FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES 81 



" You can grub if you like on what we have. As to the 

 great O, he was here on Saturday — Och Murther — as usual, 

 full of his diskivery — but it is all bosh. 



"The true thing is this. Originally, man spoke by signs, 

 and no wonder — Adam and Eve spoke by signs only, until 

 one day Adam refused to go round the corner for some hard- 

 bake, which put Eve into a passion, and in her rage she broke 

 Adam's head with the bedpost, which made him cry ' O ' and 

 Eve, alarmed at opening his head and mouth at one blow, 

 cried ' O ' too. That's the origin of Language ! 



" Some think Adam said ' O Crikey,' but as he was Crackey 

 at the time it is uncertain. 



" Thine, 



" Naso." 



The last I have was an anecdote of animal sagacity, a sub- 

 ject then being discussed in the papers, and of which he had 

 given me some examples. I give a print of it, as it is a good 

 example of his caricature drawing and of one of his fantastic 

 signatures. 



Our pleasant intimacy came to an end in a most absurd 

 manner. Dr. Purland was, as I have said, a powerful and 

 enthusiastic mesmerist, and had given his services for many 

 surgical operations. Just as the opposition of the chiefs of 

 the medical profession was dying away, and they were begin- 

 ning to acknowledge the great value of the mesmeric sleep in 

 alleviating pain and greatly facilitating serious operations, the 

 discovery of anaesthetics offered a rival, which, though much 

 more dangerous, was more certain and more easily applied in 

 emergencies, and this led to the discontinuance of the use of 

 mesmerism as a remedial agent. This naturally disgusted 

 Dr. Purland, who, with the whole energy of his character, 

 hated chloroform, ether, and nitrous-oxide gas, and would 

 have nothing to do with them in his profession. Besides, he 

 despised any one who could not bear the pain of tooth- 

 drawing, and would turn away any patient who required the 

 gas to be administered. A year or two after the date of his 

 last letter my teeth were in a very bad state, and I had a 



