82 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



processes of change affecting the substance of the brain as the disease 

 of the body progressed. But it does not follow that the substance of 

 the brain was undergoing changes necessarily tending to its ultimate 

 decay and dissolution. Quite possibly the changes were such as might 

 occur under the influence of suitable medicinal or stimulant substances, 

 and without any subsequent ill effects. Dr. Richardson, in an interest- 

 ing article on ether-drinking and extra-alcoholic intoxication (" Gentle- 

 man's Magazine "for October), makes a remark which suggests that 

 the medical men of our day look forward to the discovery of means for 

 obtaining some such influence over the action of the brain. After de- 

 scribing the action of methylic and ethylic ethers in his own case, he 

 says : " They who have felt this condition, who have lived, as it were, 

 in another life, however transitorily, are easily led to declare with Daw 

 that * nothing exists but thoughts ! the universe is composed of im- 

 pressions, ideas, pleasures, and pains ! ' I believe that it is so, and that 

 we might by scientific art, and there is such an art, learn to live alto- 

 gether in a new sphere of impressions, ideas, pleasures, and pains. . . . 

 But stay," he adds, as if he had said too much, " I am anticipating, un- 

 consciously, something else that is in my mind. The rest is silence ; I 

 must return to the world in which we now live, and which all know." 



Mr. Butterworth mentions the case of the Rev. William Tennent, of 

 Freehold, New Jersey, as illustrative of strange mental faculties pos- 

 sessed during disease. Tennent was supposed to be far gone in con- 

 sumption. At last, after a protracted illness, he seemingly died, and 

 preparations were made for his funeral. Not only were his friends de- 

 ceived, but he was deceived himself, for he thought he was dead, and 

 that his spirit had entered paradise. " His soul, as he thought, was 

 borne aloft to celestial altitudes, and was enraptured by visions of God 

 and all the hosts of heaven. He seemed to dwell in an enchanted re- 

 gion of limitless light and inconceivable splendor. At last an angel 

 came to him and told him that he must go back. Darkness, like an 

 overawing shadow, shut out the celestial glories ; and, full of sudden 

 horror, he uttered a deep groan. This dismal utterance was heard by 

 those around him, and prevented him from being buried alive, after all 

 the preparations had been made for the removal of the body." 



We must not fall into the mistake of supposing, however, as many 

 seem to do, that the visions seen under such conditions, or by ecstatics, 

 really present truths of which the usual mental faculties could not be- 

 come cognizant. We have heard such cases as the death-bed visions of 

 Mrs. Hemans, and the trance visions of Tennent, urged as evidence in 

 favor of special forms of doctrine. We have no thought of attacking 

 these, but assuredly they derive no support from evidence of this sort. 

 The dying Hindoo has visions which the Christian would certainly not 

 regard as heaven-born. The Mohammedan sees the plains of paradise, 

 peopled by the houris of his heaven, but we do not on that account ac- 

 cept the Koran as the sole guide to religious truth. The fact is, that 



