818 Dynamic Theory. 



connected. The parts to which these subjective sensations of pain re- 

 fer, sometimes do become actually diseased after awhile, on account of 

 the habitually directed consciousness and attention to this part. ( Car- 

 penter. ) It has been remarked elsewhere that the sensation produced 

 at the central ganglion by an afferent nerve, is as if it were located at 

 the sense organ, and if the nerve be cut and the sense organ separated 

 from it, the sensation is still referred to the same place. "Thus, 

 after amputations, the patients are for some time affected with sen- 

 sations ( probabty excited by irritation at the cut ends of the nerves ) 

 which they refer to the removed extremities; the same has been no- 

 ticed in regard to the eye as well when it has been completely extirpated, 

 as when its powers have been destroyed by disease. 



There is a close relationship between Subjective Sensations and Illu- 

 sions. The former may arise from disordered activities of various 

 parts, muscles, viscera, &c. , while the brain and nervous system are re- 

 sponsible for the latter. An illusion is the sensation of a memory re- 

 vived in such a way that it appears to be real and original instead of a 

 memory. In our ordinary condition, our consciousness is not usually so 

 concentrated upon any mental process but that there is a sub-conscious- 

 ness of our external surroundings, and of the fact that the things we 

 are thinking of, are things of the memory and results of past im- 

 pressions. As a general rule, to which there are explainable exceptions, 

 in cases of illusion this ordinary sub-conscious sense of our surround- 

 ings is in abeyance. We are "lost in thought " and forget where we 

 are. The things we have in contemplation seem exceedingly real. 

 Our attention is narrowed down upon certain memory organs, and their 

 activities remain unconditioned and unrestrained, and the ideas remain 

 uncontradicted by stimulations from the present environment. As to 

 those things, for the time, we live wholly "within ourselves." We are 

 in a condition of abstraction, or partial hypnotism, and the memory 

 does not seem a memory, but the original activity itself, which preceded 

 the memory and laid the foundation for it. So, if under these condi- 

 tions, the thought wanders back to a sensory impression, one of sight 

 for example, the sensation we get is not one of a memory of something 

 seen, but is a sensation of actually seeing it now. In the ordinary 

 state, a person can "picture in his imagination" just how his absent 

 friend looked the last time he saw him ; but the other memories which 

 crowd around, and the new sensory impressions which constantly assail 

 him, correct the tendency which this picture has to seem to be an orig- 

 inal impression and to show the friend actually present. When the per- 

 son is in a condition to be deceived by an illusion, these restraints are 

 removed, and the sensory impression is revived as if it were original in- 

 stead of a memory, and he sees the image of his friend projected in 



