to print my narrative with all the
personal details, rather than in the dry shape in which, as a
psychological statement, I shall publish it elsewhere, I have yielded to
their views. I suspect, however, that the very character of my record
will, in the eyes of some of my readers, tend to lessen the value of the
metaphysical discoveries which it sets forth.

* * * * *

I am the son of a physician, still in large practice, in the village of
Abington, Scofield County, Indiana. Expecting to act as his future
partner, I studied medicine in his office, and in 1859 and 1860 attended
lectures at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. My second
course should have been in the following year, but the outbreak of the
Rebellion so crippled my father's means that I was forced to abandon my
intention. The demand for army surgeons at this time became very great;
and although not a graduate, I found no difficulty in getting the place
of Assistant-Surgeon to the Tenth Indiana Volunteers. In the subsequent
Western campaigns this organization suffered so severely, that, before
the term of its service was over, it was merged in the Twenty-First
Indiana Volunteers; and I, as an extra surgeon, ranked by the medical
officers of the latter regiment, was transferred to the Fifteenth
Indiana Cavalry. Like many physicians, I had contracted a strong taste
for army life, and, disliking cavalry service, sought and obtained the
position of First-Lieutenant in the Seventy-Ninth Indiana
Volunteers,--an infantry regiment of excellent character.

On the day after I assumed command of my company, which had no captain,
we were sent to garrison a part of a line of block-houses stretching
along the Cumberland River below Nashville, then occupied by a portion
of the command of General Rosecrans.

The life we led while on this duty was tedious, and at the same time
dangerous in the extreme. Food was scarce and bad, the water horrible,
and we had no cavalry to forage for us. If, as infantry, we attempted to
levy supplies upon the scattered farms around us, the population seemed
suddenly to double, and in the shape of guerillas "potted" us
industriously from behind distant trees, rocks, or hasty earthworks.
Under these various and unpleasant influences, combined with a fair
infusion of malaria, our men rapidly lost health and spirits.
Unfortunately, no proper medical supplies had been forwarded with our
small force (two