470 MAN OF SCIENCE. 



' what was the matter with him, he replied, " My brain 

 is giving way. I cannot put two thoughts together to- 

 day : I have had a dreadful night of it : I cannot face 

 another such : I was impressed with the idea that my 

 museum was attacked by robbers, and that I had got 

 up, put on my clothes, and gone out with a loaded pistol 

 to shoot them. Immediately after that I became un- 

 conscious. How long that continued I cannot say ; but 

 when I awoke in the morning I was trembling all over, 

 and quite confused in my brain. On rising I felt as if 

 a stiletto was suddenly, and as quickly as an electric 

 shock, passed through my brain from front to back, and 

 left a burning sensation on the top of the brain, just 

 below the bone. So thoroughly convinced was I that I 

 must have been out through the night, that I examined 

 my trousers, to see if they were wet or covered with 

 mud, but could find none. I was somewhat similarly 

 affected through the night twice last week, and I ex- 

 amined my trousers in the morning, to see if I had been 

 out. Still, the terrible sensations were not nearly so 

 bad as they were last night. Towards the end of last 

 week, while passing through the Exchange in Edinburgh, 

 I was seized with such a giddiness that I staggered, 

 and would, I think, have fallen, had I not gone into an 

 entry, where I leaned against the wall, and became 

 quite unconscious for some seconds." Dr Balfour in- 

 formed him that he had been overworking his brain, and 

 agreed to call at Shrub Mount on the following day to 

 make a fuller examination. 



Mr Miller had no sooner left the house to seek I)r 



Balfour, than Mrs Miller, turning to her daughter, said : 



' There is something unusual the matter with your 



papa. I cannot be satisfied without more advice. I 



am quite certain he would make some difficulty about 



