himself" when afflicted with disease, and shield his body from the ruthless assaults of epidemics and contagious disturbances. In short, we believe that man is organized to triumph over all his enemies.

At this proposition, the doctors level their shafts of ridicule. "I scout the doctrine," says one, "because the mind's voluntary powers are fixed within certain well-defined and unalterable limits," &c.

We reply, that no intelligent physiologist can venture to fix the domain of mind without some knowledge of psychology-a department of science as yet scarcely known to our best medical scholars. Man is unspeakably superior to fish, bird, or beast; and is endowed with powers greater than all the millions below him. The voluntary powers of the inferiors' brains are but partially understood.

The Alpine hunter will tell you that the Chamois, a beautiful creature among the everlasting mountains, is capable of running at the rate of one hundred and twenty-five miles per hour. The Ostrich will run swifter than the fleetest horse. Certain fish seem to fly rather than swim.

Some birds can dart against, and through, the adverse ærial currents, and will make nearly two miles per minute, showing that they might, if kept in one course, encompass the earth in less time than is required for a fast steamer to cross the Atlantic.

The crushing might of a cannon-ball is less than the awful force with which a Whale strikes the ocean's bosom. The powerful drumming of the Gorilla upon its own breast can be heard at the distance of half a mile. Some muscular animals, like the Buffalo, can dive from ten to twenty feet under water. And all these exhibitions of velocity and strength, take their rise from the voluntary centers of the animal's brain. Is not

man destined to be, and to do, more than any creature which is inferior to his exalted make and station? We believe that he is-do you still doubt, reader?

The Mind in Sleep.

QUESTION. "Do you think that the mind, in sleep, is independent of the body? If so, does it wander in the Spirit Land? If such be the case, why is it that spirits are supposed to be taken by surprise when they die here, and waking, find themselves in a strange place?"

EXPLANATION. Our answer in this place must be brief, more particularly because the subject has been considered in the third volume of the Harmonia.

Notwithstanding all our investigations in the realms of mind, we have no knowledge of an instance where spirit escaped the body, except by means of thought, idea, or consciousness, until the moment of final dissolution. But through the medium of idea, feeling, or clairvoyance, the apparent escape and the seeming independence of the spirit, are enough complete to impress both subject and witness with a conviction of absolute certainty. We held this belief for nearly three years.

The philosophy of mind is the same as the philosophy of a river of pure eternal water. Man's spirit is a substance, composed of all the divine essences and principles. Its consciousness is the effect of motion, just as the waves of water are the results of some disturbing force. The mind may be quite still during sleep; therefore, during sleep, it may be wholly unconscious. If the substance of the mind is in motion during sleep, it will then, of necessity, be both conscious and dreamful. It may, however, be exalted into clairvoyance, so that, through sight (and even through all the spiritual senses,) the mind may extend its personality, or consciousness, into new scenes and associations.

Electricity and Phosphorus in Animals.

An investigator of the faculties and habits of certain fish and insects, asks to be aided by a few impressions on two points: First, whether the lightning-bug is endowed with a power of collecting and discharging electricity the same as the torpedo or electric eel, and second, whether this power is functionary or under the control and direction of the fish's and insects will ?"

ANSWER. These questions reach down and jut out into the realm of particulars. Our impressions may be too general for your purpose, but they are at your service. The lightning-bug, so called, is capable of generating and emitting light from the presence of that mysterious substance which was first discovered by the Alchemists, but now everywhere known as Phosphorus, an essential element of all animal organization. The generation and employment of this phosphorescent light seems to be subject to the insect's will. There are many impressive instances on record where this fire-fly has destroyed poisonous spiders and consumed their webs, when the necessity of selfdefense urged the little creature to persistent action.

But nothing of this is true when we come to examine the means of self-defense peculiar to the torpedo, ray-fish, electric eel, etc. With these beings of the ocean, the truth seems to be, that, by means of their digestive membranes, they can generate and accumulate the electric fluid in large quantities. This they do with wonderful rapidity when excited by either fright or anger. The under-skin becomes distended and puffed like that which holds the quills of the "fretful porcupine." Thus, the electric eel is charged like the Leyden Jar, and can, unlike the jar, emit sparks without coming in contact with any other body. It is now prepared to wage an aggressive war, or to do battle in obedience to the instincts of selfpreservation. Fishes of this class can, at will, emit sparks in all directions, can give off brilliant emanations, which often

prove fatal to the recipient, and can direct the lightning of their privately-forged thunderbolts, which seldom fail of hitting the mark. The electricity employed is identical with that formed in the vital centers of all animal organisms.

Causes of Hemorrhoidal Infirmities.

More than two-thirds of the sick who write to us for prescriptions are afflicted with hemorrhoidal troubles, commonly called "piles," of which there are many forms and painful symptoms.

THE CAUSE: Pathological physiologists have for a long period said that piles are produced by a dilatation of the bloodvessels in the walls of the rectum; that the cellular coatings of the lower orifice, by becoming enlarged and flabby, protrude and discharge mucous or blood; and with this explanation, they have classified piles as (1) blind, (2) mucous, (3) bleeding, (4) excrescential.

The first form is known as a thickening or swelling of the membranes and vessels within the rectum; the second form is a discharge of mucous from what appear to be ulcers, but which is usually nothing more than a pus exuded from excoriated surfaces within the anus; the third form, attended with pain and uneasiness, is characterized by a discharge of blood during evacuation; the fourth form, and by far the most difficult to treat, is known by the existence of fleshy tumors in the upper walls of the rectum, flat or fig-shaped excrescences, which are commonly removed by surgical operation. But we perceive a bet ter explanation.

The causes of piles begin at the brain-in the center of all energy. They signify an unbalanced condition of the nervous system. The registration of this nervo-disturbance is made upon the negative side of the circulating system, namely, upon

the veins, and the local development of the condition is invariably wherever the body is the weakest. The disturbance in one person may be called "liver disease;" in another, " costiveness;" in a third instance, "apoplexy;" or "piles," if the rectum and lower bowels are the weakest or most taxed part of the venous system. That piles originate from mental rather than from physical disturbances, may be easily demonstrated. Piles may result from anxiety, or sorrow, or suffering, or from long-continued excitement of the feelings in any direction. Straining and anxiety during pregnancy and parturition have frequently brought them on; or occupying the mind with reading papers or books while engaged in the function of evacuation. This habit is as dangerous to the lower intestines and rectum as it is disgusting and offensive to every fine sensibility. It is a very common cause of piles. Any mental occupation foreign to the proper and prompt performance of the function, is positively certain to stamp the impress of disease upon the weakest part; and, inasmuch as, while engaged in this particu lar function, the vessels and fibers of the rectum are distended and principally taxed, so is inattention at the time most likely to produce one or more of the above-mentioned forms of hemorrhoidal disturbance.

It should be remembered that the veins are negative to the arteries, and that mental disturbances are more likely to telegraph themselves upon the most negative parts of the venous system; which explains why little children, and even animals, are sometimes victims of piles and diseases of the anus. And it is worthy of very particular remark, that piles are periodical in their appearance, painfulness, and disappearance. If, for example, you suffered most from them in April, last year, you will be very likely to experience a return of similar troubles about the same time this spring. Or, if you suffer most from