128 Tranxaction^. — Minccilaneoiia. 



oi- have dcalin.ns with, but his powers of mental vision were 

 certainly most remarkable. An examination of his body before 

 — or after — death (whichever it was) disclosed a more than 

 ordinary development of nerve-tissue, and this would seem to 

 account for his most extraordinary powers. Anatomists and 

 ]-)hysiologists, like other students of nature and her wonders, 

 are frequently misled, and come to unwarranted conclusions, 

 for nature's most subtle workings, especially in the animal 

 kingdom, are concealed with so rare a cunning that it 

 liaffles the research of the most skilful and diligent investi- 

 gators. But the patient inquiries of these silent workers, like 

 the action of earthworms, are entirely beneficent. They are 

 frequently rewarded by being able to place at the disposal 

 of the medical world the means of alleviating the physical 

 sufferings of mankind. If we trace the history of their dis- 

 coveries from the days of rude surgery — when after the ampu- 

 tation of a limb there was no known means of staying the 

 haemorrhage except by cauterising tlie stump with hot iron — 

 to the marvels of the present day — to the use of anaesthetics, 

 and of hydrochlorate of cocaine, by whose deadening 

 influence the most delicate operations in ophthalmic surgery 

 can be performed without pain to the patient — -we must 

 acknowledge their services with the profoundest feelings of 

 gratitude. These researches into '■ the fountains of our 

 deepest life " appear to many well-meaning persons as impious. 

 The study of the wondrous mechanism of the human brain, 

 and its functional activity in health and disease, is frequently 

 regarded even at the present da_\' with as much hostility as 

 neci'omancy and dealings in the'so-called "black art" were 

 of old. Every effort made to unravel the mysteries of 

 conscious being is condenmed as sinful, to be punished by 

 extreme mental and bodily suffering, — 



Yet all too little to atone 



For kno\\iiig what should ne'er lie known. 



J3ut surely such persons err. The reverent study of the 

 glorious perfection of Creative AVill is man's true homage. He 

 therein recognises, however imperfect the iX'velation may be, 

 some of the attributes of the universal man. 



What is this subtle and mysterious agei-it that paralyses the 

 strong will, and compels the nerve and muscular sense to obey, 

 in an unreasoning and mechanical way, the dictates of another 

 mind ? If in the hands of a l)eneficent person it can be made 

 to act as a remedial agent to relieve bodily suffering or mental 

 distress, it is capable of being used also, it must be admitted, 

 by the malignant and unscrupulous to gratify the worst feel- 

 ings or the basest passions. The operator, by threatening 

 torture, may compel obedience to unlawful commands; or sug- 



