ionist. As this is an occurrence personal to myself, I
trust the reader will perceive the propriety of my presenting to him the
narrative in a more exact and detailed form than that in which it is
given by the author of the 'Vains Efforts.'

"I had begun, as I usually do, by giving the convulsionist very moderate
blows. But after a time, excited by her constant complaints, which left
me no room to doubt that the oppression in the pit of the stomach of
which she complained could be relieved only by violent blows, I
gradually increased the force of mine, employing at last my whole
strength; but in vain. The convulsionist continued to complain that the
blows I gave her were so feeble that they procured her no relief; and
she caused me to put the andiron into the hands of a large and stout man
who happened to be one of the spectators. He kept within no bounds.
Instructed by the trial he had seen me make that nothing could be too
severe, he discharged such terrible blows, always on the pit of the
stomach, as to shake the wall against which the convulsionist was
leaning.

"She caused him to give her one hundred such blows, not reckoning as
anything the sixty I had just administered. She warmly thanked the man
who had procured her such relief, and reproached me for my weakness and
my lack of faith.

"When the hundred blows were completed, I took the andiron, desirous of
trying against the wall itself whether my blows, which she thought so
feeble and complained of so bitterly, really did produce no effect. At
the twenty-fifth stroke the stone against which I struck, and which had
been shaken by the previous blows, was shattered, and the pieces fell
out on the opposite side, leaving an opening of more than six inches
square.

"Now let us observe what were the portions of the body of the
convulsionist on which these fearful blows were dealt. It is true that
they first came in contact with the skin, but they sank immediately to
the back of the patient; their force was not arrested at the surface.

"I insist unnecessarily, perhaps, upon this fact, since all, even our
greatest enemies, admit its truth. But, however incontestable it is, I
conceive that I cannot too strongly prove it to those who have not
themselves witnessed what happened; inasmuch as the principal objection
made by the author of the 'Memoire Theologique' consists in supposing
that the violence of the most tremendous blows given to convulsionists
is suspended b