[Footnote 3:  “Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases,” vol. vii.,
   1880, p. 487.]

In June, 1880, Dr. Beard visited Moosehead Lake, found the “Jumpers,” and experimented with them.  He ascertained that whatever order was given them was at once obeyed.  Thus, one of the jumpers who was sitting in a chair with a knife in his hand was told to throw it, and he threw it quickly, so that it stuck in a beam opposite; at the same time he repeated the order to throw it with a cry of alarm not unlike that of hysteria or epilepsy.  He also threw away his pipe, which he was filling with tobacco, when he was slapped upon the shoulder.  Two jumpers standing near each other were told to strike, and they struck each other very forcibly.  One jumper, when standing by a window, was suddenly commanded by a person on the other side of the window to jump, and he jumped up half a foot from the floor, repeating the order.  When the commands are uttered in a quick, loud voice, the jumper repeats the order.  When told to strike he strikes, when told to throw he throws whatever he may happen to have in his hand.  Dr. Beard tried this power of repetition with the first part of the first line of Virgil’s “AEneid” and the first part of the first line of Homer’s “Iliad,” and out-of-the-way words of the English language with which the jumper could not be familiar, and he repeated or echoed the sound of the word as it came to him in a quick, sharp voice, at the same time he jumped, or struck, or threw, or raised his shoulders, or made some other violent muscular motion.  They could not help repeating the word or sound that came from the person that ordered them, any more than they could help striking, dropping, throwing, jumping, or starting; all of these phenomena were indeed but parts of the general condition known as jumping.  It was not necessary that the sound should come from a human being; any sudden or unexpected noise, as the explosion of a gun or pistol, the falling of a window, or the slamming of a door—­provided it was unexpected and loud enough—­would cause these jumpers to exhibit some one or all of these phenomena.  One of these jumpers came very near cutting his throat, while shaving, on hearing a door slam.  They had been known to strike their fists against a red-hot stove, to jump into the fire and into water.  They could not help striking their best friend if near them when ordered.  The noise of a steam whistle was especially obnoxious to them.  One of these jumpers, when taking some bromide of sodium in a tumbler, was told to throw it, and he dashed the tumbler upon the floor.  It was dangerous to startle them in any way when they had an ax or an knife in their hands.  All of the jumpers agreed that it tired them to be jumped, and they dreaded it, but they were constantly annoyed by their companions.