16 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. V., No. 100. 



lecturer on physiology at Westminster hospital, 

 says of himself at first, " I was not uncon- 

 scious, but I seemed to exist in duplicate ; my 

 inner self appeared to be thoroughly alive to 

 all that was going on, but made up its mind 

 not to control or interfere with the acts of the 

 outer self ; " and later, " I knew perfectly well 

 that I was playing the fool, i.e., that my outer 

 self was doing so, the inner self looking on, 

 too idle to interfere ; " and later still, " Here I 

 appear to have been absolutely unconscious 

 for some moments." Another subject says, 

 u Mr. Hansen told me that my hair was on 

 fire. I touched my head, and saw that he was 

 wrong. He then told me to put my head into 

 cold water, directing me at the same time to a 

 gas-burner. I felt it was not water : I felt the 

 heat, but yet I could not refuse putting down 

 my head and trying to wash it." Voluntary 

 control over thought and action is suspended ; 

 reflex action of the cerebral cortex, in response 

 to suggestions from without, comes into play ; 

 and, so long as consciousness is retained, the 

 perception of this automatic cerebral action 

 conveys the impression of a dual existence. 

 Dr. Tuke's theory of the hypnotic state does 

 not differ from that of Haidenhain : he holds 

 that part of ^he cerebral cortex is exhausted 

 by prolonged and monotonous excitation of 

 certain sensory nerves, and that other parts, 

 unexhausted, respond all the more acutely to 

 stimulation. Whether hypnotism is injurious 

 to the subject, or whether it has any therapeu- 

 tic action, are questions that remain undecided. 

 Mr. North found, after the third and last ex- 

 periment tried upon him, that any exercise of 

 close attention tended to bring on the same 

 sensations as those which ushered in the hyp- 

 notic sleep. 



From observations made upon patients at 

 the Salpetriere who were subject to hysteria 

 major, Charcot and Richer were led to distin- 

 guish three distinct forms of hypnotism, — the 

 cataleptic, the lethargic, and the somnambulis- 

 tic. The last is the form which bears the 

 closest resemblance to the ordinary mesmeric 

 trance. In the cataleptic state, the limbs of the 

 patient remain for a long time, and without 

 effort, in any position in which the}* may be 

 placed ; in the lethargic the muscles are re- 

 laxed, but the}* contract strongly and definitely 

 under gentle mechanical stimulation (hyper- 

 excitdbilite neuromusculaire des hypnotiques, 

 first observed by Mr. Charcot in 1878). The 

 lethargic subject ma}* be made cataleptic by 

 simply pulling open the eyelids and exposing 

 the eyes to a bright light : closing the eyes is 

 sufficient to put him back into the condition of 



lethargy. But, what is most remarkable, if one 

 eye is kept open and the other shut, the sin- 

 gular phenomenon is witnessed of an individ- 

 ual divided into two parts by the median plane. 

 One half of the body, that which corresponds 

 to the closed eye, presents the muscular sus- 

 ceptibility characteristic of the lethargic state : 

 the other, corresponding to the open eye, is in 

 a condition of catalepsy. Mr. Charcot very 

 properly says, that to suppose that an ignorant 

 person, exposed for the first time to this ex- 

 periment, should be able to invent such an 

 extraordinary phenomenon as this, would be 

 -truly childish.' But, besides this presump- 

 tion, he has an infallible method of detecting- 

 simulation. A very vigorous person, not hyp- 

 notized, can keep his arm extended as long 

 as the cataleptic ; but it is useless for him to 

 try to pretend that it does not fatigue him. 

 The operator has only to attach a pneumograph 

 to his chest. The tracing which registers his 

 respirations soon discloses great irregularity 

 in their rhythm and their volume, and in this 

 way his own muscles are forced to write down 

 the evidence of his attempted deception. 



The experiments of Charcot and Richer 

 (Archives de neurologie) are conducted with a 

 carefulness and ingenuity which should recom- 

 mend them as models to the American society 

 for psychical research. 



INHERITANCE AMONG THE ANCIENT 

 ARABS. 



In the study of Roman law the institution 

 of agnation is discovered. By it descent and 

 inheritance are in the male line. Among most 

 of the tribes of North America, Morgan has 

 shown that uterine descent and inheritance 

 are established by law. In the study of these 

 forms of descent among various peoples of the 

 earth, Morgan came to the conclusion that 

 uterine descent is everywhere the characteristic 

 of primitive society ; that it is primordial in 

 savagery ; and he attempted to account for the 

 change from female to male descent. 



There is yet another institution set forth in 

 Roman law, called cognation, which is descent 

 and inheritance in the male and female lines, 

 and which is found more fully developed in the 

 institutions of modern civilization. 



Since Morgan's writings were published, the 

 universality of uterine descent, or mother-right 

 {mutterrecht) , in primitive society, has been 

 affirmed and denied by various writers ; but 



Das matriarchat {das mutterrecht) bei den alten Arabern. 

 Von Gr. A. Wilken. Leipzig, Schulze, 1884. 72 p. 8°. 



