Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1871-12-15

person in this condition Is haunted, as
IL we're, by q constant or inconstant frac-
tional phantom of so much of himself as
has been Topped away-an unseen ghost Of
the lost part, and sometimes presence |
made sorcly inconvenient by the fact that
while but family felt at times, II is at 9TH
ers acutely called TO bis attention by the
pains or irritations which ii appears to suf-
fer from blow on the stump or a change
in the weather.
There is something almost tragical,
something CHASTITY, in the notion of these
thousands of spirit limbs haunting as ma
ny good soldiers, and every now and then
tormenting them with the disappointment
which arise when, the memory being off
guard for moment, the keen sense Of the
limbs presence betrays the man into
some effort, the failure of which Of a sud
den reminds him Of his loss. U.a
Many persons feel the lost limb as exist
ing the moment they awaken from the
mercrul stupor of the ether given TO de-
stroy the torments of the knife; others
come slowly to this consciousness in
DAYS or weeks, and when the wound has
healed; but, as rule, the more sound
and serviceable the stump, especially if an
artificial limb be worn, the more likely is
the man to feel family the presence of his
shorn member. Sometimes blow on the
stump will reawaken such consciousness,
OF, as happened in one case, reamputa-
! ton higher up the limb will summon IL a.
new into seeming existence.
In many, the limb may bo recalled TO
the man by Irritating the nerves in its
stump. Every doctor knows that when
any part Of nerve is excited by pinch,
tap, or by electricity-whch Is an alto
gether harmless means-the pains, If it he
nerve of feeling, is felt as if it were really
caused in the part to which the nerve final
ly passes. A familiar illustration is met
with when we hurt the ''crazy-bone" be-
hind the elbow. This crazy bone is mere
ly the ulnar nerve, which gives sensation
to the third and fourth fingers, and in
which latter parts we feel the numbng
pain Of a blow on the main nerve. If we
were to divide this nerve below the elbow,
the pain would still seem 10 be in the fin
gers, nor would it alter the case were the
arm cut of. When, therefore, the current
Vi d pdttNiS 10 upOh Wv nv We " ga
arm stump the irritation caused in the d.
vded 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 OIL
touch or pain which the brain converts in
TO sensations. AS the electric current dis
turbs the nerves, the limb is sometimes
called back TO sensory being with startling
reality.
On one occasion the shoulder was thus
electrified three inches above the point
where the arm had been cut off. For two
years the man had cea ed TO be consciou:
of the iimb. AS the current passed, al
though ignorant of its possible effects, he
started up, crying aloud, "Oh, the hand
the hand - and tried to seize it with the
living grasp of the sound fingers No res
direction of the dead, no answer of a sum
moned spirit, could have been more start
ling. As the current was broken, the lost
part faded again, only to be recalled by
the same means. This man had ceased t.
feel his limb. With others it is e presence
J never absent save in sleep. or says ont
, man, 81 should say, am more sure of thu
leg which amt than of the one that are,
guess should be about correct."-Dr. s
Weir Mitchell, in LippincoFs Magazine.