On being further asked by Dr. Buchanan whether it excited her judgment or reasoning faculties, she replied that it acted altogether on her imagination."

"Sub-committee met November 19th, 1842.-Present Messrs. Bellows, O'Sullivan, and Forry. Experiments on Mrs. R., continued.

"Dr. Buchanan next attempted to show the control which can be exercised over respiration, by exciting the appropriate cerebral organs, called by him, 'inspiration, expiration, and restraint.' Under the influence of the two former, her breathing became hurried, laborious, and panting. Under the influence of the latter, the movements of the chest became slow, and were partially arrested.

"Dr. Buchanan then proceeded, at the request of the committee, to excite the organ of calculation. She immediately drew back from the company in a state of seeming abstraction, and fixed her gaze intently on a house on the opposite side of the street; and on being asked what attracted her attention, she replied that she was counting the bricks in the wall of the house. She then arose and walked to the window, and still seemed intent on her favorite object. We now attempted to ridicule her strange propensity, and to dissuade her from this employment, but she insisted with much earnestness that it was both very agreeable and very rational.

"Dr. Buchanan next excited the moral and selfish feelings alternately, five or six times in succession, with the view of calling off her attention from surrounding circumstances, by the lively play of her own feelings. The former she describes as agreeable, and the latter as producing a disagreeable excitement which would no doubt have an injurious effect on her character. As he touched several points among the moral organs in succession, his hand at length reached that of firmness; and as he excited this organ and that of its antagonist, fear, she remarked that the former seemed to inercase her energy, whilst the latter appeared to enfeeble or relax the sys. tem. To produce an unequivocal physical manifestation, Dr. Buchanan excited alternately the organs producing physical sensibility or sensibility to pain, and on the other hand the organs producing hardihood. Under the influence of the latter, he requested her to remove a ring from her finger, which she easily took off and replaced. Then having excited sensibility to pain, she was requested to take off the same ring, but after several attempts, she gave it up, as causing too much pain, on account of its tightness. She tried other rings upon her fingers, and found that they also were too tight to be removed without causing great pain. Hardihood being now re-excited, she removed the ring with ease. To show how complete was her insensibility to pain under this influence, Dr. Buchanan requested one of the committee to offer his knuckles for a blow from hers, to show which would evince the greater sensibility by the

contact. Although her hand was small and rather delicate, yet she inflicted several blows in succession upon the knuckles of the gentleman who offered his, with so much strength as to compel him to retire from the unequal contest; whilst to Mrs. R., it seemed to be a matter of mere sport, productive of no pain whatever. Dr. Buchanan now changed operations by restoring her physical sensibility, when she immediately began to feel the pain from the bruising that her knuckles had just received. She now appeared to suffer much more than her antagonist; and on being requested to strike again, she could not be induced to make more than a gentle contact, which could scarcely be called a blow.

*

"These physiological experiments were succeeded by several of a more striking and simpler character. Dr. Buchanan excited the organ of pride, the excitation of which was not continued more than a minute before she arose from her chair and left the company. She walked about the room in silence, and refused to return to her seat to undergo experiments. Dr. Buchanan now approached her and excited the organ of humility, when she immediately resumed her place. Upon being asked the reason that induced her to leave the chair, she said that she had felt an indisposition to sit there and be gazed at by a number of gentlemen. She now seemed conscious of the impropriety of leaving the company so abruptly, and promised that she would not do so again; but as Dr. Buchanan re-excited the organ of pride, it was scarcely a minute before she arose from her chair and acted as she had previously done. She was now again subdued by exciting the organ of humility, and brought back to the chair.

"The committee being about to retire, Dr. Buchanan, in order to place her in the most agreeable condition, touched an organ producing the most enlivening effects, which he denominates the organ of levity. This produced so much buoyancy of spirit, that she moved about the room with girlish gayety and lightness, and even offered to dance with any one that would accompany her. The antagonist organ being excited, she became dull and slow, and at length unable to stir. From this state she was relieved by a slight re-excitement of the organ of levity. Her husband, observing the fine effect of the action of this organ, requested that its locality might be pointed out to him, so that he might excite it whenever it became desirable to enliven her. This being done, Mr. R. held his fingers on the spot till he produced so much excitement that she could not contain herself, but frolicked around the room as if under the influence of exhilarating gas. This excessive excitement so overcame her physical powers, that she sank exhausted into a chair, apparently unwell, with a chilly rigor and other unpleasant sensations. It was now necessary for Dr. Buchanan to use means for her restoration, which was speedily effected by stimulating other portions of the brain which, he said, re-established a healthy equilibrium."

"Sub-committee met November 25th, 1842. Present, Mr. Bryant and Dr. Forry. Also, Major John Le Coute, by invitation. Continued experiments on Mrs. R.

"Before proceeding to the house of Mrs. R., Dr. Buchanan performed, at his own rooms, several experiments upon a gentleman (Mr. O., of this city), whom the doctor had discovered to be slightly impressible. It should be remarked that Mr. O. had been a total disbeliever in the reality of the nervauric influence. until he had felt peculiar sensations in his hand from the influence communicated by Dr. Buchanan. The object of the first experiment was to produce that somnolent state, resulting from the influence of the front lobe of the brain, which might be not inappropriately called an intellectual or self-conscious sleep. Dr. Buchanan requested Mr. Bryant to place his hands on the outer part of the forehead of Mr. Ŏ. In this position Mr. Bryant held his hands for several minutes, while the rest were observing the countenance of the subject. In about two minutes we detected a singular appearance about the eyes, soon after which Mr. O. remarked that it had passed off, meaning that he had felt a peculiar influence which had now ceased. Mr. Bryant, however, continued to hold his hands in the same position, and in about two minutes more the eyelids of Mr. O. began to quiver with a very rapid motion, and gradually closed. They opened again, winked and quivered alternately for a few moments, and finally closed firmly. About this time we observed that his arms fell relaxed by his side, and one of his legs resting on the other fell to the floor, as if he had suddenly fallen asleep. We spoke to him, but he made no answer. We asked him whether he was fully conscious, and he nodded assent. Being now requested to open his eyes, he raised the eyebrows several times to their extremest height, stretching the membrane of the eyelids, and rolling the eye-balls, as if making a great effort; but he did not succeed even in getting the lids apart. Mr. O. was allowed to remain in this state a few moments, unable to relieve himself. Dr. Buchanan then showed Mr. Bryant how, in order to relieve Mr. O., to apply his fingers on the back part of his head. The fingers were applied accordingly, and almost instantly the eyes of Mr. O. flew open, and he was restored to the command of his speech. On resuming this faculty, he said that he had been conscious all the time, but that it was utterly impossible to open his eyes or to speak, notwithstanding he had made the greatest effort.

"Dr. Buchanan now attempted with his own hands to produce animal sleep-a condition of the system in which the intellectual faculties are arrested, and consciousness is destroyed, while the animal functions are vigorously sustained. For about two minutes Mr. O. evinced no effect on his countenance, averring that he was not conscious of any impression being made upon him. His countenance, however, appeared rather dull, and he soon gave way under the symptoms of sleep. His eyes closed, his head hung on one side, his limbs relaxed, and his body rested in a reclining position,

as if completely under the dominion of sleep. 'He is snoring,' remarked Mr. Bryant. Dr. Buchanan now addressed several remarks to his sleeping subject, which received no reply or recognition. The breathing of Mr. O. was rather heavy, accompanied by a slight moaning noise. Dr. Buchanan proceeded to restore him, which was not accomplished so promptly as in the case of intellectual sleep. It was nearly a minute, before he was fully recovered from his sleep. He did not, however, believe that he had entirely lost his consciousness: but upon being questioned as to what had been said to him during his sleep, it was apparent that he had heard nothing.

The

"The committee now proceeded to the house of Mrs. R. first experiments consisted in the application of medicines, in the same manner as was practiced at the previous sitting, for the purpose of ascertaining to what extent a medicinal influence may be imparted through the hand. Dr. Forry having brought with him six different articles of the Materia Medica, each was tried successively; and as none of these parcels-each being enclosed in double papers-had any labels, the result could not be anticipated, as the contents of each paper were unknown, even to Dr. Forry himself. A decided effect was usually produced, in the course of thirty seconds; and most of the effects which did occur, were similar to those observed in the usual mode of administering such medicines. In those cases in which it was necessary for her to describe her feelings, the experiment would not, of course, be so successful as when the effects would speak for themselves. In regard to sulphate of quinine, however, she described the effect with much correctness, as cooling and strengthening.' The narcotics, however, told their own story, and in language, too, admitting of no two-fold meaning. A paper, for instance, was placed in her hand (it being at the same time held by Dr. Buchanan), which speedily produced so powerful a narcotic effect, as to create some alarm; and it was some minutes before she could be recovered by Dr. Buchanan from its poisonous influence. As she was being restored to a state of consciousness, she made several efforts to vomit; but, after the lapse of eight or ten minutes, during which time various 'passes' were made for her relief, she seemed quite recovered. On examination, this paper was found to contain the extract of stramonium (Jamestown weed). One of the papers which had been previously tried, and found to produce an irritating effect and copperish taste in the mouth,' and which was laid aside for subsequent trial, was now again presented. The effect, as it now, perhaps, proved less irritating, she described as 'stimulating, heating, and exciting' to a greater degree than she could well bear. This was opened, and found to contain Cayenne pepper. Another paper was presented, which induced narcotic and sickening effects, somewhat similar to those of the stramonium. was immediately removed, and the paper, on being opened, was found to contain opium.

It

"Dr. Buchanan now excited the organ of skepticism, and she soon evinced the highest action of the faculty. She ridiculed the idea of making experiments upon her, declaring that no effects were produced, and that she considered all such effects as perfect non sense. She denied that any effects had been produced upon her in the early part of the evening, either by medicines or by the application of the hand. She denounced Neurology as a ridiculous absurdity, and endeavored to convince one of the committee that he was quite mistaken in believing in such a pretended science, as there was no reason at all in its support. She spoke of other sciences and doctrines, which she denounced in similar terms, and declared that she relied only on facts and experience, and the evidence of her own senses. Whatever proposition was advanced, she would always assume the negative, and demand the proof of its truth. She denied the existence of thunder and lightning, saying that, as she did not comprehend them, she did not, of course, believe in their reality. Being asked if she did not believe that fire would burn, she denied most positively that it would; and to prove the negative, she ran to the heated stove, to place her fingers on it, and was only prevented, apparently, by her husband's grasping her hand, he being unwilling that her fingers should be burnt, for the illustration of science.

“Her mind was now, for a few moments, alternately placed in a state of profound faith and unbounded skepticism, showing how completely her belief in anything was regulated by the state of the two organs.

"These experiments being concluded, one of the committee entered into conversation with Mrs. R., in the German and French languages, in both of which she conversed fluently; and being asked how many languages she could speak, she replied,' five or six.' To ascertain the extent of her lingual powers, Dr. Buchanan excited, at the same time, her organs of memory and language. Under this influence, she made a long recitation from the Talmud, in the Chaldaic language, and chaunted, in a fluent and graceful style, the fifty-second chapter of Isaiah, in the Hebrew tongue, which fell upon the ears of the listeners, in the most impressive, distinct, and pleasing tone. These languages, which she learned in her youth, she has now almost entirely forgotten.

"Sub-committee met November 29th. Present, Messrs. Bryant and O'Sullivan, and Dr. Forry.

"The subject of the experiments to-day was a Mr. M., a young man residing in this city-a mechanic; but he was not regarded by Dr. Buchanan as sufficiently impressible to produce any very decided results.

"The first experiment consisted in a trial of strength in the arms. In the first place, his natural strength of arm was tested, by means of a carpet bag, containing some books, the weight being made equiv