s in which are the immediate forerunners of completed
sensation."--(P. 279.)

In short, we think we do not unfairly express the author's theory in the
following query. As the application of the highest human powers (those
of Newton, for instance) have resolved the transmission of light to the
sensorium into the vibrations of an all-pervading ether, what is more
probable than that a similar ethereal medium may convey sensations of
objects through other channels? This may be, but another important
ingredient is wanting, viz. organization, or definite molecular
arrangement. Prick the eye, and, by the resulting morbid derangement,
change the molecular arrangement of its particles, and vision is
destroyed; pulverise the glass through which you look, and it is no
longer transparent. The ether (if there be an ether) in the pores of
these substances, can only convey correct impressions when these
particles have a definite arrangement; but the mesmeric ether is
dependent upon no such necessity. Density and tenacity, opacity and
transparency, homogeneous or heterogeneous bodies, are all equally
penetrable. And what is more strange, the mesmeric ether conveys
correct, and not distorted impressions. The same perception of form
which is conveyed through air, is convoyed through the cover of a book,
through the bones of the skull, or the muscles of the stomach. And,
still more extraordinary, this impression is identical as to the mental
idea it conveys with that conveyed in the normal manner through the eye.
The mesmeric ether has, therefore, not only the power of conveying
impressions, but of preserving their continuity through any impediment.
The formal impressions of a chair or table, which are conveyed by
ordinary vision in right lines to the retina, if these lines be
distorted by any intervening want of uniformity in the matter, are
proportionally distorted. Let striae of glass of different density
intervene in an optical lens, and the objects are distorted; increase
the number of striae, the object is more imperfect; and carry the
molecular derangement further, opacity is the result. Transparency and
opacity, then, viewed apart from all hypotheses, resolve themselves into
organization or molecular arrangement. Yet, by the mesmeric medium, a
chair or table is conveyed to the recipient in its distinct form, or,
what amounts to the same thing for the argument of conformity, they give
to the mind distinct ideas of these object