and sighed. "My occupation's gone," he continued, in the same trembling,
choking voice. "Merciful powers, what is to become of one of my
profession, if he cannot sit without a crash? Do I not make my bread
sitting? and yet, sir, I put it to you--I put it to you who know the
strength of a window pane--how can I sit? how can I ever earn a
livelihood for that weeping wife? Terrible! terrible!"
[Footnote 1: A case of this kind occurred also in or near the town of
Dundee in Scotland, where the glass was limited to the same
regions--below the lumbars.]
His wife, still at a loss for an explanation, looked into my face, where
she saw the gravity of a philosophic doctor contemplating one of the
miseries of his fellow-creatures, and, besides, interested
scientifically in the case before me--one of partial vitrification,
where the seat of the fancied transmutation was curiously connected with
the prior habits of the individual. The case was serious; and, though I
did not wish, by an expression of my real apprehensions, to frighten the
poor woman, I could not belie my feelings, by assuming any appearance of
carelessness, far less of levity, which I did not in sincerity feel. I
could do nothing for the invalid in the position in which he now was,
and left him, to consider what plan I should fall upon to dispossess him
of this false belief, which, with all the determination and perversity
of his complaint, had taken a firm hold of his mind.
Next morning, the patient's wife called upon me, and stated that she had
got alarmed at the state of her husband, in consequence of his
extraordinary conduct when she endeavoured to get his couch spread up
for their night's repose. On taking hold of him, though she did it in
the gentlest manner possible, with a view to assist him out of the bed,
he screamed out that she was breaking him to fragments, with such
vociferation that the neighbours flocked in, to ascertain what was the
cause. She could give no proper explanation; for, although she had
already got some insight into the nature of the disease, she felt
ashamed to exhibit the weakness of her husband; but he, who felt no
delicacy on the subject, accused her, with tears in his eyes, of an
intention to break him into pieces; called her a cruel woman, and
appealed to several of those present whether it was reasonable to
suppose that a person who had a part of his body made of glass could be
safely handled in the rough manner in which the careless and temerarious
woman had begun to touch and move him from the only safe position he
could ever enjoy on earth. The poor woman wept as she told me that his
speech was received by the neighbours with a loud laugh. I sympathised
with her, and told her, with much grave and real sincerity, that I would
do everything I could for her husband; and in the meantime recommended
her again to try to get him out of bed by the hour of twelve, when I
would call and see him, and try some remedy for him.
I called accordingly, but found that the wife's efforts had proved
unavailing; he was still in bed on his face, and murmuring strong and
bitter reproaches against his helpmate, whom he eyed with an expression
of mixed anger and terror.
"Is it not horrible, sir," he vociferated, "that a woman should attempt
to take the life of her husband? Say, as a Christian and a man, if I
ought not to be handled in a manner suitable to the nature of the
substance of which a part of my body is composed? Heavens! 'tis dreadful
to be damaged irretrievably by the hands of one who should treat me more
softly than others. Ha! my queen, you wish to get quit of me!--but I
shall guard the vital and brittle parts from your evil intention. My
hands and arms are still of flesh and blood."
I tried to convince him that his wife had no evil intention towards him;
but he continued to throw at her wild glances, in which there was
apparent, however, much more terror than anger. I tried him on the
question of rising; but he fixed his eye upon my face with a piteous
expression, and said, in a calm, serious tone--
"Would you, sir, rise if you were in my position, with the danger
staring you in the face of being crushed or broken by the first
hard substance you came against. What would be my consolation in
having the most important part of the body--at least to men of my
profession--picked up in fragments, and laid in my coffin?"
"Better run the risk of being damaged," said I, seriously, "than starve
in your bed. Your wife says you have work lying to do, and that there is
no money in the house."
This statement produced a strong effect upon him. He shook between the
horns of the dilemma in which he was placed, and threw a look at me,
which said plainly, "Is not my situation horrible and heartrending?" But
I retained the sternness of my expression, and yielded him no sympathy
where I felt it to be my duty to use severity. I thought it better to
leave him in this mood, and took my leave. I had made the statement
regarding the necessity of working, at random, and was very well pleased
to have it confirmed by Mrs G----, who followed me to the door, and told
me that she was, indeed, in great perplexity, in consequence of a large
order for mournings having come in that morning, and the two apprentices
could do absolutely nothing to it. The case was one of domestic
calamity, which I could do little to ameliorate, beyond giving another
recommendation to her to strain every effort to get him up.
Something occurred to prevent me calling next day; but on the next day
after I waited upon my unhappy patient. The bed was empty. I looked
round, and saw no one in the apartment. I was surprised, and dreaded
some additional misfortune; but Mrs G----, who came out of the small
room in which her husband wrought, stepped cautiously up to me, and
whispered in my ear, that he had that morning got up, with the
determination to commence work; but that he was still under the same
delusion. "Come here," she added, retreating softly to the workshop. I
followed her; and, at her desire, directed my eye through a small
opening by the side of the door, which was partially open. A most
extraordinary sight was exhibited to me. Two apprentices were sitting on
a board, working fiercely at the mournings, and holding their heads
down, as I thought, to prevent their cruel laughter from being seen by
their unfortunate master, who was clearly the cause of their ill-timed
and mischievous merriment. At a little distance from them, with his back
turned to the wall, was my pale and emaciated patient, busy sewing--_on
his feet_!
"Is not that a dreadful sight, sir?" whispered Mrs G---- in my ear, with
a woful countenance. "He has stood in that awful position since six
o'clock this morning. He can come no speed; and see you how his
apprentices are biting their lips, and holding down their heads to
conceal their merriment?"
I was too much occupied studying the motions and appearance of the
invalid, to reply to the statement of his wife. He was standing in such
a situation that no one could get behind him. There was a deep
melancholy over his countenance, which was grotesquely relieved by the
nervous light of his grey twinkling eye, as he lifted it at times from
the piece of cloth he was busy with, and threw it fearfully in the
direction of the apprentices, as if he watched their motions. It was
clear that he laboured under an apprehension that some effort would be
made to get him to sit, and that he was, _mordicus_, determined that he
would not be broken and immolated in that way--from all which I was
satisfied that his wife, or some other person, had been already that day
making some attempt upon him to get him to sit down, and thus roused him
to the state in which I now saw him. He looked as if he felt the truth
of the motto, _nusquam tuta fides_. He had faith in none, and was on the
quick watch to guard and save himself. The sight was undoubtedly an
interesting one, in more respects than as a scientific study of one
strange phase of human nature; but the only feature in it that surprised
me was, that the patient was working with so much ardour--because
lethargy, with a total prostration of spirit, is the prevailing symptom
of the disease. I could only account for this anomaly, by supposing that
the old excitement of a job of mournings had, for a time, overcome the
depressing energies of his complaint.
I had meditated a curative process to be applied when he got out of bed;
but he was now evidently too much on the quick alert from his alarm, for
its application at that time--his studied proximity to the wall
excluding all hope of getting behind him; and I augured, besides, some
relief from his application to business. I therefore told Mrs G---- that
it would be improper to rouse his fears farther by any unsuccessful
attempt at dislodging, from his addled brain, his false belief, and that
I would call next day, when his confidence in those around him might, in
some measure, be restored.
On my calling next day at the same hour, Mrs G---- informed me that he
had continued working on his feet for the greater part of the preceding
day--turned himself fearfully round when he required to move, so as to
keep the supposed brittle region out of the reach of all danger; when he
retired to bed, he had laid himself on his face; and he was again
working assiduously, in a standing position, in the same way as when I
saw him last. I again applied myself to the opening, and satisfied
myself that the statement I had received was correct. The scene
presented all the extraordinary features--the same standing position,
cadaverous face, and nervous watchful eye, in the patient, and the same
look of mystery, wonder, and repressed risibility on the part of the
apprentices. I opened the door, and entered, requesting Mrs G---- to
bring me a chair, on which I sat down right opposite to the patient,
who, almost simultaneously with these movements, retreated back, and,
coming in contact with the wall of the room, uttered a sudden scream of
fear, and again resumed his position. His wife looked at him with pity
and affection; but the rebellious apprentices broke forth into a
cachinnation, which I instantly repressed by a look, which conveyed a
serious reproof, as sincere as it was strong and stern. I proceeded to
endeavour to acquire his confidence; but he exhibited great shyness, and
kept up a studied system of eyeing me askant, placing his back as near
to the wall as he thought consistent with his safety, and keeping a
sharp look-out for intruders in that direction. To my inquiry how he
felt, he replied, peevishly, that he was so utterly beyond the powers of
medicine, that he did not see the use of my visits.
"Heaven help me!" he ejaculated; "I am safe nowhere but in my bed. No
necessity will draw me from it, if I'm once there again. My ungrateful
wife may starve. I will turn off these rebellious, unfeeling scoundrels.
I am sure rounded by enemies, murderers, who would laugh if they saw me
cracked in a thousand pieces. They gloat on my screams, as they take
every opportunity to pass behind me and jostle me. Better be dashed at
once like a potsherd among stones, than exposed to this horrible state
of eternal apprehension."
"You nourish vain fears," replied I. "Why not try to sit and compose
yourself?"
"Ha! ha! ha!" he cried, with a shrill, sardonic movement of his
lungs--"sit on a glass globe!--ha! ha!--all enemies together--murderers
all. It is not three hours yet since that woman placed a chair for me,
and one of these unfeeling ruffians asked me, with a sneaking, whining
sympathy, to take my place on the board, while his ears were tingling
for the crash. I'll swear a lawburrows against you all--every mother's
son of you."
"You may at least try to sit," said I, calmly rising from the chair--a
movement that operated upon him like magnetism--making him throw down
the cloth he held in his hand, recoil still farther back, and scream
again, loud and shrill.
I made a step forwards to him, which roused his fears still higher; for
he was clearly possessed with the idea that I was to force him to sit,
or to press him against the wall, and thus shatter him to pieces. The
one mode of destruction was just as fearful as the other; and, as I took
another step nearer him, he raised a yell that made the whole house
ring, and, changing his position, with his back still to the wall, he
glided swiftly aside, and seemed, by the furtive glance of his
terrorstruck eye, to wish to make for the door--which, however, was
guarded by his wife. By this time the two young men had started to their
feet, so that he was surrounded by foes on every side; and as the utter
desperation of his case thus seemed to increase, he became more and more
terrified, repeating his screams at shorter intervals, and placing
himself with a caution which, in his excited state, had a strange
appearance, closer and closer to the wall. The sight was a grievous one
to his wife, and far from an agreeable one to myself; but the
apprentices--probably from a spirit of retaliation roused by a memory of
former inflictions--enjoyed it with a cruel delight. Having thus far
roused his terror, I thought it prudent not to stop short in an
operation which, at whatever time performed, must necessarily be
attended with all the pain he now suffered; and, throwing out a signal
to one of the young men to stand by the chair, and to the other to come
to my side, I made boldly towards him, and, notwithstanding of his
heartrending screams and looks for pity, seized him by one arm, while
the other was willingly laid hold of by my assistant.
At this period of the operation, I was rather importunately addressed by
Mrs G----, whose feelings--for she was an irritable creature, and
distractedly fond of her husband--overcame her.
"For heaven's sake, let him alone!" she cried. "The neighbours will
think we are in reality murdering him. His screams go to my heart, and I
cannot stand these wild looks. Heaven pity my unfortunate husband!"
"I am only performing my professional duty," I replied, loudly, to make
myself heard in the midst of his screams. "You called me to him; and, if
you really wish it, I will leave him to his fate. No man of his
profession can do any good in the world by working on his legs. The
disease is deep-rooted, and can only be overcome by strong remedies. I
think I will cure him; and, if you stop us in the operation, the
consequences will be entirely attributable to yourself."
I spoke at this length with the view, purposely, of keeping the patient
for some time in the high state of terror to which he was roused;
because I was satisfied that, in proportion to the height of his
apprehension, was the chance of benefit to result from my expedient for
curing him. The woman saw the affair in its proper light; and, though
still greatly moved by his screams and pitiful looks, she forbore
further entreaty or interference. The apprentices, meanwhile, were all
alive and ready for action, expressing by their eloquent leers, which I
could not repress, their pleasure in thus having an opportunity--such is
human nature--of repaying their taskmaster for his severity, as well as
of witnessing one of the most curious operations they had ever heard of.
All this time the patient continued his screams--having, at intervals,
recourse to exclamatory expostulation.
"Cruel fiends!" he cried, "will you dash me to pieces? Will nothing less
serve you than to see a poor harmless being, who never injured one of
you, reduced to atoms? And you, too, hard-hearted wretch, whose duty it
is to protect me, stand there a witness of my destruction! Unheard-of
misery, to have the tenement of an immortal soul reduced to particles no
bigger than a farthing!"
We proceeded to drag him forwards, in spite of a resistance strengthened
by the energy of terror and despair, and heedless of his cries of "Save
me, save me! Death, death in any form but being dashed to shivers!"
Having brought him to the chair, the back of which was held firmly by
the other apprentice, we turned him round so as to make the bottom of it
(composed of hard wood) as fair a mark as our eyes could judge. He was
now, as he thought, on the brink of utter extermination; and I was
afraid that the terror might have the effect on him which I have noticed
in criminals at the moment when the fatal drop is to fall, and, by
inducing a fit of syncope, destroy all our labours. It was, however,
otherwise, though I never saw a patient on the eve of undergoing the
amputation of a limb in such a condition of terror and agony. We were
bound to disregard all this; and, having made my assistant understand
that it was necessary to lift him (for a simple seating, without a fall,
I was satisfied, would do no good), we raised him a foot or two, by the
application of considerable strength, and let him down upon the bottom
of the chair, with a crash. A louder scream than he had yet uttered
announced his fancied death-blow.
"I am murdered! it is all over now!" he ejaculated, with a gasp, while
his hands were busy groping about, to feel the pieces of broken glass,
which must necessarily be scattered in every direction.
This operation, on his part, I wished to encourage, and liberated his
arms, to give him greater scope, while we continued to hold him firmly
down on the chair, till we satisfied him that he had received, and could
receive, no injury, from pressing upon it with all the weight of his
attenuated and sickly body. His groping was accompanied by a trembling
that shook all his system; and I saw his terrorstruck eye wavering on
the pivot of doubt, whether it might be inclined downwards to witness
the wreck of his shivered body. Deep, convulsive sobs, the result of the
restrained breath, broke from him in strange sounds, mixed with the
groans of one who thought himself in the firm grasp of death. At length
he ventured to add the testimony of his eyes to that of his hands; and,
when he found that there were no pieces of glass lying about the chair
and floor, he turned up the panicstruck orbs in my face, with an
expression of mixed wonder and terror, that, to any one but myself,
acting in a serious medical capacity, would have appeared ludicrous to
an extent infringing upon the diaphragm. As we held him firmly down, in
spite of his efforts to bound up, the false conviction, so firmly fixed
in his brain, was apparently suffering a silent process of
qualification; and the difficulty of reconciling the belief within with
the actual state of safety without, was drawing him to the favourable
condition of doubt, from which we might augur benefit. As the old
conviction rose, at intervals, more strongly on him, his hands were
again busy to ascertain the actual state of safety of his body; then his
eye sought my face for an assurance in favour of the evidence of touch,
and he was for a moment reconciled; again the false conception seized
him, again he groped, and felt, and looked, and thus was he precipitated
into a state of perplexity, from which he could not get himself
disentangled, but from which he might ultimately, as I hoped, rise into
a natural belief.
"Where are your smashed glass organs now?" said I. He could reply
nothing, but turned up his eye, filled with wonder and doubt, in my
face. "You have been labouring under a wretched delusion of the mind.
There's no more glass about you than there is about me--and that is my
watch-glass. Are you satisfied?"
"Heaven help me! I know not," he replied, in a melancholy tone. "I am
perplexed. I cannot conceive why I'm not broken. How is it possible I
could have stood the shock? Strange!--wonderful!" And he seemed for a
moment lost in the mist of a confused amazement. This was his medicine,
and we allowed it to work, by still holding him firm in his position.
"It cannot be!" he ejaculated, quickly, as he emerged from his dream of
wonder. "It is impossible! I _am_ damaged! Let me up! let me up! and you
will see the melancholy wreck."
This request was a fair one, and we removed our restraining hands. In a
moment he started up, with a bound, to his feet, casting a fearful look
on the bottom of the chair, and clasping the supposed brittle region
with his hands, to ascertain whether he was in reality uninjured. The
laugh of the apprentices, which I had hitherto restrained by my serious
looks, now burst forth, in spite of all their efforts; and, averse as I
am to such exhibitions of levity in cases of serious ailments, I could
not help now looking upon this powerful ridicule as a necessary and
salutary ingredient of the medicine administered to him.
"You are all safe, sir," said I; "not one jot of you injured. I hope to
hear no more of your glass. Next time I call, I expect to see you seated
at your work, as becomes the decorum of your profession."
I now left him; but I was by no means satisfied that he would not
pertinaciously account for his being uninjured, by a recourse to some
fallacious reason--such as the strength of the glass--to satisfy his
prior conviction; for, before I departed, I saw that his look was as
furtive and nervous as before, and his old partiality for the wall was
strong within him. My anticipations were too well founded; for I
ascertained, next morning, that he was not cured. He had given up work,
and betaken himself to bed, where he had gradually relapsed into his old
belief--accounting for his entireness by the strength alone of the
crystal. I told the woman to call again, and tell me when he ventured
up, and I would essay another experiment, which might turn out more
successful. Three days passed before I received the announcement that he
had again betaken himself to work on his legs. I lost no time in getting
two assistants who could work better to my plan than my former
coadjutors, and went to the house. It was the dinner-hour of his
apprentices, and I had arrived in the opportune moment when the door,
which had been bolted all day, to keep me and others out, was still
open, after the exit of the workmen. I went, with the assistants,
straight in upon him, and got a chair handed to me, precisely as on the
former occasion. I soon saw that he was still under the influence of the
delusive fiend that had usurped the seat of reason.
"I am determined," said I, resolutely, "to break this brittle appendage.
I have made my calculations, and am satisfied that I can smash it and
remove it without injury to the vital organs that lie within it. It is,
I am satisfied, a mere glass covering, without the slightest
connection, in an organic view, with the parts beyond it. Fear not when
you hear the crash; for I pledge myself you will thank me for the
operation after it is performed."
"No, no!" he vociferated, with screams; "I shall die, inevitably perish,
if it is broken. You may as well break my head to pieces with an axe,
and say that, because my heart will remain untouched, I will live. Oh,
for the love of Heaven, have mercy on me!"
His screams and exclamations produced no effect upon us. We proceeded to
take off a part of his garments, and led him, in spite of the most
determined and tortuous struggles, to the chair.
"We must break it thoroughly," said I. "Lift him up as high as
possible."
My assistant obeyed my directions; and, having raised him as high as our
strength would permit, we brought him down with a hard crash, as
formerly on the chair, at the very moment that my other assistant
dashed, with great force, on the floor a large globular glass bottle,
which he had, by my desire, brought with him for the purpose. The crash
was tremendous, and rang in the victim's ear like a death-knell.
"Pick me up--pick me up!" cried the patient. "I'm all in atoms. You
would not believe me once that I was made in these parts of glass. Ah,
you see now the melancholy evidence of the fact!"
We held him steady, and he rolled his eyes from side to side, surveying
the broken fragments of his vitrified substance with symptoms of horror.
I noticed the hair on his head rise and stand as stiff as porcupine
quills, and all his body was shaken by tremors that seemed to reach his
heart. After allowing the conviction that the appendage was absolutely
broken to take proper root in his mind--
"You are cured," said I. "The glass lies about you, and your body is
entire. I was right in my diagnosis. It is proved; the glass was a mere
covering--a species of fourth skin over the epidermis; and, being gone,
the natural body is freed from the encumbrance. Rise and judge for
yourself."