_Of the Prognostics of this Disorder._
Lest this Disorder should be thought altogether the work of
Imagination, and necessary precautions should be neglected to prevent
frequent returns of it; I have collected the sentiments of the ancient
Physicians concerning its consequences; whose authority, in this
Disease, as well as in many others, I believe, we may safely rely on;
because they were wholly ignorant of its immediate cause, and had no
favourite theory to support, but faithfully related facts of this kind
as they really appear’d.
We find that most of the old observators who have mention’d the
Night-mare, reckon it a forerunner of some terrible Disorder: I shall
here translate these quotations, for the benefit of my English readers,
and add the originals by way of notes, for the perusal of the learned.
“We should endeavour to stop it in the beginning; for, when it
returns every night, it portends either Madness, the Epilepsy, or a
Mortification[31].”
“The Night-mare is a Disorder which attacks People sleeping, and is of
no trifling nature, but precedes dreadful Disorders; viz. the Epilepsy,
a kind of Melancholy, and an Apoplexy; and if it returns frequently, it
shews that they are not far off[32].”
“The Disease call’d the Night-mare is not a Dæmon, but rather the
fore-runner of the Epilepsy, Madness, or a Mortification. We should
stop it in the beginning; for, when it continues long, and returns
often, it produces some of the above-mention’d Disorders[33].”
“If they, whom the Night-mare seizes in sleep, have cold Sweats, and a
palpitation of the Heart after they awake, they are very bad symptoms.
They who are long affected with it, have great reason to fear some
desperate Disorder of the Head, viz. a Vertigo, an Apoplexy, Madness, a
Palsy, an Epilepsy, or some sudden Death: and there are many instances
of People being found dead in their beds of this Disorder[34].”
The celebrated Boerhaave has mention’d the Night-mare among the
principal symptoms of an Apoplexy[35].
In order to illustrate these prognostics by modern instances, I have
collected several cases, but shall confine myself to the two following.