230 ANIMAL AUTOMATISM v 



viendrons a bout ! ' Et alors portent la main derriere son dos 

 comme pour prendre une cartouche, il fait le mouvement de 

 charger son arme, se couche dans 1'herbe a plat ventre, la tete 

 cachee par un arbre, dans la position d'un tirailleur, et suit 

 1'anne epaulee, tous les mouvements de 1'ennemi qu'il croit voir 

 a courte distance. " , 



In a subsequent abnormal period, Dr. Mesnet 

 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 

 constituting this singular pantomime was accom- 

 panied 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 justi- 

 fiable. 



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 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 bod, 

 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 liis hand. He appeared satisfied, took his 

 < -a lie and went down stairs to the door. Here 

 Dr. Mesuet turned him round, and he walked 



