AN
ESSAY
ON THE
Incubus, or Night-mare.
By JOHN BOND, M. D.
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 Provinceof North Carolina.
SIR,
YOUR extensive knowlege inevery branch of useful and politeliterature will sufficiently justify thepropriety of this address, though it offersto your acceptance and protectionan Essay merely medical. Besides, thesubject I have chosen is in a great measurenew, and must, I think, if successfullytreated, prove highly useful.It seems therefore peculiarly intitled toyour patronage, who are so judicious,so generous, and so zealous a promoterof every discovery which may tend tothe public good. I shall not trespassfarther on your patience, with the usualapologies of young Authors; nor onyour modesty, with the trite panegyricsof Dedicators: the whole tenourof your life has render’d such encomiumssuperfluous; for you have alwayspursued the shortest and the surestroad to fame, the real esse quod viderivelis.
Though by this Essay I should acquireno honour from the judiciousSons of Æsculapius; this one howeverI am sure of, the subscribing myself
Your most obliged,
And most devoted servant,
John Bond.
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THE
P R E F A C E.
BEing much afflicted with the Night-mare,self-preservation made me particularly inquisitiveabout it. In consulting the ancientPhysicians, I found little information concerningit, except dreadful prognostics; nor coulda rational account of it be expected from them,as they were unacquainted with the circulationof the Blood.
The few Authors who have mention’d itsince that glorious discovery, have also givenimperfect accounts of it; which are probablyowing to their not having felt it themselves:for, as it only seizes People in sleep, continuesbut a short time, and vanishes as soon as theyawake, the Physician has not an opportunityof making observations of his own, but musttake all from the description of others, whohave labour’d under it. These, I believe, arethe reasons that the principal Writers in Physichave taken so little notice of it. These omissionshowever