of a Chinese gong, a tom-tom or a whistle, the vibration of a
tuning-fork, or thunder. If a solar spectrum is suddenly brought into a
dark room it may produce catalepsy, which is also produced by looking at
the sun, or a lime light, or an electric light.

In this state the patient has become perfectly rigidly fixed in the
position in which he happens to be when the effect is produced, whether
sitting, standing, kneeling, or the like; and this face has an
expression of fear. The arms or legs may be raised, but if left to
themselves will not drop, as in lethargy. The eyes are wide open, but
the look is fixed and impassive. The fixed position lasts only a few
minutes, however, when the subject returns to a position of relaxation,
or drops back into the lethargic state.

If the muscles, nerves or tendons are rubbed or pressed, paralysis may
be produced, which, however, is quickly removed by the use of
electricity, when the patient awakes. By manipulating the muscles the
most rigid contraction may be produced, until the entire body is in such
a state of corpse-like rigidity that a most startling experiment is
possible. The subject may be placed with his head upon the back of one
chair and his heels on the back of another, and a heavy man may sit upon
him without seemingly producing any effect, or even heavy rock may be
broken on the subject's body.

Messieurs Binet and Fere, pupils of the Salpetriere school, describe the
action of magnets on cataleptic subjects, as follows:

"The patient is seated near a table, on which a magnet has been placed,
the left elbow rests on the arm of the chair, the forearm and hand
vertically upraised with thumb and index finger extended, while the
other fingers remain half bent. On the right side the forearm and hand
are stretched on the table, and the magnet is placed under a linen cloth
at a distance of about two inches. After a couple of minutes the right
index begins to tremble and rise up; on the left side the extended
fingers bend down, and the hand remains limp for an instant. The right
hand and forearm rise up and assume the primitive position of the left
hand, which is now stretched out on the arm of the chair, with the waxen
pliability that pertains to the cataleptic state."

An interesting experiment may be tried by throwing a patient into
lethargy on one side and catalepsy on the other. To induce what is
called hemi-lethargy and hemi-catalepsy is not difficult. First, the
letha