7 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



keeping the animal firm and quiet, but also by pressing upon the cuta- 

 neous nerves. In order to understand the whole subject, we must go 

 further and adduce other facts which bear upon it. 



The most interesting part of our investigation still remains, which, 

 as I remarked beforehand, will lead us to the doubtful regions of 

 mesmerism and somnambulism. And the question arises again : Has 

 the apparently unnecessary chalk-line in Kircher's experiment any sig- 

 nificance ; and, if so, what ? 



I have already mentioned that I did not succeed in placing pigeons 

 in this motionless state by holding them firmly in my hand, and press- 

 ing their heads and necks gently upon the table, as I did the hens. 



I therefore endeavored to treat the pigeons as I did the little birds, 

 that is, I held them with a thumb placed on each side of the head, 

 which I bent over a little, while the other hand held the body gently 

 pressed down upon the table. 



Even this treatment, which has such an effect on little birds, did 

 not seem to succeed at first with the pigeons. Almost always they 

 flew away as soon as I liberated them and entirely removed my hands. 

 I remarked, however, that the short time, during which the pigeons 

 remained quietly in my fingers, increased visibly, and lengthened sev- 

 eral minutes, when I removed the finger of the hand which held the 

 head, only removing the hand very little, or else not at all. The hand 

 holding the body could have been removed much sooner without doing 

 any harm. 



While I zealously pursued this trace of new events, I found, to my 

 astonishment, that it led me to the observation of the pigeon's atten- 

 tion, and the fixing of its look upon my finger placed before its eyes. 

 It is this movement which, until now, has not been taken into our 

 consideration, and is the critical period which is of such great im- 

 portance as a link between the phenomena we have noticed and others 

 to which we are gradually approaching. In order to determine the 

 matter still more clearly, I tried the experiment on a pigeon which 

 I had clasped firmly by the body in my left hand, but whose neck 

 and head were perfectly free, and held one finger of my right hand 

 firmly before the top of its beak — and what did I see ? The first 

 pigeon with which I made this attempt remained rigid and motion- 

 less, as if bound, for several minutes, before the outstretched fore- 

 finger of my right hand ! 



Yes, I could take my left hand, with which I had held the bird, and 

 again touch the pigeon without waking it up ; the animal remained in 

 the same position while I held my outstretched finger still pointing 

 toward the beak. (The lecturer demonstrated this experiment in the 

 most successful manner with a pigeon which was brought to him.) 



I have repeated this striking experiment on a number of pigeons, 

 yet I do not know whether suitable animals are frequently found, for, 

 of course, it is to be understood that the experiment cannot always 



