Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1884-02-14

from the LETT SIDE to equal1Ze the robbery. |
You will recollect how shocked you
were at the time I speak of, to learn |
from me that Henry had suddenly be
come an idiot l remember well the
wicked lie told to hide my crime. My
theory about equalization was altogether
unsound, as / afterWard proved, because
I falsely reasoned that the removal of 8
cell from the right hemisphere of the
brain would act on the right side of the
muscular and nervous systems. That
was in contradiction to my early teach
ing, and was a conclusion drawn from
an expel iment l made with a rabbit.
l do not wish to enter too infinitely into
the details of the second operation and
possession of me. Three weeks later
the idiot, as you thought him, was in the
chair again"
1t is impossible to reconcile this por-
ton of the diary with the brief entries
that precede the history of the operation,
because the doctor speaks of the second
time as though it were summer. The
word weeks" may have been written
instead of months" or else there is an
other part of the story missing.
sCooPING OUT THE OTHER SIDE.
cit was a bright summer day." con-
tinues the physician, g all nature seemed
filled with gladness and life. I felt no
pity for the poor creature before me, be-
cause the moment cut the scalp l was
filed with mad desire to push my skill
to the uttermost. l began to think that
I could recreate creature, whose will.
Invested of it's individuality could be
made subservient to mine. But enough
of my thoughts, Let me hasten to the
last and worst part of my confession.
The boy was subjected to the same treat
ment as before, except that the trephine
was used in the left parietal bone instead
of the right. The opening was nearly
opposite the other one. l plunged the
curette into the brain and removed a
portion of the brain directly opposite
where the first removal had been accom-
plished. Then impelled by some deve!-
ish thought 1 reopened the first opening,
over which the Acknowledgements sub
stance was beginning to grow, and forced a
catheter from one hole to the other. A
rather profuse hemOrrhage warned me to
cease, and I replaced the scalp flaps, and
awaited Henry's return to consciousness.
| The excitement following the operation
made me weak and nervous, and leaving
the room l locked the door, and went in
to the street. Feeling the need of a
stimulant, I went into a saloon and took
a heavy draught of brandy, and then
walked I know not where. l seemed to
have lost all recollection of what l had
done until it suddenly flashed across my
mind that the boy might come to and do
himself some injury. l hurried back to
the Office and looked at the clock. 1
had been gone nearly two hours. Henry
was still seated in the chair. He had
not moved an inch. The bandages on
his head were precisely as I had left
them. I shook him slightly and then
spoke to him, but he made no sign or
motion. Then l sat him in an upright
position. He remained perfectly motion
less. I took him out of the chair and
placed him on his feet. He remained
standing as immovable as a block of
stone. I lifted his arm and it STAYED in
whatever position it was placed. | drew
! no his closed eyelids and they remained
open.
WAS HE A MURDERER?
"Like flash of lightning the thought
struck me that I was murderer! Yes,
my dear wife, murderer. realized in
stantly what this cataleptic condition in
Dictated. Henry Bastain was no longer
an accountable human being. I had
utterly destroyed his individually. His
executive and directive power was gone.
He was simply a piece of living clay-a
vegetable without a will; and as looked
at the expressionless face, the sightless
eyes, the fixed limbs, I felt the same re-
morse, believe, as the assassin who sees
the hot blood squirting from his victims
throat. You will remember that for
months after Henry became, as you sup
posed, an idiot, fed him with my own
! hands. feared to permit any one else
to do this, because my guilty conscience
told me that it would result in discovery.
You will understand that the operation
did not interfere with the involuntary
! functions Of the physical system, and
that to make him eat it was only necessary
to push soft food down the throat until it
touched the epiglottis, and then the con-
fractions Of the muscles, made without
will power, forced the food into the
stomach. Can there be fOrgivness for
me in this world or the next? Am in
reality" and here the strange confession
abruptly ends.
! The doctors wife never saw what was
| intended for her eyes alone, forshe joined
the silent majority at least a year before
her husbands demise, leaving behind
her two daughters, who never knew of
! their fathers crime and the terrible re-
morse that made his last days miserable.
| Henry Bastian died in the Blockley
almshOuse in 1875, having. lived six years
practically without brain. He never
made motion of his own volitiOn from
the day that the second operation was
| performed. and the surgeon and uninten-
tional DESTROYER of his too willing victim
undoubtedly died of the remorse that
gnawed his conscience ever after.
AN ANCIENT CITY DISCOVERED.