still more objectionable kind had been indulged in by the bishop in the evening, in riding from a house where they had taken tea-understood to be the house of a parishioner-to Mr. Beare's home; that Mr. Beare had communicated the facts to Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg, who committed. them to writing. The bishop was further informed that Dr. Muhlenberg had advised Mr. Beare to have the matter brought before the bishop,-Dr. Muhlenberg offering to come down to the city to attend to the business, and both Dr. Muhlenberg and Dr. Wainwright requesting Dr. Milnor's company on the intended visit. After the subject had thus been laid before the bishop, he positively denied the charge; and expressed his astonishment, that a lady of respectable character, as he presumed Mrs. Beare to be, should make such assertions. The bishop was asked, whether he would be willing to see Mr. Beare, to which he made answer that he had no objection, and Dr. Muhlenberg said he would send word to Mr. Beare to come down the next day. Messrs. Milnor, Muhlenberg, Higbee, and Beare, visited the bishop on that day. They found him in his study, from which he took them into the back room, and closed the door. The bishop took Mr. Beare by the hand, and said, "Mr. Beare, I have a very high regard and respect for you, and would not wound your or Mrs. Beare's feelings intentionally. This is a very painful subject." On their being seated, he said, “I can assure you of my kind feelings towards you, Mr. Beare, and towards your wife." To this, Mr. Beare responded, “Do you deny, sir, what Mrs. Beare says you were guilty of?" He said, "I do not deny it. But Mrs. Beare has misunderstood or misconstrued my motives." He then said, "Offer an apology to Mrs. Beare, and if she demand any further apology, I am ready to make it." Tears stood in the eyes of the bishop, as he made this declaration, and both he and Mr. Beare were much affected. The protestations of the bishop, as to his having no improper intention, were repeated sev eral times. Dr. Milnor expressed to Bishop Onderdonk, before parting, the hope that what had occurred in this instance would put him on his guard in future. To which the bishop replied, "In regard to rumors of this kind, doctor, about clergymen, there are few who have not, at some time, had to encounter them." Dr. Milnor then said, "I do not know how that may be, but, in regard to myself, I have been nearly thirty years in the ministry, and have never had occasion to encounter such a difficulty." The church and the community were filled with rumors of the bishop's conduct, a considerable period preceding any initiation of official inquiry into the case. When, however, things took a legal shape, according to the canons of the church, and Bishop Onderdonk was notified by the three presenting bishops, of their action in the premises, he reiterated his absolute and entire innocence, adding: "You have had your ears open to all the gossip and scandal which men reducing themselves to the low caste of informers and panders, could seek out and scrape together, for the use of my inveterate enemies. It being thus known that there were bishops here who made it their business to receive, examine, and sift such testimony, has done more to bring public scandal on the church than all else connected with this business, and has given an intensity of malignant effort to men desperately set upon my ruin. You have thus been the means of creating the public rumor which is, I understand, an assumed ground of action. for the defense and purifying of the church. Thus have you contributed to make me, and through me our office, our church, and our religion, a scoffing to the profane; and done not a little to aggravate my wretchedness, and help the purpose of my enemies to bring on my ruin. Contrast with all this what you say of friendly and Christian feelings towards me. You speak of having been enabled to clear up satisfactorily one of the most disagreeable of the charges which had been laid before you. What this is, you say not. Report, before I left Philadelphia, and since I came home, has said that you were in possession of an affidavit charging me with presence in a house of ill-fame. The report, as was to be expected, spread wildly. As was also to be expected, it swelled in character until the act was magnified into a habit. As my friends, you were bound to give me at once the name of my false accuser, that he might be summarily prosecuted for his villainy." Such was the storm of accusation which the bishop had to breast, and to meet which, according to the terms of legal investigation, he was summoned before his peers. The solemn convocation was held, the anxiety and excitement of the public mind being strained to their utmost tension. The principal evidence in support of the charges has already been cited. Its extreme improbability was a leading point in the masterly argument made by Mr. Graham, in defense of the bishop. "Is it possible," said Mr. Graham, "that any man of sense-without saying one wordwithout making a single advance in the shape of language, either indelicate or otherwise, as she states-with a lady of whom he knew very little, could take such liberties as those described? Is it at all within the limits of possibility, that a man could, while riding, in broad daylight, in company with a clergyman with whom he was constantly engaged in conversation, take such liberties with a lady sitting by his side-thrust his hand into her bosom repeatedly, and keep it there-and expect to escape detection and exposure? Is it possible that the circumstances could have occurred, consistently with any of the motives which ordinarily attach to human action?" Mr. Graham's plea was very eloquent throughout. In reply to this argument of impossibility, the counsel for the prosecution, Mr. Ketchum, said: "I think what you may regard impossible and revolting, would be testified to as quite possible by yonder man who stands at the corner watching to betray female innocence, day after day; and by thousands in this city who are in the very embraces of death. Give me the man with strong lustful desires, unrestrained by moral principle, and I tell you that nothing is impossible to him. He will accomplish his object, and that in ways utterly unsuspected and unknown by the pure and virtuous man. The difficulty in the case, and there is none other, is, that the bishop would do the thing at all. Now I may speak of a case which was notorious. A few years ago, in a neighboring city, there dwelt a minister of the gospel, not an Episcopalian, learned, accomplished-moving in the best society; and yet that man would start with his family for the house of God, and return on some pretense or another to his dwelling, and there perpetrate the most shocking acts with his negro cook. Why, every man said that was impossible, and it would not have been believed if sworn to by the negro cook; but in the honesty of his heart, when he was found guilty of other offenses, he confessed the whole. He laid the whole open-he confessed his deeds, black as they were-he submitted to the discipline of his church. Now, we must not talk of things being impossible." After due deliberation, the final decision. of a majority of the court was, to declare him guilty of immorality and impurity. This was concurred in by Bishops Chase, Brownell, Hopkins, Smith, McIlvaine, Polk, Lee, Johns, Eastburn, Henshaw, and Freeman; and sentence was thereupon decreed, suspending the accused from all exercise of his functions as minister and bishop. Of the other bishops constituting the court, some were in favor of a verdict of not guilty, others for admonition, etc. The bishops not included in the majority just named, were Messrs. Meade, Otey, Elliott, Ives, Doane, Kemper, DeLancey, Gadsden, Wittingham. The final sentence of suspension, however, was generally acquiesced in. Outside of the court, it was charged by the friends of the accused, who were many, and influential and unwavering, that personal and doctrinal hostility to Bishop Onderdonk, was at the foundation of this movement. The bishop, supported by such men as Seabury, Haight, Berrian, McVicar, Price, and Shelton, was regarded as upholding 'High Church' views; opposed to which were men like Anthon, men like Anthon, Tyng, Hawks, Duer, Oakley, etc. It was alleged, too, that this same theological bitterness was the cause of the opposition so strenuously made to the bishop's restoration to the episcopate in after years, notwithstanding the efforts put forth by his friends for the remission of his sentence. Thus, in the zenith of their fame, these two powerful bishops were struck down from the highest ecclesiastical position known in the Protestant Church. Bishop Onderdonk, of Pennsylvania, received a remission of his sentence after the lapse of twelve years; but age and infirmity prevented other than occasional ministrations, and he died soon after, in the seventieth year of his age. At the same age, like- | wise, died the suspended bishop of New York, namely, on the thirtieth of April, 1861. His funeral took place at Trinity church, Dr. Seabury preaching the funeral sermon, and the pall-bearers were Rev. Messrs. Southgate, Berrian, Creighton, Brown, Price, Cutler, Hawks, Leonard, Porter, Parker, Johnson, Gallaudet, Draper, and others. All parties in the church. united to do honor to the memory of the deceased. In his last sickness, the bishop of New York, though very weak in body, was fully possessed of his mind, and conversed quite freely. On being visited by Rev. Dr. Vinton, Dr. Vinton suggested that if the bishop desired prayers, it would be grati fying to him to minister to him in that way. He answered, "Do so, doctor: it would be very comforting and desirable." The "Office of the Visitation of the Sick” was used, from the beginning to the end, also the prayer for "A sick person when there appeareth but little hope of recovery." The bishop made every response audibly, while lying on his bed, with his hands clasped and eyes looking up to heaven. Among the questions to be asked in the Examination of the Sick, are these: "Do you repent you truly of your sins? Are you in charity with all the world?" The bishop closed his eyes while he spoke of himself as a sinner, both in thought, word, and deed; saying that "in his most earnest endeavors to live for Christ and the church, as well as in exercising himself to have a conscience void of offense towards God and towards man, he saw infirmity and pollution," then, opening his eyes, he added, "but the holiest man, equally with the most sinful, finds, in the hour of death, that every hope on which he relies for salvation is dispersed but one—all but one-our Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the Rock of Ages." Then, looking Dr. Vinton in the face, the bishop said with solemn earnestness, "Of the crimes of which I have been accused and for which I have been condemned, my conscience acquits me, in the sight of God." LII. DISCOVERY OF THE INHALATION OF ETHER AS A PREVENTIVE OF PAIN.-1846. Performance of Surgical Operations Involving the Intensest Torture, During the Happy Unconsciousness of the Patient.-Account of the First Capital Demonstration Before a Crowded and Breathless Assembly.-Its Signal Success.-Thrill of Enthusiastic Joy-Most Beneficent Boon Ever Conferred by Science upon the Human Race.-Instinctive Dread of Pain.-Fruitless Search Hitherto for a Preventive.-Terror of the Probe and Knife.-Heroes Quail Before Them.-Case of the Bluff Old Admiral,-Discovery of the Long-sought Secret.-Sulphuric Ether the Prize.-Bliss During Amputation.-Honor Due to America.-A Whole World Elated.-Medical Men Exultant.-Curious Relig ious Objections.-Test Case in Surgery.-Startling and Romantic Interest.-Value in Public Hospitals.-War-Sufferings Ameliorated-Various Effects while Inhaling.-Amusing and Extraordinary Cases.-" "Thocht the Deil had a Grip o' her!"-Odd Talk of an Innocent Damsel.-Old Folks Wanting to Dance -Awards to the Discoverers. "The fierce extremity of suffering has been steeped in the waters of forgetfulness, and the deepest furrow in the knotted brow of agony has been smoothed forever."-PROF. O. W. HOLMES. UMANITY even the hardiest and bravest portions of it-instinctively shrinks, with dread, from the pain attendant upon a deliberate cutting of the living flesh by surgical instruments. The case is related of a bluff old English admiral-one of the stoutest hearts that ever beat, in a service whose men of every grade are, to a proverb, dauntless,—who, in the opening of his distinguished career, had been engaged in cutting out an enemy's frigate. From the gun-boat, he climbed up the ship's steep side, and, foremost of his crew, had reached the bulwarks, when, receiving a stunning blow, he fell into his boat again, striking his back with great violence. Years afterwards, a tumor had grown on the injured part; and at length the admiral-gray, and bent in years-found it advisable that this growth should be removed. The man that never feared death in its most ghastly and appalling form, now shrank from the surgeon's knife; the removal, contemplated by the man of many battles with feeling almost akin to childish fear, was long deferred; and at length, half stupefied by opium though he was, a most unsteady patient did he prove during the operation. RELIEVING PAIN BY THE USE OF ETHER. Numberless instances have there been, too, of women-mothers-who, for their kindred, have been at any time ready to sacrifice their lives,by watching and privation, in loathsome and tainted chambers of infectious disease, but, when themselves became victims of that which they knew required a surgical operation, and which, without this, they were well assured must miserably consume them away,― even these noble minds, resolute in the prospect of death, have yet quailed under the fear of surgical suffering; they have studiously concealed their malady from their nearest friends, and deliberately preferred the misery of a fatal, and unchecked, and gnawing cancer, to the apprehended torture of an operation, temporary though it be. This feeling has been universal, in all ages, among the victims of keen physical suffering. From time immemorial, means have been sought, and with partial success, to relieve and even to destroy pain, during the manipulations of practical surgery. For this purpose, opium, Indian hemp, mesmerism, and nitrous oxide gas and alcohol, have been employed, and all in their turn abandoned, except that opium in many cases, and mesmerism in a few, still continued to be used with imperfect success, and almost always with the subsequent disadvantage of headache, feverishness, or other general disorder. It was reserved for the simple inhalation of a certain gas -pure sulphuric ether to achieve in surgery that for which surgeons had for centuries labored, and labored in vain ! This was in 1846. A certain old gentleman, however,—as the case is narrated, was not altogether a stranger to the comforting effects of this same anodyne process, some forty years previously. He had discovered that the fumes of ether could lull him into forgetfulness of the pains and disquietude of a bustling and checkered life. He was a man of research in his way; curious in beds, baths, and professing to understand disease and its cure better by far than his fellows. But he was loose in principle, as well as weak in science, and no doubt, most deservedly, had many roughnesses in life which he could wish to rub away. His mode was this: Obtaining an ounce or two of ether, he leisurely sniffed up its vapor, sitting softly the while, and manifestly enjoying a time of calmness and repose, greatly to his liking. Indeed, on being interrogated, he was in the habit of blandly answering, "soothing, sir, soothing to an immeasurable degree." In this oblivion to the disgusting harassments of life, he was in the habit of indulging many times a day. He had curiously discovered that the fumes of ether could relieve, temporarily, from the pains of a mind ill at ease; but he was not to know that it could still more wonderfully assuage the body's worst suffering. The divulgement of this most beneficent boon to the world since man's moral redemption--by which the most dreaded of surgical operations can be performed during a happy unconsciousness of the patient not merely with little suffering, but absolutely with none-is due to three Americans, namely, Drs. Morton, Jackson, and Wells; but to which of these is due the priority or chief merit of the discovery, is a question long and bitterly discussed, and still undecided. Certainly, however, the proceedings of each of these gentlemen, in connection with the discovery, show undoubted scientific acuteness, ingenuity, zeal and perseverance. The enthusiasm with which the announcement of this marvelous discovery was received may well be described as unbounded. Wafted across the Atlantic, it was at once hailed with rapturous exultation in England, and speedily adopted in most of the large hospitals throughout the kingdom-also, in the vast hospitals of Paris, and in the numerous institutions of like character in Germany, including those so celebrated at Vienna and Berlin. Still, there were not wanting those who regarded the discovery with distrust, and some of the public medical institutions barred their doors against the new alle |