Before commencing to operate on our patient, we examined the other bottle, which was labelled “Sleeping Draught. A. S., 1773. Dose, ten drops with sugar.” This we replaced in the box, none of us wishing just then to try its effects. Johnson at last agreed to make the incision, or as he called it, “the slot,” and taking out his jack-knife he whetted it on a piece of stone, giving it a few rubs on his boot to take off the roughness, and then proceeded to rip up the doctor’s coat-sleeve. It was one of those tight-fitting lappeted coats, in vogue during the second half of the last century, and quite in keeping with the date on the parchment--1773. By the way, on scrutinizing the document once more, we discovered these words written on the back-- “At his own request I leave Dr. Sinclair on this island, and have promised to inform the harbour masters at whaling ports on the Scotch coast that he may be found on South Island if one of them will put in for him. He wishes to carry out several experiments of a scientific nature during the winter of 1772-73. “(Signed), CAPTAIN PHIPPS, “Naval Surveyor to H.M. King George III.” “Now, Chipps,” said I to old Johnson, “are you ready?” “Aye, aye, sir,” said he, flourishing his knife, “ready and eager for the fray. Where shall I stick him, sir?” “Be careful, now,” I replied, “and make a little hole just there,” and I pointed to a vein on the left forearm. Johnson jabbed his knife in as if he were about to kill a pig: it made a wound an inch long and an inch deep, but, strangely enough, no blood flowed. With the aid of a piece off the stem of a tobacco pipe, I injected a few drops of the liquid from the blue bottle, and with open mouths and straining eyes we stood by to watch the result. Several minutes went by without any apparent effect being noticeable on the old doctor. We felt his pulse, or rather his wrist, for he was as pulseless as the figurehead of a ship, and then tried his heart. We endeavoured to open his mouth to pour in a few drops of the liquor from the red bottle (which we had mixed with warm water), but his teeth were so tightly clenched that we could not give him the “Aid to Restoration.” As we gazed earnestly upon our patient we fancied we saw a movement of his shaggy eyebrows, but put it down to the wind which found its way into the cabin through the open door. We watched again, and this time, to our great surprise, we saw a twitching at the corners of the mouth, sufficient to cause a movement of the heavy moustache. I poured in three drops more from the blue bottle, and in a few minutes saw the head of our patient slowly lift and fall back again on his chest. We tried his mouth again, and this time succeeded in opening his jaws sufficiently wide to force a few drops of the warm liquid into his throat.