J74' STECTRES OCCASIONED BY DISEASE. 



Narrative and fell in the evening into a very alarming fpecies of catalepfis^ 

 remarks on in which he faw and heard every thing that patTed around 

 ced by nervous l^""* without being able to move a limb. If he had heard any 

 indifpofition. lively converfation during the day, a flentorian voice re- 

 peated to him while in the fit, the particular words or fylla- 

 bles that had been pronounced with an impreffive accent, or 

 loud emphatic tone, and in fuch a manner that his ears re- 

 verberate. 



Seldom as it may happen, that perfons believe they fee 

 human forms, yet examples of the cafe are not wanting. 

 A refpedable member of this academy, diftinguiflied by his 

 merit in the fcience of botany, whofe truth and credibility 

 are unexceptionable, once faw in this very room in which 

 we are now aflembled, the phantafm of the late prefident 

 Maupertuis. A perfon of a found and unprejudiced mind, 

 though not a man of letters, whom I know well, and whofe 

 word may be credited, related to me the following cafe. As he 

 was recovering from a violent nervous fever, being (till very 

 weak, he lay one night in bed perfectly confcious that he 

 was aw^ake, when the door feemed to open, and the figure of a 

 woman entered, who advanced to his bedfide. He looked 

 at it for fome moments, but as the fight was difagreeable, he 

 turned himfelf and awakened his wife ; on turning again how- 

 ever he found the figure was gone. But out of many cafes I 

 have never known an inftance like my own, in which any per- 

 fon had for almoft two months conftantly beheld fuch vifionary 

 forms, and feemed even to have heard them ; except it was 

 that of two young ladies, who, as I have been credibly in- 

 formed, frequently faw appearances of this nature. 



I am by no means infenfible to a certain feeling which ad- 

 moniflies me of the impropriety of talking fo much of myfelf 

 in an atTembly like this; but fince I tranfgrefs only with afci- 

 entific intention, to contribute to the knowledge of the effeds 

 of the human imagination, I muft endeavour to fupprefs this 

 feeling. I may look for pardon, I iruft, from thofe who know 

 and refpe6l every thing which lends to enlarge the ftock of 

 human knovvledge, even if I fpeak more of myfelf. For, 

 when I proceed todefcribe the ftate of ray imagination, and the 

 nature of the apparitions during a previous malady, it will be 

 merely with an intention to Qiew the apparitions which form 

 the fubjed of this lefture in a lefs wonderful point of view, 



and 



