Mesmeri m

same with each distinct change of condition during the sleep. Thus we may perceive that in all changes, certain forces or indications are evolved. And you see what admirable proofs we have of the action of one living body upon another. You may suppose what I thought of the objection that the effects of mesmerism were only imagination in the patient, while I was in possession of this test, and was easing people of their pains, and even putting them into the mesmeric sleep, for the first time, and wholly without their knowledge.

Another mode of inquiry with sleepers is to cause them, on any striking mental effects having occurred to them in dreams or otherwise, to point out to you, one after the other, the parts of the brain which have been affected, or in which pain has occurred, in relation to the passion or feeling of the time; and also in regard to the effects of mind upon the body, and of the body on the mind. and brain. The extraordinary memory and sense of these influences and relations with some sleepers are very remarkable, and would hardly be credited by those who have not observed or investigated them. I could relate to you numerous striking instances of this. Beyond all this, you know how I found that I could excite into action any portion of the brain, or arrest any portion already in action, by touching the part, and in some instances by only pointing to it; and by other means: so that in numerous instances, I could play upon the head, and produce what actions I pleased, just as dis

tinctly as you play upon the keys of the piano. The clearness of the response of course depended on the condition of the patient. In some cases, only a few parts are susceptible: in others, the whole brain or the brain is susceptible during one condition of the sleep and not another, or at one time and not at another. In some cases patients are subject to the action of metals and other substances; and one substance will destroy the effect of another, or unite and cause a third result.

In some cases, the mere pressure of inanimate substances will excite the action of the part; or the mere pressure of where the head is resting. The different parts of the brain can be thus excited, just as we excite any other portion of the nervous system: a limb, or one finger, or two fingers at a time; or a nerve of the face, so as to cause a twitching or other action of the part. The organs of the cerebellum are generally more susceptible than those of the cerebrum: but there are cases where the result is confused, or the excitement brings in a combination in its habit of action with other parts. In such cases, you can hardly draw any positive conclusions, any more than from the confused results of Majendie's vivisections. In a few instances, some parts being more susceptible than others, touching in the neighborhood of those parts will call them into action, and not the less susceptible part which is actually touched. This is oftener the case with the organs of the cerebellum than with those of the cerebrum. But

these are not cases on which I rely ; and they are unfit for experiment. Failures in such cases are not to be considered as affording any objection to the clear and decided results from fit subjects, any more than a pain in the special organ after fatigue or distraction, — of music, for instance, — is to be negatived because some men have confused headache from a similar cause; they being in a different condition: or the single ache of one finger is to be denied, because in some instances the whole hand, and in others the whole arm, becomes influenced more or less on touching any part. Every case must be taken on its own merits, and the cause of failure or confusion ascertained. Thus, failures and modified results often become the clearest proof of the truth already established from positive and clear evidences. I have excited the separate organs of people in a natural sleep; even of very young children; and by the acting on the muscular power, have caused them to rise up and throw their arms about, without waking.

Now, in this last class of experiments, what a startling and undeniable proof have we of the truth of phrenology, as well as of mesmerism! Those ill disposed towards the subject might dispute the size of organs on the skull, or talk of coincidences, &c., but we have here as clear a result from the action of the brain, and from each part of the brain, as in touching the piano, or in the rubbing of a lucifer match, or by adjusting a voltaic pile. And can any experiment in nature be so interesting, or

more important? In the next letter, I can, I think, complete this part of the subject, and tell you all I presume you wish to hear from me about the brain and its functions.

VII.

INQUIRY FOR NEW DISCOVERIES.

H. M. To H. G. A.

THIS last letter of yours is extremely interesting. Let me say, in the first place, that there is no danger of my thinking that you exaggerate the value of the discoveries you have made as to the functions of some portions of the brain. I do not see how it is possible to overrate them,- supposing them proved, of which I have no doubt.

Let us just look at the course of the affair. First, I suppose, all movement, all operation of one thing upon another, was concluded, before science existed, to imply spirit. The winds, the waters, the waving and sprouting trees, the flickering fire, were all animated by spirits; and so were the movements of man, the rolling eye and jerking limbs of the new-born infant, as well as the far-reaching thought of the philosopher. How very lately were stillborn children supposed to be damned because they had not been baptized! Then, almost every organ seems to have been honored and glorified before the

brain; and especially the heart. How long will the word Heart stand in our parlance for soul, affections, sensibility, conscience? Then, by slow degrees, the brain seems to have risen into a sort of vague consideration as an indispensable, noble, but most mysterious part of our frame. All along, while any attention at all was paid to the brain, there seems to have been some kind of general impression that its size and mode of development indicated character. We find a low forehead, a small head, a thick skull, thought ill of; philosophers represented with large foreheads, and gladiators with a thick base to the skull: and, since Gall's time, we have met with a more and more extended admission that the head appears to have three regions, the intellectual, moral, and physical departments. Then came Sir Charles Bell's grand discovery about the nerves; his detection of the different structure and function of the motory and sensory nerves: mighty discovery in itself, but yet greater for its suggestive value. Here is one kind of nerve for sensation, by which the cataleptic patient may feel while wholly unable to move; and another kind for motion, by which a patient may be frightfully convulsed without feeling any thing. A friend of mine, who told me all about it, was in the first of these states, her sentience acute while wholly incapable of motion; and she had a somewhat narrow escape from being buried alive. The most curious thing is that she concluded herself to be dead. She was in a state of exhaustion after severe

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