Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/508

 494 G. M. STEATTON : and was bound to my shoulders and waist so that I could walk freely about and use my hands. My head moved independently of the mirrors and was unencumbered save by a small dark guard of paper about my eyes, which kept me from seeing the mirror above or the scene on either side, or my body except as reflected in the small mirror before me. So much of the view in front as might not have been shut out by this mirror itself, was cut off by a slanting screen of dark cloth (BD) attached to the upper mirror and extending a distance along the sides. The angle and elevation of the small mirror, moreover, were such as would allow me to see no direct reflexion of my face or head, but only the reflexion of them in this small mirror received with the rest of the body from the mirror above. This double or successive mirroring which the scene underwent of course compensated the usual reversal of right and left which we have when looking at ourselves in a glass, and gave the scene in its true relations. The observer was thus enabled to watch himself from a point of view apparently above his own head. The field of view included the entire body and a limited region around, so that one could move and act with some perception of the immediate surroundings. The experiment lasted from 3'20 P.M. until 9*30 P.M. of the first day ; from 9 A.M. until 7'30 P.M. of the next day ; and from 9'45 A.M. until 5'15 P.M. of the third day; a net time of a little over twenty-four hours. Between these periods the eyes were of course securely blindfolded. In general it was soon evident that in spite of the altered conditions the experience was running much the same course as during the experiments on inverted vision. There was slight dizziness at first, some tendency to loss of balance, and it was difficult to direct visually the movements of my feet or hands. But by the third day, although some fumbling still occurred, movements were usually done with comparative freedom and precision. There was, throughout, little of the general bewilderment, and nothing of the confusion of right and left so hard to overcome when the field of view was upside down. The main difficulty now was not that movements were started in the wrong direction, but rather that I had no instinctive feeling as to what visual distances were within effective range of my limbs. Things diameter running forward and back ; mirror C, 4 in. square ; distance of mirror AB above top of head, 10 in. ; distance between AB and centre of C, about 11 in. ; the top of the observer's head consequently seemed projected about two feet in front.