Doctor Haller seems to have levell’d the force of this argument against a full Stomach being any cause of the Nightmare; but I might mention many facts here to prove the contrary, and among the rest, might add my own case; but, to avoid prolixity, I shall confine myself to one instance.
A corpulent Clergyman, about fifty years old, who is very fond of strong beer and flesh suppers, but so subject to the Night-mare, that he is obliged to stint himself to a certain quantity every night; whenever he happens to take an over-dose, he groans so loudly that he often awakes all the People in the house. He has assur’d me, that, in these fits, he imagin’d the Devil came to his bedside, seiz’d him by the Throat, and endeavour’d to choak him. Next day he observ’d the black impressions of his hard Fingers on his Neck. After being at a wedding or christening, he never escapes it; and his Servant is oblig’d to watch him all the next night, and rescue him from the Paws of Satan, whose dreadful approach always makes him roar loud enough to awake the Servant, if he should happen to be asleep. The Servant told me, he always found his Master lying on his Back in the fit.
Hoffman says, “[25]Plethoricos omni cura fugere opportet decubitum supinum, facile enim Incubo premuntur, cujus causa a Sanguinis stagnatione in Pulmones deducenda est.”
Doctor Haller assigns a different reason for heavy suppers preventing rest, viz. “[26]Sed etiam cibi immeabiles particulæ in Cerebro minus facile trajactæ, comprimendo Medullam somnum minus benignum faciunt.”
It is remarkable, that this Disorder attacks People only in sleep; which, Doctor Young says[27], is owing to the effect that sleep has in increasing all the symptoms of a Plethora. It is true, that sleep retards the motion of the Blood, and checks the serous secretions. “[28].In vasis vero serosis, Lymphaticis et Nervosis circulatio parva, et sæpe nulla est.”
There is no occasion to go about proving that the secretion of urine is lessened in bed, for common experience sufficiently evinces it. And it appears, by the experiments of Doctor Robinson[29] and Gorter[30], that perspiration is considerably less in the night than in the day. It must be allow’d, that the heat of the bed-cloaths will rarify the Blood, and also contribute to an universal distension of the Vessels: but all these seem to be rather the effects of lying quiet in a warm bed, than of sleep alone. If so, People might be as readily seiz’d with the Night-mare while they are awake in these circumstances, as when they are asleep, which never happens.