The Funny Side of Physic Part 59

Tovell--Parham Lodge. A maiden sister of the squire's, dying, left him a considerable sum of money. The loving, waiting Sarah proved a faithful, though some might say a somewhat domineering, wife, as the following quotation intimates:--

"I can screw Crabbe up or down, just like an old fiddle," this amiable woman was wont to say; and throughout her life she amply demonstrated the a.s.sertion.

"But her last will and testament was a handsome apology for all her past little tiffs."

THE RIGHT MAN.

A curious story is told, and vouched for, respecting the manner in which Dr. and Rev. Thomas Dawson obtained a rich and pious wife. This gentleman combined the two professions of preacher and doctor. If, during divine services, he was called upon to prescribe for an invalid, he wound up his sermon, requested his audience to pray for the sick, and repaired forthwith to administer to the body. I presume the congregation to whom the reasonable request was made did not take it in the same light as did an "M. D." of whom we heard, who made a point to be called out of church every Sabbath.

Once the minister, who had a bit of humor in his manner, stopped on a certain occasion in his "thirdly," and said, "Dr. B. is wanted to attend upon Mr. ----, and may the Lord have mercy upon him."

The doctor was so enraged at this "insinuation" that he called upon the parson, and demanded an "apology to the congregation, before whom he felt he had been grossly slandered."

The parson agreed to this proposal, and in the afternoon he arose and said,--

"As Dr. B. feels aggrieved at my remark of this morning, and demands an apology, I hereby offer the same; and as that was the first case, I trust it may be the last in which I am ever called upon in his behalf to supplicate divine intervention."

But to return to Dr. Dawson. Amongst his patients was a Miss Mary Corbett, said to be one of the wealthiest and most pious of his flock, whom, on his calling upon her one day, he found bending in reverence over the Bible.

The doctor approached, and as she raised her eyes to his she held her finger upon the pa.s.sage which occupied her immediate attention. The doctor bent down and read the words at which her finger pointed--"Thou art the man."

The doctor was not slow to take the hint. Thus he obtained a pious wife, she a devout husband.--_See "Book About Doctors."_

A great deal has been reported respecting the "off-hand" manner in which Abernethy "popped the question" to Miss Anne Threlfall. The fact of the case is given by Dr. Macilwain. The lady was visiting at a place where the doctor was attending a patient--of all places the best to learn the true merits of a lady. He was at once interested in her, and ere long there seemed a tacit understanding between them. "The doctor was shy and sensitive; which was the real Rubicon he felt a difficulty in pa.s.sing; and this was the method he adopted: he wrote her a brief note, pleading professional occupation, etc., and requesting the lady to take a fortnight in which to consider her reply." From these facts a great falsehood has oft been repeated how he "couldn't afford time to make love," etc., and that she must decide to marry him in a week, or not at all.

He was married to her January 9, 1800, and attended lectures the same day.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "POPPING THE QUESTION."]

"Many years after, I met him coming out of the hospital, and said,--

"'You are looking very gay to-day, sir.'

"'Yes,' he replied, looking at his white vest and smart attire, 'one of the girls was married this morning.'

"'Indeed, sir? You should have given yourself a holiday on such an occasion, and not come down to lecture.'

"'Nay,' he replied, 'egad, I came down to lecture the same day I was married myself.'"--_Memoirs of Abernethy._

[Ill.u.s.tration]

XVIII.

MIND AND MATTER.

"The evidence of sense is the first and highest kind of evidence of which human nature is capable."--WILKINS.

"They choose darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil."--SCRIPTURE.

IN WHICH ANIMAL MAGNETISM, MESMERISM, AND CLAIRVOYANCE ARE EXPLAINED.--"THE IGNORANT MONOPOLY."--YET ROOM FOR DISCOVERIES.--A "Ga.s.sY" SUBJECT.--DRS. CHAPIN AND BEECHER.--HE "CAN'T SEE IT."--THE ROYAL TOUCH.--Ga.s.sNER.--"THE DEVIL KNOWS LATIN."--ROYALTY IN THE SHADE.--THE IRISH PROPHET; HE VISITS LONDON.--A COMICAL CROWD.--MESMERISM.--A FUNNY BED-FELLOW.--CLAIRVOYANCE.--THE GATES OF MOSCOW.--THE DOCTOR OF ANTWERP.--THE OLD LADY IN THE POKE-BONNET.--VISIT TO A CLAIRVOYANT.--"FORETELLING" THE PAST.--THE OLD WOMAN OF THE PEn.o.bSCOT MOUNTAINS.--A SECRET KEPT.--CUI BONO?--VISITS TO SEVENTEEN CLAIRVOYANTS.--A BON-TON CLAIRVOYANT.--A BOUNCER.--RIDICULOSITY.

Mind and matter!

What is the connection?

Why does one's yawning set a whole room full to yawning?

What is the unseen power, appropriated mostly by the ignorant, which at times controls another weaker mind, or, for the time being, controls disease? The majority of medical men "get around" this question by denying the whole proposition. But that does not satisfy the jury--the people. The great community know that there is some unseen power, which is partially developed in certain persons, which has great controlling influence over certain other persons; hence over their diseases, especially mental or nervous diseases.

I hope to be able to explain something of this "phenomenon."

Those who practise it know nothing of its _modus operandi_, any more than the bird that sings on yonder willow knows of the science of music.

To the common suggestion, "It's spirits," I say, No, _no_!

If it were "spirits," why does the spirit always seek a _low organization_ through which to manifest itself? There are few exceptions to this rule.

It is unnatural, inconsistent with the divine attributes for the supernatural to mingle with the natural. The circulation of the blood was once attributed to the action of the sun--hence a man fell asleep at sunset--and to supernatural causes.

Science has done away with these absurd notions.

"It is a manifestation of divine power," say others.

Well, for that matter, everything is; but _directly_ it is not, for what answers the "spirit" suggestion answers this one also. Divine power cannot be limited.

For want of a better name, let us call this power "animal magnetism."

The man who controls the mind of another, or another's disease, through his mind, must possess the following requisites: First, health; second, will; third, faith that he can control the subject. No _reasoning_ is necessary. The less causality he possesses, the better. The less reasoning faculties, the better he can perform.

Why?

Animal magnetism is an animal power--not a spiritual. All the animal qualities--organs--are located in the back and lower part of the brain.

They act independent of reason. Pa.s.sions have no reason. The affections have no reason. Anger and hate have none. The force, driving power of man is centred back of the ears. The cerebellum, or lower brain, acts independent of reason. Birds, and most of the animals, possess all the qualities that the cerebellum of man contains.

The upper brain--the cerebrum--is the instrument of our thoughts--our reason. In sleep, it is still; its action is suspended. Hence there is no reason in our dreams. The motive power is in the lower brain; hence somnambulism. If there is anything of a "trance" nature, it means shutting off the action of the cerebrum, and concentring the power in the cerebellum. Some persons have but little upper brain. If they have the other requisites, they may become good clairvoyants, or magnetizers, according to the manner in which they exercise the animal power.

I have yet to find a professional clairvoyant with large or active reasoning (intellectual) qualities.

YET ROOM FOR MORE DISCOVERIES.

The _living_ blood has not yet been a.n.a.lyzed. It contains a vitalizing element which chemistry has not yet been adequate to detect. There is yet as much to be discovered in the science of life as has already been revealed to man. It will yet be found out.

How is the power, or force, conveyed from the operator to the person operated upon? Through what medium does it act?