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gument is just, but your threats are vain; the old man, sir, is a magician; we know it by fatal experience: do not be rash, sir; your attempt would prove futile, and your punishment would be dreadful." 'I will endeavour to escape,' said Sir H. "Your hopes are groundless," rejoined a third gentleman; "for it was but three months ago, when, in an attempt to escape, I broke my leg." Another said, he had broken his arm, and that many had been killed by falls, in their endeavours to escape; others had suddenly disappeared, and never been heard of. Sir. H. was about to reply, when a servant entered the room, and said his master wished to see him. "Do not go," said one; "Take my advice," said another; "For God's sake, do not go." The servant told Sir H. he had nothing to fear, and begged he would follow him to his master he did, and found the old man seated at a table covered with a dessert and wine: he arose when Sir H. entered the room, and asked pardon for the apparent rudeness he was under the necessity of committing at dinner; For," said he," I am Doctor Willis; you must have heard of me; I confine my practice entirely to cases of insanity; and as I board and lodge insane patients, mine is vulgarly called a madhouse. The persons you dined with are madmen: I was unwilling to tell you this before dinner, fearing it would make you uneasy; for, although I know them to be perfectly harmless, you very naturally might have had apprehensions." The surprise of Sir H. on hearing this was great; his fears subsid ing, the doctor and Sir H. passed the evening agreeably.

EXTRAORDINARY CURE OF THE GOUT.

The following circumstance, which lately occurred in a neighbouring town, is the more worthy of being made public, as the truth of it is certified by the physician residing there.

A man of 45 years of age, of a robust constitution, having caught a severe cold, was seized with the gout in such a degree, that he was deprived of the use of all his limbs; and medicine afforded but a slight palliation, without removing the disorder. This man did not live happily with his wife, by whom he had no children. The addition of six weeks ill ness, and the entire loss of the usual profits of his labour, oc casioned frequent disputes, in which the wife was the more vituperative, as she knew her husband had no weapon but his tongue. One day her passion rose so high, that depending on the defenceless condition of her husband, she struck him on the hand with a yard measure (of walnut tree wood,) so tha the blood flowed abundantly. Then saying, "Now I wil

give it you for a whole year," she continued to beat him till his head, arms, and legs, were all covered with bruises and wheals.

The lamentable cries of the man, and his entreaties for mercy, were unavailing. Distracted with pain and indignation, he tried to raise himself up, but in vain. At length, he felt himself as if inspired with new life; he was able to raise himself, to move his arms, and to sit up: he perceived, also, motion and strength in his legs. On a sudden, he leaped out of bed, snatched the wooden sceptre of Hygeia from the hand of his panic-struck wife, and returned the blows he had received with such well applied skill and vigorous retaliation, that she is now forced to keep her bed, while her husband goes merrily about his work. Thus the wonder-working yard has made one well and the other sick, by the same means; though it may be safely asserted, that the good man knows nothing of the new system of Homoapathy.

GRAND SURGICAL OPERATION.

The most surprising and honourable operation of surgery is, without any contradiction, that lately executed by M. Richerand, by taking away a part of the ribs and the pleura. The patient was himself a medical man, and not ignorant of the danger he ran in this operation, but he also knew that his disorder was otherwise incurable. He was attacked with a cancer on the internal surface of the ribs and of the pleura, which continually produced enormous fungosities, that had been in vain attempted to be repressed by the actual cautery. M. Richerand was obliged to lay the ribs bare, to saw away two, to detach them from the pleura, and to cut away all the cancerous part of that membrane. As he had made the opening, the air rushed into the chest and occasioned the first day great suffering and distressing shortness of breath; the surgeon could touch and see the heart through the pericardium, which was as transparent as glass, and could assure himself of the total insensibility of both. Much serous fluid flowed from the wound, as long as it remained open, but it filled up slowly by means of the adhesion of the lungs with the pericardium and the fleshy granulations that were formed in it. At length the patient got so well, that on the twenty-seventh day after the operation, he could not resist the desire of going to the Medical School to see the fragments of the rib that had been taken from him, and in three or four days afterwards, he returned home, and went bout his ordinary business. The success of M. Richerand is he more important, because it will authorize, in other cases, nterprizes which, according to received opinions, would ap

pear impossible; and we shall be less afraid of penetrating into the interior of the chest. M. Richerand even hopes that by opening the pericardium itself, and using proper injections, we may cure a disease that has hitherto been always fatal, the dropsy of that cavity.

ACCOUNT OF MARGARET LYALL, WHO CONTINUED IN A STATE OF SLEEP NEARLY SIX WEEKS.

By the Rev. James Brewster, Minister of Craig.

Margaret Lyall, a young woman about 21 years of age, daughter of John Lyall, shoemaker, in the parish of Marytown, served, during the winter half-year of 1815, in the family of Peter Arkley, Esq. of Dunninald, in the parish of Craig. She then went as servant to the Rev. Mr. Foote of Logie; but, in a few days after, was seized with a slow fever, which confined her to her bed for rather more than a fortnight. During the latter part of her illness she was conveyed to her father's house; and, on the 23d of June, eight days after she had been able to leave her bed, she resumed her situation with Mrs. Foote, who had, in the mean time, removed to Budden, in the parish of Craig, for the benefit of sea-bathing. She was observed, after her return, to do her work rather in a hurried manner; and, when sent upon any errand, to run or walk very quickly, as if impatient to finish whatever she had in hand. Her health, in general, appeared to be perfectly restored. On Tuesday morning, June 27th, about four days after her return to service, she was found in bed in a deep sleep, with the appearance of blood having flowed from her nose; about half a pint of which was perceived on the floor at her bed-side. All attempts to awaken her proved ineffectual; and she was conveyed to her father's house, about half a mile distant from Bud

Dr. Gibson, physician in Montrose, having been called, a pound of blood was taken from her arm; but she still remained in the same lethargic state, without making the slightest motion, or taking any nourishment, till the afternoon of Friday, 30th of June, when she awoke of her own accord, and asked for food. At this period she possessed all her mental and bodily faculties; mentioned that she recollected her having been awakened on Tuesday morning at two o'clock, by a bleeding at her nose, and that she held her head over the bedside; but said, that from that moment she had no feeling or remembrance of any thing, and felt only as if she had taken a very long sleep. Medicine was administered with good effect, and she went to sleep as usual; but, next morning, (Saturday, July 1,) she was found in the same state of profound sleep as before. Her breathing was so gentle as to be scarc

ly perceptible, her countenance remarkably free from any expression of distress; but her jaws were so firmly locked, that no kind of food or liquor could be introduced into her mouth. In this situation she continued for the space of seven days. At the end of that time, she began to move her left hand; and, by pointing it to her mouth, signified a wish for food. She took readily whatever was given to her, and shewed an inclination to eat more than was thought advisable by the medical attendants. Still, however, she discovered no symptoms of hearing, and made no other kind of bodily movement than that of her left hand. Her right hand and arm, particularly, appeared completely dead and devoid of feeling, and even when pricked with a pin, so as to draw blood, never shrunk in the smallest degree, or indicated the slightest sense of pain. At the same time, she instantly drew back the left arm, whenever it was touched by the point of the pin. She continued to take food, whenever it was offered to her; and when the bread was put into her left hand, and the hand raised by another person to her mouth, she immediately began to eat slowly, but unremittingly munching like a rabbit, till it was finished. It was remarked, that if it happened to be a slice of loaf given her, she turned the crust, so as to introduce it more easily into her mouth, as if she had been fully sensible of what she was doing. But when she had ceased to eat, her hand dropped upon her chin or under lip, and rested there, till it was replaced by her side, or upon her breast. She took medicine, when it was administered, as readily as food, without any indication of disgust.

The eye-lids were uniformly shut, and, when forced open, the ball of the eye appeared turned upwards, so as to show only the white part of it. Her friends showed considerable reluctance to allow any medical means to be used for her recovery; but, about the middle of July, her head was shaved, and a large blister applied, which remained nineteen hours, and produced an abundant issue, yet without exciting the smallest symptoms of uneasiness in the patient. Sinapisms were also applied to her feet, and her legs were moved from hot water into cold, and vice versa, without any appearance of sensation. In this state she remained without any apparent alteration, till Tuesday the 8th day of August, precisely six weeks from the time when she was first seized with her lethargy, and without ever appearing to be awake, except, as mentioned, on the afternoon of Friday the 30th of June. During the whole of this period, her colour was generally that of health; but her complexion rather more delicate than usual, and occasionally changing, sometimes to paleness, and at other times to a fever

ish flush. The heat of her body was natural; but when lifted out of bed, she generally became remarkably cold. The state of her pulse was not regularly marked; but, during the first two weeks, it was generally at 50; during the 3d and 4th week, about 60, and, the day before her recovery, at 70 or 72; whether its increase was gradual was not ascertained. She continued, during the whole period, to breathe in the same soft and almost imperceptible manner as at first; but was observed occasionally, during the night time, to draw her breath more strongly, like a person who had fallen asleep. She discovered no symptoms of hearing,till about four days of her recovery; when, upon being requested, (as she had often been before, without effect,) to give a sign if she heard what was said to her, she made a slight motion with her left hand, but soon ceased again to show any sense of hearing. On Tuesday forenoon, the day of her recovery, she showed evident signs of hearing; and by moving her left hand intimated her assent or dissent in a tolerable intelligent manner; yet, in the afternoon of the same day, she seemed to have again entirely lost all sense of hearing. About 8 o'clock on Tuesday evening, her father, a shrewd intelligentman, and of most respectable character, anxious to avail himself of her recovered sense of hearing, and hoping to rouse her faculties by alarming her fears,* sat down at her bed-side, and told her that he had now given consent, (as was in fact the case,) that she should be removed to the Montrose Infirmary; that, as her case was remarkable, the doctors would naturally try every kind of experiment for her recovery; that he was very much distressed, by being obliged to put her entirely into their hands; and would "fain hope" that this measure might still be rendered unnecessary, by her getting better before the time fixed for her removal. She gave evident signs of hearing him, and assented to his proposal of having the usual family worship in her bed-chamber. Afterwards she was lifted into a chair till her bed should be made; and her father, taking hold of her right hand, urged her to make an exertion to move it. She began to move first the thumb, then the rest of the fingers in succession, and next her toes in like He then opened her eye-lids, and presenting a can

manner.

Lest it might be supposed, that this procedure of the father implied a suspicion on his part of some deception being practised by the young woman: it may be proper to state, that it was suggested by his own experience in the case of another daughter, who had been affected many years before in a very extraordinary degree with St. Vitus's dance, or, as it is termed in this country "The louping ague;" and who was almost instantaneously cured by the application of terror.