Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 61.djvu/65

Rh brilliancy, and the same perpetual novelty. Some new kind of effect was perpetually appearing in the field of vision; sometimes there was swift movement, sometimes dull somber richness of color, sometimes glitter and sparkle, once a startling rush of flashes that seemed to approach me. Usually there was a combination of rich dark color with jewel-like spots of brilliant color. Every conceivable color and tint seemed to appear at one time or another (Weir Mitchell never saw blue). Sometimes the different varieties of one color, as of red, would spring up in turn—scarlet, crimson, pink, etc. But, in spite of the immense profusion of objects, there was always a certain parsimony and esthetic value in the colors presented. They were always associated with form, and seldom appeared in large masses of color; if they did the color was of very delicate tone. I was struck not only by the brilliancy, delicacy and variety of the colors, but by the great variety and loveliness of texture which they presented—fibrous, waxen, polished, dull, glowing, veined, semi-transparent, etc. The glowing (jewel-like) and the fibrous (insect-wing) textures were perhaps the most prevalent. Although the effects were novel, they often vaguely recalled known objects—exquisite porcelain, elaborate sweetmeats, Maori architecture, Moorish windows. But in all these cases the objects grew and changed beneath my gaze without any reference to the characteristics of those real things of which they vaguely reminded me. I tried to influence their course but with very little success. It seemed that colors could to some extent be called forth but I could not evoke the simplest image by an act of will.

"On the whole, if I had to describe the visions in one word, I should say that they were living arabesques. There was generally a certain incomplete tendency to symmetry, the effect being somewhat as if the underlying mechanism consisted of a large number of polished facets acting as mirrors. It constantly happened that the same image was repeated over a large part of the field, though this holds good mainly of the forms, for in the colors there would still remain all sorts of delicious varieties. Thus at a moment when uniformly jewelled flowers seemed to be springing up and extending all over the field of vision, the flowers still showed every variety of delicate tone and tint.

"Unlike Weir Mitchell, who could not see the visions with open eyes even in the darkest room, I could see them in the dark with almost equal facility when my eyes were open, though they were not of equal brilliancy. After observing them in the dark for some hours, I became a little tired of them and turned on the gas. I then found that I was able to study a new aspect of these visual phenomena. The gas jet (a common flickering burner) seemed to burn with great brilliance, sending out waves of light which expanded and contracted enormously. I was even more impressed by the shadows which were in