sciences we accept nothing as
conclusive that is not confirmed by experiment, the vastness or
strangeness of the thought, far from attracting ridicule, generally
leads to inquiry, experiments, and results. Many of our great
discoveries have been suggested by hints which formerly would have
seemed the ravings of a disordered mind.

With our microscopes we have been enabled to examine and dissect all the
minutest divisions of the brain, each of which responds to certain
trains of thought, and to ascertain the physical cause of madness.

This knowledge enables us to discriminate with certainty, to detect the
existence, nature, and locality of the germ, and apply effectual
remedies during the earliest tendency to the malady. Until this
discovery was made, I took effectual means for curing the numbers in
whose brains madness had already been developed. I erected many great
buildings, where each patient was separated from the others, for in
Montalluyah madness is thought to be more or less contagious; but after
I had reigned some years the deserted divisions only served to show for
what purpose they had been formerly used, and, with one single
exception, kept in case of need, these buildings are now appropriated to
other purposes.

Amongst the discoveries that astonished the brain-doctors and
mind-tamers was the following:--It was formerly thought that the disease
existed in the _overworked_, portion of the brain; but this was found to
be an error, inasmuch as the disease exists in those parts of the brain
which have lain dormant or have been little used. From these the
oleaginous fluids essential to their life and activity are drawn to
supply the overworked portion, which remains in full health and power.
The doctors admitted that their original belief would alone suffice to
account for their having failed to cure so many cases of madness.

The heat of the climate, the power of the sun, the then excessive use of
stimulants, and the excitability of the people,--whose pulsation is more
rapid than yours,--all tended formerly to augment the victims of the
scourge.

XVI.

THE DEATH SOLACE.

INSECTS.

"Seek diligently and you will find healthful good even in noxious
things."

In Montalluyah learned men are employed wholly in the study of the
properties of insects, for these contain valuable electricities.

Colonies of insects, brought by the storms, formerly destroyed whole
crops, till a simple