Elizabeth-Town gazette. [volume] (Elizabeth-Town, N.J.) 1818-1821, 1818-09-15

4
this dilemma, DR. HufeIas proposed to
treat him as patient. Poe.eness induced
the latter TO accept Of siisia effer, BIT lie
assured the physiciae hat medicines
would not operate. AS 10 time was 20 be
lost, there being only tWesiy-lour hours
left for bis life, DR.. Hi. aud deemed
proper 10 direct sacfi ren rs as prove
powerful excitaats, iii order 70 rouse The
vital energy Of his pupil end TO relieve
him from his captiyated fancy. Hence he
tprescribci a strong titsetiie and purgative;
ordered bIisters 70 be applied 10 both
calves of the legs, and it the same time
stimulating eIysteas to be administered.
Quietly submitting to tic doctors treat
ment, he observed, that his body being
|already hall corps, all means of recov-
lering it would be in vain. Indeed Dr.
iIuieiai,d was net . sistis sarpsized, Oh
his repeating hisevisit ia The evening, to
learn that the emetic had but very little
Operated, and that the siisters had not
even redeemed the skin. The case be.
came more scrious, and The supposed vic.
tim Of death began 10 triumph over the
lincredulity Of tho professor and his friends.
Thus circumstsnced, DIR. IIufeiand per-
ceiyed, how deeply and tleztructipely that
mental spasm must have acted on the body,
to produce degree of iasensibiIity from
which the worst consequences might be
unprecedented. All the inquiries info the
lorigin of this singular belief had hitherto
Ibeen unsuccessful. Now only. he dis
Iclosed the secret to one Of bis intimate
friends, namely, that On the preceding
evening he had met with white figure 10
the passage, which nodded to him, and,
in the same moment, he heard voice ex-
claiming--" The day after Tomorrow, at
mime o'clock in the morning, tliou shalt
die PIE continued to settle his domes-
tic affairs made his will; nIi0utely APP
lpointed his funeral and even desired his
friends TO send for clergyman which
request, however, was c0unieracted.-
! Night appeared, and he began TO compute
the hours he had 10 live. ill the ominous
next morning. His anxiety evidently To-
creased with the styikingld every clock
within hearing. DIR. HuEeiand was not
without apprehension, when he recolect-
ed instances in which the mere magma
Ition had produced melancholy effects
but, as every thing depended upon pro-
crastinating, or retardine that hour in
which the event was predicted; and on
tappeasing the tempest on perturbed inn
I aainat;on,a III reason had again obtained
1.-THE ascendancy, he resolved upon the
following expedient: Having complai-
SAINT patient, who refused not to take the
remedies precribed for him, because he
Iseemed conscious Of the superior agency
of his mind over that Of the body,) DIR.
Hufeland had recourse.to laudauum, com-
Ibined with the extract of ben-baue :
twenty drops of the former, and two
grains Of the latter, were given to the
youth, with such effect, that he fell into
profound sleep, from which he did not
awake till eleven O'clock on the NEXT
morning. Thus, the prognosticated fatal
hour elapsed; and his friends, waiting to
welcome the bashfuI patient, who had
agreeably disappointed them, turned the
whole affair into ridicule. The first qiies-
tion, however, after recovering from this
artificial sleep, was" What is the hour
of the morning 2" On being informed that
his presages had not been verified by ex-
perience, he assured The company that all
these transactions appeared but dream.
After that time he long enjoyed good
state of health, and was completely cured
of morbid imagination"
!, Had this youth fallen into less sagacious
hands, the event would, it is more than
probable, have answered to the predic-
ton; and the occurrence would have
stood as irrefragible evidence of that creed
which imagines that the times have not
long since passed of individual and imme-
t date communication between the world of
sense and the world of spirits. How the
fancy originated, it is difficult to say;
but it is not less difficult to explain the
phenomena of dreams.
!. In the Economic, we meet with the
+ following we'll authenticated tale, which
has been versified by Mr.. Wadsworth:
/ GA young farmer in Warwickshire,
finding his hedges broken, and the sticks
carried away during frosty season, de-
termiued to watch for the thief He lay
many cold hours under haystack, and
at length an old woman, like witch in
i a play, approached aud began TO pull up
the hedge; he waited till she had tied her
bundle of sticks, and was carrying them
off, that he might convict here the theft,
and then springing from his conceaiment,
he seized his prey with violent threats.
after some alteration, in which hSr load
was left upon the ground, she kneeled up