A Treatise on the Incubus

"[...]C lius Aurelianus, however, informs us, upon the authority of Silimachus, a follower of Hippocrates, that this affection was once epidemic at Rome, and that a great number of persons in that city died of it.[2] A young man, of sober habits, about thirty years of age, by trade a carpenter, had been all his life subject to severe attacks of Night-Mare. During the paroxysm he frequently struggled violently, and vociferated loudly. Being at Norwich for some business, which detained him there several weeks, he one night retired to bed in apparent good health; whether he had eaten supper, or what he had taken previously to going to bed, or during the day, I cannot now remember. In the night, or towards morning, he was heard by some of the family in the house where he lodged to vociferate and groan as he had been accustomed to do during the paroxysms of Night-Mare; but as he was, after no great length[...].""