HALLUCINATION, 
AND ITS ALLIED STATES. 
BY 
J. S. CONRAD, M. D., 
Resident Physician, Matley Hill Sanitarium for Mental and Nervous Diseases, 
St. Denis P. O., Baltimore Co., Md. 
Reprint from Transactions of the Medical and Chirvrgical Faculty 
of Maryland, April 27, 1888. 
BALTIMORE: 
Press of Isaac Friedenwald, 
1888. Report of the Section on Psychology and Medical 
Jurisprudence. 
HALLUCINATION, AND ITS ALLIED STATES. 
By J. S. Conrad, M. D., 
Resident Physician, Matley Hill Sanitarium for Mental and Nervous Diseases. 
Hallucination, and its allied states, may be either physiological 
or pathological. 
Hallucinations are essentially subjective sense perceptions, origin- 
ating in the respective sense ganglia, or the cortex (or fore-brain); 
thence projected to the peripheral terminus of the centrifugal (dirigo- 
motor) nerve tract as a reality of consciousness. The special mental 
percept in consciousness may originate in the disturbed or irritated 
nerve ganglia (de novo), as much so as if the irritation, or disturbed 
molecular motion, had pursued its natural course from the peri- 
phery, and been received as an irritation of the centripetal (recipio- 
motor) terminus of the special nerve involved, either auditory, visual, 
or tactile. The special hallucination, whatever it may be, has all 
the fofce in consciousness as if the real words, or object, had had 
audible expression, or physical form, as an objective fact, to either 
the auditory or visual nerve terminus, and so with the other senses. 
Long habit has determined its terminal reference, so much so as 
that it requires an effort of judgment in the sane to define its 
subjective or objective origin, as will hereafter appear in the case 
of phantom sensation. The majority of hallucinations (if not all) 
originate in the central ganglion of the special sense irritated. 
Luys considers that the sense irritation is first received as a percept 
in the thalami; thence transmitted to the cortex. Baillarger also 
maintains that they may, and do sometimes, originate by irritation 
at the periphery or at any point along the tract of a sense nerve, 2 
JOHN S. CONRAD, M. D. 
thence to the cortex. These he designates sensori-psychical, which 
he distinguishes from those of central origin, which latter he calls 
psycho-sensory. In either or both cases, however, the conscious 
interpretation remains the same. The first, or senso-psychical, is 
somewhat sustained by the well known fact of sensation in the 
fingers or toes of persons who have amputated arms or legs, which 
phenomenon is known as phantom fingers or toes. These phantom 
symptoms (hallucinations or illusions?) are interesting from the 
facts, viz. that as time increases from the date of the amputation, it 
is found that the unnatural distance of the phantom approaches the 
stump, until at last it establishes in consciousness its proper sense 
location at the point of amputation; and, second, that in doing 
so, from first to last, the conscious interpretation of its location is 
recognized as a delusion, and consequently the phenomenon becomes 
no longer an insane hallucination, neither a delusion, but a sane 
illusion of sense, or what is known as a physiological hallucination or 
illusion. Strictly considered, such peripheral sense irritations or 
impressions above referred to are not at all to be classed as halluci- 
nations; partaking as they do, more of the nature of illusions of 
sense, since they have an objective basis of fact, and therefore more 
physiological than psychological, which latter more strictly implies 
subjective relations of consciousness. Hallucination of any one of 
the senses is not inconsistent with sanity-Martin Luther, Cowper, 
Charles Lamb, Sam Johnson, and Andral had them-yet in all 
cases the judgment, will, emotions and feelings are more or less 
affected at the time. The intellectual interpretation by these facul- 
ties of mind will alone determine the sanity or insanity of the sub- 
ject. Hallucinations of the sane and insane are the same in type, 
the difference being the former interpret correctly the false sense 
perceptions, whilst the latter do not do so; it is only a difference of 
degree of intellectual co-ordination, not one of kind. Esquirol long 
ago (page 108) said, in writing of hallucinations, "the senses are not 
concerned in their production: they occur although the senses do 
not perform their functions, and even though they do not longer 
exist" ("Treatise on Insanity," 1845). In this sentence we have a 
clear foreshowing of cerebral cortical localization, from clinical obser- 
vations, long before Broadbent and Hughlings Jackson made like 
inductions from not dissimilar clinical observations concerning cor- 
tical epilepsy, whilst Ferrier confirmed and extended the results of 
Fritsch and Hitzig's observations. SECTION ON PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 
3 
During the past year a case of a deaf-mute came under my observa- 
tion with both imperfect auditory and visual hallucinations; together 
with both these there were illusions of both these senses, which illus- 
trates the fact that the projection of the image or sound to the peri- 
phery is not essential in the final determination of the hallucination 
or illusion, but may be entirely confined to the cortical area of origin, 
imperfect as it is. I do not believe it possible for a deaf-mute (from 
birth) to be the subject of auditory hallucinations, no more so than 
that it is physiologically possible for one to have visual hallucina- 
tions who is blind from birth, or one to walk without limping who 
is born with congenital shortening of one leg. The sense perception 
has never been completely developed or educated, nor audible sound 
or visual sight registered in consciousness. The case referred to was 
an illustration of the physiological and psychological truth. In this 
case the audible sounds were blurred, indefinite, inaccurate. She 
could hear vibrations, enough to say that a "party was going on 
below stairs," and could corticaUy hear noises when there were none 
to be heard. When tested (at the piano) she could also hear con- 
fused sounds. The blind hallucinant (from birth) does likewise. 
Both hear and see imperfectly in sense definition, but as the cortical 
ganglia of these senses have been deficient from birth, their con- 
scious interpretations must also be deficient, and will be found to be 
so when carefully examined. In some cases where total deafness 
has occurred in early childhood from scarlatina or other cause, true 
hallucinations may occur within the limit of previous ganglionic 
audible registration of sounds, and these more or less accurately 
described by the subsequent hallucinant; and so also with all the 
other senses. We have illustrations of these in the lives of eminent 
persons, and in none more so than in the person of that great musical 
prodigy and composer, Beethoven, who composed his greatest works 
after he was unable to hear the sound of a cannon. 
Audible hallucinations are vastly more frequent than all others, 
and are estimated to be about two thirds of all the other senses. The 
next in frequency are sight, smell, and taste. Hallucinations are 
vastly more frequent at night than during the day. Why the audi- 
tory centre or tract should be the most frequent source of disease, 
than sight or other senses, is not known, but the statistical fact 
remains. My own unsupported belief is because I consider the 
auditory tract the most important avenue of sense knowledge, and 
consequently the severest taxed of all others (not excepting the 4 
JOHN S. CONRAD, M. D. 
visual tract) from periphery to centre.* Not unfrequently halluci- 
nations of hearing and sight are associated in the same person, and 
when this is the case, the former has the ascendency in error of con- 
scious interpretation, as well as command. Auditory hallucinations, 
of all others, appear to possess greater command over the actions of 
the hallucinant than those of other senses, and from this fact give 
rise to greater demonstration of action, in accordance with the special 
accompanying delusion created. Hence homicides more frequently 
occur in the person of the audible hallucinant than all others, even 
out of proportion to the greater frequency of the latter. They are 
therefore more dangerous persons than all other insane. Indeed, an 
auditory hallucination, however slight, is at all times a menace to the 
peace of society, and confinement is the only safety for persons or 
property. Hallucinations of sense must be carefully and positively 
differentiated from delusions, as well as illusions, although these are 
sometimes difficult to define and separate one from the other. Hal- 
lucinations are always delusions, but delusions are not necessarily 
hallucinations. There may be delusions of various kinds without 
hallucinations of any kind, but there cannot be hallucinations of any 
kind without delusions of some kind. This distinction will be 
readily recognized if we keep in mind the primary fact that halluci- 
nations are false sense perceptions of central ganglionic sense origin, 
whilst delusions are errors of relativity of ideas in consciousness, and 
not necessarily or immediately connected with errors of sense percep- 
tion. Delusions have a much wider field of creative imagination 
without a necessary sense text for its belief. The relation of these 
two may be much further defined if time permitted, showing the 
remote relation between delusion and past-registered sense impres- 
sions, from which ideas are more or less formed, and thus betray 
their connecting links of kinship. 
We have numerous instances of incoherence of language, and ideas 
of a general or special character, without any special error of sense 
*As Michea says, quoting Theophrastus and Plutarch, the hearing is that 
one of the senses through which the passions are most readily excited. It is 
through the hearing that the speech is perceived, without which intelligence 
would be greatly restricted-through which the memory and the imagination are 
so extensively supplied with food, and through which, from childhood to old age, 
the mind is stimulated by recitals calculated to stir the emotions to their utmost 
pitch. Undoubtedly the mind is more capable of being influenced through the 
hearing than through any other sense, by the continued repetition of sensorial 
excitation. SECTION ON PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 
5 
perception. Whilst the patient talks folly, his sense perceptions may 
be perfectly good in all respects. He knows a dog or cat, or other 
object or sound, when he sees or hears it. But, on the other hand, 
his sense perceptions cannot be in error without a delusion as a 
consequence; so that we are confronted with the common fact that 
all primary knowledge is gained by sense perception. This induction 
is to some extent misleading, and not borne out altogether by psycho- 
logy. A further discussion of this point is impossible at present. 
In the majority of cases the hallucination partakes of the natural 
temperament and education (both emotional and intellectual), either 
religious or otherwise, and generally betrays the natural character. 
Hallucinations of hearing and sight sometimes occur in the same 
person, but when this is the case they usually alternate with each 
other in their effects on consciousness, each in turn absorbing the 
fixed attention of the subject to the exclusion of the other, yet in 
quick succession oftentimes, or displacing one another at longer or 
shorter intervals. I have never known these two (hearing and sight) 
hallucinations combine in harmony to create a single and coherent 
conscious perception unless they formed the basis facts of a delusion, 
or better still, the delusion itself was the primary actor and the sense 
hallucinations the consequent. 
Hallucinations of long duration usually degenerate into systema- 
tized delusions of fear and suspicion, and the subjects are more or 
less homicidal. Hallucinations of hearing show more plainly than 
all others insane the peculiar insane expression in the eye, and facial 
angles of emotional excitement and feeling, except perhaps the sui- 
cide. Audible hallucinants, especially of the insane, are in the 
majority of cases accompanied with a tuberculous history, and in 
equal proportions die of pthisis pulmonalis. Hallucination and 
active ideational delusions are very often associated in cases of acute 
melancholia and mania, and it is often difficult to define and isolate 
each and further define the ascendency of one over the other. 
Hallucinations, when they are the primary and initial source of 
mental unsoundness, may be said to be incurable, and are always pro- 
gressive, ultimately involving the entire intellectual fabric. It is 
remarkable that auditory hallucinations, of all others, partake in the 
vast majority of cases of profanity, obscenity, and violence of thought 
and action. It is especially worthy of note, and still more so why it 
should be more pronounced and frequent than all others. In the 
most chaste ladies, and morally correct of the male sex, auditory hal- 6 
JOHN S. CONRAD, M. D. 
lucinations suggest to the subject the most unhappy images as real- 
ities and substantial fact, beyond the power of corrrection of the 
unhappy victim. The most vulgar language of the brothel is more 
common than the current thoughts and speech of their pure sane 
lives, and more frequent in females than the male sex. Why this 
should be so it is difficult to explain. I have my own theory con- 
cerning it, which the limits of this paper forbid me to express. 
No form of insanity has so important a relation to medico-legal 
jurisprudence as hallucination, both in its homicidal and testamentary 
relations to society. Especially is this the case for the reason that 
it often occurs that the hallucinant is capable of conducting his 
business affairs with perfect propriety, and even cleverness, in all its 
relations, conversing on all topics of the day, both political and com- 
mercial, with remarkable clearness, and the next moment hears a 
voice defaming his character and accusing him of dishonorable acts 
which render his self-control beyond the limit of propriety. Our 
courts of law for a hundred years or more record such cases with 
different verdicts-I am sorry to say, based upon sadly defective and 
conflicting medical testimony. 
It is observable in some cases that -the hallucinant carries on 
audible self-conversation, replying in two or more different voices 
that have spoken in tones differing very much in degree of kindness, 
or threats or commands, as it may be. 
In but few exceptional cases are auditory hallucinants able to 
recognize any one distinct familiar voice speaking to them, but 
describe them vaguely, as if they were familiar but not so definitely 
recognized as to be able to call the name of the person last heard. 
Yet they can at once detect any one attempting to deceive them by 
replying to their questions. This is a difference of the central and 
peripheral origin of the sound which they at once recognize. This 
audible conversation indicates images of past registration of events, 
in some cases, whilst in others they are new creations, altogether 
different; and incoherent images, such as dreams, present to the 
sleeper fragments of sense perceptions and ideational delusions 
interwoven in a confused verbiage. Is it not in accord with the 
physiology of the nervous system as well as the phenomenon itself? 
No tissue in nature is so susceptible of all shades of impressions as 
nervous matter; not even light itself draws finer images upon 
sensitive plates; nor does it last in succeeding generations. It is this 
peculiarly endowed matter that receives and preserves all knowledge SECTION ON PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 
7 
(in proportion to its special quality) of impressions that impinge 
upon its delicate terminal structure, whenever formed, conveying it 
to its still more highly sensitive photographic plate, the ganglionic 
cerebral centre of registration, in which is stored up years of past 
experiences, not only of the individual, but also blurred images of 
ancestral generation occur. These have bequeathed to us that dim 
heritage which we have unconsciously acquired (for good or evil) as 
the sins of our forefathers, with perhaps a plus sign of recent 
addition to the original legacy; and thus it is we hear patients tell 
us of their horrible dreams, and obscene converse with the voices 
which, taking possession of their delusions through the auditory 
tract, pollute the stream of language beyond the power of self-control. 
It is especially true of the female hallucinant (as I have said), more 
so than of the male. All asylum experience verifies the truth 
asserted. It seems as if the intellectual guide which before con- 
trolled the judgment and will, was lost, and the riot of emotions 
dominating expressed itself in the worst terms which words could 
possibly supply-brothel language from the lips of chaste women. 
It is not possible that the intellect could create (de novo) such 
language, any more so than it could express itself in Hebrew, San- 
scrit, or other unknown tongue. There can be but one solution : the 
revival of sounds audibly received on the sensitive plate of regis- 
tration ganglia in some incidental way not then observed, but regis- 
tered nevertheless, and brought to view by unusual excitement, or 
peculiar irritation of its auditory centre. This is borne out by the 
remarkable case of the servant girl who attended in the family of 
the German divine who, in his studies of dead languages, talked 
them aloud in his study. The girl subsequently having an attack 
of acute mania, repeated the same language verbatim without know- 
ing a word of their meaning. 
I have repeatedly had patients tell me after their recovery that 
they knew at the time what they were saying, but could not help it; 
yet I have never had one tell me when and where they ever heard 
such language which they had used, nor could they do so. Nor can 
the vast majority of somnambules or hypnoIes remember their acts 
after waking from their abstraction. 
Asylum experience teaches that the male hallucinant in the 
majority of cases does not indulge his vulgar language to the same 
degree as the other sex, but is more likely to indulge in acts of 
violence, assaults and homicides; the one illustrates the free use of 8 
JOHN S. CONRAD, M. D. 
the tongue as a weapon, in contrast with the other more accustomed 
to stronger arguments. In both sexes the hallucinant is at the 
mercy and command of false perceptions, having all the force of 
conscious realities as much so as if they were the dreams of a slumber 
-in the sane lasting for a brief period before correction, whilst in 
the insane a lifetime nightmare perhaps never corrected. 
The great variety and character of hallucinations occurring in the 
insane, as well as sane, are as numerous as the different life experi- 
ence of the person. Hallucinations occurring from toxic influence, 
especially alcohol and hashish, are peculiar in themselves and easily 
differentiated from those of ganglionic cerebral origin. Hallucina- 
tion and illusions of sense are sometimes so interwoven as that it is 
difficult to separate them, so that some authors consider that the 
definition lines cannot be drawn between them. Hallucinations are 
also the offspring of ideational delusion, each contributing to the 
other in consciousness (subjective representativeness creating sub- 
jective presentativeness); in other words, ideas suggesting sense per- 
ceptions, and vice versa, which are frequently observable in dreams, 
somnambulism, and hypnotism. 
Dreams partake most often, primarily, of hallucinations and illu- 
sions which form the foundations of ideational delusions, or the 
ideational delusion may initiate either or both the other two. Shake- 
speare's dream of Clarence illustrates the alternate command of the 
dreamer by delusion and hallucination separately and combined in 
the person of Clarence. Dreams illustrate very forcibly to the sane 
mind (after waking) the nature of insane hallucinations, illusions, 
and delusions. Their kinship is clearly allied-certainly so, for the 
time being, in their mental phenomena, whilst somnambulism and 
hypnotism are not far remote in line of kinship, one perhaps more 
than the other, but each and all of them are more or less degrees of 
neurotic automatic activity. 
Dreams, hallucinations, illusions, somnambulism, and hypnotism 
all have the force of insane action as long as they last. Each with 
their accompanying delusion, if enacted in daily life as they occur in 
the ego, would destroy happiness for life. The waking state corrects 
the errors of automatic cell-action in the dreamer, but not so with 
the insane hallucinant; this is the only difference, which illustrates 
their brotherhood in mental phenomena at least. In dreams we 
commit acts of violence, acts of immorality, even homicides, without 
just cause, and without remorse or the feeling of wrongdoing, as SECTION ON PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 
9 
much so as the insane. Nor does any one of such acts disturb the 
dreamer's peace of mind any more frequently than that of the insane. 
The inconsistencies of dreams are allied to the delusions of the 
insane. Their rapidity of changes from one subject to another in 
quick succession, also the broken fragments of thoughts and acts 
which join themselves together, present an allied picture of the inco- 
herence of audible speech and muscular action of the insane, and 
show a composite photograph of all the other members of the group. 
The vividness of dreams, and their force in control of the intellectual 
and moral judgment, may be best illustrated by calling attention to 
the fact that no power of will, emotion, or passion in waking hours 
can cause a seminal emission. Yet in dreams this is a nightly occur- 
rence, connected often with visual hallucinations of actual sexual con- 
tact. The power of nervous, emotional, and passionate concentration 
in this act has its absorbing subjective or objective foundation, as much 
so as the hallucinant or the somnambule who performs muscular feats 
under the absorbing attention of mental fixation and concentration 
which in waking states he would be powerless to execute. So also 
the hypnotic state can be similarly induced (mechanically), in which 
state acts of all kinds, from the grotesque to the sacred, are done 
under the influence of objective suggestion creating subjective states 
in susceptible subjects. The dreamer, hallucinant, illusionist, som- 
nambule, and hypnoIe are chiefly, if not entirely, multiplied states 
(respectively) of nervous concentration, however induced (presentative 
and representative), which in minor degree are observed in every- 
day experience of life, that are formulated in legal terms of " undue 
influence " or " undue persuasion," both of which latter states have 
a standing in law especially connected with testamentary capacity. 
In connection with the subject of hallucination and its allied 
states in sane and insane life, which the limits of this paper allow 
only time to refer to as subjects of discussion, I call attention to 
a not very distant but more obscure relation of the family group 
which has attracted my attention from early youth. It is audible 
self-conversation. When a youth my attention was mysteriously 
attracted by the negro race (especially the old), to the audible self- 
conversation which they frequently carried on with themselves, often 
gesticulating with hands, arms, and various facial muscles, thereby 
expressing the thoughts which occupied their minds. I well remem- 
ber watching them along their pathway to hear what was said, with 
a boyish fear, as I had been told by all negro " uncles and aunts " 10 
JOHN S. CONKAD, M. D. 
that such people " talked to the devil." I was consequently the 
more curious to hear the conversation. A Southern youth, brought 
up with negroes, becomes more or less imbued with their peculiar 
legends and weird goblin stories. Later in life I observed that igno- 
rant and uneducated white people also talked to themselves, expressing 
their thoughts not only audibly, but also by gesture-language in 
mid-air, on the country roads, walking or riding, as it may have 
been. Still later it was observable that many educated persons held 
audible self-conversation with themselves,* whilst many more read 
aloud and discussed audibly the subject of their reading. I shall 
never forget as a boy to have travelled with a distinguished lawyer 
of the Circuit Court in a buggy a distance of fifteen miles to an 
adjoining county court, then in session, and where an important 
case was to be tried. En route the lawyer alarmed me by his fre- 
quent outbursts of audible speech accompanied with vehement ges- 
ture, so much so that I was greatly relieved when I was released 
from the contact. All the way along the road the " conversation 
with the devil " was an indefinite idea in my fears, which made me 
restless as to the possibility of its realization-such was the force 
and frequency of vociferous speech and gesture, connected as it was 
with my credulous belief as to the reality of the negro legend. Still 
later in life, and with these childish impressions remnant in my 
mind, I recall the fact that I, as well as other boys, used to study our 
lessons best by reading aloud or whispering them to ourselves. Was 
it done the better to understand their meaning, and the better to im- 
press the task on memory, by calling to its aid two senses instead of 
one, the auditory as well as visual sense ? Not until later manhood 
had these reminiscences of earlier life begun to crystallize into inter- 
rogatories. The crude facts had clung to my recollection, and every 
now and then the question recurred for some kind of solution. 
Meantime, the great frequency of audible self-conversation in the 
insane joined itself as an allied part of the whole question involved. 
There can be no sharp and definite line between sane and insane life; 
these merge into one another, as all nature passes imperceptible 
boundaries. Physiology and pathology lie alongside each other, and 
interweave the same fabric of organized animal and vegetable life. 
Audible self-conversation, like other members of the family group 
*An insane patient who was much given to audible self-conversation was 
asked why he did so. His reply was, " I enjoy hearing an intelligent man talk, 
and also enjoy talking to an intelligent man." SECTION ON PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 
11 
briefly referred to, seems to me to partake in no small degree of the 
family portraits of its allies, notwithstanding its humble position in 
the clinical scale. Indeed, has it not the same essential origin 
physiologically and psychologically, viz., concentration of perception, 
ideational and emotional activity unconsciously emerging into audible 
speech and gesture language, either psycho-sensory or senso-psychical 
concentration, and representative thought and action however in- 
duced ? 
By " presentative " I mean sense perception; by " representative " 
I refer to the psychological formula (in part) of memory of past 
co-ordinated sense perception recalled to consciousness, by means of 
which relativity of ideas, of feelings and emotions are co-ordinated in 
the sane mind, whilst blurred images of these are formed in the 
insane mind, creating inco-ordinate relativity of feelings, emotions 
and actions. 
How does audible self-conversation become even a remote cousin of 
the foregoing group, which includes hallucinations, illusions, dreams, 
somnambulism, hypnotism ? I can only trace the indefinite, indis- 
tinct, nosological kinship (if not attenuated consanguinity) by 
making other interrogatories. Why does the audible self-conversa- 
tionalist converse to himself on subjects which are concentrated in 
the mind of the subject ? Is it reverie, abstraction, or concentration 
of ideational automatic activity projected unconsciously outward by 
excessive cerebral action ? Why does the insane hallucinant do 
likewise and answer audibly the subjective creations of the mind ? 
Why does the somnambule enact in fine muscular co-ordination the 
extreme tension of his concentrated ideas, or why does the hypnotic 
subject obey the suggestions of his object master ? Why does the 
dreamer hold audible self-conversation, and still further merging 
into the somnambule, enact his ideal representations ? Abercrombie, 
Carpenter, and J. S. Mill give pictures of these states which overlap 
one another. The deductions from the foregoing interrogatories 
formulate themselves in but one response, viz., each and all of the 
group mentioned are essentially concentrated ideas, sane or insane, 
projected from the fore-brain into audible speech, gesture language, 
or emotional action. Hallucinations and illusions express them- 
selves in audible language. Dreamers express themselves in what 
are called " nightmares," major or minor. Somnambulism expresses 
itself in fine muscular co-ordinate tension, adjustable to the act as the 
cultivated trapeze to the delicate rope (the material idea as one and 12 
JOHN S. CONRAD, M. D. 
the same in co-ordinate adjustment). Hypnotism, in obedience to its 
objective master, supplements action to subjective thought. Audible 
self-conversation puts concentrated thought in audible language, 
supplementing gesture the better to express its subjective state of 
ideational activity. The lawyer above referred to spoke aloud and 
gesticulated in obedience to the force and inherent energy of his 
ideas, unconscious of what he was saying or doing, so far as his 
surroundings were concerned. Do not the other members of the 
family group do likewise ? The hallucinant, dreamer, somnambulist, 
hypnoIe, if awakened to their better judgment, would they not be 
surprised at themselves ? And so, too, does not the audible self- 
conversationalist stop at the sight of a stranger to his thoughts and 
actions ? We find audible self-conversation occurring wherever we 
find the mind operating in intensity and concentration of action on 
the mind of the subject, and so it is with the other members of the 
family group referred to. 
It is commonly thought and said that reading and talking aloud 
is an evidence of the ignorance of the person. This is only true in a 
qualified sense, and refers the subject to more careful consideration. 
We have seen that the distinguished lawyer as well as the ignorant 
negro both held audible self-conversations with themselves. Why ? 
The answer is plain: each expressed in audible speech and gesture 
language, the intense concentration and fixation of their ideational 
('automatic) cerebral cell activity, more or less unconsciously. If we 
pursue the subject further we must unavoidably be led to consider 
the subject of "unconscious cerebration." The poor uneducated and 
unlettered negro talks to himself alone, for the reason (not alone) 
that he is both lecturer and audience. His auditory tract brings to 
him more durable facts, and louder, so that he understands them 
better by hearing them, although it conies from his own creative 
fancy. The educated insane hallucinant does likewise. We have a 
sane parallel in the lawyer above quoted. Who does not talk to him- 
self audibly, in proportion to the intensity and concentration of his 
brain activity? Not alone to impress memory, but involuntarily, 
automatically, imperatively. Intensity of subjective concentration 
as well as sense perception, almost if not unconsciously give demon- 
stration in articulate language and muscular gesture. Speech 
embodies it imperfectly, whilst feelings and emotions are so far 
beyond articulate language that muscular activity represents both in 
expression. The emotions, feelings, and passions borrow the language SECTION ON PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 
13 
of erudition, too deep and too remote in ancestry for verbal expres- 
sion; yet they discharge their meaning in peculiar co-ordinate mus- 
cular action, beginning with those of least resistance, the small 
muscles of the face, and progressing gradually until those of greatest 
magnitude are involved in active motion. 
The feelings and emotions are so far beyond articulate language 
that muscular activity alone represents them in expression; hence it 
is that the countenance often tells us more than words that deceive. 
The language of the emotions is best described by Herbert Spencer, 
and before him, by Lavater and Darwin.