470 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Jtoy 14, 1881. 



COLD 'POSSUM. 



THKOUGII the courtesy of the Messrs. Harper and 

 Brothers we today supplement our unique 'Possum 

 collation of last week with a co'd cut — and most authorities 

 ngri e that ccld 'pos uui is not to he sneezed at. The accom- 

 panying illustration appeared in Rarper's Weekly of A] ril 

 80 h, 1881; and it is the one which, as the casm belli, la» 

 given ri ; e to such a lively dispute iu our columns respecting 

 'p gfum hot and 'p ssum cold. 



Now, Mr. H'jvtnden's painiing, of which thi3 is a drawing, 

 may have heen a sketch from life, or it may have hcen purely 

 an artist's dream ; but as either, we submit, the testimony of 

 experts 'bus Tar adduced iu the Forest and Stream goes to 

 show that there whs m> occasion for our Ar zona friends to 

 cri icise the picture. Mbsf, of the eminent authorities whose 

 let'ots were published last week agteed that this rat-tailed 

 delicacy should be pirboiled befora being roasted; and it is 

 evideut'y that stage of the cocking process which Mr. Hovco- 

 den has chosen to depict. 



Of the " left over" communications which were received 

 too late for insertion last week, the first describes the 'pos- 

 Bum 



COOKED 15 A CLAY SniaL. 



Putxam, July 11, 1881. 

 Some thirty years ago I had business calling me to the 

 plantation of a wealthy 'armer, twenty miles south of Peters- 

 burg, Vu. I went out shooting two or three times, and one 

 day" we secured a very large fat 'possum. This 1 gave to 

 Uncle Jim. who with Aunt Cloi, promised the darken b a roast. 

 Early in the evening I repaired to the scene of the roasting, 

 where a roaring fire had been kindled. The 'possom waa 

 scalded, as we do a pig, and the hair all cleaned off nicely; 

 then the animal was carefully drawn and stuffed wi h bread 

 and crackers. Some cl <y had bi en prepare d and the 'possum, 

 being wrapped iu eleai white minim, was covered all over 

 with about an incn of clay, phtced iu the coals of the tire and 

 covered up with live coals, and the fire replenished. In 

 about, an .hour it was pronounced done When the shell of 

 the cky was cracked open and the 'possum taken out the 

 aroma of ihe cooked meat was deli ious. The house cook 

 selected a guniTOua piece, which was sent lo the house but 

 was returned with thanks and with a bucket < if ginger lea 

 (giiuer, mola«ses and water). The 'possum was now served 

 with roasted potatoes, corn bread and ginger tea; and I then 

 thought it delicious After the feast uncle Jim gut out bis 

 fiddle and wbh a peculiar instrument ca led a '• jaw hone" 

 the good time wound up with a plantation d. nee.— (J. F. VV. 



FRED MATUI K 1IAR TIMED IT. 



The editor of Forest and Stream evidently has more 

 'possum on the brain than he has had on his stomach ; and 

 great was my surprise wnen he entered my den and asked if 

 1 had ever eaten of the individual whose bang-up Bwell nauie 

 js DiddfJiys Virginia, but who, in his playful moods, allows 

 foreigne s to speak of him as "The Virginia Op^ioa-um," 

 with plenty of capital falters; and who, to his friends, most 

 especially his woolly-headed and long-heeledo es, is familiar- 

 ly a 'possum. Answering in the affirmative, I was further 

 a'st nished at. flu order to' write something about it, over my 

 own fimiHiure. "liui," I protested, '■ a 'possum is not in the 

 Class Pisces ; it's a confoundeil rat-tailed marsupial mammal, 

 a blasted old plantigrade that is of interest to embryologists 

 a'id darkeys, and ( d m't know much about them ; and be 

 sides it is not my custom to append my name to what 1 Have 

 to say in For st and 8ti<k*m, as the paper has an iinper- 



son i character; and " I5ut he was gone and had not 



heard hilt of it. Tile order was lo relaie what I knew — that 

 certainly was not a formidable undertaking So here goes: 

 During the late wnr 1 found myself, in the year 1803, pro- 

 moted from a first Sergemt in Buttery I., 7th N. Y., H-avy 

 Artillery, to be a 2 I Lieut, in Battery (J., of the same Regi- 

 ment, then stationed at Fort Pennsylvania, Tennallytown, 

 just outside of Georgetown, D. C, on the Harpers' Ferry 

 road. With a few other young officers I engaged board in 

 the family of Ihe drum m»j >r. Now the drum corps of that 

 large regiment numbered twentv-four boys, as full of deviltry 

 as boys from fourteen to seventeen years tun be when away 

 front the re iralnts of home, and wo betide the chicken that 

 failed to roost high when the 7th drum corps went 

 "coonin'. " One morning in November while silting reading 

 a work of tomWT called ' V. S. Armv Pegu ations, to which 

 are appended the Articles of Wa," the smallest drummer 

 in the cups, rained Cook, who was under many obligations 

 to me for certain banjo lessons, asked: "Lieutenant, did 

 y. u see that 'possum in Ihe box over at the sutler's ?" Lay- 

 ing down the book in the midst of a side splitti' g article on 

 making t eturns of ordinance stores, a nod in the affirmative 

 was given. 

 "They say they are awful good to eat, Lieutenant." 

 "Who Says bq?" 



"The old colored woman who cooks for your mess." 

 I s iw the point and. looking slernlv at the young imp, said: 

 "Cook, you are thinking of steaing that 'possum for our 

 mesB. It is wrong; the "sutler paid a qusrler for it and re- 

 fused to sell it to mi' for a dollar because he said he wanted 

 to send it, home to New York. Now, don't you steal it and 

 cut its head off, skin it, and give it to our cook, because if 

 you do, and I Mm! it out, I will buy a dozen cigars and make 

 you smoke yourself sick." 



The next day " Aunt Martha," the cook, told me that she 

 bad " a nice fat 'possum, but she clone freeze bun free 

 nights, den bile him an' stuff h m wid bread an' inyins and 

 ro.it>' him. She d'du't 'zackly 'member whar dey ootch him, 

 she only know dey done got him." 



And so a 'possum w«n got somehow. I don't positively 

 know that \ on >g Cook stole th* 'possum, bu' if he d d not, 

 _ v, was n singular c 'incidence that the sutler lost one on ih>) 

 ' 6"lf-same day. " Aunt Mar h i " followed her pr 'gramme to 

 lite. letter; she ft ze it Ihrea nights -thi maaica' number — 

 and ihett parboiled it, auffed it with bread, chopped onions, 

 sag; and perhaps other things, and baked it whole, ihe he d 

 bei g 1 ft on. We ate it b< t, and a rank, greasy' mess it 

 was, although the 'posnini-jateis present cal ed it good. It 

 yas 8 i IT) eJ hi i g lite 'co n, bear meat and hog all rolled into 

 one ; and as 1 di-like all grease, I sail it might do for those 

 •who liked it, but that as for ga" e, venison, woodcock and 

 prairie chicken were good enough for me, and I didn't aspire 

 to be epic ire enough to re'ish 'possum. 



When we rose fro n ihe table the pile of chicken bones by 

 my plate exceeded those of the 'possum, and as we adjourned 

 u ihe sutler's to open a basket of wiue ou the strength of 



ihe animal whose hibit it is to be born before his time, we 

 passed through t"o drunmer's q larters where voting Cook 

 sat on tho edge of his bunk with his banjo, singing : 

 Ky-arvedat'pnssuu, 

 Ky-ar>e. oh, ky-nrvo dat 'possum, 

 Ky-arve dat possum, 

 Ky-arve nlui 10 da heart. 



Feed Mather. 

 We regret that the limitations of cold type preclude a de- 

 lineation of the break-down with which this innocent-appear- 

 ing, but susceptible couplet is usually accompanied. 



From gastronomy to philology is but a step. Our re- 

 searches into the culinary lore of the opossum have led us to 

 a d ; Fcovery— tho eihnological and philological importance tf 

 which our modesty will not sHow us to estimate. Everv 

 one is familiar with the fact that the Ballaroke Iribe o"f 

 Southwestern Australia derived their name from Balli-wak, 

 a diminutive sricies of opossum upon which Ihe people of tho 

 Iribe in former times principally subsisted.* 



Now in conformity with the harsh customs of that Ant'po- 

 dean land, Ihe manly Ballnrokcs were prohibited from mat- 

 rimonii^ alliances with ihe fair daughters of theGwenin- 

 jokes, Ko'ejunienos and Yungarees. This, of course, ltd to 

 frequent pow-wowg, broils and bloody clubbattles, and when 

 the Ba'larok< s were worsted iu the fray, as was usually the 

 case,t their enemies hd them captive, kt eping time, lime, 

 time to the untuneful and derisive rhyme : 



Pos snmupgu nitre e, 



Coo nil, t hehol ler, 

 Nig irirfcet cbumb oih, 



belli ui'rtd ol lar. 



Now, strange bb it may seem, this war song of the Austra- 

 lian savages h a been discovered to be cur ent among the 

 Negroes of the South, where, however, like the butterfly 

 emerged from the chrysalis, it takes on a m re beautiful 

 form, as related by our well-known correspondent, " Cuas- 

 eur:" 



Warrenton, Va., July, 1831. 

 Editor Foreit and Stream ; 



Down on the old Virginia lowlands where I came from, 

 which is the true home of the 'possum, I have bunted and 

 eaten Ibis rat's stepfather a hundred times, and love it better 

 than any dish tl at ever waa set before a king. 



The p'roeess is simple : Cut his throat; leave him in Ihe 

 frost one or two nights ; then get the hair off by dipping in 

 hot water wbb a handful of ashe3 thrown in ; pirboil him ; 

 then smother in onions, sweet potatoes and a pod of red pep- 

 per. 



Do we ever eat him cold ? Well I never saw a piece of 

 cold 'po sum in my life, and Ihe reason is si i pie : iherc 

 never was, never is and never Bhall be enough of hot 'possum 

 "to go round." First, the while folks had their "sheer," then 

 the old mammy ; next th» uncle, who was master of cere- 

 monies, took nearly all ihe balance, while a score or so of 

 little darkies waicbed— grinning with impatience — for Ihe 

 spare bits and bones that the patriarch won d give them. 1 

 never saweven the dish go unlicked— much less half put awny 

 to get cold. Cook him in a stove? Not much ; not as long 

 as 



'Possum up gum tree, 



'Coon in de lioller ; 

 Klgger ketch inn botli an' 

 Sell lor a. dollar. 



Chassetje. 



But a truce to levity 1 Is "playing 'possum " an act of 

 cunning on ihe part of ihe animal, or is >he condition of 

 seeming insensibility involunlary aud of the nature of hyp- 

 notism ? Mr. George Pommies contributed to Nature some 

 years ago a paper which gives one view of tho question and 

 which we reproduce here. 



*Sir George Grey : "Travels in Northwestern and Western Aus- 

 tralia," vol. ii., pp. 225, 230. 



fC. Dili mar : "Progress of Dotonnting Explosives Among the 

 Savage Hacos," vul, xxi., pp. 291 ei seq, 



HYPNOTISM. 



BT GEORGE ROMANES. 



The phenomena of "hypnotism," "mesmerism," or 

 "electro-biology," have of l»le \esrs excited so much 

 popular iuterest— not to say popular superstition — that their 

 investigation by a competent man of Ecience will appeal lo 

 the sympathies of a wider pub ic lhan the purely scientific. 

 My object, therefore, in writing the present article is logivo 

 a brief review of a monograph on this subject, which has 

 just been published by the well-known physiologist, W. 

 Preyer, of Jena. 



Iu order to eliminate all possible effects of the imagina- 

 tion, Preyer performed his experiments only upon animals, 

 and he begins his paper with an hiatorical sketch of previous 

 inves igations of a similarly restricted nature. First we have 

 the " Expeiimentum mira"ile" of the J"Suit Alhauasius 

 IClrcber, published by hi in in Ihe year 1646. This consists 

 in taking a common fowl, binding its fee together and pla- 

 cing it on a ft or. As soon as it has ceased to struggle a 

 straight line of chalk is drawn from the point of its bill along 

 the floor. If the legs are now untied the fowl makes no m- 

 deavor to e-cape, but remaius as it were tran-fixed and re- 

 fuses to move even when urged to do so. Preyer observes 

 in passing that the chalk line constitutes no essential part of 

 the conditions, inasmuch as a fowl may be equally well 

 thrown into a state of hypnotism by simply holding the ani- 

 ma 1 for a short time upon thegiound so as forcibly to pre- 

 vent struggling. 



After lurcher, no one 6eems to have investisated the phe- 

 nomena if hypnotism, or, as Preyer calls it, kataplexy, lill 

 the years ls.72 '73, when some ailicles on Ihe subject were 

 published by Czermak. The most striking of his experiments 

 were those which he conducted on inver ebra ed animals — 

 crawfish, for instance, being made to lie on their bicks mo- 

 tionless, or even io stand upright upon their heads. 

 Czermak endeavored to account for the facta which 

 be described by supposing lhat iu some way or other 

 the act of fixing the • yes upon a certain object, or of gazing 

 i mo apare, caned the animals to become sleepy and siuoa- 

 lied.* Sj vague au expldna'ioa could scarcely ia any ca-.e be 



"When wo fix our eyeB upon a certain object, and then alter 

 their adjustment for some more distant point, ao that the eyes en- 

 deavor, as it were, to look through the object, thera ia uo doubt 

 that after a time a unmowhat Sleepy feeliug may be produced. 

 Soma perdona, I find, ou perform thin action moe easily thau 

 others, and it doe* nit aeein to ooasist altogether in mdadjuat- 

 ment. At least, I hive observed that when theaotijn is per- 

 formed by persona who can do it well tho pupils dilate urodigioiuly, 



entitled to rank as a physiological hypotheses, and Preyer 

 showed, in 1873, that the act of gazing had nothing to do 

 with inducing the state of kataplexy, inasmuch as animals 

 fell into as ex ctlvtbesime state when their optx nerves 

 wre divided, or their eyes covered with a hood— provided 

 that their bedeswere at the same time beld in some un- 

 natural posifon. Pieyer, therefore, propounded a theory of 

 his own, which, aB first published, was that the stale of fear 

 into which the animal is thrown by being held in some un- 

 usual atti'ude serves to inhibit the power of volition and so 

 of spontaneity— the animal, therefore, when released remain- 

 ing statue-like in the position in which ii was placed. In 

 order to sustain this theory, Preyer pointed lo other ca^es in 

 which fear serves to inhibit apautaneity— as, for instance, 

 the motionless horror which some animals exhibit in tho 

 presence of great danger, the fascination of birds by snakes, 

 etc. 



The theory as thus stated was very justly criticised by 

 Ifeubel, who, in 1870, published a paper detailing his own 

 researches on the subject, and seeking to identify ihe state 

 of hypnotism with that of ordinary sleep. The effect of this 

 criticism waa lo make Preyer state his theory with a greater 

 clearness, and, as we now have it (187o), it ssemB to be aa 

 follows: Any "sudden, strong, unexpected and unusual 

 stimulation of centripetal nerves " produces an emotion of 

 fear, wh ch in turn produces some inhibitory effect on the 

 will, and eventu-lly a slate of stupor. It may, I think, still 

 be questioned whelher ibis theory is of very much value, 

 for, even granting that "deathly terror" is alw ys present— 

 which it certainly need not be when the subject of the ex- 

 periment is a hiiiniti being — we are not acquainted with any 

 other facts which would lead us to connect the subsequent 

 8'atc of motionless stupor with the preceding slate of 

 aulive fear* But, passing on to the facts, we soon find that 

 an important exception must be taken lo the above state- 

 ment as to the condition under which hypnotism occurs, for 

 various experiment proved that "sud en, strong, unexpected 

 and unusual stimulation" of any of those °" centripetal 

 nerves" which minist> r to the special aennf>, so far fn'iu in- 

 ducing a slate of hypnotism, instantly aroused an animal 

 which hail previously been thrown into that state. So that, 

 in point of IVt, as we are afterward told, wo may more cor- 

 rectly Blate the conditions which produce katnplexy in ani- 

 mals, by substituting for the words "centri, etal nerves" iu 

 the above-quoted pruposition the words "nerves of tactile 

 sensation." But here I may observe that, so far as the ex- 

 periment go, there is nothing to prove that spee ; al stimula- 

 tion of eveu the cutaneous nerves is necessary (indeed, ther- 

 mal and ceuiical stimulation of the skin was spec ally tried 

 a d produced no r suits) ; aud therefore it seems lo me, 

 t 1 e possibili y is not excluded that ihe special stimulus in 

 question may really have icference only to the "muscular 

 sense." 



At any rate, all these experiments go to prove that kata- 

 plexy can only be produced iu animals either by suspending 

 lliem iu the air. or by forcibly holding them in sooie unusual 

 position. Most animais recover their normal state after a 

 lew minutes, but frogs wh- n suspended in the air will 

 continue kalapleptic until they die. Horses become 

 kaiapleptic wh le they are being swung from wharves 

 to ships, as shown by Ihe fact that they remain p.ssive 

 so long as they are sus, ended in the air, but 

 auain begin to struggle so soon as their 1 et touch the deck. 

 Preyer has succeeded in I'.ndering katapleollc various spe- 

 cies of loads, newts, frogs, ducks, poultry, peafowl, part- 

 ridges, sparrows, mice, guinea-pigs, rabbits, etc.; but has 

 uniformly fa led in tho case of many other aimals. On the 

 whole he" concludes that while among sundry species of rep- 

 liie?,J balrachiaii8, birds, rodents aim ruin.nanls, the phenom- 

 ena of kataplexy may be more or less easily produced, such 

 is not the case with tish and the more intelligent mammals. 

 Nevertheless, iu another part of his memoir he attributes to 

 a state of partial kataplexy the period of motionless delay 

 which is observable in children after they unexpectedly fall 

 and before they begin to cry. lie also stales, on the authority 

 of Dr. Cenzmer, that a squ .lling chi.d (not a young baby) 

 may oflen be quieted by layiug it upon its stomach or by 

 gently pressing its face with the hand, care being taken in 

 neither case to interfere with the breathing. 



Our author further maintains that the so-called "sham- 

 ming dead" of certain species of Arlicuhi'a when in Ihe 

 pres nee of danger is probably to be attributed to kataplexy. 

 But here, I think, it is difficult to agree with him. That the 

 aciion in ques ion is not a properly so-called intelligent one 

 no competent person at the present day ia likely to dispute ; 

 but, tor my own part, I cannot ste any evidence to show that 

 it is not of lli» nature of an ins inctive action, which has 

 been developed in the way to which Preyer alludes. It being 

 f r ihe benefit of some animals that ihey should remain mo- 

 tion ess, aud thus be comp -ratively inconspicuous in Ihe pres- 

 ence of danger, those individuals which endeavored to escape 

 would be destroyed, while those which ceased to move would 

 suivive. Natural se ection would, therefore, soon fix the ar- 

 tifice of "shimming dead " as an inhe ited instinct. To this 

 view Preyer objects Ibat, if we accept it, the origin of the 

 instinct is difficult to exp'ain ; while, on the supposition of 

 the aciion not being instinctive, but purely kataplectic, there 

 is no difficulty to surmount. But to Ibis it may be answered 

 thst there is no more difficulty in explaining the origin of the 

 iLHliuet to remain passive in the presence of danger than 



and this even when the eyes are fixed upon a bright light, such as 

 tbe naked flame of a mout-rntor lamp. Aa thn notion is completely 

 under tbe control of the will, one is lluis able to observe the ou- 

 rums BMCtacle of the inhibition by the will of a it Ilex «bich nuder 

 all other circumstances ia beyond tho control of the noil— tho 

 pupils dilating or contracting instantly at word of command, and 

 quite irrespective of tbe stimulus supplied by light. 



* Indeed, a very remarkable experiment « hie h is detailed further 

 on would seem to show that even in the case of animals the Btate 

 of fe&r need have nothing to do with inaugurating the state of 

 kataplexy. The experiment in queslion coin-ialed m suddenly de- 

 capitating a fowl, aud while the reflex convulsions were still in 

 progress, holding tbe mutilated body firmly ou its back., The con- 

 vujuone forthwith eea-ed. and the headless animal became for a 

 time kataplectic. Unless, therefore, we suppose that the spinal 

 cord is capable of suffering fear, aud that it is mole alarmed by 

 being held firmly down than by being severed from tho brum, we 

 must conclude that a state of fear iu no oasentiul antecedent .to 

 that of hypnotism. 



J Proycr does not appear to have himself 

 Species of reptile, but iu another part of hi 

 this connection to a very old authority, viz. 

 of causing uei'peuts to appear Jike rods he 

 j.i-obiibiv due to the sagacious Israelite huv 

 about the phenomena of kataplexy. Bat co; 



variety and goneral quality of the experiments winch vl UoOT ,» 

 said to have performed, it would surely bo desirable to repeat tba 

 one in question before accepting the result as a f aot of modern 

 physiology. 



nerimonted on any 



louograph refers in 



loses, whoso power 



jposea to have been 



known something 



' ig tbe number, 



