Subjective Sensations and Illusions. 823 



tions are haunted." There are cases on record of murderers being 

 haunted by the apparitions of their victims and driven to give them- 

 selves up to justice. 



' ' A gentleman mentioned by Dr. Conolly, when in great danger of 

 being wrecked in a boat on the Eddystone rocks, said he actually saw 

 his family at the moment. In similar circumstances of extreme and 

 immediate danger, others have described the history of their past lives, 

 being represented to them in such a vivid manner, that at a single 

 glance the whole was before them, without the power of banishing the 

 impression. " This is often related of persons who have been rescued 

 from drowning. The extreme erethism of the cerebral tissues extends 

 to all the memory organs, and eveiyone is so intensely aroused that it 

 would, if considered by itself, afford the elements of a vision. Persons 

 under the stimulating effect of opium, are apt to experience the same 

 sort of stimulation of organs that produces visions. Dr. Gregory, 

 upon returning by sea from a visit he had made to a lady, a relative of 

 his, in whom he was deeply interested, and who was far advanced in 

 consumption, took a small dose of laudanum to prevent sea-sickness. 

 As he lay upon a couch in the cabin, the figure of the lady appeared to 

 him, as vivid and as natural as if she had been actually present. c He 

 was quite awake, and fully sensible that it was a phantasm produced by 

 the opiate along with his intense mental feeling, but he was unable, by 

 any effort, to banish the vision. " Another case of Dr. Abercrombie's 

 was one in which the patient was afflicted by a painful disease, to deaden 

 the pain of which, the doctor gave him opiates. Under the influence of 

 these he had very remarkable visions, the subject of which was a mat- 

 ter which had been the talk of Edinburgh for some time. ' < The 

 characters succeeded each other with all the regularit}^ and vivid- 

 ness of a theatrical exhibition ; he heard their conversation, and long 

 speeches that were occasionally made, some of which were in rhyme ; 

 and he distinctly remembered and repeated next day, long passages 

 from these poetical effusions. He was quite awake, and quite sensible 

 that the whole was a phantasm, and he remarked that when he opened 

 his eyes the vision vanished, but instantly reappeared whenever he closed 

 them. " A great many cases of visions have occurred to persons known 

 to be affected by epileptic or other nervous affections, and to persons 

 just "coming down" with sickness of some kind, when, as maybe sup- 

 posed, the nervous system is first abnormally affected and carries to the 

 brain an unusual and unbalanced stimulation. ''Dr. Gregory used to 

 mention in his lectures a gentleman liable to epileptic fits, in whom the 

 paroxysm was generally preceded b} 7 the appearance of an old woman 

 in a red cloak, who seemed to come up to him and strike him on the 

 head with her crutch ; at that instant he fell down in a fit. " Another 



