266 Dr. E. Yung on the Errors 



myself at nightfall in the company of three people, and the 

 conversation having turned upon the rocking-stones, some 

 examples of which are known really to occur upon the coasts 

 of Brittany, I asserted that Roeh-roum itself rocked when it 

 was gently pushed with the finger. Two of these persons 

 immediately made the experiment and admitted with astonish- 

 ment that they saw and felt it rock ; and it gave the third some 

 trouble to persuade them to the contrary. I have since several 

 times repeated the experiment with rocks just as immovable 

 as Roch-roum, and succeeded so well with certain people that 

 they, repeating the experiment from time to time, have given 

 the reputation of rocking-stones to blocks of stone which are 

 in reality absolutely fixed. But we must return to our cards. 



Third Group. — I repeated the experiment with the cards 

 upon 20 persons, pretending that the touched card diffused a 

 certain odour, which I sometimes specified exactly and some- 

 times indicated only in a vague manner. Thirteen persons 

 (8 women and 5 men) responded by indicating a card, de- 

 claring in the first case that they had perceived the specified 

 odour, and in the second case giving very various qualifica- 

 tions to the odour which they believed they had experienced — 

 a sharp odour, a penetrating odour, a sweet smell like a per- 

 fume, &c. One person asserted that " the odour had stuck to 

 her for some hours." (See further on, the second series of ex- 

 periments.) 



Fourth Group. — Lastly, 18 persons out of 21 to whom 

 I had mentioned a sensation of some kind without specially 

 defining it indicated a card, and proved very fertile in dif- 

 ferent appreciations of the sensation which they believed they 

 had experienced. It was indeed in this group that I obtained 

 the most singular results. 



A young girl (Louisa C, 19 years of age) indicated a 

 card, and said that in passing her hand over it she had expe- 

 rienced " a great cold creeping in the back." Another young 

 girl (Ellen W., 18 years old) suddenly fell down backwards, 

 as if yielding to a violent repulsion, on passing her hand over 

 a card, also believing that this card had been magnetized. 



Here each case is interesting; but it would take too long to 

 report them in detail. I will only say that the imagination, 

 while showing in some subjects an unheard of fecundity, often 

 gives place to imitation ; and although warned that they might 

 expect all sorts of sensations, the subjects sometimes notify 

 the sensation that I pretended myself to have experienced, 

 but amplified and generalized. But what proves that imita- 

 tion is not the general rule is that, of the 18 cases which 

 I mention in this group, 11 relate to persons who experienced 



