Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-15

hope of seeing that one spasm which would
show that death might vet be conquered;
many the engines, the machines, the srtif-
eial hearts, the applications Of electricity
that he had invented; many Of the powerful
reactives he had distilled wherewitn to ex-
cite the long dead nerves, or those which
but two DAYS had ceased to feel. The hidden
essence was still undiscovered, the meaning
of vitality eluded his p~rofoundest study,
his keenest pursuit. The body died, and
yet the nerves could still be made to act as
though alive for the space of a few hours,
in rare cases for a day. With his eyes he
had seen a dead man spring nalf across the
room from the effects of a few drops of musk
ON the first day; with his eyes he had
seen the dead twist themselves, and move
and grin under the electric current-pro-
vided it had not been too late. But that
'too late" had bafled him, and from his
first belief hat life might be restored when
once gone, ne had descended TO what
seemed the simpler proposition of the two,
to the problem of maintaining life indefn-
itely, so long as its magic essence fingered in
the flesh and blood. And now he believed
that he was very near the truth; how terri
bly, near he had yet to learn.
Ee sat alone. A heavy book lay open on
the table by his size, and from time to time
he glanced at a phrase which seemed to at
tract him. II was always the same phrase,
and two words alone sufficed to bring him
back to the contemplation of it. Those two
words were Immortality" End "Soul." He
began to speak aloud to himself, being by
nature fond of speech.
Eyes. The soul is immortal. 1 am quite
willing to grant that. But it does not in any
way follow that it is the source of life, or the
seat of intelligence. The Buddhists distin-
guished it even from the individuality. And
yet life holds it, and when life ends it takes
its departure. How soon? do not know.
1t is not a condition of life, but life is one
of its conditions. Does it leave the body
when life is artifcially prolonged in
a state of unconseiousness-by hypnot-
ism, for instance? Is it more close
ly bound up with animal life or
with intelligence? If with either, has it a
definite abiding place in the heart, or in the
brain? Since its presence depends directly
on life, so far as / know, it belongs to the
body rather than to the brain. 1 once made
a rabbit live an hour without its head.
With a man that experiment would need
careful manipulation would like to try
it. Or is it all a question of that phantom,
vitality? Then the presence of the soul de-
ponds upon the potential e~xcitability of the
nerves, aud, as far as we know, it must
leave the body not more than "a hours alter
death, and 1t certainly does not leave the
body at the moment of dying. But if of
the nerves, then what is the condition Of
the soul in the hypnotic state?
Unorna hynotizes our old friend there
and our young one, too. For her, they have
nerves. At her touch they wake, they sleep,
they move, they feel, they speak. But they
have no nerves for me. 1 can cut them with
knives, burn them, turn the life-blood Of
the one into the arteries Of the other-they
feel nothing. If the soul is of the nerves
or OF the vitality, then they lave souls for
Unorna, and none for me. That is absurd.
Where is that old mans soul? He has slept
for years.. Has not his soul been somewhere
else in the meanwhile? If we could keep
him asleep for centuries or for scores of CEN
turtles, like that frog found alive in a rock.
would his soul, able by the hypothesis to
pass through rocks or universes-stay by
him? Could an ingenious sinner escape
damnatlon for a few thousand wears
by being hypnotized? Verify the soul
is a very unaccountable thing, and
what is still more u~usecouutable
IS that | believe in it. 1t is quite certain that
lie is not a mere mechanical or chemical
process. have gone TOO far to believe that.
Take man at the very moment of death
have everything ready, do what you will
my artificial heart is a very perfect instru-
ment, mechanically speakiug-and how long
does it take to start the artificial circulation
through the carotid artery? Not a hundrsd-
eth part so long a time as arowned people
often lie be ore being brought back