asked if he could see plainly; but said, No. When asked if he could see any one, he answered, that he could see no one, but knew by the sounds that some people were there.

"Again he was asked if he felt any pain; he said, that he felt a severe pain in the belly, on breathing, and also in the part, and felt very cold. Soon afterwards, he became senseless.

"At 2 o'clock, p.m., the Rev. Mr. Fisher and Mr. Money came to the hospital, and tried to bring him to his senses by pricking him with a pin, putting fire on his hand, and beating a gong at his ear, but all proved ineffectual.'

"I forgot to note down what these reports notice-his complaining of feeling cold soon after the process began ; and when I left him the temperature of his body was natural.

"On these two occasions, the effects were witnessed by all the patients and hangers on in and about both hospitals.

"April 7th.-Has had a good night; is a little feverish; pain in part much less. He now complains, for the first time, of pain in the places where he was pricked and burned.

"This makes one ashamed of one's incredulity, and I will never put a patient to the question' in this way again. It is only excusable for the first time when we can hardly believe the evidence of our senses. Whenever the mesmeric haze is produced, the operator may be sure that he has obtained the specific effect, and the insensibility of the pupil will incontrovertibly prove the presence of mesmeric coma.

"April 11th.-Took the sub-assistant surgeon with me to-day to the jail hospital, and desired him to watch the time. taken to produce the different effects. There is still considerable pain in the side operated upon. Pulse regular, 60. Skin warm. At 11 a.m., I seated him on the floor with his back against the wall; placed myself before him on a stool, and proceeded pretty much as before. The process, in one particular, was varied; I leaned my elbows upon my knees, placed my mouth over the back of my joined hands, and breathed along their upper surface, the points of my fingers being pointed steadily at his eyes, nose, and forehead in succession. This seemed to be very effectual, and was done with the idea of concentrating the mesmeric influence of the whole body into one conductor. It was curious to observe that he had begun to think on the subject, and was observing the effects for himself, and testing his senses as we proceeded. After manipulating for a few minutes, he opened his eyes, looked sharply and minutely about him, and being asked if

he saw quite well, he said, 'Oh yes.' In a minute or two, he repeated his inspection, and answered again, that he saw quite distinctly in seven minutes he again looked about him, seemed surprised, and said he only saw 'smoke.'

"In fifteen minutes he was pinched; and when asked if any one was pinching him, he replied, that he could not tell, as I might now cut a piece out of his body without his feeling it. I now tried for an abnormal mental manifestation; certainly not expecting to be gratified. I asked, What will cure your complaint? You know best. Has the Baboo any complaint? How should I know! I understood this as a hint to attend to the business in hand, the body, and therefore proceeded to induce the mesmeric coma as quickly as possible, and succeeded in twenty minutes from the commencement. I then said to the sub-assistant surgeon that I would operate upon him in this state if I could find some of the European gentlemen to be witnesses. On going to Chinsurah, two miles off, I fortunately found a considerable party, consisting of the Baron Law de Clapernou, Governor of Chandernagore, Mr Russell the Judge, Mr. Wauchope the Magistrate, J. St. Pourçain, Esq., Mr. Clint, Principal of Hooghly College, and Mr. Clermont, head Master of the Lower School, who all accompanied me back to the hospital. The man had fallen down, and was lying on his back. The large gong of the jail was brought, and struck violently within a few inches of his ear with no effect. I then pierced the part, and threw in the injection without any one being sensible of the smallest movement in his face, or body. His limbs were quite flexible, but on holding one of his legs in my hand for a few seconds, it gradually became quite rigid, and we could not bend it again; the same occurred in the other leg. The arms were supple, and lay in any position into which they were thrown, and when the fore-arm was bent upon the humerus, and then let go, it fell upwards, or downwards instantly. But on placing my united fingers over the ends of his, the arm remained fixed at a right angle in the air, and swayed to and fro according to my movements. The insensibility of the iris was also tested, and proved.

"6 o'clock, a.m.-Still sleeps; most complete relaxation of all the limbs now exists. The legs and arms can be tossed about in every direction, and where they fall there they lie. Being curious to ascertain the effect of the artificial state on the natural process of inflammation, I did not awake him, but saw that the part was as flaccid as when the water was just withdrawn.

"April 12th. He awoke at 12 o'clock last night sponta

neously. Recollects nothing after going to sleep; sees the water is gone, knows not how; supposes the Doctor Sahib did it. Admodum tumet hodie testis; there is little pain, and it did not swell till after he awoke. He has had chronic diarrhea for some time, four and five motions a day, but has had none since yesterday forenoon till this morning. Natural, artificial, and diseased actions have therefore been all equally arrested for the last thirteen hours; a practical fact of the utmost importance, which will not be lost sight of by myself, or others, I hope. What a blessed prospect this opens to sufferers who may be sensible to the mesmeric influence! In time we may hope to discover who they are, by detecting the laws which regulate this power of nature, and thereby save ourselves much trouble and disappointment. In the meantime, let us accumulate facts, as the seeds for a correct theory hereafter. Although I should never succeed again, I will in future think, speak, and write of mesmerism as being as much a reality as the principle of gravitation, or the properties of opium."

The members of the London Medical and Chirurgical Society who could not imagine the possibility of a man with palsy of his nerves of common sensation hearing ever so obscurely, should read over again the hog dealer's answer"I heard voices but did not understand them:" the Nottinghamshire man's answer was, 66 I once felt as if I heard a kind of crunching."* They both in the natural state had a faint degree of memory of the mesmeric. A change took place in the mesmeric state of the Asiatic, for on April the 12th on awaking spontaneously he recollected nothing. Those who fancy mesmerism to be useful in nervous diseases only, should remember its effect upon the diarrhoea and the pain of stomach. And those who prefer a stupid and dogged disbelief to the clearest evidence of the senses and yet cannot bring themselves to obey the Scriptures and pluck out their deceiving eye or cut off their deceiving hand, with which they ought to be offended, should imitate Dr. Esdaile and become "ashamed of their incredulity." The nature and truthfulness of the man's answers at pp. 27, 28, 30, are striking.

Mr. Bransby Cooper, who in the Medical Society strangely at the time he ridiculed the alleged facts as humbug begged for a rationale of them, might read the last sentence but one of the last quoted paragraph: and the medical profession at large may rest assured that all we mesmerists have the determination expressed by Dr. Esdaile in the concluding sentence. Pamphlet, p. 10.

VOL. IV.

D

Amputation of a thumb.-" May 29th. Sibchurn Sing, a young robust man, had his thumb-nail nearly cut through by a sword, fourteen days ago. An attempt was made to unite it, but failed; and the point of the finger would be a source of annoyance, if kept. In ten minutes I made him insensible, and cut off the end of his thumb without awaking him. He shortly after opened his eyes, and I asked him; Have you been asleep? Yes. Have you any pain? No. Has anybody hurt you to-day? No. Do you wish your nail cut off? Yes. Look at it. He did so; looked confounded, and exclaimed, It's gone! Who did it? God knows. How did it happen? I know nothing about it. Has it fallen off itself? I can't tell."

Removal of a tumor frightfully disfiguring the face.-" June 3rd. Teencowrie Paulit, a peasant; aged 40. He began to suffer from a tumor, two years ago, in the antrum maxillare. The tumor has pushed up the orbit and eye of that side, filled up and distorted the nose, and caused an extraordinary enlargement of the glands of the neck.

"I was very desirous to reduce him to a state of insensibility before operating on him, and for the last fortnight my assistants have all tried it perseveringly, but without producing sleep even. I took him in hand, at 10 o'clock a.m. today, and succeeded after great labour, for three quarters of an hour, in entrancing him sitting erect in a chair. I then put a long knife in at the corner of his mouth, and brought it through his cheek over the cheek-bone, dividing the parts between; from this, I pushed it through the skin at the inner corner of the eye, and dissected back the cheek to the nose.

"The pressure of the tumor had caused the absorption of the anterior wall of the antrum, and on pushing my fingers between it and the bones, it burst, and proved to be a medullary tumor. A shocking gush of blood and brain-like matter followed. It extended as far as the points of my fingers could reach under the orbit and cheek-bone, and passed into the throat, having destroyed the bones and partition of the

nose.

"No one held the man, and I turned his head into any position desired, without resistance, and there it remained till again moved. The man never stirred or shewed any signs of life, except an indistinct occasional moan, till I passed my fingers into his throat, and directed the blood into his windpipe.

"Farther insensibility was incompatible with life apparently, for he coughed and leaned forward to get rid of the

blood. The operation was by this time finished, and he was laid on the floor to have the wounds dressed.

"June 4th. This is even a more wonderful affair than I supposed yesterday. The man declares by the most emphatic pantomime, that he felt no pain while in the chair, and that he first awoke upon the floor. So that his coughing, and forward movement yesterday, were purely instinctive motions for the preservation of life. He is wonderfully well.

"June 6th. The dressings were undone to-day, and the whole extent of the wounds in the face has united completely by the first intention. He is out of all danger from the operation, and can speak plainly; he declares most positively, that he felt no pain, and did not come to his senses till he awoke on the floor, and found me to be stiching his face, and I presume he knows best.

"Translation of a statement in Bengalee by Teencowrie Paulit.

"For two years I laboured under this sickness, and scarcely slept for five months. On the 19th May, I came to the Imambarah Hospital, and three or four persons tried to make me sleep, but all in vain. On the 3rd June, Dr. Esdaile having kindly undertaken my cure, with a great deal of labour, made me sleep, and having operated on my left cheek, took out something, which at that time I did not perceive. After the operation, I did not sleep for two days; but after the third day, I have slept as usual.

"TEENCOWRIE PAULIT,

"Of Madrah, Thannah Dhumakhaly."

Kaloo,

Removals of colis and of præputia.-" June 11th. a faqueer, has an excrescence larger than a man's fist ad extremitatem colis, and the body of the organ is also much enlarged.

"He was entranced in a few minutes on the first trial; and in the presence of Major Riddell, Captain Anderson, Mr. Bennett, and Mr. Jackson, I dissected out the organ, but was obliged to sacrifice the glans, as the enlargement was a cartilaginous degeneration of all the structures. I lost much time in trying to extricate the glans, but finding it impossible, performed amputation behind it, and the man did not awake till this point of the operation.

"Wonderful to say, he relapsed into the trance in a few minutes, and remained for twenty minutes quite rigid and insensible, with his eyes wide open in a full light, and as insensible to the light as a corpse's. This is the only case in which the eyes have been quite open during the trance, and the eyes would not remain shut when I closed them; shewing, I