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which Sir Charles Bell perceived to be necessary. Your instance of the lady in trance is one of those singular cases of which the interest is so great. I have witnessed it often, induced by mesmerism, when there has been the appearance of death, and incapacity for the slightest movement, to indicate life or attract attention. Again, there is the sleepwalker, apparently without consciousness; and the opposite state,-of consciousness and fright, and the feeling of inability to move, which we call nightmare. Another state of dream is that of flying, or being carried along, and of slipping down a precipice; the sense of motion, independent of exertion, or of any muscular feeling. We shall begin to have a better understanding of dreams, I think, presently. You will see, at once, the relation of these muscular powers to the different character of fits, and many other abnormal conditions.

Towards the centre of the cerebellum, I find the organs appropriate to the different bodily pains and pleasures, temperature, &c.,-such as indicate the condition of the body, rather than in relation to external things. The innermost portions of the cerebellum relate to the more secret doings of the internal functions,-the growth, secretions, and replenishings of the body. In the central part of the cerebellum is that which relates to the physical conditions of the amative state; but that love which is the desire of union with the opposite sex, is the central organ of the cerebrum, immediately above the cerebellic organ of the physical relation. In

regard to pain, we must remember one very remarkable fact, that some sleepers are so insensible to pain, that you might cut off their limbs without their knowledge, and while they are talking or laughing with you; and yet they will feel instantly any pain inflicted on the mesmerizer. Sometimes they will refer the pain to the same part in themselves; at other times, feel it as in their mesmerizer, and be greatly disturbed by it. Ann Vials, on the nerves of motion or sensation in the stump of the arm that had been removed, being irritated from any cause, feels the motion or pain, as the case may be, as in the limb; the bending of a finger and thumb, or pain in a particular spot, just as if the arm were in its place. We refer pain to a disturbed part, just as we refer noise to a distant place or object. If a ray of light is, as it were, cut in half, and reflected from a mirror, we do not see it on the mirror, but as behind the mirror, the whole distance it has come.

But we shall never get on if we diverge into these relations by excursions into Cosmos. There does certainly seem something truly wondrous in being able by the slightest touch, as by magic, to cause a person to be instantly sensible or insensible to any degree of pain but what we know of the effects of a few breathings of chloroform diminishes the apparent marvel, while it adds to the real interest of the condition, as affording another evidence and mode of experiment. It is remarkable, the rapidity with which a particular state may be induced or

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removed ;-intense anger, for instance, in a moment being converted to benevolence and tears;—the sense of pain being stayed, and complete rigidity dissolved with a breath. Our friend, Mrs. W., used to go into a strange state of rigidity when mesmerized. It would take, I believe, sometimes half an hour to get her wholly relaxed. I saw her in this state one day, and breathed on the muscular organs, and she was released immediately. It is the same with lockjaw as with other local rigid conditions which often occur under mesmerism. I have caused children, as I mentioned before, in their natural sleep to rise up and lie down again, or throw about their arms without waking, by gently touching the Muscular power, just as I cause somnambules to walk in profound sleep, and when no other excitement or pressure on any other part of the head, or desiring them and entreating them to move, will induce them to do so. In this you have a clear fact; an instance wherein neither the impression of my thoughts, or commands, or suggestions, or other means, avail anything. The response comes as truly as the sound from touching a particular note on the piano. If this be a delusion, what may not be a delusion? and we may ask in despair, "what is truth?" I can cause these mesmeric sleepers to dream what I will, and make them fancy they have pain or pleasing sensations, as the case may be, or that they are in motion, &c. After any great muscular straining or exertion, I find pain in that muscular organ, both in myself and others: also in the

central portion of the cerebellum, under the influence of cold or indigestion. I have noted the intense and often fixed pain in the central portion of the cerebellum, in many cases of deranged physical condition. I make mesmerized patients hold a weight, and tell me where it influences the brain, and see how the excitement of that part affects them, and I cause them to trace their various sensations, injuries, &c., to the brain. Whatever road I follow, it brings me to the same spot. And then, again, I take Gall's method. I have observed the great development of the muscular organs of the lateral portions of the cerebellum in prizefighters and others, having great muscular power, agility, or muscular sensibility. The gladiators, as you remark, were noted for having a thick base to the skull. I have observed also numbers of children with precocious muscular power, and the brain protruding at these organs, while I notice men with large muscles but little strength, or muscular tact and sensibility, deficient in the necessary organs. When the general physical or vital powers are great, the cerebellum is highly developed; particularly the central portion. The results of vivisections confirm my statements, and cannot be explained under any other view. Anatomy shows no objection, but is wholly in favour of the new philosophy. Again, the effects recorded under morbid conditions and injuries to the brain, give sanction to the same. But you see it is quite impossible to do more than allude to such matters, except when you wish any special explanation.

And here I must pause again, and leave the rest I have to say about the brain for another letter. But I may add, that I am far more anxious to set men inquiring by methods adapted to the subject, than to establish what I have noted as new light from my experiments. The knowledge of these organs of the cerebellum in particular, you will perceive to be highly important towards the explanation and cure of disease; and to be most suggestive and necessary to those who mesmerize. Every mesmerizer should understand phrenology and phreno-mesmerism; and the physician who is ignorant of these matters of phreno-physiology, goes into the sick chamber with a light only on one side of his subject.

IX.

H. M. TO H. G. A.

You say it would be an extremely interesting question whether one disease may not be made to drive out another. Do you mean by this anything different from the ordinary medical practice of our time? I take it, this is the whole secret of medical practice, the secret of giving calomel, and all the other horrible drugs by which doctors are wont "to set up one disease to drive out another," as they say.

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