The Rhode-Island Republican. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1809-1841, 1836-09-21
From the Dublin University Magazine.
POST MORTEM RECOLLECTIONs
OF A MEDICAL LECTURER.

OF A MEDICAL LECTURER.
[This article is one of great power, though
strictly speaking, the subject is not ntogeth-
er original. The writer had been fatieued
by incessant attention to professional duties
and had consequently neglected to prepare
for this evening lecture-he even forget to
bring with him few notes which he had
hastily written as memoranda, while, on
entering the lecture room, he found to his
dismay that it was completely crowded, and
that foreigner Of professional celebrity was
one of the auditors. We leave the writer
10 describe his own sensation
"The events of the remainder Of tha
day are wrapt in much obscurity to my
mind, yet well remember the loud thun.
ders of applause which greeted me on en-
tering the lecture-room, and how, as foI
some moments appeared to hesitate, they
were renewed again, till at last summoning
resolution, | collected myself sufficiently to
open my discourse. | well remember, too
the difficulty the first few sentences cosI
me,-the doubts, the fears, the pauses
which besett me at every step, as | wen
on.-My anxiety to be clear and accurate
in conveying my meaning, making me re-
capitulate and repeat, till | felt myself, as
it were, working in a circle. BY degrees,
however, warmed as proceeded, and the
evident attention my auditory exhibited,
gave me renewed courage, while they i'm
pressed me with the necessity to make n
more than common exertion.-By degrees,
too, felt the mist clearing from my brain,
and that even without any effort, my ideas
came faster, and my words fell from me
with ease and rapidty. SimiIe and illus
tration came in abundance and distinc-
tions, which had hitherto struck me MS the
most subtle and difficult of description,
now drew with readiness and accuracy.
Points of an abstruse recondite nature,
which, under other circumstances, | should
not have wished to touch upon, now ap-
preached fearlessly and boldly, aud felt that
in the very moment of speaking, they be-
came clearer and clearer to myself The
ories and hypo,heses, which were of old
and acknowledged acceptance, glanced
Mt asI went on, aud, with a perspicuitv
and clearness l never before felt, exposed
their fal!acies and unmasked their errors
] thought l was rather describing events,
and things passing actually before my ewes
Mt the instant, than relating the results of n
lifc's experience and reflection. My mem
ory, usually defective one, noS carried
me back to the days of my early childhood: !:
and the whole passages of a long life, lay
displayed before me like picture. IL
quoted, the very words Of the author rushed
to my mind so palpably, as though the
page lay open before me. have still some
vague recollection of an endeavour | made
to trace the character Of the insanity in every
case to some early trait of the individual in
childhood, when, overcome by passion or
overbalanced by excitement, the faculties
run wild into all those excesscs, which, in
after years, develope eccentricities of char
acter, and in some weaker temperamcnts
alterations ofintellect. Anecdotes illustra-
ting this novel position came thronging to
my mind and events in the early years of
some who subsequently died insane. and
seemed 10 support my theory, came rushing
to my memory. As | proceeded, became
gradually more and more eycitcd-the very
ease and rapidiry with which my IDEAS sug-
gested themselves, increased the fervour of
my imaginings-till at last, / felt my words
came without effect, and spontaneously,
while there seemed n co-mingling of INV
thoughts, which left me unable to trace con-
nexion between them, while continued To
speak as f1uently as before. ] felt ut this
instant species of indistinct terror of some
unknown danger which impended me, yet
which was impossible for me to avert or
avoid. l was like one who, borne on the
rapid current of fast flowing river, sees
the foam of a cataract before him, yet waits
passively for the moment Of his destruction
without an effort TO save. The power
which maintained my mind in its balance
had gradually forsaken me, aud shapes Of
every odd and fantastic character fitted
around and about me. The IDEAS and des-
criptions my mind had conjured up, assum-
ed living, breathing vitality-and felt
like necromancer waving his wand over
the living and the dead. ! paused--,here
was dead silence in the lecture room-a
thought rushed like meteor fash across
my brain, and, bursting forth into a loud
laugh of hysteric passion, I cried-and I,
and too, am maniac. My class rose
like one mana cry Of horror burst through
the room. know no more.
"I was i'll, very in, and in bed. look.