122 PSYCHOLOGY. 



tail, and by a sort of introvision felt that my complete anatomy was 

 that of a fox. Suddenly the point of vision changed. My eyes seemed 

 to be located at the back of my mouth ; I looked out between the parted 

 lips, saw the two rows of pointed teeth, and, closing my mouth with a 

 snap, saw — nothing. 



" I was next transformed into a bombshell, felt my size, weight, and 

 thickness, and experienced the sensation of being shot up out of a giant 

 mortar, looking down upon the earth, bursting and falling back in a 

 shower of iron fragments. 



" Into countless other objects was I transformed, many of them so 

 absurd that I am unable to conceive what suggested them. For ex- 

 ample, I was a little china doll, deep down in a bottle of olive oil, next 

 moment a stick of twisted candy, then a skeleton inclosed in a whirl- 

 ing coffin, and so on ad infinitum. 



" Towards the end of the delirium the whirling images appeared 

 again, and I was haunted by a singular creation of the brain, which re- 

 appeared every few moments. It was an image of a double-faced doll, 

 with a cylindrical body running down to a point like a peg-top. 



" It was always the same, having a sort of crown on its head, and 

 painted in two colors, green and brown, on a background of blue. The 

 expression of the Janus-like profiles was always the same, as were the 

 adornments of the body. After recovering from the effects of the 

 drug I could not picture to myself exactly how this singular monstros- 

 ity appeared, but in subsequent experiences I was always visited by 

 this phantom, and always recognized every detail of its composition. 

 It was like visiting some long-forgotten spot and seeing some sight that 

 had faded from the memory, but which appeared perfectly familiar as 

 soon as looked upon. 



" The effects of the drug lasted about an hour and a half, leaving 

 me a trifle tipsy and dizzy ; but after a ten-hour sleep I was myself 

 again, save for a slight inability to keep my mind fixed on any piece of 

 work for any length of time, which remained with me during most of 

 the next day." 



THE NEURAL PROCESS IN HALLUCINATION. 



Examples of these singular perversions of perception 

 might be multiplied indefinitely, but I have no more space. 

 Let us turn to the question of what the physiological pro- 

 cess may be to which they are due. It must, of course, 

 consist of an excitement from within of those centres which 

 are active in normal perception, identical in kind and de- 

 gree with that which real external objects are usually 

 needed to induce. The particular process which cur- 



