Curiosities of Medical ExperienceMillingen, J. G. (John Gideon)
Philosophy
Curiosities of Medical Experience
Millingen, J. G. (John Gideon)
Medicine
The subject of this observation was an officer in the expedition to
Louisburg in 1758, who had this peculiarity in so remarkable a degree,
that his companions in the transport were in the constant habit of amusing
themselves at his expense. They could produce in him any kind of dream by
whispering in his ear, especially if this was done by a friend with whose
voice he had become familiar. One time they conducted him through the
whole progress of a quarrel, which ended in a duel; and when the parties
were supposed to have met, a pistol was put into his hand, which he fired,
and was awakened by the report. On another occasion they found him asleep
on the top of a locker in the cabin, when they made him believe he had
fallen overboard, and exhorted him to save himself by swimming. They then
told him that a shark was pursuing him, and entreated him to dive for his
life. He instantly did so, and with so much force as to throw himself from
the locker upon the cabin floor, by which he was much bruised, and
awakened of course. After the landing of the army at Louisburg, his
friends found him one day asleep in his tent, and evidently much annoyed
by the cannonading. They then made him believe that he was engaged, when
he expressed great fear, and showed an evident disposition to run away.
Against this they remonstrated, but at the same time increased his fears
by imitating the groans of the wounded and the dying; and when he asked,
as he often did, who was hit, they named his particular friends. At last
they told him that the man next himself in his company had fallen, when he
instantly sprung from his bed, rushed out of the tent, and was only roused
from his danger and his dream by falling over the tent-ropes. A
remarkable thing in this case was, that after these experiments he had no
distinct recollection of his dreams, but only a confused feeling of
oppression or fatigue, and used to tell his friends that he was sure they
had been playing some trick upon him. It has been observed that we seldom
feel courageous or daring in our dreams, and generally avoid danger when
menaced by a foe, or exposed to any probable peril.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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