NERVOUS SYMPTOMS. 627
for two hours or more in the beginning of the night. At laft, I
found that a dram of brandy, after the firft attack, kept me eafy
the whole night. This remedy has never failed^ to fucceed with
me, the few times I have had occafion to try it ; for of late, fince
my ftomach has been pretty found, I have feldom telt in my fleep
any of thole uneafy lenfations which referable the night-mare.
From what has been faid, it feems probable, that in the incubus
the ftomach is commonly the part primarily afte&ed: I fay com¬
monly, becaufe lymptoms like thofe of the night mare may fome-
times arife without any fault in the ftomach. Thus, I have known
afthmatic patients, whofe lungs were much ob dra fted, who, in
time of fleep, were greatly opprefled with a fenfe of fuffocation,
and diflurbed with uneafy dreams : And Dr Lower mentions a pa¬
tient, who, tho’ he could fleep pretty ealily with his head inclined
forward, yet, in the oppofite fituation, he was always foon awaked
with horrid dreams and tremors ; the caufe of which appeared, af¬
ter his death, to have been a great quantity of water in the ventri¬
cles of the brain.
The incubus is moll apt to feize perfons when lying on their back ;
becaufe, in this pofition, on account of the ftomach and other abdo¬
minal 'vifcem prefling more upon the diaphragm, we cannot infpire
with the fame eafe, as when we fit up, or lie on one fide. Further,
in that fituation of the body, the food feems to lie heavier on the
ftomach, and wind in it does not efcape fo readily by the œfophagus
or pylorus as in an ered pofture, when thefe paflages are higher
than the other parts of the ftomach *, We are only affeded with
the night-mare in time of fleep, becuufe the ftrange ideas excited
in the mind, in confequence of the difordered ftate of the ftomach,
4 K 2 are
* When I have been liable to be attacked with a fenfation of faintnefs at my ftomach, I
have found it always worfe when I lay on my back in the night-time, an