648 Moral Epidemics and Contagions. [November, j 
can lose nothing by being written instead of uttered verbally. 
The moral is that those wish to judge a righteous judgment 
should eschew public meetings. 
It will be seen, from what has been said, that the will may 
intervene either to resist or to assist a reflex contagious 
movement. It may either resist such movement entirely or 
partially, to a greater or less extent, either neutralising or 
developing the influence from without. 
Further, we find that what the will has realised often, 
and in a conscious manner, may fall under the domain of 
the instinctive. We come to do instinctively that which, 
by the original instinCt of the will, has passed into the sphere 
of habit. 
We find likewise that actions which inspire fear may, up 
to a certain point, prevent or restrain the contagion which 
we are discussing, by determining the will to struggle against 
the reflex movement. 
The faCts which experience reveals are perfectly in har- 
mony with theory, and with the consequences of the law 
laid down. 
Hence it follows that whatever enfeebles the will renders 
the contagion more powerful. Children and idiots can 
oppose merely an instinctive resistance, and are more sus- 
ceptible than rational men. 
It is easy to understand that persons whose nervous 
system is weak, and at the same time very sensitive, very 
easily impressed, may be more easily led into these conta- 
gious reflex actions, as indeed into reflex actions in general. 
There are likewise persons who have a natural predisposi- 
tion to certain reflex actions, and whose will to resist is 
either almost null, or who at least have not been trained to 
exercise this faculty. Here again are causes which render 
reflex aCtion more easy and more energetic, and which 
consequently promote the contagion with which we are 
engaged. 
It is easy to see that such predispositions maybe acquired 
by exercise and habit, and it is even proved that when once 
acquired they may become hereditary. 
Hyster 0- epilepsy , and the phenomena at once so strange, so 
delicate, and at the same time so complicated, by which it 
is accompanied, have been placed in a full light by Dr. 
Charcot. It may even be said that the distinguished pro- 
fessor of clinical medicine at the Salpetriere has left nothing 
obscure in this region. In order to be convinced of this it 
is merely requisite to attend his lectures. The profound 
studies which Rambosson has made in this direction have 
