of any ascertained cause. Sometimes it was repeated incessantly for an
hour or more. The gentleman s nose was prominent, and its bridge often
became sore from the blows which it received. At one time an awkward
sore was produced, that was long in healing, on account of the
recurrence, night after night, of the blows which first caused it. His
wife had to remove the button from the wrist of his night-gown as it
made severe scratches, and some means were attempted of tying his arm.
Many years after his death, his son married a lady who had never heard
of the family incident. She, however, observed precisely the same
peculiarity in her husband; but his nose, from not being particularly
prominent, has never as yet suffered from the blows. The trick does not
occur when he is half-asleep, as, for example, when dozing in his
arm-chair, but the moment he is fast asleep it is apt to begin. It is,
as with his father, intermittent; sometimes ceasing for many nights,
and sometimes almost incessant during a part of every night. It is
performed, as it was by his father, with his right hand.
One of his children, a girl, has inherited the same trick. She
performs it, likewise, with the right hand, but in a slightly modified
form; for, after raising the arm, she does not allow the wrist to drop
upon the bridge of the nose, but the palm of the half-closed hand falls
over and down the nose, striking it rather rapidly. It is also very
intermittent with this child, not occurring for periods of some months,
but sometimes occurring almost incessantly. ]
109 (return) [ Prof. Huxley remarks ( Elementary Physiology, 5th edit.
p. 305) that reflex actions proper to the spinal cord are _natural_;
but, by the help of the brain, that is through habit, an infinity of
_artificial_ reflex actions may be acquired. Virchow admits ( Sammlung
wissenschaft. Vortrage, &c., Ueber das Ruckenmark, 1871, ss. 24, 31)
that some reflex actions can hardly be distinguished from instincts;
and, of the latter, it may be added, some cannot be distinguished from
inherited habits.]
110 (return) [ Dr. Maudsley, Body and Mind, 1870, p. 8.]
111 (return) [ See the very interesting discussion on the whole subject
by Claude Bernard, Tissus Vivants, 1866, p. 353-356.]
247