of hanging listlessly down (Fig. 5). As the interest increases still further the body is bent forward at an angle and the hand is very probably placed firmly on the thigh (Fig. 6).
This position is not only assumed during the heat of argument whether the speaker be sitting or standing, but when one is led to assume it unconsciously it seems to give rise to a rapid and sometimes almost uncontrollable flow of ideas. Thus it occasionally becomes a cause of remorse to devout souls, who during the attempt to pray in church in this attitude are sadly distracted by crowds of ideas which at once disappear on the assumption of an easy sitting posture. The circulation in the cerebral vessels and the current of ideas in the brain are very delicate things and may be modified by very slight causes; thus, an attitude with the head drooping slightly more than that indicated in Fig. 6, and with the chin supported upon the hand, is the one frequently assumed in deep thought, with concentration of ideas upon a single subject, and no desire for immediate expression (Fig. 9). The touch of
the hand upon the head seems to have a directing power over the thoughts which one would formerly have been inclined to deny, but such experiments as those of Tesla and Crookes with electric currents of very high tension give a visible illustration of phenomena previously unknown and seemingly incredible. For in these experiments a person who has put himself into the electric field renders vacuum tubes containing various substances fluorescent, and fills them with a glow of colored light by simply wav-