merits of their respective theories, we shall pass on to their ideas of the indication of cure. I cannot however pass over this part of the subject without noticing Willis’s opinion of it, and the ingenious hypothesis by which he attempts to explain this difficult subject. There are few physicians who have left so splendid a monument of talents, learning, and industry, for the admiration of posterity, as Willis has done; and although an English physician, and flourishing in the British court, there is no country in Europe in which his works are less known and admired than in that in which they were published. In his work DE ANIMA BRUTORUM, of which no man will ever repent the reading, he treats of this disease in a distinct chapter, cap. vi. and places the seat of it in the _cerebellum_. The following short extract will give some idea of his hypothesis: “_Quamobrem Ephialtis paroxysmum induci putamus, quatenus inter dormiendum, una cum_ succo nerveo, _materies quædam incongrua_ cerebello _instillata, quæ spiritus in prima scaturigine torporem, sive_ narcosin _quandam inducens, eos mox a functionum suarum muniis paululum cessare cogit, proinde ut ab altero velut lethargo intra cerebellum excitato_, actiones vitales _eclipsin brevem patiantur; qua durante, partim a_ præcordiorum _obstrictorum lucta, partimque a_ sanguine _in iis plurimum aggesto, et stagnante_, gravamen _istud, ac velut_ molis incumbentis, _sensus infertur; deinde quoniam cæteræ omnes totius corporis facultates a_ cordis _motu dependent, idcirco hoc impedito, et suppresso, illæ statim deliquia, aut inordinationes subeunt, præsertim vero quià_ sanguinis in cerebrum, _pro spirituum animalium fomite_, effluxus _interrumpitur, propterea mox horum_ effluxus _in_ systema nervosum _supprimitur, adeo ut laborantes, dum pectoris molem imaginariam excutere satagunt, nec corpus nec membrum aliquod movere possint; nimirum quia_ spirituum (_donec sanguinis affluxu destituuntur_) irradiatio _in partes motrices inhibetur: interim qui in cerebro resident, huc, illuc, lati, phantasmata confusa, et ex molestia a præcordiis impressa, horrenda spectorum insomnia concipiunt._”