ARTIFICIAL SOMNAMBULISM. 187 



mained rigid and motionless, as if bound, for several 

 minutes, before the outstretched forefinger of my right 

 hand ! Yes, I could take my left hand, with which I had 

 held the bird, and again touch the pigeon without waking 

 it up j the animal remained in the same position while I held 

 my outstretched finger still pointing towards the beak.' 

 * The lecturer,' says the report, ' demonstrated this experi- 

 ment in the most successful manner with a pigeon which was 

 brought to him. 3 



Yet it is to be noticed that among animals as among men, 

 different degrees of subjectivity exist. ' Individual inward 

 relations,' says Czermak, 'as well as outward conditions, 

 must necessarily exercise some disturbing influence, whether 

 the animal will give itself up to the requisite exertions of 

 certain parts of its brain with more or less inclination or 

 otherwise. We often see, for example, that a pigeon endea- 

 vours to escape from confinement by a quick turning of its 

 head from side to side. In following these singular and 

 characteristic movements of the head and neck, with the 

 finger held before the bird, one either gains his point, or 

 else makes the pigeon so perplexed and excited that it at 

 last becomes quiet, so that, if it is held firmly by the body 

 and head, it can be forced gently down upon the table. 

 As Schopenhauer says of sleeping, " The brain must bite." 

 I will also-r mention here, by the way, that a tame parrot, 

 which I have in my house, can be placed in this sleepy con- 

 dition by simply holding the finger steadily before the top 

 of its beak/ 



I may cite here a singular illustration of the effect of per- 

 plexity in the case of a creature in all other respects much 

 more naturally circumstanced than the. hens, pigeons, and 

 small birds of Czermak's experiments. In the spring of 1859, 

 when I was an undergraduate at Cambridge, I and a friend 

 of mine were in canoes on the part of the Cam which flows 

 through the College grounds. Here there are many ducks 

 and a few swans. It occurred to us, not, I fear, from any 

 special scientific spirit, but as a matter of curiosity, to inquire 



