EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF HUMAN BELIEF.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1089, 13 April 1883, Page 3

EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF HUMAN BELIEF.

+ The Now York Times has the following despatch from Toronto (Canada) : Joseph Hiscock, a young man of thirty years, died in this city on Sunday, January ' 23, and his body, wrapped in quilts, waa j at once propped up in a chair before a hot stove and kept there until a late hour on the Tuesday following. Just before his death, Hiscock, who suffered much pain, whispered that he was " going into a trance" and would remain in that position for three days. His wife and friends implicitly believed this statment, and, therefore, the body was treated in the manner described. The family appear to have b«en the victims of an "herb doctor" named Victor Hall. A neighbour of the Hiscocks says that Hall was their family physician. According to this person " Mr Hiscock was a member of a society of brethren who believe in the doctor's teachings. Last summer he was taken sick and Hall prescribed for him. He made him eat something made of Graham flour, and after a while the Graham cakes had raisins added to them. It cost the family 60c a day during part of the time for fruit, on which they seemed to live almost entirety. Then after a while this was varied by a dish made from peasmeal and other stuffs. Whether it was the diet or not I cannot say, but the man seemed to improve and I believe if Mrs Hiscock were sick to morrow she would prefer Hall to any other doctor." The neighbours state that during Hiscock's illness " Dr" Hall dosed him with oranges, nuts, and figs. Bottles and jars filled with hot wat Q r were placed in bed with him at night and a profuse perspiration induced. In the morning these were removed and the patient sponged with cold water, as the " Doctor" explained, to close the pores and prevent his catching cold. His screams on Saturday, the day before he died, could be heard far beyond the house After the death, when thedisposicion of the body became known to the neighbors, a lady whose daughter died some weeks ago called on Mrs Hiscock. Some objection was offered, but she made her way to the room, and there found the dead man sitting up in a chair and the " Doctor" knelling beside him. "What are you doing with that dead man ?" asked the lady. "You had Better put him down. I think, and leave him alone. I know what my daughter looked like when she was dead, and that : man is like her." " Perhaps your daughter ' was buried alive," was the reply. This was enough, and the lady beat a retreat. Another who called ventured to remark ' that the man was dead. " He's only in a i trance," said the " Doctor" " and ycu look as though you could be put into one very easily." The lady did not wait to see whether she could or not, but left, as she ■ said, " with her heart in her throat." Drs McConnell and Powell, two physicians of good local repute, were allowed to visit the house, and they pronounced the man dead, but the family's faith in " Dr" Hall was unmoved. A reporter who went to Hiscocks's house thus describes what he saw there : The scene on entering the room was well calculated to strike awe into the bosoms of the ignorant or superstitious. A solitary tallow candle made the darkness visible, while with one arm on the bureau was the " Doctor," evidently absorbed in a paper on which he was dotting down some memoranda. His appearance was as peculiar as his surroundings. A low sized, slightly built figure, with hair like a woman's hanging down over his shoulders, and a piercing black eye, he was, to say the least, not f prepossessing in appearance. The dead man was sitting bold upright in a rookiug-chair, his feet encased in slippers, and his body wrapped in blankets and quilts. His glassy eyes were staring iuto vacancy, and lying on his breast was a common spirit thermometer, which stood at 60deg. A stove stood within three or four feet of the chair. " Dr" Hall whispered to the reporter to make any noise. Speaking of himself, the " Doctor " said he was a descendant in the third generation of herbalists, and for twenty three years had been "detailing as discovery" that he called " Vita Therapeutics." The " Doctor" said he believed in trances, and could put himself in one at any time. Placing his hand on the forehead and lips of the dead man, which were as cold as ice, Hall said : "Mr Hiscock, here is a gentleman who has come to see you," and then calling the reporter by name he introduced him in the usual manner. He then invited the reporter to try if he could discover any appearance of dissolution having set in, and on being told that he thought he did smiled incredulously. On a lounge in the kitchen sat the widow, nursing one of her small children, and asking every tew minutes if " there had been any sighs." Her mother and several other women were there also, together with a relative who had be«n telearaphed for from the country. The presence of the latter was explained by one of the others, who. said the " Doctor" con« sidered it necessary, as his patient wanted to see her. All along the " Doctor" had been, eating oranges and other fruit, saying it was to nourish the patient, who was unable to do so for himself. "Do you really think he will recover ?" asked the reporter. " "That I can't say," was the reply. "He may be frightened to death before the state of coma passes away. This afternoon a chair upset clown here, and when 1 went up he was quite cold, but since then he has got warm again." The following are extracts from "Dr"' Hall's notes : 3.50 am.—Monday.—The boards of the sidewalk creaked with the frost, and made his heart beat perceptably with fright. Two persons in the room who will suostantiate the fact. Had been cold throughout from head to foot." " 5.45 a.m.—Arms warm ; no pulae or heart, but a slight twitching there." On the Tuesday the body began to be discolored and to emit a very decided smel'. Then the nerb doctor came to the conclusion that his patient had died of fright during the trance.