If People subject to the Night-mare be so fond of heavy flesh-suppers, that they can neither rest with them nor without them, they should sup early, and sit up or exercise two or three hours afterwards; and when they go to bed, they should lie on the right Side, that the food may have the advantage of its own gravity in passing out of the Stomach into the Guts. In that position the Heart will fall on the Mediastinum, which, being a flexible Membrane, will be an easier support to the Heart than if it play’d against the hard Ribs, which is always the consequence of lying on the left Side.
When the fair Sex is oppress’d with this Disorder, and the precedent cause is an obstruction of the Catamenia, the defect of that natural discharge may be supply’d by a moderate bleeding; and proper remedies should be us’d to clear the obstructed tubes, and open the flood-gates to promote the ebb of the next full tide. But if the cause be common to both sexes, the same methods may be follow’d, proper allowance being made for the delicacy of the female constitution.
Excessive drinking at night, as well as excessive eating, should be avoided; but of the two evils, the former is the lesser, as our British Celsus observes:
“Tutior autem est in potione, quam in esca, intemperantia[51].”
As intoxication subjects People to most dreadful fits of this Disorder, as well as to many other accidents, it should, by all means, be shun’d. Lucretius has so well painted its bad effects, that, I presume, my polite reader will think his description of it neither tedious nor foreign.
Denique cur, Hominem cum vini vis penetravit Acris et in Venas discessit deditus ardor, Consequitur gravitas membrorum? Præpidiuntur Crura vacillanti? tardescit Lingua? madet mens? Nant Oculi? clamor singultus, jurgia gliscunt? Et jam cætera de genere hoc quæcunq; sequuntur?
Besides, when wine’s quick force has pierc’d the Brain, And the brisk heat’s diffus’d thro’ every Vein, Why do the members all grow dull and weak? The Tongue not with its usual swiftness speak? The Eye-balls swim? the Legs not firm and straight, But bend beneath the Body’s natural weight: Unmanly quarrels, noise, and sobs deface The powers of Reason, and usurp their place.