IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
837 
special significance to be attached to the surface phenomena more than 
as indicative of more fundamental disturbance. 
In conclusion, mention may be made of a minor point, so far as this 
study is concerned, but one which is of some significance to the student 
of certain features of abnormal psychology. Autographism may be pro- 
ductive of a sort of prestige. It is quite easy to understand how in 
another age, or in a different environment the effect of these markings, 
first, upon a superstitious public and, then, upon the neurotic subject 
herself might be sufficient to lead to all degrees of religious extravagance 
and fanaticism. Mystic marks or religious symbols could start from as 
matter-of-fact conditions as those of our experiments and, in a crowd 
of suggestible worshippers, become a menace to religious and social 
sanity. 
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