Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 9.djvu/498

 486 EDMUND GURNET : plates in the Brighton Aquarium ; he indulged in very free criticism, and, while greatly admiring, opined that the plates were loaded and the table made to slope inwards. I now got the operator to introduce me to him, and to place my hand in his, and by this means I obtained sufficient hold on him to make him half believe that he was in church ; but he was puzzled by the continuation of the plate-spinning, and at last he compromised his beliefs by saying that, though he would consent to sit in church, he must insist on watching the conjuror. A word from the operator obliterated the latter impression, and brought him wholly to church, where he pointed out various objects and, with- out the slightest suggestion, began mimicking the manner of a local preacher. I now again addressed him, and he again disowned acquaintance with me, though curiously he regarded me as the same stranger who had interfered with him before. Another word, and he was at home helping his mother with accounts, and did a sum which I gave him on paper correctly and with rapidity. 1 Here then the order of mental events, in the whole experiment, was unusual rigidity followed by unusual mobility. But how can we pretend that we account for the latter by recognising the former ? So long as we keep to physical ground, it will be observed, no such difficulty occurs. If Braid had been asked how it is that fixation of particular muscles or nerves reacts on the higher nervous centres in so remarkable a manner, he might have fairly replied that physiology 1 It may be asked what guarantee can be had, in such cases as the above, that the ' subject' is not acting a part in a condition of normal wakefulness. The test of pain cannot well be immediately applied, as in the alert stage of hypnotism there is rarely a marked diminution of sensibility. But the sensibility test can nevertheless be effectively brought to bear ; for, if left alone at the close of such manifestations as the above, the 'subject' will fall, usually with great rapidity, into the deeper stage of trance, in which any amount of such minor torments as pin-sticking and pinching may be applied without arousing him, or his conjunctiva may be touched without evoking more than a feeble reflex response. This is a state into which it cannot be maintained that robust youths are wont to pass at will out of a condition of normal wakefulness. Another test, which I have repeatedly applied, is to inform the 'subject,' on his complete waking, that he has apparently been dreaming of taking part in various scenes, and to offer him 20 if he will say what the scenes were. It will still, perhaps, be objected that though truly in a hypnotic condition and unable subse- quently to recollect what has passed" the ' subject ' may still at the time be only pretending to be a party to the scenes suggested. This supposition however is in conflict with all the evidence of every sort as to the conduct of hypnotised ' subjects,' and with every theory hitherto propounded ; while, even if true, it would leave the fact of the mobility of the attention just where it was.