to the case already quoted above, in which Acquisitiveness, instead of Veneration, gave symptoms of activity (thus illustrating the fact that "patients have been led into erroneous manifestations, through conversations carried on by those around them"), Mr Lang wisely adds-" These hints are thrown out principally for the purpose of inducing caution. In the hands of some operators, organs are multiplying at a wonderfully rapid rate, such as it is difficult to follow; and inquirers would do well to proceed with the utmost care in the investigation. We neither admit nor reject Mesmerism as a proof of the truth of Phrenology. We certainly incline to the opinion that the connection between the two doctrines will ultimately be established; but, meanwhile, we should like to see the question submitted to the test of further careful experiment."P. 207.

The views of Mr Braid, which are expounded by that gentleman himself in an article inserted in our present Number, are next laid by Mr Lang before his readers, in the form of quotations from Mr Braid's Neurypnology. Whether the theory of that gentleman is sufficient to account for all the phenomena of Phreno-Mesmerism, may well be doubted; but, assuredly, his experiments have strengthened our inclination to wait, as Mr Lang intends to do, for additional light, before adopting any decided opinion as to the value of Mesmerism in relation to Phrenology. We heartily applaud the investigations of Mr Braid, and of all other experimenters, and observers of facts; and shall welcome from every quarter, such evidence as may lead to the settlement, in either way, of this much-debated question.

In conclusion, let us return for a little to a subject on which some remarks have already been offered; namely, the aspersions thrown by Mr Lang upon the medical profession. In almost every chapter we find such expressions as these: "The medical profession are a stubborn and stiff-necked generation."-" The majority of the medical profession remaining wilfully blind to the truth."-" Medical and clerical bigotry. -"Medical men were resolved not to be convinced.""They set themselves in resolute opposition to Mesmerism.' "The pusilanimity of the medical profession."-" The jealousy of the medical men."-" They were resolved that Mesmerism, if possible, should be put down."- "The members of the medical profession are the only individuals who may be said to stand aloof."—" It is really time that the disgraceful and unprincipled opposition offered by medical men to Mesmerism should cease." Now, these expressions, occurring through the whole work, shew an acrimony against the medical profession which

is not easily explained, since the subject and the facts connected with it do not warrant such statements. Whatever may have been the conduct of individual medical men with respect to Mesmerism, we deny that the profession, as a body, has scouted it, and refused to inquire into its merits. Sixty years ago, it was subjected to the most patient investigation for several years by many medical men in France, Great Britain, and other countries, and an almost unanimous verdict was given against its powers as a remedial agent. Again, within the last ten years, not a few members of the profession in those countries have returned to it, and are still continuing their investigations, as Mr Lang's own book testifies. But when he chooses to say that the medical men are "the only individuals, who, as a class, refuse to recognise the truths which Mesmerism unfolds," he simply says what is not true. No class of society whatever has yet expressed its belief in Mesmerism. Particular individuals from every class may be found who have decided, some in favour of, and others against, the truth of Mesmerism; but to talk of any class of mankind whatever believing such doctrines, is pure absurdity. And yet, we are perhaps wrong after all. One class probably has been attracted by the mysterious exhibitions, and may have been converted. If so, it must be that class, the members of which are least able to judge between true and false evidence the ignorant and uneducated, who are ready to believe every thing that is wonderful and mysterious, who attach peculiar interest and importance to all that is paradoxical, and the great majority of whom still believe in the existence, on earth, of ghosts and witches. If any class of men has yet expressed its firm conviction of the truth of Mesmerism, it must be this class; and to its assent our author is exceedingly welcome.

Again, Mr Lang talks freely enough of medical prejudice, and jealousy, and bigotry. But is the prejudice all on one side? Are those men perfectly free from prejudice, who differ from nearly the whole mass of mankind, and believe in things, many of them contrary to reason, subversive of all experience, and in opposition to the plainest dictates of common sense? One might believe it possible that their opinions will turn out correct; but to believe them free from all prejudice, is quite out of the question. On the occasions when Isabella Dfailed completely in her trials, as we have already shewn, the only prejudiced person in the room appeared to be the mesmeriser himself: he only "would not be convinced;" he only would not believe the evidence of his own senses. came to the experiments with a prejudice in favour of Mes

He

merism, and he would not believe truth when it was displayed to him.

Mr Lang also speaks of persecution so often, that one would almost think some of the mesmerists had been hanged or beheaded-banished or suffered imprisonment at the very least. But we observe it is always the medical men who persecute. Now, let any one read over his fourth chapter, and then say, if it does not shew strong signs that he would be a persecutor if he could. Alas for the poor doctors, if he were to be their judge! But then, Dr Elliotson has surely been persecuted by his medical brethren for espousing Mesmerism! If, as our author states, the Doctor lost a great part of his practice in London, is the medical profession to blame for this? It surely shews that the public at large had something to do with the persecution, when they withdrew their patronage from him. The truth probably is, that even Mesmerism was only indirectly the cause of the diminution in his practice, if such really took place. From paying so much attention to Phrenology and Mesmerism, he could not, it may have been inferred, attend closely to his professional duties. Practice would soon be found to decline by any medical man who should direct his attention almost exclusively to one subject, whatever that subject might happen to be.

We were not a little amused on reading Mr Lang's defence of the genuineness of the manifestations given by the young girls O'Key, the first mesmeric patients Dr Elliotson exhibited in London several years ago. It seems, some one had the audacity to state that these girls were impostors; a fact, we may remark, proved to demonstration-if ever there was any individual fact proved in this world-and known to have been so by every impartial man acquainted with the particulars.* our champion of Mesmerism and of Dr Elliotson says no; and gives proof of it. "Listen," he says, " to what Dr Elliotson states in his Numerous Cases, published in 1843;" and then follows a quotation from the Doctor, finishing with—“ Every thing stated or ever printed to their disadvantage, was an absolute falsehood; I repeat these words emphatically, an absolute falsehood." Verily Mr Lang is no lawyer, if he supposes that Dr Elliotson will be taken by the public as a witness in his own cause. Did any one ever expect, after the scenes exhibited, and the discoveries detailed in the Lancet respecting these girls, that Dr E. would ever admit the imposition, and confess that he was himself deceived? Assuredly none. Our author evidently knows nothing of the circumstances, except

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* See various articles under the title "Animal Magnetism," in the Lancet for 1837-8, vol. ii.

through the medium of Dr E. himself, otherwise he would be aware that the Doctor's evidence on this subject is not worth a straw. That Dr E. himself is firmly convinced of the sincerity of the girls, is a circumstance of no weight with those who think themselves as able to estimate the value of evidence as he; and who, at all events, are more likely to form an unbiassed judgment on the question.

V. The British Medical Journals.

1. The Medico-Chirurgical Review, No. LXXVI. (April 1843), contains a long analysis of Mr Guthrie's work "On Injuries of the Head affecting the Brain." One result of his experience in cases of loss of considerable portions of the cerebrum, is stated by Mr Guthrie to be, that brain is more rarely lost from the forepart of the head without danger to life, than from the middle part; and that a fracture of the skull, and even the lodgement of a foreign body and a portion of the bone in the brain, may be sometimes borne without any great inconvenience in the back part. With respect to concussion, he thinks that the exact condition or lesion of the brain is far from being very clear; "whilst he agrees," says the reviewer," as all rational thinkers must, with Sir B. Brodie, that there may be changes and alterations of structure in the brain, which our senses are incapable of detecting.""-P. 294. According to Mr Guthrie, in children the cranium does not break so readily as in adults, the brain bears pressure better, and the level of the bone is gradually restored. "Avellan says that a girl of fourteen had a depression of the right parietal bone from a blow, which gave rise to mental derangement, amounting almost to imbecility, for three months; at the end of which time the depressed bone gradually resumed its level, and the girl completely recovered. In Quesnay, Mémoires de l'Académie de Chirurgie de Paris, tome i." (P. 309). "When a person," says Mr Guthrie," has received a serious blow on the head, which has given rise to an exfoliation of the bone, or to a very slight depression of the skull, he is rarely restored to his previous healthy and natural state. In all these cases, and

I could relate many, of persons of education, they can bear no great exertion of any kind. They fall down under exposure to heat. They are easily inebriated, rendered furious by a small quantity of liquor, and often become stupefied, comatose, or even die suddenly. In addition to these evils, which may be avoided by care, many are subjected to fits, which are appa

rently epileptic; and others suffer from such intolerable pain in the part injured, as well as in the head generally, as to be rendered miserable and desirous of seeking relief at any risk. These injuries are often accompanied during their progress by mental defects which time does not always remove. The memory is very often much impaired. It is frequently defective as to things as well as to persons. The sight of one or both eyes may be impaired, or even lost. Ptosis, or a falling of the upper lid, is not an uncommon although a more curable defect. Speech is not only difficult, but the power of uttering certain words is often lost; a language is occasionally for a time forgotten, and a sort of conventional one has even been adopted, in the manner mentioned by Sir A. Cooper, the Baron Larrey, Sir B. Brodie, and in the case related by Dr Hennen, which was under my own observation. The more serious evils which befall these unfortunate sufferers are aberrations of mind, rendering some degree of restraint necessary, or a state of fatuity, which is not less distressing. These intellectual defects are often accompanied by various states of lameness and debility, from which there is but little hope of recovery."-P. 324.

In a notice of Sir Alexander Crichton's "Commentaries on some Doctrines of a dangerous tendency in Medicine," it is mentioned (p. 398) that he repudiates the doctrine of insanity being a disease of the mind, if by mind we mean the soul, or "the immaterial agent which directs our reason or moral feelings." Sir Alexander, says the reviewer, "justly considers the anatomical researches of Foville and Delaye as the very best that have ever been made in respect to the condition of the brain in insanity. These gentlemen always took care to have a sound brain on the table while dissecting the brain of a maniac. In acute cases of insanity, the cineritious part of the brain was discovered by these gentlemen to be preternaturally red and congested. In early stages of acute insanity, no adhesions of the membranes to the cortical substance were discovered; but in chronic cases these adhesions were very common." Dr Carpenter, in his "Principles of Human Physiology," writes as follows: "From the great vascularity of the grey matter, and the occurrence of a structure of corresponding character around the origins of the afferent nerves, it is evident that its functions must be different from those of the fibrous structure; and, whilst there is no evidence that the latter serves any different purpose than that of a mere conductor, there seems good reason to believe that all the active operations, of which the nervous system is the instrument, originate in the former."

A very remarkable case, bearing upon this subject, is menVOL. XVII.-N. S. No. XXV.-JAN. 1844.

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