604 PSYCHOLOGY. 



pp. 222-4) disposes very easily of this line of argument 

 He says : 



" It is necessary, however, to exclude movements altogether before 

 such an explanation [as Wundt's] can be adopted. Now, though the 

 hemiplegic patient cannot move his paralyzed limb, though he is con- 

 scious of trying hard, yet he will be found to be making powerful mus- 

 cular exertion of some kind. Vulpian has called attention to the fact, 

 and I have repeatedly verified it, that when a hemiplegic patient is 

 desired to close his paralyzed fist, in his endeavors to do so he uncon- 

 sciously performs this action with the sound one. It is, in fact, almost 

 impossible to exclude such a source of complication, and unless this is 

 taken into account very erroneous conclusions as to the cause of the 

 sense of effort may be drawn. In the fact of muscular contraction and 

 the concomitant centripetal impressions, even though the action is not 

 such as is desired, the conditions of the consciousness of effort exist 

 without our being obliged to regard it as depending on central innerva- 

 tion or outgoing currents. 



"It is, however, easy to make an experiment of a simple nature 

 which will satisfactorily account for the sense of effort, even when these 

 unconscious contractions of the other side, such as hemiplegics make, 

 are entirely excluded. 



" If the reader will extend his right arm and hold his forefinger in 

 the position required for pulling the trigger of a pistol, he may without 

 actually moving his finger, but by simply making believe, experience a 

 consciousness of energy put forth. Here, then, is a clear case of con- 

 sciousness of energy without actual contraction of the muscles either of 

 the one hand or the other, and without any perceptible bodily strain. 

 If the reader will again perform the experiment, and pay careful atten- 

 tion to the condition of his respiration, he will observe that his con- 

 sciousness of effort coincides with a fixation of the muscles of his chest, 

 and that in proportion to the amount of energy he feels he is putting 

 forth, he is keeping his glottis closed and actively contracting his res- 

 piratory muscles. Let him place his finger as before, and continue 

 breathing all the time, and he will find that however much he may 

 direct his attention to his finger, he will experience not the slightest 

 trace of consciousness of effort until he has actually moved tlie finger 

 itself, and then it is referred locally to the muscles in action. It is only 

 when this essential and ever-present respiratory factor is, as it has been, 

 overlooked, that the consciousness of effort can with any degree of 

 plausibility be ascribed to the outgoing current. In the contraction of 

 the respiratory muscles there are the necessary conditions of centripetal 

 impressions, and these are capable of originating the general sense of 

 effort. When these active efforts are withheld, no consciousness of 

 effort ever arises, except in so far as it is conditioned by the local con- 

 traction of the group of muscles towards which the attention is directed, 



