their health; whence, again, they issue in another year, increased in size, and brilliant as silver, to run the same course as long as life continues. The young fry, also, the moment they break the egg, turn their heads seaward, and never stop till they reach the ocean, whose action is necessary for their growth and health.

The dog eats grass, and licks his sores when sick; the cow, and calf even, sham dead, to induce the crows to pick the vermin from about their eyes and ears; the chick, as soon as it breaks the shell, pecks gravel, to aid digestion; the mongoose, after being bitten by its enemy, the snake, retires to the fields, to seek its antidote against the poison; and this it finds, for it comes back quite well; and at certain seasons the wild animals resort, from the most distant parts of the country, to the "salt-licks," to renovate their constitutions. Numberless instances of the same kind will occur to the naturalist, and the humble observer of nature even; and is it imaginable that the everwatchful, all-bountiful Providence of God should have left the "noble savage,” alone of all His creatures, to run such cruel risks, and perish helplessly in his natural ignorance? Reasoning a priori, we should say not; and our positive knowledge of the equal care bestowed by God on all his creatures, forbids the supposition. Man, then, had probably some instinct by which he was directed to a natural medicine of sovereign virtue, and by which the hunter and his family were saved from starvation, when disease, for a time, deprived his right hand of its cunning, unnerved his iron sinews,

and bowed his gallant head. If this be a natural supposition, what could be his resource if not Mesmerism that inherent power, implanted, as I conceive, in the human being, for the solace of his suffering fellow creature? This is the simplest and most speedy restorative of the powers of life, in cases adapted to it (for, like every natural agent, it has its conditions and limits;) and men in pain have an instinctive tendency to perform the required processes. From its simplicity, how consonant with all we know of the laws of nature would be such a power, and how admirably adapted to meet the exigencies of savage life!

The more observing among savage men, it is presumable, would soon detect the latent curative powers of their bodily system, and develope them into an art for the cure of disease, and the advancement of their own interests. But when experience had given them skill, and it became a source of gain, they made, we may suppose, a mystery of their calling, and attempted to secure the lucrative secret for themselves and families. Hence, among the savage races of mankind, we see the healing art practised exclusively by conjurors, either artfully concealing the secret of their power by incantations, and other mummery, or, possibly, themselves deceived into a belief of the efficacy of such accompaniments. If the Mumbo Jumbo men of Africa, the medicine men of America, and the charmers of this country, ever succeed in relieving their patients (and here they do,) I am disposed to think that it is generally in cases

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curable by Mesmerism. The following extract from my Mesmeric Journal" will show that this is not so fanciful a speculation as it may at first appear, and that Mesmerism is actually practised in this country, and has probably been so time immemorial, like every other custom in this immutable society.

June 9th, 1845.-I had to-day the honour of being introduced to one of the most famous magicians in Bengal, who enjoys a high reputation for his successful treatment of hysteria, and had been sent for to prescribe for my patient (whose case will be afterwards given,) but came too late; the success of my charm, Mesmerism, having left him nothing to do. Baboo Essanchunder Ghosaul, deputy magistrate of Hooghly, at my request introduced me to him as a brother magician, who had studied the art of magic in different parts of the world, but particularly in Egypt, where I had learned the secrets of the great Sooleymann, from the moollahs and fuqueers, and that I had a great desire to ascertain whether our charms were the same, as the hakeems of Europe held the wise men of the East in high estimation, knowing that all knowledge had come from that quarter. I proposed that we should show each other our respective charms, and, after much persuasion, he agreed to show me his process for assuaging pain. He sent for a brass pot, containing water, and a twig with two or three leaves upon it, and commenced muttering his charms, at arm's length from the patient. In a short time he dipped his fore-finger into the water, and, with the help of his thumb, flirted it into the patient's face; he

shut his eyes, and he

then took the leaves, and commenced stroking the person from the crown of the head to the toes, with a slow drawing motion. The knuckles almost touched the body, and he said that he would continue the process for an hour, or longer, if necessary; and it convinced me that, if these charmers ever do good by such means, it is by the Mesmeric influence, probably unknown to themselves. I said that I was convinced of the great efficacy of his charm, and would now show him mine; but that he would understand it better if performed on his own person. After some difficulty, we got him to lie down, and, to give due solemnity to my proceedings, I chanted, as an invocation, the chorus of the "King of the Cannibal Islands!" I desired him to clenched his eyelids firmly, that I might find no entrance to the brain by that inlet. In a quarter of an hour he jumped up, and said he felt something disagreeable coming over him, and wished to make his escape. He was over-persuaded to lie down again, however, and I soon saw the muscles around the eye begin to relax, and his face became perfectly smooth and calm. I was sure that I had caught my brother magician napping, but, in a few minutes, he bolted up suddenly, clapped his hands to his head, cried he felt drunk, and nothing could induce him to lie down again; "abiit, excessit, evasit, erupit !" Next day I saw him, and said, "Well, you were too strong for my charm last night, I could not put you to sleep." "Oh! yes, Sahib," he answered, "you did; I allow it; it is allowed that you put me to sleep."

A gentleman, whose case will be given hereafter, immediately recognised the identity of the two processes, and told me that he had been Mesmerised, he now knew, in a different part of the country, and with much relief, in a painful affection of the leg. In addition to the traction with the leaves, his mesmeriser had breathed carefully upon the pained part, just as my assistant had done when mesmerising him locally for rheumatism. It thus appears that the beneficial effects of the Mesmeric processes are known in this country, and the secret has probably descended from remote antiquity, in certain families, or castes.— Farther on, when speaking of Somnambulism, a curious history will be given, which leads me to suspect that they know the evil, as well as good, of Mesmerism, and practise it for the most villanous purposes. The possible evil resulting to society from the practice of Mesmerism has been a favourite objection, even when the evidence of its existence and power could be no longer resisted.

But the tendency of all power depends upon the direction given to it for good, or evil; and to eject opium, mercury, and prussic acid from the pharmacopoeia, because, when injudiciously administered, they poison, instead of curing our patients; or to reject the agency of steam for the purposes of life, because it sometimes takes us a longer journey than we intended; would be as reasonable as to refuse to be cured by Mesmerism, because it could also injure us, if ignorantly and injudiciously applied. That this agent may, and will, be turned to the most diabolical purposes,