Bonneval and a part of his stay
at Bicetre.

"Except this strange fragmentary memory, there is nothing very unusual
in this condition, and in many asylums no experiments on it would have
been attempted. Fortunately the physicians at Rochefort were familiar
with the efficacy of the contact of metals in provoking transfer of
hysterical hemiplegia from one side to the other. They tried various
metals in turn on Louis V. Lead, silver, and zinc had no effect. Copper
produced a slight return of sensibility in the paralysed arm, but steel
applied to the right arm transferred the whole insensibility to the left
side of the body.

"Inexplicable as such a phenomenon is, it is sufficiently common, as
French physicians hold, in hysterical cases to excite little surprise.
What puzzled the doctors was the change of character which accompanied
the change of sensibility. When Louis V. issued from the crisis of
transfer with its minute of anxious expression and panting breath, he
might fairly be called a new man. The restless insolence, the savage
impulsiveness, have wholly disappeared. The patient is now gentle,
respectful, and modest, can speak clearly, but he only speaks when he is
spoken to. If he is asked his views on religion and politics, he prefers
to leave such matters to wiser heads than his own. It might seem that
morally and mentally the patient's cure had been complete.

"But now ask what he thinks of Rochefort; how he liked his regiment of
marines. He will blankly answer that he knows nothing of Rochefort, and
was never a soldier in his life. 'Where are you then, and what is the
date of to-day?' 'I am at Bicetre; it is January 2nd, 1884, and I hope
to see M. Voisin, as I did yesterday.'

"It is found, in fact, that he has now the memory of two short periods
of life (different from those which he remembers when his right side is
paralysed), periods during which, so far as now can be ascertained, his
character was of this same decorous type, and his paralysis was on his
left side.

"These two conditions are what are called his first and his second, out
of a series of six or more through which he can be made to pass. For
brevity's sake I will further describe his fifth state only.

"If he is placed in an electric bath, or if a magnet is placed on his
head, it looks at first sight as though a complete physical cure had
been effected. All paralysis, all defect of sensibility, has
disappeared. His movements are light and