than mere trance or catalepsy; it seems the
extremest suspensory condition,--and that in a young man of such
apparent health is very remarkable. It will take a long time for him to
recover in the ordinary way with food and sleep," he continued, rather
to himself than to his subordinates. "He needs rousing,--a strong
stimulant."

"Shall I get some brandy, sir?" asked the nurse.

"Brandy? No. That's not the stimulant he needs."

He was silent for a little, moving the young man's limbs, and touching
certain muscles which his exact anatomical knowledge taught him to lay
his finger on with unerring accuracy. The effect was startling and
grotesque. As a galvanic current applied to the proper nerves and
muscles of a dead body will produce expressions and actions resembling
those of life, so the touch of Lefevre's finger made the unconscious
young man scowl or smile or clench his fist according to the muscles
impressed.

"The brain," said Lefevre, "seems quite sound,--perfectly passive, you
see, but active in its passivity. You can leave us, nurse," said he;
then, turning to the house-physician, he continued: "I am convinced this
is such a peculiar case as I have often imagined, but have never seen.
This nervous-muscular suspension is complicated with some exhaustive
influence. I want your assistance, and I ask for it like this, because
it is necessary for my purpose that you should give it freely, and
without reserve; I am going to try the electrode."

This was a simple machine contrived by Lefevre, on the model of the
electric cylinder of Du Bois-Reymond, and worked on the theory that the
electricity stored in the human body can be driven out by the human will
along a prepared channel into another human body.

"I understand," said the assistant promptly. He apprehended his chief's
meaning more fully than the reader can; for he was deeply interested and
fairly skilled in that strange annex of modern medical science which his
chief called psycho-dynamics, and which old-fashioned practitioners
decline to recognise.

"Get me the machine and the insulating sheet," said Lefevre.

While his assistant was gone on his errand, Lefevre with his right hand
gently stroked along the main lines of nerve and muscle in the upper
part of his patient's body; and it was strange to note how the features
and limbs lost a certain constriction and rigidity which it was manifest
they had had only by their disappearance. When the house-physic