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Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/655

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FURTHER STUDY OF INVOLUNTARY MOVEMENTS.
637

it.[1] In either way we have an extremely simple means of obtaining records of involuntary movements, which any one interested

Fig. 2.—Counting Metronome, Upper line, movements of head; lower line, of hand on automatograph; time, 45 seconds. The head movements are reversed, but have been again reversed for readier comparison. Figs. 2 to 11 are all obtained upon the same subject. The arrows indicate the direction in which the object attended to was situated.

may construct and test for himself. The use of such a device is not confined to the hand; the plate or the rod may be fixed to other portions of the body.

Having shown that the hand moves toward the direction of

Fig. 3.—Counting Metronome. Facing Automatograph, sitting. I, ; time, 105 seconds. II, ; time, 45 seconds.

one's thoughts, the next important step is to determine whether this movement is altogether the expression of the subject's mental activity, and, if not, what other factors contribute to it; and, further, in what part or parts of the body it originates, what are its components, and the like. These movements have a close connection with the body as well as with the


  1. It is to be noted that in this case the record will be in a direction the opposite of the real movement.