V ANIMAL AUTOMATISM 235 



As I have pointed out, it is impossible to prove 

 that F is absolutely unconscious in his ab- 

 normal state, but it is no less impossible to prove 

 the contrary ; and the case of the frog goes a long 

 way to justify the assumption that, in the abnormal 

 state, the man is a mere insensible machine. 



If such facts as these had come under the know- 

 ledge of Descartes, would they not have formed an 

 apt commentary upon that remarkable passage in 

 the "Traite de l'Homme," which I have quoted 

 elsewhere, but which is worth repetition ? 



"All the functions which I have attributed to this machine 

 (the body), as the digestion of food, the pulsation of the heart 

 and of the arteries ; the nutrition and the growth of the limbs ; 

 respiration, wakefulness, and sleep ; the reception of light, 

 sounds, odours, flavours, heat, and such like qualities, in the 

 organs of the external senses ; the impression of the ideas of 

 these in the organ of common sensation and in the imagination ; 



ive, for though, in his normal state, he is a perfectly honest 

 man, in his abnormal condition he is an inveterate thief, steal- 

 ing and hiding away whatever he can lay hands on, with much 

 dexterity, and with an absurd indifference as to whether the 

 property is his own or not. Hoffman's terrible conception of 

 the " Doppelt-ganger " is realised by men in this state who 

 live two lives, in the one of which they may be guilty of the 

 most criminal acts, while, in the other, they are eminently 

 virtuous and respectable. Neither life knows anything of the 

 other. Dr. Mesnet states that he has watched a man in his 

 abnormal state elaborately prepare to hang himself, and has let 

 him go on until asphyxia set in, when he cut him down. But 

 on passing into the normal state the would-be suicide was 

 wholly ignorant of what had happened. The problem of ruspuii- 

 sibility is here as complicated as that of the prince-bishop, 

 who swore as a prince and not as a bishop. ' ' But, highness, 

 if the prince is damned, what will become of the- bishop ? " said 

 the peasant. 



