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Transposition of the Senses

An extraordinary phenomenon, first reported by Tardy de Montravel. In his Essai sur la Theorie du Somnambulisme Magnetique (1785), he described how in his half-waking trance he could see with the "pit of his stomach." In 1808, Dr. Pététin reported in his book, Electricité Animale (1808), that he found the senses of taste, smell, and hearing also wandering from the pit of the stomach to the tip of the fingers and of the toes. Since then many similar cases have been recorded, especially with hysterical subjects.

Cesare Lombroso carefully observed the phenomenon of eyeless sight. C. S. was a young girl who lost the power of vision, but as a compensation she "saw" with the same degree of acuteness at the point of the nose and the left lobe of the ear. Her sense of smell was transposed under the chin and later to the back of the foot.