The man spoke of
the pain of cutting the muscles, and the particular agony at one moment,
while the bone was being sawed asunder; and there was a strange
expression of remembered anguish, as he shrugged his half-limb, and
described the matter. Afterwards, in a reply to a question of mine,
whether he still seemed to feel the hand that had been amputated, he
answered that he did always; and, baring the stump, he moved the severed
muscles, saying, "There is the thumb, there the forefinger," and so on.
Then he talked to me about phrenology, of which he seems a firm believer
and skilful practitioner, telling how he had hit upon the true character
of many people. There was a great deal of sense and acuteness in his
talk, and something of elevation in his expressions,--perhaps a studied
elevation,--and a sort of courtesy in his manner; but his sense had
something out of the way in it; there was something wild and ruined and
desperate in his talk, though I can hardly say what it was. There was a
trace of the gentleman and man of intellect through his deep degradation;
and a pleasure in intellectual pursuits, and an acuteness and trained
judgment, which bespoke a mind once strong and cultivated.
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