Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 4, 1802).djvu/415

and such was the inexorable destiny of his fate, that he must die next morning, without any visible morbid symptoms.—In this dilemma, Dr. H. proposed to treat him as a patient. Politeness induced the latter to accept of such offer; but he assured the physician, that medicines would not operate. As no time was to be lost, there being only 24 hours left for his life, Dr. H. deemed proper to direct such remedies as prove powerful excitants; in order to rouse the vital energy of his pupil, and to relieve him from his captivated fancy. Hence he prescribed a strong emetic and purgative; ordered blisters to be applied to both calves of the legs, and at the same time stimulating clysters to be administered. Quietly submitting to the Doctor's treatment, he observed, that his body being already half a corpse, all means of recovering it would be in vain. Indeed, Dr. H. was not a little surprized, on repeating his visit in the evening, to learn that the emetic had not, or but very little, operated; and that the blisters had not even reddened the skin. Now the case became more serious; and the supposed victim of death began to triumph over the incredulity of the Professor, and his friends. Thus circumstanced, Dr. H. perceived, how deeply and destructively that mental spasm must have acted on the body, to produce a degree of insensibility from which the worst consequences might be apprehended.—All the inquiries into the origin of this singular belief, had hitherto been unsuccessful. Now only, he disclosed the secret to one of his intimate friends, namely, that on the preceding evening he had met with a white figure in the passage, which nodded to him; and, in the same moment, he heard a voice exclaiming: "the day after to-morrow, at nine o'clock in the morning, thou shalt die."—He continued to settle his domestic affairs; made his will; minutely appointed his funeral; and even desired his friends to send for a clergyman; which request, however, was counteracted. Night appeared; and he began to compute the hours he had to live, till the ominous next morning: his anxiety evidently increased with the striking of every clock within hearing. Dr. H. was not without apprehension, when he recollected instances in which mere imagination had produced melancholy effects. But, as every thing depended on procrastinating, or retarding that hour in which the event was predicted; and on appeasing the tempest of a perturbed imagination, till reason had again obtained the ascendancy, he resolved upon the following happy expedient: Having a complaisant patient, who refused not to take the remedies prescribed for him (because he seemed conscious of the superior agency of his mind over that of the body), Dr. H. had recourse to laudanum, combined with the extract of hen-bane: 20 drops of the former, and two grains of the latter, were given to the youth, with such effect, that he fell into a 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 bashful patient, who had agreeably disappointed them, turned the whole affair into ridicule. The first question, however, after recovering from this artificial sleep,

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