A SATISFACTORY EXPERIMENT. "Wilt drink up Easel--eat a crocodile'"
WE look upon M. CHABERT as the most persecuted professor of the age. From the rage which his salamander pretensions excite, one would suppose him the very first man who had ever fallen under the suspicion of humbug. With a world full of quacks and pretenders of all kinds, his performances only are subjected to an angry scrutiny. The Chronicle invites him to phosphorus; another proposes a cup of boiling oil ; and a third insists oti his cracking a bottle of prussic acid! Why may not this person be permitted to ;pursue his deceits, if deceits they are, undisturbed like the rest of his brethren? There are hundreds of public characters who boast of having undergone ordeals of virtue fiercer than any fires defied by M. CHABERT ; and why should the suspected falseness of physical profession provoke such ire, while the moral escapes scrutiny, or obtains assent ? But the Fire King has moved the pique of an irritable race—the sons of GALEN say they ought to know from experience and experiment what will kill, and they are . wrothIwith one who defies, drugs and lives against the laws of ex; MrWAXLEV• of the Lancet, has actually applied to the Magis trates of Bo w. -Sireet for information whether there will be any sort of harm iii. his administering poison to M. CHABERT under the assurance of its proving deadly: The conduct of the Magistrates on this occasion is eminently curious. ' 'kr. Halls observed—".I can easily account, upon scientific principles, how the Fire Ring performs the whole of his feats, except as to his swallowing phosphorus and prussic acid." The-scientific principles so known to Mr. HALLS, are, of course, the trinciples of that highly popular science charlatanerie. • Ur. ViTakley rejoined—" Well, Sir, he has challenged me to supply him With "prussic acid, which, he says, he will take. I have some, which is so powerful in its effects on animal life, that if the bottle containing it were to be placed under the nose of a rabbit for one moment, the animal would drop dead. :haveh newspaper in my hand, in which Monsieur Chabert advertises his intention of taking the prussic acid on Thursday (this day); and it is my intention to present him with a quantity of the prusssic acid which has been prepared by an eminent chemist. Should Monsieur Chabert venture to take the acid, I feel satisfied that his death would be 'inevitable; and therefore! should be glad to know in what situation I should stand, if he should die froin .takingpoison which I had administered to him ? "
It really would seem, to minds unheated by medicine-'-to persons • aindevoted to the healing art, that the situation in which poor M. CHABERT would stand was also worthy of some little consideration. Poaching is by law, not Common or Statute, but Squirearchal, punishable with death from traps and snares ; but quackery is not supposed to warrant such mortal penalty through any devices. To the anxious and benevolent interrogations of Mr. WAKLEY, HALis.answered " I think you would be in the same situation as an apothecary who know ingly sold poison to a person who intended to swallow it." ,1
' Mr. Waitley—" I mean to ask, whether, if Monsieur Chabert died from • taking the prussic acid which I supplied, should I be considered in the 141)4 -of a criminal ?"
• Mr. Halls—" I will not give an opinibn. If it is a juggle, the medical pro lession will be obliged to you for giving a quietus to the Impostor. (LaugItter.)" "Obliged for giving a quietus to the impostor !"—Here is a magisterial sentiment, a tender and Christian regard to life, a becoming gravity in contemplating an issue which in the case of the most worth' ess turns the heart to pity ! Again Mr. WAKLEY observed, • I am so confident that he does not take genuine prussic acid ,into'his month, that I should insist upon having his hands tied behihd him, and Putting the bottle containing the liquid to his mouth, and then I should be satisfied! , Very satisfactory indeed—the satisfaction consisting in the assurance that the poman so administered would prove deadly. This is literally the satisfaction which, according to the Chalk Farm phra-. senlogy, one gentleman is bound to give to another. 'The public-would, however, in the event of the mortal catastrophe, be apt to expect Mr..Wsxmcg to give them satisfaction in return, and to insist on ascertaining whether he could pursue his avocations after having been hung by the neck for an hour over the Debtor's door, Newgate. Mr. Halls—" If he dies, you must take the consequences. If it be a cheat, It is proper it should be exposed; and if Monsieur Chabert really possesses an antidote against poisons, it is strange that all the scientific world should be in such a state of ignorance." Mr. Walcley—" Yes, Sir,, he throws• a sort of 'scandal over the medical world, and laughs at the professors of chemistry." Mr. Halls—" If he practises sleight of hand, he will not take your prussic acid. He will be like the juggler, who asked one of his audience to cut his head off, and he would fix it on again, and there would be, no appearance of , a wound, knowing that no one would undertake What' dear, amusing, intelligent, well-informed creatures these Bow -Street Magistrates are ! The juggler who asked;' is SWIFT'S conjuror, who gives any lady or gentleman permission to thrust a red • hot poker into a barrel of gunpowder; or to squeeze the eyes out of *their heads and shake them in a hat, during which time they will see 'art unspeakable variety of beautiful colours, and after they are satisted, the eyes to be replaced, without cdamage, each in its proper owner's head.
Mr: MINSHULL saw the necessity of throwing in a word.
"You must be careful," he interposed, "how you trifle with human exIstenge."
Mr. Wakley—"/ only wish to put the question at rest : either he is an impostor or he is not."
Mr. Halls—" I can give no advice, Sir ; you must take your own course; I must confess I am somewhat sceptical as to his taking prussic acid."
Mr. Wakley—" So am 1; but it he will take it, he shall have it ; and se good morning, gentlemen:* The alternative is moderate and easy—" Satisfy my curiosity, or die—I only wish to put the question at rest, and you at rest, rather than suffer it longer to exist." M. CHABERT or the question must be disposed of. What is a man compared with a question ? what the human form divine, to a note of interrogation, which a drop of prussic acid may convert into an apostrophe? Oh MOLIERE, you should have lived to this day, and have seen transcended your imagination that the doctors esteemed the life of a .patient as nothing compared with the credit of rules of art ! There is, however, an illustrious example in point. A poor woman complained to BAJAZET, that one of his grooms had forcibly seized and drunk the milk which was the only support of her family. BAJAZET called the man before him, and questioned him closely ; the fellow protested innocence. BAJAZET resolved, like Mr. WAKLEY, "to set the question at rest e' so he coolly said to his court—" We shall soon see the truth of this matter : the robbe:y is said to have been just committed": cut open the man's stomach, and look whether there is any milk in it." The experiment was satisfactory; the milk was found ; and the fellow only died, which he would have done whether he had made free with the milk or not.
Previous page
