An Essay on the Incubus, or Night-Mare

Part 1

ESSAY

ON THE

Incubus, or Night-mare.

By JOHN BOND, M. D.

Ac velut in somnis oculos ubi languida pressit Nocte quies, necquicquam avidos extendere cursus Velle videmur, et in mediis conatibus ægri Succidimus; non Lingua valet non corpore notæ Sufficiunt vires, nec vox nec verba sequuntur.

VIRGIL. Æneid. xii.

LONDON: Printed for D. WILSON and T. DURHAM, at Plato’s Head, in the Strand.

MDCCLIII.

To his Excellency

ARTHUR DOBBS, Esquire,

Governor and Captain General of the Province of NORTH CAROLINA.

SIR,

Your extensive knowlege in every branch of useful and polite literature will sufficiently justify the propriety of this address, though it offers to your acceptance and protection an Essay merely medical. Besides, the subject I have chosen is in a great measure new, and must, I think, if successfully treated, prove highly useful. It seems therefore peculiarly intitled to your patronage, who are so judicious, so generous, and so zealous a promoter of every discovery which may tend to the public good. I shall not trespass farther on your patience, with the usual apologies of young Authors; nor on your modesty, with the trite panegyrics of Dedicators: the whole tenour of your life has render’d such encomiums superfluous; for you have always pursued the shortest and the surest road to fame, the real esse quod videri velis.

Though by this Essay I should acquire no honour from the judicious Sons of Æsculapius; this one however I am sure of, the subscribing myself

Your most obliged,

And most devoted servant,

JOHN BOND.

THE

PREFACE.

Being much afflicted with the Night-mare, self-preservation made me particularly inquisitive about it. In consulting the ancient Physicians, I found little information concerning it, except dreadful prognostics; nor could a rational account of it be expected from them, as they were unacquainted with the circulation of the Blood.

The few Authors who have mention’d it since that glorious discovery, have also given imperfect accounts of it; which are probably owing to their not having felt it themselves: for, as it only seizes People in sleep, continues but a short time, and vanishes as soon as they awake, the Physician has not an opportunity of making observations of his own, but must take all from the description of others, who have labour’d under it. These, I believe, are the reasons that the principal Writers in Physic have taken so little notice of it. These omissions however render an enquiry into the nature of this Disease the more interesting and necessary, and, at the same time, the more difficult.

Under these disadvantages I have ventur’d to communicate the result of my own observations and reflexions on it; hoping, that a greater allowance will be made for the errors in this Essay, as it is perhaps the first that ever appear’d expressly on this subject.

The Night-mare is commonly, and, I believe, justly, attributed to a stagnation of the Blood; but how this stagnation is produc’d, has not been explain’d, so far as I know, in a satisfactory manner.

I have carefully collected the observations of the ancient Physicians concerning the prognostics of this Disorder; not for ostentation, but to shew at the same time the dangerous consequences and antiquity of it, in order to make those afflicted with it the more solicitous to remove its cause in the beginning; for it may be said of the Night-mare, as of many other Disorders, Vires acquirit eundo.

Though the most temperate are sometimes afflicted with this Disease, yet experience shews that it is generally the offspring of excess: hence it must have been nearly coeval with Bacchus (though it be omitted by the Coan Oracle;) and Homer probably alludes to its symptoms in the following lines:

Ως δ’ εν ὀνείρω ὀυ δύναται Φευγοντα διωκειν Οὔτ’ αρ ὁ δύναται ὑποfευγειν, ὄυθ’ ὁ διωκειν. Iliad xxii.

I have not introduc’d any thing in this Essay that did not appear serious or probable. I have therefore omitted an inquiry into the origin of many odd epithets and quaint names commonly given to this Disorder; such as Hag-riding, Wizard-pressing, Mare-riding, Witch-dancing, &c., nor did I think it requisite to mention particularly the curious Charms adapted to each superstitious name.

My aim has been to convey my sentiments with as much brevity and perspicuity as possible. If I have transgress’d this rule, in occasionally introducing some things known, in order to explain others, it was to be the more intelligible; I therefore hope, the more learned will excuse me.

Part 2

With pleasure I take this opportunity of acknowledging how much the hints I receiv’d from the instructive lectures of my ingenious Preceptor Mr. Monro, contributed to this undertaking.

ESSAY

ON THE

Incubus, or Night-mare.

CHAP. I.

Of the history and the various opinions concerning the cause of this Disorder.

In order to convey a distinct idea of the subject of the following pages, I shall, according to the old custom of medical authors, begin with the etymology of it.

Altho’ we have reason to believe, as will afterwards appear, that this Disease was known long before the Greek language, yet, the earliest account we have of it, is from the Greek authors, who call’d it Εφιαλτης, and the Romans nam’d it Incubus, both which words partly express its effects.

In our language it is generally known by the name of the NIGHT-MARE; which strange term probably arose from superstitious notions which the British had, and perhaps still have, of it. How it first obtain’d this odd appellation, I never could learn, nor is it material to know, since that name is sufficient to distinguish it from every other Disease.

The Night-mare generally seizes people sleeping on their backs, and often begins with frightful dreams, which are soon succeeded by a difficult respiration, a violent oppression on the breast, and a total privation of voluntary motion. In this agony they sigh, groan, utter indistinct sounds, and remain in the jaws of death, till, by the utmost efforts of nature, or some external assistance, they escape out of that dreadful torpid state.

As soon as they shake off that vast oppression, and are able to move the body, they are affected with a strong Palpitation, great Anxiety, Languor, and Uneasiness; which symptoms gradually abate, and are succeeded by the pleasing reflection of having escap’d such imminent danger. All these symptoms I have often felt, and hope, that whoever has had, or may have, this Disease, will readily know it by this description, which I have not only taken from my own feelings, but from the observations of many of my acquaintances, who were also afflicted with it, and from the records of the antient observators.

Before I enter into an enquiry concerning the cause of this Disorder, or attempt to assign any one for it myself, I shall first take notice of the principal opinions that have been advanc’d to account for it, and examine how far they are confident with the laws of the animal œconomy; that the judicious reader may see how necessary further enquiries into the nature of this Disorder may be.

Doctor Willis says, That the Night-mare is owing to some incongruous matter which is mix’d with the Nervous Fluid in the Cerebellum. But, as he has not told us what this matter is, or how it is produced, we can afford it little credit in this enquiry; because plethoric persons, who abound with the purest and richest Blood, in whom such incongruous matter is suppos’d least to prevail, are most subject to this Disorder.

Bellini, who, in many other cases, is allow’d to be a pretty accurate theorist, was strangely mistaken in this, when he said, That the Night-mare is an imaginary Disease, and proceeds from the idea of some demon, which existed in the mind the day before.

This account is very unworthy a physician, and is a strong evidence that he never felt the heavy effects of this Disorder; otherwise he would have allow’d it to be a real Disease of the Body.

A metaphysician has laid great stress on this Disease, as an argument in defence of some of his wild opinions. He asserts, That it is owing to the operation of certains demons, which impose on, and torment, the mind in sleep.

This ingenious hint he took from Bellini, who probably stole it from Paracelsus’s doctrine of Archeus faber.

The ingenious Doctor Lower is the first author I met with, who observ’d the horizontal position of the Body, and assign’d it as a remote cause of this Disorder, but seems to attribute it immediately to a collection of Lymph in the fourth Ventricle of the Brain.

He says, “Si supine dormiant, Ventriculus ille quartus, Lympha nimium distensus, Medullam Oblongatam sua gravitate premit, ideoque fluxum liquidi Nervosi in Nervis cordi & respirationi inservientibus impedit.”

Perhaps he did not apply his first observation so well as might be expected from one of his abilities; for it seems needless to wait for a slow secretion of Lymph to produce this Disease, since, according to his own account, the return of the Blood from the Head, by the Jugular Veins, is in some measure prevented, and by that means a greater quantity of Blood than usual will be collected in all the vessels of the Brain; which might better answer his purpose, and more effectually obstruct the nervous influence. But before either of these causes could be removed by common methods, life would be at an end, and every fit of the Night-mare would be mortal; but that it often happens otherwise, many can testify. Doctor Lower seems to have founded this theory on the dissection of a Man who died of a Hydrocephalus, and not immediately of the Night-mare: hence that case is ill applied by Bonetus.

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