AN ESSAY ON THE Incubus, or Night-mare. By JOHN BOND, M. D. Ac velut in somnis oculos ubi languida pressit Nocte quies, necquicquam avidos extendere cursus Velle videmur, et in mediis conatibus ægri Succidimus; non Lingua valet non corpore notæ Sufficiunt vires, nec vox nec verba sequuntur. VIRGIL. Æneid. xii. [Illustration] LONDON: Printed for D. WILSON and T. DURHAM, at Plato’s Head, in the Strand. MDCCLIII. To his Excellency ARTHUR DOBBS, Esquire, Governor and Captain General of the Province of NORTH CAROLINA. SIR, Your extensive knowlege in every branch of useful and polite literature will sufficiently justify the propriety of this address, though it offers to your acceptance and protection an Essay merely medical. Besides, the subject I have chosen is in a great measure new, and must, I think, if successfully treated, prove highly useful. It seems therefore peculiarly intitled to your patronage, who are so judicious, so generous, and so zealous a promoter of every discovery which may tend to the public good. I shall not trespass farther on your patience, with the usual apologies of young Authors; nor on your modesty, with the trite panegyrics of Dedicators: the whole tenour of your life has render’d such encomiums superfluous; for you have always pursued the shortest and the surest road to fame, the real _esse quod videri velis_. Though by this Essay I should acquire no honour from the judicious Sons of Æsculapius; this one however I am sure of, the subscribing myself Your most obliged, And most devoted servant, JOHN BOND. THE PREFACE. Being much afflicted with the Night-mare, self-preservation made me particularly inquisitive about it. In consulting the ancient Physicians, I found little information concerning it, except dreadful prognostics; nor could a rational account of it be expected from them, as they were unacquainted with the circulation of the Blood. The few Authors who have mention’d it since that glorious discovery, have also given imperfect accounts of it; which are probably owing to their not having felt it themselves: for, as it only seizes People in sleep, continues but a short time, and vanishes as soon as they awake, the Physician has not an opportunity of making observations of his own, but must take all from the description of others, who have labour’d under it. These, I believe, are the reasons that the principal Writers in Physic have taken so little notice of it. These omissions however render an enquiry into the nature of this Disease the more interesting and necessary, and, at the same time, the more difficult. Under these disadvantages I have ventur’d to communicate the result of my own observations and reflexions on it; hoping, that a greater allowance will be made for the errors in this Essay, as it is perhaps the first that ever appear’d expressly on this subject.