Remarks on Impulses Cerebral and Spinal. 539 



of trouble and battles, may arise from synchronous thought. A clever 

 general may trace a war with wonderful accuracy, and may before- 

 hand calculate the times of events. Co-related lines of thought aided 

 by letters, conversations, and newspapers, may develop synchronous 

 states of thought which are very interesting. Awaking at the hour 

 decided upon is an illustration of subconscious rhythm. The latter 

 plays an important part in determining lines of action and thought. 

 •'A person sitting under cover on a Rhine steamer with a map and 

 time-table before him may call out at intervals the names of the 

 places on the bank which he does not take the trouble of looking at." 

 Cross correspondence can be explained by collateral rhythm, or syn- 

 chronous, conscious, or unconscious, thought. Waking or sleeping, the 

 brain may produce or reproduce scenes, with very slight suggestion. 

 A subconscious or reflex disturbance of the retina, or the conducting 

 tracts, may affect the deep part of the nervous system. Amongst 

 physiological suggestions comes a case of "dysphagia" in one person 

 following a brain lesion in another person many miles away, apparently 

 due to great sensitivity after receiving a letter from a nervous person 

 recording the fact. (2) Hemiplegia (functional) in a middle-aged sensi- 

 tive person following a brain lesion in another person on whom the 

 former attended. As also the swooning in an out-patient department, 

 when some trivial operation is being performed (tooth extraction). 

 Proximity favours imitation, and sensitivity and absence of distraction 

 (which is sometimes absent under depressing influences) favour the 

 receptivity. It seems that it is not absolutely true to say "our 

 thoughts are our own while we keep them in our hearts, but when 

 we let them escape", &c. Our thoughts are often betrayed by feature, 

 pose, and acts, to the "grown ones they're so knowing". Remembering 

 that rhythm tends to establish itself in plants (sleep movements &c.) 

 and animals and that laws of sequence, reflex, of suggestion, of space, 

 minimal expenditure, minimal waste, and minimal power are constantly 

 in force collateral activities are to be looked for. More than one 

 method is often used by animals to bring about the same result; 

 thus a muscle (or plasm) may act locally or by a wave of con- 

 traction passing over it, or by nerve action, or by some change 



