“Jumpers” of Maine. 
[March, 
152 
Shortly after I began these researches, I found in a copy 
of the London “ Medical Record” brief reference to precisely 
similar phenomena on the other side of the globe, among 
the Malays. The notice was very brief indeed, but it was 
sufficient to show that there was no difference in the pheno- 
mena as exhibited in these different races. I have been 
told that in northern Michigan these Jumpers are to be 
found, but have obtained no evidence on that point that is 
entirely satisfactory. It would not be improbable that this 
assertion should be proved to be true, since the class among 
whom Jumpers are found is somewhat migratory, although 
not so much so as the English and Americans. 
Origin and Philosophy of the Disease . — Jumping is probably 
an evolution of tickling. Some, if not all, of the Jumpers, 
are ticklish — -exceedingly so — and are easily irritated by 
touching them in sensitive parts of the body. It would 
appear that in the evenings, in the woods, after the day’s 
toil, in lieu of most other sources of amusement, the lumber- 
men have teased each other, by tickling and playing, and 
startling timid ones, until there has developed this jumping, 
which, by mental contagion, and by practice, and by inherit- 
ance, has ripened into the full stage of the malady as it 
appears at the present hour. This theory is in harmony 
with the general faCts of physiology, and explains, better than 
any suggestion that has occurred to me, the history of what 
would otherwise appear to be without explanation, and 
almost outside of science. In a certain sense, we are all 
Jumpers ; under sudden excitement, as of a blow, or a 
violent, unexpected sound, any person, even not very nervous, 
may jump and cry, somewhat as these Jumpers do, though 
not with all the manifestations of the Jumpers. Hysterical 
women, jumping and shrieking on slight excitement, we 
have all seen. 
Everything about this subject is incredible. I do not 
expeCt that my readers will believe all, if they believe any, 
of what is here reported ; rather they will find it easier to 
believe that I have been deceived ; that the six sources of 
error that are involved in all experiments with human beings, 
were not fully eliminated; that the Jumpers, in short, ex- 
perimented with me, and not I with the Jumpers; and that 
through all of this half century, the guides and physicians, 
the proprietors of hotels, and their neighbours, and relatives, 
and friends, have been the victims of intentional or unin- 
tentional fraud. But to my own mind the most incredible 
faCt of all is, not the existence of the phenomena, but that 
the phenomena have not been sooner observed by science, and 
