be

my readers to decide. As natural hysteria may supposed to be more powerful than the imitation, I shall look with impatience for the announcement, in "The Morning Post," that Mrs. Freak has been cured of her nervous headaches by the skilful application of hysteria, and Lady Tantrum has had her arm cut off when in a fit of hysterics, without knowing it. These should be easy feats for our fashionable physicians and surgeons, as they have the disease and antidote ready made to their hands; whereas, it cost me and my assistants great trouble to make the coolies and prisoners of Bengal hysterical, to the degree necessary to render them insensible to the loss of their members.

But seriously, if medical men wish to see and understand the effects of Mesmerism on the body, the natural and rational mode of proceeding is to attempt to develop them in the persons of their own patients; and if they will take a tithe of the trouble I have been at, I can promise them very general success. The finest, as well as the most striking phenomena will then be equally diagnostic to their practised eyes, and their understandings will be left clear, and free to study and imitate the curative processes of Nature, undisturbed by doubts and suspicions regarding the powers of observation and the honesty of others.

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CHAPTER VII.

Mesmerism in Surgery.―Journal of Practical Mesmerism. -Mesmeric Trance: A Leg straightened in; Colic cured by; Penis amputated in; Arm straightened in; Arm amputated in; Breast cut off in; Abscess opened in; Heel flayed in; Tooth extracted in; End of Thumb cut off in ; Arm laid open in; Three Abscesses opened in; Sinus laid open in; Gum cut away in; Invasion of the waking by the sleeping State.-Mesmeric Trance: Hypertrophied Prepuce cut off in; Suppurating Pile in; Both great Toe Nails cut out in; Knee straightened in; Ulcer on Temple burned with Muriatic Acid in; Seton introduced, &c. in ; Tumour in Groin removed in; Fungoid Sores pared off in; Scirrhus Testes extirpated in; Cataract operated on in; Malignant Disease of Testes extirpated in; Unhealthy Sore pared in; Hypertrophied Prepuce cut off in; Pain extinguished by; Return on awaking; Amputation of Penis in; Unhealthy Sores pared in; Two Operations for Hydrocele in.-Mesmerism alike favourable to the Operator and the Patient.

IN Surgery, the benefits of Mesmerism are not confined to the extinction of pain during an operation, but are of the greatest general and particular advantage in the after-treatment of surgical diseases. The nerves and brain have not been shattered by bodily

and mental anguish, which generally excites an irritative fever in the system, wasting the powers of life, and rousing local inflammation in the injured part; thereby often destroying all the hopes and precautions of the surgeon. In the mesmeric sleep, only the necessary local injury has been inflicted; and on awaking, the patient sometimes feels no pain whatever, and generally only a slight smarting in the wound; and the constitution sets about repairing the breach of substance quietly, and under the best possible circumstances: if local pains follow, they can be easily removed by topical manipulations; all which will be seen in the following

JOURNAL OF PRACTICAL MESMERISM.

April 20th.-Jeolal, my washerman, aged 35, has been eighteen months ill; first with dysentery, afterwards with rheumatic fever, in consequence of which his left knee is bent upon the thigh at a right angle.

I considered him to be a hopeless cripple. I mesmerised him to-day in a quarter of an hour. At first, he supported his knee with both hands; but soon allowed me to remove them, and suspend them in the air. The leg was then gradually extended, and straightened to a considerable extent, without awaking him.

April 21st. The process was repeated to-day, and more force used, which awoke him; the leg was still farther improved.

April 22d.The pulley was used to-day, and very considerable power applied before he awoke. The muscular contraction is now nearly overcome, and the remaining stiffness of the knee seems to be from the tendons and ligaments about the joint, and will probably yield to mechanical extension, by exercise.

May 11th. He can now walk without a stick, but the fibrous contractions give way slowly. I am convinced that direct force might have torn the muscles of the thigh, but could not have relaxed them.

June 22d. His leg is now quite straight, and the knee flexible; he has got a violent colic, and when speaking to me fell down in a fainting state.-Ordered to be mesmerised.

June 23d. He slept for an hour, and awoke much relieved yesterday; but a paroxysm returned last night, and still continues.-Repeat the Mesmerism.

June 24th. He remained three hours in the mesmeric sleep yesterday, and awoke quite well, and continues so. His leg is now quite strong, and he has returned to his work.

There is a

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May 12th.-Buxoo, a Khitmatgan. fistulous opening in the urethra under the glans penis, which is sloughing, and requires to be amputated. I desired him to be mesmerised, and returned in an hour. I found him asleep, and when looking at him, he suddenly opened his eyes, but immediately went to sleep again, and in five minutes after I cut off the glans, without awaking him. He awoke soon after, and said it was from fear, not pain.

April 20th, 11 o'clock, A. M.-Kangalee, a peasant; aged 20, weak, and ill nourished. He had a fever four years ago, after which sores broke out in different parts of his body, and have left large cicatrices like burns. There is one about the left elbow joint, which has been permanently contracted to nearly a right angle, for seven months. He was catalepsed in twenty minutes; a bottle was then put under his elbow for a fulcrum, and the arm was gradually extended by depressing the hand. He moved a little, and the muscles contracted occasionally, but soon melted as it were, under my hand, and I left him, with his arm perfectly straight, extended in the air and still asleep. Two o'clock, P. M. He awoke half an hour ago. Sees his arm is straight, knows not how it was done, has no pain, and can move it freely.

May 2d. He pulls the punkah daily with his left arm, for exercise.

June 14th.-Dismissed cured.

May 5th.-Rantoonee Buttachangie, a Brahmin; aged 40. There is a prodigious Fungus hæmatodes protruding from the left elbow-joint. A swelling took place at the joint when he was five years old, and has gone on increasing gradually, but the skin remained entire till an incision was made by a native doctor, twelve days ago, when the bloody mass started through the integuments. It exactly resembles the contents of an old aneurism; the structure of the fungus having been broken up by the actual cautery applied to it all over, in order to stop the bleeding: it was a frightful mass. I desired him to be carefully