458 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



for some time, then awoke, complaining of pain, with her hand on the 

 fore part of her head, on which also she placed the hand of a person 

 near her and pressed it down firmly with her own ; after thus com- 

 plaining for two or three hours, she fell asleep. The same thing 

 happened on the next and the two or three succeeding evenings, nearly 

 at the same hour, but each time with less complaint. Other circum- 

 stances about this time showed that she was suffering considerable 

 uneasiness in her head. She was very impatient in the erect posture, 

 and, when lifted out of bed, would not put her feet to the ground, but 

 drew up her legs to her body, as if to force those who held her to lay 

 her down again. This, however, was not the case when she required 

 to be taken up for the purpose of making any evacuation. She gener- 

 ally also preferred to lie on her face, and always with her head very 

 low, with both hands firmly clasped over it, exactly on the part to 

 which she had formerly referred the peculiar feeling already mentioned, 

 and showed much uneasiness when they were removed, unless the 

 pressure was continued by the hand of another person. 



After this, the torpor continued for some time without being inter- 

 rupted ; but in the mean time the symptoms of pain in the head, and 



the uneasiness in the erect posture, gradually wore off, and Mrs. H 



now no longer talked in her sleep. Her bowels were kept open by 

 laxative medicine, which now did not operate so severely as to wake 

 her. She had, since the beginning of June, had a blister applied to the 

 nape of the neck, and three to the head at different periods ; sinapisms 

 to the feet were also had recourse to, and two or three times electric 

 shocks were passed through her arms. These remedies, like other 

 painful stimulants, caused her to complain much ; and one of the 

 blisters, which was sufficiently large to cover the whole scalp, made 

 her open her eyes ; but their effects were merely temporary, leaving, 

 to all appearance, no permanent impression on her complaint. Lest 

 there might be any serous effusion within the cranium, digitalis was 

 used along with the sweet spirit of niter, in such quantity as greatly 

 to augment the flow of urine. By its operation her pulse was reduced 

 so low as forty-four in a minute ; and, while using it, she appeared to 

 suffer from sickness at the stomach, during which she often put her 

 fingers into her mouth, as if wishing for something to eat or drink ; and 

 she was subject to what seemed an oppressive feeling in the region of 

 the heart, with a peculiar interruption to her breathing, which came 

 in paroxysms ; all which symptoms left her after discontinuing the 

 medicine. 



Toward the latter end of July, the torpid state, which had suffered 

 no more intermissions, was become on the whole not quite so deep ; at 



least Mrs. H now gave signs of being more conscious of anything 



that was done to her. She smiled and seemed pleased on receiving par- 

 ticular sorts of food, and when her eye was opened, or any part of her 

 face touched with a finder, her whole countenance became suffused with 



