IV. Application of Caustic to the Eye, in Devonshire.

I have been favoured by a private gentleman in Devonshire with an account of the painless application of caustic in the mesmeric state to the eye, which would otherwise have been agonized.

66

Alphington, 6th March, 1846. "My dear Doctor,-I find from Mr. Janson that you wish specific information respecting the application of caustic to Miss Hole's eye, and she having kindly given her consent, I with great pleasure communicate to you the facts of the case, with full permission to publish them with the names if you think proper.

"About a month since I was asked by my friend Mr. Parker, the surgeon, to mesmerise Miss Hole, the daughter of the late Rev. Hole, of Belstone in this county, with a view to the improvement of her general health, and also with the hope of being able to apply caustic to her eye without causing the excruciating and prolonged pain she before suffered under the operation. I succeeded in producing sleep at the first sitting in about twenty minutes. On the fourth time of her being mesmerised, caustic was applied to the left eye, and so perfect was her insensibility to pain that on being awoke she was perfectly unconscious of anything having been done; and the next morning Mr. Parker with difficulty persuaded her that she had without her knowledge gone through an ordeal which she from previous experience so much dreaded. During my absence from Exeter, Mr. Janson kindly mesmerised Miss Hole twice, and the first time caustic was again applied with perfect success; but on the second occasion she only felt some incovenience on awaking, owing to the coma not having been continued sufficiently long after the operation. (I always continue it at least two hours after the eye has been touched.) On Saturday last caustic was again used during sleep, and Miss. H. was not aware of it until she looked in the glass some time after I had roused her. Mr. Parker is of opinion that the eyes derive much more benefit when the caustic is applied in the mesmeric than in the normal state.

"In Miss Hole's case the phenomenon of 'prevision' or 'prescience' is beautifully manifested, added to which she gives most specific directions as to her treatment. One instance of which I will now relate as briefly as I can. On the 27th of February, while in sleep-waking, she informed me that on the 3rd of March she should have severe spasms in

the head; they would commence a little before 7 o'clock in the evening; and she directed that precisely at 7 a pint of blood should be taken from her left arm, at night some aperient medicine must be administered, and the next day tonic mixture; the latter to be taken three times a day for four days. She also said, 'If I am not bled on the 3rd of March, I shall lose the sight of my right eye (the left is already dark).' Miss Hole having requested that the bleeding might be performed during sleep, Mr. Parker, Mr. Janson, and myself, visited her at a little after six in the evening of the 3rd, and found her already suffering considerably and in a state of partial delirium, objecting to be put to sleep, or to allow either of the party to approach her. I however succeeded in producing coma in less than three minutes, and at a quarter before seven the spasms commenced and were very violent. At five minutes before seven o'clock I enquired if she would be bled. She replied, 'Not yet-it wants a few minutes of seven.' At seven she was bled to the extent she directed; the spasms continued exactly one hour as she had predicted, after which she became quite comfortable. I kept her asleep altogether three hours and a half, when I awoke her perfectly unconscious of anything having taken place.

"On Mr. Parker visiting Miss H. the next morning, he was most agreeably surprised to find her so comfortable. She has mentioned another spasm from which she shall suffer on the evening of the 9th instant, and directed to be again bled to the extent of half a pint. 'The spasms of the 9th will be just as severe as those on the 3rd, but will not last so long.'

I had forgotten to name that a little time after caustic had been applied the first time during sleep, I asked Miss H. if she felt any pain in the eyes. To which she replied, 'A little in the one to which caustic was applied on Sunday.' This was not the eye that had just been touched. I shall be happy on some future occasion to give you, if desired, a report of anything worth naming that may occur in the above case.

"I have read this account to Mr. Parker, who perfectly agrees in every particular, as a proof of which he means to add his signature.

"Yours, very sincerely,

"J. C. LUXMOORE.

"JOHN BATTISHILL PARKER, Member of the Royal

"College of Surgeons, London.

"Exeter."

V. Two remarkable Tooth Extractions.

1. Extraction of a tight Double Tooth, in London.

So many teeth have now been extracted without pain in the mesmeric state, that I should not have thought it worth while to record another, but for the stupid incredulity of the medical world and the disposition of some dentists to cringe to the physicians and surgeons who they think can be of service to them and form an immense majority fiercely adverse to mesmerism. I trust therefore that every future painless extraction will be recorded till our enemies lie prostrate at our feet, as for their comfort I tell them they all soon must, though sprawling in the same heap with such interesting beings as Mr. Wakley and Dr. Forbes. Independently of this reason, I am most anxious to record the following case because it illustrates an important point in producing local insensibility.

In Vol. II., p. 247, I mentioned that I had a patient who, precisely like two others, has insensibility of mechanical injury in the mesmeric state as high only as the collar-bones. I contrived to take the sensibility very nearly away by long passes with contact upon her cheek. At p. 388, I mentioned that another tooth was extracted, and, as we were not hurried, I continued the passes down the cheek till sensibility gradually left the outside, then the inside of the cheek, next the outside, and then the inside of the gum, in succession. A third tooth was decayed and lately gave her severe pain, which, however, I was always able to remove by passes upon the cheek for two or three minutes, when she came to me and was thrown into the mesmeric state in the morning. But it was better for the tooth to be extracted, and Mr. Nicholles again obliged me by operating upon her. With one pass she was thrown into the mesmeric state. I now placed one of my forefingers upon the outside of her left lower gum, and the other upon the inside, and continued drawing them along the gum for a minute. This entirely removed all sensibility, for I forced the edge of my nail against the gum without giving her the least pain. She is a most truthful and in all respects excellent girl, as a daily intercourse with her for three years, except when I have been out of town in the autumn, has amply proved. The tooth was extracted without any sign of pain; and the operation was difficult and cautiously slow, so slow that during it I twice had an opportunity of turning round to the bystanders and remarking how excruciating it would have been but for mesmerism. She said she had no pain and, to use Dr. Esdaile's words, "I presume she knew best." (p. 35.) Of course when she woke she knew nothing of what had passed, and was delighted to find the tooth gone.

The following is Mr. Nicholles's account :

Upon examining the young lady's mouth, I found the offending tooth to be the anterior sinister-molar of the inferior jaw; and was somewhat pleased that I was called upon to perform the operation under the mesmeric insensibility, as I foresaw that I should have occasion to employ some considerable and continuous pressure in consequence of the contiguous teeth preventing my removing the tooth by the expansion of the external alveolar plate. After the young lady was placed in a mesmeric trance, the tooth was removed, notwithstanding the great obstacles alluded to, without the least sensibility on the part of the patient. On her recovery from the mesmeric influence, she expressed much surprise at having lost her troublesome companion.

"This operation was performed in the presence of two friends, one a medical gentleman, who both expressed their astonishment and delight at such an extraordinary, and, to them, novel exhibition."

This is the fifth tooth that Mr. Nicholles has been good enough to remove from my patients in the mesmeric state : and he has always allowed me to tell the thing to every body, thus not resembling either Mr. Tomes, who would extract but would not tell, or those other worthies who would not extract at all. A London dentist has just made it known that several of his colleagues here have resolved to refuse to extract teeth in the mesmeric state. Happily Mr. Nicholles is not one of the magnanimous party.† Mr. Bell of the city admitted the truth of mesmerism when I shewed him the Okeys at the hospital and has admitted it ever since on all occasions and does not refuse to extract: nor does Mr. Purland :‡ and I have received the following note from a stranger :

"Mr. Hayes presents his compliments to Dr. Elliotson, and begs to inform him that he will have much pleasure to 'extract teeth in the mesmeric state,' as also, if his humble aid would tend to advance that noble science MESMERISM, by publicly certifying to the result of operations under that state, he will at all times be happy in so doing.

"Mr. H. has twice operated in the mesmeric state, and has practised mesmerism, non-professionally, for some years. "Mr. H. has Dr. Elliotson's 'Cases' and The Zoist on the

* Vol. III., p. 508.

+ Besides these three from Mary Ann, he extracted one from Rosina (Pamphlet, p. 66), and one from the younger Okey.

Vol. III., p. 214, 216.

table in his reception room, notwithstanding the detractions of Dr. Forbes and the sneers of professional brethren. "13, Brook Street, March 10, 1846.

"J. Elliotson, Esq., M.D., &c. &c. &c."

2. I have just received the following interesting narrative for The Zoist :

"Plymouth, March 14th, 1846. "Difficult case of Tooth Extraction in the mesmeric state, without pain.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ZOIST.

"Sir,-Permit me to add my mite to the mass of valuable evidence which you have accumulated in proof of the power of mesmerism as a preventive of human suffering, in cases of surgical operation. Notwithstanding the sneers of the college authorities, who act and speak as though the dignity of the profession would be endangered if there were no pangs inflicted by the use of their instruments, we find growing evidence that it is only the wilful indifference or bigotted prejudice of medical practitioners which enforces the endurance of needless suffering upon a vast number of our fellow-creatures; for although mesmerism might not, and would not, in all cases accomplish the desired object, yet, from the very limitted experiments which have hitherto been tried, a sufficient number of successful cases may be cited, to prove that it is not only worth while to try the experiments upon a broader scale, but that it is the bounden duty of every enlightened and humane man to do so.

"On Thursday, the 5th of March, an operation was performed at my house, by Mr. Brendon, surgeon-dentist, of this town, upon a young woman in my employ as nurse-maid. She had been suffering very severely from tooth-ache for several days, and Mr. Brendon, being applied to, advised the extraction of a stump of a double tooth in the lower jaw, which was decayed completely down to the level of the jaw-bone. Knowing the girl to be a good mesmeric subject, I placed her under the influence, and Mr. Brendon commenced the operation by lancing the gum extensively. He then introduced the key, and made several attempts to lift the stump, but could obtain no hold for the instrument: he was equally unsuccessful with the forceps, the tooth breaking away as pressure was applied. He then resorted to the punch, with which he endeavoured to extract the fangs separately, but was again foiled in his efforts, as he was fearful of injuring the alveolar