456 PSYCHOLOGY. 



and out, with the exception of one eye and one ear, had 

 shown shame on the occasion of soiling his bed, and griefs 

 when a formerly favorite dish was set before him, at the 

 thought that he could no longer taste its flavor. Dr. Strum- 

 pell is also kind enough to inform me that he manifested 

 surprise, fear, and anger on certain occasions. In observ- 

 ing him, however, no such theory as the present one seems 

 to have been thought of ; and it always remains possible 

 that, just as he satisfied his natural appetites and neces- 

 sities in cold blood, with no inward feeling, so his emotional 

 expressions may have been accompanied by a quite cold 

 heart* Any new case which turns up of generalized au£es- 

 thesia ought to be carefully examined as to the inward 

 emotional sensibility as distinct from the ' expressions ' of 

 emotion which circumstances may bring forth. 



Objections Considered. 



Let me now notice a few objections. The replies will 

 make the theory still more plausible. 



First Objection. There is no real evidence, it may be said, 



* The not very uncommon cases of hysterical hemiansesthesia are not 

 complete enough to be utilized in this inquiry. Moreover, the recent re- 

 searches, of which some account was given in Chapter IV, tend to show 

 that hysterical anaesthesia is not a real absence of sensibility, but a ' disso- 

 ciation,' as M. Pierre Janet calls it, or splittiug-off of certain sensations 

 from the rest of the person's consciousness, this rest forming the self which 

 remains connected with the ordinary organs of expression. The split-oif 

 consciousness forms a secondary self ; and M. Janet writes me that he sees 

 no reason why sensations whose ' dissociation ' from the body of conscious- 

 ness makes the patient practically anaesthetic, might not, nevertheless, 

 contribute to the emotional life of the patient. They do still contribute to 

 the function of locomotion; for in his patient L. there was no ataxia in spite 

 of the anaesthesia. M. Janet writes me, apropos of his anaesthetic patient 

 L., that she seemed to ' suffer by hallucination.' " I have often pricked or 

 burned her without warning, and when she did not see me. She never 

 moved, and evidently perceived noth'ug. But if afterwards in her move- 

 ments she caught sight of her wounded arm, and saw on her skin a little 

 drop of blood resulting from a slight cut, she would begin to cry out and 

 lament as if she suffered a great deal. ' My blood flows,' she said one day ; 

 '1 must be suffering a great deal!' She suffered by hallucination. This 

 sort of suffering is very general in hysterics. It is enough for them to re- 

 ceive the slightest hint of a modification in their body, when their imagina- 

 tion fills up the rest and invents changes that were not felt.' See the 

 remarks published at a later date in Janet's Automatisme Psychologique, 

 pp. 214-15. 



