896 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 



and make patting and brushing movements 

 witli their hand upon lapel and coat-collar. 

 This sort of anxiety about the back varies 

 considerably from individual to individual, 

 but most of us are probably aware that we 

 share it to some extent. A friend of mine, 

 who learned to dance after he had arrived 

 at man's estate, told me that it was posi- 

 tively painful to him to turn his back upon 

 the instructor (even during a private les- 

 son), and that it was as positive a relief 

 when he was allowed to face the instructor's 

 back, and posture unseen. Some lecturers 

 are very averse, again, to turning their 

 backs upon an audience, even for the few 

 moments that are required for blackboard 

 writing. It is not difBcult to imagine a 

 phylogenetic reason for this shyness, and 

 for the exploring movements of eyes and 

 hands, when we remember that the organs 

 of sight are placed for forward vision, and 

 think of the constant care that must have 

 been devoted to the defenseless back when 

 our ancestors first assumed the upright 

 position. But, however that may be, there 

 can be no doubt of the facts at the present 

 day. 



(2) Since it is the presence of an audi- 

 ence, of people seated behind one, that 

 touches off the movements described above, 

 it .is natural that these movements should 

 in manj' cases be extended so as to involve 

 an actual turning of the head and sweeping 

 of the eyes over the back of the room or 

 hall. Not onlj' is one nervous about one's 

 appearance as viewed from behind; one is 

 also anxious that this nervousness shall not 

 be apparent. It is not good breeding to 

 be concerned about one's looks in a public 

 place. Hence there is often a voluntary 

 continuation of the original ideomotor 

 movements ; one looks round enquiringly, 

 as if one were seeking for a special person 

 or event — taking one's direction from some 

 chance noise of falling seats or rustle of 

 dresses, letting one's eyes come to rest 



upon some patch of intense color, etc., etc. 

 The details differ in different cases ; the 

 general mechanism is the same. Observe 

 that all this is entirely independent of any 

 gaze or stare coming from behind. 



(3) ISTow, movement in an unmoved field 

 — whether the field be that of sight, or hear- 

 ing, or touch, or any other— is one of the 

 strongest known stimuli to the passive at- 

 tention. We cannot help but attend to 

 movement ; and phylogenetic reasons are 

 again not far to seek. Hence if I, ^, am 

 seated in the back part of a room, and B 

 moves head or hand within my field of 

 regard, my eyes are fatally and irresistibly 

 attracted to B. Let B continue the move- 

 ment by looking round, and, of course, I 

 am staring at him. There are, in all proba- 

 bilitj'', several people staring at him, in the 

 same way and for the same reason, at vari- 

 ous parts of the room ; and it is an acci- 

 dent whether he catch my eye or another's. 

 Someone's eye he almost certainly will catch . 

 Moreover, as there are many others, be- 

 sides B, who are afiiicted with i>'s restless- 

 ness, it is an accident, again, whether my 

 neighbors, to right and left, are also look- 

 ing at B, or are looking at some part of the 

 room quite remote from B. Both of these 

 accidents, until they are recognized as 

 accidents, evidently play into the hands of 

 a theory of personal attraction and tele- 

 pathic influence. 



(4) Everything is now explained, except 

 the feeling that B experiences at the back 

 of his neck. This feeling is made up, upon 

 its sensation side, simply of strain and pres- 

 sure sensations which, in part, are normally 

 present in the region (sensations from skin, 

 muscle, tendon and joint), but are now 

 brought into unusual prominence by the 

 direction of attention upon them, and, in 

 part, are aroused by the attitude of attention 

 itself. ' Nervousness ' about one's back 

 means, psj^chologicall}', constant attention 

 to the sensations coming from, and the 



