The soul is complex, its unity exists only in relation with the individual who knows himself in what is called his ego. But the psychic realm is composed of a multitude of little souls whose mass is divisible and in which a certain disorder is manifested.

A man may be seen under two very different aspects: a professor of mathematics in his class room reveals only a part of himself: he forgets momentarily all that is not related to his special subject. But perhaps outside of his class he may be a good musician: his family will see him oftener under the aspect of a violinist. Suppose, now, that as the result of an accident, this man has lost all memory of music; he remains only a mathematician, and if you speak to him of his violin he does not understand you, he has never even played one. But at the end of several days the memory of the musician returns and, on the other hand, mathematics is forgotten. Such is the aspect - I do not say explanation - but it is the aspect under which a certain known phenomenon, called division of personality, is presented.

But it also may happen, that a somnambulistic state may be revealed, during which, as an actor plays a role, the subject embodies with marvelous success the type of personality that may be proposed to him. However, this effort does not bear examination, because the subject keeps to generalities and is always incapable of giving evidence of special knowledge.

But a new personality appears who knows no one of those present, whose social condition is different, and who shows that he possesses certain knowledge which by no possible hypothesis could be attributed to the somnambulistic subject. He seems, therefore, possessed by an influence foreign to himself. It is a phenomenon often presented by Mrs. Piper in a state of trance. To this the Society for Psychical Research has devoted several large volumes of its annals.

Let us assume that an experiment made by competent authorities, however inexplicable it may be, becomes a truth, empirically stated, which suffices to admit it as a basis of future deductions. The case is inexplicable physiologically, yet remains a truth valuable to retain.

But to repeat, we fall here into an abyss of complexity: it seems sometimes that a partial amnesia occasions in the subject the effacement of an entire period of his existence and yet, what is more astonishing, there is nothing, aside from that to indicate a disordered condition in the person. He is unaware that he does not remember.

Thus an educated and carefully reared person falls into a trance, from which he awakens with a changed character and with no recollection of his previous condition. He no longer knows his intimate friends, his writing even is changed: in short, he is another person. A new crisis occurs and he awakes in his first state, entirely ignorant of the second state from which he has just come.

Dr. Azam of Bordeaux, I believe, observed a case, which has become classic, in the person of Felida, whose changes of personality were manifested throughout many years. Almost each day an attack seized her and another person would appear, ignorant of the song she had just sung before the crisis, unable to continue the needlework that she held in her hand. It became necessary for her family to put her in touch again with her work, in her new state.

Becoming pregnant in her second state, she was absolutely unaware of it, in returning to her first state. Felida II had a little dog of which she was very fond: Felida I drove it away as an intruder.

Despite all the appearances of a possession, one may see, in these phenomena, the alternation of a personality, of which each role embraces but one period of time in the subject's life. For example, Felida I might possess only the memories of her girlhood, while Felida II would only know what had taken place after a certain date. We shall not seek to explain this appearance of alternating life, but merely mention it.

There are numberless cases of division, in which the subject relives periods of his past existence and each period brings with it the corresponding morbid states. Occasionally we see a subject who has been extremely nearsighted and obliged to wear glasses, enjoying excellent sight in one of these states. Finally, this change in intellect, memory and morality remains a mystery, unexplained by physiology, and one which psychology is still far from elucidating.

The Alcan Publishing House brought out in 1911 1 the French translation of the case of Miss Beau-champ. Several personalities were manifested in this subject of Dr. Prince. Aside from the normal personality, we find three others, differing in ideas, belief and temperament. Memories are also distinct for each personality.

Therefore there are four personalities. The first, Miss Beauchamp, splendidly endowed and studious, suffers a nervous shock, to which the doctor attributes the appearance of the disorders which followed.

1 La Dissasociation d'une Personalite, by Morton Prince, translated into French by Renee J. Ray and Jeaa Ray, Felix Alcan, Paris, 1911.

The second, B2, is only Miss Beauchamp put into an hypnotic state by Dr. Prince, who is perhaps wrong in considering B2 as a personality of the same nature as the others.

The third, B3, seems the incarnation of a malicious spirit, who takes possession of the organs of Bl in order to live in a borrowed body and who thus deeply troubles her existence.

The fourth, B4, represents another enigmatic character, which is, perhaps, only a division of Bl, in a state of personal diminution B4 represents an ordinary woman, less refined than Bl, a frivolous woman, living for herself.

In reality, there are, from our point of view, only two new persons. The somnambulistic state is well known and, we believe, has no great relation with the mysterious entities which are present. The mesmerized subject is incontestably a new form of the subject, a new state of her ego.