tion, as it is a very critical one. I received a letter from father yesterday, saying he had not written to you, and wished me to do so. I thought I would try. Perhaps you will wonder how I came to Worcester Hospital -but it is for my health. As I prize that above every thing else, I was willing to deny myself a great many pleasures only for a few months. I left home last April, and went to Springfield with a young lady of my acquaintance, and liked there so well that I concluded to stay and spend the summer. While there I was attacked with the disorder that has brought me to the hospital. The first attack was in June. It was about ten in the evening-the people called a physician; he thought it was partial derangement, and gave me an emetic that stilled me a little, and I got over it, and the next day was quite well. The people thought it was a very strange disorder, and let it pass off. But I was troubled almost every week with the same disorder, and it soon became something serious. I found I was growing worse every day, and was put under the physician's care. Medicine did not seem to have any effect, and I was still growing worse. In October I was attacked in the day time. It was Tuesday morning, and it continued till Friday morning, when I went into a natural sleep, and awoke up and knew nothing of what had passed. I will not try to give you any description of what I did, as I presume you have read it in the newspapers, as my case was the one referred to, and I think the pieces are not exaggerated in the least.

"Father was sent for when I was in one of my turns, as I do not know what else to call them, and reached Springfield in about 48 hours; and an hour after I came out of it. He expected to take me home with him; but I was taken the next morning, and continued so most of the time he was in Springfield. He said it was no place for me at home, and there must be something done. They then concluded to bring me here, as people thought if I could be cured any where it would be here; and I am happy to say I am much better than I was when I came here. I have been here about a month, and I think I shall be entirely well in two months more, as my turns are not near as often, and no two have been alike. The people of Springfield were so much interested for me that they offered to pay my board here until I was well; so the night I left Springfield I had a present of forty-eight dollars."

"In the evening of the day on which she wrote the letter she had a very distressing paroxysm, which was followed by a mild form of fever which lasted several days."

“Jan. 10. Did not feel well all day yesterday—had confusion of head and flushing of face. At evening she had a paroxysm in which she recollected all that was done in the day; and after the paroxysin all that was done in it. It lasted but half an hour, when she went into a quiet sleep and slept till morning.'

"Jan. 11-13. Had slight paroxysms in which consciousness was not lost-recollected in the paroxysms what transpired in the interval, and in the interval the circumstances of the paroxysm-is greatly inclined to indulge in eating, and if she eats freely is unusually dull and sleepy afterwards.'

Jan. 19. Has had one or two paroxysms since the 13th similiar to those last described. In the one to-day she repeated the Pilgrim's

Fathers' very distinctly and correctly. I had censured her for eating fried cakes and the like between meals; and she kept a fast during the paroxysm to-day, but called for pancakes, which she said might be eaten with impunity on fast-days.'"

During a recent visit to Worcester, Dr. Belden had an opportunity of witnessing the improvement in the health of his patient.

"Her face has lost the flush which it used habitually to wear-the head is now seldom painful, and there is no tenderness at the spot formerly affected, and the natural, healthful temperature of the extremities has been restored. There is still some oppression after eating, especially if she deviates from the regulations which have been prescribed respecting her diet; and any gross violation is almost certain to be followed by a paroxysm. Strong mental emotion too, or any kind of mental or physical excitement, conduces to the same effect; and, sometimes, is of itself sufficient to occasion a fit. In a paroxysm which occurred while I was there, the eyes were open and appeared nearly natural-the pupil was, perhaps, a little more dilated than common. Her manner was hurried-the speech and motions rather quick and abrupt. She appeared to be sensible of every thing which took place around her, knew me, and answered my questions with propriety and correctness; and, so far as I could discover, had a proper conception of the relations of time and place. A handkerchief having been tied over her eyes she declared she could not see at all-said that it was perfect darkness to her. During the whole time her perceptions appeared to be more quick and vivid than natural. Her remarks, as in the earlier periods of her disease, were often distinguished for a degree of wit and brilliancy peculiar to these occasions. She also, at this time, sung as she formerly did. In the paroxysm she recollected circumstances which transpired a short time before, but did not, the next day, remember what occurred in the fit. The termination of the paroxysm is often less distinct than it formerly was, though the access, I believe, continues to be well marked."

The latest intelligence we have of the case is contained in the following extract of a letter from Dr. Woodward to Dr. Belden.

Jane's paroxysms have ceased altogether for the last nine days, and she is in good health, excepting a distress after taking food. She has never appeared so cheerful, and in so good spirits, since her residence with us. During most of last week she did the duty of an assistant in the absence of one of our attendants, and she has done more or less work in the halls every day. During the last paroxysm I applied leeches to her head. She waked during the paroxysm not a little surprised at her new head ornaments."

Such is the history of this remarkable case, which we have presented in all its details, conceiving them as we do to possess extreme interest. We have not considered the question of imposture in the case, entertained by some who are ignorant of physiology and of the records of medicine, because we really entertain no suspicion of deceit. Independent, in this case, of the care with which the facts appear to have been observed, the respectability of the witnesses, the VOL. 1. (1837). No. II.

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character of the patient, the nature of the facts observed precluding the idea of imposition, and the analogous cases in medical records, there appear to us nothing so unprecedented as to excite our incredulity. Physiology, indeed, clearly points to an excited state of certain portions of the brain, as offering an explanation of most of the remarkable phenomenon of the case.

We placed a handkerchief eight times folded, over the eyes of a medical friend, who expressed his disbelief in the possibility of any object being discernible through such an envelope, and to his surprise he could distinguish the position of the windows, and on a subsequent occasion the light of a lamp in the room. Now, the retina and cerebral organs of our friend were in a normal condition, and if in this state he could distinguish the light through so many folds of linen, it seems little extraordinary that an individual whose cerebral organs of vision are in a state of extreme excitement should be capable of distinguishing objects much more distinctly. Light and darkness are but comparative terms. It is familiar to every one that a person on entering a room dimly lighted will pronounce it perfectly dark, and yet in a few minutes be able to distinguish minute objects. Persons long confined in dungeons so dark that the visitor pronounces that no ray of light enters, have after a time been enabled to distinguish objects, and even to watch the movements of minute insects; as of spiders, &c. Nor is the fact less familiar to the physician, that patients labouring under retinitis will complain of the light, and even severely suffer from it in a room which to a healthy eye seems totally dark.

We may call attention also to the extraordinary acuteness of the other senses in certain individuals, as of the sense of hearing and of touch in the blind; and still more so in those labouring under inflammation of the auditory and tactile organs. The case of Caspar Hauser furnishes us also with evidence of an acuteness of some of the senses quite as suprising as occurred in the one under notice. There appears to us, then, nothing incredible in what has excited most surprise in Jane's case, her acuteness of sight, and although we cannot so satisfactorily explain all the other phenomena, this does not afford sufficient ground for disbelief, inasmuch they are not in opposition to any of the established laws of nature.

There are innumerable other phenomena equally extraordinary and inexplicable, and which no one questions, but which only cease to excite our surprise because of their frequent occurrence-as intermittence in fevers, the perfect regularity of the paroxysms, &c.

ART. XV.-A Practical Treatise and Observations on Trial by Jury in Civil Causes, as now Incorporated with the Jurisdiction of the Court of Session. By the Right Hon. W. ADAM, Lord Chief Commissioner. 8vo. Edinburgh. 1836.

ON resuming our consideration of the state of the law as it at present exhibits itself in Great Britain, we find it becomes a subject of such extended and various bearings, that we must view it in a piece-meal manner, and treat of it according to its condition as observed in distinct portions of the island. In this paper, we therefore direct attention exclusively to Scotland, where, as every one knows, the principles and the practice of the law are very different from those which obtain in the sister kingdom on the other side of the Tweed. And, though for our text we adopt the able and satisfactory work of the Lord Chief Commissioner of the Jury Court, as it was first established for the trial of Civil Causes in Scotland, we by no means hold ourselves as confined to that publication, but shall make use of certain Reports, which have been drawn up by His Majesty's Law Commissioners, together with other documents, by well-informed parties on the general subject of Scottish Law, its forms, and defects.

In this review of the state of the law in Scotland, it is unnecessary to travel beyond its civil department. With regard to the Criminal Code and its forms which have long been the theme of admiration, as they are administered in that country, we do not perceive any room for particular remark in the way of amendment. It is on the other hand, matter of wonder rather, that in England there should have been such a prevalent tardiness on the part of the lawyers and legislators to copy several of the excellencies of the Scottish system. In our next paper, on the subject of the state of the law in Great Britain, we hope to make the opinion which we have now generally advanced, perfectly manifest, when we come to consider certain Reports concerning the Criminal Law of England. In the meanwhile, we recur to the branch and the country with which we above set out, and hope to be able to avoid those technicalities, the introduction of which, would take the matter out of our jurisdiction. If treated in this popular form, the subject becomes not only one of great importance to all classes, but in no slight degree interesting, since it obviously has to deal with ancient customs and modes of thinking, and also becomes the gage by which the progress of civilization is to be tried.

The trial of civil causes by Jury, at first met in Scotland with much opposition, and had to encounter many unavoidable difficulties; and, perhaps, nothing short of the wisdom, the experience, and the delicate tact of the venerable author of the

"Practical Treatise," mentioned at the head of this article, could have surmounted such obstacles. It became absolutely necessary, however, that a great effort should be made to obviate the many evils that were each year becoming more inveterate from the loose method of pleading that had such ample scope according to the forms of Scottish procedure. It was found that the appeals from that country to the House of Lords were regularly on the increase, and that wealthy litigants, owing to the peculiar vices of these forms, had many inducements to dispute the merest trifles with their poorer neighbours. The evil became even a subject of complaint to the lawyers both in England and Scotland, and attracted the attention of Lord Granville when Prime Minister. This was in 1806; and the hope of simplifying the proceedings, and of bringing matters of fact to the speediest conclusions, through the interposition of a jury, much after the method which obtains in England, but which was previously unknown in the supreme civil courts of Scotland, was suggested, and a bill for that purpose brought into Parliament. After various delays, the experimental measure was passed in 1816, and became permanent in 1819; and when other ten years had elapsed, the jury court, as a separate institution, was abolished, and has been incorporated with the Court of Session, the ancient and only supreme tribunal for the trial of civil causes in the country; before which written and verbal pleadings were wont to be addressed exclusively to the judges, who were to pronounce upon such evidence the law of the land.

The introduction of trial by jury in that part of the empire, was a necessary, but a strong measure, which had not only the prejudices of the people to combat, but the habits of the Scottish judges and lawyers. The forms of the new court, had to be modelled to a great extent upon the principles and practice of the English law, of which the people were jealous and slow to approve of; and had it not been that the prudence and knowledge of Lord Commissioner Adam, who had been in early life called to the Scottish bar, were of an uncommon character, it may be doubted whether the most flagrant evils which arose from the old methods of pleading, and of procrastination, would have, to this day, met with any considerable check. On retiring from his office of Chief Commissioner, however, and when he became a judge of the Court of Session, so as to have a voice in all matters connected with trial by jury, the celebrated Mr. Jeffrey, who was at the time Dean of Faculty, pronounced the following eulogium upon the venerable judge:

"None can be so fully aware as the members of the bar, of the many and great difficulties which his lordship had to surmount, in introducing trial by jury in civil causes in Scotland, or of the success with which they have been overcome. This triumph, the Faculty is satisfied, could only have been accomplished by the eminent