“They congratulate themselves in the belief that, with an hundred such employées devoted to their service, they could corrupt the private faith and public virtue of the whole Union so effectually, in a single generation, as to enable them to utterly destroy its social organisation and subvert its Constitution.
“This would, of course, secure the desired Oligarchy of caste and wealth, and reduce the nation to serfdom.
“She is to be encouraged, and placed upon the pension-list of the ‘Secret Conclave.’
“Since this report, the latest transformations of Etherial Softdown have been, first, into rabid Bloomerism; in the height of which madness, she possessed a sufficiency of the martyr-spirit to parade herself, on all public occasions, though nearly fifty years of age, in full costume.
“By a necessary transition, the next step was into an apostleship of the new school of ‘Woman’s Rights’ and Abolitionism; which openly rejoices in the repudiation of the Bible from among the sacred books of the world—accepting it merely as the text-book of popular cant, to be used in working upon the passions and superstitions of the mob.
“This last metamorphosis of Etherial Softdown seems to be the most promising of all those through which the police of the ‘Conclave’ have, thus far, been able to trace her.”[4]
[4] The following note was received, in answer to one addressed to a distinguished surgeon of Philadelphia, in relation to the phenomenon of voluntary bleeding, so frequently illustrated in the History of Etherial Softdown.—Editor.
“Dear Sir:
“The case which you presented to me, for an explanation of the causes which may have produced voluntary discharges of blood from the mouth, is certainly a very remarkable one, though by no means without parallel in the records of feigned diseases. The power of the will, in persons of peculiar formation or constitution, is seen, occasionally, to be extended to various organs designed by nature to act without awakening consciousness and in a manner altogether beyond the control of the individual. To say nothing of many muscles of the scalp, the ears, the skin of the neck, &c., which are used to great purpose by the inferior animals, but are totally inactive in man, except in a few rare instances, it is well known that many persons possess the power of voluntary vomiting. About forty years ago, a man presented himself before a celebrated surgeon of London, and proved that he possessed the ability to check completely the flow of blood through the artery at the wrist, by violently contracting a muscle of the arm above the elbow, which, in his case, happened to overlap and press upon the main trunk of the vessel. I am acquainted with a gentleman in this country, who can perform the same feat. There is on record a well-authenticated history of a man who could completely control, by will, the motions of his heart; and who, eventually, committed accidental suicide, by arresting the circulation so long that the heart never reacted. I am acquainted with a gentleman who can voluntarily contract and dilate the pupil of the eye to a certain extent; and have seen the same effect repeatedly, and in a far greater degree, among the Hindoo jugglers. This action is natural in the owl, but probably requires a peculiar nervous structure in man. Some persons have a power of so completely simulating death, that neither by respiration, the motion of the eye under light, nor the pulse, could any unprofessional observer, or even an experienced physician, detect the counterfeit. One of my servants in India, struck another Hindoo with his open hand, for some impertinence. The man instantly fell, apparently dead; and I happened to arrive just as the friends were about to remove the body, no doubt for the purpose of extorting money by concealment and false pretences. I could perceive no respiration (the glass-test was not applied), no pulse at the wrist; the pupil of the eye was fixed in all lights. There was, however, a slight thrilling in the carotid artery, and I judged the case to be one of admirable feigning. Severe pinching was borne without change of expression, as was also the deep prick of a pin. For amusement, I pronounced him dead, but assured the ignorant natives that I would bring him to life. On my calling for a little pan of coals,—always ready in a bachelor drawing-room in the East, for lighting cigars,—there came over the countenance the slightest possible shade of anxiety. I ordered the patient’s abdomen laid bare, and gently toppled a bright coal from the pan upon it. The effect was magical. Instantly, the fellow gave the most lively evidences of vitality; and, as he crossed the Compound and darted through the gateway, he seemed solely bent upon rivalling the mysterious industry of the ‘man with the cork-leg.’ “By strong contraction of all the muscles of the chest, while those of the neck are rigid and the lungs fully inflated, the vessels of the head and neck can be distended almost to bursting. Actors sometimes use this power to produce voluntary blushing, or the suffusion of anger, though the practice endangers apoplexy. I take this to be the secret of the voluntary bleeding, in the case described by you.
“The tonsils, and the membrane of the throat behind the nose and mouth, are full of innumerable blood-vessels, forming a net-work; and very slight causes often produce great enlargement of these vessels. By frequent temporary distension, they are not only permanently enlarged, but made more susceptible of additional expansion from trivial accidents. In this condition, they may be brought to resemble, in some degree, what is termed, by anatomists, the erectile tissue, which structure has sufficient contractility to prevent the admission of more than an ordinary amount of blood on common occasions, but when excited in any way, it yields with great ease, and admits of enormous dilatation. Erectile tumors are dangerous, from their tendency, ultimately, to bleed spontaneously. They are sometimes formed in the throat. The party referred to may have one, or she may have simply enlarged the vessels by habitual mechanical distension, by compressing the chest in the manner just described. There is such a natural tendency, in all parts about the throat and nose, to bleed from slight causes, particularly after repeated inflammation, that it strikes me as by no means wonderful, that a designing person should, by long-practised mechanical efforts, aided, perhaps, by the consequences of former colds, reduce these parts to a condition such that they would bleed from voluntary distension. The only wonder in the case is the quantity discharged, while this person does not appear to be subject to involuntary hemorrhage also. This result will probably occur hereafter, and the impostor may share the fate of the man who arrested the motion of his heart.