THE RE-EDUCATION OF THE ADULT BRAIN. 455 



will have doubled its length, and that ultimately it will form a com- 

 plete ring round the whole orbit. When this takes place, a shower of 

 these meteors will fall every year upon the earth, but the swarm will 

 be then so scattered that the display will be far less imposing than it 

 now is. 



Such is the history of one of the many meteoric streams which 

 cross the path of the earth. There are several of these streams, and 

 no doubt the story of every one of them is quite as strange. And if 

 there are several streams of meteors, which come across that little line 

 in space which constitutes the earth's orbit, what untold multitudes 

 of them must be within the whole length and breadth of the solar 

 system ! Perhaps it may even turn out that the mysterious zodiacal 

 light which attends the sun is due to countless hordes of these little 

 bodies flying in all directions through the space that lies within the 

 earth's orbit. 







THE RE-EDUCATION OF THE ADULT BRAIN. 



By WILLIAM SHAEPEY, M. D., LL. D., F. E. S., 



EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. 



MRS. H , the subject of the following case, is about twenty- 

 four years of age,* of a pale complexion and slender make. 

 She was married in July, 1823, and, with the exception of occasional 

 headaches to which she, in common with some of the rest of her family, 

 was subject, and slight bowel complaints, she previously to that time 

 enjoyed good health, both of body and mind. After her marriage she 

 resided in England till the end of April, 1824, when, in consequence of 

 ill health, she was brought here by her husband, on a visit to her friends 

 who live in this neighborhood,! and with whom she had passed a great 

 part of her previous life. From her husband's account, it appeared 

 that for about three months after their marriage she enjoyed perfect 

 health and spirits, but that after that time she complained a good deal 

 of pain in her stomach and bowels ; her appetite was bad, she began 

 to lose spirits, imagining herself unequal to the concerns of the house, 

 though her family consisted only of herself and her husband ; and 

 now also it was observed that she slept more than usual. The medi- 

 cal gentlemen consulted, believing some of her complaints might be 

 owing to an affection of the liver, administered mercury in small quan- 

 tities and applied leeches to the temples in considerable numbers, with 

 a view to relieve an uneasy feeling of lightness which she complained 

 of in her head ; but these remedies proved of little or no avail, and 

 for some time before leaving England, excepting a laxative which she 



* This was written in 1824. f Arbroath, Forfarshire. 



