"room, like a woman in a tabby gown

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trailing about the room; it made a

mighty rushelling noise, but I could "see nothing, though it was near as

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light as the night before: it passed by "the foot of the bed and a little opened "the curtains, and thence went to a "closet door on that side, through "which it found admittance, although "it was close locked: there it seemed "to groan, and draw a great chair with "its foot, in which it seemed to sit, and "turn over the leaves of a large folio; " which you know make a loud clatter.

ing noise; so it continued in that pos"ture, sometimes groaning, sometimes dragging the chair, and clattering the "book till it was near day; afterwards "I lodged several times in this room, "but never met with any molestation."

This I can attest to be a true account "of what passed in that room the two

"described nights; and though Mr. C. "be lately dead, who was a very inge"nious man, and affirmed the first part "unto many, with whom he was con"versant; it remains that I appeal to "the knowledge of those who have "been inhabitants or lodgers in the said "house, for what remains, to justify the credibility of the rest.”

CHAP. IV.

Medical distinctions of spectral impressions. Sepulchral remedies: Preparations of the human skull-Mumia-Apparition of Ficinus to Michael Mercato.-Warning voice to Quarræus.-Visions of Dr. Pordage. Latent lunacy-Exemplified in the character of Hamlet.

IN medicine, we have fine names, at least, for every species of disease. The peculiar disorder, which I have endeavoured to elucidate, is termed generally HALLUCINATION, including all delusive impressions, from the wandering mote before the eye, to the tremendous spec, tre, which is equally destitute of exist

ence.

It is unnecessary to my purpose, to pursue the subdivisions of this affection, which have been traced by nosologists. I shall only mention one extreme species, called the Lycanthropia, in which the patient imagines himself to have become a wolf, abandons society, and takes refuge in the woods. These impressions have no doubt been produced, or strengthened by narcotic potions, of hyoscyamus, datura stramonium, and other deleterious infusions, either ignorantly taken, or maliciously administered.

But we may well be surprized to find, that impressions of this kind are registered, under the title of experimental philosophy. Dr. Garmann, * in his chapter on the ghosts of the dead, informs us, that "when human salt, "extracted and depurated from the skull

*De Miraculis Mortuorum.