quarts of it without much effect upon his specially stubborn organism. One James Thomson found it to cause pains of the day before in his back and knees to return to him, and was quite sure of the accuracy of his observations on this point. When nitrous oxide is used before dental operations it is breathed through a large orifice, and the patient quickly passes, as a general rule, into a state of insensibility. To experience its exhilarating effects it must be breathed through a small orifice. Sir Humphrey Davy found that the more he breathed it the more did his susceptibility to its influence increase, in which respect its action upon a sensitive resembles repeated applications of the power of mesmerism. During the state of psychical excitement he found the light of the sun to be painful to him, in which respect his state bore a resemblance to trance-mediumship. In pursuit of knowledge Sir Humphrey Davy intoxicated himself in eight minutes by drinking sufficient wine for the purpose; he discovered no short cut to heaven that way, but acquired a splitting headache, and experienced sensations altogether unlike those produced by nitrous oxide. It is not certain whether when under the maximum influence of this gas he did not see spirits and hear them talk, but was afraid to say so, for he owns, in the statement already quoted, to having seen something, and heard words in an abnormal way, probably by clairaudience. Davy says of the after effects of breathing the gas-"I slept much less than usual, and previous to sleep my mind was long occupied with visible imagery.”—ED.

SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT UNDER CHLOROFORM.

Mr. A. Duguid, Kirkcaldy, reports: "My wife's mother, Mrs. Arnot, left us for the higher existence on Feb. 5th. There is a married daughter living at Banchory, three miles from this town; Mrs. Arnot died at eleven o'clock in the forenoon. The married daughter was very ill, and the doctors in attendance thought it wise to administer chloroform. She passed under the influence thereof at twelve o'clock, and while doing so told all those present that her mother was dead, for she saw her, and that the baby was with her mother. No tidings of the mother's death reached the daughter's house till four o'clock in the afternoon, and on no account was she told after coming from under the influence of the chloroform. It is noteworthy that she spoke of having seen her babe in the spirit-world as well as her mother, which was quite consistent with fact, as the infant died in the doctor's hands, and was in the spirit-world while the mother was still under the influence of chloroform. The question remains, Did the chloroform produce clairvoyant lucidity? All she said was quite in accordance with facts of which she was not externally cognisant, and not the rambling ideas of one whose reason is disturbed. She never exhibited any mediumistic qualities before. The doctor is greatly taken up with the incident, and would corroborate all of the above. He ought to report it to the medical journals."

These letters are strongly confirmatory of my views, and go to show that anesthetics liberate the soul by,

as it were, drowning the body. That in fact they drive the soul out of the body and thus render the body incapable of experiencing pain, for it is by the mind that pain is known, and hence the lower the mental organisation in animals the less sensitive are their bodies to pain.

The expression used by Mr. Coffin's patient, when under anæsthesia, "that he had got to the bottom and behind every thing, and saw the cause and reason of things, and understood the mystery of life and the great secret that all have sought," is the expression of the profound truths known to adepts and ecstatics; while the expression used by Sir Humphrey Davy, when under the influence of nitrous oxide, that "nothing exists but thought," was a profound revelation of Divine Philosophy.

I would therefore urge on Scientists, Psychologists, and Materialists further experiments with anæsthetics as a means of arriving at an experimental demonstration of the existence and powers of the human soul.

VIII-THE BRITISH THEOSOPHICAL

SOCIETY.

1.—THE BRITISH THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY is founded for the purpose of discovering the nature and powers of the human soul and spirit by investigation and experiment.

2.—The object of the Society is to increase the amount of human health, goodness, knowledge, wisdom and happiness.

3.-The Fellows pledge themselves to endeavour, to the best of their powers, to live a life of temperance truth, purity and brotherly love. They believe in a Great First Intelligent Cause, and in the Divine sonship of the spirit of man, and hence, in the immortality of that spirit, and in the universal brotherhood of the human race.

4. The Society is in connection and sympathy with the Arya Samaj of Aryawart, one object of which Society is to elevate by a true spiritual education, mankind out of degenerate, idolatrous, and impure forms of worship, wherever prevalent.

5. The Society consists of a President, two VicePresidents, a Secretary, who is Treasurer, and a Council of five, and of Active, Honorary and Corresponding Fellows.

6.—Persons of either sex are eligible for admission. 7.—The election or expulsion of Fellows, and the

power to transact all other business connected with the Society is vested in the Council.

8.-The subscription to active Fellows is one guinea annually, with one guinea as initiation fee, but the Council can modify these fees according to circum

stances.

9.—The initiation fee goes in aid of the Oriental Society.

10.-Notice in writing of resignation of Fellowship must be given to the Secretary before the 31st December, or liability for the succeeding year will be incurred.

11. Those seeking to join the Society must be proposed by two Fellows. They cannot be elected unless they obtain the votes of two-thirds of the Council, and must pledge themselves to obey the laws of the Society, to devote themselves unselfishly to its aims, and to regard as secret all its transactions and experiments.

12.-Fellows can be expelled by a vote of two-thirds of the Council, but they will receive two weeks' notice before the vote is taken.

13.-The Officers of the Society are elected annually by ballot; the day of election, unless altered by the Council, being the first Sunday in January.

The above are the printed rules of the Society. Further information may be got by applying to the writer through the publisher.

For what is now added the writer is alone responsible, although he believes that in all which he now writes he has the sympathy of the Society.