DUAL CONSCIOUSNESS. 271 



then putting his hand behind his back as if to take a cart- 

 ridge, he goes through the movement of loading his weapon, 

 lays himself flat on the grass, his head concealed by a tree, 

 in the posture of a sharpshooter, and with shouldered 

 weapon follows all the movements of the enemy whom he 

 fancies he sees at a short distance.' This, however, is an 

 assumption: the man cannot in this state fancy he sees, 

 unless he has at least a recollection of the sensation of sight, 

 and this would imply cerebral activity. Huxley, more 

 cautious, says justly that the question arises ' whether the 

 series of actions constituting this singular pantomime was 

 accompanied by the ordinary states of consciousness or not ? 

 Did the man dream that he was skirmishing? or was he in 

 the condition of one of Vaucanson's automata a mechanism 

 worked by molecular changes in his nervous system ? The 

 analogy of the frog shows that the latter assumption is per- 

 fectly justifiable.' 



The pantomimic actions just related corresponded to 

 what probably happened a few moments before the man was 

 wounded ; but this human automaton (so to call him, with- 

 out theorising as to his actual condition) goes through other 

 performances. He has a good voice, and was at one time a 

 singer in a cafe. ' In one of his abnormal states he was 

 observed to begin humming a tune. He then went to his 

 room, dressed himself carefully, and took up some parts of 

 a periodical novel which lay on his bed, as if he were trying 

 to find something. Dr. Mesnet, suspecting that he was 

 seeking his music, made up one of these into a roll and put 

 it into his hand. He appeared satisfied, took up his cane 

 and went downstairs to the door. Here Dr. Mesnet, 

 turned him round, and he walked quite contentedly in the 

 opposite direction, towards the room of the concierge. The 

 light of the sun shining through a window now happened to 

 fall upon him, and seemed to suggest the footlights of the 

 stage on which he was accustomed to make his appearance. 

 He stopped, opened his roll of imaginary music, put himself 

 into the attitude of a singer, and sung, with perfect execu- 



