164 A, T. SCHOPIELD^ ESQ., M.D., ETC., ON 



these cases we are not considering vibrations deliberately 

 set np by the will in an nniisual way. You can, of course, 

 think of a green field when in a drawing-room, until you set 

 in vibration the centre of sight and see the green grass; or 

 the centre of hearing, and hear the loMaug of the cattle or 

 the hum of the insects. This is much easier if there are no 

 incongruous sounds, and if you close your eyes; and still more 

 so if there are some insects actually humming in the room. 

 But the memories we speak of are Avholly unconscious ones. 

 Let us now sum up our results, taking a definite case, saj^ 

 of a pain in the little finger. This pain is felt in the little 

 finger, we say, though we really know that the only seat of 

 any sensation is in the brain. It is there at the central 

 termination of the ulnar nerve which leads from the little 

 finger that all the vibrations take place, of which the mind 

 becomes conscious and calls pain. Whenever these vibra- 

 tions take place, in the nerve centre belonging to the little 

 finger, in the brain, the mind alwa^^s refers the sensation to 

 the commencement of the nerve in the little finger, whatever 

 may be its real origin. 



In the same way, if in your house the hall-door bell rings, 

 you say there is scmieone at the hall-door; if the drawing- 

 room bell, there is someone there : and yet such may not 

 be the case. I may have pulled the door bell wire inside 

 the hall, or as 1 passed down the kitchen stairs ; or a rat 

 inay have moved it, or I may have struck the bell itself 

 and made it ring, or a shock of earthquake may have shaken 

 it, or a strong gust of wind ; and yet, although these causes 

 are so various, you, in the kitchen, always say, " There is 

 someone at the front door." 



It is so in the body. (1) The little finger is pricked — there 

 is pain in the little finger. (2) The ulnar nerve itself is^ 

 pressed on at the " funny-bone," there is pain in the little 

 finger. The hand may be cut off, and still if the nerve be 

 irritated in the stump by pressure, the man feels the pain in 

 his imaginary little finger as truly and vividly as if it were 

 still actually there, (3J Or, again, there may be a tumour 

 in the brain pressing on the nerve centre in the brain of the 

 ulnar nerve, and the most acute pain is felt in the little finger. 

 All these instances are from direct irritation of the nerve in 

 some part of its course. But as we have seen, we may go- 

 much further. The hall-door wire may have got caught with 

 the drawing-room one, so that when the latter is pulled it is- 

 the hall-door bell that rings ; the vibration is thus transferred. 



