The “ Jumpers .” 
[March, 
248 
meals when any one but “ gags ” or makes the motions of 
vomiting in his presence ; thus he has grown thin, and at 
one time was almost starved. One Jumper, when told to 
“ strike,” struck against a red-hot stove and burned himself. 
Accidents of this kind are quite frequent in their camps. 
One man, standing on the shore of a pond with a five-dollar 
gold piece in his hand, was told to “throw it;” he .threw 
the money — a large sum for him — -into the water. Another 
was standing near a kettle of fish ; he was told to “jump,” 
and he jumped into the kettle. When one of these Jumpers 
is addressed sharply and quickly in any language with which 
he is not familiar, he, at once and automatically, responds 
in that language. Thus, in numberless ways, they are ab- 
normally susceptible to stimuli which, in the same degree, 
would have little or no effect on others. 
In its relation to the subject of inebriety these extra- 
ordinary phenomena are of interest as illustrating the 
power and extent of the involuntary life, showing how varied 
and complex and subtle are the manifestations of this side 
of human physiology. These Jumpers, in the aCts here 
referred to, are absolute automatons, utterly without volition 
or responsibility. Whatever responsibility there may be in 
these cases belongs to the time when the habit began to be 
formed — their first playing and trifling with themselves and 
others in the loneliness of their winter camp-life ; they are 
no more to be blamed for their aCts than are patients 
afflicted with St. Vitus’s dance, or hysteria, or epilepsy, or 
with any form of insanity. The treatment, if any is used, 
should consist in removing the vidtims from the temptations 
of camp- life ; they should be isolated, or, at least, kept away 
from those who are similarly afflicted, or who would take 
pleasure in playing upon, and thereby increasing, their 
weakness ; at the same time, everything that educates and 
developes their higher cerebral centres will be of service. 
Indeed it has already been noticed that they grow worse by 
a gg re g at i° n > an d better by isolation. Their habit is a real 
and serious affliction to these people, — a source of anxiety 
and positive torment; they would rejoice to be delivered 
from it. 
On the other side of the world, among the Malays, in the 
Island of Java, according to the “ London Medical Record,” 
phenomena precisely similar to those exhibited by the 
“Jumping Frenchmen” are seen. A woman carrying a 
child, and seeing one even pretend to drop any article, may 
at once drop that child. Many other interesting illustrations 
are given. 
