l()4i SPECTRES OCCASIONED BY DISEASE. 



that are frequently praflifed, and the fallacy which may lead us 

 to take a fpuit of our imagination by moon-light for a corpfe. 

 We are generally advifed to feize the ghofts, in which cafe 

 it is often found that they are of a very corporeal nature.— 

 An appeal is alfo made to felf-deception, becaufe many perfons 

 believe they adtualiy fee and hear where nothing is either to 

 be feen or heard. No reafonable man, I think, will ever deny 

 the poffibility of our being fometimes deceived in this man- 

 ner by our fancy, if he is in any degree acquainted with the 

 nature of its operations. Neverthelefs, the lovers of the 

 marvellous will give no credit to thefe objections, whenever 

 they are difpofed to confider the phantoms of imagination as 

 ' realities. We cannot therefore fufficiently colle6l and authen- 

 ticate fuch proofs as fhew how eafily we are mifled; and with 

 whatdelufive facility the imagination can exhibit, not only to de- 

 ranged perfons, but alfo to thofe who are in the perfe6l ufe of 

 their fenfes, fuch forms as are fcarcely to be diftinguiflied from 

 real obje6ls. 

 Striking in- J myfejf have experienced an inftance of this, which not 



ritionTfeenlly 'only in a pfychological, but alfo in a medical point of view ap- 

 the author. pears to me of the utmoft importance. I faw, in the full ufe 

 of my fenfes, and (after I had got the better of the fright which 

 at firfl: feized me, and the difagreeable fenfation which it 

 caufed) even in the greateft compofure of mind, for almoft 

 two months conftantly, and involuntarily, a number of human 

 and other apparitions; — nay, I even heard their voices; — yet 

 after all, this was nothing but the confequence of nervous de- 

 bility, or irritation, or fome unufual ftate of the animal fyftem. 

 The publication of the cafe in the Journal of Pra6tical Me- 

 dicine, by Profeflbr Hufeland of Jena, is the caufe of ray now 

 communicating it to the Academy. When I had the pleafure 

 of fpending a few happy days with that gentleman laft fummer, 

 at Pyrmont, I related to him this curious incident. 

 Narrative and But as it is probable he might not diftin6lly remember that 

 tres^^ndappa'"' ^'^'^^ ^ had told altogether accidentally, perhaps indeed not 

 fitions. very circumftantially, fome confiderable errors have been ad- 



mitted into his narrative. In fuch a cafe, however, it is more 

 neceflary than in any other, to obferve every thing with 

 accuracy, and to relate it with fidelity and diftinftnefs. I 

 ihall therefore pafs over nothing which I remember with any 

 degree of certainty. Several incidents connected with the ap- 

 paritions 



