Dwight’s Cases of Delirium. 431 
For the American Journal of Science, &c. 
Bengamin Sriuiman, Esq. : ae 
Dear Sir, 
SHOULD you think the facts detailed in the following state- 
ment worthy of publication, you are at liberty to publish them. 
The knowledge of the first, I derived in the year 1802, from 
a gentleman and a lady, both inhabitants of the town where 
the person whose case is detailed, lived: and of the third in 
1802, from the same lady; and of the second in 1802, from a 
lady, a near relative of Mrs.S. When the facts were communi- 
cated to me, I immediately committed them to writing, and to 
avoid mistakes, read what I had written to the persons commu- 
nicating them. 2 
I am very respectfully, 
Your Friend, and obedient Servant. 
BENJAMIN W. DWIGHT... 
Arr. XXII. Facts illustrative of the Powers and Operations of 
the Human Mind in a Diseased State. 
i. Some years ago a farmer of fair character, who resided 
in an interior town in New England, sold his farm, with an in- 
tention of purchasing another in a different town. TFlis mind 
was naturally of a melancholy cast. — Shortly after the sale of 
his farm, he was induced to believe that he had sold it for less 
than its value. This persuasion brought on dissatisfaction, and 
eventually a considerable degree of melancholy. In this situa- 
tion, one of his neighbors engaged him to enclose a lot of 
land, with a post and rail fence, which he was to commence 
making the next day, At the time appointed he went into the 
field, and began with a beetle and wedges to split the timber, 
out of which the posts and rails were to be prepared. On 
finishing his day’s work, he put his beetle and wedges into a 
hollow tree, and went home. Two of his sons had been at 
work through the day ina distant part of the same field. On 
