He was led to consider the subject by the following statement made to him. “About an hour and-a-half before my sister’s death, we were struck by appearances proceeding from her head, in a diagonal direction. She was, at the time, in a half-recumbent position, and perfectly tranquil. The light was pale as the moon, but quite evident to mamma, myself, and sisters, who were watching over her at the time. One of us, at first, thought that it was lightning; till, shortly after, we fancied we perceived a sort of tremulous glimmer playing round the head of the bed; and then, recollecting that we had read something of a similar nature having been observed previous to dissolution, we had candles brought into the room, fearing our dear sister would perceive it, and that it might disturb the tranquillity of her last moments.”
A similar appearance around the person, and in the room, of a man who fell a sacrifice to lingering disease in a remote district of the south-west of Ireland, is recorded. All the witnesses agree in having seen the light; many, however, came to the conclusion that it was caused by supernatural agency, and a proof of miraculous interposition, and even evidence of Divine favour. Considerable excitement was occasioned in the south of Ireland by the following case, related by Dr. D. Donavan, in the Dublin Medical Press, Jan. 15, 1840:—“I was sent for,” the Doctor says, “in December, 1828, to see Harrington. He had been under the care of my predecessor, and had been entered in the dispensary book as a phthisical patient; and, on reference to my note-book, I find that the stethoscopic and other indications of phthisis were indubitable. He was under my care for about five years; during which time, strange to say, the symptoms continued stationary; and I had discontinued my attendance for about two years, when the report became general, that mysterious lights were every night seen in his cabin. The subject attracted a great deal of attention; and, like everything else in Ireland, at once assumed a sectarian complexion; some attributing the light to the miraculous interference of Heaven; others, to the practice of the black art. Not regarding these views as affording an explanation of the mystery, I determined to subject the matter to the ordeal of my own senses; and, for this purpose, visited the cabin for fourteen nights; and on three nights, only, did I witness anything unusual. Once I perceived a luminous fog, resembling the aurora borealis, and twice I saw the scintillations, like the sparkling phosphorescence sometimes exhibited by the sea infusoria. From the close scrutiny I made, I can, with certainty, say, that no imposition was either employed or attempted. How are these appearances to be accounted for? In answering this question, I would observe, that they are never seen but in cases of extensive disease, and when considerable alteration of structure has taken place. Processes analogous to decomposition are witnessed in the human subject while the living principle remains.”
On these, and similar facts, Dr. Marsh remarks: “Disease is but a step toward dissolution, in which the vital powers are impaired; and, unless the malady be checked, by the use of proper means, a period will quickly approach when the chemical action will entirely prevail over the whole frame. Phosphorescent matter may be generated in organic bodies at a period of incipient decomposition; and when we consider that phosphuretted hydrogen undergoes spontaneous combustion, when brought in contact with the oxygen of the atmosphere, and that the component parts of which this gas is formed exist in the body in great abundance, an easy solution is at hand, accounting for the luminous appearances which have been witnessed in dissecting-rooms, in burial-grounds, and in marine substances, as well as on the approach of dissolution.”
The Arabs are well known as believers in wonders; and of one of their magicians, named Sadoomeh, the following story is told. “In order to give one of his friends a treat, he took him to the distance of about half-an-hour’s walk into the desert, on the north of Cairo, where they both sat down upon the pebbly and sandy plain; and the magician having uttered a spell, they suddenly found themselves in the midst of a garden, like one of the gardens of Paradise, abounding with flowers and fruit-trees of every kind, springing up from a soil covered with verdure brilliant as the emerald, and irrigated by numerous streamlets of the purest water. A repast of the most delicious viands and fruit was spread before them by invisible hands; and they both ate and drank to satiety, taking copious draughts of the various wines. At length the magician’s guest sank into a deep sleep, and when he awoke he found himself again in the pebbly and sandy plain, with Sadoomeh still by his side.” “The reader will probably attribute this vision,” says Mr. Lane, who relates the tale, “to a dose of opium or some similar drug; and such I suppose to have been the means employed; for I cannot doubt the integrity of the narrator, though he would not admit such an explanation; regarding the whole as an affair of magic, ‘jinn,’ or genii.”
A story of Gassendi, one of the most distinguished of naturalists, mathematicians, and philosophers of France, in the sixteenth century, will place this solution in a still clearer light. As he was taking a morning walk near Deigne, in Provence, his ears were assailed by repeated exclamations of “A sorcerer! a sorcerer!” On glancing behind him, he beheld a mean and simple-looking man, with his hands tied, whom a mob of the country-people were hurrying to prison. Gassendi’s character and learning had given him great authority with them, and he desired to be left alone with the man. They immediately surrendered him, and Gassendi said to him, in private, “My friend, you must tell me sincerely, whether you have made a compact with the devil or not: if you confess it, I will give you your liberty immediately; but, if you refuse to tell me, I will give you immediately into the hands of a magistrate.” The man answered, “Sir, I will own that I go to a meeting of wizards every day. One of my friends has given me a drug, which I take to effect this, and I have been received as a sorcerer these three years.” He then described the proceedings of these meetings, and spoke of the different devils, as if he had been all his life acquainted with them. “Show me,” said Gassendi, “the drug which you take to attend this infernal meeting, for I intend to go there with you to-night.” The man replied, “As you please, Sir; I will take you at midnight, as soon as the clock strikes twelve.” Accordingly, he met Gassendi at the appointed hour, and, showing him two boluses, each of the size of a walnut, he desired him to swallow one, as soon as Gassendi had seen him swallow the other, and then they lay down together on a goat-skin. The man soon fell asleep, but Gassendi remained awake and watched him, and perceived that he was greatly disturbed in his slumbers, and writhed and twisted his body about, as if he had been troubled by bad dreams. At the expiration of five or six hours he awoke, and said to Gassendi, “I am sure, Sir, you ought to be satisfied with the manner in which the great goat received you; he conferred on you a high honour when he permitted you to kiss his tail the first time he ever saw you.” It was thus apparent that the deleterious opiate had operated upon his imagination. Gassendi, compassionating his weakness and credulity, took pains to convince him of his self-delusion; and, showing him the bolus, he gave it to a dog, who soon fell asleep, and suffered great convulsions. The poor fellow was set at liberty to undeceive his brethren, who had, like him, been lulled by the noxious drug into imagining themselves sorcerers.
In India there is a native plant, which, after it has flowered, is dried and sold in the bazaars of Calcutta, for smoking. The Hindoos call it “ganpah,” and they give the name of “bang” or “subjee” to the large leaves and capsules which they use for the same purpose. The plant is a species of hemp; the smoking of which is considered so delightful, according to Dr. Thomson, as to have been denominated by such epithets as “Assuager of sorrow,” “Increaser of pleasure,” “Cementer of friendship,” “Laughter-mover,” and others of the same kind.
On the same authority it is stated, that in Nepaul, the resin only is used; in some places it is collected by native coolies, walking through the fields of hemp at the time the plants give forth the resin, which, adhering to the skin, is scraped off from it, and kneaded into balls. It is taken in doses, from a grain to two grains, and causes a delightful delirium. When repeated, however, it is followed by catalepsy, or that state of insensibility which allows the body to be moulded into any form like a Dutch-jointed doll, the limbs remaining in the position in which they were placed, though contrary to the law of gravity, and continuing so for many hours.
We are well acquainted with various means of acting in an extraordinary manner on the human frame. The writer, in common with multitudes, has witnessed, for example, the operation of nitrous oxide, often called “the laughing-gas.” It acts, however, very differently on different persons; some laugh immoderately, others become depressed, others assume the airs of vanity and importance which accord with their most cherished dispositions; and some can only be forcibly restrained from deeds of great violence. It is certainly a most singular sight to see a person laughing most boisterously, or strutting with all the hauteur of a newly-made potentate, suddenly subside as the action of the gas ceases, into a very unobtrusive individual.
We may now briefly allude to one of the most extraordinary applications of the present times. The late sir Humphry Davy made many experiments on the effects of various gases on the human lungs. He found, in his own person, that the inhalation of nitrous oxide removed head-ache, and greatly assuaged the pain of cutting a wisdom-tooth. In his works, edited by Dr. John Davy, is the following passage:—
“As nitrous oxide, in its extensive operation, appears capable of destroying physical pain, it may probably be used with advantage during surgical operations in which no great effusion of blood takes place.” Here is the germ of the recent application of ether.