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Page 29
He listened with great interest to Henry's account of Madeline's case.
The success of galvanism in obliterating the obnoxious train of
recollections in her case would depend, he said, on whether it had been
indulged to an extent to bring about a morbid state of the brain fibres
concerned. What might be conventionally or morally morbid or
objectionable, was not, however, necessarily disease in the material
sense, and nothing but experiment could absolutely determine whether the
two conditions coincided in any case. At any rate, he positively assured
Henry that no harm could ensue to the patient, whether the operation
succeeded or not.
"It is a pity, young man," he said, with a flash of enthusiasm, "that you
don't come to me twenty years later. Then I could guarantee your friend
the complete extirpation of any class of inconvenient recollections she
might desire removed, whether they were morbid or healthy; for since the
great fact of the physical basis of the intellect has been established, I
deem it only a question of time when science shall have so accurately
located the various departments of thought and mastered the laws of their
processes, that, whether by galvanism or some better process, the mental
physician will be able to extract a specific recollection from the memory
as readily as a dentist pulls a tooth, and as finally, so far as the
prevention of any future twinges in that quarter are concerned. Macbeth's
question, 'Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased; pluck from the
memory a rooted sorrow; raze out the written troubles of the brain?' was
a puzzler to the sixteenth century doctor, but he of the twentieth, yes,
perhaps of the nineteenth, will be able to answer it affirmatively."
"Is the process at all painful ?"
"In no degree, my dear sir. Patients have described to me their
sensations many times, and their testimony is quite in agreement. When
the circuit is closed there is a bubbling, murmurous sound in the ears, a
warm sensation where the wires touch the cranium, and a feeling as of a
motion through the brain, entering at one point and going out at another.
There are also sparks of fire seen under the closed eyelids, an
unpleasant taste in the mouth, and a sensation of smell; that is all."
"But the mental sensations ?" said Henry. "I should think they must be
very peculiar, the sense of forgetting in spite of one's self, for I
suppose the patient's mind is fixed on the very thoughts which the intent
of the operation is to extirpate."
"Peculiar? Oh no, not at all peculiar," replied the doctor. "There are
abundant analogies for it in our daily experience. From the accounts of
patients I infer that it is not different from one's sensations in
falling asleep while thinking of something. You know that we find
ourselves forgetting preceding links in the train of thought, and in
turning back to recall what went before, what came after is meanwhile
forgotten, the clue is lost, and we yield to a pleasing bewilderment
which is presently itself forgotten in sleep. The next morning we may or
may not recall the matter. The only difference is that after the deep
sleep which always follows the application of my process we never recall
it, that is, if the operation has been successful. It seems to involve no
more interference with the continuity of the normal physical and mental
functions than does an afternoon's nap."
"But the after-effects!" persisted Henry. "Patients must surely feel that
they have forgotten something, even if they do not know what it is. They
must feel that there is something gone out of their minds. I should think
this sensation would leave them in a painfully bewildered state."
"There seems to be a feeling of slight confusion," said the doctor; "but
it is not painful, not more pronounced, indeed, than that of persons who
are trying to bring back a dream which they remember having had without
being able to recall the first thing about what it was. Of course, the
patient subsequently finds shreds and fragments of ideas, as well as
facts in his external relations, which, having been connected with the
extirpated subject, are now unaccountable. About these the feeling is, I
suppose, like that of a man who, when he gets over a fit of drunkenness
or somnambulism, finds himself unable to account for things which he has
unconsciously said or done. The immediate effect of the operation, as I
intimated before, is to leave the patient very drowsy, and the first
desire is to sleep."
"Doctor," said Henry, "when you talk it all seems for the moment quite
reasonable, but you will pardon me for saying that, as soon as you stop,
the whole thing appears to be such an incredible piece of nonsense that I
have to pinch myself to be sure I am not dreaming."
The doctor smiled.
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