[1] De anim. brutor. cap. 6. p. 127. [2] Lom. Observat. p. 80. [3] De morb. caput. p. 604. [4] Baxter on the Soul, p. 257. quarto edit. [5] A being which that vain chymist invented to preside over the animal functions. See his Works, cap. 1. & Van Helmont. de Archeo faber. [6] De Corde, p. 145. [7] Sepulchret. Anatom. tom. 1. p. 180. [8] Comment in aphoris. 578. [9] De Dieta, scol. xxxv. [10] Haller, Prim. lin. DLXXII. Boerhaave, prelect. academ. de somno. [11] Winslow, de Poitrine, sect. 74. Eustachius, tab. xv. fig. 2. and tab. xxv. [12] Macrob. in som. sup. lib. v. cap. 3. [13] To say that Voluntary Motions by custom become Involuntary, may appear a contradiction; but if we reflect on several phænomena of Animal Motion, that assertion will not appear so absurd. ’Tis universally allow’d, that the Muscles of the Larynx and Tongue, Adductors and Abductors of the Eyes are of the Voluntary kind; yet, by endeavouring to imitate those who Stammer or Squint, these disagreeable habits are acquir’d so, as not to be afterwards corrected by the strongest efforts of the Mind. As the Heart of an Infant beats, at a mean, about 11520 times every 24 hours, during the first year, ’tis probable, that, by this frequent Motion, the action of that Muscle may become independent of the Will ever afterwards: tho’ it might be as Voluntary at first, as the action of the Muscles concern’d in sucking the Nurse’s Breast. [14] Harvey de Generatione Animal. & Malpighius de Incubatione. [15] I remember that the Heart of a Gurnet beat regularly an hour and forty minutes after I separated it From the Body. For many such experiments, see Doctor Whytt’s ingenious Essay on Vital Motions. [16] His. Vit. & Mort. [17] Page 307. [18] Aphoris. 874. [19] Vide Lom. Observat. p. 80. & Etmuller, de Incubo. [20] Diemerbroek. [21] Winslow. Traite de Muscles, p. 554. [22] Philos. Trans. Nº 427. [23] Comment in Instut. DXCI. [24] Loc. mox, citatione. [25] De Dieta, &c. See. scol xxxix. [26] Prim. Lin. DLXXVIII. [27] Treatise on Opium, p. 26. [28] Boerhaave, Prelect. Academic, de somno. [29] On Food and Discharges, tab. 3. [30] Exercit. de Perspiratione. [31] Cavendum est ab initio, nam ubi diu durat assidue irruens magnos Morbos, Insaniam, Morbum comitialem, aut siderationem denunciat. Paul. Egenet. lib. 3. c. 19. [32] Incubus, vitium quod in somnis prehendit. Sua quidem natura non admodum parvum est, verum, magna quædam mala portendit, Morbi comitialis, melancholiæ species, Morbum attonitum, atque ea non procul abesse. Si frequens Incubus invadit, significat. Actuar. lib. v. cap. 17. [33] Morbus, qui Incubus appellatur, non est Dæmon, sed magis prœmium Morbi Cometialis, Insaniæ aut Siderationis. Cavendum est dum in principio, inveteratum assidue incidens, quosdam ex relatis Morbis inducit. Ætic. Sermo. c. 12.