of joy and affection when each face appeared, and regret upon its disappearance, kept my mind constantly riveted to the visions before it; and this state was interrupted only when an intercourse with the persons in the room was proposed or urged," &c. The apparitions which this person experienced were not limited to phantasms of the human countenance; he also saw phantasms of books, and of parchment and papers containing printed matter. Nor were these effects exclusively confined to ideas received from the sense of sight; at one time he seemed to himself to hear musical sounds; that is, his conceptions of sound were so exceedingly vivid, combined, probably, with the sympathetic concurrence of a disordered auditory organ, that it was, in effect, the same as if he had really heard melodious voices and instruments.

$73. Third Cause of Apparitions.-Inflammation of the Brain.

In the third place, spectral illusions or apparitions will be likely to be called into existence by means of inflammations and other diseases of the brain.

We may infer, from certain passages which are found
in his writings, that Shakspeare had some correct
notions of the influence of a disordered condition of
the brain on the mental operations.
We allude,
among others, to the passage where, in explanation
of the apparition of the dagger which appeared to
Macbeth, he says,

"A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain."

Whether the seat, or appropriate and peculiar residence of the soul be in the brain or not, it seems to be certain that this part of the bodily system is connected in a very intimate and high degree with the exercises of the mind; particularly with perception and volition. Whenever, therefore, the brain is disordered, whether by a contusion or by a removal of part of it, by inflammation or in other ways, the mind will, in general, be affected in a greater or less degree. It may indeed be said, that the immediate connexion in the cases which we now have reference to, is not between the mind and the substance of the brain, but between the mind and the blood which is thrown into that part of the system. It is, no doubt, something in favour of this notion, that so large a portion of the sanguineous fluid finds a circulation there; it being a common idea among anatomists, that at least one tenth of all the blood is immediately sent from the heart into the brain, although the latter is in weight only about the fortieth part of the whole body. It is to be considered also, that the effects which are wrought upon the mind by the nitrous oxide and the febrile miasma gas, are caused by an intermediate influence on the blood. On the other hand, it may be said that there cannot be a great acceleration of the blood's motion, or increase of its volume, without a very sensible effect on the cerebral substance. And, therefore, it may remain true that very much may be justly attributed to the increase of quantity and motion in the blood, and still the brain be the proximate cause of alterations in the states of the mind.

§ 74. Facts having relation to the third Cause of Apparitions.

But here we stand in need of facts, as in all other parts of this investigation. The following statement, selected from a number of others not less au-thenticated, can be relied on.* A citizen of Kingston-on-Hull had a quarrel with a drunken soldier, who attempted to enter his house by force at an unseasonable hour. In this struggle the soldier drew his bayonet, and, striking him across the temples, divided the temporal artery. He had scarcely recovered from the effects of a great loss of blood on this occasion, when he undertook to accompany a friend in his walking-match against time, in which he went forty-two miles in nine hours. He was elated by his success, and spent the whole of the following day in drinking, &c.

The result of these things was an affection, probably an inflammation, of the brain. And the consequence of this was, the existence of those vivid states of mind which are termed apparitions. Accordingly, our shopkeeper (for that was the calling of this person) is reported to have seen articles of sale upon the floor, and to have beheld an armed soldier entering his shop when there was nothing seen by other persons present. In a word, he was for some time constantly haunted by a variety of spectres or imaginary appearances; so much so that he even found it difficult to determine which were real cus

* See the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. vi.,

p. 288.

M

tomers and which were mere phantasms of his own mind. The remedy in this case was bloodletting, and some other methods of cure which are practised in inflammations of the brain. The restoration of the mind to a less intense and more correct action was simultaneous with that of the physical system.

$75. Fourth Cause of Spectral Illusions or Apparitions.-Hysteria.

It is farther to be observed, that people are not unfrequently affected with apparitions in the paroxysms of the disease known as HYSTERIA or hysterics. For the nature of this disease, which exists under a variety of forms, and is of a character so peculiar as to preclude any adequate description in the narrow limits we could properly allot to it, the reader is referred to such books as treat of medical subjects. This singular disease powerfully agitates the mind; and its effects are as various as they are striking. When the convulsive affections come on, the patient is observed to laugh and cry alternately, and altogether without any cause of a rational or moral nature; so that he has almost the appearance of fatuity, or of being delirious. But spectral illusions or visionary sights are among its most striking attendants. The subjects of it distinctly see every description of forms; trees, houses, men, women, dogs, and other inferior animals, balls of fire, celestial beings, &c. We can, without doubt, safely refer to the experience of those who have been much conversant with instances of this disease in confirmation of this.

The existence of the states of mind under consideration might, without much question, be found, on farther examination, to connect itself with other forms of disease. The subject is certainly worthy, whether considered in relation to science or to human happiness, of such farther developements as it is capable of receiving.

§ 76. Of Ghosts and other Spectral Appearances.

In connexion with what has been said in this and some of the preceding chapters, it may not be out of place to add something in explanation of ghosts and other spectral appearances, which occupy so conspicuous a place in popular superstitions. GHOSTS are partly APPARITIONS, taking that term as it has been illustrated, and in part mental illusions, arising from not viewing objects aright. In respect to all appearances of this nature, remark, I.— That they are seen most frequently in the dark, hardly any one pretending to have seen them in the daytime. And this is a circumstance altogether in favour of the idea that they are in nearly all cases, although they cannot all be referred to one cause, mere deceptions practised on us, either by means of } the senses or by means of an excited internal conception, operating in some cases, perhaps, upon a disordered physical system. In the dark, as we are exposed to a greater variety of dangers than at other times, our feelings are in consequence excited in a greater or less degree, and, as there is a great dimness in the outlines of objects, they readily assume,