observe the full sweep of its own movement, yet nothing is easier than
to observe its movement through the very last part of the arc. If one
eye is closed, and the other is brought to within about six inches of
an ordinary mirror, and made to describe little movements from some
adjacent part of the mirror to its own reflected image, this image can
almost without exception be observed as just coming to rest. That is,
the very last part of the movement _can_ be seen. The explanation of
Ostwald can therefore not be correct, for according to it not alone
some parts of the movement, but absolutely all parts alike must remain
invisible. It still remains, therefore, to ask why the greater part of
the movement eludes observation. The correct explanation will account
not only for the impossibility of seeing the first part of the
movement but also for the possibility of seeing the remainder.

[7] Ostwald, F., _Revue Scientifique_, 1896, 4e Série, V., p.
466.

Apart from the experience of the eye watching itself in a glass, Dodge
(_loc. citat._) found another fact which strongly suggested
anæsthesia. In the course of some experiments on reading, conducted by
Erdmann and Dodge, the question came up, how "to explain the meaning
of those strangely rhythmic pauses of the eye in reading every page of
printed matter." It was demonstrated (_ibid._, p. 457) "that the
rhythmic pauses in reading are the moments of significant
stimulation.... If a simple letter or figure is placed between two
fixation-points so as to be irrecognizable from both, no eye-movement
is found to make it clear, which does not show a full stop between
them."

With these facts in view Dodge made an experiment to test the