the eighth pair of nerves that belong to the chest, and the muscles connected with the organs of respiration, and so enervates them that they become completely unstrung, and respiration is impeded, which interruption occasions dreams and phantasies. I also hold with many learned men that by this malady a spasmodie contraction of the nerves of the diaphragm, and of the muscles of the chest is caused, as also of the air-vessels of the lungs, whereby their action being impeded, respiration is affected.

"Those especially, who are of a melancholic atrasbilious temperament, are more often affected than others, especially when they lie on their back, in consequence of which the blood can with difficulty pass through the great artery, the Vena cava, into the right auricle of the heart, and thence through the lungs into the left auricle.

"Some assert that, by lying on the back, the back-bone and adjacent parts are pressed against the heart, whereby its pulsations are interrupted. When this interruption occurs, there is great oppression and dull pain in the region of the heart, which gradually ascends to the brain, and fills it with all manner of frightful images, as if there were a spectre lying on the breast. In fact, when the heart is oppressed,

the lungs must be similarly affected, and the breath is choked, so that when people, labouring under this complaint, feel desirous to call out to others for assistance, the lungs refuse to perform their office, and they are unable to cry out. Others say that, when men lie on their back, the animal spirits are unable to flow and to keep the lungs and thorax in play, whilst the brain in which these animal spirits are engendered, presses upon the cerebellum, and thus stops up the passages through the spinal marrow to these spirits. Vide Mr. Gottfried Voigt's First Hundred of Physical Pastimes.

"Others again hold that this night-mare is a ghost, which creeps upwards from the feet, and gradually seizes the whole body, so that people are completely in its power, and cannot call out for assistance.-Bernhard Gordon, depass cap. part 2, page 264.

"Yet others again say that this night-mare is nothing else but accursed men, who can have no rest until they have crept into people's bedchambers and oppressed them. They even go so far as to assert that, although the windows and other entrances may be secured, they can, nevertheless, creep through a small hole bored for that purpose; and that, if that be carefully stopped up after they have entered, they cannot

escape, although all the windows and doors be thrown open. They further say that the nightmare, after having lain down on the person's body, puts his tongue into the mouth of the party, which prevents him from calling out. In order to get rid of this malady, the body must be turned in the bed, and the feet placed where the head lay. The person must lie upon his stomach instead of the back, so that when the incubus creeps in and, believing the body to be in its usual position, would go through his usual pranks, he finds that he has been tricked' and being nonplussed, slinks away ashamed, never to return.

"They say, also, that some men have tried to drive away the night-mare by placing a sharptoothed comb on their back, but the old fellow was too cunning for them, and, removing the comb, turned the person over, and then lay across his chest. Vide Johannes Prætorius, in part I of his New Description of the World.

"Although the fables narrated out of the forecited Prætorius are not to be credited, yet the Devil is by no means idle in the present day in his attempts to withdraw men from God's protection by the above means, wherefore some learned physicians divide the night-mare into two classes, natural and supernatural, and

establish the distinction by many notable examples, one of the most remarkable and laughable of which is to be found recorded in Dr. Koenig's Cas. Consc. Miscell. chap. 2. and in the 79th question of Frendius."

Really, Dr. Bräuner, you are too bad. Here have we, at the beginning of this chapter, assured our readers that you were improving in your morality, and, before the ink, which penned that assurance, is dry, we have already given a very equivocal cure for night-mare; and now we come not only to one but to two stories, which, although you term them laughable, are shockingly indelicate, so much so that we must leave them in their native German. And there you are in your woodcut frontispiece, with your reverend locks straying from under your doctor's black velvet cap, sitting composedly in your arm chair, smiling with most Pickwickian benignity upon us, and laying your hand upon an open book, representing, probably, your own work, and pointing significantly to, we doubt not, these very tales. But perhaps you never expected to be immortalized in an English translation; and wrote only for the unsophisticated readers of your own age and country, so we pass over the offence with this gentle admonition.

Franciscus, in his Proteus, gives us an instance of two young girls, who were sisters, and who, as their parents had left them very little property, endeavoured to maintain themselves creditably by taking in fine needle-work in a hired room, in a certain city. The house they lived in had a bad name as being haunted by a ghost. Very often, yea, several times in a week, and sometimes three or four times in one night, as soon as they had lain down, they felt something fall upon them, and lie upon them like a heavy weight, so that they could neither cry out nor call for assistance, and this repeatedly happened, not only when they were asleep, but when they were wide awake. They often saw by moonlight something like a dark shadowy image, which came up to them, and threw itself upon their bed. This occurred too not only at night, but often by day, the appearance coming into their sitting room as well as into their bedchamber. Often too they heard upon quite a calm day, such a rattling and rumpus in their rooms, that they were fain to scamper for it, until at last they were advised to quit the house altogether, after which they were no longer troubled with the spirit. Hence we may conclude, (quoth Dr. Bräuner,) that these night-mares are not always witches, but that Satan himself