termed, only differs from the latter in being produced by arti ficial means. In both cases, the nervous system is more or less subdued as in ordinary sleep; organic functions (respiration, digestion, &c.), continue, but sensation is incomplete or annulled, and the power of feeling pain often completely absent. The manifestations of the intelligence are similar to those in dreams. The somnambulist, whether his sleep be natural or artificially provoked, will generally answer questions that are addressed to him, and in artificial somnambulism, or mesmerism, the intelligence is frequently in an extraordinary state of activity. This activity is, however, never complete; consciousness is absent, and though memory is often remarkably precise, and certain other intellectual faculties acquire, for the time, an extraordinary development, it is absurd to imagine that somnambulists have the power of seeing into the future, &c., as many persons, unaccustomed to the study of physiology, have supposed.

Certain chemical substances have the peculiar property of acting upon the nerves and producing sleep, even when administered in very small doses. These substances act upon the nerves, as is proved by applying them directly upon a nerve, and induce a nervous state, in which no pain, however violent, can be experienced by the person submitted to their influence. They differ by this property from all other known substances. Some of these compounds are extracted from certain vegetables, others are produced artificially in the laboratory. Plants which contain these subtle and powerful agents have been marked by the human race for many centuries, but it was reserved for modern chemistry to extract the active principles. themselves, in a pure state, and ascertain their composition and properties. Among these plants are the poppy, the mandrake, the hemp plant, &c.

The mandrake (Atropa mandragora) has been used for many centuries to allay pain. Eighteen hundred years ago, Dioscorides stated in his writings, that, in his time, it was given "to cause insensibility to pain in those who were about to undergo any cutting or cauterizing operations." These persons, he tells us, "are thus thrown into a deep sleep, and do not perceive the pain." The Greeks and Romans used the root of the plant steeped in wine. Pliny also mentions the use of the mandrake as possessing powerful narcotic properties, and as being used for injuries inflicted by serpents, as well as for surgical operations, in order to assure insensibility to pain. Apuleius has also spoken of it in a similar manner.

Atropa mandragora, like the Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade), and other plants of the genus Atropa, belongs to the family of Solance, which contains also the tobacco-plant

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(Nicotiana), the potato (Solanum), and several other important vegetables. It owes its pain-allaying properties to a principle called Atropine, a crystalline alkaloid, first discovered in Atropa belladonna. Though seldom or ever used at present, the root of the mandrake was frequently employed, with opium and other narcotic drugs, in ages gone by. Theodoric, a pupil of Hugo, who lived in Italy during the latter half of the thirteenth century, gives us, in his work on surgery, the following curious recipe, which shows that he was perfectly aware that surgical operations could be performed without causing any pain to the patient, by employing certain drugs. His indication runs as follows:-"The making of a flavour for performing surgical operations, according to Dominus Hugo: -Take of opium, of juice of unripe mulberry, of hyoscyamus, of the juice of the hemlock [Cicuta], of the juice of the leaves of unripe hemlock, of the juice of the wood-ivy, of the juice of the forest mulberry, of the seeds of the lettuce, of the seeds of the dock that hath a large apple [Datura], each an ounce; mix all these in a large brazen vessel, and then place in it a new sponge; let the whole boil as long as the sun lasts in dog-days, until the sponge consumes it all. As oft as it is required place this sponge in hot water for an hour, and let it be applied to the nostrils of him who is to be operated upon, until he has fallen asleep, when the operation may be performed."

Here we have opium, the narcotic juice of Papaver somniferum, Hyoscyamus niger, Cicuta virosa, and Datura stramonium, together with the less active lettuce, some of the most powerful narcotic vegetables known to us at the present day.

In 1579, Bulleyn, an English writer, described a means of putting patients to sleep, in order to practise the operation of lithotomy. He employed the mandrake. And in 1608, Baptista Porta, in his work on "Natural Magic," gives various receipts for medicines producing insensibility to pain. Among them is one for a "sleeping apple" (Pomum somniferum), composed of mandrake, opium, &c., the flavour of which is prescribed to be inhaled by the nose. In the same work it is stated, that certain soporific plants will yield a "quintessence" which will overwhelm one with profound sleep. This is not surprising, when we know that the Magisterium opii, an extract of poppy or sort of impure morphia, figured in the Pharmacopoeia as early as the seventeenth century.

Of late years, the mandrake has almost completely given way to the deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna), a plant which is well known to have greater power in annulling sensibility than any plant now in use, unless it be the aconite (Aconitum napellus).

The plants which contain pain-allaying principles, used at the present day, may be classed as follows:-In the family of Solaneæ, Atropa belladonna and A. mandragora, Hyoscyamus niger (henbane), Datura stramonium, Nicotiana tabacum; among the Papaveracea, Papaver somniferum; in the family of Ranunculaceæ, Aconitum napellus; among the Compositæ, Latuca virosa; in the Scrophularinæ, Digitalis purpurea (foxglove); and in the Umbelliferæ, Conium maculatum, and Cicuta tirosa. There are others I shall mention presently.

From all of these, certain active principles, called alkaloids, have been extracted. They have all a most remarkable influence upon the nervous system, and the alkaloids extracted from them constitute some of the most violent poisons with which we are acquainted. Some of them have, moreover, a peculiar action upon the eye; thus, for instance, Atropa belladonna causes the pupil to dilate in so extraordinary a manner that it is not difficult to ascertain that a child has eaten the large cherry-like berries of this shrub, when, on approaching a lighted candle close to the eye, we find that the pupil does not contract as usual. Again, Datura stramonium (Thorn-apple) is apt to produce blindness for a time when taken in high doses. The calming influence of tobacco (Nicotiana) is well known; and headaches cease as if by magic after a short sleep induced by eating lettuce (Latuca). Among the mild producers of sleep should be mentioned, also, the hop-plant (Humulus lupulus). Pillows stuffed with hops while in flower give repose when others, however soft, have not the power of doing so.

As to opium, the property of the common white poppy (Papaver somniferum), as a soother of pain and a giver of sleep, has been known for ages. Opium is the dried juice of the seed-vessels of this plant, and derives its name from the Arab word Afioum. Its remarkable virtues are almost entirely owing to the alkaloid called Morphine, which it contains, together with a number of other interesting compounds.

The Indian hemp (Cannabis indica), which appears to be only a variety of our common hemp (C. sativa), possesses medical properties very similar to those of opium. Like the latter, extract of hemp (known as Haschish) exhilarates, intoxicates, induces sleep and anesthesia,* generally followed by headache, nausea, despondency, &c. Hemp was known to the Greeks and Romans, but they were ignorant of its remarkable narcotic and anæsthetic properties. It was used by the Scythians to allay grief and melancholy; they inhaled the fumes given off when the seeds of the plant were thrown upon red-hot stones placed upon the ground in the centre of a closed

*Incapability of feeling pain, &c.

tent. In the East, opium and hemp are smoked or eaten as a luxury, on account of the peculiar intoxication they produce, and people who once become habituated to these dangerous medicines remain slaves to them generally for ever.* The criminals of Barbary endeavour to procure a drug prepared from hemp before undergoing amputation for crime; under the influence of this drug they do not feel the knife of the executioner.† A Chinese physician, Hoa-tho, who lived about 230 years before the Christian era, is said to have used hemp as an anæsthetic in surgical operations. The chemistry of hemp is not yet complete, but its remarkable intoxicating and pain-allaying properties appear to reside in the resin which every part of the plant contains in considerable quantity. The peasants who gather hemp in our climate often complain of headache after being long in the field.

According to Dr. O'Shaughnessy, the hemp-resin will sometimes induce that curious nervous effect known as Catalepsy, a condition of the nervous system which few have seen, and which many discredit. It has been once remarked in a patient who had taken a grain of hemp-resin, when his arm was lifted by the physician it remained motionless in that position; and the same occurred with the other limbs, they remained motionless in any position in which they were placed.

Under the influence of hemp, also, all notion of time and space is apt to vanish completely.

Aconite has been found useful in cases of rheumatism, gout, neuralgia, toothache, &e. It is a powerful medicine, and can only be administered in small quantities; if given in too large a dose, it is apt to produce temporary insanity or death. Its peculiar action on the nervous system is owing to the principle Aconitine, by whose virtue it lulls the most excruciating pain, and has been found particularly beneficial in rheumatic complaints.

Opium and hemp are, perhaps, more dangerous substances to deal with than other pain-allaying compounds which I shall mention hereafter. However, in 1774, Ambroise Tranquille Lassard, surgeon to one of the Paris hospitals, recommended the employment of a narcotic such as opium previous to serious and painful operations. And in 1782, Weiss, a pupil of Petit, of Paris, narcotized Augustus, king of Poland, and amputated

*The religion of the Eastern nations forbids the use of wine; hence they have habituated themselves to the use of these intoxicating drugs, which are far more hurtful.

+ We all know the tale of the "Old Man of the Mountain;" his followers committed assassination under the influence of hemp preparations which he gave them.

part of the king's foot without his perceiving what was taking place.

In 1784, James Moore, surgeon at St. George's Hospital, London, introduced a plan for lessening pain during operations by compressing the nerves proceeding to the part.

Artificial somnambulism (or Mesmerism), of which I have spoken before, is said to have been used as an anæsthetic agent for the first time in India in the year 1845. Since then it has been applied with considerable success in Europe and America; being first adopted in America, then in France, and afterwards in England. Dr. Esdail, of Perth, who has written a pamphlet upon the subject, brings forward 261 personal observations of surgical cases performed without pain during mesmeric sleep.

The art of mesmerizing often exhausts the strength of the person who induces this state of insensibility in the patient; some patients requiring only three-quarters of an hour, others as much as twenty-four hours' mesmerizing before falling into the somnambulistic state. The process called Hypnotism, discovered by the late Dr. Braid of Manchester, appears much simpler than the ordinary method of mesmerizing by the eyes, by passes, and I shall have occasion to refer to it again.

Since the discovery of ether and chloroform, the use of mesmerism to produce anesthesia appears to be almost abandoned; not so, however, with hypnotism, which seems about to revive.

The discovery of the different gases-carbonic acid gas, in 1756, by Black; oxygen gas, in 1774, by Priestley; nitrous oxide gas, a little later, by the same, &c. &c., gave rise, in England, to the supposition that they might be useful in the treatment of certain diseases, and the system of Pneumatic medicine was imagined. This system consisted in causing the different kinds of gases to be inhaled by the patients; it was thought that such a treatment would prove very beneficial in consumption (Pthisis). A medical pneumatic institution was accordingly formed at Clifton, near Bristol, by Dr. Beddowes, and huge reservoirs of gases were established for the use of the sufferers. In the year 1799, Humphry Davy, who had just completed his apprenticeship, was appointed the superintendent of this establishment. In the summer of 1800, Davy published some researches on the gas called nitrous oxide or "laughing-gas," and on the effects produced when nitrous oxide and other gases are inhaled. He experimented upon himself, and found that nitrous oxide relieved him from headache after a profound fit of intoxication induced purposely by drinking a bottle of wine in eight minutes. After many

similar observations, he came to the conclusion that "as nitrous oxide seems capable of destroying physical pain, it may pro