MAMMALIA—MAN. 4} 
celebrated German bookseller, and member of the Royal Society of Berlin, 
It is related by himself. Nicolai had for years been subject to a congestion 
in the head, to relieve which, he was frequently blooded by leeches. 
“Tn the first two months of the year 1791, (says he,) I was much affected 
m my mind, by several incidents of a very disagreeable nature; and on the 
24th of February, a circumstance occurred which irritated me extremely. 
At ten o’clock in the forenoon, my wife and another person came to console 
ine; I was in a violent perturbation of mind, owing to a series of incidents 
which had altogether wounded my moral feelings, and from which I saw 
no possibility of relief, when suddenly I observed, at the distance of ten 
paces from me, a figure—the figure of a deceased person. I pointed at it, 
and asked my wife whether she did not see it. She saw nothing, but being 
much alarmed, endeavored to compose me, and sent for the physician. The 
figure remained some seven or eight minutes, and at Jength I became a 
little more calm; and, as I was extremely exhausted, I soon afterwards fell 
into a troubled kind of slumber, which lasted for half an hour. The vision 
was ascribed to the great agitation of mind in which I had been, and it was 
supposed I should have nothing more to apprehend from that cause; but 
_ the violent affection having put my nerves into some unnatural state, from 
this arose further consequences, which require a more detailed descriptiun. 
“Tn the afternoon, a little after four o’clock, the figure which I had seen 
in the morning, again appeared. Iwas alone when this happened; a cir- 
cumstance which, as may be easily conceived, could not be very agreeable. 
I went, therefore, to the apartment of my wife, to whom I related it. But 
thither, also, the figure pursued me. Sometimes it was present, sometimes 
it vanished; but it was always the same standing figure. A litile after six 
e’clock, several stalking figures also appeared; but they had no connection 
with the standing figure. I can assign no other reason for this apparition 
than that, though much more composed in my mind, I had not been able so 
soon entirely to forget the cause of such deep and distressing vexation, and 
had reflected on the consequences of it, in order, if possible, to avoid them; 
and that this happened three hours after dinner, at the time when the diges- 
tion just begins. 
“At length I became more compesed! with respect to the disagreeable 
meident which had given rise to the first apparition; but though I had used 
very excellent medicines, and found myself in other respects perfectly well, 
yet the apparitions did not diminish, but, on the contrary, rather increased 
in number, and were transformed in the most extraordinary manner. 
«After I had recovered from the first impression of terror, I never felt 
myself particularly agitated by these apparitions, as I considered them to 
be, what they really were, the extraordinary consequences of indisposition ; 
on the contrary, I endeavored as much as possible to preserve my com- 
pesure of mind, that I might remain distinctly conscious of what passed 
Within me. J observed these phantoms with great accuracy and very often 
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