Dzoigkt'^s Cases of DeHrium^ 431 



For the American Journal of Science, 4'«'- 

 Benjamin Silliman, Esq. 



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 : 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 communicated 

 to me, I immediately committed them to writing, and to avoid 

 mistakes, read what I had written to the persons communicat- 

 ing them. 



I am very respectfully, 

 Your Friend, and obedient Servant, 



BENJAMIN. W. DWIGHT. 



Art. XXIL Facts illustrative of the Pojoers and Opera- 

 tions of the Human Mind in a Diseased State. 



1 . k30ME 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. His 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 neighbours 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 in a distant part of the same field. On 



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