114 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol, XVII. No. 421 



may call it (Fi^. 1), which contains all the elements of the 

 phenomena of suggestion, and of which the special diagrams 

 below are modifications. 



Each corner indicates a physiological process with or with- 

 out consciousness, as follows: sgr = suggestion (sensory); 

 mp = seat of motor process ; mt = movement of muscle ; 

 OTC = consciousness of movement. The sides of the square 

 are connections between the seats of these processes. A 

 cross (><) in any corner indicates that the brain process 

 alone is intended at that seat; acircle (0), that consciousness 

 at that seat is intended. 



The stimulus sg (Fig. 2) starts the motor process mp: it 

 leads to movement, mt, which is reported to consciousness, 



FIG. 1.— MOTOR SQUARE. 



7nc. The line between sg and mc is broken, because at this 

 stage in infancy associations are just beginning to be formed 

 between a feeling of muscular movement and its stimulating 

 sensation. 



2. Sensor i- Motor Suggestion. — These cases of suggestion 

 may be classed somewhat in this way: — 



(a) Various Sleep Suggestions. — From the first month 

 on, there was a deepening of the hold upon her of the early 

 method of inducing sleep. The nurse, in the mean time, 

 added two nursery rhymes. Thus position, pats, and rhyme 

 sounds were the suggesting stimuli. Not until the third 

 month, however, was there any difference noticed, when the 

 same suggestions came from other persons. I myself 

 learned, during the fourth month, to put her to sleep, and 



FIG. 2. — PHYSIOLOGICAL SUGGESTION, 



learned witli great difficulty, though pursuing the nurse's 

 method as nearly as possible. Here, therefore, was a sleep 

 suggestion from Xhe personality of the nurse, — her peculiar 

 voice, touch, etc. At this time I assumed exclusive charge 

 of putting H. to sleep in order to observe the phenomena 

 more closely. For a month or six weeks I made regular 

 improvement, reducing the time required from three-quarters 

 of an hour to half an hour, finding it easier at night than at 

 mid-day. This indicated that darkness had already become 

 an additional sleep suggestion, probably because it shut out 

 the whole class of sensations from sight, thus reducing the 

 attention to stimuli which were monotonous. I found by 

 accident, in this connection, the remarkable fact that a single 

 flash of bright light would often put H. immediately to sleep 



when all other processes were futile. In her fifth month I 

 despaired one evening, after nearly an hour's vain efi'ort, and 

 lighted the gas at a brilliant fiash unintentionally. She 

 closed her eyes by the usual reflex, and did not open them 

 again, sleeping soundly and long. I afterwards resorted to' 

 this method on several occasions, carefully shielding her 

 eyes from the direct light-rays, and it generally, but not 

 always, succeeded. I would like to know if this experience is 

 shared by nurses or other parents. In the following month 

 (sixth) I reduced the time required (day or night) to about 

 a quarter of an hour, on an average. In this way I found 

 it possible to send her off to sleep at any hour of the night 

 that she might wake and cry out. 



I then determined to omit the patting and endeavor to 

 bring on sleep by singing only. The time was at first 

 lengthened, then greatly shortened. I now found it possible 

 (sixth td seventh month) to put her to sleep, when she waked 

 in the dark, by a simple refrain repeated monotonously two 

 or three times. In the mean time she was developing active 

 attention, and resisted all endeavors of her nurse and mother 

 (who had been separated from her through illness) very stub- 

 bornly for hours, while she would go to sleep for myself, 

 even when most restless, in from fifteen to thirty minutes. 

 This result required sometimes firm holding-down of the in- 

 fant and a determined expression of countenance. 



At the end of the year, this treatment being regular, she 

 would voluntarily throw herself in the old position at a 

 single word from me, and go to sleep, if patted alone uni- 

 formly, in from four to ten minutes. This continues to 

 the present (sixteenth month); even when she is so rest- 

 less that her nurse is unable to keep her from gaining her 

 feet, and when she screams if forced by her to lie down. 

 The sight only of myself makes her entirely quiet ; and in, 

 say, five minutes, rarely more, she is sound asleep. I found 

 it of service, when she was teething and in pain, to be able 

 thus to give her quiet, healthful sleep. 



This illustrates, I think, as conclusively as could be de- 

 sired, the passage of purely physiological over into sensory 

 suggestion ; and this is all that I care, in this connection, 

 to emphasize. The explanation, as I believe, throws light 

 upon the theory of the rise of volition ; but that aspect of it 

 may be left for future discussion. 



(h) Food and Clothing Suggestion. — H. gave unmistak- 

 able signs of response to the sight of her food-bottle as early, 

 at least, as the fourth month, probably a fortnight earlier. 

 The re-actions were a kind of general movement toward the 

 bottle, especially with the hands, a brightening of the face, 

 and crowing sounds. It is curious that the rubber on the 

 bottle seemed to be the point of identification, the bottle 

 being generally not responded to when the rubber was re- 

 moved. The sight of the bottle, also, was suggestive much 

 earlier than the touch of it with her hands. 



She began to show a vague sense of the use of her articles 

 of clothing about the fifth month, responding at the proper 

 time, when being clothed, by ducking her head, extending 

 her hand or withdrawing it. About this time she also 

 showed signs of joy at the appearance of her mittens, hood, 

 and cloak, before going out. 



(c) Suggestions of Personality. — It was a poet, no doubt, 

 who first informed us that the infant inherits a peculiar 

 sensibility for its mother's face, — a readiness to answer it 



