i88i.J 
“ Jumpers” of Maine. 
I5'i 
true and the other false ; this is certain only because the 
opposite of it, that both may be true or both false, is submis- 
sion of reason itself. Hence it follows that if of any other 
pair of contradictories one be equally subversive of reason 
itself, that is to say if it be “ inconceivable,” then the other 
is true, independent of all experience, or of any thinking 
mind ; to which mind it is wholly external and objective. I 
think that I have shown that such propositions there are, 
and that a certain amount of objective knowledge is ours, 
even in the present existence ; that we are not tossing adrift 
in a chaos of illusory forms, but that while our view of sur- 
rounding objects in general is undoubtedly modified by the 
medium through which we perceive them, our feet neverthe- 
less stand on a rock , narrow it is true , bxit immovable. 
V. EXPERIMENTS WITH THE “JUMPERS” OF 
MAINE.* 
By George M. Beard, M.D. 
(Concluded from p. 93.) 
(p)EFORE I visited Moosehead Lake, while I knew only 
those faCts that were obtained at second or third hand, 
I felt quite sure that this disease would be likely to 
be a family inheritance. This deduCtive reasoning was con- 
firmed by induCtive observation. It is fully as hereditary as 
insanitjq or epilepsy, or hay-fever, although it has no special 
relation to any of those forms of disease. In the family of 
one of those with whom I experimented there were five 
Jumpers, the father, two sons, and two grandchildren of the 
respective ages of four and seven years. In the family of 
another with whom I experimented there were four, all 
brothers. In the family of another of whom I obtained in- 
formation, but did not study, there were three cases, an 
uncle, a mother, and a brother. In another family there 
were two boys, both jumpers. Here, then, were fourteen 
cases in four families. By the study of these cases it was 
possible to trace the malady back at least half a century. 
Endemic and Contagious. — Jumping seems to be endemic, 
confined mainly to the north woods of Maine and to those of 
French descent, and is psycho-contagious — that is, can be 
caught by personal contact, like chorea and hysteria. 
