Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/361

AUTOSUGGESTION. tarily — voluntarily, if we fix our attention upon the idea in question and impress it on our minds by attentive consideration; involuntarily, if we are unconsciously influenced by our surround- ings. Many persons, e.g. can awake at a certain hour in the morning by suggesting to themselves, the night before, that they will do so; and it is probable that every one can, with practice, attain to some degree of accuracy in such a 'setting' of the mental machinery. The mechanism of arous- al in these cases is not wholly clear. The cue for waking is, however, in all probability, given either by a definite amount of illumination of the sleeping-room by the growing daylight, by certain constant noises of the environment, or by the pressure of water in the bladder of the sleeper. For the possibility of inducing hypnosis by auto- suggestion, see.

Involuntary autosuggestion often plays an im- portant part in psychological experimentation. It is sometimes desirable to make tests or experi- ments while the observer is, so far as possible, kept in complete ignorance of the object and ar- rangement of the investigation. (See Psycho- physics.) The whole purpose of the 'procedure without knowledge' may, in certain cases, be de- feated by autosuggestion. As the work pro- gresses, the observer involuntarily formulates an opinion as to its design — suggests to himself that he is expected to see this, and not that; to judge thus, and not otherwise: so that he is pres- ently observing under a strong self-created bias. The tendency is perfectly well known, and can be guarded against. Experimental psychologists have, indeed, classified laboratory observers as 'objective' and 'subjective' in type, upon the basis of the amount of self-suggestion to which they are liable.

Good instances of autosuggestion are to be found in the literature of suggestive therapeu- tics. One person is cured by a so-called 'electric belt,' another is invigorated by a band of un- known material fastened to the ankle, a third reads a faith-cure pamphlet and his rheumatism ceases. It is, however, in the hypnotic and other abnormal phases of mind — the hysterical con- sciousness, the religious ecstasy, the mind of the individual in the mob — that the phenomena of autosuggestion are most striking. Many phe- nomena which, at their first appearance, were regarded as evidence of supernormal powers and manifestations are reducible (fraud and trickery being eliminated) to autosuggestion. To quote from Jastrow: "The transportation of the senses discovered by Pététin (1787), the hypnotized subjects who, in Braid's day (1850), proved the location of the phrenological organs by the ap- propriateness of their actions when certain por- tions of the head were pressed; the sensitiveness to magnets and hermetically sealed drugs asserted by Reichenbach (1845), and later by Bourru and Burot (1885), and Dr. Luys's (1890) absurd trifling with puppets, and probably, too, Char- cot's sharp differentiation of distinct hypnotic conditions (1882), — one and all furnish illustra- tions of the subtle possibilities of unconscious suggestion."

. J. Jastrow, Fact and Fable in Psycholoqy (Boston, 1900); Bernheim, Suggestive Therapeutics (Paris, 1889); Lipps, Zur Psychologie der Suggestion (Munich, 1897).

AU'TOTYPE (auto + Gk. τύπος, typos, impression, type). A photographic print obtained by a gelatin process. Gelatin, when mixed with an alkaline bichromate, as that of ammonium or potassium, becomes insoluble after exposure to light, so that if a photograph be made on a gelatin film, only those portions which have been acted on by light will be retained. This fact has been made the basis of several photo-engraving processes. In the so-called autotype process, the picture is printed directly from the gelatin, which is mounted on a ground-glass plate. In another process the gelatin film is used as a matrix for a plaster east, from which in turn an electrotype is made, which then may be used for printing a photo-engraving. In Germany and Austria, the word 'autotype' is also applied to the ordinary photo-engraving or half-tone print.

AUTRAN, 6'triiN', Joseph (1813-77). A French author, born at Marseilles. He first achieved celebrity by an ode dedicated to Lamar- tine, and entitled Le départ pour l'Orient (1832). In the collections of verses entitled La mer (1835), Ludibria Ventis (1838), and Les poèmes de la mer (1855), he reveals the influence of classic models. A martial epic, entitled Mi- lianah, celebrating the exploits of the French soldiery in Algiers, appeared in 1842, and a tragedy entitled La fille d'Eschyle, performed in the Paris Odéon, in March, 1848, met with great success and secured to its author (together with Augier's Gabrielle) the famous Montyon prize. Among the other works of Autran, the following are especially noteworthy: Laboureurs et sol- dats (1854); La vie rurale (1856); Le poème des beaux-jours (1862).

AUTREFOIS ACQUIT, o'tr'-fwa'a'ko' (Fr., formerly acquitted), AUTREFOIS CONVICT, koN've' (Fr., formerly convicted). The common- law names of pleas in bar to a second indictment for an offense of which the defendant in a crimi- nal prosecution has previously (Fr. autrefois) been regularly acquitted or convicted. It is a time-honored principle of English criminal law, that a person who has once been lawfully ac- quitted or convicted of any offense must not be put in peril a second time for the same offense; and this, notwithstanding the existence of cir- cumstances of aggravation which, if known, would have justified an indictment of a different or more serious crime, or the discovery of fresh evidence not disclosed at the time of the former trial. The fact that there is a substantial vari- ance between the former and the second indict- ment will not defeat the plea, so long as the original accusation or indictment was sufficient in law to sustain a conviction for the offense sub- sequently charged. But a previous trial for as- sault or arson will be no bar to a subsequent trial for murder, manslaughter, or rape resulting from or connected with the offense previously charged. The prior acquittal or conviction pleaded may have been had in any court of competent jurisdiction, domestic or foreign; and the com- mon-law doctrine is not limited, as is generally believed, to capital or other grave offenses. It is in the latter form that it has found expres- sion in the provision of the United States Con- stitution, that no person shall "be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb" (Amendment V.). Similar provisions are found in most, if not all, of the State consti- tions. See.

is a similar plea, attended with the same effects as a former judgment in at-