sence of several distinguished persons, and is reported in the Journal of Toulouse."

In England, also, numerous instances of surgical operations, without pain, are now recorded. Dr. Elliotson has published an account of some of these, to which it may be sufficient to refer the reflecting reader*.

Surely, then, a power so simple, yet so efficacious, well deserves the consideration of physiologists; and especially when we can add, that, as a therapeutic agent also, it is placed beyond doubt; but this last consideration I leave to a detail of my personal experience in a future chapter.

* See "Surgical Operations without Pain in the Mesmeric State. By T. Elliotson, M. D. Cantab., F.R.S."

CHAPTER V.

THEORY OF MAGNETISM.

OUR duty, in reference to knowledge in general, is to observe facts, rather than to form hypotheses. Το go on, as Bacon teaches, in the modest accumulation of positive data; aware that these are eternal truths, whatever may come of our opinions. Yet, to the diligent inquirer into nature, some law or ultimate rule will usually make itself apparent, and then mystery, which was truth seen in fragments, is perceived to cohere, and to be as beautiful as it is simple. The comet, at first, not only astonished, but affrighted mankind; and still remained inexplicable till the law of a body moving in an hyperbola was ascertained. How wise and needful also the long induction, until, at length, the truth, on which the universe depends, of the attraction of bodies varying inversely as the squares of their distances, poured like a flood of light on the reflecting mind of Newton. Mariners have used the compass for ages, and yet the proper theory of mineral magnetism remains to be solved, and even the place of the central abode of the force is but just ascertained. And

thus, in the subject before us, facts are to be considered, compared, received. We must not expect an over near approach to the causes of things connected with our primary being. Yet something may be said, and, if in modesty and caution, the thoughts may offer, at least, a step in the right direction; and, at all events, may suffice to prevent a priori objections to the whole subject.

First, then, it may be remarked, that the question of an animal power, acting at a distance from the creature employing it, is put beyond doubt by the now familiar phenomenon of the electric eel. This animal, though far less energetic than when found in its native rivers, may still be seen any day at the Adelaide Gallery to kill fish, put into its tub as a prey, at a distance from them. The fish are, at first, full of life, till the creature wills the shock, and then, at once, though no apparent cause intervenes, at the volition of the eel, they rise to the surface dead.

When, then, we compare the lower development of the gymnotus electricus with the complete arrangements of nature in the most perfect of her works-man, is it unreasonable to conclude that something may be found in him similar to this power, but proportioned to the excellency of the creature, and to those moral attributes of compassion and sympathy which it is the will of God

that he should exercise? For defence and sustenance the eel has received the gift, for compassion and for happiness the nobler being-man. Secondly, the conditions predicated of magnetism, although peculiar, are not wholly foreign to us in our normal state. It is in many aspects, at least, one whose symptoms are already found; the dif ference being, that, in magnetism, they are produced artificially or at will. The remedial power of sleep, for instance, is a matter of such universal experience as to render it needless to insist upon the fact. Nor is it apparently only by the repose it affords to the muscular system that it acts; for while, on the one hand, we perceive that a very long rest, as a night passed in a reclining posture, but without sleep, is not sufficient to restore nature, a few minutes even, the mere forgetfulness of a moment, will often totally reanimate the frame. It would seem, then, that there is some peculiar agency acting by the mind upon the nerves in slumber which renews the principle of life within, and this will suffice, full often, for the assuagement of pain, and the restoration of health. The anxious question of the physician, "Has the patient slept? or, How has he slept?" will shew the opinion entertained of the importance of this gracious arrangement of nature, which, in some cases, as in delirium tremens for example, is the sole

known remedy; while the approximation to insensibility observable in the state may prepare our thoughts for receiving the notion of a yet greater withdrawal of the mind from its outposts. But what is said of natural sleep is, in some respects, true of that caused by narcotics. These are the best means hitherto known of producing artificial slumber; their effects are in a high degree deadening as to pain, and, were it not for the derangement of the organs produced by some other of their qualities, the result would, probably, be far more remedial than it is.

But, whatever these may be, our object is made out; viz., in the establishment of the two pointsfirst, of the remedial effects of slumber; secondly, of the possibility artificially to produce it. This is not precisely magnetism; still less is it the whole thereof; but it affords a clue to some of its phenomena. The question which remains, as far as these analogies obtain, is, the possibility of producing coma by the means which we assert.

The same kind of argument may be derived from catalepsy. Here is an insensibility, more or less complete, with rigidity of the muscles; and so far magnetism produces, by voluntary effort, similar results.

We may, advancing another step, observe also the parallel in normal somnambulism. This state