It seemed strange instruction to be giving a clergyman; but the young man understood and nodiled approval. In a few minutes he took his departure, and I returned to my Medical Journal—but not to read.
Precisely at eleven o'clock the next morning my singular patient walked into the office. I at once remarked upon his changed appearance. His face looked haggard, and there were heavy, dark rings under his eyes, appearing almost black at the inner corners of the lids.
"I have seen her," he explained heavily. "She was at All Saints Chapel this morning. It was impossible for me to retire, or I should have done so. I had to fight my desire to look at her, to speak to her. I had to figlit like a wild lion, and it has told on me, as you can see. But, thank God, it is over now!"
"I hardly think you are in a fit condition to endure a surgical operation," I objected.
"For God's sake, do not put it off any longer, doctor!" exclaimed the young clergyman, clutching my hand. "I would rather die than endure another day of such moral agony."
"Very well," I said; "I do not consider the experiment a dangerous one in any case—only exhausting."
Five minutes later my patient, divested of coat, vest, and collar, lay stretched on the operating table. In five minutes more he was under the influence of ether.
My first procedure was to shave the dark, soft, silken hair from the lower part of the young man's head. I then made two V-shaped incisions with a lancet at the base of the skull, where phrenologists locate the organ of amativeness, and raised the flap of skin from the skull. The next thing was to get at the brain itself, and this I accomplished by boring two fine holes through the skull with the smallest trephine known in surgery. The portion of the brain thus exposed, I was amazed to find, was in a highly inflamed condition. Instead of attempting to relieve the surcharged brain with any instrument, I now placed a leech at each orifice, and allowed a considerable amount of blood to be thus withdrawn. I then dressed the wound antiseptically, and closed it with sutures.
My patient soon came out from under the influence of the
