"It happened, one morning, when a large and powerful horse was standing harnessed in front of the house, that a servant, passing carelessly close to the animal with a child's carriage in which was an infant daughter of Mrs. Davis, accidentally dropped the tongue of the carriage close to the horse's heels. Mrs. Davis, seeing the danger of her child, rushed to the horse's head, and seizing him suddenly by the bridle with her right hand, the animal reared violently so as almost to lift her from her feet. She succeeded, however, in leading him off from her child, which thus escaped unhurt. "At the moment she experienced no pain; afterward she went about her usual occupations, but felt faint and languid throughout the day. About ten o'clock P.M., sitting down to supper, she first noticed a pain in her elbow, and then, when she attempted to use her right hand, was unable to do so; she found it impossible to close three of the fingers of that hand, the index-finger alone obeying the impulse of her will. After a time the pain increased and extended above the elbow. "In the course of the night the right leg also became affected, the pain extending to the hip. "In the morning she discovered that she could not, by any effort of the will, move either the right arm or the right leg. "The physicians declared it to be a case of paralysis of the motor nerves, caused chiefly by sudden excitement. For a long time it resisted all remedies. During seven weeks the paralysis continued unabated. "In all that time she never used hand or arm: when she walked she had to drag the right leg after her. The leg, too, became cold even to the hip, and all efforts to warm it were ineffectual. "In the month of April she experienced slight relief by the frequent use of electricity; but only so far that, by a special effort of the will, she could partially move her hand and arm. Habitually she rested the elbow on her hip, or, when sitting in an arm-chair, raised it with the other hand so as to rest it on the chair-arm. Nor did she ever, until the incident about to be related, regain the power of straightening either leg or arm. Nor was the warmth of the leg at all restored; and when she walked she still had to drag it after her along the ground. "This continued, without alteration or improvement, until the month of July, 1858; and by this time she had become comparatively disheartened. Life seemed to her no longer worth having: a cripple for life, a burden to her friends, useless to her family. She gave way to tears and despondency.