“Now, it so happened that sometime previously I had purchased a chemical apparatus, conducting my experiments secretly, and mainly after twelve at night—for the purpose of repeating La Brière’s great experiment for the removal of the poisonous and igneous properties of Phosphorus without decreasing its revivifying and medicinal qualities. I had experimented untiringly for five months, at a cost almost ruinous to me, but still with an invincible conviction that I should succeed, and give my secret to the world, instead of perishing like the poor Frenchman, who burst an artery from excitement at his success, having made about eleven ounces that fulfilled his entire expectations. Part of his process only survived him, and many a man, like myself, had attempted to fathom the secret and gain the enormous fortune that must result from complete success, but hitherto in vain.
“The experiment was a most important one. Churchill had produced his hypophosphites, and they had lamentably failed of the intention; hence, in working at this mine, I had avoided his and others’ formulæ. Success, I felt, would not only benefit my own private practice, but would be of incalculable service to the medical profession, and still more to that large class of persons who by over mental exertion, severe intellectual and sedentary occupations, and by passional and other imprudent excesses, had deprived themselves of the wine of life, by draining themselves of nervous force; and become spiritless, semi-insane, gloomy, and despondent. Such a discovery I knew would place in the hands of the profession a true, positive, but perfectly harmless aphrodision nervous stimulant, invigorant and tonic. It was, therefore, worth all the time, trouble, and expense I devoted to it, for it would be one of the best things medical science had yet given to the world.
“It had long been demonstrated: 1st. That Phosphorus abounded in the bones, nerves, and tissues of the human body, but especially in the human brain. 2d. That Phosphorus was invariably present in large quantities in the brains of healthy men who had been killed, and analysis thereafter made; and invariably as the brain thus analyzed was that of an intellectual, fine-strung, high-toned, ambitious, executive, or spiritual person, just in proportion was the volume of phosphorus found in their remains; while the low, the ignorant, coarse and brutal had comparatively little phosphorus in them. 3d. It had been proved that in the administration of phosphorus to old people; to the class of patients who seek private advice; to those exhausted by mental labor or excess, it invariably acted as a revivifier, and seemed not only to restore health, strength, and fire to the body, but to rejuvenate and tone up the mind to its pristine strength, power, and activity; while insanity, idiotcy, brain-softening, and causeless terror, disappeared in the ratio of its exhibition, for one half of the diseases of civilization result from the waste of phosphorus from the system, and for thirty years medical chemistry had sought to so prepare the article that it would at once assimilate with the tissues and fluids. It had not succeeded. True, La Brière had, but then his secret was dead. I resolved to restore it; and after a hundred failures, produced what he had named Phymyle.
“I tried its effects upon myself; then several physicians on themselves; and finally, it was tried upon patients at their own request, and the result left not a nail to hang a doubt on, that I was perfectly justified in crying ‘Eureka!’ This preface is essential to the understanding of what follows.
“Now, it so happened that a few days before I saw Mrs. Graham, that I had placed about four pounds of phosphorus, together with about five times that weight of other materials, in a strong glass vessel, in a sand-bath, ready for the production of, perhaps, one quart of the precious medicine; and the first thing I did on entering my office from the dentist’s, was to light the gas beneath it. For a few minutes I stood watching the rich and beautiful scarlet and purple vapor as it rose and curled through the neck of the retort, and the long glass pipes leading to the condensing apparatus.
“While thus intently engaged, I was suddenly startled by the exclamations, ‘Careless fool! Look out! Run!’ Mechanically I obeyed, leaped into the outer office, and had scarcely done so, than there occurred a loud explosion. The retort had burst into a million fragments, shattering the windows and apparatus into fine pieces, and scattering some pounds of ignited phosphorus upon the floor. Here was trouble. But not to the speaker—for, quick as light, he tore the carpet off the office floor, and hurled it, phosphorus and all, into the snow-drifts in the yard below, which soon melted under the intense blaze of that almost quenchless fire, until, having consumed itself, nothing but a white smoke was left to tell the danger I and the house had been in.
“The fire out, and my fright subsided, I turned to see who it was that had so opportunely saved me, and found the little old man smiling and smirking before me.
“ ‘What! is it you, then?’ I asked, at the same time cordially extending my hand toward him.
“ ‘I rather think it is!’ said he, grasping it, ‘and very lucky for you it was that I chanced to happen along
“ ‘So early in the morning,
Just after break of day,’