Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1871-12-02

Rlad and thankful heart And during all their
the lesson of mutual concession and forbearance
which the trials OF their Thanksgiving taught
HdrPer's Bdxar. 49,.
The Sensation Of Absent Limbs.
1t has long been known to surgeons that when
limb has been cut off the sufferer does not lose
the consciousness Of its existence. This has been
about five per cent. of the men who have suf
Tered amputatien never have any feeling of the
part as being still present OF the rest, there
a few who in time, come to forget the missing
member, while the remainder seem to retain q
sense of its existence so vivid to be more def
mite and intrusive than is that of its truly living
fellow-member.
A person in this condition is haunted, as It
were, by a constant or inconstant fractional
phantom of so much of himself as has been lop-
ped away-an unseen ghost of the lost part, and
sometimes presence made sOrely incOnvenient
by the fact that while but family felt at times,
IT is at others acutely called to his attention by
he pains or irritations which il appears to suffer
from blow on the stump or q change in the
weather.
There is something almost tragical, some
thlng ghastly, in the notion of these thousands
OF spirit limbs haunting as many good soldiers,
and every now and then tormenting them with
the disaPpointments which arise when, the
memory being OFF guard for a moment, the keen
sense OF the limbs presence betrays the man
into some effort, the failure of which OF a Sudden
reminds him OF his loss.
Many persons feel the lost limb as existing the
OF the ether given to destroy the tOrments of the
knife; others come slowly to this consciousness
in days or weeks, and when the wound has
healed; but, as Q rule, the more sound and
servieeable the stump, especially if an artificial
limb be worn, the more likely is the man to feel
faintly the presence Of his shorn member
sometimes som blow on the stump will reawaken
such consciousness, OF, as happened i'm one case
aresmputation higher up the limb will summon
II anew into seeming existence.
In many, the limb may be recalled to the man
tn fS sftrx,.t
doctor knows that when any part of q nerve is
excited by pinch, tap, or by electrcity-
which is an altogether harmless means-the
pam, II II be nerve of feeling, is felt as if it
were really caused In the part to which the nerve
hnally passes. A familiar illustration is met
with when we hurt the "crazy-bone" behind
ulnar nerve, which gives sensation to the third
and fourth fingers, and in which latter
Parts we feel the numbing pain of blow
on the main nerve. 1t we were to divide
this nerve below the elbow, the pain would
still seem to be in the fingers nor would it alter
fne case t5 weIe the arm cut on When there
nerves Of an rm-stump, the irritation caused
In the divided nerves is carried to the BRAIN and
there referred at once to all the regions of the
lost limb from which, when entire, these nerves
brought those impressions of touch or pain which
the brain converts into sensations. As the cleo
uic current disturbs the nerves, the limb is
startling reality.
.Onone occasion the shoulder was thus electrified
three inches above the point where the arm had
been cut OFF. For two years the man had ceased
to be conscious of the limb. As the current
passed, although ignorant of its possible effects
ne started up, crying aloud, ooh, the hand,
living grasp of the sound fingers. No resur-
rectiOn Of the dead, no answer of a sum-
moned spirit, could have been more startling
as the current was broken, the lost part faded
This man had ceased to feel his limb. With
others II Is presence never absent save in Sleep
"lf, says one man, 81 should say, / am more
sure OF the leg which amt than of the one that
are, guess l should be about correct"-From
PhontOn Limbs, by Dr. s. Weir Mitchell, in the De-
ecn"ter number Of Itpptnootfs Magazine.
A Lesson for WOuId.be Suicides.
There Is a gentleman of the middle age, who
might be summoned as witness for q walk of
half block, who assures us that there is never
any sense in self-destructOn. He declares that
when he was q very young man he was madly in
love. His love was returned; and there was
however, an event came to pass which put mar,
rage out of the question. So what did this
young gentleman-(we mean this middle aged
gentleman, who was, at the time indicated, 2
young gentlemanf-what did this infatuated
young gentleman do? This is whathe did He
went and purchased him two horse pistols; he
dressed himselfin his handsOmest suit of clothes
and he called at the farmhouse which sheltered
the object OF his hearts desire. 1t was a moon
IN summer night. So what did THU infatuated
{TG s VA man n, ask * the, the young lady to do
lady assented, OF course, and they strolled
"far from the haunts of men, and out
OF the reach Of any voice or eye"
They sat down upon log, and this young gen.
tlemsn very plainly told this young lady that
they could never be man and wife, and all the
why's and wherefores, which were indeed con-
elusive. The young lady, like an affectionate
dear girl as she was. began to cry: wherenpon
our hero produced his two horse pistols loaded
down to the muzzle with buckshOt. Susan"
says he--and there was sOlemnity in his
a in
susan, says he. Susan looked up frightened
to behold the murderous weapons cleaning in
says she 81 am going to get over this in thirty
minutes" he says sternly, taking out his watch,
land you shall do the same thing, or I'll XIII
susan Don't doubt it." She did not. She sat
and Unused, and he sat and meditated,
and time ran along with the mOonbeams
end of y minutes he said: "Time,s up. believe
that had rather live without you, Susan, than
dieWfth you. What do you say?" "Them's my
sentiments" Gays Susan. "Good,n saws this in
fatuated young man, replacing his watch in his
vest pocket and firing of the two horse pistols In
the abr; "Let's 60 home and say no more about
it" They went home. Susan was married to
still bachefor-a jolly bachelor-wfth plenty OF
money and friends and health; and he says now
and then referring to this episode In his young
fool II had let the 80 minutes run ont9 Why,
sir. Susan IL old and Tat aud ugly, and has nine
children; and a. for me-sshy, damme, feel Is
young Is y gal with ribbons" Certainly the
gentle man does, and 10 moved beside by the
sweet consciousness OF having saved NOT only his
own life but the life of an innocent young woman
and the lives Of nineiAnocent young children, BY
an Get Of severe but practical wisdom and viz
the; the which Is commanded to all seekers after
suicide--Losiss,us Courier yos.vnal. 3naH
QUEER suICIDB.-A few days since Young
man residing In eteubenyille. Ohio. visited
Pittsburgh, and, OF his own accord, sppiied for
and obtained stustiOn st . hospital where
several violent cases OF small pcx were, for the
purpose, he claimed Afterwards of contr acting
The disease that he might DIE. He continued
the handling OF small pox patients and corpses
for several weeks, and retur ming to his home
told his exploits, saving be wished he would take