- 

 dition ? The sense of touch again would suffice to indicate 

 the presence of water instead of ink in his pen when he was 

 writing. I question whether the difference might not be 

 recognised by any person of sensitive touch after a little 

 practice ; but certainly a blind man, whose sense of touch 

 was abnormally developed, would recognise the difference, 

 as we know fiom experiments which have indicated even 

 greater delicacy of perception than would be required for 

 this purpose. The experiment with superposed sheets of 

 paper is more remarkable than any of the others, but 

 certainly does not suggest that light makes any impression 

 upon Sergeant F. It proves, in fact, so far as any ex- 

 periment could prove such a point, that the sense of 

 touch alone regulates the man's movements. Unconscious 

 of any change (because, after the momentary surprise pro- 

 duced by the withdrawal of the paper, he still found he had 

 paper to write on), he continued writing. He certainly did 

 not in this case, as Dr. Mesnet suggests, see all things 

 which are brought into relation with him by the sense of 

 touch ; for if he had he would not have continued to write 

 when he found the words already written no longer dis- 

 cernible. 



On the whole, it appears reasonable to conclude, as 

 Professor Huxley does, that though F. may be conscious in 

 his abnormal state, he may also be a mere automaton for 

 the time being. The only circumstance which seems to 

 oppose itself very markedly to the latter view is the letter- 

 writing. Everything else that this man did was what he had 

 already done pi ior to the accident. If it could be shown 

 that the letters written in his abnormal state were tran- 

 scripts, not merely ivrhatim et lileratim, but exact in every 

 point, of some which he had written before he was wounded, 

 then a strong case would be made out for the automaton 

 theory. Certainly, few instances have come under the 

 experience of scientific men where a human being has so 

 closely resembled a mere machine as this man appears to do 

 in his abnormal condition. 



The moral nature of F. in his abnormal condition is for 

 this reason a matter of less interest than it would be, did 

 he show more of the semblance of conscious humanity. 

 Still it is worthy of notice, that, whereas in his normal con- 

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

 " he is an inveterate thief, stealing and hiding away what- 

 ever he can lay hands on with much dexterity, and with an 

 absolutely absurd indifference as to whether the property is 

 his own or not." 



{To he continued.) 



RAMBLES WITH A HAMMER. 



OVER CHARNWOOD FOREST. 

 By W. Jerome Harrison, F.G.S. 



{Continued from page 518, Vol. VI.) 



THE thickness of the stratified (slatv) rocks of Cham wood 

 may be estimated at about 8,000 ft. The following 

 order of succession of the beds has been made out 

 (Fig. 2). 



1. T/f. Blackbrook Serie.t: — Fine-grained, pale red 



