William Shakspeare now came forward. His appearance caused an obvious and general sensation, both on the court and auditory present; and the words, great magician, fairy minister, charmer of all hearts, and great magnetiser, were whispered by hundreds present. The eyes of many were fixed in different directions, as if on figures,-half shadowy, half material. One exclaimed Hamlet-the royal dane; another, Macbeth-thane and king that shalt be; a third, Othello-the noble and confiding, yet betrayed and jealous Moor. The eyes of the ambitious man rested on hunchbacked Gloster;-those of the young and trusting lover on Romeo and Juliet. In fine, the entire hall, extensive as it was, seemed to become suddenly filled with a crowd of characters and persons representing every nation and individual of mark and note, and every emotion of the human mind. Following the poet was Prospero with his obedient Ariel, and Oberon the fairy king,—and the spirits of the air, and of the earth and sea,-with frolicksome Queen Mab to bear them company.* We might rest the cause on Shakspeare alone ;-sure that the opinion of the court within, and of the still larger and democratic judiciary without, would be in favour of animal magnetism, as proved in the works of this great poet. The powers which they first evinced continue unabated to this day. Now, as then, they produce all the stages of somnambulism and ecstasy, and transport us to other and remote regions, with the inhabitants of which we hold converse, more evidently and distinctly than can be proved in the most marked case of clairvoyance of the present time. The poet seems to have been fully aware of the nature and extent of the magnetic influence, from the pains he takes in so many passages of his dramas to show its processes and its workings. Prospero, witnessing the success of the passes which he had directed Ariel to execute, with a view of inducing mutual love in the breasts of his daughter and nephew, exclaims :"At the first sight They have changed eyes.-Delicate Ariel, And again, addressing Ariel, he says: "Thou and thy meaner fellows your last service Did worthily perform; and I must use you In such another trick: go bring the rabble, O'er whom I gave thee power, here, to this place; Incite them to quick motion; for I must Bestow upon the eyes of the young couple Some vanity of my art; it is my promise, And they expect it from me." Well remembered must be the passe by which Macbeth, at the banquet, was for a time transfixed, immoveable, until a reverse passe freed him once more. But the magnetising process performed by Hamlet on Ophelia, is described more in detail: "Ophelia. He took me by the wrist, and held me hard, Then goes he to the length of all his arm, And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow, He falls to such perusal of my face As he would draw it. Long staid he so; At last, a little shaking of mine arm, And thrice his head thus waving up and down." Hamlet himself must have been in a state of clairvoyance, at the time, his • Everybody has read, either in the play or as part of school exercise, Mercutio's account of Queen Mab's somnambulistic power. vision being transferred to his epigastrium; since, according to the testimony of Ophelia "That done, he lets me go; And with his head over his shoulders turned, We need not narrate here the well-known effects of the magnetic passes on poor Ophelia. Her somnambulism was complete, and only ended in her death. But the description of her state is so applicable to that of some young female somnambulists of the day, that we cannot forbear from introducing it. "Horatio. She speaks much of her father; says she hears There's tricks i' the world; and hems, and beats her heart; Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt, That carry but half sense; her speech is nothing, Yet the unshaped use of it doth move The hearers to collection; they aim at it, And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts; Which as her winks and nods, and gestures yield them, 6 Brabantio was not aware of the power of animal magnetism when he accused Othello of having stolen from him and corrupted his daughter, by spells and medicines bought of mountebanks.' The old man forgot the times when Desdemona did seriously incline to hear the Moor's adventures, his dangers and escapes: 'twas then, doubtless, that the latter charmed her by magnetic passes learned in his early days in Mauritania. The mischievous passe which Oberon the fairy king practised on his wife Titania, and the odd display of somnambulism by the latter, are familiar to every reader of the Midsummer Night's Dream.' Apropos, when, in the same piece, the poet says "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; we are reminded of the creed in pagan mythology which supposed a transfer of the sense of vision doubtless to the epigastrium, as this is the centre and seat of the strongest emotions in the unhappy wight under the influence of love. This drama is full of illustrations of the great art. In one somnambulistic group are seen Hermia and her friend Helena with Lysander and Demetrius. The common counterpasses by the noise of horns sufficed, however, to rouse them from their sleep. But why should we continue to give the testimony of Shakspeare, when nearly every drama of his abounds with proofs and illustrations of animal magnetism. We shall conclude, therefore, in the words of the worthy Bottom, of lion-braying fame, as expressive both of the reminiscences and of the transfer of the senses in our somnambulists of the day. "Methought I was there is no man can tell what. Methought I was, and methought I had,—but man is but a patched fool, if he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen; man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad (pamphlet?) of this dream; it shall be called Bottom's dream, because it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the latter end of a play before the duke." THE fullest report yet published of the doings of the Medical Section of "The British Association for the Promotion of Science," is contained in sucressive numbers of the London Athenæum. This will be found entire in the following pages. For its length no excuse need be offered to the reader, who is at all alive to the progress of medical science, and a lover of seasonable variety. Much as of late the subject of the Motions and Sounds of the Heart has been discussed, the report of the Committee, and the remarks on it, will command attention. Mr. Brett's paper "On the Physical and Chemical characters of Expectoration in different Diseases of the Lungs, with some Preliminary Remarks on the Albuminous Principles existing in the Blood," is well calculated to render more precise our diagnosis of a class of diseases of constantly recurring and painful interest. Illustrative of some interesting points in the physiology and pathology of the movements of deglutition and respiration, are the experiments of Dr. John Reed, the results of which, as given in the report, are transferred to our pages. The report by Dr. Black of the Epidemic Influenza, with its accompanying meteorological tables, and the examination of the bearing of the Epidemic upon Vital Statistics and Mortality, is in very advantageous contrast with the nursery dogmatism and gossip on this disease, as found in some of the London Medical Journals and debates of its Medical Societies. The second paper, by Dr. Holland, and the debates to which it gave rise, tend to throw additional light on the late much discussed topic of the "Influence of the Respiratory Organs on the circulation of Blood in the Chest." Of therapeutical value is the proposition, and apparatus to carry it into effect, by Sir James Murray, "to withdraw atmospheric pressure from the surface of the body, partially or wholly." To the sceptical pathologist, and to the phrenologist, the cases recorded by Dr. Hugh Carlisle, and the remarks which followed, on the Functions of the Brain, by this gentleman, and the paper on a subsequent day, by Professor Evanson, will furnish additional materials for reflexion and inquiry. After all that has been written and said in Cholera, we believe that Dr. Mackintosh's paper on the subject will both secure and repay a perusal. We but notice thus hastily the reports and papers which more directly attracted our notice. The reader will find many others, of, perhaps to him, not less moment, and which at any rate will serve, in connexion with the former, to VOL. II.4 make up a series of instructive facts and commentaries, calculated of themselves to impart no small value to the present Number of our Journal.* ANATOMY AND MEDICINE. President-WILLIAM CLARK, M. D. Vice-Presidents-JAMES CARSON, M. D. F. R. S., PETER MARK ROGET, M. D. Sec. DR. ROGET stated that he presided on this occasion, owing to the absence of Professor Clark, whose arrival was expected. The second report of the Sub-Committee, appointed by the Association to investigate the Motions and Sounds of the Heart, was read by Dr. Charles Williams. Before describing their last investigations, the Committee stated that they had found frequent opportunities of confirming the conclusions of their former researches on the natural sounds of the heart; and these conclusions not having been shaken by any subsequent experiment, or well-founded objection, the Committee consider them established; viz., that the first sound of the heart is essentially caused by the sudden and forcible tightening of the muscular fibres of the ventricles when they contract; and that the second sound essentially depends on the reaction of the arterial columns of blood on the semilunar valves of the arterial orifices, at the moment of the ventricular diastole. Certain other circumstances were stated, as being capable of adding to, or modifying these sounds. The chief subjects of their present inquiry were, the unnatural, or morbid sounds, sometimes heard in the heart and arteries; and in investigating the causes of these sounds, which Laennec compared to blowing, filing, sawing, purring and cooing, or musical sounds, they sought to determine, 1st, What is the essential physical cause of these sounds; and 2d, In what manner disease can develope this physical cause-a correct answer to these inquiries would determine the value of these sounds as signs of disease. The Committee found that they could produce precisely the same sounds in every variety, by impelling, in various modes and degrees, a current of water through India rubber tubes; and by numerous experiments, they ascertained the relations which the character of these sounds bore to the nature of the impediment, and to the force of the current. They obtained similar results on experimenting on the arteries of living animals; and discovered, that in the human subject the same sounds may be produced by simple pressure, not only in the arteries, but in the veins also. They found that the sounds heard in the neck, described by some eminent French writers under the names "bruit de diable," and "bruit de mouche," as signs of a particular morbid condition, which requires the use of certain remedies, may be produced at will, by the pressure of the stethoscope on the jugular veins of the healthiest persons, and is therefore not necessarily a sign of disease, but has probably been accidentally caused by the same pressure in many cases in which it has been considered as a morbid sign. The Committee conclude, in answer to the first inquiry, that a certain resist ance to a moving current is the essential physical cause of all the various sounds We find, by reference to our London Medical Journal for September, that they take the report of the London Athenæum, as the most satisfactory and as yet the fullest. in question, and that this resistance is generally given by some pressure on, or impediment in, the tube through which the current moves; but that sometimes the resistance is caused by a change in the direction of the current, by which it is made to impinge on the walls of the vessel which contains it. The second inquiry the Committee think can be fully answered only by extensive clinical and pathological observation, with due regard to the previous investigations; but they have planned some experiments, that promise to elucidate certain obscure points of the pathology and diagnosis of diseases of the heart and arteries, the knowledge of which would be of direct practical advantage. These points the Committee propose to investigate, if the Association think fit to re-appoint them to this office. The thanks of the Section were voted to the Sub-Committee, and the members were requested to continue their labours. Dr. Copland said, the Report stated that the heart beat after the cessation of respiration, which he believed, for the heart was the ultima moriens.-Dr. Carlisle concurred with the Report in its general view as to the cause of the sounds of the circulation in tubes from obstruction to the course of the fluid current, but differed from them on the explanation of the systolic sound, which, in his opinion, was owing to resistance from the irregularities of the heart's surface. The heart, in these cases, was ultima moriens, and would act, though it contained no blood, contrary to Bichat's opinion.-Dr. Granville could confirm, from his experiments with poison, chiefly prussic acid, the solitary instance adduced by Dr. Williams, of the beating of the heart on the cessation of respiration, and that it continued its action, though without blood. He found, and five other gentlemen were present timing with their watches, that in seven experiments on animals made in London, the fibres of the heart were alive after the death of the lungs (i. e. if life could be pronounced from dilatation and contraction)-in one case five minutes, in a second eight minutes, in a third eleven minutes; and on touching with a scalpel to a much longer period; and in this case not a drop of blood was contained in the heart. The action was not owing to blood or fluid, but was merely mechanical; and it was found, in dogs and cats destroyed by prussic acid, that, on opening the cavity of the chest and abdomen simultaneously, respiration had ceased, the lungs collapsed, but the heart beat, and the intestines acted peristaltically. The heart, as a muscle, does most certainly survive respiration, and is the ultima moriens. Dr. Johnson said the Report concluded that all abnormal sounds were indicative of disease or morbid obstruction; from which he must dissent. He believed the excess of the velocity of the circulating fluid was sufficient to account for it, without the supposition of any obstruction from morbid contractions, and other impediments in the arterial tubes. He was, himself, an instance of the truth of this; for when his circulatiou was increased, either by excitement, food, or running, he had heard these sounds in himself, and he had equally verified it by observations on others; he could not, therefore, consider these sounds as certainly abnormal. He would ask Dr. Williams, if a trial had been made of the effect of velocity of fluids through tubes with the view of ascertaining sounds? -he would ask, if sound was produced at the extremity of the vessel, why is it not heard in the diastole of it, the blood issuing, as some say, in jets, or from reflux ?-Dr. Williams stated, in answer, first, that the Committee had examined this subject physically, when they found some contraction, or obstruction, or bend, was necessary for the production of the murmur and other sounds; but that they had not entirely sifted the physiological part of the subject, though he believed that their physical labours were applicable fully to the physiological. To have sounds in currents, there must be some resistance, as friction. In the natural condition of the vessel, this increased velocity of Dr. Johnson's might create friction, from want of dilatibility causing the murmuring sounds; and he would certainly recommend Dr. Johnson and his friends not to repeat their experiments frequently at least, on themselves. To Dr. Johnson's second question-why is there not sound in a continuous current ?-it would depend on the pressure; according to its degree, so would be the sound-if considerable, the bruit de diable. He now wished to refer to the objections of Dr. Carlisle. In last |