Page:Principles of Psychology (1890) v1.djvu/225

205 THE EELATIONS OF MINDS TO OTHER THINGS. 205 plienomenon, which reminds one of that curious idiosyncrasy of ' colored hearing ' of which a few cases have been lately described with great care by foreign writers. These indi- viduals, namely, saw the impression received by the hand, but could not feel it ; and the thing seen appeared by no means associated with the hand, but more like an indepen- dent vision, which usually interested and surprised the patient. Her hand being hidden by a screen, she was ordered to look at another screen and to tell of any visual image which might project itself thereon. Numbers would then come, corresponding to the number of times the in- sensible member was raised, touched, etc. Colored lines and figures would come, corresponding to similar ones traced on the palm ; the hand itself or its fingers would come when manipulated ; and finally objects placed in it would come ; but on the hand itself nothing would ever be felt. Of course simulation would not be hard here ; but M. Binet disbelieves this (usually very shallow) explanation to be a probable one in cases in question.* The usual way in which doctors measure the delicacy of our touch is by the compass-points. Two points are normally felt as one whenever they are too close together for discrimination ; but what is ' too close ' on one part of the skin may seem very far apart on another. In the middle of the back or on the thigh, less than 3 inches may be too close ; on the finger-tip a tenth of an inch is far enough apart. Now, as tested in this way, with the appeal made to the primary consciousness, which talks through the mouth and seems to hold the field alone, a certain per- son's skin may be entirely anaesthetic and not feel the com- pass-points at all ; and yet this same skin will prove to have a perfectly normal sensibility if the appeal be made to that other secondary or sub-consciousness, which expresses itself automatically by writing or by movements of the hand. M. Binet, M. Pierre Janet, and M. Jules Janet have all found this. The subject, whenever touched, would signify ' one the threshold of a certain conscious self may occasion associative effects therein. The skin-sensations unfelt by the patient's primary consciousness awaken nevertheless their usual visual associates therein.
 * This whole phenomenon shows how an idea which remains itself below