Page:Illustrations of Madness.djvu/60

Rh changing, and rendered more powerful by the action of the electrical machine. It is not hearing ; but appears to be a silent conveyance of intelligence to the intellectual atmosphere of the brain, as subtilely as electricity to a delicate electrometer : but the person assailed (if he be sufficiently strong in intellect) is conscious that the perception is not in the regular succession of his own thoughts. The first hint Mr. M. received of the possibility of such sympathetic communication was in France, before the period of his confinement. He there, in one of the prisons, became acquainted with a Mr. Chavanay, whose father had been cook to Lord Lonsdale. One day, when they were sitting together, Mr. Chavanay said, “Mr. Matthews, are you acquainted with the art of talking with your brains ?” Mr. M. replied in the negative. Mr. C. said, “It is effected by means of the magnet.”