60 ON THE EFFECTS OP CERTAIN MENTAL 



termed ^uxuvfi^o-roi by the learned, but by the German vulgar, were^ 

 Tvolf] and by the French, loups-garouSj were supposed by these 

 writers to be the causes of night-mare. By a compact with the 

 fiend, men acquired the power of leaving their own body and enter- 

 ing into that of any animal they might choose, and, in this form, 

 of repairing to the sleeping couch of the dreamer. Space will not 

 permit me to pursue the train of argument by which the reality of 

 these metamorphoses was supposed to be effected. 1 merely notice 

 the conclusion of a writer of this period, who sums up his reason- 

 ing by saying that " it is more natural to suppose that they were 

 thus transformed, than that the affection was a mere delusion of 

 fancy." 



The " squab fiend," however, and her night-raare, are things 

 created, by disease or disorder, from the chaos of a disturbed fancy. 

 If the food be lighter, and in less quantity, these visions will not 

 disturb us ; we shall sleep in peace ; no dreams will harass us, 

 except those of the most pleasing character. I am persuaded that, 

 by paying attention to the phenomena of our dreams, much useful 

 information might be obtained with regard to the state of our 

 health individually. Some persons whose minds are active dream 

 habitually, others never do so. If, in the former, the dreams 

 change their character, and become unpleasant, we may attempt to 

 elucidate their cause by reviewing the state of mind, the mode of 

 living, and the occurrences of the past day ; if these differ not from 

 the usual routine, we may suspect some lurking bodily ailment, 

 some incipient state of trivial or serious disorder. If, in the second 

 instance, we begin to dream, and cannot trace any error in diet, or 

 mental impression, to which the dream can be referred, we may 

 take the dream as a silent, but sure, monitor of some lurking, but 

 concealed, enemy within. This attention would be making a good 

 use even of dreams, those giddy children of an idle brain, to 

 most persons, appear to arise without any cause, to which prophetic 

 power is frequently attributed, and which, in individuals of weak 

 minds, render their nights miserable, and their days cheerless. 

 Dreams do not arise without some cause ; they may occasionally 

 occur, and bafile all our soothsaying to unravel them, but in a vast 

 majority of instances the state of the body calls up the phantoms, 

 and the previous bias of the mind gives it its peculiar character, at- 

 tributes, and tendency. 



All violent mental excitement produces a corresponding affection 

 of body, though this sympathetic disorder may be modified in a va- 

 riety of ways, according to the constitution of the person in whom 



