414 Physiology of Mind-Reading. [J uly, 
time the search is being made is one that few can perfectly 
fulfil. Any number of distracting thoughts will go through 
the best-trained mind of one who, in company with a blind- 
folded operator, is being led furiously up and down aisles, 
halls, streets, and stairways, fearful each moment of 
stumbling or striking his head, and followed, it may be, by 
astonished and eager investigators. And yet these mental 
distractions do not seem to interfere with the success of the 
experiment unless the arm is kept studiously rigid, in which 
case nothing is found save by pure chance. Credulous, 
wonder-loving subjects are sometimes partially entranced 
through the emotions of reverence and expectation ; with 
subjects in this state operators are quite sure to succeed. 
4. The uncertainty and capriciousness of these experi- 
ments, even with expert operators, harmonise with the 
explanation here given. Even with good subjects all mind- 
readers do not uniformly succeed ; there is but little certainty 
or precision to the average results of experiments, however 
skilfully performed. Even in the successful tests the 
operator usually must try various directions and many 
localities, sometimes for ten or fifteen minutes, before he 
finds the locality sought for ; cases where the operator goes 
at once in the right direction, stops at the right locality, and 
knows when he has reached it, are exceptional. 
5. Many of those who become expert in this art are aware 
that they succeed by detecting slight muscular tension and 
relaxation on the part of the subject. 
Some operators have studied the subject scientifically, and 
are able to analyse with considerable precision the different 
steps in the process. 
6. A theoretical and explanatory argument is derived 
from the recent discovery of motor centres in the cortex of 
the brain. 
I was repeating the experiments of Fritsch and Hitzig at 
the time when my attention was first directed to the remark- 
able exhibitions of Brown, and the results of my studies in 
the electrical irritation of the brains of dogs and rabbits 
suggested to me the true explanation of mind-reading before 
any opportunity had been allowed for satisfactory experi- 
ments. 
The motto “ when we think we move,” which I have 
sometimes used to illustrate the close and constant connec- 
tion of mind and body, seems to be justified by these experi- 
ments on the brain, and may assist those who wish to obtain 
a condensed statement of the physiology of mind-reading. 
Taking into full consideration the faCt that all physiologists 
