sensations he will single some out for attention and neglect the rest. He singles out those which, for some reason or another, interest him most. It may quite easily happen, therefore, that the sensations most relevant to the inquiry in hand have been neglected. They have been filtered, as it were, through the medium of the witness’s interest; and it is often the case that his interest has not been excited by the sensations most pertinent to the subsequent inquiry. It is on this fact that conjurers very largely depend for their success. The attention of the audience is distracted; they are invited to dismiss certain sensations as being of no importance, and, in general, it is remarkably easy to ensure this distraction of attention. Dr. Hodgson’s case of the English officer and the Hindu juggler well illustrates this point: Referring to the movements of the coins, he said that he had taken a coin from his own pocket and placed it on the ground himself, yet that this coin had indulged in the same freaks as the other coins. His wife ventured to suggest that the juggler had taken the coin and placed it on the ground, but the officer was emphatic in repeating his statement, and appealed to me for confirmation. He was, however, mistaken. I had watched the transaction with special curiosity, as I knew what was necessary for the performance of the trick. The officer had apparently intended to place the coin upon the ground himself, but as he was doing so the juggler leant slightly forward, dexterously and in a most unobtrusive manner received the coin from the fingers of the officer, as the latter was stooping down, and laid it close to the others. If the juggler had not thus taken the coin, but had allowed the officer himself to place it on the ground, the trick, as actually performed, would have been frustrated. Now I think it highly improbable that the movement of the juggler entirely escaped the perception of the officer; highly improbable, that is to say, that the officer was absolutely unaware of the juggler’s action at the moment of its happening; but I suppose that, although an impression was made on his consciousness, it was so slight as to be speedily effaced by the officer’s _imagination_ of himself as stooping and placing the coin upon the ground.