On recovering I found myself on my Matrass, attended by a sister, who I discovered by her conversation had no suspicion of the occasion of my disorder.
"A Sicilian Romance"
Ann Radcliffe
Secure them properly between two Pieces of thin Linen Cloth, so as to make a very flexible Sort of small Matrass, letting it boil a few Moments in Water, then squeeze it out and apply it to the affected Part.
"Advice to the people in general, with regard to their health"
Samuel Auguste David Tissot
On the contrary, he holds-and this does not square well with the preceding-that the soul is an ethereal fluid similar to electricity; that the brain is the Matrass or bottle into which the animal transports, according to the strength of the apparatus, as much as the various organisms can absorb of this fluid, which issues thence transformed into will; that our sentiments are movements of the fluid, which proceeds from us by jerks when we are angry, and which weighs on our nerves when we are in expectation; that the current of this king of liquids, according to the pressure of thought and feeling, spreads in waves or diminishes and thins, then collects again, to gush forth in flashes.
"Balzac"
Frederick Lawton