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body, moves it in fact, and by his imagina-ing of medical books which accurately destion and the commerce of invisible powers cribe the symptoms of various complaints us he may also move another body." Paracel- likely to have an injurious effect, not only sus would not have been surprised at the on the delicate, but on persons in full health; feats of electro-biology. He exhorts his pa- and they are conscious how many died du tients to have "a good faith, a strong imag-ring the time of the plague and the cholera, ination, and they shall find the effects."- not only from these diseases, but from the "All doubt," he says, "destroys work, and dread of them, which brought on all the faleaves it imperfect in the wise designs of tal symptoms. So evident was the effect nature; it is from faith that imagination | produced by the detailed accounts of the draws its strength, it is by faith that it becomes complete and realized; he who believeth in nature will obtain from nature to the extent of his faith, and let the object of this faith be real or imaginary, he nevertheless reaps similar results-and hence the cause of superstition."

cholera in the public papers in the year 1849, that it was found absolutely necessary to restrain the publications on the subject. The illusions under which vast numbers acted and suffered have gone, indeed, to the most extravagant extent; individuals, not merely single, but in communities, have actually believed in their own transformation.

So early as 1462, Pomponatus of Mantua came to the conclusion, in his work on in- A nobleman of the court of Louis XIV. cantation, that all the arts of sorcery and fancied himself a dog, and would pop his witchcraft were the result of natural opera- head out of the window to bark at the pas tions. He conceived that it was not improb- sengers; while the barking disease at the able that external means, called into action camp-meetings of the Methodists of Northby the soul, might relieve our sufferings, and America has been described as "extravagant that there did, moreover, exist individuals beyond belief." Rollin and Hecquet have endowed with salutary properties; so it recorded a malady by which the inmates of might, therefore, be easily conceived that an extensive convent near Paris were attack marvellous effects should be produced by ed simultaneously every day at the same the imagination and by confidence, more es-hour, when they believed themselves transpecially when these are reciprocal between the patient and the person who assists his recovery. Two years after the same opinion was advanced by Agrippa in Cologne. "The soul," he said, "if inflamed by a fervent imagination, could dispense health and disease not only in the individual himself, but in other bodies" However absurd these opinions may have been considered, or looked on as enthusiastic, the time has come when they will be gravely examined.

That medical professors have at all times believed the imagination to possess a strange and powerful influence over mind and body, is proved by their writings, by some of their prescriptions, and by their oft-repeated direction in the sick-chamber, to divert the patient's mind from dwelling on his own state, and from attending to the symptoms of his complaint. They consider the read

formed into cats, and a universal mewing was kept up throughout the convent for some hours. But of all dreadful forms which this strange hallucination took, none was so terrible as that of the lycanthropy, which at one period spread through Europe; in which the unhappy sufferers, believing themselves wolves, went prowling round the forests uttering the most terrific howlings, carrying off lambs from the flocks, and gnawing dead bodies in their graves.

While every day's experience adds some new proof of the influence possessed by the imagination over the body, the supposed effect of contagion has become a question of doubt. Lately, at a meeting in Edinburgh, Professor Dick gave it as his opinion that there was no such thing as hydrophobia in the lower animals: "what went properly by that name was simply an infiammation of

the brain; and the disease, in the case of the means of defraying their expenses, and

human beings, was caused by an over-excited imagination, worked upon by the popular delusion on the effects of a bite by rabid animals." The following paragraph from the "Curiosities of Medicine," appears to justify this now common enough opinion:

were at a loss to know what they should do in such an emergency. Holt, however, perceived that the innkeeper's daughter looked very ill, and on inquiring what was the matter, learned that she had the ague, when, passing himself off for a medical student, "Several persons had been bitten by a he said that he had an infallible cure for rabid dog in the Faubourg St. Antoine, and the complaint. He then collected a number three of them had died in our hospital. A of plants, mixed them up with various cerereport, however, was prevalent, that we kept monies, and inclosed them in parchment, on a mixture which would effectually prevent which he scrawled divers cabalistic charactheir fatal termination, and no less than six ters. When all was completed, he suspendapplicants who had been bitten, were served the amulet around the neck of the young ed with a draught of colored water, and in no one instance did hydrophobia ensue."

A remarkable cure through a similar aid of the imagination took place in a patient of Dr. Beddoes, who was at that time very sanguine about the effect of nitrous acid gas in paralytic cases. Anxious that it should be imbibed by one of his patients, he sent an invalid to Sir Humphrey Davy, with a request that he would administer the gas. Sir Humphrey put the bulb of the thermometer under the tongue of the paralytic to ascertain the temperature of the body, that he might be sure whether it would be affected at all by the inhalation of the gas. The patient, full of faith from what the enthusiastic physician had assured him would be the result, and believing that the thermometer was what was to effect the cure, exclaimed at once that he felt better. Sir Humphrey, anxious to see what imagination would do in such a case, did not attempt to undeceive the man, but saying that he had done enough for him that day, desired him to be with him the next morning. The thermometer was then applied as it had been the day before, and for every day during a fortnight -at the end of which time the patient was perfectly cured.

woman, and strange to say, the ague left her and never returned. The landlord, grateful for the restoration of his daughter, not only declined receiving any payment from the youths, but pressed them to remain as long as they pleased. Many years after, when Holt was on the bench, a woman was brought before him charged with witchcraft; she was accused of curing the ague by charms. All she said in defence was, that she did possess a ball which was a sovereign remedy in the complaint. The charm was produced and handed to the judge, who recognized the very ball which he had himself compounded in his boyish days, when, out of mere fun, he had assumed the character of a medical practitioner.

Many distinguished physicians have candidly confessed that they preferred confidence to art. Faith in the remedy is often not only half the cure, but the whole cure. Madame de Genlis tells of a girl who had lost the use of her leg for five years, and could only move with the help of crutches, while her back had to be supported. She was in such a pitiable state of weakness, the physician pronounced her case incurable. She, however, took it into her head that if she was taken to Notre Dame de

Perhaps there is nothing on record more Liesse she would certainly recover. It was curious of this kind than the cures unwitting-fifteen miles from Carlepont, where she liv ly performed by Chief-Justice Holt. It ed. She was placed in the cart, which her seems that for a youthful frolic he and his father drove, while her sister sat by her supcompanions had put up at a country inn; porting her back. The moment the steeple they, however, found themselves without of Notre Dame de Liesse was in sight, she

uttered an exclamation, and said that her leg was getting well. She alighted from the car without assistance, and no longer requiring the aid of crutches, she ran into the church. When she returned home the villagers gathered about her, scarcely believing that it was, indeed the girl who had left them in such a wretched state, now they saw her running and bounding along, no longer a cripple, but active as any among them.

Not less extraordinary are the cures which are effected by some sudden agitation.An alarm of fire has been known to restore a patient entirely, or for a time, from a tedious illuess. It is no uncommon thing to hear of the victim of a severe fit of the gout, whose feet have been utterly powerless, running nimbly away from some approaching danger. Poor Grimaldi, in his declining years, had almost quite lost the use of his limbs, owing to the most hopeless debility. As he sat one day by the bedside of his wife, who was ill, word was brought to him that a friend waited below to see him. He got down to the parlor with extreme difficulty. His friend was the bearer of heavy news which he dreaded to communicate-it was the death of Grimaldi's son, who, though reckless and worthless, was fondly loved by the poor father. The intelligence was broken as gently as such a sad event could be, but in an instant Grimaldi sprung from his chair, his lassitude and debility were gone, his breathing, which had for a long time been difficult, became perfectly easy-he was hardly a moment in bounding up the stairs which but a quarter of an hour before, he had passed with extreme difficulty in ten minutes, he reached the bedside, and told his wife that their son was dead, and as she burst into an agony of grief he flung himself into achair, and became instantaneously, as it has boor touchingly described, “an enfeebled and crippled old man."

The imagination, which is remarkable for its ungovernable influence, comes into action on sonte occasions periodically with the most precise regularity. A friend once told us of a young relation who was subject to

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nervous attacks; she was spending some time at the seaside for change of air, but the evening gun, fired from the vessel in the bay at eight o'clock, was always a signal for a nervous attack-the instant the report was heard she fell back insensible as if she had been shot. Those about her endeavored, if possible, to withdraw her thoughts from the expected moment. At length, one evening they succeeded, and while she was engaged in an interesting conversation, the evening gun was unnoticed. By and by she asked the hour, and appeared uneasy when she found the hour had passed, The next evening it was evident that she would not let her attention be withdrawn; the gun fired and she swooned away, and when revived another fainting fit succeeded, as if it were to make up for the preceding evening.

It is told of the great tragic actress, Clarion, who had been the innocent cause of the suicide of a man, who destroyed himself by a pistol-shot, that ever after, at the exact moment when the fatal deed had been perpetrated-one o'clock in the morning-she heard the shot. If asleep, it awakened her; if engaged in conversation it interrupted her; in solitude or in company, at home or travelling, in the midst of revelry or at her devotions, she was sure to hear it at the very moment.

The same indelible impression has been made in hundreds of cases, and on persons of every yariety of temperament, and every pursuit, whether engaged in business, science or art, or rapt in holy contemplation. On one occasion Pascal had been thrown down on a bridge which had no parapet, and his imagination was so haunted for ever after by the danger, that he always fancied himself on the brink of a steep precipice overhanging an abyss ready to engulf him. This illusion had taken such possession of his mind, that the friends who came to converse with him were obliged to place the chairs on which they seated themselves, between him and the fancied danger. But the effects or terror are the best known of all the vagaries of the imagination.

A very remarkable case of the influence of spoke on the subject with a dignified calmthe imagination occurred between sixty and ness well becoming the solemm leave-taking seventy years since in Dublin, connected of a monarch; but when he came to speak with the celebrated frolics of Dalkey Island, of the crown he was about to relinquish for It is said Curran and his gay companions ever, his feelings were quite overcome, and delighted to spend a day there, and that the tears rolled down his cheeks: "I leave with them originated the frolic of electing it," said he, "to my people, and to him whom "a king of Dalkey and the adjacent islands," they may elect as my successor." This reand appointing his chancellor and all the markable scene is recorded in some of the officers of state. A man in the middle rank notices of deaths for the year 1787. The of life, universally respected, and remarkable delusion, though most painful to his friends, alike for kindly and generous feelings and a was far from an unhappy one to its victim; convivial spirit, was unanimously elected to his feelings were gratified to the last, while' fill the throne. He entered with his whole thinking he was occupied with the good of heart into all the humors of the pastime, in his fellow-creatures-an occupation best which the citizens of Dublin so long delight-suited to his benevolent disposition.

ed. A journal was kept, called the Dalkey Gazette, in which all the public proceedings

METEOROLOGY.

[From an interesting work entitled Christian Ret

were inserted, and it afforded great amusement to its conductors. But the mock pageantry, the affected loyalty, and the pre-rospect and Register, a summary of the Scientific, tended homage of his subjects, at length be- Moral and Religious Progress of the first half of the Nineteenth Century.] gan to excite the imagination of "King John," as he was called. Fiction at length became with him a reality, and he fancied

himself "every inch a king." His family and his friends perceived with dismay and deep sorrow, the strange delusion which nothing could shake; he would speak of no subject save the kingdom of Dalkey and its government, and he loved to dwell on the various projects he had in contemplation for the benefit of his people, and boasted of his high prerogative. He never could conceive himself divested for one moment of his royal powers, and exacted the most profound deference to his kingly authority. The last year and a half of his life were spent in Swift's hospital for lunatics. He felt his last hours approaching, but no gleam of returning reason marked the parting scene; to the very last instant he believed himself a king, and all his cares and anxieties were for his people. He spoke in high terms of his chancellor, his attorney general, and all his officers of state, and of the dignitaries of the church; he reco nmended them to his ngdom, and trusted they might all retain the high offices which they now held. He

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This Science, which has for its objects the phenomena of the atmosphere, has assumed

its present form entirely within the present

century. At the beginning of that period it was characterized by two prominent circumstances-one, the possession of the most important instruments of observation, the barometer, thermometer, hygrometer, &c., and the other, the recent determination of the uniform composition of the atmosphere at all accessible heights, and in all countries.

Numberless observations have been made

with these instruments to determine the va riations of temperature, humidity, &c., of particular places, and to ascertain the laws of the atmospheric changes throughout, the earth. In some places these observations have been made hourly for long periods of time. Observations of this kind, for a peri- . od of two years in Scotland, were discussed by Dr. Brewster in 1827.

Many attempts have been made to ascertain the laws of terrestial heat. The subject has been investigated mathematically by the French philosophers, with their accus

tomed zeal. Several important problems gives great precision to descriptions of athave been earnestly, discussed, such as the mospheric phenomena.

specific heats of various substances, the proper heat of the earth, &c.

Among the most interesting of these results, may be mentioned the conclusions, that equal volumes of the different gases have the same specific heat; that no appreciable change of temperate in the Italian climate has taken place for two hundred years; that the earth has a proper heat of its own; that its temperature, at a given depth below the surface, is invariable at all seasons, and increases with each succeeding increase of depth.

To Dr. Dalton the world is indebted for some experiments which have ascertained the dew-point, or the temperature at which dew begins to be deposited. He has also determined the composition of the air to be the result of a mechanical mixture, and not of a chemical combination, of its gaseous ele

ments.

At the beginning of our period there was no general theory of Winds and Storms, and the want of such a theory was much felt Since then, however, the general laws of the Wind have, in some most important respects, been ascertained. The constant winds of the Tropic have been shown to be owing to regular changes of the temperature--the land and sea breezes to the diurnal variations--the monsoons to the changes of the seasons--and the trade winds to the difference of climate between the equatorial and polar regions.

A very interesting investigation has recently been conducted by several eminent men, into the nature of the great American Storms, which has already thrown much light upon this subject. Until a very late period they were supposed to be merely gales of wind, moving at a high velocity and in a straight line. Mr. Redfield, of New York, suggested that they were rotary, and The law which governs the amount of adduced many observations on the great rain falling in different districts of the earth, Atlantic Storms, which seemed strongly to has been in some degree ascertained. Arago sustain this view. It was adopted by Col. in 1824-5, traced its regular decrease from Reid of the British army, and supported by the Equator to the Poles. On the Malabar his very numerous observations upon storms coast 123 inches is the annual amount, which in the East and West Indies. A different is reduced in latitude 60 to 17 inches-- theory has been advocated by Prof. Espy, Annual amounts have been ascertained in who maintains, on similar grounds of fact other places far surpassing this: at Parama- and upon established principles of science riboo, 229 inches; in the Western Ghauts, that the direction of the wind in such south of Bombay, 300 inches. storms, instead of being rotary, is converThe phenomena of dew were ascertained gent towards a centre. The opinions of by a beautiful series of experiments in 1814, scientific men are yet divided on the subby Dr. Wells, in England. He succeeded in ject, and the discussion has developed some connecting them with the temperature as very interesting laws in respect to the caustheir cause, modified by the conducting pow-es, motions, and extent of such phenomena. er of the body on which moisture is deposi- Many observations have enabled us to asted. The theory thus established, speedily certain the mean direction of the wind at afforded a solution of all the phenomena,

particular points. Farther investigations in An ingenious classification of clouds into this direction have been undertaken by Lt cirrus, cumulus and stratus, (corresponding Maury, of the Washington Observatory, who to feather-cloud, heap-cloud and layer-cloud has ascertained, from a very extensive comin German,) with their different combina-parison of the records of numerous ships, tions, was proposed in 1803, by Mr. How-that certain winds prevail within given limard. It has been generally accepted, and its much more regularly than had been sup

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