306 On the late efforts in France and other parts of Europe 



had been taught to make the sign of the cross, he had neither at- 

 tached any meaning to these ceremonies, nor understood the object 

 for which they were practiced. He had not formed a distinct idea 

 of death, and in fact had never thought of it. He had passed a 

 purely animal life, with not a single idea, except those derived from 

 the senses.* 



4. An instance is mentioned by M. Varroine, a French physician in 

 the suite of Lucien Bonaparte, in which the application of the moxa-f 

 seems to have been successful. The patient was a young lady of 

 Malaga, twenty years of age, who was born deaf. On carefully 

 examining the organs affected, the tongue appeared to him a little 

 thicker than usual. M. Varroine. regarding the deafness therefore 

 as the result of a simultaneous paralysis of the ear and tongue, ap- 

 plied two moxas ; one on the back of the neck, and the other under 

 the chin, as near as possible to the root of the tongue. The two 

 moxas, each of the diameter of a crown, produced about the sev- 

 enth day a lively inflammation : an extraordinary swelling appeared 

 on the anterior part of the neck, and extended down to the breasts, 

 accompanied with a violent fever, which continued 24 hours and 

 ended in a copious perspiration. The scabs fell off on the twelfth 

 or fourteenth day, and their loss was followed by a very considera- 

 ble suppuration. The operator affirms that the tongue, at this pe- 

 riod, was more free in its movements, and was diminished in thick- 

 ness. In consequence of fumigations made in the meatus auditorius, 

 the membrane which lines it was excoriated and furnished, about 

 the twenty second day of the treatment, a thick, yellowish humor 

 which flowed abundantly during six days ; these depuratory efforts 

 were succeeded by a voracious appetite, and an increase of cheer- 

 fulness and intelligence. 



About two months and a half after the application of the moxas, 

 the young lady, to her great joy and astonishment, began to hear 

 the ringing of the bells. From that period, her hearing continued 

 to improve, and in a short time her deafness was completely dissi- 

 pated. At the same time her dumbness ceased, and when the 

 mother of the young lady communicated this happy result to M. 

 Varroine, who had left Malaga, she articulated distinctly the words 

 which she heard.| 



* Histoire de VAcadimie des sciences, annie 1702. 



t A lanuginous or cottony substance, which is burnt slowly in contact with the 

 skin, for the purpose of producing cauterization. 



t Mimoires sur les hons effets du moza dans les cas ddsesp4r6s. 



