The National Register.
London, England, 1811-09-15 00:00:00

THE

Then give me, give me, While I Weep,
ss .1.1k4'4 • e sanguine hope that brightens woe,
4-44 .4.!'" And teaches even our tears to keep,
The tinge of rapture while they flow.
The child, who sees the dew of night
. • Upon the spangled hedge at more.,
.Attempts to catch the drops of light,
But wounds his finger with the thorn.
Thus oft the brightest joys we seek
Dissolve, when touch'sl, and tern to pain ;
The flush they kindle leaves the cheek,
The tears they waken long remain.
But give me, give me, while I weep,
The sanguine hope that brightens woe,
And teaches even_our tears to keep,
'lle tinge of rapture while they flow.

EXTRAORDINARY CASE.

Our Readers will recollect a statement respecting a Soldier of
the First Somerset Militia, who had lain in a very surprising
state of insensibility from the Pith of April, in the present
year, down to the 18th of July. Val:hiss means had been re-
sorn:d to for the purpose of a-certsining whether the illness was
real, or only assumed, such as thrusting snuff up his nostrils,
administering nitrous oxyd gas, electrical shocks, powerful me-
dicines, &c. etc. all of which prayed utterly unavailing in the
attempt to arouse him from the unaccountable torpor in which
he had lain so long ; nor, indeed, did any of these espedients
produce in him the sft!!! test symptoms of animation.
We. have now to add to this account a few facts, which,
for their singularity, nee; chellerge competition with the most
marvellous necurrence that ever reached the public notice. .
A few days after our account appeared, Phineas Adams, the
• subject of this curiens narrative, and whose age was no more
than eighteen, on the 6th of June last, Was removed from the
jaii in which he then was, to the pa:ish of Bickenhall, a small
seven riles from Taunton. His parents residing at that
place, bat being unable to receive him in their own habitation,
Adams was lodged in the Poor-house—a small coltaage djoin-
ing the Church-yard. In this situation he continued to lay,
without exhibiting the least evidence of an improving condition.
• 'When any of his limbs were raised, they fell with the leaden
weight of total inanimation ; his eyes were closed, and his coun-
tenance evinced the paleness of death, though divested of any of
the concomitant symptoms of approaching dissolution. His re-
spiration continued free, and his pulse maintained its character
of.a healthful tone. The sustenance he received was entirely
that of eggs dilated with wine, and occasionally with t• which
he sucked in through his teeth ; all attempts, forcible as 'some
of them were, to compel. him to open his mouth having been re.
peatedly tried in vain ; and various experiments were :elan]
Made to excite sensation without effect, particularly that of
thrusting pins under his linger nails.
In this hopeless condition lie was vbitcd by Mr. Welch, sur-
geon of Taunton, who suggested the propriety of performing
the operation of scalping the patient; lvt,it a view to ascertain
whether the fall, to which the illeess was attributed, mieht not.
have produced a depression pt the brain. The proposal was
communicated to the parents of Adams, who expressed tin it
williegness that the experiment should be made. Accordingly,
at the time appointed, the surgeon accompanied Adams's father,
ths bed-side of his son, and there,• in the presence of several
respectable persons, deseribed to both the younes man's parents
the nature and precise course of operation about to be perform-
ed. Old Adams then shaved hiseson'S head. The.ineisions were
made, the scalp drawn up, and the head examined, during all
which time the young manifested no audlble symptom of pain,
or sensibility of suffering whatever, until the application of an
instrument, with which the head was scraped in a particular
part, and then, and once only, he uttered a groan.
No beneficial result appearing from thie experiment, and as
his case seemed absolutely remediless, application was nude to
his regiment for his discharge.
On Tuesday the 20th, the discharge arrived, and was taken
over to Bickenball by the serjeant. On the 1 w•sday tol!nwing,
(the E7th) old Adams brought his son down stairs in his arms;
and on the 28th he brought him down again, the son still re-
maining insensible. Next night (the 29th) he was seen sitting
in the Poor-house, with a gun in his hand, conversing with
his fattier; and en Friday the 30th-of August (our readers will
pasticlpete with us in the complete astonishment eeched by
the tact) he was at N.'s'. Palmer's, a farmer at Thurlly two
miles from Bickenhail, cutting spars, carrying reed up a ladder,
and assisting his father in thatching a rick I On the next day, the
he was in the Barton of Mr. Cozens, of 1-lickenl, with
a eick fz his hand. k.lling mice ; and on Sund4y the IA inst.
Mr. Coxi•as hirast.lt met him in a neighbouring cop-e•, gather-
Liz nuts!