12 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



logical section of tlie institute to the works of Dr. Abel, of Berlin, 

 which sliow how the relativity of consciousness has expres.sed itself 

 in the roots of primitive languages such as the Egyptian, where the 

 same root may involve diametrically opposite meanings. Tlie well- 

 know. i phenomena of the hyperajsthesia, both of smell and sight, in 

 certain hypnotic stages were next referred to. The suggestion, e. g., 

 is made to a subject that one out of numerous blank cards bears a 

 photograph, and although the cards are shuffled the particular one 

 can always be picked out owing to some insignificant mark or irregu- 

 larity of surface which ordinarily would not attract attention, and 

 which the subject does not appear to be conscious of. An excellent 

 illustration of this was cited in a case described by Dr. Janet, where 

 there was double consciousness and double personality. The subject 

 when hypnotized was in virtue of her double personality able to con- 

 verse with those present about the suggested photograph, while 

 simultaneously in response to a suggestion in a different tone by the 

 operator she could explain by automatic writing (entirely uncon- 

 scious as far as the otlier half of her personality was concerned) the 

 . real peculiarity by which the card was i-ecognized. The kind of 

 hyperjesthesia in virtue of wliich subjects have been said to be able on 

 suggestion to experience the effects of drugs in closed bottles (the 

 subject being ignorant of the nature of the drug and its physiological 

 effects) was discredited, and the i)henomena attributed to unconscious 

 suggestion of the ])ropev effects by the operator or his assistants. On 

 the other hand, instances of blisters having been excited by sugges- 

 tion were alluded to, as well as the possible explanation thus afforded 

 for cases of stigmata such as those of Louise Lateau. The carrying 

 out of suggestions at a set time after waking was shown by Delhoeuf's 

 experiments to be accompanied by an unconscious waiting for the 

 hour or day in question, and by a feeling of awaking after perform- 

 ing the act, which shows that the arrival of the hour acts as a sugges- 

 tion to fall into the hypnotic state. After some references to the 

 difficulties afforded by apparently well-established instances of 

 suggestion at a distance, and to the recent collapse of some of the evi- 

 dence for thought-transference relied on by the English Society for 

 Psychical Research, Professor Wriglit concluded by stating that his 

 address was to be regarded as a review of articles contributed by 

 various scientists to the Revue Philosophique during the last year, 



