the Wourali poison was used before a crowded audience. The process tried was nearly the same as that which I have described in the Wanderings, when the ass (which was called Wouralia ever after) was operated upon until it was apparently dead, and then restoredafter which it lived at Walton Hall for four and twenty years in excellent health.

On this occasion in Nottingham, two asses received the poisoned spike in the shoulder; and after yielding under the pressure of its destructive powers, they were both restored by the process of artificial respiration. The first trial was a very long one; and the operator, my worthy friend Mr. Sibson, exerted himself in a manner that astonished all the company. The artificial respiration was kept up for seven hours, before the prostrate animal exhibited the least symptom of returning motion; and that was first observed in a momentary quiver of the eyelid. This ass died I think on the third day after the experiment. But circumstances had intervened, to the influence of which, its death might in part be attributed. The second case occupied a much shorter space of time, and was quite successful. The ass is still alive.

Every person present seemed convinced that the virulence of the Wourali poison was completely under the command of the operator; and that, by this artificial process, its malignant qualities could always be subdued. In a word, the company present came to the conclusion that it can be safely applied to a human being, labouring under hydrophobia, one of the most terrible and fatal of all the diseases that have ever afflicted mankind.

Mr. Sibson has most wonderfully improved the bellows, and thus rendered the process much less laborious. He has by him a fair store of the very poison which I brought from the forests of Guiana in 1812. See the Wanderings. I myself have also a good supply of it, as pure and as potent as it was on the day in which I procured it.

In case of need, an application, either to Mr. Sibson at the General Hospital in Nottingham, or to myself at Walton Hall near Wakefield, will be most punctually attended to; and as railroad speed is now almost proverbial, a communication with every part of the country is put upon the easiest footing possible.

But I beg the reader in the most earnest

manner, to give his attention to the following remarks.

First, it is an acknowledged fact that the art of medicine has hitherto been unable to arrest the fatal progress of confirmed hydrophobia. This being the case, it is both wise and expedient to give the sufferer a chance of saving his life by the supposed, although as yet untried, efficacy of the Wourali poison; which, worst come to the worst, would, by its sedative and narcotic qualities, render death calm and composed, and free from pain; a circumstance not to be expected under the ordinary treatment, or no treatment at all, of this ungovernable and fatal malady.

Secondly, That as there can be no hope whatever from supposed remedies usually applied, the patient must by no means be allowed to take them, lest their pressure upon his constitution should neutralise or totally counteract the hoped-for good effects from the application of the Wourali poison.

Thirdly, The disease generally takes three days before it consigns its victim to the tomb, during which time the paroxysms only occur at intervals. Wherefore there will be time.

enough to apply for the scientific assistance of Mr. Sibson, except, indeed, in cases of extreme distance. Until the arrival of this gentleman, the patient might be placed under proper restraint during the paroxysms, and after they had ceased, he might receive support and consolation from his friends.

I wish it to be particularly understood that I do not claim for myself the merit of this discovery, should it prove successful. I certainly paved the way to it by going in quest of the poison, which I acquired in its pure state at my own expense, and at the cost of my health. But to Professor Sewell of the Veterinary College in London, is due the merit of applying it in cases of hydrophobia. He was the first, I believe, who ever suggested the idea, and so certain was he of a favourable result, that I heard him declare before Sir Joseph Banks and a large company of scientific gentlemen, that were he unfortunate enough to be bitten by a mad dog and become infected with hydrophobia, he, would not hesitate one moment in having the Wourali poison applied, as he felt confident that the application of it would prove successful. When all had been arranged at Nottingham

relative to the application of the Wourali poison in case of hydrophobia, I took my leave of the gentlemen assembled, and returned home.

Spring passed rapidly away, and when summer had set in, I began to make arrangements of a domestic nature for a visit to the Eternal City, not having been there since the year 1818.

My

Whilst things were thus in progression, I had well nigh lost a servant by a singular accident. One of my swans having died by disease, and its mate by the horns of an unruly cow; I had the offer of a noble pair from the good Jesuits at Stonyhurst to supply their place. gamekeeper having gone to meet them on the way, his return was momently expected. The night was dark beyond precedent, and the servant hearing the noise of the vehicle, ran to the bridge in order to be of assistance. But he missed his way by about three yards from the inner gate, and went at full speed over the paved walk into the lake below. I was standing by the window at the time, and hearing a plunge which I could not account for, I sprang out of the window and hastened to the spot from whence the noise had proceeded. There