DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70301#0199
Fhineas adams.
175
Other effect in consequence resulted from the experi-
ment.
A few days after the preceding account appeared, Phineas
Adams, the subject"of this curious narrative, and whose age
Was no more than eighteen, on the 6th of June 1812, was
removed from the gaol^ in which he then was, to the parish
of Bickenhall, a small village, seven miles from Taunton.
His parents resided in that place, but as they were unable
to receive him in their own habitation, Adams was lodged
in the Poor-house, a small cottage adjoining to the church-
yard. In this situation he continued to lie without exhibit-
ing the least evidence of any improving condition. When
his limbs were raised, they fell with the leaden weight of
total inanimation; his eyes were closed, and his countenance
evinced the paleness of death, though divested of any of the
concomitant symptoms of approaching dissolution. His re-
spiration continued free, and his pulse maintained its charac-
ter of a healthful tone. The sustenance he received con-
sisted entirely of eggs diluted with wine, and occasionally
with tea, which he sucked in through his teeth—all attempts,
forcible as some of them were, to compel him to open his
mouth having been repeated in vain; and various experi-
ments were again made to excite sensation without effect,
particularly by thrusting pins into his finger nails.
In this hopeless condition he was visited by Mr. Welch,
surgeon, of Taunton; who suggested the propriety of per-
forming the operation of scalping the patient, with a view to
ascertain whether the fall, to which the illness was attributed,
might not have produced a depression on the brain. The
proposal was communicated to the parents of Adams, who
expressed their willingness that the experiment should be
made. Accordingly, at the time appointed, the surgeon ac-
companied Adams’s father to the bed-side of his son, and
there, in the presence of several respectable persons, de-
scribed. to both the young man’s parents the nature and pre-
175
Other effect in consequence resulted from the experi-
ment.
A few days after the preceding account appeared, Phineas
Adams, the subject"of this curious narrative, and whose age
Was no more than eighteen, on the 6th of June 1812, was
removed from the gaol^ in which he then was, to the parish
of Bickenhall, a small village, seven miles from Taunton.
His parents resided in that place, but as they were unable
to receive him in their own habitation, Adams was lodged
in the Poor-house, a small cottage adjoining to the church-
yard. In this situation he continued to lie without exhibit-
ing the least evidence of any improving condition. When
his limbs were raised, they fell with the leaden weight of
total inanimation; his eyes were closed, and his countenance
evinced the paleness of death, though divested of any of the
concomitant symptoms of approaching dissolution. His re-
spiration continued free, and his pulse maintained its charac-
ter of a healthful tone. The sustenance he received con-
sisted entirely of eggs diluted with wine, and occasionally
with tea, which he sucked in through his teeth—all attempts,
forcible as some of them were, to compel him to open his
mouth having been repeated in vain; and various experi-
ments were again made to excite sensation without effect,
particularly by thrusting pins into his finger nails.
In this hopeless condition he was visited by Mr. Welch,
surgeon, of Taunton; who suggested the propriety of per-
forming the operation of scalping the patient, with a view to
ascertain whether the fall, to which the illness was attributed,
might not have produced a depression on the brain. The
proposal was communicated to the parents of Adams, who
expressed their willingness that the experiment should be
made. Accordingly, at the time appointed, the surgeon ac-
companied Adams’s father to the bed-side of his son, and
there, in the presence of several respectable persons, de-
scribed. to both the young man’s parents the nature and pre-