130 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



Academy of Sciences, consisting of Arago, Bec- 

 querel, Geoffroy St. Hilaire, and others. Tables, 

 books, brushes, and magnetic needles, all kept 

 most provokingly quiet, and the *' electric girl " 

 subsided into oblivion. So, numbers of people 

 who watched the " Welsh fasting-girl " were 

 quite sure that she subsisted without food; but, 

 when really competent watchers were introduced, 

 the poor creature died of starvation, destroyed 

 by her own obstinacy and the criminal acquies- 

 cence of her parents. 



We have touched upon but few of the topics 

 treated in Dr. Hammond's book. Into his elab- 

 orate discussion of the painful and often disgust- 

 ing phenomena of hysteria, ecstasy, and stigmat- 

 ization, we have not space to follow him. His 

 subject is one which leads the inquirer into some 

 of the darkest and most loathsome corners of the 

 human mind ; but the inquiry has, nevertheless, 

 its uses. 



July, 1876. 



