Many cases of dreams indicating the nature of a malady which had not yet developed itself are referred to by Macario.[86] The instance of Galen’s patient, who dreamed that his leg had become converted into stone, and who was soon afterward paralyzed in that member, has already been cited.
The learned Conrad Gesner dreamed that he was bitten in the left side by a venomous serpent. In a short time a severe carbuncle appeared on the identical spot, and death ensued in five days.
M. Teste, formerly minister of justice and then of public works under Louis Philippe, and who finally died in the Conciergerie, dreamed three days before his death that he had had an attack of apoplexy. Three days afterward he died suddenly of that disease.
A young woman saw in a dream objects apparently confused and dim as through a thin cloud, and was immediately thereafter attacked with amblyopia, and threatened with loss of sight.
A woman, who had been under the care of M. Macario, dreamed at about the period of her menstrual flow that she spoke to a man who could not answer her, for the reason that he was dumb. On awaking she discovered that she had lost her voice.
Macario himself dreamed one night that he had a severe pain in his throat. On awaking he felt very well; but a few hours subsequently was attacked with severe tonsillitis.
Arnold, of Villanova, dreamed that a black cat bit him in the side. The next day a carbuncle appeared on the part bitten.
Dr. Forbes Winslow[87] gives several similar instances. A patient had, for several weeks before an attack of apoplexy, a series of frightful dreams, in one of which he imagined he was being scalped by Indians. Others dreamt of falling down precipices, and of being torn to pieces by wild beasts. One gentleman dreamed that his house was in flames, and that he was gradually being consumed to a cinder. This occurred a few days before an attack of inflammation of the brain. A person, prior to an attack of epilepsy, dreamt that he was severely lacerated by a tiger; and another, just before a seizure, dreamt that he was attacked by murderers, and that they were knocking out his brains with a hammer.
A barrister, for several years before an attack of cerebral paralysis, was in the habit of awaking from sleep in a condition of great alarm and terror without being able to explain the reason for his apprehension. Dr. Beddoes attended a patient whose first fit succeeded a dream of being crushed by an avalanche.
Gratiolet[88] cites additional examples. Thus, Roger d’Oxteryn, Knight of the Company of Douglas, went to bed in good health. Toward the middle of the night, he saw in a dream a man affected with the plague and entirely naked, who attacked him with fury, threw him to the ground after a severe contest, and, holding him between his thighs, vomited into his mouth. Three days afterward he was seized with the plague and died. He also alludes to a case detailed by Gunther, in which a woman dreamt that she was being flogged with a whip, and on awaking found that she had marks on her body resembling the scars made by the lash.