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I explored the wound; and first, marveling at the extraor dinary nature of the case, I set about the examination of the heart. Taking it in one hand, and placing my finger on the wrist, I satisfied myself that it was indeed the heart which I grasped. I then brought him to the king, that he might behold and touch so extraordinary a thing, and that he might perceive, as I did, that, unless when we touched the outer skin, or when he saw our fingers in the cavity, this young gentleman knew not that we touched his heart !"

3. This absence of sensibility in the heart is not because it is not well endowed with nerves. It is well endowed, not with the nerves of ordinary sensation, but with those which are devoted to another purpose. They are nerves of sympathy, which notify the condition of the heart to the seats of involuntary motion in the spinal marrow, and which also establish a connection with every part of the body, making the heart to be so easily affected by motion, by disease, and by every passing emotion in the mind.

IV. THE REUNION AND HEALING OF SEVERED NERVES.

1. There are some wonderful facts in regard to the reunion and healing of severed nerves. It has been seen that if a nerve trunk be divided, all communication between the part which it supplies with branches and the brain is cut off. But the two cut ends of the trunk can grow together, and the communication can thus be more or less restored. This must appear to us passing wonderful when we consider that each nerve trunk is made up of a great number of separate fibres, each one of which goes from its origin in the nervous centre to its destination by itself. For these nerves to heal without causing confusion, it is essentially necessary that each little fibre should unite, at its cut end, with its corresponding end, and not with the end of some other fibre. For example, if the nerves distributed to the hand were cut, it would not do to have the fibres which go to the thumb unite with those which go to a finger.

2. The difficulty of accurate union would seem to us to be still further increased by the fact that, in the same bundle of nerve fibres, the different kinds, those of motion and those of sensation, are bound up together, and we know that it would not do for a nerve of motion to unite with a nerve of sensation. Yet we learn, by repeated experiments, that the most accurate union of severed nerves is often effected, each minute fibre, in whatever position it may be placed, apparently

seeking out and uniting with its severed part, so that eventually the communication of impressions is as perfect as before.

3. But a still more wonderful fact is exhibited in the union of parts which did not originally belong together, as, for example, when a piece of skin is dissected from the forehead, and is twisted down so as to be made to grow upon the nose, to supply a deficiency there. Here entirely new relations are established between the nerves of the divided parts, and, as we should expect, there is confusion in the sensations. The patient at first, whenever the new part of the nose is touched, refers the sensation to the forehead. But this confusion of the sensations is after a while removed. And it is curious to observe, that while the old nervous connections are breaking up, and the new ones becoming established, there is an interval of partial, sometimes entire insensibility in the part. How these new relations can be established consistently with the known arrangement of the fibres in the nerve bundles is a mystery. Physiologists do not attempt to explain it; they merely attribute all such processes to what they call the "Healing Power of Nature."

1 TEXT'-URES, different parts or layers, each likened to a web that is woven.

2 MU'-COUS MEM'-BRANE, a thin and slimy flexible skin.

3 TU-MOR, a swelling.

PĂR'-A-LYZED, affected with the palsy; be numbed.

8 MAS'-TI-CATE, chew; grind with the teeth. 9 RES-PI-RA'-TION, the act of breathing. 10 QUI-ES-CENT, in a state of repose.

4 EF-FU'-SION, a pouring out from the proper 11 EX-'QUI-SITE, peculiarly delicate; keenly vessels.

felt.

[feeling. 5 PUPT'-URE, a breaking. 12 SEN-SI-BIL'-I-TY, acuteness or delicacy of 6 HER'-O-ISM, the spirit and conduct of a 13 AB'-SCESS, a swelling containing a whitish hero; fortitude. matter called pus.

LES. VII.-INTEMPERANCE, THE PRIME MINISTER OF DEATH. 1. DEATH, the king of terrors, was determined to choose a prime minister; and his pale courtiers2, the ghastly3 train of diseases, were all summoned to attend, when each preferred* his claim to the honor of this illustrious office. Fever urged the numbers he destroyed; cold Palsy set forth his pretensions by shaking all his limbs; and Dropsy, by his swelled, unwieldy carcass; Gout hobbled up, and alleged his great power in racking every joint; and Asthma's inability to speak was a strong though silent argument in favor of his claim. Colic and Rheumatism pleaded their violence; Plague his rapid progress in destruction; and Consumption, though slow, insisted that he was sure.

2. In the midst of this contention, the court was disturbed

by the noise of music, dancing, feasting, and revelry, when immediately entered a lady, with a confident air and a flushed countenance, attended by a troop of cooks and bacchanals: her name was INTEMPERANCE. She waved her hand, and thus addressed the crowd of diseases: "Give way, ye sickly band of pretenders, nor dare to vie with my superior merits in the service of this great monarch. Am not I your parent? Do ye not derive the power of shortening human life almost wholly from me? Who, then, so fit as myself for this important office?" The grisly monarch grinned a smile of approbation, placed her at his right hand, and she immediately became his principal favorite and prime minister.-ANONY

MOUS.

1 PRIME MIN'-IS-TER, a chief officer in civil affairs.

2 COURT'-IER, an attendant who flatters to please.

3 GHAST-LY, death-like; very pale; hideous:

PRE-FER'RED, put forward; urged.

5 REV'-EL-RY, carousing with noisy merri ment.

6 BAC'-CHA-NALS, those who indulge in drunken revels.

LESSON VIII.-"LOOR NOT UPON THE WINE."

1. Look not upon the wine when it
Is red within the cup!

Stay not for pleasure when she fills
Her tempting beaker' up!

Though clear its depths, and rich its glow,

A spell of madness lurks below.

2. They say 'tis pleasant on the lip,
And merry on the brain;
They say it stirs the sluggish3 blood,
And dulls the tooth of pain.
Ay-but within its glowing deeps
A stinging serpent, unseen, sleeps.

2. Its rosy lights will turn to fire,
Its coolness change to thirst;
And, by its mirth, within the brain
A sleepless worm is nursed.
There's not a bubble at the brim
That does not carry. food for him.
4. Then dash the brimming cup aside,
And spill its purple wine;

Take not its madness to thy lip

Let not its curse be thine.

"Tis red and rich-but grief and woe

Are in those rosy depths below.—WILLIS.

BEAK'-ER, a drinking-cup or glass.

13 SLUG'-GISH, having little motion.

2 SPELL, a charm consisting of words of hid-4 BRIM'-MING, full to the very brim.

den power.

LESSON IX.-THE WATER-DRINKER.

1. OH, water for me! bright water for me,
And wine for the tremulous debauchee.1
Water cooleth the brow, and cooleth the brain,
And maketh the faint one strong again;

It comes o'er the sense like a breeze from the sea,
All freshness, like infant purity;

Oh, water, bright water, for me, for me!
Give wine, give wine, to the debauchee!1

2. Fill to the brim! fill, fill to the brim;
Let the flowing crystal2 kiss the rim !
For my hand is steady, my eye is true,

For I, like the flowers, drink nothing but dew.

Oh, water, bright water's a mine of wealth,

And the ores which it yieldeth are vigor and health.

So water, pure water, for me, for me!

And wine for the tremulous debauchee!

3. Fill again to the brim, again to the brim!
For water strengtheneth life and limb.
To the days of the aged it addeth length,
To the might of the strong it addeth strength;
It freshens the heart, it brightens the sight,
'Tis like quaffing a goblet of morning light!
So, water, I will drink nothing but thee,
Thou parent of health and energy!

4. When over the hills, like a gladsome bride.
Morning walks forth in her beauty's pride,
And, leading a band of laughing hours,
Brushes the dew from the nodding flowers,
Oh! cheerily then my voice is heard
Mingling with that of the soaring bird,
Who flingeth abroad his matin3 loud,

As he freshens his wing in the cold gray cloud.

5. But when evening has quitted her sheltering yew,
Drowsily flying, and weaving anew

Her dusky meshes o'er land and sea,

How gently, O sleep, fall thy poppies on me!
For I drink water, pure, cold, and bright,

And my dreams are of Heaven the livelong night.

So hurra for thee, water! hurra! hurra!

Thou art silver and gold, thou art ribbon and star:
Hurra for bright water! hurra! hurra!

I DEB-AU-CHEE' (deb-o-shee'), a profligate; a3 MAT'-IN, morning song. drunkard.

E. JOHNSON.

4 POP'-PIES, opium, obtained from the poppy, lulls to sleep.

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5 LIVE'-LONG, long in passing.

LESSON X.-HOW THE MIND SPEAKS THROUGH THE

NERVES AND MUSCLES.

(Adapted chiefly from Sir Charles Bell.)

"There's a language that's mute, there's a silence that speaks;

There is something that can not be told;

There are words that can only be read on the cheeks;
And thoughts-but the eye can unfold."

1. THERE is quite as much truth as poetry in the above lines—and, indeed, poets are often the most faithful interpreters of nature. Spoken and written language are not the only methods by which mind communicates with mind; and it will be found, on examination, that "the language that's mute," and that is read only in the "moving play of the muscles," forms the greater portion of the language of daily life.

2. Thoughts and feelings are expressed only by muscular motion as controlled by the nerves. Even the voice in speaking, and the hand in writing, merely translate the language of the muscles into conventional signs; but it is more especially of the mute language of the features, and of bodily motions, that we are now to speak. As we watch an animated speaker, we observe that not only are the muscles of the forehead, the eyebrows, the eyes, the cheeks, the nose, and the mouth in almost constant action, but the head is nodded or shaken, the shoulder is shrugged, the foot is stamped, the body variously inclined, and, above all, the hand executes a great variety of motions, and all to give force to the thoughts and feelings which the mouth utters.

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3. Various muscles of the human features are also used to express thought or passion without any connection with the voice. So, also, the feelings or emotions which are attributed to the heart find expression here. Says the Son of Sirach, "The heart of a man changeth his countenance, whether for good or evil." And so also Shakspeare, "I do believe thee; I saw his heart in his face." Certain strong feelings of the mind produce a disturbed condition of the heart; thence the impulse is sent to the organs of breathing, which then give us, in this indirect way, the outward signs of the mental emotion. Sir Charles Bell says, "The man was wrong who found fault with Nature for not placing a window before the heart, in order to render visible human thoughts and intentions. There is, in truth, provision made in the countenance and outward bearing for such discoveries." These principles form a rational basis for the science of physiognomy.2

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