234 ANIMAL AUTOMATISM v 



saw nor smelt it ; yet, when it was placed in his 

 hand, he at once seized it, made a fresh cigarette, 

 and ignited a match to light the latter. The 

 match was blown out, and another lighted match 

 placed close before his eyes, but he made no 

 attempt to take it; and, if his cigarette was 

 lighted for him, he made no attempt to smoke. 

 All this time the eyes were vacant, and neither 

 winked, nor exhibited any contraction of the 

 pupils. From these and other experiments, Dr. 

 Mesnet draws the conclusion that his patient sees 

 some things and not others ; that the sense of 

 sight is accessible to all things which are brought 

 into relation with him by the sense of touch, and, 

 on the contrary, insensible to things which lie 

 outside this relation. He sees the match he holds 

 and does not see any other. 



Just so the frog " sees " the book which is in the 

 way of his jump, at the same time that isolated 

 visual impressions take no effect upon him. 1 



1 Those who have had occasion to become acquainted with 

 the phenomena of somnambulism and of mesmerism, will be 

 struck with the close parallel which they present to the p 

 ings of F. in his abnormal state. Hut the great value of Dr. 

 M>-.,]ii-t's observations lies in the fact that the abnormal condi- 

 tion is traceable to a definite injury to the brain, and that the 

 circumstances are such as to keep us clear of the cloud of 

 voluntary and involuntary fictions in which the truth is too 

 nl'ti-n smothered in sui-h cases. In the unfortunate sub 

 such abnormal conditions of the brain, the disturbance of the 



. and intellectual faculties is not anfreqnentl; 

 paiiii'd by a perturbation of the moral nature, which may 

 manifest itself in a most astonishing love of lying for its i>wn 

 sake. And, in this respect, also, F.'s case is singularly instruct- 



