THE CREDULITY OF UNBELIEF.
EXTREMES meet. The desperation of the coward merges into the valour of the hero; the careful miser assumes the condition of the improvident beggar ; and the Quixotic philanthropist, as in the Niger expedition, lays the foundation of results which might satisfy the bitterest malignity. The proverb applies alike to the ultra- manifestation of each sentiment of the mind: and thus it is that among those who pride themselves upon incredulity we sometimes meet with the most child-like simplicity of unquestioning belief. At a recent meeting of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, a paper was read describing a case of painless amputation of the thigh during a mesmeric trance. It was furnished by two gentle- men, Mr. W. TOPHAM, a barrister of the Middle Temple, and Mr. W. &arms WARD, M.R.C.S., formerly House Surgeon to St. Bar- tholomew's Hospital, to the following effect. The patient, a
• labouring man, forty-two years of age, had suffered for nearly five years from a painful affection of the knee; when, on the 21st June last, he was admitted into the district hospital at Wallow, Notts. During three weeks preceding the 9th September, be had not slept more than two hours in seventy ; and at this time the attempt to induce the mesmeric state was made by Mr. TOP- HAM. It was repeated successfully every day until the 24th, when sleep was produced in four minutes and a half. "In this sleep his arms were violently pinched, as well as the diseared leg itself, with- out his exhibiting any sensation ; yet this limb was so sensitive in its natural state that he could not bear even the lightest cover- ing to rest upon it." On the 1st October, it was resolved that amputation should be performed during the mesmeric trance. Throughout the operation, " the placid look of the patient's coun- tenance never changed ; his whole frame rested in perfect stillness ; not a muscle or nerve was seen to twitch." Afterwards be gradu- ally awoke; and upon collecting himself, he exclaimed, "I bless the Lord to find it's all over." He denied having felt the slightest pain ; and two days afterwards the first dressing of the wound was applied under similar conditions.
The supposition that mesmeric manipulation can produce the state thus described is one of great improbability ; but the unbelief of the members of the Society overleapt itself, and induced them almost unanimously to jump to a conclusion which unfortunately requires for its unhesitating reception almost a larger amount of credulity than would be necessary for the phmnomenon of which it is presented as the solution. The opinion thus readily adopted was simply that the patient had experienced all the pain usually attendant upon a capital operation, but that he had thought fit to feign insensibility ; and, with this the subject was dismissed. Now, that two gentlemen, of, we presume, professional respectability, should out of mere wantonness plan a short-lived hoax, which must, if discovered, lead to their expulsion from society, is of itself no slight improbability ; but that a timid patient, worn down with pain, and doomed to a dreadful operation, upon which his existence depended, should originate or lend himself to the motiveless joke, and perform his part to admiration, is an assumption of a still more astounding kind. Under any view, the case is surrounded by improbabilities, and inquiry, to whatever it might lead, could not fail to be instructive. If the patient be an im- postor, he can hardly have arrived at the age of forty-two without having already, by the development of his genius, acquired in his own neighbourhood a pretty distinct reputation : if, on the other hand, he has hitherto maintained a character for inte- grity, we do not see that the fact of his being an agricultu- ral labourer entitles any society to brand him as an impostor, for making a statement which if it proceeded from one of their own station would be received at all events with respect, and which, as it relates to personal consciousness, they are unable to disprove. The case is calculated to interest every humane person. We fear that it may turn out a delusion ; but at present those who have attacked it have merely substituted one improbability for another. The most direct evidence of which it is susceptible has been produced ; and this can now only be strengthened or weak- ened by testimony relating to the character of the principal witness. It is possible that Messrs. TOPHAM and WARD were prepared to furnish some information on the point : if not, it was easily procu- rable from other sources. But this, in the eagerness of incredulity, was lost sight of; and the members appear to have departed thoroughly satisfied, that although it is impossible to swallow a dromedary, a camel may be taken whole with very little incon- venience.
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