yiiKHr ANIJ DIJKAMS. 



67 



sound of distant wiitor. Tlio mere reading of Tennyson's 

 " Lotos Eaters " makes some people drowsy. liliythniical 

 sensations, too, act in the same way. The vampire bat is 

 said to fan his victim to deepen his sluinbei', and I have 

 been told that gently patting a bahy will act in the same 

 way. The cradle will also serve as an. example of thi; 

 same thing. The object in all these devices is to keep the 

 mind as nearly as possible in a state of vacuity by substi- 

 tuting the very simplest mental process for the more 

 exciting one ; withdrawing tlie stimulation of thought. 



A remai'kablo case was recorded by Pfliiger in 1877. A 

 boy had, from disease, .lost the power of feeling over almost 

 the whole of his body, and had become deaf in one ear and 

 blind in one eye. He had, therefore, only two channels by 

 which extrinsic stimuli could act upon his brain. When 

 the sound eye and oar were closed ho almost immediately 

 fell asleep. It is a well-known fact that if you softly wrap 

 up a frog's head in a damp clotii, it lies pei-fectly still 

 and happy, its nervous system in absolute repose, because 

 the excitations which keep it awake are removed. 



The point I have been trying to keep in view hitherto 

 is this : wc possess, in common with most other aninaals, 

 several distinct senses, by which we arc kept in communi- 

 cation with the external world. Tliis communicaiion 

 constitutes, in fact, our active life. Our central nervous 

 system, which is the great I'ccipient, is assailed and battered 

 by sights and sounds, scents and feelings, coming from 

 our environments, a,nd if in good woi'king oi'der it reacts, 

 and our actions and thoughts are to a great extent the 

 result. Our very life is, in fact, more reflex than wo 

 imagine. Cut off tliose communications, a,nd our outward 

 life ceases. This may, pcrhai)s, be made cleiirer by a 

 diagram. (Fig. I, I'late IX.) 



