138 PSTCHOLOOY. 



the attention vibrates rapidly between eye and ear. This feeling local- 

 izes itself with most decided difference in regard to the various sense- 

 organs according as we wish to discriminate a thing delicately by touch, 

 taste, or smell. 



"But now I have, when I try to vividly recall a picture of memory 

 or fancy, a feeling perfectly analogous to that which I experience when 

 I seek to grasp a thing keenly by eye or ear ; and this analogous feeling 

 is very differently localized. While in sharpest possible attention to 

 real objects (as well as to after-images) the strain is plainly forwards, 

 and, when the attention changes from one sense to another, only alters- 

 its direction between the sense-organs, leaving the rest of the head free 

 from strain, the case is different in memory or fancy ; for here the feel- 

 ing withdraws entirely from the external sense-organs, and seems rather 

 to take refuge in that part of the head which the brain fills. If I wish, 

 for example, to recall a place or person, it will arise before me with 

 vividness, not according as I strain my attention forwards, but rather 

 in proportion as I, so to speak, retract it backwards."* 



It appears probable that the feelings which Fechner de- 

 scribes are in part constituted by imaginary semi-circular 

 canal sensations.f These undoubtedly convey the most 

 delicate perception of change in direction ; and when, as 

 here, the changes are not perceived as taking place in the 

 external world, they occupy a vague internal space located 

 within the head.l 



* Elemente der Psychophysik, ii. 475-6. 



f See Foster's Text-book of Physiology, bk. in. c. vi. § 3. 



X Fechner, "who was ignorant of the but lately discovered function of 

 the semi-circular canals, gives a different explanation of the organic seat of 

 these feelings. They are probably highly composite. With me, actual move- 

 ments in the eyes play a considerable part in them, though I am hardly con- 

 scious of the peculiar feelings in the scalp which Fechner goes on to de- 

 scribe thus : ' ' The feeling of strained attention in the different sense-organs 

 seems to be only a muscular one produced in using these various organs 

 by setting in motion, by a sort of reflex action, the set of muscles which 

 belong to them. One can ask, then, with what particular muscular con- 

 traction the sense of strained attention in the effort to recall something is 

 associated ? On this question my own feeling gives me a decided answer ; 

 it comes to me distinctly n6t as a sensation of tension in the inside of the 

 head, but as a feeling of strain and contraction in the scalp, with a pressure 

 from outwards in over the whole cranium, undoubtedly caused by a con- 

 traction of the muscles of the scalp. This harmonizes very well with the 

 expressions, sich den Kopf zerhrecJien, den Kopf zusammennehmen. In a 

 former illness, when I could not endure the slightest effort after continuous 

 thought, and had no theoretical bias on this question, the muscles of the 

 scalp, especially those of the back-head, assumed a fairly morbid degree of 

 sensibility whenever I tried to think." (Elem. der Psychophysik, ii 

 490-91.) 



