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arrested by the process. There were other points to be ascertained,
but these most excited my curiosity--the last in especial, from the
immensely important character of its consequences.
In looking around me for some subject by whose means I might test these
particulars, I was brought to think of my friend, M. Ernest Valdemar,
the well-known compiler of the "Bibliotheca Forensica," and author
(
under the nom de plume of Issachar Marx) of the Polish versions of
"
Wallenstein" and "Gargantua." M. Valdemar, who has resided principally
at Harlaem, N.Y., since the year 1839, is (or was) particularly
noticeable for the extreme spareness of his person--his lower limbs much
resembling those of John Randolph; and, also, for the whiteness of his
whiskers, in violent contrast to the blackness of his hair--the latter,
in consequence, being very generally mistaken for a wig. His temperament
was markedly nervous, and rendered him a good subject for mesmeric
experiment. On two or three occasions I had put him to sleep with little
difficulty, but was disappointed in other results which his peculiar
constitution had naturally led me to anticipate. His will was at no
period positively, or thoroughly, under my control, and in regard to
clairvoyance, I could accomplish with him nothing to be relied upon. I
always attributed my failure at these points to the disordered state of
his health. For some months previous to my becoming acquainted with
him, his physicians had declared him in a confirmed phthisis. It was his
custom, indeed, to speak calmly of his approaching dissolution, as of a
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