THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SELF. 389 



hospitals, and in houses of correction, and had had numer- 

 ous hysteric anaesthesias, paralyses, and contractures attack- 

 ing him differently at different times and when he li^^ed at 

 different places. At eighteen, at an agricultural House of 

 Correction he was bitten by a viper, which brought on a 

 convulsive crisis and left both of his legs paralyzed for 

 three years. During this condition he was gentle, moral, 

 and industrious. But suddenly at last, after a long con- 

 vulsive seizure, his j^aralysis disappeared, and with it his 

 memory for all the time during which it had endured. His 

 character also changed : he became quarrelsome, glutton- 

 ous, impolite, stealing his comrades' wine, and money from 

 an attendant, and finall}' escajjed from the establishment 

 and fought furiously when he was overtaken and caught. 

 Later, when he first fell under the observation of the 

 authors, his rigJif side Avas half paralyzed and insensible, 

 and his character intolerable ; the application of metals 

 transferred the paralysis to the left side, abolished his 

 recollections of tlie other condition, and carried him psy- 

 chically back to the hospital of Bicetre where he had been 

 treated for a similar physical condition. His character, 

 opinions, education, all underwent a concomitant trans- 

 formation. He was no longer the jDersonage of the moment 

 before. It appeared ere long that any present nervous dis- 

 order in him could be temporarily removed by metals, 

 magnets, electric or other baths, etc. ; and that any past 

 disorder could be brought back by hypnotic suggestion. 

 He also went through a ra]3id spontaneous repetition of his 

 series of past disorders after each of the convulsive attacks 

 which occurred in him at intervals. It was observed that 

 each physical state in which he found himself, excluded 

 certain memories and brought with it a definite modifica- 

 tion of character. 



"The law of these changes," say the authors, "is quite clear. 

 There exist precise, constant, and necessary relations between the 

 bodily and the mental state, such that it is impossible to modify the 

 one without modifying the other in a parallel fashion." * 



* Op. cit. p. 84. In this work and in Dr. Azam's (cited on a previous 

 page), as well as in Prof. Th. Ribot's Maladies de la Personnalite (1885), the 



