OcTOBEis 26, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



555 



around it would have been referred to this 

 same system ; hut I entertained a distinct idea 

 of tlie orientation of tlie rooms around the 

 court as they existed in my mind during my 

 former visit. Tlie result was, that when I went 

 down to dinner I found my co-ordinates 90° 

 wrong. But I was absolutely powerless to refer 

 the two parts of tlie hotel to the same system. 

 During the week that I remained, whenever I 

 went from my room down-stairs, to the court, 

 the reading-room, or the dining-room, there 

 was a monicntarv confusion on reaching the 

 point where I saw that the system was wrong. 

 Momentar3- glances around, and the co-ordi- 

 nates changed 90°. On returning to my room, 

 the co-ordinates below were carried up-stairs 

 with mc, because there was nothing on the 

 stairway with which I had become sufficiently 

 familiar to fix either set of co-ordinates ; and 

 thus one system obliterated the other, as it 

 were. In consequence, I could carry one set 

 all the way down, and anotiier set all the way 

 up ; tiic change occurring at the bottom of 

 the stairway iu one case, and at the top iu the 

 other. The result was. that during my staj- 

 I got no clear idea where my room was situ- 

 ated, or what buildings I saw through the win- 

 dow. 



To mention another instance : I lived for 

 a numlier of \-ears in a house in which I must 

 have made a similar mistake the first time I 

 entered it ; since, during my whole staj-, the 

 orientation inside the building was 90° differ- 

 ent from that outside. In the case of such 

 an inconsistency as this, I find that the ori- 

 entation corresponds to that of the place to 

 which the attention is directed. So long as 

 I was inside a room, or so long as my atten- 

 tion was directed to things inside the house, 

 there was one orientation. On raising the 

 window, and taking a good view of the street. 

 I would perceive that this orientation was 90° 

 in error ; and after a momentary confusion the 

 Street would assume its right direction. The 

 reverse change would recur on turning back 

 to the room. 



1 find this occasional inconsistency of orien- 

 tation, to which I am very liable when I pay 

 no attention to directions on first entering a 

 house, to be really troublesome. It has twice 

 happened quite recently, that, on going up- 

 stairs in a iiotel on my first arrival, I got the 

 co-ordinates reversed l^^O". The result was, 

 that unless I staid long enough to go right by 

 mere habit, without thinking about the direc- 

 tion. I was continually in doubt about which 

 way I should go to find the room I wanted. 



iV. I find that this fixitv of co-ordinates 



holds in any kind of a building, and iu a ship, 

 but not at all in a carriage, and not absolutely 

 in a railway-car. If I am conscious, by look- 

 ing at surrounding objects, that a railway-car 

 turns 90°, I can change its relation to the S3'S- 

 tem of co-ordinates accordingly. It appears, 

 therefore, that it is only in fixed structures 

 that the co-ordinates inure in my conceptions 

 of enclosed space ; yet I feel perfectly sure, 

 that, if a house in which I lived be turned 

 through 90° or 180°, the system would turn 

 with it, in spite of any thing I could think 

 to the contrarj'. 



V. I now come to the modifications of fixity 

 to which I have already referred. The imagi- 

 nary sense of direction is not absolutely always 

 present. In travelling over a now road to a 

 new place, the sense of direction is, for the 

 time being, apt to be lost. In this case, and 

 in this alone, it is to a certain extent under 

 control of the will ; but, if the will fiiils to 

 act promptlj- on arriving at a place, the co- 

 ordinates fix themselves, as it were, and that 

 quite arbitrarily, so far as I have been able to 

 perceive. Once fixed, they stay. But, while 

 under control of the will, I am in the habit of 

 so du-ectiug them that the ideal directions shall 

 correspond to the points of the compass, in 

 case I know them. 



VI. I have recently noticed that it is not 

 necessary that I should actually have seen a 

 place, in order that the co-ordinates should 

 be fixed in it. If I study on a map a place 

 which I am to visit, I unconsciously fix the 

 co-ordinates to correspond to the points of 

 the compass. Thus, on arrival, I readily find 

 my waj- about. But it m.nj- happen, that, when 

 I arrive, I am mistaken as to the direction in 

 which the railw.iv-station stands. Then, take 

 wliat pains I will, the same confusion arises 

 when 1 arrive at a street or hotel which I have 

 studied on the map, and find tlie co-ordinates 

 to be wrong. The directions change to tiiose 

 in which I have thought of the house or street. 



Of this fixing of the co-ordinates in advance, 

 I recently had a curious example. I got ou 

 board a steamship at Liverpool, resolving that 

 the ideal and real west on board ship should 

 correspond. I went down to seek out my 

 state-rooin, and, on returning to the deck, I 

 was chagrined to fiud that the co-ordinates had 

 got changed 180°. In consequence, I had to 

 think before knowing which side of the ship I 

 looked at. For some time I was puzzled to 

 imagine how the mistake could have occurred. 

 I finally traced it to the fact, that, on study- 

 ing the position of my state-room on the plan 

 of the ship a montli before, I had held up the 



