“I have myself experienced a case of this nature, which to me appears highly remarkable, both psychologically and medicinally; I saw, in a state of mind completely sound, and after the first terror was over, with perfect calmness, for nearly two months, almost constantly and involuntarily a vast number of human and other forms, and even heard their voices, though all this was merely the consequence of a diseased state of the nerves and an irregular circulation of the blood.” “It being a matter of considerable importance that an incident of this nature should be observed with the strictest attention, and related, together with all collateral circumstances, with the most conscientious fidelity, I shall not omit any thing of which I retain a clear recollection. The truth of what I am going to advance will not require a farther testimony, as Dr. Selle, who was my physician and was daily informed by me of every trifling occurrence and change that happened, is still living, and will, by all who know him, be most readily admitted as an unobjectionable witness. During the ten latter months of the year 1790, I had experienced several melancholy incidents which deeply affected me, particularly in September, from which time I suffered an almost uninterrupted series of misfortunes that afflicted me with the most poignant grief. I was accustomed to be bled twice a year, and this had been done once on the 9th of July, but was omitted to be repeated at the end of the year 1790. I had, in 1783, been suddenly taken with a violent vertigo, which my physicians imputed to obstructions in the finer vessels of the abdomen, brought on by a sedentary life and a continual exertion of the mind. This indisposition was successfully removed by means of a more regular and strict diet; particularly efficacious in the beginning I had found leeches to the arms, and they were afterwards repeated two or three times annually when I felt violent congestions in the head. The last leeches which had been put on, previous to the appearance of the phantasms of which I am about to speak, had been applied on the first of March 1790, less blood had consequently been evacuated in 1790 than was usual with me, and from September, I was constantly occupied in business that required the most unremitted exertion, and was rendered still more perplexing by frequent interruptions.”