Note 45 — Chapter IV · MATTER AND ETHER.
Reading edition
This has been spoken of as an exaggeration. We hope it may be so; but when it was written (in the winter of 1874) the newspapers were full of the sickening details of the gouging of an old man by a gang of miners, who afterwards filled the sockets with quicklime! These human fiends are probably already at liberty, having had their few months of simple imprisonment!