My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

126 MY LIFEtouching the corresponding parts of the patient'shead. But as I had no book containing a chart ofthe organs, I bought a small phrenological bust tohelp me in determining the positions.Having my patient in the trance, and standingclose to him, with the bust on my table behind him,I touched successively several of the organs, theposition of which it was easy to determine. After afew seconds he would change his attitude and theexpression of his face in correspondence with theorgan excited. In most cases the effect was unmistakable,and superior to that which the most finishedactor could give to a character exhibiting the samepassion or emotion.At this very time the interest excited by painlesssurgical operations during the mesmeric trance wasat its height, as I have described in my " WonderfulCentury " (chap, xxi.), and I had read a good dealabout these, and also about the supposed excitementof the phrenological organs, and the theory that theselatter were caused by mental suggestion from theoperator to the patient, or what is now termed telepathy.But as the manifestations often occurred ina different form from what I expected, I felt sure thatthis theory was not correct. One day I intended totouch a particular organ, and the effect on the patientwas quite different from what I expected, and lookingat the bust while my finger was still on the boy'shead, I found that I was not touching the part Isupposed, but an adjacent part, and that the effectexactly corresponded to the organ touched and not tothe organ I thought I had touched, completely disprovingthe theory of suggestion. I then tried severalexperiments by looking away from the boy's headwhile I put my finger on it at random, when I always