cess, the mental image is brought back again
to mind, this spreading out shows itself by an enlargement of the
memory image. However it may be explained, the indications of it were
unmistakable--unless, of course, some other reason can be given for
the uniform direction of the errors; and it is further seen in other
experiments carried out by Messrs. W. and B. and by Dr. K.[9] at a
later date.

[Footnote 9: Dr. F. Kennedy, demonstrator, now professor in the
University of Colorado (results not yet published).]

If this tendency to the enlargement of our memories with the lapse of
time should be found to be a general law of memory, it would have
interesting bearings. It would suggest, for instance, an explanation
of the familiar fact that the scenes of the past seem to us, when we
return to them, altogether too small. Our childhood home, the old
flower garden, the height of house and trees, and even that of our
hero uncle, all seem to the returning traveller of adult life
ridiculously small. That we expect them to be larger may result from
the fact that the memory images have undergone change in the direction
of enlargement.

V. _Suggestion._--Space permits only the mention of another research,
which, however, should not be altogether omitted, since it illustrates
yet other problems and the principles of their solution. This is an
investigation by Messrs. T. and H.,[10] which shows the remarkable
influence of mental suggestions upon certain bodily processes which
have always been considered purely physiological. These investigators
set out to repeat certain experiments of others which showed that if
two points, say those of a pair of compasses, be somewhat separated
and put upon the skin, two sensations of contact come from the points.
But if while the experiment is being performed the points be brought
constantly nearer to each other, a time arrives when the two are felt
as only one, although they may be still some distance apart. The
physiologists argued from this that there were minute nerve endings in
the skin at least so far apart as the least distance at which the
points were felt as two; and that when the points were so close
together that they only touched one of these nerve endings, only one
sensation was produced. Mr. T. had already found, working in Germany,
that, with practice, the skin gradually became more and more able to
discriminate the two points--that is, to feel the two at smaller
distances; and, f