Volume I Part 39 (1/2)

TO GEORGE M GOULD

1889

DEAR GOULD,--I feel like a white granular mass of amorphous crystals--my formula appears to be isomeric with Spasmotoxin My aurochloride precipitates into beautiful prismatic needles My Platinochloride develops octohedron crystals,--with a fine blue fluorescence My physiological action is not indifferent Oneproduced instantaneous death accoe blossom odour The heart stopped in systole A base--L_3 H_9 NG_4--offers analogous reaction to phosards,

PHOSMOLYODIC LAFCADIO HEARN

GOULD,--”Concerning zombis, tell me all about them”

HEARN,--”In order to relate you that which you desire, it will be necessary first to explain the difference in the idea of the supernatural as existing in the savage and in the civilized ”

GOULD,--”I'll be back in a itation in the peripheral centres of Hearn, together with considerable acute anguish, owing to disintegration of cerebral tissue consequent upon the sudden arrest of nerve-force in discharge (See Grant Allen on cause of pain, ”Physiological aesthetics”)

Gould, suddenly reappearing:--”Go on with that old story, now”

(Resurrection of cerebral agitation in the ganglionic centres and intercorrelate cerebral fibres of Hearn After desperate and painful research, the broken threads of ain, and peripherally conjointed, and the wounded narrative proceeds, li, I recollect one very curious instance of emotional and fantastic--”

GOULD,--”Yes, I'll be out in a h a door_)

--Brutal confusion established in the visual, auditory, gustatory, and olfactory ganglia of Hearn;--general quivering and strain of all the mnemonic current lines, and then a sense of inquisitorial torture going on in various brain-chambers, where the vital forces, suddenly arrested, flow back in a deluge and set all ideas afloat in drowning agony Slow recovery as from concussion of the cerebellum

ENTER GOULD,--”Now proceed with that story of yours”

HEARN,--pacifying the fury of the ganglionic centres with the most extreme possible difficulty, timidly observes,--

”But you don't care to hear it?”

GOULD,--ed,--

”Of course, I do: I' after hiuish of ”hope deferred which maketh the heart sick,”--

”Well, it was in the Rue du Bois Morier,--one of the steepest and strangest streets in the world, full of fantastic gables, and the shadows of--”

GOULD,--”Yes, I'll be out in a h a shop entrance_)

(Inexpressible chaos and bewilderment of ianglia,--unspeakable co fibres,--paralysis of conflicting euish: coma followed by acute , ”Well, go on with that old yarn”

But Hearn is being already conveyed by two large Philadelphia Policemen to the Penn Lunatic Asylum for Uncurables

Astonishment of Gould

TO GEORGE M GOULD