I have done with minute pathology: as there are however two diseases, _epilepsy_ and _insanity_, which may be the _result_ of catalepsy, I may offer a precept on the point. The propensity to trance cannot suddenly be averted, but the state of the body and mind are important studies for our treatment. Melancholy and apathy are the features of the mind of the cataleptic, and languor and faulty secretions the symptoms of the body. Cheerful society, sympathy with suffering, but firmness in resisting sloth and erroneous fancies, and the direction of the patient’s mind to moral recreations, comprehend the sum of our _mental_ treatment. It is equally essential to ensure regulation of the secretions, especially those of the liver. We should employ _cupping_ from the nape of the neck, if there be pain, or heat, or fulness of the head, and constant but gentle exercise. The head should not be low during sleep, nor should food be taken within two hours of retiring to rest. I believe obedience to these slight precepts will frequently mitigate, perhaps in the end avert the attacks, especially if they have arisen from diseased conditions of the body, or gloomy or depraved studies, and deep contemplation. The most simple or unconnected form of catalepsy, is that most likely to end in madness. Perhaps, too, in deep and gloomy subjects, which begin by absorbing mind and sense, the end is thus; so that cataleptic abstraction is but the reverie or foretaste of mania. As to suspected cases of still existing vitality: where there is _plethora_, I would employ bleeding, or cupping, _insufflation_, _Galvanism_; and I should not in extreme cases fear _acupuncture of the heart_, and galvanic shocks then transmitted through the needle. Beclard, in “La Pitié,” in Paris, allows the needle to remain three or four minutes and then withdraws it, and I have learned from my oriental friends, that the Chinese practice this mode extensively. MESMERISM. “Thus smiling, as some fly had tickled slumber, Not as Death’s dart, being laugh’d at.” CYMBELINE. “By some illusion see thou bring her here, I’ll charm his eyes against she doth appear.” “Such tricks hath strong imagination.” MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM. IDA. You are very formidable creatures, Evelyn, if you can touch and wound the heart of a sensitive girl so easily; we must be wary, dear Castaly. It must be a desperate case that justifies so desperate a remedy; yet, with all this danger, the magi of our day will, as I have heard, induce by their art this very state of trance.