Where? Further up. Grey. Do you see the blood moving in it? Yes. What like? Reddish-white. Oh! I see little things! I must see close threads like hairs from the side coming from the bone. Oh! what a number! Do you see the brain? Yes;-big bone; curious fibre things. Does the brain look different when awake or asleep? I think it does. Patient awoke at expiry of ten minutes. THIRD EXAMINATION. Are you asleep? Yes. Will you sleep for ten minutes? Yes. Do you see your back? Yes. What is it like? Smooth, white, quite white; reddish low down, nearly at the bottom. Is it hot? Yes, hot. Do you see what I have in my hand? A board with lines on it. Do you see the colour of the lines? Yes, I must look close -close. Can you count them? One, two, three-no, I can't. She pointed out one of the colours on the board, and expressed herself over and over again that this was the one like her back. The board contained all the shades of purple, from red to blue. FOURTH EXAMINATION. Are you asleep? Yes. Will you sleep for ten minutes? Yes. Will you look at your back? Yes. What do you see? The same, just the same; reddish purple down low; not better. Do you see the blood in it? Yes. Do you see the blood in other parts? Yes; little vessels, Do you see the blood in the little vessels? Yes, little threads, red and white. Has the blood the same appearance in the red part as in the other? It is redder. How broad is the red spot? A little bit. Half an inch? Longer, it rises from the back, lumpy. Do you see the brain? I see a bone. A large bone? Yes; curious, Oh curious! Do you see anything on the outside of the bone? Blood. Do you see anything quite outside ?-Do you see your hair? Yes. Are any of them like your back?-She pointed out one. Is it less red? Yes, it is paler. She pointed out the colour it resembled most. During an attendance of many months we repeated our examinations at each visit, and we shall now give the general conclusions we have arrived at on the matter, after a long series of careful observations, and after reading the current literature of the subject. When Coleridge says, "Seeing is not believing, but believing is seeing," he meant something better than a philosophical optical paradox. And the more we reflect upon vision, the more are we convinced that both memory and imagination have more to do with the process than we at first suppose. Ordinary vision implies two conditions, an external visible object and an internal seeing and conceiving faculty. So that it is well said we see what we bring with us, the faculty of seeing. The perception of an uneducated person on looking at some wholly new sight is quite different from that of one used to examine the object seen. Sight affords the materials, but the mind constructs the picture; and the picture varies with the mind. The same holds good in clairvoyance. The person describes as he conceives he sees, but his conception depends upon many conditions. In the waking state the errors of sight may be corrected by the other senses or by changing the point of view. This is not possible in clairvoyance. So that at the outset we must expect great fallacies, and our observation has fully confirmed this anticipation. Of one thing, however, we are certain: that the images described by the clairvoyant are not derived from the waking person who puts the questions. Any one used to observe his own mind knows that there is a wide distinction between the active imaginative state and the passive recipient one. In the former it is full of images; in the latter there is none. Now we are quite sure that in the case we have just detailed the images described by the patient were not in our mind. Her mode of perception we do not even attempt to guess at, but we know that it was not derived from us, for we never had conceived, in her fashion, of the things she described. In trying to settle for ourselves the important question of how far these descriptions were trustworthy, we became aware of certain important sources of fallacy. The most important is this: there may exist some kind of emotional sympathy between the mesmeriser and the person who is mesmerised. The emotions of hope or fear or anxiety which affect the waking person may be communicated to the sleeper. These emotions seem to act upon the imagination, and to mould to a great extent the sleeping vision. Hence we are inclined to disbelieve all descriptions which relate to subjects strongly affecting the feelings of the mesmeriser. Besides, there is the constant effort of imagination eking out what is seen, like a person peering through a mist at a dim object he is anxious to recognise. After these enormous deductions we find a residue of pure observation, but we have no means of ascertaining how far even this is to be depended on unless we have independent means of verifying it, which of course supposes the subject to be one patent to our waking faculties, and this narrows still more the possible utility of the revelations of clairvoyance. The practical conclusion we are inclined to come to is that mesmerism as a hypnotic agent is very valuable, that in certain rare cases the revelations of a clairvoyant may be of value in ascertaining the precise pathological condition of patients, but that it must be employed with extreme caution and reserve, as it is just as likely to mislead as to guide aright. The cases we have described are the only ones in which we have found it necessary or expedient to employ this agent, after a pretty extensive practice of ten years' duration, and hence we are disposed to think that it is only required in rare and exceptional cases; but that there is a class for the cure of which it is indispensable, we have no doubt. On the moral aspects of the subject we consider it out of place to enter, but we cannot refrain from making one observation, and it is this: that the relation of a physician to his patient is the most sacred, the most delicate, and the most responsible which can unite two persons in a professional point of view, and that any person fitted to discharge the high duties implied by this connection is worthy of the trust which must be reposed in one who is made the depository of the sleeping confidence of another. And let us add that we consider that the employment of mesmerism for the purpose of amusement is utterly disgraceful to all connected with such exhibitions. 42 CASES OF UTERINE DISEASE, WITH PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS AND FURTHER ENQUIRIES. No. 1. BY THOMAS R. LEADAM, Surgeon-Accoucheur to the London Homœopathic Hospital, &c. CASES. Simple Congestion of the Uterus. J. H., aged 28, widow; no children living, has had one. Dark complexion, sanguineous temperament, quick disposition. Was admitted into the hospital in February 1851, under Dr. Quin, suffering from peritonitis. During the convalescence, which was speedy, she had hysteria once, which makes me think the ovary or uterus, one or both, were in some degree involved in the peritoneal inflammation. On recovery and commencing to walk about the ward, she complained of great pain at the pubes, and sense of weight in the pelvis which prevented her standing. Difficulty of passing the water and bearing down, with constipation. On examining the uterus, per vaginam and rectum, I found the body of the organ enlarged, doughy, and slightly prolapsed. The os was sensitive when touched, and the posterior wall tender. Platina 12 was prescribed. In a week she was so much relieved that she was discharged, and ordered to attend as an out-patient. She got Platina 30. She then appeared twice as an out-patient, and received Platina again, which completely cured her. No. 2. Hysteralgia, or Irritable Uterus. Decr. 11, 1850.-L. C., aged 44, single, sanguineous temperament, red hair, very fair complexion; of sedentary habits; dress maker. Has been ill now for 14 years; was always a sufferer from dysmenorrhoea. Chief complaints are as follow.-Cephalalgia, intense over the left eye; dull, heavy pain, with dimness of sight. Flushes of heat in the face. Noises in the ears like the rushing of water. Great depression of spirits; despair of recovery. Loss of appetite; nausea in the morning, with faintness. Sleep disturbed by frightful dreams. Has always a dread or apprehensiveness upon her. Her sufferings are intense. Catamenia were regular till the |