836

ij. Mix; take two small spoonfuls everysecond hour.Under this treatment the child gradually

recovered.

CASE 7.—Rubeola. E. M., aetat. one yearand a half, had the measles severely, whichleft it in a very debilitated condition, withataxic fever, diarrhoea, foul tongue, andsordes on the lips and gums. I ordered thefollowing under which it gradually reco-vered :—

R. Chlor. of potash, gr. xv. ad xxx.Aromat. confect., 3j.; Carb. of soda, 3ss.;Orange syrup, 3iij. ; Infus. of orange peel,3iss. Make a mixture. Take two smallspoonfuls three times daily.

I have kept records of many other cases,but as they are, in a great measure, similarto those related, I should only occupy spaceunnecessarily, were I to relate them.Stowmarket, Aug. 15, 1837.

ANIMAL MAGNETISM.

EXPERIMENTS OF BARON DUPOTET.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.SIR :—On the 17th of this month I was

invited by a friend to accompany him tosee the experiments of Baron DUPOTET DESENNEVOYE, at Unixersity College Hospital.I had witnessed the performance of thesnake-charmers in India, and of the necro-mancer of Grand Cairo so often described.I had seen something of what were calledthe remains of the Psylli in Egypt; and hadreduced all these, to my own conviction atleast, within the limits of natural causes,and laid an account of them before the pub-lic in a magazine conducted by a friend*.As a professed unbeliever in whatever isnot proved, I felt not disinclined to add " Animal Magnetism" to my subjects of scru- tiny ; and this disposition was increased bythe circumstance of my daughter havingtold me that some years ago she was in-troduced to the Baron at Paris, and provedan impracticable subject, and of my havingbeen lately applied to from the country toconsult an eminent physician in town on acase of epilepsy, from whose conversationI had gathered much interesting informationon the power of the imagination over epilep-tic affections, which I could not help surmising I should see confirmed and extended.Add to all this, that I am some relation toDr. Alderson of Hull, who, I believe, wasthe first man that exploded the existence ofapparitions, by demonstrating that the seeingof apparitions is symptomatic of a certainstate of disease; and you will perceive thatI was in many ways pledged to not allow-

* See No. I. of " Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine,"article" « State of Magic in Egypt."

ing myself to be misled through want of thesceptical virtues. I will therefore offeryou the best account in my power of whatI witnessed, and the inferences I was dis-posed to draw ; trusting to have credit forhaving done it in a spirit of fairness through-out, and without the smallest intention ofgiving pain to any individual.On our arriving at the hospital, the medi-

cal officers, with their pupils, were goingtheir rounds in the men’s ward. Thoughinvited to accompany them, I preferred re-maining near the head of the stairs, whereI had a more general view. In a short timethe Baron arrived, a plain, intelligent, un.assuming-looking man, with a resemblance,it struck me, to Mr. Vigors the member forCarlow. I was shown at a distance, in thewomen’s ward, a girl, apparently walkingwith difficulty, who was stated to be oneof the patients on whom the experiments ofthe Baron had been made; and shortly after-wards another arrived, who, from the at-tention she attracted, I soon found was thepatient par excellence, the Prima donna of the" rnagnetic" stage. When the medical menhad finished in the men’s ward, they cameinto the women’s, making, with the visitors,something more than twenty ; besides whichthere were eight or nine women patients inthe ward, apparently convalescents or withslight complaints, and two or three womenattendants.

. The first-mentioned girl was invited toseat herself in an arm-chair in the middleof the ward. She was apparently about

twenty years of age, with dark hair, heavylook as if suffering under the effect of somesoporific drug, an in-patient of the hospitalon account of epileptic fits, and I suspecthad partially lost the use of the left sidefrom causes connected with that complaint.The Baron proceeded to draw his hands °

downwards before her face, sometimes alter-nately and sometimes both together, in themanner which I believe is pretty generallyknown as making part of the " magnetic"process. After about a quarter of an hour,’the patient was asked how she felt, (theBaron, by the way, not attempting Englishexcept under circumstances of urgency,)and on her replying that she thought shefelt " a little sleepy," the experiment wasdeclared unsuccessful ; though it was inti-mated that more effect had been producedon a previous occasion. I began to thinkI was the infidel before whom nothing wasfated to be seen.The other young lady then sat down, with

no reluctance, but on the contrary thatappearance of self-complacency which at-tends on conscious eminence in any line.She looked about seventeen years of age,with fair complexion and a profusion offlaxen ringlets, Grecian features and infact eminently handsome, figure short andslightly inclining to Lord Byron’s dislike,

837

ankles rather stouter than the Venus’s, handslarge and red, that looked like vouchers forhonest labour; to all appearance in thebloom of youth and health, and manifestlyof the temperament the French would callseiisible et coquette, but an out-patient of the hospital for epileptic fits, and with (as after-wards appeared) a seton in the back ofher neck, in part process of cure. If I wereto hazard a conjecture, I would say she was neither servant-girl nor sempstress, but thedaughter of an artisan or small tradesman,who scrubbed her father’s stairs, washedhis linen, and did the rest of the hard workof the house, but still lived in the state offreedom and enjoyment which attends on acondition so comparatively fortunate. Fromthe downcast direction of her eyes as

she sat, they could not be calculated onfor indicating sleep ; but her fingersplayed with her shawl, in the manner ofa person who does not quite know whatto do with her hands, which showed herto be awake. The Baron proceeded withthe waving motion of his hands. I cannotsay positively whether he ever touched herface, but he might possibly sometimes touchit slightly, or the surrounding curls; andhe certainly touched the gigot sleeves, in away which she could not fail to be con-scious of. Once also,—honi soit qui mal ypense,—in a later stage of the performance,he touched her knee, through the clothes,with the point of the fingers of the flattenedhand held horizontally, as if he was intend-ing to keep up an electrical communication.The patient appeared disposed to doze, andlean back in her chair ; in doing which, sheseveral times complained of hurting theseton in her neck, which temporarily rousedher. In about five minutes she began torub the left eye with the back of her hand,and then the other, rubbing with both handsat once with considerable violence. At theintimation of the Baron, somebody told herto open her eyes, and she replied pettishly," I can’t-I can’t." Some of the medicalattendants opened the eyelids by force, andthey closed again. The Baron then inti-mated that he would restore her to vision;and this part of the proceedings I watchedwith much curiosity. It appeared to me,that he applied the thumbs and forefingers ofboth hands at once to the interior angles ofthe eyes, and then drew them from the noseoutwards, pressing against the edges of thebones of the orbits; and this he did rapidly,twice. The patient immediately rose fromher chair and opened her eyes, lookingabout her with a winking and embarrassedmanner, as if waked out of sleep. I de-scribe what I saw ; and the only commentI can make upon it is, that up to this periodthere could not be said to be any distinctevidence, beyond the assertion of the pa-tient, for the reality of the effects purportedto be produced,

She sat down without the; smallest ap-pearance of reluctance, for the continua-tion of the experiment. Her fingers at first"

‘

played with her shawl as before; but inthree or four minutes the motion of the fin-gers ceased, and first one hand and then theother fell down as in sleep. She soon be-gan to lean to her left against the Baron,who, I must say, supported her in a veryhandsome and artist-like manner, by takinghold of her elbow with one hand, continu-ing to wave the other before her face. Inabout a minute more she raised herself,with a kind of convulsive effort to inspirethe greatest possible quantity of air,-whichthe Baron received with a la, lo, as a manwho knew perfectly what was coming,-and then she made a prolonged expiration,with something between a sigh and a sob,and fell across the arm of the chair on theother side as if dead. To preserve thebienséances she was laid out upon the floor,and her head and shoulders were proppedon a machine provided in hospitals for thatpurpose. The muscles appeared entirelyrelaxed, the limbs remaining in any positioninto which they were put; and in fact, withthe exception that her colour continuedslightly flushed, she presented the appear-ance of a recent corpse. The doctors pro-ceeded to pinch her hands, each harder thanhis predecessor, and forced snuff up hernostrils at an unmerciful rate, as each sur-mised his rappee was stronger than hisneighbour’s; but all without producing any --." token of sensibility. A young artist pre-sent could not help exclaiming, " Whatwould I give if she would remain in thatposition for twelve hours, that I mightsketch her! " and truly a painter with aCymon, might have racked his imaginationa long time for so good an Iphigenia. The-next process was that of shaking and shout-ing her name in her ear. This at first pro-duced movements of impatience, such as Ithink I have witnessed in the cases of epi-lepsy which fall more or less under everybody’s notice ; and once she made that mo-tion which is so frightful to the friends ofepileptic patients, and resembles an effort .’

to shake off an invisible enemy= the °

- si pectore possitExcussisse Deum,"

of’the Roman poet. At last our youthful f

Pythoness began to speak :- -

° Tunc sic orsa loqui yates :"

The first words she uttered were, " 0 whyshould blushes dye my cheek ?" and thenext were a poetical aphorism of no doubtequal impressiveness, of which I only col-lected that the burthen was " a sigh."

-

« Et talia fata,Conticuit."-

But after being again " well shaken," shespoke again and said, " won’t be turnedout, as I was before, for the servants to

838

laugh at;" which was explained by some-body saying, that on a former occasionwhen she had been subjected to the sameexperiments, she fancied that the servants(r suppose of the hospital) laughed at her.On continuation of the shaking process, shebegan to relate, by starts, some occurrencesin her neighbourhood which had impressedher imagination as ridiculous ; I surmise,

11 Obscuris vera involvens:"—

She said, " There was a man went

mad, and he jumped out of bed withouthis clothes and ran into the street." An-other shake produced, 11 I thought howdroll it would have been, if he had run intoa meeting of old quakers." Next came," He said that Mr. Hall (the apothecary, Isuppose, that ought to have kept him in

bed) wanted to get at his wife." Andfinally, "He called Mr. Hall an old gallipot-

- ’scraper." All this was said in the low,quiet tone of people that talk in their sleep,intermixed with laughing. Some of thewomen present remarked, "That’s exactlyall what she talks in her fits." The Baronnow began to try what he probably consider-ed as his tours de force; but these appearedto me to be failures. It-e retired to the extre-mity of the ward, and I understood the effectwas to be that the patient was to come toherself ; but nothing of this kind was pro-

’..duced. He then signified that he wouldtake another individual by the hand,andwhile he held his hand, the patient was tomake to that individual rational answers. Itwas tried, and, sure enough, the patientreplied; but not to the point, and alwaysupon one subject. The individual whosehand was taken by the Baron, was a pupilwho it appeared had charge of the de-

partment of young ladies with setons intheir necks, and his voice invariably causedher ideas to recur to the dressing of herneck, and she replied to him, halfcoquet-tishly and half pettishly, " Get away. Do

, « you know how much you hurt my neck?" If you hurt me so, you shall never comedc near me again." I thought the young manseemed rather disconcerted by the duty he

was put upon. After something more thanan hour had elapsed from the time when thepatient " sighed away her soul," the Baronintimated that he would restore her to con-sciousness. What he did this time, appear-ed to consist in bringing his two hands with-,in a foot of her face, and waving them twoor three times across the face, from the noseoutwards, in directions at right angles tothat by which the first symptoms had ap-peared to be induced, saying at the sametime, with as much of English pronuncia-

,tion as he could muster, "Get up." The

patient immediately rose, and looked abouther with the same winking and embarrassedair as before,—took the arm of the youngpupil, as Terence would say quàm familia-riter, and disappeared in the matron’s

room; after which ! I saw her o mote, till,chancing to be detained by rain at thevestibule, I saw her going out, apparentlynothing the worse ; and as I was asked if Iwould see the experiment renewed the nextday but one, I suppose she was perfectlyready for the repetition.And now I come to the impression made

on me in the way of explanation. I entire’ly give up the idea of collusion on the partof the patient; she was much too prettyand light-hearted to be the instrument of acold-blooded and painful fraud. To say nomore of the pinching and the snuff, it wouldhave required a long drilling to teach agirl the symptoms to be counterfeited ; andwhat would be the chance of a foreigner’sfinding the requisites muted, in an out-

patient in the University College Hospital?The explanation, I apprehend, lies in a ‘

much shorter compass, It is simply, thatthe waving motion of the hands (which itisobservable is as perceptible to the patientwhen the eyes are shut as when open, espe-cially if the face be turned towards thelight, as anybody may convince themselvesby experiment with their own hands) pro-duces an action on the brain, (akin perhapsto the dizziness produced by the sight ofrunning water), sufficient in some epilepticpatients (in the actual case, one out of two)two bring on. a real repetition-of the epilepticfit. I never felt any doubt that the pa-tient was in one of her epileptic fits ;and the remark of the women is confirma-tion of the identity. What troubled me,was the idea of what would become of usall if the patient never recovered, and wewere brought before the coroner that sat onMr. Cocking. How the recovery was

brought about, I- admit to be, the mysteri-ous point; but if we will only keep ourwits about us, and not be run away with byadmiration of the marvellous, we must beon the point of finding out the whole. Thefact already ascertained, I maintain to be,that certain motions before the eyes, pro-duce a cerebral affection, capable of in-

ducing epilepsy in certain states of pre-disposition. There is nothing in this morewonderful than in many other facts estabalished by experiment. For example, a fewweeks ago I experienced for the first timejwhat I remember hearing the servants talkof when I was a boy, that certain patternsupon walls and furniture produce giddiness,I was in a room at the Albion, and foundthe walls turning round. My first thoughtswere of apoplexy; but the recollection ofthe servants’ assertion came to my relief,The paper on the walls was a crimsonground, with something like serpentine columns in white, reaching front the floor tothe ceiling. Now if so slight a circum-stance can produce a cerebral affection in aperson of strong nerves and free from dis-ease, there seems nothing unreasonable in

839

believing that a wavy motion before the or modify the natural disease ? It has been

eyes of a wealdy patient, may produce a asserted in some of the newspapers, that thesui g’cMt’M effect upon the brain, which in patient described has had no recurrence ofepileptic habits shall have a tendency to her natural fits since the artificial practice.produce recurrence of the fit. It appears If this be so, there appears something liketo be merely a question of experiment. An an exhaustion of the epileptic tendency.honest scepticism does not consist in refus- I have not witnessed any repetition of

ing to believe that a cause A may produce the experiments, but I have heard the ac-an effect .B, if experiment proves them to counts of a person ill whom I have con-be connected ; but in refusing to believe fidence ; and as nothing but sheer imbecilityanything without competent proof, can prevent the immediate ascertainingAnother point of circumstantial evidence whether the main facts are correct or not,

in support of the absence of collusion, I I shall take the liberty of alluding to themthink I see in the following. Though not under that reservation. He says he saw themedical, I have enough of general informa- process tried on a girl of fourteen (whom Ition to know, that one of the first symptoms surmise I recollect), an in-patient in the

by which cerebral affections in general de- hospital, suffering under what the doctorsmonstrate themselves, and particularly in called " ecstatic delirium," left behind by awomen, in consequence probably of the fever. She was exceedingly violent andgreater contrast with their previous habits, abusive, assailing the Baron with the com-is a diminution of the ordinary restraint on mon-places she had heard employed againstlanguage. It takes place in insanity, in foreigners, which fortunately he did not un-drunkenness, in the delirium of opium, and derstand ; but after the 11 sigli" whichin epileptic fits which are only another form would appear to be a general symptom, sheof cerebral affection. Everybody knows came out a quiet, timid, orderly little girl,that when ladies faint, there is a hustling answering with great propriety to every thingaway of gentlemen; which is not so much on which was said to her. If this be so, theaccount of the necessity of cutting laces, as artificial cerebral iiritation whatever it is,for fear of what might be said by the patient would appear to have a tendency to quietduring the temporary suspension of re- delirium. An effect of the same kind, Istraint. The purest-minded woman upon think has been asserted to have been pro-earth, might talk of her innocent preferences, duced on maniacal patients, by turningher state of health, or many other subjects them in what our forefathers called a whirli-onwhiclt witnesses would not be desirable. gig. The patient whom I saw, is also de-Now I submit that in the case described, scribed as having approached much nearerthere is just so much of this kind of evidence to rationality during the access, or to haveas goes to establish the cause assigned. It had the fit in what may be called a dilutedis out of the range of probability, that a state. As one instance, I understand thatforeigner should have been able to instil when pestered with questions in her ear,with effect into the mind of a hospital she attempted to rise and make a manualpatient, that precisely such and such a de- defence; which reminds me, that when I sawparture from her ordinary restraint in lan- her, she, either by accident or design, gaveguage and conversation, would best keep a sound cuff to one unhappy questioner.up the character she was to assume. I Does the artificial stimulus, then, wear out,therefore conclude it to be more likely that or alter its effect by repetition? And doesthere was a real affection of the brain. this wearing-out modify the results, and soOne inference would appear to be, that the produce different phenomena in the patient?

cerebralirritation which induces the epileptic All these seem among possible things, andaction, at least of the artificial kind, is at- all seem to be determinable by attention andtended with no paiu. It may even be at- care.

r

tended with soothing and agreeable sensa- What appears to be the subject for regret, tions; as inthe case of a little girl of my own, is, that instead of pursuing the connexion v

of four and a half years, who always requests between causes and effects with scientific ‘to be ’,tickled to sleep, the " tickling caution, it should have been chosen to at-consisting in somebody drawing their hands tempt to envelope the whole with the namelightly over her face, which invariably sends of a new and mysterious science, and invest her in a few minutes to sleep. Various it as far as possible with something of thequestions of importance may also suggest supernatural. I cannot help avowing, that themselves. If there is a process that re- unless it was considered as a necessary com-moves the artificial fit, will it lead to a way pliment, the medical men present seemedof removing the natural one ’? And what is to lean to the side of the question which theyto be the effect of the artificial fits upon the ought not; in short, there was a little ofpatient? Epilepsy is understood to be con- a gobe-mouche spirit abroad. For instance,firmed by habit; is then the repetition three some of the questions they asked were in’times a week of the artificial fit, to go to- the highest degree unwise; not only as im-wards confirming the habit, or may it have plying the expectation of supernatural or

a tendency to act as a vaccine, and prevent extra-natural responses, but as having a

840

direct tendency to act as what counsel callleading questions." Take for example," How many more times must you be magne-tised beforeyou are able to see with your eyesshut ?"-which my informant seems to thinkwas afterwards extended to asking her howlong it would be before she could tell whato’clock it was by a watch held to the pit ofher stomach, to which, after much teazing,she appears to have held out something likea promise of hope. At the same time it isbut fair to say, that these questions mayhave been put at the direction of theBaron, and have been considered as an es-sential part of the trial of his process. Andin one view, good may result in the end.The alchemists might obscure science on thewhole, by the wild and mystical view theychose to take of the operations of nature.But their most irregular flights had still acertain chance, of discovering useful mia-

terials for the cooler heads of future genera-tions to work upon.My hope therefore is, that some medical

person will take up the question with theadvantages of professional knowledge, andwill steer a just course between credulityon the one hand, and a sickly dread ofdiscovering new truths upon the other,though concealed undeyany imaginable mass

. of the fantastic and the unsound. My old relation would have found it all out in a week; if a maniacal patient had not kicked Ihim to death. Truth can never be too soon

secured, nor error too quickly got rid of.Fifty years ago, it is probable that someuseful physiological facts which will nowbe elicited, would have been seized on byscientific men if the whole subject had notbeen contrived to be involved in the mysticaland the ridiculous. And what is there we

might not come to now, if the reins weregiven to the supernatural and the unproved?Think only what a combination in politicsmight be made out of " Animal Magnetism"and St. Simonianism; or various other amal-gams which will suggest themselves to thereader. I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

London, August 28, 1837. T.

INQUEST

ON A

FEMALE INFANT FOUND DEAD.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR:—My attention has just been directedto the letter of " JURIDICUS " in THE LANCETof the 19th inst., relative to a recent inquestupon the body of a female infant, at whichinquest, after making a careful post-mortemexamination, I attended to furnish the neces-sary medical evidence. Whilst I thank myunknown champion for his able and suc-cessful vindication, I feel bound, in justice

to the coroner and myself, to state, that thenewspaper reports of the inquest were

abridged, imperfect, and disjointed, neithergiving a fair summary of my evidence, norof his, the coroner’s, charge to the jury, aswill fully appear if you will kindly find aspace for the following copy of my notes of

the post-mortem examination, and of what Iremember of the coroner’s remarks :-Notes.-" There were several superficial

wounds on the trunk and arms; the lips andtongue were much swollen and discoloured;there was a mark round the neck as if thatpart had been tightly compressed ; the scalpon the left side was exceedingly tumefiedand discoloured ; the left eye was verymuch swollen and bloodshot; the left sideof the face also presented a bruised ap-pearance ; the naval string, which had beenproperly tied and cut, was shrivelled, putrid,and partially detached.

"I noticed that some blood had oozedfrom the nostrils."On proceeding to make an internal ex.

amination I found the lungs fully expandedand crepitating in every part ; portions cutfrom each lohe, floated buoyantly in water.The heart contained a moderate quantity ofcoagulated blood. The stomach was empty.The intestines did not contain meconium,bnt a considerable quantity of feculentmatter of a pale-yellow colour. On examin.’ ing the head I found the left parietal bonemuch more yielding than the right ; towardsthe centre it was completely bruised, or,rather, crushed ; there was a considerablecoagulum beneath the dura mater, corres-ponding with the injury of the bone and thecontused scalp; there were, also, largecoagula at the base of the brain." considered that this child had notonly been born alive, but had lived many

hours, and that death had been caused by asevere fall or blow : from the appearance ofthe body at the time I examined it I shouldsuppose it had been dead about forty-eighthou rs." Now, to the professional reader, it will be

very evident that in coming to the conclusionthat this infant " had not only been bomalive but had lived many hours," I did notrely materially upon the hydrostatic test,be that test valuable or worthless ; althoughthe absence of all tendency to decomposition,and the full expansion and free crepitationof every part of each lung, presented ap-pearances which were wholly different fromthose of the lungs in a state of putrefaction,-from the wholly-collapsed and liver-likefoetal lung,—or from the partially-col.lapsed, partially-expanded, and, perhaps,also highly-congested lung of an infant thathad respired once or twice imperfectly, andthen ceased to exist.

I attached more importance to the absenceof meconium, and the presence of feces,exhibiting the ordinary appearances of those