d6 . HUNTERIAN ORATION. 



speedily to discover and detect those im- 

 positions which some persons are induced 

 to practise on us. A patient in the hos- 

 pital feigned to be afflicted with catalepsy, 

 in which disorder, it is said, a person loses 

 all consciousness and volition, yet remains 

 in the very attitude in which they were 

 suddenly seized with this temporary sus- 

 pension of the intellectual functions. Mr. 

 Himter began to comment before the sur- 

 rounding students on the strangeness of the 

 latter circumstance, and as the man stood 

 with his hand a little extended and ele- 

 vated, he said, you see, gentlemen, that 

 the hand is supported, merely in conse- 

 quence of the muscles persevering in that 

 action to which volition had excited them 

 prior to the cataleptic seizure. I wonder, 

 continued he, what additional weight they 

 would support, and so saying, he slipped 

 the noose of a cord round the wrist, and 

 hung to the other end a small weight, 

 which produced no alteration in the posi- 

 tion of the hand. Then, after a short time, 

 with a pair of scissors he imperceptibly 

 snipped the cord. The weight fell to the 

 ground, and the hand was as suddenly 

 raised in the air by the increased effort 



