he had never had the honour to meet at dinner before
addressed him with a winning smile, and said, "Mr. M'Garry, will you do
me the _honour_?" could not do less than fill his glass every time;
so that, to use Jack Horan's own phrase, the apothecary was "sewed up"
before he had any suspicion of the fact; and, unused to the indications
of approaching vinous excitement, he supposed it was the delightful
society made him so hilarious, and he began to launch forth after
dinner in a manner quite at variance with the reserve he usually
maintained in the presence of his superiors, and talked largely. Now,
M'Garry's principal failing was to make himself appear very learned in
his profession; and every new discovery in chemistry, operation in
surgery, or scientific experiment he heard of, he was prone to shove
in, head and shoulders, in his soberest moments; but now that he was
half-drunk, he launched forth on the subject of galvanism, having read
of some recent wonderful effects produced on the body of a recent
murderer who was hanged and given over to the College of Surgeons in
Dublin. To impress the company still more with a sense of his learning,
he addressed Growling on the subject, and the doctor played him off to
advantage.

"Don't you think it very wonderful, doctor?" inquired M'Garry, speaking
somewhat thickly.

"Very," answered the doctor, drily.

"They say, sir, the man--that is, the subject--when under the influence
of the battery, absolutely twiddled his left foot, and raised his right
arm."

"And raised it to some purpose, too," said the doctor; "for he raised a
contusion on the Surgeon-General's eye, having hit him over the same."

"Dear me!--I did not hear that."

"It is true, however," said the doctor; "and that gives you an idea of
the power of the galvanic influence, for you know the Surgeon-General
is a powerful man, and yet he could not hold him down."

"Wonderful!" hiccupped M'Garry.

"But that's nothing to what happened in London," continued the doctor.
"They experimented there the other day with a battery of such power,
that the man who was hanged absolutely jumped up, seized a scalpel from
the table, and making a rush on the assembled Faculty of London,
cleared the theatre in less than no time; dashed into the hall; stabbed
the porter who attempted to stop him; made a chevy down the south side
of Leicester Square; and as he reached the corner, a woman, who was
carrying tracts published by the S