IX.] ANIMAL AUTOMATISM. 227 



caused the patient to repeat this scene by placing 

 him in the same conditions. Now, in this case, the 

 question arises whether the series of actions constitut- 

 ing this singular pantomime was accompanied by 

 the ordinary states of consciousness, the appropriate 

 train of ideas, or not ? Did the man dream that he 

 was skirmishing ? or was he in the condition of one of 

 Vaucauson's automata a senseless mechanism worked 

 by molecular changes in his nervous system ? The 

 analogy of the frog shows that the latter assumption 

 is perfectly justifiable. 



The ex-sergeant has a good voice, and had, at one 

 time, been employed as a singer at a cafe. In one of 

 his abnormal states he was observed to begin hum- 

 ming a tune. He then went to his room, dressed 

 himself carefully, and took up some parts of a period- 

 ical 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 down-stairs 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 appear- 

 ance. He stopped, opened his roll of imaginary 

 music, put himself into the attitude of a singer, and 

 sang, with perfect execution, three songs, one after 

 the other. After which he wiped his face with his 



